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Updated: June 10, 2025
Also he began to take long solitary walks in the Park when not occupied in conferences with the representatives of the Lawn Nitro-Powder Works a company which had recently approached him in behalf of his unperfected explosive, Chaosite. This hermit life might have continued in town indefinitely had he not, one morning, been surprised by a note from Eileen the first he had ever had from her.
"I was perfectly astonished to find he had gone, leaving no address," wrote Boots; "and nobody knows anything about him at his clubs. I have an idea that he may have gone to Washington to see about the Chaosite affair; but if you have any address except his clubs, please send it to me."
For a while they discussed the commercial possibilities of Chaosite, and how capital might be raised for a stock company; but Selwyn was not sanguine, and something of his mental depression returned as he sat there by the curtainless window, his head on his closed hand, looking out into the sunny street. "Anyway," said Lansing, "you've nothing to worry over."
For there came to him a secret communication from the Government suggesting, among other things, that he report, three times a week, at the proving grounds on Sandy Hook; that experiments with Chaosite as a bursting charge might begin as soon as he was ready with his argon primer; that officers connected with the bureau of ordnance and the marine laboratory had recommended the advisability of certain preliminary tests, and that the general staff seemed inclined to consider the matter seriously.
Afterward, when the children had been excused, and Drina had pulled her chair close to Lansing's to listen and after that, on the veranda, when the men sat smoking and Drina was talking French, and Nina and Eileen had gone off with baskets, trowels, and pruning-shears Selwyn still continued in conference with Boots and Gerald; and it was plain that his concise, modest explanation of what he had accomplished in his experiments with Chaosite seriously impressed the other men.
Yet yet how could he afford to do this unoccupied, earning nothing, bereft of his profession, with only the chance in view that his Chaosite might turn out stable enough to be marketable? How could he dare so strip himself? Yet, there was no other way; it had to be done; and done at once the very first thing in the morning before it became too late.
Here their eyes instantly became glued to a great bowl which was piled high with small rose-tinted cubes of some substance which resembled symmetrical and translucent crystals of pink quartz. That was Chaosite enough to blow the entire cliff into smithereens; and they were aware of it, and they eyed it with respect.
You never spend any; you should have a decent little sum tucked away by this time. Do your Chaosite experiments cost anything now?" "No; the Government is conducting them." "Good business. What does the bally Government think of the powder, now?" "I can't tell yet," said Selwyn listlessly.
Well, what are you going to do?" "I don't exactly know what I shall do. . . . If I had capital enough I think I'd start in making bulk and dense powders all sorts; gun-cotton, nitro-powders " "You mean you'd like to go on with your own invention Chaosite?" "I'd like to keep on experimenting with it if I could afford to. Perhaps I will. But it's not yet a commercial possibility if it ever is to be.
However, the Government had at last signified its intention of testing his invention Chaosite and there was that chance for better things in prospect. Also, in time, Gerald would probably be able to return something of the loans made.
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