The Witness by Grace Livingston Hill Lutz (best fiction novels of all time .txt) 📖

In Your Hand--Which He

Won't--It Would Melt And Run Over The Floor Like Mercury. The Melting

Point Is 87 Deg. Fahr. It Might Be Used In Thermometers For Measuring

Temperatures Above The Boiling Point Of Mercury Were It Not For The

Peculiar Fact That Gallium Wets Glass So It Sticks To The Side Of The

Tube Instead Of Forming A Clear Convex Curve On Top Like Mercury.

 

Then There Is Columbium,  The American Metal. It Is Strange That An

Element Named After Columbia Should Prove So Impractical. Columbium Is A

Metal Closely Resembling Tantalum And Tantalum Found A Use As Electric

Light Filaments. A Columbium Lamp Should Appeal To Our Patriotism.

 

The So-Called "Rare Elements" Are Really Abundant Enough Considering The

Earth's Crust As A Whole,  Though They Are So Thinly Scattered That They

Are Usually Overlooked And Hard To Extract. But Whenever One Of Them Is

Found Valuable It Is Soon Found Available. A Systematic Search Generally

Reveals It Somewhere In Sufficient Quantity To Be Worked. Who,  Then,

Will Be The First To Discover A Use For Indium,  Germanium,  Terbium,

Thulium,  Lanthanum,  Neodymium,  Scandium,  Samarium And Others As Unknown

To Us As Tungsten Was To Our Fathers?

 

As Evidence Of The Statement That It Does Not Matter How Rare An Element

May Be It Will Come Into Common Use If It Is Found To Be Commonly

Useful,  We May Refer To Radium. A Good Rich Specimen Of Radium Ore,

Pitchblende,  May Contain As Much,  As One Part In 4,000,000. Madame

Curie,  The Brilliant Polish Parisian,  Had To Work For Years Before She

Could Prove To The World That Such An Element Existed And For Years

Afterwards Before She Could Get The Metal Out. Yet Now We Can All Afford

A Bit Of Radium To Light Up Our Watch Dials In The Dark. The Amount

Needed For This Is Infinitesimal. If It Were More It Would Scorch Our

Skins,  For Radium Is An Element In Eruption. The Atom Throws Off

Corpuscles At Intervals As A Roman Candle Throws Off Blazing Balls. Some

Of These Particles,  The Alpha Rays,  Are Atoms Of Another Element,

Helium,  Charged With Positive Electricity And Are Ejected With A

Velocity Of 18,000 Miles A Second. Some Of Them,  The Beta Rays,  Are

Negative Electrons,  Only About One Seven-Thousandth The Size Of The

Others,  But Are Ejected With Almost The Speed Of Light,  186,000 Miles A

Second. If One Of The Alpha Projectiles Strikes A Slice Of Zinc Sulfide

Chapter 7 Pg 47

It Makes A Splash Of Light Big Enough To Be Seen With A Microscope,  So

We Can Now Follow The Flight Of A Single Atom. The Luminous Watch Dials

Consist Of A Coating Of Zinc Sulfide Under Continual Bombardment By The

Radium Projectiles. Sir William Crookes Invented This Radium Light

Apparatus And Called It A "Spinthariscope," Which Is Greek For

"Spark-Seer."

 

Evidently If Radium Is So Wasteful Of Its Substance It Cannot Last

Forever Nor Could It Have Forever Existed. The Elements Then Ate Not

Necessarily Eternal And Immutable,  As Used To Be Supposed. They Have A

Natural Length Of Life; They Are Born And Die And Propagate,  At Least

Some Of Them Do. Radium,  For Instance,  Is The Offspring Of Ionium,

Which Is The Great-Great-Grandson Of Uranium,  The Heaviest Of Known

Elements. Putting This Chemical Genealogy Into Biblical Language We

Might Say: Uranium Lived 5,000,000,000 Years And Begot Uranium X1,  Whietween Her Set Lips. He Was

Relieved When At Last The Carriage Stopped Again And He Recognized The

Stone Buildings Of One Of The City's Great Hospitals.

 

 

 

Chapter 8 Pg 48

 

When Courtland Got Back To The University The Afternoon Examination Had

Been In Progress Almost Half An Hour. With A Brief Explanation To The

Professor,  He Settled To His Belated Work Regardless Of Bill Ward's

Anxious Glances From The Back Of The Room And Pat's Lifted Eyebrows From

The Other Side. He Knew He Had Yet To Meet Those Three Beloved

Antagonists. He Seemed To Have Progressed Through Eons Of Experience

Since He Talked With Them Last Night. The Intricate Questions Of The

Examination On Political Science Over Which He Was Trying Faithfully To

Work Seemed Paltry Beside The Great Facts Of Life And Death.

 

He Had Remained At The Hospital Until The Girl Came Out Of Her Long

Swoon And The Doctor Said She Was Better,  But The Thought Of Her White

Face Was Continually Before Him. When He Closed His Eyes For A Moment To

Think How To Phrase Some Answer In His Paper He Would See That Still,

Beautiful Face As It Lay On His Shoulder In The Carriage. It Had Filled

Him With Awe To Think That He,  A Stranger,  Was Her Only Friend In That

Great City,  And She Might Be Dying! Somehow He Could Not Cast Her Off As

A Common Stranger.

 

He Had Arranged That She Should Be Placed In A Small Private Room At A

Moderate Cost,  And Paid For A Week In Advance. The Cost Was A Mere

Chapter 8 Pg 49

Trifle To Courtland. The New Overcoat He Had Meant To Buy This Week

Would More Than Cover The Cost. Besides,  If He Needed More Than His

Ample Allowance His Father Was Always Quite Ready To Advance What He

Wanted. But The Strange Thing About All This Was That,  Having Paid To

Put The Girl Where She Would Be Perfectly Comfortable And Be Well Taken

Care Of,  He Could Not Cast Her Off And Forget Her. His Responsibility

Seemed To Be Doubled With Everything He Did For Her. Between The

Problems Of Deep State Perplexities And Intrigues Was Ever The

Perplexity About That Girl And How She Was Going To Live All Alone With

Her Tragedy--Or Tragedies--For It Was Apparent From The Little Hints She

Had Dropped That The Death Of The Small Brother Was Only The Climax Of

Quite A Series Of Sorrows That Had Come To Her Young Life. And Yet She,

With All That Sorrow Compassing Her About,  Could Still Believe In The

Christ And Call Upon Him In Her Trouble! There Was A Kind Of Triumphant

Feeling In His Heart When He Reached That Conclusion.

 

He Lay On The Couch In Tennelly's Room That Night After Supper And Tried

To Think It Out,  While The Other Three Clattered Away About Their Marks

And Held An Indignation Meeting Over The Way Pat Was Getting

Black-Listed By All The Professors Just When He Was Trying So Hard. He

Didn't Know The Fellows Were Keeping It Up To Get His Mind Away From The

Funeral. He Was Thinking About That Girl.

 

The Doctor Had Told Him That She Was Very Much Run Down. It Looked As If

The Process Had Been Going On For Some Time. Her Heart Action Was Not

All It Should Be,  And There Were Symptoms Of Lack Of Nutrition. What She

Needed Was Rest,  Utter Rest. Sleep If Possible Most Of The Time For At

Least A Week,  With,  Careful Feeding Every Two Or Three Hours,  And After

That A Quiet,  Cheerful Place With Plenty Of Fresh Air And Sunshine And

More Sleep; No Anxiety,  And Nothing To Call On The Exhausted Energies

For Action Or Hurry.

 

Now How Was A State Of Things Like That To Be Brought About For A Person

Who Had No Home,  No Friends,  No Money,  And No Time To Lie Idle?

Moreover,  How Could There Be Any Cheerful Spot In The Wide World For A

Little Girl Who Had Passed Through The Fire As She Had Done?

 

Presently He Went Out To The Drug-Store And Telephoned To The Hospital.

They Said She Had Had Only One More Slight Turn Of Unconsciousness,  But

Had Rallied From It Quickly And Was Resting Quietly Now. They Hoped She

Would Have A Good Night.

 

Then He Went Back To His Room And Thought About Her Some More. He Had An

Important English Examination The Next Day,  One In Which He Especially

Wanted To Do Well; Yet Try As He Would To Concentrate On Wells And Shaw,

That Girl And What Was Going To Become Of Her Would Get In Between Him

And His Book.

 

It Was After Ten O'clock When He Sauntered Down The Hall And Stood In

Stephen Marshall's Room For A Few Minutes,  As He Was Getting The Habit

Of Doing Every Night. The Peace Of It And The Uplift That That Room

Always Gave Him Were Soothing To His Soul. If He Had Known A Little More

About The Christ To Whose Allegiance He Had Declared Himself He Might

Have Knelt And Asked For Guidance; But As Yet He Had Not So Much As

Chapter 8 Pg 50

Heard Of A Promise To The Man Who "Abides," And "Asks What He Will."

Nevertheless,  When He Entered That Room His Mind Took On The Attitude Of

Prayer And He Felt That Somehow The Presence Got Close To Him,  So That

Questions That Had Perplexed Him Were Made Clear.

 

As He Stood That Night Looking About The Plain Walls,  His Eyes Fell Upon

That Picture Of Stephen Marshall's Mother. A Mother! Ah! If There Were A

Mother Somewhere To Whom That Girl Could Go! Some One Who Would

Understand Her; Be Gentle And Tender With Her; Love Her,  As He Should

Think A Real Mother Would Do--What A Difference That Would Make!

 

He Began To Think Over All The Women He Knew--All The Mothers. There

Were Not So Many Of Them. Some Of The Professors' Wives Who Had Sons And

Daughters Of Their Own? Well,  They Might Be All Well Enough For Their

Own Sons And Daughters,  But There Wasn't One Who Seemed Likely To Want

To Behave In A Very Motherly Way To A Stranger Like His Waif Of A Girl.

They Were Nice To The Students,  Polite And