"Mr. Van Emmon and I," stated Billie coolly, as they put on their
bracelets, "have been trying to decide upon the best way of telling
them how to obtain fire."
Neither Smith nor the doctor showed that he noticed her "Mr. Van
Emmon." Evidently the two were still unreconciled.
"I argue," remarked the geologist, "that the simplest method will be
a chemical one. There's lots of ways to produce fire spontaneously,
with chemicals; and this woman Rolla could do it easily."
Billie indulged in a small, superior smile. "He forgets that all
these chemical methods require pure chemicals. And you don't find
them pure in the natural state. You've got to have fire to reduce
them with."
"What's your proposition, then?" from the doctor.
"Optics!" enthusiastically. She produced a large magnifying-glass
from her pocket. "All we have to do is to show Dulnop--he's
something of a mineralogist--how to grind and polish a piece of
crystal into this shape!"
Van Emmon groaned. "Marvelous! Say, if you knew how infernally hard
it is to find even a small piece of crystal, you'd never propose
such a thing! Why, it would take years--Mrs.
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