"Positive."
"I agree with you," said Tom Swift. "I was just getting on that
track myself, when I saw the electric wires running to the steel
box. That explains the upright rod on the top of the mountain.
The man says a storm is coming--very well; we'll stay here and
watch them make diamonds!"
As he spoke there came the mutter of thunder, and the mountain
vibrated slightly. The men in the cave redoubled their activity.
Tom and his friends felt that the secret process they had so long
sought was about to be demonstrated before their eyes.
CHAPTER XXI--FLASHING GEMS
Eagerly the adventurers looked through the opening at the end
of the passage into the larger cave. The men opened the small
oven in which the balls of white chemicals and carbon mixed, had
been baked, and a pile of things, that looked like irregularly-shaped
marbles, were placed in the steel box.
This box, which was about the size of a trunk, was of massive
metal. It was placed in a recess in the solid rock, and all about
were layers of asbestos and other substances that were nonconductors
of heat.
"That box becomes red hot," exclaimed Mr. Jenks, in a whisper.
"When things are in readiness, that lever is pulled and the
diamonds are made. I pulled it once, but I did not then know the
process involved.
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