“No one. The following morning the gamekeeper said, ‘Ah, M. Marcel, what a loss we have had! The old oak of the flat Mare was struck to the ground last night by the storm. It is strange how those old trees go; but the wind is a famous wood-cutter!’ In fact, it would be impossible to form any idea of the destructive force of this powder. I wished to test it once more, and this time in the breaking up of a rock. Going to the old stone quarry on the Sainte-Savine road I placed a squib in an excavation. There were three hundred yards of earth and sand-stone to explode. When night came I set fire to it, and withdrew. There would be no one passing in the neighbourhood till morning came; accordingly I feared no accident. The detonation was extremely feeble, and I was only half a mile away. In fact, I scarcely heard it. The following morning I returned to judge of the result. It was terrible! The whole cube had been lifted, and a hole six yards deep had been dug out in the shape of a funnel. With a sufficient charge I would wager that a mountain could be blown into the air! See here, Uncle Graff, if the Spaniards took it into their heads to destroy Gibraltar they would succeed with this powder. What a fine sight it would be, that huge mass, rocks, parapets, casemates, cannons, and all the rest, thundering down into the sea!” “Have you drawn up your formulæ?” “No, not yet.” “Well, draw them up, and give them to me. I will take them away with me to Paris, and deposit them at the Patents Office. The time is come to make use of them.” “You shall have them to-morrow morning, Uncle Graff. It is a mere trifle.” “You see, your father and myself have for some time been putting into execution a plan, the consequences of which are far-reaching. Baradier, who has a fine intuition for business, has found out Lichtenbach’s plans. The old rascal caused several shares in the explosives to be sold at a loss, and brought the stock down to nothing. We were wondering why the depreciation kept getting greater and greater, when chance afforded us the proof that it was Lichtenbach who was plotting to ruin the company, so as to reconstitute it to his profit. He had seven or eight stockbrokers under his orders. One of them, however, committed an indiscretion, which placed us immediately in possession of the secret. Then your father, equal to the emergency, did not hesitate, but bought up all Lichtenbach was selling, and after the fall had reached the limit, the rise began. At this moment we hold two hundred thousand shares in the explosives, bought at a very low price, and which to-morrow, in case the patent of the new powder is acquired by the company, will rise above par. It is a formidable party stroke. If we succeed, the fortune of the family is increased tenfold. We shall have directed against Lichtenbach the attack he wished to inflict on the Explosives shareholders. He will lose on what we gain, and this time I think we shall have finished with him.”