These great creatures being extinct everywhere else, it would be a unique and crowning glory to capture this last survivor of his race; and there were many museums of natural history which were already discussing contracts with intending polar whalers for the purchase of the skeleton of the last whale.
During all this time of enthusiasm and excitement, Roland Clewe made no reference, in any public way, to his great discovery, which, in his opinion, far surpassed in importance to the world all possible arctic discoveries.

He was busily engaged in increasing the penetrating distance of his Artesian ray, and when the public mind should have sufficiently recovered from the perturbation into which it had been thrown by the discovery of the pole, he intended to lay before it the results of his researches into the depths of the earth.
At last the time arrived when he was ready for the announcement of the great achievement of his life.

The machinery for the production of the Artesian ray had been removed to the larger building which had contained the automatic shell, and was set up very near the place where the mouth of the great shaft had been.
The lenses were arranged so that the path of the great ray should run down alongside of the shaft and but a few feet from it.

The screen was set up as it had been in the other building, and everything was made ready for the operations of the photic borer.
The address which Roland Clewe now delivered to the company was made as brief and as much to the point as possible.

The description of the Artesian ray was listened to with the deepest interest and with a vast amount of unexpressed incredulity.