The partners had no intention that any spying eyes should ever so much as glimpse the work in this department; work involving foods, fuels, power, lighting, almost the entire range of the vast network of exploiting media they had already flung over a tired world.
"This way, gentlemen," ventured Herzog, pointing toward a metal door at the left of the main room.

He unlocked this, which was guarded by a combination lock, like that of a bank vault, and waited for them to enter; then closed it after them, and made quite sure the metal door was fast.
A peculiar, pungent smell greeted the partners' nostrils as they glanced about the inner laboratory.

At one side an electric furnace was glowing with graphite crucibles subjected to terrific heat.

On the other a dynamo was humming.

Before them a broad, tiled bench held a strange assortment of test tubes, retorts and complex apparatus of glass and gleaming metal.