The worst of it was that he had not only boldly proclaimed his alleged discovery to the world at large but he had even explained all about it with the well known easy pomposity that "Science" sometimes ventures to assume.

The consequences of all this may be readily guessed.

The Baltimore Gun Club had split up immediately into two violently opposed parties.

Those gentlemen who regularly conned the scientific magazines, took every word of the learned Professor's dispatch for gospel--or rather for something of far higher value, and more strictly in accordance with the highly advanced scientific developments of the day.

But the others, who never read anything but the daily papers and who could not bear the idea of losing Barbican, laughed the whole thing to scorn.