The
material he had used as a catalytic agent was a new substance which he
had read of in a scientific review, and he had purchased a small
quantity of it in London. If such a minute portion produced results so
tremendous, he began to see that a man with an apparently innocent
material in his waistcoat pocket might probably be able to destroy a
naval harbor, so long as water and stone were in conjunction. There
was also a possibility that a small quantity of ozak, as the stuff was
called, mixed with pure water, would form a reducing agent for
limestone, and perhaps for other minerals, which would work much
quicker than if the liquid was merely impregnated with carbonic acid
gas. He endeavored to purchase some ozak from Mr. Kruger, the chemist
on the English quay, but that good man had never heard of it, and a
day's search persuaded him that it could not be got in St. Petersburg,
so the Prince induced Kruger to order half a pound of it from London
or Paris, in which latter city it had been discovered. For the arrival
of this order the Prince waited with such patience as he could call to
his command, and visited poor Mr. Kruger every day in the hope of
receiving it.
One afternoon he was delighted to hear that the box had come, although
it had not yet been unpacked.
"I will send it to your house this evening," said the chemist. "There
are a number of drugs in the box for your old friend Professor Potkin
of the University, and he is even more impatient for his consignment
than you are for yours.
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