Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-04-08
The Daily Story
The Golden Egg

| metallurgist and physician, who dabblet
| in various strange matters for his amuse'
ment Buckley his assistant. had grown
In time to understand the old mans od
ditles, and TO have a profound respect
for the intellect which had already made
several valuable scientific discoveries.
I5infein smiled benevolently and comb.
! ed his long, white beard with his fingers
| when the younger man spoke. We'll
John" he began, Donna g %, and of
| course she will marry some time. l sup
| pose you are no worse than other men.
! Now, IL I impose n task upon you before
give my consent, you will agree to per-
! form it?'
III can" replied Buckley. cautiously.
Tho old gentleman chuckled. 'It won't
be very hard, John" From n private
| compartment beneath the laboratory shelf
he drew out box and handed it to
Buckley "Open it," he said
John did so. and revealed an oval yell
low object nearly the size of a football,
and virtually of the same shape. 1t
seemed to he of metal
Now, John. there's your golden egg"
went on the scientist. "G fixed 1t up for
you i'm my leisure moments. II you open
1t inside of a mouth you get Donna and
a wedding present, too. If not, you'll
have to wait awhile.
what tools may l use in opening it?'
That's the point. John. You may use
your own two good hands and any in
strument which doesn't weigh over 90
grains"
FIFTY grains!" repeated John, amazed.
"Why, that's less than a quarter of an
ounce"
Exactly"
John stared first at the egg and then
at the scientist. But, professor" he eX-
pOstulated IAN instrument weighing 80
grains will he practically useless. Why,
II l. .I.-N.r,
much. A thin latChkey weighs more"
But an instrument much less in weight
will open that egg"
John looked dubious. but supposing
use something which weighs more?"
You wouldn't do it. John, If you agreed
not to- responded the professor, COM
fortably, "and I'd catch you at 1t il you
did"
John was young in love, and energetic
His three years work in the various hob
bics which the scientist affected had given
him an unusual technical education, great
confidence in himself, and a certain deli
cate manual deXterity which almost sur
passed that of his employer, clever as the
Older man was. 1t was very natural that
he should accept the challenge and bear
away the egg.
He found Miss Donna in the parlor and
explained the situation. II is hardly ger
name to mention that when the girl
tied her chin in her pink palms to listen,
that she looked distressngly pretty-so
pretty, in fact, that John was compelled
to interrupt his narrative while he kissed
her.
When he had finished his account OF
the conditions, she rose. You are to so
right to your room, john" she COM
manded. land epen that egg. I'm dying
to see what's In ii. No; you can't stay
here with me and work on it; 1 would
disturb you" With the wariness of long
experience she lodged around the table
at this moment, anticipating by the frac-
tion of second lunge on the part of
John. From n place of safety behind a
chair she pointed to the door. "Avaunt!
And tell me tomorrow morning what you
found" John reluctantly gave up chase
which promised to be fruitless, and
obeyed.
Settled In the easy chair in his own
room, he paid the professor the compli-
ment Of examining the egg very carefully
before beginning operations He went
over it with his fingers, but could feel no
joints beneath the yellow paint which
covered the metal. There was no depres-
sion on the surface. 1t was his theory
that a hidden spring would open the
sphere, and he spent the balance of the
evening in searching for it, At midnight
the secret was still undiscovered, and he
gave it up for the time being.
Donna was inclined to poke fun at his
failure the next morning. AS the chuck
ling professor readily allowed her to try
her hand, she spent an hour and broke
two hairplns in an equally fruItless ef-
fort.
The egg was rather light than other
wise for its size. but John felt certain
that machinery of some description. hid
den within II, controlled the situation. BY
shaking it persistently. he was finally re-
warded by the sound of a very faint
clicking. That evening he made sort of
cats cradle of string, and placed the egg
therein. With the contrivance he was
able to whirl the egg over and over. In
this way hoping to start the machinery.
Occasionally he reversed the motion, but
he tired his arms with the monotonous
labor to no purpose.
Next he essayed to saw his way
through the metal. He secured a
burglars saw of the finest steel. but was
II brought the weight of the little in
strument up to nearly 100 grains.
Intermittent labor for the next three
evenings with the saw, a bit of cloth
serving as a handle, resulted in some
badly blistered fingers and the scratching
of the PAINT in several places. That was
all, il the fact that the egg was proven
to be steel as fine and hard as the saw,
is expected In desperation Buckley at
tempted to crush the obstinate oval be-
tween his hands and failed again.
1--WE made up my mind to get the
paint off" he announced to Donna.
"Then l can tell where we're at"
''We're at sea-" she replied dolefully,
tenderly kissing one of the blistered fin
gers.
Buckley secretly agreed with her, but
his pride had been aroused by repeated
failures and the whoe-souled chuckIing
of the professor, whose sides seemed TO
be shaking constantly with merrimfnt
over his assistants predicament He
would open the egg now, or die
The young man took his penknlfe apart,
sharpened the lightest blade to a razor
edge, and attacked the paint. Although
1t clung eXasperatingly in time he had
cleared it from the surface, This revealed
the presence of thousands OF little holes in |
the metal, each closed by a minute ffeck
of the paint which the blade would not
dislodge,
1t was well into the fourth week when
this was done. Just look at those con-
founded needle holesw he exclaimed In
disgust.
Under the stress OF a brilliant Inspira-
tion, Donna jumped up and clapped her
hands delightedly, That's it, John-a
needler
One was brought, and John set himself
TO the task of thrustlng 1t carefully as
far as Il would go into each of the little
holes. This removed the heck OF paint,
and as tine absence of paint showed that
a hole had been tested, no time was lost
in subsequent explorations.