Raisins and almonds - Poisoned Pen Press (UK)

Raisins and Almonds 1 1
was cooling and hardening, until there was perhaps half a pound
of the substance.
Then Dr. Treasure siphoned off the remaining fluid and
spilled the substance into a glass dish. It was as thick as cream
and beige in colour.
‘Not long now,’ he told Phryne. ‘Soon find out if it works.’
‘What is it doing?’
‘Coagulating, I hope.’ Dr. Treasure picked up his tea cup. He
was not calm, but excited. Phryne could hear his breathing quickening.
He really wanted to know if this was going to work.
So did Phryne. She finished her tea and replaced the cups on
the tray and put the tray out of reach of any wild gestures. She
didn’t think that Mrs. Treasure would view the advancement of
science as any excuse for the loss of Royal Doulton china.
‘Oh, yes,’ whispered Dr. Treasure.
He reached into the glass dish and pulled off a piece of the
compound, which was now almost solid, darkening a little as
it hardened. He offered it to Phryne reverently, in both hands,
like a priest handling the host.
It was soft, warm and gave when poked. It rolled easily into a
ball. Somewhere Phryne had seen something like it. She racked
her memory.
A twin of the object she was now holding had been found
in dead Shimeon Ben Mikhael’s pocket.
‘Why, it’s rubber,’ she said. ‘It’s artificial rubber.’
‘That’s what it is,’ Dr. Treasure affirmed. ‘It’s artificial rubber.
And I just made it. I just made artificial rubber!’
He gathered Phryne into an embrace and kissed her.