"
Mr. Eames warmed to his subject.
It might be made interesting, he agreed, but for his own ignorance of
geology. As it was the business gave him a vast deal of trouble.
Monsignor Perrelli had dealt with geological matters in a fashion far
too summary for present-day requirements. The old scholar was not to
blame, of course, seeing that geology was quite a modern science; but
he might at least have been a little more painstaking in his record of
those showers of ashes and lapilli which were known to have covered the
island from time to time. His account of them was lamentably defective.
It was literally bristling with--with--with lacunae, which had to be
filled up by means of laborious references to contemporary chronicles.
Altogether one of the most unsatisfactory sections of an otherwise
admirable work. . . .
"I wish I could help you," said Mr. Heard.
"I wish you could. I wish anyone could. There was that young Jew,
Marten, who understood more about these things than most people. A
coarse little fellow, but quite a specialist.
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