His voice was querulous, almost savage.
"The experiment," Basterga answered, "of which it was the product was costly." Blondel's face turned purple.

"Costly ?" he cried.

"Costly?
When the lives of men hung in the balance." "True," Basterga replied with a smile; "but I was about to say that, costly as it was, it was not its price which hindered the production of a further supply.

The reason was more simple.

He could not extract it." "Could not?
But he had made it once ?" "Precisely." "Then why could he not make it again ?" the Syndic asked.