The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-06-05


"No, sir; no, sir; quite Impossible; life
too valuable to the cause OF science. No,
sir"
The chorus OF coughs and poohs! which
greeted this last remark ceased when a
third person arose and proposed to cut The
cable, the advantages of which plan be
was about to argue when IL was pointed
out that nothing would moro certainly
break the current and thus cause the
dropping of the torpedo.
Then the electricians got at it In
earnest. One wanted to bitch on a
second battery and reverse the current,
proceeding certain to disorganize the
electro mag netio mechanism in the bal
loon and release the pitcher. Another
wanted to splice on great length OF cable
and let the balloon float over some other
place TO do its mischief; but this, leaving
out the ethical question involved, would,
of course, put in more resistance in the
path OF the current, and perhaps render
Ii too weak to hold up the load. Another
wanted to fire bullets at the pitcher, and
cause the explosion in mid-air, but 1t was
pointed out that they would be much
more likely to hit the balloon and let the
gas out.
az did not ask your attendance, gentle
men," said the Mayor somewhat sarcastic
cally, "to devise means for dropping that
torpedo. The balloon will do that OF IT
self (he started as be looked at his watch)
in about five hours. Experiment Is out
OF the question. We cannot risk failure.
Can no one suggest any certain means oil
relief?"
The scientists breathed heavily but
said nothing. They could see the bal
loon-now ruddy with the reflected
rays OF the setting sun-poised over
the great cathedral. The threatened
storm had passed over, leaving, how
ever, the breeze steady. The chances were
then that the torpedo would do its fearful
work in the fairest portion OF the me-
tropolis. From this locality the police,
now reinforced by the militia, had driven
the people toward the rivers. The danger
lines had been drawn at Fifty ninth street
and at Madison square. 1t was q strange
sight to see Fifth avenue, above 23d street,
deserted as far as the eye could reach;
the gently swaying globe being the only
moving object in the long perspective.
Outside the danger lines the people
clustered on the housetops like bees.
The scientists, still silent, looked at the
Mayor with dismayed faces. The Mayor
grimly looked back at the scientists.
and this is all?" said the Mayor.
Several of the younger scientists pres
ent moved uneasily in their seats. One of
them went to the safe, passed his hands
helplessly over the exterior, sighed and
sat down. Another gaZed fixedly at the
ested in the surface of the twin cable.
Meanwhile there had come into the
room two other men who had seated
themselves beside the Mayor. The official
turned to them and whispered omething.
They nodded promptly.
~ will not detain you further, gentle
men," said the Mayor TO the scientists.
"I thank you for your assistance. can
only rogret that the circumstances make
1t unavailing."
The philosophers solemnly walked out
of the room and maintained stiffness
until the street was reached. There they
would have at once mbarked ia a heated
discussion had not the police on guard
insisted on their immediate repair be-
yond the danger lines.
One Of the Two men beside the Mayor
appended his name to check for one
hundred thousand dollars. His signature
would have been honored for five hundred
times that sum. The torpedo would fall
directly on his roof. The other impressed
a stamp on the face of the check and
dashed cuick scrawl over IL. The
Chemical Bank of New York had now
guaranteed its payment. The Mayor put
IL in his pocket book with a sigh OF disap-
pointment and his visitors withdrew.
The man called Julius sat in the cap
tain's room in the Thirtieth Street
Police Station calmly smoking and read
the lattsI tAlTH eNtulUH
III the populace had known where he was
he would probably have also listened
though with equal impertur ba bility-to
the howls of the raging mob in the street
outside. But that information had been
carefully Withheld even from the reporters,
and consequently the street, being within
the danger district, so far from being the
scene of an incipient riot, was entirely
deserted, save by the policemen on guard.
Since his interview with the superinten-
dent, the police had burned with a
med laval desire TO extract from Julius
the knowledge which he claimed to pos
sess, by the prompt infliction OF any rea-
sonable variety OF torture. Carried away
by the enthusiasm of the moment the
police captain in whose care he was placed
conceived the brilliant notion OF sending
him. In charge OF two stalwart patrol
men, to be kept directly under the bal
loc n as il moved around. But the des-
ignated guardians promptly rebelled when
Julius pointed out to them that they
would be Just as liable to destruction as
himself; as he declined of his own volition
to repair to the threatened localities alone,
the captain reconsidered the project and
locked him up until some less objection
able plan could be matured.
julius was deep in lurid biography
OF himself (where he learned, for the
first time. that he was n Russian exile
of Anarchistic antecedents, and that his
personal appearance was truly repre-
sented by a worn-out woodcut of Mr..
Chauncey Depew, duly decorated with
bushy hair and a struggling beard), when
the captain entered the room, snapped
the nippers around his wrist, gave him
his hat and told him to "come alongl"
The captain was not communicative, and
Julius asked no questions, 40 the pair
proceeded in silence through the deserted
streets to the slth street boarding house,
and up to the attic room,
ITO be continued.)