The Norfolk weekly news., 1900-11-15

II you would deal as frankly with M
az have done with You Then shal
give you the best advice I can-if m,
advice will he of any assistance To you
"Ycs, and publish IL to all tn
world"
at will have to he published to nj
the world in any case, for, IL / loav,
hero without full knowledge, ! vii
simply go to the police office and ther,
tell all | lmowr
And IL | do speak you will still 70
TO the director of the police and tel
him what you have discovered -
"No; give you my word that will
not I"
"What guarantee have | of that p
asked the old man suspiciously
'No guarantee at all except my
word !"
"Will You promise not to print in
your paper what | tell youY"
"No; | cannot promise that !"
''Stlll the newspaper doesn't mat.
ter, continued the scientist. "The
story would be valuelcss to you, because
no one would believe il. There il no
use in printing II story in newspaper
that will he laughed at, il there2 How
ever, | think you are honest Otherwise
you would have promised not to print
line Of what | tell you, and then |
should have known you were lying. IL
was as easy TO promise that m to say
you would not tell the director Of po-
lice. thought mt first some scientist
had sent you here to play the spy on
mo and learn what l was doing as
sure you heard nothing about the ex
plosion you speak of, yet | was certain
1t had occurred somewhere along that
line which drew on the map. had
hoped 10 was not serious and begun to
believe it was not The anxiety of the
last month has nearly driven me in
sane, and, as you say quite truly, my
actions have been childish.
The old man in his excitement had
risen from his chair and was now pac-
ing up and down the room, running his
fingers distractedly through his long,
white hair and talking more to himself
than to his auditor.
Jennie had edged her chair nearer to
the door and had made no protest
against his rising, fearing to interrupt
his flow of talk and again arouse his
suspicious.
81 have no wish to protect my inven-
tions. have never taken out a patent
in my life. What discover give free
ly to the world, but will not be robbed
of my reputation as n scientist. l want
70 tN
among those Of the great discoverers
You talked just now of going to the
police and telling them what you knew.
Foolish creature! You could NO more
have gone to the central police Office
without my permission, or against my
will, than you could go to the window
and whistle back those bits of paper l
scattered to the winds. Before You
reached the bottom of the stairs l could
have laid Vienna in mass Of ruins
Yes could in all probability have
blown up the entire empire Of Aus
tria. The truth is that l do not know
the limit Of my power, nor dare test
it,
'Oh this is madmanl" thought
Blu ttStu Sblll W Utle
door. The old man paused in his walk
and turned fiercely upon her.
''Gou don't believe me2" he said.
"No, | do not, she answered, the
color leaving her cheeks.
The aged scientist gave utterance to
n hideous chuckle. He took from one of
his numerous shelves a hammer head
without the handle and for moment
Jennie thought he was going to attack
her, but he merely handed the metal to
her and said:
Break that in two. Place it between
your palms and grind it to powder"
"You know that is absurd; cannot
do it,
"Why cant you do it2"
Because it is of steel.
THAT is no reason. Why cant you
do it2'
He glared at her fiercely over his
glasses and she saw in his wild eye all
the enthusiasm of an instructor enlight-
.ening pupil.
"I'll tell you why you cant do it,
because every minute particle of it is
held together by an enormous force. 1t
may be heated redhot and beaten into
this shape and that, but still the force
hangs on as tenaciously as the grip of a
giant. Now, suppose had some sub
stance. drop of which, placed on that
piece OF iron, would release the force
which holds the particles together. What
would happen
~ don't know" replied Jennie.
"Oh, yes, you doI' cried the profess
or impatiently. But you are like ev-
cry other woman-you won't take the
trouble to think. What would happen
would be- this; The force that held the
PARTICLES together would he released, and
the hammer would fall to powder like
that gold You showed me, and there
would be an explosion, caused by the
sudden release of the power, which
would probably wreck this room and
extinguish both our lives. You under
stand that, do you not :"
Eyes, think lido"