The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-08-16


these were mostly under the clouds.
| They began challenging him in Ger
man with megaphone when they
were s.ill perhaps mile away.
/ The words came to him rolled up into
| mere blob of hoarse sound. Then.
gathering alarm from his grim silence,
they gave chase and swept down,
hundred yards above him, perhaps.
| and couple of hundred behind. They
were beginning to understand what he
was He ceased to watch them and
concentrated himself on the city ahead.
ana for time the two aeroplanes
! raced.
a bullet came tearing through the air
| by him, as though some one was tear
| ing paper. a second followed. Some
! thing tapped the machine.
1t was time to act. The broad ave.
nues. the park, the palaces below
rushed, widening out nearer and nearer
to them.
Ready" said the steersman.
The gaunt face hardened to grimness.
and with both hands the bomb thrower
lifted The big atomic bomb from the
box and steadied II against the side
IL was black sphere two feet in diam
eter Between its handles was a little
celluloid stud. and to this he bent his
head until his lips todched IT, Then he
had to bite in order 20 let the air in
upon the induCive. Sure of its ac-
feasibility. he craned his neck over the
side of the aeroplane and judged his
pace and distance. Then very quickly
he bent forward bit the stud and
hoistcd the bomb over the side.
Round" he whispered inaudibly.
The bomb flashed binding scarlet in
mdair and fell, descending column OF
blaze eddying spirally In the midst of a
whirlwind. Both the aeroplanes were
tossed like shuttlecocks, hurled high
and sideways; and the steersman with
gleaming eyes and set teeth fought
In great banking curves for a balance.
The gaunt man chung tight with hands
and knees; his nostrils dilated, his
teeth biting his lips. He was firmly
strapped
When he could look down again Il
was Ike looking down upon the crater
of small volcano. In the open garden
before the imperial castle a shuddering
star of evil splendor spurted and poured
up smoke and flame toward them like
an accusation. They were too high to
distinguish people clearly. or mark the
bombs effect upon the building until
suddenly the facade tottered and
crumbled before the flare as sugar dis
solves In water The man stared for
moment. showed all his long teeth
and then staggered into the cramped
standing position his straps permitted
hoisted out and bit another bomb and
sent II down after its fellow.
Always before in the development Of
warfare the shells and rockets fred
had been but momentarily explosive;
they had gone off in an instant once for
all, and II there was nothing living or
valuable within reach of the conclusion
and the flying fragments then they
were spent and over But carolinum.
which belonged to the Il group of Hys-
lop's so-called suspended degenerator"
elements, once It's degenerative proc
ess had been induced continued
furious radiation of energy and moth
ing could arrest ii. or all Hyslops arti-
fetal elements. Carolinum was the most
heavily stored with energy and the most
dangerous to make and handle. To this
day 1t remains the most potent de-
generator known. What the earlier
twentieth century chemists called its
half period was seventeen days. that
is to say, IT poured out half of the huge
store OF energy in its great molecules
In tho space Of seventeen days, the mex.
seventeen days emission was half OF
that first periods outpourinE. and so on.
As with all radioactive substances, this
carolinum, though every seventeen
days its power is halved though con-
stanty II diminlshcs toward the i'm
pcTceptihlo, is never entirely exhausted,
and to this day the battlefields and
bomb feds OF that frantic time In hui
man history are sprinkled with radiant
matter and so centres of inconvenient
rays. Once launched, the bomb
was absolutely unapproachable and un-
comfortable until its forces were nearly
exhausted. and from the crater that
burst open above 1t puffs of heavy in
candescent vapor and fragments OF
vic!ously punitive rock and mud, sat
urated with carolinum. and each
centre of scorching and bistering en-
ergy. were flung high and far.
Such was the browning triumph OF
military science, the ultimate explosive
that was to give the decisive touch"
to war
Barnets battalion was sent through
the Sedan country to place called
~ pll anu Alfu'' W punt III lIlf
woods on the line to Jemelle. Here
they detrained, bivouacked uneasily b.
the railway-trains and stores were
passing along it all nght-and next
morning he marched eastward,
through cold, overcast dawn and a
morning, first cloudy and then blazing
over large, spacious countryside in
terspersed by forest toward Arlon.
There the infantry were set to work
upon a line of masked entertainments
and hidden rife pits between st. HUI
bert and Nirton that were designed
to check and delay any advance from
the east upon the fortified line of the
Mouse. They had their orders, and
for two days they worked without
either a sight OF the enemy or any sus-
picion Of the disaster that had alb
ruptly decapitated the armies of Eu-
rope and turned the west of Paris and
the centre OF Berlin into blazing mini
atures of the destruction of Pompeii.
And the news, when II did come, came
attenuated. I'VE heard there had been
mischief with aeroplanes and bombs
in Paris" Barnet relates; but II didn't
-eem to follow that they weren't still
somewhere celebrating their plans and