Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1915-04-22
SYNOPSIS

SYNOPSIS
Ned Gafford, who has been unjustly
accused of treason when at West
Point, and gone to Japan, has become
an opium slave. While i'm an opium
dream, he overhears n conversation
between two Japanese who want &
war against the U. s. for the sake OF
selling their "Blue Bombs," which
are an invention of karloff, Russian
NihiIist.
Later Gafford saves ShieIa McRae
daughter of the American Secretary oi
of State, from abduction by Oshitua
the Japanese of whose crime GafforC
was accused.
She urges him to regain his man
hood for the sake Of his country, 81
with the help of white Kate" hi
overcomes his drug habit.
While he is kept imprisoned, ShieIa
is abducted by Oshitu." White Kate
hears of it, and sends Gafford to her
rescue.
Gafford, disguised as coolie, starts
in pursuit, having learned where the
blue bombs are made and Judging
that to be his destination.
He gains the confidence of karioff,
who turns against 0shitu when he
learns that the bombs were to be used
against the u. S. instead of Russia,
and agrees to help rescue ShieIa.
1t attracted Gafford's attention
for two reasons. First, there floated
above it the sun-ray flag of Japan.
Secondly, it was the only structure
boasting any attempt at ornamental
tion in the whole grim place. He
decided that it was probably the
home of the commandant or super
intendent of the works. With a leap
of the heart he wondered if it might
be the prison of Shiela McRae.
While he lay there tn, sound of
buge came. family to his ears. The
great gate of the prisoners COM
pound opened, and a line of human
forms began to creep out Of it and
across the space to the factory
buildings.
They moved with a swaying
rhythm, and beside them at inter
walls walked guards carrying guns.
They disappeared among the smoke
belching buildings, but the gate re-
manned open. Presently Gafford saw
other lines of men returning from
their night of toll. 1t was then that
he witnessed peculiar phenomenon.
The sun had crept sufficiently high
over the mountains so that its rays
no longer struck under the pail of
smoke, but through it. Suddenly
the scene upon which he looked
turned red. 1t was as though the
lenses of his glasses had been
flooded with crimson film. The
great buildings, the towering stacks,
the compound of the prison, the
crawling line of men returning from
their labors, even the white of the,
sun-fag itself, took on hue of
ruddy menace. 1t was as though
that valley, where men wrought for
mems destruction, had already been
bathed in the crimson blood of their
victims, and the swaying line of con-
victs marched from their labors over
a hlood-soaked ground.
The whistle of a locomotive called
him from his contemplation of the
weird red scene. Turning from his
inspection of the "eat plant, he be-
came aware that train had drawn
out from among the buildings and
was approaching the circular struc-
ture below him along the spur of
switch he had observed before.
It consisted of small engine and
a string of fat-cars, and upon the
latter were number of the strang-
est objects he had ever seen. To his
starting eyes it seemed that they
were a cross between an aeroplane
and a Whitehead torpedo.
They were long, slender, cigar
shaped, as Gafford judged them,
some ten feet in length. They stood
on what looked like skids, some
thing similar to those of an aero
plane. From each side of the slen-
der bodies there stretched an ex-
panse of wing, such as he had seen
in the vanes of monoplanes in the
years gone by, save that these were
far-shaped and made of some fabric
stiffened and stretched over several
ribs, instead of inside a frame.
And each rib ended in long,
curved hook, which was evidently
upSlRllcu W otlNc Siappic VII
anything which the machines might
strike At the back of each was
small propeller with several blades,
and from the top there projected
couple of short uprights, between
which stretched what looked like a
wire.
So far as Gafford could see, they
resembled nothing SO much as a
series of duplicate models of new
form of fying-machine.
But the thing which arrested his
attention above all else, sent his
heart into his mouth and under
standing to his mind, was the fact
that the things were blue! The
bodies, the widespread wings, the
little runners of the akids, even the
tiny propellers, were bright, semi
transparent blue, like that of the
sky!
In that moment Gafford knew that
he was looking al the blue bombs
and knew al! that Oshitu had meant.