The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1917-12-20

public he a unknown, but among
the learned he was mentioned in the
same breath with Faraday, Sir Isaac
Newton and Lavoisier. Hatfield of the
March Hares' club had once honored
him By publicly comparing him with
James I.
He had discovered the secret of cold
light, and had received q fortune from
one OF the largest electrical companies
for destroying his papers. This en-
abled him to free himself from the
poverty In which he had lived.
He had blsected an fon-upon q
blackboard: O thing considered theo-
retically impossible.
He had solved the problem of utiiiz-
Ing solar energy, although he had not
succeeded In making his process valu-
able commercially.
Unfortunately. like many mer Of
genius, MacBeard had one disastrous
failing. He had trained himself intel
lectually 1t the expense of his moral
faculties. He had never learned 70
control his primal guttsr-urchin pro-
pensities.
he was q thief.
He did not steal big things, bat little
ones. and everyone knows that this Is
more damning socially.
They called 1t kleptomania. and let
him resign. But II was not klepto-
mania: IL was theft. MacBeard's ca
reer was finished. The only club that
would admit him to membership was
the Inventors'-and that only because
the furious chickering's Of its members
had compelled the passage Of q rule
that there should be no blackballing.
Anyone could Join the Inventors club,
but only inventors wanted to.
MacBeard, embittered. brooded over
his wrongs. They assumed monstrous
proportions In his mild. He was al
ready approaching ffty; he believed
that ut desth the soul perishes with
the body. and the thought OF HE g.
gantic brain being cbiiterated filled
him with frenzy. He wanted to make
q lasting mark upon the world.
Els first idea was to use his solar
energy plant to produce simultaneous
eruptions of the volcanoes in Italy and
Iceland. Japan and California upon an
unprecedented scale. A lava desert
should cover all the titled felds and
cities, burying man q thousand feet
under its surface and celebrating civil
llzation.
The science and art Of nineteen
-twentieths of the world would disap-
pear. MacBeard not only hated the
world. which had made him an out
cast, but he despised 1t intellectually
as beyond redemption. He wanted to
bestride Its ruins as O superman, O
god
However. his scheme had several
drawbacks. It vas utterly beyond his
financial means. He could not fore
see exactly the results Of 1t. There
were disturbing possibilities, and he
was not the man to act without mathe-
NAUTICAL exactitude.
His vengeance must take other forms.
He wanted a less academic plan. one
which reeked less of the midnight
lamp. Ee wanted q more concrete,
personal triumph. He wanted to lead
an army to victory. not to sit back
and watch the working out Of blind
forces that he had set In motion.
Besides. destruction must be fol-
lowed by construction. to satisfy his
scientific mind.
His second thought was to produce
a race Of men, somewhere In ths ice
bound wastes Of Greenland, that
should grow to maturity In a few
years; q race organised for war, q pri-
NAL blend Of man and tiger. It had
been done with the planta
But he was too old. He would be
seventy before this plan could be a =
ried to perfection. And then It was
improbable that the details would
work out a. he anticipated. His flnai
idea came through Masterman.
Afasterman war o Of the many
whom he had broken In his days
OF bower. But Masterman wac of a
different caliber from the rest. Mas
terman had tried to come back. and
had almoet succeeded
MncBeafd, 1T frst contemptuouS Of
the old dreamer. came ak last to watch
lrasterUan pneesily. H knew that