Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1918-01-18

Office, leaving the second >.a lord ana
the secretary staring al each u..ry. lie
was at The bottom OF the stairway to-
fore they had recovered thv,r self
possession. Then The SEA lord >uatchcd
up lis telephone.
\ curious haze was creeping UP from
he Thames, spreading percepttbly
from corner 10 corner. Ii blotted out
the redress Of the evening clouds and
hung overhead like n great, smoky
pail. A newSboy rushed past, shout
ing. Donald saw the contents of the
placard that swung before him. 1t
mentioned a series Of local explosions
which had been occurring along the
east coast of England.
Donald was trying To locate a hotel.
He CROPPED his way from corner to
corner, clipging to the ratings of areas
and pillars of houses.
He had reached some open space,
which he imagined to be Trafalgar
square, but 1t was impossible TO cross.
Carts, carriages, omnibuseS. stalled by
the fog, doomed up on every side.
Horses stood snorting invisihly, a few
inches away. Drivers struck out with
their whips p~romiscuously. Men were
shouting, women screaming. Panic
had begun. All knew that this was not
one of those rare black fogS that de-
scend upon London.
Then it was that the news of the
man-monsters began to filter through
the crowd.
A man announcing himself. through
a megaphone, to be the police commits
sioner, ordered all to remain still until
star bombs could be set off. Nobody
needed him, and his efforts to stay the
panic were unavailing. The mob had
begun to flow in one direction, sweep
ing all before 1t.
Donald had been swept along with
II, and then left, stranded and jammed
by the human torrent, into n small re-
cess. In front of him he felt Il parapet
He tore himself away and was lost
in the crowd. Donald hoisted himself
to the parapet, scrambled to the outer
coping, and chung there. The shriekine
mob rushed past and eve touched
him. Then there came the sound of Il
mighty explosion, a long volume of re.
sounding thunder. 1t went rolling
down the river like the discharge of d
thousand cannon.
And then, as n flood from n hose
pipe, a burst of water from the skies
deluged the city. 1t boiled through the
air with kissing lashes, as If the por
tails of the armament were broker
open. The grinning face of the moor
broke through the smoky pail. Sud
denly the stars appeared. And 1t was
calm, clear weather.
A roar of relief seemed to go W
from the throats of the multitude. Ant
very slowly the traffic began to resume
its curse again.
What had happened, as scientists
afterward surmised, vas this: The by
drOgen, increasing until 1t attained {
certain chemical relationship to thu
oxygen of the atmosphere, had explod
ed where it was densest, on contac'
with fire, as in a laboratory. But thu
explosion instantly generated water
as the two gases met. Hence followed
the deluge.
But as yet the government was only
dimly beginning to understand tina
this a some unknown natural force
and not a contrivance of the enemy
T1.ey did not know until Donald pre-
scented himself in the office of the sec
ond sea lord ut nine o'clock.
The second sea lord graspcd him by
the hands.
"There isn't time to say more thar
that | apologize" he said. "The gov
eminent has been searching for yor