San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-04-01
'fEE, (,TTY #AROVE TEIF OF OTTDG By John Henry


and all around the army which a
few moments before seemed sleep
ing a days march from Aeria. Di-
rectly in front of me was a braz-
Ter, limited exactly by the straight
lines of the glare of light pro-
jected by the lanterns. To the limit
of the horizon, the country, Brie,
the Isle of France were lighted
up as clearly as the moon illumines
night of the Orient. In the gold
en- background of the air on fire
multitude of points began to
move, to run hither and thither;
surprised in their sleep, men, ami
mails, tried to flee and almost at
once caught fire in their turn,
flaming like red sparks, and then
falling and disappearing in the
furnace. The mass of men and
horses which had made up the
army, had been the target Of the
implacable light, and seemed IKE
sparks flying up from the iron bar
under the forging hammer. The
stores of bombs and ammunition
lexploded with noise which reach
ed us, casting up a glare Of red
fire, adding one more feature to
this unprecented spectacle. Alb
sorbed in contemplation Of this
awful sight, I felt hand take me
by the arm. A voice murmured
in my ear. "Was it not marvel
lous?" 1t was Kositch. The old
Russian officer turned his flushed
face to me. He stretched out his
arm in the direction of the lam
terms. "Fulgurite" he explained.
sis our best invention. You see
how simple it is; simply upon con-
tact with the air this mysterious
current becomes aflsme and dsash
follows by asphyxiation as we'll &
by combustion" "To whom" sid
"did you entrust the m2ripr'
ton of those lanterns? Whist =
ages" Kositch smiled b-ccS
"Eh! Eth! Savages, indeed, bit
a first experiment they did no.
so badly. You can easily sec e.
it requires resolute men with
possession for a mission like r.
1.-The Devil one mistake in thu IT,
of fire and it would have hit ';s.'
| recoiled instinctively. The RIs-
sian laughed again. "Don't b.
Iafraid," he said, eve have made
this impossible by the very con-
Istruction of the apparatus of
which the light cannot go higher
than the horizontal; and besides
the master is experimenting and
he would only have to cut off the
current. See how quickly that can
be DONE.
Suddenly all was darkness; eon-
sidering that destruction had gone
far enough the invisible distributor
of that murderous force had
stopped The attack. The atmos-
phere continued to burn for . few
seconds after the putting out Of
the lanterns, because of the ire
mendous force of the current, and
then all was dark; we could see
nothing on the broad expanss Of
country save few clumps Of
woods, some houses burning down.
and the red remnants of the few
poor fellows who had been able
to throw themselves outside OF the
mortal projected rays and ran
every which way through the,
night, like torches before the
flames which were Consuming
them. They uttered weird cries,
the weak echo of which hardly
reached our ears, sounding like the
cries of nightbirds. Meanwhile
Kositch was leading me away.
"Come," said he, "come to Avery
and see how he will get back our
four 'Fulgurators.' We reached
the Government Palace by the
moving sidewalks, entering the
great gallery whence the King OF
Gems had directed the secret of
manoeuvering the fulgurating la:s-
terms. The anger of little while
since had been succeeded by fur
ious joy. No one was with him
except Rassmuss. The self-con-
tanned old man received with . pa
triarchal smile the Compliments
which his master paid him upon
the results of Fulgurite. of which
he was the inventor. "Prodigious,
heinz" said Avery. "Rassmuss
you are the god of war. Five
minutes of light and then nothing.
An entire army wiped out; forty.
fifty thousand men perhaps
twenty square miles Of country