TheA^^^^jß,
- - BY H.G.WELLS
[Copyright, 1907, 1908, by the Macmillan Company.]
PROLOGUE OF THE STORY.
Germany, hating the Monroe doctrine and ambitious for world's suprem
acy, secretly builds a vast fleet of airships and plans to surprise the United
States by means of a sudden attack. Her airship fleet consists of great dirigi
bles of the Von Zeppelin type and small aeroplanes called Drachenflieger.
Prince Karl Albert commands the German airships. Germany and Eng
land have both been endeavoring to buy an extraordinary flying machine in
vented by Alfred Butteridge, who arrives at a British seaside resort in a
runaway balloon, accompanied by a lady in whom he is interested.
Bert Small ways, a motorcycle dealer in hard luck, who is in love with
Miss Edna Bunthorne, and his partner, Grubb. ure impersonating a pair of
"desert dervishes" at the seashore. Bert catches hold of the basket of the
balloon and falls into it Just as Butteridge and the lady fall out.
The balloon carries Bert across the North sea. lie finds drawings of But
teridge's airship in some of Butteridge's clothing and hides the plans in his
chest protector. His balloon drifts over Germany's immense aeronautic park.
German soldiers shoot holes in it and capture Bert. They think he is But
teridge. Soldiers carry him to the cabin of the Vaterland. flagship of the air
fleet Lieutenant Kurt guards him. The vast fleet starts across the ocean
to attack New York. Graf von Winterfield denounces Bert as an impostor,
but offers him £SOO for Butteridge's secret. The prince agrees to take Bert
along "as ballast." The wireless brings news of a great naval battle between
the German fleet and the north Atlantic fleet
A Battle on the Sea.
EITHER there was no news of the
naval battle that morning or
the prince kept to himself what
ever came until past midday.
Then the bulletins came with a rush
bulletins that made Lieutenant Kurt
wild with excitement
"Barbarossa disabled and sinking!"
he cried.
He walked about the swinging cabin,
tnd for a time he was wholly German.
Then he became English again.
"Think of it, Smallways! The old ship
we kept so clean and tidy! All smash
ed about and the Iron flying about in
fragments, and the chaps one knew—
Qottl— flying about too! Scalding water
squirting, fire and the smash-smash
of the guns! They smash when you're
nearl Like everything bursting to
pieces! Wool won't stop It—nothing!
And me up here—so near and so far!
Der alte Barbarossa!"
"Any other ships?" asked Smallways
presently.
"Gott! Yes! We've lost the Karl der
Grosse, our best and biggest. Run
down In the night by a British liner
that blundered into the fighting—ln try
ing to blunder out They're fighting in
a gale. The liner's afloat with her nose
broken, sagging about! There never
was such a battle—never before!"
So it was the news of the battle
came filtering through to them all that
morning. The Americans had lost a
sacond ship, name unknown. The
Hermann had baen damaged In cover
ing the Barbarossa. Kurt fretted like
an Imprisoned animal about the air
ship, now going up to the forward
gallery under the eagle, now down
Into the swinging gallery, now poring
over his maps. He Infected Small
ways with a sense of the Immediacy
of this battle that was going on Just
over the curve of the earth. But
when Bert went down to the gallery
the world was empty and still, a clear
Inky blue sky above and a rippled
veil of still, thin sunlit cirrus below,
through which one saw a racing drift
of rain cloud and never a glimpse of
sea. Throb, throb, throb, throb, went
the engines, and the long, undulating
wedge of airships hurried after the
flagship like a flight of swans after
. their leader. Save for the quiver of
the engines it was as noiseless as a
dream. And down there somewhere
in the wind and rain guns roared,
shells crashed home and, after the old
innnner of warfare, men toiled and
died. i
As the afternoon wore on the lower
weather abated and the sea became in
termittently visible again. The air
fleet dropped slowly to the midd:e air,
and toward sunset they had a glimpse
of the disabled Barbarossa far a\yay to
the east. Smallways heard men hurry- j
Ing along the passage and was drawn !
out to the gallery, where he found
nearly a dozen otficers collected and
scrutinizing the helpless ruins -f the !
battleship through fieldglasses. Two
other vessels stood by her, one an ex
hausted petrol tank, very high out of
the water, and the other a converted
Kao* jtxirt was at the end of the gal- i
Very, a little apart from the others.
"Gott!" he said at last, lowering his '
binocular, "It Is like seeing an old I
friend with his nose cut off—waiting 1
to be finished. Der Barbarossa!"
With a sudden impulse he handed 1
bis glass to Bert, who had peered be
neath his hands. Ignored by fevery one,
leelng the three ships merely as three
brown black lines upon the sea.
Never had Bert seen the like of that
magnified slightly hazy Image before.
It was not simply a battered Ironclad
that wallowed helpless; it was a man
tled ironclad. It seemed wonderful
■he still floated. Her powerful en
gines had been her ruin. In the-long
chase of the night she had got ojat of
ItM with her consorts and nipped In
| between the Susquehanna and the
Kansas City. They discovered her
proximity, dropped back until she was
nearly broadside onto the former bat
tleship and signaled up the Theodore
Roosevelt and the little iMonitor. As
dawn broke she had found herself
hostess of a circle. The fight had not
lasted five minutes before the appear
ance of the Hermann to the east and
immediately after of the Furst Bis
marck in the west forced the Americans
to leave her, but in that time they had
smashed her Iron to rags. They had
vented the accumulated tensions of
their hard day's retreat upon her. As
Ilert saw her she seemed a mere metal
worker's fantasy of frozen metal writh
ings. He could not tell part from part
of her, except by its position.
Smallways woke the next night to
discover the cabin in darkness, a
draft blowing through it, and Kurt
talking to himself in German. Fie
could see him dimly by the window,
which he had unscrewed and opened,
peering down. That cold, clear, at
tenuated light which is not so much
light as a going of darkness, which
'■'l. iff J S .— [ I .
. .
They Had Smashed Her Iron to Rags.
casts Inky shadows and so often her
alds the dawn in the high air, was on
his face.
"What's the row?" said Bert.
"Shut up!" said the lieutenant. "Can't
you hear?"
Into the stillness came the repeated
heavy thud of guns—one, two—a pause,
then three In quick succession.
"Gaw," said Bert, "guns;" and was
Instantly at the lieutenant's side. The
airship was still very high, and the
sea below was masked by a thin veil
of clouds. The wind had fallen, and
Bert, following Kurt's pointing linger,
saw dimly through the colorless veil
first a red glow, then a quick rod flash
and then at a little distance from it
another. They were, It seemed for
awhile, silent flashes, and seconds
after, when one had ceased to expect
them, came the belated thuds—thr',
thud! Kurt spoke In German very
quickly.
A bugle call ran through the airship.
Kurt sprang to his feet, saying
something In an excited tone, still
using Germnn. and went to the door.
"I say! What's up?" crlei Bert.
"What's that?"
The lieutenant stopped for mn In
stant In the doorway, dark against the j
light passage. "You stay where you |
are, Smnllways. You keep there and
do nothing. We're going into action,"
he explained and vanished.
Bert's heart began to beat rapidly.
He felt himself poised over tlie fight
ing vessels far below. In a moment j
were they to drop like a hawk strik- |
ing a bird? "Gaw!" lie whispered at i
last in awe stricken {ones.
Thud! Thud! He discovered far
away a second ruddy flare flashing
guns back at the first. He perceived
some difference ou the Vaterland for
which he could not account, and then
he realized that the engines had slow
ed to an almost inaudible beat. He
stuck his head out of the window—it
was a tight fit—and saw in the bleak
air the other airships slowed down to i
a scarcely perceptible motion.
A second bugle sounded, was taken
up faintly from ship to ship. Out
went the lights. The fleet became
dim, dark bulks against an intense
blue sky that still retained an occa
sional star. For a long time they hung
—for an interminable time, it seemed j
to him—and then began the sound of j
air being pumped into the ballooiiette. j
and slowly, slowly the Vaterland sank !
down toward the clouds.
lie craned his neck, but he could not
see if the rest of the fleet was follow- !
ing them. The overhang of the gas
chambers .ntervened. There was some- i
thing that stirred his imagination I
deeply in that stealthy, noiseless de ;
scent.
The obscurity deepened for a time, I
the last fading st:gr on the horizon '<
vanished, and lie felt the cold pres- ;
ence of cloud. Then suddenly the
glow beneath assumed distinct out
lines, became flames, and the Vater
land ceased to descend and hung ol>- j
servant and It would seem unobserved |
just beneath n drifting stratum of
cloud, a thousand feet perhaps over
the battle below.
In the night the struggling naval
battle and retreat had entered upon a
new phase. The Americans had drawn
together the ends of the flying line
skillfully and dexterously until at last
It was a column and well to the south |
of the lax sweeping pursuit of the !
Germans. Then in the darkness be
fore the dawn they had come about
and steamed northward In close order j
with the Idea of passing through the j
German battle line and falling upon |
the flotilla that was making for New
York In support of the German air
fleet. Much had altered since the tirst
contact of the fleets. By this time the
American admiral, O'Connor, was fully
Informed of the existence of the air
ships, and he was no longer vitally
concerned for Panama, since the sub- j
marine flotilla was reported arrived \
there from Key West, and the Dela- |
ware and Abraham Lincoln, two pow- j
erful and entirely modern ships, were
already at Rio Grande, on the Pacific j
side of the canal.
Ills maneuver was. however, de
layed by a boiler explosion on board
the Susquehanna, and dawn found this
ship In sight of and. indeed, so close
to the Bremen and the Weimar that ;
they Instantly engaged. There was no
alternative to her abandonment but a
fleet engagement. O'Connor chose the
latter course. It was by no means a
hopeless fight. The Germans, though
much more numerous and powerful
than the Americans, were In a dis
persed line measuring nearly forty-five
miles from end to end, and there were
many chances that before they could
gatjier In for the fight the column of
seven Americans would have ripped
them from end to end.
The day broke dim and overcast, and
neither the Bremen nor the Weimar
realized they had to deal with more
than the Susquehanna until the whole
column drew out from behind her at
a distance of a mile or less and bore
down on them. Tills was the position
of affairs when the Vaterland appear
ed In the sky. The red glow Bert had
seen through the column of clouds
came from the luckless Susquehanna;
she lay almost Immediately below,
burning fore and aft, but still fighting
two of her guns and steaming slowly
southward. The Bremen and the Wei
mar, both hit in several places, were
going west by south and away from
her. The American fleet, headed by
the Theodore Itoosevelt, was crossing
behind them, pounding them In suc
cession, steaming In between them and
the big modern Furst Bismarck, which
was coming up from the west. To
Bert, however, the names of all these <
ships were unknown, nnd for a consid
erable time indeed, misled by the di
rection In which the combatants were
moving, he imagined the Germans to
be Americans and the Americans Ger
mans.
[To bs continued.]
1 A OUNCE AT WORLD AFFAIRS
THE great mechanical problems
connected with the construc
tion of the Panama canal,
which Is to be opened In Jan
uary, 1915, pass lu review In the annual
report of the isthmian canal commis
sion. The record of one year's achieve
ments In the gigantic task that is be
ing worked out under congressional ap
propriations had then aggregated $293,-
5(51.480.
"With both slides and breaks" the
commission says,"The question Is one
of ultimate amount of excavation, and
I whatever the feeling elsewhere there
is no apprehension on the isthmus as
to the final outcome nmong those ac
quainted with the facts."
The commission thus answers predic
tions that the canal would he over
whelmed by gigantic landslides, pre
venting the execution of the project.
The total appropriations made by ■
congress left $81,039,531 of the estimat
ed cost of the canal yet to be appro-;
! printed.
The visit to Panama of Sir Sydney
Oliver, governor of Jamaica, who went
there admittedly for the purpose of
making an official report as to his in
spection, is likely to have an important
bearing on the proposed extension of
; fortifications to Jamaica. The gover
j nor was accompanied to Panama by
| Lieutenant Wyndham, a military ex
pert.
From Farm to Governor.
W. C. McDonald, the tirst executive
of the infant state of New Mexico, has
lived there for thirty years and has
taken hold of his job with the firm
W. C. McDonald, the First Governor of
New Mexico.
conviction, to use his own words, that j
"New Mexico is standing at the thresh
' old of a great future." At the same
time Governor McDonald declares that
; the people of New Mexico must co-op
erate one with the other to develop her
vast resources and accomplish her up
building.
Governor McDonald has lived thirty
i years in New Mexico. He was born in
the state of New York and is fifty
three years of age. He was educated
in the New York public schools and
was brought up on a farm.
An Expiring Commission.
The national monetary commission
goes out of existence this week, follow
ing its report to congress regarding a
revision of the currency system of the
country. The commission's knell was
sounded in the senate on Aug. 14 last,
when, by a vote of 50 to 0, it was in
structed to submit its report and dis
solve. The bill on the subject, which
was offered by Senator Burton of Ohio,
was a substitute measure for the Cum
mins bill, which had called for a report
and dissolution last December.
Agricultural Expositions.
Pittsburgh is getting ready for the
annual show of the Pennsylvania
Dairy union, the Pennsylvania Live
Stock Breeders'• association and the
State Horticultural association, which
takes place at Duquesne garden Jan.
15-20. The promoters of the exhibi
tion. of which the Keystone State is
proud, have engaged men of national
prominence to deliver a number of
illustrated lectures as a feature of the
occasion.
The city of Houston also will be a
point of interest to farmers at the
same time. Beginning Jan. lif and
continuing until the 2Sth, the Texas
Labor exposition is held in that city.
Its object is to stimulate interest In
farming and improvements of land, to
show the benefits derived from scien
tific agriculture and to"put Texas in
a proper light before the world." The
exhibits will Include specimens of soil
and products, and there will be illus
trations of agriculture in all its branch
es, nmong these being dry farming
and irrigation methods. The exhibits
will occupy twenty acres of space.
National Peacemakers.
Lieutenant General Sir It. S. S. Ba
den-I'owell, who organized the Boy
Scouts of England, thinks that the de
velopment of this big organization into
an international association would
mark a step in the movement for uni
versal peace among nations.
As the boys will be the men of the
coming generation, the Idea has possi
bilities.
Per Capita Circulation..
The per capita circulation of money
In the United States la |34JH, accord
ing to a statement Issued by the treas
ury department To arrive at this fig
ure the fiscal experts estimate that the
population of the country is fast ap
proaching the 100,000,000 mark. Be
sides their calculation on the census of
1910 they estimate that there were 94,-
079,000 persons in the United State*
on Dec. 1, 1911. The census showed
that the population on April 15, 1910,
was 91.972,200.
The total amount of money in circu
lation on Dec. 1 Inst was $3,270,582,-
753. Tlie assets of the United States
government were $345,943,923. This
mnkes the total stock of money in this
country $3,610,520,670.
Politics and Railroad Rates.
Members of the Democratic national
committee are in Washington to settle
upon the date and place for holding
their convention. St. Louis seemed to
have u snfe lead over Baltimore on the
eve of tlie decision. The delegates to
the coming convention will number
over 1,000, more than ever before, be
ing bused on the new apportionment.
Washington will be the mecca next
month of railroad men. They are com
ing from Minnesota. Kentucky. W.est
Virginia, Missouri and Oregon. It isn't
a pleasure trip, as indicated by the
fact that they will bring an army of ;
legal lights. The railroad men goto
Washington for the hearing of the' 1
state railroad enses before the United i
Stntes supreme court. Tlie issue is
whether the national government lias
jurisdiction over rates within states.
Governors from the states interested
will attend the hearing.
New Eskimo Tribe Reported.
Members of the Winnipeg Historical
society have a letter from Stefansson,
the nrctic explorer, in which he tells
of having lived with a race of Eski
mos which had never seeu a white
man.
Stefansson said he had visited more
than 500 uncivilized Eskimos, almost
nil of whom hnd never seen a white
man, yet who were "more admirable
in character and in deportment than
civilized people generally are."
British Admiralty Changes.
Changes that have gone into effect
In the British navy are believed to in
dicate tlie development, on progressive
lines, of tiie reform policy instituted
when Admiral of the Fleet Sir Arthur
Wilson was appointed to heal the dis
cord caused by the older officers' re
luctance to accept the reforms. Ad
miral Sir Francis Charles Bridgeman
has been made first sea lord, replacing
Admiral Wilson.
Vice Admiral Prince Louis of Bat
tenberg now is second sea lord, re
j placing Vice Admiral Sir George Le
Clerc Egerton. Prince Louis of Bat
j tenherg lias a great reputation as a
I scientific and practical officer,
j The changes came as a surprise to
j the public and evidently were the out
j come of Winston Churchill's transfer
ence to the admiralty. Mr. Churchill
denied that the changes implied any
reflection on the outgoing sea lords,
who, he pointed out, were due to re
tire early in 1912.
The Liquor Issue In Georgia.
Former Governor Joseph M. Brown,
Democratic candidate for state execu
tive of Georgia, at the election this
week made ills campaign for the nomi
nation on the platform to submit nil
proposed liquor legislation directly to
the voters. As in most elections iu
Joseph M. Brown, Gubernatorial Can
didate In Georgia.
Georgia for a dozen years, the contest
resolved itself around the liquor ques
tion, the candidates taking different po
sitions on the matter.
"Woman's Rights."
A woman governor!
This is not a reality—yet. But the
proposition obtained the Indorsement of
the lower house of the California leg
islature. That body passed a bill
which would open every elective office
in the state to Its women.
Women may carry revolvers!
This Is fact, not fancy, so far as Chi
cago and the suburban towns south
of that city are concerned, the men'*
vigilance committees of five towns hu'v-
Ing accorded the privilege to the oppo
site sex. The women also were told
they could wear constables' badges and
shoot night marauders.
Next! | t
THE BARCELONA RIOTS.
An Englishman Describes an Unexpect
ed Adventure In Spain.
One of the English war correspond
ents at Tripoli was telling a group of
American acqalntances some of his ex
periences during a career that baa
taken him all over the world.
"By far the most annoying adventure
I ever made," he said, "was at Bar
celona, Spain, during the riots there
a few years ago. I arrived in Barcelo
na late one evening, was driven
straight from the railroad station to
my hotel and tlung myself Into full
evening dress, as I desired to call at
once on one of the principal city digni
taries. >
"In spite of the fact that the city
was under martial law, everything
seemed perfectly quiet. I walked sev
eral blocks without seeiug anything
that would suggest the scenes of vio
lence which had been enacted but two
or three days before in Barcelona.
"Suddenly, turning a corner, I real
ized that it had been quite Justified.
"A soldier laid hold of me. Other
soldiers surrounded me. The street waa
full of them.
"\\ Ithout heeding my protestations
, that I was a peaceable foreigner they
pushed meiEOughly toward a group of
persons in the middle of the street,
j persons, carefully guarded by
the soldiery, were busy taking large
rf cobblestones from a barricade and de
| positing them at one side of the thor
oughfare, thus oponlng it to traffic.
"Soldiers prodded me and motioned
to the cobblestones. Their signs were
far too clear for any misapprehension
as to meaning.
"Gingerly, endeavoring to protect my
gala garments as much as possible, I
stooped, picked up a stone and bore
it to the side of the street and dropped
it. Then I stood still.
"But the soldiers, now on the broad
grin, signified, in eloquent dumb show,
that my evening's work had just be
gun.
"So I sighed and set to work. For
fully an hour I picked up cobblestones,
took them to the side of the roadway,
dropped them and went back for more.
"Later 1 learned that the soldiers,
having wrested the barricade from
rioters shortly before my
had decided that the simplest way io
clear the street was to seize every cas
ual passerby and press him into serv
ice as a cobblestone remover.
"But the others were more suitably
garbed for the work than I was."
MANY HUED TROPICAL FISH.
Quierly Colored Beauties—A 250 Pound
Black Sea Bass.
In spite of all the beauties which
were brought home, the prize of the ex
pedition was a great ugly looking 2.">0
pound jewflsh, or black sea bass, with
seventeen spi':ellke spines on his dor
sal (in, well armed underfills and a
most forbidding looking face, says a
writer in the Christian Herald. There
are four species of this fish to be
found around the coasts of the United
States, two In the Pacific and two In
the Atlantic. This specimen is, how
ever, the largest living one that has
ever been exhibited. In the tanks
about the walls of the aquarium are
all the curiosities and sparkling little
gems of the sea that were the reward
of the recent expedition.
For true beauty, for the living exam
ple of the fairy handed touch of na
ture, an Iridescent dream from the si
lent depths of the ocean, probably
nothing can excel the butterfly fish.
He Is a delicate water color master
piece, almost circular in shape and so
thin that lie is fairly transparent.
Bright stripes of sky blue and briUtsint
straw yellow play upon his sides, audi
around him just back of the head
there is a ring of polished black, and
Just at the base of his tail he carries
a spot which may be black, white or
invisible, as. he wishes. The hum*
mlng bird fish also has brilliant colors.
He is a little fellow, about four inches
In length, with a head of brilliant
blue and body so green that it glow's
like bright foliage In the sunlight.
Around his neck, if a fish may be said
to have any neck, he lias three com
plete rings which shade from choco
late brown to the deepest of black.
Many others from the tropic seas OUT
ry these same bright colors.
The angel fish Is a quiet dove gray
in color, but over her sides and back
she can sprinkle spots "of brilliant
blue at will, and along the edges of
her feathery fins are stripes as bine
as the summer sea. The pork fish,
who gets his name from his piglike
head; the parrot fish and the elephant
fish, both of whose faces suggest those
more familiar creatures for which they
are uuuiei), are not to be outdone in
color. Bright blues and greens, they
change at will or fade Into a dull gray
when they wish to hide themselves
from their enemies.
Metals In the Human Body.
The human body contains, among
other constituents, about two pouud*
of phosphorus, whieli is essential to the
health of the bones and the vigor of
the brain. Tills phosphorus, if extract
ed and put to another use. would make
up about 4,000 packages of friction
matches.
Besides phosphorus, the body con
tains a ounces yf sodium and half
an cmnce of potassium. The quantity
ot 'the latter would be sufficient for
many experiments In a class in chem
istry.
In addition to sodium and potassium
there are a few grains of magnesium,
enough to make the "silver rain" torn
a family's stock of rockets on a. Fourth
of July evening or to.create a brilliant
light vUlble at a considerable distance
—Harper's Week]/.