It was but
a step for me, then, to the end: remove all radiant energy from a fixed
gas--a gas without the property of condensation to another form of
matter, _i.e._, to a fluid or a solid--and the thing, I said to myself,
is done. I am positive that I know of such a gas, and within a few years
all physicists will recognize it. At present the method of procuring it
is my secret, as I may still wish to experiment with what is now but a
theoretical discovery, though certain to unfold in practice exactly as I
have explained it. You understand, of course, that I remove from my gas,
by artificial cold and compression, the last vestige of heat, my gas
becomes ether, there is no place for it in the universal ocean of
inexpansible ether, the balance of the universe as it now exists is
destroyed, all matter instantly ceases to exist, and we just sit back
and wait for a few billions of trillions of cycles of time, until
another system of nature is formed."
For a time we all kept silence: Doctor Bainbridge, I suppose, like
myself, marvelling at the peculiarities of our strange companion. At
last I said:
"And how about the war, doctor?"
"Now comes the humiliation!" he replied. "Oh, must genius ever grovel at
the feet of mere physical power--insolent official power! Why are great
men so difficult of access! Why, in 1453, did not Constantine in his day
of trouble listen to your brainy countryman, and save Europe from the
inroads of the Turk? Well, I hastened to Washington City, determined
that no ear other than the President's own should hear the secret; and
that no power on earth should draw it from me.
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