intain an air of official reserve, showed that h

ertainly offering to undert

etorical vein-the Secretary was above all

hat even I, with all my confidence in their power, have failed to realize how inevitably American initiative and independence will demand recognition. It is a qua

yourself ever conceive such a scheme, or have the incentive or opportunity to bring it to perfection? And, having conceived

n am I to understand, Mr. Secretar

nthusiasm. "Not only will I help you, but I will, so far as is

dignity of my office. But I consider, Mr. Edestone, that I am, in reality, giving more dignity to my office by bringing it closer to and by placing it at the services of, those from whose hands it first received its dignity, the sovereign people.

gh which he had passed and his wonderful voice rang out, responding to h

le, whose voices may now be drowned in the roar of the 42-centimeter guns, but whose spirits will unite in the black stench clouds which rise from the festered fields of Flanders

he now paused at the entrance of a secretary for whom he had sent, and changing to that quizzical drawl with which

secretary, and letting his han

ar to you. He is desirous of meeting and discussing quite informally with the potentates of Europe, a

th our assistance, to bring about not only the end of the European war, but to realize my dr

Department necessary to give him entrée anywhere abroad

re appropriate occasion than this afternoon, when I am to receive a delegation of school children from the Southern Baptist Union and the Boy Scouts of the Methodist Temperance League. I wi

th his submarine and the Wrights with their a?roplane, that you could not get the support of your Government until it was too late. In fact

s a trifle whimsically, "it has not be

eat wealth, absolute freedom to develop your ideas as you saw fit, and finally the influence to command an immediate hearing for your claims. Do yo

. "It is lucky that my photogra

tions were about as so much Greek to me, but those photographs of yours were most convincing, and prove to me how simple

themselves so unexpectedly called to time, while your device is held over the nations like a policeman's

is companion aroused him, and he levelled

anded. "That, upon the completion of your present mission

had naturally anticipated this questio

peated his question. "That i

ger the inventor

time answer your question. Just now I look no farther than the end of this brutal war. After that is accomplished it will be time enough for me to decide the ultimate disposition of my invention. Its secret is now known to no living so

the answer to the question you have just put to me depends the destiny of the world, whether it is answered by myself at this time or by others in the future. Exactly what I will do when the

The Secretary shook his head. "You are called

politics, had ruled his party with a rod of iron. This man whose wonderful talents and personality had fitted him for his chosen position of champion of the p

is great love for the rougher elements of society was due to the fact that in th

on sternly, "but that big-stick business you will find is a thing that works two ways. Suppose

t if you are going to sit on the opposite side of the table, I hold three kings and two emperors in my hand, and I challenge you to a show-down.' I should further say that, credentials or no credentials, I am leavi

at, and with a bow

shed into the front parlour and changed your Post-Office address, seems always to sort of clear up the atmosphere. When one of them comes along we generally allow it to have its own way. It doesn't matter much whether we do or not, it will take it anyho

suming his seat, "I suppose I may

hool children and the Methodist Soldiers of Temperance and a score of adoring admirers. Then with a hasty fare

morning, broke all speed regulations in getting to

r left the town. It was related of him that on one occasion he had directed the taxi to wait for him at Charing Cross Station, and returning from Paris three days later had allowed his old friend, the cabby, who knew him well, a shilling an hour as a pou

pend money because that calls for no mental effort, a

sisted that his discovery was an accident that might have befallen anyone, and counted as nothing the years of endless experiments and the millions of dollars h

at he was pleased to call his Little Place in the Country. It was one of his fat

hine shop and shipyard, situated on the east bank o

would in turn be relieved by a day shift; for night and day, Sundays and holidays, winter and summer, without stopping, his work went on. It got on his nerves, he said, to see anything stop.

ck structure apart from the other buildings. This had originally been used as an off