THE STORYTELLER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 87, 8 May 1909, Page 3

THE STORYTELLER.

HIS GREAT DISCOVERY. I first saw him- in th e smoking-room ' of my liotel. No man could possibly have entered the room without noticing him, for his face and hearing marked him out as a man of exceptional intellect and deep thought. Tall, upright, with deep-sunken, piercing eyes, and hair a clean silver-grey, be stood by the fireplace chatting to a companion. At the majority of faces one does not give a second look, much less a second thought, but there are faces which keenly excite one's interest. Uis was one of the few.

•So it was that wheu an opportunity occurred I made enquiries of the manager as to who the man with the striking face might bv. •'Oh, I know whom you mean, sir," he replied. "Why, that's Mr. Julius Sinclair, the Government Explosives Expert; at least, tliat's what he was, hut he made some wonderful discovery, and then had a mental breakdown and retired. Some people say he's not quite right ia the head now, but he's always seemed sane enough to me!" I thanked my informant and walked away. Haying learnt so much, instead of being satisfied, I was anxious to know more of Mr. Julius Sinclair, j

And he was generally to be found in the smoking-room after dinner, and as we frequently had the room to ourselves, I soon became quite friendly with both Mr. Sinclair and his companion. Th e latter, I think, must have been a professional companion, probably a medical man, and I judged him to be so by his quiet air of proprietorship over Mr. Sinclair.

We had foeen on speaking terms for come time when the companion asked me one evening if I were going to sit with Mr. Sinclair as usual. He himseli had to go out, and he did not care to leave the old gentleman to himself, •- I readily agreed, and that is how Ii came to hear the great story. I

Mr. Sinclair and I had been chatting close on half an hour; our cigars were down almost to the last inch, and I bad found him rather a dull conversationalist. Not that his talk in itself was dull, hut he was obviously not interested. But a chance remark of mine about a wonderful airship flight which one of the Wright Brothers lad just made in Paris completely transformed the old man.

His deep-sunken eyes seemed to flash fire, and he answered with a vehemence

of which I had not thought him capable:

"Wonderful you call ltj what utter nonsense. Nobody can fly yet without toppling .to earth after a mile or two. And the; never will, until I show them hOW." . ;;i it ; . r "You show them how?" I questioned, wondering if at last the old man were going to unburden himself of some great j adventure.

"Yes, I, sir, and I'll tell you a story. Few people know it; one doesn't 6hout one's most dreadful disasters from the housetops, hut to-night—l'll tell you." I.was all attention at once, and scarcely dared answer lest he should change his mind-

"Perhaps .you may have heard I used to wperiment with all kinds of new explosives for the Government. Shellinite, the most powerful explosive known, ia my invention, and many others. "It's not so many years ago, so per? haps you'll smil e when I t»U you that I was deeply and hopelessly in love. "She was a most beautiful Russian girl, was Stephanie. She had masses of wonderful hair, and her dark eyes would have made th e fortune of any artist who could have transferred their. beauty to canvas.

"She was many years younger than 1 was, but she had promised to be my wife.

"She used often to come down to a big shed I had built in the grounds oi my house, and here I used to try some of my experiments. And she would sometimes help me by washing a test tube or by handing me bottles of chemicals.

"It was within six weeks of our wedding day. I was in the shed alone. I had discovered, so I thought, an exceedingly high explosive, more by accident, perhaps, than design. "I have a very bad memory, and so, as I worked, I had jotted down on a piece of paper the various chemicals I had used, in what proportions, and how mixed.

"On the bench before me was a small bomb, in which a minute portion of the explosive had been placed. •'I wished to try to explode it with electricity and to note the result. "I applied the current from a safe distance; then a queer thing happened. There was a very slight report, the bomb just fell apart, and, strange to relate, the corrugated iron roof of the shed was nearly blown off. "Naturally this puzzled me, for there had seemed to be no force at all in the explosion. So I tried the experiment again. "This time, there being no apparent danger, I watched it cloeely and near to. The same thing happened, and I distinctly felt an upward gust of wind shoot past my face. "A few moments' thought brought me to a most startling conclusion. I had made a world-changing discovery. "But I wanted to test it again. So I placed my bomb under water and securely fixed, immediately over it, an upturned chemical jar, also full of water. My idea was to secure a jarful of the i gas which would escape upon the explosion of the bomb.

"Carefully I set to ■work, and again turned on the current. "There was a vast bubbling in the water as UU gas escaped, and once more the roof *rembled violently. "I spraag to the tank and saw that my jar, which was very firmly fixed, was full of the gas. Carefully, screwing an airtight, cover on to the jar still under ] •water, I proceeded to unfix it. "I grasped it firmly in my hands, but Aardly had I got it unfastened than it slipped between my fingers, flew upwards, escaping my face by a fraction of an inch, and dashed itself against an iron girder in the roof, and shattered itself into a thousand pieces. "So mad with delight was I that I took no heed of the falling pieces of glass which showered over me, for here I had discovered a gas which was a thousand times lighter than hydrogen. Hydrogen, as of course you know, is the lightest body known, and if used in a balloon will' lift a far greater weight than ever coal-gas could. ' "I had therefore made flight an accomplished fact. "A small steel cylinder filled with this gas and hermetically sealed would lift any engine made of steel, and would be absolutely indestructible. Why., the pis would be strong enough to lift a motorTms full of passengers! • "An airship for war purpose., need have no gas cylinder at all. It would sufficu to fill the steel tubes of its framework with the gas to get a perfectly stable and steady vessel which could defy rifle bullets' If necessary, small bombs of the explosive, unc.vplodod of course, could be carried for the purpose M making fresh gas whilst travelling in the air in case a steel tube should be damaged. "As the full import of my wonderful discovery became plain to me I think I fiearly went crazy. ?How the next few days passed I don't know. I scarcely took- any food, T denied myself to everyone, shut my=eli hi my shed, and made a rough framework which could be filled with tin) gas. "I don't need to go into the details c' the filling of my machine; it was soon --idy. I had secured it firmly to the fcoor, and when all was ready, not wanting to risk 'being lifted right through «y own roof, I contented myselfby sitting on the top of the captive machine. "My weight seemed to make no difference to it, and I surveyed it with an eiultation which few men could possibly feer-and still retain ttieir senses.

"Suddenly I was startled violently by a hand being placed on my shoulder. while a voice I knew and loved well «aW: 'Julie, what are you doing and why haven't you been to °ee me for days? I've called four times, hut they .•wouldn-t let me see you, but I got the -%etter »'< them to-day.'

- -"It • was Stephanie, my wife to be, who had come in, and in my concentration I had not heard her.

■ "After only a very momentary misgiving I poured out the whole of my •wonderful story to her, and her enthusiasm «emed to know no bounds. "She plied me with all sorts of questions, and I only too eagerly replied. For half-an-hour we crooned together about our great discovery, as I called it. /Then she left me. "I now wanted to reduce the lifting powefof my machine so that I mvself could sail comfortably a few yards off the ground in it. And for this purpose

I slowly released the gas with a view to reducing the capacity oi my framework tubes.

"Suddenly i became aware that the paper on which I had jotted down the formula for making my gas was not whei> 1 had pinned it. 'l searched high and low for it. It iiad gone. "Stephanie must have taken it in fn:i; if so, it was too dangerous a form of liumoj to appeal to me. "1 hurried indoors only to find that she had been gone some quarter of an hour.

"There was nothing for it, 1 must at nee go to her and recover the prei-iou: aper. "When I readied Her house 1 noticed here was a big car throbbing outside nil the front door itself was open. "Xot waiting to ring, 1 went straight o the library. "And then—and then—" The old man had suddenly gon e deathy pale. lie reeled in his chair, tried to ecover himself, repeated, "And then—" nd fell to the ground .before I could top him. I hastily rang fo v assistance, and just .3 «'e got him into the lounge hie comanion returned. H e ordered Air. Sinclair to be iuimeiately taken to his room, and, my offers if assistance declined, I was left to hink over th e extraordinary story I iad heard. I was just thinking of turnng in to bed when Mr. Sinclair's comanion returned. He wanted to know just how the old nan's collapse had occurred, and, half ;uiltily, I had to confess that I had peraps been partly responsible by allowh« mn to tell the story. D And it was only after a great deal of lereuasion that I got him to give me he finish of the narrative. It seems that on entering the library Ir. Sinclair had come face to face with itcphauie in earnest conversation with . stranger—no, not quite a stranger, for Sinclair in his Government duties had net the man before, and knew him for a aember of the Russian Secret Service. On the table before them was his own ireeious paper containing the formula or the preparation of the wonderful ;as. Wsth one bound, and a crashing blow lelivered with the full force "of his veight, Sinclair had felled the Russian o the ground, and with « hiss of rage le turned to the startled girl. "Give me the paper—spy!" lie snarled, lis love suddenly turned to hate. "Sever , you English dog," she creamed, "you've killed mv Ivan," and urning to the fire she buried the paper leep among the glowing coals before Sinclair could stop her. The whole incident, the treachery of ler whom he loved and lier fiuat words. 'You've killed my Ivan," came suddenly lome to Sinclair as he realised their ull import. She had used her pretended ove simply as a lure to learn his ecrets. ; , ; i-jj.. •He staggered to the door and fell into lie arms of a servant who had hurried O the library on hearing Ivan fall. "Well, that's the story, sir," he conluded. "They got Mr. Sinclair home, i na for weeks he hovered between life ind death with brain fever. "When he recovered he went to his ] xpcrinient shed again. . "There was his machine, empty of gas i nd useless, just as he had left it. "Since then, nearlv all his time has I leen spent in experiments with a view 1 o rediscovering the gas, but his meinorv t las gone and the gas will never be found i igain now. , "H e thinks he will succeed again—in- r Jeed, it's his mania. People say he's .' mentally deranged, aad perhaps thev're t not altogether wrong, "Stephanie and Ivan? Oh, they left ' the country together shortly after- d wards, and, from enquiries I made, 1 a found out they .were man and wire. t "Xo, I didn't tell him; indeed, I think i he s still half in love."-By John Reed C \\ ade, in M.A.P.