rce
to carry me there. I pass a certain electric current through these two
liquids. I carry the wires to two heavy electrodes. Between them
resolution of matter occurs. The current carries these two components
to again combine them and form what we call matter, the gases
hydrogen and oxygen.

"Do I need to tell you of the constant, ceaseless and tremendous
explosion that follows?

"But enough of this! You said I was crazy. I gave you a few bad hours.
I have shown you this much as a measure of recompense. You have seen
what no other man has ever seen. It is enough."

He motioned Foster through the door. The roaring ceased. The inventor
returned shortly, the two flasks of liquid in his hands. He
transferred both to two metal containers that were ready for the
precious load. He carried them with the utmost care as he went out of
doors.

Once he returned, and Jerry knew by the crashes from the inner room
that the laboratory work was indeed done. There would be nothing left
to tell the secret to whomever might come.

He followed Winslow outside, trailing him toward a wooded knoll. There
was a clearing among the trees. And in it, hidden from all sides, his
eyes found another curious sight.

On the ground rested a dirigible in miniature. Still, it was small, he
reasoned, only by comparison with its monster prototype: actually it
was a sizable cylinder of aluminum that shone brightly in the sun. It
was bluntly rounded at the ends. There were heavy windows, open
exhaust ports, a door in the side, pierced through thick walls.
Winslow vanished within, while Jerry watched in pitying wonder.

* * * * *

Despite its size, it was a toy, an absurd and pitiful toy. Real genius
and lunacy had many an over-lapping line, Jerry reflected as he
approached to look inside. But he found Winslow in a room surrounded
by a network of curving, latticed struts. The machine was no makeshift
of a demented builder: it was a beautiful bit of construction that
Jerry Foster examined.

"How did you ever get it here?" he marveled. "What you had in the
cave you could pack in, but this--all these parts--castings--cases of
supplies--"

The inventor did not even turn. He was busy with some final
adjustments.

"Flew it in," he said shortly. "Built it in an old shop I owned out
near Oakland."

"And it flew?" Jerry was still incredulous.

"Certainly it flew! On a drop or less of the liquids you saw." He
pointed to