Vard, his face twitching, closed the switch and touched the key. Again
came the sharp crackle of flame, the deep hum of the vibrator. Marbeau,
the marrow frozen in his bones but with the sweat pouring from his face,
stared out--and then, close beside him, came a white burst of flame--the
horrible odour of burning flesh--

He jerked around to see Vard fallen forward above the table, while about
his hands played those livid tongues of fire....

* * * * *

Half an hour before midnight of that day, a man, roughly dressed, with a
stubble of beard masking his face, appeared at the Ministry of Marine,
was passed at once by the guard at the entrance and made his way quickly
to the office of M. Delcasse. He tapped at the door, which was instantly
opened by the Minister himself.

"Ah, Marbeau," he said, quietly. "Come in. We have failed, then?"

"Yes, we have failed," groaned Marbeau, and sank into a chair.

Delcasse touched him gently on the shoulder.

"Do not take it so much to heart," he said. "There was something wrong,
perhaps. We can try again--"

"No, we cannot try again," and Marbeau's face was piteous.

"Vard is not captured!"

"No; he is dead."

"But his instrument--his invention?"

"Is destroyed, fused, burnt to a mere mass of metal," and Marbeau told
the story of that last moment.

"But what happened? What occurred?" asked the Minister dazedly.

"I do not know--I was staring at the fort. He may have had a seizure and
fallen across his instrument, or he may have broken the circuit in some
way--displaced a wire, perhaps--and received the full shock himself. It
was over in an instant. He was dead when I dragged him away."

For some time Delcasse walked thoughtfully up and down.

"You could not, by any possibility, reconstruct it?" he asked at last.

"I fear not, sir; he told me nothing. I do not even know the principle
involved."

Again Delcasse paced back and forth; then he sat down before his desk,
with a gesture of acquiescence.

"So that dream is ended," he said. "It was too great, no doubt, to be
accomplished. God willed otherwise. But at least we are richer than we
were. From time to time we will terrify these Germans with a little
blast of wireless. That will be amusing, and it may cost them some
ammunition. And in the struggle over Morocco France wins! That is
assured! Good night, General. You need rest."

All the world knows now, of course, that France di