r hills, never saw. Mysterious, invisible, it cleaved the air and
smote the mightiest blows of combat the world had ever witnessed. The
good people of San Francisco saw little and understood less. They saw
only a million and a half tons of brine-cleaving, thunder-flinging
fabrics hurled skyward and smashed back in ruin to sink into the sea. It
was all over in five minutes. Remained upon the wide expanse of sea only
the _Energon_, rolling white and toylike on the bar.
Goliah spoke to the Mikado and the Elder Statesmen. It was only an
ordinary cable message, despatched from San Francisco by the captain of
the _Energon_, but it was of sufficient moment to cause the immediate
withdrawal of Japan from the Philippines and of her surviving fleets from
the sea. Japan the sceptical was converted. She had felt the weight of
Goliah's arm. And meekly she obeyed when Goliah commanded her to
dismantle her war vessels and to turn the metal into useful appliances
for the arts of peace. In all the ports, navy-yards, machine-shops, and
foundries of Japan tens of thousands of brown-skinned artisans converted
the war-monsters into myriads of useful things, such as ploughshares
(Goliah insisted on ploughshares), gasolene engines, bridge-trusses,
telephone and telegraph wires, steel rails, locomotives, and rolling
stock for railways. It was a world-penance for a world to see, and
paltry indeed it made appear that earlier penance, barefooted in the
snow, of an emperor to a pope for daring to squabble over temporal power.
Goliah's next summons was to the ten leading scientists of the United
States. This time there was no hesitancy in obeying. The savants were
ludicrously prompt, some of them waiting in San Francisco for weeks so as
not to miss the scheduled sailing-date. They departed on the _Energon_
on June 15; and while they were on the sea, on the way to Palgrave
Island, Goliah performed another spectacular feat. Germany and France
were preparing to fly at each other's throats. Goliah commanded peace.
They ignored the command, tacitly agreeing to fight it out on land where
it seemed safer for the belligerently inclined. Goliah set the date of
June 19 for the cessation of hostile preparations. Both countries
mobilized their armies on June 18, and hurled them at the common
frontier. And on June 19, Goliah struck. All generals, war-secretaries,
and jingo-leaders in the two countries died on that day; and that day two
vas
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