ortified port by armored vessels was now considered as a thing of the
past; and although there had been no naval wars of late years, it was
believed that never again would there be a combat between vessels of
iron or steel.

The recently invented magnetic shell made artillery practice against all
vessels of iron a mere mechanical process, demanding no skill whatever.
When one of these magnetic shells was thrown anywhere in the vicinity
of an iron ship, the powerful magnetism developed within it instantly
attracted it to the vessel, which was destroyed by the ensuing contact
and explosion. Two ironclads meeting on the ocean need each to fire but
one shell to be both destroyed. The inability of iron battle-ships
to withstand this improvement in artillery had already set the naval
architects of the world upon the work of constructing warships which
would not attract the magnetic shell--which was effective even when laid
on the bottoms of harbors--and Roland Clewe had been engaged in making
plans and experiments for the construction of a paper man-of-war, which
he believed would meet the requirements of the situation.

When Clewe determined to follow Margaret Raleigh's advice and give up
for a time his work with the Artesian ray, his thoughts naturally
turned to his automatic shell. Work upon this invention was now almost
completed, but the great difficulty which its inventor expected to meet
with was that of inducing his government to make a trial of it. Such a
trial would be extremely expensive, involving probably the destruction
of the shell, and he did not feel able or willing to experiment with it
without governmental aid.

The shell was intended for use on land as well as at sea, against cities
and great fortified structures, and Clewe believed that the automatic
shell might be brought within fifty miles of a city, set up with its
trough and ram, and projected in a level line towards its object,
to which it would impel itself with irresistible power and velocity,
through forests, hills, buildings, and everything, gaining strength
from every opposition which stood in the direct line of its progress.
Attacking fortifications from the sea, the vessel carrying this great
projectile could operate at a distance beyond the reach of the magnetic
shell.

Now that the automatic shell itself was finished, and nothing remained
to be done but to complete the great steel trough in which it would lie,
Roland Clewe found himself