THE ADVICE OF SERKO THE ENGINEER 213

for the interest you take in our business. You may rest
entirely assured! The other night we made a series of
decisive experiments, With one ounce avoirdupois of
this substance, enormous pieces of rock on the shore were
reduced to the finest dust.”

This explained the cannonading I had heard.

“So, my dear colleague,” continued the engineer, “I can
positively assure you we are running norisk. The effects
of the explosive surpass anything that you can imagine.
It would be sufficiently powerful, with a charge of several
thousand tons, to demolish our spheroid and to scatter its
fragments through space, like those of the burst-up planet
between Mars and Jupiter. Therefore, you may take it
for granted that it is capable of annihilating any ship at a
distance that defies the longest trajectory of the present
projectiles, and over a danger-zone of a good mile. The
weak point of the invention, so far, lies in the regulation of
the aim ; that requires some time for its modification.”

He stopped, like a man who does not want to say more,
and he added,—

“So, I end as I began, Mr. Hart. Resign yourself!
“Accept this new existence without reservation! Embrace
the quiet pleasures of our subterranean life! Here health
is preserved when it is good, it is recovered when it is
failing! That is what has happened to your compatriot.
Resign yourself to your fate. It is the wisest thing you
can do.” .

Thereupon this giver of good counsels left me, after
having saluted me in the friendly manner of a man whose