"True; but there were other ships near by—La Patrie, La République, La Vérité. These ships and others were also there at the time of the explosion, yet they were not affected, although all of them had precisely the same sort of powder in their magazines that La Liberté had in hers."
"But you have already said that the waves could be intensified in a certain direction," Delcassé pointed out.
"So they can; but they cannot be confined to a channel nor directed at a mark, as a bullet is. The hut in the grove is fully three miles away from the harbour, and I assert that every ship in the harbour felt the waves with the same intensity as La Liberté."
"And what is your deduction from all this?" inquired Delcassé.
"My deduction is that those signals did not and could not cause the explosion."
"Then what was their purpose? How do you explain them?"
Marbeau made a gesture of helplessness.
"I do not know what their purpose was; I cannot explain them," he said; "but I am confident that they could not have destroyed La Liberté."
"I agree with General Marbeau," said Crochard suddenly.
They all stared at him, astonished that he should admit himself defeated.