“Ah, I see it all now!” exclaimed the Professor.
“Thank heaven, there will now be no necessity for that measure and the awful misery and suffering it would have entailed,” continued the High President. “But I will pass from that painful subject. In addition to the education of the people and to tuning the public spirit to the proper pitch of discontent and revolt by purposely imposed hardship and misery, I was busy with one other important subject. Governments and existing conditions may eventually be overthrown by education and the sentiment of the masses, but they cannot be thus directly overthrown. Governments and existing conditions are backed, supported and held in power by force, which is really the first and last word in the affairs of this world. Education as to cause, effect and remedy and the fostering of the necessary sentiment and spirit among the masses were well enough by way of general introductory processes, but if the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of a new order of things was to be looked for, some means must be found of successfully overcoming the resistance of the armed forces of the King and of the Government. Do you follow me?”
“Very clearly,” replied Dean, while Mortimer nodded a silent assent.
“As a soldier trained by practical experience in the art of war,” continued the High President, “I realized how utterly futile it must be to attempt to arm, drill and organize a sufficient force of men to hope to successfully cope in open warfare with the trained soldiers of the King. To achieve successfully any such result, I must discover a new means of warfare which would give my attacking force some immeasurable advantage over our opponents. Not an easy problem to work out, eh, Captain Mortimer?”
“Decidedly not,” replied Mortimer with evident interest.
“As you are perhaps aware,” resumed the High President, “among the different great business interests to which I came into possession were several which involved various manufacturing processes. Among the many employes in my shops was a wild, apparently half-crazy sort of fellow who was, however, exceedingly clever as an inventor and who had already devised several really very ingenious and meritorious inventions. The man’s first name was Nicholas; we will suppress for the present his last name. He was American born, but originally of Polish origin and his forefathers had all, I understand, been inventors. This erratic fellow came to me one day. He had come across some old-time pamphlets or treatises in the library upon the subject of aërial navigation. There was one treatise by a certain Professor Dean which seemed to attract his interest strongly. He was full of the project and wanted to pursue an extended line of investigation of aërial navigation. I confess I listened with scant interest. The field seemed to me an unprofitable one commercially, for I could not see what practical benefit from a transportation standpoint would be gained by aërial navigation. It was doubtless for this very reason, I argued to myself, that the subject had thus far not been more fully taken up and advanced. Nicholas, however, was evidently not easily to be discouraged and I regarded his enthusiasm as a species of misfortune. Here was one of my valuable men off on a tangent and the result could only be that I would be a loser of his best efforts. However, I did not abruptly refuse Nicholas, but out of consideration for his feelings promised to give the matter some further thought.”
“Ah,” exclaimed the Professor, “how history repeats itself! It was always my experience whenever I approached men of position and power on that very subject to meet with discouragement and doubt.”
“Listen to the sequel,” said the High President. “That night I walked in my grounds. It was a rarely beautiful night, with a high, clear sky and a bright, full moon. My mind was occupied with its still unsolved problem. I looked up to the heavens above me, as if to seek there inspiration and light. Suddenly the thought flashed into my mind: What if an attack could be delivered from the skies above—from the very heavens themselves! Such an attacking force would be absolutely safe from attack itself, while by dropping high explosives upon any enemy below it could inflict untold devastation. Then Nicholas came into my mind.”
“But such form of attack is expressly forbidden by the rules of international warfare!” exclaimed Mortimer.
“I am aware of that,” answered the High President, “but the rules of international warfare do not apply to revolutions by a people against their government.”