“There I am with it,” said Endor. “Yet, may I ask, what does it propose to do with the strange and terrible secrets it possesses?—secrets which, it seems to me, must always imperil the very thing it has been called into being to safeguard.”
“Before the Society passes out of existence,” said Hierons, “it will appoint certain trustees; and to these, under strict legal forms, will be intrusted the great discoveries, so dangerous to mankind, which it has been the first function of our Society to control.”
Endor, keenly following every word, expressed his approval.
“In the first place, as you may know,” Hierons went on, “it was because of the discoveries made by certain chemists and scientists, among whom I have the honor to count myself, that the Society of the Friends of Peace was first called into being. From the outset we realized that having had the good luck or the ill luck—one hesitates to say which—to evoke such powers, it became our duty to control them rigidly. For that purpose, we formed ourselves into a kind of International Conscience, on lines not dissimilar to the ill-starred League of Nations, which failed, as one is bound to believe, mainly because of the short-sighted policy of my own country. That, however, is still a sore subject upon which we won’t enter here. To return to our Society, it was born when some of us realized that the science of destruction had become such a dire menace to mankind that something must be done to keep its latest achievements out of the hands of any one particular government.”
“For the reason, I presume,” said Endor, “that no individual government, in such a world as the present, could be trusted to wield such powers rightly?”
“Quite so.”
“One is interested to know that.”
“We owe it to you, my dear Endor,” the American continued, “that our Society now sees that it has been working on wrong lines. The wisdom of using its own terrible secrets to enforce its aims has, some of us think, very properly been called in question. Before, however, the Council of Seven abolishes the present constitution it insists that its decree in regard to Saul Hartz be carried out.”
Endor dissented strongly.
“Surely,” said Hierons, “that position is not illogical. The death of this man is on all grounds desirable. He stands condemned in strict accordance with laws to which you have yourself most solemnly subscribed.”