"We meet again, Monsieur."
Dampier answered nothing. He too had his fine tradition of insolence. Nebel's slim hand flicked toward the machine. "This, I presume, is the great weapon that is to be the salvation of la belle France. This shining ball that floats in the empty air. Will you show us what it can do?"
The Frenchman's eyes never left Nebel's suave face as he went to the machine. His fingers darted here and there among the dials, tugging and twisting. Above his head the coils stirred in their massive bearings, and within their compass the silver sphere swelled like an inflating balloon to the size of a man's head—of a basketball—larger and larger while its shimmering surface took on a steely hardness. We seemed to be staring into unfathomable depths, out of which tiny distorted replicas of ourselves peered curiously. I had a feeling that I was two men, one here in this buried room and the other there in that twisted other room, staring inscrutably into my own eyes.
"Stop!" Nebel's voice rapped in my ears. The sphere was huge—ten feet and more in diameter. "It is large enough," he said. "What else will it do?"
I saw Dampier's eyes then. I knew that this time there would be no stopping him. Step by step I withdrew toward the wall. One of the guards saw me and turned his pistol to cover me, but made no other sign.
Dampier answered. "Many things, Monsieur. If you will watch—?" He pulled up his coat-sleeve, baring his scrawny arm, and clambering up on the platform pushed his hand and arm into the shining sphere. I saw the sweat come out on his forehead with the effort. Already the zone was strong. He withdrew his hand and touched the dials of the control-board. Nebel's eyes were watching every move, his hand in the pocket of his coat. Dampier stepped back. "If the gentlemen will shoot? But I warn you—be wary of the ricochet."
Nebel's finger jerked up. "Rudolf!" The youngest of the three men stepped forward and emptied his gun at the shining globe. The first bullet passed through and spanged against the farther wall; the rest glanced whining from its surface and bit ugly scars from the concrete wall beyond. Dampier's eyebrows raised ever so little.
"You have improved the quality of your guns," he commended. "They are more powerful than I had thought."
"Is that all?"
"Is it not enough? What weapon have your thieving swine stolen that will penetrate what you have seen?"