"By Jove!" he almost shouted. "It's it—absolutely it!"
CHAPTER IX
The Proving of the Rays
"I hope so," rejoined Uncle Brian. "Of course, the distance is a mere nothing, but there is no reason why the gadget shouldn't work up to say 20,000 yards."
"It's scuppered that magneto, any old way," declared Peter. "However did you manage it by a ray of light?"
"I didn't," his uncle hastened to explain. "It's not light; it's electro-magnetism. I argued upon these lines. It's possible to send a wireless message through thousands of miles. Cannot a charge of electricity of infinitely greater strength be released through a relatively shorter distance and at the same time be confined to a definite path instead of radiating? For example: suppose Nauen wishes to communicate with, say, Moscow. Provided the receiving instrument is properly attuned, Barcelona, Clifden, and possibly New York can pick up the message. It's similar to throwing a stone in the middle of a circular pool. The ripples will eventually reach the side practically simultaneously at every point. Now, my idea was to concentrate high potential electric current and confine it to a straight and narrow path with the object of polarizing any magneto in its way."
"And you've done it," declared Peter. "An aircraft wouldn't stand an earthly—I mean an aerial chance. It's bound to come down."
"That's what I'm aiming for," said Uncle Brian. "If this apparatus can be perfected and conveyed to England, then the greatest weapon Rioguay possesses—one that I have forged, although at the time ignorant of the fact—will be broken. Not only that; the aerial menace with which the anti-battleship experts support their theories—poison gas and incendiary bombs raining from the blue sky—will be simply eliminated. Wars of the future—and I am convinced that while the world exists wars are simply bound to take place—will be conducted on more or less straight lines, without involving a holocaust of the helpless non-combatant inhabitants of the belligerent countries. Tanks, armoured cars, and in fact all modern inventions for war relying upon the magneto—the heart of the petrol engine—will be rendered useless, and fighting will once more resume its former status—a contest of manpower."
"Then you don't believe in the theory that war will be so terrible, so scientifically brutal, that nations will be afraid to wage battle?"