Then, turning to Drost, he gave his opinion that their condition was excellent.
“But be careful—most scrupulously careful of yourself, and of whoever lives here with you—your family and servants. The bacteria are so easily carried in the air, now that we have opened the tubes.”
“Never fear,” replied the muffled voice of Ella’s father. “I shall be extremely careful. But what is your opinion regarding this?” he added, showing the professor one of the tiny bags of the soluble substance.
Meins examined it closely. Obtaining permission, he cut out a tiny piece with scissors and placed it beneath his powerful microscope.
Presently he pronounced it excellent.
“I see that it is impervious. If it is soluble, as you say, then you certainly need have no fear of failure,” he said, with a benign smile. Then he set to work to reseal the tubes he had opened, while Drost, with a kind of syringe, sprayed the room with some powerful germ-destroyer.
Ten minutes later the pair had descended the stairs, while old Drost had switched off the light and locked the door of the secret laboratory wherein reposed the germs of a terrible disease known only to the enemies of Great Britain—a fatal malady which Germany intended to sow broadcast over the length and breadth of our land.
For an hour they all three sat discussing the diabolical plot which would disseminate death over a great area of the United Kingdom, for Germany had many friends prepared to sacrifice their own lives for the Fatherland, and it was intended that those glass and rubber bombs should be dropped in all quarters to produce an epidemic of disease such as the world had never before experienced.
Old Theodore Drost, installed in his comfortable dining-room again, opened a long bottle of Berncastler “Doctor”—a genuine bottle, be it said, for few who have sipped the “Doctor” wine of late have taken the genuine wine, so many fabrications did Germany make for us before the war.
“But I warn you to be excessively careful,” the professor said to Drost. “Your daughter comes here sometimes, does she not? Do be careful of her. Place powerful disinfectants here—all over the house—in every room,” he urged; “although I have plugged the tubes with cotton wool properly treated to prevent the escape of the infection into the air, yet one never knows.”