The Secret Power

"You've got the ugly facts by heart"--said Gwent slowly--"But there's another and more cheerful outlook--if you choose to consider it. Newspaper reading always gives the worst and dirtiest side of everything--it wouldn't be newspaper stuff if it was clean. Newspapers remind me of the rotting heaps in gardens--all the rubbish piled together till the smell becomes a nuisance--then a good burning takes place of the whole collection and it makes a sort of fourth-rate manure." He paused a moment--then went on-"I'm not given to sentiment, but I dare say there are still a few folks who love each other in this world,--and it's good to know of when they do. My sister"--he paused again, as if something stuck in his throat; "My sister loved her boy,--Jack. His death has driven her silly for the time--doctors say she will recover--that it's only 'shock.' 'Shock' is answerable for a good many tragedies since the European war."

Seaton moved impatiently, but said nothing, "You're a bit on the fidgets"--resumed Gwent, placidly--"You want me to come to business--and I will. May I smoke?"

His companion nodded, and he drew out his cigar-case, selecting from it a particularly fragrant Havana.

"You don't do this sort of thing, or I'd offer you one,"--he said,--"Pity you don't, it soothes the nerves. But I know your 'fads'; you are too closely acquainted with the human organism to either smoke or drink. Well--every man to his own method! Now what you want me to do is this--to represent the force and meaning of a certain substance which you have discovered, to the government of the United States and induce them to purchase it. Is that so?"

"That is so!" and Roger Seaton fixed his eyes on Gwent's hard, lantern-jawed face with a fiery intensity--"Remember, it's not child's play! Whoever takes what I can give, holds the mastery of the world! I offer it to the United States--but I would have preferred to offer it to Great Britain, being as I am, an Englishman. But the dilatory British men of science have snubbed me once--and I do not intend them to have the chance of doing it again. Briefly--I offer the United States the power to end wars, and all thought or possibility of war for ever. No Treaty of Versailles or any other treaty will ever be necessary. The only thing I ask in reward for my discovery is the government pledge to use it. That is, of course, should occasion arise. For my material needs, which are small, an allowance of a sum per annum as long as I live, will satisfy my ambition. The allowance may be as much or as little as is found convenient. The pledge to USE my discovery is the one all-important point--it must be a solemn, binding pledge--never to be broken."