Scanned by Sean Pobuda (jpobuda@adelphia.net)
By Captain John Blaine
A great barking of dogs broke the silence of the sleepy summerafternoon. Elinor Pomeroy laid down her knitting and slowlywalked around the house. The barking of the three big dogs hadbeen on a joyous tone. A young man was racing up the long frontdrive, the dogs leaping and bounding around him.
"Three rousing cheers, old dear," he cried. "Three cheers! Ihave won out!"
"Do you really mean it, Lester?" she cried. "Do you really meanthat your invention is a success?"
"It certainly is, Elinor," he answered, a certain gravity cominginto his face and manner. "I know now that it is all right. Wehave even tried it out, and I am sure of it."
Elinor took her excited brother by the arm and led him to thewide, swinging hammock.
"Begin at the beginning," she ordered gently. "I want to hearthe whole thing."
"Well, then," he commenced obediently, "this morning, as soon asI got to the plant, I asked for a meeting with the bureau ofmanagement. Well, I went in and told them what I had done; how Ihappened on a partial combination when I was analyzing somethingfor the office. I told them that I had worked it out further andfurther, and that finally I found what I was hunting for—a gasthat was powerful enough to affect a large number of men and putthem out temporarily, without injuring them after the effectswore off.
"Well, they listened, and when I told them my idea was to use italong the battle front instead of the ghastly deadly gases usedby the Germans, they commenced to sit up and take notice. Yousee, sis, my invention is far reaching than anything yet known.It puts out thousands of men with the contents of one grenade, andsinks them into such a deep sleep that they are absolutely helplessfor hours. During this time, our men can occupy their positions,and send hundreds of trucks to the rear loaded with sleepingprisoners. When they come to, they are all right.
"They listened, all right, and then they commenced to askquestions. I offered to try it out right there, but they didn'tseem to want to. Then Mr. Leffingwell spoke up. You know what agood sport he is. He said, 'Well, fellows, there may be a lot tothis. I have a couple of hundred cows out Marcellus way, and I'mgoing to sacrifice them to my country. Let's take the car, andtry this thing out if this young man has enough on hand for aman-sized bomb.'
"Some of the men said he was a fool to risk that herd. My ownopinion was that he thought the stuff wouldn't work at all in theopen. Anyway, we got into the cars, and went out to the dandiestfarm you ever saw.
"We drove the cows all into one end of a big lot because therewas no way to send the grenade with sufficient force to spreadthe gas; but I went as close as I dared, and threw with all mymight. It struck a stone and broke and right quick a couple ofcows close to the grenade sort of crumpled up and laid down, andsome more, and then one on the outskirts of the group lookedaround and said, 'Dear me suz, it gets late early now!' and sheput her head on her arm, and went sleepy sleepums—"
"It's too wonderful; too wonderful!" mused Elinor.
"Well, the best part is," said her brother, "that it is so simpleand so cheap. That is, it is simple to combine."
"Where is the formula?" asked the business-like Elinor. "In asafe, I hope."