of peculiar construction, charged with an explosive composed of new
substances and which only produced its effect under the action of a
deflagrator that was also new.

When this engine, no matter in what way it was launched, exploded, not
on striking the object aimed at, but several hundred yards from it,
its action upon the atmospheric strata was so terrific that any
construction, warship or floating battery, within a zone of twelve
thousand square yards, would be blown to atoms. This was the principle
of the shell launched by the Zalinski pneumatic gun with which
experiments had already been made at that epoch, but its results were
multiplied at least a hundred-fold.

If, therefore, Thomas Roch's invention possessed this power, it
assured the offensive and defensive superiority of his native country.
But might not the inventor be exaggerating, notwithstanding that the
tests of other engines he had conceived had proved incontestably that
they were all he had claimed them to be? This, experiment could alone
show, and it was precisely here where the rub came in. Roch would
not agree to experiment until the millions at which he valued his
fulgurator had first been paid to him.

It is certain that a sort of disequilibrium had then occurred in his
mental faculties. It was felt that he was developing a condition of
mind that would gradually lead to definite madness. No government
could possibly condescend to treat with him under the conditions he
imposed.

The French commission was compelled to break off all negotiations with
him, and the newspapers, even those of the Radical Opposition, had to