up and carry on immediately? Can it be the great shell?"

Clewe shook his head.

"No," said he; "that is progressing admirably, but many things
are necessary before we can experiment with it."

"Since you were away," said she, "I have often been down to the
works to look at it, but everything about it seems to go so
slowly. However, I suppose it will go fast enough when it is
finished."

"Yes," said he. "I hope it will go fast enough to overturn the
artillery of the world; but, as you say, don't let us talk about
the things for which we must wait. I will carefully consider
everything that is in operation, and to-morrow I will suggest
something with which we can go on."

"After all," said she, as they stood together before parting, "I
cannot take my mind from the Artesian ray."

"Nor can I," he answered; "but for the present we must put our
hands to work at something else."

The Artesian ray, of which these two spoke, was an invention upon
which Roland Clewe had been experimenting for a long time, and
which was and had been the object of his labors and studies while
in Europe. In the first decade of the century it had been
generally supposed that the X ray, or cathode ray, had been
developed and applied to the utmost extent of its capability. It