corner of
the universe which we inhabit, but there is nothing to show that this
balance is going to last. If you were to press the trigger of this
revolver to-morrow, it is just possible that it would not go off. It
is also possible that the German aeroplanes will cease to fly, and
that General Bramble will take a dislike to the gramophone. _I_
should not be surprised at any of these things; I should simply
recognize that supernatural forces had come into our lives."

"Doctor," said Aurelle, "you know the clock which my orderly Brommit
winds up every evening? Let us suppose that on one of the molecules
that go to make up the minute-hand of that clock there live a race of
beings who are infinitely small, and yet as intelligent as we are.
These little creatures have measured their world, and have noticed
that the speed of its motion is constant; they have discovered that
their planet covers a fixed distance in a fixed period of time, which
for us is a minute and for them a century. Amongst their people there
are two schools of thought. The scientists claim that the laws of the
universe are immutable, and that no supernatural power can intervene
to change them. The believers admit the existence of these laws, but
they also assert that there is a divine being who can interfere with
their course; and to that being they address prayers. In that tiny
world, which of them is right? The believers, of course; for there is
such a being as Private Brommit, and if he forgets one evening to
wind up the clock, the scientists and all their proud theories will
vanish away like smoke in a cataclysm which will bring whole worlds
to their doom."

"That's so," said the doctor; "but if they had prayed----"

"Listen," interrupted Aurelle.

The park had become strangely silent; and though there was no wind,
they could hear the gentle rustling of the leaves, the barking of a
dog in the valley, the crackling of a twig under a bird's weight. Up
above, in the clear sky, there was a feeling of some hostile
presence, and a disagreeable little buzzing sound, as though there
were some invisible mosquito up among the stars.

"They're here now," said the doctor.

The noise increased: a buzzing swarm of giant bees seemed to be
approaching the hill.

Suddenly there was a long hiss, and a ray of light leaped forth from
the valley and began to search the sky with a sort of superhuman
thoroughness. The women on the lawn ran away to the shelter of th