paign.]

Of course, one of the surprises which the Orientals had not counted on
was the providential inspiration of Dr. Mernick of the Hopkins, who
devised the now famous Mernickian transformer by which light from the
sun, received through a series of grates, is stepped from the
wavelengths of light into those of electricity. This gave us a sudden
limitless source of power on which the enemy had not counted. It
virtually lifted our forces off the ground and made them almost the
equal of an enemy who had succeeded in neutralizing the gravitational
drag.

The final and most disastrous card our subtle enemies played was dealt
on the prairies in Nebraska. They themselves were afraid of their weapon
and wanted plenty of space to try it in. I was personally present at its
debut, being at the time in General Sanford's stationary observing
helicopter which, through the agency of the power supplied by a
Mernickian transformer, hung motionless as a bee fifteen thousand feet
in the air. Only the treble hum of the air turbine could be heard
faintly through the transparent walls of the observatory constructed of
the annealed clersite, which has taken the place of the unsatisfactory
glass used by our forefathers. The toughness and tensile strength of
this element, comparable to the best chrome steels, combined with its
crystal clarity, made an ideal warfare observation unit. It was
practically invisible and likewise quite bullet proof. The great
strength of the material in our machine, and the rapidity with which we
could rise and fall, indeed made us difficult prey. In addition to this
we were hanging behind the great electric field that the Radio Defensive
Corps had spread like a screen before our forces, greatly to the
embarrassment of the enemy in the use of his anti-gravitational
machines.

As we stood at our posts, we saw the great degravitated bombs hurtled
against our lines suddenly come into contact with the fan-like electric
field, somersault a few times and fall. At the edge of the electric
screen the ground was excavated to an enormous depth by the bursting of
these intercepted degravitated bombs, most of which had been projected
from stationary batteries three or four hundred miles behind the enemy
lines. The local batteries bombarding with the old fashioned Sangsi
steel shell were still effective. On the whole, however, from our own
observation of the local front and from the television reports we were
constantly re