and
incandescent heat, it had recombined with the oxygen of the air as
simple molecules of water.

I thought I had a clue as to how it had been accomplished. The Central
Chemical Laboratory was the focus of feverish excitement. The air was
tense with the expectancy of tremendous things. Every scientist there
felt that we were on the verge of discovering the principle of the
Mongols' new weapon. "Give us time!" "Time" was the plea we sent daily
to the Defense Headquarters. "Only six weeks more, only a month," we
begged, "and then we'll make a boomerang out of the enemy's invention."
Anderson, Mahaffey, Dr. Spritz--all the great physicists and chemists of
the present age--labored at my side endeavoring to trick Nature into
giving us that saving secret.

The television 'phone called my name. I immediately hurried to the booth
and saw General Loomis, the Commander-in-Chief of the American and
Caucasian Armies, standing in his helicopter headquarters. He seemed
haggard and worn. "How much longer, Johnson?" he asked. "The enemy has
pretty well eaten out the country and with the advent of winter and lack
of food, are bending all their efforts to crush us. Besides, we cannot
tell just how long it will be before they begin turning out their new
bomb in other than experimental quantities. Two weeks, I should
estimate, is about all the longer I can hold them."

"If that is the case, General Loomis," I replied, "we may as well give
up. Two months will see us ready. But two weeks--!"

I felt a hand laid on my shoulder. Dr. Rutledge, my science chief, had
stepped into the booth behind me and overheard the conversation.

"General Loomis," Dr. Rutledge spoke, looking for all the world like a
patriarch of olden times, "until five minutes ago what Johnson has just
said would have sealed our fate. But now, I think, I believe, we have
one more card to play. I have only this moment completed a series of
reactions which have resulted (as I calculated they should) in the
production of a new protein, similar in appearance to flour. It should,
although of course I have not yet had time to verify this statement, be
a practical substitute for flour; and indeed, it is my belief that it
will easily be mistaken for that substance. Its particles are laminated
similar to starch, of an identical size, and the nutritive factor should
be greater than that of bread. It is, in short, a new, a foreign protein
never before found in this world of men!"