"For infantry, the service rifle and milag cartridge; for cavalry the same, but shorter and lighter, besides a pistol using the milag cartridge of calibre 35. The artillery use nothing but the heavy guns, which are of different styles and for different purposes. Some are for lipthalene, others for lipthalene and meteorite, and still others using meteorite alone." "What! did I understand you to say meteorite?" and Cobb looked at the Secretary with a surprised and earnest expression, while his hand nervously grasped the back of his chair. "Yes; certainly. Is there anything strange in the name, that you should look at me so doubtingly?" "No; I suppose not," settling back in his chair. "But you appeared very much surprised." "Yes?" "Yes; have you seen this explosive? But no; you could not have seen it. It did not come to the notice of the government until after your time." "Will you show me one of these milag cartridges?" "Certainly." He rang a bell and ordered a box of milag cartridges sent to him in the office. When the Secretary had received them, he gave one to Cobb, saying: "This small bullet does not look much like a cartridge, does it?" Cobb took it and carefully examined it. It was precisely similar to those he had sent to Washington in 1887. Smiling to himself, he turned his eyes first upon the President and then upon the Secretary. "When did you say these were invented?" he asked, in an unconcerned manner. "I can soon tell you." Rising and taking a book from the shelf, he quickly found the history of the milag cartridge, and read: "'Milag cartridge; from the Volapük word _milag_, "wonderful." A cartridge using meteorite as an explosive; usual charge for 40 calibre, one and one-third grains; initial velocity, 3,562; range, four miles. Meteorite was discovered in 1899, and the formula sold to the government by John Otis, chief clerk to the Chief of Ordnance.'" "Chief of Ordnance?" broke in Cobb, quickly. "Yes; Chief of Ordnance. But have you read this?" "No, sir." "But there certainly is some mystery here!" exclaimed the President, highly interested in the conversation. Cobb took his penknife from his pocket, and slowly opening it, said: "If I cut this black cement in the base of the bullet, I come to the meteorite; am I correct?" "Yes." "And it is white." And he cut the cement carefully away and disclosed the little disc of fulminate and the white explosive surrounding it. "Strange!" cried both of the others together, surprised that he should know the color of an explosive invented after his time. "Have you any nitric acid?" asked Cobb. "Yes; here is a little," and Secretary Fowler handed him a small bottle containing the nitric acid used in testing at the War Department. Dipping a twisted paper into the liquid, Cobb let fall a single drop of the acid on the explosive in the bullet; then moving toward the window, which he threw open, he struck a match and said: