"But how to create that particle of ether--that was what occupied my mind for weeks. I would seem to grasp the hint that came and went within the recesses of a brain which--so say my friends--has perhaps never had its equal for variety of conception and rapid response to the slightest external or internal stimulus. Now, many physicists suppose matter to be simply a form of ether--plainly, that matter originated out of ether--was made from ether; so that, after all, the universe was created from nothing--that is, nothing if we correctly define matter. It was but a step for me, then, to the end: remove all radiant energy from a fixed gas--a gas without the property of condensation to another form of matter, _i.e._, to a fluid or a solid--and the thing, I said to myself, is done. I am positive that I know of such a gas, and within a few years all physicists will recognize it. At present the method of procuring it is my secret, as I may still wish to experiment with what is now but a theoretical discovery, though certain to unfold in practice exactly as I have explained it. You understand, of course, that I remove from my gas, by artificial cold and compression, the last vestige of heat, my gas becomes ether, there is no place for it in the universal ocean of inexpansible ether, the balance of the universe as it now exists is destroyed, all matter instantly ceases to exist, and we just sit back and wait for a few billions of trillions of cycles of time, until another system of nature is formed." For a time we all kept silence: Doctor Bainbridge, I suppose, like myself, marvelling at the peculiarities of our strange companion. At last I said: "And how about the war, doctor?"