There was a silent power in the lilaran which I had not investigated: its power of magnetism. This it could exercise several miles off; but it grew feebler with the distance. In this aspect, then, the lilaran could not be used as a weapon of defence far from the shore of Limanora. If, however, there was a mass of iron or like magnetisable metal in the ship that contained its victims, its power had been discovered to be as great far as near. It was only recently that they had so far developed their personal power of arresting the consciousness by sudden sleep-petrifaction as to be able to exercise it at a distance. This they accomplished by material aids to the magnetic faculty. The sudden flashing of brilliant objects before the eyes and the use of powerful magnets had been found to intensify the somnifactive power of the eye and the magnetic sense. This led them to make experiments with the concentrated power of magnets all brilliant with irelium jewels. The result was that they found the somnifactive power to reside even more in things than in persons. They tried it through the lilaran on Limanorans of the most powerful will at the farthest corner of the island, and found it to be the more effective the more power they concentrated and the more iron or metals of similar quality were near the patient. This result had been reached about the time they had come to see that the invasion of their island by Choktroo was inevitable without some other than the mere wind-power of the lilaran. Step by step the Lilamo brought their new weapon to perfection; at any moment they could concentrate the forces of Rimla into this faculty of the lilaran. They experimented on Limanorans in boats out at sea, and finally could tabulate the magnetic powers at various distances. This explained to me the flashings I had often seen on the horizon and had taken for an effect of the idrovamolan; but they were too near the surface of the sea for that. This explained the perfect calm with which the Limanorans watched the approach of Choktroo’s expedition and the thrilling keenness of the flashes that swept over his fire-ships.