"How very odd," answered Lickrod, "that you should express a wish to see works of that kind." "Why?" I asked, in some surprise. "Because we find works of that kind in great demand in the asylums for the mentally afflicted. You see, we treat the inmates as humanely as possible, and our pathologists tell us that they cannot read the books by modern authors. We have to let them read for a few hours a day, and they beg, really rather piteously, for the old books. It is always old books they ask for. I suppose in a way they are cases of a kind of arrested development. At any rate, they have not been able to keep pace with the developments of our ideas. Doctor Barm reported only last year that the only books that seem to have a soothing effect on these patients are those written, oh, two hundred years ago, and of the very kind you probably have in mind." CHAPTER XII THE LATEST INSTITUTION I went to see Kwang in the afternoon, and found him in a state of suppressed excitement--at least I could not help having that impression. After a little time, when I had given him some brief account of my experience at the dinner-party, he said, "I told you the other day that I had some thoughts of returning home. I shall be off in a fortnight." "This is rather sudden," I said; "have you received bad news from home?" "No," he said; "I told you I had practically completed my work. The fact is, that things are beginning to develop rather fast here. I see signs of preparation for a 'forward move.'" "Oh!" I said. "Not another war?" "Not necessarily," he replied. "Light your cigar and I will tell you all you need know." I did so and waited. "The next war," he said, "will be a chemical war." "A chemical war? What on earth is that?" I said. "They have been experimenting for thirty years and more, and they think they have discovered what they want. It may take them several years to perfect their arrangements; it will certainly take them a year or two, and may take six or seven. But one never knows. I suppose you never heard of the three days' war, did you?" "No," I replied; "what was it?" "The State of Lugrabia, with which the Meccanians are in permanent alliance, refused to ratify a new treaty that seemed unfavourable to them in some respects, and feeling ran so high that there was some talk in Lugrabia of putting an end to the alliance. Without any declaration of war the Meccanian Government dispatched a small fleet of air-vessels, planted about a dozen chemical 'Distributors,' as they are euphemistically called, and warned the Lugrabian State that, unless their terms were complied with, the twelve chief cities would be wiped out. The war was over in three days. And to this day the outside world has never heard of the event." "How can it have been kept secret?" I said. "Ask rather how could it leak out," replied Kwang.