"There is something in that apparently," laughed Bombs. "Then it must be because you have lived in the same place and with the same people that you look the same. If the theory is true you should move on in order to attain a full development. That would be in accordance with Goethe's idea would it not? 'Keep not standing fixed and rooted. Briskly venture--briskly roam.' "Perhaps I didn't 'foot it freely' enough to receive a benefaction of bronze and muscle that the ladies admire." "From the Occident to the Orient even on wheels, there must be much to see and learn, Mr. Bombs." "Yes, Miss Adelaide, and much that is not worth learning. When I was in Turkey, I learned nothing of more interest than that the Sultan had finished his forty days fast at Ramazar and taken a new wife." "But the treacherous war, with its horrid weapons! You must have seen how awful it was, Mr. Bombs?" "It was the same old story, Miss Adelaide; men were made to kill each other with fists or dynamite--no matter which." "You are caustic as ever, Mr. Bombs. You must have spent your time chiefly with chemicals and in lurid laboratories--looking inward instead of outward--trying to find out and master the hidden forces. Father told me of your investigations only the day before he died," said Adelaide closing her eyes and leaning back in her chair. There was silence for a few moments, then she added: "Please tell me what you have discovered, Mr. Bombs." "There isn't much to be told at present date, Miss Adelaide, except that I have discovered or think I have, the long sought for and greatly to be desired explosive--the ideal force which combines the highest known power with perfect safety in use; an explosive which when put upon the market and used in the place of dynamite will make such accidents as that which cost your father his life, practically impossible." "I don't believe such awful things can _be_ made safe, any more than the arch-fiend himself, Mr. Bombs." "But they can be, Miss Adelaide, if properly harnessed and handled--at least my explosive can be. It will not explode unless rightly treated or _en_-treated. It is very particular about that," laughed Bombs. "It won't respond to hard knocks or kicks or a shower of bullets, and a child might treat it to a lighted match and coals of fire and it would do no more than burn with a gentle blue flame. An ounce of it would make a safe and satisfactory firecracker in a boy's hands; while the same quantity in skilful hands, could be made to blow up an immense battleship!"