their steel jaws gnashed the gouged-out hearts and brains of men, and their dust and cinders clouded the fields and forests, and their poison fumes invaded the lungs of the people, blunting their minds and making them droop and die by the million.” “What a hideous picture!” I cried, with a shudder. “But certainly, certainly it was an exaggeration!” “No, Agripides had no need to exaggerate. He merely showed the logical advance upon existing advances. But this was the least grewsome of the exhibits. One half of the display, which he entitled ‘The Triumph of Science,’ was devoted to the supreme horror. Here again he depicted artificial landscapes and many-towered cities; but the wheels of those cities were not revolving, though smoke was indeed in the air. At first sight, they might hardly have been recognized as cities at all; they were really little more than chaotic heaps of iron and stone; many of the buildings had been blasted to fragments, some had toppled over, others were mere mangled frameworks of steel. Scarcely more than an isolated wall remained standing here and there to show that this had been the home of men; but of the inhabitants themselves there was indeed an occasional sign: here one was futilely gasping for breath, writhing on the ground like a tormented worm; there one was groping crazily through the ruins, with torn breast and blinded eyes; yonder a family group was lying sprawled at all angles, with pale faces convulsed with their last agony. “But had one looked for the source of the destruction, one would not easily have found it--except that far above, so remote as scarcely to be visible, a fleet of mosquito-like flying craft were buzzing on their way like stealthy marauders.” Aelios paused, a deep seriousness darkening her fair features; and as I sat there regarding her in silence, I could not but reflect what unspeakable distances separated the bloody picture she described from the enchanting scenes among which she dwelt. * * * * * “Naturally,” she continued, “the people were not captivated with the thought of the future depicted by Agripides. And, Agripides, acting at the psychological moment when all Atlantis was most aroused, convened the National Assembly, and polled a majority of--three to one in favor of the Submergence! This majority being confirmed by a referendum of the people, the great leader took immediate steps toward carrying out his revolutionary project.