This was a great blow to the enemy and they knew now that the Americans had some kind of a sleeping gas which was harmless and would put men to sleep and keep them asleep for 7 days. The enemy had all kinds of poisonous gases and bombs, but they had never discovered a gas to put people asleep for a week, then awake without any ill effects. They now realized what Supreme Commander Gordon's answer meant,--that it was some new discoveries which the United States had made that caused them to fight on and not accede to any peace terms. After days of waiting, scouting and trying to secure information as to what had happened, the attack on New York was left a mystery. They waited until the 16th day of June, thinking that if their aviators had been put to sleep there some of them would return. When none of them returned by the 21st of the month and no word was received, they knew that the fleet had been destroyed or captured and that their army had been greatly weakened, but still they held the Pacific Coast and controlled New Orleans, St. Louis, and Chicago and their Western lines were unbroken. After holding a conference, they decided to adopt a waiting attitude for a time and see what the next move of the United States would be. CHAPTER XXXIII Time drifted along until the early part of July without any further attack by the enemy, but Supreme Commander Gordon believed that they would make another attack soon before giving up. He was simply watching and waiting, biding his time. The United States Army scouting planes reported that the enemy scouts were going out more frequently each night and some of them had been seen 50,000 or 60,000 feet in the air. They thought that they were getting ready to make another attack and were trying to get a line on what the United States forces were planning to do. The Supreme Commander went to Washington to test out the "Demon of Death" which had been installed in the Capitol Building and found it in good working order. A sleeping gas distributing machine and the Tunnel machine had been set up there and he also tested them out.