CHAPTER XVII
THOMAS A. EDISON MAKES A SERIOUS MISTAKE IN ACCEPTING A DINNER INVITATION
As General Wood left the peace conference (in reply to our urgentsummons) and walked slowly across the Mount Vernon lawn to join us in thesummer house, he looked haggard and dejected.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Good news, General," I whispered, but he shook his head wearily.
"No, it's all over. They have worn us down. Our fleet is destroyed, ourarmy is beaten. We are on the point of ceding New England and New York toGermany. There is nothing else to do."
"Wait! We have information that may change everything. Let me introduceLieutenant Ryerson and Mr. Widding--General Wood." They bowed politely."Mr. Widding has just seen Thomas A. Edison."
That was a name to conjure with, and the General's face brightened.
"I'm listening," he said.
We settled back in our chairs and Lemuel A. Widding, with awkwardmovements, drew from his pockets some papers which he offered to theAmerican commander.
"These speak for themselves, General," he began. "Here is a briefdescription of my invention for destroying the German fleet. Here areblueprints that make it clearer. Here is the written endorsement ofThomas A. Edison."
For a long time General Wood studied these papers with close attention,then he sat silent, looking out over the broad Potomac, his noble facestern with care. I saw that his hair had whitened noticeably in the lasttwo months.
"If this is true, it's more important than you realise. It's so importantthat--" He searched us with his kind but keen grey eyes.
"Thomas A. Edison says it's true," put in Widding. "That ought to be goodenough evidence."
"And Lieutenant Ryerson tells me that Admiral Fletcher spoke favourablyof the matter," I added.
"He did, General," declared the lieutenant. "It was on the _Pennsylvania_a few hours before we went into battle. The admiral had been looking overMr. Widding's specifications the night before and he said--I remember hiswords: 'This is a great idea. If we had it in operation now we coulddestroy the German fleet.'"
At this moment there came a fateful interruption in the form of an urgentcall for General Wood from the conference hall and he asked us to excusehim until the next day when he would take the matter up seriously.
We returned at once to Washington and I spent that evening at the CosmosClub listening to a lecture by my oceanographical friend, Dr. Austin H.Clark, on deep-sea lilies that eat meat. At about nine o'clock I wascalled to the telephone, and presently recognised the agitated voice ofMiss Ryerson, who said that an extraordinary thing had happened andbegged me to come to her at once. She was stopping at the Shoreham, justacross the street, and five minutes later we were talking earnestly inthe spacious blue-and-white salon with its flowers and restful lights.Needless to say, I preferred a talk with this beautiful girl to the mostlearned discussion of deep-sea lilies.
Her message was brief but important. She had just been telephoning in adrug-store on Pennsylvania Avenue when she was surprised to hear the nameof Thomas A. Edison mentioned several times by a man in the next boothwho was speaking in German. Miss Ryerson understood German and, listeningattentively, she made out enough to be sure that an enemy's plot was onfoot to lay hold of the great inventor, to abduct him forcibly, so thathe could no longer help the work of American defence.
Greatly alarmed she had called me up and now urged me to warn themilitary authorities, without wasting a moment, so that they would takesteps to protect Mr. Edison.
In this emergency I decided to appeal to General E.M. Weaver, Chief ofCoast Artillery, whom I knew from having played golf with him at ChevyChase, and, after telephoning, I hurried to his house in a taxicab. Thegeneral looked grave when I repeated Miss Ryerson's story, and said thatthis accorded with other reports of German underground activities thathad come to his knowledge. Of course, a guard must be furnished for Mr.Edison, who was in Baltimore at the time, working out plans for thescientific defences of Washington in the physical laboratories of theJohns Hopkins University.
"I must talk with Edison," said the General. "Suppose you go to Baltimorein the morning, Mr. Langston, with a note from me. It's only forty-fiveminutes and--tell Mr. Edison that I will be greatly relieved if he willreturn to Washington with you."
I had interviewed Thomas A. Edison on several occasions and gained hisconfidence, so that he received me cordially the next morning inBaltimore and, in deference to General Weaver's desire, agreed to rundown to Washington that afternoon, although he laughed at the idea of anydanger.
As we rode on the train the inventor talked freely of plans for defendingthe national capital against General von Mackensen's army which, havingoccupied Richmond, was moving up slowly through Virginia. It is a matterof familiar history now that these plans provided for the use of liquidchlorine against the invaders, this dangerous substance to be droppedupon the advancing army from a fleet of powerful aeroplanes. Mr. Edisonseemed hopeful of the outcome.
He questioned me about Lemuel A. Widding and was interested to learn thatWidding was employed at the works of the Victor Talking Machine (Edison'sown invention) in Camden, N. J. His eyes brightened when I told him ofyoung Lemuel's thrilling act at Wanamaker's Philadelphia store which, asI now explained, led to the meeting of the two inventors through theefforts of Miss Ryerson.
"There's something queer about this," mused the famous electrician."Widding tells me he submitted his idea to the Navy Department over ayear ago. Think of that! An idea bigger than the submarine!"
"Is it possible?"
"No doubt of it. Widding's invention will change the condition of navalwarfare--it's bound to. I wouldn't give five cents for the German fleetwhen we get this thing working. All we need is time.
"Mr. Langston, there are some big surprises ahead for the American peopleand for the Germans," continued the inventor. "They say America is ashelpless as Belgium or China. I say nonsense. It's true that we have lostour fleet and some of our big cities and that the Germans have threearmies on our soil, but the fine old qualities of American grit andAmerican resourcefulness are still here and we'll use 'em. If we can'twin battles in the old way, we'll find new ways.
"Listen to this, my friend. Have you heard of the Committee ofTwenty-one? No? Very few have. It's a body of rich and patrioticAmericans, big business men, who made up their minds, back in July, thatthe government wasn't up to the job of saving this nation. So theydecided to save it themselves by business methods, efficiency methods.There's a lot of nonsense talked about German efficiency. We'll show thema few things about American efficiency. What made the United States thegreatest and richest country in the world? Was it German efficiency? Whatgave the Standard Oil Company its world supremacy? Was it Germanefficiency? It was the American brains of John D. Rockefeller, wasn'tit?"
"Is Mr. Rockefeller one of the Committee of Twenty-one?"
"Of course, he is, and so are Andrew Carnegie, James J. Hill, J. P.Morgan, John Wanamaker, John H. Fahey, James B. Duke, Henry B. Joy,Daniel B. Guggenheim, John D. Ryan, J. B. Widener, Emerson McMillin,Philip D. Armour, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Elihu Root, George W. Perkins,Asa G. Candler and two or three others, including myself.
"The Germans are getting over the idea that America is as helpless asBelgium or China. Von Mackensen is going slow, holding back his armybecause he doesn't know what we have up our sleeve at the Potomac. Asa matter of fact, we have mighty little except this liquid chlorineand--well, we're having trouble with the steel containers and with thereleasing device."
"You mean the device that drops the containers from the aeroplanes?"
"That's it. We need time to perfect the thing. We've spread fake reportsabout wonderful electric mines that will blow up a brigade, and thathelped some, and we delayed von Mackensen for two weeks south ofFredericksburg by spreading lines of striped cheese-cloth, miles of it,along a rugged valley. His aeroplane scouts couldn't make out what thatcheese-cloth was for; they thought it might be some new ki
nd ofelectrocution storage battery, so the whole army waited."
As we talked, the train stopped at Hyattsville, a few miles out ofWashington, and a well-set-up officer in uniform came aboard andapproached us with a pleasant smile.
"Mr. Edison? I am Captain Campbell of General Wood's staff," he said."General Wood is outside in his automobile and asks you to join him. TheGeneral thought it would be pleasanter to motor down to Mount Vernon."
"That's very kind," said Edison, rising.
"And, Mr. Langston," continued Captain Campbell, addressing me, "GeneralWood presents his compliments and hopes you will dine with Mr. Edison andhimself at seven this evening."
"With pleasure." I bowed and watched them as, they left the train andentered a military-looking automobile that stood near the track withcurtains drawn. A moment later they rolled away and I settled back in myseat, reflecting complacently on the high confidence that had been shownin my discretion.
Two hours later I reached Mount Vernon and was surprised, as I left thetrain, to find General Wood himself waiting on the platform.
"You got back quickly, General," I said.
He gave me a sharp glance. "Back from where?"
"Why, from where you met our train."
"Your train? What train? I came here to meet Mr. Edison."
"But you did meet him--two hours ago--in your automobile--atHyattsville."
The general stared in amazement. "I don't know what you are talkingabout. I haven't left Mount Vernon. I haven't seen Mr. Edison. What hashappened? Tell me!"
"Wait!" I said, as the truth began to break on me. "Is there a CaptainCampbell on your staff?"
He shook his head. "No."
"Then--then--" I was trying to piece together the evidence.
"Well? Go on!" he urged impatiently, whereupon I related the events ofthe morning.
"Good Lord!" he cried. "It's an abduction--unquestionably. This CaptainCampbell was a German spy. You say the automobile curtains were drawn?That made it dark inside, and no doubt the pretended General Wood woremotor goggles. Before Edison discovered the trick they were off at fullspeed and he was overpowered on the back seat. Think of that! Thomas A.Edison abducted by the Germans!"
"Why would they do such a thing?"
"Why? Don't you see? That invention of Widding's will destroy the Germanfleet. It's a matter of life and death to them and Edison knows all aboutit--all the details--Widding told him."
"Yes," said I. "My friend Miss Ryerson brought Widding to Mr. Edison afew days ago, but--how could the Germans have known that?"
The general's face darkened. "How do they know all sorts of things?Somebody tells them. Somebody told them this."
"But Widding himself knows all about his own invention. It won't do theGermans any good to abduct Edison unless--"
Our eyes met in sudden alarm.
"By George, you're right!" exclaimed Wood.
"Where is Widding? Is he stopping at your hotel?"
"Yes. We're all there, Miss Ryerson and her brother and Widding and I."
"Call up the hotel--quick. We must know about this."
A minute later I had Miss Ryerson on the 'phone and as soon as I heardher voice I knew that something was wrong.
"What does she say?" asked the general anxiously, as I hung up thereceiver.
"She is very much distressed. She says Widding and her brotherdisappeared from the hotel last night and no one has any idea where theyare."
Here were startling happenings and the developments were even morestartling, but, before following these threads of mystery (days passedand they were still unravelled) I must set forth events that immediatelysucceeded the rupture of peace negotiations. I have reason to know thatthe Committee of Twenty-one brought pressure upon our peacecommissioners, through Washington and the public press, with the resultthat their attitude stiffened towards the enemy and presently becamealmost defiant, so that on October 2, 1921, all efforts towards peacewere abandoned. And on October 3 it was officially announced that theUnited States and Germany were again at war.
Conquest of America: A Romance of Disaster and Victory, U.S.A., 1921 A.D. Page 20