"My God!" I exclaimed. "Then it must be Andaya! But why haven't you crushed the damnable place, taken possession of it and put a stop to these accursed attacks long ago?"
Sir Kenyon smiled condescendingly. "We had to be positive of our deductions and suspicions," he explained. "And to send properly equipped and competent spies to Andaya, and to receive their reports, requires time. You, as an officer of our Air Force will undoubtedly think: why not send planes and see what is going on? But you forget that at the first sign of a plane the Andayans would have become suspicious, and it is reasonable to assume that if they are capable of producing radio-propelled and directed aircraft that travel faster than our fastest planes, they undoubtedly possess air vessels that could overtake and destroy any planes we possess. Moreover, our government desired to get at the bottom of it, to secure evidence of the master mind of the underhanded attacks, and to be in a position to take drastic measures that for all time would prevent the suspected Power from carrying out its dreams of dominating Europe and—eventually—the world. But the end is very near. Within the next twenty-four hours, I expect to hear that Andaya is in the hands of the British troops and that the Power that ever since the World War has been a menace to the peace of the world, will be trembling and cringing in the face of the demands of England and the United States."
By Gen. Sir Edward Brassington, Bart.
I have perused with a great deal of interest the various accounts of the sequence of events that transpired during those black weeks when England appeared to be at the mercy of an unknown, inhuman and dastardly foe intent upon destroying our population by the most diabolical means ever devised by man. In the main, the statements by Doctor Grayson, by Major Leighton, by Inspector Maidstone and the others are so accurate, so concise and yet so comprehensive that I can discover nothing omitted that is of any real interest or consequence. But in reading over the extraordinary statement of James—no, "Jimmy"—Nash, I have found more amusement than I have ever obtained from a perusal of my beloved Punch. Never, 'pon my word, have I met such an extraordinary young man. And the statement he has written is so typical of himself that I would not, for worlds, alter a single word or line. Really, he has been a revelation. In the first instance, I had always pictured the American of his type—that is the—er, well, I might say, flippant young type—as only too willing to toot his own tooter, to aggrandize himself, so to speak. But Jimmy, by Jove, is the most modest and retiring chap I ever came across. Why, the young scalawag doesn't even mention that he was knighted, that he and his partner, as he called him— Johnson, no, Sir Robert Johnson, were given such an ovation as England seldom bestows upon any man, that they were the idols of the Empire, that they were received by His Majesty and showered with every possible honor. And, really, I chuckle to myself even now, as I think of it, when, in order to express in some manner the obligation that England felt towards him, I, as his most intimate acquaintance and mentor, was requested to inquire what position he would care to accept, what do you suppose the extraordinary chap said? He wanted the appointment as Court Photographer, by Jove! And he got it.
Of course it is unnecessary to state that Johnson's process of television is now in universal use and has brought both its inventor and Sir James Nash immense fortunes. Neither is it essential that I should recall the events that followed closely upon the successful establishment of the Johnson ray screen over afflicted England. But before closing I feel that I must pay some tribute to Doctor Grayson, now Sir Gregory Grayson, Bart., to whose knowledge of tropical diseases and unremitting, self-sacrificing labors and tireless efforts, half of England's population owes its life and health today. Thanks to the antitoxin he produced, and to others he discovered and distributed, very few persons were seriously affected with the terrible maladies which those Andayans had thought to spread throughout England.
I do not think—I have not the exact figures available —that two hundred persons altogether became infected with any of the diseases to such an extent that lasting ill effects followed; and I know positively that not fifty cases of insanity or death resulted.
Taken altogether, the casualties resulting from the attacks were far under what might have been expected. To be sure the total number of deaths amounted to more than fifty thousand, but despite the appalling figure, economically—that is in proportion to the entire population—the loss of human lives was insignificant.
But, most gratifying of all, neither England nor any other country need ever fear a repetition of the disaster that threatened us. Andaya is now a British dependency, the Power that—as was conclusively proved was behind the conspiracy—is no longer in a position to interfere with any other nation, but is, to all intents and purposes, under the control of the United States and Great Britain, and even if some other fiend should attempt to repeat the Andayans' example, Johnson's rays would render such efforts utterly impotent.
THE END
About the Author
Alpheus Hyatt Verrill, known as Hyatt Verrill, (1871-1954) was an American archaeologist, explorer, inventor, illustrator and author. He was the son of Addison Emery Verrill (1839–1926), the first professor of zoology at Yale University. Hyatt Verrill wrote on a wide variety of topics, including natural history, travel, radio and whaling. He participated in a number of archaeological expeditions to the West Indies, South, and Central America. He travelled extensively throughout the West Indies, and all of the Americas, North, Central and South. Theodore Roosevelt stated: "It was my friend Verrill here, who really put the West Indies on the map.” During 1896 he served as natural history editor of Webster's International Dictionary., and he illustrated many of his own writings as well. During 1902 Verrill invented the autochrome process of natural-color photography. Among his writings are many science fiction works including twenty six published in 'Amazing Stories' pulp magazines.
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The Dirigibles of Death Page 6