" Now, Your Majesty, this is the first experiment, and I shall ask you to make it yourself. These two blocks of steel are cut from the same armour-plate, the very finest that can be made at Essen. This one has been subjected to the influence of what I call my demagnetising rays. That one has not. There is a hammer and chisel beside it. Will Your Majesty be kind enough to see if you can make any impression on it."

"If this is Krupp's best I don't expect I can," laughed the Kaiser, as he took up the chisel and hammer and struck a smart blow in the middle of the plate. There was not a scratch on the steel, but the edge of the chisel was turned. "Good stuff, that," he said. " And that, you say, is from the same plate. What do you want me to do with it?"

The Professor held the wooden platter towards him, and said : " That, Your Majesty, is the best steel that Germany can produce. You have not been able to make a mark on it. This was the same steel, but it is steel no longer." " What do you mean, Herr Professor ? " interrupted the Kaiser with a quick lift of his heavy eyelids. " I hope this is not one of the solemn jokes which you scientific gentlemen seem so fond of making? "

" On the contrary, Your Majesty," replied the man of science very seriously, " I believe it to be the most solemn fact that has been discovered since tribes and nations first went to war with each other. Will you be good enough to take the hammer and strike this piece of metal lightly in the centre."

The Kaiser took up the hammer and struck the block rather smartly. To his utter amazement it vanished. There was a heap of fine dust on the platter, and more falling over the edges on to the floor.

" Heavens, Professor ! " he gasped. " What miracle is this?"