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 urgent summons) and walked slowly across the Mount Vernon lawn to join us in the summer 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, our army is beaten. We are on the point of ceding New England and New York to Germany. There is nothing else to do.”

“Wait! We have information that may change everything. Let me introduce Lieutenant 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 awkward movements, drew from his pockets some papers which he offered to the American commander.

“These speak for themselves, General,” he began. “Here is a brief description of my invention for destroying the German fleet. Here are blueprints that make it clearer. Here is the written endorsement of Thomas 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 face stern with care. I saw that his hair had whitened noticeably in the last two months.

“If this is true, it’s more important than you realise. It’s so important that--” He searched us with his kind but keen grey eyes.

“Thomas A. Edison says it’s true,” put in Widding. “That ought to be good enough evidence.”

“And Lieutenant Ryerson tells me that Admiral Fletcher spoke favourably of 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 over Mr. Widding’s specifications the night before and he said--I remember his words: ‘This is a great idea. If we had it in operation now we could destroy the German fleet.’”

At this moment there came a fateful interruption in the form of an urgent call for General Wood from the conference hall and he asked us to excuse him 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 Cosmos Club 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 was called to the telephone, and presently recognised the agitated voice of Miss Ryerson, who said that an extraordinary thing had happened and begged me to come to her at once. She was stopping at the Shoreham, just across the street, and five minutes later we were talking earnestly in the spacious blue-and-white salon with its flowers and restful lights. Needless to say, I preferred a talk with this beautiful girl to the most learned discussion of deep-sea lilies.

Her message was brief but important. She had just been telephoning in a drug-store on Pennsylvania Avenue when she was surprised to hear the name of Thomas A. Edison mentioned several times by a man in the next booth who was speaking in German. Miss Ryerson understood German and, listening attentively, she made out enough to be sure that an enemy’s plot was on foot to lay hold of the great inventor, to abduct him forcibly, so that he could no longer help the work of American defence.

Greatly alarmed she had called me up and now urged me to warn the military authorities, without wasting a moment, so that they would take steps to protect Mr. Edison.

In this emergency I decided to appeal to General E.M. Weaver, Chief of Coast Artillery, whom I knew from having played golf with him at Chevy Chase, and, after telephoning, I hurried to his house in a taxicab. The general looked grave when I repeated Miss Ryerson’s story, and said that this accorded with other reports of German underground activities that had 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 the scientific defences of Washington in the physical laboratories of the Johns Hopkins University.

“I must talk with Edison,” said the General. “Suppose you go to Baltimore in the morning, Mr. Langston, with a note from me. It’s only forty-five minutes and--tell Mr. Edison that I will be greatly relieved if he will return to Washington with you.”

I had interviewed Thomas A. Edison on several occasions and gained his confidence, so that he received me cordially the next morning in Baltimore and, in deference to General Weaver’s desire, agreed to run down to Washington that afternoon, although he laughed at the idea of any danger.

As we rode on the train the inventor talked freely of plans for defending the national capital against General von Mackensen’s army which, having occupied Richmond, was moving up slowly through Virginia. It is a matter of familiar history now that these plans provided for the use of liquid chlorine against the invaders, this dangerous substance to be dropped upon the advancing army from a fleet of powerful aeroplanes. Mr. Edison seemed hopeful of the outcome.

He questioned me about Lemuel A. Widding and was interested to learn that Widding was employed at the works of the Victor Talking Machine (Edison’s own invention) in Camden, N. J. His eyes brightened when I told him of young Lemuel’s thrilling act at Wanamaker’s Philadelphia store which, as I now explained, led to the meeting of the two inventors through the efforts 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 a year 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 naval warfare--it’s bound to. I wouldn’t give five cents for the German fleet when we get this thing working. All we need is time.

“Mr. Langston, there are some big surprises ahead for the American people and for the Germans,” continued the inventor. “They say America is as helpless as Belgium or China. I say nonsense. It’s true that we have lost our fleet and some of our big cities and that the Germans have three armies on our soil, but the fine old qualities of American grit and American resourcefulness are still here and we’ll use ‘em. If we can’t win battles in the old way, we’ll find new ways.

“Listen to this, my friend. Have you heard of the Committee of Twenty-one? No? Very few have. It’s a body of rich and patriotic Americans, big business men, who made up their minds, back in July, that the government wasn’t up to the job of saving this nation. So they decided to save it themselves by business methods, efficiency methods. There’s a lot of nonsense talked about German efficiency. We’ll show them a few things about American efficiency. What made the United States the greatest and richest country in the world? Was it German efficiency? What gave the Standard Oil Company its world supremacy? Was it German efficiency? It was the American brains of John D. Rockefeller, wasn’t it?”

“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 as Belgium or China. Von Mackensen is going slow, holding back his army because he doesn’t know what we have up our sleeve at the Potomac. As a matter of fact, we have mighty little except this liquid chlorine and--well, we’re having trouble with the steel containers and with the releasing 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 reports about wonderful electric mines that will blow up a brigade, and that helped some, and we delayed von Mackensen for two weeks south of Fredericksburg by spreading lines of striped cheese-cloth, miles of it, along a rugged valley. His aeroplane scouts couldn’t make out what that cheese-cloth was for; they thought it might be some new kind of electrocution storage battery, so the whole army waited.”

As we talked, the train stopped at Hyattsville, a few miles out of Washington, and a well-set-up officer in uniform came aboard and approached 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. The General 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, “General Wood presents his compliments and hopes you will dine with Mr. Edison and himself at seven this evening.”

“With pleasure.” I bowed and watched them as, they left the train and entered a military-looking automobile that stood near the track with curtains drawn. A moment later they rolled away and I settled back in my seat, reflecting complacently on the high confidence that had been shown in my discretion.

Two hours later I reached Mount Vernon and was surprised, as I left the train, 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--at Hyattsville.”

The general stared in amazement. “I don’t know what you are talking about. I haven’t left Mount Vernon. I haven’t seen Mr. Edison. What has happened? Tell me!”

“Wait!” I said, as the truth began to break on me. “Is there a Captain Campbell 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 of the morning.

“Good Lord!” he cried. “It’s an abduction--unquestionably. This Captain Campbell was a German spy. You say the automobile curtains were drawn? That made it dark inside, and no doubt the pretended General Wood wore motor goggles. Before Edison discovered the trick they were off at full speed 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 German fleet. It’s a matter of life and death to them and Edison knows all about it--all the details--Widding told him.”

“Yes,” said I. “My friend Miss Ryerson brought Widding to Mr. Edison a few 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 the Germans 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 heard her voice I knew that something was wrong.

“What does she say?” asked the general anxiously, as I hung up the receiver.

“She is very much distressed. She says Widding and her brother disappeared from the hotel last night and no one has any idea where they are.”

Here were startling happenings and the developments were even more startling, but, before following these threads of mystery (days passed and they were still unravelled) I must set forth events that immediately succeeded the rupture of peace negotiations. I have reason to know that the Committee of Twenty-one brought pressure upon our peace commissioners, through Washington and the public press, with the result that their attitude stiffened towards the enemy and presently became almost defiant, so that on October 2, 1921, all efforts towards peace were abandoned. And on October 3 it was officially announced that the United States and Germany were again at war.