The Angel of the Revolution

The Angel of the Revolution
A Tale of the Coming Terror
By
George Griffith
Author of "Olga Romanoff" "The Outlaws of the Air" Etc. Etc.

To Cyril Arthur Pearson to whose suggestion the writing of this story was primarily due the following pages are inscribed by the Author

AT THE ELEVENTH HOUR
AT WAR WITH SOCIETY
A FRIENDLY CHAT
THE HOUSE ON CLAPHAM COMMON
THE INNER CIRCLE
NEW FRIENDS
THE DAUGHTER OF NATAS
LEARNING THE PART
THE BEGINNING OF SORROWS
THE "ARIEL"
FIRST BLOOD
IN THE MASTER'S NAME
FOR LIFE OR DEATH
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT
A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY
A WOOING IN MID-AIR
AERIA FELIX
A NAVY OF THE FUTURE
THE EVE OF BATTLE
BETWEEN TWO LIVES
JUST IN TIME
ARMED NEUTRALITY
A BATTLE IN THE NIGHT
THE NEW WARFARE
THE HERALDS OF DISASTER
AN INTERLUDE
ON THE TRACK OF TREASON
A SKIRMISH IN THE CLOUDS
AN EMBASSY FROM THE SKY
AT CLOSE QUARTERS
A RUSSIAN RAID
THE END OF THE CHASE
THE BREAKING OF THE CHARM
THE PATH OF CONQUEST
FROM CHAOS TO ARCADIE
LOVE AND DUTY
THE CAPTURE OF A CONTINENT
THE BEGINNING OF THE END
THE BATTLE OF DOVER
BELEAGUERED LONDON
AN ENVOY OF DELIVERANCE
THE EVE OF ARMAGEDDON
THE OLD LION AT BAY
THE TURN OF THE BATTLE-TIDE
ARMAGEDDON
VICTORY
THE JUDGMENT OF NATAS
THE ORDERING OF EUROPE
THE STORY OF THE MASTER
Epilogue -- "AND ON EARTH PEACE!"
CHAPTER I.
AT THE ELEVENTH HOUR.
VICTORY! It flies! I am master of the Powers of the Air at last!"
They were strange words to be uttered, as they were, by a pale, haggard, half-starved looking young fellow in a dingy, comfortless room on the top floor of a South London tenement-house; and yet there was a triumphant ring in his voice, and a clear, bright flush on his thin cheeks that spoke at least for his own absolute belief in their truth.
Let us see how far he was justified in that belief.
To begin at the beginning, Richard Arnold was one of those men whom the world is wont to call dreamers and enthusiasts before they succeed, and heaven-born geniuses and benefactors of humanity afterwards.
He was twenty-six, and for nearly six years past he had devoted himself, soul and body, to a single idea -- to the so far unsolved problem of aerial navigation.
This idea had haunted him ever since he had been able to think logically at all -- first dimly at school, and then more clearly at college, where he had carried everything before him in mathematics and natural science, until it had at last become a ruling passion that crowded everything else out of his life, and made him, commercially speaking, that most useless of social units -- a one-idea'd man, whose idea could not be put into working form.
He was an orphan, with hardly a blood relation in the world. He had started with plenty of friends, mostly made at college, who thought he had a brilliant future before him, and therefore looked upon him as a man whom it might be useful to know.
But as time went on, and no results came, these dropped off, and he got to be looked upon as an amiable lunatic, who was wasting his great talents and what money he had on impracticable fancies, when he might have been earning a handsome income if he had stuck to the beaten track, and gone in for practical work.
The distinctions that he had won at college, and the reputation he had gained as a wonderfully clever chemist and mechanician, had led to several offers of excellent positions in great engineering firms; but to the surprise and disgust of his friends he had declined them all. No one knew why, for he had kept his secret with the almost passionate jealousy of the true enthusiast, and so his refusals were put down to sheer foolishness, and he became numbered with the geniuses who are failures because they are not practical.
When he came of age he had inherited a couple of thousand pounds, which had been left in trust to him by his father. Had it not been for that two thousand pounds he would have been forced to employ his knowledge and his talents conventionally, and would probably have made a fortune. But it was just enough to relieve him from the necessity of earning his living for the time being, and to make it possible for him to devote himself entirely to the realisation of his life-dream -- at any rate until the money was gone.
Of course he yielded to the temptation -- nay, he never gave the other course a moment's thought. Two thousand pounds would last him for years; and no one could have persuaded him that with complete leisure, freedom from all other concerns, and money for the necessary experiments, he would not have succeeded long before his capital was exhausted.
So he put the money into a bank whence he could draw it out as he chose, and withdrew himself from the world to work out the ideal of his life.
Year after year passed, and still success did not come. He found practice very