We observe as to that
(a)"--he folded back his forefinger--"the Atlas manifestation lasted about
nine and a half hours; and (b)"--he folded his middle finger--"the city
manifestation was a little less than two hours."
"Yes," cried Jack, "but then this second--"
"One minute," interrupted Darrow; "let me finish. Now, let us place
ourselves in the position of a man possessed of a new toy, or a new power
which he has never tried out! What would he do?"
"Try it out," said Jack.
"Certainly; try it out to the limit, to see just what it could do in
different circumstances. Now, take the lapses of time I have mentioned,
and assume, for the sake of argument, that these powers are limited."
"Just how do you mean--limited?" asked Helen.
"I mean exhaustible, like a watering-pot. You can water just so much, and
then you have to go back and fill up again. In that case, we can suppose
this man's stream will last nine hours and a half when he dribbles it down
on one spot, like the Atlas Building; but it will empty itself in about
two hours when he turns her upside down over a whole city. There remains
only the length of time necessary to refill the water-pot to round out our
hypothesis. That is something more than nine hours and something less than
fifteen."
"How do you get those figures?" demanded Jack.
"The Unknown is anxious, after the Atlas success, to try out his discovery
on the larger scale.
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