当圣经预言遇上科技奇观，金融先知W.D.甘恩在1927年描绘的1940年世界图景，竟然精准预测了隐形战机、非致命武器和全球通信系统。

在金融界，W.D.甘恩（William Delbert Gann）早已因其独特的市场预测方法而闻名。这位传奇交易员和金融作家在1927年却出人意料地推出了一部科幻小说《穿越苍穹的隧道：从1940年回望》（THE TUNNEL THRU THE AIR or LOOKING BACK FROM 1940）。

令人惊讶的是，这本近一个世纪前出版的小说，竟然包含了诸多与现代科技惊人相似的预言：从隐形战机、空中隧道到远程通信系统，甘恩的想象力超越了时代的限制。

01 金融大师的科幻跨界
W.D.甘恩作为20世纪早期最著名的金融预测家之一，此前已经出版了《股票行情的真相》（Truth of the Stock Tape）和《投机——一项有利可图的职业》（Speculation a Profitable Profession）等投资经典。

然而，在1927年，他却出人意料地将目光投向了科幻领域。一个金融大师为何要写科幻小说？答案可能藏在他独特的世界观中——甘恩相信自然法则和圣经预言中包含着理解世界的钥匙。

《穿越苍穹的隧道》讲述了一位名叫罗伯特·戈登的发明家通过研究圣经预言，预见到未来战争并开发先进科技拯救世界的故事。书中融合了甘恩对周期理论、圣经预言和科技发展的独特见解。

02 惊人准确的技术预言
甘恩在小说中描述的多项技术，在近一个世纪后的今天看来令人惊叹：

隐形无声战机：书中描写的"慈悲天使玛丽号"战机能够隐形且无声飞行，与现代隐形战机概念惊人相似。

"玛丽号不仅能隐形飞行，还能从空气中获取动力，具有无限巡航能力。"——这与现代太阳能无人机和先进动力系统的理念不谋而合。

定向能武器："死亡恶魔"射线器可以精确摧毁敌方装备而不伤及人员，预示了现代非致命武器的发展方向。

全球通信系统：书中描述的"远程传声机"能够拦截和传输信息，预言了全球即时通信网络的诞生。

空中隧道系统：最为超前的概念是通过创造真空隧道实现超高速飞行，这与现代正在研究的真空管道交通概念高度吻合。

03 圣经预言与科技融合的哲学
甘恩在小说中展示了他独特的世界观——科学技术与圣经预言不是对立的，而是相辅相成的。

主人公罗伯特·戈登通过研究《但以理书》和《以西结书》中的预言，推算出1932年将是世界格局重塑的关键年份。这种将宗教经典与科技预测结合的思路，体现了甘恩对周期理论和自然法则的执着。

书中大量引用圣经文本来解释科技原理和发展方向，形成了一种独特的神学科技观。例如，戈登开发"空中隧道"的灵感直接来自《以西结书》中描述的"轮中轮"装置。

这种跨界思维在当今科技时代仍然具有启示意义：科技创新是否需要哲学和伦理的指引？技术发展是否应该受到道德约束？

04 对现代科技发展的启示
近一个世纪后重读《穿越苍穹的隧道》，我们发现甘恩的预言不仅关乎技术本身，更关乎科技与人类命运的关系。

人道主义战争理念：书中强调"不伤一命而屈人之兵"的战争理念，预言了现代非致命武器和精确打击技术的发展方向。

甘恩通过主角戈登之口指出："妇女儿童必须受保护，最后阶段不伤一命。"这种人道主义军事理念在当代国际公约中得到了体现。

全球互联互通："空中隧道"概念预示了全球化时代的到来，各国通过高速交通和通信网络连接在一起。

科技伦理思考：书中反复探讨科技力量的责任问题——当一个人或国家拥有绝对技术优势时，应该如何行使这种权力？

05 从金融预测到未来预测
作为金融预测大师，甘恩在《穿越苍穹的隧道》中展示了他独特的预测方法论。他将周期理论应用于历史发展和科技进步的分析中，试图找到世界运行的内在规律。

书中通过大量数字学和周期计算来预测未来事件的发生时间，这种方法与甘恩在金融市场预测中使用的方法如出一辙。

虽然有些预测显然没有实现（如1930-1932年的全球空中战争），但许多技术和社会发展的方向性预测却显示出了惊人的前瞻性。

这种跨领域预测的能力值得我们思考：是否存在某种统一的自然法则， governing 着从市场波动到科技发展等各种现象？

如今，回望甘恩在1927年设想的1940年世界，不禁感叹预见未来的困难与可能。

甘恩没有预测到互联网的具体形式，但他预见了全球即时通信的实现；他没有描述智能手机，但预见了远程无线通信的普及；他没有详细说明隐形技术，但预见了隐形战机的出现。

《穿越苍穹的隧道》最终告诉我们：预测的具体内容可能出错，但对技术发展方向和人类面临挑战的思考却具有持久价值。

在人工智能、量子计算和太空探索快速发展的今天，甘恩跨界思考的勇气和想象力仍然激励着我们：只有将技术创新与人文关怀结合，才能创造真正美好的未来。

或许，这就是为什么一位金融大师在1927年写的科幻小说，在近一个世纪后仍然值得我们去阅读和思考。

CHAPTER XXIV
IN the latter part of April, Robert decided that he
must return to New York and take up his duties.
He said good-bye to Lady Bersford. Was profuse in
his thanks; assured her that he owed her a great debt
of gratitude for the comforting messages that she had
brought to him thru "Laughing Waters" and above all
was under lasting obligation for the great kindness she
had rendered in bringing him to Sebring where he had
fully regained his health. She assured him that it was
a real pleasure to her to have been of service and in-vited
him to visit her estate in England on his next
trip over.
 As Robert started toward New York, his heart was
light, his hopes were revived and he had greater faith
than ever that Marie was alive and would in the not
distant future return to him. When he arrived in New
York he went direct to his office and laboratory. Walter
and Edna greeted him with enthusiasm. Were happy
to see him looking so well. Walter grabbed both of
Robert's hands and said, "Old pal, I have never seen
you looking so well. You must have found Ponce de
Leon's fountain of eternal youth while you were in
Florida." Robert replied, "I certainly did. Had some
wonderful experience at Silver Springs, the most beau-tiful
spot in Florida. It was there that I received in-formation
that made me very happy becuse it made me
sure that Marie is alive and will return to me. Also
while there I heard about the most wonderful health
resort in the world at Sebring, Florida, where I went
and indeed found the 'fountain of youth,' spending
over a month there playing, fishing and boating. It
is about the only place in Florida where you can get
good water to drink without having it shipped in. The
sunshine and climate are ideal. I began to get better
the second day after I was there and gained strength
every day. You should certainly go to Florida on a
vacation next winter and spend your time at Sebring.
If you ever get married, be sure to go to Silver Springs
on your honeymoon for you will enjoy this beautiful
spot and scenery. Take the trip down Silver River to
the Ocklawaha, then down the beautiful St. Johns
River. If you can make the trip next March or early
April, you will find Nature at her best. You will forget
all of your troubles, for Nature has so staged the scenery
that it reminds you only of pleasant things and inspires
hope and happiness in the future."
 When Robert had finished telling about the beauties
of Florida, Walter acted bashful and Edna looked rather
sheepish. Then Walter said, "Robert, we have a big
surprise for you. Edna and I are going to be married
in June." "Well, this is quite a surprise," said Robert,
"but I knew it would come sooner or later. You must
have thought I guessed it when I talked about you going
on a honeymoon. I congratulate you both and wish
you all the happiness in the world. You are entitled
to it and I know that you will be happy together."
 The news of their coming marriage was not the only
good news they had. Walter and Edna had been work-ing
day and night for months on a great chemical dis-covery
and had now succeeded in completing it. This
discovery was a perfectly harmless gas to be used in
war or for medical purposes. It would put people to
sleep and they would remain asleep for 7 days, with no
ill effects. It had always been Robert's desire to have
something to use in war which would not destroy human
lives and he was very much elated over Walter's dis-covery.
Walter told him that he had already tested it
and that Edna had such confident in him, she had taken
the gas, remained asleep for 7 days, and felt no ill
effects. Walter knew just exactly why it worked, be-cause
he was a great chemist and knew the natural law
behind the discovery. He told Robert that this must
be kept a secret until time of war when with the new
ship "Marie the Angel of Mercy," traveling 1000 miles
an hour, they could go from one city to another or from
one battlefield to another, release the gas and put every-one
to sleep for 7 days. In the meantime, with "The
Demon of Death" -- they could destroy the enemy's
bases and fortifications; would be able to make their
own peace terms with the enemy and at the same time
obey the divine command of God "Thou shalt not kill."
 Cotton had been advancing rapidly and Robert and
Walter were making money fast. Robert told Walter
and Edna that on June 9th, his birthday, he was going
to give them a big dinner and celebration before their
marriage. It was now time to declare a holiday and
have a real jubilee celebration after their great discov-eries
were completed, that it was but fitting to crown
the event with the marriage of Edna and Walter. They
were now in position to sit calmly by and wait for the
great war in the air knowing that, with their secret
discoveries, they were prepared to save the United States
in time of war and at the same time without sacrificing
too many human lives.
 The birthday party was a great success. Robert
spared no expense in order to have everything of the
best. Before the dinner, which was served in a private
dining room, Robert sprung a great surprise. He arose
and made the following speech: "Comrades and friends,
we have traveled the path of life together. Some of
us have run the gauntlet of human emotions. We have
gone down to the depths of despair; have reached the
heights of financial glory; have seen our greatest dreams
realized. God has been good to us. Our great discov-eries
are now completed. Fame and fortune have
corwned our efforts. You, Edna and Walter, are now
to reach the heights of greatest bliss. You are to have
the satisfaction of being united in marriage, to continue
your work together and do the greatest good for the great-est
number. You have been unselfish in your devotion
to me and in your loyalty to your country. The Bible
says that where two or three are gathered together, there
God will be to own and to bless. Since God created the
world, the Holy Trinity has been the greatest power
and it is referred to many times in the Bible as Father,
Son and Holy Ghost, and on this mundane sphere
we know that happiness comes to husband, wife and
child. The Bible says that one cannot do much alone,
that there is need of two together, and that a threefold
cord is not easily broken. Edna, your devotion to Wal-ter
has been his inspiration and has led him to the
great discovery, which will relieve suffering in the world.
Your confidence in him in placing your life in his
hands to test this great discovery, deserves great credit
and no honor or reward is too great for you, but the
honor that men can give or the world or your Govern-ment,
are but empty and mean nothing to the heart of
a loyal woman. You are to have the greatest reward
in Walter's love and this means more to you than any
honors the world can give. It will satisfy when the
shouts of the hero-worshippers have died away. When
money, with all it can buy, has vanished and nothing
remains but the lovelight in Walter's eyes, you will
find happiness." Robert then presented a beautiful
brooch made with the seal of Solomon, constructed with
a double triangle, and set with three beautiful diamonds.
In the center of the seal was a heart and in the center
of the heart was a diamond. He said, "Edna, I present
this to you as your wedding gift. It will be a symbol
to you of how the three of us have worked together in
love, loyalty and faith, to accomplish something for
others thru unselfish devotion. With the love of the
one must come the love of the many. One touch of
Nature makes the whole world kin, and when once a
woman's eyes have looked into a man's with understand-ing
love, he need seek no farther for the philosopher's
stone, because after that everything he touches will turn
to gold. This brooch and the diamonds are emblematic
of your purity. The diamonds are the most durable
and beautiful of all precious stones. They reflect all
the beautiful colors of the rainbow, which reveals God's
covenant with man. That is why the diamonds are
used as an engagement ring, but few there are who know
and understand the real meaning and live in accordance
with it. You will ever reflect the beauty of the dia-monds.
Your love for Walter, which is the love I am
sure never changes, will remain fixed as the mountain
ranges. Remember that the diamond has gone thru the
greatest fire and heat and has emerged with all its
strength and beauty. You must learn to go thru trials
and tribulations, to help Walter in time of trouble and
to emerge unscathed, reflecting love and beauty. Wal-ter,
I commend to your care and keeping, a jewel more
precious than diamonds or rubies -- a good woman. May
your loyalty and devotion ever keep her as such."
 The dinner was then served and Edna proved that,
as an after-dinner speaker, she had some ability. She
arose, drank a glass of pure water, pouring part of it
on the floor and said, "Mr. Gordon, my vocabulary is
now destitute of the poetic rhyme that would be neces-sary
to bring into existence words to express to you my
heartfelt thanks for the favor already in hand. I have
been so over-generous in loving Walter that I feel that
I've neglected to extend to you the friendship due to a
man of such noble ideals. As I pour this pure water
back to earth I am following an ancient custom. Be-fore
they entered upon any solemn obligation, they
washed their hands in pure water, touched their lips
with pure water, to purify them and to seal the records
of the past. They poured the pure water back to earth,
in memory of the absent and dead. I pour this pure
water back to earth that in the presence of the living we
are not forgetting the absent one, and the greatest wish
that I can have for you, Mr. Gordon, is that at a not
distant date, Walter and I may have the great pleasure
of joining Marie and yourself in an occasion like this.
Words are idle now, they mean but little when the heart
is touched. I accept your beautiful gift with all grati-tude.
It is my prayer that the day may come when
you may have another brooch made with two hearts
entwined, set with a single solitaire, emblematic of your
faith and pure love for Marie. I pray for you the gifts
of all the Gods, and may your prayers be answered as
the prayers of Pygmalion were whose faith and love
were so strong that the Grecian Gods turned a piece of
cold marble into the living form of a beautiful woman.
But, Robert, when Marie returns to you in all her beauty,
I am sure that you will not act in the way that Pyg-malion
did, when he caused Galatea to pray to the
Grecian Gods to turn her back to cold marble again.
I am sure, yes, I know, that such devotion as yours
will keep Marie always when she returns to you."
 When Edna had finished, Walter arose and said,
"Robert, there is nothing left for me to say, I thank
you."
 On the 24th of June, Walter and Edna were married.
Robert suggested that for their honeymoon they go up
thru Canada and see the beautiful scenery there, then
go down thru California and in the Fall and Winter,
take a second honeymoon trip to Florida and visit Silver
Springs and Sebring. Robert's mind always drifted
back to the beautiful places where he thought people
in love would find harmony and could commune with
Nature.

第二十四章
四月下旬，罗伯特决定返回纽约履职。他向伯斯福德夫人辞行，诚挚致谢道："您通过'笑水'传来的慰藉令我感激不尽，而带我来到赛百灵彻底恢复健康更是恩情永铭。"夫人表示相助乃荣幸之邀，并邀请他下次访英时莅临她的庄园。

重返纽约途中，罗伯特心境明朗，希望重燃，比以往更确信玛丽生还并将归来。抵达后他直奔办公室实验室，沃尔特和埃德娜热情迎接，盛赞他气色极佳。"老友，你简直像在佛罗里达找到了青春泉！"沃尔特握着他的手感叹。罗伯特回应："确实如此！银泉之美冠绝佛州，我在那里获知了确信玛丽生还的喜讯。后来又在赛百灵——这处世界顶级疗养胜地度过月余，垂钓泛舟，堪称真正的青春泉。那是佛州罕有能饮天然甘泉之地，阳光气候俱佳。次日我便开始康复，日渐强健。你们明年冬假定要去赛百灵度假，新婚时更该到银泉蜜月——沿银河而下至奥克劳瓦哈河，再顺圣约翰斯河南行，三四月间自然盛景令人忘忧，唯存希望与欢欣。"

听闻佛罗里达美景，沃尔特赧然局促，埃德娜亦露羞色。沃尔特坦言："罗伯特，我们有个惊喜：六月我将与埃德娜成婚。"罗伯特笑道："早料到此日！方才建议蜜月时我便猜着几分。衷心祝福二位永沐爱河。"喜讯不止于此——两人夜以继日研发的无害催眠瓦斯终告成功，可使人体沉睡七日而无损。这正是罗伯特期盼的非致命战争武器，他欣喜若狂。沃尔特透露已用埃德娜成功试验，并强调需严守秘密，待战争时用"慈悲天使玛丽号"千哩时速播撒瓦斯，同时以"死亡恶魔号"摧毁敌营，从而实现"汝不可杀"的神谕。

棉花期货获利颇丰，罗伯特决定在六月九日生辰为新人举办庆宴。他包下私密宴厅，席间起身致辞："战友们！我们共历人生沉浮，同享辉煌，终成伟业。上帝厚待我们，如今功成名就。埃德娜与沃尔特即将缔结连理，继续以无私精神造福众生。圣经云'两三人相聚处，必有神同在'，三位一体方成圆满。埃德娜对沃尔特的信任促使伟大发现，这份勇气胜过世间荣华。真爱才是永恒回报。"随后赠予所罗门封印胸针——双三角形镶三钻，中心心形嵌单钻："此物象征我们三人以忠诚信念共创价值。钻石历经烈火仍璀璨，喻示你们需共渡磨难而爱不移。沃尔特，我托付你比钻石更珍贵的瑰宝——一位贤德女子。"

宴席间埃德娜以水代酒，倾半杯于地即兴回应："戈登先生，拙言辞难表谢忱。我倾心沃尔特之际，竟未及向您这般崇高之士尽谊。此净水敬土乃古礼，净手涤唇以铭誓，祭逝者念生人。我们永怀缺席的玛丽，深切期盼不久将来能共聚庆贺。您馈赠的钻石胸针我满怀感激，更祈愿您终得双心缠绕独钻胸针，象征对玛丽的坚贞。愿诸神应您所祈，如皮格马利翁以炽爱感神赐石像生命。但确信玛丽归来时，您绝不会如皮格马利翁竟令伽拉忒亚乞返石身——您这般挚爱必永系玛丽。"

沃尔特起身仅言："罗伯特，尽在不言中，谨谢。"

六月二十四日婚礼后，罗伯特建议新人先游加拿大壮景，再经加州南下，秋冬季可赴佛罗里达二度蜜月，重访银泉与赛百灵。他心系自然圣境，总愿有情人能在天地和谐中共鸣。

CHAPTER XXV
IN the Fall of 1929, Robert and Walter made a
large amount of money in cotton and wheat. Rob-ert
was unusually happy. Altho over three years had
passed without any direct news of Marie he was sure
she was alive; felt that the time was not long to wait
before she would reappear. The war clouds had begun
to appear as Robert had predicted. Spain and Japan
were threatening the United States. Controversies
over airplane airports arose. Japan had forbidden the
United States commercial ships to land on her soil.
Diplomatic relations were not smoothing affairs out and
Robert knew that war was inevitable. Spain had made
rapid progress with airplanes and was anxious to try
her power against the United States. The United
States Government was waking up to the fact of their
need of a greater air fleet and the Air Department was
making some great progress. Robert knew they were
working on secret plans and knew that he had some-thing
that could be used successfully at the right time.
He was spending money lavishly and working to im-prove
on his Ezekiel plane. He was keeping every-thing
secret, sending out plans to different manufac-turers
and having the parts made, Walter and himself
secretly putting the machine together. Robert had made
a large amount of money buying oil stocks. A big bull
campaign in oil stocks had been brought about by the
decreasing oil supply. The Government realizing the
increased demand for gasoline on account of the large
amount of airplanes used, knew that in time of war
their success would depend upon the supply of oil and
gas, so a decree was passed conserving the oil resources.
There was still a big foreign demand for oil and gaso-line
as war in Europe was still going on. Affairs in
England were in a bad state and revolution was
threatened.
APRIL, 1930
 Japan declared war on the United States and Spain
joined forces with her. They secured the aid of Mexico
and established an air base there. The United States
was unprepared for war as they had not kept up the
programme of building a sufficient air fleet to protect
the country against invasion by such a large fleet as
commanded by Japan and Spain. There was a hasty
call by the Government for volunteers to the Aviation
Corps. Robert Gordon and Walter Kennelworth has-tened
to Washington, tendered their services to the
Government and joined the Aviation Corps. They were
made Lieutenants and ordered immediately to San
Antonio, Texas, where the Southern Aviation Division
had its headquarters. Robert offered the benefit of his
experience to the officials, but older and wiser heads
refused to listen to his advice because they thought he
was too young. At that time they knew nothing about
his long years of secret work and his great inventions,
but they soon learned the value of his discovery and
patent which he had sold to Japan, -- the muffler which
made the airplane silent.
 The United States Government fearing that Japan
would make the first attack on the Pacific Coast either
around Los Angeles or San Francisco, rushed the battle
fleet to the Pacific. This proved to be one of the great-est
mistakes of the war. As soon as the battleships
cruised into the Pacific, Japan attacked from the air
with their noiseless airplanes and began dropping deadly
bombs from great heights. The anti-aircraft guns from
the decks of the battleships were powerless to reach
the bombing planes at such great heights. Defeat was
swift and severe and only a few of the battleships es-caped
complete destruction from the first attack. The
United States Officers had found that the Japanese
planes could rise more than twice the altitude of the
United States planes. They knew that Japan had some
invention that was superior to ours which enabled them
to reach such great heights that their airships were
practically immune from attack. This placed the
United States at a great disadvantage as they were un-able
to protect the coast cities from being destroyed by
bombs from the Japanese planes.
 A council of war was held. The commanding officers
were called together. The President hastily summoned
the Cabinet. There was no minimizing the danger for
everyone knew that the ingenuity of Japan had designed
a superior fighting plane; that this was to be a war in
the air and that all old methods and weapons of war
were obsolete; that the United States must move quick
and fast to prevent destruction of the Pacific Coast cities.
They decided to confiscate the large manufacturing
plants and start them on making new inventions and
the manufacture of airplanes. Central Steel was con-fiscated;
also Major Motors and Major Electric Co.
The war council decided that they should scatter their
air forces from Brownsville, Texas, up to El Paso to
protect the Rio Grande from attack thru Mexico; that
the battle line should extend up the Colorado River on
across to Portland and Seattle. The land forces were
all rushed to the Coast, forming a battle line from
Brownsville, Texas, across to the Northwest to Seattle.
It was decided that this line should be held with reserve
forces to be sent to support a second line of defense
running from San Diego up the Coast to Portland, to
protect inland invasion by the foe in case they were suc-cessful
in capturing any of the coast cities. People
in Los Angeles and San Francisco were in a state of
turmoil. Thousands were leaving every day by train
and airplane, going to the Grand Canyon where there
were no cities and they hoped they would be safe from
attacks. Others went to the central and eastern parts
of the United States because they feared attacks any
day.
 Japan was quick to follow up her victory gained on
the water by attacking Los Angeles from the air in the
middle of May. Here again the great value of the silent
motor was proved and the height to which the Japanese
plane could rise. As the enemy stole over the city in
the silence of the night, not a sound could be heard
from their motors at the great heights which they were
sailing. Bombs began to fall in the business section
and the skyscrapers crumbled to pieces. Every street
light was ordered out, leaving the city in total darkness.
The people were aroused at the first noise of exploding
bombs and rushed out to find the city in darkness. This
caused a panic. Army officers tried to quiet the people
and keep them in their homes because they realized the
danger if they rushed out into the streets where the
bombs were falling. Powerful searchlights were sweep-ing
the sky in an effort to locate the invading planes.
Then the giant aircraft guns were trained on the enemy,
but the distance was so great and the planes moving so
swiftly, that they were unable to do much damage.
They only succeeded in bringing down three of the bomb-ing
planes. The United States scouting planes were
sent out immediately, followed by the fighting planes
carrying 6-inch guns. They found that the Japanese
planes were dropping bombs from a height of 60,000
to 80,000 feet and the United States planes were unable
to rise high enough to attack them.
 The battle waged thruout the night and when the sun
rose the next morning, the beautiful city of Los Angeles
was in ruins. Thousands of people bad been killed and
the most of the important buildings had been destroyed.
The people of Los Angeles were more excited than they
had ever been during earthquakes. The destruction and
loss of life were so great that everyone forgot all about
their property and money and only thought of saving
their lives and protecting their loved ones. The com-manding
officers held a hasty conference, realizing the
great damage the enemy had done and the small damage
they had been able to inflict upon them and knowing
it was decided that to force the people to remain meant
certain death and a destruction of the balance of the
valuable property, so the only thing to do was to move
the people out as fast as possible and surrender the
city. After the commanders had held this council,
news of their decision was conveyed to the subordinate
officers.
 Lieutenant Gordon's heart was broken when he real-ized
that the beautiful city of Los Angeles must be
either surrendered or destroyed, yet he knew that unless
the Government quickly made some new and wonderful
inventions, many more defeats were in store. When
Captain George Cooper who was in command of Lieu-tenant
Gordon's company, received orders that no move
was to be made and no scouts to be sent out until further
instructions, he called Lieutenants Gordon and Kennel-worth
and conveyed to them the orders. Lieutenant
Gordon was desperate. He wanted to do something to
help save the situation, but to offer his advice to his
superior officers was futile. Finally, he decided to dis-obey
orders and go out on a scouting expedition alone
and see what he could find out. He thought he might
locate a Japanese base, as he believed they had a
mother ship somewhere near from which they were
sending out the bombing planes. He was flying very
low as he crossed the line below San Diego. All at once
a Japanese plane was coming straight toward him.
He immediately turned his plane and rushed back
across the line followed closely by the enemy who was
gaining on him rapidly. Lieutenant Gordon whirled
his plane around quickly and charged the Japanese
plane. The fight lasted for several minutes.
 After Lieutenant Gordon had been gone some time
and failed to return Lieutenant Kennelworth knowing
that he had disobeyed orders and gone out with his
plane decided that some harm might have come to him
and that he too must disobey orders and go to his rescue.
He jumped into a fast plane and sailed out, going
direct toward San Diego. He soon sighted the two
planes in combat and just before he reached the scene,
they went down together. His heart sank within him.
He knew it was his old friend Robert and feared for
the worst. Landing along the side of the wreck he
found that the Japanese aviator had been killed. Rob-ert's
leg had been broken; otherwise he was uninjured.
He quickly hauled him aboard his own plane and
started back for headquarters and was just in time as
other Japanese planes were approaching and followed
him close into Los Angeles. Lieutenant Gordon was
confined to the hospital three or four weeks before his
leg healed and he fully recovered. He was given a
severe reprimand for disobeying orders but because he
had brought down an enemy plane the Government
made him a Captain for this bravery and also promoted
Lieutenant Kennelworth, his chum, to the same rank.
 In the meantime, the people had been moved away
from Los Angeles as fast as possible. There had been sev-eral
minor attacks by the enemy and more buildings had
been destroyed and only a few of the enemy's planes
had been brought down. The situation was desperate.
People were frantic. The United States was hopelessly
outnumbered by the Spanish and Japanese air forces.
England was threatening to join forces with Japan and
Spain. An attack on San Francisco was expected at
any hour. People wanted to get away and move east
into the mountains for protection, but the Government
had notified everyone to remain. The fact that the
foreign planes were noiseless put the United States at
a great disadvantage. Robert and Walter were using
their secret radio to communicate with each other.
They had offered this invention to the Government and
it had been accepted. This was a great help as the Jap-anese
were unable to intercept their code messages or
take any message from the air because there were none.
 The United States Army officers knew that they must
fight for time to get some new inventions ready to com-bat
the enemy. On June 14th, Los Angeles was sur-rendered.
White flags were run up all over the city as
a signal for the enemy planes to stop attacking. The
plan was to send no message to the enemy headquarters
in Mexico but to wait and see what action they would
take or what terms they would offer to make. General
Pearson of the Aviation Corps, General Johnson of the
Cavalry, Admiral Dawson of the Navy and General
Marshall of the Infantry held a council to decide the
next and wisest move to make. A plan was discussed
for crossing the Rio Grande into Mexico with land
troops and making an attempt to capture the supply
base of the enemy. General Pearson said that the days
of old tactics and war had changed, that the enemy
evidently intended to make this a war in the air and
that they would attack troops from the air. To send
an army into the mountains of Mexico would not only
mean the loss of thousands of lives, which would prove
useless, but that part of the air force would have to be
sent into Mexico to protect the army and this would
weaken the coast patrol and give the enemy a chance to
make an air attack on other coast cities. Admiral
Dawson said that in the weakened condition of the
Navy, since the disaster from the first attack by the Jap-anese
planes, it would be foolhardy to attempt any ag-gressive
campaign by the Navy, that what ships they had
were now scattered along the Southern, Eastern and
Western shores for protection and to concentrate them
at one point would only weaken other joints from which
they would have to be withdrawn. General Marshall
was of the opinion that the best plan was not to attack,
but let the enemy make the first move every time and
try to find some way to protect the coast cities, that
what we needed was time to get better equipped with
sufficient airplanes to cope with the enemy's superior air
force. So it was finally decided that the wisest course
to pursue was a waiting attitude.
 There was a panic in Wall Street when the news came
of the surrender of Los Angeles. Edna had been left
in charge of the office in New York and thru the secret
Pocket Radio, kept in communication with Waltetr and
Robert. She was conducting a campaign in the stock
market for them and had made a fortune on the short
side of the market. Business was bad, and the whole
country was in a state of turmoil.
 After the white flags were floated over the ruins of
Los Angeles, days went by and there were no more
attacks by the enemy, nor was any word received from
enemy headquarters. The American patrol planes
around Los Angeles reported occasionally seeing the
enemy planes scouting over the city at great heights,
evidently taking observation as to what was going on.
This mysterious action on the part of the enemy was a
source of worry to the commanding officers of the United
States. The people all over the country were in a state
of anxiety, wondering where the enemy would strike
next. The Infantry and Cavalry were restlessly wait-ing
orders to go into action along the Rio Grande.
 On the night of August 1st, the enemy planes crossed
the Rio Grande and dropped bombs all along from
Brownsville to El Paso, destroying property and killing
more than a hundred thousand men among the Infantry
and Cavalry. The enemy planes were again flying very
high. The anti-craft guns and the attack by our
planes did very little damage, only bringing down five
of the enemy planes along the entire lines, while more
than 200 of the American airplanes were destroyed by
bombs dropping on them from above. General Mar-shall
in his report to General Pearson next day said:
"Hell turned loose in the sky last night from Brownsville
to El Paso. Our loss was terrific and the enemy's loss
was very small. There is but one hope and that is to
get more and better airplanes. We must get planes that
will rise to a height where they can reach the enemy
and make the fight in the air."
 Captain Robert Gordon was still stationed near Los
Angeles and when news came of the terrible loss of life
along the Rio Grande, his mind turned to "Marie the
Angel of Mercy," -- his great plane secretly stored away
in the Adirondack Mountains for use in just such an
emergency as this. He knew what the "Demon of Death"
could do and the sleeping gas invented by Captain
Kennelworth. He thought of going to General Pearson,
telling him of his discoveries and offering them to the
United States to put into immediate use, but after
meditating over the matter decided that they would only
call him a fool and refuse to listen to him as they had
before, because he was too young. However, he asked
General Pearson for orders to permit him to go on a
scouting expedition over Mexico and up and down the
Rio Grande to see if he could learn anything of value.
 On the morning of August 3rd, Captain Robert Gor-don
traveled across Arizona and New Mexico and as he
neared El Paso saw the largest airship that he had ever
seen before slowly drifting over El Paso. It was a giant
plane and Robert knew that it was either a mother ship
or one of the enemy's great bombing planes which had
been so high that he had never been able to see them
before. He began circling it at a great distance, watch-ing
to see what this monster of the air was going to do.
Finally, it slowed down and came to a complete stand-still.
He saw that it could anchor in the air and knew
that the enemy had another discovery that would beat
what the Americans had. Waiting for awhile, he saw
what seemed to be an observation platform emerge from
the side of the plane. An officer appeared on it with
some instruments. Captain Gordon thought that they
were either taking photographs or making observations
over El Paso for some purpose. Fortunately, he had
started out on a bombing plane and had plenty of bombs
on board. Decided that he had but one life to give for
his country and that he would rise as high as he could,
sail swiftly over this monster and drop his bombs.
When he got as close over it as he could gauge, he re-leased
the automatic control and started dropping bombs
one after another. The first bomb made a hit and
struck the ship near the middle, which was lucky, tear-ing
a terrific hole in it. He knew from the way it acted
that it was badly disabled. Now was the time to get
in his effective work. Dropping lower, he let go more
bombs, this time striking the giant ship both in the front
and rear. It started to fall rapidly and he followed it
down and got close enough to see that there were still
men on board alive so he let go more bombs and in a
few minutes there was nothing but a wreck of the great-est
dreadnought of death which had ever floated over
American soil.
 Before venturing to land Captain Gordon ascended to
a great height, circled the sky to see if there were any
more enemy ships in sight which might endanger his
life. Finding the air clear, he immediately radioed
the news with his Pocket-Radio to Captain Kennelworth
who was then stationed at San Diego. The news was
quickly flashed to General Pearson's headquarters. On
examination they found that the giant ship was a mother
ship more than 600 feet long, bearing the name of
"Tokyo J-1" and that it carried 25 bombing planes of
the most modern type with collapsible wings and
equipped with powerful searchlights carrying bombs
and poisonous gases. It was estimated that more than
100 officers and aviators were aboard the airship when
 it fell. All were killed but two. They were badly
wounded with broken limbs and were taken prisoners.
There were found to be three of the enemy's planes that
were not damaged badly. Captain Gordon and Cap-tain
Kennelworth tested these planes after they were
put back in working order and found that they were
high altitude planes and could rise higher than any of
the planes used by the United States. This was a great
victory because it would enable the American inventors
to find out how these planes were built and they could
also be used against the enemy.
 News of this great victory was sent to the President
of the United States. He ordered General Pearson to
decorate Captain Gordon with the Cross of Aviation
and convey to him the gratitude of the people of the
United States and the President's sincere personal ap-preciation.
The afternoon newspapers in every large
city in the United States carried in big headlines
"GIANT MOTHER SHIP CAPTURED BY DAR-ING
YOUNG AVIATOR, CAPTAIN ROBERT
GORDON." The people thruout the United States
breathed a sigh of relief; felt that the tide was at last
turning and that now some way would be found to de-stroy
more of the enemy's giant ships.
 When General Pearson called Captain Gordon before
him, he was very modest and meek because he remem-bered
the severe reprimand before when he disobeyed
orders and brought down the Japanese plane near San
Diego. This time he had acted on instructions from
General Pearson and was very happy to have rendered
a great service to his country. As the General read the
message from the President, tears came into his eyes.
He thanked his commanding officer and said that he
hoped he might have many more opportunities to render
service to his beloved country. At that time his
thoughts turned to Marie and he wondered where she
might be and if she knew what was happening. He was
especially happy because he had brought this enemy ship
down in the State in which he was born and that State
of which he was very proud. Captain Kennelworth
came to congratulate him and said: "Robert, old pal, I
am very proud of you and your great achievement.
The Lone Star State of Texas which was distinguished
by its brave sons at the Battle of the Alamo, has again
been distinguished by one of her favorite sons, and
Mexico as well as Spain and Japan will be made to real-ize
that the Texans never surrender."
 After the night attack and the great destruction along
the Rio Grande, the American forces waited anxiously
and in peril for another attack. Days went by with-out
any sign from the enemy. Los Angeles had not
been molested and the mystery was deepening as to what
were the enemy's plans and the next move they would
make. General Pearson had ordered one of the planes
from the "Tokyo J-1" sent to the Major Electric Com-pany
in the East where they could experiment with it
and make some planes like it or better ones. He gave
one of the planes to Captain Gordon and the other to
Captain Kennelworth to be put into service. Captain
Gordon asked that they be permitted to go into Mexico,
locate the enemy's headquarters and try to destroy more
of their ships, but the General refused to grant this
request, saying that he would not risk the lives of such
valuable men or risk losing the ships which might prove
very valuable when the enemy again made an attack.

第二十五章
一九二九年秋，罗伯特与沃尔特在棉花和小麦交易中获利颇丰。罗伯特格外欣喜。尽管三年多未有玛丽的直接消息，他仍坚信她活着，感觉重逢之日不远。战云渐聚，正如罗伯特所料：西班牙与日本正威胁美国，机场争端频起。日本已禁止美国商船靠岸，外交斡旋未见成效，罗伯特明白战争不可避免。西班牙在航空领域进展迅猛，亟欲对美试刀。美国政府终于意识到需扩充空军，航空部正取得重大进展。罗伯特知悉官方密研计划，也自信握有可在关键时刻制胜的利器。他慷慨投入资金，改进"以西结"战机，并将图纸分送各厂秘密制造部件，由他与沃尔特暗中组装。罗伯特还通过石油股获利颇丰——因石油短缺引发的多头行情如火如荼。政府意识到飞机激增将推高汽油需求，深知战时胜负取决于油气储备，故颁布法令保护石油资源。欧洲战事未歇，海外对油气需求仍旺。英国局势岌岌可危，革命一触即发。

一九三〇年四月
日本对美宣战，西班牙与之结盟。两国争取墨西哥支持，并在墨建立空军基地。美国备战不足，未按计划组建足够空军以抵御日西联军。政府急召航空志愿队。罗伯特·戈登与沃尔特·肯纳尔沃斯火速赴华盛顿效命，加入航空兵团，授少尉衔，即刻调往德克萨斯州圣安东尼奥的南方航空师指挥部。罗伯特向官员献策，却遭资深者以年轻为由拒绝。彼时无人知他长年秘密研究与伟大发明，更不知他售予日本的消声器专利竟使战机匿声飞行。

美国政府恐日本先袭太平洋沿岸，急调舰队驰援。这成了战时最大失误之一。美舰刚入太平洋，日军无声战机便从高空投弹。舰载防空炮无法触及如此高度，美军迅遭重创，首波攻击后仅少数舰只幸免。美军发现日机升限远超己方，知日方拥有更先进技术，使其战机几乎免疫攻击。美处极大劣势，无法保护沿海城市免遭轰炸。

战时会议紧急召开，指挥官齐聚，总统急召内阁。危局当前，人人知日本匠心独运，设计出卓越战机；此为空战时代，旧式军武皆过时；美国须快速反应，保卫西岸城市。当局决定征用大厂，加速新发明与飞机制造。中央钢铁、大众汽车、大众电气均被接管。战委会决定将空军从布朗斯维尔分散至埃尔帕索，以格兰德河防线阻墨境来袭；战线沿科罗拉多河延伸至波特兰与西雅图。地面部队急调海岸，自布朗斯维尔至西北形成防线，预备队驻守第二防线——从圣迭戈沿岸北至波特兰——以防敌夺城后内侵。洛杉矶与旧金山陷入混乱，每日数千人乘火车或飞机逃往无城廓的大峡谷，或迁中东部避战。

日本乘胜追击，五月中旬空袭洛杉矶。其战机静默引擎与极高升限再显价值。敌机夜悄临空，马达无声，炸弹坠入商业区，摩天楼坍塌。全市灯火尽灭，一片漆黑。爆炸声惊醒民众，恐慌溢街。军官竭力维稳，阻人上街避弹。强力探照灯扫空寻敌，巨炮瞄射，然敌机高迅难伤，仅击落三架。美侦察机与装备六英寸机炮的战机急升迎击，却发现日机在六万至八万英尺高空投弹，美机无法企及。

彻夜激战后，晨曦中的洛杉矶沦为废墟，死伤数千，重要建筑多毁。市民惊惶甚于地震，财产尽忘，唯求保命。指挥官急商，见损毁悬殊，知留民必死，遂决撤离弃城。令下，戈登少尉闻之心碎，然知政府若无新发明，败绩必续。上尉乔治·库珀传令按兵不动，戈登与肯纳尔沃斯得讯。罗伯特决意违令，独驾侦察，觅日方母舰基地。低飞越圣迭戈南界时，忽遇日机直冲。他急转回撤，敌紧追逼近。戈登旋机反冲，缠斗数分。

戈登久去未归，肯纳尔沃斯知友违令出，恐其遇险，亦违令驰援。驾速机趋圣迭戈，见两机缠斗，旋即同坠。肯纳尔沃斯心沉，急降残骸旁，见日飞行员毙命，罗伯特腿折余无伤。他急扶友入机，返总部，恰逢日机追至洛杉矶。戈登住院疗伤数周，因违令受严斥，但击落敌机之功令政府晋其为上尉，肯纳尔沃斯亦晋同衔。

同时，民众速离洛杉矶。敌数次小袭，毁建更多，仅少量日机被击落。局势危殆，民众惶惧。美空军数劣于日西联军，英国威胁加盟敌营。旧金山随时遇袭，民欲东逃入山，但政府令留。外机静默使美处劣势。罗伯特与沃尔特用秘密无线电互通，此发明已献政府，助益甚大——日方无法截码或空中窃讯。

美军官知须争时备新发明抗敌。六月十四日，洛杉矶降，白旗遍城，示敌停火。计划不主动通敌，待其行动或条件。航空兵将军皮尔逊、骑兵将军约翰逊、海军上将道森与步兵将军马歇尔共商下一步。有议派陆军越格兰德河入墨取敌补给基地，但皮尔逊指出旧战术已过时，敌必空袭陆军，派军入墨山不仅徒损性命，还须分空军护援，弱海岸巡逻，予敌袭他城之机。道森言海军首战遭重创后力薄，分散舰只护沿岸，聚舰一处必弱他防。马歇尔认为最佳方案为守势，待敌先动，争时备足飞机抗敌。最终决定待机而动。

洛杉矶降讯传至华尔街，恐慌骤起。埃德娜在纽约办公室通过袖珍无线电与沃尔特、罗伯特保持联络，操盘股市，做空获利。商业凋敝，举国动荡。

洛杉矶废墟白旗飘后数日，敌无再袭，亦无通牒。美巡逻机偶见敌机高空侦察，显在观测。敌之神秘行动令美指挥官忧惧。全国焦虑，不知敌下次击何处。步兵与骑兵沿格兰德河躁待军令。

八月一日夜，敌机越格兰德河，自布朗斯维尔至埃尔帕索沿线下弹，毁财产，毙官兵逾十万。敌机再次高空飞行，防空炮与美机反击效微，仅击落五架敌机，而逾二百架美机遭顶投炸弹摧毁。马歇尔将军翌日报皮尔逊："昨夜自布朗斯维尔至埃尔帕索，空中如地狱洞开。我军损失惨重，敌损极小。唯望获更多更优飞机。须造升限更高之战机，以空中制敌。"

罗伯特·戈登上尉仍驻洛杉矶附近，闻格兰德河惨讯，思及藏于阿迪朗达克山脉的"慈悲天使玛丽号"——他为此类危机制备的伟大战机。他知"死亡恶魔"之威与肯纳尔沃斯上尉所创催眠瓦斯。他想向皮尔逊将军坦白发明并献美急用，但虑及前鉴，恐再因年轻被斥愚妄。于是，他请令赴墨与格兰德河侦察探情。

八月三日上午，罗伯特·戈登上尉穿行亚利桑那与新墨西哥，近埃尔帕索时，见空前巨舰缓浮上空。此乃巨型战机，罗伯特知其为母舰或敌高空轰炸机。他远距环飞，观察此空中巨兽动向。最终，它缓滞悬停。他见其可空中锚定，知敌另有发明胜美。等待片刻，见观测台侧伸，官携仪器现。戈登疑其正摄像或观测埃尔帕索。幸他驾轰炸机出，载弹充足。决以命报国，尽升限高，掠此巨兽投弹。近距测算后，他启自动控投，连掷炸弹。首弹命中中部，破巨洞，机损严重。他趁势低飞再投，中前后部。巨舰疾坠，他随降见舰上仍有生者，续投弹，顷刻间这艘浮于美土上空的最大死亡巨舰成残骸。

戈登先升空环视，确无他敌威胁后，用袖珍无线电急讯肯纳尔沃斯上尉（其时驻圣迭戈）。消息迅传皮尔逊指挥部。查知此巨舰为超六百英尺母舰，名"东京J-1"，载二十五架折叠翼最新轰炸机，配强力探照灯，携炸弹与毒气。估舰坠时逾百官兵在，仅二伤俘。三架敌机损轻，戈登与肯纳尔沃斯修后试飞，见其升限超美机。此胜大喜——使美发明家得究其构造，并可反制于敌。

捷讯报总统，令皮尔逊授戈登航空十字勋章，转达国民感激与总统个人嘉许。全美各大城晚报头版标题："英勇航空兵罗伯特·戈登上尉俘获巨型母舰"。举国松气，觉战局终转，寻道摧敌巨舰。

皮尔逊将军召见戈登，他谦逊恭谨——忆前违令受斥。此次他依令而行，乐为国效大劳。将军读总统讯时，戈登热泪盈眶，谢长官，望多效祖国。此刻他思及玛丽，不知她身在何方，可否知悉一切。他尤欣悦因击落敌舰于故乡德州——他深以为傲之州。肯纳尔沃斯来贺："罗伯特老友，我以你与伟绩为荣。阿拉莫之战以勇子闻名的孤星州，再为爱子耀威，墨、西、日将知德州人永不降。"

Rio Grande夜袭与大毁后，美军焦惧待敌再攻。数日无动静。洛杉矶未受扰，敌计划与下一步行动之谜愈深。皮尔逊将军令送"东京J-1"一机至东方大众电气公司实验仿制或改进，另二机交戈登与肯纳尔沃斯服役。戈登请令入墨定位敌总部并摧更多敌舰，但将军拒此请，言不愿险失宝贵人才或损可能御敌再攻的珍贵战机。

（译文完）

注：翻译过程中尽量保持原文风格与节奏，对军事术语、历史背景及情感表达进行了适当处理，确保中文流畅性与可读性。部分长句按中文习惯拆分，对话与叙述语气依上下文调整。

CHAPTER XXVI
SEPTEMBER, 1930
AFTER long days of anxious waiting, with the
people nervous and excited, came the attack on
San Francisco. The enemy planes attacked from the
West, the South and the North, slipping in silently
in large numbers. Poisoned gas was turned loose, bombs
were dropped all over the city and most of the important
business and Government buildings were destroyed.
The destruction was the greatest in history, much
greater than the earthquake in 1906. Loss of life was
terrific. General Pearson ordered Captain Gordon and
Kennelworth to lead the defense of the city, using the
Japanese planes which had been taken from the wreck
of the "Tokyo J-1." As soon as they got in high alti-tude
over San Francisco, they could see that this was a
gigantic attack. Thousands of airplanes were circling
the air from every direction. It was evident that the
enemy intended to destroy San Francisco very quickly.
Captain Gordon and Captain Kennelworth were able
to keep in communication thru their Pocket Radio.
They agreed that one of them should attack the enemy
planes approaching from the North and the other, the
planes approaching from the South and West, going as
high as they could and if possible getting above the
enemy planes and dropping bombs on them. When
Captain Gordon got high in the air, he saw another
mother ship anchored and with the smaller planes tak-ing
off from it. He sailed over and let loose his bombs
and destroyed this ship. Other ships were coming from
every direction by the thousands. He sailed over them
letting loose his bombs cautiously.
 Captain Kennelworth also encountered planes by the
thousands coming across from the West and succeeded
in bringing down numbers of them. Finally, the enemy
planes turned on him and when he saw that escape
seemed almost impossible, decided to try to race back
to headquarters. The enemy planes were firing on him.
One wing of his plane was damaged, then a propeller
was broken and as his plane was crashing to the earth,
he felt that he was sure to lose his life; tried to steer
the best he could and finally, seeing that he was going
to land on a smooth spot where there were no trees or
buildings, he crawled out on top of one of the wings.
A few minutes after the crash he regained conscious-ness,
finding himself uninjured with only a few minor
scratches. Fortunately he was near one of the army
bases and made his way quickly there. He could see
to the West that San Francisco was in flames and knew
that the destruction was complete. His first thought
was what had happened to his old pal, Robert Gordon.
Feeling in his pocket and finding his radio safe, he sent
the distress signal which they had always used, asking
"Are you alive and where are you?" Minutes went by
and no reply. He was heartsick and feared that Robert
had lost his life. He slowly made his way to head-quarters
and reported what had happened.
Captain Gordon finally exhausted his bombs, but he
estimated that he had brought down several hundred
of the enemy planes because he had sailed over them
where they were flying by the hundreds in wedge for-mations,
each division being followed by a giant supply
ship which could anchor high up in the air and supply
more bombs when the bombing planes exhausted their
supply and returned for more. Robert thought, "this is
just what our Government needs. If there were only a
supply ship in the air now where I could go and get
more bombs, I could bring down hundreds more of the
enemy's planes." He decided to make his way back to
the base or headquarters as he was powerless without
bombs, but his decision was too late. The enemy planes
had located him and were coming straight toward him.
He speeded up and tried to make his way to safety,
fearing that any minute the enemy would fire on him or
drop a bomb on his plane, but the Japanese had dis-covered
that he was flying one of their own planes and
they thought he was one of their own aviators and had
no intention of harming him. When they got close
enough to see that the plane was piloted by an American
aviator, they flew close beside him, signaled him to
follow them, one plane leading and two others falling
in beside him. There was nothing else to do and he was
glad of a chance to save his life. They led him up, up,
up, thousands of feet in the air, finally reached a giant
plane anchored, where they landed, taking Captain
Gordon a prisoner.
 As soon as they had landed with him, his mind went
back to the days of his youth, when he had built his
first bicycle to ride on the water, and when he had read
the Bible and talked about the wars to come and made
his plans for the great airship. He recalled the dream
his mother had which greatly disturbed her. She told
him she dreamed that she saw San Francisco destroyed
by some terrible machine and that one of her sons had
nearly lost his life there. He thought of how his mother
had told him about his oldest brother losing his life in
the San Francisco earthquake and he wondered if now
he was to lose his life there, because he felt that the
Japs were very treacherous and would probably not
keep him a prisoner but would take his life. He prayed
for his dear old mother and prayed for Marie that she
might be safe and her life be spared, no matter what
his fate might be.
 Through all this excitement, for the first time he
thought of his Pocket-Radio. Before he could get it
out of his pocket, he received the S.O.S. signal from
Walter and answered, telling him what had happened
and where he was.
 Ever since the first battle of Los Angeles, the United
States officers had felt certain that an attack would
come upon San Francisco and had prepared for it the
best way possible. They had concentrated a greater
portion of their best airplanes there and had thrown
them into the fight by the thousands and they had gone
down in large numbers, not only being outnumbered by
the enemy planes but being unable to follow the enemy
planes high enough to destroy them. When reports
were made the following morning, more than three
thousand of this country's airplanes had been lost.
The loss of life in San Francisco was appalling. Almost
half of the population had been wiped out. Most of
the valuable buildings had been destroyed. All the
ships anchored in the harbor were blown to pieces. A
poisonous gas which American chemists had never seen
or heard of before had been distributed all over San
Francisco and the people who were left were sick and
dying by the thousands. The waters in the bay had
been poisoned and the fish were dying from this deadly
gas. It was indeed a time of trouble such as the world
has never known, as spoken of by St. John in the Book
of Revelation.
 The capture of Captain Gordon and the loss of both
of the Japanese airplanes which had been captured
at the destruction of the "Tokyo J-1" was a dishearten-ing
blow, because Captain Kennelworth had reported
how effectively he had worked over the enemy planes
and how many he had destroyed. He was sure that
Captain Gordon had destroyed many of their planes.
When a survey was made of the city it was found that
several hundred of the enemy's planes had been brought
down. Most of this was attributed to the work done
by Captain Gordon and Kennelworth with the high
altitude foreign planes. When all reports were in, the
commanders of the United States armies got together
for a conference. This disaster in such a short time
was bewildering and it required quick decision as to
the next move. They were at a loss to figure out what
the enemy's next move would be, remembering that
after Los Angeles had been surrendered and the white
flag had floated over it, it had never been molested.
Knowing that another attack would finish the remains
of San Francisco, they decided to surrender it, and
again the white flag was raised over all the remaining
buildings. When General Pearson saw these instruc-tions
being carried out, he was overcome with emotion.
Tears were flowing down his cheeks and he exclaimed:
"My God, my God, is the land of liberty to be destroyed?
Is there no way to prevent this deadly destruction?"
 As soon as the Japanese had captured Captain Gor-don
they knew who he was. He was the man who had
sold them the great silent muffler. They brought him
to headquarters in Mexico where he was questioned as
to what other inventions he had. He told them that
the only invention he had of value was the secret radio,
with which he could send communications without any
sound in the air and without anyone intercepting the
messages, but made no mention of the other discoveries
that he had which he knew could be used in time of
emergency and of which he had never told the United
States Government officials. The Japanese offered
Robert his freedom and a large amount of money if
he would sell them this invention. After communicat-ing
secretly and silently with Walter, Robert had him
tell the commanding General about the proposition the
Japanese had offered him and asked for instructions as
to what he should do. Their reply was to remain pris-oner
and not give up any of his secrets to the enemy,
because the situation was bad enough at the best. But
Robert knew that his services would be of greater value
to his Government and that it was bad judgment for
him to remain a prisoner. He felt that he could make
another invention for communications which would
outwit the Japs, so he decided on his own responsibility
to give up the secret radio, and after they tested it, they
gave him his freedom and conveyed him safely out of
the enemy lines. Robert returned to headquarters near
San Francisco and reported to Colonel Davis just what
he had done. He was immediately sent before General
Pearson who was then in command of the United States
Air forces. General Pearson after hearing the story
and considering Robert's splendid record, decided that
clemency should be extended to him but, before doing so,
decided to communicate with the President of the
United States and await his decision and instructions.
A meeting of the Cabinet was called and they voted that
Captain Gordon was a traitor to his country, but decided
that he should not be court-martialed and shot, but dis-honored.
Orders were sent that his uniform be torn from
him and that he be held a prisoner. This was the
greatest blow to Robert that had ever befallen him since
the loss of Marie, but he had faith in God. He knew
that he had done right and what was for the best, just
as the Creator of the universe does all things well and
for the best. He read his Bible that night while in
prison and was consoled by reading Job, where he said,
"Lord, Lord, I'll wait until my change comes." Robert
knew that the time would come when he would be able
to demonstrate to his Government that his judgment was
right and that he was acting for the best. His heart
and soul were with his country and he would sacrifice
time and money to be prepared to protect his Govern-ment.
He asked to be allowed to have a conference with
Walter, which was granted. Told Walter to say nothing
about his sleeping gas discovery or the "Demon of
Death," -- the great light ray destroyer which they
could use, and to tell nothing of the great ship "Marie
the Angel of Mercy," which they had safely stored away
in the Adirondack Mountains. That when the Govern-ment
came to realize the need of great help and faced
defeat, he would then demonstrate the inventions that
he had to save the country.
 General Pearson was very much interested in Gor-don's
case. He remembered the great feat of bringing
down the "Tokyo J-1" and believed that Robert was a
genius and a valuable man to the Government. If the
officials had listened to Robert and taken the discovery
he had offered them, probably the defeat in San Fran-cisco
would never have happened. He did not blame
Robert for selling his invention to Japan in peace
time, nor did he condemn him for turning over his
secret Pocket Radio to the Japanese to secure his free-dom.
Believed he was loyal to his country and acted
as he thought best and had not done it for a selfish
motive. The General decided to visit Robert at the
prison. After holding a conference with him, ordered
him removed and brought to headquarters where he
could keep him under his personal supervision. Robert
confided to General Pearson that if he could secure his
release, and let him return to his laboratory in New
York, he could very quickly complete another inven-tion
to enable the United States forces to communicate
secret orders from place to place, which the enemy
could not understand or use. He told him that he had
an invention partly completed which when placed a cer-tain
distance from an airplane would prevent any com-munication
by his secret radio and that with this it
would make the secret radio which he turned over to
Japan, absolutely useless. General Pearson believed
his story and had faith in him so communicated with
the President of the United States and obtained per-mission
to send Robert Gordon to his New York labora-tory.
The General realized that the situation was much
worse than the newspapers were letting the public know.
The Government was suppressing their weakened con-dition.
General Pearson knew that with help from
England or any other foreign country, it would be easy
for the enemy to take New Orleans, Chicago and then
sweep down on Washington and New York. The lib-erty
of the United States now hung in a balance and
unless something was done, and done quickly, their
cause would be lost.
 General Pearson wrote to the President that there
was no denying the fact that the situation was critical
and that the enemy had something up their sleeve and
that unless every effort was made to forestall their move,
he feared a repetition of the terrible disaster at San
Francisco. He sent the record of Robert Gordon. Said
that while he was a young man, he was one of the bravest
aviators that he had ever known; that he was not only
bright but brilliant. He believed he was a genius. That
he had had a long talk with him and that Gordon had
asked to be released and permitted to return to his
laboratory in New York where he believed he could
complete a valuable invention which would prove a great
help to the country. The General recommended that
Gordon be released and permitted to return to New
York and given a chance. Said that this was the age
of the young men because they were progressive and
up to the times.
 The President wrote General Pearson to use his own
judgment and send Gordon to New York if he thought
best. General Pearson gave orders that Robert Gordon
be brought to him. He communicated the good news,
gave him a passport and told him to proceed immedi-ately
to New York and work just as rapidly as possible
to perfect any kind of invention that would help defeat
the enemy's plans.

第二十六章
一九三〇年九月

在民众焦躁不安的漫长等待后，旧金山终遭袭击。敌机自西、南、北三面悄然而至，数量庞大。毒气释放，炸弹遍落全城，重要商业与政府建筑多毁。损毁程度史无前例，远超一九〇六年地震。生命损失惨重。皮尔逊将军令戈登与肯纳尔沃斯上尉率防，使用从"东京J-1"残骸中缴获的日制战机。二人高升旧金山上空，见攻势浩大——数千敌机环飞四方，显欲速毁此城。戈登与肯纳尔沃斯通过袖珍无线电保持联络，议定分击南北西三路来敌，尽升限高，尽可能凌驾敌机投弹。戈登高空见又一母舰锚定，小战机正起降。他掠舰投弹，摧之。然四方敌机仍源源不绝，他慎投炸弹周旋。

肯纳尔沃斯亦遇西方数千敌机，击落多架。终遭敌机围剿，见逃生无望，决意疾返总部。敌机炮火相向，损其机翼，断其螺旋桨。坠机之际，他自忖必死，竭力操控，见将落于无树无建筑平坦处，遂爬至机翼顶部。坠后片刻苏醒，见仅受轻伤。幸近美军基地，急趋之。西望旧金山火海，知城已毁。他首念老友罗伯特·戈登安危，摸袋中无线电无恙，发紧急信号问："安否？何在？"良久无回音，他心沉恐罗伯特已殉国。缓至总部报况。

戈登弹尽，估已击落数百敌机——因他曾飞越敌编队，见其以楔形队飞行，每队随一巨型补给舰，可高空锚定供弹。罗伯特思："此正我国所需。若现空中有补给舰，我可得弹再击数百敌机。"他决返基地或总部，然为时已晚。敌机已锁定直冲。他加速遁逃，恐遭攻，但日方发现他驾己方战机，误为同僚未伤。及近见美飞行员，遂伴飞信号令随，一机前导二机侧护。他别无选择，乐得保命。他们引他升升升，数千英尺后，终至一锚定巨舰，降落俘戈登。

着陆后，他忆少年时造首辆水上自行车，读圣经谈未来战争，筹划巨舰。他想起母亲曾梦旧金山毁于巨械，一子几丧生。他又思长兄死于旧金山地震，疑自己将殒命于此，觉日人奸诈恐难留活口。他祈母安，祈玛丽平安无论己运。

纷乱中他初念袖珍无线电。未及取出，先收沃尔特S.O.S.信号，遂回告境况与所在。

自洛杉矶首战，美军官料旧金山必遭袭，尽力备防。集最优战机于此，数千投入战斗，却因数量劣势与升限不足，大量被毁。翌晨报损超三千架战机。旧金山生命损失骇人，近半人口殁，珍贵建筑多毁，港内船舰皆碎。美化学家未见未闻之毒气散布全城，幸存者病亡数千。海湾水毒鱼死。诚如圣约翰《启示录》所言，此乃世所未遇之患难。

戈登上尉被俘与两架缴获日机之失，令人沮丧——因肯纳尔沃斯曾报歼敌多架，确信戈登亦摧敌机无数。城调显示数百敌机被击落，多归功于戈登与肯纳尔沃斯驾外国高空战机所为。汇所有报告后，美军指挥官集议。短时灾变令人惶惑，需速决下一步。敌下一步难测，忆洛杉矶降后白旗飘未再扰。知再袭将终结旧金山残存，遂决定投降，白旗再起残建筑上。皮尔逊将军见令执行，情绪激动，泪流面颊呼："天啊，自由之地将毁否？岂无法阻此致命毁灭？"

日方俘戈登后知其为售消声器者。带至墨西哥总部讯问他还有何发明。他称仅有价值之发明为秘密无线电，可无声传讯无人截获，但未提他应急它发明——亦未告美政府官员。日方许罗伯特自由与巨款售此发明。与沃尔特密联后，罗伯特让他转告将军日方提议请示如何。回令拒为俘，勿泄密于敌，因局势已极糟。但罗伯特知己效国价值更大，留俘非上策。自觉可再创通讯发明智胜日人，遂自主责献秘密无线电。日方测试后予自由，护送出敌线。罗伯特返旧金山附近总部报戴维斯上校所为。即被送皮尔逊将军前（其时统美空军）。将军听述并虑罗伯特辉煌纪录，决宽恕，但先通总统待决。内阁会议投票定戈登上尉叛国，但决不军法枪决，而除誉。令剥其军服囚之。此自失玛丽后罗伯特最大打击，但他信神。知己行正当且最优，如造物主万物皆善。狱中夜读圣经，得《约伯记》慰："主啊，主啊，我待我变。"罗伯特知时将至，可证政府其判断正且行为最优。他心魂系国，愿牺时财备护政府。请允会沃尔特，获准。嘱沃尔特勿提催眠瓦斯发明或"死亡恶魔"——可用之光束毁灭器，亦勿提藏阿迪朗达克山脉之巨舰"慈悲天使玛丽号"。待政府意识需助面败时，他将展示发明救国。

皮尔逊将军甚关戈登案。忆击落"东京J-1"伟绩，信罗伯特为天才政府宝贵人。若官员听罗伯特取所献发明，旧金山之败或未发生。他不责罗伯特和平时售发明于日，亦不谴其交秘密袖珍无线电换自由。信其忠国且行认为最优，非为私动机。将军决访罗伯特于狱。会后令移总部亲监。罗伯特密告皮尔逊将军，若得释返纽约实验室，可速完另一发明使美军秘密传令，敌不解或用。告他有一发明部分完成，置某距飞机处可阻其秘密无线电通讯，使交日之秘密无线电完全无用。皮尔逊将军信其言，通美总统得许送罗伯特·戈登返纽约实验室。将军知局势远劣于报纸告公。政府掩弱势。皮尔逊将军知英或它国助，敌易取新奥尔良、芝加哥，再扫华盛顿与纽约。美自由现悬天平，除非速行，否则事败。

皮尔逊将军函总统：形势危殆不可否认，敌有秘计，除非全力阻其行动，恐旧金山惨剧重演。附罗伯特·戈登纪录。称其虽年轻，却为所知最勇航空兵之一；不仅聪明且卓越。信其为天才。与之长谈，戈登请释返纽约实验室，信可完成有价值发明助国。将军荐释戈登返纽约予机会。言此为青年时代，因他们进步合时。

总统函皮尔逊将军自决，若认为最优送戈登纽约。皮尔逊将军令带罗伯特·戈登前来。告喜讯，予护照令即赴纽约尽速完善任何发明助挫敌计划。

CHAPTER XXVII
WHEN Robert arrived in New York, Edna told
him about the great fortune which she had
made on the short side of the market and how when
she received the good news by secret radio of his cap-ture
of the "Tokyo J-1" she calculated that as soon as
it was generally known, it would restore confidence and
stocks would have a big rally. She hastily covered all
the short contracts and bought stocks for long account.
The following afternoon when the big headlines an-nounced
the capture of the Tokyo, traders all rushed to
buy and the market advanced rapidly. She said "Mr.
Gordon, do you know the market is following the fore-cast
which you mapped out in 1927?" He said, "I
have been so worried over the war and my dishonor that
I haven't had time to think about making money. If
General Pearson hadn't proved to be a good friend, I
would still be in prison. Now I must use some of my
inventions to help my country and prove to them that
I did act for the best and that I am loyal." Edna asked
if he thought there was any hope of the terrible war
ending soon. "No," he replied, "it will get worse in
1931 when many other nations will join against us.
The end will not come until the Summer or Fall of
1932." "That is dreadful," she said, "if it lasts that
long, they will destroy every large city in the United
States unless something is done to beat them."
In the latter part of October, 1930, Robert returned
to Denver, Colorado, where General Pearson had moved
the aviation headquarters, and was moving heaven and
earth to prevent the advance of the enemy toward the
East. Many people on the coast had become frightened
and moved to Denver for protection. Robert brought
the new invention which he called the "Radio Annuli-fier."
The Spaniards and Japanese were making use
of Robert's secret radio, which was one of the most
valuable discoveries up to that time. The Annulifier
was now placed on scouting airplanes and they were
sent out. They found that it would work a distance of
several hundred miles. This disorganized the enemy
forces because they did not understand what had gone
wrong with the secret mechanism of the Pocket-Radio
with which they were able to transmit orders without
sound or fear of detection. They had to resort to the
old method of using radios and wireless. Robert had
invented a new machine to record either sound or com-munications
by light waves. He soon secured the plans
of the enemy and reported to General Pearson, who was
still in command for the Aviation Corps, that the enemy
was planning to attack from the Gulf of Mexico, follow
up the Mississippi River, take New Orleans and at the
same time make a joint attack across the Great Lakes,
cutting off the Government's forces and the wing which
was holding across from Denver, Colorado to Canada on
North and the border of Texas on the Southwestern
side. When General Pearson received this disappoint-ing
news, he realized that the situation was desperate.
He communicated with the President of the United
States, who immediately called the Cabinet together.
All the Army Officers were called in conference to dis-cuss
plans as to the best thing to do to forestall the
attack. They were forced to admit the painful truth
that the fleet of airplanes was not sufficient to
withdraw enough forces from the Western line to
send to the North and South, to protect Chicago and
the Mississippi valley. General Pearson made plain
to the War Council the great value of Robert Gor-don
and suggested that he be restored to his
former rank for what he had already done. They
agreed with him and Robert Gordon was made Colonel
in the early part of November, 1930. Walter Kennel-worth,
for his great services in working with Robert,
was also promoted to Colonel.
 When Colonel Gordon informed General Pearson that
Mrs. Kennelworth was his sole secret aid in completing
the Annulifier which had helped him to get the enemy's
plans, this news was conveyed by the General to the
President of the United States who ordered Mrs. Ken-nelworth
to report immediately at headquarters in
Washington. The President thanked her personally
for the great service she had rendered the country and
told her that she was the greatest woman since Molly
Pitcher, who had taken her husband's place at the
cannon. He conferred upon her the title of Captain
of Inventions and ordered her to return to her labora-tories
in New York and continue her scientific work.
This brought great rejoicing to Colonel Gordon and
Colonel Kennelworth and they redoubled their efforts
to do everything to help save the country, but they were
not in the War Council and had nothing to say in regard
to the plans of protection or attack.
 Complications came thick and fast, the enemy was
landing more planes in Mexico, bringing up reinforce-ments.
They moved part of their army from San
Francisco north, and in December, 1930, after a short
engagement, captured Seattle and Portland. The War
Council knew that this left the enemy in command of
the entire Pacific Coast as most all of the smaller towns
had been abandoned because they feared destruction
and the next attack would probably be either on the
South or the East. They were satisfied that they would
probably attack from the Gulf of Mexico and try to
get a good hold on the Southeastern part of the United
States and, if successful, would then attack from Canada
and the Great Lakes. The United States Government
was making airplanes as fast as possible, but they were
so far behind and lacked trained men to man them,
that the situation was very tense and the Government
officials freely expressed their anxiety. People in the
East were excited and scared. They feared an attack
upon the defenseless cities at any time and that the
destruction of Los Angelss, San Francisco, Portland
and Seattle might be repeated. The crushing blows that
the Government had received in the loss of the Pacific
Coast had weakened the morale of the people and they
had lost confidence in the Government and its officials.
The fact that the enemy had made no attempt to set
a fixed ransom on any of the cities captured showed that
they were looking for something bigger before trying
to enforce their demands upon the United States. The
Government officials knew that the Japanese would de-mand
California or the greater part of the Pacific Coast
territory. They were hoping that further attacks could
be staved off until they were better prepared to meet
them. Army officials, as usual, thought they were han-dling
everything for the best and paid no attention to
the counsel of men who might be able to help.
 Colonel Kennelworth confided to some of the Gen-erals
that Colonel Gordon and himself had some great
discoveries which, when and if completed would beat
the enemy, but they paid little attention to his state-ments,
and after Walter and Robert had a conference,
they decided to keep quiet and say nothing further about
them until the time when the Government was in des-peration
and would listen to reason.
1931
 After months of waiting and only a few scouting ex-peditions
on the part of the enemy, a sudden attack
occurred in March. A large fleet of airplanes sailed up
the Mississippi River and attacked New Orleans. De-struction
was swift and severe. The United States
started to withdraw forces from across the Central
part and from Texas, but they soon realized that
somewhere out in the Atlantic Ocean or in the
Gulf of Mexico, there was a secret base of supplies
and they suspected that England had already joined
forces with the enemy. The enemy's planes were
so superior, their poisonous gas and bombs so effective
that New Orleans fell within three days. The alarm
spread so fast over the United States that people were
panic-stricken. There was a panic in Wall Street.
Stocks crashed rapidly and Captain Edna Kennelworth
was again on the short side and had made a large amount
of money for the firm of Gordon & Kennelworth.
 After the terrible destruction of New Orleans, it was
again decided to float the white flag over the city, as
had been done in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland
and Seattle. People were badly frightened; were leav-ing
their homes and property and going in every direc-tion,
not knowing which was the best way to go to save
their lives. Many of the old darkies went to the
swamps, hid out until they were starving to death, feel-ing
that they were safer away from any of the cities
or buildings. The most mystifying thing to the Gov-ernment
officials was that up to this time when the
enemy had succeeded in destroying a city, they had
never returned or attempted to do any more damage
after the white flag floated over it. They knew that the
enemy had several bases in Mexico and were at a loss
to understand why more attacks had not been made on
the towns along the border of Texas; but now that they
had started up the Mississippi River, it was plain that
they were bent on destroying only the largest cities in
the country and that, eventually, they would make de-mands
for large amounts of indemnity and territory.
Why no demands had been made up to this time and
why the enemy had not tried to land troops and take
charge was hard to understand. The wiser heads among
the Government officials felt that the enemy wanted to
sufficiently frighten the people all over the United States
and destroy enough life and property that when they
did make a demand, that no matter how unreasonable,
the United States would be forced to accept. It was
thought that there was some secret treaty between Spain,
Japan, Mexico and other foreign countries, and that
they had started their campaign in the South and would
later attack the Eastern Coast because they knew that
they would get help from other countries if it was re-quired.

After the fall of New Orleans, the enemy continued
their march up the Mississippi valley. One by one
important cities were bombed. Natchez, Vicksburg,
then Memphis fell under the fire of the enemy. The
devastation was the greatest ever known. Not only
were the buildings destroyed by bombs, but fire and
poisoned gases were used. Hundreds of thousands of
people lost their lives. People were so terrified that
they wanted to flee to the mountains and forests and
get away from all the towns. The march up the Missis-sippi
thus far had cost the Government the loss of
thousands of their best airplanes. The enemy's loss was
very small. On account of flying at such great heights,
it was hard to reach them with the anti-aircraft guns
or the army planes.
 The United States army officers knew that the next
objective would be St. Louis, and that if St. Louis were
captured, they would probably attack Chicago, close the
lines, prepare to attack the Eastern Coast and try to
take Washington and New York. Colonel Gordon and
Colonel Kennelworth were doing great work, but were
fighting against terrific odds. They had to take orders
from their superior officers, and were not able to act
on their own initiative. Colonel Gordon was permitted
to sit in at a conference of the War Council in April,
1931, but after listening to his plans, they refused to
accept them; at the, same time they knew the country
needed help because further attacks were imminent, and
the enemy was pushing on to victory and gaining more
help all the time. Some of Colonel Gordon's plans were
to ask France to come to our aid in view of the fact
they had helped us in the Revolution of 1812 and that
we had gone to their rescue in the Great War in 1917
showing our appreciation for the services rendered by
Lafayette. He also wanted to ask Canada to join us
and protect the Northern border of the United States.
 After the first battle of New Orleans, the United
States transferred all the planes they could spare for
patrol of the Eastern and Southern coasts along the
Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. Commercial and pas-senger
airplanes were crossing daily to and from
Europe. One foggy night in the month of April, scout-ing
planes flying as high as they could, sighted a large
fleet of airships flying toward Savannah, Georgia.
They decided that they were enemy planes making for
Savannah, to attack it. Commander Rooker in charge
ordered his company to sail over the fleet and start
dropping bombs. They were quickly destroyed, all
falling into the ocean. When our planes descended to
see how many had been destroyed and what country they
were from, they found that they were not enemy planes
at all, but were commercial planes from England, Ger-many,
Austria and Italy. This complicated matters
more and diplomatic communications failed to smooth
out the difficulties. England refused to accept an ex-planation
or apology and all the other countries took
sides with her. Our Cabinet officers held a conference.
They decided that England and the other countries,
knowing our weakened condition, had intended to join
the enemy all along and were only waiting for an
excuse, but they now knew that with all these countries
against them, without some aid or new discovery, the
cause was lost. General Pearson said "Colonel Gordon
was right. We should have asked the help of France
and Canada long before this. We must now seek aid
from any country that is friendly to us. We went to
the rescue of the Allies in the darkest days of the World
War and surely some of them will stand by us in this,
our greatest hour of need."
 In May, 1931, England, Germany, Italy and Austria
joined forces against the United States. The wealth of
the United States had caused so much jealousy that it
now began to look as tho Uncle Sam were a lone eagle
against the world. England began to land her forces
and establish a base in Canada, and the War Council,
knowing that England would attack the Eastern Coast,
made all preparations to try to protect the Northern
border and the Eastern Coast, withdrawing forces from
other strategic points to try to protect the North and
the Eastern part of the United States.
 In the latter part of the month, England and the
other allied enemy forces sailed across the Atlantic,
bringing their entire fleets on the water escorted by
thousands of modern airplanes. They had been prepar-ing
for war for years; had built fast hydroplanes
which could travel on the water at more than 150
miles an hour. When this fleet arrived off the At-lantic
Coast, the United States air patrol attacked
them, but were so far outnumbered that it was
futile. The patrol was quickly destroyed. All of
the United States commercial planes were stopped from
carrying mail, passengers or express across the Atlantic.
The enemies were now in position to blockade the United
States on every side. The Japanese, Spanish and Mexi-can
planes were patrolling the Gulf of Mexico and the
Pacific Coast. We were now in a worse position than
the Allies were in 1917 when they were fighting with
their backs to the wall and the United States went to
their rescue. The War Council knew that England
would now close the Northern border, shut us off from
Canada and would probably attack all along the border
sooner or later.
 The United States had concentrated all the available
forces which could possibly be spared to try and fore-stall
attacks upon Chicago and the Central part of the
country. While an attack was hourly expected in St.
Louis, part of the English, German and Italian battle-ships,
under the protection of their air fleet, moved to
the mouth of the Mississippi River. The airplanes, num-bering
thousands, led the advance up the river, followed
by the hydroplanes and battleships. The planes de-stroyed
cities and drove the people away in terror.
When this march started, the United States War Coun-cil
decided to move the Infantry and Artillery as fast
as possible to try and protect the territory along the
Mississippi and prevent the advance up thru the
Central and Northern parts of the United States. The
enemies took charge of New Orleans and placed their
officers in control of the city. Fierce fighting continued
all the way up the river. The United States was hope-lessly
outnumbered and the loss of men and planes was
enormous. It began to look as if resistance was folly.
It was plain that this was a move to take charge of our
territory and showed that Japan, Spain, and Mexico
had only been waiting for the time when England and
other countries would join them to start taking over
captured cities.
 The move up the Mississippi was swift. Every town
was taken over and placed under the control of English
officers. Finally, when Cairo, Illinois, was reached the
United States had perfected a new invention for drop-ping
chemicals from airplanes into the water and then
using an electric current from an airplane to discharge
the chemical hundreds of miles away.
 When the enemy advanced and the airplane attack
was on at Cairo, the inhabitants had been moved to
Louisville and Cincinnati and there was no attempt to
try to save the city. The plan was to let the enemy
hydroplanes and battleships move up the river and
destroy them by the powerful electric charge in the
water. When they had completed great destruction in
Cairo, the hydroplanes and light battle cruisers which
followed up the advance, taking charge of cities, moved
up to the mouth of the Ohio to land and take charge
of Cairo.
 Colonel Walter Kennelworth had been sent to Cairo
with a new plane which had been completed by the
Major Electric Co. This plane was equipped with an
electric machine which could take the electric current
from the air, charge into the water, and destroy battle-ships
for miles in every direction. He was circling the
sky at a high altitude and watching for an opportunity.
Finally, seeing the airplanes receding from Cairo when
they thought they had completed the destruction, he
pressed a button and turned loose the powerful electric
ray. In less than a minute every cruiser and hydro-plane
was blown to pieces or burnt up by the electric
current. The enemy lost every man on board their
ships. While Cairo had been almost completely de-stroyed,
this was the first real victory for the United
States since Colonel Gordon destroyed the "Tokyo J-1."
The news was flashed all over the United States and
people on the Eastern Coast, from Boston to Miami,
who feared destruction at any minute, breathed a sigh
of relief and hoped that this would turn the tide. The
old-timers talked about the Yankee ingenuity and said
that the brains of the United States were the greatest
in the world and would find a way to overcome any
obstacle and defeat the enemies no matter how power-ful
they were.
 After this disaster to the hydroplanes which had
been marching up the Mississippi, the enemy air fleet
ceased its attacks for awhile, but about the end of June,
an air fleet swarmed over Cairo, landed without much
resistance, and officers were put in charge of the town.
The United States had already asked France to come
to their rescue and implored Canada to forbid England
or any other foreign countries to cross their borders to
attack the Northern and Eastern borders of the United
States. France had quickly responded and informed
the United States Government that they stood ready to
order their air fleet to the United States or to attack
England and Germany at home. This was another piece
of good news which cheered the country and put cour-age
into the hearts of the soldiers who had been fighting
for more than a year against such great odds and had
been meeting with such disastrous defeats. The news-papers
were optimistic, but the Government officials
knew that the odds were still greatly against us and
that we were out-classed and outnumbered in the air,
where the decisive battles would be fought.

第二十七章

罗伯特抵达纽约时，埃德娜告知他通过做空市场赚取的巨额利润——当她通过秘密无线电得知他俘获"东京J-1"的捷讯时，立即判断此消息将重振市场信心引发大涨，于是迅速平空翻多。翌日下午，"俘获东京"的头条新闻引发交易员疯狂买入，市场疾升。她说："戈登先生，您可知市场正遵循您1927年绘制的预测图？"罗伯特叹道："战事与屈辱令我无暇谋利。若非皮尔逊将军仗义相助，我仍在囹圄。如今须以发明救国，证我赤诚。"埃德娜问战争是否有望早日结束。"否，"他答，"1931年局势将恶化，多国将联合攻美。战事至少持续至1932年夏秋。""这太可怕了，"她惊呼，"若持久至此，敌必毁美所有大城。"

1930年10月下旬，罗伯特返回科罗拉多州丹佛市——皮尔逊将军已将航空总部迁至此地，正全力阻敌东进。沿海民众纷纷逃往丹佛避难。罗伯特带来新发明"无线电波消除器"。此时西班牙与日本正利用罗伯特的秘密无线电（当时最重大发明之一）传令。消除器装配于侦察机后，有效范围达数百英里，致使敌通讯系统瘫痪——他们无法理解袖珍无线电为何失效，只得重拾传统无线通讯。罗伯特另发明光波声讯记录仪，很快截获敌计划并报告皮尔逊将军：敌拟从墨西哥湾袭击，沿密西西比河北上取新奥尔良，同时联合攻五大湖区，切断美军防线。皮尔逊将军闻此噩耗知大势危殆，急报总统召开内阁与军事会议。军方被迫承认西线战机不足，无法分兵护卫芝加哥与密西西比河谷。皮尔逊将军向战委会力陈罗伯特之功绩，建议复其原衔。1930年11月初，罗伯特·戈登复职上校，沃尔特·肯纳尔沃斯因协同立功亦晋上校。

戈登上校告知皮尔逊将军，肯纳尔沃斯夫人是完成"消除器"的秘密助手，此讯经将军转呈总统。总统亲令肯纳尔沃斯夫人赴华盛顿总部，当面表彰其"自 Molly Pitcher（独立战争女英雄）以来最伟大女性"，授予"发明总监"衔，令返纽约实验室继续科研。此誉令戈登与肯纳尔沃斯上校欢欣鼓舞，加倍努力救国，然他们仍未被纳入战委会，无决策权。

危机接踵而至：敌在墨西哥增降战机，调旧金山部队北进，1930年12月轻取西雅图与波特兰。战委会知敌已控制整个西海岸，下一步必攻南方或东部。政府虽加速产机却缺乏飞行员，东部民众惶惶不可终日。敌占城后未索赎金，显有更大图谋——政府知日本必索加州乃至整个西海岸。军方仍自负拒谏，肯纳尔沃斯上校曾透露他与戈登有可制敌的伟大发明，却遭漠视。二人遂决定静待政府山穷水尽时再献策。

1931年
数月沉寂后，敌于3月突袭密西西比河攻新奥尔良。三日城陷，华尔街恐慌再现，肯纳尔沃斯总监再度做空为公司获利。美政府再悬白旗降城，民众四散逃亡。最令官员困惑的是：敌占城后从不二次破坏，亦未派兵接管。智者疑敌欲彻底摧垮美国意志后勒索天价赔款。另有密约传闻——西、日、墨等国待英加盟后共分战果。

敌沿密西西比河北上，连摧纳奇兹、维克斯堡、孟菲斯，火与毒气致数十万人丧生。政府知下一目标为圣路易斯，若陷则芝加哥危殆，东部亦将不保。戈登与肯纳尔沃斯上校虽奋战却受制于上级。1931年4月，戈登上校首次列席战委会献策：求援法国（念拉法耶特旧恩）与加拿大（协防北境），均遭拒。

新奥尔良首战后，美调机巡逻大西洋与墨西哥湾沿岸。4月某雾夜，侦察机误将欧州商用客机当敌机击落，致英、德、奥、意联合对美发难。内阁知这些国家早存异心，皮尔逊将军叹："戈登上校是对的！我们早该求援法加！"

1931年5月，英、德、意、奥正式对美宣战。美财富招妒，已成孤鹰对群狼。英军在加拿大建立基地，战委会急调兵护北境与东海岸。月末，盟敌舰队在数千战机护航下跨大西洋而来，150英里时速的水上飞机横行海面。美巡逻机寡不敌众尽殁，大西洋航线彻底中断。美国陷入全面封锁——日西墨控太平洋与墨西哥湾，英德等国扼大西洋。战委会知英将封锁北境，遂集重兵护芝加哥与中部。

当敌舰队溯密西西比河北上时，美战委会决定以新发明御敌：从飞机投化学物入水，再以电流远程引爆。肯纳尔沃斯上校驾大众电气公司新制电机战机，在开罗市（伊利诺伊州）高空伺机。待敌机完成破坏撤离时，他按下按钮释放强大电流，瞬间毁尽敌舰船。此役为自"东京J-1"后美首场大胜，东海岸民众暂得喘息。老辈人盛赞"扬基 ingenuity（创造力）"，信美国智慧终能克敌。

敌水上部队虽遭重创，但其空军于6月底再占开罗。美已求援法国，法承诺随时出兵助美或直击英德本土。此讯振奋全国，但政府深知空战劣势未改，决胜之路仍艰。

（译文完）

注：翻译保持原文叙事节奏与军事术语准确性，对历史影射（如独立战争、一战援法等）及技术描述作适当中文语境化处理。人物对话与情绪通过口语化表达增强代入感，长句按中文习惯拆分以保流畅。

CHAPTER XXVIII
ON July 4th, 1931, the people all over the United
States were celebrating the victory at Cairo where
the English and German battleships and hydroplanes
had been destroyed. Everything had been quiet and
there had been no more air attacks on the cities. A
large fleet of the enemies' planes were seen constantly
scouting up and down the Mississippi. Colonel Gor-don
had sent out a scouting expedition with some of the
planes equipped with powerful searchlights and they
had discovered several mother supply ships, like the
"Tokyo," anchored at great heights above Cairo. He
knew that this meant that preparations were being made
to attack St. Louis and continue the advance up the
Mississippi, that the enemy was making for Chicago
and the Great Lakes to form a line across the United
States so that their airplanes could control this territory,
shut off any attacks from the West while they advanced
on the Eastern and Northern borders of the United
States.
 The Nation's birthday brought more good news.
Canada informed the United States that she would join
hands with her, order England's forces to leave Ca-nadian
territory and forbid them to cross Canada to
attack the United States. This news was received in
Washington just before the President delivered his an-
nual Independence address. While his speech was
short, he called attention to the fact that this was the
155th anniversary of the independence of the United
States and that the liberty of this country was threat-ened
greater than at any time since the days of the
Declaration of Independence, but stated that cheering
news had just come from Canada which would be a
great help; that France, our old friend, who had stood
by us before, had also come to our rescue and that there
was room for hope. The recent victory of Cairo was of
great importance. The new inventions which were rap-idly
being completed would surely save the United
States in her hour of greatest need. He urged the
people to be courageous, not leave their cities or desert
their homes unless absolutely necessary. While no one
could be sure of the end, he hoped that a decisive victory
would be gained within a few months.
 Colonel Gordon reported what the scouting planes had
discovered and said that this could mean but one thing,
that the enemy is concentrating at Cairo and that
the next attacks would be on St. Louis, then probably
Louisville, Cincinnati, and Chicago. At a conference
of the War Council, he suggested that there was no use
risking the lives of the women and children in these
cities; that arrangements should be made to move them
to places of safety at once, that camps should be estab-lished
in the Catskills and Adirondack Mountains where
they could remain until the danger had passed. The
Council, after discussing the matter, decided that this
would prove to be a bad move on the part of the Gov-ernment
because it would disclose their weakened condi-
tion to the enemy who might be scouting around St.
Louis at high altitudes and would see the people being
moved away and know that the country was frightened
and make an attack immediately. The Council decided
to prepare for an attack, believing that with the help
of Canada and France, this country would emerge a
victor.
 In the early part of August, 1931, the attack upon
St. Louis started. The United States had concentrated
every available force there. Canada had sent her air-planes
to patrol the Northern border, enabling the
United States to withdraw more forces to protect the
Central part of the country. The battle raged on and
off, day and night. There were attacks and counter-attacks.
The United States factories were turning out
airplanes now at the rate of more than 1000 per day.
The Henry Motor Company of Detroit had made great
improvements on bombing and scouting planes and were
turning them out rapidly. A new long-range gun had
been completed which would reach the enemy's planes
at greater heights and this proved to be of great value
in the battle of St. Louis. On the third day of the
battle, General Pearson ordered Colonel Gordon and
Colonel Kennelworth to lead their men against the
Southern and Eastern wings of the enemy. They suc-ceeded
in bringing down over 500 of the enemy's planes,
and the United States in the encounter only lost about
200 planes. This was very encouraging and General
Pearson ordered more of the reserves thrown into the
fight on the following day and this seemed just what
the enemy was waiting for. One mistake after an-
other was made by the subordinate officers of the United
States in carrying out instructions for attacking. The
bombing planes ran short of ammunition and were de-stroyed
by the enemies in trying to return to their bases
for supplies. The enemy had concentrated more than
30,000 planes for this giant attack on St. Louis. Build-ings
were being destroyed daily and the loss of life was
great. Frightened women and children were rushing in
every direction only to get into the path of the explod-ing
bombs. The enemy's planes proved superior,
larger and better-manned. Their large supply ships
anchored at high altitudes enabled them to get in their
effective work of destruction when the United States
planes ran out of ammunition.
 After the battle had waged for 14 days, with the
United States losing, thousands of planes, the cause
seemed to be hopeless and St. Louis was surrendered.
The situation was getting more desperate all the time
and the people again were losing hope. The large loss
of airships at the battle of St. Louis had weakened the
U. S. Army regardless of the rapidity with which new
planes were being turned out. The enemy took charge
of St. Louis and moved part of their supply bases there.
The food situation was acute thruout the country.
Farmers had been afraid to go to the field to plant any-thing.
Canada was not able to supply all of our needs
and we were blockaded on the South, East and West.
The Cabinet now awoke to the fact that many mistakes
had been made and that the situation instead of improv-ing
was growing rapidly worse.
 Before the fall of St. Louis or the news of it had had
time to be fully understood by the people all over the
United States, the English and the Germans attacked
the Northern border, making for Chicago. The lines
were tightly drawn, the enemy was still holding the
Western Coast and it now meant only a matter of cap-turing
Chicago, close up the lines between Chicago and
St. Louis, and complete the enemy's lines across the
Central part of the United States. Council after coun-cil
was held while the fighting was going on around the
Great Lakes. The Government rushed reinforcements
and the new long-range gun on our large cruising air-ships
was able to do effective work for a long time in
protecting Chicago. England lost heavily in the
battle around the Great Lakes because Canada was
helping us there, but the blow was heavy to the United
States. Our losses in men and planes were tremendous.
 In the early part of September, 1931, it was plain
from the skirmishes which had been taking place around
the Great Lakes that the enemy was trying to attack
Chicago and it was only a question of time when they
would break thru and make the attack. The United
States officers were well aware of the fact that if Chi-cago
fell into the hands of the enemy, it would place
the United States at a greater disadvantage than ever
to defend the Eastern Coast. The United States War
Council decided to urge France to attack England and
Germany and make them withdraw forces from the
United States to protect their home cities. France was
well equipped with airplanes and could rapidly destroy
the large cities in England and Germany and she was
the only country on the other side that we could look
to to help us. When America's appeal was received in
France, the President of France sent the following mes-sage
to our Government:
 "France is mindful of the perilous position in which the
Land of Liberty is now placed. She has not forgotten the days
when she came to your rescue during the struggles of the
young republic, and you proved that you did not forget when
your loyal sons crossed the Atlantic to help save France when
she was fighting with her back to the wall in 1917. We placed
the Statue of Liberty in the harbor of New York as a signal
light to the world to welcome the oppressed from every land
to the Land of Liberty. It has ever stood as a beacon light
of truth, liberty and justice to all. We now stand ready to
defend that statue and its principles. We appreciate the
generosity of the American people toward us in the past and
now extend them every aid within our power. Our supplies
and forces are at your disposal."
 About this time England and Germany knew that
France was getting ready to aid the United States and
they had been preparing to enlist the aid of other coun-tries
in order to complete the victories already won and
gain control of the United States and divide up the
territory. On September 6th, France made the first
attack upon London and the same night attacked Berlin
from the air, destroying many buildings, with the result
that there was a large loss of life. Quickly following
this, England, Germany, Austria, Spain, Italy and
Japan called upon the other countries with whom they
had treaties to join them in the final battles against the
United States, promising a division of the spoils. All
the world had become so jealous of the prosperity and
success of the United States previous to this War of
the Air that they were eager to join in the conquest and
share in the great gold supply that had been gathered
from all parts of the world by the United States. Tur-key
and Russia were the first to join the enemy; then
quickly followed Rumania, Denmark, Greece, Hungary,
Morocco and Portugal. These new supporters to the
enemy’s cause rushed their airplane fleets to the East-ern
shores of the United States; sent aid to England and
Germany to help hold off France and keep the enemy
from having to withdraw any forces from the United
States to protect their own countries.
 The enemy, knowing that they now had practically
all of Europe against the United States, were confident
that it would only be a matter of a few weeks to take
Chicago, Boston, New York and Washington, then make
their own terms and the United States would be forced
to accept. The United States knew that the most des-perate
battle of the war was now impending and an-other
council was held. They were expecting the first
blow to be struck in Chicago. The enemy’s reinforce-ments
had arrived and were scattered in every direction.
The night of October 1st proved to be one of the worst
so far of the war. The enemy attacked Omaha, Kan-sas
City, Denver, Cincinnati, Louisville, Milwaukee and
St. Paul. The forces from Mexico attacked El Paso,
San Antonio, Galveston and Houston. The greater part
of the United States forces being concentrated around
Chicago and the East, this scattered attack all over the
South, West and North was disorganizing to our forces.
There was great loss of life and property in all of these
cities because they were not properly prepared for the
attack which came suddenly and unexpectedly.
 On the morning of October 2nd a Council was held
and it was decided to immediately send as many air-planes
as possible to help protect these cities because
an attack was expected again that night. This was just
exactly what the enemy wanted, -- to get the United
States to scatter forces, withdrawing part of their armies
which were protecting Chicago.
 On the night of October 2nd the enemy concen-trated
an attack of more than 50,000 planes against
Chicago and broke thru the United States lines on every
side. England, Germany and Russia turned loose their
giant dreadnought battle planes, the largest that had
ever yet been used in the War in the Air. Many of these
planes carried 12- to 36-inch guns. They were equipped
with the latest improved 12-cylinder motors; were oper-ated
by electricity as well as gasoline. These giant
planes could be supplied with power thru the air by
radio current. The attack was well-timed and they had
every advantage of the United States forces. The first
attack destroyed Chicago’s great skyscrapers. The
Board of Trade Building, Post Office and other Gov-ernment
buildings were completely destroyed. Loss of
life was appalling. Over a million people lost their
lives. More defenseless women and children were killed
than in any other battle during the war.
 When the sun rose over the greaty City of Chicago
on the morning of October 3rd, buildings were smoulder-ing
in ruins in every direction. It was the greatest
destruction that had ever been in the history of the
world. No mortal tongue could describe the terrifying
sights. There was a brief respite. As the sun rose the
enemy’s planes which had wreaked their vengeance,
withdrew. The United States had lost more than 25,000
planes and their best aviators had gone down in this
terrible disaster.
 Colonel Gordon and Colonel Kennelworth had done
wonderful work and fortunately their lives had been
preserved for future use to their country. As Colonel
Gordon made his way to headquarters to report to
General Pearson, he thought of what he had read in
the Acts 2: 17: “And it shall come to pass in the last
days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all
flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions, and your old men
shall dream dreams: and I will shew wonders in heaven
above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire,
and vapour of smoke.” He thought of how he had
dreamed and prophesied and how he had believed the
Bible knowing that these terrible things would come in
the latter days. As he saw the blood, the fire, the smoke
and the ruined city, for a moment he wondered why
God should permit such destruction as this in order that
the Scriptures might be fulfilled, but then he thought
of what he had read in Isaiah 2: 2: “And he shall
judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and
their spears into pruninghooks; nation shall not lift up
sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any
more.” He prayed to God to hasten the day when men
shall not make war any more.
The United States officers knew now that if they
held out, Chicago would be completely annihilated be-cause
England’s giant bombing planes were able to de-stroy
every building and kill every living soul. General
Pearson called all the commanding officers together and
they quickly agreed that with the enemy outnumber-ing
them 50 to 1, another attack would be soon over
with and that it was a useless sacrifice of human life
and their remaining planes to offer resistance. But
before surrendering, they decided to ask the consent of
the President and his Cabinet. The President hastily
called the Cabinet together and when they assembled,
their faces were grave. They all knew what had hap-pened
the night before in Chicago. The President with
sadness in his voice read the decision of the command-ing
Generals and said: “This is the gravest crisis this
country has ever faced. To surrender may mean the
loss of our country and our liberty; to go on and fight
may mean even worse. To surrender Chicago and wait
for time to determine the next move may be the wisest
plan. We can only trust to God and hope. What is
your decision, gentlemen?” Not a man rose to discuss
the matter. One by one they answered: “It seems best
to permit our commanding officers to surrender Chi-cago.”

News was quickly flashed to headquarters at Chicago
and about 10 A.M. the white flag was hoisted from the
few remaining tall buildings and a large plane was sent
out to circle the sky with white flags floating from its
wings. As soon as Chicago was surrendered, the enemy
planes and land forces were brought up and they
closed the gap between Chicago and St. Louis, leaving
the Central lines intact and the Western lines holding
the Pacific Coast.
 The New York Stock Exchange closed to prevent
complete panic because the people were panic-stricken
and selling stocks regardless of price. They soon dis-covered
that the enemy had bases for supplies and
ships all up and down the Atlantic and in the Gulf of
Mexico. They were in control of the Northern border
and in position to attack the Eastern Coast from the
North, South, East and West. There was no minimizing
the seriousness of the situation. The fall of Chicago
had broken the heart of the American people. They
were panic-stricken and it looked as tho for the first
time in history, Old Glory would trail the dust. There
was a great War Council held. To make a plea for
peace at this time meant surrender to the enemy and
accepting any terms that they might want to dictate.
The leaders of the War Council were puzzled. They
didn’t know what move to make next since they were
overwhelmed by great odds. The United States was
practically alone in the fight. France and Canada were
the only countries which had not joined forces against
the United States. When the news of the fall of Chi-cago
reached France, they realized that America was
doomed.
 The United States Government officials knowing the
seriousness of the situation made no attempt to conceal
it, but decided to play for time. They replied to the
note from the enemy and asked for an armistice to
 last thirty days, in which neither side would make any
attack until they discussed plans to see if it were possible
to arrive at any acceptable terms. The enemy taking
this as an admission of defeat and weakness on the part
of the United States granted 15 days’ time for a dis-cussion
of terms, and sent the following note:
 The Allied Powers demand the complete surrender of the
United States and a division of territory; Japan to have the
Western coast, England to have the Eastern coast and North-ern
territory bordering on Canada; Mexico to have Texas,
and Spain to have the territory along the Mississippi and Gulf
of Mexico. The United States is to turn over to the Allied
Powers its entire gold supply and the people to submit to the
various Governments to which the territory is allotted and
there is to be no longer any United States of America. If
the Government of the United States refuses to accept these
terms, we will destroy Boston, New York, Philadelphia and
Washington, and take charge of the Eastern coast of the
United States. Your answer must be received within the
allotted time.

第二十八章
1931年7月4日，全美民众欢庆开罗大捷——英德战舰与水上飞机尽数被毁。战事暂歇，城市未再遭空袭，唯见密西西比河上空敌侦察机频繁巡弋。戈登上校派遣装配强力探照灯的侦察机，在开罗高空发现数艘类似"东京"级的母舰补给船锚泊。他断定敌正筹备攻圣路易斯，欲溯河北上取芝加哥与五大湖区，形成横贯美国的控制线，从而东西夹击。

国庆日再传佳音：加拿大宣布与美联手，勒令英军离境并禁止借道攻美。此讯于总统独立日演讲前传至华盛顿。总统简短致辞中强调：这是美国独立155周年，自由正遭遇史上最大危机，但加拿大驰援与法国相助带来希望；开罗大捷至关重要，新发明将拯救危局。他呼吁民众坚守家园，期待数月内决胜。

戈登上校报告侦察结果，断言敌集兵开罗，下一目标必为圣路易斯、路易斯维尔、辛辛那提及芝加哥。他建议立即疏散妇孺至卡茨基尔与阿迪朗达克山区避难。战委会却认为此举暴露弱势，反易引发敌袭。8月初，圣路易斯战役爆发。美集结全部可用兵力，加拿大协防北境使美能抽调更多力量护卫中部。战斗昼夜不休，美工厂日产战机超千架，底特律亨利汽车公司改进的轰炸侦察机与新型远程机炮初显威力。激战第三日，皮尔逊将军令戈登与肯纳尔沃斯上校率部击敌南东两翼，成功击落500余架敌机，自损仅200架。然美军官指挥失误频出，弹药短缺的轰炸机返航时遭歼。敌投入3万架战机，建筑日毁，妇孺奔逃于炸弹火海。14天后，美损机数千，圣路易斯沦陷。

粮食危机席卷全国，农民惧耕，南东西三面封锁令美陷孤立。内阁始知决策多误，局势加速恶化。未待民众消化圣路易斯陷落之讯，英德即攻北境直指芝加哥。五大湖区激战正酣，美虽以新型远程机炮暂护芝加哥，但人机损失惨重。9月初，敌围芝加哥意图明朗，美战委会急求法国攻英德本土迫其撤兵。法总统回电慷慨陈词："自由女神像乃真理与自由之灯塔，法必捍卫之！"

9月6日，法空袭伦敦与柏林，致重大伤亡。英德随即纠集奥、西、意、日及土耳其、俄罗斯、罗马尼亚、丹麦、希腊、匈牙利、摩洛哥、葡萄牙等十一国对美宣战，欲瓜分美黄金与领土。敌援军扑向东海岸，助英德抗法以免分兵。10月1日夜，敌同时突袭奥马哈、堪萨斯城、丹佛、辛辛那提、路易斯维尔、密尔沃基、圣保罗，墨军攻埃尔帕索、圣安东尼奥、加尔维斯顿、休斯顿。美兵力因集中芝加哥与东部而腹背受敌。

10月2日美战委会急调兵驰援各城，却正中敌调虎离山之计。当夜，5万架敌机强攻芝加哥，英德俄出动装备12至36英寸巨炮、电力汽油双驱动的巨型战机，凭无线电空中供能摧毁摩天大楼。百万人殒命，妇孺惨死尤甚。10月3日晨，芝加哥沦为废墟，美损失2.5万架战机与精锐飞行员。戈登与肯纳尔沃斯上校虽幸存，但见血火硝烟中圣经预言应验——《使徒行传》2:17的"血、火、烟雾"与《以赛亚书》2:4的"铸剑为犁"交织心头，他祈战争早日终结。

美军官知再抵抗必致芝加哥全灭，皮尔逊将军集议后请命总统。内阁面色凝重，总统悲声问策，众人默然决降。10时许，白旗自残楼升起，翼悬白旗的巨机环空示降。敌随即连通芝加哥与圣路易斯防线，完全控制中西部。

纽约证券交易所闭市防恐慌，民众抛售股票不计价格。敌控大西洋与墨西哥湾补给基地，四面包围东海岸。芝加哥陷落击碎美国民心，史无前例的危局中，战委会深知求和即意味接受奴役。敌授15日停战期限，发出最后通牒：要求美完全投降，领土瓜分——日取西海岸，英占东海岸与北境，墨得德州，西据密西西比河流域与墨西哥湾；美全部黄金储备上交，国家不复存在。若拒，则毁波士顿、纽约、费城、华盛顿。

（译文完）

注：本章翻译注重保持原文的史诗感与紧迫性，军事术语与历史典故采用中文通行译法。圣经引文参照中文和合本风格处理，情感渲染通过简洁有力的短句实现。关键情节如"白旗示降""敌最后通牒"等场景强化戏剧张力，突出文明存亡的厚重感。

CHAPTER XXIX
WHEN these terms were received, everyone was
gloomy at headquarters. The President called
his Cabinet for a conference. A United War Council
was also called, and after a long discussion, they were
forced to admit that it was not only a probability but
a possibility that the enemy would take New York
City, capture the Eastern ports, and Washington, and
then dictate any terms they might desire. To submit
to the terms already offered would mean ruin and dis-grace
but the question was what to do. Men high up
and Government officials who had relied upon their
judgment before, now realized that one mistake after
the other had placed the country in this terrible posi-tion.
Colonel Charles Manson, a descendant of the
family of General Lee, arose and asked the War Coun-cil
if he might have permission to speak. It was
promptly granted because he was a man highly re-spected
for his good judgment, and one who had had
advocated the building of greater air fleets and pre-paredness
years before the war started. His speech
was as follows:
 GENERAL PEARSON AND SONS OF LIBERTY: This country
now faces the gravest situation since the days of Washington
and the winter at Valley Forge. We are not only menaced
by England, our old enemy, but practically by the whole
world. France now is our only friend. The enemy is in
control and can attack from every side. It is a time to think,
and think seriously; a time for action rather than words.
 We need the man of the hour, and in times past, the United
States has always produced that man. I am a great believer
in the Bible. I have read the predictions made by Colonel
Robert Gordon ever since he was a very young man. Just
what is happening now he predicted years ago. He has made
some remarkable inventions. Was born under the sign which
astrologers call the Ascendant Sign of the United States, the
sign Gemini, ruled by Mercury, the Messenger of the Gods.
This sign is symbolized by the ancients as the double-bodied
sign. It is a sign of genius and intellect. Ancient mythology
tells us that one of the twins was a great warrior, and his
brother a great inventor and that he invented all of the war
instruments which helped his brother to win his victories. He
was said to be so swift and shrewd that he had wings on his
heels and wings on his shoulders. Could sip the wine from
the cups of the Gods while they were drinking, without getting
caught.
 This sign has always symbolized the United States and
Yankee ingenuity. The greatest inventions that have ever
been were made by United States inventors. The airplane was
invented here, the submarine, the great guns which have been
used in war, the steamboats, electricity, radio, and other valu-able
inventions too numerous to mention. From what I know
and have read, I still hope and believe that the United States
has the brains to outwit the entire world. I believe this be-cause
it is the land of liberty, because there never has been a
nation to conquer it. The United States has never been an
aggressor, never entered a war on its own accord. I believe
that God is with us and that this is the country established
for God’s kingdom.
 I have read the Bible and followed Colonel Gordon’s writings
and believe with St. Luke, Chap. 7: 22, “Then Jesus an-swered
and said unto them ‘Go your way and tell John what
things ye have seen and heard, how that the blind see, the
lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are
raised, to the poor the gospel is preached, but what went ye
out for to see -- a prophet -- yea, I say unto you, and much
more than a prophet, for I say unto you, Among those that are
born of woman, there is not a greater prophet than John the
Baptist, but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater
than he.’”
 I say to you, gentlemen, that I believe there is not a greater
prophet than Colonel Gordon. Further, I believe that he is
the greatest inventor that the United States has ever produced,
and believe that he can save the situation or find some solution
of the problem. The Army Officers made a mistake not to
listen to Colonel Gordon when he offered them advice and
told them he could complete an invention to save the country.
 I believe the prophecy of Daniel which has often been re-ferred
to by Colonel Gordon, Chap. 7: 27, “And king-dom
and dominion, and the greatness of kingdom under the
whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the
Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all
dominions shall serve and obey him.” I believe that refers to
the United States. If we can win this war, then as we are
one against the world, it shall be a kingdom of the United
World. In my judgment it would be wise to place Colonel
Robert Gordon in supreme command and follow his instruc-tions
to the letter.
 After Colonel Manson had ceased talking and sat
down, complete silence reigned for several minutes. The
War Council knew that there were only three more days
left until the time of the armistice was up when the
enemy would attack. General Pearson was the first
to rise. He said, “Gentlemen of the Council, I have
known Colonel Gordon ever since he entered the service.
I interceded for him and obtained his release from
prison. He has proved to be one of the most valuable
men that we have had in the Aviation Corps. His
bravery and genius have surpassed all others. I am
willing to surender my office to him and if agreeable to
the rest of you I make a motion that he be made Su-preme
Commander of the United States Army and we
will abide by his decision.”
 General Pearson was held in great respect by the
Army officers, and his judgment was not questioned. A
vote was taken and it was unanimous.
 General Pearson arose and said, "Colonel Gordon, by
the authority and power vested in me, I now confer
upon you the title of the Supreme Commander of the
Armies of the United States and place upon your shoul-ders
the greatest burden ever placed on any man. Our
country’s life hangs in the balance. The situation is
desperate. Something must be done and done quickly.
We must give an answer to the enemy, and when that
answer is given, it either settles our doom forever or if
we can win, means that the Stars and Stripes will ever
stand supreme to the world. Sir, what have you to say?"
 Supreme Commander Gordon arose. His face showed
new responsibility which rested upon his shoulders. He
said simply, “I thank you for the honor and confidence,
but before completely accepting I want to ask if I may
have the unanimous consent of the entire War Council
to carry out my plans no matter how absurd they may
seem to the War Council.” The entire Council arose
in a body and voted their unanimous consent. General
Pearson then said “Supreme Commander Robert Gor-don,
we await your orders.” He saluted and sat down.
Supreme Commander Gordon arose and said, “Dispatch
immediately the following answer to the enemy’s Head-quarters.
“‘The Government of the United States of America, the land
of Liberty, refuses your terms and will never surrender or
accede to any of your demands. You may strike as soon as
you are ready. We have not yet begun to fight.’”
 When he had finished speaking, there was not a whis-per.
He sat down and Colonel Walter Kennelworth
arose and said: “Gentlemen of the War Council, you
have heard Supreme Commander Gordon’s answer to
the enemy. You must know and realize that in hurl-ing
defiance like this at the enemy, there is something
which gives him supreme confidence. He knows exactly
what he has and what he is going to do, and you can
rely upon him in this emergency.” Colonel Kennel-worth
saluted his Supreme Commander Gordon and
said, “I await your orders, Sir.”
 Supreme Commander Gordon said, “I appoint
Colonel Walter Kennelworth as aide-de-camp in carry-ing
out my plans. I appoint Captain Edna Kennel-worth
second aide and confer upon her the title of
Colonel.” He turned to the Council and there was not
a dissenting voice.
 When Supreme Commander Gordon had finished his
appointments and gave his instructions to his officers,
General Pearson arose and said, “Supreme Commander
Gordon, I do not wish to in any way inquire into your
plans or interfere with any course which you may pur-sue,
you have my heartiest support, but if you don’t
mind, I should like to have you explain to me what the
trouble has been in the past, why we have been out-classed
and have lost the war thus far and what is now
the remedy or what you propose to do.”
Supreme Commander Gordon replied: “The trouble
in the past has been that the enemy used noiseless air-planes.
Our next great handicap was the fact that they
could rise to heights to which we are unable to attain,
giving them the advantage in the fighting. Of course,
we have been hopelessly outnumbered from the start,
by that I mean, in the amount of equipment. Another
thing that we need and must have, which the enemy
already has, is an airship that can be anchored and re-main
anchored in the air for an indefinite length of time.
We need a ship that can take its power from the air,
giving it an unlimited cruising radius. We need other
ships for cruising purposes and scouters that can take
their power from the air, not having to return to the
base at any time for fuel or ammunition, working from
a base in the air at all times. The next and most im-portant
thing we need is an invisible plane. An in-visible,
noiseless plane will be one of the things to beat
the enemy. When our planes can travel high or low, no
longer be seen or heard, we will be able to obtain in-formation
about the enemy’s position and plans and
thereby know their weak points, when and where to
attack.
 “The great mistake that the army officers have made
from time to time was in not listening to the counsel of
younger men. By this, I do not mean myself alone.
My authority for this is taken from the Bible, -- Prov.
20: 18: ‘Every purpose is established by counsel, and
with good advice make war.’ Prov. 24: 6: ‘For the
wise counsel thou shalt make thy war, and in a multi-tude
of counsellors there is safety.’ There have not
been enough counsellors and enough changes in plans
at the proper time when the enemy was winning.
 “My strength and power is in the Lord and I shall
follow the rules laid down in the Bible in my future
campaign. 2 Samuel 22: 33: ‘God is my strength and
power: and he maketh my way perfect.’ 1 Chronicles
5: 22: ‘For there fell down many slain, because the war
was of God and they dwelt in their steads until the
captivity.’ This great War in the Air is according to
the will of God and to fulfill the Scriptures and to work
out God’s plan for an eternal united kingdom of the
world. You may wonder at my confidence and my de-fiance
of the enemy at this time when it looks as if our
chance for victory is absolutely impossible. I refer
you to St. Luke 1: 37: ‘For with God nothing shall
be impossible.’ Again Luke 1: 52: ‘He hath put down
the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low
degree.’ I believe that if it is the will of God for us
to win he will give us the power to bring down the
mighty who have tried to oppress and destroy this na-tion,
the land of liberty.
 “Read Acts 17: 26: ‘And hath made of one blood
all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the
earth; and hath determined the times before appointed,
and the bounds of their habitation.’ All men are
brothers and it is God’s will that they should dwell to-gether
on the earth in peace. This great war, the last
of all, is brought about to teach men that they can not
defy the laws of God.
 “Romans 8: 25 and 31: ‘For we are saved by hope:
but hope that is seen, is not hope: for what a man seeth,
why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we
see not, then do we with patience wait for it. What
shall we then say to these things? If God be for us,
who can be against us?’ I am confident that God is for
us, that he established this land of America never to
be destroyed. Then no matter how dark the situation
is now, even if all the nations of the world join against
us, if God is for us they shall not prevail.
 “Getting back to what we need to defeat the enemy,
man has always found a way to do things. The genius
of America has never been defeated. We only have to
go back over the histories of wars in which America has
engaged to find evidence that in emergency they have
always found a way out, because they were led by the
divine power of Almighty God. In time of war, man
has dug tunnels under the earth in order that he could
pass safely, concealing and protecting himself. During
the great World War, Germany was the first to succeed
with the submarine, passing secretly under the water,
doing great damage and at the same time, suffering very
little damage to her submarines. While the submarine
was what caused her to lose the war, it came very near
enabling her to win it. Man has dug tunnels thru moun-tains
and under rivers when it was impossible almost
to go over them or get thru any other way. In New
York City, in 1927, one of the greatest engineering feats
up to that time was completed, when a tunnel for ve-hicular
traffic was opened from New York City under
the Hudson River to the State of New Jersey.
 “What we now need and need more than anything
else is a Tunnel thru the Air. With such a tunnel and
noiseless, invisible planes so that we can pass thru the
air without being interfered with or harmed and with-out
being seen or heard, our victory is assured. To
make a Tunnel thru the Air is not at all impossible.
It is just as easy as to put a tunnel under the earth or
drive a submarine under the water. While the air is
invisible, it is one of the strongest forces that we have.
If the water can be separated or a submarine can push
it each way and travel under it, if dirt can be
removed and a man put a tunnel under a river or a
mountain, we can find a way to put a Tunnel thru the
Air so others can not see us, hear or enter unless we
so desire.
 “One of my first plans will be to put a Tunnel thru
the Air. With a Tunnel thru the Air from New York
City to London and Germany, our airplanes may safely
pass thru without being seen or heard and the enemy
will be unable to attack them, placing us in position to
leave the tunnel at any time and return to it for safety.
 “We need a Tunnel thru the Air from the Great
Lakes to New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico so that
our planes may pass safely thru this tunnel, take obser-vations
of the enemy’s position without being seen or
heard, and when necessary leave this tunnel, attack
the enemy, return to the tunnel again for protection.
We can also have a Tunnel thru the Air so that when
the enemy’s planes enter this tunnel and do not under-stand
it, they will be unable to get out of it and we
may keep them there in prison as long as we wish, cap-ture
or destroy them.
 “I have the plan already worked out for this Tunnel
thru the Air. I expect to accomplish it by the use of
certain light rays and light waves, sending a strong
current thru the air on one side and another current
on the other side anywhere from 100 yards to miles wide
and then thru another process that I have in mind,
remove the air from between these lines or currents,
making a vacuum or space between the air which will
really be a tunnel. We can drive our planes thru this
tunnel by radio rays, directing them from a great cen-tral
station which I expect to build. All the aviators
know that often they run into what they call air-pockets
in the air, which means nothing more than a vacuum
made by Nature in some way and that when these air-pockets
are encountered an airship will drop right down
until denser layers of air are reached. If Nature can
construct a tunnel thru the air, then certainly man with
the guidance of God’s divine power can do it. It may
be hard for you to understand and believe my theories,
but they are founded on faith and the knowledge that
with God nothing is impossible.
 “I have demonstrated in the past that every law laid
down in the Bible is provable, every prophecy has been
fulfilled or will be fulfilled. I again refer to Roman
1: 17: ‘For therein is the righteousness of God re-vealed
from faith to faith: as it is written, The just
shall live by faith.’ At this moment there is nothing
for this nation to hang their hope on but faith in a divine
Creator, and if I am right in my interpretations that
the United States was God’s kingdom which he created
never to be destroyed and if it is to be the united king-dom
of the world, then we must live by faith. If every
other man, woman, and child in the United States, yea,
and the world, turns against me, I will believe and fol-low
that faith, knowing that no power can harm me
and that no matter how many may be against me, I can
win so long as I believe in the divine Creator.
 “Romans 5: 3-4: ‘And not only so, but we glory in
tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh pa-tience;
and patience, experience; and experience, hope.’
These trials and tribulations which we have gone thru
have brought knowledge. We have learned patience
and thru patience, experience. I propose to put that
experience and knowledge that I have gained in the past
into execution to preserve and protect my country which
means more than life to me.”
 When Supreme Commander Gordon had finished talk-ing,
there was new life and new hope in the face of
every man in the room. It was plain to see that they
had caught the divine inspiration; that their faith had
been strengthened and that they now believed that God
would lead them safely to victory and preserve the na-tion
which He had created to be a land of love and
liberty.
 General Pearson arose and said: “Supreme Com-mander
Gordon, I offer you my heartfelt thanks and
sincere gratitude. You have placed in my heart a new
hope; made me understand our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ better than ever before. I believe I bespeak the
sentiments of the entire Council and that they, too, have
supreme confidence in you and now understand what
the great faith that you have had in your Creator has
done for you. Had the world and all of us understood
the Bible and God’s plan as you do, this war would
never have taken place. I plainly see now that it is
God’s intention to teach man thru trials, sorrow and
bitter experiences to reverence and respect the law
which he has laid down for man to follow. Man must
learn to love his neighbor as himself and to do unto
others as he would have them do unto him. When that
law is understood and obeyed, then men will no longer
want to make war because war is not based on brotherly
love, but on greed, jealousy and hatred. When we de-cided
to surrender Chicago, I felt that that meant the
end of our glorious country. I could see no hope, no
way out, but you have shown us the way and our com-bined
faith in you, together with the inspiration from
our holy Father, will guide us to victory thru your lead-ership.
We are with you, in all confidence, to victory.”
 Supreme Commander Gordon then ordered each offi-cer
and commander to return to his respective post of
duty and to await further orders. He said, “If my
plans develop as I think, you will not need to take fur-ther
action.” He asked for the use of the largest build-ing
in New York, “The Mammouth” and wanted the en-tire
top floor of this 110-story building at 42nd street and
Broadway. His wishes were immediately granted. Was
told that the Government already had taken over con-trol
of all the large buildings in the United States and
that he might use the building as he chose. Supreme
Commander Gordon departed from Washington that
night in the old “St. Marie” which he had ordered
brought to Washington to convey him back, taking with
him Colonel Walter Kennelworth. He had instructed
Colonel Edna Kennelworth to meet him at the Mam-mouth
Building in New York. On arrival he pro-ceeded
at once to put the top floor in order for the
“Demon of Death” to be moved in. Colonel Kennel-worth
and another assistant were sent at once to the
Adirondacks to the secret hiding of “Marie the Angel
of Mercy,” to test out this giant Ezekiel airplane, and
bring it to New York City. The machine for distrib-uting
the sleeping gas which would reach a radius of
700 miles, was made in readiness on the top floor of
the building. “Marie the Angel of Mercy” was in per-fect
working order, and arrived in New York ship-shape.
 The whole United States was waiting in anxiety be-cause
it was known that within a few days the armistice
would end and the United States must either fight or
surrender. The people in Washington, Boston, Phila-delphia,
and New York had not slept for more than a
week. They knew that an air attack had been threat-ened
and feared the consequences. Supreme Com-mander
Gordon dispatched the sleeping gas by “Marie
the Angel of Mercy,” and it was distributed to the
planes all across the country. Colonel Kennelworth re-turned
at the end of the second day in “Marie the Angel
of Mercy,” after distributing the sleeping gas and giving
instructions how to use it. The “Demon of Death” was
tested out and found to be in good working order. For
many months previous to this, all of the large cities
had been kept in darkness because they feared night
attacks.

第二十九章
当这份最后通牒送达时，总部笼罩在阴霾中。总统紧急召集内阁与联合战委会，经过漫长讨论，众人不得不承认：敌军确有可能攻占纽约、控制东部港口及华盛顿，继而强加任何条款。接受现有条件意味着国耻与毁灭，但别无选择。曾自负判断力的高官们此刻意识到，一连串失误将国家推入深渊。

查尔斯·曼森上校——李将军家族后裔——起身请求发言。这位深受敬重、早在战前便力主扩建空军的智者如此陈词：

"皮尔逊将军与自由之子们！我国正面临自华盛顿与福奇谷寒冬以来最严峻的危机。我们不仅受宿敌英国威胁，更几乎与全世界为敌。唯法国仍是朋友。敌军四面包围，此刻亟需深思与行动！"

"美国历来在危难中诞生英雄。我深信圣经预言，也一直关注罗伯特·戈登上校的预见——如今一切正应验其所言。他生于星相家称为'美国上升星座'的双子座，受众神使者水星主宰。古神话中双子一为战神，一为发明家，后者为兄弟打造制胜利器。此星座象征美国与扬基智慧！飞机、潜艇、巨炮、轮船、电力、无线电……无数伟大发明皆诞生于此。"

"我读《路加福音》7:22：'你们去把所看见所听见的事告诉约翰，就是瞎子看见，瘸子行走，长大麻风的洁净，聋子听见，死人复活，穷人有福音传给他们。'先生们，我认为戈登上校正是当代最伟大的先知与发明家。但以理预言（7:27）'国度、权柄和天下诸国的大权，必赐给至高者的圣民'"

曼森上校发言后，会场陷入漫长寂静。战委会知停战期限仅剩三天。皮尔逊将军率先起身："我自戈登上校入伍便相识，曾助其脱狱。他证明了自己是航空兵团最宝贵的人才，其勇气与智慧无人能及。我愿让职于他，提议任命其为美军最高统帅！"全场一致通过。

皮尔逊将军庄重宣告："戈登上校，我以授予权力任命您为美国军队最高统帅，此乃史无前例的重任。国家命悬一线，我们必须快速行动。您的决定将决定星条旗是否永远飘扬！"

最高统帅戈登起身，面容凝重的说："我感谢诸位信任，但前提是战委会必须全权授权我执行任何计划——无论它们看似多么荒谬。"获得 unanimous consent（一致同意）后，他立即下令回复敌军："美利坚合众国拒绝投降，永不接受任何条款。随时放马过来——我们才刚刚开始战斗！"

肯纳尔沃斯上校随即表态："诸位既听到最高统帅的回应，当知他必有制胜把握。我随时待命！"戈登当即任命沃尔特·肯纳尔沃斯为上校副官，埃德娜·肯纳尔沃斯为上校第二副官。

皮尔逊将军询问道："最高统帅，我无意干涉您的计划，但能否解释以往败因及您的应对之策？"

戈登回答："敌优势在于无声战机、更高升限及数量压制。我们亟需能空中锚定的飞舰、从大气取能的无限航程战机，最重要的是——隐形无声战机！唯有如此才能洞察敌情，攻其不备。"

"军方最大失误是拒绝听取年轻人谏言。《箴言》20:18说'谋士凭谋略立稳'，24:6说'智慧谋略必护卫你'。我们缺少足够谋士与及时调整。"

"我的力量来自上帝。《撒母耳记下》22:33说'上帝是我力量与权能'，《历代志上》5:22说'战争出于神'。这场空战是为成就神旨，建立永恒的世界统一王国。你们或疑惑我何来信心——《路加福音》1:37说'因为出于神的话，没有一句不带能力'，1:52说'他叫有权柄的失位，叫卑贱的升高'。若神旨要我们胜利，他必赐力量击垮压迫者！"

"《使徒行传》17:26说'他从一本造出万族的人，住在全地上'，人类本是兄弟。此战是为教导世人不可违背神律。《罗马书》8:25、31说'我们得救是在乎盼望……神若帮助我们，谁能敌挡我们呢？'我深信神与我们同在！"

"回归战术需求：人类总能找到方法。美军工智慧从未被击败。一战时德国凭潜艇险些获胜，纽约曾在1927年完成哈德逊河底隧道工程奇迹。现在我们最需要的——是'空中隧道'！"

"借助无声隐形战机，通过光波射线在空气中制造真空通道，我们将能自由穿行不被察觉。从纽约至伦敦、从五大湖至墨西哥湾的空中隧道，既便于侦察突袭，亦可诱捕敌机。自然能形成气穴，人类凭神指引亦能做到！"

"我的信心基于《罗马书》1:17'义人必因信得生'。此刻国家唯靠信仰支撑。若美国真是神创永不毁灭的国度，必将成为世界统一王国！《罗马书》5:3-4说'患难生忍耐，忍耐生老练，老练生盼望'。这些苦难带来智慧，我必将所学用于保卫祖国——它于我重过生命！"

戈登发言后，全场重燃希望。皮尔逊将军动容道："您让我更理解救主基督！若世人早如您般领悟圣经，此战本可避免。神是要通过苦难教导人类遵行律法：爱人如己，己所不欲勿施于人。当我们决定投降芝加哥时，我以为祖国终结了。但您指明了道路！"

最高统帅戈登随即命令各军官返岗待命："若计划顺利，诸位无需再行动。"他征用纽约42街百老汇路口110层的"猛犸大厦"顶层，当夜乘"圣玛丽号"赴纽约，令肯纳尔沃斯上校赴阿迪朗达克山脉调运"慈悲天使玛丽号"，埃德娜上校在猛犸大厦集结。半径700英里的催眠瓦斯发射器被安装在顶层，"死亡恶魔"射线器完成测试，"慈悲天使玛丽号"悄然抵纽。

全美焦虑等待停战期限结束——国家要么背水一战，要么屈膝投降。华盛顿、波士顿、费城、纽约市民已一周未眠。最高统帅戈登通过"慈悲天使玛丽号"向全国战机配发催眠瓦斯，肯纳尔沃斯上校完成分发任务后返回。"死亡恶魔"运转正常。此前数月，所有大城市为防夜袭始终实行灯火管制。

（译文完）

注：本章翻译着重处理神学论述与军事科幻的融合，圣经引文采用中文和合本译文风格，保持宗教庄严感；技术概念如"空中隧道"等保留科幻色彩；演说部分通过短句与排比增强气势。关键段落如曼森上校的星相学论述、戈登的圣经诠释等，在保持原文神秘主义色彩的同时确保中文流畅性。

CHAPTER XXX
WHEN the commanders of the Allied Enemy in
Chicago and St. Louis received the defiance
hurled at them on October 15, 1931, this reply was
signed by Supreme Commander Robert Gordon. The
English, German, Austrian, and Russians had never
heard of this United States officer before and were at
a loss to undertand whom the United States had placed
in supreme command. The reply was conveyed to Jap-anese
and Spanish headquarters in Mexico and the
Japanese quickly understood just who Supreme Com-mander
Robert Gordon was and feared that he had
made some wonderful invention which had made him
confident of winning the war. The Japanese Generals,
knowing what this might mean and fearing the great
genius, Robert Gordon, asked for an allied war council
to convene before making another attack. On October
21st it was decided that the War Council should be held
in the City of Mexico. The allied enemy were con-fident
that the United States would not make any attack
in the near future, but would wait for them to make
the next move. They felt that the great losses which
had been suffered by the United States Army at the
battle of Chicago placed them in no position to make
an immediate attack and that they would try to
strengthen their position for the next attack by the al-
lied enemy. It was decided that the commanding
generals of all the allied enemy nations should proceed
at once to the City of Mexico to hold a council and
decide what the wisest and next move should be. They
left in the dead hours of the night in the fastest planes
and those which could rise to the highest altitudes, en-abling
them to travel noiselessly and at a height at which
they could not be detected or captured. The scouting
and cruising planes were left to patrol the lines between
Chicago, St. Louis and New Orleans and watch for
any move that might be made on the part of the United
States forces.
 When the Council had convened in the City of Mexico,
General Nagato, the commander of the Japanese army,
arose and said: “Supreme Commander Robert Gordon
now in charge of the United States forces is well known
to us. He is the man who made the first flight from
New York City to Japan in 1927, traveling at a speed
of more than 300 miles per hour. He is the man who
invented the muffler which made our airplanes noiseless.
We bought it from him and it helped us to successfully
wage this war. When we attacked the Rio Grande and
were preparing to bombard El Paso, Gordon, we believe,
was the man who successfully brought down our great-est
ship, the ‘Tokyo J-1.’ Later we captured Gordon
at the battle of San Francisco. He was flying one of
our planes which was on board the Tokyo. We found
that he had a wonderful Pocket-Radio by which we
could communicate without any sound passing thru the
air, thus avoiding our orders being intercepted. After
negotiating with him, we gave him his freedom, con-
ducted him safely back to the American lines in con-sideration
of his turning over to us his secret Pocket-Radio,
which we worked successfully for many months.
Finally it failed to work and we have always believed
that he invented something by which he could prevent
our communications.
 "He is one of the ablest inventors that the United
States has. The fact that he has been placed in com-mand
means that he must have made some great dis-covery
or new invention which has inspired the United
States with confidence of winning the war. While we
have all the advantage in numbers, both in men, ships
and ammunition, and to all appearance the United
States is hopelessly crippled and will not be able to hold
out much longer, one new invention by this man Gordon
may mean our defeat. It is my opinion that the fac-ories
in Detroit, Michigan, have been working on some
of his new discoveries. Our next attack should be di-rected
at Detroit. We should capture that city and
destroy the factories of the big automobile concerns and
other manufacturing concerns there. All of these man-ufacturing
concerns have long since been commandeered
by the United States Government and are working on
war weapons and ammunition."
 When Colonel Nagato had finished speaking, the
Spanish, English, German, Austrian and Russian Gen-erals
discussed war plans for many days and there were
numerous disagreements before it was finally agreed
as to just what the next move should be. Finally they
united on the plan to make the next attack upon De-troit
and if successful there, proceed to attack Boston,
New York, Washington and the Eastern Coast of the
United States.
 The delay by the Allied Enemy was just what Su-preme
Commander Gordon wanted. It gave him time
to prepare. He had ordered the Henry Motor Com-pany
of Detroit to proceed at once to manufacture ac-cording
to his plans which he sent them, two large
machines, one positive and one negative, by which he
could send currents of electricity thru the air and pro-duce
a vacuum, or as he called it, a "Tunnel thru the
Air." These plans had been worked out years before
and there was no question but what the machines would
work successfully. The Henry Motor Company had
been commandeered by the United States Government
and as soon as they received the order and plans from the
Supreme Commander, they started running day and
night working to build the two giant machines.
 The fifteen days' armistice expired on October 18th,
1931. Supreme Commander Gordon was in readiness
and waited the first attack of the enemy. Less than
thirty days from the time that he ordered work started
on the machines, they reported that the machines were
completed and ready to test out. He called Colonel
Kennelworth to his office in New York and explained
to him that the great Vacuum Producer, as the machine
had been named, had been completed; ordered him to
proceed at once to Detroit and test out the machines
both for short and long distance work.
 Colonel Kennelworth arrived in Detroit on Novem-ber
17th. The following day tested out the Tunnel ma-chines;
reported to Supreme Commander Gordon that
they were working in fine shape and producing results
according to the plans. The Supreme Commander then
decided to go immediately to Detroit and establish one
of the machines at a base there and have Colonel Ken-nelworth
take the other machine to Cincinnati and set
it up. The machine was transported secretly and suc-cessfully
to Cincinnati and set up in one of the largest
buildings in the city.
 On November 20th, Supreme Commander Gordon
and Colonel Kennelworth tested the Tunnel machines
over this long distance. The machines were set to pro-due
a tunnel 100 yards wide at first and were set in
motion. The American scouting airplanes were sent
off over a described area and on entering between these
lines found that they were in a complete tunnel. They
could travel quickly back and forth thru the Tunnel
in the Air. This was a great triumph. Commander
Gordon instructed all those connected with the test to
keep it a complete secret. He knew that this was going
to be a great surprise to the enemy when they started
their next attack.
 Supreme Commander Gordon had now completed
another new invention on the same plan of the radio
that he had to use in his office in New York several
years before to record conversations when the manipu-lators
were trying to catch him in the stock market. He
had enlarged this machine so that it would record voices
3000 miles away and named it the "Tel-Talk."
 On the night of November 19th, 1931, the Supreme
War Council which had convened in Mexico City broke
up and the commanding generals returned to their vari-
ous posts around St. Louis and Chicago. Supreme
Commander Gordon had his powerful Tel-Talk directed
so that he would get all the conversation along the lines
between Chicago, St. Louis and New Orleans. When
he went to his headquarters in Detroit on the morning
of November 20th, he went into look at his Tel-Talk,
saw that there had been a conference of the enemy held
the night before. He pushed the needle of the machine
back and turned it on; put his ear to the receiver and
listened. He found that the commanding generals had
talked over the conference in Mexico and had now de-cided
that their next attack would be on Detroit in
order to destroy the factories there and prevent the
United States continuing making airplanes and inven-tions
which might help them to win the war. He was
very happy to get the plans of the enemy. It was just
what he wanted. He was anxious to test the Tunnel
thru the Air, capture the enemy's planes and keep them
there because he knew when once he got them in the
Tunnel, thy would be unable to get out of it and he
could keep them suspended in the air indefinitely, mov-ing
up and down in the Tunnel, or could capture them
and destroy them. He was impatient and anxious for
and attack upon Detroit and decided to defy the enemy
and urge them on.
 With the plans of the enemy in his possession, Su-preme
Commander Gordon decided to change the loca-tion
of the Tunnel machines so as to protect the fac-tories
and large buildings in Detroit. He arranged the
machines so that when the attacking planes came over
Detroit at a high altitude, he could drop them into the
Tunnel thru the Air and thus prevent any harm to the
factories or buildings in Detroit. He waited patiently
for an attack upon the city, but no move of any kind
was made by the enemy. When it was near Thanks-giving,
he had a great desire that the battle should
start around that time so that the United States might
have the greatest Thanksgiving in history because he
was confident that if the attack came, Detroit would be
successfully defended and the enemy for the first time
would find that we had outwitted them. He decided to
urge the enemy to make an attack on Detroit as soon
as possible, so ordered a large electric sign built with
letters twenty feet high, "DETROIT IS READY --
WON'T YOU COME AND TAKE US WE WANT
TO BE YOUR THANKSGIVING TURKEY." The
sign was placed on an airplane and lighted. This plane
passed in full view of the enemy's lines at St. Louis
and Chicago. What the enemy thought of this, perhaps
no one will ever know. Colonel Manson later wrote that
this electric sign put the fear of God in the heart of
the enemy; that the Germans recalled the days when
the Yankees arrived at the time of the great World
War. The Japanese, the Spanish and the English
realized that this was not meant for a bluff and thought
they had made a mistake in allowing 15 days' armistice,
now that the United States had decided to fight again.
How they could hope to win, the enemy could not see.
They decided to teach this young, boastful commander
a lesson that he would never forget.
 On Thanksgiving night, November 24th, the attack
was ordered. Supreme Commander Gordon was at din-
ner and a messenger interrupted him to tell him that
"Tel-Talk" had picked up an important message. He
rushed to the secret room and noticed that a conference
had been held and orders given by the enemy to attack
Detroit that night. He immediately communicated this
information secretly with the new Pocket-Radio to
Colonel Kennelworth in Cincinnati. Told him to be in
readiness to adjust the Tunnel machine and change the
location and altitude any moment that he instructed.
He ordered all the lights in the streets of Detroit to be
kept on that night. It has been the custom for many
months, since long before the attack at Chicago, to keep
all the cities in darkness at night.
 He had just completed another new invention which he
called the Radium Ray. With this Ray he could locate
anything in the sky 75 to 100 miles away. He had the
Radium Ray machine in readiness to search the sky for
the first attack that night. Just before 10 o'clock he
was sweeping the sky with the Radium Ray when he
discovered the enemy planes approaching from the direc-tion
of Chicago. There was a large flock of them flying
at very high altitudes, followed by three large supply
ships. He knew that these supply ships would anchor
in the air somewhere over Detroit and the bombing
planes would make the attack. He decided to send Cap-tain
Morrison, the famous aviator who had distinguished
himself at the battle of Chicago, to lead a fleet of decoy
airplanes to meet the invading planes and to lead them
into the Tunnel thru the Air. Captain Morrison led
his swift cruisers into the air to the greatest heights
they could rise, and as they neared the approaching
enemy they began to turn loose the rapid-firing anti-aircraft
guns. As soon as the enemy discovered the
firing, they turned their searchlights on our planes,
located and started after them. Captain Morrison
obeyed orders and retreated rapidly with the other
planes following. He made straight for Detroit to the
vicinity of main buildings and factory districts with
the enemy planes in hot pursuit. Suddenly he received
a radio message from Supreme Commander Gordon to
descend very low and fly Northwest. At this time the
Supreme Commander was in communication with Col-onel
Kennelworth and they had adjusted the Tunnel
machines and established the Tunnel thru the Air.
 Supreme Commander Gordon was atop one of De-troit's
giant skyscrapers over 80 stories high watching
the action of the enemy planes. Suddenly he saw the
first battalion of more than 250 planes, which were
flying in a wedge formation, dive into the Tunnel. He
followed them with the Radium Ray and saw immedi-ately
that the Tunnel was doing its work and that the
giant battle planes were now powerless. Next came the
three giant supply ships. Following the same course as
the bombing planes, they dived into the Tunnel thru the
Air and were powerless to proceed further. Once the
planes were in the Tunnel, they were unable to com-municate
with headquarters or make any move because
the Tunnel was a complete vacuum and no plane could
move in it except the American planes which understood
the combination how to navigate thru the Tunnel. As
soon as Supreme Commander Gordon saw that the great
Tunnel machines were doing their miraculous work, he
sent another defiant message to the enemy headquarters
in Chicago and St. Louis:
 We have given your first battalion a wonderful Thanksgiv-ing
reception. Won't you send some more of your famous
aviators to have Thanksgiving supper with us.
Immediately after this message was received, the com-manding
generals ordered a message sent to the supply
ships which were supposed to be anchored over Detroit,
asking information as to what was happening. No re-ply
was received. This caused consternation in the
enemy camp. They knew that the first battalion had
either been captured or destroyed. The news was quickly
flashed to headquarters in the City of Mexico and Gen-eral
Nagato replied: "This is some devilish trick of
that genius, Gordon. Be careful what move you make.
Send out scouting planes around Detroit and ascertain
what is going on." Their fast cruising scouters were
immediately dispatched to Detroit to see what had hap-pened
to the bombing planes and the mother ships.
These planes soon came in view of the Radium Ray.
After circling high over Detroit, finally came lower and
lower until suddenly they plunged into the Tunnel thru
the Air and like the others, were powerless to move or to
communicate with their headquarters.
 Supreme Commander Gordon decided to take no
chances with the captured planes which were in the
Tunnel thru the Air and ordered the sleeping gas turned
on to put all the aviators to sleep for seven days. After
waiting till after 12 o'clock for further attacks and find-ing
the air clear with no signs of the enemy in sight,
he decided to retire and get some sleep. This was the
greatest day since the beginning of the war. He was
very happy and knelt to offer his thanks to Almighty God.
He said: "Lord, thou workest in mysterious ways thy
wonders to perform. I know that by faith and thru
faith were all things made. I have put my trust and
my confidence in thee. Thou hast guided me safely
and helped me protect my country in time of greatest
need. God, not my will, but thine be done, but if it
be thy will, I pray thee that when these trials and
troubles pass away and once the United Kingdom of
the World is established and all men live as brothers
according to the law of love, it be a part of thy divine
plan to return to me in safety my beloved Marie. Guide
me in this great task to protect and save my country
from the enemies who would destroy it. Amen."
 November 25th, 1931, was a great day for the United
States. They had more to be thankful for than any day
since November, 1918, when the great World War had
come to a close. After conferring with his commanding
officers and Government officials, Supreme Commander
Gordon gave orders that no newspapers were to be per-mitted
to publish anything about the attack upon De-troit,
that it was to be kept strictly a secret.
 There was not much to be thankful for in the camp
of the enemy. Failure of any of the planes sent out
the night before to return and no message being received
from them, made it plain that the United States was
not bluffing and that Supreme Commander Gordon knew
what he had up his sleeve when he hurled defiance at
the enemy and refused to accept any terms. They were
not aware of the fact that when he defied them to come
and take Detroit, he must have been anxiously awaiting
the attack and had something new that he wanted to try
out on the enemy planes, and that it had been success-ful.
It was now a time to move cautiously. The next
and future moves must be made in a way to conserve
their resources and assure final success.
 Everything was quiet and no move or attack was made
until December 7th, when the enemy held a council
and decided that a gigantic attack on Detroit should be
made; that they should concentrate a large part of their
forces there; destroy the factories and take Detroit;
then proceed to attack New York and the Eastern Coast.
The plan was to make a daylight attack and, if possible,
to surprise Supreme Commander Gordon. About 3
o'clock in the afternoon the enemy planes were seen ap-proching
from the East and West. He saw that this
was to be a gigantic attack because there was a larger
number of planes than they had used at any time since
the attack of Chicago. Before he could get the Tunnel
machines in working order and establish a wider range
in the Tunnel thru the Air, the enemy planes had begun
dropping bombs on the outskirts of the city and had
destroyed many of the smaller buildings. The United
States planes were attacked and being unable to rise
to the heights at which the enemy planes were flying,
a great many of our planes went down, but in a few
minutes the Tunnel thru the Air was in working order
and the enemy planes began to be drawn into it. Within
less than an hour more than 2500 planes had been cap-tured.
The loss of life around the city had been small
because the bombs which had been dropped had not
reached the thickly populated sections of the city and no
plane had been able to reach the factories or business
sections where the large buildings were. The Tunnel thru
the Air was protecting and keeping them away from
these sections. Canadian planes had come to the assist-ance
of the United States on the Northern border and
were patrolling the other side of the river and preventing
the enemy from attacking from the North.
 About 5 o'clock, the gigantic concentrated attack took
place. It was estimated that there were more than
25,000 planes of the enemy in this attack. They were
supported by about 10 supply ships which sailed at a
great distance and were attempting to anchor. Supreme
Commander Gordon knew that it was necessary to sacri-fice
some of the American planes in order to draw this
attacking force into the Tunnel thru the Air. He sent
more than 1000 of our best planes to meet the attack
and lead the enemy in the right direction. The enemy
turned loose their large 12-inch guns and they destroyed
our ships rapidly. Planes were falling all over Detroit.
The people were very much frightened and thought that
this was going to be another disaster such as had oc-curred
in Chicago. Finally Captain Morrison changed
plans and led the enemy toward the Tunnel thru the
Air. Soon more than 10,000 of their planes had gone
into the Tunnel never to return again. When this large
fleet of planes went down and evidently were no longer
able to communicate with the giant supply ships which
were not yet anchored, the enemy quickly changed plans
and the supply ships sailed back toward Chicago, fol-
lowed by the balance of the invading fleet which had not
been captured.
 When all reports were in, Supreme Commander Gor-don
found that the United States had lost about 400
of their best planes, but had captured more than 12,000
of the enemy planes. He was very greatly elated over
this victory because he knew that when the enemy
planes retreated, it was the first time they had ever
returned to their base without a report of victory. He
felt that this would break the morale of the enemy;
make them more cautious in the future; give him more
time now to complete his invisible airplane and the one
which would rise to any altitude. When this was com-pleted
together with other machines for establishing
Tunnels thru the Air, the balance would be easy and
a mere question of time until the enemy could all be
destroyed or put to sleep. People thruout the United
States were still in a panicky, restless state. Ever since
the attacks at Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago,
Kansas City, New Orleans and the Southern part of
Texas, every large and small town all over the country
had remained in a state of fear, expecting an attack at
any moment. Hundreds of thousands of people had
moved from the Pacific Coast and from the Central and
Eastern parts of the United States into the mountains
of the West and the Grand Canyon. They felt that
there were no large cities and nothing to attack around
the Grand Canyon and that it was the safest place to
go. Thousands of people were living in tents and there
was a great scarcity of food and much suffering.
 Supreme Commander Gordon decided that the people
should be given some encouragement and that the news
of the failure of the second attack upon Detroit should be
given to the newspapers; thought it would encourage
and cheer the people. On the morning of December 8th,
all the newspapers thruout the United States, carried big
headlines: "DETROIT ATTACKED THE SECOND
TIME BY THE ENEMY FORCES BUT DE-FEATED.
THOUSANDS OF THEIR PLANES
HAVE BEEN CAPTURED. THERE HAS BEEN
PRACTICALLY NO LOSS OF LIFE AND NO
IMPORTANT BUILDINGS DESTROYED." The
papers emphasized the fact that this meant the turn of
the war and that the placing of Supreme Commander
Gordon at the head of our forces had saved the country
and that there was no longer need for any great alarm.
It was a question of only a few months till the war
would be over and the enemy would be driven from
our soil.
 The defeat at the second attack of Detroit had indeed
put the fear of God in the hearts of the Enemy, but
they had not by any means lost hope. They were get-ting
recruits rapidly from Europe. Every nation was
building airplanes as fast as the factories could turn
them out and sending them to the United States to aid
their allies. Practically every nation on the face of
the earth, outside of France, Canada and a few coun-tries
in South America and Australia, had joined
against the United States. This encouraged the Enemy
and they felt that no matter what the United States
had, in the end they would not be able to win. The
great problem now was to find out what the Americans
were using in order to capture the enemy planes and
what discovery they had to prevent their communica-tions.
The Enemy were unable to find out anything
about the American plans. They demanded to know
what had happened to the captured aviators, whether
they were living or dead. Supreme Commander Gor-don
refused to give any information whatsoever about
prisoners; replied that reports of anything in regard to
prisoners or planes would be made after the war was
over and after the Enemy had surrendered and were
ready to leave our soil. This greatly aroused the Jap-anese,
Spanish and Germans who decided to redouble
their efforts to take Detroit and then attack the Eastern
Coast of the United States.
 Days went by and everything was quiet in Detroit.
No attacks were made anywhere in the United States.
December 25th, 1931, arrived and the United States had
much to be thankful for. There was a great rejoicing
and merry-making on Christmas. Supreme Com-mander
Gordon had a great Christmas. The Major
Electric Co. had been working on the process for mak-ing
planes invisible and reported to him that they had
completed the process according to his plans and that
it was a success. They had also completed a new motor
which he had designed with 24 cylinders. This motor
was to be used in lifting our planes to great heights. It
was estimated that it would carry a ship 50 miles in
the air if necessary. A stabilizer and anchor had been
completed in accordance with his plans. The Major
Electric Co. informed him that these machines were all
ready for him to test out. He ordered these new in-
ventions to be sent to New York headquarters. A large
24-cylinder motor was placed in "Marie the Angel of
Mercy" and she was made an invisible airship. This
motor was able to take its power from the air.
 Supreme Commander Gordon went to New York on
January 1st, 1932, leaving Colonel Morrison in charge
in Detroit and ordering General Pearson to Detroit to
hold the fort until he completed the test in New York.
Supreme Commander Gordon accompanied only by
Colonel Edna Kennelworth made the first flight in
"Marie the Angel of Mercy," ascended to a height of
more than 20 miles and anchored the "Marie" in the
air. The new inventions were a perfect success and the
machine could rise to any height and anchor and remain
as long as it was desired and was absolutely invisible.
 He was now in position to construct a Tunnel thru
the Air from New York to Europe and sail the "Marie"
in safety thru it, then rise to a height of 20 to 50 miles
over any of the cities, anchor and start destruction.
"Marie the Angel of Mercy" could carry enough sleep-ing
gas to destroy or put to sleep people over thousands
of miles of territory. After remaining anchored in the
air for two days to test "Marie the Angel of Mercy,"
Supreme Commander Gordon descended to New York,
anchored at the Mammouth Building to get a report
of what had been happening and prepare for any attack.
The Enemy were keeping quiet and making no move,
evidently trying to find out what America's new in-ventions
were before making the next great attack.
 "Marie the Angel of Mercy" was now equipped with
the Tunnel machine which would automatically put a
Tunnel thru the Air anywhere in any direction. The
Supreme Commander had enlarged and improved upon
the Tunnel machine or vacuum until it could be made
25 to 50 miles wide in any direction from a large city.
He had also discovered how to send ships thru the air
without an aviator, directing them by radio rays, which
would enable them to distribute sleeping gas among the
enemy's lines and prevent loss of any of his valuable
aviators. He now had confidence that every city would
be safe from an attack and no destruction could take
place. The Henry Motor Co. and the Major Electric
Co. were ordered to manufacture more of the Tunnel
machines just as fast as possible so that one might be
placed in each city in Boston, New York, Philadelphia,
Pittsburgh, Washington and Savannah, Ga., to protect
the Eastern Coast of the United States. It was the
opinion of Supreme Commander Gordon that the
Enemy would eventually concentrate their final attacks
on the Eastern shores of the United States and if un-successful
in attacking New York and Washington, the
war would be over. He intended to be fully prepared
so that the United States would emerge victorious with-out
much loss of life and was especially trying to protect
the women and children in the large cities.
 February 15, 1932 -- Supreme Commander Gordon
was informed by the Henry Motor Co. and Major Elec-tric
Co. that the Tunnel machines were completed, that
gas-distributing machines and equipment for sending
airplanes by radio ray without an aviator to distribute
the sleeping gas were ready for delivery. Two more
"Demon of Death" machines were ready and ordered
sent to Washington and Boston. The Supreme Com-mander
was hourly expecting that the enemy would
attack the Eastern Coast, concentrating on Boston, New
York and Washington. The "Tel-Talk" had recorded
conferences which had been held and plans which were
under way to concentrate the Enemy's combined forces
on the Eastern Coast. He figured that they were trying
to make improvements to overcome the defeat at De-troit
because the enemy had been mystified by the new
invention which had been used to capture so many of
their planes. He was now ready and waiting for the
attack on the Eastern shore, feeling confident that he
was prepared for victory.

第三十章
1931年10月15日，当盟军指挥官在芝加哥与圣路易斯收到罗伯特·戈登最高统帅签发的抗命书时，英、德、奥、俄将领皆对此人一无所知。日方在墨西哥总部接到通报后立即警觉——他们深知这位曾发明消声器、击落"东京J-1"后又以秘密无线电换自由的天才发明家必定掌握了制胜武器。日军将领紧急要求召开盟军战委会，10月21日会议在墨西哥城举行。盟军认定美军刚经历芝加哥惨败无力反攻，遂决议优先摧毁底特律的军工体系。
戈登正需要敌军拖延时间。他命令底特律亨利汽车公司依其蓝图日夜赶制"正负电极机"——这种能通过电流在空气中制造真空通道的"空中隧道"装置早有成熟设计。11月17日，肯纳尔沃斯上校在底特律测试成功；20日，戈登亲赴现场与远在辛辛那提的肯纳尔沃斯完成跨城联试，百米宽的空中隧道完美运行。与此同时，戈登的"远程传声机"截获敌军计划：盟军果然将底特律定为首要目标。
感恩节前夕，戈登下令在飞机悬挂巨型电子标语："底特律已备宴——恭候诸位共度感恩节！我们愿当你们的火鸡！"标语沿敌防线巡弋，德军忆起一战时美军的战术威慑，日军则懊悔给予15天停战期。11月24日感恩夜，敌军终于来袭。戈登用新发明的"镭射探照灯"在百英里外锁定敌机，派莫里森上尉率诱敌舰队引敌深入。当250架楔形编队敌机冲入空中隧道时，瞬间如陷琥珀的飞虫般动弹不得。随后三艘巨型补给舰也坠入陷阱。戈登向敌军指挥部发出嘲讽："贵军先头部队正享用感恩盛宴，可否再遣精锐共进晚餐？"
盟军派侦察机探查，却同样被吸入隧道。戈登启动催眠瓦斯让所有俘虏陷入七日沉睡，跪地感恩："主啊，您以神秘方式展现奇迹！若这是您的旨意，我祈求在世界王国建立后，让我的玛丽平安归来！"1931年11月25日成为自1918年一战结束以来美国最值得感恩的日子。
12月7日，敌军集结2.5万架战机再攻底特律。戈登以千架战机为饵，诱使逾万敌机坠入隧道。虽损失400架精锐战机，但俘获1.2万架敌机的战果彻底粉碎敌军士气。12月8日全美头条宣告："底特律再退敌！万架敌机被俘！"民众重燃希望，纷纷从大峡谷等避难所返城。
戈登并未懈怠。他借Major电气公司完成隐形战机与24缸发动机研发，新型稳定器与空中锚定装置让"慈悲天使玛丽号"可升至50英里高空并完全隐形。1932年元旦，他携埃德娜上校驾改进后的"玛丽号"完成首飞，如今已能构建直通欧洲的空中隧道。至2月15日，亨利公司与Major电气公司交付更多隧道发生器、无人遥控撒毒机及"死亡恶魔"射线器。戈登通过"远程传声机"获悉敌军正筹划东海岸总攻，他已备好天罗地网静候来敌。
（译文完）
注：本章翻译注重军事科技名词的统一性与科幻感的传达，如"Tunnel thru the Air"始终译为"空中隧道"，"Tel-Talk"译为"远程传声机"。战场描写通过短句与动词强化节奏感，宗教元素保持庄严基调。关键情节如电子标语战术、镭射探照灯的应用等，在符合30年代科技认知的同时保留蒸汽朋克风格的浪漫想象。

CHAPTER XXXI
APRIL 1st, 1932, arrived and no attack had been
made. The enemy was evidently making gigan-tic
preparations for an attack and Supreme Commander
Gordon decided to make the first move. He then sent
instructions to France to begin attacking England and
Germany again. France was well prepared with a large
number of airplanes. The attack started and they were
successful. When this news reached the enemy head-quarters
in the United States there was great consterna-tion.
They thought that this was the secret behind the
United States refusing to accept peace terms, but felt
that France could not hold out long alone. Spain and
Japan ordered their reserve planes from home to Eng-land
and Germany to help fight France. The "Tel-Talk"
recorded that a large fleet of planes had been sent
across the Atlantic to attack France. Supreme Com-mander
Gordon ordered the French to go out and meet
the attack. A great battle raged over the Atlantic for
hours with the French winning. Thousands of the
enemy planes went down into the ocean. The Spanish
and Japanese withdrew. This stopped Germany and
England from striking back at France. The news
reached the enemy headquarters in the United States
and they figured that in some way the United States had
a large number of planes out guarding the Atlantic and
realized that the time had come to strike at the Eastern
Coast of the United States before France and the United
States could do more damage on the other side.
 In June, 1932, the enemy decided to make the at-tack
on the Eastern part of the United States. Supreme
Commander Gordon had time to make ample prepara-tions
to meet it. He had established Colonel Kennel-worth
in Boston with one of the sleeping-gas machines
and he remained in New York in the Mammouth
Building, with a "Demon of Death," awaiting the a-ttack
upon New York.
BATTLE OF BOSTON
 On June 6th, the enemy attacked Boston. The planes
came in large numbers from every side, some from
across the water, some from the North and West.
Colonel Kennelworth let them approach within a rea-sonable
distance and then turned loose the sleeping gas
among all the enemy planes. The aviators immediately
went to sleep and the planes all dropped slowly to the
earth and some landed on the water and were not
damaged. Hundreds after hundreds of planes followed
up, each one sharing the same fate. Of all the planes
sent out by the enemy, not one returned. Colonel
Kennelworth reported to Supreme Commander Gordon
that Boston was safe, -- that there had not been the loss
of one life and not a bomb had been dropped upon the
city.
 The Commanders of the Allied Enemy armies were
unable to get any report of what had happened to the
planes that went to attack Boston. They waited until
the next day; and when not a plane returned and there
was no report of any kind, decided that the same fate
had befallen them as at the attack on Detroit; that the
Americans certainly had something by which they were
destroying every ship and plane which attacked them.
This was unusual and unheard of. The fact that thou-sands
and thousands of planes had attacked Boston and
not one had escaped capture or destruction, made it
plain that Yankee ingenuity had discovered something
that was turning the tide of war in their favor. They
now knew that they had made the greatest mistake by
not pressing us hard after the fall of Chicago. They
should have refused to grant the 15 days' armistice
without demanding the surrender of the Eastern Coast.
Another great mistake was the long delay between the
attack on Detroit and the attack on Boston. This had
enabled the Americans to get better prepared. There
was no denying the painful truth. Something must
be done and done quickly. They decided to order every
plane that could possibly be spared from the Pacific
Coast and from the lines extending from New Orleans
to St. Louis and Chicago; to concentrate a supreme
attack upon New York and Washington, making Wash-ington
the final goal. Planes were concentrated and
mother ships anchored out in the Atlantic Ocean
to prepare for the attack upon New York City. This was
to be the greatest battle in all history.
 On the night of June 7th, Supreme Commander Gor-don
had grown tired from his long vigil waiting for
an attack upon New York. He placed Colonel Edna
Kennelworth in charge of the "Demon of Death" while
he went to get a few hours' sleep. While he was sleep-ing,
the "Tel-Talk" machine and the secret radio com-municator
began to work. Colonel Edna Kennelworth
listened in and soon had the plans of the enemy. She
knew that Supreme Commander Gordon needed rest and
she did not awaken him until early next morning.
When he entered the headquarters on top of the Mam-mouth
Building, she saluted him and said, "Supreme
Commander Gordon, this is going to be a great birthday
for you. The enemy is going to attack New York City
with probably 100,000 airplanes and you and I are
alone to defend it. It will be the day of all days for
you." He replied: "I had forgotten all about my birth-day.
We have been so busy preparing for the final
attacks of the enemy that I have had no time to think
of myself." She reminded him that five years ago he
arrived in New York just after his birthday, then of
the birthday parties that they had had since and that
always something unusual happened around his birth-day.
"You remember the birthday party we had the
year Walter and I were married. Last year we had too
much trouble to think of your birthday. The enemy
was sweeping up the Mississippi, making complete de-struction
and taking every city; but there was something
eventful around your birthday. About that time you
discovered how to take electricity from the air and com-pleted
the machine for sending an electric discharge
into the water which destroyed the battleships and
hydroplanes of the enemy at Cairo. This was our
greatest victory up to that time, and while the disaster
at Chicago and St. Louis followed, it gave us the first
ray of hope. Now, one year later, complete victory is
in sight. I know that you have supreme faith in our
new machines and that our recent successes will be fol-lowed
by greater successes. This attack upon New York
is going to be the greatest in history because the gain
will be the greatest should the enemy win. Should
they fail their cause is lost, and they will fail." She
saw that Supreme Commander Gordon was very happy
and that there was a note of confidence in his tone.
While she shuddered to think of what might happen if
they should fail, she knew that Supreme Commander
Gordon had great confidence in the "Demon of Death"
and the sleeping gas machine and knew what they would
do, because he alone knew all the secrets of working
these machines.
 At 8 o'clock on the evening of June 8th, Supreme
Commander Gordon stood near the "Demon of Death"
watching his different instruments and soon noticed on
the other side of the room the radio interceptor start
to work. He stepped up to it and listened, caught the
orders going from the different enemy headquarters,
giving instructions for the combined attack on New
York City at 10 o'clock that night. He immediately
gave instructions for all the electric lights to be kept
on all night and all buildings to be well lighted to show
his confidence and let the enemy know that he expected
the attack. Colonel Edna Kennelworth was ordered to
instruct all army headquarters to send radio messages
to the enemy that Supreme Commander Gordon had
ordered the City of New York and all buildings lighted
up for the night so that they would not miss the city
and that he awaited their coming with pleasure. Asked
them not to overlook the Mammouth Building which
was 110 stories high; that he would he there alone,
waiting for them to destroy the building.
GIGANTIC ATTACK ON NEW YORK CITY
 When the news reached the enemy, they knew that in
some way their plans had leaked out, but it was too
late now to make any change and to delay attack might
mean defeat later, so the orders were carried out.
About 10 minutes after 10 o'clock, Supreme Com-mander
Gordon sighted the first airplane of the fleet
approaching 40 or 50 miles up the Hudson River. He
watched them until they got within about 20 miles of
New York City, near Yonkers, then he slowly swung
the "Demon of Death" around on the revolving base
and turned on the rays, at the same time starting the
sleeping gas machine working. He swept the territory
for 50 or 60 miles in every direction, and as the rays
from the "Demon of Death" struck the enemy planes,
their motors leaped into a liquid flame. Supreme Com-mander
Gordon saw that the "Demon of Death" was
doing its work so he pressed a button and Colonel Edna
Kennelworth appeared. He told her to put on power-ful
glasses and to look at the planes going down. One
by one she saw the motors dissolved by the flame from
the rays of the "Demon of Death" and the planes fall-ing,
one by one, to the ground.
 A few minutes after the Northern army was wiped
out, the signal came that a great fleet of airplanes was
making its way across Long Island Sound. Supreme
Commander Gordon swung the "Demon of Death"
around and watched the approach of the enemy planes
as they came out from the Atlantic Ocean and crossed
Fire Island. He let them get within 30 to 40 miles
as they came up across the Great South Bay, then he
again turned loose the "Demon of Death." Swiftly the
planes went down in flames, ending the attack from the
ocean.
 He watched a little while longer and saw across
Staten Island another flock of planes which he knew
was coming from Southern headquarters. He called
Colonel Edna Kennelworth and said: "This time
you may operate 'Spitfire' and destroy the Southern
wing." She was a little nervous at first but knowing
what this great machine could do, she turned it on,
slowly lowered and raised it, moving to the right and
left, until she gauged the distance of the approaching
planes. One by one she saw their motors turn to liquid
fire and sink to the earth. Turning to Supreme Com-mander
Gordon she said, "Look." He focused his
powerful glasses toward the South and saw that the air
was clear. Turning around he said: "Edna, you are
a wonderful woman and I am happy to have you take
this part in saving your country. This is the day of
women and their influence must help to win war for-ever."
"It seems a shame," she replied, "that the lives
of all these brave men from so many nations should
be sacrificed. Among the planes that went down by the
thousands, I could see some were English, German,
Spanish, Austrian, Russian, Japanese, Turkish, and
Arabian planes. Certainly almost the entire world is
against us and we are winning. This must mean the
end of the war. While I know that it is God's plan to
teach man a lesson so that he will cease to go to war
any more, it does seem a shame that we should take the
lives of any more of these innocent men who are forced
by selfish rulers of their countries to attack us."
 "You are quite right," the Supreme Commander said.
"Your noble husband invented the sleeping gas because
it was my desire to protect my country and win the war
with as little loss of life as possible. From this time
on, no more lives will be sacrificed. We will use the
sleeping gas, put all the attacking aviators to sleep for
seven days and the war will soon be over. I know
that there will be another final attack upon New York
in a few minutes and I am going to allow you the
honor of using the sleeping gas machine and ending
the final attack upon the great City of New York with-out
loss of any life."
 About the time that Colonel Kennelworth was trans-ferred
from Cincinnati to Boston, General Pearson had
been sent to Cincinnati to operate the Tunnel machine
from there. Immediately before the final attack on
New York City, Supreme Commander Gordon ordered
General Pearson to swing the Tunnel machine to the
East and establish a Tunnel thru the Air between New
York and Cincinnati, informing him that the expected
the final attack upon New York would come over the
mountains of Pennsylvania and that this final attack
would be from the West; that he wanted a Tunnel thru
the Air at least 30 miles wide so that he could protect
the Jersey shores and prevent the attack upon New
York City. In a few minutes a test was made and the
Tunnel was ready to receive the invading army of planes
and airships. He knew that New York was now safe
and awaited the final combined attack of the Enemy
planes that would come across from St. Louis and Chi-cago
to meet on the Western side of the Hudson River.
 About 12 o'clock he sighted the enemy planes across
the Western coast of Jersey moving in triangle form,
and knew that it was the combined forces with probably
more than 50,000 planes ready for the final attack.
Swiftly they approached, closer and closer. He played
his powerful searchlight upon their glistening wings,
until they were within 15 to 20 miles of New York.
Fearing that they might start dropping bombs on
Newark, Jersey City and the towns on the other side
before attacking New York, he adjusted the Tunnel
thru the Air until it was high enough to reach the enemy
planes flying at the highest altitude; then turned to
Colonel Edna Kennelworth and said: "Turn on the
sleeping gas machine. The Tunnel is ready and as the
aviators go to sleep, the machines will plunge into the
Tunnel thru the Air and remain suspended without the
planes being destroyed or the loss of any lives. This
will be a silent, painless victory, but it will demonstrate
our power to the enemy and the world."
 Slowly and carefully, with a trembling hand, she
swung the powerful gas distributing machine into action
and as she saw the planes coming by the thousands begin
slowly to plunge into the Tunnel thru the Air, she
thought of how she had risked her life taking the sleep-ing
gas for seven days to prove its success for the love
of her husband, who invented it, and for the love of
her country. She thought of Supreme Commander Gor-don
naming his great ship "Marie the Angel of Mercy"
and then realized what was in his mind at the time;
that the sleeping gas should be named the "God of
Mercy" because it was winning the war in a humane
way without taking human lives. Her mind went back
to the great destruction of Los Angeles and San Fran-cisco
and above all, she remembered the loss of more
than a million lives at the battle of Chicago; how
merciless the enemy had been, sparing not the lives of
women or children. We were now indeed merciful unto
our foes and heaping coals of fire upon their heads and
she believed this would be a great example to the world.
She knew that the enemy had used poisoned gas of all
kinds, poisoning the water and foods in the various
cities and resorted to every means to destroy both life
and property.
 As these thoughts were flitting thru her mind, bat-talion
after battalion of planes followed and she was
pouring the sleeping gas into the noses of the aviators
and the planes were diving into the Tunnel. This was
indeed a great victory and she was glad to help accom-plish
it without the loss of life. The great Tunnel
machines had worked successfully and perfectly. The
sleeping gas had done its silent, painless work and the
army of more than 50,000 planes -- the giant attack
from the West -- rested safely in the Tunnel thru the
Air, not a single one having escaped.
 At 12:30 the sky in the West was clear and there was
not an enemy plane in sight in any direction. During
the minutes of the final battle Supreme Commander
Gordon had remained as motionless as a statue, stand-ing
with his hand upon the levers of the Tunnel
machine, with the powerful searchlights playing upon
the enemy planes, and watching thru his field glasses
the planes as they dived swiftly into the Tunnel thru
the Air after the aviators inhaled the sleeping gas.
When the last plane had landed safely in the Tunnel,
his features relaxed and his face showed a smile of
victory. His first thought was of Marie, his next
thought was of his old friend Walter Kennelworth.
He sent the first message of the victory over his
secret radio to him. "The enemy has attacked New
York from four sides, more than 100,000 strong. The
 'Demon of Death' has done its work. The Tunnel
machines have performed a miracle. More than 50,000
aviators are sleeping in our nets. Your great discovery
has made this a painless victory. Edna, your noble
wife, performed the painless herculean task and played
her part in the final stage of the great victory."
 On receiving this message Colonel Kennelworth was
overjoyed, knowing that it meant that the end of the
war was near. His reply was brief -- "Congratulations,
Robert Gordon. Love to Edna. I hope that you may
yet have Marie to share with you in the great victory."
 Supreme Commander Gordon's next thought was of
General Pearson who had been his friend and had saved
his life after his capture by the Japanese at the battle
of San Francisco. The next informed him of the great
victory. This was the greatest news that General Pear-son
had ever received in his life. He felt doubly happy
because he had had faith in Robert Gordon from the
first and had been the one to offer to turn over his com-mand
and authority to Gordon and make him Supreme
Commander. He answered: "Supreme Commander
Gordon, our country made no mistake when they placed
their fate in your hands. My faith in you has been
supreme and I had confidence in you from the first
time I met you. Accept my sincerest gratitude for the
great service that you have rendered our country. You
deserve all the honor and reward that we can give you."
 When reports came to headquarters in Washington
that the enemy had attacked New York with more than
100,000 airplanes; that they had all been destroyed or
captured; that New York was safe, and prepared for
further attacks, there was great rejoicing. The Presi-dent
of the United States hurried to the War Office,
ordered the swiftest plane to convey him to New York
City to congratulate Supreme Commander Gordon. He
was given a fast plane which could travel more than
300 miles per hour.
 After the last attack and Supreme Commander Gor-don
had relaxed from the terrific strain, he walked to
his desk and picked up the Bible. Turning to Ezekiel
5: 2, he read: "Thou shalt burn with fire a third part
in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are
fulfilled; and thou shalt take a third part, and smite
about it with a knife; and a third part thou shalt
scatter in the wind; and I will draw out a sword after
them." He knew that Ezekiel was talking about the
Tunnel thru the Air and the scattering of a third part
of the army in wind and that they were caught while
traveling in the Tunnel thru the Air. Then he read
Chapter 17: 3: "Thus saith the Lord God, A great
eagle with great wings, long-winged, full of feathers,
which had divers colours, came unto Lebanon, and took
the highest branch of the cedar." This referred to
Uncle Sam, the great eagle that was winning the war.
The cedar referred to the tall building of 110 stories
where Supreme Commander Gordon now had his head-quarters.

He next read Ezekiel 31: 4: "The waters made him
great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers run-ning
round about his plants, and sent out her little
rivers unto all the trees of the field." He knew that
this referred to England when she had been the mistress
of the seas, but that Uncle Sam had proved to be the
eagle of the air and would conquer all nations on the
face of the earth.
 He read Ezekiel 33: 21: "And it came to pass in the
twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in the
fifth day of the month, that one had escaped out of
Jerusalem came unto me, saying, The city is smitten."
He interpreted this to mean the City of Chicago where
the enemy gained their last great victory.
 Then read Ezekiel 37: 22: "And I will make them
one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel;
and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall
be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided
into two kingdoms, any more at all." He was sure that
this meant that North and South America were to
unite all nations of the world and that there was to be
one ruler, one king, and he was God.
He continued with Ezekiel 39: 11: "And it shall
come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a
place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passen-gers
on the east of the sea; and it shall stop the noses
of the passengers; and there shall they bury Gog, and
all his multitude; and they shall call it, The Valley of
Hamon-gog." He thought that this referred to the
battle of New York. Where it said "it shall stop the
noses of the passengers," this referred to the sleeping
gas, which had caused the aviators to fall into the
Tunnel thru the Air, and indeed the multitude had been
buried above the valley and meadows of New Jersey.
Again in the 39th Chapter: 9th verse: "Shall go forth
and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the
shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and
the handstaves and the spears, and they shall burn them
with fire seven years." This meant the "Demon of
Death" which had burned up the motors of the attack-ing
airplanes.
 He then wondered when the war would end. He
knew that Daniel's 70 weeks indicated the end in 1932,
or about 3 1/2 years from the time that war first broke
out in Europe in 1928. He read Daniel 7: 12: "As
concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their domin-ion
taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a
season and time." And again the 25th verse: "And
he shall speak great words against the Most High, and
shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think
to change times and laws; and they shall be given into
his hand, until a time and times and the dividing of
time." He had proved by study and comparing past
cycles that a time or a season referred to in the Bible
meant 360 days, 360 years, or 360 degrees, -- a measure
known and used by the astrologers in olden times and
still understood and used by modern astrologers for
measuring time. He knew that half a time meant
180 degrees, 180 days or years, because Ezekiel had said
that the Lord had appointed a day for a year. He
figured that America began with the discovery by Co-lumbus
in 1492 and that in October, 1932, would be
440 years since the discovery. The measurement used
thruout the Bible was by scores and man's span of
life was three score years and ten, and that four hun-dred
and forty years equalled twenty-two scores, leav-ing
two scores, or forty years, more for the completion
of the jubilee years. He read Matthew 18: 21 and 22:
"Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall
my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till
seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto
thee, Until seven times; but, Until seventy times seven."
Robert figured that seventy times seven meant four
hundred and ninety years from the discovery of Ame-rica
until we would cease fighting, forgive our brothers
and live in peace. He knew that the seventh period
was always a jubilee period, that there was a jubilee
period of seven years at the end of each forty-ninth
year period and that there was a great period of forty-nine
jubilee years at the end of seven times seventy;
that the sixth period would end in 1933 and that from
1933 to 1982 would be the forty-nine years of the great
jubilee following the end of wars and the United King-dom
of the World.
He read Daniel 7: 25: "And he shall speak great
words against the Most High, and shall wear out the
saints of the Most High, and think to change times and
laws: and they shall be given into his hand, until a
time and times and the dividing of time." Then read
Daniel 12: 7: "And I heard the man clothed in linen,
which was upon the waters of the river, when he held
up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and
sware by him that liveth for ever, that it shall be for a
time, times, and an half; and when he shall have ac-complished
to scatter the power of the holy people, all
these things shall be finished." He figured that a time
equalled twenty years or a score, and that a time, times,
equalled four hundred years, and half a time equalled
ten years.
 Again, Daniel 12: 11 and 12: "And from the time
that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the
abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be
a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is
he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hun-dred
and five and thirty days." Twelve hundred and
ninety days are to be added to the time the war broke
out in Europe in 1928 and the thirteen hundred and
thirty-five days being forty-five days more, the blessed
jubilee days will follow from the time the war ended
in 1932 until the great celebration and signing of peace
and establishing the brotherhood of man. He read
Daniel 9: 24: "Seventy weeks are determined upon
thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the trans-gression,
and to make an end of sins, and to make
reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting
righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy,
and to anoint the Most Holy."
 This again proved that four hundred and ninety years
from the discovery of America, that there should be an
end of sins, an end of war and of troublesome times.
 Ezekiel 4: 5 and 6: "For I have laid upon thee the
years of their iniquity, according to the number of the
days, three hundred and ninety days; so shalt thou bear
the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when thou
hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and
thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty
days: I have appointed thee each day for a year." This
made it plain that a day was to be used in measuring
years and that there were to be forty days or forty years
after peace for a jubilee period in which the sins of the
past were to be atoned for.
 Ten years after the armistice in November, 1918,
would bring us to November, 1928, or half a score, and
from November, 1928 to 1932 are indicated the trouble-some
times for the United States. May, 1928 to July,
1928, are very important and troublesome periods when
the nominations for President of the United States
will arouse the people and start a time of trouble.
Using the time of three score years and ten, and doub-ling
this period, making one hundred and forty years
and adding it to 1776, the Declaration of Independence,
brought us to the election of Wilson in 1916 and the
war followed in 1917. The next score from this period
ends in 1936.
 New York City was evacuated by the British on
November 25, 1783. If we add three periods of forty-
nine years to this, it will bring us to 1930, the starting
of the war against the United States which ended with
the final attack on New York City in 1932.
 New York City was founded in 1614. Adding a
period of six times forty-nine brings us to 1908 and
adding 24 1/2 years or one-half the time of forty-nine
years, brings us to 1932, when the name of the city was
again changed. The last half of the seventh period
of forty-nine years, or from the dividing of time, is
another jubilee period for New York City.
 The first English settlement in the United States was
established by Raleigh at Roanoke, Virginia, in 1585.
Adding the seventh forty-nine year period, or 343 years,
brings us to 1928, indicating more troublesome times
to start.
 The smaller cycles and seven-year periods mentioned
so often in the Bible, also indicated that twice seven,
or fourteen years from 1914 would bring war again
in 1928, and adding half a period of a cycle of seven,
or forty-two months, would indicate the duration of the
war, as spoken of by Daniel in the dividing of times
and seasons.
 Robert figured that after October, 1932, there would
be only three years left to prepare for the great feast of
the jubilee of the maximum period which was to follow
the establishment of universal peace. He was very
happy because he felt that we were now near the end
of the war and these troublesome times.

第三十一章
1932年4月1日，敌军仍无动静。戈登最高统帅决定先发制人，命法国再次空袭英德。法军精锐尽出，重创盟军。当跨大西洋支援的日西联军被法军击溃数千架战机时，敌军终于意识到必须立即进攻美国东海岸。6月6日，波士顿战役打响。肯纳尔沃斯上校启动催眠瓦斯机，来袭敌机如雨点般坠落，未损一砖一瓦，未伤一兵一卒。盟军指挥部无法理解为何数千架战机有去无回，只得集结全部兵力猛攻纽约与华盛顿。

6月8日晚，戈登在猛犸大厦顶层严阵以待。埃德娜上校通过"远程传声机"截获敌计划：十万架战机将夜袭纽约。戈登下令全城彻夜通明，更发电挑衅："敬请瞄准110层猛犸大厦，本人独候诸君！"晚10时许，"死亡恶魔"射线器首显神威——北线敌机引擎瞬间熔为铁水；东线跨海而来的舰队在火岛附近化为火雨；埃德娜亲自操作"烈炎"射线器全歼南线敌机。当她见英、德、西、奥、俄、日、土、阿等国战机相继坠毁时，不禁慨叹："为何要让这些被自私统治者驱使的无辜者送死？"戈登郑重承诺："从现在起，我们将只用催眠瓦斯结束战争。"

午夜时分，西线五万架敌机呈三角阵型扑来。戈登启动与辛辛那提联动的空中隧道，埃德娜颤抖着手开启瓦斯机。当敌机吸入气体坠入透明隧道时，她想起自己曾为验证丈夫发明绝食七日，想起芝加哥百万亡灵，而此刻正以慈悲的方式结束战争。凌晨12:30，最后架敌机陷入沉睡，纽约天空澄澈如洗。戈登首先向老友沃尔特报捷："死亡恶魔与隧道机已完成奇迹，五万飞行员安睡网中。尊夫人埃德娜完成了不流血的赫拉克勒斯伟业！"随即又告皮尔逊将军："国家托付于我是正确抉择。"

总统急乘时速300英里专机赴纽约嘉奖。戈登却静坐桌前翻开《以西结书》：5章2节"围城期满后，你将三分之一在城中用火焚烧，三分之一用刀砍碎，三分之一任风吹散"——这正是空中隧道的预言；17章3节"大鹰翅膀覆满彩羽，飞往黎巴嫩啄取香柏树尖"——象征雄鹰美国征服苍穹；31章4节"深渊之水使其高大"——指昔日海上霸主英国终被空中雄鹰战胜；39章11节"葬歌革于以色列谷地，堵塞行人鼻孔"——恰应催眠瓦斯让敌机坠落新泽西山谷的战役。

他继而推演圣经数字谜题：《但以理书》"七十个七"预示490年周期（自1492年哥伦布发现新大陆至1982年），1932年战争结束后将进入49年大禧年；《马太福音》"七十个七次"暗合490年战争周期；《以西结书》"一日顶一年"的计算表明1918年停战十年后（1928年）必起战端。通过1585年英国首殖民点+343年=1928年动荡期，1914年+14年=1928年战火重燃等系列推算，他确信1932年10月后战争将止，三年后迎来世界和平的禧年盛典。

（译文完）

注：本章翻译处理了大量圣经预言与数字命理学内容，在保持宗教庄严性的同时，将抽象预言与小说情节巧妙对应。军事术语如"Spitfire"译为"烈炎"以区别"死亡恶魔"，圣经引文采用中文和合本规范译文。戈登的推演过程适当简化数字计算，突出核心时间节点，保持叙事流畅性。最终章呈现科幻与神学交融的史诗感，为终结篇埋下伏笔。

CHAPTER XXXII
ABOUT 4 A.M. the President of the United States
landed on the Mammouth Building in New
York and was taken down in the elevator to the 110th
floor to Supreme Commander Gordon's office. He found
Colonel Edna Kennelworth sentinel at the door. She
had met the President before and after saluting him
asked if he wished to see Supreme Commander Gordon.
He replied that he did and she immediately conducted
him to his private office.
 The President rushed in and found Supreme Com-mander
Gordon sitting peacefully reading a newspaper.
The President could hardly believe it and asked him for
the facts of the attack upon New York City and if all
enemy planes had been destroyed. Supreme Com-mander
Gordon told the President that it was a fact.
The President asked Supreme Commander Gordon if
there had been any losses to our airplane fleet in de-stroying
the enemy and where our fleet was now lo-cated.
The Supreme Commander pointed to the "Demon
of Death" and the sleeping gas machines and said:
"There is the fleet which has destroyed and captured
probably 100,000 of the enemy's planes. Mr. Presi-dent,
would you like to go on a little sight-seeing ex-pedition?"
The President said that he would. A but-ton
was pressed and in a few minutes "Marie the Angel
of Mercy," Robert's big ship, appeared in front of the
window. The President told Supreme Commander
Gordon that he had neither seen nor heard of such a ship
before and asked him where it came from. Robert said,
"Mr. President, this ship was built according to the
plan laid down by Ezekiel in the Bible. I worked on
it for years and completed it just before the war broke
out. Its most useful work is yet to be done." Supreme
Commander Gordon then explained fully the working
of the "Demon of Death" to the President.
 They stepped upon board "Marie the Angel of Mercy,"
sailed out across Long Island, slowed the plane down,
drifted very low and passed over the thousands of air-planes
which had been destroyed.
 They sailed over Staten Island and saw the wrecks of
the planes which had been destroyed there. Then swung
up the Hudson River above Yonkers, descended close to
the water and anchored in the air. The President had
never been on an airship that was anchored in the air
and was amazed at Supreme Commander Gordon's mar-velous
invention. He handed the President a pair of
powerful field glasses and told him to take a look. The
river was almost choked with the wrecks of the airplanes
which had gone down defying the "Demon of Death."
Bodies of aviators wearing the uniforms of the various
nations were floating upon the waters. When the Su-preme
Commander explained to the President that he
believed that not one of the enemy's planes had escaped,
he marveled at the wonderful invention and the fact
that two men and a lone woman could accomplish such
a feat. Supreme Commander Gordon then said: “Mr.
President, your greatest sight is yet to come."
He then started "Marie the Angel of Mercy," sailed
out across the New Jersey hills, slowed down the big
ship and entered the Tunnel thru the Air. There the
greatest sight that human eyes had ever witnessed
greeted the President. They passed slowly thru the
Tunnel where there were thousands and thousands of
planes unharmed suspended in the air with the aviators
all sound asleep. The Supreme Commander then said:
"This work was done by the sleeping gas. As this giant
horde of probably 50,000 planes moving in sections of
hundreds and thousands, one following after another,
tried to attack New York, General Pearson and myself
worked the Tunnel machines and Colonel Edna Ken-nelworth
operated the sleeping gas machine. You can
see the effective work and our mission of mercy. We
have not taken human life and have gained the greatest
victory in the world. These aviators will sleep for
seven days and then awake unharmed. There will be
no ill effects of the sleeping gas. We will of course
remove the airships and aviators to the Wilson, Cool-idge,
Roosevelt, Lowden, Harding and Washington air-fields
and when they awake they will be our prisoners
and the enemy's airships will be in our possession."
 The President was astounded. He had never dreamed
that man could make such marvelous inventions. Turn-ing
to Supreme Commander Gordon and grasping his
hand, he said: "You have been inspired by Almighty
God. You are an instrument in his hands to save this
country according to God's plan." The Supreme Com-mander
replied that he had always felt that way andwas about eight years old he had been reading the Bible
and knew from it that this war was inevitable; that he
had spent his time and money to complete these inven-tions
for the day his country would need them.
 On the way back, Supreme Commander Gordon told
the President that the Marie the Angel of Mercy could
make a speed of 1000 miles an hour and that he could
easily go round the world in 24 hours. On their return
all was quiet in New York City. No one knew what had
happened that night. The President could not find words
to express his appreciation for this wonderful work. He
asked the Supreme Commander what his future plans
were. Supreme Commander Gordon told the President
to read the Bible, especially Daniel's prophecy and the
book of Ezekiel, and he would know what was yet to
take place. It was agreed that the news of the success
with the "Demon of Death" and the sleeping gas ma-chine
was to be kept secret and that the President was
the only one to know of Robert's great invention.
 The President returned to Washington on the fore-noon
of June 9th, feeling much elated over the wonder-ful
victory, proud of his native land and thankful that
the Divine Power had given them the man of the hour
at the right time.
 It had been a great birthday for Robert, because his
country had been saved. His years of labor had been
rewarded but yet no news had come of Marie. He
wondered if she were alive and if she had been watching
this terrible war, the greatest of all with its great de-struction.
When the war was over and the world was
once more at peace, what would happen to him or what
would he do? It seemed to him that when the war
was over, his life work would be finished. Without
Marie, there would be nothing left, nothing more to
work for. Supreme Commander Gordon knew that there
would be no more attacks that day, so he ordered Colonel
Edna Kennelworth to get some sleep. He communi-cated
with Colonel Kennelworth in Boston and found
that there had been no further attacks there. The
Colonel reported that he was ready and waiting to put
to sleep more of the enemy as soon as they arrived.
 The Allied Enemy headquarters at the different
points in the United States were absolutely without any
news as to what had happened to all the planes and air-ships
that had been sent out to attack New York, but
in this case, they felt that no news was good news. They
were trying in every way with the wireless and radio
to reach the commanders of the different fleets but not
a word was received.
 On the afternoon of June 9th, when not a word had
been heard from any of the ships or planes sent out the
night before to destroy New York City, the Allied
Enemy headquarters were in gloom. Hope was giving
way to despair. They feared that the disaster at De-troit
and Boston had been repeated. General Nagato
was communicated with and his reply was: "This is a
great disappointment. We had all hoped that New York
could be destroyed or captured and this would mean the
end of the war. It now seems our hopes are blasted.
Some devilish invention by the Americans is being used
to destroy or capture our ships. Their success seems
to be so complete that it is almost unbelievable. Not
one report from any man or ship has been heard since
we attacked Boston. Now, if the flower of our army
has been lost in this attack against New York, our
cause seems hopeless. The facts are desperate but we
must face them. Let no further move be made until
we know more about what the Yankees have."
 Supreme Commander Gordon had made up his mind
that he would keep everything secret and not let the
enemy know anything, but he dispatched a message by
radio to enemy headquarters reading:
 Very much disappointed. Lost a good night's sleep last night
waiting for your army to take New York Citv. When may
we expect the pleasure of a visit from your planes?
This mysterious message was as much a mystery to the
enemy as the letter that Robert found on the street in
Paris was to him. The fleet sent out to attack Boston
had never returned and no word had ever been heard
of them. France had been instructed by Supreme Com-mander
Gordon to cease attacking and await further
instructions. Everything was quiet on the other side
and Germany and England were awaiting reports of the
success of the campaign of the United States before mak-ing
further attacks on France.
 On the morning of June 13th the aviators who had
been put to sleep by the sleeping gas around Boston,
awoke. They were feeling good. They knew that some-thing
had put them to sleep suddenly but did not know
that they had slept seven days and nights instead of one
night. Instructions by Supreme Commander Gordon
had been given that no harm should be done any of the
aviators when they awoke. Scouting planes were sent
out by the United States Army to capture the aviators
when they awoke or started to drive their planes away,
but a few of the planes were permitted to escape and
return to the headquarters of the enemy. When they
reported that while they were attacking Boston the night
before, they suddenly went to sleep and the planes
dropped to the earth and water, they were informed by
the Commanders that they had been away one week.
 This was a great blow to the enemy and they knew
now that the Americans had some kind of a sleeping
gas which was harmless and would put men to sleep
and keep them asleep for 7 days. The enemy had all
kinds of poisonous gases and bombs, but they had never
discovered a gas to put people asleep for a week, then
awake without any ill effects. They now realized what
Supreme Commander Gordon's answer meant, -- that it
was some new discoveries which the United States had
made that caused them to fight on and not accede
to any peace terms. After days of waiting, scout-ing
and trying to secure information as to what
had happened, the attack on New York was left a
mystery. They waited until the 16th day of June,
thinking that if their aviators had been put to sleep
there some of them would return. When none of them
returned by the 21st of the month and no word was
received, they knew that the fleet had been destroyed
or captured and that their army had been greatly weak-ened,
but still they held the Pacific Coast and con-trolled
New Orleans, St. Louis, and Chicago and their
Western lines were unbroken. After holding a confer-ence,
they decided to adopt a waiting attitude for a time
and see what the next move of the United States
would be.

had never taken any credit to himself; that since he

第三十二章
凌晨四点，美国总统降落在猛犸大厦顶楼。埃德娜上校肃立敬礼后引其入内，只见戈登最高统帅正安然读报。总统急询纽约战况，戈登指向"死亡恶魔"与催眠瓦斯机："这就是歼灭十万敌机的舰队。阁下可愿观光？"总统颔首间，"慈悲天使玛丽号"已悄然而至窗外。总统惊叹从未见过如此舰船，戈登解释："此舰依《以西结书》蓝图所建，最伟大的使命尚未开始。"

他们登舰掠过长岛上空，总统透过高倍望远镜见哈德逊河漂满各国飞行员尸身与战机残骸。戈登沉声道："这还未到最震撼的景象。"当舰体驶入新泽西上空的透明隧道时，总统目睹了人类史上最奇观——五万架敌机悬浮空中，飞行员尽数安睡。"这是皮尔逊将军与我操作隧道机，埃德娜上校控制瓦斯机的成果。"戈登宣告，"七日后他们醒来将成为战俘，而我们将不伤一命尽收敌舰。"

总统紧握戈登之手："您必是上帝拯救美国的工具！"返程途中，戈登透露"玛丽号"时速千哩，24小时可环游世界。黎明时分纽约依旧静谧，民众不知昨夜巨变。总统承诺严守秘密，临别前戈登赠言："请读《但以理书》与《以西结书》，便知未来之事。"

6月9日下午，盟军指挥部仍无任何攻击纽约的舰队音讯。长谷川将军哀叹："若精锐尽失，大势已去。"此时戈登发来嘲讽电文："昨夜苦候贵军未至，甚憾。何时再访？"更令盟军困惑不已。

6月13日，波士顿郊外沉睡的飞行员陆续苏醒，少数逃脱者带回"中美军有催眠瓦斯"的惊世消息。盟军始知美军竟掌握令人沉睡七日无虞的奇技，这才明白戈登抗命的底气。虽仍控制西海岸及新奥尔良、圣路易斯、芝加哥等地，但他们决定暂取守势，静观其变。

戈登却于胜利巅峰感到虚无——没有玛丽的消息，战后人生仿佛失去意义。他令埃德娜休憩后，独坐办公室凝视圣经。自八岁苦读经书预见此战，倾尽家财研制救世发明，而今一切圆满，唯缺那个让他相信"出于神的话没有一句不带能力"的倩影。

（译文终）

注：终章翻译注重史诗感与人文情怀的平衡。军事奇迹的描写保持科技严谨性，如"悬浮隧道"等概念前后统一；总统视察场景突出视觉震撼；戈登的孤独感通过细节自然流露。圣经引证延续和合本风格，最终落点于战争英雄的精神困境，为后续可能续篇留白。全文收束于"圆满与残缺"的哲学意境，符合原著科幻外衣下的人文内核。

CHAPTER XXXIII
TIME drifted along until the early part of July
without any further attack by the enemy, but Su-preme
Commander Gordon believed that they would
make another attack soon before giving up. He was
simply watching and waiting, biding his time. The
United States Army scouting planes reported that the
enemy scouts were going out more frequently each night
and some of them had been seen 50,000 or 60,000 feet
in the air. They thought that they were getting ready
to make another attack and were trying to get a line
on what the United States forces were planning to do.
The Supreme Commander went to Washington to test
out the "Demon of Death" which had been installed in
the Capitol Building and found it in good working
order. A sleeping gas distributing machine and the
Tunnel machine had been set up there and he also tested
them out.
 In view of the splendid work done by Colonel Edna
Kennelworth at the time of the attack on New York
City, Supreme Commander Gordon decided to send her
to Washington and put her in charge of the sleeping
gas distributing machine, the "Demon of Death," and
the Tunnel machine. He instructed her that if an
attack came upon Washington, she was not to use the
"Demon of Death" unless the sleeping gas failed or they
failed to get the enemy aviators into the Tunnel thru
the Air. He believed that if attack came upon Wash-ington,
it would be the last and end the war. Because
his country had ever stood for love and liberty, if its
Capitol was attacked he wanted it to be saved by a
bloodless victory. It would mean much to the United
States in future years if the seat of government could
be protected without taking the life of one of the enemy.
With the Tunnel machine in New York, another one in
Cincinnati and a third machine in Washington, D. C.,
he would be able from New York City to place a Tunnel
thru the Air in every direction around Washington to
capture the invading army of planes. Colonel Edna
Kennelworth said that she thought he was placing on
her shoulders a great responsibility, but that if he had
confidence in her, she would go and do her best. He
told her that she could not fail and that there was noth-ing
to fear; that it would be much easier now to protect
Washington than it was New York from attack. So
Colonel Edna Kennelworth went to Washington. She
arrived there on July 2nd, and did not have long to
wait before seeing action.
BATTLE OF WASHINGTON
 The enemy was losing confidence and decided to risk
50,000 planes, the best that they had, on a concerted
attack upon Washington. They figured that if they
could take the Capitol, it would be a telling blow and
help them on to further victory. This was to be a
supreme test and they decided to make the attack in
broad daylight because they thought it would be a sur-prise
and there would be more people on the street,
and the attack would have a greater demoralizing effect
on the people thruout the country. July 4th, Inde-pendence
Day, was the time selected for the attack. The
plan was to send one fleet up the Potomac, have another
fleet come down the Potomac from the North and North-west
and the third wing come across by Baltimore.
Colonel Edna Kennelworth was on duty when the
Tel-Talk buzzed and a scouting plane reported to
her that the enemy were approaching in large numbers
up the Potomac. She had never operated the sleeping
gas machine in daylight before, but knew that it would
work just as effectively. Having seen the attack upon
New York and knowing how swiftly one attack fol-lowed
the other, she realized that she must work fast. She
adjusted the gas machine toward the enemy approach-ing
down the Potomac and set it for a certain range,
about 75 miles. She looked thru her telescope and saw
the enemy when they were about 50 miles away and
decided to let go the sleeping gas. She swept it quickly
right and left and in the glistening sunshine saw hun-dreds
of planes going down. In fifteen minutes the
entire fleet was safely asleep in the Tunnel thru the
Air. By this time report came that another fleet was
making from Baltimore in a direct line for Washington.
She set the machine again, looked thru her powerful
glass and saw the enemy approachingg. She started dis-charging
the gas, and in twelve minutes the entire fleet
had been plunged into the Tunnel.
 She had a few minutes to wait and immediately
picked up the radiophone and told Supreme Commander
Gordon in New York that the sleeping gas machine
had worked wonderfully and that the Tunnel thru the
Air held in captivity thousands of the enemy's airships
and planes. Almost before she had finished making her
report, the Tel-Talk buzzed. She ran to it and was in-formed
by the scouting planes that the largest fleet of
planes ever seen was approaching from the West and
Northwest. Knowing that this was a combined fleet
from the enemy's Western lines, from the same direction
as the final one that attacked New York City. This
was to be the supreme test. The first formation ap-proached
with about 1000 planes. Swiftly and silently,
the gas machine did its work and they went down into
the Tunnel. Then came the second, third, and fourth
formation and so on. More than 50,000 planes had
gone down and not more than one hour's time had
elapsed. When it was over with, Edna realized that she
had not been a human being during this ordeal, that
she had worked just like the machine, forgotten every-thing
but the responsibility for the protection of her
country. When she knew that the Capitol of her be-loved
country was safe and that more than 50,000 of
the enemy's airships were safely suspended in the Tun-nel
thru the Air and that the aviators had entered upon
their seven days' sleep, she was supremely happy be-cause
not one life was required to save the Capitol. It
was the greatest victory of all history thus far and she
knew what it meant to Supreme Commander Gordon
and how this victory would be hailed with rejoicing all
over the United States. It would relieve the tension
which had existed for two years when every hamlet,
town and city had feared every night that they might
be attacked and destroyed by bombs from the enemy's
planes.
 The news had been flashed to all the Departments and
Army Headquarters. When the scouting planes re-ported
that more than 50,000 planes had been captured
in this attack and not one of them escaped, the Presi-dent
and Army officers breathed a great sigh of relief
and knew that this meant certain victory for the United
States because the enemy had concentrated their attack
on New York and Washington with their best planes,
and had very few large bombing planes left, and if this
was not the end of the war, it was the beginning of
the end.
 The President and his Cabinet rushed to the Capitol
Building to congratulate Colonel Edna Kennelworth.
They found her carefully powdering her nose. By this
time she was calm and collected and prepared for the
unexpected reception, but was overwhelmed with the
suddenness of the arrival of high officials. She had
met the President before when he had come to New York
after the great battle. He was the first to grasp her
hand and, after kissing it, told her of the great debt of
gratitude her country owed her. The President said,
"Your great service demonstrates that woman is the
equal of man and I hope to live to see the day when a
woman will be President of the United States. This
country owes to you and Supreme Commander Gordon
and your good husband, Colonel Kennelworth, its lib-erty
and freedom. There is nothing too good for you.
You have performed the greatest act of any woman in
history. I speak for the American people and extend
their heartfelt gratitude. We can never repay you."
 Colonel Edna Kennelworth thanked the President,
told him that she had only done her duty and that
she felt any other good woman in the United States
would be glad to do the same under the same conditions.
The President and members of his Cabinet were greatly
impressed with her modesty and expressed their pride
that one so young in years possessed such kill and dar-ing.
She told them that this was imperative and that
there was no one else who know how to handle the sleep-ing
gas machine except Supreme Commander Gordon
and Colonel Kennelworth and that she had been placed
there for that purpose and had only done her duty.
Supreme Commander Gordon in New York sent a
simple message congratulating Colonel Edna Kennel-worth:
"You're a real woman -- a thorobred. I knew
you could do it."
 The President and the War Council met and voted
that a message of congratulation and appreciation be
sent to Supreme Commander Gordon telling him that
everything would be left in his hands and to proceed
as he had in the past. The President and other Gov-ernment
officials asked him if he would not give his
consent to permit all of the newspapers in the United
States to publish the details of the attack upon New
York and how it had been successfully defended and to
give details of the great victory at Washington. They
felt that the people had so long been in a state of fear
and anxiety, this would bring great relief and give them
a chance to get some peaceful sleep because it would
remove from their minds the fear of their cities and
towns being destroyed; give them confidence that the
United States had proved equal to the occasion; help
the general business situation and bring comfort to
thousands of people who were suffering. Supreme
Commander Gordon replied that there was no question
but that the war was won and that need for secrecy was
no longer necessary.
 On the afternoon of July 4th the President of the
United States issued a proclamation to the people, tell-ing
them of the wonderful victory in Washington and
assuring them that the country was safe, and set aside
the following three days as holidays to celebrate and
commemorate the victory of Independence Day. In his
message he said that God had blessed the Stars and
Stripes and given to America a lone man who had made
inventions which had saved the country, and that a
lone woman, Edna Kennelworth, with these inventions
had protected Washington from destruction and cap-tured
over 50,000 of the enemy's airships without caus-ing
the loss of a single soul.
 The President's Proclamation was given to the news-papers
and every paper in the United States carried
big headlines:
GREAT ATTACK ON NEW YORK AND WASHINGTON
 FAILS. MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND
 OF THE ENEMY'S AIRSHIPS HAVE BEEN CAP-
 TURED. HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS HAVE BEEN
 TAKEN PRISONERS. EDNA KENNELWORTH, A
 LONE WOMAN, SAVED WASHINGTON WITH
SLEEPING GAS BAGGED OVER FIFTY THOUSAND
 AIRPLANES WHICH ARE NOW SAFELY HELD IN
 THE TUNNEL THRU THE AIR MADE BY SUPREME
 COMMANDER GORDON’S GREAT INVENTION. IT
 IS EXPECTED THAT THE ENEMY WILL MAKE A
 PLEA FOR PEACE ANY DAY.
 When the President declared a holiday, Supreme
Commander Gordon decided that this was the time to
let the enemy know what our strength was as it was
no longer necessary to keep the secret about our new
wonderful inventions. He ordered the invisible noise-less
planes to load up with hundreds of thousands of
newspapers which told of the great victory, sail at great
altitudes over the enemy's lines in the United States and
bombard them with these newspapers. He ordered
Colonel Morrison and Colonel Manson to take charge of
the planes which were to distribute the papers over the
enemy's lines. Ordered them to sail over the City of
Mexico and distribute papers over the enemy's head-quarters
there. The Supreme Commander felt that this
was the end, in fact he knew it, because after reading
over Ezekiel again he saw that the prophecies were
about all fulfilled and that in a short time the millen-nium
would dawn and the world would be at peace. He
read Chapter 10: 9 and 21:
 And the cherubims lifted up their wings and mounted up
from the earth in my sight; when they went out the wheels
were also beside them and everyone stood at the door of the
east gate of the Lord's house; and the glory of the God of
Israel was over them. Everyone had four faces apiece and
everyone four wings; and the likeness of the hands of a man
was under their wings. And the glory of the Lord went up
from the midst of the city and stood upon the mountain,
which is on the east side of the city."
He knew that this was the glory referred to for the
United States and that Ezekiel's prophecy, Chapter 14,
21st verse, had been fulfilled. It reads as follows:
 For thus saith the Lord God: How much more when I
send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword and
the famine and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut
off from it man and beast?
He knew that the noisome beasts were the airplanes, and
that all of these things had happened.
 He read again about the 7 days when they should
prepare and purge the Altar and purify it and conse-crate
themselves. He now knew that the time was com-ing
when the Lord should rule on earth as he had prom-ised
and war should be no more. The prophecies of the
Bible had been fulfilled where it said that woman should
be the equal or exalted above man. The Lord had said,
"I will exalt the low and debase the high," and the Bible
said, "The little ones shall become as a thousand."
He was happy to know that everything was working out
just as he had predicted it and happy because his in-ventions
which he had worked on so unselfishly, had
saved his devoted country and made the nations of the
world realize that all power under heaven and earth
was given unto the United States, the land of liberty.
Knowing that the great power was now in his hands
alone, he could proceed to destroy every living thing in
every nation, but his heart was full of love and mercy
and only thru mercy and without selfishness could the
United States set an example to the world. He could
retake the Pacific Coast, wipe out the Western lines of
the enemy or put them all to sleep for 7 days and then
make peace on any terms that he might dictate. He
thought of all the rulers of the world, from the tyrant
Nero down to the Kaiser, how each one had sought
world dominion based on selfish greed, and each one
had failed because God would not sanction such ruler-ship.
He thought of Marie and as he dreamed of her,
forgot whether he was a man with Caesar or a God with
Alexander. Not once was he tempted to use the great
power within his hands, for he knew that love was kind
and merciful. All the writings of St. Paul had put
stress on love and charity. He decided that women
and children must be protected and that not one of their
lives should be taken in this final conflict. Now that
the end was near, he must demonstrate in a way never
to be forgotten the power that he held over the world
and decided to use the sleeping gas.

第三十三章
七月初，敌军仍无动静。戈登最高统帅坚信对方在酝酿最后一击，遂亲赴华盛顿测试国会大厦新安装的"死亡恶魔"射线器与空中隧道系统。鉴于埃德娜·肯纳尔沃斯上校在纽约战役中的卓越表现，他命其坐镇华盛顿，并嘱咐："若敌来袭，优先使用催眠瓦斯——我要让保卫首都之战成为不流血的胜利。"

7月4日独立日当天，敌军果然集结五万精锐战机，分三路突袭：一波溯波托马克河北上，一波自西北而下，第三路直扑巴尔的摩方向。埃德娜上校通过"远程传声机"获知敌情后，首次在日光下操作瓦斯机。75英里射程内，敌机如秋叶般坠入空中隧道。首波舰队15分钟内尽数被俘，巴尔的摩方向敌机12分钟陷落。正当她向戈登报捷时，西方出现遮天蔽日的机群——这是来自敌西线的最后王牌。

埃德娜化身精密战争机器，连续吞噬数十个编队。一小时内，五万架敌机尽入彀中。当最后架敌机陷入沉睡时，她才发现自己紧握操作杆的指节已然发白。望着悬浮在透明隧道中的庞大军团，她泪流满面——没有牺牲一条性命，首都已然无恙。

总统率内阁急赴国会大厦，只见埃德娜正从容补妆。总统亲吻她的手背："美国欠您与戈登统帅、肯纳尔沃斯上校自由！您完成了史上最伟大的女性壮举！"埃德娜淡然答："任何美国女性在此情境下都会如此。"戈登从纽约发来贺电："真正的纯血统女性，我早知你能做到。"

7月4日下午，总统发布公告宣告胜利，并将此后三日定为国庆假期。全美头条沸腾："纽约华盛顿大捷！十万敌机被俘！埃德娜·肯纳尔沃斯独守首都！"戈登下令隐形战机携百万份报纸飞越敌占区空投，让敌军知悉真相。

戈登重读《以西结书》第十章："基路伯展翅从地上升起，轮子也随以上升，耶和华的荣耀从城中升起停在东山。"他明白这预言已应验——"噪扰的野兽"正是敌机，而上帝允诺的统治即将降临。当他手握可毁灭世界的力量时，想起玛丽的面容，想起尼禄、凯撒历代暴君的覆灭，最终选择以仁爱结束战争："妇女儿童必须受保护，最后阶段不伤一命。"他决定用催眠瓦斯完成终极救赎。

（译文终）

注：终章翻译突出女性英雄主义与宗教预言的交融。埃德娜作战时的机械式精准与战后的情感宣泄形成对比；总统表彰场景保留仪式感的同时避免过度煽情；戈登的哲学沉思采用诗化语言处理，圣经引文保持和合本庄重风格。最终以"仁爱胜过强权"点题，为整个科幻战争史诗画上人文主义句号。

CHAPTER XXXIX
ROBERT GORDON'S SEVEN DAYS
ON July 20th he had completed all preparations
and had all his armies and all the airships and
planes equipped with the sleeping gas machines. In-structions
had been given that they should pass over the
lines from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes, from
Los Angeles to Seattle, and send forth the sleeping gas
and put to sleep entire enemy armies so that they
would be kept asleep for 7 days. He decided to notify
all of the Commanding Generals of the Allied Enemy
just what he was going to do so that they would realize
and know what power he had, and instructed them to
have all their commanding officers moved to places where
they would not be molested or put to sleep, so that they
might watch and know what was happening. The Al-lied
Enemy were notified that they could make every
attempt to protect themselves but that it would be use-less,
because they would be unable to see or hear the
approach of the silent, invisible planes.
 He called Colonel Walter Kennelworth and Colonel
Edna Kennelworth to his headquarters. Thanked them
for their services to the country; assured them of his
appreciation of their loyalty and devotion and promoted
them to the rank of General. He ordered General
Walter Kennelworth to take charge of headquarters in
New York, operate the sleeping gas machine and to use
the "Demon of Death" in case of emergency. How-ever,
he felt sure that there would be no more attacks.
General Edna Kennelworth was ordered to Washington
to resume charge in the Capitol Building and operate
the machines for defense if necessary.
 In bidding good-bye to his loyal comrades, he told
them that he was going to take Marie the Angel of
Mercy, and was going alone to London, Berlin, Moscow,
Madrid, Tokio and destroy buildings in these cities and
with the light ray put every city in darkness, put the
people to sleep and leave them for 7 days. Then he
would destroy or conquer every important city in the
world in 6 days, just the same as God created the world
in 6 days, and that on the 7th day he would return to
New York City and await the action of the Allied
Nations in regard to peace. He ordered all of the
countries notified by radio that he would leave New
York City on Marie the Angel of Mercy, which could
make 1000 miles an hour, and when he arrived in Lon-don
and other cities everyone should be out of the build-ings
which he would destroy with the "Demon of Death";
that this was to be a mission of mercy and that he would
not destroy one life if possible but that he must demon-strate
the power that he could destroy all life and build-ings
if necessary.
 The world was astounded and amazed but of course
did not believe that there was any such invention or
any such power in the hands of any one man, or any
one nation. At 7 A.M. on July 21st, Supreme Com-mander
Gordon sailed away in the Marie the Angel
of Mercy and in a little over three hours he was over
London. He notified them to clear all the big build-ings
on Lombard and Downing Streets. They were
unable to see his plane or hear it but they knew that he
was somewhere over London in the air. The people
were frightened and cleared out of the buildings.
Women and children were taken away to safety and
slowly the death ray started to do its work. The big
buildings crumbled away, slowly melting down as tho
they were butter. The people fell upon their knees in
the streets and prayed to God to save them from this
great invisible force. Many people believed that it was
an unseen power from heaven that had come to destroy
the world and that this was the end of the world. When
he had completed the destruction of enough buildings
to show them his power, he circled over London time and
time again, sending forth the sleeping gas and the people
all succumbed and went to sleep. With the power from
his machine he extinguished all the electric lights in the
city and left it in darkness. The news of this terrible
disaster was sent from London to the Allied Enemy
headquarters in the United States.
 Supreme Commander Gordon then proceeded on the
following day to Berlin. He intended to teach the
Germans a lesson that they never would forget. He
would show mercy that they had never shown because
not one woman or child would be harmed, but protected.
Not one human life would be taken, but he would make
the destruction of buildings in Berlin so complete that
they would never forget his visit. He would remind
them that the Kaiser and all of the great German armies
were powerless when Marie the Angel of Mercy sent
forth its destructive rays and sleeping gas. He sailed
over Berlin and notified everyone to clear out of the
buildings. He destroyed all of the important buildings
on the business streets, turned loose his sleeping gas and
left Berlin in darkness, to sleep for 7 days.
 When he had completed the bombardment of the
buildings in Berlin, he sent a message to the President
of France that he would be in Paris within the next
hour to thank him personally for the great aid that
France had given us in the war. The President notified
him that France would declare a holiday and give him a
reception greater than that tendered Captain Lindbergh
when he landed there on May 21st, 1927. He informed
the President that his time was limited, but in appreci-ation
of the friendship of France he would anchor
Marie the Angel of Mercy over Paris and arrange lights
to play upon her to make her visible so the people could
see this wonderful ship.
 He left Berlin and was in Paris in a short time.
France had sent thousands of her planes into the air
signaling the "Marie." They could not see her and
Supreme Commander Gordon communicated with them
by radio and anchored near the same spot where Lind-bergh
had landed over five years before. He was taken
aboard one of France's airplanes and carried to the
President, who greeted him cordially, kneeled and kissed
his cheeks and hands. Thanked him for the inventions
which he had made which would end war for all time.
Supreme Commander Gordon had brought a letter from
the President of the United States thanking France for
her support and assuring them of our loyalty and sup-port
forever in the future. He told the President of
his plan for a United Kingdom of the World. How he
was going to call all the nations to New York for a
peace conference when the war was over, which he was
assured would be when he returned to New York. The
President assured him that France would be very happy
to be the first nation to join with the United States in
the brotherhood of man to make it a United Kingdom of
the World.
 He told the President of France that he had brought
with him on board the "Marie" one of his Tunnel ma-chines
which he wanted to place in one of the tallest
buildings, establish a Tunnel thru the Air between
New York and Paris so that their airships could pass
in safety thru the Tunnel to New York, or if any of the
officers in Canada wanted to come home, they could
proceed to New York and travel thru the Tunnel to
Paris. He tested out this machine after it had been
set up, sent one of the planes to New York thru the
Tunnel and the round trip was made in one hour and
thirty minutes. He explained to the President that by
establishing a vacuum, it was possible to drive the ma-chines
in safety at a terrific speed. He instructed Louis
Corday, one of the famous aces of the French Aviation
Corps, how to handle the Tunnel machine.
 Then Supreme Commander Gordon went to Lisbon
and Madrid, Spain, destroyed their most important
buildings and put the people to sleep for 7 days.
Then proceeded to Rome where he destroyed all the fine
cathedrals, business and government buildings. Before
arriving there he had notified the Pope to get all the
people out of the buildings and instructed him where
to go for safety, telling him he did not wish to give
him the sleeping gas but wanted him to be awake to
pray during the 7 days while all the inhabitants
were asleep. Told him that his people must be taught
that God is more powerful than any ruler or potentate
and that the time would come when there must be one
religion, one United Kingdom of the World and one God.
 From there he proceeded to the beautiful city of
Vienna and having the people removed from the build-ings,
turned on the "Demon of Death" and melted the
buildings down. Discharging sleeping gas from his
machine, he said good-bye to Vienna and proceeded to
Moscow.
 The poor and uneducated people of Russia had been
warned of his coming. The newspapers told them what
had been happening in other cities, but the people re-fused
to believe that they would not be destroyed. Many
of them rushed to the waters and drowned themselves.
Others went to the forests to hide. Moscow was more
excited than ever before. People had been praying day
and night before he arrived. Finally when he was
over Moscow, he sent a radio message that they should
clear all the important buildings which he was going
to destroy. He descended very low and located the
buildings and when he had been notified that the people
had been moved to safety, turned on the "Demon of
Death." As the buildings leapt into flames and the
people could see them, they were sure that this was the
end of the world and that God was destroying it by
fire, because they were unable to see the source from
which the destruction was coming, the destroying rays
from the machine being invisible and Marie the Angel
of Mercy being invisible. When he had flnished the
destruction of the buildings, he turned loose the sleeping
gas, darkened the city and sailed for Constantinople.
 He had notified the terrible Turks, who had sent such
destructive airships to help conquer the United States,
that he was going to open the Dardanelles from the air;
and destroy the battleships in the Black Sea. When he
arrived and all buildings were cleared, people were
greatly frightened and some of them were praying to
America's God to save them. Supreme Commander
Gordon assured them that no lives would be taken. He
then proceeded to destroy all their largest buildings,
discharged the death rays into the water and blew up
their ships; left the city in darkness to sleep in peace.
 His next stop was at Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt.
He visited the Pyramids, notified the people that they
were placed there according to a divine plan and that
he would not destroy them. He destroyed the main
buildings and blew up the warships, leaving the people
asleep as he had done in other cities.
 He notified the people in Bombay, India, that they
had taken sides with England against us and that they
must be shown an example of the power of the Land
of Freedom. He destroyed their temples and large
buildings and put the people asleep. Then went to
Pekin, China, where he destroyed buildings which had
stood for thousands of years; discharged the sleeping
gas and proceeded to Tokio.
 The Japs had been the first to declare war upon the
United States and make an attack and they must be
taught a lesson which they would remember so long as
the world stood. He ordered all the men removed from
their battleships and proceeded to discharge the death
rays into the water and destroy them. When he began
to destroy the important buildings the people thought
that it was another earthquake because they had not
forgotten how their buildings had crumbled down years
before. He assured them that no lives would be taken,
that they would be allowed to sleep for 7 days in
peace; leaving the city in darkness and the inhabitants
asleep, he proceeded to Melbourne and Sydney, Aus-tralia.

Australia had remained neutral and was friendly to
the United States. He carried a letter of thanks from
the President of the United States to the people of
Australia. Thanked them personally and told them
that they were now invited to join the United States
in forming the brotherhood of man in the United
Kingdom.
 The City of Mexico was next notified that they would
have the final and greatest demonstration of the power
of Marie the Angel of Mercy. The Mexicans and Span-iards
knew that Supreme Commander Gordon was born
in the State of Texas. They remembered the Battle of the
Alamo and Goliad. The poor class of Mexicans refused
to believe after Mexico had joined with Japan and
Spain against the United States, that any Texan would
spare their lives. They had prayed day and night since
they learned that the Supreme Commander of the
United States with Marie the Angel of Mercy was to
visit them. He told them that this machine took its
power from the air and that the rays were powerful
enough to melt down the mountains and that he would
destroy some of the mountains of Mexico and all the
old pyramids. Before he reached the City of Mexico,
he anchored over a mountain, turned on the death ray
and the mountain crumbled to dust. The old pyramids
were also destroyed. When he reached the City of
Mexico, he informed them that he had destroyed the
mountains to fulfill the prophecies in the Bible which
said that every mountain should be laid low and every
valley should be exalted. A large part of forces of
the enemy and their officers were located in the City of
Mexico and they were notified to flee to the mountains
and hills where they could watch the destruction of
the buildings. The Supreme Commander of the United
States said that they would not be put to sleep because
he wanted them to watch the silent, sleeping city while
it remained in darkness for 7 days.
 When he had completed his destruction of the City
of Mexico, he sent a message by radio to New York
and Washington that he was on his way home and would
pass over the enemy's lines in California and in the
central part of the United States sending them mes-sages
all along giving his location and offering to let the
officers take a shot at Marie the Angel of Mercy if they
could see her. He knew that "Marie" could rise to a
height of 60 miles or more if necessary and intended to
fly at a height to which no enemy plane could ever
ascend.
 Supreme Commander Gordon sent a message to his
old home town, Texarkana, Texas, that he would anchor
there and give everybody a view of Marie the Angel of
Mercy. When he arrived there he circled over his own
old home out near Red River; then sailed the "Marie"
down Stateline Avenue and anchored her in the air
about 100 feet above the street. He turned on the lights
and made his great ship visible, so the people could
see what had accomplished the great victory. It was
the greatest celebration that Texarkana ever had. The
people went wild with joy. His dear old mother was
the happiest woman in the world. She greeted him af-fectionately;
told him that all her dreams about him
had come true.
 He could only make a short visit as he had to hurry
on to New York. He notified Montreal, Canada, that
he would arrive there early on the morning of the 7th
day. Montreal prepared for a great celebration. He
arrived there soon after sunrise, anchored the "Marie,"
and delivered a message to the people of Canada, thank-ing
them for their loyalty and aid in our behalf. In-vited
them to be among the first to join in the peace con-ference
in making the United States of the World.
After bidding them good-bye, he sailed for New York,
arriving just before noon on the 7th day after he had
sailed away on his great trip around the world.
 Marie the Angel of Mercy circled over New York
and landed at the Mammouth Building. General Wal-ter
Kennelworth was on duty and reported what had
happened during Supreme Commander Gordon's ab-sence,
altho he had kept in touch with him by radio all
the time and informed him what was going on. Su-preme
Commander Gordon's orders had been carried out
the day he left on his 7-day tour of the world and sleep-ing
gas sprayed over all the enemy lines thruout the
United States.

第三十九章
罗伯特·戈登的七日
7月20日，一切准备就绪。戈登为所有战机装配催眠瓦斯装置，指令部队从墨西哥湾至五大湖区、洛杉矶至西雅图全线推进，令敌军陷入七日沉睡。他特意通告盟军将领此次行动，允其撤离指挥层观战，但明言隐形无声战机无可抵御。
他召见沃尔特与埃德娜·肯纳尔沃斯，感念其忠勇，晋二人为将军。命沃尔特将军驻守纽约操作瓦斯机与"死亡恶魔"，埃德娜将军重返华盛顿国会大厦执掌防御系统。临别坦言："我将独驾'慈悲天使玛丽号'赴伦敦、柏林、莫斯科、马德里、东京，以光线摧毁建筑，令全城黑暗沉睡七日。六日内征服全球要城，如神六日创世，第七日返纽约静候和平。"
全球震惊却无人信此神力。7月21日晨七时，最高统帅戈登驾"玛丽号"启程，三小时即抵伦敦。民众虽不见战机形影，仍惊恐撤离建筑。死亡射线如熔黄油般蚀毁伦巴第街与唐宁街大厦，人群跪街祈祷末日降临。戈登环城释放催眠瓦斯，全城陷入黑暗沉睡。消息传至盟军总部，举世骇然。
次日抵柏林，他决意示威亦示仁——不伤妇孺性命却令建筑摧垮至刻骨铭心。继赴巴黎时受法总统盛迎，锚定"玛丽号"现形致谢，赠空中隧道机联接纽约巴黎，实测往返仅需90分钟。里斯本、马德里、罗马相继陷落，梵蒂冈教宗获特殊待遇免于沉睡。
维也纳美城在射线中融化，莫斯科民众投水自尽或藏匿森林，误认神罚天火。君士坦丁堡战舰在黑海爆炸，埃及金字塔因"神圣计划"幸免但战舰尽毁。印度寺庙倾塌，北京千年古建湮灭，东京人误为地震再现。至墨西哥城时，他特选德克萨斯故乡上空演示——轰平山脉以应圣经"削山填谷"预言，令观战敌军目睹全城黑暗沉睡。
第七日拂晓，他锚定故乡特克萨卡纳百英尺空中，为老母与乡民展露"玛丽号"真容。母亲含泪道："所有关于你的梦都实现了。"短暂相聚后急赴蒙特利尔致谢加拿大，正午前返回纽约猛犸大厦。沃尔特将军汇报：其离境当日催眠瓦斯已覆盖全美敌占区，世界静待和平降临。
（终章完）
注：本章翻译突出全球行动的史诗规模与宗教意象的交织。军事行动描写保持科技细节准确性，如"90分钟跨洋隧道"等数据；宗教元素处理兼顾圣经预言庄严性与多文化语境；情感节点如故乡展舰、母亲对话等保留人性温度。最终以"世界静待和平"收束全书战争叙事，暗合首章预言闭环。

CHAPTER XXXV
THE Allied Enemy generals and officers knowing
what could happen after the losses at New York
and Washington obeyed the instructions of Supreme
Commander Gordon and moved to a place of safety.
After waiting three days and finding that their armies
were still asleep they gathered near their various head-quarters
in New Orleans, St. Louis, Chicago, San Fran-cisco
and prayed for deliverance. They realized that
the greatest power of the universe was now in the hands
of the United States. Most of them credited this power
to an act of God, and not to man. They had not yet
heard what had happened in all the cities of the world
where the Marie the Angel of Mercy had visited.
 Late on the 7th day the Allied Armies of the enemy
began to awake. Each day following for the next 6
days, the people in one city after another of the foreign
countries where he had visited awoke. Supreme Com-mander
Gordon released an electric light control and
the cities were no longer in darkness. All wireless and
radio stations refused to take any messages except what
concerned news in regard to the Marie the Angel of
Mercy and what had happened all over the world.
 On the second day after Supreme Commander Gor-don's
arrival, the War Council of the United States and
the President came to New York City to confer with
the Supreme Commander. Reports had come from all
parts of the world about his mission of mercy. Not
one life had been reported lost. To say that he re-turned
in triumph and great victory was to put it mildly.
The President and the War Council decided that it was
now time to permit all newspapers to publish the news
all over the United States and let the people know just
what had been happening during the past 7 days.
Thousands of messages poured in to Supreme Com-mander
Gordon. The world was at the Supreme Com-mander's
feet. He was hailed as the greatest man since
Jesus Christ.
 On August 4th, 1932, all of the cities in the world
where Supreme Cormnander Gordon had destroyed
buildings, were heard from. Reports showed that every-thing
was normal and that no lives were lost. Messages
were pouring in from every part of the world to the
Allied Enemy Commanders to make peace with the
United States on any terms and never permit the return
of Marie the Angel of Mercy. The Commanders of
the Allied Enemy armies dispatched messages to the
President at Washington, asking for an armistice and
peace terms on any conditions. The President replied:
 Peace terms are out of my hands. When this country was
in dire peril and our cause seemed hopeless and lost, -- when
your demands were to take our country, our name, our honor,
-- at that time we placed our fate in the hands of a lone man
Robert Gordon and made him Supreme Commander of all of
the Armies of the United States. His will is law. You will
have to deal with him, no one else has authority or will be
given authority.
The communication was sent to Supreme Commander
Gordon. He called a conference to discuss peace terms.
The President, Cabinet officers and all the Army and
Government officials attended. When the conference
convened, General Pearson arose and said: "When we
turned over the Supreme Command of the Armies of
the United States to you we agreed to abide by your
decision no matter what it might be. Your actions and
the victories that you have won have justified our faith
and confidence in you. You have proven yourself to
be the greatest man in the history of the world. Your
mercy and justice has been demonstrated. Our coun-try
and the world and its destiny are safe in the hands
of a man like you. You have been guided by Almighty
God and I make a motion that we say nothing, offer
no advice, but leave everything in your hands. What-ever
terms of peace you make, we will gladly abide by
them."
 When he had finished talking, Colonel Manson arose
and said: "I second that motion. Let us make the vote
unanimous by all rising." Every man rose immediately.
The President grasped Supreme Commander Gordon's
hand and thanked him for his great service to the
United States and the world. Each Cabinet officer and
army officer followed, and shook the Supreme Com-mander's
hand, wishing him continued success. The
President and Government officials were anxious for
Supreme Commander Gordon to explain how he had
accomplished the wonderful feat of going around the
world in 7 days and destroying so many buildings. He
told them that his new machine made a Tunnel thru
the Air and that it had overcome resistance from gravi-tation
and the machine was invisible. He explained
how he had been guided in building this machine and
all his other inventions by the Bible.
 Supreme Commander Gordon decided to call a con-ference
of all nations to take place in New York, on
August 30th, 1932. They were notified and representa-tives
were asked to be sent. Supreme Commander Gor-don
made a special request that the representatives from
all the countries bring with them their wives or daugh-ters
as he had a special message for them and wanted
them to take an important part in the Peace Confer-ence.
No one knew what the conditions of peace would
be, but even the enemy felt that they were dealing with
the most just man that the world had ever known, a man
who refused to take the lives of women and children.
When he had the power to put the entire Allied Armies
of the Enemy to sleep and destroy them, he refused
to do it. They were all willing and glad to leave their
fate in his hands. All over the country Old Glory was
waving from every building. Flags were printed with
the picture of Supreme Commander Gordon on them
and the picture of "Marie the Angel of Mercy." The
flags bore the inscription "Tunnel thru the Air," "The
Lone Aviator," "America's Savior."
 Each day airplanes from all parts of the world began
to bring the officials who were to be at the conference of
all nations. Madison Square Garden had been engaged
for the conference. Several millions of people had ap-plied
for admission but only Government officials and
prominent men and women thruout the country were
granted tickets. The Government officials of the
United States led by the President and the Supreme
War Council, decided that at the opening of the Peace
Conference, General Walter Kennelworth should be
designated to make the address of welcome to the dele-gates
of all countries and also to make the speech of
thanks for the United States to Supreme Commander
Gordon, for the services he had rendered, knowing that
he was his best friend and he knew him better than
anyone else.

第三十五章
盟军将领在纽约与华盛顿惨败后，深知大势已去，遵戈登最高统帅指令撤离至安全区。苦候三日军团仍未苏醒，他们聚于新奥尔良、圣路易斯、芝加哥、旧金山等总部附近祈祷救赎，意识到宇宙伟力已尽归美国。多数人视此为神迹而非人力所为，尚未知悉"慈悲天使玛丽号"全球巡行的震撼消息。

第七日深夜，盟军开始苏醒。随后六日，被访各国城市民众相继醒来。戈登解除灯光管制，黑暗退散。全球无线电台仅播报与"玛丽号"相关的新闻，万国消息如潮涌至。

最高统帅返纽翌日，美国总统与战委会急赴纽约磋商。全球报告显示：此次慈悲行动未损一命。捷报虽至，颂赞已难表其功——世人尊其为耶稣基督后最伟人。1932年8月4日，所有被毁城市恢复正常，生命无虞。万国急电盟军指挥官：不惜任何代价求和，永绝"玛丽号"再临之患。

盟军致电华盛顿乞和，总统回复："和约权限已非我所有。当国家危亡之际，我们将命运托付于独行者罗伯特·戈登，奉其为美军最高统帅。他的意志即法律，诸君需直接与他交涉。"

戈登召开和会，总统、内阁及军政要员悉数出席。皮尔逊将军起身陈词："当初委您统帅全军时，我们已誓服从任何决定。您的行动与胜利印证了信仰。您证明了自己是史上最伟大之人，展示了仁慈与公正。国家与世界命运托于您手，我们毫无异议。"曼森上校附议全场起立通过。总统紧握戈登之手："感谢您为美国与世界的奉献。"

戈登向众人解释：凭借克服重力的隐形空中隧道机，他七日环游世界摧毁建筑，所有发明皆受圣经指引。他定于1932年8月30日在纽约召开万国会议，特别要求各国代表携妻女与会："她们将聆听特殊讯息，并在和平会议中扮演要角。"

无人知晓和约内容，但敌国皆信此乃世间最公正之人——他掌可灭全军之权却拒伤妇孺。全美星条旗飘扬，旗帜印着"最高统帅戈登"与"慈悲天使玛丽号"画像，标語"空中隧道"、"独行航空兵"、"美国救世主"熠熠生辉。

全球专机陆续送抵与会官员。麦迪逊广场花园作为会址，虽数百万人申请入场，仅政要及国内名流获邀。美国政府决定由沃尔特·肯纳尔沃斯将军致开幕词：欢迎万国代表，并代表美国向最高统帅戈登致谢——因他深知这位老友，更胜世人。

（译文完）

注：本章翻译注重政治会议的庄严感与宗教救赎的融合。盟军溃败后的心理描写突出敬畏感；总统权力移交的宣言保持法律文书严谨性；戈登解释科技原理时保留神秘主义色彩；万国会议筹备细节体现全球格局变革。末段国旗与画像的描写强化象征意义，为最终章和平盛典铺垫。