human
Listen, began the Rittmeister.
gpt
I cannot explain everything now--time will not permit--but you shall learn all these things before many days are over.
human
Yes, go on!
gpt
The professor has spent years on this series of inventions, both in the workshop and the laboratory, and each discovery has been co-ordinated and fitted into the scheme. The greatest of all his discoveries is the fact that he has been able to discover and to harness an unknown force to drive the motors of the _Scorpion_.
human
A highly compressed gas, I suppose,
gpt
Certainly, it is a _most_ highly compressed gas, extracted at great pains and labour from the elements. The formulæ for this wonderful new element exist only in the still more wonderful brain of the professor. It has not been committed to paper even, in its final terms and ratios, so that, even should this machine be captured, which it certainly shall not be whilst I am its pilot, it could not be used, once the present supply of this Uranis, as we will call it, is used up.
human
That is why the engines are so small, then?
gpt
Precisely!
human
And what is our present supply of this wonderful element?
gpt
Do you see this?