"
"Maybe the Martians will like us so that they let us come back,"
suggested Jack with a laugh.
"Oh, I fancy we will be able to get away," said Mr. Roumann.
"But now I must get back to the shop. I am having a little more
trouble with my Etherium motor than I anticipated."
"I don't exactly understand how that works," said Jack. "The
plans don't call for any opening the stern of the Annihilator for
a propeller to project from, and there is no provision for a
tube, such as we used to send compressed air from the Flying
Mermaid. Nor is there anything in front to pull the Annihilator
along."
"We need nothing like that," explained the German scientist.
"The powerful force which I discovered does not need a tube or a
propeller to enable it to be used. The simplest explanation of
it is that it consists of waves of energy, which pass from
certain square surfaces attached to the motor. The force flows
from the plates right through the stern of the ship, passing
through the metal without the necessity for any openings. The
wireless waves, as they may be called, act on the ether, and, by
pushing against it send the projectile forward, just as if it was
a stream of compressed air acting on the atmosphere, or a
propeller in the water.
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