It can also tear to pieces an enemy’s camp that lies in the open field.  All this is accomplished by dropping shells composed partly of some elements not found in our world.  These shells are made in such a way that they explode as soon as they touch any substance, and the concussion is much more terrible than is caused by our most powerful explosives.  Because no ship could hold together under such destructive shells, the nations abandoned their navies and devoted their energy to devising a safe camp for soldiers and to building these air-vessels with additional improvements.

It was found that the only way to protect a camp was to cover it with a water proof shed, so constructed that nine or ten inches of water would remain on the roof.  Then a wide shallow trench was dug around the shed and kept filled with water.  These shells will not explode if they fall in that depth of water, but will explode in water of greater depth.  You can see at a glance how difficult it is to manage an army under these circumstances.  The only redeeming feature is that the enemy also is compelled to resort to the same protection.  An international law forbids the destruction of homes in times of war.

[Illustration:  The Battle of the “Flying Devils.”]

Wars are of short duration.  Usually the decisive conflict is fought in the air, and is the most terrible of them all.  Imagine two of these Flying Devils approaching one another far above the surface of Zik.  Each vessel is set in action long before it is in range of the other in the hope of firing the first effective shot.  Each party of the conflict knows that the air vessel first struck will be at an end forever, for it will be blown to pieces and every life on board will be shattered into shapeless masses, while the wreckage falls amidst the burning of the combustibles.  What a horrible ending of a short battle!

The wisest of the Zikites have proposed many plans to settle international differences but, like us, they have failed to suggest any plan that has proved to be practicable.

The largest nation of Zik has advanced far ahead of us on the labor question, but this was not reached until the contest between capital and labor had left its blood-marks through many centuries.

A brief description of the manner in which the industrial problem was solved will not be out of place.  I will waste no words n showing the many points of difference between our customs and those of Zik.

After hundreds of years of painful struggling, the many laborers of this largest nation completed a solid organization and thereby gained control of the whole government.  Then, in their zeal to legislate in favor of the laboring classes, the ruling element stepped to the other extreme by passing many unreasonable laws.  Things passed along in this unsettled condition until a certain few of the labor leaders, having become wealthy themselves, yielded to a heavy bribe and amended the laws so as to favor the wealthy minority.  The magnates of capital shrewdly took advantage of this traitorship and, in the following campaign, won the national election.