Goliah remained silent till March 24.  On the morning of that day, the newspapers published his second letter, copies of which had been received by the ten chief politicians of the United States—­ten leading men in the political world who were conventionally known as “statesmen.”  The letter, with the same superscription as before, was as follows: 

“Dear sir: 

“I have spoken in no uncertain tone.  I must be obeyed.  You may consider this an invitation or a summons; but if you still wish to tread this earth and laugh, you will be aboard the yacht Energon, in San Francisco harbour, not later than the evening of April 5.  It is my wish and my will that you confer with me here on Palgrave Island in the matter of reconstructing society upon some rational basis.

“Do not misunderstand me, when I tell you that I am one with a theory.  I want to see that theory work, and therefore I call upon your cooperation.  In this theory of mine, lives are but pawns; I deal with quantities of lives.  I am after laughter, and those that stand in the way of laughter must perish.  The game is big.  There are fifteen hundred million human lives to-day on the planet.  What is your single life against them?  It is as naught, in my theory.  And remember that mine is the power.  Remember that I am a scientist, and that one life, or one million of lives, mean nothing to me as arrayed against the countless billions of billions of the lives of the generations to come.  It is for their laughter that I seek to reconstruct society now; and against them your own meagre little life is a paltry thing indeed.

“Whoso has power can command his fellows.  By virtue of that military device known as the phalanx, Alexander conquered his bit of the world.  By virtue of that chemical device, gunpowder, Cortes with his several hundred cut-throats conquered the empire of the Montezumas.  Now I am in possession of a device that is all my own.  In the course of a century not more than half a dozen fundamental discoveries or inventions are made.  I have made such an invention.  The possession of it gives me the mastery of the world.  I shall use this invention, not for commercial exploitation, but for the good of humanity.  For that purpose I want help—­willing agents, obedient hands; and I am strong enough to compel the service.  I am taking the shortest way, though I am in no hurry.  I shall not clutter my speed with haste.

“The incentive of material gain developed man from the savage to the semi-barbarian he is today.  This incentive has been a useful device for the development of the human; but it has now fulfilled its function and is ready to be cast aside into the scrap-heap of rudimentary vestiges such as gills in the throat and belief in the divine right of kings.  Of course you do not think so; but I do not see that that will prevent you from aiding me to fling the anachronism into the scrap-heap.  For I tell you now that