“No invention!” responded Herr Schultz, shrugging his shoulders. “I repeat that I have now no secrets from you. Come with me.”
The King of Steel and his companion then left the casemate and descended to a lower story, by means of an hydraulic lift. Here lay a large number of long objects, cylindrical in shape, which might, from a distance, have been taken for dismounted cannon.
“There are our shells,” said Herr Schultz.
This time Max was obliged to acknowledge that they resembled nothing he had ever seen before. They were enormous tubes, six feet in length and three in diameter, sheathed in lead in such a way as to fit into the rifling of the gun, closed behind by a steel plate, and the point finished off by a steel tip, supplied with a percussion button. Nothing in their appearance ind
