He now examined the microscope. Under the object- glass gleamed a bright dot, discernible with the naked eye. Bending over closer, he convinced himself, to his great surprise, that the glass tube had melted away and the tiny pale-blue star quivered without the apparatus, at the brass mounting. An unpleasant chill again ran up his spine.

Mechanically he extended his hand to the glittering object, but withdrew it immediately; his fingers were burned as by a red-hot iron and his body was rocked as by a heavy blow.

And it suddenly appeared to him that the glittering dot was growing in size before his very eyes; that it was not a dot any more; that it had become a smal ball, the size of a pea. He wiped his eyes and looked up again; he felt the hair on his head rising and his forehead was covered with cold perspiration.

No longer responsible for his actions, Flinder grabbed a glass of water from the table and splashed it under the microscope. The red-hot tube burst with a whir; the fragments of glass scattered all over the floor; a cloud of steam rose with a buzz from under the fiery ball, while the ball, agitated and rocked, moved aside and perched upon the marble table, slightly quivering, as if the scant power it contained, was pulsating.

It was quite clear now that it was growing from minute to minute, slowly but surely. Flinder suddenly became conscious of the fact that his lower jaw was jumping and the teeth were chattering. He stood motionless, his hands clutching the table, his face pale as death and his eyes widely bulged. Everything was clear now.

This was a catastrophe, the kind our Earth had not yet experienced. The breaking up of the atom, which he had caused in the minute volume of gas, had ’been so energetic, and the fragments were scattered with such force and rapidity, that, when colliding with the neighboring molecules, they, in turn, broke their constituent atoms, and now the process was spreading unchecked from one place to the other, liberating the dormant power and releasing light, heat and electric radiation.

He had set free the spark which was to cause a world conflagration! And there was nothing in all the world that could avert the destruction that was to follow. Nothing! Nothing! Certainly, we are powerless to exert any influence upon the process within those microcosms not yet known to us. None, whatever! And the world was not yet aware of anything; it did not dream that here, in the quiet of the laboratory, a catastrophe had taken place — that would ultimately reduce this globe into cosmic dust. Everybody was oblivious of the impending danger! They slept, walked, ate, worked, laughed and were occupied with a million trifling matters! Yet the shadow of death had swept over our Earth…