You did it unconsciously. No one in the world has ever done it before, for up until now Nature kept the secret safe locked within her."
Rob took time to consider this statement.
"Then who are you?" he inquired, at length.
"The Demon of Electricity," was the solemn answer.
"Good gracious!" exclaimed Rob, "a demon!"
"Certainly. I am, in truth, the Slave of the Master Key, and I am forced to obey the commands of any one who is wise and brave enough -- or, as in your own case, fortunate and fool-hardy enough -- to touch it."
"I -- I've never guessed there was such a thing as a Master Key, or -- or a Demon of Electricity, and -- and I'm awfully sorry I -- I called you up!" stammered the boy, flustered by the imposing appearance of his companion.
The Demon actually smiled at this speech, a smile that was almost reassuring.
"I am not sorry," he said, in kinder tone, "for it is not much fun waiting century after century for some one to command my services. I have often thought my existence was unnecessary, since you @Earth people are so stupid that you seem unlikely ever to master the secret of electrical power."
"Oh, we have some great masters among us!" cried Rob, a bit angry at the Demon's statement. "Now, there's @Edison -- "
"Edison!" exclaimed the Demon, with a faint sneer; "what does he know?"
"Lots of things," declared the boy. "He's invented no end of wonderful electrical things."
"You are wrong to call them wonderful," replied the Demon, lightly. "He really knows little more than yourself about the laws that control electricity. His inventions are trifling things in comparison with the really wonderful results anyone who actually knows how to direct electricity could produce. Why, I've stood for months by Edison's elbow, hoping and longing for him to touch the Master Key, but I can see plainly he will never accomplish it."
"Then there's @Tesla," said the boy.
The Demon actually laughed.
"There is Tesla, to be sure," he said. "But what of him?"
"Why, he's discovered a powerful light," the boy replied, "and he's in communication with the people in @Mars."
"What people?" The Demon chuckled.
"Why, the people who live there."
"There are none."
This great statement almost took Rob's breath away. All the great science fiction novelists had written about the @Martians for years.
