noon
Where and when it may strike , no man knows save those who wield it , and therefore there is nothing for the peoples of the earth , however mighty they may be , to do but to await the blow in humiliating impotence , but still with a humble trust in that Higher Power which alone can save it from accomplishing the destruction of Society and the enslavement of the human race . '' It may well be imagined with what interest , and it may fairly be added with what intense anxiety , these words were read by hundreds of thousands of people throughout the British Islands . Even the news from the Seat of War began to pall in interest before such tidings as these , invested as they were with the irresistible if terrible charm of the unknown and the mysterious . By noon it was almost impossible to get any one in London or any of the large towns to talk of anything but the disappearance of Lord Alanmere , the Terrorists , and their marvellous aërial fleet . But it goes without saying that nowhere did the news produce greater distress or more utter bewilderment than it did among the occupants of Alanmere Castle , and especially in the breast of her who had been so quickly and so strangely installed as its new owner and mistress . Everywhere the wildest rumours passed from lip to lip , growing in sensation and absurdity as they went . A report , telegraphed by an anonymous idiot from Liverpool , to the effect that six air-ships had appeared over the Mersey , and demanded a ransom of £ 10,000,000 from the town , was eagerly seized on by the cheaper evening papers , which rushed out edition after edition on the strength of it , until the _ St. James 's Gazette _ put an end to the excitement by publishing a telegram from the Mayor of Liverpool denouncing the report as an insane and criminal hoax .