Quotation from: The Strength of the Strong

Written by: Jack London


One puzzling thing that could not be explained away was the conduct
of the troopers with their exploding rifles. It seemed impossible
that they should be in the plot, yet there were the hundreds their
flying bullets had slain, including the King and Queen. On the
other hand, more baffling than ever was the fact that seventy per
cent. of the troopers themselves had been killed or wounded. Some
explained this on the ground that the loyal foot-soldiers,
witnessing the attack on the royal carriage, had opened fire on the
traitors. Yet not one bit of evidence to verify this could be
drawn from the survivors, though many were put to the torture.
They contended stubbornly that they had not discharged their rifles
at all, but that their rifles had discharged themselves. They were
laughed at by the chemists, who held that, while it was just barely
probable that a single cartridge, charged with the new smokeless
powder, might spontaneously explode, it was beyond all probability
and possibility for all the cartridges in a given area, so charged,
spontaneously to explode. And so, in the end, no explanation of
the amazing occurrence was reached. The general opinion of the
rest of the world was that the whole affair was a blind panic of
the feverish Latins, precipitated, it was true, by the bursting of
two terrorist bombs; and in this connection was recalled the
laughable encounter of long years before between the Russian fleet
and the English fishing boats.

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