CHAPTER V.
IN THE LABORATORY.
Half an hour's run down Staten Island, along smooth roads lined with sleepy little towns and through sparse woods beyond which sparkled the shining waters of the harbor, brought the two plutocrats to the quiet settlement of Oakwood Heights.
Now the blase chauffeur swung the car sharply to the left, past the aviation field, and so came to the wide-scattered settlement--almost a colony--which, hidden behind high, barb-wire-topped fences, carried on the many and complex activities of the partners' experiment station.
Here were the several laboratories where new products were evolved and old ones refined, for Flint's and Waldron's greater profit.

Here stood a complete electric power plant, for lighting and heating the works, as well as for current to use in the retorts and many powerful machines of the testing works.
Here, again, were broad proving grounds, for fuel and explosives; and, at one side, stood a low, skylighted group of brick buildings, known as the electro-chemical station.

Dormitories and boarding-houses for the small army of employees occupied the eastern end of the enclosure, nearest the sea.

Over all, high chimney stacks and the aerials of a mighty wireless plant dominated the entire works.

A private railroad spur pierced the western side of the enclosure, for food and coal supplies, as well as for the handling of the numerous imports and exports of this wonderfully complete feudal domain.