diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 01:46:33 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 01:46:33 -0700 |
| commit | e40be23065dfa084e3626d5fca9b70b85771cf06 (patch) | |
| tree | 27b4a631a49d534b43f9afa10935988aa5ee570d | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-0.txt | 2428 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-0.zip | bin | 0 -> 51040 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 1526441 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/21970-h.htm | 3059 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/images/020.jpg | bin | 0 -> 79882 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/images/025.jpg | bin | 0 -> 22621 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/images/033.jpg | bin | 0 -> 54861 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/images/036.jpg | bin | 0 -> 16174 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/images/054.jpg | bin | 0 -> 33825 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/images/059.jpg | bin | 0 -> 20401 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/images/071.jpg | bin | 0 -> 99844 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/images/078.jpg | bin | 0 -> 71841 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/images/088.jpg | bin | 0 -> 41401 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/images/092.jpg | bin | 0 -> 68413 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/images/098.jpg | bin | 0 -> 49295 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/images/100.jpg | bin | 0 -> 52390 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/images/108.jpg | bin | 0 -> 66937 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/images/112.jpg | bin | 0 -> 19574 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/images/120.jpg | bin | 0 -> 38615 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/images/132.jpg | bin | 0 -> 45676 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/images/144.jpg | bin | 0 -> 76653 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/images/149.jpg | bin | 0 -> 43675 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/images/150.jpg | bin | 0 -> 22726 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/images/153.jpg | bin | 0 -> 117963 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/images/158.jpg | bin | 0 -> 43495 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/images/169.jpg | bin | 0 -> 107376 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/images/179.jpg | bin | 0 -> 39574 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 0 -> 137313 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/images/endpiece.jpg | bin | 0 -> 8839 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/images/frontispiece.jpg | bin | 0 -> 77358 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21970-h/images/titlepage.jpg | bin | 0 -> 31007 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/21970-8.txt | 2439 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/21970-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 51118 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/21970-h.htm.2020-06-22 | 3051 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/21970.txt | 2439 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/21970.zip | bin | 0 -> 51099 bytes |
39 files changed, 13432 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/21970-0.txt b/21970-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..009ad8f --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2428 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Scarlet Plague, by Jack London + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: The Scarlet Plague + +Author: Jack London + +Illustrator: Gordon Grant + +Release Date: June 29, 2007 [eBook #21970] +[Most recently updated: March 28, 2023] + +Language: English + +Produced by: David Widger + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SCARLET PLAGUE *** + + + + +THE SCARLET PLAGUE + +By Jack London + + +Illustrated By Gordon Grant + +1915 + + + + +THE SCARLET PLAGUE + + + + +I + + +The way led along upon what had once been the embankment of a railroad. +But no train had run upon it for many years. The forest on either side +swelled up the slopes of the embankment and crested across it in a green +wave of trees and bushes. The trail was as narrow as a man's body, and +was no more than a wild-animal runway. Occasionally, a piece of rusty +iron, showing through the forest-mould, advertised that the rail and the +ties still remained. In one place, a ten-inch tree, bursting through at +a connection, had lifted the end of a rail clearly into view. The tie +had evidently followed the rail, held to it by the spike long enough +for its bed to be filled with gravel and rotten leaves, so that now the +crumbling, rotten timber thrust itself up at a curious slant. Old as the +road was, it was manifest that it had been of the mono-rail type. + +An old man and a boy travelled along this runway. They moved slowly, for +the old man was very old, a touch of palsy made his movements tremulous, +and he leaned heavily upon his staff. A rude skull-cap of goat-skin +protected his head from the sun. From beneath this fell a scant fringe +of stained and dirty-white hair. A visor, ingeniously made from a large +leaf, shielded his eyes, and from under this he peered at the way of +his feet on the trail. His beard, which should have been snow-white +but which showed the same weather-wear and camp-stain as his hair, +fell nearly to his waist in a great tangled mass. About his chest and +shoulders hung a single, mangy garment of goat-skin. His arms and legs, +withered and skinny, betokened extreme age, as well as did their sunburn +and scars and scratches betoken long years of exposure to the elements. + +The boy, who led the way, checking the eagerness of his muscles to +the slow progress of the elder, likewise wore a single garment--a +ragged-edged piece of bear-skin, with a hole in the middle through which +he had thrust his head. He could not have been more than twelve years +old. Tucked coquettishly over one ear was the freshly severed tail of a +pig. In one hand he carried a medium-sized bow and an arrow. + +On his back was a quiverful of arrows. From a sheath hanging about his +neck on a thong, projected the battered handle of a hunting knife. He +was as brown as a berry, and walked softly, with almost a catlike tread. +In marked contrast with his sunburned skin were his eyes--blue, deep +blue, but keen and sharp as a pair of gimlets. They seemed to bore into +aft about him in a way that was habitual. As he went along he smelled +things, as well, his distended, quivering nostrils carrying to his brain +an endless series of messages from the outside world. Also, his hearing +was acute, and had been so trained that it operated automatically. +Without conscious effort, he heard all the slight sounds in the apparent +quiet--heard, and differentiated, and classified these sounds--whether +they were of the wind rustling the leaves, of the humming of bees and +gnats, of the distant rumble of the sea that drifted to him only in +lulls, or of the gopher, just under his foot, shoving a pouchful of +earth into the entrance of his hole. + +Suddenly he became alertly tense. Sound, sight, and odor had given him +a simultaneous warning. His hand went back to the old man, touching +him, and the pair stood still. Ahead, at one side of the top of the +embankment, arose a crackling sound, and the boy's gaze was fixed on the +tops of the agitated bushes. Then a large bear, a grizzly, crashed into +view, and likewise stopped abruptly, at sight of the humans. He did not +like them, and growled querulously. Slowly the boy fitted the arrow to +the bow, and slowly he pulled the bowstring taut. But he never removed +his eyes from the bear. + +[Illustration: Slowly he pulled the bowstring taut 020] + +The old man peered from under his green leaf at the danger, and stood as +quietly as the boy. For a few seconds this mutual scrutinizing went +on; then, the bear betraying a growing irritability, the boy, with a +movement of his head, indicated that the old man must step aside from +the trail and go down the embankment. The boy followed, going backward, +still holding the bow taut and ready. They waited till a crashing among +the bushes from the opposite side of the embankment told them the bear +had gone on. The boy grinned as he led back to the trail. + +“A big un, Granser,” he chuckled. + +The old man shook his head. + +“They get thicker every day,” he complained in a thin, undependable +falsetto. “Who'd have thought I'd live to see the time when a man would +be afraid of his life on the way to the Cliff House. When I was a boy, +Edwin, men and women and little babies used to come out here from San +Francisco by tens of thousands on a nice day. And there weren't any +bears then. No, sir. They used to pay money to look at them in cages, +they were that rare.” + +“What is money, Granser?” + +Before the old man could answer, the boy recollected and triumphantly +shoved his hand into a pouch under his bear-skin and pulled forth a +battered and tarnished silver dollar. The old man's eyes glistened, as +he held the coin close to them. + +“I can't see,” he muttered. “You look and see if you can make out the +date, Edwin.” + +The boy laughed. + +“You're a great Granser,” he cried delightedly, “always making believe +them little marks mean something.” + +The old man manifested an accustomed chagrin as he brought the coin back +again close to his own eyes. + +“2012,” he shrilled, and then fell to cackling grotesquely. “That was +the year Morgan the Fifth was appointed President of the United States +by the Board of Magnates. It must have been one of the last coins +minted, for the Scarlet Death came in 2013. Lord! Lord!--think of it! +Sixty years ago, and I am the only person alive to-day that lived in +those times. Where did you find it, Edwin?” + +The boy, who had been regarding him with the tolerant curiousness one +accords to the prattlings of the feeble-minded, answered promptly. + +“I got it off of Hoo-Hoo. He found it when we was herdin' goats down +near San José last spring. Hoo-Hoo said it was _money_. Ain't you +hungry, Granser?” + +The ancient caught his staff in a tighter grip and urged along the +trail, his old eyes shining greedily. + +“I hope Hare-Lip 's found a crab... or two,” he mumbled. “They're good +eating, crabs, mighty good eating when you've no more teeth and you've +got grandsons that love their old grandsire and make a point of catching +crabs for him. When I was a boy--” + +But Edwin, suddenly stopped by what he saw, was drawing the bowstring +on a fitted arrow. He had paused on the brink of a crevasse in the +embankment. An ancient culvert had here washed out, and the stream, no +longer confined, had cut a passage through the fill. On the opposite +side, the end of a rail projected and overhung. It showed rustily +through the creeping vines which overran it. Beyond, crouching by a +bush, a rabbit looked across at him in trembling hesitancy. Fully fifty +feet was the distance, but the arrow flashed true; and the transfixed +rabbit, crying out in sudden fright and hurt, struggled painfully away +into the brush. The boy himself was a flash of brown skin and flying fur +as he bounded down the steep wall of the gap and up the other side. +His lean muscles were springs of steel that released into graceful +and efficient action. A hundred feet beyond, in a tangle of bushes, +he overtook the wounded creature, knocked its head on a convenient +tree-trunk, and turned it over to Granser to carry. + +[Illustration: Rabbit is good, very good 026] + +“Rabbit is good, very good,” the ancient quavered, “but when it comes to +a toothsome delicacy I prefer crab. When I was a boy--” + +“Why do you say so much that ain't got no sense?” Edwin impatiently +interrupted the other's threatened garrulousness. + +The boy did not exactly utter these words, but something that remotely +resembled them and that was more guttural and explosive and economical +of qualifying phrases. His speech showed distant kinship with that of +the old man, and the latter's speech was approximately an English that +had gone through a bath of corrupt usage. + +“What I want to know,” Edwin continued, “is why you call crab 'toothsome +delicacy'? Crab is crab, ain't it? No one I never heard calls it such +funny things.” + +The old man sighed but did not answer, and they moved on in silence. +The surf grew suddenly louder, as they emerged from the forest upon a +stretch of sand dunes bordering the sea. A few goats were browsing among +the sandy hillocks, and a skin-clad boy, aided by a wolfish-looking +dog that was only faintly reminiscent of a collie, was watching them. +Mingled with the roar of the surf was a continuous, deep-throated +barking or bellowing, which came from a cluster of jagged rocks a +hundred yards out from shore. Here huge sea-lions hauled themselves +up to lie in the sun or battle with one another. In the immediate +foreground arose the smoke of a fire, tended by a third savage-looking +boy. Crouched near him were several wolfish dogs similar to the one that +guarded the goats. + +The old man accelerated his pace, sniffing eagerly as he neared the +fire. + +“Mussels!” he muttered ecstatically. “Mussels! And ain't that a crab, +Hoo-Hoo? Ain't that a crab? My, my, you boys are good to your old +grandsire.” + +Hoo-Hoo, who was apparently of the same age as Edwin, grinned. + +“All you want, Granser. I got four.” + +The old man's palsied eagerness was pitiful. Sitting down in the sand as +quickly as his stiff limbs would let him, he poked a large rock-mussel +from out of the coals. The heat had forced its shells apart, and +the meat, salmon-colored, was thoroughly cooked. Between thumb and +forefinger, in trembling haste, he caught the morsel and carried it +to his mouth. But it was too hot, and the next moment was violently +ejected. The old man spluttered with the pain, and tears ran out of his +eyes and down his cheeks. + +The boys were true savages, possessing only the cruel humor of the +savage. To them the incident was excruciatingly funny, and they burst +into loud laughter. Hoo-Hoo danced up and down, while Edwin rolled +gleefully on the ground. The boy with the goats came running to join in +the fun. + +“Set 'em to cool, Edwin, set 'em to cool,” the old man besought, in the +midst of his grief, making no attempt to wipe away the tears that +still flowed from his eyes. “And cool a crab, Edwin, too. You know your +grandsire likes crabs.” + +From the coals arose a great sizzling, which proceeded from the many +mussels bursting open their shells and exuding their moisture. They were +large shellfish, running from three to six inches in length. The boys +raked them out with sticks and placed them on a large piece of driftwood +to cool. + +“When I was a boy, we did not laugh at our elders; we respected them.” + +The boys took no notice, and Granser continued to babble an incoherent +flow of complaint and censure. But this time he was more careful, and +did not burn his mouth. All began to eat, using nothing but their hands +and making loud mouth-noises and lip-smackings. The third boy, who was +called Hare-Lip, slyly deposited a pinch of sand on a mussel the ancient +was carrying to his mouth; and when the grit of it bit into the old +fellow's mucous membrane and gums, the laughter was again uproarious. He +was unaware that a joke had been played on him, and spluttered and spat +until Edwin, relenting, gave him a gourd of fresh water with which to +wash out his mouth. + +“Where's them crabs, Hoo-Hoo?” Edwin demanded. “Granser's set upon +having a snack.” + +Again Granser's eyes burned with greediness as a large crab was handed +to him. It was a shell with legs and all complete, but the meat had long +since departed. With shaky fingers and babblings of anticipation, the +old man broke off a leg and found it filled with emptiness. + +“The crabs, Hoo-Hoo?” he wailed. “The crabs?” + +“I was fooling Granser. They ain't no crabs! I never found one.” + +The boys were overwhelmed with delight at sight of the tears of senile +disappointment that dribbled down the old man's cheeks. Then, unnoticed, +Hoo-Hoo replaced the empty shell with a fresh-cooked crab. Already +dismembered, from the cracked legs the white meat sent forth a small +cloud of savory steam. This attracted the old man's nostrils, and he +looked down in amazement. + +[Illustration: This attracted the old man's nostrils 033] + +The change of his mood to one of joy was immediate. He snuffled and +muttered and mumbled, making almost a croon of delight, as he began +to eat. Of this the boys took little notice, for it was an accustomed +spectacle. Nor did they notice his occasional exclamations and +utterances of phrases which meant nothing to them, as, for instance, +when he smacked his lips and champed his gums while muttering: +“Mayonnaise! Just think--mayonnaise! And it's sixty years since the last +was ever made! Two generations and never a smell of it! Why, in those +days it was served in every restaurant with crab.” + +When he could eat no more, the old man sighed, wiped his hands on his +naked legs, and gazed out over the sea. With the content of a full +stomach, he waxed reminiscent. + +“To think of it! I've seen this beach alive with men, women, and +children on a pleasant Sunday. And there weren't any bears to eat them +up, either. And right up there on the cliff was a big restaurant where +you could get anything you wanted to eat. Four million people lived in +San Francisco then. And now, in the whole city and county there aren't +forty all told. And out there on the sea were ships and ships always to +be seen, going in for the Golden Gate or coming out. And airships in the +air--dirigibles and flying machines. They could travel two hundred miles +an hour. The mail contracts with the New York and San Francisco Limited +demanded that for the minimum. There was a chap, a Frenchman, I forget +his name, who succeeded in making three hundred; but the thing was +risky, too risky for conservative persons. But he was on the right clew, +and he would have managed it if it hadn't been for the Great Plague. +When I was a boy, there were men alive who remembered the coming of the +first aeroplanes, and now I have lived to see the last of them, and that +sixty years ago.” + +The old man babbled on, unheeded by the boys, who were long accustomed +to his garrulousness, and whose vocabularies, besides, lacked the +greater portion of the words he used. It was noticeable that in these +rambling soliloquies his English seemed to recrudesce into better +construction and phraseology. But when he talked directly with the boys +it lapsed, largely, into their own uncouth and simpler forms. + +“But there weren't many crabs in those days,” the old man wandered on. +“They were fished out, and they were great delicacies. The open season +was only a month long, too. And now crabs are accessible the whole year +around. Think of it--catching all the crabs you want, any time you want, +in the surf of the Cliff House beach!” + +A sudden commotion among the goats brought the boys to their feet. The +dogs about the fire rushed to join their snarling fellow who guarded the +goats, while the goats themselves stampeded in the direction of their +human protectors. A half dozen forms, lean and gray, glided about on the +sand hillocks and faced the bristling dogs. Edwin arched an arrow that +fell short. But Hare-Lip, with a sling such as David carried into battle +against Goliath, hurled a stone through the air that whistled from the +speed of its flight. It fell squarely among the wolves and caused them +to slink away toward the dark depths of the eucalyptus forest. + +[Illustration: With a sling such as David carried 036] + +The boys laughed and lay down again in the sand, while Granser sighed +ponderously. He had eaten too much, and, with hands clasped on his +paunch, the fingers interlaced, he resumed his maunderings. + +“'The fleeting systems lapse like foam,'” he mumbled what was evidently +a quotation. “That's it--foam, and fleeting. All man's toil upon the +planet was just so much foam. He domesticated the serviceable animals, +destroyed the hostile ones, and cleared the land of its wild vegetation. +And then he passed, and the flood of primordial life rolled back again, +sweeping his handiwork away--the weeds and the forest inundated his +fields, the beasts of prey swept over his flocks, and now there are +wolves on the Cliff House beach.” He was appalled by the thought. “Where +four million people disported themselves, the wild wolves roam to-day, +and the savage progeny of our loins, with prehistoric weapons, defend +themselves against the fanged despoilers. Think of it! And all because +of the Scarlet Death--” + +The adjective had caught Hare-Lip's ear. + +“He's always saying that,” he said to Edwin. “What is _scarlet?_” + +“'The scarlet of the maples can shake me like the cry of bugles going +by,'” the old man quoted. + +“It's red,” Edwin answered the question. “And you don't know it because +you come from the Chauffeur Tribe. They never did know nothing, none of +them. Scarlet is red--I know that.” + +“Red is red, ain't it?” Hare-Lip grumbled. “Then what's the good of +gettin' cocky and calling it scarlet?” + +“Granser, what for do you always say so much what nobody knows?” he +asked. “Scarlet ain't anything, but red is red. Why don't you say red, +then?” + +“Red is not the right word,” was the reply. “The plague was scarlet. +The whole face and body turned scarlet in an hour's time. Don't I +know? Didn't I see enough of it? And I am telling you it was scarlet +because--well, because it _was_ scarlet. There is no other word for it.” + +“Red is good enough for me,” Hare-Lip muttered obstinately. “My dad +calls red red, and he ought to know. He says everybody died of the Red +Death.” + +“Your dad is a common fellow, descended from a common fellow,” Granser +retorted heatedly. “Don't I know the beginnings of the Chauffeurs? Your +grandsire was a chauffeur, a servant, and without education. He worked +for other persons. But your grandmother was of good stock, only the +children did not take after her. Don't I remember when I first met them, +catching fish at Lake Temescal?” + +“What is _education?_” Edwin asked. + +“Calling red scarlet,” Hare-Lip sneered, then returned to the attack on +Granser. “My dad told me, an' he got it from his dad afore he croaked, +that your wife was a Santa Rosan, an' that she was sure no account. He +said she was a _hash-slinger_ before the Red Death, though I don't know +what a _hash-slinger_ is. You can tell me, Edwin.” + +But Edwin shook his head in token of ignorance. + +“It is true, she was a waitress,” Granser acknowledged. “But she was a +good woman, and your mother was her daughter. Women were very scarce in +the days after the Plague. She was the only wife I could find, even if +she was a _hash-slinger_, as your father calls it. But it is not nice to +talk about our progenitors that way.” + +“Dad says that the wife of the first Chauffeur was a _lady_--” + +“What's a _lady?_” Hoo-Hoo demanded. + +“A _lady_ 's a Chauffeur squaw,” was the quick reply of Hare-Lip. + +“The first Chauffeur was Bill, a common fellow, as I said before,” the +old man expounded; “but his wife was a lady, a great lady. Before the +Scarlet Death she was the wife of Van Worden. He was President of the +Board of Industrial Magnates, and was one of the dozen men who +ruled America. He was worth one billion, eight hundred millions of +dollars--coins like you have there in your pouch, Edwin. And then came +the Scarlet Death, and his wife became the wife of Bill, the first +Chauffeur. He used to beat her, too. I have seen it myself.” + +Hoo-Hoo, lying on his stomach and idly digging his toes in the sand, +cried out and investigated, first, his toe-nail, and next, the small +hole he had dug. The other two boys joined him, excavating the sand +rapidly with their hands till there lay three skeletons exposed. Two +were of adults, the third being that of a part-grown child. The old man +trudged along on the ground and peered at the find. + +“Plague victims,” he announced. “That's the way they died everywhere +in the last days. This must have been a family, running away from the +contagion and perishing here on the Cliff House beach. They--what are +you doing, Edwin?” + +This question was asked in sudden dismay, as Edwin, using the back of +his hunting knife, began to knock out the teeth from the jaws of one of +the skulls. + +“Going to string 'em,” was the response. + +The three boys were now hard at it; and quite a knocking and hammering +arose, in which Granser babbled on unnoticed. + +“You are true savages. Already has begun the custom of wearing human +teeth. In another generation you will be perforating your noses and +ears and wearing ornaments of bone and shell. I know. The human race +is doomed to sink back farther and farther into the primitive night +ere again it begins its bloody climb upward to civilization. When we +increase and feel the lack of room, we will proceed to kill one another. +And then I suppose you will wear human scalp-locks at your waist, as +well--as you, Edwin, who are the gentlest of my grandsons, have already +begun with that vile pigtail. Throw it away, Edwin, boy; throw it away.” + +“What a gabble the old geezer makes,” Hare-Lip remarked, when, the teeth +all extracted, they began an attempt at equal division. + +They were very quick and abrupt in their actions, and their speech, in +moments of hot discussion over the allotment of the choicer teeth, was +truly a gabble. They spoke in monosyllables and short jerky sentences +that was more a gibberish than a language. And yet, through it ran hints +of grammatical construction, and appeared vestiges of the conjugation +of some superior culture. Even the speech of Granser was so corrupt that +were it put down literally it would be almost so much nonsense to the +reader. This, however, was when he talked with the boys. + +When he got into the full swing of babbling to himself, it slowly purged +itself into pure English. The sentences grew longer and were enunciated +with a rhythm and ease that was reminiscent of the lecture platform. + +“Tell us about the Red Death, Granser,” Hare-Lip demanded, when the +teeth affair had been satisfactorily concluded. + +“The Scarlet Death,” Edwin corrected. + +“An' don't work all that funny lingo on us,” Hare-Lip went on. “Talk +sensible, Granser, like a Santa Rosan ought to talk. Other Santa Rosans +don't talk like you.” + + + + +II + + +The old man showed pleasure in being thus called upon. He cleared his +throat and began. + +“Twenty or thirty years ago my story was in great demand. But in these +days nobody seems interested--” + +“There you go!” Hare-Lip cried hotly. “Cut out the funny stuff and talk +sensible. What's _interested?_ You talk like a baby that don't know +how.” + +“Let him alone,” Edwin urged, “or he'll get mad and won't talk at all. +Skip the funny places. We'll catch on to some of what he tells us.” + +“Let her go, Granser,” Hoo-Hoo encouraged; for the old man was already +maundering about the disrespect for elders and the reversion to cruelty +of all humans that fell from high culture to primitive conditions. + +The tale began. + +“There were very many people in the world in those days. San Francisco +alone held four millions--” + +“What is millions?” Edwin interrupted. + +Granser looked at him kindly. + +“I know you cannot count beyond ten, so I will tell you. Hold up your +two hands. On both of them you have altogether ten fingers and thumbs. +Very well. I now take this grain of sand--you hold it, Hoo-Hoo.” He +dropped the grain of sand into the lad's palm and went on. “Now that +grain of sand stands for the ten fingers of Edwin. I add another grain. +That's ten more fingers. And I add another, and another, and another, +until I have added as many grains as Edwin has fingers and thumbs. That +makes what I call one hundred. Remember that word--one hundred. Now I +put this pebble in Hare-Lip's hand. It stands for ten grains of sand, or +ten tens of fingers, or one hundred fingers. I put in ten pebbles. They +stand for a thousand fingers. I take a mussel-shell, and it stands for +ten pebbles, or one hundred grains of sand, or one thousand fingers....” + And so on, laboriously, and with much reiteration, he strove to build +up in their minds a crude conception of numbers. As the quantities +increased, he had the boys holding different magnitudes in each of +their hands. For still higher sums, he laid the symbols on the log of +driftwood; and for symbols he was hard put, being compelled to use the +teeth from the skulls for millions, and the crab-shells for billions. +It was here that he stopped, for the boys were showing signs of becoming +tired. + +“There were four million people in San Francisco--four teeth.” + +The boys' eyes ranged along from the teeth and from hand to hand, down +through the pebbles and sand-grains to Edwin's fingers. And back again +they ranged along the ascending series in the effort to grasp such +inconceivable numbers. + +“That was a lot of folks, Granser,” Edwin at last hazarded. + +“Like sand on the beach here, like sand on the beach, each grain of sand +a man, or woman, or child. Yes, my boy, all those people lived right +here in San Francisco. And at one time or another all those people +came out on this very beach--more people than there are grains of sand. +More--more--more. And San Francisco was a noble city. And across the +bay--where we camped last year, even more people lived, clear from Point +Richmond, on the level ground and on the hills, all the way around to +San Leandro--one great city of seven million people.--Seven teeth... +there, that's it, seven millions.” + +Again the boys' eyes ranged up and down from Edwin's fingers to the +teeth on the log. + +“The world was full of people. The census of 2010 gave eight billions +for the whole world--eight crab-shells, yes, eight billions. It was not +like to-day. Mankind knew a great deal more about getting food. And the +more food there was, the more people there were. In the year 1800, there +were one hundred and seventy millions in Europe alone. One hundred years +later--a grain of sand, Hoo-Hoo--one hundred years later, at 1900, there +were five hundred millions in Europe--five grains of sand, Hoo-Hoo, and +this one tooth. This shows how easy was the getting of food, and how men +increased. And in the year 2000 there were fifteen hundred millions +in Europe. And it was the same all over the rest of the world. Eight +crab-shells there, yes, eight billion people were alive on the earth +when the Scarlet Death began. + +“I was a young man when the Plague came--twenty-seven years old; and I +lived on the other side of San Francisco Bay, in Berkeley. You remember +those great stone houses, Edwin, when we came down the hills from Contra +Costa? That was where I lived, in those stone houses. I was a professor +of English literature.” + +[Illustration: I was a professor of English literature 054] + +Much of this was over the heads of the boys, but they strove to +comprehend dimly this tale of the past. + +“What was them stone houses for?” Hare-Lip queried. + +“You remember when your dad taught you to swim?” The boy nodded. +“Well, in the University of California--that is the name we had for +the houses--we taught young men and women how to think, just as I have +taught you now, by sand and pebbles and shells, to know how many people +lived in those days. There was very much to teach. The young men and +women we taught were called students. We had large rooms in which we +taught. I talked to them, forty or fifty at a time, just as I am talking +to you now. I told them about the books other men had written before +their time, and even, sometimes, in their time--” + +“Was that all you did?--just talk, talk, talk?” Hoo-Hoo demanded. “Who +hunted your meat for you? and milked the goats? and caught the fish?” + +“A sensible question, Hoo-Hoo, a sensible question. As I have told you, +in those days food-getting was easy. We were very wise. A few men got +the food for many men. The other men did other things. As you say, I +talked. I talked all the time, and for this food was given me--much +food, fine food, beautiful food, food that I have not tasted in sixty +years and shall never taste again. I sometimes think the most wonderful +achievement of our tremendous civilization was food--its inconceivable +abundance, its infinite variety, its marvellous delicacy. O my +grandsons, life was life in those days, when we had such wonderful +things to eat.” + +This was beyond the boys, and they let it slip by, words and thoughts, +as a mere senile wandering in the narrative. + +“Our food-getters were called _freemen_. This was a joke. We of the +ruling classes owned all the land, all the machines, everything. These +food-getters were our slaves. We took almost all the food they got, and +left them a little so that they might eat, and work, and get us more +food--” + +“I'd have gone into the forest and got food for myself,” Hare-Lip +announced; “and if any man tried to take it away from me, I'd have +killed him.” + +The old man laughed. + +“Did I not tell you that we of the ruling class owned all the land, all +the forest, everything? Any food-getter who would not get food for us, +him we punished or compelled to starve to death. And very few did that. +They preferred to get food for us, and make clothes for us, and prepare +and administer to us a thousand--a mussel-shell, Hoo-Hoo--a thousand +satisfactions and delights. And I was Professor Smith in those +days--Professor James Howard Smith. And my lecture courses were very +popular--that is, very many of the young men and women liked to hear me +talk about the books other men had written. + +“And I was very happy, and I had beautiful things to eat. And my hands +were soft, because I did no work with them, and my body was clean +all over and dressed in the softest garments-- + +“He surveyed his mangy goat-skin with disgust. + +“We did not wear such things in those days. Even the slaves had better +garments. And we were most clean. We washed our faces and hands often +every day. You boys never wash unless you fall into the water or go +swimming.” + +“Neither do you Granzer,” Hoo-Hoo retorted. + +“I know, I know, I am a filthy old man, but times have changed. Nobody +washes these days, there are no conveniences. It is sixty years since I +have seen a piece of soap. + +[Illustration: Sixty years since I have seen a piece of soap. 059] + +“You do not know what soap is, and I shall not tell you, for I am telling +the story of the Scarlet Death. You know what sickness is. We called +it a disease. Very many of the diseases came from what we called germs. +Remember that word--germs. A germ is a very small thing. It is like a +woodtick, such as you find on the dogs in the spring of the year when +they run in the forest. Only the germ is very small. It is so small that +you cannot see it--” + +Hoo-Hoo began to laugh. + +“You're a queer un, Granser, talking about things you can't see. If you +can't see 'em, how do you know they are? That's what I want to know. How +do you know anything you can't see?” + +“A good question, a very good question, Hoo-Hoo. But we did see--some of +them. We had what we called microscopes and ultramicroscopes, and we put +them to our eyes and looked through them, so that we saw things larger +than they really were, and many things we could not see without the +microscopes at all. Our best ultramicroscopes could make a germ look +forty thousand times larger. A mussel-shell is a thousand fingers like +Edwin's. Take forty mussel-shells, and by as many times larger was the +germ when we looked at it through a microscope. And after that, we +had other ways, by using what we called moving pictures, of making the +forty-thousand-times germ many, many thousand times larger still. And +thus we saw all these things which our eyes of themselves could not see. +Take a grain of sand. Break it into ten pieces. Take one piece and break +it into ten. Break one of those pieces into ten, and one of those into +ten, and one of those into ten, and one of those into ten, and do it all +day, and maybe, by sunset, you will have a piece as small as one of the +germs.” The boys were openly incredulous. Hare-Lip sniffed and sneered +and Hoo-Hoo snickered, until Edwin nudged them to be silent. + +“The woodtick sucks the blood of the dog, but the germ, being so very +small, goes right into the blood of the body, and there it has +many children. In those days there would be as many as a billion--a +crab-shell, please--as many as that crab-shell in one man's body. We +called germs micro-organisms. When a few million, or a billion, of them +were in a man, in all the blood of a man, he was sick. These germs were +a disease. There were many different kinds of them--more different kinds +than there are grains of sand on this beach. We knew only a few of the +kinds. The micro-organic world was an invisible world, a world we could +not see, and we knew very little about it. Yet we did know something. +There was the _bacillus anthracis_; there was the _micrococcus_; there +was the _Bacterium termo_, and the _Bacterium lactis_--that's what +turns the goat milk sour even to this day, Hare-Lip; and there were +_Schizomycetes_ without end. And there were many others....” + +Here the old man launched into a disquisition on germs and their +natures, using words and phrases of such extraordinary length and +meaninglessness, that the boys grinned at one another and looked out +over the deserted ocean till they forgot the old man was babbling on. + +“But the Scarlet Death, Granser,” Edwin at last suggested. + +Granser recollected himself, and with a start tore himself away from the +rostrum of the lecture-hall, where, to another world audience, he +had been expounding the latest theory, sixty years gone, of germs and +germ-diseases. + +“Yes, yes, Edwin; I had forgotten. Sometimes the memory of the past is +very strong upon me, and I forget that I am a dirty old man, clad in +goat-skin, wandering with my savage grandsons who are goatherds in +the primeval wilderness. 'The fleeting systems lapse like foam,' and so +lapsed our glorious, colossal civilization. I am Granser, a tired old +man. I belong to the tribe of Santa Rosans. I married into that tribe. +My sons and daughters married into the Chauffeurs, the Sacramen-tos, and +the Palo-Altos. You, Hare-Lip, are of the Chauffeurs. You, Edwin, are +of the Sacramentos. And you, Hoo-Hoo, are of the Palo-Altos. Your tribe +takes its name from a town that was near the seat of another great +institution of learning. It was called Stanford University. Yes, I +remember now. It is perfectly clear. I was telling you of the Scarlet +Death. Where was I in my story?” + +“You was telling about germs, the things you can't see but which make +men sick,” Edwin prompted. + +“Yes, that's where I was. A man did not notice at first when only a few +of these germs got into his body. But each germ broke in half and became +two germs, and they kept doing this very rapidly so that in a short time +there were many millions of them in the body. Then the man was sick. He +had a disease, and the disease was named after the kind of a germ that +was in him. It might be measles, it might be influenza, it might be +yellow fever; it might be any of thousands and thousands of kinds of +diseases. + +“Now this is the strange thing about these germs. There were always new +ones coming to live in men's bodies. Long and long and long ago, when +there were only a few men in the world, there were few diseases. But +as men increased and lived closely together in great cities and +civilizations, new diseases arose, new kinds of germs entered their +bodies. Thus were countless millions and billions of human beings +killed. And the more thickly men packed together, the more terrible were +the new diseases that came to be. Long before my time, in the middle +ages, there was the Black Plague that swept across Europe. It swept +across Europe many times. There was tuberculosis, that entered into men +wherever they were thickly packed. A hundred years before my time there +was the bubonic plague. And in Africa was the sleeping sickness. The +bacteriologists fought all these sicknesses and destroyed them, just as +you boys fight the wolves away from your goats, or squash the mosquitoes +that light on you. The bacteriologists--” + +“But, Granser, what is a what-you-call-it?” Edwin interrupted. + +“You, Edwin, are a goatherd. Your task is to watch the goats. You know a +great deal about goats. A bacteriologist watches germs. That's his +task, and he knows a great deal about them. So, as I was saying, the +bacteriologists fought with the germs and destroyed them--sometimes. +There was leprosy, a horrible disease. A hundred years before I was +born, the bacteriologists discovered the germ of leprosy. They knew all +about it. They made pictures of it. I have seen those pictures. But +they never found a way to kill it. But in 1984, there was the Pantoblast +Plague, a disease that broke out in a country called Brazil and that +killed millions of people. But the bacteriologists found it out, and +found the way to kill it, so that the Pantoblast Plague went no farther. +They made what they called a serum, which they put into a man's body and +which killed the pantoblast germs without killing the man. And in 1910, +there was Pellagra, and also the hookworm. These were easily killed +by the bacteriologists. But in 1947 there arose a new disease that had +never been seen before. It got into the bodies of babies of only ten +months old or less, and it made them unable to move their hands and +feet, or to eat, or anything; and the bacteriologists were eleven years +in discovering how to kill that particular germ and save the babies. + +“In spite of all these diseases, and of all the new ones that continued +to arise, there were more and more men in the world. This was because it +was easy to get food. The easier it was to get food, the more men +there were; the more men there were, the more thickly were they packed +together on the earth; and the more thickly they were packed, the more +new kinds of germs became diseases. There were warnings. Soldervetzsky, +as early as 1929, told the bacteriologists that they had no guaranty +against some new disease, a thousand times more deadly than any they +knew, arising and killing by the hundreds of millions and even by the +billion. You see, the micro-organic world remained a mystery to the end. +They knew there was such a world, and that from time to time armies of +new germs emerged from it to kill men. + +“And that was all they knew about it. For all they knew, in that +invisible micro-organic world there might be as many different kinds of +germs as there are grains of sand on this beach. And also, in that same +invisible world it might well be that new kinds of germs came to be. +It might be there that life originated--the 'abysmal fecundity,' +Soldervetzsky called it, applying the words of other men who had written +before him....” + +It was at this point that Hare-Lip rose to his feet, an expression of +huge contempt on his face. + +[Illustration: Granser, you make me sick with your gabble 071] + +“Granser,” he announced, “you make me sick with your gabble. Why don't +you tell about the Red Death? If you ain't going to, say so, an' we'll +start back for camp.” + +The old man looked at him and silently began to cry. The weak tears of +age rolled down his cheeks and all the feebleness of his eighty-seven +years showed in his grief-stricken countenance. + +“Sit down,” Edwin counselled soothingly. “Granser's all right. He's just +gettin' to the Scarlet Death, ain't you, Granser? He's just goin' to +tell us about it right now. Sit down, Hare-Lip. Go ahead, Granser.” + + + + +III + + +The old man wiped the tears away on his grimy knuckles and took up the +tale in a tremulous, piping voice that soon strengthened as he got the +swing of the narrative. + +“It was in the summer of 2013 that the Plague came. I was twenty-seven +years old, and well do I remember it. Wireless despatches--” + +Hare-Lip spat loudly his disgust, and Granser hastened to make amends. + +“We talked through the air in those days, thousands and thousands of +miles. And the word came of a strange disease that had broken out in +New York. There were seventeen millions of people living then in that +noblest city of America. Nobody thought anything about the news. It was +only a small thing. There had been only a few deaths. It seemed, though, +that they had died very quickly, and that one of the first signs of +the disease was the turning red of the face and all the body. Within +twenty-four hours came the report of the first case in Chicago. And on +the same day, it was made public that London, the greatest city in the +world, next to Chicago, had been secretly fighting the plague for two +weeks and censoring the news despatches--that is, not permitting the +word to go forth to the rest of the world that London had the plague. + +“It looked serious, but we in California, like everywhere else, were +not alarmed. We were sure that the bacteriologists would find a way to +overcome this new germ, just as they had overcome other germs in the +past. But the trouble was the astonishing quickness with which this germ +destroyed human beings, and the fact that it inevitably killed any +human body it entered. No one ever recovered. There was the old Asiatic +cholera, when you might eat dinner with a well man in the evening, and +the next morning, if you got up early enough, you would see him being +hauled by your window in the death-cart. But this new plague was quicker +than that--much quicker. + +[Illustration: But this new plague was quicker 078] + +“From the moment of the first signs of it, a man would be dead in an +hour. Some lasted for several hours. Many died within ten or fifteen +minutes of the appearance of the first signs. + +“The heart began to beat faster and the heat of the body to increase. +Then came the scarlet rash, spreading like wildfire over the face and +body. Most persons never noticed the increase in heat and heart-beat, +and the first they knew was when the scarlet rash came out. Usually, +they had convulsions at the time of the appearance of the rash. But +these convulsions did not last long and were not very severe. If one +lived through them, he became perfectly quiet, and only did he feel a +numbness swiftly creeping up his body from the feet. The heels became +numb first, then the legs, and hips, and when the numbness reached +as high as his heart he died. They did not rave or sleep. Their minds +always remained cool and calm up to the moment their heart numbed and +stopped. And another strange thing was the rapidity of decomposition. No +sooner was a person dead than the body seemed to fall to pieces, to +fly apart, to melt away even as you looked at it. That was one of the +reasons the plague spread so rapidly. All the billions of germs in a +corpse were so immediately released. + +“And it was because of all this that the bacteriologists had so little +chance in fighting the germs. They were killed in their laboratories +even as they studied the germ of the Scarlet Death. They were heroes. +As fast as they perished, others stepped forth and took their places. +It was in London that they first isolated it. The news was telegraphed +everywhere. Trask was the name of the man who succeeded in this, but +within thirty hours he was dead. Then came the struggle in all the +laboratories to find something that would kill the plague germs. All +drugs failed. You see, the problem was to get a drug, or serum, that +would kill the germs in the body and not kill the body. They tried to +fight it with other germs, to put into the body of a sick man germs that +were the enemies of the plague germs--” + +“And you can't see these germ-things, Granser,” Hare-Lip objected, “and +here you gabble, gabble, gabble about them as if they was anything, +when they're nothing at all. Anything you can't see, ain't, that's what. +Fighting things that ain't with things that ain't! They must have +been all fools in them days. That's why they croaked. I ain't goin' to +believe in such rot, I tell you that.” + +Granser promptly began to weep, while Edwin hotly took up his defence. + +“Look here, Hare-Lip, you believe in lots of things you can't see.” + +Hare-Lip shook his head. + +“You believe in dead men walking about. You never seen one dead man walk +about.” + +“I tell you I seen 'em, last winter, when I was wolf-hunting with dad.” + +“Well, you always spit when you cross running water,” Edwin challenged. + +“That's to keep off bad luck,” was Hare-Lip's defence. + +“You believe in bad luck?” + +“Sure.” + +“An' you ain't never seen bad luck,” Edwin concluded triumphantly. +“You're just as bad as Granser and his germs. You believe in what you +don't see. Go on, Granser.” + +Hare-Lip, crushed by this metaphysical defeat, remained silent, and +the old man went on. Often and often, though this narrative must not be +clogged by the details, was Granser's tale interrupted while the boys +squabbled among themselves. Also, among themselves they kept up a +constant, low-voiced exchange of explanation and conjecture, as they +strove to follow the old man into his unknown and vanished world. + +“The Scarlet Death broke out in San Francisco. The first death came on +a Monday morning. By Thursday they were dying like flies in Oakland +and San Francisco. They died everywhere--in their beds, at their +work, walking along the street. It was on Tuesday that I saw my first +death--Miss Collbran, one of my students, sitting right there before my +eyes, in my lecture-room. I noticed her face while I was talking. It had +suddenly turned scarlet. I ceased speaking and could only look at her, +for the first fear of the plague was already on all of us and we knew +that it had come. The young women screamed and ran out of the room. So +did the young men run out, all but two. Miss Collbran's convulsions were +very mild and lasted less than a minute. One of the young men fetched +her a glass of water. She drank only a little of it, and cried out: + +“'My feet! All sensation has left them.' + +“After a minute she said, 'I have no feet. I am unaware that I have any +feet. And my knees are cold. I can scarcely feel that I have knees.' + +“She lay on the floor, a bundle of notebooks under her head. And we +could do nothing. The coldness and the numbness crept up past her hips +to her heart, and when it reached her heart she was dead. In fifteen +minutes, by the clock--I timed it--she was dead, there, in my own +classroom, dead. And she was a very beautiful, strong, healthy young +woman. And from the first sign of the plague to her death only fifteen +minutes elapsed. That will show you how swift was the Scarlet Death. + +“Yet in those few minutes I remained with the dying woman in my +classroom, the alarm had spread over the university; and the students, +by thousands, all of them, had deserted the lecture-room and +laboratories. When I emerged, on my way to make report to the President +of the Faculty, I found the university deserted. Across the campus were +several stragglers hurrying for their homes. Two of them were running. + +“President Hoag, I found in his office, all alone, looking very old and +very gray, with a multitude of wrinkles in his face that I had never +seen before. At the sight of me, he pulled himself to his feet and +tottered away to the inner office, banging the door after him and +locking it. You see, he knew I had been exposed, and he was afraid. +He shouted to me through the door to go away. I shall never forget +my feelings as I walked down the silent corridors and out across that +deserted campus. I was not afraid. I had been exposed, and I looked +upon myself as already dead. It was not that, but a feeling of awful +depression that impressed me. Everything had stopped. It was like the +end of the world to me--my world. I had been born within sight and sound +of the university. It had been my predestined career. My father had been +a professor there before me, and his father before him. For a century +and a half had this university, like a splendid machine, been running +steadily on. And now, in an instant, it had stopped. It was like seeing +the sacred flame die down on some thrice-sacred altar. I was shocked, +unutterably shocked. + +“When I arrived home, my housekeeper screamed as I entered, and fled +away. And when I rang, I found the housemaid had likewise fled. I +investigated. In the kitchen I found the cook on the point of departure. +But she screamed, too, and in her haste dropped a suitcase of her +personal belongings and ran out of the house and across the grounds, +still screaming. I can hear her scream to this day. You see, we did not +act in this way when ordinary diseases smote us. We were always calm +over such things, and sent for the doctors and nurses who knew just +what to do. But this was different. It struck so suddenly, and killed so +swiftly, and never missed a stroke. When the scarlet rash appeared on a +person's face, that person was marked by death. There was never a known +case of a recovery. + +“I was alone in my big house. As I have told you often before, in those +days we could talk with one another over wires or through the air. The +telephone bell rang, and I found my brother talking to me. He told me +that he was not coming home for fear of catching the plague from me, and +that he had taken our two sisters to stop at Professor Bacon's home. He +advised me to remain where I was, and wait to find out whether or not I +had caught the plague. + +[Illustration: The telephone bell rang 088] + +“To all of this I agreed, staying in my house and for the first time in +my life attempting to cook. And the plague did not come out on me. By +means of the telephone I could talk with whomsoever I pleased and get +the news. Also, there were the newspapers, and I ordered all of them to +be thrown up to my door so that I could know what was happening with the +rest of the world. + +“New York City and Chicago were in chaos. And what happened with them +was happening in all the large cities. A third of the New York police +were dead. Their chief was also dead, likewise the mayor. All law and +order had ceased. The bodies were lying in the streets un-buried. All +railroads and vessels carrying food and such things into the great +city had ceased runnings and mobs of the hungry poor were pillaging +the stores and warehouses. Murder and robbery and drunkenness were +everywhere. Already the people had fled from the city by millions--at +first the rich, in their private motor-cars and dirigibles, and then the +great mass of the population, on foot, carrying the plague with them, +themselves starving and pillaging the farmers and all the towns and +villages on the way. + +[Illustration: Fled from the city by millions 092] + +“The man who sent this news, the wireless operator, was alone with his +instrument on the top of a lofty building. The people remaining in the +city--he estimated them at several hundred thousand--had gone mad from +fear and drink, and on all sides of him great fires were raging. He was +a hero, that man who staid by his post--an obscure newspaperman, most +likely. + +“For twenty-four hours, he said, no transatlantic airships had arrived, +and no more messages were coming from England. He did state, though, +that a message from Berlin--that's in Germany--announced that Hoffmeyer, +a bacteriologist of the Metchnikoff School, had discovered the serum for +the plague. That was the last word, to this day, that we of America +ever received from Europe. If Hoffmeyer discovered the serum, it was too +late, or otherwise, long ere this, explorers from Europe would have +come looking for us. We can only conclude that what happened in America +happened in Europe, and that, at the best, some several score may have +survived the Scarlet Death on that whole continent. + +“For one day longer the despatches continued to come from New York. +Then they, too, ceased. The man who had sent them, perched in his lofty +building, had either died of the plague or been consumed in the great +conflagrations he had described as raging around him. And what had +occurred in New York had been duplicated in all the other cities. It was +the same in San Francisco, and Oakland, and Berkeley. By Thursday the +people were dying so rapidly that their corpses could not be handled, +and dead bodies lay everywhere. Thursday night the panic outrush for +the country began. Imagine, my grandsons, people, thicker than the +salmon-run you have seen on the Sacramento river, pouring out of the +cities by millions, madly over the country, in vain attempt to escape +the ubiquitous death. You see, they carried the germs with them. Even +the airships of the rich, fleeing for mountain and desert fastnesses, +carried the germs. + +“Hundreds of these airships escaped to Hawaii, and not only did they +bring the plague with them, but they found the plague already there +before them. This we learned, by the despatches, until all order in San +Francisco vanished, and there were no operators left at their posts to +receive or send. It was amazing, astounding, this loss of communication +with the world. It was exactly as if the world had ceased, been blotted +out. For sixty years that world has no longer existed for me. I know +there must be such places as New York, Europe, Asia, and Africa; but not +one word has been heard of them--not in sixty years. With the coming of +the Scarlet Death the world fell apart, absolutely, irretrievably. Ten +thousand years of culture and civilization passed in the twinkling of an +eye, 'lapsed like foam.' + +“I was telling about the airships of the rich. They carried the plague +with them and no matter where they fled, they died. I never encountered +but one survivor of any of them--Mungerson. He was afterwards a Santa +Rosan, and he married my eldest daughter. He came into the tribe eight +years after the plague. He was then nineteen years old, and he was +compelled to wait twelve years more before he could marry. You see, +there were no unmarried women, and some of the older daughters of the +Santa Rosans were already bespoken. So he was forced to wait until +my Mary had grown to sixteen years. It was his son, Gimp-Leg, who was +killed last year by the mountain lion. + +“Mungerson was eleven years old at the time of the plague. His father +was one of the Industrial Magnates, a very wealthy, powerful man. It was +on his airship, the Condor, that they were fleeing, with all the family, +for the wilds of British Columbia, which is far to the north of here. +But there was some accident, and they were wrecked near Mount Shasta. +You have heard of that mountain. It is far to the north. The plague +broke out amongst them, and this boy of eleven was the only survivor. +For eight years he was alone, wandering over a deserted land and looking +vainly for his own kind. And at last, travelling south, he picked up +with us, the Santa Rosans. + +“But I am ahead of my story. When the great exodus from the cities +around San Francisco Bay began, and while the telephones were still +working, I talked with my brother. I told him this flight from the +cities was insanity, that there were no symptoms of the plague in +me, and that the thing for us to do was to isolate ourselves and our +relatives in some safe place. We decided on the Chemistry Building, at +the university, and we planned to lay in a supply of provisions, and by +force of arms to prevent any other persons from forcing their presence +upon us after we had retired to our refuge. + +“All this being arranged, my brother begged me to stay in my own +house for at least twenty-four hours more, on the chance of the plague +developing in me. To this I agreed, and he promised to come for me next +day. We talked on over the details of the provisioning and the defending +of the Chemistry Building until the telephone died. It died in the midst +of our conversation. That evening there were no electric lights, and +I was alone in my house in the darkness. No more newspapers were being +printed, so I had no knowledge of what was taking place outside. + +[Illustration: I heard sounds of rioting and of pistol shots 098] + +“I heard sounds of rioting and of pistol shots, and from my windows I +could see the glare of the sky of some conflagration in the direction +of Oakland. It was a night of terror. I did not sleep a wink. A man--why +and how I do not know--was killed on the sidewalk in front of the house. +I heard the rapid reports of an automatic pistol, and a few minutes +later the wounded wretch crawled up to my door, moaning and crying out +for help. Arming myself with two automatics, I went to him. By the light +of a match I ascertained that while he was dying of the bullet wounds, +at the same time the plague was on him. I fled indoors, whence I heard +him moan and cry out for half an hour longer. + +“In the morning, my brother came to me. I had gathered into a handbag +what things of value I purposed taking, but when I saw his face I knew +that he would never accompany me to the Chemistry Building. The plague +was on him. He intended shaking my hand, but I went back hurriedly +before him. + +“'Look at yourself in the mirror,' I commanded. + +[Illustration: Look at yourself in the mirror 100] + +“He did so, and at sight of his scarlet face, the color deepening as he +looked at it, he sank down nervelessly in a chair. + +“'My God!' he said. 'I've got it. Don't come near me. I am a dead man.' + +“Then the convulsions seized him. He was two hours in dying, and he +was conscious to the last, complaining about the coldness and loss of +sensation in his feet, his calves, his thighs, until at last it was his +heart and he was dead. + +“That was the way the Scarlet Death slew. I caught up my handbag and +fled. The sights in the streets were terrible. One stumbled on bodies +everywhere. Some were not yet dead. And even as you looked, you saw men +sink down with the death fastened upon them. There were numerous fires +burning in Berkeley, while Oakland and San Francisco were apparently +being swept by vast conflagrations. The smoke of the burning filled the +heavens, so that the midday was as a gloomy twilight, and, in the shifts +of wind, sometimes the sun shone through dimly, a dull red orb. Truly, +my grandsons, it was like the last days of the end of the world. + +“There were numerous stalled motor cars, showing that the gasoline and +the engine supplies of the garages had given out. I remember one such +car. A man and a woman lay back dead in the seats, and on the pavement +near it were two more women and a child. Strange and terrible sights +there were on every hand. People slipped by silently, furtively, like +ghosts--white-faced women carrying infants in their arms; fathers +leading children by the hand; singly, and in couples, and in +families--all fleeing out of the city of death. Some carried supplies +of food, others blankets and valuables, and there were many who carried +nothing. + +“There was a grocery store--a place where food was sold. The man to whom +it belonged--I knew him well--a quiet, sober, but stupid and obstinate +fellow, was defending it. The windows and doors had been broken in, but +he, inside, hiding behind a counter, was discharging his pistol at a +number of men on the sidewalk who were breaking in. In the entrance were +several bodies--of men, I decided, whom he had killed earlier in the +day. Even as I looked on from a distance, I saw one of the robbers break +the windows of the adjoining store, a place where shoes were sold, +and deliberately set fire to it. I did not go to the groceryman's +assistance. The time for such acts had already passed. Civilization was +crumbling, and it was each for himself.” + + + + +IV + + +I went away hastily, down a cross-street, and at the first corner I saw +another tragedy. Two men of the working class had caught a man and a +woman with two children, and were robbing them. I knew the man by sight, +though I had never been introduced to him. He was a poet whose verses I +had long admired. Yet I did not go to his help, for at the moment I came +upon the scene there was a pistol shot, and I saw him sinking to the +ground. The woman screamed, and she was felled with a fist-blow by one +of the brutes. I cried out threateningly, whereupon they discharged +their pistols at me and I ran away around the corner. Here I was blocked +by an advancing conflagration. The buildings on both sides were burning, +and the street was filled with smoke and flame. From somewhere in that +murk came a woman's voice calling shrilly for help. But I did not go to +her. A man's heart turned to iron amid such scenes, and one heard all +too many appeals for help. + +“Returning to the corner, I found the two robbers were gone. The poet +and his wife lay dead on the pavement. It was a shocking sight. The two +children had vanished--whither I could not tell. And I knew, now, why +it was that the fleeing persons I encountered slipped along so furtively +and with such white faces. In the midst of our civilization, down in our +slums and labor-ghettos, we had bred a race of barbarians, of savages; +and now, in the time of our calamity, they turned upon us like the wild +beasts they were and destroyed us. And they destroyed themselves as +well. + +[Illustration: Now in the time of calamity they turned on us 108] + +“They inflamed themselves with strong drink and committed a thousand +atrocities, quarreling and killing one another in the general madness. +One group of workingmen I saw, of the better sort, who had banded +together, and, with their women and children in their midst, the sick +and aged in litters and being carried, and with a number of horses +pulling a truck-load of provisions, they were fighting their way out +of the city. They made a fine spectacle as they came down the street +through the drifting smoke, though they nearly shot me when I first +appeared in their path. As they went by, one of their leaders shouted +out to me in apologetic explanation. He said they were killing the +robbers and looters on sight, and that they had thus banded together as +the only-means by which to escape the prowlers. + +“It was here that I saw for the first time what I was soon to see so +often. One of the marching men had suddenly shown the unmistakable mark +of the plague. Immediately those about him drew away, and he, without +a remonstrance, stepped out of his place to let them pass on. A woman, +most probably his wife, attempted to follow him. She was leading a +little boy by the hand. But the husband commanded her sternly to go on, +while others laid hands on her and restrained her from following him. +This I saw, and I saw the man also, with his scarlet blaze of face, step +into a doorway on the opposite side of the street. I heard the report of +his pistol, and saw him sink lifeless to the ground. + +“After being turned aside twice again by advancing fires, I succeeded in +getting through to the university. On the edge of the campus I came +upon a party of university folk who were going in the direction of the +Chemistry Building. They were all family men, and their families were +with them, including the nurses and the servants. Professor Badminton +greeted me, I had difficulty in recognizing him. Somewhere he had gone +through flames, and his beard was singed off. About his head was a +bloody bandage, and his clothes were filthy. + +[Illustration: He told me he had been Cruelly Beaten 112] + +“He told me he had prowlers, and that his brother had been killed the +previous night, in the defence of their dwelling. + +“Midway across the campus, he pointed suddenly to Mrs. Swinton's face. +The unmistakable scarlet was there. Immediately all the other women set +up a screaming and began to run away from her. Her two children were +with a nurse, and these also ran with the women. But her husband, Doctor +Swinton, remained with her. + +“'Go on, Smith,' he told me. 'Keep an eye on the children. As for me, +I shall stay with my wife. I know she is as already dead, but I can't +leave her. Afterwards, if I escape, I shall come to the Chemistry +Building, and do you watch for me and let me in.' + +“I left him bending over his wife and soothing her last moments, while +I ran to overtake the party. We were the last to be admitted to the +Chemistry Building. After that, with our automatic rifles we maintained +our isolation. By our plans, we had arranged for a company of sixty to +be in this refuge. Instead, every one of the number originally planned +had added relatives and friends and whole families until there were over +four hundred souls. But the Chemistry Building was large, and, standing +by itself, was in no danger of being burned by the great fires that +raged everywhere in the city. + +“A large quantity of provisions had been gathered, and a food committee +took charge of it, issuing rations daily to the various families and +groups that arranged themselves into messes. A number of committees were +appointed, and we developed a very efficient organization. I was on the +committee of defence, though for the first day no prowlers came near. We +could see them in the distance, however, and by the smoke of their fires +knew that several camps of them were occupying the far edge of the +campus. Drunkenness was rife, and often we heard them singing ribald +songs or insanely shouting. While the world crashed to ruin about them +and all the air was filled with the smoke of its burning, these low +creatures gave rein to their bestiality and fought and drank and died. +And after all, what did it matter? Everybody died anyway, the good and +the bad, the efficients and the weaklings, those that loved to live and +those that scorned to live. They passed. Everything passed. + +“When twenty-four hours had gone by and no signs of the plague were +apparent, we congratulated ourselves and set about digging a well. You +have seen the great iron pipes which in those days carried water to all +the city-dwellers. We feared that the fires in the city would burst the +pipes and empty the reservoirs. So we tore up the cement floor of the +central court of the Chemistry Building and dug a well. There were many +young men, undergraduates, with us, and we worked night and day on the +well. And our fears were confirmed. Three hours before we reached water, +the pipes went dry. + +“A second twenty-four hours passed, and still the plague did not +appear among us. We thought we were saved. But we did not know what I +afterwards decided to be true, namely, that the period of the incubation +of the plague germs in a human's body was a matter of a number of days. +It slew so swiftly when once it manifested itself, that we were led to +believe that the period of incubation was equally swift. So, when two +days had left us unscathed, we were elated with the idea that we were +free of the contagion. + +“But the third day disillusioned us. I can never forget the night +preceding it. I had charge of the night guards from eight to twelve, +and from the roof of the building I watched the passing of all man's +glorious works. So terrible were the local conflagrations that all the +sky was lighted up. One could read the finest print in the red glare. +All the world seemed wrapped in flames. San Francisco spouted smoke and +fire from a score of vast conflagrations that were like so many active +volcanoes. Oakland, San Leandro, Haywards--all were burning; and to the +northward, clear to Point Richmond, other fires were at work. It was an +awe-inspiring spectacle. Civilization, my grandsons, civilization was +passing in a sheet of flame and a breath of death. At ten o'clock that +night, the great powder magazines at Point Pinole exploded in rapid +succession. So terrific were the concussions that the strong building +rocked as in an earthquake, while every pane of glass was broken. It was +then that I left the roof and went down the long corridors, from room to +room, quieting the alarmed women and telling them what had happened. + +“An hour later, at a window on the ground floor, I heard pandemonium +break out in the camps of the prowlers. There were cries and screams, +and shots from many pistols. As we afterward conjectured, this fight had +been precipitated by an attempt on the part of those that were well +to drive out those that were sick. At any rate, a number of the +plague-stricken prowlers escaped across the campus and drifted against +our doors. We warned them back, but they cursed us and discharged a +fusillade from their pistols. Professor Merryweather, at one of the +windows, was instantly killed, the bullet striking him squarely between +the eyes. We opened fire in turn, and all the prowlers fled away with +the exception of three. One was a woman. The plague was on them and they +were reckless. Like foul fiends, there in the red glare from the skies, +with faces blazing, they continued to curse us and fire at us. One of +the men I shot with my own hand. After that the other man and the woman, +still cursing us, lay down under our windows, where we were compelled to +watch them die of the plague. + +“The situation was critical. The explosions of the powder magazines +had broken all the windows of the Chemistry Building, so that we were +exposed to the germs from the corpses. The sanitary committee was called +upon to act, and it responded nobly. Two men were required to go out and +remove the corpses, and this meant the probable sacrifice of their own +lives, for, having performed the task, they were not to be permitted to +reenter the building. One of the professors, who was a bachelor, and +one of the undergraduates volunteered. They bade good-bye to us and +went forth. They were heroes. They gave up their lives that four hundred +others might live. After they had performed their work, they stood for +a moment, at a distance, looking at us wistfully. Then they waved their +hands in farewell and went away slowly across the campus toward the +burning city. + +“And yet it was all useless. The next morning the first one of us was +smitten with the plague--a little nurse-girl in the family of Professor +Stout. It was no time for weak-kneed, sentimental policies. On the +chance that she might be the only one, we thrust her forth from the +building and commanded her to be gone. + +[Illustration: We thrust her forth from the building 121] + +“She went away slowly across the campus, wringing her hands and crying +pitifully. We felt like brutes, but what were we to do? There were four +hundred of us, and individuals had to be sacrificed. + +“In one of the laboratories three families had domiciled themselves, and +that afternoon we found among them no less than four corpses and seven +cases of the plague in all its different stages. + +“Then it was that the horror began. Leaving the dead lie, we forced the +living ones to segregate themselves in another room. The plague began to +break out among the rest of us, and as fast as the symptoms appeared, we +sent the stricken ones to these segregated rooms. We compelled them to +walk there by themselves, so as to avoid laying hands on them. It was +heartrending. But still the plague raged among us, and room after +room was filled with the dead and dying. And so we who were yet clean +retreated to the next floor and to the next, before this sea of the +dead, that, room by room and floor by floor, inundated the building. + +“The place became a charnel house, and in the middle of the night +the survivors fled forth, taking nothing with them except arms and +ammunition and a heavy store of tinned foods. We camped on the opposite +side of the campus from the prowlers, and, while some stood guard, +others of us volunteered to scout into the city in quest of horses, +motor cars, carts, and wagons, or anything that would carry our +provisions and enable us to emulate the banded workingmen I had seen +fighting their way out to the open country. + +“I was one of these scouts; and Doctor Hoyle, remembering that his motor +car had been left behind in his home garage, told me to look for it. We +scouted in pairs, and Dombey, a young undergraduate, accompanied me. We +had to cross half a mile of the residence portion of the city to get +to Doctor Hoyle's home. Here the buildings stood apart, in the midst of +trees and grassy lawns, and here the fires had played freaks, burning +whole blocks, skipping blocks and often skipping a single house in a +block. And here, too, the prowlers were still at their work. We carried +our automatic pistols openly in our hands, and looked desperate enough, +forsooth, to keep them from attacking us. But at Doctor Hoyle's house +the thing happened. Untouched by fire, even as we came to it the smoke +of flames burst forth. + +“The miscreant who had set fire to it staggered down the steps and out +along the driveway. Sticking out of his coat pockets were bottles of +whiskey, and he was very drunk. My first impulse was to shoot him, and +I have never ceased regretting that I did not. Staggering and maundering +to himself, with bloodshot eyes, and a raw and bleeding slash down one +side of his bewhiskered face, he was altogether the most nauseating +specimen of degradation and filth I had ever encountered. I did not +shoot him, and he leaned against a tree on the lawn to let us go by. +It was the most absolute, wanton act. Just as we were opposite him, +he suddenly drew a pistol and shot Dombey through the head. The next +instant I shot him. But it was too late. Dombey expired without a groan, +immediately. I doubt if he even knew what had happened to him. + +“Leaving the two corpses, I hurried on past the burning house to the +garage, and there found Doctor Hoyle's motor car. The tanks were filled +with gasoline, and it was ready for use. And it was in this car that I +threaded the streets of the ruined city and came back to the survivors +on the campus. The other scouts returned, but none had been so +fortunate. Professor Fairmead had found a Shetland pony, but the poor +creature, tied in a stable and abandoned for days, was so weak from want +of food and water that it could carry no burden at all. Some of the men +were for turning it loose, but I insisted that we should lead it along +with us, so that, if we got out of food, we would have it to eat. + +“There were forty-seven of us when we started, many being women and +children. The President of the Faculty, an old man to begin with, and +now hopelessly broken by the awful happenings of the past week, rode +in the motor car with several young children and the aged mother of +Professor Fairmead. Wathope, a young professor of English, who had a +grievous bullet-wound in his leg, drove the car. The rest of us walked, +Professor Fairmead leading the pony. + +“It was what should have been a bright summer day, but the smoke from +the burning world filled the sky, through which the sun shone murkily, +a dull and lifeless orb, blood-red and ominous. But we had grown +accustomed to that blood-red sun. With the smoke it was different. It +bit into our nostrils and eyes, and there was not one of us whose eyes +were not bloodshot. We directed our course to the southeast through the +endless miles of suburban residences, travelling along where the first +swells of low hills rose from the flat of the central city. It was by +this way, only, that we could expect to gain the country. + +“Our progress was painfully slow. The women and children could not walk +fast. They did not dream of walking, my grandsons, in the way all people +walk to-day. In truth, none of us knew how to walk. It was not until +after the plague that I learned really to walk. So it was that the pace +of the slowest was the pace of all, for we dared not separate on account +of the prowlers. There were not so many now of these human beasts of +prey. The plague had already well diminished their numbers, but enough +still lived to be a constant menace to us. Many of the beautiful +residences were untouched by fire, yet smoking ruins were everywhere. +The prowlers, too, seemed to have got over their insensate desire to +burn, and it was more rarely that we saw houses freshly on fire. + +“Several of us scouted among the private garages in search of motor cars +and gasoline. But in this we were unsuccessful. The first great flights +from the cities had swept all such utilities away. Calgan, a fine young +man, was lost in this work. He was shot by prowlers while crossing a +lawn. Yet this was our only casualty, though, once, a drunken brute +deliberately opened fire on all of us. Luckily, he fired wildly, and we +shot him before he had done any hurt. + +“At Fruitvale, still in the heart of the magnificent residence section +of the city, the plague again smote us. Professor Fairmead was the +victim. Making signs to us that his mother was not to know, he turned +aside into the grounds of a beautiful mansion. He sat down forlornly on +the steps of the front veranda, and I, having lingered, waved him a last +farewell. That night, several miles beyond Fruitvale and still in the +city, we made camp. And that night we shifted camp twice to get away +from our dead. In the morning there were thirty of us. I shall never +forget the President of the Faculty. During the morning's march his +wife, who was walking, betrayed the fatal symptoms, and when she +drew aside to let us go on, he insisted on leaving the motor car and +remaining with her. There was quite a discussion about this, but in the +end we gave in. It was just as well, for we knew not which ones of us, +if any, might ultimately escape. + +“That night, the second of our march, we camped beyond Haywards in the +first stretches of country. And in the morning there were eleven of us +that lived. Also, during the night, Wathope, the professor with the +wounded leg, deserted us in the motor car. He took with him his sister +and his mother and most of our tinned provisions. It was that day, in +the afternoon, while resting by the wayside, that I saw the last airship +I shall ever see. The smoke was much thinner here in the country, and I +first sighted the ship drifting and veering helplessly at an elevation +of two thousand feet. What had happened I could not conjecture, but even +as we looked we saw her bow dip down lower and lower. Then the bulkheads +of the various gas-chambers must have burst, for, quite perpendicular, +she fell like a plummet to the earth. + +[Illustration: She fell like a plummet to the earth 132] + +“And from that day to this I have not seen another airship. Often and +often, during the next few years, I scanned the sky for them, hoping +against hope that somewhere in the world civilization had survived. But +it was not to be. What happened with us in California must have happened +with everybody everywhere. + +“Another day, and at Niles there were three of us. Beyond Niles, in the +middle of the highway, we found Wathope. The motor car had broken down, +and there, on the rugs which they had spread on the ground, lay the +bodies of his sister, his mother, and himself. + +“Wearied by the unusual exercise of continual walking, that night I +slept heavily. In the morning I was alone in the world. Canfield and +Parsons, my last companions, were dead of the plague. Of the four +hundred that sought shelter in the Chemistry Building, and of the +forty-seven that began the march, I alone remained--I and the Shetland +pony. Why this should be so there is no explaining. I did not catch the +plague, that is all. I was immune. I was merely the one lucky man in +a million--just as every survivor was one in a million, or, rather, in +several millions, for the proportion was at least that.” + + + + +V + + +“For two days I sheltered in a pleasant grove where there had been no +deaths. In those two days, while badly depressed and believing that my +turn would come at any moment, nevertheless I rested and recuperated. So +did the pony. And on the third day, putting what small store of tinned +provisions I possessed on the pony's back, I started on across a very +lonely land. Not a live man, woman, or child, did I encounter, though +the dead were everywhere. Food, however, was abundant. The land then +was not as it is now. It was all cleared of trees and brush, and it was +cultivated. The food for millions of mouths was growing, ripening, and +going to waste. From the fields and orchards I gathered vegetables, +fruits, and berries. Around the deserted farmhouses I got eggs and +caught chickens. And frequently I found supplies of tinned provisions in +the store-rooms. + +“A strange thing was what was taking place with all the domestic +animals. Everywhere they were going wild and preying on one another. The +chickens and ducks were the first to be destroyed, while the pigs were +the first to go wild, followed by the cats. Nor were the dogs long in +adapting themselves to the changed conditions. There was a veritable +plague of dogs. They devoured the corpses, barked and howled during the +nights, and in the daytime slunk about in the distance. As the time went +by, I noticed a change in their behavior. At first they were apart from +one another, very suspicious and very prone to fight. But after a not +very long while they began to come together and run in packs. The dog, +you see, always was a social animal, and this was true before ever he +came to be domesticated by man. In the last days of the world before the +plague, there were many many very different kinds of dogs--dogs without +hair and dogs with warm fur, dogs so small that they would make scarcely +a mouthful for other dogs that were as large as mountain lions. Well, +all the small dogs, and the weak types, were killed by their fellows. +Also, the very large ones were not adapted for the wild life and bred +out. As a result, the many different kinds of dogs disappeared, and +there remained, running in packs, the medium-sized wolfish dogs that you +know to-day.” + +“But the cats don't run in packs, Granser,” Hoo-Hoo objected. + +“The cat was never a social animal. As one writer in the nineteenth +century said, the cat walks by himself. He always walked by himself, +from before the time he was tamed by man, down through the long ages of +domestication, to to-day when once more he is wild. + +“The horses also went wild, and all the fine breeds we had degenerated +into the small mustang horse you know to-day. The cows likewise went +wild, as did the pigeons and the sheep. And that a few of the chickens +survived you know yourself. But the wild chicken of to-day is quite a +different thing from the chickens we had in those days. + +“But I must go on with my story. I travelled through a deserted land. As +the time went by I began to yearn more and more for human beings. But I +never found one, and I grew lonelier and lonelier. I crossed Livermore +Valley and the mountains between it and the great valley of the San +Joaquin. You have never seen that valley, but it is very large and it is +the home of the wild horse. There are great droves there, thousands and +tens of thousands. I revisited it thirty years after, so I know. You +think there are lots of wild horses down here in the coast valleys, but +they are as nothing compared with those of the San Joaquin. Strange to +say, the cows, when they went wild, went back into the lower mountains. +Evidently they were better able to protect themselves there. + +“In the country districts the ghouls and prowlers had been less in +evidence, for I found many villages and towns untouched by fire. But +they were filled by the pestilential dead, and I passed by without +exploring them. It was near Lathrop that, out of my loneliness, I picked +up a pair of collie dogs that were so newly free that they were urgently +willing to return to their allegiance to man. These collies accompanied +me for many years, and the strains of them are in those very dogs there +that you boys have to-day. But in sixty years the collie strain has +worked out. These brutes are more like domesticated wolves than anything +else.” + +Hare-Lip rose to his feet, glanced to see that the goats were safe, +and looked at the sun's position in the afternoon sky, advertising +impatience at the prolixity of the old man's tale. Urged to hurry by +Edwin, Granser went on. + +“There is little more to tell. With my two dogs and my pony, and riding +a horse I had managed to capture, I crossed the San Joaquin and went on +to a wonderful valley in the Sierras called Yosemite. In the great hotel +there I found a prodigious supply of tinned provisions. The pasture was +abundant, as was the game, and the river that ran through the valley was +full of trout. I remained there three years in an utter loneliness that +none but a man who has once been highly civilized can understand. Then +I could stand it no more. I felt that I was going crazy. Like the dog, +I was a social animal and I needed my kind. I reasoned that since I had +survived the plague, there was a possibility that others had survived. +Also, I reasoned that after three years the plague germs must all be +gone and the land be clean again. + +[Illustration: With my horse and dogs and pony, I set out 144] + +“With my horse and dogs and pony, I set out. Again I crossed the San +Joaquin Valley, the mountains beyond, and came down into Livermore +Valley. The change in those three years was amazing. All the land had +been splendidly tilled, and now I could scarcely recognize it, 'such was +the sea of rank vegetation that had overrun the agricultural handiwork +of man. You see, the wheat, the vegetables, and orchard trees had always +been cared for and nursed by man, so that they were soft and tender. The +weeds and wild bushes and such things, on the contrary, had always been +fought by man, so that they were tough and resistant. As a result, when +the hand of man was removed, the wild vegetation smothered and destroyed +practically all the domesticated vegetation. The coyotes were greatly +increased, and it was at this time that I first encountered wolves, +straying in twos and threes and small packs down from the regions where +they had always persisted. + +“It was at Lake Temescal, not far from the one-time city of Oakland, +that I came upon the first live human beings. Oh, my grandsons, how can +I describe to you my emotion, when, astride my horse and dropping down +the hillside to the lake, I saw the smoke of a campfire rising through +the trees. Almost did my heart stop beating. I felt that I was going +crazy. Then I heard the cry of a babe--a human babe. And dogs barked, +and my dogs answered. I did not know but what I was the one human alive +in the whole world. It could not be true that here were others--smoke, +and the cry of a babe. + +“Emerging on the lake, there, before my eyes, not a hundred yards away, +I saw a man, a large man. He was standing on an outjutting rock and +fishing. I was overcome. I stopped my horse. I tried to call out but +could not. I waved my hand. It seemed to me that the man looked at me, +but he did not appear to wave. Then I laid my head on my arms there +in the saddle. I was afraid to look again, for I knew it was an +hallucination, and I knew that if I looked the man would be gone. And so +precious was the hallucination, that I wanted it to persist yet a little +while. I knew, too, that as long as I did not look it would persist. + +“Thus I remained, until I heard my dogs snarling, and a man's voice. +What do you think the voice said? I will tell you. It said: '_Where in +hell did you come from??_' + +“Those were the words, the exact words. That was what your other +grandfather said to me, Hare-Lip, when he greeted me there on the shore +of Lake Temescal fifty-seven years ago. And they were the most ineffable +words I have ever heard. I opened my eyes, and there he stood before me, +a large, dark, hairy man, heavy-jawed, slant-browed, fierce-eyed. How I +got off my horse I do not know. But it seemed that the next I knew I was +clasping his hand with both of mine and crying. I would have embraced +him, but he was ever a narrow-minded, suspicious man, and he drew away +from me. Yet did I cling to his hand and cry.” + +Granser's voice faltered and broke at the recollection, and the weak +tears streamed down his cheeks while the boys looked on and giggled. + +“Yet did I cry,” he continued, “and desire to embrace him, though the +Chauffeur was a brute, a perfect brute--the most abhorrent man I have +ever known. His name was... strange, how I have forgotten his name. +Everybody called him Chauffeur--it was the name of his occupation, and +it stuck. That is how, to this day, the tribe he founded is called the +Chauffeur Tribe. + +[Illustration: Everybody called him Chauffeur 149] + +“He was a violent, unjust man. Why the plague germs spared him I can +never understand. It would seem, in spite of our old metaphysical +notions about absolute justice, that there is no justice in the +universe. Why did he live?--an iniquitous, moral monster, a blot on the +face of nature, a cruel, relentless, bestial cheat as well. All he +could talk about was motor cars, machinery, gasoline, and garages--and +especially, and with huge delight, of his mean pilferings and sordid +swindlings of the persons who had employed him in the days before the +coming of the plague. And yet he was spared, while hundreds of millions, +yea, billions, of better men were destroyed. + +[Illustration: Vesta the one woman 150] + +“I went on with him to his camp, and there I saw her, Vesta, the one +woman. It was glorious and... pitiful. There she was, Vesta Van Warden, +the young wife of John Van Warden, clad in rags, with marred and scarred +and toil-calloused hands, bending over the campfire and doing scullion +work--she, Vesta, who had been born to the purple of the greatest +baronage of wealth the world had ever known. John Van Warden, her +husband, worth one billion, eight hundred millions and President of the +Board of Industrial Magnates, had been the ruler of America. Also, +sitting on the International Board of Control, he had been one of the +seven men who ruled the world. And she herself had come of equally noble +stock. Her father, Philip Saxon, had been President of the Board of +Industrial Magnates up to the time of his death. This office was in +process of becoming hereditary, and had Philip Saxon had a son that son +would have succeeded him. But his only child was Vesta, the perfect +flower of generations of the highest culture this planet has ever +produced. It was not until the engagement between Vesta and Van Warden +took place, that Saxon indicated the latter as his successor. It was, I +am sure, a political marriage. I have reason to believe that Vesta never +really loved her husband in the mad passionate way of which the poets +used to sing. It was more like the marriages that obtained among crowned +heads in the days before they were displaced by the Magnates. + +[Illustration: There she was, boiling fish-chowder 153] + +“And there she was, boiling fish-chowder in a soot-covered pot, her +glorious eyes inflamed by the acrid smoke of the open fire. Hers was a +sad story. She was the one survivor in a million, as I had been, as +the Chauffeur had been. On a crowning eminence of the Alameda Hills, +overlooking San Francisco Bay, Van Warden had built a vast summer +palace. It was surrounded by a park of a thousand acres. When the +plague broke out, Van Warden sent her there. Armed guards patrolled the +boundaries of the park, and nothing entered in the way of provisions or +even mail matter that was not first fumigated. And yet did the plague +enter, killing the guards at their posts, the servants at their tasks, +sweeping away the whole army of retainers--or, at least, all of them who +did not flee to die elsewhere. So it was that Vesta found herself the +sole living person in the palace that had become a charnel house. + +“Now the Chauffeur had been one of the servants that ran away. +Returning, two months afterward, he discovered Vesta in a little summer +pavilion where there had been no deaths and where she had established +herself. He was a brute. She was afraid, and she ran away and hid among +the trees. That night, on foot, she fled into the mountains--she, whose +tender feet and delicate body had never known the bruise of stones nor +the scratch of briars. He followed, and that night he caught her. He +struck her. Do you understand? He beat her with those terrible fists of +his and made her his slave. It was she who had to gather the firewood, +build the fires, cook, and do all the degrading camp-labor--she, who had +never performed a menial act in her life. These things he compelled her +to do, while he, a proper savage, elected to lie around camp and look +on. He did nothing, absolutely nothing, except on occasion to hunt meat +or catch fish.” + +“Good for Chauffeur,” Hare-Lip commented in an undertone to the other +boys. “I remember him before he died. He was a corker. But he did +things, and he made things go. You know, Dad married his daughter, an' +you ought to see the way he knocked the spots outa Dad. The Chauffeur +was a son-of-a-gun. He made us kids stand around. Even when he was +croaking he reached out for me, once, an' laid my head open with that +long stick he kept always beside him.” + +Hare-Lip rubbed his bullet head reminiscently, and the boys returned to +the old man, who was maundering ecstatically about Vesta, the squaw of +the founder of the Chauffeur Tribe. + +“And so I say to you that you cannot understand the awfulness of the +situation. The Chauffeur was a servant, understand, a servant. And he +cringed, with bowed head, to such as she. She was a lord of life, both +by birth and by marriage. The destinies of millions, such as he, she +carried in the hollow of her pink-white hand. And, in the days before +the plague, the slightest contact with such as he would have been +pollution. Oh, I have seen it. Once, I remember, there was Mrs. Goldwin, +wife of one of the great magnates. It was on a landing stage, just +as she was embarking in her private dirigible, that she dropped her +parasol. A servant picked it up and made the mistake of handing it to +her--to her, one of the greatest royal ladies of the land! She shrank +back, as though he were a leper, and indicated her secretary to receive +it. Also, she ordered her secretary to ascertain the creature's name and +to see that he was immediately discharged from service. And such a woman +was Vesta Van Warden. And her the Chauffeur beat and made his slave. + +[Illustration: And her the Chauffeur beat and made his slave 158] + +“--Bill--that was it; Bill, the Chauffeur. That was his name. He was +a wretched, primitive man, wholly devoid of the finer instincts and +chivalrous promptings of a cultured soul. No, there is no absolute +justice, for to him fell that wonder of womanhood, Vesta Van Warden. The +grievous-ness of this you will never understand, my grandsons; for +you are yourselves primitive little savages, unaware of aught else but +savagery. Why should Vesta not have been mine? I was a man of culture +and refinement, a professor in a great university. Even so, in the time +before the plague, such was her exalted position, she would not have +deigned to know that I existed. Mark, then, the abysmal degradation +to which she fell at the hands of the Chauffeur. Nothing less than the +destruction of all mankind had made it possible that I should know her, +look in her eyes, converse with her, touch her hand--ay, and love her +and know that her feelings toward me were very kindly. I have reason to +believe that she, even she, would have loved me, there being no other +man in the world except the Chauffeur. Why, when it destroyed eight +billions of souls, did not the plague destroy just one more man, and +that man the Chauffeur? + +“Once, when the Chauffeur was away fishing, she begged me to kill him. +With tears in her eyes she begged me to kill him. But he was a strong +and violent man, and I was afraid. Afterwards, I talked with him. I +offered him my horse, my pony, my dogs, all that I possessed, if he +would give Vesta to me. And he grinned in my face and shook his head. He +was very insulting. He said that in the old days he had been a servant, +had been dirt under the feet of men like me and of women like Vesta, and +that now he had the greatest lady in the land to be servant to him and +cook his food and nurse his brats. 'You had your day before the plague,' +he said; 'but this is my day, and a damned good day it is. I wouldn't +trade back to the old times for anything.' Such words he spoke, but they +are not his words. He was a vulgar, low-minded man, and vile oaths fell +continually from his lips. + +“Also, he told me that if he caught me making eyes at his woman he'd +wring my neck and give her a beating as well. What was I to do? I was +afraid. He was a brute. That first night, when I discovered the camp, +Vesta and I had great talk about the things of our vanished world. We +talked of art, and books, and poetry; and the Chauffeur listened and +grinned and sneered. He was bored and angered by our way of speech which +he did not comprehend, and finally he spoke up and said: 'And this is +Vesta Van Warden, one-time wife of Van Warden the Magnate--a high and +stuck-up beauty, who is now my squaw. Eh, Professor Smith, times is +changed, times is changed. Here, you, woman, take off my moccasins, +and lively about it. I want Professor Smith to see how well I have you +trained.' + +“I saw her clench her teeth, and the flame of revolt rise in her face. +He drew back his gnarled fist to strike, and I was afraid, and sick at +heart. I could do nothing to prevail against him. So I got up to go, +and not be witness to such indignity. But the Chauffeur laughed and +threatened me with a beating if I did not stay and behold. And I sat +there, perforce, by the campfire on the shore of Lake Temescal, and +saw Vesta, Vesta Van Warden, kneel and remove the moccasins of that +grinning, hairy, apelike human brute. + +“--Oh, you do not understand, my grandsons. You have never known +anything else, and you do not understand. + +“'Halter-broke and bridle-wise,' the Chauffeur gloated, while she +performed that dreadful, menial task. 'A trifle balky at times, +Professor, a trifle balky; but a clout alongside the jaw makes her as +meek and gentle as a lamb.' + +“And another time he said: 'We've got to start all over and replenish +the earth and multiply. You're handicapped, Professor. You ain't got no +wife, and we're up against a regular Garden-of-Eden proposition. But I +ain't proud. I'll tell you what, Professor.' He pointed at their little +infant, barely a year old. 'There's your wife, though you'll have to +wait till she grows up. It's rich, ain't it? We're all equals here, and +I'm the biggest toad in the splash. But I ain't stuck up--not I. I do +you the honor, Professor Smith, the very great honor of betrothing to +you my and Vesta Van Warden's daughter. Ain't it cussed bad that Van +Warden ain't here to see?'” + + + + +VI + + +“I lived three weeks of infinite torment there in the Chauffeur's camp. +And then, one day, tiring of me, or of what to him was my bad effect +on Vesta, he told me that the year before, wandering through the Contra +Costa Hills to the Straits of Carquinez, across the Straits he had seen +a smoke. This meant that there were still other human beings, and that +for three weeks he had kept this inestimably precious information from +me. I departed at once, with my dogs and horses, and journeyed across +the Contra Costa Hills to the Straits. I saw no smoke on the other side, +but at Port Costa discovered a small steel barge on which I was able to +embark my animals. Old canvas which I found served me for a sail, and +a southerly breeze fanned me across the Straits and up to the ruins +of Vallejo. Here, on the outskirts of the city, I found evidences of a +recently occupied camp. + +[Illustration: Found evidences of a recently occupied camp 169] + +“Many clam-shells showed me why these humans had come to the shores of +the Bay. This was the Santa Rosa Tribe, and I followed its track along +the old railroad right of way across the salt marshes to Sonoma Valley. +Here, at the old brickyard at Glen Ellen, I came upon the camp. There +were eighteen souls all told. Two were old men, one of whom was Jones, a +banker. The other was Harrison, a retired pawnbroker, who had taken for +wife the matron of the State Hospital for the Insane at Napa. Of all the +persons of the city of Napa, and of all the other towns and villages +in that rich and populous valley, she had been the only survivor. Next, +there were the three young men--Cardiff and Hale, who had been farmers, +and Wainwright, a common day-laborer. All three had found wives. To +Hale, a crude, illiterate farmer, had fallen Isadore, the greatest +prize, next to Vesta, of the women who came through the plague. She was +one of the world's most noted singers, and the plague had caught her at +San Francisco. She has talked with me for hours at a time, telling me of +her adventures, until, at last, rescued by Hale in the Mendocino Forest +Reserve, there had remained nothing for her to do but become his wife. +But Hale was a good fellow, in spite of his illiteracy. He had a keen +sense of justice and right-dealing, and she was far happier with him +than was Vesta with the Chauffeur. + +“The wives of Cardiff and Wainwright were ordinary women, accustomed +to toil with strong constitutions--just the type for the wild new life +which they were compelled to live. In addition were two adult idiots +from the feeble-minded home at Eldredge, and five or six young children +and infants born after the formation of the Santa Rosa Tribe. Also, +there was Bertha. She was a good woman, Hare-Lip, in spite of the sneers +of your father. Her I took for wife. She was the mother of your father, +Edwin, and of yours, Hoo-Hoo. And it was our daughter, Vera, who married +your father, Hare-Lip--your father, Sandow, who was the oldest son of +Vesta Van Warden and the Chauffeur. + +“And so it was that I became the nineteenth member of the Santa Rosa +Tribe. There were only two outsiders added after me. One was Mungerson, +descended from the Magnates, who wandered alone in the wilds of Northern +California for eight years before he came south and joined us. He it was +who waited twelve years more before he married my daughter, Mary. The +other was Johnson, the man who founded the Utah Tribe. That was where he +came from, Utah, a country that lies very far away from here, across the +great deserts, to the east. It was not until twenty-seven years after +the plague that Johnson reached California. In all that Utah region he +reported but three survivors, himself one, and all men. For many years +these three men lived and hunted together, until, at last, desperate, +fearing that with them the human race would perish utterly from the +planet, they headed westward on the possibility of finding women +survivors in California. Johnson alone came through the great desert, +where his two companions died. He was forty-six years old when he joined +us, and he married the fourth daughter of Isadore and Hale, and his +eldest son married your aunt, Hare-Lip, who was the third daughter of +Vesta and the Chauffeur. Johnson was a strong man, with a will of his +own. And it was because of this that he seceded from the Santa Rosans +and formed the Utah Tribe at San José. It is a small tribe--there are +only nine in it; but, though he is dead, such was his influence and the +strength of his breed, that it will grow into a strong tribe and play a +leading part in the recivilization of the planet. + +“There are only two other tribes that we know of--the Los Angelitos +and the Carmelitos. The latter started from one man and woman. He was +called Lopez, and he was descended from the ancient Mexicans and was +very black. He was a cowherd in the ranges beyond Carmel, and his wife +was a maidservant in the great Del Monte Hotel. It was seven years +before we first got in touch with the Los Angelitos. They have a +good country down there, but it is too warm. I estimate the present +population of the world at between three hundred and fifty and four +hundred--provided, of course, that there are no scattered little tribes +elsewhere in the world. If there be such, we have not heard from them. +Since Johnson crossed the desert from Utah, no word nor sign has come +from the East or anywhere else. The great world which I knew in my +boyhood and early manhood is gone. It has ceased to be. I am the last +man who was alive in the days of the plague and who knows the wonders of +that far-off time. We, who mastered the planet--its earth, and sea, and +sky--and who were as very gods, now live in primitive savagery along the +water courses of this California country. + +“But we are increasing rapidly--your sister, Hare-Lip, already has four +children. We are increasing rapidly and making ready for a new climb +toward civilization. In time, pressure of population will compel us +to spread out, and a hundred generations from now we may expect our +descendants to start across the Sierras, oozing slowly along, generation +by generation, over the great continent to the colonization of the +East--a new Aryan drift around the world. + +“But it will be slow, very slow; we have so far to climb. We fell so +hopelessly far. If only one physicist or one chemist had survived! +But it was not to be, and we have forgotten everything. The Chauffeur +started working in iron. He made the forge which we use to this day. +But he was a lazy man, and when he died he took with him all he knew +of metals and machinery. What was I to know of such things? I was a +classical scholar, not a chemist.. The other men who survived were not +educated. Only two things did the Chauffeur accomplish--the brewing +of strong drink and the growing of tobacco. It was while he was drunk, +once, that he killed Vesta. I firmly believe that he killed Vesta in a +fit of drunken cruelty though he always maintained that she fell into +the lake and was drowned. + +“And, my grandsons, let me warn you against the medicine-men. They call +themselves _doctors_, travestying what was once a noble profession, but +in reality they are medicine-men, devil-devil men, and they make for +superstition and darkness. They are cheats and liars. But so debased and +degraded are we, that we believe their lies. They, too, will increase +in numbers as we increase, and they will strive to rule us. Yet are +they liars and charlatans. Look at young Cross-Eyes, posing as a +doctor, selling charms against sickness, giving good hunting, +exchanging promises of fair weather for good meat and skins, sending the +death-stick, performing a thousand abominations. Yet I say to you, +that when he says he can do these things, he lies. I, Professor Smith, +Professor James Howard Smith, say that he lies. I have told him so to +his teeth. Why has he not sent me the death-stick? Because he knows that +with me it is without avail. But you, Hare-Lip, so deeply are you +sunk in black superstition that did you awake this night and find the +death-stick beside you, you would surely die. And you would die, not +because of any virtues in the stick, but because you are a savage with +the dark and clouded mind of a savage. + +“The doctors must be destroyed, and all that was lost must be discovered +over again. Wherefore, earnestly, I repeat unto you certain things which +you must remember and tell to your children after you. You must tell +them that when water is made hot by fire, there resides in it a +wonderful thing called steam, which is stronger than ten thousand men +and which can do all man's work for him. There are other very useful +things. In the lightning flash resides a similarly strong servant of +man, which was of old his slave and which some day will be his slave +again. + +[Illustration: I have stored many books in a cave 179] + +“Quite a different thing is the alphabet. It is what enables me to +know the meaning of fine markings, whereas you boys know only rude +picture-writing. In that dry cave on Telegraph Hill, where you see me +often go when the tribe is down by the sea, I have stored many books. +In them is great wisdom. Also, with them, I have placed a key to the +alphabet, so that one who knows picture-writing may also know print. +Some day men will read again; and then, if no accident has befallen my +cave, they will know that Professor James Howard Smith once lived and +saved for them the knowledge of the ancients. + +“There is another little device that men inevitably will rediscover. It +is called gunpowder. It was what enabled us to kill surely and at long +distances. Certain things which are found in the ground, when combined +in the right proportions, will make this gunpowder. What these things +are, I have forgotten, or else I never knew. But I wish I did know. Then +would I make powder, and then would I certainly kill Cross-Eyes and rid +the land of superstition--” + +“After I am man-grown I am going to give Cross-Eyes all the goats, +and meat, and skins I can get, so that he'll teach me to be a doctor,” + Hoo-Hoo asserted. “And when I know, I'll make everybody else sit up and +take notice. They'll get down in the dirt to me, you bet.” + +The old man nodded his head solemnly, and murmured: + +“Strange it is to hear the vestiges and remnants of the complicated +Aryan speech falling from the lips of a filthy little skin-clad savage. +All the world is topsy-turvy. And it has been topsy-turvy ever since the +plague.” + +“You won't make me sit up,” Hare-Lip boasted to the would-be +medicine-man. “If I paid you for a sending of the death-stick and it +didn't work, I'd bust in your head--understand, you Hoo-Hoo, you?” + +“I'm going to get Granser to remember this here gunpowder stuff,” Edwin +said softly, “and then I'll have you all on the run. You, Hare-Lip, will +do my fighting for me and get my meat for me, and you, Hoo-Hoo, will +send the death-stick for me and make everybody afraid. And if I catch +Hare-Lip trying to bust your head, Hoo-Hoo, I'll fix him with that same +gunpowder. Granser ain't such a fool as you think, and I'm going to +listen to him and some day I'll be boss over the whole bunch of you.” + +The old man shook his head sadly, and said: + +“The gunpowder will come. Nothing can stop it--the same old story over +and over. Man will increase, and men will fight. The gunpowder will +enable men to kill millions of men, and in this way only, by fire and +blood, will a new civilization, in some remote day, be evolved. And of +what profit will it be? Just as the old civilization passed, so will the +new. It may take fifty thousand years to build, but it will pass. All +things pass. Only remain cosmic force and matter, ever in flux, ever +acting and reacting and realizing the eternal types--the priest, the +soldier, and the king. Out of the mouths of babes comes the wisdom of +all the ages. Some will fight, some will rule, some will pray; and all +the rest will toil and suffer sore while on their bleeding carcasses +is reared again, and yet again, without end, the amazing beauty and +surpassing wonder of the civilized state. It were just as well that I +destroyed those cave-stored books--whether they remain or perish, all +their old truths will be discovered, their old lies lived and handed +down. What is the profit--” + +Hare-Lip leaped to his feet, giving a quick glance at the pasturing +goats and the afternoon sun. + +“Gee!” he muttered to Edwin, “The old geezer gets more long-winded every +day. Let's pull for camp.” + +While the other two, aided by the dogs, assembled the goats and started +them for the trail through the forest, Edwin stayed by the old man and +guided him in the same direction. When they reached the old right of +way, Edwin stopped suddenly and looked back. Hare-Lip and Hoo-Hoo and +the dogs and the goats passed on. Edwin was looking at a small herd of +wild horses which had come down on the hard sand. There were at least +twenty of them, young colts and yearlings and mares, led by a beautiful +stallion which stood in the foam at the edge of the surf, with arched +neck and bright wild eyes, sniffing the salt air from off the sea. + +“What is it?” Granser queried. + +“Horses,” was the answer. “First time I ever seen 'em on the beach. It's +the mountain lions getting thicker and thicker and driving 'em down.” + +The low sun shot red shafts of light, fan-shaped, up from a +cloud-tumbled horizon. And close at hand, in the white waste of +shore-lashed waters, the sea-lions, bellowing their old primeval chant, +hauled up out of the sea on the black rocks and fought and loved. + +“Come on, Granser,” Edwin prompted. And old man and boy, skin-clad and +barbaric, turned and went along the right of way into the forest in the +wake of the goats. + +THE END + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SCARLET PLAGUE *** + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the +United States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following +the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use +of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for +copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very +easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation +of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project +Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may +do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected +by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark +license, especially commercial redistribution. + +START: FULL LICENSE + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online at +www.gutenberg.org/license. + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™ +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or +destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your +possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a +Project Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be bound +by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the +person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph +1.E.8. + +1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this +agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the +Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection +of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individual +works in the collection are in the public domain in the United +States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the +United States and you are located in the United States, we do not +claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, +displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as +all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope +that you will support the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting +free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™ +works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the +Project Gutenberg™ name associated with the work. You can easily +comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the +same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg™ License when +you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are +in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, +check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this +agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, +distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any +other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes no +representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any +country other than the United States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other +immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appear +prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any work +on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the +phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, +performed, viewed, copied or distributed: + + This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and + most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no + restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it + under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this + eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the + United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where + you are located before using this eBook. + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is +derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not +contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the +copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in +the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are +redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply +either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or +obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg™ +trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any +additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms +will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all works +posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the +beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™ +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg™. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg™ License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including +any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access +to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a format +other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ website +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain +Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the +full Project Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +provided that: + +• You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed + to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has + agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid + within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are + legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty + payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in + Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg + Literary Archive Foundation.” + +• You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ + License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all + copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue + all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™ + works. + +• You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of + any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of + receipt of the work. + +• You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms than +are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing +from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of +the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set +forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project +Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may +contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate +or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or +other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or +cannot be read by your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right +of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium +with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you +with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in +lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person +or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second +opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If +the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing +without further opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you “AS-IS”, WITH NO +OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of +damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement +violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the +agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or +limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or +unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the +remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in +accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the +production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, +including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of +the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this +or any Project Gutenberg™ work, (b) alteration, modification, or +additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any +Defect you cause. + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg™ + +Project Gutenberg™ is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of +computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It +exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations +from people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg™'s +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future +generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see +Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at +www.gutenberg.org + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by +U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, +Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up +to date contact information can be found at the Foundation's website +and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without +widespread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular +state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To +donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg™ electronic works + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project +Gutenberg™ concept of a library of electronic works that could be +freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and +distributed Project Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network of +volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in +the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. + +Most people start at our website which has the main PG search +facility: www.gutenberg.org + +This website includes information about Project Gutenberg™, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + diff --git a/21970-0.zip b/21970-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c7ef482 --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-0.zip diff --git a/21970-h.zip b/21970-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fb5ffbb --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h.zip diff --git a/21970-h/21970-h.htm b/21970-h/21970-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aba4268 --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/21970-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3059 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Scarlet Plague, by Jack London</title> +<link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> +<style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify;} + P { text-indent: 2em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> +</head> +<body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Scarlet Plague, by Jack London</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Scarlet Plague</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Jack London</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Illustrator: Gordon Grant</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: June 29, 2007 [eBook #21970]<br /> +[Most recently updated: March 28, 2023]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: David Widger</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SCARLET PLAGUE ***</div> + +<div class="fig" style="width:55%;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" style="width:100%;" alt="[Illustration]" /> +</div> + +<h1>THE SCARLET PLAGUE</h1> + <h2> + By Jack London + </h2> + + <h3> + Illustrated By Gordon Grant + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h4> + 1915 + </h4> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img alt="frontispiece (75K)" src="images/frontispiece.jpg" width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img alt="titlepage (30K)" src="images/titlepage.jpg" width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + + <hr /> + +<div class="chapter"> + + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <b>THE SCARLET PLAGUE</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> I </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> II </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> III </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> IV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> V </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> VI </a> + </p> + + <hr /> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>Illustrations</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0001"> Slowly he Pulled the Bowstring Taut 020 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0002"> Rabbit is Good, Very Good 026 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0003"> This Attracted the Old Man’s Nostrils 033 + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0004"> With a Sling Such As David Carried 036 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0005"> I Was a Professor of English Literature 054 + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0006"> Sixty Years Since I Have Seen a Piece of + Soap. 059 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0007"> Granser, You Make Me Sick With Your Gabble + 071 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0008"> But This New Plague Was Quicker 078 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0009"> The Telephone Bell Rang 088 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0010"> Fled from the City by Millions 092 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0011"> I Heard Sounds of Rioting and Of Pistol Shots + 098 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0012"> Look at Yourself in the Mirror 100 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0013"> Now in the Time of Calamity They Turned on Us + 108 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0014"> He Told Me he Had Been Cruelly Beaten 112 + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0015"> We Thrust Her Forth from the Building 121 + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0016"> She Fell Like a Plummet to the Earth 132 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0017"> With My Horse and Dogs And Pony, I Set out + 144 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0018"> Everybody Called Him Chauffeur 149 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0019"> Vesta the One Woman 150 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0020"> There She Was, Boiling Fish-chowder 153 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0021"> And Her the Chauffeur Beat and Made his Slave + 158 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0022"> Found Evidences of a Recently Occupied Camp + 169 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0023"> I Have Stored Many Books in a Cave 179 </a> + </p> + + <hr /> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + + <h2><a name="link2H_4_0001"></a> + THE SCARLET PLAGUE + </h2> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + + <h2><a name="link2H_4_0002"></a> + I + </h2> + <p> + The way led along upon what had once been the embankment of a railroad. + But no train had run upon it for many years. The forest on either side + swelled up the slopes of the embankment and crested across it in a green + wave of trees and bushes. The trail was as narrow as a man’s body, and was + no more than a wild-animal runway. Occasionally, a piece of rusty iron, + showing through the forest-mould, advertised that the rail and the ties + still remained. In one place, a ten-inch tree, bursting through at a + connection, had lifted the end of a rail clearly into view. The tie had + evidently followed the rail, held to it by the spike long enough for its + bed to be filled with gravel and rotten leaves, so that now the crumbling, + rotten timber thrust itself up at a curious slant. Old as the road was, it + was manifest that it had been of the mono-rail type. + </p> + <p> + An old man and a boy travelled along this runway. They moved slowly, for + the old man was very old, a touch of palsy made his movements tremulous, + and he leaned heavily upon his staff. A rude skull-cap of goat-skin + protected his head from the sun. From beneath this fell a scant fringe of + stained and dirty-white hair. A visor, ingeniously made from a large leaf, + shielded his eyes, and from under this he peered at the way of his feet on + the trail. His beard, which should have been snow-white but which showed + the same weather-wear and camp-stain as his hair, fell nearly to his waist + in a great tangled mass. About his chest and shoulders hung a single, + mangy garment of goat-skin. His arms and legs, withered and skinny, + betokened extreme age, as well as did their sunburn and scars and + scratches betoken long years of exposure to the elements. + </p> + <p> + The boy, who led the way, checking the eagerness of his muscles to the + slow progress of the elder, likewise wore a single garment—a + ragged-edged piece of bear-skin, with a hole in the middle through which + he had thrust his head. He could not have been more than twelve years old. + Tucked coquettishly over one ear was the freshly severed tail of a pig. In + one hand he carried a medium-sized bow and an arrow. + </p> + <p> + On his back was a quiverful of arrows. From a sheath hanging about his + neck on a thong, projected the battered handle of a hunting knife. He was + as brown as a berry, and walked softly, with almost a catlike tread. In + marked contrast with his sunburned skin were his eyes—blue, deep + blue, but keen and sharp as a pair of gimlets. They seemed to bore into + aft about him in a way that was habitual. As he went along he smelled + things, as well, his distended, quivering nostrils carrying to his brain + an endless series of messages from the outside world. Also, his hearing + was acute, and had been so trained that it operated automatically. Without + conscious effort, he heard all the slight sounds in the apparent quiet—heard, + and differentiated, and classified these sounds—whether they were of + the wind rustling the leaves, of the humming of bees and gnats, of the + distant rumble of the sea that drifted to him only in lulls, or of the + gopher, just under his foot, shoving a pouchful of earth into the entrance + of his hole. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly he became alertly tense. Sound, sight, and odor had given him a + simultaneous warning. His hand went back to the old man, touching him, and + the pair stood still. Ahead, at one side of the top of the embankment, + arose a crackling sound, and the boy’s gaze was fixed on the tops of the + agitated bushes. Then a large bear, a grizzly, crashed into view, and + likewise stopped abruptly, at sight of the humans. He did not like them, + and growled querulously. Slowly the boy fitted the arrow to the bow, and + slowly he pulled the bowstring taut. But he never removed his eyes from + the bear. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0001"></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img src="images/020.jpg" width="100%" + alt="Slowly he Pulled the Bowstring Taut 020 " /> + </div> + <p> + The old man peered from under his green leaf at the danger, and stood as + quietly as the boy. For a few seconds this mutual scrutinizing went on; + then, the bear betraying a growing irritability, the boy, with a movement + of his head, indicated that the old man must step aside from the trail and + go down the embankment. The boy followed, going backward, still holding + the bow taut and ready. They waited till a crashing among the bushes from + the opposite side of the embankment told them the bear had gone on. The + boy grinned as he led back to the trail. + </p> + <p> + “A big un, Granser,” he chuckled. + </p> + <p> + The old man shook his head. + </p> + <p> + “They get thicker every day,” he complained in a thin, undependable + falsetto. “Who’d have thought I’d live to see the time when a man would be + afraid of his life on the way to the Cliff House. When I was a boy, Edwin, + men and women and little babies used to come out here from San Francisco + by tens of thousands on a nice day. And there weren’t any bears then. No, + sir. They used to pay money to look at them in cages, they were that + rare.” + </p> + <p> + “What is money, Granser?” + </p> + <p> + Before the old man could answer, the boy recollected and triumphantly + shoved his hand into a pouch under his bear-skin and pulled forth a + battered and tarnished silver dollar. The old man’s eyes glistened, as he + held the coin close to them. + </p> + <p> + “I can’t see,” he muttered. “You look and see if you can make out the + date, Edwin.” + </p> + <p> + The boy laughed. + </p> + <p> + “You’re a great Granser,” he cried delightedly, “always making believe + them little marks mean something.” + </p> + <p> + The old man manifested an accustomed chagrin as he brought the coin back + again close to his own eyes. + </p> + <p> + “2012,” he shrilled, and then fell to cackling grotesquely. “That was the + year Morgan the Fifth was appointed President of the United States by the + Board of Magnates. It must have been one of the last coins minted, for the + Scarlet Death came in 2013. Lord! Lord!—think of it! Sixty years + ago, and I am the only person alive to-day that lived in those times. + Where did you find it, Edwin?” + </p> + <p> + The boy, who had been regarding him with the tolerant curiousness one + accords to the prattlings of the feeble-minded, answered promptly. + </p> + <p> + “I got it off of Hoo-Hoo. He found it when we was herdin’ goats down near + San José last spring. Hoo-Hoo said it was <i>money</i>. Ain’t you hungry, + Granser?” + </p> + <p> + The ancient caught his staff in a tighter grip and urged along the trail, + his old eyes shining greedily. + </p> + <p> + “I hope Hare-Lip ’s found a crab... or two,” he mumbled. “They’re good + eating, crabs, mighty good eating when you’ve no more teeth and you’ve got + grandsons that love their old grandsire and make a point of catching crabs + for him. When I was a boy—” + </p> + <p> + But Edwin, suddenly stopped by what he saw, was drawing the bowstring on a + fitted arrow. He had paused on the brink of a crevasse in the embankment. + An ancient culvert had here washed out, and the stream, no longer + confined, had cut a passage through the fill. On the opposite side, the + end of a rail projected and overhung. It showed rustily through the + creeping vines which overran it. Beyond, crouching by a bush, a rabbit + looked across at him in trembling hesitancy. Fully fifty feet was the + distance, but the arrow flashed true; and the transfixed rabbit, crying + out in sudden fright and hurt, struggled painfully away into the brush. + The boy himself was a flash of brown skin and flying fur as he bounded + down the steep wall of the gap and up the other side. His lean muscles + were springs of steel that released into graceful and efficient action. A + hundred feet beyond, in a tangle of bushes, he overtook the wounded + creature, knocked its head on a convenient tree-trunk, and turned it over + to Granser to carry. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0002"></a> + </p> + <div class="figleft" style="width:20%;"> + <img width="100%" src="images/025.jpg" alt="Rabbit is Good, Very Good 025 " /> + </div> + <p> + “Rabbit is good, very good,” the ancient quavered, “but when it comes to a + toothsome delicacy I prefer crab. When I was a boy—” + </p> + <p> + “Why do you say so much that ain’t got no sense?” Edwin impatiently + interrupted the other’s threatened garrulousness. + </p> + <p> + The boy did not exactly utter these words, but something that remotely + resembled them and that was more guttural and explosive and economical of + qualifying phrases. His speech showed distant kinship with that of the old + man, and the latter’s speech was approximately an English that had gone + through a bath of corrupt usage. + </p> + <p> + “What I want to know,” Edwin continued, “is why you call crab ‘toothsome + delicacy’? Crab is crab, ain’t it? No one I never heard calls it such + funny things.” + </p> + <p> + The old man sighed but did not answer, and they moved on in silence. The + surf grew suddenly louder, as they emerged from the forest upon a stretch + of sand dunes bordering the sea. A few goats were browsing among the sandy + hillocks, and a skin-clad boy, aided by a wolfish-looking dog that was + only faintly reminiscent of a collie, was watching them. Mingled with the + roar of the surf was a continuous, deep-throated barking or bellowing, + which came from a cluster of jagged rocks a hundred yards out from shore. + Here huge sea-lions hauled themselves up to lie in the sun or battle with + one another. In the immediate foreground arose the smoke of a fire, tended + by a third savage-looking boy. Crouched near him were several wolfish dogs + similar to the one that guarded the goats. + </p> + <p> + The old man accelerated his pace, sniffing eagerly as he neared the fire. + </p> + <p> + “Mussels!” he muttered ecstatically. “Mussels! And ain’t that a crab, + Hoo-Hoo? Ain’t that a crab? My, my, you boys are good to your old + grandsire.” + </p> + <p> + Hoo-Hoo, who was apparently of the same age as Edwin, grinned. + </p> + <p> + “All you want, Granser. I got four.” + </p> + <p> + The old man’s palsied eagerness was pitiful. Sitting down in the sand as + quickly as his stiff limbs would let him, he poked a large rock-mussel + from out of the coals. The heat had forced its shells apart, and the meat, + salmon-colored, was thoroughly cooked. Between thumb and forefinger, in + trembling haste, he caught the morsel and carried it to his mouth. But it + was too hot, and the next moment was violently ejected. The old man + spluttered with the pain, and tears ran out of his eyes and down his + cheeks. + </p> + <p> + The boys were true savages, possessing only the cruel humor of the savage. + To them the incident was excruciatingly funny, and they burst into loud + laughter. Hoo-Hoo danced up and down, while Edwin rolled gleefully on the + ground. The boy with the goats came running to join in the fun. + </p> + <p> + “Set ’em to cool, Edwin, set ’em to cool,” the old man besought, in the + midst of his grief, making no attempt to wipe away the tears that still + flowed from his eyes. “And cool a crab, Edwin, too. You know your + grandsire likes crabs.” + </p> + <p> + From the coals arose a great sizzling, which proceeded from the many + mussels bursting open their shells and exuding their moisture. They were + large shellfish, running from three to six inches in length. The boys + raked them out with sticks and placed them on a large piece of driftwood + to cool. + </p> + <p> + “When I was a boy, we did not laugh at our elders; we respected them.” + </p> + <p> + The boys took no notice, and Granser continued to babble an incoherent + flow of complaint and censure. But this time he was more careful, and did + not burn his mouth. All began to eat, using nothing but their hands and + making loud mouth-noises and lip-smackings. The third boy, who was called + Hare-Lip, slyly deposited a pinch of sand on a mussel the ancient was + carrying to his mouth; and when the grit of it bit into the old fellow’s + mucous membrane and gums, the laughter was again uproarious. He was + unaware that a joke had been played on him, and spluttered and spat until + Edwin, relenting, gave him a gourd of fresh water with which to wash out + his mouth. + </p> + <p> + “Where’s them crabs, Hoo-Hoo?” Edwin demanded. “Granser’s set upon having + a snack.” + </p> + <p> + Again Granser’s eyes burned with greediness as a large crab was handed to + him. It was a shell with legs and all complete, but the meat had long + since departed. With shaky fingers and babblings of anticipation, the old + man broke off a leg and found it filled with emptiness. + </p> + <p> + “The crabs, Hoo-Hoo?” he wailed. “The crabs?” + </p> + <p> + “I was fooling Granser. They ain’t no crabs! I never found one.” + </p> + <p> + The boys were overwhelmed with delight at sight of the tears of senile + disappointment that dribbled down the old man’s cheeks. Then, unnoticed, + Hoo-Hoo replaced the empty shell with a fresh-cooked crab. Already + dismembered, from the cracked legs the white meat sent forth a small cloud + of savory steam. This attracted the old man’s nostrils, and he looked down + in amazement. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0003"></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img src="images/033.jpg" width="100%" + alt="This Attracted the Old Man’s Nostrils 033 " /> + </div> + <p> + The change of his mood to one of joy was immediate. He snuffled and + muttered and mumbled, making almost a croon of delight, as he began to + eat. Of this the boys took little notice, for it was an accustomed + spectacle. Nor did they notice his occasional exclamations and utterances + of phrases which meant nothing to them, as, for instance, when he smacked + his lips and champed his gums while muttering: “Mayonnaise! Just think—mayonnaise! + And it’s sixty years since the last was ever made! Two generations and + never a smell of it! Why, in those days it was served in every restaurant + with crab.” + </p> + <p> + When he could eat no more, the old man sighed, wiped his hands on his + naked legs, and gazed out over the sea. With the content of a full + stomach, he waxed reminiscent. + </p> + <p> + “To think of it! I’ve seen this beach alive with men, women, and children + on a pleasant Sunday. And there weren’t any bears to eat them up, either. + And right up there on the cliff was a big restaurant where you could get + anything you wanted to eat. Four million people lived in San Francisco + then. And now, in the whole city and county there aren’t forty all told. + And out there on the sea were ships and ships always to be seen, going in + for the Golden Gate or coming out. And airships in the air—dirigibles + and flying machines. They could travel two hundred miles an hour. The mail + contracts with the New York and San Francisco Limited demanded that for + the minimum. There was a chap, a Frenchman, I forget his name, who + succeeded in making three hundred; but the thing was risky, too risky for + conservative persons. But he was on the right clew, and he would have + managed it if it hadn’t been for the Great Plague. When I was a boy, there + were men alive who remembered the coming of the first aeroplanes, and now + I have lived to see the last of them, and that sixty years ago.” + </p> + <p> + The old man babbled on, unheeded by the boys, who were long accustomed to + his garrulousness, and whose vocabularies, besides, lacked the greater + portion of the words he used. It was noticeable that in these rambling + soliloquies his English seemed to recrudesce into better construction and + phraseology. But when he talked directly with the boys it lapsed, largely, + into their own uncouth and simpler forms. + </p> + <p> + “But there weren’t many crabs in those days,” the old man wandered on. + “They were fished out, and they were great delicacies. The open season was + only a month long, too. And now crabs are accessible the whole year + around. Think of it—catching all the crabs you want, any time you + want, in the surf of the Cliff House beach!” + </p> + <p> + A sudden commotion among the goats brought the boys to their feet. The + dogs about the fire rushed to join their snarling fellow who guarded the + goats, while the goats themselves stampeded in the direction of their + human protectors. A half dozen forms, lean and gray, glided about on the + sand hillocks and faced the bristling dogs. Edwin arched an arrow that + fell short. But Hare-Lip, with a sling such as David carried into battle + against Goliath, hurled a stone through the air that whistled from the + speed of its flight. It fell squarely among the wolves and caused them to + slink away toward the dark depths of the eucalyptus forest. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0004"></a> + </p> + <div class="figright" style="width:18%;"> + <img width="100%" src="images/036.jpg" + alt="With a Sling Such As David Carried 036 " /> + </div> + <p> + The boys laughed and lay down again in the sand, while Granser sighed + ponderously. He had eaten too much, and, with hands clasped on his paunch, + the fingers interlaced, he resumed his maunderings. + </p> + <p> + “‘The fleeting systems lapse like foam,’” he mumbled what was evidently a + quotation. “That’s it—foam, and fleeting. All man’s toil upon the + planet was just so much foam. He domesticated the serviceable animals, + destroyed the hostile ones, and cleared the land of its wild vegetation. + And then he passed, and the flood of primordial life rolled back again, + sweeping his handiwork away—the weeds and the forest inundated his + fields, the beasts of prey swept over his flocks, and now there are wolves + on the Cliff House beach.” He was appalled by the thought. “Where four + million people disported themselves, the wild wolves roam to-day, and the + savage progeny of our loins, with prehistoric weapons, defend themselves + against the fanged despoilers. Think of it! And all because of the Scarlet + Death—” + </p> + <p> + The adjective had caught Hare-Lip’s ear. + </p> + <p> + “He’s always saying that,” he said to Edwin. “What is <i>scarlet?</i>” + </p> + <p> + “‘The scarlet of the maples can shake me like the cry of bugles going + by,’” the old man quoted. + </p> + <p> + “It’s red,” Edwin answered the question. “And you don’t know it because + you come from the Chauffeur Tribe. They never did know nothing, none of + them. Scarlet is red—I know that.” + </p> + <p> + “Red is red, ain’t it?” Hare-Lip grumbled. “Then what’s the good of + gettin’ cocky and calling it scarlet?” + </p> + <p> + “Granser, what for do you always say so much what nobody knows?” he asked. + “Scarlet ain’t anything, but red is red. Why don’t you say red, then?” + </p> + <p> + “Red is not the right word,” was the reply. “The plague was scarlet. The + whole face and body turned scarlet in an hour’s time. Don’t I know? Didn’t + I see enough of it? And I am telling you it was scarlet because—well, + because it <i>was</i> scarlet. There is no other word for it.” + </p> + <p> + “Red is good enough for me,” Hare-Lip muttered obstinately. “My dad calls + red red, and he ought to know. He says everybody died of the Red Death.” + </p> + <p> + “Your dad is a common fellow, descended from a common fellow,” Granser + retorted heatedly. “Don’t I know the beginnings of the Chauffeurs? Your + grandsire was a chauffeur, a servant, and without education. He worked for + other persons. But your grandmother was of good stock, only the children + did not take after her. Don’t I remember when I first met them, catching + fish at Lake Temescal?” + </p> + <p> + “What is <i>education?</i>” Edwin asked. + </p> + <p> + “Calling red scarlet,” Hare-Lip sneered, then returned to the attack on + Granser. “My dad told me, an’ he got it from his dad afore he croaked, + that your wife was a Santa Rosan, an’ that she was sure no account. He + said she was a <i>hash-slinger</i> before the Red Death, though I don’t + know what a <i>hash-slinger</i> is. You can tell me, Edwin.” + </p> + <p> + But Edwin shook his head in token of ignorance. + </p> + <p> + “It is true, she was a waitress,” Granser acknowledged. “But she was a + good woman, and your mother was her daughter. Women were very scarce in + the days after the Plague. She was the only wife I could find, even if she + was a <i>hash-slinger</i>, as your father calls it. But it is not nice to + talk about our progenitors that way.” + </p> + <p> + “Dad says that the wife of the first Chauffeur was a <i>lady</i>—” + </p> + <p> + “What’s a <i>lady?</i>” Hoo-Hoo demanded. + </p> + <p> + “A <i>lady</i> ’s a Chauffeur squaw,” was the quick reply of Hare-Lip. + </p> + <p> + “The first Chauffeur was Bill, a common fellow, as I said before,” the old + man expounded; “but his wife was a lady, a great lady. Before the Scarlet + Death she was the wife of Van Worden. He was President of the Board of + Industrial Magnates, and was one of the dozen men who ruled America. He + was worth one billion, eight hundred millions of dollars—coins like + you have there in your pouch, Edwin. And then came the Scarlet Death, and + his wife became the wife of Bill, the first Chauffeur. He used to beat + her, too. I have seen it myself.” + </p> + <p> + Hoo-Hoo, lying on his stomach and idly digging his toes in the sand, cried + out and investigated, first, his toe-nail, and next, the small hole he had + dug. The other two boys joined him, excavating the sand rapidly with their + hands till there lay three skeletons exposed. Two were of adults, the + third being that of a part-grown child. The old man trudged along on the + ground and peered at the find. + </p> + <p> + “Plague victims,” he announced. “That’s the way they died everywhere in + the last days. This must have been a family, running away from the + contagion and perishing here on the Cliff House beach. They—what are + you doing, Edwin?” + </p> + <p> + This question was asked in sudden dismay, as Edwin, using the back of his + hunting knife, began to knock out the teeth from the jaws of one of the + skulls. + </p> + <p> + “Going to string ’em,” was the response. + </p> + <p> + The three boys were now hard at it; and quite a knocking and hammering + arose, in which Granser babbled on unnoticed. + </p> + <p> + “You are true savages. Already has begun the custom of wearing human + teeth. In another generation you will be perforating your noses and ears + and wearing ornaments of bone and shell. I know. The human race is doomed + to sink back farther and farther into the primitive night ere again it + begins its bloody climb upward to civilization. When we increase and feel + the lack of room, we will proceed to kill one another. And then I suppose + you will wear human scalp-locks at your waist, as well—as you, + Edwin, who are the gentlest of my grandsons, have already begun with that + vile pigtail. Throw it away, Edwin, boy; throw it away.” + </p> + <p> + “What a gabble the old geezer makes,” Hare-Lip remarked, when, the teeth + all extracted, they began an attempt at equal division. + </p> + <p> + They were very quick and abrupt in their actions, and their speech, in + moments of hot discussion over the allotment of the choicer teeth, was + truly a gabble. They spoke in monosyllables and short jerky sentences that + was more a gibberish than a language. And yet, through it ran hints of + grammatical construction, and appeared vestiges of the conjugation of some + superior culture. Even the speech of Granser was so corrupt that were it + put down literally it would be almost so much nonsense to the reader. + This, however, was when he talked with the boys. + </p> + <p> + When he got into the full swing of babbling to himself, it slowly purged + itself into pure English. The sentences grew longer and were enunciated + with a rhythm and ease that was reminiscent of the lecture platform. + </p> + <p> + “Tell us about the Red Death, Granser,” Hare-Lip demanded, when the teeth + affair had been satisfactorily concluded. + </p> + <p> + “The Scarlet Death,” Edwin corrected. + </p> + <p> + “An’ don’t work all that funny lingo on us,” Hare-Lip went on. “Talk + sensible, Granser, like a Santa Rosan ought to talk. Other Santa Rosans + don’t talk like you.” + </p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + + <h2><a name="link2H_4_0003"></a> + II + </h2> + <p> + The old man showed pleasure in being thus called upon. He cleared his + throat and began. + </p> + <p> + “Twenty or thirty years ago my story was in great demand. But in these + days nobody seems interested—” + </p> + <p> + “There you go!” Hare-Lip cried hotly. “Cut out the funny stuff and talk + sensible. What’s <i>interested?</i> You talk like a baby that don’t know + how.” + </p> + <p> + “Let him alone,” Edwin urged, “or he’ll get mad and won’t talk at all. + Skip the funny places. We’ll catch on to some of what he tells us.” + </p> + <p> + “Let her go, Granser,” Hoo-Hoo encouraged; for the old man was already + maundering about the disrespect for elders and the reversion to cruelty of + all humans that fell from high culture to primitive conditions. + </p> + <p> + The tale began. + </p> + <p> + “There were very many people in the world in those days. San Francisco + alone held four millions—” + </p> + <p> + “What is millions?” Edwin interrupted. + </p> + <p> + Granser looked at him kindly. + </p> + <p> + “I know you cannot count beyond ten, so I will tell you. Hold up your two + hands. On both of them you have altogether ten fingers and thumbs. Very + well. I now take this grain of sand—you hold it, Hoo-Hoo.” He + dropped the grain of sand into the lad’s palm and went on. “Now that grain + of sand stands for the ten fingers of Edwin. I add another grain. That’s + ten more fingers. And I add another, and another, and another, until I + have added as many grains as Edwin has fingers and thumbs. That makes what + I call one hundred. Remember that word—one hundred. Now I put this + pebble in Hare-Lip’s hand. It stands for ten grains of sand, or ten tens + of fingers, or one hundred fingers. I put in ten pebbles. They stand for a + thousand fingers. I take a mussel-shell, and it stands for ten pebbles, or + one hundred grains of sand, or one thousand fingers....” And so on, + laboriously, and with much reiteration, he strove to build up in their + minds a crude conception of numbers. As the quantities increased, he had + the boys holding different magnitudes in each of their hands. For still + higher sums, he laid the symbols on the log of driftwood; and for symbols + he was hard put, being compelled to use the teeth from the skulls for + millions, and the crab-shells for billions. It was here that he stopped, + for the boys were showing signs of becoming tired. + </p> + <p> + “There were four million people in San Francisco—four teeth.” + </p> + <p> + The boys’ eyes ranged along from the teeth and from hand to hand, down + through the pebbles and sand-grains to Edwin’s fingers. And back again + they ranged along the ascending series in the effort to grasp such + inconceivable numbers. + </p> + <p> + “That was a lot of folks, Granser,” Edwin at last hazarded. + </p> + <p> + “Like sand on the beach here, like sand on the beach, each grain of sand a + man, or woman, or child. Yes, my boy, all those people lived right here in + San Francisco. And at one time or another all those people came out on + this very beach—more people than there are grains of sand. More—more—more. + And San Francisco was a noble city. And across the bay—where we + camped last year, even more people lived, clear from Point Richmond, on + the level ground and on the hills, all the way around to San Leandro—one + great city of seven million people.—Seven teeth... there, that’s it, + seven millions.” + </p> + <p> + Again the boys’ eyes ranged up and down from Edwin’s fingers to the teeth + on the log. + </p> + <p> + “The world was full of people. The census of 2010 gave eight billions for + the whole world—eight crab-shells, yes, eight billions. It was not + like to-day. Mankind knew a great deal more about getting food. And the + more food there was, the more people there were. In the year 1800, there + were one hundred and seventy millions in Europe alone. One hundred years + later—a grain of sand, Hoo-Hoo—one hundred years later, at + 1900, there were five hundred millions in Europe—five grains of + sand, Hoo-Hoo, and this one tooth. This shows how easy was the getting of + food, and how men increased. And in the year 2000 there were fifteen + hundred millions in Europe. And it was the same all over the rest of the + world. Eight crab-shells there, yes, eight billion people were alive on + the earth when the Scarlet Death began. + </p> + <p> + “I was a young man when the Plague came—twenty-seven years old; and + I lived on the other side of San Francisco Bay, in Berkeley. You remember + those great stone houses, Edwin, when we came down the hills from Contra + Costa? That was where I lived, in those stone houses. I was a professor of + English literature.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0005"></a> + </p> + <div class="figleft" style="width:30%;"> + <img width="100%" src="images/054.jpg" + alt="I Was a Professor of English Literature 054 " /> + </div> + <p> + Much of this was over the heads of the boys, but they strove to comprehend + dimly this tale of the past. + </p> + <p> + “What was them stone houses for?” Hare-Lip queried. + </p> + <p> + “You remember when your dad taught you to swim?” The boy nodded. “Well, in + the University of California—that is the name we had for the houses—we + taught young men and women how to think, just as I have taught you now, by + sand and pebbles and shells, to know how many people lived in those days. + There was very much to teach. The young men and women we taught were + called students. We had large rooms in which we taught. I talked to them, + forty or fifty at a time, just as I am talking to you now. I told them + about the books other men had written before their time, and even, + sometimes, in their time—” + </p> + <p> + “Was that all you did?—just talk, talk, talk?” Hoo-Hoo demanded. + “Who hunted your meat for you? and milked the goats? and caught the fish?” + </p> + <p> + “A sensible question, Hoo-Hoo, a sensible question. As I have told you, in + those days food-getting was easy. We were very wise. A few men got the + food for many men. The other men did other things. As you say, I talked. I + talked all the time, and for this food was given me—much food, fine + food, beautiful food, food that I have not tasted in sixty years and shall + never taste again. I sometimes think the most wonderful achievement of our + tremendous civilization was food—its inconceivable abundance, its + infinite variety, its marvellous delicacy. O my grandsons, life was life + in those days, when we had such wonderful things to eat.” + </p> + <p> + This was beyond the boys, and they let it slip by, words and thoughts, as + a mere senile wandering in the narrative. + </p> + <p> + “Our food-getters were called <i>freemen</i>. This was a joke. We of the + ruling classes owned all the land, all the machines, everything. These + food-getters were our slaves. We took almost all the food they got, and + left them a little so that they might eat, and work, and get us more food—” + </p> + <p> + “I’d have gone into the forest and got food for myself,” Hare-Lip + announced; “and if any man tried to take it away from me, I’d have killed + him.” + </p> + <p> + The old man laughed. + </p> + <p> + “Did I not tell you that we of the ruling class owned all the land, all + the forest, everything? Any food-getter who would not get food for us, him + we punished or compelled to starve to death. And very few did that. They + preferred to get food for us, and make clothes for us, and prepare and + administer to us a thousand—a mussel-shell, Hoo-Hoo—a thousand + satisfactions and delights. And I was Professor Smith in those days—Professor + James Howard Smith. And my lecture courses were very popular—that + is, very many of the young men and women liked to hear me talk about the + books other men had written. + </p> + <p> + “And I was very happy, and I had beautiful things to eat. And my hands + were soft, because I did no work with them, and my body was clean all over + and dressed in the softest garments— + </p> + <p> + “He surveyed his mangy goat-skin with disgust. + </p> + <p> + “We did not wear such things in those days. Even the slaves had better + garments. And we were most clean. We washed our faces and hands often + every day. You boys never wash unless you fall into the water or go + swimming.” + </p> + <p> + “Neither do you Granzer,” Hoo-Hoo retorted. + </p> + <p> + “I know, I know, I am a filthy old man, but times have changed. Nobody + washes these days, there are no conveniences. It is sixty years since I + have seen a piece of soap. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0006"></a> + </p> + <div class="figright" style="width:18%;"> + <img width="100%" src="images/059.jpg" + alt="Sixty Years Since I Have Seen a Piece of Soap. 059 " /> + </div> + <p> + “You do not know what soap is, and I shall not tell you, for I am telling + the story of the Scarlet Death. You know what sickness is. We called it a + disease. Very many of the diseases came from what we called germs. + Remember that word—germs. A germ is a very small thing. It is like a + woodtick, such as you find on the dogs in the spring of the year when they + run in the forest. Only the germ is very small. It is so small that you + cannot see it—” + </p> + <p> + Hoo-Hoo began to laugh. + </p> + <p> + “You’re a queer un, Granser, talking about things you can’t see. If you + can’t see ’em, how do you know they are? That’s what I want to know. How + do you know anything you can’t see?” + </p> + <p> + “A good question, a very good question, Hoo-Hoo. But we did see—some + of them. We had what we called microscopes and ultramicroscopes, and we + put them to our eyes and looked through them, so that we saw things larger + than they really were, and many things we could not see without the + microscopes at all. Our best ultramicroscopes could make a germ look forty + thousand times larger. A mussel-shell is a thousand fingers like Edwin’s. + Take forty mussel-shells, and by as many times larger was the germ when we + looked at it through a microscope. And after that, we had other ways, by + using what we called moving pictures, of making the forty-thousand-times + germ many, many thousand times larger still. And thus we saw all these + things which our eyes of themselves could not see. Take a grain of sand. + Break it into ten pieces. Take one piece and break it into ten. Break one + of those pieces into ten, and one of those into ten, and one of those into + ten, and one of those into ten, and do it all day, and maybe, by sunset, + you will have a piece as small as one of the germs.” The boys were openly + incredulous. Hare-Lip sniffed and sneered and Hoo-Hoo snickered, until + Edwin nudged them to be silent. + </p> + <p> + “The woodtick sucks the blood of the dog, but the germ, being so very + small, goes right into the blood of the body, and there it has many + children. In those days there would be as many as a billion—a + crab-shell, please—as many as that crab-shell in one man’s body. We + called germs micro-organisms. When a few million, or a billion, of them + were in a man, in all the blood of a man, he was sick. These germs were a + disease. There were many different kinds of them—more different + kinds than there are grains of sand on this beach. We knew only a few of + the kinds. The micro-organic world was an invisible world, a world we + could not see, and we knew very little about it. Yet we did know + something. There was the <i>bacillus anthracis</i>; there was the <i>micrococcus</i>; + there was the <i>Bacterium termo</i>, and the <i>Bacterium lactis</i>—that’s + what turns the goat milk sour even to this day, Hare-Lip; and there were + <i>Schizomycetes</i> without end. And there were many others....” + </p> + <p> + Here the old man launched into a disquisition on germs and their natures, + using words and phrases of such extraordinary length and meaninglessness, + that the boys grinned at one another and looked out over the deserted + ocean till they forgot the old man was babbling on. + </p> + <p> + “But the Scarlet Death, Granser,” Edwin at last suggested. + </p> + <p> + Granser recollected himself, and with a start tore himself away from the + rostrum of the lecture-hall, where, to another world audience, he had been + expounding the latest theory, sixty years gone, of germs and + germ-diseases. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, yes, Edwin; I had forgotten. Sometimes the memory of the past is + very strong upon me, and I forget that I am a dirty old man, clad in + goat-skin, wandering with my savage grandsons who are goatherds in the + primeval wilderness. ‘The fleeting systems lapse like foam,’ and so lapsed + our glorious, colossal civilization. I am Granser, a tired old man. I + belong to the tribe of Santa Rosans. I married into that tribe. My sons + and daughters married into the Chauffeurs, the Sacramen-tos, and the + Palo-Altos. You, Hare-Lip, are of the Chauffeurs. You, Edwin, are of the + Sacramentos. And you, Hoo-Hoo, are of the Palo-Altos. Your tribe takes its + name from a town that was near the seat of another great institution of + learning. It was called Stanford University. Yes, I remember now. It is + perfectly clear. I was telling you of the Scarlet Death. Where was I in my + story?” + </p> + <p> + “You was telling about germs, the things you can’t see but which make men + sick,” Edwin prompted. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, that’s where I was. A man did not notice at first when only a few of + these germs got into his body. But each germ broke in half and became two + germs, and they kept doing this very rapidly so that in a short time there + were many millions of them in the body. Then the man was sick. He had a + disease, and the disease was named after the kind of a germ that was in + him. It might be measles, it might be influenza, it might be yellow fever; + it might be any of thousands and thousands of kinds of diseases. + </p> + <p> + “Now this is the strange thing about these germs. There were always new + ones coming to live in men’s bodies. Long and long and long ago, when + there were only a few men in the world, there were few diseases. But as + men increased and lived closely together in great cities and + civilizations, new diseases arose, new kinds of germs entered their + bodies. Thus were countless millions and billions of human beings killed. + And the more thickly men packed together, the more terrible were the new + diseases that came to be. Long before my time, in the middle ages, there + was the Black Plague that swept across Europe. It swept across Europe many + times. There was tuberculosis, that entered into men wherever they were + thickly packed. A hundred years before my time there was the bubonic + plague. And in Africa was the sleeping sickness. The bacteriologists + fought all these sicknesses and destroyed them, just as you boys fight the + wolves away from your goats, or squash the mosquitoes that light on you. + The bacteriologists—” + </p> + <p> + “But, Granser, what is a what-you-call-it?” Edwin interrupted. + </p> + <p> + “You, Edwin, are a goatherd. Your task is to watch the goats. You know a + great deal about goats. A bacteriologist watches germs. That’s his task, + and he knows a great deal about them. So, as I was saying, the + bacteriologists fought with the germs and destroyed them—sometimes. + There was leprosy, a horrible disease. A hundred years before I was born, + the bacteriologists discovered the germ of leprosy. They knew all about + it. They made pictures of it. I have seen those pictures. But they never + found a way to kill it. But in 1984, there was the Pantoblast Plague, a + disease that broke out in a country called Brazil and that killed millions + of people. But the bacteriologists found it out, and found the way to kill + it, so that the Pantoblast Plague went no farther. They made what they + called a serum, which they put into a man’s body and which killed the + pantoblast germs without killing the man. And in 1910, there was Pellagra, + and also the hookworm. These were easily killed by the bacteriologists. + But in 1947 there arose a new disease that had never been seen before. It + got into the bodies of babies of only ten months old or less, and it made + them unable to move their hands and feet, or to eat, or anything; and the + bacteriologists were eleven years in discovering how to kill that + particular germ and save the babies. + </p> + <p> + “In spite of all these diseases, and of all the new ones that continued to + arise, there were more and more men in the world. This was because it was + easy to get food. The easier it was to get food, the more men there were; + the more men there were, the more thickly were they packed together on the + earth; and the more thickly they were packed, the more new kinds of germs + became diseases. There were warnings. Soldervetzsky, as early as 1929, + told the bacteriologists that they had no guaranty against some new + disease, a thousand times more deadly than any they knew, arising and + killing by the hundreds of millions and even by the billion. You see, the + micro-organic world remained a mystery to the end. They knew there was + such a world, and that from time to time armies of new germs emerged from + it to kill men. + </p> + <p> + “And that was all they knew about it. For all they knew, in that invisible + micro-organic world there might be as many different kinds of germs as + there are grains of sand on this beach. And also, in that same invisible + world it might well be that new kinds of germs came to be. It might be + there that life originated—the ‘abysmal fecundity,’ Soldervetzsky + called it, applying the words of other men who had written before him....” + </p> + <p> + It was at this point that Hare-Lip rose to his feet, an expression of huge + contempt on his face. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0007"></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img src="images/071.jpg" width="100%" + alt="Granser, You Make Me Sick With Your Gabble 071 " /> + </div> + <p> + “Granser,” he announced, “you make me sick with your gabble. Why don’t you + tell about the Red Death? If you ain’t going to, say so, an’ we’ll start + back for camp.” + </p> + <p> + The old man looked at him and silently began to cry. The weak tears of age + rolled down his cheeks and all the feebleness of his eighty-seven years + showed in his grief-stricken countenance. + </p> + <p> + “Sit down,” Edwin counselled soothingly. “Granser’s all right. He’s just + gettin’ to the Scarlet Death, ain’t you, Granser? He’s just goin’ to tell + us about it right now. Sit down, Hare-Lip. Go ahead, Granser.” + </p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + + <h2><a name="link2H_4_0004"></a> + III + </h2> + <p> + The old man wiped the tears away on his grimy knuckles and took up the + tale in a tremulous, piping voice that soon strengthened as he got the + swing of the narrative. + </p> + <p> + “It was in the summer of 2013 that the Plague came. I was twenty-seven + years old, and well do I remember it. Wireless despatches—” + </p> + <p> + Hare-Lip spat loudly his disgust, and Granser hastened to make amends. + </p> + <p> + “We talked through the air in those days, thousands and thousands of + miles. And the word came of a strange disease that had broken out in New + York. There were seventeen millions of people living then in that noblest + city of America. Nobody thought anything about the news. It was only a + small thing. There had been only a few deaths. It seemed, though, that + they had died very quickly, and that one of the first signs of the disease + was the turning red of the face and all the body. Within twenty-four hours + came the report of the first case in Chicago. And on the same day, it was + made public that London, the greatest city in the world, next to Chicago, + had been secretly fighting the plague for two weeks and censoring the news + despatches—that is, not permitting the word to go forth to the rest + of the world that London had the plague. + </p> + <p> + “It looked serious, but we in California, like everywhere else, were not + alarmed. We were sure that the bacteriologists would find a way to + overcome this new germ, just as they had overcome other germs in the past. + But the trouble was the astonishing quickness with which this germ + destroyed human beings, and the fact that it inevitably killed any human + body it entered. No one ever recovered. There was the old Asiatic cholera, + when you might eat dinner with a well man in the evening, and the next + morning, if you got up early enough, you would see him being hauled by + your window in the death-cart. But this new plague was quicker than that—much + quicker. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0008"></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img src="images/078.jpg" width="100%" + alt="But This New Plague Was Quicker 078 " /> + </div> + <p> + “From the moment of the first signs of it, a man would be dead in an hour. + Some lasted for several hours. Many died within ten or fifteen minutes of + the appearance of the first signs. + </p> + <p> + “The heart began to beat faster and the heat of the body to increase. Then + came the scarlet rash, spreading like wildfire over the face and body. + Most persons never noticed the increase in heat and heart-beat, and the + first they knew was when the scarlet rash came out. Usually, they had + convulsions at the time of the appearance of the rash. But these + convulsions did not last long and were not very severe. If one lived + through them, he became perfectly quiet, and only did he feel a numbness + swiftly creeping up his body from the feet. The heels became numb first, + then the legs, and hips, and when the numbness reached as high as his + heart he died. They did not rave or sleep. Their minds always remained + cool and calm up to the moment their heart numbed and stopped. And another + strange thing was the rapidity of decomposition. No sooner was a person + dead than the body seemed to fall to pieces, to fly apart, to melt away + even as you looked at it. That was one of the reasons the plague spread so + rapidly. All the billions of germs in a corpse were so immediately + released. + </p> + <p> + “And it was because of all this that the bacteriologists had so little + chance in fighting the germs. They were killed in their laboratories even + as they studied the germ of the Scarlet Death. They were heroes. As fast + as they perished, others stepped forth and took their places. It was in + London that they first isolated it. The news was telegraphed everywhere. + Trask was the name of the man who succeeded in this, but within thirty + hours he was dead. Then came the struggle in all the laboratories to find + something that would kill the plague germs. All drugs failed. You see, the + problem was to get a drug, or serum, that would kill the germs in the body + and not kill the body. They tried to fight it with other germs, to put + into the body of a sick man germs that were the enemies of the plague + germs—” + </p> + <p> + “And you can’t see these germ-things, Granser,” Hare-Lip objected, “and + here you gabble, gabble, gabble about them as if they was anything, when + they’re nothing at all. Anything you can’t see, ain’t, that’s what. + Fighting things that ain’t with things that ain’t! They must have been all + fools in them days. That’s why they croaked. I ain’t goin’ to believe in + such rot, I tell you that.” + </p> + <p> + Granser promptly began to weep, while Edwin hotly took up his defence. + </p> + <p> + “Look here, Hare-Lip, you believe in lots of things you can’t see.” + </p> + <p> + Hare-Lip shook his head. + </p> + <p> + “You believe in dead men walking about. You never seen one dead man walk + about.” + </p> + <p> + “I tell you I seen ’em, last winter, when I was wolf-hunting with dad.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, you always spit when you cross running water,” Edwin challenged. + </p> + <p> + “That’s to keep off bad luck,” was Hare-Lip’s defence. + </p> + <p> + “You believe in bad luck?” + </p> + <p> + “Sure.” + </p> + <p> + “An’ you ain’t never seen bad luck,” Edwin concluded triumphantly. “You’re + just as bad as Granser and his germs. You believe in what you don’t see. + Go on, Granser.” + </p> + <p> + Hare-Lip, crushed by this metaphysical defeat, remained silent, and the + old man went on. Often and often, though this narrative must not be + clogged by the details, was Granser’s tale interrupted while the boys + squabbled among themselves. Also, among themselves they kept up a + constant, low-voiced exchange of explanation and conjecture, as they + strove to follow the old man into his unknown and vanished world. + </p> + <p> + “The Scarlet Death broke out in San Francisco. The first death came on a + Monday morning. By Thursday they were dying like flies in Oakland and San + Francisco. They died everywhere—in their beds, at their work, + walking along the street. It was on Tuesday that I saw my first death—Miss + Collbran, one of my students, sitting right there before my eyes, in my + lecture-room. I noticed her face while I was talking. It had suddenly + turned scarlet. I ceased speaking and could only look at her, for the + first fear of the plague was already on all of us and we knew that it had + come. The young women screamed and ran out of the room. So did the young + men run out, all but two. Miss Collbran’s convulsions were very mild and + lasted less than a minute. One of the young men fetched her a glass of + water. She drank only a little of it, and cried out: + </p> + <p> + “‘My feet! All sensation has left them.’ + </p> + <p> + “After a minute she said, ‘I have no feet. I am unaware that I have any + feet. And my knees are cold. I can scarcely feel that I have knees.’ + </p> + <p> + “She lay on the floor, a bundle of notebooks under her head. And we could + do nothing. The coldness and the numbness crept up past her hips to her + heart, and when it reached her heart she was dead. In fifteen minutes, by + the clock—I timed it—she was dead, there, in my own classroom, + dead. And she was a very beautiful, strong, healthy young woman. And from + the first sign of the plague to her death only fifteen minutes elapsed. + That will show you how swift was the Scarlet Death. + </p> + <p> + “Yet in those few minutes I remained with the dying woman in my classroom, + the alarm had spread over the university; and the students, by thousands, + all of them, had deserted the lecture-room and laboratories. When I + emerged, on my way to make report to the President of the Faculty, I found + the university deserted. Across the campus were several stragglers + hurrying for their homes. Two of them were running. + </p> + <p> + “President Hoag, I found in his office, all alone, looking very old and + very gray, with a multitude of wrinkles in his face that I had never seen + before. At the sight of me, he pulled himself to his feet and tottered + away to the inner office, banging the door after him and locking it. You + see, he knew I had been exposed, and he was afraid. He shouted to me + through the door to go away. I shall never forget my feelings as I walked + down the silent corridors and out across that deserted campus. I was not + afraid. I had been exposed, and I looked upon myself as already dead. It + was not that, but a feeling of awful depression that impressed me. + Everything had stopped. It was like the end of the world to me—my + world. I had been born within sight and sound of the university. It had + been my predestined career. My father had been a professor there before + me, and his father before him. For a century and a half had this + university, like a splendid machine, been running steadily on. And now, in + an instant, it had stopped. It was like seeing the sacred flame die down + on some thrice-sacred altar. I was shocked, unutterably shocked. + </p> + <p> + “When I arrived home, my housekeeper screamed as I entered, and fled away. + And when I rang, I found the housemaid had likewise fled. I investigated. + In the kitchen I found the cook on the point of departure. But she + screamed, too, and in her haste dropped a suitcase of her personal + belongings and ran out of the house and across the grounds, still + screaming. I can hear her scream to this day. You see, we did not act in + this way when ordinary diseases smote us. We were always calm over such + things, and sent for the doctors and nurses who knew just what to do. But + this was different. It struck so suddenly, and killed so swiftly, and + never missed a stroke. When the scarlet rash appeared on a person’s face, + that person was marked by death. There was never a known case of a + recovery. + </p> + <p> + “I was alone in my big house. As I have told you often before, in those + days we could talk with one another over wires or through the air. The + telephone bell rang, and I found my brother talking to me. He told me that + he was not coming home for fear of catching the plague from me, and that + he had taken our two sisters to stop at Professor Bacon’s home. He advised + me to remain where I was, and wait to find out whether or not I had caught + the plague. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0009"></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img src="images/088.jpg" width="100%" alt="The Telephone Bell Rang 088 " /> + </div> + <p> + “To all of this I agreed, staying in my house and for the first time in my + life attempting to cook. And the plague did not come out on me. By means + of the telephone I could talk with whomsoever I pleased and get the news. + Also, there were the newspapers, and I ordered all of them to be thrown up + to my door so that I could know what was happening with the rest of the + world. + </p> + <p> + “New York City and Chicago were in chaos. And what happened with them was + happening in all the large cities. A third of the New York police were + dead. Their chief was also dead, likewise the mayor. All law and order had + ceased. The bodies were lying in the streets un-buried. All railroads and + vessels carrying food and such things into the great city had ceased + runnings and mobs of the hungry poor were pillaging the stores and + warehouses. Murder and robbery and drunkenness were everywhere. Already + the people had fled from the city by millions—at first the rich, in + their private motor-cars and dirigibles, and then the great mass of the + population, on foot, carrying the plague with them, themselves starving + and pillaging the farmers and all the towns and villages on the way. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0010"></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img src="images/092.jpg" width="100%" + alt="Fled from the City by Millions 092 " /> + </div> + <p> + “The man who sent this news, the wireless operator, was alone with his + instrument on the top of a lofty building. The people remaining in the + city—he estimated them at several hundred thousand—had gone + mad from fear and drink, and on all sides of him great fires were raging. + He was a hero, that man who staid by his post—an obscure + newspaperman, most likely. + </p> + <p> + “For twenty-four hours, he said, no transatlantic airships had arrived, + and no more messages were coming from England. He did state, though, that + a message from Berlin—that’s in Germany—announced that + Hoffmeyer, a bacteriologist of the Metchnikoff School, had discovered the + serum for the plague. That was the last word, to this day, that we of + America ever received from Europe. If Hoffmeyer discovered the serum, it + was too late, or otherwise, long ere this, explorers from Europe would + have come looking for us. We can only conclude that what happened in + America happened in Europe, and that, at the best, some several score may + have survived the Scarlet Death on that whole continent. + </p> + <p> + “For one day longer the despatches continued to come from New York. Then + they, too, ceased. The man who had sent them, perched in his lofty + building, had either died of the plague or been consumed in the great + conflagrations he had described as raging around him. And what had + occurred in New York had been duplicated in all the other cities. It was + the same in San Francisco, and Oakland, and Berkeley. By Thursday the + people were dying so rapidly that their corpses could not be handled, and + dead bodies lay everywhere. Thursday night the panic outrush for the + country began. Imagine, my grandsons, people, thicker than the salmon-run + you have seen on the Sacramento river, pouring out of the cities by + millions, madly over the country, in vain attempt to escape the ubiquitous + death. You see, they carried the germs with them. Even the airships of the + rich, fleeing for mountain and desert fastnesses, carried the germs. + </p> + <p> + “Hundreds of these airships escaped to Hawaii, and not only did they bring + the plague with them, but they found the plague already there before them. + This we learned, by the despatches, until all order in San Francisco + vanished, and there were no operators left at their posts to receive or + send. It was amazing, astounding, this loss of communication with the + world. It was exactly as if the world had ceased, been blotted out. For + sixty years that world has no longer existed for me. I know there must be + such places as New York, Europe, Asia, and Africa; but not one word has + been heard of them—not in sixty years. With the coming of the + Scarlet Death the world fell apart, absolutely, irretrievably. Ten + thousand years of culture and civilization passed in the twinkling of an + eye, ‘lapsed like foam.’ + </p> + <p> + “I was telling about the airships of the rich. They carried the plague + with them and no matter where they fled, they died. I never encountered + but one survivor of any of them—Mungerson. He was afterwards a Santa + Rosan, and he married my eldest daughter. He came into the tribe eight + years after the plague. He was then nineteen years old, and he was + compelled to wait twelve years more before he could marry. You see, there + were no unmarried women, and some of the older daughters of the Santa + Rosans were already bespoken. So he was forced to wait until my Mary had + grown to sixteen years. It was his son, Gimp-Leg, who was killed last year + by the mountain lion. + </p> + <p> + “Mungerson was eleven years old at the time of the plague. His father was + one of the Industrial Magnates, a very wealthy, powerful man. It was on + his airship, the Condor, that they were fleeing, with all the family, for + the wilds of British Columbia, which is far to the north of here. But + there was some accident, and they were wrecked near Mount Shasta. You have + heard of that mountain. It is far to the north. The plague broke out + amongst them, and this boy of eleven was the only survivor. For eight + years he was alone, wandering over a deserted land and looking vainly for + his own kind. And at last, travelling south, he picked up with us, the + Santa Rosans. + </p> + <p> + “But I am ahead of my story. When the great exodus from the cities around + San Francisco Bay began, and while the telephones were still working, I + talked with my brother. I told him this flight from the cities was + insanity, that there were no symptoms of the plague in me, and that the + thing for us to do was to isolate ourselves and our relatives in some safe + place. We decided on the Chemistry Building, at the university, and we + planned to lay in a supply of provisions, and by force of arms to prevent + any other persons from forcing their presence upon us after we had retired + to our refuge. + </p> + <p> + “All this being arranged, my brother begged me to stay in my own house for + at least twenty-four hours more, on the chance of the plague developing in + me. To this I agreed, and he promised to come for me next day. We talked + on over the details of the provisioning and the defending of the Chemistry + Building until the telephone died. It died in the midst of our + conversation. That evening there were no electric lights, and I was alone + in my house in the darkness. No more newspapers were being printed, so I + had no knowledge of what was taking place outside. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0011"></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img src="images/098.jpg" width="100%" + alt="I Heard Sounds of Rioting and Of Pistol Shots 098 " /> + </div> + <p> + “I heard sounds of rioting and of pistol shots, and from my windows I + could see the glare of the sky of some conflagration in the direction of + Oakland. It was a night of terror. I did not sleep a wink. A man—why + and how I do not know—was killed on the sidewalk in front of the + house. I heard the rapid reports of an automatic pistol, and a few minutes + later the wounded wretch crawled up to my door, moaning and crying out for + help. Arming myself with two automatics, I went to him. By the light of a + match I ascertained that while he was dying of the bullet wounds, at the + same time the plague was on him. I fled indoors, whence I heard him moan + and cry out for half an hour longer. + </p> + <p> + “In the morning, my brother came to me. I had gathered into a handbag what + things of value I purposed taking, but when I saw his face I knew that he + would never accompany me to the Chemistry Building. The plague was on him. + He intended shaking my hand, but I went back hurriedly before him. + </p> + <p> + “‘Look at yourself in the mirror,’ I commanded. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0012"></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img src="images/100.jpg" width="100%" + alt="Look at Yourself in the Mirror 100 " /> + </div> + <p> + “He did so, and at sight of his scarlet face, the color deepening as he + looked at it, he sank down nervelessly in a chair. + </p> + <p> + “‘My God!’ he said. ‘I’ve got it. Don’t come near me. I am a dead man.’ + </p> + <p> + “Then the convulsions seized him. He was two hours in dying, and he was + conscious to the last, complaining about the coldness and loss of + sensation in his feet, his calves, his thighs, until at last it was his + heart and he was dead. + </p> + <p> + “That was the way the Scarlet Death slew. I caught up my handbag and fled. + The sights in the streets were terrible. One stumbled on bodies + everywhere. Some were not yet dead. And even as you looked, you saw men + sink down with the death fastened upon them. There were numerous fires + burning in Berkeley, while Oakland and San Francisco were apparently being + swept by vast conflagrations. The smoke of the burning filled the heavens, + so that the midday was as a gloomy twilight, and, in the shifts of wind, + sometimes the sun shone through dimly, a dull red orb. Truly, my + grandsons, it was like the last days of the end of the world. + </p> + <p> + “There were numerous stalled motor cars, showing that the gasoline and the + engine supplies of the garages had given out. I remember one such car. A + man and a woman lay back dead in the seats, and on the pavement near it + were two more women and a child. Strange and terrible sights there were on + every hand. People slipped by silently, furtively, like ghosts—white-faced + women carrying infants in their arms; fathers leading children by the + hand; singly, and in couples, and in families—all fleeing out of the + city of death. Some carried supplies of food, others blankets and + valuables, and there were many who carried nothing. + </p> + <p> + “There was a grocery store—a place where food was sold. The man to + whom it belonged—I knew him well—a quiet, sober, but stupid + and obstinate fellow, was defending it. The windows and doors had been + broken in, but he, inside, hiding behind a counter, was discharging his + pistol at a number of men on the sidewalk who were breaking in. In the + entrance were several bodies—of men, I decided, whom he had killed + earlier in the day. Even as I looked on from a distance, I saw one of the + robbers break the windows of the adjoining store, a place where shoes were + sold, and deliberately set fire to it. I did not go to the groceryman’s + assistance. The time for such acts had already passed. Civilization was + crumbling, and it was each for himself.” + </p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + + <h2><a name="link2H_4_0005"></a> + IV + </h2> + <p> + I went away hastily, down a cross-street, and at the first corner I saw + another tragedy. Two men of the working class had caught a man and a woman + with two children, and were robbing them. I knew the man by sight, though + I had never been introduced to him. He was a poet whose verses I had long + admired. Yet I did not go to his help, for at the moment I came upon the + scene there was a pistol shot, and I saw him sinking to the ground. The + woman screamed, and she was felled with a fist-blow by one of the brutes. + I cried out threateningly, whereupon they discharged their pistols at me + and I ran away around the corner. Here I was blocked by an advancing + conflagration. The buildings on both sides were burning, and the street + was filled with smoke and flame. From somewhere in that murk came a + woman’s voice calling shrilly for help. But I did not go to her. A man’s + heart turned to iron amid such scenes, and one heard all too many appeals + for help. + </p> + <p> + “Returning to the corner, I found the two robbers were gone. The poet and + his wife lay dead on the pavement. It was a shocking sight. The two + children had vanished—whither I could not tell. And I knew, now, why + it was that the fleeing persons I encountered slipped along so furtively + and with such white faces. In the midst of our civilization, down in our + slums and labor-ghettos, we had bred a race of barbarians, of savages; and + now, in the time of our calamity, they turned upon us like the wild beasts + they were and destroyed us. And they destroyed themselves as well. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0013"></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img src="images/108.jpg" width="100%" + alt="Now in the Time of Calamity They Turned on Us 108 " /> + </div> + <p> + “They inflamed themselves with strong drink and committed a thousand + atrocities, quarreling and killing one another in the general madness. One + group of workingmen I saw, of the better sort, who had banded together, + and, with their women and children in their midst, the sick and aged in + litters and being carried, and with a number of horses pulling a + truck-load of provisions, they were fighting their way out of the city. + They made a fine spectacle as they came down the street through the + drifting smoke, though they nearly shot me when I first appeared in their + path. As they went by, one of their leaders shouted out to me in + apologetic explanation. He said they were killing the robbers and looters + on sight, and that they had thus banded together as the only-means by + which to escape the prowlers. + </p> + <p> + “It was here that I saw for the first time what I was soon to see so + often. One of the marching men had suddenly shown the unmistakable mark of + the plague. Immediately those about him drew away, and he, without a + remonstrance, stepped out of his place to let them pass on. A woman, most + probably his wife, attempted to follow him. She was leading a little boy + by the hand. But the husband commanded her sternly to go on, while others + laid hands on her and restrained her from following him. This I saw, and I + saw the man also, with his scarlet blaze of face, step into a doorway on + the opposite side of the street. I heard the report of his pistol, and saw + him sink lifeless to the ground. + </p> + <p> + “After being turned aside twice again by advancing fires, I succeeded in + getting through to the university. On the edge of the campus I came upon a + party of university folk who were going in the direction of the Chemistry + Building. They were all family men, and their families were with them, + including the nurses and the servants. Professor Badminton greeted me, I + had difficulty in recognizing him. Somewhere he had gone through flames, + and his beard was singed off. About his head was a bloody bandage, and his + clothes were filthy. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0014"></a> + </p> + <div class="figleft" style="width:20%;"> + <img width="100%" src="images/112.jpg" + alt="He Told Me he Had Been Cruelly Beaten 112 " /> + </div> + <p> + “He told me he had prowlers, and that his brother had been killed the + previous night, in the defence of their dwelling. + </p> + <p> + “Midway across the campus, he pointed suddenly to Mrs. Swinton’s face. The + unmistakable scarlet was there. Immediately all the other women set up a + screaming and began to run away from her. Her two children were with a + nurse, and these also ran with the women. But her husband, Doctor Swinton, + remained with her. + </p> + <p> + “‘Go on, Smith,’ he told me. ‘Keep an eye on the children. As for me, I + shall stay with my wife. I know she is as already dead, but I can’t leave + her. Afterwards, if I escape, I shall come to the Chemistry Building, and + do you watch for me and let me in.’ + </p> + <p> + “I left him bending over his wife and soothing her last moments, while I + ran to overtake the party. We were the last to be admitted to the + Chemistry Building. After that, with our automatic rifles we maintained + our isolation. By our plans, we had arranged for a company of sixty to be + in this refuge. Instead, every one of the number originally planned had + added relatives and friends and whole families until there were over four + hundred souls. But the Chemistry Building was large, and, standing by + itself, was in no danger of being burned by the great fires that raged + everywhere in the city. + </p> + <p> + “A large quantity of provisions had been gathered, and a food committee + took charge of it, issuing rations daily to the various families and + groups that arranged themselves into messes. A number of committees were + appointed, and we developed a very efficient organization. I was on the + committee of defence, though for the first day no prowlers came near. We + could see them in the distance, however, and by the smoke of their fires + knew that several camps of them were occupying the far edge of the campus. + Drunkenness was rife, and often we heard them singing ribald songs or + insanely shouting. While the world crashed to ruin about them and all the + air was filled with the smoke of its burning, these low creatures gave + rein to their bestiality and fought and drank and died. And after all, + what did it matter? Everybody died anyway, the good and the bad, the + efficients and the weaklings, those that loved to live and those that + scorned to live. They passed. Everything passed. + </p> + <p> + “When twenty-four hours had gone by and no signs of the plague were + apparent, we congratulated ourselves and set about digging a well. You + have seen the great iron pipes which in those days carried water to all + the city-dwellers. We feared that the fires in the city would burst the + pipes and empty the reservoirs. So we tore up the cement floor of the + central court of the Chemistry Building and dug a well. There were many + young men, undergraduates, with us, and we worked night and day on the + well. And our fears were confirmed. Three hours before we reached water, + the pipes went dry. + </p> + <p> + “A second twenty-four hours passed, and still the plague did not appear + among us. We thought we were saved. But we did not know what I afterwards + decided to be true, namely, that the period of the incubation of the + plague germs in a human’s body was a matter of a number of days. It slew + so swiftly when once it manifested itself, that we were led to believe + that the period of incubation was equally swift. So, when two days had + left us unscathed, we were elated with the idea that we were free of the + contagion. + </p> + <p> + “But the third day disillusioned us. I can never forget the night + preceding it. I had charge of the night guards from eight to twelve, and + from the roof of the building I watched the passing of all man’s glorious + works. So terrible were the local conflagrations that all the sky was + lighted up. One could read the finest print in the red glare. All the + world seemed wrapped in flames. San Francisco spouted smoke and fire from + a score of vast conflagrations that were like so many active volcanoes. + Oakland, San Leandro, Haywards—all were burning; and to the + northward, clear to Point Richmond, other fires were at work. It was an + awe-inspiring spectacle. Civilization, my grandsons, civilization was + passing in a sheet of flame and a breath of death. At ten o’clock that + night, the great powder magazines at Point Pinole exploded in rapid + succession. So terrific were the concussions that the strong building + rocked as in an earthquake, while every pane of glass was broken. It was + then that I left the roof and went down the long corridors, from room to + room, quieting the alarmed women and telling them what had happened. + </p> + <p> + “An hour later, at a window on the ground floor, I heard pandemonium break + out in the camps of the prowlers. There were cries and screams, and shots + from many pistols. As we afterward conjectured, this fight had been + precipitated by an attempt on the part of those that were well to drive + out those that were sick. At any rate, a number of the plague-stricken + prowlers escaped across the campus and drifted against our doors. We + warned them back, but they cursed us and discharged a fusillade from their + pistols. Professor Merryweather, at one of the windows, was instantly + killed, the bullet striking him squarely between the eyes. We opened fire + in turn, and all the prowlers fled away with the exception of three. One + was a woman. The plague was on them and they were reckless. Like foul + fiends, there in the red glare from the skies, with faces blazing, they + continued to curse us and fire at us. One of the men I shot with my own + hand. After that the other man and the woman, still cursing us, lay down + under our windows, where we were compelled to watch them die of the + plague. + </p> + <p> + “The situation was critical. The explosions of the powder magazines had + broken all the windows of the Chemistry Building, so that we were exposed + to the germs from the corpses. The sanitary committee was called upon to + act, and it responded nobly. Two men were required to go out and remove + the corpses, and this meant the probable sacrifice of their own lives, + for, having performed the task, they were not to be permitted to reenter + the building. One of the professors, who was a bachelor, and one of the + undergraduates volunteered. They bade good-bye to us and went forth. They + were heroes. They gave up their lives that four hundred others might live. + After they had performed their work, they stood for a moment, at a + distance, looking at us wistfully. Then they waved their hands in farewell + and went away slowly across the campus toward the burning city. + </p> + <p> + “And yet it was all useless. The next morning the first one of us was + smitten with the plague—a little nurse-girl in the family of + Professor Stout. It was no time for weak-kneed, sentimental policies. On + the chance that she might be the only one, we thrust her forth from the + building and commanded her to be gone. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0015"></a> + </p> + <div class="figright" style="width:25%;"> + <img width="100%" src="images/120.jpg" + alt="We Thrust Her Forth from the Building 120 " /> + </div> + <p> + “She went away slowly across the campus, wringing her hands and crying + pitifully. We felt like brutes, but what were we to do? There were four + hundred of us, and individuals had to be sacrificed. + </p> + <p> + “In one of the laboratories three families had domiciled themselves, and + that afternoon we found among them no less than four corpses and seven + cases of the plague in all its different stages. + </p> + <p> + “Then it was that the horror began. Leaving the dead lie, we forced the + living ones to segregate themselves in another room. The plague began to + break out among the rest of us, and as fast as the symptoms appeared, we + sent the stricken ones to these segregated rooms. We compelled them to + walk there by themselves, so as to avoid laying hands on them. It was + heartrending. But still the plague raged among us, and room after room was + filled with the dead and dying. And so we who were yet clean retreated to + the next floor and to the next, before this sea of the dead, that, room by + room and floor by floor, inundated the building. + </p> + <p> + “The place became a charnel house, and in the middle of the night the + survivors fled forth, taking nothing with them except arms and ammunition + and a heavy store of tinned foods. We camped on the opposite side of the + campus from the prowlers, and, while some stood guard, others of us + volunteered to scout into the city in quest of horses, motor cars, carts, + and wagons, or anything that would carry our provisions and enable us to + emulate the banded workingmen I had seen fighting their way out to the + open country. + </p> + <p> + “I was one of these scouts; and Doctor Hoyle, remembering that his motor + car had been left behind in his home garage, told me to look for it. We + scouted in pairs, and Dombey, a young undergraduate, accompanied me. We + had to cross half a mile of the residence portion of the city to get to + Doctor Hoyle’s home. Here the buildings stood apart, in the midst of trees + and grassy lawns, and here the fires had played freaks, burning whole + blocks, skipping blocks and often skipping a single house in a block. And + here, too, the prowlers were still at their work. We carried our automatic + pistols openly in our hands, and looked desperate enough, forsooth, to + keep them from attacking us. But at Doctor Hoyle’s house the thing + happened. Untouched by fire, even as we came to it the smoke of flames + burst forth. + </p> + <p> + “The miscreant who had set fire to it staggered down the steps and out + along the driveway. Sticking out of his coat pockets were bottles of + whiskey, and he was very drunk. My first impulse was to shoot him, and I + have never ceased regretting that I did not. Staggering and maundering to + himself, with bloodshot eyes, and a raw and bleeding slash down one side + of his bewhiskered face, he was altogether the most nauseating specimen of + degradation and filth I had ever encountered. I did not shoot him, and he + leaned against a tree on the lawn to let us go by. It was the most + absolute, wanton act. Just as we were opposite him, he suddenly drew a + pistol and shot Dombey through the head. The next instant I shot him. But + it was too late. Dombey expired without a groan, immediately. I doubt if + he even knew what had happened to him. + </p> + <p> + “Leaving the two corpses, I hurried on past the burning house to the + garage, and there found Doctor Hoyle’s motor car. The tanks were filled + with gasoline, and it was ready for use. And it was in this car that I + threaded the streets of the ruined city and came back to the survivors on + the campus. The other scouts returned, but none had been so fortunate. + Professor Fairmead had found a Shetland pony, but the poor creature, tied + in a stable and abandoned for days, was so weak from want of food and + water that it could carry no burden at all. Some of the men were for + turning it loose, but I insisted that we should lead it along with us, so + that, if we got out of food, we would have it to eat. + </p> + <p> + “There were forty-seven of us when we started, many being women and + children. The President of the Faculty, an old man to begin with, and now + hopelessly broken by the awful happenings of the past week, rode in the + motor car with several young children and the aged mother of Professor + Fairmead. Wathope, a young professor of English, who had a grievous + bullet-wound in his leg, drove the car. The rest of us walked, Professor + Fairmead leading the pony. + </p> + <p> + “It was what should have been a bright summer day, but the smoke from the + burning world filled the sky, through which the sun shone murkily, a dull + and lifeless orb, blood-red and ominous. But we had grown accustomed to + that blood-red sun. With the smoke it was different. It bit into our + nostrils and eyes, and there was not one of us whose eyes were not + bloodshot. We directed our course to the southeast through the endless + miles of suburban residences, travelling along where the first swells of + low hills rose from the flat of the central city. It was by this way, + only, that we could expect to gain the country. + </p> + <p> + “Our progress was painfully slow. The women and children could not walk + fast. They did not dream of walking, my grandsons, in the way all people + walk to-day. In truth, none of us knew how to walk. It was not until after + the plague that I learned really to walk. So it was that the pace of the + slowest was the pace of all, for we dared not separate on account of the + prowlers. There were not so many now of these human beasts of prey. The + plague had already well diminished their numbers, but enough still lived + to be a constant menace to us. Many of the beautiful residences were + untouched by fire, yet smoking ruins were everywhere. The prowlers, too, + seemed to have got over their insensate desire to burn, and it was more + rarely that we saw houses freshly on fire. + </p> + <p> + “Several of us scouted among the private garages in search of motor cars + and gasoline. But in this we were unsuccessful. The first great flights + from the cities had swept all such utilities away. Calgan, a fine young + man, was lost in this work. He was shot by prowlers while crossing a lawn. + Yet this was our only casualty, though, once, a drunken brute deliberately + opened fire on all of us. Luckily, he fired wildly, and we shot him before + he had done any hurt. + </p> + <p> + “At Fruitvale, still in the heart of the magnificent residence section of + the city, the plague again smote us. Professor Fairmead was the victim. + Making signs to us that his mother was not to know, he turned aside into + the grounds of a beautiful mansion. He sat down forlornly on the steps of + the front veranda, and I, having lingered, waved him a last farewell. That + night, several miles beyond Fruitvale and still in the city, we made camp. + And that night we shifted camp twice to get away from our dead. In the + morning there were thirty of us. I shall never forget the President of the + Faculty. During the morning’s march his wife, who was walking, betrayed + the fatal symptoms, and when she drew aside to let us go on, he insisted + on leaving the motor car and remaining with her. There was quite a + discussion about this, but in the end we gave in. It was just as well, for + we knew not which ones of us, if any, might ultimately escape. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0016"></a> + </p> + <div class="figleft" style="width:30%;"> + <img width="100%" src="images/132.jpg" + alt="She Fell Like a Plummet to the Earth 132 " /> + </div> + <p> + “That night, the second of our march, we camped beyond Haywards in the + first stretches of country. And in the morning there were eleven of us + that lived. Also, during the night, Wathope, the professor with the + wounded leg, deserted us in the motor car. He took with him his sister and + his mother and most of our tinned provisions. It was that day, in the + afternoon, while resting by the wayside, that I saw the last airship I + shall ever see. The smoke was much thinner here in the country, and I + first sighted the ship drifting and veering helplessly at an elevation of + two thousand feet. What had happened I could not conjecture, but even as + we looked we saw her bow dip down lower and lower. Then the bulkheads of + the various gas-chambers must have burst, for, quite perpendicular, she + fell like a plummet to the earth. + </p> + <p> + “And from that day to this I have not seen another airship. Often and + often, during the next few years, I scanned the sky for them, hoping + against hope that somewhere in the world civilization had survived. But it + was not to be. What happened with us in California must have happened with + everybody everywhere. + </p> + <p> + “Another day, and at Niles there were three of us. Beyond Niles, in the + middle of the highway, we found Wathope. The motor car had broken down, + and there, on the rugs which they had spread on the ground, lay the bodies + of his sister, his mother, and himself. + </p> + <p> + “Wearied by the unusual exercise of continual walking, that night I slept + heavily. In the morning I was alone in the world. Canfield and Parsons, my + last companions, were dead of the plague. Of the four hundred that sought + shelter in the Chemistry Building, and of the forty-seven that began the + march, I alone remained—I and the Shetland pony. Why this should be + so there is no explaining. I did not catch the plague, that is all. I was + immune. I was merely the one lucky man in a million—just as every + survivor was one in a million, or, rather, in several millions, for the + proportion was at least that.” + </p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + + <h2><a name="link2H_4_0006"></a> + V + </h2> + <p> + “For two days I sheltered in a pleasant grove where there had been no + deaths. In those two days, while badly depressed and believing that my + turn would come at any moment, nevertheless I rested and recuperated. So + did the pony. And on the third day, putting what small store of tinned + provisions I possessed on the pony’s back, I started on across a very + lonely land. Not a live man, woman, or child, did I encounter, though the + dead were everywhere. Food, however, was abundant. The land then was not + as it is now. It was all cleared of trees and brush, and it was + cultivated. The food for millions of mouths was growing, ripening, and + going to waste. From the fields and orchards I gathered vegetables, + fruits, and berries. Around the deserted farmhouses I got eggs and caught + chickens. And frequently I found supplies of tinned provisions in the + store-rooms. + </p> + <p> + “A strange thing was what was taking place with all the domestic animals. + Everywhere they were going wild and preying on one another. The chickens + and ducks were the first to be destroyed, while the pigs were the first to + go wild, followed by the cats. Nor were the dogs long in adapting + themselves to the changed conditions. There was a veritable plague of + dogs. They devoured the corpses, barked and howled during the nights, and + in the daytime slunk about in the distance. As the time went by, I noticed + a change in their behavior. At first they were apart from one another, + very suspicious and very prone to fight. But after a not very long while + they began to come together and run in packs. The dog, you see, always was + a social animal, and this was true before ever he came to be domesticated + by man. In the last days of the world before the plague, there were many + many very different kinds of dogs—dogs without hair and dogs with + warm fur, dogs so small that they would make scarcely a mouthful for other + dogs that were as large as mountain lions. Well, all the small dogs, and + the weak types, were killed by their fellows. Also, the very large ones + were not adapted for the wild life and bred out. As a result, the many + different kinds of dogs disappeared, and there remained, running in packs, + the medium-sized wolfish dogs that you know to-day.” + </p> + <p> + “But the cats don’t run in packs, Granser,” Hoo-Hoo objected. + </p> + <p> + “The cat was never a social animal. As one writer in the nineteenth + century said, the cat walks by himself. He always walked by himself, from + before the time he was tamed by man, down through the long ages of + domestication, to to-day when once more he is wild. + </p> + <p> + “The horses also went wild, and all the fine breeds we had degenerated + into the small mustang horse you know to-day. The cows likewise went wild, + as did the pigeons and the sheep. And that a few of the chickens survived + you know yourself. But the wild chicken of to-day is quite a different + thing from the chickens we had in those days. + </p> + <p> + “But I must go on with my story. I travelled through a deserted land. As + the time went by I began to yearn more and more for human beings. But I + never found one, and I grew lonelier and lonelier. I crossed Livermore + Valley and the mountains between it and the great valley of the San + Joaquin. You have never seen that valley, but it is very large and it is + the home of the wild horse. There are great droves there, thousands and + tens of thousands. I revisited it thirty years after, so I know. You think + there are lots of wild horses down here in the coast valleys, but they are + as nothing compared with those of the San Joaquin. Strange to say, the + cows, when they went wild, went back into the lower mountains. Evidently + they were better able to protect themselves there. + </p> + <p> + “In the country districts the ghouls and prowlers had been less in + evidence, for I found many villages and towns untouched by fire. But they + were filled by the pestilential dead, and I passed by without exploring + them. It was near Lathrop that, out of my loneliness, I picked up a pair + of collie dogs that were so newly free that they were urgently willing to + return to their allegiance to man. These collies accompanied me for many + years, and the strains of them are in those very dogs there that you boys + have to-day. But in sixty years the collie strain has worked out. These + brutes are more like domesticated wolves than anything else.” + </p> + <p> + Hare-Lip rose to his feet, glanced to see that the goats were safe, and + looked at the sun’s position in the afternoon sky, advertising impatience + at the prolixity of the old man’s tale. Urged to hurry by Edwin, Granser + went on. + </p> + <p> + “There is little more to tell. With my two dogs and my pony, and riding a + horse I had managed to capture, I crossed the San Joaquin and went on to a + wonderful valley in the Sierras called Yosemite. In the great hotel there + I found a prodigious supply of tinned provisions. The pasture was + abundant, as was the game, and the river that ran through the valley was + full of trout. I remained there three years in an utter loneliness that + none but a man who has once been highly civilized can understand. Then I + could stand it no more. I felt that I was going crazy. Like the dog, I was + a social animal and I needed my kind. I reasoned that since I had survived + the plague, there was a possibility that others had survived. Also, I + reasoned that after three years the plague germs must all be gone and the + land be clean again. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0017"></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img src="images/144.jpg" width="100%" + alt="With My Horse and Dogs And Pony, I Set out 144 " /> + </div> + <p> + “With my horse and dogs and pony, I set out. Again I crossed the San + Joaquin Valley, the mountains beyond, and came down into Livermore Valley. + The change in those three years was amazing. All the land had been + splendidly tilled, and now I could scarcely recognize it, ‘such was the + sea of rank vegetation that had overrun the agricultural handiwork of man. + You see, the wheat, the vegetables, and orchard trees had always been + cared for and nursed by man, so that they were soft and tender. The weeds + and wild bushes and such things, on the contrary, had always been fought + by man, so that they were tough and resistant. As a result, when the hand + of man was removed, the wild vegetation smothered and destroyed + practically all the domesticated vegetation. The coyotes were greatly + increased, and it was at this time that I first encountered wolves, + straying in twos and threes and small packs down from the regions where + they had always persisted. + </p> + <p> + “It was at Lake Temescal, not far from the one-time city of Oakland, that + I came upon the first live human beings. Oh, my grandsons, how can I + describe to you my emotion, when, astride my horse and dropping down the + hillside to the lake, I saw the smoke of a campfire rising through the + trees. Almost did my heart stop beating. I felt that I was going crazy. + Then I heard the cry of a babe—a human babe. And dogs barked, and my + dogs answered. I did not know but what I was the one human alive in the + whole world. It could not be true that here were others—smoke, and + the cry of a babe. + </p> + <p> + “Emerging on the lake, there, before my eyes, not a hundred yards away, I + saw a man, a large man. He was standing on an outjutting rock and fishing. + I was overcome. I stopped my horse. I tried to call out but could not. I + waved my hand. It seemed to me that the man looked at me, but he did not + appear to wave. Then I laid my head on my arms there in the saddle. I was + afraid to look again, for I knew it was an hallucination, and I knew that + if I looked the man would be gone. And so precious was the hallucination, + that I wanted it to persist yet a little while. I knew, too, that as long + as I did not look it would persist. + </p> + <p> + “Thus I remained, until I heard my dogs snarling, and a man’s voice. What + do you think the voice said? I will tell you. It said: ‘<i>Where in hell + did you come from??</i>’ + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0018"></a> + </p> + <div class="figright" style="width:32%;"> + <img width="100%" src="images/149.jpg" + alt="Everybody Called Him Chauffeur 149 " /> + </div> + <p> + “Those were the words, the exact words. That was what your other + grandfather said to me, Hare-Lip, when he greeted me there on the shore of + Lake Temescal fifty-seven years ago. And they were the most ineffable + words I have ever heard. I opened my eyes, and there he stood before me, a + large, dark, hairy man, heavy-jawed, slant-browed, fierce-eyed. How I got + off my horse I do not know. But it seemed that the next I knew I was + clasping his hand with both of mine and crying. I would have embraced him, + but he was ever a narrow-minded, suspicious man, and he drew away from me. + Yet did I cling to his hand and cry.” + </p> + <p> + Granser’s voice faltered and broke at the recollection, and the weak tears + streamed down his cheeks while the boys looked on and giggled. + </p> + <p> + “Yet did I cry,” he continued, “and desire to embrace him, though the + Chauffeur was a brute, a perfect brute—the most abhorrent man I have + ever known. His name was... strange, how I have forgotten his name. + Everybody called him Chauffeur—it was the name of his occupation, + and it stuck. That is how, to this day, the tribe he founded is called the + Chauffeur Tribe. + </p> + <p> + “He was a violent, unjust man. Why the plague germs spared him I can never + understand. It would seem, in spite of our old metaphysical notions about + absolute justice, that there is no justice in the universe. Why did he + live?—an iniquitous, moral monster, a blot on the face of nature, a + cruel, relentless, bestial cheat as well. All he could talk about was + motor cars, machinery, gasoline, and garages—and especially, and + with huge delight, of his mean pilferings and sordid swindlings of the + persons who had employed him in the days before the coming of the plague. + And yet he was spared, while hundreds of millions, yea, billions, of + better men were destroyed. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0019"></a> + </p> + <div class="figleft" style="width:18%;"> + <img width="100%" src="images/150.jpg" alt="Vesta the One Woman 150 " /> + </div> + <p> + “I went on with him to his camp, and there I saw her, Vesta, the one + woman. It was glorious and... pitiful. There she was, Vesta Van Warden, + the young wife of John Van Warden, clad in rags, with marred and scarred + and toil-calloused hands, bending over the campfire and doing scullion + work—she, Vesta, who had been born to the purple of the greatest + baronage of wealth the world had ever known. John Van Warden, her husband, + worth one billion, eight hundred millions and President of the Board of + Industrial Magnates, had been the ruler of America. Also, sitting on the + International Board of Control, he had been one of the seven men who ruled + the world. And she herself had come of equally noble stock. Her father, + Philip Saxon, had been President of the Board of Industrial Magnates up to + the time of his death. This office was in process of becoming hereditary, + and had Philip Saxon had a son that son would have succeeded him. But his + only child was Vesta, the perfect flower of generations of the highest + culture this planet has ever produced. It was not until the engagement + between Vesta and Van Warden took place, that Saxon indicated the latter + as his successor. It was, I am sure, a political marriage. I have reason + to believe that Vesta never really loved her husband in the mad passionate + way of which the poets used to sing. It was more like the marriages that + obtained among crowned heads in the days before they were displaced by the + Magnates. + </p> + <p> + “And there she was, boiling fish-chowder in a soot-covered pot, her + glorious eyes inflamed by the acrid smoke of the open fire. Hers was a sad + story. She was the one survivor in a million, as I had been, as the + Chauffeur had been. On a crowning eminence of the Alameda Hills, + overlooking San Francisco Bay, Van Warden had built a vast summer palace. + It was surrounded by a park of a thousand acres. When the plague broke + out, Van Warden sent her there. Armed guards patrolled the boundaries of + the park, and nothing entered in the way of provisions or even mail matter + that was not first fumigated. And yet did the plague enter, killing the + guards at their posts, the servants at their tasks, sweeping away the + whole army of retainers—or, at least, all of them who did not flee + to die elsewhere. So it was that Vesta found herself the sole living + person in the palace that had become a charnel house. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0020"></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img src="images/153.jpg" width="100%" + alt="There She Was, Boiling Fish-chowder 153 " /> + </div> + <p> + “Now the Chauffeur had been one of the servants that ran away. Returning, + two months afterward, he discovered Vesta in a little summer pavilion + where there had been no deaths and where she had established herself. He + was a brute. She was afraid, and she ran away and hid among the trees. + That night, on foot, she fled into the mountains—she, whose tender + feet and delicate body had never known the bruise of stones nor the + scratch of briars. He followed, and that night he caught her. He struck + her. Do you understand? He beat her with those terrible fists of his and + made her his slave. It was she who had to gather the firewood, build the + fires, cook, and do all the degrading camp-labor—she, who had never + performed a menial act in her life. These things he compelled her to do, + while he, a proper savage, elected to lie around camp and look on. He did + nothing, absolutely nothing, except on occasion to hunt meat or catch + fish.” + </p> + <p> + “Good for Chauffeur,” Hare-Lip commented in an undertone to the other + boys. “I remember him before he died. He was a corker. But he did things, + and he made things go. You know, Dad married his daughter, an’ you ought + to see the way he knocked the spots outa Dad. The Chauffeur was a + son-of-a-gun. He made us kids stand around. Even when he was croaking he + reached out for me, once, an’ laid my head open with that long stick he + kept always beside him.” + </p> + <p> + Hare-Lip rubbed his bullet head reminiscently, and the boys returned to + the old man, who was maundering ecstatically about Vesta, the squaw of the + founder of the Chauffeur Tribe. + </p> + <p> + “And so I say to you that you cannot understand the awfulness of the + situation. The Chauffeur was a servant, understand, a servant. And he + cringed, with bowed head, to such as she. She was a lord of life, both by + birth and by marriage. The destinies of millions, such as he, she carried + in the hollow of her pink-white hand. And, in the days before the plague, + the slightest contact with such as he would have been pollution. Oh, I + have seen it. Once, I remember, there was Mrs. Goldwin, wife of one of the + great magnates. It was on a landing stage, just as she was embarking in + her private dirigible, that she dropped her parasol. A servant picked it + up and made the mistake of handing it to her—to her, one of the + greatest royal ladies of the land! She shrank back, as though he were a + leper, and indicated her secretary to receive it. Also, she ordered her + secretary to ascertain the creature’s name and to see that he was + immediately discharged from service. And such a woman was Vesta Van + Warden. And her the Chauffeur beat and made his slave. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0021"></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img src="images/158.jpg" width="100%" + alt="And Her the Chauffeur Beat and Made his Slave 158 " /> + </div> + <p> + “—Bill—that was it; Bill, the Chauffeur. That was his name. He + was a wretched, primitive man, wholly devoid of the finer instincts and + chivalrous promptings of a cultured soul. No, there is no absolute + justice, for to him fell that wonder of womanhood, Vesta Van Warden. The + grievous-ness of this you will never understand, my grandsons; for you are + yourselves primitive little savages, unaware of aught else but savagery. + Why should Vesta not have been mine? I was a man of culture and + refinement, a professor in a great university. Even so, in the time before + the plague, such was her exalted position, she would not have deigned to + know that I existed. Mark, then, the abysmal degradation to which she fell + at the hands of the Chauffeur. Nothing less than the destruction of all + mankind had made it possible that I should know her, look in her eyes, + converse with her, touch her hand—ay, and love her and know that her + feelings toward me were very kindly. I have reason to believe that she, + even she, would have loved me, there being no other man in the world + except the Chauffeur. Why, when it destroyed eight billions of souls, did + not the plague destroy just one more man, and that man the Chauffeur? + </p> + <p> + “Once, when the Chauffeur was away fishing, she begged me to kill him. + With tears in her eyes she begged me to kill him. But he was a strong and + violent man, and I was afraid. Afterwards, I talked with him. I offered + him my horse, my pony, my dogs, all that I possessed, if he would give + Vesta to me. And he grinned in my face and shook his head. He was very + insulting. He said that in the old days he had been a servant, had been + dirt under the feet of men like me and of women like Vesta, and that now + he had the greatest lady in the land to be servant to him and cook his + food and nurse his brats. ‘You had your day before the plague,’ he said; + ‘but this is my day, and a damned good day it is. I wouldn’t trade back to + the old times for anything.’ Such words he spoke, but they are not his + words. He was a vulgar, low-minded man, and vile oaths fell continually + from his lips. + </p> + <p> + “Also, he told me that if he caught me making eyes at his woman he’d wring + my neck and give her a beating as well. What was I to do? I was afraid. He + was a brute. That first night, when I discovered the camp, Vesta and I had + great talk about the things of our vanished world. We talked of art, and + books, and poetry; and the Chauffeur listened and grinned and sneered. He + was bored and angered by our way of speech which he did not comprehend, + and finally he spoke up and said: ‘And this is Vesta Van Warden, one-time + wife of Van Warden the Magnate—a high and stuck-up beauty, who is + now my squaw. Eh, Professor Smith, times is changed, times is changed. + Here, you, woman, take off my moccasins, and lively about it. I want + Professor Smith to see how well I have you trained.’ + </p> + <p> + “I saw her clench her teeth, and the flame of revolt rise in her face. He + drew back his gnarled fist to strike, and I was afraid, and sick at heart. + I could do nothing to prevail against him. So I got up to go, and not be + witness to such indignity. But the Chauffeur laughed and threatened me + with a beating if I did not stay and behold. And I sat there, perforce, by + the campfire on the shore of Lake Temescal, and saw Vesta, Vesta Van + Warden, kneel and remove the moccasins of that grinning, hairy, apelike + human brute. + </p> + <p> + “—Oh, you do not understand, my grandsons. You have never known + anything else, and you do not understand. + </p> + <p> + “‘Halter-broke and bridle-wise,’ the Chauffeur gloated, while she + performed that dreadful, menial task. ‘A trifle balky at times, Professor, + a trifle balky; but a clout alongside the jaw makes her as meek and gentle + as a lamb.’ + </p> + <p> + “And another time he said: ‘We’ve got to start all over and replenish the + earth and multiply. You’re handicapped, Professor. You ain’t got no wife, + and we’re up against a regular Garden-of-Eden proposition. But I ain’t + proud. I’ll tell you what, Professor.’ He pointed at their little infant, + barely a year old. ‘There’s your wife, though you’ll have to wait till she + grows up. It’s rich, ain’t it? We’re all equals here, and I’m the biggest + toad in the splash. But I ain’t stuck up—not I. I do you the honor, + Professor Smith, the very great honor of betrothing to you my and Vesta + Van Warden’s daughter. Ain’t it cussed bad that Van Warden ain’t here to + see?’” + </p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + + <h2><a name="link2H_4_0007"></a> + VI + </h2> + <p> + “I lived three weeks of infinite torment there in the Chauffeur’s camp. + And then, one day, tiring of me, or of what to him was my bad effect on + Vesta, he told me that the year before, wandering through the Contra Costa + Hills to the Straits of Carquinez, across the Straits he had seen a smoke. + This meant that there were still other human beings, and that for three + weeks he had kept this inestimably precious information from me. I + departed at once, with my dogs and horses, and journeyed across the Contra + Costa Hills to the Straits. I saw no smoke on the other side, but at Port + Costa discovered a small steel barge on which I was able to embark my + animals. Old canvas which I found served me for a sail, and a southerly + breeze fanned me across the Straits and up to the ruins of Vallejo. Here, + on the outskirts of the city, I found evidences of a recently occupied + camp. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0022"></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img src="images/169.jpg" + alt="Found Evidences of a Recently Occupied Camp 169" width="100%" /><br /></div> + <p> + “Many clam-shells showed me why these humans had come to the shores of the + Bay. This was the Santa Rosa Tribe, and I followed its track along the old + railroad right of way across the salt marshes to Sonoma Valley. Here, at + the old brickyard at Glen Ellen, I came upon the camp. There were eighteen + souls all told. Two were old men, one of whom was Jones, a banker. The + other was Harrison, a retired pawnbroker, who had taken for wife the + matron of the State Hospital for the Insane at Napa. Of all the persons of + the city of Napa, and of all the other towns and villages in that rich and + populous valley, she had been the only survivor. Next, there were the + three young men—Cardiff and Hale, who had been farmers, and + Wainwright, a common day-laborer. All three had found wives. To Hale, a + crude, illiterate farmer, had fallen Isadore, the greatest prize, next to + Vesta, of the women who came through the plague. She was one of the + world’s most noted singers, and the plague had caught her at San + Francisco. She has talked with me for hours at a time, telling me of her + adventures, until, at last, rescued by Hale in the Mendocino Forest + Reserve, there had remained nothing for her to do but become his wife. But + Hale was a good fellow, in spite of his illiteracy. He had a keen sense of + justice and right-dealing, and she was far happier with him than was Vesta + with the Chauffeur. + </p> + <p> + “The wives of Cardiff and Wainwright were ordinary women, accustomed to + toil with strong constitutions—just the type for the wild new life + which they were compelled to live. In addition were two adult idiots from + the feeble-minded home at Eldredge, and five or six young children and + infants born after the formation of the Santa Rosa Tribe. Also, there was + Bertha. She was a good woman, Hare-Lip, in spite of the sneers of your + father. Her I took for wife. She was the mother of your father, Edwin, and + of yours, Hoo-Hoo. And it was our daughter, Vera, who married your father, + Hare-Lip—your father, Sandow, who was the oldest son of Vesta Van + Warden and the Chauffeur. + </p> + <p> + “And so it was that I became the nineteenth member of the Santa Rosa + Tribe. There were only two outsiders added after me. One was Mungerson, + descended from the Magnates, who wandered alone in the wilds of Northern + California for eight years before he came south and joined us. He it was + who waited twelve years more before he married my daughter, Mary. The + other was Johnson, the man who founded the Utah Tribe. That was where he + came from, Utah, a country that lies very far away from here, across the + great deserts, to the east. It was not until twenty-seven years after the + plague that Johnson reached California. In all that Utah region he + reported but three survivors, himself one, and all men. For many years + these three men lived and hunted together, until, at last, desperate, + fearing that with them the human race would perish utterly from the + planet, they headed westward on the possibility of finding women survivors + in California. Johnson alone came through the great desert, where his two + companions died. He was forty-six years old when he joined us, and he + married the fourth daughter of Isadore and Hale, and his eldest son + married your aunt, Hare-Lip, who was the third daughter of Vesta and the + Chauffeur. Johnson was a strong man, with a will of his own. And it was + because of this that he seceded from the Santa Rosans and formed the Utah + Tribe at San José. It is a small tribe—there are only nine in it; + but, though he is dead, such was his influence and the strength of his + breed, that it will grow into a strong tribe and play a leading part in + the recivilization of the planet. + </p> + <p> + “There are only two other tribes that we know of—the Los Angelitos + and the Carmelitos. The latter started from one man and woman. He was + called Lopez, and he was descended from the ancient Mexicans and was very + black. He was a cowherd in the ranges beyond Carmel, and his wife was a + maidservant in the great Del Monte Hotel. It was seven years before we + first got in touch with the Los Angelitos. They have a good country down + there, but it is too warm. I estimate the present population of the world + at between three hundred and fifty and four hundred—provided, of + course, that there are no scattered little tribes elsewhere in the world. + If there be such, we have not heard from them. Since Johnson crossed the + desert from Utah, no word nor sign has come from the East or anywhere + else. The great world which I knew in my boyhood and early manhood is + gone. It has ceased to be. I am the last man who was alive in the days of + the plague and who knows the wonders of that far-off time. We, who + mastered the planet—its earth, and sea, and sky—and who were + as very gods, now live in primitive savagery along the water courses of + this California country. + </p> + <p> + “But we are increasing rapidly—your sister, Hare-Lip, already has + four children. We are increasing rapidly and making ready for a new climb + toward civilization. In time, pressure of population will compel us to + spread out, and a hundred generations from now we may expect our + descendants to start across the Sierras, oozing slowly along, generation + by generation, over the great continent to the colonization of the East—a + new Aryan drift around the world. + </p> + <p> + “But it will be slow, very slow; we have so far to climb. We fell so + hopelessly far. If only one physicist or one chemist had survived! But it + was not to be, and we have forgotten everything. The Chauffeur started + working in iron. He made the forge which we use to this day. But he was a + lazy man, and when he died he took with him all he knew of metals and + machinery. What was I to know of such things? I was a classical scholar, + not a chemist.. The other men who survived were not educated. Only two + things did the Chauffeur accomplish—the brewing of strong drink and + the growing of tobacco. It was while he was drunk, once, that he killed + Vesta. I firmly believe that he killed Vesta in a fit of drunken cruelty + though he always maintained that she fell into the lake and was drowned. + </p> + <p> + “And, my grandsons, let me warn you against the medicine-men. They call + themselves <i>doctors</i>, travestying what was once a noble profession, + but in reality they are medicine-men, devil-devil men, and they make for + superstition and darkness. They are cheats and liars. But so debased and + degraded are we, that we believe their lies. They, too, will increase in + numbers as we increase, and they will strive to rule us. Yet are they + liars and charlatans. Look at young Cross-Eyes, posing as a doctor, + selling charms against sickness, giving good hunting, exchanging promises + of fair weather for good meat and skins, sending the death-stick, + performing a thousand abominations. Yet I say to you, that when he says he + can do these things, he lies. I, Professor Smith, Professor James Howard + Smith, say that he lies. I have told him so to his teeth. Why has he not + sent me the death-stick? Because he knows that with me it is without + avail. But you, Hare-Lip, so deeply are you sunk in black superstition + that did you awake this night and find the death-stick beside you, you + would surely die. And you would die, not because of any virtues in the + stick, but because you are a savage with the dark and clouded mind of a + savage. + </p> + <p> + “The doctors must be destroyed, and all that was lost must be discovered + over again. Wherefore, earnestly, I repeat unto you certain things which + you must remember and tell to your children after you. You must tell them + that when water is made hot by fire, there resides in it a wonderful thing + called steam, which is stronger than ten thousand men and which can do all + man’s work for him. There are other very useful things. In the lightning + flash resides a similarly strong servant of man, which was of old his + slave and which some day will be his slave again. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0023"></a> + </p> + <div class="figright" style="width:30%;"> + <img width="100%" src="images/179.jpg" + alt="I Have Stored Many Books in a Cave 179 " /> + </div> + <p> + “Quite a different thing is the alphabet. It is what enables me to know + the meaning of fine markings, whereas you boys know only rude + picture-writing. In that dry cave on Telegraph Hill, where you see me + often go when the tribe is down by the sea, I have stored many books. In + them is great wisdom. Also, with them, I have placed a key to the + alphabet, so that one who knows picture-writing may also know print. Some + day men will read again; and then, if no accident has befallen my cave, + they will know that Professor James Howard Smith once lived and saved for + them the knowledge of the ancients. + </p> + <p> + “There is another little device that men inevitably will rediscover. It is + called gunpowder. It was what enabled us to kill surely and at long + distances. Certain things which are found in the ground, when combined in + the right proportions, will make this gunpowder. What these things are, I + have forgotten, or else I never knew. But I wish I did know. Then would I + make powder, and then would I certainly kill Cross-Eyes and rid the land + of superstition—” + </p> + <p> + “After I am man-grown I am going to give Cross-Eyes all the goats, and + meat, and skins I can get, so that he’ll teach me to be a doctor,” Hoo-Hoo + asserted. “And when I know, I’ll make everybody else sit up and take + notice. They’ll get down in the dirt to me, you bet.” + </p> + <p> + The old man nodded his head solemnly, and murmured: + </p> + <p> + “Strange it is to hear the vestiges and remnants of the complicated Aryan + speech falling from the lips of a filthy little skin-clad savage. All the + world is topsy-turvy. And it has been topsy-turvy ever since the plague.” + </p> + <p> + “You won’t make me sit up,” Hare-Lip boasted to the would-be medicine-man. + “If I paid you for a sending of the death-stick and it didn’t work, I’d + bust in your head—understand, you Hoo-Hoo, you?” + </p> + <p> + “I’m going to get Granser to remember this here gunpowder stuff,” Edwin + said softly, “and then I’ll have you all on the run. You, Hare-Lip, will + do my fighting for me and get my meat for me, and you, Hoo-Hoo, will send + the death-stick for me and make everybody afraid. And if I catch Hare-Lip + trying to bust your head, Hoo-Hoo, I’ll fix him with that same gunpowder. + Granser ain’t such a fool as you think, and I’m going to listen to him and + some day I’ll be boss over the whole bunch of you.” + </p> + <p> + The old man shook his head sadly, and said: + </p> + <p> + “The gunpowder will come. Nothing can stop it—the same old story + over and over. Man will increase, and men will fight. The gunpowder will + enable men to kill millions of men, and in this way only, by fire and + blood, will a new civilization, in some remote day, be evolved. And of + what profit will it be? Just as the old civilization passed, so will the + new. It may take fifty thousand years to build, but it will pass. All + things pass. Only remain cosmic force and matter, ever in flux, ever + acting and reacting and realizing the eternal types—the priest, the + soldier, and the king. Out of the mouths of babes comes the wisdom of all + the ages. Some will fight, some will rule, some will pray; and all the + rest will toil and suffer sore while on their bleeding carcasses is reared + again, and yet again, without end, the amazing beauty and surpassing + wonder of the civilized state. It were just as well that I destroyed those + cave-stored books—whether they remain or perish, all their old + truths will be discovered, their old lies lived and handed down. What is + the profit—” + </p> + <p> + Hare-Lip leaped to his feet, giving a quick glance at the pasturing goats + and the afternoon sun. + </p> + <p> + “Gee!” he muttered to Edwin, “The old geezer gets more long-winded every + day. Let’s pull for camp.” + </p> + <p> + While the other two, aided by the dogs, assembled the goats and started + them for the trail through the forest, Edwin stayed by the old man and + guided him in the same direction. When they reached the old right of way, + Edwin stopped suddenly and looked back. Hare-Lip and Hoo-Hoo and the dogs + and the goats passed on. Edwin was looking at a small herd of wild horses + which had come down on the hard sand. There were at least twenty of them, + young colts and yearlings and mares, led by a beautiful stallion which + stood in the foam at the edge of the surf, with arched neck and bright + wild eyes, sniffing the salt air from off the sea. + </p> + <p> + “What is it?” Granser queried. + </p> + <p> + “Horses,” was the answer. “First time I ever seen ’em on the beach. It’s + the mountain lions getting thicker and thicker and driving ’em down.” + </p> + <p> + The low sun shot red shafts of light, fan-shaped, up from a cloud-tumbled + horizon. And close at hand, in the white waste of shore-lashed waters, the + sea-lions, bellowing their old primeval chant, hauled up out of the sea on + the black rocks and fought and loved. + </p> + <p> + “Come on, Granser,” Edwin prompted. And old man and boy, skin-clad and + barbaric, turned and went along the right of way into the forest in the + wake of the goats. + </p> + <p> + THE END <br /> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img alt="endpiece (8K)" src="images/endpiece.jpg" width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SCARLET PLAGUE ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following +the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use +of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for +copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very +easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation +of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project +Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away—you may +do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected +by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark +license, especially commercial redistribution. +</div> + +<div style='margin-top:1em; font-size:1.1em; text-align:center'>START: FULL LICENSE</div> +<div style='text-align:center;font-size:0.9em'>THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE</div> +<div style='text-align:center;font-size:0.9em'>PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online at +www.gutenberg.org/license. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™ +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or +destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your +possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a +Project Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be bound +by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person +or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this +agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the +Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection +of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individual +works in the collection are in the public domain in the United +States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the +United States and you are located in the United States, we do not +claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, +displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as +all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope +that you will support the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting +free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™ +works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the +Project Gutenberg™ name associated with the work. You can easily +comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the +same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg™ License when +you share it without charge with others. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are +in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, +check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this +agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, +distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any +other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes no +representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any +country other than the United States. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other +immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appear +prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any work +on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the +phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, +performed, viewed, copied or distributed: +</div> + +<blockquote> + <div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> + This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most + other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions + whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms + of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online + at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you + are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws + of the country where you are located before using this eBook. + </div> +</blockquote> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is +derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not +contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the +copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in +the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are +redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply +either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or +obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg™ +trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any +additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms +will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all works +posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the +beginning of this work. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™ +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg™. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg™ License. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including +any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access +to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a format +other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ website +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain +Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the +full Project Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +provided that: +</div> + +<div style='margin-left:0.7em;'> + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed + to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has + agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid + within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are + legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty + payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in + Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg + Literary Archive Foundation.” + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ + License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all + copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue + all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™ + works. + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of + any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of + receipt of the work. + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works. + </div> +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms than +are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing +from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of +the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set +forth in Section 3 below. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project +Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may +contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate +or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or +other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or +cannot be read by your equipment. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right +of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium +with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you +with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in +lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person +or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second +opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If +the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing +without further opportunities to fix the problem. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO +OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of +damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement +violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the +agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or +limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or +unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the +remaining provisions. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in +accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the +production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, +including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of +the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this +or any Project Gutenberg™ work, (b) alteration, modification, or +additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any +Defect you cause. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg™ +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of +computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It +exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations +from people in all walks of life. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg™’s +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future +generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see +Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by +U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Foundation’s business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, +Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up +to date contact information can be found at the Foundation’s website +and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without widespread +public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state +visit <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/donate/">www.gutenberg.org/donate</a>. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To +donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project +Gutenberg™ concept of a library of electronic works that could be +freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and +distributed Project Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network of +volunteer support. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in +the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Most people start at our website which has the main PG search +facility: <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This website includes information about Project Gutenberg™, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. +</div> + +</div> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/21970-h/images/020.jpg b/21970-h/images/020.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5afaa05 --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/images/020.jpg diff --git a/21970-h/images/025.jpg b/21970-h/images/025.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..670b588 --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/images/025.jpg diff --git a/21970-h/images/033.jpg b/21970-h/images/033.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..275bdd9 --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/images/033.jpg diff --git a/21970-h/images/036.jpg b/21970-h/images/036.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..308add3 --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/images/036.jpg diff --git a/21970-h/images/054.jpg b/21970-h/images/054.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f1943ac --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/images/054.jpg diff --git a/21970-h/images/059.jpg b/21970-h/images/059.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..03acaf7 --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/images/059.jpg diff --git a/21970-h/images/071.jpg b/21970-h/images/071.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..433f6fe --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/images/071.jpg diff --git a/21970-h/images/078.jpg b/21970-h/images/078.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..078595d --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/images/078.jpg diff --git a/21970-h/images/088.jpg b/21970-h/images/088.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7ae03d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/images/088.jpg diff --git a/21970-h/images/092.jpg b/21970-h/images/092.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..200ccdc --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/images/092.jpg diff --git a/21970-h/images/098.jpg b/21970-h/images/098.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3974845 --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/images/098.jpg diff --git a/21970-h/images/100.jpg b/21970-h/images/100.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5e89882 --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/images/100.jpg diff --git a/21970-h/images/108.jpg b/21970-h/images/108.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..34df8d5 --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/images/108.jpg diff --git a/21970-h/images/112.jpg b/21970-h/images/112.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..babf3c5 --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/images/112.jpg diff --git a/21970-h/images/120.jpg b/21970-h/images/120.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..96953db --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/images/120.jpg diff --git a/21970-h/images/132.jpg b/21970-h/images/132.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c4acd1 --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/images/132.jpg diff --git a/21970-h/images/144.jpg b/21970-h/images/144.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f150c38 --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/images/144.jpg diff --git a/21970-h/images/149.jpg b/21970-h/images/149.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..59c06e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/images/149.jpg diff --git a/21970-h/images/150.jpg b/21970-h/images/150.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..19ceeac --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/images/150.jpg diff --git a/21970-h/images/153.jpg b/21970-h/images/153.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b5dc6ba --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/images/153.jpg diff --git a/21970-h/images/158.jpg b/21970-h/images/158.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c5339ce --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/images/158.jpg diff --git a/21970-h/images/169.jpg b/21970-h/images/169.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..117e596 --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/images/169.jpg diff --git a/21970-h/images/179.jpg b/21970-h/images/179.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..05b8648 --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/images/179.jpg diff --git a/21970-h/images/cover.jpg b/21970-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c6b01c3 --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/21970-h/images/endpiece.jpg b/21970-h/images/endpiece.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7919062 --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/images/endpiece.jpg diff --git a/21970-h/images/frontispiece.jpg b/21970-h/images/frontispiece.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e5bdd8e --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/images/frontispiece.jpg diff --git a/21970-h/images/titlepage.jpg b/21970-h/images/titlepage.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ff50ef5 --- /dev/null +++ b/21970-h/images/titlepage.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..474d971 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #21970 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21970) diff --git a/old/21970-8.txt b/old/21970-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b69fcc0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/21970-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2439 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Scarlet Plague, by Jack London + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Scarlet Plague + +Author: Jack London + +Illustrator: Gordon Grant + +Release Date: June 29, 2007 [EBook #21970] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SCARLET PLAGUE *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +THE SCARLET PLAGUE + +By Jack London + + +Illustrated By Gordon Grant + +1915 + + + + +THE SCARLET PLAGUE + + + + +I + +THE way led along upon what had once been the embankment of a railroad. +But no train had run upon it for many years. The forest on either side +swelled up the slopes of the embankment and crested across it in a green +wave of trees and bushes. The trail was as narrow as a man's body, and +was no more than a wild-animal runway. Occasionally, a piece of rusty +iron, showing through the forest-mould, advertised that the rail and the +ties still remained. In one place, a ten-inch tree, bursting through at +a connection, had lifted the end of a rail clearly into view. The tie +had evidently followed the rail, held to it by the spike long enough +for its bed to be filled with gravel and rotten leaves, so that now the +crumbling, rotten timber thrust itself up at a curious slant. Old as the +road was, it was manifest that it had been of the mono-rail type. + +An old man and a boy travelled along this runway. They moved slowly, for +the old man was very old, a touch of palsy made his movements tremulous, +and he leaned heavily upon his staff. A rude skull-cap of goat-skin +protected his head from the sun. From beneath this fell a scant fringe +of stained and dirty-white hair. A visor, ingeniously made from a large +leaf, shielded his eyes, and from under this he peered at the way of +his feet on the trail. His beard, which should have been snow-white +but which showed the same weather-wear and camp-stain as his hair, +fell nearly to his waist in a great tangled mass. About his chest and +shoulders hung a single, mangy garment of goat-skin. His arms and legs, +withered and skinny, betokened extreme age, as well as did their sunburn +and scars and scratches betoken long years of exposure to the elements. + +The boy, who led the way, checking the eagerness of his muscles to +the slow progress of the elder, likewise wore a single garment--a +ragged-edged piece of bear-skin, with a hole in the middle through which +he had thrust his head. He could not have been more than twelve years +old. Tucked coquettishly over one ear was the freshly severed tail of a +pig. In one hand he carried a medium-sized bow and an arrow. + +On his back was a quiverful of arrows. From a sheath hanging about his +neck on a thong, projected the battered handle of a hunting knife. He +was as brown as a berry, and walked softly, with almost a catlike tread. +In marked contrast with his sunburned skin were his eyes--blue, deep +blue, but keen and sharp as a pair of gimlets. They seemed to bore into +aft about him in a way that was habitual. As he went along he smelled +things, as well, his distended, quivering nostrils carrying to his brain +an endless series of messages from the outside world. Also, his hearing +was acute, and had been so trained that it operated automatically. +Without conscious effort, he heard all the slight sounds in the apparent +quiet--heard, and differentiated, and classified these sounds--whether +they were of the wind rustling the leaves, of the humming of bees and +gnats, of the distant rumble of the sea that drifted to him only in +lulls, or of the gopher, just under his foot, shoving a pouchful of +earth into the entrance of his hole. + +Suddenly he became alertly tense. Sound, sight, and odor had given him +a simultaneous warning. His hand went back to the old man, touching +him, and the pair stood still. Ahead, at one side of the top of the +embankment, arose a crackling sound, and the boy's gaze was fixed on the +tops of the agitated bushes. Then a large bear, a grizzly, crashed into +view, and likewise stopped abruptly, at sight of the humans. He did not +like them, and growled querulously. Slowly the boy fitted the arrow to +the bow, and slowly he pulled the bowstring taut. But he never removed +his eyes from the bear. + +[Illustration: Slowly he pulled the bowstring taut 020] + +The old man peered from under his green leaf at the danger, and stood as +quietly as the boy. For a few seconds this mutual scrutinizing went +on; then, the bear betraying a growing irritability, the boy, with a +movement of his head, indicated that the old man must step aside from +the trail and go down the embankment. The boy followed, going backward, +still holding the bow taut and ready. They waited till a crashing among +the bushes from the opposite side of the embankment told them the bear +had gone on. The boy grinned as he led back to the trail. + +"A big un, Granser," he chuckled. + +The old man shook his head. + +"They get thicker every day," he complained in a thin, undependable +falsetto. "Who'd have thought I'd live to see the time when a man would +be afraid of his life on the way to the Cliff House. When I was a boy, +Edwin, men and women and little babies used to come out here from San +Francisco by tens of thousands on a nice day. And there weren't any +bears then. No, sir. They used to pay money to look at them in cages, +they were that rare." + +"What is money, Granser?" + +Before the old man could answer, the boy recollected and triumphantly +shoved his hand into a pouch under his bear-skin and pulled forth a +battered and tarnished silver dollar. The old man's eyes glistened, as +he held the coin close to them. + +"I can't see," he muttered. "You look and see if you can make out the +date, Edwin." + +The boy laughed. + +"You're a great Granser," he cried delightedly, "always making believe +them little marks mean something." + +The old man manifested an accustomed chagrin as he brought the coin back +again close to his own eyes. + +"2012," he shrilled, and then fell to cackling grotesquely. "That was +the year Morgan the Fifth was appointed President of the United States +by the Board of Magnates. It must have been one of the last coins +minted, for the Scarlet Death came in 2013. Lord! Lord!--think of it! +Sixty years ago, and I am the only person alive to-day that lived in +those times. Where did you find it, Edwin?" + +The boy, who had been regarding him with the tolerant curiousness one +accords to the prattlings of the feeble-minded, answered promptly. + +"I got it off of Hoo-Hoo. He found it when we was herdin' goats down +near San Jos last spring. Hoo-Hoo said it was _money_. Ain't you +hungry, Granser?" + +The ancient caught his staff in a tighter grip and urged along the +trail, his old eyes shining greedily. + +"I hope Hare-Lip 's found a crab... or two," he mumbled. "They're good +eating, crabs, mighty good eating when you've no more teeth and you've +got grandsons that love their old grandsire and make a point of catching +crabs for him. When I was a boy--" + +But Edwin, suddenly stopped by what he saw, was drawing the bowstring +on a fitted arrow. He had paused on the brink of a crevasse in the +embankment. An ancient culvert had here washed out, and the stream, no +longer confined, had cut a passage through the fill. On the opposite +side, the end of a rail projected and overhung. It showed rustily +through the creeping vines which overran it. Beyond, crouching by a +bush, a rabbit looked across at him in trembling hesitancy. Fully fifty +feet was the distance, but the arrow flashed true; and the transfixed +rabbit, crying out in sudden fright and hurt, struggled painfully away +into the brush. The boy himself was a flash of brown skin and flying fur +as he bounded down the steep wall of the gap and up the other side. +His lean muscles were springs of steel that released into graceful +and efficient action. A hundred feet beyond, in a tangle of bushes, +he overtook the wounded creature, knocked its head on a convenient +tree-trunk, and turned it over to Granser to carry. + +[Illustration: Rabbit is good, very good 026] + +"Rabbit is good, very good," the ancient quavered, "but when it comes to +a toothsome delicacy I prefer crab. When I was a boy--" + +"Why do you say so much that ain't got no sense?" Edwin impatiently +interrupted the other's threatened garrulousness. + +The boy did not exactly utter these words, but something that remotely +resembled them and that was more guttural and explosive and economical +of qualifying phrases. His speech showed distant kinship with that of +the old man, and the latter's speech was approximately an English that +had gone through a bath of corrupt usage. + +"What I want to know," Edwin continued, "is why you call crab 'toothsome +delicacy'? Crab is crab, ain't it? No one I never heard calls it such +funny things." + +The old man sighed but did not answer, and they moved on in silence. +The surf grew suddenly louder, as they emerged from the forest upon a +stretch of sand dunes bordering the sea. A few goats were browsing among +the sandy hillocks, and a skin-clad boy, aided by a wolfish-looking +dog that was only faintly reminiscent of a collie, was watching them. +Mingled with the roar of the surf was a continuous, deep-throated +barking or bellowing, which came from a cluster of jagged rocks a +hundred yards out from shore. Here huge sea-lions hauled themselves +up to lie in the sun or battle with one another. In the immediate +foreground arose the smoke of a fire, tended by a third savage-looking +boy. Crouched near him were several wolfish dogs similar to the one that +guarded the goats. + +The old man accelerated his pace, sniffing eagerly as he neared the +fire. + +"Mussels!" he muttered ecstatically. "Mussels! And ain't that a crab, +Hoo-Hoo? Ain't that a crab? My, my, you boys are good to your old +grandsire." + +Hoo-Hoo, who was apparently of the same age as Edwin, grinned. + +"All you want, Granser. I got four." + +The old man's palsied eagerness was pitiful. Sitting down in the sand as +quickly as his stiff limbs would let him, he poked a large rock-mussel +from out of the coals. The heat had forced its shells apart, and +the meat, salmon-colored, was thoroughly cooked. Between thumb and +forefinger, in trembling haste, he caught the morsel and carried it +to his mouth. But it was too hot, and the next moment was violently +ejected. The old man spluttered with the pain, and tears ran out of his +eyes and down his cheeks. + +The boys were true savages, possessing only the cruel humor of the +savage. To them the incident was excruciatingly funny, and they burst +into loud laughter. Hoo-Hoo danced up and down, while Edwin rolled +gleefully on the ground. The boy with the goats came running to join in +the fun. + +"Set 'em to cool, Edwin, set 'em to cool," the old man besought, in the +midst of his grief, making no attempt to wipe away the tears that +still flowed from his eyes. "And cool a crab, Edwin, too. You know your +grandsire likes crabs." + +From the coals arose a great sizzling, which proceeded from the many +mussels bursting open their shells and exuding their moisture. They were +large shellfish, running from three to six inches in length. The boys +raked them out with sticks and placed them on a large piece of driftwood +to cool. + +"When I was a boy, we did not laugh at our elders; we respected them." + +The boys took no notice, and Granser continued to babble an incoherent +flow of complaint and censure. But this time he was more careful, and +did not burn his mouth. All began to eat, using nothing but their hands +and making loud mouth-noises and lip-smackings. The third boy, who was +called Hare-Lip, slyly deposited a pinch of sand on a mussel the ancient +was carrying to his mouth; and when the grit of it bit into the old +fellow's mucous membrane and gums, the laughter was again uproarious. He +was unaware that a joke had been played on him, and spluttered and spat +until Edwin, relenting, gave him a gourd of fresh water with which to +wash out his mouth. + +"Where's them crabs, Hoo-Hoo?" Edwin demanded. "Granser's set upon +having a snack." + +Again Granser's eyes burned with greediness as a large crab was handed +to him. It was a shell with legs and all complete, but the meat had long +since departed. With shaky fingers and babblings of anticipation, the +old man broke off a leg and found it filled with emptiness. + +"The crabs, Hoo-Hoo?" he wailed. "The crabs?" + +"I was fooling Granser. They ain't no crabs! I never found one." + +The boys were overwhelmed with delight at sight of the tears of senile +disappointment that dribbled down the old man's cheeks. Then, unnoticed, +Hoo-Hoo replaced the empty shell with a fresh-cooked crab. Already +dismembered, from the cracked legs the white meat sent forth a small +cloud of savory steam. This attracted the old man's nostrils, and he +looked down in amazement. + +[Illustration: This attracted the old man's nostrils 033] + +The change of his mood to one of joy was immediate. He snuffled and +muttered and mumbled, making almost a croon of delight, as he began +to eat. Of this the boys took little notice, for it was an accustomed +spectacle. Nor did they notice his occasional exclamations and +utterances of phrases which meant nothing to them, as, for instance, +when he smacked his lips and champed his gums while muttering: +"Mayonnaise! Just think--mayonnaise! And it's sixty years since the last +was ever made! Two generations and never a smell of it! Why, in those +days it was served in every restaurant with crab." + +When he could eat no more, the old man sighed, wiped his hands on his +naked legs, and gazed out over the sea. With the content of a full +stomach, he waxed reminiscent. + +"To think of it! I've seen this beach alive with men, women, and +children on a pleasant Sunday. And there weren't any bears to eat them +up, either. And right up there on the cliff was a big restaurant where +you could get anything you wanted to eat. Four million people lived in +San Francisco then. And now, in the whole city and county there aren't +forty all told. And out there on the sea were ships and ships always to +be seen, going in for the Golden Gate or coming out. And airships in the +air--dirigibles and flying machines. They could travel two hundred miles +an hour. The mail contracts with the New York and San Francisco Limited +demanded that for the minimum. There was a chap, a Frenchman, I forget +his name, who succeeded in making three hundred; but the thing was +risky, too risky for conservative persons. But he was on the right clew, +and he would have managed it if it hadn't been for the Great Plague. +When I was a boy, there were men alive who remembered the coming of the +first aeroplanes, and now I have lived to see the last of them, and that +sixty years ago." + +The old man babbled on, unheeded by the boys, who were long accustomed +to his garrulousness, and whose vocabularies, besides, lacked the +greater portion of the words he used. It was noticeable that in these +rambling soliloquies his English seemed to recrudesce into better +construction and phraseology. But when he talked directly with the boys +it lapsed, largely, into their own uncouth and simpler forms. + +"But there weren't many crabs in those days," the old man wandered on. +"They were fished out, and they were great delicacies. The open season +was only a month long, too. And now crabs are accessible the whole year +around. Think of it--catching all the crabs you want, any time you want, +in the surf of the Cliff House beach!" + +A sudden commotion among the goats brought the boys to their feet. The +dogs about the fire rushed to join their snarling fellow who guarded the +goats, while the goats themselves stampeded in the direction of their +human protectors. A half dozen forms, lean and gray, glided about on the +sand hillocks and faced the bristling dogs. Edwin arched an arrow that +fell short. But Hare-Lip, with a sling such as David carried into battle +against Goliath, hurled a stone through the air that whistled from the +speed of its flight. It fell squarely among the wolves and caused them +to slink away toward the dark depths of the eucalyptus forest. + +[Illustration: With a sling such as David carried 036] + +The boys laughed and lay down again in the sand, while Granser sighed +ponderously. He had eaten too much, and, with hands clasped on his +paunch, the fingers interlaced, he resumed his maunderings. + +"'The fleeting systems lapse like foam,'" he mumbled what was evidently +a quotation. "That's it--foam, and fleeting. All man's toil upon the +planet was just so much foam. He domesticated the serviceable animals, +destroyed the hostile ones, and cleared the land of its wild vegetation. +And then he passed, and the flood of primordial life rolled back again, +sweeping his handiwork away--the weeds and the forest inundated his +fields, the beasts of prey swept over his flocks, and now there are +wolves on the Cliff House beach." He was appalled by the thought. "Where +four million people disported themselves, the wild wolves roam to-day, +and the savage progeny of our loins, with prehistoric weapons, defend +themselves against the fanged despoilers. Think of it! And all because +of the Scarlet Death--" + +The adjective had caught Hare-Lip's ear. + +"He's always saying that," he said to Edwin. "What is _scarlet?_" + +"'The scarlet of the maples can shake me like the cry of bugles going +by,'" the old man quoted. + +"It's red," Edwin answered the question. "And you don't know it because +you come from the Chauffeur Tribe. They never did know nothing, none of +them. Scarlet is red--I know that." + +"Red is red, ain't it?" Hare-Lip grumbled. "Then what's the good of +gettin' cocky and calling it scarlet?" + +"Granser, what for do you always say so much what nobody knows?" he +asked. "Scarlet ain't anything, but red is red. Why don't you say red, +then?" + +"Red is not the right word," was the reply. "The plague was scarlet. +The whole face and body turned scarlet in an hour's time. Don't I +know? Didn't I see enough of it? And I am telling you it was scarlet +because--well, because it _was_ scarlet. There is no other word for it." + +"Red is good enough for me," Hare-Lip muttered obstinately. "My dad +calls red red, and he ought to know. He says everybody died of the Red +Death." + +"Your dad is a common fellow, descended from a common fellow," Granser +retorted heatedly. "Don't I know the beginnings of the Chauffeurs? Your +grandsire was a chauffeur, a servant, and without education. He worked +for other persons. But your grandmother was of good stock, only the +children did not take after her. Don't I remember when I first met them, +catching fish at Lake Temescal?" + +"What is _education?_" Edwin asked. + +"Calling red scarlet," Hare-Lip sneered, then returned to the attack on +Granser. "My dad told me, an' he got it from his dad afore he croaked, +that your wife was a Santa Rosan, an' that she was sure no account. He +said she was a _hash-slinger_ before the Red Death, though I don't know +what a _hash-slinger_ is. You can tell me, Edwin." + +But Edwin shook his head in token of ignorance. + +"It is true, she was a waitress," Granser acknowledged. "But she was a +good woman, and your mother was her daughter. Women were very scarce in +the days after the Plague. She was the only wife I could find, even if +she was a _hash-slinger_, as your father calls it. But it is not nice to +talk about our progenitors that way." + +"Dad says that the wife of the first Chauffeur was a _lady_--" + +"What's a _lady?_" Hoo-Hoo demanded. + +"A _lady_ 's a Chauffeur squaw," was the quick reply of Hare-Lip. + +"The first Chauffeur was Bill, a common fellow, as I said before," the +old man expounded; "but his wife was a lady, a great lady. Before the +Scarlet Death she was the wife of Van Worden. He was President of the +Board of Industrial Magnates, and was one of the dozen men who +ruled America. He was worth one billion, eight hundred millions of +dollars--coins like you have there in your pouch, Edwin. And then came +the Scarlet Death, and his wife became the wife of Bill, the first +Chauffeur. He used to beat her, too. I have seen it myself." + +Hoo-Hoo, lying on his stomach and idly digging his toes in the sand, +cried out and investigated, first, his toe-nail, and next, the small +hole he had dug. The other two boys joined him, excavating the sand +rapidly with their hands till there lay three skeletons exposed. Two +were of adults, the third being that of a part-grown child. The old man +trudged along on the ground and peered at the find. + +"Plague victims," he announced. "That's the way they died everywhere +in the last days. This must have been a family, running away from the +contagion and perishing here on the Cliff House beach. They--what are +you doing, Edwin?" + +This question was asked in sudden dismay, as Edwin, using the back of +his hunting knife, began to knock out the teeth from the jaws of one of +the skulls. + +"Going to string 'em," was the response. + +The three boys were now hard at it; and quite a knocking and hammering +arose, in which Granser babbled on unnoticed. + +"You are true savages. Already has begun the custom of wearing human +teeth. In another generation you will be perforating your noses and +ears and wearing ornaments of bone and shell. I know. The human race +is doomed to sink back farther and farther into the primitive night +ere again it begins its bloody climb upward to civilization. When we +increase and feel the lack of room, we will proceed to kill one another. +And then I suppose you will wear human scalp-locks at your waist, as +well--as you, Edwin, who are the gentlest of my grandsons, have already +begun with that vile pigtail. Throw it away, Edwin, boy; throw it away." + +"What a gabble the old geezer makes," Hare-Lip remarked, when, the teeth +all extracted, they began an attempt at equal division. + +They were very quick and abrupt in their actions, and their speech, in +moments of hot discussion over the allotment of the choicer teeth, was +truly a gabble. They spoke in monosyllables and short jerky sentences +that was more a gibberish than a language. And yet, through it ran hints +of grammatical construction, and appeared vestiges of the conjugation +of some superior culture. Even the speech of Granser was so corrupt that +were it put down literally it would be almost so much nonsense to the +reader. This, however, was when he talked with the boys. + +When he got into the full swing of babbling to himself, it slowly purged +itself into pure English. The sentences grew longer and were enunciated +with a rhythm and ease that was reminiscent of the lecture platform. + +"Tell us about the Red Death, Granser," Hare-Lip demanded, when the +teeth affair had been satisfactorily concluded. + +"The Scarlet Death," Edwin corrected. + +"An' don't work all that funny lingo on us," Hare-Lip went on. "Talk +sensible, Granser, like a Santa Rosan ought to talk. Other Santa Rosans +don't talk like you." + + + + +II + +THE old man showed pleasure in being thus called upon. He cleared his +throat and began. + +"Twenty or thirty years ago my story was in great demand. But in these +days nobody seems interested--" + +"There you go!" Hare-Lip cried hotly. "Cut out the funny stuff and talk +sensible. What's _interested?_ You talk like a baby that don't know +how." + +"Let him alone," Edwin urged, "or he'll get mad and won't talk at all. +Skip the funny places. We'll catch on to some of what he tells us." + +"Let her go, Granser," Hoo-Hoo encouraged; for the old man was already +maundering about the disrespect for elders and the reversion to cruelty +of all humans that fell from high culture to primitive conditions. + +The tale began. + +"There were very many people in the world in those days. San Francisco +alone held four millions--" + +"What is millions?" Edwin interrupted. + +Granser looked at him kindly. + +"I know you cannot count beyond ten, so I will tell you. Hold up your +two hands. On both of them you have altogether ten fingers and thumbs. +Very well. I now take this grain of sand--you hold it, Hoo-Hoo." He +dropped the grain of sand into the lad's palm and went on. "Now that +grain of sand stands for the ten fingers of Edwin. I add another grain. +That's ten more fingers. And I add another, and another, and another, +until I have added as many grains as Edwin has fingers and thumbs. That +makes what I call one hundred. Remember that word--one hundred. Now I +put this pebble in Hare-Lip's hand. It stands for ten grains of sand, or +ten tens of fingers, or one hundred fingers. I put in ten pebbles. They +stand for a thousand fingers. I take a mussel-shell, and it stands for +ten pebbles, or one hundred grains of sand, or one thousand fingers...." +And so on, laboriously, and with much reiteration, he strove to build +up in their minds a crude conception of numbers. As the quantities +increased, he had the boys holding different magnitudes in each of +their hands. For still higher sums, he laid the symbols on the log of +driftwood; and for symbols he was hard put, being compelled to use the +teeth from the skulls for millions, and the crab-shells for billions. +It was here that he stopped, for the boys were showing signs of becoming +tired. + +"There were four million people in San Francisco--four teeth." + +The boys' eyes ranged along from the teeth and from hand to hand, down +through the pebbles and sand-grains to Edwin's fingers. And back again +they ranged along the ascending series in the effort to grasp such +inconceivable numbers. + +"That was a lot of folks, Granser," Edwin at last hazarded. + +"Like sand on the beach here, like sand on the beach, each grain of sand +a man, or woman, or child. Yes, my boy, all those people lived right +here in San Francisco. And at one time or another all those people +came out on this very beach--more people than there are grains of sand. +More--more--more. And San Francisco was a noble city. And across the +bay--where we camped last year, even more people lived, clear from Point +Richmond, on the level ground and on the hills, all the way around to +San Leandro--one great city of seven million people.--Seven teeth... +there, that's it, seven millions." + +Again the boys' eyes ranged up and down from Edwin's fingers to the +teeth on the log. + +"The world was full of people. The census of 2010 gave eight billions +for the whole world--eight crab-shells, yes, eight billions. It was not +like to-day. Mankind knew a great deal more about getting food. And the +more food there was, the more people there were. In the year 1800, there +were one hundred and seventy millions in Europe alone. One hundred years +later--a grain of sand, Hoo-Hoo--one hundred years later, at 1900, there +were five hundred millions in Europe--five grains of sand, Hoo-Hoo, and +this one tooth. This shows how easy was the getting of food, and how men +increased. And in the year 2000 there were fifteen hundred millions +in Europe. And it was the same all over the rest of the world. Eight +crab-shells there, yes, eight billion people were alive on the earth +when the Scarlet Death began. + +"I was a young man when the Plague came--twenty-seven years old; and I +lived on the other side of San Francisco Bay, in Berkeley. You remember +those great stone houses, Edwin, when we came down the hills from Contra +Costa? That was where I lived, in those stone houses. I was a professor +of English literature." + +[Illustration: I was a professor of English literature 054] + +Much of this was over the heads of the boys, but they strove to +comprehend dimly this tale of the past. + +"What was them stone houses for?" Hare-Lip queried. + +"You remember when your dad taught you to swim?" The boy nodded. +"Well, in the University of California--that is the name we had for +the houses--we taught young men and women how to think, just as I have +taught you now, by sand and pebbles and shells, to know how many people +lived in those days. There was very much to teach. The young men and +women we taught were called students. We had large rooms in which we +taught. I talked to them, forty or fifty at a time, just as I am talking +to you now. I told them about the books other men had written before +their time, and even, sometimes, in their time--" + +"Was that all you did?--just talk, talk, talk?" Hoo-Hoo demanded. "Who +hunted your meat for you? and milked the goats? and caught the fish?" + +"A sensible question, Hoo-Hoo, a sensible question. As I have told you, +in those days food-getting was easy. We were very wise. A few men got +the food for many men. The other men did other things. As you say, I +talked. I talked all the time, and for this food was given me--much +food, fine food, beautiful food, food that I have not tasted in sixty +years and shall never taste again. I sometimes think the most wonderful +achievement of our tremendous civilization was food--its inconceivable +abundance, its infinite variety, its marvellous delicacy. O my +grandsons, life was life in those days, when we had such wonderful +things to eat." + +This was beyond the boys, and they let it slip by, words and thoughts, +as a mere senile wandering in the narrative. + +"Our food-getters were called _freemen_. This was a joke. We of the +ruling classes owned all the land, all the machines, everything. These +food-getters were our slaves. We took almost all the food they got, and +left them a little so that they might eat, and work, and get us more +food--" + +"I'd have gone into the forest and got food for myself," Hare-Lip +announced; "and if any man tried to take it away from me, I'd have +killed him." + +The old man laughed. + +"Did I not tell you that we of the ruling class owned all the land, all +the forest, everything? Any food-getter who would not get food for us, +him we punished or compelled to starve to death. And very few did that. +They preferred to get food for us, and make clothes for us, and prepare +and administer to us a thousand--a mussel-shell, Hoo-Hoo--a thousand +satisfactions and delights. And I was Professor Smith in those +days--Professor James Howard Smith. And my lecture courses were very +popular--that is, very many of the young men and women liked to hear me +talk about the books other men had written. + +"And I was very happy, and I had beautiful things to eat. And my hands +were soft, because I did no work with them, and my body was clean +all over and dressed in the softest garments-- + +"He surveyed his mangy goat-skin with disgust. + +"We did not wear such things in those days. Even the slaves had better +garments. And we were most clean. We washed our faces and hands often +every day. You boys never wash unless you fall into the water or go +swimming." + +"Neither do you Granzer," Hoo-Hoo retorted. + +"I know, I know, I am a filthy old man, but times have changed. Nobody +washes these days, there are no conveniences. It is sixty years since I +have seen a piece of soap. + +[Illustration: Sixty years since I have seen a piece of soap. 059] + +"You do not know what soap is, and I shall not tell you, for I am telling +the story of the Scarlet Death. You know what sickness is. We called +it a disease. Very many of the diseases came from what we called germs. +Remember that word--germs. A germ is a very small thing. It is like a +woodtick, such as you find on the dogs in the spring of the year when +they run in the forest. Only the germ is very small. It is so small that +you cannot see it--" + +Hoo-Hoo began to laugh. + +"You're a queer un, Granser, talking about things you can't see. If you +can't see 'em, how do you know they are? That's what I want to know. How +do you know anything you can't see?" + +"A good question, a very good question, Hoo-Hoo. But we did see--some of +them. We had what we called microscopes and ultramicroscopes, and we put +them to our eyes and looked through them, so that we saw things larger +than they really were, and many things we could not see without the +microscopes at all. Our best ultramicroscopes could make a germ look +forty thousand times larger. A mussel-shell is a thousand fingers like +Edwin's. Take forty mussel-shells, and by as many times larger was the +germ when we looked at it through a microscope. And after that, we +had other ways, by using what we called moving pictures, of making the +forty-thousand-times germ many, many thousand times larger still. And +thus we saw all these things which our eyes of themselves could not see. +Take a grain of sand. Break it into ten pieces. Take one piece and break +it into ten. Break one of those pieces into ten, and one of those into +ten, and one of those into ten, and one of those into ten, and do it all +day, and maybe, by sunset, you will have a piece as small as one of the +germs." The boys were openly incredulous. Hare-Lip sniffed and sneered +and Hoo-Hoo snickered, until Edwin nudged them to be silent. + +"The woodtick sucks the blood of the dog, but the germ, being so very +small, goes right into the blood of the body, and there it has +many children. In those days there would be as many as a billion--a +crab-shell, please--as many as that crab-shell in one man's body. We +called germs micro-organisms. When a few million, or a billion, of them +were in a man, in all the blood of a man, he was sick. These germs were +a disease. There were many different kinds of them--more different kinds +than there are grains of sand on this beach. We knew only a few of the +kinds. The micro-organic world was an invisible world, a world we could +not see, and we knew very little about it. Yet we did know something. +There was the _bacillus anthracis_; there was the _micrococcus_; there +was the _Bacterium termo_, and the _Bacterium lactis_--that's what +turns the goat milk sour even to this day, Hare-Lip; and there were +_Schizomycetes_ without end. And there were many others...." + +Here the old man launched into a disquisition on germs and their +natures, using words and phrases of such extraordinary length and +meaninglessness, that the boys grinned at one another and looked out +over the deserted ocean till they forgot the old man was babbling on. + +"But the Scarlet Death, Granser," Edwin at last suggested. + +Granser recollected himself, and with a start tore himself away from the +rostrum of the lecture-hall, where, to another world audience, he +had been expounding the latest theory, sixty years gone, of germs and +germ-diseases. + +"Yes, yes, Edwin; I had forgotten. Sometimes the memory of the past is +very strong upon me, and I forget that I am a dirty old man, clad in +goat-skin, wandering with my savage grandsons who are goatherds in +the primeval wilderness. 'The fleeting systems lapse like foam,' and so +lapsed our glorious, colossal civilization. I am Granser, a tired old +man. I belong to the tribe of Santa Rosans. I married into that tribe. +My sons and daughters married into the Chauffeurs, the Sacramen-tos, and +the Palo-Altos. You, Hare-Lip, are of the Chauffeurs. You, Edwin, are +of the Sacramentos. And you, Hoo-Hoo, are of the Palo-Altos. Your tribe +takes its name from a town that was near the seat of another great +institution of learning. It was called Stanford University. Yes, I +remember now. It is perfectly clear. I was telling you of the Scarlet +Death. Where was I in my story?" + +"You was telling about germs, the things you can't see but which make +men sick," Edwin prompted. + +"Yes, that's where I was. A man did not notice at first when only a few +of these germs got into his body. But each germ broke in half and became +two germs, and they kept doing this very rapidly so that in a short time +there were many millions of them in the body. Then the man was sick. He +had a disease, and the disease was named after the kind of a germ that +was in him. It might be measles, it might be influenza, it might be +yellow fever; it might be any of thousands and thousands of kinds of +diseases. + +"Now this is the strange thing about these germs. There were always new +ones coming to live in men's bodies. Long and long and long ago, when +there were only a few men in the world, there were few diseases. But +as men increased and lived closely together in great cities and +civilizations, new diseases arose, new kinds of germs entered their +bodies. Thus were countless millions and billions of human beings +killed. And the more thickly men packed together, the more terrible were +the new diseases that came to be. Long before my time, in the middle +ages, there was the Black Plague that swept across Europe. It swept +across Europe many times. There was tuberculosis, that entered into men +wherever they were thickly packed. A hundred years before my time there +was the bubonic plague. And in Africa was the sleeping sickness. The +bacteriologists fought all these sicknesses and destroyed them, just as +you boys fight the wolves away from your goats, or squash the mosquitoes +that light on you. The bacteriologists--" + +"But, Granser, what is a what-you-call-it?" Edwin interrupted. + +"You, Edwin, are a goatherd. Your task is to watch the goats. You know a +great deal about goats. A bacteriologist watches germs. That's his +task, and he knows a great deal about them. So, as I was saying, the +bacteriologists fought with the germs and destroyed them--sometimes. +There was leprosy, a horrible disease. A hundred years before I was +born, the bacteriologists discovered the germ of leprosy. They knew all +about it. They made pictures of it. I have seen those pictures. But +they never found a way to kill it. But in 1984, there was the Pantoblast +Plague, a disease that broke out in a country called Brazil and that +killed millions of people. But the bacteriologists found it out, and +found the way to kill it, so that the Pantoblast Plague went no farther. +They made what they called a serum, which they put into a man's body and +which killed the pantoblast germs without killing the man. And in 1910, +there was Pellagra, and also the hookworm. These were easily killed +by the bacteriologists. But in 1947 there arose a new disease that had +never been seen before. It got into the bodies of babies of only ten +months old or less, and it made them unable to move their hands and +feet, or to eat, or anything; and the bacteriologists were eleven years +in discovering how to kill that particular germ and save the babies. + +"In spite of all these diseases, and of all the new ones that continued +to arise, there were more and more men in the world. This was because it +was easy to get food. The easier it was to get food, the more men +there were; the more men there were, the more thickly were they packed +together on the earth; and the more thickly they were packed, the more +new kinds of germs became diseases. There were warnings. Soldervetzsky, +as early as 1929, told the bacteriologists that they had no guaranty +against some new disease, a thousand times more deadly than any they +knew, arising and killing by the hundreds of millions and even by the +billion. You see, the micro-organic world remained a mystery to the end. +They knew there was such a world, and that from time to time armies of +new germs emerged from it to kill men. + +"And that was all they knew about it. For all they knew, in that +invisible micro-organic world there might be as many different kinds of +germs as there are grains of sand on this beach. And also, in that same +invisible world it might well be that new kinds of germs came to be. +It might be there that life originated--the 'abysmal fecundity,' +Soldervetzsky called it, applying the words of other men who had written +before him...." + +It was at this point that Hare-Lip rose to his feet, an expression of +huge contempt on his face. + +[Illustration: Granser, you make me sick with your gabble 071] + +"Granser," he announced, "you make me sick with your gabble. Why don't +you tell about the Red Death? If you ain't going to, say so, an' we'll +start back for camp." + +The old man looked at him and silently began to cry. The weak tears of +age rolled down his cheeks and all the feebleness of his eighty-seven +years showed in his grief-stricken countenance. + +"Sit down," Edwin counselled soothingly. "Granser's all right. He's just +gettin' to the Scarlet Death, ain't you, Granser? He's just goin' to +tell us about it right now. Sit down, Hare-Lip. Go ahead, Granser." + + + + +III + +THE old man wiped the tears away on his grimy knuckles and took up the +tale in a tremulous, piping voice that soon strengthened as he got the +swing of the narrative. + +"It was in the summer of 2013 that the Plague came. I was twenty-seven +years old, and well do I remember it. Wireless despatches--" + +Hare-Lip spat loudly his disgust, and Granser hastened to make amends. + +"We talked through the air in those days, thousands and thousands of +miles. And the word came of a strange disease that had broken out in +New York. There were seventeen millions of people living then in that +noblest city of America. Nobody thought anything about the news. It was +only a small thing. There had been only a few deaths. It seemed, though, +that they had died very quickly, and that one of the first signs of +the disease was the turning red of the face and all the body. Within +twenty-four hours came the report of the first case in Chicago. And on +the same day, it was made public that London, the greatest city in the +world, next to Chicago, had been secretly fighting the plague for two +weeks and censoring the news despatches--that is, not permitting the +word to go forth to the rest of the world that London had the plague. + +"It looked serious, but we in California, like everywhere else, were +not alarmed. We were sure that the bacteriologists would find a way to +overcome this new germ, just as they had overcome other germs in the +past. But the trouble was the astonishing quickness with which this germ +destroyed human beings, and the fact that it inevitably killed any +human body it entered. No one ever recovered. There was the old Asiatic +cholera, when you might eat dinner with a well man in the evening, and +the next morning, if you got up early enough, you would see him being +hauled by your window in the death-cart. But this new plague was quicker +than that--much quicker. + +[Illustration: But this new plague was quicker 078] + +"From the moment of the first signs of it, a man would be dead in an +hour. Some lasted for several hours. Many died within ten or fifteen +minutes of the appearance of the first signs. + +"The heart began to beat faster and the heat of the body to increase. +Then came the scarlet rash, spreading like wildfire over the face and +body. Most persons never noticed the increase in heat and heart-beat, +and the first they knew was when the scarlet rash came out. Usually, +they had convulsions at the time of the appearance of the rash. But +these convulsions did not last long and were not very severe. If one +lived through them, he became perfectly quiet, and only did he feel a +numbness swiftly creeping up his body from the feet. The heels became +numb first, then the legs, and hips, and when the numbness reached +as high as his heart he died. They did not rave or sleep. Their minds +always remained cool and calm up to the moment their heart numbed and +stopped. And another strange thing was the rapidity of decomposition. No +sooner was a person dead than the body seemed to fall to pieces, to +fly apart, to melt away even as you looked at it. That was one of the +reasons the plague spread so rapidly. All the billions of germs in a +corpse were so immediately released. + +"And it was because of all this that the bacteriologists had so little +chance in fighting the germs. They were killed in their laboratories +even as they studied the germ of the Scarlet Death. They were heroes. +As fast as they perished, others stepped forth and took their places. +It was in London that they first isolated it. The news was telegraphed +everywhere. Trask was the name of the man who succeeded in this, but +within thirty hours he was dead. Then came the struggle in all the +laboratories to find something that would kill the plague germs. All +drugs failed. You see, the problem was to get a drug, or serum, that +would kill the germs in the body and not kill the body. They tried to +fight it with other germs, to put into the body of a sick man germs that +were the enemies of the plague germs--" + +"And you can't see these germ-things, Granser," Hare-Lip objected, "and +here you gabble, gabble, gabble about them as if they was anything, +when they're nothing at all. Anything you can't see, ain't, that's what. +Fighting things that ain't with things that ain't! They must have +been all fools in them days. That's why they croaked. I ain't goin' to +believe in such rot, I tell you that." + +Granser promptly began to weep, while Edwin hotly took up his defence. + +"Look here, Hare-Lip, you believe in lots of things you can't see." + +Hare-Lip shook his head. + +"You believe in dead men walking about. You never seen one dead man walk +about." + +"I tell you I seen 'em, last winter, when I was wolf-hunting with dad." + +"Well, you always spit when you cross running water," Edwin challenged. + +"That's to keep off bad luck," was Hare-Lip's defence. + +"You believe in bad luck?" + +"Sure." + +"An' you ain't never seen bad luck," Edwin concluded triumphantly. +"You're just as bad as Granser and his germs. You believe in what you +don't see. Go on, Granser." + +Hare-Lip, crushed by this metaphysical defeat, remained silent, and +the old man went on. Often and often, though this narrative must not be +clogged by the details, was Granser's tale interrupted while the boys +squabbled among themselves. Also, among themselves they kept up a +constant, low-voiced exchange of explanation and conjecture, as they +strove to follow the old man into his unknown and vanished world. + +"The Scarlet Death broke out in San Francisco. The first death came on +a Monday morning. By Thursday they were dying like flies in Oakland +and San Francisco. They died everywhere--in their beds, at their +work, walking along the street. It was on Tuesday that I saw my first +death--Miss Collbran, one of my students, sitting right there before my +eyes, in my lecture-room. I noticed her face while I was talking. It had +suddenly turned scarlet. I ceased speaking and could only look at her, +for the first fear of the plague was already on all of us and we knew +that it had come. The young women screamed and ran out of the room. So +did the young men run out, all but two. Miss Collbran's convulsions were +very mild and lasted less than a minute. One of the young men fetched +her a glass of water. She drank only a little of it, and cried out: + +"'My feet! All sensation has left them.' + +"After a minute she said, 'I have no feet. I am unaware that I have any +feet. And my knees are cold. I can scarcely feel that I have knees.' + +"She lay on the floor, a bundle of notebooks under her head. And we +could do nothing. The coldness and the numbness crept up past her hips +to her heart, and when it reached her heart she was dead. In fifteen +minutes, by the clock--I timed it--she was dead, there, in my own +classroom, dead. And she was a very beautiful, strong, healthy young +woman. And from the first sign of the plague to her death only fifteen +minutes elapsed. That will show you how swift was the Scarlet Death. + +"Yet in those few minutes I remained with the dying woman in my +classroom, the alarm had spread over the university; and the students, +by thousands, all of them, had deserted the lecture-room and +laboratories. When I emerged, on my way to make report to the President +of the Faculty, I found the university deserted. Across the campus were +several stragglers hurrying for their homes. Two of them were running. + +"President Hoag, I found in his office, all alone, looking very old and +very gray, with a multitude of wrinkles in his face that I had never +seen before. At the sight of me, he pulled himself to his feet and +tottered away to the inner office, banging the door after him and +locking it. You see, he knew I had been exposed, and he was afraid. +He shouted to me through the door to go away. I shall never forget +my feelings as I walked down the silent corridors and out across that +deserted campus. I was not afraid. I had been exposed, and I looked +upon myself as already dead. It was not that, but a feeling of awful +depression that impressed me. Everything had stopped. It was like the +end of the world to me--my world. I had been born within sight and sound +of the university. It had been my predestined career. My father had been +a professor there before me, and his father before him. For a century +and a half had this university, like a splendid machine, been running +steadily on. And now, in an instant, it had stopped. It was like seeing +the sacred flame die down on some thrice-sacred altar. I was shocked, +unutterably shocked. + +"When I arrived home, my housekeeper screamed as I entered, and fled +away. And when I rang, I found the housemaid had likewise fled. I +investigated. In the kitchen I found the cook on the point of departure. +But she screamed, too, and in her haste dropped a suitcase of her +personal belongings and ran out of the house and across the grounds, +still screaming. I can hear her scream to this day. You see, we did not +act in this way when ordinary diseases smote us. We were always calm +over such things, and sent for the doctors and nurses who knew just +what to do. But this was different. It struck so suddenly, and killed so +swiftly, and never missed a stroke. When the scarlet rash appeared on a +person's face, that person was marked by death. There was never a known +case of a recovery. + +"I was alone in my big house. As I have told you often before, in those +days we could talk with one another over wires or through the air. The +telephone bell rang, and I found my brother talking to me. He told me +that he was not coming home for fear of catching the plague from me, and +that he had taken our two sisters to stop at Professor Bacon's home. He +advised me to remain where I was, and wait to find out whether or not I +had caught the plague. + +[Illustration: The telephone bell rang 088] + +"To all of this I agreed, staying in my house and for the first time in +my life attempting to cook. And the plague did not come out on me. By +means of the telephone I could talk with whomsoever I pleased and get +the news. Also, there were the newspapers, and I ordered all of them to +be thrown up to my door so that I could know what was happening with the +rest of the world. + +"New York City and Chicago were in chaos. And what happened with them +was happening in all the large cities. A third of the New York police +were dead. Their chief was also dead, likewise the mayor. All law and +order had ceased. The bodies were lying in the streets un-buried. All +railroads and vessels carrying food and such things into the great +city had ceased runnings and mobs of the hungry poor were pillaging +the stores and warehouses. Murder and robbery and drunkenness were +everywhere. Already the people had fled from the city by millions--at +first the rich, in their private motor-cars and dirigibles, and then the +great mass of the population, on foot, carrying the plague with them, +themselves starving and pillaging the farmers and all the towns and +villages on the way. + +[Illustration: Fled from the city by millions 092] + +"The man who sent this news, the wireless operator, was alone with his +instrument on the top of a lofty building. The people remaining in the +city--he estimated them at several hundred thousand--had gone mad from +fear and drink, and on all sides of him great fires were raging. He was +a hero, that man who staid by his post--an obscure newspaperman, most +likely. + +"For twenty-four hours, he said, no transatlantic airships had arrived, +and no more messages were coming from England. He did state, though, +that a message from Berlin--that's in Germany--announced that Hoffmeyer, +a bacteriologist of the Metchnikoff School, had discovered the serum for +the plague. That was the last word, to this day, that we of America +ever received from Europe. If Hoffmeyer discovered the serum, it was too +late, or otherwise, long ere this, explorers from Europe would have +come looking for us. We can only conclude that what happened in America +happened in Europe, and that, at the best, some several score may have +survived the Scarlet Death on that whole continent. + +"For one day longer the despatches continued to come from New York. +Then they, too, ceased. The man who had sent them, perched in his lofty +building, had either died of the plague or been consumed in the great +conflagrations he had described as raging around him. And what had +occurred in New York had been duplicated in all the other cities. It was +the same in San Francisco, and Oakland, and Berkeley. By Thursday the +people were dying so rapidly that their corpses could not be handled, +and dead bodies lay everywhere. Thursday night the panic outrush for +the country began. Imagine, my grandsons, people, thicker than the +salmon-run you have seen on the Sacramento river, pouring out of the +cities by millions, madly over the country, in vain attempt to escape +the ubiquitous death. You see, they carried the germs with them. Even +the airships of the rich, fleeing for mountain and desert fastnesses, +carried the germs. + +"Hundreds of these airships escaped to Hawaii, and not only did they +bring the plague with them, but they found the plague already there +before them. This we learned, by the despatches, until all order in San +Francisco vanished, and there were no operators left at their posts to +receive or send. It was amazing, astounding, this loss of communication +with the world. It was exactly as if the world had ceased, been blotted +out. For sixty years that world has no longer existed for me. I know +there must be such places as New York, Europe, Asia, and Africa; but not +one word has been heard of them--not in sixty years. With the coming of +the Scarlet Death the world fell apart, absolutely, irretrievably. Ten +thousand years of culture and civilization passed in the twinkling of an +eye, 'lapsed like foam.' + +"I was telling about the airships of the rich. They carried the plague +with them and no matter where they fled, they died. I never encountered +but one survivor of any of them--Mungerson. He was afterwards a Santa +Rosan, and he married my eldest daughter. He came into the tribe eight +years after the plague. He was then nineteen years old, and he was +compelled to wait twelve years more before he could marry. You see, +there were no unmarried women, and some of the older daughters of the +Santa Rosans were already bespoken. So he was forced to wait until +my Mary had grown to sixteen years. It was his son, Gimp-Leg, who was +killed last year by the mountain lion. + +"Mungerson was eleven years old at the time of the plague. His father +was one of the Industrial Magnates, a very wealthy, powerful man. It was +on his airship, the Condor, that they were fleeing, with all the family, +for the wilds of British Columbia, which is far to the north of here. +But there was some accident, and they were wrecked near Mount Shasta. +You have heard of that mountain. It is far to the north. The plague +broke out amongst them, and this boy of eleven was the only survivor. +For eight years he was alone, wandering over a deserted land and looking +vainly for his own kind. And at last, travelling south, he picked up +with us, the Santa Rosans. + +"But I am ahead of my story. When the great exodus from the cities +around San Francisco Bay began, and while the telephones were still +working, I talked with my brother. I told him this flight from the +cities was insanity, that there were no symptoms of the plague in +me, and that the thing for us to do was to isolate ourselves and our +relatives in some safe place. We decided on the Chemistry Building, at +the university, and we planned to lay in a supply of provisions, and by +force of arms to prevent any other persons from forcing their presence +upon us after we had retired to our refuge. + +"All this being arranged, my brother begged me to stay in my own +house for at least twenty-four hours more, on the chance of the plague +developing in me. To this I agreed, and he promised to come for me next +day. We talked on over the details of the provisioning and the defending +of the Chemistry Building until the telephone died. It died in the midst +of our conversation. That evening there were no electric lights, and +I was alone in my house in the darkness. No more newspapers were being +printed, so I had no knowledge of what was taking place outside. + +[Illustration: I heard sounds of rioting and of pistol shots 098] + +"I heard sounds of rioting and of pistol shots, and from my windows I +could see the glare of the sky of some conflagration in the direction +of Oakland. It was a night of terror. I did not sleep a wink. A man--why +and how I do not know--was killed on the sidewalk in front of the house. +I heard the rapid reports of an automatic pistol, and a few minutes +later the wounded wretch crawled up to my door, moaning and crying out +for help. Arming myself with two automatics, I went to him. By the light +of a match I ascertained that while he was dying of the bullet wounds, +at the same time the plague was on him. I fled indoors, whence I heard +him moan and cry out for half an hour longer. + +"In the morning, my brother came to me. I had gathered into a handbag +what things of value I purposed taking, but when I saw his face I knew +that he would never accompany me to the Chemistry Building. The plague +was on him. He intended shaking my hand, but I went back hurriedly +before him. + +"'Look at yourself in the mirror,' I commanded. + +[Illustration: Look at yourself in the mirror 100] + +"He did so, and at sight of his scarlet face, the color deepening as he +looked at it, he sank down nervelessly in a chair. + +"'My God!' he said. 'I've got it. Don't come near me. I am a dead man.' + +"Then the convulsions seized him. He was two hours in dying, and he +was conscious to the last, complaining about the coldness and loss of +sensation in his feet, his calves, his thighs, until at last it was his +heart and he was dead. + +"That was the way the Scarlet Death slew. I caught up my handbag and +fled. The sights in the streets were terrible. One stumbled on bodies +everywhere. Some were not yet dead. And even as you looked, you saw men +sink down with the death fastened upon them. There were numerous fires +burning in Berkeley, while Oakland and San Francisco were apparently +being swept by vast conflagrations. The smoke of the burning filled the +heavens, so that the midday was as a gloomy twilight, and, in the shifts +of wind, sometimes the sun shone through dimly, a dull red orb. Truly, +my grandsons, it was like the last days of the end of the world. + +"There were numerous stalled motor cars, showing that the gasoline and +the engine supplies of the garages had given out. I remember one such +car. A man and a woman lay back dead in the seats, and on the pavement +near it were two more women and a child. Strange and terrible sights +there were on every hand. People slipped by silently, furtively, like +ghosts--white-faced women carrying infants in their arms; fathers +leading children by the hand; singly, and in couples, and in +families--all fleeing out of the city of death. Some carried supplies +of food, others blankets and valuables, and there were many who carried +nothing. + +"There was a grocery store--a place where food was sold. The man to whom +it belonged--I knew him well--a quiet, sober, but stupid and obstinate +fellow, was defending it. The windows and doors had been broken in, but +he, inside, hiding behind a counter, was discharging his pistol at a +number of men on the sidewalk who were breaking in. In the entrance were +several bodies--of men, I decided, whom he had killed earlier in the +day. Even as I looked on from a distance, I saw one of the robbers break +the windows of the adjoining store, a place where shoes were sold, +and deliberately set fire to it. I did not go to the groceryman's +assistance. The time for such acts had already passed. Civilization was +crumbling, and it was each for himself." + + + + +IV + +I WENT away hastily, down a cross-street, and at the first corner I saw +another tragedy. Two men of the working class had caught a man and a +woman with two children, and were robbing them. I knew the man by sight, +though I had never been introduced to him. He was a poet whose verses I +had long admired. Yet I did not go to his help, for at the moment I came +upon the scene there was a pistol shot, and I saw him sinking to the +ground. The woman screamed, and she was felled with a fist-blow by one +of the brutes. I cried out threateningly, whereupon they discharged +their pistols at me and I ran away around the corner. Here I was blocked +by an advancing conflagration. The buildings on both sides were burning, +and the street was filled with smoke and flame. From somewhere in that +murk came a woman's voice calling shrilly for help. But I did not go to +her. A man's heart turned to iron amid such scenes, and one heard all +too many appeals for help. + +"Returning to the corner, I found the two robbers were gone. The poet +and his wife lay dead on the pavement. It was a shocking sight. The two +children had vanished--whither I could not tell. And I knew, now, why +it was that the fleeing persons I encountered slipped along so furtively +and with such white faces. In the midst of our civilization, down in our +slums and labor-ghettos, we had bred a race of barbarians, of savages; +and now, in the time of our calamity, they turned upon us like the wild +beasts they were and destroyed us. And they destroyed themselves as +well. + +[Illustration: Now in the time of calamity they turned on us 108] + +"They inflamed themselves with strong drink and committed a thousand +atrocities, quarreling and killing one another in the general madness. +One group of workingmen I saw, of the better sort, who had banded +together, and, with their women and children in their midst, the sick +and aged in litters and being carried, and with a number of horses +pulling a truck-load of provisions, they were fighting their way out +of the city. They made a fine spectacle as they came down the street +through the drifting smoke, though they nearly shot me when I first +appeared in their path. As they went by, one of their leaders shouted +out to me in apologetic explanation. He said they were killing the +robbers and looters on sight, and that they had thus banded together as +the only-means by which to escape the prowlers. + +"It was here that I saw for the first time what I was soon to see so +often. One of the marching men had suddenly shown the unmistakable mark +of the plague. Immediately those about him drew away, and he, without +a remonstrance, stepped out of his place to let them pass on. A woman, +most probably his wife, attempted to follow him. She was leading a +little boy by the hand. But the husband commanded her sternly to go on, +while others laid hands on her and restrained her from following him. +This I saw, and I saw the man also, with his scarlet blaze of face, step +into a doorway on the opposite side of the street. I heard the report of +his pistol, and saw him sink lifeless to the ground. + +"After being turned aside twice again by advancing fires, I succeeded in +getting through to the university. On the edge of the campus I came +upon a party of university folk who were going in the direction of the +Chemistry Building. They were all family men, and their families were +with them, including the nurses and the servants. Professor Badminton +greeted me, I had difficulty in recognizing him. Somewhere he had gone +through flames, and his beard was singed off. About his head was a +bloody bandage, and his clothes were filthy. + +[Illustration: He told me he had been Cruelly Beaten 112] + +"He told me he had prowlers, and that his brother had been killed the +previous night, in the defence of their dwelling. + +"Midway across the campus, he pointed suddenly to Mrs. Swinton's face. +The unmistakable scarlet was there. Immediately all the other women set +up a screaming and began to run away from her. Her two children were +with a nurse, and these also ran with the women. But her husband, Doctor +Swinton, remained with her. + +"'Go on, Smith,' he told me. 'Keep an eye on the children. As for me, +I shall stay with my wife. I know she is as already dead, but I can't +leave her. Afterwards, if I escape, I shall come to the Chemistry +Building, and do you watch for me and let me in.' + +"I left him bending over his wife and soothing her last moments, while +I ran to overtake the party. We were the last to be admitted to the +Chemistry Building. After that, with our automatic rifles we maintained +our isolation. By our plans, we had arranged for a company of sixty to +be in this refuge. Instead, every one of the number originally planned +had added relatives and friends and whole families until there were over +four hundred souls. But the Chemistry Building was large, and, standing +by itself, was in no danger of being burned by the great fires that +raged everywhere in the city. + +"A large quantity of provisions had been gathered, and a food committee +took charge of it, issuing rations daily to the various families and +groups that arranged themselves into messes. A number of committees were +appointed, and we developed a very efficient organization. I was on the +committee of defence, though for the first day no prowlers came near. We +could see them in the distance, however, and by the smoke of their fires +knew that several camps of them were occupying the far edge of the +campus. Drunkenness was rife, and often we heard them singing ribald +songs or insanely shouting. While the world crashed to ruin about them +and all the air was filled with the smoke of its burning, these low +creatures gave rein to their bestiality and fought and drank and died. +And after all, what did it matter? Everybody died anyway, the good and +the bad, the efficients and the weaklings, those that loved to live and +those that scorned to live. They passed. Everything passed. + +"When twenty-four hours had gone by and no signs of the plague were +apparent, we congratulated ourselves and set about digging a well. You +have seen the great iron pipes which in those days carried water to all +the city-dwellers. We feared that the fires in the city would burst the +pipes and empty the reservoirs. So we tore up the cement floor of the +central court of the Chemistry Building and dug a well. There were many +young men, undergraduates, with us, and we worked night and day on the +well. And our fears were confirmed. Three hours before we reached water, +the pipes went dry. + +"A second twenty-four hours passed, and still the plague did not +appear among us. We thought we were saved. But we did not know what I +afterwards decided to be true, namely, that the period of the incubation +of the plague germs in a human's body was a matter of a number of days. +It slew so swiftly when once it manifested itself, that we were led to +believe that the period of incubation was equally swift. So, when two +days had left us unscathed, we were elated with the idea that we were +free of the contagion. + +"But the third day disillusioned us. I can never forget the night +preceding it. I had charge of the night guards from eight to twelve, +and from the roof of the building I watched the passing of all man's +glorious works. So terrible were the local conflagrations that all the +sky was lighted up. One could read the finest print in the red glare. +All the world seemed wrapped in flames. San Francisco spouted smoke and +fire from a score of vast conflagrations that were like so many active +volcanoes. Oakland, San Leandro, Haywards--all were burning; and to the +northward, clear to Point Richmond, other fires were at work. It was an +awe-inspiring spectacle. Civilization, my grandsons, civilization was +passing in a sheet of flame and a breath of death. At ten o'clock that +night, the great powder magazines at Point Pinole exploded in rapid +succession. So terrific were the concussions that the strong building +rocked as in an earthquake, while every pane of glass was broken. It was +then that I left the roof and went down the long corridors, from room to +room, quieting the alarmed women and telling them what had happened. + +"An hour later, at a window on the ground floor, I heard pandemonium +break out in the camps of the prowlers. There were cries and screams, +and shots from many pistols. As we afterward conjectured, this fight had +been precipitated by an attempt on the part of those that were well +to drive out those that were sick. At any rate, a number of the +plague-stricken prowlers escaped across the campus and drifted against +our doors. We warned them back, but they cursed us and discharged a +fusillade from their pistols. Professor Merryweather, at one of the +windows, was instantly killed, the bullet striking him squarely between +the eyes. We opened fire in turn, and all the prowlers fled away with +the exception of three. One was a woman. The plague was on them and they +were reckless. Like foul fiends, there in the red glare from the skies, +with faces blazing, they continued to curse us and fire at us. One of +the men I shot with my own hand. After that the other man and the woman, +still cursing us, lay down under our windows, where we were compelled to +watch them die of the plague. + +"The situation was critical. The explosions of the powder magazines +had broken all the windows of the Chemistry Building, so that we were +exposed to the germs from the corpses. The sanitary committee was called +upon to act, and it responded nobly. Two men were required to go out and +remove the corpses, and this meant the probable sacrifice of their own +lives, for, having performed the task, they were not to be permitted to +reenter the building. One of the professors, who was a bachelor, and +one of the undergraduates volunteered. They bade good-bye to us and +went forth. They were heroes. They gave up their lives that four hundred +others might live. After they had performed their work, they stood for +a moment, at a distance, looking at us wistfully. Then they waved their +hands in farewell and went away slowly across the campus toward the +burning city. + +"And yet it was all useless. The next morning the first one of us was +smitten with the plague--a little nurse-girl in the family of Professor +Stout. It was no time for weak-kneed, sentimental policies. On the +chance that she might be the only one, we thrust her forth from the +building and commanded her to be gone. + +[Illustration: We thrust her forth from the building 121] + +"She went away slowly across the campus, wringing her hands and crying +pitifully. We felt like brutes, but what were we to do? There were four +hundred of us, and individuals had to be sacrificed. + +"In one of the laboratories three families had domiciled themselves, and +that afternoon we found among them no less than four corpses and seven +cases of the plague in all its different stages. + +"Then it was that the horror began. Leaving the dead lie, we forced the +living ones to segregate themselves in another room. The plague began to +break out among the rest of us, and as fast as the symptoms appeared, we +sent the stricken ones to these segregated rooms. We compelled them to +walk there by themselves, so as to avoid laying hands on them. It was +heartrending. But still the plague raged among us, and room after +room was filled with the dead and dying. And so we who were yet clean +retreated to the next floor and to the next, before this sea of the +dead, that, room by room and floor by floor, inundated the building. + +"The place became a charnel house, and in the middle of the night +the survivors fled forth, taking nothing with them except arms and +ammunition and a heavy store of tinned foods. We camped on the opposite +side of the campus from the prowlers, and, while some stood guard, +others of us volunteered to scout into the city in quest of horses, +motor cars, carts, and wagons, or anything that would carry our +provisions and enable us to emulate the banded workingmen I had seen +fighting their way out to the open country. + +"I was one of these scouts; and Doctor Hoyle, remembering that his motor +car had been left behind in his home garage, told me to look for it. We +scouted in pairs, and Dombey, a young undergraduate, accompanied me. We +had to cross half a mile of the residence portion of the city to get +to Doctor Hoyle's home. Here the buildings stood apart, in the midst of +trees and grassy lawns, and here the fires had played freaks, burning +whole blocks, skipping blocks and often skipping a single house in a +block. And here, too, the prowlers were still at their work. We carried +our automatic pistols openly in our hands, and looked desperate enough, +forsooth, to keep them from attacking us. But at Doctor Hoyle's house +the thing happened. Untouched by fire, even as we came to it the smoke +of flames burst forth. + +"The miscreant who had set fire to it staggered down the steps and out +along the driveway. Sticking out of his coat pockets were bottles of +whiskey, and he was very drunk. My first impulse was to shoot him, and +I have never ceased regretting that I did not. Staggering and maundering +to himself, with bloodshot eyes, and a raw and bleeding slash down one +side of his bewhiskered face, he was altogether the most nauseating +specimen of degradation and filth I had ever encountered. I did not +shoot him, and he leaned against a tree on the lawn to let us go by. +It was the most absolute, wanton act. Just as we were opposite him, +he suddenly drew a pistol and shot Dombey through the head. The next +instant I shot him. But it was too late. Dombey expired without a groan, +immediately. I doubt if he even knew what had happened to him. + +"Leaving the two corpses, I hurried on past the burning house to the +garage, and there found Doctor Hoyle's motor car. The tanks were filled +with gasoline, and it was ready for use. And it was in this car that I +threaded the streets of the ruined city and came back to the survivors +on the campus. The other scouts returned, but none had been so +fortunate. Professor Fairmead had found a Shetland pony, but the poor +creature, tied in a stable and abandoned for days, was so weak from want +of food and water that it could carry no burden at all. Some of the men +were for turning it loose, but I insisted that we should lead it along +with us, so that, if we got out of food, we would have it to eat. + +"There were forty-seven of us when we started, many being women and +children. The President of the Faculty, an old man to begin with, and +now hopelessly broken by the awful happenings of the past week, rode +in the motor car with several young children and the aged mother of +Professor Fairmead. Wathope, a young professor of English, who had a +grievous bullet-wound in his leg, drove the car. The rest of us walked, +Professor Fairmead leading the pony. + +"It was what should have been a bright summer day, but the smoke from +the burning world filled the sky, through which the sun shone murkily, +a dull and lifeless orb, blood-red and ominous. But we had grown +accustomed to that blood-red sun. With the smoke it was different. It +bit into our nostrils and eyes, and there was not one of us whose eyes +were not bloodshot. We directed our course to the southeast through the +endless miles of suburban residences, travelling along where the first +swells of low hills rose from the flat of the central city. It was by +this way, only, that we could expect to gain the country. + +"Our progress was painfully slow. The women and children could not walk +fast. They did not dream of walking, my grandsons, in the way all people +walk to-day. In truth, none of us knew how to walk. It was not until +after the plague that I learned really to walk. So it was that the pace +of the slowest was the pace of all, for we dared not separate on account +of the prowlers. There were not so many now of these human beasts of +prey. The plague had already well diminished their numbers, but enough +still lived to be a constant menace to us. Many of the beautiful +residences were untouched by fire, yet smoking ruins were everywhere. +The prowlers, too, seemed to have got over their insensate desire to +burn, and it was more rarely that we saw houses freshly on fire. + +"Several of us scouted among the private garages in search of motor cars +and gasoline. But in this we were unsuccessful. The first great flights +from the cities had swept all such utilities away. Calgan, a fine young +man, was lost in this work. He was shot by prowlers while crossing a +lawn. Yet this was our only casualty, though, once, a drunken brute +deliberately opened fire on all of us. Luckily, he fired wildly, and we +shot him before he had done any hurt. + +"At Fruitvale, still in the heart of the magnificent residence section +of the city, the plague again smote us. Professor Fairmead was the +victim. Making signs to us that his mother was not to know, he turned +aside into the grounds of a beautiful mansion. He sat down forlornly on +the steps of the front veranda, and I, having lingered, waved him a last +farewell. That night, several miles beyond Fruitvale and still in the +city, we made camp. And that night we shifted camp twice to get away +from our dead. In the morning there were thirty of us. I shall never +forget the President of the Faculty. During the morning's march his +wife, who was walking, betrayed the fatal symptoms, and when she +drew aside to let us go on, he insisted on leaving the motor car and +remaining with her. There was quite a discussion about this, but in the +end we gave in. It was just as well, for we knew not which ones of us, +if any, might ultimately escape. + +"That night, the second of our march, we camped beyond Haywards in the +first stretches of country. And in the morning there were eleven of us +that lived. Also, during the night, Wathope, the professor with the +wounded leg, deserted us in the motor car. He took with him his sister +and his mother and most of our tinned provisions. It was that day, in +the afternoon, while resting by the wayside, that I saw the last airship +I shall ever see. The smoke was much thinner here in the country, and I +first sighted the ship drifting and veering helplessly at an elevation +of two thousand feet. What had happened I could not conjecture, but even +as we looked we saw her bow dip down lower and lower. Then the bulkheads +of the various gas-chambers must have burst, for, quite perpendicular, +she fell like a plummet to the earth. + +[Illustration: She fell like a plummet to the earth 132] + +"And from that day to this I have not seen another airship. Often and +often, during the next few years, I scanned the sky for them, hoping +against hope that somewhere in the world civilization had survived. But +it was not to be. What happened with us in California must have happened +with everybody everywhere. + +"Another day, and at Niles there were three of us. Beyond Niles, in the +middle of the highway, we found Wathope. The motor car had broken down, +and there, on the rugs which they had spread on the ground, lay the +bodies of his sister, his mother, and himself. + +"Wearied by the unusual exercise of continual walking, that night I +slept heavily. In the morning I was alone in the world. Canfield and +Parsons, my last companions, were dead of the plague. Of the four +hundred that sought shelter in the Chemistry Building, and of the +forty-seven that began the march, I alone remained--I and the Shetland +pony. Why this should be so there is no explaining. I did not catch the +plague, that is all. I was immune. I was merely the one lucky man in +a million--just as every survivor was one in a million, or, rather, in +several millions, for the proportion was at least that." + + + + +V + +"FOR two days I sheltered in a pleasant grove where there had been no +deaths. In those two days, while badly depressed and believing that my +turn would come at any moment, nevertheless I rested and recuperated. So +did the pony. And on the third day, putting what small store of tinned +provisions I possessed on the pony's back, I started on across a very +lonely land. Not a live man, woman, or child, did I encounter, though +the dead were everywhere. Food, however, was abundant. The land then +was not as it is now. It was all cleared of trees and brush, and it was +cultivated. The food for millions of mouths was growing, ripening, and +going to waste. From the fields and orchards I gathered vegetables, +fruits, and berries. Around the deserted farmhouses I got eggs and +caught chickens. And frequently I found supplies of tinned provisions in +the store-rooms. + +"A strange thing was what was taking place with all the domestic +animals. Everywhere they were going wild and preying on one another. The +chickens and ducks were the first to be destroyed, while the pigs were +the first to go wild, followed by the cats. Nor were the dogs long in +adapting themselves to the changed conditions. There was a veritable +plague of dogs. They devoured the corpses, barked and howled during the +nights, and in the daytime slunk about in the distance. As the time went +by, I noticed a change in their behavior. At first they were apart from +one another, very suspicious and very prone to fight. But after a not +very long while they began to come together and run in packs. The dog, +you see, always was a social animal, and this was true before ever he +came to be domesticated by man. In the last days of the world before the +plague, there were many many very different kinds of dogs--dogs without +hair and dogs with warm fur, dogs so small that they would make scarcely +a mouthful for other dogs that were as large as mountain lions. Well, +all the small dogs, and the weak types, were killed by their fellows. +Also, the very large ones were not adapted for the wild life and bred +out. As a result, the many different kinds of dogs disappeared, and +there remained, running in packs, the medium-sized wolfish dogs that you +know to-day." + +"But the cats don't run in packs, Granser," Hoo-Hoo objected. + +"The cat was never a social animal. As one writer in the nineteenth +century said, the cat walks by himself. He always walked by himself, +from before the time he was tamed by man, down through the long ages of +domestication, to to-day when once more he is wild. + +"The horses also went wild, and all the fine breeds we had degenerated +into the small mustang horse you know to-day. The cows likewise went +wild, as did the pigeons and the sheep. And that a few of the chickens +survived you know yourself. But the wild chicken of to-day is quite a +different thing from the chickens we had in those days. + +"But I must go on with my story. I travelled through a deserted land. As +the time went by I began to yearn more and more for human beings. But I +never found one, and I grew lonelier and lonelier. I crossed Livermore +Valley and the mountains between it and the great valley of the San +Joaquin. You have never seen that valley, but it is very large and it is +the home of the wild horse. There are great droves there, thousands and +tens of thousands. I revisited it thirty years after, so I know. You +think there are lots of wild horses down here in the coast valleys, but +they are as nothing compared with those of the San Joaquin. Strange to +say, the cows, when they went wild, went back into the lower mountains. +Evidently they were better able to protect themselves there. + +"In the country districts the ghouls and prowlers had been less in +evidence, for I found many villages and towns untouched by fire. But +they were filled by the pestilential dead, and I passed by without +exploring them. It was near Lathrop that, out of my loneliness, I picked +up a pair of collie dogs that were so newly free that they were urgently +willing to return to their allegiance to man. These collies accompanied +me for many years, and the strains of them are in those very dogs there +that you boys have to-day. But in sixty years the collie strain has +worked out. These brutes are more like domesticated wolves than anything +else." + +Hare-Lip rose to his feet, glanced to see that the goats were safe, +and looked at the sun's position in the afternoon sky, advertising +impatience at the prolixity of the old man's tale. Urged to hurry by +Edwin, Granser went on. + +"There is little more to tell. With my two dogs and my pony, and riding +a horse I had managed to capture, I crossed the San Joaquin and went on +to a wonderful valley in the Sierras called Yosemite. In the great hotel +there I found a prodigious supply of tinned provisions. The pasture was +abundant, as was the game, and the river that ran through the valley was +full of trout. I remained there three years in an utter loneliness that +none but a man who has once been highly civilized can understand. Then +I could stand it no more. I felt that I was going crazy. Like the dog, +I was a social animal and I needed my kind. I reasoned that since I had +survived the plague, there was a possibility that others had survived. +Also, I reasoned that after three years the plague germs must all be +gone and the land be clean again. + +[Illustration: With my horse and dogs and pony, I set out 144] + +"With my horse and dogs and pony, I set out. Again I crossed the San +Joaquin Valley, the mountains beyond, and came down into Livermore +Valley. The change in those three years was amazing. All the land had +been splendidly tilled, and now I could scarcely recognize it, 'such was +the sea of rank vegetation that had overrun the agricultural handiwork +of man. You see, the wheat, the vegetables, and orchard trees had always +been cared for and nursed by man, so that they were soft and tender. The +weeds and wild bushes and such things, on the contrary, had always been +fought by man, so that they were tough and resistant. As a result, when +the hand of man was removed, the wild vegetation smothered and destroyed +practically all the domesticated vegetation. The coyotes were greatly +increased, and it was at this time that I first encountered wolves, +straying in twos and threes and small packs down from the regions where +they had always persisted. + +"It was at Lake Temescal, not far from the one-time city of Oakland, +that I came upon the first live human beings. Oh, my grandsons, how can +I describe to you my emotion, when, astride my horse and dropping down +the hillside to the lake, I saw the smoke of a campfire rising through +the trees. Almost did my heart stop beating. I felt that I was going +crazy. Then I heard the cry of a babe--a human babe. And dogs barked, +and my dogs answered. I did not know but what I was the one human alive +in the whole world. It could not be true that here were others--smoke, +and the cry of a babe. + +"Emerging on the lake, there, before my eyes, not a hundred yards away, +I saw a man, a large man. He was standing on an outjutting rock and +fishing. I was overcome. I stopped my horse. I tried to call out but +could not. I waved my hand. It seemed to me that the man looked at me, +but he did not appear to wave. Then I laid my head on my arms there +in the saddle. I was afraid to look again, for I knew it was an +hallucination, and I knew that if I looked the man would be gone. And so +precious was the hallucination, that I wanted it to persist yet a little +while. I knew, too, that as long as I did not look it would persist. + +"Thus I remained, until I heard my dogs snarling, and a man's voice. +What do you think the voice said? I will tell you. It said: '_Where in +hell did you come from??_' + +"Those were the words, the exact words. That was what your other +grandfather said to me, Hare-Lip, when he greeted me there on the shore +of Lake Temescal fifty-seven years ago. And they were the most ineffable +words I have ever heard. I opened my eyes, and there he stood before me, +a large, dark, hairy man, heavy-jawed, slant-browed, fierce-eyed. How I +got off my horse I do not know. But it seemed that the next I knew I was +clasping his hand with both of mine and crying. I would have embraced +him, but he was ever a narrow-minded, suspicious man, and he drew away +from me. Yet did I cling to his hand and cry." + +Granser's voice faltered and broke at the recollection, and the weak +tears streamed down his cheeks while the boys looked on and giggled. + +"Yet did I cry," he continued, "and desire to embrace him, though the +Chauffeur was a brute, a perfect brute--the most abhorrent man I have +ever known. His name was... strange, how I have forgotten his name. +Everybody called him Chauffeur--it was the name of his occupation, and +it stuck. That is how, to this day, the tribe he founded is called the +Chauffeur Tribe. + +[Illustration: Everybody called him Chauffeur 149] + +"He was a violent, unjust man. Why the plague germs spared him I can +never understand. It would seem, in spite of our old metaphysical +notions about absolute justice, that there is no justice in the +universe. Why did he live?--an iniquitous, moral monster, a blot on the +face of nature, a cruel, relentless, bestial cheat as well. All he +could talk about was motor cars, machinery, gasoline, and garages--and +especially, and with huge delight, of his mean pilferings and sordid +swindlings of the persons who had employed him in the days before the +coming of the plague. And yet he was spared, while hundreds of millions, +yea, billions, of better men were destroyed. + +[Illustration: Vesta the one woman 150] + +"I went on with him to his camp, and there I saw her, Vesta, the one +woman. It was glorious and... pitiful. There she was, Vesta Van Warden, +the young wife of John Van Warden, clad in rags, with marred and scarred +and toil-calloused hands, bending over the campfire and doing scullion +work--she, Vesta, who had been born to the purple of the greatest +baronage of wealth the world had ever known. John Van Warden, her +husband, worth one billion, eight hundred millions and President of the +Board of Industrial Magnates, had been the ruler of America. Also, +sitting on the International Board of Control, he had been one of the +seven men who ruled the world. And she herself had come of equally noble +stock. Her father, Philip Saxon, had been President of the Board of +Industrial Magnates up to the time of his death. This office was in +process of becoming hereditary, and had Philip Saxon had a son that son +would have succeeded him. But his only child was Vesta, the perfect +flower of generations of the highest culture this planet has ever +produced. It was not until the engagement between Vesta and Van Warden +took place, that Saxon indicated the latter as his successor. It was, I +am sure, a political marriage. I have reason to believe that Vesta never +really loved her husband in the mad passionate way of which the poets +used to sing. It was more like the marriages that obtained among crowned +heads in the days before they were displaced by the Magnates. + +[Illustration: There she was, boiling fish-chowder 153] + +"And there she was, boiling fish-chowder in a soot-covered pot, her +glorious eyes inflamed by the acrid smoke of the open fire. Hers was a +sad story. She was the one survivor in a million, as I had been, as +the Chauffeur had been. On a crowning eminence of the Alameda Hills, +overlooking San Francisco Bay, Van Warden had built a vast summer +palace. It was surrounded by a park of a thousand acres. When the +plague broke out, Van Warden sent her there. Armed guards patrolled the +boundaries of the park, and nothing entered in the way of provisions or +even mail matter that was not first fumigated. And yet did the plague +enter, killing the guards at their posts, the servants at their tasks, +sweeping away the whole army of retainers--or, at least, all of them who +did not flee to die elsewhere. So it was that Vesta found herself the +sole living person in the palace that had become a charnel house. + +"Now the Chauffeur had been one of the servants that ran away. +Returning, two months afterward, he discovered Vesta in a little summer +pavilion where there had been no deaths and where she had established +herself. He was a brute. She was afraid, and she ran away and hid among +the trees. That night, on foot, she fled into the mountains--she, whose +tender feet and delicate body had never known the bruise of stones nor +the scratch of briars. He followed, and that night he caught her. He +struck her. Do you understand? He beat her with those terrible fists of +his and made her his slave. It was she who had to gather the firewood, +build the fires, cook, and do all the degrading camp-labor--she, who had +never performed a menial act in her life. These things he compelled her +to do, while he, a proper savage, elected to lie around camp and look +on. He did nothing, absolutely nothing, except on occasion to hunt meat +or catch fish." + +"Good for Chauffeur," Hare-Lip commented in an undertone to the other +boys. "I remember him before he died. He was a corker. But he did +things, and he made things go. You know, Dad married his daughter, an' +you ought to see the way he knocked the spots outa Dad. The Chauffeur +was a son-of-a-gun. He made us kids stand around. Even when he was +croaking he reached out for me, once, an' laid my head open with that +long stick he kept always beside him." + +Hare-Lip rubbed his bullet head reminiscently, and the boys returned to +the old man, who was maundering ecstatically about Vesta, the squaw of +the founder of the Chauffeur Tribe. + +"And so I say to you that you cannot understand the awfulness of the +situation. The Chauffeur was a servant, understand, a servant. And he +cringed, with bowed head, to such as she. She was a lord of life, both +by birth and by marriage. The destinies of millions, such as he, she +carried in the hollow of her pink-white hand. And, in the days before +the plague, the slightest contact with such as he would have been +pollution. Oh, I have seen it. Once, I remember, there was Mrs. Goldwin, +wife of one of the great magnates. It was on a landing stage, just +as she was embarking in her private dirigible, that she dropped her +parasol. A servant picked it up and made the mistake of handing it to +her--to her, one of the greatest royal ladies of the land! She shrank +back, as though he were a leper, and indicated her secretary to receive +it. Also, she ordered her secretary to ascertain the creature's name and +to see that he was immediately discharged from service. And such a woman +was Vesta Van Warden. And her the Chauffeur beat and made his slave. + +[Illustration: And her the Chauffeur beat and made his slave 158] + +"--Bill--that was it; Bill, the Chauffeur. That was his name. He was +a wretched, primitive man, wholly devoid of the finer instincts and +chivalrous promptings of a cultured soul. No, there is no absolute +justice, for to him fell that wonder of womanhood, Vesta Van Warden. The +grievous-ness of this you will never understand, my grandsons; for +you are yourselves primitive little savages, unaware of aught else but +savagery. Why should Vesta not have been mine? I was a man of culture +and refinement, a professor in a great university. Even so, in the time +before the plague, such was her exalted position, she would not have +deigned to know that I existed. Mark, then, the abysmal degradation +to which she fell at the hands of the Chauffeur. Nothing less than the +destruction of all mankind had made it possible that I should know her, +look in her eyes, converse with her, touch her hand--ay, and love her +and know that her feelings toward me were very kindly. I have reason to +believe that she, even she, would have loved me, there being no other +man in the world except the Chauffeur. Why, when it destroyed eight +billions of souls, did not the plague destroy just one more man, and +that man the Chauffeur? + +"Once, when the Chauffeur was away fishing, she begged me to kill him. +With tears in her eyes she begged me to kill him. But he was a strong +and violent man, and I was afraid. Afterwards, I talked with him. I +offered him my horse, my pony, my dogs, all that I possessed, if he +would give Vesta to me. And he grinned in my face and shook his head. He +was very insulting. He said that in the old days he had been a servant, +had been dirt under the feet of men like me and of women like Vesta, and +that now he had the greatest lady in the land to be servant to him and +cook his food and nurse his brats. 'You had your day before the plague,' +he said; 'but this is my day, and a damned good day it is. I wouldn't +trade back to the old times for anything.' Such words he spoke, but they +are not his words. He was a vulgar, low-minded man, and vile oaths fell +continually from his lips. + +"Also, he told me that if he caught me making eyes at his woman he'd +wring my neck and give her a beating as well. What was I to do? I was +afraid. He was a brute. That first night, when I discovered the camp, +Vesta and I had great talk about the things of our vanished world. We +talked of art, and books, and poetry; and the Chauffeur listened and +grinned and sneered. He was bored and angered by our way of speech which +he did not comprehend, and finally he spoke up and said: 'And this is +Vesta Van Warden, one-time wife of Van Warden the Magnate--a high and +stuck-up beauty, who is now my squaw. Eh, Professor Smith, times is +changed, times is changed. Here, you, woman, take off my moccasins, +and lively about it. I want Professor Smith to see how well I have you +trained.' + +"I saw her clench her teeth, and the flame of revolt rise in her face. +He drew back his gnarled fist to strike, and I was afraid, and sick at +heart. I could do nothing to prevail against him. So I got up to go, +and not be witness to such indignity. But the Chauffeur laughed and +threatened me with a beating if I did not stay and behold. And I sat +there, perforce, by the campfire on the shore of Lake Temescal, and +saw Vesta, Vesta Van Warden, kneel and remove the moccasins of that +grinning, hairy, apelike human brute. + +"--Oh, you do not understand, my grandsons. You have never known +anything else, and you do not understand. + +"'Halter-broke and bridle-wise,' the Chauffeur gloated, while she +performed that dreadful, menial task. 'A trifle balky at times, +Professor, a trifle balky; but a clout alongside the jaw makes her as +meek and gentle as a lamb.' + +"And another time he said: 'We've got to start all over and replenish +the earth and multiply. You're handicapped, Professor. You ain't got no +wife, and we're up against a regular Garden-of-Eden proposition. But I +ain't proud. I'll tell you what, Professor.' He pointed at their little +infant, barely a year old. 'There's your wife, though you'll have to +wait till she grows up. It's rich, ain't it? We're all equals here, and +I'm the biggest toad in the splash. But I ain't stuck up--not I. I do +you the honor, Professor Smith, the very great honor of betrothing to +you my and Vesta Van Warden's daughter. Ain't it cussed bad that Van +Warden ain't here to see?'" + + + + +VI + +"I LIVED three weeks of infinite torment there in the Chauffeur's camp. +And then, one day, tiring of me, or of what to him was my bad effect +on Vesta, he told me that the year before, wandering through the Contra +Costa Hills to the Straits of Carquinez, across the Straits he had seen +a smoke. This meant that there were still other human beings, and that +for three weeks he had kept this inestimably precious information from +me. I departed at once, with my dogs and horses, and journeyed across +the Contra Costa Hills to the Straits. I saw no smoke on the other side, +but at Port Costa discovered a small steel barge on which I was able to +embark my animals. Old canvas which I found served me for a sail, and +a southerly breeze fanned me across the Straits and up to the ruins +of Vallejo. Here, on the outskirts of the city, I found evidences of a +recently occupied camp. + +[Illustration: Found evidences of a recently occupied camp 169] + +"Many clam-shells showed me why these humans had come to the shores of +the Bay. This was the Santa Rosa Tribe, and I followed its track along +the old railroad right of way across the salt marshes to Sonoma Valley. +Here, at the old brickyard at Glen Ellen, I came upon the camp. There +were eighteen souls all told. Two were old men, one of whom was Jones, a +banker. The other was Harrison, a retired pawnbroker, who had taken for +wife the matron of the State Hospital for the Insane at Napa. Of all the +persons of the city of Napa, and of all the other towns and villages +in that rich and populous valley, she had been the only survivor. Next, +there were the three young men--Cardiff and Hale, who had been farmers, +and Wainwright, a common day-laborer. All three had found wives. To +Hale, a crude, illiterate farmer, had fallen Isadore, the greatest +prize, next to Vesta, of the women who came through the plague. She was +one of the world's most noted singers, and the plague had caught her at +San Francisco. She has talked with me for hours at a time, telling me of +her adventures, until, at last, rescued by Hale in the Mendocino Forest +Reserve, there had remained nothing for her to do but become his wife. +But Hale was a good fellow, in spite of his illiteracy. He had a keen +sense of justice and right-dealing, and she was far happier with him +than was Vesta with the Chauffeur. + +"The wives of Cardiff and Wainwright were ordinary women, accustomed +to toil with strong constitutions--just the type for the wild new life +which they were compelled to live. In addition were two adult idiots +from the feeble-minded home at Eldredge, and five or six young children +and infants born after the formation of the Santa Rosa Tribe. Also, +there was Bertha. She was a good woman, Hare-Lip, in spite of the sneers +of your father. Her I took for wife. She was the mother of your father, +Edwin, and of yours, Hoo-Hoo. And it was our daughter, Vera, who married +your father, Hare-Lip--your father, Sandow, who was the oldest son of +Vesta Van Warden and the Chauffeur. + +"And so it was that I became the nineteenth member of the Santa Rosa +Tribe. There were only two outsiders added after me. One was Mungerson, +descended from the Magnates, who wandered alone in the wilds of Northern +California for eight years before he came south and joined us. He it was +who waited twelve years more before he married my daughter, Mary. The +other was Johnson, the man who founded the Utah Tribe. That was where he +came from, Utah, a country that lies very far away from here, across the +great deserts, to the east. It was not until twenty-seven years after +the plague that Johnson reached California. In all that Utah region he +reported but three survivors, himself one, and all men. For many years +these three men lived and hunted together, until, at last, desperate, +fearing that with them the human race would perish utterly from the +planet, they headed westward on the possibility of finding women +survivors in California. Johnson alone came through the great desert, +where his two companions died. He was forty-six years old when he joined +us, and he married the fourth daughter of Isadore and Hale, and his +eldest son married your aunt, Hare-Lip, who was the third daughter of +Vesta and the Chauffeur. Johnson was a strong man, with a will of his +own. And it was because of this that he seceded from the Santa Rosans +and formed the Utah Tribe at San Jos. It is a small tribe--there are +only nine in it; but, though he is dead, such was his influence and the +strength of his breed, that it will grow into a strong tribe and play a +leading part in the recivilization of the planet. + +"There are only two other tribes that we know of--the Los Angelitos +and the Carmelitos. The latter started from one man and woman. He was +called Lopez, and he was descended from the ancient Mexicans and was +very black. He was a cowherd in the ranges beyond Carmel, and his wife +was a maidservant in the great Del Monte Hotel. It was seven years +before we first got in touch with the Los Angelitos. They have a +good country down there, but it is too warm. I estimate the present +population of the world at between three hundred and fifty and four +hundred--provided, of course, that there are no scattered little tribes +elsewhere in the world. If there be such, we have not heard from them. +Since Johnson crossed the desert from Utah, no word nor sign has come +from the East or anywhere else. The great world which I knew in my +boyhood and early manhood is gone. It has ceased to be. I am the last +man who was alive in the days of the plague and who knows the wonders of +that far-off time. We, who mastered the planet--its earth, and sea, and +sky--and who were as very gods, now live in primitive savagery along the +water courses of this California country. + +"But we are increasing rapidly--your sister, Hare-Lip, already has four +children. We are increasing rapidly and making ready for a new climb +toward civilization. In time, pressure of population will compel us +to spread out, and a hundred generations from now we may expect our +descendants to start across the Sierras, oozing slowly along, generation +by generation, over the great continent to the colonization of the +East--a new Aryan drift around the world. + +"But it will be slow, very slow; we have so far to climb. We fell so +hopelessly far. If only one physicist or one chemist had survived! +But it was not to be, and we have forgotten everything. The Chauffeur +started working in iron. He made the forge which we use to this day. +But he was a lazy man, and when he died he took with him all he knew +of metals and machinery. What was I to know of such things? I was a +classical scholar, not a chemist.. The other men who survived were not +educated. Only two things did the Chauffeur accomplish--the brewing +of strong drink and the growing of tobacco. It was while he was drunk, +once, that he killed Vesta. I firmly believe that he killed Vesta in a +fit of drunken cruelty though he always maintained that she fell into +the lake and was drowned. + +"And, my grandsons, let me warn you against the medicine-men. They call +themselves _doctors_, travestying what was once a noble profession, but +in reality they are medicine-men, devil-devil men, and they make for +superstition and darkness. They are cheats and liars. But so debased and +degraded are we, that we believe their lies. They, too, will increase +in numbers as we increase, and they will strive to rule us. Yet are +they liars and charlatans. Look at young Cross-Eyes, posing as a +doctor, selling charms against sickness, giving good hunting, +exchanging promises of fair weather for good meat and skins, sending the +death-stick, performing a thousand abominations. Yet I say to you, +that when he says he can do these things, he lies. I, Professor Smith, +Professor James Howard Smith, say that he lies. I have told him so to +his teeth. Why has he not sent me the death-stick? Because he knows that +with me it is without avail. But you, Hare-Lip, so deeply are you +sunk in black superstition that did you awake this night and find the +death-stick beside you, you would surely die. And you would die, not +because of any virtues in the stick, but because you are a savage with +the dark and clouded mind of a savage. + +"The doctors must be destroyed, and all that was lost must be discovered +over again. Wherefore, earnestly, I repeat unto you certain things which +you must remember and tell to your children after you. You must tell +them that when water is made hot by fire, there resides in it a +wonderful thing called steam, which is stronger than ten thousand men +and which can do all man's work for him. There are other very useful +things. In the lightning flash resides a similarly strong servant of +man, which was of old his slave and which some day will be his slave +again. + +[Illustration: I have stored many books in a cave 179] + +"Quite a different thing is the alphabet. It is what enables me to +know the meaning of fine markings, whereas you boys know only rude +picture-writing. In that dry cave on Telegraph Hill, where you see me +often go when the tribe is down by the sea, I have stored many books. +In them is great wisdom. Also, with them, I have placed a key to the +alphabet, so that one who knows picture-writing may also know print. +Some day men will read again; and then, if no accident has befallen my +cave, they will know that Professor James Howard Smith once lived and +saved for them the knowledge of the ancients. + +"There is another little device that men inevitably will rediscover. It +is called gunpowder. It was what enabled us to kill surely and at long +distances. Certain things which are found in the ground, when combined +in the right proportions, will make this gunpowder. What these things +are, I have forgotten, or else I never knew. But I wish I did know. Then +would I make powder, and then would I certainly kill Cross-Eyes and rid +the land of superstition--" + +"After I am man-grown I am going to give Cross-Eyes all the goats, +and meat, and skins I can get, so that he'll teach me to be a doctor," +Hoo-Hoo asserted. "And when I know, I'll make everybody else sit up and +take notice. They'll get down in the dirt to me, you bet." + +The old man nodded his head solemnly, and murmured: + +"Strange it is to hear the vestiges and remnants of the complicated +Aryan speech falling from the lips of a filthy little skin-clad savage. +All the world is topsy-turvy. And it has been topsy-turvy ever since the +plague." + +"You won't make me sit up," Hare-Lip boasted to the would-be +medicine-man. "If I paid you for a sending of the death-stick and it +didn't work, I'd bust in your head--understand, you Hoo-Hoo, you?" + +"I'm going to get Granser to remember this here gunpowder stuff," Edwin +said softly, "and then I'll have you all on the run. You, Hare-Lip, will +do my fighting for me and get my meat for me, and you, Hoo-Hoo, will +send the death-stick for me and make everybody afraid. And if I catch +Hare-Lip trying to bust your head, Hoo-Hoo, I'll fix him with that same +gunpowder. Granser ain't such a fool as you think, and I'm going to +listen to him and some day I'll be boss over the whole bunch of you." + +The old man shook his head sadly, and said: + +"The gunpowder will come. Nothing can stop it--the same old story over +and over. Man will increase, and men will fight. The gunpowder will +enable men to kill millions of men, and in this way only, by fire and +blood, will a new civilization, in some remote day, be evolved. And of +what profit will it be? Just as the old civilization passed, so will the +new. It may take fifty thousand years to build, but it will pass. All +things pass. Only remain cosmic force and matter, ever in flux, ever +acting and reacting and realizing the eternal types--the priest, the +soldier, and the king. Out of the mouths of babes comes the wisdom of +all the ages. Some will fight, some will rule, some will pray; and all +the rest will toil and suffer sore while on their bleeding carcasses +is reared again, and yet again, without end, the amazing beauty and +surpassing wonder of the civilized state. It were just as well that I +destroyed those cave-stored books--whether they remain or perish, all +their old truths will be discovered, their old lies lived and handed +down. What is the profit--" + +Hare-Lip leaped to his feet, giving a quick glance at the pasturing +goats and the afternoon sun. + +"Gee!" he muttered to Edwin, "The old geezer gets more long-winded every +day. Let's pull for camp." + +While the other two, aided by the dogs, assembled the goats and started +them for the trail through the forest, Edwin stayed by the old man and +guided him in the same direction. When they reached the old right of +way, Edwin stopped suddenly and looked back. Hare-Lip and Hoo-Hoo and +the dogs and the goats passed on. Edwin was looking at a small herd of +wild horses which had come down on the hard sand. There were at least +twenty of them, young colts and yearlings and mares, led by a beautiful +stallion which stood in the foam at the edge of the surf, with arched +neck and bright wild eyes, sniffing the salt air from off the sea. + +"What is it?" Granser queried. + +"Horses," was the answer. "First time I ever seen 'em on the beach. It's +the mountain lions getting thicker and thicker and driving 'em down." + +The low sun shot red shafts of light, fan-shaped, up from a +cloud-tumbled horizon. And close at hand, in the white waste of +shore-lashed waters, the sea-lions, bellowing their old primeval chant, +hauled up out of the sea on the black rocks and fought and loved. + +"Come on, Granser," Edwin prompted. And old man and boy, skin-clad and +barbaric, turned and went along the right of way into the forest in the +wake of the goats. + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Scarlet Plague, by Jack London + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SCARLET PLAGUE *** + +***** This file should be named 21970-8.txt or 21970-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/9/7/21970/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/21970-8.zip b/old/21970-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..91d0b8b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/21970-8.zip diff --git a/old/21970-h.htm.2020-06-22 b/old/21970-h.htm.2020-06-22 new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e7a9603 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/21970-h.htm.2020-06-22 @@ -0,0 +1,3051 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + The Scarlet Plague, by Jack London + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 2em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + pre { font-family: Times; font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Scarlet Plague, by Jack London + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Scarlet Plague + +Author: Jack London + +Illustrator: Gordon Grant + +Release Date: June 29, 2007 [EBook #21970] +Last Updated: March 3, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SCARLET PLAGUE *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + + +</pre> + + <h1> + THE SCARLET PLAGUE + </h1> + <h2> + By Jack London + </h2> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h3> + Illustrated By Gordon Grant + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h4> + 1915 + </h4> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img alt="frontispiece (75K)" src="images/frontispiece.jpg" width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img alt="titlepage (30K)" src="images/titlepage.jpg" width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <b>THE SCARLET PLAGUE</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> I </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> II </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> III </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> IV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> V </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> VI </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>Illustrations</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0001"> Slowly he Pulled the Bowstring Taut 020 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0002"> Rabbit is Good, Very Good 026 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0003"> This Attracted the Old Man's Nostrils 033 + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0004"> With a Sling Such As David Carried 036 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0005"> I Was a Professor of English Literature 054 + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0006"> Sixty Years Since I Have Seen a Piece of + Soap. 059 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0007"> Granser, You Make Me Sick With Your Gabble + 071 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0008"> But This New Plague Was Quicker 078 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0009"> The Telephone Bell Rang 088 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0010"> Fled from the City by Millions 092 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0011"> I Heard Sounds of Rioting and Of Pistol Shots + 098 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0012"> Look at Yourself in the Mirror 100 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0013"> Now in the Time of Calamity They Turned on Us + 108 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0014"> He Told Me he Had Been Cruelly Beaten 112 + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0015"> We Thrust Her Forth from the Building 121 + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0016"> She Fell Like a Plummet to the Earth 132 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0017"> With My Horse and Dogs And Pony, I Set out + 144 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0018"> Everybody Called Him Chauffeur 149 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0019"> Vesta the One Woman 150 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0020"> There She Was, Boiling Fish-chowder 153 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0021"> And Her the Chauffeur Beat and Made his Slave + 158 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0022"> Found Evidences of a Recently Occupied Camp + 169 </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0023"> I Have Stored Many Books in a Cave 179 </a> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + THE SCARLET PLAGUE + </h1> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I + </h2> + <p> + THE way led along upon what had once been the embankment of a railroad. + But no train had run upon it for many years. The forest on either side + swelled up the slopes of the embankment and crested across it in a green + wave of trees and bushes. The trail was as narrow as a man's body, and was + no more than a wild-animal runway. Occasionally, a piece of rusty iron, + showing through the forest-mould, advertised that the rail and the ties + still remained. In one place, a ten-inch tree, bursting through at a + connection, had lifted the end of a rail clearly into view. The tie had + evidently followed the rail, held to it by the spike long enough for its + bed to be filled with gravel and rotten leaves, so that now the crumbling, + rotten timber thrust itself up at a curious slant. Old as the road was, it + was manifest that it had been of the mono-rail type. + </p> + <p> + An old man and a boy travelled along this runway. They moved slowly, for + the old man was very old, a touch of palsy made his movements tremulous, + and he leaned heavily upon his staff. A rude skull-cap of goat-skin + protected his head from the sun. From beneath this fell a scant fringe of + stained and dirty-white hair. A visor, ingeniously made from a large leaf, + shielded his eyes, and from under this he peered at the way of his feet on + the trail. His beard, which should have been snow-white but which showed + the same weather-wear and camp-stain as his hair, fell nearly to his waist + in a great tangled mass. About his chest and shoulders hung a single, + mangy garment of goat-skin. His arms and legs, withered and skinny, + betokened extreme age, as well as did their sunburn and scars and + scratches betoken long years of exposure to the elements. + </p> + <p> + The boy, who led the way, checking the eagerness of his muscles to the + slow progress of the elder, likewise wore a single garment—a + ragged-edged piece of bear-skin, with a hole in the middle through which + he had thrust his head. He could not have been more than twelve years old. + Tucked coquettishly over one ear was the freshly severed tail of a pig. In + one hand he carried a medium-sized bow and an arrow. + </p> + <p> + On his back was a quiverful of arrows. From a sheath hanging about his + neck on a thong, projected the battered handle of a hunting knife. He was + as brown as a berry, and walked softly, with almost a catlike tread. In + marked contrast with his sunburned skin were his eyes—blue, deep + blue, but keen and sharp as a pair of gimlets. They seemed to bore into + aft about him in a way that was habitual. As he went along he smelled + things, as well, his distended, quivering nostrils carrying to his brain + an endless series of messages from the outside world. Also, his hearing + was acute, and had been so trained that it operated automatically. Without + conscious effort, he heard all the slight sounds in the apparent quiet—heard, + and differentiated, and classified these sounds—whether they were of + the wind rustling the leaves, of the humming of bees and gnats, of the + distant rumble of the sea that drifted to him only in lulls, or of the + gopher, just under his foot, shoving a pouchful of earth into the entrance + of his hole. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly he became alertly tense. Sound, sight, and odor had given him a + simultaneous warning. His hand went back to the old man, touching him, and + the pair stood still. Ahead, at one side of the top of the embankment, + arose a crackling sound, and the boy's gaze was fixed on the tops of the + agitated bushes. Then a large bear, a grizzly, crashed into view, and + likewise stopped abruptly, at sight of the humans. He did not like them, + and growled querulously. Slowly the boy fitted the arrow to the bow, and + slowly he pulled the bowstring taut. But he never removed his eyes from + the bear. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0001" id="linkimage-0001"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img src="images/020.jpg" width="100%" + alt="Slowly he Pulled the Bowstring Taut 020 " /> + </div> + <p> + The old man peered from under his green leaf at the danger, and stood as + quietly as the boy. For a few seconds this mutual scrutinizing went on; + then, the bear betraying a growing irritability, the boy, with a movement + of his head, indicated that the old man must step aside from the trail and + go down the embankment. The boy followed, going backward, still holding + the bow taut and ready. They waited till a crashing among the bushes from + the opposite side of the embankment told them the bear had gone on. The + boy grinned as he led back to the trail. + </p> + <p> + “A big un, Granser,” he chuckled. + </p> + <p> + The old man shook his head. + </p> + <p> + “They get thicker every day,” he complained in a thin, undependable + falsetto. “Who'd have thought I'd live to see the time when a man would be + afraid of his life on the way to the Cliff House. When I was a boy, Edwin, + men and women and little babies used to come out here from San Francisco + by tens of thousands on a nice day. And there weren't any bears then. No, + sir. They used to pay money to look at them in cages, they were that + rare.” + </p> + <p> + “What is money, Granser?” + </p> + <p> + Before the old man could answer, the boy recollected and triumphantly + shoved his hand into a pouch under his bear-skin and pulled forth a + battered and tarnished silver dollar. The old man's eyes glistened, as he + held the coin close to them. + </p> + <p> + “I can't see,” he muttered. “You look and see if you can make out the + date, Edwin.” + </p> + <p> + The boy laughed. + </p> + <p> + “You're a great Granser,” he cried delightedly, “always making believe + them little marks mean something.” + </p> + <p> + The old man manifested an accustomed chagrin as he brought the coin back + again close to his own eyes. + </p> + <p> + “2012,” he shrilled, and then fell to cackling grotesquely. “That was the + year Morgan the Fifth was appointed President of the United States by the + Board of Magnates. It must have been one of the last coins minted, for the + Scarlet Death came in 2013. Lord! Lord!—think of it! Sixty years + ago, and I am the only person alive to-day that lived in those times. + Where did you find it, Edwin?” + </p> + <p> + The boy, who had been regarding him with the tolerant curiousness one + accords to the prattlings of the feeble-minded, answered promptly. + </p> + <p> + “I got it off of Hoo-Hoo. He found it when we was herdin' goats down near + San José last spring. Hoo-Hoo said it was <i>money</i>. Ain't you hungry, + Granser?” + </p> + <p> + The ancient caught his staff in a tighter grip and urged along the trail, + his old eyes shining greedily. + </p> + <p> + “I hope Hare-Lip 's found a crab... or two,” he mumbled. “They're good + eating, crabs, mighty good eating when you've no more teeth and you've got + grandsons that love their old grandsire and make a point of catching crabs + for him. When I was a boy—” + </p> + <p> + But Edwin, suddenly stopped by what he saw, was drawing the bowstring on a + fitted arrow. He had paused on the brink of a crevasse in the embankment. + An ancient culvert had here washed out, and the stream, no longer + confined, had cut a passage through the fill. On the opposite side, the + end of a rail projected and overhung. It showed rustily through the + creeping vines which overran it. Beyond, crouching by a bush, a rabbit + looked across at him in trembling hesitancy. Fully fifty feet was the + distance, but the arrow flashed true; and the transfixed rabbit, crying + out in sudden fright and hurt, struggled painfully away into the brush. + The boy himself was a flash of brown skin and flying fur as he bounded + down the steep wall of the gap and up the other side. His lean muscles + were springs of steel that released into graceful and efficient action. A + hundred feet beyond, in a tangle of bushes, he overtook the wounded + creature, knocked its head on a convenient tree-trunk, and turned it over + to Granser to carry. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0002" id="linkimage-0002"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="figleft" style="width:20%;"> + <img width="100%" src="images/025.jpg" alt="Rabbit is Good, Very Good 025 " /> + </div> + <p> + “Rabbit is good, very good,” the ancient quavered, “but when it comes to a + toothsome delicacy I prefer crab. When I was a boy—” + </p> + <p> + “Why do you say so much that ain't got no sense?” Edwin impatiently + interrupted the other's threatened garrulousness. + </p> + <p> + The boy did not exactly utter these words, but something that remotely + resembled them and that was more guttural and explosive and economical of + qualifying phrases. His speech showed distant kinship with that of the old + man, and the latter's speech was approximately an English that had gone + through a bath of corrupt usage. + </p> + <p> + “What I want to know,” Edwin continued, “is why you call crab 'toothsome + delicacy'? Crab is crab, ain't it? No one I never heard calls it such + funny things.” + </p> + <p> + The old man sighed but did not answer, and they moved on in silence. The + surf grew suddenly louder, as they emerged from the forest upon a stretch + of sand dunes bordering the sea. A few goats were browsing among the sandy + hillocks, and a skin-clad boy, aided by a wolfish-looking dog that was + only faintly reminiscent of a collie, was watching them. Mingled with the + roar of the surf was a continuous, deep-throated barking or bellowing, + which came from a cluster of jagged rocks a hundred yards out from shore. + Here huge sea-lions hauled themselves up to lie in the sun or battle with + one another. In the immediate foreground arose the smoke of a fire, tended + by a third savage-looking boy. Crouched near him were several wolfish dogs + similar to the one that guarded the goats. + </p> + <p> + The old man accelerated his pace, sniffing eagerly as he neared the fire. + </p> + <p> + “Mussels!” he muttered ecstatically. “Mussels! And ain't that a crab, + Hoo-Hoo? Ain't that a crab? My, my, you boys are good to your old + grandsire.” + </p> + <p> + Hoo-Hoo, who was apparently of the same age as Edwin, grinned. + </p> + <p> + “All you want, Granser. I got four.” + </p> + <p> + The old man's palsied eagerness was pitiful. Sitting down in the sand as + quickly as his stiff limbs would let him, he poked a large rock-mussel + from out of the coals. The heat had forced its shells apart, and the meat, + salmon-colored, was thoroughly cooked. Between thumb and forefinger, in + trembling haste, he caught the morsel and carried it to his mouth. But it + was too hot, and the next moment was violently ejected. The old man + spluttered with the pain, and tears ran out of his eyes and down his + cheeks. + </p> + <p> + The boys were true savages, possessing only the cruel humor of the savage. + To them the incident was excruciatingly funny, and they burst into loud + laughter. Hoo-Hoo danced up and down, while Edwin rolled gleefully on the + ground. The boy with the goats came running to join in the fun. + </p> + <p> + “Set 'em to cool, Edwin, set 'em to cool,” the old man besought, in the + midst of his grief, making no attempt to wipe away the tears that still + flowed from his eyes. “And cool a crab, Edwin, too. You know your + grandsire likes crabs.” + </p> + <p> + From the coals arose a great sizzling, which proceeded from the many + mussels bursting open their shells and exuding their moisture. They were + large shellfish, running from three to six inches in length. The boys + raked them out with sticks and placed them on a large piece of driftwood + to cool. + </p> + <p> + “When I was a boy, we did not laugh at our elders; we respected them.” + </p> + <p> + The boys took no notice, and Granser continued to babble an incoherent + flow of complaint and censure. But this time he was more careful, and did + not burn his mouth. All began to eat, using nothing but their hands and + making loud mouth-noises and lip-smackings. The third boy, who was called + Hare-Lip, slyly deposited a pinch of sand on a mussel the ancient was + carrying to his mouth; and when the grit of it bit into the old fellow's + mucous membrane and gums, the laughter was again uproarious. He was + unaware that a joke had been played on him, and spluttered and spat until + Edwin, relenting, gave him a gourd of fresh water with which to wash out + his mouth. + </p> + <p> + “Where's them crabs, Hoo-Hoo?” Edwin demanded. “Granser's set upon having + a snack.” + </p> + <p> + Again Granser's eyes burned with greediness as a large crab was handed to + him. It was a shell with legs and all complete, but the meat had long + since departed. With shaky fingers and babblings of anticipation, the old + man broke off a leg and found it filled with emptiness. + </p> + <p> + “The crabs, Hoo-Hoo?” he wailed. “The crabs?” + </p> + <p> + “I was fooling Granser. They ain't no crabs! I never found one.” + </p> + <p> + The boys were overwhelmed with delight at sight of the tears of senile + disappointment that dribbled down the old man's cheeks. Then, unnoticed, + Hoo-Hoo replaced the empty shell with a fresh-cooked crab. Already + dismembered, from the cracked legs the white meat sent forth a small cloud + of savory steam. This attracted the old man's nostrils, and he looked down + in amazement. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0003" id="linkimage-0003"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img src="images/033.jpg" width="100%" + alt="This Attracted the Old Man's Nostrils 033 " /> + </div> + <p> + The change of his mood to one of joy was immediate. He snuffled and + muttered and mumbled, making almost a croon of delight, as he began to + eat. Of this the boys took little notice, for it was an accustomed + spectacle. Nor did they notice his occasional exclamations and utterances + of phrases which meant nothing to them, as, for instance, when he smacked + his lips and champed his gums while muttering: “Mayonnaise! Just think—mayonnaise! + And it's sixty years since the last was ever made! Two generations and + never a smell of it! Why, in those days it was served in every restaurant + with crab.” + </p> + <p> + When he could eat no more, the old man sighed, wiped his hands on his + naked legs, and gazed out over the sea. With the content of a full + stomach, he waxed reminiscent. + </p> + <p> + “To think of it! I've seen this beach alive with men, women, and children + on a pleasant Sunday. And there weren't any bears to eat them up, either. + And right up there on the cliff was a big restaurant where you could get + anything you wanted to eat. Four million people lived in San Francisco + then. And now, in the whole city and county there aren't forty all told. + And out there on the sea were ships and ships always to be seen, going in + for the Golden Gate or coming out. And airships in the air—dirigibles + and flying machines. They could travel two hundred miles an hour. The mail + contracts with the New York and San Francisco Limited demanded that for + the minimum. There was a chap, a Frenchman, I forget his name, who + succeeded in making three hundred; but the thing was risky, too risky for + conservative persons. But he was on the right clew, and he would have + managed it if it hadn't been for the Great Plague. When I was a boy, there + were men alive who remembered the coming of the first aeroplanes, and now + I have lived to see the last of them, and that sixty years ago.” + </p> + <p> + The old man babbled on, unheeded by the boys, who were long accustomed to + his garrulousness, and whose vocabularies, besides, lacked the greater + portion of the words he used. It was noticeable that in these rambling + soliloquies his English seemed to recrudesce into better construction and + phraseology. But when he talked directly with the boys it lapsed, largely, + into their own uncouth and simpler forms. + </p> + <p> + “But there weren't many crabs in those days,” the old man wandered on. + “They were fished out, and they were great delicacies. The open season was + only a month long, too. And now crabs are accessible the whole year + around. Think of it—catching all the crabs you want, any time you + want, in the surf of the Cliff House beach!” + </p> + <p> + A sudden commotion among the goats brought the boys to their feet. The + dogs about the fire rushed to join their snarling fellow who guarded the + goats, while the goats themselves stampeded in the direction of their + human protectors. A half dozen forms, lean and gray, glided about on the + sand hillocks and faced the bristling dogs. Edwin arched an arrow that + fell short. But Hare-Lip, with a sling such as David carried into battle + against Goliath, hurled a stone through the air that whistled from the + speed of its flight. It fell squarely among the wolves and caused them to + slink away toward the dark depths of the eucalyptus forest. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0004" id="linkimage-0004"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="figright" style="width:18%;"> + <img width="100%" src="images/036.jpg" + alt="With a Sling Such As David Carried 036 " /> + </div> + <p> + The boys laughed and lay down again in the sand, while Granser sighed + ponderously. He had eaten too much, and, with hands clasped on his paunch, + the fingers interlaced, he resumed his maunderings. + </p> + <p> + “'The fleeting systems lapse like foam,'” he mumbled what was evidently a + quotation. “That's it—foam, and fleeting. All man's toil upon the + planet was just so much foam. He domesticated the serviceable animals, + destroyed the hostile ones, and cleared the land of its wild vegetation. + And then he passed, and the flood of primordial life rolled back again, + sweeping his handiwork away—the weeds and the forest inundated his + fields, the beasts of prey swept over his flocks, and now there are wolves + on the Cliff House beach.” He was appalled by the thought. “Where four + million people disported themselves, the wild wolves roam to-day, and the + savage progeny of our loins, with prehistoric weapons, defend themselves + against the fanged despoilers. Think of it! And all because of the Scarlet + Death—” + </p> + <p> + The adjective had caught Hare-Lip's ear. + </p> + <p> + “He's always saying that,” he said to Edwin. “What is <i>scarlet?</i>” + </p> + <p> + “'The scarlet of the maples can shake me like the cry of bugles going + by,'” the old man quoted. + </p> + <p> + “It's red,” Edwin answered the question. “And you don't know it because + you come from the Chauffeur Tribe. They never did know nothing, none of + them. Scarlet is red—I know that.” + </p> + <p> + “Red is red, ain't it?” Hare-Lip grumbled. “Then what's the good of + gettin' cocky and calling it scarlet?” + </p> + <p> + “Granser, what for do you always say so much what nobody knows?” he asked. + “Scarlet ain't anything, but red is red. Why don't you say red, then?” + </p> + <p> + “Red is not the right word,” was the reply. “The plague was scarlet. The + whole face and body turned scarlet in an hour's time. Don't I know? Didn't + I see enough of it? And I am telling you it was scarlet because—well, + because it <i>was</i> scarlet. There is no other word for it.” + </p> + <p> + “Red is good enough for me,” Hare-Lip muttered obstinately. “My dad calls + red red, and he ought to know. He says everybody died of the Red Death.” + </p> + <p> + “Your dad is a common fellow, descended from a common fellow,” Granser + retorted heatedly. “Don't I know the beginnings of the Chauffeurs? Your + grandsire was a chauffeur, a servant, and without education. He worked for + other persons. But your grandmother was of good stock, only the children + did not take after her. Don't I remember when I first met them, catching + fish at Lake Temescal?” + </p> + <p> + “What is <i>education?</i>” Edwin asked. + </p> + <p> + “Calling red scarlet,” Hare-Lip sneered, then returned to the attack on + Granser. “My dad told me, an' he got it from his dad afore he croaked, + that your wife was a Santa Rosan, an' that she was sure no account. He + said she was a <i>hash-slinger</i> before the Red Death, though I don't + know what a <i>hash-slinger</i> is. You can tell me, Edwin.” + </p> + <p> + But Edwin shook his head in token of ignorance. + </p> + <p> + “It is true, she was a waitress,” Granser acknowledged. “But she was a + good woman, and your mother was her daughter. Women were very scarce in + the days after the Plague. She was the only wife I could find, even if she + was a <i>hash-slinger</i>, as your father calls it. But it is not nice to + talk about our progenitors that way.” + </p> + <p> + “Dad says that the wife of the first Chauffeur was a <i>lady</i>—” + </p> + <p> + “What's a <i>lady?</i>” Hoo-Hoo demanded. + </p> + <p> + “A <i>lady</i> 's a Chauffeur squaw,” was the quick reply of Hare-Lip. + </p> + <p> + “The first Chauffeur was Bill, a common fellow, as I said before,” the old + man expounded; “but his wife was a lady, a great lady. Before the Scarlet + Death she was the wife of Van Worden. He was President of the Board of + Industrial Magnates, and was one of the dozen men who ruled America. He + was worth one billion, eight hundred millions of dollars—coins like + you have there in your pouch, Edwin. And then came the Scarlet Death, and + his wife became the wife of Bill, the first Chauffeur. He used to beat + her, too. I have seen it myself.” + </p> + <p> + Hoo-Hoo, lying on his stomach and idly digging his toes in the sand, cried + out and investigated, first, his toe-nail, and next, the small hole he had + dug. The other two boys joined him, excavating the sand rapidly with their + hands till there lay three skeletons exposed. Two were of adults, the + third being that of a part-grown child. The old man trudged along on the + ground and peered at the find. + </p> + <p> + “Plague victims,” he announced. “That's the way they died everywhere in + the last days. This must have been a family, running away from the + contagion and perishing here on the Cliff House beach. They—what are + you doing, Edwin?” + </p> + <p> + This question was asked in sudden dismay, as Edwin, using the back of his + hunting knife, began to knock out the teeth from the jaws of one of the + skulls. + </p> + <p> + “Going to string 'em,” was the response. + </p> + <p> + The three boys were now hard at it; and quite a knocking and hammering + arose, in which Granser babbled on unnoticed. + </p> + <p> + “You are true savages. Already has begun the custom of wearing human + teeth. In another generation you will be perforating your noses and ears + and wearing ornaments of bone and shell. I know. The human race is doomed + to sink back farther and farther into the primitive night ere again it + begins its bloody climb upward to civilization. When we increase and feel + the lack of room, we will proceed to kill one another. And then I suppose + you will wear human scalp-locks at your waist, as well—as you, + Edwin, who are the gentlest of my grandsons, have already begun with that + vile pigtail. Throw it away, Edwin, boy; throw it away.” + </p> + <p> + “What a gabble the old geezer makes,” Hare-Lip remarked, when, the teeth + all extracted, they began an attempt at equal division. + </p> + <p> + They were very quick and abrupt in their actions, and their speech, in + moments of hot discussion over the allotment of the choicer teeth, was + truly a gabble. They spoke in monosyllables and short jerky sentences that + was more a gibberish than a language. And yet, through it ran hints of + grammatical construction, and appeared vestiges of the conjugation of some + superior culture. Even the speech of Granser was so corrupt that were it + put down literally it would be almost so much nonsense to the reader. + This, however, was when he talked with the boys. + </p> + <p> + When he got into the full swing of babbling to himself, it slowly purged + itself into pure English. The sentences grew longer and were enunciated + with a rhythm and ease that was reminiscent of the lecture platform. + </p> + <p> + “Tell us about the Red Death, Granser,” Hare-Lip demanded, when the teeth + affair had been satisfactorily concluded. + </p> + <p> + “The Scarlet Death,” Edwin corrected. + </p> + <p> + “An' don't work all that funny lingo on us,” Hare-Lip went on. “Talk + sensible, Granser, like a Santa Rosan ought to talk. Other Santa Rosans + don't talk like you.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II + </h2> + <p> + THE old man showed pleasure in being thus called upon. He cleared his + throat and began. + </p> + <p> + “Twenty or thirty years ago my story was in great demand. But in these + days nobody seems interested—” + </p> + <p> + “There you go!” Hare-Lip cried hotly. “Cut out the funny stuff and talk + sensible. What's <i>interested?</i> You talk like a baby that don't know + how.” + </p> + <p> + “Let him alone,” Edwin urged, “or he'll get mad and won't talk at all. + Skip the funny places. We'll catch on to some of what he tells us.” + </p> + <p> + “Let her go, Granser,” Hoo-Hoo encouraged; for the old man was already + maundering about the disrespect for elders and the reversion to cruelty of + all humans that fell from high culture to primitive conditions. + </p> + <p> + The tale began. + </p> + <p> + “There were very many people in the world in those days. San Francisco + alone held four millions—” + </p> + <p> + “What is millions?” Edwin interrupted. + </p> + <p> + Granser looked at him kindly. + </p> + <p> + “I know you cannot count beyond ten, so I will tell you. Hold up your two + hands. On both of them you have altogether ten fingers and thumbs. Very + well. I now take this grain of sand—you hold it, Hoo-Hoo.” He + dropped the grain of sand into the lad's palm and went on. “Now that grain + of sand stands for the ten fingers of Edwin. I add another grain. That's + ten more fingers. And I add another, and another, and another, until I + have added as many grains as Edwin has fingers and thumbs. That makes what + I call one hundred. Remember that word—one hundred. Now I put this + pebble in Hare-Lip's hand. It stands for ten grains of sand, or ten tens + of fingers, or one hundred fingers. I put in ten pebbles. They stand for a + thousand fingers. I take a mussel-shell, and it stands for ten pebbles, or + one hundred grains of sand, or one thousand fingers....” And so on, + laboriously, and with much reiteration, he strove to build up in their + minds a crude conception of numbers. As the quantities increased, he had + the boys holding different magnitudes in each of their hands. For still + higher sums, he laid the symbols on the log of driftwood; and for symbols + he was hard put, being compelled to use the teeth from the skulls for + millions, and the crab-shells for billions. It was here that he stopped, + for the boys were showing signs of becoming tired. + </p> + <p> + “There were four million people in San Francisco—four teeth.” + </p> + <p> + The boys' eyes ranged along from the teeth and from hand to hand, down + through the pebbles and sand-grains to Edwin's fingers. And back again + they ranged along the ascending series in the effort to grasp such + inconceivable numbers. + </p> + <p> + “That was a lot of folks, Granser,” Edwin at last hazarded. + </p> + <p> + “Like sand on the beach here, like sand on the beach, each grain of sand a + man, or woman, or child. Yes, my boy, all those people lived right here in + San Francisco. And at one time or another all those people came out on + this very beach—more people than there are grains of sand. More—more—more. + And San Francisco was a noble city. And across the bay—where we + camped last year, even more people lived, clear from Point Richmond, on + the level ground and on the hills, all the way around to San Leandro—one + great city of seven million people.—Seven teeth... there, that's it, + seven millions.” + </p> + <p> + Again the boys' eyes ranged up and down from Edwin's fingers to the teeth + on the log. + </p> + <p> + “The world was full of people. The census of 2010 gave eight billions for + the whole world—eight crab-shells, yes, eight billions. It was not + like to-day. Mankind knew a great deal more about getting food. And the + more food there was, the more people there were. In the year 1800, there + were one hundred and seventy millions in Europe alone. One hundred years + later—a grain of sand, Hoo-Hoo—one hundred years later, at + 1900, there were five hundred millions in Europe—five grains of + sand, Hoo-Hoo, and this one tooth. This shows how easy was the getting of + food, and how men increased. And in the year 2000 there were fifteen + hundred millions in Europe. And it was the same all over the rest of the + world. Eight crab-shells there, yes, eight billion people were alive on + the earth when the Scarlet Death began. + </p> + <p> + “I was a young man when the Plague came—twenty-seven years old; and + I lived on the other side of San Francisco Bay, in Berkeley. You remember + those great stone houses, Edwin, when we came down the hills from Contra + Costa? That was where I lived, in those stone houses. I was a professor of + English literature.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0005" id="linkimage-0005"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="figleft" style="width:30%;"> + <img width="100%" src="images/054.jpg" + alt="I Was a Professor of English Literature 054 " /> + </div> + <p> + Much of this was over the heads of the boys, but they strove to comprehend + dimly this tale of the past. + </p> + <p> + “What was them stone houses for?” Hare-Lip queried. + </p> + <p> + “You remember when your dad taught you to swim?” The boy nodded. “Well, in + the University of California—that is the name we had for the houses—we + taught young men and women how to think, just as I have taught you now, by + sand and pebbles and shells, to know how many people lived in those days. + There was very much to teach. The young men and women we taught were + called students. We had large rooms in which we taught. I talked to them, + forty or fifty at a time, just as I am talking to you now. I told them + about the books other men had written before their time, and even, + sometimes, in their time—” + </p> + <p> + “Was that all you did?—just talk, talk, talk?” Hoo-Hoo demanded. + “Who hunted your meat for you? and milked the goats? and caught the fish?” + </p> + <p> + “A sensible question, Hoo-Hoo, a sensible question. As I have told you, in + those days food-getting was easy. We were very wise. A few men got the + food for many men. The other men did other things. As you say, I talked. I + talked all the time, and for this food was given me—much food, fine + food, beautiful food, food that I have not tasted in sixty years and shall + never taste again. I sometimes think the most wonderful achievement of our + tremendous civilization was food—its inconceivable abundance, its + infinite variety, its marvellous delicacy. O my grandsons, life was life + in those days, when we had such wonderful things to eat.” + </p> + <p> + This was beyond the boys, and they let it slip by, words and thoughts, as + a mere senile wandering in the narrative. + </p> + <p> + “Our food-getters were called <i>freemen</i>. This was a joke. We of the + ruling classes owned all the land, all the machines, everything. These + food-getters were our slaves. We took almost all the food they got, and + left them a little so that they might eat, and work, and get us more food—” + </p> + <p> + “I'd have gone into the forest and got food for myself,” Hare-Lip + announced; “and if any man tried to take it away from me, I'd have killed + him.” + </p> + <p> + The old man laughed. + </p> + <p> + “Did I not tell you that we of the ruling class owned all the land, all + the forest, everything? Any food-getter who would not get food for us, him + we punished or compelled to starve to death. And very few did that. They + preferred to get food for us, and make clothes for us, and prepare and + administer to us a thousand—a mussel-shell, Hoo-Hoo—a thousand + satisfactions and delights. And I was Professor Smith in those days—Professor + James Howard Smith. And my lecture courses were very popular—that + is, very many of the young men and women liked to hear me talk about the + books other men had written. + </p> + <p> + “And I was very happy, and I had beautiful things to eat. And my hands + were soft, because I did no work with them, and my body was clean all over + and dressed in the softest garments— + </p> + <p> + “He surveyed his mangy goat-skin with disgust. + </p> + <p> + “We did not wear such things in those days. Even the slaves had better + garments. And we were most clean. We washed our faces and hands often + every day. You boys never wash unless you fall into the water or go + swimming.” + </p> + <p> + “Neither do you Granzer,” Hoo-Hoo retorted. + </p> + <p> + “I know, I know, I am a filthy old man, but times have changed. Nobody + washes these days, there are no conveniences. It is sixty years since I + have seen a piece of soap. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0006" id="linkimage-0006"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="figright" style="width:18%;"> + <img width="100%" src="images/059.jpg" + alt="Sixty Years Since I Have Seen a Piece of Soap. 059 " /> + </div> + <p> + “You do not know what soap is, and I shall not tell you, for I am telling + the story of the Scarlet Death. You know what sickness is. We called it a + disease. Very many of the diseases came from what we called germs. + Remember that word—germs. A germ is a very small thing. It is like a + woodtick, such as you find on the dogs in the spring of the year when they + run in the forest. Only the germ is very small. It is so small that you + cannot see it—” + </p> + <p> + Hoo-Hoo began to laugh. + </p> + <p> + “You're a queer un, Granser, talking about things you can't see. If you + can't see 'em, how do you know they are? That's what I want to know. How + do you know anything you can't see?” + </p> + <p> + “A good question, a very good question, Hoo-Hoo. But we did see—some + of them. We had what we called microscopes and ultramicroscopes, and we + put them to our eyes and looked through them, so that we saw things larger + than they really were, and many things we could not see without the + microscopes at all. Our best ultramicroscopes could make a germ look forty + thousand times larger. A mussel-shell is a thousand fingers like Edwin's. + Take forty mussel-shells, and by as many times larger was the germ when we + looked at it through a microscope. And after that, we had other ways, by + using what we called moving pictures, of making the forty-thousand-times + germ many, many thousand times larger still. And thus we saw all these + things which our eyes of themselves could not see. Take a grain of sand. + Break it into ten pieces. Take one piece and break it into ten. Break one + of those pieces into ten, and one of those into ten, and one of those into + ten, and one of those into ten, and do it all day, and maybe, by sunset, + you will have a piece as small as one of the germs.” The boys were openly + incredulous. Hare-Lip sniffed and sneered and Hoo-Hoo snickered, until + Edwin nudged them to be silent. + </p> + <p> + “The woodtick sucks the blood of the dog, but the germ, being so very + small, goes right into the blood of the body, and there it has many + children. In those days there would be as many as a billion—a + crab-shell, please—as many as that crab-shell in one man's body. We + called germs micro-organisms. When a few million, or a billion, of them + were in a man, in all the blood of a man, he was sick. These germs were a + disease. There were many different kinds of them—more different + kinds than there are grains of sand on this beach. We knew only a few of + the kinds. The micro-organic world was an invisible world, a world we + could not see, and we knew very little about it. Yet we did know + something. There was the <i>bacillus anthracis</i>; there was the <i>micrococcus</i>; + there was the <i>Bacterium termo</i>, and the <i>Bacterium lactis</i>—that's + what turns the goat milk sour even to this day, Hare-Lip; and there were + <i>Schizomycetes</i> without end. And there were many others....” + </p> + <p> + Here the old man launched into a disquisition on germs and their natures, + using words and phrases of such extraordinary length and meaninglessness, + that the boys grinned at one another and looked out over the deserted + ocean till they forgot the old man was babbling on. + </p> + <p> + “But the Scarlet Death, Granser,” Edwin at last suggested. + </p> + <p> + Granser recollected himself, and with a start tore himself away from the + rostrum of the lecture-hall, where, to another world audience, he had been + expounding the latest theory, sixty years gone, of germs and + germ-diseases. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, yes, Edwin; I had forgotten. Sometimes the memory of the past is + very strong upon me, and I forget that I am a dirty old man, clad in + goat-skin, wandering with my savage grandsons who are goatherds in the + primeval wilderness. 'The fleeting systems lapse like foam,' and so lapsed + our glorious, colossal civilization. I am Granser, a tired old man. I + belong to the tribe of Santa Rosans. I married into that tribe. My sons + and daughters married into the Chauffeurs, the Sacramen-tos, and the + Palo-Altos. You, Hare-Lip, are of the Chauffeurs. You, Edwin, are of the + Sacramentos. And you, Hoo-Hoo, are of the Palo-Altos. Your tribe takes its + name from a town that was near the seat of another great institution of + learning. It was called Stanford University. Yes, I remember now. It is + perfectly clear. I was telling you of the Scarlet Death. Where was I in my + story?” + </p> + <p> + “You was telling about germs, the things you can't see but which make men + sick,” Edwin prompted. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, that's where I was. A man did not notice at first when only a few of + these germs got into his body. But each germ broke in half and became two + germs, and they kept doing this very rapidly so that in a short time there + were many millions of them in the body. Then the man was sick. He had a + disease, and the disease was named after the kind of a germ that was in + him. It might be measles, it might be influenza, it might be yellow fever; + it might be any of thousands and thousands of kinds of diseases. + </p> + <p> + “Now this is the strange thing about these germs. There were always new + ones coming to live in men's bodies. Long and long and long ago, when + there were only a few men in the world, there were few diseases. But as + men increased and lived closely together in great cities and + civilizations, new diseases arose, new kinds of germs entered their + bodies. Thus were countless millions and billions of human beings killed. + And the more thickly men packed together, the more terrible were the new + diseases that came to be. Long before my time, in the middle ages, there + was the Black Plague that swept across Europe. It swept across Europe many + times. There was tuberculosis, that entered into men wherever they were + thickly packed. A hundred years before my time there was the bubonic + plague. And in Africa was the sleeping sickness. The bacteriologists + fought all these sicknesses and destroyed them, just as you boys fight the + wolves away from your goats, or squash the mosquitoes that light on you. + The bacteriologists—” + </p> + <p> + “But, Granser, what is a what-you-call-it?” Edwin interrupted. + </p> + <p> + “You, Edwin, are a goatherd. Your task is to watch the goats. You know a + great deal about goats. A bacteriologist watches germs. That's his task, + and he knows a great deal about them. So, as I was saying, the + bacteriologists fought with the germs and destroyed them—sometimes. + There was leprosy, a horrible disease. A hundred years before I was born, + the bacteriologists discovered the germ of leprosy. They knew all about + it. They made pictures of it. I have seen those pictures. But they never + found a way to kill it. But in 1984, there was the Pantoblast Plague, a + disease that broke out in a country called Brazil and that killed millions + of people. But the bacteriologists found it out, and found the way to kill + it, so that the Pantoblast Plague went no farther. They made what they + called a serum, which they put into a man's body and which killed the + pantoblast germs without killing the man. And in 1910, there was Pellagra, + and also the hookworm. These were easily killed by the bacteriologists. + But in 1947 there arose a new disease that had never been seen before. It + got into the bodies of babies of only ten months old or less, and it made + them unable to move their hands and feet, or to eat, or anything; and the + bacteriologists were eleven years in discovering how to kill that + particular germ and save the babies. + </p> + <p> + “In spite of all these diseases, and of all the new ones that continued to + arise, there were more and more men in the world. This was because it was + easy to get food. The easier it was to get food, the more men there were; + the more men there were, the more thickly were they packed together on the + earth; and the more thickly they were packed, the more new kinds of germs + became diseases. There were warnings. Soldervetzsky, as early as 1929, + told the bacteriologists that they had no guaranty against some new + disease, a thousand times more deadly than any they knew, arising and + killing by the hundreds of millions and even by the billion. You see, the + micro-organic world remained a mystery to the end. They knew there was + such a world, and that from time to time armies of new germs emerged from + it to kill men. + </p> + <p> + “And that was all they knew about it. For all they knew, in that invisible + micro-organic world there might be as many different kinds of germs as + there are grains of sand on this beach. And also, in that same invisible + world it might well be that new kinds of germs came to be. It might be + there that life originated—the 'abysmal fecundity,' Soldervetzsky + called it, applying the words of other men who had written before him....” + </p> + <p> + It was at this point that Hare-Lip rose to his feet, an expression of huge + contempt on his face. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0007" id="linkimage-0007"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img src="images/071.jpg" width="100%" + alt="Granser, You Make Me Sick With Your Gabble 071 " /> + </div> + <p> + “Granser,” he announced, “you make me sick with your gabble. Why don't you + tell about the Red Death? If you ain't going to, say so, an' we'll start + back for camp.” + </p> + <p> + The old man looked at him and silently began to cry. The weak tears of age + rolled down his cheeks and all the feebleness of his eighty-seven years + showed in his grief-stricken countenance. + </p> + <p> + “Sit down,” Edwin counselled soothingly. “Granser's all right. He's just + gettin' to the Scarlet Death, ain't you, Granser? He's just goin' to tell + us about it right now. Sit down, Hare-Lip. Go ahead, Granser.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III + </h2> + <p> + THE old man wiped the tears away on his grimy knuckles and took up the + tale in a tremulous, piping voice that soon strengthened as he got the + swing of the narrative. + </p> + <p> + “It was in the summer of 2013 that the Plague came. I was twenty-seven + years old, and well do I remember it. Wireless despatches—” + </p> + <p> + Hare-Lip spat loudly his disgust, and Granser hastened to make amends. + </p> + <p> + “We talked through the air in those days, thousands and thousands of + miles. And the word came of a strange disease that had broken out in New + York. There were seventeen millions of people living then in that noblest + city of America. Nobody thought anything about the news. It was only a + small thing. There had been only a few deaths. It seemed, though, that + they had died very quickly, and that one of the first signs of the disease + was the turning red of the face and all the body. Within twenty-four hours + came the report of the first case in Chicago. And on the same day, it was + made public that London, the greatest city in the world, next to Chicago, + had been secretly fighting the plague for two weeks and censoring the news + despatches—that is, not permitting the word to go forth to the rest + of the world that London had the plague. + </p> + <p> + “It looked serious, but we in California, like everywhere else, were not + alarmed. We were sure that the bacteriologists would find a way to + overcome this new germ, just as they had overcome other germs in the past. + But the trouble was the astonishing quickness with which this germ + destroyed human beings, and the fact that it inevitably killed any human + body it entered. No one ever recovered. There was the old Asiatic cholera, + when you might eat dinner with a well man in the evening, and the next + morning, if you got up early enough, you would see him being hauled by + your window in the death-cart. But this new plague was quicker than that—much + quicker. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0008" id="linkimage-0008"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img src="images/078.jpg" width="100%" + alt="But This New Plague Was Quicker 078 " /> + </div> + <p> + “From the moment of the first signs of it, a man would be dead in an hour. + Some lasted for several hours. Many died within ten or fifteen minutes of + the appearance of the first signs. + </p> + <p> + “The heart began to beat faster and the heat of the body to increase. Then + came the scarlet rash, spreading like wildfire over the face and body. + Most persons never noticed the increase in heat and heart-beat, and the + first they knew was when the scarlet rash came out. Usually, they had + convulsions at the time of the appearance of the rash. But these + convulsions did not last long and were not very severe. If one lived + through them, he became perfectly quiet, and only did he feel a numbness + swiftly creeping up his body from the feet. The heels became numb first, + then the legs, and hips, and when the numbness reached as high as his + heart he died. They did not rave or sleep. Their minds always remained + cool and calm up to the moment their heart numbed and stopped. And another + strange thing was the rapidity of decomposition. No sooner was a person + dead than the body seemed to fall to pieces, to fly apart, to melt away + even as you looked at it. That was one of the reasons the plague spread so + rapidly. All the billions of germs in a corpse were so immediately + released. + </p> + <p> + “And it was because of all this that the bacteriologists had so little + chance in fighting the germs. They were killed in their laboratories even + as they studied the germ of the Scarlet Death. They were heroes. As fast + as they perished, others stepped forth and took their places. It was in + London that they first isolated it. The news was telegraphed everywhere. + Trask was the name of the man who succeeded in this, but within thirty + hours he was dead. Then came the struggle in all the laboratories to find + something that would kill the plague germs. All drugs failed. You see, the + problem was to get a drug, or serum, that would kill the germs in the body + and not kill the body. They tried to fight it with other germs, to put + into the body of a sick man germs that were the enemies of the plague + germs—” + </p> + <p> + “And you can't see these germ-things, Granser,” Hare-Lip objected, “and + here you gabble, gabble, gabble about them as if they was anything, when + they're nothing at all. Anything you can't see, ain't, that's what. + Fighting things that ain't with things that ain't! They must have been all + fools in them days. That's why they croaked. I ain't goin' to believe in + such rot, I tell you that.” + </p> + <p> + Granser promptly began to weep, while Edwin hotly took up his defence. + </p> + <p> + “Look here, Hare-Lip, you believe in lots of things you can't see.” + </p> + <p> + Hare-Lip shook his head. + </p> + <p> + “You believe in dead men walking about. You never seen one dead man walk + about.” + </p> + <p> + “I tell you I seen 'em, last winter, when I was wolf-hunting with dad.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, you always spit when you cross running water,” Edwin challenged. + </p> + <p> + “That's to keep off bad luck,” was Hare-Lip's defence. + </p> + <p> + “You believe in bad luck?” + </p> + <p> + “Sure.” + </p> + <p> + “An' you ain't never seen bad luck,” Edwin concluded triumphantly. “You're + just as bad as Granser and his germs. You believe in what you don't see. + Go on, Granser.” + </p> + <p> + Hare-Lip, crushed by this metaphysical defeat, remained silent, and the + old man went on. Often and often, though this narrative must not be + clogged by the details, was Granser's tale interrupted while the boys + squabbled among themselves. Also, among themselves they kept up a + constant, low-voiced exchange of explanation and conjecture, as they + strove to follow the old man into his unknown and vanished world. + </p> + <p> + “The Scarlet Death broke out in San Francisco. The first death came on a + Monday morning. By Thursday they were dying like flies in Oakland and San + Francisco. They died everywhere—in their beds, at their work, + walking along the street. It was on Tuesday that I saw my first death—Miss + Collbran, one of my students, sitting right there before my eyes, in my + lecture-room. I noticed her face while I was talking. It had suddenly + turned scarlet. I ceased speaking and could only look at her, for the + first fear of the plague was already on all of us and we knew that it had + come. The young women screamed and ran out of the room. So did the young + men run out, all but two. Miss Collbran's convulsions were very mild and + lasted less than a minute. One of the young men fetched her a glass of + water. She drank only a little of it, and cried out: + </p> + <p> + “'My feet! All sensation has left them.' + </p> + <p> + “After a minute she said, 'I have no feet. I am unaware that I have any + feet. And my knees are cold. I can scarcely feel that I have knees.' + </p> + <p> + “She lay on the floor, a bundle of notebooks under her head. And we could + do nothing. The coldness and the numbness crept up past her hips to her + heart, and when it reached her heart she was dead. In fifteen minutes, by + the clock—I timed it—she was dead, there, in my own classroom, + dead. And she was a very beautiful, strong, healthy young woman. And from + the first sign of the plague to her death only fifteen minutes elapsed. + That will show you how swift was the Scarlet Death. + </p> + <p> + “Yet in those few minutes I remained with the dying woman in my classroom, + the alarm had spread over the university; and the students, by thousands, + all of them, had deserted the lecture-room and laboratories. When I + emerged, on my way to make report to the President of the Faculty, I found + the university deserted. Across the campus were several stragglers + hurrying for their homes. Two of them were running. + </p> + <p> + “President Hoag, I found in his office, all alone, looking very old and + very gray, with a multitude of wrinkles in his face that I had never seen + before. At the sight of me, he pulled himself to his feet and tottered + away to the inner office, banging the door after him and locking it. You + see, he knew I had been exposed, and he was afraid. He shouted to me + through the door to go away. I shall never forget my feelings as I walked + down the silent corridors and out across that deserted campus. I was not + afraid. I had been exposed, and I looked upon myself as already dead. It + was not that, but a feeling of awful depression that impressed me. + Everything had stopped. It was like the end of the world to me—my + world. I had been born within sight and sound of the university. It had + been my predestined career. My father had been a professor there before + me, and his father before him. For a century and a half had this + university, like a splendid machine, been running steadily on. And now, in + an instant, it had stopped. It was like seeing the sacred flame die down + on some thrice-sacred altar. I was shocked, unutterably shocked. + </p> + <p> + “When I arrived home, my housekeeper screamed as I entered, and fled away. + And when I rang, I found the housemaid had likewise fled. I investigated. + In the kitchen I found the cook on the point of departure. But she + screamed, too, and in her haste dropped a suitcase of her personal + belongings and ran out of the house and across the grounds, still + screaming. I can hear her scream to this day. You see, we did not act in + this way when ordinary diseases smote us. We were always calm over such + things, and sent for the doctors and nurses who knew just what to do. But + this was different. It struck so suddenly, and killed so swiftly, and + never missed a stroke. When the scarlet rash appeared on a person's face, + that person was marked by death. There was never a known case of a + recovery. + </p> + <p> + “I was alone in my big house. As I have told you often before, in those + days we could talk with one another over wires or through the air. The + telephone bell rang, and I found my brother talking to me. He told me that + he was not coming home for fear of catching the plague from me, and that + he had taken our two sisters to stop at Professor Bacon's home. He advised + me to remain where I was, and wait to find out whether or not I had caught + the plague. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0009" id="linkimage-0009"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img src="images/088.jpg" width="100%" alt="The Telephone Bell Rang 088 " /> + </div> + <p> + “To all of this I agreed, staying in my house and for the first time in my + life attempting to cook. And the plague did not come out on me. By means + of the telephone I could talk with whomsoever I pleased and get the news. + Also, there were the newspapers, and I ordered all of them to be thrown up + to my door so that I could know what was happening with the rest of the + world. + </p> + <p> + “New York City and Chicago were in chaos. And what happened with them was + happening in all the large cities. A third of the New York police were + dead. Their chief was also dead, likewise the mayor. All law and order had + ceased. The bodies were lying in the streets un-buried. All railroads and + vessels carrying food and such things into the great city had ceased + runnings and mobs of the hungry poor were pillaging the stores and + warehouses. Murder and robbery and drunkenness were everywhere. Already + the people had fled from the city by millions—at first the rich, in + their private motor-cars and dirigibles, and then the great mass of the + population, on foot, carrying the plague with them, themselves starving + and pillaging the farmers and all the towns and villages on the way. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0010" id="linkimage-0010"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img src="images/092.jpg" width="100%" + alt="Fled from the City by Millions 092 " /> + </div> + <p> + “The man who sent this news, the wireless operator, was alone with his + instrument on the top of a lofty building. The people remaining in the + city—he estimated them at several hundred thousand—had gone + mad from fear and drink, and on all sides of him great fires were raging. + He was a hero, that man who staid by his post—an obscure + newspaperman, most likely. + </p> + <p> + “For twenty-four hours, he said, no transatlantic airships had arrived, + and no more messages were coming from England. He did state, though, that + a message from Berlin—that's in Germany—announced that + Hoffmeyer, a bacteriologist of the Metchnikoff School, had discovered the + serum for the plague. That was the last word, to this day, that we of + America ever received from Europe. If Hoffmeyer discovered the serum, it + was too late, or otherwise, long ere this, explorers from Europe would + have come looking for us. We can only conclude that what happened in + America happened in Europe, and that, at the best, some several score may + have survived the Scarlet Death on that whole continent. + </p> + <p> + “For one day longer the despatches continued to come from New York. Then + they, too, ceased. The man who had sent them, perched in his lofty + building, had either died of the plague or been consumed in the great + conflagrations he had described as raging around him. And what had + occurred in New York had been duplicated in all the other cities. It was + the same in San Francisco, and Oakland, and Berkeley. By Thursday the + people were dying so rapidly that their corpses could not be handled, and + dead bodies lay everywhere. Thursday night the panic outrush for the + country began. Imagine, my grandsons, people, thicker than the salmon-run + you have seen on the Sacramento river, pouring out of the cities by + millions, madly over the country, in vain attempt to escape the ubiquitous + death. You see, they carried the germs with them. Even the airships of the + rich, fleeing for mountain and desert fastnesses, carried the germs. + </p> + <p> + “Hundreds of these airships escaped to Hawaii, and not only did they bring + the plague with them, but they found the plague already there before them. + This we learned, by the despatches, until all order in San Francisco + vanished, and there were no operators left at their posts to receive or + send. It was amazing, astounding, this loss of communication with the + world. It was exactly as if the world had ceased, been blotted out. For + sixty years that world has no longer existed for me. I know there must be + such places as New York, Europe, Asia, and Africa; but not one word has + been heard of them—not in sixty years. With the coming of the + Scarlet Death the world fell apart, absolutely, irretrievably. Ten + thousand years of culture and civilization passed in the twinkling of an + eye, 'lapsed like foam.' + </p> + <p> + “I was telling about the airships of the rich. They carried the plague + with them and no matter where they fled, they died. I never encountered + but one survivor of any of them—Mungerson. He was afterwards a Santa + Rosan, and he married my eldest daughter. He came into the tribe eight + years after the plague. He was then nineteen years old, and he was + compelled to wait twelve years more before he could marry. You see, there + were no unmarried women, and some of the older daughters of the Santa + Rosans were already bespoken. So he was forced to wait until my Mary had + grown to sixteen years. It was his son, Gimp-Leg, who was killed last year + by the mountain lion. + </p> + <p> + “Mungerson was eleven years old at the time of the plague. His father was + one of the Industrial Magnates, a very wealthy, powerful man. It was on + his airship, the Condor, that they were fleeing, with all the family, for + the wilds of British Columbia, which is far to the north of here. But + there was some accident, and they were wrecked near Mount Shasta. You have + heard of that mountain. It is far to the north. The plague broke out + amongst them, and this boy of eleven was the only survivor. For eight + years he was alone, wandering over a deserted land and looking vainly for + his own kind. And at last, travelling south, he picked up with us, the + Santa Rosans. + </p> + <p> + “But I am ahead of my story. When the great exodus from the cities around + San Francisco Bay began, and while the telephones were still working, I + talked with my brother. I told him this flight from the cities was + insanity, that there were no symptoms of the plague in me, and that the + thing for us to do was to isolate ourselves and our relatives in some safe + place. We decided on the Chemistry Building, at the university, and we + planned to lay in a supply of provisions, and by force of arms to prevent + any other persons from forcing their presence upon us after we had retired + to our refuge. + </p> + <p> + “All this being arranged, my brother begged me to stay in my own house for + at least twenty-four hours more, on the chance of the plague developing in + me. To this I agreed, and he promised to come for me next day. We talked + on over the details of the provisioning and the defending of the Chemistry + Building until the telephone died. It died in the midst of our + conversation. That evening there were no electric lights, and I was alone + in my house in the darkness. No more newspapers were being printed, so I + had no knowledge of what was taking place outside. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0011" id="linkimage-0011"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img src="images/098.jpg" width="100%" + alt="I Heard Sounds of Rioting and Of Pistol Shots 098 " /> + </div> + <p> + “I heard sounds of rioting and of pistol shots, and from my windows I + could see the glare of the sky of some conflagration in the direction of + Oakland. It was a night of terror. I did not sleep a wink. A man—why + and how I do not know—was killed on the sidewalk in front of the + house. I heard the rapid reports of an automatic pistol, and a few minutes + later the wounded wretch crawled up to my door, moaning and crying out for + help. Arming myself with two automatics, I went to him. By the light of a + match I ascertained that while he was dying of the bullet wounds, at the + same time the plague was on him. I fled indoors, whence I heard him moan + and cry out for half an hour longer. + </p> + <p> + “In the morning, my brother came to me. I had gathered into a handbag what + things of value I purposed taking, but when I saw his face I knew that he + would never accompany me to the Chemistry Building. The plague was on him. + He intended shaking my hand, but I went back hurriedly before him. + </p> + <p> + “'Look at yourself in the mirror,' I commanded. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0012" id="linkimage-0012"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img src="images/100.jpg" width="100%" + alt="Look at Yourself in the Mirror 100 " /> + </div> + <p> + “He did so, and at sight of his scarlet face, the color deepening as he + looked at it, he sank down nervelessly in a chair. + </p> + <p> + “'My God!' he said. 'I've got it. Don't come near me. I am a dead man.' + </p> + <p> + “Then the convulsions seized him. He was two hours in dying, and he was + conscious to the last, complaining about the coldness and loss of + sensation in his feet, his calves, his thighs, until at last it was his + heart and he was dead. + </p> + <p> + “That was the way the Scarlet Death slew. I caught up my handbag and fled. + The sights in the streets were terrible. One stumbled on bodies + everywhere. Some were not yet dead. And even as you looked, you saw men + sink down with the death fastened upon them. There were numerous fires + burning in Berkeley, while Oakland and San Francisco were apparently being + swept by vast conflagrations. The smoke of the burning filled the heavens, + so that the midday was as a gloomy twilight, and, in the shifts of wind, + sometimes the sun shone through dimly, a dull red orb. Truly, my + grandsons, it was like the last days of the end of the world. + </p> + <p> + “There were numerous stalled motor cars, showing that the gasoline and the + engine supplies of the garages had given out. I remember one such car. A + man and a woman lay back dead in the seats, and on the pavement near it + were two more women and a child. Strange and terrible sights there were on + every hand. People slipped by silently, furtively, like ghosts—white-faced + women carrying infants in their arms; fathers leading children by the + hand; singly, and in couples, and in families—all fleeing out of the + city of death. Some carried supplies of food, others blankets and + valuables, and there were many who carried nothing. + </p> + <p> + “There was a grocery store—a place where food was sold. The man to + whom it belonged—I knew him well—a quiet, sober, but stupid + and obstinate fellow, was defending it. The windows and doors had been + broken in, but he, inside, hiding behind a counter, was discharging his + pistol at a number of men on the sidewalk who were breaking in. In the + entrance were several bodies—of men, I decided, whom he had killed + earlier in the day. Even as I looked on from a distance, I saw one of the + robbers break the windows of the adjoining store, a place where shoes were + sold, and deliberately set fire to it. I did not go to the groceryman's + assistance. The time for such acts had already passed. Civilization was + crumbling, and it was each for himself.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV + </h2> + <p> + I WENT away hastily, down a cross-street, and at the first corner I saw + another tragedy. Two men of the working class had caught a man and a woman + with two children, and were robbing them. I knew the man by sight, though + I had never been introduced to him. He was a poet whose verses I had long + admired. Yet I did not go to his help, for at the moment I came upon the + scene there was a pistol shot, and I saw him sinking to the ground. The + woman screamed, and she was felled with a fist-blow by one of the brutes. + I cried out threateningly, whereupon they discharged their pistols at me + and I ran away around the corner. Here I was blocked by an advancing + conflagration. The buildings on both sides were burning, and the street + was filled with smoke and flame. From somewhere in that murk came a + woman's voice calling shrilly for help. But I did not go to her. A man's + heart turned to iron amid such scenes, and one heard all too many appeals + for help. + </p> + <p> + “Returning to the corner, I found the two robbers were gone. The poet and + his wife lay dead on the pavement. It was a shocking sight. The two + children had vanished—whither I could not tell. And I knew, now, why + it was that the fleeing persons I encountered slipped along so furtively + and with such white faces. In the midst of our civilization, down in our + slums and labor-ghettos, we had bred a race of barbarians, of savages; and + now, in the time of our calamity, they turned upon us like the wild beasts + they were and destroyed us. And they destroyed themselves as well. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0013" id="linkimage-0013"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img src="images/108.jpg" width="100%" + alt="Now in the Time of Calamity They Turned on Us 108 " /> + </div> + <p> + “They inflamed themselves with strong drink and committed a thousand + atrocities, quarreling and killing one another in the general madness. One + group of workingmen I saw, of the better sort, who had banded together, + and, with their women and children in their midst, the sick and aged in + litters and being carried, and with a number of horses pulling a + truck-load of provisions, they were fighting their way out of the city. + They made a fine spectacle as they came down the street through the + drifting smoke, though they nearly shot me when I first appeared in their + path. As they went by, one of their leaders shouted out to me in + apologetic explanation. He said they were killing the robbers and looters + on sight, and that they had thus banded together as the only-means by + which to escape the prowlers. + </p> + <p> + “It was here that I saw for the first time what I was soon to see so + often. One of the marching men had suddenly shown the unmistakable mark of + the plague. Immediately those about him drew away, and he, without a + remonstrance, stepped out of his place to let them pass on. A woman, most + probably his wife, attempted to follow him. She was leading a little boy + by the hand. But the husband commanded her sternly to go on, while others + laid hands on her and restrained her from following him. This I saw, and I + saw the man also, with his scarlet blaze of face, step into a doorway on + the opposite side of the street. I heard the report of his pistol, and saw + him sink lifeless to the ground. + </p> + <p> + “After being turned aside twice again by advancing fires, I succeeded in + getting through to the university. On the edge of the campus I came upon a + party of university folk who were going in the direction of the Chemistry + Building. They were all family men, and their families were with them, + including the nurses and the servants. Professor Badminton greeted me, I + had difficulty in recognizing him. Somewhere he had gone through flames, + and his beard was singed off. About his head was a bloody bandage, and his + clothes were filthy. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0014" id="linkimage-0014"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="figleft" style="width:20%;"> + <img width="100%" src="images/112.jpg" + alt="He Told Me he Had Been Cruelly Beaten 112 " /> + </div> + <p> + “He told me he had prowlers, and that his brother had been killed the + previous night, in the defence of their dwelling. + </p> + <p> + “Midway across the campus, he pointed suddenly to Mrs. Swinton's face. The + unmistakable scarlet was there. Immediately all the other women set up a + screaming and began to run away from her. Her two children were with a + nurse, and these also ran with the women. But her husband, Doctor Swinton, + remained with her. + </p> + <p> + “'Go on, Smith,' he told me. 'Keep an eye on the children. As for me, I + shall stay with my wife. I know she is as already dead, but I can't leave + her. Afterwards, if I escape, I shall come to the Chemistry Building, and + do you watch for me and let me in.' + </p> + <p> + “I left him bending over his wife and soothing her last moments, while I + ran to overtake the party. We were the last to be admitted to the + Chemistry Building. After that, with our automatic rifles we maintained + our isolation. By our plans, we had arranged for a company of sixty to be + in this refuge. Instead, every one of the number originally planned had + added relatives and friends and whole families until there were over four + hundred souls. But the Chemistry Building was large, and, standing by + itself, was in no danger of being burned by the great fires that raged + everywhere in the city. + </p> + <p> + “A large quantity of provisions had been gathered, and a food committee + took charge of it, issuing rations daily to the various families and + groups that arranged themselves into messes. A number of committees were + appointed, and we developed a very efficient organization. I was on the + committee of defence, though for the first day no prowlers came near. We + could see them in the distance, however, and by the smoke of their fires + knew that several camps of them were occupying the far edge of the campus. + Drunkenness was rife, and often we heard them singing ribald songs or + insanely shouting. While the world crashed to ruin about them and all the + air was filled with the smoke of its burning, these low creatures gave + rein to their bestiality and fought and drank and died. And after all, + what did it matter? Everybody died anyway, the good and the bad, the + efficients and the weaklings, those that loved to live and those that + scorned to live. They passed. Everything passed. + </p> + <p> + “When twenty-four hours had gone by and no signs of the plague were + apparent, we congratulated ourselves and set about digging a well. You + have seen the great iron pipes which in those days carried water to all + the city-dwellers. We feared that the fires in the city would burst the + pipes and empty the reservoirs. So we tore up the cement floor of the + central court of the Chemistry Building and dug a well. There were many + young men, undergraduates, with us, and we worked night and day on the + well. And our fears were confirmed. Three hours before we reached water, + the pipes went dry. + </p> + <p> + “A second twenty-four hours passed, and still the plague did not appear + among us. We thought we were saved. But we did not know what I afterwards + decided to be true, namely, that the period of the incubation of the + plague germs in a human's body was a matter of a number of days. It slew + so swiftly when once it manifested itself, that we were led to believe + that the period of incubation was equally swift. So, when two days had + left us unscathed, we were elated with the idea that we were free of the + contagion. + </p> + <p> + “But the third day disillusioned us. I can never forget the night + preceding it. I had charge of the night guards from eight to twelve, and + from the roof of the building I watched the passing of all man's glorious + works. So terrible were the local conflagrations that all the sky was + lighted up. One could read the finest print in the red glare. All the + world seemed wrapped in flames. San Francisco spouted smoke and fire from + a score of vast conflagrations that were like so many active volcanoes. + Oakland, San Leandro, Haywards—all were burning; and to the + northward, clear to Point Richmond, other fires were at work. It was an + awe-inspiring spectacle. Civilization, my grandsons, civilization was + passing in a sheet of flame and a breath of death. At ten o'clock that + night, the great powder magazines at Point Pinole exploded in rapid + succession. So terrific were the concussions that the strong building + rocked as in an earthquake, while every pane of glass was broken. It was + then that I left the roof and went down the long corridors, from room to + room, quieting the alarmed women and telling them what had happened. + </p> + <p> + “An hour later, at a window on the ground floor, I heard pandemonium break + out in the camps of the prowlers. There were cries and screams, and shots + from many pistols. As we afterward conjectured, this fight had been + precipitated by an attempt on the part of those that were well to drive + out those that were sick. At any rate, a number of the plague-stricken + prowlers escaped across the campus and drifted against our doors. We + warned them back, but they cursed us and discharged a fusillade from their + pistols. Professor Merryweather, at one of the windows, was instantly + killed, the bullet striking him squarely between the eyes. We opened fire + in turn, and all the prowlers fled away with the exception of three. One + was a woman. The plague was on them and they were reckless. Like foul + fiends, there in the red glare from the skies, with faces blazing, they + continued to curse us and fire at us. One of the men I shot with my own + hand. After that the other man and the woman, still cursing us, lay down + under our windows, where we were compelled to watch them die of the + plague. + </p> + <p> + “The situation was critical. The explosions of the powder magazines had + broken all the windows of the Chemistry Building, so that we were exposed + to the germs from the corpses. The sanitary committee was called upon to + act, and it responded nobly. Two men were required to go out and remove + the corpses, and this meant the probable sacrifice of their own lives, + for, having performed the task, they were not to be permitted to reenter + the building. One of the professors, who was a bachelor, and one of the + undergraduates volunteered. They bade good-bye to us and went forth. They + were heroes. They gave up their lives that four hundred others might live. + After they had performed their work, they stood for a moment, at a + distance, looking at us wistfully. Then they waved their hands in farewell + and went away slowly across the campus toward the burning city. + </p> + <p> + “And yet it was all useless. The next morning the first one of us was + smitten with the plague—a little nurse-girl in the family of + Professor Stout. It was no time for weak-kneed, sentimental policies. On + the chance that she might be the only one, we thrust her forth from the + building and commanded her to be gone. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0015" id="linkimage-0015"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="figright" style="width:25%;"> + <img width="100%" src="images/120.jpg" + alt="We Thrust Her Forth from the Building 120 " /> + </div> + <p> + “She went away slowly across the campus, wringing her hands and crying + pitifully. We felt like brutes, but what were we to do? There were four + hundred of us, and individuals had to be sacrificed. + </p> + <p> + “In one of the laboratories three families had domiciled themselves, and + that afternoon we found among them no less than four corpses and seven + cases of the plague in all its different stages. + </p> + <p> + “Then it was that the horror began. Leaving the dead lie, we forced the + living ones to segregate themselves in another room. The plague began to + break out among the rest of us, and as fast as the symptoms appeared, we + sent the stricken ones to these segregated rooms. We compelled them to + walk there by themselves, so as to avoid laying hands on them. It was + heartrending. But still the plague raged among us, and room after room was + filled with the dead and dying. And so we who were yet clean retreated to + the next floor and to the next, before this sea of the dead, that, room by + room and floor by floor, inundated the building. + </p> + <p> + “The place became a charnel house, and in the middle of the night the + survivors fled forth, taking nothing with them except arms and ammunition + and a heavy store of tinned foods. We camped on the opposite side of the + campus from the prowlers, and, while some stood guard, others of us + volunteered to scout into the city in quest of horses, motor cars, carts, + and wagons, or anything that would carry our provisions and enable us to + emulate the banded workingmen I had seen fighting their way out to the + open country. + </p> + <p> + “I was one of these scouts; and Doctor Hoyle, remembering that his motor + car had been left behind in his home garage, told me to look for it. We + scouted in pairs, and Dombey, a young undergraduate, accompanied me. We + had to cross half a mile of the residence portion of the city to get to + Doctor Hoyle's home. Here the buildings stood apart, in the midst of trees + and grassy lawns, and here the fires had played freaks, burning whole + blocks, skipping blocks and often skipping a single house in a block. And + here, too, the prowlers were still at their work. We carried our automatic + pistols openly in our hands, and looked desperate enough, forsooth, to + keep them from attacking us. But at Doctor Hoyle's house the thing + happened. Untouched by fire, even as we came to it the smoke of flames + burst forth. + </p> + <p> + “The miscreant who had set fire to it staggered down the steps and out + along the driveway. Sticking out of his coat pockets were bottles of + whiskey, and he was very drunk. My first impulse was to shoot him, and I + have never ceased regretting that I did not. Staggering and maundering to + himself, with bloodshot eyes, and a raw and bleeding slash down one side + of his bewhiskered face, he was altogether the most nauseating specimen of + degradation and filth I had ever encountered. I did not shoot him, and he + leaned against a tree on the lawn to let us go by. It was the most + absolute, wanton act. Just as we were opposite him, he suddenly drew a + pistol and shot Dombey through the head. The next instant I shot him. But + it was too late. Dombey expired without a groan, immediately. I doubt if + he even knew what had happened to him. + </p> + <p> + “Leaving the two corpses, I hurried on past the burning house to the + garage, and there found Doctor Hoyle's motor car. The tanks were filled + with gasoline, and it was ready for use. And it was in this car that I + threaded the streets of the ruined city and came back to the survivors on + the campus. The other scouts returned, but none had been so fortunate. + Professor Fairmead had found a Shetland pony, but the poor creature, tied + in a stable and abandoned for days, was so weak from want of food and + water that it could carry no burden at all. Some of the men were for + turning it loose, but I insisted that we should lead it along with us, so + that, if we got out of food, we would have it to eat. + </p> + <p> + “There were forty-seven of us when we started, many being women and + children. The President of the Faculty, an old man to begin with, and now + hopelessly broken by the awful happenings of the past week, rode in the + motor car with several young children and the aged mother of Professor + Fairmead. Wathope, a young professor of English, who had a grievous + bullet-wound in his leg, drove the car. The rest of us walked, Professor + Fairmead leading the pony. + </p> + <p> + “It was what should have been a bright summer day, but the smoke from the + burning world filled the sky, through which the sun shone murkily, a dull + and lifeless orb, blood-red and ominous. But we had grown accustomed to + that blood-red sun. With the smoke it was different. It bit into our + nostrils and eyes, and there was not one of us whose eyes were not + bloodshot. We directed our course to the southeast through the endless + miles of suburban residences, travelling along where the first swells of + low hills rose from the flat of the central city. It was by this way, + only, that we could expect to gain the country. + </p> + <p> + “Our progress was painfully slow. The women and children could not walk + fast. They did not dream of walking, my grandsons, in the way all people + walk to-day. In truth, none of us knew how to walk. It was not until after + the plague that I learned really to walk. So it was that the pace of the + slowest was the pace of all, for we dared not separate on account of the + prowlers. There were not so many now of these human beasts of prey. The + plague had already well diminished their numbers, but enough still lived + to be a constant menace to us. Many of the beautiful residences were + untouched by fire, yet smoking ruins were everywhere. The prowlers, too, + seemed to have got over their insensate desire to burn, and it was more + rarely that we saw houses freshly on fire. + </p> + <p> + “Several of us scouted among the private garages in search of motor cars + and gasoline. But in this we were unsuccessful. The first great flights + from the cities had swept all such utilities away. Calgan, a fine young + man, was lost in this work. He was shot by prowlers while crossing a lawn. + Yet this was our only casualty, though, once, a drunken brute deliberately + opened fire on all of us. Luckily, he fired wildly, and we shot him before + he had done any hurt. + </p> + <p> + “At Fruitvale, still in the heart of the magnificent residence section of + the city, the plague again smote us. Professor Fairmead was the victim. + Making signs to us that his mother was not to know, he turned aside into + the grounds of a beautiful mansion. He sat down forlornly on the steps of + the front veranda, and I, having lingered, waved him a last farewell. That + night, several miles beyond Fruitvale and still in the city, we made camp. + And that night we shifted camp twice to get away from our dead. In the + morning there were thirty of us. I shall never forget the President of the + Faculty. During the morning's march his wife, who was walking, betrayed + the fatal symptoms, and when she drew aside to let us go on, he insisted + on leaving the motor car and remaining with her. There was quite a + discussion about this, but in the end we gave in. It was just as well, for + we knew not which ones of us, if any, might ultimately escape. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0016" id="linkimage-0016"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="figleft" style="width:30%;"> + <img width="100%" src="images/132.jpg" + alt="She Fell Like a Plummet to the Earth 132 " /> + </div> + <p> + “That night, the second of our march, we camped beyond Haywards in the + first stretches of country. And in the morning there were eleven of us + that lived. Also, during the night, Wathope, the professor with the + wounded leg, deserted us in the motor car. He took with him his sister and + his mother and most of our tinned provisions. It was that day, in the + afternoon, while resting by the wayside, that I saw the last airship I + shall ever see. The smoke was much thinner here in the country, and I + first sighted the ship drifting and veering helplessly at an elevation of + two thousand feet. What had happened I could not conjecture, but even as + we looked we saw her bow dip down lower and lower. Then the bulkheads of + the various gas-chambers must have burst, for, quite perpendicular, she + fell like a plummet to the earth. + </p> + <p> + “And from that day to this I have not seen another airship. Often and + often, during the next few years, I scanned the sky for them, hoping + against hope that somewhere in the world civilization had survived. But it + was not to be. What happened with us in California must have happened with + everybody everywhere. + </p> + <p> + “Another day, and at Niles there were three of us. Beyond Niles, in the + middle of the highway, we found Wathope. The motor car had broken down, + and there, on the rugs which they had spread on the ground, lay the bodies + of his sister, his mother, and himself. + </p> + <p> + “Wearied by the unusual exercise of continual walking, that night I slept + heavily. In the morning I was alone in the world. Canfield and Parsons, my + last companions, were dead of the plague. Of the four hundred that sought + shelter in the Chemistry Building, and of the forty-seven that began the + march, I alone remained—I and the Shetland pony. Why this should be + so there is no explaining. I did not catch the plague, that is all. I was + immune. I was merely the one lucky man in a million—just as every + survivor was one in a million, or, rather, in several millions, for the + proportion was at least that.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + V + </h2> + <p> + “FOR two days I sheltered in a pleasant grove where there had been no + deaths. In those two days, while badly depressed and believing that my + turn would come at any moment, nevertheless I rested and recuperated. So + did the pony. And on the third day, putting what small store of tinned + provisions I possessed on the pony's back, I started on across a very + lonely land. Not a live man, woman, or child, did I encounter, though the + dead were everywhere. Food, however, was abundant. The land then was not + as it is now. It was all cleared of trees and brush, and it was + cultivated. The food for millions of mouths was growing, ripening, and + going to waste. From the fields and orchards I gathered vegetables, + fruits, and berries. Around the deserted farmhouses I got eggs and caught + chickens. And frequently I found supplies of tinned provisions in the + store-rooms. + </p> + <p> + “A strange thing was what was taking place with all the domestic animals. + Everywhere they were going wild and preying on one another. The chickens + and ducks were the first to be destroyed, while the pigs were the first to + go wild, followed by the cats. Nor were the dogs long in adapting + themselves to the changed conditions. There was a veritable plague of + dogs. They devoured the corpses, barked and howled during the nights, and + in the daytime slunk about in the distance. As the time went by, I noticed + a change in their behavior. At first they were apart from one another, + very suspicious and very prone to fight. But after a not very long while + they began to come together and run in packs. The dog, you see, always was + a social animal, and this was true before ever he came to be domesticated + by man. In the last days of the world before the plague, there were many + many very different kinds of dogs—dogs without hair and dogs with + warm fur, dogs so small that they would make scarcely a mouthful for other + dogs that were as large as mountain lions. Well, all the small dogs, and + the weak types, were killed by their fellows. Also, the very large ones + were not adapted for the wild life and bred out. As a result, the many + different kinds of dogs disappeared, and there remained, running in packs, + the medium-sized wolfish dogs that you know to-day.” + </p> + <p> + “But the cats don't run in packs, Granser,” Hoo-Hoo objected. + </p> + <p> + “The cat was never a social animal. As one writer in the nineteenth + century said, the cat walks by himself. He always walked by himself, from + before the time he was tamed by man, down through the long ages of + domestication, to to-day when once more he is wild. + </p> + <p> + “The horses also went wild, and all the fine breeds we had degenerated + into the small mustang horse you know to-day. The cows likewise went wild, + as did the pigeons and the sheep. And that a few of the chickens survived + you know yourself. But the wild chicken of to-day is quite a different + thing from the chickens we had in those days. + </p> + <p> + “But I must go on with my story. I travelled through a deserted land. As + the time went by I began to yearn more and more for human beings. But I + never found one, and I grew lonelier and lonelier. I crossed Livermore + Valley and the mountains between it and the great valley of the San + Joaquin. You have never seen that valley, but it is very large and it is + the home of the wild horse. There are great droves there, thousands and + tens of thousands. I revisited it thirty years after, so I know. You think + there are lots of wild horses down here in the coast valleys, but they are + as nothing compared with those of the San Joaquin. Strange to say, the + cows, when they went wild, went back into the lower mountains. Evidently + they were better able to protect themselves there. + </p> + <p> + “In the country districts the ghouls and prowlers had been less in + evidence, for I found many villages and towns untouched by fire. But they + were filled by the pestilential dead, and I passed by without exploring + them. It was near Lathrop that, out of my loneliness, I picked up a pair + of collie dogs that were so newly free that they were urgently willing to + return to their allegiance to man. These collies accompanied me for many + years, and the strains of them are in those very dogs there that you boys + have to-day. But in sixty years the collie strain has worked out. These + brutes are more like domesticated wolves than anything else.” + </p> + <p> + Hare-Lip rose to his feet, glanced to see that the goats were safe, and + looked at the sun's position in the afternoon sky, advertising impatience + at the prolixity of the old man's tale. Urged to hurry by Edwin, Granser + went on. + </p> + <p> + “There is little more to tell. With my two dogs and my pony, and riding a + horse I had managed to capture, I crossed the San Joaquin and went on to a + wonderful valley in the Sierras called Yosemite. In the great hotel there + I found a prodigious supply of tinned provisions. The pasture was + abundant, as was the game, and the river that ran through the valley was + full of trout. I remained there three years in an utter loneliness that + none but a man who has once been highly civilized can understand. Then I + could stand it no more. I felt that I was going crazy. Like the dog, I was + a social animal and I needed my kind. I reasoned that since I had survived + the plague, there was a possibility that others had survived. Also, I + reasoned that after three years the plague germs must all be gone and the + land be clean again. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0017" id="linkimage-0017"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img src="images/144.jpg" width="100%" + alt="With My Horse and Dogs And Pony, I Set out 144 " /> + </div> + <p> + “With my horse and dogs and pony, I set out. Again I crossed the San + Joaquin Valley, the mountains beyond, and came down into Livermore Valley. + The change in those three years was amazing. All the land had been + splendidly tilled, and now I could scarcely recognize it, 'such was the + sea of rank vegetation that had overrun the agricultural handiwork of man. + You see, the wheat, the vegetables, and orchard trees had always been + cared for and nursed by man, so that they were soft and tender. The weeds + and wild bushes and such things, on the contrary, had always been fought + by man, so that they were tough and resistant. As a result, when the hand + of man was removed, the wild vegetation smothered and destroyed + practically all the domesticated vegetation. The coyotes were greatly + increased, and it was at this time that I first encountered wolves, + straying in twos and threes and small packs down from the regions where + they had always persisted. + </p> + <p> + “It was at Lake Temescal, not far from the one-time city of Oakland, that + I came upon the first live human beings. Oh, my grandsons, how can I + describe to you my emotion, when, astride my horse and dropping down the + hillside to the lake, I saw the smoke of a campfire rising through the + trees. Almost did my heart stop beating. I felt that I was going crazy. + Then I heard the cry of a babe—a human babe. And dogs barked, and my + dogs answered. I did not know but what I was the one human alive in the + whole world. It could not be true that here were others—smoke, and + the cry of a babe. + </p> + <p> + “Emerging on the lake, there, before my eyes, not a hundred yards away, I + saw a man, a large man. He was standing on an outjutting rock and fishing. + I was overcome. I stopped my horse. I tried to call out but could not. I + waved my hand. It seemed to me that the man looked at me, but he did not + appear to wave. Then I laid my head on my arms there in the saddle. I was + afraid to look again, for I knew it was an hallucination, and I knew that + if I looked the man would be gone. And so precious was the hallucination, + that I wanted it to persist yet a little while. I knew, too, that as long + as I did not look it would persist. + </p> + <p> + “Thus I remained, until I heard my dogs snarling, and a man's voice. What + do you think the voice said? I will tell you. It said: '<i>Where in hell + did you come from??</i>' + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0018" id="linkimage-0018"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="figright" style="width:32%;"> + <img width="100%" src="images/149.jpg" + alt="Everybody Called Him Chauffeur 149 " /> + </div> + <p> + “Those were the words, the exact words. That was what your other + grandfather said to me, Hare-Lip, when he greeted me there on the shore of + Lake Temescal fifty-seven years ago. And they were the most ineffable + words I have ever heard. I opened my eyes, and there he stood before me, a + large, dark, hairy man, heavy-jawed, slant-browed, fierce-eyed. How I got + off my horse I do not know. But it seemed that the next I knew I was + clasping his hand with both of mine and crying. I would have embraced him, + but he was ever a narrow-minded, suspicious man, and he drew away from me. + Yet did I cling to his hand and cry.” + </p> + <p> + Granser's voice faltered and broke at the recollection, and the weak tears + streamed down his cheeks while the boys looked on and giggled. + </p> + <p> + “Yet did I cry,” he continued, “and desire to embrace him, though the + Chauffeur was a brute, a perfect brute—the most abhorrent man I have + ever known. His name was... strange, how I have forgotten his name. + Everybody called him Chauffeur—it was the name of his occupation, + and it stuck. That is how, to this day, the tribe he founded is called the + Chauffeur Tribe. + </p> + <p> + “He was a violent, unjust man. Why the plague germs spared him I can never + understand. It would seem, in spite of our old metaphysical notions about + absolute justice, that there is no justice in the universe. Why did he + live?—an iniquitous, moral monster, a blot on the face of nature, a + cruel, relentless, bestial cheat as well. All he could talk about was + motor cars, machinery, gasoline, and garages—and especially, and + with huge delight, of his mean pilferings and sordid swindlings of the + persons who had employed him in the days before the coming of the plague. + And yet he was spared, while hundreds of millions, yea, billions, of + better men were destroyed. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0019" id="linkimage-0019"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="figleft" style="width:18%;"> + <img width="100%" src="images/150.jpg" alt="Vesta the One Woman 150 " /> + </div> + <p> + “I went on with him to his camp, and there I saw her, Vesta, the one + woman. It was glorious and... pitiful. There she was, Vesta Van Warden, + the young wife of John Van Warden, clad in rags, with marred and scarred + and toil-calloused hands, bending over the campfire and doing scullion + work—she, Vesta, who had been born to the purple of the greatest + baronage of wealth the world had ever known. John Van Warden, her husband, + worth one billion, eight hundred millions and President of the Board of + Industrial Magnates, had been the ruler of America. Also, sitting on the + International Board of Control, he had been one of the seven men who ruled + the world. And she herself had come of equally noble stock. Her father, + Philip Saxon, had been President of the Board of Industrial Magnates up to + the time of his death. This office was in process of becoming hereditary, + and had Philip Saxon had a son that son would have succeeded him. But his + only child was Vesta, the perfect flower of generations of the highest + culture this planet has ever produced. It was not until the engagement + between Vesta and Van Warden took place, that Saxon indicated the latter + as his successor. It was, I am sure, a political marriage. I have reason + to believe that Vesta never really loved her husband in the mad passionate + way of which the poets used to sing. It was more like the marriages that + obtained among crowned heads in the days before they were displaced by the + Magnates. + </p> + <p> + “And there she was, boiling fish-chowder in a soot-covered pot, her + glorious eyes inflamed by the acrid smoke of the open fire. Hers was a sad + story. She was the one survivor in a million, as I had been, as the + Chauffeur had been. On a crowning eminence of the Alameda Hills, + overlooking San Francisco Bay, Van Warden had built a vast summer palace. + It was surrounded by a park of a thousand acres. When the plague broke + out, Van Warden sent her there. Armed guards patrolled the boundaries of + the park, and nothing entered in the way of provisions or even mail matter + that was not first fumigated. And yet did the plague enter, killing the + guards at their posts, the servants at their tasks, sweeping away the + whole army of retainers—or, at least, all of them who did not flee + to die elsewhere. So it was that Vesta found herself the sole living + person in the palace that had become a charnel house. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0020" id="linkimage-0020"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img src="images/153.jpg" width="100%" + alt="There She Was, Boiling Fish-chowder 153 " /> + </div> + <p> + “Now the Chauffeur had been one of the servants that ran away. Returning, + two months afterward, he discovered Vesta in a little summer pavilion + where there had been no deaths and where she had established herself. He + was a brute. She was afraid, and she ran away and hid among the trees. + That night, on foot, she fled into the mountains—she, whose tender + feet and delicate body had never known the bruise of stones nor the + scratch of briars. He followed, and that night he caught her. He struck + her. Do you understand? He beat her with those terrible fists of his and + made her his slave. It was she who had to gather the firewood, build the + fires, cook, and do all the degrading camp-labor—she, who had never + performed a menial act in her life. These things he compelled her to do, + while he, a proper savage, elected to lie around camp and look on. He did + nothing, absolutely nothing, except on occasion to hunt meat or catch + fish.” + </p> + <p> + “Good for Chauffeur,” Hare-Lip commented in an undertone to the other + boys. “I remember him before he died. He was a corker. But he did things, + and he made things go. You know, Dad married his daughter, an' you ought + to see the way he knocked the spots outa Dad. The Chauffeur was a + son-of-a-gun. He made us kids stand around. Even when he was croaking he + reached out for me, once, an' laid my head open with that long stick he + kept always beside him.” + </p> + <p> + Hare-Lip rubbed his bullet head reminiscently, and the boys returned to + the old man, who was maundering ecstatically about Vesta, the squaw of the + founder of the Chauffeur Tribe. + </p> + <p> + “And so I say to you that you cannot understand the awfulness of the + situation. The Chauffeur was a servant, understand, a servant. And he + cringed, with bowed head, to such as she. She was a lord of life, both by + birth and by marriage. The destinies of millions, such as he, she carried + in the hollow of her pink-white hand. And, in the days before the plague, + the slightest contact with such as he would have been pollution. Oh, I + have seen it. Once, I remember, there was Mrs. Goldwin, wife of one of the + great magnates. It was on a landing stage, just as she was embarking in + her private dirigible, that she dropped her parasol. A servant picked it + up and made the mistake of handing it to her—to her, one of the + greatest royal ladies of the land! She shrank back, as though he were a + leper, and indicated her secretary to receive it. Also, she ordered her + secretary to ascertain the creature's name and to see that he was + immediately discharged from service. And such a woman was Vesta Van + Warden. And her the Chauffeur beat and made his slave. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0021" id="linkimage-0021"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img src="images/158.jpg" width="100%" + alt="And Her the Chauffeur Beat and Made his Slave 158 " /> + </div> + <p> + “—Bill—that was it; Bill, the Chauffeur. That was his name. He + was a wretched, primitive man, wholly devoid of the finer instincts and + chivalrous promptings of a cultured soul. No, there is no absolute + justice, for to him fell that wonder of womanhood, Vesta Van Warden. The + grievous-ness of this you will never understand, my grandsons; for you are + yourselves primitive little savages, unaware of aught else but savagery. + Why should Vesta not have been mine? I was a man of culture and + refinement, a professor in a great university. Even so, in the time before + the plague, such was her exalted position, she would not have deigned to + know that I existed. Mark, then, the abysmal degradation to which she fell + at the hands of the Chauffeur. Nothing less than the destruction of all + mankind had made it possible that I should know her, look in her eyes, + converse with her, touch her hand—ay, and love her and know that her + feelings toward me were very kindly. I have reason to believe that she, + even she, would have loved me, there being no other man in the world + except the Chauffeur. Why, when it destroyed eight billions of souls, did + not the plague destroy just one more man, and that man the Chauffeur? + </p> + <p> + “Once, when the Chauffeur was away fishing, she begged me to kill him. + With tears in her eyes she begged me to kill him. But he was a strong and + violent man, and I was afraid. Afterwards, I talked with him. I offered + him my horse, my pony, my dogs, all that I possessed, if he would give + Vesta to me. And he grinned in my face and shook his head. He was very + insulting. He said that in the old days he had been a servant, had been + dirt under the feet of men like me and of women like Vesta, and that now + he had the greatest lady in the land to be servant to him and cook his + food and nurse his brats. 'You had your day before the plague,' he said; + 'but this is my day, and a damned good day it is. I wouldn't trade back to + the old times for anything.' Such words he spoke, but they are not his + words. He was a vulgar, low-minded man, and vile oaths fell continually + from his lips. + </p> + <p> + “Also, he told me that if he caught me making eyes at his woman he'd wring + my neck and give her a beating as well. What was I to do? I was afraid. He + was a brute. That first night, when I discovered the camp, Vesta and I had + great talk about the things of our vanished world. We talked of art, and + books, and poetry; and the Chauffeur listened and grinned and sneered. He + was bored and angered by our way of speech which he did not comprehend, + and finally he spoke up and said: 'And this is Vesta Van Warden, one-time + wife of Van Warden the Magnate—a high and stuck-up beauty, who is + now my squaw. Eh, Professor Smith, times is changed, times is changed. + Here, you, woman, take off my moccasins, and lively about it. I want + Professor Smith to see how well I have you trained.' + </p> + <p> + “I saw her clench her teeth, and the flame of revolt rise in her face. He + drew back his gnarled fist to strike, and I was afraid, and sick at heart. + I could do nothing to prevail against him. So I got up to go, and not be + witness to such indignity. But the Chauffeur laughed and threatened me + with a beating if I did not stay and behold. And I sat there, perforce, by + the campfire on the shore of Lake Temescal, and saw Vesta, Vesta Van + Warden, kneel and remove the moccasins of that grinning, hairy, apelike + human brute. + </p> + <p> + “—Oh, you do not understand, my grandsons. You have never known + anything else, and you do not understand. + </p> + <p> + “'Halter-broke and bridle-wise,' the Chauffeur gloated, while she + performed that dreadful, menial task. 'A trifle balky at times, Professor, + a trifle balky; but a clout alongside the jaw makes her as meek and gentle + as a lamb.' + </p> + <p> + “And another time he said: 'We've got to start all over and replenish the + earth and multiply. You're handicapped, Professor. You ain't got no wife, + and we're up against a regular Garden-of-Eden proposition. But I ain't + proud. I'll tell you what, Professor.' He pointed at their little infant, + barely a year old. 'There's your wife, though you'll have to wait till she + grows up. It's rich, ain't it? We're all equals here, and I'm the biggest + toad in the splash. But I ain't stuck up—not I. I do you the honor, + Professor Smith, the very great honor of betrothing to you my and Vesta + Van Warden's daughter. Ain't it cussed bad that Van Warden ain't here to + see?'” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VI + </h2> + <p> + “I LIVED three weeks of infinite torment there in the Chauffeur's camp. + And then, one day, tiring of me, or of what to him was my bad effect on + Vesta, he told me that the year before, wandering through the Contra Costa + Hills to the Straits of Carquinez, across the Straits he had seen a smoke. + This meant that there were still other human beings, and that for three + weeks he had kept this inestimably precious information from me. I + departed at once, with my dogs and horses, and journeyed across the Contra + Costa Hills to the Straits. I saw no smoke on the other side, but at Port + Costa discovered a small steel barge on which I was able to embark my + animals. Old canvas which I found served me for a sail, and a southerly + breeze fanned me across the Straits and up to the ruins of Vallejo. Here, + on the outskirts of the city, I found evidences of a recently occupied + camp. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0022" id="linkimage-0022"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img src="images/169.jpg" + alt="Found Evidences of a Recently Occupied Camp 169" width="100%" /><br /></div> + <p> + “Many clam-shells showed me why these humans had come to the shores of the + Bay. This was the Santa Rosa Tribe, and I followed its track along the old + railroad right of way across the salt marshes to Sonoma Valley. Here, at + the old brickyard at Glen Ellen, I came upon the camp. There were eighteen + souls all told. Two were old men, one of whom was Jones, a banker. The + other was Harrison, a retired pawnbroker, who had taken for wife the + matron of the State Hospital for the Insane at Napa. Of all the persons of + the city of Napa, and of all the other towns and villages in that rich and + populous valley, she had been the only survivor. Next, there were the + three young men—Cardiff and Hale, who had been farmers, and + Wainwright, a common day-laborer. All three had found wives. To Hale, a + crude, illiterate farmer, had fallen Isadore, the greatest prize, next to + Vesta, of the women who came through the plague. She was one of the + world's most noted singers, and the plague had caught her at San + Francisco. She has talked with me for hours at a time, telling me of her + adventures, until, at last, rescued by Hale in the Mendocino Forest + Reserve, there had remained nothing for her to do but become his wife. But + Hale was a good fellow, in spite of his illiteracy. He had a keen sense of + justice and right-dealing, and she was far happier with him than was Vesta + with the Chauffeur. + </p> + <p> + “The wives of Cardiff and Wainwright were ordinary women, accustomed to + toil with strong constitutions—just the type for the wild new life + which they were compelled to live. In addition were two adult idiots from + the feeble-minded home at Eldredge, and five or six young children and + infants born after the formation of the Santa Rosa Tribe. Also, there was + Bertha. She was a good woman, Hare-Lip, in spite of the sneers of your + father. Her I took for wife. She was the mother of your father, Edwin, and + of yours, Hoo-Hoo. And it was our daughter, Vera, who married your father, + Hare-Lip—your father, Sandow, who was the oldest son of Vesta Van + Warden and the Chauffeur. + </p> + <p> + “And so it was that I became the nineteenth member of the Santa Rosa + Tribe. There were only two outsiders added after me. One was Mungerson, + descended from the Magnates, who wandered alone in the wilds of Northern + California for eight years before he came south and joined us. He it was + who waited twelve years more before he married my daughter, Mary. The + other was Johnson, the man who founded the Utah Tribe. That was where he + came from, Utah, a country that lies very far away from here, across the + great deserts, to the east. It was not until twenty-seven years after the + plague that Johnson reached California. In all that Utah region he + reported but three survivors, himself one, and all men. For many years + these three men lived and hunted together, until, at last, desperate, + fearing that with them the human race would perish utterly from the + planet, they headed westward on the possibility of finding women survivors + in California. Johnson alone came through the great desert, where his two + companions died. He was forty-six years old when he joined us, and he + married the fourth daughter of Isadore and Hale, and his eldest son + married your aunt, Hare-Lip, who was the third daughter of Vesta and the + Chauffeur. Johnson was a strong man, with a will of his own. And it was + because of this that he seceded from the Santa Rosans and formed the Utah + Tribe at San José. It is a small tribe—there are only nine in it; + but, though he is dead, such was his influence and the strength of his + breed, that it will grow into a strong tribe and play a leading part in + the recivilization of the planet. + </p> + <p> + “There are only two other tribes that we know of—the Los Angelitos + and the Carmelitos. The latter started from one man and woman. He was + called Lopez, and he was descended from the ancient Mexicans and was very + black. He was a cowherd in the ranges beyond Carmel, and his wife was a + maidservant in the great Del Monte Hotel. It was seven years before we + first got in touch with the Los Angelitos. They have a good country down + there, but it is too warm. I estimate the present population of the world + at between three hundred and fifty and four hundred—provided, of + course, that there are no scattered little tribes elsewhere in the world. + If there be such, we have not heard from them. Since Johnson crossed the + desert from Utah, no word nor sign has come from the East or anywhere + else. The great world which I knew in my boyhood and early manhood is + gone. It has ceased to be. I am the last man who was alive in the days of + the plague and who knows the wonders of that far-off time. We, who + mastered the planet—its earth, and sea, and sky—and who were + as very gods, now live in primitive savagery along the water courses of + this California country. + </p> + <p> + “But we are increasing rapidly—your sister, Hare-Lip, already has + four children. We are increasing rapidly and making ready for a new climb + toward civilization. In time, pressure of population will compel us to + spread out, and a hundred generations from now we may expect our + descendants to start across the Sierras, oozing slowly along, generation + by generation, over the great continent to the colonization of the East—a + new Aryan drift around the world. + </p> + <p> + “But it will be slow, very slow; we have so far to climb. We fell so + hopelessly far. If only one physicist or one chemist had survived! But it + was not to be, and we have forgotten everything. The Chauffeur started + working in iron. He made the forge which we use to this day. But he was a + lazy man, and when he died he took with him all he knew of metals and + machinery. What was I to know of such things? I was a classical scholar, + not a chemist.. The other men who survived were not educated. Only two + things did the Chauffeur accomplish—the brewing of strong drink and + the growing of tobacco. It was while he was drunk, once, that he killed + Vesta. I firmly believe that he killed Vesta in a fit of drunken cruelty + though he always maintained that she fell into the lake and was drowned. + </p> + <p> + “And, my grandsons, let me warn you against the medicine-men. They call + themselves <i>doctors</i>, travestying what was once a noble profession, + but in reality they are medicine-men, devil-devil men, and they make for + superstition and darkness. They are cheats and liars. But so debased and + degraded are we, that we believe their lies. They, too, will increase in + numbers as we increase, and they will strive to rule us. Yet are they + liars and charlatans. Look at young Cross-Eyes, posing as a doctor, + selling charms against sickness, giving good hunting, exchanging promises + of fair weather for good meat and skins, sending the death-stick, + performing a thousand abominations. Yet I say to you, that when he says he + can do these things, he lies. I, Professor Smith, Professor James Howard + Smith, say that he lies. I have told him so to his teeth. Why has he not + sent me the death-stick? Because he knows that with me it is without + avail. But you, Hare-Lip, so deeply are you sunk in black superstition + that did you awake this night and find the death-stick beside you, you + would surely die. And you would die, not because of any virtues in the + stick, but because you are a savage with the dark and clouded mind of a + savage. + </p> + <p> + “The doctors must be destroyed, and all that was lost must be discovered + over again. Wherefore, earnestly, I repeat unto you certain things which + you must remember and tell to your children after you. You must tell them + that when water is made hot by fire, there resides in it a wonderful thing + called steam, which is stronger than ten thousand men and which can do all + man's work for him. There are other very useful things. In the lightning + flash resides a similarly strong servant of man, which was of old his + slave and which some day will be his slave again. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0023" id="linkimage-0023"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="figright" style="width:30%;"> + <img width="100%" src="images/179.jpg" + alt="I Have Stored Many Books in a Cave 179 " /> + </div> + <p> + “Quite a different thing is the alphabet. It is what enables me to know + the meaning of fine markings, whereas you boys know only rude + picture-writing. In that dry cave on Telegraph Hill, where you see me + often go when the tribe is down by the sea, I have stored many books. In + them is great wisdom. Also, with them, I have placed a key to the + alphabet, so that one who knows picture-writing may also know print. Some + day men will read again; and then, if no accident has befallen my cave, + they will know that Professor James Howard Smith once lived and saved for + them the knowledge of the ancients. + </p> + <p> + “There is another little device that men inevitably will rediscover. It is + called gunpowder. It was what enabled us to kill surely and at long + distances. Certain things which are found in the ground, when combined in + the right proportions, will make this gunpowder. What these things are, I + have forgotten, or else I never knew. But I wish I did know. Then would I + make powder, and then would I certainly kill Cross-Eyes and rid the land + of superstition—” + </p> + <p> + “After I am man-grown I am going to give Cross-Eyes all the goats, and + meat, and skins I can get, so that he'll teach me to be a doctor,” Hoo-Hoo + asserted. “And when I know, I'll make everybody else sit up and take + notice. They'll get down in the dirt to me, you bet.” + </p> + <p> + The old man nodded his head solemnly, and murmured: + </p> + <p> + “Strange it is to hear the vestiges and remnants of the complicated Aryan + speech falling from the lips of a filthy little skin-clad savage. All the + world is topsy-turvy. And it has been topsy-turvy ever since the plague.” + </p> + <p> + “You won't make me sit up,” Hare-Lip boasted to the would-be medicine-man. + “If I paid you for a sending of the death-stick and it didn't work, I'd + bust in your head—understand, you Hoo-Hoo, you?” + </p> + <p> + “I'm going to get Granser to remember this here gunpowder stuff,” Edwin + said softly, “and then I'll have you all on the run. You, Hare-Lip, will + do my fighting for me and get my meat for me, and you, Hoo-Hoo, will send + the death-stick for me and make everybody afraid. And if I catch Hare-Lip + trying to bust your head, Hoo-Hoo, I'll fix him with that same gunpowder. + Granser ain't such a fool as you think, and I'm going to listen to him and + some day I'll be boss over the whole bunch of you.” + </p> + <p> + The old man shook his head sadly, and said: + </p> + <p> + “The gunpowder will come. Nothing can stop it—the same old story + over and over. Man will increase, and men will fight. The gunpowder will + enable men to kill millions of men, and in this way only, by fire and + blood, will a new civilization, in some remote day, be evolved. And of + what profit will it be? Just as the old civilization passed, so will the + new. It may take fifty thousand years to build, but it will pass. All + things pass. Only remain cosmic force and matter, ever in flux, ever + acting and reacting and realizing the eternal types—the priest, the + soldier, and the king. Out of the mouths of babes comes the wisdom of all + the ages. Some will fight, some will rule, some will pray; and all the + rest will toil and suffer sore while on their bleeding carcasses is reared + again, and yet again, without end, the amazing beauty and surpassing + wonder of the civilized state. It were just as well that I destroyed those + cave-stored books—whether they remain or perish, all their old + truths will be discovered, their old lies lived and handed down. What is + the profit—” + </p> + <p> + Hare-Lip leaped to his feet, giving a quick glance at the pasturing goats + and the afternoon sun. + </p> + <p> + “Gee!” he muttered to Edwin, “The old geezer gets more long-winded every + day. Let's pull for camp.” + </p> + <p> + While the other two, aided by the dogs, assembled the goats and started + them for the trail through the forest, Edwin stayed by the old man and + guided him in the same direction. When they reached the old right of way, + Edwin stopped suddenly and looked back. Hare-Lip and Hoo-Hoo and the dogs + and the goats passed on. Edwin was looking at a small herd of wild horses + which had come down on the hard sand. There were at least twenty of them, + young colts and yearlings and mares, led by a beautiful stallion which + stood in the foam at the edge of the surf, with arched neck and bright + wild eyes, sniffing the salt air from off the sea. + </p> + <p> + “What is it?” Granser queried. + </p> + <p> + “Horses,” was the answer. “First time I ever seen 'em on the beach. It's + the mountain lions getting thicker and thicker and driving 'em down.” + </p> + <p> + The low sun shot red shafts of light, fan-shaped, up from a cloud-tumbled + horizon. And close at hand, in the white waste of shore-lashed waters, the + sea-lions, bellowing their old primeval chant, hauled up out of the sea on + the black rocks and fought and loved. + </p> + <p> + “Come on, Granser,” Edwin prompted. And old man and boy, skin-clad and + barbaric, turned and went along the right of way into the forest in the + wake of the goats. + </p> + <p> + THE END <br /> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:40%;"> + <img alt="endpiece (8K)" src="images/endpiece.jpg" width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Scarlet Plague, by Jack London + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SCARLET PLAGUE *** + +***** This file should be named 21970-h.htm or 21970-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/9/7/21970/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the Foundation” + or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the phrase “Project +Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase “Project Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +“Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, “Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.” + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +“Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right +of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + </body> +</html> diff --git a/old/21970.txt b/old/21970.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..23e10f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/21970.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2439 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Scarlet Plague, by Jack London + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Scarlet Plague + +Author: Jack London + +Illustrator: Gordon Grant + +Release Date: June 29, 2007 [EBook #21970] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SCARLET PLAGUE *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +THE SCARLET PLAGUE + +By Jack London + + +Illustrated By Gordon Grant + +1915 + + + + +THE SCARLET PLAGUE + + + + +I + +THE way led along upon what had once been the embankment of a railroad. +But no train had run upon it for many years. The forest on either side +swelled up the slopes of the embankment and crested across it in a green +wave of trees and bushes. The trail was as narrow as a man's body, and +was no more than a wild-animal runway. Occasionally, a piece of rusty +iron, showing through the forest-mould, advertised that the rail and the +ties still remained. In one place, a ten-inch tree, bursting through at +a connection, had lifted the end of a rail clearly into view. The tie +had evidently followed the rail, held to it by the spike long enough +for its bed to be filled with gravel and rotten leaves, so that now the +crumbling, rotten timber thrust itself up at a curious slant. Old as the +road was, it was manifest that it had been of the mono-rail type. + +An old man and a boy travelled along this runway. They moved slowly, for +the old man was very old, a touch of palsy made his movements tremulous, +and he leaned heavily upon his staff. A rude skull-cap of goat-skin +protected his head from the sun. From beneath this fell a scant fringe +of stained and dirty-white hair. A visor, ingeniously made from a large +leaf, shielded his eyes, and from under this he peered at the way of +his feet on the trail. His beard, which should have been snow-white +but which showed the same weather-wear and camp-stain as his hair, +fell nearly to his waist in a great tangled mass. About his chest and +shoulders hung a single, mangy garment of goat-skin. His arms and legs, +withered and skinny, betokened extreme age, as well as did their sunburn +and scars and scratches betoken long years of exposure to the elements. + +The boy, who led the way, checking the eagerness of his muscles to +the slow progress of the elder, likewise wore a single garment--a +ragged-edged piece of bear-skin, with a hole in the middle through which +he had thrust his head. He could not have been more than twelve years +old. Tucked coquettishly over one ear was the freshly severed tail of a +pig. In one hand he carried a medium-sized bow and an arrow. + +On his back was a quiverful of arrows. From a sheath hanging about his +neck on a thong, projected the battered handle of a hunting knife. He +was as brown as a berry, and walked softly, with almost a catlike tread. +In marked contrast with his sunburned skin were his eyes--blue, deep +blue, but keen and sharp as a pair of gimlets. They seemed to bore into +aft about him in a way that was habitual. As he went along he smelled +things, as well, his distended, quivering nostrils carrying to his brain +an endless series of messages from the outside world. Also, his hearing +was acute, and had been so trained that it operated automatically. +Without conscious effort, he heard all the slight sounds in the apparent +quiet--heard, and differentiated, and classified these sounds--whether +they were of the wind rustling the leaves, of the humming of bees and +gnats, of the distant rumble of the sea that drifted to him only in +lulls, or of the gopher, just under his foot, shoving a pouchful of +earth into the entrance of his hole. + +Suddenly he became alertly tense. Sound, sight, and odor had given him +a simultaneous warning. His hand went back to the old man, touching +him, and the pair stood still. Ahead, at one side of the top of the +embankment, arose a crackling sound, and the boy's gaze was fixed on the +tops of the agitated bushes. Then a large bear, a grizzly, crashed into +view, and likewise stopped abruptly, at sight of the humans. He did not +like them, and growled querulously. Slowly the boy fitted the arrow to +the bow, and slowly he pulled the bowstring taut. But he never removed +his eyes from the bear. + +[Illustration: Slowly he pulled the bowstring taut 020] + +The old man peered from under his green leaf at the danger, and stood as +quietly as the boy. For a few seconds this mutual scrutinizing went +on; then, the bear betraying a growing irritability, the boy, with a +movement of his head, indicated that the old man must step aside from +the trail and go down the embankment. The boy followed, going backward, +still holding the bow taut and ready. They waited till a crashing among +the bushes from the opposite side of the embankment told them the bear +had gone on. The boy grinned as he led back to the trail. + +"A big un, Granser," he chuckled. + +The old man shook his head. + +"They get thicker every day," he complained in a thin, undependable +falsetto. "Who'd have thought I'd live to see the time when a man would +be afraid of his life on the way to the Cliff House. When I was a boy, +Edwin, men and women and little babies used to come out here from San +Francisco by tens of thousands on a nice day. And there weren't any +bears then. No, sir. They used to pay money to look at them in cages, +they were that rare." + +"What is money, Granser?" + +Before the old man could answer, the boy recollected and triumphantly +shoved his hand into a pouch under his bear-skin and pulled forth a +battered and tarnished silver dollar. The old man's eyes glistened, as +he held the coin close to them. + +"I can't see," he muttered. "You look and see if you can make out the +date, Edwin." + +The boy laughed. + +"You're a great Granser," he cried delightedly, "always making believe +them little marks mean something." + +The old man manifested an accustomed chagrin as he brought the coin back +again close to his own eyes. + +"2012," he shrilled, and then fell to cackling grotesquely. "That was +the year Morgan the Fifth was appointed President of the United States +by the Board of Magnates. It must have been one of the last coins +minted, for the Scarlet Death came in 2013. Lord! Lord!--think of it! +Sixty years ago, and I am the only person alive to-day that lived in +those times. Where did you find it, Edwin?" + +The boy, who had been regarding him with the tolerant curiousness one +accords to the prattlings of the feeble-minded, answered promptly. + +"I got it off of Hoo-Hoo. He found it when we was herdin' goats down +near San Jose last spring. Hoo-Hoo said it was _money_. Ain't you +hungry, Granser?" + +The ancient caught his staff in a tighter grip and urged along the +trail, his old eyes shining greedily. + +"I hope Hare-Lip 's found a crab... or two," he mumbled. "They're good +eating, crabs, mighty good eating when you've no more teeth and you've +got grandsons that love their old grandsire and make a point of catching +crabs for him. When I was a boy--" + +But Edwin, suddenly stopped by what he saw, was drawing the bowstring +on a fitted arrow. He had paused on the brink of a crevasse in the +embankment. An ancient culvert had here washed out, and the stream, no +longer confined, had cut a passage through the fill. On the opposite +side, the end of a rail projected and overhung. It showed rustily +through the creeping vines which overran it. Beyond, crouching by a +bush, a rabbit looked across at him in trembling hesitancy. Fully fifty +feet was the distance, but the arrow flashed true; and the transfixed +rabbit, crying out in sudden fright and hurt, struggled painfully away +into the brush. The boy himself was a flash of brown skin and flying fur +as he bounded down the steep wall of the gap and up the other side. +His lean muscles were springs of steel that released into graceful +and efficient action. A hundred feet beyond, in a tangle of bushes, +he overtook the wounded creature, knocked its head on a convenient +tree-trunk, and turned it over to Granser to carry. + +[Illustration: Rabbit is good, very good 026] + +"Rabbit is good, very good," the ancient quavered, "but when it comes to +a toothsome delicacy I prefer crab. When I was a boy--" + +"Why do you say so much that ain't got no sense?" Edwin impatiently +interrupted the other's threatened garrulousness. + +The boy did not exactly utter these words, but something that remotely +resembled them and that was more guttural and explosive and economical +of qualifying phrases. His speech showed distant kinship with that of +the old man, and the latter's speech was approximately an English that +had gone through a bath of corrupt usage. + +"What I want to know," Edwin continued, "is why you call crab 'toothsome +delicacy'? Crab is crab, ain't it? No one I never heard calls it such +funny things." + +The old man sighed but did not answer, and they moved on in silence. +The surf grew suddenly louder, as they emerged from the forest upon a +stretch of sand dunes bordering the sea. A few goats were browsing among +the sandy hillocks, and a skin-clad boy, aided by a wolfish-looking +dog that was only faintly reminiscent of a collie, was watching them. +Mingled with the roar of the surf was a continuous, deep-throated +barking or bellowing, which came from a cluster of jagged rocks a +hundred yards out from shore. Here huge sea-lions hauled themselves +up to lie in the sun or battle with one another. In the immediate +foreground arose the smoke of a fire, tended by a third savage-looking +boy. Crouched near him were several wolfish dogs similar to the one that +guarded the goats. + +The old man accelerated his pace, sniffing eagerly as he neared the +fire. + +"Mussels!" he muttered ecstatically. "Mussels! And ain't that a crab, +Hoo-Hoo? Ain't that a crab? My, my, you boys are good to your old +grandsire." + +Hoo-Hoo, who was apparently of the same age as Edwin, grinned. + +"All you want, Granser. I got four." + +The old man's palsied eagerness was pitiful. Sitting down in the sand as +quickly as his stiff limbs would let him, he poked a large rock-mussel +from out of the coals. The heat had forced its shells apart, and +the meat, salmon-colored, was thoroughly cooked. Between thumb and +forefinger, in trembling haste, he caught the morsel and carried it +to his mouth. But it was too hot, and the next moment was violently +ejected. The old man spluttered with the pain, and tears ran out of his +eyes and down his cheeks. + +The boys were true savages, possessing only the cruel humor of the +savage. To them the incident was excruciatingly funny, and they burst +into loud laughter. Hoo-Hoo danced up and down, while Edwin rolled +gleefully on the ground. The boy with the goats came running to join in +the fun. + +"Set 'em to cool, Edwin, set 'em to cool," the old man besought, in the +midst of his grief, making no attempt to wipe away the tears that +still flowed from his eyes. "And cool a crab, Edwin, too. You know your +grandsire likes crabs." + +From the coals arose a great sizzling, which proceeded from the many +mussels bursting open their shells and exuding their moisture. They were +large shellfish, running from three to six inches in length. The boys +raked them out with sticks and placed them on a large piece of driftwood +to cool. + +"When I was a boy, we did not laugh at our elders; we respected them." + +The boys took no notice, and Granser continued to babble an incoherent +flow of complaint and censure. But this time he was more careful, and +did not burn his mouth. All began to eat, using nothing but their hands +and making loud mouth-noises and lip-smackings. The third boy, who was +called Hare-Lip, slyly deposited a pinch of sand on a mussel the ancient +was carrying to his mouth; and when the grit of it bit into the old +fellow's mucous membrane and gums, the laughter was again uproarious. He +was unaware that a joke had been played on him, and spluttered and spat +until Edwin, relenting, gave him a gourd of fresh water with which to +wash out his mouth. + +"Where's them crabs, Hoo-Hoo?" Edwin demanded. "Granser's set upon +having a snack." + +Again Granser's eyes burned with greediness as a large crab was handed +to him. It was a shell with legs and all complete, but the meat had long +since departed. With shaky fingers and babblings of anticipation, the +old man broke off a leg and found it filled with emptiness. + +"The crabs, Hoo-Hoo?" he wailed. "The crabs?" + +"I was fooling Granser. They ain't no crabs! I never found one." + +The boys were overwhelmed with delight at sight of the tears of senile +disappointment that dribbled down the old man's cheeks. Then, unnoticed, +Hoo-Hoo replaced the empty shell with a fresh-cooked crab. Already +dismembered, from the cracked legs the white meat sent forth a small +cloud of savory steam. This attracted the old man's nostrils, and he +looked down in amazement. + +[Illustration: This attracted the old man's nostrils 033] + +The change of his mood to one of joy was immediate. He snuffled and +muttered and mumbled, making almost a croon of delight, as he began +to eat. Of this the boys took little notice, for it was an accustomed +spectacle. Nor did they notice his occasional exclamations and +utterances of phrases which meant nothing to them, as, for instance, +when he smacked his lips and champed his gums while muttering: +"Mayonnaise! Just think--mayonnaise! And it's sixty years since the last +was ever made! Two generations and never a smell of it! Why, in those +days it was served in every restaurant with crab." + +When he could eat no more, the old man sighed, wiped his hands on his +naked legs, and gazed out over the sea. With the content of a full +stomach, he waxed reminiscent. + +"To think of it! I've seen this beach alive with men, women, and +children on a pleasant Sunday. And there weren't any bears to eat them +up, either. And right up there on the cliff was a big restaurant where +you could get anything you wanted to eat. Four million people lived in +San Francisco then. And now, in the whole city and county there aren't +forty all told. And out there on the sea were ships and ships always to +be seen, going in for the Golden Gate or coming out. And airships in the +air--dirigibles and flying machines. They could travel two hundred miles +an hour. The mail contracts with the New York and San Francisco Limited +demanded that for the minimum. There was a chap, a Frenchman, I forget +his name, who succeeded in making three hundred; but the thing was +risky, too risky for conservative persons. But he was on the right clew, +and he would have managed it if it hadn't been for the Great Plague. +When I was a boy, there were men alive who remembered the coming of the +first aeroplanes, and now I have lived to see the last of them, and that +sixty years ago." + +The old man babbled on, unheeded by the boys, who were long accustomed +to his garrulousness, and whose vocabularies, besides, lacked the +greater portion of the words he used. It was noticeable that in these +rambling soliloquies his English seemed to recrudesce into better +construction and phraseology. But when he talked directly with the boys +it lapsed, largely, into their own uncouth and simpler forms. + +"But there weren't many crabs in those days," the old man wandered on. +"They were fished out, and they were great delicacies. The open season +was only a month long, too. And now crabs are accessible the whole year +around. Think of it--catching all the crabs you want, any time you want, +in the surf of the Cliff House beach!" + +A sudden commotion among the goats brought the boys to their feet. The +dogs about the fire rushed to join their snarling fellow who guarded the +goats, while the goats themselves stampeded in the direction of their +human protectors. A half dozen forms, lean and gray, glided about on the +sand hillocks and faced the bristling dogs. Edwin arched an arrow that +fell short. But Hare-Lip, with a sling such as David carried into battle +against Goliath, hurled a stone through the air that whistled from the +speed of its flight. It fell squarely among the wolves and caused them +to slink away toward the dark depths of the eucalyptus forest. + +[Illustration: With a sling such as David carried 036] + +The boys laughed and lay down again in the sand, while Granser sighed +ponderously. He had eaten too much, and, with hands clasped on his +paunch, the fingers interlaced, he resumed his maunderings. + +"'The fleeting systems lapse like foam,'" he mumbled what was evidently +a quotation. "That's it--foam, and fleeting. All man's toil upon the +planet was just so much foam. He domesticated the serviceable animals, +destroyed the hostile ones, and cleared the land of its wild vegetation. +And then he passed, and the flood of primordial life rolled back again, +sweeping his handiwork away--the weeds and the forest inundated his +fields, the beasts of prey swept over his flocks, and now there are +wolves on the Cliff House beach." He was appalled by the thought. "Where +four million people disported themselves, the wild wolves roam to-day, +and the savage progeny of our loins, with prehistoric weapons, defend +themselves against the fanged despoilers. Think of it! And all because +of the Scarlet Death--" + +The adjective had caught Hare-Lip's ear. + +"He's always saying that," he said to Edwin. "What is _scarlet?_" + +"'The scarlet of the maples can shake me like the cry of bugles going +by,'" the old man quoted. + +"It's red," Edwin answered the question. "And you don't know it because +you come from the Chauffeur Tribe. They never did know nothing, none of +them. Scarlet is red--I know that." + +"Red is red, ain't it?" Hare-Lip grumbled. "Then what's the good of +gettin' cocky and calling it scarlet?" + +"Granser, what for do you always say so much what nobody knows?" he +asked. "Scarlet ain't anything, but red is red. Why don't you say red, +then?" + +"Red is not the right word," was the reply. "The plague was scarlet. +The whole face and body turned scarlet in an hour's time. Don't I +know? Didn't I see enough of it? And I am telling you it was scarlet +because--well, because it _was_ scarlet. There is no other word for it." + +"Red is good enough for me," Hare-Lip muttered obstinately. "My dad +calls red red, and he ought to know. He says everybody died of the Red +Death." + +"Your dad is a common fellow, descended from a common fellow," Granser +retorted heatedly. "Don't I know the beginnings of the Chauffeurs? Your +grandsire was a chauffeur, a servant, and without education. He worked +for other persons. But your grandmother was of good stock, only the +children did not take after her. Don't I remember when I first met them, +catching fish at Lake Temescal?" + +"What is _education?_" Edwin asked. + +"Calling red scarlet," Hare-Lip sneered, then returned to the attack on +Granser. "My dad told me, an' he got it from his dad afore he croaked, +that your wife was a Santa Rosan, an' that she was sure no account. He +said she was a _hash-slinger_ before the Red Death, though I don't know +what a _hash-slinger_ is. You can tell me, Edwin." + +But Edwin shook his head in token of ignorance. + +"It is true, she was a waitress," Granser acknowledged. "But she was a +good woman, and your mother was her daughter. Women were very scarce in +the days after the Plague. She was the only wife I could find, even if +she was a _hash-slinger_, as your father calls it. But it is not nice to +talk about our progenitors that way." + +"Dad says that the wife of the first Chauffeur was a _lady_--" + +"What's a _lady?_" Hoo-Hoo demanded. + +"A _lady_ 's a Chauffeur squaw," was the quick reply of Hare-Lip. + +"The first Chauffeur was Bill, a common fellow, as I said before," the +old man expounded; "but his wife was a lady, a great lady. Before the +Scarlet Death she was the wife of Van Worden. He was President of the +Board of Industrial Magnates, and was one of the dozen men who +ruled America. He was worth one billion, eight hundred millions of +dollars--coins like you have there in your pouch, Edwin. And then came +the Scarlet Death, and his wife became the wife of Bill, the first +Chauffeur. He used to beat her, too. I have seen it myself." + +Hoo-Hoo, lying on his stomach and idly digging his toes in the sand, +cried out and investigated, first, his toe-nail, and next, the small +hole he had dug. The other two boys joined him, excavating the sand +rapidly with their hands till there lay three skeletons exposed. Two +were of adults, the third being that of a part-grown child. The old man +trudged along on the ground and peered at the find. + +"Plague victims," he announced. "That's the way they died everywhere +in the last days. This must have been a family, running away from the +contagion and perishing here on the Cliff House beach. They--what are +you doing, Edwin?" + +This question was asked in sudden dismay, as Edwin, using the back of +his hunting knife, began to knock out the teeth from the jaws of one of +the skulls. + +"Going to string 'em," was the response. + +The three boys were now hard at it; and quite a knocking and hammering +arose, in which Granser babbled on unnoticed. + +"You are true savages. Already has begun the custom of wearing human +teeth. In another generation you will be perforating your noses and +ears and wearing ornaments of bone and shell. I know. The human race +is doomed to sink back farther and farther into the primitive night +ere again it begins its bloody climb upward to civilization. When we +increase and feel the lack of room, we will proceed to kill one another. +And then I suppose you will wear human scalp-locks at your waist, as +well--as you, Edwin, who are the gentlest of my grandsons, have already +begun with that vile pigtail. Throw it away, Edwin, boy; throw it away." + +"What a gabble the old geezer makes," Hare-Lip remarked, when, the teeth +all extracted, they began an attempt at equal division. + +They were very quick and abrupt in their actions, and their speech, in +moments of hot discussion over the allotment of the choicer teeth, was +truly a gabble. They spoke in monosyllables and short jerky sentences +that was more a gibberish than a language. And yet, through it ran hints +of grammatical construction, and appeared vestiges of the conjugation +of some superior culture. Even the speech of Granser was so corrupt that +were it put down literally it would be almost so much nonsense to the +reader. This, however, was when he talked with the boys. + +When he got into the full swing of babbling to himself, it slowly purged +itself into pure English. The sentences grew longer and were enunciated +with a rhythm and ease that was reminiscent of the lecture platform. + +"Tell us about the Red Death, Granser," Hare-Lip demanded, when the +teeth affair had been satisfactorily concluded. + +"The Scarlet Death," Edwin corrected. + +"An' don't work all that funny lingo on us," Hare-Lip went on. "Talk +sensible, Granser, like a Santa Rosan ought to talk. Other Santa Rosans +don't talk like you." + + + + +II + +THE old man showed pleasure in being thus called upon. He cleared his +throat and began. + +"Twenty or thirty years ago my story was in great demand. But in these +days nobody seems interested--" + +"There you go!" Hare-Lip cried hotly. "Cut out the funny stuff and talk +sensible. What's _interested?_ You talk like a baby that don't know +how." + +"Let him alone," Edwin urged, "or he'll get mad and won't talk at all. +Skip the funny places. We'll catch on to some of what he tells us." + +"Let her go, Granser," Hoo-Hoo encouraged; for the old man was already +maundering about the disrespect for elders and the reversion to cruelty +of all humans that fell from high culture to primitive conditions. + +The tale began. + +"There were very many people in the world in those days. San Francisco +alone held four millions--" + +"What is millions?" Edwin interrupted. + +Granser looked at him kindly. + +"I know you cannot count beyond ten, so I will tell you. Hold up your +two hands. On both of them you have altogether ten fingers and thumbs. +Very well. I now take this grain of sand--you hold it, Hoo-Hoo." He +dropped the grain of sand into the lad's palm and went on. "Now that +grain of sand stands for the ten fingers of Edwin. I add another grain. +That's ten more fingers. And I add another, and another, and another, +until I have added as many grains as Edwin has fingers and thumbs. That +makes what I call one hundred. Remember that word--one hundred. Now I +put this pebble in Hare-Lip's hand. It stands for ten grains of sand, or +ten tens of fingers, or one hundred fingers. I put in ten pebbles. They +stand for a thousand fingers. I take a mussel-shell, and it stands for +ten pebbles, or one hundred grains of sand, or one thousand fingers...." +And so on, laboriously, and with much reiteration, he strove to build +up in their minds a crude conception of numbers. As the quantities +increased, he had the boys holding different magnitudes in each of +their hands. For still higher sums, he laid the symbols on the log of +driftwood; and for symbols he was hard put, being compelled to use the +teeth from the skulls for millions, and the crab-shells for billions. +It was here that he stopped, for the boys were showing signs of becoming +tired. + +"There were four million people in San Francisco--four teeth." + +The boys' eyes ranged along from the teeth and from hand to hand, down +through the pebbles and sand-grains to Edwin's fingers. And back again +they ranged along the ascending series in the effort to grasp such +inconceivable numbers. + +"That was a lot of folks, Granser," Edwin at last hazarded. + +"Like sand on the beach here, like sand on the beach, each grain of sand +a man, or woman, or child. Yes, my boy, all those people lived right +here in San Francisco. And at one time or another all those people +came out on this very beach--more people than there are grains of sand. +More--more--more. And San Francisco was a noble city. And across the +bay--where we camped last year, even more people lived, clear from Point +Richmond, on the level ground and on the hills, all the way around to +San Leandro--one great city of seven million people.--Seven teeth... +there, that's it, seven millions." + +Again the boys' eyes ranged up and down from Edwin's fingers to the +teeth on the log. + +"The world was full of people. The census of 2010 gave eight billions +for the whole world--eight crab-shells, yes, eight billions. It was not +like to-day. Mankind knew a great deal more about getting food. And the +more food there was, the more people there were. In the year 1800, there +were one hundred and seventy millions in Europe alone. One hundred years +later--a grain of sand, Hoo-Hoo--one hundred years later, at 1900, there +were five hundred millions in Europe--five grains of sand, Hoo-Hoo, and +this one tooth. This shows how easy was the getting of food, and how men +increased. And in the year 2000 there were fifteen hundred millions +in Europe. And it was the same all over the rest of the world. Eight +crab-shells there, yes, eight billion people were alive on the earth +when the Scarlet Death began. + +"I was a young man when the Plague came--twenty-seven years old; and I +lived on the other side of San Francisco Bay, in Berkeley. You remember +those great stone houses, Edwin, when we came down the hills from Contra +Costa? That was where I lived, in those stone houses. I was a professor +of English literature." + +[Illustration: I was a professor of English literature 054] + +Much of this was over the heads of the boys, but they strove to +comprehend dimly this tale of the past. + +"What was them stone houses for?" Hare-Lip queried. + +"You remember when your dad taught you to swim?" The boy nodded. +"Well, in the University of California--that is the name we had for +the houses--we taught young men and women how to think, just as I have +taught you now, by sand and pebbles and shells, to know how many people +lived in those days. There was very much to teach. The young men and +women we taught were called students. We had large rooms in which we +taught. I talked to them, forty or fifty at a time, just as I am talking +to you now. I told them about the books other men had written before +their time, and even, sometimes, in their time--" + +"Was that all you did?--just talk, talk, talk?" Hoo-Hoo demanded. "Who +hunted your meat for you? and milked the goats? and caught the fish?" + +"A sensible question, Hoo-Hoo, a sensible question. As I have told you, +in those days food-getting was easy. We were very wise. A few men got +the food for many men. The other men did other things. As you say, I +talked. I talked all the time, and for this food was given me--much +food, fine food, beautiful food, food that I have not tasted in sixty +years and shall never taste again. I sometimes think the most wonderful +achievement of our tremendous civilization was food--its inconceivable +abundance, its infinite variety, its marvellous delicacy. O my +grandsons, life was life in those days, when we had such wonderful +things to eat." + +This was beyond the boys, and they let it slip by, words and thoughts, +as a mere senile wandering in the narrative. + +"Our food-getters were called _freemen_. This was a joke. We of the +ruling classes owned all the land, all the machines, everything. These +food-getters were our slaves. We took almost all the food they got, and +left them a little so that they might eat, and work, and get us more +food--" + +"I'd have gone into the forest and got food for myself," Hare-Lip +announced; "and if any man tried to take it away from me, I'd have +killed him." + +The old man laughed. + +"Did I not tell you that we of the ruling class owned all the land, all +the forest, everything? Any food-getter who would not get food for us, +him we punished or compelled to starve to death. And very few did that. +They preferred to get food for us, and make clothes for us, and prepare +and administer to us a thousand--a mussel-shell, Hoo-Hoo--a thousand +satisfactions and delights. And I was Professor Smith in those +days--Professor James Howard Smith. And my lecture courses were very +popular--that is, very many of the young men and women liked to hear me +talk about the books other men had written. + +"And I was very happy, and I had beautiful things to eat. And my hands +were soft, because I did no work with them, and my body was clean +all over and dressed in the softest garments-- + +"He surveyed his mangy goat-skin with disgust. + +"We did not wear such things in those days. Even the slaves had better +garments. And we were most clean. We washed our faces and hands often +every day. You boys never wash unless you fall into the water or go +swimming." + +"Neither do you Granzer," Hoo-Hoo retorted. + +"I know, I know, I am a filthy old man, but times have changed. Nobody +washes these days, there are no conveniences. It is sixty years since I +have seen a piece of soap. + +[Illustration: Sixty years since I have seen a piece of soap. 059] + +"You do not know what soap is, and I shall not tell you, for I am telling +the story of the Scarlet Death. You know what sickness is. We called +it a disease. Very many of the diseases came from what we called germs. +Remember that word--germs. A germ is a very small thing. It is like a +woodtick, such as you find on the dogs in the spring of the year when +they run in the forest. Only the germ is very small. It is so small that +you cannot see it--" + +Hoo-Hoo began to laugh. + +"You're a queer un, Granser, talking about things you can't see. If you +can't see 'em, how do you know they are? That's what I want to know. How +do you know anything you can't see?" + +"A good question, a very good question, Hoo-Hoo. But we did see--some of +them. We had what we called microscopes and ultramicroscopes, and we put +them to our eyes and looked through them, so that we saw things larger +than they really were, and many things we could not see without the +microscopes at all. Our best ultramicroscopes could make a germ look +forty thousand times larger. A mussel-shell is a thousand fingers like +Edwin's. Take forty mussel-shells, and by as many times larger was the +germ when we looked at it through a microscope. And after that, we +had other ways, by using what we called moving pictures, of making the +forty-thousand-times germ many, many thousand times larger still. And +thus we saw all these things which our eyes of themselves could not see. +Take a grain of sand. Break it into ten pieces. Take one piece and break +it into ten. Break one of those pieces into ten, and one of those into +ten, and one of those into ten, and one of those into ten, and do it all +day, and maybe, by sunset, you will have a piece as small as one of the +germs." The boys were openly incredulous. Hare-Lip sniffed and sneered +and Hoo-Hoo snickered, until Edwin nudged them to be silent. + +"The woodtick sucks the blood of the dog, but the germ, being so very +small, goes right into the blood of the body, and there it has +many children. In those days there would be as many as a billion--a +crab-shell, please--as many as that crab-shell in one man's body. We +called germs micro-organisms. When a few million, or a billion, of them +were in a man, in all the blood of a man, he was sick. These germs were +a disease. There were many different kinds of them--more different kinds +than there are grains of sand on this beach. We knew only a few of the +kinds. The micro-organic world was an invisible world, a world we could +not see, and we knew very little about it. Yet we did know something. +There was the _bacillus anthracis_; there was the _micrococcus_; there +was the _Bacterium termo_, and the _Bacterium lactis_--that's what +turns the goat milk sour even to this day, Hare-Lip; and there were +_Schizomycetes_ without end. And there were many others...." + +Here the old man launched into a disquisition on germs and their +natures, using words and phrases of such extraordinary length and +meaninglessness, that the boys grinned at one another and looked out +over the deserted ocean till they forgot the old man was babbling on. + +"But the Scarlet Death, Granser," Edwin at last suggested. + +Granser recollected himself, and with a start tore himself away from the +rostrum of the lecture-hall, where, to another world audience, he +had been expounding the latest theory, sixty years gone, of germs and +germ-diseases. + +"Yes, yes, Edwin; I had forgotten. Sometimes the memory of the past is +very strong upon me, and I forget that I am a dirty old man, clad in +goat-skin, wandering with my savage grandsons who are goatherds in +the primeval wilderness. 'The fleeting systems lapse like foam,' and so +lapsed our glorious, colossal civilization. I am Granser, a tired old +man. I belong to the tribe of Santa Rosans. I married into that tribe. +My sons and daughters married into the Chauffeurs, the Sacramen-tos, and +the Palo-Altos. You, Hare-Lip, are of the Chauffeurs. You, Edwin, are +of the Sacramentos. And you, Hoo-Hoo, are of the Palo-Altos. Your tribe +takes its name from a town that was near the seat of another great +institution of learning. It was called Stanford University. Yes, I +remember now. It is perfectly clear. I was telling you of the Scarlet +Death. Where was I in my story?" + +"You was telling about germs, the things you can't see but which make +men sick," Edwin prompted. + +"Yes, that's where I was. A man did not notice at first when only a few +of these germs got into his body. But each germ broke in half and became +two germs, and they kept doing this very rapidly so that in a short time +there were many millions of them in the body. Then the man was sick. He +had a disease, and the disease was named after the kind of a germ that +was in him. It might be measles, it might be influenza, it might be +yellow fever; it might be any of thousands and thousands of kinds of +diseases. + +"Now this is the strange thing about these germs. There were always new +ones coming to live in men's bodies. Long and long and long ago, when +there were only a few men in the world, there were few diseases. But +as men increased and lived closely together in great cities and +civilizations, new diseases arose, new kinds of germs entered their +bodies. Thus were countless millions and billions of human beings +killed. And the more thickly men packed together, the more terrible were +the new diseases that came to be. Long before my time, in the middle +ages, there was the Black Plague that swept across Europe. It swept +across Europe many times. There was tuberculosis, that entered into men +wherever they were thickly packed. A hundred years before my time there +was the bubonic plague. And in Africa was the sleeping sickness. The +bacteriologists fought all these sicknesses and destroyed them, just as +you boys fight the wolves away from your goats, or squash the mosquitoes +that light on you. The bacteriologists--" + +"But, Granser, what is a what-you-call-it?" Edwin interrupted. + +"You, Edwin, are a goatherd. Your task is to watch the goats. You know a +great deal about goats. A bacteriologist watches germs. That's his +task, and he knows a great deal about them. So, as I was saying, the +bacteriologists fought with the germs and destroyed them--sometimes. +There was leprosy, a horrible disease. A hundred years before I was +born, the bacteriologists discovered the germ of leprosy. They knew all +about it. They made pictures of it. I have seen those pictures. But +they never found a way to kill it. But in 1984, there was the Pantoblast +Plague, a disease that broke out in a country called Brazil and that +killed millions of people. But the bacteriologists found it out, and +found the way to kill it, so that the Pantoblast Plague went no farther. +They made what they called a serum, which they put into a man's body and +which killed the pantoblast germs without killing the man. And in 1910, +there was Pellagra, and also the hookworm. These were easily killed +by the bacteriologists. But in 1947 there arose a new disease that had +never been seen before. It got into the bodies of babies of only ten +months old or less, and it made them unable to move their hands and +feet, or to eat, or anything; and the bacteriologists were eleven years +in discovering how to kill that particular germ and save the babies. + +"In spite of all these diseases, and of all the new ones that continued +to arise, there were more and more men in the world. This was because it +was easy to get food. The easier it was to get food, the more men +there were; the more men there were, the more thickly were they packed +together on the earth; and the more thickly they were packed, the more +new kinds of germs became diseases. There were warnings. Soldervetzsky, +as early as 1929, told the bacteriologists that they had no guaranty +against some new disease, a thousand times more deadly than any they +knew, arising and killing by the hundreds of millions and even by the +billion. You see, the micro-organic world remained a mystery to the end. +They knew there was such a world, and that from time to time armies of +new germs emerged from it to kill men. + +"And that was all they knew about it. For all they knew, in that +invisible micro-organic world there might be as many different kinds of +germs as there are grains of sand on this beach. And also, in that same +invisible world it might well be that new kinds of germs came to be. +It might be there that life originated--the 'abysmal fecundity,' +Soldervetzsky called it, applying the words of other men who had written +before him...." + +It was at this point that Hare-Lip rose to his feet, an expression of +huge contempt on his face. + +[Illustration: Granser, you make me sick with your gabble 071] + +"Granser," he announced, "you make me sick with your gabble. Why don't +you tell about the Red Death? If you ain't going to, say so, an' we'll +start back for camp." + +The old man looked at him and silently began to cry. The weak tears of +age rolled down his cheeks and all the feebleness of his eighty-seven +years showed in his grief-stricken countenance. + +"Sit down," Edwin counselled soothingly. "Granser's all right. He's just +gettin' to the Scarlet Death, ain't you, Granser? He's just goin' to +tell us about it right now. Sit down, Hare-Lip. Go ahead, Granser." + + + + +III + +THE old man wiped the tears away on his grimy knuckles and took up the +tale in a tremulous, piping voice that soon strengthened as he got the +swing of the narrative. + +"It was in the summer of 2013 that the Plague came. I was twenty-seven +years old, and well do I remember it. Wireless despatches--" + +Hare-Lip spat loudly his disgust, and Granser hastened to make amends. + +"We talked through the air in those days, thousands and thousands of +miles. And the word came of a strange disease that had broken out in +New York. There were seventeen millions of people living then in that +noblest city of America. Nobody thought anything about the news. It was +only a small thing. There had been only a few deaths. It seemed, though, +that they had died very quickly, and that one of the first signs of +the disease was the turning red of the face and all the body. Within +twenty-four hours came the report of the first case in Chicago. And on +the same day, it was made public that London, the greatest city in the +world, next to Chicago, had been secretly fighting the plague for two +weeks and censoring the news despatches--that is, not permitting the +word to go forth to the rest of the world that London had the plague. + +"It looked serious, but we in California, like everywhere else, were +not alarmed. We were sure that the bacteriologists would find a way to +overcome this new germ, just as they had overcome other germs in the +past. But the trouble was the astonishing quickness with which this germ +destroyed human beings, and the fact that it inevitably killed any +human body it entered. No one ever recovered. There was the old Asiatic +cholera, when you might eat dinner with a well man in the evening, and +the next morning, if you got up early enough, you would see him being +hauled by your window in the death-cart. But this new plague was quicker +than that--much quicker. + +[Illustration: But this new plague was quicker 078] + +"From the moment of the first signs of it, a man would be dead in an +hour. Some lasted for several hours. Many died within ten or fifteen +minutes of the appearance of the first signs. + +"The heart began to beat faster and the heat of the body to increase. +Then came the scarlet rash, spreading like wildfire over the face and +body. Most persons never noticed the increase in heat and heart-beat, +and the first they knew was when the scarlet rash came out. Usually, +they had convulsions at the time of the appearance of the rash. But +these convulsions did not last long and were not very severe. If one +lived through them, he became perfectly quiet, and only did he feel a +numbness swiftly creeping up his body from the feet. The heels became +numb first, then the legs, and hips, and when the numbness reached +as high as his heart he died. They did not rave or sleep. Their minds +always remained cool and calm up to the moment their heart numbed and +stopped. And another strange thing was the rapidity of decomposition. No +sooner was a person dead than the body seemed to fall to pieces, to +fly apart, to melt away even as you looked at it. That was one of the +reasons the plague spread so rapidly. All the billions of germs in a +corpse were so immediately released. + +"And it was because of all this that the bacteriologists had so little +chance in fighting the germs. They were killed in their laboratories +even as they studied the germ of the Scarlet Death. They were heroes. +As fast as they perished, others stepped forth and took their places. +It was in London that they first isolated it. The news was telegraphed +everywhere. Trask was the name of the man who succeeded in this, but +within thirty hours he was dead. Then came the struggle in all the +laboratories to find something that would kill the plague germs. All +drugs failed. You see, the problem was to get a drug, or serum, that +would kill the germs in the body and not kill the body. They tried to +fight it with other germs, to put into the body of a sick man germs that +were the enemies of the plague germs--" + +"And you can't see these germ-things, Granser," Hare-Lip objected, "and +here you gabble, gabble, gabble about them as if they was anything, +when they're nothing at all. Anything you can't see, ain't, that's what. +Fighting things that ain't with things that ain't! They must have +been all fools in them days. That's why they croaked. I ain't goin' to +believe in such rot, I tell you that." + +Granser promptly began to weep, while Edwin hotly took up his defence. + +"Look here, Hare-Lip, you believe in lots of things you can't see." + +Hare-Lip shook his head. + +"You believe in dead men walking about. You never seen one dead man walk +about." + +"I tell you I seen 'em, last winter, when I was wolf-hunting with dad." + +"Well, you always spit when you cross running water," Edwin challenged. + +"That's to keep off bad luck," was Hare-Lip's defence. + +"You believe in bad luck?" + +"Sure." + +"An' you ain't never seen bad luck," Edwin concluded triumphantly. +"You're just as bad as Granser and his germs. You believe in what you +don't see. Go on, Granser." + +Hare-Lip, crushed by this metaphysical defeat, remained silent, and +the old man went on. Often and often, though this narrative must not be +clogged by the details, was Granser's tale interrupted while the boys +squabbled among themselves. Also, among themselves they kept up a +constant, low-voiced exchange of explanation and conjecture, as they +strove to follow the old man into his unknown and vanished world. + +"The Scarlet Death broke out in San Francisco. The first death came on +a Monday morning. By Thursday they were dying like flies in Oakland +and San Francisco. They died everywhere--in their beds, at their +work, walking along the street. It was on Tuesday that I saw my first +death--Miss Collbran, one of my students, sitting right there before my +eyes, in my lecture-room. I noticed her face while I was talking. It had +suddenly turned scarlet. I ceased speaking and could only look at her, +for the first fear of the plague was already on all of us and we knew +that it had come. The young women screamed and ran out of the room. So +did the young men run out, all but two. Miss Collbran's convulsions were +very mild and lasted less than a minute. One of the young men fetched +her a glass of water. She drank only a little of it, and cried out: + +"'My feet! All sensation has left them.' + +"After a minute she said, 'I have no feet. I am unaware that I have any +feet. And my knees are cold. I can scarcely feel that I have knees.' + +"She lay on the floor, a bundle of notebooks under her head. And we +could do nothing. The coldness and the numbness crept up past her hips +to her heart, and when it reached her heart she was dead. In fifteen +minutes, by the clock--I timed it--she was dead, there, in my own +classroom, dead. And she was a very beautiful, strong, healthy young +woman. And from the first sign of the plague to her death only fifteen +minutes elapsed. That will show you how swift was the Scarlet Death. + +"Yet in those few minutes I remained with the dying woman in my +classroom, the alarm had spread over the university; and the students, +by thousands, all of them, had deserted the lecture-room and +laboratories. When I emerged, on my way to make report to the President +of the Faculty, I found the university deserted. Across the campus were +several stragglers hurrying for their homes. Two of them were running. + +"President Hoag, I found in his office, all alone, looking very old and +very gray, with a multitude of wrinkles in his face that I had never +seen before. At the sight of me, he pulled himself to his feet and +tottered away to the inner office, banging the door after him and +locking it. You see, he knew I had been exposed, and he was afraid. +He shouted to me through the door to go away. I shall never forget +my feelings as I walked down the silent corridors and out across that +deserted campus. I was not afraid. I had been exposed, and I looked +upon myself as already dead. It was not that, but a feeling of awful +depression that impressed me. Everything had stopped. It was like the +end of the world to me--my world. I had been born within sight and sound +of the university. It had been my predestined career. My father had been +a professor there before me, and his father before him. For a century +and a half had this university, like a splendid machine, been running +steadily on. And now, in an instant, it had stopped. It was like seeing +the sacred flame die down on some thrice-sacred altar. I was shocked, +unutterably shocked. + +"When I arrived home, my housekeeper screamed as I entered, and fled +away. And when I rang, I found the housemaid had likewise fled. I +investigated. In the kitchen I found the cook on the point of departure. +But she screamed, too, and in her haste dropped a suitcase of her +personal belongings and ran out of the house and across the grounds, +still screaming. I can hear her scream to this day. You see, we did not +act in this way when ordinary diseases smote us. We were always calm +over such things, and sent for the doctors and nurses who knew just +what to do. But this was different. It struck so suddenly, and killed so +swiftly, and never missed a stroke. When the scarlet rash appeared on a +person's face, that person was marked by death. There was never a known +case of a recovery. + +"I was alone in my big house. As I have told you often before, in those +days we could talk with one another over wires or through the air. The +telephone bell rang, and I found my brother talking to me. He told me +that he was not coming home for fear of catching the plague from me, and +that he had taken our two sisters to stop at Professor Bacon's home. He +advised me to remain where I was, and wait to find out whether or not I +had caught the plague. + +[Illustration: The telephone bell rang 088] + +"To all of this I agreed, staying in my house and for the first time in +my life attempting to cook. And the plague did not come out on me. By +means of the telephone I could talk with whomsoever I pleased and get +the news. Also, there were the newspapers, and I ordered all of them to +be thrown up to my door so that I could know what was happening with the +rest of the world. + +"New York City and Chicago were in chaos. And what happened with them +was happening in all the large cities. A third of the New York police +were dead. Their chief was also dead, likewise the mayor. All law and +order had ceased. The bodies were lying in the streets un-buried. All +railroads and vessels carrying food and such things into the great +city had ceased runnings and mobs of the hungry poor were pillaging +the stores and warehouses. Murder and robbery and drunkenness were +everywhere. Already the people had fled from the city by millions--at +first the rich, in their private motor-cars and dirigibles, and then the +great mass of the population, on foot, carrying the plague with them, +themselves starving and pillaging the farmers and all the towns and +villages on the way. + +[Illustration: Fled from the city by millions 092] + +"The man who sent this news, the wireless operator, was alone with his +instrument on the top of a lofty building. The people remaining in the +city--he estimated them at several hundred thousand--had gone mad from +fear and drink, and on all sides of him great fires were raging. He was +a hero, that man who staid by his post--an obscure newspaperman, most +likely. + +"For twenty-four hours, he said, no transatlantic airships had arrived, +and no more messages were coming from England. He did state, though, +that a message from Berlin--that's in Germany--announced that Hoffmeyer, +a bacteriologist of the Metchnikoff School, had discovered the serum for +the plague. That was the last word, to this day, that we of America +ever received from Europe. If Hoffmeyer discovered the serum, it was too +late, or otherwise, long ere this, explorers from Europe would have +come looking for us. We can only conclude that what happened in America +happened in Europe, and that, at the best, some several score may have +survived the Scarlet Death on that whole continent. + +"For one day longer the despatches continued to come from New York. +Then they, too, ceased. The man who had sent them, perched in his lofty +building, had either died of the plague or been consumed in the great +conflagrations he had described as raging around him. And what had +occurred in New York had been duplicated in all the other cities. It was +the same in San Francisco, and Oakland, and Berkeley. By Thursday the +people were dying so rapidly that their corpses could not be handled, +and dead bodies lay everywhere. Thursday night the panic outrush for +the country began. Imagine, my grandsons, people, thicker than the +salmon-run you have seen on the Sacramento river, pouring out of the +cities by millions, madly over the country, in vain attempt to escape +the ubiquitous death. You see, they carried the germs with them. Even +the airships of the rich, fleeing for mountain and desert fastnesses, +carried the germs. + +"Hundreds of these airships escaped to Hawaii, and not only did they +bring the plague with them, but they found the plague already there +before them. This we learned, by the despatches, until all order in San +Francisco vanished, and there were no operators left at their posts to +receive or send. It was amazing, astounding, this loss of communication +with the world. It was exactly as if the world had ceased, been blotted +out. For sixty years that world has no longer existed for me. I know +there must be such places as New York, Europe, Asia, and Africa; but not +one word has been heard of them--not in sixty years. With the coming of +the Scarlet Death the world fell apart, absolutely, irretrievably. Ten +thousand years of culture and civilization passed in the twinkling of an +eye, 'lapsed like foam.' + +"I was telling about the airships of the rich. They carried the plague +with them and no matter where they fled, they died. I never encountered +but one survivor of any of them--Mungerson. He was afterwards a Santa +Rosan, and he married my eldest daughter. He came into the tribe eight +years after the plague. He was then nineteen years old, and he was +compelled to wait twelve years more before he could marry. You see, +there were no unmarried women, and some of the older daughters of the +Santa Rosans were already bespoken. So he was forced to wait until +my Mary had grown to sixteen years. It was his son, Gimp-Leg, who was +killed last year by the mountain lion. + +"Mungerson was eleven years old at the time of the plague. His father +was one of the Industrial Magnates, a very wealthy, powerful man. It was +on his airship, the Condor, that they were fleeing, with all the family, +for the wilds of British Columbia, which is far to the north of here. +But there was some accident, and they were wrecked near Mount Shasta. +You have heard of that mountain. It is far to the north. The plague +broke out amongst them, and this boy of eleven was the only survivor. +For eight years he was alone, wandering over a deserted land and looking +vainly for his own kind. And at last, travelling south, he picked up +with us, the Santa Rosans. + +"But I am ahead of my story. When the great exodus from the cities +around San Francisco Bay began, and while the telephones were still +working, I talked with my brother. I told him this flight from the +cities was insanity, that there were no symptoms of the plague in +me, and that the thing for us to do was to isolate ourselves and our +relatives in some safe place. We decided on the Chemistry Building, at +the university, and we planned to lay in a supply of provisions, and by +force of arms to prevent any other persons from forcing their presence +upon us after we had retired to our refuge. + +"All this being arranged, my brother begged me to stay in my own +house for at least twenty-four hours more, on the chance of the plague +developing in me. To this I agreed, and he promised to come for me next +day. We talked on over the details of the provisioning and the defending +of the Chemistry Building until the telephone died. It died in the midst +of our conversation. That evening there were no electric lights, and +I was alone in my house in the darkness. No more newspapers were being +printed, so I had no knowledge of what was taking place outside. + +[Illustration: I heard sounds of rioting and of pistol shots 098] + +"I heard sounds of rioting and of pistol shots, and from my windows I +could see the glare of the sky of some conflagration in the direction +of Oakland. It was a night of terror. I did not sleep a wink. A man--why +and how I do not know--was killed on the sidewalk in front of the house. +I heard the rapid reports of an automatic pistol, and a few minutes +later the wounded wretch crawled up to my door, moaning and crying out +for help. Arming myself with two automatics, I went to him. By the light +of a match I ascertained that while he was dying of the bullet wounds, +at the same time the plague was on him. I fled indoors, whence I heard +him moan and cry out for half an hour longer. + +"In the morning, my brother came to me. I had gathered into a handbag +what things of value I purposed taking, but when I saw his face I knew +that he would never accompany me to the Chemistry Building. The plague +was on him. He intended shaking my hand, but I went back hurriedly +before him. + +"'Look at yourself in the mirror,' I commanded. + +[Illustration: Look at yourself in the mirror 100] + +"He did so, and at sight of his scarlet face, the color deepening as he +looked at it, he sank down nervelessly in a chair. + +"'My God!' he said. 'I've got it. Don't come near me. I am a dead man.' + +"Then the convulsions seized him. He was two hours in dying, and he +was conscious to the last, complaining about the coldness and loss of +sensation in his feet, his calves, his thighs, until at last it was his +heart and he was dead. + +"That was the way the Scarlet Death slew. I caught up my handbag and +fled. The sights in the streets were terrible. One stumbled on bodies +everywhere. Some were not yet dead. And even as you looked, you saw men +sink down with the death fastened upon them. There were numerous fires +burning in Berkeley, while Oakland and San Francisco were apparently +being swept by vast conflagrations. The smoke of the burning filled the +heavens, so that the midday was as a gloomy twilight, and, in the shifts +of wind, sometimes the sun shone through dimly, a dull red orb. Truly, +my grandsons, it was like the last days of the end of the world. + +"There were numerous stalled motor cars, showing that the gasoline and +the engine supplies of the garages had given out. I remember one such +car. A man and a woman lay back dead in the seats, and on the pavement +near it were two more women and a child. Strange and terrible sights +there were on every hand. People slipped by silently, furtively, like +ghosts--white-faced women carrying infants in their arms; fathers +leading children by the hand; singly, and in couples, and in +families--all fleeing out of the city of death. Some carried supplies +of food, others blankets and valuables, and there were many who carried +nothing. + +"There was a grocery store--a place where food was sold. The man to whom +it belonged--I knew him well--a quiet, sober, but stupid and obstinate +fellow, was defending it. The windows and doors had been broken in, but +he, inside, hiding behind a counter, was discharging his pistol at a +number of men on the sidewalk who were breaking in. In the entrance were +several bodies--of men, I decided, whom he had killed earlier in the +day. Even as I looked on from a distance, I saw one of the robbers break +the windows of the adjoining store, a place where shoes were sold, +and deliberately set fire to it. I did not go to the groceryman's +assistance. The time for such acts had already passed. Civilization was +crumbling, and it was each for himself." + + + + +IV + +I WENT away hastily, down a cross-street, and at the first corner I saw +another tragedy. Two men of the working class had caught a man and a +woman with two children, and were robbing them. I knew the man by sight, +though I had never been introduced to him. He was a poet whose verses I +had long admired. Yet I did not go to his help, for at the moment I came +upon the scene there was a pistol shot, and I saw him sinking to the +ground. The woman screamed, and she was felled with a fist-blow by one +of the brutes. I cried out threateningly, whereupon they discharged +their pistols at me and I ran away around the corner. Here I was blocked +by an advancing conflagration. The buildings on both sides were burning, +and the street was filled with smoke and flame. From somewhere in that +murk came a woman's voice calling shrilly for help. But I did not go to +her. A man's heart turned to iron amid such scenes, and one heard all +too many appeals for help. + +"Returning to the corner, I found the two robbers were gone. The poet +and his wife lay dead on the pavement. It was a shocking sight. The two +children had vanished--whither I could not tell. And I knew, now, why +it was that the fleeing persons I encountered slipped along so furtively +and with such white faces. In the midst of our civilization, down in our +slums and labor-ghettos, we had bred a race of barbarians, of savages; +and now, in the time of our calamity, they turned upon us like the wild +beasts they were and destroyed us. And they destroyed themselves as +well. + +[Illustration: Now in the time of calamity they turned on us 108] + +"They inflamed themselves with strong drink and committed a thousand +atrocities, quarreling and killing one another in the general madness. +One group of workingmen I saw, of the better sort, who had banded +together, and, with their women and children in their midst, the sick +and aged in litters and being carried, and with a number of horses +pulling a truck-load of provisions, they were fighting their way out +of the city. They made a fine spectacle as they came down the street +through the drifting smoke, though they nearly shot me when I first +appeared in their path. As they went by, one of their leaders shouted +out to me in apologetic explanation. He said they were killing the +robbers and looters on sight, and that they had thus banded together as +the only-means by which to escape the prowlers. + +"It was here that I saw for the first time what I was soon to see so +often. One of the marching men had suddenly shown the unmistakable mark +of the plague. Immediately those about him drew away, and he, without +a remonstrance, stepped out of his place to let them pass on. A woman, +most probably his wife, attempted to follow him. She was leading a +little boy by the hand. But the husband commanded her sternly to go on, +while others laid hands on her and restrained her from following him. +This I saw, and I saw the man also, with his scarlet blaze of face, step +into a doorway on the opposite side of the street. I heard the report of +his pistol, and saw him sink lifeless to the ground. + +"After being turned aside twice again by advancing fires, I succeeded in +getting through to the university. On the edge of the campus I came +upon a party of university folk who were going in the direction of the +Chemistry Building. They were all family men, and their families were +with them, including the nurses and the servants. Professor Badminton +greeted me, I had difficulty in recognizing him. Somewhere he had gone +through flames, and his beard was singed off. About his head was a +bloody bandage, and his clothes were filthy. + +[Illustration: He told me he had been Cruelly Beaten 112] + +"He told me he had prowlers, and that his brother had been killed the +previous night, in the defence of their dwelling. + +"Midway across the campus, he pointed suddenly to Mrs. Swinton's face. +The unmistakable scarlet was there. Immediately all the other women set +up a screaming and began to run away from her. Her two children were +with a nurse, and these also ran with the women. But her husband, Doctor +Swinton, remained with her. + +"'Go on, Smith,' he told me. 'Keep an eye on the children. As for me, +I shall stay with my wife. I know she is as already dead, but I can't +leave her. Afterwards, if I escape, I shall come to the Chemistry +Building, and do you watch for me and let me in.' + +"I left him bending over his wife and soothing her last moments, while +I ran to overtake the party. We were the last to be admitted to the +Chemistry Building. After that, with our automatic rifles we maintained +our isolation. By our plans, we had arranged for a company of sixty to +be in this refuge. Instead, every one of the number originally planned +had added relatives and friends and whole families until there were over +four hundred souls. But the Chemistry Building was large, and, standing +by itself, was in no danger of being burned by the great fires that +raged everywhere in the city. + +"A large quantity of provisions had been gathered, and a food committee +took charge of it, issuing rations daily to the various families and +groups that arranged themselves into messes. A number of committees were +appointed, and we developed a very efficient organization. I was on the +committee of defence, though for the first day no prowlers came near. We +could see them in the distance, however, and by the smoke of their fires +knew that several camps of them were occupying the far edge of the +campus. Drunkenness was rife, and often we heard them singing ribald +songs or insanely shouting. While the world crashed to ruin about them +and all the air was filled with the smoke of its burning, these low +creatures gave rein to their bestiality and fought and drank and died. +And after all, what did it matter? Everybody died anyway, the good and +the bad, the efficients and the weaklings, those that loved to live and +those that scorned to live. They passed. Everything passed. + +"When twenty-four hours had gone by and no signs of the plague were +apparent, we congratulated ourselves and set about digging a well. You +have seen the great iron pipes which in those days carried water to all +the city-dwellers. We feared that the fires in the city would burst the +pipes and empty the reservoirs. So we tore up the cement floor of the +central court of the Chemistry Building and dug a well. There were many +young men, undergraduates, with us, and we worked night and day on the +well. And our fears were confirmed. Three hours before we reached water, +the pipes went dry. + +"A second twenty-four hours passed, and still the plague did not +appear among us. We thought we were saved. But we did not know what I +afterwards decided to be true, namely, that the period of the incubation +of the plague germs in a human's body was a matter of a number of days. +It slew so swiftly when once it manifested itself, that we were led to +believe that the period of incubation was equally swift. So, when two +days had left us unscathed, we were elated with the idea that we were +free of the contagion. + +"But the third day disillusioned us. I can never forget the night +preceding it. I had charge of the night guards from eight to twelve, +and from the roof of the building I watched the passing of all man's +glorious works. So terrible were the local conflagrations that all the +sky was lighted up. One could read the finest print in the red glare. +All the world seemed wrapped in flames. San Francisco spouted smoke and +fire from a score of vast conflagrations that were like so many active +volcanoes. Oakland, San Leandro, Haywards--all were burning; and to the +northward, clear to Point Richmond, other fires were at work. It was an +awe-inspiring spectacle. Civilization, my grandsons, civilization was +passing in a sheet of flame and a breath of death. At ten o'clock that +night, the great powder magazines at Point Pinole exploded in rapid +succession. So terrific were the concussions that the strong building +rocked as in an earthquake, while every pane of glass was broken. It was +then that I left the roof and went down the long corridors, from room to +room, quieting the alarmed women and telling them what had happened. + +"An hour later, at a window on the ground floor, I heard pandemonium +break out in the camps of the prowlers. There were cries and screams, +and shots from many pistols. As we afterward conjectured, this fight had +been precipitated by an attempt on the part of those that were well +to drive out those that were sick. At any rate, a number of the +plague-stricken prowlers escaped across the campus and drifted against +our doors. We warned them back, but they cursed us and discharged a +fusillade from their pistols. Professor Merryweather, at one of the +windows, was instantly killed, the bullet striking him squarely between +the eyes. We opened fire in turn, and all the prowlers fled away with +the exception of three. One was a woman. The plague was on them and they +were reckless. Like foul fiends, there in the red glare from the skies, +with faces blazing, they continued to curse us and fire at us. One of +the men I shot with my own hand. After that the other man and the woman, +still cursing us, lay down under our windows, where we were compelled to +watch them die of the plague. + +"The situation was critical. The explosions of the powder magazines +had broken all the windows of the Chemistry Building, so that we were +exposed to the germs from the corpses. The sanitary committee was called +upon to act, and it responded nobly. Two men were required to go out and +remove the corpses, and this meant the probable sacrifice of their own +lives, for, having performed the task, they were not to be permitted to +reenter the building. One of the professors, who was a bachelor, and +one of the undergraduates volunteered. They bade good-bye to us and +went forth. They were heroes. They gave up their lives that four hundred +others might live. After they had performed their work, they stood for +a moment, at a distance, looking at us wistfully. Then they waved their +hands in farewell and went away slowly across the campus toward the +burning city. + +"And yet it was all useless. The next morning the first one of us was +smitten with the plague--a little nurse-girl in the family of Professor +Stout. It was no time for weak-kneed, sentimental policies. On the +chance that she might be the only one, we thrust her forth from the +building and commanded her to be gone. + +[Illustration: We thrust her forth from the building 121] + +"She went away slowly across the campus, wringing her hands and crying +pitifully. We felt like brutes, but what were we to do? There were four +hundred of us, and individuals had to be sacrificed. + +"In one of the laboratories three families had domiciled themselves, and +that afternoon we found among them no less than four corpses and seven +cases of the plague in all its different stages. + +"Then it was that the horror began. Leaving the dead lie, we forced the +living ones to segregate themselves in another room. The plague began to +break out among the rest of us, and as fast as the symptoms appeared, we +sent the stricken ones to these segregated rooms. We compelled them to +walk there by themselves, so as to avoid laying hands on them. It was +heartrending. But still the plague raged among us, and room after +room was filled with the dead and dying. And so we who were yet clean +retreated to the next floor and to the next, before this sea of the +dead, that, room by room and floor by floor, inundated the building. + +"The place became a charnel house, and in the middle of the night +the survivors fled forth, taking nothing with them except arms and +ammunition and a heavy store of tinned foods. We camped on the opposite +side of the campus from the prowlers, and, while some stood guard, +others of us volunteered to scout into the city in quest of horses, +motor cars, carts, and wagons, or anything that would carry our +provisions and enable us to emulate the banded workingmen I had seen +fighting their way out to the open country. + +"I was one of these scouts; and Doctor Hoyle, remembering that his motor +car had been left behind in his home garage, told me to look for it. We +scouted in pairs, and Dombey, a young undergraduate, accompanied me. We +had to cross half a mile of the residence portion of the city to get +to Doctor Hoyle's home. Here the buildings stood apart, in the midst of +trees and grassy lawns, and here the fires had played freaks, burning +whole blocks, skipping blocks and often skipping a single house in a +block. And here, too, the prowlers were still at their work. We carried +our automatic pistols openly in our hands, and looked desperate enough, +forsooth, to keep them from attacking us. But at Doctor Hoyle's house +the thing happened. Untouched by fire, even as we came to it the smoke +of flames burst forth. + +"The miscreant who had set fire to it staggered down the steps and out +along the driveway. Sticking out of his coat pockets were bottles of +whiskey, and he was very drunk. My first impulse was to shoot him, and +I have never ceased regretting that I did not. Staggering and maundering +to himself, with bloodshot eyes, and a raw and bleeding slash down one +side of his bewhiskered face, he was altogether the most nauseating +specimen of degradation and filth I had ever encountered. I did not +shoot him, and he leaned against a tree on the lawn to let us go by. +It was the most absolute, wanton act. Just as we were opposite him, +he suddenly drew a pistol and shot Dombey through the head. The next +instant I shot him. But it was too late. Dombey expired without a groan, +immediately. I doubt if he even knew what had happened to him. + +"Leaving the two corpses, I hurried on past the burning house to the +garage, and there found Doctor Hoyle's motor car. The tanks were filled +with gasoline, and it was ready for use. And it was in this car that I +threaded the streets of the ruined city and came back to the survivors +on the campus. The other scouts returned, but none had been so +fortunate. Professor Fairmead had found a Shetland pony, but the poor +creature, tied in a stable and abandoned for days, was so weak from want +of food and water that it could carry no burden at all. Some of the men +were for turning it loose, but I insisted that we should lead it along +with us, so that, if we got out of food, we would have it to eat. + +"There were forty-seven of us when we started, many being women and +children. The President of the Faculty, an old man to begin with, and +now hopelessly broken by the awful happenings of the past week, rode +in the motor car with several young children and the aged mother of +Professor Fairmead. Wathope, a young professor of English, who had a +grievous bullet-wound in his leg, drove the car. The rest of us walked, +Professor Fairmead leading the pony. + +"It was what should have been a bright summer day, but the smoke from +the burning world filled the sky, through which the sun shone murkily, +a dull and lifeless orb, blood-red and ominous. But we had grown +accustomed to that blood-red sun. With the smoke it was different. It +bit into our nostrils and eyes, and there was not one of us whose eyes +were not bloodshot. We directed our course to the southeast through the +endless miles of suburban residences, travelling along where the first +swells of low hills rose from the flat of the central city. It was by +this way, only, that we could expect to gain the country. + +"Our progress was painfully slow. The women and children could not walk +fast. They did not dream of walking, my grandsons, in the way all people +walk to-day. In truth, none of us knew how to walk. It was not until +after the plague that I learned really to walk. So it was that the pace +of the slowest was the pace of all, for we dared not separate on account +of the prowlers. There were not so many now of these human beasts of +prey. The plague had already well diminished their numbers, but enough +still lived to be a constant menace to us. Many of the beautiful +residences were untouched by fire, yet smoking ruins were everywhere. +The prowlers, too, seemed to have got over their insensate desire to +burn, and it was more rarely that we saw houses freshly on fire. + +"Several of us scouted among the private garages in search of motor cars +and gasoline. But in this we were unsuccessful. The first great flights +from the cities had swept all such utilities away. Calgan, a fine young +man, was lost in this work. He was shot by prowlers while crossing a +lawn. Yet this was our only casualty, though, once, a drunken brute +deliberately opened fire on all of us. Luckily, he fired wildly, and we +shot him before he had done any hurt. + +"At Fruitvale, still in the heart of the magnificent residence section +of the city, the plague again smote us. Professor Fairmead was the +victim. Making signs to us that his mother was not to know, he turned +aside into the grounds of a beautiful mansion. He sat down forlornly on +the steps of the front veranda, and I, having lingered, waved him a last +farewell. That night, several miles beyond Fruitvale and still in the +city, we made camp. And that night we shifted camp twice to get away +from our dead. In the morning there were thirty of us. I shall never +forget the President of the Faculty. During the morning's march his +wife, who was walking, betrayed the fatal symptoms, and when she +drew aside to let us go on, he insisted on leaving the motor car and +remaining with her. There was quite a discussion about this, but in the +end we gave in. It was just as well, for we knew not which ones of us, +if any, might ultimately escape. + +"That night, the second of our march, we camped beyond Haywards in the +first stretches of country. And in the morning there were eleven of us +that lived. Also, during the night, Wathope, the professor with the +wounded leg, deserted us in the motor car. He took with him his sister +and his mother and most of our tinned provisions. It was that day, in +the afternoon, while resting by the wayside, that I saw the last airship +I shall ever see. The smoke was much thinner here in the country, and I +first sighted the ship drifting and veering helplessly at an elevation +of two thousand feet. What had happened I could not conjecture, but even +as we looked we saw her bow dip down lower and lower. Then the bulkheads +of the various gas-chambers must have burst, for, quite perpendicular, +she fell like a plummet to the earth. + +[Illustration: She fell like a plummet to the earth 132] + +"And from that day to this I have not seen another airship. Often and +often, during the next few years, I scanned the sky for them, hoping +against hope that somewhere in the world civilization had survived. But +it was not to be. What happened with us in California must have happened +with everybody everywhere. + +"Another day, and at Niles there were three of us. Beyond Niles, in the +middle of the highway, we found Wathope. The motor car had broken down, +and there, on the rugs which they had spread on the ground, lay the +bodies of his sister, his mother, and himself. + +"Wearied by the unusual exercise of continual walking, that night I +slept heavily. In the morning I was alone in the world. Canfield and +Parsons, my last companions, were dead of the plague. Of the four +hundred that sought shelter in the Chemistry Building, and of the +forty-seven that began the march, I alone remained--I and the Shetland +pony. Why this should be so there is no explaining. I did not catch the +plague, that is all. I was immune. I was merely the one lucky man in +a million--just as every survivor was one in a million, or, rather, in +several millions, for the proportion was at least that." + + + + +V + +"FOR two days I sheltered in a pleasant grove where there had been no +deaths. In those two days, while badly depressed and believing that my +turn would come at any moment, nevertheless I rested and recuperated. So +did the pony. And on the third day, putting what small store of tinned +provisions I possessed on the pony's back, I started on across a very +lonely land. Not a live man, woman, or child, did I encounter, though +the dead were everywhere. Food, however, was abundant. The land then +was not as it is now. It was all cleared of trees and brush, and it was +cultivated. The food for millions of mouths was growing, ripening, and +going to waste. From the fields and orchards I gathered vegetables, +fruits, and berries. Around the deserted farmhouses I got eggs and +caught chickens. And frequently I found supplies of tinned provisions in +the store-rooms. + +"A strange thing was what was taking place with all the domestic +animals. Everywhere they were going wild and preying on one another. The +chickens and ducks were the first to be destroyed, while the pigs were +the first to go wild, followed by the cats. Nor were the dogs long in +adapting themselves to the changed conditions. There was a veritable +plague of dogs. They devoured the corpses, barked and howled during the +nights, and in the daytime slunk about in the distance. As the time went +by, I noticed a change in their behavior. At first they were apart from +one another, very suspicious and very prone to fight. But after a not +very long while they began to come together and run in packs. The dog, +you see, always was a social animal, and this was true before ever he +came to be domesticated by man. In the last days of the world before the +plague, there were many many very different kinds of dogs--dogs without +hair and dogs with warm fur, dogs so small that they would make scarcely +a mouthful for other dogs that were as large as mountain lions. Well, +all the small dogs, and the weak types, were killed by their fellows. +Also, the very large ones were not adapted for the wild life and bred +out. As a result, the many different kinds of dogs disappeared, and +there remained, running in packs, the medium-sized wolfish dogs that you +know to-day." + +"But the cats don't run in packs, Granser," Hoo-Hoo objected. + +"The cat was never a social animal. As one writer in the nineteenth +century said, the cat walks by himself. He always walked by himself, +from before the time he was tamed by man, down through the long ages of +domestication, to to-day when once more he is wild. + +"The horses also went wild, and all the fine breeds we had degenerated +into the small mustang horse you know to-day. The cows likewise went +wild, as did the pigeons and the sheep. And that a few of the chickens +survived you know yourself. But the wild chicken of to-day is quite a +different thing from the chickens we had in those days. + +"But I must go on with my story. I travelled through a deserted land. As +the time went by I began to yearn more and more for human beings. But I +never found one, and I grew lonelier and lonelier. I crossed Livermore +Valley and the mountains between it and the great valley of the San +Joaquin. You have never seen that valley, but it is very large and it is +the home of the wild horse. There are great droves there, thousands and +tens of thousands. I revisited it thirty years after, so I know. You +think there are lots of wild horses down here in the coast valleys, but +they are as nothing compared with those of the San Joaquin. Strange to +say, the cows, when they went wild, went back into the lower mountains. +Evidently they were better able to protect themselves there. + +"In the country districts the ghouls and prowlers had been less in +evidence, for I found many villages and towns untouched by fire. But +they were filled by the pestilential dead, and I passed by without +exploring them. It was near Lathrop that, out of my loneliness, I picked +up a pair of collie dogs that were so newly free that they were urgently +willing to return to their allegiance to man. These collies accompanied +me for many years, and the strains of them are in those very dogs there +that you boys have to-day. But in sixty years the collie strain has +worked out. These brutes are more like domesticated wolves than anything +else." + +Hare-Lip rose to his feet, glanced to see that the goats were safe, +and looked at the sun's position in the afternoon sky, advertising +impatience at the prolixity of the old man's tale. Urged to hurry by +Edwin, Granser went on. + +"There is little more to tell. With my two dogs and my pony, and riding +a horse I had managed to capture, I crossed the San Joaquin and went on +to a wonderful valley in the Sierras called Yosemite. In the great hotel +there I found a prodigious supply of tinned provisions. The pasture was +abundant, as was the game, and the river that ran through the valley was +full of trout. I remained there three years in an utter loneliness that +none but a man who has once been highly civilized can understand. Then +I could stand it no more. I felt that I was going crazy. Like the dog, +I was a social animal and I needed my kind. I reasoned that since I had +survived the plague, there was a possibility that others had survived. +Also, I reasoned that after three years the plague germs must all be +gone and the land be clean again. + +[Illustration: With my horse and dogs and pony, I set out 144] + +"With my horse and dogs and pony, I set out. Again I crossed the San +Joaquin Valley, the mountains beyond, and came down into Livermore +Valley. The change in those three years was amazing. All the land had +been splendidly tilled, and now I could scarcely recognize it, 'such was +the sea of rank vegetation that had overrun the agricultural handiwork +of man. You see, the wheat, the vegetables, and orchard trees had always +been cared for and nursed by man, so that they were soft and tender. The +weeds and wild bushes and such things, on the contrary, had always been +fought by man, so that they were tough and resistant. As a result, when +the hand of man was removed, the wild vegetation smothered and destroyed +practically all the domesticated vegetation. The coyotes were greatly +increased, and it was at this time that I first encountered wolves, +straying in twos and threes and small packs down from the regions where +they had always persisted. + +"It was at Lake Temescal, not far from the one-time city of Oakland, +that I came upon the first live human beings. Oh, my grandsons, how can +I describe to you my emotion, when, astride my horse and dropping down +the hillside to the lake, I saw the smoke of a campfire rising through +the trees. Almost did my heart stop beating. I felt that I was going +crazy. Then I heard the cry of a babe--a human babe. And dogs barked, +and my dogs answered. I did not know but what I was the one human alive +in the whole world. It could not be true that here were others--smoke, +and the cry of a babe. + +"Emerging on the lake, there, before my eyes, not a hundred yards away, +I saw a man, a large man. He was standing on an outjutting rock and +fishing. I was overcome. I stopped my horse. I tried to call out but +could not. I waved my hand. It seemed to me that the man looked at me, +but he did not appear to wave. Then I laid my head on my arms there +in the saddle. I was afraid to look again, for I knew it was an +hallucination, and I knew that if I looked the man would be gone. And so +precious was the hallucination, that I wanted it to persist yet a little +while. I knew, too, that as long as I did not look it would persist. + +"Thus I remained, until I heard my dogs snarling, and a man's voice. +What do you think the voice said? I will tell you. It said: '_Where in +hell did you come from??_' + +"Those were the words, the exact words. That was what your other +grandfather said to me, Hare-Lip, when he greeted me there on the shore +of Lake Temescal fifty-seven years ago. And they were the most ineffable +words I have ever heard. I opened my eyes, and there he stood before me, +a large, dark, hairy man, heavy-jawed, slant-browed, fierce-eyed. How I +got off my horse I do not know. But it seemed that the next I knew I was +clasping his hand with both of mine and crying. I would have embraced +him, but he was ever a narrow-minded, suspicious man, and he drew away +from me. Yet did I cling to his hand and cry." + +Granser's voice faltered and broke at the recollection, and the weak +tears streamed down his cheeks while the boys looked on and giggled. + +"Yet did I cry," he continued, "and desire to embrace him, though the +Chauffeur was a brute, a perfect brute--the most abhorrent man I have +ever known. His name was... strange, how I have forgotten his name. +Everybody called him Chauffeur--it was the name of his occupation, and +it stuck. That is how, to this day, the tribe he founded is called the +Chauffeur Tribe. + +[Illustration: Everybody called him Chauffeur 149] + +"He was a violent, unjust man. Why the plague germs spared him I can +never understand. It would seem, in spite of our old metaphysical +notions about absolute justice, that there is no justice in the +universe. Why did he live?--an iniquitous, moral monster, a blot on the +face of nature, a cruel, relentless, bestial cheat as well. All he +could talk about was motor cars, machinery, gasoline, and garages--and +especially, and with huge delight, of his mean pilferings and sordid +swindlings of the persons who had employed him in the days before the +coming of the plague. And yet he was spared, while hundreds of millions, +yea, billions, of better men were destroyed. + +[Illustration: Vesta the one woman 150] + +"I went on with him to his camp, and there I saw her, Vesta, the one +woman. It was glorious and... pitiful. There she was, Vesta Van Warden, +the young wife of John Van Warden, clad in rags, with marred and scarred +and toil-calloused hands, bending over the campfire and doing scullion +work--she, Vesta, who had been born to the purple of the greatest +baronage of wealth the world had ever known. John Van Warden, her +husband, worth one billion, eight hundred millions and President of the +Board of Industrial Magnates, had been the ruler of America. Also, +sitting on the International Board of Control, he had been one of the +seven men who ruled the world. And she herself had come of equally noble +stock. Her father, Philip Saxon, had been President of the Board of +Industrial Magnates up to the time of his death. This office was in +process of becoming hereditary, and had Philip Saxon had a son that son +would have succeeded him. But his only child was Vesta, the perfect +flower of generations of the highest culture this planet has ever +produced. It was not until the engagement between Vesta and Van Warden +took place, that Saxon indicated the latter as his successor. It was, I +am sure, a political marriage. I have reason to believe that Vesta never +really loved her husband in the mad passionate way of which the poets +used to sing. It was more like the marriages that obtained among crowned +heads in the days before they were displaced by the Magnates. + +[Illustration: There she was, boiling fish-chowder 153] + +"And there she was, boiling fish-chowder in a soot-covered pot, her +glorious eyes inflamed by the acrid smoke of the open fire. Hers was a +sad story. She was the one survivor in a million, as I had been, as +the Chauffeur had been. On a crowning eminence of the Alameda Hills, +overlooking San Francisco Bay, Van Warden had built a vast summer +palace. It was surrounded by a park of a thousand acres. When the +plague broke out, Van Warden sent her there. Armed guards patrolled the +boundaries of the park, and nothing entered in the way of provisions or +even mail matter that was not first fumigated. And yet did the plague +enter, killing the guards at their posts, the servants at their tasks, +sweeping away the whole army of retainers--or, at least, all of them who +did not flee to die elsewhere. So it was that Vesta found herself the +sole living person in the palace that had become a charnel house. + +"Now the Chauffeur had been one of the servants that ran away. +Returning, two months afterward, he discovered Vesta in a little summer +pavilion where there had been no deaths and where she had established +herself. He was a brute. She was afraid, and she ran away and hid among +the trees. That night, on foot, she fled into the mountains--she, whose +tender feet and delicate body had never known the bruise of stones nor +the scratch of briars. He followed, and that night he caught her. He +struck her. Do you understand? He beat her with those terrible fists of +his and made her his slave. It was she who had to gather the firewood, +build the fires, cook, and do all the degrading camp-labor--she, who had +never performed a menial act in her life. These things he compelled her +to do, while he, a proper savage, elected to lie around camp and look +on. He did nothing, absolutely nothing, except on occasion to hunt meat +or catch fish." + +"Good for Chauffeur," Hare-Lip commented in an undertone to the other +boys. "I remember him before he died. He was a corker. But he did +things, and he made things go. You know, Dad married his daughter, an' +you ought to see the way he knocked the spots outa Dad. The Chauffeur +was a son-of-a-gun. He made us kids stand around. Even when he was +croaking he reached out for me, once, an' laid my head open with that +long stick he kept always beside him." + +Hare-Lip rubbed his bullet head reminiscently, and the boys returned to +the old man, who was maundering ecstatically about Vesta, the squaw of +the founder of the Chauffeur Tribe. + +"And so I say to you that you cannot understand the awfulness of the +situation. The Chauffeur was a servant, understand, a servant. And he +cringed, with bowed head, to such as she. She was a lord of life, both +by birth and by marriage. The destinies of millions, such as he, she +carried in the hollow of her pink-white hand. And, in the days before +the plague, the slightest contact with such as he would have been +pollution. Oh, I have seen it. Once, I remember, there was Mrs. Goldwin, +wife of one of the great magnates. It was on a landing stage, just +as she was embarking in her private dirigible, that she dropped her +parasol. A servant picked it up and made the mistake of handing it to +her--to her, one of the greatest royal ladies of the land! She shrank +back, as though he were a leper, and indicated her secretary to receive +it. Also, she ordered her secretary to ascertain the creature's name and +to see that he was immediately discharged from service. And such a woman +was Vesta Van Warden. And her the Chauffeur beat and made his slave. + +[Illustration: And her the Chauffeur beat and made his slave 158] + +"--Bill--that was it; Bill, the Chauffeur. That was his name. He was +a wretched, primitive man, wholly devoid of the finer instincts and +chivalrous promptings of a cultured soul. No, there is no absolute +justice, for to him fell that wonder of womanhood, Vesta Van Warden. The +grievous-ness of this you will never understand, my grandsons; for +you are yourselves primitive little savages, unaware of aught else but +savagery. Why should Vesta not have been mine? I was a man of culture +and refinement, a professor in a great university. Even so, in the time +before the plague, such was her exalted position, she would not have +deigned to know that I existed. Mark, then, the abysmal degradation +to which she fell at the hands of the Chauffeur. Nothing less than the +destruction of all mankind had made it possible that I should know her, +look in her eyes, converse with her, touch her hand--ay, and love her +and know that her feelings toward me were very kindly. I have reason to +believe that she, even she, would have loved me, there being no other +man in the world except the Chauffeur. Why, when it destroyed eight +billions of souls, did not the plague destroy just one more man, and +that man the Chauffeur? + +"Once, when the Chauffeur was away fishing, she begged me to kill him. +With tears in her eyes she begged me to kill him. But he was a strong +and violent man, and I was afraid. Afterwards, I talked with him. I +offered him my horse, my pony, my dogs, all that I possessed, if he +would give Vesta to me. And he grinned in my face and shook his head. He +was very insulting. He said that in the old days he had been a servant, +had been dirt under the feet of men like me and of women like Vesta, and +that now he had the greatest lady in the land to be servant to him and +cook his food and nurse his brats. 'You had your day before the plague,' +he said; 'but this is my day, and a damned good day it is. I wouldn't +trade back to the old times for anything.' Such words he spoke, but they +are not his words. He was a vulgar, low-minded man, and vile oaths fell +continually from his lips. + +"Also, he told me that if he caught me making eyes at his woman he'd +wring my neck and give her a beating as well. What was I to do? I was +afraid. He was a brute. That first night, when I discovered the camp, +Vesta and I had great talk about the things of our vanished world. We +talked of art, and books, and poetry; and the Chauffeur listened and +grinned and sneered. He was bored and angered by our way of speech which +he did not comprehend, and finally he spoke up and said: 'And this is +Vesta Van Warden, one-time wife of Van Warden the Magnate--a high and +stuck-up beauty, who is now my squaw. Eh, Professor Smith, times is +changed, times is changed. Here, you, woman, take off my moccasins, +and lively about it. I want Professor Smith to see how well I have you +trained.' + +"I saw her clench her teeth, and the flame of revolt rise in her face. +He drew back his gnarled fist to strike, and I was afraid, and sick at +heart. I could do nothing to prevail against him. So I got up to go, +and not be witness to such indignity. But the Chauffeur laughed and +threatened me with a beating if I did not stay and behold. And I sat +there, perforce, by the campfire on the shore of Lake Temescal, and +saw Vesta, Vesta Van Warden, kneel and remove the moccasins of that +grinning, hairy, apelike human brute. + +"--Oh, you do not understand, my grandsons. You have never known +anything else, and you do not understand. + +"'Halter-broke and bridle-wise,' the Chauffeur gloated, while she +performed that dreadful, menial task. 'A trifle balky at times, +Professor, a trifle balky; but a clout alongside the jaw makes her as +meek and gentle as a lamb.' + +"And another time he said: 'We've got to start all over and replenish +the earth and multiply. You're handicapped, Professor. You ain't got no +wife, and we're up against a regular Garden-of-Eden proposition. But I +ain't proud. I'll tell you what, Professor.' He pointed at their little +infant, barely a year old. 'There's your wife, though you'll have to +wait till she grows up. It's rich, ain't it? We're all equals here, and +I'm the biggest toad in the splash. But I ain't stuck up--not I. I do +you the honor, Professor Smith, the very great honor of betrothing to +you my and Vesta Van Warden's daughter. Ain't it cussed bad that Van +Warden ain't here to see?'" + + + + +VI + +"I LIVED three weeks of infinite torment there in the Chauffeur's camp. +And then, one day, tiring of me, or of what to him was my bad effect +on Vesta, he told me that the year before, wandering through the Contra +Costa Hills to the Straits of Carquinez, across the Straits he had seen +a smoke. This meant that there were still other human beings, and that +for three weeks he had kept this inestimably precious information from +me. I departed at once, with my dogs and horses, and journeyed across +the Contra Costa Hills to the Straits. I saw no smoke on the other side, +but at Port Costa discovered a small steel barge on which I was able to +embark my animals. Old canvas which I found served me for a sail, and +a southerly breeze fanned me across the Straits and up to the ruins +of Vallejo. Here, on the outskirts of the city, I found evidences of a +recently occupied camp. + +[Illustration: Found evidences of a recently occupied camp 169] + +"Many clam-shells showed me why these humans had come to the shores of +the Bay. This was the Santa Rosa Tribe, and I followed its track along +the old railroad right of way across the salt marshes to Sonoma Valley. +Here, at the old brickyard at Glen Ellen, I came upon the camp. There +were eighteen souls all told. Two were old men, one of whom was Jones, a +banker. The other was Harrison, a retired pawnbroker, who had taken for +wife the matron of the State Hospital for the Insane at Napa. Of all the +persons of the city of Napa, and of all the other towns and villages +in that rich and populous valley, she had been the only survivor. Next, +there were the three young men--Cardiff and Hale, who had been farmers, +and Wainwright, a common day-laborer. All three had found wives. To +Hale, a crude, illiterate farmer, had fallen Isadore, the greatest +prize, next to Vesta, of the women who came through the plague. She was +one of the world's most noted singers, and the plague had caught her at +San Francisco. She has talked with me for hours at a time, telling me of +her adventures, until, at last, rescued by Hale in the Mendocino Forest +Reserve, there had remained nothing for her to do but become his wife. +But Hale was a good fellow, in spite of his illiteracy. He had a keen +sense of justice and right-dealing, and she was far happier with him +than was Vesta with the Chauffeur. + +"The wives of Cardiff and Wainwright were ordinary women, accustomed +to toil with strong constitutions--just the type for the wild new life +which they were compelled to live. In addition were two adult idiots +from the feeble-minded home at Eldredge, and five or six young children +and infants born after the formation of the Santa Rosa Tribe. Also, +there was Bertha. She was a good woman, Hare-Lip, in spite of the sneers +of your father. Her I took for wife. She was the mother of your father, +Edwin, and of yours, Hoo-Hoo. And it was our daughter, Vera, who married +your father, Hare-Lip--your father, Sandow, who was the oldest son of +Vesta Van Warden and the Chauffeur. + +"And so it was that I became the nineteenth member of the Santa Rosa +Tribe. There were only two outsiders added after me. One was Mungerson, +descended from the Magnates, who wandered alone in the wilds of Northern +California for eight years before he came south and joined us. He it was +who waited twelve years more before he married my daughter, Mary. The +other was Johnson, the man who founded the Utah Tribe. That was where he +came from, Utah, a country that lies very far away from here, across the +great deserts, to the east. It was not until twenty-seven years after +the plague that Johnson reached California. In all that Utah region he +reported but three survivors, himself one, and all men. For many years +these three men lived and hunted together, until, at last, desperate, +fearing that with them the human race would perish utterly from the +planet, they headed westward on the possibility of finding women +survivors in California. Johnson alone came through the great desert, +where his two companions died. He was forty-six years old when he joined +us, and he married the fourth daughter of Isadore and Hale, and his +eldest son married your aunt, Hare-Lip, who was the third daughter of +Vesta and the Chauffeur. Johnson was a strong man, with a will of his +own. And it was because of this that he seceded from the Santa Rosans +and formed the Utah Tribe at San Jose. It is a small tribe--there are +only nine in it; but, though he is dead, such was his influence and the +strength of his breed, that it will grow into a strong tribe and play a +leading part in the recivilization of the planet. + +"There are only two other tribes that we know of--the Los Angelitos +and the Carmelitos. The latter started from one man and woman. He was +called Lopez, and he was descended from the ancient Mexicans and was +very black. He was a cowherd in the ranges beyond Carmel, and his wife +was a maidservant in the great Del Monte Hotel. It was seven years +before we first got in touch with the Los Angelitos. They have a +good country down there, but it is too warm. I estimate the present +population of the world at between three hundred and fifty and four +hundred--provided, of course, that there are no scattered little tribes +elsewhere in the world. If there be such, we have not heard from them. +Since Johnson crossed the desert from Utah, no word nor sign has come +from the East or anywhere else. The great world which I knew in my +boyhood and early manhood is gone. It has ceased to be. I am the last +man who was alive in the days of the plague and who knows the wonders of +that far-off time. We, who mastered the planet--its earth, and sea, and +sky--and who were as very gods, now live in primitive savagery along the +water courses of this California country. + +"But we are increasing rapidly--your sister, Hare-Lip, already has four +children. We are increasing rapidly and making ready for a new climb +toward civilization. In time, pressure of population will compel us +to spread out, and a hundred generations from now we may expect our +descendants to start across the Sierras, oozing slowly along, generation +by generation, over the great continent to the colonization of the +East--a new Aryan drift around the world. + +"But it will be slow, very slow; we have so far to climb. We fell so +hopelessly far. If only one physicist or one chemist had survived! +But it was not to be, and we have forgotten everything. The Chauffeur +started working in iron. He made the forge which we use to this day. +But he was a lazy man, and when he died he took with him all he knew +of metals and machinery. What was I to know of such things? I was a +classical scholar, not a chemist.. The other men who survived were not +educated. Only two things did the Chauffeur accomplish--the brewing +of strong drink and the growing of tobacco. It was while he was drunk, +once, that he killed Vesta. I firmly believe that he killed Vesta in a +fit of drunken cruelty though he always maintained that she fell into +the lake and was drowned. + +"And, my grandsons, let me warn you against the medicine-men. They call +themselves _doctors_, travestying what was once a noble profession, but +in reality they are medicine-men, devil-devil men, and they make for +superstition and darkness. They are cheats and liars. But so debased and +degraded are we, that we believe their lies. They, too, will increase +in numbers as we increase, and they will strive to rule us. Yet are +they liars and charlatans. Look at young Cross-Eyes, posing as a +doctor, selling charms against sickness, giving good hunting, +exchanging promises of fair weather for good meat and skins, sending the +death-stick, performing a thousand abominations. Yet I say to you, +that when he says he can do these things, he lies. I, Professor Smith, +Professor James Howard Smith, say that he lies. I have told him so to +his teeth. Why has he not sent me the death-stick? Because he knows that +with me it is without avail. But you, Hare-Lip, so deeply are you +sunk in black superstition that did you awake this night and find the +death-stick beside you, you would surely die. And you would die, not +because of any virtues in the stick, but because you are a savage with +the dark and clouded mind of a savage. + +"The doctors must be destroyed, and all that was lost must be discovered +over again. Wherefore, earnestly, I repeat unto you certain things which +you must remember and tell to your children after you. You must tell +them that when water is made hot by fire, there resides in it a +wonderful thing called steam, which is stronger than ten thousand men +and which can do all man's work for him. There are other very useful +things. In the lightning flash resides a similarly strong servant of +man, which was of old his slave and which some day will be his slave +again. + +[Illustration: I have stored many books in a cave 179] + +"Quite a different thing is the alphabet. It is what enables me to +know the meaning of fine markings, whereas you boys know only rude +picture-writing. In that dry cave on Telegraph Hill, where you see me +often go when the tribe is down by the sea, I have stored many books. +In them is great wisdom. Also, with them, I have placed a key to the +alphabet, so that one who knows picture-writing may also know print. +Some day men will read again; and then, if no accident has befallen my +cave, they will know that Professor James Howard Smith once lived and +saved for them the knowledge of the ancients. + +"There is another little device that men inevitably will rediscover. It +is called gunpowder. It was what enabled us to kill surely and at long +distances. Certain things which are found in the ground, when combined +in the right proportions, will make this gunpowder. What these things +are, I have forgotten, or else I never knew. But I wish I did know. Then +would I make powder, and then would I certainly kill Cross-Eyes and rid +the land of superstition--" + +"After I am man-grown I am going to give Cross-Eyes all the goats, +and meat, and skins I can get, so that he'll teach me to be a doctor," +Hoo-Hoo asserted. "And when I know, I'll make everybody else sit up and +take notice. They'll get down in the dirt to me, you bet." + +The old man nodded his head solemnly, and murmured: + +"Strange it is to hear the vestiges and remnants of the complicated +Aryan speech falling from the lips of a filthy little skin-clad savage. +All the world is topsy-turvy. And it has been topsy-turvy ever since the +plague." + +"You won't make me sit up," Hare-Lip boasted to the would-be +medicine-man. "If I paid you for a sending of the death-stick and it +didn't work, I'd bust in your head--understand, you Hoo-Hoo, you?" + +"I'm going to get Granser to remember this here gunpowder stuff," Edwin +said softly, "and then I'll have you all on the run. You, Hare-Lip, will +do my fighting for me and get my meat for me, and you, Hoo-Hoo, will +send the death-stick for me and make everybody afraid. And if I catch +Hare-Lip trying to bust your head, Hoo-Hoo, I'll fix him with that same +gunpowder. Granser ain't such a fool as you think, and I'm going to +listen to him and some day I'll be boss over the whole bunch of you." + +The old man shook his head sadly, and said: + +"The gunpowder will come. Nothing can stop it--the same old story over +and over. Man will increase, and men will fight. The gunpowder will +enable men to kill millions of men, and in this way only, by fire and +blood, will a new civilization, in some remote day, be evolved. And of +what profit will it be? Just as the old civilization passed, so will the +new. It may take fifty thousand years to build, but it will pass. All +things pass. Only remain cosmic force and matter, ever in flux, ever +acting and reacting and realizing the eternal types--the priest, the +soldier, and the king. Out of the mouths of babes comes the wisdom of +all the ages. Some will fight, some will rule, some will pray; and all +the rest will toil and suffer sore while on their bleeding carcasses +is reared again, and yet again, without end, the amazing beauty and +surpassing wonder of the civilized state. It were just as well that I +destroyed those cave-stored books--whether they remain or perish, all +their old truths will be discovered, their old lies lived and handed +down. What is the profit--" + +Hare-Lip leaped to his feet, giving a quick glance at the pasturing +goats and the afternoon sun. + +"Gee!" he muttered to Edwin, "The old geezer gets more long-winded every +day. Let's pull for camp." + +While the other two, aided by the dogs, assembled the goats and started +them for the trail through the forest, Edwin stayed by the old man and +guided him in the same direction. When they reached the old right of +way, Edwin stopped suddenly and looked back. Hare-Lip and Hoo-Hoo and +the dogs and the goats passed on. Edwin was looking at a small herd of +wild horses which had come down on the hard sand. There were at least +twenty of them, young colts and yearlings and mares, led by a beautiful +stallion which stood in the foam at the edge of the surf, with arched +neck and bright wild eyes, sniffing the salt air from off the sea. + +"What is it?" Granser queried. + +"Horses," was the answer. "First time I ever seen 'em on the beach. It's +the mountain lions getting thicker and thicker and driving 'em down." + +The low sun shot red shafts of light, fan-shaped, up from a +cloud-tumbled horizon. And close at hand, in the white waste of +shore-lashed waters, the sea-lions, bellowing their old primeval chant, +hauled up out of the sea on the black rocks and fought and loved. + +"Come on, Granser," Edwin prompted. And old man and boy, skin-clad and +barbaric, turned and went along the right of way into the forest in the +wake of the goats. + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Scarlet Plague, by Jack London + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SCARLET PLAGUE *** + +***** This file should be named 21970.txt or 21970.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/9/7/21970/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/21970.zip b/old/21970.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..29bde36 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/21970.zip |
