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diff --git a/32655.txt b/32655.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d648f60 --- /dev/null +++ b/32655.txt @@ -0,0 +1,779 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Last Gentleman, by Rory Magill + +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 Last Gentleman + +Author: Rory Magill + +Illustrator: Ted Speicher + +Release Date: June 2, 2010 [EBook #32655] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST GENTLEMAN *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + The LAST Gentleman + + By Rory Magill + + Illustrated by TED SPEICHER + +[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from IF Worlds of Science +Fiction January 1953. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence +that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] + + +[Sidenote: _No one knew, no one cared. For a great lethargy was +overcoming the people and their only salvation was--_] + + +The explosion brought Jim Peters upright in bed. He sat there, leaning +back on the heels of his hands, blinking stupidly at the wall. His +vision cleared and he looked down at Myra, just stirring beside him. +Myra opened her eyes. + +Jim said, "Did you feel that?" + +Myra yawned. "I thought I was dreaming. It was an explosion or +something, wasn't it?" + +Jim's lips set grimly. After ten years of cold war, there was only one +appropriate observation, and he made it. "I guess maybe this is it." + +As by common agreement, they got out of bed and pulled on their robes. +They went downstairs and out into the warm summer night. Other people +had come out of their homes also. Shadowy figures moved and collected in +the darkness. + +"Sounded right on top of us." + +"I was looking out the window. Didn't see no flash." + +"Must have been further away than it seemed." + +This last was spoken hopefully, and reflected the mood of all the +people. Maybe it wasn't the bomb after all. + +Oddly, no one had thought to consult a radio. The thought struck them as +a group and they broke into single and double units again--hurrying back +into the houses. Lights began coming on here and there. + +Jim Peters took Myra's hand, unconsciously, as they hurried up the porch +steps. "Hugh would know," Jim said. "I kind of wish Hugh was here." + +Myra laughed lightly--a calculated laugh, meant to disguise the gravity +of this terrible thing. "That's not very patriotic, Jim. If that was the +bomb, Hugh will be kept busy making other bombs to send back to them." + +"But he'd know. I'll bet he could tell just by the sound of it." Jim +smiled quietly in the darkness--proudly. It wasn't everybody who had a +genius for a brother. A nuclear scientist didn't happen in every family. +Hugh was somebody to be proud of. + +They turned on the radio and sat huddled in front of it. The tubes +warmed with maddening slowness. Then there came the deliberately +impersonal voice of the announcer: + +"--on the strength of reports now in, it appears the enemy bungled +badly. Instead of crippling the nation, they succeeded only in alerting +it. The bombs--at this time there appear to have been five of them +dropped--formed a straight north-south line across western United +States. One detonated close to the Idaho-Utah line. The other four were +placed at almost equi-distant points to the south--the fifth bomb, +according to first reports, exploding in a Mexican desert. We have been +informed that Calas, Utah, a town of nine hundred persons, has been +completely annihilated. For further reports, keep tuned to this +station." + +[Illustration: _The fifth "one" exploded in the Mexican desert._] + +A dance band cut in. Jim got up from his chair. "They certainly did +bungle," he said. "Imagine wasting four atom bombs like that." + +Myra got up also. "Would you like some coffee?" + +"That'd be a good idea. I don't feel like going back to bed. I want to +listen for more reports." + +But there were no more reports. An hour passed. Another and another. Jim +spun the dials and got either silence or the cheerful blatherings of +some inane disc jockey who prattled on as though nothing had happened. + +Finally Jim snapped the set off. "Censorship," he said. "Now we're going +to see what it's really like." + +In the morning they gathered again in groups--the villagers in this +little community of five hundred, and discussed the shape of things to +come, as they visualized them. + +"It'll take a little time to get into action," old Sam Bennett said. +"Even expecting it, and with how fast things move these days--it'll take +time." + +"If they invade us--come down from the north--you think the government +will let us know they're coming?" + +"You can't tell. Censorship is a funny thing. In the last war, we knew +more about what was going on in Europe than the people that lived +there." + +At that moment, old Mrs. Kendal fainted dead away and had to be carried +home. Three men carried her and Tom Edwards was one of them. "Kind of +heavy, ain't she?" Tom said. "I never thought Mary weighed much more +than a hundred." + +That night the village shook. In his home, Jim staggered against the +wall. Myra fell to the floor. There were two tremors--the second worse +than the first. Then things steadied away, and he helped Myra to her +feet. + +"But there wasn't any noise," Myra whispered. The whisper was loud in +the silence. + +"That was an earthquake," Jim said. "Nothing to worry about. Might be +one of the bomb's after effects." + +The quake did no great damage in the village, but it possibly +contributed to old Mrs. Kendal's death. She passed on an hour later. +"Poor old lady," a neighbor told Myra. "She was plain weary. That was +what she said just before she closed her eyes. 'Hazel' she said, 'I'm +just plumb tuckered.'" + +The neighbor wiped her face with her apron and turned toward home. +"Think I'll lie down for a spell. I'm tuckered myself. Can't take things +like I used to." + + * * * * * + +Now it was a week after the earthquake--two weeks after the falling of +the bombs, and the town went on living. But it was strange, very +strange. Art Cordell voiced the general opinion when he said, "You know, +we waited a long time for the thing to happen--we kind of visualized, +maybe, how it'd be. But I didn't figure it'd be anything like this." + +"Maybe there isn't any war," Jim said. "Washington hasn't said so." + +"Censorship." + +"But isn't that carrying censorship a little too far? The people ought +to be told whether or not they're at war." + +But the people didn't seem to care. A deadening lethargy had settled +over them. A lethargy they felt and questioned in their own minds, but +didn't talk about, much. Talking itself seemed to have become an effort. + +This continued weariness--this dragging of one foot after another--was +evidently the result of radiation from the bombs. What other place could +it come from? The radiation got blamed for just about everything +untoward that happened. It caused Jenkin's apples to fall before they +were half-ripe. Something about it bent the young wheat to the ground +where it mildewed and rotted. + +Some even blamed the radiation for the premature birth of Jane Elman's +baby, even though such things had happened before even gun powder was +invented. + +But it certainly was a strange war. Nothing came over the radio at all. +Nobody seemed to care, really. Probably because they were just plain too +tired. Jim Peters dragged himself to and from work in sort of a daze. +Myra got her housework done, but it was a greater effort every day. All +she could think of was the times she could drop on the lounge for a +rest. She didn't care much whether a war was going on or not. + +People had quit waiting for them to come down from the north. They knew +that the places where the bombs had fallen were guarded like Fort Knox. +Nobody got in or out. + +Jim remembered the flash, the color, the rumors, the excitement of World +War Two. The grim resolution of the people to buckle down and win it. +Depots jammed. Kids going off to join. + +But nobody went to join this war. That was funny. Somehow Jim hadn't +thought of that before. None of the kids was being called up. Did they +have enough men? Washington didn't say. Washington didn't say anything. + +And the people didn't seem to care. That was the strange thing, when you +could get your tired mind to focus on it. + +The people didn't care. They were too busily occupied with the grim +business of putting one foot in front of the other. + +Jim got home one evening to find Myra staring dully at a small handful +of ground meat. "That's a pound," she said. + +Jim frowned. "What do you mean? That little bit?" + +Myra nodded. "I asked for a pound of hamburger and Art put that much on +the scale. In fact not even that much. It said a pound. I saw it. But +there was such a little bit that he felt guilty and put some more on." + +Jim turned away. "I'm not hungry anyhow," he said. + + * * * * * + +At ten that night, after they were in bed, a knock sounded on the door. +They had been in bed three hours, because all they could think of as +soon as they had eaten was getting into bed and staying there until the +last possible minute on the following morning. + +But the knock came and Jim went down. He called back upstairs with more +life than he'd shown in a long time, "Myra--come down. It's Hugh. Hugh's +come to see us." + +And Myra came down quickly--something she hadn't done for a long time +either. + +Hugh seemed weary and drawn, but his smile was the same. Hugh hadn't +changed a great deal from the gangling kid who never studied mathematics +in school but always had the answers. It came natural to him. + +During the coffee that Myra made, Hugh said, "Had quite a time getting +here. Trains disrupted. All air lines grounded. But I wanted to see you +again before--" + +"Then there _is_ a war," Jim said. "We've been kind of wondering out +here. With the censorship we don't get any news and the people +hereabouts have almost forgotten the bombs I guess." + +Hugh stared into his coffee cup for a long time. "No--there isn't any +war." Hugh grinned wryly. "I don't think anybody in the world has got +enough energy left to fight one." + +"There _was_ one then? One that's over?" Jim felt suddenly like a fool, +sitting here on a world that might have gone through a war stretching +from pole to pole, and asking if it had happened as though he lived on +Mars somewhere--out of touch. But that's the way it was. + +"No there wasn't any war." + +"You mean our government shot off those bombs themselves? You know I +thought it was funny. Landing out in the desert that way like they did. + +"Old Joe would have hit for Chicago or Detroit or New York. It was silly +to say bombs dropped on the desert came from an enemy." + +"No--the government didn't fire them." + +Myra set her cup down. "Jim, stop asking Hugh so many questions. He's +tired. He's come a long way. The questions can wait." + +"Yes--I guess they can. We'll show you where your room is, Hugh." + +As she opened the window of the spare bedroom, Myra stood for a moment +looking out. "Moon's certainly pretty tonight. So big and yellow. Wish I +wasn't too tired to enjoy it." + +They went to bed then, in the quiet home under the big yellow moon over +the quiet town. A moon over a quiet country--over a weary, waiting, +world. + +Jim didn't go to work the next day. He hadn't planned to stay away from +work, but he and Myra awoke very late and it was then that he made up +his mind. For a long time, they lay in bed, not even the thought of Hugh +being around and all the things they wanted to talk about, could bring +them out of bed until they felt guilty about not getting up. + +Hugh was sitting on the front porch watching the still trees in the +yard. There was a breeze blowing, but it wasn't enough to move the +leaves. Every leaf hung straight down, not stirring, and the grass +seemed matted and bent toward the earth. + +Myra got breakfast. She dropped the skillet while transferring the eggs +to a platter but she got her foot out of the way so no harm was done. +After breakfast the men went back outside. Jim moved automatically +toward a chair. + +Then he stopped and frowned. He straightened deliberately. He turned and +looked at his brother. He said, "Hugh. You're a man that knows. What's +wrong? What did those bombs do to us? Tell me. I've got to know." + +Hugh was silent for a time. Then he said, "Feel up to a walk?" + +"Certainly. Why not?" + +They went to the edge of town and out into a pasture and stopped finally +by a brook where the water flowed sluggishly. + +After a while, Hugh said, "I'm not supposed to tell anybody anything, +but somehow it doesn't seem decent--keeping the truth from your own +brother. And what difference does it make--really?" + +"What's happened, Hugh." + +"There weren't any bombs." + +"No bombs." + +"It happened this way. Long before this Earth was formed, a million +light years out in space, a white dwarf died violently." + +"You're talking in riddles." + +Hugh looked up into the blue sky. "A dwarf star, Jim. So incredibly +heavy, it would be hard for you to conceive of its weight. This star +blew up--broke into five pieces and the five pieces followed each other +through space. This world was formed in the meantime--maybe even this +galaxy--we don't know. So the five pieces of heavy star had a rendezvous +with a world unborn. The world was born and grew old and then the +rendezvous was kept. Right on schedule. On some schedule so huge and +ponderous we can't even begin to understand it." + +"The five bombs." + +"They hit the earth in a line and drove deep into the ground. But that +was only the beginning. It all has to do with magnetism--the way they +kept right on burrowing toward the center of our earth--causing the +earthquakes--causing apples to fall from trees." Hugh turned to glance +at Jim. "Did you know you weigh around six hundred pounds now?" + +"I haven't weighed myself lately." + +"We checked and found out what the stuff was. We'd never seen anything +like it before. That star was a real heavyweight. All the pieces are +drawing together toward the center of earth. But they'll never get +there." + +"They won't." + +"We're doomed, Jim. Earth is doomed. That's the why of this censorship. +We didn't want panics--mass suicide--a world gone mad." + +"How's it going to come?" + +"If allowed to run its course, the world would come to a complete +standstill. Nothing would grow. People would move slower and slower +until they finally fell in their tracks and could not get up. Eternal +night on one side of a dead planet--eternal day on the other." + +"But it's not going to happen?" + +Hugh's mind went off on another track. "You know, Jim--I've never been a +religious man. In fact I've only had one concept of God. I believe that +God--above all, is a gentleman." + +Jim said nothing and after a moment, Hugh went on. "Do you know what +they do when they execute a man by firing squad?" + +"What do they do?" + +"After the squad fires its volley, the Captain steps up to the fallen +man and puts a bullet through his brain. The man is executed for a +reason, but the bullet is an act of mercy--the act of a gentleman. + +"We are being executed for a reason we can't understand, and the bullet +has already been fired, Jim. Another ten hours--eleven hours." + +"What bullet?" + +"Look up there. See it? The Moon." + +Jim looked dully into the sky. "It's bigger--a way bigger." + +"Hurtling in toward us at ever increasing speed. When it hits--" + +Jim looked at his brother with complete understanding at last. "When it +hits--we won't be here any more." + +"That's right. A quick, easy death for the world--from the bullet fired +by the Last Gentleman." + +They turned back toward the house. "Shall I tell Myra," Jim asked. + +"What do you think you should do?" + +"No--no, we won't tell her. We've got ten hours." + +"Yes--we've got ten hours." + +"Let's go home and have some coffee." + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Last Gentleman, by Rory Magill + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST GENTLEMAN *** + +***** This file should be named 32655.txt or 32655.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/6/5/32655/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +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. 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