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If you are not located in the United States, you'll -have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using -this ebook. - - - -Title: The Messiah of the Cylinder - -Author: Victor Rousseau - -Illustrator: Joseph Clement Coll - -Release Date: September 7, 2019 [EBook #60248] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MESSIAH OF THE CYLINDER *** - - - - -Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - THE MESSIAH OF THE CYLINDER - - -[Illustration: - - I put my feet inside and squeezed down to the bottom - - [_Page 28_] -] - - - - -[Illustration: - - The Messiah - of the - Cylinder - - - by - Victor Rousseau - - Illustrated by - Joseph Clement Coll -] - - CHICAGO - A.C. McCLURG & CO. - 1917 - - - - - Copyright - A. C. McClurg & Co. - 1917 - - - Published October, 1917 - - - _Copyrighted in Great Britain_ - - - _All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign - languages, including the Scandinavian._ - - - W. F. HALL PRINTING COMPANY, CHICAGO - - - - - CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - - I Over the Coffee Cups 1 - - II The Great Experiment 16 - - III In the Cellar 30 - - IV The Road to London 41 - - V London’s Welcome 53 - - VI The Strangers’ House 66 - - VII Hidden Things 79 - - VIII How the World Was Made Over 89 - - IX The Book 102 - - X The Domed Building 108 - - XI The Goddess of the Temple 122 - - XII The Lords of Misrule 137 - - XIII The Palace of Palms 151 - - XIV The House on the Wall 164 - - XV The Airscouts’ Fortress 174 - - XVI The Messiah’s Annunciation 186 - - XVII The Chapel Underground 198 - - XVIII Sanson 214 - - XIX The Story of the Cylinders 225 - - XX The Sweep of the Net 237 - - XXI Amaranth 247 - - XXII Esther 261 - - XXIII The Heart of the People 271 - - XXIV Lembken 280 - - XXV The Coming of the Cross 292 - - XXVI The Admiral of the Air 302 - - XXVII The New Order 312 - - - - - ILLUSTRATIONS - - - PAGE - - I put my feet inside and squeezed down to the bottom _Frontispiece_ - - I made my difficult way toward the stairs 34 - - I glanced from one to another, and met hard, mirthless - eyes, and mouths twisted in sneering mockery 50 - - “Woe to you, accursed city!” he screamed, “Woe to you in - the day of judgment! Woe to your whites and harlots - when the judgment comes!” 150 - - It pulled me through the window-gap and I swung far out - above the Airscouts’ Fortress 172 - - A man near me leaped up and craned his neck, looking - into the gloom 242 - - A tall man with a black beard and a curved sword sheath - that clanked on the stones. I recognized in him - Mehemet, the Turkish commander 244 - - Sanson’s indomitable will flamed out. “I will not - drink!” he cried, and flung the cup to the floor 258 - - The giant leaped out before his followers. “Where is - Lembken?” he roared. “Where are the men?” 286 - - Upon the walls the Guard were swarming toward the - defenders. Out of their midst the Ray artillery - belched 300 - - The giant jaws upon our aircraft gaped. I saw steel - teeth within them 308 - - - - - The Messiah of the Cylinder - - - - - CHAPTER I - OVER THE COFFEE CUPS - - -If I recall the conversation of that evening so minutely as to appear -tedious, I must plead that this was the last occasion on which I saw Sir -Spofforth alive. In such a case, one naturally remembers incidents and -recalls words that otherwise might have been forgotten; besides, here -were the two opposed opinions of life, as old as Christianity, -confronting each other starkly. And, as will be seen, the test was to -come in such manner as only one of us could have imagined. - -I picture old Sir Spofforth as on that evening: courteous, restrained, -yet with the heat of conviction burning in his measured phrases; and -Esther listening with quaint seriousness, turning from her father to -Lazaroff and back, and sometimes to me, as each of us spoke. Outside, in -the moonlight, the shadow of the Institute lay black across the garden -of Sir Spofforth’s house. The dining-room was fragrant with the scent of -the tea-roses that grew beneath the windows. - -The Biological Institute was less than five years old, but the London -smoke, which drifted beyond Croydon, already had darkened the bright-red -bricks to a tolerable terra cotta. The ivy had grown a good way up the -walls. The Institute was accommodating itself to the landscape, as -English buildings had the knack of doing. Lazaroff and I had been there -under Sir Spofforth since the foundation, and there never had been any -others upon the staff, the Institute being organized for specialized -work of narrow scope, though of immense perspective. - -It was devoted to private research into the nature of life, in the -application of the Mendelian law to vertebrates. The millionaire who had -endowed it for this purpose and then died opportunely, had not had time -to hamper us with restrictions. Next to endowing us, his death was, -perhaps, the most imaginative thing that he had ever accomplished. The -Government concerned itself only about our vivisection certificates. But -our animal experimentation was too innocuous for these to be much more -than a safeguard. Carrel’s investigations in New York, a year or two -before, had shown the world that cell and tissue can not only survive -the extinction of the general vital quantity, but, under proper -conditions, proliferate indefinitely. We were investigating tissue life, -and our proceedings were quite innocuous. It will be seen that we -already had gotten away from Mendel, though we did breed Belgian hares, -whose disappearance always caused Esther distress, and we made fanciful -annotations inside ruled margins about “agoutis” and “allelomorphs.” - -I am conscious now that we worked constantly under a sense of -constraint; there was an unnecessary secrecy in all our plans and -actions. Why? I think, when I look back, that it was not because of what -we were doing, but rather of what it might become necessary some day to -do. The work was so near to sacrilege—I mean, we viewed the animal -structure as a mechanism rather than as a temple. That, of course, was -then the way of all biologists; but that, I think, was the cause of our -rather furtive methods. We were hot on the trail of the mystery of life, -and never knew upon what intimacies we might stumble. We sought to -discover how and where consciousness is born out of unconscious tissue -vitality. Lazaroff had the intuition of genius, and his inductions were -amazing. Still, that problem baffled him. - -“Pennell,” I hear him say, “at a certain period of growth, when millions -of cells, working cooperatively, have grouped themselves in certain -patterns, completing the design, consciousness comes into play. Why? Is -it a by-product, the creak that accompanies the wheel? But Nature -produces nothing in vain. Then why should we know that we exist? Why?” - -Lazaroff was a Prussian Pole, I believe, though he spoke half a dozen -languages fluently. Keen and fanatical, daring, inflexible, he seemed to -me the sort of man who would welcome the chance to proclaim a Holy War -for Science and die in the front rank. He had the strange old German -faith that was called monism, and his hope for the human race was as -strong as his contempt for the man of our day. - -“The race is all, Pennell,” I hear him say again. “We of this age, who -pride ourselves on our accomplishments, are only emerging from the dawn -of civilization. We are still encumbered with all the ghostly fears that -obsessed our ancestors of the Stone Age. But others will build the -Temple of Truth upon the foundations that we are rearing. Oh, if I could -have been born a hundred years ahead! For the change is coming fast, -Pennell!” - -And, when I professed to doubt the nearness of that change: “If your -frontal area varied by only five centimeters, Pennell, you would -believe. That is your tragedy, to fall short of the human norm by five -centimeters of missing forehead.” - -I can see his well-proportioned figure, and the mane of black hair -thrown back; the flashing eyes. Animated by religious impulse, Lazaroff -would have gone to the stake as unconcernedly as he would certainly have -burned others. He had invented a system of craniometry by which he -professed to discover the mentality of his subject, and I was his first. - -Certainly the conditions were ideal for our work. We were both young -men, enthusiasts; and Sir Spofforth Moore, our chief, was nearing -eighty. The Trustees had picked him for the post because of his great -name in the medical world. He was an ideal chief. He interfered with us -no more than the Trustees did. He asked for no results. The Institute -existed only for patient research. Yes, the millionaire had certainly -displayed imagination for a millionaire, and it was fortunate that he -died before his hobby, whose inception came to him, I believe, from -reading sensational newspaper articles, grew into an obsession. - -The Trustees refused to accept Sir Spofforth’s resignation when he -became infirm. He lent the Institute dignity and prestige. I doubt -whether he knew much of Mendelism, or had followed the work of the past -five years. He knew little of what we were doing, and initialed our -vouchers without ever demurring. Of course he tried to keep in touch -with us, and I will confess that our routine work was mainly a cover for -the daring plan that Lazaroff had, bit by bit, outlined to me. - -“You see, Pennell,” he explained in self-justification, “the work must -be done. And where are there such opportunities as here? Science cannot -be bound by the provisions of a dead man’s deed. It is not likely that -Sir Spofforth would object, either, but the Trustees might have -intelligence enough to pick up the idea from the quarterly reports if we -were entirely frank, and a biologist with imagination is called a -charlatan. And we must work quickly, while we have this chance. When Sir -Spofforth dies the Trustees will probably pick some fussy little -busybody who will want to poke his nose into everything and take -personal charge. Then—what of our experiment?” - -The idea aroused me to as much enthusiasm as Lazaroff. And yet there was -disappointment in the knowledge that we should never know the results of -it. - -In brief, Lazaroff’s scheme was this: If animal tissues, removed from -the entire organism, can exist in a condition of suspended vitality for -an indefinite time, at a temperature suited to them in conditions which -forbid germ life to flourish, why not the living animal? Lazaroff had -selected three monkeys from among our stock for the experiment. They -were to be sealed each in a vacuum cylinder of special design, and left -for a century. - -“The more I think about the plan, the more enthusiastic I become, -Pennell,” Lazaroff cried. “If the unconscious cell life survives -indefinitely, why not the entire organism plus consciousness?” - -“Much may happen in a hundred years, Lazaroff,” I answered. - -“True, Pennell. But they will never find the vault. Even now, before it -is sealed, it would not be looked for, built as it is into the cellar -wall beneath the freezing-plant. It was to this end, you know, that I -brought down workmen from London, instead of employing local talent. -Well—we shall leave papers. Earthquakes and revolutions may happen -overhead, but a hundred years hence, when the papers are opened, a -search will be made. Our traveling simians will be found by a very -different world, I assure you, Pennell!” - -He had the light of an enthusiast in his eyes, and his mood aroused my -own imagination. - -“What use is that, Lazaroff?” I cried. “We shall not know the results of -our experiment. And what message can monkeys carry to that world -concerning ours? If monkeys, why not men?” - -He looked at me fixedly, smiling ever so little, and I perceived that he -had drawn the expression of that thought out of the depths of my own -mind by his strong will. Now he nodded in approbation. - -“Pennell—” he began, with hesitation, “do you want to know why I myself -do not—?” He stopped. “I am almost ashamed to tell you what it is that -makes me wish to live out my life among my contemporaries,” he -continued. “How strong the primal instincts are in all of us, Arnold! -Nature, with her blind, but perfectly directed will, warring on mind, -and mind rising slowly to dominate her, armed, as she is, with her -dreadful arsenal of a thousand superstitions, instincts, terrors. It is -a fearful battle, Arnold, and many of us fall by the way.” - -He turned aside abruptly, as if he regretted the half-confidence. I -thought I knew what he meant, and I was stirred too. - -We dined that night with Sir Spofforth and Esther in their new house -within a stone’s throw of the Institute. Esther was the only child; her -mother had died during her infancy. We four had been intimates during -the whole five years of the Institute’s existence; strangely alone, we -four, in the busy Surrey town. The memory of that last night is the most -poignant that remains to me. How far away it seems, and how long ago! If -I could have known then that our companionship was ended! - -The argument to which I have referred began after dinner, over our -coffee. It was our usual hour for disputations, but they had never been -so keen, nor Lazaroff so outspoken. Sir Spofforth was a man of the old -school of thought, religious, tolerant, and withal more disquieted than -he himself was aware, by the dominant materialism of the younger men; -and Lazaroff had all the tactlessness of his Jena training. There were -rumors of war with Germany, but Sir Spofforth was too old to adjust his -mind immediately to this conception. He grew heated, as always, on the -cynical scheme of the democratic government, dictated by its greed for -power, to force Ulster beneath an alien yoke, upon the loud and stunning -silence of our English pacifists and lovers of oppressed nations where -their sincerity would be best proved. He deplored the new and dangerous -doctrines that were permeating society, the decay of morals, the loss of -reverence and pride in service. Civilization, he said, seemed dying, and -democracy its murderer. - -“Dying! It is still struggling in its birth throes!” cried Lazaroff -impetuously. “I grant that the democracy of today has proved its -futility. But there is a new democracy to come. We are enslaved by the -traditions of the past, by a worn-out religious system based upon the -primitive animistic notion of a soul. There is the fatal weakness of our -democracy. Science has never found the smallest trace of a soul; on the -contrary, we know beyond doubt that we live in a mechanistic universe of -absolute determinism.” - -I see Sir Spofforth’s tolerant, yet eager look as he answered him. - -“I grant you that the soul is not to be found in the dissecting-room, -Herman,” he answered. “I, as you know, have devoted my life to the -empirical investigation of truth, and I do not decry the method. But you -cannot ignore the interior way of analysis, through the one thing we -know most intimately—consciousness.” - -“A by-product of matter,” answered Lazaroff contemptuously. “Or, if we -want to be precisely true, the sum and substance of cell consciousness.” - -“Well, throw the blame on the cell, then, in the modern fashion,” said -Sir Spofforth, smiling. “I doubt, though, whether you have solved the -one big problem by creating some million smaller ones. On the contrary, -you are postulating a hierarchy of intelligences, quite in the Catholic -fashion. If brain consciousness is not a specialized form of omniscient -consciousness, how does the brainless amoeba find its food and engulf -it, or the vine its supports? If you have robbed us of the abortive hope -of saving the little empire of the brain beyond the change of death—and -I deny even that entirely—some of us have identified consciousness with -a non-material personality functioning through all life and fashioning -it.” - -“Vitalism!” scoffed Lazaroff. - -I watched Esther’s eager face as she looked from one speaker to the -other. Sir Spofforth seemed more agitated than the situation warranted, -and I saw him glance at his daughter a little nervously before he -answered. - -“Herman, I repeat that I have given my life to scientific -investigation,” he replied. “But I have always recognized the validity -of the metaphysical inquiry. I believe Faith and Science have found -their paths convergent. Lodge thinks so, too. Kelvin took that stand. -James, your great psychologist, shifted before he died. Science must -confine her activities within their natural bounds and not seek to play -a pontifical part, or the excesses of the Scholastics will be repeated -in a new and darker age.” - -“I cannot agree with you,” cried Lazaroff vehemently. “An age is dawning -when, relieved from their chains, men will look open-eyed into Nature to -learn her secrets. Today civilization is being choked to death by the -effete, the defective, whom a too benign humanitarianism suffers to live -beneath the shelter of a worn-out faith. The fearful menace of a race of -defectives has laid hold of the popular imagination. Soon we shall -follow the lead of progressive America, and forbid them to propagate -their kind. Here any statesman who dared suggest sterilization would be -hounded from office. But England is awakening. - -“It will go, that relic of degrading, savage superstition called the -soul, the barbarous legacy of the ages enshrined in a hundred fairy -stories. Science will rule. Man will be free. The logical State, finely -conceived by Wells, without its rudimentary appendixes and fish-gills, -will be the nation of the future. For we are outgrowing childish things. -Man is coming of age. If only I could live to see it! But I was born a -century too soon!” - -The expression on Lazaroff’s face at that moment was so singular that I -could not take my eyes away from it. - -“It will be a world of physical and mental perfection, too,” he cried. -“Of free men and women, freely mating, separating when the mating -impulse is dead—” - -“Yes, he is right, Father,” Esther interposed eagerly. “Whatever else -may come, the hour of woman’s liberation is striking.” - -“That hour struck many times in the ancient world, my dear,” her father -answered. “And it brought, not liberation, but slavery.” He turned to -Lazaroff. “You want a world of men and women reared like prize cattle -and governed by laws as mechanistic as your universe,” he said. “Well, -Herman, you have had that world. That was the pre-Christian world. Your -free love, your eugenics has been tried in Rome, in Sparta, in many an -ancient kingdom. And we know what those civilizations were. - -“If you eugenists only knew the dreadful crop of dragon’s teeth that you -are scattering today upon the fertile soil of the unthinking mind! -Because we, fortunately, live in the millennial lull of a transitional -age, you think that human nature has changed; that the fury of the -Crusades will never be renewed in fantastic social wars, and the madness -of religious fratricide in the madness of Science become Faith. All the -old evils are lying low, lurking in the minds of men, ready to spring -forth in all their ancient fury when the wise and illogical compromises, -evolved through centuries of experience, have been discarded. I -sometimes think that Holy Russia has man’s future in her charge. For -without Christianity the moral nature of man will be where it has been -in ages past. Social and economic readjustments leave it unchanged.” - -“A religion of slaves, of the weak and incompetent,” said Lazaroff -loudly. - -“You think, then, that human passions have become emulsified by -education? What a delusion!” - -“Unquestionably. Permit me to refer to myself as an example of the crass -materialist. For I do not believe in anything but matter. Matter is -soul, as Hæckel proves. Yet, I am not on that account a man of base -impulses. I do not want to wound, to kill, to steal, to torture—” - -“Are you quite sure you know yourself, Herman?” - -“But I utterly reject the efficacy of your Christianity, except in this -low order of civilization. It is a dead faith, with its foolish -miracles, its preposterous and unscientific dualism.” - -“And I say,” cried Sir Spofforth, rising out of his chair, “that it is -precisely the Christian norm, the unattainable ideal of Christ, working -in the human heart, that has freed civilization from cruelty and shame. -Why, look backward before Christ lived, and forward: don’t you see that -we are actually indwelling in Him, according to His promise? Think of -the Christians burned as living torches in Nero’s time, and read the -writings of contemporary Romans, men of disciplined lives and a -mentality as great as ours. Read Pliny, Tacitus, Seneca; read of the -hopelessness of life when Rome was at her highest, and see if this -stirred them. Picture Marcus Aurelius, the noble Stoic, presiding over -the amphitheater. Study the manners and morals of Athens when her light -burned most brightly. Contrast a thousand years of man’s abasement, and -try to set the Inquisition against that. - -“Future ages will say this: that nobody, not one of our statesmen saw -the course that had been set when the civil State was first established. -Never before in history had tribe or nation existed but grew up round -the focus of some god. The churchless State is a body without a soul. -Warnings multiply—in France and in America—but who can read them? When -religion goes, the spirit of the race is dying. It is just the ideal of -Christ, enshrined in the minds of a few leaders of character and trained -conviction, that has kept the world on its slow course of progress. And -nothing else saves us from the unstable tyrannies of ancient days.” - -I was so stirred by Sir Spofforth’s eloquence that I clapped my hands -vigorously, although I did not wholly agree with him. Esther was staring -at Lazaroff; she was partly convinced and wanted him to answer her -father. But Lazaroff, ignoring her gaze, scowled at me across the table. - -“So you are of the same mind, are you, Pennell?” he asked, not trying to -disguise his sneer. “And you don’t imagine that it is your missing five -centimeters? Well, I hope that you may have your chance to find out for -yourself. I hope you may, indeed.” He nodded and smiled in a rather evil -fashion. - -“Well, I must really offer you all an apology,” said Sir Spofforth, -penitently. “Enough of these debatable subjects for a week at least. We -two shall never agree on politics or religion, Herman. Let us go -upstairs.” - - - - - CHAPTER II - THE GREAT EXPERIMENT - - -Since Sir Spofforth was a little infirm, and leaned on my arm to make -his slow ascent of the stairs, we entered the drawing-room a full minute -after the others. The room was empty; Esther and Lazaroff had gone into -the big conservatory that opened out of the south side. I heard the -rustle of the girl’s dress as she moved among the palms, and Lazaroff -speaking earnestly in a low voice. - -“Sit down, Arnold,” said Sir Spofforth, subsiding stiffly into his arm -chair. “Thank you, my boy. I feel old age coming swiftly upon me -nowadays. No, I am not self-deceived. It is strange, this sense of the -daily diminution of the physical powers, and not at all unpleasant, -either. It seems familiar, too, as if one had passed through it plenty -of times before. It is something like bedtime, Arnold, but I hope and -believe there will be a tomorrow, for I assure you I have an almost -boyish zest for life, though rather contemplative than energetic for a -while, till I have rested. There is a little forgetfulness of names and -places, but memory seems to become more luminous as it falls back upon -itself. Well, some day you will experience this. You two must carry on -the work of the Institute. Herman is an able fellow, in spite of his -mechanistic notions. But I wonder whether any woman could be happy with -him?” - -He watched me rather keenly as he said that. - -“There’s only one thing makes me want to live a little longer, Arnold,” -he continued, “and that is Esther’s future. It would be a great -satisfaction to me to see her settled happily before I go. Forgive an -old man’s frankness if I say that sometimes I have almost thought you -two cared for each other.” - -“You are quite right in part, sir,” I replied. “I do care for Esther a -good deal.” - -“And she, I am sure, has a very warm feeling for you, Arnold. There is -nobody whom I would rather have for Esther’s husband than yourself.” - -“Well, sir, the fact is, we are not sure that our views are altogether -harmonious,” I confessed. “I am, as you know, rather sceptical about the -newest views for revolutionizing woman’s status, while Esther—” - -“Is a full-fledged suffragist and has exalted notions about the race of -the future. Tush, my boy! Never hold back proposing marriage because of -intellectual differences. The race spirit, sitting up aloft and pulling -the strings, is laughing at you.” - -“But, Sir Spofforth, to be candid, it was not I who held back,” I -answered. - -“Hum! I see!” he answered, nodding his head. Then, very seriously, “My -boy, I want you to win her. It would embitter my last days to see my -daughter the wife of Herman Lazaroff. I have watched and tried to study -him: it isn’t his materialism, Arnold, it’s his infernal will. He’ll -break everything and everybody that conflicts with it when he wakes up -and knows his powers. Now he doesn’t understand himself at all. He can -see nothing interiorly, as good old Swedenborg would say. I tell you, -Herman Lazaroff, able fellow as he is, and splendid brain, is a machine -of devilish energy, and, unfortunately, fashioned for purely destructive -purposes.” - -Like most old men, he had the habit of falling into soliloquy, and -toward the end of his speech his voice dropped, and he spoke rather to -himself than to me. Though I remembered his words afterward, at the time -I regarded his indictment as the prejudice of an octogenarian. He was in -his eightieth year, and there was no doubt his keen mind was failing. I -was searching for a reply when Esther and Lazaroff came back from the -conservatory. - -Esther’s face was flushed and she looked utterly miserable. But I was -amazed to see the expression upon Lazaroff’s. He was deathly white, and -his black eyes seemed to gleam with infernal resolution. At that moment -it did occur to me that Sir Spofforth might be wiser in his judgment -than I. Lazaroff came forward quietly and sat down, and I tried to make -the occasion for conversation. But he, seated motionless and abstracted, -seemed hardly to hear me, and rose from his chair after a few moments, -looking toward Esther, who was standing near the conservatory entrance. -Her brown-colored gown gleamed golden in the lamplight. - -“Sir Spofforth, Miss Esther is interested in our new freezing-plant,” he -said. “I thought, with your permission, that I would take her to see it -lit up by electricity. You’ll come too, Pennell?” - -“Wouldn’t daytime be better, Lazaroff?” I suggested, and I did not know -what was the cause of the vaguely felt distrust that prompted my words. -Certainly I had no fears of any sort, or reason for any. Yet, looking at -Lazaroff’s face, now flushed and somehow sinister, I remembered Sir -Spofforth’s words again. - -“Let us go tonight,” said Esther, and it seemed to me that there was a -note of penitence in her voice, as if she wished to make Lazaroff -amends. - -She came slowly across the room toward us. She looked at Lazaroff—I -thought remorsefully, and at me with an expression of understanding that -I never had seen in her eyes before. My heart leaped up to meet that -message. But that was the instant signal-flash of souls, and the next -moment I detected in her glance the same sense of foreboding that mine -must have shown her. - -It is strange how instantaneously such complexities present themselves -with convincing power. Though the knowledge lay latent in my mind, I am -sure now I was aware that I should never set eyes upon Sir Spofforth, in -life or death, again. - -He rose up slowly. “Don’t be long, my dear,” he said to Esther. “I shall -not wait up for you. Good night, Herman. Good night, Arnold.” He passed -the door and began to ascend the stairs. He turned. “Arnold!” he began. -“No, never mind. I will tell you tomorrow.” - -He never told me. He was gone, and we three went downstairs, out of the -house, and crossed the garden toward the Institute, whose squat form -blocked the view of the road. Croydon, in the distance, hummed like a -huge dynamo. The Bear dipped slantingly above; the wind was shaking down -the fading petals of the rambler roses. I remember the picture more -vividly than I perceived it then; the intense darkness, the white lights -of the distant town, the yellow lamp glow on the short grass, cut off -squarely by the window-sash and trisected by the window-bars. Lazaroff -led the way, walking a little distance in front of us, toward the annex, -a building just completed, in which was the new freezing-plant, with our -few guinea-pigs, and the monkeys that had been bought recently, out of -our own money, for the great experiment. He drew a key from his pocket -and began fumbling with the lock. Esther stopped in the shadows at my -side. - -“He asked me to marry him,” she said. “I told him never—never! That was -the word I used. I used to think that I could care for him, Arnold, but -in that instant I knew—yes, I knew my heart.” - -I knew mine too, and I took her in my arms in the shadow of the -Institute. She lifted her mouth to mine. All the while Lazaroff was -fumbling with the lock. Yet I am sure he was aware, by virtue of that -intuition which tells us all vital things. - -When he had opened the door he turned a switch, and the interior leaped -into view round twenty points of light that pierced the shadows. - -“Come in, Arnold,” he said, turning to me—and I thought there was blood -on his lip. “I will lead, and you and Miss Esther can follow me. Don’t -be alarmed, Miss Esther, if you hear the monkeys screaming. They grow -lonely at night.” - -“Poor little things! How dreadful!” Esther said. - -“We shall not keep them here very long,” Lazaroff answered in -extenuation. He stooped over a cane chair and picked up a warm shawl. -“You will need to put this about you,” he continued, standing back and -leaving me to adjust it about Esther’s shoulders. - -So he had planned to bring her here; his subtle mind had foreseen even -this detail. He left nothing to the unexpected. He lived up to his -principles. - -We passed between two silent dynamos. The freezing-plant was already in -operation, but George, the machinist, went off duty at six, after -stopping the dynamos, and the temperature did not rise much during the -night. It was very cold. The moisture on the brick walls had congealed -to a thin film of ice, and a frosted network covered the ammonia pipes. -Lazaroff stopped in front of a large wooden chest, with a glass door. - -“In this very ordinary-looking icebox we keep our choicest specimens,” -he said to Esther. - -“Don’t open that!” I exclaimed. - -He laughed disagreeably. “I had no intention of doing so,” he answered. -“You applauded Sir Spofforth’s mediaeval vitalistic views tonight, -Pennell, and the transition from the dream to the reality might prove -too disturbing for your peace of mind. Dream on, by permission of those -five missing centimeters. It is such an extinguisher of the soul theory -to see parts of the organism flourishing in perfect health, all ready to -work and grow, devoid of consciousness and brain attachments. We have -two-fifths of a guinea-pig’s heart, Miss Esther, that is yearning to -begin its pulsations as soon as it is placed in a suitable medium.” - -He passed on. Esther’s fingers gripped my wrist tightly. “What an -abominable man!” she whispered. “Arnold—my dear—to think I didn’t know -my mind until an hour ago! When he asked me, something seemed to strip -the mask from his face and the scales from my eyes. I hate him—but I’m -afraid of him, Arnold.” - -I drew her arm through mine and held her hand. Lazaroff preceded us down -a flight of new concrete steps which had just dried. The cellar into -which we descended had been used for storing packing-cases, and we had -always gone down by a short ladder. It was here that the experiment was -to be made. I had been shown nothing of Lazaroff’s preparations. - -The cellar had been paved with concrete since my last visit, and I -thought it looked smaller than formerly. As we went down we heard the -monkeys begin to chatter. Lazaroff switched on a light. I saw a cage of -guinea-pigs close at hand. They squealed and scurried among their straw. -Two monkeys, awakened by the light, put their arms about each other and -grimaced at me. A tiny marmoset stretched out its black, human-like arms -between the bars appealingly. It looked very lonely and child-like as it -blinked at us. What a terrific journey into the future Lazaroff, like -some god, planned for that atom of flesh. - -He stopped at the end of the cellar. I perceived now that the brick wall -was new; it seemed to be an inner wall, bounding a partition; that was -why the cellar looked smaller. The half-dried mortar clung flabbily to -the interstices. - -“Can you find the entrance, Arnold?” asked Lazaroff. - -“The entrance?” The light was not strong, to be sure, but still it -seemed impossible that there could be an ingress into that solid wall. - -Lazaroff touched a brick, and a large mass swung inward, like a door. In -fact, it was a door, with bricks facing it, the outer edge contiguous -with the outer edge of the fixed rows, so that the deception was -perfect. - -“You didn’t tell me that the chamber was completed, Lazaroff!” I -exclaimed in surprise. - -“No, Arnold? Well, but I don’t tell you everything,” he answered. - -We stepped through the doorway, and Lazaroff switched on a tiny light -within. Now I perceived that we were standing in a long and very narrow -space, with cement-faced walls and roof, making the chamber impervious -to sound and light. It was below the level of the ground, and thus, as -Lazaroff had said, earthquakes might happen above, and it would never be -discovered, not even though the annex were pulled down, unless one -blasted out the foundations. - -The sole contents were three large cylinders of metal, looking like -giant thermos bottles. Each was about six feet long—too long for a -monkey, it seemed to me—and had a glass plate in front. Lazaroff drove -his heel against the glass of the nearest cylinder with all his might. - -“It is quite unbreakable, you see,” he said. “It will turn a rifle -bullet. ‘Suffragette glass,’ the maker calls it.” - -“But what are these for?” asked Esther. - -“These, Miss Esther, are to convey three monkeys into the twenty-first -century,” answered Lazaroff. “By instantaneously suspending animation at -a temperature of twenty-five degrees, we hope to maintain the bodily -organism without change until the time for their awakening comes. The -problem is, whether that mysterious by-product of matter called -consciousness will return.” - -“How dreadful!” exclaimed Esther, shuddering. - -“But the temperature will rise, Lazaroff,” I interposed, “and however -carefully your cylinders are made it is impossible to hope to maintain -the internal heat at only twenty-five degrees during a century.” - -“You forget that our monkeys will be sealed in a vacuum,” he answered. -“There is an inner and an outer case of vanadium steel mixed with a -secret composition which will resist even thermite. And even if the -temperature does rise—well, if a homely instance may be allowed—you are -aware that canned beef, as the Americans term it, will remain fresh in -an air-tight tin even in the tropics. That is dead matter, while our -monkeys will be millions of living cells. The vacuum is created by -simply screwing on this cap.” - -“But not a perfect vacuum,” I interposed. “That is impossible.” - -“Sufficiently near to eliminate the aerobic bacilli which flourish on -oxygen, and the infinitesimal amount of that remaining in the cylinder -is probably absorbed and transmuted by the surface capillaries and -lungs, leaving simply carbon dioxide, neon, crypton, et cetera.” - -I examined the cylinder nearest me with interest. A small dial was set -into its cap. Lazaroff anticipated my question. - -“That is the most ingenious part of the mechanism,” he explained. “It is -a hundred-year clock, made specially for me by Jurgensen, of Copenhagen, -and, to salve your conscience, paid for, like the cylinders, out of my -private purse. It runs true to within three-tenths of a second. The -alarm can be set to any year, if necessary. A good alarm clock for lazy -people, Miss Esther. This one, you see, I have already set to a hundred -years ahead. This is at sixty-five; I shall set that to a hundred -presently, for we don’t want one of our monkeys to awaken several -generations ahead of his friends. This one is not set. Now, observe, I -turn the hands on the dials. The large figures are years. The smaller -ones are days. Now as soon as the cap is screwed on, the internal vacuum -causes this lever to fall, catching this cam and starting the mechanism. -We have then a bottled monkey in an indestructible shell, for really I -do not know what could make much impression on steel of this thickness, -which is both resistant and malleable, and fireproof too. It is -impossible, in short, to release the inmate before the appointed time, -and, even then, immediate death would ensue.” - -“Why?” I asked. - -“Because resuscitation must be gradual. I base my hopes upon the chance -that the lungs and heart will automatically resume their functions, -being in their most perfect medium. But if air were admitted before the -bodily machine had become, so to say, synchronized, the swarm of -micro-organisms would make short work of our subject. Besides, the hasty -respiration produced by this rush of air would produce immediate death -by its transformation into carbon dioxide. The air must enter under -slight pressure, in minute quantities, during a period of about ten -days. Very well! As the timepiece gradually runs down, the cap slowly -unscrews, and a tiny quantity of filtered air leaks in. It is so -arranged that, at the exact end of the period, the cap flies off, and -the subject awakes.” - -“Herman,” said Esther, hurriedly, “I don’t like this. It isn’t right. -And I am sure my father does not know about it.” - -“My dear Miss Esther, I assure you that it is a very ordinary scientific -experiment,” Lazaroff answered, laughing. “Come, Arnold,” he added, “why -not get in yourself and try how it feels? You are not afraid?” - -“In my clothes?” - -“Certainly.” - -“Arnold, I don’t want you to get into that thing,” Esther protested. - -“Of course, if our friend is afraid that I am going to screw him up for -a century—” began Lazaroff. - -“I am not at all afraid,” I returned, a little nettled. “How do I get -in?” - -“I’ll have to help you,” Lazaroff answered. “It was not made for a big -man in clothes. Button your coat. Now—put your arms down by your sides.” -He rolled a cylinder upon the floor, and I put my feet inside rather -reluctantly and squeezed down to the bottom. Lazaroff looked at me and -burst into loud laughter. - -“Not much room to turn round, is there?” he said, raising the cylinder -with an effort and standing it on its base again. - -“Come out, Arnold,” pleaded Esther; and I saw that her face was white -with fear. - -But I was quite helpless, and above me I saw Lazaroff, smiling at my -predicament. - -“Now if I were going to be so unkind as to send you into the next -century,” he said, “to be the only animist, with a defective skull, in a -world of vile materialism—” - -“Please, Herman, for my sake!” Esther implored. - -“I should put on the cap,” he said, and fitted it. - -He must have touched some mechanism that I had not seen, for instantly -the cap began to whir on the screw. Through the glass face I caught a -last glimpse of Esther’s terrified eyes. The image blurred and vanished -as my breath dimmed the glass and frosted it. I heard the swift jar of -the cap mechanism end in a jarring click. I gasped for air; there was -none. My head swam, my throat was closed; the blackness was pricked into -flecks of fire. I groped for memory through unconsciousness—and ceased. - - - - - CHAPTER III - IN THE CELLAR - - -I have heard patients, emerging from the chloroform swoon, describe how, -before awakening, they had seemed to view themselves lying unconscious -upon their beds, detailing the posture of their motionless bodies and -inert limbs. In this way, now, I seemed to see myself. - -I am sure that was no dream of the vague borderland between death and -life. I saw the pallid face, so shrunken that the skin clung to the -edged bones, and the dry hair, the pinched lips and waxen hands. I saw -myself as if from some non-spatial point, and with singular -indifference, except that one fragment of knowledge, detached from my -serene omniscience, troubled me. I had to return within that physical -envelope; and behind me lay dim memories, quite untranslatable, but -ineffably rapturous, which made that projected incarnation an event of -dread. - -Vague images of earthly things began to float upward out of the dark, as -it were, symbols of physical life whose meaning remained obscure. I -pictured a spring-board, on which a swimmer stood poised, waiting to -dive into the sea and set the plank behind him quivering, and a large -roll of some material, like a carpet, blocking a cellar door. - -Gradually, through an alternation of dreams and blankness, I began to be -aware of the parched and withered body that cloaked me. The point of -consciousness had shrunk within its earthly envelope. Soon it diffused -itself throughout my members. Now I could translate my symbols into -ideas. That coiled-up substance that blocked the door was my tongue, -fallen back into the throat. And the spring-board on which the swimmer -stood—that was my heart, waiting to beat. And unless and until the -swimmer—I—made that plunge into life’s ocean, it could not. Slowly the -need of physical resurrection urged me onward. - -A thousand darts were stabbing in my flesh, like purgatorial fire. No -motor nerve had yet awakened, but the capillaries, opening, pricked me -like red-hot needles. Faint memories of the past flashed through my -mind, and, though I recalled no intervening period, I was sensible that -those events had happened infinitely long before. - -Suddenly I plunged. I felt as if a sword had pierced my body. I felt the -waters of that living ocean close over my face, and gasped. I breathed. -Simultaneously, with a loud click, the cap of the cylinder flew off, air -rushed in, a stabbing light broke through my closed eyelids; I fainted. - -It was, of course, the gradual unscrewing of the cylinder cap as the -mechanism ran down, and the consequent admission of minute quantities of -oxygen, that had begun to restore me. I must have passed several days in -semi-consciousness before the cylinder opened. When the last thread of -the screw was traversed, the inrush of air caused the respiration to -begin. - -I was breathing when I became conscious once more, and my heart was -straining in my breast. I got my eyes open. There followed hours of -light-tortured delirium, during which I struggled to regain the motor -powers. With infinite endeavor I placed one hand upon the other and -passed it up the wrist and forearm. The muscles were all gone. The ulna -and radius were perfectly distinguishable, and I could encircle either -with my fingers, after I had managed to flex them. I noticed that my -joints creaked like rusty hinges. - -I tried to bend my elbows, and this next grim battle lasted an -incalculable time. Gradually I became aware of some obstacle on each -side of me. Then, for the first time since my awakening, I knew that I -was inside the cylinder. But I did not know that it had fallen upon its -side until it slid forward, and my puny struggles dislodged me and flung -me free into a pool of water. I drew in a deep breath, feeling my lungs -crackle like old parchment, and plunged my face and shoulders beneath -the surface. My skin sucked up the moisture like a sponge, and I -contrived to get a few drops past my swollen tongue. I had just sense -enough and time to turn my face upward before I became unconscious -again. - -I must have slept long, for, on my next awakening, the light was -brighter and still more torturing. Memory began to stir. I recalled my -conversation with Sir Spofforth, our journey into the annex, Lazaroff’s -invitation to me to enter the cylinder. He must have shut me in for a -moment by way of a practical joke, and gone away with Esther, persuading -himself and her that I could free myself and would follow. I tried to -call him. But only a croaking gasp came from my lips. I tried again and -again, gradually regaining the power of vocal utterance. But there came -no answer, and each time that I called, the echoing, hoarse susurrus -brought me nearer to the realization of some terror at hand which I did -not dare to face. - -I looked about me. Beside me lay the cylinder, almost buried in mud. I -was still within the secret vault, but a part of the brick partition had -fallen inward in such a way as to screen the few visible inches of the -steel case that had housed me, so that nobody would have suspected its -presence in the mud of the little chamber. I remembered that there had -been two more; I looked about me, but there was no sign of them. - -Now I began to realize that there had been a considerable change in my -surroundings since I became unconscious. The light which had distressed -me came through a hole in the roof of the adjoining cellar, filtering -thence through the aperture in the broken wall, and was of the dimmest. -In place of the concrete floor there was a swamp of mud, with pools of -water here and there, and the dirt was heaped up in the corners and -against the walls. Moss and splotched fungi grew among the tumbled -bricks, and everywhere were spore stains and microscopic plant growth. - -I was bewildered by these signs of dilapidation everywhere. The -guinea-pigs and monkeys were gone; the cellar was empty, save for some -low, rough planks of wood fitted on trestles and set about the floor. On -the wall at the far end hung something that gradually took form as I -strained my aching eyes to a focus. - -It was a crucifix. The cellar had become a subterranean chapel. The -cross was hewn coarsely of pine, and the figure that hung upon it -grotesquely carven; yet there was the pathos of wistful, ignorant effort -in the workmanship that bespoke the sincerity of the artist. - -[Illustration: - - I made my difficult way toward the stairs -] - -I made my difficult way upon hands and knees through the gap in the -wall, across the mud floor of the cellar, toward the stairs, resting -several times from weariness before I reached my destination. But when I -arrived at the far end, where the stairs should have been, I received a -shock that totally unnerved me. The stairs were gone. In place of them -was a debris of rubble and broken stones, as firmly set as if workmen -had built it into the wall. The mass must have been there for years, -because, out of the thin soil that had drifted in, a little oak tree -sprang, twisting its spindling stem to rear its crown toward the patch -of daylight. - -At last I understood. I had come to realize the fact that my sleep had -been a prolonged one; it might have lasted weeks—even months, I had -thought, as with cataleptics; but an entire century! that idea had been -too incredibly grotesque for consideration. That Sir Spofforth, with -whom, it seemed, I had dined almost yesterday, had gone, ages ago, to -his long home; Lazaroff; Esther, whom I loved; that generations had come -into birth and died ... it seemed too cruel a jest. I wept. I raved and -called for Esther. Surely a hundred years had never passed, turning her -brown hair to gray, lining her gentle face, bringing at last the gift of -death to her, while I lay underground, encased in steel and air! - -I cried aloud in terror. I hammered helplessly upon the walls. Again I -called Esther, Lazaroff, George. There was no answer of any kind. - -Presently a ray of light quivered through the hole, falling upon the -heap of debris that blocked the stairway. The yellow beam moved onward, -and now it bathed the thin branches of the little twisted tree that, by -the aid of those few minutes of sunlight daily, had ventured into life. -It had grown cunningly sidewise, so as to expose the maximum of wood to -the light. I watched the ray till it went out; I wanted to show the -plant to Lazaroff, to ask him whether the mechanics of heliotropism -could suffice to answer the problem of the tree’s brainless -consciousness; and my chagrin that this whim could not be fulfilled -assumed an absurd significance. It was, in fact, the realization of this -loss of responsiveness to the reality of the situation that constantly -urged me to find some way of escape when I might have relapsed otherwise -into an acquiescence which would have brought insanity and death. - -The stairs being gone, I turned my consideration to the cellar roof. To -reach this it would be necessary to drag one of the planks beneath the -hole and scramble up, clinging to the sides with my fingers and bracing -my feet against the wall. This feat was not a difficult one for a normal -man, but for me clearly impossible. I must wait until I became stronger. - -It is a strange thing, but I had not associated the need of waiting with -the idea of food until I found the box of biscuit. I stumbled upon the -box by the accident of scratching my wrist against the edge as I crawled -along the wall. I saw the corner projecting from a mound of earth, and, -scraping some of the dirt away, I lifted the pine-wood lid. - -Inside the box I found a quantity of biscuit which seemed to have been -baked recently. It was crisp, and too hard for me to break. I dipped a -piece in the stagnant water, and, as I swallowed the first morsels, -became aware of my ravenous hunger. - -I can hardly estimate the duration of the imprisonment that followed. It -was of days and nights which succeeded each the other in monotonous -succession, during which, like a hibernating beast, I crouched and -groped within the cellar, dozing and shivering, and gnawing incessantly -at my food. Only those few minutes of sunshine daily saved my reason, I -am convinced now. My evening clothes, which at first had appeared to -have suffered no injury during my century of sleep, had begun to -disintegrate, and hung upon me in tattered fragments. It was a period of -despair, with very little alternating hope. Sometimes I prayed wildly -beneath the crucifix, sometimes, in an access of madness, I cried for -Esther and Lazaroff again. And for whole hours I convinced myself that -this was a dream. - -But my strength returned with amazing swiftness. As in the case of a -typhoid convalescent, every particle of food seemed to build up my body. -I must have put on pounds each day. The barrel framework of my ribs -filled out, the muscles showed their old outlines beneath the skin, the -fluid rushed into the joints and restored their suppleness. And daily I -practiced exercises. I managed to drag one of the benches beneath the -hole at last, and, standing on this, tried often to draw myself up; but -on each occasion my struggles only brought down a shower of earth and -stones, and I resigned myself to a period of further waiting, watching -for dawn like a troglodyte, and for the sun like a fire-worshiper. - -In the end my escape developed in a manner the least imaginable. It -began with my discovery of a second box in another of the mounds. I -opened it hastily, in the greedy anticipation of finding something more -palatable than biscuit. - -Instead of this I found a number of strange batons of wood. They -resembled policemen’s truncheons, but each had a tiny rounded plate of -glass near the head, and there evidently was some sort of mechanism near -the handle, for there was a push-button, fitted with a heavy guard of -brass, so strong that I could not raise it with my fingers. It was -indeed providential that I was unable to do so. - -I carried the strange implement beneath the hole in the roof and laid it -on the bench, intending to examine it more carefully as soon as the sun -appeared. Meanwhile, this being the time for my daily exercise, I -mounted the bench and tried to pull myself up. I failed; yet I detected -a considerable improvement in my muscular power, and, becoming -exhausted, I prepared to descend. Inadvertently, but without -anticipating any serious result, I placed my foot against the truncheon -in such a way as to elevate the guard. - -I heard it click as it rose into position, and, in setting down my foot -again, depressed the push-button. - -The truncheon tipped to the ground, pointing upward. I saw a ray of -blinding light, of intense whiteness tipped with mauve, shoot from the -head, and, with a crash, a shower of stones fell on me, bearing me to -the ground and enveloping me in a cloud of dust. - -I must have lain half stunned for some minutes. I was aroused by feeling -the sunlight on my eyelids. I started to my feet. The hole in the roof -was nearly twice the former size, and a heap of fallen stones and pieces -of brick afforded me a perfect stepway. I was scratched by the falling -debris, but happily the explosion, as I deemed it, seemed to have been -in an upward direction. - -In a moment I was scrambling up the stones. I slipped and clutched and -struggled; I got my head and shoulders in the air and pulled my body -after me; I trod upon leaves; I looked about me. - -I was standing in the midst of what appeared to be an ancient forest of -oak and beech trees, whose bare boughs, covered with snow, shook under a -gray sky above a carpet of withered, snow-spread leaves, and under these -were endless heaps of disintegrating bricks. In vain I looked about me -for the Institute. There was no sign of it, nor of Sir Spofforth’s -house. Nowhere was anything to be seen but the same forest growth, the -dead leaves scurrying before the chill wind, and the vast brick piles. I -had emerged from the cellar into a trackless wilderness. - -And now at last my final doubt, which had bred hope, was gone. I ran -through the forest, on and on, shouting like a madman and beating my -breast, stumbling over the brick heaps that lay everywhere, plunging -through thorny undergrowth, heedless of any course. I must have been -running for ten minutes when my strength failed me, and I collapsed -beside an ancient road, overgrown with shrubs and saplings, yet -discernible in its course between the tall trees that bordered it. -Before me, far away through the vista line, I saw a white bank against -the gray horizon. - -I flung myself upon my face and prayed, with all my will, to die. - - - - - CHAPTER IV - THE ROAD TO LONDON - - -A shadow swept over me, and, looking up, I saw an airplane gliding -noiselessly above; it stopped, hung poised and motionless, and then -dropped slowly and almost vertically into the road, coming to ground -within a dozen yards of where I lay. - -There stepped out a man in a uniform of pale blue, having insewn upon -the breast a piece of white linen, cut to the shape of a swan. He came -toward me with hesitancy, and stood over me, staring at me and at my -clothes with an expression indicative of the greatest bewilderment. - -“Where’s your brass, friend?” he inquired after a few moments, speaking -in a high-pitched, monotonous, and rather nasal tone. He rubbed his -smooth-shaven face in thought. “Where’s your brass?” he repeated. - -I perceived that he wore about his neck a twisted cord whose ends were -tied through the loop of a brass plate, stamped with letters and -figures. - -“For God’s sake tell me what year this is!” I cried. - -At the profane expletive, which had been drawn from me by my anguish, he -recoiled in dismay; he seemed less shocked than frightened; he glanced -about him quickly, and then cast a very searching look at me. But next -he began to smile in a half-humorous, kindly way. - -“You’re one of the escaped defectives, aren’t you?” he inquired. “You -have nothing to fear from me, friend. We airplane scouts have no love -for the Guard. You can go on your way. But where are you lying up? Are -your friends near?” - -“Will you tell me what year this is?” I demanded frantically. - -“Yap, certainly,” he answered. “This is Thirty-seven, Cold Solstice less -five.” He shook his head and began staring at me again. - -I laughed hysterically. “I don’t know what that jargon means,” I -answered, “but I went to sleep in the vault of the Biological Institute -in the year 1915.” - -Perplexity had succeeded alarm. The airscout shook his head again. He -was one of those deliberate, slow-moving men whose resolutions, tardily -made, harden to inflexibility; I recognized the type and found the -individual pleasing. He was a good-looking young fellow of about eight -and twenty, with straight, dark hair and a very frank countenance. He -looked like a sailor, and the rolling, open collar, which fell back, -sailor fashion, revealed a muscular throat, tanned, like his face, to -the color of the bricks around us. - -“I don’t know what to make of you,” he said thoughtfully. “I don’t want -to trap you, but you were better off in the art factories. I don’t know -what to do with you.” - -I sprang to my feet, and for an instant I ceased to realize my -predicament. “Will you take me to my friends in London?” I asked. In my -mind was the memory of a university acquaintance who lived in St. John’s -Wood. But then the swift remembrance came back to me, and I hung my head -and groaned. - -“Back to London!” exclaimed the airscout. “But you’ll be put to the -leather vats. Doctor Sanson is furious, and the police are searching for -you everywhere. You’re crazed! What’s the sense of running away from -painting pictures and going back to sweat ten years over the hides?” - -“Take me to London!” I implored. “I have nowhere to go. Perhaps—I don’t -know—” - -I was hoping wildly that somebody whom I had known might still survive. -But by this time I was beginning to pull myself together. I resolved to -wait for his decision. - -“Now, friend,” he said, as if he had made up his mind, “your top got -stuffed making those factory pictures, as was very natural. Now, I think -you had better go back to London, and I’ll take you there, since your -friends have shaken you. But of course it must be the police station. I -can’t risk my own liberty. Once more, are you sure you want to go? If -not, I haven’t seen you.” - -“I’ll go,” I answered indifferently. - -“Yap? Step in, then!” - -I took my seat beside him. It will seem incredible, but I had never -ridden in an airplane before. In my other days only a few had seen these -craft. It was hardly more than six years since the Wrights had flown -when my long sleep began. In spite of my oppression of mind, or perhaps -because the days of horror that I had spent in the cellar produced the -unavoidable reaction, I began to feel the exhilaration of the flight as -we ascended to a height of perhaps a thousand feet and drove northward. -The sensation was that of sitting still and seeing the trees flit by -beneath me, and would have been pleasing but for the intense cold, which -pierced through my rags and numbed me. I perceived that the airplane was -under perfect control, and could be stayed without falling. After a -while I realized that there was no motor. - -My companion saw me looking at the machine. “Improved solar type,” he -said, patting her caressingly. “Better than a bird, isn’t she?” He -turned toward me. “You’ve been sleeping in the wood these three days?” -he asked. “And find the factories best? I don’t score you for that. -Where’s the rest of you? Five, weren’t there? Why didn’t you keep -together? Where’s that bishop of yours?” - -But, seeing that he could elicit no comprehensible answer to his -repeated questions—in truth, I did not know how to reply—he relapsed -into an equal silence. And now the white bank that I had seen on the -horizon began to assume crenellations, which in turn became buildings of -immense height and symmetrical aspect. And I forgot my situation in -admiration and amazement at the panorama that began to unfold beneath -us. - -The county of Surrey appeared to be an extensive forest, ending about a -waste of dismantled brick, the suburbs of old London, which extended on -each side as far as I could see. Then the modern town began: an outer -ring of what I took to be enormous factories and storage warehouses; an -inner ring, no doubt, of residences; and then the nucleus, the most -splendid city that the imagination could have devised. - -London seemed to be smaller than the metropolis of a century ago. I -could see from the height of Hampstead, in the north, to the region of -Dulwich, and from Woolwich to Acton, all clearly defined, like a great -map unrolled beneath me, though I could recognize none of the old -landmarks, save the unchanging Thames. The interior city was laid out in -squares, huge buildings, sometimes enclosing interior courts, occupying -the blocks formed by the parallel and intersecting streets. As we drove -inward from the outskirts, the buildings became higher, but always -uniformly so, the city thus presenting the aspect of a succession of -gigantic steps, until the summit, the square mile comprising the heart, -was reached. - -This consisted of an array of enormous edifices, with fronts perfectly -plain, and evidently constructed of brick-faced steel-work, but all -glistening a dazzling white, which, even at that height, made my eyes -water, and rising uniformly some forty-five or fifty stories. The flat -roofs were occupied by gardens or what I took to be gymnasia, sheltered -beneath tarpaulins. I saw innumerable airplanes at rest, suspended high -above the streets, while others flitted here and there above the roofs, -and a whole fleet lay, as if moored, some distance away, apparently over -the center of the city, above a singular building, which awakened -associations in my mind, though I was unable to name it. - -It had a round dome, being, in fact, the only domed building that I -could see. This covered only the central portion of the enormous -architectural mass, and appeared to float in the air above an aerial -garden, laid out with walks that radiated from a flat building, which -filled the space between the floating dome and the roof beneath it. I -surmised that this must be the new House of Parliament. The entire mass -was surrounded by a double wall, with a roofed space of perhaps ninety -feet from rear to front, castellated. Mounted on this were what appeared -to be a number of large, conical-shaped implements, of great size. Long, -graceful bridges on arches connected this wall with the domed building; -and wall and building glistened from top to base so brilliantly that the -glow seared my eyes like sunlight. - -As we were now flying at a low altitude, I turned my attention to the -streets, which appeared like canyons far beneath. Along these swarmed a -multitude of travelers, dressed in two colors only, white and blue, the -latter vastly predominating. I could see no vehicles, and I imagined, -what proved to be correct, that the streets themselves were moving. Most -of those journeying seemed content to lean back against the railings, -the lowest bars of which projected, forming a continuous seat, and rest. -Nearly all the streets were traveling in the same direction, those that -reversed this movement being small and comparatively empty. From the -presence of what seemed to be iron stanchions, set along the edges of -these moving ways, I surmised that they were roofed with crystal. - -Along the front of the buildings ran single tracks, connecting at -regular intervals with the streets beneath by means of elevators, which -shot up and down continuously, bearing their freight. These tracks were -placed above each other at ten-story intervals, so that there were three -or four rows of these aerial streets, ranging from the ground to the -upper portions of the buildings, all filled with travelers. The -buildings, each comprising an entire block, the elevated streets, with -their graceful bridges flung forth across the chasms, the absence of any -of the old poverty and dirt, and that huge gathering of human beings, -going about their business in so systematic a fashion, fascinated me, -and even aroused my enthusiasm. - -Signs evidently indicated to persons approaching in airships the purpose -of each building and landing-stage, but these were in characters -entirely unintelligible to me. - -My companion stayed the vessel in the air and tapped me on the arm. I -started, to see him regarding me with the same expression of humorous -perplexity. - -“I must put you off here, friend,” he said. “I think I have done the -best I could for you. You would have died in the forest, while -here—well, there’s a chance for you. And it’s better to go to the -leather vats for a few years than to die and go nowhere. I’ll know you -if we meet again. What’s your name?” - -“Arnold Pennell,” I answered, clasping the hand that he held out to me. - -He almost jumped. “Don’t tell that to the Council, unless you want the -Rest Cure,” he said. - -“Don’t tell them my name?” - -“Not both names, friend. You know what I mean. If you don’t know—” He -shrugged his shoulders. “Mine’s Jones,” he said. “My father’s was -Williams. My grandfather’s was Jones again. They say it’s one of our -oldest names—common in the days before civilization. Now down we go.” - -The airplane swooped down and came to rest upon the roof immediately -beneath us. On this I saw a number of men, apparently practicing -gymnastic exercises; and hardly were we at a standstill when two of them -came running up to us. They were clad in blue uniforms resembling that -of the airscout, but instead of a swan each wore a shield-shaped piece -of linen upon his back and breast. - -“What’s this?” they demanded in a breath, pointing at me and bursting -into bellowing laughter. - -“One of your defectives,” answered Jones. “I found him in the forest -while patrolling.” - -They rushed at me and dragged me from the airplane, swiftly patting me -about the body, as if in search of weapons. Satisfied that I was -unarmed, they turned to the airscout. - -“You’ll share the reward!” they cried, again simultaneously. - -“Keep it!” replied the airscout tartly, and rose into the air, waving me -a cordial good-bye. - -They rushed me across the roof through a crowd of other men, similarly -clad, down an elevator, and into the street. They dragged me upon one of -the moving platforms and conveyed me a short distance, descending at the -entrance to one of the innumerable shining buildings, over which was -inscribed something in the same undecipherable letters. - -But, quickly as we had gone, the report of my arrest seemed to have -preceded us, for our way was blocked by a vast and constantly increasing -crowd, that came running up with lively and shameless curiosity, and, -attracted by my rags, I suppose, pressed closely about us and uttered -hoots of laughter. I heard the word “defective” bandied from mouth to -mouth. - -I looked at these people attentively. There were both men and women -present, all wearing clothing of the same pale blue color, which seemed -to be prescribed, although the cut of each garment was to some extent -individual. In effect, the men wore sack suits of a coarsely woven -woolen material, with short, loose trousers fastened with laces about -the ankles, and square-cut coats having wide lapels extending to a -broad, turned-back collar that fell over the shoulders like a sailor’s, -revealing a neckpiece of blue linen. The women’s short skirts reached to -the tops of their high boots, and the fashion seemed to run to large -buttons and loose sleeves. They wore no hats. Upon the breast, near the -shoulder, each person wore a small linen badge, indicative of his -occupation. - -[Illustration: - - I glanced from one to another, and met hard, mirthless eyes, and - mouths twisted in sneering mockery -] - -What disconcerted me was the shrewd, mocking smile upon each face. I -glanced from one to another, seeking to find something of the same -friendly interest that animated me, and met hard, mirthless eyes, and -mouths twisted in sneering mockery. - -Another thing that startled and almost terrified me was the absence of a -certain conventionality of restraint that had ruled everybody in that -other world of mine. For instance, among those gibing at me was a -gray-bearded man who danced before me like a small urchin. Another made -an expressive pantomime of death. A girl stuck out her tongue at me. I -remembered the plaint, that never since the glorious age of Greece had -the code of public morality coincided with that privately held. This we -all knew; the statesman in parliament was not on bowing terms with the -same statesman in the smoking-room. Some said it was Christianity, -others respectability that bound us in this organic hypocrisy; but now -the two codes seemed to have coalesced. A grandfather grimaced at me; a -gray-haired woman put out her foot to trip me; if there had been stones -I think they would have flung them at me. But suddenly a youngish lad in -white appeared, and the crowd, hastening to make a path for him, shrank -back with servile demeanor. Taking advantage of this, my captors, -linking their arms in mine, made a rush forward, scattering the mob -right and left, and bore me through a swinging door into a small -rotunda, in which a number of other policemen were seated with their -blue-clad prisoners. - - - - - CHAPTER V - LONDON’S WELCOME - - -Inside the rotunda a burly man in blue, with the white shield on his -breast, was standing on guard in front of a second swinging door, above -which was painted something in the same strange characters. A few words -to him from my captors apparently secured us precedence, for he stared -at me curiously, opened the door, and bawled to some person inside. I -was pushed into a large courtroom. It contained no seats, however, for -spectators or witnesses. The only occupants were the magistrate and his -clerk, and a group of policemen who lounged at one end of the room, -joking among themselves. The clerk, a little, obsequious man in blue, -was seated at a desk immediately opposite that of his chief, a pompous, -surly fellow in white, wearing about his shoulders a lusterless black -cape, which seemed to be a truncation of the old legal gown. Placing me -on a platform near the clerk’s desk, the two policemen who were in -charge of me stepped forward and began an explanation in low tones which -was not meant to meet my ears, and did not. - -The magistrate started nervously, and, putting his hand beneath his -desk, pulled up a truncheon similar to those that I had seen in the -cellar. He handled this nervously during our interview. - -“Well, what have you to say, you filthy defective?” he shouted at me, -when the police had ended. - -I heard a suppressed chuckle behind me, and then became aware that all -the police had gathered about me, convulsed with amusement at my rags. - -“Stand back, you swine!” bellowed the magistrate. “Give me the Escaped -Defectives Book,” he added, to his clerk. - -The clerk handed up to him a small publication which I could see -contained numerous miniature photographs in color. He began studying it, -looking up at me from time to time. Occasionally, at his nod, one of the -policemen would seize my face and push it into profile. At last the -magistrate thrust the book away petulantly. - -“This isn’t one of them,” he announced to the policemen. “Who are you?” -he continued, glaring at me. “You’re not on the defectives’ list. Where -do you come from? Tell the truth or I’ll commit you to the leathers. Why -are you in masquerade? Where’s your brass? Your print? Your number? Your -district?” - -The clerk wagged his middle finger at me and, drawing a printed form -from a pile, pushed it toward me. I took it, but I could make nothing of -it, for it was in the same unknown characters. - -“I can only read the old-fashioned alphabet,” I said. - -The room echoed with the universal laughter. The magistrate almost -jumped out of his chair. - -“What!” he yelled. “You’re lying! You know you are. You have an accent. -You’re from another province. What’s your game?” - -The clerk, ignoring his superior’s outburst, pulled back the form, and, -taking in his hand a sort of fountain pen, began to fill it in with a -black fluid that dried the instant it touched the paper. - -“Number, district, province, city, print, and brass?” he inquired. He -paused and looked up at me. “Brach or dolicoph? Whorl, loop, or median? -Facial, cephalic, and color indexes? Your Sanson test? Your Binet -rating?” - -But, since I made no attempt to answer these utterly baffling questions, -the clerk ceased to ply me with them and looked up at the magistrate for -instructions. The magistrate, who had been leaning forward, watching me -attentively, now smiled as if he had suddenly grasped the situation. - -“I’ll tell you what you are,” he said, shaking his finger at me. “You’re -a Spanish spy, masquerading as a defective in order to get into the -workshops and corrupt the defectives there.” - -“Now I should call him a Slav,” said the clerk complacently. “He’s a -brach, you see, Boss. And that makes his offense a capital one,” he -added complacently. - -“Put him up for the Council, then,” growled the magistrate. “Standardize -him,” he added to the policemen, “and commit him to the Strangers’ House -pending the Council’s ascription.” - -My captors hurried me away. In the street a large crowd, which had -assembled to see me emerge, greeted me with noisy hooting. And, looking -again into these hard faces, I began to realize that some portentous -change had come over mankind since my long sleep, whose nature I did not -understand; but, whatever it was, it had not made men better. - -However, the moving platform quickly carried us away, and the mob -dwindled, so that when we reached our destination only a nucleus -remained. This, however, followed me persistently, gathering to itself -other idlers, who ran beside me, peering up into my face, and fingering -my tattered clothes, and pulling at the tails of my coat in -half-infantile and half-simian curiosity. - -The building which we entered contained a single large room on the -ground floor, with desks ranged around the walls. Behind each desk a -clerk in blue was seated, either contemplating the scene before him or -listening disdainfully to applications. I was taken to a desk near the -door. One of the policemen now left me, and the other, who had -contrived, without my knowledge, to possess himself of the gold watch -that had been in my pocket for the last century, placed it upon the desk -before the clerk, who came back slowly and resentfully from a fit of -abstraction. - -“Committed stranger?” he inquired. - -“Yap,” said the policeman. “He had this.” - -The clerk stared at the watch, raised it, and let it fall on its face. -The glass splintered, and he jumped in his seat as if a pistol had been -discharged. - -“What is it?” he screamed. - -“It looks like an antique chronometer,” said the policeman, examining it -curiously. “See the twelve hours on the dial.” - -“Well, they aren’t listed,” the clerk grumbled. - -“You lie, you thief,” retorted the policeman. - -With some reluctance, but without resentment, the clerk opened a large -book in a paper cover, closely printed in fine hieroglyphics -interspersed with figures. He turned from place to place until he found -what he was trying not to find. - -“Museum chronometers, first century B.C. Listed at two hektones,” he -mumbled, and began unlocking a drawer. - -“B. C.!” I exclaimed. “What do you mean?” - -He paused in the act of pulling the drawer out and glared at me. - -“I said ‘museum chronometer of the first century before civilization,’ -you fool!” he snarled. “That’s what it is, and that’s what it’s listed -at. Here!” - -Extracting some metal counters from the drawer, which he closed with a -bang, he thrust them toward me. - -“What am I to do with these?” I asked. - -The policeman winked at him, and I caught the word “Spain.” The clerk’s -amazement changed to malignant mirth. - -“The value of your chronometer,” he screamed in my ear, as if I were -deaf. - -“But I don’t intend to sell it,” I retorted. - -A shriek of laughter at my side apprised me that the crowd had gathered -about me. The space about the desk was packed with the same sneering, -mirthless faces, and fifty hands were raised in mimicry or -gesticulation. - -“What a barbarian!” murmured a young woman with a typewriter badge on -her shoulder. - -The clerk looked at her and winked maliciously. Then he addressed me -again. - -“If you don’t understand now, you will before the Council ends ascribing -you,” he said. “However, I’ll explain. Your museum chronometer, not -being an object of necessity, is the property of this Province. This is -a civilized country, and you can’t have hoard-property here, whatever -you can do in Spain. Strangers’ effects are bought by the Province at -their listed value, and your chronometer is listed at two hundred labor -units, or ones—in other words, if you have ever heard of the metric -system, two hektones.” - -“Ah, give him the Rest Cure!” said the girl with the typewriter badge, -swinging about and stalking away contemptuously. - -I picked up the metal counters and began examining them. They were -crudely made, and without milled edges. Two of them appeared to be of -aluminum; on one side was an ant in relief, and under it the -inscription, - - LABOR COMMON - 37 - -on the other side, in bold letters, were the words, - - HALF HEKTONE - FIFTY ONES - -There were two smaller pieces, of a yellowish-gray, each stamped, - - TWENTY-FIVE ONES - -It did not take me more than a moment’s calculation to see that if the -hektone was a hundred units of currency, or labor hours, I had only a -hektone and a half instead of two. I told the clerk of the deficiency. - -“Don’t lie! Sign that!” he shouted, pushing an inkpad and printed form -toward me. - -“I shall not sign, and I shall bring this theft to the attention -of—Doctor Sanson,” I said, suddenly recollecting the name. - -It was a chance shot, but its effect was extraordinary. The mob, which -had begun to jostle me, suddenly scurried away in the greatest -confusion. The clerk turned white; he picked up the money with trembling -fingers. - -“Why, that is so!” he exclaimed. “It was a mistake, Boss. I didn’t mean -it. I’m sorry. I—I thought you were a blue,” he muttered, looking up at -me beseechingly. And he returned me a whole half-hektone too much. - -I tossed this back to him and returned no answer. I was looking about -for a pen with which to sign the receipt when the policeman took hold of -my thumb in a comically obsequious manner and pressed the inkpad against -it. So I made my mark upon the paper. - -In the corridor outside he turned toward me humbly. - -“Are you a trapper, Boss?” he asked. - -“A what?” - -“A switch. A wipe. I mean a council watcher.” - -“A spy, you mean?” I asked. “Certainly not.” - -He shook his head in perplexity, and seemed uncertain whether to believe -me or not. “He thought you were,” he said. “That was an old list he -used. You should have had more. Of course I couldn’t get in bad with him -by telling you, but you’d have had nothing if I hadn’t stood up for you. -Isn’t that worth something, Boss?” - -I offered him one of the smaller pieces, rather in fear of giving -offense, but he pocketed it at once, and then, with a new aggressiveness -toward the gathering crowd, took me upstairs to the Strangers’ Bureau. -Here I was stripped and examined by two physicians, and photographed in -three positions; my finger prints were taken, and the three indexes. -Then a dapper little clerk in blue passed a tape measure in several ways -about my head and beckoned to me mysteriously to come to his desk. - -“It’s too bad,” he exclaimed. - -“What is too bad?” I inquired. - -“The difference is five centimeters, and—well, I’m afraid you’re a -brach. I’d like to help you out, but—well, if I can—” - -The meaning of the word suddenly revealed itself to me. “You mean my -head is brachycephalic?” I asked. - -“There is, unfortunately, no doubt,” he answered, and, coming closer -under the pretense of measuring me again, began to whisper. “You know, -the measure is flexible,” he said, glancing furtively about him. “The -revising clerk passes all my measurements without referring back to the -doctors. There’s an understanding between us. Now I could get you into -the dolicoph class—” - -“The longheads?” - -“Yes,” he murmured, looking at me with an expression of mutual -understanding. - -“But what advantage would that be to me?” I inquired. - -“They say,” he whispered, “that the Council is going to penalize the -brachs several points. It is Doctor Sanson’s new theory, you know, that -the brachs are more defective than the dolicophs. Now I’d risk making -you a dolicoph for—would it be worth a hektone to you?” - -I flushed with indignation. “Do you suppose I am going to bribe you—?” I -began loudly. - -The clerk leaped back. “This subject is a brach!” he yelled, and gave -the figures to a clerk at the next desk, who made a note on a form and -looked at me with intense disgust. - -So I was set down as broad-headed. Then I was made to sit before a Binet -board, containing wooden blocks of various shapes, which had to be set -in corresponding holes within a period timed on a stop-watch. Word -associations followed, a childish game at which I had played during the -course of my medical training; we had regarded this as one of those -transitory fads born in Germany and conveyed to us through the American -medium, which came and went and left no by-products except a little -wasted enthusiasm on the part of our younger men. I accomplished both -tasks easily, and I thought the physicians seemed disappointed. - -Finally I received a suit of bluish-gray color, the strangers’ uniform, -I was informed, and a pair of high, soft shoes. A metal badge, stamped -with letters and figures, was hung about my neck by a cord, and I was -turned over to the charge of a blue-clad, grizzled man of shortish -stature, with a kindly look in the eyes that strongly affected me. For I -realized by now that all these persons about me, all whom I had seen, -with whom I had conversed, had lacked something more than good-will; -they gave me the impression of being animated machines, reservoirs of -intense energy, and yet not ... what? I could not determine them. - -There was a patient humility about his bearing, and yet, I fancied, a -sort of stubborn power, a consciousness of some secret strength that -radiated from him. - -He came up to me after conversing with the doctors, blue-clad men with -white capes about their shoulders, all of whom had eyed me curiously -during their speech with him. - -“I am the District Strangers’ Guard,” he said to me. “You are a -foreigner, I understand, and waiting to be ascribed by the Council. It -is not necessary to make any explanation to me. I am the guard, and -nothing more, and it is my task to provide you with food and lodging in -the Strangers’ House until you are sent for, S6 1845.” - -“I beg your pardon?” I asked, before I realized that he was addressing -me by the number on the brass badge that hung from my neck. - -“My pardon?” he answered, looking at me with a puzzled expression. “That -is an antique word, is it not?” - -“I mean, I did not know the significance of these numbers,” I replied. - -“Your brass,” he said, still more bewildered. “That is, of course, your -temporary number until the Council assigns you to your proper place in -the community. It means, as you must be aware, Stranger of the Sixth -District. My unofficial name is David. What is yours, friend?” - -He almost jumped when I told him, and glanced nervously about him. We -had just passed through the doorway, and he drew me to one side, looking -at me in a most peculiar manner. - -“You must know only one name is legal in this Province,” he whispered. -“Surely you will not hazard everything by such bravado. I mean—” - -He checked himself and searched my eyes, as if he could not understand -whether my ignorance was assumed or real. - -“Arnold,” he said suddenly, as if he had reached a swift and hazardous -decision, “you are to be my private guest. If you are assuming ignorance -for safety, you shall learn that there is nothing to fear from me. And -when you trust me, you shall give me the news of Paul and all our -friends. If you are actually a Spaniard—no, tell me nothing—it is -essential that you should learn what all our inmates know, before you go -to the Council. Doctor Sanson is not tolerant of strangers unless they -learn to conform.... I shall help you in every way that is possible. The -Bureau Head has asked me to watch you carefully. It is a special order -from headquarters. There is some rumor about you ... but it will be all -right in my own apartment.” - -I felt too heartbroken more than to thank him briefly. The sense of my -isolation in this new world swept over me with poignant power. David -must have guessed something of my feeling, for he said nothing more. We -halted for a moment at the entrance to the building, and he pulled a -watch from his pocket. I saw that the dial, which was not faced with -glass, and had the hands inset, was divided into ten main sections, each -comprising ten smaller ones. - -“Ten hours and seventy-four,” he said. “We dine at one-fifty. -Seventy-six minutes to get home.” - - - - - CHAPTER VI - THE STRANGERS’ HOUSE - - -During my brief journeys through the streets earlier in the day I had -been too conscious of my surprise and perplexity to examine my -surroundings with any concentration of mind. Now, standing on the middle -platform of what seemed to be one of the principal streets and traveled -at a speed of about eight miles an hour, I looked about me with -increasing astonishment. I do not know which attracted my attention -more, the crowds or the buildings. I asked David for information as we -proceeded, stating that I was unable to read the signs, as I was -acquainted only with the old alphabet. Seeing his incredulity, I added: - -“When you are willing, I shall be glad to tell you my history, though I -shall hardly hope to be believed. For the present, let me say that I -know nothing at all of your modern civilization.” - -“But surely in Russia—” David began, and checked himself. Thereafter he -seemed to admit the possibility that I was not dissembling, and to -consider me as a bona fide traveler from some interior Russian province. - -“Our writing is syllabic,” he said. “We have gone the round of the -circle and now make the syllable the unit instead of the letter, as the -Assyrians did, and the Chinese.” - -“And what is the purpose of this blue paint on the buildings?” I asked, -shielding my eyes from the dazzling, blue-white luster. - -“Blue?” repeated David in surprise. - -“There—and there.” - -“Why, that is glow, of course,” he answered. “Surely you are not -color-blind, Arnold? Or can it be that in—where you came from they have -only the old seven colors in the spectrum?” - -“From red to violet.” - -He shook his head and looked at me whimsically. “We have had nine for at -least twenty years,” he said. “Mull, below red, and glow, above violet; -what our ancestors called ultra-violet and believed to be invisible, -though it was staring them in the face everywhere all the time. There -used to be a theory that the color sense has developed with -civilization. Don’t make any reference to that color-blindness of yours, -Arnold,” he continued, after a brief pause. - -It occurred to me that he had not explained the choice of this color, -though he had named it. - -“Here is the Bureau of Statistics,” he went on, as we traveled past -another of the interminable buildings. “This is the Bureau of Prints and -Indexes; there are more than a thousand million records within. This is -the Bureau of Economics; this of Pedigrees and Relationships; this of -Defective Germ-Plasm; and this is our Sixth District School.” - -The streets were scrupulously clean; they occupied only the central part -of the space between the fronts of the buildings, that which would have -been called the pavement formerly, being used as resting and lounging -places. - -“Here is our district store,” he added. “Would you like to look inside?” - -I assented, and we stepped off the moving portion of the street into an -open space surrounded by telephone funnels, at which small groups of men -and women were listening. As he halted, a loud voice began calling: - -“Latest news! Rain is expected. Don’t forget Freedom Day! Muster for -your amusement in Picnic Park, or the Council will make it hot for you! -The escaped defectives all caught and sent to the leathers. A foreign -spy captured this morning after a desperate resistance and now under -guard. The miserable defective has confessed, involving numerous others. -He is a low-class brach and a filthy degenerate. Boss Lembken is on the -job. Praise him!” - -“Hurrah!” shouted the mob. - -“Come,” said David, plucking me by the sleeve. - -It was only then I realized that the reference was to me. I must have -uttered an indignant exclamation, for he drew me away hurriedly. - -“Hush! You must keep your tongue guarded in public,” he whispered. “One -can hear at both ends of the telephone.” - -“But it is a lie!” I said indignantly. “Who can spread such news as -that, and why?” - -I noticed that one or two people were watching me curiously. Then, -glancing up, I was amazed to see my face outlined upon a screen beneath -a hood that formed a dark circle around it. It was an execrable -caricature, designed to arouse hate and contempt; and yet the likeness -was plainly discernible. - -Somehow David got me away. “It will be all right,” he kept repeating. -“It doesn’t mean anything. See, here is our store.” - -Bewildered, I allowed him to lead me toward the entrance of a large -building, before which a woman sat within a cage of crystal. - -“Change pieces!” she cried at intervals, in a high-pitched voice. -“Change pieces or show brasses!” - -“We change our money here,” David explained. “Purchases of more than -half a hektone are made on the credit system. Our brasses are -identification checks. The district clearing-house keeps the complete -record of each citizen’s financial status.” - -I had expected to see all the products of the world spread out within. I -found, instead, only a single sample of each kind of merchandise, the -goods themselves being stored in warehouses. Seeing an excellent blue -overcoat of fine cheviot, I paid thirty ones for it, and David ordered a -similar coat to be sent to me at the Strangers’ House. - -“Watch the street!” he said, as we emerged. - -I perceived the passengers scrambling off the moving portion of the -roadway. A moment later the track began to travel in the opposite -direction. - -“We reverse our streets according to the stream of travel,” said David. -“The mechanism is controlled by solar power, transmitted from the -Vosges.” - -We journeyed for some five and twenty minutes by the new reckoning—what -would have been a quarter of an hour. We changed streets frequently, and -it seemed to me, although I could not be sure of it, that David -purposely selected a roundabout route. At length, we stopped in front of -a large building of the uniform height and style. Upon the front was -sculptured a man in a laborer’s blouse with a protecting hand laid upon -the head of one who cowered before him—presumably the stranger. - -“I shall take you in by the basement and internal elevator,” said David, -“so as to give you a glimpse of our traffic system.” - -We had passed numbers of subway entrances, with gentle ramps descending -into clean, white-walled passages, along which I had seen an endless -series of trucks proceeding on single rails. Beneath the Strangers’ -House I saw the termination of a branch line; and, as we stood watching, -a porter in blue seized a small truck which had detached itself from the -rail, and, with a slight push, sent it spinning into a goods elevator. - -“Gyroscopic action,” explained David. “Above this is the House kitchen, -connecting with the district sub-kitchen by means of a two-foot tube.” - -And every now and then he would stop in the midst of his explanations -and cast that searching look at me, as if to inquire whether I could be -ignorant of all this. - -We stepped into an elevator, David pressed a button, and the cage shot -up to the top story. Opposite us was a door with a bell at the side, as -in the old-fashioned apartment. David rang, and the door opened, -revealing a girl about eighteen years of age, who looked at me with -parted lips and an expression that was unmistakably fear. - -“Arnold, this is my daughter Elizabeth,” said David, kissing her. -“Arnold is under our special care,” he continued. “He comes from a very -distant city outside the Federation, and is waiting to be ascribed. He -knows no more about civilization than if he had just awakened after a -sleep of a century.” - -The girl shot a quick, dubious, searching glance at me. I met it -steadily, and she turned her eyes away. Again she looked at me, and my -gaze apparently reassured her, for she gave me her hand in a very -unaffected manner, and we went through a living-room into a simply -furnished dining-room. It much resembled one of my own century, except -that the furniture was in good taste; the curves and spirals and volutes -of our machine-carved chairs and tables were gone; the wall was of a -plain gray, without paper or pictures; the carpet was plain, and the -absence of curls and twists even on the handles of the cutlery was -extraordinarily restful. Between the two rooms was a small enclosed -space containing a telephone funnel with knobs and levers disposed about -it, and a dumb-waiter. The table linen was of a peculiar lusterless -black. Looking out of the window, I saw that the uppermost street ran -past it, and occasionally the hatless head of a pedestrian appeared. - -“Anything new to you, Arnold?” inquired my host, as we took our places -at the table. - -“Principally the color of the table linen,” I answered. “Black seems -strange to me.” - -“Black! Do you call that black?” asked David in surprise. “Why, that is -mull, and not at all like black to me. For my part I prefer the -old-fashioned white, but two years ago, when the plans to dress us in -mull instead of blue were rescinded, the Wool and Linen bosses had -accumulated a large quantity of mull goods in the warehouses on -speculation, the loss of which would have hurt them badly—so we were -asked to use mull-colored table linen.” - -“Do you like chicken?” inquired Elizabeth. “It is of last year’s -freezing, and I got it as a special favor, for the supply for 34–5 is -not yet exhausted, and they are supposed not to draw on the new cellars. -If father had told me that he was going to bring home a guest—” - -“But I didn’t know it myself,” said David. “Of course, I could have -telephoned, but—” - -“Never do that!” exclaimed Elizabeth impetuously; and I saw the look of -fear upon her face again. - -A bell sounded, the shaft door clicked open, and a tray lay in the -orifice. Elizabeth carried it to the table, and a well-cooked meal was -smoking before us. - -“You may be surprised to know that this tea was made two miles away,” -said David, “in the district sub-kitchen. It came to us at seventy miles -an hour. Before we had the gyroscopic attachments, fluids were -occasionally spilled.” - -“And how do you clean the apartment?” I asked Elizabeth. - -“In the old-fashioned way,” she answered, smiling. “I am an expert with -the solar vacuum and duster.” - -“I believe our friend is accustomed to the existence of a servant -class,” said David, laughing at me. - -But there was a subdued melancholy about him, as well as about -Elizabeth. The sense of it, and the constraint it bred, grew on me -momentarily. After dinner the dishes were sent down the shaft, and David -handed me a typical twentieth-century cigar. - -“In a sense, this is one of our compromises,” he said, as we sat down in -the adjoining room. “Doctor Sanson wants to forbid the use of nicotine -as impairing the productive efficiency of the race. But the Council -thinks the narcotic has a restraining influence—” - -He broke off as Elizabeth looked at him rather significantly. - -“I understand, then, that the old tendencies toward the illogical and -the unnecessary have not been entirely conquered?” I asked. - -“No, no!” said David emphatically. “Private apartments, for instance, -instead of the phalanstery. And then the tabloid floods! The human -stomach still demands bulk as well as nutriment. Still, it is claimed -that with education—” - -“Do you remember the legend of the man who educated his ass to live on a -single straw a day?” asked Elizabeth. - -We laughed; but I was still conscious of the restraint. - -“Then, of course, people are too lazy, when hungry, to weigh their food -and calculate it in calories,” David continued. “Doctor Sanson is -fighting the abuse of protein. He claims that its decrease will set free -more workers to apply themselves to more productive labor instead of -food-raising, and will also lengthen the productive life of the -individual. But we are still protein gluttons.” - -“The chicken—” interposed Elizabeth. - -It seemed to me that the girl had some serious purpose in her -interruptions. I was beginning to realize that she still feared me; I -wondered why. - -“And you may have observed that the eternal feminine has baffled Doctor -Sanson’s desire to abolish the skirt,” continued David. “In fact, human -nature seems to flow on in much the same old way beneath the surface of -civilization. I am inclined to think that our economic changes have not -seriously amended it.” - -“Father, if you are going to talk like a heretic, I shall leave you!” -exclaimed Elizabeth, rising. - -She left the room, and David followed her. Presently he came back alone. - -“Arnold,” he began, seating himself and knocking the ashes from his -cigar, “my daughter is troubled about my frankness with you. You know -there is a period of necessary restraint just now, owing to the final -adjustment being incomplete. Some of the oldest men remember the former -régime. The Council is strict, and—in short, Arnold, I am putting my own -safety in your hands because I trust you, and also because—” He broke -off in confusion. “You need to know so much before you face the -Council,” he resumed. “Arnold, some time I will receive your confidence, -and then—well, this misunderstanding will be cleared away.” - -I shook his hand warmly. “I suppose I am not permitted to leave the -apartment?” I asked. - -“By all means. Go where you will. Your gray uniform shows you to be an -unascribed stranger, and every policeman has your photograph in his -thumb-book by now. Only, remember that you must decline to enter into -conversation with anyone who may accost you. Please remember this point -scrupulously, for your own sake. But, Arnold, do you know, I think you -can spend the rest of your day very profitably in learning to read.” - -“Learn in a day?” - -“To some extent. There are only thirty-five principal characters, and -all the sub-characters are readily discernible as coming under these -heads. I believe Elizabeth has an old spelling-book, and she will be -delighted to instruct you.” - -The idea aroused his enthusiasm, and a few minutes later Elizabeth had -begun to give me my lesson. By supper time I had already mastered the -elements, and we continued to study in the evening under the soft solar -light, which, issuing from small, shaded, glass-covered apertures in the -walls, made the room as bright as day. - -Soon after dinner the dumb-waiter shaft clicked open and a package lay -there. Inside was my overcoat. - -At least, it was meant for me. But instead of the fine cheviot, I -discovered a wretched mixture of cotton and shoddy. I was indignant. - -David advised me to do nothing. “A stranger sometimes gets poor -service,” he explained. - -“It is a deliberate fraud, then?” I demanded. - -He placed his hand restrainingly on my arm. “Is it worth while -quarreling with the Wool Boss before you go to the Council?” he asked. - -He went on to explain that each industry was autonomous, and had its own -boss, elected annually by the workers, in theory, but for life in -practice. The Wool Boss, like the other bosses, received one per cent -upon the value of every article made by his department. - -“At present our social organization is a little upset,” he explained -again. “When the Russian troubles are ended we shall resume our normal -life. There will be more spaciousness, more freedom ... liberty will be -enlarged....” - -We went to bed early. I was grateful to discover that the old-fashioned -bed had not been sent into limbo. But then the bed, of course, antedates -history. - -David apologized for mentioning bedtime. - -“Nine is the curfew hour,” he explained. “At nine-half the solar light -goes out. It is only a temporary restriction until—” Again he checked -himself. - -I mused so long that the solar light, which flooded the bedroom within -and made London a vivid picture in a black frame without, was suddenly -turned off, leaving me to grope my way into bed in the darkness. I lay -thinking of Esther, who had died so long ago, and I knew that when the -first bewilderment of the new life had passed away my loss would seem as -unbearable as before. I was as helpless as a savage in this fantastic -city. It seemed incredible that I had been groping in the cellar that -same morning. - -I thought of Elizabeth and the terrified look in her eyes; I heard a -city clock strike ten, and, an hour later, one, and it was long before I -remembered that ten was midnight; my last resolve was to try to forget -my former life and fling myself with all my power into the new. At last -I fell asleep, to be awakened by the sun shining into my eyes along a -canyon that stretched between the high buildings as far as I could see. - - - - - CHAPTER VII - HIDDEN THINGS - - -It was not until a week had passed that the first stimulus of the -amazing life into which I had been plunged abated, leaving me a prey to -melancholy reflections. The memory of Esther, which I had tried so hard -to put away, began to recur incessantly. I felt shut off from humanity, -a survival from a generation whose memory, even, had become legendary. - -They seemed to understand my feelings, although they could not know -their cause, and tried to keep me from brooding. By tacit understanding -no references were made to my past. They accepted me as a stranger, and -yet there was the same latent suspicion on Elizabeth’s part. And I could -not help seeing that some heavy grief or apprehension hung over them. -And I felt that I was an intruder upon it. At night I would hear David -pacing his room for hours, and sometimes a groan would break from his -lips. - -He gave me to understand that the summons to appear before the Council -might be delayed for days or weeks. It was always presented -unexpectedly, and always peremptory, he said. During the week following -my arrival at the Strangers’ House I never went out alone. Whenever I -made the suggestion, David either volunteered to accompany me or found -some excuse to detain me. In particular, he requested me to stay within -doors during the four hours when he was at the Bureau, in the morning. - -Finally I became almost exasperated. “You have told me that I am free,” -I protested. - -“And you are free, Arnold,” he answered. “It is for your own sake that I -make this request of you. There are hidden things, shadows against the -sunlight of our civilization, and transitory, I hope, which you would -hardly understand. You must learn them by degrees, Arnold. To me they -have seemed necessary in this transitional epoch; but they are hard, -Arnold; hard to endure.” - -And he sighed in so melancholy a fashion that I suspected one of those -shadows rested on his own home. - -Yes, there were hidden things, and I got no nearer the heart of them, -although I had hints as to their nature. For instance, there was the -Animal Vivisection Bureau. I wondered why David spoke of the Animal -Vivisection Bureau, and not of the Vivisection Bureau. - -I never had realized before how large a share animals played in our -lives. The horse, I was told, had not existed in the British Province -for a generation. Cats disappeared when the rodent virus was invented, -and were now only to be found in a wild state in the woods. There seemed -to be no dogs, and I did not ask David about them. - -There was no social life at all. The other inmates of the Strangers’ -House were lodged on the different floors and ate in common, living -under the watchful care of the deputies, who occasionally came to David -for advice or instructions. Our only neighbor on the top floor was a -little woman with two children who had come from a northern city and -intended to return as soon as passes for leaving London, which had been -stopped, were again issued. Inspectors from the Children’s Bureau -visited her nearly every day, always leaving her in a condition of -terror, as I inferred from a remark dropped by Elizabeth. Her husband -had dropped dead in the street two months before. David told me that -these sudden deaths were common, and were considered a triumph for -medical science. - -And yet I knew that David had visitors after the solar lights went out. -My room was at the end of the apartment near the street; but I heard -strangers tiptoe along the passage, and whispered colloquies in David’s -room. My host would appear abstracted the next morning, and watch me -very thoughtfully. At such times I felt more than ever an intruder in -the household. - -Yes, it was a world Lazaroff would have appreciated, could he have had -his wish fulfilled, to be born into it. Would his viewpoint have -changed, I wondered? It was a world from which all the amenities and -charities of life seemed to have been banished. I tried to lead up to -that subject in my talks with David, but he appeared unable to -understand me. - -Was it an atheistic world? I had not ventured to question David about -this. But I knew that there was no Sunday upon the calendar, and that -the tenth day was the civil holiday. That day had fallen already, and -endless crowds had marched through the streets, to the music of bands, -to play-places in waste spots outside London. The Council supervised the -games, which were compulsory. Of all the paternal regulations of the -Council, this seemed to me the most arbitrary and oppressive. - -“We have to keep the people under discipline,” David explained. “Once -they were allowed to wander at will; but they tore up the trees and -flowers and strewed paper and broken bottles everywhere.” - -That was true. I remembered the public fields of my own age. I recalled -how one writer had seen in them a complete indictment of democracy -itself. - -I was amazed and alarmed increasingly by what I saw in my journeys about -the town with David: the large brass tags that gave each person his -label, the occupation badges, the insolence of the whites, passing with -bodyguards of blues who elbowed all out of their way. And once there -came a frantic scramble to make a passage for a tall, black-bearded man -in a dark-blue uniform, who passed in the midst of his retinue with -clanking sword. - -I had noticed these men in uniform about the streets. They strode like -conquerors amid a servile populace. I learned that the tall man was -Mehemet, a Turk in command of an international force, the bodyguard of -Sanson, and devoted to him. - -Perhaps it was as well that, before my enlightenment came, I completed a -cursory survey of the new civilization. At my request David took me to -one of the public schools. I was astonished to discover that no history -prior to 1945 was taught, and no geography. The greater part of the -curriculum was devoted to scientific and economic subjects. So great had -been the progress in knowledge that, on opening some of the text-books, -I discovered that I was quite unable to understand them. - -I learned that Oxford and Cambridge had disappeared, with the old public -schools, in 1945, after a revolution, the anger of the people having -been kindled against them on account of their moral influence and the -distinctive stamp of character that they produced. To prevent tutors of -personality from imparting to their pupils the elements of humane -tradition, David told me, the text-books were so written as to eliminate -entirely the personal element in instruction, a reform that the prophet -Wells had urged rather furiously, and perhaps invidiously, in his own -century. - -“The Council shapes each citizen’s education from the cradle to the -workshop,” said David. “It is very anxious to secure precision of -knowledge. For instance, it is a criminal offense for mothers to teach -their children fairy stories. It is the duty of the inspectors to -question children rigorously, in order to ascertain whether they are -acquainted with any of this unscientific, heretical folk-lore.” - -“Which has doubtless all perished,” I said. - -“On the contrary,” he answered, “an immense quantity of it has come down -to us, practically unchanged, through all the revolutions of the past -century, and not only that but new tales have arisen. The authorities -are at their wits’ end to discover who is responsible for the existence -of this masonic secret among the younger generation.” - -From the school we went to the workshop. On the way home we stopped at -one of the open-air moving picture shows, and saw two or three -dramatized versions of public affairs. Ingenious mechanism synchronized -the movements of the figures upon the screen, which were in stereoscopic -relief, with speeches made through the telephone funnels. These, David -said, took the place of newspapers when the socialized State destroyed -the printed news-sheet by the simple process of killing the advertising. - -We also looked inside the district art gallery. None of the pictures -antedated the year 1978, and each illustrated some phase of the new -civilization in an educational way. I must not forget to say that later -I found a novel in David’s home, which Elizabeth must have read in her -schoolgirl days. The scene was laid in the early twentieth century, and -the story dealt with the adventures of a young man of property, -depicting the romance of his care-free life. A moral at the end, and -copious footnotes, inserted by the Council’s order, drew attention to -the improvement in the human lot since that barbarous period. - -So, day by day, I waited, and my eyes were opened more and more to my -environment. Daily I expected the Council summons that did not come, and -daily the constraint grew. I was thinking of suggesting to David that I -should be located among the other strangers in place of continuing to -accept his hospitality; but before I could decide to approach him an -incident occurred which revealed to me the existence of conditions -which, unintelligible though they were, made me decide to approach David -again with a view to a mutual understanding. - -David was at the Strangers’ Bureau and would not return for at least two -hours. Under Elizabeth’s instruction I had made swift progress in -understanding the combinations of syllables that make up the written -language. I had just begun, in fact, to master the ingenious Brebœuf -system, whereby the simpler of the syllables have been combined to form -the written speech of four of the five Provinces. David had told me that -the Council’s inability to enforce the invented language Spekezi as the -universal tongue, had been one of the severest shocks that the new -civilization had received. Then came Brebœuf with his universal syllabic -symbols. - -Now, if the written language were merely pictorial, it could have been -used to represent all the languages on earth. But since it is syllabic, -and therefore depicts words instead of ideas, it was a supreme -achievement to have invented a written language adapted to four tongues. -The Brebœuf system is based, of course, upon the common Latin and -Sanskrit elements. Brebœuf, who was one of the last of the classical -scholars, was rewarded, as is well known, by being freed from the -defectives’ art factories in his old age, and pensioned. - -However, it was not my purpose to touch upon this matter. My interest -was beginning to flag, and I was paying more attention to Elizabeth than -to the lesson. I was trying to trace in her features some elusive -resemblance to Esther. I was wondering whether I could ever become a -normal citizen of this strange world. Suddenly the telephone funnel -shouted Elizabeth’s name. - -She sprang from her chair and rushed into her bedroom, which was next to -the external elevator shaft. Her expression and gestures alarmed me so -greatly that I ran after her. When I reached her door I saw her standing -in the middle of the room, deathly white, and clenched in her hand was a -knife, which she was aiming at her heart. - -I ran into the room and wrested the weapon from her grasp. She fell upon -the floor unconscious. All the while this was happening the funnel was -shouting stridently, “Elizabeth!” “Elizabeth!” together with the string -of letters and figures that completed her nomenclature. - -I went to the funnel and lied to the voice. “She is not here,” I said. - -“Then tell her, when she returns, that the price of the dress will be -five units more, on account of the new wool schedule,” the voice -responded. - -Such was the half-comic ending of what had nearly been a tragedy. I -revived the girl and explained the matter to her, but for some time she -remained in a condition approaching collapse. When she began to regain -consciousness she wept hysterically. - -It was only the fear of causing David anxiety that enabled her to resume -her accustomed demeanor by the time he returned. She begged me to make -no mention of the matter to him, and I agreed on condition that she -would never use the knife except in the last extremity. But I was -working in the dark, for, though she consented to the bargain, when I -begged her to tell me what it was she feared, she remained mute, shaking -her head and closing her mouth obstinately. - -“Will you not trust me, Elizabeth?” I pleaded. - -Then, to my surprise, she looked accusingly at me. “Will you trust me?” -she asked. “Will you not trust my father and me? Haven’t you news of -Paul?” Her expression was indescribably beseeching. - -“We don’t know who you are,” she went on rapidly. “My father trusts -everybody. But I know your assumed ignorance is impossible. You don’t -trust us, Arnold, and you are playing with us. You have been here three -weeks and the Council has not sent for you. If you were what you claim -to be you would know your danger. Trust us, and, if you are what we -hoped you were, tell me about Paul. Is he safe? Is he well?” - -“I never heard of him,” I stammered. “I—” - -She looked at me with reproach and glided quietly away. I heard her sigh -mournfully. And still I groped in a fog of mystery and could learn -nothing. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - HOW THE WORLD WAS MADE OVER - - -David possessed a small library of books, nearly all of a scientific -nature. Among them, however, I found two histories, and, in spite of -their obvious bias and violent character, I was enabled to understand -what had happened in the world since my long sleep began. - -I learned of the great war that had begun a few days after I entered the -cylinder, when Russia and the democracies of Europe stamped out German -autocracy and laid the foundations of democratic government. I learned -how this democratic spirit burst out in 1945, when all the experiences -of the social order, accumulated by mankind since the dawn of history -were jettisoned, with all their lessons and all their warnings. - -It was extraordinary to me that none of us had realized the changes -which had been impending. Warnings there had been, as there always are. -They were the decay of parliamentary government in all lands, the -breaking down of tradition and authority in every phase; only there was -nobody to heed them. Then, previously, whether by acknowledgment or in -spite of denial, society had always been founded on servile labor. The -harnessing of the tides, and, later, the control of solar power, threw -millions out of employment, millions of hungry men with time to think -and nothing to reverence. - -The book said that the movement could have been stayed by wise measures. -But it was doubtful, for a frenzy for change was spreading like wildfire -over the civilized world. Now only Spain, restored Russia, and -monarchical and prosperous South America resisted it, among Occidental -nations. - -I read that in 1945 democracy initiated the millennium by bursting all -the dykes. Millions were slain. London, Paris, Berlin, New York, -Chicago, Winnipeg were burned to ashes, with scores of other cities. -Peace was restored fifteen years later by a few military chiefs who came -into power owing to the universal exhaustion. At that time whole -populations were turning cannibal. All organized industries had been -destroyed. The path for reconstruction was clear. - -Men called that the period of reaction, but it might have been the -period of reconciliation. Both sides failed in the ensuing years; the -mob, because it lacked idealism; the leaders, because they failed to -recognize the unassailable truth in the old Socialist propaganda, that -the era of machinery and of an inexhaustible supply of industrial power -had made the systematization of production inevitable. With half the -people workless, it was ridiculous that they should suffer and starve -because they could not buy the goods rotting in the stuffed warehouses. -The system did not fall because it was ridiculous, however, but because -it had become unworkable. Production had to be for use, not profit. When -profit went, rent had to go, and interest, that leech of society, so -long forbidden by the Catholic Church, and no doubt the direst result of -the Reformation. Failure to realize this need dragged down the old order -in 1978. It fell forever, and with it died all hope of a civilization -built on that of the past. - -It was then that the writings of the great Wells, since called the -Prophet, were discovered and proved the inspiration of the new order. In -place of the illogical instinct of nations there was to be a New -Republic, based on pure reason, and shining with facets of unanswerable -facts. The world was to forget its past as thoroughly as it had -forgotten the Stone Age. The new revolution was led by Sanson, I -gathered, and swiftly conquered. There ensued two years of worse anarchy -than before. India was lost to Britain, and became a democracy, -convulsed with civil strife. Our savage wards reverted to barbarism. -Australia fell to China. All the world’s archives were destroyed. -Picture galleries went up in flames; statues were smashed to pieces; -monuments were blasted. The Parthenon perished, the British Museum, the -Louvre; east of the Bosphorus there remained hardly a memorial of the -past, except St. Peter’s and Cologne Cathedral. But, at the end of the -two years, the five Provinces of Britain, France, Skandogermania, Italy, -and Hungary found themselves the nucleus of the future Federation of -Man, under a pure democracy. - -Here, amid fulsome plaudits, the tale ended; but I went to David to ask -him for some more particulars. He had seen me reading, and I think he -had been prepared for my question. - -“I shall be glad to explain anything, Arnold,” he said. - -“I have been reading about the new Federation,” I said. “England is, -then, no longer independent? And the United States? And Russia and -Spain?” - -He smiled. “Of course, if you do not know these things, Arnold—” he -began. “But surely you are at least aware of the history of your own -country?” - -“I know nothing,” I answered. - -“Well, then, the United States is an independent nation. We have made -proposals for a union, but the bosses have not yet come to terms. Spain -stamped out her revolution. We were on the point of compelling her to -come in when she discovered the secret of the Glow Ray, which would have -made the effort unremunerative.” - -“What is this Ray?” - -“It is a combustion by old light, stored solar energy being transmitted -for that and all other power purposes from the great solar works on the -Vosges Mountains. Its invention made the old warfare obsolete. Our -small-arms are miniature Ray mirrors, charged with a single unit; our -big ordnance is supplied from the Vosges by cable connection. The Ray -destroys everything that it encounters, not protected by the glow paint -which you may have observed on the fronts of our buildings. This is the -last and greatest of the coal tar discoveries, and its manufacture is -based upon the exact relationship between the disintegrating glow rays -and an exact color having a fixed number of vibrations. - -“Russia,” he continued, “crushed her revolution, too, as she had crushed -earlier anarchistic outbreaks. But though she has discovered the glow -paint, she has not the Ray. The Federation is consequently at war with -her, for her antiquated ideals make her a menace to civilization. -Besides, we need her wheat-fields. We have an army of ten thousand men, -two from each of the five Provinces, and have cooped up the young Tsar, -Alexander, with his army of a million men, in Tula. His surrender is -expected daily.” - -“Ten thousand against a million?” - -“Yes, with the Ray. However, even ten thousand were difficult to secure, -though the pay of each soldier is five units hourly. Twelve men have -been killed already. That is the weak point in our civilization, Arnold. -In spite of daily lectures by the most gifted orators that the Council -can obtain, showing that the desire for immortality is an inherited -perversion, and that we are immortal anyway, in the germ-plasm, man is -unwilling to die. In time the Council hopes, by reason and education, to -rid men of this ancient terror.” - -“What is the ethical basis of our government?” I asked. - -“Science, which alone survived the destruction of knowledge. The -scientific books were saved from the twelve million tons of printed -paper, chiefly from the British Museum shelves, that burned for twelve -days upon Blackheath; and from the contents of the Bibliotheque -Nationale that heated Paris during an entire month. - -“A commission quickly synthesized the discoveries of earlier -investigators. World councils of scientists laid down the dogmas of -universal knowledge in the Vienna Creed, which was adopted without -dissentients after those who objected had been put to death. The famous -quarrel whether Force is of the same substance as Matter, or a like -substance, was decided here. The Sames conquered the Similars, by virtue -of a proclamation from Boss Rose. - -“We know now that Science has given Nature’s complete and final -revelation to mankind. We tolerate no heresies, no independent judgment. -In vital matters toleration means only a dead faith. The Modernist idea -of criticizing the basic principles of our Science becomes a capital -offense, if preached, because the Boss is himself the repository of all -knowledge, and the pronouncements of Boss Lembken supreme. It is not -that we are bigoted, you understand. It is, indeed, suggested that -Science unfolds like a flower, revealing herself in larger scope to each -generation. But new discoveries can only be adaptations of what is -already known.” - -I almost thought that there was irony in his tone; but he met my gaze -steadily, challengingly, as if to say, “If these are not your views, -declare them.” - -“One thing I want to know is this,” I said. “The history books make no -mention of the blues and the whites. On what do you base the division of -the State into these two groups of citizens?” - -“That is Doctor Sanson’s doing,” he answered. “The blues are the -defectives, the whites the perfect specimens of the race. The whites -alone are admitted to posts of responsibility. But most of them prefer -not to labor, and live in seclusion upon State pensions for the sake of -the race. - -“This is considered Doctor Sanson’s crowning achievement for humanity,” -David continued. “Before his advent to power, defectives had been living -among the normal population since the dawn of history unrecognized. We -have now an intricate system of points of deficiency whereby they can be -detected infallibly, based partly upon heredity, partly on measurements, -partly craniometry and the Binet-Sanson tests. - -“Doctor Sanson has long been anxious to pass his sterilization measure, -but he has been unable to persuade the Council to face the fierce, -ignorant, popular resentment that it would incur, although this practice -is of respectable antiquity in China and the Mohammedan world, and was -reintroduced to the Occident by progressive America a whole century ago. -Of course, the morons and all below a certain grading are not allowed to -reproduce their kind; but Sanson wishes to include the high-grade -defectives also. However, that would reduce the total productivity, and -thus the question bristles with difficulties.” - -As I listened to all this jargon I felt more and more bewildered. - -“You appear to have created a new aristocracy, then, based on physical -perfection,” I said. - -“No, there you are wrong, Arnold,” said David. “Our democracy will never -endure hereditary privileges. What it has introduced is hereditary -disabilities. We simply disqualify from the white, or normal class, the -ninety-five per cent who are below the standard. It was progressive -America that first conceived the plan of raising man to the level of the -hound and the blooded horse. - -“Yet,” he continued, “defectives do crop up, even among the offspring of -the whites. They are hard to discover; but by the Sanson tests we can -discover defectives who are, to all appearance, flawless. This class -exists especially among those of unusual mental power, which is in -itself a stigma of deficiency. Then there are the men who write our -books and paint our pictures in the art factories. They present an -anarchical longing for personal license. But they are isolated and never -allowed to mingle with the world. Yes, there are odd kinks in the human -brain. For instance, there still exists a preposterous sense of -nationality, which is being remedied by a system of forced emigration. -The Prophet Wells did not entirely estimate in its exactness the -tenacity of this illogical notion. - -“Then there was that extraordinary outbreak, the Name War. Who could -have anticipated that human beings would object to being classified -under letters and numbers, for the sake of statistical simplicity? Yet a -misguided fifty thousand chose to meet death rather than give up their -names. However, Britain is said to be the province of compromises, and -it was agreed that the whites should retain two names, and the blues -one.” - -“But surely,” I said, “the people did not vote for these restrictions?” - -“You do not understand our system of government, Arnold. Naturally there -can be no voting in matters of science, sanitation, or statistics. Yet, -even here there is an indirect control, for our rulers, who are whites, -are elected by ballot annually, by the high-grade defectives of both -sexes. The Federal Council, which is not now in session, meets once a -year in London, the capital, and consists of five lay bosses, of whom -Lembken is chief, and five Science bosses under Sanson. You will -appreciate the stability of our government when I tell you that for -twenty years every nominated boss has been re-elected.” - -I was almost certain of an undertone of irony in his words now. - -“You see,” he continued, “non-votes are counted as ayes. Then those -opposing the Council must give their reason, which is filed in the -Bureau of Complaints. And again all such objections have been found to -be invalid, since they have invariably been made by undetected morons, -who have been sent to the workshops for life in consequence. Every -applicant at the Bureau of Complaints is examined by physicians. That -was Sanson’s idea.” - -A most ingenious one. Suddenly I became sure that David was testing me; -the whole tenor of his conversation had been ironical, hesitating, -perhaps, and carefully weighed, lest he was running into danger, but -corresponding in no wise to his convictions. But why was he afraid of -me? - -“Who is this Doctor Sanson?” I asked him. - -To my surprise his voice dropped, and, before answering, he cast a -cautious glance toward the telephone funnel. Then, rising, he stuffed a -sofa cover into it. - -“An illegal act,” he said, reseating himself. “If that were known I -should be liable to forced labor in the leather factories for several -years. Now, Arnold, you see my faith in you. Well, then, I cannot answer -you. He is a man of superhuman powers, more feared than any man has ever -been feared. There is a popular belief that he was born a thousand years -ago, and has wandered from land to land, waiting for the new age to -dawn. The Christians called him Antichrist. Nothing has ever been -learned as to his origin. He appeared like a conqueror, about the year -1980, to lead the hosts of the revolution to victory.” - -“He is the ruler?” - -David shook his head. “Boss Lembken is the titular head. But all know -that Sanson is supreme, although he chooses to let Boss Lembken hold the -reins of power. He could do anything, make any laws he wished, become -supreme ruler of earth. He is believed to be immortal, and to have the -power of renewing his youth whenever he wishes. Arnold, the people -believe that he can bestow immortality upon them and overcome their last -enemy, death. That is the secret of their terror of him. And—” - -His voice sank to a whisper: - -“You have come at a critical time. For this expectancy has set a date. -None knows how the rumor started, but during the next few months, ‘soon -after the Cold Solstice,’ the prophecy runs, a Messiah is to come to -earth, ignorant of his destiny. When he learns it he will offer mankind -its ancient liberty. Sanson will offer immortality in place of it. Then -will come the most titanic of all struggles, and the result is not -known.” - -His voice quavered and ceased. And, staring at him, incredulous at -first, I realized that David was repeating no foolish, popular tale, but -what he himself believed. - -Even Science had not succeeded in banishing faith from the hearts of -men. She had made it superstition instead. My brain reeled as the -dreadful picture David had drawn came home to me. - -“David,” I exclaimed impulsively, “you are an educated man and an -intelligent one. Why do you not wear the white uniform? Surely you are -not a defective?” - -“Yes,” he replied. “Under the Sanson law. My father had epileptic -seizures in his youth. He had to hide—but some day I will tell you about -that. It penalizes me twelve points, and Elizabeth six, thank God!” - -And, just as the airscout’s face had expressed fear at my own expletive, -so David recoiled in horror at the word that had burst from his lips. - -“Arnold,” he said, taking me by the arm, “there is a book—an illegal -book, to possess which would mean death. I am going to lend it to -you—and after you have read it you can tell me your story.” - - - - - CHAPTER IX - THE BOOK - - -I found the book beneath my pillow. David had been afraid to hand it to -me, and I was not surprised. For assuredly the anonymous author would -have received the utmost penalty from the Council. - -He was a Christian, and he took the ground that democracy, in itself -bad, had become impossible when the atheistic deism of the eighteenth -century pervaded the minds of the voting masses and took the form of -Hæckel’s materialism and that of his school of thinkers. - -He claimed that, so far from indicating the spread of enlightenment, it -was due to national decay, and had always preceded periods of national -reconstruction, instancing Rome and Athens, and the America of a century -ago, where democracy had become incompatible with free speech and -assembly, an independent judiciary, and a broad and secure freedom. - -Written for circulation among those opposed to the Sanson régime, it was -a fervent prayer for the deliverance of the world. In it I gathered more -of the meaning of the new civilization than I had learned from David. - -I read that the War of the Nations was caused by one thing alone: the -breaking down of Christianity in Germany, and the revival of the old -pagan doctrines, with the ensuing challenge against all that humanity -had built up during two thousand years. - -But in that period of ferments only a few had seen this meaning. The -challenge had been interpreted as one of aristocracy against democracy, -largely because democracy, then in the saddle, was the creed of the -loudest publicists. For this the writer Wells, known posthumously as -“The Prophet,” a man whose penetrating judgment and synthetic mind were -fogged by class consciousness, was largely responsible. - -The hope of democracy was fair in those after-years, when nations, -purged by their ordeal of blood, revived the noble hopes of liberty. Men -would have sacrificed everything for their brethren during that first -decade of peace. There was a splendid spiritual awakening among the -nations. Democracy was the young, smiling god, the guardian of universal -peace. - -If only, the writer said, that spiritual enlargement had been joined to -Christian faith. But the backwash of nineteenth century atheism swamped -it. The doctrines of materialism were rooted in the masses. The German -virus could not be rooted out without trained leadership and ideals. I -recalled Sir Spofforth’s words when I read that. “It must not happen -again!” all men had said, when at last peace triumphed. No, not if the -spirit of Christ, governing all men, had drawn them into brotherhood. -But what if insults had been heaped upon the German people? What hope of -peace was there when hate such as this ruled in the mind of the leader -of the new faith? - -Instead of Christ, these blind philosophers set up their democratic god. -They labelled war “dynastic,” and believed democracy would destroy it. -Had they not used their eyes? Did they not know that war was the -embodiment of hate? Had they never looked on a mob, shouting for war, or -was human nature to be changed by education, and through prosperity, so -that no nation would ever again gather to itself false doctrines, with -hate, and scorn, and pride, and go forth to destroy? - -As every century produced its dominant illusion, so now in the twentieth -this singular delusion of a democracy progressing through graded virtue -unto a perfect day possessed the race. And here the writer paused to -draw another instance from America, not, as he was painstaking to -explain, because her inhabitants were different from other men, but -because they were the same. - -He showed how decadence had spread exactly as democracy had spread. He -told of the two counties of Ohio where investigation showed the -inhabitants to have sold their votes universally—merchants and -clergymen, professional men and laborers. Corruption radiated from the -English-speaking centers. Law, principle, and integrity had gone first -in New England and the South, in the withered branches of Anglo-Saxondom -that had broken from the bough. One by one all the traditions of civic -honesty had died; and if life was still tolerable in the early twentieth -century, when justice was a byword and faith in public men had almost -ceased, it was because the State was still largely an abstraction and -people could still keep aloof from politics. - -All the while there existed the same pitiable belief that this democracy -would some day become honest, all-good, all-wise; but this was democracy -and the fruits of it, and nowhere had it had a fairer chance to -inaugurate the millennium. And the same mob that ran blindly after its -blind leaders, responsive to every prejudice, to the old Moloch of -race-hatred and the old Mammon of dishonesty, would, had it been -allowed, have followed an ideal with its fund of inexhaustible loyalty -and self-sacrifice. - -Men had not changed. The Amazon and Congo valleys were drenched with the -blood of murdered natives, and democracy yawned, just as the blood of -Polish women and children, massacred by State troops, cried from the -Colorado mining camps. In former days Christian orders arose to uphold -justice and to keep down the devil in man. When Christendom was one, -labor guilds had arisen under Catholic auspices whereby all men could -live in freedom; now the Pope, impotent, could only issue an encyclical -against that oppression of labor which, in its turn, begot hatred and -war. The sword of Justice had been snapped in the scabbard. - -Was this the hope of the world, he asked, this barren, Christless -democracy? How many hearts had it broken? How many idealists had -sacrificed themselves before this idol, dying with blind faith in a -deity that devoured its votaries? Was there no higher hope? Were -millions of colored men and women in America to be born forever, black -cattle without hope, and die without a part in life? Had not the race at -last turned on itself, when the eugenics madness thrust the sword into -the heart of every family and made life a more loathsome slavery than -any the world had known? What a sinister end to human hopes! - -The persecutions of the mob always struck to degrade humanity. And when -England developed, in proportion to her democracy, the same corruption -as the United States, the same lack of loyalty and public sense, the -same violence and the same vindictiveness, that was suspected which -happened afterward—that the same types of men would rise to leadership, -and her faithful, loyal heroes vanish like smoke in a gale. - -And all the time the remedy was at hand; no Moloch of hate, no -stock-farm theory of human bodies, but the principles of Christ, imposed -to save the world by leaders who had abdicated their responsibility. The -mob could never understand the need of abstract justice nor subordinate -greed to duty. But for some ideal, however dimly seen, it could obey and -sacrifice itself with matchless zeal, even to death. - -Truly the Prophet Wells had prophesied of the years to come: “Not only -will moral standards be shifting and uncertain, admitting of -physiologically sound menages of very variable status, but also vice and -depravity, in every form that is not absolutely penal, will be practiced -in every grade of magnificence, and condoned.” - -A shadow fell across the book. I looked up and saw David. He had been -glancing over my shoulder as I read, unconscious of him; and he had -reached these words with me. - -His eyes flashed, he shook his fist in vehemence of passion. “No, -Arnold!” he cried. “We’ll fight as long as we live to remain something -better than the beasts; if life is a lie, or a dream, we’ll fight for -that!” - - - - - CHAPTER X - THE DOMED BUILDING - - -“Arnold! Arnold!” - -The funnel in the room was calling me, not in its customary strident -tones, but with a muffled, intimate appeal. - -David was at the Bureau, and Elizabeth had gone out on one of her -infrequent journeys. It was as if the voice knew I was alone, for it had -never spoken to me before, and had never called in that particular tone -of intimacy and understanding. - -“Arnold, I am your friend,” the voice continued. “You will come to no -good in the Strangers’ House. Go out quietly by the external elevator at -once and proceed toward the Temple, where everything will be explained -to you.” - -My bewilderment changed to intense expectancy. The Temple was, I knew, -the domed building that seemed to dominate London; I had seen it from -afar each time David and I had gone out together, and each time David -had seemed sedulously to avoid approaching it, proceeding and returning -in a circuitous manner. - -“See for yourself the heritage of the new civilization,” the voice -continued. “Do not allow yourself to be made a prisoner by those who -wish you no good. Go out at once by the external elevator. Turn to the -right. Walk slowly. Look about you. Your friends are watching you.” - -I went out and descended the building by the external elevator. A minute -later I was upon the traveling street, feeling like a runaway schoolboy, -and animated by an intense desire to solve the secret that lay before -me. - -Presently, remembering that I was to proceed slowly, I had the curiosity -to step off the traveling platform into a large, open space on which a -crowd was seated. I took my post beside one of the funnels that -surrounded it, and saw that I was at one of the moving picture -performances. Spelling out the title upon the curtain, I understood that -news from Russia was to be given. - -There was none of that blur of vision which was a common defect of the -old-fashioned pictures, and the words spoken from the funnels -synchronized so perfectly with the actions on the screen that the -illusion was complete. Upon the parapet of the fortress reared by our -besieging troops I saw machines with conical tops, faced with large, -glow-painted shields. As I watched, there rushed across the field of -vision a number of men of the most degraded, savage aspect, armed with -long swords, which they brandished furiously, while the funnels yelled -like demons. - -“These are the Russian savages, filthy defectives who are attacking the -army of the Federation,” announced the funnel at my side, in such a -personal way that I started, imagining for a moment that someone had -spoken to me. - -As the horde neared the fortress a short command was uttered, and from -each of the conical machines a glare of light shot forth. The Russians -wilted and crumpled up. They did not fall; they were rather consumed -like lead dropped into fire, and the next line wilted too as the Ray -caught them, tumbling in charred masses upon the bodies of their -companions. Higher and higher rose the dreadful pyramid of mortality, -until the field was empty. - -“The victory of Science over Superstition,” announced each funnel -simultaneously. “The Russians do not possess the Ray. They are degraded -outcasts, refuse from the pre-civilization period, starving in Tula, and -will all die unless they surrender soon. What a pity to have to destroy -so much potential productivity! It is the Tsar’s fault. He is a dirty -moron, full of germ life, and has never produced a hektone in his life. -We shall next see him before the Council. Boss Lembken is on the job. -Praise him!” - -“Hurrah” yelled the spectators, rising in their seats to cheer. - -The curtain darkened, and the next scene of the drama was displayed. It -was laid in the Council Hall; but inasmuch as the Council was not in -session, and the Tsar was not yet captured, it possessed a certain -unreality for me which the audience did not seem to share. With -considerable interest I watched the ten about the Council table. At the -head sat a figure of enormous girth, dressed in white, with a black, or -probably mull robe about the shoulders. The face, appalling in its -grossness, must be that of Lembken, titular ruler of the Federation, a -fat old man with huge paunch and shrunken throat, on which the sagging -cheeks hung like a dewlap. A fit head for such a people! - -Beside him sat a man of about the same age, perhaps sixty years, but -lithe and lean and muscular, and with the keenest, cruelest face that I -ever had seen. His whitening hair was brushed back from his forehead, -and his expression was so full of sinister and malignant power that I -knew this could be none other than Sanson, the devil of this devil’s -world, who ruled the superstitious multitude by the terror of “Science -become Faith,” as old Sir Spofforth had so aptly phrased it. - -And, as I looked at him, I seemed to see the features of Herman -Lazaroff, as he might have been in his old age. There was the same -self-confidence, become arrogance, and self-assertion grown with power, -the same demoniac energy and will, trained by its use upon a servile -multitude. Thus Lazaroff might have been, if he could have had his wish -to live again. - -What struck me, as I gazed upon the strong, clean-shaven faces about the -Council board, was that they seemed to reproduce the aspect and gestures -of the degenerate emperors of Rome. Was history repeating itself; a -state-fed mob, state-governed industries, the fist of autocracy beneath -the glove of impotent democracy, and those terrific incarnations of -cruelty and insane pride in power? - -I saw the Tsar, a dwarfish, wretched figure in a tinsel crown, dragged, -groveling, to Lembken’s feet, while Lembken assumed an attitude of -inflexibility; and then once more the curtain darkened. - -“Praise your Boss!” hooted the funnels. “He is the people’s friend. -That’s how he deals with kings! He shows no mercy to the people’s -enemies. The Tsar is a low-grade moron. His heredity is horrible. He -cannot pass Test 1 upon the Binet board. He is a wretched brach, and -will now work in the leathers till he dies, producing for you.” - -“Hurrah!” screamed the spectators. “Out with him! To the Rest Cure!” - -And the absurdity of the display came home to none except myself. These -citizens were in deadly earnest. How shrewd the mind that had contrived -a pabulum so well calculated to appeal to the mob palate! The contrived -crudeness, the planned abuse betrayed an intimate and assured -acquaintance with the people’s psychology. - -“Praise louder!” whispered the intimate voice beside me. “Why do you not -praise when the others do?” - -And then I realized that the funnel was speaking to me! Nobody else had -heard, nobody else was meant to hear. I knew that the funnels had a -tele-photophonic attachment whereby one could see as well as hear. -Somewhere, then, the person who had spoken to me that morning was -watching and playing with me. For an instant I felt caught in a trap. - -“You do not seem to be an admirer of Boss Lembken,” said a voice upon my -other side; and I swung around to see a little, sallow man in blue, with -a plank badge on his shoulder, indicating that he was a carpenter. “I -see you are a stranger,” he continued, with a glance at my gray uniform. -“What do you think of London?” - -“I have not seen much of it as yet,” I answered, remembering David’s -warning. - -“Ah, you are diplomatic,” he returned suavely. “One has to be diplomatic -in these days, do you not think? You are of the same opinion as many of -us, only you lack the courage to say it, that certain features of our -civilization are over-developed. Now let us take Doctor Sanson, for -instance—do you not consider that he is pushing his prosecution of -morons to undue lengths? Has he not, in other words, a mania about -them?” - -“I think,” I answered, hotly, “that a man whose chief amusement consists -in torturing his fellow-men needs to have his own mentality -investigated.” - -“A worthy sentiment,” answered the little man, nodding his head briskly. -“In short, you are with us on that subject. And as for Lembken?” - -“I know nothing of him,” I answered shortly. - -“No, of course not. You are wise not to commit yourself,” said the -little man eagerly. “One must not pass judgment without investigation. -But still, our democracy has, in some respects, retained the features of -the old despotisms, do you not think? And then, do you consider that the -people are really omnipotent?” - -He cocked his head as he spoke, and he had the objectionable habit of -thrusting his face forward, so that he had been forcing me, step by -step, around the circumference of a circle. - -“The truth is, you say, we are actually in a condition of slavery,” he -persisted. “We are no better off than our ancestors, for all our boast -of civilization. Is that not so, to your way of thinking?” - -“You are very quick,” I answered, “to put words into my mouth before I -speak them.” - -“But you think them. Don’t you think them?” he urged, cocking his head -again and watching me with intense eagerness. - -The little man had ceased crowding me, and suddenly I saw that he had -contrived to have me speak almost into the mouth of the funnel. It was -only then that the meaning of his pertinacity and of his repulsive trade -grew clear to me. - -“Take yourself away!” I cried in anger. - -“Oh, certainly! By all means! Yap, yap, if you wish it,” he answered, -drawing back and watching me with a sarcastic smile. - -I went upon my way, filled with indignation. I wondered whether the -Council was watching me before summoning me, and why they attributed so -much importance to my views. I stared about me at the streets and the -crowds, the dazzling fronts of the high buildings, and even then I half -believed that this was a dream. Life could not have grown so accursed as -this. - -Before I became aware of it I had drawn near to the domed building, -toward which the street was running. The houses suddenly fell away, and -the splendid structure, which had seemed to float above the house-tops -elusively, revealed itself to me. I was near the summit of a rather -steep hill, whose superior portion consisted of a smooth glacis composed -of neatly-jointed stones, across which the converging streets moved -toward the castellated fortification, each terminating before a gate in -this wall. The gate in front of me was composed of huge blocks of stone, -probably with a steel foundation, and swung upon thin hinges of some -metal that must have had enormous tensile strength. It was open and, -like the fortification, was covered with glow paint or plaster, a -dazzling mirror, now white, now blue, and bright as sunlight. Above the -wall were the great conical, glow-painted Ray guns. - -I passed through the gateway under a massive arch. Now I saw that the -double wall enclosed a barracks or circular fortress, surrounding the -inner courtyard, and connected with the dome by long bridges, stretched -upon arches. The court within was laid out in grass plots, and was most -spacious. - -I stood still and gazed in admiration at the stupendous architectural -scheme of the great building that occupied the center of the circular -space. The dome covered only a small portion of the entire mass, and on -each side was a succession of halls and porticos, approached between -Corinthian columns, and, I thought, intercommunicating. The part -immediately beneath the dome appeared to be of older date than the rest, -and formed the nucleus of the complete conception. - -As I stood staring in astonishment, suddenly I knew what the domed -building was. It was St. Paul’s Cathedral; but the cross was gone. - -My wonder grew as I watched it. The dome designed by Sir Christopher -Wren remained intact; yet it no longer rested on the summit, but seemed -to soar, supported on numerous low pillars, and, twenty feet beneath it, -on a flat under-roof, was a garden of luxuriating palm trees, and -therefore presumably enclosed by invisible crystal walls. I saw the -gorgeous coloring of tropical flowers, and scarlet creepers that twined -around the trunks of old trees. What a magnificent pleasure-ground for -the Council of the Federated Provinces, high up above the London streets -in the December weather! - -An elderly, bent man in blue, with the sign of a hammer on his shoulder, -came slowly toward me. - -“Can one obtain a permit to go to the Council garden?” I inquired of -him. - -He stopped and looked dully at me. “Eh?” he inquired. - -“I want to go up and see the aerial garden,” I responded, pointing. - -“You want to go up there?” he exclaimed, and then began to chuckle. He -slapped first one knee and then the other. - -“Ho! Ho!” he roared. “That’s good. But listen! You don’t know who you’re -talking to. My daughter lives up there. I’ll never see her again, but I -like to walk here and look up and think about my luck. It gives me -standing. I’ve got to earn a hektone and a quarter monthly, haven’t I? -But I tell you I don’t earn fifty ones a month, and I lay off when I -want to, and there’s not a Labor Boss dares say a word to me. And down I -go on the register for my hektone and a quarter every month, as sure as -the sun rises.” - -His hard, shrewd laughter convulsed him again, and he slapped his legs -and leered at me. Then he drew closer to me and laid his hand on my arm -confidentially. - -“You’ve heard of this new freedom the people are whispering about?” he -asked, glancing apprehensively about him. “They’re never satisfied, the -people aren’t. They want to get back to the old, bad ways of a hundred -years ago, when there wasn’t food to go around, and the rich sucked the -poor men dry. I’ve read about those days. But the people are forgetting. -Sanson will crush them when they’re ready to break out. Do you know what -they want? Do you? Do you? - -“They want God back again, after we’ve put him down. They want their -heaven after their rotten hides are turned into fertilizer. I know. I -know those Christians. London’s full of them today. The defective shops -are full of them. They’re talking and planning for an uprising that will -turn back the hands of the clock. But Sanson will oust them when he gets -ready. He’ll give them the Rest Cure. - -“They say there’s a Messiah coming to mate the Temple goddess and bring -back the old, bad days. Do you know what Sanson means to do? He’s going -to mate her himself. And then he’s going to make us all immortal. We’ll -have our heaven on earth then, and keep our bodies too. What’s the use -of a heaven when you haven’t a body to enjoy it with? Sanson will make -us all young again. We don’t want freedom, we want immortality.” - -I was so astonished by his gabbling that I remained silent after he had -ended, not knowing how to answer him. He began scanning me slowly from -my feet upward. - -“You’re a stranger,” he said, with slow suspicion. - -“Yes,” I replied. “Now tell me how I can go up to the Council garden.” - -“Garden,” he replied, in apparent stupefaction. “Don’t you know that’s -Boss Lembken’s palace? That’s the People’s House, where Boss Lembken -lives. People can’t go up there. Don’t you know that’s the People’s -House? Who are you?” - -Suddenly he started back and a malignant look came over his face. - -“You’re a wipe!” he shrieked. “You want to trap me and send me to the -Comfortable Bedroom because I’m too old to work. Never a month passes -but I put up my hektone and a quarter. Look on the register. You want to -switch an old man who minds his own business and puts up his hektone and -a quarter, you rotten moron!” - -His old face worked with fear and excitement, and he raised his fist in -a threatening manner; then, suddenly changing his intention, he swung on -his heel and hurried away toward the gate. I saw him glance back -furtively at me and then increase his speed. - -As I turned to look at him I perceived that a small wooden gate on the -interior side of the circular fortification stood partly open, and -inside I saw a troop of the international guards at drill. - -I crossed the court and came to a halt before the Corinthian columns -that I had seen; and now I perceived that the pedestal of each contained -a bas-relief, a conventionalized figure beneath which was engraved a -tribute to some great leader of mankind. The engravings were in the old -Roman characters, which seemed to have been retained on statues, coins, -and brasses, just as we in our day still inscribed coins and statue -pedestals in Latin. I walked around the columns, reading these -inscriptions. - -The first that caught my eye was in honor of Darwin, and read simply, -“The Father of Civilization.” - -The next was to Karl Marx. “He interpreted history in the light of -materialism, and gave us the social State, with food for all,” I read. - -There was one in honor of Wells, “the Prophet of the Race.” - -There was one to Weismann, “who gave us immortality, not in a ghostly -heaven, but in the germ-plasm.” - -The next was to Mendel, who had “interpreted man’s destiny in terms of -the pea.” Poor, patient, toiling Abbot, what were you doing in this -galaxy? - -And there was one to Nietzsche, “the scourge of Jesus of Nazareth, a -peasant god.” - - - - - CHAPTER XI - THE GODDESS OF THE TEMPLE - - -The man in blue with the machine badge on his shoulder, who was waiting -for me at the entrance, surveyed me with a smile of tolerant amusement. - -“You are now at the heart of civilization,” he began. “Let me act as -your guide, for I see that you are a stranger. Is it not wonderful to -contemplate that here, upon a space of a few hektares, man has erected a -monument that shall endure forever! This wing,” he added, “is Doctor -Sanson’s domain, while Boss Lembken exercises his priestly function from -the People’s House, under the dome.” - -He led me within the portico and through a swing door on the north side -of the building. I found myself within a circular chamber like a -hospital theater, with marble seats rising almost to the roof around a -small central platform, on which were a crystal table, a large silver -tank, and a cabinet with glass doors, through which I could see surgical -appliances. - -“This is the Animal Vivisection Bureau,” said my guide. “It is not open -to the public while demonstrations are being given. The Council does not -permit the laity to acquire medical knowledge. We have several hundred -dogs constantly kenneled beneath, in the sound-proof rooms; they are -born there and, in general, die here.” - -“You use only dogs?” I asked. - -“At present, yes. Their trustfulness and docility make them the best -subjects, for we are demonstrating to our classes the nature and -symptoms of pain. Now here—” - -I followed him through another swing door into a similar room, but at -least twice the size. - -“This is the Vivisection Bureau,” he continued, taking his stand beside -a table of reddish marble mottled with blue veins, with a cup-like -depression at the head. “The people call it, jocularly, of course, the -Rest Cure Home. You can guess why. Criminals and other suitable subjects -are never lacking for experimentation. Doctor Sanson is said to be -making investigations which will prove of a revolutionary nature. Then, -the supply of moron children appears to be inexhaustible. Again, of -course, there is the annual Surgeons’ Day, when we round up the -populace. The date being movable, the ignorant are kept in a state of -wholesome apprehension. But let us follow that throng.” - -Through the glass of the swing door I perceived a large crowd pouring -into another part of the building, following in the wake of an old man, -perhaps eighty years of age, who was being conducted by two of the -blue-coated guards. Behind him trailed a little rat-faced man in blue, -who glanced furtively about him with a smile of bravado. We went with -the mob into a third chamber. - -It was about the size of the second, and in the center was a large -structure of steel, with a swing door. The brass rail which surrounded -it kept back the spectators, who lined it, heaving and staring, and -uttering loud exclamations of interest and delight. The room was filled -with the nauseating stench of an anaesthetic. - -One of the guards raised a drop-bar in the rail, and the old man passed -through and walked with firm steps toward the steel structure. His white -beard drifted over his breast, his blue eyes were fixed hard, and he had -the poise of complete resignation. At the door he turned and addressed -the spectators. - -“It’s a bad world, and I am glad to go out of it,” he said. “I remember -when the world was Christian. It was a better world then.” - -He passed through, and the anaesthetic fumes suddenly became -intensified. I heard the creak as of a chair inside the structure, a -sigh, and the soft dabbing of a wet sponge. That was all, and the mob, -struck silent, began to shuffle, and then to murmur. I saw the rat-faced -man slinking away. - -“This,” said my guide, “is popularly called the Comfortable Bedroom. The -old man can no longer produce his hektone and a quarter monthly, and his -grandson, who has the right to take over the burden, has just been -mated. Most of our old qualify for life in senility, but no doubt he -dissipated his credit margin in youth. Again, many prefer to go this -way. Now if he had been a woman he would have been accredited thirty -hektones for each child supplied to the State. That is Doctor Sanson’s -method of assuring productivity.” - -But I broke from the man in horror, forcing my passage through the -crowd, which was dispersing already. I ran on through hall after hall, -approaching the central part of the building, until I was again blocked -by a crowd, this time of young men and women in blue, who were reading a -lengthy list of letters and figures, suspended high in the center of -this chamber. Most of these young people were in pairs, and, as they -read, they nudged each other and exchanged facetious phrases. - -But one pair I saw who, with clasped hands, turned wretchedly away and -passed back slowly toward the entrance. - -“This is more cheerful than the Comfortable Bedroom,” murmured a voice -at my side. - -The new speaker was a dapper young fellow with a small, pert mustache -and an air of insinuating familiarity. He placed his hand upon my arm to -detain me as I started to move away. - -“The kindly Council, which relieves old age of the burden of life, also -provides that the life to come shall be as efficient for productivity as -possible,” he said. “I see you are a stranger and may not know that -these young people are here to learn the names of their mates.” - -“Do you mean that the Council decides whom each man or woman is to -marry?” I asked. - -“To mate? Yap, in ordinary cases. There is no mating for one-fourth of -the population—that is to say, those of the morons whose germ-plasm -contains impure dominants, and who are yet capable of sufficient -productivity to be permitted to reach maturity. Grade 2, the ordinary -defectives, who number another fourth of the people, are at present -mated, though Doctor Sanson will soon abolish this practice. The sexes -of this class are united in accordance with their Sanson rating, with a -view to eliminating the dominants.” - -“And these are defectives of what you call Grade 2?” I asked. - -“No, these are all Grade 1 defectives,” he answered, regarding me with -amusement. “Defectives such as us. We number forty-five per cent of the -population and form the average type. They are free to choose within -limits. The Council prepares periodically lists of young men and young -women in whom the deficiencies are recessive, and those on one side of -the list may mate with any of those upon the other side. Monogamy is, -however, frowned upon. I suppose you, in your country, never heard of -this plan?” - -“Yes, it used to be called the totem, or group marriage, and was -confined to the most degraded savages on earth, the Aborigines of -Australia,” I answered. But the little man, who had evidently not heard -of Australia, only looked at me blankly. A rush of people toward the -next hall carried us apart, and, not loath to lose my companion, I -followed the crowd, to find myself in the immense central auditorium, -within which orators were addressing the people from various platforms. - -Upon that nearest me a lecturer was holding forth with the enthusiasm of -some Dominican of old. - -“Produce! Produce!” he yelled, with wild gesticulations. “Out with the -unproductive who cannot create a hektone and a quarter monthly! Out with -the moron! Out with the defective! Out with the unadaptable! Out with -the weak! Out with him who denies the consubstantiality of Force and -Matter! No compromise! Sterilize, sterilize, as Doctor Sanson demands of -you! There are defectives in the shops today, spreading the moron -doctrines of Christianity. There are asymmetries and variations from the -Sanson norm, cunningly concealed, legacies of malformations from -degenerate ancestors, impure germ-plasm that menaces the future of the -human race. Let us support Sanson, citizens! Go through the city with -sickle and pruning-hook for the perfect race of the future, in the name -of democracy! Praise the great Boss!” - -“Hurrah!” shrieked the mob enthusiastically. - -“Will you not go up and see the Temple goddess?” whispered a voice in my -ear. - -I started, but I could not discern the speaker. I looked up. On either -side of the auditorium a high staircase of gleaming marble led to a -gallery which surrounded it. Doors were set in the wall of this in many -places, and above were more stairs and more galleries, tier above tier. -At the head of each stairway one of the guards was posted. He stood -there like a statue, picturesque in his blue uniform, which made a -splotch of color against the white marble wall. - -“Go up and ask no questions,” whispered somebody on my other side; and -again I turned quickly, but none of those near me seemed to have spoken. - -I went up the stairway, passing the guard, who did not stop or question -me. As I stopped in the gallery, high above the auditorium, a door -opened, and there came out a man of extreme age, dressed in white, with -a gold ant badge on either shoulder. He propped himself upon a staff, -and stood blinking and leering at me, and wagging his head like a -grotesque idol. - -“A stranger!” he exclaimed. “So you have come to see the goddess of the -Ant Temple! Would you like to stand upon the altar platform and see her -face to face? It only costs one hektone, but it is customary to offer a -gratuity to the assistant priest.” - -I thrust the money into the shaking hand that he stretched out to me. At -that moment I did not know whether I was still free, or whether this was -that peremptory summons to the Council of which David had warned me. I -realized that the spies who had dogged my path were all links in some -subtle scheme. - -The old man preceded me into a large room on the south side of the -auditorium, beyond which I saw another door. This seemed to be a -robing-room for the priests, for white garments with the gold ant badge -hung from the walls, which were covered with mirrors, from each of which -the horrible old face grimaced at me. - -“You are to go through that door,” said the old man, pointing to the far -end of the room. “It is a great privilege to look upon the face of the -goddess. Not everyone may do so, but you are not an ordinary man, are -you?” - -He shot a penetrating glance at me. - -“Thus the Messiah will look upon her when he comes,” he continued. “At -least, so runs the prophecy, and remember, you may be he, for it is -foretold that he will come unknowing his mission. But wait!”—for I was -hastening toward the door—“you must put on a priest’s robes. It is not -proper for a layman to look upon the goddess.” - -He indicated a white robe with the ant badge that hung on a table beside -me. - -“Don’t be in a hurry,” he mumbled. “It is a great pleasure to me to talk -with strangers from remote countries. Where do you come from? You look -like a man of the last century, come back to life. How the barbarians of -that period would stare if they could see our civilization!” - -“What is this Temple?” I inquired. “Do men worship an ant, and are you -its priest?” - -He chuckled and leered at me. “Oh, no, I am a very humble old man,” he -answered. “I am only an assistant priest. Boss Lembken is the Chief -Priest. And you ask about the Ant? The people worship it, but it is not -known whether they see it as the symbol of labor, or whether they think -it is a god. The religious ideas of the people were always a confused -and chaotic jumble, even in the old days of Christianity. But the Ant is -only the transition stage from God to Matter. We know there is no God, -nothing but Matter, and man is born of Matter and destined to be -resolved into it. But the people are still ignorant, and it keeps them -calm, to have an ant to pray to. Besides, if there were not the Ant they -would turn to Christianity again and set back the clock of progress. - -“I remember Christianity well. In my young days it used to be a power. I -used to go to church,” he cackled. “Not that I believed in God, any more -than the rest. Only the aristocrats and the intellectuals did that. I -didn’t believe in the Devil either, but I do now. Do you know the -Devil’s name? It is human nature.” - -I remained speechless beneath the spell that the wretch cast over me. - -“Yes, the Devil is human nature,” he resumed. “For it would thwart -progress forever, groveling before its idol of a soul. But already, when -I was a young man, only the intellectuals believed in Christianity. Once -it had been the masses. But Science proved that there was nothing but -Matter, and the momentum of the materialistic impulse was too strong for -the reviving faith. The aristocrats should have guarded their faith -instead of letting the people rise to control. But they were fools. They -set up in little rival bodies when Christ prayed for them to be one. -They permitted divorce when He said no. They tried to compromise with -Him, all except Rome and barbarous Russia, and that is why St. Peter’s -still stands as a Cathedral while St. Paul’s is the Ant Temple. I -remember it all. - -“Christ knew. He knew they would go under if they tried to sail with the -wind. When Science said there were no miracles they cut out the -miracles. And when the visionary Myers made his generation think there -might be miracles after all, they put some of them back again, but very -cautiously. They didn’t know that the people weren’t going to follow -them into rationalism and then out again. Nobody was going to believe -when the leaders themselves didn’t believe. - -“When He taught them how to heal the sick they preferred to mix His -prescription with drugs. They couldn’t believe in one thing and they -couldn’t believe in the other. He told them to leave Caesar’s things to -Caesar, and they went into politics. They tried to bargain with -Socialism when it became strong, but it wouldn’t have anything to do -with them. Then they preached housing reform and a good living, when He -praised poverty and told them to preach resignation. They couldn’t obey -in anything; they thought they knew better; they tried to follow the -times after they split into pieces; of course they went under.” - -“Is there no Christianity anywhere?” I asked. - -“In your native Russia,” he jeered. “In St. Peter’s, because the Italian -Province segregates the evil to keep it under observation. In Cologne, -because the bishop learned the secret of the Ray. And in the defectives’ -shops. They say they have the Scriptures hidden in there, but the -Council has put dozens to the torture and has never found them. It is -hard to clear the human mind of its inherited rubbish. After the -Revolution, Christianity continued to be taught among other myths. But -it aroused anti-social instincts. Christians were the enemies of human -progress. They used to go into the Rest Cure Home and ask to be -vivisected in place of the wretched morons there. You can’t build up a -progressive civilization out of people like that. So the teaching was -made a capital offense. That was after we burned the bishops.” - -“What!” I cried. - -“Death by burning came to us from the great trans-Atlantic democracy, -you know,” he said, leering at me. “Europe had forgotten it. But we set -up the stakes again. I saw Archbishop Tremont, of York, and the Roman -Catholic Archbishop of Westminster burned side by side in the ruins of -Westminster Hall. Then there was Bonham, of London, and Bethany, of -Manchester, and Dean Cross, of Chichester; we put them in plaster of -paris and unslaked lime first. The morons could have fled to -Skandogermania, which was not free then. But they went, all three, into -the Council Hall, and preached to the Council. That was in Boss Rose’s -time. So they had to go. And they blessed us while their bones were -crackling. You can’t make a progressive nation out of people like that.” - -I hurried toward the door. I pushed it open, and it swung back -noiselessly behind me. - -Within the vastness of the Temple I heard a murmur rise, a wail of -misery that made the ensuing silence more dreadful still. For here I -encountered only thick gloom and emptiness, and soundless space, as -though some veil of awful silence had been drawn before the tabernacle -of an evil god. My knees shook as I advanced, clutching the rail beside -my hand. - -I found myself upon a slender bridge that seemed to span the vault. It -widened in the center to a small, square, stone-paved enclosure, like a -flat altar-top, surrounded by a close-wrought grille that gleamed like -gold. I halted here, and, looking down, saw, far beneath, a throng whose -white faces stared upward like masks. Again that chant arose, and now I -heard its burden: - -“We are immortal in the germ-plasm; make us immortal in the body before -we die.” - -Then something beneath me began to assume shape as my eyes grew used to -the obscurity. It was a great ant of gold, five hundred tons of it, -perhaps, erected on a great pedestal of stone; where should have been -the altar of the Savior of the world, there the abominable insect -crawled, with its articulated, smooth body, and one antenna upraised. - -The symbol was graven clear. This was the aspiration of mankind, and to -this we had come, through Science that would not look within, through a -feminism that had sought new, and the progressive aims of ethical -doctrinaires that had discarded the old safeguards; Christ’s light yoke -of well-tried moral laws, sufficient to centuries; through all the -fanatic votaries of a mechanistic creed; polygamy and mutilation, and -all the shameful things from which the race had struggled through -suffering upward. All the old evils which we had thought exorcised -forever had crept in on us again, out of the shadows where they had lain -concealed. - -I stood there, sick with horror, clinging to the rail. - -How far from gentle St. Francis and St. Catherine, and all the gracious -spirits of the dead and derided ages, progress had moved! Were those -things false and forgotten, those saintly ideals which had shone like -lamps of faith through the night of the world? Was this the truth and -were those nothing? - -I heard a sobbing in the shadows beneath. I looked down and perceived, -immediately before the Ant, an aged man prostrate. He muttered; and, -though I heard no words that I could understand, I realized that, in his -blind, helpless way, he was groping toward the godhead. - -Then I looked up and saw something that sent the blood throbbing through -my head and drew my voice from me in gasping breaths. - -At the edge of the platform on which I stood, out of the gloom, loomed -the round body of the second cylinder. And inside, through the face of -unbroken glass, I saw the sleeping face of Esther, my love of a century -ago. - -The cap of the cylinder was half unscrewed. - - - - - CHAPTER XII - THE LORDS OF MISRULE - - -I saw her eyelids quiver and half unclose an instant, and, though there -was no other sign of awakening upon the mask-like face of sleep, I knew -she lived. The indicators upon the dials showed that five days remained -before the opening of the cylinder. And, as I stared through the glass -plate, so horror-struck and shaken, some power seemed to take possession -of me and make me very calm. An immense elation succeeded fear and -rendered it impotent. Esther was restored to me. We had not slept -through that whole century not to meet at last. - -How many years we two had lain side by side within our cylinders, down -in the vault, I could not know. Yet there had been a sweetness behind -those misty memories of my awakening as if our spirits had been in -contact during those hundred years of helpless swoon. - -The eyelids quivered again. But for the emaciation and the dreadful -pallor I might have thought she was only lightly sleeping, and would -awaken at my call. The love in my heart surged up triumphantly. For her -sake I meant to play the man before the Council. - -I meant to go there now. I think my instinct must have been the courage -born of hopelessness, such as that which had carried the bishops to -their death. For only a desperate stroke could win me Esther; and such a -stroke must be made, should be made. With steady steps I returned to the -priests’ room. - -The dotard was waiting for me, and he came forward, smiling and blinking -into my face, searing my soul with eyes as hard as agates. - -“I am going to the Council,” I said quietly. - -He looked at me in terror. He seized me by the arm. - -“No, no, no!” he exclaimed. “You are to go to your friends. The Council -is not in session.” - -“It is in session. I have been held for it.” - -“You don’t understand. That is the Provincial Council. This is a matter -for the Federal Council, and Sanson is not your friend. Don’t you -understand now? Sanson is working on the problem of immortality and -doesn’t suspect. Boss Lembken is your friend. Don’t you know he is your -friend?” - -“No,” I answered contemptuously. - -The old man clutched me in extreme agitation. - -“If you are headstrong you will go to ruin,” he cried. “Boss Lembken is -your friend. He sent for you. Not Sanson. Boss Lembken discovered who -you were while Sanson was dreaming over his victims. If Sanson knew he -would get you into his power and overthrow the priesthood. He means to -destroy the Ant and have no god. He is going to mate the goddess when -she awakens—” - -He saw me start and clench my fists, and a deep-drawn “Ah!” of relief -came from his lips. For I had betrayed my identity beyond all doubt; and -it was to make sure of this that I had been sent into the Temple. I -could see it all now. - -“Now listen to me,” he said, coming near and thrusting his repulsive old -face into mine. “Boss Lembken wants you. He wants to help you and give -you power. But he was not sure of you; and so he had to use craft and -caution. When the Messiah comes Lembken will overthrow Sanson and make -the world free again. It was Lembken who sent for you.” - -He was becoming incoherent with fright at my obduracy. - -“The People’s House is above the Temple,” he continued. “Boss Lembken -lives there. He has a beautiful palace. You will be happy there. And -Sanson has no palace and no delights. He wants nothing except to -vivisect the morons. So you will not want to go to Sanson. He can offer -you nothing. We must be cautious, and if he is in the Council Hall we -must wait till he has gone, for he controls the Guard, and if he saw you -he would have you seized. That is why I gave you a priest’s -robes—because Sanson dares not stop the priests, who are under Lembken. -Come with me, then.” - -I accompanied him out into the gallery above the auditorium, in which -the orators were still declaiming to a lessening crowd. Sanson or -Lembken, it mattered little to me. I felt enmeshed in some plot whose -meaning was incomprehensible. But I meant to win Esther. I walked like a -somnambulist, feeling that the dream might dissolve at any moment. A -shaft from the western sun struck blood-red on a window. A pigeon that -had perched among the columns fluttered to the ground. Above me I saw -tier upon tier of galleries. - -We ascended the marble stairway, the guards making no attempt to stop -us, nor were we challenged. I noticed that they were armed with Ray -rods, similar to those that I had seen in the cellar; and they raised -them in salutation as we passed. - -We ascended flight after flight, and always the guards posted at the top -of each saluted us and stepped aside. We passed across a little covered -bridge and presently entered a small rotunda, in which a dozen guards -were seated, sipping coffee and chatting in low tones. Behind them was -an immensely high door marked in large letters - - COUNCIL HALL - -To the right and left of it were smaller doors. - -We entered the door on the right, and the priest, stopping, whispered to -me: - -“You must make no sound. If Sanson is in Council he must not discover -us.” - -I found myself in a small room, with the inevitable door at the farther -end. Upon one side were two apertures in the wall, disclosed by sliding -panels that moved noiselessly—spy-holes, each as large as the bottom of -a teacup. The priest stooped before one and I looked through the other. - -The immense Council Hall was dim, and it took a few moments for my eyes -to grow accustomed to the obscurity. Then I saw at the distant end a -raised platform, on which stood two high chairs, like thrones. - -There were three men upon this platform, one occupying each chair, and -the third standing. - -One was unmistakably Lembken, the obese old boss of the Federation. He -wore a trailing gown of white, with a short mull cape about his -shoulders, and there were golden ants—as I discovered afterward—stamped -all over the fabric. He was lying rather than standing, and his feet -rested upon a stool. He was smiling in evil fashion, and he was stout to -the verge of disease. I could not see his face distinctly. - -Upon the second throne sat a man with a fanatic’s face and a square -beard of black that swept his breast. He had a large ant badge on either -shoulder of his white gown, and on one finger was an immensely heavy -ring of gold that projected beyond the knuckles. This was the Deputy -Chief Priest. - -Standing between the two in the shadows, lolling back half-insolently -against Boss Lembken’s chair, to whisper in his ear, and again turning -to the priest, was Sanson. I could not mistake the whitening hair -brushed back, the gestures of intense pride and power, though I could -hardly see the face. He wore a tight tunic of white, without a badge, -and he bore himself with a complete absence of self-consciousness. There -was not a trace of pose in the completeness of that manifested -personality, with its alert poise, cat-like and tense, as if each nerve -and sinew had been disciplined to serve the master-soul within. - -As I watched I heard a strident, metallic voice call in loud tones: - -“Wait till the Goddess awakens and the Messiah comes! He’ll make an end -of Sanson and his cruelties, and give us freedom again!” - -Now I perceived that behind Sanson and between the two thrones stood a -telephone funnel, attached to some mechanism. It was from this that the -voice had issued. It was followed by the clacking sound of a riband of -paper being run off a reel. Sanson stepped back, picked up the riband, -and ran it through his fingers, glancing at it indifferently. - -“The speaker lives in District 9, Block 47, but we do not yet know his -name. A trapper is watching,” said the voice in the funnel. - -A bell rang, the door on the left of the Council Hall was opened by a -guard, and a girl of about eighteen entered. She was robed in white and -on her shoulder was the sign of a palm tree. She stood before Boss -Lembken’s throne with downcast face and clasped hands, trembling -violently. - -“They sent for me,” she said in a low voice. - -I saw the smile deepen on Lembken’s face. He sat leering at her; then he -shifted each foot down from the stool and gathered himself, puffing, -upon his feet. He put his hand under her chin and raised it, looking -into her face. The girl twisted herself away, screamed and began running -toward the door. - -“Let me go home! Please—please!” she cried. - -The guard at the door placed one hand over her mouth and dragged her, -struggling, through a small door behind the funnel, which I had not -seen. - -I clenched my fists; only the thought of Esther held me where I was. - -“Ascribe the heretics,” said Lembken to the deputy priest, and puffed -out behind the guard. - -Sanson stepped backward and touched the funnel mechanism, which -instantly began to scream. - -“Heresy in the paper shops!” it howled. “Examine District 5. They say -there is a God. Weed out the morons there!” - -The writing mechanism began to clack again. I saw the paper riband coil -like a snake along the floor between the thrones. Sanson stopped the -machine, which was beginning to screech once more. He moved to the -vacant throne and sat down. - -Again the bell tinkled, and there came in a man of about thirty years, -in blue, leading a little boy by the hand. He looked about him in -bewilderment, and then, seeing the priest, flung himself on his knees -and pressed his lips to the hem of his robe. - -“It is not true that I am a heretic, as they say,” he babbled. “I -believe in Science Supreme, and Force and Matter, coexistent and -consubstantial, according to the Vienna Creed, and in the Boss, the -Keeper of Knowledge. That man dies as the beast dies. And that we are -immortal in the germ-plasm, through our descendants. I believe in -Darwin, Hæckel, and Wells, who brought us to enlightenment—” - -“That boy is a moron!” screamed Sanson, interrupting the man’s -parrot-rote by leaping from his chair. - -He dragged the child from the father, switched on the solar light, and -set him down, peering into his face. He took the child’s head between -his hands and scanned it. His expression was transformed; he looked like -a madman. And then I realized that the man was really mad; a madman -ruled the world, as in the time of Caligula. - -The father crept humbly toward Sanson; he was shaking pitiably. - -“He is a Grade 2 defective,” he whispered. “You don’t take Grade 2 from -the parents. He is Grade 2—the doctors said so—” He repeated this over -and over, standing with hands clasped and staring eyes. - -“I say he is a moron!” Sanson shouted. “The doctors are fools. He is a -brach. Look at that index and that angle! Look at the cranium, -asymmetrical here—and here! The fingers flex too far apart, a proof of -deficiency. The ears project at different angles, my eighth stigma of -degeneracy. He is a moron of the third grade, and must go to the Vivi—” - -With an unhuman scream the father leaped at Sanson and flung him to the -ground, snatched up the boy in his arms and began running toward the -door. From his throne the priest looked on impassively; it was no -business of his. The guard appeared. - -But before the man reached the guard at the door Sanson had leaped to -his feet and pulled a Ray rod from his tunic. He pointed it. I heard the -catch click. A stream of blinding, purple-white light flashed forth. I -heard the carpet rip as if a sword had slashed it. A chip of wood flew -high into the air. On the floor lay two charred, unrecognizable bodies. - -I confess my only impulse then was of fear. How could I confront that -devil, or Lembken, in his hell, when for Esther’s sake I must be -cautious and wise? I plunged toward the farther door. The priest caught -at me, but I shook him off and flung him, stunned, to the floor. I -opened the door and rushed through. - -I was amazed to find myself upon a long, slender bridge that spanned the -central court of the vast structure. I stopped, bewildered, not knowing -where to turn, and the whole scene burned itself upon my brain in an -instant. - -The immense mass was divided into four separate buildings. The Council -Hall, from which I had emerged, was on the southern side, and, looking -beyond it, I saw the Thames, winding like a silver riband into the -distance. Facing me was the north wing, by which I had entered, -containing the Vivisection Bureau and other halls of nameless horrors, -with Sanson’s quarters. On my left hand the Temple towered high over me. -Above my head I saw the outlines of the noble dome, and the palm trees -behind their crystal walls. A blood-red creeper trailed down through a -chink in the wall. - -Upon my right was a massive fortress that I had not hitherto perceived, -floating above which was a whole fleet of airships, evidently the same -that I had seen when I flew into London. There must have been more than -a hundred of them, ranging from tiny scoutplanes to huge monsters with -glow shields about them, projecting conical machines like those that -studded the top of the enclosing wall, but smaller. On their prows were -great jaws of steel, in some cases closed, in others distended, fifteen -feet of projecting jaw and mandible, capable, as it looked, of crushing -steel plate like eggshells. - -The bridge on which I stood ran from the Council Hall to the wing where -Sanson dwelled. A bridge from the Temple building ran straight to the -fortress of the airships at right angles to this, the two thus crossing, -forming a little enclosed space in the center. At various spots, bridges -from the enclosing fortress crossed the court and entered the pile of -buildings. And the whole concept was so beautiful that even then I -stopped to gaze. - -But I did not know whither to turn. In front of me, where the bridge -entered Sanson’s wing, a guard stood watching me. As I approached the -central place where the two bridges met he raised his Ray rod with a -threatening gesture. - -I turned to the right. Here, where the bridge from the Temple entered -the fort of the airships, I saw an airscout in blue, with the white swan -on his breast, watching me. Again I stopped. My mind was awhirl with the -horrors that I had seen; I could not think! I did not know what to do. -All exit seemed barred to me except that whereby I had come. - -Beneath me lay the court, a broad expanse of white, inlaid with -geometrical figures of green grass. On it crawled tiny figures in blue. -I was halfway between the court below and the Temple dome above; yet -everything was so still that the voices below came up to me. - -A group had gathered, chattering excitedly, about something that lay -hard by the Temple entrance. As they moved this way and that I saw that -it had been a woman. She had been young; her garments had been white; -there was a gold palm on a torn-off fragment that a gust of wind drove -up toward me. I caught at it, but it went sailing past and fluttered -down in the central court between the buildings. - -I saw the spectators look up toward the aerial gardens. The blood-red -creeping vine now swung from an open crystal door. That paradise of -tropic beauty, those flame-colored flowers were such as blossom in hell. - -The crystal door above me clashed to and reopened as the wind caught it. -It seemed to clang rhythmically, like a clear tocsin, high up beneath -the dome, a bell of doom to warn the blood-stained city. Again it -sounded like a workman’s hammer; and the silence that covered everything -made the sounds more ominous and dread, as if Fate were hammering out -the minutes remaining before she slashed her thread. - -An old man pushed his way through the gathering crowd. He peered into -the white face, and wrung his hands, and wept, and his voice rose in a -high, penetrating wail. - -“It’ll all be ended,” I heard him cry. “I can’t work now. I can’t make -up my time. I’ve spent my credit margin. I’m old and outed and done -with. I’ll have to go to the Comfortable Bedroom.” - -It was the old man whom I had seen earlier that day. The crowd jeered -and pressed forward, those who were behind craning their necks and -rising on their toes to see the joint spectacle of death and grief. The -old man shook his gnarled fist at his dead daughter. - -“You’ve killed me,” he sobbed in rage. “Why couldn’t you have stayed up -there till Sanson has made us all immortal? I’m going to the Comfortable -Bedroom now, and my body will die like a beast’s, and I’ll be ended.” - -And he broke into atrocious curses, while the crowd screamed with -delight and mocked his passion. - -The little gate on the inner side of the fort opened, and a troop of the -Guard emerged, carrying a stretcher. At the sight of them the mob -scuttled away. The guards picked up the body and carried it within the -gate. One began scattering sand. - -Out of the crowd leaped an old man with flowing hair and beard. He stood -out in the court and shook his fist toward the Temple dome. - -“Woe to you, accursed city!” he screamed. “Woe to you in the day of -judgment! Woe to your whites and harlots when the judgment comes!” - -The crystal door banged and clashed open. A woman in white put out her -hand and closed it. A latch-click pricked the air. The sun gilded the -dome and turned it to a ball of fire. Down in the court the madman cried -unceasingly. - -[Illustration: - - “Woe to you, accursed city!” he screamed. “Woe to you in the day of - judgment! Woe to your whites and harlots when the judgment comes!” -] - - - - - CHAPTER XIII - THE PALACE OF PALMS - - -The sun dipped behind the western buildings, and the glare of the glow -on fort and Temple and encircling wall was like phosphorescent fire. I -saw the guards stirring in their enclosure. The Airscouts’ Fortress -shone, hard and brilliant, against the sky. - -I gathered my wits together. I had seen the hidden things, and, because -I knew of none other to whom to turn, I resolved to appeal to David. -Esther, the prey of these insane degenerates when she awakened ... -David’s own secret troubles ... could we not aid each other? Might not -two men accomplish something in these evil days? - -I turned to the right across the bridge that led to the Airscouts’ -Fortress. The sentinel stood still, watching me. He raised his Ray rod, -not to threaten me, but to salute, and I remembered that the airscouts -had no love for the Guard, and hence must be under Lembken’s control. He -took me for a priest. But the weapon shook in his hand, and the -astonishment upon his face matched that on mine. I recognized the man -Jones, who had brought me to London. - -“I want to leave this hell!” I cried. “Which way? Which way?” - -“You want—you want—?” he stammered. - -“The Strangers’ House. I am lost here—” - -He looked at me in utter perplexity. - -“Help me!” I pleaded. “Show me the way!” - -The door behind him opened, and there stepped out a man of about fifty -years, dressed in white, with a golden swan on each shoulder. Jones -stepped aside and saluted him. The newcomer approached me. His hard, -clean-shaven face was impenetrable, and his eyes burned with a dull -fire. Behind him crept a second figure; it was the old priest. - -“There he is! Seize him!” he shrieked. - -The first man laid his hand on my shoulder. “I am Air-Admiral Hancock,” -he said. “You are to accompany me to Boss Lembken.” - -I went with him across the bridge into a doorway set in the west side of -the Temple building. I expected again to see the vast interior beneath -me, but we entered a narrow corridor and stepped into a small automatic -elevator. In a moment we had shot up and halted inside the Palace -entrance. Hancock opened the door of the cage. - -We were standing in a spacious hall, bare, save for the hanging -tapestries and heavy Persian rugs on the mosaic floor. It was half dark, -and there was a perfume that made my head swim. Before the curtained -aperture opposite us stood a negro boy, with a Ray rod in his hand. As -we approached he threw the curtain aside and saluted us. - -There were soft solar lights in the next room, which was rose-red, and -decorated and furnished in the style of Louis Quatorze. Another negro -stood in the doorway opposite; he, too, saluted and threw the curtain -back. - -The third room was enameled in blue. The blue lights gave it an -unearthly aspect, which was increased by the baroque style of its -ornamentation. The perfume was stronger. - -The negro at the door of the fourth room was a giant. He wore the -uniform of an eighteenth century grenadier. His scarlet coat and white -pigtail formed vivid spots against the dull-gold curtain. The room -within was dark. We waited on the threshold. - -At first I could see nothing. Then, gradually, the outlines of the room -came into sight. There were low divans and rugs, and mirrors on every -wall multiplied them. I heard a rasping sound, and a blotch of crimson -and green became a brilliant macaw that scraped its way with its sharp -claws from end to end of a horizontal perch. Behind it I now saw the -white gleam of Lembken’s robe; then the couch on which he lay; then the -girl who crouched, fanning him, at his feet; then the rotund form of the -old man, the sharp eyes and the heavy jowl with the pendulous cheeks. - -“I have executed your orders, Boss,” said the Air-Admiral. - -The old man rose upon his feet heavily and came puffing up to us. His -heavy soft hands wandered about my robes, patting me here and there, -while he puffed and snorted like some sea monster. - -“You haven’t a knife or a Ray rod?” he inquired suspiciously. “You -haven’t anything to harm me? I am an old, weak man. I am the people’s -friend, and yet many want to kill me.” - -He seemed to satisfy himself with the result of his inspection, and -withdrew to his couch, picking up a Ray rod and resting it across his -knee. - -He dismissed Hancock and the girl. She rose to her feet briskly, with a -mechanical smile. She was about twenty years old, it seemed to me, but -there was a hardness and cruelty about her mouth that shocked me, and -the soul behind the mask of youth seemed centuries old. - -“Amaranth wanted to stay, to hear what I was going to say to you,” said -Lembken, “but I make everybody mind his own business in the People’s -House. Besides, she might have fallen in love with you. I like to have -good-looking people about me.” He looked at me and at the Ray rod, and -then at me again; then, with a petulant gesture, he sent the weapon -flying across the room. - -“There! You see I trust you!” he said, smiling. “Sit down beside me. We -understand each other, so we will be frank. Men such as we are above -deceptions. You ought to be about a hundred and twenty-eight years old!” - -He spoke jocularly, and yet I could see that he wished to be sure I was -the man he sought. Evidently he knew my history. He heaved a sigh of -immense satisfaction when I acquiesced. - -“I was not sure it was you,” he said. “One has to be cautious when so -much depends on it. And Sanson was beginning to suspect, but he does not -know that I discovered Lazaroff’s papers. Sanson does not know -everything, you see, Arnold. What do you think of his Rest Cure, as the -people term it? It is his, not mine, you know.” - -“I think he is Satan himself,” I answered quickly. Yet I was not sure -that I preferred this perfumed degenerate to Sanson, with his maniac -cruelty. - -A smile crept over the flabby face. Lembken looked pleased. He placed -his hand upon my shoulder. - -“A classical scholar,” he said. “You refer to the mythical ruler of the -infernal realms. Assuredly we shall soon understand each other. Sanson -is a strong man. When I meet strong men I let them be as strong as they -want to be. They break themselves to pieces. In a democracy like ours -there is no room for strong men. Sanson doesn’t understand that. He -thinks the Mayor of the Palace is going to step into the shoes of the -Roi Fainéant. But the Roi Fainéant always wins—if he sits still. I am -the Roi Fainéant.” - -I was so amazed at the strange psychology he was disclosing that I found -no answer ready. I knew he was dissembling some deep-laid purpose, but -why he had need of me I could not imagine. And the man’s affectation of -good-will almost began to delude me. - -“Do you like David’s daughter?” he began, so suddenly that I started. -“Ah!” he continued, shaking his finger waggishly, “one seldom sees a -woman approximating so closely to the Sanson norm. There is an -attachment, if I know young men. How would you like her for your own? I -hit the mark, then?” - -Before I could reply he was on another tack. - -“Now, there is Hancock,” he resumed. “He is a Christian, and ought to go -to the defectives’ shops, according to the law Sanson made. But I don’t -care. I would just as soon have Christianity as the Ant, or Mormonism, -as they have in America. I don’t like tyranny. If I had my way everyone -would be perfectly free. Sanson doesn’t see that he has embittered the -people. He is harrying them with his laws, and they blame me. I am the -people’s friend.” - -With a sudden, hoarse scream the macaw flew from the bar and perched on -Lembken’s shoulder, where she sat, preening her plumage and croaking at -me. “The people’s friend,” she screamed, and broke into choking -laughter. - -“So you see it is entirely to your interest to help me and not Sanson,” -Lembken continued. “Reasonable men cement their friendships with -self-interest. Come, let me look at you.” - -He touched some switch near him, and the room was illuminated with a -blaze of solar light. The golden ants upon his robes leaped into view. -He turned on the divan heavily and stared into my face. - -“Yes, I can trust you,” he said in approbation. “Well, Sanson will learn -his error in four days’ time. You shall live here with me and have a -life of pleasure. You need never think about the world below. We do -exactly what we please; that is my rule in the People’s House.” - -“The People’s House!” screamed the macaw, leaving his shoulder and -fluttering back to her perch, from which she surveyed us coldly, head on -one side. “The People’s House! The people’s friend!” she alternated, in -a muttering diminuendo. - -“My head aches today,” said Lembken petulantly. “That is why I am -sitting here. There has been an accident: one of our ladies fell down -through an open door. It made my head ache.” - -I knew he lied when he spoke of an accident. I knew that she had thrown -herself down. The lie brought back my mind to its focus; and in that -instant my lips were sealed, and my half-formed intent to throw myself -on Lembken’s mercy, pleading for Esther and our love, died. - -“So we shall talk tomorrow,” Lembken continued. “For the present you are -one of us. You see your interest lies in joining us, and the part you -have to play in return will be short and not difficult for a man of your -discernment. That small part will be paid, four days hence—” - -I was sure that it concerned Esther now. “And will be all, and afterward -your life will be free from all laws and bonds. You never need leave the -People’s House unless you want to. Here everyone does as he pleases. -Come, Arnold, I will show you the gardens.” - -He stood up, puffing, and gave me his arm like an old friend. The man’s -manners were fascinating. I could well understand how he had worked his -way to power. There was the good-fellowship of the twentieth-century -demagogue, but there was more; there was discernment and culture; and -there was more still; there was a corrupting influence about his candor -that seemed to strike its deadly roots down into my moral nature and -shrivel it. - -We passed out through the empty rooms. The Palace was level with the -Temple roof; there were no steps. There was no stairway at all, for the -whole structure, which seemed to extend from side to side of the vast -roof, consisted of a single story. We passed out between two giant -negroes, who stood like ebony statues. And now I saw that the four rooms -in which I had been, comprised only the smallest portion of the -building, which was set out irregularly, receding here to leave space -for a little lawn, projecting there, evidently to enclose a garden. And -I discovered why the interior was so dark; there were no windows—at -least, on this side of the Palace. - -It was a fairyland. I thought of the old palaces at Capri. Here, high -above the swarming streets, a man might take his pleasure in ease -indeed. The crystal walls must have been sound-proof, for not a murmur -from below reached us. I heard the music of bubbling brooks, the cries -of birds among the trees, the faint tinkle of a guitar or mandolin -struck somewhere in the recesses of the ramified buildings. - -We were traversing a graveled path that ran between the Palace and the -crystal wall. Looking down, I could see the glow circle of the fortress. -It had grown dark; the lights which lit our way, that I had thought -daylight, were from the solar vents, concealed so skilfully that they -shed a soft, diffused radiance everywhere, as of afternoon. We turned -the angle of the building, and I stopped short and looked in involuntary -admiration at the scene before me. - -We might have stepped into the heart of some Amazonian forest, for we -were in a tangled wilderness of palms and other tropical trees. The air -was filled with the scent of orange flowers, and in a grove near me -clusters of the bright fruit hung from the weighted boughs. From the -dank earth sprang clusters of exotic, flaming flowers, and ferns. Huge -vines knotted themselves about the trunks of trees, through whose -recesses flew flocks of brilliantly plumaged birds. The path became a -trail, meandering between the trees and crossing rushing brooklets. The -vast concavity of the dome above was like an arched heaven of blue, -studded with golden stars. - -“What do you think of the People’s House, Arnold?” Lembken inquired, -turning heavily upon me. - -“It is a paradise,” I answered. - -I was amazed to see two tears roll down his cheeks. It was the same -strange yielding to emotional impulse that I had discerned before. So -might Nero have wept over his fiddle. - -“It is the reward of those who are the chosen of the people,” he -answered. “It will be your reward, Arnold. You must dream over this -tonight, and tomorrow we will make our compact. I have reserved quarters -for you. You will meet nobody you do not wish to meet. That is the chief -charm of the People’s House; we meet only for our festivities; otherwise -we are quite free. Come, Arnold!” - -The scene, the atmosphere, the fearful personality of Lembken seemed to -appeal to some being in me whose hideous presence I had never suspected. -A deadly inertia of the spirit was conquering me. Esther, my love of a -hundred years, became in memory elusive as a dream to me. The sensuous -appeal of this wonderland swept over me. - -We had threaded the recesses of the groves, passing secluded arbors of -twisted vines, pergolas and rustic cottages about which clung the -scarlet trumpets of pomegranate flowers; now the crystal walls came into -sight again, and, as we approached, a gust of wind blew the door open. -Instantly, to divert my senses from that soul-destroying dominance, -there rushed in, the murmurs of the city, the voices of the multitude -below, and, above all, clear and distinct, the wild accents of the -whitebeard, who had denounced the pleasure-palace that afternoon. - -“Woe to you, London, when your whitecoats sit with their harlots in the -high places! Woe! Woe!” - -I could not see him; through the door I saw only the circle of the -enclosing walls, a luminous orb beneath, and the glare of the huge Ray -guns; beyond were the mighty buildings. Lembken put out his hand and -closed the door. The voices were cut off into silence. I glanced at him, -but his brow was untroubled and serene. - -He led me across a little, shelving lawn, through a small gateway. There -was nobody in the tiny close, surrounded by a high marble wall. There -were no windows in the little house before me. It might have held two -rooms. - -“Three rooms,” said Lembken, as if he had read my thoughts. “Good night, -Arnold. Remember, we do what we like to do in the People’s House. There -are no laws, no bonds. Dream of this paradise that shall be yours, and -open the third door softly.” - -He left me. I pushed the first door open and entered. - -It was a bedroom, furnished in the conventional style which had not -changed appreciably during the century, but all in ebony or teak, and -luxurious almost beyond conception. The floor was covered with a -thick-piled Bokhara rug, of red and ivory, and exquisite texture. - -I passed through the inevitable swing door. The second room was fitted -as a combination library and dining-room. There was an ebony bookcase, -filled with magnificently bound books, a sideboard on which stood wines -and distilled liquors, a heavy dining-table, armchairs. - -This room had a window, and, looking out, I was surprised to see beneath -me the bridge that led to the Airscouts’ Fortress, and, at the end of -it, a figure in blue, the white swan on his breast brilliant in the -glare of the solar light over his head. - -I passed on. But instead of the swing door the further wall contained a -door of heavy, iron-bound wood, with bolts of steel. Then I remembered -Lembken’s words: “Open the third door softly.” - -The bolts moved in their sockets with hardly a sound. I drew them; I -opened the door and passed into a tiny chamber. - -A girl in white, with the palm badge upon her shoulder, was standing -there. The room had been dark; the sudden influx of the solar light from -the library showed me the pallid face and blazing eyes of her whom I had -least thought to see before me—Elizabeth! - - - - - CHAPTER XIV - THE HOUSE ON THE WALL - - -She stared at me with eyes that seemed to see nothing; and then a look -of recognition came into them, and a twitching smile upon her lips. She -put her arms out and came unsteadily toward me. She threw her right arm -back. I caught her hand as it swung downward, and the dagger’s razor -edge grazed my shoulder. - -The next moment she was fighting like a trapped panther. I could not -have imagined that such strength and fierceness existed in any woman. -She twisted her wrists out of my grasp time and again, and we wrestled -for the dagger till the blood from my slashed fingers fouled my priest’s -robe. Each of the stabbing blows she dealt so wildly would have driven -the dagger in to the hilt. - -I grappled with her, caught her right arm at last, and forced it upward, -but we swayed to and fro for nearly a minute before I mastered her. Even -then she had one last surprise in store, for, when she saw that she was -beaten, she drew her dagger hand quickly backward, and I seized the -point of the blade within an inch of her breast. I forced her fingers -open brutally, and the steel fell to the floor. Then she wrested herself -away, and crouched in the corner, watching me, motionless, but still -ready to leap. Her gasping breaths were the only sound in the room. - -“Elizabeth!” I cried. “I am not here to harm you. Look at me; listen to -me!” - -Her eyes were fixed on my face in terror that precluded speech. How she -watched me! Only once did her glance waver, and that was toward the -dagger on the floor. I kicked it backward with my heel. - -“Elizabeth, listen to me!” I implored her. “I did not know that you were -here, and I do not know how you came here. I want to help you. I want to -take you home to David!” - -“Ah!” she said, shuddering. “This is what you whites call a romance in -the style of the first century B.C., a fashionable pastime, to dress -yourselves as blues or grays and worm your way into the homes of your -prospective victims, in order to study them, and see whether they suit -your taste and are worth adding to your collection. I have read of that -in the Council factory novels. But there was never any romance in it to -me. So I appeared to suit you, after my father had taken you into his -home so trustingly? You deceived him; but you never deceived me.” - -I saw her glance turn to the dagger again. - -“Elizabeth, you are talking nonsense,” I said, with an affectation of -brusqueness. “Let us sit down in the next room, and I propose a compact. -You shall take the dagger, provided you do not attempt to harm yourself -with it till you have heard me. Is that agreed?” - -She scrutinized me for half a minute. Then she nodded. I preceded her -into the library with an affectation of indifference which I was far -from feeling, for I heard her stoop to pick the dagger up, and wondered -each instant whether I was about to feel the point between my shoulders. -However, my faith appeared to inspire her with a measure of confidence, -for she followed me into the middle room and consented to sit down. - -But when I faced her, toying with the blade and all aquiver with the -reaction from the terrific nerve-tension, I could hardly find words to -utter. Whatever purpose Lembken might have in using me, I had the full -measure of his mind. He had thought that my three weeks spent in David’s -house had inspired me with a passion for the girl; and he had brought -her here, to leave her helpless in my power, a lure to bind me to his -interests beyond the possibility of double-dealing. - -Before I could begin, Elizabeth collapsed. She began to weep without -restraint. I could only wait till she grew more composed. I stared out -through the window, looking down toward the Airscouts’ Fortress, whose -roof rose perhaps twenty feet beneath me. - -I saw the sentry with the swan badge, pacing below. Above him was the -luminous wall of the fortress, and over it, floating in the air, was a -host of ghostly shapes, airplanes encased in their phosphorescent glow -armor, which, as I watched them, rose one by one into the air, circled, -and flitted noiselessly away toward the south, like bubbles blown by -children. - -It could not have been late, for curfew had not come into operation, and -London was ablaze with the solar light; but the crowds had gone home and -everything was quite still. As I withdrew from the window Elizabeth rose -and came timidly toward me. - -“Arnold, have I done you a wrong?” she whispered. - -“You misunderstood me,” I answered. “But you could not have thought -otherwise. If we understand each other now we can help each other—isn’t -that so?” - -She seized me by both arms and gazed into my face with an imploring, -pitiful appeal that wrung my heart. - -“Then I thank God,” she said, “for that impulse which held me from -self-destruction. Arnold, do you remember that promise I made to you one -day? I remembered it; I remembered it, and it was that alone which -stayed my hand this afternoon, when the emissary from Lembken came, and -there was only the one barred door between us, and I stood behind it, -with the knife at my breast. Then I resolved to keep my promise to you, -and to let them bring me here, and—to kill Lembken—but it was you! When -you disappeared from the Strangers’ House this morning we feared for -your safety. We thought you had been seized or lured away. Then my -father was summoned on some pretext back to the Strangers’ Bureau, and -the airscout came—Lembken’s man. I thought I was for Lembken—” - -She broke off, and I took her hands in mine. - -“Elizabeth,” I said, “my dear, I do not understand anything of what you -tell me. How could they bring you here against your will?” - -She looked at me in amazement. - -“No, I see you do not understand,” she answered. “And yet you are -dressed as a priest. I cannot tell you now. But the airscout who had -been sent for me was sorry when he saw that I was not willing, like most -women. He took the knife from me, but afterward he let me keep it; he -was kind and promised to carry the news to Jones, our friend. The -airscouts are disloyal to Lembken, and hate his cruelty, but he dared -not disobey. We went by scoutplane from the roof, and Lembken’s women -took me and clothed me in this dress of palms, and carried me here, -laughing at me. They did not find the knife. I hid that; I meant to -serve the Province and the world by killing Lembken. But then I saw you, -Arnold, and—and—” - -She burst into a new storm of weeping. I drew her to me and placed her -head on my shoulder. I felt a cold, burning fire of resolution in my -heart which never disappeared. Something, some spiritual door was opened -in me. I became part of the wretchedness of the world and suffered its -sorrows; pleasure seemed the worst part of life then. I think, too, I -loved Esther the better because of that compassion. - -When at last Elizabeth raised her head I was struck by the -transformation in her appearance. It seemed the reflection of my own -determination. I had put forth my will and conquered, and her own seemed -one with mine. - -“I am going to save you, Elizabeth,” I said. “You are not destined for -this earthly hell.” - -“Arnold, are you yourself in danger here?” she asked. - -“Only of hell-fire,” I answered. - -“You must save yourself and not think of me,” she said. - -I bade her sit down, and went back to the entrance of the little house. -I had half expected that the door would have been locked, but it stood -open, having become unhasped, and the sickly odor of the pervading -perfume clung to the warm, stale air. I crossed the close to the gate -that led into the garden of palms, and stood there in hesitation. - -The solar lights had been turned off, and all was dark, except for -varicolored lanterns twinkling among the trees. Yet I was aware of souls -peopling that darkness. I heard the tinkle of stringed instruments; I -had the sense of hidden beings in the undergrowth. If hell can wear the -mask of beauty, surely it did that night. - -I crossed the lawn and began to skirt the graveled path that extended -before me, working my way toward the front of the Palace. The squat, -white building glittered against the darkness. Nobody stirred at the -entrance; there were no lights, but always I had the sense of something -watching me. - -At last I saw the crystal walls on the west side, and, beyond them, the -phosphorescence of the glow buildings. I stood in hesitancy. On my right -stood the thickets; on my left the crystal ended in a stone wall. There -was no egress except through the Palace itself. Lembken left nothing to -surprise. - -As I turned I heard the rustle of stealthy footsteps near me. A red -spark drew my eyes along the vista of the orange trees, whose perfumed -flowers dispelled the cloying odor of the scented night. I saw a Mænad’s -face, framed in a leopard skin, peering at me above a bank of hibiscus. -I thought I recognized the girl Amaranth; but it vanished with the dying -of the spark, and subdued laughter followed it. - -All that was evil in the world seemed to have its focus there. I felt -it, breathed it, once more its psychic dominance oppressed me heavily. I -saw with sudden intuition why, in a world less stable, witches were -burned, how passionately the souls of simple men fought for their -heritage of truth and law. This was the negation of life, of all that -struggling life that aspired upward, and set its heel upon the serpent’s -head. Old myths, made real in this new light, flashed into memory. - -I hurried back to the close and fastened the gate behind me. The sweat -was dripping from my forehead when I regained the safety of the little -house. I burst from the first room into the second. - -Elizabeth was not there. - -I ran into the third room. She was not there, either. Terror gripped me. -Had she been lured away during the few minutes of my absence? It seemed -impossible. She would have died there. - -Then my eyes fell on something that hung outside the window, dangling, -as it seemed, from a fixed point above. It was a rope ladder, and moving -outward. As I watched, I saw it begin to rise in a succession of short -jerks. - -I grasped it with my hands. It pulled me from the floor. I clung to it, -striving to get my feet upon the rungs. It drew me to the level of the -window, but I would not let go. It pulled me through the window-gap, and -I swung far out above the Airscouts’ Fortress. Over me I saw the dark -outlines of an unshielded scoutplane, high in the air. - -I swung by my hands at the rope’s end, like the weight of a pendulum, -making great transverse sweeps that carried me high above the bridge, -from end to end of the fortress roof. I saw the courts revolve beneath -me. I swept from the crystal wall out into nothingness, and London was a -reeling dance of phosphorescent maze. Then the ladder began to descend. -I felt the roof of the fortress touch my feet, wrenched my numbed hands -away, and fell. A moment later the airplane dropped beside me as -noiselessly as an alighting bird, and two men sprang from it and seized -me. - -One was the airscout Jones. He caught me by both arms and forced me -backward. But the other leaped at my throat. It was David; and he would -have strangled me, had not Jones pulled him away. - -Then, to my vast relief, Elizabeth ran forward, interposing herself -between us. “Arnold is not to blame!” she cried. “He tried to save me!” - -[Illustration: - - It pulled me through the window-gap, and I swung far out above the - Airscouts’ Fortress -] - -David’s hands fell to his sides. The airscout caught me by the arms and -pulled me toward an elevator entrance. He forced me into the cage, the -others following, and we descended a few feet, emerging into a small, -bare room with walls of unsquared stone. - -Jones sent the elevator up and pulled the door of the shaft to. - -“Now you can speak. You have five minutes to explain yourself,” he said. -He pulled a Ray rod from his tunic and looked at David, who nodded. - - - - - CHAPTER XV - THE AIRSCOUTS’ FORTRESS - - -So I told them my story from the beginning. I spoke of the days of the -Institute and Lazaroff’s experiment, of my awakening within the cylinder -at the end of a century of sleep, my flight from the cellar and my -discovery by Jones. I continued, telling of my first bewilderment in -London, of David’s kindness which had saved my reason, described my -summons that morning and the relays of spies who had led me to the -Temple. When I narrated my discovery of the cylinder containing Esther’s -living body I raised my eyes to David’s and perceived that I was no -longer in the position of a prisoner awaiting death. - -David’s aspect had changed; he was trembling violently and struggling to -speak. He looked fearfully at me, and Jones was hardly less moved. Then -Elizabeth slipped her hand into mine. - -“We believe you, Arnold,” she said. - -Three times David attempted to speak while I was sketching briefly the -remainder of my story up to the point of my encounter with Elizabeth, -and each time his voice failed him. - -“Arnold, forgive me,” he managed to say at last. “We know that every -word you have told us is true, if only you had told me before! But I see -how incredible you must have thought your story. Now listen to me! - -“The horrors of this government will not last much longer. Plans are -well under way to make an end of democracy and restore liberty to the -world. You have unwittingly placed a wonderful weapon in our hands. No -man can be neutral in such times. Now, Arnold, you have to make a -decision which will affect not yourself only, but all of us, Britain, -the Federation, and the race of men. You must choose your party.” He -turned to Jones. “He must be told nothing until the time arrives,” he -continued, assuming a tone of authority. “You will say nothing—nor you, -Elizabeth.” - -He turned to me again. - -“Arnold,” he said, “you must make your choice now. Lembken needs you for -reasons which are patent to us, thanks to your statement. If you go back -to him he can give you power and liberty to lord it over the people -until the quick day of reckoning arrives. If you join us you must become -an outlaw and an associate in the most desperate endeavor, play a -leading part and share our dangers.” - -“How can you doubt me?” I asked. “I am with you, now, and at all times.” - -David held up his hand. “Wait!” he said. “You must first understand our -situation, and why we are here tonight.” - -“It is not necessary, David,” I answered. - -“Yes, it is necessary. Because you do not know the depth of our -intolerable bondage. I am going to tell you of my own life, that you may -judge. - -“I begin with my father. As I told you, he was epileptic in youth. He -outgrew the attacks, and because the Liberal government never dared to -enforce the Defectives’ Law which it passed in 1930, he was able to -marry, much later, a girl to whom he had been engaged for many years. -They had lived quietly in what was then called Wales, in a rural -community that had somehow managed to escape the excesses which began in -1945. - -“But my father was a marked man, because he was on the secret -defectives’ list, and a Conservative. A few weeks after his marriage the -storm of revolution burst over Dolgelly. The army of clerks and civil -officers that followed the troops of the victorious democracy raked the -country fine for victims. With his young bride my father fled to the -mountains, where I was born, and they existed there, heaven knows how, -till an opportunity arrived for flight abroad. When the restoration came -he returned, and rebuilt his ruined home. - -“My father was a student of history, and he knew that the peace which -had descended over the distracted country was only a lull in the storm -of violence. He resolved to teach me all the old knowledge, which had -fallen into decay. He wanted me to play a leading part in political -life, as his forebears had done. But the second revolution was upon us -when I was a youth of nineteen. Fortunately, my parents were both dead. - -“The mob started burning defectives then. For many there was the chance -of submission to the new government, nominally under Boss Rose, which -Sanson was constructing; but there was none for me, since epilepsy was -then, owing to the ephemeral theory of some forgotten scientist, -regarded as the unpardonable sin. I managed to escape to Denmark, and -spent the next sixteen years upon the Continent, wandering from place to -place as the Federation came into being. I married a Swiss lady at -Lausanne, where Elizabeth was born. We had to fly by night, when the -child was a week old. My wife could not survive the journey over the -mountain passes in the middle of winter. She died in what was called -Austria, two days after our arrival there. With Elizabeth I continued my -flight eastward, and found refuge in Greece. - -“I said that the mob had begun to burn defectives. But the Council -changed that. The word ‘productivity’ was the new fetish, and, seeing -that the murder of half the population would decrease the output, the -Council resolved to imprison defectives in the workshops for life -instead. But even this did not work. In 1999 Boss Rose became alarmed at -the depopulation caused by the universal terror. Men denounced their -brothers for small rewards, and wives their husbands, when they grew -tired of them. Men and women were crossing the North Sea in tiny skiffs, -or perishing in the waves, flying into the glens of Scotland, organizing -in bands and living a hunted life within the forests that had begun to -cover the country. Boss Rose issued an amnesty decree. Defectives who -returned and were able to produce a hektone and a quarter monthly were -not to be proscribed. I returned to Britain and secured employment in -the Strangers’ Bureau, which had just been established, a post for which -my education and experiences abroad qualified me. - -“Ten years ago Boss Rose fell under an assassin’s dagger. The Council, -under the influence of Sanson, issued a decree that no faith was to be -kept with defectives. Sanson, then supreme behind the mask of Lembken, -began to harry the people. It was then he introduced his system of -mating under Council supervision.” - -“It is abominable!” I cried. - -“Yet, like all our institutions, it has its roots far back in the past,” -said David, “and only needed the abandonment of the Christian ethic to -spring full-fledged into existence. The Prophet Wells foreshadowed it, -as did also Ellen Key; and on this point the followers of Galton joined -the Socialist government in a concerted attack upon monogamy. This, in -fact, has been the crux of the old battle between Socialism and the -Church: on the one hand the old ideal of the family as the unit of -society, and marriage an indissoluble bond; on the other the individual, -free from responsibility and seeking his own fancied freedom. Even in -the Prophet’s time America had practically abandoned monogamy, while the -anti-social propaganda was being secretly carried on by the teaching of -what was called sex hygiene in the schools. When the churches -compromised with divorce, Protestantism finally collapsed, and flung -half the civilized world back into paganism.” - -“It was said that the children—” I began. - -“The answer was State rearing, Arnold, as had been urged by many men and -some women of liberal and progressive minds. We tried that in 2002. -Elizabeth was torn from me. For six months we had public crèches in -every city. There was much public dissatisfaction, though the children -were not taken from their mothers till they had been weaned. That was -the time when the Guard was formed, consisting of Janissaries trained -from youth by the Council and pledged to them. However, what caused the -abandonment of the crèche system was a quite unexpected happening. -Despite the utmost care, despite a process of automatic feeding in -germ-proof incubators, which made it impossible for any of the little -inmates to lack the advantages of the latest hygienic theories, the -children died. - -“This phenomenon was never explained satisfactorily, and the mortality, -which ranged from eighty to ninety per cent, shocked the Province -profoundly, for it meant an intolerable lessening in the productivity of -the next generation. The children were returned to their parents. -Elizabeth, who was above the age curve of maximum mortality, came back -to me, and, in spite of rigorous inspection by the officials of the -Children’s Bureau, I have managed to keep her. - -“But I must be brief, Arnold. I have told you that it was decreed no -faith was to be kept with defectives. The net was cast over all who, -trusting to the proclamation, had returned from the forests and waste -places, and from abroad. Gradually they were sorted out and ascribed. -Many records of heredity had disappeared during the Revolution, but they -had my father’s in the Bureau of Pedigrees and Relationships. Since then -I have waited in suspense daily. They know it, and, if I have not been -condemned to the workshops, it is through Lembken’s favor, for he was -head of the Strangers’ Bureau before the assassination of Boss Rose, and -I worked under him.” - -“But is there no law?” I cried. “Is there no charter of liberty at all?” - -“Why, yes, Arnold. We still have Magna Charta, and Habeas Corpus, and -many other documents, and occasionally these are invoked. There is an -old man in the paper shops who has appealed against imprisonment and -carried his case through twenty or thirty courts since he was shut up as -a boy, and if he lives long enough his appeal will come before the -Council. But you see, Arnold, one of the first acts of the victorious -democracy was to institute the election and the recall of judges. - -“They think I fear for my own liberty,” he continued, beginning to pace -the floor. “They do not know—happily they do not know.” - -Then he went on to tell me that which concerned the girl’s arrest that -afternoon. - -It appeared that Elizabeth was one of those very few who were physically -almost perfect, and, as such, she had been in danger of being placed on -the list of those who were to enter the harems of the whites. David’s -sole hope of saving her lay in the fact that she was penalized six -points because her grandfather had had epileptic seizures. But she -approximated so closely to the Sanson norm—and the child had been -innocent enough to head the district list of those qualifying in -mentality by examination upon the Binet board—that there had been little -hope for her. This fear had been increased by the fact that Lembken had -seen Elizabeth, and had recently summoned her and her father to the -Council Hall, under the pretext of wishing to confer some favor upon an -old subordinate. - -Now I gathered in the last threads of the skein. David had returned from -the Strangers’ Bureau that afternoon to find the apartment empty. Jones -had conveyed the news to him, and had secreted him in the Airscouts’ -Fortress, pending a plan of rescue, a task which was only rendered -possible through the disaffection of Lembken’s airscouts. Jones had seen -me in my priest’s robes, and the two had come to the natural conclusion -that I had been a spy, playing one of the romantic parts in fashion -among the whites, and approved in the Council’s novels, in order to see -Elizabeth before selecting her. We had been discovered at the window, -the position of the little house had given Jones the opportunity of -rescuing the girl with his scoutplane, and, but for my return while the -rope still dangled before the aperture, I should never have known the -secret of Elizabeth’s disappearance. No wonder David had flown at my -throat. - -“Now, we must act at once,” said David. “We are going to seek refuge in -the forests where our friends are hiding. Jones will carry us there -tonight when he starts in his scoutplane on patrol duty. It is a -difficult problem to pass the night patrol. But Jones can get us -through. And now, Arnold, what is your decision?” - -“I made it long ago,” I answered. - -“You are with us?” - -“Indeed, I am.” - -David wrung my hand hard. “You have decided wisely,” he said, “and by -your decision you have taken the only means possible to save the woman -you love. For the Sanson régime is crumbling, and your presence means, -what you cannot yet imagine, to the cause of liberty. We have five -thousand outlaws and fugitives from the defectives’ shops, scattered in -secret hiding places about London. We have made Ray rods in the shops -and have secreted provisions. Tonight the heads of the movement are to -assemble—” - -“In the cellar where I lay so long!” I exclaimed, with sudden intuition. -“And Jones had been there with Ray rods when he found me!” - -“Correct,” answered Jones, in his laconic manner. - -“We remain here until midnight,” said David. “Then Jones will take us -when he starts to relieve the first patrol.” - -“Be assured that I am with you to the end,” I said. And I swore that I -would do all in my power, so long as I had life and liberty, to fight -for human freedom. And as I swore I had a vision of the girl, mangled -and crushed upon the stones beneath that tropical, aerial hell beneath -the noble dome of England’s shameful temple. - -I think the resolution in my manner must have enkindled David’s hopes, -for he put out his hand and caught mine again, and wrung and held it. - -“You do not know, Arnold, how necessary you are to us,” he said. “But -tonight you shall be told. I am old, Arnold, and I have little courage. -I have lived through too many changes and frustrated hopes. I had grown -used and resigned to things that had come to seem unchangeable. The -freedom of my youth was only a dream to me. Sometimes I doubted whether -men had ever been free. It was your surprise, your ignorance, then the -indignation which you thought I did not see that made me begin to -understand my own degradation. And it was today’s events that gave me -heart to work with all my might for the cause to which I had only -languidly adhered. I have been one of the revolutionary committee for -months, and now I shall fight whole-heartedly, and you with me.” - -“David,” I said with sudden conviction, “you are a Christian.” - -His eyes suddenly seemed to blaze. “I am!” he cried. “As we all are. I -have temporized with evil all these years, but now I cannot do so any -more. The hope of the world can never be crushed out; it is spreading -everywhere. All of us are enlisted under that flag that was raised on -the Mount two thousand years ago. We see that without Christ, life is -intolerable. I knew your faith from the first, Arnold, although I dared -not speak, I knew it at the beginning because I thought you were a -Russian. That was why I befriended you. We know our own!” he cried -triumphantly. - -Elizabeth put one arm about her father’s neck and extended her free hand -to me. I clasped it, and then the airscout’s; and so we pledged -ourselves. - - - - - CHAPTER XVI - THE MESSIAH’S ANNUNCIATION - - -Jones left us and came back with some food. Upon his arm he carried a -stranger’s uniform, which he handed to me. - -“You cannot wear those robes,” he said. “Take this. It should fit you; -it belonged to one of our recruits who was ascribed last week and has -not yet returned it to the Wool Stores.” - -I was glad to see the last of the priest’s robes. He carried them away, -promising to return for us in an hour. Elizabeth made us eat, but we had -little heart to do so. At her insistence, however, we made the best -display of appetite that was possible. - -The room was only faintly illumined by the reflected solar light that -issued up the elevator shaft. With it there mounted the sound of the -voices of the airscouts in their barracks below. Sometimes the elevator -rushed by, arousing a thrill of fear in each of us. - -David drew me toward him and began speaking softly. - -“You know nothing of Paul,” he said. “His name is Paul Llewellyn—for we -observe Sanson’s laws no longer. He was to have mated Elizabeth.” - -“Married?” - -“Yes, married, before the Cold Solstice. His grandfather was my father’s -steward at Dolgelly. Our families remained in touch through all the -civil turmoil, and he is the last of his, as Elizabeth is the last of -mine. He was given the name Paul, the father retaining the family name, -which was to alternate in each generation, as is the custom nowadays. -That law of Sanson’s must be one of the first to go. It aimed, of -course, to destroy the vestiges of the family that remained. - -“Paul was a Grade 1 defective, and we felt sure that Elizabeth would -come under the same classification, so that they would be free to mate. -They were waiting for the lists to be published, but Elizabeth had not -been ascribed when the last list went up, and meanwhile Paul was sent to -the defectives’ shops. Arnold, did you ever hear of the doctrine called -Apostolic Succession?” - -“Of course, David.” - -“That the functions of the priesthood are transmitted by the laying on -of hands? The English Church possessed the tradition, and it has never -been lost, though most of our people attach, I am afraid, some magical -idea to the ancient rite. Our bishop is a poor, illiterate old man, a -machinist by trade, but Bonham laid his hands on him before he was -burned in Westminster Hall. Bishop Alfred was to have blessed the union. -A week before Fruit Equinox, Paul was taken in the bishop’s home by -Sanson’s spies. Both were condemned to life imprisonment in the -defectives’ shops as Christians. Both escaped among the last batch of -fugitives. Elizabeth hopes to meet Paul tonight.” - -“And I hope so, with all my heart,” I answered. - -The cage stopped at the door and Jones came in. - -“We can go now. The last of the scoutplanes has gone,” he said. - -We went up to the roof. Deep night was over and about us. The -phosphorescent fronts of the glow-painted buildings gave London the -aspect of long lines of parallel and intersecting palisades of ghostly -light; but the glow paint illumined nothing, and the deep canyons of the -streets were of velvety blackness. The white circle of the fortress wall -surrounded us. Outside the region of the glow, London was an -indistinguishable blurred shadow, save where the searchlights from the -departing scoutplanes illumined it. They hovered in a long line above -the city, their position only discernible from the white searchrays that -emanated from them as they swept the city below. Slowly they made their -way into the southern distance. - -I groped for reality in this succession of bewildering scenes, and -hardly found it. Rain began to fall, spattering on the crystal walls of -the adjacent gardens, in which the flickering colored lights still -twinkled. My face was wet with it. I was thinking of the old days, when -life was free: Sir Spofforth’s rain-swept garden, the scent of Esther’s -tea-roses, and the hum of the ungainly, noisy town of Croydon that last -evening. I saw Esther’s face vividly upon the velvet screen of the -night. - -Elizabeth’s hand stole into mine. - -“You are our hope, Arnold. You can inspire us to victory,” she -whispered. - -Jones had gotten the scoutplane ready, and the vessel now rested on the -flat roof, as a bird on its perching place. It was a little craft, even -smaller than my memory of it had been, and it carried no Ray shield to -betray its presence. Jones drew David aside and held a whispered -colloquy with him. - -“We are about ready,” he said, as they came back to us. “I’ve shifted -the searchlight to the rear socket to balance the extra weight. She’ll -carry us. I’ll have time to take you to your destination and report for -scout duty when Hancock comes the round. But if I fly with the -searchlight showing, any of the planes may signal me to stop—” - -He rubbed his chin, and the old irresolution came upon his face. - -“If I fly dark it’s a leather vat offense,” he added. “And the -battleplanes would fire on us.” - -He paused and rubbed his chin again. - -“I’ll fly dark,” he said, and so settled the matter firmly in his own -mind. And, his mind thus made up, I knew nothing would change it. - -There was some difficulty in disposing of us. Finally Jones placed us -three in the double seat, Elizabeth in the center and David and I on -either side of her. He himself squatted upon the chassis before us, the -wheel in his hands. He touched the starting lever with his right foot, -and the craft rose heavily into the air, straining beneath her burden. -In spite of the counterbalance of the searchlight behind, the nose of -the plane dipped constantly, so that our flight was a succession of -abrupt ascents and declinations. - -It was freezing cold up in the air. Gradually we ascended, till I felt -the fresh wind from the Thames estuary beat on my face. Presently the -south was cleft by flaming serpents, with eyes of fire. - -“The food airvans from France,” said David, pointing. - -Now we soared over the outlying factories and warehouses. A huge, -glow-painted building sprang into view out of the shadows below. - -“The defectives’ workshops for this district,” David continued. “Yonder -is the Council’s art factory.” - -The darkness in front of us began to be studded with long parallelograms -of dazzling glow, set at wide intervals, each capped with the conical -Ray guns. From these, extending fanwise toward the ground, appearing -pink in contrast with the glow’s intensely purple white, the -searchlights wavered. - -Jones halted the scoutplane. “The battleplanes,” he said, pointing. -“They are posted nightly around London now. You know the reason, David?” - -David started and placed his hand in inquiry upon the airscout’s -shoulder. Jones’s voice sank to a whisper. - -“It is the merest rumor among our men,” he said. “One reads it in their -faces rather than hears it spoken, for we are afraid of one another. One -can be sure that Sanson has his spies among us. But the scoutplanes are -sufficient to patrol London and detect fugitives, and if the -battleplanes are sent out there is hope the rumor may be true. If the -Tsar has broken out from Tula—” - -“Thank God!” said David in a tense whisper. - -“He will overrun Skandogermania in a week, for it is as disaffected as -Britain. The airscouts there will go over to him. There is no force to -stop him, except our planes and the Guard.” - -I saw the joy on David’s face. Could barbarous Russia indeed bring -freedom to the Western World? - -“It is only a rumor,” continued Jones. “A rumor, you understand, David, -backed by the presence of the battleplane squadron around the city -nightly, words let fall in the People’s House, retailed by gossiping -servants, the sudden summons last night of Air-Admiral Hancock—” - -“But the Russians have been slaughtered in thousands!” I exclaimed. “I -saw the picture upon the screen.” - -Jones laughed and David smiled. - -“Those pictures are for the people,” said the airscout. “They were taken -by night inside the fortress here. The Guard dressed for the part.” - -“Still, how could the Russians win without the Ray?” asked David -doubtfully. - -“I can answer that,” I said. “All history shows that no weapon is strong -enough to conquer men who are ready to die for a right idea against an -evil one. Ideas are stronger than the deadliest arm man has contrived. -That has always been so and always will be so.” - -Again Elizabeth’s hand crept into mine. “You must tell our people that, -Arnold,” she said. “You know the secret of stirring them.” - -“But Hancock will stand by Lembken?” inquired David. - -“Yap, and will hold at least a quarter of our men to him,” said Jones. -“He will serve Lembken through Sanson, so long as Sanson remains loyal. -If Sanson turns against Lembken to seize the supreme power, Hancock will -fight him to the death. Sanson sent the Air-Admiral’s son to the Rest -Cure as a moron, years ago, when Hancock was unknown. Sanson doesn’t -remember it, but Hancock remembers.” - -I shuddered. “Why, then, is not Hancock with us?” I asked. - -“There are traditions of loyalty in his family,” answered Jones. -“Hancock is queer. Now we go up. Hold fast.” - -The scoutplane creaked and rocked and plunged like a ship in a gale as, -foot by foot, he jerked her head into the higher air. The gleaming glow -parallelograms of the battleplanes seemed to shoot downward as we soared -above them. We had passed them when, like some black air monster, a -large, dark plane glided beneath us. I felt our scoutplane thrill as she -shot upward, so suddenly that she rose almost to the perpendicular, -jerking us back against the uprights. - -Jones was straining madly at the wheel, and I realized that the dark -plane was in pursuit of us. I saw her swoop out of the night, missing us -by a yard. She disappeared. I heard the divided air hiss as she -approached again, and the next instant the blinding searchlight -enveloped us, and a voice hailed us, piping thin through the frosty -night. Then the light was astern, and groping impotently beneath us as -we rose to a higher level. Jones strained at the vertical rudder, -pushing the plane’s nose up and still upward, battling like a -weather-beaten bird against the wind. - -Again the searchlight found us, and then, out of the heart of it, -turning the keen white glare to a baby pink that fringed it, there -hissed a light ten times more brilliant, snapping and crackling, into -the void. Jones veered, still mounting. The dazzling light flared out -again. The upright that I held snapped in my hand. I slipped in my seat, -but David reached out and held me. - -Once more the Ray flash came, but under us. The darkness and our pilot’s -courage had saved us. The searchlight groped far underneath. Our -scoutplane dipped, soared, dipped, caught the wind, and we volplaned at -furious speed for miles down a gradient of cushiony air. - -I felt Elizabeth tremble, and placed my arms around her to hold her. -Jones stayed the plane and clapped his numbed hands together, whistling -through his teeth. He jerked his head around. The moon was beginning to -rise; it was a little lighter, and I saw that his face was dripping wet. - -“A thread of an escape!” he said. “If she had struck us fair with the -Ray we’d have buckled up like paper. Snapped one upright, didn’t it?” - -There was a cut of two inches in the steel—a clean cut, and the edges -fused as if from fire. - -“That was Hancock’s dispatchplane,” said Jones. “He carries no light. -But—the voice didn’t sound like Hancock’s.” - -“Are we safe now?” asked David, looking back to where the shrunken -figures of the battleplanes were ranged behind us on the horizon. - -“Safe long ago,” said Jones. “But it was touch-and-go while I was trying -to top that southeaster. He lost us at the summit, though, and he -couldn’t have caught us on that down-grade.” - -We started again, traveling more slowly, at a lower altitude, and -planing downward until I heard the wind in the tree boughs and saw the -glistening snow beneath. We brushed the top-most twigs. The scoutplane -flitted backward and forward, seeking the old road. - -“I ought to know it in the dark,” said Jones. “I don’t want to turn on -the searchlight if I can help it.” - -To and fro we went like a fluttering bird, until the cleft of the road -appeared among the trees. Then we dropped softly to the ground. I was -almost too cramped and cold to move. With difficulty I descended and -helped Elizabeth out. David followed, and we three stood chafing our -hands and stamping until the circulation was restored. - -Jones leaned forward from the airplane. “I’ll run her into the trees in -case anyone comes along and sees her,” he said. - -“We shall not see you until—?” asked David. - -“I’m not going back,” answered the airscout. “Not after this night’s -work. You’ll see me in ten minutes.” - -“You are going to join us?” inquired David, joyfully. “Is it—do you mean -Hancock knew you?” - -“No. That wasn’t Hancock, either. I know who it was—at least, I think I -know. No, I’ve had enough of the Twin Bosses, after Elizabeth’s -adventures. Put me down as the first airscout who went over.” - -David grasped him by the hand and shook it warmly. Jones whistled again, -drew back, and the scoutplane rose to the tops of the trees, beat about, -and vanished. - -David turned to me. “Arnold, are you prepared for a great and stunning -revelation?” he asked. - -“Yes, he is prepared,” answered Elizabeth for me. - -We set off through the trees along a small, well-worn trail, until the -crumbling bricks beneath us heaped themselves into a mound, and I saw -the ruined foundations of the Institute before me, and the hole in the -cellar roof. A sentinel leaped out at us. - -“For man?” he asked, leveling a Ray rod. - -“And freedom,” answered David. - -The sentinel called, and in a moment a crowd came rushing up a short -ladder, wild-looking men with beards and hanging hair, all dressed in -tatters and rags, a woman or two, and a youth who ran forward with a cry -and caught Elizabeth in his arms. I saw the happiness they shared. - -David led me to a tall old man with bowed shoulders and a ragged white -beard that spread fanwise across his breast. His hands were seared and -twisted like those of one who has lived years of hardest toil, and the -staff on which he leaned had a crooked handle. - -“Bishop Alfred,” he said, “this is the Messiah who was to come.” - - - - - CHAPTER XVII - THE CHAPEL UNDERGROUND - - -In the subterranean chapel, lit by rushlights that sent the shadows -scurrying and made fantastically unreal the eager faces and the -dissolving groups that clustered now around me, now around David, and -again gathered about the tall old bishop with his peasant’s face and -child’s eyes, David told them my tale, and then in turn told me the -legend that I had brought so wonderfully to fulfillment. - -The more bewildered I appeared, the stronger grew their faith, for the -legend foretold that I was to come unknown to myself, and with no -expectation of my own mission. They saw the cylinder, and there was none -who doubted. - -There were some thirty men and women present, of whom a dozen formed an -inner council which had already formulated the plans for the new -government. Some were delegates from outlaw bands in the recesses of the -forests, some, like David, fugitives from the government bureaux, and -three or four, Paul among them, those who had most recently escaped from -the defectives’ shops. There were representatives of various trades, who -had come from London at imminent risk, intending to return: one from the -traffic guild I noticed in particular, a giant of a man with a black -beard as crisp as an Assyrian king’s, who said that, at his signal, his -guild would rise and fling themselves, to a man, upon the Guard. - -It was a touching reunion. Two generations had gone by while men -remained in ignorance of all that we and our ancestors had known: -popular freedom, public rights, liberty to choose their trades, the -sanctity of family life, and, above all, the absence of the galling -inquisition and atrocious tyranny of Science run mad. - -The elder men remembered with horror the period of the revolutions, in -which a man would have given all that he had for life and bread. They -regarded the epoch that had preceded this as the dark age of the world, -much, I think, as we, in our turn, looked back upon the freer age before -the Reformation. They had a misty tradition of a century in which men -starved, in which the rich oppressed the poor and the poor dwelled in -foul, sunless tenements and dressed in rags. - -That tradition was true, and of the Moyen Age, before these things, of -course they knew nothing. Now all had bread to eat, and light and air; -but they lived in a world with neither hope nor joy, resource nor -initiative, nor happiness in labor, in which one cherished the home ties -furtively, while over their children always hung the menace of the -defectives’ workshops, or the horrors of the Temple. And on them preyed -the privileged caste of whites, taking toll of their daughters, lording -it as judges and bureau bosses, in the name of Science emanating from a -madman’s brain. - -I began to gather, to my relief, that only the very ignorant believed -that the Messiah would be a supernatural being. There was superstition -enough hidden in the hearts of all, for faith, denied, creeps in, in -strange guises; but the world awaited, rather, the inevitable leader who -must come to set free a people grown over-ripe for freedom. For the -horrors of the new civilization had reached the point where men had -grown reckless of life. Everywhere was the anticipation of the -approaching change, and even Sanson must have seen that neither his -Guard nor his great Ray artillery could save his crumbling power. -Science had overplayed her part when she had bankrupted human hearts. - -Everywhere the deep sense of intolerable wrong was spreading. And -although not even the very old remembered the time when Christianity was -a living faith, yet the hopes of all hinged on it. There was no other -hope for the world but the same Light that lit the darkness in the most -shameful days of Rome’s high civilization. So they had enrolled -themselves beneath that ancient banner of human freedom; dozens had died -under torture rather than disclose the hiding place of their treasured -Scriptures—of such parts as had come down to them, rewritten in the new -syllabic characters. There was a rich harvest to come from many a -martyr’s blood. - -So, then, there had filtered down through the years the faith that in -2015, or seven and thirty years after the institution of the new era, a -Messiah was to arise and restore freedom to man. It had begun with the -discovery of the cylinder that contained Esther’s body, somewhere about -the middle of the preceding century, and after the first revolutionary -outbreak. - -In some manner unknown the cylinder had made its appearance in the -world. At first it was believed that it contained only the embalmed body -of a woman, within a case fashioned so cunningly that none could open -it. But later the rumor spread that at the end of a certain time the -case would open of itself, and the woman awaken and come forth. - -I inferred that Sanson, in spite of Lembken’s statement to me, had -obtained access to Lazaroff’s papers, and had shrewdly resolved to turn -the popular legend to his own use by placing the date of the fulfillment -of the prophecy. He set the cylinder within the Temple and diffused the -report that, when Esther awakened, they two would rule the world -together and offer immortality to man. - -The cylinder had, then, first appeared about 1950. It had become the -symbol of the Revolution—Freedom sleeping. It had been carried before -marching armies. It had been a rallying point for the defeated. Men had -fought and died over it. It had been struck by unnumbered bullets. It -had been lost and regained upon a dozen battlefields. Then it had -vanished with the inauguration of the reactionary régime, to appear once -more, the inspiration of new hopes, when Sanson sprang to his -leadership, like a god, about the year 1980. - -And all this while I had been sleeping within the vault, as heedless of -the passing years as Esther in her undreamed of journeyings. That I had -escaped notice was due, no doubt, to the single fact that the wall of -the vault had fallen in and hidden my cylinder from sight, embedded, as -it was, in mud up to the neck. Those who had read of me in the papers -might not have prosecuted their search hard, thinking that the cylinder -had been removed already. - -As the years went by an amplification of the legend had spread until it -grew to be a rooted popular belief that the Messiah who was to come -would issue from a second cylinder. That was the reason why neither -David nor Jones, nor any in the cellar doubted me. - -Old Bishop Alfred grasped my hands in his. “This is not chance, but a -wonderful sign from God,” he said. “To think that while we met here you -lay within that case a few feet from us! I have doubted and dreaded, as -all have, but nothing can daunt me now. We shall win freedom, we shall -have our two names again.” - -David whispered to me that, grown a little childish with age, the poor -old man longed for the day when he could assume the ancient episcopal -pomp. To sign himself, Alfred London, was his life’s dream, and he had -vowed that till that day came his family name should never pass his -lips. - -After I had heard the story we kneeled in prayer, and the Bishop read to -us from the syllabic version of the Bible, as it was known. It comprised -only a few portions of the Old Testament, chiefly parts of Isaiah which -some scribe had thought prophetic and necessary to be saved. Of the -Synoptic Gospels there existed only a few fragments, too, but there was -the “Sermon on the Mount” from the “Beatitudes” to the end, and the -whole of the magnificent “Gospel According to St. John,” together with -most of “Acts” and “Corinthians,” debased to some extent, and containing -interpolations that had crept in, but on the whole faithful to the -original. Though the entire Bible has, of course, been recovered, I am -convinced, and many agree with me, that the world has gained -immeasurably by the removal of the scaffolding of the Temple of Truth -during more than two generations. Never again will literal -interpretation be placed upon Old Testament mythology, the poetic -allegory of “Creation and the Fall,” or the chronology that offered the -life cycles of tribes as the events of one man’s life; nor will the -warrior god, Jehovah, be considered anything but an incompletely -discerned aspect of the divine. - -Afterward, at David’s urging, I rose to speak. I hardly knew what I -should say, but, as I stood in hesitation before the meeting some -Pentecostal power seemed to lay hold of me, and a torrent of impassioned -words broke from my lips, till I felt all minds and hearts enkindled -from the flame in mine. I spoke of the old, free world, of old, -illogical, and cherished customs, preserved through centuries, uniting -men in a fellowship that logic could not give; of ideals and traditions -carried onward from age to age, ennobling faith and strengthening a -nation’s soul; of pride of family other than that of pedigreed stock; of -initiative and resourcefulness, charity and good-will for weak as well -as strong; of a ruling class bound by its traditions to public service, -and open to all below who had the character and gifts to enter it. - -But one thing I could not explain; when Bishop Alfred, rising, -incredulous that the weak should have been protected, that they aroused -pity instead of wrath, inquired, if we had really had this Christian -use, why we had lost it. - -When I ended I came back to myself, to find that I was standing -tongue-tied before them. I heard a sigh ascend from every lip; and then -they were about me, falling upon their knees, grasping my hands, -imploring me to accept their service and devotion. Elizabeth was weeping -happily. - -“I knew, Arnold,” she said. - -Then the revolutionary committee took their seats upon the benches and, -while the rest gathered about them, proceeded to consider the reports -brought in. It was an informal meeting, hampered by none of those rules -made by democracy for the restriction of free speech, and conducted with -earnestness and quiet decorum. Man after man rose up and made his -report, the leaders of the guilds pledging so many, describing their -enthusiasm, stating the number of Ray rods in his possession, and -pledging absolute obedience to instructions. - -Then I was acquainted, as succinctly as possible, with the progress of -the movement. It was known that during the next few days Sanson meant to -address the people in the Temple, using some anniversary celebration as -his occasion. He was universally credited with the plan to effect a -_coup d’etat_, deposing Lembken and assuming the rulership of the -Federation. He had attached the Guard to him with favors and gifts, so -that intense hatred existed between it and Lembken’s airscouts. There -was thus a triangular contest between Sanson, Lembken, and the -revolutionaries; and the fear was that, if the airscouts were split by -faction, the Guard would overwhelm them and establish Sanson in -Lembken’s place, making a greater tyranny still. - -It was, therefore, debated whether it might be possible, as unhappily it -seemed necessary, to make some terms with Lembken that should ensure -Sanson’s overthrow. - -“We have gained one piece of priceless information from you, Arnold,” -said David. “We know now that Sanson’s plans relate to the awakening of -Esther. Five days is almost too short a period for our plans to mature; -yet we know that Sanson’s coup must synchronize with the opening of the -cylinder. It is believed that he has actually made some discovery, not, -of course, of immortality, but for prolonging life, which he intends to -offer the populace, should any champion, posing as the Messiah, come -forth to challenge him. That will be a test such as has never yet been -made in the world’s history, the choice between liberty and immortality, -so-called. And it will be difficult for the multitude to choose the -former and to reject the latter.” - -“If the people have the choice they will choose wisely,” said Elizabeth, -from within Paul’s arm. “Have no doubt as to that.” - -“How do you know?” asked David. - -“Because they want the love that is their birthright,” she answered -boldly, “and love knows it is immortal and does not fear death.” - -I saw the committee leader smile, and there came upon his face a very -affecting look. An elderly man, a member of the privileged caste, he had -voluntarily laid aside the white robes of his order and taken to the -forests, to organize the beginnings of the Revolution. As he spoke, the -detailed scheme began to be clear to me, and I understood that the -rulers of the world were matched by no mean antagonists. - -First he alluded to the belief, already current among all the -revolutionary bands, that the Federation’s troops had been overwhelmed -before Tula, and that the Tsar’s forces were already pouring through -Skandogermania to seize the battleplanes from the disaffected airscouts -in Hamburg and Stockholm and launch them against London. It was believed -that the Council must be in desperate straits to have had recourse to -the moving picture lie, as worthless as the falsehood that the escaped -defectives had been retaken. - -What seemed to me a psychological confirmation of this report was the -circumstance asserted by him, that the torture of heretics, the -activities of the vivisectionists, and the weeding out of morons were -proceeding with unexampled rigor. For tyranny always becomes most cruel -when it approaches its downfall, by inspiring terror, to create -submission. - -“You have heard,” continued the old man, “how Lembken lured Arnold to -the People’s House. Lembken knows who he is. Then he must be aware of -Sanson’s plans and is plotting to use Arnold in a counterstroke. - -“He is old and obese and pleasure-loving. But you must not forget that -he rose to power by the most cunning craft, inspiring, as he undoubtedly -did, the murder of Boss Rose, and buying over the airscouts. Sanson -underrates the old fox, but Lembken has his ear to the ground all the -while he is supposed to be roystering in his devil’s palace. Now, -friends, we can despise no weapon that will aid our cause. If we have to -use Lembken, as the lesser evil, in order to unite the airscouts under -Hancock against Sanson—” - -“Never!” shouted the black-bearded leader of the traffic guild. “He has -taken—taken—taken—” - -The giant broke down and covered his face with his hands. - -“My daughter,” he raved, raising his face with the tears streaming down -his cheeks, and clenching his enormous hands. “Only today—today—I would -not desert the cause, or I should have forced my way into the People’s -House and killed him—” - -I thanked God, the father did not know that I had seen her in the -Council Hall. - -The old leader got up and put his arm about the giant’s shoulder. - -“But for the sake of freedom you will consent,” he said. - -The other threw back his head. “Yes—for the cause, yes,” he answered -quietly, and moved away. He stood with head drooping upon his breast, -like some huge statue. I understood then the strength of the enmity to -the government. No Ray artillery could withstand such a wild passion as -the deviltries of Science had awakened. - -“I can only offer the outlines of my plan,” resumed the old man, -returning to his place, “because, at such a time, we must trust as much -to the spontaneous instincts of our people as to a detailed scheme which -may go wrong. But it seems to me that it is essential first to enter -into communication with Lembken. We will offer him his palace, perhaps, -and an untroubled life hereafter. It is a hard compromise, but there -seems no other way, for Sanson must be destroyed, and everything depends -on Hancock. - -“Five days hence, when Sanson summons the people into the Temple, as -many as possible of our men will assemble there, with Ray rods beneath -their tunics. Arnold will advance and challenge Sanson. We shall spring -forward, seize him, possess ourselves of the cylinder, assume possession -of the Temple buildings, and set up our government. Meanwhile the -airscouts will take possession of the barracks and Ray artillery.” - -Here I interposed. “Is this the only way?” I asked. “Are there not -annual elections? Would it not be possible—” - -I was unprepared for the outburst of bitter laughter that answered me. - -“Do you really believe, Arnold,” asked David, “that anything can be done -like that? Even in your other life, history—the history that is not -taught—informs me that the election of popular representatives had -become farcical, especially in the home of democracy, America, through -the refusal to permit unauthorized candidacies, through the demand for -large sums of money to be deposited as a preliminary, by ballots drowned -with names of unknown men, representing nobody knew whom, and fifteen to -twenty feet in length; by ruffians at the polls—a device much used in -Rome when she started on the democratic down-grade that led to tyranny; -by stuffed ballots and lying counts, and voting machines ... in short, -Arnold, we have so far improved upon those crude devices that the ballot -is now the strongest weapon in our masters’ hands. And when freedom has -been restored it will never be seen again. We shall never count heads, -except among small bodies of committees, and the days of so-called -representative government will never recur so long as men remain free.” - -It was evident that his words had touched their imaginations in some way -unknown to me, for they sprang to their feet and cheered him wildly. I -learned afterward that all the laws, the most subversive of human -rights, all the most fearful promulgations of Sanson were put to the -farcical test of public approbation. The democratic State had killed -itself, as it always does, but the shell remained to protect the tyranny -that followed, as it always does, too. - -Before the noise had quite subsided, Jones, who had come in quietly, -stood up in the midst of the assembly. - -“The plan to seize the Ray artillery is impossible,” he said bluntly. - -“Why?” demanded a dozen voices. - -“Because the small Ray guns upon the battleplanes are useless against -the glow paint on the Guards’ fortress, and the Guards’ great Ray -artillery will pick off our battleplanes one by one as they expose their -unprotected parts while evolving in the air. It is impossible to protect -the parts of a plane around the solar storage batteries, because the -glow rays disturb their action. Then, again, when each of our men has -discharged his Ray rod, where is he to replenish it without access to -the solar storage within the Guards’ fortress? Even our airplanes, with -their week’s supply, have to be replenished there.” - -“Hold a battleplane where we can gain access to it, so that the rods can -be recharged from its supply.” - -“Not practicable,” said Jones. - -“If each man has three Ray rods, he can kill three of Sanson’s men.” - -“But unless you take the fortress the Ray artillery can make a desert of -London.” - -“What would you do, then?” asked the committee leader. - -“Cut the solar supply cables.” - -“Twelve feet underground, in steel and concrete?” - -“No. At the heart of the world’s power system,” said the airscout. “In -the Vosges. It is not impossible. The Ray artillery there is not -carefully guarded; the early nights are dark. Make Sanson’s Ray guns -useless at a stroke, and then storm the fortress in the old way, man -against man.” - -I saw the face of the black-bearded leader redden with blood. “Yes!” he -cried, “that is the way.” - -“And then we shall have two names again and life will be free,” said -Bishop Alfred, musing. “Two names, as our fathers had.” - -All caught the enthusiasm. The committee leader held up his hand for -silence. “Wait! Who will go?” he demanded. - -“I can. I will,” replied Jones, boldly. “I was born there. My father was -a Frenchman, removed to England because he cherished national -aspirations. I will succeed or die there.” - -“Where will you get the airplane?” - -“I have it here,” said Jones, as simply as if he could produce it from -his pocket. - -Again the mad clamor burst forth. Jones, as the first airscout to come -over, filled all with enthusiasm, and belief in our success. - -“And who will go to Lembken as our emissary?” asked the committee leader -presently. - -“I will,” I answered. - -David started toward me. “No! The risk is too great,” he cried. “We need -you in the Temple on the appointed day. We need your leadership for the -sake of the cause. If Lembken refuses, or tricks you, all will be lost.” - -I answered rather sadly. “You forget,” I said, “that I, too, have all I -hold dear at stake. For this cause, too, I shall succeed or die.” - - - - - CHAPTER XVIII - SANSON - - -For a long time I could not persuade them to let me go. But I pleaded so -hard and set out the arguments so forcibly that at last I persuaded -them. For it was clear that if Lembken, realizing that his power was -waning, should accept our offer, then my plan was the wisest; and, if he -refused, our desperate chance would lose but little by my death. - -It was even possible that the rôle for which he had cast me was the same -that I was to play for the Cause. He had meant to use me against Sanson; -and the more I thought of it the stronger grew my conviction that he had -meant to have me challenge Sanson in the Temple. - -So, one by one, the opposing arguments ended, and the committee leader -gave me my instructions. - -“You must evade the battleplanes and enter London afoot,” he said. “You -will proceed to the People’s House, demand admission, and offer Lembken -our terms: his palace, honors, wealth and pleasures. If he accepts you -will return to us bearing his acceptance in the form of writing, that we -may have a hold on him to use with Sanson, should he betray us -afterward. If you are detected by the searchlights before you reach -London, you will be taken before Hancock, to whom you will make your -demand for an interview with his chief. A messenger will remain posted -near this meeting place in order to convey you to us on your return, -wherever we may be. Now, God be with you, Arnold!” - -I think they understood the turmoil in my heart, for they were very -considerate, and troubled me with no more suggestions than these. For -myself, I confess that the thought of Esther’s peril obliterated from my -mind nearly all other considerations, and, in truth, I cared more for -her safety than for the Cause. I could do nothing till the time of her -awakening came; but, when she awakened, I meant to be at her side. - -The rushlights were blown out, and we bade each other adieu at the -cellar entrance, and separated. Many of those who were present had -traveled miles through the forests in order to attend the meeting. It -had been arranged that David and Elizabeth should make their quarters -with the band commanded by the leader, to which the bishop and Paul -belonged. I was to accompany them as far as the old road, where our -paths divided. - -When we reached it, Elizabeth turned and, putting her hands upon my -shoulders, looked very earnestly at me. - -“Arnold,” she said, “the day is near when we four shall be friends in a -happier world. God bless you and protect the woman you love.” - -I pressed her hands. Then David grasped my own in his. - -“Good-bye, Arnold,” he said. “The Providence that brought you to me will -act to save us all.” - -And he, too, was gone. I waited at the edge of the old road, watching -them disappear among the trees. The last thing that I saw was the -bishop’s white beard, a spot in the darkness. Then I was alone, with the -London road before me, and a mission as desperate as any that was ever -undertaken, and as pregnant with possibilities. - -I do not know how long I had been traveling, whether five minutes or -twenty, nor whether I walked or ran. I became conscious of a soft -whistling in the air, and, glancing up, saw a dark airplane, black -against the risen moon. - -I sprang from the road and hid myself in the underbrush. - -The airplane dipped, passed me, and dipped again, with the purpose, -evidently, of alighting in the road. It passed beyond my sight, flying -low, and veering from side to side as its occupant examined the ground -for a resting place. - -As I rose to continue my journey I heard a low hail among the trees. I -started around, to see the old bishop approaching me at a jog-trot. He -came up panting, and stood before me, holding his pastoral staff against -his breast. - -“Did you see the airplane?” he asked, following the road with his eyes. - -“What are you doing here, Bishop Alfred?” I asked in astonishment, for -there was an expression of supreme, benignant happiness upon his face. -“Are you alone?” - -“Yes, alone,” he answered, smiling. “I left them quietly. They would not -have let me go. I followed you until I saw the airplane. I am going to -Lembken in your place.” - -“But you will be put to death!” I cried. “Surely, you know—” - -“Yes, but that is all right,” he answered. “It is three years now since -any priest was burned for the faith. I have been thinking about it for a -long time. Now I am ready. I am going into the People’s House to preach -the Gospel. I—I ran away from David,” he added, chuckling at the success -of his maneuver. - -I threatened and pleaded in vain, for the old man’s face had the -joyousness of a child’s. - -“It’s no use talking, Arnold,” he said, patting my arm affectionately. -“I am a stubborn man when my mind is made up, and it is made up now. I -have thought about it a long time. You see, I am the last bishop in -England. I am not a learned man, but the Lord Bishop of London”—how -happily he said that!—“laid hands on me an hour before they burned him -in Westminster Hall. Now it is right that I should follow him and take -on martyrdom. It will give inspiration to the people. It will be a -wonderful encouragement to them to see me among the fagots. I have -prayed the Lord to give me strength, because I am a cowardly old man, -and He has done so. I should like to consecrate my successor before I -die. But the Russians will take care of that, and it is fitter that they -should renew the line in England. They will be here in a few days to -save the world, and then we shall all be one.” - -“How do you know?” I cried. - -“It is given to me to know,” he answered, wagging his white head. “So -there is no longer any reason why I should not go into the People’s -House and bear testimony to the truth. You can go back now. I will carry -your message to Lembken before I die.” - -Before I could restrain him he had started off along the road, and his -quick jog-trot gave him almost as much speed as my scrambling, wild -pursuit. I caught him, however, a hundred yards away. - -“Bishop Alfred, you must go back to your friends,” I said. “Your idea is -nonsense. There is no need to sacrifice yourself.” - -He shook his head and detached himself. I stumbled over a projecting -root, and when I was on my feet again I saw the old man another fifty -yards away. Once more I was approaching him. And then I halted suddenly -and drew back among the trees, for just beyond the bend in the road lay -the dark airplane, and the old man had stopped beside it, evidently -waiting to be taken in. - -However, since he continued to wait there, I advanced noiselessly toward -it, with the hope of rescuing him, until I realized that the dark -airplane was empty. - -The occupant had left it, but for what reason, or where he had gone, I -could not surmise. - -I was just where the old road joined with a small, twisting path that -struck back among the trees. Some instinct cautioned me to silence. If I -had spoken ... but I did not speak, and then, among the trees, following -the crooked trail not fifty paces away, I saw the aviator, walking with -head bent downward, evidently unconscious of human proximity. - -I held my breath in terror lest the old man should speak. But he stood -motionless as a statue beside the dark airplane; he seemed wrapt in a -reverie. The hope arose of saving him. That was Hancock’s airplane; his -fate, then, lay with Hancock, and Lembken had told me that the -Air-Admiral was a Christian. Surely he would take pity on the old, -childish man. He knew me. I might appeal to him.... - -The twisting track, which had hidden him from my eyes, brought him into -view once more, clear against the low moon that made the moving figure a -silhouette against its circle. I crept up, until suddenly I reeled and -nearly fell, overcome by the magnitude of my discovery. For this was not -Air-Admiral Hancock, but Hugo Sanson, the madman who ruled the -Federation! - -For a few moments I was powerless to stir. A raiding beast of night went -rustling through the trees behind me. I heard an owl hoot. I lurked like -some savage in the underbrush, and everything went from my memory, save -Esther in peril, and Sanson, the evil genius of humanity, powerless in -my hands if I could spring on him and strangle him before he had time to -draw his Ray rod. - -Then the tracking instinct awoke in me. I began stalking him as -stealthily as any moccasined redskin followed his quarry. He was now -only twenty paces away, and his walk showed that he suspected no danger. - -It was a trail unknown to me, and I could only follow in patience. It -wound to right and then to left, until at last it blended in a wider -trail. And then I knew where I was. We were on the road that led to the -cellar. - -The scattered bricks became the heaping piles. I crouched low. Almost -upon this site Sir Spofforth’s house had stood. There, where the beeches -waved their leafless arms had been Esther’s tea-roses. And here were -briers, sprung, perhaps, from those. It did not need these remembrances -to make my resolution firm. - -Sanson was going down. If he had gone there an hour earlier he would -have walked alone into the presence of men who had a thousand deaths -laid up against him. But Fate had saved him for me! - -For an instant the thought occurred to me that possibly Sanson, -acquainted with the details of the popular conspiracy, had come to offer -terms against Lembken. But I dismissed that thought as impossible. -Sanson would hardly have come there for such a purpose; at least, he -would have come with the Guard. - -The short ladder had been removed and hidden among the trees, but Sanson -seemed to know the way intimately. Lying upon my face among the bricks, -I saw Sanson enter the cellar, holding in one hand a little solar light. -He passed through the gap in the wall into the vault. - -I made my own descent with infinite care, taking pains to dislodge no -stone that might betray my presence. Now I was in the cellar on hands -and knees, watching Sanson as he moved to and fro inside the inner -chamber. My brain was working like a mill—and yet I did not know wholly -what I should do. If I killed Sanson, could I be sure that his death -would set Esther free? Could I seize him and exact terms from him? Then -there was a certain difficulty in springing upon the man quickly enough -to prevent him from drawing his Ray rod; and there was the innate -revulsion against choking a man to death. - -As I deliberated, Fate seemed to solve my problem, for my fingers -touched and closed about a smooth object that lay on the ground. For a -moment I thought it was the branch of a tree. But no branch grew so -smooth. A polished stave? It had been fashioned and grooved.... It was a -Ray rod. - -If I had doubted my mission I ceased to do so in that moment. I felt -along the weapon in the darkness, from the brass guard, which stood up, -leaving the button unprotected, to the little glass bulb near the head, -through which the destroying Ray would stream. I raised the Ray rod and -aimed it. - -The solar light moved in the vault, and the shadow cast by the wall went -back and forth as Sanson tramped to and fro. He was muttering to -himself. He passed across the gap, and the little light shone on me. But -he did not look toward me, and then he was behind the wall again and the -light vanished. - -Next time he passed I would fire. Yet I did not fire, and back and -forth, and forth and back he tramped, talking to himself as any lesser -man might have done. I had no compunction at all; I would have killed -him as I would have killed a deadly snake; and yet, so diabolical was -the fascination he exercised over me, I could not press the button. - -I gathered my resolution together. I would fire when he passed the gap -again. No, the next time. Well, the next, then. My fingers tightened on -the handle. I saw Sanson emerge, the spark of light in his hand. The -tight, white tunic was in the center of the gap. Now! I pressed the -button, aiming at his heart. - -The glass of the Ray rod grew fiery red. The button seared my hand, and -a smell of charred wood filled my nostrils. I dropped the weapon, and it -fell clattering to the ground. Sanson was standing in the gap, unharmed. - -My Ray rod was the one that I had unwittingly discharged on the occasion -when I scrambled for the cellar roof. It had given me life then; it -seemed now to have brought me death. Of course it was useless till it -had been recharged; now it emitted only the red-mull rays: heat, not -cold combustion. - -Sanson had halted as I aimed. Now, at the sound of the falling Ray rod -he sprang forward and turned his solar light on me. His poise was a -crouching leopard’s. In his left hand he held the light, and in his -right was his own Ray rod, covering me. - -I looked at him, I stared at him, I rose upon my feet and staggered to -him. Something in his poise, the whitening hair, brushed back, something -in the man’s soul that the years could not conceal reminded me.... I -stood looking into the face of Herman Lazaroff! - - - - - CHAPTER XIX - THE STORY OF THE CYLINDERS - - -“So it was you, Arnold,” said Sanson quietly. “Well ... what do you -think of Sir Spofforth’s theories now?” - -All my hatred and fear of him had died in that blinding revelation. -Bewilderment so intense that it made all which had occurred since my -awakening dim, a sense of pathos and futility at once deprived me of my -fears and robbed him of his power; and we might have been the -fellow-workers of the old days again, discussing the problem of -consciousness. - -He seated himself on the mud mound, and his voice was as casual as if we -had just returned to the laboratory after escorting Esther home. And -indeed I could with great difficulty only convince myself that I had not -fallen asleep and dreamed this nightmare. - -“You see, it has all come to pass, Arnold,” said Sanson, twirling the -Ray rod idly between his fingers. “A world such as I foretold—a world -set free. Enlightenment where there was ignorance; the soul delusion -banished from the minds of all but the most foolish; the menace of the -defective still with us, but greatly shrunken; the logical State so -wonderfully conceived by Wells, with Science supreme, and almost a world -citizenship. It is a glorious free world, Arnold, to which humanity has -fallen heir, and the fight for it has been a stupendous one. And it is a -world of my creation! I have done what Caesar, Charlemagne, and Napoleon -failed to do; I have brought humanity under one sway, out of the -darkness into light, out of ignorance to knowledge. I have set man, poor -plantigrade, on his feet firmly. He looks up to the skies, not in the -blind and foolish hope of bodiless immortality, but knowing himself the -free heir of the ages. Wasn’t it worth the battle, Arnold?” - -My sense of pity deepened. Surely there can be no worse fate for any man -than to accomplish his desires! I thought of all the unknown idealists -who had given their lives to the accomplishment of great projects and -failed, achieving nothing—inventors, dreamers, a gray, fantasmal legion -whose lost hopes ranged back from age to age; and I saw how their works -were blessed and their failures glorified in contrast. - -“Yes, I thought that it must be you as soon as I examined the sheets -from the Strangers’ Bureau,” continued Sanson, in his matter-of-fact -manner. But it seemed so incredible that the cylinder had erred that I -allowed my pressing duties to let me forget my impulse to take immediate -action. Unfortunately, while we were fellow-workers I did not take your -finger prints, but I had, of course, observed your characteristic -indexes, and also, if you remember, you were kind enough to my fad to -permit me to take your cranial measurements. I did not think that there -could exist two heads like yours, combined with those indexes, within a -single century. For your occipital region is excellent, approximating my -norm, while your frontal area is that of a moron. In short, you are a -typical Grade 2 defective, Arnold—essentially so; and I have no doubt -that, thanks to your five centimeters of asymmetrical frontal -development, you have emerged into this universe of reality still -clinging fondly and affectionately to your dualistic soul theory. - -“But never mind!” he continued, smiling rather grimly. “I have no -intention of handing you over to Lembken’s ridiculous priests to be -tried for heresy. There will be no more priests after a little while. -The public mind is now ripe enough for the abolition of this stupid -compromise of the transition period from God to Matter. One more animist -will do little harm in a world in which they are still far from -uncommon. And then, I am not a man of cruel impulses, Arnold, and I do -not want to penalize you for having come into a world in which you are -an anachronism. So you have spent three weeks in London?” he ended, -scrutinizing me sharply. - -“Yes.” - -“And came back by night to see your birthplace, I suppose,” he said -maliciously. “I don’t know how you escaped the battleplanes. Unless they -are growing slack.... I found one scoutplane without its searchlight -working, and shall send its commander to the leather vats if I discover -him ... well, Arnold,” he resumed, “I could not believe that you had -come out of your cylinder before your time. You came within an ace of -disrupting my work, my world, if you only knew it—you with your missing -five centimeters! I put implicit faith in Jurgensen’s mechanism, and, as -it proves, I was to blame. I came here tonight to see if you could -really be gone.” - -“You knew that I was here?” - -“Why not, Arnold, since I put you here?” he returned, looking at me in a -quizzical manner. “I have paid you periodical visits during the last -five and thirty years. You looked charming in your sleep, Arnold! The -fact is, it was a difficult situation. There was no way of destroying -you, even if I had been so minded. I might have buried you ten feet -underground, or thrown you into the sea, I suppose, but the men who -moved you would have betrayed me unless I murdered them—in short, it was -a problem how to dispose of you without violating my naturally humane -impulses. So I did the best thing—covered the cylinder with mud and let -you lie here. - -“That Jurgensen timepiece was splendidly contrived, Arnold,” he -continued. “Too splendidly, in fact, for in the haste of sealing you I -left the pointer six months ahead of time, as well as with Esther. It -has perhaps occurred to you that you went to sleep in June and awoke in -December?” - -It had not occurred to me, but I made no answer to his sneering -question. - -“In fact, Jurgensen gave me a six months’ leeway on his hundred-years -clock, and the complication of figures prevented me from discovering it. -I moved the pointer to the end of the dial, assuming that the last point -was a hundred, and not a hundred and a half. And then, Arnold, there was -another most regrettable mistake. You remember that you were sealed up -quickly, and rather impulsively, so to say? I found that, in hurriedly -capping you down, I forgot entirely to add twenty-four days upon the -smaller dial for the leap-years; and so you returned that much ahead of -Esther. It was a very bungled arrangement excusable in you, but not in -me.” - -“Lazaroff!” I began, and then corrected myself with an apology as I saw -his brows contract. “Sanson—” - -“Thank you,” he replied ironically. - -“You will at least answer two or three questions, will you not?” I -pleaded. “How did you induce Esther to enter the second cylinder? Why -did you trick me? And how have you contrived to outlive the century -without appearing more than half your age? I think my questions -pardonable.” - -“I shall answer them all,” said Sanson. “I may tell you that it was -never my plan to send our monkeys ahead of us into this world. I meant -to go, Arnold. But unexpectedly there came into my life something -against which I had made no provision. In other words, absurd as it -sounds, I fell in love. Then I planned to take Esther with me. But this -plan, too, was changed, for, to be quite frank, I gathered that she -preferred you to me. I then conceived the entertaining idea of taking -you both with me, so that our rivalry might be renewed in a world where -your advantages of personality would be counterbalanced by my power. -Arnold, I never for an instant doubted that I should stand where I stand -today. So, having persuaded you to enter the cylinder—and how I laughed -at your imbecile complaisance—I invited Esther to follow you. There was -no difficulty. On the contrary, she could hardly be convinced that I was -in earnest. However, I speedily convinced her by the simple process of -putting on the cap. Then, since the cylinders can be manipulated from -within, I myself entered the third.” - -“You, Sanson!” I gasped. “You, too, have slept a hundred years?” - -His look became envenomed, and the quick gust of passion that came upon -him was, to my mind, evidence of a mentality unbalanced by unrestrained -authority. - -“Arnold,” he cried, “would you believe that an end so carefully planned, -so mastered in each detail, could be thwarted by an instant’s lack of -balance? You remember that, of the three cylinders, one was already set -a century ahead? That, save for the six months’ leeway that existed on -all the dials, and was, therefore, immaterial—that one, calculated to -the utmost nicety, leap-years and all, was the one I had selected for -myself already. That was the one Esther entered. The dial upon the -second cylinder I set in your presence, but omitted the four and twenty -days. That was your cylinder. And the third—mine—do you remember?—was -set to sixty-five. - -“I removed this cylinder to a second vault of which you do not know. I -awoke in 1980. Arnold, I entered it and forgot the dial! When I -recovered strength—and I had supplied some food products to last me -during that brief period of recovery—I hurried to this vault. I found -only your cylinder, behind the fallen bricks. When I saw that you still -slept I thought your mechanism had gone wrong. Then, going back to -examine my cylinder, I realized the truth. I, who had loved Esther with -all my power, and vowed with all my will to win her, I, a young man of -twenty-five, must wait for five and thirty years before she awakened. -When my time came to claim her I would be old. O, Esther, what I have -endured during these years!” - -The baffled love of half a life-span overcame him. I watched him, almost -as shaken. The tyrant of half the world, greater than any man had been -since the days when the Caesars reigned, he had bound himself to a more -awful law than any he could contrive. It wrung my heart even then, the -man’s grim hopes and long enduring love, checked by so slight a chance. - -“I found Esther was gone,” continued Sanson presently, rising and -beginning to pace the vault. “I might have re-entered my cylinder, but I -did not know whether she survived in hers. I knew my ambitions claimed -me, and my duty to save humanity and raise it up from the ape. Even she -had to yield to that sacred and pitiful impulse. I learned soon that the -cylinder which contained her had been discovered and adopted as a symbol -of freedom. I found the world aflame and flung myself into the heart of -the revolution. By will I made myself the master of men. In six months -my dominance was unquestioned. I could have become supreme, but I chose -to work through others, that I might have the leisure to devote myself -to my plans for the regeneration of man. I have succeeded; I have made -the world better, Arnold, and I have made it free. But now, when at last -the reward of my long toil approaches, when at last I can show Esther -what I have achieved for her, and lay the world at her feet, I am an old -man, and the prize has turned to ashes.” - -His grief conquered him again, and he paced the vault like a madman, -weeping with all the abandonment of one who is above the need of -conventional repressions. I remembered the antics of the crowd that -followed me to the court. Sanson’s grief was as unrestrained as their -malice. But I was brought back from pity by the realization of this new -and dreadful complication. Sanson loved Esther still. And he had worked -for her. I recalled her immature feminist views. He had believed her -youthful impatience of authority rested upon as firm a conviction as his -beliefs! He thought he had freed humanity. And all the uncountable -wrongs of earth had been heaped up by him as a love-offering to lay at -Esther’s feet. - -I flung my prudence away. I clasped him by the hands. - -“Sanson,” I pleaded, “don’t you see, don’t you understand what the world -is today? Each age has its own cruelties and wrongs; but, if poverty has -been abolished, have you not set a heavier yoke upon men’s necks? Their -children torn from them, the death-house for the old, the vivisection -table—” - -“That is all true, Arnold,” he answered, “and sometimes, even now, that -old, inherited weakness that men termed conscience stirs in me. That -fatal atavistic folly!—for what is death, after all? A painless end, a -placid journey into nothingness, a resolution of the material atoms into -new forms, which shall, in turn, create that consciousness men used to -term a soul. Their children? Bah! Arnold, through suffering we win -upward. In the world-nation that is to come, the narrow, selfish -instinct called parental love—a trick of Nature to ensure the rearing of -the race—will not exist. It will have served its purpose. All I have -done is nothing in comparison with the great secret now almost within my -grasp. That is the meaning of the vivisection table—the research work -that will enable me to offer man immortality!” - -I recoiled in horror at the sight of the fearful fanaticism upon his -face. - -“Yes, it is that, Arnold, which I am almost ready to bestow upon the -world!” he cried triumphantly. “The old problem of consciousness and -tissue life on which we worked so long has practically been solved by -means at my disposal in a civilized world. Then we shall live indeed. -There will be no requirement that knowledge should progress painfully -through the inheritance of our fathers’ labors. We ourselves shall climb -the ladder of omniscience. The fit shall live forever, and we shall weed -out the moron and defective without scruple, preserving a race of mortal -slaves to labor for us in the factories and in the fields, holding them -subdued by the threatened loss of that life which we shall control and -permit to them so long as they are obedient. That is the noble climax of -man’s aspirations. Immortal life, in these bodies of ours, and Esther -mine, not for a span, but for eternity!” - -I believed him—I could not help but believe. Can anything be impossible, -so long as man is gifted with free will for good and evil? Must he not -have the ladder to scale Olympus, and thereby learn of heights beyond? I -flung myself upon my knees before Sanson, like some poor father pleading -for his son’s life, and implored him to draw back. As he stood watching -me I babbled about the terror in the world, the boon of death, the -long-linked chain of humanity, bound all together as a spiritual unit, -which he would sever. I reminded him of the old days under Sir -Spofforth, of the old, free world we had lost. How had he bettered it? I -think I moved him, too, though, when I ended, he was regarding me with a -cold smile of negation. - -“You want me to turn back, Arnold,” he said. “Once there was a time when -I hesitated. But ... can even that God of yours turn back? Come with me, -Arnold, and for the sake of the old friendship to which you have -appealed I will give you power. Defective as you are, you shall live -your life to the full capacity of your talent. You shall not suffer -because you came so unkindly into this world of ours. If your mind turns -toward pleasures such as that foul defective Lembken enjoys, they shall -be yours. If not, then you shall work with me as you used to do. When I -and Esther rule the world together, immortal as the fabled gods, you -shall sit at our feet and be our confidant.” - -That I hoped still to win Esther had never entered the man’s mind. The -sublimity of his egotism was the measure of his blindness. Just as he -had entered the cellar, so self-absorbed that he had failed to see the -benches and the crucifix, nor dreamed that here, where his evil dreams -began, their end was planned, so, now, he did not see. The devilish will -that had carried him thus far would bring him to destruction. - -At my hands, if I played the part shrewdly. But I lost all self-command. - -“Though you have all the world at your feet, Sanson,” I cried, “you can -never hold me to obedience, nor Esther either. I love her, and we shall -both die before we yield!” - -For an instant I saw his face before me, twisted with all the passions -of his thwarted will; then I saw the blinding white light leap from his -Ray rod as he fired at me. - - - - - CHAPTER XX - THE SWEEP OF THE NET - - -“I am not at all afraid,” I retorted, nettled at Lazaroff’s sneer, “but -how do I get in?” - -A dog was yelping somewhere outside the Institute, and all the dogs in -Croydon seemed to have taken up its challenge. It was difficult for me -to make my voice audible above the uproar. - -“I am not at all afraid,” I repeated, “but—” - -I was back in the cellar with Esther and Lazaroff, and we were examining -the cylinders. As I looked about me, I seemed to be in the cylinder -still, but gradually it expanded, until it became a vast hall, dark, -save for a little window near the ceiling, through whose half-opaque -crystal a little light filtered in dimly. - -Lazaroff seemed to have aged. He wore a white beard, and his touch was -very gentle as he bathed my face with water. As I stared at him he -became ... somebody whom I had once known ... Bishop Alfred! - -“Now you are better,” said the old man, with his child-like smile. - -I put my hand up to my aching head. There was a scarred groove along the -top of the scalp, where the glow ray had plowed its passage. I began to -remember now. - -The howling of the dogs broke out afresh. The din was terrific, and the -mournful tones of the poor animals’ cries made the place a pandemonium. - -“Arnold!” whispered a soft voice at my side. - -Elizabeth was kneeling there, and David stood behind her. Next to David -stood the little woman who had been our neighbor in the Strangers’ -House, and a multitude of men and women, and children, too, watched me -through the gloom. - -“Where am I? Who are all these?” I asked. Then, lighting upon a more -momentous question, “How long have I been here?” - -“Three days, Arnold,” whispered Elizabeth. - -“Then in two days—two days—” I gasped. - -“No, Arnold, tomorrow is the day,” interposed David, coming up to me -softly. “Sanson has proclaimed a meeting in the Temple at sunrise, and -it is now late afternoon. We are all in his trap. He must have found -you, taken you unaware, and fired at you, but afterward he changed his -mind and brought you here in his dispatchplane, where he found Bishop -Alfred awaiting him, and Elizabeth and myself, who had gone back to find -him. I bought a few days’ respite by surrender, and there was even -pleasure in the thought that my daughter will not meet her fate in -Lembken’s palace.” - -“Where, then?” I asked, struggling painfully up. - -“In the Vivisection Bureau—with these,” he answered, indicating the -assemblage. - -“Where are we, David?” I cried in anguish. - -“Beneath it. In the vaults where Sanson keeps his morons, Christians, -criminals, and dogs, to await the table.” - -I was upon my feet raving like a madman, making my way round the vault, -striking my fists against the damp stone walls, crazed with the thought -of Esther. They followed me, and some laid their hands on me in -restraint, but I thrust them away. They thought I could not bear to -share their wretched fate. But the nearness of the crisis, the thought -of Esther in Sanson’s power deprived me of my senses. - -The vault was an enormous one, the only access being at the far end, by -means of an oak gate, heavily barred. In this further portion were -chained, all along the walls, the dogs destined for the experimental -work above. As I drew near the gate the howling broke forth afresh. It -steadied me; I came back to my senses; somebody was at my side, clasping -my arm and speaking a few timid words in my ear. - -I swung around and caught at the little woman who had been our neighbor. -She had her children with her, and the three held each other closely, as -if their last hour had begun. - -“What are you doing here?” I asked. - -I did not know David was near, but at the words he clasped me in his -arms. - -“She is here, Arnold,” he answered, “because the last act of terrorism -has brought her. Sanson’s reason has left him, and he has flung his net -wide over London for victims. He has gathered everyone: morons, -Christians, criminals, suspects. She taught her children fairy stories. -The inspectors had long suspected it, and they terrified the little girl -into admission by threatening to kill the mother. They were then -adjudged morons. The mother pleaded to be allowed to accompany them to -the table, alleging that her father had been color-blind. Her prayer was -granted; she is going, Arnold; we all are going—” - -“No,” said the old bishop in a regretful tone, “not one of us is going. -You see,” he added in explanation, “the Russians are in Stockholm, and -it will not be long before they arrive in London to free the world. That -is why Sanson lost his self-control. He knows. He wants to finish his -enemies at home before they come.” - -“How do you know?” demanded David, while everyone grew still and -listened. - -“It is given to me to know,” said Bishop Alfred simply, beaming and -rubbing his hands. “I should like to have followed my dear master, the -Lord Bishop of London, to the fagots, but none of us will go to the -tables now, and we shall all have our two names again.” - -David drew me aside. “Arnold,” he said, “this situation would have -robbed stronger men of their wits. I am afraid that our case is -hopeless. One of the Guard, who knows me, has told me that Sanson is -preparing for a holocaust of victims tomorrow, to celebrate his coup. He -will stop at nothing to appease his blood thirst. Arnold, all our people -know who you are. For their sake you must lead and show them how to die, -as the first Christians died. It is hard, my dear boy—” - -I knew he was not thinking of death, but of my tragedy. - -“Your capture has rendered our plans abortive,” he went on. “But still -there may be some hope unguessed by us. Unto the last we will not impugn -God’s power. Now, my friends,” he added, turning toward the crowd, which -circulated in the vault slowly, always following me, “let us show the -Guard where our strength lies.” - -In the gloom of the vast vault, above the howling of the dogs, the hymn -was raised, old Bishop Alfred leading, in a voice singularly sweet, -although in speech the tones were broken. All kneeled. - -Afterward David spoke briefly. He reminded us of the brave traditions of -martyrdom and its happy expectancy. We were going to face our fate -together, strengthened by our companionship and in the knowledge that -our death would create a revulsion of sentiment that would sweep Sanson -from power and restore Christianity to the world. They cried out their -approval, and there was no face but reflected David’s dauntless -resolution. Then it was as if some soul of merriment swept over us all. -I saw strangers embracing, there was clapping of hands, and the -concluding hymn was shouted so joyously that a slit in the little window -overhead was thrust back, and I saw the face of a sentinel stare in on -us with something of superstitious awe. - -The glass must have been sound-proof, like that which enclosed Lembken’s -gardens, for, as the slit was pushed back, I heard the cries of the -multitude in the courts above: - -“Sanson! Sanson! Sanson!” they howled. “Out with the Christian morons! -To the Rest Cure! The Rest Cure!” - -The slit was pushed into place, cutting off all sound. Darkness was -falling. The little light within the vault faded. Gradually the voices -died away. Sometimes a hymn would be started, but mostly we sat silent -now, and even the dogs ceased howling, and only stirred and whined at -intervals. I heard the little woman’s children whimper, and fancied her -motherly face bent over them as she quieted their fears. I only felt -Elizabeth’s presence, and that of David, good, fatherly man, on whom I -leaned more than he knew. At last the only sounds were the bishop’s -mumbling voice, as he talked to himself, and the staccato tapping of his -stick on the stone floors. - -[Illustration: - - A man near me leaped up and craned his neck, looking into the gloom -] - -“They are coming,” I heard him say. “They are gathering up the Stockholm -fleets. They will be here—” - -“Who?” I burst out. - -“The Russians,” he answered gently. “See them coming; big men, with -bloody crosses on their breasts.” - -A man near me leaped up and craned his neck, looking into the gloom. One -or two cried out at the old bishop’s words, and some listened and -whispered eagerly. Time passed. Most of the prisoners slept. I was still -too sick and dizzy from my wound; I waited in a sort of apathy, and I -seemed to see Esther within the opening cylinder, and Sanson, creeping -like a foul beast of prey toward her. - -I had been dozing. I started up at the sound of bolts being withdrawn, -the heavy door at the far end of the vault was opened, and flashing -lights shone in on us. The dogs, awakened, began to howl again. There -was the stamping of heavy boots upon the stones, and a detachment of the -Guard appeared before us. - -They numbered seven. Six of them were privates, carrying solar torches -and Ray rods; and in their midst stood a tall man with a black beard and -a curved sword sheath that clanked on the stones. I recognized in him -Mehemet, the Turkish commander. - -Some, who had slept and mercifully forgotten all, sat up in -bewilderment, others leaped up, thinking the hour had come. As we stood -blinking at the lights, Mehemet spoke a few words, and the soldiers -flashed their torches into our faces until they lighted on mine. Then -Mehemet stepped forward and laid his hand on my shoulder, and drew me -toward him; and the soldiers closed about us. - -David sprang toward them. - -“You shall not take him alone!” he cried. “Let us go with him, every one -of us. We shall go to death together.” - -And others sprang forward too, clamoring, beseeching. “Take us all!” -they cried. “Take us together!” - -Mehemet shrugged his shoulders and turned away. The captives flung -themselves before the soldiers, who hesitated. - -It was then that the old bishop, who had never ceased to mumble, I -think, came quietly up to us. - -“It is all right. Let him go,” he said gently. “He will come to no -harm.” - -[Illustration: - - A tall man with a black beard and a curved sword sheath that clanked - on the stones. - - I recognized in him Mehemet the Turkish commander -] - -“It is my orders,” said Mehemet, looking with respect at Bishop Alfred. -“I have come for him alone.” - -Half quieted by the bishop’s intervention, my fellow-prisoners ceased to -offer forcible resistance. But they wept and prayed, and David grasped -me by the hand. - -“We shall be together in spirit, Arnold!” he cried. “God be with you. -God be with you.” He flung his arms about me, and the guards, touched by -the scene, permitted him to accompany me as far as the door. They picked -their way carefully by the light of their torches, to avoid treading on -the dogs, which crept to their feet or strained, yelping, upon their -chains. At the door I found Elizabeth. - -“We shall be with you in your hour, Arnold!” she said, embracing me and -fighting back her sobs valiantly. “We shall all think of you tomorrow.” - -The crowd dispersed. The last thing that I saw was the white, terrified, -maternal face of the little woman, as she clutched her children to her -breast, and, over her, the bishop’s pastoral staff, held up as if to -shield her. - -The door was closed behind me, and the soldiers shot the bolts home. In -front of me was a flight of winding concrete stairs, dividing at a -central space into two portions that ran right and left respectively. We -took the left. I expected to emerge into the Vivisection Bureau, to see -the eager students of the medical school, and Sanson, the presiding -devil, there. But instead I saw a gate above me; a guard unlocked it. -Then I found myself standing alone beside Mehemet, in the interior court -between the Temple and the Airscouts’ Fortress, between the Science Wing -and the Council Building. - -High above me the bridges crossed, spanning the gulf in whose recess we -stood. I saw once more the palms against the upreared crystal walls. - -As I watched I saw the battleplanes take their flight once more, one by -one, from the roof of the Airscouts’ Fortress, rising into the dark -night like luminous balloons. In the distance London glowed like day. - -Behind us, in the outer courts, a multitude was shrieking curses upon -the Christians; and, for the first time, I heard threats against -Lembken, and realized that Sanson’s plans were made for that coup which -I was never to see. - -“We are going to Sanson?” I asked Mehemet, nerving myself for his -affirmative reply. - -He spat. “The jackal!” he said. “Sooner would I become a Christian than -serve such spawn. We are going to the People’s House.” - -Evidently Sanson did not know that the main prop of his new house had -fallen. - - - - - CHAPTER XXI - AMARANTH - - -I stepped out of the elevator into a part of the Palace that I had not -seen before. The room into which the waiting negro ushered me was -completely dark, though a thin line of light at the further end showed -me that there was a lighted room beyond. - -I strained my eyes, striving to penetrate the gloom. I took a few steps -forward, stretching out my hands to feel if any obstacle were in the -way. Looking back, I could not even discern the heavy curtain that had -dropped soundlessly behind me. - -I knew that there was someone in the room, and that it was not Lembken. -I waited; I heard the rustle of a woman’s garment. Then swiftly the room -was flooded with the soft solar light. - -It was bare, except for the rugs and a low divan pushed against one -wall, with a little table beside it. Everything was of the color of -gold: the walls, the ceiling, the rugs upon the floor. And before me, -clothed from head to foot in a sheer, trailing garment of dull gold, -stood the girl Amaranth. - -Her dark hair was bound back in a loose Grecian knot, her sandaled feet -gleamed white on the gold fabric under them; she stretched out her white -arms to me and, taking me by the hand, led me to the divan and placed me -at her side. - -“Poor Arnold!” she began in a caressing tone, “you have suffered so much -in your ignorance and your desire to help your friends. But all your -troubles are ended now, and your friends shall not be harmed. Do you -think you can love me, Arnold?” - -She looked at me with neither boldness nor hesitation, and then, folding -her arms, drummed her sandal heels against the foot of the divan. - -“Are you not lucky, Arnold, to have won my love!” she continued. “I gave -my love to you from the moment when I first saw you enter the room in -which I sat with Lembken, looking so stern, so resolute, like one of -those adventurous heroes of the twentieth century of whom we read in our -romances. That is why I made Lembken tell Mehemet to bring you here. He -was so hurt by your departure that I think he would have let his plans -go to ruin rather than himself plead with you. He is very sensitive and -kind. - -“You are not afraid to love me, Arnold?” she continued, looking at me -with curious scrutiny. “You need not be afraid. Lembken has grown tired -of me, so I must find another. He has taken a fancy to Coral, my blue, -an absurd little yellow-haired thing. You shall see her.” - -She clapped her hands twice, and a door opened, apparently a part of the -wall. A fair-haired girl, dressed in a loose blue tunic and Zouave -trousers, entered, carrying a tray on which were two golden winecups. - -Amaranth took the nearest cup in her hands, touched the rim with her -lips, and held it out to me. - -“Drink with me, Arnold,” she said. - -But I would not drink, lest the corruption of the wine should dull me -and disarm my strength in the spell of that enervating hell. I handed -back the cup to her. - -Amaranth looked at me for an instant with quivering lips. Then she burst -into tears and hurled the cup at the maid. She flung the other also. The -first missed its mark and fell against the base of the wall, where it -shed its ruby contents in a widening stain. The second cup struck the -maid’s cheek and cut it, and the wine drenched the blue tunic. - -The maid smiled, biting her lips, stooped down, picked up both cups, -and, placing them on the tray, departed silently. Amaranth sobbed as if -her heart was broken. Then suddenly she turned and flung her arms about -me. - -“Arnold, I love you!” she cried. “You saw her? She is Lembken’s favorite -now, that yellow-haired fool with the blue eyes like saucers. Lembken -means us for each other. Can you not love me?” - -I sat in silence, trying to pick my path cautiously through the mists of -bewildering doubt. Amaranth unclasped her arms from about my neck, and -her face assumed a look of mockery. - -“Oh, I know!” she said, “it is that Elizabeth of yours whom you think -you love. And you think you can only love one at a time, in your -romantic twentieth-century way. Well, I will match myself against her. -You shall bring her here, Arnold, and I will fight her for you, and I -will be your blue and she shall be your white, and I will serve you -obediently till I have won your heart. Look on me, Arnold! See how -beautiful I am! For I was born here; I am Boss Rose’s daughter, and I -have never left the People’s House. Look at the whiteness of my skin! -The sun has never shone on it. Look at my lips, Arnold! Put your mouth -to my cheek—it is as soft as the bloom upon a nectarine. Do you think, -then, I am afraid to match myself against your Elizabeth?” - -She smiled contemptuously, and tilted back her head, and clasped her -hands behind it, and watched me through her lashes. Yet I detected a -resource of feverish resolve in her; and I knew that she and I, Mehemet, -Sanson, were that night weaving the threads in a fabric upon the loom of -destiny, and that each word we spoke flashed like the thread-bearing -shuttle over it. - -So, piecing my words together with infinite care, because the lives of -Esther and all those who were dear to me hung on them, I answered her: - -“Forgive my sullen mood. You have promised that my friends shall go -free; yet they expect to die at sunrise, and it is hard to be at ease. -How can I save them?” - -Amaranth unclasped her hands and turned to me with a quick gesture of -penitence. - -“Ah, it was wrong of me to speak of love first, when you have such a -burden of sorrow, Arnold!” she answered. “I had forgotten that men’s -minds are troubled in the world below. Here we are free and have no -cares, except how we shall take our pleasures. And to think that you -left us to help your friends, when Lembken would have done everything -you wished! - -“Now I will set your mind at rest. Lembken has already given the command -that your friends shall live until Sanson has spoken in the Temple, and -when he has spoken he will no longer have power—if you obey Lembken. But -he was deeply hurt by your leaving him, for he is very sensitive to -unkindness, and so he asked me to speak to you on his behalf. Now, if -you act loyally, you may save your friends and the world. Tomorrow there -will be an end to all of Sanson’s mad schemes of tyranny. Mehemet and -his guards have abandoned him. Lembken knows everything; he knows all -the desperate plans his poor people have made, and his heart is wrung -for them.” - -She paused, and placing her hand on mine, looked very earnestly at me. - -“Arnold, you know that Sanson has been poisoning the people’s minds -against Lembken, in pursuance of his plan to depose him,” she continued. -“So your part, which will be detailed to you later, will be to enter the -Temple tomorrow among the priests. You will defend Lembken against -Sanson. You will remind the people how they elected him from year to -year, because he was their friend. Tell them he has not changed. And in -return liberty shall be established and the hated Guard disbanded. -Lembken asks only for his dignity and wealth, and his friends in the -People’s House. He is growing old, Arnold, and desires power no more.” - -She watched me with that centuries-old look, and in my heart I knew I -had not fathomed hers. This was what I had meant to propose. Yet—yet I -doubted her. - -“It is agreed, then,” she cried gaily, “and now you will be one of us. -It is past midnight, Arnold, and in a few short hours you shall be -hidden in the priests’ room to be coached for your part. Till then—” - -She ceased suddenly, as the sound of voices came from the room beyond -the further door. She slipped from the divan. - -“Sanson has been with Lembken,” she whispered. “He is coming this way. -Arnold, do you want to see your enemy broken? That will be a glorious -beginning to this first night of ours, and afterwards we shall go to the -revels in the garden. I shall be proud of you, Arnold, for now the girls -are taunting me because Lembken is tired of me. How I shall be envied! -But come here quickly!” - -She took me to the door in the wall through which the girl Coral had -come. At a distance of a few paces it was invisible. I wondered how many -more such doors were set in the walls of Lembken’s palace. - -“You shall listen here,” she said, “I trust you Arnold. You will not -lose your self-control and enter, no matter what you hear? Ah, I shall -test your love for that Elizabeth! But I trust you, and the beginning of -this night’s masque shall be the humbling of your enemy. Stay here until -I call you!” - -She thrust me behind the door and withdrew, closing it. I heard the -rustle of her garment as she crossed the room—then nothing. - -I found myself standing in a dim corridor that ran as far as I could see -in either direction. The nameless horror of the Palace overcame me, and -it was with a strong effort that I controlled my wild impulse of flight. - -As I stood there I heard the sound of stealthy footsteps, and, looking -up, saw the maid Coral coming softly toward me. She was carrying the -tray, with two full winecups, and she stopped beside me and set it down -on the carpet. - -She stood looking at me. Her eyes were blazing with anger, and her slim -body shook under the blue tunic. But on her mouth was the same set smile -that I had seen when she picked up the cups. - -She said nothing, but, placing her hand against the door, opened it an -inch or two without the slightest sound. At that moment I heard a door -opened, the rustle of Amaranth’s robe, and a lithe tread on the floor. - -Sanson spoke. “I have said all that there is to say,” he answered. “Why -do you plead with me? Do you think a woman can plead with me where -Lembken failed? He shall have his honors and residence here—no more.” - -“But spare your prisoners, Sanson,” said Amaranth softly. “Spare Arnold. -For my sake,” she said, pleading. - -Sanson spoke curtly. “All Christians and all morons must be tomorrow’s -sacrifice to the new era,” he answered. - -“Do not go, Sanson,” Amaranth besought him, as he moved away from her. -“Listen to me! You, who are so merciless and cruel, why do you not take -all?” - -“I have all that I need,” he said impatiently. “What more?” - -“Why have you spared Lembken? Why do you not slay him and rule with us? -We hate him. He is a tyrant, and you know the fate of his women when -they have ceased to please. You who have made yourself the master of the -world, for whose sight we throng the sides of the crystal walls as you -cross the courts below—why have you refused the pleasures that are for -the world’s masters?” - -He stood still; I fancied that he was looking at her, trying to measure -his problem in the balances once more. Coral cast a glance at me. The -smile was still on her face, but she nodded her head thoughtfully, as if -she, too, had her problem. - -“Listen, Sanson,” continued Amaranth fiercely, “when Boss Rose climbed -to power he built the People’s House and made it a pleasure-palace for -the world’s elect. Then he died under a murderer’s dagger, and Lembken, -who had long envied him, came to rule in his place. He, too, has lived -his time. Now he is broken. You, the next ruler of the world—why do you -not do as he did? We are tired of him. We want another lord, Sanson.” - -I knew that she was clinging to him as she had clung to me. I did not -look at Coral, but I knew that she was still smiling. - -“You can set us free, Sanson,” continued Amaranth gently. “You can rid -us of our tyrant.” - -The murmuring voice went on and on, and Sanson made no answer. - -“You have not entered the People’s House for seven years until tonight. -Do you think we have forgotten that you exist? Do you think we have not -wondered why the master of the world has left us to the whims of that -fat old man? Sit by me, Sanson. Do you not see how you have toiled while -Lembken has taken his ease? You have waited so long for one woman. Oh, -yes, I know; all a great man’s secrets are known everywhere, though he -thinks them in sanctuary, securely guarded. You can take her—but take us -too. Live your life, Sanson! Save us and reign over us! Take me, -Sanson—” - -I heard the man breathe as if in a trance. That strange pity which he -inspired in me awoke again. All the long tragedy of his life, the vigil -of five and thirty years, the love that must prove vain—I realized it -all. For this vain love he had ensnared the world, and now the world -leaped at him to ensnare him. Devil as he was, in will his life had -been, in one respect, a hero’s. - -“Drink with me, Sanson,” I heard Amaranth murmur. “You do not know the -taste of wine. A pledge to our love. A pledge to our lives!” - -She was conquering. The tyrant of the world was almost prostrate at the -feet of this girl of twenty years. Attila’s fate was to be his. I heard -him groan in bitterness of conflict. - -Amaranth clapped twice. Instantly the girl Coral stooped down, pushing -me fiercely from the door, and, taking up the tray, went in. Amaranth -took the brimming winecup and touched it with her lips. - -“Drink, Sanson!” she murmured. - -I was watching them now. I saw Sanson rise and raise the cup in his -hand. He did not drink, neither did he reject it, but stood like one in -a daze, all movement inhibited by the fierceness of that inner struggle. -Amaranth seized the second cup from the tray, leaped from the couch, and -raised it on high. - -“To our love, Sanson!” she cried, and drained it. - -At that moment the jagged cut on the girl Coral’s face grew red with -blood again. - -Coral stood holding the tray, and she looked at Amaranth and smiled. She -stood like a tinted statue. - -Sanson was still standing in front of the divan. He had not drunk; he -held the cup in his hand and was himself as immobile as a statue. - -“Will you not drink the pledge that I have drunk?” asked Amaranth, -laying her fingers lightly on his arm and leaning toward him. - -And I had underestimated Sanson after all. Now, at the moment of -surrender, his indomitable will flamed out, seeming to possess his body -and mold each feature, every muscle to its unconquerable resolve. - -“I will not drink!” he cried, and flung the cup to the floor. - -He turned and strode from the room like the conqueror he was. He passed -the curtain, which fell behind him. He had won his hardest battle, taken -unaware, fighting against a cunning ambush; and I knew now that hardly -an earthly enemy could conquer him. - -I was in the room now, for there was no need to hide myself any longer. -I watched Amaranth, who, as statuesque as Sanson had been, stood looking -after him. A minute passed. - -Suddenly she wheeled about and clapped her hands to her side. She -staggered; a spasm of pain crossed her face, and she looked searchingly -at Coral. The maid in the blue tunic looked back at her, smiling. - -Their eyes did not waver until Amaranth swayed backward and fell on the -divan. A scream broke from her lips, and then another; a third; she -wrung her hands and moaned. - -I kneeled before her. “What is it, Amaranth?” I cried. - -[Illustration: - - Sanson’s indomitable will flamed out. “I will not drink!” he cried, - and flung the cup to the floor -] - -She raised herself and looked wildly at me. Her face was ashen pale, the -features pinched; dark rings had crept beneath her eyes. - -“She gave me the—wrong cup,” she whispered. - -I tried to go for aid, but Amaranth clung to me. “There is no hope,” she -sobbed. “I must die. Stay with me, Arnold!” - -Her head fell back and she breathed heavily. I turned and saw Coral -beside me, a smiling, waxen doll, the new queen of the harem by the -dying one. - -“Go!” I thundered at her. - -She shrugged her shoulders daintily and went, leaving the winecups on -the floor. - -Amaranth’s hand trembled upon my sleeve. I bent over her. Her eyes fixed -themselves on mine. - -“Put your hand under me,” she muttered; “raise me. All is lost now. -Sanson has beaten Lembken, and everything is ended. Save your Elizabeth -if you can.” - -She drew my face toward hers and spoke in panting accents: - -“It was Lembken’s plot. He learned that Sanson held you in the vaults. -His case was desperate. He asked Mehemet’s aid. Mehemet said he—his men -would not desert Sanson while he lived, but if he died they would follow -him for Lembken. I was to poison Sanson and thus win over the Guard. I -was to drug you only, and keep you out of the way. Lembken liked you; he -would not let you be killed. He has been communicating with the American -bosses. The plan—the plan—” - -She gathered her strength with a last effort of will. - -“The plan was of long standing. Events hastened it. Mehemet knew it. -Britain was to have a God again, Mehemet’s God, and the American Mormons -were to unite with us, for their faith is nearly the same. The people -would have a god, and this would unite all nations against the Christian -Russians. They are in Stockholm. The American battleplanes are on their -way to help us against them. When Sanson was dead the guards were to -join the airscouts. Now you must go. Save your Elizabeth. Kill Sanson. I -can say no more. Escape—” - -She muttered something that I could not hear, and then her eyes, which -had closed, reopened and wavered on mine again. - -“I loved you, Arnold,” she said in a weak, clear voice. “I’m glad I died -before I lost you. I used to wish I had been born in other days ... the -twentieth-century days, when ... women were different ... all different -... men mated one only ... give the people those days again if you beat -Sanson, Arnold.” - -She tried to stretch out her hands to me. Her eyelids quivered, and she -sighed very deeply. - -I saw a crimson stain upon my hands. It was the wine from Sanson’s -winecup. - - - - - CHAPTER XXII - ESTHER - - -I left the dead girl on the divan and went into the hall. My head ached, -and I was still dizzy from my wound, but I had grown suddenly composed, -and all my perplexities had vanished in the face of Esther’s imminent -need of me. - -There was nobody in the hall. The negroes were gone, and the palm -gardens were dark and seemed deserted. Silence had descended everywhere. -Withal it was the silence of hushed voices, I knew, and not of -emptiness. Within those walls, in hidden rooms, lurked those who waited -yet for the death agony of the man who had already escaped the baited -trap. - -I wondered whether Sanson had bought the attendants, if he had come -alone, whether the fear of him forbade an ambush in case Amaranth’s plot -should fail. He had evidently gone down in the elevator, for it was not -in the cage, but it came up to me when I pressed the button, and I -descended, stopping at the first door I saw, which must, I knew, give -access to the Temple. - -The corridor into which I stepped was as empty as the palace hall above. -The airscouts who should have been on duty here were gone. I did not -realize that I had formed no plans and felt no fear until I found my way -unopposed. Before me was a door, leading into one of the numerous small -rooms through which one entered the Temple, and at my side was a little -window, through which the cries of the mob beneath were borne to me -fitfully on the gusty air. - -I stopped and looked out. The sky was thick with battleplanes. No longer -at their stations about the city, they cruised hither and thither, -approaching one another and retiring in a manner seemingly confused and -aimless. Sometimes a group would gather as if conferring, forming a -polygon of light with changing sides as they maneuvered; and presently a -single impulse seemed to animate them all, for, like a flock of wheeling -birds, they swung around and sailed off together, till they were only -pin-points of light in the southwest. - -Beneath me the courts were packed with a vast multitude that had -assembled for the morrow’s ceremonies. Looking down on them, I saw that -they were held back by two lines of the guards, armed with Ray rods, -drawn up before the Temple. - -They jostled and swayed and howled fearlessly, as if they knew the -imminence of change; yet their cries were not all against the Christians -and the morons, nor yet against Lembken, nor all for Sanson. I tried to -fancy that among them were groups of our few thousand, gathered out of -the forests to play their rôle at dawn. - -Yet for the moment Sanson had triumphed. I thought upon how little hung -the fate of the world. A palace women’s intrigue, the jealousy of a -girl, a cup of wine, and Lembken’s schemes were broken. - -Then it came to me that the conical, glow-painted Ray guns on the -encircling wall were trained no longer outward but inward, dominating -the Temple courts and all the multitude within them. And in a flash of -comprehension I saw the scheme of Sanson. If the people rejected him on -the morrow he meant to kill all those within the walls, all human beings -inside the circle of the fortress, confident that thereby he would -destroy all his enemies. He meant to level the Temple and the palace -above, the Council Hall, the Airscouts’ Fortress, involving everything -in one colossal ruin which he would bestride—the unchallenged master of -the Federation. - -This done, the Russian fleet would be attacked and destroyed, and with -it the last obstacle to world dominion. - -I saw this with one flash of intuition. Perhaps I lingered in all for -forty seconds beside the window. It was hardly longer, for the thought -of Esther drove me through the doorway in front of me. I found myself -within the dark, enormous area of the Temple. - -I was in a circular gallery surrounded by a brass railing, which ran -high up around the interior. The only light was the faint reflection -from a single solar bulb that shone across the gulf. Beneath it I could -discern the shining, golden surface of the Ant. - -I felt my way around the gallery, working toward the light, which seemed -to descend as I approached it, until, standing immediately above it, I -looked down and saw it shining an unknown distance beneath. It showed -now the uplifted antenna of the idol, the edge of the stone altar in the -center of the bridge that spanned the Temple, and the round body of the -cylinder, which seemed to hang in space above it. - -I had entered the Temple upon a floor one stage too high, and there was -no way down from the gallery; it would be necessary to go back to the -elevator and descend to a lower level, that of the bridges that spanned -the interior court. - -But that was too dangerous, and I could wait no longer. I estimated that -the light was five and twenty feet below. I swung from the brass rail -and dropped into space. It was a mad plunge in the dark toward that -slender bridge a hundred feet above the Temple floor. But fortune was -with me, for I struck the golden grille around the altar-stone and -tumbled inside, rising upon my feet with only a bruise or two. - -The grille was about four feet high, and the ends formed gates which, -when opened, made the altar-stone one with the two bridge spans that -extended to meet it from either side of the building. It formed thus a -sort of keystone in aspect, though not architecturally, since it did not -support the spans, which seemed to be on the principle of the -cantilever. I saw now that the stone was suspended by steel chains from -the roof, and over it, hung by two finer ones, was the cylinder. - -Presently I could grasp the meaning of the mechanism. Cylinder and stone -altar were in counterpoise, so that, when the first was drawn up, the -second would descend from between the spans to the level of the Ant’s -pedestal, forming, as it were, a sacrificial stone immediately before -the idol, disrupting the continuity of the bridges also, and leaving a -gap between them. - -But I spared no thoughts on this. I looked through the cylinder’s face -of glass, and, though I saw but the dimmest outlines there, I knew that -I had found Esther again, and that there were to be no more partings, so -long as we both lived. - -I do not know what follies I committed there, for I forgot everything -but her. Forgotten was the imminent danger, remembered only our reunion. -I flung my arms about the iron case and called to her, telling her of my -love, as if she heard me. I came back to sanity at length to find myself -kneeling before the case upon the stone, with the tears raining down my -cheeks. - -It was a mad wooing of a sleeping woman upon that giant slab, swung by -its chains from the vault above, and vibrant under me. Each movement set -the heavy mass to trembling as the chains quivered, and the cylinder, -too, danced before me, like some steel marionette. - -I stretched my hands up, feeling for the cylinder cap. It was still on -the neck, but it had almost reached the end of the thread and moved -under my fingers. I could not see the figures upon the dial, but I knew -that Esther’s awakening was not many hours away. - -I twisted the cap between my fingers. I could dislodge it. If I did so -... Lazaroff had told me that would bring death, but surely not when -there remained only a few short hours before the awakening. Air must -have been entering in measurable quantities during some days. And, even -if Esther died—better that than to awaken in Sanson’s arms! - -It was a terrific choice. I hesitated only a few moments, but they were -a century of agony to me. Then I set my fingers to the cap, wrenched it -free, and flung it from me. It tinkled upon the stones beneath. And, -hardly venturing to breathe, I clung to the cylinder and waited. - -No sound came from within. I clung and tried to place my ear against the -opening. - -At last, in maddened resolution, I swung the cylinder toward me by the -chains, tilting it downward until I got purchase upon it. I bore with my -full weight upon the metal edge. I plunged my arms within. I felt the -heavy coils of Esther’s hair, her eyelids, cheek, and chin; I placed my -hands beneath her arms and drew her forth. How I contrived it I do not -know, for platform and cylinder rocked fearfully as they swung; but in a -moment, it seemed, I held her light and wasted body against my own. And -we were on the rocking altar-stone together, while the cylinder swung -rhythmically above, passing our heads in steady, sweeping flights as I -crouched with Esther in my arms behind the golden grille. - -I pressed my lips to hers, I chafed her hands and pleaded with her to -awake. And presently, as if in answer to my prayer, I heard a sigh so -faint that I could scarcely dare believe I heard it. - -A deeper sigh, a sobbing breath—she lived; and with amazed, awed -happiness I felt her thin arms grope instinctively toward my neck. She -knew! - -I kneeled beside her on the altar-stone, listening with choked sobs and -wildly beating heart to the words that came from her lips in faltering -whispers: - -“Herman! What have you done? You have killed him! Then kill me, too! I -don’t want to live! Murderer! Kill me! O Arnold, my love, to think that -neither of us knew!” - -Then: - -“Yes, I love him, Herman, and I have told him so. You were too late to -prevent that. I saw your heart tonight. Kill me, I say! Yes, I am ready -a thousand times to go where Arnold has gone. Be sure that I shall -follow him, through any hell of your devising!” - -So Esther whispered, living over again those minutes of dreadful anguish -that she must have passed in the cellar after Lazaroff had put the cap -on my cylinder and driven me on that strange voyage of mine. The little -solar light shone on Esther’s brown gown, turning it golden. And I -remembered—with how strange a pang—the night when she had worn that gown -in the drawing-room of Sir Spofforth’s house. - -“Esther,” I whispered, bending over her, “it is I. It is Arnold.” - -I saw her eyelids quiver half open, but I knew that she could not see -me. She moaned. I interposed my body between her and the light. - -“You have been ill, dearest Esther,” I said. “But now everything is -well. You know me, Esther?” - -“Arnold,” she whispered, “I have been with you all the time. I dreamed -... Herman had sent you ... a hundred years away.” - -She became unconscious the next moment. I knew the mighty grip of that -first sleep. It was in truth twin brother to death, for, with my head -against her breast, I could discern hardly the slightest stirring. But -she lived; all was well. And now the need of saving her came over me. I -caught her into my arms—she weighed no more than a small child—and -hurried across the bridge. I believed that the outer door upon this -lower level communicated with the bridge over the interior court that -led to the Airscouts’ Fortress. - -I traversed the little room and pushed the swing door open. Before me -was an elevator shaft, evidently that up which I had made my first -journey to Lembken’s palace. But as I emerged into the corridor I saw, -not ten paces away, their backs toward me, two of the Guard. - -I was too late. The Guard had occupied the posts vacated by the -airscouts. The Temple and all the approaches to Lembken’s palace were in -Sanson’s hands. - -They had not seen or heard me, and in a moment I had withdrawn within -the little room. There still remained one chance. By crossing the bridge -again and passing through the priests’ robing-room on the other side of -the Temple, I could reach all parts of the buildings. Perhaps there were -no sentries in the gallery above the auditorium. I knew how vain the -hope was, but there was none other. - -I carried Esther upon the bridge again. As I was about to set foot upon -the altar-stone, which still rocked slightly, I fancied that the bridges -themselves were moving. I leaped on the stone, stumbling against the -grille. One moment I hesitated, to assure myself that Esther still -breathed. A piece of her brown dress had come away and broke like burned -paper in my hand. I raised her higher in my arms, so that her head -rested against my shoulder, and opened the grille gate to step upon the -farther span. - -That moment of delay had ended all my hopes. There was no second span. -For swiftly, noiselessly, the span was swinging away from me, pivoting -upon its further end. It was already too far away for me to make the -leap, encumbered as I was with Esther. I glanced backward in horror. The -span that I had crossed was moving also, acting in unison. They vanished -in the gloom at the sides of the Temple. - -I stood with Esther in my arms upon the altar-slab, poised on that -unsteady resting place high in the Temple void. There was no refuge -anywhere. Over me was the vault; far underneath the Ant with its -gleaming, upraised tentacle. - -As I stood there the little solar light went out. - - - - - CHAPTER XXIII - THE HEART OF THE PEOPLE - - -The Temple was profoundly dark. Crouched on the swinging stone, helpless -in Sanson’s power, I was not conscious of fear. Rather, a melancholy -regret possessed me that this was the end, as it inevitably must be. A -hundred years of separation, the knowledge of each other’s love—no more; -and all had gone for nothing. Yet, there was cause for happiness that -this much had been granted me, to die with Esther; and the loss of all -hope brought calmness to my spirit and acceptance of the inevitable. - -It may have been two hours later when I heard the cries of the mob once -more. I heard the tramp of feet upon stone; and then, through every -swinging door below, invisible forms came trooping in until they covered -the whole of the vast floor. They shouted against the Christians in an -unceasing pandemonium, and the walls and hollow roof re-echoed that -infernal din until another spirit that underlay the mob fury, something -of awed expectancy, swept over the concourse, and the last shout died -down, and a new and dreadful silence arose. - -It lasted minutes, perhaps, broken only by the stir of feet on the -floor, the rustle of robes, the sighs that whispered through the -darkness; then, out of that silence a low chant began. It was that -dreadful chant that I had heard before, crooned first by a few and then -by many, tossed back and forth from side to side of the Temple floor, -until all caught it up and made the walls echo with it: - -“We are immortal in the germ-plasm; make us immortal in the body before -we die.” - -There was a dreadful melody, one of those tunes that seem to rise -spontaneously to a people’s lips as the outpouring of its aspirations. -Again and again that dreadful, hopeless chant rose from below, swelled -into a din, and died. - -Then shouts broke out again as the mob spirit seized upon some who had -assembled there: - -“Make us immortal in these bodies of ours!” - -“Make us immortal, Sanson!” - -“Give me eternal life!” raved the cracked voice of an aged man; and that -blasphemy against Nature seemed to shock the mob into silence, until -once more the low chant swelled and echoed and died away in wailing -overtones of helplessness. - -Suddenly a single solar light flashed at one side of the Temple, and, -high above the multitude, where the end of the bridge span rested -against the curve of the wall, I perceived Sanson. He was standing alone -upon the drawn-back span, which, shadowy and vague, gave him the aspect -of a figure poised in the air. - -He was a master of stage-craft. It even awed me, that calculated effect -of the dark Temple and the crowd, invisible each to his neighbor; and -the hypnotic _mise en scène_ of the solitary figure aloft beneath the -single light. I, too, felt the contagion of the universal expectation. - -Sanson uttered no word, but stretched one arm out and pointed across the -Temple. Then I heard the tramp of men coming from the direction of the -elevator shafts; and suddenly a second light burned across the vast void -of the dark. - -Upon the second span, now dimly visible, drawn back against the wall -opposite Sanson, I saw the prisoners from the vaults, marshaled under -the charge of the Guard. There, at the extreme edge, Elizabeth stood, a -slender, virginal figure, her hands clasped over her bosom; at her side -David, behind them the patriarchal figure of Bishop Alfred. Behind him -were ranged the other victims of Sanson’s rage. They, too, under that -single light, seemed to be poised in air. - -At the sight of them, hysteria swept the minds of the mob into frenzy. - -“The Christians!” they screamed. “Kill them! Kill them! Out with the -dogs who hold their bodies cheap! To the Rest Cure! Ah—h!” - -The groaning end was drawn out as the vibration of a G-string. The air -was heavy and foul with hate; I felt it as something ponderable. - -A woman’s voice rang shrill through the Temple, and the devil that -goaded her had raised his head now after two thousand years of stupor. -He returned into a world that had forgotten him since the first shapings -of Europe’s peoples began, out of the deepest place in hell. - -“Sacrifice them!” she shrieked. “A human sacrifice upon the -altar-stone!” - -The whistling, strident voices of the mob answered her: “Sacrifice them! -A human sacrifice!” - -Surely Sanson’s stage-craft was working well. He stood there, facing his -victims across the void. He raised his hand, and every voice was -stilled. - -“I have called you together, citizens, upon this day,” he said, -“because, as you once chose freedom in place of bondage, so, now, the -time has come to choose again. I have given you liberty, I have given -you peace, I have enlightened you and raised you to man’s true dignity. -The Christians used to say that man was half ape and half that mythical -vertebrate known as the angel. I have driven the ape out of you and made -you all angel. That is to say, all man, standing on his own feet, not -leaning against imaginary gods to prop him. It has been a difficult -battle, for all the vested evils in the world have fought against me. -But I have won: your God, your Christ, the superstitious, stubborn heart -of man have yielded. Now the old order is ripe to perish everlastingly. -There remains one more enemy—” - -“Death!” screamed the shrill woman’s voice. “Make us immortal in our -beautiful bodies, Sanson! Give us life, everlasting life!” - -“The Ant,” pursued the speaker patiently. - -It was an unexpected anticlimax. The crowd groaned in disappointment, -and the silence that followed was of unutterable grief. That Sanson -would bestow his boon upon them, all had believed. Nor had they -anticipated Sanson’s declaration. For the idolatrous symbol, which was -all they knew of worship, had possessed itself of their imaginations, -their aspirations had cleaved to it, and, as must be, what had begun as -a symbol had ended as a god. - -Sanson was too shrewd not to see immediately that he had struck the -wrong note. He swung himself about, facing the captives on the opposite -span, and his voice reverberated through the Temple. - -“You have demanded sacrifices, human sacrifices,” he cried, “and you -shall have them, but not in honor of the Ant. There is no Ant, no God. -But there is Freedom, hidden within the cylinder where she has lain -since the beginnings of time, waiting for this day to dawn, now ready to -emerge into a world set free. To her we sacrifice!” - -He stood there, a dramatic figure, the incarnation of rebellious pride, -Lucifer defying God, or some old Titan in revolt against Olympus. But, -as he paused, the cracked voice of the old bishop piped through the -Temple. - -“But I can give you eternal life, my people,” he cried clearly. “I have -the Word that alone can set you free. It is the same that Bonham spoke -to you in Westminster Hall while he was burning. You heard him and went -home, and some were afraid, some wondered, and some forgot; but that -Word never dies, and it will be told soon in a million homes, because, -by God’s mercy, the Russians are at hand to set you free.” - -The deep-breathed “Ah!” that followed was not of hate but of fear. -Something was stirring in the hearts of the multitude, molding them -against knowledge and will. I felt it, too: a mighty spiritual power, a -Light that clove the darkness. I saw the old bishop stand out at the end -of the span and shake his clenched hand at Sanson, silent, opposite. - -“You cannot raise one finger save by the will of Him whom you deny, -Sanson!” he said. “You are not going to make any sacrifices. You, who -have raised your will against heaven, this night your soul will be -required of you!” - -The sense of something imminent and mighty shook my limbs. I stood up, -clinging against the grille. There was no sound in all the Temple. -Protagonists in the eternal drama, the bishop and Sanson faced each -other. - -Suddenly I perceived that the solar light above the bishop had moved. It -had moved outward; and now it was approaching me. And the light above -Sanson was moving, too. I understood what was happening. Sanson had -quietly given the command for the bridges to be swung together. - -An instant later the little lights that crossed the gloom were -dissipated as ten thousand more flashed out, illumining the vast -interior of the Temple. I saw the packed multitudes below, thousands on -thousands, their faces upturned, each with the same stamp of fear on it, -as if the same workman had carved the features. I saw the groins and -arches, the gallery above me, filled with the Guard; Sanson upon one -nearing bridge, his Guard about him, too; upon the other, David, -Elizabeth of the slender figure and the clasped hands, and Bishop Alfred -and the rest of the prisoners. I waited, my arms about Esther. - -Once more I heard a single sigh float upward. Then the woman’s voice -that had shrieked before cried piercingly: - -“The Messiah has come, who is to make us free!” - -I saw Sanson stiffen and catch at the rail of the nearing bridge. I saw -David, now only an arm’s length from me, staring incredulous; Elizabeth -with wide-open eyes, the bishop’s calm face, the Guard like carven -effigies. - -Then, as if the power that held the populace in unison were suddenly -dissolved, they broke from their places. They sprang with frantic, -exultant cries toward the Ant; they formed a dozen human chains that -reared themselves above the pedestal, dissolved, and poured over the -golden idol. Among them I saw clusters of men—our men—with Ray rods in -their hands. They poured out into the rooms that lined the passages. -They swarmed up pillars and reached out hands to the captives. They -howled at Sanson, whose bodyguard, closing about him, formed an -impenetrable defense. The conspiracy had not miscarried. - -But all were shouting at me, and the fanatic spirit of hate that Sanson -had evoked seemed to have recoiled and turned on him to his destruction. - -Suddenly the approaching spans stood still. They remained motionless, -each end some three feet from me. Then, slowly, they began to recede. - -“Jump, Arnold!” I heard David scream above the uproar. - -I saw the plan to isolate me there, where none could reach me, helpless -in the mid-Temple. I gathered Esther high in my arms, stepped back, and -sprang; I felt myself falling. Still clutching Esther with one hand, I -groped in blindness with the other. I struck the edge of the span. Hands -held me; hands pulled Esther free; I stood among our friends, and behind -us already the Guard was beaten backward. - -I saw the tattered outlaws’ figures everywhere. Only around Sanson were -the Guard still potent. He saw the situation; he knew his power was -crumbling as Lembken’s had crumbled; and, pushing his bodyguard aside, -strode forward and held up his hand for silence. Even then—so great was -his power—at the gesture, all motion in the Temple ceased; I saw -arrested Ray rods, not yet discharged, held stiffly, limbs halted in -air, necks craned toward the speaker and immobile. - -“Choose, then!” Sanson called in words that rang like a trumpet’s blast. -“It is your supreme moment. Will you have your Messiah or will you have -my gift—immortality?” - -“Give us God!” screamed the woman’s voice; and then a thousand and ten -thousand answered him: - -“Give us God!” - -“The God of Bonham!” - -“Our fathers’ God, Whom we denied.” - -The people had answered truly in the supreme moment, as they must -always, that the world may not cease. For, in the words of Renan, “the -heart of the common people is the great reservoir of the self-devotion -and resignation by which alone the world can be saved.” - - - - - CHAPTER XXIV - LEMBKEN - - -The maneuvers of our party had been so skilfully planned and carried out -so surely that the Temple fell into our hands almost immediately. -Entering upon that side which faced the Airscouts’ Fortress, our men had -surprised and overpowered the guards posted about the elevators, and -driven them in flight toward the Science Wing, into which Sanson -withdrew to rally them about him. - -The Council Hall and offices beneath it were occupied as quickly. -Including the Airscouts’ Fortress, we had thus three-fourths of the -quadrilateral in our possession; but the Guard held the Science Wing in -strength, and, of course, the surrounding wall, armed with the Ray -artillery and commanding everything within it. - -The change of fortune was so swift that I could hardly grasp its -significance immediately. Carrying Esther, and surrounded by a frenzied -mob, I was dragged from the bridge to the corridor of the elevators, -between Elizabeth and David, pent up among five hundred men, some -carrying Ray rods and trying to force their way through the Temple in -the direction of the Science Wing, others returning, realizing the -impossibility of pushing through the crowds, and others, merely -spectators, unarmed, who had gone mad with delirious joy. The confusion -was indescribable, and, to make it worse, these people seemed to look to -me for leadership, while I was caught in the throng and helpless. -Precious moments were passing. - -Into the mob burst a man heading a little group of revolutionists. - -“Follow me!” he shouted. “To the Science Wing! Capture the bridges! -Follow me!” - -As he spoke the Temple lights went out. I was not yet clear of the -bridge. Inch by inch I struggled onward, but in the darkness the -confusion was still more undisciplined; and while the oncoming party -still fought for a foothold I heard a rending, straining sound behind -me, a crash of wood, and a mighty fall that set the whole building -echoing. Shouts, oaths, and groans came from below; the span on which we -stood shook from the concussion. - -There was no need to ask what had occurred. Sanson had cut down the -farther half of the bridge, securing himself against attack from the -upper floor of the Temple. - -Then a voice, bellowing with rage and ferocity, arose: - -“Follow me! Seize the elevators! To Lembken! To the People’s House!” - -The mob broke and dissolved, carrying me with it into the corridor. I -saw the leader with the Assyrian beard heading the rush for the elevator -shafts. He carried all with him. But the shafts were empty; the -elevators had been drawn up. There followed howls of fury. - -“Lembken!” shrieked the mob. “Out with him! Out with the defective!” - -It was queer, that word; but one impulse animated all. They plunged -after their leader, scrambling up the ironwork of the interior, and -clinging there like flies as they worked their way upward. The little -band of disciplined men alone stood still, and their chief turned to me -with a wry look. - -“We are too late,” he said. “Sanson has got his men together. We shall -have to storm the Wing from below. Half our men have joined in that mad -attack on Lembken, who is helpless, whereas Sanson—” - -He shrugged his shoulders in despair. Then David turned to me. - -“You must bring them back, Arnold,” he said. “They will obey and follow -you. Leave Esther—” - -He saw the look on my face, and began to plead with me. “It is your -duty, Arnold,” he cried. “All will be lost unless you can draw off our -men from the Palace. I will protect her with my life.” He bent down and -looked into Esther’s face, and an expression of amazement came upon his -own. It occurred to me afterward that he had never believed that Esther -really lived. But at the time only the thought of this flickered through -my brain, and it yielded to more urgent ones. - -“They will follow you!” cried David. - -I hesitated no longer. I placed Esther’s unconscious body in Elizabeth’s -arms, and, without stopping to glance at her, lest it sap my resolution, -I plunged into the shaft and began to scramble upward. - -Somehow I reached the summit. I fell upon my hands within the Palace. -The mob was swarming everywhere, in every room, it seemed, and through -the gardens. I ran out under the dome. The winter sun shone through a -gray fog, a blood-red ball of fire. - -The yelling mob swept through the groves. Its fury was unleashed, and -the remembered wrongs of years impelled it to universal destruction. I -saw at the first glance that these men were beyond the power of -argument. With their bare hands they tore up palms and tossed them down -into the courts through jagged holes in the transparent walls. They tore -the panes out of their settings, twisting the thin, un-splintering glass -until it writhed everywhere, coiled, crystal snakes among the uprooted -flowers. They spared nothing. The yellow orange spheres gleamed in the -rank grass. The scent of orange flowers was choking. - -I ran among them, calling on them to follow me back, for the sake of our -cause, to join their comrades, hard pressed by Sanson. Most of them did -not seem to hear me; some raised their heads from their work, stared at -me for a moment, and resumed their wild task of ruin. It came to me then -that I was unknown to them. Not one in a hundred of these men had seen -my face more than a moment or two upon the altar platform. - -I turned and ran through the Palace rooms, still calling, and still -unheeded. The mob was sweeping onward like an avalanche. They had torn -the costly hangings from the walls. From the blue rooms, mull rooms, red -rooms, purple rooms, all the baroque, fantastic, and depraved trappings -of Lembken’s gleaning were heaped into great rolls at which the furious -army hacked and tore. In one place it was venting its rage upon a heap -of masquerade clothing. Pieces were flung from man to man, and some, -tearing great rents in garments, thrust their heads through them and -continued in the pursuit, with skirts about their shoulders and leopard -skins about their bodies. A tun of wine had overturned and spilled, and -the contents crept like a rivulet along the floor, seeping from room to -room. The conduit that fed the artificial brooks, being slashed, poured -out a muddy stream that dogged our heels, befouling the slashed rugs and -tattered coverlets. And ever the cries became more furious. - -The mob was yelling with one universal voice. Palm trees were hurled -from man to man, clods of earth clung to walls, mud spattered -everything. I followed, breathless, imploring, pleading in vain. No one -paid me the least attention. Some, indeed, scowled at me, but the spirit -of destruction, seizing them before the words were framed on their lips, -hurled them along. They swept me with them. At the head was the giant, -bellowing in frantic wrath. The mob followed him, hypnotized; and he, -armed with a spiked stanchion which he must have wrenched from some -portion of the wall supports, dashed the weapon in furious assault -against each door, and shattered it, leading the chase down every -corridor of the bewildering place, returning, hot on the scent, -dog-like, and the great arms thrashing the club from side to side. - -The Palace was enormous. We had not covered half of it, and we had seen -no one. But, as we ran, shouts came from another party behind us, roars -mingled with shrieks, and, keening above all clamor, I heard that -bloodhound cry that breaks from human throats when the death hunt draws -near to its finale. - -With an answering roar our mob turned and sprang toward its victims, -smashing down doors and wrenching weapons from legs of tables and -woodwork of the walls. The quarry was found. Like bolting hares they -turned and scuttled into the small, hidden room, where they cowered, -women and negro eunuchs, still dressed in the masquerade of the revels -that Lembken had held that night even while his empire was breaking from -his hand. Horned women, women in dominoes, in striped and spotted hides, -Elizabethans wearing hooped skirts and huge, starched neck frills, -Victorian girls with parasols and corseted bodies, a motley, cowering -crew, less abject only than the cringing blacks, eyed their pursuers -with terror-stricken looks that sought their eyes for pity and found -only hatred. - -The giant leaped out before his followers and whirled his spiked club. -“Where is Lembken?” he roared. “Where are his men?” All the while his -eyes searched the women’s faces; but he did not find her whom he sought. - -“There are no men,” a frightened woman gasped. “There were never any but -Lembken. We have never seen any others in our lives.” - -He had lied to me, then, when he spoke of his friends. How long would he -have endured me there before the poisoned cup came to me? I felt my own -hate and wrath become implacable as that of the mob. - -[Illustration: - - The giant leaped out before his followers. “Where is Lembken?” he - roared. “Where are the men?” -] - -The giant clutched at a cringing negro boy and pulled him from his -knees. “Where is he?” he shouted. - -The boy was tongue-tied with fear. But a girl stepped forth bravely. -“That way!” she said, pointing toward a door. - -The mob whirled through in a torrent, following the Assyrian-bearded -giant. I heard their shouts grow fainter. The women bolted, scattering -through the dismantled rooms, seeking some other refuge. But one of them -stopped and then came toward me quickly. - -“She lied! He is there,” she whispered, pointing toward a wall. “Kill -him, but whisper my name in his ear before he dies.” - -I looked at the girl and recognized Coral, the maid who had supplanted -Amaranth. I turned quickly toward the wall, and my eyes discovered the -hidden door, flush with the wall. I burst it open and ran through. - -I raced along a winding passage, hearing the mob’s cries far away as -they ran on the false scent they had taken up. I emerged suddenly upon a -little platform fronting a part of the crystal wall that was still -standing in the rear of the Palace. The mob had not yet found the -approaches to this secret refuge. - -A glass gateway within the wall stood open, and outside, at rest in the -air, I saw the dark airplane, with Hancock at the wheel. And at the -gate, hesitating to set his feet upon the narrow plank that led to -safety, was Lembken. His arms were filled with bundles, and on his -shoulder a monkey perched, mouthing and gibbering. At his side kneeled a -young girl, with hands clasped, urging Lembken to flight. - -The old man heard me and turned around. I saw Hancock start forward, -raise a Ray rod, and aim it at me. But Lembken stood in the way, and he -could not fire. - -The girl leaped at me, clutching me by the arms with surprising -strength, and crying to Lembken to fly. But the obese old man only -stared into my face. Fear seemed to have paralyzed him. He did not -remember me, but my presence seemed to awaken some association in his -mind, and, as I watched, I saw it flash into consciousness. - -“Jacquette!” he screamed in a tremulous falsetto. “I have forgotten her. -I must go back for her.” - -He scrambled past me, and the girl, releasing me, ran after him. I -followed. On we ran, till Lembken turned into a tiny room, once meant to -be a hiding place, no doubt, but now doorless and bare. Again I heard -the shouting. The mob was drawing near. - -On a perch beside the entrance sat the gaudy macaw, head on one side, -preening her plumage. - -“The people’s friend!” she cackled. “The people’s friend! -Friend—friend—friend—friend—frien—” - -With a cry of delight Lembken snatched at her. She fluttered to his -shoulder. He turned, and, with monkey and bird against his sagging -cheeks, he began to make his way along the passage. As he ran I saw -another corridor at right angles to this, and, at the end, daylight and -the waste of uprooted palms. The mob was sweeping past. They saw him; -they howled and dashed to cut off his flight. - -Lembken saw them, doubled back, dashing in panic from room to room. The -mob was everywhere about him, searching for him, blocking all exits; -their howls were a continuous sound. - -They were upon him. Lembken fell on his knees and pulled a Ray rod from -his robes. With shaking, nerveless fingers he forced up the guard. He -held it to his breast; but it fell from his hand. - -“Kill me!” he muttered to the girl. - -She flung her arms about him; and thus the mob found them. - -The giant leaped at them. His bellowings shook the walls. He sprang for -Lembken, caught him by the throat, and forced his head upward. I saw the -loose spike in his hand. The monkey chattered, the parrot stretched out -her neck and snapped, shrieking her phrases. Between the men the frail -girl wrestled, dashing her weak fists into the giant’s face. - -The roaring mob choked the narrow corridor on either side. “Death to -him!” they shrieked. “Death! Death!” - -The old man caught the words upon his tongue and screamed. - -“Not death!” he yelped. “I’m Lembken. I can’t die. I never thought of -death—dying—going nowhere—nowhere—nothing—I want to live—” - -He cowered behind the girl, thrusting her between himself and his enemy. -So furious were her struggles that she forced the giant away. She dashed -her fists into his eyes again and again, until he turned on her and -gripped her by the wrists, twisting her backward. He looked into her -face for the first time. - -“Let him go!” she screamed. “Don’t hurt him. He is old—he is old—he has -done no harm—he is the people’s friend—he has told me so—I love him—” - -The giant dropped her wrists and staggered back. His horror-painted face -became a tragic mask. He moaned, and his hands groped impotently in the -air for something that he failed to find. It was not the blood in his -eyes that blinded him. For this was she whom he had sought, torn from -his home, the last to share Lembken’s favor, the child whom I had seen -dragged from the Council Hall, her innocent child’s heart loyal in his -last hour to the only lover she knew. - -It wrung my heart, the pity of it: this blossom of love that sprang from -that festering, rank soil of human baseness. - -The next instant the mob swept over us. They seized their prey and -stamped out the life beneath their feet. I saw the quivering body tossed -high in the air and dashed from wall to wall, trampled on, hacked, and -torn. I saw it poised against the crystal walls, saw the dark airplane -swoop to safety amid a hail of Ray fire; and then the air was filled -with zig-zag flashes of blinding light. - - - - - CHAPTER XXV - THE COMING OF THE CROSS - - -I stood with a small group of our men beneath the dome, where Lembken’s -gardens had been. The havoc that had been wrought is almost -indescribable. The beauty molded by the most cunning hands in Europe had -been obliterated in one short hour. The gardens were a waste of uprooted -trees and trampled earth, while from the broken conduit a dozen muddy -streams were pouring like high waterfalls upon the courts below. The -Palace was a mass of wreckage, in which the mob still moved, shouting -for fire to finish the work of destruction. - -I had been recognized at last, and we were searching for our men among -the rabble, gathering the nucleus of a force to render aid to our party, -hard-pressed, below. I had managed to achieve something at last: I had -detailed a dozen men with Ray rods to guard the women. That was all I -could accomplish. - -The ground about the Temple was already strewn with blackened, twisted -figures. From the conical Ray guns on the enclosing walls swept sheets -of blinding flame, a soundless cannonade that pecked at the interstices -in the walls of the Temple and of the Airscouts’ Fortress, seeking for -some unpainted spot between the blocks of stone, some small, abraded -surface where the cold Rays might find lodgment. I heard the crumbling -of disintegrating mortar and saw fragments of stone flying from cornice -and pediment. Soon gaps would open and the whole splendid pile tumble -into a heap of shapeless ruins. - -The Rays flashed to and fro like brilliant lightning. I was half -blinded; all I could discern was that Sanson still held the Science -Wing, from whose windows the Guard were picking off our men beneath -them. I surmised from the shouting that we were attacking the Wing from -the ground floor of the Temple. - -We had gathered most of our men together, and we plunged for the -elevator shafts and scrambled down. My pulses hammered with fear as I -entered the corridor below. But there stood David, and Elizabeth kneeled -beside him, with Esther’s head in her lap. She looked at me and smiled -with so brave an effort that I realized her own anxiety. Somewhere in -the deadly tumult Paul was fighting, unless, indeed, he lay among those -shapeless masses that strewed the courts. - -Our men swept by me and poured along the corridor toward the bridge. - -“I have fulfilled my promise, Arnold,” said David. “Now I must take -Elizabeth within the shelter of the Airscouts’ Fortress, and you will -follow with Esther. Then each of us must do his best to rally parties to -the assault. All is not going well, Arnold. Our Ray rods are emptying -fast, and the storage batteries within the Airscouts’ Fortress have been -destroyed, so that we cannot recharge them; the attack upon the lower -level of the Wing has failed. Sanson has placed a Ray gun there. All -hangs upon the battleplanes, and they have not returned.” - -He put his arm about his daughter and hurried her toward the bridge, -while I picked up Esther, still plunged in that first sleep, and -followed him. I saw him lead Elizabeth to safety, but as I was about to -follow, a sheet of purple light swept past me, tearing a stanchion from -the bridge and knocking down a part of the brick house on the wall -above, where Lembken had taken me that night of our first meeting. - -A gun was playing on the bridge. It was impossible to cross at present. -I drew back, waiting. - -Then a babel of cries broke out on the opposite side, so fierce and wild -that, grasping Esther more tightly, I rushed to a window at the further -end of the corridor, commanding a view of the exterior courts. The long -bridges were packed with our men, making a mad sortie to scale the -enclosing walls. Streaks of light, pitiably thin, flashed from their Ray -rods, and, with exultant shouts, the Guard sprang forward to meet them. -They were dragging lighter Ray guns behind them. For an instant it -seemed as if the revolutionists would scale the walls before the heavy -Ray artillery could be reaimed at them. The foremost files of the -opposing forces clashed and surged and swayed in a rain of meteor -flashes. The blackened corpses heaped the bridges, hung, toppled over, -and went to swell the heaps below. Then, with a renewed outburst of -shouting, the Guard drove back the attack and placed their guns. - -The blinding flashes swept the bridges, playing like ribands of silvery -blue along the course of their discharge. Everywhere along the bridges -swarmed the stampede of flight, checked where the Rays caught the -fugitives and twisted them into charred lumps, sweeping away the -superstructure also, and the bridge rails. I saw one bridge go down, as -a deflected Ray wrenched it from its piers. It spewed its burden upon -the stones below, and from among the dead, little figures leaped up and -began to run for refuge toward the Council Wing; and there a blast from -a Ray gun found them, and the heavy doors crumbled upon them, and wood -and men were ground into the same pulpy blackness. The Ray had found the -weak spots of the great buildings, and from the Temple top huge stones -came crashing down, rebounding along the courts and splintering into -fragments. Clouds of dust rose up like smoke from conflagrations. - -The flowing tide of the Guard’s victory rolled on unchecked. Their -shouts were frightful. They held the courts, now piled with debris from -the buildings above them. I ran with Esther back toward the bridge, -crossed it, and gained the shelter of the Airscouts’ Fortress. Before me -was a flight of stone steps; I ran up, shouting. Nobody answered me. I -gained the summit and found myself alone there. - -Looking down from the roof I saw that the Guard were swarming in the -Temple. They had regained that; they had driven our men from the -Airscouts’ Fortress, on which I stood, trapped, since it was impossible -to cross the courts. Where were our forces? I saw the locust cloud of -attack break against the doors of the offices beneath the Council Hall. -That was our last stronghold. The Ray flashes played on the walls, but -they held fast. - -Then out of the south a flock of giant birds came wheeling. They swooped -toward us and resolved themselves into the airplane fleet. They dipped -their luminous wings and circled around us, and a mazy pattern of light -shot downward upon the ranks of the Guard. - -The battleplanes had settled their differences, and three-fourths of -them had returned to fight for us. - -I saw the Guard race back for their sheltering walls. The Ray artillery -shot upward to meet the challenge of the battleplanes. To and fro -overhead wheeled the great shining birds in soundless duel. The conflict -appeared the more frightful because of this silence. Only those at the -guns knew what was happening. - -But presently, as the flock wheeled, I saw one tower like a shot -pheasant and then tumble. It plunged into the court and lay, a shapeless -mass, upon the stones. The Ray gun had found its defenseless parts as it -maneuvered. A second battleplane came hurtling down. It struck the -Temple wall, seemed to cling there like a bat, and, fluttering like a -dying thing, plunged to the stones beside its shattered mate. - -The Guard was winning. The enclosing walls stood fast. Our last hope -seemed to be gone. The sun was dipping into the west. - -I dared not carry Esther through that fire-swept zone. It was my plan, -should Sanson’s men reoccupy the Airscouts’ Fortress, to seek refuge -within the little, half-secret room where Jones had hidden us. Meanwhile -I waited on the roof, behind the glow-painted shield of a single empty -airplane that was resting there. Twilight fell, and the soundless fight -went on. The battleplanes were circling higher, and their fire was -utterly ineffective. I judged, from its growing infrequency, that their -solar batteries were becoming emptied. Meanwhile our men, pent in the -council offices, waited for the finale. - -Hourly our situation grew more desperate. Another battleplane went down. -The game was in Sanson’s hands after all. Our only chance had been in -the surprise, and the mad rush to the People’s House and the confusion -in the Temple had spoiled all plans and allowed our enemy to concentrate -his men. Where was he, I wondered. - -Suddenly shouts broke out again from the walls, and were caught up and -echoed back from the Council Hall. Southward, high in the sky, -pin-points of light appeared, like vagrant stars, which became larger, -wheeled, extended. - -The Guard cheered frantically. I heard the cry “America!” - -If this was the Mormon fleet, come to aid Lembken, there was no doubt -with which side it would join. Perhaps the Guard knew already that -Sanson had outwitted Lembken and outbid him for its support. - -The airfleet shot upward, drew together, and a single light, detaching -itself, flew like a rocket upward, moving in the direction of the -oncoming battleplanes, which seemed to hang poised above, like a new -group of Pleiades. The rocket’s apparent speed dwindled, until it seemed -to move as slowly as any star. I saw a second light shoot downward, -detaching itself from those clustered orbs, to meet it. I held my -breath, as all must have done, for not a Ray was fired, nor was there -any sound as the fate of the world hung upon those nearing points. They -circled about each other, a binary star; they moved together; and -suddenly they plunged downward, the whole oncoming fleet following them, -and the roar of a thousand throats rang from the Council Hall: - -“The Russians! The Russians! The Tsar! The Tsar!” - -The lights grew larger and resolved themselves into the glow -parallelograms again, and the great fleet of battleplanes descended -toward the wall. Again the pattern of light interplayed with the -answering fire from the Ray artillery of the Guard. - -The new squadron was armed with Rays almost as strong, taken in -Stockholm, and worked by Swedish gunners. Searchlights and glow rays -blended in heliotrope and pink and blue, playing about the walls, -carrying the most murderous death that man had ever devised. And it -appeared incredible that death lay hidden within that warp and woof of -color that intercrossed through space, blending and twisting, and -forming a thousand patterns upon the night. Once a battleplane, caught -as she wheeled, came crashing down; but the next moment the persistent -Ray found an unprotected place in the walls at last, and hammered at it, -dislodging mortar and stones, till, with a mighty roar, a tower fell -toppling into the court, leaving a great breach in the Guard’s fortress. - -Instantly two battleplanes lit like great birds, and behind their -shields a score of men swarmed out, carrying swords and Ray shields, -interlocked. The line swept onward, to encounter the Ray rods of the -defense. I saw it crumple and twist. But other battleplanes had alighted -along the breach, and everywhere small groups were forming between the -Ray guns, which could not be aimed before they were attacked, the -gunners sabered, and the great conical machines made useless. The valor -which had overthrown the Federation’s troops before Tula was not -helpless here. - -But from each wing a blast of fire caught the downward swooping -battleplanes and crumpled them. No attack could live before that -devastating crossfire. I saw the groups of swordsmen wither, fall back, -until the bodies heaped before them, on which they planted their glow -shields, formed an impregnable rampart. But the artillery was retaken, -the battleplanes, surprised and broken in the ebb-tide of defeat, were -piled in indistinguishable heaps within the courts. The Guard turned the -artillery upon the stubborn line that mounted the breach. Once more the -fortune of the day was turning. - -[Illustration: - - Upon the walls the Guard were swarming toward the defenders. Out of - their midst the Ray artillery belched -] - -I saw the ragged figures of our men run from the Council Hall across the -courts. Then the Guard about Sanson in the Science Wing streamed forth -to meet them. The Ray rods flashed, and the ghastly murder began once -more. - -Upon the walls the Guard were swarming toward the defenders. Out of -their midst the Ray artillery belched. It found the chinks among the -shields, and a sheet of white flame swept through the Russians’ ranks. -Their wall of interlocked shields had carried them into death’s jaws, -but now the jaws were closing. I closed my eyes in anguish. - -I opened them in darkness. - -There was no flash from the conical guns, which glittered in impotence -upon the walls. For an instant I did not understand. The next I knew. -Jones had cut the supply cables in the Vosges Mountains. He had kept his -promise, and in the moment of defeat. - -The same mad exultation seized all. I heard the new note of victory as -our men from the Council Hall bore back the defeated remnants of -Sanson’s army. I saw the Russians leap from behind their shields and -swarm into the fortress; saw the flash of their swords against the -spurting fire of the Ray rods; saw the defeated Guard fly through the -courts, to meet death there. - -Then I stood face to face with Sanson. - - - - - CHAPTER XXVI - THE ADMIRAL OF THE AIR - - -I saw defeat written upon his face, but there was no sign of fear. He -stood alone, unarmed, confronting me, and if he had fled when he saw -that his cause was lost I do him the justice to believe it was his -undaunted will which drove him to flight, that he might plan new havoc -for the world. - -No chance remained for him. By the glare of the searchlights I saw the -last vestige of rout end at the Temple doors. Trapped and surrounded, -the Guard begged for quarter. This was accorded them; but instantly the -prisoners were lost to sight in the presence of the enormous multitudes -that came from London, swarming into the courts. - -Sanson’s gaze shifted from my face to Esther’s, and, as if she felt the -man’s presence, she stirred, and her eyelids unclosed. - -“Arnold!” she whispered. - -“Yes, dear,” I answered, bending over her. - -“I dreamed that—they had run up the annex thirty stories, Arnold, and -painted it shining white.” - -“You must sleep and dream no more,” I told her. She murmured and her -eyelids closed. Again the kindly unconsciousness of sleep held her. - -I placed her against the anchored airplane and turned to Sanson. He was -facing me with that strange and half-quizzical look that I remembered so -well. It had in it more of humanity than the expression of any other of -his moods. - -“Arnold,” he said softly, “if I were an ignorant man I might be tempted -to believe that there is a God, sometimes.” - -And that was his way also, to speak of other things in moments of -imminent alarm. - -“Why?” I inquired. - -“Because He is so merciful to His defectives, Arnold. To think that you, -with your missing five centimeters, should have defeated me! - -“Come,” he continued, clapping his hand on my shoulder. “A truce for a -few minutes. A truce, for the sake of our old friendship. You are not to -blame for your share in this night’s ruin of civilization. You were the -victim of circumstances. And then—you are a defective and could not -understand. Arnold, I have never had any friend but you. And sometimes I -feel the need of one. Even the gods felt that, and I am far from a god, -though, later, perhaps....” - -He broke off and resumed, after a short pause: - -“Join me. Here is my frank proposal: join me, and, since indeed I would -not hold any woman against her will, if Esther chooses you she shall be -yours. This night has undone the labor of many years, but those that are -past are but as a drop of water in an ocean to those which are to come. -I have the secret of immortal life at last—not ghostly life in some -gold-decorated heaven, but life in the flesh. I will bestow the gift on -you—” - -“Let it die with you,” I answered passionately. - -He laughed. - -“This night’s work, which seems so wonderful to you, is but an episode,” -he said. “Come with me to America, Arnold. In six months I can build up -my world anew. I shall be less scrupulous and humane in the future with -this miserable mob. No moron shall live, no defective go free. I have -resolved that. Man can rise only by crushing out weakness and setting -himself upon the necks of those who were born to serve. In six months -America will be mine; in twelve, the world. From this time onward it is -a battle to the death against all that retards the human race.” - -His features flushed with the energy of his voice. I looked at him, -almost in admiration. I was dumfounded at the audacity of his designs. -Trapped here, a prisoner upon the fortress roof, his life already gone -when he was found, this man of sixty years planned his universal empire. -He was mad, beyond doubt, mad enough to dream impossible things and make -them his in his brain’s fertile kingdom; and it was such madness as -moves mountains. - -“Sanson, I will do this much for you,” I said. “I will hide you from the -mob’s fury in a little room near this roof, so that you may not be torn -in pieces. I will assure you a fair trial at the hands of the new -government. That is all I can promise.” - -Would this dream vanish in the realization of fact? I saw his face fall, -as if he had come to understand his position at last. - -“Where is it?” he said presently. He spoke slowly, and in a bewildered -manner, as if he were still struggling with his dreams. - -I took him by the arm and led him to the elevator entrance. “It is a -little room under the roof,” I said. “The elevator passes it, but it is -hardly more than a hole in the wall. One would not look for you there.” - -I pressed the button, but of course the elevator did not ascend, since -the solar power was cut off. - -Sanson withdrew his arm from mine. I saw him assume a listening -attitude. “Arnold!” he cried weakly, “they are coming! Listen!” - -As I relaxed my guard, he dealt me a buffet that sent me flying down the -empty shaft. - -I had a confused consciousness of falling through space, of clutching at -the shaft walls; and then I was upon my knees, bruised and staring up at -the light overhead. - -Fortunately the elevator had stopped a few feet from the top. Still -dazed, I sprang to my feet and began scrambling up the ironwork. At last -I staggered out upon the roof once more. I saw a dozen Sansons, each of -whom carried Esther in his arms. - -I tried to force reality into these visions, to snatch the living Sanson -from among that crowd of ghosts. But they had sprung into the dozen -airplanes that lay upon the swaying roof top. A touch of the starting -lever, a half turn of the wheel, and as my power of vision came back to -me I saw Sanson rise with Esther into the air. He held her on the seat -against him, the arm that encircled her controlling the wheel, and he -was gone into the heart of the giant moon that was just rising in the -east, blood-red behind her veil of clouds. - -I stared after him. The airplane was rapidly diminishing in size. He had -outwitted me at the last, by one of those clumsy tricks he loved, such -as a schoolboy plays. - -I staggered toward the edge. I was minded to fling myself down on the -stones below. One more victim of the day’s work would mean nothing, and -doubtless David and Elizabeth believed that I had died long ago. I -tottered upon the brink; but then a shadow glided toward me, and a small -airplane stopped at my side. It was unshielded, and at the prow was a -pair of the elongated jaws. Air-Admiral Hancock leaned out of it toward -me. - -“Where is Sanson?” he asked quietly. “He was here. He was seen here.” - -I pointed into the west, where the parallelogram of light was -diminishing to an irregular star. I leaped into the plane beside him. -“Take me with you!” I cried. “He has stolen Esther—the goddess of the -cylinder.” - -Hancock said nothing but touched the lever. Instantly we shot upward and -raced like a swallow across the void, skimming and dipping as the wind -caught us and the heavy prow plunged through the unequal air-banks. - -The buildings drew together beneath us. The shouts of the multitude grew -faint and died. The luminous point in the west grew larger, and against -the sky, now whitened by the rising moon, I saw the dark body between -the glow lines, as one sees a ship at sea from a mountain top. Sanson -was heading southward, perhaps with the intent of reaching France and -rallying the forces of the Federation there. We mounted higher. The -forests stretched beneath us. Always we mounted. I cast a glance at -Hancock’s face. There was a look on it that boded ill for Sanson. I was -trying to remember something that Jones had told me about him, but my -own anxious thoughts beat down the elusive memory. I, too, felt that -there would be no mercy for Sanson when the accounts were squared. - -Would anyone have mercy? I saw the answer to that question swiftly, for, -looking back, I saw two lanes of airships, strung out behind, like -flying geese, converging toward our leadership. Battleplanes, -scoutplanes, dark against the brightening heaven, came hot on the chase. -They were in pursuit of the common enemy of the human race, and there -was none among them, no man in London but had some outrage to avenge. - -We mounted higher through the bitter cold. My hands were numb, but -Hancock kept his wheel, seated there, a grim, immovable, resolute -figure. Now we burst into the heart of a fierce, rocking snowstorm, -which blotted out the fugitive; but by some instinct Hancock seemed to -know his course, and he held it surely till we rose above the storm and -saw the glow parallelogram nearer. - -Sanson rose too. He must have sighted us and resolved to test his -endurance against ours. We were in air so rarefied that I was choking -for breath. The moon rode high; dawn was not far away. We were rushing -toward the sea, which lay, a blur of inky blackness, underneath, edged -by the white line of the chalk cliffs of the south shore. We were -gaining steadily. - -[Illustration: - - The giant jaws upon our aircraft gaped. I saw steel teeth within them -] - -But Sanson did not mean to cross the Channel. I do not know what new -scheme he had conceived; perhaps he meant to turn and seek some English -city where he could defy the new order and reorganize the old. He -wheeled; and the long line of the pursuing planes, struggling upward, -wheeled together, trying to cut off his flight. He mounted still and -struck out eastward. But, with a furious downward swoop Hancock drove in -toward him. I could see Sanson sitting at the wheel, his arm still -clasping Esther. He stopped in the air and waited for our approach. - -“What do you want?” he shouted. - -The tone of Hancock’s voice was implacable. “My son, Sanson,” he -answered. - -He wheeled away, and, as he turned placed his hand on a lever. The giant -jaws upon our aircraft gaped. I saw steel teeth within them. We dashed -for Sanson with terrific force. I shouted in horror, laying my fingers -upon Hancock’s sleeve and pointing to Esther. But Hancock did not seem -to hear or feel me, perhaps he had never known that I was there; all his -mind seemed intent on the accomplishment of his deadly purpose. He drove -home before his enemy could evade his course, and like a hawk we -plunged, struck Sanson’s vessel amidships, and smashed through steel and -glow shield. - -One instant, in the dead interval of the stopped momentum, we rested -motionless together, the gaping jaws choked with their meal and fast -within the heart of Sanson’s plane. I flung myself across the side, -grasped Esther, held her in my arms, and dragged her across our bows. -Then Hancock leaped at Sanson’s throat. - -Our airplane tipped, righted herself, and drifted away. I did not know -how to steer or guide, but Hancock must automatically have locked the -mechanism to the halt, for we drifted idly, balancing upon the wind. -Watching, I saw the two struggling in Sanson’s plane. - -She shuddered as she hung poised there, mortally gashed, yet fighting -still for her dominion of the air. She quivered from prow to stern, and -then, of her own accord, shot upward. Up she went till she was but a -dark blot in the sky. Then from above something came falling toward the -earth, plunged like a projectile, and disappeared. - -I saw a tiny figure standing on the doomed airplane alone, and, -infinitely small though it appeared, I knew that it was Sanson. I -fancied I could see the man’s proud bearing; I thought his arms were -folded across his breast. The moonlight gilded him, and others have told -me that he seemed to ride through the air resplendent, as if -transfigured by some demoniac power. - -He stood like Lucifer, high above all the world, over his wrecked -dominion. I picture his disdain, and the contempt for man with which he -shrouded himself in that last moment. The world had broken him in the -end, but his colossal spirit could never be quenched. - -Then the air vessel plunged into the moon’s heart and vanished. - - - - - CHAPTER XXVII - THE NEW ORDER - - -Three months have passed. It is Easter Day, and we have only begun to -struggle with the difficulties before us. - -But we are working with a faith that will overcome all obstacles. All -the world is at work, for the same impulse was felt simultaneously in -every land. The Mormon airplanes never arrived, because, practically at -the same hour, America rose in revolt against her masters. And the -Sanson régime has been swept away forever. - -We were rescued from our airplane by the airscouts who had followed us, -and brought back to London. Our friends, who had thought us dead, were -overjoyed at our return. It was a wonderful reunion, with not a shadow -to mar it, for Paul had passed uninjured through the fighting and was -there to welcome us. And gradually, when she awoke, we broke the news of -everything to Esther. - -The amazing thing about it was that she was much more calm in learning -the truth than we were in telling it. She accepted our statements almost -as commonplaces of history. - -I call to mind the second huge public gathering on the day after the -Revolution, when the dread of massacre had proved unfounded. The -populace had been taught to believe that the Russians were blood-thirsty -savages, instead of which we discovered child-like enthusiasts. It was a -shock to most of us to discover that they considered themselves -Crusaders, upon a mission to restore Christ to the world. I recall -vividly the great red crosses on the breasts of their white uniforms, -the icon banners that are still flapping everywhere; then the people’s -wonder and terror at the horses; lastly the young Tsar’s entrance into -the capital, to attend the reconsecration of the Temple, and the amazing -influence of kingship upon a crowd that had never known reverence or -loyalty, except through fear. - -Then the universal joy at the release of all the inmates of the -defectives and moron shops, the tears and shouts that accompanied the -restoration to their families, of those who had been believed lost -forever; husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters, -friends and friends. No one was afraid to be glad. It was as if a dark -cloud had rolled away and disclosed the sun. - -And the astonishment and enthusiasm as the people listened to the -teachings of Christianity. After three months there are still crowds at -all the street corners, hearing the doctrines and the story of Christ -from priests and missionaries. - -And Bishop Alfred: at the consecration, when, stepping forward to -declare himself, he found, to his surprise and dismay, that the secret -of his surname, which he had vowed never to reveal until that day, had -passed forever from his own memory. And how proudly he redeemed himself -with his ancient title, Alfred London. - -There is so much to do, and only a tithe of it has been begun. Indeed, -it would have been impossible, but for the agreement that the old -national boundaries should be restored, and each State work out its -problems independently. Then there was the question as to the -composition of the new government, and it was resolved that the -committee should avail themselves to the utmost of the established -order, eliminating all cruelties. Thus, for the present, because no -better scheme can come forth, ready-made, from human brains, the -socialized State will continue. It would be impossible to go back to the -old days of competition, and we shall never return to those days of -squalor, poverty, and destitution, recognizing that, if ever revolution -was justified, our fathers’ was against the commercial greed of a -materialistic world. - -The hardest part of this problem will be to steer a course between the -corruption of Social Democracy and the tyranny of Social Autocracy. But -we have an ideal in the separation of wealth from power, the latter to -be the attribute of the few who are born and fit to rule, the former the -possession of the bulk of the nation. Whatever our judges, their office -will be for life, and they will be appointed and not elected. - -In time custom will crystallize into laws again; but, since the existing -laws were too cruel to survive, and the old are too arbitrary and -antiquated to be renewed, we choose to exist law-free rather than live -by paper schemes. - -But if we are tolerant and lax, so that we resemble more a benevolent -anarchy than an organized State, we have set our faces like flint -against two things. First of these comes divorce. It will be recognized -under no circumstances whatever; and so far is this from being -considered tyrannous that the vast bulk of the people never desired it. -In the old days it was the shameful privilege of a small caste -alone—that same caste that, by abandoning its duties and -responsibilities and cutting free from the Catholic conception of -civilization, brought down the old order. We are convinced that the -permanence of the marriage bond is the foundation of every society of -free people. - -The second is eugenics. Looking back, we see how this madness over-ran -the world until, within a century from the time of its inception, it had -enslaved humanity. The theory of Galton, that because the -university-trained son of a distinguished man became distinguished, -while the illiterate son of a burglar died unknown, ability is -inherited, may have appealed powerfully to our ancestors, but to us it -is symptomatic of that inability to reason which we think characterized -the twentieth century. Eugenics was the natural product of a time which, -steeped in materialism, laughed at the belief in a human soul, or its -concomitant, that each soul needed to work out its earthly pilgrimage in -a body adapted to its abilities. But even from the material viewpoint we -see that the movement was fallacious. We know that the proportion of -those afflicted with inherited maladaptations has remained constant -through history; moreover, since there was no human norm, the demands of -the eugenists increased continually, till they had bound nine-tenths of -the world to their hideous Juggernaut car. - -So the first act after our victory was to burn the Bureaux of Prints and -Indexes and Pedigrees and Relationships. That was our only vandalism. - -But more than everything we hold to Christianity as the foundation of -our State. We see now that the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were -the worst since pagan times. Our ancestors read, without qualms, of -negroes burned at the stake, of equatorial nations massacred, not in -excess of misplaced zeal, as heretics, but only for—rubber! We know that -without Christian ethics human nature is back in the days of Rome, -Bagdad, and Carthage. We hope that there will be established, as in the -olden days, Christian orders of young men, who shall serve three years -in them before they come of age, bound by the triple vow, to fight these -renascent wrongs wherever they can be found. - -Having found truth once more, we are not greatly troubled by doctrines. -The critical investigation which destroyed the Protestant theory of the -Bible’s literal inspiration has only strengthened the older claim of the -universal Church to be herself the repository of truth. Not rejecting -the claims of criticism, we feel the living truth of Christianity so far -to transcend its theological garb that, if the formula has been -misstated, many would revise it. The consensus of opinion is, however, -that the minds which drew up the Apostles’ and Nicene creeds arrived as -nearly as possible at a correct formula. - -But the Visible Church is humble in her hour of success. She feels no -triumph. Reverently, penitently, at the huge consecration meeting in the -Temple her leaders asked for guidance and inspiration. At present -sectarianism inspires in us the same horror that schism inspired -centuries ago. The first act was to reunite the ancient Greek and -English churches by omitting from the Creed that clause beginning -“proceeding from,” which had, it was felt, no significance that was -essential. The next will be to negotiate with the Vatican for union. But -the stupendous difficulties of this reconciliation are acknowledged. - -The Age of Faith is coming back to the world, and, as in that splendid -twelfth century, when it was in its zenith, there is a sense of youth in -us. We feel that we are upon the threshold of a new epoch, uniting the -triumphs of every preceding age. It is an age of joy, and will be -vitalized by that art which, since the Reformation, has been sundered -from human life. Its first achievement will be the magnificent cathedral -that is to rise upon the site of the old Ant Temple. It will be a new -world indeed. We know each age has its own cruelties and wrongs: the -Inquisition of the sixteenth century; religious massacres in the -seventeenth; in the nineteenth factory slavery and the prisons with -their silent cells. We do not hope greatly to lessen this sum of -suffering. There will be injustice always, new wrongs will arise, new -evils that must be fought; but we believe the Christian norm will always -remain with us as a corrective. - -Tomorrow bands of axemen are to leave London to settle Kent and Surrey. -Paul and Elizabeth are to go, and later Esther and I intend to follow -them. David will join us when he can be spared from his work in the -government. - -It is Easter Day, and in the consecrated Temple I hear the anthem rise: - -“Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the -feast: - -“Not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness: -but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. - -“Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more: death hath no more -dominion over him.” - -The crowds in the great courts are kneeling. I kneel with Esther among -them. We know that the sacrifice has leavened the world with truth that -shall never pass away. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES - - - 1. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling. - 2. Retained anachronistic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as - printed. - 3. 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