NormalizeHEADmain

1 files changed, 0 insertions, 6746 deletions

diff --git a/old/60312-0.txt b/old/60312-0.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index a3fc69d..0000000
--- a/old/60312-0.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,6746 +0,0 @@
-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Germ Growers, by Robert Potter
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: The Germ Growers
-       An Australian story of adventure and mystery
-
-Author: Robert Potter
-
-Release Date: September 17, 2019 [EBook #60312]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GERM GROWERS ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by MWS, David Wilson and the Online Distributed
-Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was
-produced from images made available by the HathiTrust
-Digital Library.)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-THE GERM GROWERS.
-
-
-
-
-               THE GERM GROWERS.
-
-  An Australian Story of Adventure and Mystery.
-
-
-                      BY
-     ROBERT EASTERLEY and JOHN WILBRAHAM.
-
-
-  “His ...
-   Prosequitur dictis portaque emittit eburna.”
-
-
-                  MELBOURNE:
-          MELVILLE, MULLEN, & SLADE.
-
-           LONDON: HUTCHINSON & CO.
-                     1892.
-
-           [_All rights reserved._]
-
-
-
-
-TABLE OF CONTENTS.
-
-
-                      PAGE
-  Preliminary            1
-
-      CHAPTER I.
-  Disappearances         6
-
-      CHAPTER II.
-  The Red Sickness      13
-
-      CHAPTER III.
-  At Sea                26
-
-      CHAPTER IV.
-  Overland              36
-
-      CHAPTER V.
-  Among the Blacks      58
-
-      CHAPTER VI.
-  Left Alone            86
-
-      CHAPTER VII.
-  The Cars              97
-
-      CHAPTER VIII.
-  Signor Davelli       131
-
-      CHAPTER IX.
-  The Seed Beds        167
-
-      CHAPTER X.
-  Leäfar               202
-
-      CHAPTER XI.
-  Escape               233
-
-  Conclusion           267
-
-
-
-
-THE GERM GROWERS.
-
-
-
-
-PRELIMINARY.
-
-
-When I first heard the name of Kimberley[1] it did not remind me of
-the strange things which I have here to record, and which I had
-witnessed somewhere in its neighbourhood years before. But one day, in
-the end of last summer, I overheard a conversation about its geography
-which led me to recognise it as a place that I had formerly visited
-under very extraordinary circumstances. The recognition was in this
-wise. Jack Wilbraham and I were spending a little while at a hotel in
-Gippsland, partly on a tour of pleasure and partly, so at least we
-persuaded ourselves, on business. The fact was, however, that for some
-days past, the business had quite retreated into the background, or,
-to speak more correctly, we had left it behind at Bairnsdale, and had
-come in search of pleasure a little farther south.
-
-  [Footnote 1: In North-west Australia.]
-
-It was delicious weather, warm enough for light silk coats in the
-daytime, and cold enough for two pairs of blankets at night. We had
-riding and sea-bathing to our hearts’ content, and even a rough kind
-of yachting and fishing. The ocean was before us—we heard its thunder
-night and day; and the lakes were behind us, stretching away to the
-promontory which the Mitchell cuts in two, and thence to the mouth of
-the Latrobe, which is the highway to Sale. Three times a week a coach
-passed our door, bound for the Snowy River and the more savage regions
-beyond. Any day for a few shillings we could be driven to Lake Tyers,
-to spend a day amidst scenery almost comparable with the incomparable
-Hawkesbury. Last of all, if we grew tired of the bell-birds and the
-gum-trees and the roar of the ocean, we were within a day’s journey
-of Melbourne by lake and river and rail.
-
-It was our custom to be out all day, but home early and early to bed.
-We used to take our meals in a low long room which was well aired but
-poorly lighted, whether by day or night. And here, when tea was over
-and the womenkind had retired, we smoked, whenever, as often happened,
-the evening was cold enough to make a shelter desirable; smoked and
-chatted. There was light enough to see the smoke of your pipe and the
-faces of those near you; but if you were listening to the chatter of
-a group in the other end of the room the faces of the speakers were so
-indistinct as often to give a startling challenge to your imagination
-if you had one, and if it was accustomed to take the bit in its teeth.
-I sometimes caught myself partly listening to a story-teller in the
-other end of the room and partly fashioning a face out of his dimly
-seen features, which quite belied the honest fellow’s real countenance
-when the flash of a pipelight or a shifted lamp revealed it more
-fully.
-
-Jack and I were more of listeners than talkers, and we were usually
-amongst the earliest who retired. But one evening there was a good
-deal of talk about the new gold-field in the north-west, and a
-keen-looking bushman who seemed to have just returned from the place
-began to describe its whereabouts. Then I listened attentively, and at
-one point in his talk, I started and looked over at Jack, and I saw
-that he was already looking at me. I got up and left the room without
-a sign to him, but I knew that he would follow me, and he did. It was
-bright moonlight, and when we met outside we strolled down to the
-beach together. It was a wide, long, and lonely beach, lonely to the
-very last degree, and it was divided from the house by a belt of scrub
-near a mile wide. We said not a word to one another till we got quite
-near the sea. Then I turned round and looked Jack in the face and
-said, “Why, man, it must have been quite near the place.”
-
-“No,” said he, “it may have been fifty miles or more away, their
-knowledge is loose, and their description looser, but it must be
-somewhere in the neighbourhood, and I suppose they are sure to find
-it.”
-
-“I do not know,” said I; and after a pause I added, “Jack, it seems to
-me they might pass all over the place and see nothing of what we saw.”
-
-“God knows,” he muttered, and then he sat down on a hummock of sand
-and I beside him. Then he said, “Why have you never told the story,
-Bob?”
-
-“Don’t you know why, Jack?” I answered. “They would lock me up in a
-madhouse; there would be no one to corroborate me but you, and if you
-did so you would be locked up along with me.”
-
-“That might be,” said he, “if they believed you; but they would not
-believe you, they would think you were simply romancing.”
-
-“What would be the good of speaking then?” said I.
-
-“Don’t speak,” he repeated, “but write, _litera scripta manet_, you
-will be believed sometime. But meanwhile you can take as your motto
-that verse in Virgil about the gate of ivory, and that will save you
-from being thought mad. You have a knack of the pen, Bob, you ought
-to try it.”
-
-“Well,” said I, “let it be a joint concern between you and me, and
-I’ll do my best.”
-
-Then we lit our pipes and walked home, and settled the matter in a
-very few words on the way. I was to write, but all I should write was
-to be read over to Jack, who should correct and supplement it from his
-own memory. And no account of anything which was witnessed by both of
-us was to stand finally unless it was fully vouched for by the memory
-of both. Thus for any part of the narrative which would concern one of
-us only that one should be alone responsible, but for all of it in
-which we were both concerned there should be a joint responsibility.
-
-Out of this agreement comes the following history, and thus it happens
-that it is told in the first person singular, although there are two
-names on the title-page.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I.
-
-DISAPPEARANCES.
-
-
-Before I begin my story I must give you some account of certain
-passages in my early life, which seem to have some connection with the
-extraordinary facts that I am about to put on record.
-
-To speak more precisely, of the connection of one of them with those
-facts there can be no doubt at all, and of the connection of the other
-with them I at least have none.
-
-When I was quite a boy, scarce yet fifteen years old, I happened to be
-living in a parish on the Welsh coast, which I will here call
-Penruddock. There were some bold hills inland and some very wild and
-rugged cliffs along the coast. But there was also a well-sheltered
-beach and a little pier where some small fishing vessels often lay.
-Penruddock was not yet reached by rail, but forty miles of a splendid
-road, through very fine scenery, took you to a railway station. And
-this journey was made by a well-appointed coach on five days of every
-week.
-
-The people of Penruddock were very full of a queer kind of gossip, and
-were very superstitious. And I took the greatest interest in their
-stories. I cannot say that I really believed them, or that they
-affected me with any real fear. But I was not without that mingled
-thrill of doubt and wonder which helps one to enjoy such things. I had
-a double advantage in this way, for I could understand the Welsh
-language, although I spoke it but little and with difficulty, and I
-often found a startling family likeness between the stories which I
-heard in the cottages of the peasantry three or four miles out of town
-and those which circulated among the English-speaking people in whose
-village I lived.
-
-There was one such story which was constantly reproduced under various
-forms. Sometimes it was said to have happened in the last generation;
-sometimes as far back as the civil wars, of which, strange to say, a
-lively traditional recollection still remained in the neighbourhood;
-and sometimes it seemed to have been handed down from prehistoric
-times, and was associated with tales of enchantment and fairyland.
-In such stories the central event was always the unaccountable
-disappearance of some person, and the character of the person
-disappearing always presented certain unvarying features. He was
-always bold and fascinating, and yet in some way or other very
-repulsive. And when you tried to find out why, some sort of inhumanity
-was always indicated, some unconscious lack of sympathy which was
-revolting in a high degree or even monstrous. The stories had one
-other feature in common, of which I will tell you presently.
-
-I seldom had any companions of my own age, and I was in consequence
-more given to dreaming than was good for me. And I used to marshal the
-heroes of these queer stories in my day-dreams and trace their
-likeness one to another. They were often so very unlike in other
-points, and yet so strangely like in that one point. I remember very
-well the first day that I thought I detected in a living man a
-resemblance to those dreadful heroes of my Welsh friend’s folk-lore.
-There was a young fellow whom I knew, about five or six years my
-senior, and so just growing into manhood. His name, let us say, was
-James Redpath. He was well built, of middle height, and, as I thought,
-at first at least, quite beautiful to look upon. And, indeed, why I
-did not continue to think so is more than I can exactly say. For he
-possessed very fine and striking features, and although not very tall
-his presence was imposing. But nobody liked him. The girls especially,
-although he was so good-looking, almost uniformly shrank from him. But
-I must confess that he did not seem to care much for their society.
-
-I went about with him a good deal at one time on fishing and shooting
-excursions and made myself useful to him, and except that he was
-rather cruel to dogs and cats, and had a nasty habit of frightening
-children, I do not know that I noticed anything particular about him.
-Not, at least, until one day of which I am going to tell you. James
-Redpath and I were coming back together to Penruddock, and we called
-at a cottage about two miles from the village. Here we found a little
-boy of about four years old, who had been visiting at the cottage and
-whom they wanted to send home. They asked us to take charge of him and
-we did so. On the way home the little boy’s shoe was found to have a
-nail or a peg in it that hurt his foot, and we were quite unable to
-get it out. It was nothing, however, to James Redpath to carry him,
-and so he took him in his arms. The little boy shrank and whimpered as
-he did so. James had under his arm some parts of a fishing-rod and
-one of these came in contact with the little boy’s leg and scratched
-it rather severely so as to make him cry. I took it away and we went
-on. I was walking a little behind Redpath, and as I walked I saw him
-deliberately take another joint of the rod, put it in the same place
-and then watch the little boy’s face as it came in contact with the
-wire, and as the child cried out I saw quite a malignant expression of
-pleasure pass over James’s face. The thing was done in a moment and it
-was over in a moment; but I felt as if I should like to have killed
-him if I dared. I always dreaded and shunned him, more or less,
-afterwards, and I began from that date to associate him with the
-inhuman heroes of my Welsh stories.
-
-I don’t think that I should ever have got over the dislike of him
-which I then conceived, but I saw the last of him, at least Penruddock
-saw the last of him, about three months later. I had been sitting
-looking over the sea between the pier and the cliffs and trying to
-catch a glimpse of the Wicklow Mountains which were sometimes to be
-seen from that point. Just then James Redpath came up from the beach
-beyond the pier, and passing me with a brief “good morning,” went away
-inland, leaving the cliffs behind him. I don’t know how long I lay
-there, it might be two hours or more, and I think I slept a little.
-But I suddenly started up to find it high day and past noon, and I
-began to think of looking for some shelter. There was not a cloud
-visible, but nevertheless two shadows like, or something like, the
-shadows of clouds lay near me on the ground. What they were the
-shadows of I could not tell, and I was about to get up to see, for
-there was nothing to cast such a shadow within the range of my sight
-as I lay. Just then one of the shadows came down over me and seemed to
-stand for a moment between me and the sun. It had a well-defined
-shape, much too well defined for a cloud. I thought as I looked that
-it was just such a shadow as might be cast by a yawl-built boat lying
-on the body of a large wheelbarrow. Then the two shadows seemed to
-move together and to move very quickly. I had just noticed that they
-were exactly like one another when the next moment they passed out of
-my sight.
-
-I started to my feet with a bound, my heart beating furiously. But
-there was nothing more to alarm the weakest. It was broad day. Houses
-and gardens were to be seen close at hand and in every direction but
-one, and in that direction there were three or four fishermen drawing
-their nets. But as I looked away to the part of the sky where the
-strange cloudlike shadows had just vanished, I remembered with a
-shudder that other feature in common of the strange stories of which I
-told you just now. It was a feature that forcibly reminded me of what
-I had just witnessed. Sometimes in the later stories you would be told
-of a cloud coming and going in an otherwise cloudless sky. And
-sometimes in the elder stories you would be told of an invisible car,
-invisible but not shadowless. I used always to identify the shadow of
-the invisible car in the elder stories with the cloud in the later
-stories, the cloud that unaccountably came and went.
-
-As I thought it all over and tried to persuade myself that I had been
-dreaming I suddenly remembered that James Redpath had passed by a few
-hours before, and as suddenly I came to the conclusion that I should
-never see him again. And certainly he never was again seen, dead or
-alive, anywhere in Wales or England. His father, and his uncle, and
-their families, continued to live about Penruddock, but Penruddock
-never knew James Redpath any more. Whether I myself saw him again or
-not is more than I can say with absolute certainty. You shall know as
-much as I know about it if you hear my story to the end.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II.
-
-THE RED SICKNESS.
-
-
-Of course James Redpath’s disappearance attracted much attention, and
-was the talk not only of the village, but of the whole country-side.
-It was the general opinion that he must have been drowned by falling
-over the cliffs, and that his body had been washed out to sea. I
-proved, however, to have been the very last person to see him, and my
-testimony, as far as it went, was against that opinion. For I
-certainly had seen him walking straight inland. Of course he might
-have returned to the coast afterwards, but at least nobody had seen
-him return. I gave a full account of place and time as far as I could
-fix them, and I mentioned the queer-looking clouds and even described
-their shape. This, I remember, was considered to have some value as
-fixing my memory of the matter, but no further notice was taken of it.
-And I myself did not venture to suggest any connection between it and
-Redpath’s disappearance, because I did not see how I could reasonably
-do so. I had, nevertheless, a firm conviction that there was such a
-connection, but I knew very well that to declare it would only bring
-a storm of ridicule upon me.
-
-But a public calamity just then befell Penruddock which made men
-forget James Redpath’s disappearance. A pestilence broke out in the
-place of which nobody knew either the nature or the source. It seemed
-to spring up in the place. At least, all efforts to trace it were
-unsuccessful. The first two or three cases were attributed to some
-inflammatory cold, but it soon became clear that there were specific
-features about it, that they were quite unfamiliar, that the disease
-was extremely dangerous to life and highly infectious.
-
-Then a panic set in, and I believe that the disease would soon have
-been propagated all over England and farther, if it had not been for
-the zeal and ability of two young physicians who happened very
-fortunately to be living in the village just then. Their names were
-Leopold and Furniss. I forget if I ever knew their Christian names. We
-used to call them Doctor Leopold and Doctor Furniss. They had finished
-their studies for some little time, but they found it advisable on the
-score of health to take a longish holiday before commencing practice,
-and they were spending part of their holiday at Penruddock. They were
-just about to leave us when the disease I am telling you of broke out.
-
-The first case occurred in a valley about two miles from the village.
-In this valley there were several cottages inhabited mostly by farm
-labourers and artisans. These cottages lay one after another in the
-direction of the rising ground which separated the valley from
-Penruddock. Then there were no houses for a considerable space. Then,
-just over the hill, there was another and yet another. The disease had
-made its way gradually up the hill from one cottage to another, day
-after day a fresh case appearing. Then there had been no new cases for
-four days, but on the fifth day a new case appeared in the cottage
-just over the brow of the hill. And when this became known, also that
-every case (there had now been eleven) had hitherto been fatal,
-serious alarm arose. Then, too, the disease became known as the “red
-sickness.” This name was due to a discoloration which set in on the
-shoulders, neck, and forehead very shortly after seizure.
-
-How the two doctors, as we called them, became armed with the needful
-powers I do not know. They certainly contrived to obtain some sort of
-legal authority, but I think that they acted in great measure on
-their own responsibility.
-
-By the time they commenced operations there were three or four more
-cases in the valley, and one more in the second cottage on the
-Penruddock side. There was a large stone house, partly ruinous, in the
-valley, near the sea, and hither they brought every one of the sick.
-Plenty of help was given them in the way of beds, bedding, and all
-sorts of material, but such was the height which the panic had now
-attained that no one from the village would go near any of the sick
-folk, nor even enter the valley. The physicians themselves and their
-two men servants, who seemed to be as fearless and brave as they, did
-all the work. Fortunately, the two infected cottages on the Penruddock
-side were each tenanted only by the person who had fallen ill, and the
-tenant in each case was a labourer whose work lay in the valley. The
-physicians burnt down these cottages and everything that was in them.
-Then they established a strict quarantine between the village and the
-valley. There was a light fence running from the sea for about a mile
-inland, along the brow of the rising ground on the Penruddock side.
-This they never passed nor suffered any one to pass, during the
-prevalence of the sickness. Butchers and bakers and other tradesmen
-left their wares at a given point at a given time, and the people from
-the valley came and fetched them.
-
-The excitement and terror in Penruddock were very great. All but the
-most necessary business was suspended, and of social intercourse
-during the panic there was next to none. Ten cases in all were treated
-by the physicians, and four of these recovered. The last two cases
-were three or four days apart, but they were no less malignant in
-character: the very last case was one of the fatal ones. I learned
-nothing of the treatment; but the means used to prevent the disease
-spreading, besides the strict quarantine, were chiefly fire and lime.
-Everything about the sick was passed through the fire, and of these
-everything that the fire would destroy was destroyed. Lime, which
-abounded in the valley, was largely used.
-
-A month after the last case the two physicians declared the quarantine
-at an end, and a month later all fear of the disease had ceased. And
-then the people of the village began to think of consoling themselves
-for the dull and uncomfortable time they had had, and of doing some
-honour to the two visitors who had served the village so well. With
-this double purpose in view a picnic on a large scale was organized,
-and there was plenty of eating and drinking and speech-making and
-dancing, all of which I pass over. But at that picnic I heard a
-conversation which made a very powerful impression on me then, and
-which often has seemed to provide a bond which binds together all the
-strange things of which I had experience at the time and afterwards.
-
-In the heat of the afternoon I had happened to be with Mr. Leopold and
-Mr. Furniss helping them in some arrangements which they were making
-for the amusement of the children who took part in the picnic. After
-these were finished they two strolled away together to the side of a
-brook which ran through the park where we were gathered. I followed
-them, attracted mainly by Mr. Furniss’s dog, but encouraged also by an
-occasional word from the young men. At the brook Mr. Furniss sat upon
-a log, and leaned his back against a rustic fence. The dog sat by him;
-a very beautiful dog he was, black and white, with great intelligent
-eyes, and an uncommonly large and well-shaped head. He would sometimes
-stretch himself at length, and then again he would put his paw upon
-his master’s shoulder and watch Mr. Leopold and me.
-
-Mr. Leopold stood with his back to an oak-tree, and I leant against
-the fence beside him listening to him. He was a tall, dark man, with
-a keen, thoughtful, and benevolent expression. He was quite strong and
-healthy-looking, and there was a squareness about his features that
-I think one does not often see in dark people. Mr. Furniss was of
-lighter complexion and hardly as tall; there was quite as much
-intelligence and benevolence in his face, but not so much of what
-I have called thoughtfulness as distinguished from intelligence, and
-there was a humorous glint in his eye which the other lacked. They
-began to talk about the disease which had been so successfully dealt
-with, and this was what they said:—
-
-_Leopold._ Well, Furniss, an enemy hath done this.
-
-_Furniss._ Done what? The picnic or the red sickness?
-
-_Leopold._ The red sickness, of course. Can’t you see what I mean?
-
-_Furniss._ No, I can’t. You’re too much of a mystic for me, Leopold;
-but I’ll tell you what, England owes a debt to you and me, my boy, for
-it was near enough to being a new edition of the black death or the
-plague.
-
-_Leopold._ Only the black death and the plague were imported, and this
-was indigenous. It sprung up under our noses in a healthy place. It
-came from nowhere, and, thank God, it is gone nowhither.
-
-_Furniss._ But surely the black death and the plague must have begun
-somewhere, and they too seem to have gone nowhither.
-
-_Leopold._ You’re right this far that they _all_ must have had the
-same sort of beginning. Only it is given to very few to see the
-beginning, as you and I have seen it, or so near the beginning.
-
-_Furniss._ Now, Leopold, I hardly see what you are driving at. I am
-not much on religion, as they say in America, but I believe there is a
-Power above all. Call that Power God, and let us say that God does as
-He pleases, and on the whole that it is best that He should. I don’t
-see that you can get much further than that.
-
-_Leopold._ I don’t believe that God ever made the plague, or the black
-death, or the red sickness.
-
-_Furniss._ Oh, don’t you? Then you are, I suppose, what the churchmen
-call a Manichee—you believe in the two powers of light and darkness,
-good and evil. Well, it is not a bad solution of the question as far
-as it goes, but I can hardly accept it.
-
-_Leopold._ No, I don’t believe in any gods but the One. But let me
-explain. That is a nice dog of yours, Furniss. You told me one day
-something about his breeding, and you promised to tell me more.
-
-_Furniss._ Yes, it is quite a problem in natural history. Do you know,
-Tommy’s ancestors have been in our family for four or five generations
-of men, and, I suppose, that is twenty generations of dogs.
-
-_Leopold._ You told me something of it. You improved the breed
-greatly, I believe?
-
-_Furniss._ Yes; but I have some distant cousins, and they have the
-same breed and yet not the same, for they have cultivated it in quite
-another direction.
-
-_Leopold._ What are the differences?
-
-_Furniss._ Our dogs are all more or less like Tommy here, gentle and
-faithful, very intelligent, and by no means deficient in pluck. My
-cousin’s dogs are fierce and quarrelsome, so much so that they have
-not been suffered for generations to associate with children. And so
-they have lost intelligence and are become ill-conditioned and
-low-lived brutes.
-
-_Leopold._ But I think I understood you to say that the change in the
-breed did not come about in the ordinary course of nature.
-
-_Furniss._ I believe not. I heard my grandfather say that his father
-had told him that when he was a young man he had set about improving
-the breed. He had marked out the most intelligent and best tempered
-pups, and he had bred from them only and had given away or destroyed
-the others.
-
-_Leopold._ And about your cousin’s dogs?
-
-_Furniss._ Just let me finish. It seems that while one brother began
-to cultivate the breed upward, so to speak, another brother was living
-in a part of the country where thieves were numerous and daring, and
-there were smugglers and gipsies, and what not, about. And so he began
-to improve the breed in quite another direction. He selected the
-fierce and snappish pups and bred exclusively from them.
-
-_Leopold._ And so from one ancestral pair of, say, a hundred or a
-hundred and fifty years ago, you have Tommy there, with his wonderful
-mixture of gentleness and pluck, and his intelligence all but human,
-and your cousin has a kennel of unintelligent and bloodthirsty brutes,
-that have to be caged and chained as if they were wild beasts.
-
-_Furniss._ Just so, but I don’t quite see what you are driving at.
-
-_Leopold._ Wait a minute. Do you suppose the germs of cow-pox and
-small-pox to be of the same breed?
-
-_Furniss._ Well, yes; you know that I hold them to be specifically
-identical. I see what you are at now.
-
-_Leopold._ But one of them fulfils some obscure function in the
-physique of the cow, some function certainly harmless and probably
-beneficent, and the other is the malignant small-pox of the London
-hospitals.
-
-_Furniss._ So you mean to infer that in the latter case the germ has
-been cultivated downwards by intelligent purpose.
-
-_Leopold._ What if I do?
-
-_Furniss._ You think, then, that there is a secret guild of malignant
-men of medicine sworn to wage war against their fellow-men, that they
-are spread over all the world and have existed since before the dawn
-of history. I don’t believe that there are any men as bad as that, and
-if there were, I should call them devils and hunt them down like mad
-dogs.
-
-_Leopold._ I don’t wish to use misleading words, but I will say that I
-believe there are intelligences, not human, who have access to realms
-of nature that we are but just beginning to explore; and I believe
-that some of them are enemies to humanity, and that they use their
-knowledge to breed such things as malignant small-pox or the red
-sickness out of germs which were originally of a harmless or even of
-a beneficent nature.
-
-_Furniss._ Just as my cousins have bred those wild beasts of theirs
-out of such harmless creatures as poor Tommy’s ancestors.
-
-_Leopold._ Just so.
-
-_Furniss._ And you think that we can contend successfully against such
-enemies.
-
-_Leopold._ Why not? They can only have nature to work upon. And very
-likely their only advantage over us is that they know more of nature
-than we do. They cannot go beyond the limits of nature to do less or
-more. As long as we sought after spells and enchantments and that sort
-of nonsense we were very much at their mercy. But we are now learning
-to fight them with their own weapons, which consist of the knowledge
-of nature. Witness vaccination, and witness also our little victory
-over the red sickness.
-
-_Furniss._ You’re a queer mixture, Leopold, but we must get back to
-the picnic people.
-
-And so they got up and went back together to the dancers, nodding to
-me as they went. I sat there for awhile, going over and over the
-conversation in my mind and putting together my own thoughts and
-Mr. Leopold’s.
-
-Then I joined the company and was merry as the merriest for the
-remainder of the day. But that night I dreamt of strange-looking
-clouds and of the shadows of invisible cars, and of demons riding in
-the cars and sowing the seeds of pestilence on the earth and catching
-away such evil specimens of humanity as James Redpath to reinforce the
-ranks of their own malignant order.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III.
-
-AT SEA.
-
-
-It is my purpose to pass briefly over everything in my own history
-which does not concern the tale that I have to tell, and there is very
-little therefore for me to say about the seven or eight years which
-followed upon the events at Penruddock which I have just recorded.
-
-I went in due course to Oxford, where I stayed the usual time. I did
-not make any great failures there, nor did I gain much distinction.
-I was a diligent reader, but much of my reading was outside the
-regulation lines. The literature of my own country, the poetry of
-mediæval Italy, and the philosophy of modern Germany, more than
-divided my attention with classics and mathematics. Novels, mostly of
-the sensational type, amused me in vacations and on holidays, but very
-seldom found their way into my working days.
-
-I travelled over most of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and spent
-some time in some of the principal cities of the Continent. I became
-a fair linguist, speaking German, French, and Italian, with some
-fluency, although my accent always bewrayed me. I took a second class
-in classics, bade adieu to Oxford, and began to make up my mind as to
-what I should do with my life. I had thought of the various
-professions in turn, and had decided against them all; and, finally,
-as I had no taste for idleness, and as I had some money, I resolved to
-invest it in sheep or cattle farming in some of the new countries. I
-thought successively of New Zealand, the United States, Canada, and
-Australia, and I was determined in favour of Australia by falling in
-with Jack Wilbraham. He and I had gone into residence at Oxford about
-the same time, but not at the same college, and we took our degrees in
-the same year; but we hardly belonged to the same set. Jack was more
-of a sporting than a reading man, and I was not much of either, at
-least as either was understood at the University. So Jack and I,
-although we heard of one another occasionally, did not meet until
-a few months before we left Oxford.
-
-Then we became fast friends, and, as he had already determined to go
-to Australia, I made up my mind to go with him. We took our passage
-of course in the same ship. It was not yet the day of the great
-steamers and the canal was not yet open. We sailed from Liverpool in
-a clipper ship and we went round the Cape. But I think that we were
-quite as comfortable and as well taken care of as we should be now in
-the best of the Orient or Peninsular boats. Our voyage was altogether
-without disaster. Indeed it was like a picnic of ninety days’
-duration, and I do not know that I had ever enjoyed any three months
-of my life as much. But there were no details that I need mention
-except the fact that we formed an acquaintance (Jack and I) which
-determined our immediate course on our arrival in Australia, and so
-led us on to the mysterious experience of which I have to tell.
-
-Not indeed that our new acquaintance was one who might fairly be
-expected to introduce us to anything mysterious. Mr. Fetherston, as I
-shall call him here, was a thoroughly good fellow, and proved himself
-to be a staunch friend, but he was utterly destitute of imagination,
-and he had the greatest contempt for what he used to call “queer
-stories”; he used queer in a special sense; he meant simply
-mysterious, or savouring of what is commonly called the supernatural.
-
-One bright evening in the tropics some such stories were going round.
-The air was delicious, and the moon and stars were just beginning to
-shine. The first mate, myself, and Mr. Fetherston were the principal
-talkers, but we had a good many listeners. The first mate began the
-conversation by telling two or three stories of the type I have
-mentioned; one of them especially took my fancy. I cannot remember it
-in detail, but I know that it was provokingly mysterious, and seemed
-to admit of no solution but a supernatural one. The main incident was
-something like this. A farmer who lived about twelve miles from
-Bristol left home one evening with the intention of spending the night
-in that city in order to transact some business there at an early hour
-in the morning. He had to stop at a station about half-way to see some
-one who lived near there, and then to take another train in. He got
-out all right at the half-way station and walked towards the man’s
-house whom he wanted to see. A stranger met him on the way and drew
-him into conversation. As they came to certain cross roads the
-stranger turned, looked him in the face and said very deliberately,
-“Go home by next train, you will be just in time.” Then he walked away
-quickly down one of the cross roads. The farmer stood like one
-stunned for a minute or two, and then hurried after the stranger
-intending to stop him. But he could see him no more. There were
-several houses and gardens about and he might have passed into one of
-them, but anyhow he was lost to sight. The farmer did as he was told
-and hurried home. He arrived just in time to save his house from being
-burned to the ground, and more than that, for his wife and children
-and servants were in bed and asleep.
-
-When the story was told, Mr. Fetherston gave his opinion of it very
-freely. I never saw contempt more effectually expressed. He spoke
-without the least atom of temper. Men who get angry and denounce that
-sort of thing are usually afraid of believing it, or at least of
-seeming to believe it. Nothing was further from Mr. Fetherston’s
-thought. But you saw plainly that such stories were for him on a level
-with the most senseless of nursery rhymes and nothing better than mere
-idiot’s chatter. He did not say so in as many words nor at all
-offensively, but he made it quite clear nevertheless that he felt
-himself to be looking down from the platform of a mysterious
-intelligence on some very contemptible folly.
-
-I felt as if reproach were in the air, and I knew that if it were
-deserved I was one of those who deserved it. So, although it would
-have been pleasanter to be silent, I felt that I was bound to speak.
-
-So I said, “Mr. Fetherston, isn’t it all a matter of evidence?”
-
-_Fetherston._ Evidence! And pray on what evidence would you believe
-such a story as that which we have just heard?
-
-_Easterley._ Upon the statement on the honour of any sane man that I
-knew and trusted: how I might account for it is another matter.
-
-_Fetherston._ If a man whom I knew and trusted told me such a story on
-his honour I should trust him no longer, and I should believe him to
-be either insane or dishonest.
-
-_Easterley._ Suppose that ten men whom you knew and trusted agreed in
-telling you the same story?
-
-_Fetherston_ (with a slight laugh). Then I should begin to suspect
-that I had gone mad myself, but I should never believe it.
-
-_Easterley._ Yet you believe a story which is nearly two thousand
-years old and which is full of mystery from beginning to end: the
-story of a man who was born mysteriously, who exercised mysterious
-powers during his life, and after death by violence lived again
-mysteriously, and at last left this world mysteriously. [Now you must
-know I spoke here knowing what I was about, for Fetherston was an
-enthusiastic churchman, and in company with a clergyman who was one of
-us he had organized a regular Sunday service, and, on the very last
-Sunday, was one of a small number to whom the clergyman had
-administered the sacrament.] It seems to me, Mr. Fetherston, I went on
-to say, that you, like some people I have met, can believe a thing
-with one side of your head and disbelieve it with the other.
-
-_Fetherston._ You are certainly like some people I have met. You throw
-the Christian religion overboard and then you take to believing a lot
-of puerile absurdities.
-
-_Easterley._ Softly now, you must not say that I throw the Christian
-religion overboard. It may be that I do not accept it in quite the
-same sense as you, still I accept it. And as for the supernatural, if
-I said that I believed in it or that I did not believe in it, I should
-most likely to some extent deceive you.
-
-_Fetherston._ You mean that you could not answer with a plain “yes” or
-“no.”
-
-_Easterley._ Not quite that; but I could not answer as you do with
-“yes” and “no.” I should have to distinguish.
-
-_Fetherston._ Distinguish then, please.
-
-_Easterley._ Well, when you say that you don’t believe in the
-supernatural, I reply that what I don’t believe in is the natural.
-
-_Fetherston._ I am afraid I must ask you to explain your explanation.
-
-_Easterley._ What I mean is this. I believe that there is nothing at
-all, from a bucket of saltwater to the head on your shoulders, of
-which a full account can be given by any man. You go further and
-further back until you can get no further, but still you see that you
-are not at the end. Every natural thing implies a principle which is
-outside nature.
-
-_Fetherston._ But you believe that there is a law for everything?
-
-_Easterley._ I believe that order prevails everywhere, and that
-everything has its place in that order; you may if you like call that
-order nature. Then I say that if there be ghosts they are part of
-nature; they have their place in nature as well as we. And we as well
-as the ghosts, and the air and the water as well as we, imply
-something that is not nature. Everything is natural and everything is
-supernatural.
-
-_Fetherston._ Easterley, I am afraid you are a philosopher. Come with
-me to Central Australia and we’ll knock the philosophy out of you and
-make you a practical man.
-
-_Easterley._ Are you going to Central Australia?
-
-_Fetherston._ Yes; I am to have charge of a company of surveyors who
-are to be engaged about the laying of the overland line to Port
-Darwin.
-
-_Easterley._ I’ll think of it. I rather think I should like it. I
-suppose we shall see no ghosts there, Fetherston?
-
-_Fetherston._ I don’t know about that. I dare say we may, for we shall
-often have to live on salt junk and damper.
-
-So there our talk ended. I had heard of Mr. Fetherston’s business
-before, and even I believe of his destination; but I had forgotten the
-particulars, and certainly it never had struck me that I should care
-to go with him. But now I thought I should like to talk it over with
-Jack. So I went in search of him. I found him by himself at the
-farthest aft part of the ship, standing just above the companion with
-his back against a rail. He had been chatting with two or three of the
-ladies, and they had just gone below. He came at once to meet me, and
-we both went forward and lit our pipes and smoked some time in
-silence. Then Jack spoke. “I see that you have something to say, Bob;
-what is it?”
-
-“Fetherston,” said I, “is going with a survey party to assist in
-laying the overland wire to Port Darwin: he proposes that we should go
-with him; he was only in jest, but I think I should like it.”
-
-Jack thought it would be a very good beginning: we should see much of
-the country, we should get experience, and have something to talk
-about. Poor Jack! if he had only known! We have never ventured to talk
-much about that journey, not much to one another, and not at all to
-anyone else; but I must not anticipate. We both took a fancy to the
-scheme. There would be much of the interest of exploring without any
-of the special risks. We would, no doubt, have some hardships to put
-up with, but there would be depôts at intervals along the way, and our
-communication would be kept open all through. So I spoke to Fetherston
-a few days later. “Fetherston,” I said, “will you take two volunteers
-with you on your survey party northward? We shall pay our own
-expenses, but we shall want your guidance and protection, and we shall
-have nothing to give you in return but our company.”
-
-Fetherston said that he thought it might on such terms be easily
-managed, and it was managed accordingly.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV.
-
-OVERLAND.
-
-
-Jack and I had intended to go on to Melbourne and thence to Sydney,
-but upon our arrival at Adelaide we found that arrangements had been
-made which required that Mr. Fetherston should start northward as soon
-as possible. We had, therefore, little enough time to make preparation
-for the journey, and so we had to give up for the present all thought
-of making acquaintance with the great Australian cities.
-Mr. Fetherston, although he was but little over thirty years old, was
-a veteran Australian explorer; for about ten years before he had been
-with Stuart on his third and successful expedition in search of a
-practicable route from Adelaide to the Indian Ocean, and all the time
-since, except about a year and a half in England and on the way there
-and back, he had spent in pioneering work in Queensland and the
-north.
-
-The undertaking in which he was now engaged was in rather a critical
-condition. The entire length of the route, from Adelaide to Port
-Darwin, would be about two thousand miles, and over the central
-section of eight hundred miles, passing through, as some would have
-thought, the most difficult part of the line, the wire had been
-already carried. And after some further delay this had been connected
-with Adelaide. But about six hundred miles at the northern extremity
-still remained unfinished. The first expedition for the purpose had
-absolutely failed, and one or two attempts made since had not been any
-more successful. The chief superintendent of the work was either about
-to start for Port Darwin by sea, or was already on his way. And
-Mr. Fetherston’s expedition was to meet him in the north. They
-expected to hear of one another somewhere about the Daly Waters. So
-there would be no work but simply travelling until that point was
-reached; none, at least, for Mr. Fetherston’s party.
-
-Mr. Fetherston introduced us to his chief assistant, Mr. Berry,
-telling us that we could do no better than take his advice about our
-preparation for the journey. Mr. Berry was also a veteran bushman and
-an experienced surveyor. He had been to Cooper’s Creek twice, and he
-knew the Darling from Bourke to Wentworth as well as King William
-Street and the North Terrace. So Jack and I put ourselves into his
-hands. We purchased two strong saddle horses, each with colonial
-saddles of the sort used by stockmen, and everything to match. We
-hired a man, specially recommended as a good bushman by Mr. Berry.
-This man was to ride one horse and to lead another, so that we should
-have one spare horse in case of accident. Mr. Fetherston introduced us
-also to the department which had oversight of the work. And they
-allowed us to pay a bulk sum to cover our expenses on the journey. The
-sum seemed to me very moderate, but, as Mr. Berry explained, “it was
-only to cover tucker and tents;” and the former was to be of a very
-simple and primitive sort, consisting simply of tea and sugar, salt
-meat and flour, and lime-juice, and we were to manage our cooking the
-best way we could. The store waggons would carry tobacco and soap; but
-these were to be sold, and Mr. Berry advised us to take a private
-supply of the former. We also procured a revolver each, and as many
-cartridges as we could conveniently carry. We each provided ourselves
-with a pair of blankets, an opossum rug, a couple of changes of coarse
-outside clothing, and half-a-dozen flannel shirts. Our dressing gear
-was limited to a comb and a tooth-brush each, with a few coarse
-towels. The towels and shirts we hoped to be able to wash from time to
-time on the way, and Mr. Berry told us that at depôts along the line
-there would sometimes be a supply of flannel shirts, and moleskin
-trousers, and cabbage-tree hats. The cabbage-tree hat was the head
-gear that we adopted by his advice.
-
-Before leaving Adelaide we put our money in the bank, arranging that
-it should bear interest at some low rate for six months, and then we
-made our wills, which we left in the safe belonging to the bank. By
-Mr. Fetherston’s advice we took very little money with us. A few
-sovereigns and some silver, he said, would be more than enough.
-Whatever we might buy at the Government depôts would be paid for by
-cheque, and if we should have occasion and opportunity to purchase
-fresh horses our cheques, endorsed by Mr. Fetherston, would be readily
-accepted.
-
-Mr. Berry, with the horses and waggons, left Adelaide within a week of
-our arrival there. Mr. Fetherston, Jack, and I, remained a week or ten
-days longer. It was arranged that we should join them at Port Augusta,
-whence the real start would be made. Most of the time thus gained Jack
-and I spent in trying to make ourselves as well acquainted as
-possible with the route we were to travel by, and its position with
-reference to the other parts of Australia. In the Government office
-there were several charts and plans which we were permitted to study
-and to copy. The route was in the main identical with Stuart’s track,
-but of much of the northern extremity it seemed to us doubtful if it
-had ever been surveyed at all. Of the other parts, however, a good
-deal was known, and the creeks and ranges were laid down with much
-apparent precision. Parts of the route might prove to be almost
-impracticable after a dry season, but as far as our information went,
-the worst country would be met with, not in the far interior but
-somewhere between Port Augusta and a point a little north of Lake
-Eyre.
-
-Mr. Fetherston, Jack, and I, left Port Adelaide for Port Augusta the
-first week in November in a slow little steamer that took near a week
-on the passage; and we had to stay nearly another week at Port Augusta
-before the overland party arrived. I remember nothing of Port Augusta
-except a very miserable public-house, at which we lodged, and the sand
-hills, long, low, and white.
-
-On the 20th of November we were well on the road, and we hoped to
-reach Daly Waters in about three months, and Mr. Fetherston expected
-that the line would be open to Port Darwin in about three months more.
-I may as well say here that it was in fact opened in the month of
-August, just nine months after we left Port Augusta.
-
-We travelled over a very miserable country for some weeks. Not a
-really green thing was to be seen, and water was very scarce and bad.
-And the heat was excessive, far worse than we found it on any other
-part of the route; far worse, indeed, than any heat that I have ever
-endured either in Australia or elsewhere.
-
-But after we had passed Lake Eyre a little way the country and the
-climate began to improve. And we had pleasant enough travelling until
-we got far beyond Alice’s Springs. We had reached or passed the
-seventeenth degree of latitude before the water began to get very
-scarce or the ground very difficult again. There was not much variety
-in the scenery. We passed through long tracts of wooded country, and
-again over nearly treeless plains, and again over a succession of low
-hills, some bald and some covered with forest. Though none of them
-attained any considerable height, they sometimes assumed very
-remarkable forms. We met several creeks whose course was in the main
-dry, with here and there, however, ponds or water holes from ten or
-twenty to several hundred feet long. At the larger ponds we often got
-a variety of water fowl, but in general along the route there was a
-great scarcity of game.
-
-Mr. Berry had in his own special service a certain Australian black
-with whom Jack and I formed an intimate acquaintance—of which and of
-whom I must tell you something; for if it had not been for him Jack
-and I would never have left the beaten track, and so this book would
-never have been written.
-
-His name was Gioro; that was the way we came to spell it, although
-J o r o would perhaps have been the better and simpler spelling. He
-was the most remarkable Australian black that I have ever met, and I
-have met a great many under a great variety of conditions and
-circumstances, and I find myself unable to differ seriously from the
-common estimate which places them near the very end of the scale. As a
-general rule (and I have only known the one exception), they have no
-really great qualities, none of those which are sometimes attributed
-to other barbarous races, as, for instance, to the American red man
-and even to the negro. But Gioro had qualities that would have done
-honour to the highest race on earth. He always spoke the truth, and he
-seemed to take it for granted that those to whom he spoke would also
-speak the truth. He had lived with white men in the North, and they
-must have been fine fellows, for he spoke of them always with respect,
-whereas he spoke with disgust and contempt of certain mean whites of
-Adelaide who had attempted to cheat him in some way. He never put
-himself forward, but if he were put forward by others who were in
-power he accepted the position as his right quite simply. He was as
-honest as the sun, and he was loyal through and through. He had even
-the manner of a gentleman. Mr. Fetherston’s tent was notably the
-largest in our camp, and the union jack floated over it on Sundays.
-And every Sunday all the officers and volunteers, that is to say,
-Mr. Fetherston, Mr. Berry and his assistant, Jack and myself, dined
-there in a sort of state; and it was Mr. Fetherston’s wont to have in
-one of the men to make the number even. And Gioro took his turn with
-us two or three times and was far the best conducted of those who were
-so invited. His ease of manner was perfect: he was as gentle and suave
-as an English nobleman; there was not a spark of self-assertion about
-him, and yet there was, or there seemed to be, a quiet consciousness
-of equality with his entertainers. He was also very courteous without
-being in the least bit cringing. He was glad always to teach us
-anything that we didn’t know and that he knew, and he was grateful for
-being taught something in turn. Jack, for instance, took a great
-interest in the boomerang, and Gioro took much pains to teach him how
-to use it and how to make it. Jack had been distinguished at Oxford
-for his athletics. And these were a great bond between him and Gioro.
-He taught him several athletic feats, and Gioro’s great suppleness of
-body enabled him to acquire them readily.
-
-It was curious to notice the impression which his character made upon
-the men. His name suggested a very ready abbreviation, and indeed, he
-was often known in the camp as “Jo.” But I never heard any one but
-Jack address him so. And Jack, as I have said, was more intimate with
-him than any of us. One day, quite near the beginning of the
-expedition, Mr. Fetherston called him “Sir Gioro.” I don’t quite know
-what he meant, probably nothing more than a humorous recognition of
-the black man’s unassuming dignity. Anyhow, the title stuck, and one
-heard his name afterwards, quite as often with the addition as without
-it.
-
-He had not been at all corrupted by his intercourse with white men.
-That intercourse had indeed been very limited. He had spent the
-greater part of two years with some settlers near the Gulf, and he
-learned there a sort of pigeon English which enabled him to converse
-with us. He had come to Adelaide with some of the party who had been
-engaged in one of the unsuccessful attempts to complete the northern
-extremity of the overland wire. His engagement with Mr. Berry was
-terminable at pleasure on either side. From the account which he gave
-of himself I should think that he was about twenty-five years old: he
-had visited his own people since the commencement of his sojourn with
-white men, and he intended to visit them again. I had learned all this
-from him before we were half-way to the Daly Waters.
-
-One evening, after we had passed the tropic, we camped earlier than
-usual because we had come upon a creek where there were tracks of
-wallaby and other game, and Gioro was very busy setting snares for
-them and showing us how to make and set such snares. The occupation
-seemed to remind him of his sojourn with the white men near the Gulf.
-So when we sat down to smoke, Gioro, Jack and I, Gioro said, “Way
-there,” pointing to the north-east after looking at the stars, “two
-three white men, sheep, two three, two three, two three, great many;
-one man not white man, not black man, pigtail man, and Gioro.” “And
-what,” said Jack, “were they doing there, and what were you doing
-there?” “Pigtail man cook, wash clothes, white man ride after sheep,
-dogs too, Gioro ride, speak English, snare wallaby.”
-
-“How long did he stay there?” One year six months.
-
-“How long since he left?” One year.
-
-I will not give you much of Gioro’s dialect; it was many days before I
-could readily understand him, and it was not a sort of dialect which
-is worth studying for its own sake. I learned from him that he
-belonged to a strong and populous tribe which occupied part of the
-country to the west of the Daly Waters. They had a king or chief whom
-Gioro held in the highest regard. His name was Bomero: the accent on
-the first syllable and the final “o” short like the “o” in rock. This
-Bomero was a great warrior and a mighty strong man, and possessed of
-great personal influence. It was my fate, as you shall hear, to make
-his acquaintance, and I found him by no means the equal of Gioro in
-any of the greatest qualities of the man or the gentleman. Like some
-public leaders among more civilised people he owed his position
-partly to his fluent persuasiveness, partly to his violent
-self-assertiveness, and more than all to what I must call his roguery.
-Black men and white men are wonderfully like in some things.
-
-Bomero seemed to have attained his power on the strength of these
-endowments alone. At least I could not learn anything decisive about
-his ancestry. Indeed, I could not gather that his people had any but
-the most elementary sense of the family relation, although tribal
-feeling, as distinct from family feeling, was very strong among them.
-Gioro had some recollection of “Old man Bomero,” and his recollections
-would sometimes appear to indicate that Old man Bomero was a
-remarkable black fellow, but I could not discover that he ever
-attained to any position of special eminence among them. He certainly
-had not been their king as Bomero was.
-
-I was at this time beginning to have some thought of a couple of days’
-expedition into the unexplored country to the west of the Daly Waters,
-and I had hinted as much to Jack. And I thought that the present was
-a good opportunity to find how far Gioro might be depended on as a
-guide. So I filled his pipe with my own tobacco (he was quite able to
-distinguish and prefer the flavour), and then I gave Jack a look to
-bespeak his attention, and began to put my questions.
-
-“When would Sir Gioro see his own people again?”
-
-Several slow puffs, a keen, eager, honest look, yet, withal, a
-cautious look, and then,
-
-“May be one two months.”
-
-Then I said, “No water out west—die of thirst?”
-
-“Now,” said Gioro, nodding his head affirmatively, “but in one two
-months, no, no.”
-
-I saw that he meant either that after three months there would be wet
-weather, or that within three months we should have a better-watered
-country westward. So I said, pointing west, “What’s out there?”
-
-“No water, no grass, no duck, no black fellow.”
-
-“But,” said I, looking northward, “we go on one two months, and then?”
-making a half-turn to face the west.
-
-“Then,” said he, “plenty grass, plenty fish, plenty duck, plenty black
-fellow.”
-
-“Everywhere?” said I, sweeping my arm all round the horizon.
-
-“No, no, here, there, there. Gioro know the way, Bomero know the way,
-find Bomero, find water.”
-
-“What,” said I, not understanding him, “Bomero make rain?”
-
-But he replied with great contempt, “Bomero make rain! No, no. Bomero
-not witchfellow. No fear. Bomero make witchfellow make rain.”
-
-I think it was on this occasion that we ascertained that Gioro fully
-intended to go away westward in search of his tribe, who, as he
-expected, would be found in about three months at a point with which
-he was familiar at some uncertain distance from the Daly Waters.
-
-They kept a great feast every year. It seemed to have some connection
-with the Pleiades and Aldebaran, for it was always celebrated when
-these stars were in conjunction with the sun. Several kindred tribes
-kept it, each in his own place westward, and every three years all the
-tribes who kept the feast celebrated it all together in a place
-farther west still. The triennial celebration was approaching, and
-Gioro intended to be there. He knew the way by which Bomero and his
-people would be travelling; he would cross their course, meet them,
-and go with them to the trysting-place.
-
-Jack suggested that he and I and Gioro should all go together and
-visit his tribe.
-
-Gioro hesitated for a little while, but after some apparently careful
-thought he said yes, he thought we could go.
-
-After that we often talked it over with him, learning from him what we
-could about the disposition of his tribesmen towards white men, and
-about the distance of the triennial meeting-place of the tribes. It
-was quite impossible to say how far or how near this meeting-place
-might be; and on this depended in my judgment the practicability of
-the scheme. But at least, I thought, if the black fellows were
-friendly we might, under Gioro’s guidance and protection, see a good
-deal of strange life and return home in a few days by the way we came.
-As far as I could gather, Gioro was the only one of his tribe that had
-ever seen a white man, although they had often heard of them, and
-curiosity rather than fear seemed to have been for some time the
-dominant feeling about them. But quite lately, for some reason or
-other, their fear began to exceed their curiosity.
-
-The cause of this change was evidently something that had happened in
-the far west; some encounter with white men as Jack and I thought at
-first. But we had reason afterwards, as you will hear, to think that
-we were mistaken.
-
-One evening I said to Gioro, “When did you see your people last?” He
-looked at the stars, and I knew he was going to be exact. Then he
-said, “One year.”
-
-“Did you tell Bomero then about the white men?”
-
-“Yes, tell Bomero. Bomero never see white man.”
-
-“What did Bomero say?”
-
-“Bomero say, white man all same dibble dibble.”
-
-“But Bomero never saw dibble dibble?”
-
-“Yes, Bomero saw dibble dibble one, two, three, two two, two three,
-great many.”
-
-“Where?”
-
-“Far away west.”
-
-“Where black fellows meet every three years?”
-
-“More far.”
-
-“Bomero saw white men, not dibble dibble.”
-
-“No fear, Bomero saw dibble dibble and run away. Bomero run away from
-no man, black man, pigtail man, white man; but Bomero run from dibble
-dibble.”
-
-“Did any black fellow but Bomero see dibble dibble?”
-
-“Yes, two three black fellow, more, all run away.”
-
-“And what like was dibble dibble?”
-
-“White man all same dibble dibble.”
-
-That was all I could ever get out of him on the subject.
-
-I spoke to Mr. Fetherston about our purpose of going westward with
-Gioro. He shook his head very gravely. “Well, Easterley,” said he, “if
-you will be guided by me you will do nothing of the sort. You see we
-know next to nothing of those north-west blacks, and if you go it is
-even betting that you never come back. If you get, say, a hundred
-miles west of here you will be entirely dependent on the blacks. You
-will have to live among them, and to live as they live, if they let
-you live at all.”
-
-“But we have our compasses and the telegraph line.”
-
-“That would be all very well if it were a country through which you
-could make a ‘bee line.’ But you will want water and food, and you
-cannot get either without the help of the blacks.”
-
-“But,” said I, “Gioro will come back with us.”
-
-“Gioro is a very good fellow, but if I were you I would not put myself
-altogether in his hands like that. He won’t understand your anxiety to
-get away; he will think you are very well as you are. His interest in
-his own people will make him careless about you.”
-
-“But I know Gioro well, and I should trust him anywhere.” So said I,
-and Jack eagerly agreed with me.
-
-“But,” said Mr. Fetherston, “Gioro may die or may be killed; they
-fight a great deal, and those who have been among white men are often
-subject to special enmity.”
-
-“I expect we shall have to chance that,” said Jack. “Any of us may die
-or be killed.”
-
-“Well, gentlemen, wilful men you know—— I don’t pretend to any right
-to constrain you, only let it be fully understood that if you go, you
-go against my wish and in defiance of my advice.”
-
-We agreed that everyone should know that, and so the matter dropped.
-
-The road was now growing very difficult, the water scarcer, and the
-timber very much denser. But we pushed on little by little from day to
-day. We were ascending slowly the watershed between the north and
-south, and we had left behind us the last point to which the wire had
-yet been carried, when one morning Mr. Fetherston, after a specially
-careful observation, announced that within three days we might expect
-to meet the superintendent’s party from the north, if all had gone
-well with them. The same afternoon Gioro took me aside, and told me
-that he meant to start the day after the next in search of Bomero and
-his people. We had come, he said, to certain landmarks that he
-recognised. The tribe would be already on the march, and he was
-confident that he could pick them up by following the water until it
-crossed their track. Next day was not Sunday, but we made a Sunday of
-it. We camped early, the Union Jack was hoisted, and Mr. Fetherston,
-the officers and volunteers, with one guest selected from the men in
-charge of the teams, sat down to dinner together. The man selected
-was a bushman of great and well-known experience, and, like
-Mr. Fetherston, he had been with Stuart on one or more of his
-exploring expeditions. I guessed from his presence that Mr. Fetherston
-intended that I should before the evening was over state my intention
-of going westward. Accordingly, when dinner was over and as we were
-about to light our pipes, I said before them all,
-
-“Well, Mr. Fetherston, my friend Wilbraham and I are going to leave
-you for a few days at least. We propose to go westward with Sir Gioro,
-in order to see something of the aborigines. We may be back within a
-week, but we may push on with the blacks into the interior, and
-perhaps we may make for the north-west or west coast.”
-
-Mr. Fetherston turned to the man of whom I spoke just now and said:
-
-“Well, Tim, what do you say to that?”
-
-The man turned to me and said: “I didn’t quite catch all you said,
-governor. Would you mind saying it again?”
-
-I repeated what I had said. “Well,” he replied, “it has been a main
-wet season out north, that I can see, and if you don’t go more than
-forty or fifty miles from the track you may get back within a week
-safe enough.” He paused for a moment, and looked me steadily in the
-face, and went on—
-
-“But, governor, if you go for the second part of the programme you’ll
-never see a white man again.”
-
-“Why so?” said I.
-
-“Well,” said he, “you are depending on Gioro. Now Gioro is a good
-fellow, far the best black fellow I ever knew by a very long way. And
-my best hope for you is that Gioro will take you back once he has had
-a look at his people. He will, if he knows what will happen as well as
-I know it.”
-
-“And what will happen?” said I.
-
-“Well, they’ll kill Gioro before he has been very long among them.
-Sooner or later they always kill the blacks that have been among white
-men.”
-
-“And then,” struck in Jack, “I suppose they will kill us.”
-
-“They may and they may not. You have ten times a better chance that
-Gioro. But if they don’t you will be as good as their slaves for life.
-You won’t be able to get back unless they take you back, and they will
-never take you back.”
-
-“Suppose we start to return on our own account?”
-
-“Well,” said the man, “if you are not more than forty or fifty miles
-to the west of the wire when you make the start eastward, and if you
-are able to make straight for the wire you may get back. But if you
-are much further away, or if you have to go a long way round you’ll
-die of thirst or hunger in the bush.” I noticed that he put thirst
-first.
-
-“And, mind,” he went on, “the chances are that you will be three times
-fifty miles to the west before you think of turning back.”
-
-“Why?”
-
-“Because it’s easy enough to travel with the blacks, easy enough for
-men of your sort, men that are hardy and are up to larks. The blacks
-know how to get food and water and fire, and you can live while in
-their company. It’s only when you leave them that you will be done
-for.”
-
-Here Jack chimed in again. “Never mind,” said he, “Mr. Easterley and I
-are going to try it, win or lose. Besides, after what you have told
-us, I wouldn’t let poor ‘Jo’ go alone. We’ll save him and he’ll help
-us.”
-
-The answer came slowly. “Jo is your trump card, certainly ... and your
-only one.”
-
-Then Fetherston spoke. “Gentlemen, if I were your master I should
-absolutely forbid you to go, but I have not the right to interfere
-with your liberty. But I am glad that you have had the benefit of
-Mr. Blundell’s experience.” (Mr. Blundell was Tim.) “His opinion and
-mine coincide exactly.”
-
-“Well,” said I, “Mr. Fetherston, we will be careful and we will bear
-in mind your advice, and I think it is on the whole most probable that
-you will see us back within the week.”
-
-“Possible,” said Jack.
-
-They all looked very sober then, and nothing more was said on the
-subject, and indeed little on any subject until the company broke up.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V.
-
-AMONG THE BLACKS.
-
-
-Our preparation for this madcap expedition was very soon made. We took
-our horses, for on foot we could not keep up with Gioro, and it was
-better to have the full benefit of his fleetness. We strapped our
-blankets to the pommels of our saddles. Jack carried a small
-fowling-piece, and I carried a pistol. We both had serviceable knives.
-A few small packages of tea and tobacco and what we thought a fair
-supply of ammunition completed our _impedimenta_.
-
-We left our spare horse in charge of our man, and entrusted
-Mr. Fetherston with a cheque sufficient to pay the man’s wages and to
-give him a small gratuity on his return to Adelaide. Meantime he was
-to be in Mr. Fetherston’s service until we should rejoin the
-expedition, and if we did not rejoin it before its return to Adelaide
-then Tim Blundell was to have the horse. Early in the forenoon Gioro
-showed me a hill which seemed to be about ten miles away (it proved
-to be much further). He told us that at the foot of that hill we
-should find a creek which we had crossed at an earlier part of its
-course the afternoon before, and that creek we must follow down.
-Mr. Fetherston had the same hill marked on his chart, and his
-instructions were that when he was abreast of it he was to turn to the
-right nearly at right angles. So that when he should make this turn
-that must be our signal for parting with him. As we did not get
-abreast of the hill until it was rather late in the afternoon, we
-camped a little earlier than usual, and Gioro, Jack, and I deferred
-our departure until the next day. Shortly after sunrise we bade adieu
-to our friends with those noisy demonstrations on both sides which
-often serve the Englishman as a decent veil for those deeper feelings
-which he nearly always hesitates to show. The landscape here consisted
-of grassy slopes and plains, alternating with belts of well-forested
-country. We were in the middle of a plain when we parted from our
-fellow-travellers, and our courses were not in quite opposite
-directions; ours was about north-west, and theirs east-north-east. So
-while we remained in the plain we could see our fellow-travellers by
-simply looking to the right, and they us by looking to the left. So
-for a while there was much waving of hats on both sides. But the
-first belt of timber that we entered hid them from our sight. And then
-I think for the first time I became fully aware of the meaning of what
-we were doing.
-
-“Jack, my boy!” said I, giving my horse a slight cut, so that he
-bounded forward, “we’re in for it now.”
-
-“You don’t seem sorry for it, Bob,” said he, urging his horse to join
-me.
-
-Truly neither of us was sorry for it. A new spirit of independence and
-love of adventure sprang up within us. We were young and well and
-strong. The morning air was fresh; the unaccustomed aspect of the
-forest, the screams of a flock of savage birds of the cockatoo sort
-that seemed as if they were making for the same hill as ourselves, the
-aspect of our native guide, who trotted on with his body slightly bent
-forward, and with the confident air of one who had “been there
-before,” all stirred us to a sense of strangeness and expectance which
-was quite a joy. Even the warnings of Mr. Fetherston and Tim Blundell
-seemed only to intensify the joy.
-
-  “For if a path be dangerous known,
-   The danger’s self is lure alone.”
-
-All the way from Port Augusta, Gioro had been dressed like the rest of
-us; he had worn a pair of moleskin trousers, a flannel shirt, and a
-cabbage-tree hat. But now he had discarded all these, and he wore
-nothing but a kilt of matting and a head-dress which consisted of a
-string bound round his brows adorned with the tails of the small wild
-animals of the bush and one large opossum tail hanging down behind. He
-ran on steadily towards the hill, which we reached in three or four
-hours from the start. It was rather a remarkable hill, as we saw when
-we reached it. Sloping gradually from the side on which we approached,
-it was on the opposite side steep and even precipitous. The creek ran
-on the far side, and the shadow of the hill lay still across it. It
-was about half-past ten when we reached it, and we rested until about
-an hour after noon. We made a can of tea and drank it. We had neither
-milk nor sugar, but we had a few biscuits and some slices of meat.
-Jack and I wondered where our next meal was to come from, but Gioro
-did not seem at all anxious. We could not, however, get a word out of
-him about the matter except “plenty duck.”
-
-We made a start in the direction of west by north, or thereabouts,
-Gioro leading the way and we following blindly. He ran more carefully
-and rather more slowly, but there was still the same air of confidence
-about him. It was now very hot, but as we were well within the
-tropics, and the sun at noon was now as nearly as we could reckon
-vertical, the only wonder was that it was not much hotter. We must
-have been still high up on the watershed, although descending it on
-the northern slope. There was plenty of grass everywhere, and a good
-deal of timber, not so much, however, as to obstruct our passage or
-impede our view. The country was undulating, but there were no steep
-hills to be traversed. We passed a considerable herd of kangaroo and
-two or three dingoes, and there were many birds, chiefly crows,
-parrots, and cockatoos.
-
-It was getting near sundown when we reached the summit of one of those
-low hills, and Gioro clapped his hands and shouted. We saw nothing but
-another hill, but it was clear that he recognised it, for he clapped
-his hands again and again, pointed towards it and said, “Plenty duck.”
-He did not shape his course so as to cross the hill, but made for the
-point where it merged into the plain. And when we reached that point a
-sudden turn revealed a beautiful sheet of water, not very wide, but
-several hundred yards long, and consisting of two parts lying nearly
-at right angles to each other. This was the same creek which we had
-passed in the morning, but here it was much wider and deeper. Gioro
-stopped short and signed to us to stop. We did so at once, for we saw
-that the farther part of the water was alive with duck, and on the
-wider part nearer to us were several black swans. We turned
-immediately towards a grove of trees that lay between us and the
-water, and we dropped down. Gioro laid his hand on me, looked at Jack,
-pointed to the water and said, “Shoot.” Jack stole to the water-side
-and shot a swan easily. It was not very near the others and none of
-the birds flew away. It was most likely the first time that firearms
-had been discharged there. Jack then shot several ducks and rejoined
-us. Gioro threw off his kilt and swam out for the birds. The moment
-his woolly head was seen over water all the birds flew away. We lit a
-fire at once, prepared and cooked our birds, and made a hearty meal.
-As we began to eat I remembered for the first time that we had no
-salt. I suppose I made a wry face, for Gioro grinned and pointed to a
-small bag which was fastened outside his kilt. This was full of salt,
-which he had thoughtfully provided for the dainty appetites of his
-white friends.
-
-We slept sound and long that night, and in the morning Jack and I had
-a delicious bath, and washed our shirts and dried them in the sun.
-Going back to our camp we found a pleasant surprise awaiting us. Gioro
-had snared some wild creature—I think it was a bandicoot—and had
-baked it for breakfast. It was very nice, at least we thought so, and
-he was quite delighted when he saw that we enjoyed it. After breakfast
-we made an early start.
-
-Two more days passed like this one. Each evening Gioro guided us to
-water and food, and all the time our course was in the main west by
-north or west-north-west. It was clear that we were following some
-river or creek downward, and so there were considerable occasional
-variations in the direction that we took, but we never headed south of
-west or east of north. On the morning of the third day Gioro speared
-a large fish. I think it was a variety of perch; it was very good
-eating.
-
-This third morning we left the creek nearly at right angles and struck
-across the forest, and our guide was evidently more sharply on the
-watch than ever. He travelled very slowly now and he seemed to be
-looking everywhere for some local indications. After about two miles
-travelling we came again upon a creek, as far as I could judge a
-different one. It was very narrow and scarcely running. There was one
-very fair pond, however, but Gioro took scarce any notice of it, but
-ran on to the dry or nearly dry bed of the creek beyond. Here he set
-up a triumphant yell, and signed to us to come and see. I saw plainly
-enough what I thought at first to be a cattle track coming from the
-north-east and passing right across the bed of the creek. I looked at
-Gioro and said, “Sheep?” “No, no,” he shouted, “not sheep; black
-fellow, black fellow,” and stooping down he pointed at the track. I
-stooped also and examined it, and sure enough I could see plainly the
-mark of human feet. “When shall we catch them up, Sir Gioro?” said I.
-“To-night,” he shouted; “to-night, Corrobboree! Corrobboree!”
-
-We followed the track without pause, and by-and-by more tracks joined
-it, all from the north or east or from some point between these. There
-could be no doubt at all that we were approaching some camping-place
-of the blacks. Our course was now almost directly westward, with a
-very slight trend to the north, and the country still continued much
-of the same sort, undulating perhaps a little more, well grassed and
-fairly but not very thickly timbered. Wild animals and birds were much
-more numerous.
-
-It was after sunset, the moon which was now nearly half way between
-new and full was well up in the sky, there was a strange glimmer in
-the west that looked like an aurora, and Gioro was in a state of high
-excitement when the pathway bending round the foot of a somewhat
-steeper hill than we had seen during the day suddenly brought us
-within sight of a single fire. It was evidently just freshly kindled,
-but there was no one near it now. Gioro stopped, looked at us, and put
-his hand to his mouth. Then we made a half turn silently, still
-following the track, and all in a moment we came in view of the most
-striking sight that I had yet seen in Australia, or for the matter of
-that anywhere in the world.
-
-We saw an irregular line of large fires burning before us, and
-immediately behind them stretched a sheet of water much wider and
-longer than any that we had yet seen in the country. The fires were
-vividly reflected in the water, and seemed at the first glance quite
-innumerable. After a time one saw that there were at least sixty or
-eighty of them. Near each fire was a group of black men, clad like
-Gioro, holding in their hands long staves or spears, and dancing
-furiously. They kept springing into the air with their feet quivering,
-and striking their spears, butt ends downwards, violently upon the
-ground. Presently they burst into a wild shout, or series of shouts.
-The shouts came in measured cadence, but were frightfully discordant.
-Their dance kept time to their music, and the whole effect was wildly
-barbarous. There were huts in great numbers built of branches, and
-covered with leaves and bark. As far as I could see there was a hut
-for each fire, and women and children of all ages were to be seen in
-front of the huts, some few of them apparently partaking of the
-excitement of the dancers, but far the greater number stolidly looking
-on. The dress of the women was nearly the same as that of the men. The
-kilt of matting was the same, but the head-dress showed more effort
-after ornament. It covered more of the head, and it was adorned with
-the feathers of cockatoos and parrots. The children who ran about were
-mostly naked. There were several dogs, not at all Australian dingoes,
-but miserable half-starved mongrels of European breed. Many of the
-women were engaged in cooking food, and some whiffs of smoke which
-reached us were by no means of unpleasant flavour.
-
-All the while the song and dance lasted we lay quite still, hidden
-by the scrub which grew very thick here, and seemed to be a sort of
-stunted eucalyptus, and very like the mallee of Southern Australia.
-Our horses were hidden by the turn of a hill, and by a large tree
-near, and when the song and dance would pause for a moment, we could
-hear them munching the grass. I was at first greatly afraid that they
-would be startled by the noise and by the fires, but somehow they
-seemed to take no notice. They were accustomed to camp fires and
-singing, but not to such singing as that. When the song and the dance
-were ended, Gioro touched us, pointed and whispered, “Bomero, boss
-black fellow, see!” We looked in the direction of his finger, and
-could easily see a very tall and bulkily built black, with a very
-massive head, and dressed with some attempt at distinction. His kilt
-of matting was larger than any of those worn by the others, and was
-rather elaborately ornamented with feathers. His head-dress was very
-much larger, and he wore besides a sort of little cloak of skins
-thrown over his shoulder, and fastened with some kind of thong. Gioro
-whispered again, “Stay! Gioro speak to Bomero, then come back.” With
-this he stood erect, spear in hand, and advanced towards the fire
-where the tall black stood, dancing all the time rather gently, and
-singing rather softly, but exactly the same step and tune which we had
-just heard and seen. We followed him closely with our eyes, and we
-were in a state of great excitement and suspense.
-
-He was noticed almost immediately, but there was hardly any sign of
-surprise, and none at all of hostility. I suppose that his dance and
-song secured him for the time from either. Bomero stepped out to meet
-him, followed by three or four other blacks. Gioro continued his dance
-and song till he came quite up to them, and then he went round them
-still dancing and singing. He stopped right in front of Bomero. And
-there seemed to follow a sort of obeisance and salutation, and then
-a palaver.
-
-As the palaver proceeded the blacks became greatly excited, and more
-of them gathered round. No doubt he was telling them about us. I felt
-for my pistol, and looked towards the horses. I could still hear them
-munching the grass.
-
-Presently Gioro came towards us, looking quite cheerful and confident.
-He told us that Bomero wished to see us and bid us welcome. We fetched
-our horses, and we led them with us, holding ourselves in readiness to
-mount at a moment’s notice.
-
-As we marched up to the camp great excitement prevailed, and we were
-presently surrounded by a vast concourse of men, women, and children.
-Some half dozen of the blacks around Bomero armed themselves with
-boughs of trees, and kept the crowd at a sufficient distance.
-
-Bomero came towards us with spear in hand, and two men on each side of
-him also with spears. We made a sort of military salute, which he
-seemed to understand, and made an attempt to return. Then he began to
-talk. When he ceased, I turned to Gioro and said, “What says Bomero?”
-
-Gioro looked first at Bomero, and then at me, then quite rapidly,
-“Bomero, say, know all about white fellow; white fellow ride on horse,
-keep cattle, keep sheep, carry fire spear. Bomero say white fellow
-hold fire spear in hand, throw away only point, but point kill.
-Sometime one point, sometime two, three points, two three. Bomero say,
-Good-morrow to white fellow. White fellow all same black fellow. Black
-fellow take white fellow to great Corrobboree far away west when the
-one[2] white star rise, and red star and little stars go.”
-
-I replied with all the dignity that I could muster, “Right, all right;
-say to Bomero, ‘thanks.’ King Bob and king Jack all same king Bomero.
-King Bob and king Jack will go with king Bomero to great Corrobboree
-when the one[2] white star rises, and the red star and the little
-stars go.”
-
-  [Footnote 2: The red star is certainly Aldebaran, and the little
-   stars the Pleiades. I could not for a long time understand “the
-   one white star.” There is at present no large white star in
-   opposition to Aldebaran. I first thought that Arcturus might be
-   meant, and that the feast had perhaps come down from a period when
-   Arcturus was a white star. But I now think that Spica Virginis is
-   “the one white star.” I think that by “rises,” or more properly,
-   “has risen,” Gioro meant “has culminated;” for Gioro usually spoke
-   of “rising” and “setting” as “coming” and “going;” so if he had
-   meant to speak of stars in opposition he would have said, “when
-   the white star comes and the red star goes.” Spica culminates
-   about the time that Aldebaran sets; also there are no large stars
-   near Spica, and this may be why it is called “the _one_ white
-   star.” I think I have read that some people for the same reason
-   call it “the lonely one.” Gioro probably meant, “When the lone
-   white star has culminated, and the red star and the little stars
-   are set.”—R. E.]
-
-Then we were told that our miami must be built and that we must have
-meat and sleep, as we should have to start with the sun. They fell to
-work, Gioro and two or three others, and built a sort of hut in an
-incredibly short time, and then we supped on fish and wild duck and
-paste made with water of the seeds of some native grass. I think it
-was “nardoo.” We had also a fruit which I have seen nowhere else,
-about the size of a loquat, of a pinkish colour and subacid in taste.
-After supper we had a palaver, Gioro being the interpreter, and then
-we went to bed. Jack and I slept well and rose before sunrise in order
-to get a bath before starting. Several of the blacks followed us to
-the water’s edge and some of them plunged into the water after us. I
-didn’t half like it as they swam round and round us; but they were
-more afraid of us than we of them.
-
-Then we breakfasted and made a start. For twelve days we travelled on,
-still heading mainly westward, running down a watercourse, then
-crossing to another. Bomero was the leader always, and he seemed to
-know the way quite well. We always camped at water, and when we
-crossed from one creek to another the distance was usually no more
-than three or four miles. We passed a good many hills, but none of
-them I should say rising more than a thousand feet from the plain, and
-few of them so much as that. As far as I could reckon we must have
-travelled twenty-five to thirty miles a day, and the greater part of
-that was westing. I believe that on the evening of the twelfth day
-after we fell in with Bomero’s people we must have been all of three
-hundred or three hundred and fifty miles to the west of the telegraph
-wire.
-
-During those twelve days we did our best to study the people and the
-country so as to prepare ourselves for anything that might happen.
-Jack made a rough chart of each day’s march, and we both made an
-attempt to keep a sort of dead reckoning. It was very hard, however,
-to make any available record of our observations. The curiosity and
-perhaps the suspicion of the blacks made it next to impossible to
-write or draw by daylight, and at night we had only the light of our
-fires and a sort of torch that we managed to make of bark and fat.
-
-We were beginning to know something of the language. There was a
-palaver every night, or, to speak more exactly, there were several
-palavers, in one of which we always joined, with Gioro for
-interpreter. And on several occasions Bomero harangued the tribe.
-These harangues were very interesting, even before we could understand
-any part of them or before Gioro explained a word of them. The manner
-and mode of delivery were very remarkable. Bomero was highly
-demonstrative, but he was never carried away by his own eloquence. The
-spirit of the prophet was always subject to the prophet. He could pull
-himself together in a moment and be as cool as you please. The matter
-of his harangues was chiefly the greatness of his tribe, and above all
-of the king of the tribe, the king’s ability to guide his people to
-food and water, to beat any two or three men of his own tribe, and as
-many as you like of any other tribe, the great Corrobboree that they
-were going to keep out away west, and the greatness of the tribes who
-kept it, of which tribes they were the greatest, and Bomero was the
-greatest of them.
-
-These harangues were his method, it seemed, of keeping up his
-influence over his people in time of peace. And one could not but
-liken him, as Carlyle says, to “certain completed professors of
-parliamentary eloquence” nearer home.
-
-The Pleiades were now seen to be setting earlier and earlier every
-evening. They were for a few nights obscured by clouds, and the next
-time they appeared they were perceptibly nearer the sun. This fact was
-observed at once and they hailed it with what at first seemed to be a
-series of shouts, but which proved to be a sort of barbaric chant,
-each stave of which ended with this refrain:—
-
-            “Go, go,
-  Red star and little stars.”
-
-And this was a chant as Gioro told us (and Bomero confirmed him) which
-their fathers and their fathers’ fathers had sung before them from
-time immemorial. I wish that some of our savants would investigate
-this matter, for I cannot but think that this festival and its obvious
-connection with the constellation Taurus would throw some important
-light on the origin of these people and their connection with the
-other races of mankind.
-
-Jack and I for obvious reasons gave them some illustrations of the use
-of our “fire spears.” Mine they said was a “fire spear” of one point,
-and Jack’s of two three points, two three; that is to say I used a
-bullet and Jack used shot. We were beginning to be favourites, and
-even Bomero himself liked us, for although he showed at first some
-signs of being jealous, we treated him with such deference that he
-soon forgot his jealousy. Jack had a black leather belt for wearing
-round the waist, and we made Bomero a formal present of this. We
-explained its use to him and put it round his kilt. We could see that
-he was nearly overcome with childish delight, and yet the wily fellow
-was knowing enough to repress all show of this feeling and to receive
-the gift with stolid gravity. He gave us in turn an eagle’s feather
-each, which he took off the kilt just where the belt would cover it,
-and these we received with becoming gratitude.
-
-A serious misfortune befell us about the eighth day, which was the
-occasion of another compliment to Bomero. Jack’s horse fell dead lame,
-and we were obliged to let him loose in the bush. We presented the
-saddle to our black prince, and made a throne of it for him, and one
-evening that we camped earlier than usual we persuaded him to hold a
-levee. Jack explained the matter to Gioro, and Gioro to Bomero. This
-was how Jack explained it.
-
-_Gioro._ What’s levee?
-
-_Jack._ Boss white fellow stands on daïs. No, sits on throne, throne
-all same saddle and stirrups; other white fellows march up, march down
-again, come this way, go that way, all same little stars and red star.
-Bow to boss white fellow. Boss white fellow bows to them. Boss black
-fellow all same boss white fellow.
-
-Bomero took readily to the proposal. We picked out a fallen tree high
-enough and wide enough. We fixed up the saddle upon it, the stirrups
-touching the ground. Bomero got astride of this with a spear in each
-hand. I passed before him bowing, and Jack followed me. All the others
-followed him. They took to it as if they had been born courtiers. They
-would not be satisfied until every adult man had made his bow, and we
-had something to do to keep them from beginning all over again. It was
-ludicrous to the last degree. The tall, bulky black fellow sat on the
-saddle with the tree under him like a hobby-horse, his head was all
-stuck over with feathers and the tails of opossums; his little cloak
-of skins and kilt of platted leaves were fastened with Jack’s belt,
-and he held his two spears, one in each hand, and he looked as sober
-and solemn as a judge, and the other fellows as much in earnest as if
-they were freemasons in full regalia, or doctors of divinity in
-academic dress. I stole a look at Jack, and the villain replied with
-one of those winks which never fail to upset me. He let the lid of
-one eye fall completely, the other eye remaining wide open, and not a
-wrinkle in his face. A loud laugh would have spoiled the fun, and
-might even have been dangerous, but I saved myself with a fit of
-coughing. After the levee Bomero told off two men to have charge of
-the saddle. And for the next few days Jack and I walked, each of us,
-half the march, and rode the other. Once only during these twelve days
-did I see anything to give me any special uneasiness. One evening we
-camped a little earlier than usual and I noticed that Gioro was
-watched and dogged by two very ill-looking fellows whom I had noticed
-as being in some sort leaders. They stepped behind a clump of trees as
-he was passing, and as he returned they hid themselves again while he
-passed. I mentioned this to Gioro and he proved to be aware of their
-hostility. They were big men, he said, in the tribe, but Bomero was
-the biggest of all the men, and he was Gioro’s friend.
-
-About the morning of the twelfth day there was some trouble. We had
-come to a point where it was necessary to leave the course of one
-creek and to strike that of another. But a very destructive fire had
-passed over the place, followed, as it seemed, by heavy rains, and the
-track was quite obliterated. Certain trees also which would have
-served as guides had been entirely destroyed. And to increase the
-confusion the weather was foggy. Dense clouds rested on and hid some
-hills which might have served as landmarks.
-
-Bomero went out to reconnoitre, and he took Gioro and another with
-him, and when they returned I could see that his mind was made up as
-to the course he would take, but that he was, nevertheless, as much
-perplexed as ever. He gave the word and we struck out a little north
-of west, and after travelling about three times as far as it had yet
-taken us to get from water to water we struck another creek. We
-marched along the creek for another day, scarce ever losing sight of
-it, and then we camped by the water again. Next morning we left the
-women and children in camp, and about half the men, and Bomero with
-the ablest and quickest of the men marched away in search of another
-creek. Jack and I went with him, and as my horse was in good working
-condition we took him with us. We struck water somewhat sooner than
-before and camped for the night. I saw that Bomero was still
-perplexed, and I gathered from Gioro that his perplexity was caused by
-the conviction that he was now considerably out of his course, that he
-had gone too far north and had overshot the mark, and that we should
-have to go a day’s march south and east before we could resume the
-straight course to the place of meeting. The horizon was still
-clouded, and there was no sign at present of the clouds lifting soon.
-
-All this, however, was by no means enough to account for Bomero’s
-evident perturbation of mind. He was undoubtedly a clever and cool
-fellow, and one of much resource; there was abundance of water and
-food, we could not be far out of the track, and we had plenty of time,
-for as far as I could judge by the astronomical indications, we were a
-great many days and even weeks too soon; and the weather, barring the
-clouds, was everything that could be wished.
-
-Jack and I talked it over, and Jack reminded me of Gioro’s tale of the
-“dibble dibble all same white man” that Bomero had seen in the far
-west. “Depend upon it,” said Jack, “he thinks he is coming upon them
-again. The place, as Gioro said, was ‘more far’ than the place of
-meeting for the great Corrobboree, and he thinks that he is now
-getting ‘more far’ than there.”
-
-“And what of the dibble dibble that he saw there?” said I.
-
-“Oh, that’s the point,” said Jack. “No doubt they were white men; some
-pioneers from the north coast, perhaps, or maybe the men on some
-outlying station of some western squatter’s run, and if so we shall
-get back to civilisation sooner than we think.”
-
-“I don’t see much in it, Jack,” said I; “we’re not far enough west for
-that; if we were on the head-waters of the western slope we might be
-on the look-out for white pioneers, but I am afraid we are near as far
-from there as from the telegraph wire. Bomero’s ‘dibble dibble’ was
-either a pure invention or the suggestion of a dream, or if he did
-come across white men he must have been farther west than he is here.”
-
-On the morning of the fourteenth day Bomero harangued the men who were
-with him; he stood upon a veritable stump, a huge tree near the creek
-had been undermined by the flood waters and had fallen and lay along
-the ground roots and all. Bomero stood upon it and spoke, Jack and I
-stood by and listened, Gioro stood between us; he was in a state of
-great excitement, and he threw in every now and then a word of
-interpretation for our benefit, but indeed, by this time, we were able
-to follow the speaker fairly enough ourselves. It very soon became
-quite evident that Gioro’s tale of “dibble dibble” was at the bottom
-of our trouble; it was quite evident also that the spirit of the
-prophet was no longer subject to the prophet. Bomero pointed westward,
-where the clouds were now slowly rising from some not very distant
-hills, and what he said was to this effect.
-
-There was a hill away west where certain doleful creatures dwelt. He
-had once been very near there, and they had tried to take his life.
-They had tried to spear him through the air, and he who never feared
-men, feared them. He should know in a few minutes if that hill yonder
-was their hill; and if it was then he and his people must run and run
-till they got well out of sight of that hill. They had missed the way
-to the great Corrobboree, but that was no matter; they would easily
-find it again, and there was plenty of time yet before the red star
-and the little stars would be gone. If they saw when the clouds rose
-(and they were now rising) that the hill was not their hill, then they
-would stay where they were to-day, and the witch fellows would dance
-the witch dance until all was clear, and on the next day they would go
-back to where the women were, and then they would strike the track,
-and be the first at the meeting-place. But if when the clouds rose,
-and they were now rising, they saw three peaks, a tall one in the
-middle, a crooked one on one side, and a straight one on the other,
-then Bomero and Bomero’s men must run, run, run, and never stop,
-except to breathe, while any one of the three peaks was to be seen.
-Let the black man knock his brains out with his waddy, or let the
-white man spear him with his fire spear, but the devils that rode
-through the air on clouds, faster than eagles, were worse than any
-black men or white men.
-
-Bomero was evidently no longer master of himself or of his men.
-Whatever the cause of it was, there was a dreadful panic imminent, and
-no one could tell what was going to happen.
-
-Just then the clouds lifted quite away from the hill, and there, sure
-enough, were the three peaks, the tall one in the middle, and the
-crooked one and the straight one on either side.
-
-A low murmur burst from the men, and Bomero uttered a frightful howl,
-and plunged away madly round a hill that rose gently from the creek,
-and right on into the forest. All the men ran after him, most of them
-howling and shrieking; and my horse, which hung by the bridle to a
-branch close by, started, and snorted, and broke his rein, and rushed
-away before them at full gallop.
-
-The catastrophe was so sudden that our breath seemed to be taken away,
-and I don’t know how many minutes passed before either spoke. I know
-that every man of the blacks had got clean out of sight, and my
-horse, too, and there was as dead a silence as before the world was
-made, and still there was not a word from either of us. Then Jack said
-in a hollow voice:
-
-“Why wasn’t the horse hobbled, Bob?”
-
-“Why, Jack, I had just taken the hobbles off, and made him ready for
-the road.”
-
-“Never mind, old fellow, I hardly know what I said; Gioro will come
-back.”
-
-“Yes,” I said, “Gioro will come back.”
-
-And then, as if our confidence in Gioro’s fidelity cleared the air, we
-sat down and lit our pipes.
-
-I don’t know how much time passed, it seemed to be hours, but it
-couldn’t have been near an hour, and Jack and I never exchanged a
-word. Then, sure enough, we saw Gioro coming, and he was leading my
-horse. I saw him first, and I jumped up and shouted for joy. Then Jack
-jumped up, but the shout died on his lips, and he said only, “There is
-something the matter.”
-
-And so there was. Both Gioro and the horse were wounded, and the
-wounds were deadly, for the spears that inflicted them were poisoned.
-The horse died first. I took Gioro’s head on my lap, and gave him a
-few drops of water. He told me that he had caught the horse by the
-bridle in passing, and that then he stopped and returned. He had not
-forgotten us, he said, not for a moment, nor would he have started at
-all if the horse had not started. The horse had stopped several times,
-and when he had come up with him had gone on again. But at last he had
-secured him and was returning. But several spears were flung at him,
-and many missed him, but the big men who had watched and dogged him
-took better aim, and struck both horse and man. At first he thought
-nothing of it, but presently he knew that the spears were poisoned,
-and now he must die.
-
-“Take care,” said the poor fellow, almost with his last breath, “keep
-away, kill you too, like Gioro; back, back to the big long wire.”
-
-He died quite easily, and I felt as he lay in my arms that it would be
-the best thing that could happen us if the poisoned arrows of the
-blacks had made an end of us as well as of him. The poor fellow’s
-faithfulness would have helped us to face death without flinching.
-
-We found a large hole in the earth where a tree had been uprooted by a
-storm, and there, with the help of his boomerang and our own knives,
-we managed to give him decent burial. We both fell on our knees for a
-few minutes, but no words passed our lips, although I am sure our
-hearts were full enough.
-
-Then we stood up, and with one impulse held out a hand each to the
-other. The grip that followed was a silent English grip. But it meant
-that we knew that our case was desperate, and that we would stand by
-one another to the last.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI.
-
-LEFT ALONE.
-
-
-All the events described at the close of the last chapter succeeded
-one another very rapidly. I do not think that four hours in all could
-have passed from the beginning of Bomero’s last harangue until Jack
-and I stood together over Gioro’s grave. The sun had not reached the
-meridian; the atmosphere was perfectly clear; and the triple peak
-which had been the signal of so much disaster stood out clear and
-well-defined in the west.
-
-What were we to do now? Were we to stay here and die like starved
-bandicoots when the first drought should come on? That was the
-question in both our minds, and that was the form in which Jack
-expressed it. “Let us get some food first,” said I, “and then we shall
-see. Thank God it is easy enough still to get food.” We soon lit a
-fire and shot some duck, and with the help of some of the wild fruit
-already mentioned and the water of the creek we did well enough. Then
-we talked over the situation, and it soon became clear that only two
-courses were open to us if we were to return to civilisation, or even
-to live. The one course was to push backward by the way we came. And
-if it had not been for the last two days’ journey we should probably
-have chosen that way without hesitation. And even now if we could be
-sure of not meeting the blacks again, I think we might have tried it.
-It was true that we might wait here long enough to make sure that the
-blacks would have gone westward, but all the while we should wait, the
-tracks and the other waymarks would be gradually becoming obliterated.
-Besides, it was certain that we could not live by snaring birds and
-spearing fish for food as the blacks could, and our powder and shot
-would soon be done. Our better hope seemed to lie in the chance of
-finding white men somewhere near, and the strange proceedings of
-Bomero seemed surely to indicate the near presence of white men. He
-must have met some pioneers from the west coast. Such men were often
-known to treat the blacks as if they were mere wild beasts, and it
-seemed not unlikely that some act of reckless cruelty on the part of
-the white men might have been witnessed by him, or, at least, that he
-might have heard of such from some other blacks.
-
-Jack had a little pocket telescope, and he examined the hill to
-westward with it. After a careful scrutiny he declared that he saw a
-man in one of the gaps on the top of the hill and that he was a white
-man. “Yes, I see him,” said I, for I thought I observed something
-moving, “but I cannot say whether he is black or white.” Jack handed
-me the glass, but I could not now distinguish even with the glass any
-sign of life or movement.
-
-He took back the glass in a hurry and looked again, and then he
-declared that he could no longer see any man. “And yet,” said he,
-“there was a man there, and he had on a long coat, and there was
-something odd and foreign in the look of him.”
-
-“Nonsense,” I said, “you could never tell that at such a distance and
-with such a glass.”
-
-“Well, one would think not,” he said, “and yet it was as I say.”
-
-I then went over my calculations with a view to determine whereabouts
-we were, but I could not by any means make our position far enough
-west to render it likely that we were near any settlement. We had no
-instrument by which we could make observations with any approach to
-accuracy. Our latitude was not much changed since we had left the
-wire; that much we could see from the stars. But our course had been
-so very zigzag that it was quite impossible to estimate our longitude
-within a hundred or more miles. And even if our course had been due
-west all through I still could hardly think that we were near the head
-waters of the western slope. After all, however, it seemed the wisest
-course to reconnoitre, first, this mountain or hill. If there was no
-one there it would be still possible for us to return to where we were
-now, and to make a start eastward. Indeed, if the hill were not
-inhabited, that would be the only course that would be in the least
-degree hopeful. For certainly to strike westward without any guide or
-any knowledge of the way would be for us, and in such a country as
-Australia, to face certain death.
-
-We made up our minds, therefore, to explore the hill at once. We put
-together somehow the remains of our breakfast, enough for two very
-spare meals each. We took a good drink of water and filled with water
-a small flask which would suffice to moisten our lips and throats in
-case we should find none at the hill. We reckoned that the hill was
-not quite ten miles away, and if that were all, we should get there in
-time to reconnoitre while it was still daylight, and if no prospect
-of help appeared we would return early in the morning. Then we took
-our farewell of poor Gioro’s grave and set our faces to the hill. The
-way was quite easy; there was but little timber and the grass,
-although thick, was short. There were still evidences about us that
-the past season had been wet, but we did not find the ground boggy,
-and the atmosphere was fresh, clear, and bright. As we marched forward
-the shape of the hill became better and better defined, and more
-striking. It stood quite alone in the plain, from which it seemed to
-rise sheer upward with little or no slope.
-
-It looked for all the world as if it had been dropped from the sky, so
-completely without connection was it with the surrounding landscape.
-As we drew nearer, it presented more the appearance of a huge
-irregular building which had become covered in the course of ages with
-vegetation. But, as we drew nearer still, these odd appearances
-gradually wore away, and it began to look not very unlike other lonely
-and precipitous rocks which I have seen in Australia. Such a rock, for
-example, as the Hanging Rock, near Woodend, only very much larger, or
-such a rock as that other one a little north of the Billabong, and
-south of the Murrumbidgee, near the railway between Albury and Wagga.
-
-As we drew near the foot of the precipice we made for the shadiest
-spot that we could find.
-
-The various crags of which the hill was formed were covered almost
-everywhere with a foliage which differed but little from the
-prevailing Australian type.
-
-There was abundance of the sweet smelling shrub which is common along
-the shores of Port Phillip. I pressed and rubbed a few of the leaves
-and the smell was just the same. There was less of the blue gum and
-more of the lightwood than I had elsewhere seen, and there were a good
-many pines. There were also a few remarkable shrubs that I have not
-seen elsewhere, and a few large and queer-looking flowers of a bright
-red colour.
-
-We made for this particular spot not only because it was the shadiest
-but because it seemed to have a fresher and greener look than the rest
-of the hill; and our delight was great when upon reaching it, and
-after poking about a little while, we found a large basin or pond of
-water surrounded and shut off by rocks. It was nearly elliptical in
-shape but rather elongated: about thirty feet by ten. The water seemed
-at first as if it issued from the earth, but on closer inspection we
-had little doubt that it was due altogether to the rainfall
-percolating through the cliffs from the heights above.
-
-Here we sat and refreshed ourselves for an hour or so before
-consulting as to our further progress.
-
-It was later than we had reckoned on, for the journey to the hill had
-taken a longer time than we thought it would take; so we resolved to
-decide nothing further until the morning.
-
-We chose not to light a fire although we knew by experience that the
-middle of the night would be very cold. We told ourselves that though
-we had seen no sign of any more natives there were probably some
-about, and therefore that it was better not to light a fire. Our
-prevailing reason, however, was an indefinite sense of dread which had
-come upon us and which we confessed to one another as we sat and ate.
-
-We chose to attribute this dread to the strange and threatening shape
-of the hill as we approached it. Yet as we looked about us now we
-could not but acknowledge that we had seen many more awful cliffs and
-precipices without any of the unreasonable feeling which we could not
-but confess to now. A little while before sunset I noticed something
-which I tried to tell myself was most likely nothing, but which,
-nevertheless, increased this indefinite fear into a sense almost of
-horror.
-
-The sky was perfectly cloudless, but for all that the shadow of a
-cloud fell on the ground quite near. The sun was very low and the
-shadows were nearly at their longest, and yet about this there was a
-shapeliness too definite for a cloud, a sort of shapeliness which
-might have reminded me at once of those other shadows of which I have
-told you, and yet it did not then remind me of them. It was the same
-sort of shadow, only elongated by the setting sun. It passed away very
-rapidly and I said nothing of it to my companion who was dozing.
-
-Indeed, I felt the same unaccountable unwillingness to speak of it
-that I felt when I had seen the like of it before.
-
-Next morning we awoke early, and found to our great delight a second
-well of water higher up the cliff. It was very much smaller—only a few
-feet across, but it was purer; and we determined if we remained long
-here to reserve it for drinking and to bathe in the larger one.
-
-After we had bathed and had eaten the few scraps of food which
-remained to us, we began to reconnoitre, and we were both immediately
-struck by the appearance of the ground a few hundred yards to the
-south of where we had slept, but still at the foot of the cliff. The
-ground was worn away, it might be by water, it might be by some heavy
-mass being dragged along it.
-
-It had a curious air of something like regularity, which suggested,
-and yet which need not suggest, art or design. We saw, however, at
-once, that it was the termination of a sort of hole in the cliff,
-apparently coming from above.
-
-As this hole proved to be quite large enough for three or four men to
-stand up in it abreast, and as the ascent of it seemed not
-impracticable, we began to think of trying to ascend it.
-
-Jack thought that it might lead us to the top more easily than the
-surface of the hill. Certainly no part of the cliff, as far as we had
-seen, seemed at all practicable, but I saw no reason to suspect that
-we should find a readier passage upward here. Still I agreed with Jack
-that we might as well try it. I insisted, however, that only one of us
-should go up, and that the other should await either his return or
-some signal from the top, if that were possible.
-
-We agreed finally to cast lots to see who should stay behind, and the
-lot fell upon Jack. I immediately began the ascent, and found it very
-much easier than I had expected. The darkness increased only for a
-little while, and by and by it began to grow light, and I then
-discovered a sort of roadway with steps moulded out of the soil on
-either side.
-
-After perhaps an hour of this work I came suddenly to a level. The
-passage opened into a spacious cave, which was dimly lit by a large
-opening in the rock, across which there seemed to be growing a thick
-scrub, not so thick, however, but that here and there the sunshine
-came freely enough through.
-
-I had little doubt now that I was coming upon some hiding place of the
-blacks, and I proceeded with very great caution. I made slowly for the
-opening in the rock of which I had spoken, and when I had nearly
-reached it I saw that I could, without very much difficulty, force my
-way through the scrub. On a closer approach I observed with great
-astonishment that the scrub seemed to be arranged in two square
-pieces, which were certainly suggestive of a gateway.
-
-There was a framework of dead branches, or rather two frames, and the
-scrub was roughly twisted in and out upon these. I thought it best now
-to make some preliminary observation from behind the screen of leaves
-and branches.
-
-I soon found a small opening where I could see without any risk of
-being seen. I looked cautiously through. What I saw I will tell you in
-the next chapter.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-NOTE.—I have never been able to come to any decisive conclusion as to
-the origin and use of this cave or underground passage by which I made
-the ascent to the gateway as above described. It was in no way
-necessary, as far as I could see, to the people of whom you will read
-in the following chapters. I should have thought it an old haunt of
-the blacks but for two reasons: If it had been so it must have been
-long disused by them, and yet it was evidently still, or quite
-recently, in use, but for what purpose I am unable even to guess. I
-tell you the facts as I find them.—R. E.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII.
-
-THE CARS.
-
-
-What I saw was this: a platform of rock extending before me a mile or
-nearly so, and about double the width of a very wide road. This
-platform ended in the cliff, which there bent suddenly into a line
-almost at right angles with the line of the platform. That was not
-straight but followed the slighter bends of the cliff. There were
-three flights of stone steps descending towards the valley, one of
-them at least, the broadest, reaching the whole way down. The valley
-itself seemed to be filled with houses and rows of trees, and certain
-enclosures that looked like gardens. The houses were odd-looking but
-unpretentious. One saw at a glance that their oddity was in the main
-owing to their lack of size, and to the absence of chimneys. One could
-not suppose them to be of much use for living in, and yet the whole
-appearance of the scene quite forbade one from accounting for their
-size by the poverty of the builders or from any other lack of
-resource.
-
-But the scene closer at hand arrested my attention so forcibly that
-the more distant view left but a faint and general impression on my
-mind. On one side of the platform, the side next the valley, there
-were a number of men engaged at work of some sort, but their backs
-were just then turned to me: and I cannot tell you why, but the sight
-of men, probably civilised men, by no means gave me such hope or
-pleasure as our desolate condition would have justified.
-
-On the other side of the platform, the side next the cliff, there were
-a number of objects which I must try to describe even at the risk of
-being tedious, as they proved to have a very decisive effect upon the
-progress and sequel of our adventures. They presented a most uncouth
-and bizarre appearance, and although they were all of one kind, almost
-identical in every detail, it was not until after several minutes’
-view of them that the fact of their likeness became apparent. Then I
-perceived that they were all some sort of conveyance consisting of an
-upper and lower framework. Here I saw a very odd-looking car resting
-on nothing at a distance of a few feet from the ground, and there I
-saw an elaborately constructed support which supported nothing. I
-saw, further, that the height of the supports was about as great as
-the distance of the cars from the ground, and I thought for a moment
-that by some unaccountable distortion of sight, the supports got the
-appearance of being separated from the things which were supported.
-But almost immediately I saw that this could not be the case, for in
-some instances it seemed as if the body of the car were cut into two
-parts, part only remaining and resting upon a complete frame; and then
-again, the body of the car was all there, and rested, for about half
-of its mass, on a supporting frame, half of which appeared to have
-been removed, while the other half of the body of the car appeared to
-be resting on nothing. A longer look at the scene offered an
-explanation, but it was an explanation which most urgently needed to
-be itself explained. At each of these objects a man stood, as it would
-seem, painting them, and he seemed to dip what I thought to be a brush
-in a bucket beside him. And at first I thought that he was painting
-the whole object, car and supporting framework, but presently I
-perceived that the brush which he was using and which showed a very
-irregular and jagged edge, never touched, or never at least was seen
-to touch anything at all, but that what it passed over disappeared. I
-watched the operation with breathless attention, and I saw the body of
-the car which had seemed to hang in the air gradually disappear as the
-brush passed over it, until nothing was left either above or below. I
-watched another which was complete in all parts until nearly the whole
-of the supporting framework disappeared beneath the brush. It looked
-for all the world as if some sort of invisible paint were being
-smeared over the conveyances. That they were conveyances of some sort
-I felt no doubt, but whether they were meant to travel on land or
-water I doubted. I saw no wheels, but these might be hidden by the
-framework, and there were things attached to each which might be said
-to have a remote resemblance to the screw of a steamboat. I may as
-well say at once that they proved to be carriages for travelling
-through the air.
-
-Just then, some of the men who were working on the other side of the
-platform turned their faces towards me, and one of them, who seemed to
-be a sort of director or superintendent, came from behind them moving
-in the same direction. All kept moving towards where I stood until
-they were so near that I could clearly distinguish their features and
-their dress. The costume of all was exactly the same but unlike
-anything that I had ever seen. Each wore a low hat of a light colour
-and a broadish brim, a coat or smock reaching to the knee and fastened
-with a girdle, and some kind of shoe or sandal for the feet. That was
-all. As I noticed these points, the leader took a half-turn to the
-left and the men to the right, so that they and he stood facing one
-another with their side faces towards me. All the men were about as
-unlike one another as the same number of men picked up anywhere at
-random, excepting for one point. They had all an expression of
-malignity which was horrible to look upon, and which was worse, if
-possible, in the side face than in the full face. Not that there was
-anything deformed about their countenances; quite the contrary. Every
-feature considered by itself, whether from the front or side-view, was
-remarkably well formed. Eyes, mouth, nose, teeth, and hair, were of
-just the size, shape, and colour that you would say they ought to be.
-In fact, the symmetry of their faces was ideally perfect, and
-attracted more notice than anything else in their appearance except
-one thing, and that one thing was the malignity of their expression.
-That was utterly inhuman; it was diabolical. I declare that as I stood
-there behind the forest scrub and watched them, my very heart sank. I
-felt that I would rather see a dozen man-eating tigers or a herd of
-hungry wolves. I am not constitutionally timid and yet I repressed
-with difficulty a cry of despair.
-
-As I looked in sheer horror and terror I thought I caught sight among
-the faces of a face that I knew. But surely I had never seen anything
-so frightful in my waking moments. Could I have dreamt of such a face,
-or could it be that amongst one’s acquaintance an expression like that
-was to be found, only in an undeveloped stage? I can remember quite
-distinctly how that last thought flashed across my mind as I stood
-hesitating whether to run for bare life, or to wait for some further
-development of the situation. I think that nothing but the shame of
-manhood kept me from running away. Just then I suddenly perceived that
-the men were under some strange and very comprehensive system of
-drill. The man who seemed to be their leader held them, to all
-appearance, under very close control. And yet it seemed also as if
-their submission to his control were voluntary. It was like the way of
-a very perfect chorus with its conductor. Every glance of the leader’s
-eye, every motion of his hand seemed to affect and direct them. But it
-did not seem as if there were anything absolutely compulsory about
-their obedience. They seemed not only to follow his eye and his hand
-but to look for the guidance of each. The very expression of their
-faces was moulded upon his, and I could well believe that the
-malignity which kindled it was kept alive by his.
-
-As I looked more steadily I could see waves of expression, so to
-speak, going out from his face to them. What particulars these might
-be conveying I could not guess, but that there were particulars I
-could not doubt. Their variety, regularity, and distinctive character
-were as remarkable as if they were spoken words. His hands also moved
-in harmony with this change of expression, and the bodies of the men
-swayed with a slight rhythmic movement, which seemed to rise and fall
-as they watched his changing face. For several seconds I verily
-thought that I was dreaming, and I even had the feeling that a
-dreaming man has when he knows that he is about to waken.
-
-Suddenly the leader turned away and the men fell to work as before. I
-saw then that in his passage along the platform he was encountering
-group after group of men, and that he was holding with each group, so
-far as I could guess at the distance, the same sort of silent
-interview which I have just now described. Then I suddenly remembered
-my promise to Jack, and I stole away from where I was and ran down the
-dark passage with breathless haste. Fortunately I received no hurt
-beyond several scratches in the face from some thorny bushes, which I
-had not encountered on my way up.
-
-I found Jack very near where I had left him, sleeping under the shadow
-of a rock. I shook him, and he got up at once, quite broad awake.
-“Come,” I said, “come; I have found men, if they are men.” “White
-men?” he queried, briefly. “God knows,” I said, my voice, I believe,
-quivering with agitation. Jack said no more for the moment, but he
-gave me a drink of water which I drank very greedily, and he was
-proceeding leisurely to light his pipe. The water had steadied me a
-bit, and I said, “No, never mind the pipe now, Jack; I’ll tell you as
-we go along.”
-
-So we both went back together over my track, and when we got into the
-covered way I told him all that I have now told you. Then, when we had
-got nearly as far as the upper opening of the cave, we sat down and
-held a short and hurried consultation.
-
-“Let them be what they will,” Jack whispered, “we must go straight up
-and speak to them: if we don’t get help soon we shall perish
-miserably.”
-
-“Agreed,” I said; “but let us watch them for a little and wait for a
-favourable moment.” And so we both crawled on to the opening of which
-I have already told you, and looked through.
-
-Everything was just as before, except that the leader was now engaged
-with a group of men further away. After a brief survey of the
-surroundings, Jack pulled out his little telescope and looked steadily
-at the leader and the group of men he was engaged with, and then he
-handed the glass to me. I could see them with the glass about as
-plainly as I had seen the near group with the naked eye. Everything
-was the same, except that the malignant expression of the men and
-their leader was much less easily recognisable. I handed back the
-glass, and we both by one impulse drew back from the opening.
-
-We drew further back still into a dark and retired corner, quite out
-of the rough pathway, and held a brief conference.
-
-“It’s a queer start,” Jack said, “but we must go on with it; it is our
-only chance.”
-
-“It’s queerer than you think,” said I; “you haven’t seen the fellows’
-faces as I saw them at first.”
-
-“No, no, I am taking account of that,” said he. “I saw what you mean,
-although I might not have taken much notice of it if you had not
-mentioned it. I am afraid they are a very bad lot, or I should say
-rather he is a bad lot, for they are mere puppets in his hands.”
-
-“Not quite that,” said I. “I don’t suppose they would be much without
-him, but they are following him with a will.”
-
-“That may be,” he replied; “but now tell me, how shall we work it? We
-have no time to lose, for he knows we are coming.”
-
-“I don’t see how he could know it,” said I, “unless he is the devil
-himself.”
-
-Jack gave a short but unpleasant chuckle; then he said,
-
-“Well, perhaps he is; he is bad enough to be, or else I am much
-mistaken. Anyway, he knows we are coming; that is why the malignant
-look is partly hidden; he is getting ready for us.”
-
-I wished for the light that I might see Jack’s face, for his voice
-began to have an odd ring about it. Then I said, “What can he want
-with us, Jack?”
-
-“I don’t know,” he said, “but I made a study of his face just now. I’m
-not much on—what do you call it?—physiognomy? but that beggar’s face
-told me a story.”
-
-“What was the story?”
-
-“Well, that he knows we are coming, and that he wants us, and that he
-is going to make use of us. What are we going to do?”
-
-“We will go straight up to him and ask him to help us.”
-
-“Very well,” Jack said. “Rest, and a guide, and food, and fire. And
-what story shall we tell him of ourselves?”
-
-“We will tell him the truth,” said I.
-
-“And shame the devil,” said he, with another uncomfortable chuckle.
-
-“What language shall I try him with?” said I.
-
-“Bet you a pound he knows English,” said Jack.
-
-“Oh, that’s the sort of devil you think he is; very well, I’ll take
-your bet, though I dare say you are right enough.” I declare, although
-I knew very well what ruffians outlawed Englishmen are apt to be, I
-felt quite light-hearted as I thought that perhaps after all the men
-we were going to meet might be no worse than such. “Come on,” I said,
-and we walked straight to the light. I pulled aside the rustic frame,
-which came with my hand quite easily; then I walked straight through,
-Jack following me closely.
-
-The strange leader saw us at once, stood still, and looked at us. We
-walked forward and saluted him. I felt at the moment that Jack was
-right, that he knew that we were coming, although he wore an air of
-surprise, interested and self-possessed. I thought at the very first,
-“After all, he looks noble.” But almost immediately I changed the word
-“noble” for “very strong.”
-
-He spoke to us in English. I looked at Jack, who smiled grimly and
-whispered, “Lost, old man.” The strange leader said,
-
-“Who are you, and whence do you come?” He spoke perfectly, quite
-perfectly, and in a commanding and confident tone. But there was a
-something, I know not what, about his accent, which told me that he
-was speaking a language foreign to him, and then and afterwards I
-noticed also that he did not use the conversational idiomatic English
-of any of those who speak English as their mother tongue.
-
-“We are Englishmen,” I said, “and we come from the eastward. We went
-among the blacks and they left us, and we do not know our way. Can you
-give us food and clothes, and guide us to the nearest English
-settlement?”
-
-“I can give you both food and clothes,” he said; “about guidance we
-shall speak farther when you have made up your mind whither your
-purpose is to go.”
-
-I was about to thank him when I suddenly noticed the aspect of his
-men. They were looking at us eagerly, and it seemed as if they were
-waiting for some expected word of command. I could not help thinking
-that they were about to spring upon us, and I put my hand
-instinctively to the pocket where I kept my pistol.
-
-The leader said shortly, “Never mind that.” Then he turned to his men.
-I could not see his face, but I saw that he lifted his hand. Presently
-the men were working away at their previous work, and were taking no
-more note at all of us.
-
-“Come with me,” said the leader, and he walked down the broad stone
-stairway. It was a very broad stairway, with stone balustrades on each
-side, light in appearance, but immensely strong. Every step, as well
-as the whole of the balustrade, was diversified with a variety of
-pictures and devices wrought upon stone by some method which rendered
-them proof against the weather. On this occasion I noticed little but
-the colours, but I observed them very closely afterwards. They
-appeared not only here, but everywhere in the valley, whether under
-cover or in the open air, wherever there was any space to receive
-them, on walls, floors, ceilings, pillars, and doors.
-
-All these pictures and devices presented one pervading idea; and as
-one passed backward and forward over steps and through doors, past
-pillars and balustrades, and walls, this idea gradually wrought its
-way into one’s mind, until it seemed to dominate, or at least to claim
-to dominate everywhere. The idea so presented was that of an unequal
-but very determined conflict. Sometimes there was a simple device, a
-heavy drawn sword, for one, falling sheer, a cloud hiding the arm that
-sped it, and a gauntleted hand raised in resistance. This hand was but
-small and slight as compared with the sword, but there was expression
-in every sinew of it and in its very poise.
-
-Again, you would see a hand coming out of a cloud and wielding a flash
-of lightning, and underneath two smaller hands lifted up as if trying
-to catch the extremities of the zigzag line of light. But the eeriest
-of all the devices was that of the two eyes: the larger eye was above
-and the lesser beneath, and how such expression could be given to an
-eye by itself I do not understand, but certainly there it was. Either
-eye was looking steadfastly into the other, and in the upper eye you
-saw conscious power, harsh, stern, and unrelenting; and in the lower
-and lesser one you saw, quite as plainly, the spirit of hopeless but
-unquelled resistance. The same idea was repeated in many pictures. In
-one of them you saw a great host bearing down upon a few antagonists
-of determined if despairing aspect. And in the background a dark mass
-of cloud, forest, and rock hid all but the forefront of the mightier
-combatants and gave you the notion of unseen and inscrutable power.
-Still, the simpler devices, I think, suggested with more awful
-certainty the actual presence of desperate and deadly struggle.
-
-As I have said, however, I was conscious of but little of all this as
-I walked down the broad stone stair. I was weary, and hungry, and
-thirsty, and utterly taken by surprise, and I was quite ready to
-attribute to these feelings the sense of eeriness and fear which was
-creeping over me.
-
-Our host conducted us down the stair with stately courtesy, and he
-gave us briefly to understand that he was about to ask us to refresh
-ourselves with food and rest and change of raiment. At the foot of the
-stair a very broad roadway led straight on toward the other end of the
-valley, but our host beckoned us to the right by a shorter and
-narrower way. We entered one of the low buildings which I had seen
-from above. These were not very large, but they proved to be
-considerably larger than I had supposed. We passed through a little
-porch into a fair-sized room, the floor of which was covered with a
-stuff of curious texture. It looked like some sort of metal; it felt
-beneath the feet like the softest pile. The walls on one side of the
-room exhibited a number of drawers with handles. Both drawers and
-handles were of strange and irregular shapes, exhibiting,
-nevertheless, a sort of regular recurrence in their very
-irregularities. In the centre of each of the remaining walls was a
-picture wrought upon the surface of the wall and occupying about a
-third of the whole wall, and over the rest of the wall there was
-inscribed a variety of devices. Both picture and devices were of the
-sort which I have already indicated.
-
-There was an elliptical table in the middle of the room, and here and
-there on the floor were several chairs and a few couches, all of a
-very bizarre pattern, and all—tables, couches, chairs, drawers, and
-floorcloth—were covered with devices, some similar in form and all
-similar in spirit to those upon the wall. In the wall opposite the
-drawers there was a door, and our host, opening this, showed us into a
-room of lesser size where there were all sorts of appliances for
-bathing and for dressing. Clothes also, like those worn by himself and
-his men, hung round on racks. The walls and furniture, here as well as
-elsewhere, presented repetitions under various forms of the same
-pictured idea.
-
-Before taking us into the bath-room, our host pulled out three
-drawers, calling our attention to the numbers marked upon them. Out of
-each he took a number of little round cakes or lozenges, each of a
-little less than the circumference of a two-shilling piece, but rather
-thicker. These he placed on several dishes, a different sort on each
-dish, and two spoons, or like spoons, on each dish also. He told us to
-take each, after the bath, a few of these, and he told us in what
-order we were to take them. Then, with a salutation, he left us to
-ourselves.
-
-We bathed quickly, and after our bath we availed ourselves gladly of
-the change of raiment which our host had placed at our disposal. We
-exchanged a very few words, and those few did not attempt to deal with
-the mystery which was thickening about us. Jack’s face expressed a
-mixture of surprise and mistrust, each in an extreme degree. My own
-face, as Jack told me later on, expressed sheer bewilderment.
-Certainly that was my feeling until far into the middle of the next
-day. I did not really believe that I was awake and in my senses, and I
-kept going back and back in my thoughts trying to find out when and
-where I fell asleep or was stunned.
-
-After our bath we returned into the larger room. We were then very
-hungry, and we lay down each upon a couch, expecting to be soon
-summoned to the evening meal, for by this time the afternoon was well
-advanced. The weather was pleasantly warm, and we would have dropped
-asleep if we had not been kept awake by hunger. We both remembered at
-the same moment the plates of confections which our host had offered
-us. We took first one and then another of each kind in the order which
-he had indicated, letting them slowly melt in our mouths. The taste of
-them, although pleasant, was rather strange, but yet not altogether
-unfamiliar. The taste of the first sort faintly resembled the taste of
-roast beef; of the second, of pine-apple; of the third, of sweet wine,
-specially of muscatel. The effect of them was extraordinary; we felt
-that we had partaken of an agreeable and substantial meal; our hunger
-and thirst were gone, and we were quite refreshed. And then, as will
-happen when one dines well after a laborious and exciting day, we both
-fell sound asleep. We slept all through the night and on until a
-little after sunrise, and, not to go into details, we rose immediately
-and breakfasted as we had dined. We had scarce finished our meal when
-we became aware of the tramp of many men at no great distance from us,
-and we hurried to the door. We saw then, what neither of us had
-noticed the evening before, that the broad road, out of which we had
-turned in order to reach our present resting-place, opened out at the
-distance of about two hundred yards from the flight of steps into a
-large square, formed as the road itself was formed, and planted around
-the borders with trees, under the shade of which were several benches.
-
-In the square were some two or three hundred men, undergoing some sort
-of review by the leader, with whom we had already become acquainted.
-Whatever degree of mistrust either of us felt we thought it as well
-not to show it, so we came forward leisurely until we were within a
-few score paces of the men, and then we stood and looked. We were not
-at once perceived, as neither the leader nor his men were looking
-straight in our direction, and we were partly shaded by a tree. The
-men were evidently of a much higher stamp intellectually than those
-whom we had seen the day before, excepting the leader. The men,
-yesterday, seemed to differ from automatic machines in one single
-point, namely, that they seemed to have a will of their own, although
-they had surrendered it to their leader. They seemed, you would say,
-quite incapable of action except as prompted by him, although they
-gave themselves up to his prompting, no doubt, because of sympathy and
-unity of purpose with him. The men to-day seemed, on the contrary, to
-be men of considerable intelligence. You would suppose them to be
-quite capable of being leaders themselves, and able to carry out in
-full detail instructions which they might receive in the merest
-outline. It was evident that they were now receiving instructions.
-These were being given, partly by expressions and signs, and partly by
-some spoken language. The language, which I heard several times in the
-next two days, bore no resemblance at all to any language that I knew.
-It seemed to be very artificial and elliptical. The former quality was
-suggested by the regular recurrence and gradation of certain sounds,
-and the latter quality was suggested by its great brevity. A word or
-two seemed to suffice where we should require one or more sentences.
-
-When the leader had given his instructions, one and another, and then
-another, of the men stood out from the ranks and spoke to him, and in
-each case he replied. The men who spoke I judged to be in some
-subordinate command. All the men stood in files now, one man behind
-another, facing the leader, and in each case the man who spoke stood
-in front of his file. These files formed themselves quite suddenly and
-with great precision after the leader had given his first orders and
-before the other men spoke. It seemed as if the subordinate leaders
-were making suggestions or inquiries respecting the details of the
-work about which they had just received instructions in outline.
-
-Then followed what seemed like a numbering of the men, and it soon
-became apparent that one file had two men missing, that is to say,
-supposing all the files to have been at first equal in number. As the
-deficiency became apparent a flash of baffled but furious malignity
-passed across the leader’s face. Then I knew that when I had seen the
-like expression yesterday I was not dreaming. Jack and I exchanged a
-momentary glance. Some words, as I judged of inquiry and
-unsatisfactory reply, passed between the leader and one of his
-subordinates, and then, in the progress of the drill, the men made a
-partial turn by which they brought us into full view. In a moment they
-saw us, and in a moment the same eager and threatening look came over
-their faces which we had seen in the other men’s faces yesterday. Jack
-and I both believed for that moment that our last hour was come.
-
-But the leader withheld them with a word and a sign. What he said or
-signified of course I did not really know, but I felt sure,
-nevertheless, that it was to this effect, that we should supply the
-places of their comrades who had disappeared. The same thought
-occurred to Jack. His word was received with a sound like a laugh, but
-it was a very horrible and ghastly laugh. One sometimes hears of the
-horror of a maniac’s laugh; but the maniac’s laugh is horrible by
-reason of its vacancy. This laugh was by no means vacant, it was full
-of expression, but it was the expression of relentless malignity.
-
-Then the leader dismissed the men and they moved away towards the
-further end of the valley. Then he turned and moved slowly towards us
-and we moved slowly to meet him. He met us with the same stately
-courtesy as before and we exchanged salutations. He led us to the
-square where the men had been and he invited us to sit down. Then he
-inquired briefly concerning our personal comfort and we both expressed
-briefly our thanks and satisfaction. Then I went on to say,
-
-“My name, sir, is Easterley, and my friend is Mr. Wilbraham, and we
-have only now to ask you by what name we are to know our host, and to
-ask that he will add to the obligation under which he has placed us,
-by giving us a guide to the nearest station or settlement of English
-colonists.”
-
-“I have more names than one,” he replied, “among your people, but when
-I was last in Italy, which is a country that I know better than most,
-I was known as Niccolo Davelli. I was an analytical chemist and
-something of an engineer, and I did, well, a little political work
-among the country folk.” He said all this with a very easy manner but
-with a very unpleasant smile. “Signor Davelli,” I replied, speaking in
-Italian, “I am proud to thank you by name on behalf of myself and my
-friend, and I trust you will find no difficulty in giving the guidance
-we ask.” “Surely not,” he answered in the same language, “but you will
-stay here for a little, will you not? I have some curious things to
-show you, and you may perhaps meet some old friends among my people,
-and my work is so interesting and important that I have some hope that
-you will see your way to cast in your lot with us altogether. But,”
-said he, “you need not use Italian, for I am not any more skilful in
-that than in your own equally famous tongue.” Here again was the
-unpleasant smile, and I noticed that although he spoke Italian, as far
-as I could judge quite perfectly, he used this language as well as
-English with the deliberate and measured enunciation of a foreigner.
-
-“As you will,” I replied, returning to English, “we shall be glad to
-see what you have to show us.”
-
-Signor Davelli rose up at the word and invited us to follow him. He
-went up the stair by which we had come down the day before, and led us
-to the platform on which we had first seen him. He told us briefly
-that his sojourn here was in fulfilment of a purpose to which he and
-certain others of his fellowship were pledged. That they were all
-acting in concert and that certain of them were leaders, and that each
-leader had command of a station such as this, of which there were
-several in different parts of the world. That it was essential to the
-work that it should be carried on from regions far removed from the
-haunts of men, at least of civilised men, for they could repel the
-interference of savage races without endangering the fulfilment of
-their purpose. He went on to tell us that in this station of his he
-had two classes of work to do, one class consisting of intellectual
-work of a high order, and affecting more directly the fulfilment of
-the common purpose, the other class consisting of merely mechanical
-work, affecting the routine of life and its conditions here. “The
-men,” he went on to say, “who carry out the former are of high and
-independent mental faculties and rank accordingly; these men you have
-seen to-day. The men who carry out the latter are of a very acute
-capacity to receive and execute instructions, but have no originating
-power of conception or design. These are they whom you saw yesterday.
-Their work is mainly the making of our food and clothes, and the
-construction of our means of locomotion, and of the machinery by which
-the work is done. That machinery is designed and executed in model at
-the other end of the valley by the other men in the intervals of their
-more important work. That work, however, you cannot understand until
-you become better acquainted with us.”
-
-We had now reached the platform, and we saw the men at work just as we
-had seen them the day before. Signor Davelli uttered a single word
-which I did not understand, and on hearing it the men turned, and then
-followed for a very few minutes the same sort of pantomimic action
-which I had already seen and have described. Then they resumed work.
-
-Signor Davelli then took us to the works and invited us to observe the
-construction of the various machines in use.
-
-I must not, however, run the risk of tiring you by any minute account
-of them here. Let it suffice to say that there was a much higher
-degree of mechanical skill exhibited in their construction than I have
-ever seen anywhere before or since, and that besides there was much
-that suggested the application of chemical and electrical science in
-a manner greatly in advance of anything that is commonly known; and
-further that there were certain complicated arrangements of prisms and
-mirrors which indicated as I thought some use of the agency of light
-which was quite new to me and which I did not understand. One set of
-machines proved to be used for the manufacture of the compressed food
-which we had already found so effective. Another set of much simpler
-construction carried it away and stored it when made. Yet another set
-was used for the manufacture of that invisible paint, the use of which
-had so astonished me. These last were the machines which attracted my
-curiosity most of all, and which implied not only a use which I did
-not comprehend of agencies which I recognised, but the existence of
-other agencies of which I knew nothing at all. I observed, however, as
-carefully as possible and I made, later on, very full notes of what I
-did observe, and I shall be happy to communicate these to our men of
-science in whose hands they can hardly fail to become of much
-practical value. I need hardly say that I asked a good many questions
-about this last set of machines, but somehow I got very little
-information. Whether Signor Davelli was unwilling to explain, or
-whether there was something in the process which I was incapable of
-understanding, I am not quite sure. All I could get from him was that
-there are some rays at either end of the spectrum which are not
-visible, and that it is possible to treat some substances so as to
-cause them to reflect these rays only, just as other substances
-reflect only the yellow or only the red. But from a word or two which
-he spoke, I suspect inadvertently, I gathered that the rays he spoke
-of, which are invisible to us, were visible to him, and differed as
-much from yellow, red, or blue, as these from one another.
-
-We now crossed the platform to the place where the cars were being
-painted. I perceived as soon as I came upon the spot that the cars
-were built at one level, and then raised by machinery to another level
-at which they were painted, and that when painted they were raised to
-a third level. Along each of these levels they were moved by rollers
-of quite simple construction. Yesterday I had only seen those on the
-second level; those on the first were too low to come within the field
-of my view, and those on the third were invisible.
-
-On this third level, however, one was to-day visible. As I afterwards
-learned, Signor Davelli had caused it to be left unpainted. It was
-otherwise finished. He caused it now to be rolled along to the
-extremity of the platform, which ended to the southward in a sheer
-precipice of some hundreds of feet. There was a ledge to keep it from
-rolling over. Signor Davelli led us to this car and invited us to
-enter it.
-
-There was plenty of accommodation for two or three people. There were
-easy benches and couches, and there were three boxes with distinctive
-marks like numbers on the lids. At the end of the car which was
-furthest from the ledge, the inside end, there was a great deal of
-machinery, but not of such a size as I should have expected
-considering the size of the car. This machinery consisted of two
-batteries resembling galvanic batteries in many ways, but the stuff
-used up in work was not fluid but solid; it consisted of large squares
-of matter, which I think was wholly or mainly metallic. The batteries
-were connected with a strong round bar, made, as I thought, of some
-sort of metal[3] running through the car and supporting a pair of huge
-paddles, or wings, one on each side of the car. At each end of the bar
-were certain little wheels and cranks, devised not so as to cause the
-paddles to revolve, but so as to give them a wing-like motion. At the
-forward part of the car were several vessels of a form which suggested
-a chemical apparatus for generating gas. And on each side of the car,
-constructed and placed with an evident view to balance or trim it,
-were two balloons, which seemed absurdly small in view of the size of
-the car. These were connected with the chemical apparatus just
-mentioned, and were filled by it, when occasion required, with a gas
-vastly lighter than hydrogen.
-
-  [Footnote 3: I discovered afterwards that it was not metallic.]
-
-Signor Davelli, Jack, and I entered the car, and the Signor took a
-bottle of liquid out of one of the numbered boxes and poured it into
-one of the vessels. Then in all the vessels there seemed to be a sound
-like boiling, and presently the balloons became inflated and raised
-the car very gently and quite evenly. When we had been thus lifted to
-a height of about a hundred feet from the platform, he put on a
-dark-looking pair of gloves and laid hold of a strong thick wire,
-which I had not seen before, which was fastened to the bar which I had
-supposed to be of metal on the side further from where I sat. This
-wire he connected with the batteries of either end, and immediately
-took off the gloves. Presently the paddles began to move with a
-wing-like action, driving the car straight forward through the air.
-All this time we were still rising slowly, but when we had attained a
-high degree of speed Signor Davelli turned the key of a valve which
-communicated with both balloons and they presently collapsed, the
-action of the paddles being now sufficient both to sustain us and to
-urge us forward. The motion was easier than that of any conveyance
-that I had ever yet travelled in. The seat on which Signor Davelli sat
-was placed so that with one hand he could turn the key of the valve,
-and with the other grasp either of two handles, by one of which he
-managed the batteries, and by the other of which he changed at need
-the direction of the paddles. I perceived, upon looking more closely,
-that the key of the valve was fixed at the intersection of two tubes
-shaped like a T, one at right angles to the other, the horizontal tube
-joining the balloons and the perpendicular tube connected with the
-vessels from which the sound of boiling still proceeded.
-
-After we had gone, as I thought, a few miles, Signor Davelli changed
-the direction of the paddles and swept round in a longish curve, until
-the forward part of the car was turned to our starting point. When we
-had travelled about half way back he turned the valve again and
-refilled the balloons, and then he stopped the paddles and we lay
-floating in the air, rising very slowly and gently. Then he bade me
-look to the west and say if I saw anything. I could see nothing at
-all, the day was quite cloudless. Then he bade me look downward, but
-still to the west. Then I saw a shadow, as I thought, of a great bird,
-but I could see no bird to cast the shadow. The sun was now declining
-a little, and he bade me turn and look downward again, but now to the
-east. Then I saw the shadow of our own car, and although the point of
-view was not the same, there was no room to doubt but that the other
-shadow was cast by a car like ours. The moment I saw the likeness my
-old Welsh experience came with a flash to my mind. These were just the
-same queer sort of shadows that I had seen long ago at Penruddock the
-day James Redpath had disappeared; yes, and surely the evening before
-the day we reached the valley, the evening of the day that we lost
-poor Gioro I had seen just the same sort of shadow. And—— Could it be?
-Yes, it surely was—the dreadful face that I recognised yesterday was
-no other than James Redpath’s own! How it was that I did not identify
-him before I do not know, but now I knew very surely that I had seen
-himself indeed. Such was the tumult of mixed feelings that now took
-possession of me that although we moved rapidly forward again until we
-had passed quite over the valley and then wheeled round once more, I
-took no notice of our movements until I found that we were descending
-to the spot where we had started, the front of the car facing
-southward as before. I looked at Signor Davelli, and I read in his
-face an expression of gratified pride and a strong sense of power.
-There was nothing repulsive in his aspect now, at least nothing
-repulsive to me. I felt also that I was being somehow dominated by his
-will, and that I was not altogether unwilling that it should be so. I
-felt certainly some remnant of the horror with which I had looked
-yesterday on his face and the faces of his men, but I was conscious
-that my horror was rapidly merging into simple wonder. I felt
-something of the sort of awe which the suspected presence of the
-supernatural produces in most minds; but the feeling which dominated
-for the present all other feelings in me was a devouring curiosity.
-Just then the sacred allegory of the Fall passed before my mind rather
-as if presented than recalled. In my mind’s eye I saw the very Tree
-itself which was to be desired to make one wise, and the legend
-written under it—
-
-  “Eritis sicut Deus scientes bonum et malum;”
-
-but neither device nor motto seemed to have any other effect upon me
-than to stimulate my curiosity.
-
-Just then we touched ground, and I started, as if coming to my
-senses, and looked over at Jack. His face was partly turned away, and
-I could see little more than his side face. He wore an abstracted air,
-such as I had never seen him wear before. There was also a sweetness
-and earnestness of expression about him which were certainly not
-foreign to his face, but which I had never before seen there in such
-intense degree. Strange to say, there came upon me for the moment a
-sort of contempt for his understanding which seemed strongly to repel
-me from him. This, I have now no doubt, was produced by some evil
-influence acting I know not how, for assuredly there was nothing in my
-knowledge of him that it could build upon, and all that happened after
-justified it, if possible, even less. Just then he turned and looked
-upon me, and there was in his eyes so much care and kindness, kindness
-to me and care on my account, that my heart was touched and awakened
-at once. I cannot analyze or account for the effect which this look
-produced on me; I can only say that as I stepped from the car the
-tumult of mixed feelings, which so disturbed me, seemed to pass away
-like a bad dream that might or might not return.
-
-After a few words of courteous inquiry as to our necessities and
-comforts, Signor Davelli made an appointment to meet us next day on
-the square where we had met this morning; and then we parted from him
-for the night, and Jack and I slowly returned to our place.
-
-“Jack,” said I, as we were going down, “what do you think of it all?”
-
-“We won’t talk of it now,” he replied, “we are too tired, and perhaps
-excited; we had better sleep over it. To-morrow we must rise early,
-look out a quiet place, and talk the matter all round.”
-
-Nothing more but some words of course passed between us until the
-morning.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII.
-
-SIGNOR DAVELLI.
-
-
-Early the next morning Jack and I were ready for a scramble over the
-cliff. We wished to have a quiet talk together, and we wished farther,
-although we had not yet named the wish one to another, to ascertain as
-far as possible whether or not we were in effect prisoners. There was
-one fact which told heavily against any such notion. That was the
-large quantity of portable provisions which had been deliberately put
-in our way. For we could each carry, without inconvenience, enough to
-last us for a long time, quite long enough to enable us to push
-westward as far as the coast, or to go back eastward as far as the
-wire. Nevertheless, I was firmly of opinion that we would not be
-permitted to escape, and that if we attempted to our lives would not
-be worth much. As I learned afterwards, Jack was of the same opinion.
-The events of this morning removed all doubt on the subject.
-
-We found quite a practicable ascent of the cliff on the side of the
-stair which was further from the platform. And, after climbing this,
-we found a fairly even space of several hundred yards, and then an
-easy descent upon the other side. We did not, however, attempt the
-descent, but sat down and talked. Jack began—
-
-“Bob,” he said, “we must keep cool, for we are playing for very high
-stakes.”
-
-“For life and death, you think.”
-
-“More than that, perhaps. I wonder what selling your soul meant in the
-old times?”
-
-“I suppose,” I said, “whatever else it meant, it meant acting
-dishonourably or treacherously for the sake of some personal gain.”
-
-“But some fellows have sold their souls who could never be persuaded
-to act either treacherously or dishonourably for the sake of any
-personal gain.”
-
-“I daresay,” said I, not seeing nor caring what he was driving at.
-
-“Now, Bob, if I were the devil, and if I wanted to get you to sell me
-your soul, I know what I should do.”
-
-I was getting a little vexed, but I replied simply—“Well, what would
-you do?”
-
-“I would endeavour to pique your curiosity, and then I would show you
-that you could gratify it by putting yourself in my power, and then I
-would have your body even if you still insisted on keeping your soul.”
-
-“And which do you think it would be?”
-
-“Well, I should have to be satisfied with your body, except in one
-event.”
-
-“And, pray, what would that be?”
-
-“I might by the exhibition of some special or unaccounted-for power
-gain such influence over you as to get you to put your conscience at
-my disposal. Then you would be mine soul and body.”
-
-I was beginning to get vexed, partly because I suppose I saw more
-truth in what he said than I liked, so I said shortly—
-
-“What do you mean just now by all this?”
-
-“I think our friend, the signor, is the devil himself. I don’t mean
-any fee-faw-fum. I daresay there are a good many other men as much
-devils as he is, but he has all the power which great and special
-practical knowledge gives a man, and he is as full of malice as an egg
-is full of meat, and he is up to some very big villainy and, what is
-more to the purpose, he has a design upon you.”
-
-“He has done us no harm that I can see.”
-
-“He has done us a great deal of harm; he is persuading you to trust
-yourself to him, and he is worthy of no trust whatever, d—n him.”
-
-Now this from Jack was rather startling; for he was not in the least
-prone to use bad language. I never heard “the Englishman’s prayer”
-from his lips before or since. But his earnestness irritated me more
-than his profanity surprised me.
-
-“Don’t you see,” I said rather sullenly, “that if your hypothesis is
-correct your prayer is rather superfluous?”
-
-“Well, yes, it is superfluous,” he said with a harsh laugh quite
-unlike him; “he is damned already sure enough.”
-
-“I don’t see much sign of damnation about him,” I said, “not if misery
-be an essential part of damnation.”
-
-“Well, yes, the misery that comes of malice, and if ever malice and
-misery were written in a man’s face, they were written in his
-yesterday when they missed those men. And mark me,” Jack added,
-raising his voice, “his damnation has got something to do with the
-loss of those men.”
-
-I was now getting very angry, so I rose to my feet and said
-hastily—“If we have nothing to talk about, don’t you think that we may
-as well go back?”
-
-Jack rose and said, “No, Bob, we’ll not go back yet awhile. Don’t be
-vexed with me, old fellow. You are in more danger than I am, but your
-danger is mine.” As he said this I saw the same expression on his face
-which I had seen yesterday, an expression of kindness and anxiety, and
-it had much the same effect on me now.
-
-“Jack,” I said, “forgive me, I declare I believe you are partly right;
-I believe there is some devilish influence at work trying to set me
-against you. I caught myself yesterday despising you for not being
-clever, and there were two devils in that, for you are twice as clever
-as I am, and even if you were not you are ten times as good.”
-
-“Ah, Bob, my boy, there is plenty of reason to suspect me of stupidity
-without supposing that the devil is in the dance.
-
-  ‘Nec deus (or diabolus) intersit nisi dignus vindice nodus.’
-
-You see I have a stock verse or two to quote at a pinch. But although
-I don’t see as far, perhaps, into the game as you, it may be that just
-for that reason I see the near points a little more clearly. Now sit
-down again and tell me what you think of it all.”
-
-We didn’t sit but kept walking up and down. “I don’t know what to
-think,” I said; “I was nearly sure yesterday that I was either mad or
-dreaming, but I have given over thinking that. I suppose there is a
-desperate and widely spread conspiracy against civilised society, and
-that these men are in it. You talk about fee-faw-fum, but I remembered
-some things yesterday while we were in that car that made me feel as
-if the whole world were nothing but what you call fee-faw-fum.”
-
-“What were they, Bob?”
-
-I told him all that I have written in the first two chapters of this
-book. He listened most attentively, and made me repeat two or three
-times over parts of the conversation between the two doctors. But when
-I wound up my story by telling him that I had recognised James Redpath
-among the men on the platform, he stopped suddenly, turned right round
-and looked at me. “Good heavens!” he said. And then after a pause, “Do
-you think that you saw him carried away that morning from your Welsh
-village?”
-
-“I didn’t see him, but I have little doubt that I saw the shadow of
-the car in which he was carried away.”
-
-“Do you think that we have stumbled on your friend Dr. Leopold’s
-non-human intelligence? and that there is a manufactory of black death
-or plague somewhere in the neighbourhood?”
-
-“I have hardly a doubt of these men’s malignity, but there is one
-thing I am surer of. Now that I am here I want to know all about the
-matter—and I mean to. Mr. Leopold may have stumbled upon half a
-truth.”
-
-“Well, my position is just the reverse of yours. I am curious enough
-about the matter, but I am so sure of these men’s desperate malignity
-that my first wish is that we should make our escape from this place.
-And mind,” he went on to say, “if you want to burst them up that is
-the way to do it. If you and I get back to civilisation others will
-soon be on our track. And once there is a settlement of English
-colonists near here these men will be played out, and they know it.
-Don’t you remember what the fellow himself said? He said that they
-could keep the blacks at a distance, but that it does not suit them to
-carry on their work—whatever it is—in the presence of civilised men!”
-
-“I remember,” said I; “but if you are right, depend upon it they have
-made up their minds that you and I will never leave this place
-alive.”
-
-“Not quite that,” said he, “or they would have murdered us before
-now.”
-
-“Well, they were going to do so twice.”
-
-“Yes, but Signor Niccolo restrained them. You see Signor Niccolo has a
-design upon you; he wants to make you one of his men. He doesn’t care
-much about me, but he is willing to throw me into the bargain. Now if
-you and I refuse to join him our lives will be the forfeit.”
-
-“And if we don’t refuse?”
-
-“Why then,” said he, “more than our lives.”
-
-“Well then,” said I, “what in the name of common sense do you think
-they are?”
-
-“Well,” he replied, “I don’t altogether agree with Dr. Leopold. I
-can’t quite believe in the ‘non-human’ business; these men are flesh
-and blood safe enough; though I confess I am startled to see so much
-applied science, so much in advance of ours, in the possession of men
-of such malignity as these are.” He paused for a moment and then
-proceeded. “What you said just now is most likely right. They belong
-most likely to some brotherhood of conspirators, some advanced guard
-of Nihilists, or the like, who propose to make war upon civilised
-society.”
-
-“What do you advise?”
-
-“For all reasons the sooner we get away the better. My proposition is
-that we fill our pockets with these cakes of theirs and make a bolt of
-it the very first opportunity.”
-
-“Do you think we shall find an opportunity?”
-
-“Well, the event will show. We may have to start in the dark and for a
-while to travel by night. But you see these cakes of theirs are meat
-and drink, and we can make a bee-line for the wire.”
-
-“Don’t you think they will track us?”
-
-“I doubt if they will be able. Their intelligence is very high, and
-their modes of procedure are very artificial; and the best trackers
-are men of mere instinct. Still I wish we could get hold of one of
-their cars; if we could, a few hours’ start would save us.”
-
-“Look to the right,” I said, “we are watched and followed now.”
-
-By this time the sun had risen a little way, the sky was clear, and
-here and there, slowly moving along the face of the cliff below us,
-were several shadows of the sort I have already more than once
-described. These plainly indicated the presence of several of the cars
-at no great distance from the ground, and at a lower level than the
-cliff on which we stood. Whether there were any or how many at a
-higher level no one could say just yet, and on the left everything
-lay still in shadow. We walked in the same direction, quickening our
-steps a little, the cliff all the while sloping downward slowly.
-Presently the sun was at a higher level than the ground we walked on,
-and the number of the shadows greatly increased, and there were very
-many now on all sides of us. Just then it seemed as if a cloud were
-passing over us quite near. We looked upward quickly, but there was no
-cloud, only a great shadow cast, as it would seem, by nothing. In a
-few seconds it was gone, and presently after we heard the swish—sh—sh
-right over us of the wing-like paddles, and we could even detect the
-small regular rattle of the machinery. It was evident that we were
-being closely guarded, and perhaps we were overheard.
-
-Silently but with one impulse we turned and walked slowly back to the
-rooms that had been assigned to us.
-
-We refreshed ourselves with food and we had an hour’s rest before it
-was time to keep our appointment with our host. We agreed meanwhile to
-observe everything very closely and to compare notes at night.
-
-“But,” said I, “is it safe for us to separate?”
-
-“Nothing, of course,” Jack answered, “is altogether safe, but for a
-little while I think that we are not in any more danger apart than
-together.”
-
-“But you know, Jack, you said that you thought he had some special
-design on me and that he didn’t want you. So he may have you quietly
-put out of the way if you go alone.”
-
-“He is bad enough for anything,” was the answer, “but he knows that to
-put me out of the way would so disturb you as to baffle his designs
-upon you. Your attention would be entirely diverted from the matters
-in which you are now taking so deep an interest, and by means of which
-he hopes to secure you. He would have to put you out of the way too,
-and he doesn’t want to do that. So he is going, as I have said, to
-throw me into the bargain.”
-
-“What course do you suggest then, when we are next left to ourselves?”
-
-“You try to get an interview with—what’s his name?—your old Welsh
-friend?”
-
-“James Redpath.”
-
-“Just so, and I will try to pick up some information about the
-navigation of the cars.”
-
-At the appointed hour, which was rather early in the afternoon, we
-went together to the square, and we had hardly reached it when Signor
-Davelli arrived there too. His appearance was decidedly changed: his
-robe was ampler and longer, and this as well as his hat and sandals
-were apparently made of richer and lighter stuff than those which he
-had worn before, also there were various mottoes and devices wrought
-upon them. The devices were all of the sort I have before told you of,
-and the mottoes, or what I deemed such, were in a variety of
-characters, most of them altogether unknown to me. A few of them,
-however, were in languages that I knew. There was only one in English,
-and strange to say, I cannot remember what it was. On the front of the
-hat was an inscription in Hebrew characters, but so oddly formed that
-I did not at first recognise them. I am not much skilled in Hebrew but
-I have no doubt that the inscription was [Hebrew: kelohim כאלהים][4]
-written, however, in a character closely resembling that of the
-Palmyra inscriptions. As I came slowly to recognise the meaning of
-this inscription, it came to me much more forcibly (and with another
-sort of force), than if I had at once recognised it for what it was.
-And I would have at once recognised it if it had been in the ordinary
-square characters as I have written it here.
-
-  [Footnote 4: “As gods.” Gen. iii. 5.]
-
-Signor Davelli’s manner was, as I thought, very stately and even
-majestic, and yet at the same time quite easy and affable. Once or
-twice only I observed an air of effort, and even that seemed as of an
-effort graciously undertaken even if painful. Once or twice also a
-sort of spasm crossed his face as of self-repression of some sort. And
-once it seemed as if he were about to spring forward but checked
-himself, and his face then reminded me of the faces of his men
-yesterday in this very square when they first recognised our presence.
-
-He bade us be seated, and he took a seat himself and began to talk to
-us. Our seats faced his and there was a pathway like a garden walk
-between us. I remember noticing as he began to speak that the same
-strange flowers and shrubs which I had seen outside grew in great
-abundance along this pathway.
-
-Signor Davelli led the conversation quickly, but not at all with
-violence, to themes of an abstract character, and he presently settled
-down to the discussion of no less a subject than free will.
-
-You would not thank me if I were to give you (supposing I could do so)
-a full account of all that he said. I will, therefore, not make any
-such attempt. I will only say that his remarks were bold and
-interesting, although he presented no aspect of the question which was
-absolutely new to me, and that he spoke apparently with strong feeling
-and fervour, and even sometimes with a bitter air of desperation.
-Then he looked at me with an air of inquiry.
-
-After a long pause I said,
-
-“I see, Signor Davelli, that you are not a materialist.”
-
-“Materialist?” he said, with a very unpleasant mixture of smile and
-sneer. “No; materialism is very well for a beginning; but one must
-face the facts at last if one is to deal with them at all
-successfully.”
-
-“But,” said I, “some teach that matter is the very ultimate of all
-fact.”
-
-“It is perhaps well,” he said, with a renewal of the same sneer and
-smile, “that they should teach so, but you and I know better; matter
-is evidence of the fact, but not the fact itself.”
-
-“And free will in your view is real?”
-
-“Yes, it is real, doubtless, although so given as to make it for all
-but the very boldest practically unreal.”
-
-“So given, you say; it is a gift then?”
-
-“Yes, it is a gift, if you call that ‘given’ which you use at your
-peril.”
-
-“And who gives it?” said I.
-
-“Never mind that,” he said, with a bitter scowl, which recalled for
-the moment his malignant expression of the day but one before. “Call
-Him the Giver: a cursed way of giving is His. You know that you can
-use His gift if you dare, and you know that if you dare use it as you
-please He will scald you with what His bond-slaves call ‘the vials of
-His wrath’; that I think is the phrase.”
-
-“Perhaps,” I said, “the scalding is one’s own doing: power to use the
-gift is power to use it rightly or wrongly: if one choose to use it
-wrongly one takes the consequences.”
-
-“Right and wrong,” he said, “what are they?” and he spoke now with
-great coolness and without a sign of sneer; “trace back the ideas to
-their origin. Right is what I will, and wrong is what I will not. So
-it is with the Giver, and why should it not be so with you and me?” I
-observed that as he said this some of the mottoes on his dress grew
-bright and even flashed. Among them was that in Hebrew letters which I
-told you of just now. “But I know there are slaves,” he went on to
-say, “slaves (you surely are not one of them) who are afraid of
-liberty, and who are jealous of those who are not afraid of it. And
-these,” he said, and here the scowl returned, “these make use of such
-words as right and wrong to perpetuate the tyrannous rule of Him who
-gives with a curse, and who takes again with a fresh curse.”
-
-“Is He,” I said, “the tyrant on whom you are making war?”
-
-“Oh, yes,” he said, “for all tyrants hold from Him; they are His hired
-bullies whom he pampers and lashes as you might lash and pamper your
-dog.”
-
-“You say that He gives and takes, will He take the gift of the freedom
-of will from you?”
-
-If I had foreseen the effect which this question would have produced,
-I should certainly have been afraid to have asked it. His face became
-at once full of deadly fury and frenzy; “Yes,” he said, “curse Him! He
-will at last if He can!” And then he sprang up and caught at the air
-with both his hands, just like the hands, in the device of which I
-have told you, grasping at the forked lightning.
-
-In a moment, however, he resumed the quiet, stately and affable air,
-which he had worn before, and he sat down, and began to talk again
-quite calmly.
-
-“Yes,” he said, “free will is no doubt real to the bold and desperate
-spirit. To all others it is in effect unreal. To make it in effect
-real to all, every free being ought to be able to do as he will, not
-only without let or hindrance, but also without what you I suppose
-would call penal consequences.”
-
-“It seems to me,” I said, “that our little world is too limited for
-such freedom as you desire. We should speedily come into collision
-with each other if there were no limit of any sort to our freedom.”
-
-“Yes, if your world were the only world.”
-
-I did not notice at the time his use of the pronoun “your” for “our.”
-I only replied, “If our world were multiplied a hundred thousand fold,
-and I can well believe that there may be a hundred thousand such
-worlds, still the limits of habitable space must ultimately be a limit
-to freedom so that it cannot be unconditional.”
-
-“There are no limits,” he said, “to habitable space.”
-
-I began to think that he was a very clever madman, and I said nothing.
-
-“For such as you,” he continued, “the limit exists, but not for me,
-nor for such as I.”
-
-Now I was sure he was mad, and I still kept silence.
-
-“Nor yet for you,” he added, “either, if you have courage enough to
-overleap the limit.”
-
-Now I began to be afraid that the form of mania which affected him was
-homicidal, and that he would presently require me, as he said, “to
-overleap the limit.” But he rose to his feet with such a collected
-air, and looked so full of proud intellect and power that I began to
-change my mind and to think that I was going mad myself.
-
-He spoke again, stretching out his hand, “Space is unlimited, and
-wherever space is there is a dwelling-place for me. This form in which
-I live here is but my dress, which I assume when I come to live among
-you. I can put it off and live in space, I can put it on again and
-come back to you. See here!”
-
-Both his hands were now stretched upward, and his eyes were fixed on
-me with a domineering gaze, and mine on him with a mixture of wonder
-and of dread. Then he looked away straight out into the southern sky.
-
-Suppose now a great mass of metal to be so quickly molten and
-vaporized that it has no time to fall to the earth as fluid before it
-rises into the air as gas. That was how it seemed to happen to the
-body of this extraordinary man. As I looked at him I saw no longer his
-body, but a great mass of apparently fluid substance, moved with a
-continuous ripple all through. Then it increased in volume vastly and
-spread upward like the smoke from an immense furnace. And as it spread
-it became thinner and finer, and still thinner and finer, until
-presently there was not the slightest trace of it any longer
-to be distinguished. How long a time it took to complete this
-transformation I could not at all guess from my experience of it. As
-far as my recollection of that goes, it might have occupied hours, but
-I know from external facts such as the shadows of the trees and the
-clouds that it could have been little more than five minutes at most,
-and on comparing notes afterwards with Jack I became inclined to
-believe that although I had certainly observed a succession of changes
-the whole transformation and disappearance was practically
-instantaneous.
-
-Jack and I said not a word, we were both quite stupefied for the
-moment. Partly recovering ourselves we both walked up to the spot
-where Signor Davelli had stood, and we saw what seemed to be the
-remains of the sandals, hat, and coat, which he had worn. Jack took
-them up one after another, looked at them, and handed them to me. The
-texture of none of them was in any way destroyed. But they were now
-wholly colourless, and not the least trace of any letter or device was
-anywhere to be seen on them.
-
-After the lapse of about ten minutes a slight explosion was heard a
-little way over our heads, and then a slight vapour appeared in the
-air very widely spread. Then I saw the same changes as before, but in
-reverse order. The vapour thickened into smoke, the smoke became
-condensed into a fluid rapidly rippling throughout. This presently
-settled down over the spot where the discarded dress was lying, and
-became solidified; and as I looked I saw Signor Davelli with the same
-pose and attitude as before his disappearance, and with the same dress
-bearing the very same inscriptions and devices.
-
-As before, I am inclined to believe that the reappearance and
-transformation, although presented to me as a succession of changes,
-were practically instantaneous.
-
-I stood looking at him, transfixed with wonder and horror. He signed
-to me to sit down; then he sat down himself, and began to speak again
-quite gently and persuasively. Jack stood for a minute or two as if in
-hesitation about something; then he, too, sat down and listened.
-
-_Signor Davelli._ Do not be alarmed, there is no occasion for alarm
-nor even for surprise. Nothing has been done but what is quite as
-fully susceptible of explanation as any simple chemical experiment.
-
-_Easterley._ That can hardly be so. Much even of what we saw yesterday
-far exceeded any results of experimental science known to me, but I
-could readily believe it all to be explicable upon principles which I
-have studied, and which I partly understand. But the experiment which
-I have just witnessed (if I may call it an experiment) surely implies
-principles which far transcend any with which I am in the slightest
-degree acquainted.
-
-_Davelli._ “Transcend” them, yes, but are nevertheless closely related
-to them, and are never at variance with them. But I can put you
-through an experience quite similar to that which I have myself just
-undergone. You shall judge for yourself then.
-
-He came quite near me, and went on to speak in a tone at once
-masterful and persuasive.
-
-“You shall experience my power,” he said, “and you shall criticise it.
-I will send you hence and back in quite a little time. You will
-remember what you see, and you shall compare it with what you know of
-your own world, and you shall say then whether it is not worth your
-while to come and join us. If you join us you will know nothing of
-what you call death, for death cannot touch the dwellers in space.”
-
-As he said these last words I felt a shudder pass through me; it
-reminded me of something, I knew not what, but afterwards I
-remembered.
-
-“Cannot death touch you?” I said. “Not even when you are dwelling here
-with us?”
-
-“No,” he replied; “anything that would kill you would simply drive us
-back into space.”
-
-I have a very trustworthy instinct as to the truth or falsehood of
-those who speak to me, and I felt now that Signor Davelli was speaking
-the truth in this particular, but that he was deceiving me somehow.
-
-“Do you propose,” I said, “to send me among the dwellers in space and
-to fetch me back now?”
-
-I detected just the faintest turn of his eye towards Jack, and as he
-answered I knew that he was lying, and that if need were he would lie
-more.
-
-“You cannot acquire at once,” he said, “the powers of a dweller in
-space. But I shall send you out of this world and I will fetch you
-back, and your journey will help you to acquire the power to become a
-dweller in space by-and-by.”
-
-I distrusted him profoundly and I was not without fear of him. It was
-fear, however, that I could not easily define. Certainly it was not
-fear of death, for I felt quite sure that he was not going to kill me.
-I felt a consuming desire to know all about him, and I was willing to
-risk much in order to satisfy my desire. I felt also the influence of
-his masterful will. My distrust of him weighed one way, and the
-strength of his will the other way, and my lust of knowledge turned
-the scale.
-
-So I said, “Send me where you will then.”
-
-The words were scarce out of my mouth when he raised his hand, and in
-a moment I lost all power of active motion, and could neither see nor
-hear, although my consciousness not only remained but became
-abnormally distinct.
-
-Of course I had never experienced exactly such a state, but I remember
-once, in my college days, I had mastered a very abstract philosophical
-discussion, and I lay down on the hearthrug and thought it over until
-my power of thought seemed to merge into something clearer and fuller,
-and once later in life I stood on the deck of a ship gazing on the
-ocean—
-
-                  “Until the sea and sky
-  Seemed one, and I seemed one with them and all
-  Seemed one, and there was only one, and time
-  And space and thought were one eternity.”[5]
-
-  [Footnote 5: “Nay, then, God be wi’ you, an you talk in blank
-   verse.”—J.W.]
-
-On both of these occasions I experienced something not unlike the
-intensely vivid consciousness which I experienced now.
-
-It was mainly a consciousness of expectancy. The events of the last
-few days seemed to hang before my mind like a semi-transparent veil
-which was trembling under the action of the hand that was about to
-withdraw it in order to discover something wonderful behind.
-
-Then I seemed to be borne onward, I knew not whither, with an
-inconceivably rapid motion. Then again I lay at rest. Then my power of
-sight returned, and I think my power of hearing, but there was at
-first nothing to hear. I seemed to be lying on a hard bank within the
-mouth of a cave not far below the surface of what seemed to be the
-earth. A light streamed into the cave, and I could see right opposite
-me a tract of mountain, wild and rugged beyond all description. The
-light was not diffused except within the cave. The space outside the
-cave’s mouth seemed quite dark, and then the rugged mountain side
-beyond shone out quite brilliantly. Looking round I saw nothing but
-barren rock, and I could hear no sound either around or above, but as
-I moved my head from side to side I heard a sound from beneath as of a
-dull “thud, thud,” and then a sound strangely like whispering voices.
-
-I had been in a sitting position and I had lain back, and so now I
-looked up into the sky, and, notwithstanding the apparent daylight, I
-saw the stars quite plainly, and a monstrous moon, a little past the
-new phase, nearly overhead, with very distinct markings upon it. I
-watched steadily the markings near the edge, and I saw that they were
-moving very slowly, like the minute hand of a huge clock. Looking
-steadily still, I recognised the markings. I was looking at the earth.
-I could even distinguish some of the coasts and seas and islands, as
-it seemed to me, quite plainly recognisable. Now I knew where I was
-and I started to my feet. I had intended to stand up, but the force
-which I had exerted with that purpose in view made me bound several
-feet from the ground, so that my head reached beyond the edge of the
-cave. I felt as if my breath were suddenly stopped, and I fell back
-gasping to the ground again.
-
-Then I gave myself up for lost, but in a moment sight and hearing
-again left me, and the strangely vivid consciousness came back. Then I
-felt a sense of rapid motion, and presently I found myself sitting on
-the bench with Signor Davelli bending over me and Jack standing by.
-Immediately I glanced at the shadows round me, and I saw in a moment
-that my journey, whatever was its nature, had lasted much longer than
-Signor Davelli’s. I knew at once that he had deceived me, that my lust
-of knowledge was baulked, and that I had been no nearer to his world
-than I was now.
-
-I cried out, “You have shown me the moon, perhaps in trance, perhaps
-you have transferred me there. But what of that? You’ve shown me
-nothing of the dwellers in space.”
-
-“Be quiet,” he said, lifting his hand, and again using the same tone,
-masterful and yet persuasive, “you have done very well for once;” and
-then he added in a lower and quite different tone, “and so have I.”
-
-I never could make you understand the mixture of contending feelings
-which began to harass me now. No one, I think, could understand it
-without undergoing it. I was astonished at what had happened to
-myself, and yet I was grievously disappointed.
-
-Even if I had been sure that I had been actually transferred to the
-surface of the moon, that would have seemed as nothing to me now. For
-what I had looked for was a far greater thing. I had long learned to
-regard the ether which pervades the interplanetary spaces as the
-hidden storehouse of material out of which the visible worlds are
-made, and yet the ether is utterly impalpable to any of the senses,
-and we know of its existence only by roundabout processes of
-reasoning, and I had been fool enough to believe that I was going to
-be put in possession of powers of sense which would enable me to
-examine the ether just as one might examine any of the ordinary
-material with which we are familiar. I thought I was going to have a
-near view of the secret forces which lie behind all mechanical,
-chemical, and electrical action. And what, in view of such a prospect,
-did I care about seeing the surface of the moon, even if I did really
-see it? I knew that on the surface of the moon I should only see,
-under different conditions, the same sort of material as that with
-which I was already familiar. And I felt sure, or nearly sure,
-besides, that I had not seen anything but some picture which this
-wonderful and mysterious being contrived to impress upon my mind.
-
-Besides, I felt sure now that he was deliberately deceiving me, and
-the sense of horror and repulsion with which he had more or less
-affected me from the first were now very greatly increased.
-
-Besides, I felt that his power over me was great and was growing
-greater, and I began to doubt if I could ever shake it off.
-
-But, above all—and now for the first time a bitter sense of remorse
-filled me on account of my own action in respect of him—I saw that I
-had been paltering with my conscience, and playing with right and
-wrong, for the sake of mere intellectual attainment. I knew that I had
-been doing this ever since this man or devil had first spoken to me.
-And I felt that my own words deliberately spoken but a little while
-ago had brought my wrong-doing to a crisis. I felt now that when the
-words, “Send me where you will, then,” had passed my lips I had put
-myself, to what extent I knew not, within the power of one whom I
-deeply suspected of some horrible plot against humanity.
-
-I must not say that I was overwhelmed by these feelings, for stronger
-than any of them was the resolve I now made, with the whole force of
-my being, that I would never again surrender my will to him on any
-pretext whatever. And yet I felt very nearly in despair, for I could
-not but seriously doubt if I had now the power to keep this resolve. I
-feared that I might be like the drunkard who has taken the first
-glass.
-
-I suppose there is hardly a man anywhere who has never really prayed.
-And so I think every reader will understand me when I say, that I
-lifted up my heart to God silently, and on the moment, with far deeper
-energy and fervour and self-distrust than ever I thought possible
-before.
-
-Just then I became aware that Signor Davelli’s eyes were off me and
-that he was talking to Jack: his manner to him was quite courteous and
-gracious. He was, as it seemed, apologising to him.
-
-“You must pardon me,” said he; “I am afraid that my interest in your
-friend’s conversation has diverted my attention unduly from my other
-guest.” Then, after a slight pause, he added, “Now I propose to take
-your friend to-morrow on an aerial journey, to see the other extremity
-of the valley, and some of the operations there. I can only take one
-at a time: you will probably like to come again. But, for to-morrow,
-how shall we provide for your amusement? we shall be back early in the
-afternoon.”
-
-Jack replied civilly, but with an air of indifference which I thought
-was feigned, “_I_ should be glad of an opportunity of examining some
-of the curious engines that we have seen yonder.” He pointed as he
-spoke in the direction of the platform.
-
-“Very well,” was the reply; “I will see that you have a guide.” As he
-spoke he took an odd-looking little instrument from a pocket at his
-girdle, and whistled upon it. The resulting sound consisted of a few
-recurring notes, with a wild, odd strain of music in them.
-
-In a few moments a man appeared. He came from some place towards the
-further end of the valley, and he was no doubt one of those whom we
-had seen on this very square the day before. Signor Davelli spoke to
-the man. “You will meet this gentleman,” he said, “here, to-morrow;
-his name is Mr. Wilbraham. Meet him at whatever hour he pleases, and
-show him whatever he wishes to see.” Then he spoke a few words in the
-same strange language as before, and accompanied his words with the
-same sort of action.
-
-Then he turned to me and said, “Will you meet me here at nine o’clock
-to-morrow, and I will take you to see what we are doing at the further
-end of the valley?”
-
-I hesitated for a moment, and then I said, “Yes, I will meet you.”
-
-Whether my hesitation, or anything in my tone, indicated that I meant
-not to commit myself to more than to meet him, I cannot say, but as I
-spoke a scowl passed over his face. It came and went in a moment, and
-then he said, “Very well,” rather curtly, to me. And then, addressing
-us both in the same gracious manner as before, “And now you are
-tired,” he said, “and it is getting late; I hope you find your
-quarters convenient and your commissariat sufficient.”
-
-We assured him on both points briefly, made our parting salutation,
-and retired. I may here mention that the salutations which passed
-between us and him were never anything more than a formal inclination
-of the head.
-
-Two more facts must be put on record before I close the account of
-this eventful day.
-
-We met near the foot of the great stairway the man whom I supposed to
-be James Redpath. He appeared to be engaged in setting right some
-detail of the machinery made use of by the workers on the platform. I
-could not but think as I looked upon him that he had all the
-appearance of being a machine himself, worked by an intellect not his
-own. Yet he was evidently working with a will.
-
-I stepped forward and stood before him, having first made a sign to
-Jack.
-
-“James Redpath,” I said; “surely it must be James Redpath?”
-
-He started, and looked at me with a surly scowl, but said nothing. The
-name (of course I used his real name) seemed to remind him of
-something, but there was no recognition in his eyes. “Don’t you
-remember Bob Easterley?” I said. He looked at me and then his eyes
-wandered. There was a muddled, wicked look about him, such as you
-will sometimes see in the eyes of a very bad-tempered man when he is
-drunk. “Don’t you remember Penruddock?” I said, again of course using
-the real name. He started again, and I thought he brightened, but it
-was a queer sort of brightening.
-
-“Penruddock?” he said. “Penruddock and Bob Easterley: curse him and
-curse the little beggar!” And then he gave a nasty laugh. His voice
-was thick, like the voice of a man half stupefied with drink or
-suffering from active brain disease. I thought at first that the name
-Penruddock had awakened no recollection in his mind, but that he
-mistook it for the name of a man. Since then, however, I have thought
-that perhaps “the little beggar” was the boy that he was cruel to, and
-that the name of Penruddock had reminded him of the matter. Anyhow he
-turned and looked steadily at me and said slowly, “Oh, so the governor
-has got you; I wish you joy of the governor.” And then he laughed a
-coarse, harsh kind of laugh. It was not loud, and there was not much
-expression in it, but what there was was cruel. Then he made as if to
-pass us, and we let him pass: there was nothing to be got out of him.
-I am not absolutely sure to this day whether he was James Redpath or
-not.
-
-That night Jack and I talked long and earnestly. I told him as I have
-told you my latest thoughts about the matter, and then we talked of
-our engagements for the coming day.
-
-_Wilbraham._ There’s a crisis near, Bob. It is as likely to come
-to-morrow as not.
-
-_Easterley._ How do you think it will come?
-
-_Wilbraham._ Well, this way. Davelli, I think, overrates the power
-that he has contrived to get over you. The disappointment you speak
-of, and your distrust of him and resolve against him have somehow
-checked the effect of his action on your will, and he does not know
-that. Not knowing it, he will reveal some villainy to you to-morrow.
-You will revolt and he will try to kill you. If you are on your guard
-you may escape yet. The minute you defy him shoot him through the
-body.
-
-_Easterley._ What harm will that do him?
-
-_Wilbraham._ Not much, but some. Did you notice what he said
-yesterday?
-
-_Easterley._ Yes, and he was telling the truth. The shot would
-probably send him to his own place, but he will be back again
-presently.
-
-_Wilbraham._ Yes, but meanwhile you will have got a start, and if you
-are in one of the cars and can manage it you may escape.
-
-_Easterley._ Not very likely; but supposing I did, what is to become
-of you?
-
-_Wilbraham._ I shall be working for myself all the time. Look here:
-this fellow who is to guide me will either try to kill me or to put me
-in the way of killing myself. I believe that he has instructions to
-that effect. I’ll watch him, and if I see any treachery I’ll send him
-to his own place and make off if only I can manage the car. For I
-intend that he shall take me into one of the cars. Then I will try to
-join you and we shall have perhaps a start of an hour or so before
-they get back and make ready to follow us.
-
-I didn’t see much chance of success in his plan. You couldn’t look at
-it anywhere, I thought, without finding a flaw in it, and I told him
-as much.
-
-“Never mind,” said he, “it is the unlikely thing that happens: let us
-be on the watch.”
-
-_Easterley._ On the watch, certainly; but look here, Jack: you and I
-are in imminent danger of death, but I am in danger of worse than
-death.
-
-_Wilbraham._ Yesterday, perhaps; but not now, Bob.
-
-_Easterley._ In one sense, more now than yesterday. I have given him
-power over me to-day; not so much perhaps as he thinks—you may be
-right there—but more than I may now be able to withstand. Besides,
-mark me, he is not going to bring things to a crisis yet.
-
-_Wilbraham._ Well, if he is not, we shall bring things to a crisis
-ourselves, and we shall defy him. Then let him kill us if he can. I
-shouldn’t wonder if he couldn’t after all. Anyhow, I shall learn
-something to-morrow, and don’t you put yourself in his power any more.
-
-_Easterley._ I have told you that I am not sure if I can escape him
-now, but, God helping me, I will do my best.
-
-There our talk ceased for the night, and I may as well say at once
-that the crisis did not come next day, and that it was not left either
-to Signor Davelli or to ourselves to bring it about. If it had been so
-left I do not think this book would ever have been written.
-
-We were now sitting in the inner chamber, from one of the windows of
-which you could see the door of the outer chamber. The inner chamber
-opened into the outer, and the outer chamber, without any porch or
-passage, opened upon the path which led either to the square or the
-great stairway. As I sat near the window I saw a bright light shining
-upon the outer door, so that no one could go in or out without being
-plainly seen. I started up at once and looked for a shadow, for it
-occurred to me immediately that this light was thrown from one of the
-invisible cars. But there was no moonlight, for the moon was just then
-hidden by clouds, and so there was no shadow except such as the light
-itself might cause. But presently, by walking backward from the window
-and again towards it, and then this way and that way before it, I
-discovered a star which appeared and disappeared as I walked. On
-further inspection it became evident that when the star disappeared it
-was hidden by some object which, though dark itself, was nevertheless
-that from which the light before the door proceeded. There could be no
-doubt that the light in question was thrown from one of the cars, and
-that the car from which it was thrown was not a hundred feet from the
-ground.
-
-“Look,” I said, “look! we are closely watched even here.” But Jack was
-already fast asleep. I threw myself upon my bed and lay for hours
-broad awake.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX.
-
-THE SEED BEDS.
-
-
-As I lay awake the events of the last few days passed and repassed
-before my mind, and the more I thought over them the less I felt
-myself able to give any satisfactory account of them or to see any way
-of escape. I could make up my mind to no plan of action, to nothing
-except passive but obstinate resistance.
-
-But although I did not see any way of escape I did not feel as if we
-were going to die. I suppose that youth and a sanguine temper enabled
-me to keep hoping. Anyhow I found myself again and again reckoning
-upon a return to civilisation.
-
-But what kept my thoughts busiest was the fact that Jack and I were to
-be separated next day, and I asked myself over and over again, what
-could be the purpose of such separation. And here, after a while, I
-thought I saw my way a little. Such and such at least I felt I could
-say is not the purpose. Foul play is no doubt what our host is quite
-capable of; but what is to be gained by foul play? Why not kill either
-or both of us openly if he wishes? And when I had gotten as far as
-that I began to see, clearly enough, part at least of his purpose in
-separating us. And the revelation was greatly more flattering to Jack
-than to myself. Then I fell asleep and slept quite soundly for some
-hours, and I got up quite refreshed.
-
-After we had dressed and refreshed ourselves there still remained an
-hour before it would be time to keep our appointments. For Jack had
-arranged with the man who had been told off to keep him company to
-meet him at nine o’clock, the same hour at which I was to meet Signor
-Davelli. And here I may as well mention that these men or whatever
-they were, understood our way of reckoning time. But they did not, as
-far as I could see, make use of it themselves. They had a method of
-reckoning time but I was not able to discover exactly what it was. I
-have sometimes thought since then that they were able to measure the
-earth’s diurnal motion directly. But they used no clockwork nor (as
-far as I could see) any observation of the altitude of sun or stars.
-
-In some of the cars which were fitted for long voyages there was
-fixed an instrument about a foot long, and this consisted of a hand
-moving along a graduated scale. I made sure (so far as my very brief
-opportunity of observation permitted) that this hand did not move by
-clockwork, but I was quite unable to discover by what power it did
-move.
-
-I told Jack very briefly about the light I had seen last night, and
-then we held a brief conference before we parted.
-
-“Jack,” said I, “you thought yesterday that Signor Niccolo had given
-his man instructions either to kill you or to put you in the way of
-killing yourself?”
-
-“Yes,” he said, “under certain circumstances. If I attempt to make my
-escape the fellow is undoubtedly under orders to compass my death. But
-not otherwise; certainly not at present. And I need not say that I am
-not going to attempt my escape without you. If you and I agree to
-force a crisis, good and well; then we shall both run the risk of our
-lives. But you seem to think, and I am disposed to agree with you,
-that we had better for the present keep on the watch and let things
-take their course. Very well, then, I shall not be in any special
-danger to-morrow.”
-
-“Why do you think so?”
-
-“Because, as I have said before, this man, or call him what you will,
-has got some design upon you. What that design is will probably appear
-shortly. And he will not hinder the success of it by allowing anything
-to happen to me.”
-
-“And if it succeeds?”
-
-“Then it will depend on circumstances not now evident what will become
-of me.”
-
-“And if it fails?”
-
-“Then I think that you and I are certain to be put to death unless we
-can manage to make our escape from this place.”
-
-“Which appears hardly to be expected.”
-
-“Yes, hardly to be expected, but the unexpected happens.”
-
-“And now, Jack,” said I, “I agree with you in all that you have said;
-but do you know why he is sending you away?”
-
-“Well, no, I don’t.”
-
-“I’ll tell you why: he fears your influence over me. I came to that
-conclusion as I lay awake last night. And he means to try on some new
-game to-day or to begin to try. But as I thought over all that I
-couldn’t but go on to ask, why does he want me and not you, and why is
-he shy of you? What do you think?”
-
-“I can’t say, Bob, unless it be that I am not clever enough.”
-
-“Clever! you’re a modest man, Jack, I know, but if I did not know you
-to be genuine I should say now that some of the modesty was put on.
-Not clever enough? You’ve seen through this fellow sooner and farther
-than I. You might better say too clever, but that is not it either.”
-
-“Well, what is it, then?”
-
-“You are too good for him. You have too quick and clear a perception
-of what is right, and you are not ready enough to let the lust of
-knowledge blind your conscience. But, please God, this fellow will
-find that I am not after all quite the sort of man he takes me to be.”
-
-“My dear Bob, I am just as likely as you are to have dust thrown in
-the eyes of my conscience, only a different sort of dust. Your turn
-has come first, that is all. You’ll baffle him and then my turn
-perhaps won’t come at all. Let us both keep our eyes open to-day. If I
-can learn how to manage those cars of theirs, and if they give us half
-a chance, we will make a run for it.”
-
-“Do you forget the light last night?”
-
-“I forget nothing, but we will give them the slip somehow.”
-
-“Well, perhaps we may, for one thing is clear to me, Jack: those
-fellows once they come among us have to work under the same conditions
-as we.”
-
-“Did not Dr. Leopold say something of that sort?”
-
-“Yes, and he was right; all that we have seen proves it: everything
-that they do is done by some chemical or mechanical or other
-contrivance, they have to get round their work just as we have; they
-know more of nature than we do, and so they can do more. But if we
-knew as much we could do as much as they.”
-
-“Well, all that is so much in our favour.”
-
-We were now at the foot of the stairway, and it was within a few
-minutes of nine. So we shook hands and parted. Jack went up the
-stairway, and I made my way to the square.
-
-I saw in the centre of the square a car somewhat smaller than that in
-which we had travelled previously, but, like it, visible throughout.
-It was just alighting as I came up. Signor Davelli was standing in the
-square, and the man in the car was the same whom he had assigned
-yesterday to Jack, and as he alighted he addressed him with a few
-words and signs as before, and the man went away towards the stairway.
-
-Signor Niccolo turned to me, and, after the usual salutation, he said
-shortly but civilly, “I have had a car prepared like the other. As we
-use them ourselves, you might find them awkward and even dangerous. I
-have left the larger car for your friend.”
-
-“Thank you,” I replied. “I daresay we shall both do very well.”
-
-I was glad to know that Jack would have the opportunity that he wished
-for, and I felt sure that he would make the most of it. I felt
-confident now that we were on the verge of a desperate effort for
-freedom. It was likely enough, indeed most likely, that the issue of
-such an effort would be immediately fatal to us, but, if not
-immediately fatal, then I thought that we might escape. Meanwhile I
-was determined to observe as closely as possible every person and
-thing that should come under my notice to-day.
-
-There was no difference between this car and the other except in
-respect of size. This one was a shade smaller. Also this one was
-furnished with some instruments which I had not observed in the other.
-There were two good field-glasses and a very powerful microscope.
-There were also some instruments whose use I did not recognise, but
-they seemed to suggest spectrum analysis. In addition to these there
-were some glass instruments that looked like test tubes, and other
-chemical apparatus of apparently simple construction, but quite
-unfamiliar to me.
-
-We got under way just as formerly, and we moved rapidly towards the
-western end of the valley. I reckon that it was two miles, or perhaps
-a little more, from the eastern to the western extremity. The valley
-was bounded all round by hills. But I seemed to see to-day more than
-ever before an air of artificial construction about these. From some
-points of view this disappeared altogether, while from other points
-the evidence of it was all but conclusive. I made sure sometimes that
-I could detect the junction of a great embankment with the hills on
-either side, but in each case after I had got another view I was not
-quite so sure. Just the same impression, as I have told you, was
-produced on me by the view of the hills when I first approached them
-from the east; but the appearance or impression of artificial
-construction was very much stronger now.
-
-I had on this day a very full view of the arrangement of the valley
-from end to end. You remember the large square in which on the second
-day we had seen the men drilled, and in which on the day after we had
-witnessed our host’s wonderful disappearance and reappearance. You
-remember also the broad walk which led from the eastern stairway to
-the square. Very well; at the further end of the square that walk was
-continued. It was the same breadth all the way through, and it was
-planted with trees and with flowering shrubs, mostly of a kind which I
-had never seen elsewhere. On each side of it narrower ways branched
-off, leading to houses of the same style as those in which Jack and I
-were lodged. There was an air of trimness and regularity about the
-whole but no beauty. I can imagine one looking at the scene and
-pronouncing it stiff and formal and nothing more. But as I looked I
-felt that if there was no beauty there was at least an eerie
-suggestiveness that took the place of beauty. Seen from above, as we
-saw, even trimness and regularity have an odd look. But after all the
-trimness and regularity of the scene were its least remarkable
-characteristics. The frowning hills with rampart-like ridges between
-them that might be walls or that might be natural embankments; the
-silence broken only by the whirr of our motion through the air, for
-there was no bird in the valley from end to end, and indeed no living
-creature of any sort except its human (if they were human)
-inhabitants, and I think a few snakes; the uncouth aspect of the
-chimneyless and smokeless houses; the absence of every object that
-might remind one of the cares and pleasures of life: no garden, or
-orchard, or playground, no child or woman;—all this formed altogether
-a picture as unearthly and inhuman as the barren surface of the moon.
-The odd-looking trees and shrubs which, as I have told you, were
-planted along the roadway, made this worse and not better. Their
-approach to naturalness made the unnaturalness of all the rest only
-the more apparent. Besides, their very presence made you feel that it
-was not nature, as on the surface of the moon, which caused the
-silence and desolation, but some foul and maleficent influence which
-was external to nature. The broad walk and the rows of houses both
-ended abruptly, abutting upon a belt of timber artificially planted.
-The trees were like the blue gum, they were so close together that no
-passage between them was possible, and as far as I could judge the
-intervals from tree to tree were quite equal and regular. This
-plantation extended a good way up the cliff on both sides, and it was
-a hundred yards across, or more. Beyond it was a space of about twenty
-feet, and then another row of trees of quite a different kind, and
-like nothing that I had ever seen. But as far as I could guess from
-such a height the leaves were as thick as the gum leaves, but in other
-ways much larger. This row of trees was nearly of the same depth as
-the other, and extended like it high up on either side of the cliff. I
-have little doubt that all these trees were intended as a defence
-against the vapours which were generated by certain works which were
-carried on beyond, and of which I must now try to tell you what I saw.
-
-From what I have said it will be clear to you that there was only one
-way from the eastern part of the valley to the western, and that was
-through the air. No one could pass through either belt of timber. And
-as we floated over them I noticed that Signor Niccolo at once raised
-the car several hundred feet, and kept well away to the south. Then he
-stopped; then he lowered the car a little and asked me what I saw.
-
-I saw several very unequal belts of what seemed to be cultivated
-ground. But it was a very queer-looking sort of cultivation. There was
-almost no green from end to end of it, and what green there was looked
-like the scum that you sometimes see floating upon the surface of a
-stagnant pool. And even this was only to be seen at the southern
-extremity of the cultivated ground. As you looked north the growth was
-more and more foul and offensive, and thick, filthy looking vapours
-floated over it here and there. I thought of Shelley’s ruined garden,
-where—
-
-  “Agaric and fungi with mildew and mould
-   Started like mist from the wet ground cold.”
-
-Only that here certainly it was not lack of care that produced all the
-foulness, for there was plenty of evidence of care everywhere. The
-beds were divided according to a well-marked plan: they were six in
-all. The bed on the southern extremity must have been over two hundred
-and fifty feet wide, and it had several narrow pathways through it,
-well formed from end to end. Then there was a wide pathway, say about
-eight feet in width, separating it from the next bed. The next bed was
-only half the width, with about half as many narrow pathways through
-it, and then a walk twice as wide as that which separated it from the
-first bed. Then the third bed was only half the width of the second,
-with a separating walk of about thirty-two feet across. And so on, the
-width of the beds decreasing and the width of the walks increasing in
-geometrical progression, so that the last bed was only about eight
-feet wide, while the walk beyond it was about two hundred and fifty
-feet wide.
-
-All the beds and walks were the same length. As I was making these
-approximate measurements mentally, with the aid of a powerful
-field-glass, I observed another fact that seems worthy of notice. The
-foul growths and vapours which, as I have told you, increased from the
-southern extremity of the ground northward, came absolutely to an end
-with the last bed but one. But the last bed, which was the narrowest,
-with the walks on either side of it which were the widest, occupied
-more than a third of the whole extent of the cultivated ground. The
-true extent of the foul growths and vapours was about this: they
-covered rather more than a third of the ground, and the space which
-they covered was rather nearer the southern end than the northern end.
-I had reason to believe before the close of the day that these vapours
-were deadly; but I had reason also to believe that there was something
-in the bed to the north beyond them which was deadlier still.
-
-There were many men employed at all the beds, much the greater number
-at the first bed, but the work at the sixth bed seemed to be far the
-more important; certainly it proceeded, as far as I was able to judge,
-with far more care and deliberation. Not, however, that there was
-anything slovenly about any of the work or of the workers.
-
-I first turned my attention to the first bed, and there I saw a number
-of men at about equal distances on each of the walks, each provided
-with an instrument like an elaborate sort of hoe, and having a box
-slung round his shoulders, and hanging directly under his face.
-Looking along these rows of men to the far edge of the beds, I saw
-that the valley ended at the west end with a platform, and on this
-platform several men were standing who were evidently working in
-concert with the workers at the beds. This platform was not so high as
-that at the east end, but, unlike that, it extended the whole width of
-the valley. It consisted of two terraces connected by steps, and on
-the lower terrace were the men whom I have mentioned who were working
-in concert with the workers at the beds. One man stood at the end of
-each walk, and handed to the nearest man on the walk a parcel, and
-then another and another. He took these parcels out of a little box on
-wheels that stood beside him. These parcels were marked and numbered.
-At least so I concluded from the manner in which the man on the walk
-received each parcel, glanced at it, and passed it on. This
-distribution of the marked parcels had commenced before I began to
-observe.
-
-Looking to the boxes on wheels, I saw that they were standing on
-rails, and were constructed so as to run on the same principle as the
-little waggons at the eastern end. Following with my glass the course
-of the rails on which they ran, I saw on the upper platform whither
-the rails led several machines in general appearance not unlike some
-of those at the other end. The glass which I was using was very
-powerful, much more powerful than any field-glass I had ever seen.
-Still, I could not observe with any such exactness as if I were
-standing by the machines. The car that I sat in, although there was
-not a breath of wind, was not absolutely still. I should not perhaps
-have noticed this if I had sat still and talked, or even read, but the
-moment I began to observe closely some object not on the car, I became
-conscious of a motion such as would be felt at sea on a calm day if
-there were a long but very gentle swell.
-
-I saw with enough exactness, however, to conclude that the processes
-which were being carried on here were not mechanical, but most likely
-chemical. I could see many jars and retorts and instruments of similar
-aspect, and I thought I could make sure that electricity was being
-largely applied, and that some strange use was being made of light. It
-seemed as if there were some substances in certain small vessels on
-which now and then light greatly magnified was being thrown. These
-vessels were arranged in order within the machines in such way that
-they could be subjected at the will of the worker to the various
-light, magnifying, and chemical and electric processes which it seemed
-to be the function of the machine to keep in action.
-
-I did not feel sure at first whether the substances in the vessels
-were being simply examined, or whether they were being treated with a
-view to effect some change in them. But I soon saw that the latter was
-the more likely purpose. For I perceived on further observation that
-they were subjected to a very severe and exact scrutiny before they
-were placed in the vessels. At one end of the row of machines was a
-very long table along which, near the middle, a trough ran from end to
-end. A man stood at the table who seemed to be examining something in
-the trough with a microscope, or at least with some sort of magnifying
-apparatus. Then he laid aside the magnifying apparatus, and poured
-from a little bottle either some fluid or powder, I could not tell
-which, on the objects which he was examining; then he would apply the
-magnifier again, and so on. Last of all, from this trough he would
-take up something or other with a little shovel or trowel, and place
-it in certain tiny waggons or boxes on wheels which communicated,
-apparently by automatic means such as I have before described, with
-the different machines, emptying their contents into the small
-vessels of which I have told you. All the machines appeared to be of
-the same sort, and engaged in the same work. I concluded that the man
-at the table with the trough in it was examining certain substances,
-and that these were being treated by the men at the machines with a
-view to some modification of their nature. And I had no doubt that
-this work, whatever it was, stood in some direct relation to the work
-at the seed beds.
-
-If I had had any such doubt it would have been removed by what I
-observed at the other end of the row of machines. There I saw a table
-just like an enormous billiard table, only there were no pockets, and
-at this table stood four or five men busily at work. This table was
-connected with the seed beds by the rails, along which ran the boxes
-on wheels. Indeed, it was to it that my look had first been directed
-when I followed, with my glass, the course of these boxes. But the
-more curious aspect of the machines had attracted my attention, and I
-had observed the whole row of them to the other end and the table with
-the trough in it which stood there, before observing this end more
-particularly. I now saw that the substances which had been examined in
-the trough and treated in the machines were carried, still by
-automatic machinery, to this enormous table and emptied upon it.
-There they were very rapidly sorted and distributed into parcels by
-the five or six men at work there. These men must have had great
-accuracy of eye and touch, and their way of working reminded me of the
-man in the Mint who rings the coin. The parcels which were so made up
-were distributed among the workers in the seed beds in the way already
-described.
-
-It was clear to me now that some substances, probably germs of one
-kind or another, were being examined and treated by scientific
-methods, and were being subjected afterwards to some sort of
-discriminating culture. I began to guess at the purpose of all this,
-and quite suddenly a suspicion broke upon me which almost made me drop
-my glass with horror. And I may as well say here at once that
-knowledge which I obtained later on confirmed this horrible suspicion.
-
-Recovering myself, I turned my attention to the workers at the seed
-beds. The men engaged at the first bed went slowly along the walks
-taking every now and then something out of the boxes which were slung
-one over the shoulder of each, and planting it in the ground and
-covering it over. I saw that they examined also something already
-planted, and sometimes took it up and put it into the box. I could not
-tell, owing to the distance and the motion, whether or not what they
-took up exhibited any visible growth. The substances, whatever they
-were, which were thus taken up, were placed in a little waggon which
-ran at the eastern end of the bed at right angles to the walks, and
-conveyed its contents to the walks which separated the first bed from
-the second, and were dealt with by the workers there. If you ask me
-how I knew that it was the substances exhumed and not the substances
-in the parcels that were thus passed, I can only say that such was my
-conclusion from the whole aspect of the movement, for I could not
-accurately distinguish small objects at the distance.
-
-The way of working at the next four beds was not so different from
-what I have described, as to make it worth while attempting a detailed
-account. It will suffice to say that the mode of procedure was to sow
-something in each bed, and to take up something which had been down in
-order to transfer it to the next bed, and this latter process
-evidently involved much careful examination and discrimination. I
-should also mention that at the third bed and onward the workers wore
-masks, apparently wire masks of some elaborate construction. They wore
-them, not continuously, but whenever they stooped to the ground or
-examined very closely the substances with which they were dealing. At
-other times the masks hung at the girdles. At the fourth bed the
-workers wore the masks more frequently, and at the fifth they only
-removed them occasionally. The way of working at the sixth bed was
-different and will need a fuller description.
-
-But before attempting to describe it I should say that just as I was
-beginning to observe the sixth bed, a slight change came in the
-weather which made two considerable changes, each in a different
-direction, in my opportunities of observation. It had been quite calm
-and at the same time cloudy. Now a light breeze began to blow and the
-sun shone out. The effect of the breeze was, at first, so to increase
-the motion of the car as to make very close observation impossible.
-But Signor Davelli presently applied a sort of ballasting machinery,
-which had the effect of greatly steadying the car. I was so much
-interested in what was going on below that I did not very accurately
-observe how this was done. But I think that it was somehow in this
-way. He moved, by mechanical contrivance, certain weights in the car,
-so as to change the centre of gravity in such manner as to render the
-part of it which we occupied subject to less motion than the rest. I
-have not much skill in such matters and I hardly know if this is
-possible, but so it seemed to me. But even after this was done the car
-was not by any means as steady as before.
-
-At the same time, however, the sunshine which now appeared disclosed
-some features of the scene which I should otherwise have missed. For
-now, at the northern end of the beds, on a platform at right angles
-with the western platform, I saw several shadows which indicated to my
-now skilled eyesight the presence of several of the invisible cars.
-They were standing all still when I first saw them, but presently one
-moved, rose quickly from the earth, and passed gradually out of sight
-to the northward. I followed its course with my glass for several
-minutes, till it was nearly out of sight. I then turned again to the
-seed-beds. The men at the sixth bed were very few, only five in all,
-and each was working apparently on his own account. But they were all
-doing exactly the same kind of work. They were, as I thought, making a
-final selection of the germs which had undergone so careful a process
-of cultivation. Each of them had three boxes, instead of one, slung in
-front of him, and a long instrument in his hand with which he
-extracted certain substances from the ground. This instrument was
-constructed so as to hold in a little receptacle what was lifted from
-the ground. Each of the workers, also, had slung over his shoulder
-what looked like a small frame. I selected one of the five at random,
-and watched his proceedings more particularly. Now and then he would
-unsling the frame and place it on the ground. Then he would give it a
-little twist, whereupon it would assume a form very like that of a
-lady’s work-table. I saw him do this many times, and each time he took
-something out of the closed receptacle which I have just mentioned,
-and placed it on the table, and observed it carefully with some kind
-of instrument that might have been a kind of microscope. After a more
-or less minute observation each time, he placed the substance observed
-in one of the boxes at his girdle, which he opened each time and
-carefully closed again. By-and-by he seemed to discover some substance
-which challenged his attention specially, for after a longer
-observation than usual, he took another instrument from his girdle and
-observed it more carefully and for a longer time. Then I could see
-that he called his neighbour, for he looked, and I almost thought that
-I could see his lips moving, and immediately the other looked up and
-came towards him. Then the first man handed his observing instrument
-to the second, who examined very carefully the substance on the
-little table. Some discussion seemed to follow, an animated
-conversation as I thought, with certainly a rapid pantomimic
-accompaniment.
-
-Then a very strange thing happened. As the first man stooped towards
-the table his mask fell off. My glass was so good that I saw it quite
-plainly come loose at one side, and I saw the man’s hand lifted up to
-catch it. But before he could reach it, it fell off as I have said.
-Then in a moment the man’s body became a mass of rapidly seething
-fluid, and the fluid became a dark cloud of smoke, which spread into
-the air and disappeared. Just so I had seen Signor Davelli’s body
-transformed and disappear the day before. The second man at once
-caught up the mask and stood apparently waiting. Presently a diffused
-vapour appeared. This became denser and denser, until it assumed the
-appearance of a seething fluid, as before. This quickly became
-consolidated and assumed the form of a body, the body of the man who
-had just disappeared. Then the other man, who was standing ready with
-the mask in his hand, fitted it again upon the first man, and both men
-proceeded to examine the substance before them, and to converse, as if
-nothing had happened to interrupt them. All this time (which, however,
-was a very short time, although the change was by no means
-instantaneous, as the like change seemed to be yesterday) the other
-men worked away without, as far as I could see, taking any notice
-whatever of what was going on.
-
-I exclaimed slightly and started, and this attracted Signor Davelli’s
-attention. He had been, I think, examining and preparing some
-instruments. “What do you see?” he said. I answered without taking my
-eyes from the glass. “A man over there disappeared and appeared again
-just as you did yesterday.”
-
-“Careless wretches!” he said, looking towards the place that I was
-observing.
-
-“I suppose,” I said, “that these substances which they are examining
-must be very deadly, for his mask fell off just before he disappeared,
-and I remember you said yesterday that what would kill us only drove
-you back into space.”
-
-“And you infer, I suppose, that if you had been in his place you would
-have dropped down dead.”
-
-“That is what I think,” said I.
-
-“Then you see if you become one of us you escape death.” He said this
-with a strongly persuasive manner, and as he spoke a slight shudder
-seemed to pass over me, and I expected him to say more. But he said no
-more, and he returned to the task in which he had been engaged.
-
-I then turned my attention again to my examination of the workers at
-the sixth bed.
-
-You will understand that a very broad walk lay between the bed and the
-northern platform. This walk was to all appearance formed of some hard
-stuff like flags or asphalt, and I now perceived by the aid of the
-sunlight that some of the cars had alighted upon this pathway and were
-standing there.
-
-I could see that there were five of them, and presently the five
-workers went over to the cars, one to each car. There was a man in
-each or beside each, I could not say which. For as you will remember I
-could only see the shadows of the cars, and the sun was now very high,
-and very near the zenith, and the shadows were proportionately small.
-The five workers took the boxes, each one from his girdle, one after
-another, and handed them, one after another, each worker to one of the
-men in or beside each car. Then the workers went back to the bed, and
-the cars rose from the ground. I could see that they rose almost
-perpendicularly at first for the shadows hardly moved, but became
-smaller and smaller; then they lengthened and passed away to the
-north-east, and rapidly disappeared. I looked up in the direction
-which seemed indicated by the lengthening shadows, and I could see
-distinctly for a few minutes something like a queer little cloud, and
-another and another until I counted the five. Then I lost sight of
-them.
-
-If the north platform was the port of departure for the cars it seemed
-as if the south platform was the port of arrival. For now on looking
-straight below I saw that many cars were standing there, and some
-arrived as I looked. The bright sunshine enabled me to count them as
-they stood and to see them coming; and my position in respect of them
-enabled me to estimate the size of these cars by their shadows much
-more exactly than that of those which I had been just observing at the
-other end. A little further observation showed me that the cargo they
-were laden with consisted of the same sort of substances as those
-which were so carefully treated on the platform, and in the seed beds,
-and, finally, in a modified condition exported for use elsewhere. I
-had evidence already of the care which was given to the preparation
-and final distribution of these, and I now had evidence that the same
-kind of care was given to their first selection. Signor Davelli
-lowered the car to the platform, alighted, and called a man to his
-side. I alighted at the same time. The man came at once, and it was
-clear that he knew what he was called for; for he brought with him
-something that looked like a little glass case or tray, in which were
-a multitude of little matters which proved to be germs of some sort,
-part of them of animal and part of vegetable growth, and these, as I
-gathered, had been selected from a great number of similar matters
-which had just come in, and they were now submitted to Signor Davelli
-for his examination and approval. He examined them carefully in some
-ways that I understood, and in some ways also that I did not
-understand at all. As an instance of the latter I may mention the
-following. He extracted one of the germs from the case and placed it
-on an elliptical piece of opaque ware which was very slightly
-depressed in the middle. The germ was so small that he had to work
-with a magnifying-glass of enormous power, and with instruments of
-extreme delicacy. He showed me the germ through the glass. It was
-egg-shaped and colourless, with a tiny dark spot under a partly
-transparent substance. Without the glass it was to me absolutely
-invisible. Then he got a little glass tube into which he put something
-out of a very small bottle, which he took from a number of others
-which lay side by side in a little case which he took out of a pocket
-in the side of the car. Whether what he took out of the bottle was
-powder or fluid I could not tell, though I was now so near what I was
-observing. But I noticed that when poured into the tube it seemed to
-change colour. Then Signor Davelli handed the tube to the man who had
-come in answer to his call, and this man, who appeared to know exactly
-what was expected of him, took the tube and blew through it upon the
-germ. I could not see that anything came through the tube, but in a
-few seconds a kind of cream-coloured spray began to rise from the
-germ, and Signor Davelli observed this, not the germ but the spray,
-very carefully through the magnifier. He seemed highly pleased; he
-selected a few more germs which he said were of the same sort as this;
-he spoke of them as particularly “promising,” and he indicated, as I
-thought (for just here he began to speak in a tongue unknown to me),
-the treatment which in his judgment they ought to receive.
-
-When I could no longer understand him I looked again to the workers at
-the beds. There were now a great many more workers at the first bed,
-and the work all through was proceeding in a very rapid and orderly
-manner. I followed quickly the whole process from first to last: the
-gathering in of the germs, their preliminary examination, the
-treatment which they underwent on the platform, the tests to which
-they were subjected before and after that treatment, their gradual
-passage through the several stages of cultivation, and finally their
-dispersion, in their cultivated condition, whither I could not
-certainly say, but presumably to the ends of the earth.
-
-One thing especially puzzled me: I could not estimate at all the
-amount of time which the process of cultivation consumed in the case
-of each germ. There were germs constantly going into cultivation and
-frequently coming out; but how long it was from the time that each one
-went in until the same one came out again, whether they took different
-periods of time or uniform, or nearly uniform periods, I could not at
-all guess. The rapidly decreasing size of the beds implied certainly
-that the process of cultivation was a process of elimination. It
-seemed that not one in a hundred of those which passed through the
-first stage could ever have reached the final stage. And I think also
-that it might be inferred with much probability from the same fact
-that the process of cultivation lasted in most cases for a long time.
-For otherwise they might surely have made up for losses during culture
-by an increase of the numbers put under cultivation. For what I saw
-left me no room to doubt that such an increase in quantity was at
-their disposal. Making a rough estimate, I should say that hundreds of
-germs cultivated up to the highest pitch were sent away every day,
-and that hundreds of thousands went under cultivation.
-
-While I was making these calculations, I became aware of a disturbance
-at the first bed. Turning my glass hastily to the spot I saw that one
-of the men had fallen down, and it struck me at first that there was
-going to be a repetition of the sort of disappearance and reappearance
-which I had already witnessed, and which I now understood. But I very
-soon saw that this was quite a different matter. There was a panic,
-and the men ran in all directions away from the man who had fallen. I
-followed for a moment with my glass the course of some of the
-fugitives. Turning the glass back towards the spot where the man had
-fallen, I could perceive nothing at all. Every trace of his body was
-lost. Then I heard a long and loud whistle, and in almost as little
-time as it takes me to tell it the panic had ceased and the men were
-working away just as before. Just then I heard what seemed like a deep
-and desperate curse from Signor Davelli, and looking towards him I saw
-him standing with his arm half way up, holding the glass. He seemed to
-have just taken it away from his eyes, and a scowl was passing over
-his face, made up as it seemed to me of malignity, ferocity, and
-fear. It reminded me at once of the expression which had passed over
-his countenance on the second day when the men were gathered in the
-square and when one or two of them proved to be missing, and I
-remembered also Jack’s words, “Depend upon it his damnation has got
-something or other to do with the loss of these men.”
-
-To conceal my horror I turned my glass again to the workers, but I
-really observed nothing more, and presently at a signal from Signor
-Davelli I resumed my place in the car. He raised the car just as
-before, made a curve to the south, and then turned the prow of the car
-towards the east end of the valley. We alighted at the same point
-whence we had started, and then he spoke—
-
-“Mr. Easterley, you know something of my power now.”
-
-I looked at him, I suppose, interrogatively, for he went on to say—
-
-“Among your kings who is the most powerful? Is it not he who possesses
-the deadliest weapons and can use them with the most facility and
-precision?”
-
-I said nothing for a moment, for I knew he was misleading me, or
-perhaps I should not say I knew, but I felt so, not indeed because of
-any opinion that I had formed about the purpose of the cultivated
-germs, but because of the profound distrust with which he had inspired
-me. Then, as he seemed to be waiting for my reply I said briefly, “I
-have no doubt at all of your power.”
-
-“Very well,” he said; “we shall see to-morrow if you are worthy to
-share it.”
-
-I said nothing. The words that formed themselves in my mind were, “I
-hope that I am not sufficiently unworthy,” but for obvious reasons I
-kept silence.
-
-Then he said, “We meet here to-morrow two hours before noon, and now
-you can return to your friend; I can see him coming towards us on the
-stair.”
-
-I could not see, for I had left the glass in the car; but I exchanged
-a parting salute with my companion, walked slowly to the stair and
-began to ascend it. Before beginning the ascent I had seen Jack
-standing half way up the stair, looking towards me.
-
-After a hearty grip of the hand we turned back and walked slowly
-towards the pathway that we had taken on the second morning of our
-stay here. We spoke almost in whispers. I gave Jack a brief account of
-what I had seen. He said that it indicated something of which we could
-hardly guess the whole import, but he agreed with me that such import
-was probably as bad as it could be.
-
-“We must try to escape,” he said, “as soon as possible. I know now
-exactly how to work and steer the cars, and I know, too, how to lay my
-hands on a second battery.”
-
-“What do we want with a second battery?” said I.
-
-“Well,” said he, “I don’t know what these batteries are made of; they
-are of solid stuff, not fluid, and yet they all waste very quickly. I
-doubt if any one of them will carry us as far as we may want to go;
-indeed, I am not sure that any two of them will be enough.”
-
-“But how are we to get away,” said I; “we are so closely watched?”
-
-“I’ll tell you what I propose,” he said. “We shall not retire to-night
-until an hour after dark, nor the next night, then we may hope that
-they will take it as a matter of course that we shall not retire on
-the third night until the same hour. But on the third night,
-immediately after dark, we shall make a bolt of it, and so we may hope
-for an hour’s start.”
-
-“In the car?”
-
-“Well, so I propose. I am aware that there is much to be said in
-favour of an attempt to escape on foot. These lozenges of theirs are
-meat and drink. We have had nothing else for several days, and we want
-nothing else, and we know now how many of them we should require, and
-it is certain that we could easily carry enough to last us three weeks
-or more. And if we make a bee-line for the wire we ought to reach it
-within three weeks or less. Besides, if we escape on foot they will
-not know where to look for us. We shall have cover among the trees,
-whereas in the air we shall have no cover.”
-
-“Not even if we escape in an invisible car?”
-
-“There is none of the cars invisible to them.”
-
-“Ah! so I was beginning to think.”
-
-“I am quite sure of it.”
-
-“Well, go on.”
-
-“Still, three weeks may not be enough. We may not be able to make a
-bee-line. Probably we shall meet with some impassable scrub, or other
-obstacle, and so our food may run out, and we may die miserably after
-all. But if we escape in one of the cars the whole risk will be over,
-and our fate will be decided one way or another within twenty-four
-hours.”
-
-“Very well,” said I, “we shall try it the night after next.”
-
-Then I told him of my appointment next day with Signor Davelli.
-
-He looked very grave. “That’s the biggest risk of all,” he said. “If
-you give in to him we’re both done for.”
-
-“I won’t give in to him.”
-
-“Good; but if he knows for certain that you are resisting him, he may
-take immediate action, and then also we shall be done for.”
-
-“He will give me more than one trial.”
-
-“I think he will, but, any way, we are not likely to have as much time
-as we thought. I would say, let us try to-night, but we are watched so
-closely, that it is not possible. We had better say to-morrow night.”
-
-“So be it,” said I.
-
-Then we went to our quarters and had some food and a little rest. Then
-we walked backward and forward on the same path again. About an hour
-after dark we retired for the night, and when we had passed into the
-inner room we could see the bright light already shining before the
-doors. The watch upon us was close and constant.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X.
-
-LEÄFAR.
-
-
-That night we lay both of us in the outer chamber, partly for company,
-and partly because neither of us wished to be within sight of the
-light which lay all night before the door, and which could be seen
-from the window of the inner chamber. There was nothing, indeed,
-strange or ugly about the light itself; it was very bright, and, under
-other circumstances, might have been pleasant. But to us, guessing
-whence it was and what was its purpose, it had come to have a weird
-look of doom about it.
-
-We lay still, scarcely speaking. Only from time to time a word or two
-passed between us, either suggestive of preparation, or of some topic
-of encouragement. By and by we lapsed into silence, and thence into an
-imperfect sleep. There was no artificial light in our chamber, we had
-no occasion for any, although day and night were nearly of equal
-length. Sometime in the evening before dusk we used to take a second
-bath (if one may use the consuetudinal for so short a period), and
-then to throw off our hats and sandals and to exchange the long robe,
-which was our only other garment, for another of the same sort, was
-the whole of our preparation for the night.
-
-I do not know how long I had been sleeping, but it could not have been
-very long, when I woke up with a start. Surely there was a light in
-the room? Yes, there was, and it was growing slowly brighter. I looked
-over to the couch where Jack lay; it was very near my own, but not
-near enough to permit me to touch him without rising.
-
-I sat up and put on my sandals. The light had now become so much
-brighter that I could see Jack plainly. He was awake and watching as I
-was. The light was now increasing much more quickly, and in a few
-minutes the room was quite brilliantly illuminated, and there was a
-sort of core of brightness beginning to appear in the centre of the
-light. This presently assumed a wavering aspect, and by-and-by became
-a bubbling fluid. I was prepared to expect the appearance of a form of
-human similitude, for I had witnessed as you will remember, the same
-thing twice already. The same, and yet not the same, for the dark
-vapour which I had seen in the former cases was replaced in this case
-by a bright rose-coloured light. I suppose it was partly because of
-this obvious difference that I felt now no fear, but hope. I began to
-think that help was coming, and that we were not going to be left to
-fight out a desperate battle alone.
-
-As I looked, the bubbling fluid became consolidated and assumed, as I
-had expected, a human form. A man of, it might be middle age, stood
-before us. I should have said much under middle age only that his
-expression indicated, as I thought, a ripeness of experience and a
-calm wisdom seldom seen in very young men. There was a stately beauty
-and benignity in his features and demeanour, a mingled tone of love
-and command and entreaty; all the direct reverse of what we had seen
-in Signor Davelli and his men. He wore a flowing robe of much the same
-pattern as ours, but it was of a very bright, indeed of a luminous
-material, and it had somehow a strange air of being part of his body.
-His head was uncovered; his hair was brown, short, and slightly
-curled, and his eyes were blue.
-
-We both started to our feet, and made, almost involuntarily, a
-profound salutation.
-
-“Friends,” he said, “you are in urgent danger, and I come to inform
-and counsel and help you.” He spoke the English language with a very
-sweet and firm intonation, and yet his accent was in some way
-suggestive of an outland or foreign origin. “I am a friend,” he said,
-“and in some sort a guide of men. It was my mission long ages ago to
-warn your first father of the designs of an enemy of the same order as
-this one of yours, but far mightier than he. Later on in the plains of
-Assyria, under the name and form of a man, I baffled the designs of
-another of the same evil race. And many times in more modern days I
-have rendered help of which no record remains to man and to the
-friends of man. Speak to me freely; you may call me Leäfar.”
-
-I was meditating whether or not I should begin with a confession of my
-own faults, when Jack stepped forward, prevented me, and spoke.
-
-“Sir Leäfar,” he said, “tell us first of all who these men are into
-whose power we seem to have fallen, and from whom we desire to
-escape.”
-
-“Yes,” answered he who called himself Leäfar, “it is best that you
-should have information first; counsel and help will follow.
-
-“These men and I have one thing in common. We are inhabitants not of
-earth, but of ether; as they have themselves told you, we are dwellers
-in space. But they are not, as they would have you think, a fair
-sample of the race which inhabits the ether, for although very many as
-compared with the inhabitants of earth, they are very few in
-comparison of those who hold with me.”
-
-“How is it possible,” said I, “that you and they, although dwellers in
-space, or inhabitants of the ether, can assume as you do the form of
-men, and at least in some measure their nature?”
-
-“I cannot,” he replied, “unfold the matter to you in full detail, for
-you have not the faculties needful to enable you so to apprehend it;
-but if you will attend I will try to show you by analogies how it is
-possible for us to pass from our world to yours. But sit down,” he
-said; “you will be weary, for I have much to say, and there is no time
-to lose.”
-
-Hereupon he sat down, having first indicated to us with a gracious air
-where we were to sit. We both sat in front of him, but each one a
-little to one side. Then he began. “The material,” he said, “of your
-world and of such worlds as yours is limited. The material of our
-world envelops and pervades it all, and extends to immeasurable
-distances, as I believe to infinity, but the knowledge of infinity is
-reserved to the Infinite One Himself.
-
-“The material of our world is the basis of the material of yours. The
-latter is made out of the former by a simple process of agglomeration.
-All the material of worlds like yours is resolvable ultimately into
-extremely minute particles, each of which is just a little twist of
-the ether. You may compare these particles to knots that you make upon
-a cord. Just as the parts of the cord in the knot act upon one another
-in a way in which they could not act if they remained in one
-continuous line, so the knotted or twisted ether becomes capable of a
-great variety of interactions which are not possible to it in its
-original state, and as the knots increase in complexity these possible
-interactions are multiplied. The motion by which the first
-agglomeration of ether is formed generates the various processes which
-are known to you as heat, magnetism, electricity, and the different
-chemical affinities, and so the matter of your world is built up. The
-bodies of the dwellers in ether are composed of ether in the simple
-state, and by a process which is simple enough although not fully
-explicable to you, we can transform them into the material of which
-your bodies are made and retransform them again.
-
-“Two analogies, one mechanical and one chemical, may help you, if not
-to understand the process at least to see how it is possible. Suppose
-a string of immense length so thin as to be quite invisible; and
-suppose it to be knitted and woven and re-woven until it be formed
-into a piece of cloth, compact but very small. Suppose the process of
-knitting or weaving to be performed very quickly, and then suppose the
-web so formed to be as rapidly unravelled again. In that case the
-piece of cloth would appear and disappear just as you have seen our
-bodies do.
-
-“Or suppose two vast masses of oxygen and hydrogen in the proportions
-in which they exist together as water. Suppose them to be brought
-together and subjected to the chemical process which is needed in
-order to make them combine: what happens? A small quantity of water
-suddenly appears. Reverse the process and it disappears.
-
-“By means roughly analogous to these we are able to assume terrestrial
-bodies and to pass into the ether again. But while our bodies are in
-terrestrial form they are subject to the same laws as yours; we need
-food and sleep, and we are subject to the various accidents and
-conditions of humanity.”
-
-Here he paused for a moment and Jack spoke.
-
-“But you are not subject to death as we are. Any cause that would kill
-us only resolves your material bodies into their ethereal form.”
-
-“That is the case,” he said; “but the difference is not such as you
-suppose. All the material of your bodies is ultimately resolved into
-ethereal matter, but not all of it is essential to your being, and
-that which is essential is resolved by a much speedier process.
-
-“But to speak of ourselves: while we remain in our own world we have
-instruments of sensation fitted to our condition and analogous to
-yours, just as hearing is analogous to seeing. But I cannot explain to
-you any more exactly our means of sensation, just as you could not
-explain sight to a man born blind.
-
-“But our sensations are throughout strictly analogous to yours and
-pass into yours when we assume terrestrial bodies.”
-
-Here he paused again, and I asked, “Can you see our worlds from
-yours?”
-
-“No,” he replied. “The ether as far as we know pervades the universe
-and passes freely through worlds like yours, and we, while dwelling in
-the ether, have no more cognisance of your world than you of ours.
-
-“But there are certain links,” he added, “which bind both worlds
-together, and two of these are known to you as _light_ and _gravity_.
-Our world is for ever in motion; motion is of the essence of its
-being, and it communicates its motion to all that is formed out of it
-and continued by it as your worlds are. Such motion is communicated in
-exact proportion to the vastly varied complexities of the matter of
-your worlds, and out of this proportionate communication arise the
-movements and the laws of movement of all the stars and planets, all
-of which movements and laws of movement are amenable to calculation.
-Much of this is already known to you, and the day will probably come
-when your men of science will be able to calculate the proper motion
-of the remotest star that your instruments can discover with as much
-precision as they now calculate the motions of your moon.
-
-“Light is another link between your worlds and ours. And light is the
-one means which we have of detecting from our world the presence of
-yours. Not that we see light as you see it. The sort of perception
-that you have by means of light we have in our world by analogous but
-higher means. The presence of light is known to us when in our own
-world only by a slight shuddering motion of the ether. Just as you
-perceive a difference in the mode of motion when you travel on land
-and on the water or in the air; just so we perceive an analogous
-difference when we pass to the regions of light from the regions
-where light is not. A shuddering motion of the material of our world
-warns that we are where your worlds are. And just as for you sometimes
-the motion of the air or water passes into a hurricane or a whirlpool,
-so to us a vastly increased movement of the ether (not the regular
-movement which is the cause of gravity, but a quivering movement)
-indicates the presence of one of the secular outbursts of
-conflagration which form part of the process by which your worlds
-become fitted for your occupation.”
-
-“But how,” inquired I, “can you come into our world without having any
-direct sensation of its whereabouts?”
-
-“Once we have been here,” he said, “it is a matter of easy calculation
-to us to fix the locality; and we can communicate the elements of the
-calculation to others who have not been here.”
-
-Here he paused, and rose to his feet, and as we were about to rise he
-signed to us to keep sitting.
-
-“Now,” he said, “hearken carefully while I tell you of those into
-whose power you are fallen.” And as he spoke it seemed to me that his
-attention was directed more especially to myself.
-
-He went on—“The Infinite One, ages before your worlds were formed,
-called the ethereal host into being. And at first they were like your
-brute creatures, only with vastly greater powers and intelligence;
-yet, like them, for their vast powers were not under the control of
-any will of their own, for there was no such thing then as will,
-except the will of the Infinite One.
-
-“But it pleased the Infinite One at last to give His creatures will.
-That which is His own prerogative He communicated to them in order
-that He might give manifold scope to the eternal love which is His
-essence. That will of theirs it was His will that they should exercise
-in conformity with that eternal love. But being free it might oppose
-that eternal love, not indeed to eternity, but for incalculable cycles
-of time.
-
-“A few, a very few, as compared to the whole number, opposed
-themselves to Him, and as the ages passed these grew ever more evil,
-and ever more full of hatred of Him and of all who hold with Him. A
-very few they were as compared with those who held with Him, but a
-great many when compared with all the men who inhabit this little
-world of yours, or who ever have inhabited it.”
-
-Here he paused again, and there was dead silence for a space, and then
-Jack spoke, and his voice was like that of a man hurried and somewhat
-overawed.
-
-“But how did the will to resist the will of the Infinite One ever come
-into being at all?”
-
-“It was a possibility from the moment when the first free being was
-created, and it became actual by the gradual and undue admixture of
-things in themselves good. The desire to do great things is good, and
-the joy to be able to do great things is good. But if these two good
-things are suffered to govern the whole being, they become the
-possible germs, inert as yet, of self-assertion and pride. And then
-when the call for self-sacrifice comes, as it must, to the finite in
-the presence of the Infinite, the will, the spark of divine life which
-the Creator has committed to the creature, rises up against the
-sacrifice, and by its action fertilises the germs of self-assertion
-and pride.
-
-“So began the deadly war of the finite with the Infinite. That had its
-origin in ‘worlds before the man,’ and it speedily passed over into
-man’s world, and would long ago have destroyed it had not the Infinite
-One Himself become human in order to teach men by His own example and
-in His own Person the divine lesson of self-sacrifice.”
-
-Here Leäfar paused again and sat down, and seemed to wait for some
-question from us. I was quite powerless to speak. I felt quite
-awe-stricken and shamed, but presently I heard Jack’s voice ringing
-out clearly and confidently like the voice of a fearless and innocent
-child.
-
-“Sir Leäfar,” he said, “do the men who inhabit this valley belong to
-the evil race you speak of?”
-
-“Yes,” he replied, “they are some of the least powerful, though not
-the least evil among them.”
-
-“And what is their purpose here?”
-
-“Their purpose in general is to set the inhabitants of your world
-against the will and purpose of the Infinite One, to teach them to
-call evil good and good evil. And they work out this purpose by a
-great variety of methods.
-
-“They assume human forms, and they have dwellings in the most
-inaccessible parts of your worlds, near the summits of the loftiest
-mountain ranges, and in the polar regions, and in remote islands, and
-in deserts as here. When civilised men move into their neighbourhood
-they move away; and they destroy most of the marks of their
-occupation. Sometimes nothing remains; sometimes, it may be, a few
-huge rocks standing on end, or piled one upon another. Such remains,
-when you discover them, you account for by attributing their formation
-to races of men who have passed away.
-
-“From these remote settlements of theirs they make excursions into the
-inhabited world; they mingle sometimes among men, stirring them to
-murder and rapine, sowing discontent among the people, and prompting
-rulers to tyrannous deeds of cruelty and violence. This Niccolo
-Davelli, as he calls himself, was very active in the most corrupt and
-violent years of the tenth century, when he was the active adviser of
-an Italian bandit baron.
-
-“But they have seldom taken prominent action in their own persons in
-more modern times, although here and there they appear in subordinate
-characters, stirring up strife and all kinds of evil, and then they
-pass elsewhither.
-
-“But this Davelli has lately taken up a line of action against God and
-man which some of the more powerful of his kind took up ages ago with
-far wider success; he has established here, and in the inaccessible
-parts of the Himalayas, and in one or two other places, artificial
-seed-beds of pestilence. His emissaries gather, from all quarters,
-germs of natural and healthful growth, and submit them to a special
-cultivation under which they become obnoxious and hurtful to human
-nature. And then they sow them here and there in the most likely
-places, and thus produce disease, death, and disaster among men. The
-black death, and the plague, and smallpox, and cholera, and typhus and
-typhoid fevers have all had their origin in this way, and some of
-these are kept alive since by the carelessness of men. But of later
-years men are beginning to understand health and disease better, and
-so the power of these evil beings is becoming greatly restricted in
-this direction.”
-
-Here he paused again, and I took heart and said—
-
-“Is it simply to gratify their love of inflicting pain that they
-cultivate and propagate these plagues?”
-
-“Partly that, no doubt,” he said, “but, above all, their purpose is to
-set men against the Infinite One by making them believe Him to be the
-Creator of painful and abominable diseases.”
-
-“But why should they not blame Him,” said I, “if He has called into
-existence those evil beings who invent such diseases?”
-
-“Suppose,” replied Leäfar, “that a human enemy were to poison your
-water supply. Would you blame God or man?”
-
-“Man, I suppose,” replied I.
-
-“Yes,” he said, “for you would recognise the fact that man, being man,
-is free, and that once his freedom absolutely ceases he is no longer
-man. The Infinite One may, if He so please, take away his freedom,
-but by so doing He annihilates the man.”
-
-“You raise a hard question,” said I; “is the Infinite One, then,
-committed to the eternal prevalence of evil? Is He pledged never to
-annihilate the power to do evil?”
-
-Leäfar answered very slowly and solemnly, and yet there was a smile
-upon his countenance as he spoke.
-
-“There is one thing impossible to the Eternal Love, and that is to
-annihilate Himself: and it would be to annihilate Himself if He were
-to permit the existence of Eternal hatred.”
-
-“Then,” said I, “if I understand you rightly, these beings are doomed
-to annihilation?”
-
-He smiled again and said, “Surely the freedom which opposes and
-continues to oppose God must perish: it is self-doomed; that is as
-certain as that the Love of God is infinite. The creature who so
-misuses his freedom must lose it at last, and then he is as if he had
-never possessed it. And so his moral being is, as you say,
-annihilated. All his other powers remain, but his will is dead. He
-becomes, like the brute, or like the earliest of the ethereal
-creation; nothing but an instrument in the hand of God. Such is the
-eternal doom of those who choose evil and abide by their choice. No
-pain remains, no hatred remains, no sin remains, because no opposition
-to God remains. But no real soul remains. The moral being is dead and
-done with, only an intellectual being remains.”
-
-“And what becomes of them?”
-
-“They become the beasts of burden of the universe: they become
-instruments for carrying on the various mechanisms of the visible
-creation. They become subject to us just as your horse is to you. Many
-such are under my own direction and control.”
-
-Here Jack started and almost interrupted him, then hesitated and said,
-“I beg your pardon.”
-
-“Say on,” replied Leäfar, quite softly and kindly.
-
-“What I was going to say,” said Jack, “was this: It seems to me that
-the final doom of which you tell us must have come to some of them
-before this.”
-
-“Some of them are meeting it every day,” said he. “The mightiest of
-them can hold out for periods of secular vastness without losing their
-power of will in any appreciable degree; others, again, lose it all
-after a period comparable with the life of a man.”
-
-“And do they all know that they must lose it?”
-
-“As well as you know that you must die.”
-
-“Ah!” said Jack, “I thought so, and now, sir, tell me one thing more:
-if this doom comes upon them while they are in human form, what
-happens then?”
-
-“They pass back at once into their own world and are dealt with as I
-have told you there.”
-
-“Yes, I see it now. Two of the men here appeared to be missing the
-other morning, and when Davelli missed them I saw his face change with
-terror and malignity. I said to my friend here, ‘Depend upon it the
-loss of these men has got something to do with his damnation.’ Did I
-not say so, Bob?”
-
-I nodded assent.
-
-“It is true,” said Leäfar.
-
-“Then surely,” said I, “they must be dying out rapidly.”
-
-“Dying out, certainly, but not as rapidly as you might suppose.”
-
-“Have they,” said I, “the power to reproduce their kind?”
-
-“No,” said he; “the dwellers in the ether ‘neither marry nor are given
-in marriage.’ But they recruit their failing ranks from amongst men
-and from races analogous to man in other worlds like yours; they win
-them over to their side here and then claim them when they pass over
-there. Sometimes they steal them away from this world. Their purpose
-is to steal you away, one of you or both.”
-
-“Steal us! Surely that would not be permitted?”
-
-“It is not possible unless you yourselves give yourselves away.”
-
-“How should we give ourselves away?”
-
-“If you submit your will to theirs they get power over you, power
-which is hard to shake off, and which is very easily increased.”
-
-Here he paused, and the smile which usually attended his pauses did
-not appear. A sad expression, severe yet very gentle, took its place.
-There was a silence of several seconds. Then I stood up and spoke,
-standing.
-
-“Hear me, sir. I remember and repent my faults. I knew that this man
-was a bad man. Nay, I had begun to suspect that he was something other
-and worse than a bad man. But I saw that he knew things which I longed
-to know, and so I suffered myself to forget his badness and I did for
-the moment submit myself to his will. He exercised his power upon me
-and he deceived me in its exercise. He transferred me to the surface
-of the moon, or showed it me in a trance, I know not which. I am
-conscious ever since of being somehow in bondage to him; although I am
-now determined to resist him to the death. Is there any hope?”
-
-“Yes, there is hope, surely, although you may have, as you say, to
-resist him to the death. But if you die resisting him he will have no
-power over you after death. I am come to rescue both you and your
-friend. He runs no such risk as you do, although you are both in great
-danger of your lives.”
-
-“And but for my compliance, I suppose neither of us would have run any
-risk at all.”
-
-“Not so. You were both of you in great danger of your lives, and your
-friend is still so. But any further compliance on your part will make
-you the slave of this man, living or dead.”
-
-I shuddered and said, “What is to be done?”
-
-“Your penitence and your present purpose are accepted, and you will
-have one more opportunity of asserting your own will against this
-Davelli. Tell me what has passed between you since your first
-compliance.”
-
-I told him in brief all that I have told you in the last chapter.
-
-“It is clear,” said Leäfar, “that he is going to make one more attempt
-upon you. He will make it, no doubt, when you meet him to-morrow. If
-you surrender your will to him again I see no hope. If you resist,
-then he will have no power but over your body.”
-
-“And what will he do then?”
-
-“I cannot certainly say. He may kill you in his unrestrained fury. It
-is not altogether unlikely that he will. But that is all that he can
-do. You will have escaped him, and I will be able most probably to
-extricate your friend. But I think it more probable that he will
-resolve to make one other effort to enslave you, and, in that case,
-before the effort is made, I shall probably be able to extricate you
-both. I have little or no doubt that I shall be able, although the
-strife will be hard.”
-
-It occurred to me to ask him why he would not rescue us at once,
-without waiting for any further conference between Davelli and me. But
-I knew what the answer would be, and I felt its force. I knew that I
-should be fit for nothing in earth or heaven until I had asserted my
-will against this evil being, so I answered simply, “How shall I
-resist him?”
-
-“He will probably endeavour to throw you into a trance again, and if
-you give your will to him for a moment, he will succeed. But if you
-hold your soul firmly, then he will fail. Call inwardly upon God and
-give yourself to God with your whole purpose. Think all the time of
-the holiest event in the history of mankind when the power of evil
-flung its whole force against One that was human, and was baffled, and
-the victory was won through suffering. So you will keep your will
-unsurrendered, and your adversary will be beaten back.”
-
-“And then?”
-
-“Then, as I have said, he may kill your body in his disappointment and
-humiliation and rage, but you will be safe from him all the same.”
-
-“Let me escape him, and I am willing to die.”
-
-“That is the true temper; keep to that, and you need have no fear. And
-now listen to my further counsel.”
-
-But here again Jack interrupted him. “Surely, sir,” he said, “it is
-better, is it not, to act at once? Why expose my friend here to a
-fearful risk? Lead us now, and we will follow you any whither. Let the
-risk, then, be what it may be, it cannot be more than the risk of
-death.”
-
-“Sir,” said Leäfar, “I deeply honour your spirit and feeling, but you
-do not know the nature of the case. It is true that I might be able to
-rescue both of you from the place without any further contact between
-your friend and him whom you call Niccolo Davelli. I might be able and
-yet I might not, for although I am stronger than these men they have
-great odds against me here. But that is not the question, for suppose
-that I were quite certain that I could take you both alive out of this
-place, your friend remaining as he now is, I should not try to do so,
-for his own sake I would not. Wherever he would be, the power which
-this evil being has gained over him would remain and might be
-exercised at the most inopportune time for him. Davelli would select
-his own time, and that would be, no doubt, when your friend would be
-not so likely as now to resist him successfully. I see that you are
-willing to risk your life on his account, and your willingness will,
-no doubt, help him greatly. But not even all the wealth of sacrifice
-can save a man against his will. You may win his will but you cannot
-dispense with its exercise as long as he is man, or no less than man.
-Believe me that the very best thing that can be done for your friend
-is to let him take at once the opportunity which presents itself of
-asserting his will against the will of this evil one. He never can be
-more favourably disposed to do so than he is now.”
-
-It seemed as if Jack was going to answer, and I tried to catch his eye
-to dissuade him, for I felt very certain that what Leäfar said was
-true. But I could not catch his eye, and he tried to speak, but
-hesitated before a word came. Leäfar waited courteously. Jack made a
-further attempt. “But, sir,” he began, and then again hesitated. At
-last he said, “No doubt, sir, you know best; let me not interrupt you
-further.”
-
-Then Leäfar continued, addressing himself to me. “I will suppose, now,
-that you have been successful in your endeavour to resist your enemy,
-and that he has resolved to make one other attempt to subdue your
-will. For certain reasons, of which I am well aware, but which I have
-now no time to explain, I know that in that case another night will
-have to pass before the next attempt is made. And during that night
-you must make your endeavour to escape. Come back at once when Davelli
-leaves you and meet your friend at or near the entrance to these
-rooms. Go and take some rest and refreshment, for you will need them,
-and provide yourselves with as much food as you can carry with ease.
-Then wander whither you will, only not far, and keep well within the
-bounds of the valley. Make no attempt whatsoever at concealment while
-the daylight lasts. As the darkness comes on return hitherward and
-rest awhile within sight of these chambers.
-
-“Wait there until you see two men about your own size enter the room,
-and until you see the light settle down as usual before the door.
-Then go both of you to the car”—(here he addressed himself especially
-to Jack)—“the car, I mean, in which you rode yesterday; start at once;
-lose no time, there is none to lose, for if you are pursued at all,
-you will be pursued before daylight. I will see that the car is well
-stored with food and provided with a spare battery and with glasses
-and light.”
-
-Here he added some further instructions, which I lost. Then I heard
-him say further,
-
-“If you are followed I will follow, and I will help you as far as I
-may. There is everything to hope, and by that time there will be but
-little to fear. Barring unforeseen accidents you will escape with your
-lives. A brave man does all he can to save his life, but he is not
-afraid to lose it.
-
-“Be sure, at any rate, that one good result will come of your
-adventure. These men will desert this place. No white man before you
-ever set his foot here, and these beings always conceal their earthly
-dwelling-places from civilised men. The next pioneers will find
-nothing here but, perhaps, a few odd-looking rocks.
-
-“You may not need my assistance any more, but if your enemies follow
-you look up for a white flag and you will see that you are not
-alone.”
-
-Here he ceased and stood up, and we also stood up and bent our heads.
-He lifted his hand simply, and said “God keep you.”
-
-Then he disappeared in the same way in which he had appeared, but much
-more quickly.
-
-It was still quite dark in our quarters although the day may have been
-beginning to break, and after exchanging a few hopeful words we tried
-to sleep. Strange to say I slept soundly, and I did not awake until it
-was full daylight.
-
-When the appointed hour came I wrung Jack’s hand in silence, and went
-to meet Signor Davelli. I reached the place of meeting only a few
-minutes too soon, and presently I saw him coming.
-
-I knew that this was the hour of destiny for me, and I remember
-thinking that a man does not always know the hour of destiny when it
-comes, and that it would be better for him if he did. Then, of a
-sudden, it struck me that such reflection indicated a coolness that
-was hardly native to me, and, was it a good sign or a bad? I thought
-it was good, and yet that it was overdone. And I remembered to have
-read, “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”
-
-Just then Davelli came up, and I silently committed myself to God and
-awaited his onset. It came without any delay, but without any
-demonstration. He wasted no time, and he was evidently very confident.
-I was standing when he arrived, and after the usual exchange of
-salutations he invited me to sit down. I did so, and he sat down too,
-not beside me but opposite me. Then, almost immediately, he rose up
-again and looked straight into my face; rather, I should say, straight
-into my eyes. Should I look away from him? No; straight back into his
-eyes, and let him do his best. Then, as our eyes met, there began for
-me a series of desperate encounters of which there was absolutely no
-outward sign.
-
-First, it seemed as if I were enduring the most imperious cravings of
-appetite—appetite as relentless and cruel as that which drove the
-Samaritan mother to devour her son; such appetite as has ever been
-ready to trample upon honour and hope and shame and love, for the sake
-of its own immediate gratification. Such keen, hungry sense of desire
-goaded me now, and along with its urgency came the consciousness,
-full, clear, and strong, that it would be gratified at once, if I
-would simply change the look of resistance with which I was meeting my
-enemy’s eye for a look of acquiescence.
-
-I do not know how long this lasted, it could hardly have been an
-hour, but it seemed like days and years to me. But at last there was a
-change, and of a sudden I became conscious of pain—physical pain
-multiplied and intensified indefinitely beyond all my experience or
-imagination—
-
-  “All fiery pangs on battle-fields
-   On fever beds where sick men toss.”
-
-All these seemed to wring me, and rack me, and strive to wrench the
-soul out of me, and ever as the pain grew, there grew also the
-consciousness that if I would but meet my enemy’s eye with one
-moment’s glance of acquiescence all the pain would be exchanged for
-ease; and oh! how delicious the very thought of ease appeared to be,
-more delicious than all the delights of all the senses.
-
-Meantime, I was conscious of nothing external except the eyes of my
-adversary, the expression of which was an extraordinary mixture of
-persuasiveness and deadly determination, now and then crossed,
-however, by a furious flash of malignity, and again by a flash of
-hideous and awful terror.
-
-But all the time also I was doing with all my might what Leäfar had
-bade me do, and it seemed to me as if my will were growing one with
-God’s will, and it seemed to me as if I stood under the cross, and
-felt in my own flesh and sinews the very nails and thorns which
-pierced the Divine Sufferer.
-
-Again there was a change; all at once there began to crowd into my
-mind in rapid succession all the questionings of life and of thought,
-of knowing and of being, that ever have tantalized the mind of man.
-And it seemed to me that only a thin veil was lying between me and the
-answers to them all. It seemed to me that the key of all knowledge was
-lying within my reach; as if the solution of all the moral and
-intellectual riddles that ever have plagued humanity were there now
-ready to my hand; as if all mysteries might be unsealed for me in one
-way, and only one way, and as if that way once again were to change my
-attitude of resistance, if only for a moment, for an attitude of
-acquiescence.
-
-And now the burning lust of knowledge seemed to grow into a force, far
-exceeding all the other forces that had been brought to bear upon me.
-Rather it seemed to draw them all up into itself, and then to let them
-loose upon me. And for one dreadful moment I felt as if I must
-surrender. But with a sheer and last effort I offered myself to God.
-
-And then a whisper seemed to speak within, and say that the solution
-of all mysteries was only to be found in the Divine Self-Sacrifice.
-And then it seemed as if the cross and the figure upon the cross
-filled all my sight, and the evil glare of the eyes that had been
-fixed upon me slowly passed away.
-
-I don’t know if I fainted, I suppose I did, but if I did I was roused
-by a loud and furious curse, and starting into consciousness I saw
-Signor Niccolo looking at me with a look of baffled malignity, hatred,
-and fear.
-
-“Wretch!” he said, “you have resisted me and you must die. And yet not
-now, nor easily. Go back to prison. To-morrow you shall suffer again
-all and more than all that you have suffered to-day. You are in my
-power beyond hope of escape; you must yield to me or die.”
-
-Then he put a little phial to his mouth, and his body seemed first to
-melt and then to boil, and then to pass into a dark vapour, and then
-to disappear almost as quickly as I have written the words.
-
-After a few minutes I rose to my feet, saying, Thank God! I found that
-I was quite exhausted and scarce able for any exertion. I walked very
-slowly away.
-
-I soon saw Jack standing near the foot of the eastern stairway. I made
-a signal to him and he hurried towards me. We met in a few minutes
-more; and in answer to Jack’s look of anxious inquiry, I whispered, “I
-have beaten him,” and Jack said, “Thank God!” and strange as it may
-seem, not another word on that part of the subject passed between us
-for months after.
-
-We returned to our quarters and rested and refreshed ourselves, and
-then we compared notes briefly. We knew exactly what we had to do, and
-the time was at hand. About an hour before sunset we left our quarters
-for the last time, and wandered about without any attempt at
-concealment, and exchanging only a brief word or two now and then.
-
-The night came on cloudy and dark, and still we stayed without. It was
-about an hour after dark when we saw such a light as that which rested
-every night before our door moving about hither and thither. It seemed
-as if the bearers of the light were in search of us, and we were
-beginning to wonder how best we should baffle their scrutiny. Just
-then we saw the figures of two men walk up to the door of our quarters
-and enter. Then the door was closed, and the light settled down before
-the door and all was quiet.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XI.
-
-ESCAPE.
-
-
-When we saw the light settle down before the door it was about eight
-o’clock, a little more than two hours after sunset. It was very cloudy
-but not absolutely dark. We turned our steps at once toward the stair.
-We had no expectation of any difficulty just yet. The watch which was
-kept upon us during the night was effectually neutralised; for the
-watchers, no doubt, supposed that we were safely housed, and that we
-could not stir without betraying our movements to them. Nevertheless,
-we walked very softly and spoke almost nothing until we reached the
-summit of the stair. Then we stopped and held a very brief conference.
-There were various points of detail as to which it was needful that we
-should understand one another more perfectly. But after glancing at
-them it seemed better that we should make a start first, and then we
-could converse without losing time.
-
-So we hurried along the platform to the car. It was on the very spot
-where we saw it first, on the evening when we made our first voyage in
-it. Everything was ready. One battery was in position, and another lay
-by it ready to take its place. There was a pocket on one side of the
-car filled with the lozenge-like articles of diet on which we had
-lived since we came here. There were two glasses like that with which
-I had observed the seed-beds, and Jack, after examination, pronounced
-that there was an abundant store of the matters required for the
-production of the gas which was needed for the inflation of the
-balloons. The light by which we saw all this stood in the fore part of
-the car just over a little binnacle where a compass was fixed. Leäfar
-had more than fulfilled his promise.
-
-I had noticed before in the cars a framework like this in which the
-compass was housed, but it never struck me what it was for. The
-compass card was very like ours. It had sixteen points only instead of
-thirty-two, and these were distinguished by colours and combinations
-of colours. The light was no doubt electric, for it was to all
-appearance produced by a battery acting on a system of wires. The
-wire did not seem to consume very rapidly, and it was supplied by
-automatic machinery from a large coil fixed under the binnacle. I have
-said “no doubt electric.” I ought to add that the machinery which
-produced the light had no perceptible effect on the car’s compasses
-nor yet on mine.
-
-As soon as we got into the car Jack proceeded to raise it, as Niccolo
-Davelli had done, by inflating the balloons. This cannot be quickly
-done by any but a practised hand. If one who has had no practice tries
-it, the balloons are apt to get unequally inflated, and so the
-operator in bringing them every now and then to a state of equal
-inflation works the car from side to side with a rolling motion.
-Signor Davelli raised it quickly, without any rolling motion at all.
-This was only the second day of practice for Jack, but he managed by
-raising the car slowly to produce very little of the rolling motion.
-
-As soon as he had attained what he judged a sufficient height he
-connected the batteries with the paddles, and as the wind was, as the
-sailors say, “dead aft,” we soon began to make very great speed.
-
-I noticed now a point in the machinery which I had not observed
-before. There was a valve to each balloon, and both valves were
-worked by a sort of movable tap, one tap for both. The effect of these
-valves appeared to be the maintenance of the cars at a uniform height,
-or higher or lower as the driver wished. The tap was worked by the
-same machinery that drove the paddles. And if the driver for any
-reason wished to make the balloon act independently of the paddles he
-could disconnect the tap which worked the valves from the machinery
-which worked the paddles. The connection and disconnection was made by
-a handle within easy reach of the driver.
-
-After we had got well under way Jack began to speak.
-
-“Now, Bob,” he said, “do you think that you can steer while I speak? I
-have something to say. Here is the handle that you steer by: you see
-it is fixed so that you pull the way you want to go. That bright blue
-mark on the compass is East. Never mind the balloons, I will attend to
-them if there is need. You will have nothing to do but just keep the
-head of the car due east.”
-
-I found but little difficulty in managing the car as he directed, and
-after about twenty minutes’ practice I was able to steer and listen at
-the same time.
-
-Then Jack began, in a business-like manner, “You have seen the
-battery that we are driving by now; very well, here is the spare
-battery which, according to Leäfar’s promise, I find.” He pointed to
-the spare battery, which was placed on a sort of bracket within my
-sight. He took it off, or rather out of, the bracket with his two
-hands and put it back again.
-
-“I see,” said I, “that it is larger; it seems heavier than the other,
-and in some details different: what of that?”
-
-“Thereby hangs a tale,” he said. “I have not been able to learn
-anything about the way of making these batteries. Indeed, I did not
-try; there was no time to spare from the more urgent matters. What I
-have learned is that they have two kinds of battery, one much more
-easily made and which wastes very much more quickly, but which drives
-the cars faster while it lasts. That is the sort that we are using
-now. The other sort is more difficult of production and wastes very
-much more slowly, and drives the cars more slowly. On long voyages, as
-I understand, they use the latter sort mainly, reserving the former
-sort for short voyages and for spurts. Now the spare battery is of the
-sort that wastes more slowly and drives the car more slowly; whereas
-it is a battery of the other sort that has been put into operation,
-what does that mean? I don’t know how Leäfar got the batteries, and I
-don’t know what he knows about their use. I think it would not be safe
-to assume that he is beyond the risk of making mistakes. They have to
-learn things just as we have.”
-
-“He got the battery for us,” I replied, “and it seems the safer thing
-to conclude that he knows more about it than we do. But what does it
-matter any way?”
-
-“I’ll tell you as near as I can. Don’t mind a bit of rigmarole or what
-seems to be such. Trust me for coming to the point all the time.”
-
-“Go ahead,” said I.
-
-“Very well,” he said, “I want to know, or to make as near a guess as
-possible, at two or three things.
-
-“(1.) How fast are we going now, and how far are we from the wire? or
-how far were we when we started? That means, how soon shall we reach
-the wire?
-
-“(2.) What are we to do if we overshoot the wire? We have no way of
-telling the longitude; my watch indeed is a capital chronometer, but I
-have altered it by the sun two or three times as near as I could.
-Besides, we cannot get the sun’s place near enough. Now, if we
-overshoot the wire, we shall either have to cross the continent or
-else to make southward and look out for the Darling or for the
-Murray; or, failing either, for the sea.
-
-“I do not think that we can have made much more than three hundred
-miles of westing from the Daly Waters, and suppose that we are now
-travelling at the rate of thirty miles an hour, which is not unlikely,
-we ought, if we keep up the rate, to make the wire at seven or eight
-o’clock in the morning. If I have overrated the distance or underrated
-our speed only a little, we may cross the wire before sunrise.
-
-“So far, then, it seems clear to me that we ought to be travelling at
-the slow rate instead of the quick rate. I thought of this before, but
-I saw no means of securing one of the larger batteries, and I knew
-that I could slow the speed of the smaller one.
-
-“Why don’t I slow it now? you will say. Well, because I found the
-smaller and quicker battery put on, although the other was there: why
-was it put on unless to use all possible speed? I cannot but think
-that Leäfar considers the prospect of pursuit so great that speed is
-in his view the first necessity. I may be wrong, but, somehow, this
-view of the case makes me unwilling to slow the machinery.”
-
-“I think you are right,” I said; “still it is quite possible that
-there may be nothing in it. The workers whom Leäfar employs may have
-been simply bidden to secure the batteries, and to put one of them on;
-the difference between the batteries may have been altogether
-overlooked.”
-
-“It may be so,” he said, “and one must not overlook the possibility,
-but I don’t think it likely.”
-
-“Then you see something in the presence of the larger battery?”
-
-“That’s it,” he said. “If only the voyage to the wire were in view a
-second one of the smaller batteries would have given us an ample
-margin for contingencies. I think that the chance of our overshooting
-the wire has been reckoned upon, and for that reason the other battery
-has been provided. The smaller battery wastes in less than twenty-four
-hours, the other lasts, I believe, about four weeks. But the speed of
-the larger is not much more than half the speed of the smaller. Now,
-if we do overshoot the wire, a spare battery of the smaller kind would
-fail us in the midst of the bush, while the larger one would enable us
-to reach some settlement.
-
-“Just one word more. We are now at full speed, and I found the
-machinery fixed for full speed when we came on board. Besides, the
-wind has not in any way changed since the middle of the day, and it is
-full in our favour now. Our speed is at the very highest, and
-whosoever put in the battery must have known that it would be so; even
-if the wind were to fall the difference would not be very great. Now,
-what do you say?”
-
-_Easterley._ I think we must go as we are going until dawn of day
-anyway. If we are not pursued before then, we shall not be pursued at
-all.
-
-_Wilbraham._ Why do you think that?
-
-_Easterley._ It seems to be the way of these fellows to keep as clear
-of civilised men as is consistent with the pursuit of their malevolent
-purposes.
-
-_Wilbraham._ What do you suppose to be their motive?
-
-_Easterley._ Well, it doesn’t seem very far to seek. Among civilised
-men there is very little belief in the existence of such beings; what
-little there is is usually not active, and so far as it is active it
-attributes to them, just as the belief of savage men does, powers
-greatly in excess of those which they really possess. Either state of
-mind is highly favourable to their ends, and anything substituted for
-either; a state of mind like neither would of course be avoided by
-them. They might almost live among savages without in any way
-detracting from a highly exaggerated view of their powers; but any
-decisive appearance of them among civilised men; any experience such
-as we have had, if established and accepted, would cause their powers
-to be examined and understood.
-
-_Wilbraham._ I see; we should take their measure and know how to
-manage them.
-
-_Easterley._ That’s it; as Mr. Morley says of the clergy, we should
-explain them.
-
-_Wilbraham._ And that would be worse for them than a sheer denial of
-their existence?
-
-_Easterley._ Very much worse. Their motives and purposes would be
-known and canvassed like other matters of fact, and much that holds up
-its head in the world now would be discredited in consequence.
-
-_Wilbraham._ In short, we may put our confidence in Leäfar’s opinion,
-and we may conclude that they will not pursue us into the civilised
-settlements.
-
-_Easterley._ I think so, and therefore my opinion is that when
-daylight comes if we find no trace of pursuit we may slack speed, and
-lower the car and look for the wire.
-
-_Wilbraham._ Agreed. And now what do you think? Shall we be followed?
-
-_Easterley._ On the whole I think we shall, but it depends on
-circumstances that we can only guess at.
-
-_Wilbraham._ Why do you think we shall be followed?
-
-_Easterley._ Well, it seems to me likely that patrols of some kind are
-kept, and in that case the absence of the car will be discovered,
-perhaps is now discovered.
-
-_Wilbraham._ And what then?
-
-_Easterley._ Then our quarters will be searched, and our escape will
-immediately become known.
-
-_Wilbraham._ How can they tell in which direction to follow us?
-
-_Easterley._ They cannot tell, but they may very well conclude that we
-shall make either for the west coast or for the wire, and they may
-send after us both ways. I wonder if Leäfar knows which course we have
-taken?
-
-_Wilbraham._ Yes, he knows. I thought you were not attending when I
-said it, but I spoke plainly enough. I said, “If we escape shall we go
-eastward or westward? My purpose is to make for the wire.” And he said
-in reply “Yes, that is the better course.” It was near the end of his
-talk.
-
-“Well, now,” said I, “suppose we get through safely, what shall we do
-with the car?”
-
-“I have thought that over, Bob,” he said, “and I have come to rather
-an odd conclusion.”
-
-_Easterley._ Do you mind telling a fellow what it is?
-
-_Wilbraham._ Not at all. Suppose now that we should steer this car to
-Melbourne or to Sydney and exhibit it. We should make a great noise,
-no doubt, and perhaps a pot of money, but we should ruin ourselves for
-all that. Even if we go to work like gentlemen, even if we make no
-attempt to make money out of it, but simply hand over the car to some
-public body with any statement we like to make, we shall be ruined all
-the same.
-
-_Easterley._ I dare say you are right.
-
-_Wilbraham._ Yes, I am right. For in the first place suppose we make a
-true statement, and neither of us would consent to do else, what will
-follow? Either we shall be set down as impostors without any more ado,
-or else an expedition will be organized to examine the country we have
-been in. But if Leäfar is right, as no doubt he is, nothing will be
-found to justify our story. Suppose we warn them beforehand that they
-will find nothing, that will be accepted as only one proof more that
-we are lying.
-
-Suppose, now, for the sake of argument, that we do lie, and say that
-we ourselves invented and constructed the car, then we shall be
-expected and invited to make another. But we know next to nothing
-about the manner of producing the gas which inflates the balloons or
-about the constitution of the batteries. If we should attempt to
-substitute larger balloons filled with hydrogen, and batteries of such
-construction as we understand, the almost certain result would be that
-our car would be added to the long list of discredited flying
-machines, and ourselves to the much longer list of exposed impostors.
-How do you like the prospect?
-
-_Easterley._ Not at all; and I believe you are right. But what do you
-propose to do?
-
-_Wilbraham._ If we discover the wire I propose to go back two or three
-miles and abandon the car. I should like to break it up but we have no
-tools. I can dismantle it, however, so that nobody will be able to
-make anything of it if it is found.
-
-_Easterley._ But if we escape we must give some account of our escape;
-we are not going to tell lies.
-
-_Wilbraham._ Not lies; we shall tell the whole truth about the blacks,
-and for the rest we shall confine ourselves to generalities which will
-be true as far as they go. They may think us a little bit off our
-heads, “a shingle short,” as Tim Blundell would say, but that won’t
-matter, it will be set down to our wanderings in the bush. For the
-present at least we had better keep the whole matter as quiet as we
-can. If we ever see a chance of doing any good by speaking out we
-shall speak out. But now to more immediate business. Can we try to
-estimate the rate at which we are travelling?
-
-By this time it was much brighter, the clouds were quite cleared away,
-and the moon, which was only two or three days past the full, was
-fairly well up in the sky.
-
-So I said to Jack, “Lower the car a little, then take the steering
-gear in hand and let me try to estimate our speed.” He let the car
-descend slowly until he could distinguish the trees and other
-prominent features of the landscape. Then he took the steering gear
-into his own hand and I looked over the side of the car. The forest
-was thick in parts, but there were wide spaces of treeless plain; and
-we were just passing over a range of hills which I think I am right in
-identifying with a range that we had observed at a distance of several
-miles when we were among the blacks.
-
-I took particular notice of the larger trees, trying to guess their
-distance each from the other and referring to my watch every few
-seconds.
-
-“What do you make of it?” said Jack at last, when he had raised the
-car to its former height.
-
-“It is hard to fix it,” said I, “but I cannot think that we are
-travelling less than twenty-five miles an hour and I should say much
-more probably thirty.”
-
-_Wilbraham._ Ah! and how far do you suppose that we have to travel
-from the start?
-
-_Easterley._ Say fifteen days passed from our parting with
-Mr. Fetherston until we reached the valley, and I am pretty sure we
-made an average of thirty miles a day. But of course that was nearly
-all westing. I don’t think that our furthest point could be quite as
-much as three hundred miles from the wire. I don’t think that your own
-estimate can be much out of the way, but we are perhaps a little under
-the mark.
-
-_Wilbraham._ Ah! if the figures are right the sum is easy; we ought to
-cross the wire about six o’clock.
-
-_Easterley._ Yes, but look here; thirty miles an hour is possibly an
-overestimate of our speed; and three hundred miles is possibly an
-underestimate of our distance. Besides, we shall not be able to keep
-up our present speed. The wind is already falling, and may be against
-us in an hour or two. That would knock, say, ten miles an hour off the
-rate of speed at which we are now travelling.
-
-_Wilbraham._ It might, but that is another overestimate; we may fairly
-reckon on travelling all night at within five miles of our present
-rate of speed.
-
-_Easterley._ I suppose so. Nevertheless, the chances are that if we
-stop the car about sunrise we shall still be west of the wire. Then
-we can lower the car, move north, and watch for the wire, then go
-slowly, still eastward, keeping a sharp look-out as we go.
-
-We were now both very tired, and as there were still some hours to
-pass before we could expect to get sight of the wire, we agreed to
-divide the time till dawn into half-hour watches. Each of us wished
-the other to take the first rest, and so we had to settle the dispute
-by lot. I told Jack to hide some lozenges, and to let me guess odd or
-even. Jack won, but our mode of settling the question was not without
-important effects. For Jack said, when he was putting back the
-lozenges into his pocket, “By-the-way, I may as well put these with
-the others in the car pocket,” and he did so.
-
-When my turn came I lay down on the floor of the car, as Jack had
-done, with my hat for a pillow. The lozenges in my pocket were a
-little in my way; not much, but just enough to remind me of what Jack
-had done. Still, I didn’t rise, only turned over. Then some of the
-lozenges rolled out of my pocket. Then I jumped up, and said, “I may
-as well put mine with yours.” I did so, and lay down again and slept.
-
-So now we had all our eggs in one basket, and it never occurred to us
-that we were incurring any risk at all.
-
-It was eleven o’clock when Jack lay down for his first sleep, and we
-took regular half-hour turns until five o’clock, when my sixth
-half-hour was up. It was now dawn, and the light was increasing
-rapidly. We had had enough rest, and it was getting near sunrise. It
-was time to think of lowering the car and reconnoitring. The morning
-was very fine, but there was rather a heavy bank of clouds in the east
-where the sun was rising. We lowered the car a little, and slackened
-our speed. Presently we disconnected the battery, and so stopped the
-car. Then we rested at about four to five hundred feet from the
-ground. I swept the whole field of sight with the car’s glasses in
-search of the wire, but could find no trace of it. Then I looked
-westward long and anxiously, but could see nothing specially worthy of
-notice. At last I fell to admiring the beauty of the clouds; they were
-beginning to reflect the glory of the sun which was now risen, but
-still hidden by them. There was in the air that sort of shimmering
-which portends a dry, hot day. I picked out a small bank of clouds to
-the west, on the near side of which the shimmering which I have
-mentioned appeared to be greater than elsewhere. I was quietly
-speculating on the cause of this when the sun extricated himself from
-the clouds to the eastward, and his rays fell straight and full upon
-the clouds to westward. Then I saw strike upon the cloud upon which I
-had been gazing two shadows which I recognised with horror. I cried
-out to Jack to look, and I lifted the glasses which were in my hand
-and turned them to the shadows on the cloud, and I saw that he did the
-same with his glasses. You will remember that we were now at rest,
-excepting for the motion caused by the breeze which had almost ceased
-to blow.
-
-The sun was now shining brightly, and we could make out two dark
-masses moving towards us. I suppose we ought to have got in motion
-again as quickly as possible, although I doubt if it would have made
-any difference at all. At any rate, we did not make the slightest
-attempt to move, but watched in dead silence the shadows of the
-contending cars. For that they were somehow contending there could be
-no doubt at all. The one was trying to block the way of the other, and
-the other was trying to dodge it. The former was pursuing, and the
-latter was pursued. The two shadows passed right over us, and as they
-did, the cars, considering the position of the sun, must have been a
-little way to the eastward of us; and now it seemed as if the
-pursuing car was underneath the other, and so nearer to us, and as if
-the pursued car was being forced upward. Just then, however, the
-pursued car made a very quick turn westward. The movement was followed
-by the other car, but it seemed, as it followed, to lose just a little
-ground. Mind, we could see nothing but shadows, but the shadows were
-wonderfully distinct. Then the shadows passed over us again, and they
-were now much nearer, and they quite darkened our car. And now it
-seemed as if the pursued car had given the other the slip, for it was
-now the nearer of the two; and then both were straight over our heads.
-It seemed as if something clashed against us, and we perceived
-immediately that a missile of some sort had been driven right through
-the side and floor of our car. It had passed between us, and if it
-were intended to kill either of us, it had certainly missed its aim.
-We saw that our car remained steady, and we were too much absorbed in
-the strife going on above us to notice anything else. Then the same
-manœuvre seemed to be repeated, for the shadows passed over us again,
-but this time they were much higher, and the pursuing car was again
-underneath.
-
-A fourth time the shadows fell across us, but they were still higher
-this time, and the pursuing car still held its place nearer to us. And
-now the pursued car seemed to give up the contest, for it held its way
-westward until we lost all trace of it, and the pursuing car stopped
-and turned, and came towards us until the shadow was all but over us,
-and then out of the shadow, as it seemed, there fell a long white
-streamer. It waved one moment backward and forward, and then
-disappeared. We swung off our hats together, and gave a lusty cheer.
-
-Then the shadow of the car passed away westward and was lost to sight.
-
-So we had been pursued, and the pursuit was over and our lives were
-saved. So it seemed, and our joy was great; but it was very soon
-changed for something very like despair. The car in which we rode had
-canted over to one side, so that it was becoming difficult either to
-sit or stand straight in it. We soon saw why.
-
-One of the balloons was slowly collapsing, and on examination we found
-that it had been slightly grazed by the missile which had passed
-through the car. It was clear that we must lower the car to the ground
-as quickly as possible, and it was very doubtful if we could raise it
-again. A closer examination revealed a far worse loss. The missile in
-question had been driven straight through the wall-bag which held our
-provisions, and nearly all of them had fallen through the hole which
-had been pierced through the floor of the car. It was surely no chance
-which had given the missile its precise direction. It was almost
-incredible skill and altogether diabolical malignity. We thought that
-our enemy had aimed at our bodies and had missed his aim: he knew
-better: the purpose of his missile was to cause our miserable death in
-the wilderness.
-
-Jack put in action the machinery by which the balloons were filled,
-and endeavoured to trim them so as to act together. But it proved
-quite impossible to do so. The rent in the injured balloon was
-increasing slowly under the pressure of the gas, and it was evident
-that it would very soon be quite useless. Jack sang out to me to
-connect the batteries and to set the paddles in motion. I did so at
-once and I soon perceived why I was told to do so. The injured balloon
-was now collapsing so rapidly that we were in great danger of being
-upset by the one-sided buoyancy of the car. It was necessary to empty
-the other balloon as quickly as possible in order to keep the car in
-such a position that we could keep our seats. And the rapid emptying
-of the balloons would have dashed us to the ground but for the motion
-of the paddles. As it was we were half turned over before we reached
-the ground, and we fell with rather a severe crash but without any
-serious injury. I managed to gather up a few of the lozenges which
-were left on the floor of the car, as they were rolling off the car
-when we were fifty or sixty feet from the ground.
-
-Here we were now in a condition almost as bad as when the blacks left
-us; quite as bad, indeed, or worse, for although we were now probably
-much nearer to help than then, we did not know where to look for it,
-and we had no time to spend in finding it. When we were left alone
-before, we had plenty of water and the means of procuring food for at
-least some weeks. Now the doubt was if we could survive the second day
-unless help should reach us before its close.
-
-Besides we were not now as ready to stand hardships as then. We were
-then in splendid condition. But the nervous excitement consequent upon
-the startling experiences of the few days which had intervened since
-then had heavily told on both of us; and anxiety and broken rest had
-also had their effect. I was myself much worn, but I saw now, or
-thought I saw, that Jack was on the very verge of collapsing. He was
-brave enough and ready enough, and very much more hopeful than I was,
-but there was a look about his eyes and mouth which alarmed me.
-
-“What do you think now, Jack?” I said.
-
-“Well, it’s rather a bad business about the lozenges,” he replied,
-“but as for the car, he has only done what I should have liked to do
-myself; we are well rid of it.”
-
-_Easterley._ But where’s the wire?
-
-_Wilbraham._ Well, old man, the wire is not five miles off, you may be
-sure of that: most likely not half so far.
-
-_Easterley._ Why do you think so?
-
-_Wilbraham._ Leäfar would never have left unless he knew that we were
-near enough. Besides, all our calculations look the same way.
-
-_Easterley._ I wish I could see the situation in the same light. Our
-calculations are based on guesses, and may easily be fifty or a
-hundred miles astray. And Leäfar most likely did not know that our car
-was badly damaged and our food lost. Besides, the other one seemed to
-be quite satisfied with what he had done; for he sailed straight away.
-But he has not done much after all if he has only dropped us without
-hurt within a few miles of the wire.
-
-_Wilbraham._ Well, not much as it has happened, but he was very near
-smashing us to pieces, and the spilling of the food was a clever
-extra touch. He had got to do something, and he had about a minute to
-do it in, and he did his best, or his worst: and as for sailing away,
-I take it he was beaten away.
-
-_Easterley._ I hope you may be right. We must never say die, anyway.
-But you don’t look well, Jack, though you speak so cheerfully.
-
-_Wilbraham._ I am a bit seedy, I am sure I don’t know why, but I
-daresay it will pass off soon.
-
-_Easterley._ I suppose we had better push on, we have most of the day
-before us yet, and we had better take some of the food that is left.
-But look! what’s that?
-
-_Wilbraham._ A horse, by George! didn’t I tell you?
-
-And a horse it was, but its presence proved after all not to be such a
-very good sign as we supposed. We thought at first that it must belong
-to some of the telegraph people, but as we drew nearer we saw that it
-was Jack’s own horse which had been abandoned in the bush on account
-of lameness. Still it was a good sign. Its presence made it much more
-likely that we were still west of the wire, and we might possibly make
-use of it for travelling, but above all it seemed as if there must be
-water near, and that if we stuck to the horse we should find it.
-
-It was quite an easy matter to catch the horse; he had been well
-broken in, and his ten or twelve days in the bush had not made him at
-all forget his training. He seemed to recognise us, and we thought at
-first that his lameness was quite gone.
-
-Then we reckoned up our store of food. We had saved just nine of the
-lozenges. We resolved now to take three each, reserving three for the
-evening.
-
-If Jack was right we should hardly have need of them. And yet we
-might, for the telegraph stations were far apart, and it might be
-quite beyond our power to walk to the nearest, and we would not know
-in which direction to travel in order to reach the nearest. But then,
-as Jack said, if all came to all we should cut the wire, and that
-would soon bring us help.
-
-The food quite restored me, but I did not think that it had the same
-good effect on Jack. He was quite cheerful, brave, and hopeful, but
-still there was undoubtedly something amiss. So I proposed that Jack
-should have the horse and that I should walk beside him. “I don’t
-mind,” he said, “if I have the first ride.” And so it was arranged.
-
-But riding even a very tame horse without either saddle or bridle is
-neither a pleasant nor a quick way of travelling, and besides the
-horse’s lameness came on again as soon as he had weight to carry, and
-it became clear before long that we could get no good of him that
-way. I had improvised a sort of halter out of slips cut from our
-coats, and so when Jack dismounted, we tried to lead the horse; he
-showed a decided tendency, both when ridden and led, to go north. “Let
-him have his way,” Jack said, “provided he doesn’t make any westing. I
-will not go away from the wire.” The end of it was that we led the
-horse, or let him lead us, for several hours. We travelled very
-slowly, indeed, but still we must have got over twelve or thirteen
-miles, going mainly northward, and making perhaps a mile of easting
-all the time.
-
-The country that we travelled over consisted of a series of plains
-which were separated by thin belts of timber. There was little or no
-scrub. At last we came, as it seemed, to a small dried-up watercourse;
-but it proved to be not quite dried up, for the horse trotted over to
-one of the sand-beds where the ponds had been, and found a little hole
-of water which he drank very greedily. The hole was so small that we
-did not care to drink after him if it could be helped; but by digging
-with our hands in the sand a little higher up we got a sufficient
-supply of water that was fairly good.
-
-We had now got all out of the horse that we were likely to get. This
-water meant life for a day or two longer. It seemed now to be the best
-course for us to start from this point due east. If the wire were even
-within twenty miles of us we might escape. If not, our death seemed
-certain.
-
-But Jack’s increasing debility, which was beginning to make me very
-anxious, made it out of the question to go farther to-night. Indeed,
-it was already getting on for sundown. So we took each, one of our
-three remaining lozenges, and made our camp as best we could. The
-trees near the watercourse were shadier than elsewhere, and the
-weather was mild. We had no tobacco. By some mischance we had left it
-behind us in our escape from the valley. Indeed, such was our
-excitement and anxiety that we had never smoked once all the time we
-were there. But now we missed our pipes very much.
-
-Before going to sleep, however, I made a discovery that cheered us up
-a little. I found two more lozenges in the corner of my pocket. These
-would give us a shadow of breakfast.
-
-I slept rather well, but Jack was troubled with restlessness and with
-dreams. And in the morning he was no better.
-
-Things were looking very black indeed. After making our shadow of
-breakfast we had but one lozenge left, and then nothing but a little
-water to live upon. Jack was beginning to show signs of collapse. “I
-know, old fellow,” he said, “that I could not persuade you to abandon
-me, but I’ll die very soon, and after I am dead you will still have
-time to look for the wire.”
-
-“Jack,” said I, “look here, shall I go and look for the wire now? I’ll
-come back in two hours whether I find it or not, and then we shall
-stay together while we live. I daresay we have both of us pretty well
-done with this world, but while there’s life there’s hope. What do you
-say?”
-
-“Well,” he said, “I think I can live for more than two hours with the
-help of this water; yes, old fellow, go and look for it; that’s the
-best chance.”
-
-I made him as comfortable as I could near the water under the shade,
-and then I started with but little hope. I was already getting weak
-with hunger, although otherwise I was well enough. I crossed the plain
-eastward to one of the belts of timber I told you of. The distance was
-about a quarter or a third of a mile. Then I marked a tree, and on
-passing through the belt of timber, which was only a few yards across,
-I marked another. I was now in a second plain just like the first. I
-crossed it slowly to the eastward, came to another belt of timber,
-and marked another tree.
-
-Then I began to think it was of no use to make any further exertion.
-Half an hour was already gone; I must in any case turn back in half an
-hour more. “Oh Leäfar, Leäfar,” I said, and I wrung my hand, “how
-could you leave us in such misery?” And then I remembered how little
-Leäfar seemed to think of death in comparison with the doom I had
-escaped, and I was ashamed of myself, and I said—
-
-“The will of God be done.”
-
-I had crossed the second belt of timber, and I was marking another
-tree on the east side of it. I was acting quite mechanically and
-without conscious purpose, for I had made up my mind to return at
-once, and so I should not need another marked tree. All in a moment I
-became conscious of this, and I thought that perhaps my mind was
-going. Then I turned round to look at the plain which I had just
-entered, and was just about to leave, and, good heavens! there was the
-wire! This plain was of about the same dimensions as the other two,
-and right across it ran the telegraph poles.
-
-I just said, “Thank God,” and I ran back as fast as my legs could
-carry me.
-
-Jack was taking a drink of water, and I thought looking a little
-brighter. I was quite out of breath, and before I could speak he had
-time to say—
-
-“Why, Bob, you’ve hardly been away an hour.”
-
-“I have found it!” I cried, “I have found it!”
-
-“Take it easy, man,” he said; “take a drink of water. Didn’t I tell
-you we were near it?”
-
-We took near two hours to reach it, for we were both weak for want of
-food, and Jack was ill. Then we sat down under one of the posts and
-consulted.
-
-“Jack,” said I, “we may die of starvation yet, unless you can cut that
-wire. I couldn’t climb the pole, poor devil that I am, not to save
-your life and my own.”
-
-(You will remember, no doubt, that I have already told you that Jack
-was a very clever athlete.)
-
-He replied after a silence of a minute or so, letting his words drop
-slowly: “I should have thought but little of it yesterday morning. I
-am sure I don’t know if I can do it now. I’ll try.”
-
-“I have one lozenge left,” I said; “take it before you try;” and I
-handed him the lozenge.
-
-“I’ll take my share of it,” he answered, “but not yours too.”
-
-“Now be reasonable, Jack,” said I; “my life as well as yours depends
-on your cutting that wire. If the lozenge helps you to cut it, don’t
-you see that it is best for us both that you should have it.”
-
-“Very well,” he replied; “I believe you are right; give it me,” and he
-ate it without more ado. And then after feeling for his knife he began
-to climb.
-
-Presently it became clear that he could not get up the pole without
-some protection to his knees. I cut off the sleeves of my coat and we
-slipped them up over his legs; they fitted him so tightly that no
-fastening was needed.
-
-Then he began to climb again with more success, but such was his
-weakness that it seemed several times as if he would have to give over
-the attempt. At last he reached the top, and after hanging for a while
-to rest he began to cut at the wire.
-
-I watched the process with great anxiety. He gave over several times,
-and once I thought he was going to faint, and I ran up to the post to
-try and break his fall. But he began hacking at the wire again, and in
-a few seconds more it fell apart, and one end of it lay on the ground.
-
-Then he began to slide down the post, and before he was down his arms
-relaxed their hold, and he almost fell into my arms as I stood
-underneath.
-
-We both fell to the ground, but without any severe shock, and we were
-quite unhurt. I staggered to my feet and dragged him to some thick
-shrubs near at hand, where I propped him up as well as I could manage.
-He did not quite lose his senses, and I whispered, “We are all right
-now, Jack; we shall have help soon.” Then I lay down beside him.
-
-I do not think that I was more than half an hour lying there when I
-heard the noise of horses, and in about fifteen minutes more a party
-of horsemen rode up.
-
-We might have lain there for several hours, however, if it had not
-been for a combination of favourable circumstances. We were only three
-miles from a telegraph station to the north, and a sharp look-out had
-been kept for us. It had been kept indeed since the third or fourth
-day after our departure, and it had been quickened a few days ago by a
-lying rumour which proved to be unintentionally true. Some blacks had
-come into the camp who knew both Gioro and Bomero, and they told
-Mr. Fetherston that Gioro had been killed some days before. Now, as
-far as I could make out, Gioro had been killed a day or two after they
-told the story. So they were certainly lying. But it seemed as if
-every one who knew anything about the matter expected that Gioro would
-be killed if Bomero’s protection were withdrawn. And so it happened
-as you have heard, and thus their lie came true.
-
-So there was a bright look-out kept for about fifty miles on each side
-of the Daly Waters, and a party had gone westward into the bush in
-search of us a few days before, and the moment the communication by
-wire was broken a party of horsemen started for the point where the
-break was made. We were now nearly thirty miles north of the Daly
-Waters.
-
-We were speedily taken to the nearest station and treated with all the
-attention that we needed. I needed only food and clothes, but Jack
-proved to be sickening for colonial fever, and was in rather a
-critical state for some time. He did not seem to me to be dangerously
-ill. Much languor and a little wandering and extreme prostration were
-his principal symptoms. I was not very anxious about him, but
-Mr. Fetherston thought more of the illness than he chose to say. I did
-not know the nature of the complaint; I have learnt better since then.
-
-Mr. Fetherston asked me several questions, and I told him all about
-the blacks, dwelling especially on Bomero’s panic and Gioro’s death.
-Then I said that after that we had got among some people that had
-given us food and clothes. He looked very carefully at the coats and
-hats, and he said, “Why, these must have come from Java, or perhaps
-from the Philippines. I had no idea that there was any communication.”
-
-I said that I was inclined to believe that the people I had met were
-not of the same race as the blacks, their colour was much lighter, I
-said, and they had some curious knowledge.
-
-Mr. Fetherston looked at me with some anxiety and suspicion, and the
-same evening I heard him say to Tim Blundell that people who wandered
-among the blacks often got off their heads for a while.
-
-After that I held my peace.
-
-In about six weeks Jack was able to travel, and Mr. Fetherston gave us
-an escort to Port Darwin.
-
-After about ten days there, we were so fortunate as to get a passage
-to King George’s Sound in a Government steamer. We reached Adelaide
-about the first week in September.
-
-
-
-
-CONCLUSION.
-
-
-My story is told now, and there is no occasion to detain you much
-longer. Our life ever since we came back to Adelaide, until the visit
-to Gippsland which led to the writing of this book, was all of a
-piece. It was all spent in Australia and Tasmania. We did some
-squatting, and we just glanced at agricultural and mining life. In
-every year we spent some weeks in town, and we made some acquaintance
-everywhere. But we settled down to nothing. We became very little
-richer, but no poorer. We seldom talked about our adventures to each
-other, and never to anyone else. But I think they were always more or
-less in our minds and kept us unsettled.
-
-Sometimes when we seemed to be forgetting them, or when their effect
-upon us appeared to be passing away, something or other would happen
-to revive their memory and unsettle us again.
-
-Once, for instance, I was in Sydney with Jack making arrangements for
-the purchase of a share in a small station. I was dining out one
-evening on the North Shore and as it chanced Jack was not with me.
-There was a physician of the company who was a clever talker, and
-after the ladies had gone away we got him to tell us some of his
-Australian experiences, which were curious and varied. He told us
-among other things that he was employed by Government to make a report
-on some cases in Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum. After he had examined
-these cases the superintendent of the asylum said,
-
-“By the bye, doctor, I have a queer fellow here that I sometimes think
-ought not to be here at all. He is an interesting fellow, too, and I
-should be much obliged if you would have a look at him.”
-
-“I did have a look at him,” said the physician, “and I found him just
-a steady old bush hand, with an uncommon degree of intelligence and
-good sense, and a lot of information about the country and the
-aborigines. I was just wondering what on earth they could have sent
-him here for when he told me with the gravest face the following
-story:—He had been more than a year among the blacks and he did not
-know how he was to get back to his own people. It was away in the
-north-west somewhere, the far north-west. Well, one day, he said,
-there was a sort of panic among the blacks, he didn’t know the cause
-of it, and he wandered away a mile or two from the camp. He said that
-when these panics take them they are jealous of the presence of
-strangers. He had a loaded revolver with him.
-
-“There was no sun and he began to think he might lose his way, and so
-he made up his mind to return to the blacks’ camp. Just then he heard
-a sort of rustle in the air above him, and presently a man, so he
-said, jumped out of the clouds and caught him by the collar of his
-coat. He said that this man never touched the ground himself, but
-tried to lift him off the ground. He drew his revolver and fired.
-
-“Then he said—‘Look here, doctor, I’m blest if the fellow didn’t turn
-into bilin’ water and then into steam and then into nothin’ at all,
-and while I was wonderin’ what in the mischief war the matter with me
-back he comes again, fust steam, and then bilin’ water, and then an
-ugly tawny-looking beggar, neither nigger nor white man, and makes
-another grab at me. So I said, Man or devil, have at you again, and I
-gave him the contents of another barrel, and I’m blest if he didn’t go
-of in a bile again and I took to my heels and ran as I never ran
-before until I got back to the darkies’ camp.’ That was his story,”
-said the physician, “and it appears that he was picked up some months
-later on the headwaters of the Oakover River by some explorers, and so
-he got round to Adelaide, and thence to Sydney, and so found his way
-to the asylum.”
-
-In answer to further questions the physician said, “I told the
-superintendent of the asylum that the man was quite sane, or at least
-sane enough for the purposes of life; that he was no doubt under some
-strange delusion, but that I had observed that people who had been
-much among the blacks were liable to such delusions, and that in my
-opinion he was quite harmless and that it was cruel to keep him shut
-up in an asylum, and I made a memorandum in the visitors’ book to that
-effect.”
-
-I told this story to Jack that night and we went off the very next day
-to Tarban Creek to look for the man. He had been discharged and was
-now working as a clerk on a station on the Murrumbidgee. So the
-superintendent of the asylum told us.
-
-We hurried off to the Murrumbidgee and found the station where he had
-been employed. It was somewhere near Balranald. But he had gone away
-to America about six months before, and we could find no means of
-tracing him. This affair unsettled us again and was indirectly the
-cause of our letting the negotiation in which we were engaged drift
-away from us.
-
-But it is now quite a year since we have made a clean breast of it
-and committed our story to paper, although we have not at the moment
-of writing made up our minds about its publication. And the effect
-upon us both has been decidedly good. Jack says we have done better
-than the Ancient Mariner, for he had to tell his tale over and over
-again whenever he met a man whose doom it was to hear him; but we have
-just told our tale once for all and let the doomed ones read it. And
-now we have actually settled down to business and have become part
-owners of a station in Queensland and have our homes within ten miles
-of each other; that is to say we are quite next door neighbours, and I
-may as well finish by giving you the details of a conversation which
-passed between myself and Jack only a few months ago.
-
-We were both staying with some friends at a pleasant little place very
-near a station on the Southern Railway, about thirty miles from
-Sydney. I say a little place, for it looked so; but when you came to
-know it well it turned out to be a very big place. There were as many
-bedrooms as its hospitable owner could fill with guests; and not to
-speak of dining and drawing-rooms, which were large and airy and very
-pretty, there were bath-rooms, billiard-rooms, and smoking-rooms
-without stint.
-
-It was a quiet, unpretending place to look at, but it was really a
-most luxurious place. There were pictures and books and musical
-instruments everywhere; and most delightful contrivances, part couch,
-part hammock, part swing; and hothouse fruits and flowers; and horses
-of easiest pace if you wanted them, but somehow you seldom did want
-them. And whenever there were guests there, and that was three parts
-of the year, there was the best company in all Australia, and as good
-as there is anywhere in the world.
-
-Just now the broad verandah, which ran along the main front, was
-covered with banksia roses, jessamine, and woodbine, and between this
-and the neat wicket-gate, which was the main entrance to this little
-paradise, were all sorts of spring and early summer flowers.
-
-At the gate Jack and I were standing; he had come up from Sydney about
-an hour before. And this was what we said:—
-
-_Wilbraham._ Well, Bob, can you tell me when you are going to be
-married?
-
-_Easterley._ I cannot quite say, but it will be soon. Bessie and I
-have talked it over and she has listened to reason. She promised me
-that her friend, Violet Fanshawe, shall fix the day, and Violet is
-coming here to-morrow.
-
-_Wilbraham._ And you can trust Violet?
-
-_Easterley._ I think I can.
-
-_Wilbraham._ Do you know, Bob, I saw Miss Fanshawe yesterday, and we
-were talking about you. But she didn’t seem to know that she was to
-decide so momentous a question.
-
-_Easterley._ Perhaps she didn’t know.
-
-_Wilbraham._ Perhaps not; but, Bob, I think I should like, if it could
-be so arranged, to be married on the same day as you and Bessie.
-
-_Easterley._ Jack, I am very glad indeed, but I never guessed it,
-though I did wonder what was taking you to Sydney so often.
-
-_Wilbraham._ It was not that; it was, in the first place, to leave you
-and Bessie together; but sure enough it led to that.
-
-_Easterley._ But who is she? Oh, Jack, I hope we shall not be worse
-friends after we are married.
-
-_Wilbraham_ (with a knowing smile). Somehow, Bob, I don’t think we
-will.
-
-_Easterley._ Surely it is not Violet?
-
-_Wilbraham._ Yes, it’s Violet; so she and Bessie may as well settle
-both days in one.
-
-_Easterley._ Well, I am very glad; but how is it that Bessie never
-told me, for surely Violet must have told her.
-
-_Wilbraham._ No, she didn’t. It was only settled yesterday. But there
-is Bessie on the verandah, and she has just got a letter.
-
-We both went up to her; indeed we had parted from her scarce half an
-hour ago. I saw that the letter was Violet’s writing. “I’ll tell you,”
-I said, “what’s in that letter, Bessie. Violet is going to marry
-Jack.”
-
-It was very sudden, and she turned pale and red and then opened the
-letter. Then, after a few seconds, she cried, “Oh, Bob, I’m so glad!”
-and she kissed me, and I think she was very near kissing Jack.
-
-So Violet came the next day and the conclave was held and the day was
-fixed, and just four weeks later Jack and Violet, Bessie and I, were
-married at All Saints, St. Kilda, for Bessie and Violet were Victorian
-girls and lived near Melbourne.
-
-And now, as I have already told you, we are living in Queensland, in
-homes only ten miles apart.
-
-I thought you might like just a little bit of human interest after so
-much of the other thing.
-
-So now—Farewell!
-
-
-THE END.
-
-
-
-
-PRINTED BY J. S. VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED, CITY ROAD, LONDON.
-
-
-
-
-Transcriber’s Note
-
-
-Inconsistent hyphenation (bee-line/bee line, half-turn/half turn,
-half-way/half way, head-waters/headwaters, seed-beds/seed beds,
-small-pox/smallpox, well-defined/well defined) has been left as
-printed in the original.
-
-A few misspellings have been corrected and a handful of quotation
-marks adjusted for clarity.
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Germ Growers, by Robert Potter
-
-*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GERM GROWERS ***
-
-***** This file should be named 60312-0.txt or 60312-0.zip *****
-This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
-        http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/3/1/60312/
-
-Produced by MWS, David Wilson and the Online Distributed
-Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was
-produced from images made available by the HathiTrust
-Digital Library.)
-
-Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will
-be renamed.
-
-Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
-law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works,
-so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United
-States without permission and without paying copyright
-royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
-of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
-concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
-and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive
-specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this
-eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook
-for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports,
-performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given
-away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks
-not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the
-trademark license, especially commercial redistribution.
-
-START: FULL LICENSE
-
-THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
-PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
-
-To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
-distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
-(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
-Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
-Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
-www.gutenberg.org/license.
-
-Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-
-1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
-and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
-(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
-the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
-destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your
-possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
-Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
-by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the
-person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph
-1.E.8.
-
-1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
-used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
-agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
-things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
-paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this
-agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
-
-1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the
-Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
-of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual
-works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
-States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
-United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
-claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
-displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
-all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
-that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting
-free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm
-works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
-Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily
-comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
-same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when
-you share it without charge with others.
-
-1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
-what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
-in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
-check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
-agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
-distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
-other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no
-representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
-country outside the United States.
-
-1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
-
-1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
-immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear
-prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work
-on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the
-phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed,
-performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
-
-  This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-  most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
-  restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
-  under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
-  eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
-  United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you
-  are located before using this ebook.
-
-1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is
-derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
-contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
-copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
-the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
-redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project
-Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
-either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
-obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm
-trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
-
-1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
-with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
-must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
-additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
-will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works
-posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
-beginning of this work.
-
-1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
-License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
-work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
-
-1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
-electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
-prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
-active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm License.
-
-1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
-compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
-any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
-to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format
-other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official
-version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site
-(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
-to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
-of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain
-Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the
-full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
-
-1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
-performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
-unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
-
-1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
-access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-provided that
-
-* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
-  the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
-  you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
-  to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has
-  agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
-  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
-  within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
-  legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
-  payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
-  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
-  Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
-  Literary Archive Foundation."
-
-* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
-  you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
-  does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
-  License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
-  copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
-  all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm
-  works.
-
-* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
-  any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
-  electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
-  receipt of the work.
-
-* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
-  distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
-
-1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than
-are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
-from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The
-Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm
-trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
-
-1.F.
-
-1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
-effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
-works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
-Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
-contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
-or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
-intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
-other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
-cannot be read by your equipment.
-
-1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
-of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
-liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
-fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
-LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
-PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
-TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
-LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
-INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
-DAMAGE.
-
-1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
-defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
-receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
-written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
-received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
-with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
-with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
-lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
-or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
-opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
-the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
-without further opportunities to fix the problem.
-
-1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
-in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO
-OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
-LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
-
-1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
-warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
-damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
-violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
-agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
-limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
-unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
-remaining provisions.
-
-1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
-trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
-providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in
-accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
-production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
-including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
-the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
-or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or
-additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any
-Defect you cause.
-
-Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
-electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
-computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
-exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
-from people in all walks of life.
-
-Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
-assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
-goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
-remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
-and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future
-generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
-Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at
-www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-
-Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
-
-The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
-501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
-state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
-Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
-number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
-U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
-
-The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the
-mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its
-volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous
-locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt
-Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to
-date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and
-official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
-
-For additional contact information:
-
-    Dr. Gregory B. Newby
-    Chief Executive and Director
-    gbnewby@pglaf.org
-
-Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
-Literary Archive Foundation
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
-spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
-increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
-freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
-array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
-($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
-status with the IRS.
-
-The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
-charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
-States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
-considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
-with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
-where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
-DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular
-state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
-
-While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
-have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
-against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
-approach us with offers to donate.
-
-International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
-any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
-outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
-
-Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
-methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
-ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
-donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate
-
-Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works.
-
-Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be
-freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
-distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of
-volunteer support.
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
-editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
-the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
-necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
-edition.
-
-Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search
-facility: www.gutenberg.org
-
-This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
-including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
-subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
-