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- } -} -@media screen { - body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; - } - div.chapter { - max-width: 32em; - line-height: 1.33; - } - span.pagenum { - border-top: thin solid silver; - border-bottom: thin solid silver; - display: inline; - visibility: visible; - position: absolute; - left: 1%; - } - #frontcover {width: 600px; } /* height: 800px; */ - -} -/* overrides for epub */ -/* explicit overrides for styles defined in @media screen - because Kindle thinks it's a screen device */ -@media handheld { - body { - margin-left: 0; - margin-right: 0; - } - span.pagenum, hr.ww, div.frontcover { - display: none; - visibility: hidden; - } - td.dots:after { - content: " . . . ."; - } -} - - /* XML end ]]>*/ - -</style> -</head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -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.) - - - - - - -</pre> - - - - -<hr class="ww" /> - -<div class="frontcover"> -<img id="frontcover" src="images/cover.jpg" - alt="[Cover: Library of Australian Authors — - The Germ Growers — - Robert Easterley and John Wilbraham]" /> -<a name="cover" id="cover" href="#cover"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>cover<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -</div> - -<div class="halftitle"> -<p>THE GERM GROWERS. -<a name="png.001" id="png.001" href="#png.001"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>i<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -</p> -</div> - - - - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1 title="The Germ Growers">THE GERM GROWERS. -<a name="png.003" id="png.003" href="#png.003"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>iii<span class="ns">]</span></span></a></h1> - - -<p class="subtitle">An Australian Story of Adventure and Mystery.</p> - - -<p><small>BY</small><br - />ROBERT EASTERLEY <span class="allsc">AND</span> JOHN WILBRAHAM.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div lang="la" xml:lang="la">“His . . . . . . . .</div> -<div lang="la" xml:lang="la"> Prosequitur dictis portaque emittit eburna.”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - - -<p>MELBOURNE:<br - /><big>MELVILLE, MULLEN, & SLADE.</big><br - />LONDON: HUTCHINSON & CO.<br - /><small>1892.<br - />[<i>All rights reserved.</i>]</small></p> - -</div> - - - -<div class="toc"> - -<h2 title="Table of Contents">TABLE OF CONTENTS.<a - name="png.005" id="png.005" href="#png.005"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns"> [</span>v<span class="ns">]</span></span></a><br - /><small>———♦———</small></h2> - -<table summary="Table of Contents"> -<tr><th> </th><th>PAGE</th></tr> - -<tr><td class="dots"><span class="dotz"><a href="#png.007">Preliminary</a></span></td><td class="pg"> <a href="#png.007">1</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td colspan="2" class="chap">CHAPTER I.</td></tr> - -<tr><td class="dots"><span class="dotz"><a href="#png.012">Disappearances</a></span></td><td class="pg"> <a href="#png.012">6</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td colspan="2" class="chap">CHAPTER II.</td></tr> - -<tr><td class="dots"><span class="dotz"><a href="#png.019">The Red Sickness</a></span></td><td class="pg"> <a href="#png.019">13</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td colspan="2" class="chap">CHAPTER III.</td></tr> - -<tr><td class="dots"><span class="dotz"><a href="#png.032">At Sea</a></span></td><td class="pg"> <a href="#png.032">26</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td colspan="2" class="chap">CHAPTER IV.</td></tr> - -<tr><td class="dots"><span class="dotz"><a href="#png.042">Overland</a></span></td><td class="pg"> <a href="#png.042">36</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td colspan="2" class="chap">CHAPTER V.</td></tr> - -<tr><td class="dots"><span class="dotz"><a href="#png.064">Among the Blacks</a></span></td><td class="pg"> <a href="#png.064">58</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td colspan="2" class="chap">CHAPTER VI.</td></tr> - -<tr><td class="dots"><span class="dotz"><a name="png.006" id="png.006" href="#png.006"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>vi<span class="ns">] </span></span></a><a - href="#png.092">Left Alone</a></span></td><td class="pg"> <a href="#png.092">86</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td colspan="2" class="chap">CHAPTER VII.</td></tr> - -<tr><td class="dots"><span class="dotz"><a href="#png.103">The Cars</a></span></td><td class="pg"> <a href="#png.103">97</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td colspan="2" class="chap">CHAPTER VIII.</td></tr> - -<tr><td class="dots"><span class="dotz"><a href="#png.137">Signor Davelli</a></span></td><td class="pg"> <a href="#png.137">131</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td colspan="2" class="chap">CHAPTER IX.</td></tr> - -<tr><td class="dots"><span class="dotz"><a href="#png.173">The Seed Beds</a></span></td><td class="pg"> <a href="#png.173">167</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td colspan="2" class="chap">CHAPTER X.</td></tr> - -<tr><td class="dots"><span class="dotz"><a href="#png.208">Leäfar</a></span></td><td class="pg"> <a href="#png.208">202</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td colspan="2" class="chap">CHAPTER XI.</td></tr> - -<tr><td class="dots"><span class="dotz"><a href="#png.239">Escape</a></span></td><td class="pg"> <a href="#png.239">233</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td colspan="2" class="chap"></td></tr> -<tr><td class="dots"><span class="dotz"><a href="#png.273">Conclusion</a></span></td><td class="pg"> <a href="#png.273">267</a></td></tr> -</table> - -</div> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 title="Preliminary"><big>THE GERM GROWERS.</big><a - name="png.007" id="png.007" href="#png.007"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns"> [</span>1<span class="ns">]</span></span></a><br - /><small>———♦———</small><br - />PRELIMINARY.</h2> - - -<p class="noindent"><span class="firstword">When</span> I first heard the name of Kimberley<a name="fn1" id="fn1"></a><a title="Go to footnote 1" - href="#Footnote1" class="fnanchor"><span - class="ns">[Footnote </span>1<span class="ns">] - </span></a> 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 -<a name="png.008" id="png.008" href="#png.008"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>2<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>Bairnsdale, and had come in search of pleasure a little -farther south.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.009" id="png.009" href="#png.009"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>3<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.010" id="png.010" href="#png.010"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>4<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“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?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“That might be,” said he, “if they believed you; -but they would not believe you, they would think you -were simply romancing.”</p> - -<p>“What would be the good of speaking then?” said I.</p> - -<p><a name="png.011" id="png.011" href="#png.011"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>5<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -“Don’t speak,” he repeated, “but write, <i>litera -scripta manet</i>, 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.”</p> - -<p>“Well,” said I, “let it be a joint concern between -you and me, and I’ll do my best.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<div class="footnotes"> -<p><small><a name="Footnote1" id="Footnote1"><span class="ns">[Footnote </span - >1<span class="ns">: </span></a> In North-west Australia.<span class="ns">]</span> -<a title="Return to text" href="#fn1" class="fnreturn" - ><i>Return to text</i></a></small></p> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 title="Chapter I. Disappearances">CHAPTER I.<a - name="png.012" id="png.012" href="#png.012"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns"> [</span>6<span class="ns">]</span></span></a><br - /><small>DISAPPEARANCES.</small></h2> - - -<p class="noindent"><span class="firstword">Before</span> 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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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, -<a name="png.013" id="png.013" href="#png.013"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>7<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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. -<a name="png.014" id="png.014" href="#png.014"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>8<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.015" id="png.015" href="#png.015"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>9<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.016" id="png.016" href="#png.016"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>10<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.017" id="png.017" href="#png.017"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>11<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.018" id="png.018" href="#png.018"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>12<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - - -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 title="Chapter II. The Red Sickness">CHAPTER II.<a - name="png.019" id="png.019" href="#png.019"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns"> [</span>13<span class="ns">]</span></span></a><br - /><small>THE RED SICKNESS.</small></h2> - - -<p class="noindent"><span class="firstword">Of</span> 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 -<a name="png.020" id="png.020" href="#png.020"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>14<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.021" id="png.021" href="#png.021"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>15<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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, -<a name="png.022" id="png.022" href="#png.022"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>16<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>but I think that they acted in great measure on -their own responsibility.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.023" id="png.023" href="#png.023"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>17<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.024" id="png.024" href="#png.024"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>18<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>Mr. Leopold stood with his back to an oak-tree, and -<a name="png.025" id="png.025" href="#png.025"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>19<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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 <span class="nw">said:—</span></p> - -<p><i>Leopold.</i> Well, Furniss, an enemy hath done this.</p> - -<p><i>Furniss.</i> Done what? The picnic or the red sickness?</p> - -<p><i>Leopold.</i> The red sickness, of course. Can’t you see -what I mean?</p> - -<p><i>Furniss.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Leopold.</i> Only the black death and the plague were -imported, and this was indigenous. It sprung up under -<a name="png.026" id="png.026" href="#png.026"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>20<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>our noses in a healthy place. It came from nowhere, -and, thank God, it is gone nowhither.</p> - -<p><i>Furniss.</i> But surely the black death and the plague -must have begun somewhere, and they too seem to -have gone nowhither.</p> - -<p><i>Leopold.</i> You’re right this far that they <em>all</em> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Furniss.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Leopold.</i> I don’t believe that God ever made the -plague, or the black death, or the red sickness.</p> - -<p><i>Furniss.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Leopold.</i> No, I don’t believe in any gods but the -One. But let me explain. That is a nice dog of -<a name="png.027" id="png.027" href="#png.027"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>21<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>yours, Furniss. You told me one day something about -his breeding, and you promised to tell me more.</p> - -<p><i>Furniss.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Leopold.</i> You told me something of it. You improved -the breed greatly, I believe?</p> - -<p><i>Furniss.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Leopold.</i> What are the differences?</p> - -<p><i>Furniss.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Leopold.</i> But I think I understood you to say that -the change in the breed did not come about in the -ordinary course of nature.</p> - -<p><i>Furniss.</i> 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 -<a name="png.028" id="png.028" href="#png.028"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>22<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>marked out the most intelligent and best tempered -pups, and he had bred from them only and had given -away or destroyed the others.</p> - -<p><i>Leopold.</i> And about your cousin’s dogs?</p> - -<p><i>Furniss.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Leopold.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Furniss.</i> Just so, but I don’t quite see what you are -driving at.</p> - -<p><i>Leopold.</i> Wait a minute. Do you suppose the germs -of cow-pox and small-pox to be of the same breed?</p> - -<p><i>Furniss.</i> Well, yes; you know that I hold them to -be specifically identical. I see what you are at now.</p> - -<p><a name="png.029" id="png.029" href="#png.029"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>23<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -<i>Leopold.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Furniss.</i> So you mean to infer that in the latter case -the germ has been cultivated downwards by intelligent -purpose.</p> - -<p><i>Leopold.</i> What if I do?</p> - -<p><i>Furniss.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Leopold.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Furniss.</i> Just as my cousins have bred those wild -<a name="png.030" id="png.030" href="#png.030"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>24<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>beasts of theirs out of such harmless creatures as poor -Tommy’s ancestors.</p> - -<p><i>Leopold.</i> Just so.</p> - -<p><i>Furniss.</i> And you think that we can contend successfully -against such enemies.</p> - -<p><i>Leopold.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Furniss.</i> You’re a queer mixture, Leopold, but we -must get back to the picnic people.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>Then I joined the company and was merry as the -merriest for the remainder of the day. But that night -<a name="png.031" id="png.031" href="#png.031"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>25<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - - -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 title="Chapter III. At Sea">CHAPTER III.<a - name="png.032" id="png.032" href="#png.032"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns"> [</span>26<span class="ns">]</span></span></a><br - /><small>AT SEA.</small></h2> - - -<p class="noindent"><span class="firstword">It</span> 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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><a name="png.033" id="png.033" href="#png.033"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>27<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -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.</p> - -<p>Then we became fast friends, and, as he had already -determined to go to Australia, I made up my mind to -<a name="png.034" id="png.034" href="#png.034"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>28<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><a name="png.035" id="png.035" href="#png.035"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>29<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -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 -<a name="png.036" id="png.036" href="#png.036"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>30<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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. -<a name="png.037" id="png.037" href="#png.037"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>31<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>So, although it would have been pleasanter to be silent, -I felt that I was bound to speak.</p> - -<p>So I said, “Mr. Fetherston, isn’t it all a matter of -evidence?”</p> - -<p><i>Fetherston.</i> Evidence! And pray on what evidence -would you believe such a story as that which we have -just heard?</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> Upon the statement on the honour of any -sane man that I knew and trusted: how I might -account for it is another matter.</p> - -<p><i>Fetherston.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> Suppose that ten men whom you knew -and trusted agreed in telling you the same story?</p> - -<p><i>Fetherston</i> (with a slight laugh). Then I should -begin to suspect that I had gone mad myself, but I -should never believe it.</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> 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. -<a name="png.038" id="png.038" href="#png.038"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>32<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>[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.</p> - -<p><i>Fetherston.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Fetherston.</i> You mean that you could not answer -with a plain “yes” or “no.”</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> Not quite that; but I could not answer as -you do with “yes” and “no.” I should have to -distinguish.</p> - -<p><a name="png.039" id="png.039" href="#png.039"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>33<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -<i>Fetherston.</i> Distinguish then, please.</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> Well, when you say that you don’t believe -in the supernatural, I reply that what I don’t believe -in is the natural.</p> - -<p><i>Fetherston.</i> I am afraid I must ask you to explain -your explanation.</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Fetherston.</i> But you believe that there is a law for -everything?</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Fetherston.</i> Easterley, I am afraid you are a philosopher. -Come with me to Central Australia and we’ll -<a name="png.040" id="png.040" href="#png.040"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>34<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>knock the philosophy out of you and make you a -practical man.</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> Are you going to Central Australia?</p> - -<p><i>Fetherston.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> I’ll think of it. I rather think I should -like it. I suppose we shall see no ghosts there, -Fetherston?</p> - -<p><i>Fetherston.</i> I don’t know about that. I dare say we -may, for we shall often have to live on salt junk and -damper.</p> - -<p>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?”</p> - -<p><a name="png.041" id="png.041" href="#png.041"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>35<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -“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.”</p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p>Fetherston said that he thought it might on such -terms be easily managed, and it was managed accordingly.</p> - - -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 title="Chapter IV. Overland">CHAPTER IV.<a - name="png.042" id="png.042" href="#png.042"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns"> [</span>36<span class="ns">]</span></span></a><br - /><small>OVERLAND.</small></h2> - - -<p class="noindent"><span class="firstword">Jack</span> 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.</p> - -<p><a name="png.043" id="png.043" href="#png.043"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>37<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -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.</p> - -<p>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<!-- TN: original reads "surveyer" -->. He had been to Cooper’s Creek twice, -<a name="png.044" id="png.044" href="#png.044"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>38<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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 -<a name="png.045" id="png.045" href="#png.045"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>39<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.046" id="png.046" href="#png.046"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>40<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>On the 20th of November we were well on the road, -and we hoped to reach Daly Waters in about three -<a name="png.047" id="png.047" href="#png.047"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>41<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.048" id="png.048" href="#png.048"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>42<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.<!-- TN: original has comma --> 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 -<a name="png.049" id="png.049" href="#png.049"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>43<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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 -<a name="png.050" id="png.050" href="#png.050"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>44<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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<!-- TN: original reads "humourous" --> -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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.051" id="png.051" href="#png.051"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>45<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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, -<a name="png.052" id="png.052" href="#png.052"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>46<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>“<!-- TN: opening quote invisible -->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.”</p> - -<p>“How long did he stay there?” One year six months.</p> - -<p>“How long since he left?” One year.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><a name="png.053" id="png.053" href="#png.053"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>47<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“When would Sir Gioro see his own people again?”</p> - -<p>Several slow puffs, a keen, eager, honest look, yet, -withal, a cautious look, and then,</p> - -<p><a name="png.054" id="png.054" href="#png.054"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>48<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -“May be one two months.”</p> - -<p>Then I said, “No water out west—die of thirst?”</p> - -<p>“Now,” said Gioro, nodding his head affirmatively, -“but in one two months, no, no.”</p> - -<p>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?”</p> - -<p>“No water, no grass, no duck, no black fellow.”</p> - -<p>“But,” said I, looking northward, “we go on one -two months, and then?” making a half-turn to face -the west.</p> - -<p>“Then,” said he, “plenty grass, plenty fish, plenty -duck, plenty black fellow.”</p> - -<p>“Everywhere?” said I, sweeping my arm all round -the horizon.</p> - -<p>“No, no, here, there, there. Gioro know the way, -Bomero know the way, find Bomero, find water.”</p> - -<p>“What,” said I, not understanding him, “Bomero -make rain?”</p> - -<p>But he replied with great contempt, “Bomero make -rain! No, no. Bomero not witchfellow. No fear. -Bomero make witchfellow make rain.”</p> - -<p>I think it was on this occasion that we ascertained -that Gioro fully intended to go away westward in -<a name="png.055" id="png.055" href="#png.055"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>49<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>Jack suggested that he and I and Gioro should all -go together and visit his tribe.</p> - -<p>Gioro hesitated for a little while, but after some -apparently careful thought he said yes, he thought we -could go.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.056" id="png.056" href="#png.056"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>50<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p>“Did you tell Bomero then about the white men?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, tell Bomero. Bomero never see white man.”</p> - -<p>“What did Bomero say?”</p> - -<p>“Bomero say, white man all same dibble dibble.”</p> - -<p>“But Bomero never saw dibble dibble?”</p> - -<p><a name="png.057" id="png.057" href="#png.057"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>51<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -“Yes, Bomero saw dibble dibble one, two, three, -two two, two three, great many.”</p> - -<p>“Where?”</p> - -<p>“Far away west.”</p> - -<p>“Where black fellows meet every three years?”</p> - -<p>“More far.”</p> - -<p>“Bomero saw white men, not dibble dibble.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“Did any black fellow but Bomero see dibble -dibble?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, two three black fellow, more, all run away.”</p> - -<p>“And what like was dibble dibble?”</p> - -<p>“White man all same dibble dibble.”</p> - -<p>That was all I could ever get out of him on the -subject.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.058" id="png.058" href="#png.058"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>52<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>will have to live among them, and to live as they live, -if they let you live at all.”</p> - -<p>“But we have our compasses and the telegraph line.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“But,” said I, “Gioro will come back with us.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“But I know Gioro well, and I should trust him -anywhere.” So said I, and Jack eagerly agreed with -me.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“I expect we shall have to chance that,” said Jack. -“Any of us may die or be killed.”</p> - -<p>“Well, gentlemen, wilful men you <span class="nw">know——</span> I -don’t pretend to any right to constrain you, only let it -<a name="png.059" id="png.059" href="#png.059"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>53<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>be fully understood that if you go, you go against my -wish and in defiance of my advice.”</p> - -<p>We agreed that everyone should know that, and so -the matter dropped.</p> - -<p>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 name="png.060" id="png.060" href="#png.060"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>54<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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,</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Fetherston turned to the man of whom I spoke -just now and said:</p> - -<p>“Well, Tim, what do you say to that?”</p> - -<p>The man turned to me and said: “I didn’t quite -catch all you said, governor. Would you mind saying -it again?”</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.061" id="png.061" href="#png.061"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>55<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>enough.” He paused for a moment, and looked me -steadily in the face, and went <span class="nw">on—</span></p> - -<p>“But, governor, if you go for the second part of the -programme you’ll never see a white man again.”</p> - -<p>“Why so?” said I.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“And what will happen?” said I.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“And then,” struck in Jack, “I suppose they will -kill us.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“Suppose we start to return on our own account?”</p> - -<p>“Well,” said the man, “if you are not more than -forty or fifty miles to the west of the wire when you -<a name="png.062" id="png.062" href="#png.062"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>56<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“Why?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p>The answer came slowly. “Jo is your trump card, -certainly ... and your only one.”</p> - -<p>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. -<a name="png.063" id="png.063" href="#png.063"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>57<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“Possible,” said Jack.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - - -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 title="Chapter V. Among the Blacks">CHAPTER V.<a - name="png.064" id="png.064" href="#png.064"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns"> [</span>58<span class="ns">]</span></span></a><br - /><small>AMONG THE BLACKS.</small></h2> - - -<p class="noindent"><span class="firstword">Our</span> 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 <i>impedimenta</i>.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.065" id="png.065" href="#png.065"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>59<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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 -<a name="png.066" id="png.066" href="#png.066"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>60<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>“Jack, my boy!” said I, giving my horse a slight -cut, so that he bounded forward, “we’re in for it now.”</p> - -<p>“You don’t seem sorry for it, Bob,” said he, urging -his horse to join me.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div>“For if a path be dangerous known,</div> -<div> The danger’s self is lure alone.”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>All the way from Port Augusta, Gioro had been -dressed like the rest of us; he had worn a pair of moleskin -<a name="png.067" id="png.067" href="#png.067"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>61<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.”</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.068" id="png.068" href="#png.068"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>62<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.069" id="png.069" href="#png.069"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>63<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.070" id="png.070" href="#png.070"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>64<span class="ns">] - </span></span></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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.071" id="png.071" href="#png.071"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>65<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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!”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.072" id="png.072" href="#png.072"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>66<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.073" id="png.073" href="#png.073"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>67<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.074" id="png.074" href="#png.074"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>68<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.075" id="png.075" href="#png.075"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>69<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>Bomero came towards us with spear in hand, and -two men on each side of him also with spears. We -<a name="png.076" id="png.076" href="#png.076"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>70<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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?”</p> - -<p>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<a name="fn2" id="fn2"></a><a title="Go to footnote 2" - href="#Footnote2" class="fnanchor"><span - class="ns">[Footnote </span>2<span class="ns">] - </span></a> white star rise, and red star and -little stars go.”</p> - -<p>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<a title="Go to footnote 2" - href="#Footnote2" class="fnanchor"><span - class="ns">[Footnote </span>2<span class="ns">] - </span></a> white star rises, and the -red star and the little stars go.”</p> - -<p><a name="png.077" id="png.077" href="#png.077"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>71<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -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.</p> - -<p>Then we breakfasted and made a start. For twelve -days we travelled on, still heading mainly westward, -<a name="png.078" id="png.078" href="#png.078"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>72<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><a name="png.079" id="png.079" href="#png.079"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>73<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -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<!-- TN: original reads "Corroborree", altered for consistency with the majority usage within this text --> 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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.080" id="png.080" href="#png.080"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>74<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>says, to “certain completed professors of parliamentary -eloquence” nearer home.</p> - -<p>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 <span class="nw">refrain:—</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i4"><span class="ns"> </span>“Go, go,</div> -<div>Red star and little stars.”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.081" id="png.081" href="#png.081"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>75<span class="ns">] - </span></span></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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><i>Gioro.</i> What’s levee?</p> - -<p><i>Jack.</i> Boss white fellow stands on daïs. No, sits on -<a name="png.082" id="png.082" href="#png.082"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>76<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.083" id="png.083" href="#png.083"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>77<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.084" id="png.084" href="#png.084"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>78<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.085" id="png.085" href="#png.085"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>79<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p>“And what of the dibble dibble that he saw -there?” said I.</p> - -<p>“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 -<a name="png.086" id="png.086" href="#png.086"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>80<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>station of some western squatter’s run, and if so we -shall get back to civilisation sooner than we think.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.087" id="png.087" href="#png.087"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>81<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>rising from some not very distant hills, and what he -said was to this effect.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.088" id="png.088" href="#png.088"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>82<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.<!-- TN: original has superfluous closing quote --></p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.089" id="png.089" href="#png.089"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>83<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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:</p> - -<p>“Why wasn’t the horse hobbled, Bob?”</p> - -<p>“Why, Jack, I had just taken the hobbles off, -and made him ready for the road.”</p> - -<p>“Never mind, old fellow, I hardly know what I -said; Gioro will come back.”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” I said, “Gioro will come back.”</p> - -<p>And then, as if our confidence in Gioro’s fidelity -cleared the air, we sat down and lit our pipes.</p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.090" id="png.090" href="#png.090"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>84<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 name="png.091" id="png.091" href="#png.091"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>85<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>a few minutes, but no words passed our lips, although -I am sure our hearts were full enough.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<div class="footnotes"> -<p><small><a name="Footnote2" id="Footnote2"><span class="ns">[Footnote </span - >2<span class="ns">: </span></a> 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 <em>one</em> 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.”<span class="nw">—R. E.</span><span class="ns">]</span> -<a title="Return to text" href="#fn2" class="fnreturn" - ><i>Return to text</i></a></small></p> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 title="Chapter VI. Left Alone">CHAPTER VI.<a - name="png.092" id="png.092" href="#png.092"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns"> [</span>86<span class="ns">]</span></span></a><br - /><small>LEFT ALONE.</small></h2> - - -<p class="noindent"><span class="firstword">All</span> 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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.093" id="png.093" href="#png.093"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>87<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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 -<a name="png.094" id="png.094" href="#png.094"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>88<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>have been witnessed by him, or, at least, that he might -have heard of such from some other blacks.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p>“Nonsense,” I said, “you could never tell that at -such a distance and with such a glass.”</p> - -<p>“Well, one would think not,” he said, “and yet it -was as I say.”</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.095" id="png.095" href="#png.095"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>89<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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<!-- TN: original reads "longtitude" --> 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<!-- TN: original reads "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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.096" id="png.096" href="#png.096"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>90<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.097" id="png.097" href="#png.097"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>91<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>Murrumbidgee, near the railway between Albury and -Wagga.</p> - -<p>As we drew near the foot of the precipice we made -for the shadiest spot that we could find.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.098" id="png.098" href="#png.098"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>92<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>had little doubt that it was due altogether to the rainfall -percolating through the cliffs from the heights -above.</p> - -<p>Here we sat and refreshed ourselves for an hour or -so before consulting as to our further progress.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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, -<a name="png.099" id="png.099" href="#png.099"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>93<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>increased this indefinite fear into a sense almost of -horror.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>Indeed, I felt the same unaccountable unwillingness -to speak of it that I felt when I had seen the like of it -before.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.100" id="png.100" href="#png.100"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>94<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.101" id="png.101" href="#png.101"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>95<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>I soon found a small opening where I could see -<a name="png.102" id="png.102" href="#png.102"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>96<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>without any risk of being seen. I looked cautiously -through. What I saw I will tell you in the next -chapter.</p> - -<hr class="short" /> - -<p><span class="firstword">Note.</span>—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.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 title="Chapter VII. The Cars">CHAPTER VII.<a - name="png.103" id="png.103" href="#png.103"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns"> [</span>97<span class="ns">]</span></span></a><br - /><small>THE CARS.</small></h2> - - -<p class="noindent"><span class="firstword">What</span> 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 -<a name="png.104" id="png.104" href="#png.104"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>98<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>forbade one from accounting for their size by the -poverty of the builders or from any other lack of -resource.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.105" id="png.105" href="#png.105"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>99<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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 -<a name="png.106" id="png.106" href="#png.106"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>100<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.107" id="png.107" href="#png.107"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>101<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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 -<a name="png.108" id="png.108" href="#png.108"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>102<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>man-eating tigers or a herd of hungry wolves. I am -not constitutionally timid and yet I repressed with -difficulty a cry of despair.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.109" id="png.109" href="#png.109"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>103<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.110" id="png.110" href="#png.110"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>104<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“Agreed,” I said; “but let us watch them for a -little and wait for a favourable moment.” And so we -<a name="png.111" id="png.111" href="#png.111"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>105<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>both crawled on to the opening of which I have already -told you, and looked through.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>We drew further back still into a dark and retired -corner, quite out of the rough pathway, and held a -brief conference.</p> - -<p>“It’s a queer start,” Jack said, “but we must go on -with it; it is our only chance.”</p> - -<p>“It’s queerer than you think,” said I; “you haven’t -seen the fellows’ faces as I saw them at first.”</p> - -<p>“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 -<a name="png.112" id="png.112" href="#png.112"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>106<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>rather he is a bad lot, for they are mere puppets in his -hands.”</p> - -<p>“Not quite that,” said I. “I don’t suppose they -would be much without him, but they are following -him with a will.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“I don’t see how he could know it,” said I, “unless -he is the devil himself.”</p> - -<p>Jack gave a short but unpleasant chuckle; then he -said,</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“What was the story?”</p> - -<p>“Well, that he knows we are coming, and that he -<a name="png.113" id="png.113" href="#png.113"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>107<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>wants us, and that he is going to make use of us. -What are we going to do?”</p> - -<p>“We will go straight up to him and ask him to help -us.”</p> - -<p>“Very well,” Jack said. “Rest, and a guide, and -food, and fire. And what story shall we tell him of -ourselves?”</p> - -<p>“We will tell him the truth,” said I.</p> - -<p>“And shame the devil,” said he, with another -uncomfortable chuckle.</p> - -<p>“What language shall I try him with?” said I.</p> - -<p>“Bet you a pound he knows English,” said Jack.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.114" id="png.114" href="#png.114"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>108<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.”</p> - -<p>He spoke to us in English. I looked at Jack, who -smiled grimly and whispered, “Lost, old man.” The -strange leader said,</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>“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?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>I was about to thank him when I suddenly noticed -<a name="png.115" id="png.115" href="#png.115"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>109<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>All these pictures and devices presented one pervading -idea; and as one passed backward and forward -<a name="png.116" id="png.116" href="#png.116"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>110<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.117" id="png.117" href="#png.117"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>111<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.118" id="png.118" href="#png.118"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>112<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><a name="png.119" id="png.119" href="#png.119"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>113<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>After our bath we returned into the larger room. -We were then very hungry, and we lay down each -<a name="png.120" id="png.120" href="#png.120"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>114<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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 -<a name="png.121" id="png.121" href="#png.121"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>115<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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, -<a name="png.122" id="png.122" href="#png.122"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>116<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.123" id="png.123" href="#png.123"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>117<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>if the subordinate leaders were making suggestions or -inquiries respecting the details of the work about which -they had just received instructions in outline.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.124" id="png.124" href="#png.124"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>118<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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,</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“I have more names than one,” he replied, “among -your people, but when I was last in Italy, which is a -<a name="png.125" id="png.125" href="#png.125"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>119<span class="ns">] - </span></span></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.</p> - -<p>“As you will,” I replied, returning to English, “we -shall be glad to see what you have to show us.”</p> - -<p>Signor Davelli rose up at the word and invited us to -<a name="png.126" id="png.126" href="#png.126"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>120<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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 -<a name="png.127" id="png.127" href="#png.127"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>121<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>Signor Davelli then took us to the works and invited -us to observe the construction of the various machines -in use.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.128" id="png.128" href="#png.128"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>122<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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 -<a name="png.129" id="png.129" href="#png.129"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>123<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.130" id="png.130" href="#png.130"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>124<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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<a name="fn3" id="fn3"></a><a title="Go to footnote 3" - href="#Footnote3" class="fnanchor"><span - class="ns">[Footnote </span>3<span class="ns">] - </span></a> -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. -<a name="png.131" id="png.131" href="#png.131"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>125<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.132" id="png.132" href="#png.132"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>126<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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, -<a name="png.133" id="png.133" href="#png.133"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>127<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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. <span class="nw">And——</span> 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 -<a name="png.134" id="png.134" href="#png.134"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>128<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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 <span class="nw">it—</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div lang="la" xml:lang="la">“Eritis sicut Deus scientes bonum et malum;”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">but neither device nor motto seemed to have any other -effect upon me than to stimulate my curiosity.</p> - -<p>Just then we touched ground, and I started, as if -<a name="png.135" id="png.135" href="#png.135"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>129<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>After a few words of courteous inquiry as to our -necessities and comforts, Signor Davelli made an -<a name="png.136" id="png.136" href="#png.136"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>130<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>“Jack,” said I, as we were going down, “what do -you think of it all?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>Nothing more but some words of course passed -between us until the morning.</p> - -<div class="footnotes"> -<p><small><a name="Footnote3" id="Footnote3"><span class="ns">[Footnote </span - >3<span class="ns">: </span></a> I discovered afterwards that it was not metallic.<span class="ns">]</span> -<a title="Return to text" href="#fn3" class="fnreturn" - ><i>Return to text</i></a></small></p> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 title="Chapter VIII. Signor Davelli">CHAPTER VIII.<a - name="png.137" id="png.137" href="#png.137"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns"> [</span>131<span class="ns">]</span></span></a><br - /><small>SIGNOR DAVELLI.</small></h2> - - -<p class="noindent"><span class="firstword">Early</span> 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 -<a name="png.138" id="png.138" href="#png.138"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>132<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>events of this morning removed all doubt on the -subject.</p> - -<p>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 -<span class="nw">began—</span></p> - -<p>“Bob,” he said, “we must keep cool, for we are -playing for very high stakes.”</p> - -<p>“For life and death, you think.”</p> - -<p>“More than that, perhaps. I wonder what selling -your soul meant in the old times?”</p> - -<p>“I suppose,” I said, “whatever else it meant, it -meant acting dishonourably or treacherously for the -sake of some personal gain.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“I daresay,” said I, not seeing nor caring what he -was driving at.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p><a name="png.139" id="png.139" href="#png.139"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>133<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -I was getting a little vexed, but I replied simply—“Well, -what would you do?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“And which do you think it would be?”</p> - -<p>“Well, I should have to be satisfied with your body, -except in one event.”</p> - -<p>“And, pray, what would that be?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>I was beginning to get vexed, partly because I -suppose I saw more truth in what he said than I liked, -so I said <span class="nw">shortly—</span></p> - -<p>“What do you mean just now by all this?”</p> - -<p>“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 -<a name="png.140" id="png.140" href="#png.140"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>134<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>villainy and, what is more to the purpose, he has a -design upon you.”</p> - -<p>“He has done us no harm that I can see.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“Don’t you see,” I said rather sullenly, “that if -your hypothesis is correct your prayer is rather superfluous?”</p> - -<p>“Well, yes, it is superfluous<!-- TN: original reads "superflous" -->,” he said with a harsh -laugh quite unlike him; “he is damned already sure -enough.”</p> - -<p>“I don’t see much sign of damnation about him,” I -said, “not if misery be an essential part of damnation.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p><a name="png.141" id="png.141" href="#png.141"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>135<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -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?”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, Bob, my boy, there is plenty of reason to -suspect me of stupidity without supposing that the -devil is in the dance.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div lang="la" xml:lang="la">‘Nec deus (or diabolus) intersit nisi dignus vindice nodus.’</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">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 -<a name="png.142" id="png.142" href="#png.142"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>136<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>see the near points a little more clearly. Now sit -down again and tell me what you think of it all.”</p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p>“What were they, Bob?”</p> - -<p>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?”</p> - -<p>“I didn’t see him, but I have little doubt that I saw -the shadow of the car in which he was carried away.”</p> - -<p><a name="png.143" id="png.143" href="#png.143"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>137<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -“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?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“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!”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p><a name="png.144" id="png.144" href="#png.144"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>138<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -“Not quite that,” said he, “or they would have -murdered us before now.”</p> - -<p>“Well, they were going to do so twice.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“And if we don’t refuse?”</p> - -<p>“Why then,” said he, “more than our lives.”</p> - -<p>“Well then,” said I, “what in the name of common -sense do you think they are?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“What do you advise?”</p> - -<p><a name="png.145" id="png.145" href="#png.145"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>139<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -“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.”</p> - -<p>“Do you think we shall find an opportunity?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“Don’t you think they will track us?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“Look to the right,” I said, “we are watched and -followed now.”</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.146" id="png.146" href="#png.146"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>140<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>Silently but with one impulse we turned and walked -slowly back to the rooms that had been assigned to us.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“But,” said I, “is it safe for us to separate?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p><a name="png.147" id="png.147" href="#png.147"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>141<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -“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.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“What course do you suggest then, when we are -next left to ourselves?”</p> - -<p>“You try to get an interview with—what’s his -name?—your old Welsh friend?”</p> - -<p>“James Redpath.”</p> - -<p>“Just so, and I will try to pick up some information -about the navigation of the cars.”</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.148" id="png.148" href="#png.148"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>142<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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 <span title="Hebrew: kelohim" - lang="he" xml:lang="he">כאלהים</span><a name="fn4" id="fn4"></a><a title="Go to footnote 4" - href="#Footnote4" class="fnanchor"><span - class="ns">[Footnote </span>4<span class="ns">] - </span></a> -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.</p> - -<p>Signor Davelli’s manner was, as I thought, very -stately and even majestic, and yet at the same time -<a name="png.149" id="png.149" href="#png.149"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>143<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.150" id="png.150" href="#png.150"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>144<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>with a bitter air of desperation. Then he looked -at me with an air of inquiry.</p> - -<p>After a long pause I said,</p> - -<p>“I see, Signor Davelli, that you are not a materialist.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“But,” said I, “some teach that matter is the very -ultimate of all fact.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“And free will in your view is real?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, it is real, doubtless, although so given as to -make it for all but the very boldest practically unreal.”</p> - -<p>“So given, you say; it is a gift then?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, it is a gift, if you call that ‘given’ which you -use at your peril.”</p> - -<p>“And who gives it?” said I.</p> - -<p>“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 name="png.151" id="png.151" href="#png.151"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>145<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p><a name="png.152" id="png.152" href="#png.152"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>146<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -“Is He,” I said, “the tyrant on whom you are -making war?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“You say that He gives and takes, will He take the -gift of the freedom of will from you?”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“It seems to me,” I said, “that our little world is -<a name="png.153" id="png.153" href="#png.153"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>147<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, if your world were the only world.”</p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p>“There are no limits,” he said, “to habitable -space.”</p> - -<p>I began to think that he was a very clever madman, -and I said nothing.</p> - -<p>“For such as you,” he continued, “the limit exists, -but not for me, nor for such as I.”</p> - -<p>Now I was sure he was mad, and I still kept silence.</p> - -<p>“Nor yet for you,” he added, “either, if you have -courage enough to overleap the limit.”</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.154" id="png.154" href="#png.154"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>148<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>that I began to change my mind and to think that I -was going mad myself.</p> - -<p>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!”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 name="png.155" id="png.155" href="#png.155"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>149<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.156" id="png.156" href="#png.156"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>150<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>As before, I am inclined to believe that the reappearance -and transformation, although presented to -me as a succession of changes, were practically instantaneous.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><i>Signor Davelli.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> 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 -<a name="png.157" id="png.157" href="#png.157"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>151<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p><i>Davelli.</i> “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.<!-- TN: extraneous closing quote removed --></p> - -<p>He came quite near me, and went on to speak in a -tone at once masterful and persuasive.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“Cannot death touch you?” I said. “Not even -when you are dwelling here with us?”</p> - -<p><a name="png.158" id="png.158" href="#png.158"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>152<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -“No,” he replied; “anything that would kill you -would simply drive us back into space.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“Do you propose,” I said, “to send me among the -dwellers in space and to fetch me back now?”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.159" id="png.159" href="#png.159"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>153<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>will the other way, and my lust of knowledge turned -the scale.</p> - -<p>So I said, “Send me where you will then.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 <span class="nw">ocean—</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="i6"><span class="ns"> </span>“Until the sea and sky</div> -<div>Seemed one, and I seemed one with them and all</div> -<div>Seemed one, and there was only one, and time</div> -<div>And space and thought were one eternity.”<a name="fn5" id="fn5"></a><a title="Go to footnote 5" - href="#Footnote5" class="fnanchor"><span - class="ns">[Footnote </span>5<span class="ns">] - </span></a></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>On both of these occasions I experienced something -not unlike the intensely vivid consciousness which I -experienced now.</p> - -<p>It was mainly a consciousness of expectancy. The -events of the last few days seemed to hang before my -<a name="png.160" id="png.160" href="#png.160"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>154<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.161" id="png.161" href="#png.161"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>155<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.162" id="png.162" href="#png.162"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>156<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>baulked, and that I had been no nearer to his world -than I was now.</p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<!-- TN: original reads "interplanatory" --> -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, -<a name="png.163" id="png.163" href="#png.163"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>157<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.164" id="png.164" href="#png.164"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>158<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><a name="png.165" id="png.165" href="#png.165"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>159<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>Jack replied civilly, but with an air of indifference -which I thought was feigned, “<em>I</em> 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.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p><a name="png.166" id="png.166" href="#png.166"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>160<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -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.</p> - -<p>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?”</p> - -<p>I hesitated for a moment, and then I said, “Yes, I -will meet you.”</p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p><a name="png.167" id="png.167" href="#png.167"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>161<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -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.</p> - -<p>Two more facts must be put on record before I close -the account of this eventful day.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>I stepped forward and stood before him, having first -made a sign to Jack.</p> - -<p>“James Redpath,” I said; “surely it must be James -Redpath?”</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.168" id="png.168" href="#png.168"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>162<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>“Penruddock?” he said. “Penruddock and Bob -Easterley<!-- TN: original reads "Easterly" -->: 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.</p> - -<p>That night Jack and I talked long and earnestly. I -<a name="png.169" id="png.169" href="#png.169"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>163<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>told him as I have told you my latest thoughts about -the matter, and then we talked of our engagements for -the coming day.</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> There’s a crisis near, Bob. It is as -likely to come to-morrow as not.</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> How do you think it will come?</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> What harm will that do him?</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> Not much, but some. Did you notice -what he said yesterday?</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> Yes, and he was telling the truth. The -shot would probably send him to his own place, but he -will be back again presently.</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><a name="png.170" id="png.170" href="#png.170"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>164<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -<i>Easterley.</i> Not very likely; but supposing I did, -what is to become of you?</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> 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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“Never mind,” said he, “it is the unlikely thing -that happens: let us be on the watch.”</p> - -<p><i>Easterley<!-- TN: original reads "Easterly" -->.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> Yesterday, perhaps; but not now, Bob.</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> 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, -<a name="png.171" id="png.171" href="#png.171"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>165<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>mark me, he is not going to bring things to a crisis -yet.</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> I have told you that I am not sure if I -can escape him now, but, God helping me, I will do -my best.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.172" id="png.172" href="#png.172"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>166<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<div class="footnotes"> -<p><small><a name="Footnote4" id="Footnote4"><span class="ns">[Footnote </span - >4<span class="ns">: </span></a> “As gods.” Gen. iii. 5.<span class="ns">]</span> -<a title="Return to text" href="#fn4" class="fnreturn" - ><i>Return to text</i></a></small></p> -<p><small><a name="Footnote5" id="Footnote5"><span class="ns">[Footnote </span - >5<span class="ns">: </span></a> “Nay, then, God be wi’ you, an you talk in blank verse.”<span class="nw">—J.W.</span><span class="ns">]</span> -<a title="Return to text" href="#fn5" class="fnreturn" - ><i>Return to text</i></a></small></p> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 title="Chapter IX. The Seed Beds">CHAPTER IX.<a - name="png.173" id="png.173" href="#png.173"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns"> [</span>167<span class="ns">]</span></span></a><br - /><small>THE SEED BEDS.</small></h2> - - -<p class="noindent"><span class="firstword">As</span> 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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.174" id="png.174" href="#png.174"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>168<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>In some of the cars which were fitted for long -<a name="png.175" id="png.175" href="#png.175"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>169<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>I told Jack very briefly about the light I had seen -last night, and then we held a brief conference before -we parted.</p> - -<p>“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?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“Why do you think so?”</p> - -<p><a name="png.176" id="png.176" href="#png.176"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>170<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -“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.”</p> - -<p>“And if it succeeds?”</p> - -<p>“Then it will depend on circumstances not now evident -what will become of me.”</p> - -<p>“And if it fails?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“Which appears hardly to be expected.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, hardly to be expected, but the unexpected -happens.”</p> - -<p>“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?”</p> - -<p>“Well, no, I don’t.”</p> - -<p>“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?”</p> - -<p><a name="png.177" id="png.177" href="#png.177"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>171<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -“I can’t say, Bob, unless it be that I am not clever -enough.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“Well, what is it, then?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“Do you forget the light last night?”</p> - -<p>“I forget nothing, but we will give them the slip -somehow.”</p> - -<p><a name="png.178" id="png.178" href="#png.178"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>172<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -“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.”</p> - -<p>“Did not Dr. Leopold say something of that sort?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“Well, all that is so much in our favour.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>Signor Niccolo turned to me, and, after the usual -<a name="png.179" id="png.179" href="#png.179"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>173<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.”</p> - -<p>“Thank you,” I replied. “I daresay we shall both -do very well.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.180" id="png.180" href="#png.180"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>174<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>chemical apparatus of apparently simple construction, -but quite unfamiliar to me.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.181" id="png.181" href="#png.181"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>175<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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 -<a name="png.182" id="png.182" href="#png.182"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>176<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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 -<a name="png.183" id="png.183" href="#png.183"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>177<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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, <span class="nw">where—</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div>“Agaric and fungi with mildew and mould<a name="png.184" id="png.184" href="#png.184"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>178<span class="ns">]</span></span></a></div> -<div> Started like mist from the wet ground cold.”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.185" id="png.185" href="#png.185"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>179<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.186" id="png.186" href="#png.186"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>180<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.187" id="png.187" href="#png.187"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>181<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.188" id="png.188" href="#png.188"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>182<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.189" id="png.189" href="#png.189"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>183<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.190" id="png.190" href="#png.190"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>184<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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, -<a name="png.191" id="png.191" href="#png.191"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>185<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.192" id="png.192" href="#png.192"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>186<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.193" id="png.193" href="#png.193"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>187<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.194" id="png.194" href="#png.194"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>188<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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 -<a name="png.195" id="png.195" href="#png.195"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>189<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>on the little table. Some discussion seemed to follow, -an animated conversation as I thought, with certainly -a rapid pantomimic accompaniment.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.196" id="png.196" href="#png.196"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>190<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p>“Careless wretches!” he said, looking towards the -place that I was observing.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“And you infer, I suppose, that if you had been in -his place you would have dropped down dead.”</p> - -<p>“That is what I think,” said I.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p><a name="png.197" id="png.197" href="#png.197"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>191<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -I then turned my attention again to my examination -of the workers at the sixth bed.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.198" id="png.198" href="#png.198"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>192<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>little cloud, and another and another until I counted -the five. Then I lost sight of them.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.199" id="png.199" href="#png.199"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>193<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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 -<a name="png.200" id="png.200" href="#png.200"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>194<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.201" id="png.201" href="#png.201"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>195<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.202" id="png.202" href="#png.202"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>196<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>cultivated up to the highest pitch were sent away -every day, and that hundreds of thousands went under -cultivation.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.203" id="png.203" href="#png.203"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>197<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.”</p> - -<p>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 <span class="nw">spoke—</span></p> - -<p>“Mr. Easterley, you know something of my power -now.”</p> - -<p>I looked at him, I suppose, interrogatively, for he -went on to <span class="nw">say—</span></p> - -<p>“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?”</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.204" id="png.204" href="#png.204"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>198<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.”</p> - -<p>“Very well,” he said; “we shall see to-morrow if -you are worthy to share it.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><a name="png.205" id="png.205" href="#png.205"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>199<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -“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.”</p> - -<p>“What do we want with a second battery?” said I.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“But how are we to get away,” said I; “we are -so closely watched?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“In the car?”</p> - -<p>“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 -<a name="png.206" id="png.206" href="#png.206"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>200<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.”</p> - -<p>“Not even if we escape in an invisible car?”</p> - -<p>“There is none of the cars invisible to them.”</p> - -<p>“Ah! so I was beginning to think.”</p> - -<p>“I am quite sure of it.”</p> - -<p>“Well, go on.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“Very well,” said I, “we shall try it the night after -next.”</p> - -<p>Then I told him of my appointment next day with -Signor Davelli.</p> - -<p>He looked very grave. “That’s the biggest risk of -<a name="png.207" id="png.207" href="#png.207"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>201<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>all,” he said. “If you give in to him we’re both done -for.”</p> - -<p>“I won’t give in to him.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“He will give me more than one trial.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“So be it,” said I.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 title="Chapter X. Leäfar">CHAPTER X.<a - name="png.208" id="png.208" href="#png.208"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns"> [</span>202<span class="ns">]</span></span></a><br - /><small>LEÄFAR.</small></h2> - - -<p class="noindent"><span class="firstword">That</span> 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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.209" id="png.209" href="#png.209"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>203<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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. -<a name="png.210" id="png.210" href="#png.210"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>204<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>We both started to our feet, and made, almost involuntarily, -a profound salutation.</p> - -<p>“Friends,” he said, “you are in urgent danger, and -<a name="png.211" id="png.211" href="#png.211"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>205<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.”</p> - -<p>I was meditating whether or not I should begin with -a confession of my own faults, when Jack stepped forward, -prevented me, and spoke.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” answered he who called himself Leäfar, “it -is best that you should have information first; counsel -and help will follow.</p> - -<p>“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 -<a name="png.212" id="png.212" href="#png.212"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>206<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.”</p> - -<p>“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?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><a name="png.213" id="png.213" href="#png.213"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>207<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -“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.</p> - -<p>“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 -<a name="png.214" id="png.214" href="#png.214"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>208<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>Here he paused for a moment and Jack spoke.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p><a name="png.215" id="png.215" href="#png.215"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>209<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -“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.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>“But our sensations are throughout strictly analogous -to yours and pass into yours when we assume -terrestrial bodies.”</p> - -<p>Here he paused again, and I asked, “Can you see -our worlds from yours?”</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>“But there are certain links,” he added, “which -bind both worlds together, and two of these are known -to you as <em>light</em> and <em>gravity</em>. Our world is for ever in -motion; motion is of the essence of its being, and it -<a name="png.216" id="png.216" href="#png.216"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>210<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>“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 -<a name="png.217" id="png.217" href="#png.217"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>211<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.”</p> - -<p>“But how,” inquired I, “can you come into our -world without having any direct sensation of its -whereabouts?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>Here he paused, and rose to his feet, and as we were -about to rise he signed to us to keep sitting.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>He went on—“The Infinite One, ages before your -worlds were formed, called the ethereal host into being. -<a name="png.218" id="png.218" href="#png.218"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>212<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><a name="png.219" id="png.219" href="#png.219"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>213<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -“But how did the will to resist the will of the -Infinite One ever come into being at all?”</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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, -<a name="png.220" id="png.220" href="#png.220"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>214<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>but presently I heard Jack’s voice ringing out clearly -and confidently like the voice of a fearless and innocent -child.</p> - -<p>“Sir Leäfar,” he said, “do the men who inhabit -this valley belong to the evil race you speak of?”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” he replied, “they are some of the least -powerful, though not the least evil among them.”</p> - -<p>“And what is their purpose here?”</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p><a name="png.221" id="png.221" href="#png.221"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>215<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -“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.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>“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 -<a name="png.222" id="png.222" href="#png.222"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>216<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.”</p> - -<p>Here he paused again, and I took heart and <span class="nw">said—</span></p> - -<p>“Is it simply to gratify their love of inflicting pain -that they cultivate and propagate these plagues?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“But why should they not blame Him,” said I, “if -He has called into existence those evil beings who invent -such diseases?”</p> - -<p>“Suppose,” replied Leäfar, “that a human enemy -were to poison your water supply. Would you blame -God or man?”</p> - -<p>“Man, I suppose,” replied I.</p> - -<p>“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 -<a name="png.223" id="png.223" href="#png.223"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>217<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>One may, if He so please, take away his freedom, but -by so doing He annihilates the man.”</p> - -<p>“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?”</p> - -<p>Leäfar answered very slowly and solemnly, and yet -there was a smile upon his countenance as he spoke.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“Then,” said I, “if I understand you rightly, these -beings are doomed to annihilation?”</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.224" id="png.224" href="#png.224"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>218<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.”<!-- TN: closing quote invisible --></p> - -<p>“And what becomes of them?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>Here Jack started and almost interrupted him, then -hesitated and said, “I beg your pardon.”</p> - -<p>“Say on,” replied Leäfar, quite softly and kindly.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“And do they all know that they must lose it?”</p> - -<p>“As well as you know that you must die.”</p> - -<p>“Ah!” said Jack, “I thought so, and now, sir, -<a name="png.225" id="png.225" href="#png.225"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>219<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>tell me one thing more: if this doom comes upon -them while they are in human form, what happens -then?”</p> - -<p>“They pass back at once into their own world and -are dealt with as I have told you there.”</p> - -<p>“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?”</p> - -<p>I nodded assent.</p> - -<p>“It is true,” said Leäfar.</p> - -<p>“Then surely,” said I, “they must be dying out -rapidly.”</p> - -<p>“Dying out, certainly, but not as rapidly as you might -suppose.”</p> - -<p>“Have they,” said I, “the power to reproduce their -kind?”</p> - -<p>“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 -<a name="png.226" id="png.226" href="#png.226"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>220<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>from this world. Their purpose is to steal you away, -one of you or both.”</p> - -<p>“Steal us! Surely that would not be permitted?”</p> - -<p>“It is not possible unless you yourselves give yourselves -away.”</p> - -<p>“How should we give ourselves away?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“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 -<a name="png.227" id="png.227" href="#png.227"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>221<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>determined to resist him to the death. Is there any -hope?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“And but for my compliance, I suppose neither of -us would have run any risk at all.”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>I shuddered and said, “What is to be done?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>I told him in brief all that I have told you in the -last chapter.</p> - -<p>“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 -<a name="png.228" id="png.228" href="#png.228"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>222<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>will to him again I see no hope. If you resist, then he -will have no power but over your body.”</p> - -<p>“And what will he do then?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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?”</p> - -<p>“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 -<a name="png.229" id="png.229" href="#png.229"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>223<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.”</p> - -<p>“And then?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“Let me escape him, and I am willing to die.”</p> - -<p>“That is the true temper; keep to that, and you -need have no fear. And now listen to my further -counsel.”</p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p>“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 -<a name="png.230" id="png.230" href="#png.230"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>224<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.”</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.231" id="png.231" href="#png.231"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>225<span class="ns">] - </span></span></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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“Wait there until you see two men about your own -size enter the room, and until you see the light settle -<a name="png.232" id="png.232" href="#png.232"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>226<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.”</p> - -<p>Here he added some further instructions, which I -lost. Then I heard him say further,</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p><a name="png.233" id="png.233" href="#png.233"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>227<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -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.”</p> - -<p>Then he disappeared in the same way in which he -had appeared, but much more quickly.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p>Just then Davelli came up, and I silently committed -myself to God and awaited his onset. It came without -<a name="png.234" id="png.234" href="#png.234"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>228<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>I do not know how long this lasted, it could hardly -<a name="png.235" id="png.235" href="#png.235"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>229<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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 <span class="nw">imagination—</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div>“All fiery pangs on battle-fields</div> -<div> On fever beds where sick men toss.”</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.236" id="png.236" href="#png.236"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>230<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>my own flesh and sinews the very nails and thorns -which pierced the Divine Sufferer.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>And then a whisper seemed to speak within, and say -that the solution of all mysteries was only to be found -<a name="png.237" id="png.237" href="#png.237"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>231<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>I soon saw Jack standing near the foot of the eastern -stairway. I made a signal to him and he hurried -<a name="png.238" id="png.238" href="#png.238"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>232<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 title="Chapter XI. Escape">CHAPTER XI.<a - name="png.239" id="png.239" href="#png.239"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns"> [</span>233<span class="ns">]</span></span></a><br - /><small>ESCAPE.</small></h2> - - -<p class="noindent"><span class="firstword">When</span> 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 -<a name="png.240" id="png.240" href="#png.240"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>234<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>that we should make a start first, and then we could -converse without losing time.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.241" id="png.241" href="#png.241"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>235<span class="ns">] - </span></span></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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>I noticed now a point in the machinery which I had -not observed before. There was a valve to each balloon, -<a name="png.242" id="png.242" href="#png.242"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>236<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>After we had got well under way Jack began to -speak.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>Then Jack began, in a business-like manner, “You -<a name="png.243" id="png.243" href="#png.243"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>237<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>“I see,” said I, “that it is larger; it seems heavier -than the other, and in some details different: what of -that?”</p> - -<p>“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 -<a name="png.244" id="png.244" href="#png.244"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>238<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.”</p> - -<p>“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?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“Go ahead,” said I.</p> - -<p>“Very well,” he said, “I want to know, or to make -as near a guess as possible, at two or three things.</p> - -<p>“(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?</p> - -<p>“(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 -<a name="png.245" id="png.245" href="#png.245"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>239<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>out for the Darling or for the Murray; or, failing -either, for the sea.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“I think you are right,” I said; “still it is quite possible -that there may be nothing in it. The workers -<a name="png.246" id="png.246" href="#png.246"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>240<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.”</p> - -<p>“It may be so,” he said, “and one must not overlook -the possibility, but I don’t think it likely.”</p> - -<p>“Then you see something in the presence of the -larger battery?”</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>“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 -<a name="png.247" id="png.247" href="#png.247"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>241<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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?”</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> Why do you think that?</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> What do you suppose to be their motive?</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> 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 -<a name="png.248" id="png.248" href="#png.248"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>242<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>accepted, would cause their powers to be examined and -understood.</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> I see; we should take their measure and -know how to manage them.</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> That’s it; as Mr. Morley says of the clergy, -we should explain them.</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> And that would be worse for them than -a sheer denial of their existence?</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> Agreed. And now what do you think? -Shall we be followed?</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> On the whole I think we shall, but it -depends on circumstances that we can only guess at.</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> Why do you think we shall be -followed?</p> - -<p><a name="png.249" id="png.249" href="#png.249"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>243<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -<i>Easterley.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> And what then?</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> Then our quarters will be searched, and -our escape will immediately become known.</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> How can they tell in which direction to -follow us?</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> 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?</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> 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.</p> - -<p>“Well, now,” said I, “suppose we get through -safely, what shall we do with the car?”</p> - -<p>“I have thought that over, Bob,” he said, “and I -have come to rather an odd conclusion.”</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> Do you mind telling a fellow what it is?</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> Not at all. Suppose now that we should -<a name="png.250" id="png.250" href="#png.250"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>244<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> I dare say you are right.</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> 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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.251" id="png.251" href="#png.251"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>245<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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?</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> Not at all; and I believe you are right. -But what do you propose to do?</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> But if we escape we must give some account -of our escape; we are not going to tell lies.</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> 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<!-- TN: original reads "Blundel", changed for consistency --> 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. -<a name="png.252" id="png.252" href="#png.252"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>246<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>Can we try to estimate the rate at which we are -travelling?</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.”<!-- TN: closing quote invisible --> 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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“What do you make of it?” said Jack at last, when -he had raised the car to its former height.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p><a name="png.253" id="png.253" href="#png.253"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>247<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -<i>Wilbraham.</i> Ah! and how far do you suppose that -we have to travel from the start?</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> Ah! if the figures are right the sum is -easy; we ought to cross the wire about six o’clock.</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> I suppose so. Nevertheless, the chances -are that if we stop the car about sunrise we shall still -<a name="png.254" id="png.254" href="#png.254"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>248<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>So now we had all our eggs in one basket, and it -<a name="png.255" id="png.255" href="#png.255"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>249<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>never occurred to us that we were incurring any risk -at all.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.256" id="png.256" href="#png.256"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>250<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.257" id="png.257" href="#png.257"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>251<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>A fourth time the shadows fell across us, but they -<a name="png.258" id="png.258" href="#png.258"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>252<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>Then the shadow of the car passed away westward -and was lost to sight.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.259" id="png.259" href="#png.259"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>253<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.260" id="png.260" href="#png.260"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>254<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.261" id="png.261" href="#png.261"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>255<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>than I was, but there was a look about his eyes and -mouth which alarmed me.</p> - -<p>“What do you think now, Jack?” I said.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> But where’s the wire?</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> Well, old man, the wire is not five -miles off, you may be sure of that: most likely not half -so far.</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> Why do you think so?</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> Leäfar would never have left unless he -knew that we were near enough. Besides, all our calculations -look the same way.</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> Well, not much as it has happened, -but he was very near smashing us to pieces, and the -<a name="png.262" id="png.262" href="#png.262"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>256<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> I hope you may be right. We must -never say die, anyway. But you don’t look well, Jack, -though you speak so cheerfully.</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> I am a bit seedy, I am sure I don’t -know why, but I daresay it will pass off soon.</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> 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?</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> A horse, by George! didn’t I tell you?</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>It was quite an easy matter to catch the horse; he -<a name="png.263" id="png.263" href="#png.263"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>257<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.264" id="png.264" href="#png.264"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>258<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>We had now got all out of the horse that we were -<a name="png.265" id="png.265" href="#png.265"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>259<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>I slept rather well, but Jack was troubled with restlessness -and with dreams. And in the morning he -was no better.</p> - -<p>Things were looking very black indeed. After -<a name="png.266" id="png.266" href="#png.266"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>260<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.”</p> - -<p>“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?”</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>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, -<a name="png.267" id="png.267" href="#png.267"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>261<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>came to another belt of timber, and marked another -tree.</p> - -<p>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 <span class="nw">said—</span></p> - -<p>“The will of God be done.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>I just said, “Thank God,” and I ran back as fast as -my legs could carry me.</p> - -<p><a name="png.268" id="png.268" href="#png.268"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>262<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -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 <span class="nw">say—</span></p> - -<p>“Why, Bob, you’ve hardly been away an hour.”</p> - -<p>“I have found it!” I cried, “I have found it!”</p> - -<p>“Take it easy, man,” he said; “take a drink of -water. Didn’t I tell you we were near it?”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>(You will remember, no doubt, that I have already -told you that Jack was a very clever athlete.)</p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p>“I have one lozenge left,” I said; “take it before -you try;” and I handed him the lozenge.</p> - -<p>“I’ll take my share of it,” he answered, “but not -yours too.”</p> - -<p>“Now be reasonable, Jack,” said I; “my life as well -<a name="png.269" id="png.269" href="#png.269"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>263<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.”</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><a name="png.270" id="png.270" href="#png.270"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>264<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.271" id="png.271" href="#png.271"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>265<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>were withdrawn. And so it happened as you have -heard, and thus their lie came true.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<a name="png.272" id="png.272" href="#png.272"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>266<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>Mr. Fetherston<!-- TN: original reads "Fetherstone" --> 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.</p> - -<p>After that I held my peace.</p> - -<p>In about six weeks Jack was able to travel, and Mr. Fetherston gave us an escort to Port Darwin.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 title="Conclusion">CONCLUSION.<a - name="png.273" id="png.273" href="#png.273"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns"> [</span>267<span class="ns">]</span></span></a></h2> - - -<p class="noindent"><span class="firstword">My</span> 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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>Once, for instance, I was in Sydney with Jack -<a name="png.274" id="png.274" href="#png.274"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>268<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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,</p> - -<p>“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.”</p> - -<p>“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 -<a name="png.275" id="png.275" href="#png.275"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>269<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>“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.</p> - -<p>“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 -<a name="png.276" id="png.276" href="#png.276"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>270<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.”</p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>But it is now quite a year since we have made a clean -<a name="png.277" id="png.277" href="#png.277"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>271<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>It was a quiet, unpretending place to look at, but it -<a name="png.278" id="png.278" href="#png.278"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>272<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>At the gate Jack and I were standing; he had come -up from Sydney about an hour before. And this was -what we <span class="nw">said:—</span></p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> Well, Bob, can you tell me when you -are going to be married?</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> And you can trust Violet?</p> - -<p><a name="png.279" id="png.279" href="#png.279"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>273<span class="ns">]</span></span></a> -<i>Easterley.</i> I think I can.</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> Perhaps she didn’t know.</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> 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.</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> Jack, I am very glad indeed, but I never -guessed it, though I did wonder what was taking you -to Sydney so often.</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> It was not that; it was, in the first -place, to leave you and Bessie together; but sure -enough it led to that.</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> But who is she? Oh, Jack, I hope we -shall not be worse friends after we are married.</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham</i> (with a knowing smile). Somehow, Bob, -I don’t think we will.</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> Surely it is not Violet?</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> Yes, it’s Violet; so she and Bessie may -as well settle both days in one.</p> - -<p><i>Easterley.</i> Well, I am very glad; but how is it -that Bessie never told me, for surely Violet must have -told her.</p> - -<p><i>Wilbraham.</i> No, she didn’t. It was only settled -<a name="png.280" id="png.280" href="#png.280"><span class="pagenum"><span - class="ns">[</span>274<span class="ns">] - </span></span></a>yesterday. But there is Bessie on the verandah, and -she has just got a letter.</p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>And now, as I have already told you, we are living -in Queensland, in homes only ten miles apart.</p> - -<p>I thought you might like just a little bit of human -interest after so much of the other thing.</p> - -<p>So now—Farewell!</p> - - -<p class="finis">THE END.</p> - - -<p class="printedby"><small>PRINTED BY J. S. VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED, CITY ROAD, LONDON.</small></p> - -</div> - - - - -<div class="tnote"> -<h2>Transcriber’s Note</h2> - -<p>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.</p> -<p>A few misspellings have been corrected and a handful of quotation marks adjusted for clarity.</p> -</div> - - - -<hr class="ww" /> - - - - - - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -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-h.htm or 60312-h.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. 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