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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Nordenholt's Million, by J. J. Connington
+
+
+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: Nordenholt's Million
+
+
+Author: J. J. Connington
+
+
+
+Release Date: February 15, 2021  [eBook #64567]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NORDENHOLT'S MILLION***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Tim Lindell, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Transcriber’s note:
+
+      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
+
+
+
+
+
+NORDENHOLT’S MILLION
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+_RECENT FICTION_
+
+  THE DOVE’S NEST & OTHER STORIES
+    By KATHERINE MANSFIELD
+
+  THE KEY OF DREAMS
+    By L. ADAMS BECK
+
+  THE SLEEPER BY MOONLIGHT
+    By K. BALBERNIE
+
+  THE THRESHOLD
+    By MARTHA KINROSS
+
+  SWEET PEPPER
+    By GEOFFREY MOSS
+
+  PONJOLA
+    By CYNTHIA STOCKLEY
+
+  DESOLATE SPLENDOUR
+    By MICHAEL SADLEIR
+
+  CONSTABLE & CO. LTD.
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+NORDENHOLT’S MILLION
+
+by
+
+J. J. CONNINGTON
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Constable & Co. Ltd.
+London · Bombay · Sydney
+1923
+
+Printed in Great Britain by
+Richard Clay & Sons, Limited,
+Bungay, Suffolk.
+
+
+
+
+  TO
+  J. N. C.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+   CHAP.                                          PAGE
+
+      I. GENESIS                                     1
+
+     II. THE COMING OF “THE BLIGHT”                 16
+
+    III. _B. DIAZOTANS_                             26
+
+     IV. PANIC                                      35
+
+      V. NORDENHOLT                                 41
+
+     VI. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE BREAKING-STRAIN      64
+
+    VII. NORDENHOLT’S MILLION                       88
+
+   VIII. THE CLYDE VALLEY                          103
+
+     IX. INTERMEZZO                                125
+
+      X. THE DEATH OF THE LEVIATHAN                140
+
+     XI. FATA MORGANA                              149
+
+    XII. NUIT BLANCHE                              156
+
+   XIII. RECONSTRUCTION                            189
+
+    XIV. WINTER IN THE OUTER WORLD                 208
+
+     XV. DOCUMENT B. 53. X. 15                     224
+
+    XVI. IN THE NITROGEN AREA                      240
+
+   XVII. PER ITER TENEBRICOSUM                     256
+
+  XVIII. THE ELEVENTH HOUR                         271
+
+    XIX. THE BREAKING-STRAIN                       289
+
+     XX. ASGARD                                    298
+
+
+
+
+NORDENHOLT’S MILLION
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Genesis
+
+
+I suppose that in the days before the catastrophe I was a very
+fair representative of the better type of business man. I had been
+successful in my own line, which was the application of mass-production
+methods to a better pattern of motor-car than had yet been dealt with
+upon a large scale; and the Flint car had been a good speculation.
+I was thinking of bringing out an economical type of gyroscopic
+two-wheeler just at the time we were overwhelmed. Organisation was my
+strong point; and much of my commercial success was due to a new system
+of control which I had introduced into my factories. I mention this
+point in passing, because it was this capacity of mine which first
+brought me to the notice of Nordenholt.
+
+Although at the time of which I speak I had become more a director
+than a designer, I was originally by profession a mechanical engineer;
+and in my student days I had had a scientific training, some remnants
+of which still fluttered in tatters in odd corners of my mind. I
+could check the newspaper accounts of new discoveries in chemistry
+and physics well enough to know when the reporters blundered grossly;
+geology I remembered vaguely, though I could barely have distinguished
+augite from muscovite under a microscope: but the biological group of
+subjects had never come within my ken. The medical side of science was
+a closed book as far as I was concerned.
+
+Yet, like many educated men of that time, I took a certain interest
+in scientific affairs. I read the accounts of the British Association
+in the newspapers year by year; I bought a copy of _Nature_ now and
+again when a new line of research caught my attention; and occasionally
+I glanced through some of these popular _réchauffés_ of various
+scientific topics by means of which people like myself were able to
+persuade themselves that they were keeping in touch with the advance of
+knowledge.
+
+It was this taste of mine which brought me into contact with
+Wotherspoon; for, beyond his interest in scientific affairs, he and I
+had little enough in common. It is over a quarter of a century since I
+saw him last, for he must have died in the first year of our troubles;
+but I can still recall him very clearly: a short, stout man--“pudgy”
+is perhaps the word which best describes him--with a drooping, untidy
+moustache half-covering but not concealing the slackness of his
+mouth; fair hair, generally brushed in a lank mass to one side of his
+forehead; and watery eyes which had a look in them as of one crushed
+beneath a weight of knowledge and responsibility.
+
+As a matter of fact, I doubt if his knowledge was sufficiently profound
+or extensive to crush any ordinary person; and as he had a private
+income and no dependants, I could not understand what responsibilities
+weighed upon him. He certainly held no official post in the scientific
+world which might have burdened him; for despite numerous applications
+on his part, none of the Universities had seen fit to utilise his
+services in even the meanest capacity.
+
+To be quite frank, he was a dabbler. He originated nothing, discovered
+nothing, improved nothing; and yet, by some means, he had succeeded in
+imposing himself upon the public mind. He delivered courses of popular
+lectures on the work of real investigators; and I believe that these
+lectures were well attended. He wrote numerous books dealing with the
+researches of other men; and the publication of volume after volume
+kept him in the public eye. Whenever an important discovery was made
+by some real scientific expert, Wotherspoon would sit down and compile
+newspaper articles on the subject with great facility; and by these
+methods he achieved, among inexperienced readers, the reputation of a
+sort of arbiter in the scientific field. “As Mr. Wotherspoon says in
+the article which we publish elsewhere” was a phrase which appeared
+from time to time in the leader columns of the more sensational Press.
+
+Naturally, he was disliked by the men who actually did the scientific
+work of the world and who had little time to spare for cultivating
+notoriety. He was a member of a large number of those societies to
+which admission can be gained by payment of an entrance fee and
+subscription; and on the bills of his lectures and the title-pages
+of his books his name was followed by a string of letters which the
+uninitiated assumed to imply great scientific ability. His application
+for admission to the Royal Society had, however, been unsuccessful--a
+failure which he frequently and publicly attributed to jealousy.
+
+It appears strange that such a man as this should have been selected
+by Fate as the agent of disaster; and it seems characteristic of him
+that, when the key of the problem was lying beside him, his energy was
+entirely engrossed in writing newspaper paragraphs on another matter.
+His mind worked exclusively through the medium of print and paper; so
+that even the most striking natural phenomenon escaped his observation.
+
+At that time he lived in one of the houses of Cumberland Terrace,
+overlooking Regent’s Park. I cannot recall the number; and the
+place has long ago disappeared; but I remember that it was near St.
+Katherine’s College and it overlooked the grounds of St. Katherine’s
+House. Wotherspoon carried his scientific aura even into the
+arrangement of his residence; for what was normally the drawing-room
+of the house had been turned into a kind of laboratory-reception-room;
+so that casual visitors might be impressed by his ardour in the pursuit
+of knowledge. When anyone called upon him, he was always discovered
+in this room, fingering apparatus, pouring liquids from one tube
+into another, producing precipitates or doing something else which
+would strike the unwary as being part of a recondite process. I had a
+feeling, when I came upon him in the midst of these manœuvres, that
+he had sprung up from his chair at the sound of the door bell and had
+plunged hastily into his operations. I know enough to distinguish real
+work from make-believe; and Wotherspoon never gave me the impression
+that he was engaged in anything better than window-dressing. At any
+rate, nothing ever was made public with regard to the results of these
+multitudinous experiments; and when, occasionally, I asked him if he
+proposed to bring out a paper, he merely launched into a diatribe
+against the jealousy of scientific men.
+
+It was about this time that Henley-Davenport was making his earlier
+discoveries in the field of induced radioactivity. The results were
+too technical for the unscientific man to appreciate; but I had
+become interested, not so much in details as in possibilities; and I
+determined to go across the Park and pay a visit to Wotherspoon one
+evening. I knew that, as far as published information went, he would be
+in possession of the latest news; and it was easier to get it from him
+than to read it myself.
+
+It was warm weather then. I decided to use my car instead of walking
+through the Park. I had a slight headache, and I thought that possibly
+a short spin later, in the cool of the evening, might take it away. As
+I drove, I noticed how thunder-clouds were banking up on the horizon,
+and I congratulated myself that even if they broke I should have the
+shelter of the car and be saved a walk home through the rain.
+
+When I reached Cumberland Terrace, I was, as I expected, shown up into
+Wotherspoon’s sanctum. I found him, as usual, deeply engrossed in work:
+he had his eye to the tube of a large microscope, down which he was
+staring intently. I noticed a slight change in the equipment of the
+room. There seemed to be fewer retorts, flasks and test-tube racks than
+there usually were; and two large tables at the windows were littered
+with flat glass dishes containing thin slabs of pinkish material which
+seemed to be gelatine. Things like incubators took up a good deal of
+the remaining space. But I doubt if it is worth while describing what
+I saw: I know very little of such things; and I question whether his
+apparatus would have passed muster with an expert in any case.
+
+After a certain amount of fumbling with the microscope, which seemed
+largely a formal matter leading to nothing, he rose from his seat and
+greeted me with his customary pre-occupied air. For a time we smoked
+and talked of Henley-Davenport’s work; but after he had answered my
+questions it became evident that he had no further interest in the
+subject; and I was not surprised when, after a pause, he broke entirely
+new ground in his next remark.
+
+“Do you know, Flint,” he said, “I am losing interest in all these
+investigations of the atomic structure. It seems to me that while
+unimaginative people like Henley-Davenport are groping into the depths
+of the material Universe, the real thing is passing them by. After all,
+what is mere matter in comparison with the problems of life? I have
+given up atoms and I am going to begin work upon living organisms.”
+
+That was so characteristic of Wotherspoon. He was always “losing
+interest in” something and “going to begin work” upon something else.
+I nodded without saying anything. After all, it seemed of very little
+importance what he “worked” at.
+
+“I wonder if you ever reflect, Flint,” he continued, “if you ever
+ponder over our position in this Universe? Here we stand, like Dante,
+‘midway in this our mortal life’; at the half-way house between the
+cradle and the grave in time. And in space, too, we represent the
+middle term between the endless stretches of the Macrocosm and the
+bottomless deeps of the Microcosm. Look up at the night-sky and your
+eyes will tingle with the rays from long-dead stars, suns that were
+blotted out ages ago though the light they sent out before they died
+still thrills across the ether on its journey to our Earth. Take
+your microscope, and you find a new world before you; increase the
+magnification and another, tinier cosmos sweeps into your ken. And so,
+with ever-growing lens-power, we can peer either upward into stellar
+space or downward into the regions of the infinitesimal, while between
+these deeps we ourselves stand for a time on our precarious bridge of
+Earth.”
+
+I began to suspect that he was trying over some phrases for a coming
+lecture; but it was early yet and I could not decently make an excuse
+for leaving him. I took a fresh cigar and let him go on without
+interruption.
+
+“It always seems strange to me how little the man in the street knows
+of the things around him. The microscopic world has no existence as
+far as his mind is concerned. A grain of dust is too small for him to
+notice; it must blow into his eye before he appreciates that it has
+perceptible size at all. And yet, all about him and within him there
+lives this wonderful race of beings, passing to and fro in his veins
+as we do in the streets and avenues of a great city; coming to birth,
+going about their concerns, falling ill and dying, just as men do in
+London at this hour. Think of the battles, the victories, and the
+defeats which take place minute by minute in the tiniest drop of our
+blood; and the issue of the war may be the life or death of one of us.
+They talk of the struggle for existence; but the real struggle for
+existence is going on within us and not in the outer world. Phagocyte
+against bacterium--that is where the fitness of an organism comes to
+its ultimate test. A slight hitch in the reinforcements, a minute’s
+delay in bringing numbers to bear, and the keystone is out of the
+edifice; nothing is left but a ruin.
+
+“It always reminds me of those frontier skirmishes--a mere handful of
+troops engaged on either side--upon the issue of which the fate of
+an empire may depend. Get a new set of enemies, some novel type of
+bacteria with fresh tactics which the phagocytes cannot cope with--and
+down comes a human being. It strikes wonder into me, that, you know. A
+human body is so colossal in comparison with these bacteria that they
+can have no idea even of our existence; and yet they can destroy the
+whole machinery upon which our life depends. It’s almost as if a few
+shots fired in Africa could crumble the whole Earth into an impalpable
+dust.
+
+“And it is not only within us that these struggles are going on. When
+you came in, I was just studying some specimens of organisms which are
+equally vital to us. Come over here to the microscope, Flint, and have
+a look at them yourself.”
+
+When I had got the focus adjusted to suit my eyes, I must confess that
+I was astonished by what I saw. Somehow, in the course of my reading,
+I had picked up the idea that bacteria were rod-like creatures which
+floated inertly in liquids at the mercy of the currents; but at the
+first glance I realised how much below the reality my conception had
+been. In the field of the instrument I saw a score of objects, rod-like
+in their main structure, it is true, but so mantled with the fringes of
+their fine, thread-like cilia that their baculite character was almost
+concealed. Nor were they the inert things which I had supposed them to
+be; for, as I watched them, now one and again another would dart with
+prodigious swiftness from point to point in the circle of illumination.
+I had rarely seen such relative activity in any creature. The speed of
+their movements was so great that my eye could not follow them in their
+tracks. They appeared to be at rest one instant and then to vanish,
+reappearing as suddenly in some fresh spot. I watched them, fascinated,
+for some minutes, trying to trace the vibrations of the cilia which
+projected them from place to place at such enormous speeds; but either
+my eye was untrained or the movements of the thread-like fringes were
+too rapid to be seen. It was certainly an illuminating glimpse into the
+life of the under-world.
+
+When I had risen from the microscope table, Wotherspoon took me over to
+one of the benches before the window and showed me the glass vessels
+containing the pinkish gelatine. These slabs, he told me, were cultures
+of bacteria. One placed a few organisms on the gelatine and there they
+grew and multiplied enormously.
+
+“These specimens here,” said Wotherspoon, “are not the same variety
+as the ones on the microscope slide. They have nothing whatever to
+do with disease; and yet, as I told you, they have an influence upon
+animal life. I suppose you never heard of nitrifying and denitrifying
+bacteria?”
+
+I admitted that the names were unfamiliar to me.
+
+“Just so. Few people seem to take any interest in these vital problems.
+Now you do know that internally we swarm with all sorts of germs,
+noxious in some cases, beneficent in others; but I suppose it never
+struck you that our bodies form only a trifling part of the material
+world; and that outside these living islets there is space for all
+sorts of microscopic flora and fauna to grow and multiply? And need
+these creatures be absolutely isolated from the interests of animals?
+Not at all.
+
+“Now what is the essential thing, apart from air and water, which we
+derive from the outside world? Food, isn’t it? Did it ever occur to you
+to inquire where your food comes from, ultimately?”
+
+“Well, of course,” I said, “it comes from all over the world. I don’t
+know whether the wheat I eat in my bread comes from Canada or the
+States or Argentina, or was home-grown. It doesn’t seem to me a matter
+of importance, anyway.”
+
+“That isn’t what I mean at all,” Wotherspoon interrupted, “I want you
+to look at it in another way. I suppose you had your usual style of
+dinner to-day. Just think of the items: soup, fish, meat, bread, and so
+on. Your soup was made from bones and vegetables; your fish course was
+originally an animal; so was your joint; your sweet was probably purely
+vegetable; and your dessert certainly was a plant product. Now don’t
+you see what I mean?”
+
+“No, I confess I don’t.”
+
+“Haven’t I just shown you that everything you ate comes from either the
+animal or vegetable kingdom? You don’t bite bits out of the crockery,
+like the Mad Hatter. Everything you use to keep your physical machine
+alive is something which has already had life in it? Isn’t that so? You
+never think of having a meal of pure chemicals, do you?”
+
+“It never occurred to me; and I doubt it I shall begin now. It doesn’t
+sound very appetising.”
+
+“It would be worse than that; but follow my argument further. Take the
+case of your joint. Presumably that came from an ox or a sheep. Where
+did the animal, whatever it was, get _its_ food? From the vegetable
+kingdom, in the form of grass. Isn’t it clear that everything you
+yourself eat comes, either directly or indirectly, from the plants?
+And aren’t all animals on the same footing as yourself--they depend
+ultimately on the vegetables for their sustenance, don’t they? A fox
+may live on poultry; but the chickens he kills have grown fat by
+eating grain; and so you come back to the plants again. If you like to
+look on it in that way, we are all parasites on the plants; we cannot
+live without them. Our digestive machinery is so specialised that
+it will assimilate only a certain type of material--protoplasm--and
+unless it is supplied with that material, we starve. We can convert the
+protoplasm of other animals or of plants to our own use; but we cannot
+manufacture protoplasm from its elements. We have to get it ready-made
+from the vegetables, either directly or indirectly.
+
+“Now the foundation-stone of protoplasm is the element nitrogen. The
+plants draw on the store of nitrogenous compounds in the soil in order
+to build up their tissues; and then we eat the plants and thus transfer
+this material to our own organisms. What happens next? Do we return
+the nitrogen to the soil? Not we. We throw it into the sea in the form
+of sewage. So you see the net outcome of the process is that we are
+gradually using up the stores of nitrogen compounds in the soil, with
+the result that the plants have less and less nitrogen to live on.”
+
+“Well, but surely four-fifths of the atmosphere is nitrogen? That seems
+to me a big enough reserve to be drawn on.”
+
+“So it would be, if the plants could tap it directly; but they can’t do
+that except in the case of some exceptional ones. Most plants simply
+cannot utilise nitrogen until it has been combined with some other
+element. They can’t touch it in the uncombined state, as it is in the
+atmosphere; so that as far as the nitrogen in the air goes, it is
+useless to plants. They can’t thrive on pure nitrogen, any more than
+you can feed yourself on a mixture of charcoal, hydrogen, oxygen and
+nitrogen; though these elements are all that you need in the way of
+diet to keep life going.
+
+“No, Flint, we are actually depleting the soil of these nitrogen
+compounds at a very rapid rate indeed. Why, even in the first decade
+of the twentieth century South America was exporting no less than
+15,000,000 tons of nitrogen compounds which she dug out of the natural
+deposits in the nitre beds of Chili and Peru; and all that vast
+quantity was being used as artificial manure to replace the nitrogenous
+loss in the soil of the agricultural parts of the world. The loss
+is so great that it even pays to run chemical processes for making
+nitrogenous materials from the nitrogen of the air--the fixation of
+nitrogen, they call it.
+
+“Well, that is surely enough to show you how much hangs upon this
+nitrogen question. If we go on as we are doing, there will eventually
+be a nitrogen famine; the soil will cease to yield crops; and we shall
+go short of food. It’s no vision I am giving you; the thing has already
+happened in a modified form in America. There they used up the soil by
+continual drafts on it, wheat crops year after year in the same places.
+The result was that the land ceased to be productive; and we had the
+rush of American farmers into Canada in the early days of the century
+to utilise the virgin soil across the border instead of their own
+exhausted fields.”
+
+“I suppose you know all about it,” I said, “but where do these come in?”
+
+I pointed to the pinkish disks of the cultures.
+
+“These are what are called denitrifying bacteria. Although the plants
+can’t act upon pure nitrogen and convert it into compounds which they
+can feed upon, some bacteria have the knack. The nitrifying bacteria
+can link up nitrogen with other elements so as to produce nitrogenous
+material which the plants can then utilise. So that if we grow these
+nitrifying bacteria in the soil, we help the plants to get more food.
+The denitrifying bacteria, on the other hand--these ones here--act in
+just the opposite way. Wherever they find nitrogenous compounds, they
+break them down and liberate the nitrogen from them, so that it goes
+back into the air and is lost to us again.
+
+“So you see that outside our bodies we have bacteria working for or
+against us. The nitrifying bacteria are helping to pile up further
+supplies of nitrogen compounds upon which the plants can draw and
+whereon, indirectly, we ourselves can be supported. The denitrifying
+bacteria, on the other hand, are continually nibbling at the basic
+store of our food; decomposing the nitrogen compounds and freeing the
+nitrogen from them in the form of the pure gas which is useless to us
+from the point of view of food.”
+
+“You mean that a large increase in the numbers of the one set would
+put us in clover, whereas multiplication of the other lot would mean a
+shortness of supplies?”
+
+“Exactly. And we have no idea of the forces which govern the
+reproduction of these creatures. It’s quite within the bounds of
+possibility that some slight change in the external conditions might
+reinforce one set and decimate the other; and such a change would have
+almost unpredictable influences on our food problem.”
+
+At this moment the thunder-clouds, which had grown heavier as time
+passed, evidently reached their full tension. A tremendous flash shot
+across the sky; and on its heel, so close as to be almost simultaneous,
+there came a shattering peal of thunder. We looked out; but I had been
+so dazzled by the brilliance of the flash that I could see little. The
+air was very still; no rain had yet fallen; and my skin tingled with
+the electrical tension of the atmosphere. Wotherspoon felt it also,
+he told me. It was evident that we were in the vicinity of some very
+powerful disturbance.
+
+“Awfully hot to-night, isn’t it?” I said. “Suppose we have some more
+air? It’s stifling in here.”
+
+Wotherspoon pushed the broad leaves of the French windows apart; but no
+breeze came to cool us; though in the silence after the thunder-clap I
+heard the rustle of leaves from the trees below us. We stood, one at
+either end of the bench with the cultures on it, trying to draw cooler
+air into our lungs; and all the while I felt as though a multitude of
+tiny electric sparks were running to and fro upon the surface of my
+body.
+
+Suddenly, over St. Katherine’s House, a sphere of light appeared in
+the air. It was not like lightning, brilliantly though it shone. It
+seemed to hover for a few seconds above the roof, almost motionless.
+Then it began slowly to advance in a wavering flight, approaching us
+and sinking by degrees in the sky as it came. To me, it appeared to
+be about a foot in diameter; but Wotherspoon afterwards estimated it
+at rather less. In any case, it was of no great size; and its rate of
+approach was not more than five miles an hour.
+
+For some seconds I watched it coming. It had a peculiar vacillating
+motion, rather like that which one sees in the flight of certain kinds
+of summer flies. Now it would hover almost motionless, then suddenly
+it would dart forward for twenty yards or so, only to resume its
+oscillation about a fixed point.
+
+But to tell the truth, I watched it in such a state of fascination
+that I doubt if any coherent thoughts passed through my mind; so that
+my impressions may have been inaccurate. All that I remember clearly
+is a state of extreme tension. I never feel quite comfortable during
+a thunder-storm; and the novelty of the phenomenon increased this
+discomfort, for I did not know what turn it might take next.
+
+Slowly the luminous sphere crossed the edge of the Park, dipping
+suddenly as though the iron railings had attracted it; and now it was
+almost opposite our window. For a moment its impetus seemed to carry it
+onwards, slantingly along the terrace; then, with a dart it swung from
+its course and entered the window at which we stood.
+
+From its behaviour at the Park rail, I am inclined to think that it
+was drawn from its line of flight by the attracting power of the metal
+balustrade which protected the little balcony outside the window; and
+that its velocity carried it past the iron, so that it came to rest
+within the room, just over the table between us.
+
+Instinctively, both Wotherspoon and I recoiled from this flaming
+apparition, shrinking back as far as possible from it on either side.
+Beyond this movement we seemed unable to go, for neither of us stepped
+out of the window recess. Between us, the ball of fire hung almost
+motionless; but before my eyes were dazzled I saw that it was spinning
+with tremendous velocity on a horizontal axis; and it seemed to me
+that its substance was a multitude of tiny sparks whirling in orbits
+about its centre. Its light was like that from a spirit-lamp charged
+with common salt; for over it I caught a glimpse of Wotherspoon’s
+flinching face, all shadowed and green. As I watched the fire-ball,
+shading my eyes with my hands, I saw that it was slowly settling, just
+as a soap-bubble sinks in the air. Lower it descended and lower, still
+spinning furiously on its axis. Then, after what seemed an interminable
+period of suspense, it collided with the table.
+
+There came a dull explosion which jerked me from my feet and drove me
+back against a chair. I saw Wotherspoon collapse and then everything
+vanished in the darkness which followed the concussion.
+
+It must have been half a minute before I was able to recover from the
+shock and pull myself together. When I got to my feet again, I found
+Wotherspoon half-standing, half-leaning against the door, one panel of
+which had been blown out. The room was strewn with wreckage: broken
+glass, scattered papers, and shattered furniture. The electric lamps
+had been smashed by the force of the explosion.
+
+Wotherspoon and I recovered almost simultaneously; and on comparing
+notes--which was difficult at first owing to our being temporarily
+deaf--we found that neither of us had suffered any serious injury. A
+few slight cuts with flying glass were apparently the worst of the
+damage which we had sustained. There was a sharp tang in the air of
+the room which made us cough for some time until it cleared away; but
+whatever the gas may have been, it left no permanent effects on us.
+
+When we had procured lights and pulled ourselves together sufficiently
+to make a fuller examination of the room, we began to appreciate the
+extent of the damage and to congratulate ourselves still more upon the
+escape which we had had. The whole place was littered with fragments
+of furniture. The incubators had been shattered; and their contents,
+smashed into countless fragments, lay all over the floor. But it was on
+the bench at the window that the full force of the fire-ball had spent
+itself. There was hardly anything recognisable in the heap of debris.
+The wooden planks had been torn and broken with tremendous force. The
+little balcony was filled with sticks which had been thrown outward by
+the explosion; and, as we found afterwards, a good deal of material had
+been projected half-way across the road. Of the denitrifying bacteria
+cultures or their cases there was hardly a trace, except a few tiny
+splinters of glass.
+
+I did not wait much longer with Wotherspoon; for, to tell the truth,
+my nerves were badly shaken by my experiences. I got him to come
+downstairs with me and we had a stiff glass of brandy each; and then I
+telephoned for a taxi to take me home. My own car was standing at the
+door; but I did not trust my ability to drive it in traffic at that
+moment. It seemed better to send my man round for it after I got home.
+
+I went back in the taxi, with my nerves on edge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+The Coming of “The Blight”
+
+
+Next morning I still felt the effects of the shock; and decided not
+to go to my office. I stayed indoors all day. When the evening papers
+came, I found in them brief accounts of the fire-ball; and in one case
+there was an article by Wotherspoon under the heading: “Well-known
+Scientist’s Strange Experience.” One or two reporters called at my
+house later in the day in search of copy, but I sent them on to
+Cumberland Terrace. In some of the reports I figured as “a well-known
+motor manufacturer,” whilst in others I was referred to simply as “a
+friend of Mr. Wotherspoon.” I had little difficulty in surmising the
+authorship of the latter group.
+
+In the ordinary course of events, the fire-ball would have been much
+less than a nine days’ wonder, even in spite of Wotherspoon’s industry
+in compiling accounts of it and digging out parallel cases from the
+correspondence columns of old volumes of _Nature_ and _Knowledge_;
+actually its career as a news item was made briefer still. An entirely
+different phenomenon shouldered it out of the limelight almost
+immediately.
+
+After staying indoors all day, I felt the need of fresh air; and
+resolved to walk across the Park to Cumberland Terrace to see whether
+Wotherspoon had quite recovered from the shock. I had not much doubt
+in my mind upon the point; for the traces of his journalistic activity
+were plain enough; and showed that he was certainly not incapacitated.
+However, as I wanted a stroll and as I might as well have an object
+before me, I decided to go and see him.
+
+Twilight was coming on as I crossed the suspension bridge. Even after
+the thunder-storm on the previous night there had been no rainfall; and
+although the temperature had fallen until the air was almost chilly,
+there was as yet no dew on the ground. I stopped on the bridge to watch
+the tints of the western sky; for these London after-glow effects
+always pleased me.
+
+As I leaned on the rail, I heard the low drone of aerial engines;
+and in a few seconds the broad wings of the Australian Express swept
+between me and the sky. Even in those days I could never see one of
+these vast argosies passing overhead without a throb in my veins.
+
+The great air-services had just come to their own; and aeroplanes
+started from London four and five times daily for America, Asia,
+Africa, and Australia. In the windows of the air-offices the flight of
+these vessels could be followed hour by hour on the huge world-maps
+over which moved tiny models showing the exact positions of the various
+aeroplanes on the globe. Watching the dots moving across the surface
+of the charts, one could call up, with very little imagination, the
+landscapes which were sweeping into the view of travellers on board the
+real machines as they glided through these far-distant spaces of the
+air. This one, two days out from London, would be sighting the pagoda
+roofs of Pekin as the night was coming on; that one, on the Pacific
+route, had just finished filling up its tanks at Singapore and was
+starting on the long course to Australia; the passengers on this other
+would be watching the sun standing high over Victoria Nyanza; while,
+on the Atlantic, the Western Ocean Express and the South American Mail
+were racing the daylight into a fourth continent.
+
+I think it was these maps which first brought home to me distinctly
+how the spaces of the world had shrunk on the “time-scale” with the
+coming of the giant aeroplanes. The pace had been growing swifter
+and ever swifter since the middle of the nineteenth century. Up
+to that day, there had been little advance since the time of the
+earlier sailing-vessels. Then came the change from sail to steam;
+and the Atlantic crossing contracted in its duration. The great
+Trans-continental railways quickened transit once more; again there
+was a shrinkage in the time-scale. Vladivostok came within ten days of
+London; from Cairo to the Cape was only five days. But with the coming
+of the air-ways the acceleration was greater still; and we reckoned
+in hours the journeys which, in the nineteenth century days, had been
+calculated in weeks and even months. All the outposts of the world were
+drawing nearer together.
+
+It was not this shrinkage only which the air-maps suggested. In the
+early twentieth century the telegraphs and submarine cables had spread
+their network over the world, linking nation to nation and coast to
+coast; but their ramifications dwindled in perspective when compared
+with the complex network of the air-ways which now enmeshed the globe.
+London lay like a spider at the centre of the web of communications,
+the like of which the world had never seen before; and along each
+thread the aeroplanes were speeding to and from all the quarters of the
+earth.
+
+Rapid communication we had had since the days of the extension of the
+telegraph; but it had been limited to the transmission of thoughts
+and of news. The coming of the aeroplanes had changed all that.
+These tracks on the air-maps were not mere wires thrilling with the
+quiverings of the electric current. Along them material things were
+passing continually; a constant interchange of passengers and goods was
+taking place hourly over the multitudinous routes. For good or ill,
+humanity was becoming linked together until it formed a single unit.
+
+It is curious that all the prophetic writers of the early twentieth
+century concentrated their attention almost exclusively upon the racial
+and social reactions which might be expected to follow from this
+knitting of the world into a connected whole and the resultant increase
+of traffic between the nations over the now contracted world-spaces.
+They had seen the interminglings of races which began in the steamship
+days; and they deduced that the process would be intensified in the new
+era of air-transit; so that, in the end of their dreams, they saw the
+possibility of a World Federation stretching its rule over the whole
+globe and bringing with it the end of wars. None of them, strangely
+enough, had foreseen the real effects which this intercommunication was
+to bring forth.
+
+To a certain extent, their foresight had been justified. With the
+coming of the air-ways, the war-spirit was temporarily exorcised. The
+vast increase in the size and number of air-craft and the terrors of an
+aerial war, with all its untested possibilities, served to rein in even
+the most ardent of military nations. Standing armies still persisted;
+but their numbers had been diminished to a few thousands; for under
+the new conditions the old huge and unwieldy terrestrial forces could
+neither be fed, nor protected from aerial attacks.
+
+Thus as I leaned on the rail of the suspension bridge and looked out
+over the greenery of the Park it seemed to me a very pleasant world.
+Those of the younger generation can hardly imagine how fair it was
+or how inexhaustible it seemed. Thousands of square miles of Africa
+and South America were still virgin soil, store-houses of untapped
+resources waiting for humanity to draw upon their abundance. There was
+food for all the thousand millions of mankind; and, as the population
+rose, fresh lands could be brought under cultivation for the mere
+labour of clearing the soil of its surplus vegetation. It was the
+Golden Age of humanity; yet few of us recognised it. We looked either
+backward into the past or forward into the future when we sought the
+Islands of the Blest: while all about us lay Paradise, and the Earth
+blossomed like a huge garden which was ours for the taking.
+
+I left my visions with a sigh and continued my way across the Park. The
+prolonged spell of heat was affecting the vegetation. The trees were
+dusty; and the grass seemed to have lost something of its brilliant
+green. I remember that after I had crossed the Broad Walk I noticed
+especially how moribund all the plant-life of the Park appeared to be.
+There was an air of decline about it, though no tints of autumn had yet
+appeared in the leaves.
+
+Wotherspoon was, as usual, in his laboratory. The glass of the windows
+had been replaced; but otherwise the place was much in its disordered
+condition. I suspect that he had purposely refrained from getting it
+cleared up, in order to impress reporters with the actual damage which
+the explosion had done; and that when the reporters had ceased to
+call he had left things as they were with the idea of fascinating any
+visitors who might come.
+
+He was sitting at his writing-desk, surrounded by piles of books from
+which he was apparently extracting information for the purpose of some
+fresh article he had in hand; and when I came in he asked me to excuse
+him for a few minutes until he had got his data completed. In order to
+amuse me in the meanwhile, he dragged out his microscope and a pile of
+slides which he thought might interest me.
+
+Before he went back to his work, it struck me that I would like to see
+the bacteria again; and I picked up from the floor some fragments of
+glass which evidently had formed part of his cultures, since particles
+of the pink gelatine adhered to them still. I asked him to fix the
+microscope for me, so that I could examine these things; and he wetted
+the stuff with some water and put a drop of it under the lens, leaving
+me to focus it myself while he went back to his writing-desk. He was
+soon deep in his article.
+
+As I gazed down at the field of the microscope, I saw again the clumps
+of bacilli, some floating aimlessly in masses, others darting here and
+there in the disk of illumination. I studied them for a time without
+noticing anything peculiar; but at last it struck me that the field was
+becoming congested with the creatures. I looked more carefully; and
+now there seemed little doubt of the fact. The numbers of them were
+increasing almost visibly. I concentrated my attention on a small group
+in one corner of the slide and was able, in spite of the confusion
+introduced by their rapid and erratic movements, to feel certain that
+they were multiplying so fast that I could almost estimate the increase
+in percentages minute by minute.
+
+“Here, Wotherspoon,” I said, “come and have a look through this. These
+bacteria of yours seem to be spawning or something.”
+
+“I wish you wouldn’t interrupt, there’s a good chap,” he said in a
+peevish tone. “Don’t you know that writing takes all one’s attention? I
+can’t do two things at once; and this article must be finished on time
+if it is to be of any use to me or anyone else. Just amuse yourself for
+half an hour and then I shall be at your disposal if you want me.”
+
+It was said so ungraciously that I took offence; and as his original
+“few minutes” had now apparently extended to “half an hour” I thought
+it best to leave him to himself. When I said good-night to him, he
+seemed to regard it as an extra interruption; so I was not sorry to go.
+I left him still delving into the masses of printed material around him.
+
+And that was how Wotherspoon missed the greatest discovery that ever
+came his way. It was waiting for him across the table, for I doubt if
+he could have failed to draw the obvious conclusion had he actually
+taken the trouble to examine the phenomenon with his own eyes. But
+his interest was concentrated upon his writing; and his chance passed
+him by. After Johnston published his views, Wotherspoon made what I
+can only consider to be a dishonest attempt to secure priority on the
+ground that he was aware of the facts but had not had time to work out
+the subject fully before Johnston rushed into print; but he secured
+no support from any authoritative quarter; and even the newspapers
+had by that time seen the necessity of consulting experts, so that he
+was unable to place the numerous articles which he wrote to confute
+Johnston.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Three days later, Regent’s Park again figured in the columns of the
+newspapers.
+
+The first mention of the matter which I saw was in an evening journal.
+I had been reading a short account of a locust plague in China which
+was reported to have destroyed crops upon a large scale and caused a
+panic emigration of the inhabitants of the devastated district, owing
+to the failure of supplies. Just below this article, my eye caught a
+paragraph headed:
+
+  STRANGE BLIGHT IN REGENT’S PARK.
+
+It appeared that the vegetation in the Park had been attacked by some
+peculiar disease, the symptoms of which were evidently not very clear
+to the writer of the paragraph. According to him, the plants were
+withering away; but there seemed to be no fungus or growth on the
+leaves which would account for their decrepitude. Trees and flowers
+equally with the grass were attacked by the blight. While throwing
+out a hint that the prolonged drought might possibly account for the
+phenomenon, the reporter indicated that the thing was rather more
+local than might have been anticipated from this cause; for the worst
+effects of the blight were to be found in the vegetation of the strip
+between Gloucester Gate and the Outer Circle in one direction and
+between the Broad Walk and the Park edge in the other. Beyond this
+oblong, the damage done was not so readily recognisable.
+
+That evening, as the fine weather still held, I walked through Regent’s
+Park to see for myself what truth there was in the newspaper talk.
+More people than usual were out; for in addition to the normal crowds
+of pedestrians, it was evident that others had come, like myself, to
+examine the blight. The Broad Walk was thronged; for the Londoner of
+those days was one of the most inquisitive creatures in existence.
+
+It was evident that, considered from the “show” point of view, the
+state of affairs had been a disappointment to the people. I heard
+numerous comments as I walked among the crowd; and the tone was one of
+disparagement. The general feeling seemed to be that the thing was a
+mare’s nest or a newspaper hoax.
+
+“Blight, they calls it?” said one stout old woman as I passed; “I’d
+like to blight the young feller what wrote all that in the papers about
+it, I would! Me putting on my best things and walking ever so far on a
+hot night to see nothing better than a lot of dried grass. I thought it
+would be fair seething with grasshoppers,” and she shook her head till
+the trimmings of her antique hat trembled with her vehemence. Evidently
+she had mixed up the Chinese locusts and the Regent’s Park affair in
+her mind.
+
+Other people shared her discontent; and the younger section of the
+crowd had begun to seek for amusement by means of spasmodic outbursts
+of horse-play.
+
+What I saw of the phenomenon was certainly not very thrilling. All
+the grass to the east of the Broad Walk had the appearance of being
+sun-blasted. The green tint had gone from it and it had turned
+straw-colour. On the west side of the Walk there were patches of
+stricken vegetation scattered here and there as far as one could see,
+but the effect was not so marked towards the Inner Circle.
+
+I stooped down and rooted up a tuft of withered grass in order to
+examine it more closely; and to my surprise it came away readily in
+my hand, leaving the roots almost clear of earth. I could see nothing
+peculiar about the grass itself; even the most careful inspection
+failed to reveal any adherent fungus or growth of any description which
+might account for the phenomenon. I began to think that, after all, the
+whole thing was due to the heat of the past few weeks, and that the
+local appearance of the effects was a mere chance.
+
+Next day, however, this idea was put out of court by the news that
+the blight had spread to the other London parks. Hyde Park suffered
+severely in the corner between the Marble Arch and the Serpentine;
+the gardens of Buckingham Palace were also affected; and the grass in
+Battersea Park showed sporadic outbreaks of the disease also. Victoria
+Park, however, seemed to have escaped almost intact; though some traces
+could be detected.
+
+I learned that the Park gardeners had endeavoured to check the
+extension of the disease--for it spread almost visibly in places--by
+spraying the vegetation with the usual vermin-killers; but these had
+been found to have no influence upon the growth of the smitten areas.
+
+By this time, the newspapers had begun to make the matter a main
+feature. The heading: “THE BLIGHT” occupied the principal column;
+and correspondence had been opened on the subject in several of
+the journals. But as yet the matter was not exciting any interest
+outside London. It was regarded as a purely local manifestation of no
+particular import; and although some of the writers of London Letters
+for the provincial Press alluded to it in their articles, it was
+usually referred to with a sneer at the “silly season attitude” of
+supposedly weighty newspapers.
+
+This tone underwent a rapid change, however, on the following day. Even
+the staid dailies of the Provinces became electrified with the news;
+and over most of the area of southern England the breakfast tables were
+ahum with conversations on the Blight and its effects; for the morning
+papers were filled with telegrams announcing the extension of the
+affected area broadcast over the Home Counties; and the headlines ran:
+
+  SPREAD OF THE NEW BLIGHT
+
+  ALL HOME COUNTIES AFFECTED
+
+  TOTAL FAILURE OF CROPS FEARED
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+_B. Diazotans_[1]
+
+
+At this point, I remember, the long spell of dry weather reached its
+end. A heavy series of thunderstorms marked its termination; and for
+three days the country was deluged with rain and swept by intermittent
+gales. The cracked ground drank up the moisture; but still more showers
+fell, until there was mud everywhere.
+
+These meteorological changes in themselves were sufficiently grave
+from the farmer’s point of view; but even more serious was the state
+of things revealed after the rain had ceased. Whether it was due to
+the weather conditions or whether it was a vagary produced by factors
+beyond discovery will never be known; but the fact is established that
+the spread of the Blight became accentuated during the rainy period.
+Wherever it had secured a hold during the hot weather it became more
+malignant in its effects; and its extension to fresh fields was so
+great that hardly a grain-growing area in the country escaped at this
+time. It penetrated as far north as the Border agricultural districts;
+and devastated fields were found even in Perthshire.
+
+Since the potato blight in 1845, no such rapid and extensive
+destruction of food supplies had been known. The standing crops in
+the affected areas withered; and a total failure of the home-grown
+cereals seemed to be inevitable. Nor was it only in this section of the
+food-supply that the attacks of the Blight became evident. Fruit-trees
+seemed arrested in their productivity; vegetables failed to ripen and
+began to rot. Everywhere the vegetable kingdom seemed to be falling
+into a decline. The great market-gardens and nurseries showed the trace
+of the same mysterious agent. Roses withered on their stems; and even
+the hot-house plants suffered equally with their open-air fellows. The
+only crop which appeared to escape the general disaster was hay.
+
+And now it became clear that the Blight, as it was still called,
+was going to produce effects in the most widely-separated fields of
+activity. With a total failure of the crops, the financial side of the
+question came to the front. Throughout the length and breadth of the
+land, small farmers were beginning to realise that it was to be a year
+of utter disaster, ending probably in bankruptcy and ruin. The larger
+land-owners looked forward to the collapse of tenants and the failure
+of rents. Mortgage-holders began to consider the nature of their
+security, and when it was agricultural land they were placed in doubt
+as to their best course; for no one could foresee whether the Blight
+was a temporary epidemic or a permanent factor which would reappear
+with the next crops. And all these varying influences had their effects
+upon the great financial operations of the City; for even in that
+industrial age the land had maintained its value as a basic security
+which apparently could not suffer deterioration beyond a definite point.
+
+This, however, was only a minor field of the Blight’s reactions. With
+the probable failure of the home crop looming before him, even the man
+in the street could not fail to perceive the more obvious results. It
+meant a greater dependence upon imported food-stuffs and especially
+imported grain. Argentina, Canada, India and the United States must
+make up the missing supplies; and since almost half our cereals were
+home-grown at that period, the price of food was certain to rise by
+leaps and bounds; so that every family in the land would be affected by
+the catastrophe.
+
+Then a further factor was brought to light. With the failure of grain
+and even of grass, it would be impossible to keep alive the cattle
+which furnished part of the nation’s food. The milk supply would be
+gravely affected also, from the same cause.
+
+It is difficult for us now to look back and catch again the spirit of
+that time. Never before, even during the war, had the food of Britain
+been endangered to such a degree. And the steadily rising prices were
+sufficient to bring home to the most thoughtless the actual imminence
+of the peril. I can recall, however, that at first there was no panic
+of any kind. It was assumed by all of us that although we might have
+to go short of our usual lavish supplies, yet we should always have
+enough food to carry us through to the next harvest. The whole world
+was our granary; and if we were prepared to pay the higher prices which
+we saw to be inevitable, we had no reason to suppose that we should
+lack imported grain. Our attitude was quite comprehensible under the
+circumstances, I think. In the past we had always been able to obtain
+food; and there seemed no doubt that the same would hold good through
+this shortage.
+
+The newspapers were fairly evenly divided in their expressed opinions.
+The Government had recently adjourned Parliament, after a session in
+which their majority had oscillated dangerously more than once, and
+the Opposition Press seized upon the Blight in order to embarrass
+the Cabinet, and especially the Prime Minister, as far as possible.
+They clamoured that the Government should take steps to secure the
+food supply of the country by making immediate purchases of wheat in
+the foreign markets. They demanded that a system of rationing should
+be established forthwith; and that cases of food-hoarding should be
+stringently punished. Day after day they held up to public obloquy the
+individual members of the Cabinet, who were then scattered on holiday;
+the amusements of each of them were described and coupled with sneering
+hopes that they would succeed better in their games than they had done
+in the government of the country and the safeguarding of the national
+interests. Echoes of the Mazanderan Development Syndicate scandal were
+kept alive in the most ingenious manner.
+
+The Government Press, naturally, professed to see in the inactivity of
+the Cabinet a proof that they had the matter well in hand. Avoidance of
+panic, restriction by voluntary effort of all unnecessary consumption
+of food, and the postponement of inquiries likely to interfere with the
+wise projects of the Premier: these formed the stock of their leading
+articles.
+
+The gutter organ of the Opposition retorted by publishing the complete
+menu of the Premier’s dinner on the previous day, which it had
+obtained from some waiter in the hotel at which he was staying; and
+it accompanied this item of news by interspersed extracts from the
+Government organs in which appeals had been made for a less luxurious
+form of living.
+
+It must be remembered that this stage of the sequence of events
+occupied only a brief period. If I am not wrong, it was within ten days
+of the outbreak of the Blight that we got the first American cables
+announcing the appearance of the epidemic among the great wheat areas
+of the Middle West. Almost immediately after came similar news from
+Canada.
+
+The meaning of this was not at first appreciated by the people as a
+whole. They still clung to the idea that grain would be forthcoming if
+a sufficiently high price were paid for it; but those of us who had
+tried to forecast the possibilities of the situation found our worst
+fears taking concrete form. Soon even the unthinking were forced to
+understand what the American news implied. If the Blight spread over
+the wheat-fields of the Western continent, there would be no surplus
+grain there for export at all. That source of supply would barely
+suffice for the mouths at home.
+
+Then, following each other like hammer-strokes upon metal, each biting
+deeper than the last, came the cables from the rest of the world.
+Egypt reported the outbreak of the Blight in the Nile valley; British
+East Africa became affected. The news from the Argentine fell like a
+thunderbolt, for we realised that with it the last great open source
+of wheat had failed. The Don and Volga basins followed with the same
+tale. Over India, the Blight raged with almost unheard-of virulence.
+Then, days after the others, Australia was smitten, and our last hopes
+vanished.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+During all this period, it must be remembered, we had no idea of the
+origin of our calamities. We referred to the thing always as “The
+Blight,” though it was made clear at quite an early stage that no
+plant parasite was concerned in the matter at all. The most careful
+microscopic examination of affected vegetation had been made without
+revealing anything in the nature of a fungus or noxious growth.
+
+Yet, on looking backward, I cannot help feeling that we, and especially
+I myself, were strangely blind to the obvious in the matter. I have
+already mentioned that when I rooted up a clump of grass in Regent’s
+Park it came away from the soil without resistance; and that when I
+examined the roots I found them almost as free of earthy deposit as
+if it had been grown in sand. That, coupled with what I already knew,
+should have put me on the track of the explanation; and yet I failed
+to draw the simplest deduction from what I observed. To account for
+this obtuseness, I can only suggest that already the idea of a “Blight”
+had taken root in my mind; and that I was so obsessed with the idea of
+a parasite that I never considered the facts from any other point of
+view. Since others proved to be equally slow in arriving at the truth,
+I can only conclude that they were misled in their mental processes
+much as I myself was.
+
+As I have said on a previous page, it was to Johnston, the
+bacteriologist, that we owe the discovery. It appears that he had been
+growing some bacteria in cultures; and, whether by accident or design,
+he had left one of his cultivation media open to the air. On examining
+the germs some days later, he had discovered in the culture a type of
+bacterium with which he was unfamiliar. He proceeded to isolate it in
+the usual way--I believe it is done by dabbing a needle-point into the
+culture and using the few micro-organisms which stick to the needle
+as the parents of a fresh colony--and he was amazed at its fecundity.
+There had never been such a case of bacterial fertility in his
+experience.
+
+A paper in the _Lancet_ brought the description of the creature
+to the notice of the scientific world. Johnston himself had not
+recognised the nature of the organism, as he had never dealt with this
+type of bacteria before; but from his description an agricultural
+bacteriologist named Vincent was able to identify it as being almost
+identical with one of the denitrifying group, from which it differed
+only in its immense power of multiplication. It was hurriedly
+christened _Bacterium diazotans_, on account of its denitrifying
+qualities. Further examination showed that its capacity for breaking
+down nitrogenous material far surpassed that of any known denitrifying
+agent.
+
+With these discoveries, the mystery of the new blight vanished. An
+examination of the soil of stricken areas showed that it swarmed
+with colonies of _B. diazotans_--to use the customary medical
+contraction--and the whole secret of the destruction was revealed.
+
+It was evident that these new and super-active bacteria attacked the
+soil, disintegrated all the nitrogenous compounds within their range
+and thus left the plants without nourishment. The death of the plant
+followed as a natural result; but the matter did not end there. By
+destroying the nitrogenous compounds in the soil, the bacteria altered
+the whole texture of the earth in which they grew. All the nitrogenous
+organic matter which forms so large a part of the binding material of
+some soils was destroyed utterly; with the consequence that the mineral
+particles, which previously had been resting in an organic matrix, were
+now free to move. Only the clays retained their tenacious character:
+all other soils degenerated into sand.
+
+There has, of course, been a great deal of speculation upon the origin
+of _B. diazotans_. Hartwell suggested that it came to us from Venus,
+propelled by light-pressure across the abysses of space. Inshelwood put
+forward the view that in _B. diazotans_ we had an example of bacteria,
+originally endemic, changing their habits and spreading into fresh
+regions.
+
+Personally, I believe neither hypothesis. I feel sure that I saw the
+birth of the first _B. diazotans_ on that night in Wotherspoon’s
+laboratory, under the action of the fire-ball; and the evidence is
+simple enough.
+
+Every living creature is a wonderfully constructed electrical machine.
+Each beat of our hearts, each systole of our lungs, each contraction of
+a muscle in our frame produces a tiny electrical current. Our organism
+is a mass of colloids and electrolytes which transmit these charges
+hither and thither throughout our systems; and were we gifted with an
+electrical sense in addition to those which we already have, we should
+see each other as complexities of conductors along which currents were
+playing with every movement of our body.
+
+This complex electrical system is acutely sensible to external
+electrical conditions. Anyone who has held the handles of an induction
+coil or who has taken a spark from a Leyden jar knows the physiological
+effects which these things produce. The influence of high-tension
+currents upon the growth of plants has been proved beyond dispute.
+
+Now it seems to me that in this effect of an external electric charge
+upon the internal mechanism of an organism we have a clue to the origin
+of these new bacteria. I have already told how the fire-ball, in its
+explosion, shattered the denitrifying cultures in Wotherspoon’s room;
+and it seems clear that at the moment of the concussion there must have
+been a tremendous play of electrical forces about the spot. We know
+hardly anything with regard to the nature of the electrical fields
+existing in such things as these fire-balls; and it is quite possible
+that they may be different from anything of which we have any knowledge
+among the more usual displays of electrical energy. I believe, then,
+that it is in the action of the fire-ball that we must seek for an
+explanation of the change in habit of Wotherspoon’s denitrifying
+bacteria.
+
+Again, I have mentioned my observation of the rapid multiplication of
+the denitrifying bacteria which I made with Wotherspoon’s microscope
+on the following day. That also seems to me to have a bearing upon the
+problem; though I admit quite frankly that my evidence is only that of
+a layman. It is in every way regrettable that Wotherspoon, having tired
+of using his room as an exhibit, should have cleared away every trace
+of the wreckage before any expert examination of it could be made; for
+in this way the crucial evidence on the point was destroyed.
+
+Further, in support of my views, I would point out that the very first
+known occurrence of _B. diazotans_ was that which had Regent’s Park
+as its site; and that the first place of attack was in the immediate
+neighbourhood of Wotherspoon’s house in Cumberland Terrace. This can
+hardly be disregarded, when it is considered in connection with the
+other facts which I have mentioned.
+
+At this time of day there can be no question that London formed the
+focus from which _B. diazotans_ spread throughout the world. I have
+described the ramifications of the great air-services; and it seems
+to me obvious that the organisms were carried to and fro upon the
+surface of the globe by the agency of the aeroplanes. The order of
+attack at various points indicates this very clearly, in my opinion.
+First came the American and Egyptian outbreaks; then Uganda and South
+America; and finally, long after the others, Australia showed traces
+of the devastation. I have checked the possible dates of arrival in
+these various places, taking into account the relative swiftnesses of
+the aeroplanes on the different routes; and the results can hardly be
+gainsaid. Allowing, as one must, a certain latitude for the time of
+development of the microbe in various spots, there seems little doubt
+that the dates of the outbreaks fell into the same succession as the
+times of arrival of the various London air-services.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+Panic
+
+
+In dealing with the subsequent stage of affairs in this country, I
+feel myself at a loss. Matters of fact, sequences of events, definite
+incidents in a chain of affairs: all these can be described without
+much difficulty and with a certain detachment on the part of the
+narrator. But when it comes to indicating the transition from one
+psychological state to another, the task is one which would require
+for its proper fulfilment a more practised pen than mine; and it is
+precisely this transitional period which I must now attempt to make
+clear in retrospect; for without an understanding of it my narrative
+would lack one of its corner-stones.
+
+Apart from the mere question of narration, however, there is a further
+difficulty which cannot be evaded. I myself passed through this crisis
+and underwent day by day these changes in outlook which I shall have
+to portray; so that the personal factor cannot be eliminated from
+my account. Yet my own feelings and views must not be allowed to
+monopolise the field; since they had not the slightest influence upon
+the main current of popular feeling.
+
+I have used the word “current,” and perhaps it is the best one which
+I could have chosen to express the thing which baffles me. As a man
+walks by the side of a mountain stream, he sees the volume of the water
+change as it grows from rill to rivulet and from rivulet to river;
+yet no single tributary is of any notable size. Gradually, almost
+imperceptibly, the banks diverge, the sound of the running water grows
+louder and yet louder: until at last comes a sweep over the rapids and
+the thunder of the fall below.
+
+It was in this way that events merged into each other between the
+outbreak and the complete realisation of our fears. The transition
+from security to panic was not made in one swift step. Rather it came
+little by little, and at no point could one indicate precisely how
+the public feeling had changed from that of the previous day. A whole
+series of tiny impulses, each in itself almost negligible, served to
+drive us from one mental position to the next; and a complete analysis
+of the psychology of the time would be an impossible task. I propose,
+therefore, merely to indicate some of these innumerable factors which
+played upon our spirits; so that this blank in my narrative may be
+filled in some way, even if only roughly.
+
+It was not until the Blight had spread far over the Home Counties that
+the general public became interested in the matter at all; and at this
+period the mass of people in the country districts were almost the
+only ones who saw any cause for alarm. The town-dwellers seldom came
+in direct contact with the sources of their food-supply; in fact it
+is doubtful if the lower-class Londoner of the old days could have
+answered a direct question as to the date of harvesting. Food came to
+them daily in a form which suggested very little with regard to its
+original nature. Wheat they knew only in the form of bread or flour;
+meat was divorced almost entirely from the shapes of the animals from
+which it was derived; tea, coffee and sugar brought with them no
+visions of tea-gardens on the Indian hills or sugar plantations under
+the West Indian sun. The furthest traceable point of origin of these
+things, as far as most of the population was concerned, was to be
+found in the retail shops. Thus there was a certain sluggishness in
+apprehension among the main bulk of the people when they read in the
+newspapers that the crops had failed. To them, it simply meant that we
+should have to buy in another market; just as they had to go to a fresh
+grocer when their own dealer ran short of some commodity which they
+required.
+
+In the country districts, and especially in the great centres of the
+agricultural portions of the kingdom, the outlook was different, but
+still restricted in its scope. Failure of the crops to them meant
+financial loss, hard times, stringency, urgent personal economy and
+the hope of better luck in the following season. Though closer to the
+soil, the country folk were unmoved by any outlook wider than that
+which included the direct effects of the Blight upon their industry.
+And, indeed, they had little time in which to speculate upon ultimate
+reactions, for their attention was concentrated almost wholly upon
+their efforts to remedy the damage already done or to protect from
+injury any portions of the crop which had not yet been attacked.
+
+Thus at this stage the mental surface of the country as a whole
+remained unruffled. Here and there, of course, a few of us had grasped
+what might be entailed if the Blight destroyed the whole of the home
+supplies; but I doubt if even the most far-sighted had imagined that
+anything but a local shortage was in prospect.
+
+With the arrival of the American cables, the situation changed
+slightly. The tone of the newspapers became graver, and they
+endeavoured to awake their readers to the fact that the possibility of
+a serious shortage had become a certainty. Edition after edition poured
+out from the printing-presses and the headlines grew in magnitude
+from hour to hour. “_The Blight in America_” was the first type of
+intimation, which attracted but little interest and was placed in the
+“third-class” column of the papers. Then came appreciation of the
+importance of the news; the headlines increased in size and moved up
+nearer the centre of readers’ interest: “_Spread of the Blight in the
+Wheat Districts_.” Next came a sudden jump to the first place on the
+page and heavily leaded type in the headlines: “_Failure of Wheat Crop
+in America_.”
+
+Even at this stage, the readers as a whole failed to connect the news
+with anything in their daily life. Gradually it was borne in upon
+their minds that the collapse of the American crops--including the
+Canadian--meant a very rapid rise in the price of cereal food-stuffs;
+but further than this they refused to look. At that time the cattle
+question had not been noticed at all; and the general feeling simply
+resolved itself into a decision to avoid bread as far as possible and
+eat meat instead.
+
+With the arrival of reports from the remaining wheat-growing districts,
+the newspapers increased their efforts to awaken their readers to the
+gravity of the situation. “_The World Shortage_” occupied the place of
+honour in their columns, and was supported by telegrams and cables from
+all parts of the globe telling the same tale of crop failure with a
+steady monotony.
+
+As I look back upon these days I can only marvel at the ingrained
+conservatism of the human mind. It is true that on the whole the public
+were at last beginning to understand the situation. They had grasped
+the fact that almost all the known regions of wheat-growing land had
+been attacked; and that a shortage was inevitable. But, none the less,
+in their inmost thoughts they still clung to the fixed idea that
+_somewhere_ in the world there was bound to be a store of wheat--or if
+not wheat, then rice or some other edible grain--which would enable
+us to pass through the coming winter without undue restriction of our
+food supplies. It was perhaps a manifestation of that eternal optimism
+which is necessary if the race is to survive at all; or possibly it
+represented a trust in the Government’s capacity to arrange some means
+whereby supplies would be forthcoming in due course. Whatever its
+origin, it was among the most marked features of that strange time.
+
+I remember that one of the side-issues of the disaster created at that
+stage far deeper impressions than the catastrophe itself. With the
+failure of the American supplies over a huge area, the Wheat Pit became
+convulsed with an outbreak of gambling such as had never been seen
+before. Chicago went crazy; and legitimate business gave place to a
+fury of speculation which grew ever more intense as the news came in of
+further extensions of the devastated areas. Before the Blight appeared
+in America, December wheat had been offered at 233¼; but in the earlier
+stages of the game of speculation it rushed up to 405: and before the
+end came it was dealt with at prices which were purely illusory, since
+they corresponded to nothing tangible in commodities. Thousands of
+bears were ruined in the preliminary moves; and in the end the whole
+machinery of the Pit was brought to a standstill owing to there being
+no sellers.
+
+Of course that series of transactions had no real influence upon the
+course of events; but the public, both here and in America, failed to
+see this; and the bitterest feelings found vent concerning “gambling in
+the food of the people.” It is quite possible that the anger uselessly
+expended on this subject served to keep the public from concentrating
+their attention upon the real problem of the world shortage. Huge
+quantities of wheat were dealt with on paper; and the people, being
+unfamiliar with the methods of Chicago speculation, assumed that these
+enormous transactions actually represented the transfer of millions
+of bushels of real grain from seller to buyer. The sharp upward trend
+of flour and bread prices at home served to confirm their impression
+that the gambling in the Pit was responsible for their troubles; and
+Rodman’s attempt--which was practically successful--to corner wheat,
+led to violent criticism and even, at one time, to an effort to lynch
+him.
+
+It was not only in the wheat market that this fever of speculation
+showed itself. Maize, oats, barley and cotton also became counters in
+the game and rose to incredible prices. Unknown men appeared in the
+world of finance and for days maintained their positions as controllers
+of the markets. Many of the great firms in America ventured their
+capital rashly and suffered disaster.
+
+In its ultimate effects also, the gamble in food-stuffs exerted a
+profound influence on the stream of public opinion. The news of the
+speculations in Chicago, the descriptions of the turbulent scenes in
+the Wheat Pit, where at one time revolvers were fired by super-excited
+members, the tales of huge fortunes won and lost in a day, the deep
+under-current of resentment at this callous trading upon the world’s
+necessities, all tended in the end to bring into view the real state
+of the wheat question. And now the newspapers were printing the single
+word FAMINE as a headline; and the people were beginning to ask in
+ominous tones: “What is the Government doing?”
+
+It was at this time that, to my profound surprise, I received a private
+letter from the Prime Minister requesting my attendance at a meeting
+which he had arranged.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+Nordenholt
+
+
+Probably with a view to avoiding the attention of the Press, the
+meeting was held elsewhere than at No. 10 Downing Street. I found
+myself in what looked like a Board meeting-room. A fire burned in the
+grate, for it was a chilly day. Down the centre of the room stretched
+a long table around which a number of men were sitting, some of whom
+were familiar as great figures in the industrial world. At the head of
+the table I recognised the Premier, flanked on either hand by a Cabinet
+Minister. A chair was vacant half-way up the table, opposite the
+fireplace; and I took it on a gesture from the Premier.
+
+Almost at once, the Prime Minister rose to his feet. He looked worn and
+agitated; but even under the evidences of the strain he endeavoured to
+assume a cheerful and confident air. He was a man I had never trusted;
+and I now had my first opportunity of examining him at close quarters.
+In repose, his face fell into the heavy lines of the successful
+barrister; but when he became animated, a mechanical smile flitted
+across it which in some way displeased me more than the expression
+which it veiled. He seemed to me a typical example of the _faux
+bonhomme_. In politics he had gained a reputation for dilatory conduct
+combined with a mastery in the art of managing a majority; and his
+mind was saturated with the idea of Party advantage. Of real loyalty
+I suspect he had very little; but when one of his Cabinet blundered
+heavily, he would step into the limelight with a fine gesture and
+assume all responsibility. In this way he kept his Government intact
+and gained a reputation for fidelity without losing anything; for he
+well knew that no one would call him to account for the responsibility
+which he had assumed.
+
+“Gentlemen,” he said, “you will probably wonder why we have invited
+you to meet us here to-day. We all know the unhappy state of affairs
+into which the country has fallen. There is dissatisfaction abroad;
+and the Government is being held responsible for conditions which were
+none of its making. I will speak plainly to you, for it is no time for
+reservations. Something must be done to allay public anxiety, which
+is growing more intense as time goes on. I am not one of those who
+take these passing scares seriously; but we cannot afford to ignore
+the present feeling: and some measures are necessary to satisfy this
+clamour. It is a time when all of us must come to the aid of the
+Executive.
+
+“The Cabinet is dispersed at the moment. Many of the members are
+abroad and are unable to return at present, owing to a disorganisation
+of transport. But pending their return and the decisions which we
+shall then be forced to take, I thought it right to call together you
+gentlemen, large employers of labour, and to enlist your aid in the
+work we shall have to do. It is essential that the Government should
+retain public confidence at the present time. I think we are agreed
+upon that point. Nothing could be more fatal than a General Election
+forced upon us under the reigning conditions.
+
+“We have taken steps to call Parliament together immediately, in order
+to lay before it certain measures which we believe will enable us to
+tide over this crisis. But in the meantime we must try to pacify the
+working classes, who are being agitated by the dismal forecasts of
+the newspapers. I have no desire to inquire into the origin of the
+jeremiads which are being printed daily in a certain group of papers;
+but I cannot help noticing that they all tend towards a discrediting of
+myself and my colleagues. There is a cry for action; whereas I think
+all of you will agree that consideration is required, so that the
+action, if it should become necessary, may be well-contrived.
+
+“It is in these circumstances that we have called you gentlemen
+together. We propose to lay before you the main points of our scheme;
+and when you have heard them, we count upon you, as great employers
+of labour, to lay the matter before your employés. We shall use the
+newspapers also to disseminate our proposals; but personal efforts can
+do more than any printed appeals. I trust that we shall not look in
+vain for the cordial co-operation which is absolutely requisite at this
+crisis.”
+
+As this speech proceeded, I had become more and more uneasy. Through it
+all ran the governing thought that something must be done, which was
+true enough; but the thing which he proposed to do, it appeared to me,
+was to persuade the country that all was well, whereas I felt that the
+essential matter was to prepare against a practical calamity.
+
+“We have given a great deal of thought to our proposals, though we have
+not wasted time in the consideration of details. The broad outlines are
+all that are required for our present purpose; and we have confined
+our attention to them. My friend the Home Secretary”--he indicated the
+colleague who sat on his left--“will be good enough to read to you the
+heads of our decisions. I may say, however, that these decisions are
+only of a temporary nature. We may find it necessary to modify some of
+them in due course; and they must not be regarded as in any way final.
+Possibly”--he let the mechanical smile play over the company--“possibly
+some of those present may be able to suggest certain modifications at
+this meeting. If these modifications are such that we can adopt them,
+we shall be only too glad to do so.”
+
+He sat down; and the Home Secretary rose in his turn. Saxenham had the
+reputation of being dull but honest. He had no force of character, but
+he had won his way into the Cabinet mainly because he had never been
+known to stoop to a false action in the whole course of his career.
+On this account he represented a mainstay of the Government, which
+in other ways was not too scrupulous. His brain was one which worked
+slowly; and his personal admiration for the Prime Minister was such
+that he followed him blindly without seeing too clearly whither he was
+being led. He cleared his throat and took up a sheet of paper which
+contained the Government proposals.
+
+“I think that it will be best if I take the various proposals seriatim
+and elucidate each of them, as I come to it, by a short commentary.
+
+“_First_, we shall issue a Government statement to the Press with the
+object of reassuring the public and putting an end to this rising
+clamour for action in haste. In this statement we shall call attention
+to the fact that there is at present a twelve-weeks’ supply of food in
+the country, which, with due care, would itself be sufficient to last
+the population until the next harvest. We shall make it clear that the
+Government have under earnest consideration the steps which it may be
+necessary to take in the future; and we shall appeal to the public to
+pay no heed to alarmist statements from interested quarters.
+
+“_Second_, we shall advise the King to issue a Proclamation on the same
+lines. We believe that this may have a greater effect in some quarters
+than an official Government statement.
+
+“_Third_, we shall make arrangements for taking over the food stores in
+the country, though we hope that it will not be necessary to do so.
+
+“_Fourth_, we shall make arrangements to purchase with the national
+moneys the surplus food supplies of grain. We shall be able to pay
+higher prices than private importers; and I have little doubt that we
+shall thus be able to stock our granaries with food sufficient to carry
+us through until well beyond the next harvest.
+
+“_Fifth_, we shall prepare a system of rationing, as soon as we have
+obtained our supplies and know definitely how much food can be allotted
+per head to the population.
+
+“_Sixth_, since a continuance of the present crisis will undoubtedly
+lead to widespread distress and unemployment, we propose to take under
+consideration a system of unemployment relief; so that there may be no
+centres of disturbance generated among the population by idleness or
+lack of money.
+
+“_Seventh_, we shall invite the scientific experts on agriculture to
+devote their attention to the problem of increasing the crops in the
+next harvest, so that such a state of affairs as this may not again
+arise.”
+
+He paused, with an air of finality, though he did not resume his seat.
+At the head of the table, the Prime Minister was apparently plunged in
+thought. Suddenly I was struck by the employment to which the third
+member of the Cabinet was putting his time. With the sheets of paper in
+front of him he was constructing a series of toys. A box, a cock-boat,
+an extraordinarily life-like frog lay before him on the table, and he
+was busily engaged in the production of something which looked like a
+bird. I learned afterwards that this was a trick of his, the outcome of
+his peculiarly nervous temperament. Not wishing to be detected watching
+him, I turned my eyes away; and as I swept my glance round the table, I
+suddenly found myself in turn the object of scrutiny.
+
+My first impression was of two steel-blue eyes fixed upon my own with
+an almost disquieting intensity of gaze. I had the feeling of being
+examined, not only physically but mentally, as though by some hypnotic
+power my very thoughts were being brought to light. Usually, in a
+casual interchange of glances, one or other of two is diverted almost
+at once; but in this case I felt in some way unable to withdraw my eyes
+from those before me; while my _vis-à-vis_ continued to examine me with
+a steadfast attention which, strangely enough, suggested no rudeness.
+
+He was a man of more than the average height, over six feet I found
+later when he rose from his chair. His features suggested no particular
+race, though there was an elusive resemblance to the Red Indian type
+which I felt rather than saw; but this was perhaps intensified by
+the jet-black hair and the clean-shaven face. All these are mere
+details of little importance. What impressed me most about him was
+an air of conscious power, which would have singled him out in any
+gathering. Looking from him to the Prime Minister, it crossed my mind
+that while the Premier counterfeited power in his appearance, this
+unknown embodied it; and yet there was no parade, for he appeared to be
+entirely devoid of self-consciousness. Before he removed his eyes from
+mine I saw an inscrutable smile curve his lips. I say inscrutable, for
+I could not read what it meant; but it resembled the expression of a
+man who has just checked a calculation and found it to be accurate.
+
+It has taken me some time to describe this incident; but actually it
+can have occupied hardly more than a fraction of a minute; for, as I
+took my eyes away from his, I heard the Home Secretary continue:
+
+“These, gentlemen, are our proposals; and I think that they cover the
+necessary ground. We wish especially to draw your attention to the
+sixth one: for it is that which has chiefly moved us to lay these
+matters before you ere we make them public. It concerns unemployment,
+if you remember. We have brought you into our councils because all
+of you are large employers of labour in different lines of industry;
+and we would welcome any suggestions from you now with regard to the
+possible modes of application of this scheme in practice. As Mr. Biles
+has told you, it is essential at this moment to avoid discontent among
+the proletariat. Europe is in a very disturbed condition, and a change
+of Government at this juncture would have disastrous effects. I can say
+no more upon that point; but I wish you to understand that we urgently
+require your co-operation at this time.”
+
+He sat down; and the Prime Minister rose again.
+
+“I think you will see, gentlemen, from what the Home Secretary has
+said, that the Government has the situation well in hand. The only
+matter about which we are at all concerned is the liquor question. It
+is clear that we can hardly sacrifice grain for the manufacture of
+alcohol until we are sure that we have in stock a sufficiency of food
+for the country’s needs. A shortage of liquor, however, may lead to
+industrial unrest; and it is this possible unrest which we desire your
+help in preventing. We wish if possible to get directly into touch with
+the workers of the nation; and we have approached you first of all.
+Later we intend to interview the Trades Union leaders with the same
+object. But time presses; and I shall be glad to hear any criticisms of
+our plans if you will be so good as to give your views.”
+
+He sank back into his chair and again the smile faded almost at once.
+For a moment there was a pause. Then the man opposite me rose to his
+feet.
+
+“Who is that?” I whispered to my neighbour.
+
+“Nordenholt.”
+
+Nordenholt! I looked at him with even more attention than before. For
+two decades that name had rung through the world, and yet, meeting him
+now face to face, I had not recognised him. Nor was this astonishing;
+for no portrait of him had ever come to my notice. The daily photo
+papers, the illustrated weeklies, even _Punch_ itself, had never
+printed so much as a sketch of him. He had leaped into fame simply
+as a name to which no physical complement had been attached. By some
+mysterious influence behind the scenes, he had avoided the usual Press
+illustrator with a success which left him unrecognisable to the man in
+the street.
+
+So this--I looked at him again--so this was Nordenholt, the Platinum
+King, the multi-millionaire, wrecker of two Governments. No wonder that
+I had felt him to be out of the common. I am no hero-worshipper; yet
+Nordenholt had always exercised an attraction upon my mind, even though
+he was only a name. In many respects he seemed to be the kind of man I
+should have liked to be, if I had his character and gifts.
+
+When he rose, I found that his voice matched his appearance; it was
+deep, grave and harmonious, although he spoke without any rhetorical
+turn. Had he chosen to force himself to the front in politics, that
+instrument would have served him to sway masses of men by its mere
+charm. I thought that I detected a faint sub-tinge of irony in it as he
+began. He wasted no time upon preliminaries but went straight to the
+point.
+
+“Are we to understand that this paper in the hands of the Home
+Secretary contains a full statement of the measures which the
+Cabinet--or such members of it as are available--have decided upon up
+to the present?”
+
+The Prime Minister nodded assent. I seemed to detect a certain
+uneasiness in his pose since Nordenholt had risen.
+
+“May I see the paper?... Thank you.”
+
+He read it over slowly and then, still retaining it in his hand,
+continued:
+
+“Perhaps I have not fathomed your purpose in drawing it up; but if I
+am correct in my interpretation, it seems to me an excellent scheme. I
+doubt if anything better could be devised.”
+
+The nervous frown left the Premier’s face and was replaced by
+a satisfied smile; the Home Secretary, after a pause of mental
+calculation, also seemed to be relieved; while the Colonial Secretary
+put down his paper model and looked up at Nordenholt with an expression
+of mild astonishment. It was evident that they had hardly expected this
+approval. The hint of irony in the speaker’s voice grew more pronounced:
+
+“This scheme of yours, if I am not mistaken, is a piece of
+window-dressing, pure and simple. You felt that you had to make some
+show of energy; and to pacify the public you bring forward these
+proposals. The first two of them achieve nothing practical; and the
+remaining five concern steps which you propose to take at some future
+time, but which you have not yet considered fully. Am I correct?”
+
+The Colonial Secretary broke in angrily in reply:
+
+“I object to the word window-dressing. These proposals give in outline
+the steps which we shall take in due course. They represent the
+principles which we shall use as our guides. You surely did not expect
+us to work out the details for this meeting?”
+
+Nordenholt’s voice remained unchanged.
+
+“No, I did not expect _you_ to have worked out the details of this
+scheme. I will confine myself to principles if you wish it. I see that
+in the fourth clause you anticipate the purchase of foreign grain,
+though at an enhanced price. May I ask where you propose to secure it?
+It is common knowledge that it cannot be obtained within the Empire, so
+presumably you have some other granary in your minds. Possibly you have
+already taken steps.”
+
+The face of the Colonial Secretary lit up with a flash of malice.
+
+“You are quite correct in both conjectures. Australia and Canada have
+suffered so severely from the Blight that we can expect nothing from
+them, and I am afraid that Russia is in the same condition. But we have
+actually issued instructions to agents in America to purchase all the
+wheat which they can obtain, and advices have arrived showing that we
+control already a very large supply.”
+
+“Excellent forethought. I fear, however, that it has been wasted
+through no fault of yours. At ten o’clock this morning, the Government
+of the United States prohibited the export of food-stuffs of any
+description. You will not get your supplies.”
+
+“But that is contrary to their Constitution! How can they do that?” The
+Prime Minister was evidently startled. “And how do you come to know of
+it while we have had no advice?”
+
+“A censorship was established over the American cables and wireless
+just before this decision was made public. They do not wish it to
+be known here until they have had time to make their arrangements.
+My information came through my private wireless, which was seized
+immediately after transmitting it.”
+
+“But ... but ...” stammered the Home Secretary, “this complicates our
+arrangements in a most unforeseen manner. It is a most serious piece of
+news. Biles, we never took that into account.”
+
+“Sufficient unto the day, Saxenham. This Government has been in
+difficult places before; but we always succeeded in turning the corner
+successfully. Don’t let us yield to panic now. If we think over the
+matter for a while, I do not doubt that we shall see daylight through
+it in the end.”
+
+Nordenholt listened to this interchange of views in scornful silence.
+
+“One of the details which have still to be thought out, I suppose,
+Biles,” he continued. “Don’t let it delay us at present. There is
+another point upon which I wish some information.”
+
+The meeting was a curious study by this time. Almost without seeming
+to notice it, Nordenholt had driven the three Cabinet Ministers into a
+corner; and he now seemed to dominate them as though they were clerks
+who had been detected in scamping their work. Personality was telling
+in the contest, for contest it had now become.
+
+“This news which I have given you implies that the twelve-weeks’ supply
+of food in the country is all that we have at our command anywhere.
+What do you propose to do?”
+
+“We shall have to take stock and begin the issue of ration tickets as
+soon as possible.”
+
+“Twelve-weeks’ supply; how long will that last the country under your
+arrangements?”
+
+The Colonial Secretary made a rapid calculation on a sheet of paper.
+
+“As we shall need to carry on till the next harvest, I suppose it means
+that the daily ration will have to be reduced to less than a quarter of
+the full amount--three-thirteenths, to be exact.”
+
+“And you are satisfied with that calculation?”
+
+The Colonial Secretary glanced over his figures.
+
+“Yes, I see no reason to alter it. Naturally it will mean great
+privation; and the working class will be difficult to keep in hand; but
+I see no objection to carrying on till next year when the harvest will
+be due. The potato crop will come in early and help us.”
+
+Nordenholt looked at him for a moment and then laughed contemptuously.
+Suddenly his almost pedantic phraseology dropped away.
+
+“Simpson, you beat the band. I never heard anything like it.”
+
+Then his manner changed abruptly.
+
+“Do you mean to say,” he asked roughly, “that you haven’t realised
+yet that there will be _no_ next harvest? Don’t you understand that
+things have changed, once for all? The soil is done for. There will be
+no crops again until every inch of it is revivified in some way. ‘The
+potato crop will come in early and help us!’ I’ve consulted some men
+who know; and they tell me that within a year it will be impossible to
+raise more than a small fraction even of the worst crop we ever saw in
+this country.”
+
+The Premier was the only one of the three who stood fast under this
+blow.
+
+“That is certainly a serious matter, Nordenholt,” he said; “but there
+is nothing to be gained from hard words. Let us think over the case,
+and I feel sure that some way out of this apparent _impasse_ can be
+found. Surely some of these scientific experts could suggest something
+which might get us out of the difficulty. I don’t despair. Past
+experience has always shown that with care one can avoid most awkward
+embarrassments.”
+
+“The ‘awkward embarrassment,’ as you call it, amounts to this. How are
+you going to feed fifty millions of people for an indefinite time when
+your supplies are only capable of feeding them normally for twelve
+weeks? Put them on ‘three-thirteenth rations’ as Simpson suggests;
+and when the next harvest comes in you will find you have a good deal
+less than ‘three-thirteenth rations’ per head for them. What’s your
+solution, Biles? You will have to produce it quick; for every hour
+you sit thinking means a bigger inroad into the available supplies.
+Remember, this is something new in your experience. You aren’t up
+against a majority you can wheedle into taking your advice. This time
+you are up against plain facts of Nature; and arguments are out of
+court. Now I ask a plain question; and I’m going to get a straight
+answer from you for once: What are your plans?”
+
+The Premier pondered the matter in silence for a couple of minutes;
+then, apparently, the instinct of the old Parliamentary hand came
+uppermost in his mind. The habits of thought which have lasted through
+a generation cannot be broken instantaneously. With a striving after
+dignity, which was only half successful he said:
+
+“Parliament is about to meet. I shall go there and lay this matter
+before the Great Inquest of the nation and let them decide.”
+
+“Three days wasted; and probably two days of talk at least before
+anything is settled; then two days more before you can bring anything
+into gear: one week’s supplies eaten up and nothing to show for it. Is
+that your solution?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“You are determined on that? No wavering?”
+
+“No.”
+
+“Very good, Biles. I give you the fairest warning. On the day that you
+meet the House of Commons, I shall place upon the paper a series of
+questions which will expose the very root of the Mazanderan scandal,
+and I shall supply full information on the subject to the Opposition
+Press. I have had every document in my possession for the last year.
+I can prove that you yourself were in it up to the neck; I have notes
+of all the transactions with Rimanez and Co. And I know all about the
+Party Funds also. If that once gets into print, Biles, you are done
+for--thumbs down!”
+
+He imitated the old death sign of the Roman arena. The Premier sat as
+if frozen in his chair. His face had gone a dirty grey. Nordenholt
+towered over him with contempt on his features. Suddenly the Colonial
+Secretary sprang to his feet.
+
+“This is blackmail, Nordenholt,” he cried furiously. “Do you think you
+can do that sort of thing and not be touched? You may think you are
+safe behind your millions; but if you carried out your threat there
+isn’t a decent man who would speak to you again. You daren’t do it!”
+
+“If you speak to me like that again, Simpson, I’ll take care that no
+decent man speaks to you either,” Nordenholt said, calmly. “There’s
+another set of notes besides those on Mazanderan. I have the whole
+dossier of the house in Carshalton Terrace in my desk. I’ll publish
+them too, unless you come to heel. It will be worse than Mazanderan,
+Simpson. It will be prison.”
+
+In his turn, the Colonial Secretary collapsed into his chair. Whatever
+the threat had been, it had evidently brought him face to face with
+ruin; and guilt was written across his face.
+
+But Saxenham had paid no attention to this interruption. In his slow
+way he was evidently turning over in his mind what Nordenholt had said
+to the Prime Minister; and now he spoke almost in a tone of anguish:
+
+“Johnnie, Johnnie,” he said. “Deny it! Deny it at once. You can’t sit
+under that foul charge. Our hands were clean, weren’t they? You said
+they were, in the House. There’s no truth in what Nordenholt says, is
+there? Is there, Johnnie?”
+
+But the Premier sat like a statue in his chair, staring in front of him
+with unseeing eyes. The affairs of the Mazanderan Development Syndicate
+had been a bad business; and if the connection between it and the
+Government could be proved, after what had already passed, it was an
+end of Biles and the total discredit of his Party. Nordenholt, still on
+his feet, looked down at the silent figure without a gleam of pity in
+his face. Somehow I understood that he was playing for a great stake,
+though no flicker of interest crossed his countenance.
+
+The strain was broken by Saxenham getting to his feet. I knew his
+record, and I could guess what his feelings must have been. He stood
+there, a pathetic little figure, with shaking hands and dim eyes, a
+worshipper who had found his god only a broken image. He turned and
+looked at us in a pitiful way and then faced round to the wrecker.
+
+“Nordenholt,” he said, “he doesn’t deny it. Is it really true? Can you
+give me your word?”
+
+Nordenholt’s face became very gentle and all the hardness died out of
+his voice.
+
+“Yes, Saxenham, it is true. I give you my word of honour for its truth.
+He can’t deny it.”
+
+“Then I’ve backed a lie. I believed him. And now I’ve misled people.
+I’ve gone on to platforms and denied the truth of it; pledged my word
+that it was a malicious falsehood. Oh! I can’t face it, Nordenholt. I
+can’t face it. This finishes me with public service. I--I----”
+
+He covered his face with his hands and I could see the tears trickle
+between his fingers. He had paid his price for being honest.
+
+But the Premier was of sterner stuff. He looked up at Nordenholt at
+last with a gleam of hatred which he suppressed almost as it came:
+
+“Well, Nordenholt, what’s your price?”
+
+“So you’ve seen reason, Biles? Not like poor Saxenham, eh?” There
+was an under-current of bitterness in the tone, but it was almost
+imperceptible. “Well, it’s not hard. You take your orders from me now.
+You cover me with your full responsibility. You understand? You always
+were good at assuming responsibility. Have it now.”
+
+“Do I understand you to mean that you would like to be a Dictator?”
+
+“No, you haven’t got it quite correctly. I _mean_ to be Dictator.”
+
+The Prime Minister had relapsed into his stony attitude. There was
+no trace of feeling on his face; but I could understand the mental
+commotion which must lie behind that blank countenance. Under cover
+of fine phrases, he had always sought the lowest form of Party
+advantage; his political nostrum had become part and parcel of his
+individuality, and he had never looked higher than the intricacies of
+the Parliamentary game. Now, suddenly, he had been brought face to
+face with reality; and it had broken him. To do him justice, I believe
+that he might have faced personal discredit with indifference. He had
+done it before and escaped with his political life. But Nordenholt had
+struck him on an even more vital spot. If the Mazanderan affair came
+into the daylight, his Party would be ruined; and he would have been
+responsible. I give him the credit of supposing that it was upon the
+larger and not upon the personal issue that he surrendered.
+
+Nordenholt, having gained his object, refrained from going further. He
+turned away from the upper end of the table and addressed the rest of
+us.
+
+“Gentlemen, you see the state of affairs. We cannot wait for the slow
+machinery of politics to revolve through its time-honoured cycles
+before beginning to act. Something must be done at once. Every moment
+is now of importance. I wish to lay before you what appears to me the
+only method whereby we can save something out of the wreck.
+
+“I have been thinking out the problem with the greatest care; and I
+believe that even now it is not too late, if you will give me your
+support. This meeting was called at my suggestion; and I supplied a
+list of your names because all of you will be needed if my scheme is to
+be carried out. But before I divulge it, I must ask from each of you
+an absolutely unconditional promise of secrecy. Will you give that,
+Ross? And you, Arbuthnot?...”
+
+He went from individual to individual round the table; and to my
+astonishment, used my own name with the others. How he knew me, I could
+not understand.
+
+When he had secured a promise from all present, he continued:
+
+“In the first place, I had better tell you what I have done.
+Immediately the Blight began to ravage the American wheat-fields, I
+bought up all the grain which was available from last year’s crop and
+got it shipped as soon as possible. It is on the high seas now; so
+we have evaded the new prohibition of exports. I need not give you
+figures; but it amounts to a considerable quantity. This, of course, I
+carried through at my own expense.
+
+“I have also had printed a series of ration tickets and explanatory
+leaflets sufficient to last the whole country for three weeks. This
+also I did at my private charges.
+
+“Further, I have placed orders with the printers and bill-posters for
+the placarding of certain notices. Some of these, I expect, are already
+posted up on the hoardings.
+
+“I mention these matters merely in order to show you that I have not
+been idle and that I am fully convinced of the necessity for speed.”
+
+He paused for a few seconds to let this sink in.
+
+“Now we come to the main problem. Saxenham has told you the state
+of affairs; and I have supplemented it sufficiently to allow of
+your forming a judgment on the case. We have a population of fifty
+millions in the country. We have a food supply which will last, with
+my additions to it, for perhaps fourteen weeks. Beyond that we have
+nothing in hand. The next supply cannot make its appearance for at
+least a year. I have omitted the yield of the present crop, as I wish
+to be on the safe side; and I find that most of the grain is useless.
+When the new crop comes in, it will be, under present conditions,
+negligible in quantity owing to the soil-destruction which the
+_Bacillus diazotans_ has wrought. That, I think, is a fair statement of
+the case as it stands.
+
+“What results can we look for? If we ration the nation, even if we
+allow only a quarter of the normal supplies per day, our whole stock
+will be exhausted within the year. There will be a large percentage
+of deaths owing to underfeeding; but at the end of the year I think
+we might look forward to having a debilitated population of some
+thirty millions to feed. Will the new crop give us food for them? I
+have consulted men who know the subject and they tell me that it is
+an impossibility. We could not raise food enough, under the present
+conditions, to support even a reasonable percentage of that population.”
+
+He paused again, as though to let this sink in also.
+
+“Gentlemen, this nation stands at the edge of its grave. That is the
+simple truth.”
+
+We had all seen the trend of his reasoning; but this cold statement
+sent a shiver through the meeting. When he spoke again, it was in an
+even graver tone.
+
+“You must admit, gentlemen, that we cannot hope to keep alive even
+half of the population until crops become plentiful once more. There
+is only a single choice before us. Either we distribute the available
+food uniformly throughout the country or we take upon ourselves the
+responsibility of an unequal allotment. If we choose the first course,
+all of us will die without reprieve. It is not a matter of sentiment;
+it is the plain logic of figures. No safety lies in that course. What
+about the second?
+
+“Let us assume that we choose the alternative. We select from the
+fifty millions of our population those whom we regard as most fitted
+to survive. We lay aside from our stores sufficient to support this
+fraction; and we distribute among the remainder of the people the
+residuum of our food. If they can survive on that scale of rations,
+well and good. If not, we cannot turn aside the course of Nature.”
+
+The Prime Minister looked up. Evidently, behind his impassive mask, he
+had been following the reasoning.
+
+“If I understand you aright,” he said, “you are proposing to murder a
+large proportion of the population by slow starvation?”
+
+“No. What I am trying to do is to save some millions of them from a
+certain death. It just depends upon which way you look at it, Biles.
+But have it your own way if it pleases you.
+
+“Now, gentlemen, the calculation is a simple one. We have enough food
+to last a population of fifty millions for fourteen weeks. From that
+we deduct five weeks’ supplies for the whole population; which leaves
+us with four hundred and fifty million weekly rations. We select five
+million people whom we decide must survive; and these four hundred and
+fifty million rations will keep them fed for ninety weeks--say a year
+and nine months. It will really be longer than that; for I anticipate
+rather heavy ravages of disease on account of the monotony of the diet
+and the lack of fresh vegetables. That is in the nature of things; and
+we cannot evade it.
+
+“That then, is the only alternative. It is, as the Prime Minister has
+said, a death sentence on by far the greater part of the people in
+these islands; but I see no way out of the difficulties in which we
+are involved. It is not we who have passed that sentence. Nature has
+done it; and all that we can achieve is the rescue of a certain number
+of the victims. With your help, I propose to undertake that work of
+rescue.”
+
+I doubt if those sitting round the table had more than the vaguest
+glimpse of what all this meant. When a death-roll reaches high figures,
+the mind refuses to grasp its implications. Very few people have any
+concrete idea of what the words “one million” stand for. We only
+understood that there was impending a human catastrophe on a scale
+which dwarfed all preceding tragedies. Beyond that, I know that I, for
+one, could not force my mind.
+
+“We are thus left with five million survivors,” Nordenholt continued.
+“But this does not reach the crux of the matter. The nitrogen of the
+soil has vanished; and it must be replaced if the earth is ever again
+to bring forth fruits. That task devolves upon mankind, for Nature
+works too slowly for our purposes. In order to feed these five million
+mouths--or what is left of them when the food supply runs out--we have
+to raise crops next year; and to raise these crops we must supply the
+soil with the necessary nitrogenous material.
+
+“I have consulted men who know”--this seemed to be his only phrase when
+he referred to his authorities--“and they tell me that it can be done
+if we bend our whole energies to the task. All the methods of using
+the nitrogen of the air have been worked out in detail long ago: the
+Birkeland-Eyde process, Serpek’s method, the Schönherr and the Haber-Le
+Rossignol processes, as well as nitrolim manufacture and so forth. We
+have only to set up enough machinery and work hard--very hard--and we
+shall be able to produce by chemical processes the material which we
+require. That is what the five million will have to do. There will be
+no idlers among them. At first it will be work in the dark, for we
+cannot calculate how much material we require until the agricultural
+experts have made their experiments upon the soil. But I understand
+that it is quite within the bounds of possibility that we shall be
+successful.
+
+“I come now to another point. These five million survivors cannot be
+scattered up and down the country. They must be brought into a definite
+area, for two reasons. In the first place, we must have them under our
+control so that we can make food-distribution simple; and, in the
+second place, we must be able to protect them from attack. Remember,
+outside this area there will be millions dying of starvation, and these
+millions will be desperate. We can take no risks.”
+
+He took a roll from behind his chair and unfolded upon the table a
+large map of the British Isles marked with patches of colour.
+
+“As to the choice of a segregation area, we are limited by various
+factors. We shall need coal for the basis of our work; therefore it
+would suit us best to place our colony near one of the coal-fields. We
+shall need iron for our new machinery; and it would be best to choose
+some centre in which foundries are already numerous. We shall need to
+house our five million survivors and we cannot spend time in building
+new cities for them. And, finally, we need a huge water-supply for
+that population. On this map, I have had these various factors marked
+in colour. In some places, as you see, three of the desiderata are
+co-existent; but there is only one region in which we find all four
+conditions satisfied--in the Clyde Valley. There you have coal and
+iron; there are already in existence enormous numbers of foundries and
+machine-shops; the city of Glasgow alone is capable of accommodating
+over a million human beings; and the water-supply is ample. This, I
+think, is sufficient to direct our choice to that spot.
+
+“There are two further reasons why I am in favour of the Clyde Valley.
+It is a defensible position, for one thing. North of it you have only
+a very limited population--some three millions or even less. On the
+south, it is far removed from the main centres of population in the
+Midlands and London. This will be an advantage later on. Again, second
+point, we have to look forward to cultivation next year. Bordering the
+Clyde Valley, within easy reach, lie the tracts which, before the
+Blight, used to be the most fertile land in the country. The fields are
+ready for us to sow, once we have replaced the vanished nitrogen. I
+think there is no better place which we could select.
+
+“Now, gentlemen, I have put my scheme before you. I have not given you
+more than the outlines of it. I know that it seems visionary at first;
+but you must either take it or leave it. We cannot wait for Parliament
+or for anybody else. The thing must be done now. Will you help?”
+
+A murmur of assent passed round the table. Even the Prime Minister
+joined in the common approval; and I saw Nordenholt thank him with a
+glance.
+
+“Very good, gentlemen. I have most of the preliminaries worked out
+in sufficient detail to let us get ahead. To-morrow we meet again
+here at nine in the morning, and by that time I hope to have further
+information for each of you. In the meantime, will you be good
+enough to think over the points at which this scheme will touch
+your own special branches of industry? We have an immense amount of
+improvisation before us; and we must be ready for things as they come.
+Thank you.”
+
+He seated himself; and for the first time I realised what he had
+done. By sheer force of personality and a clear mind, he had carried
+us along with him and secured our assent to a scheme which, wild-cat
+though it might appear, seemed to be the only possible way out of the
+crisis. He had constituted himself a kind of Dictator, though without
+any of the trappings of the office; and no one had dared to oppose
+him. The cold brutality with which he had treated the politicians was
+apparently justified; for I now saw whither their procrastination would
+have led us. But I must confess that I was dazed by the rapidity with
+which his moves had been made. Possibly in my account I have failed to
+reproduce the exact series of transitions by which he passed from stage
+to stage. I was too intent at the time to take clear mental notes of
+what occurred; but I believe that I have at least drawn a picture which
+comes near to the reality.
+
+The meeting was at its end. Nordenholt went across to speak to the
+Prime Minister; while the others began to leave the room in groups of
+two and three. I moved towards the door, when Nordenholt looked up and
+caught my eye.
+
+“Just wait a minute, Flint, please.”
+
+He continued his earnest talk with the Premier for a few minutes, then
+handed over an envelope containing a bulky mass of papers. At last he
+came to me and we went out together.
+
+“You might come round to my place for a short time, Flint,” he said.
+“My car is waiting for us. I want you to be one of my right-hand men in
+this business and there are some things I wish to explain to you now.
+It may not seem altogether relevant to you; but I think it is necessary
+if we are to work together well.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+The Psychology of the Breaking-strain
+
+
+With my entry into Nordenholt’s house I hoped to gain a clearer
+insight into certain sides of his character; for the possessions which
+a man accumulates about him serve as an index to his mind even when
+his reticence gives no clue to his nature. I had expected something
+uncommon, from what I had already seen of him; but my forecasts were
+entirely different from the reality.
+
+The room into which he ushered me was spacious and high-ceilinged; a
+heavy carpet, into the pile of which my feet sank, covered the floor;
+a few arm-chairs were scattered here and there; and a closed roll-top
+desk stood in a corner. One entire side of the room was occupied by
+bookshelves. Beyond this, there was nothing. It was the simplest
+furnishing I had ever seen; and in the house of a multi-millionaire
+it astonished me. I had somehow expected to find lavishness in some
+form: art in one or other of its interpretations, or at any rate an
+indication of Nordenholt’s tastes. But this room defeated me by its
+very plainness. There appeared to be no starting-point for an analysis.
+To me it seemed a place where a man could think without distraction;
+and then, at the desk, put his thoughts into practical application.
+
+As we entered, Nordenholt excused himself for a moment. He wished to
+give instructions to his secretary. Some telephoning had to be done at
+once; and then he would be at my disposal. I heard him go into the next
+room.
+
+When I am left alone in a strange house with nothing to fill in
+my time, I gravitate naturally to the bookcases; so that now I
+mechanically moved over to the serried rows of shelves which lined one
+side of the room. Here at last I might get some clue to the workings
+of Nordenholt’s mind. Glancing along the backs of the volumes, I
+found that the first shelf contained only works on metaphysics and
+psychology. Somewhat puzzled by this selection, I passed from tier to
+tier, and still no other subject came in view. A rapid examination of
+the cases from end to end showed me that the entire library dealt with
+this single theme, the main bulk of the works being psychological.
+
+This discovery overturned in my mind several nebulous conjectures which
+I had begun to form as to Nordenholt’s character. What sort of a man
+was this, a millionaire, reputed to be one of the shrewdest financiers
+of the day, who stocked his study entirely with psychological works
+among which not a single financial book of reference was to be found?
+Coupled with the stark simplicity of the furniture, this clue seemed
+unlikely to lead me far.
+
+As I was pondering, the door opened and Nordenholt returned. While it
+was still ajar, I heard the trill of a telephone bell and a girl’s
+voice giving a number; then the door closed and cut off further
+sounds. Thus after ten minutes in his house I had gathered only three
+things about him: he was simple, almost Spartan, in his tastes; he was
+interested in psychology; and his secretary was a girl and not a man.
+
+He came forward towards me; and again I had the sensation of command in
+his appearance. His great height and easy movements may have accounted
+for it in part; but I am taller than the average myself; so that it
+was not entirely this. Even now I cannot analyse the feeling which he
+produced, not on myself alone, but upon all those with whom he came in
+contact. Personal magnetism may satisfy some people as an explanation;
+but what is personal magnetism but a name? In some inexplicable manner,
+Nordenholt gave the impression of a vast reservoir of pent-up force,
+seldom unloosed but ever ready to spring into action if required; and
+in these unfathomable eyes there seemed to brood an uncanny and yet not
+entirely unsympathetic perception which chilled me with its aloofness
+and nevertheless drew me to him in some way which is not clear to me
+even now. Under that slow and minute inspection, eye to eye, I felt all
+my human littleness, all my petty weaknesses exposed and weighed; but
+I felt also that behind this unrelenting scrutiny there was a depth of
+understanding which struck an even balance and saved me from contempt.
+I can put it no better than that.
+
+He motioned me to a chair and took another himself. For a few moments
+he remained silent; and when he spoke I was struck by the change in
+his tone. At the meeting, he had spoken decisively, almost bitterly at
+times; but now a ring of sadness entered into that great musical voice.
+
+“I wonder, Flint,” he said, “I wonder if you understand what we have
+taken in hand to-day? I doubt if any of us see where all this is
+leading us. I see the vague outlines of it before us; but beyond a
+certain point one cannot go.”
+
+He paused, deep in thought for a few seconds; then, as though waking
+suddenly to life again, offered me a cigar and took one himself. When
+he spoke again, it was in a different tone.
+
+“Perhaps you wonder why I picked you out--of course it was I who got
+you invited to that meeting; I wanted to look you over there before
+making up my mind about you. Well, I have means of knowing about
+people; and you struck me as the man I needed in this work. I’ve been
+watching you for some years, Flint; ever since you made your mark, in
+fact. You aren’t one of my young men--the ones they call ‘Nordenholt’s
+gang,’ I believe--but you are of my kind; and I knew that I could get
+you if I wanted you for something big.”
+
+In any other man this would have struck me as insolence; but Nordenholt
+had already established such an influence over me that I felt flattered
+rather than ruffled by this calm assumption on his part.
+
+“But in some ways it’s a disadvantage now that we didn’t come together
+earlier,” he continued. “You remember Nelson and his captains--the
+band of brothers? Nothing can be accomplished on a grand scale without
+that feeling; and possibly I have left it until too late to get into
+touch with you. It depends on yourself, Flint. I know you, possibly as
+well as you know yourself; but you know nothing of me. With my young
+men,” and a tinge of pride came into his voice, “with my young men,
+that difficulty doesn’t arise. They know me as well as anyone can--well
+enough, at any rate, for us to work together for a common object, no
+matter how big the stake may be. But you, Flint, represent a foreign
+mind in the machine. I want you to understand some things; in fact,
+it’s essential that you should see the lines on which I work; for
+otherwise we shall be at cross-purposes. I wonder how it can be done?”
+
+He leaned back in his chair and smoked silently for a few minutes. I
+said nothing; for I was quite content to await whatever he had to put
+into words. I only wondered what form it would take. When he broke the
+silence, it was on quite unexpected lines. He looked at his watch.
+
+“Three hours yet before we can do anything further. I might as well
+spend part of it on this; and possibly I can give you an idea of my
+outlook on things which will help you when we are working together up
+North.
+
+“When I was quite a child, Flint, I used to take a certain delight in
+doing things which had an element of risk in them--physical risk,
+I mean. I liked to climb difficult trees, to work my way out on to
+dangerous bits of roof, to walk across tree-trunks spanning streams,
+and so forth. There’s that element of risk at the back of all real
+enjoyment, to my mind. It needn’t be physical risk necessarily, though
+there you have it in perhaps its most acute aspect; but at the root of
+a gamble of any sort where the stakes are high you find this factor
+lying, whether it is noticeable or not.
+
+“One of my earliest experiences in that direction took the form of
+walking along a slippery wall which was high enough to make a fall
+from it a serious matter. I mastered the art of keeping on the wall
+to perfection; and then, finding that pall upon me, I endeavoured to
+complicate it by jumping across the gap made by a gateway. It was an
+easy distance: I proved that to myself by practising on the ground from
+a standing take-off. And the nature of the wall offered no particular
+difficulty, for I tested myself in jumping a similar gap between two
+slippery tree-trunks laid end to end. Yet when I came to the actual gap
+in the wall, my muscles simply refused to obey me; and time after time
+I drew back involuntarily from the spring.
+
+“I was an introspective child; and this puzzled me. I knew that I
+could accomplish the feat with ease; and yet something prevented my
+attempting it. I fell to analysing my sensations and tracing down the
+various factors in the case; and, of course, it was not long until I
+came to the crucial point. Does this bore you? I am sorry if it does,
+but you’ll see the point of it by-and-by.”
+
+While he had been speaking, I had had a most curious impression. His
+argument, whatever it might be, was evidently addressed to me; and yet
+all through it I had the feeling that it was not altogether to me that
+he was talking. In some way I gathered the idea that while he spoke
+to me his mind was working upon another line, testing and re-testing
+some chain of reasoning which was illustrated by his anecdote; so that
+while I looked upon one aspect of it he was scanning the same facts
+from a totally different point of view and reading into them something
+which I was not intended to grasp.
+
+“Obviously the crux of the matter was the height of the wall and the
+fear of hurting myself severely if I missed my leap,” he continued.
+“Once I had discovered that--and of course it took much less time to do
+so than it takes now to explain the case--I set about another trial. I
+made up my mind that I would think nothing of the chance of slipping,
+and that this time I would accomplish the feat with ease. Yet once more
+I failed to bring my body up to the effort. Something stronger than my
+consciousness was at work; and it defeated me.”
+
+He smiled sardonically at some memory or other.
+
+“I practised jumping along a marked portion of the wall where it was
+lower; and I found that I could accomplish the distance with ease.
+Whereupon my childish mind formulated the problem in this way; and I
+believe that it was correct in doing so. The ultimate factor in the
+thing was the fear of a damaging fall. Within limits, I was prepared to
+take the risk; as had been shown by the success on the lower parts of
+the wall. But at the high place beside the gateway, my resolution had
+given way under a strain of nervousness. And at once there came into my
+mind the conception of a breaking-strain. Up to a certain tension, my
+conscious mind worked perfectly; but, beyond that, there was a complete
+collapse. Something had snapped under the strain. I may say that I
+finally accomplished the leap successfully; I simply wouldn’t allow
+myself to be beaten in a thing I knew I could do.”
+
+He halted for a moment as though this marked a turning-point in his
+thoughts.
+
+“This idea of the breaking-strain remained fixed in my child’s mind,
+however; and I used to amuse myself by conjecturing all sorts of
+hypothetical cases in which it played a part. It finally grew to be a
+sort of mild obsession with me, and I would ask myself continually:
+“Why did So-and-so do this rather than that?” and would then set
+to work to discover the factors at the back of his actions and the
+tension-snap which had driven him into something which was unexpected
+from his normal line of conduct.
+
+“You can understand, Flint, how this practice grew upon me. It is
+the most interesting thing in the world; and the materials for
+applying it are everywhere about us in our everyday life. I extracted
+endless amusement from it; and as I grew up into boyhood I found its
+fascination greater than ever. I took a never-failing interest in
+probing at the hidden springs of conduct and trying to establish these
+breaking-strains in the people before me.
+
+“Then, as I grew older I discovered the Law Courts. There you see the
+philosophy of the breaking-strain brought into touch with real life
+in a practical form. I used to go and watch some well-known barrister
+handling a hostile witness; and suddenly I understood that all these
+men were merely fumbling empirically after the thing that I had studied
+from my earliest days. What does a barrister want to do with a hostile
+witness? To break him down, to throw him out of his normal line of
+thought and then to fish among the dislocated machinery for something
+which suits his own case. It afforded me endless interest to follow the
+methods of each different cross-examiner. I learned a great deal in the
+Courts; and I came away from them convinced that I had found something
+of more than mere academic interest. This breaking-strain question
+was one which could be applied to affairs of the greatest practical
+importance. It was actually so applied in law cases. Why not utilise it
+in other directions also?”
+
+I found him watching me keenly to see if I followed his line of
+thought. After a moment, he went on:
+
+“It sounds so obvious now, Flint; but I believe that I alone saw it as
+a scientific problem. Your blackmailer, your poker-sharp, all those
+types of mind had been working on the thing in a crude way; but to me
+it appeared from a different angle. Everyone else had looked on it
+in the form of special cases, particular men who had to be swayed by
+particular motives. I began as a youth where they left off. I spent
+some years on it, Flint, examining it in all its bearings; and finally
+I evolved a system of classification which enabled me to approach any
+specific case along general lines. I can’t go into that now; but it
+suddenly gave me an insight into motives and actions such as I doubt if
+anyone ever had before.”
+
+He paused and watched the smoke curling up from his cigar. Again he
+seemed to be deep in the consideration of some problem connected with
+and yet alien to what he had been saying. For a time he was lost in
+thought; and I waited to hear the rest of the story.
+
+“Well, Flint,” he went on at last, “it certainly seemed on the face
+of it to be a very useless accomplishment from the practical point
+of view; from the standpoint of mere cash, I mean. And yet, it still
+fascinated me. When I was quite a young man I determined to go to
+Canada and take up lumber. I was an orphan; there was nothing to keep
+me in this country, for I had no near relations; and I felt that it
+might do me good to cut loose from things here and go away into the
+woods for a time. I had enough capital to start in a small way; so I
+went. My ideas of the lumber-trade were vague at the time. If I had
+known what it was, I doubt if I should have touched it.
+
+“At first sight, it looked a hopeless venture. I knew nothing of
+the trade; I was a youngster then; I’d had no training in financial
+operations. Failure seemed to be the only outcome; and the men on the
+spot laughed at me. I simply would not admit that I was beaten at the
+start; and everything drove me on against my better judgment. And I
+had one tremendous asset. I knew men.
+
+“I knew men better than anyone else out there. I never made a mistake
+in my choice. I collected a few good men at the start to help me;
+and through them I gathered others almost as good. In a year I had
+made progress; in two years I was a success; and very soon I became
+somebody to reckon with. And through it all, Flint, I knew practically
+nothing about the actual trade. That was only a tool in my hands. What
+I dealt in was men and men’s minds. I could gauge a man’s capacity to
+a hair; and I picked my managers and foremen from the very best. They
+were glad to come to me, somehow. They felt I understood them; and no
+inefficients were comfortable with me. I never had to discharge them;
+they simply went of their own accord. I left everything to my staff,
+for I knew them thoroughly and gauged their capacities to a degree. And
+because I knew them I found the right place for each man; so that the
+work went forward with perfect smoothness and efficiency. Before I had
+been five years there I was on the road to being a rich man.”
+
+His tone expressed no satisfaction. It was clear that I was not
+expected to admire his talents.
+
+“Then, suddenly, came the discovery of platinum on a large scale in
+the neighbourhood of my district. You know what that meant; but you
+must remember that in those days it was a very different matter from
+now. It was like the Yukon gold rush in some of its aspects. The place
+swarmed with prospectors, mostly men of no education, whose main object
+was to get as much as they could in a hurry and then go elsewhere to
+spend the money the platinum brought them. Meanwhile, the platinum
+market was convulsed, and the price swayed to and fro from day to day.
+You must remember that in those times the thing was in the hands of a
+very few men; for the supply was limited. The Canadian mines overthrew
+the nicely-adjusted balance of the market and everything suffered in
+consequence; for the uses of platinum directly or indirectly spread
+over a very large field of human industry.”
+
+That part of his history was more or less familiar to me, but I did not
+interrupt.
+
+“One day it occurred to me that here in Canada we had a case parallel
+to the state of affairs in the Diamond Fields before the Kimberley
+amalgamation. Why not repeat Cecil Rhodes’ methods? Just as he
+regulated the price of diamonds, I could regulate the price of platinum
+if I could get control of the Canadian mines, for they were by far the
+most important in the world.
+
+“Again, I knew nothing of platinum, just as I had known nothing of
+lumber; but I was able to pay for the best advice, to pay for secrecy
+as well; and to judge the experts, I had my knowledge of men to help
+me. I got the best men, I chose only men whom my insight enabled me to
+pick out; and I began to buy up claims quietly under their guidance.
+Here again psychology came in. I could tell at a glance when a man
+was a “quitter” and when a miner would refuse to sell. I could gauge
+almost to a sovereign the price that would prove the breaking-strain
+for any particular owner. I can’t tell you how it is done; it is partly
+inborn, perhaps, partly acquired; but I know that my knowledge is quite
+incommunicable.
+
+“To make a long story short, I had acquired a very fair percentage of
+the valuable ground when suddenly I discovered that five other men had
+been struck with the same idea; and that prices were rising beyond
+anything I could hope to pay. It was a case for amalgamation; but I
+did not see my way through it quite so simply. Two of them I knew to
+be honest. One of them I could not trust, although he had hitherto
+never shown any signs of crookedness; but I knew his breaking-strain,
+and I knew also that the temptations to which he would be exposed
+under any amalgamation scheme would be too great for him. He had to
+be eliminated. The other two were weak men who could be dealt with
+easily enough. I needn’t give you the details. I approached the two
+honest men, combined with them, and with the joint capital of the three
+of us I bought out the third competitor. The other two we dealt with
+separately, buying out the one and taking the other in along with us.
+My partners trusted me with the negotiations, again because I knew men
+and their motives.
+
+“And that was how I made my first million. Remember, I knew nothing
+about the materials I had handled in the making of it. I never took
+the slightest interest in the things themselves--and I took very
+little interest in the money either, for my tastes are simple. What
+did interest me was the psychology of the thing, the probing among
+the springs and levers of men’s minds, and the working out of all the
+complex strains and stresses which form the background of our reason
+and our emotions. The million was a mere by-product of the process.
+
+“But with the million there came another interest. Up to that time
+I had applied my methods to individual cases; but it struck me,
+after the strain of the amalgamation negotiations was over, that my
+generalisations were capable of a wider application. I took up the
+study of political affairs over here; and I found that my principles
+enabled me to gauge the psychology of masses even more easily than
+those of individuals. As a practical test, I stood for Parliament; and
+got elected without any difficulty. Of course one of the Parties was
+glad to have me--a millionaire isn’t likely to go a-begging at their
+door for long--but you may remember that I won that election by my own
+methods. The Party machines tried to copy them, of course, at a later
+date; but they failed hopelessly because they were merely repeating
+mechanically some operations which I had designed for a special case.
+
+“I took very little interest in politics, though. I had no sympathy
+with the usual methods of the politicians; and at times I revolted
+against them effectually.”
+
+He was evidently thinking of the two episodes which had gained him the
+nickname of the Wrecker.
+
+“When I began, I think I told you that the element of risk enters
+largely into one’s pleasures; and I believe that holds good in
+politics. The work of a politician, and especially of a Cabinet
+Minister, is largely in the nature of a gamble. To most of them,
+politics is an empirical science; for they have little time to study
+the basis of it. I’ll do them the justice to say that I don’t think
+it is a mere matter of clinging to their salaries which keeps them
+in office; it’s mainly that they enjoy the feeling of swaying great
+events. With an Empire like ours, the stakes are tremendous; and
+there’s a certain sensation to be got out of gambling on that scale.
+Mind you, I doubt if they realise themselves that this is what they
+enjoy in the political game; but it is actually what does sway them to
+a great extent.
+
+“Now so long as it’s a mere question of some parochial point, I don’t
+mind their enjoying their sensations. It matters very little in the
+long run whether one Bill or another passes Parliament; and if they
+fight over minor questions, I don’t care. But twice in my political
+career I saw that the Party game was threatening trouble on bigger
+lines. The Anglo-Peruvian agreement and the Malotu Islands question
+were affairs that cut down to the bed-rock of things; and I couldn’t
+stand aside and see them muddled in the usual way. I had to assert
+myself there, whether I liked it or not. And when I did intervene, my
+mental equipment made the result a certainty. _I_ knew the country and
+the country’s average opinion in a way that none of them did; and I
+had only to strike at the vital point. They call me the Wrecker; and
+I suppose I did bring down two Governments on these questions; but it
+wasn’t so difficult for me.
+
+“But, as I told you, I never had much interest in politics. I like real
+things; and the political game is more than half make-believe. I still
+have my seat in the House; but I think they are gladdest when I am not
+there.
+
+“Well, I am afraid I’m making a long story of it; but I think you will
+see the drift of it now. Politics failed to give me what I wanted. I
+had no turn for the routine of it; and I had no wish to be involved in
+all the petty manœuvres upon which the nursing of a majority depends.
+Mind you, I could have done it better than any of them, with that
+peculiar bent of mine. They consult me whenever a crisis arises; and
+I can generally pull them through. After all, it’s a case of handling
+men, there as everywhere else.
+
+“However, I wanted something better to amuse me than the squaring of
+some nonentity with a knighthood or the pacification of some indignant
+office-seeker who had been passed over. I wanted to feel myself pitted
+against men who really were experts in their own line. And that was how
+I came to take up finance in earnest.”
+
+He paused again and lighted a fresh cigar. While he was doing so, I
+watched his face. In any other man, his autobiographic sketch would
+have seemed egotistical; and possibly I have raised that impression in
+my reproduction of it; for I can only give the sense of what he said. I
+cannot put on paper the tones of his voice--the faint tinge of contempt
+with which he spoke of his triumphs, as though they were child’s
+play. Nor can I do more than indicate here and there that peculiar
+sensation of duality which his talk took on more and more clearly as
+he proceeded. It was as though the Nordenholt whom I saw before me
+were telling his story whilst over behind him stood some greater
+personality, following the narrative and tracing out in it the clues
+which were to lead on to some events still in the distant future.
+
+“Finance, Flint,” he continued. “That was the field where I came into
+my own at last. Money in itself is nothing, nothing whatever. But the
+making of money, the duel of brain against brain with not even the
+counters on the table, that’s the great game. The higher branches of
+finance are simply a combination of arithmetic and psychology. They’re
+divorced absolutely from any idea of material gain or loss. Railways,
+steamship lines, coal, oil, wheat, cotton or wool--do you imagine that
+one thinks of these concrete things while one plays the game? Not at
+all. They are the merest pawns. The whole affair is compressed into
+groups of figures and the glimpses of the other man’s brain which one
+gets here and there throughout the operations. And I played a straight
+game, Flint; no small investor was ever ruined through my manœuvres. I
+doubt if any other financier can say as much. I went into the thing as
+a game, a big, risky game for my own hand; and I refused to gamble in
+the savings of little men. I took my gains from the big men who opposed
+me, not from the swarm of innocents.”
+
+It was true, I remembered. Nordenholt had played the game of finance in
+a way never seen before. He had made many men’s fortunes--a by-product,
+as he would have said, no doubt--but no one had ever gone into the
+arena unwarned by him. When he had laid his plans, carried out his
+preliminary moves and was ready to strike, a full-page advertisement
+had appeared in every newspaper in the country. “MR. NORDENHOLT ADVISES
+THE SMALL INVESTOR TO REFRAIN FROM OPERATING IN WHEAT,” or whatever it
+might be that he proposed to deal in himself. Then, after giving time
+for this to take effect, he struck his first blow. Wonderful struggles
+these were, fought out often far in the depths of that strange sea of
+finance, so that hardly a ripple came to the surface. Often, too, the
+agitation reached the upper waters and there would be glimpses of the
+two vast organisations convulsed by their efforts; here a mass of foam
+only, there some strange tentacle stretching out to reach its prey or
+to coil itself around a vantage-point which it could use as a fulcrum
+in further exertions. During this period, the Exchanges of the world
+would be shaken, there would be failures, hammerings, ruin for those
+who had ventured into the contest despite the warnings. Then, suddenly,
+the cascading waves would be stilled. One of the antagonists had gone
+under.
+
+A fresh advertisement would appear: “MR. NORDENHOLT HAS CEASED HIS
+OPERATIONS.” It was a strange requiem over the grave of some king of
+finance. Nordenholt was always victorious. And with the collapse of his
+opponent, the small speculators flocked into the markets of the world
+and completed the downfall.
+
+Finally, after the gains had been counted, he advertised again asking
+all those who had involuntarily suffered by his contest to submit
+their claims to him; and every genuine case was paid in full. He could
+afford it, no doubt; but how many would have done it? I knew from
+that move of his that he really spoke the truth when he said that
+money in itself was nothing to him. And it perhaps illustrates as well
+as anything the impression he produced upon my mind that afternoon.
+On the one side he was cold, calculating, pitiless to those whom he
+regarded as his enemies and the enemies of the smaller investor; on the
+other, he was full of understanding and compassion for those whom he
+had maimed in the course of his gigantic operations. The Wheat Trust,
+the Cotton Combine, Consolidated Industries, the Steel Magnates, and
+the Associated Railways, all had gone down before him; and he had
+ground their leaders into the very dust. And in every case, he had
+opened his campaign as soon as they had shown signs of using their
+power to oppress the common people. It may have been merely a move
+in his psychological strategy; he may have waited until the man in
+the street had begun to be uneasy for the future, so that this great
+intangible mass of opinion was enlisted on his side. But I prefer
+to think otherwise: and I was associated with Nordenholt in the end
+as closely as any man. No one ever knew him, no one ever fathomed
+that personality--of that I am certain. He was always a riddle. But
+I believe that his cool intelligence, his merciless tactics, all had
+behind them a depth of understanding and a sympathy with the helpless
+minority. I know this is almost incredible in face of his record; but I
+am convinced of its truth.
+
+“At the end of it all,” he went on, “I can look back and say that my
+theories were justified. I knew nothing of finance; but I chose my
+advisers well. I knew what my opponents relied upon and what they
+regarded as points which could be given up without affecting their
+general position. The rest was simply a matter of psychology. How could
+I bring the breaking-strain to bear?
+
+“Well, when I left it, the financial world had handed over to me a
+fortune which, I suppose, has seldom been equalled. There was nothing
+in it, you know, Flint, nothing whatever. It merely happened that I
+was trained in a way different from everyone else. They were plotting
+and scheming with shares and stocks and debentures, skying this one,
+depressing that one and keeping their attention fixed on the Exchanges.
+I came to the thing from a different angle. The movements of the
+markets meant little to me in comparison with the workings of the
+brains behind those markets. I could foresee the line of their advance;
+and I knew how to take them in the flank at the right moment. I fought
+them on ground they could not understand. They knew the mind of the
+small investor thoroughly, for they had fleeced him again and again.
+I began by clearing the small speculator off the board; and thus they
+were deprived of their trump card. They had to fight me instead of
+ruining him; and they had no idea what I was. It was incredibly simple,
+when you think of it. That is why you never found anything about my
+personality in the newspapers. I paid them to leave me alone. No one
+knew me; and I was able to fight in the dark.
+
+“But when I grew tired of it at last, I had an enormous fortune. What
+was I to do with it? Money in itself one can do nothing with. If I were
+put to it, I doubt if I could spend £5,000 a year and honestly say that
+I had got value for it--I mean direct personal enjoyment. I cast about
+for some use to which I could turn this enormous mass of wealth. You
+may smile, Flint, but it is one of the most difficult problems I ever
+took up. I hate waste; and I wanted to see some direct, practical value
+for all these accumulated millions. What was I to do?
+
+“I looked back on the work of some of my predecessors. Carnegie used to
+spend his money on libraries; but do libraries yield one any intimate
+satisfaction? Can one really say that they would give one a feeling
+that one’s money had been spent to a good purpose? Apparently they
+did to him; but that sort of thing wouldn’t appeal to me. Then there
+is art. Pierpont Morgan amassed a huge collection; but there again I
+don’t feel on safe ground. Is one’s money merely to go in accumulating
+painted canvas for the elect to pore over? The man in the street cannot
+appreciate these things even if he could see them. I gave up that idea.
+
+“Then I came across a life of Cecil Rhodes and he seemed to be more
+akin to me in some ways. Empire building is a big thing and, if you
+believe in Empires, it’s a good thing. There is something satisfactory
+in knowing that you are preparing the way for future generations,
+laying the foundations in the desert and awaiting the tramp of those
+far-off generations which will throng the streets of the unbuilt
+cities. A great dream, Flint. One needs a prospicience and a fund of
+hope to deal in things like that. But I want to see results in my own
+day; I want to be sure that I’m on the right lines and not merely
+rearing a dream-fabric which will fade out and pass away long before
+it has its chance of materialisation. I want something which I can see
+in action now and yet something which will go down from generation to
+generation.
+
+“I thought long over it, Flint. Time and again I seemed to glimpse what
+I wanted; and yet it eluded me. Then, suddenly, I realised that I had
+the very thing at my gates. Youth.
+
+“All over the world there are youngsters growing up who will be stifled
+in their development by mere financial troubles. They have the brains
+and the character to make good in time; but at what a cost! All their
+best energy goes in fulfilling the requirements of our social system,
+getting a roof over their heads, climbing the ladder step by step,
+waiting for dead men’s shoes. Then, when they come to their own, more
+often than not their heart’s desire has withered. I don’t mean that
+they are failures; but they have used up their powers in overcoming
+those minor difficulties which beset us all. It was an essay of
+Huxley’s that brought the thing clearly before me. ‘If the nation could
+purchase a potential Watt, or Davy, or Faraday, at the cost of £100,000
+down,’ he said, ‘he would be dirt-cheap at the money.’ And with that,
+in a flash, I saw my way clear. I would go about in search of these
+potential leaders among our youth. My peculiar insight would suffice to
+keep me on the right lines there. I would make the way easy for them,
+but not too easy. I would test and re-test them till I was sure of
+them. And then I would give them all that they desired and open up the
+world to them to work out their destinies.
+
+“I did it in time. Even now I’m only at the beginning of the
+experiment, but already I feel that I have spent my money well. I have
+given a push to things; and although I can see no further than this
+generation, I know that I have opened a road for the next. Each of them
+is a centre for others to congregate around and so the thing spreads
+like the circles in a pool. I have thrown in the stone; but long after
+I am gone the waves will be beating outward and breaking upon unknown
+shores....”
+
+He paused and seemed to fall into a day-dream for a few moments. Then
+he spoke again.
+
+“That was the origin of my young men, Flint; the Nordenholt gang”--he
+sneered perceptibly at the words. “Many of them have gone down in the
+race. One cannot foresee everything, you know, try as one may. But
+the residuum are a picked lot. They are scattered throughout all the
+industries and professions of the Empire; and all of them are far up
+in their own pursuits. I often wondered whether anything would come of
+it in my day beyond individual successes; but now I see a culmination
+before me. We shall all go up side by side to Armageddon and my own men
+will be with me in this struggle against the darkness. Man never put
+his hand to a bigger task than this in front of us; and I shall need
+my young men to help me. If we fail, the Earth falls back beyond the
+Eolithic Age once more and Man has lived in vain.”
+
+His voice had risen with pride as he spoke of his helpers; but at the
+close I heard again the sub-current of sadness come into the deep
+tones. I had been jarred by his exposition at the meeting, by his
+apparent callousness in outlook; but now I thought I saw behind the
+mask.
+
+Again he sat pondering for some moments; but at last he threw off
+his preoccupation; and when he spoke it was more directly to me than
+hitherto.
+
+“Possibly you may wonder, Flint, why it is that with all these
+resources in my hands I have come to you for help; and why I have never
+approached you before. The fact is, I watched you from your start
+and stood by to help you if you needed me; but you made good alone,
+and I never interfere with a man unless it is absolutely necessary.
+You made good without my assistance; and I thought too well of you
+to offer any. But I watched you, as I said--I have my own ways of
+getting information--and I knew that you were just the man I required
+for a particular section of the work in front of us. Your factory
+organisation showed me that. There will be an enormous task before you;
+but I know that you’ll be the right man in the right place. I never
+make a mistake, when it is a case of this kind. You aren’t an untried
+man.”
+
+From anyone else, I would have regarded this as clumsy flattery; but so
+great an influence had Nordenholt acquired over me even in that single
+afternoon that I never looked at the matter in that light at all. His
+manner showed no patronage or admiration; it seemed merely that he was
+stating facts as he knew them, without caring much about my opinion.
+
+“But it seems to me,” he went on, “that I’ve talked enough about
+personal affairs already. I want to try to give you some views on the
+main thing in front of us. You and I, Flint, have been born and grown
+up in the midst of this civilisation; and I expect that you, like most
+other people, have been oblivious of the changes which have come about;
+for they have been so gradual that very few of us have noticed them at
+all.
+
+“When you begin low down in the scale of Creation, you find creatures
+without any specialised organs. The simplest living things are just
+spots of protoplasm, mere aggregations of cells, each of which
+performs functions common to them all. Then, step by step as you rise
+in the scale, specialisation sets in: the cells become differentiated
+from one another; and each performs a function of its own. You get
+the cells of the nerves receiving and transmitting sensation; you get
+cells engaged in nutrition processes; there are other cells devoted
+to producing motion. And with this specialisation you get the dawn
+of something which apparently did not exist before: the structure
+as a whole acquires a personality of its own, distinct from the
+individualities of the cells which go to build it up.
+
+“But the inverse process is also possible. When the body as a whole
+suffers death, you still have a certain period during which the cells
+have an existence. Hair grows after death, for example.
+
+“Now if you look at the trend of civilisation, you will see that we are
+passing into a stage of specialisation. In the Middle Ages, a man might
+be a celebrated artist and yet be in the forefront of the science of
+his day--like Leonardo da Vinci; but in our time you seldom find a man
+who is first-class in more than one line. In the national body, each
+individual citizen is a specialised cell; and if he diverged from his
+normal functions he would disorganise the machine, just as a cancer
+cell disorganises the body in which it grows.
+
+“But this civilisation of ours has come to the edge of its grave.
+It is going to die. There is no help for it. What I fear is that in
+its death-throe it may destroy even the hope of a newer and perhaps
+better civilisation in the future. It is going to starve to death;
+and a starving organism is desperate. So long as it retains its
+present organised and coherent life, it will be a danger to us; and
+for our own safety--I mean the safety of the future generations--we
+must disorganise it as soon as possible. We must throw it back at a
+step, if we can, to the old unspecialised conditions; for then it
+will lose its most formidable powers and break up of itself. Did you
+ever read Hobbes? He thought of the State as a great Leviathan, an
+artificial man of greater strength and stature than the natural man,
+for whose protection and defence it was contrived; and the soul of this
+artificial creature he found in sovereignty. How can we bring about the
+_débâcle_ of this huge organism? That is the problem I have been facing
+this afternoon.
+
+“The Leviathan’s life-blood is the system of communications throughout
+the country; and I doubt if we can cripple that sufficiently rapidly
+and effectively to bring about the downfall. It would take too long
+and excite too much opposition if we did it thoroughly. We must
+have something subtler, Flint, something which will strike at each
+individual intelligence and isolate it from its fellows as far as
+possible. It’s my old problem of the breaking-strain again on the
+very widest scale. We must find some psychological weapon to help us.
+Nothing else will do.”
+
+It seemed as though he were appealing to me for suggestions; but I had
+nothing to offer. I had never considered such a problem; and at first
+sight it certainly seemed insoluble. Given that men already had the
+certainty of death before them, what stronger motive could one bring to
+bear?
+
+“I must think over it further,” he said at last, “I think I see a
+glimmering of some possibilities. After all, it’s my own line.”
+
+He dropped the subject and seemed to sink into his own thoughts for
+a time. When he broke the silence once more, it was on an entirely
+different subject.
+
+“I wonder if you ever read the Norse mythology, Flint? No? Well, you’ve
+missed something. The gods of Greece were a poor lot, a kind of divine
+collection of Fermiers Généreaux with much the same tastes; but the
+Scandinavian divinities were in a different class. They were human in
+a way; but their humanity wasn’t of the baser sort. And over them
+all hung that doom of Ragnarök, their Twilight, when the forces of
+Evil would be loosed for the final struggle to bring darkness upon the
+earth. It’s the strangest forecast of our present crisis. As Ragnarök
+drew near, brother was to turn against brother; bloodshed was to sweep
+the land. Then was to come the Winter, three years long, when all
+trees were to fail and all fruits to perish, while the race of men
+died by hunger and cold and violence. And with Ragnarök the very Gods
+themselves were to pass away in their struggle with all the Forces of
+Evil and Darkness.
+
+“But they were only half-gods, deified men. Behind them, the All-Father
+stood; and beyond that time of terror there lay the hope of Gimle, the
+new age when all would again be young and fair.
+
+“I look beyond these coming horrors to a new Gimle, Flint; a time
+when Earth will renew her youth and we shall shake free from all the
+trammels which this dying civilisation has twined about our feet. It
+will come, I feel sure. But only a few of us leaders will see it. The
+strain will be too much for us; only the very toughest will survive.
+But each of us must work to the very last breath to save something upon
+which we can build anew. There must be no shrinking in either will or
+emotion. I warn you that it will be terrible. To save mankind from
+the terror of the giants, Odin gave his eye to Mimir in return for a
+draught of the Well of Knowledge. Some of us will have to give our
+lives.... A few of us will lose our very souls.... It will be worth it!”
+
+I was amazed to find this train of mysticism in that cold mind. Yet,
+after all, is it surprising? Almost all the great men of history have
+been mystics of one kind or another. Nordenholt rose; and something
+which had burned in his eyes died out suddenly. He went to the roll-top
+desk and took from it a bundle of papers.
+
+“Here are your instructions, Flint. Everything has been foreseen, I
+think, for the start. Follow them implicitly as far as they go; and
+after that I trust you to carry out the further steps which you will
+see are required.”
+
+As he was shaking hands with me, another thought seemed to strike him.
+
+“By the way, of course you understand that the whole of this scheme
+depends for success on our being able to exterminate these bacilli? If
+we cannot do that, they will simply attack any nitrogenous manure which
+we use. I am putting my bacteriologists on to the problem at once; but
+in any case the nitrogen scheme must go ahead. Without it, no success
+is possible, even if we destroyed _B. diazotans_. So go ahead.”
+
+His car awaited me at the door. On the drive home, I saw in the
+streets crowds gathered around hoarding after hoarding and staring up
+at enormous placards which had just been posted. The smaller type was
+invisible to me; but gigantic lettering caught my eye as I passed.
+
+  +-------------------------------------------+
+  |                NITROGEN                   |
+  |                                           |
+  |                                           |
+  |         ONE MILLION MEN WANTED            |
+  |                                           |
+  |                                           |
+  |                              NORDENHOLT   |
+  +-------------------------------------------+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+Nordenholt’s Million
+
+
+Of all the incidents in that afternoon, I think the sight of these
+placards brought home to me most forcibly two of the salient
+characteristics of Nordenholt’s many-sided mind: his foresight and
+his self-reliance. Their appearance in the streets at that moment
+showed that they formed part of a plan which had been decided upon
+several days in advance, since time had to be allowed for printing
+and distributing them; whilst the fact that they were being posted up
+within two hours of the close of the meeting proved that Nordenholt
+had never had the slightest doubt of his success in dominating the
+Ministers.
+
+Later on, I became familiar with these posters. They were not identical
+by any means; and I learned to expect a difference in their wording
+according to the district in which they were posted up. The methods
+of varied personal appeal had long been familiar to the advertising
+world; but I found that Nordenholt had broken away from tradition and
+had staked everything upon his knowledge of the human mind. In these
+advertisements his psychological instinct was developed in an uncanny
+degree which was clear enough to me, who knew the secret; but I doubt
+if any man without my knowledge would have seen through the superficial
+aspect of them quite so readily.
+
+In this first stage of his campaign he had to conceal his hand. The
+advertisements were merely the first great net which he spread in
+order to capture every man who would be at all likely to be useful
+to him, while the meshes had to be left wide enough to allow the
+undesirable types to slip through. The proclamations--for they really
+took this form--set forth concisely the exact danger which threatened
+the food-supply of the country; explained why it was essential that
+immense masses of nitrogenous material must be manufactured; and called
+for the immediate enrolment of volunteers from selected trades and
+professions.
+
+As a primary inducement, the scale of remuneration offered was far
+above the normal pay in any given line. It was, in fact, so high that I
+fell at once to calculating the approximate total of wages which would
+be payable weekly; and the figures took me by surprise when I worked
+them out. No single private fortune, however gigantic, could have kept
+the machinery running for even a few months at the uttermost. When I
+pointed this out to Nordenholt he seemed amused and rather taken aback;
+but his surprise was at my obtuseness and not at my calculations.
+
+“Well, I’m slightly astonished, Flint. I thought you would have seen
+deeper into it than that. Hasn’t it occurred to you that within six
+weeks money, as we understand it, will be valueless? If we pay up
+during the time we are getting things arranged, that will be all that
+is required. Once the colony is founded, there will be no trade between
+it and the outside world, naturally; and inside our own group we could
+arrange any type of currency we choose. But, as a matter of fact,
+we shall go on just as usual; and Treasury notes sufficient for the
+purpose are already being printed.”
+
+But the cash inducement was not the only one upon which he relied even
+in his preliminary moves. Patriotism, the spirit of public service,
+the promise of opportunities for talent and many other driving forces
+were enlisted in the campaign. These more specialised appeals were
+mainly sent out in the form of advertisements in the newspapers--great
+whole-page announcements which appeared in unusual places in the
+journals. I suppose to a man of enormous wealth most things are
+possible, especially when the wealth is coupled with a personality like
+Nordenholt’s; but it certainly amazed me to find his advertisements
+taking the place of the normal “latest news” space in many papers. Nor
+was this the only way in which his influence made itself felt. The
+editorial comments, and even the news columns of the journals, dealt
+at length with his scheme; and he secured the support of papers which
+were quite above any suspicion of being amenable to outside influence.
+On the face of it, of course, his plans--so far as they were made
+public--were obviously sound; but I cannot help feeling that below this
+almost unanimous chorus of praise in the leading articles there must be
+some influence at work beyond mere casual approbation. Very probably
+Nordenholt had seen his way to enlist the sympathy of editors by some
+more direct methods, possibly by calling the controllers of policy
+together and utilising his magnetic personality and persuasive powers.
+
+In my own field of work at the first I found some difficulties in my
+dealings with the Trades Union officials, who were suspicious of our
+methods. They feared that we contemplated dilution on a huge scale;
+and they were anxious to know the details of our plans. I consulted
+Nordenholt on the point and found him prepared.
+
+“Of course that was bound to arise as soon as we began to move on
+a big scale. Well, you can assure them that we shall act strictly
+according to the law of the matter. Promise them that as far as working
+conditions go, we shall begin by letting the men fix their own hours of
+work; and if any man is dissatisfied with these, we will pay him on the
+spot a bonus of six months’ wages and let him leave instantly if he so
+desires.
+
+“Point out to them that, in the cases of some trades, I may have to
+enlist the majority of the Unionists in the country; and that I am
+not going to tie their hands by any previous arrangements: they shall
+settle the matter for themselves. If that doesn’t satisfy them, you may
+tell them definitely--and put it in writing if they wish--that under
+no circumstances will I expect my employés to work for longer hours or
+less pay than any other Trades Unionist in the country.”
+
+I jotted the phrase down in my pocket-book.
+
+“I may as well tell you, Flint, that I have given instructions to the
+recruiting offices. No Trades Union Leader will be engaged by me under
+any circumstances whatever. It’s real working men that I want; and I
+don’t think much of the Union leaders from the point of view of actual
+work.”
+
+He looked at me for a moment and I saw a faint smile on his face.
+
+“It seems to me, Flint, that even yet you haven’t managed to see this
+thing in perspective. You must really get into your mind the fact that
+there is going to be a clean break between the old system and the new
+one we are making. Look at the thing in all its bearings. Once we are
+up North, men shall work for me as I choose and for what I choose.
+There will be no Factory Acts and Trades Union regulations or any other
+hindrance to our affairs. They come here and try to put a spoke in my
+wheel? I don’t mind that at all. But I do see that they are trying,
+whether wilfully or through sheer ignorance, to hamper this work which
+is essential to the race. Therefore I propose to meet them with fair
+words. It’s not for me to enlighten their ignorance if it has persisted
+up to now in the face of all this. I make them that promise, and if
+they can’t understand its meaning, that is no affair of mine. _We_
+know, if they’re too dense to see it, that in a few months there won’t
+be a Trades Unionist left in the country, outside the colony! There
+will be no wages drawn outside our frontier; so even if I paid our men
+nothing, still I should be keeping my promise to the strict letter.”
+
+“I see your point,” I said; “all’s fair and so forth?”
+
+“Also, we shall have trouble, up there, I have no doubt. Probably there
+will be a ca’ canny party among our recruits. They will have every
+chance at first. I won’t interfere with them. But once the situation
+clears up a little, I shall deal with them--and I shall do it by the
+hand of their own fellows. They won’t last long. Now get along and
+promise these officials exactly what I have told you.”
+
+I offered no criticisms of his methods. His brain was far better than
+mine. When I remember that he must have drafted the outlines of his
+scheme and arranged most of the preliminaries of its execution in less
+time than it would have taken me to decide upon a new factory-site,
+I am still lost in amazement at the combination of wide outlook and
+tremendous concentration of thought which the task involved.
+
+Despite the carefully-planned deterrents which appeared in the
+proclamations, the recruiting was enormous from the first.
+“Nordenholt’s Million”--as the popular phrase ran--was not really a
+million at all; but Nordenholt knew the influence of a round figure
+upon the public imagination and it was near enough for all practical
+purposes. He had looked on the thing in the broadest possible lines at
+the start, and had drawn up a rough classification for the use of the
+recruiting stations. To begin with, he limited the enlistment to men
+between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five; though exceptional
+cases received special consideration. On this basis, he expected to get
+all the men he required. Three-quarters of a million of these were to
+be married men with an upper limit of four children, preferably between
+the ages of six and twelve. In addition to this, he was prepared to
+accept half a million young unmarried men. Half a million unmarried
+girls were also selected. The net result of this was that in the end he
+obtained in round numbers the following classes:
+
+  Husbands              750,000
+  Wives                 750,000
+  Children            2,250,000
+  Bachelors             500,000
+  Girls                 500,000
+                     ----------
+              Total   4,750,000
+
+That left a margin of a quarter of a million below his original
+estimate of five millions; and this he kept free for the time being,
+partly because some of the number would be made up by specialists who
+did not come under the general recruitment organisation and partly,
+possibly, for taking in at the last moment any cases which might be
+specially desirable.
+
+At a later date I had an opportunity of questioning him as to his
+reasons in laying down this classification: and they struck me as sound.
+
+“In the first place, I want a solid backbone to this enterprise. I get
+that by selecting the married men. They have got a stake in the thing
+already in their wives, and especially in their children. I know that
+the children mean the consumption of a vast quantity of food for which
+we shall get no direct return in the form of labour; but I believe that
+the steadying effect introduced by them will be worth the loss. We are
+going to put this colony under a strain which is about as great as
+human nature can bear; and I want everything on our side that can be
+brought there.
+
+“Then again, they will help to form a sort of public opinion. Don’t
+forget that the ultimate aim of this affair is to carry on the race. I
+could have done that by selecting bachelors and girls in equal numbers
+and simply going ahead on that basis. But we must have discipline; and
+unless you have some established order we should simply have ended by
+a Saturnalia. You couldn’t have prevented it, considering the nervous
+strain we are going to put on these people. I have no use for that sort
+of thing; so I chose a majority of men with families, whose natural
+instincts are to keep down the bacchanalian element among the unmarried.
+
+“But in addition to these married men, I needed others who had a free
+hand and who had only their own lives to risk. In certain lines, the
+unmarried man can be relied upon where the married man shivers in his
+shoes to some extent. That accounts for the bachelor element.
+
+“But, since a preponderance of males over females would be bound to
+lead to trouble, I had to enrol enough girls to bring up the balance.
+Possibly they may also serve to spur on the younger men to work; and
+they will be able to help in the actual task before us in a good many
+ways, like the Munition girls of the War period.”
+
+It seemed to me then the only possible solution of the problem; and it
+worked in practice. We can’t tell how things would have fared if any
+other arrangements had been made, so I must leave it at that. Anyway,
+I think Nordenholt enlisted two of the strongest instincts of humanity
+on his side in addition to the fear of hunger: and that was a definite
+gain.
+
+“Nordenholt’s Million” was, of course, a microcosm of the national
+industries. It would serve no purpose to catalogue the trades which
+were represented in it. Miners, iron- and steel-workers, electricians
+and makers of electrical machinery preponderated; but Nordenholt had
+looked ahead to agriculture and the needs of the population after the
+danger of famine was past.
+
+In the early stages, the statistical branch--recruited from the great
+insurance companies--was perhaps the hardest worked of all. The most
+diverse problems presented themselves for treatment; and they could
+only be handled in the most rough-and-ready fashion until we were able
+to bring calculation to bear. Without the help of the actuaries, I
+believe that there would have been a collapse at various points, in
+spite of all our foresight.
+
+I have not attempted to do more than indicate in outline the activities
+which engrossed us at that time. In my memory, it lives as a period of
+frantic and often very successful improvisation. New problems cropped
+up at every turn. The decision of one day might entail a recasting of
+plans in some field which at first sight seemed totally divorced from
+the question under consideration. Each line of that complex system
+had to be kept abreast of the rest, so that there was no disjunction,
+no involuntary halt for one section to come up with the remainder, no
+clash between two departments of the organisation. And yet, somehow,
+it seemed to work with more smoothness than we had expected. Behind us
+all, seated at the nucleus of that complex web of activities, there
+was Nordenholt, seldom interfering but always ready to give a sharp
+decision should the need arise. And I think the presence of that cool
+intelligence behind us had a moral effect upon our minds. He never
+lessened our initiative, never showed any sign of vexation when things
+began to go wrong. He treated us all as colleagues, though we knew that
+he was our master. And under his examination, difficulties seemed to
+fade away in our hands.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was not until the meeting of Parliament that the Government
+connection with Nordenholt’s scheme became known to the public; but on
+the first day of the session the Prime Minister introduced a Bill which
+subsequently became the Billeting Act; and this brought to light the
+fact that Nordenholt was not working merely as a private individual.
+Under the Act, the Government took powers to house the Nitrogen
+Volunteers, as they were termed, in any locality which might be found
+necessary. The wording of the Act gave them the fullest power in this
+matter; but it was so contrived that no one suspected the establishment
+of only a single Nitrogen Area.
+
+In his speech on the second Reading, the Premier excelled all his
+previous tactical exercises. He explained very clearly the nature
+of the peril which threatened the country; and he pointed out that
+the measure was necessary in order to cope with the danger. The new
+Nitrogen work would entail great shiftings of labour hither and
+thither, as the new factories grew up; and it was essential to provide
+dwellings for the artisans engaged in the industry. Everything must
+give way to this; and since houses could not be built in the short time
+available, some sort of arrangement must be made which would, he hoped,
+be merely temporary. He explained that the Government had empowered
+Nordenholt to carry out the early arrangements; and he was able to give
+statistics showing the progress which had already been made during the
+last few days.
+
+At the same time, he introduced a second Bill, somewhat on the lines of
+the old Defence of the Realm Act, which enabled the Government to cope
+with circumstances as they arose without the necessity of prolonged
+Parliamentary debates.
+
+So ingeniously did he handle the matter that there was practically no
+opposition to either measure. It must be remembered that the influence
+of the Press had been exerted almost entirely in favour of Nordenholt’s
+scheme. The previous clamour for action had been succeeded by a chorus
+of praise; and the bold initiative shown in the Nitrogen plans had been
+acclaimed throughout the country.
+
+Meanwhile, Nordenholt was making the best of two worlds. Nominally,
+he was engaged in a private enterprise over which the Government had
+no control; actually, he had the whole State machinery at his back to
+assist him in his operations. This dual nature of the matter enabled
+him to carry out his work with a minimum of interference from red taped
+officials, while at the same time he was able to command the resources
+of State Departments in any line wherein they could be of service
+to him. After the passing of the two Acts, the Government adjourned
+Parliament, to avoid the putting of awkward questions; so that during
+the ensuing weeks the Nitrogen undertaking could progress without any
+fear of interference or undue publicity.
+
+Transport was the first problem which occupied Nordenholt’s attention.
+It was in this connection that I caught my first glimpse of the
+“Nordenholt Gang” at work. The executive staffs of the railways were
+left intact, but one day there descended upon them a quiet little man
+in spectacles with full authority in his pocket. Grogan had apparently
+never been connected with railways in his life, as far as I knew, but
+he took control of the whole system in the country without showing the
+faintest sign of hesitation. How he acquired his knowledge, I never
+learned; but I gathered that he had originally made his mark by his
+investigations of the effect of trade-routes upon commerce.
+
+His work was to indicate the broad outlines of the scheme, and the
+railway officials then filled in the details. Yet I was told that he
+seemed to know to a truck the demands which his projects would entail
+upon the railways; and he never put forward anything which led to a
+breakdown. I think he had that type of mind which sees straight through
+the details to the core of an undertaking and which yet retains in due
+perspective the minutiæ of the machinery.
+
+And it was not only the railways which he had in his charge. All
+the motor services were brought under his control as well. It was a
+bewilderingly complex affair; and he had to act as a kind of liaison
+centre between the two departments, clearing up any troubles which
+arose and co-ordinating the twin methods of transport. I think he had
+the power of mental visualisation developed to an abnormal extent;
+and his memory must have been quite out of the common. To assist
+him, he had the largest railway map I have ever seen--it covered a
+whole floor--and on it were placed blocks of metal showing the exact
+situation of every truck, carriage and locomotive in the kingdom. These
+were moved from time to time by his assistants in accordance with
+telegraphic information; and if he doubted his recollections at any
+moment he could go and study the groupings upon it.
+
+I remember seeing him once when things had got slightly out of gear,
+his hands full of telegraph forms, his feet encased in felt slippers
+to avoid marking the surface of the map, studying a point in the Welsh
+system where a number of trucks had been stranded in sidings. With the
+briefest consideration he seemed to come to a decision, for he gave his
+orders to an assistant:
+
+“Locomotive, Newport to Crumlin, _via_ Tredegar Junction. (It can’t
+go through Abercarne, because the 3.46 is on the line now and I
+don’t want to waste time shunting.) Then on to Cwm--C-w-m--to pick
+up twenty-seven trucks in the siding. All right. After that, back
+to Aberbeeg--b-double-e-g--since the line is blocked at Victoria by
+No. 702. Then Blaina--B-l-a-i-n-a--and Abergavenny. All right....
+Stop a moment. Map-measure, please. Motor Fleet 37 will be at
+Abergavenny about then with some stores for the North. Hold train at
+Abergavenny and wire them to stop No. 37 as it passes. That will fill
+up ten trucks, I think. All right. Train Hereford, Birmingham, via
+Leominster. Load twelve trucks Birmingham. Tamworth, pick up five
+truck-loads--food, that red block there--then North behind No. 605. All
+right. Then wire Abergavenny to send No. 37 to Monmouth. They’ll get
+their orders there. All right.”
+
+So it went on, I am told, hour after hour, throughout the day. Even
+the details of the diurnal traffic were not sufficient; for as he went
+along, he planned the night-operations as well. When he retired for the
+short sleep-time which he took, every point had been regulated for the
+ensuing five hours.
+
+At first, everything culminated in the word “North”; but almost
+immediately the whirling traffic on the south going rails had to be
+considered also, as it grew in volume. How he managed it, I do not
+know; but he seemed to have some sub-conscious faculty of drawing a
+balance-sheet of the traffic at any moment; so that he knew if he was
+sending too much North or too little South. Personally, I imagine
+that he owed his success to a power akin to that of the professional
+chess-player who can play a dozen blindfold games at one time.
+Everybody has the faculty of mental visualisation developed in a
+greater or less degree; but in Grogan, as far as traffic was concerned,
+it seems to have attained supernormal proportions. I believe that he
+actually “saw” in his mind the whole of England covered with his trains
+and motor fleets and that he had by some means established time-scales
+which enabled him to calculate the moments at which any train or fleet
+would pass a series of given points. It was, of course, an immensely
+more difficult affair than blindfold chess-playing; but I think it
+clearly depended upon cognate processes.
+
+Congleton, the Shipping Director, had a much easier task. For him there
+was no trouble of blocked rails or interleaving traffic. His main
+difficulty arose from berthing accommodation, which was a comparatively
+simple affair. Most of the food-supplies were transferred North on
+board ship; and a certain amount of the shifting of population was also
+done in this way, especially the removal of the Glasgow inhabitants.
+
+I can only give the merest outline of these great operations; for
+the details are too intricate to be described here. Nordenholt’s
+first step was to commandeer most of the public halls in the country,
+which were then fitted up with partitions, etc., in order to convert
+them into temporary dwelling-places for families. Thereafter, he
+began to move his Nitrogen Volunteers into the Clyde Valley step by
+step; and simultaneously, under the Billeting Act, he evicted the
+local population to make room for his men. There was a considerable
+outcry; and at times the military had to be employed to persuade the
+reluctant to move out of their homes; but after the first few cases of
+obstruction had been dealt with firmly, the people recognised that it
+was useless to protest. Edinburgh was also treated in the same way; for
+Nordenholt had planned to occupy a belt of country running from coast
+to coast. He had to find room for a population of five millions; and it
+was evidently going to be a difficult matter.
+
+Looking back upon it now, it was a wonderful piece of work, carried out
+without any very serious hitches. To transfer a population of nearly
+ten millions, and to distribute five millions of that over a wide
+area of England--for this was the only way in which house-room could
+be found for them--was a gigantic task. Fabulous sums were expended
+in finding living-room for the refugees in the houses of residents
+throughout England; and eventually all of them had roofs over their
+heads, in private dwellings, in converted halls or in commandeered
+hotels.
+
+Meanwhile, in Glasgow itself, the ever-growing Nitrogen Area was
+surrounded with military pickets which prevented the mingling of
+new-comers and the old population. This precaution of Nordenholt’s was
+mainly directed against the possibility of rioting; for the feeling
+between the expelled inhabitants and the incomers was extremely bitter:
+but it served another purpose in that it tended to surround the
+Nitrogen Area with a certain atmosphere of mystery. This was heightened
+by the stoppage of all telegraphic and telephonic communication between
+Glasgow and the South. Soon the only information obtainable in England
+with regard to affairs in the Clyde Valley came from emigrants; and
+with the end of the exodus, even the mails ceased and an impenetrable
+veil fell between the two parts of the island.
+
+A similar screen had fallen between England and Ireland at a slightly
+earlier date. All postal and telegraphic communication was broken
+off, and no vessels were permitted to trade with the Irish ports.
+It was by this means that the knowledge of the great Raid was kept
+secret. Nordenholt was almost ready to disclose his hand; and the Raid
+could not be postponed if any cattle were to be obtained alive. By a
+series of lightning sweeps, the military rounded up all the available
+live-stock in the island and drove them to the nearest ports, where
+ships were awaiting them. Bitter guerrilla warfare raged along the
+tracks of the columns; and the last pages in Irish history were marked
+with bloodshed. Not that it mattered much, since all were to die in any
+case before very long.
+
+But I am now coming to the last stages of the exodus. All the required
+food, all the available machinery and all the Nitrogen Volunteers had
+been sent up into the Clyde Valley. Without warning, after a secret
+session, Parliament had resolved to transfer itself to Glasgow. Now
+came the final moves. On the last day, only pickets of the Military
+Volunteers--the Labour Defence Force, as Nordenholt had renamed
+them--were left behind in every important town.
+
+During that night a carefully-planned course of destruction was
+followed. Every telegraph and telephone exchange was gutted; the
+remaining artillery was rendered useless; all the printing machinery
+of newspapers was wrecked; every aeroplane destroyed and practically
+all aerodromes burned: and as the trains and motors went northward in
+the night, bridge after bridge on the line or road was blown up. When
+morning came, there was a complete stoppage of all the normal channels
+of communication; and up to the Border, the railways had been put out
+of action for months. It was the second step in Nordenholt’s plan.
+
+Hitherto, I have chronicled his successes; but now I must deal with his
+single failure. He had intended to persuade the King to take refuge
+in the Clyde Valley, and had even, I believe, found a residence for
+him near Glasgow. Here, however, he met with a rebuff. I never learned
+the details of the interview; but it appears that the King refused to
+save himself. He felt it his duty to share the fate of his people.
+Nordenholt pleaded that if the King himself would not come, at least
+the Prince of Wales might be sent; but here also he failed to carry
+his point. The Prince point-blank rejected the suggestion. Knowing
+Nordenholt, I could hardly conceive that his persuasive proposals could
+fail to take effect; but it was evident that he met with no success.
+
+“He understood perfectly,” Nordenholt said to me later. “Both of them
+thoroughly understood what it meant. I think they felt that a Crown
+rescued at that price wouldn’t be worth wearing. At any rate, they
+refused to come North.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+The Clyde Valley
+
+
+Hitherto my narrative has had a certain unity; for I have been
+describing a chain of events, each of which followed naturally from
+its fore-runners; but now comes a bifurcation. I have explained how
+the Clyde Valley had been isolated, step by step, from the rest of the
+country; and when the last food-stores and troops had been brought into
+the Nitrogen Area, communications between the two districts ceased.
+From that moment, the two regions had different histories; and I cannot
+deal with them in an intertwined chronological sequence. I shall
+therefore continue my account of the Clyde Valley experiment now; and
+shall deal later with the collapse of civilisation in England.
+
+When planning his colony, Nordenholt decided to occupy a belt of
+country between the Forth and Clyde which contained all the required
+materials in the form of coal and iron. Other things, such as copper,
+he brought into the region in quantities which he believed would
+suffice for months.
+
+The frontier included something like a thousand square miles of
+territory; and within the boundary lay the whole industrial tract of
+mid-Scotland with its countless pits, mines, foundries, factories,
+ship-building yards and other resources.
+
+Under Congleton’s arrangements, as many ships as possible had been
+brought into the Clyde and Forth at the last moment; and thereafter the
+Navy blocked the entrances with mine-fields upon an enormous scale.
+Nothing, either surface craft or submarine, could have penetrated
+either estuary.
+
+Aerial defence was a secondary matter. No invasion in force would come
+by that road; and the destruction of the aerodromes had disposed of any
+early attempts at mere malicious damage. Defences were established,
+however, around the central area; and to accommodate the aeroplanes and
+airships which had been brought North, immense flying-grounds were laid
+out on the level reaches of the lower Clyde.
+
+The storage of the food-supplies cost much thought; but by utilising
+every spare corner, including railway and tramway depots, it had
+been possible to get them all under cover and under guard. A strict
+rationing system was put in force, though the allowance was quite up to
+normal quantities. The main trouble was, as Nordenholt had anticipated,
+a shortage of vegetables; and there was also a considerable deficit
+in the meat-supply. However, after a complete census had been taken,
+it seemed likely that we should be able to hold out without much
+difficulty.
+
+These material factors had given little trouble in our arrangements;
+but when the human counters came into the question, the resulting
+complications were much greater than appeared at first sight.
+Taking the problem at its simplest, we had coal at the one end and
+manufactured nitrogenous products at the other; and the quantity of
+the latter depended roughly on the amount of the former, since coal
+represented our source of energy and also part of our raw material in
+certain of the processes employed. But, in addition, we needed coal
+for lighting, either by gas or electricity, and also for heating; so
+that our actual coal output had to be larger than that required for
+the mere fixation of nitrogen. Then the number of miners had to be
+adjusted in proportion to those of the remaining workmen in each stage
+of the process; for it was wasteful to feed men who were employed in
+producing a superfluity which could not be utilised. Again, the problem
+was complicated by the fact that the coal could not immediately be
+used as it was hewn. Time had to be allowed for the construction and
+erection of the machinery whereby the atmospheric nitrogen was to be
+fixed; and this introduced further complications into the calculations.
+Finally, to omit intermediate details, the number of labourers required
+for spreading the nitrogenous manure upon the soil was governed by the
+quantities of this material which could be prepared.
+
+But even when calculations had been made which covered all this ground,
+a further factor entered into the problem. In dealing with a million
+workers, death, disease and accidents have to be taken into account,
+since in their effects they touch large numbers of individuals. The
+incidence of these factors is not uniform in all trades; and hence
+corrections had to be introduced to bring the various groups into
+proportion.
+
+The whole of these calculations had, of course, been made during
+the period of enrolment; and the reason I lay stress upon them at
+this stage is to show how accurately each section of the machine was
+dovetailed into the neighbouring parts. It was impossible to foresee
+everything: in fact what happened showed that some factors are beyond
+calculation. But when the Nitrogen Area started as a going concern,
+everything possible had been provided for, as far as could be seen. It
+was no fault of Nordenholt’s that things went as they did in the end.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+With the segregation of the Nitrogen Area from the rest of the Kingdom,
+and the transference of Parliament to Glasgow, a problem arose which
+required instant settlement. A dual control in the district might
+have been fraught with all manner of evil possibilities; and it was
+essential, once for all, to decide where the ultimate power lay.
+Nordenholt allowed no time to be wasted in the matter. At the first
+meeting of the House of Commons after the Area was definitely closed,
+he took his seat as a Member and moved the adjournment of the House
+on a matter of urgent public importance. His speech, as reported
+officially, was very short.
+
+“Mr. Speaker--Sir, I have watched the proceedings in this House
+closely during the last weeks; and I have noted that a certain number
+of members seem animated by a spirit of factious opposition to the
+Government measures. I call the attention of the House to the state of
+grave peril in which we all stand; and I ask them if this conduct has
+their support. I have no wish to complicate matters. We have all of us
+more responsibility on our shoulders than we can bear; and I have no
+sympathy with these methods. Those who think with me in this matter
+will vote with me in the lobby. I move that this House do now adjourn.”
+
+The motion was seconded and the question put without further debate.
+About forty members went into the lobby against Nordenholt. While they
+were still there, he drew a whistle from his pocket and blew three
+shrill blasts. A picket of the Labour Defence Force entered the House
+in response to the signal and arrested the malcontent members, whom
+they removed in custody. When the remainder of the Members returned to
+the Chamber, Nordenholt took his stand before the Mace.
+
+“Gentlemen”--he dropped the usual ceremonial form of address--“I wished
+to allow these members who do not agree with me to select themselves;
+and I adopted the simplest and most convincing method of doing so,
+though I could have laid my hand on every one of them without this
+demonstration. These gentlemen, it appears, are not satisfied with the
+manner in which things are being done here. I would point out to you
+that the creation of the Nitrogen Area has been mine from the start;
+and that the machinery of it is controlled by me now. There is no room
+for dual control in an enterprise of this magnitude. I offer you all
+positions in which you can help the remnant of the nation in saving
+itself; but there are no such positions in this House. Do you agree?”
+
+For a moment there was silence, then an angry murmur ran from bench to
+bench. Nordenholt continued:
+
+“Those members who were removed from the House will to-night be
+embarked on airships; and by this time to-morrow I trust that they will
+all be safely landed, each in the constituency which he represents.
+Since they do not wish to aid us in the Nitrogen Area, it is fitting
+that they should go back to their constituents and assist them in the
+troubles which are about to break upon them. Are you content?”
+
+Again there was a murmur, but this time less defiant.
+
+“Finally, gentlemen, as I hear some whispers of constitutionalism, I
+have here a Proclamation by the King. He has dissolved Parliament. You
+are no longer clothed with even the semblance of authority.”
+
+The assembly was thunderstruck; for there seemed to be no reply to this.
+
+“I may say,” continued Nordenholt, “that some of you are of no personal
+value in this enterprise. These gentlemen also will be returned to
+their proper residences immediately. The remainder, whom I can trust,
+will be so good as to apply at my offices to-morrow, when their work
+will be explained to them. There is only one ultimate authority here
+now--myself.”
+
+It was a sadly diminished assembly that appeared on the morrow. Neither
+the Prime Minister nor the Colonial Secretary was found among its
+numbers.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+With the working men who formed the majority of the Nitrogen
+Volunteers, Nordenholt’s methods were entirely different. Here he had
+in the first stages to conciliate those with whom he dealt and to
+educate them gradually into an understanding of the task before them.
+In the beginning, no man worked more than eight hours per day or five
+days a week; and the general run of the workmen had a thirty-five hour
+week. Nordenholt’s object in this was two-fold. In the first place, he
+instilled into the men that he was an easy task-master; and secondly,
+he was able, by keeping check of the output, to place his finger upon
+those men who even under those easy conditions were not doing their
+full share. These workers he proposed to eliminate at a later period;
+but he wished to allow them to condemn themselves.
+
+Next he set going various newspapers. The contents of these, of course,
+dealt entirely with doings within the Nitrogen Area; but their readers
+soon grew accustomed to this: and as the main object of the journals
+was propaganda, the less actual news there was in them, the more likely
+it became that the propaganda would be read for want of something
+better.
+
+Through these papers, he began to explain very clearly the necessity
+for the work upon which they were engaged, handling the subject in all
+manner of ways and making it seem almost new each time by the fresh
+treatment which it received from day to day. During this period no
+hint of the underlying purpose of the Nitrogen Area was given, beyond
+the suggestion that it was a convenient spot, in view of its natural
+resources.
+
+In order to alleviate any grievances which they might feel, he devised
+a system of workmen’s committees, one for each trade; and the members
+of these bodies were elected separately by the married and unmarried
+men in proportion to their numbers. In this way he secured a majority
+of the more responsible men upon each committee, although no fault
+could be found with the method of election. Whatever grievances were
+ventilated by these committees were met immediately or the reasons
+against compliance with the demands were clearly and courteously
+explained.
+
+In fact, throughout this stage of the Nitrogen Area history,
+Nordenholt’s main object was to show himself in the light of a comrade
+rather than a task-master. He was building up a fund of popularity,
+even at considerable cost, in order that he might draw upon it later.
+It was a difficult game to play; for he could not afford to drive with
+an altogether loose rein in view of the necessity for haste; but, as he
+himself said, he understood men; and he was perhaps able to gain their
+confidence at a cheaper rate than most people in his position could
+have done. Like myself, he believed that fundamentally the working man
+is a sound man, provided that he is dealt with openly and is not made
+suspicious.
+
+Within a fortnight, in one way and another, practically every man in
+the Area understood the importance of his work. I question whether
+this was not the greatest of Nordenholt’s triumphs, though perhaps in
+perspective it may seem a small affair in comparison with other events.
+But the generation of enthusiasm is a difficult matter, much more
+difficult than feats which produce immediate effects.
+
+In one respect Nordenholt gauged the psychology of the masses
+accurately. He did not make himself cheap. Except at a few mass
+meetings which he addressed, none of the rank and file ever saw him at
+all. He knew the value of aloofness and a touch of mystery.
+
+But he did not confine himself to moves made openly upon the board.
+Behind the scenes he had collected an Intelligence Division, the
+existence of which was known only to a few; and by means of it he was
+able to put his finger on a weak spot or a centre of disaffection
+with extraordinary promptitude. Grievances were often remedied long
+before the appropriate committee had been able to cast their statement
+of them into a definite form. Nor, as I shall have to tell later, did
+this Intelligence Division confine its operations to the Nitrogen Area
+itself; for its network spread over the whole Kingdom.
+
+As soon as the machinery of the Area was working satisfactorily,
+Nordenholt took a step in advance. The Workmen’s Committees were
+supplied with the actual statistics of production and it was explained
+to them that speeding-up must begin. The ultimate object was still
+concealed; but sufficient information was laid before them to show that
+at their present rate of output the nitrogenous materials prepared by
+the end of the twelve months would be totally insufficient to yield
+food enough for even the population of the Area itself, without taking
+the outer regions into account. They were then asked to suggest means
+by which output might be raised; and time was given them to think the
+matter out in all its bearings. Without hesitation they agreed that
+there must be an increase in productivity.
+
+To raise the output and also to check the points where any loss was
+occurring, Nordenholt introduced a series of statistical charts and
+at the same time divided the workmen in each trade into gangs of a
+definite number. At the end of each week, these charts were submitted
+to the Trade Committee and the gangs which were failing to do their
+share were indicated. By pointing out that a fixed quantity of material
+must be obtained per week unless disaster were to ensue, Nordenholt
+was able to make it clear to the Committees that slackness in one
+gang entailed extra exertions on the rest. There was no question of
+an employer trying to force up the standard of work: it was simply a
+question whether they wished to starve or live.
+
+The effect of this was striking; and certainly it was a novelty in
+working conditions. Every man became a policeman for his neighbours,
+since he knew that slackness on their part would demand greater
+exertions upon his own. The Committees instituted a system of
+inspectors, nominated by themselves, to see that work was properly
+carried out; and these inspectors reported both to the Committees and
+to Nordenholt himself, through special officials. Before long, both the
+Committees and Nordenholt had an extensive black list of inefficient
+workers; and the stage was being set for another drastic lesson.
+
+For three days the Area newspapers contained full accounts of the state
+into which things had drifted; and it was made obvious even to the
+most ignorant what the inevitable result would be if the output were
+not raised. Then, having thus prepared his ground, Nordenholt summoned
+a meeting of workmen delegates. It was the first time that most of
+those present had seen him; and I think he counted upon making his
+personality tell. He had no chairman or any of the usual machinery of a
+meeting; everything was concentrated upon the tall dark figure, alone
+upon the platform.
+
+It was a short speech which he made; but he delivered it very slowly,
+making every point tell as he went along and leaving time for each
+statement to sink well home into the minds of his audience. He began
+by a clear account of the objects for which they were working--and he
+had the gift of lucid exposition. He handled the statistical side of
+the matter in detail, and yet so simply that even the dullest could
+understand him. When he had completed his survey, every man present saw
+the state of affairs in all its bearings.
+
+Then, for the first time, he explained to them that those in the
+Nitrogen Area were all that could be saved; and that their salvation
+could be accomplished only at the cost of labour far in excess of
+anything they had anticipated.
+
+“Now, men,” he continued, “remember that I am not your task-master.
+I am merely striving, like yourselves, to avert this calamity; and
+I think I have already shown you that I have spent my best efforts
+in our common cause. I have no wish to dictate to you. I leave the
+decision in your own hands. Those of you who wish to starve may do
+so. It is your own decision; even though it involves your wives and
+families, I will not interfere. I ask no man to work harder than he
+thinks necessary.
+
+“But I put this point before you. Is it right that a man who will not
+strain himself in the common service should reap where he has not sown?
+Is it right that any man should batten upon the labour of you all while
+refusing to do his utmost? Will you permit wilful inefficiency to rob
+you and your children of their proper share in the means of safety? Or
+do you believe that this community should rid itself of parasites?
+
+“I leave myself entirely in your hands in the matter. I take no
+decision without your consent. If you choose to toil in order that they
+may take bread from your children’s mouths, it is no affair of mine. I
+will do my best for you all, in any case. But I would be neglecting my
+duty did I not warn you that there is no bread to spare. Every mouthful
+has been counted; and even at the best we shall just struggle through.
+
+“These are the facts. Do you wish to retain these inefficients among
+you? Without your consent, I can make no move. I ask you here and now
+for your decision.”
+
+He held the meeting in the hollow of his hand. Cries of “No. Away with
+them. No spongers,” and the like were heard on all sides. Nordenholt
+held up his hand, and silence came at once. The meeting hung on his
+words.
+
+“Those in favour of allowing this inefficiency to continue, stand up.”
+
+No one rose.
+
+“Very good, men. I will carry out your decision. This meeting is at an
+end.”
+
+The morning papers contained a full report of his speech; but before
+they were in the hands of the populace, Nordenholt had acted. All the
+ca’ canny workmen had been arrested during the night, along with their
+families, and removed to the southern boundary, where they were placed
+on trains and motors ready for transport to the Border. The thing was
+done with absolute silence and with such efficiency that it seemed more
+like kidnapping than an ordinary process of arrest. Nordenholt knew
+the advantage of mystery; and he proposed to make these disappearances
+strike home on the public mind. The inefficients vanished without
+leaving a clue behind.
+
+At the Border, each of them was supplied with provisions exactly
+equivalent to the rations remaining in the outer world; and they were
+then abandoned as they stood. Nothing was ever known of their fate.
+When the works opened again in the morning, their fellows missed them
+from the gangs and time enough was allowed for their disappearance to
+sink in; after which a redistribution took place which closed up the
+gaps. But the very mystery served to heighten the effect of the lesson.
+For the first time, Fear in more than one form had entered the Nitrogen
+Area.
+
+I remembered what Nordenholt had said to me some weeks earlier: “I
+shall deal with them--and I shall do it by the hand of their own
+fellows.”
+
+So you can understand the roaring tide of industry which mounted day by
+day in the Area. This sudden stroke had done more than anything else to
+convince the people of the seriousness of the situation. Ten thousand
+men had been condemned and had vanished on an instant--Nordenholt
+made no secret of the number; and the remainder realised that things
+must indeed be grave when a step of this kind had been necessary. He
+had given no time for amendment: condemnation had been followed by
+the execution of the sentence: and it was they themselves who had
+pronounced the decree. They could not lay it upon his shoulders. And
+the veil of mystery which enwrapped the fate of the convicted ones had
+its value in more than one direction. Had Nordenholt caused them to be
+shot, public sympathy would have been aroused. But this impenetrable
+secrecy baffled speculation and prevented men from forming any concrete
+picture which might arouse compassion.
+
+Choosing his moment, Nordenholt announced that, in future, the
+factories would be run continuously, shift after shift, throughout
+the twenty-four hours. For a time he called a halt to the newspaper
+campaign for increased output. He would need this form of publicity
+later; and he did not wish it to become staled by constant repetition.
+
+For the present he was satisfied. Everything was now in train and
+he was into his stride all along the line. At last statistics were
+accumulating which would enable him to gauge exactly how the machinery
+was running; and he held his hand until a balance-sheet could be drawn
+with accuracy.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At this point in my narrative I am trying to produce a conspectus of
+the Nitrogen Area as it was during that period in its career. I leave
+to the imagination of my readers the task of picturing that gigantic
+concentration of human effort: the eternal smoke-cloud from a thousand
+chimney-stalks lying ever between us and the sun; the murky twilight
+of the streets at noon; the whir of dynamos and the roar of the great
+electric arcs; the unintermittent thunder of trains pouring coal into
+the city; and, above all, the half-naked figures in the factories,
+toiling, toiling, shift after shift in one incessant strain through
+the four-and-twenty hours. No one can ever depict the details of that
+panorama.
+
+But alongside this vast outpouring of physical energy there lay another
+world, calm, orderly and almost silent, yet equally important to the
+end in view: the world of the scientific experts in their laboratories
+and research stations. To pass from one region to the other was like a
+transition from pandemonium to a cloister.
+
+Nordenholt had grouped his experts into three main classes, though
+of course these groups by no means included all the investigators
+he controlled. It was here that the Nordenholt Gang were strongest,
+for the path of the scientific man is one which offered the greatest
+chances to Nordenholt’s scheme for the furthering of youth.
+
+In the first place came the group of chemists and electricians who
+were engaged upon the improvement of nitrogen fixation methods; and
+between this section and the factories there was a constant _liaison_;
+so that each new plant which was erected might contain the very latest
+improvements devised by the experts.
+
+The second group contained the bacteriologists, whose task it was to
+investigate the habits of _B. diazotans_, to determine whether it could
+be exterminated in any practical manner and to discover what methods
+could be employed to prevent its ravaging the new crops when they were
+obtainable.
+
+Finally, the experts in agriculture overlapped with the chemical
+group, since many of the questions before them were concerned with the
+chemistry of the soil. I have already mentioned how the action of _B.
+diazotans_ disintegrated the upper strata of the land and reduced the
+soil to a friable material. This formed one of the most troublesome
+features in the cultivation problem, since the porosity of the ground
+allowed water to sink through, and thus plants sown in the affected
+fields were left without any liquid upon which they could draw for
+sustenance. It was J. F. Hope, I believe, who finally suggested a
+solution of the matter. His process consisted in mixing colloid
+minerals such as clays with the soil and thus forming less permeable
+beds; and the agricultural experts were able to establish the minimum
+percentages of clay which were required in order to make crops grow.
+
+I have mentioned these points in order to show how much we in the Area
+depended upon the pure scientists for help. But it must not be supposed
+that only those lines of scientific investigation capable of immediate
+application were kept in view by Nordenholt. I learned later, as I
+shall tell in its proper place, that he had cast further afield than
+that.
+
+I cannot give details of the work on the scientific side, because I
+have no intimate acquaintance with them; but I met the results on
+every hand in the course of my own department’s affairs. From day to
+day a new machine would be passed for service and put into operation,
+some fresh catalyst would be sent down for trial on a large scale
+after having been tested in the laboratory, or there might be a slight
+variation in the relative quantities of the ingredients in some of our
+factory processes. There was a constant touch between research and
+large-scale operations.
+
+In the course of this I used often to have to visit the Research
+Section; and in some ways I found it a mental anodyne in my
+perplexities. These long, airy laboratories, with their spotless
+cleanliness and delicate apparatus, formed a pleasant contrast to the
+grimy factories and gigantic machines among which part of my days were
+passed. And I found that the popular conception of the scientific man
+as a dry-as-dust creature was strangely wide of the mark. It may be
+that Nordenholt’s picked men differed from others of their class; but
+I found in them a directness in speech and a sense of humour which I
+had not anticipated. After the hurry and confusion of the improvisation
+which marked the opening of the Nitrogen Area, the quiet certainty
+of the work in the Research Section seemed like a glimpse of another
+world. I do not mean that they talked like super-men or that the
+investigations were always successful; but over it all there was an
+atmosphere of clockwork precision which somehow gave one confidence.
+These men, it struck me for the first time, had always been contending
+with Nature in their struggle to wrest her secrets from her; while
+we in the other world had been sparring against our fellows with
+Nature standing above us in the conflict, so great and so remote that
+we had never understood even that she was there. Now, under the new
+conditions, all was changed for us; while to these scientific experts
+it was merely the opening of a fresh field in their long-drawn-out
+contest.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+During the inception of Nordenholt’s scheme, my own work had dealt with
+varied lines of activity which brought me into contact with diverse
+departments of the machine; but when the transfer to the Clyde Valley
+took place, I settled down into more definite duties. Nordenholt had
+picked me out, I believe, on the strength of my knowledge of factory
+organisation; and my first post in the North dealt with this branch.
+Thus in the earlier days, my work took me into the machine-shops and
+yards where the heavy machinery was being built or remodelled; and so I
+came into direct contact with the human element.
+
+But as time went on, the range of my control increased; and as my
+work extended I had to delegate this section more and more to my
+subordinates. I became, through a gradual series of transitions, the
+checker of efficiency over most of the Area activities.
+
+The under-current of all my memories of that time is a series
+of curves. Graphs of coal-supply from each pit, so that the
+fluctuation of output might be controlled and investigated; graphs of
+furnace-production from day to day, whereby all might be kept up to
+concert-pitch; graphs comparing one process with another in terms of
+power and efficiency; graphs of workmen’s ages and effectiveness;
+graphs of total power-consumption; graphs of remaining food-supplies
+extrapolated to show probable consumption under various scales; graphs
+of population changes; graphs of health-statistics: all these passed
+through my hands in their final form until I began to lose touch with
+the real world about me and to look upon disasters costing many lives
+merely as something which produced a point of inflexion in my curves.
+
+Nordenholt had established his central offices in the University and
+had cleared the benches from all the classrooms to make room for his
+staff. It was probably the best choice he could have made; since it
+provided within a limited area sufficient office-room to house everyone
+whom he might wish to call into consultation at a moment’s notice at
+any time; and it had the further advantage that all the scientific
+experts had been given the University laboratories to work in, so that
+they also were within easy call. He himself had chosen as his private
+office the old Senate Room. The Randolph Hall had been fitted up as a
+kind of card-index library wherein were stored all the facts of which
+he might be in need at any time; and the Court Room was converted into
+his secretary’s office and connected with the Senate Room by a door
+driven through the wall.
+
+In Nordenholt’s office a huge graph extended right across the wall over
+the fireplace. It was an enormous diagram, covering the period from
+the starting of the Nitrogen Area and extending, as far as its numbered
+abscissæ were concerned, beyond the harvest-time in the next year. Each
+morning, before Nordenholt came to his office, the new daily points
+were inserted on it and joined up with the preceding curves. One line,
+in red, expressed the amount of food remaining; another, in green,
+showed the quantity of nitrogenous material synthesised up to date;
+whilst the third curve, in purple, indicated approximately the crop
+which might be expected from the nitrogenous manure in hand. Of all the
+sights in the Nitrogen Area, I think that series of curves made the
+deepest impression upon me. It was so impersonal, a cold record of our
+position and our prospects, untinged by any human factor. The slow rise
+of the green curve; the steady fall of the red line--our whole future
+was locked up in these relative trends.
+
+I remember one morning in Nordenholt’s office, where I had gone to
+consult him on some point or other. We had discussed the matter in
+hand; and I was about to leave him when he called me back.
+
+“I haven’t seen much of you lately, Flint,” he said. “Sit down for a
+few minutes, will you? I want a rest from all this for a short time;
+and I think it would do you good to get clear of things for a while
+also. What do you do with yourself at nights?”
+
+I told him that I usually worked rather late.
+
+“That won’t do as a steady thing. I know the work has to be done; and
+I know you have to work till midnight, and after it often, to keep
+abreast of things. But if you do it without a break now and again
+you’ll simply get stale and lose grip. You may keep on working long
+hours; but what you do in the end won’t be so efficient. Take to-night
+off. Come to dinner with me and we’ll try to shake loose from Nitrogen
+for a while. I’ve asked Henley-Davenport also.”
+
+I accepted eagerly enough, though with a somewhat rueful feeling that
+it meant harder work on the following day if I was to overtake arrears.
+But I wanted to meet Henley-Davenport. As I mentioned at the beginning
+of this narrative, before the irruption of _B. diazotans_ into the
+world, he had been engaged upon radioactivity investigations; and I
+was anxious to hear what he was doing. I knew that Nordenholt set
+great store by his work--he was one of the Nordenholt young men--and
+I was interested. But my main reason for accepting was, of course,
+Nordenholt himself. As time went on, he fascinated me more and more;
+and I grasped at every opportunity of studying his complex personality.
+I doubt if I have been able to throw light upon it in these pages. I
+have given vignettes here and there to the best of my ability; but
+I know that I have failed to set down clearly the feeling which he
+always gave me, the distinction between the surface personality and the
+greater forces moving behind that screen. The superficial part is easy
+to describe; but the noumenon of Nordenholt is a thing beyond me. I
+only felt it; I never saw it: and I doubt if any man ever saw it fully
+revealed.
+
+Just then the door of the secretary’s room opened and someone came in.
+Curiously enough, I had never seen Nordenholt’s secretary before. She
+seemed to be about twenty-four, fair-haired and slim, dressed like any
+other business girl; but it was her face which struck me most. She
+looked fragile and at the corners of the sensitive mouth I thought I
+saw evidences of strain. Somehow she seemed out of place amid all this
+grimness: her world should have been one of ease and happiness.
+
+“These are the figures you wanted with regard to A. 323, Uncle
+Stanley,” she said, as she handed over a card.
+
+“Thanks, Elsa. By the way, this is Mr. Flint. You’ve heard me speak of
+him often. My ward, Miss Huntingtower, Flint. She acts as my secretary.”
+
+We exchanged the commonplaces usual to the situation. I noticed that
+Nordenholt’s voice changed as he spoke to her: a ring of cheerfulness
+came into it which was not usually there. In a few minutes he dismissed
+her and we sat down again.
+
+“Now, Flint, there’s another example of the effect of too hard work.
+We’re all running things rather fine, nowadays. As for myself, it
+doesn’t matter. So long as I can see this year through, it’s immaterial
+to me what the ultimate effect may be. I can afford to run things to
+their end. But you younger people have most of your lives before you.
+I’m not hinting that you can spare yourselves; but you must try to
+leave something for the future. When it’s all over, we shall still need
+directors; and you must manage to combine hard work now with enough
+reserve force to prevent a collapse in the moment of success.
+
+“That’s why I planned amusement for the workers as well as a time
+schedule for the factories. We aren’t dealing with machines which can
+be run continuously and not suffer. We have to give the men a change
+of interest. I suppose some of you thought I was wrong in cumbering
+ourselves with all these football players, actors and actresses,
+music-hall artistes and so on, who produce nothing directly towards our
+object? For all I know you may jib at the sight of the thousands who
+go down to the Celtic Park every Saturday afternoon to watch a gang
+of professionals playing Soccer. I don’t. I know that these thousands
+are getting fresh air and exercising their lungs in yelling applause.
+I couldn’t get them to do it any other way; and I want them to do it.
+Then the halls and theatres occupy them in the evenings when they
+aren’t working; and that keeps them from brooding over their troubles.
+I don’t want men to accumulate here and there and grouse over the
+strain I put on them. That’s why I picked out the best of the whole
+Stage and brought them here. The Labour section is getting better value
+for its amusement money than it ever got in its life before; and I’m
+getting what I want too.
+
+“That’s why I cornered tobacco and liquor also. We must remove every
+scrap of restraint on pleasure, Flint, or we should have trouble
+at once. They must have their smoke and they must have drink in
+moderation. You can’t run this kind of colony on narrow lines.
+
+“And there’s another thing, perhaps the most important of all under
+the conditions we are in: religion. I’m not talking about creeds or
+anything of that kind. I’ve studied most of them from the point of view
+of psychology; and they’re empty things; life left them long ago. But
+behind all that mass of outworn lumber there’s a real feeling which
+can’t be neglected if we are to get the best out of things. That’s
+why I brought all these ministers of the various denominations into
+the Area. We must have them; and as far as I could, I picked the best
+of them. But I’ll have no idlers here. They have to do their day’s
+work with the rest of us and do their teaching afterwards. Every man
+ought to be able to _do_ something. After all, Christ was a carpenter
+before He took up His work. That’s what has been wrong with ninety per
+cent. of parsons since the Churches started. They don’t know anything
+practical and they mistake talk for work. What was the average sermon
+except expanding a text, with illustrations--diluting the Bible with
+talk, just as a dishonest milkman waters his milk.
+
+“Well, I’ve picked the best I could get; and I’ve given them a free
+hand. But I wish I were sure where it is all going to lead. It’s
+the most difficult problem I ever tackled, I know. Our conditions
+aren’t parallel, but I am half-afraid of reproducing the story of the
+Anabaptists in Münster. You can’t get heavy physical and mental tension
+in an unprepared population without seeing some strange things. I
+introduced these ministers as a brake on that line of development.
+
+“And what a chance they have! It’s when men are most helpless that
+they turn to religion; and here we are going to have a field in which
+much might be sown. If only they are equal to the times! But it’s no
+affair of mine. They must work out their own salvation and perhaps the
+salvation of their people if they can.
+
+“As for us, Flint, we’ve got enough work of our own in this world.
+Take my advice and clear every idea of humanity out of your mind: stick
+to your curves and graphs and don’t think beyond them. If once you let
+your imagination stray over the real meaning of them--in toil and pain
+and death--you’ll never be able to carry on. I can’t help seeing it
+all; and that’s why I pin myself to the Curve there. I don’t want to
+look beyond it. I want to keep myself detached from all that as far as
+possible; for I can’t afford to be biased. It’s difficult; and in a few
+weeks more it will be still harder, when these unheard cries of agony
+go up in the South. But what can one do? I must shut my ears as best I
+can and go forward; or everything will fall to pieces and we shall save
+nothing out of the wreck. What a prospect, eh?
+
+“Now, Flint,”--he sprang up--“off to work again, both of us. We can’t
+afford to waste time if we are to have an evening free from worry. I’ll
+see you at dinner.”
+
+As I reached the door, he called me back and spoke low:
+
+“By the way, Miss Huntingtower doesn’t know all our plans. Keep off the
+subject of the South. She hasn’t been told anything about that; and I
+want to keep it from her as long as I can. You understand?”
+
+“Yes, if you wish it. But surely she must have some knowledge of the
+state of affairs. You can’t have managed to keep her in the dark about
+the whole thing?”
+
+“It wasn’t difficult. She looks after certain special branches of my
+correspondence and so on; and nothing except actual Area business
+passes through her hands, so she has seen nothing beyond that. And once
+she finishes her work for the day I’ve made it a rule for her that she
+takes no further interest in the situation. I told her she must get her
+mind clear of it at night, or she would get stale and be no use to me.
+That was quite enough. She doesn’t even read the newspapers.”
+
+“But what’s the use of keeping her in the dark? She is bound to know
+all about it soon enough.”
+
+“There’s a great difference, Flint, between learning of a thing after
+it is irrevocable and hearing of it while there is time to protest
+against it. Once a catastrophe is over, it _is_ over; and the shock is
+lighter than if one feels it coming and struggles against it. I don’t
+wish Miss Huntingtower to hear anything about the South until the whole
+thing is at an end down there. She’ll accept it then, since there is
+nothing else for it. I don’t wish her to be put in the position of
+feeling that she ought to do all she can to prevent its coming about.
+You understand?”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+Intermezzo
+
+
+In order to understand the impression which that evening left upon
+me, it is necessary to bear in mind the conditions under which I had
+been living for the last few weeks. In the earlier stages I had been
+oscillating between my office, with its ever-accumulating mass of
+papers, on the one hand; and the grime and clangour of the factories
+and furnaces upon the other. Then, gradually, I saw less and less
+of the concrete machinery of our safety and slipped almost wholly
+into the work of control from a distance. Lists, sheets of figures,
+graphs, letters dictated or read, telephonic communications, reports
+from factory managers, all surged up before me in a daily deluge. My
+meals were eaten hurriedly at a side-table in my office; and my lights
+burned far into the morning in the attempt to cope with the torrent
+which I had to control. Often as the dawn was coming up through the
+smoke-clouds of the city I walked home with a wearied mind through
+which endless columns of figures chased each other; and my eyes
+had broken down under the strain to the extent that I had to use
+pilocarpine almost constantly. I was beginning to look back on the old
+life in London, with its theatre parties and dinners, as if it were
+another existence which I should never re-enter. I seemed shut off from
+it by some nebulous yet impenetrable curtain; and when I thought of it
+at times, I felt that it had passed away beyond recall. All the softer
+side of civilisation, it seemed, must go down, once for all, in this
+cataclysm; and from our efforts a harder, harsher world would be born.
+Ease and luxury had vanished, leaving us stripped to our necessities.
+
+And suddenly I found myself in the old surroundings once more. I was
+ushered into a room which, though its simplicity recalled Nordenholt’s
+other environments, still betrayed a woman’s hand at every point. There
+was no litter of meaningless nicknacks; every touch went to build up
+a harmonious whole: and it was unmistakably a feminine mind which
+had designed it. As I glanced down the room, I saw Miss Huntingtower
+standing by the fireplace; and it flashed across me that, whether by
+accident or design, the room formed a framework for her.
+
+As she came forward to meet me, her smile effaced the strained
+expression which I had noticed in the morning. In these surroundings
+she seemed different, somehow. The artistry of the room fitted her own
+beauty so that each appeared to find its complement in the other. It
+seemed to me that she was designed by destiny for this environment, and
+not for the harder work of the world. And yet, she gave no suggestion
+of triviality; there was no hint of a feminine desire to attract. It
+must have been that she harmonised so well with the frame in which I
+saw her. And the personality which gazed from her eyes seemed in some
+way to blend with this world of shaded lights, graceful outlines and
+innate simplicity.
+
+Nordenholt came into the room almost at once with a grave apology to
+Miss Huntingtower for being late.
+
+“Convenient having a house in the University Square,” he said to me.
+“If we hadn’t taken over some of these professors’ residences, it would
+have meant such a waste of time getting to and fro between one’s home
+and the office. That was one reason why I selected the University as a
+centre. We had the whole thing ready-made for us.”
+
+Henley-Davenport arrived almost at once; and we went down to dinner. I
+had begun to re-acclimatise myself in these surroundings; but I still
+recall that evening in every detail. The shaded candles on the table,
+which soothed my straining eyes, the glitter of silver and crystal on
+the snowy cloth, Nordenholt’s lean visage half in shadow except when
+he leaned forward into the soft illumination, Henley-Davenport’s sharp
+voice driving home a point, and Miss Huntingtower’s eager face as she
+glanced from speaker to speaker or put a question to one of us: with
+it all, I seemed back again in my lost world and the Nitrogen Area
+appeared to belong to another region of my life.
+
+But even here it penetrated, though faintly. The usual topics of
+conversation were gone: theatres, books, all our old interests had been
+uprooted and cast aside, so that we could only take them up in the
+form of reminiscence. And, as a matter of fact, we talked very little
+about them. I tried one or two tentative efforts; but Henley-Davenport,
+who had known Nordenholt and his ward longer than I, made very little
+attempt to follow me: and I soon gathered that Miss Huntingtower was
+better pleased with other subjects.
+
+What appeared to interest her most was the general situation; and I was
+rather flattered to find that she seemed anxious to hear my own views.
+
+She seemed to be one of those people who are gifted with the faculty of
+drawing one out. I don’t mean that she sat silent and merely listened;
+but she had the knack of stimulating one to talk and of keeping one to
+the main line by occasional questions, which showed that she had not
+only followed what had been said but had silently commented upon it
+as one went along. Yet she never appeared to lose her charm by aping
+masculinity. Her outlook was a feminine one in its essentials, even if
+her mind was acute. And she had the gift of naturalness. There was no
+artificiality either in look or speech. She made me feel almost at once
+as though I had known her for years.
+
+One thing I did notice about her. Whenever Nordenholt spoke she seemed
+to hang on his words and to weigh them mentally. The two seemed to be
+joined by some intimate bond of understanding; and I could see that
+Nordenholt was proud of her in his way.
+
+Dinner drew to an end, and Nordenholt began to question Henley-Davenport
+about his researches. Miss Huntingtower interrupted at the beginning
+with a request for simple language.
+
+“If you begin talking about uranium-X₁ and meso-thorium-2, then I won’t
+understand you, and I want to know what it is all about.”
+
+“Well, Miss Huntingtower, I think I can make it plain without using
+uranium-X₁ or even eka-tantalum; but it’s hard that I should be
+forbidden to use all these fine-sounding words, eh? Isn’t it? I submit
+under protest. It takes away half the pleasure of telling things when
+one has to put them in mere vulgar English.
+
+“Well”--he had an extraordinary habit of interjecting “well” and by
+inflecting it in various ways, making it serve as a kind of prelude to
+his sentences, a sort of keynote, as it were--“Well, I take it that
+you know what radioactivity is. Some of the atoms are spontaneously
+breaking down into simpler materials, and in that breakdown they
+liberate an amount of energy which is immeasurably greater than
+anything we can obtain by the ordinary chemical reactions which occur
+when coal is burned or when gas is lighted.
+
+“Well, if we could tap that store of energy which evidently lies within
+the atom we should have Nature at our feet. She would be done for,
+beaten, out of the struggle: and we should simply have to walk over the
+remains and take what we wanted. Until the thing is actually done, none
+of us can grasp what it will mean; for no one has ever seen unlimited
+energy under control in this world. We have always had to fight hard
+for every unit of it that we used.
+
+“Well, there is no doubt that atoms _can_ be broken down. All the
+radioactive elements split up spontaneously without any help from
+us. But the quantities of them which we can gather together are so
+extremely minute that as a source of energy they are feebler than an
+ordinary wax vesta, for all practical purposes.
+
+“So far, so good. We know the thing can be done; but we haven’t hit on
+the way of doing it. Is that clear?”
+
+“Quite clear, thanks,” said Miss Huntingtower, with a smile. “Radium
+without tears, Part I. Now the second lesson, please.”
+
+“Well, don’t be too optimistic. There may be tears in the second part.
+It’s a little stiffer. The majority of the elements are perfectly
+stable; they undergo no radioactive decompositions; so that they give
+off no energy. But all the same, if our views are right, they contain
+a store of pent-up energy quite as great as that of the radioactive
+set. It’s like two clocks, both wound up. One of them, the radioactive
+clock, is going all the time and the mainspring is running down.
+You know it is going because it gives out a tick; and we recognise
+radioactivity by certain tests of a somewhat similar type, only we
+‘listen’ for electrical effects instead of the sound-waves you detect
+when the clock ticks. Now the second clock, the one that is wound up
+but hasn’t been started, is like the ordinary element. If you could
+give it a shake, it would start off ticking.
+
+“Well, what we want to do is to start the non-radioactive elements
+ticking. We are looking for the right kind of shake to give them in
+order to start them off. If we can find that, then we shall get all the
+energy we need, because we can utilise enormous quantities of material
+where now we have only the traces of radioactive stuff.”
+
+“A risky business,” said Nordenholt. “Your first successful experiment
+will be rather catastrophic, won’t it?”
+
+“Probably. But I’ve left full notes of everything I’ve done, so someone
+else will be able to continue if anything happens to me.
+
+“Well, the real trouble is that it takes a lot to shake up the internal
+machinery of an atom. Rutherford did it long ago by using a stream of
+alpha-particles from radium to smash up the nitrogen atom. That was
+in 1920 or thereabouts. You see, we have no ordinary force intense
+enough to break up atoms of the stable elements; we have to go to the
+radioactive materials to get energy sufficiently concentrated to make a
+beginning.
+
+“Now, what I have been following out is this. Perhaps I can show you it
+best by an experiment. Can you get me some safety match-boxes?”
+
+A dozen of these were brought, and he stood them each on its end in a
+line.
+
+“Now,” he continued, “it requires a certain force in a blow from my
+finger to knock down one of these boxes; and if I take the ten boxes
+separately, it would need ten times that force to throw them all
+flat. But if I arrange them so that as each one falls it strikes its
+neighbour, then I can knock the whole lot down with a single touch. The
+first one collides with the second, and the second in falling upsets
+the third, and so on to the end of the line.
+
+“Well, that is what I have been following out amongst the atoms. I
+know that the alpha-rays of radium will upset the equilibrium of other
+atoms; and what is wanted is to get the second set of atoms to upset
+a third and so forth. Hitherto I have not been able to hit upon the
+proper train of atoms to use. Somehow it seems to sputter out half-way,
+just as a train of powder fails to catch fire all along its line if one
+part of it isn’t thick enough to carry the flame on. But I have got far
+enough to show that it can be done. It’s rather pretty to follow, if
+one has enough imagination to read behind the measurements. You really
+must come and see it, Nordenholt.”
+
+“Do you think it will come out soon?” asked Miss Huntingtower.
+
+“Sooner or later, is all one can say. But it might come any day.”
+
+Nordenholt rose from the table.
+
+“I’ll come across now, if you can let me see that experiment,” he said.
+“I’m more interested than I can tell you; and I want to discuss some
+points with you. I’m taking the evening off anyway, and I may as well
+make myself useful. How long will it take--an hour? All right. Flint,
+will you amuse Miss Huntingtower till I get back?”
+
+He and Henley-Davenport went out, leaving us to return upstairs.
+
+For a time we talked of one thing and another till at last, by what
+transitions I cannot now remember, we touched upon her secretaryship,
+and I asked her how she came to occupy the post.
+
+“Do you really want to know?” she asked. “I warn you it will be rather
+a long story if I tell you it; and it will probably seem rather dull to
+you.”
+
+“Don’t be afraid. I am sure I shall not find it dull.”
+
+“Well, let’s pretend we are characters in a novel and the distressed
+heroine will proceed to relate the story of her life. ‘I was born of
+poor but honest parents....’ Will that do to start?”
+
+“Must you begin at the beginning? I usually skip first chapters myself.”
+
+“I’m sorry, but I have to begin fairly early if you are to understand.
+Mr. Nordenholt isn’t my uncle, really, you know. My father was a
+distant relation of his. When Father and Mother died I was quite a tiny
+child; I only remember them vaguely now: and Uncle Stanley was the
+only relation I had in the world. I believe, too, that I was the only
+relative he had, certainly I was the only one I ever heard him speak
+of, except Father and Mother. It was just after he had made his fortune
+in Canada, and he must have been about thirty then. It appears that
+Father had written to him much earlier, asking him to look after me if
+anything happened to him and Mother; and when they were drowned--it was
+a boating accident--he came home to this country and took me to live
+with him.
+
+“I was only about eight then, and I missed Father and Mother so. I
+cried and cried; and he spent hours with me, trying to comfort me.
+Somehow he did me good. I don’t know how he did it; but he seemed to
+understand so well.”
+
+Again I had come across a new side in Nordenholt’s character. I could
+hardly picture that grim figure--for even at thirty Nordenholt must
+have been grim--comforting that tiny scrap of humanity in distress. And
+yet she was right: he did understand.
+
+“And with it all, he didn’t spoil me. He knew, of course, that when I
+grew up I would have more money than I knew what to do with; and he
+determined that I should get the full pleasure out of it by coming to
+it unspoilt and with unjaded feelings. He brought me up in the simplest
+way you can imagine. I had no expensive toys, but I liked the ones I
+had all the better for that. It gave more scope for the imagination,
+you see: and I had even more than the child’s ordinary imaginative
+power. When we played fairy tales together he used to be the Ogre or
+the Prince Charming, and I could see him so well either way. He laughs
+now when I remind him that he used to make a good Prince Charming.
+
+“Well, so it went on, year after year; and we grew up with more in
+common than either father and daughter or brother and sister. Somehow
+I picked up his ways of looking at things; and I caught from him
+something of his understanding of people. He never put any ideals
+before me; but I think he himself gave me something to carve out an
+ideal from. Oh, there’s nobody like Uncle Stanley! I don’t know anybody
+who comes up to his shoulder.”
+
+“I’ve only known him for a few weeks, Miss Huntingtower,” I said, “but
+I’ve seen enough to agree with you in that.”
+
+“Have you? I’m so glad. It shows that we’re the same sort of person,
+doesn’t it? For I know some people hate him--and I hate them for it!”
+
+She clenched her teeth with an air that was half-play, half-earnest.
+
+“I’m going to skip a few years and come to the fairy-tale part of my
+story: the Three Wishes. When I grew up, Uncle Stanley told me that
+he had settled an immense sum on me and that I could do exactly as I
+wished. I think I failed him at that point. He expected me to go and
+have a good time; and--I didn’t. I didn’t want to have a good time. I
+had been thinking over all he had done for me; and I wanted something
+else entirely. I wanted to give him something in return for all his
+kindness to me when I was a tiny little thing; and I was afraid that he
+wouldn’t let me. I went to him one day and asked him to give me three
+wishes. Now even with me, Uncle Stanley is careful; and he wanted to
+know what the wishes were before he would promise.
+
+“‘I don’t know myself yet,’ I said, ‘but I want to feel that I have
+three things in reserve that I can ask you to do.’ ‘I promise no
+impossibilities,’ he told me, ‘but if the things are really possible,
+you can have them.’ ‘Very well,’ said I, ‘the first of them is that I
+want to be trained as a secretary.’
+
+“He laughed at me, of course; and when I persisted, he pointed out
+to me that I was my own mistress and that I needn’t have asked his
+permission to get trained. ‘You’ve wasted one of your wishes, Elsa,’
+he said, ‘and I’m going to hold you to your bargain.’ ‘Well, I wanted
+your consent to it anyway,’ I told him.
+
+“I went and took a secretary’s training, the most complete I could
+get. You don’t know how I enjoyed it. I hated the work, of course; but
+I felt all the time that I was getting ready to be of use to Uncle
+Stanley; and even the dullest parts of the thing seemed to be lightened
+by that.
+
+“When I was fully trained, I went to him again. ‘I want my second wish
+now: I want you to take me as your private secretary.’ I don’t know
+that he was altogether pleased then. I think he imagined that I would
+be a nuisance or inefficient or something. But he kept his promise and
+took me to work with him.
+
+“You can’t guess what I felt about it. I worked hard; I did everything
+correctly; and I knew him better than anyone else, so that I could help
+him just when he needed it. Of course, I’m not his only secretary; but
+I know I suit him better than any of the others. I’ve begun to pay
+off my debt to him bit by bit; and yet I always seem just as deep in
+as ever. He’s always been so good to me, you know. But still, I _am_
+useful to him; and I’m not merely there on sufferance now. I know he
+appreciates my work.”
+
+“I doubt if you would be there long if he didn’t,” I said. “From what I
+have seen of him he isn’t likely to employ amateurs even as a favour.
+I think he would have let you see you were useless unless you had made
+good.”
+
+“Oh, if he had been the least dissatisfied with me I would have gone at
+once as soon as I saw it. I want to be a help and not a hindrance. But
+now I have answered your question, although it has taken rather a long
+time to do it.”
+
+Some inane compliment came to my lips but I bit it back without
+speaking it. She didn’t seem to be the sort of girl who wanted flattery.
+
+“I think you are helping more than Mr. Nordenholt with your work just
+now,” I said at length. “You seem to have found your way into the
+centre of the biggest thing this country has ever seen.”
+
+Her face clouded for a moment.
+
+“Yes, it’s a great thing, isn’t it? But do you ever think what failure
+might mean, Mr. Flint? Think of all these poor people starving and of
+us unable to help them. It would be terrible. Sometimes I think of it
+and it makes me feel that we bear a fearful responsibility. I don’t
+mean that I personally have any real responsibility. I don’t take
+myself so seriously as all that. But the men at the head, Uncle Stanley
+and the rest of you--it’s a fearful burden to take on your shoulders.
+I’m only a cog in the machine and could be replaced to-morrow; but you
+people, the experts, couldn’t be replaced. Fifty millions of people! I
+can’t even begin to understand what fifty million deaths would mean. I
+do hope, oh, I do so hope that we shall be successful. If anyone but
+Uncle Stanley were at the head of it I should doubt; but I feel almost
+quite safe with him at the helm. He never failed yet, you know.”
+
+“No,” I said, “he never failed yet.”
+
+What would she think when the full plans of Nordenholt--who “never
+failed yet”--were revealed to her? I wondered how this fragile girl
+would take it. She wouldn’t simply weep and forget, I was sure. She
+seemed to have high ideals and she evidently idolised Nordenholt. It
+would be a terrible catastrophe for her. I dreaded the next steps in
+the conversation, for I did not want to lie to her; and I saw no other
+way out of it if she turned the talk into the wrong channel.
+
+Nordenholt’s hour was up and I began to feel that the old life was
+slipping away from me again. For a few minutes we sat silent; for she
+did not speak and I was afraid to reopen the conversation lest she
+should continue her line of thought. I watched her as she sat: the
+tiny shoe, the sweep of the black gown without a sparkle of jewellery
+to relieve it, the clean curves of her white throat, and over all the
+lustre of her hair. Would there be any place for all this in the new
+world? I wondered. Things would be too hard for her fragility, perhaps.
+
+As ten o’clock struck Nordenholt came in. He looked more cheerful than
+when he had left us, though as he dropped into a chair I noticed that
+he seemed to be physically tired.
+
+“Henley-Davenport asked me to make his excuses to you, Elsa. He wants
+to work out something which struck him when we were over at his
+laboratory; so I left him there.”
+
+He smoked for a while in silence, as though ruminating over what he had
+seen.
+
+“That’s a brave man if you want to see one,” he said at last. “From
+what he told me, there will be a terrible explosion the first time he
+manages to jar up his atomic powder-magazine; and yet he goes into the
+thing as coolly as though he were lighting a cigarette. I hope he pulls
+it off. More hangs on that than one can well estimate just now. It may
+be the last shot in our locker for all we know.”
+
+“But surely, Uncle Stanley, you have foreseen everything?”
+
+“I’m not omniscient, Elsa, though perhaps you have illusions on the
+point. I do what I can, but one must allow a good deal of latitude for
+the unpredictable which always exists. And in this affair, I am afraid
+the unpredictable will not be on the helping side. But don’t worry your
+head over that; we can’t help it. What’s wrong with you to-night. You
+look more worried than usual. Tired?”
+
+“Not specially.”
+
+“Would you sing to us a little?”
+
+“Only something very short, then.” She moved to the piano. “What do you
+want?”
+
+“Oh, let’s see.... I’d like.... No, you wouldn’t care for it. Let’s
+think again.”
+
+“No, no, Uncle Stanley; I’ll sing anything you wish,” she said, but
+when he asked for the second Song in Cymbeline, her brows contracted.
+
+“Must you have that one? Won’t the first song do instead?”
+
+“I’d rather have the other. Only the last two verses, for I see you are
+tired.”
+
+She sat down at the piano and played the preliminary chords. I had
+never heard the air, possibly it was an unusual setting.
+
+  “_Fear no more the lightning flash,
+      Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone;
+  Fear not slander, censure rash;
+      Thou hast finished joy and moan:
+  All lovers young, all lovers must,
+  Consign to thee, and come to dust._”
+
+It was a wonderful piece of singing. In the first lines her voice rose
+clear and confident, reassuring against the mere physical perils. Then
+with the faintest change of tone, just sufficient to mark the shift
+in the form of menace, she sang the third line; and let a tinge of
+melancholy creep into the next. With the last couplet something new
+came into the music, possibly a drop into the minor; and her voice
+seemed to fill with an echo of all lost hopes and spent delights. Then
+it rose again, full and strong in the mandatory lines of the final
+verse, set to a different air, till at last it died away once more with
+infinite tenderness:
+
+  “_Quiet consummation have;
+  And renownèd be thy grave._”
+
+I sat spellbound after she had ended. It was wonderful art. She closed
+the piano and rose from her seat.
+
+“I can’t imagine why you dislike that air,” said Nordenholt.
+
+“Oh, it’s so gloomy, Uncle Stanley. I don’t care to think about things
+like that.”
+
+“Gloomy? You misread it, I’m sure. I wish I could be sure of Fidele’s
+luck.
+
+  ‘_Fear not slander, censure rash._’
+
+Which of us can feel sure of being free from these? Not I. And what
+better could one wish for in the end?
+
+  ‘_And renownèd be thy grave._’
+
+How many ghosts could boast of that after a hundred years?”
+
+“Well, none of us will know about that part of it,” she said lightly.
+“But I don’t think you need trouble about the ‘censure rash.’ None of
+your own people will blame you; and I know you care nothing for the
+rest. Even if they all turned against you, you would always have me,
+you know.”
+
+“Is that a promise, Elsa?” he asked gravely; and something in his tone
+made her glance at him. “Would you really stand by me no matter what
+happened? Don’t say yes, unless you really mean it.”
+
+She stood in front of him, eye to eye, for a moment without speaking.
+
+“I don’t understand,” she said at last. “You never doubted me before.
+It hurts. Of course I promise you. No matter what happens I won’t leave
+you. But you must promise never to send me away until I want to go.”
+
+“Very good, Elsa, I promise.”
+
+The strain seemed to relax in a moment. I don’t think they realised how
+strange it all seemed to me. They were living in their own world, and
+I was outside, I felt, rather bitterly. And of course, none of us was
+quite normal at that time.
+
+Miss Huntingtower came to me and held out her hand.
+
+“Thanks so much for coming, Mr. Flint. Somehow I feel as if I
+had known you for years instead of only a few hours. Now I’ll say
+good-night and leave you with Uncle Stanley.”
+
+“Wait a minute, Elsa,” said Nordenholt. “It seems to me that all three
+of us have been cooped up indoors too much lately. Our nerves are
+getting on edge. Don’t deny it, Flint, in your case. You haven’t a leg
+to stand on. I heard you differing from one of your clerks to-day. We’d
+all be the better for fresh air now and again. One afternoon a week,
+after this, we’ll take a car out into the country. I can do my thinking
+there just as well as anywhere else; and Mr. Flint can drive to keep
+his mind off business. That’s settled. I told you before that amusement
+of some sort has to come into our routine, Flint; so you must just make
+up your mind to it. I can’t replace you if you collapse; so I can’t
+allow you to go on like this. You don’t look half the man you were six
+weeks ago.”
+
+I required no pressing, partly because I knew that Nordenholt was right
+in what he said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+The Death of the Leviathan
+
+
+In this narrative I must give some account of the happenings in the
+outer world; for, without this, the picture which I am attempting to
+draw would be distorted in its perspective. At this point, then, I
+shall begin to interleave the description of the Northern experiment
+with sketches of the state of affairs elsewhere; and later I shall
+return to the more connected form of my narrative.
+
+It may reasonably be asked how it comes about that I am able to give
+any account at all of occurrences in England immediately after the
+closing of the Nitrogen Area, since I have taken pains to show the
+complete severance of land-communications between the two sections of
+the country. I have already hinted that all connection between these
+regions was not abolished.
+
+Nordenholt feared an invasion of the Clyde Valley by some, at least, of
+the multitudes in the South as soon as they became famine-stricken. It
+was hardly to be expected that, with the knowledge of the food in the
+North which they had, they would remain quiescent when the pinch came;
+and it was essential to have warning of any hostile movements ere they
+actually gained strength enough to become dangerous. For this purpose,
+he had organised his Intelligence Department outside as well as within
+the Area.
+
+There was no difficulty in introducing his agents into any district.
+Night landings by parachute from airships, or even the daylight
+descents of an aeroplane on a misty day, were simple enough to arrange;
+and his spies could be picked up again at preconcerted times and places
+when their return was desired.
+
+In this way, there flowed into the Nitrogen Area a constant stream of
+information which enabled him to piece together a connected picture of
+the affairs outside our frontier.
+
+I have had access to the summaries of these documents; and it is upon
+this basis that I have built the next stage of my narrative. These
+reports, of course, were not published at the time.
+
+As to the rest of the world, I have had to depend upon the wireless
+messages which were received by the huge installation Nordenholt had
+set up; and also upon the various accounts which have been published in
+more recent times.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I have already mentioned that the last stage of the exodus involved the
+destruction, as complete as was practicable, of roads, railways and
+telegraphic communications; and I have mentioned also the breaking-up
+of newspaper printing machinery. Following his usual course, Nordenholt
+had determined on utilising to the full the psychological factors in
+the problem; and it was upon the moral rather than on the mere physical
+effect of this disorganisation that he relied in his planning.
+
+The immediate effect upon the Southern population seems to have
+been all that he had hoped. On the morning after the last night of
+the exodus, England was still unperturbed. The absence of the usual
+newspapers was accepted without marked astonishment; for no one had
+any idea that it was more than a temporary interruption. Each city and
+town assumed simply that something had gone wrong in their particular
+area. No one seems to have imagined that anything but a local mishap
+had occurred. The failure of the telegraphs was also discounted to some
+extent.
+
+The local railway services continued to run without exciting comment
+by their intermittent character; for already Grogan’s operations had
+disorganised them to such an extent that ordinary time-tables were
+useless.
+
+The food-supply was still in full swing under the rationing system
+which Nordenholt had introduced; and no shortage had suggested itself
+to anyone, even among the staffs of the local control centres.
+
+Thus for at least a couple of days England remained almost normal, with
+the exception of the disorganisation of the communications between
+district and district. There was no panic. The population simply went
+along its old paths with the feeling that by the end of the week these
+temporary difficulties would be overcome and things would clear up.
+
+The next stage was marked by the increasing difficulty of
+communications. Owing to the withdrawal of Grogan and his staff,
+simultaneously with the disappearance of the greater part of the
+available locomotives into the Nitrogen Area, the train services fell
+more and more into disorganisation. Within a very short time, travel
+from one part of the country to another could only be accomplished by
+the aid of motors.
+
+The newspapers had been restarted; but they were no longer the organs
+to which people had been accustomed. Printed from presses usually
+employed for books, they could not be produced in anything approaching
+the old quantities; and the break-up of communications had shattered
+their organisation for the collection of information. They were mere
+fly-sheets, consisting of two or three leaves of quarto size at the
+largest and containing very little general news of any description.
+Not only were they printed in small numbers, but the difficulties of
+circulating the available copies were considerable; so that within a
+very short time the greater part of the population had to depend upon
+information passing orally from one to another.
+
+This was the state into which Nordenholt had planned to bring them. His
+agents, proceeding upon a carefully considered plan, formed centres
+for the spread of rumours which grew more and more incredible as
+they were magnified by repetition. Hostile invasions, the capture of
+London, the assassination of the Premier, anarchist plots, earthquakes
+which had interrupted the normal services of the country, all sorts of
+catastrophes were invoked to account for the breakdown of the system
+under which men had dwelt so long. But the period of rumours exhausted
+the belief of the people. Very soon no one paid any attention to the
+stories which, nevertheless, sped across the country in the form of
+idle gossip.
+
+Having thus manœuvred the inhabitants of England into a state of
+total disbelief in rumour, Nordenholt made his next move. Hundreds of
+aeroplanes ranged over the country, firing guns to attract attention
+and then dropping showers of leaflets which were eagerly collected and
+read. In these messages from the sky, a complete account was given of
+the efforts which were being made in the North to save the situation.
+Short articles upon the Nitrogen Area and its vital importance to the
+food-supply were scattered broadcast; and by their clear language and
+definite figures of production they carried conviction to the minds of
+the readers. Here, at last, was reliable news.
+
+No hint, of course, was given in these aerial bulletins of the real
+purpose underlying the Nitrogen Area. Their whole tone was optimistic;
+for Nordenholt wished to make his final blow the heavier by raising
+hopes at first. Once his agents had assured him that the people
+believed implicitly in his aeroplane news-service, he struck hard.
+
+In my account of his explanation of his breaking-strain theory, I
+have indicated roughly the general lines upon which his attack was
+based. He had accomplished the breakdown of the social organism into
+its component parts by the interruption of communications throughout
+the land; but the final stage of the process was to be the isolation of
+each individual from his fellows as far as that was possible.
+
+Suddenly, the news leaflets became charged with a fresh type of
+intelligence. At first there was a single item describing the detection
+of two cases of a new form of disease in the Nitrogen Area. Then, in
+succeeding issues, the spread of the epidemic was chronicled without
+comment.
+
+  PLAGUE SPREADING.
+
+  TWENTY CASES TO-DAY.
+
+The next bulletins contained detailed accounts of the symptoms of the
+disease, laying stress upon the painful character of the ailment. It
+was said in some ways to resemble hydrophobia, though its course was
+more prolonged and the sufferings entailed by it were more severe.
+
+Then further accounts of the extension of the scourge were rained down
+from the sky:
+
+  PLAGUE TOTAL: 10,000 CASES.
+
+  NO RECOVERIES.
+
+Hitherto the news had confined the Plague to the Nitrogen Area; and
+people had not thought it would spread beyond these limits; but in
+the next stage of the propaganda this hope was taken from them. The
+messages to Southern England described how the disease had made its
+appearance in Newcastle and in Hull; those leaflets intended for the
+western districts also gave the same information. In the North of
+England, the intelligence took the form of accounts of the discovery of
+the plague in London. In every case, care was taken that there was no
+direct communication between the “affected centre” and the spots where
+the news was dropped.
+
+The penultimate series of publications was in the form of lists of
+precautions to be taken to avoid the disease. It was described as
+contagious and not infectious; and people were advised to avoid
+mingling with their neighbours as far as possible. Complete isolation
+would ensure safety, since it had been established that the plague was
+not air-borne. Horrible details of the sufferings of patients were also
+published.
+
+Finally, the last group of leaflets represented a steady crescendo.
+
+  ENORMOUS SPREAD OF PLAGUE IN NITROGEN AREA.
+  100,000 CASES.
+
+  SPREAD OF PLAGUE THROUGH ENGLAND.
+  ONLY A FEW DISTRICTS FREE.
+
+  NITROGEN AREA DECIMATED.
+  POPULATION DYING IN THE STREETS.
+
+  DOOM IN THE CLYDE VALLEY.
+  TOTAL FAILURE OF NITROGEN SCHEME.
+  DEATH OF NORDENHOLT.
+
+The ultimate message was hurriedly printed with blotched type:
+
+  THE NITROGEN AREA IS ALMOST UNINHABITED, THE REMAINDER OF THE
+  POPULATION HAVING FLED IN PANIC. THE PLAGUE IS SPREADING BROADCAST
+  OVER ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. ISOLATE YOURSELVES, OTHERWISE SAFETY IS
+  IMPOSSIBLE.
+
+After this had been dropped from the air, the skies remained empty. No
+aeroplanes appeared.
+
+Thus, with a stunning suddenness, the population of the kingdom
+learned that their hopes were shattered. It is true that there were
+still channels of communication open here and there through which the
+news might have spread to contradict the stories from the sky. But
+Nordenholt had done his work with demonic certainty. By the very form
+of his attack he closed these few remaining routes along which the
+truth might have percolated. Strangers were forbidden to enter any
+district for fear that they might bring the Plague with them; and thus
+each community remained closed to the outer world. With the increase in
+the terror, even neighbouring villages ceased to have any connection
+with one another. The Leviathan was dead.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+With this closing of the avenues of communication, the problem of
+food-supply became acute. The rations remaining in each centre were
+distributed hurriedly and inefficiently among the population; and then
+the end was in sight.
+
+I have no wish to dwell upon that side of the story. I saw glimpses
+of it, as I shall tell in due course, but all I need do here is to
+indicate certain results which flowed naturally from the condition of
+things.
+
+When the coal- and food-shortage became acute, the population divided
+itself naturally into two classes. On the one hand were those who,
+moved either by timidity of new conditions or a fear of the Plague,
+fortified themselves in their dwellings and ceased to stir beyond their
+doors until the end overtook them; whilst, on the other, a second
+section of the population driven either by despair or adventurousness,
+quitted the districts in which it knew there was no hope of survival
+and went forth into the unknown to seek better conditions.
+
+Thus in the ultimate stages of the _débâcle_, the country resembled a
+group of armed camps through which wandered a floating population of
+many thousand souls, growing more and more desperate as they journeyed
+onward in search of an unattainable goal. In the movements of this
+migratory horde, two main streams could be perceived. Those who had
+set forth from the cities knew that no food remained in the large
+aggregations of population; and they therefore wandered ever outward
+from their starting-point; the country legions, knowing that the land
+was barren, fixed their eyes upon the great centres in the hope that
+there the stores of food would still be unexhausted. Both were doomed
+to disappointment, but despair drove them on from point to point.
+
+Of all the centres of attraction, London formed the greatest magnet
+to draw to itself these floating and isolated particles of humanity.
+Like fragments of flotsam in a whirlpool, they were attracted into its
+confines; and once within that labyrinth, they emerged no more. Lost in
+its unfamiliar mazes, they wandered here and there, unable to escape
+even if they had wished to do so; and no Ariadne waited on them with
+her clue. Perhaps I overrate the strangeness of the spectacle and lay
+more stress upon it than it deserves. It may be that in the depths of
+the country even weirder things were done. But London I saw with my own
+eyes in the last stages of its career; and I cannot shake myself free
+from the impression made upon me by that uncanny shadow-show beneath
+the moon.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Gradually but surely the tide of human existence ebbed in Britain
+outside the Nitrogen Area. Here and there in the central districts
+there might be isolated patches whereon some living creatures remained
+by accident with food sufficient to prolong their vitality for a
+little longer; but after a few months even these were obliterated and
+the last survivors of the race of men were to be found clinging to
+the coasts of the island where food was still to be procured from the
+sea. Some of them struggled through the Famine period under these
+conditions; but most of them perished eventually from starvation; for
+even in the marine areas conditions were changing and the old abundant
+harvest of sea-creatures had passed away. The herring and other edible
+fish were driven to new feeding-grounds. The supply brought in by
+the fishing-boats diminished steadily, until at last men ceased to
+go out upon the waters and gave up the struggle. The winter was an
+exceptionally bitter one--possibly the change in the surface conditions
+produced by _B. diazotans_ affected the world-climate, though that is
+still a moot point--and the cold completed the work. Long before the
+spring came, Britain was a mere Raft of the _Medusa_ lying upon the
+waters and peopled by a handful of survivors out of what had once been
+a mighty company.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+Fata Morgana
+
+
+To explain how I came to witness the spectacle of London in its
+extremity, I must go back to the evening at Nordenholt’s which I have
+already described. He persisted in his project of forcing us into the
+fresh air, often twice or thrice a week if the weather was favourable;
+and to tell the truth, I was nothing loath. Over a hundred hours of my
+week were spent in concentrated mental activity under conditions which
+removed me more and more from direct contact with human affairs as time
+went on; and I looked forward with pleasure to these brief interludes
+during which I could take up once more the threads of my old life and
+its interests.
+
+Nordenholt himself contributed but little to the conversation on these
+excursions. Sometimes he brought with him one of his numerous experts
+and spent the time in technical discussions; but usually he occupied
+the back seat of the car alone, lost in his thoughts and plans, while I
+drove and Miss Huntingtower sat beside me.
+
+As our time was limited, and we wished to avoid the city as much as
+possible, our routes were mainly those to the west, by the Kilpatrick
+Hills or the Campsies. We never pushed farther afield, as Nordenholt
+had forbidden me to go outside the boundaries of the Nitrogen Area. I
+think he was afraid of what she might see by the roadside if we passed
+the frontier.
+
+Even during these few short afternoons, I came to know her better.
+Somehow I had got the impression that she was graver than her years
+justified; but I found that in this estimate I was mistaken. She was
+sobered by the responsibility of her work, but underneath this she
+seemed to have a natural craving for the enjoyment of life, and a
+capacity for making the best of things which was suited to my own mood.
+She was quite unaffected; I never found her posing in any way. Whether
+she chattered nonsense--and I believe both of us did that at times--or
+was discussing the future, she gave me the impression of being
+perfectly natural.
+
+We used to make all sorts of plans for the future of the world, once
+the danger was past; half-trivial, half-serious schemes which somehow
+took on an air of fairy-tale reality. “When I am Queen, I will set
+such and such a grievance right”; “In the first year of my Presidency,
+I will publish an edict forbidding so and so.” Between us, on these
+drives, we planned a fairy kingdom in the future, a new Garden of
+the Hesperides, a dream-built Thelema of sunlit walls and towers and
+pleasure-grounds wherein might dwell the coming generations of men.
+The future! Somehow that was always with us. Less and less did we go
+backward into the past. That world was over, never to return; but the
+years still to come gave us full scope for our fancies and to them we
+turned with eager eyes.
+
+The diversion grew upon us as time went on. It was always spontaneous,
+for our work gave neither of us an opportunity for thinking out
+details; and each afternoon brought its fresh store of improvisations.
+Through it all, she was the dreamer of dreams; it was my part to throw
+her visions into a practically attainable form: and gradually, out of
+it all, there arose a fabric of phantasy which yet had its foundations
+in the solid earth.
+
+It took form; we could walk its streets in reverie and pace its lawns.
+And gradually that land of Faerie came to be peopled with inhabitants,
+mere phantasms at first, but growing ever more real as we talked of
+them between ourselves. Half in jest and half in earnest we created
+them, and soon they twined themselves about our hearts. Children of our
+brain, they were; dearer than any earthly offspring, for from them we
+need fear no disappointments.
+
+Fata Morgana we christened our City, after the mirage in the Straits of
+Messina; for it had that mixture of clear outline and unsubstantiality
+which seemed to fit the name.
+
+So we planned the future together out of such stuff as dreams are made
+on. And behind us, grim and silent, sat Nordenholt, the real architect
+of the coming time.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He never interrupted our talks; and I had no idea that he had even
+overheard them until one day he called me into his office. He seemed
+unusually grave.
+
+“Sit down, Jack,” he said, and I started slightly to hear him use the
+name, since hitherto I had always been simply “Flint” to him. “I’ve got
+something serious to discuss with you; and it won’t keep much longer.”
+
+He looked up at the great Nitrogen Curve above the mantelpiece and
+seemed to brood over the inclinations of the red and green lines upon
+it. They were closing upon one another now, though some distance still
+separated them.
+
+“Did it ever occur to you that I can’t go on for ever?”
+
+“Well, I suppose that none of us can go on for ever; but I don’t think
+I would worry too much over that, Nordenholt. Of course you’re doing
+thrice the work that I am; but I don’t see much sign of it affecting
+you yet.”
+
+“Have a good look.”
+
+He swung round to the light so that I could see his face clearly;
+and it dawned upon me that it was very different from the face I
+had seen first at the meeting in London. The old masterfulness was
+there, increased if anything; but the leanness was accentuated over
+the cheek-bones and there was a weary look in the eyes which was
+new to me. I had never noticed the change, even though I saw him
+daily--possibly because of that very fact. The alteration had been so
+gradual that it was only by comparing him with what I remembered that I
+could trace its full extent.
+
+“Satisfied, eh?”
+
+“Well, there is a change, certainly; but I don’t think it amounts to
+much.”
+
+“The inside is worse than the surface, I’m afraid. But don’t worry
+about that. I’ll last the distance, I believe. It’s what will happen
+after the finish that is perplexing me now.”
+
+I muttered something which I meant to be encouraging.
+
+“Well, have it your own way, if you like,” he replied; “but I _know_. I
+have enough energy to see me through this stage of the thing; but this
+is only a beginning. After it, comes reconstruction; and I shall be
+exhausted by that time. I can carry on under this strain long enough to
+see safety in sight; but someone else must take up the burden then. I
+won’t risk doing it myself. I must have a fresh mind on the thing. So I
+have to cast about me now for my successor.”
+
+It was a great shock to hear him speak in this tone. Somehow I had
+become so accustomed to look up to Nordenholt as a tower of strength
+that it was hard to realise that there might some day be a change
+of masters. And yet, like all his views, this was accurate. When we
+reached the other bank, he would have strained himself to the utmost
+and would have very few reserves left.
+
+“I’ve been watching you, Jack,” he went on. “I’ve got fairly sharp
+ears; and your talks in the car interested me.”
+
+I was aghast at this; for I had believed that these dreams and
+plannings were things entirely between Miss Huntingtower and myself.
+They certainly were not meant for anyone else.
+
+“At first,” he went on, “I thought it was only talk to pass the time;
+but by-and-by I saw how it attracted you both. After all, there are
+worse ways of passing an afternoon than in building castles in the
+air. But what I liked about your castles was that they had their roots
+in the earth. You have a knack of solid building, Jack, even in your
+dreams. It’s a rare gift, very rare. I felt more friendly to you when I
+followed all that.”
+
+There was no patronage in his tone. As usual, he seemed to be stating
+what appeared to him an obvious conclusion.
+
+“The upshot is,” he went on, “that I’m going to dismiss you from
+your present post and put you in charge of a new Department dealing
+with Reconstruction. There will be one condition--or rather two
+conditions--attached to it; but they aren’t hard ones. Will you take
+it?”
+
+Of course I was taken completely aback. I had never dreamed of such
+a thing; and I hardly knew what to say. I stammered some sort of an
+acceptance as soon as I could find my voice.
+
+“Very good. You cut loose from your present affairs from this moment.
+Anglesey will take over. You can give him all the pointers he asks for
+to-day; and after that he must fend for himself. I’ll have no two minds
+on that line of work.
+
+“Now as to the new thing. It will make you my successor, of course;
+and I want to start with a word of warning. Unlimited power is bad for
+any man. You have only to look at the example of the Cæsars to see
+that: Caligula, Tiberius, Nero, you’ll find the whole sordid business
+in Suetonius. And I can tell you the same thing at first hand myself.
+I’ve got unlimited power here nowadays; and it isn’t doing me any good.
+I feel that I am going downhill under it daily. You’ll probably see it
+yourself before long, although I’ve fought to keep it in check. So much
+for the warning.
+
+“Now as to the conditions. I admired your dream-cities, Jack. I wish
+you could build them all in stone. But even if you were to do that,
+they would still have to be peopled; and I doubt if you will find the
+men and women whom you want for them among the present population.
+Mind you, I believe you have good material there; but it has a basis
+in the brute which none of your dream-people had. You don’t realise
+that factor; you couldn’t understand its strength unless you saw it
+actually before you: and my first condition is meant to let you see the
+frailty with which you will have to contend and which you will have to
+eliminate before you can see that visionary race pacing the gardens in
+your Fata Morgana. It’s all in full blast within five hundred miles
+of here. London is thronged with people just the same as those down
+there in the factories; and I want you to see what it amounts to when
+you take off the leash. So the first condition is that you go down
+to London and see it with your own eyes. I could prepare you for it
+from the reports I have; but I think it will be better if you see it
+for yourself and don’t trust to any other person. I’ll make all the
+arrangements; and you can leave in a couple of days.”
+
+I am no enthusiast for digging into the baser side of human nature, and
+the prospect which he held out was not an inviting one to me. But I
+could see that he laid stress upon it, so I merely nodded my consent.
+
+“Now the second condition. I daresay that you alone could plan a very
+good scheme of reconstruction; but it would be a pure male scheme. You
+can’t put yourself in any woman’s place and see things with her eyes,
+try as you will. But this Fata Morgana of yours, when it rises, has to
+be inhabited by both men and women; and you have to make it as fit for
+the women as for the men. That’s where you would collapse.”
+
+“I suppose you’re right. I don’t know much about a woman’s point of
+view. I never had even a sister to enlighten me.”
+
+“Quite so. I judged as much from some things. Well, my second condition
+is that you take over Elsa as a colleague. It was hearing the two of
+you talk that gave me the idea of using you, Jack; so it is only fair
+that she should have a share in the thing also.”
+
+“But would Miss Huntingtower leave you?”
+
+“I’ll try to persuade her. Anyway, leave it to me. But remember, Jack,
+not a word to her about London or the South. She knows nothing of that
+yet. I’ve kept her work confined entirely to Area affairs. I want to
+spare her as long as I can; for she’ll take it hard when it comes.
+She’ll take it very hard, I’m afraid. Until you’re back from London I
+shall say nothing to her about your being away, lest she asks where you
+have gone.”
+
+I was still dazzled by the promotion he had promised me; and I thanked
+him for it, again and again. When I left him, my mind was still full of
+it all. I don’t know that I felt the responsibility at first; it was
+rather the chance of bringing things nearer to that dream-city which we
+had built upon the clouds, that I felt most strongly. I had no doubt
+that I could lay the foundations securely; and upon them Elsa could
+build those fragile upper courses in which she delighted. It would be
+our own Fata Morgana, but reared by human hands.
+
+So I dreamed....
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+Nuit Blanche
+
+
+The aeroplane which carried me southward alighted on the Hendon
+flying-ground when dusk was falling. As we crossed Hertfordshire I had
+seen in front of me, to the south-east, a great pall of cloud which
+seemed to hang above the city; and as the daylight faded, this curtain
+became lit up with a red glow like the sky above a blast-furnace.
+
+When we landed, I found that all arrangements had already been made by
+Nordenholt; for after I had removed my flying kit an untidy-looking,
+unshaven man made his appearance, who introduced himself as my guide
+for the night. He advised me to have a meal and try to snatch a little
+sleep before we started. We dined together in one of the buildings--for
+Nordenholt had spared the Hendon aerodrome in the general destruction
+of the exodus, though he had burned all the aeroplanes which were
+there at the time--and during the meal my guide gave me hints as to my
+behaviour while I was under his charge, so that I might not attract
+attention under the new conditions. Above all, he warned me not to show
+any surprise at anything I might see.
+
+After I had dozed for a time, he reappeared and insisted on rubbing
+some burnt cork well into my skin under the eyes and on my cheeks, and
+also giving my hands and the rest of my face a lighter treatment with
+the same medium.
+
+“You look far too well-fed and clean to pass muster here. There’s very
+little soap left now; and most of us don’t shave. Must make you look
+the part.”
+
+He handed me two ·45 Colt pistols and a couple of loaded spare
+magazines.
+
+“Shove these extra cartridges into a handy pocket as well. The Colts
+are loaded and there’s an extra cartridge in the breech of each. That
+gives you eighteen shots without reloading; and sixteen more when you
+snick in the fresh magazines. You know how to do it? Pull down the
+safety catches. If you have to shoot, shoot at once; and shoot in any
+case of doubt. Don’t stop to argue.”
+
+A motor-car was waiting for us with two men in the front seats. The
+glass of the wind-screen bore a small square of paper with a red cross
+printed on the white ground; and I saw that one of the side-light
+glasses had been painted a peculiar colour. My guide and I climbed
+into the back seats and the car moved off. When we passed out of the
+aerodrome I observed that the entrance was defended by machine-guns;
+and a large flag of some coloured bunting was flown on a short staff.
+As it waved in the air, I caught the letters “PLAGUE” on it.
+
+“To keep off visitors,” said my guide. “By the way, my name’s Glendyne.
+Oh, by Jove, I’ve forgotten something important.”
+
+He took out of the door-pocket a couple of armlets with the Red Cross
+on them and fastened one on my left arm, putting the other one on
+himself. I gathered that they formed part of his disguise.
+
+It was night now. The sky was clear except for some clouds on the
+horizon and the full moon was up, so that we hardly needed the
+head-lights to see our way. Again I noticed the peculiar red glow which
+I had seen from the aeroplane; but now, being nearer, I saw flickerings
+in it. There were no artificial lights, either of gas or electricity,
+in the streets through which we passed. Very occasionally I saw human
+forms moving in the distance; but they were too far off for me to
+distinguish what sort of person was abroad. In the main, the figures
+which I espied were reclining on the ground, some singly, others in
+groups; and for a time I did not realise that these were corpses.
+
+We soon diverged from the main road and drove through a series of
+by-streets in which I lost my sense of direction until at last I
+discovered that we were passing the old Cavalry Barracks in Albany
+Street.
+
+“Halt!”
+
+The car drew up suddenly and in the glare of our head-lights I saw a
+group of men carrying rifles and fixed bayonets; bandoliers were slung
+across their shoulders, but otherwise there was no sign of uniform.
+
+“Where’s your permit?... Doctor’s car, is it? We’ve been taken in by
+that once before. Never again, thank you. Out with that permit if you
+have it, or it will be the worse for you.”
+
+The armed group covered us with their rifles while Glendyne searched in
+his pocket. At last he produced a paper which the leader of the patrol
+examined.
+
+“Oh, it’s you, Glendyne? Sorry to trouble you, but we can’t help it.
+A medical car came through the other night and played Old Harry with
+a patrol at Park Square; so we have to be careful, you see. I think
+it was some of Johansen’s little lot who had stolen a Red Cross car.
+Stephen got them with a bomb at Hanover Gate later in the evening and
+there wasn’t enough left to be sure who they were. Why they can’t leave
+this district alone beats me. They have most of London left to rollic
+in; and yet they must come here where no one wants them. By the way,
+where are you going?”
+
+“Leaving the car at Wood’s Garage. Going down to the Circus on foot
+after that, I think; probably via Euston, though.”
+
+“All right. I’ll telephone down. Sanderson’s patrol is out there in
+Portland Place and he might shoot you by accident. I’ll get him to look
+out for you on your way back.”
+
+“Thanks. Very good of you, I’m sure.”
+
+Our car ran forward again to the foot of Albany Street, where we turned
+in to a large public garage.
+
+“What was that patrol?” I asked Glendyne.
+
+“Local Vigilance Committee. Some districts have them. Trying to keep
+out the scum and looters.”
+
+“But what about this being a medical car?”
+
+“I _am_ a medical. Was an asylum doctor before Nordenholt picked me
+out for this job. Medical cars can go anywhere even now; but we can do
+better on foot for the particular work you want to-night.”
+
+He seemed to be a man of few words; but I had been struck by the empty
+state of the garage and wished to know where the usual multitude of
+cars had gone.
+
+“Most owners took their machines away in the rush out of London. Any
+cars left were looted long ago. Have to leave a guard now on any car,
+otherwise we’d have the petrol stolen before we were back. You’ll see
+later.”
+
+There were no lights burning in the Euston Road, either in the streets
+or at house-windows. Coming in the car, I had given little heed to
+the lack of passers-by; but here, in a district which swarmed with
+population in the old days, I could not help being struck by the change
+of atmosphere. All inhabitants seemed to have vanished, leaving not a
+trace. I asked Glendyne if this region was entirely deserted; but he
+explained to me that in all probability there were still a number of
+survivors.
+
+“No one shows a light after dark in a house if they can help it,” he
+said. “It simply invites looters.”
+
+“The full moon stood well above the house-tops, lighting up the streets
+far ahead of us. Wheeled traffic seemed non-existent; nor could I see
+a single human being. Just beyond the Tube Station, however, I observed
+what I took to be a bundle of clothes lying by the roadside. Closer
+inspection proved it to be a complete skeleton dressed in a shabby
+suit of serge. While I was puzzling over this, Glendyne, seeing my
+perplexity, gave me the explanation.”
+
+“Looking for the flesh, I suppose? Gone long ago. _B. diazotans_ takes
+care of that, or we should have had a real Plague instead of a fake
+one, considering the number of deaths there have been. As soon as
+life goes out, all flesh is attacked by bacteria, but _B. diazotans_
+beats the putrefying bacteria in quick action. You’ll find no decaying
+corpses about. Quite a clean affair.”
+
+Leaving the skeleton behind us, we continued our way. I suppose if I
+had been a novelist’s hero I should have examined the pockets of the
+man and discovered some document of priceless value in them. I must
+confess the idea of searching the clothes never occurred to me till
+long afterwards; and I doubt if there was anything useful in them
+anyway.
+
+As we walked eastwards towards Euston I noticed that the red glow
+before us was shot now and again with a tongue of flame. We passed
+several isolated corpses, or rather skeletons, and suddenly I came upon
+a group of them which covered most of the roadway. I noticed that all
+the heads pointed in one direction and that the greater number of the
+dead had accumulated on the steps of a looted public-house. Noticing my
+astonishment, Glendyne condescended to explain.
+
+“Crawled there at the last gasp looking for alcohol to brace them up
+for another day, I expect. See the attitudes? All making for the door.
+Hopeless, anyway. The stuff must have been looted long before they got
+near it. Curious how one finds them like that, all clustered together,
+either at the door of a pub or the porch of a church. A Martian would
+think that drink and religion were the only things which attracted
+humanity in the end.”
+
+It was near Whitfield Street that I saw a relic of the exodus from
+London. Two cars, a limousine and a big five-seater, had collided at
+high speed; for both of them were badly wrecked, and the touring-car
+had been driven right across the pavement and through a shop-front.
+To judge from the skeletons in the limousine, its passengers had been
+killed by the shock.
+
+Leaving this scene of disaster, we walked eastward again. I glanced
+up each side-street as I passed, but there were no signs of living
+beings. In the stillness, our footsteps rang upon the pavements; but
+the noise attracted no one to our neighbourhood. It was not until we
+reached the corner of Tottenham Court Road that I was again reminded
+of my fellow-men. A sound of distant singing reached my ears: fifty
+or a hundred voices rising and falling in some simple air which had
+a strangely familiar ring, though I could not recall exactly what it
+reminded me of at the time. The singers were far off, however; for when
+we halted at the street-corner I could see no one in Tottenham Court
+Road; and we went on our way once more.
+
+The notice-boards at the gate of Euston Station were covered with
+recently-posted bills; and seeing the word PLAGUE in large letters
+upon some of them I halted for a moment to read the inscriptions.
+They were all of a kind: quack advertisements of nostrums to prevent
+the infection or to cure the disease. I was somewhat grimly amused to
+find that there was still a market for such trash even amid the final
+convulsion of humanity. The only difference between them and their
+fore-runners was that instead of money the vendors demanded food in
+exchange for their cures. Flour, bread, or oatmeal seemed to be the
+currency in vogue.
+
+The station itself was dark; but here and there in the Hotel windows
+glowed with lamp or candle-light. “Probably some select orgy or
+other,” was Glendyne’s explanation; and he refused to investigate
+further. “No use thrusting oneself in where one isn’t wanted. In these
+times the light alone is a danger signal when you know your way about.”
+
+It was in Endsleigh Gardens that we came across another living
+creature. Half-way along, I caught sight of a figure crouching in a
+doorway. At first I took it for a skeleton; but as we drew near it rose
+to its feet and I found that it was a man, indescribably filthy and
+with a matted beard. When he spoke to us, I detected a Semitic tinge in
+his speech.
+
+“Give me some food, kind gentlemen! Jahveh will reward you. A sparrow,
+or even some biscuit crumbs? Be merciful, kind gentlemen.”
+
+“Got none to spare,” said Glendyne roughly.
+
+“Ah, kind gentlemen, kind gentlemen, surely you have food for a
+starving man? See, I will pay you for it. A sovereign for a sparrow?
+_Two_ sovereigns for a sparrow? Listen, kind gentlemen, five pounds for
+a rat--eight pounds if it is a fat one. I could make soup with a rat.”
+
+“There’s no food here for you.”
+
+“But, gentlemen, you don’t understand; you don’t understand. I can make
+you rich. Gold, much fine gold, for a miserable sparrow--or a rat! You
+think I am too poor to have gold? You despise me because I am clothed
+in rags? What are rags to me, who am richer than Solomon? I can pay; I
+can pay.”
+
+He kept pace with us, shuffling along in the gutter; and I noticed that
+the sole of one of his boots flapped loose at each step he took. After
+glancing around suspiciously as though afraid of being overheard, he
+continued in a lower tone:
+
+“Jahveh has laid a great task upon me. I can _make_ gold! Give me
+food, even the smallest scrap, and you shall be richer than Solomon.
+All that your hearts desire shall be yours, kind gentlemen. Apes,
+ivory, peacocks and the riches of the East shall come to you. I will
+give you gold for your palaces and you shall deck them with beryl and
+chrysoberyl, sapphire, chrysolite and sardonyx. Diamonds shall be
+yours, and the stones of Sardis.... These do not tempt you? I curse you
+by the bones of Isaac! May all the burden of Gerizim and Ebal fall upon
+you!”
+
+He broke off, almost inarticulate with rage; then, mastering himself,
+he continued in a calmer tone.
+
+“A few crumbs of bread, kind gentlemen; even the scrapings of your
+pocket-linings. Or a sparrow? Think what can be bought with my gold.
+Slaves to your desire, concubines of the fairest, brought from all the
+parts of the world, whose love is more than wine....”
+
+It enraged me to hear this filthy object profaning all the material
+splendours of the world; and I thrust him aside roughly. My movement
+seemed to bring his suppressed anger to its climax.
+
+“You doubt me? You will not hear the word of Jahveh’s messenger? See,
+I will make gold before you; and then you shall fall down and offer me
+all the food you have--for I know you have food. Look well, O fools; I
+will make gold for you this moment.”
+
+He stooped down as though lifting something invisible in handfuls and
+then made the motion of throwing.
+
+“See! My gold! I throw it abroad. Look how it glitters in the light of
+the moon. Hear how it tinkles as it falls upon the pavement. There”--he
+pointed suddenly--“see how the coins spin and run upon the ground.
+Gold! Much fine gold! Is it not enough? Then here is more.”
+
+He repeated his motion of lifting something, this time with both hands
+as though he were delving in loose sand.
+
+“See! Gold dust! I throw it; and it falls in showers. I scatter it;
+and there is a golden cloud about us. I give it all to you, kind
+gentlemen. Surely all this is worth a rat, a fat one; a rat to make
+soup?”
+
+He looked at us expectantly, holding out his empty hands as though they
+contained something which he wished us to examine.
+
+“Still you are not convinced? Not so much as a sparrow for all this
+gold? I have fallen amid a generation of vipers. Ha! You would rob me
+of my gold; you would take it all and give me not so much as a rat?
+But I shall escape you. Even now I go to prepare the streets of the
+new Jerusalem. Jahveh has commanded me that I make them ready with my
+finest gold. He has prepared the smelting-furnace here in this city; it
+burns with fire; and I have but to lay my gold in its streets so that
+they shall all be covered. I go! Gold! Gold!”
+
+He ran from us; and we heard his voice in Gordon Street crying “Gold!
+Gold!” as he went.
+
+After he had left us, we came by Upper Woburn Place into Tavistock
+Square; and it was here that I met the first _petroleuse_. Some houses
+were burning in Burton Crescent. Suddenly at the corner of the entry
+I saw a figure appear, an oldish woman in rags, carrying a petrol tin
+and a dipper. She hobbled along, throwing liquid from her tin at every
+house-door as she passed. Sometimes she broke a window and threw petrol
+into the room beyond. I lost sight of her when she turned into Burton
+Street; but she soon reappeared, having evidently exhausted her stores.
+She now carried an improvised torch in her hand with which she set
+fire to the petrol spilled about the doors on her previous passage.
+Soon each doorway was a mass of flames; and she retired into Burton
+Crescent, with a final glance to see that her work had been well done.
+
+“That sort of thing is going on all over the East End now,” said
+Glendyne, “and you see that it is spreading westward too. It
+began by the East Enders running out of coal. Then they took to
+lighting bonfires in the streets with wood from the houses, to keep
+themselves warm. And finally houses caught fire and they got the
+taste for destruction. You’re seeing the last of London. There are no
+fire-brigades now. It’s only a question of time before the whole city
+is ablaze.”
+
+Russell Square was dark like all the rest of the streets; but the moon
+lit it up sufficiently for us to see what was going on in Southampton
+Row, where a band of men were engaged in breaking into a druggist’s
+shop.
+
+“What do they expect to find there?” I asked. “It doesn’t seem very
+promising from the looter’s point of view.”
+
+“Cocaine and morphia, of course,” Glendyne replied, “or ether to get
+drunk on, if they aren’t very sophisticated. They’ll do anything to
+keep down hunger pangs nowadays, you know.”
+
+We crossed the south side of Russell Square, making for Montague
+Street, when my attention was attracted by the sound of singing which
+I had previously heard in Tottenham Court Road. The voices were nearer
+this time; and I was able to make out one line of the song:
+
+  “_Here we go dancing, under the Moon...._”
+
+“What’s that?” I asked Glendyne.
+
+“What? Oh, that? Some of the Dancers, I expect. We’ll come across them
+later on, no doubt. Nothing to be alarmed about. Come along!”
+
+Just as we were moving on, however, at the turning into Montague Street
+there came a soft whirring behind us; a great limousine car drew up
+at the kerb; and from its interior descended a tall figure which
+approached us. As he drew near, I saw in the moonlight that it was a
+thin and white-haired man, showing no signs of the usual grime. He
+seemed a gentle old man, out of place in this city of nightmare; but
+as I looked more closely into his face I could see something abnormal
+in his eyes.
+
+“You will excuse me for interrupting you, gentlemen; but I wish to put
+an important question to you. What is Truth?”
+
+Glendyne gave an impatient snarl in reply. Probably he was completely
+_blasé_ by this time; and took little interest in the vagaries of the
+human mind. As for myself, I was so taken aback by this latest comer
+that I could only stare without answering.
+
+The old man looked at us eagerly for a moment; then disappointment
+clouded his face and he turned back to his car. We watched him without
+speaking as he stepped into it. The chauffeur drove on, leaving us as
+silently as he had come.
+
+When we reached the great gates of the British Museum, I was somewhat
+surprised to find them standing wide. I suppose that even amid the
+abnormalities of this new London my memory was working upon its old
+lines, and it seemed strange to see this entrance open at that time of
+night. To my astonishment, Glendyne turned into the court.
+
+“I just want to show you a curious survival in the Reading Room here.”
+
+Inside the building, all was dark; but by the light of an electric
+torch we found our way to the back of the premises. The Reading Room
+was dotted here and there with tiny lights like stars in the gloom; and
+within each nimbus I saw a face bent in the study of a volume.
+
+“Still reading, you see,” said Glendyne. “Even in the last crash some
+of them are eager for knowledge. How they find the books they want
+passes my comprehension; for, of course, there is no one left to give
+them out. But they seem able to pick out what they need from the
+shelves.”
+
+He threw his flashlight here and there in the gloom, lighting up
+figure after figure. Some of them turned and gazed toward us with
+dazzled eyes; but others continued their reading without paying us any
+attention. It reminded me of a glimpse into the City of Dreadful Night;
+but it seemed better than the things we had met in our wanderings
+outside. After all, there was something almost heroic in this vain
+acquirement of learning at a moment when human things seemed doomed to
+destruction.
+
+As we emerged from the Museum, it seemed to me that the glare of the
+flames in the sky was brighter; but this may have been due merely to
+the increased sensitiveness of my retina after the darkness within the
+building. We turned to the right and followed Great Russell Street
+westwards.
+
+We crossed Oxford Street and turned down Charing Cross Road. At the
+lower end of the street, houses were burning furiously, and I could
+hear the sound of the fires and the crash of falling girders. Beyond
+Cambridge Circus the road was impassable. Sutton Street seemed to be
+the only way left to us. As we came into it, I noticed that the dead
+were much more numerous here and that many of them held clasped in
+their skeleton hands a crucifix or a rosary.
+
+“Making their way to St. Patrick’s when they died,” Glendyne explained
+to me. As we came closer to the church, we found living mingled with
+the dead. Some of them were so feeble that they could crawl no further;
+but others were still making efforts to drag themselves nearer to the
+door. Organ music came from the porch, and I halted amid the dead and
+dying to listen to the voices of the choir:
+
+  “_Dies irae, dies illa
+  Solvet saeclum in favilla...._”
+
+It was weirdly apposite, there in the centre of that burning city. Then
+the choir continued:
+
+  “_Tuba mirum spargens sonum
+  Per sepulchra regionum
+  Coget omnes ante thronum._”
+
+Hardly had the thunder of the great vowels died away when from the
+crowd around us came a bitter cry, the sound of some soul in its agony.
+It startled me; and as I turned round, there ran a movement through
+that multitude of dead and dying, as though in very truth the trumpets
+had called the dead to life and judgment. The cry had been heard within
+the church; for a priest came to the porch and blessed them. It seemed
+to bring comfort to those alive.
+
+“Let’s get out of this,” I said to Glendyne. “We can’t help; and it’s
+needless to stay here. I can’t stand it.”
+
+“All right,” he said philosophically. “Personally, I don’t mind this
+so much as some of the other things one sees. These people, you know,
+by their way of it, have put themselves under the protection of the
+Church. Their path is clear. There’s only Death now for them, and,
+after all, each of us comes to that in his own time. _They_ will go out
+with easy minds.”
+
+As we came into Soho Square, I was reminded of the fact that even in
+this city of the dying, human passions still remained. From Greek
+Street came the sound of revolver shots: three in rapid succession,
+evidently a duel, and then a gasping cry, followed by a final shot.
+Then silence for a moment; and at last the noise of heavy foot-falls
+dying away in the direction of Old Compton Street.
+
+“What’s that?”
+
+“How should I know?” Glendyne retorted. “Probably some of the foreign
+scum settling a difference among themselves. We never bother about
+this district. Too dangerous to poke one’s nose into. If I were to go
+and try to help, I’d most probably get shot for my pains. One gets to
+know one’s way about, after a time. A few weeks ago I tried the Good
+Samaritan on one of these foreigners and he almost succeeded in knifing
+me for my pains. I suppose he thought I was one of his friends come
+to finish the job. He was shot through the lung anyway, so I don’t
+suppose I could have helped much, even if I had persisted.”
+
+Soho Square was deserted. The mingled red and silver light from the
+burning houses and the moon lay across it; but nothing moved. We turned
+northward into Soho Street. It also was empty when we entered it; but
+while we walked up it a figure entered it from the Oxford Street end.
+As it approached, Glendyne made a gesture of recognition, and when the
+two met it was evident that they were well acquainted with one another.
+
+“That you, Glendyne? Glad to see you again. It’s a week since we met, I
+think.”
+
+It was a tall thin clergyman with a clear-cut ascetic face,
+clean-shaven in spite of the prevailing lack of soap. For the first
+time that night I saw that the city had thrown up a man who was
+definitely sane. His keen glance, his air of competence and his
+matter-of-fact mode of speech were in strong contrast to what I had
+become accustomed to expect from the inhabitants of this Inferno.
+Glendyne introduced me with some perfunctory words which left my
+presence unexplained; and the clergyman seemed to accept me without
+comment.
+
+“Things are going from bad to worse, Glendyne,” he said. “I’m sometimes
+tempted to take advantage of your offer and clear out some of these
+places with a bomb or two.”
+
+“What’s wrong now?” Glendyne inquired, without much apparent interest.
+
+“Well, I can stand a good deal--have had to, you know. But when it
+comes to open idolatry in the West End, I must say I begin to draw the
+line.”
+
+“Remember two can play at that game, if you _do_ begin. If you
+interfere with them, they will interfere with you.”
+
+“Of course, you’re quite right. So far we have had no persecution; I’ll
+say that for them. But sometimes temptation is as bad as persecution,
+or even worse. Persecution couldn’t last long now anyway; and it would
+only knit us together: but temptation is a different matter. I’ve
+lost two girls in the last three days--enticed away by the Dancers.
+Sickening business, for one knows how that always ends. One of them
+was taken from my side as we were walking along the street together;
+and I was jammed in the crowd and could do nothing. She just cracked
+up, got hysterical and darted off. I lost sight of her almost at once.
+Of course she never came back. Damn them!” he ended with extraordinary
+bitterness.
+
+“Well, it can’t be helped. You do all that a man can do to keep them
+sane; and if you fail, it’s no fault of yours.”
+
+“What has that to do with it?” cried the clergyman vehemently. “Do
+you think I care one way or another for that? It’s the sight of these
+souls going down to damnation that I care about. In a few days we
+must all meet our Judge, and these poor things go before Him soiled
+in body and soul! _That’s_ what hurts, Glendyne. Six months ago we
+were all living a normal life; I was preaching the Gospel and doing my
+best to bring light into these people’s lives. I doubt I was slack in
+some ways, knowing what I do now. I didn’t realise the gulfs in the
+darkness through which we walked in this world. I knew very little of
+the horrors lurking under the surface. And now comes this outpouring of
+Hell! I used to think one should cover up all the worst in life, keep
+it from one’s eyes. Perhaps if I had known more, I might have been of
+more use now. But at first I didn’t know. I didn’t recognise the forms
+under which temptation could come. Half my flock had fallen before
+I had opened my eyes to what was happening. Think of that! My sheer
+ignorance of life, look what it has cost!”
+
+“Well, well,” said Glendyne. “No use crying over spilt milk, is there?
+You did your best according to your lights. You weren’t trained as a
+mental specialist, you know.”
+
+“Thanks so much, Bildad Redivivus, but I’m afraid your argument helps
+no more nowadays than it did a few thousand years ago in the Land of
+Uz. I _ought_ to have known better; but I shut my eyes. I thought these
+things unclean and despised them; and now they have ruined my work
+because I did not take the trouble to understand them.
+
+“You can’t guess what it is like now, Glendyne. They are celebrating
+the Black Mass in Hyde Park and holding Witches’ Sabbaths. All the old
+evil things which we thought had died out of the race have reappeared,
+all the foulest practices and superstitions have come to life. It’s
+terrible.”
+
+“The old gods were never dead, although you pretended they were. Now
+they have come again, you have got to make the best of it. It’s not for
+long, anyway. Another week or two and the last food will be gone.”
+
+“I pray for that day, Glendyne. I never thought to see it; but I go on
+my knees many times daily and pray that it may come soon. Some of my
+people I know will be stedfast; but the contagion attacks the younger
+ones with an awful swiftness.”
+
+“Collective hysteria. I know. Keep them indoors as much as possible,
+especially the girls. You can do nothing more.”
+
+“I suppose not. Anyway, I’ll do what I can, if only I can hold out
+till the end myself. And to think that once I used to imagine that a
+minister’s life circled round through sermons, prayer-meetings and
+visiting the sick! Why, I didn’t know the beginnings of it!”
+
+“Don’t worry about the past. I’m speaking as a medico now. Get on with
+your work and leave the thinking till you have time for it. Eternity’s
+pretty long, you know.”
+
+“Well, if I take your advice I must be getting back to my work.
+Good-night, both of you. I’ll see you next week again, perhaps,
+Glendyne.”
+
+He walked on, leaving us to continue our exploration. Glendyne was
+silent for some minutes. When at last he spoke, it was in a graver tone
+than I had heard him use before.
+
+“That’s a splendid chap,” he said, looking back over his shoulder at
+the tall figure behind us. “I don’t envy him, though. His awakening
+has been a rude one in this affair. Six months ago he knew absolutely
+nothing of life. He was earnest and all that; but a perfect child in
+things of the world. The result was that when the blow came he was
+absolutely helpless. He fought for a time with the old platitudes--and
+he fought well, I can tell you, for he has a tremendous personality.
+But he was out of court from the first. I’ve seen things done under his
+very eyes without his even noticing what was happening. At last I gave
+him a few pointers from my own experience; and now he has some vague
+ideas what the temptations really are and how he can best counter them.
+And he works like a Trojan. A splendid chap. What a chance he has, if
+he had only had the knowledge; and how he regrets it now, poor beggar.
+You know, at the very first, he simply led his people down the slope
+without knowing it. Worked up their religious emotion, you see, until
+they were simply gunpowder for the flame. What a mess! And all with the
+best intentions too.”
+
+It was an extraordinarily long speech from Glendyne; and it gave me
+some measure of his liking for the clergyman. I gathered that they
+often met in the course of their work.
+
+By this time we had emerged into Oxford Street. Glendyne was about to
+cross the road, when suddenly he caught sight of a train of figures,
+about a hundred and fifty in all, I should say, who were advancing up
+the middle of the street. Each had his hands on the shoulders of the
+person in front of him and the procession advanced towards us slowly,
+whilst I heard again the air with which I had become familiar.
+
+“The Dancers!” muttered Glendyne. “Keep a grip on yourself, now, Flint.
+No hysteria, if you please.”
+
+I was angry at being treated in this way, for I am not an hysterical
+subject either outwardly or inwardly; but as the procession drew nearer
+I realised that he was right to give me a sharp warning. They advanced
+slowly, as I said, keeping time to the air which they sang and which I
+now recognised as being something like one of the old nursery lullabies
+I heard when I was a child. It had the knack of penetrating far into
+one’s subconsciousness and bringing up into the light all sorts of
+forgotten childish fancies which had long slipped from my waking
+thoughts. There was no regularity in the dancing, except that the whole
+procession kept time to the air: each individual danced as he chose,
+provided that he kept his hands upon the shoulders before him so that
+the line remained intact. Men and women were intermingled without any
+order in the company. Their faces were rapt, as though in some ecstasy;
+and a strange, compelling magnetism seemed to emanate from the whole
+scene.
+
+  “_Here we go ... dancing ... under the ... Moon,
+  Lifting our ... feet to the ... time of the ... tune.
+  Come, brother, ... Come, sister, ... join in our ... line;
+  Join with us ... now in this ... dancing divine._”
+
+So they came up toward us, while that strange magnetic attraction grew
+ever stronger upon me. For some reason which I could not fathom, I felt
+a profound desire to join in the procession. A kind of hallucinatory
+craving came over me, though I fought it down. At last Glendyne’s voice
+broke the spell.
+
+“Fine example of choreomania, isn’t it? Perfectly well-recognised
+type. The old Dancing Mania of the fourteenth century. Bound to arise
+under conditions like the present.”
+
+The phrases fell on my ear and by their matter-of-factness seemed
+to come between me and the fascination which the lullaby and the
+rhythmical motion had begun to exercise upon my mind. Almost without
+any feeling whatever, I watched the Dancers approaching.
+
+  “_Here we go ... dancing ... under the ... Moon.
+  Join in our ... chain, it will ... break all too ... soon.
+  When this verse ... ends, then ... scatter like ... rain;
+  And each dance a ... lone till we ... form it a ... gain._”
+
+At the last word of the verse, the procession dissolved into a whirling
+crowd of figures, dancing, springing, spinning in their aimless
+evolutions. We were caught up in the mob; and only Glendyne’s grip on
+my arm prevented my being jostled from his side. A knot of the Dancers
+came about us and strove to excite us into their revels. Women with
+tossing hair besought us breathlessly to join them; men dragged at us,
+striving to bring us out among them. All the faces wore the same look
+of ardency, the same expression about the lips. Some were weary; but
+still the excitement bore them up in their convulsions. The temptation
+to join them became almost irresistible; and I felt myself being drawn
+into their ranks when suddenly the singing broke out once more.
+
+  “_Here we go ... dancing ... under the ... Moon...._”
+
+The procession reformed in haste, gathering length as it went; and the
+Dancers began again to move eastward along Oxford Street. I watched
+them go, still feeling the attraction long after they were past; and
+only some minutes later I realised that Glendyne was still gripping my
+arm.
+
+“Perhaps you understand now the way in which those two girls were
+lost,” he said. “A slight weakening of control, eh? Not so bad for a
+man; but when a girl gives in to it!... Let’s go up Rathbone Place,
+now. I expect we may meet something interesting in that direction.”
+
+Interesting! I had had enough of interest these last few minutes. I
+was still quivering with the rhythm of that doggerel song. However,
+I followed him across Oxford Street, into Rathbone Place. Here the
+clothed skeletons lay more thickly about our path. Between Oxford
+Street and Black Horse Yard I counted thirty-seven. Many of them lay
+in the road; but the majority were huddled in corners and doorways,
+as though the poor wretches had sought a quiet place in which to die.
+In the distance I heard wild shouting and the sound of something like
+a tom-tom being beaten intermittently; whilst in the silences between
+these outbursts, the roar of the flames somewhere in the neighbourhood
+came to me over the roofs.
+
+At the corner of Gresse Street, a gaunt creature sidled up to us
+furtively; looked us up and down for a moment; and whispered to me:
+“Are _you_ one of us?” Then, catching sight of the Red Cross on my arm,
+he fled into the darkness of the side-street without waiting for an
+answer.
+
+In Percy Street, the _petroleuses_ were at work, methodically drenching
+houses with oil and setting them alight. One side of the street was
+already ablaze; and the light wind was blowing clouds of sparks
+broadcast over the neighbouring roofs. London was clearly doomed.
+Nothing could save it now, even had anyone wished to do so. As we stood
+at the street-corner, one of the hags passed us and snarled as she went
+by:
+
+“We’ll roast you out of the West End soon, you ---- burjwaw! There’ll
+be lights enough for you and yer women to dance by when Molly comes
+with her pail. You’ve trod us down and starved us long enough. It’s
+our turn now. It’s our turn now, d’yer hear? I could burn ye as
+ye stand”--she drew back her bucket as though to drench us with
+petrol--“but I want ye to dance with the rest to make it complete.
+We’ll fix ye before long, we will.”
+
+At the southern end of Charlotte Street a rough cross had been erected
+in the middle of the road and to it clung the remains of a skeleton.
+Most of the bones had fallen to the ground, but enough remained to show
+that a body--dead or alive--had been crucified there at one time. Over
+the head of the cross was nailed a placard with the inscription:
+
+  ACHTUNG!
+  EINGANG VERBOTEN.
+  WIR SIND HIER ZU HAUSE
+  STÖREN UNS NICHT.
+
+Glendyne was evidently acquainted with the placard, for he did not
+come forward to read it. He turned to the left and led me into Upper
+Rathbone Place.
+
+“Mostly Germans in Charlotte Street now,” he said. “A branch of the
+East End colony, and just about as bad as their friends. I pity anyone
+who falls into their hands. Ugh!”
+
+He spat on the ground as though he had a bad taste in his mouth.
+
+“Thank goodness, this is only a small colony, for that sort of thing is
+apt to contaminate everything in its neighbourhood. Down East it’s on a
+bigger scale. Hark to that!”
+
+Across the house-roofs between us and Charlotte Street there came a
+long quivering cry as of someone in the extremity of physical and
+mental agony; then it was drowned in a burst of laughter. Glendyne
+gritted his teeth.
+
+“To-morrow night, if the moonlight holds, I’ll have an aeroplane down
+here and give them a taste. They’re all of a kind, in there; so it’s
+easy enough to be sure we get the right ones. Loathsome swine!”
+
+We cut across into Newman Street. At the door of St. Andrew’s Hall a
+weird figure was standing--a man dressed as a faun, evidently in a
+costume which had been looted from some theatrical wardrobe. When he
+caught sight of us, he ran in our direction, leaping and bounding in an
+ungainly fashion along the pavement and halting occasionally to blow
+shrilly upon a reed pipe.
+
+“Pan is not dead!” he cried. “I bring the good tidings! All the world
+awakes again after its long sleep; and the fauns in the forests are
+pursuing the hamadryads and following the light feet of the oreads once
+more upon the hills of Arcady. Io! Io! Evohé! Swift be the hunting!
+
+“The Old Gods slumbered; but Echo, watching by rock and pool, ever
+answered our calling through the years. Awake! Awake! O Gods! Hear
+again the pipes of Pan!”
+
+He blew a melancholy air upon his instrument, prancing grotesquely the
+while.
+
+“Syrinx, reed-maiden, men have not forgotten thee! Again they hear the
+wailings of thy soul in the pipes of Pan.”
+
+He danced again, looking up at the moon.
+
+“Diana! Long hast thou watched us from thy throne in the skies, but now
+the nights of thy hunting are come once more. Prepare the bow, gird
+on thy quiver and come with us again as in the days of old. Dost thou
+remember the white goat? Join us, O Huntress!”
+
+Again he made music with his pipes.
+
+“Syrinx, Syrinx! I come to seek thee in the reeds by the river. Awake!
+The world begins anew.”
+
+And crying “Syrinx, O Syrinx!” he ran from us and disappeared into
+Mortimer Street.
+
+Glendyne turned into Castle Street East. I could not see any reason
+for these continual turnings and windings in our wanderings, but I
+suppose that he had some definite itinerary in his mind, some route
+which would give him the best opportunity of exhibiting to me the
+varied aspects of London at this time. Here again the skeletons lay
+scattered, though there appeared to be no aggregations of them in any
+particular localities. Behind us, the Tottenham Court Road district
+seemed ablaze; and flames leaped above the house-roofs to the east.
+
+Suddenly, after we had passed Berners Street, I heard a confused sound
+of shouting, yells, running feet and the notes of a horn. Glendyne
+started violently and dragged me rapidly into the shelter of a
+house-door near the corner of Wells Street.
+
+“This is a case where the Red Cross is no protection,” he said
+hurriedly. “It’s Herne and his pack. Keep as much under cover as you
+can. We shall probably not be noticed,” he added. “They seem to be in
+full cry. There!”
+
+As he spoke, a single man rushed into view at the corner. He was
+running with his head down, looking neither to right nor left, but I
+caught a glimpse of his face as he passed and I have never seen terror
+marked so deeply on any countenance. He was evidently exhausted, yet
+he seemed to be driven on by a frantic fear which kept him on his feet
+even though he staggered and slipped as he went by.
+
+“The quarry,” said Glendyne. “Now comes the pack.”
+
+Almost on the heels of the fugitive, a horde of pursuers swept into
+sight: about forty or fifty men and women running with long, easy
+strides. Some of them shouted as they ran, others passed in silence;
+but all had a dreadful air of intentness. It was more like the final
+stage of a fox-hunt than anything else that I can recall. Leading
+the crew was a huge negro, running with an open razor in his hand;
+and I saw flecks of foam on his mouth as he passed. Next to him was
+a chestnut-haired girl wearing an evening dress which had once been
+magnificent. She had kilted up the skirt for ease in running. A silver
+horn was in her hand; and on it she blew from time to time, whilst the
+pack yelled in reply. The whole thing passed in a flash; and we heard
+them retreating into the distance towards Oxford Street.
+
+“What’s that ghastly business?” I asked Glendyne. I had pulled out my
+pistol almost unconsciously when the pack swept into sight; but he had
+laid a grip on my wrist and prevented me from firing.
+
+“The nigger in front was Herne--Herne the Hunter, they call him. They
+hunt in a pack, you see, and run down any isolated individual they
+happen to come across in their prowlings. I wish we could get hold of
+them; but they seldom come near any of the picketed areas. They can
+get all the sport they need without that. Once the hunt is up, they
+recognise nothing. That’s why I told you the Red Cross wouldn’t save
+you. If they chase, they kill; and they seem able to run anyone down. I
+never heard of a victim escaping them.”
+
+“What do they do it for?”
+
+“Pleasure, fun, anything you like. It gives them a peculiar delight to
+hunt and kill. You see, Flint, in these times the instincts which are
+normally under control have all broken loose upon us; and the hunting
+instinct is one of the very oldest we have. In ordinary times, it comes
+out in fox-hunting or grouse-shooting or some wild form like that. But
+nowadays there is no restraint and the instinct can glut itself to the
+full. Man-hunting is the final touch of pleasure for these creatures.”
+
+“Who was the girl at the head of them?”
+
+“Oh, that? She was Lady Angela.” He gave a sneering laugh. “What an
+incongruity there is in some names! Satanita was what she ought to have
+been christened if everyone had their rights. And yet, in the old days,
+one could never have suspected this in her. I knew her, you know, and
+I more than liked her. She used to sing me old French songs; and one of
+them was rather a horrible production. It ought to have put me on my
+guard; but I suppose every man is a fool where women are concerned.”
+
+He broke off and hummed to himself a snatch of an old air:
+
+  “_Pour passer ces nuits blanches,
+    Gallery, mes enfants,
+  Chassait tous les dimanches
+    Et battais les paysans.
+        Entendez-vous la sarabande?..._”
+
+“And so now she’s running a kind of Chasse-Gallery on her own account
+along with that human devil, Herne. It shows how little one knows.”
+
+Just as we approached Oxford Mansions, I heard the sound of a
+pistol-shot, and when we came up to the spot we found a still warm body
+with a Colt automatic clasped in its hand. “Suicide,” said Glendyne
+briefly, after examining the body. “The short way out.”
+
+There was nothing to be done, so we turned away. As we did so a black
+shadow dropped out of the sky and I saw a huge crow alighting by the
+side of the corpse. I think that this incident made as great an effect
+upon me as any. Times had changed indeed when crows became night-birds.
+Glendyne watched me drive the brute away from the corpse without
+attempting to help.
+
+“What’s the use? It will be back as soon as we go; and I don’t suppose
+you want to stay here all night? Birds are desperate for food nowadays,
+and that fellow may give you more than you expect if you don’t leave
+him alone. The old fear of man has left them, you know, nowadays.”
+
+Before we had gone many steps, we encountered another inhabitant, a
+cadaverous young man with an acid stain on his sleeve. He stopped and
+wished us “Good-evening,” being apparently glad to meet someone to
+whom he could talk. It was a relief to find that he appeared to be
+perfectly sane. I had become so accustomed to abnormality by this time
+that I think his sanity came almost as an unexpected thing. I asked him
+what he did to pass the time.
+
+“I was working at some alkaloid constitutions when the Plague came, and
+I just went on with that. I’ve got one definitely settled except for
+the position of a single methyl radicle, now; and I think I shall get
+that fixed in a day or two. But probably you aren’t a chemist?”
+
+“No. Not my line.”
+
+“Rather a pity--for me, I mean. One does like to explain what one has
+done; and there’s no chance of that now.”
+
+It seemed to me a pity that this enthusiast should be lost. Probably
+Nordenholt could find some use for him.
+
+“I think I could put you in touch with some other chemists if you like;
+but you would need to trust me in the matter. Is there anyone depending
+on you, any relatives?”
+
+“No, they’re all gone by now.”
+
+“Well, I think I might manage it. I believe I could put you in the way
+of being some use; and it might be the saving of your life, too, for I
+suppose your food is almost out.”
+
+A famished look came into his face and I realised what food meant to
+him.
+
+“Could you? I’d be awfully grateful. I’m down to the laboratory stores
+of glycerine and fatty acids now for nourishment, and it’s pretty thin,
+I can tell you. Could you really do something?”
+
+In his excitement, he clutched my arm: and at that he recoiled with a
+look of horror on his face.
+
+“You damned cannibal!” he cried. “Did you think you would take me in?
+I suppose your friend was standing by with the sandbag, eh?”
+
+He retreated a few steps and cursed me with almost hysterical violence.
+
+“If I had a pistol I would finish you,” he cried. “You don’t deserve
+to live. And to think you nearly took me in. I suppose you would have
+enticed me to your den with that fairy-tale of yours.”
+
+And with an indescribable sound of disgust he turned and ran up
+Margaret Court, cursing as he went.
+
+“What’s all that about?” I asked Glendyne. “It’s more than Greek to me.”
+
+“Of course you wouldn’t understand. I forgot that you people up in
+the North don’t know there’s a famine on. Don’t you see that when he
+gripped your sleeve he found a normal arm inside instead of a starved
+one; and he drew the natural conclusion.”
+
+“What natural conclusion?”
+
+“Really, Flint, you are a bit obtuse. You know that food here is almost
+unprocurable except by those who have rationed themselves carefully
+from the start and have still some stores to go on with. How do you
+think the rest of them live? Of course the poor beggar found you in
+normal condition and he jumped to the conclusion that you were a
+cannibal like a large number of the survivors. What else could he
+think? He imagined that we were holding him in talk until we could
+sandbag him or knock him out somehow for the sake of his valuable
+carcase. See now?”
+
+This seemed to be the last straw. Curiously enough, I had never given
+a thought to the food problem. I had simply assumed that these people
+in the streets were living on hoarded stores. Cannibalism! I had never
+dreamed of such a thing in London, even this London.
+
+Glendyne laughed sarcastically at the expression on my face. “Why, you
+are nearly as innocent as my poor clerical friend,” he said at last.
+“Can’t you understand that _nothing_ counts nowadays. There isn’t any
+law, or order, or public opinion or anything else that might restrain
+brutes. You’ve got the final argument of civilisation in your pocket--a
+brace of them, besides the loose cartridges--and that’s the King and
+the Law Courts nowadays. The only thing left is the strong hand;
+everything else has gone long ago. For the most of the survivors there
+isn’t any morality or ethics or public spirit. They simply want to live
+and enjoy themselves; and they don’t care how they do it. Get that well
+into your head, Flint.”
+
+Over the next part of our exploration I may draw a veil. We traversed
+the stretch from Oxford Circus to Regent Circus, which was the centre
+of the remaining life of London in those days. One cannot describe the
+details of saturnalia; and I leave the matter at that. It surpassed my
+wildest anticipations. At Piccadilly Circus I found a gigantic negro
+acting as priest in some Voodoo mysteries. The court of Burlington
+House had been turned into a temple of Khama. I was glad indeed
+when we were able to make our way into the less frequented squares
+to the north. Even the quiet skeletons seemed more akin to me than
+these wretches whom I saw exulting in their devilry. Glendyne had
+under-estimated the thing when he said that there was no public opinion
+left to control men and women. There was a new public opinion based on
+the principle of “Eat, Drink, for to-morrow we die”; and the collective
+spirit of these crowds urged humanity on to excesses which no single
+individual would have dared.
+
+We came to the Langham by Cavendish Square and Chandos Street. As we
+stood at the hotel door, I could see the lights of the bonfires and
+hear the yells and shrieks of the revellers at the Circus; but Langham
+Place was comparatively quiet. Eastward, the sky was ruddy with the
+flames of the burning city; southward, the bonfires shone crimson
+against the pale moonlight; to the north, up Portland Place, the
+streets were half in shadow and half lit up by the brilliancy of the
+moon.
+
+We walked northward, taking the unshadowed side of the road. Glendyne
+had shown me the worst now, and only the return to our car remained
+before us. I drew a breath of relief as we turned the bend of Langham
+Place and the bulk of the Langham Hotel cut us off from the sight of
+these lights behind us. Here, under the moon, things seemed purer and
+more peaceful.
+
+We came to the corner of Duchess Street without seeing anyone; but just
+as we reached the crossing, a familiar figure stepped out. It was Lady
+Angela. This time I could see her plainly in the moonlight; a tall,
+chestnut-haired girl, beautiful certainly, but with the beauty of an
+animal type, tigress-like. Her dress was torn and a splash of fresh
+blood lay across her breast. In her hand was the silver horn which I
+had noticed before. She started as she recognised Glendyne.
+
+“Well, Geoffrey,” she said; “we haven’t met for some time. You’re
+looking thinner than when I saw you last.”
+
+It was just as if she were greeting a friend whom she had lost sight
+of for a few weeks. She did not seem to see the incongruity of things.
+For all that her tone showed, they might have met casually in a
+drawing-room.
+
+“It’s no use, Angela, I saw you in Berners Street to-night, you and
+your beasts. I knew all about you long ago. You needn’t pretend with
+me.”
+
+She flushed, not with shame I could guess, but with anger.
+
+“So you disapprove, do you, little man? You’re one of the kind that
+can’t understand a girl enjoying herself, are you? But if I were to
+whistle, you would come to heel quick enough. You were keen enough on
+me in the old days and I could make you keen again if I wished.”
+
+She drew herself up and, despite her tattered dress and disordered
+hair, she made a splendid figure. Her voice became coaxing.
+
+“Geoffrey, don’t you think you could take me away from all this? It
+isn’t my real self that does these things; it’s something that masters
+me and forces me to do them against my will. If you would help me, I
+could pull up. You used to be fond of me. Take me now.”
+
+Glendyne did not hesitate.
+
+“It’s no good, Angela. You’re corrupt to the core, and you can’t
+conceal it. I’ve no use for you. You couldn’t be straight if you tried.
+Do you think I want the associate of a nigger? And what a nigger at
+that!”
+
+She began to answer him, but her voice choked with fury. She raised
+the silver horn to her lips; blew shrilly for a moment and then cried:
+“Herne! Herne! Here’s sport for you! Here’s sport!”
+
+“I might have known that brute wouldn’t be far off if you were here,”
+said Glendyne bitterly. “Flint, use your shots in groups of three. It’s
+a signal to the patrol. We may pull out yet. Here they come, the whole
+pack!”
+
+There was a trampling of feet in Duchess Street and I heard quite close
+at hand the hunting-cries of the band of ruffians. Glendyne fired nine
+times into the darkness of the street and we turned to run. Lady Angela
+watched us at first without moving, brooding on her revenge. By the
+time we had gone fifty yards, the whole pack was in full cry after us
+up Portland Place.
+
+“We may run across Sanderson’s car before they get us,” Glendyne panted
+as he ran beside me. “The triple shots may bring him. Run for all
+you’re worth.”
+
+He had removed the empty magazine as he ran and now turned for a moment
+and fired thrice in rapid succession at our pursuers. I did the same.
+But there was no check in the chase. We still maintained our distance
+ahead of them, but we gained nothing. All at once I began to find
+that I was falling behind. I was hopelessly out of training; and my
+side ached, while my feet seemed leaden. I ran staggeringly, just as I
+had seen the other quarry run in the earlier part of the night; and I
+gasped for breath as I ran.
+
+I shall never forget that nightmare chase. Once I turned round and
+fired to gain time if possible. I heard Glendyne’s pistol also, more
+than once. But nothing seemed to check the pursuit. I felt it gaining
+on me; and the silver horn sounded always nearer each time it blew. It
+was no distance that we ran, but the pace was killing. I was afraid
+that we might be cut off by a fresh party emerging from Cavendish
+Street or Weymouth Street; but we passed these in safety. I learned
+afterwards that Herne’s band hunted like hounds, in a body, never
+separating into sections. Their pleasure was in the chase as much as
+anything; and they employed no strategy to trap their victims.
+
+Just south of Devonshire Street I stumbled and fell. Glendyne wheeled
+round at once and tried to keep off the pack with his pistols; but as
+I rose to my feet again I saw them still coming on. The moon showed up
+their brutal faces hardly twenty yards away. I had given myself up for
+lost, when Glendyne shouted: “Lie down!” and rolled me over with his
+hand on my shoulder while he flung himself face downwards on the road.
+A dazzling glare shone in my eyes and passed; and then I saw a motor
+swinging in the road and the squat shape of a Lewis gun projected over
+its side.
+
+I turned over and saw the pack almost upon us. Then came the roll of
+the Lewis gun and the maniacs stopped as though they had struck some
+invisible barrier. Herne crashed to the ground. Lady Angela staggered,
+stood for a moment fumbling with her horn, and then fell face downward.
+The remainder of the band turned and fled into Weymouth Street.
+
+Glendyne picked himself up and went across to Lady Angela’s body. She
+was quite dead, at which he seemed relieved. I understood better when
+I saw one of the men in the patrol car going round amongst the wounded
+and finishing them with his revolver.
+
+Sanderson, the patrol leader, spoke a few words to Glendyne; and then
+the car swung off into Park Crescent and disappeared. The whole thing
+had taken only a few seconds; and we were left alone with the dead.
+
+“It’s all right now, Flint,” said Glendyne. “They won’t dare to come
+back. Besides, the leaders are gone”--he kicked the negro’s body--“and
+they were the worst. I’ll take this as a souvenir, I think.”
+
+He picked up the little silver horn; and I wondered what it would
+remind him of in later days.
+
+It was in Park Crescent that I got my last glimpse of the new London.
+On the pavement, half-way round to Copeland Road Station, I saw
+something moving; and on examining it closely I found that it was a
+dying man. All about him were rats which were attacking him, while he
+feebly tried to keep them at bay. He was too weak to defend himself and
+already he had been badly bitten. There was nothing to be done; but
+Glendyne and I stood beside him till he died, while the rats huddled in
+a circle about him, waiting their chance. Glendyne kept them back by
+flashing his electric torch on them when they became too venturesome.
+
+That was my last sight of London in these days; and looking back upon
+it, I cannot help feeling that this squalid tragedy was symbolical
+of greater things. The old civilisation went its way, healthy on the
+surface, full of life and vigour, apparently unshakable in its power.
+Yet all the while, at the back of it there lurked in odd corners the
+brutal instincts, darting into view at times for a moment and then
+returning into the darkness which was their home. Suddenly came the
+Famine: and civilisation shook, grew weaker and lost its power over
+men. With that, all the evil passions were unleashed and free to run
+abroad. Bolder and bolder they grew, till at last civilisation went
+down before them, feebly attempting to ward them off and failing more
+and more to protect itself. It was the dying man and the rats on a
+gigantic scale.
+
+I came back to the Clyde Valley a very different being. Now I knew what
+had to be fought if our Fata Morgana was to rise on solid foundations;
+and the task appalled me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+Reconstruction
+
+
+When I saw Nordenholt again after my return, I found that I had no
+need to describe my experiences. He seemed to know exactly where I had
+been and what had happened to me. I suspect that Glendyne must have
+furnished him with a full report of the night’s doings.
+
+“Well, Jack,” he greeted me; “what do you think of things now?”
+
+“I’m down in the depths,” I confessed frankly. “If that’s what lies
+at the roots of humanity, I see no chance of building much upon such
+foundations. The trail of the brute’s over everything.”
+
+“Of course it is! The whole of our machine is constructed on a brute
+basis. Did you need to go to London to see that? Why, man, every time
+you walk you swing your left hand and your right foot in time with each
+other; and that’s only a legacy of some four-footed ancestor which ran
+with the near fore-leg and off hind-leg acting in unison. Of course
+the brute is the basis. A wolf-pack will give you a microcosm of a
+nation: family life, struggles between wolf and wolf for a living,
+co-operation against an external enemy or prey. But don’t forget that
+humanity has refined things a little. Give it credit for that at least.
+People laugh at the calf-love of a boy; but in many cases that has no
+sexual feeling in it; it has touched a less brutal spring somewhere in
+the machine. There’s altruism, too; it isn’t so uncommon as you think.
+And patriotism isn’t necessarily confined to a mere tooth-and-claw
+grapple with a hated opponent; it might still exist even if wars
+were abolished. I know you’re still under the cloud, Jack; but don’t
+think that the sun has gone down for good simply because it’s hidden.
+All I wanted you to see was that you must be on your guard in your
+reconstruction. You and Elsa were planning for an ideal humanity. I
+want you to make things bearable for the flesh-and-blood units with
+which you have to work. Don’t strain them too high.”
+
+“I wish I could find my way through it all,” I said. “But anyway I see
+your point. What you wanted was to let me know which was sand and which
+was rock to build on, wasn’t it? You were afraid I was mistaking it all
+for solid ground?”
+
+“That’s about it. Remember, with decent luck you ought to have a clean
+slate to start with. Most of our old troubles have solved themselves,
+or will solve themselves in the course of the next few months. There’s
+no idle class in the Nitrogen Area; money’s only a convenient fiction
+and now they know it by experience; there’s no Parliament, no gabble
+about Democracy, no laws that a man can’t understand. I’ve made a clean
+sweep of most of the old system; and the rest will go down before we’re
+done.”
+
+“I know that, but to tell the truth I don’t know where to begin
+building. It seems an impossible business; the more I look at it the
+less confidence I have in myself.”
+
+“Don’t worry so much about that. You’ll see that it will solve itself
+step by step. It’s not so much cut-and-dried plans you need as a
+flexible mind combined with general principles. It’s the principles
+that will worry you.”
+
+“I suppose you are right,” I said.
+
+“It’s obvious if you look at it. Your first stages will be the
+getting of these five million people into two sets: one on the land
+to cultivate it; the other still working on nitrogen. That’s evident.
+The whole of that part of the thing is a matter of statistics and
+calculation; there’s nothing in it, so far as thinking goes. After
+that, you have to arrange to get the best out of the people mentally
+and morally; and I think Elsa will be a help to you there. By the way,
+she refuses to leave me.”
+
+“Then how am I going to get her help?”
+
+“Oh, I’ve arranged that she is to have lighter work and she’ll have the
+evenings free; so you and she can consult then, if you will.”
+
+This seemed to be enough to go on with.
+
+“There’s another thing, Jack,” he continued, “I’ve got good news for
+you. It appears from the work that the bacteriologists are doing that
+_B. diazotans_ is a short-lived creature. According to their results,
+the whole lot will die out in less than three months from now, as
+far as this part of the country is concerned. Apparently it combined
+tremendous reproductive power with a very short existence; and it’s
+now reaching the end of its tether. So in three months we ought to be
+able to get the nitrogenous stuff on to the fields without any fear
+of having it decomposed. That was what always frightened me; for if
+_B. diazotans_ had been a permanent thing, the whole scheme would have
+collapsed. I foresaw that, but we just had to take the chance; and I
+always hoped that if the worst came to the worst we might hit on some
+anti-agent which would destroy the brutes. You know that in some places
+it hasn’t produced any effect at all; the local conditions seem against
+it, somehow.”
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Reconstruction! I remember those early days when I sat in my office
+for hours together, making notes of schemes which I tore up next day
+with an ever-increasing irritation at my own sterility. Given a clean
+slate to start with, it seems at first sight the easiest thing in the
+world to draw the plans of a Utopia, or at any rate to rough in the
+outlines when one is not hampered by details. Try it yourself! You may
+have better luck or a greater imagination than I had; and possibly
+you may succeed in satisfying yourself: but remember that I had real
+responsibility upon me; mine was not the easy dreaming of a literary
+man dealing with puppets drawn from his ink-pot, malleable to his
+will; it was a flesh-and-blood humanity with all its weaknesses, its
+failings, its meannesses that I had to deal with in my schemes.
+
+I cannot tell how many sketches I made and discarded in turn. Most of
+them I had not even courage to put upon the files; so that I cannot now
+trace the evolution of my ideas. I can recall that, as time went on, my
+projects became more and more modest in their scope; and I think that
+they seem to fall into four main divisions.
+
+At the start, I began by imagining an ideal humanity, something like
+the dwellers in our Fata Morgana; and from this picture I deducted bit
+by bit all that seemed unrealisable with humanity as it was. I cut
+away a custom here, a tradition there, until I had reduced the whole
+sketch to a framework. And when I put this framework together upon
+paper and saw what it contained, I found it to be an invertebrate mass
+of disconnected shreds and tatters with no life in it and no hope of
+existence. I remember even now the disappointment which that discovery
+gave me. I began to understand the gulf between comfortable theories
+and hard facts.
+
+In the next stage of my development, I leaned mainly upon the future. I
+was still under the sting of my disillusion; and I discarded the idea
+that existing humanity could ever enter the courts of Fata Morgana. I
+tried to plan foundations upon which the newer generations could rise
+to the heights. Education! Had we ever in the old days understood the
+meaning of the word? Had we ever consciously tried to draw out all
+that was best in the human mind? Or had we merely stuffed the human
+intellect with disconnected scraps of knowledge, the mere bones from
+which all the flesh had wasted away? We had a clean slate--how often
+my mind recurred to that simile in those days--could we not write
+something better upon it than had been written in the past? A chasm
+separated us from the older days; we need be hampered by no traditions.
+Could we not start a fresh line?
+
+I pondered this for days on end. It seemed to be feasible in some ways;
+but in other directions I saw the difficulties to the full. The clean
+slate was not a real thing at all. Environment counts for so much; and
+all the adult minds in the community had been bred in the atmosphere of
+the past. Their influence would always be there to hamper us, bearing
+down upon the younger generations and cramping them in the old ideas.
+There could be no clean severance between present and future, only a
+gradual change of outlook through the years.
+
+My third stage of evolution led on from this conclusion. I accepted the
+present as it was and then tried to discover ways in which improvements
+might be made in the future. Again I spent days in picking out faults
+and making additions to the fabric of society; and at the end of it
+all I found, as I had done before, that the result was a patchwork,
+something which had no organic life of its own.
+
+At this point, I think, I began to despair entirely; and I fell
+back upon pure materialism. I considered the matter solely from the
+standpoint of the practical needs of the time; for there I felt myself
+upon sure ground. Whatever happened, I must have ready a concrete
+scheme which would tide us over our early stages in the future.
+
+I secured statistics showing the proportions of the population which
+would be required in all the different branches of labour during
+the coming year; and in doing this I had to divide them into groups
+according as they were to work on the land or were required for keeping
+up the supply of fixed nitrogen from the factories. My charts showed
+me the areas which we expected to have under cultivation at given
+dates in the future. I was back again in the unreal world of graphs
+and curves; and I think that in some ways it was an advantage to me to
+eliminate the human factor. It kept me from brooding too much over my
+recollections of humanity in its decline.
+
+On this materialistic basis, the whole thing resolved itself into
+a problem of labour economy: the devising of a method whereby the
+greatest yield of food could be obtained with the smallest expenditure
+of power. Here I was on familiar ground; for it was my factory problem
+over again, though the actual conditions were different. There were
+only two main sides to the question: on the one hand I had to ensure
+the greatest amount of food possible and on the other I had to look to
+the ease of distribution of that food when it was produced. The idea of
+huge tractor-ploughed areas followed as a matter of course; and from
+this developed the conception of humanity gathered into a number of
+moderately-sized aggregations rather than spread in cottages here and
+there throughout the country-side. Each of these centres of population
+would contain within itself all the essentials of existence and would
+thus be a single unit capable of almost independent existence.
+
+Having in this way roughed out my scheme, other factors forced
+themselves on my attention. I had no wish to utilise the old villages
+which still remained dotted here and there about the country-side.
+Their sizes and positions had been dictated by conditions which had
+now passed away; and it seemed better to make a clean sweep of them
+and start afresh. From the purely practical standpoint, the erection
+of huge phalansteries at fixed points would no doubt have been the
+simplest solution of the problem; but I rejected this conception. I
+wanted something better than barracks for my people to live in. I
+wanted variety, not a depressing uniformity. And I wanted beauty also.
+
+Step by step I began to see my way clearer before me. And now that
+I look back upon it, I was simply following in the track of Nature
+herself. To make sure of the material things, to preserve the race
+first of all; then to increase comfort, to make some spot of the
+Earth’s surface different from the rest for each of us, to create a
+“home”; lastly, when the material side had been buttressed securely,
+to turn to the mind and open it to beauty: that seems to me to be the
+normal progress of humanity in the past, from the Stone Age onwards.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was at this period that Elsa Huntingtower came more into my life.
+While I was laying down the broad outlines of the material side of the
+coming reconstruction, I had preferred to work alone; for in dealing
+with problems of this nature, it seems to me best to have a single mind
+upon the work. It was largely a matter of dry statistics, calculations,
+graphs, estimates, cartography and so forth; and since it seemed to me
+to be governed almost entirely by practical factors, I did not think
+that much could be gained by calling for her help. I waited till I had
+the outlines of the project completed before applying to Nordenholt in
+the matter. When I spoke to him, he agreed with what I had done.
+
+“I don’t want to see your plans, Jack. It’s your show; and if I were to
+see them I would probably want to make suggestions and shake your trust
+in your own judgment. Much better not.”
+
+“What about Miss Huntingtower’s help? Am I not to get that?”
+
+“That’s a different matter entirely. She ought to give you the feminine
+point of view, which I couldn’t do. Let’s see. She can consult with you
+in the evenings. Will that do?”
+
+I agreed; and it was arranged that thereafter I was to spend the
+evenings at Nordenholt’s house, where she and I could discuss things
+in peace. Nordenholt left us almost entirely to ourselves, though
+occasionally he would come into the room where we worked: but he
+refused to take any interest in our affairs.
+
+“One thing at a time for me, nowadays,” he used to say, when she
+appealed to him. “My affair is to bring things up to the point where
+you two can take over. Your business is to be ready to pull the
+starting-lever when I give you the word. I won’t look beyond my limits.”
+
+And, indeed, he had enough to do at that time. Things were not always
+smooth in the Nitrogen Area; and I could see signs that they might
+even become more difficult. Since I had left my own department, I had
+gained more information about the general state of affairs; and I could
+comprehend the possibilities of wreckage which menaced us as the months
+went by.
+
+I have said before that it is almost impossible for me to retrace in
+detail the evolution of my reconstruction plans; and in the part where
+Elsa Huntingtower and I collaborated, my recollections are even more
+confused than they are with regard to the work I did alone. So much of
+it was developed by discussions between us that in the end it was hard
+to say who was really responsible for the final form of the schemes
+which we laid down in common. She brought a totally new atmosphere into
+the problem, details mostly, but details which meant the remodelling of
+much that I had planned.
+
+One example will be sufficient to show what I mean. I had, as I have
+mentioned, planned a series of semi-isolated communities scattered over
+the cultivable area; and I had gone the length of getting my architects
+to design houses which I thought would be the best possible compromise:
+something that would please the average taste without offending people
+who happened to be particular in details. I showed some of these
+drawings to her, expecting approval. She examined them carefully for a
+long time, without saying anything.
+
+“Well, Mr. Flint,” she said at last, “I know you will think I am very
+hard to please; but personally I wouldn’t live in one of these things
+if you paid me to do it.”
+
+“What’s wrong with them? That one was drawn by Atkinson, and I believe
+he’s supposed to be a rather good architect.”
+
+“Of course he is. That’s just what condemns him in my mind. Don’t you
+know that for generations the ‘best architects’ have been imposing on
+people, giving them something that no one wants; and carrying it off
+just because they are the ‘best architects’ and are supposed to know
+what is the right thing. And not one of them ever seems to have taken
+the trouble to find out what a woman wants, in a house. Not one.
+
+“Don’t you see the awful sameness in these designs, for one thing? You
+men seem to think that if you get four walls and a roof, everything
+is all right. Can’t you understand that one woman wants something
+different from another one?”
+
+There certainly was a monotony about the designs, now I came to look at
+them.
+
+“Now here’s a suggestion,” she went on. “It may not be practical, but
+it’s your business to make it practicable, and not simply to accept
+what another man tells you is possible or impossible. You say that your
+trouble is that you want to standardise, so as to make production on a
+large scale easy. So you’ve simply set out to standardise your finished
+product; and you want to build so many houses of one type and so many
+of another type and let your people choose between the two types. Now
+my idea is quite different. Suppose that you were to standardise your
+_material_ so that it is capable of adaptation? You see what I mean?”
+
+“I’m afraid I don’t,” I said.
+
+“Like Meccano. You get a dozen strips of metal and some screws and
+wheels; and out of that you can build fifty different models, using the
+same pieces in each model. Well, why not try to design your girders and
+beams and doors and so forth, in such a way that out of the same set
+you could erect a whole series of different houses. It doesn’t seem to
+me an impossibility if you get someone with brains to do it.”
+
+“It sounds all right in theory; but I’m not so sure about the practical
+side.”
+
+“Of course if you put some old fogey on to it he won’t be able to
+do it; but try a young man who believes in the idea and you’ll
+get it done, I’m sure. It may mean making each part a little more
+complicated than it would normally be; but that doesn’t matter much in
+mass-production, does it?”
+
+“It’s not an insuperable difficulty.”
+
+“Well, another thing. Get your architect to draw up sketches of all the
+possible combinations he can get out of his standardised material; and
+then when people want a house, they can look at the different designs
+and among them all they are almost sure to find something that suits
+their taste. It is much better than your idea of three or four standard
+house-patterns, anyway.”
+
+“I’ll see what can be done.”
+
+“Oh, the thing will be easy enough if you mean to have it. A child can
+build endless castles with a single box of bricks; and surely a man’s
+brain ought to be able to do with beams and joists what a child does
+with bricks.”
+
+I give this as an example of her suggestions. Some of her improvements
+seemed trivial to me; but I took it that it was just these trivial
+things that made all the difference to a feminine mind; so I followed
+her more or less blindly.
+
+Our collaboration was an ideal one, notwithstanding some hard-fought
+debatable points. More and more, as time went on, I began to understand
+the wisdom Nordenholt had shown in demanding that I should take her
+into partnership. Our minds worked on totally different lines; but for
+that very reason we completed each other, one seeing what the other
+missed. I found that she was open to conviction if one could actually
+put a finger on any weak point in her schemes.
+
+And, behind the details of our plans, I began to see more and more
+clearly the outlines of her character. I suppose that most men, thrown
+into daily contact with any girl above the average in looks and brains,
+will drift into some sort of admiration which is hardly platonic; but
+in these affairs propinquity usually completes what it has begun by
+showing up weak points in character or little mannerisms which end by
+repelling instead of attracting. In a drawing-room, people are always
+on their guard to some extent; but in the midst of absorbing work,
+real character comes out. One sees gaps in intelligence; failures
+to follow out a line of thought become apparent; any inharmony in
+character soon makes itself felt. One seldom sees teachers marrying
+their girl-students. But in Elsa Huntingtower I found a brain as good
+as my own, though working along different lines. I expect that her
+association with Nordenholt had given her chances which few girls ever
+have; but she had natural abilities which had been sharpened by that
+contact. She puzzled me, I must admit. My mind works very much in
+the concrete; I like to see every step along the road, to test each
+foothold before trusting my weight upon it. To me, her mental processes
+seemed to depend more upon some intuition than did mine; but I believe
+now that her reasoning was as rigid as my own and that it seemed
+disjointed merely because her steps were different from mine. My brain
+worked in arithmetical progression, if I may put it so, whilst hers
+followed a geometrical progression. Often it was a dead heat between
+the hare and the tortoise; for my steady advance attained the goal just
+when her mysterious leaps of intelligence had brought her to the same
+point by a different path.
+
+It was not until we had cleared the ground of the main practical
+difficulties that we allowed ourselves to think of the future. At
+first, everything was subordinated to the necessity of getting
+something coherent planned which would be ready for the ensuing stage
+after the Nitrogen Area had done its work. But once we had convinced
+ourselves that we had roughed out things on the material side, we
+turned our minds in other directions as a kind of relaxation. Of course
+we held divergent opinions upon many questions.
+
+“What you want, Mr. Flint, is to build a kind of human rabbit hutch,
+designed on the best hygienic lines. I can see that at the back of your
+mind all the time. You think material things ought to come first, don’t
+you?”
+
+“I certainly want to see the people well housed and well cared for
+before going any further.”
+
+“And then?”
+
+“Oh, after that, I want other things as well, naturally.”
+
+“Well, I’ll tell you what I want. I want to see them _happy_.”
+
+I can still remember that evening. The table between us was covered
+with papers; and a shaded lamp threw a soothing light upon them. All
+the rest of the room was in shadow; and I saw her face against the
+setting of the darkness behind her. In the next room I could feel
+the slow steps of Nordenholt in his study, pacing up and down as he
+revolved some problem in his mind.
+
+“When I think about it,” she went on, after a pause, “you men amaze
+me. In the mass, I mean, of course; I’m not talking about individuals.
+There seem to be three classes of you. The biggest class is simply
+looking for what it calls ‘a good time.’ It wants to enjoy itself;
+it looks on the world just as a playground; and it never seems to get
+beyond the stage of a child crying for amusement in a nursery. At the
+end of things, that type leaves the world just where the world was
+before. It achieves nothing; and often it merely bores itself. It
+doesn’t even know how to look for happiness. I don’t see much chance
+for that type in the future, now that things have changed.
+
+“Then there’s a second class which is a shade better. They want to
+make money; and they’re generally successful in that, for they are
+single-minded. But in concentrating on money, it seems to me, they
+lose everything else. In the end, they can do nothing with their money
+except turn it into more. They can’t spend it profitably; they haven’t
+had the education for that. They just gather money in, and gather it
+in, and become more and more slaves to their acquisitive instincts.
+To a certain extent they are better than the first type of men, for
+they do incidentally achieve something in the world. You can’t begin
+to make money without doing _something_. You need to manufacture or
+to transport goods or develop resources or organise in some way; so
+mankind as a whole profits incidentally.
+
+“Then you come to the last of the types: the men who want to _do_
+something. Activity is their form of happiness. All the inventors and
+discoverers and explorers belong to that class, all the artists and
+engineers and builders of things, great or small. Their happiness is
+in creation, bringing something new into the world, whether it’s new
+knowledge or new methods or new beauty. But they are the smallest class
+of all.”
+
+“What amazes you in that?”
+
+“The difference in the proportions of men in the different classes, of
+course. You know what the third type get out of life: you’re one of
+them yourself. Wouldn’t things be better if everyone got these things?
+Don’t you think the pleasure of creation is the greatest of all?”
+
+“Of course I do; but that’s because I’m built that way. I can’t help
+it.”
+
+“Well, I think that a good many of the rest of us have the instinct
+too; but it gets stifled very early. It seems to me that our education
+in the past has been all wrong. It has never been education at all, in
+the proper sense of the term. It’s been a case of putting things into
+minds instead of drawing out what the mind contains already.”
+
+I was struck by the similarity between her thoughts and my own upon
+this matter; but after all, there was nothing surprising in that; it
+was what everyone thought who had speculated at all on the problem. She
+was silent for a time; then she continued:
+
+“It’s just like the thing we were speaking of to-night. A child’s
+mind is like a box of bricks; and each child has a different box with
+bricks unlike those of any other child. Our educational system has been
+arranged to force each child to build a standard pattern of house from
+its bricks, whether the bricks were suitable or not. The whole training
+has been drawn up to suit what they call ‘the average child’--a thing
+that never existed. So you get each child’s mind cramped in all sorts
+of directions, capacities stifled, a rooted distaste for knowledge
+engendered--a pretty result to aim at!”
+
+“I don’t think you realise the difficulties of the thing,” I said. “The
+younger generation isn’t a handful; it’s a largish mass to tackle:
+and one must cut one’s coat according to one’s cloth. The number of
+possible instructors is limited by the labour market.”
+
+“Hearken to the voice of the ‘practical man.’” She laughed, but not
+unkindly. “You don’t seem to realise, Mr. Flint, that things _can_ be
+done if one is determined to do them--physical impossibilities apart,
+of course. When a conjurer devises a trick, do you think that he sets
+out by considering his available machinery? Not at all. He first thinks
+of the illusion he wants to produce; and he fits his machinery to that.
+What we need to do is to fix on our aim and then invent machinery for
+it. You seem to me always to put the cart before the horse and to work
+on the lines: ‘What can we do with the machinery we have?’ That’s all
+wrong, you know. We’re on the edge of a new time now; and we can do
+as we please. The old system is gone; and we can set up anything we
+choose. What we have to be sure is that the end we work toward is the
+right one.”
+
+We discussed education from various points of view, I remember; but
+what struck me most in her ideas was the emphasis which she laid on
+the faculty of wonder. One of her fears was that, in the stress of the
+new time, life would become machine-made and that the human race might
+degenerate into a mere set of engine-tenders to whom the whole world of
+imagination was closed.
+
+“I would begin with the tiny children,” she said, “and feed their minds
+on fairy tales. Only they would be new kinds of fairy tales--something
+to bring the wonder of Fairyland into their daily life. The old fairy
+tales were always about things ‘once upon a time’ and in some dim
+far-off country which no child ever reached. I want to bring Fairyland
+to their very doors and keep some of the mystery in life. I wouldn’t
+mind if they grew superstitious and believed in gnomes and elves and
+sprites and such things, so long as they felt the world was wonderful.
+We mustn’t let them become mere slaves to machinery. Life needs a tinge
+of unreality if one is to get the most out of it, so long as it is the
+right kind of unreality. Did you ever read Hudson’s _Crystal Age_?”
+
+“No, I never came across it.”
+
+“Do you mind if I show you something in it?”
+
+She rose and took down a book from its shelf; then, coming back into
+the lamplight, searched for a passage and began to read:
+
+“‘Thus ... we come to the wilderness of Coradine.... There a stony
+soil brings forth only thorns, and thistles, and sere tufts of grass;
+and blustering winds rush over the unsheltered reaches, where the
+rough-haired goats huddle for warmth; and there is no melody save
+the many-toned voices of the wind and the plover’s wild cry. There
+dwell the children of Coradine, on the threshold of the wind-vexed
+wilderness, where the stupendous columns of green glass uphold the roof
+of the House of Coradine; the ocean’s voice is in their rooms, and the
+inland-blowing wind brings to them the salt spray and yellow sand swept
+at low tide from the desolate floors of the sea, and the white-winged
+bird flying from the black tempest screams aloud in their shadowy
+halls. There, from the high terraces, when the moon is at its full, we
+see the children of Coradine gathered together, arrayed like no others,
+in shining garments of gossamer threads, when, like thistledown chased
+by eddying winds, now whirling in a cloud, now scattering far apart,
+they dance their moonlight dances on the wide alabaster floors; and
+coming and going they pass away, and seem to melt into the moonlight,
+yet ever to return again with changeful melody and new measures. And,
+seeing this, all those things in which we ourselves excel seem poor in
+comparison, becoming pale in our memories. For the winds and waves, and
+the whiteness and grace, have been ever with them; and the winged seed
+of the thistle, and the flight of the gull, and the storm-vexed sea,
+flowering in foam, and the light of the moon on sea and barren land,
+have taught them this art, and a swiftness and grace which they alone
+possess.’”
+
+The moonbeam-haunted vision which the words called up seemed to touch
+something in my mind; a long-closed gate of Faery swung softly
+ajar; and once more I seemed to hear the faint and far-off horns of
+Elfland as I had heard them when I was a child. Wearied with toil in
+my ruthless world of the present, I paused, unconscious for a moment,
+before this gateway of the Unreal. I felt the call of the seas that
+wash the dim coasts of Ultima Thule and of the strange birds crying to
+each other in the trees of Hy-Brasil.
+
+Miss Huntingtower sat silent; and when I came out of these few seconds
+of reverie, I found that she had been watching my expression keenly:
+
+“You ‘wake from day-dreams to this real Night,’ apparently, Mr. Flint.
+I could see you had gone a-wandering, even if it was only for an
+instant or two. I’m glad; for it shows you understand.”
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I have given an account of some of these apparently aimless and
+inconclusive discussions between us in order to show clearly the manner
+in which we went to work. At first, we oscillated between the practical
+side of things, the planning of houses, the laying out of towns, the
+applications of electricity and so forth, on the one hand, and the
+most abstract considerations of the mental side of the problem on the
+other. I remember that one evening we began with the desirability of
+uniforms for the population while at work. I was in favour of it on
+the grounds that it would facilitate mass-production and would also
+mark the worker’s trade and possibly thus develop a greater _esprit de
+corps_. She conceded these points, but insisted that women should be
+allowed to dress as they chose, once their work was done. This brought
+us to the question of luxury trades, and so led by degrees to the
+consideration of the cultivation of artistic taste and finally to the
+problems of Art in general under the new conditions. Looking back, I
+see that our earlier advances were mainly gropings towards something
+which we had not clearly conceived ourselves. We did not know exactly
+what we wanted; and we threshed out many matters more for the sake
+of clarifying our ideas than with any real intention of applying our
+conclusions in practice.
+
+Gradually, however, things grew more definite as we proceeded. We had
+certain ideas in common, general principles which we both accepted:
+and as time went on, this skeleton began to clothe itself in flesh and
+become a living organism. She converted me to her idea that happiness
+meant more than anything, provided it was gained in the right way.
+Altruism was her ideal, I found, because to her it appeared to be the
+most general mode of reaching contentment. At the back of all her
+ideas, this ideal seemed to lie. She wanted the new world to be a happy
+world; and each of her suggestions and all of her criticism took this
+as a basis.
+
+It seems hardly necessary to enter into an account of the final form
+which we gave to our plans. It was not Fata Morgana that we built;
+but I think that at least we laid the foundation-stone upon which our
+dream-city may yet arise. These far-flung communities which you know
+to-day, these groves and pleasure-grounds, these lakes and pleasances,
+bright streets and velvet lawns, all sprang from our brain: and the
+children who throng them, happier and more intelligent than their
+fathers in their day, are also in part our work, taught and trained in
+the ideals which inspired us. If anything, we were too timid in our
+planning, for we had no clue to what the future held in store for us.
+Had we known in time, we might have ventured to launch into the air
+the high towers of Fata Morgana itself to catch the rising sun. On the
+material side, we could have done it; but I believe we were wise in
+our timidity. Dream-cities are not to be trodden by the human foot.
+The refining of mankind will be a longer process than the building of
+cities; and only a pure race could live in happiness in that Theleme
+which we planned.
+
+Looking backward, I think that during all these hours of designing
+and peering into the future I caught something of her spirit and she
+something of mine. By imperceptible stages we came together, mind
+reaching out to mind. Unnoticed by ourselves, our collaboration grew
+more efficient; our divergences less and less.
+
+I can still recall these long lamp-lit evenings, the rustle of her
+skirts as she moved about the room, the cadences of her voice, the
+eagerness and earnestness of her face under its crown of fair hair.
+Often, as we moulded the future in that quiet room with its shaded
+lights, we must have seemed like children with an ever-new plaything
+which changed continually beneath our hands. Meanwhile, over us and
+between us stood the shadow of Nordenholt, ever grimmer as the days
+went by, carrying his projects to their ruthless termination like some
+great machine which pursues its appointed course uninfluenced by human
+failings or human desires. To me, at that time, he seemed to loom above
+us like some labouring Titan, aloof, mysterious, inscrutable.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+Winter in the Outer World
+
+
+My narrative has hitherto been confined to affairs in the British
+Isles; but to give a complete picture of the time I must now deal, even
+though very briefly, with the effects of _B. diazotans_ in other parts
+of the globe. My account will, of necessity, be incomplete: because our
+knowledge of that period is at best a scanty one.
+
+I have already indicated the part which the great air-ways played in
+distribution of _B. diazotans_ over the world; but once it had been
+planted in the new centres to which the aeroplanes carried it, other
+factors came into action. From South-western Europe, the North-East
+Trade Winds bore the bacilli across the Atlantic and spread them upon
+the seaboard of South America, especially around the mouths of the
+Amazon. The winds on the coast of North America caught up the germs and
+drove them eventually to Scandinavia and even further east. New Guinea,
+Borneo, Sumatra and the other islands of the chain were devastated
+from the Australian centres. Madagascar was contaminated also, though
+the point of origin in this case is not definitely known. Probably
+the ocean currents played their part, as they certainly did in the
+destruction of Polynesian vegetation.
+
+Climate had a considerable influence upon the development of the
+bacilli, once they were scattered. In the Tropics, they multiplied with
+even greater rapidity than they had done in the North Temperate Zone.
+On the Congo and in the Amazonian forests they seem to have undergone
+a process of reproduction almost inconceivably swift. Those which
+drifted up into the frigid regions of the North and South, however,
+appear to have perished almost without a struggle: either on account of
+the low temperature or the lack of nitrogenous material, they produced
+very little effect in either of these districts. The sea-plants seem to
+have been unaffected by them there; and one of the strangest results of
+this inactivity was the complete change in habits of various fishes,
+which now sought in the freezing North the feeding and breeding-grounds
+which suited them best. The herring left the North Sea and the cod
+quitted the Banks in search of purer water. On the other hand, the
+great masses of weed in the Sargasso Sea were almost completely
+destroyed, along with the other accumulations south-east of New Zealand
+and in the North Pacific.
+
+It must not be assumed, however, that wherever the colonies of _B.
+diazotans_ alighted, devastation followed as a matter of course. For
+some reason, which has never been made clear, certain areas proved
+themselves immune from attack; so that they remained like oases of
+cultivable land amid the surrounding deserts. The areas thus preserved
+from sterility were not of any great size; usually they amounted only
+to a few hundred acres in extent, though in isolated cases larger
+tracts were found unaffected here and there.
+
+With the recognition of the world-wide influence of _B. diazotans_, the
+land became divided into two sections: the food-producing districts and
+the consuming but non-productive areas. Nowhere was there sufficient
+grain to make safety a certainty. In America, most of the available
+food-stuffs were still in or near their places of origin when the panic
+began to grow.
+
+In the matter of meat, things were much in the same state. Those
+countries which produced great supplies of cattle prohibited exports;
+and the beasts were hurriedly slaughtered and the carcases salted to
+preserve them, as soon as the failure of the grass made it impossible
+to conserve live-stock.
+
+Each country offered features of its own in the _débâcle_; but I can
+only deal with one or two outstanding cases here.
+
+The European conditions were so similar to those which I have already
+depicted in the case of Britain that I need not describe them at
+all. Southern Russia fared better than her neighbours; for after the
+Famine there were still some remnants of her population left alive;
+and it seems probable that the lower density of the Russian population
+retarded the extinction of humanity in this region long after the worst
+period had been reached in the western area.
+
+In Africa and India, the course of the devastation was marked by
+risings in which all Europeans seem to have perished. Thus we have no
+descriptions of the later stages of the disaster in either case.
+
+In China, the inhabitants of the densely-populated rice-growing
+districts of Eastern China were the first to have the true position of
+affairs forced upon their notice; and, leaving their useless fields,
+they began to move westwards. At first the stirrings were merely
+sporadic; but gradually these isolated movements reinforced one another
+until some millions of Chinese were drifting into Western China and
+setting up reactions among the populations which they encountered on
+their way. From Manchuria, great masses of them forced their way up
+the Amur Valley into Transbaikalia. Others, sweeping over Pekin on the
+road, emerged upon the banks of the Hoang Ho. The inhabitants of the
+Honan Province moved westward, increasing in numbers as they recruited
+from the local populations _en route_. A massacre of foreigners took
+place all over China.
+
+In its general character, this huge wandering of the Mongol races
+recalls the movements which led eventually to the downfall of the
+Roman Empire; but the parallel is illusory. In the days of Gengis
+Khan, the Eastern hordes could always find food to support them on
+their line of march, either in the form of local supplies which they
+captured, or in the herds which they drove with them as they advanced.
+But in this new tumultuous outbreak, food was unprocurable; and the
+irruption melted away almost before the confines of China had been
+reached. Some immense bands descended from Yunnan into Burmah; but they
+appear to have perished among the rotting vegetation. Another series
+of smaller bodies penetrated into Thibet, where they died among the
+snows. The furthest stirrings of the wave appear to have been felt in
+Chinese Turkestan; and apparently Kashgar and Yarkand were centres from
+which other waves might have spread: but it seems probable that these
+westernmost movements were checked by the tangle of the Pamirs and
+Karakorams. Nothing appears to have reached Samarkand. But here, again,
+it is difficult to discover what actually did occur. Any survivors who
+have been interrogated are of the illiterate class, who had no definite
+conception of the route which they followed in their wanderings.
+
+The history of Japan under the influence of _B. diazotans_ is of
+especial interest, since it presents the closest parallel to our own
+experiences. At the outbreak of the Famine, the practical minds of
+the Japanese statesmen seem to have acted with the promptitude which
+Nordenholt had shown. They had not his psychological insight, it is
+true; but they had a simpler problem before them, since they could
+ignore public opinion entirely. Fairly complete accounts of their
+operations are in existence, so far as the outer manifestations of
+their policy are concerned, though we know little as yet of the inner
+history of the events.
+
+Kiyotome Zada appears to have been the Japanese Nordenholt. Under
+his direction, two great expeditions raided Manchuria and Eastern
+China with the object of capturing the largest possible quantity
+of food-stuffs. It is probable that these two invasions, with the
+consequent loss of food-supplies, led to the great stirrings among the
+population of China. A Nitrogen Area was set up in the South Island,
+the Kobe shipyards being its nucleus. Thereafter the history follows
+very closely upon that of the Clyde Valley experiment, except in its
+last stages.
+
+Among the other Pacific communities the Famine proved almost completely
+destructive. I have already told of the spreading of _B. diazotans_
+through the chain of islands between Australia and Burmah. In Australia
+itself no attempt was made to found a nitrogen-producing plant on a
+sufficiently large scale.
+
+One curious episode deserves mention. In the earlier days of the
+Famine, news reached the Australian ports that certain of the
+Polynesian islands were still free from the scourge; and a frenzied
+emigration followed. But each ship carried with it the freight of _B.
+diazotans_, so that this exodus merely served to spread the bacilli
+into spots which otherwise they might not have reached. Before very
+long the whole of Polynesia was involved in the disaster. Some diaries
+have been discovered on board deserted vessels; and in every case the
+history is the same: the long search through devastated islands, the
+discovery at last of some untouched spot in the ocean wilderness, the
+rejoicings, the landing, and then, a few days later, the realisation
+that here also the bacillus had made its appearance. What seems most
+curious is the fact that in many cases it was weeks before the ship’s
+company grasped the apparently obvious truth that their own appearance
+coincided with the arrival of the fatal germs. It never seems to have
+occurred to any of them that they bore with them the very thing which
+they were trying to escape. So they went from island to island,
+seeking refuge from a plague which stood ever at their elbow, until at
+last their stores failed.
+
+On the West Coast of South America a new phenomenon appeared. The
+huge deposits of nitrates in Bolivia and South Peru formed the best
+breeding-ground for _B. diazotans_ which had yet been detected, with
+the result that nitrogen poured into the atmosphere in unheard-of
+volumes. In most places the winds were sufficient to disperse these
+invisible clouds of gas; but in some spots the arrival of the bacilli
+coincided with a dead calm, so that the nitrogen remained in the
+neighbourhood in which it was generated. The great salt swamp in the
+Potosi district furnished the best example of this phenomenon. The
+whole surface frothed and boiled for days together; and the atmosphere
+in the neighbourhood became so heavily charged with nitrous fumes that
+the air was almost unbreatheable. All the inhabitants of the district
+fled before this, to them, inexplicable danger; and the effects
+extended as far as Llica and the railway junction at Uyuni. In this
+“caliche” district, the destruction of combined nitrogen probably
+attained its maximum; and the propagation of _B. diazotans_ never
+reached such a level in any other part of the world.
+
+But with this enormous multiplication of the bacilli, other events
+followed. Carried north and east by winds, these huge quantities
+of the germs found their way into the headwaters of the Amazon and
+its tributaries, and were thus carried eastward into the very heart
+of the tropical forests, where they continued to breed with almost
+inconceivable rapidity. Soon the whole of the vegetation in this region
+was in a decline; and the Amazon valley degenerated into a swamp choked
+with dead and dying plants. Humanity was driven out long before the
+end came. Animal life could not persist in the midst of this noisome
+wilderness.
+
+The same phenomena appeared, though in a different form, over the
+southern part of South America. Here also the great rivers formed
+the main distributing agencies for the bacilli; and the whole
+cattle-raising district was devastated. The stock was slaughtered
+on a huge scale as soon as it became clear that vegetation had
+perished; but owing to mismanagement and transport difficulties the
+preservatives necessary to make the best of the meat thus obtained were
+not procurable in sufficient quantities. Nevertheless, by converting
+as much as possible into biltong, more than sufficient was preserved
+to keep a very large part of the population alive during the Famine;
+and in later days, by trading their surplus dried meat for cereals and
+nitrogenous compounds, they succeeded in rescuing a greater proportion
+of lives than might have been anticipated.
+
+To complete this survey of the world at that period, the effect of
+_B. diazotans_ upon North America still remains to be told. I have
+already given some information with regard to the spread of the Blight
+across the Middle West; but I must mention that it was in this part
+of the world especially that these curious isolated immune areas were
+observed, wherein the bacillus seemed to make no headway. Thousands of
+acres in all were found to be untouched by the denitrifying organisms.
+
+At the time of the Famine the civilisation of North America was in a
+curious condition, mainly owing to the influx of a foreign element
+which had taken place to a greater and greater extent after the War.
+The immigrants had come in such numbers that assimilation of them was
+impossible, and in this way the stability of the central Government
+was weakened. To a great extent the Southern States had fallen into
+the hands of the negroes, but similar segregations were to be found
+in other parts of the country. Germans accumulated in one State,
+Italians in another, East Europeans and Slavs in yet other areas. Thus
+Congress became subject to the group system of government, with all the
+weaknesses which such a system brings in its train.
+
+When _B. diazotans_ first made its appearance in the Continent the
+Government in power was composed of feeble men, without character and
+unfitted for bold decisions. The prohibition of cereal exports was a
+measure arising from panic rather than foresight; and once this had
+been put in operation, the Government rested on its oars and awaited
+the turn of events.
+
+Thus at this period the United States presented the spectacle of a
+series of unsympathetic communities united by the slender bonds of a
+weak central Government, and divided amongst themselves by the very
+deepest cleavages. The grain-growing districts regarded the cities as
+parasites upon the food-supply which had been raised; while the city
+population, having only secured a certain amount of the available
+food-stuffs, looked upon the Middle Westerners as an anti-social group
+of hoarders. But even within these two large groups, minor cleavages
+had come to light. The poorer classes, appalled at the rise in prices,
+had begun to cry out against the rich. Hasty and ill-considered
+legislation was passed which, instead of curing the troubles, merely
+served to augment them; and soon the whole country was seething with
+undercurrents of hatred for government of any kind.
+
+With so much inflammable material, an outbreak was only a question of
+time; and soon something almost akin to anarchy prevailed. Food at
+any price became the cry. Those who controlled great stores of grain
+had to defend them; those who lacked sustenance had no reason to
+wait in patience. Civil war of the most bitter type broke out almost
+simultaneously throughout the country.
+
+Hostilities took a form which had never been imagined in any previous
+fighting. In the old days one of the main objectives in the siege of
+an area was the shutting out of supplies from the besieged garrison.
+In this American war, however, the exact opposite held good. A
+starving population encircled the areas in which food was stored
+and endeavoured to force its way in; while the defenders were well
+supplied with rations. Nor was this all. It was well recognised
+among the besiegers that the supplies within the besieged area were
+insufficient to meet the demands which would be made upon them if the
+attacking force as a whole broke through the line of the defence; and
+therefore each individual attacker felt that his comrades were also his
+competitors, whom he had no great desire to see survive. Again, in the
+previous history of warfare, any loss on the part of the garrison was
+irreparable, since no reinforcements could penetrate the encircling
+lines of enemies; but in this new form of combat any member of the
+attacking force was willing to secede to the garrison if they would
+allow him to do so, since by this means he could secure food. Thus
+the casualties of the garrison could be made good simply by admitting
+besiegers to take the place of those who had been killed.
+
+In the main, these sieges took place at points where the harvested
+grain, such as it was, had been accumulated for transport; but even the
+areas which had proved immune from the attacks of _B. diazotans_ were
+attacked by far-sighted men who looked beyond the immediate future and
+who wished to control these remaining fertile areas in view of next
+year’s supplies.
+
+I have before me the diary of a combatant in one of these operations;
+and it appears to me that I can best give an idea of the prevailing
+conditions by summarising his narrative.
+
+At the time of the outbreak he resided in Omaha; and the earlier
+pages of his journal are occupied by a description of some rioting
+which occurred in that city, ending with its destruction by fire.
+During the upheaval he became possessed, in some way which he does
+not describe, of a rifle, a considerable amount of ammunition, a
+certain store of food. Thus equipped, and accompanied by four friends
+similarly provided, young Hinkinson was able to get away in a Ford car
+from Omaha in advance of the main body of citizens who were now left
+houseless. Rumours of food-supplies led them towards Cedar Falls; but
+at Ackley they discovered the error of their information and were for a
+time at fault. Turning southward, they followed various indications and
+finally located a fertile area in the triangle Mexico-Moberly-Hannibal.
+At Palmyra, their motor broke down permanently; and they were forced to
+abandon it. Collecting as much of their equipment as they could carry,
+they tramped along the railway line and eventually reached Monroe City,
+which was very close to the outer edge of the contest raging around the
+fertile area.
+
+From indications in the diary, it seems clear that Hinkinson and his
+companions expected to find at Monroe City some sort of headquarters of
+the attacking forces; but as they were unable to discover anything of
+the kind, they continued their march, being joined by a small band of
+other armed men who had arrived at Monroe City about the same time as
+themselves.
+
+Almost before they were aware of it, they blundered into the
+firing-line. Apparently they had already been much surprised to find
+no signs of a controlling spirit in charge of the operations; but
+their actual coming under fire seems to have astounded them. They had
+expected to find a vast system of trench-warfare in existence; and had
+been keenly on the look-out for signs of digging which would indicate
+to them that they had reached the rear positions of the attacking
+force. What they actually found, as bullets began to whistle around
+them, was a thin line of civilians with rifles and bandoliers who
+were lying flat on the grass and firing, apparently aimlessly into
+the distance. At times, some of the riflemen would get up, run a few
+yards and then lie down again; but there seemed to be no discipline or
+ordered activity traceable in their methods. It appeared to be a purely
+individualistic form of warfare.
+
+Hinkinson added himself to the skirmishing line, more from a desire for
+personal safety than with any understanding of what was happening. It
+appears that he lay there most of the afternoon, firing occasionally
+into the distance from which the bullets came. His four friends were
+also engaged in his immediate vicinity.
+
+Later in the day his neighbour in the skirmishing line spoke to him and
+suggested that he might form a sixth in the party. Hinkinson learned
+from this man that during the night the attackers generally fought
+among themselves for any food which there might be; and he proposed
+that the Hinkinson party should stand watch about during the darkness,
+so as to avoid robbery. They agreed to this; as it seemed the best
+policy: though Hinkinson himself, in the entry he made at the end of
+the day, seems to throw doubt upon the likelihood of such proceedings.
+
+Fortunately, they did not entirely trust their new comrade; and one of
+the five kept awake while pretending to sleep. When the night grew dark
+they heard movements in the skirmishing line, rifles were still blazing
+intermittently up and down the front, and here and there they caught
+the groans of the wounded. But in addition to these sounds, to which
+they had by this time grown accustomed, they heard scuffles, cries of
+anger, hard breathing and all the noises of men wrestling with each
+other. It was a cloudy, moonless night and nothing could be seen. At
+last, long before dawn, they discovered their friend of the afternoon
+engaged in rifling one of their food-bags. Finding himself discovered,
+he fled into the darkness and they never saw him again.
+
+It was not until well on in the next day that Hinkinson made any
+further discoveries; but fresh surprises were awaiting him. He learned
+that the firing-line to which he was opposed was not a portion of
+the defence of the area at all, but was part of the attacking group.
+This puzzled him for a day or two, to judge from the remarks which he
+made in his journal; but at length he seems to have understood that
+his fellow-attackers were almost as much to be feared as the actual
+defenders.
+
+He gives a sketch on one page of his diary showing the situation as he
+understood it. In the centre lies the actual fertile area, surrounded
+by an elaborate system of entrenchments. This zone he terms the Defence
+Zone. About a mile outside this, but coming much closer in parts, lies
+what he describes as the Offensive-Defensive Circle. When he reached
+this section, as we learn from a later part of his journal, he found it
+very roughly entrenched, the main works being rifle-pits rather than
+connected trench-lines. This Offensive-Defensive Circle was occupied
+by part of the attacking force; but the actual fighting in it was upon
+both front and rear. The holders of this Circle wished to force their
+way into the Defence Zone; but having gained a start upon the late
+comers whose firing-line lay still further to the rear, they proposed
+to retard as far as possible any advance in force from the outermost
+lines. Thus the combatants of the Circle, as soon as they had forced
+their way into it, devoted their attention to sniping new-comers who
+might follow them up; then seizing any opportunity, they made their
+way forward toward the centre and joined the inner skirmishing line
+which directed its fire upon the entrenchments of the actual Defence
+Zone. The outermost region, in which Hinkinson and his friends found
+themselves, was composed of men who had either arrived late on the
+field or failed to struggle forward in face of the sniping from the
+Circle.
+
+In both the outer ring and the Circle the dominating idea was food.
+There was no commissariat and no central directing body of any kind.
+When a man joined the outer ring, he knew that he had only the supplies
+which he carried with him; beyond that, he could count upon nothing
+except what he could steal from his neighbours. The only chance of life
+was to fight a way up to the centre as soon as possible and take the
+chance of being recruited by the garrison.
+
+While the Hinkinson group remained intact, they were able to protect
+themselves from food-thieves; but on the fourth day in the skirmishing
+line one of the five was severely wounded; and, knowing how little
+care was given to wounded men, he shot himself. Two more were killed
+by snipers on the fifth day. Three days later, Hinkinson managed to
+establish himself in a rifle-pit of the Circle; and he thus lost sight
+of his remaining friend.
+
+Life in the Circle was lived under appalling conditions, for it was
+within range of both the Defence Zone and the outer skirmishing line;
+and there was very little chance of exercise even at night. Food was
+scarcer here than in the outer ring; and consequently raids for food
+were almost incessant during the hours of darkness. Ammunition was
+also very scarce; and Hinkinson was only able to keep up his supply by
+searching the bodies which lay in his neighbourhood. After two days in
+the rifle-pit he seems to have suffered from some form of influenza.
+The only thing which he notes with satisfaction is the fact that there
+was no artillery in the whole action. It was a case of rifle-fire from
+beginning to end.
+
+After his third day in the rifle-pit, he succeeded in making his way
+into the inner firing-line of the Circle, so that at last he was
+actually in contact with the Defence Zone. He was astonished to find
+that the defenders were using up ammunition much faster than the
+attacking forces; and it is clear that this puzzled him, as he could
+see no reason for it. He had expected to find them running short.
+
+His entry into the Defence Zone was due, apparently, to a stroke
+of good luck. On the day which brought him face to face with the
+defenders, he saw an attack made from the Circle upon the entrenchments
+before him. It was an utterly haphazard affair: first one man ran
+forward, then two or three others joined him; and finally the force of
+suggestion brought the major part of the attackers to their feet and
+hurled them upon the trenches before them, which at this point were
+only a few hundred yards away. Despite its random character, it seems
+to have been successful to some extent. A considerable number went
+down before a bombing attack made from the trenches; but despite this
+a fairly large band surmounted the parapet and disappeared beyond. A
+confused sound of rifle-firing was followed by a short silence; and
+then a regular volley seemed to have been fired. None of the attacking
+party reappeared.
+
+According to Hinkinson’s reading of the situation, a number of the
+defenders had been killed in the hand-to-hand struggle in the trenches;
+and he concluded that this was his best opportunity to endeavour to
+gain a footing among the defence force, which would now be weakened
+slightly and possibly anxious for recruits.
+
+At this point, his diary is illegible and I can throw no light upon the
+subjects included in the hiatus. When it becomes readable again, I find
+him a member of the defending group.
+
+Apparently on this side of the debatable land discipline was as marked
+as it was absent from the other side. The death penalty was inflicted
+for the slightest error. Once or twice Hinkinson seems to have run
+considerable risks in this direction through no great fault of his own.
+
+He found that the defence problem was in some ways a complex one,
+whilst in other directions it was simplified considerably by the unique
+conditions of the new warfare. Owing to the enormous perimeter which
+had to be defended, the garrison was almost wholly used up in forming
+a very thin firing-line which was liable to be rushed at any point by
+strong bodies of the attacking force, as, indeed, he had already seen
+himself. Given sufficient spontaneous co-operation for a raid, the
+trenches could be entered without any real difficulty by the survivors
+of a charge. But once within the defended lines, the attackers were
+accepted as part of the defence force, provided that their numbers
+were not in excess of the casualties produced by their onset. Thus the
+_personnel_ of the trench-lines changed from day to day, dead defenders
+being replaced by successful raiders whose main interest had changed
+sides. Under such conditions, the maintenance of discipline was a
+matter which required the sternest measures. The garrison was always up
+to full strength; but its members were not a military body in the usual
+sense, since they changed from time to time as new recruits took the
+places of the killed. Of _esprit de corps_ in the usual meaning of the
+words there was not a trace; but its place was taken by the instinct of
+self-preservation, which seems to have made not a bad substitute.
+
+As to the question of ammunition-supply, which had puzzled Hinkinson
+so much during his experiences in the outer zones, it became simple
+when once he was inside the trench-lines. There appears to have been
+a regular traffic by aeroplane between the food-area and the outer
+world, munitions being imported by air in exchange for food which the
+air-craft took back on their return trips.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Readers can now picture for themselves the state of the world after
+the Famine had done its worst. The great cities which marked the
+culmination of civilisation had all shared the fate of London; and most
+of the towns had gone the same road. All the vast and complex machinery
+which mankind had so laboriously gathered together in these teeming
+areas had been destroyed by fire.
+
+Here and there--in Scotland, in Japan, and in a couple of American
+centres--Nitrogen Areas were in full activity; and the traditions
+of pre-Famine times were being kept alive, though with profound
+modifications; but outside the boundaries of these regions the only
+human beings left in the world were a mere handful, scattered up and
+down the globe and existing hazardously upon chance discoveries of
+food-stuffs here and there. The Esquimaux had a better prospect of
+survival than most of these relics of civilisation.
+
+But the trifling changes involved in the downfall of humanity were
+overshadowed by the effects of _B. diazotans_ upon the face of the
+earth. All that had once been arable land became a desert strewn
+with the bones of men. The vast virgin forests of America, Northern
+Europe and tropical Africa became mere heaps of rotting vegetation:
+pestilential swamps into which no man could penetrate and survive.
+Apart from these regions, the land-surface was sandy, except where
+boulder-clay deposits kept it together. Water ebbed away in these
+thirsty deserts; and with its disappearance the climate changed over
+vast areas of the world.
+
+Those who went out in the early aeroplane exploring expeditions across
+these stricken and barren lands came to understand, as they had never
+done before, the meaning of the abomination of desolation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+Document B. 53. X. 15
+
+
+I think I have made it clear that when I took over the Reconstruction
+at Nordenholt’s request I did so in a disinterested spirit, by which
+I mean that no personal aims of my own were concerned. I began the
+work solely in the hope that my plans would ensure the welfare of some
+millions of people, hardly any of whom I knew as individuals. It is
+true that I put my whole heart into the task and that I strove with
+all my might to bring its conclusion within the scope of possibility.
+I could do no less, in view of the immense responsibility which I had
+undertaken. Possibly my narrative has minimised the labour which the
+effort involved; if so, I cannot help it.
+
+Even my early stages of collaboration with Elsa Huntingtower failed to
+alter this attitude of my mind. I still saw the problem as one in which
+great masses of people were involved; and although I appreciated the
+fact that these masses were composed of individuals each with his or
+her separate destiny to work out for good or ill, yet it never occurred
+to me to regard myself as one of them.
+
+I think that the vision of Fata Morgana, growing ever clearer in my
+mental vision, forced my thoughts into a fresh channel. In my mind’s
+eye I saw that happy city, thronged with its joyous people; and
+gradually I began to picture myself treading those lawns and wandering
+amid its gardens. Alone? No, I wanted some kindred spirit, someone who
+could share the victory with me; and Elsa Huntingtower was the only
+one who had part and lot in it. She and I had built its dreaming spires
+together by our common labour; and it was with her that I would stray
+in fancy through its courts. Of all humanity, we two alone had rightful
+seizin in its soil.
+
+It was late before I recognised where all this was leading me; but when
+at last I awakened, it drove me with ten-fold force. I wanted no dim
+future through which I might rove as a shadow among shadows; they had
+served their turn in the scheme of things and brought me face to face
+with reality. If Paradise lay before me, Eve must be there, else it
+would be a mockery: if I had to face failure, I needed a comforter. I
+wanted Elsa.
+
+I mistrust all novelists’ descriptions of the psychology of a man in
+love. To me, that passion seems an integration of selfishness and
+selflessness each developed to its highest pitch and so intimately
+mingled that one cannot tell where the dividing line between them lies.
+Luckily, analysis of this kind is beyond the scope of my narrative. The
+affairs of Elsa Huntingtower and me, so far as they concerned ourselves
+alone, have no place upon my canvas; but since in their reactions they
+impinged upon a greater engine, I cannot pass them over in silence
+without omitting a factor which must have had its influence upon events.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I suppose, from what I see around me, that the average man falls
+in love by degrees. He seems to be subjected to two forces which
+alternately act upon him in opposite directions, so that his advance
+to his goal is intermittent and sometimes slow. In my case, there
+was nothing of this wavering. Somehow, as soon as I realised what my
+feelings were, I could not delay an hour longer than was necessary.
+The real fact was, I suspect, that I did not suddenly fall in love,
+though I seemed, even to myself, to have done so. In all probability I
+had been falling in love for weeks without knowing it; and when the
+illumination came, the long sub-conscious travail had prepared me for
+instant action.
+
+As it happened, it was one of the days on which we usually motored
+into the country. At two o’clock I was in the Square with the car; and
+almost at once the door opened and Elsa appeared. My dreams had far
+outrun reality; and as the slim fur-clad figure came down the steps I
+felt my pulse leap. It lasted only for a moment, but I think she read
+my face like an open book. Behind her came Nordenholt, looking very
+tired. I could not help seeing the change which the last months had
+made in him. The deep lines on his face were deeper still; his eyes
+seemed to be different in some way, though as piercing as ever; and his
+step had lost the lightness it had when I saw him first in London. He
+looked me over, as he usually did, but said nothing as he stepped into
+the back of the car. Elsa took her customary place beside me; and it
+gave me a novel thrill as I arranged the rug about her. It seemed as
+though something had fallen from my eyes so that I saw her in a new and
+wonderful aspect.
+
+As we drove westward and over the Canal, I noticed that she seemed
+disinclined to talk; and as I myself was busy with my dreams, I did not
+try to force the conversation. We had passed Bearsden and were in the
+open country before she had spoken three sentences; and even these were
+wilfully commonplace. Reflecting on this, and being myself surcharged
+with emotion, I was vain enough to guess that she was thinking of me
+and of what I had to tell her; for I had a curious feeling that she
+must know what was in my mind. So the milestones swept by, and still
+the three of us remained silent.
+
+It was a dreary landscape through which we drove; but all landscapes in
+those days were bleak and sinister. In the little wood beyond Bearsden,
+the trees were uprooted and slanting here and there, owing to the new
+soil giving them no support. Some, which had threatened to fall across
+the road, had been cut down. Further on, the Kilpatrick Hills loomed
+over us, dark from the lack of vegetation; while across the Blane
+valley, once so green, the smooth folds of the Campsies lay black under
+the wintry sky. Only here and there, where snow covered the ground, did
+things remind one of the old days.
+
+Past the Half Way House, along Stockiemuir with its blasted heather
+under its snow, up the hill at the foot of Finnick Glen the great car
+ran; and yet none of us spoke a word. Once, after that, Nordenholt gave
+me a direction; and we turned off toward Loch Lomond.
+
+When we reached the lochside, beyond Balloch, he made me stop the car.
+
+“I’m going to get out here and walk up towards Luss,” he said. “You
+take the car on to the head of the loch and pick me up on the way back.
+Don’t hurry. I want some exercise.”
+
+The door slammed; and we moved off. I looked back and saw him standing
+by the water-side; and it struck me that his attitude was that of an
+old man. He stood with his hands in the pockets of his motor-coat; and
+his position seemed to exaggerate the stoop of his shoulders. He looked
+so very, very tired. I realised, all at once, that he was ageing long
+before his time, worn out by his colossal task. An emotion which was as
+much dismay as pity swept over me in an instant. Then, as I watched, he
+pulled himself up and stood erect again, gazing over the water to the
+desolate islets. The car swung round a corner; and when I looked back
+once more, he was out of sight.
+
+But that picture haunted me as I drove up the loch. I guessed at last
+what this struggle was costing him. Somehow I had never realised it
+before. I had come to regard Nordenholt as almost akin to the natural
+forces, the embodiment of some great store of energy which worked
+upon human destiny calmly and ever certainly. I had looked up to his
+strength and leaned upon it unconsciously, knowing only that it was
+there. And now, in that brief vision, I had seen that my support
+was itself weakening, even though for an instant. There had been a
+recovery, the old dominating attitude reappeared as he pulled himself
+together again. But before this I had never seen effort in that
+attitude; and I saw it now. Even in my exalted condition, the sight of
+that weary figure struck down into my memory.
+
+Elsa had not looked back. She sat beside me, her clean-cut profile
+emerging from her dark furs, gazing straight before her at the road
+ahead. We ran through Luss without a word to each other. My heart was
+throbbing with excitement; and yet I hesitated to break the silence.
+Some miles further up the road, before we reached Tarbet, she asked me
+to stop the car and suggested that we should go down to the water’s
+edge.
+
+It was there that I at last found speech and, having found it, poured
+out what I had to say in a torrent of words none of which I can
+remember now. I had rehearsed that scene many a time in my mind, and
+yet it all came unexpectedly. I had never anticipated this opportunity.
+I had thought that some time, when we talked of the future we were
+planning, I would tell her what I needed to make it complete. And I had
+thought of how she would take my pleading: I had forecast how she would
+look and what she would reply. But in none of my visions had I foreseen
+the reality.
+
+She listened to me coldly, almost as if her mind were occupied with
+other things. I grew more passionate, I think, striving to make her
+understand my emotion; and yet she seemed almost indifferent to what
+I said. At last I stopped, chilled by this aloofness which I did not
+understand. In my wildest imaginings I had never thought of this
+_dénouement_ of the situation. I think I must have grown cold myself:
+for though I can recall nothing of my previous words, the rest of the
+scene is graven on my mind. For some moments after I had ceased, she
+remained silent; then at length she spoke, with an accent in her voice
+which I had never heard before. I remember that she had taken off one
+glove and stood twisting it in her hands while she talked.
+
+“I got you to stop the car here because I have something to ask you,
+something of tremendous importance to me. Forgive me if I put it first
+and don’t answer you immediately. I’m ... I’m very grateful for all you
+have said. But this thing comes before everything; and you must let me
+ask you about it before we come to ... to our own affairs.”
+
+A pang of apprehension shot through me. What could she be driving at
+which was of greater importance than our future?
+
+“As I was going over my papers to-day,” she went on, “I came across one
+which seemed to have been missorted. It didn’t belong to my section. I
+glanced at it casually; and then I read it. Have you any idea what it
+referred to?”
+
+“No.”
+
+“It said things I could hardly grasp. Even now I think it must be a
+mistake. I can’t believe it was a real document. It must have been a
+hoax or something like that. And yet, it had the usual serial numbers
+on it: B. 53. X. 15.”
+
+My throat was dry, but I managed to pull myself together and make a
+sound like “Well?” She came close to me and looked me straight in the
+eyes--so like Nordenholt’s gaze in some ways--and I tried to bring my
+features into a mask.
+
+“Is it true that everyone outside the Area has been left to die? Is it
+true that there has been a deliberate plot to starve all the men, all
+the women, even the little children in the country? Tell me that, and
+tell me at once. Don’t wait to wrap it up in fine phrases. Tell me the
+truth _now_.”
+
+I stood before her, silent.
+
+“So it _is_ true; and you knew it! You acquiesced in it. You even
+helped in it; I can see it in your face. You cur!”
+
+Still I could not find my voice. This was a different scene from
+that I had thought of only ten short minutes before. It was not that
+I felt anything myself, except a sort of dull comprehension that my
+dreams were shattered; but the sight of the pain in her face moved me
+more than I could express in words. I wanted to help her. I wanted
+to justify the plan Nordenholt had made. And yet something kept me
+tongue-tied. I could find no phrase to open my explanations. The
+outpouring of speech which I had found so easy only a few seconds
+earlier now seemed dried up. I merely watched her, saying nothing. For
+a time she struggled with herself, trying to master her feelings. All
+this time her face had been set; not a tear had come to her eyelashes.
+
+“I have a right to know who planned this,” she continued, after a
+pause. “Do you know what I thought at first? I suspected Uncle Stanley.
+I even suspected _him_. But I don’t, now. I know him too well. I didn’t
+even question him about it. I didn’t want to worry him until I had
+found out whether it was true or not. But it _is_ true. Who planned it?
+Answer me!”
+
+There was no concealment possible. Once she had the clue, she would
+discover everything almost immediately. Not even delay was to be gained
+by a lie. And with her clear eyes upon me, I could not have lied even
+had I wished to do so. She might never be mine; but I was hers to do as
+she wished. For a moment I hesitated, turning over in my mind the idea
+of referring her to Nordenholt himself; but I abandoned that almost
+instantaneously. The shock would be greater if it came from him; better
+let me bear the brunt.
+
+“Your uncle planned it. I helped him.”
+
+“Uncle Stanley! You don’t expect me to believe that? It shows how
+little you know of us both if you think....”
+
+Her voice became tinged with doubt, and tears, too, came into it.
+The evidence was too clear. Only Nordenholt could have carried out
+such a gigantic scheme. And possibly she read the truth in my face as
+well. For a moment she seemed frozen, a rigid and silent statue. All
+the flush had left her cheeks and above the softness of her furs her
+features seemed as though carved in marble. When she spoke again, she
+seemed to be trying to convince herself.
+
+“Did Uncle Stanley suggest it? I can’t believe it. It’s impossible.
+He couldn’t do a thing like that. You don’t know him. He couldn’t. He
+couldn’t. I know he couldn’t.”
+
+Even in that moment of tension, I could not help reflecting how little
+a woman can know of a man’s mind. Half our mental processes are shut
+off from them, as probably half of theirs are closed books to us.
+The great barrier of sex divides us; and our outlook upon the world
+can never be the same. This girl had been in close communion with
+Nordenholt through most of her life; and yet she failed to recognise at
+once as his handiwork the greatest achievement to which he had put his
+powers.
+
+She wavered on her feet. I stepped forward to catch her but she struck
+aside my hand. Then she seated herself on a bank. I looked away; and
+when I saw her again she was sitting, her face buried in her hands,
+while her fragile figure shook with suppressed sobbing.
+
+“Elsa,” I said, “you don’t understand. It’s come upon you suddenly; and
+you’ve been swept off your feet by it. But it was all for the best. It
+had to be done.”
+
+She looked up. On her face, still wet with tears, I saw only contempt
+and bitterness.
+
+“It had to be done?” she echoed. “Do you mean that forty millions of
+people _had_ to be robbed of their food and left to starve? Can’t you
+see what it means, or are you made of stone? Think of men seeing their
+mothers dying; think of lovers watching their sweethearts starve; and
+the children in their mothers’ arms. And you, _you_ say calmly that ‘It
+had to be done.’ You aren’t a machine. You had the right to choose. And
+you chose _that_!”
+
+“You don’t understand,” I repeated wearily. Somehow the strain of the
+situation seemed to have robbed me of my forces.
+
+“No, I don’t understand. How can I, when it means that the men I
+thought most of in the world turn out to be nothing but murderers on
+a gigantic scale? I can’t believe it, even yet. Is it ... is it all a
+mistake? Oh! I want to wake up out of this nightmare; I want to wake
+up. Tell me it’s a nightmare and not real.”
+
+Her voice sounded almost like that of a terrified child in the dark.
+
+“It’s no nightmare,” I said. “Try to see what it meant. There wasn’t
+enough food for us all. Somebody had to die if the rest were to be
+saved.”
+
+“And so you elected to be one of the rest? I congratulate you. A most
+laudable decision, I am sure,” she said contemptuously. “It would
+indeed have been a pity if you had gone short of food in order to save
+the lives of a mere score of children; tiny, helpless little things
+that can’t do more than cry as they starve.”
+
+“You don’t understand,” I repeated. “There was no chance of saving them
+in any case. They were doomed from the start. All we did was to ensure
+that _somebody_ would survive. If the food had been evenly distributed,
+we should all have died; but your uncle laid his plans to save millions
+of people. Surely you can see that?”
+
+She thought for a moment; and then attacked in a fresh direction.
+
+“Who gave you the right to choose among them? You seem to think you
+are a demi-god with the power of life and death in your hands. How
+could _you_ take the responsibility of the choice? And how could you
+bear to save yourself when you knew other men, and perhaps better men,
+had to die? I can’t understand you. You’re so different from what I
+thought you were. Somehow all my ideals seem to be breaking. You and
+Uncle Stanley were the two finest men I had met. I never dreamed for a
+moment that you would turn out to have feet of clay. And now....”
+
+I tried hard to put our case before her. I explained the state of
+things at the outbreak of the Famine. I gave her figures to prove that
+Nordenholt had only worked to save what he could from the disaster. It
+was all of no avail. I think that the picture of the starving children
+filled her mind to the exclusion of almost everything else; and that
+she hardly listened to what I said. Once she whispered to herself,
+“Poor little mites,” just when I thought I had caught her attention at
+last. I gave it up in the end. She looked away across the loch, where
+the first stars were lighting up behind the hills; and we stood in
+silence, so close in space, so remote from each other in our thoughts.
+At last she spoke again.
+
+“Still I don’t understand it all. I see your view; but I can’t share
+it. It seems so cold-blooded, so horrible. But I can’t understand you,
+just when I thought I knew you through and through. Tell me, how could
+you talk of Fata Morgana and all our dreams when you _knew_ that this
+terrible thing was happening? That’s what I don’t grasp.”
+
+“I can’t explain it to you. Probably I keep my mind in compartments.
+But never mind about me, Elsa; I’m done for now. I don’t matter.
+But you mustn’t condemn your uncle along with me. He never led you
+on to dream dreams, so you haven’t that against him. I want you to
+believe me that he has been a saviour and not a destroyer, as you seem
+to think. Don’t lose your faith in him until you understand. Don’t
+prejudge things till you know everything. Speak to him yourself before
+you come to a conclusion. He depends on you, more than you think,
+perhaps. And he’s worked himself to the bone to save those few millions
+that are left to us. Don’t judge him till you know everything.”
+
+She looked at me more kindly than she had done since the beginning.
+
+“That’s just what I should have expected from what I knew of you,
+Mr. Flint. You think of him first and don’t bother about yourself.
+You aren’t selfish. I can’t understand you, somehow. You seem such a
+mixture; and until to-day I had no idea you were a mixture at all. It’s
+all so difficult.”
+
+She ended with a choke in her voice and turned towards the car. I
+followed her and switched on the head-lights, ready to start. She
+climbed into her seat; and I put the rug around her knees. Just as I
+was on the point of starting, she spoke again.
+
+“You’ve told me all I need to know; but I must hear it from Uncle
+Stanley himself. I’ll go on being his secretary. I’ll do all I can to
+help. But I hate you both. Yes, if this is true, I hate him too. What
+else do you expect? You look on yourselves as saviours, it seems. You
+may be that, but you certainly are murderers. You can’t even see why I
+abhor you both. That shows you the gulf between us. Oh, I hate you, I
+hate you, with this cold calculation of yours: so much food, so many
+lives. Is that the way to handle human destinies? Drive on.”
+
+A little further down the road, she spoke again in a quivering voice
+which she strove to keep level and cold:
+
+“This ends any work together. I couldn’t bear it in your case. With
+Uncle Stanley it’s different. I will go back to my old place with him.
+But I never want to see _you_ again, Mr. Flint. I’ve lost two illusions
+to-day; and I don’t wish to be reminded of them more than I need be.
+I promised him that I would always help him; and I’m going to keep my
+promise, cost what it may. But I never promised _you_ anything.”
+
+For a few minutes I drove on in silence. The whole world seemed to have
+fallen around me. All that I had longed for, all my future, seemed to
+have collapsed in that short afternoon. I was not angry; I don’t think
+I was even completely conscious of what it all meant. I felt stunned by
+an unexpected blow. At last I roused myself.
+
+“Elsa,” I said, “do you remember the first evening we met?”
+
+She never moved.
+
+“You sang that dirge from Cymbeline, you remember? When you’re calmer,
+I want you to think over it. I don’t want you to have any regrets. Mr.
+Nordenholt can’t last for ever under this strain. Think carefully.”
+
+She made no sign that she had heard me speak. The car whirred through
+the dusk, while we sat silent and aloof from each other. It was a
+return very different from that which I had hoped for when I set
+out. I was almost glad when, further down the loch, the beams of the
+head-lights showed us the figure of Nordenholt in the road. I pulled up
+the car beside him; and Elsa leaned forward in her seat.
+
+“Uncle Stanley, Mr. Flint has told me everything. I saw a document this
+morning, B. 53. X. 15; and I forced Mr. Flint to explain what it meant.
+Did you really plan this awful thing?”
+
+I could not see Nordenholt’s face in the shadow; but his voice was as
+steady as ever in his reply. Afterwards I realised that he must have
+foreseen such a situation as this long before.
+
+“It is perfectly true, Elsa. Anything that Mr. Flint has told you is
+probably correct, though his connection with the matter is very slight.”
+
+“But he says that you planned it all and that he helped you. I can’t
+... I can’t quite understand it all. It’s a mistake, isn’t it? It’s not
+your real plan, surely. You’re going to save all these people in the
+South, aren’t you?”
+
+“Every soul that can be saved by me will be saved, Elsa. You can count
+on that.”
+
+“But you will give them all a chance of life, won’t you? You won’t take
+away all the food from them?”
+
+“There’s no food to spare.”
+
+For a few moments there was silence. Elsa made a sudden movement, and
+I guessed that she had recoiled from Nordenholt’s touch. At last she
+spoke again, in a way I had not anticipated.
+
+“Do you remember my three wishes, Uncle Stanley? You gave me two of
+them and now I want the third. You promised me the whole three; and
+you never broke your word yet. I want you to save these people in the
+South. That’s my third wish.”
+
+I think it was that which made me realise the gulf that yawned between
+us, more than anything that had gone before. How could she imagine
+that Nordenholt’s vast machine could be deflected on account of
+some childish promise? And yet her voice had taken on a new tone of
+confidence; everything, she thought, was going to be set right. It
+seems she must have believed, even then, that the treatment of the
+South was only one of a number of alternative schemes; and that she
+could force the adoption of some other, not so good, perhaps, but still
+possible, as a solution. Her very belief in Nordenholt’s powers led her
+to assume that he must have several plans ready pigeon-holed, and that
+the rejection of one merely entailed the substitution of some other
+which was already cut and dried.
+
+“When that promise was made, Elsa, there was one condition: your wish
+was not to be an impossible one. This _is_ impossible.”
+
+“Oh!” There was such an agony in her voice that I felt it rasp my
+already over-tried nerves.
+
+“That is final, Elsa. There is nothing more to be said.”
+
+For almost a minute she made no reply. In the silence I could feel her
+struggling for control of her voice. When at last she spoke, she seemed
+to have fought down her emotion, for her tone was almost indifferent:
+
+“Very well, Uncle Stanley. You refuse to help these people; but I am
+not so easy in my mind. I will go into the South myself and do my best
+to help them; and if I cannot help, I can at least take the same risks
+as they do. _I_ can’t stay here, well fed and well cared for when they
+are suffering.”
+
+“You will not do that, Elsa. No, I don’t mean to prevent you going if
+you wish, though you have no idea what you would be going to. But I
+haven’t brought you up to be a shirker; and you’re needed here. You
+have the whole of your work at your finger-ends and if you go it will
+dislocate that department temporarily; and we can’t afford to have even
+a temporary upset at this stage. You promised you would stay, no matter
+what happened; and I ask you to keep your promise now. I also tell you
+that I need you, and your work here is helping to save lives in the
+Area, more lives than you could ever save outside. Now do you wish to
+go?”
+
+She thought for a time, evidently weighing one thing and another. While
+she was still silent, I broke in, wisely or unwisely I did not know.
+
+“If Elsa goes into the South, Nordenholt, I go with her to look after
+her. You must find someone else to take my place. I can’t let her go
+alone.”
+
+Nordenholt’s voice was as calm as ever.
+
+“You understand, Elsa? If you go, you take away Mr. Flint; and although
+I can replace you in your department, I doubt if I can get anyone
+as good as he is in his line. Go South and you cripple one of the
+essential parts of the Area. Stay here, and you help us all towards
+safety--and we are not near the safety-line yet. Which is it to be? I
+put no pressure on you. I only point out what I think is your duty.”
+
+I had expected some angry reply, some hurried decision which might
+bring disaster in its train; but luckily things took a different turn.
+I believe that the strain had been too great for her. Now came the
+collapse; and before I knew what had happened, she had broken into
+tears. Nordenholt leaned over her, trying to comfort her; but it was
+useless; and he let her work out her fit of emotion to the end. At last
+she pulled herself together.
+
+“If you are sure you need me, I will stay. But I hate you both. I hate
+the work. I hate the Area and everything in it. I’ll keep my promise to
+you; but things will never be the same again.... And, oh, this morning
+I was so happy.”
+
+Nordenholt climbed aboard the car without another word, and I drove on
+into the dark. Now and again I heard a half-suppressed sob from the
+girl at my side; but that was all. At the door of Nordenholt’s house I
+stopped. Elsa left me without uttering even “Good-night.” I watched her
+tall, slim figure go up the steps and disappear; and something blinded
+me. I found Nordenholt standing at the side of the car.
+
+“Poor chap,” he said, with an immense pity in his voice. “So you’re
+involved too? I wish it had been otherwise. Well, well; I couldn’t hope
+to keep it from her much longer at the best. But I’m very, very sorry.
+She’ll take it so hard. Her type never looks at these things the way we
+do.”
+
+He paused and looked at me keenly in the light of the terrace lamps.
+When he spoke once more, his voice sounded very weary.
+
+“Stand by me, Jack. Get your part ready in time. Don’t flinch because
+of this. I’m nearly at the end of my tether.”
+
+I could not trust myself to speak. We shook hands in silence, and he
+went up the steps into the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+In the Nitrogen Area
+
+
+I have no wish to dwell overmuch upon my own affairs in this narrative;
+for they formed a mere ripple on the surface of the torrent of events
+which was bearing all of us along in its course. Yet to exclude them
+entirely would be to omit something which is of importance; for they
+must have influenced my outlook upon the situation as a whole and
+possibly made me view it through eyes different from those which I had
+used before.
+
+My dreams and desires had come to the ground almost ere they were in
+being; and what made it more bitter to me was that I felt they had been
+crushed, not on their merits, but merely as subsidiaries which had
+shared in the collapse of a more central matter. I guessed that Elsa
+had, to some extent, at any rate, shared my feelings; and it was this
+which made the downfall of my hopes all the harder to bear.
+
+Try as I would, I could find no reason behind her attitude; and even
+now, looking back upon that time, I cannot appreciate her motives.
+In the whole affair of the Nitrogen Area I had been guided by purely
+intellectual considerations. Nordenholt himself had advised me to keep
+a tight rein upon any feelings which might divert me from this course.
+And I was thus, perhaps, less able to appreciate her standpoint then
+than I would have been a few months earlier.
+
+On her side emotion, and not intellect, was the guiding star. The
+picture of starving millions which had broken upon her without warning
+had overpowered her normally clear brain. Thus there lay between us
+a gulf which nothing seemed capable of filling. I thought, and still
+believe, that emotion is a will-o’-the-wisp by which alone no man can
+steer a course; but it is useless to deny its power when once it has
+laid its influence upon a mind. Even had she given me a chance, I doubt
+if I would have tried to reason with her; and she gave me no chance. I
+never saw her alone; and when she met me perforce or by accident, she
+treated me practically as a stranger. All the long evenings of planning
+and dreaming had gone out of our lives.
+
+As soon as I could make an opportunity, I questioned Nordenholt as to
+the state of affairs. He answered me perfectly frankly.
+
+“Elsa has never said a word to me about the South. I think she shrinks
+from the idea even in her own mind; and she shrinks from me because
+of it, as I can see. But she sticks to her work, even if she loathes
+coming into contact with me daily; and I keep her as hard at it as I
+can. The less time she has to think, the better for her; and I don’t
+mean to leave her any time to brood over the affair. Poor girl, you
+mustn’t feel hard about her, Jack. I can understand what it means to
+her; and to you also: and her part is the saddest. She simply hates me
+now; I can feel it. And neither of us can help her, that’s the worst of
+it.”
+
+To Nordenholt himself the situation must have been a terrible one; for
+Elsa was closer to him than any other human being could ever be: and
+the position now was worse even than if he had lost her entirely. I am
+sure that he had never felt anything more than affection for her; but
+she had become more to him, perhaps, just for that reason. I often used
+to think that they formed natural complements for one another: he with
+his great build and powerful personality, she with her slender grace
+and her character, strong as his own, perhaps, but in a far different
+sphere.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was about this period _B. diazotans_ began to die out from the
+face of the world which it had wrecked. I have already told how
+Nordenholt had given me the news when it was still a possibility of
+the future. From their studies upon isolated colonies of the microbe,
+the bacteriologists had predicted its end. They had found a rapid
+falling-off in its power of multiplication; and the segregation of a
+number of the pests soon led to their perishing.
+
+When it became clear that _B. diazotans_ was doomed, Nordenholt began
+to send out scouting aeroplanes to collect samples of soil from various
+districts and bring them back to the laboratories of the Nitrogen Area
+where they could be examined. All told the same tale of extinction.
+Gradually, the aeroplanes were sent further and further on their
+journeys into the stricken lands; and at last it became clear that as
+far as a large part of Europe was concerned, the terror was at an end.
+The soil, of course, was completely ruined; but there was little to
+fear in the way of a recrudescence of the blight.
+
+It seems, nowadays, very strange that we had not already foreseen this
+result; for the cause of it lay upon the surface of things. Once the
+denitrifying bacteria had destroyed all the nitrogen compounds in the
+soil, there was nothing left for them to live upon; and they perished
+of starvation in their turn, following in the track of all the larger
+organisms which their depredations had ruined.
+
+As soon as Nordenholt had established the definite decease of _B.
+diazotans_ in the accessible parts of the European continent, he sent
+out the news to the whole remaining world with which he was in touch
+through his wireless installation; and after some time had been spent
+in various centres in which the remnants of humanity were gathered
+together, word came back from the most widely-separated areas that
+all over the world _B. diazotans_ had ceased to exist. In many places
+it had even left no traces of any kind behind it; for as some of the
+bacteria died their bodies, being nitrogenous, had served as food for
+those still living; until at last the merest trace of their organisms
+was all that could be found in the soil.
+
+So this plague passed from the world as swiftly as it came; and its
+passing left the future more certain than seemed possible in the early
+stages of its career.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But if our gravest danger was thus removed, we in the Nitrogen Area
+had other troubles which were nearer to us at that time. In his very
+earliest calculations, Nordenholt, as I have told, had foreseen that
+disease would be prevalent owing to the monotony of the diet which was
+entailed by our conditions. The lack of fresh vegetables and the use
+of salted meat gave rise to scurvy, which we endeavoured to ward off
+by manufacturing a kind of synthetic lime juice for the population.
+The success of this was not complete, however, and the disease caused
+a very marked falling-off in the productive power of our labour. For
+a time it seemed as though we were actually losing ground in our
+factories, just at the moment when the destruction of the denitrifying
+bacteria had raised our hopes to a high degree.
+
+Nor was scurvy our only trouble. The debilitated health of the people
+laid them open to all sorts of minor diseases, with their concomitant
+decline in physical energy. Of these, the most serious was a new type
+of influenza which ravaged the Nitrogen Area and caused thousands
+of deaths. Here again, a fall in output coincided with the growth
+and spread of the disease; but since the death-roll was a heavy one,
+the number of mouths diminished markedly as well; so that it almost
+appeared as though the two factors might balance each other. If there
+were less food in the future, there would be fewer people to consume it.
+
+I think the period of the influenza epidemic was one of the most trying
+of all in the Nitrogen Area. As the reported cases increased in number,
+individual medical attention became impossible; for many doctors died
+of the scourge, and we could not risk the total annihilation of the
+medical profession. Treatment of the disease was standardised as far as
+possible and committed to the care of rapidly-trained laymen. Possibly
+this led to many deaths which might have been avoided with more
+efficient methods; but it was the only means which would leave us with
+a supply of trained medical men who would be required in the future.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the heels of the influenza epidemic, and possibly produced by it,
+came a period of labour unrest in the Area. It was only what I had
+always anticipated; for the strain which we were putting upon the
+workers had now increased almost to the breaking point. There was no
+way out of the difficulty, however; for unless the work was done, the
+safety of the whole community would be imperilled. None the less, I
+could not help finding excuses in my mind for those toiling millions.
+To them, the connection between the factories and the food-supply must
+have been difficult to trace; for they could hardly follow all the
+ramifications in the lines between the coal in the pits and the next
+harvest which was not even sown.
+
+Nordenholt succeeded in stifling most of the disaffection by means of
+a fresh newspaper campaign of propaganda. He had given his journals
+a long period of rest in this direction, purposely, I believe, in
+order that he might utilise them more effectively when this new
+emergency arose. But though he certainly produced a marked effect by
+his efforts, there remained among the workers an under-current of
+discontent which could not be exorcised. It was not a case of open
+disaffection which could have been dealt with by drastic methods; the
+Intelligence section were unable to fasten upon any clear cases of what
+in the old days would have been called sedition. It was rather a change
+for the worse in the general attitude and outlook of the labouring part
+of the community: an affair of atmosphere which left nothing solid
+for Nordenholt to grasp firmly. Though I was out of direct touch with
+affairs at the time, even I could not help the feeling that things were
+out of joint. The demeanour of the workers in the streets was somehow
+different from what it had been in the earlier days. There was a
+sullenness and a tinge of aggressiveness in the air.
+
+And in Nordenholt himself I noticed a corresponding change. He seemed
+to me by degrees to be losing his impersonal standpoint. The new
+situation appeared to be making him more and more dictatorial as time
+went by. He had always acted as a Dictator; but in his personal contact
+with men he had preserved an attitude of aloofness and certainty which
+had taken the edge off the Dictatorship. Now, I noticed, his methods
+were becoming more direct; and he was making certain test-points into
+trials of strength, open and avowed, between himself and those who
+opposed him. He always won, of course; but it was a different state of
+things from that which had marked the inception of the Nitrogen Area.
+There was more of the master and less of the comrade about him now.
+
+Yet, looking back upon it all, I cannot but admit that his methods
+were justified. The disaffection was noticeable; and only a strong
+hand could put it down. Nordenholt’s tactics were probably the best
+under the circumstances; but nevertheless they brought him into a
+fresh orientation with regard to the workers. Instead of leading them,
+he began more and more openly to drive them along the road which he
+wished them to take.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I see that I have omitted to mention the attempted invasion of the
+Nitrogen Area from the coasts of Europe which took place just before
+this. To tell the truth, it was so complete a fiasco that it had almost
+passed from my mind; but a few words may be devoted to it here.
+
+When the Famine had done its work in Germany there still remained for
+a time a number of inhabitants who had seized the food in the country
+by force and who were thus enabled to prolong their existence while
+their fellows died out. They belonged mainly to the old military class.
+When they in turn ran short of supplies, their natural thought was to
+plunder someone weaker than themselves; and learning of the existence
+of the Clyde Valley colony, they determined that it furnished the most
+probable source of loot. Apparently they imagined that the Fleet in the
+Firth of Forth was deserted; for in order to excite no suspicion they
+had kept their airships at long-range in the reconnaissances which they
+undoubtedly made in advance of their actual onset; and it seems most
+probable that they imagined they had nothing to fear beyond the risks
+incident to the invasion of an unprotected country. At least, so it
+appears to me; and there were no survivors of the expedition from whom
+the truth might have been discovered.
+
+Under cover of night, they seem to have put most of their men on board
+merchant ships and sailed for the British coast at a time which would
+have brought them off the land in the early hours of the morning when,
+no doubt, they expected to get ashore without attracting attention,
+since they must have supposed all the coastal inhabitants had perished.
+Actually, however, their manœuvres had been followed by the seaplane
+patrol which cruised in the North Sea; and as soon as they left port,
+the Fleet was got into a state of preparedness. The two forces met
+somewhere on the high seas; the German squadron, utterly defenceless,
+was sunk without any resistance worthy of the name.
+
+This was the only actual attempt at invasion which the Nitrogen Area
+had to repel; for Nordenholt’s aeroplane propaganda had checked any
+desire on the part of the survivors of the Famine in this country to
+approach the Clyde Valley under any conditions.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Though Nordenholt succeeded in suppressing the outward manifestations
+of labour unrest at this period, I think it is fairly clear that he
+was unable to reach down to the sources of the trouble. At the root of
+things lay a vague dissatisfaction with general conditions, which it
+was impossible to exorcise; and this peculiar spirit manifested itself
+in all sorts of sporadic forms which gave a good deal of trouble before
+they could be got under control.
+
+For example, at about this time, there was an outbreak of something
+akin to the dancing mania which I had seen in London. It began by a
+rapid extension of normal dancing in the halls of the city; but from
+this it soon passed into revelry in the public squares at night; and
+finally took the form of corybantic displays in the streets. As soon
+as it began to demoralise the people, Nordenholt applied the drastic
+treatment of a fire-hose to the groups of dancers; and, between this
+method and ridicule, he succeeded in stamping out the disease before it
+had attained dangerous proportions.
+
+But this was only one of the symptoms of the grave troubles which were
+menacing the success of Nordenholt’s plans. I do not doubt that he had
+foreseen the condition into which affairs had drifted; but it seems to
+me that he recognised the impossibility of eradicating the roots of the
+discontent. Its origin lay in the actual material and moral states of
+affairs; and without abandoning his whole scheme it was impossible to
+change these things.
+
+I know that during these months he stiffened the discipline of the
+Labour Defence Force considerably in view of eventualities; and he had
+frequent conferences with the officers in command of its various units.
+I guessed, from what I saw, that in future he intended to drive the
+population into safety if he could not lead them there; and I confess
+that at times I took a very gloomy view of our chances of success.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was during this trying period, I think, that Nordenholt’s young
+men were his greatest source of strength. He was always in touch
+with them; and in some way he seemed to draw encouragement from them
+while spurring them on to further efforts. They seemed to lean on him
+and yet to support him in his work; and often I felt that without
+some comradeship as this our whole plans would have been doomed to
+failure. The Nordenholt Gang practically occupied all the posts of any
+responsibility in the Nitrogen Area; and this, I expect, rendered the
+working of the machine much smoother than it would otherwise have been.
+
+Since my new work brought me into touch with many fresh departments, my
+acquaintance with Nordenholt’s men increased; and I was amazed to find
+the ramifications of his system and the super-excellence of the human
+material in which he had dealt. They were all young, hardly any were
+over thirty-five and most were younger; yet they seemed to have a fund
+of moral courage and self-reliance which struck me especially in those
+dark times. They never seemed to doubt that in the end things would
+come right. It was not that they blindly trusted in Nordenholt to the
+exclusion of common sense: for they all seemed to face the facts quite
+squarely. But behind their even weighings of the situation I detected
+an unspoken yet whole-hearted belief that Nordenholt would bring us
+through without a hitch. Hero-worship has its uses, when it is soundly
+based; and all of them, it was easy to see, had made Nordenholt their
+hero. When I thought over the many-sided nature of their activities and
+the differences of personality among them, I could not help finding
+my view of Nordenholt himself expanding. They were all picked men,
+far above the average; their minds worked on different lines; their
+interests were as divergent as the Poles: and yet, one and all, they
+recognised Nordenholt as their master. I do not mean that he excelled
+them in their own special lines: for I doubt, in many cases, whether
+he had even a grip of the elements of the subjects which they had made
+their own. But he had been able to impress upon all these various
+intellects the feeling that he was in a class by himself; and that
+effect implied immense personality in him.
+
+Despite their widely different fields of activity, there was a very
+strong _esprit de corps_ among them all; and it was not for some time
+that I felt myself to be received on equal terms with the rest. I think
+they felt that I was outside their particular circle, at first. But the
+real passport into it was efficiency; and when I had had time to show
+my power of organisation, they accepted me at once as one of themselves.
+
+Of them all, I think Henley-Davenport interested me most, though I
+can hardly put into words the reasons which led to this attraction. I
+never learned how Nordenholt had discovered him originally; but I found
+that when Henley-Davenport began to open up the subject of induced
+radioactivity, Nordenholt had stepped in and bought up for him a huge
+supply of various radioactive materials which he required in his work
+and which he had despaired of acquiring on account of their enormous
+cost.
+
+What struck me most about him was his fearlessness. Once he gave me,
+incidentally in the course of a talk upon something else, a suggestion
+of the risks which his work entailed. It seemed to me that I would have
+faced half a dozen other kinds of death rather than that one. Purely
+as a matter of physiological interest, he told me that the effect of
+radioactive materials on a large scale upon the human body would exceed
+the worst inventions of mediæval torturers.
+
+“The radiations, you know,” he said, drawing at his cigarette. “The
+radiations have a knack of destroying tissue; but they don’t produce
+immediate effects. The skin remains quite healthy, to all appearances,
+for days after the damage is done. Then you get festering sores
+appearing on the affected parts.
+
+“Well, on a large scale, the affected parts will be the whole surface
+of the body; so that in itself will be pretty bad, as you can see. Poor
+old Job will have to take a back seat after this.
+
+“Then, again, I expect enormous quantities of radioactive gas will be
+evolved; and probably one will breathe some of it into one’s lungs.
+The result of that will be rather worse than the external injuries, of
+course. I doubt if a man will last half an hour under that treatment;
+but that half-hour will be the limit in pain.”
+
+“Can’t you use a mask or some lead protection?” I asked. “Or could you
+not fix up the whole thing in a bomb-proof case which would keep the
+rays from things outside?”
+
+“Well, that’s the first thing one thinks of, naturally; but to tell the
+truth it’s impracticable for various reasons. Some of them are implicit
+in the nature of the processes I’m using; but even apart from that,
+look at the state of affairs when the thing does go off with a bang. It
+will be one of the biggest explosions, considering the amounts I have
+to use; and if I’m going to be flung about like a child’s toy, I prefer
+to fly light and not have a sheet of lead mail to go along with me and
+crush me when I strike anything. As to a mask, nothing would stick on.
+You would simply be asking to have your face driven in, if you wore
+anything of the kind.
+
+“No, I’ve been lucky so far. I’ve only lost three fingers in a minor
+burst-up. And I’m going to stake on my luck rather than risk certain
+damage. But if I can only pull it off, Flint.... Nordenholt thinks a
+lot of it; and I don’t want to disappoint him if I can help it. If I do
+go to glory, I’ll at least leave something behind me which will make it
+more than worth while.”
+
+Nordenholt, I learned later, _did_ “think a lot of it.” I spoke to him
+on the subject one day; and I was astonished to find how much stress he
+laid on the Henley-Davenport work.
+
+“You don’t realise it, Jack; but it’s just on the cards that our
+whole future turns on Henley-Davenport. I see things coming. They’re
+banking up on the horizon already; and if the storm bursts, nothing but
+Henley-Davenport can save us. And the worst of it is that he doesn’t
+seem to be getting ahead much at present. It’s no fault of his. No
+one could work harder; and the other two--Struthers and Anderson--are
+just as keen. But it doesn’t come out, somehow. And the tantalising
+thing is that he has proved it _can_ be done; only at present it isn’t
+economical. He gets energy liberated, all right; but where we need a
+ton of gunpowder, he can only give us a percussion cap, so to speak. If
+only he can hit on it in time....”
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For my own part, that period was depressing. All the joy had gone out
+of my work. Only after I had lost her did I realise how great a part
+Elsa had played in my planning of the future. Her disappearance cast
+a shade over all my schemes; and soon I gave up entirely the side of
+the reconstruction in which we had collaborated. I could not bear to
+think over again the lines along which we had worked so intimately in
+common. I simply put them out of my mind and concentrated my attention
+exclusively upon the material aspects of the problem.
+
+I have said this quite freely; though possibly the reader may look
+upon me as a weak man for allowing such factors to enter into so vast
+a matter. Had I been superhuman, no doubt, I could have shut my mind
+to the past; and gone forward without flinching. But I never imagined
+that I was a super-man; and at this time especially I felt anything but
+superhuman. I was wounded to the quick; and all I desired was to avoid
+the whole subject of Elsa in my thoughts. And when I come to think of
+it, it seems quite probable that I did my best work in this way. If I
+had continued to dream of Fata Morgana and all its wonders, I should
+simply have drugged myself with a mental opiate and my work would have
+suffered on other sides.
+
+Elsa’s whole attitude to Nordenholt and myself had been a puzzle. I
+could not understand why she should have been so bitter against us; for
+try as I could, I failed to see anything discreditable in our doings.
+The logic of events had thrust us into the position we occupied, it
+seemed to me; and I could not appreciate her view of the situation.
+
+Nordenholt kept silence on the subject for some days after our trip
+up Loch Lomond; but he finally gave me his views in reply to urgent
+questioning.
+
+“I think it’s something like this, Jack: from what I know of Elsa in
+the past, she’s got a vivid imagination, very vivid; and it happens to
+be the pictorial imagination. Give her a line of description, and she
+has the power of calling up the scene in her mind, filling in missing
+details and producing something which impresses her profoundly.”
+
+“Well, I don’t see what that’s got to do with calling me a brute,” I
+said. “It doesn’t seem to help me much.”
+
+“It’s quite clear to me. The few details she got from that confounded
+missorted form were enough to start her imagination. She instinctively
+called up a vision of starving people, suffering children and all the
+rest of the affairs in the South. And you know, Jack, these visions
+of hers are wonderfully clear and sharp. It wasn’t you who built Fata
+Morgana on these afternoons; it was her imagination that did it and you
+followed in her track.”
+
+“Yes, you’re quite right, Nordenholt. I don’t think I would have so
+much as thought of dream-cities if she hadn’t led the way. And she
+certainly had the knack of making them seem concrete.”
+
+“Very well; assume she had this vision of starving humanity. You know
+her type of mind--everything for others? What sort of effect would that
+picture produce upon her? A tremendous revulsion of feeling, eh? Her
+whole emotional side would be up in arms; and she has strong emotions,
+though she doesn’t betray them. Her intellectual side didn’t get a
+chance against the combination of that picture and her ideals. It was
+simply swept out at once.
+
+“But in spite of all her emotions, she’s level-headed. Sooner or later
+she’ll begin to think more calmly. And she’s very just, too. That ought
+to help, I think. Oh, I don’t despair about her; or rather, I wouldn’t
+despair about her if it weren’t for some things that are coming yet.
+I’m not going to buoy you up with any hopes, Jack, for I believe in
+dealing straight. I can’t let you hope for much; we’ve both lost
+enormously in her eyes. But I’ve seen cases in which her imagination
+misled her before and her reason came out in the end. It may be so this
+time. But don’t expect anything, Jack; and don’t try to gain anything.
+She’s a very straight girl, and if she finds she has been wrong she
+won’t hesitate to come and admit it to you without any encouragement
+on your part. But it has been a horrible affair for her; and you must
+remember that, if you think hardly of her at times.”
+
+“_I_ think hardly of her! You don’t know me, Nordenholt, or you
+wouldn’t say that.”
+
+“Well, for both our sakes, I hope her intellect will get control of her
+feelings. I hate to see her going about her work and know that she has
+lost all faith in me now. She was the one creature in the world that
+loved me, you know, Jack; and it’s hard.”
+
+Then he laughed contemptuously, as though at his own weakness.
+
+“It’s quite evident I’m not the man I was, Jack. But somehow, in this
+affair we’re both in the same boat to some extent; and I let that slip
+out. You see that Elsa hasn’t the monopoly of an emotional temperament!”
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+All great undertakings with uncertain ends appear to run the same
+course. First there is the period of inception, a time of high hopes
+and eager toil and self-sacrifice; then, as the novelty wears away,
+there follows a stage in which the first enthusiasm has died down and
+an almost automatic persistence takes the place of the great emotional
+driving-force of the early days; later still, when enthusiasm has
+vanished, there comes a time when the meaner side of human nature
+reasserts itself. My narrative has reached the point of junction
+between these last two divisions; and the pages which I have yet to
+write must perforce deal mainly with the troubles which beset us in the
+period of lassitude and nerve-strain which followed naturally upon the
+other phases of the situation.
+
+I have thrown this chapter into a series of isolated sections; for I
+believe that such a treatment best suggests the state of things at the
+time. We had lost the habit of connected thought, as far as the greater
+events were concerned. Our daily round absorbed our attention; and it
+was only occasionally that we were jarred out of our grooves by some
+event of salient importance.
+
+The whole atmosphere which surrounded us was depressing; and it slowly
+and surely made its impression upon our minds and formed the background
+upon which our thoughts moved. The gloom of the smoke-filled sky had
+its reaction upon our psychology. The old sunlight seemed to have
+vanished from our lives. And at this time we were all beginning to pay
+the price for the feverish activity of the earlier days in the Area.
+Our work, whether mental or physical, wearied us sooner than before;
+and its monotony irritated our nerves. Such recreations as we had--and
+they were few enough at this time--failed to relieve the tension. Among
+the labouring classes, in particular, this condition of lassitude
+showed itself in a marked degree.
+
+Nordenholt, with his finger on the pulse of things, grew more and more
+anxious as time went on. On the surface, he still appeared optimistic;
+but from chance phrases here and there I deduced that his uneasiness
+was increasing; and that he anticipated something which I myself could
+not foresee. Knowing what I do now, it seems to me that in those days
+I must have been blind indeed not to understand what was before us;
+but I frankly confess that I missed the many signs which lay in our
+path from day to day. When the disaster came upon us, it took me almost
+completely by surprise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+Per Iter Tenebricosum
+
+
+After Elsa had rejected any further collaboration with me, I was forced
+at times to consult Nordenholt upon certain points in my schemes which
+seemed to me to require the criticism of a fresh mind; and I thus fell
+into the habit of seeing him in his office at intervals.
+
+“Things are in a bad way, Jack,” he said to me at the end of one of
+these interviews. “You don’t see everything that’s going on, of course;
+so you couldn’t be expected to be on the alert for it; but it’s only
+right to warn you that we’re coming up against the biggest trouble
+we’ve had yet in the Area.”
+
+“Of course things are anything but satisfactory, I know,” I replied.
+“The output’s going down and there seems to be no way of screwing the
+men up to increase it. But is it really fatal, do you think? We seem
+even now to have the thing well in hand.”
+
+I glanced up at the great Nitrogen Curve above the fireplace. The red
+and green lines upon it appeared to me to show a state of affairs
+which, if not all that we could wish, was at least satisfactory as
+compared with what might have been. Nordenholt followed my glance.
+
+“That practical trend of mind which you have, Jack, sometimes keeps
+you from seeing realities. What lies at the root of the trouble just
+now isn’t output or slackness or anything like that. These are only
+symptoms of the real disease. It’s not in the concrete things that
+I see the danger, except indirectly. The true peril comes from the
+intangibles; ideas, states of mind, sub-conscious reflections. I’ve
+told you often that the material world is only the outward show which
+hardly matters: the real things are the minds of the men who live in
+it. It’s their movements you need to look at if you want to gauge
+affairs.”
+
+“I stick to what I know, Nordenholt, as I’ve often told you. I’m no
+psychologist; and I have to look on the material side because I’m out
+of my depth in the other. But let’s hear what you have in your mind
+about the state of affairs.”
+
+“Well, you’ve been busy enough with your own work; so probably you
+haven’t had time to observe how things are going; but I can put the
+thing in a nutshell. We’ve weathered a good many difficulties; but
+now we’re up against the biggest of them all. I see all the signs of
+a revival in the near future--and it isn’t going to be a Christian
+revival. It spells trouble of the worst description.”
+
+Now that my attention had been drawn to the point, a score of incidents
+flashed across my mind in confirmation of what he said. I had noticed
+an increased attendance at the meetings of street-preachers; and also
+a growth in the number of the preachers themselves. As I went about
+the city in the evenings I had seen in many places knots of people
+assembled round some speaker who, with emotion-contorted visage, was
+striving to move them by his eloquence.
+
+Once I had even stopped for a few minutes to listen to a sermon being
+preached outside the Central Station by the Reverend John P. Wester;
+and I still remembered the effect which it had produced upon me. He
+was a tall man with a flowing red beard and a voice which enabled him
+to make himself heard to huge audiences in the open air. He repelled
+me by the cloudiness of his utterances--I hate loose thinking--and
+also by the touch of fanaticism which clung to his discourses; for I
+instinctively detest a fanatic. Yet in spite of this I felt strangely
+attracted by him. He had the gift of gripping his hearers; and I could
+see how he played upon them as a great musician plays upon a favourite
+instrument. Remotely he reminded me of Nordenholt in the way in which
+he seemed to know by instinct the points to which his rhetorical
+attacks should be directed; but the resemblance between the two men
+ended at this. It was always reason to which Nordenholt appealed in
+the end; whilst emotional chords were the ones which the Reverend John
+fingered with success.
+
+“Now you’ve told me, I believe you’re right,” I said. “I _have_ seen
+signs of something like a revival. The crowds seem to be taking a
+greater interest in religion.”
+
+“I wish they would,” Nordenholt returned, abruptly. “They won’t get it
+from the Reverend John. He’s out for something quite different. It’s
+just what I feared would happen, sooner or later. It always crops up
+under conditions like those we are in just now. We’ve strained the
+human machine to its utmost in all this work; and we’re on the edge of
+possibilities in the way of collective hysteria.
+
+“Now that man Wester is at the root of half the trouble we are having
+just now. I don’t mean that he is creating it; nothing of that sort:
+but his personality forms a centre round which the thing collects.
+The thing itself is there anyway: but if it weren’t for him and some
+others, it would remain fluid; it wouldn’t become really dangerous.
+But Wester is a fanatic and with his oratorical powers he carries
+the weaker people off their feet, especially the women. He’s got a
+following. What worries me is, where he’s going to lead them. He’s got
+a kink in him. Still, I’m trusting that we may be able to weather the
+thing without using force even now. But if he goes too far, I’ll break
+him like _that_.”
+
+He tapped a stick of sealing wax on his desk and broke it in two.
+Again I reflected how unlike this was to the Nordenholt I had known at
+first, the man who could unfold huge plans without so much as a gesture
+to help out his meaning. He must have read the thought in my eyes, for
+he laughed, half at himself, I think.
+
+“Quite right, Jack. These theatrical touches seem to be growing on me,
+of late. I must really try to cure myself. But, all the same, I mean
+to keep my eye on the Reverend John. If he sets up as a prophet--and I
+expect he will do that one of these days--I’ll take the risk and put
+him down. But it’s a tricky business, I can tell you. Until he actually
+becomes dangerous, I shall let him go on.”
+
+It was only natural, after that, for me to take more interest in the
+career of the Reverend John. I even attended one of his open-air
+meetings from start to finish; and I was still more impressed by his
+command over his hearers. The material of his sermons seemed to me
+commonplace in the extreme: it was not by the novelty of his subjects
+but by his personal force that he impressed his audiences and raised
+them to a state of exaltation. Zion, the River, The Tree of Life, Eden,
+the loosing of burdens, rest and joy eternal: all the old phrases
+were utilised. From what I heard of his preaching, it seemed to me
+innocuous. A brief time of suffering and sorrow upon earth and then
+the heavens would open and the Elect would enter into their endless
+happiness: these appeared to be the elements of the creed which he
+expounded; and I could see little reason for Nordenholt’s anxiety.
+
+At last, however, I began to notice something novel in the sermons. The
+change came so gradually that I could hardly be sure when it began.
+Probably he had opened up his fresh line so tentatively that I had not
+observed it at the time; and it was only after he had already been
+changing step by step in his subject that I became clearly conscious of
+his new tone.
+
+With the greatest skill he contrived to use the old expressions while
+inflecting them with a fresh intention. At last, however, there could
+be no doubt as to his meaning. It was no longer Christianity that he
+preached, but a kind of bastard Buddhism. Up to that point in his
+career he had spoken of earthly affairs as a trial through which we
+must pass in order to attain to bliss in the Hereafter; but in his
+newer phase the things of the material world became entirely secondary.
+
+Eternal rest, eternal joy, eternal peace: these were his main themes;
+and to the exhausted and nerve-racked population they had an attraction
+of the most subtle kind. The Reverend John was a psychologist like
+Nordenholt, though he worked in a narrower groove; and he well knew how
+to utilise the levers of the human consciousness. Eternal rest! What
+more attractive prospect could be held out to that toil-worn race?
+
+Slowly, with the most gradual of transitions, he began to assume the
+mantle of a prophet; and with that phase new names began to emerge in
+his discourses. The Four Truths, the Middle Path, the Five Hindrances,
+Arahatship, Karma: these cropped up from time to time in sermons which
+were daily becoming wilder in their phraseology.
+
+I have no wish to be unfair to the Reverend John. He was a fanatic;
+and no fanatic is entirely sane. I am sure, also, that in the earlier
+stages of his campaign he strove merely for the spiritual good of the
+people as he understood it. But it is necessary to say also that I
+believe he became crazed in the end; and that the ultimate effect of
+his preaching led us to the very edge of disaster. It is not for me to
+weigh or judge him; he preferred his visions to material safety; whilst
+my own mind is concerned more with the things of this earth than with
+what may come later.
+
+His preaching now passed into a stage where even I could appreciate
+its dangerous character. More and more, his sermons took the form of
+belittlings of the material world; while the joys of eternal life were
+held up in comparison. It was not long until he was openly questioning
+whether our human existence was worth prolonging at all. Would it
+not be better, he asked, to throw off these shackles of the Flesh at
+once rather than live for a few years longer amid the sorrows and
+temptations of this world? Why not discard this earthly mantle and
+enter at once into Nirvana?
+
+This appeared to me a mere preaching of suicide; but if his followers
+chose to adopt his suggestions, it seemed to me a matter for
+themselves. I had always regarded suicide as the back-door out of life;
+though I had never under-estimated the courage of those who turn its
+handle. Yet it seemed to me evidence of a certain want of toughness of
+fibre, a lack of fitness to survive; and, personally, I had no desire
+to retain in the world anyone who seemed unable to bear its strains.
+
+His next phase of development, however, opened my eyes. By this time he
+had become a great power among the people. Many a king has been treated
+with less reverence than his followers showed to him. Crowds flocked
+to his meetings, standing thickly even when they stretched far beyond
+the reach of that magnificent voice. In the streets he was saluted as
+though he were a superhuman agent. There were attempts made to get him
+to touch the sick in the hope that he might heal them.
+
+From afar, Nordenholt watched all this rising surge of emotion. In some
+ways, the two men resembled each other; but their motives were wide
+apart as the Poles. Both had their ideals, higher than the normal;
+but these ideals were in deadly antagonism to each other. Both, it is
+possible, were right; but the clash of right with right is the highest
+form of tragedy; and collision between them was inevitable.
+
+“The Reverend John has been a great disappointment to me, Jack,”
+Nordenholt admitted to me one day. “That man has the makings of a
+great demagogue or a great saint in him; and it seems to me that the
+spin of the coin has gone against me, for I thought the saint would
+come uppermost. He isn’t as big as I thought he was. His head has
+been turned by all this adulation; and unless I am mistaken again we
+shall find him becoming a public danger before very long. He thinks he
+has his own work to do, preparing for the Kingdom of Heaven; and in
+doing that he seems to sweep aside all earthly affairs as trifles. He
+despises them. I don’t. To me, he seems to be like a child in a game
+who won’t abide by the rules. His heaven may be all right; but if it
+is to be attained by shirking one’s work on earth--not _striving_ to
+live--it seems to me a poor business. I think life is important, or it
+wouldn’t exist; and I’m working to keep it in existence. He seems to
+believe it is of no value, if he really means what he says. We can’t
+agree, that’s evident.”
+
+It was not long before the Reverend John’s campaign filled even my
+mind with apprehension. His style of preaching changed and grew more
+incoherent; his phraseology became wilder; and a minatory tone crept
+into his sermons. And the tremendous personality of the speaker,
+coupled with all the art of the orator, made even these obscure ravings
+powerful to influence the minds of his hearers.
+
+He began to speak of curses from heaven upon a generation which had
+forgotten the right path. The Famine was a sign that all life was to be
+swept from the earth’s face. And thence he passed to the proposition
+that any struggling against the Famine was a hindrance to the workings
+of the universe.
+
+I think that it was about this time that he discarded ordinary clothes
+and began to go about clad in a curious garment manufactured from
+the skin of some animal. Except for his fiery beard, he recalled the
+sandal-shod John the Baptist represented in old illustrated Bibles. Nor
+was he alone in this fashion: some of his more prominent adherents also
+adopted it, though in their cases the results were not so imposing.
+
+And now things moved rapidly towards their end.
+
+The Reverend John preached daily in the streets, predicting a universal
+entry into Nirvana. His curses against those who worked for the
+physical salvation of the people to the detriment of their Karma became
+louder and more frequent; and it was not long until he spent most of
+his energies in comminations. From cursings, he passed to threats; and
+his attacks upon Nordenholt grew in vehemence day by day. And still
+Nordenholt, to my growing wonder, held his hand and forbore to strike.
+
+By this time the religious mania was spreading rapidly throughout
+the population of the Area. The skin-clad followers of the Reverend
+John ran nightly through the streets crying that the Great Day was at
+hand and calling upon the people to repent of their sins and turn to
+righteousness. Strange scenes were witnessed; and stranger doctrines
+preached. It was a weird time.
+
+Meanwhile, the preaching of the revivalist was becoming more and
+more exalted. He named himself a Prophet, the last and the greatest.
+He began to be more definite in his predictions; events which he
+foreshadowed were foretold as coming to pass at stated dates. At last
+he gave out that three days later he and his followers would publicly
+ascend to heaven in a cloud of glory; and that the world of earthly
+things would pass away as he did so.
+
+And still Nordenholt held his hand. I could not understand it; for
+by this time I had seen where the teaching of the Reverend John was
+leading us. Work was slowing down in the factories; crowds of all
+classes were spending their whole time following their Prophet;
+and the mere numbers of them were becoming a serious menace to the
+safety of the Area. At last I became so anxious on the subject that I
+went to consult Nordenholt on the matter. I had begun to doubt if he
+appreciated the gravity of the situation.
+
+I found him sitting before the fire in his office, smoking and gazing
+before him as though wrapped in his reflections.
+
+“Look here, Nordenholt,” I said. “I suppose you grasp the seriousness
+of affairs nowadays? Isn’t it about time something was done? It seems
+to me that you’ll need to grasp this nettle before long anyway. Why let
+it grow any bigger?”
+
+“Afraid I’m losing my grip, eh? Not yet, Jack, not yet awhile. But I
+will _grasp_ it before long. I’m only waiting the proper moment. I’ve
+waited for weeks; and now I think it’s nearly due at last.”
+
+“But the man’s insane, Nordenholt. You see that, don’t you? Why wait
+any longer. Grab him now and be done with it--at least that’s what I
+should do if I were in charge.”
+
+“No, I’m going to give him three days more. If I interfered now, it
+would spoil everything. Wait till he has seen his prophecy fail, and
+then we can tackle him.”
+
+“I don’t see any use waiting; but I suppose you know best.”
+
+“I do know best, Jack, believe me. Come back here in three days, at
+half-past eleven, and you’ll see my methods. I’m going to teach these
+people a lesson this time.”
+
+He leaned back in his chair and fixed his eyes on the old stone image
+of the Pope’s head which, under its glass bell, forms part of the
+mantelpiece.
+
+“What differences there are in the way religion works on a man, Jack.
+There was an old chap in the dark ages, that Pope; and he believed in
+spreading the light by education. He founded the University here. And
+then you have this fanatic to-day whose one idea seems to be to reduce
+everything to chaos again. What a difference! And yet each of them
+thinks that he is inspired to do the right thing in his day.”
+
+He threw away the end of his cigar and rose.
+
+“Come back in three days, Jack. You’ll see it all then. I needn’t
+explain it now.”
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The events of the following two days filled me with uneasiness; and I
+began to fear that for once Nordenholt had erred in his calculations.
+The tumult and agitation centring around the figure of the revivalist
+increased; his preaching became more and more menacing; and it seemed
+to me that he had been allowed too much rope. By this time he was
+quite frankly attacking the whole scheme of the Nitrogen Area as an
+act of impiety which would call down the wrath of the Divinity in the
+immediate future. And mingled with these cursings he poured forth his
+prophecies, which grew hourly more detailed. He and his Elect would
+ascend into the sky at noon, he declared; and that all men might see
+this come about, he proposed to take his stand by the Roberts’ statue
+in Kelvingrove Park, from which eminence he would be visible to the
+assembled crowds.
+
+Rumours ran through the Area, growing wilder and yet more wild as they
+passed from lip to lip. Even the most unimaginative of the population
+felt the strange electric power which seemed to flow out from the
+revivalist; and the tales of his doings were magnified and distorted
+out of all semblance of reality. Just as Nordenholt had predicted, all
+the formless unrest of the Area crystallised round the personality of
+the preacher and took shape and substance. Work was abandoned by the
+greater part of the Area labour; and the factories, usually thronged by
+shift after shift, remained almost untenanted during those two days in
+which the populace awaited the promised miracle.
+
+Meanwhile the followers of the revivalist redoubled their efforts and
+their conduct grew less and less restrained. The labourers who remained
+at work were assaulted by bands of these fanatics, and driven from the
+doors of the factories. Order seemed to have vanished from the Area;
+for I found that Nordenholt had withdrawn the Labour Defence Force
+entirely from the streets, allowing the madmen to do their will. It
+seemed as though the Area were being permitted to relapse into chaos.
+
+The uninterrupted preaching of the revivalist had wrought the whole
+population into a state of strained expectation. Even those who scoffed
+at his claims were affected by the atmosphere of the time; and there
+was in most minds an uneasy questioning: “Suppose that it should all be
+true?”
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At half-past eleven, I went to Nordenholt’s office as I had promised.
+He was alone, seated at his huge desk. The usual mass of papers had
+been cleared away and I noticed that their place had been taken by
+a small piece of apparatus like a telephone in some respects and an
+ordinary electric bell-push on a wooden stand. Temporary wires ran from
+these to the window.
+
+“Come in, Jack. You’re just in time for the curtain.”
+
+“It seems to me, Nordenholt, that the curtain ought to have been rung
+down on this thing long ago. You’ve waited far too long, if you ask me.”
+
+“I don’t think I’ve miscalculated. And to tell you the truth, Jack,
+this is the biggest thing I’ve had to think out so far. It’s make or
+break with us this time; and we’ve never been as near disaster before.
+But I’ve thought it out; and I believe I’m right. Have a cigar.”
+
+He pushed a box across to me and I cut and lit one mechanically.
+
+“This thing here,” he tapped the instrument, “is a dictaphone. The
+transmitter’s fixed up in the statue over there.”
+
+He nodded in the direction of the Park below our windows. I got up and
+looked out. As far as my view reached, the ground was concealed by a
+closely-packed crowd of people, all standing motionless and intent upon
+the group on the open space around the statue. There had been some
+singing of hymns earlier in the morning; but now the vast concourse had
+fallen silent as their expectation rose to fever-heat and the hour of
+the miracle drew near.
+
+“I’m going to give him every chance,” said Nordenholt’s voice behind
+me. “Let him pull off his miracle if he can. If he can’t, then I expect
+trouble; and at the first word of danger I hear, I’ll settle with
+him at last. I don’t mind his preaching suicide; but if he starts to
+threaten the work of the Area, it will be on his own head.”
+
+The three-quarters had struck from the great bells above our heads;
+and, a few minutes later, Nordenholt switched on the dictaphone.
+Suddenly the clarion voice of the revivalist seemed to fill the room in
+which we stood.
+
+“My brothers! In a few brief moments I shall leave you, ascending in
+glory to the skies. While I am yet with you, heed my words. Turn from
+this idle show which blinds your eyes. Turn from this heavy labour and
+unceasing toil. Turn from this valley of sin and sorrow. Turn from the
+lusts of the flesh and the lures of material things. Long and weary has
+been the way; life after life have we suffered, but when we pass into
+Nirvana there is rest for you, rest for each of you, eternal rest! O my
+brothers, all that are worn with the bearing of burdens, all that are
+taxed beyond your powers, all that are a-faint and borne down, follow
+after me into Nirvana, where none shall be a-weary and where all shall
+rest. There shall be no more toil, no more fatigue, no more striving
+and no more labour. There shall be rest, everlasting rest, a long
+sweet slumber under the trees, while the river flows by your feet and
+its murmur lulls you in your eternal rest.”
+
+Even in the harsh reproduction of the dictaphone I could feel the
+magic of the cadences of that splendid voice, soothing, comforting,
+promising the multitude the prize which to them must have seemed the
+most desirable of all. And through it all the steady repetition of
+“Rest” ran with an almost hypnotic effect. Incoherent though it was,
+the appeal struck at the very centre of each over-driven being in that
+throng.
+
+“Rest, rest for all. Surcease of toil. Do you not feel it already,
+my brothers? Languor creeps over you; you faint as you stand. And
+I promise rest to you all. Follow me and you shall rest in those
+fields; there where you may dream away the long, long days among the
+flowers, lying at ease. There where the songs of birds shall but stir
+you faintly in your dreams, and all the tumult of the world shall be
+stilled within your ears.”
+
+He paused; and the silence seemed almost like a continuation of his
+speech. The multitude seemed frozen into stone. Then came an isolated
+phrase:
+
+“Into Nirvana; Nirvana where there is rest....”
+
+The voice died away in a soothing murmur which yet had its compelling
+power. Nordenholt looked at his watch.
+
+“Two minutes yet. So far, he hasn’t been actively objectionable; but I
+can guess what is coming.”
+
+Again the dictaphone sounded.
+
+“But a few moments now, my brothers, then I and my Elect shall ascend
+into the skies. Look well, O my brothers. Mark our passage to our rest.”
+
+His voice ceased. There was a dead silence. Then, suddenly, with
+a preliminary vibration of machinery, the clock above us struck.
+Four double chimes for the quarters and then the heavy note of the
+hour-strokes. Nordenholt listened grimly until all twelve had been
+rung. Then I heard his voice, even as ever, without the faintest tinge
+of irony:
+
+“The passing bell!”
+
+With the twelfth stroke there came through the windows a great wave
+of indescribable sound, the loosing of breath among the thousands who
+were gathered far below us in the Kelvin valley. Then again there was
+silence. Nordenholt suddenly leaned forward to his desk and placed his
+finger on the ivory button.
+
+“Now’s the danger-point, Jack. He’ll try to divert attention from his
+failure. But I’m ready for him.”
+
+I began mechanically to count seconds, with no particular reason, but
+simply because I felt I must do something. Two minutes passed; and
+then through the windows came a long groaning note, the voice of the
+multitude smitten with disillusion at the failure of the miracle which
+they had expected. It rolled in a huge volume of sound across the Park
+and then died away.
+
+Suddenly the dictaphone poured out a torrent of words. The voice was no
+longer calm; all the quiet strength had gone out of it, and, instead,
+the tones were those of an infuriated man seeking some object upon
+which to wreak his anger. But with all his rage the Reverend John had
+a ready mind. In a moment he seems to have seen a possible loophole of
+escape.
+
+“No!” he cried, “I will not ascend for yet awhile. Work remains to be
+done here, in this godless city; and I will renounce my rest until it
+has been brought to its end. Life must cease ere I can seek my rest. I
+bid you follow me that we may accomplish the task which has been laid
+upon me. Over yonder”--he evidently pointed towards us--“over yonder
+sits the Arch-Enemy; he who strives to chain pure spirits in this
+web of flesh. His hand is on all this city, so that the smoke of her
+burning goes up to the skies. Break asunder the chains which he is
+forging. Destroy the evil works which he has planned. Wreck the engines
+which he has designed. Come, my brothers; the doom is pronounced
+against all the works of his hand. Come, follow me and end it all.
+Destroy! Destroy! so that this world of sorrow and of sin may pass away
+like an evil vision and life may be no more. Destroy! Destroy!”
+
+Nordenholt, listening intently, pressed his finger upon the ivory
+stud. There was a moment’s pause, and then from the eastern end of the
+building came a sound of machine-guns. It lasted only for a few seconds
+and then died out.
+
+“They couldn’t miss at that range,” said Nordenholt. “That’s the end of
+the Reverend John personally. But I doubt if we are finished with him
+altogether even now.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+The Eleventh Hour
+
+
+I have set down all my doubts as to the wisdom of Nordenholt’s
+treatment of the Reverend John; and it is only right to place on the
+other side the fact that events proved he had gauged matters better
+than I had done. He had foreseen the trend of the revivalist’s thoughts
+and had deduced their climax, probably long before Wester himself
+had understood the road he had placed his feet upon. Nordenholt had
+allowed the excitement to grow without check, even to its highest
+point, without interfering in the least; because he calculated that the
+supreme disillusion would produce a revulsion of feeling which could
+be attained in no other way. And his calculation proved to be correct.
+Morally shaken by the failure of the miracle which they had been led
+to expect, and which many of them had counted upon with certainty, the
+populace allowed itself to be driven back into the factories and mines
+without a word of protest. Their dreams were shattered and they fell
+back into reality without the strength to resist any dominant will. It
+seemed as though the last difficulties were disappearing before us;
+and that the path now led straight onward to our goal. So I thought,
+at least, but Nordenholt doubted. And, as it turned out, he again saw
+more clearly than I. We might be done with the Reverend John; but the
+Reverend John had not finished with us, dead as he was.
+
+The next ten days saw the institution of a merciless system in the
+works and mines of the Area. During the period of the revivalist’s
+activity there had been an accelerated fall in the output; and
+Nordenholt determined that this must be made good as soon as possible.
+Possibly also he believed that a spell of intense physical exertion
+would exhaust the workers and leave them no time to indulge in
+recollections and reflections which might be dangerous. Whatever his
+motives may have been, his methods were drastic in the extreme. The
+minimum necessary output was trebled; and the members of any group
+who failed to attain it were promptly deported into the desert of the
+South. Surely entrenched behind the loyalty of the Labour Defence
+Force, Nordenholt threw aside any concealment and ruled the whole Area
+as a despot. The end in view was all that he now seemed to see; and he
+broke men and threw them aside without the slightest hesitation. More
+than ever, it seemed to me at this time, he was like a machine, rolling
+forward along its appointed path, careless of all the human lives and
+the human interests which he ground to powder under his irresistible
+wheels. I began to think of him at times in the likeness of Jagannatha,
+the Lord of the World, under whose car believers cast themselves to
+death. But none of Nordenholt’s victims were willing ones.
+
+Unlimited power, as Nordenholt himself had pointed out to me, is a
+perilous gift to any man. The human mind is not fitted for strains of
+this magnitude; and even Nordenholt’s colossal personality suffered,
+I believe, from the stress of his despotic rule. But where a smaller
+man would have frittered away his energies in petty oppression or
+aimless regulation, Nordenholt never lost sight of his main objective:
+and I believe that his harshness in the end arose merely from his
+ever-growing determination to bring his enterprise to success.
+Concentrating his mind entirely upon this, he may have suffered from
+a loss of perspective which made him ruthless in his demands upon the
+labouring masses of the Area. If this were so, I cannot find it in
+me to blame him, in view of the responsibility which he bore. But I
+have a suspicion that he feared a coming disaster, and that he was
+determined to take time by the forelock by forcing up production ere
+the catastrophe overtook us.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After the death of the revivalist, his followers disappeared. The
+meetings at street corners no longer took place; the wild skin-clad
+figures ran no more through the city. I believe that Nordenholt took
+steps to arrest those of the inner circle who escaped the machine-guns
+in the Park; but many of them seem to have slipped through his fingers
+in spite of the efficiency of his Secret Service. Probably they were
+kept in concealment by sympathisers, of whom there were still a number
+in spite of the general disillusionment. On the surface, the whole
+movement appeared to have been arrested completely; but, as we were to
+learn, it was not blotted out.
+
+I can still remember the first news of the disaster. A trill on my
+telephone bell, and then the voice of Nordenholt speaking:
+
+“Hullo!... That you, Jack?... Come over here, will you?... At my
+office. I may need you.... It’s a bad affair.... What?... Two of
+the pit-shafts have been destroyed. No way of reaching the crowd
+underground. I’m afraid it’s a bad business.”
+
+When I reached his office he was still at the telephone, evidently
+speaking to the scene of the catastrophe.
+
+“Yes?... Shaft closed completely?... How long do you think it will
+take to reopen it?... Permanent? Mean to say you can’t reopen it?...
+Months?... How many men below just now?... Six hundred, you think?...
+That’s taking the number of lamps missing, I suppose.... Well, find out
+exactly as soon as you can.”
+
+He rang off and was just about to call up another number, the second
+pit, I suppose, when the telephone bell sounded an inward call.
+
+“Yes?... What’s that? Numbers what?... Three, seven, eight, ten,
+thirteen, fourteen.... Ring off! I’ll speak to you again.”
+
+He rang furiously for the exchange.
+
+“Put me through to the Coal Control. Quick, now.... Hullo! Is that you,
+Sinclair?... Nordenholt.... Send out a general call. Bring every man to
+the surface at once.... Yes, every pit in the Area. Hurry! It’s life or
+death.... Report when you get news.”
+
+Without leaving the instrument he called up another number.
+
+“Go on. No. 14 was the last.... Take down these numbers, Jack.... 3, 7,
+8, 10, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19.... That all?... Good. Get me the figures of
+losses as soon as you can. Also a note of the damage. Good-bye.”
+
+Behind this disjointed sequence of phrases I had caught hints of the
+magnitude of the calamity; and I was to some extent prepared for what I
+heard when he had time to turn to me at last.
+
+“Eleven pits have been destroyed almost simultaneously, Jack. No. 23
+and No. 27 went first; and then that list I gave you just now. There
+are no details yet; but it’s quite evidently malicious. Dynamite, I
+think, to judge from the few facts I’ve got. The shafts are completely
+blocked, as far as we know; and every man underground is done for.”
+
+“How many does that amount to?”
+
+“There are no figures yet; but it will run into more than three figures
+anyway.”
+
+Again the shrill call of the telephone bell sounded. He took up the
+receiver.
+
+“Yes?... What’s that? No. 31 and No. 33?... Complete block? No hope?...
+Do your best.”
+
+He turned to me.
+
+“Two more gone, before we could get the men up. It’s a very widespread
+affair. I told you we hadn’t done with the Reverend John.”
+
+“What’s he got to do with it?” I asked, astonished.
+
+“Some of his friends carrying out the work he left unfinished. They
+mean to smash the Area; and they’ve hit us on our weakest point,
+there’s no doubt. No coal, no work in the factories, no nitrogen. This
+is serious, Jack.”
+
+Another call on the telephone brought the news that three more pits
+had been destroyed. Nordenholt rang up the Coal Control once more and
+urged them to even greater haste in their efforts to get the men to the
+surface. Then he turned back to me.
+
+“Do you realise what it all means, Jack? As far as I can see, it’s the
+beginning of the end for us. We can’t pull through on this basis; and I
+doubt if we have heard the full extent of the disaster even now.”
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I have endeavoured to convey the impression made upon my mind by the
+first news of the catastrophe; but little purpose would be served
+by continuing the story in detail. All that morning we stood by the
+telephone, gathering in the tale of disaster bit by bit in disjointed
+fragments as it came over the wire. Here and there, items of better
+news filtered through: reports that in some pits the whole of the
+underground workers had been brought safely to the surface, accounts of
+the immunity of certain shafts. But as a whole it was a black record
+which we gathered in. The work had been planned with skill; and the
+execution had not fallen below the level of the plan. In one or two
+cases the miscreants had been detected in the act and captured before
+they had time to do any damage; but these discoveries were very few.
+As far as most of the pits were concerned, we never were able to
+establish how the work had been done; for all traces were buried under
+the debris in the wrecked shafts, which have been left unopened ever
+since the catastrophe. One thing was certain, the whole of the workers
+actually in the galleries at the time of the explosions were lost for
+good and all. They were far beyond the reach of any human help.
+
+It is no part of my plan to do more than indicate the horror of this
+calamity. I draw no pen-pictures of the crowds around the pit-heads,
+the crying of the women, the ever-recurring demands for the names of
+the lost. These were features common to all mining accidents in the old
+days; and this one differed from the rest only in its magnitude and not
+in its form.
+
+Owing to the colossal scale of the casualty list it was impossible to
+minimise the matter in any way. Nordenholt decided to tell the truth in
+full as soon as the total losses were definitely established. He gave
+his newspapers a free hand; and by the late afternoon the placards were
+in the streets.
+
+  TERRIBLE DISASTERS IN COAL DISTRICT.
+
+  MANY SHAFTS BLOCKED.
+
+  ALL UNDERGROUND WORKERS ENTOMBED.
+
+  11,000 DEAD.
+
+To most of those who read the accounts of the catastrophe, it seemed
+a terrible blow of Fate; but we at the centre of things knew that the
+immediate loss was as nothing in comparison with the ultimate results
+which it would bring in its train. All the largest pits were out of
+action. The coal output, even at the best, could not possibly keep pace
+with the demands of the future; and with the failure of fuel, the whole
+activities of the Area must come to a standstill. Just on the edge of
+success, it seemed all our efforts were to be in vain. From beyond the
+grave the dead fanatic had struck his blow at the material world which
+he hated; and we shuddered under the shock.
+
+Throughout that day I was with Nordenholt. I think that he felt the
+need of someone beside him, some audience which would force him to
+keep an outwardly unshaken front. But to me it was a nightmare. The
+_débâcle_ in itself had broken my nerve, coming thus without warning;
+but Nordenholt’s prevision of the ultimate results which it would
+exercise seemed to take away the last ray of hope.
+
+“It’s no use whining, Jack; we’ve just got to take it as well as we
+can. First of all, the coal output will cease entirely for a long time.
+Not a man will go into even the ‘safe’ pits after this until everything
+has been examined thoroughly; and that will take days and days. It’s no
+use blinking that side of it.”
+
+“Why not force them in?” I asked. “Turn out the Defence Force and drive
+them to the pits. We _must_ have coal.”
+
+“No good. I know what they’re thinking now; and even if you shot half
+of them the rest wouldn’t go down. It’s no use thinking of it. I know.”
+
+“Why didn’t the Intelligence Section get wind of it?”
+
+“Don’t blame them; they couldn’t have done more than they did. Don’t
+you realise that if a man is prepared to sacrifice his life--and these
+fanatics who did the damage were the first victims themselves--there’s
+nothing that can stop him? The Intelligence people had nothing to
+go on. The whole of this thing was organised and carried through by
+a handful of men, some of whom were evidently employed in the pits
+themselves. It was so rapidly planned and executed that no secret
+service could have got at it in time. Remember, we’re making explosives
+on a big scale, so that thefts are easy.”
+
+“And if you’re right, what is to happen?”
+
+“Go on as long as we can; then see how we stand; and after that, if
+necessary, decimate the population of the Area so as to bring our
+numbers down to what we can feed in future. There’s nothing else for
+it.”
+
+“I hope it won’t come to that, Nordenholt.”
+
+“It’s no choice of mine; but if it’s forced on me, I’ll do it. I’m
+going to see this thing through, Jack, at _any_ cost now. Millions have
+been swept out of existence already by the Famine; and I’m not going to
+stick at the loss of a few more hundred thousands so long as we pull
+through in the end.”
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the main, Nordenholt’s forecast of the attitude which the miners
+would adopt proved to be correct. A certain number of workers, braver
+or less imaginative than the rest, returned to work in the “safe” pits
+in the course of a day or two; but the main bulk of the labour remained
+sullenly aloof. Nothing would induce them to set foot in the galleries.
+Work above-ground they would do, wherever it was necessary to preserve
+the pits from deterioration; but they had no intention of descending
+into the subterranean world again. Better to starve in the light of
+day than run the risk of hungering in some prison in the bowels of the
+earth. Neither threats nor cajolings served to move them from this
+decision.
+
+Nordenholt, as a last resource, sent exploring parties into the South
+to examine the deserted coal-fields of England in the hope that some
+of them might be workable; but the various missions returned with
+reports that nothing could be done. During the period since the mining
+population had died out, the pits had become unsafe, some by the
+infiltration of water, others by the destruction of the machinery and
+yet more by the disrepair of the galleries. Here and there a mine was
+discovered which could still be operated; and parties were drafted
+South to work it; but in most cases so much labour was required to put
+the shafts and galleries in repair that we were unable to look forward
+to anything like the previous coal-supply even at the best.
+
+Meanwhile Nordenholt, day by day, grew more and more grim. While
+there was any hope of utilising the mining population, he clung to it
+tenaciously; but as time passed it became clearer that the Area had
+received its death-blow. He began to draft his ex-miners into other
+branches of industry bit by bit; but with the fall in the coal-supply
+there was little use for them there, since very soon all the activities
+of the Area would have to cease.
+
+I watched him closely during that period; and I could see the effect
+which the strain was producing upon him. The disaster had struck us
+just when we seemed to have reached the turning-point in the Area’s
+history, at the very time when all seemed to be sure in front of us.
+It was a blow which would have prostrated a weaker man; but Nordenholt
+had a tenacity far above the ordinary. He meant, I know, to carry out
+his decision to decimate the Area if necessary; but he held his hand
+until it was absolutely certain that all was lost. I think he must have
+had at the back of his mind a hope that everything would come right in
+the end; though I doubt if his grounds for that belief were any but the
+most slender.
+
+For my own part, I went through that period like an automaton. The
+suddenness of the catastrophe seemed, in some way, to have deadened my
+imagination; and I carried on my work mechanically without thinking of
+where it was all leading us. With this new holocaust looming over the
+Area, Elsa seemed further away than ever. If she had revolted at the
+story of the South, it seemed to me that this fresh sacrifice of lives
+in the Area itself would deepen her hatred for the men who planned it.
+
+It seemed the very irony of Fate that Nordenholt should choose this
+juncture to tell me his views on her feelings.
+
+“Elsa seems to be coming round a little at last, Jack,” he said to
+me one day, “I think her emotional side has worked itself out in the
+contemplation of the Famine; and her reason’s getting a chance again.”
+
+“What makes you think that?” I asked. “I haven’t seen anything to make
+me hopeful about it.”
+
+“You wouldn’t notice anything. You don’t know her well enough--Oh,
+don’t get vexed. Even if you are in love with her, you’ve only known
+her for a very short time, whereas I’ve studied her since she was a
+child. I know the symptoms. She’s coming round a little.”
+
+“Much good that will do now! If you decimate the Area it will be worse
+than ever. I hate to think of my own affairs in the middle of this
+catastrophe; but I simply can’t help it. If your plan goes through,
+it’s the end of my romance.”
+
+He played with the cord of his desk telephone for a moment before
+replying. I could see that he had some doubt as to whether he ought to
+speak or not. At last he made up his mind.
+
+“If you’re brooding over things as much as all that, Jack, I suppose I
+must say something; but I’m very much afraid of raising false hopes.
+You wonder, probably, why I don’t go straight ahead and weed out the
+useless mouths now and be done with it? Well, the fact is I’m staking
+it all on the next couple of days. Henley-Davenport seems, by his way
+of it, to be just on the edge of something definite at last. If he
+pulls it off, then all’s well. If not....”
+
+“What do you mean?”
+
+“If Henley-Davenport gets his results, we won’t need coal; because we
+shall have all the energy we require from his process. I’ve stretched
+things to the limit in the hope that he will give us the ace of trumps
+and not the two. If he succeeds, we don’t need to weed out the Area;
+we can go on as we are; and we shall be absolutely certain to pull
+through with every soul alive. But I shouldn’t have told you this,
+perhaps; it may be only a false hope and will just depress you more by
+the reaction. But you look so miserable that I thought I had better
+take the risk.”
+
+“When do you expect to know definitely?”
+
+“He promised me that within two days he would be able to tell me,
+one way or the other. Of course, even if he fails now, he may pull
+it off later; but I can only wait two days more before beginning the
+elimination of all the useless mouths in the Area. Everything is ready
+to put into operation in that direction. But I hope we may not need
+these plans. It’s just a chance, Jack; so don’t build too much on it.”
+
+It was advice easy enough to give; but I found it very hard to follow.
+All that day my hopes were rising; things seemed brighter at last: and
+it was only now and again that I stopped to remind myself that the
+whole thing was a gamble with colossal stakes. Even Nordenholt himself
+was afraid to count too much upon Henley-Davenport, though I knew that
+he believed implicitly in his capacity. But even as I said this to
+myself I felt my spirits rising. After the certainty of disaster which
+had confronted us, even this hazard was a relief. For the first time
+in many weeks I began to build castles in the air once more. I was
+half-afraid to do so; but I could not help myself. And as the hours
+passed by bringing no news of success or failure, I think my nerves
+must have become more and more tense. A whole day went by without news
+of any kind.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The morning of the following day seemed interminable to me. I knew that
+within another twenty-four hours Nordenholt would have given up all
+hope of Henley-Davenport’s success and would be setting in motion the
+machinery which he had devised for reducing the population of the Area;
+and as hour after hour passed without bringing any news, I became more
+and more restless. I tried to work and to ease my mind by concentrating
+it upon details; but I soon found that this was useless. Strive as I
+might, I could not banish the thought of the tragedy which hung over us.
+
+At 3.27 p.m.--I know the exact minute, because my watch was stopped
+then and I read the time from it afterwards--I was standing beside
+my desk, consulting some papers on a file. Suddenly I heard a high
+detonation, a sound so sharp that I can liken it to nothing familiar.
+The air seemed full of flying splinters of glass; and simultaneously
+I was wrenched from my foothold and flung with tremendous violence
+against my desk. Then, it seemed, a dead silence fell.
+
+I found that my right hand was streaming with blood from various cuts
+made by the razor-edges of the broken glass of the window. More blood
+was pouring from a gash on my forehead; but my eyes had escaped injury.
+When I moved, I found I suffered acute pain; though no bones seemed to
+be broken. The concussion had completely deafened me; and, as I found
+afterwards, my left ear-drum had been perforated, so that even to this
+day I can hear nothing on that side.
+
+All about me the office was in confusion. Every pane of glass had
+been blown inward from the windows and the place looked as though a
+whirlwind had swept through it, scattering furniture and papers in its
+track. The shock had dazed me; and for several minutes I stood gazing
+stupidly at the havoc around me. It was, I am sure, at least five
+minutes before I grasped what had happened. As soon as I did so, I made
+my way, still in intense pain, down the stairs and into the quadrangle.
+
+The pavements were littered with fragments of broken glass which
+had fallen outward in the breaking of the windows; but there was not
+so much of this as I had expected, since most of the panes had been
+driven inward by the explosion. Quite a crowd of people were running
+out of the building and making in the direction of the new Chemistry
+Department in University Avenue. I followed them, noticing as I passed
+the Square that all the chimney-pots of the houses seemed to have been
+swept off, though I could see no traces of them on the ground. Later
+on, I found that they had been blown down on the further side of the
+terrace.
+
+When I came in sight of the Chemistry building I was amazed, even
+though I was prepared for a catastrophe. One whole wing had been
+reduced to a heap of ruins, a mere pile of building-stone and joists
+flung together in utter confusion. Here and there among the debris,
+jets of steam and dust were spouting up; and from time to time came
+an eruption of small stones from the wreckage. The remainder of the
+edifice still stood almost intact save for its broken windows and
+shattered doors.
+
+What astonished me at the time was that the whole scene recalled a
+cinema picture--violent motion without a sound to accompany it. I
+saw spouts of dust, falling masses of masonry, people running and
+gesticulating in the most excited manner; yet no whisper of sound
+reached me. It was only when someone came up and spoke directly to me
+that I discovered that I was temporarily stone deaf; for I could see
+his lips moving but could hear nothing whatever.
+
+Like everyone else, I began to remove the debris. I think that we
+understood even then that it was hopeless to think of saving anyone
+from this wreckage, but we were all moved to do something which might
+at least give us the illusion that we were helping. As I pulled and
+tugged with the others, I began to appreciate the enormous power of
+the explosive which had been at work. In an ordinary concussion,
+iron can be bent out of shape; but here I came across steel rafters
+which were cut clean through as though by a knife. I remember thinking
+vaguely that the explosive must have acted, as dynamite does, against
+the solid materials around it instead of spending its force upwards;
+for otherwise the whole place would have suffered a bombardment from
+flying blocks of stone.
+
+For some time I toiled with the others. I saw Nordenholt’s figure
+close at hand. Then the sky seemed to take on a tinge of violet which
+deepened suddenly. I saw a black spot before my eyes; and apparently I
+fainted from loss of blood.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Even now, the causes of the Chemistry Department disaster are unknown.
+Henley-Davenport and his two assistants perished instantaneously in the
+explosion--in fact Henley-Davenport’s body was never recovered from
+the wreckage at all. A third assistant, who had been in the next room
+at the time, lived long enough to tell us the exact stage at which the
+catastrophe occurred; but even he could throw no direct light upon its
+origin.
+
+From Henley-Davenport’s notes, which we found in his house, it seems
+clear that his efforts had been directed towards producing the
+disintegration of iron; and that on the morning of the accident he
+had completed his chain of radioactive materials which furnished the
+accelerated evolution of energy required to break up the iron atoms.
+As we know now, he succeeded in his experiment and his iron yielded
+the short-period isotopes of chromium, titanium and calcium until the
+end-product of the series--argon--was produced. The four successive
+alpha-ray changes, following each other at intervals of a few seconds,
+liberated a tremendous store of intra-atomic energy; but, knowing
+the extremely minute quantities with which Henley-Davenport worked,
+it seems difficult to believe that the explosion which destroyed his
+laboratory was produced by this trace of material. To me it seems much
+more probable that his apparatus was shattered at the moment of the
+first disintegration of iron and that thus some of the short-period
+products were scattered abroad throughout the room, setting up
+radioactive change in certain of the metallic objects which they
+touched. No other explanation appears to fit the facts. We shall never
+learn the truth of the matter now; but knowing Henley-Davenport’s
+care and foresight, I cannot see any other way of accounting for the
+violence of the explosion.
+
+Luckily for us, no radioactive gas is produced by the disintegration of
+iron; for had there been any such material among the decay products it
+is probable that most of those who had run to the scene of the disaster
+would have perished.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When I recovered consciousness again I found myself lying on a couch.
+A doctor was bandaging my hand. Nordenholt, looking very white and
+shaken, was sitting in a chair by the fire. At first I was too weak to
+do more than look round me; but after a few minutes I felt better and
+was able to speak to Nordenholt.
+
+“What has happened? Did they get Henley-Davenport out of the wreck?”
+
+“No, there’s no hope of that, Jack. He’s dead; and the best thing one
+can say is that he must have been killed instantaneously. But he’s done
+the trick for us, if we can only follow his track. He evidently tapped
+atomic energy of some kind or other. Did you notice the sharpness of
+the explosion before you were knocked out? There’s never been anything
+like it.”
+
+“What’s going to happen now?” I was still unable to think clearly.
+
+“I’ve sent Mitchell down to Henley-Davenport’s house to look at his
+last notes--he kept them there and he promised me to indicate each day
+what he proposed to do next, so that we’d have something to go on if
+anything like this happened. Mitchell will ring up as soon as he has
+found them.”
+
+I heard afterwards that among the ruins of the laboratory Nordenholt
+had been struck by a falling beam and had just escaped with his
+life; but his voice gave no hint of it. I think that his complete
+concentration upon the main problem prevented him from realising that
+he might be badly hurt.
+
+The telephone bell rang suddenly and Nordenholt went to the receiver.
+
+“Yes, Mitchell.... You’ve got the notes?... Good.... You can repeat
+what he was doing?... No doubt about it?... All right. Start at once.
+We must have it immediately, cost what it may.... Come round here
+before you begin; but get going at once. There isn’t a minute to spare.”
+
+Nordenholt replaced the receiver.
+
+“I thought I could trust Henley-Davenport,” he said. “He’s left
+everything in order, notes written up to lunch-time complete and a full
+draft of his last experiment, which will allow Mitchell to carry on.”
+
+A few minutes later, Mitchell himself appeared and gave us some further
+details. In his jottings, Henley-Davenport had suggested some possible
+modifications of the experiment which had ended so disastrously;
+and Mitchell proposed to try the effect of these alterations in the
+conditions. Before he left us, he sat down at Nordenholt’s desk and
+made a few notes of the process he intended to try, handing the paper
+to Nordenholt when he had finished. I can still remember his alert
+expression as he wrote and the almost finical care with which he
+flicked the ash from the end of the cigarette as he rose from the
+desk. It was the last time any of us saw him.
+
+“Well, that’s all. I’m off.”
+
+Nordenholt rose stiffly from his chair and shook hands with Mitchell as
+he went out. Then he passed to the telephone and rang up a number.
+
+“Is that you, Kingan? Go across to the South Wing of the Chemistry
+place. Mitchell is there. See all that he does and then clear out
+before he tries the experiment. We must keep track of things, come what
+may. If he goes down, you will take on after him. Good-bye.”
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Just after seven o’clock, there was another tremendous explosion; but
+this time the concussion seemed less violent than before. Mitchell
+himself was not killed outright; but he suffered injuries which proved
+fatal within a few days. Meanwhile the work went on. One after another,
+the Chemistry section of Nordenholt’s young men went into the furnace,
+some to be killed instantaneously, others to escape alive, but blasted
+almost out of recognition by the forces which they unchained. Yet none
+of them faltered. Link by link they built up the chain which was to
+bring safety to the Area; and each link represented a life lost or a
+body crippled. Day after day the work went on, interrupted periodically
+by the rending crash of these fearful explosions, until at last it
+seemed almost beyond hope that the problem would ever be solved. But
+ten days later Barclay staggered into Nordenholt’s room, smothered in
+bandages, with one arm useless at his side, and gasped out the news
+that he had been successful.
+
+Looking back on that moment, I sometimes wonder that we were not almost
+hysterical with joy; but as a matter of fact, none of us said anything
+at all. Probably we did not really grasp the thing at the time. I know
+that I was busy getting a drink ready for Barclay, who had collapsed
+as soon as he gave his news; and all that I remember of Nordenholt is a
+picture of him standing looking out of the window with his back to us.
+Certainly it wasn’t the kind of scene one might have imagined.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+The Breaking-strain
+
+
+Although Barclay’s work furnished us with the means of tapping the
+stores of energy which lie imprisoned within the atoms of elementary
+matter, it did not place us immediately in a position to utilise these
+immense forces for practical purposes. To tell the truth, we were
+in much the same position as a savage to whom a dynamite cartridge
+has been given, ready fitted with a detonator. We could liberate the
+energy, but at first we could not bring it under control.
+
+The next few weeks were spent in planning and building machine after
+machine. All the best talent of Nordenholt’s group of engineers was
+brought to bear on the problem; but time after time we had to admit
+failure. Either the engines were too fragile for the power which they
+employed or there was some radical defect in their construction which
+could only be detected on trial. Thus the days passed in a series of
+disappointments, until it seemed almost as though hope of success was
+fading before our eyes.
+
+During that period, Nordenholt himself grew visibly older. It was the
+last lap in his great race against Time; and I think that this final
+strain told on him more than any that had gone before. The mines of the
+Area were still empty and silent; no fuel was coming forward to fill
+the gaps in our ever-shrinking reserves; and within a very short period
+the whole industry of the Area must collapse for want of coal.
+
+His anxiety was marked by a total change in his habits. Hitherto,
+he had sat in his office, directing from afar all the multitudinous
+activities of the Area, aloof from direct contact with details. Now, I
+noticed, he was continually about the machine-shops and factories in
+which the new atomic engines were being constructed; he had frequent
+consultations with his engineers and designers; he seemed to be
+incapable of isolating himself from the progress which was very slowly
+being made. Possibly he felt that in this last effort he must utilise
+all the magnetic power of his personality to stimulate his craftsmen in
+their labours.
+
+Whatever his motives may have been, when I think of him in those last
+days my memory always calls up a picture of that lean, dark figure
+against a background of drawing-office or engineering-shop. I see him
+discussing plans with his inventors, encouraging his workmen, watching
+the trial of engine after engine. And after every failure I seem to
+see him a little more weary, with a grimmer set in the lines about his
+mouth and a heavier stoop in his shoulders, as though the weight of his
+responsibilities was crushing him by degrees as the days went by.
+
+Yet he never outwardly wavered in his belief in success. He knew--we
+all knew--that the power was there if we could but find the means of
+harnessing it. The uncertainty had gone; and all that remained was a
+problem in chemistry and mechanics. But time was a vital factor to us;
+and more than once I myself began to doubt whether we should succeed in
+our efforts before it was too late.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At last came success. One of my most vivid memories of that time is the
+scene in Beardmore’s yard when the Milne-Reid engine was tested for
+the first time. Nordenholt and I had motored down from the University
+to see the trial. By this time we were both familiar with the general
+appearance of atomic engines; but to me, at least, the new machine
+was a surprise. Its huge, distorted bulk seemed unlike anything which
+I had seen before: the enormous barrel of the disintegration-chamber
+overhung the main mass of machinery and gave it in some way a
+far-off resemblance to a gigantic howitzer on its carriage; and this
+resemblance was heightened by the absence of flywheels or any of the
+usual fittings of an engine. Although I was an engineer, I could make
+but little of this complex instrument, designed to utilise a power
+greater than any I had ever dreamed of; and I listened eagerly to the
+two inventors as they described its salient characteristics.
+
+Nordenholt, who had seen the plans, seemed to pay little attention to
+either Milne or Reid. He was evidently impatient for results and cared
+little for the methods by which they were to be obtained, so long as
+the machinery did its work.
+
+The last cables were being attached to the engine as we stood beside
+it; for Nordenholt had insisted on a test being made as soon as the
+machine was completed. The workmen screwed up the connections, everyone
+stood back a little, and then a switch was pushed home. Immediately the
+whole misshapen bulk seemed to be galvanised into violent activity and
+with a roar beyond the roof above us the torrent of escaping helium
+and argon made its way through the exhaust-pipe. The needle of the
+indicator dial jumped suddenly upward till it registered many thousands
+of horse-power.
+
+But we had seen all this before and had seen it, too, followed by a
+collapse; so that we waited eagerly to learn how the engine would stand
+the strain. For an hour we waited there, while the mechanics poured oil
+continually into the tanks to keep the racing bearings from heating;
+and still the machine ran smoothly and the thunder of the escape-pipe
+roared above us. It was impossible to make oneself heard amid that
+clangour; and we exchanged congratulations scribbled on odd pieces of
+paper. After an hour, Milne shut off the disintegrator; and the great
+engine slowly sank to rest.
+
+All of us were still deafened by the sound of the exhaust; and it was
+by dumb-show and a handshake that Nordenholt conveyed his thanks to the
+two designers. I heard a faint cheer from the workmen.
+
+Nordenholt did not stay long. Within a few minutes, he and I were
+back in the motor, on the way home. As we went, I heard behind us the
+tremendous blast of the escaping gases; they had restarted the engine;
+and to my ears it sounded sweeter than any symphony, for it meant
+safety to us all.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When we reached the University, I noticed that Nordenholt stepped from
+the car with the air of an invalid. He seemed to have used up all
+his forces in a last effort; and now he moved slowly and almost with
+difficulty. At the Randolph Stair, he took my arm and leaned heavily on
+me as we climbed a step at a time. When we reached the top, he seemed
+out of breath. At last we reached his office and he dropped into his
+chair at the desk with visible relief.
+
+“It’s my heart, Jack,” he said, after a moment or two. “It’s been going
+wrong for months; and I think it’s badly strained. I knew it was going;
+and in ordinary circumstances I would have looked after myself; but it
+wasn’t worth while, as things were. I simply couldn’t take things easy.
+I had to work on until I saw daylight before me or dropped on the way.”
+
+He paused, as though pulling his strength together. In the next room I
+could hear Elsa’s typewriter clicking. Nordenholt heard it also; and
+rose after a few minutes. He went to the door between the two rooms and
+spoke to her, telling her the news of the engine.
+
+“It’s success at last, Elsa. We’re through. Everything’s safe now.”
+
+I heard her voice in reply; and then he closed the door and reseated
+himself at the desk.
+
+“It’s your turn now, Jack. I’ve done my part. I’m leaving the future in
+your hands; and I believe you’ll make good. I wish I could help you;
+but I’m done, now. I would only hamper you if I tried to do anything.”
+
+I tried to say something reassuring, but the words faltered on my
+lips. The sight of that drawn face was proof enough. Nordenholt had
+driven his physical machine as ruthlessly as he had driven his factory
+workers; and it was clear that he had overstrained his bodily powers.
+His tremendous will had kept him on his feet until the moment of
+success; but I could see now what it had cost him. He had drawn on his
+vital capital; and with the accomplishment of his task a revulsion had
+set in and the over-tired body was exacting its toll.
+
+As I sat looking at him there, a great feeling of loneliness swept
+over me. Here, before me, was the man upon whose strength I had leaned
+for the past months, the mind which had seen so clearly, the will
+which had held its line so tenaciously; and now, I felt, Nordenholt
+was leaning on me in his turn. It seemed almost an inversion of the
+course of Nature; and with the realisation of it, I felt a sense of an
+enormous loss. In the next stages of the Area’s history, there would
+be no Nordenholt to lean upon: I would have to stand on my own feet,
+and I doubted my capacity. Almost without my recognising it, I had been
+working always with Nordenholt in my mind, even in my own department.
+I had carried out things boldly because I knew that ever in reserve
+behind me were that brain and that will of his which could see further
+and drive harder than I could dare; and I had relied unconsciously upon
+him to steer me through my difficulties if they proved too great for my
+own powers. And now, by the look on his face and the weariness of his
+voice, I knew that I stood alone. I had no right to throw my burdens on
+his shoulders any more.
+
+And with a gulp in the throat, I remembered that he trusted me to go
+forward. I suppose I ought to have felt some joy in the knowledge that
+he had left the reconstruction in my hands; but any pride I had in this
+was swallowed up in that devastating feeling of loss. With the collapse
+of Nordenholt, something had gone out of my world, never to return. It
+left me in some way maimed; and I felt as though the main source of my
+strength had been cut away just when I most needed all my powers.
+
+“You’ll do your best, Jack? The Area trusted us. Don’t let them down.”
+
+I tried to tell him I would do my utmost; but I had difficulty in
+finding words. I could see that he understood me, however.
+
+“There’s one thing I’m sorry about--Elsa. She hasn’t come round yet.
+But she will, in time. She hates me still, I know; and it’s a pity, for
+I need her now, more than I ever did before. I’m a very sick man, Jack.
+Luckily, this breach between us has let her stand on her own feet. She
+doesn’t need me so much as she did.”
+
+He fell silent; and for a time we sat without speaking. When he spoke
+again, I could see the lines on which his thoughts had been running.
+
+“If anything happens to me, Jack, you’ll look after Elsa, won’t you?
+I’d like to know that she was all right. I know it’s hard as things
+are; but you’ll do that for me, even though it tantalises you?”
+
+I promised; and then I suggested telephoning for a doctor to look after
+him.
+
+“Not just now, Jack--I’m tired. I don’t want to be bothered answering
+questions. I’m very tired.... And I’ve finished my work at last. We’ve
+pulled through. I can take a rest.... Wake me in a quarter of an hour,
+will you? I want a sleep badly.”
+
+He leaned forward in his chair and rested his face on his arms. In a
+moment he seemed to fall into slumber. I thought it was probably the
+best thing for him at the time; and I turned to the fire and to my
+thoughts.
+
+I fell to thinking of all that had happened since first I met him;
+and then I cast further back yet to the evening I had spent at
+Wotherspoon’s house. How the disaster had developed step by step,
+spreading its effects gradually and with slowly-increasing intensity
+over wider and ever-wider areas. If only Wotherspoon had stuck to
+chemistry and left bacteriology alone; if only he had chosen some other
+organisms than the denitrifying bacteria; if only the fire-ball had not
+come that night; if ... if ... if.... All the Might-have-beens rose
+before me as I gazed at the flickerings in the fire. If only Elsa had
+followed reason and not emotion ... if only.... And so the maddening
+train of thought went on, minute by minute, while in the next room I
+could hear the click of her typewriter. Emotion! After all I could not
+pretend to scorn it, for what were my own feelings but emotion too?
+
+The clock in the tower above me struck a quarter. Nordenholt did not
+stir and I let him sleep on. It appeared to me that rest was what he
+needed most.
+
+It seemed curious how divorced I had become from the Past. The old life
+had been swept away utterly and I found difficulty in recalling much of
+it to mind. The meeting with Nordenholt, the founding of the Area, my
+time with Elsa, London in its last days, the Reverend John: these were
+the things which seemed burned into my memory. All that had gone before
+was mirage, faint, unsubstantial, part of another existence. Even our
+Fata Morgana was more real to me than that old life.
+
+And with that I fell back into deeper gloom. I have not tried to
+paint myself other than I am. I had never reached the height of pure
+endeavour to which Nordenholt had attained, though sometimes, under
+his influence, I came near it. And now, at the recollection of our
+dream-city, I felt a keen pang. Why should I attempt to raise that
+fabric to the skies, why should I wear myself out in toiling to erect
+these halls and palaces through which I must wander alone? Why, indeed?
+What was the population of the Area to me, after all? But even amid my
+most bitter reflections I knew that I would do my best. Nordenholt had
+trusted me.
+
+A fresh chime from the great bell overhead roused me from my musings. I
+went across to Nordenholt, not knowing whether to wake him or not. When
+I reached his side, something in his attitude struck me. I touched his
+hand and found it cold.
+
+For a moment, I think I failed to recognise what had happened. Then I
+shook him gently; and the truth broke upon my mind. That great engine
+which had wrought so hard and so long would never move again. The brain
+which had guided the fortunes of the Area up to the last moment had
+sunk to its eternal rest.
+
+It was some minutes before I was able to pull myself together after
+the discovery. When I got my feelings under control, I was still badly
+shaken; for otherwise I would never have done what I did do. I went
+straight to the door and called Elsa. She was sitting at her desk and
+she looked up at my voice.
+
+“Well, what is it, Mr. Flint?”
+
+“It’s.... Come here.... It’s Nordenholt; he....”
+
+Before I had completed the sentence she had risen and passed me. I
+think she must have seen something in my face which led her to expect
+the worst news. She went up to the desk where Nordenholt was still
+leaning with his face on his arms. Like me, she did not immediately
+grasp what had happened.
+
+“Uncle Stanley! What’s wrong? Aren’t you well?”
+
+She rested her hand on his shoulder and shook him gently, just as I
+had done. In the silence, I heard, far down the Clyde, the roaring of
+the atomic engine--the great call sweeping across the Area and bearing
+with it the news of Nordenholt’s final triumph. They were varying the
+running of the machine and the waves of sound rose and fell like the
+beating of gigantic wings above the city.
+
+Suddenly she turned to me.
+
+“What is it? You don’t mean he’s _dead_?”
+
+I could only nod in answer; I could not find words. For an instant she
+stood, leaning over him, and then she slipped down beside his chair and
+put her arms round him.
+
+“Oh, he’s dead. He’s dead. He’ll never speak to me again!... And I
+hated him, I hated him.... I made it hard for him.... And now he can’t
+tell me if he forgives me.... Oh, what shall I do, Jack? What shall I
+do? Please help me. He was so good to me; and I hurt him so.... Oh,
+please help me, Jack. Tell me he forgave me.... I’ve only got _you_
+now....”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+Asgard
+
+
+Immediately after the death of Nordenholt, I took over the control of
+the Area and instituted the great reorganisation forced upon us by the
+new conditions. Almost our last reserves of coal were used up in the
+foundries where we built the new atomic engines; but we succeeded in
+manufacturing a number of machines sufficient for our purposes; and
+once these were complete, we had no further need of the old-fashioned
+fuel. The output of nitrogenous materials sprang up by leaps and
+bounds; and the danger of starvation was over.
+
+All our miners were sent into the neighbouring areas, where they were
+put to work in spreading synthetic nitrogenous manure upon the fields,
+after Hope’s colloids had been ploughed into the soil to retain water
+in the ground. At last came the harvest, poor in most places, yet
+sufficient for our needs. The game was won.
+
+It was after this that we began to send aeroplanes over the world in
+search of any other remnants of the human race which had survived. I
+was too much occupied with Area affairs to share in these voyages; but
+the airmen’s reports made clear enough the extent of the catastrophe
+which had befallen the planet. As I expected, the site of London was
+covered with a mere heap of charred and shattered ruins cumbering it
+to an extent that prevented us from even thinking of rebuilding the
+city in the new age. It was not worth while clearing away the debris,
+when other sites were open to us for our new centres of population.
+The same fate had befallen almost all the great cities, not only in
+Britain but also across the Continent. Above the ruins of Paris, the
+gaunt fabric of the Eiffel Tower still stood as a witness to men’s
+achievements in the past; but it was almost alone. Everything capable
+of destruction by fire had gone down in the frenzy of the last days of
+the old civilisation.
+
+I have already sketched the effects of the Famine upon the population
+of the globe. Our explorers found one or two colonies alive in America;
+and at a slightly later date we got in touch with the Japanese Area.
+Beyond this, the human race had perished from the face of the earth.
+
+The strangest of all the changes seen by the aerial explorers must have
+been in Central Africa and the Amazon Valley. There, where vegetable
+life had seemed undisputed sovereign of vast regions, only a blackened
+wilderness remained. Fires had raged over great spaces, leaving ashes
+behind them; but in general there was hardly a trace of the old-time
+forests and swamps. The Sahara stretched southward to the Equator; and
+the Kalahari Desert had extended up to the Great Lakes--so quickly had
+the soil of these regions degenerated into sand. In past ages, man had
+never tapped these vast store-houses of forest and veldt; and Fate
+decided that they should go down to destruction still unutilised.
+
+Once the safety-line was passed and we were assured of food sufficient
+to maintain our people, other troubles faced us; and I am not sure
+that the next ten years was not really our most dangerous period. Had
+Nordenholt lived, things would perhaps have been easier for us; but the
+difficulties besetting us were implicit in the nature of things and I
+question if he could have exorcised them entirely.
+
+We had, on the one side, a mass of manual labourers whose intelligence
+unfitted them for anything beyond bodily toil; while on the other hand
+we had supplies of physical energy from the atomic engines which
+made the employment of human labour supererogatory. Yet to leave the
+major part of our population entirely idle was to invite disaster. The
+development of the atomic engine had at one blow thrown out of gear the
+nicely-adjusted social machinery devised by Nordenholt; and we had to
+arrange almost instantly vast alterations in our methods of employment.
+
+It was under the pressure of these conditions that we became builders
+of great cities. Nineveh and Thebes were our first sketches; then came
+Atlantis, our main power-station which we built on Islay; after that we
+erected Lyonnesse and Tara, fairer than the others, for we learned as
+we wrought. Then, as I began to grope toward my masterpiece, I planned
+Theleme. And, last of all, the spires and towers of Asgard grew into
+the sky.
+
+Once the cities had been planned, we employed a further contingent
+of labour in constructing huge roads between them, gigantic arteries
+which cut across the country like the Roman ways in earlier centuries,
+arrow-straight, but broader and better engineered than anything before
+constructed.
+
+Our building materials were new. The introduction of atomic energy gave
+us electric furnaces on a scale undreamed of before; and we were able
+to produce a glassy and resistant substance which can be made in any
+tint. It is of this that Asgard is constructed; and I believe that no
+weather conditions alone will wear it down.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As I sit here at my desk, I see outstretched before me the panorama of
+Asgard, the concrete embodiment of our Fata Morgana, so far as that
+vision could be made real in stone. It is not the City of our dreams,
+I admit; yet in its beauty there is a touch of wonder and of mystery
+that makes it kin to that builded phantom of our minds. None of our
+cities shall ever bear the name of Fata Morgana, which was the mother
+of them all. There shall be no profanation of that castle in the air.
+Instead we have given to our cities titles which link their material
+splendours to the more ancient glories of myth and tradition; Asgard
+and Lyonnesse, Tara and Atlantis, Nineveh, Thebes and Theleme.
+
+Rarely, nowadays, do I feel despondent; but when the fit comes over me,
+I open the box in which I still keep the papers relating to the time
+when I was planning my garden cities. I finger my documents and turn
+over my sketches, ever amazed at the gulf which lies between my hopes
+of that day and our achievements of the present. Here and there, on the
+margin of some modest ground-plan, I find scribbled notes of caution to
+myself not to expect such vast projects to be practicable in the near
+future. And then, after losing myself in this atmosphere of the past, I
+go to the great windows and look down upon Asgard. For once, at least,
+in this world, hope has been far outrun by achievement. Splendours of
+which I never dreamed have come into being and lie before my eyes as
+I gaze. With all this confronting me, my despondency slips away and I
+regain sure confidence in the future.
+
+Cities and gardens have I raised in Dreamland. Other cities and other
+gardens I have seen spring from the ground of this world in answer to
+my call. But of all these, Asgard is nearest to my heart; for it is the
+last which I shall create. Other men will surpass me; new wonderlands
+will rise in the future: but Asgard is my masterpiece and I shall build
+no more.
+
+Ten years have gone by since the last stone was laid in my city; yet
+every morning as I come to my windows, I find in it fresh beauties to
+delight my eyes. Fronting the sea it stands; and its fore-court is a
+vast stretch of silver sand between the horns of the bay. Behind it
+the ground rises to a semicircle of low hills set here and there with
+groves and fretted with silver waterfalls. Through all the changes of
+the year these slopes are green; for snow never drifts upon them nor
+do mists gather to hide them from my view. Only the swift cloud-shadows
+flitting athwart them bring fresh lights and shades into the picture as
+they pass.
+
+Nor do I weary of this greenery. Slowly vegetation is creeping back
+upon the face of the world; but still there are vast deserts where no
+blade grows: and in my own cities I planned masses of verdure so that
+they might be like oases among the barren spaces of the earth.
+
+Between the hills and the sea, the city stands--a vast space of woods
+and fields and gardens from among the greenery of which rise here and
+there high halls and palaces of rose-tinted stone. Here and there amid
+the green lie broad lakes to catch the sun; and great tree-shadowed
+pools, like crystal mirrors, stand rippleless among the groves. And
+throughout the city there is ever the sound of streams and rivulets
+falling from the hills and making music for us with their murmurings as
+they pass.
+
+Scattered about this pleasance are the dwellings of my citizens, built
+of the rose-coloured stone which breaks the monotony of the verdure;
+but the houses are sparse, for our population is small. Asgard is only
+for the few who can enjoy its beauties: the many have other cities more
+suited to their tastes; and they have no wish to come hither. But those
+who dwell with us have full time to fall under its spell; for Asgard is
+a city of leisure, though not an idle one.
+
+When darkness falls on Asgard, great soft beacons shine out upon the
+hills, throwing a mellow radiance across the valley; and down in the
+woods and along the broad ways of the city, the silver lamps are
+lighted, till all Asgard gleams in outline beside the sea. In the
+expanses of the parks and under the shadow of the woods are sprays
+of coloured orbs to guide the passer-by; and from hour to hour these
+change their tint, so that there is no sameness in them.
+
+Often I come to my windows in the night and gaze out upon that
+far-flung tracery of stars across the valley, rivalling the skies
+above, as though ten thousand meteors had fallen from the heavens
+and still blazed where they lay upon the earth. And through my
+open casement come the faint and perfumed breezes, bringing their
+subtropical warmth as they blow across the valley; and I hear, faint
+and afar, the sounds of music mingling with the rustling of the trees.
+
+Others may plan; others may build fairer cities in the sun: but I have
+given my best; and Asgard almost consoles me for the loss of that Fata
+Morgana which I shall never see.
+
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[1] Pronounce Di-ay´-zō-tans´.
+
+
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber’s note:
+
+  Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
+
+  Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NORDENHOLT'S MILLION***
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+<body>
+<h1 class="pgx" title="">The Project Gutenberg eBook, Nordenholt's Million, by J. J. Connington</h1>
+<p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
+and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
+restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
+under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
+eBook or online at <a
+href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you are not
+located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the
+country where you are located before using this ebook.</p>
+<p>Title: Nordenholt's Million</p>
+<p>Author: J. J. Connington</p>
+<p>Release Date: February 15, 2021  [eBook #64567]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: US-ascii</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NORDENHOLT'S MILLION***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3 class="pgx" title="">E-text prepared by<br />
+   Tim Lindell, David E. Brown,<br />
+   and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+   (https://www.pgdp.net)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="pgx" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/cover.jpg" width="40%" alt="" /></div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+
+
+<h1>NORDENHOLT&#8217;S<br />
+MILLION</h1>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p class="ph1"><span class="u"><i>RECENT FICTION</i></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse">THE DOVE&#8217;S NEST &amp; <span class="smcap">Other Stories</span></div>
+<div class="indent">By <span class="smcap">Katherine Mansfield</span></div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse">THE KEY OF DREAMS</div>
+<div class="indent">By <span class="smcap">L. Adams Beck</span></div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse">THE SLEEPER BY MOONLIGHT</div>
+<div class="indent">By <span class="smcap">K. Balbernie</span></div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse">THE THRESHOLD</div>
+<div class="indent">By <span class="smcap">Martha Kinross</span></div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse">SWEET PEPPER</div>
+<div class="indent">By <span class="smcap">Geoffrey Moss</span></div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse">PONJOLA</div>
+<div class="indent">By <span class="smcap">Cynthia Stockley</span></div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="verse">DESOLATE SPLENDOUR</div>
+<div class="indent">By <span class="smcap">Michael Sadleir</span></div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<hr class="tiny" />
+<div class="center">CONSTABLE &amp; CO. LTD.</div>
+</div></div></div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_title.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+
+<div class="titlepage">
+<p><span class="xxlarge">
+NORDENHOLT&#8217;S<br />
+MILLION</span><br />
+
+BY<br />
+<span class="xxlarge">J. J. CONNINGTON</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="large">CONSTABLE &amp; CO. LTD.</span><br />
+LONDON &middot; BOMBAY &middot; SYDNEY<br />
+1923</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+
+
+<p class="center">
+<span class="smcap">Printed in Great Britain by<br />
+Richard Clay &amp; Sons, Limited,<br />
+BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.</span></p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p class="center">TO<br />
+J. N. C.</p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_vii"></a>[vii]</span>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak">CONTENTS</h2>
+</div>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" summary="table">
+
+<tr><td class="tdr"><small>CHAP.</small></td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="tdr"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">I.</td><td> GENESIS</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1">      1</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">II.</td><td> THE COMING OF &#8220;THE BLIGHT&#8221;</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_16">      16</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">III.</td><td> <i>B. DIAZOTANS</i></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_26">      26</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">IV.</td><td> PANIC </td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_35">     35</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">V.</td><td> NORDENHOLT </td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_41">     41</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">VI.</td><td> THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE BREAKING-STRAIN </td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_64">     64</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">VII.</td><td> NORDENHOLT&#8217;S MILLION </td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_88">     88</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">VIII.</td><td> THE CLYDE VALLEY</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_103">      103</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">IX.</td><td> INTERMEZZO</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_125">      125</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">X.</td><td> THE DEATH OF THE LEVIATHAN</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_140">      140</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">XI.</td><td> FATA MORGANA</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_149">      149</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">XII.</td><td> NUIT BLANCHE </td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_156">     156</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">XIII.</td><td> RECONSTRUCTION </td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_189">     189</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">XIV.</td><td> WINTER IN THE OUTER WORLD </td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_208">     208</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">XV.</td><td> DOCUMENT B. 53. X. 15</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_224">      224</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">XVI.</td><td> IN THE NITROGEN AREA</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_240">      240</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">XVII.</td><td> PER ITER TENEBRICOSUM</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_256">      256</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">XVIII.</td><td> THE ELEVENTH HOUR </td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_271">     271</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">XIX.</td><td> THE BREAKING-STRAIN</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_289">      289</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdr">XX.</td><td> ASGARD</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_298">      298</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_1"></a>[1]</span>
+
+<p class="ph2">NORDENHOLT&#8217;S MILLION</p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak"><small>CHAPTER I</small><br />
+
+
+Genesis</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">I suppose</span> that in the days before the catastrophe I was a
+very fair representative of the better type of business man. I
+had been successful in my own line, which was the application
+of mass-production methods to a better pattern of motor-car
+than had yet been dealt with upon a large scale; and the
+Flint car had been a good speculation. I was thinking of
+bringing out an economical type of gyroscopic two-wheeler
+just at the time we were overwhelmed. Organisation was my
+strong point; and much of my commercial success was due
+to a new system of control which I had introduced into my
+factories. I mention this point in passing, because it was
+this capacity of mine which first brought me to the notice of
+Nordenholt.</p>
+
+<p>Although at the time of which I speak I had become more
+a director than a designer, I was originally by profession a
+mechanical engineer; and in my student days I had had a
+scientific training, some remnants of which still fluttered in
+tatters in odd corners of my mind. I could check the newspaper
+accounts of new discoveries in chemistry and physics
+well enough to know when the reporters blundered grossly;
+geology I remembered vaguely, though I could barely have
+distinguished augite from muscovite under a microscope:
+but the biological group of subjects had never come within
+my ken. The medical side of science was a closed book as
+far as I was concerned.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_2"></a>[2]</span>Yet, like many educated men of that time, I took a certain
+interest in scientific affairs. I read the accounts of the British
+Association in the newspapers year by year; I bought a copy
+of <i>Nature</i> now and again when a new line of research caught
+my attention; and occasionally I glanced through some of
+these popular <i>r&eacute;chauff&eacute;s</i> of various scientific topics by means
+of which people like myself were able to persuade themselves
+that they were keeping in touch with the advance of
+knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>It was this taste of mine which brought me into contact
+with Wotherspoon; for, beyond his interest in scientific
+affairs, he and I had little enough in common. It is over a
+quarter of a century since I saw him last, for he must have died
+in the first year of our troubles; but I can still recall him very
+clearly: a short, stout man&mdash;&#8220;pudgy&#8221; is perhaps the word
+which best describes him&mdash;with a drooping, untidy moustache
+half-covering but not concealing the slackness of his mouth;
+fair hair, generally brushed in a lank mass to one side of his
+forehead; and watery eyes which had a look in them as of
+one crushed beneath a weight of knowledge and responsibility.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, I doubt if his knowledge was
+sufficiently profound or extensive to crush any ordinary
+person; and as he had a private income and no dependants, I
+could not understand what responsibilities weighed upon him.
+He certainly held no official post in the scientific world which
+might have burdened him; for despite numerous applications
+on his part, none of the Universities had seen fit to utilise
+his services in even the meanest capacity.</p>
+
+<p>To be quite frank, he was a dabbler. He originated
+nothing, discovered nothing, improved nothing; and yet, by
+some means, he had succeeded in imposing himself upon the
+public mind. He delivered courses of popular lectures on the
+work of real investigators; and I believe that these lectures
+were well attended. He wrote numerous books dealing with<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_3"></a>[3]</span>
+the researches of other men; and the publication of volume
+after volume kept him in the public eye. Whenever an important
+discovery was made by some real scientific expert,
+Wotherspoon would sit down and compile newspaper articles
+on the subject with great facility; and by these methods he
+achieved, among inexperienced readers, the reputation of a
+sort of arbiter in the scientific field. &#8220;As Mr. Wotherspoon
+says in the article which we publish elsewhere&#8221; was a phrase
+which appeared from time to time in the leader columns of
+the more sensational Press.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally, he was disliked by the men who actually did the
+scientific work of the world and who had little time to spare
+for cultivating notoriety. He was a member of a large
+number of those societies to which admission can be gained
+by payment of an entrance fee and subscription; and on the
+bills of his lectures and the title-pages of his books his name
+was followed by a string of letters which the uninitiated
+assumed to imply great scientific ability. His application for
+admission to the Royal Society had, however, been unsuccessful&mdash;a
+failure which he frequently and publicly attributed to
+jealousy.</p>
+
+<p>It appears strange that such a man as this should have
+been selected by Fate as the agent of disaster; and it seems
+characteristic of him that, when the key of the problem was
+lying beside him, his energy was entirely engrossed in writing
+newspaper paragraphs on another matter. His mind
+worked exclusively through the medium of print and paper;
+so that even the most striking natural phenomenon escaped
+his observation.</p>
+
+<p>At that time he lived in one of the houses of Cumberland
+Terrace, overlooking Regent&#8217;s Park. I cannot recall the
+number; and the place has long ago disappeared; but I
+remember that it was near St. Katherine&#8217;s College and it
+overlooked the grounds of St. Katherine&#8217;s House. Wotherspoon
+carried his scientific aura even into the arrangement of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_4"></a>[4]</span>
+his residence; for what was normally the drawing-room of
+the house had been turned into a kind of laboratory-reception-room;
+so that casual visitors might be impressed by his ardour
+in the pursuit of knowledge. When anyone called upon
+him, he was always discovered in this room, fingering
+apparatus, pouring liquids from one tube into another, producing
+precipitates or doing something else which would strike
+the unwary as being part of a recondite process. I had a
+feeling, when I came upon him in the midst of these
+man&#339;uvres, that he had sprung up from his chair at the
+sound of the door bell and had plunged hastily into his
+operations. I know enough to distinguish real work from
+make-believe; and Wotherspoon never gave me the impression
+that he was engaged in anything better than window-dressing.
+At any rate, nothing ever was made public with
+regard to the results of these multitudinous experiments; and
+when, occasionally, I asked him if he proposed to bring out a
+paper, he merely launched into a diatribe against the jealousy
+of scientific men.</p>
+
+<p>It was about this time that Henley-Davenport was making
+his earlier discoveries in the field of induced radioactivity.
+The results were too technical for the unscientific man to
+appreciate; but I had become interested, not so much in
+details as in possibilities; and I determined to go across the
+Park and pay a visit to Wotherspoon one evening. I knew
+that, as far as published information went, he would be in
+possession of the latest news; and it was easier to get it from
+him than to read it myself.</p>
+
+<p>It was warm weather then. I decided to use my car instead
+of walking through the Park. I had a slight headache, and
+I thought that possibly a short spin later, in the cool of the
+evening, might take it away. As I drove, I noticed how
+thunder-clouds were banking up on the horizon, and I congratulated
+myself that even if they broke I should have the
+shelter of the car and be saved a walk home through the rain.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_5"></a>[5]</span>When I reached Cumberland Terrace, I was, as I
+expected, shown up into Wotherspoon&#8217;s sanctum. I found
+him, as usual, deeply engrossed in work: he had his eye to
+the tube of a large microscope, down which he was staring
+intently. I noticed a slight change in the equipment of the
+room. There seemed to be fewer retorts, flasks and test-tube
+racks than there usually were; and two large tables at
+the windows were littered with flat glass dishes containing
+thin slabs of pinkish material which seemed to be gelatine.
+Things like incubators took up a good deal of the remaining
+space. But I doubt if it is worth while describing what I
+saw: I know very little of such things; and I question
+whether his apparatus would have passed muster with an
+expert in any case.</p>
+
+<p>After a certain amount of fumbling with the microscope,
+which seemed largely a formal matter leading to nothing, he
+rose from his seat and greeted me with his customary pre-occupied
+air. For a time we smoked and talked of Henley-Davenport&#8217;s
+work; but after he had answered my questions
+it became evident that he had no further interest in the
+subject; and I was not surprised when, after a pause, he
+broke entirely new ground in his next remark.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do you know, Flint,&#8221; he said, &#8220;I am losing interest in
+all these investigations of the atomic structure. It seems to
+me that while unimaginative people like Henley-Davenport
+are groping into the depths of the material Universe, the
+real thing is passing them by. After all, what is mere
+matter in comparison with the problems of life? I have
+given up atoms and I am going to begin work upon living
+organisms.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>That was so characteristic of Wotherspoon. He was
+always &#8220;losing interest in&#8221; something and &#8220;going to begin
+work&#8221; upon something else. I nodded without saying
+anything. After all, it seemed of very little importance
+what he &#8220;worked&#8221; at.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_6"></a>[6]</span>&#8220;I wonder if you ever reflect, Flint,&#8221; he continued, &#8220;if
+you ever ponder over our position in this Universe? Here
+we stand, like Dante, &#8216;midway in this our mortal life&#8217;; at
+the half-way house between the cradle and the grave in time.
+And in space, too, we represent the middle term between
+the endless stretches of the Macrocosm and the bottomless
+deeps of the Microcosm. Look up at the night-sky and
+your eyes will tingle with the rays from long-dead stars,
+suns that were blotted out ages ago though the light they
+sent out before they died still thrills across the ether on its
+journey to our Earth. Take your microscope, and you
+find a new world before you; increase the magnification
+and another, tinier cosmos sweeps into your ken. And so,
+with ever-growing lens-power, we can peer either upward into
+stellar space or downward into the regions of the infinitesimal,
+while between these deeps we ourselves stand for a
+time on our precarious bridge of Earth.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I began to suspect that he was trying over some phrases
+for a coming lecture; but it was early yet and I could not
+decently make an excuse for leaving him. I took a fresh
+cigar and let him go on without interruption.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It always seems strange to me how little the man in the
+street knows of the things around him. The microscopic
+world has no existence as far as his mind is concerned. A
+grain of dust is too small for him to notice; it must blow
+into his eye before he appreciates that it has perceptible size
+at all. And yet, all about him and within him there lives
+this wonderful race of beings, passing to and fro in his veins
+as we do in the streets and avenues of a great city; coming
+to birth, going about their concerns, falling ill and dying,
+just as men do in London at this hour. Think of the
+battles, the victories, and the defeats which take place
+minute by minute in the tiniest drop of our blood; and the
+issue of the war may be the life or death of one of us.
+They talk of the struggle for existence; but the real<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_7"></a>[7]</span>
+struggle for existence is going on within us and not in the
+outer world. Phagocyte against bacterium&mdash;that is where
+the fitness of an organism comes to its ultimate test. A
+slight hitch in the reinforcements, a minute&#8217;s delay in
+bringing numbers to bear, and the keystone is out of the
+edifice; nothing is left but a ruin.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It always reminds me of those frontier skirmishes&mdash;a
+mere handful of troops engaged on either side&mdash;upon the
+issue of which the fate of an empire may depend. Get
+a new set of enemies, some novel type of bacteria with
+fresh tactics which the phagocytes cannot cope with&mdash;and
+down comes a human being. It strikes wonder into me,
+that, you know. A human body is so colossal in comparison
+with these bacteria that they can have no idea even of our
+existence; and yet they can destroy the whole machinery
+upon which our life depends. It&#8217;s almost as if a few shots
+fired in Africa could crumble the whole Earth into an
+impalpable dust.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And it is not only within us that these struggles are
+going on. When you came in, I was just studying some
+specimens of organisms which are equally vital to us. Come
+over here to the microscope, Flint, and have a look at them
+yourself.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>When I had got the focus adjusted to suit my eyes, I
+must confess that I was astonished by what I saw. Somehow,
+in the course of my reading, I had picked up the idea
+that bacteria were rod-like creatures which floated inertly in
+liquids at the mercy of the currents; but at the first glance
+I realised how much below the reality my conception had
+been. In the field of the instrument I saw a score of
+objects, rod-like in their main structure, it is true, but so
+mantled with the fringes of their fine, thread-like cilia that
+their baculite character was almost concealed. Nor were
+they the inert things which I had supposed them to be;
+for, as I watched them, now one and again another would<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_8"></a>[8]</span>
+dart with prodigious swiftness from point to point in the
+circle of illumination. I had rarely seen such relative
+activity in any creature. The speed of their movements
+was so great that my eye could not follow them in their
+tracks. They appeared to be at rest one instant and then
+to vanish, reappearing as suddenly in some fresh spot. I
+watched them, fascinated, for some minutes, trying to trace
+the vibrations of the cilia which projected them from place
+to place at such enormous speeds; but either my eye was
+untrained or the movements of the thread-like fringes were
+too rapid to be seen. It was certainly an illuminating
+glimpse into the life of the under-world.</p>
+
+<p>When I had risen from the microscope table, Wotherspoon
+took me over to one of the benches before the window
+and showed me the glass vessels containing the pinkish
+gelatine. These slabs, he told me, were cultures of bacteria.
+One placed a few organisms on the gelatine and there they
+grew and multiplied enormously.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;These specimens here,&#8221; said Wotherspoon, &#8220;are not the
+same variety as the ones on the microscope slide. They
+have nothing whatever to do with disease; and yet, as I
+told you, they have an influence upon animal life. I
+suppose you never heard of nitrifying and denitrifying
+bacteria?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I admitted that the names were unfamiliar to me.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Just so. Few people seem to take any interest in
+these vital problems. Now you do know that internally we
+swarm with all sorts of germs, noxious in some cases, beneficent
+in others; but I suppose it never struck you that our
+bodies form only a trifling part of the material world; and
+that outside these living islets there is space for all sorts
+of microscopic flora and fauna to grow and multiply? And
+need these creatures be absolutely isolated from the interests
+of animals? Not at all.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now what is the essential thing, apart from air and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_9"></a>[9]</span>
+water, which we derive from the outside world? Food,
+isn&#8217;t it? Did it ever occur to you to inquire where your
+food comes from, ultimately?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, of course,&#8221; I said, &#8220;it comes from all over the
+world. I don&#8217;t know whether the wheat I eat in my bread
+comes from Canada or the States or Argentina, or was
+home-grown. It doesn&#8217;t seem to me a matter of importance,
+anyway.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That isn&#8217;t what I mean at all,&#8221; Wotherspoon interrupted,
+&#8220;I want you to look at it in another way. I suppose
+you had your usual style of dinner to-day. Just think of
+the items: soup, fish, meat, bread, and so on. Your soup
+was made from bones and vegetables; your fish course was
+originally an animal; so was your joint; your sweet was
+probably purely vegetable; and your dessert certainly was a
+plant product. Now don&#8217;t you see what I mean?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, I confess I don&#8217;t.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Haven&#8217;t I just shown you that everything you ate
+comes from either the animal or vegetable kingdom? You
+don&#8217;t bite bits out of the crockery, like the Mad Hatter.
+Everything you use to keep your physical machine alive
+is something which has already had life in it? Isn&#8217;t that
+so? You never think of having a meal of pure chemicals,
+do you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It never occurred to me; and I doubt it I shall begin
+now. It doesn&#8217;t sound very appetising.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It would be worse than that; but follow my argument
+further. Take the case of your joint. Presumably that
+came from an ox or a sheep. Where did the animal,
+whatever it was, get <i>its</i> food? From the vegetable kingdom,
+in the form of grass. Isn&#8217;t it clear that everything
+you yourself eat comes, either directly or indirectly, from
+the plants? And aren&#8217;t all animals on the same footing
+as yourself&mdash;they depend ultimately on the vegetables for
+their sustenance, don&#8217;t they? A fox may live on poultry;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_10"></a>[10]</span>
+but the chickens he kills have grown fat by eating grain;
+and so you come back to the plants again. If you like
+to look on it in that way, we are all parasites on the plants;
+we cannot live without them. Our digestive machinery
+is so specialised that it will assimilate only a certain type
+of material&mdash;protoplasm&mdash;and unless it is supplied with that
+material, we starve. We can convert the protoplasm of
+other animals or of plants to our own use; but we cannot
+manufacture protoplasm from its elements. We have to
+get it ready-made from the vegetables, either directly or
+indirectly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now the foundation-stone of protoplasm is the element
+nitrogen. The plants draw on the store of nitrogenous
+compounds in the soil in order to build up their tissues; and
+then we eat the plants and thus transfer this material to our
+own organisms. What happens next? Do we return the
+nitrogen to the soil? Not we. We throw it into the sea in
+the form of sewage. So you see the net outcome of the process
+is that we are gradually using up the stores of nitrogen compounds
+in the soil, with the result that the plants have less
+and less nitrogen to live on.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, but surely four-fifths of the atmosphere is nitrogen?
+That seems to me a big enough reserve to be
+drawn on.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;So it would be, if the plants could tap it directly; but
+they can&#8217;t do that except in the case of some exceptional
+ones. Most plants simply cannot utilise nitrogen until it
+has been combined with some other element. They can&#8217;t
+touch it in the uncombined state, as it is in the atmosphere;
+so that as far as the nitrogen in the air goes, it is useless to
+plants. They can&#8217;t thrive on pure nitrogen, any more than
+you can feed yourself on a mixture of charcoal, hydrogen,
+oxygen and nitrogen; though these elements are all that you
+need in the way of diet to keep life going.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, Flint, we are actually depleting the soil of these<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_11"></a>[11]</span>
+nitrogen compounds at a very rapid rate indeed. Why,
+even in the first decade of the twentieth century South
+America was exporting no less than 15,000,000 tons of nitrogen
+compounds which she dug out of the natural deposits in
+the nitre beds of Chili and Peru; and all that vast quantity
+was being used as artificial manure to replace the nitrogenous
+loss in the soil of the agricultural parts of the world. The
+loss is so great that it even pays to run chemical processes
+for making nitrogenous materials from the nitrogen of the
+air&mdash;the fixation of nitrogen, they call it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, that is surely enough to show you how much
+hangs upon this nitrogen question. If we go on as we are
+doing, there will eventually be a nitrogen famine; the soil
+will cease to yield crops; and we shall go short of food.
+It&#8217;s no vision I am giving you; the thing has already
+happened in a modified form in America. There they used
+up the soil by continual drafts on it, wheat crops year after
+year in the same places. The result was that the land
+ceased to be productive; and we had the rush of American
+farmers into Canada in the early days of the century to
+utilise the virgin soil across the border instead of their own
+exhausted fields.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I suppose you know all about it,&#8221; I said, &#8220;but where do
+these come in?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I pointed to the pinkish disks of the cultures.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;These are what are called denitrifying bacteria.
+Although the plants can&#8217;t act upon pure nitrogen and convert
+it into compounds which they can feed upon, some
+bacteria have the knack. The nitrifying bacteria can link
+up nitrogen with other elements so as to produce nitrogenous
+material which the plants can then utilise. So that if we grow
+these nitrifying bacteria in the soil, we help the plants to get
+more food. The denitrifying bacteria, on the other hand&mdash;these
+ones here&mdash;act in just the opposite way. Wherever
+they find nitrogenous compounds, they break them down<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_12"></a>[12]</span>
+and liberate the nitrogen from them, so that it goes back into
+the air and is lost to us again.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;So you see that outside our bodies we have bacteria
+working for or against us. The nitrifying bacteria are
+helping to pile up further supplies of nitrogen compounds
+upon which the plants can draw and whereon, indirectly, we
+ourselves can be supported. The denitrifying bacteria, on
+the other hand, are continually nibbling at the basic store of
+our food; decomposing the nitrogen compounds and freeing
+the nitrogen from them in the form of the pure gas which
+is useless to us from the point of view of food.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You mean that a large increase in the numbers of the
+one set would put us in clover, whereas multiplication of the
+other lot would mean a shortness of supplies?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Exactly. And we have no idea of the forces which
+govern the reproduction of these creatures. It&#8217;s quite within
+the bounds of possibility that some slight change in the external
+conditions might reinforce one set and decimate the
+other; and such a change would have almost unpredictable
+influences on our food problem.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>At this moment the thunder-clouds, which had grown
+heavier as time passed, evidently reached their full tension.
+A tremendous flash shot across the sky; and on its heel, so
+close as to be almost simultaneous, there came a shattering
+peal of thunder. We looked out; but I had been so dazzled
+by the brilliance of the flash that I could see little. The air
+was very still; no rain had yet fallen; and my skin tingled
+with the electrical tension of the atmosphere. Wotherspoon
+felt it also, he told me. It was evident that we were in the
+vicinity of some very powerful disturbance.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Awfully hot to-night, isn&#8217;t it?&#8221; I said. &#8220;Suppose we
+have some more air? It&#8217;s stifling in here.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Wotherspoon pushed the broad leaves of the French
+windows apart; but no breeze came to cool us; though in
+the silence after the thunder-clap I heard the rustle of leaves<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_13"></a>[13]</span>
+from the trees below us. We stood, one at either end of
+the bench with the cultures on it, trying to draw cooler air
+into our lungs; and all the while I felt as though a multitude
+of tiny electric sparks were running to and fro upon the
+surface of my body.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, over St. Katherine&#8217;s House, a sphere of light
+appeared in the air. It was not like lightning, brilliantly
+though it shone. It seemed to hover for a few seconds
+above the roof, almost motionless. Then it began slowly to
+advance in a wavering flight, approaching us and sinking by
+degrees in the sky as it came. To me, it appeared to be
+about a foot in diameter; but Wotherspoon afterwards estimated
+it at rather less. In any case, it was of no great
+size; and its rate of approach was not more than five miles
+an hour.</p>
+
+<p>For some seconds I watched it coming. It had a peculiar
+vacillating motion, rather like that which one sees in the
+flight of certain kinds of summer flies. Now it would hover
+almost motionless, then suddenly it would dart forward for
+twenty yards or so, only to resume its oscillation about a
+fixed point.</p>
+
+<p>But to tell the truth, I watched it in such a state of
+fascination that I doubt if any coherent thoughts passed
+through my mind; so that my impressions may have been
+inaccurate. All that I remember clearly is a state of extreme
+tension. I never feel quite comfortable during a
+thunder-storm; and the novelty of the phenomenon increased
+this discomfort, for I did not know what turn it might take
+next.</p>
+
+<p>Slowly the luminous sphere crossed the edge of the Park,
+dipping suddenly as though the iron railings had attracted
+it; and now it was almost opposite our window. For a
+moment its impetus seemed to carry it onwards, slantingly
+along the terrace; then, with a dart it swung from its course
+and entered the window at which we stood.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_14"></a>[14]</span>From its behaviour at the Park rail, I am inclined to
+think that it was drawn from its line of flight by the attracting
+power of the metal balustrade which protected the little
+balcony outside the window; and that its velocity carried it
+past the iron, so that it came to rest within the room, just
+over the table between us.</p>
+
+<p>Instinctively, both Wotherspoon and I recoiled from this
+flaming apparition, shrinking back as far as possible from it
+on either side. Beyond this movement we seemed unable to
+go, for neither of us stepped out of the window recess.
+Between us, the ball of fire hung almost motionless; but
+before my eyes were dazzled I saw that it was spinning
+with tremendous velocity on a horizontal axis; and it
+seemed to me that its substance was a multitude of tiny
+sparks whirling in orbits about its centre. Its light was like
+that from a spirit-lamp charged with common salt; for over
+it I caught a glimpse of Wotherspoon&#8217;s flinching face, all
+shadowed and green. As I watched the fire-ball, shading my
+eyes with my hands, I saw that it was slowly settling, just as a
+soap-bubble sinks in the air. Lower it descended and lower,
+still spinning furiously on its axis. Then, after what seemed
+an interminable period of suspense, it collided with the
+table.</p>
+
+<p>There came a dull explosion which jerked me from my feet
+and drove me back against a chair. I saw Wotherspoon
+collapse and then everything vanished in the darkness which
+followed the concussion.</p>
+
+<p>It must have been half a minute before I was able to
+recover from the shock and pull myself together. When I
+got to my feet again, I found Wotherspoon half-standing,
+half-leaning against the door, one panel of which had been
+blown out. The room was strewn with wreckage: broken
+glass, scattered papers, and shattered furniture. The electric
+lamps had been smashed by the force of the explosion.</p>
+
+<p>Wotherspoon and I recovered almost simultaneously; and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_15"></a>[15]</span>
+on comparing notes&mdash;which was difficult at first owing to
+our being temporarily deaf&mdash;we found that neither of us
+had suffered any serious injury. A few slight cuts with
+flying glass were apparently the worst of the damage which
+we had sustained. There was a sharp tang in the air of
+the room which made us cough for some time until it
+cleared away; but whatever the gas may have been, it
+left no permanent effects on us.</p>
+
+<p>When we had procured lights and pulled ourselves together
+sufficiently to make a fuller examination of the room, we
+began to appreciate the extent of the damage and to congratulate
+ourselves still more upon the escape which we had
+had. The whole place was littered with fragments of
+furniture. The incubators had been shattered; and their
+contents, smashed into countless fragments, lay all over the
+floor. But it was on the bench at the window that the full
+force of the fire-ball had spent itself. There was hardly
+anything recognisable in the heap of debris. The wooden
+planks had been torn and broken with tremendous force.
+The little balcony was filled with sticks which had been
+thrown outward by the explosion; and, as we found afterwards,
+a good deal of material had been projected half-way
+across the road. Of the denitrifying bacteria cultures or
+their cases there was hardly a trace, except a few tiny
+splinters of glass.</p>
+
+<p>I did not wait much longer with Wotherspoon; for, to
+tell the truth, my nerves were badly shaken by my experiences.
+I got him to come downstairs with me and
+we had a stiff glass of brandy each; and then I telephoned
+for a taxi to take me home. My own car was standing
+at the door; but I did not trust my ability to drive it in
+traffic at that moment. It seemed better to send my man
+round for it after I got home.</p>
+
+<p>I went back in the taxi, with my nerves on edge.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_16"></a>[16]</span>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak"><small>CHAPTER II</small><br />
+
+
+The Coming of &#8220;The Blight&#8221;</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Next</span> morning I still felt the effects of the shock; and
+decided not to go to my office. I stayed indoors all day.
+When the evening papers came, I found in them brief
+accounts of the fire-ball; and in one case there was an
+article by Wotherspoon under the heading: &#8220;Well-known
+Scientist&#8217;s Strange Experience.&#8221; One or two reporters
+called at my house later in the day in search of copy, but
+I sent them on to Cumberland Terrace. In some of the
+reports I figured as &#8220;a well-known motor manufacturer,&#8221;
+whilst in others I was referred to simply as &#8220;a friend of
+Mr. Wotherspoon.&#8221; I had little difficulty in surmising
+the authorship of the latter group.</p>
+
+<p>In the ordinary course of events, the fire-ball would have
+been much less than a nine days&#8217; wonder, even in spite of
+Wotherspoon&#8217;s industry in compiling accounts of it and
+digging out parallel cases from the correspondence columns
+of old volumes of <i>Nature</i> and <i>Knowledge</i>; actually its career
+as a news item was made briefer still. An entirely different
+phenomenon shouldered it out of the limelight almost
+immediately.</p>
+
+<p>After staying indoors all day, I felt the need of fresh
+air; and resolved to walk across the Park to Cumberland
+Terrace to see whether Wotherspoon had quite recovered
+from the shock. I had not much doubt in my mind upon
+the point; for the traces of his journalistic activity were
+plain enough; and showed that he was certainly not incapacitated.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_17"></a>[17]</span>
+However, as I wanted a stroll and as I might
+as well have an object before me, I decided to go and see
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Twilight was coming on as I crossed the suspension
+bridge. Even after the thunder-storm on the previous night
+there had been no rainfall; and although the temperature
+had fallen until the air was almost chilly, there was as yet
+no dew on the ground. I stopped on the bridge to watch
+the tints of the western sky; for these London after-glow
+effects always pleased me.</p>
+
+<p>As I leaned on the rail, I heard the low drone of aerial
+engines; and in a few seconds the broad wings of the
+Australian Express swept between me and the sky. Even
+in those days I could never see one of these vast argosies
+passing overhead without a throb in my veins.</p>
+
+<p>The great air-services had just come to their own; and
+aeroplanes started from London four and five times daily for
+America, Asia, Africa, and Australia. In the windows of
+the air-offices the flight of these vessels could be followed
+hour by hour on the huge world-maps over which moved
+tiny models showing the exact positions of the various
+aeroplanes on the globe. Watching the dots moving across
+the surface of the charts, one could call up, with very little
+imagination, the landscapes which were sweeping into the
+view of travellers on board the real machines as they glided
+through these far-distant spaces of the air. This one, two
+days out from London, would be sighting the pagoda roofs
+of Pekin as the night was coming on; that one, on the
+Pacific route, had just finished filling up its tanks at Singapore
+and was starting on the long course to Australia; the
+passengers on this other would be watching the sun standing
+high over Victoria Nyanza; while, on the Atlantic, the
+Western Ocean Express and the South American Mail
+were racing the daylight into a fourth continent.</p>
+
+<p>I think it was these maps which first brought home to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_18"></a>[18]</span>
+me distinctly how the spaces of the world had shrunk on
+the &#8220;time-scale&#8221; with the coming of the giant aeroplanes.
+The pace had been growing swifter and ever swifter since
+the middle of the nineteenth century. Up to that day,
+there had been little advance since the time of the earlier
+sailing-vessels. Then came the change from sail to steam;
+and the Atlantic crossing contracted in its duration. The
+great Trans-continental railways quickened transit once
+more; again there was a shrinkage in the time-scale. Vladivostok
+came within ten days of London; from Cairo to
+the Cape was only five days. But with the coming of the
+air-ways the acceleration was greater still; and we reckoned
+in hours the journeys which, in the nineteenth century
+days, had been calculated in weeks and even months. All
+the outposts of the world were drawing nearer together.</p>
+
+<p>It was not this shrinkage only which the air-maps suggested.
+In the early twentieth century the telegraphs and
+submarine cables had spread their network over the world,
+linking nation to nation and coast to coast; but their
+ramifications dwindled in perspective when compared with
+the complex network of the air-ways which now enmeshed
+the globe. London lay like a spider at the centre of the
+web of communications, the like of which the world had
+never seen before; and along each thread the aeroplanes
+were speeding to and from all the quarters of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Rapid communication we had had since the days of the
+extension of the telegraph; but it had been limited to the
+transmission of thoughts and of news. The coming of
+the aeroplanes had changed all that. These tracks on
+the air-maps were not mere wires thrilling with the quiverings
+of the electric current. Along them material things
+were passing continually; a constant interchange of passengers
+and goods was taking place hourly over the multitudinous
+routes. For good or ill, humanity was becoming linked
+together until it formed a single unit.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_19"></a>[19]</span>It is curious that all the prophetic writers of the early
+twentieth century concentrated their attention almost exclusively
+upon the racial and social reactions which might be
+expected to follow from this knitting of the world into a
+connected whole and the resultant increase of traffic between
+the nations over the now contracted world-spaces. They
+had seen the interminglings of races which began in the
+steamship days; and they deduced that the process would
+be intensified in the new era of air-transit; so that, in the
+end of their dreams, they saw the possibility of a World
+Federation stretching its rule over the whole globe and
+bringing with it the end of wars. None of them, strangely
+enough, had foreseen the real effects which this intercommunication
+was to bring forth.</p>
+
+<p>To a certain extent, their foresight had been justified.
+With the coming of the air-ways, the war-spirit was temporarily
+exorcised. The vast increase in the size and number
+of air-craft and the terrors of an aerial war, with all its
+untested possibilities, served to rein in even the most ardent
+of military nations. Standing armies still persisted; but
+their numbers had been diminished to a few thousands;
+for under the new conditions the old huge and unwieldy
+terrestrial forces could neither be fed, nor protected from
+aerial attacks.</p>
+
+<p>Thus as I leaned on the rail of the suspension bridge
+and looked out over the greenery of the Park it seemed
+to me a very pleasant world. Those of the younger
+generation can hardly imagine how fair it was or how
+inexhaustible it seemed. Thousands of square miles of
+Africa and South America were still virgin soil, store-houses
+of untapped resources waiting for humanity to
+draw upon their abundance. There was food for all the
+thousand millions of mankind; and, as the population rose,
+fresh lands could be brought under cultivation for the mere
+labour of clearing the soil of its surplus vegetation. It was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_20"></a>[20]</span>
+the Golden Age of humanity; yet few of us recognised it.
+We looked either backward into the past or forward into
+the future when we sought the Islands of the Blest: while
+all about us lay Paradise, and the Earth blossomed like a
+huge garden which was ours for the taking.</p>
+
+<p>I left my visions with a sigh and continued my way
+across the Park. The prolonged spell of heat was affecting
+the vegetation. The trees were dusty; and the grass
+seemed to have lost something of its brilliant green. I
+remember that after I had crossed the Broad Walk I
+noticed especially how moribund all the plant-life of the
+Park appeared to be. There was an air of decline about
+it, though no tints of autumn had yet appeared in the
+leaves.</p>
+
+<p>Wotherspoon was, as usual, in his laboratory. The glass
+of the windows had been replaced; but otherwise the place
+was much in its disordered condition. I suspect that he had
+purposely refrained from getting it cleared up, in order to
+impress reporters with the actual damage which the explosion
+had done; and that when the reporters had ceased
+to call he had left things as they were with the idea of
+fascinating any visitors who might come.</p>
+
+<p>He was sitting at his writing-desk, surrounded by piles
+of books from which he was apparently extracting information
+for the purpose of some fresh article he had in hand;
+and when I came in he asked me to excuse him for a few
+minutes until he had got his data completed. In order to
+amuse me in the meanwhile, he dragged out his microscope
+and a pile of slides which he thought might interest
+me.</p>
+
+<p>Before he went back to his work, it struck me that I
+would like to see the bacteria again; and I picked up from
+the floor some fragments of glass which evidently had
+formed part of his cultures, since particles of the pink
+gelatine adhered to them still. I asked him to fix the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_21"></a>[21]</span>
+microscope for me, so that I could examine these things;
+and he wetted the stuff with some water and put a drop of
+it under the lens, leaving me to focus it myself while he
+went back to his writing-desk. He was soon deep in his
+article.</p>
+
+<p>As I gazed down at the field of the microscope, I saw
+again the clumps of bacilli, some floating aimlessly in masses,
+others darting here and there in the disk of illumination. I
+studied them for a time without noticing anything peculiar;
+but at last it struck me that the field was becoming congested
+with the creatures. I looked more carefully; and
+now there seemed little doubt of the fact. The numbers of
+them were increasing almost visibly. I concentrated my
+attention on a small group in one corner of the slide and
+was able, in spite of the confusion introduced by their rapid
+and erratic movements, to feel certain that they were
+multiplying so fast that I could almost estimate the increase
+in percentages minute by minute.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Here, Wotherspoon,&#8221; I said, &#8220;come and have a look
+through this. These bacteria of yours seem to be spawning
+or something.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I wish you wouldn&#8217;t interrupt, there&#8217;s a good chap,&#8221; he
+said in a peevish tone. &#8220;Don&#8217;t you know that writing takes
+all one&#8217;s attention? I can&#8217;t do two things at once; and
+this article must be finished on time if it is to be of any use
+to me or anyone else. Just amuse yourself for half an hour
+and then I shall be at your disposal if you want me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was said so ungraciously that I took offence; and as
+his original &#8220;few minutes&#8221; had now apparently extended
+to &#8220;half an hour&#8221; I thought it best to leave him to himself.
+When I said good-night to him, he seemed to regard it as
+an extra interruption; so I was not sorry to go. I left him
+still delving into the masses of printed material around him.</p>
+
+<p>And that was how Wotherspoon missed the greatest
+discovery that ever came his way. It was waiting for him<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_22"></a>[22]</span>
+across the table, for I doubt if he could have failed to draw
+the obvious conclusion had he actually taken the trouble
+to examine the phenomenon with his own eyes. But his
+interest was concentrated upon his writing; and his chance
+passed him by. After Johnston published his views, Wotherspoon
+made what I can only consider to be a dishonest
+attempt to secure priority on the ground that he was aware
+of the facts but had not had time to work out the subject
+fully before Johnston rushed into print; but he secured no
+support from any authoritative quarter; and even the newspapers
+had by that time seen the necessity of consulting
+experts, so that he was unable to place the numerous articles
+which he wrote to confute Johnston.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Three days later, Regent&#8217;s Park again figured in the
+columns of the newspapers.</p>
+
+<p>The first mention of the matter which I saw was in
+an evening journal. I had been reading a short account of a
+locust plague in China which was reported to have destroyed
+crops upon a large scale and caused a panic emigration of the
+inhabitants of the devastated district, owing to the failure of
+supplies. Just below this article, my eye caught a paragraph
+headed:</p>
+
+
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Strange Blight in Regent&#8217;s Park.</span></p>
+
+<p>It appeared that the vegetation in the Park had been
+attacked by some peculiar disease, the symptoms of which
+were evidently not very clear to the writer of the paragraph.
+According to him, the plants were withering away; but
+there seemed to be no fungus or growth on the leaves which
+would account for their decrepitude. Trees and flowers
+equally with the grass were attacked by the blight. While
+throwing out a hint that the prolonged drought might
+possibly account for the phenomenon, the reporter indicated
+that the thing was rather more local than might have been<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_23"></a>[23]</span>
+anticipated from this cause; for the worst effects of the
+blight were to be found in the vegetation of the strip
+between Gloucester Gate and the Outer Circle in one
+direction and between the Broad Walk and the Park edge
+in the other. Beyond this oblong, the damage done was
+not so readily recognisable.</p>
+
+<p>That evening, as the fine weather still held, I walked
+through Regent&#8217;s Park to see for myself what truth there
+was in the newspaper talk. More people than usual were
+out; for in addition to the normal crowds of pedestrians, it
+was evident that others had come, like myself, to examine
+the blight. The Broad Walk was thronged; for the
+Londoner of those days was one of the most inquisitive
+creatures in existence.</p>
+
+<p>It was evident that, considered from the &#8220;show&#8221; point of
+view, the state of affairs had been a disappointment to the
+people. I heard numerous comments as I walked among the
+crowd; and the tone was one of disparagement. The
+general feeling seemed to be that the thing was a mare&#8217;s
+nest or a newspaper hoax.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Blight, they calls it?&#8221; said one stout old woman as I
+passed; &#8220;I&#8217;d like to blight the young feller what wrote all
+that in the papers about it, I would! Me putting on my
+best things and walking ever so far on a hot night to see
+nothing better than a lot of dried grass. I thought it would
+be fair seething with grasshoppers,&#8221; and she shook her head
+till the trimmings of her antique hat trembled with her
+vehemence. Evidently she had mixed up the Chinese
+locusts and the Regent&#8217;s Park affair in her mind.</p>
+
+<p>Other people shared her discontent; and the younger
+section of the crowd had begun to seek for amusement by
+means of spasmodic outbursts of horse-play.</p>
+
+<p>What I saw of the phenomenon was certainly not very
+thrilling. All the grass to the east of the Broad Walk had
+the appearance of being sun-blasted. The green tint had<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_24"></a>[24]</span>
+gone from it and it had turned straw-colour. On the west
+side of the Walk there were patches of stricken vegetation
+scattered here and there as far as one could see, but the
+effect was not so marked towards the Inner Circle.</p>
+
+<p>I stooped down and rooted up a tuft of withered grass in
+order to examine it more closely; and to my surprise it
+came away readily in my hand, leaving the roots almost
+clear of earth. I could see nothing peculiar about the grass
+itself; even the most careful inspection failed to reveal any
+adherent fungus or growth of any description which might
+account for the phenomenon. I began to think that, after
+all, the whole thing was due to the heat of the past few
+weeks, and that the local appearance of the effects was a
+mere chance.</p>
+
+<p>Next day, however, this idea was put out of court by the
+news that the blight had spread to the other London parks.
+Hyde Park suffered severely in the corner between the
+Marble Arch and the Serpentine; the gardens of Buckingham
+Palace were also affected; and the grass in Battersea
+Park showed sporadic outbreaks of the disease also. Victoria
+Park, however, seemed to have escaped almost intact;
+though some traces could be detected.</p>
+
+<p>I learned that the Park gardeners had endeavoured to
+check the extension of the disease&mdash;for it spread almost
+visibly in places&mdash;by spraying the vegetation with the usual
+vermin-killers; but these had been found to have no
+influence upon the growth of the smitten areas.</p>
+
+<p>By this time, the newspapers had begun to make the
+matter a main feature. The heading: &#8220;<span class="smcap">The Blight</span>&#8221;
+occupied the principal column; and correspondence had
+been opened on the subject in several of the journals. But
+as yet the matter was not exciting any interest outside
+London. It was regarded as a purely local manifestation of
+no particular import; and although some of the writers of
+London Letters for the provincial Press alluded to it in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_25"></a>[25]</span>
+their articles, it was usually referred to with a sneer at the
+&#8220;silly season attitude&#8221; of supposedly weighty newspapers.</p>
+
+<p>This tone underwent a rapid change, however, on the
+following day. Even the staid dailies of the Provinces
+became electrified with the news; and over most of the
+area of southern England the breakfast tables were ahum
+with conversations on the Blight and its effects; for the
+morning papers were filled with telegrams announcing the
+extension of the affected area broadcast over the Home
+Counties; and the headlines ran:</p>
+
+
+
+<p class="center">SPREAD OF THE NEW BLIGHT</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">All Home Counties Affected</span></p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="allsmcap">TOTAL FAILURE OF CROPS FEARED</span></p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_26"></a>[26]</span>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak"><small>CHAPTER III</small><br />
+
+
+<i>B. Diazotans</i><a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">At</span> this point, I remember, the long spell of dry weather
+reached its end. A heavy series of thunderstorms marked
+its termination; and for three days the country was deluged
+with rain and swept by intermittent gales. The cracked
+ground drank up the moisture; but still more showers fell,
+until there was mud everywhere.</p>
+
+<p>These meteorological changes in themselves were sufficiently
+grave from the farmer&#8217;s point of view; but even
+more serious was the state of things revealed after the rain
+had ceased. Whether it was due to the weather conditions
+or whether it was a vagary produced by factors beyond
+discovery will never be known; but the fact is established
+that the spread of the Blight became accentuated during the
+rainy period. Wherever it had secured a hold during the
+hot weather it became more malignant in its effects; and
+its extension to fresh fields was so great that hardly a grain-growing
+area in the country escaped at this time. It
+penetrated as far north as the Border agricultural districts;
+and devastated fields were found even in Perthshire.</p>
+
+<p>Since the potato blight in 1845, no such rapid and
+extensive destruction of food supplies had been known.
+The standing crops in the affected areas withered; and a
+total failure of the home-grown cereals seemed to be inevitable.
+Nor was it only in this section of the food-supply<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_27"></a>[27]</span>
+that the attacks of the Blight became evident. Fruit-trees
+seemed arrested in their productivity; vegetables failed to
+ripen and began to rot. Everywhere the vegetable kingdom
+seemed to be falling into a decline. The great market-gardens
+and nurseries showed the trace of the same mysterious
+agent. Roses withered on their stems; and even the hot-house
+plants suffered equally with their open-air fellows.
+The only crop which appeared to escape the general disaster
+was hay.</p>
+
+<p>And now it became clear that the Blight, as it was still
+called, was going to produce effects in the most widely-separated
+fields of activity. With a total failure of the
+crops, the financial side of the question came to the front.
+Throughout the length and breadth of the land, small
+farmers were beginning to realise that it was to be a year
+of utter disaster, ending probably in bankruptcy and ruin.
+The larger land-owners looked forward to the collapse of
+tenants and the failure of rents. Mortgage-holders began
+to consider the nature of their security, and when it was
+agricultural land they were placed in doubt as to their best
+course; for no one could foresee whether the Blight was
+a temporary epidemic or a permanent factor which would
+reappear with the next crops. And all these varying influences
+had their effects upon the great financial operations
+of the City; for even in that industrial age the land had
+maintained its value as a basic security which apparently
+could not suffer deterioration beyond a definite point.</p>
+
+<p>This, however, was only a minor field of the Blight&#8217;s
+reactions. With the probable failure of the home crop
+looming before him, even the man in the street could not
+fail to perceive the more obvious results. It meant a greater
+dependence upon imported food-stuffs and especially imported
+grain. Argentina, Canada, India and the United States
+must make up the missing supplies; and since almost half
+our cereals were home-grown at that period, the price of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_28"></a>[28]</span>
+food was certain to rise by leaps and bounds; so that every
+family in the land would be affected by the catastrophe.</p>
+
+<p>Then a further factor was brought to light. With the
+failure of grain and even of grass, it would be impossible to
+keep alive the cattle which furnished part of the nation&#8217;s
+food. The milk supply would be gravely affected also, from
+the same cause.</p>
+
+<p>It is difficult for us now to look back and catch again the
+spirit of that time. Never before, even during the war,
+had the food of Britain been endangered to such a degree.
+And the steadily rising prices were sufficient to bring home
+to the most thoughtless the actual imminence of the peril.
+I can recall, however, that at first there was no panic of
+any kind. It was assumed by all of us that although we
+might have to go short of our usual lavish supplies, yet we
+should always have enough food to carry us through to the
+next harvest. The whole world was our granary; and if
+we were prepared to pay the higher prices which we saw to
+be inevitable, we had no reason to suppose that we should
+lack imported grain. Our attitude was quite comprehensible
+under the circumstances, I think. In the past we had
+always been able to obtain food; and there seemed no doubt
+that the same would hold good through this shortage.</p>
+
+<p>The newspapers were fairly evenly divided in their
+expressed opinions. The Government had recently adjourned
+Parliament, after a session in which their majority had
+oscillated dangerously more than once, and the Opposition
+Press seized upon the Blight in order to embarrass the
+Cabinet, and especially the Prime Minister, as far as possible.
+They clamoured that the Government should take steps to
+secure the food supply of the country by making immediate
+purchases of wheat in the foreign markets. They demanded
+that a system of rationing should be established forthwith;
+and that cases of food-hoarding should be stringently punished.
+Day after day they held up to public obloquy the individual<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_29"></a>[29]</span>
+members of the Cabinet, who were then scattered on holiday;
+the amusements of each of them were described and coupled
+with sneering hopes that they would succeed better in their
+games than they had done in the government of the country
+and the safeguarding of the national interests. Echoes of
+the Mazanderan Development Syndicate scandal were kept
+alive in the most ingenious manner.</p>
+
+<p>The Government Press, naturally, professed to see in the
+inactivity of the Cabinet a proof that they had the matter
+well in hand. Avoidance of panic, restriction by voluntary
+effort of all unnecessary consumption of food, and the postponement
+of inquiries likely to interfere with the wise
+projects of the Premier: these formed the stock of their
+leading articles.</p>
+
+<p>The gutter organ of the Opposition retorted by publishing
+the complete menu of the Premier&#8217;s dinner on the
+previous day, which it had obtained from some waiter in
+the hotel at which he was staying; and it accompanied this
+item of news by interspersed extracts from the Government
+organs in which appeals had been made for a less luxurious
+form of living.</p>
+
+<p>It must be remembered that this stage of the sequence
+of events occupied only a brief period. If I am not wrong,
+it was within ten days of the outbreak of the Blight that
+we got the first American cables announcing the appearance
+of the epidemic among the great wheat areas of the Middle
+West. Almost immediately after came similar news from
+Canada.</p>
+
+<p>The meaning of this was not at first appreciated by the
+people as a whole. They still clung to the idea that grain
+would be forthcoming if a sufficiently high price were paid
+for it; but those of us who had tried to forecast the possibilities
+of the situation found our worst fears taking concrete
+form. Soon even the unthinking were forced to understand
+what the American news implied. If the Blight spread<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_30"></a>[30]</span>
+over the wheat-fields of the Western continent, there would
+be no surplus grain there for export at all. That source of
+supply would barely suffice for the mouths at home.</p>
+
+<p>Then, following each other like hammer-strokes upon
+metal, each biting deeper than the last, came the cables
+from the rest of the world. Egypt reported the outbreak
+of the Blight in the Nile valley; British East Africa became
+affected. The news from the Argentine fell like a thunderbolt,
+for we realised that with it the last great open source
+of wheat had failed. The Don and Volga basins followed
+with the same tale. Over India, the Blight raged with
+almost unheard-of virulence. Then, days after the others,
+Australia was smitten, and our last hopes vanished.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>During all this period, it must be remembered, we had
+no idea of the origin of our calamities. We referred to the
+thing always as &#8220;The Blight,&#8221; though it was made clear at
+quite an early stage that no plant parasite was concerned in
+the matter at all. The most careful microscopic examination
+of affected vegetation had been made without revealing
+anything in the nature of a fungus or noxious growth.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, on looking backward, I cannot help feeling that we,
+and especially I myself, were strangely blind to the obvious
+in the matter. I have already mentioned that when I
+rooted up a clump of grass in Regent&#8217;s Park it came away
+from the soil without resistance; and that when I examined
+the roots I found them almost as free of earthy deposit
+as if it had been grown in sand. That, coupled with what
+I already knew, should have put me on the track of the
+explanation; and yet I failed to draw the simplest deduction
+from what I observed. To account for this obtuseness, I
+can only suggest that already the idea of a &#8220;Blight&#8221; had
+taken root in my mind; and that I was so obsessed with
+the idea of a parasite that I never considered the facts from
+any other point of view. Since others proved to be equally<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_31"></a>[31]</span>
+slow in arriving at the truth, I can only conclude that they
+were misled in their mental processes much as I myself was.</p>
+
+<p>As I have said on a previous page, it was to Johnston,
+the bacteriologist, that we owe the discovery. It appears
+that he had been growing some bacteria in cultures; and,
+whether by accident or design, he had left one of his
+cultivation media open to the air. On examining the
+germs some days later, he had discovered in the culture
+a type of bacterium with which he was unfamiliar. He
+proceeded to isolate it in the usual way&mdash;I believe it is done
+by dabbing a needle-point into the culture and using the
+few micro-organisms which stick to the needle as the
+parents of a fresh colony&mdash;and he was amazed at its
+fecundity. There had never been such a case of bacterial
+fertility in his experience.</p>
+
+<p>A paper in the <i>Lancet</i> brought the description of the
+creature to the notice of the scientific world. Johnston
+himself had not recognised the nature of the organism, as
+he had never dealt with this type of bacteria before; but
+from his description an agricultural bacteriologist named
+Vincent was able to identify it as being almost identical
+with one of the denitrifying group, from which it differed
+only in its immense power of multiplication. It was
+hurriedly christened <i>Bacterium diazotans</i>, on account of its
+denitrifying qualities. Further examination showed that
+its capacity for breaking down nitrogenous material far
+surpassed that of any known denitrifying agent.</p>
+
+<p>With these discoveries, the mystery of the new blight
+vanished. An examination of the soil of stricken areas
+showed that it swarmed with colonies of <i>B. diazotans</i>&mdash;to
+use the customary medical contraction&mdash;and the whole
+secret of the destruction was revealed.</p>
+
+<p>It was evident that these new and super-active bacteria
+attacked the soil, disintegrated all the nitrogenous compounds
+within their range and thus left the plants without<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_32"></a>[32]</span>
+nourishment. The death of the plant followed as a natural
+result; but the matter did not end there. By destroying
+the nitrogenous compounds in the soil, the bacteria altered
+the whole texture of the earth in which they grew. All the
+nitrogenous organic matter which forms so large a part of
+the binding material of some soils was destroyed utterly;
+with the consequence that the mineral particles, which
+previously had been resting in an organic matrix, were now
+free to move. Only the clays retained their tenacious
+character: all other soils degenerated into sand.</p>
+
+<p>There has, of course, been a great deal of speculation
+upon the origin of <i>B. diazotans</i>. Hartwell suggested that
+it came to us from Venus, propelled by light-pressure across
+the abysses of space. Inshelwood put forward the view that
+in <i>B. diazotans</i> we had an example of bacteria, originally
+endemic, changing their habits and spreading into fresh
+regions.</p>
+
+<p>Personally, I believe neither hypothesis. I feel sure that
+I saw the birth of the first <i>B. diazotans</i> on that night in
+Wotherspoon&#8217;s laboratory, under the action of the fire-ball;
+and the evidence is simple enough.</p>
+
+<p>Every living creature is a wonderfully constructed
+electrical machine. Each beat of our hearts, each systole
+of our lungs, each contraction of a muscle in our frame
+produces a tiny electrical current. Our organism is a mass
+of colloids and electrolytes which transmit these charges
+hither and thither throughout our systems; and were we
+gifted with an electrical sense in addition to those which
+we already have, we should see each other as complexities
+of conductors along which currents were playing with every
+movement of our body.</p>
+
+<p>This complex electrical system is acutely sensible to
+external electrical conditions. Anyone who has held the
+handles of an induction coil or who has taken a spark
+from a Leyden jar knows the physiological effects which<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_33"></a>[33]</span>
+these things produce. The influence of high-tension currents
+upon the growth of plants has been proved beyond
+dispute.</p>
+
+<p>Now it seems to me that in this effect of an external
+electric charge upon the internal mechanism of an organism
+we have a clue to the origin of these new bacteria. I have
+already told how the fire-ball, in its explosion, shattered
+the denitrifying cultures in Wotherspoon&#8217;s room; and it
+seems clear that at the moment of the concussion there
+must have been a tremendous play of electrical forces about
+the spot. We know hardly anything with regard to the
+nature of the electrical fields existing in such things as
+these fire-balls; and it is quite possible that they may be
+different from anything of which we have any knowledge
+among the more usual displays of electrical energy. I believe,
+then, that it is in the action of the fire-ball that we
+must seek for an explanation of the change in habit of
+Wotherspoon&#8217;s denitrifying bacteria.</p>
+
+<p>Again, I have mentioned my observation of the rapid
+multiplication of the denitrifying bacteria which I made
+with Wotherspoon&#8217;s microscope on the following day. That
+also seems to me to have a bearing upon the problem;
+though I admit quite frankly that my evidence is only that
+of a layman. It is in every way regrettable that Wotherspoon,
+having tired of using his room as an exhibit, should
+have cleared away every trace of the wreckage before any
+expert examination of it could be made; for in this way
+the crucial evidence on the point was destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>Further, in support of my views, I would point out that
+the very first known occurrence of <i>B. diazotans</i> was that
+which had Regent&#8217;s Park as its site; and that the first
+place of attack was in the immediate neighbourhood of
+Wotherspoon&#8217;s house in Cumberland Terrace. This can
+hardly be disregarded, when it is considered in connection
+with the other facts which I have mentioned.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_34"></a>[34]</span>At this time of day there can be no question that London
+formed the focus from which <i>B. diazotans</i> spread throughout
+the world. I have described the ramifications of the great
+air-services; and it seems to me obvious that the organisms
+were carried to and fro upon the surface of the globe by the
+agency of the aeroplanes. The order of attack at various
+points indicates this very clearly, in my opinion. First came
+the American and Egyptian outbreaks; then Uganda and
+South America; and finally, long after the others, Australia
+showed traces of the devastation. I have checked the possible
+dates of arrival in these various places, taking into account
+the relative swiftnesses of the aeroplanes on the different
+routes; and the results can hardly be gainsaid. Allowing, as
+one must, a certain latitude for the time of development of
+the microbe in various spots, there seems little doubt that
+the dates of the outbreaks fell into the same succession
+as the times of arrival of the various London air-services.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_35"></a>[35]</span>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak"><small>CHAPTER IV</small><br />
+
+
+Panic</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> dealing with the subsequent stage of affairs in this
+country, I feel myself at a loss. Matters of fact, sequences
+of events, definite incidents in a chain of affairs: all these
+can be described without much difficulty and with a certain
+detachment on the part of the narrator. But when it comes
+to indicating the transition from one psychological state to
+another, the task is one which would require for its proper
+fulfilment a more practised pen than mine; and it is
+precisely this transitional period which I must now attempt
+to make clear in retrospect; for without an understanding
+of it my narrative would lack one of its corner-stones.</p>
+
+<p>Apart from the mere question of narration, however,
+there is a further difficulty which cannot be evaded. I
+myself passed through this crisis and underwent day by day
+these changes in outlook which I shall have to portray; so
+that the personal factor cannot be eliminated from my
+account. Yet my own feelings and views must not be
+allowed to monopolise the field; since they had not the
+slightest influence upon the main current of popular feeling.</p>
+
+<p>I have used the word &#8220;current,&#8221; and perhaps it is the
+best one which I could have chosen to express the thing
+which baffles me. As a man walks by the side of a
+mountain stream, he sees the volume of the water change as
+it grows from rill to rivulet and from rivulet to river; yet
+no single tributary is of any notable size. Gradually, almost
+imperceptibly, the banks diverge, the sound of the running<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_36"></a>[36]</span>
+water grows louder and yet louder: until at last comes a
+sweep over the rapids and the thunder of the fall below.</p>
+
+<p>It was in this way that events merged into each other
+between the outbreak and the complete realisation of our fears.
+The transition from security to panic was not made in one
+swift step. Rather it came little by little, and at no point
+could one indicate precisely how the public feeling had changed
+from that of the previous day. A whole series of tiny
+impulses, each in itself almost negligible, served to drive us
+from one mental position to the next; and a complete
+analysis of the psychology of the time would be an impossible
+task. I propose, therefore, merely to indicate some of these
+innumerable factors which played upon our spirits; so that
+this blank in my narrative may be filled in some way, even
+if only roughly.</p>
+
+<p>It was not until the Blight had spread far over the Home
+Counties that the general public became interested in the
+matter at all; and at this period the mass of people in the
+country districts were almost the only ones who saw any
+cause for alarm. The town-dwellers seldom came in
+direct contact with the sources of their food-supply; in fact
+it is doubtful if the lower-class Londoner of the old days
+could have answered a direct question as to the date of
+harvesting. Food came to them daily in a form which
+suggested very little with regard to its original nature.
+Wheat they knew only in the form of bread or flour; meat
+was divorced almost entirely from the shapes of the animals
+from which it was derived; tea, coffee and sugar brought
+with them no visions of tea-gardens on the Indian hills or
+sugar plantations under the West Indian sun. The furthest
+traceable point of origin of these things, as far as most of the
+population was concerned, was to be found in the retail shops.
+Thus there was a certain sluggishness in apprehension among
+the main bulk of the people when they read in the newspapers
+that the crops had failed. To them, it simply meant that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_37"></a>[37]</span>
+we should have to buy in another market; just as they had
+to go to a fresh grocer when their own dealer ran short of
+some commodity which they required.</p>
+
+<p>In the country districts, and especially in the great centres
+of the agricultural portions of the kingdom, the outlook was
+different, but still restricted in its scope. Failure of the
+crops to them meant financial loss, hard times, stringency,
+urgent personal economy and the hope of better luck in the
+following season. Though closer to the soil, the country
+folk were unmoved by any outlook wider than that which
+included the direct effects of the Blight upon their industry.
+And, indeed, they had little time in which to speculate
+upon ultimate reactions, for their attention was concentrated
+almost wholly upon their efforts to remedy the damage
+already done or to protect from injury any portions of the
+crop which had not yet been attacked.</p>
+
+<p>Thus at this stage the mental surface of the country as a
+whole remained unruffled. Here and there, of course, a
+few of us had grasped what might be entailed if the Blight
+destroyed the whole of the home supplies; but I doubt if
+even the most far-sighted had imagined that anything but a
+local shortage was in prospect.</p>
+
+<p>With the arrival of the American cables, the situation
+changed slightly. The tone of the newspapers became
+graver, and they endeavoured to awake their readers to the
+fact that the possibility of a serious shortage had become a
+certainty. Edition after edition poured out from the
+printing-presses and the headlines grew in magnitude from
+hour to hour. &#8220;<i>The Blight in America</i>&#8221; was the first type
+of intimation, which attracted but little interest and was
+placed in the &#8220;third-class&#8221; column of the papers. Then
+came appreciation of the importance of the news; the headlines
+increased in size and moved up nearer the centre of
+readers&#8217; interest: &#8220;<i>Spread of the Blight in the Wheat Districts</i>.&#8221;
+Next came a sudden jump to the first place on the page and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_38"></a>[38]</span>
+heavily leaded type in the headlines: &#8220;<i>Failure of Wheat
+Crop in America</i>.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Even at this stage, the readers as a whole failed to connect
+the news with anything in their daily life. Gradually it
+was borne in upon their minds that the collapse of the
+American crops&mdash;including the Canadian&mdash;meant a very
+rapid rise in the price of cereal food-stuffs; but further than
+this they refused to look. At that time the cattle question
+had not been noticed at all; and the general feeling simply
+resolved itself into a decision to avoid bread as far as possible
+and eat meat instead.</p>
+
+<p>With the arrival of reports from the remaining wheat-growing
+districts, the newspapers increased their efforts to
+awaken their readers to the gravity of the situation. &#8220;<i>The
+World Shortage</i>&#8221; occupied the place of honour in their
+columns, and was supported by telegrams and cables from
+all parts of the globe telling the same tale of crop failure
+with a steady monotony.</p>
+
+<p>As I look back upon these days I can only marvel at the
+ingrained conservatism of the human mind. It is true that
+on the whole the public were at last beginning to understand
+the situation. They had grasped the fact that almost all the
+known regions of wheat-growing land had been attacked;
+and that a shortage was inevitable. But, none the less, in
+their inmost thoughts they still clung to the fixed idea that
+<i>somewhere</i> in the world there was bound to be a store of
+wheat&mdash;or if not wheat, then rice or some other edible
+grain&mdash;which would enable us to pass through the coming
+winter without undue restriction of our food supplies. It
+was perhaps a manifestation of that eternal optimism which
+is necessary if the race is to survive at all; or possibly it
+represented a trust in the Government&#8217;s capacity to arrange
+some means whereby supplies would be forthcoming in due
+course. Whatever its origin, it was among the most marked
+features of that strange time.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_39"></a>[39]</span>I remember that one of the side-issues of the disaster
+created at that stage far deeper impressions than the catastrophe
+itself. With the failure of the American supplies
+over a huge area, the Wheat Pit became convulsed with an
+outbreak of gambling such as had never been seen before.
+Chicago went crazy; and legitimate business gave place to
+a fury of speculation which grew ever more intense as the
+news came in of further extensions of the devastated areas.
+Before the Blight appeared in America, December wheat
+had been offered at 233&frac14;; but in the earlier stages of the
+game of speculation it rushed up to 405: and before the
+end came it was dealt with at prices which were purely
+illusory, since they corresponded to nothing tangible in
+commodities. Thousands of bears were ruined in the
+preliminary moves; and in the end the whole machinery of
+the Pit was brought to a standstill owing to there being no
+sellers.</p>
+
+<p>Of course that series of transactions had no real influence
+upon the course of events; but the public, both here and in
+America, failed to see this; and the bitterest feelings found
+vent concerning &#8220;gambling in the food of the people.&#8221; It
+is quite possible that the anger uselessly expended on this
+subject served to keep the public from concentrating their
+attention upon the real problem of the world shortage.
+Huge quantities of wheat were dealt with on paper; and
+the people, being unfamiliar with the methods of Chicago
+speculation, assumed that these enormous transactions
+actually represented the transfer of millions of bushels of
+real grain from seller to buyer. The sharp upward trend
+of flour and bread prices at home served to confirm their
+impression that the gambling in the Pit was responsible for
+their troubles; and Rodman&#8217;s attempt&mdash;which was practically
+successful&mdash;to corner wheat, led to violent criticism and
+even, at one time, to an effort to lynch him.</p>
+
+<p>It was not only in the wheat market that this fever of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_40"></a>[40]</span>
+speculation showed itself. Maize, oats, barley and cotton
+also became counters in the game and rose to incredible
+prices. Unknown men appeared in the world of finance
+and for days maintained their positions as controllers of the
+markets. Many of the great firms in America ventured
+their capital rashly and suffered disaster.</p>
+
+<p>In its ultimate effects also, the gamble in food-stuffs
+exerted a profound influence on the stream of public opinion.
+The news of the speculations in Chicago, the descriptions
+of the turbulent scenes in the Wheat Pit, where at one time
+revolvers were fired by super-excited members, the tales of
+huge fortunes won and lost in a day, the deep under-current
+of resentment at this callous trading upon the world&#8217;s
+necessities, all tended in the end to bring into view the real
+state of the wheat question. And now the newspapers were
+printing the single word FAMINE as a headline; and the
+people were beginning to ask in ominous tones: &#8220;What is
+the Government doing?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was at this time that, to my profound surprise, I
+received a private letter from the Prime Minister requesting
+my attendance at a meeting which he had arranged.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_41"></a>[41]</span>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak"><small>CHAPTER V</small><br />
+
+
+Nordenholt</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Probably</span> with a view to avoiding the attention of the
+Press, the meeting was held elsewhere than at No. 10
+Downing Street. I found myself in what looked like a
+Board meeting-room. A fire burned in the grate, for it
+was a chilly day. Down the centre of the room stretched
+a long table around which a number of men were sitting,
+some of whom were familiar as great figures in the industrial
+world. At the head of the table I recognised the Premier,
+flanked on either hand by a Cabinet Minister. A chair
+was vacant half-way up the table, opposite the fireplace;
+and I took it on a gesture from the Premier.</p>
+
+<p>Almost at once, the Prime Minister rose to his feet. He
+looked worn and agitated; but even under the evidences of
+the strain he endeavoured to assume a cheerful and confident
+air. He was a man I had never trusted; and I now had
+my first opportunity of examining him at close quarters. In
+repose, his face fell into the heavy lines of the successful
+barrister; but when he became animated, a mechanical
+smile flitted across it which in some way displeased me
+more than the expression which it veiled. He seemed to
+me a typical example of the <i>faux bonhomme</i>. In politics he
+had gained a reputation for dilatory conduct combined with
+a mastery in the art of managing a majority; and his mind
+was saturated with the idea of Party advantage. Of real
+loyalty I suspect he had very little; but when one of his
+Cabinet blundered heavily, he would step into the limelight<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_42"></a>[42]</span>
+with a fine gesture and assume all responsibility. In this
+way he kept his Government intact and gained a reputation
+for fidelity without losing anything; for he well knew that
+no one would call him to account for the responsibility
+which he had assumed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gentlemen,&#8221; he said, &#8220;you will probably wonder why
+we have invited you to meet us here to-day. We all know
+the unhappy state of affairs into which the country has
+fallen. There is dissatisfaction abroad; and the Government
+is being held responsible for conditions which were
+none of its making. I will speak plainly to you, for it is
+no time for reservations. Something must be done to allay
+public anxiety, which is growing more intense as time goes
+on. I am not one of those who take these passing scares
+seriously; but we cannot afford to ignore the present feeling:
+and some measures are necessary to satisfy this clamour.
+It is a time when all of us must come to the aid of the
+Executive.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The Cabinet is dispersed at the moment. Many of the
+members are abroad and are unable to return at present,
+owing to a disorganisation of transport. But pending their
+return and the decisions which we shall then be forced to
+take, I thought it right to call together you gentlemen,
+large employers of labour, and to enlist your aid in the
+work we shall have to do. It is essential that the Government
+should retain public confidence at the present time.
+I think we are agreed upon that point. Nothing could be
+more fatal than a General Election forced upon us under
+the reigning conditions.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We have taken steps to call Parliament together immediately,
+in order to lay before it certain measures which
+we believe will enable us to tide over this crisis. But in
+the meantime we must try to pacify the working classes,
+who are being agitated by the dismal forecasts of the newspapers.
+I have no desire to inquire into the origin of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_43"></a>[43]</span>
+jeremiads which are being printed daily in a certain group
+of papers; but I cannot help noticing that they all tend
+towards a discrediting of myself and my colleagues. There
+is a cry for action; whereas I think all of you will agree
+that consideration is required, so that the action, if it
+should become necessary, may be well-contrived.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is in these circumstances that we have called you
+gentlemen together. We propose to lay before you the
+main points of our scheme; and when you have heard
+them, we count upon you, as great employers of labour,
+to lay the matter before your employ&eacute;s. We shall use the
+newspapers also to disseminate our proposals; but personal
+efforts can do more than any printed appeals. I trust that
+we shall not look in vain for the cordial co-operation which
+is absolutely requisite at this crisis.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As this speech proceeded, I had become more and more
+uneasy. Through it all ran the governing thought that
+something must be done, which was true enough; but the
+thing which he proposed to do, it appeared to me, was to
+persuade the country that all was well, whereas I felt that
+the essential matter was to prepare against a practical
+calamity.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We have given a great deal of thought to our proposals,
+though we have not wasted time in the consideration of
+details. The broad outlines are all that are required for
+our present purpose; and we have confined our attention
+to them. My friend the Home Secretary&#8221;&mdash;he indicated
+the colleague who sat on his left&mdash;&#8220;will be good enough
+to read to you the heads of our decisions. I may say,
+however, that these decisions are only of a temporary nature.
+We may find it necessary to modify some of them in due
+course; and they must not be regarded as in any way final.
+Possibly&#8221;&mdash;he let the mechanical smile play over the company&mdash;&#8220;possibly
+some of those present may be able to
+suggest certain modifications at this meeting. If these<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_44"></a>[44]</span>
+modifications are such that we can adopt them, we shall be
+only too glad to do so.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He sat down; and the Home Secretary rose in his turn.
+Saxenham had the reputation of being dull but honest. He
+had no force of character, but he had won his way into the
+Cabinet mainly because he had never been known to stoop
+to a false action in the whole course of his career. On this
+account he represented a mainstay of the Government, which
+in other ways was not too scrupulous. His brain was one
+which worked slowly; and his personal admiration for the
+Prime Minister was such that he followed him blindly
+without seeing too clearly whither he was being led. He
+cleared his throat and took up a sheet of paper which
+contained the Government proposals.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I think that it will be best if I take the various proposals
+seriatim and elucidate each of them, as I come to it, by a
+short commentary.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>First</i>, we shall issue a Government statement to the
+Press with the object of reassuring the public and putting
+an end to this rising clamour for action in haste. In this
+statement we shall call attention to the fact that there is at
+present a twelve-weeks&#8217; supply of food in the country, which,
+with due care, would itself be sufficient to last the population
+until the next harvest. We shall make it clear that the
+Government have under earnest consideration the steps
+which it may be necessary to take in the future; and we
+shall appeal to the public to pay no heed to alarmist
+statements from interested quarters.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>Second</i>, we shall advise the King to issue a Proclamation
+on the same lines. We believe that this may have a
+greater effect in some quarters than an official Government
+statement.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>Third</i>, we shall make arrangements for taking over the
+food stores in the country, though we hope that it will not
+be necessary to do so.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_45"></a>[45]</span>&#8220;<i>Fourth</i>, we shall make arrangements to purchase with
+the national moneys the surplus food supplies of grain. We
+shall be able to pay higher prices than private importers;
+and I have little doubt that we shall thus be able to stock
+our granaries with food sufficient to carry us through until
+well beyond the next harvest.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>Fifth</i>, we shall prepare a system of rationing, as soon
+as we have obtained our supplies and know definitely how
+much food can be allotted per head to the population.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>Sixth</i>, since a continuance of the present crisis will
+undoubtedly lead to widespread distress and unemployment,
+we propose to take under consideration a system of unemployment
+relief; so that there may be no centres of
+disturbance generated among the population by idleness
+or lack of money.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>Seventh</i>, we shall invite the scientific experts on agriculture
+to devote their attention to the problem of increasing
+the crops in the next harvest, so that such a state of affairs
+as this may not again arise.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He paused, with an air of finality, though he did not
+resume his seat. At the head of the table, the Prime
+Minister was apparently plunged in thought. Suddenly I
+was struck by the employment to which the third member
+of the Cabinet was putting his time. With the sheets of
+paper in front of him he was constructing a series of toys.
+A box, a cock-boat, an extraordinarily life-like frog lay
+before him on the table, and he was busily engaged in the
+production of something which looked like a bird. I learned
+afterwards that this was a trick of his, the outcome of his
+peculiarly nervous temperament. Not wishing to be detected
+watching him, I turned my eyes away; and as I
+swept my glance round the table, I suddenly found myself
+in turn the object of scrutiny.</p>
+
+<p>My first impression was of two steel-blue eyes fixed upon
+my own with an almost disquieting intensity of gaze. I<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_46"></a>[46]</span>
+had the feeling of being examined, not only physically but
+mentally, as though by some hypnotic power my very
+thoughts were being brought to light. Usually, in a casual
+interchange of glances, one or other of two is diverted
+almost at once; but in this case I felt in some way unable
+to withdraw my eyes from those before me; while my
+<i>vis-&agrave;-vis</i> continued to examine me with a steadfast attention
+which, strangely enough, suggested no rudeness.</p>
+
+<p>He was a man of more than the average height, over six
+feet I found later when he rose from his chair. His features
+suggested no particular race, though there was an elusive
+resemblance to the Red Indian type which I felt rather
+than saw; but this was perhaps intensified by the jet-black
+hair and the clean-shaven face. All these are mere details
+of little importance. What impressed me most about him
+was an air of conscious power, which would have singled
+him out in any gathering. Looking from him to the
+Prime Minister, it crossed my mind that while the Premier
+counterfeited power in his appearance, this unknown embodied
+it; and yet there was no parade, for he appeared
+to be entirely devoid of self-consciousness. Before he
+removed his eyes from mine I saw an inscrutable smile
+curve his lips. I say inscrutable, for I could not read
+what it meant; but it resembled the expression of a man
+who has just checked a calculation and found it to be
+accurate.</p>
+
+<p>It has taken me some time to describe this incident; but
+actually it can have occupied hardly more than a fraction
+of a minute; for, as I took my eyes away from his, I heard
+the Home Secretary continue:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;These, gentlemen, are our proposals; and I think that
+they cover the necessary ground. We wish especially to
+draw your attention to the sixth one: for it is that which
+has chiefly moved us to lay these matters before you ere
+we make them public. It concerns unemployment, if you<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_47"></a>[47]</span>
+remember. We have brought you into our councils because
+all of you are large employers of labour in different lines of
+industry; and we would welcome any suggestions from you
+now with regard to the possible modes of application of this
+scheme in practice. As Mr. Biles has told you, it is essential
+at this moment to avoid discontent among the proletariat.
+Europe is in a very disturbed condition, and a change of
+Government at this juncture would have disastrous effects.
+I can say no more upon that point; but I wish you to
+understand that we urgently require your co-operation at
+this time.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He sat down; and the Prime Minister rose again.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I think you will see, gentlemen, from what the Home
+Secretary has said, that the Government has the situation
+well in hand. The only matter about which we are at all
+concerned is the liquor question. It is clear that we can
+hardly sacrifice grain for the manufacture of alcohol until
+we are sure that we have in stock a sufficiency of food
+for the country&#8217;s needs. A shortage of liquor, however,
+may lead to industrial unrest; and it is this possible unrest
+which we desire your help in preventing. We wish if
+possible to get directly into touch with the workers of the
+nation; and we have approached you first of all. Later we
+intend to interview the Trades Union leaders with the
+same object. But time presses; and I shall be glad to hear
+any criticisms of our plans if you will be so good as to give
+your views.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He sank back into his chair and again the smile faded
+almost at once. For a moment there was a pause. Then
+the man opposite me rose to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Who is that?&#8221; I whispered to my neighbour.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Nordenholt.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Nordenholt! I looked at him with even more attention
+than before. For two decades that name had rung through
+the world, and yet, meeting him now face to face, I had<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_48"></a>[48]</span>
+not recognised him. Nor was this astonishing; for no
+portrait of him had ever come to my notice. The daily
+photo papers, the illustrated weeklies, even <i>Punch</i> itself, had
+never printed so much as a sketch of him. He had leaped
+into fame simply as a name to which no physical complement
+had been attached. By some mysterious influence
+behind the scenes, he had avoided the usual Press illustrator
+with a success which left him unrecognisable to the man
+in the street.</p>
+
+<p>So this&mdash;I looked at him again&mdash;so this was Nordenholt,
+the Platinum King, the multi-millionaire, wrecker of two
+Governments. No wonder that I had felt him to be out of
+the common. I am no hero-worshipper; yet Nordenholt
+had always exercised an attraction upon my mind, even
+though he was only a name. In many respects he seemed
+to be the kind of man I should have liked to be, if I had his
+character and gifts.</p>
+
+<p>When he rose, I found that his voice matched his appearance;
+it was deep, grave and harmonious, although he
+spoke without any rhetorical turn. Had he chosen to force
+himself to the front in politics, that instrument would have
+served him to sway masses of men by its mere charm. I
+thought that I detected a faint sub-tinge of irony in it as he
+began. He wasted no time upon preliminaries but went
+straight to the point.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Are we to understand that this paper in the hands
+of the Home Secretary contains a full statement of the
+measures which the Cabinet&mdash;or such members of it as are
+available&mdash;have decided upon up to the present?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Prime Minister nodded assent. I seemed to detect
+a certain uneasiness in his pose since Nordenholt had
+risen.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;May I see the paper?... Thank you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He read it over slowly and then, still retaining it in his
+hand, continued:</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_49"></a>[49]</span>&#8220;Perhaps I have not fathomed your purpose in drawing
+it up; but if I am correct in my interpretation, it seems
+to me an excellent scheme. I doubt if anything better
+could be devised.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The nervous frown left the Premier&#8217;s face and was
+replaced by a satisfied smile; the Home Secretary, after a
+pause of mental calculation, also seemed to be relieved;
+while the Colonial Secretary put down his paper model and
+looked up at Nordenholt with an expression of mild astonishment.
+It was evident that they had hardly expected
+this approval. The hint of irony in the speaker&#8217;s voice
+grew more pronounced:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;This scheme of yours, if I am not mistaken, is a piece
+of window-dressing, pure and simple. You felt that you
+had to make some show of energy; and to pacify the
+public you bring forward these proposals. The first two of
+them achieve nothing practical; and the remaining five
+concern steps which you propose to take at some future
+time, but which you have not yet considered fully. Am I
+correct?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Colonial Secretary broke in angrily in reply:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I object to the word window-dressing. These proposals
+give in outline the steps which we shall take in due
+course. They represent the principles which we shall use
+as our guides. You surely did not expect us to work out
+the details for this meeting?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Nordenholt&#8217;s voice remained unchanged.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, I did not expect <i>you</i> to have worked out the details
+of this scheme. I will confine myself to principles if you
+wish it. I see that in the fourth clause you anticipate the
+purchase of foreign grain, though at an enhanced price.
+May I ask where you propose to secure it? It is common
+knowledge that it cannot be obtained within the Empire,
+so presumably you have some other granary in your minds.
+Possibly you have already taken steps.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_50"></a>[50]</span>The face of the Colonial Secretary lit up with a flash of
+malice.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You are quite correct in both conjectures. Australia
+and Canada have suffered so severely from the Blight that
+we can expect nothing from them, and I am afraid that
+Russia is in the same condition. But we have actually
+issued instructions to agents in America to purchase all
+the wheat which they can obtain, and advices have
+arrived showing that we control already a very large
+supply.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Excellent forethought. I fear, however, that it has
+been wasted through no fault of yours. At ten o&#8217;clock
+this morning, the Government of the United States prohibited
+the export of food-stuffs of any description. You
+will not get your supplies.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But that is contrary to their Constitution! How can
+they do that?&#8221; The Prime Minister was evidently
+startled. &#8220;And how do you come to know of it while we
+have had no advice?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A censorship was established over the American cables
+and wireless just before this decision was made public.
+They do not wish it to be known here until they have had
+time to make their arrangements. My information came
+through my private wireless, which was seized immediately
+after transmitting it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But ... but ...&#8221; stammered the Home Secretary,
+&#8220;this complicates our arrangements in a most unforeseen
+manner. It is a most serious piece of news. Biles, we
+never took that into account.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Sufficient unto the day, Saxenham. This Government
+has been in difficult places before; but we always succeeded
+in turning the corner successfully. Don&#8217;t let us
+yield to panic now. If we think over the matter for a
+while, I do not doubt that we shall see daylight through it
+in the end.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_51"></a>[51]</span>Nordenholt listened to this interchange of views in
+scornful silence.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;One of the details which have still to be thought out,
+I suppose, Biles,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Don&#8217;t let it delay us at
+present. There is another point upon which I wish some
+information.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The meeting was a curious study by this time. Almost
+without seeming to notice it, Nordenholt had driven the
+three Cabinet Ministers into a corner; and he now
+seemed to dominate them as though they were clerks
+who had been detected in scamping their work. Personality
+was telling in the contest, for contest it had now
+become.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;This news which I have given you implies that the
+twelve-weeks&#8217; supply of food in the country is all that
+we have at our command anywhere. What do you propose
+to do?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We shall have to take stock and begin the issue of
+ration tickets as soon as possible.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Twelve-weeks&#8217; supply; how long will that last the
+country under your arrangements?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Colonial Secretary made a rapid calculation on a
+sheet of paper.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;As we shall need to carry on till the next harvest, I
+suppose it means that the daily ration will have to be
+reduced to less than a quarter of the full amount&mdash;three-thirteenths,
+to be exact.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And you are satisfied with that calculation?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Colonial Secretary glanced over his figures.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, I see no reason to alter it. Naturally it will mean
+great privation; and the working class will be difficult to
+keep in hand; but I see no objection to carrying on till
+next year when the harvest will be due. The potato crop
+will come in early and help us.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Nordenholt looked at him for a moment and then laughed<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_52"></a>[52]</span>
+contemptuously. Suddenly his almost pedantic phraseology
+dropped away.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Simpson, you beat the band. I never heard anything
+like it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then his manner changed abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do you mean to say,&#8221; he asked roughly, &#8220;that you
+haven&#8217;t realised yet that there will be <i>no</i> next harvest?
+Don&#8217;t you understand that things have changed, once for
+all? The soil is done for. There will be no crops again
+until every inch of it is revivified in some way. &#8216;The
+potato crop will come in early and help us!&#8217; I&#8217;ve consulted
+some men who know; and they tell me that within
+a year it will be impossible to raise more than a small
+fraction even of the worst crop we ever saw in this
+country.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Premier was the only one of the three who stood
+fast under this blow.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That is certainly a serious matter, Nordenholt,&#8221; he
+said; &#8220;but there is nothing to be gained from hard words.
+Let us think over the case, and I feel sure that some way
+out of this apparent <i>impasse</i> can be found. Surely some
+of these scientific experts could suggest something which
+might get us out of the difficulty. I don&#8217;t despair. Past
+experience has always shown that with care one can avoid
+most awkward embarrassments.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;awkward embarrassment,&#8217; as you call it, amounts
+to this. How are you going to feed fifty millions of people
+for an indefinite time when your supplies are only capable
+of feeding them normally for twelve weeks? Put them on
+&#8216;three-thirteenth rations&#8217; as Simpson suggests; and when
+the next harvest comes in you will find you have a good
+deal less than &#8216;three-thirteenth rations&#8217; per head for them.
+What&#8217;s your solution, Biles? You will have to produce it
+quick; for every hour you sit thinking means a bigger
+inroad into the available supplies. Remember, this is something<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_53"></a>[53]</span>
+new in your experience. You aren&#8217;t up against a
+majority you can wheedle into taking your advice. This
+time you are up against plain facts of Nature; and arguments
+are out of court. Now I ask a plain question; and
+I&#8217;m going to get a straight answer from you for once:
+What are your plans?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Premier pondered the matter in silence for a couple
+of minutes; then, apparently, the instinct of the old Parliamentary
+hand came uppermost in his mind. The habits of
+thought which have lasted through a generation cannot be
+broken instantaneously. With a striving after dignity,
+which was only half successful he said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Parliament is about to meet. I shall go there and lay
+this matter before the Great Inquest of the nation and let
+them decide.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Three days wasted; and probably two days of talk at
+least before anything is settled; then two days more before
+you can bring anything into gear: one week&#8217;s supplies
+eaten up and nothing to show for it. Is that your solution?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You are determined on that? No wavering?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Very good, Biles. I give you the fairest warning.
+On the day that you meet the House of Commons, I shall
+place upon the paper a series of questions which will expose
+the very root of the Mazanderan scandal, and I shall supply
+full information on the subject to the Opposition Press. I
+have had every document in my possession for the last year.
+I can prove that you yourself were in it up to the neck;
+I have notes of all the transactions with Rimanez and Co.
+And I know all about the Party Funds also. If that once
+gets into print, Biles, you are done for&mdash;thumbs down!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He imitated the old death sign of the Roman arena.
+The Premier sat as if frozen in his chair. His face had<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_54"></a>[54]</span>
+gone a dirty grey. Nordenholt towered over him with
+contempt on his features. Suddenly the Colonial Secretary
+sprang to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;This is blackmail, Nordenholt,&#8221; he cried furiously.
+&#8220;Do you think you can do that sort of thing and not be
+touched? You may think you are safe behind your millions;
+but if you carried out your threat there isn&#8217;t a decent man
+who would speak to you again. You daren&#8217;t do it!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If you speak to me like that again, Simpson, I&#8217;ll take care
+that no decent man speaks to you either,&#8221; Nordenholt said,
+calmly. &#8220;There&#8217;s another set of notes besides those on
+Mazanderan. I have the whole dossier of the house in
+Carshalton Terrace in my desk. I&#8217;ll publish them too,
+unless you come to heel. It will be worse than Mazanderan,
+Simpson. It will be prison.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In his turn, the Colonial Secretary collapsed into his chair.
+Whatever the threat had been, it had evidently brought him
+face to face with ruin; and guilt was written across his
+face.</p>
+
+<p>But Saxenham had paid no attention to this interruption.
+In his slow way he was evidently turning over in his mind
+what Nordenholt had said to the Prime Minister; and now
+he spoke almost in a tone of anguish:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Johnnie, Johnnie,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Deny it! Deny it at
+once. You can&#8217;t sit under that foul charge. Our hands
+were clean, weren&#8217;t they? You said they were, in the
+House. There&#8217;s no truth in what Nordenholt says, is there?
+Is there, Johnnie?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But the Premier sat like a statue in his chair, staring in
+front of him with unseeing eyes. The affairs of the
+Mazanderan Development Syndicate had been a bad business;
+and if the connection between it and the Government
+could be proved, after what had already passed, it was an
+end of Biles and the total discredit of his Party. Nordenholt,
+still on his feet, looked down at the silent figure<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_55"></a>[55]</span>
+without a gleam of pity in his face. Somehow I understood
+that he was playing for a great stake, though no flicker of
+interest crossed his countenance.</p>
+
+<p>The strain was broken by Saxenham getting to his feet.
+I knew his record, and I could guess what his feelings must
+have been. He stood there, a pathetic little figure, with
+shaking hands and dim eyes, a worshipper who had found
+his god only a broken image. He turned and looked at
+us in a pitiful way and then faced round to the wrecker.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Nordenholt,&#8221; he said, &#8220;he doesn&#8217;t deny it. Is it really
+true? Can you give me your word?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Nordenholt&#8217;s face became very gentle and all the hardness
+died out of his voice.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, Saxenham, it is true. I give you my word of
+honour for its truth. He can&#8217;t deny it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then I&#8217;ve backed a lie. I believed him. And now
+I&#8217;ve misled people. I&#8217;ve gone on to platforms and denied
+the truth of it; pledged my word that it was a malicious
+falsehood. Oh! I can&#8217;t face it, Nordenholt. I can&#8217;t
+face it. This finishes me with public service. I&mdash;I&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He covered his face with his hands and I could see the
+tears trickle between his fingers. He had paid his price for
+being honest.</p>
+
+<p>But the Premier was of sterner stuff. He looked up at
+Nordenholt at last with a gleam of hatred which he suppressed
+almost as it came:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, Nordenholt, what&#8217;s your price?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;So you&#8217;ve seen reason, Biles? Not like poor Saxenham,
+eh?&#8221; There was an under-current of bitterness in the tone,
+but it was almost imperceptible. &#8220;Well, it&#8217;s not hard.
+You take your orders from me now. You cover me with
+your full responsibility. You understand? You always
+were good at assuming responsibility. Have it now.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do I understand you to mean that you would like to be
+a Dictator?&#8221;</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_56"></a>[56]</span>&#8220;No, you haven&#8217;t got it quite correctly. I <i>mean</i> to be
+Dictator.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Prime Minister had relapsed into his stony attitude.
+There was no trace of feeling on his face; but I could
+understand the mental commotion which must lie behind
+that blank countenance. Under cover of fine phrases, he
+had always sought the lowest form of Party advantage; his
+political nostrum had become part and parcel of his individuality,
+and he had never looked higher than the
+intricacies of the Parliamentary game. Now, suddenly, he
+had been brought face to face with reality; and it had
+broken him. To do him justice, I believe that he might
+have faced personal discredit with indifference. He had
+done it before and escaped with his political life. But
+Nordenholt had struck him on an even more vital spot. If
+the Mazanderan affair came into the daylight, his Party
+would be ruined; and he would have been responsible. I
+give him the credit of supposing that it was upon the larger
+and not upon the personal issue that he surrendered.</p>
+
+<p>Nordenholt, having gained his object, refrained from
+going further. He turned away from the upper end of the
+table and addressed the rest of us.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gentlemen, you see the state of affairs. We cannot
+wait for the slow machinery of politics to revolve through
+its time-honoured cycles before beginning to act. Something
+must be done at once. Every moment is now of
+importance. I wish to lay before you what appears to me
+the only method whereby we can save something out of the
+wreck.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I have been thinking out the problem with the greatest
+care; and I believe that even now it is not too late, if you
+will give me your support. This meeting was called at my
+suggestion; and I supplied a list of your names because all
+of you will be needed if my scheme is to be carried out.
+But before I divulge it, I must ask from each of you an<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_57"></a>[57]</span>
+absolutely unconditional promise of secrecy. Will you give
+that, Ross? And you, Arbuthnot?...&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He went from individual to individual round the table;
+and to my astonishment, used my own name with the
+others. How he knew me, I could not understand.</p>
+
+<p>When he had secured a promise from all present, he
+continued:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;In the first place, I had better tell you what I have
+done. Immediately the Blight began to ravage the American
+wheat-fields, I bought up all the grain which was available
+from last year&#8217;s crop and got it shipped as soon as possible.
+It is on the high seas now; so we have evaded the new
+prohibition of exports. I need not give you figures; but
+it amounts to a considerable quantity. This, of course, I
+carried through at my own expense.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I have also had printed a series of ration tickets and
+explanatory leaflets sufficient to last the whole country for
+three weeks. This also I did at my private charges.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Further, I have placed orders with the printers and
+bill-posters for the placarding of certain notices. Some of
+these, I expect, are already posted up on the hoardings.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I mention these matters merely in order to show you
+that I have not been idle and that I am fully convinced
+of the necessity for speed.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He paused for a few seconds to let this sink in.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now we come to the main problem. Saxenham has
+told you the state of affairs; and I have supplemented it
+sufficiently to allow of your forming a judgment on the
+case. We have a population of fifty millions in the country.
+We have a food supply which will last, with my additions to
+it, for perhaps fourteen weeks. Beyond that we have
+nothing in hand. The next supply cannot make its appearance
+for at least a year. I have omitted the yield of the
+present crop, as I wish to be on the safe side; and I find
+that most of the grain is useless. When the new crop comes<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_58"></a>[58]</span>
+in, it will be, under present conditions, negligible in quantity
+owing to the soil-destruction which the <i>Bacillus diazotans</i>
+has wrought. That, I think, is a fair statement of the case
+as it stands.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What results can we look for? If we ration the nation,
+even if we allow only a quarter of the normal supplies per
+day, our whole stock will be exhausted within the year.
+There will be a large percentage of deaths owing to underfeeding;
+but at the end of the year I think we might look
+forward to having a debilitated population of some thirty
+millions to feed. Will the new crop give us food for them?
+I have consulted men who know the subject and they tell
+me that it is an impossibility. We could not raise food
+enough, under the present conditions, to support even a
+reasonable percentage of that population.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He paused again, as though to let this sink in also.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gentlemen, this nation stands at the edge of its grave.
+That is the simple truth.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>We had all seen the trend of his reasoning; but this cold
+statement sent a shiver through the meeting. When he
+spoke again, it was in an even graver tone.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You must admit, gentlemen, that we cannot hope to
+keep alive even half of the population until crops become
+plentiful once more. There is only a single choice before
+us. Either we distribute the available food uniformly
+throughout the country or we take upon ourselves the
+responsibility of an unequal allotment. If we choose the
+first course, all of us will die without reprieve. It is not a
+matter of sentiment; it is the plain logic of figures. No
+safety lies in that course. What about the second?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Let us assume that we choose the alternative. We
+select from the fifty millions of our population those whom
+we regard as most fitted to survive. We lay aside from our
+stores sufficient to support this fraction; and we distribute
+among the remainder of the people the residuum of our food.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_59"></a>[59]</span>
+If they can survive on that scale of rations, well and good.
+If not, we cannot turn aside the course of Nature.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Prime Minister looked up. Evidently, behind his
+impassive mask, he had been following the reasoning.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If I understand you aright,&#8221; he said, &#8220;you are proposing
+to murder a large proportion of the population by slow
+starvation?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No. What I am trying to do is to save some millions
+of them from a certain death. It just depends upon which
+way you look at it, Biles. But have it your own way if it
+pleases you.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, gentlemen, the calculation is a simple one. We
+have enough food to last a population of fifty millions for
+fourteen weeks. From that we deduct five weeks&#8217; supplies
+for the whole population; which leaves us with four
+hundred and fifty million weekly rations. We select five
+million people whom we decide must survive; and these
+four hundred and fifty million rations will keep them fed for
+ninety weeks&mdash;say a year and nine months. It will really
+be longer than that; for I anticipate rather heavy ravages
+of disease on account of the monotony of the diet and the
+lack of fresh vegetables. That is in the nature of things;
+and we cannot evade it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That then, is the only alternative. It is, as the Prime
+Minister has said, a death sentence on by far the greater
+part of the people in these islands; but I see no way out of
+the difficulties in which we are involved. It is not we who
+have passed that sentence. Nature has done it; and all
+that we can achieve is the rescue of a certain number of the
+victims. With your help, I propose to undertake that work
+of rescue.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I doubt if those sitting round the table had more than the
+vaguest glimpse of what all this meant. When a death-roll
+reaches high figures, the mind refuses to grasp its implications.
+Very few people have any concrete idea of what the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_60"></a>[60]</span>
+words &#8220;one million&#8221; stand for. We only understood that
+there was impending a human catastrophe on a scale which
+dwarfed all preceding tragedies. Beyond that, I know that
+I, for one, could not force my mind.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We are thus left with five million survivors,&#8221; Nordenholt
+continued. &#8220;But this does not reach the crux of the
+matter. The nitrogen of the soil has vanished; and it
+must be replaced if the earth is ever again to bring forth
+fruits. That task devolves upon mankind, for Nature
+works too slowly for our purposes. In order to feed these
+five million mouths&mdash;or what is left of them when the
+food supply runs out&mdash;we have to raise crops next year;
+and to raise these crops we must supply the soil with the
+necessary nitrogenous material.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I have consulted men who know&#8221;&mdash;this seemed to be
+his only phrase when he referred to his authorities&mdash;&#8220;and
+they tell me that it can be done if we bend our whole
+energies to the task. All the methods of using the nitrogen
+of the air have been worked out in detail long ago: the
+Birkeland-Eyde process, Serpek&#8217;s method, the Sch&ouml;nherr
+and the Haber-Le Rossignol processes, as well as nitrolim
+manufacture and so forth. We have only to set up enough
+machinery and work hard&mdash;very hard&mdash;and we shall be
+able to produce by chemical processes the material which
+we require. That is what the five million will have to
+do. There will be no idlers among them. At first it will
+be work in the dark, for we cannot calculate how much
+material we require until the agricultural experts have made
+their experiments upon the soil. But I understand that it
+is quite within the bounds of possibility that we shall be
+successful.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I come now to another point. These five million
+survivors cannot be scattered up and down the country.
+They must be brought into a definite area, for two reasons.
+In the first place, we must have them under our control so<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_61"></a>[61]</span>
+that we can make food-distribution simple; and, in the
+second place, we must be able to protect them from attack.
+Remember, outside this area there will be millions dying of
+starvation, and these millions will be desperate. We can
+take no risks.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He took a roll from behind his chair and unfolded upon
+the table a large map of the British Isles marked with
+patches of colour.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;As to the choice of a segregation area, we are limited
+by various factors. We shall need coal for the basis of our
+work; therefore it would suit us best to place our colony
+near one of the coal-fields. We shall need iron for our
+new machinery; and it would be best to choose some centre
+in which foundries are already numerous. We shall need
+to house our five million survivors and we cannot spend
+time in building new cities for them. And, finally, we
+need a huge water-supply for that population. On this
+map, I have had these various factors marked in colour.
+In some places, as you see, three of the desiderata are
+co-existent; but there is only one region in which we find
+all four conditions satisfied&mdash;in the Clyde Valley. There
+you have coal and iron; there are already in existence
+enormous numbers of foundries and machine-shops; the
+city of Glasgow alone is capable of accommodating over
+a million human beings; and the water-supply is ample.
+This, I think, is sufficient to direct our choice to that
+spot.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There are two further reasons why I am in favour of
+the Clyde Valley. It is a defensible position, for one thing.
+North of it you have only a very limited population&mdash;some
+three millions or even less. On the south, it is far removed
+from the main centres of population in the Midlands and
+London. This will be an advantage later on. Again,
+second point, we have to look forward to cultivation next
+year. Bordering the Clyde Valley, within easy reach, lie<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_62"></a>[62]</span>
+the tracts which, before the Blight, used to be the most
+fertile land in the country. The fields are ready for us
+to sow, once we have replaced the vanished nitrogen. I
+think there is no better place which we could select.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, gentlemen, I have put my scheme before you.
+I have not given you more than the outlines of it. I know
+that it seems visionary at first; but you must either take it
+or leave it. We cannot wait for Parliament or for anybody
+else. The thing must be done now. Will you help?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A murmur of assent passed round the table. Even the
+Prime Minister joined in the common approval; and I saw
+Nordenholt thank him with a glance.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Very good, gentlemen. I have most of the preliminaries
+worked out in sufficient detail to let us get ahead. To-morrow
+we meet again here at nine in the morning, and
+by that time I hope to have further information for each of
+you. In the meantime, will you be good enough to think
+over the points at which this scheme will touch your own
+special branches of industry? We have an immense amount
+of improvisation before us; and we must be ready for things
+as they come. Thank you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He seated himself; and for the first time I realised what
+he had done. By sheer force of personality and a clear
+mind, he had carried us along with him and secured our
+assent to a scheme which, wild-cat though it might appear,
+seemed to be the only possible way out of the crisis. He
+had constituted himself a kind of Dictator, though without
+any of the trappings of the office; and no one had dared to
+oppose him. The cold brutality with which he had treated
+the politicians was apparently justified; for I now saw
+whither their procrastination would have led us. But I
+must confess that I was dazed by the rapidity with which
+his moves had been made. Possibly in my account I have
+failed to reproduce the exact series of transitions by which
+he passed from stage to stage. I was too intent at the time<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_63"></a>[63]</span>
+to take clear mental notes of what occurred; but I believe
+that I have at least drawn a picture which comes near to the
+reality.</p>
+
+<p>The meeting was at its end. Nordenholt went across to
+speak to the Prime Minister; while the others began to
+leave the room in groups of two and three. I moved
+towards the door, when Nordenholt looked up and caught
+my eye.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Just wait a minute, Flint, please.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He continued his earnest talk with the Premier for a few
+minutes, then handed over an envelope containing a bulky
+mass of papers. At last he came to me and we went out
+together.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You might come round to my place for a short time,
+Flint,&#8221; he said. &#8220;My car is waiting for us. I want you
+to be one of my right-hand men in this business and there
+are some things I wish to explain to you now. It may not
+seem altogether relevant to you; but I think it is necessary
+if we are to work together well.&#8221;</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_64"></a>[64]</span>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak"><small>CHAPTER VI</small><br />
+
+
+The Psychology of the Breaking-strain</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">With</span> my entry into Nordenholt&#8217;s house I hoped to
+gain a clearer insight into certain sides of his character; for
+the possessions which a man accumulates about him serve
+as an index to his mind even when his reticence gives no
+clue to his nature. I had expected something uncommon,
+from what I had already seen of him; but my forecasts were
+entirely different from the reality.</p>
+
+<p>The room into which he ushered me was spacious and
+high-ceilinged; a heavy carpet, into the pile of which my
+feet sank, covered the floor; a few arm-chairs were scattered
+here and there; and a closed roll-top desk stood in a corner.
+One entire side of the room was occupied by bookshelves.
+Beyond this, there was nothing. It was the simplest
+furnishing I had ever seen; and in the house of a multi-millionaire
+it astonished me. I had somehow expected to
+find lavishness in some form: art in one or other of its
+interpretations, or at any rate an indication of Nordenholt&#8217;s
+tastes. But this room defeated me by its very plainness.
+There appeared to be no starting-point for an analysis. To
+me it seemed a place where a man could think without
+distraction; and then, at the desk, put his thoughts into
+practical application.</p>
+
+<p>As we entered, Nordenholt excused himself for a moment.
+He wished to give instructions to his secretary. Some
+telephoning had to be done at once; and then he would
+be at my disposal. I heard him go into the next room.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_65"></a>[65]</span>When I am left alone in a strange house with nothing
+to fill in my time, I gravitate naturally to the bookcases;
+so that now I mechanically moved over to the serried rows
+of shelves which lined one side of the room. Here at last
+I might get some clue to the workings of Nordenholt&#8217;s
+mind. Glancing along the backs of the volumes, I found
+that the first shelf contained only works on metaphysics and
+psychology. Somewhat puzzled by this selection, I passed
+from tier to tier, and still no other subject came in view.
+A rapid examination of the cases from end to end showed
+me that the entire library dealt with this single theme, the
+main bulk of the works being psychological.</p>
+
+<p>This discovery overturned in my mind several nebulous
+conjectures which I had begun to form as to Nordenholt&#8217;s
+character. What sort of a man was this, a millionaire,
+reputed to be one of the shrewdest financiers of the day,
+who stocked his study entirely with psychological works
+among which not a single financial book of reference was
+to be found? Coupled with the stark simplicity of the
+furniture, this clue seemed unlikely to lead me far.</p>
+
+<p>As I was pondering, the door opened and Nordenholt
+returned. While it was still ajar, I heard the trill of a
+telephone bell and a girl&#8217;s voice giving a number; then the
+door closed and cut off further sounds. Thus after ten
+minutes in his house I had gathered only three things about
+him: he was simple, almost Spartan, in his tastes; he was
+interested in psychology; and his secretary was a girl and
+not a man.</p>
+
+<p>He came forward towards me; and again I had the
+sensation of command in his appearance. His great height
+and easy movements may have accounted for it in part; but
+I am taller than the average myself; so that it was not
+entirely this. Even now I cannot analyse the feeling
+which he produced, not on myself alone, but upon all those
+with whom he came in contact. Personal magnetism may<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_66"></a>[66]</span>
+satisfy some people as an explanation; but what is personal
+magnetism but a name? In some inexplicable manner,
+Nordenholt gave the impression of a vast reservoir of pent-up
+force, seldom unloosed but ever ready to spring into action
+if required; and in these unfathomable eyes there seemed
+to brood an uncanny and yet not entirely unsympathetic
+perception which chilled me with its aloofness and nevertheless
+drew me to him in some way which is not clear to
+me even now. Under that slow and minute inspection, eye
+to eye, I felt all my human littleness, all my petty weaknesses
+exposed and weighed; but I felt also that behind this
+unrelenting scrutiny there was a depth of understanding
+which struck an even balance and saved me from contempt.
+I can put it no better than that.</p>
+
+<p>He motioned me to a chair and took another himself.
+For a few moments he remained silent; and when he spoke
+I was struck by the change in his tone. At the meeting,
+he had spoken decisively, almost bitterly at times; but now
+a ring of sadness entered into that great musical voice.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I wonder, Flint,&#8221; he said, &#8220;I wonder if you understand
+what we have taken in hand to-day? I doubt if any
+of us see where all this is leading us. I see the vague
+outlines of it before us; but beyond a certain point one
+cannot go.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He paused, deep in thought for a few seconds; then, as
+though waking suddenly to life again, offered me a cigar
+and took one himself. When he spoke again, it was in a
+different tone.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Perhaps you wonder why I picked you out&mdash;of course
+it was I who got you invited to that meeting; I wanted
+to look you over there before making up my mind about
+you. Well, I have means of knowing about people; and
+you struck me as the man I needed in this work. I&#8217;ve
+been watching you for some years, Flint; ever since you
+made your mark, in fact. You aren&#8217;t one of my young<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_67"></a>[67]</span>
+men&mdash;the ones they call &#8216;Nordenholt&#8217;s gang,&#8217; I believe&mdash;but
+you are of my kind; and I knew that I could get you
+if I wanted you for something big.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In any other man this would have struck me as insolence;
+but Nordenholt had already established such an influence
+over me that I felt flattered rather than ruffled by this calm
+assumption on his part.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But in some ways it&#8217;s a disadvantage now that we didn&#8217;t
+come together earlier,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;You remember
+Nelson and his captains&mdash;the band of brothers? Nothing
+can be accomplished on a grand scale without that feeling;
+and possibly I have left it until too late to get into touch
+with you. It depends on yourself, Flint. I know you,
+possibly as well as you know yourself; but you know
+nothing of me. With my young men,&#8221; and a tinge of
+pride came into his voice, &#8220;with my young men, that difficulty
+doesn&#8217;t arise. They know me as well as anyone can&mdash;well
+enough, at any rate, for us to work together for a
+common object, no matter how big the stake may be. But
+you, Flint, represent a foreign mind in the machine. I want
+you to understand some things; in fact, it&#8217;s essential that
+you should see the lines on which I work; for otherwise
+we shall be at cross-purposes. I wonder how it can be
+done?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He leaned back in his chair and smoked silently for a
+few minutes. I said nothing; for I was quite content to
+await whatever he had to put into words. I only wondered
+what form it would take. When he broke the silence, it
+was on quite unexpected lines. He looked at his watch.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Three hours yet before we can do anything further.
+I might as well spend part of it on this; and possibly I can
+give you an idea of my outlook on things which will help
+you when we are working together up North.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When I was quite a child, Flint, I used to take a certain
+delight in doing things which had an element of risk in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_68"></a>[68]</span>
+them&mdash;physical risk, I mean. I liked to climb difficult trees,
+to work my way out on to dangerous bits of roof, to walk
+across tree-trunks spanning streams, and so forth. There&#8217;s
+that element of risk at the back of all real enjoyment, to
+my mind. It needn&#8217;t be physical risk necessarily, though
+there you have it in perhaps its most acute aspect; but at
+the root of a gamble of any sort where the stakes are high
+you find this factor lying, whether it is noticeable or not.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;One of my earliest experiences in that direction took
+the form of walking along a slippery wall which was high
+enough to make a fall from it a serious matter. I mastered
+the art of keeping on the wall to perfection; and then,
+finding that pall upon me, I endeavoured to complicate it
+by jumping across the gap made by a gateway. It was an
+easy distance: I proved that to myself by practising on the
+ground from a standing take-off. And the nature of the
+wall offered no particular difficulty, for I tested myself in
+jumping a similar gap between two slippery tree-trunks laid
+end to end. Yet when I came to the actual gap in the
+wall, my muscles simply refused to obey me; and time after
+time I drew back involuntarily from the spring.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I was an introspective child; and this puzzled me.
+I knew that I could accomplish the feat with ease; and yet
+something prevented my attempting it. I fell to analysing
+my sensations and tracing down the various factors in the
+case; and, of course, it was not long until I came to the
+crucial point. Does this bore you? I am sorry if it does,
+but you&#8217;ll see the point of it by-and-by.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>While he had been speaking, I had had a most curious
+impression. His argument, whatever it might be, was
+evidently addressed to me; and yet all through it I had
+the feeling that it was not altogether to me that he was
+talking. In some way I gathered the idea that while he
+spoke to me his mind was working upon another line, testing
+and re-testing some chain of reasoning which was illustrated<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_69"></a>[69]</span>
+by his anecdote; so that while I looked upon one aspect of
+it he was scanning the same facts from a totally different
+point of view and reading into them something which I was
+not intended to grasp.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Obviously the crux of the matter was the height of the
+wall and the fear of hurting myself severely if I missed my
+leap,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Once I had discovered that&mdash;and
+of course it took much less time to do so than it takes now
+to explain the case&mdash;I set about another trial. I made up
+my mind that I would think nothing of the chance of slipping,
+and that this time I would accomplish the feat with
+ease. Yet once more I failed to bring my body up to the
+effort. Something stronger than my consciousness was at
+work; and it defeated me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He smiled sardonically at some memory or other.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I practised jumping along a marked portion of the wall
+where it was lower; and I found that I could accomplish
+the distance with ease. Whereupon my childish mind
+formulated the problem in this way; and I believe that it
+was correct in doing so. The ultimate factor in the thing
+was the fear of a damaging fall. Within limits, I was
+prepared to take the risk; as had been shown by the success
+on the lower parts of the wall. But at the high place beside
+the gateway, my resolution had given way under a strain of
+nervousness. And at once there came into my mind the
+conception of a breaking-strain. Up to a certain tension,
+my conscious mind worked perfectly; but, beyond that,
+there was a complete collapse. Something had snapped
+under the strain. I may say that I finally accomplished the
+leap successfully; I simply wouldn&#8217;t allow myself to be
+beaten in a thing I knew I could do.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He halted for a moment as though this marked a turning-point
+in his thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;This idea of the breaking-strain remained fixed in my
+child&#8217;s mind, however; and I used to amuse myself by<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_70"></a>[70]</span>
+conjecturing all sorts of hypothetical cases in which it played
+a part. It finally grew to be a sort of mild obsession
+with me, and I would ask myself continually: &#8220;Why did
+So-and-so do this rather than that?&#8221; and would then set to
+work to discover the factors at the back of his actions and
+the tension-snap which had driven him into something which
+was unexpected from his normal line of conduct.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You can understand, Flint, how this practice grew
+upon me. It is the most interesting thing in the world;
+and the materials for applying it are everywhere about us
+in our everyday life. I extracted endless amusement from
+it; and as I grew up into boyhood I found its fascination
+greater than ever. I took a never-failing interest in probing
+at the hidden springs of conduct and trying to establish
+these breaking-strains in the people before me.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then, as I grew older I discovered the Law Courts.
+There you see the philosophy of the breaking-strain brought
+into touch with real life in a practical form. I used to go
+and watch some well-known barrister handling a hostile
+witness; and suddenly I understood that all these men
+were merely fumbling empirically after the thing that I had
+studied from my earliest days. What does a barrister want
+to do with a hostile witness? To break him down, to
+throw him out of his normal line of thought and then to
+fish among the dislocated machinery for something which
+suits his own case. It afforded me endless interest to follow
+the methods of each different cross-examiner. I learned a
+great deal in the Courts; and I came away from them
+convinced that I had found something of more than mere
+academic interest. This breaking-strain question was one
+which could be applied to affairs of the greatest practical
+importance. It was actually so applied in law cases.
+Why not utilise it in other directions also?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I found him watching me keenly to see if I followed
+his line of thought. After a moment, he went on:</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_71"></a>[71]</span>&#8220;It sounds so obvious now, Flint; but I believe that I
+alone saw it as a scientific problem. Your blackmailer,
+your poker-sharp, all those types of mind had been working
+on the thing in a crude way; but to me it appeared from
+a different angle. Everyone else had looked on it in the
+form of special cases, particular men who had to be swayed
+by particular motives. I began as a youth where they left
+off. I spent some years on it, Flint, examining it in all its
+bearings; and finally I evolved a system of classification
+which enabled me to approach any specific case along
+general lines. I can&#8217;t go into that now; but it suddenly
+gave me an insight into motives and actions such as I doubt
+if anyone ever had before.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He paused and watched the smoke curling up from his
+cigar. Again he seemed to be deep in the consideration of
+some problem connected with and yet alien to what he
+had been saying. For a time he was lost in thought; and
+I waited to hear the rest of the story.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, Flint,&#8221; he went on at last, &#8220;it certainly seemed
+on the face of it to be a very useless accomplishment from
+the practical point of view; from the standpoint of mere
+cash, I mean. And yet, it still fascinated me. When I
+was quite a young man I determined to go to Canada and
+take up lumber. I was an orphan; there was nothing to
+keep me in this country, for I had no near relations; and
+I felt that it might do me good to cut loose from things
+here and go away into the woods for a time. I had enough
+capital to start in a small way; so I went. My ideas of the
+lumber-trade were vague at the time. If I had known
+what it was, I doubt if I should have touched it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;At first sight, it looked a hopeless venture. I knew
+nothing of the trade; I was a youngster then; I&#8217;d had
+no training in financial operations. Failure seemed to be
+the only outcome; and the men on the spot laughed at me.
+I simply would not admit that I was beaten at the start;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_72"></a>[72]</span>
+and everything drove me on against my better judgment.
+And I had one tremendous asset. I knew men.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I knew men better than anyone else out there. I
+never made a mistake in my choice. I collected a few
+good men at the start to help me; and through them I
+gathered others almost as good. In a year I had made
+progress; in two years I was a success; and very soon I
+became somebody to reckon with. And through it all,
+Flint, I knew practically nothing about the actual trade.
+That was only a tool in my hands. What I dealt in was
+men and men&#8217;s minds. I could gauge a man&#8217;s capacity to
+a hair; and I picked my managers and foremen from the
+very best. They were glad to come to me, somehow.
+They felt I understood them; and no inefficients were comfortable
+with me. I never had to discharge them; they
+simply went of their own accord. I left everything to my
+staff, for I knew them thoroughly and gauged their capacities
+to a degree. And because I knew them I found the
+right place for each man; so that the work went forward
+with perfect smoothness and efficiency. Before I had
+been five years there I was on the road to being a rich
+man.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>His tone expressed no satisfaction. It was clear that I
+was not expected to admire his talents.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then, suddenly, came the discovery of platinum on a
+large scale in the neighbourhood of my district. You know
+what that meant; but you must remember that in those
+days it was a very different matter from now. It was like
+the Yukon gold rush in some of its aspects. The place
+swarmed with prospectors, mostly men of no education,
+whose main object was to get as much as they could in
+a hurry and then go elsewhere to spend the money the
+platinum brought them. Meanwhile, the platinum market
+was convulsed, and the price swayed to and fro from day
+to day. You must remember that in those times the thing<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_73"></a>[73]</span>
+was in the hands of a very few men; for the supply
+was limited. The Canadian mines overthrew the nicely-adjusted
+balance of the market and everything suffered in
+consequence; for the uses of platinum directly or indirectly
+spread over a very large field of human industry.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>That part of his history was more or less familiar to me,
+but I did not interrupt.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;One day it occurred to me that here in Canada we had
+a case parallel to the state of affairs in the Diamond Fields
+before the Kimberley amalgamation. Why not repeat
+Cecil Rhodes&#8217; methods? Just as he regulated the price
+of diamonds, I could regulate the price of platinum if I
+could get control of the Canadian mines, for they were by
+far the most important in the world.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Again, I knew nothing of platinum, just as I had
+known nothing of lumber; but I was able to pay for the
+best advice, to pay for secrecy as well; and to judge the
+experts, I had my knowledge of men to help me. I got
+the best men, I chose only men whom my insight enabled
+me to pick out; and I began to buy up claims quietly
+under their guidance. Here again psychology came in. I
+could tell at a glance when a man was a &#8220;quitter&#8221; and
+when a miner would refuse to sell. I could gauge almost
+to a sovereign the price that would prove the breaking-strain
+for any particular owner. I can&#8217;t tell you how it
+is done; it is partly inborn, perhaps, partly acquired; but
+I know that my knowledge is quite incommunicable.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;To make a long story short, I had acquired a very fair
+percentage of the valuable ground when suddenly I discovered
+that five other men had been struck with the same
+idea; and that prices were rising beyond anything I could
+hope to pay. It was a case for amalgamation; but I did
+not see my way through it quite so simply. Two of them
+I knew to be honest. One of them I could not trust,
+although he had hitherto never shown any signs of crookedness;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_74"></a>[74]</span>
+but I knew his breaking-strain, and I knew also that
+the temptations to which he would be exposed under any
+amalgamation scheme would be too great for him. He had
+to be eliminated. The other two were weak men who
+could be dealt with easily enough. I needn&#8217;t give you the
+details. I approached the two honest men, combined with
+them, and with the joint capital of the three of us I bought
+out the third competitor. The other two we dealt with
+separately, buying out the one and taking the other in along
+with us. My partners trusted me with the negotiations,
+again because I knew men and their motives.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And that was how I made my first million. Remember,
+I knew nothing about the materials I had handled in
+the making of it. I never took the slightest interest in
+the things themselves&mdash;and I took very little interest in the
+money either, for my tastes are simple. What did interest
+me was the psychology of the thing, the probing among the
+springs and levers of men&#8217;s minds, and the working out of
+all the complex strains and stresses which form the background
+of our reason and our emotions. The million was
+a mere by-product of the process.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But with the million there came another interest. Up
+to that time I had applied my methods to individual cases;
+but it struck me, after the strain of the amalgamation
+negotiations was over, that my generalisations were capable
+of a wider application. I took up the study of political
+affairs over here; and I found that my principles enabled
+me to gauge the psychology of masses even more easily than
+those of individuals. As a practical test, I stood for Parliament;
+and got elected without any difficulty. Of course
+one of the Parties was glad to have me&mdash;a millionaire isn&#8217;t
+likely to go a-begging at their door for long&mdash;but you may
+remember that I won that election by my own methods.
+The Party machines tried to copy them, of course, at a
+later date; but they failed hopelessly because they were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_75"></a>[75]</span>
+merely repeating mechanically some operations which I had
+designed for a special case.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I took very little interest in politics, though. I had no
+sympathy with the usual methods of the politicians; and at
+times I revolted against them effectually.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He was evidently thinking of the two episodes which had
+gained him the nickname of the Wrecker.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When I began, I think I told you that the element of
+risk enters largely into one&#8217;s pleasures; and I believe that
+holds good in politics. The work of a politician, and
+especially of a Cabinet Minister, is largely in the nature
+of a gamble. To most of them, politics is an empirical
+science; for they have little time to study the basis of it.
+I&#8217;ll do them the justice to say that I don&#8217;t think it is
+a mere matter of clinging to their salaries which keeps
+them in office; it&#8217;s mainly that they enjoy the feeling of
+swaying great events. With an Empire like ours, the
+stakes are tremendous; and there&#8217;s a certain sensation to
+be got out of gambling on that scale. Mind you, I doubt
+if they realise themselves that this is what they enjoy in the
+political game; but it is actually what does sway them to
+a great extent.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now so long as it&#8217;s a mere question of some parochial
+point, I don&#8217;t mind their enjoying their sensations. It
+matters very little in the long run whether one Bill or
+another passes Parliament; and if they fight over minor
+questions, I don&#8217;t care. But twice in my political career
+I saw that the Party game was threatening trouble on
+bigger lines. The Anglo-Peruvian agreement and the
+Malotu Islands question were affairs that cut down to the
+bed-rock of things; and I couldn&#8217;t stand aside and see
+them muddled in the usual way. I had to assert myself
+there, whether I liked it or not. And when I did intervene,
+my mental equipment made the result a certainty. <i>I</i>
+knew the country and the country&#8217;s average opinion in a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_76"></a>[76]</span>
+way that none of them did; and I had only to strike at the
+vital point. They call me the Wrecker; and I suppose I
+did bring down two Governments on these questions; but
+it wasn&#8217;t so difficult for me.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But, as I told you, I never had much interest in politics.
+I like real things; and the political game is more than half
+make-believe. I still have my seat in the House; but I
+think they are gladdest when I am not there.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, I am afraid I&#8217;m making a long story of it; but I
+think you will see the drift of it now. Politics failed to give
+me what I wanted. I had no turn for the routine of it;
+and I had no wish to be involved in all the petty man&#339;uvres
+upon which the nursing of a majority depends. Mind you,
+I could have done it better than any of them, with that
+peculiar bent of mine. They consult me whenever a crisis
+arises; and I can generally pull them through. After all,
+it&#8217;s a case of handling men, there as everywhere else.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;However, I wanted something better to amuse me than
+the squaring of some nonentity with a knighthood or the
+pacification of some indignant office-seeker who had been
+passed over. I wanted to feel myself pitted against men
+who really were experts in their own line. And that was
+how I came to take up finance in earnest.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He paused again and lighted a fresh cigar. While he
+was doing so, I watched his face. In any other man, his
+autobiographic sketch would have seemed egotistical; and
+possibly I have raised that impression in my reproduction of
+it; for I can only give the sense of what he said. I cannot
+put on paper the tones of his voice&mdash;the faint tinge of
+contempt with which he spoke of his triumphs, as though
+they were child&#8217;s play. Nor can I do more than indicate
+here and there that peculiar sensation of duality which his
+talk took on more and more clearly as he proceeded. It
+was as though the Nordenholt whom I saw before me were
+telling his story whilst over behind him stood some greater<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_77"></a>[77]</span>
+personality, following the narrative and tracing out in it the
+clues which were to lead on to some events still in the
+distant future.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Finance, Flint,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;That was the field
+where I came into my own at last. Money in itself is
+nothing, nothing whatever. But the making of money, the
+duel of brain against brain with not even the counters on
+the table, that&#8217;s the great game. The higher branches of
+finance are simply a combination of arithmetic and
+psychology. They&#8217;re divorced absolutely from any idea of
+material gain or loss. Railways, steamship lines, coal, oil,
+wheat, cotton or wool&mdash;do you imagine that one thinks of
+these concrete things while one plays the game? Not at
+all. They are the merest pawns. The whole affair is
+compressed into groups of figures and the glimpses of the
+other man&#8217;s brain which one gets here and there throughout
+the operations. And I played a straight game, Flint; no
+small investor was ever ruined through my man&#339;uvres. I
+doubt if any other financier can say as much. I went into
+the thing as a game, a big, risky game for my own hand;
+and I refused to gamble in the savings of little men. I took
+my gains from the big men who opposed me, not from the
+swarm of innocents.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was true, I remembered. Nordenholt had played the
+game of finance in a way never seen before. He had made
+many men&#8217;s fortunes&mdash;a by-product, as he would have said,
+no doubt&mdash;but no one had ever gone into the arena unwarned
+by him. When he had laid his plans, carried out his
+preliminary moves and was ready to strike, a full-page
+advertisement had appeared in every newspaper in the
+country. &#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Nordenholt advises the small Investor
+to Refrain from Operating in Wheat</span>,&#8221; or whatever
+it might be that he proposed to deal in himself. Then,
+after giving time for this to take effect, he struck his first
+blow. Wonderful struggles these were, fought out often<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_78"></a>[78]</span>
+far in the depths of that strange sea of finance, so that hardly
+a ripple came to the surface. Often, too, the agitation
+reached the upper waters and there would be glimpses of
+the two vast organisations convulsed by their efforts; here a
+mass of foam only, there some strange tentacle stretching
+out to reach its prey or to coil itself around a vantage-point
+which it could use as a fulcrum in further exertions. During
+this period, the Exchanges of the world would be shaken,
+there would be failures, hammerings, ruin for those who had
+ventured into the contest despite the warnings. Then,
+suddenly, the cascading waves would be stilled. One of the
+antagonists had gone under.</p>
+
+<p>A fresh advertisement would appear: &#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Nordenholt
+has ceased his Operations</span>.&#8221; It was a strange requiem
+over the grave of some king of finance. Nordenholt was
+always victorious. And with the collapse of his opponent,
+the small speculators flocked into the markets of the world
+and completed the downfall.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, after the gains had been counted, he advertised
+again asking all those who had involuntarily suffered by his
+contest to submit their claims to him; and every genuine
+case was paid in full. He could afford it, no doubt; but
+how many would have done it? I knew from that move of
+his that he really spoke the truth when he said that money
+in itself was nothing to him. And it perhaps illustrates as
+well as anything the impression he produced upon my mind
+that afternoon. On the one side he was cold, calculating,
+pitiless to those whom he regarded as his enemies and the
+enemies of the smaller investor; on the other, he was full
+of understanding and compassion for those whom he had
+maimed in the course of his gigantic operations. The
+Wheat Trust, the Cotton Combine, Consolidated Industries,
+the Steel Magnates, and the Associated Railways, all had
+gone down before him; and he had ground their leaders
+into the very dust. And in every case, he had opened his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_79"></a>[79]</span>
+campaign as soon as they had shown signs of using their
+power to oppress the common people. It may have been
+merely a move in his psychological strategy; he may have
+waited until the man in the street had begun to be uneasy
+for the future, so that this great intangible mass of opinion
+was enlisted on his side. But I prefer to think otherwise:
+and I was associated with Nordenholt in the end as closely
+as any man. No one ever knew him, no one ever fathomed
+that personality&mdash;of that I am certain. He was always a
+riddle. But I believe that his cool intelligence, his merciless
+tactics, all had behind them a depth of understanding and a
+sympathy with the helpless minority. I know this is almost
+incredible in face of his record; but I am convinced of its
+truth.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;At the end of it all,&#8221; he went on, &#8220;I can look back and
+say that my theories were justified. I knew nothing of
+finance; but I chose my advisers well. I knew what my
+opponents relied upon and what they regarded as points
+which could be given up without affecting their general
+position. The rest was simply a matter of psychology.
+How could I bring the breaking-strain to bear?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, when I left it, the financial world had handed
+over to me a fortune which, I suppose, has seldom been
+equalled. There was nothing in it, you know, Flint,
+nothing whatever. It merely happened that I was trained
+in a way different from everyone else. They were plotting
+and scheming with shares and stocks and debentures, skying
+this one, depressing that one and keeping their attention
+fixed on the Exchanges. I came to the thing from a
+different angle. The movements of the markets meant
+little to me in comparison with the workings of the brains
+behind those markets. I could foresee the line of their
+advance; and I knew how to take them in the flank at the
+right moment. I fought them on ground they could not
+understand. They knew the mind of the small investor<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_80"></a>[80]</span>
+thoroughly, for they had fleeced him again and again. I
+began by clearing the small speculator off the board; and
+thus they were deprived of their trump card. They had
+to fight me instead of ruining him; and they had no idea
+what I was. It was incredibly simple, when you think of
+it. That is why you never found anything about my
+personality in the newspapers. I paid them to leave me
+alone. No one knew me; and I was able to fight in the
+dark.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But when I grew tired of it at last, I had an enormous
+fortune. What was I to do with it? Money in itself one
+can do nothing with. If I were put to it, I doubt if I
+could spend &pound;5,000 a year and honestly say that I had got
+value for it&mdash;I mean direct personal enjoyment. I cast about
+for some use to which I could turn this enormous mass of
+wealth. You may smile, Flint, but it is one of the most
+difficult problems I ever took up. I hate waste; and I
+wanted to see some direct, practical value for all these
+accumulated millions. What was I to do?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I looked back on the work of some of my predecessors.
+Carnegie used to spend his money on libraries; but do
+libraries yield one any intimate satisfaction? Can one
+really say that they would give one a feeling that one&#8217;s
+money had been spent to a good purpose? Apparently they
+did to him; but that sort of thing wouldn&#8217;t appeal to me.
+Then there is art. Pierpont Morgan amassed a huge
+collection; but there again I don&#8217;t feel on safe ground. Is
+one&#8217;s money merely to go in accumulating painted canvas
+for the elect to pore over? The man in the street cannot
+appreciate these things even if he could see them. I gave
+up that idea.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then I came across a life of Cecil Rhodes and he
+seemed to be more akin to me in some ways. Empire
+building is a big thing and, if you believe in Empires, it&#8217;s
+a good thing. There is something satisfactory in knowing<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_81"></a>[81]</span>
+that you are preparing the way for future generations, laying
+the foundations in the desert and awaiting the tramp of
+those far-off generations which will throng the streets of the
+unbuilt cities. A great dream, Flint. One needs a prospicience
+and a fund of hope to deal in things like that.
+But I want to see results in my own day; I want to be
+sure that I&#8217;m on the right lines and not merely rearing a
+dream-fabric which will fade out and pass away long before
+it has its chance of materialisation. I want something
+which I can see in action now and yet something which
+will go down from generation to generation.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I thought long over it, Flint. Time and again I seemed
+to glimpse what I wanted; and yet it eluded me. Then,
+suddenly, I realised that I had the very thing at my gates.
+Youth.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;All over the world there are youngsters growing up
+who will be stifled in their development by mere financial
+troubles. They have the brains and the character to make
+good in time; but at what a cost! All their best energy
+goes in fulfilling the requirements of our social system,
+getting a roof over their heads, climbing the ladder step by
+step, waiting for dead men&#8217;s shoes. Then, when they come
+to their own, more often than not their heart&#8217;s desire has
+withered. I don&#8217;t mean that they are failures; but they
+have used up their powers in overcoming those minor
+difficulties which beset us all. It was an essay of Huxley&#8217;s
+that brought the thing clearly before me. &#8216;If the nation
+could purchase a potential Watt, or Davy, or Faraday, at
+the cost of &pound;100,000 down,&#8217; he said, &#8216;he would be dirt-cheap
+at the money.&#8217; And with that, in a flash, I saw my
+way clear. I would go about in search of these potential
+leaders among our youth. My peculiar insight would suffice
+to keep me on the right lines there. I would make the
+way easy for them, but not too easy. I would test and
+re-test them till I was sure of them. And then I would<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_82"></a>[82]</span>
+give them all that they desired and open up the world to
+them to work out their destinies.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I did it in time. Even now I&#8217;m only at the beginning
+of the experiment, but already I feel that I have spent my
+money well. I have given a push to things; and although
+I can see no further than this generation, I know that I
+have opened a road for the next. Each of them is a centre
+for others to congregate around and so the thing spreads like
+the circles in a pool. I have thrown in the stone; but long
+after I am gone the waves will be beating outward and
+breaking upon unknown shores....&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He paused and seemed to fall into a day-dream for a few
+moments. Then he spoke again.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That was the origin of my young men, Flint; the
+Nordenholt gang&#8221;&mdash;he sneered perceptibly at the words.
+&#8220;Many of them have gone down in the race. One cannot
+foresee everything, you know, try as one may. But the
+residuum are a picked lot. They are scattered throughout
+all the industries and professions of the Empire; and all of
+them are far up in their own pursuits. I often wondered
+whether anything would come of it in my day beyond
+individual successes; but now I see a culmination before me.
+We shall all go up side by side to Armageddon and my own
+men will be with me in this struggle against the darkness.
+Man never put his hand to a bigger task than this in front
+of us; and I shall need my young men to help me. If we
+fail, the Earth falls back beyond the Eolithic Age once more
+and Man has lived in vain.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>His voice had risen with pride as he spoke of his
+helpers; but at the close I heard again the sub-current
+of sadness come into the deep tones. I had been jarred
+by his exposition at the meeting, by his apparent callousness
+in outlook; but now I thought I saw behind the
+mask.</p>
+
+<p>Again he sat pondering for some moments; but at last<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_83"></a>[83]</span>
+he threw off his preoccupation; and when he spoke it was
+more directly to me than hitherto.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Possibly you may wonder, Flint, why it is that with
+all these resources in my hands I have come to you for
+help; and why I have never approached you before. The
+fact is, I watched you from your start and stood by to help
+you if you needed me; but you made good alone, and I
+never interfere with a man unless it is absolutely necessary.
+You made good without my assistance; and I thought too
+well of you to offer any. But I watched you, as I said&mdash;I
+have my own ways of getting information&mdash;and I knew
+that you were just the man I required for a particular section
+of the work in front of us. Your factory organisation showed
+me that. There will be an enormous task before you; but
+I know that you&#8217;ll be the right man in the right place.
+I never make a mistake, when it is a case of this kind. You
+aren&#8217;t an untried man.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>From anyone else, I would have regarded this as clumsy
+flattery; but so great an influence had Nordenholt acquired
+over me even in that single afternoon that I never looked
+at the matter in that light at all. His manner showed no
+patronage or admiration; it seemed merely that he was
+stating facts as he knew them, without caring much about
+my opinion.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But it seems to me,&#8221; he went on, &#8220;that I&#8217;ve talked
+enough about personal affairs already. I want to try to
+give you some views on the main thing in front of us.
+You and I, Flint, have been born and grown up in the
+midst of this civilisation; and I expect that you, like most
+other people, have been oblivious of the changes which have
+come about; for they have been so gradual that very few
+of us have noticed them at all.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When you begin low down in the scale of Creation,
+you find creatures without any specialised organs. The
+simplest living things are just spots of protoplasm, mere<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_84"></a>[84]</span>
+aggregations of cells, each of which performs functions
+common to them all. Then, step by step as you rise in
+the scale, specialisation sets in: the cells become differentiated
+from one another; and each performs a function of its own.
+You get the cells of the nerves receiving and transmitting
+sensation; you get cells engaged in nutrition processes;
+there are other cells devoted to producing motion. And
+with this specialisation you get the dawn of something
+which apparently did not exist before: the structure as a
+whole acquires a personality of its own, distinct from the
+individualities of the cells which go to build it up.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But the inverse process is also possible. When the
+body as a whole suffers death, you still have a certain
+period during which the cells have an existence. Hair
+grows after death, for example.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now if you look at the trend of civilisation, you will
+see that we are passing into a stage of specialisation. In
+the Middle Ages, a man might be a celebrated artist and
+yet be in the forefront of the science of his day&mdash;like
+Leonardo da Vinci; but in our time you seldom find a
+man who is first-class in more than one line. In the
+national body, each individual citizen is a specialised cell;
+and if he diverged from his normal functions he would
+disorganise the machine, just as a cancer cell disorganises
+the body in which it grows.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But this civilisation of ours has come to the edge of
+its grave. It is going to die. There is no help for it.
+What I fear is that in its death-throe it may destroy even
+the hope of a newer and perhaps better civilisation in the
+future. It is going to starve to death; and a starving
+organism is desperate. So long as it retains its present
+organised and coherent life, it will be a danger to us; and
+for our own safety&mdash;I mean the safety of the future generations&mdash;we
+must disorganise it as soon as possible. We must
+throw it back at a step, if we can, to the old unspecialised<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_85"></a>[85]</span>
+conditions; for then it will lose its most formidable powers
+and break up of itself. Did you ever read Hobbes? He
+thought of the State as a great Leviathan, an artificial man
+of greater strength and stature than the natural man, for
+whose protection and defence it was contrived; and the soul
+of this artificial creature he found in sovereignty. How can
+we bring about the <i>d&eacute;b&acirc;cle</i> of this huge organism? That is
+the problem I have been facing this afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The Leviathan&#8217;s life-blood is the system of communications
+throughout the country; and I doubt if we can cripple
+that sufficiently rapidly and effectively to bring about the
+downfall. It would take too long and excite too much
+opposition if we did it thoroughly. We must have something
+subtler, Flint, something which will strike at each
+individual intelligence and isolate it from its fellows as far
+as possible. It&#8217;s my old problem of the breaking-strain
+again on the very widest scale. We must find some
+psychological weapon to help us. Nothing else will do.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It seemed as though he were appealing to me for suggestions;
+but I had nothing to offer. I had never considered
+such a problem; and at first sight it certainly seemed insoluble.
+Given that men already had the certainty of death
+before them, what stronger motive could one bring to bear?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I must think over it further,&#8221; he said at last, &#8220;I think
+I see a glimmering of some possibilities. After all, it&#8217;s my
+own line.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He dropped the subject and seemed to sink into his own
+thoughts for a time. When he broke the silence once more,
+it was on an entirely different subject.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I wonder if you ever read the Norse mythology, Flint?
+No? Well, you&#8217;ve missed something. The gods of
+Greece were a poor lot, a kind of divine collection of
+Fermiers G&eacute;n&eacute;reaux with much the same tastes; but the
+Scandinavian divinities were in a different class. They were
+human in a way; but their humanity wasn&#8217;t of the baser<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_86"></a>[86]</span>
+sort. And over them all hung that doom of Ragnar&ouml;k,
+their Twilight, when the forces of Evil would be loosed
+for the final struggle to bring darkness upon the earth. It&#8217;s
+the strangest forecast of our present crisis. As Ragnar&ouml;k
+drew near, brother was to turn against brother; bloodshed
+was to sweep the land. Then was to come the Winter,
+three years long, when all trees were to fail and all fruits to
+perish, while the race of men died by hunger and cold and
+violence. And with Ragnar&ouml;k the very Gods themselves
+were to pass away in their struggle with all the Forces of
+Evil and Darkness.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But they were only half-gods, deified men. Behind
+them, the All-Father stood; and beyond that time of terror
+there lay the hope of Gimle, the new age when all would
+again be young and fair.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I look beyond these coming horrors to a new Gimle,
+Flint; a time when Earth will renew her youth and we
+shall shake free from all the trammels which this dying
+civilisation has twined about our feet. It will come, I feel
+sure. But only a few of us leaders will see it. The strain
+will be too much for us; only the very toughest will
+survive. But each of us must work to the very last breath
+to save something upon which we can build anew. There
+must be no shrinking in either will or emotion. I warn
+you that it will be terrible. To save mankind from the
+terror of the giants, Odin gave his eye to Mimir in return
+for a draught of the Well of Knowledge. Some of us will
+have to give our lives.... A few of us will lose our very
+souls.... It will be worth it!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I was amazed to find this train of mysticism in that cold
+mind. Yet, after all, is it surprising? Almost all the great
+men of history have been mystics of one kind or another.
+Nordenholt rose; and something which had burned in his
+eyes died out suddenly. He went to the roll-top desk and
+took from it a bundle of papers.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_87"></a>[87]</span>&#8220;Here are your instructions, Flint. Everything has been
+foreseen, I think, for the start. Follow them implicitly as
+far as they go; and after that I trust you to carry out the
+further steps which you will see are required.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As he was shaking hands with me, another thought
+seemed to strike him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;By the way, of course you understand that the whole
+of this scheme depends for success on our being able to
+exterminate these bacilli? If we cannot do that, they will
+simply attack any nitrogenous manure which we use. I am
+putting my bacteriologists on to the problem at once; but
+in any case the nitrogen scheme must go ahead. Without
+it, no success is possible, even if we destroyed <i>B. diazotans</i>.
+So go ahead.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>His car awaited me at the door. On the drive home, I
+saw in the streets crowds gathered around hoarding after
+hoarding and staring up at enormous placards which had
+just been posted. The smaller type was invisible to me;
+but gigantic lettering caught my eye as I passed.</p>
+
+<div class="bbox">
+<p class="center">NITROGEN<br />
+<br />
+ONE MILLION MEN WANTED<br />
+<br />
+<span class="gap"><span class="smcap">Nordenholt</span></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_88"></a>[88]</span>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak"><small>CHAPTER VII</small><br />
+
+
+Nordenholt&#8217;s Million</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Of</span> all the incidents in that afternoon, I think the sight
+of these placards brought home to me most forcibly two of
+the salient characteristics of Nordenholt&#8217;s many-sided mind:
+his foresight and his self-reliance. Their appearance in the
+streets at that moment showed that they formed part of a
+plan which had been decided upon several days in advance,
+since time had to be allowed for printing and distributing
+them; whilst the fact that they were being posted up within
+two hours of the close of the meeting proved that Nordenholt
+had never had the slightest doubt of his success in dominating
+the Ministers.</p>
+
+<p>Later on, I became familiar with these posters. They
+were not identical by any means; and I learned to expect
+a difference in their wording according to the district in
+which they were posted up. The methods of varied
+personal appeal had long been familiar to the advertising
+world; but I found that Nordenholt had broken away
+from tradition and had staked everything upon his knowledge
+of the human mind. In these advertisements his
+psychological instinct was developed in an uncanny degree
+which was clear enough to me, who knew the secret; but
+I doubt if any man without my knowledge would have
+seen through the superficial aspect of them quite so
+readily.</p>
+
+<p>In this first stage of his campaign he had to conceal his
+hand. The advertisements were merely the first great net<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_89"></a>[89]</span>
+which he spread in order to capture every man who would
+be at all likely to be useful to him, while the meshes had to
+be left wide enough to allow the undesirable types to slip
+through. The proclamations&mdash;for they really took this
+form&mdash;set forth concisely the exact danger which threatened
+the food-supply of the country; explained why it was
+essential that immense masses of nitrogenous material must
+be manufactured; and called for the immediate enrolment
+of volunteers from selected trades and professions.</p>
+
+<p>As a primary inducement, the scale of remuneration
+offered was far above the normal pay in any given line. It
+was, in fact, so high that I fell at once to calculating the
+approximate total of wages which would be payable weekly;
+and the figures took me by surprise when I worked them
+out. No single private fortune, however gigantic, could
+have kept the machinery running for even a few months at
+the uttermost. When I pointed this out to Nordenholt he
+seemed amused and rather taken aback; but his surprise was
+at my obtuseness and not at my calculations.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, I&#8217;m slightly astonished, Flint. I thought you
+would have seen deeper into it than that. Hasn&#8217;t it
+occurred to you that within six weeks money, as we understand
+it, will be valueless? If we pay up during the time
+we are getting things arranged, that will be all that is
+required. Once the colony is founded, there will be no
+trade between it and the outside world, naturally; and
+inside our own group we could arrange any type of currency
+we choose. But, as a matter of fact, we shall go on
+just as usual; and Treasury notes sufficient for the purpose
+are already being printed.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But the cash inducement was not the only one upon
+which he relied even in his preliminary moves. Patriotism,
+the spirit of public service, the promise of opportunities for
+talent and many other driving forces were enlisted in the
+campaign. These more specialised appeals were mainly<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_90"></a>[90]</span>
+sent out in the form of advertisements in the newspapers&mdash;great
+whole-page announcements which appeared in unusual
+places in the journals. I suppose to a man of enormous
+wealth most things are possible, especially when the wealth
+is coupled with a personality like Nordenholt&#8217;s; but it
+certainly amazed me to find his advertisements taking the
+place of the normal &#8220;latest news&#8221; space in many papers.
+Nor was this the only way in which his influence made
+itself felt. The editorial comments, and even the news
+columns of the journals, dealt at length with his scheme;
+and he secured the support of papers which were quite
+above any suspicion of being amenable to outside influence.
+On the face of it, of course, his plans&mdash;so far as they were
+made public&mdash;were obviously sound; but I cannot help
+feeling that below this almost unanimous chorus of praise
+in the leading articles there must be some influence at work
+beyond mere casual approbation. Very probably Nordenholt
+had seen his way to enlist the sympathy of editors by
+some more direct methods, possibly by calling the controllers
+of policy together and utilising his magnetic personality and
+persuasive powers.</p>
+
+<p>In my own field of work at the first I found some
+difficulties in my dealings with the Trades Union officials,
+who were suspicious of our methods. They feared that we
+contemplated dilution on a huge scale; and they were
+anxious to know the details of our plans. I consulted
+Nordenholt on the point and found him prepared.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Of course that was bound to arise as soon as we began
+to move on a big scale. Well, you can assure them that
+we shall act strictly according to the law of the matter.
+Promise them that as far as working conditions go, we shall
+begin by letting the men fix their own hours of work; and
+if any man is dissatisfied with these, we will pay him on
+the spot a bonus of six months&#8217; wages and let him leave
+instantly if he so desires.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_91"></a>[91]</span>&#8220;Point out to them that, in the cases of some trades,
+I may have to enlist the majority of the Unionists in the
+country; and that I am not going to tie their hands by
+any previous arrangements: they shall settle the matter
+for themselves. If that doesn&#8217;t satisfy them, you may tell
+them definitely&mdash;and put it in writing if they wish&mdash;that
+under no circumstances will I expect my employ&eacute;s to work
+for longer hours or less pay than any other Trades Unionist
+in the country.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I jotted the phrase down in my pocket-book.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I may as well tell you, Flint, that I have given instructions
+to the recruiting offices. No Trades Union
+Leader will be engaged by me under any circumstances
+whatever. It&#8217;s real working men that I want; and I don&#8217;t
+think much of the Union leaders from the point of view of
+actual work.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He looked at me for a moment and I saw a faint smile on
+his face.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It seems to me, Flint, that even yet you haven&#8217;t
+managed to see this thing in perspective. You must really
+get into your mind the fact that there is going to be a
+clean break between the old system and the new one we
+are making. Look at the thing in all its bearings. Once
+we are up North, men shall work for me as I choose and
+for what I choose. There will be no Factory Acts and
+Trades Union regulations or any other hindrance to our
+affairs. They come here and try to put a spoke in my
+wheel? I don&#8217;t mind that at all. But I do see that they
+are trying, whether wilfully or through sheer ignorance, to
+hamper this work which is essential to the race. Therefore
+I propose to meet them with fair words. It&#8217;s not for me
+to enlighten their ignorance if it has persisted up to now
+in the face of all this. I make them that promise, and
+if they can&#8217;t understand its meaning, that is no affair of
+mine. <i>We</i> know, if they&#8217;re too dense to see it, that in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_92"></a>[92]</span>
+a few months there won&#8217;t be a Trades Unionist left in the
+country, outside the colony! There will be no wages
+drawn outside our frontier; so even if I paid our men
+nothing, still I should be keeping my promise to the strict
+letter.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I see your point,&#8221; I said; &#8220;all&#8217;s fair and so forth?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Also, we shall have trouble, up there, I have no doubt.
+Probably there will be a ca&#8217; canny party among our recruits.
+They will have every chance at first. I won&#8217;t interfere
+with them. But once the situation clears up a little, I
+shall deal with them&mdash;and I shall do it by the hand of
+their own fellows. They won&#8217;t last long. Now get
+along and promise these officials exactly what I have told
+you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I offered no criticisms of his methods. His brain was
+far better than mine. When I remember that he must
+have drafted the outlines of his scheme and arranged most
+of the preliminaries of its execution in less time than it
+would have taken me to decide upon a new factory-site,
+I am still lost in amazement at the combination of wide
+outlook and tremendous concentration of thought which
+the task involved.</p>
+
+<p>Despite the carefully-planned deterrents which appeared
+in the proclamations, the recruiting was enormous from
+the first. &#8220;Nordenholt&#8217;s Million&#8221;&mdash;as the popular phrase
+ran&mdash;was not really a million at all; but Nordenholt knew
+the influence of a round figure upon the public imagination
+and it was near enough for all practical purposes. He had
+looked on the thing in the broadest possible lines at the
+start, and had drawn up a rough classification for the
+use of the recruiting stations. To begin with, he limited
+the enlistment to men between the ages of twenty-five
+and thirty-five; though exceptional cases received special
+consideration. On this basis, he expected to get all the
+men he required. Three-quarters of a million of these<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_93"></a>[93]</span>
+were to be married men with an upper limit of four
+children, preferably between the ages of six and twelve.
+In addition to this, he was prepared to accept half a million
+young unmarried men. Half a million unmarried girls
+were also selected. The net result of this was that in the
+end he obtained in round numbers the following classes:</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" summary="table">
+<tr><td>Husbands</td><td class="tdr">              750,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Wives</td><td class="tdr">                  750,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Children </td><td class="tdr">            2,250,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Bachelors &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</td><td class="tdr">              500,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Girls </td><td class="tdr">                 500,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="tdr"> &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdr">Total &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</td><td class="tdr">   4,750,000</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>That left a margin of a quarter of a million below his
+original estimate of five millions; and this he kept free
+for the time being, partly because some of the number
+would be made up by specialists who did not come under
+the general recruitment organisation and partly, possibly,
+for taking in at the last moment any cases which might be
+specially desirable.</p>
+
+<p>At a later date I had an opportunity of questioning him
+as to his reasons in laying down this classification: and
+they struck me as sound.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;In the first place, I want a solid backbone to this
+enterprise. I get that by selecting the married men. They
+have got a stake in the thing already in their wives, and
+especially in their children. I know that the children mean
+the consumption of a vast quantity of food for which we
+shall get no direct return in the form of labour; but I
+believe that the steadying effect introduced by them will be
+worth the loss. We are going to put this colony under
+a strain which is about as great as human nature can bear;
+and I want everything on our side that can be brought
+there.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_94"></a>[94]</span>&#8220;Then again, they will help to form a sort of public
+opinion. Don&#8217;t forget that the ultimate aim of this affair is
+to carry on the race. I could have done that by selecting
+bachelors and girls in equal numbers and simply going
+ahead on that basis. But we must have discipline; and
+unless you have some established order we should simply
+have ended by a Saturnalia. You couldn&#8217;t have prevented
+it, considering the nervous strain we are going to put on
+these people. I have no use for that sort of thing; so I
+chose a majority of men with families, whose natural instincts
+are to keep down the bacchanalian element among
+the unmarried.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But in addition to these married men, I needed others
+who had a free hand and who had only their own lives
+to risk. In certain lines, the unmarried man can be relied
+upon where the married man shivers in his shoes to some
+extent. That accounts for the bachelor element.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But, since a preponderance of males over females would
+be bound to lead to trouble, I had to enrol enough girls
+to bring up the balance. Possibly they may also serve to
+spur on the younger men to work; and they will be able
+to help in the actual task before us in a good many ways,
+like the Munition girls of the War period.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to me then the only possible solution of the
+problem; and it worked in practice. We can&#8217;t tell how
+things would have fared if any other arrangements had been
+made, so I must leave it at that. Anyway, I think Nordenholt
+enlisted two of the strongest instincts of humanity on
+his side in addition to the fear of hunger: and that was
+a definite gain.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Nordenholt&#8217;s Million&#8221; was, of course, a microcosm of
+the national industries. It would serve no purpose to catalogue
+the trades which were represented in it. Miners,
+iron- and steel-workers, electricians and makers of electrical
+machinery preponderated; but Nordenholt had looked<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_95"></a>[95]</span>
+ahead to agriculture and the needs of the population after
+the danger of famine was past.</p>
+
+<p>In the early stages, the statistical branch&mdash;recruited from
+the great insurance companies&mdash;was perhaps the hardest
+worked of all. The most diverse problems presented themselves
+for treatment; and they could only be handled in the
+most rough-and-ready fashion until we were able to bring
+calculation to bear. Without the help of the actuaries, I
+believe that there would have been a collapse at various
+points, in spite of all our foresight.</p>
+
+<p>I have not attempted to do more than indicate in outline
+the activities which engrossed us at that time. In my
+memory, it lives as a period of frantic and often very
+successful improvisation. New problems cropped up at
+every turn. The decision of one day might entail a
+recasting of plans in some field which at first sight seemed
+totally divorced from the question under consideration.
+Each line of that complex system had to be kept abreast
+of the rest, so that there was no disjunction, no involuntary
+halt for one section to come up with the remainder, no
+clash between two departments of the organisation. And
+yet, somehow, it seemed to work with more smoothness
+than we had expected. Behind us all, seated at the nucleus
+of that complex web of activities, there was Nordenholt,
+seldom interfering but always ready to give a sharp decision
+should the need arise. And I think the presence of that
+cool intelligence behind us had a moral effect upon our
+minds. He never lessened our initiative, never showed any
+sign of vexation when things began to go wrong. He
+treated us all as colleagues, though we knew that he was
+our master. And under his examination, difficulties seemed
+to fade away in our hands.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>It was not until the meeting of Parliament that the
+Government connection with Nordenholt&#8217;s scheme became<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_96"></a>[96]</span>
+known to the public; but on the first day of the session the
+Prime Minister introduced a Bill which subsequently
+became the Billeting Act; and this brought to light the
+fact that Nordenholt was not working merely as a private
+individual. Under the Act, the Government took powers
+to house the Nitrogen Volunteers, as they were termed,
+in any locality which might be found necessary. The
+wording of the Act gave them the fullest power in this
+matter; but it was so contrived that no one suspected the
+establishment of only a single Nitrogen Area.</p>
+
+<p>In his speech on the second Reading, the Premier excelled
+all his previous tactical exercises. He explained very clearly
+the nature of the peril which threatened the country; and
+he pointed out that the measure was necessary in order
+to cope with the danger. The new Nitrogen work would
+entail great shiftings of labour hither and thither, as the new
+factories grew up; and it was essential to provide dwellings
+for the artisans engaged in the industry. Everything must
+give way to this; and since houses could not be built in the
+short time available, some sort of arrangement must be made
+which would, he hoped, be merely temporary. He explained
+that the Government had empowered Nordenholt to carry out
+the early arrangements; and he was able to give statistics
+showing the progress which had already been made during
+the last few days.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time, he introduced a second Bill, somewhat
+on the lines of the old Defence of the Realm Act, which
+enabled the Government to cope with circumstances as they
+arose without the necessity of prolonged Parliamentary
+debates.</p>
+
+<p>So ingeniously did he handle the matter that there was
+practically no opposition to either measure. It must be
+remembered that the influence of the Press had been exerted
+almost entirely in favour of Nordenholt&#8217;s scheme. The
+previous clamour for action had been succeeded by a chorus<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_97"></a>[97]</span>
+of praise; and the bold initiative shown in the Nitrogen
+plans had been acclaimed throughout the country.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Nordenholt was making the best of two
+worlds. Nominally, he was engaged in a private enterprise
+over which the Government had no control; actually, he
+had the whole State machinery at his back to assist him in
+his operations. This dual nature of the matter enabled him
+to carry out his work with a minimum of interference from
+red taped officials, while at the same time he was able
+to command the resources of State Departments in any line
+wherein they could be of service to him. After the passing
+of the two Acts, the Government adjourned Parliament, to
+avoid the putting of awkward questions; so that during the
+ensuing weeks the Nitrogen undertaking could progress
+without any fear of interference or undue publicity.</p>
+
+<p>Transport was the first problem which occupied Nordenholt&#8217;s
+attention. It was in this connection that I caught
+my first glimpse of the &#8220;Nordenholt Gang&#8221; at work. The
+executive staffs of the railways were left intact, but one day
+there descended upon them a quiet little man in spectacles
+with full authority in his pocket. Grogan had apparently
+never been connected with railways in his life, as far as
+I knew, but he took control of the whole system in the
+country without showing the faintest sign of hesitation.
+How he acquired his knowledge, I never learned; but I
+gathered that he had originally made his mark by his
+investigations of the effect of trade-routes upon commerce.</p>
+
+<p>His work was to indicate the broad outlines of the scheme,
+and the railway officials then filled in the details. Yet I
+was told that he seemed to know to a truck the demands
+which his projects would entail upon the railways; and
+he never put forward anything which led to a breakdown.
+I think he had that type of mind which sees straight through
+the details to the core of an undertaking and which yet
+retains in due perspective the minuti&aelig; of the machinery.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_98"></a>[98]</span>And it was not only the railways which he had in his
+charge. All the motor services were brought under his
+control as well. It was a bewilderingly complex affair;
+and he had to act as a kind of liaison centre between the
+two departments, clearing up any troubles which arose and
+co-ordinating the twin methods of transport. I think he
+had the power of mental visualisation developed to an
+abnormal extent; and his memory must have been quite
+out of the common. To assist him, he had the largest
+railway map I have ever seen&mdash;it covered a whole floor&mdash;and
+on it were placed blocks of metal showing the exact
+situation of every truck, carriage and locomotive in the
+kingdom. These were moved from time to time by
+his assistants in accordance with telegraphic information;
+and if he doubted his recollections at any moment he could
+go and study the groupings upon it.</p>
+
+<p>I remember seeing him once when things had got slightly
+out of gear, his hands full of telegraph forms, his feet
+encased in felt slippers to avoid marking the surface of
+the map, studying a point in the Welsh system where a
+number of trucks had been stranded in sidings. With the
+briefest consideration he seemed to come to a decision, for
+he gave his orders to an assistant:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Locomotive, Newport to Crumlin, <i>via</i> Tredegar
+Junction. (It can&#8217;t go through Abercarne, because the
+3.46 is on the line now and I don&#8217;t want to waste time
+shunting.) Then on to Cwm&mdash;C-w-m&mdash;to pick up
+twenty-seven trucks in the siding. All right. After that,
+back to Aberbeeg&mdash;b-double-e-g&mdash;since the line is blocked
+at Victoria by No. 702. Then Blaina&mdash;B-l-a-i-n-a&mdash;and
+Abergavenny. All right.... Stop a moment. Map-measure,
+please. Motor Fleet 37 will be at Abergavenny
+about then with some stores for the North. Hold train at
+Abergavenny and wire them to stop No. 37 as it passes.
+That will fill up ten trucks, I think. All right. Train<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_99"></a>[99]</span>
+Hereford, Birmingham, via Leominster. Load twelve trucks
+Birmingham. Tamworth, pick up five truck-loads&mdash;food,
+that red block there&mdash;then North behind No. 605. All right.
+Then wire Abergavenny to send No. 37 to Monmouth.
+They&#8217;ll get their orders there. All right.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>So it went on, I am told, hour after hour, throughout the
+day. Even the details of the diurnal traffic were not
+sufficient; for as he went along, he planned the night-operations
+as well. When he retired for the short sleep-time
+which he took, every point had been regulated for
+the ensuing five hours.</p>
+
+<p>At first, everything culminated in the word &#8220;North&#8221;;
+but almost immediately the whirling traffic on the south
+going rails had to be considered also, as it grew in volume.
+How he managed it, I do not know; but he seemed to
+have some sub-conscious faculty of drawing a balance-sheet
+of the traffic at any moment; so that he knew if he was
+sending too much North or too little South. Personally,
+I imagine that he owed his success to a power akin to that of
+the professional chess-player who can play a dozen blindfold
+games at one time. Everybody has the faculty of mental
+visualisation developed in a greater or less degree; but in
+Grogan, as far as traffic was concerned, it seems to have
+attained supernormal proportions. I believe that he actually
+&#8220;saw&#8221; in his mind the whole of England covered with his
+trains and motor fleets and that he had by some means
+established time-scales which enabled him to calculate the
+moments at which any train or fleet would pass a series of
+given points. It was, of course, an immensely more difficult
+affair than blindfold chess-playing; but I think it clearly
+depended upon cognate processes.</p>
+
+<p>Congleton, the Shipping Director, had a much easier
+task. For him there was no trouble of blocked rails or
+interleaving traffic. His main difficulty arose from berthing
+accommodation, which was a comparatively simple affair.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_100"></a>[100]</span>
+Most of the food-supplies were transferred North on board
+ship; and a certain amount of the shifting of population
+was also done in this way, especially the removal of the
+Glasgow inhabitants.</p>
+
+<p>I can only give the merest outline of these great operations;
+for the details are too intricate to be described here.
+Nordenholt&#8217;s first step was to commandeer most of the
+public halls in the country, which were then fitted up with
+partitions, etc., in order to convert them into temporary
+dwelling-places for families. Thereafter, he began to move
+his Nitrogen Volunteers into the Clyde Valley step by step;
+and simultaneously, under the Billeting Act, he evicted the
+local population to make room for his men. There was a
+considerable outcry; and at times the military had to be
+employed to persuade the reluctant to move out of their
+homes; but after the first few cases of obstruction had
+been dealt with firmly, the people recognised that it was
+useless to protest. Edinburgh was also treated in the same
+way; for Nordenholt had planned to occupy a belt of
+country running from coast to coast. He had to find room
+for a population of five millions; and it was evidently going
+to be a difficult matter.</p>
+
+<p>Looking back upon it now, it was a wonderful piece of
+work, carried out without any very serious hitches. To
+transfer a population of nearly ten millions, and to distribute
+five millions of that over a wide area of England&mdash;for this was
+the only way in which house-room could be found for them&mdash;was
+a gigantic task. Fabulous sums were expended in
+finding living-room for the refugees in the houses of residents
+throughout England; and eventually all of them had roofs
+over their heads, in private dwellings, in converted halls or
+in commandeered hotels.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, in Glasgow itself, the ever-growing Nitrogen
+Area was surrounded with military pickets which prevented
+the mingling of new-comers and the old population. This<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_101"></a>[101]</span>
+precaution of Nordenholt&#8217;s was mainly directed against the
+possibility of rioting; for the feeling between the expelled
+inhabitants and the incomers was extremely bitter: but it
+served another purpose in that it tended to surround the
+Nitrogen Area with a certain atmosphere of mystery. This
+was heightened by the stoppage of all telegraphic and telephonic
+communication between Glasgow and the South.
+Soon the only information obtainable in England with
+regard to affairs in the Clyde Valley came from emigrants;
+and with the end of the exodus, even the mails ceased and
+an impenetrable veil fell between the two parts of the
+island.</p>
+
+<p>A similar screen had fallen between England and Ireland
+at a slightly earlier date. All postal and telegraphic communication
+was broken off, and no vessels were permitted
+to trade with the Irish ports. It was by this means that
+the knowledge of the great Raid was kept secret. Nordenholt
+was almost ready to disclose his hand; and the Raid
+could not be postponed if any cattle were to be obtained
+alive. By a series of lightning sweeps, the military rounded
+up all the available live-stock in the island and drove them
+to the nearest ports, where ships were awaiting them. Bitter
+guerrilla warfare raged along the tracks of the columns; and
+the last pages in Irish history were marked with bloodshed.
+Not that it mattered much, since all were to die in any case
+before very long.</p>
+
+<p>But I am now coming to the last stages of the exodus.
+All the required food, all the available machinery and all
+the Nitrogen Volunteers had been sent up into the Clyde
+Valley. Without warning, after a secret session, Parliament
+had resolved to transfer itself to Glasgow. Now came the
+final moves. On the last day, only pickets of the Military
+Volunteers&mdash;the Labour Defence Force, as Nordenholt had
+renamed them&mdash;were left behind in every important town.</p>
+
+<p>During that night a carefully-planned course of destruction<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_102"></a>[102]</span>
+was followed. Every telegraph and telephone exchange was
+gutted; the remaining artillery was rendered useless; all
+the printing machinery of newspapers was wrecked; every
+aeroplane destroyed and practically all aerodromes burned:
+and as the trains and motors went northward in the night,
+bridge after bridge on the line or road was blown up. When
+morning came, there was a complete stoppage of all the
+normal channels of communication; and up to the Border,
+the railways had been put out of action for months. It was
+the second step in Nordenholt&#8217;s plan.</p>
+
+<p>Hitherto, I have chronicled his successes; but now I
+must deal with his single failure. He had intended to
+persuade the King to take refuge in the Clyde Valley, and
+had even, I believe, found a residence for him near Glasgow.
+Here, however, he met with a rebuff. I never learned the
+details of the interview; but it appears that the King refused
+to save himself. He felt it his duty to share the fate of his
+people. Nordenholt pleaded that if the King himself would
+not come, at least the Prince of Wales might be sent; but
+here also he failed to carry his point. The Prince point-blank
+rejected the suggestion. Knowing Nordenholt, I
+could hardly conceive that his persuasive proposals could
+fail to take effect; but it was evident that he met with
+no success.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He understood perfectly,&#8221; Nordenholt said to me later.
+&#8220;Both of them thoroughly understood what it meant. I
+think they felt that a Crown rescued at that price wouldn&#8217;t
+be worth wearing. At any rate, they refused to come
+North.&#8221;</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_103"></a>[103]</span>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak"><small>CHAPTER VIII</small><br />
+
+
+The Clyde Valley</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Hitherto</span> my narrative has had a certain unity; for I
+have been describing a chain of events, each of which followed
+naturally from its fore-runners; but now comes a bifurcation.
+I have explained how the Clyde Valley had been isolated,
+step by step, from the rest of the country; and when the
+last food-stores and troops had been brought into the
+Nitrogen Area, communications between the two districts
+ceased. From that moment, the two regions had different
+histories; and I cannot deal with them in an intertwined
+chronological sequence. I shall therefore continue my
+account of the Clyde Valley experiment now; and shall
+deal later with the collapse of civilisation in England.</p>
+
+<p>When planning his colony, Nordenholt decided to occupy
+a belt of country between the Forth and Clyde which
+contained all the required materials in the form of coal and
+iron. Other things, such as copper, he brought into the
+region in quantities which he believed would suffice for
+months.</p>
+
+<p>The frontier included something like a thousand square
+miles of territory; and within the boundary lay the whole
+industrial tract of mid-Scotland with its countless pits,
+mines, foundries, factories, ship-building yards and other
+resources.</p>
+
+<p>Under Congleton&#8217;s arrangements, as many ships as
+possible had been brought into the Clyde and Forth at
+the last moment; and thereafter the Navy blocked the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_104"></a>[104]</span>
+entrances with mine-fields upon an enormous scale. Nothing,
+either surface craft or submarine, could have penetrated
+either estuary.</p>
+
+<p>Aerial defence was a secondary matter. No invasion in
+force would come by that road; and the destruction of the
+aerodromes had disposed of any early attempts at mere
+malicious damage. Defences were established, however,
+around the central area; and to accommodate the aeroplanes
+and airships which had been brought North, immense
+flying-grounds were laid out on the level reaches of the
+lower Clyde.</p>
+
+<p>The storage of the food-supplies cost much thought; but
+by utilising every spare corner, including railway and tramway
+depots, it had been possible to get them all under cover
+and under guard. A strict rationing system was put in
+force, though the allowance was quite up to normal
+quantities. The main trouble was, as Nordenholt had
+anticipated, a shortage of vegetables; and there was also
+a considerable deficit in the meat-supply. However, after
+a complete census had been taken, it seemed likely that
+we should be able to hold out without much difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>These material factors had given little trouble in our
+arrangements; but when the human counters came into
+the question, the resulting complications were much greater
+than appeared at first sight. Taking the problem at its
+simplest, we had coal at the one end and manufactured
+nitrogenous products at the other; and the quantity of the
+latter depended roughly on the amount of the former, since
+coal represented our source of energy and also part of our
+raw material in certain of the processes employed. But,
+in addition, we needed coal for lighting, either by gas or
+electricity, and also for heating; so that our actual coal
+output had to be larger than that required for the mere
+fixation of nitrogen. Then the number of miners had
+to be adjusted in proportion to those of the remaining<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_105"></a>[105]</span>
+workmen in each stage of the process; for it was wasteful
+to feed men who were employed in producing a superfluity
+which could not be utilised. Again, the problem was
+complicated by the fact that the coal could not immediately
+be used as it was hewn. Time had to be allowed for the
+construction and erection of the machinery whereby the
+atmospheric nitrogen was to be fixed; and this introduced
+further complications into the calculations. Finally, to
+omit intermediate details, the number of labourers required
+for spreading the nitrogenous manure upon the soil was
+governed by the quantities of this material which could
+be prepared.</p>
+
+<p>But even when calculations had been made which covered
+all this ground, a further factor entered into the problem.
+In dealing with a million workers, death, disease and accidents
+have to be taken into account, since in their effects they
+touch large numbers of individuals. The incidence of
+these factors is not uniform in all trades; and hence
+corrections had to be introduced to bring the various groups
+into proportion.</p>
+
+<p>The whole of these calculations had, of course, been
+made during the period of enrolment; and the reason I
+lay stress upon them at this stage is to show how accurately
+each section of the machine was dovetailed into the neighbouring
+parts. It was impossible to foresee everything:
+in fact what happened showed that some factors are beyond
+calculation. But when the Nitrogen Area started as a
+going concern, everything possible had been provided for,
+as far as could be seen. It was no fault of Nordenholt&#8217;s
+that things went as they did in the end.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>With the segregation of the Nitrogen Area from the
+rest of the Kingdom, and the transference of Parliament
+to Glasgow, a problem arose which required instant settlement.
+A dual control in the district might have been<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_106"></a>[106]</span>
+fraught with all manner of evil possibilities; and it
+was essential, once for all, to decide where the ultimate
+power lay. Nordenholt allowed no time to be wasted in
+the matter. At the first meeting of the House of Commons
+after the Area was definitely closed, he took his seat as a
+Member and moved the adjournment of the House on a
+matter of urgent public importance. His speech, as reported
+officially, was very short.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mr. Speaker&mdash;Sir, I have watched the proceedings in
+this House closely during the last weeks; and I have
+noted that a certain number of members seem animated
+by a spirit of factious opposition to the Government
+measures. I call the attention of the House to the state
+of grave peril in which we all stand; and I ask them if
+this conduct has their support. I have no wish to complicate
+matters. We have all of us more responsibility on
+our shoulders than we can bear; and I have no sympathy
+with these methods. Those who think with me in this
+matter will vote with me in the lobby. I move that this
+House do now adjourn.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The motion was seconded and the question put without
+further debate. About forty members went into the lobby
+against Nordenholt. While they were still there, he drew
+a whistle from his pocket and blew three shrill blasts. A
+picket of the Labour Defence Force entered the House
+in response to the signal and arrested the malcontent
+members, whom they removed in custody. When the
+remainder of the Members returned to the Chamber,
+Nordenholt took his stand before the Mace.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gentlemen&#8221;&mdash;he dropped the usual ceremonial form
+of address&mdash;&#8220;I wished to allow these members who do
+not agree with me to select themselves; and I adopted
+the simplest and most convincing method of doing so,
+though I could have laid my hand on every one of them
+without this demonstration. These gentlemen, it appears,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_107"></a>[107]</span>
+are not satisfied with the manner in which things are being
+done here. I would point out to you that the creation
+of the Nitrogen Area has been mine from the start; and
+that the machinery of it is controlled by me now. There
+is no room for dual control in an enterprise of this magnitude.
+I offer you all positions in which you can help the
+remnant of the nation in saving itself; but there are no
+such positions in this House. Do you agree?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>For a moment there was silence, then an angry murmur
+ran from bench to bench. Nordenholt continued:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Those members who were removed from the House
+will to-night be embarked on airships; and by this time
+to-morrow I trust that they will all be safely landed, each in
+the constituency which he represents. Since they do not wish
+to aid us in the Nitrogen Area, it is fitting that they should
+go back to their constituents and assist them in the troubles
+which are about to break upon them. Are you content?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Again there was a murmur, but this time less defiant.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Finally, gentlemen, as I hear some whispers of constitutionalism,
+I have here a Proclamation by the King.
+He has dissolved Parliament. You are no longer clothed
+with even the semblance of authority.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The assembly was thunderstruck; for there seemed
+to be no reply to this.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I may say,&#8221; continued Nordenholt, &#8220;that some of you
+are of no personal value in this enterprise. These gentlemen
+also will be returned to their proper residences
+immediately. The remainder, whom I can trust, will be
+so good as to apply at my offices to-morrow, when their
+work will be explained to them. There is only one
+ultimate authority here now&mdash;myself.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was a sadly diminished assembly that appeared on the
+morrow. Neither the Prime Minister nor the Colonial
+Secretary was found among its numbers.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_108"></a>[108]</span>With the working men who formed the majority of the
+Nitrogen Volunteers, Nordenholt&#8217;s methods were entirely
+different. Here he had in the first stages to conciliate
+those with whom he dealt and to educate them gradually
+into an understanding of the task before them. In the
+beginning, no man worked more than eight hours per
+day or five days a week; and the general run of the
+workmen had a thirty-five hour week. Nordenholt&#8217;s
+object in this was two-fold. In the first place, he instilled
+into the men that he was an easy task-master; and
+secondly, he was able, by keeping check of the output,
+to place his finger upon those men who even under those
+easy conditions were not doing their full share. These
+workers he proposed to eliminate at a later period; but
+he wished to allow them to condemn themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Next he set going various newspapers. The contents
+of these, of course, dealt entirely with doings within the
+Nitrogen Area; but their readers soon grew accustomed
+to this: and as the main object of the journals was
+propaganda, the less actual news there was in them, the
+more likely it became that the propaganda would be read
+for want of something better.</p>
+
+<p>Through these papers, he began to explain very clearly
+the necessity for the work upon which they were engaged,
+handling the subject in all manner of ways and making
+it seem almost new each time by the fresh treatment which
+it received from day to day. During this period no hint of
+the underlying purpose of the Nitrogen Area was given,
+beyond the suggestion that it was a convenient spot, in
+view of its natural resources.</p>
+
+<p>In order to alleviate any grievances which they might
+feel, he devised a system of workmen&#8217;s committees, one for
+each trade; and the members of these bodies were elected
+separately by the married and unmarried men in proportion
+to their numbers. In this way he secured a majority of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_109"></a>[109]</span>
+more responsible men upon each committee, although no
+fault could be found with the method of election. Whatever
+grievances were ventilated by these committees were
+met immediately or the reasons against compliance with
+the demands were clearly and courteously explained.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, throughout this stage of the Nitrogen Area
+history, Nordenholt&#8217;s main object was to show himself in
+the light of a comrade rather than a task-master. He was
+building up a fund of popularity, even at considerable cost,
+in order that he might draw upon it later. It was a difficult
+game to play; for he could not afford to drive with an
+altogether loose rein in view of the necessity for haste; but,
+as he himself said, he understood men; and he was perhaps
+able to gain their confidence at a cheaper rate than most
+people in his position could have done. Like myself, he
+believed that fundamentally the working man is a sound
+man, provided that he is dealt with openly and is not made
+suspicious.</p>
+
+<p>Within a fortnight, in one way and another, practically
+every man in the Area understood the importance of his
+work. I question whether this was not the greatest of
+Nordenholt&#8217;s triumphs, though perhaps in perspective it may
+seem a small affair in comparison with other events. But
+the generation of enthusiasm is a difficult matter, much
+more difficult than feats which produce immediate effects.</p>
+
+<p>In one respect Nordenholt gauged the psychology of
+the masses accurately. He did not make himself cheap.
+Except at a few mass meetings which he addressed, none of
+the rank and file ever saw him at all. He knew the value
+of aloofness and a touch of mystery.</p>
+
+<p>But he did not confine himself to moves made openly
+upon the board. Behind the scenes he had collected an
+Intelligence Division, the existence of which was known only
+to a few; and by means of it he was able to put his finger
+on a weak spot or a centre of disaffection with extraordinary<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_110"></a>[110]</span>
+promptitude. Grievances were often remedied long before
+the appropriate committee had been able to cast their statement
+of them into a definite form. Nor, as I shall have to
+tell later, did this Intelligence Division confine its operations
+to the Nitrogen Area itself; for its network spread over the
+whole Kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the machinery of the Area was working
+satisfactorily, Nordenholt took a step in advance. The
+Workmen&#8217;s Committees were supplied with the actual
+statistics of production and it was explained to them that
+speeding-up must begin. The ultimate object was still
+concealed; but sufficient information was laid before them
+to show that at their present rate of output the nitrogenous
+materials prepared by the end of the twelve months would
+be totally insufficient to yield food enough for even the
+population of the Area itself, without taking the outer regions
+into account. They were then asked to suggest means by
+which output might be raised; and time was given them to
+think the matter out in all its bearings. Without hesitation
+they agreed that there must be an increase in productivity.</p>
+
+<p>To raise the output and also to check the points where
+any loss was occurring, Nordenholt introduced a series of
+statistical charts and at the same time divided the workmen
+in each trade into gangs of a definite number. At the end
+of each week, these charts were submitted to the Trade
+Committee and the gangs which were failing to do their
+share were indicated. By pointing out that a fixed quantity
+of material must be obtained per week unless disaster were
+to ensue, Nordenholt was able to make it clear to the
+Committees that slackness in one gang entailed extra
+exertions on the rest. There was no question of an
+employer trying to force up the standard of work: it was
+simply a question whether they wished to starve or live.</p>
+
+<p>The effect of this was striking; and certainly it was a
+novelty in working conditions. Every man became a policeman<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_111"></a>[111]</span>
+for his neighbours, since he knew that slackness on
+their part would demand greater exertions upon his own.
+The Committees instituted a system of inspectors, nominated
+by themselves, to see that work was properly carried out;
+and these inspectors reported both to the Committees and to
+Nordenholt himself, through special officials. Before long,
+both the Committees and Nordenholt had an extensive
+black list of inefficient workers; and the stage was being
+set for another drastic lesson.</p>
+
+<p>For three days the Area newspapers contained full accounts
+of the state into which things had drifted; and it was made
+obvious even to the most ignorant what the inevitable result
+would be if the output were not raised. Then, having thus
+prepared his ground, Nordenholt summoned a meeting of
+workmen delegates. It was the first time that most of
+those present had seen him; and I think he counted upon
+making his personality tell. He had no chairman or any of
+the usual machinery of a meeting; everything was concentrated
+upon the tall dark figure, alone upon the platform.</p>
+
+<p>It was a short speech which he made; but he delivered it
+very slowly, making every point tell as he went along and
+leaving time for each statement to sink well home into the
+minds of his audience. He began by a clear account of the
+objects for which they were working&mdash;and he had the gift
+of lucid exposition. He handled the statistical side of the
+matter in detail, and yet so simply that even the dullest
+could understand him. When he had completed his survey,
+every man present saw the state of affairs in all its bearings.</p>
+
+<p>Then, for the first time, he explained to them that those
+in the Nitrogen Area were all that could be saved; and that
+their salvation could be accomplished only at the cost of
+labour far in excess of anything they had anticipated.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, men,&#8221; he continued, &#8220;remember that I am not
+your task-master. I am merely striving, like yourselves, to
+avert this calamity; and I think I have already shown you<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_112"></a>[112]</span>
+that I have spent my best efforts in our common cause. I
+have no wish to dictate to you. I leave the decision in your
+own hands. Those of you who wish to starve may do so.
+It is your own decision; even though it involves your wives
+and families, I will not interfere. I ask no man to work
+harder than he thinks necessary.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But I put this point before you. Is it right that a man
+who will not strain himself in the common service should
+reap where he has not sown? Is it right that any man
+should batten upon the labour of you all while refusing to do
+his utmost? Will you permit wilful inefficiency to rob you
+and your children of their proper share in the means of
+safety? Or do you believe that this community should rid
+itself of parasites?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I leave myself entirely in your hands in the matter.
+I take no decision without your consent. If you choose to
+toil in order that they may take bread from your children&#8217;s
+mouths, it is no affair of mine. I will do my best for you
+all, in any case. But I would be neglecting my duty did I
+not warn you that there is no bread to spare. Every
+mouthful has been counted; and even at the best we shall
+just struggle through.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;These are the facts. Do you wish to retain these
+inefficients among you? Without your consent, I can make
+no move. I ask you here and now for your decision.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He held the meeting in the hollow of his hand. Cries of
+&#8220;No. Away with them. No spongers,&#8221; and the like were
+heard on all sides. Nordenholt held up his hand, and
+silence came at once. The meeting hung on his words.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Those in favour of allowing this inefficiency to continue,
+stand up.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>No one rose.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Very good, men. I will carry out your decision.
+This meeting is at an end.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The morning papers contained a full report of his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_113"></a>[113]</span>
+speech; but before they were in the hands of the populace,
+Nordenholt had acted. All the ca&#8217; canny workmen had
+been arrested during the night, along with their families,
+and removed to the southern boundary, where they were
+placed on trains and motors ready for transport to the
+Border. The thing was done with absolute silence and
+with such efficiency that it seemed more like kidnapping
+than an ordinary process of arrest. Nordenholt knew the
+advantage of mystery; and he proposed to make these
+disappearances strike home on the public mind. The
+inefficients vanished without leaving a clue behind.</p>
+
+<p>At the Border, each of them was supplied with provisions
+exactly equivalent to the rations remaining in the outer
+world; and they were then abandoned as they stood.
+Nothing was ever known of their fate. When the works
+opened again in the morning, their fellows missed them
+from the gangs and time enough was allowed for their
+disappearance to sink in; after which a redistribution took
+place which closed up the gaps. But the very mystery
+served to heighten the effect of the lesson. For the first
+time, Fear in more than one form had entered the Nitrogen
+Area.</p>
+
+<p>I remembered what Nordenholt had said to me some
+weeks earlier: &#8220;I shall deal with them&mdash;and I shall do it
+by the hand of their own fellows.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>So you can understand the roaring tide of industry which
+mounted day by day in the Area. This sudden stroke had
+done more than anything else to convince the people of the
+seriousness of the situation. Ten thousand men had been
+condemned and had vanished on an instant&mdash;Nordenholt
+made no secret of the number; and the remainder realised
+that things must indeed be grave when a step of this kind
+had been necessary. He had given no time for amendment:
+condemnation had been followed by the execution of the
+sentence: and it was they themselves who had pronounced<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_114"></a>[114]</span>
+the decree. They could not lay it upon his shoulders.
+And the veil of mystery which enwrapped the fate of the
+convicted ones had its value in more than one direction.
+Had Nordenholt caused them to be shot, public sympathy
+would have been aroused. But this impenetrable secrecy
+baffled speculation and prevented men from forming any
+concrete picture which might arouse compassion.</p>
+
+<p>Choosing his moment, Nordenholt announced that, in
+future, the factories would be run continuously, shift after
+shift, throughout the twenty-four hours. For a time he
+called a halt to the newspaper campaign for increased output.
+He would need this form of publicity later; and he
+did not wish it to become staled by constant repetition.</p>
+
+<p>For the present he was satisfied. Everything was now
+in train and he was into his stride all along the line. At
+last statistics were accumulating which would enable him to
+gauge exactly how the machinery was running; and he
+held his hand until a balance-sheet could be drawn with
+accuracy.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>At this point in my narrative I am trying to produce a
+conspectus of the Nitrogen Area as it was during that
+period in its career. I leave to the imagination of my
+readers the task of picturing that gigantic concentration of
+human effort: the eternal smoke-cloud from a thousand
+chimney-stalks lying ever between us and the sun; the
+murky twilight of the streets at noon; the whir of dynamos
+and the roar of the great electric arcs; the unintermittent
+thunder of trains pouring coal into the city; and, above all,
+the half-naked figures in the factories, toiling, toiling, shift
+after shift in one incessant strain through the four-and-twenty
+hours. No one can ever depict the details of that
+panorama.</p>
+
+<p>But alongside this vast outpouring of physical energy
+there lay another world, calm, orderly and almost silent,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_115"></a>[115]</span>
+yet equally important to the end in view: the world of the
+scientific experts in their laboratories and research stations.
+To pass from one region to the other was like a transition
+from pandemonium to a cloister.</p>
+
+<p>Nordenholt had grouped his experts into three main
+classes, though of course these groups by no means included
+all the investigators he controlled. It was here that the
+Nordenholt Gang were strongest, for the path of the scientific
+man is one which offered the greatest chances to
+Nordenholt&#8217;s scheme for the furthering of youth.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place came the group of chemists and electricians
+who were engaged upon the improvement of
+nitrogen fixation methods; and between this section and
+the factories there was a constant <i>liaison</i>; so that each new
+plant which was erected might contain the very latest
+improvements devised by the experts.</p>
+
+<p>The second group contained the bacteriologists, whose
+task it was to investigate the habits of <i>B. diazotans</i>, to
+determine whether it could be exterminated in any practical
+manner and to discover what methods could be employed
+to prevent its ravaging the new crops when they were
+obtainable.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, the experts in agriculture overlapped with the
+chemical group, since many of the questions before them
+were concerned with the chemistry of the soil. I have
+already mentioned how the action of <i>B. diazotans</i> disintegrated
+the upper strata of the land and reduced the soil to
+a friable material. This formed one of the most troublesome
+features in the cultivation problem, since the porosity
+of the ground allowed water to sink through, and thus
+plants sown in the affected fields were left without any
+liquid upon which they could draw for sustenance. It was
+J. F. Hope, I believe, who finally suggested a solution of
+the matter. His process consisted in mixing colloid minerals
+such as clays with the soil and thus forming less permeable<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_116"></a>[116]</span>
+beds; and the agricultural experts were able to establish
+the minimum percentages of clay which were required in
+order to make crops grow.</p>
+
+<p>I have mentioned these points in order to show how
+much we in the Area depended upon the pure scientists for
+help. But it must not be supposed that only those lines of
+scientific investigation capable of immediate application were
+kept in view by Nordenholt. I learned later, as I shall tell
+in its proper place, that he had cast further afield than that.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot give details of the work on the scientific side,
+because I have no intimate acquaintance with them; but I
+met the results on every hand in the course of my own
+department&#8217;s affairs. From day to day a new machine
+would be passed for service and put into operation, some
+fresh catalyst would be sent down for trial on a large scale
+after having been tested in the laboratory, or there might be
+a slight variation in the relative quantities of the ingredients
+in some of our factory processes. There was a constant
+touch between research and large-scale operations.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of this I used often to have to visit the
+Research Section; and in some ways I found it a mental
+anodyne in my perplexities. These long, airy laboratories,
+with their spotless cleanliness and delicate apparatus, formed
+a pleasant contrast to the grimy factories and gigantic
+machines among which part of my days were passed. And
+I found that the popular conception of the scientific man
+as a dry-as-dust creature was strangely wide of the mark.
+It may be that Nordenholt&#8217;s picked men differed from
+others of their class; but I found in them a directness in
+speech and a sense of humour which I had not anticipated.
+After the hurry and confusion of the improvisation which
+marked the opening of the Nitrogen Area, the quiet certainty
+of the work in the Research Section seemed like a
+glimpse of another world. I do not mean that they talked
+like super-men or that the investigations were always successful;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_117"></a>[117]</span>
+but over it all there was an atmosphere of clockwork
+precision which somehow gave one confidence. These
+men, it struck me for the first time, had always been
+contending with Nature in their struggle to wrest her
+secrets from her; while we in the other world had been
+sparring against our fellows with Nature standing above us
+in the conflict, so great and so remote that we had never
+understood even that she was there. Now, under the new
+conditions, all was changed for us; while to these scientific
+experts it was merely the opening of a fresh field in their
+long-drawn-out contest.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>During the inception of Nordenholt&#8217;s scheme, my own
+work had dealt with varied lines of activity which brought
+me into contact with diverse departments of the machine;
+but when the transfer to the Clyde Valley took place, I
+settled down into more definite duties. Nordenholt had
+picked me out, I believe, on the strength of my knowledge
+of factory organisation; and my first post in the North
+dealt with this branch. Thus in the earlier days, my work
+took me into the machine-shops and yards where the heavy
+machinery was being built or remodelled; and so I came
+into direct contact with the human element.</p>
+
+<p>But as time went on, the range of my control increased;
+and as my work extended I had to delegate this section
+more and more to my subordinates. I became, through a
+gradual series of transitions, the checker of efficiency over
+most of the Area activities.</p>
+
+<p>The under-current of all my memories of that time is a
+series of curves. Graphs of coal-supply from each pit, so
+that the fluctuation of output might be controlled and
+investigated; graphs of furnace-production from day to day,
+whereby all might be kept up to concert-pitch; graphs
+comparing one process with another in terms of power and
+efficiency; graphs of workmen&#8217;s ages and effectiveness;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_118"></a>[118]</span>
+graphs of total power-consumption; graphs of remaining
+food-supplies extrapolated to show probable consumption
+under various scales; graphs of population changes; graphs
+of health-statistics: all these passed through my hands in
+their final form until I began to lose touch with the real
+world about me and to look upon disasters costing many
+lives merely as something which produced a point of inflexion
+in my curves.</p>
+
+<p>Nordenholt had established his central offices in the
+University and had cleared the benches from all the classrooms
+to make room for his staff. It was probably the best
+choice he could have made; since it provided within a
+limited area sufficient office-room to house everyone whom
+he might wish to call into consultation at a moment&#8217;s
+notice at any time; and it had the further advantage that
+all the scientific experts had been given the University
+laboratories to work in, so that they also were within easy
+call. He himself had chosen as his private office the old
+Senate Room. The Randolph Hall had been fitted up as a
+kind of card-index library wherein were stored all the facts
+of which he might be in need at any time; and the Court
+Room was converted into his secretary&#8217;s office and connected
+with the Senate Room by a door driven through
+the wall.</p>
+
+<p>In Nordenholt&#8217;s office a huge graph extended right across
+the wall over the fireplace. It was an enormous diagram,
+covering the period from the starting of the Nitrogen Area
+and extending, as far as its numbered absciss&aelig; were concerned,
+beyond the harvest-time in the next year. Each
+morning, before Nordenholt came to his office, the new
+daily points were inserted on it and joined up with the
+preceding curves. One line, in red, expressed the amount
+of food remaining; another, in green, showed the quantity
+of nitrogenous material synthesised up to date; whilst the
+third curve, in purple, indicated approximately the crop<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_119"></a>[119]</span>
+which might be expected from the nitrogenous manure in
+hand. Of all the sights in the Nitrogen Area, I think that
+series of curves made the deepest impression upon me. It
+was so impersonal, a cold record of our position and our
+prospects, untinged by any human factor. The slow rise
+of the green curve; the steady fall of the red line&mdash;our
+whole future was locked up in these relative trends.</p>
+
+<p>I remember one morning in Nordenholt&#8217;s office, where I
+had gone to consult him on some point or other. We had
+discussed the matter in hand; and I was about to leave him
+when he called me back.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I haven&#8217;t seen much of you lately, Flint,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Sit
+down for a few minutes, will you? I want a rest from all
+this for a short time; and I think it would do you good to
+get clear of things for a while also. What do you do with
+yourself at nights?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I told him that I usually worked rather late.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That won&#8217;t do as a steady thing. I know the work
+has to be done; and I know you have to work till midnight,
+and after it often, to keep abreast of things. But if you do
+it without a break now and again you&#8217;ll simply get stale
+and lose grip. You may keep on working long hours; but
+what you do in the end won&#8217;t be so efficient. Take to-night
+off. Come to dinner with me and we&#8217;ll try to shake loose
+from Nitrogen for a while. I&#8217;ve asked Henley-Davenport
+also.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I accepted eagerly enough, though with a somewhat rueful
+feeling that it meant harder work on the following day if
+I was to overtake arrears. But I wanted to meet Henley-Davenport.
+As I mentioned at the beginning of this narrative,
+before the irruption of <i>B. diazotans</i> into the world, he
+had been engaged upon radioactivity investigations; and I
+was anxious to hear what he was doing. I knew that
+Nordenholt set great store by his work&mdash;he was one of the
+Nordenholt young men&mdash;and I was interested. But my<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_120"></a>[120]</span>
+main reason for accepting was, of course, Nordenholt himself.
+As time went on, he fascinated me more and more; and I
+grasped at every opportunity of studying his complex personality.
+I doubt if I have been able to throw light upon it in
+these pages. I have given vignettes here and there to the
+best of my ability; but I know that I have failed to set
+down clearly the feeling which he always gave me, the
+distinction between the surface personality and the greater
+forces moving behind that screen. The superficial part is
+easy to describe; but the noumenon of Nordenholt is a
+thing beyond me. I only felt it; I never saw it: and I
+doubt if any man ever saw it fully revealed.</p>
+
+<p>Just then the door of the secretary&#8217;s room opened and
+someone came in. Curiously enough, I had never seen
+Nordenholt&#8217;s secretary before. She seemed to be about
+twenty-four, fair-haired and slim, dressed like any other
+business girl; but it was her face which struck me most.
+She looked fragile and at the corners of the sensitive mouth
+I thought I saw evidences of strain. Somehow she seemed
+out of place amid all this grimness: her world should have
+been one of ease and happiness.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;These are the figures you wanted with regard to A. 323,
+Uncle Stanley,&#8221; she said, as she handed over a card.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Thanks, Elsa. By the way, this is Mr. Flint. You&#8217;ve
+heard me speak of him often. My ward, Miss Huntingtower,
+Flint. She acts as my secretary.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>We exchanged the commonplaces usual to the situation.
+I noticed that Nordenholt&#8217;s voice changed as he spoke to
+her: a ring of cheerfulness came into it which was not
+usually there. In a few minutes he dismissed her and we
+sat down again.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, Flint, there&#8217;s another example of the effect of
+too hard work. We&#8217;re all running things rather fine,
+nowadays. As for myself, it doesn&#8217;t matter. So long as
+I can see this year through, it&#8217;s immaterial to me what the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_121"></a>[121]</span>
+ultimate effect may be. I can afford to run things to their
+end. But you younger people have most of your lives
+before you. I&#8217;m not hinting that you can spare yourselves;
+but you must try to leave something for the future. When
+it&#8217;s all over, we shall still need directors; and you must
+manage to combine hard work now with enough reserve
+force to prevent a collapse in the moment of success.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s why I planned amusement for the workers as
+well as a time schedule for the factories. We aren&#8217;t dealing
+with machines which can be run continuously and not
+suffer. We have to give the men a change of interest.
+I suppose some of you thought I was wrong in cumbering
+ourselves with all these football players, actors and actresses,
+music-hall artistes and so on, who produce nothing directly
+towards our object? For all I know you may jib at the
+sight of the thousands who go down to the Celtic Park
+every Saturday afternoon to watch a gang of professionals
+playing Soccer. I don&#8217;t. I know that these thousands are
+getting fresh air and exercising their lungs in yelling applause.
+I couldn&#8217;t get them to do it any other way; and I want
+them to do it. Then the halls and theatres occupy them
+in the evenings when they aren&#8217;t working; and that keeps
+them from brooding over their troubles. I don&#8217;t want men
+to accumulate here and there and grouse over the strain I
+put on them. That&#8217;s why I picked out the best of the
+whole Stage and brought them here. The Labour section
+is getting better value for its amusement money than it
+ever got in its life before; and I&#8217;m getting what I want
+too.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s why I cornered tobacco and liquor also. We
+must remove every scrap of restraint on pleasure, Flint, or
+we should have trouble at once. They must have their
+smoke and they must have drink in moderation. You can&#8217;t
+run this kind of colony on narrow lines.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And there&#8217;s another thing, perhaps the most important<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_122"></a>[122]</span>
+of all under the conditions we are in: religion. I&#8217;m not
+talking about creeds or anything of that kind. I&#8217;ve studied
+most of them from the point of view of psychology; and
+they&#8217;re empty things; life left them long ago. But behind
+all that mass of outworn lumber there&#8217;s a real feeling which
+can&#8217;t be neglected if we are to get the best out of things.
+That&#8217;s why I brought all these ministers of the various
+denominations into the Area. We must have them; and
+as far as I could, I picked the best of them. But I&#8217;ll have
+no idlers here. They have to do their day&#8217;s work with the
+rest of us and do their teaching afterwards. Every man
+ought to be able to <i>do</i> something. After all, Christ was a
+carpenter before He took up His work. That&#8217;s what has
+been wrong with ninety per cent. of parsons since the
+Churches started. They don&#8217;t know anything practical and
+they mistake talk for work. What was the average sermon
+except expanding a text, with illustrations&mdash;diluting the
+Bible with talk, just as a dishonest milkman waters his
+milk.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, I&#8217;ve picked the best I could get; and I&#8217;ve given
+them a free hand. But I wish I were sure where it is all
+going to lead. It&#8217;s the most difficult problem I ever tackled,
+I know. Our conditions aren&#8217;t parallel, but I am half-afraid
+of reproducing the story of the Anabaptists in M&uuml;nster.
+You can&#8217;t get heavy physical and mental tension in an
+unprepared population without seeing some strange things.
+I introduced these ministers as a brake on that line of
+development.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And what a chance they have! It&#8217;s when men are
+most helpless that they turn to religion; and here we are
+going to have a field in which much might be sown. If
+only they are equal to the times! But it&#8217;s no affair of mine.
+They must work out their own salvation and perhaps the
+salvation of their people if they can.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;As for us, Flint, we&#8217;ve got enough work of our own in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_123"></a>[123]</span>
+this world. Take my advice and clear every idea of humanity
+out of your mind: stick to your curves and graphs and don&#8217;t
+think beyond them. If once you let your imagination stray
+over the real meaning of them&mdash;in toil and pain and death&mdash;you&#8217;ll
+never be able to carry on. I can&#8217;t help seeing it all;
+and that&#8217;s why I pin myself to the Curve there. I don&#8217;t
+want to look beyond it. I want to keep myself detached
+from all that as far as possible; for I can&#8217;t afford to be
+biased. It&#8217;s difficult; and in a few weeks more it will be
+still harder, when these unheard cries of agony go up in
+the South. But what can one do? I must shut my ears
+as best I can and go forward; or everything will fall to
+pieces and we shall save nothing out of the wreck. What
+a prospect, eh?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, Flint,&#8221;&mdash;he sprang up&mdash;&#8220;off to work again, both
+of us. We can&#8217;t afford to waste time if we are to have an
+evening free from worry. I&#8217;ll see you at dinner.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As I reached the door, he called me back and spoke
+low:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;By the way, Miss Huntingtower doesn&#8217;t know all our
+plans. Keep off the subject of the South. She hasn&#8217;t been
+told anything about that; and I want to keep it from her
+as long as I can. You understand?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, if you wish it. But surely she must have some
+knowledge of the state of affairs. You can&#8217;t have managed
+to keep her in the dark about the whole thing?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It wasn&#8217;t difficult. She looks after certain special
+branches of my correspondence and so on; and nothing
+except actual Area business passes through her hands, so
+she has seen nothing beyond that. And once she finishes
+her work for the day I&#8217;ve made it a rule for her that she
+takes no further interest in the situation. I told her she
+must get her mind clear of it at night, or she would get
+stale and be no use to me. That was quite enough. She
+doesn&#8217;t even read the newspapers.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_124"></a>[124]</span>&#8220;But what&#8217;s the use of keeping her in the dark? She
+is bound to know all about it soon enough.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a great difference, Flint, between learning of
+a thing after it is irrevocable and hearing of it while there
+is time to protest against it. Once a catastrophe is over, it
+<i>is</i> over; and the shock is lighter than if one feels it coming
+and struggles against it. I don&#8217;t wish Miss Huntingtower
+to hear anything about the South until the whole thing is
+at an end down there. She&#8217;ll accept it then, since there
+is nothing else for it. I don&#8217;t wish her to be put in the
+position of feeling that she ought to do all she can to
+prevent its coming about. You understand?&#8221;</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_125"></a>[125]</span>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak"><small>CHAPTER IX</small><br />
+
+
+Intermezzo</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> order to understand the impression which that evening
+left upon me, it is necessary to bear in mind the conditions
+under which I had been living for the last few weeks. In
+the earlier stages I had been oscillating between my office,
+with its ever-accumulating mass of papers, on the one hand;
+and the grime and clangour of the factories and furnaces
+upon the other. Then, gradually, I saw less and less of the
+concrete machinery of our safety and slipped almost wholly
+into the work of control from a distance. Lists, sheets of
+figures, graphs, letters dictated or read, telephonic communications,
+reports from factory managers, all surged up before
+me in a daily deluge. My meals were eaten hurriedly at a
+side-table in my office; and my lights burned far into the
+morning in the attempt to cope with the torrent which I
+had to control. Often as the dawn was coming up through
+the smoke-clouds of the city I walked home with a wearied
+mind through which endless columns of figures chased each
+other; and my eyes had broken down under the strain to
+the extent that I had to use pilocarpine almost constantly.
+I was beginning to look back on the old life in London,
+with its theatre parties and dinners, as if it were another
+existence which I should never re-enter. I seemed shut off
+from it by some nebulous yet impenetrable curtain; and
+when I thought of it at times, I felt that it had passed away
+beyond recall. All the softer side of civilisation, it seemed,
+must go down, once for all, in this cataclysm; and from<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_126"></a>[126]</span>
+our efforts a harder, harsher world would be born. Ease and
+luxury had vanished, leaving us stripped to our necessities.</p>
+
+<p>And suddenly I found myself in the old surroundings once
+more. I was ushered into a room which, though its simplicity
+recalled Nordenholt&#8217;s other environments, still betrayed
+a woman&#8217;s hand at every point. There was no litter
+of meaningless nicknacks; every touch went to build up a
+harmonious whole: and it was unmistakably a feminine
+mind which had designed it. As I glanced down the room,
+I saw Miss Huntingtower standing by the fireplace; and it
+flashed across me that, whether by accident or design, the
+room formed a framework for her.</p>
+
+<p>As she came forward to meet me, her smile effaced the
+strained expression which I had noticed in the morning. In
+these surroundings she seemed different, somehow. The
+artistry of the room fitted her own beauty so that each
+appeared to find its complement in the other. It seemed to
+me that she was designed by destiny for this environment,
+and not for the harder work of the world. And yet, she gave
+no suggestion of triviality; there was no hint of a feminine
+desire to attract. It must have been that she harmonised so
+well with the frame in which I saw her. And the personality
+which gazed from her eyes seemed in some way to
+blend with this world of shaded lights, graceful outlines and
+innate simplicity.</p>
+
+<p>Nordenholt came into the room almost at once with a
+grave apology to Miss Huntingtower for being late.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Convenient having a house in the University Square,&#8221;
+he said to me. &#8220;If we hadn&#8217;t taken over some of these
+professors&#8217; residences, it would have meant such a waste of
+time getting to and fro between one&#8217;s home and the office.
+That was one reason why I selected the University as a
+centre. We had the whole thing ready-made for us.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Henley-Davenport arrived almost at once; and we went
+down to dinner. I had begun to re-acclimatise myself in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_127"></a>[127]</span>
+these surroundings; but I still recall that evening in every
+detail. The shaded candles on the table, which soothed my
+straining eyes, the glitter of silver and crystal on the snowy
+cloth, Nordenholt&#8217;s lean visage half in shadow except when
+he leaned forward into the soft illumination, Henley-Davenport&#8217;s
+sharp voice driving home a point, and Miss Huntingtower&#8217;s
+eager face as she glanced from speaker to speaker or
+put a question to one of us: with it all, I seemed back again
+in my lost world and the Nitrogen Area appeared to belong
+to another region of my life.</p>
+
+<p>But even here it penetrated, though faintly. The usual
+topics of conversation were gone: theatres, books, all our
+old interests had been uprooted and cast aside, so that we
+could only take them up in the form of reminiscence. And,
+as a matter of fact, we talked very little about them. I
+tried one or two tentative efforts; but Henley-Davenport,
+who had known Nordenholt and his ward longer than I,
+made very little attempt to follow me: and I soon gathered
+that Miss Huntingtower was better pleased with other
+subjects.</p>
+
+<p>What appeared to interest her most was the general situation;
+and I was rather flattered to find that she seemed
+anxious to hear my own views.</p>
+
+<p>She seemed to be one of those people who are gifted with
+the faculty of drawing one out. I don&#8217;t mean that she sat
+silent and merely listened; but she had the knack of stimulating
+one to talk and of keeping one to the main line by
+occasional questions, which showed that she had not only
+followed what had been said but had silently commented
+upon it as one went along. Yet she never appeared to lose
+her charm by aping masculinity. Her outlook was a
+feminine one in its essentials, even if her mind was acute.
+And she had the gift of naturalness. There was no
+artificiality either in look or speech. She made me feel
+almost at once as though I had known her for years.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_128"></a>[128]</span>One thing I did notice about her. Whenever Nordenholt
+spoke she seemed to hang on his words and to weigh them
+mentally. The two seemed to be joined by some intimate
+bond of understanding; and I could see that Nordenholt
+was proud of her in his way.</p>
+
+<p>Dinner drew to an end, and Nordenholt began to question
+Henley-Davenport about his researches. Miss Huntingtower
+interrupted at the beginning with a request for simple
+language.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If you begin talking about uranium-X&#8321; and meso-thorium-2,
+then I won&#8217;t understand you, and I want to
+know what it is all about.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, Miss Huntingtower, I think I can make it plain
+without using uranium-X&#8321; or even eka-tantalum; but it&#8217;s
+hard that I should be forbidden to use all these fine-sounding
+words, eh? Isn&#8217;t it? I submit under protest. It takes
+away half the pleasure of telling things when one has to put
+them in mere vulgar English.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well&#8221;&mdash;he had an extraordinary habit of interjecting
+&#8220;well&#8221; and by inflecting it in various ways, making it
+serve as a kind of prelude to his sentences, a sort of keynote,
+as it were&mdash;&#8220;Well, I take it that you know what radioactivity
+is. Some of the atoms are spontaneously breaking
+down into simpler materials, and in that breakdown they
+liberate an amount of energy which is immeasurably greater
+than anything we can obtain by the ordinary chemical
+reactions which occur when coal is burned or when gas is
+lighted.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, if we could tap that store of energy which evidently
+lies within the atom we should have Nature at our
+feet. She would be done for, beaten, out of the struggle:
+and we should simply have to walk over the remains and
+take what we wanted. Until the thing is actually done,
+none of us can grasp what it will mean; for no one has
+ever seen unlimited energy under control in this world. We<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_129"></a>[129]</span>
+have always had to fight hard for every unit of it that we
+used.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, there is no doubt that atoms <i>can</i> be broken down.
+All the radioactive elements split up spontaneously without
+any help from us. But the quantities of them which we
+can gather together are so extremely minute that as a source
+of energy they are feebler than an ordinary wax vesta, for all
+practical purposes.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;So far, so good. We know the thing can be done; but
+we haven&#8217;t hit on the way of doing it. Is that clear?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Quite clear, thanks,&#8221; said Miss Huntingtower, with a
+smile. &#8220;Radium without tears, Part I. Now the second
+lesson, please.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, don&#8217;t be too optimistic. There may be tears in
+the second part. It&#8217;s a little stiffer. The majority of the
+elements are perfectly stable; they undergo no radioactive
+decompositions; so that they give off no energy. But all
+the same, if our views are right, they contain a store of
+pent-up energy quite as great as that of the radioactive set.
+It&#8217;s like two clocks, both wound up. One of them, the
+radioactive clock, is going all the time and the mainspring
+is running down. You know it is going because it gives
+out a tick; and we recognise radioactivity by certain tests
+of a somewhat similar type, only we &#8216;listen&#8217; for electrical
+effects instead of the sound-waves you detect when the
+clock ticks. Now the second clock, the one that is wound
+up but hasn&#8217;t been started, is like the ordinary element. If
+you could give it a shake, it would start off ticking.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, what we want to do is to start the non-radioactive
+elements ticking. We are looking for the right kind of
+shake to give them in order to start them off. If we can
+find that, then we shall get all the energy we need, because
+we can utilise enormous quantities of material where now
+we have only the traces of radioactive stuff.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A risky business,&#8221; said Nordenholt. &#8220;Your first<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_130"></a>[130]</span>
+successful experiment will be rather catastrophic, won&#8217;t
+it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Probably. But I&#8217;ve left full notes of everything I&#8217;ve
+done, so someone else will be able to continue if anything
+happens to me.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, the real trouble is that it takes a lot to shake up
+the internal machinery of an atom. Rutherford did it long
+ago by using a stream of alpha-particles from radium to
+smash up the nitrogen atom. That was in 1920 or thereabouts.
+You see, we have no ordinary force intense enough
+to break up atoms of the stable elements; we have to go to
+the radioactive materials to get energy sufficiently concentrated
+to make a beginning.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, what I have been following out is this. Perhaps
+I can show you it best by an experiment. Can you get me
+some safety match-boxes?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A dozen of these were brought, and he stood them each
+on its end in a line.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now,&#8221; he continued, &#8220;it requires a certain force in a
+blow from my finger to knock down one of these boxes;
+and if I take the ten boxes separately, it would need ten
+times that force to throw them all flat. But if I arrange
+them so that as each one falls it strikes its neighbour, then
+I can knock the whole lot down with a single touch. The
+first one collides with the second, and the second in falling
+upsets the third, and so on to the end of the line.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, that is what I have been following out amongst
+the atoms. I know that the alpha-rays of radium will upset
+the equilibrium of other atoms; and what is wanted is to
+get the second set of atoms to upset a third and so forth.
+Hitherto I have not been able to hit upon the proper train
+of atoms to use. Somehow it seems to sputter out half-way,
+just as a train of powder fails to catch fire all along its line
+if one part of it isn&#8217;t thick enough to carry the flame on.
+But I have got far enough to show that it can be done. It&#8217;s<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_131"></a>[131]</span>
+rather pretty to follow, if one has enough imagination to
+read behind the measurements. You really must come and
+see it, Nordenholt.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do you think it will come out soon?&#8221; asked Miss
+Huntingtower.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Sooner or later, is all one can say. But it might come
+any day.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Nordenholt rose from the table.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll come across now, if you can let me see that
+experiment,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I&#8217;m more interested than I can
+tell you; and I want to discuss some points with you. I&#8217;m
+taking the evening off anyway, and I may as well make
+myself useful. How long will it take&mdash;an hour? All
+right. Flint, will you amuse Miss Huntingtower till I
+get back?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He and Henley-Davenport went out, leaving us to return
+upstairs.</p>
+
+<p>For a time we talked of one thing and another till at last,
+by what transitions I cannot now remember, we touched
+upon her secretaryship, and I asked her how she came to
+occupy the post.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do you really want to know?&#8221; she asked. &#8220;I warn
+you it will be rather a long story if I tell you it; and it will
+probably seem rather dull to you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t be afraid. I am sure I shall not find it dull.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, let&#8217;s pretend we are characters in a novel and the
+distressed heroine will proceed to relate the story of her life.
+&#8216;I was born of poor but honest parents....&#8217; Will that
+do to start?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Must you begin at the beginning? I usually skip first
+chapters myself.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m sorry, but I have to begin fairly early if you are to
+understand. Mr. Nordenholt isn&#8217;t my uncle, really, you
+know. My father was a distant relation of his. When
+Father and Mother died I was quite a tiny child; I only<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_132"></a>[132]</span>
+remember them vaguely now: and Uncle Stanley was the
+only relation I had in the world. I believe, too, that I was
+the only relative he had, certainly I was the only one I ever
+heard him speak of, except Father and Mother. It was just
+after he had made his fortune in Canada, and he must have
+been about thirty then. It appears that Father had written
+to him much earlier, asking him to look after me if anything
+happened to him and Mother; and when they were
+drowned&mdash;it was a boating accident&mdash;he came home to
+this country and took me to live with him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I was only about eight then, and I missed Father and
+Mother so. I cried and cried; and he spent hours with me,
+trying to comfort me. Somehow he did me good. I don&#8217;t
+know how he did it; but he seemed to understand so well.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Again I had come across a new side in Nordenholt&#8217;s
+character. I could hardly picture that grim figure&mdash;for
+even at thirty Nordenholt must have been grim&mdash;comforting
+that tiny scrap of humanity in distress. And yet she
+was right: he did understand.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And with it all, he didn&#8217;t spoil me. He knew, of
+course, that when I grew up I would have more money
+than I knew what to do with; and he determined that I
+should get the full pleasure out of it by coming to it unspoilt
+and with unjaded feelings. He brought me up in the simplest
+way you can imagine. I had no expensive toys, but I liked
+the ones I had all the better for that. It gave more scope
+for the imagination, you see: and I had even more than the
+child&#8217;s ordinary imaginative power. When we played fairy
+tales together he used to be the Ogre or the Prince
+Charming, and I could see him so well either way. He
+laughs now when I remind him that he used to make a
+good Prince Charming.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, so it went on, year after year; and we grew up
+with more in common than either father and daughter or
+brother and sister. Somehow I picked up his ways of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_133"></a>[133]</span>
+looking at things; and I caught from him something of his
+understanding of people. He never put any ideals before
+me; but I think he himself gave me something to carve out
+an ideal from. Oh, there&#8217;s nobody like Uncle Stanley! I
+don&#8217;t know anybody who comes up to his shoulder.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve only known him for a few weeks, Miss Huntingtower,&#8221;
+I said, &#8220;but I&#8217;ve seen enough to agree with you in
+that.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Have you? I&#8217;m so glad. It shows that we&#8217;re the same
+sort of person, doesn&#8217;t it? For I know some people hate
+him&mdash;and I hate them for it!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She clenched her teeth with an air that was half-play,
+half-earnest.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m going to skip a few years and come to the fairy-tale
+part of my story: the Three Wishes. When I grew up,
+Uncle Stanley told me that he had settled an immense sum
+on me and that I could do exactly as I wished. I think I
+failed him at that point. He expected me to go and have a
+good time; and&mdash;I didn&#8217;t. I didn&#8217;t want to have a good
+time. I had been thinking over all he had done for me;
+and I wanted something else entirely. I wanted to give
+him something in return for all his kindness to me when I
+was a tiny little thing; and I was afraid that he wouldn&#8217;t
+let me. I went to him one day and asked him to give me
+three wishes. Now even with me, Uncle Stanley is careful;
+and he wanted to know what the wishes were before he
+would promise.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;I don&#8217;t know myself yet,&#8217; I said, &#8216;but I want to feel
+that I have three things in reserve that I can ask you to do.&#8217;
+&#8216;I promise no impossibilities,&#8217; he told me, &#8216;but if the things
+are really possible, you can have them.&#8217; &#8216;Very well,&#8217; said I,
+&#8216;the first of them is that I want to be trained as a secretary.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He laughed at me, of course; and when I persisted, he
+pointed out to me that I was my own mistress and that I
+needn&#8217;t have asked his permission to get trained. &#8216;You&#8217;ve<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_134"></a>[134]</span>
+wasted one of your wishes, Elsa,&#8217; he said, &#8216;and I&#8217;m going to
+hold you to your bargain.&#8217; &#8216;Well, I wanted your consent to
+it anyway,&#8217; I told him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I went and took a secretary&#8217;s training, the most complete
+I could get. You don&#8217;t know how I enjoyed it. I
+hated the work, of course; but I felt all the time that I
+was getting ready to be of use to Uncle Stanley; and even
+the dullest parts of the thing seemed to be lightened by that.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When I was fully trained, I went to him again. &#8216;I
+want my second wish now: I want you to take me as your
+private secretary.&#8217; I don&#8217;t know that he was altogether
+pleased then. I think he imagined that I would be a
+nuisance or inefficient or something. But he kept his
+promise and took me to work with him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You can&#8217;t guess what I felt about it. I worked hard;
+I did everything correctly; and I knew him better than
+anyone else, so that I could help him just when he needed
+it. Of course, I&#8217;m not his only secretary; but I know I
+suit him better than any of the others. I&#8217;ve begun to pay
+off my debt to him bit by bit; and yet I always seem just
+as deep in as ever. He&#8217;s always been so good to me, you
+know. But still, I <i>am</i> useful to him; and I&#8217;m not merely
+there on sufferance now. I know he appreciates my work.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I doubt if you would be there long if he didn&#8217;t,&#8221; I said.
+&#8220;From what I have seen of him he isn&#8217;t likely to employ
+amateurs even as a favour. I think he would have let you
+see you were useless unless you had made good.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, if he had been the least dissatisfied with me I would
+have gone at once as soon as I saw it. I want to be a help
+and not a hindrance. But now I have answered your
+question, although it has taken rather a long time to do it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Some inane compliment came to my lips but I bit it back
+without speaking it. She didn&#8217;t seem to be the sort of girl
+who wanted flattery.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I think you are helping more than Mr. Nordenholt<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_135"></a>[135]</span>
+with your work just now,&#8221; I said at length. &#8220;You seem
+to have found your way into the centre of the biggest thing
+this country has ever seen.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Her face clouded for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, it&#8217;s a great thing, isn&#8217;t it? But do you ever think
+what failure might mean, Mr. Flint? Think of all these
+poor people starving and of us unable to help them. It
+would be terrible. Sometimes I think of it and it makes me
+feel that we bear a fearful responsibility. I don&#8217;t mean that
+I personally have any real responsibility. I don&#8217;t take
+myself so seriously as all that. But the men at the head,
+Uncle Stanley and the rest of you&mdash;it&#8217;s a fearful burden to
+take on your shoulders. I&#8217;m only a cog in the machine and
+could be replaced to-morrow; but you people, the experts,
+couldn&#8217;t be replaced. Fifty millions of people! I can&#8217;t
+even begin to understand what fifty million deaths would
+mean. I do hope, oh, I do so hope that we shall be
+successful. If anyone but Uncle Stanley were at the head
+of it I should doubt; but I feel almost quite safe with him
+at the helm. He never failed yet, you know.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No,&#8221; I said, &#8220;he never failed yet.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>What would she think when the full plans of Nordenholt&mdash;who
+&#8220;never failed yet&#8221;&mdash;were revealed to her? I
+wondered how this fragile girl would take it. She wouldn&#8217;t
+simply weep and forget, I was sure. She seemed to have
+high ideals and she evidently idolised Nordenholt. It would
+be a terrible catastrophe for her. I dreaded the next steps in
+the conversation, for I did not want to lie to her; and I saw
+no other way out of it if she turned the talk into the wrong
+channel.</p>
+
+<p>Nordenholt&#8217;s hour was up and I began to feel that the old
+life was slipping away from me again. For a few minutes
+we sat silent; for she did not speak and I was afraid to
+reopen the conversation lest she should continue her line of
+thought. I watched her as she sat: the tiny shoe, the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_136"></a>[136]</span>
+sweep of the black gown without a sparkle of jewellery to
+relieve it, the clean curves of her white throat, and over all
+the lustre of her hair. Would there be any place for all this
+in the new world? I wondered. Things would be too
+hard for her fragility, perhaps.</p>
+
+<p>As ten o&#8217;clock struck Nordenholt came in. He looked
+more cheerful than when he had left us, though as he
+dropped into a chair I noticed that he seemed to be
+physically tired.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Henley-Davenport asked me to make his excuses to
+you, Elsa. He wants to work out something which
+struck him when we were over at his laboratory; so I left
+him there.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He smoked for a while in silence, as though ruminating
+over what he had seen.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s a brave man if you want to see one,&#8221; he said at
+last. &#8220;From what he told me, there will be a terrible
+explosion the first time he manages to jar up his atomic
+powder-magazine; and yet he goes into the thing as coolly
+as though he were lighting a cigarette. I hope he pulls it
+off. More hangs on that than one can well estimate just
+now. It may be the last shot in our locker for all we
+know.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But surely, Uncle Stanley, you have foreseen everything?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not omniscient, Elsa, though perhaps you have
+illusions on the point. I do what I can, but one must
+allow a good deal of latitude for the unpredictable which
+always exists. And in this affair, I am afraid the unpredictable
+will not be on the helping side. But don&#8217;t
+worry your head over that; we can&#8217;t help it. What&#8217;s
+wrong with you to-night. You look more worried than
+usual. Tired?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not specially.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Would you sing to us a little?&#8221;</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_137"></a>[137]</span>&#8220;Only something very short, then.&#8221; She moved to the
+piano. &#8220;What do you want?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, let&#8217;s see.... I&#8217;d like.... No, you wouldn&#8217;t care
+for it. Let&#8217;s think again.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, no, Uncle Stanley; I&#8217;ll sing anything you wish,&#8221;
+she said, but when he asked for the second Song in Cymbeline,
+her brows contracted.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Must you have that one? Won&#8217;t the first song do
+instead?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d rather have the other. Only the last two verses,
+for I see you are tired.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She sat down at the piano and played the preliminary
+chords. I had never heard the air, possibly it was an
+unusual setting.</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="first">&#8220;<i>Fear no more the lightning flash,</i></div>
+<div class="indent2"><i>Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone;</i></div>
+<div class="verse"><i>Fear not slander, censure rash;</i></div>
+<div class="indent2"><i>Thou hast finished joy and moan:</i></div>
+<div class="verse"><i>All lovers young, all lovers must,</i></div>
+<div class="verse"><i>Consign to thee, and come to dust.</i>&#8221;</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>It was a wonderful piece of singing. In the first lines her
+voice rose clear and confident, reassuring against the mere
+physical perils. Then with the faintest change of tone,
+just sufficient to mark the shift in the form of menace, she
+sang the third line; and let a tinge of melancholy creep
+into the next. With the last couplet something new came
+into the music, possibly a drop into the minor; and her
+voice seemed to fill with an echo of all lost hopes and spent
+delights. Then it rose again, full and strong in the mandatory
+lines of the final verse, set to a different air, till
+at last it died away once more with infinite tenderness:</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="first">&#8220;<i>Quiet consummation have;</i></div>
+<div class="verse"><i>And renown&egrave;d be thy grave.</i>&#8221;</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>I sat spellbound after she had ended. It was wonderful art.
+She closed the piano and rose from her seat.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_138"></a>[138]</span>&#8220;I can&#8217;t imagine why you dislike that air,&#8221; said Nordenholt.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, it&#8217;s so gloomy, Uncle Stanley. I don&#8217;t care to
+think about things like that.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gloomy? You misread it, I&#8217;m sure. I wish I could
+be sure of Fidele&#8217;s luck.</p>
+
+<p class="center">&#8216;<i>Fear not slander, censure rash.</i>&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>Which of us can feel sure of being free from these? Not I.
+And what better could one wish for in the end?</p>
+
+<p class="center">&#8216;<i>And renown&egrave;d be thy grave.</i>&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>How many ghosts could boast of that after a hundred years?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, none of us will know about that part of it,&#8221; she
+said lightly. &#8220;But I don&#8217;t think you need trouble about the
+&#8216;censure rash.&#8217; None of your own people will blame you;
+and I know you care nothing for the rest. Even if they all
+turned against you, you would always have me, you know.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Is that a promise, Elsa?&#8221; he asked gravely; and something
+in his tone made her glance at him. &#8220;Would you
+really stand by me no matter what happened? Don&#8217;t say
+yes, unless you really mean it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She stood in front of him, eye to eye, for a moment
+without speaking.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t understand,&#8221; she said at last. &#8220;You never
+doubted me before. It hurts. Of course I promise you.
+No matter what happens I won&#8217;t leave you. But you must
+promise never to send me away until I want to go.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Very good, Elsa, I promise.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The strain seemed to relax in a moment. I don&#8217;t think
+they realised how strange it all seemed to me. They were
+living in their own world, and I was outside, I felt, rather
+bitterly. And of course, none of us was quite normal at
+that time.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Huntingtower came to me and held out her hand.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Thanks so much for coming, Mr. Flint. Somehow I<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_139"></a>[139]</span>
+feel as if I had known you for years instead of only a few
+hours. Now I&#8217;ll say good-night and leave you with Uncle
+Stanley.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Wait a minute, Elsa,&#8221; said Nordenholt. &#8220;It seems to
+me that all three of us have been cooped up indoors too
+much lately. Our nerves are getting on edge. Don&#8217;t deny
+it, Flint, in your case. You haven&#8217;t a leg to stand on. I
+heard you differing from one of your clerks to-day. We&#8217;d
+all be the better for fresh air now and again. One afternoon
+a week, after this, we&#8217;ll take a car out into the country. I
+can do my thinking there just as well as anywhere else; and
+Mr. Flint can drive to keep his mind off business. That&#8217;s
+settled. I told you before that amusement of some sort has
+to come into our routine, Flint; so you must just make
+up your mind to it. I can&#8217;t replace you if you collapse;
+so I can&#8217;t allow you to go on like this. You don&#8217;t look
+half the man you were six weeks ago.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I required no pressing, partly because I knew that Nordenholt
+was right in what he said.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_140"></a>[140]</span>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak"><small>CHAPTER X</small><br />
+
+
+The Death of the Leviathan</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> this narrative I must give some account of the happenings
+in the outer world; for, without this, the picture which
+I am attempting to draw would be distorted in its perspective.
+At this point, then, I shall begin to interleave the description
+of the Northern experiment with sketches of the state of
+affairs elsewhere; and later I shall return to the more
+connected form of my narrative.</p>
+
+<p>It may reasonably be asked how it comes about that I am
+able to give any account at all of occurrences in England
+immediately after the closing of the Nitrogen Area, since
+I have taken pains to show the complete severance of land-communications
+between the two sections of the country.
+I have already hinted that all connection between these
+regions was not abolished.</p>
+
+<p>Nordenholt feared an invasion of the Clyde Valley by
+some, at least, of the multitudes in the South as soon as they
+became famine-stricken. It was hardly to be expected that,
+with the knowledge of the food in the North which they
+had, they would remain quiescent when the pinch came;
+and it was essential to have warning of any hostile
+movements ere they actually gained strength enough to
+become dangerous. For this purpose, he had organised his
+Intelligence Department outside as well as within the
+Area.</p>
+
+<p>There was no difficulty in introducing his agents into
+any district. Night landings by parachute from airships,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_141"></a>[141]</span>
+or even the daylight descents of an aeroplane on a misty
+day, were simple enough to arrange; and his spies could
+be picked up again at preconcerted times and places when
+their return was desired.</p>
+
+<p>In this way, there flowed into the Nitrogen Area a
+constant stream of information which enabled him to piece
+together a connected picture of the affairs outside our
+frontier.</p>
+
+<p>I have had access to the summaries of these documents;
+and it is upon this basis that I have built the next stage
+of my narrative. These reports, of course, were not
+published at the time.</p>
+
+<p>As to the rest of the world, I have had to depend upon
+the wireless messages which were received by the huge
+installation Nordenholt had set up; and also upon the
+various accounts which have been published in more recent
+times.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>I have already mentioned that the last stage of the exodus
+involved the destruction, as complete as was practicable, of
+roads, railways and telegraphic communications; and I have
+mentioned also the breaking-up of newspaper printing
+machinery. Following his usual course, Nordenholt had
+determined on utilising to the full the psychological factors
+in the problem; and it was upon the moral rather than on
+the mere physical effect of this disorganisation that he relied
+in his planning.</p>
+
+<p>The immediate effect upon the Southern population seems
+to have been all that he had hoped. On the morning after
+the last night of the exodus, England was still unperturbed.
+The absence of the usual newspapers was accepted without
+marked astonishment; for no one had any idea that it was
+more than a temporary interruption. Each city and town
+assumed simply that something had gone wrong in their
+particular area. No one seems to have imagined that anything<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_142"></a>[142]</span>
+but a local mishap had occurred. The failure of the
+telegraphs was also discounted to some extent.</p>
+
+<p>The local railway services continued to run without
+exciting comment by their intermittent character; for
+already Grogan&#8217;s operations had disorganised them to such
+an extent that ordinary time-tables were useless.</p>
+
+<p>The food-supply was still in full swing under the rationing
+system which Nordenholt had introduced; and no shortage
+had suggested itself to anyone, even among the staffs of the
+local control centres.</p>
+
+<p>Thus for at least a couple of days England remained
+almost normal, with the exception of the disorganisation
+of the communications between district and district. There
+was no panic. The population simply went along its old
+paths with the feeling that by the end of the week these
+temporary difficulties would be overcome and things would
+clear up.</p>
+
+<p>The next stage was marked by the increasing difficulty
+of communications. Owing to the withdrawal of Grogan
+and his staff, simultaneously with the disappearance of the
+greater part of the available locomotives into the Nitrogen
+Area, the train services fell more and more into disorganisation.
+Within a very short time, travel from one part of
+the country to another could only be accomplished by the
+aid of motors.</p>
+
+<p>The newspapers had been restarted; but they were no
+longer the organs to which people had been accustomed.
+Printed from presses usually employed for books, they could
+not be produced in anything approaching the old quantities;
+and the break-up of communications had shattered their
+organisation for the collection of information. They were
+mere fly-sheets, consisting of two or three leaves of quarto
+size at the largest and containing very little general news
+of any description. Not only were they printed in small
+numbers, but the difficulties of circulating the available<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_143"></a>[143]</span>
+copies were considerable; so that within a very short time
+the greater part of the population had to depend upon
+information passing orally from one to another.</p>
+
+<p>This was the state into which Nordenholt had planned
+to bring them. His agents, proceeding upon a carefully
+considered plan, formed centres for the spread of rumours
+which grew more and more incredible as they were magnified
+by repetition. Hostile invasions, the capture of London, the
+assassination of the Premier, anarchist plots, earthquakes
+which had interrupted the normal services of the country, all
+sorts of catastrophes were invoked to account for the breakdown
+of the system under which men had dwelt so long.
+But the period of rumours exhausted the belief of the
+people. Very soon no one paid any attention to the stories
+which, nevertheless, sped across the country in the form of
+idle gossip.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus man&#339;uvred the inhabitants of England into
+a state of total disbelief in rumour, Nordenholt made his
+next move. Hundreds of aeroplanes ranged over the country,
+firing guns to attract attention and then dropping showers
+of leaflets which were eagerly collected and read. In these
+messages from the sky, a complete account was given of the
+efforts which were being made in the North to save the
+situation. Short articles upon the Nitrogen Area and its
+vital importance to the food-supply were scattered broadcast;
+and by their clear language and definite figures of
+production they carried conviction to the minds of the
+readers. Here, at last, was reliable news.</p>
+
+<p>No hint, of course, was given in these aerial bulletins of
+the real purpose underlying the Nitrogen Area. Their whole
+tone was optimistic; for Nordenholt wished to make his
+final blow the heavier by raising hopes at first. Once his
+agents had assured him that the people believed implicitly in
+his aeroplane news-service, he struck hard.</p>
+
+<p>In my account of his explanation of his breaking-strain<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_144"></a>[144]</span>
+theory, I have indicated roughly the general lines upon
+which his attack was based. He had accomplished the
+breakdown of the social organism into its component parts
+by the interruption of communications throughout the land;
+but the final stage of the process was to be the isolation of
+each individual from his fellows as far as that was possible.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, the news leaflets became charged with a fresh
+type of intelligence. At first there was a single item describing
+the detection of two cases of a new form of disease
+in the Nitrogen Area. Then, in succeeding issues, the
+spread of the epidemic was chronicled without comment.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Plague Spreading.</span><br />
+
+<span class="allsmcap">TWENTY CASES TO-DAY.</span></p>
+
+<p>The next bulletins contained detailed accounts of the
+symptoms of the disease, laying stress upon the painful
+character of the ailment. It was said in some ways to
+resemble hydrophobia, though its course was more prolonged
+and the sufferings entailed by it were more severe.</p>
+
+<p>Then further accounts of the extension of the scourge
+were rained down from the sky:</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Plague Total: 10,000 Cases.</span><br />
+
+<span class="allsmcap">NO RECOVERIES.</span></p>
+
+<p>Hitherto the news had confined the Plague to the
+Nitrogen Area; and people had not thought it would
+spread beyond these limits; but in the next stage of the
+propaganda this hope was taken from them. The messages
+to Southern England described how the disease had made its
+appearance in Newcastle and in Hull; those leaflets intended
+for the western districts also gave the same information. In
+the North of England, the intelligence took the form of
+accounts of the discovery of the plague in London. In every
+case, care was taken that there was no direct communication<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_145"></a>[145]</span>
+between the &#8220;affected centre&#8221; and the spots where the
+news was dropped.</p>
+
+<p>The penultimate series of publications was in the form of
+lists of precautions to be taken to avoid the disease. It was
+described as contagious and not infectious; and people were
+advised to avoid mingling with their neighbours as far as
+possible. Complete isolation would ensure safety, since it
+had been established that the plague was not air-borne.
+Horrible details of the sufferings of patients were also
+published.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, the last group of leaflets represented a steady
+crescendo.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Enormous Spread of Plague in Nitrogen Area.<br />
+100,000 cases.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Spread of Plague through England.<br />
+only a few districts free.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Nitrogen Area Decimated.<br />
+population dying in the streets.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Doom in the Clyde Valley.<br />
+total failure of nitrogen scheme.<br />
+death of nordenholt.</span></p>
+
+<p>The ultimate message was hurriedly printed with blotched
+type:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<div class="hangingindent">
+<p><span class="smcap">The Nitrogen Area is almost Uninhabited, the
+Remainder of the Population having fled in
+Panic. The Plague is Spreading Broadcast over
+England and Scotland. Isolate Yourselves,
+otherwise Safety is Impossible.</span></p></div></div>
+
+<p>After this had been dropped from the air, the skies remained
+empty. No aeroplanes appeared.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_146"></a>[146]</span>Thus, with a stunning suddenness, the population of the
+kingdom learned that their hopes were shattered. It is true
+that there were still channels of communication open here
+and there through which the news might have spread to
+contradict the stories from the sky. But Nordenholt had
+done his work with demonic certainty. By the very form
+of his attack he closed these few remaining routes along
+which the truth might have percolated. Strangers were
+forbidden to enter any district for fear that they might bring
+the Plague with them; and thus each community remained
+closed to the outer world. With the increase in the terror,
+even neighbouring villages ceased to have any connection
+with one another. The Leviathan was dead.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>With this closing of the avenues of communication, the
+problem of food-supply became acute. The rations remaining
+in each centre were distributed hurriedly and inefficiently
+among the population; and then the end was in sight.</p>
+
+<p>I have no wish to dwell upon that side of the story. I
+saw glimpses of it, as I shall tell in due course, but all I
+need do here is to indicate certain results which flowed
+naturally from the condition of things.</p>
+
+<p>When the coal- and food-shortage became acute, the
+population divided itself naturally into two classes. On the
+one hand were those who, moved either by timidity of new
+conditions or a fear of the Plague, fortified themselves in
+their dwellings and ceased to stir beyond their doors until
+the end overtook them; whilst, on the other, a second
+section of the population driven either by despair or
+adventurousness, quitted the districts in which it knew there
+was no hope of survival and went forth into the unknown
+to seek better conditions.</p>
+
+<p>Thus in the ultimate stages of the <i>d&eacute;b&acirc;cle</i>, the country
+resembled a group of armed camps through which wandered
+a floating population of many thousand souls, growing more<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_147"></a>[147]</span>
+and more desperate as they journeyed onward in search of an
+unattainable goal. In the movements of this migratory
+horde, two main streams could be perceived. Those who
+had set forth from the cities knew that no food remained in
+the large aggregations of population; and they therefore
+wandered ever outward from their starting-point; the
+country legions, knowing that the land was barren, fixed
+their eyes upon the great centres in the hope that there the
+stores of food would still be unexhausted. Both were
+doomed to disappointment, but despair drove them on from
+point to point.</p>
+
+<p>Of all the centres of attraction, London formed the
+greatest magnet to draw to itself these floating and isolated
+particles of humanity. Like fragments of flotsam in a whirlpool,
+they were attracted into its confines; and once within
+that labyrinth, they emerged no more. Lost in its unfamiliar
+mazes, they wandered here and there, unable to
+escape even if they had wished to do so; and no Ariadne
+waited on them with her clue. Perhaps I overrate the
+strangeness of the spectacle and lay more stress upon it than
+it deserves. It may be that in the depths of the country
+even weirder things were done. But London I saw with
+my own eyes in the last stages of its career; and I cannot
+shake myself free from the impression made upon me by
+that uncanny shadow-show beneath the moon.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Gradually but surely the tide of human existence ebbed
+in Britain outside the Nitrogen Area. Here and there in
+the central districts there might be isolated patches whereon
+some living creatures remained by accident with food
+sufficient to prolong their vitality for a little longer; but
+after a few months even these were obliterated and the last
+survivors of the race of men were to be found clinging to
+the coasts of the island where food was still to be procured
+from the sea. Some of them struggled through the Famine<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_148"></a>[148]</span>
+period under these conditions; but most of them perished
+eventually from starvation; for even in the marine areas
+conditions were changing and the old abundant harvest of
+sea-creatures had passed away. The herring and other
+edible fish were driven to new feeding-grounds. The supply
+brought in by the fishing-boats diminished steadily, until at
+last men ceased to go out upon the waters and gave up the
+struggle. The winter was an exceptionally bitter one&mdash;possibly
+the change in the surface conditions produced by
+<i>B. diazotans</i> affected the world-climate, though that is still
+a moot point&mdash;and the cold completed the work. Long
+before the spring came, Britain was a mere Raft of the
+<i>Medusa</i> lying upon the waters and peopled by a handful of
+survivors out of what had once been a mighty company.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_149"></a>[149]</span>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak"><small>CHAPTER XI</small><br />
+
+
+Fata Morgana</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">To</span> explain how I came to witness the spectacle of London
+in its extremity, I must go back to the evening at Nordenholt&#8217;s
+which I have already described. He persisted in his
+project of forcing us into the fresh air, often twice or thrice
+a week if the weather was favourable; and to tell the truth,
+I was nothing loath. Over a hundred hours of my week
+were spent in concentrated mental activity under conditions
+which removed me more and more from direct contact with
+human affairs as time went on; and I looked forward with
+pleasure to these brief interludes during which I could take
+up once more the threads of my old life and its interests.</p>
+
+<p>Nordenholt himself contributed but little to the conversation
+on these excursions. Sometimes he brought with
+him one of his numerous experts and spent the time in
+technical discussions; but usually he occupied the back seat
+of the car alone, lost in his thoughts and plans, while I drove
+and Miss Huntingtower sat beside me.</p>
+
+<p>As our time was limited, and we wished to avoid the city
+as much as possible, our routes were mainly those to the
+west, by the Kilpatrick Hills or the Campsies. We never
+pushed farther afield, as Nordenholt had forbidden me to
+go outside the boundaries of the Nitrogen Area. I think he
+was afraid of what she might see by the roadside if we
+passed the frontier.</p>
+
+<p>Even during these few short afternoons, I came to know
+her better. Somehow I had got the impression that she<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_150"></a>[150]</span>
+was graver than her years justified; but I found that in this
+estimate I was mistaken. She was sobered by the responsibility
+of her work, but underneath this she seemed to have
+a natural craving for the enjoyment of life, and a capacity
+for making the best of things which was suited to my own
+mood. She was quite unaffected; I never found her posing
+in any way. Whether she chattered nonsense&mdash;and I
+believe both of us did that at times&mdash;or was discussing the
+future, she gave me the impression of being perfectly
+natural.</p>
+
+<p>We used to make all sorts of plans for the future of
+the world, once the danger was past; half-trivial, half-serious
+schemes which somehow took on an air of fairy-tale
+reality. &#8220;When I am Queen, I will set such and such
+a grievance right&#8221;; &#8220;In the first year of my Presidency, I
+will publish an edict forbidding so and so.&#8221; Between us,
+on these drives, we planned a fairy kingdom in the future, a
+new Garden of the Hesperides, a dream-built Thelema of
+sunlit walls and towers and pleasure-grounds wherein might
+dwell the coming generations of men. The future! Somehow
+that was always with us. Less and less did we go
+backward into the past. That world was over, never to
+return; but the years still to come gave us full scope for our
+fancies and to them we turned with eager eyes.</p>
+
+<p>The diversion grew upon us as time went on. It was
+always spontaneous, for our work gave neither of us an
+opportunity for thinking out details; and each afternoon
+brought its fresh store of improvisations. Through it all,
+she was the dreamer of dreams; it was my part to throw
+her visions into a practically attainable form: and gradually,
+out of it all, there arose a fabric of phantasy which yet had
+its foundations in the solid earth.</p>
+
+<p>It took form; we could walk its streets in reverie and
+pace its lawns. And gradually that land of Faerie came
+to be peopled with inhabitants, mere phantasms at first, but<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_151"></a>[151]</span>
+growing ever more real as we talked of them between
+ourselves. Half in jest and half in earnest we created
+them, and soon they twined themselves about our hearts.
+Children of our brain, they were; dearer than any earthly
+offspring, for from them we need fear no disappointments.</p>
+
+<p>Fata Morgana we christened our City, after the mirage in
+the Straits of Messina; for it had that mixture of clear
+outline and unsubstantiality which seemed to fit the name.</p>
+
+<p>So we planned the future together out of such stuff as
+dreams are made on. And behind us, grim and silent, sat
+Nordenholt, the real architect of the coming time.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>He never interrupted our talks; and I had no idea that he
+had even overheard them until one day he called me into
+his office. He seemed unusually grave.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Sit down, Jack,&#8221; he said, and I started slightly to hear
+him use the name, since hitherto I had always been simply
+&#8220;Flint&#8221; to him. &#8220;I&#8217;ve got something serious to discuss
+with you; and it won&#8217;t keep much longer.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He looked up at the great Nitrogen Curve above the
+mantelpiece and seemed to brood over the inclinations of
+the red and green lines upon it. They were closing upon
+one another now, though some distance still separated
+them.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Did it ever occur to you that I can&#8217;t go on for ever?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, I suppose that none of us can go on for ever;
+but I don&#8217;t think I would worry too much over that,
+Nordenholt. Of course you&#8217;re doing thrice the work that
+I am; but I don&#8217;t see much sign of it affecting you yet.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Have a good look.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He swung round to the light so that I could see his face
+clearly; and it dawned upon me that it was very different
+from the face I had seen first at the meeting in London.
+The old masterfulness was there, increased if anything; but
+the leanness was accentuated over the cheek-bones and there<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_152"></a>[152]</span>
+was a weary look in the eyes which was new to me. I had
+never noticed the change, even though I saw him daily&mdash;possibly
+because of that very fact. The alteration had been
+so gradual that it was only by comparing him with what I
+remembered that I could trace its full extent.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Satisfied, eh?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, there is a change, certainly; but I don&#8217;t think it
+amounts to much.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The inside is worse than the surface, I&#8217;m afraid. But
+don&#8217;t worry about that. I&#8217;ll last the distance, I believe.
+It&#8217;s what will happen after the finish that is perplexing me
+now.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I muttered something which I meant to be encouraging.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, have it your own way, if you like,&#8221; he replied;
+&#8220;but I <i>know</i>. I have enough energy to see me through
+this stage of the thing; but this is only a beginning. After
+it, comes reconstruction; and I shall be exhausted by that
+time. I can carry on under this strain long enough to see
+safety in sight; but someone else must take up the burden
+then. I won&#8217;t risk doing it myself. I must have a fresh
+mind on the thing. So I have to cast about me now for
+my successor.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was a great shock to hear him speak in this tone.
+Somehow I had become so accustomed to look up to
+Nordenholt as a tower of strength that it was hard to
+realise that there might some day be a change of masters.
+And yet, like all his views, this was accurate. When we
+reached the other bank, he would have strained himself to
+the utmost and would have very few reserves left.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been watching you, Jack,&#8221; he went on. &#8220;I&#8217;ve got
+fairly sharp ears; and your talks in the car interested me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I was aghast at this; for I had believed that these dreams
+and plannings were things entirely between Miss Huntingtower
+and myself. They certainly were not meant for
+anyone else.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_153"></a>[153]</span>&#8220;At first,&#8221; he went on, &#8220;I thought it was only talk to
+pass the time; but by-and-by I saw how it attracted you
+both. After all, there are worse ways of passing an afternoon
+than in building castles in the air. But what I liked
+about your castles was that they had their roots in the
+earth. You have a knack of solid building, Jack, even in your
+dreams. It&#8217;s a rare gift, very rare. I felt more friendly to
+you when I followed all that.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There was no patronage in his tone. As usual, he seemed
+to be stating what appeared to him an obvious conclusion.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The upshot is,&#8221; he went on, &#8220;that I&#8217;m going to dismiss
+you from your present post and put you in charge of a new
+Department dealing with Reconstruction. There will be
+one condition&mdash;or rather two conditions&mdash;attached to it;
+but they aren&#8217;t hard ones. Will you take it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Of course I was taken completely aback. I had never
+dreamed of such a thing; and I hardly knew what to say.
+I stammered some sort of an acceptance as soon as I could
+find my voice.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Very good. You cut loose from your present affairs
+from this moment. Anglesey will take over. You can
+give him all the pointers he asks for to-day; and after that
+he must fend for himself. I&#8217;ll have no two minds on that
+line of work.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now as to the new thing. It will make you my
+successor, of course; and I want to start with a word of
+warning. Unlimited power is bad for any man. You have
+only to look at the example of the C&aelig;sars to see that:
+Caligula, Tiberius, Nero, you&#8217;ll find the whole sordid
+business in Suetonius. And I can tell you the same thing
+at first hand myself. I&#8217;ve got unlimited power here nowadays;
+and it isn&#8217;t doing me any good. I feel that I am
+going downhill under it daily. You&#8217;ll probably see it
+yourself before long, although I&#8217;ve fought to keep it in
+check. So much for the warning.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_154"></a>[154]</span>&#8220;Now as to the conditions. I admired your dream-cities,
+Jack. I wish you could build them all in stone. But even
+if you were to do that, they would still have to be peopled;
+and I doubt if you will find the men and women whom you
+want for them among the present population. Mind you, I
+believe you have good material there; but it has a basis
+in the brute which none of your dream-people had. You
+don&#8217;t realise that factor; you couldn&#8217;t understand its
+strength unless you saw it actually before you: and my
+first condition is meant to let you see the frailty with which
+you will have to contend and which you will have to
+eliminate before you can see that visionary race pacing the
+gardens in your Fata Morgana. It&#8217;s all in full blast within
+five hundred miles of here. London is thronged with
+people just the same as those down there in the factories;
+and I want you to see what it amounts to when you take
+off the leash. So the first condition is that you go down to
+London and see it with your own eyes. I could prepare
+you for it from the reports I have; but I think it will be
+better if you see it for yourself and don&#8217;t trust to any other
+person. I&#8217;ll make all the arrangements; and you can
+leave in a couple of days.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I am no enthusiast for digging into the baser side of
+human nature, and the prospect which he held out was
+not an inviting one to me. But I could see that he laid
+stress upon it, so I merely nodded my consent.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now the second condition. I daresay that you alone
+could plan a very good scheme of reconstruction; but it
+would be a pure male scheme. You can&#8217;t put yourself
+in any woman&#8217;s place and see things with her eyes, try
+as you will. But this Fata Morgana of yours, when it
+rises, has to be inhabited by both men and women; and
+you have to make it as fit for the women as for the men.
+That&#8217;s where you would collapse.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I suppose you&#8217;re right. I don&#8217;t know much about a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_155"></a>[155]</span>
+woman&#8217;s point of view. I never had even a sister to
+enlighten me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Quite so. I judged as much from some things. Well,
+my second condition is that you take over Elsa as a
+colleague. It was hearing the two of you talk that gave
+me the idea of using you, Jack; so it is only fair that
+she should have a share in the thing also.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But would Miss Huntingtower leave you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll try to persuade her. Anyway, leave it to me. But
+remember, Jack, not a word to her about London or the
+South. She knows nothing of that yet. I&#8217;ve kept her
+work confined entirely to Area affairs. I want to spare
+her as long as I can; for she&#8217;ll take it hard when it comes.
+She&#8217;ll take it very hard, I&#8217;m afraid. Until you&#8217;re back
+from London I shall say nothing to her about your being
+away, lest she asks where you have gone.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I was still dazzled by the promotion he had promised
+me; and I thanked him for it, again and again. When I
+left him, my mind was still full of it all. I don&#8217;t know
+that I felt the responsibility at first; it was rather the
+chance of bringing things nearer to that dream-city which
+we had built upon the clouds, that I felt most strongly.
+I had no doubt that I could lay the foundations securely;
+and upon them Elsa could build those fragile upper courses
+in which she delighted. It would be our own Fata Morgana,
+but reared by human hands.</p>
+
+<p>So I dreamed....</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_156"></a>[156]</span>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak"><small>CHAPTER XII</small><br />
+
+
+Nuit Blanche</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> aeroplane which carried me southward alighted on
+the Hendon flying-ground when dusk was falling. As we
+crossed Hertfordshire I had seen in front of me, to the
+south-east, a great pall of cloud which seemed to hang
+above the city; and as the daylight faded, this curtain
+became lit up with a red glow like the sky above a blast-furnace.</p>
+
+<p>When we landed, I found that all arrangements had already
+been made by Nordenholt; for after I had removed my flying
+kit an untidy-looking, unshaven man made his appearance,
+who introduced himself as my guide for the night. He
+advised me to have a meal and try to snatch a little sleep
+before we started. We dined together in one of the buildings&mdash;for
+Nordenholt had spared the Hendon aerodrome
+in the general destruction of the exodus, though he had
+burned all the aeroplanes which were there at the time&mdash;and
+during the meal my guide gave me hints as to my
+behaviour while I was under his charge, so that I might
+not attract attention under the new conditions. Above all,
+he warned me not to show any surprise at anything I
+might see.</p>
+
+<p>After I had dozed for a time, he reappeared and insisted
+on rubbing some burnt cork well into my skin under the
+eyes and on my cheeks, and also giving my hands and the
+rest of my face a lighter treatment with the same medium.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You look far too well-fed and clean to pass muster<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_157"></a>[157]</span>
+here. There&#8217;s very little soap left now; and most of us
+don&#8217;t shave. Must make you look the part.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He handed me two &middot;45 Colt pistols and a couple of loaded
+spare magazines.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Shove these extra cartridges into a handy pocket as well.
+The Colts are loaded and there&#8217;s an extra cartridge in the
+breech of each. That gives you eighteen shots without
+reloading; and sixteen more when you snick in the fresh
+magazines. You know how to do it? Pull down the
+safety catches. If you have to shoot, shoot at once; and
+shoot in any case of doubt. Don&#8217;t stop to argue.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A motor-car was waiting for us with two men in the front
+seats. The glass of the wind-screen bore a small square of
+paper with a red cross printed on the white ground; and I
+saw that one of the side-light glasses had been painted a
+peculiar colour. My guide and I climbed into the back
+seats and the car moved off. When we passed out of the
+aerodrome I observed that the entrance was defended by
+machine-guns; and a large flag of some coloured bunting
+was flown on a short staff. As it waved in the air, I
+caught the letters &#8220;PLAGUE&#8221; on it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;To keep off visitors,&#8221; said my guide. &#8220;By the way,
+my name&#8217;s Glendyne. Oh, by Jove, I&#8217;ve forgotten something
+important.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He took out of the door-pocket a couple of armlets
+with the Red Cross on them and fastened one on my left
+arm, putting the other one on himself. I gathered that they
+formed part of his disguise.</p>
+
+<p>It was night now. The sky was clear except for some
+clouds on the horizon and the full moon was up, so that we
+hardly needed the head-lights to see our way. Again I
+noticed the peculiar red glow which I had seen from the
+aeroplane; but now, being nearer, I saw flickerings in it.
+There were no artificial lights, either of gas or electricity,
+in the streets through which we passed. Very occasionally<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_158"></a>[158]</span>
+I saw human forms moving in the distance; but they were
+too far off for me to distinguish what sort of person was
+abroad. In the main, the figures which I espied were
+reclining on the ground, some singly, others in groups;
+and for a time I did not realise that these were corpses.</p>
+
+<p>We soon diverged from the main road and drove through
+a series of by-streets in which I lost my sense of direction
+until at last I discovered that we were passing the old
+Cavalry Barracks in Albany Street.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Halt!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The car drew up suddenly and in the glare of our head-lights
+I saw a group of men carrying rifles and fixed
+bayonets; bandoliers were slung across their shoulders, but
+otherwise there was no sign of uniform.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Where&#8217;s your permit?... Doctor&#8217;s car, is it? We&#8217;ve
+been taken in by that once before. Never again, thank
+you. Out with that permit if you have it, or it will be the
+worse for you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The armed group covered us with their rifles while
+Glendyne searched in his pocket. At last he produced a
+paper which the leader of the patrol examined.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, it&#8217;s you, Glendyne? Sorry to trouble you, but
+we can&#8217;t help it. A medical car came through the other
+night and played Old Harry with a patrol at Park Square;
+so we have to be careful, you see. I think it was some of
+Johansen&#8217;s little lot who had stolen a Red Cross car.
+Stephen got them with a bomb at Hanover Gate later
+in the evening and there wasn&#8217;t enough left to be sure
+who they were. Why they can&#8217;t leave this district alone
+beats me. They have most of London left to rollic in; and
+yet they must come here where no one wants them. By
+the way, where are you going?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Leaving the car at Wood&#8217;s Garage. Going down to
+the Circus on foot after that, I think; probably via Euston,
+though.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_159"></a>[159]</span>&#8220;All right. I&#8217;ll telephone down. Sanderson&#8217;s patrol is
+out there in Portland Place and he might shoot you by
+accident. I&#8217;ll get him to look out for you on your way
+back.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Thanks. Very good of you, I&#8217;m sure.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Our car ran forward again to the foot of Albany Street,
+where we turned in to a large public garage.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What was that patrol?&#8221; I asked Glendyne.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Local Vigilance Committee. Some districts have them.
+Trying to keep out the scum and looters.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But what about this being a medical car?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I <i>am</i> a medical. Was an asylum doctor before Nordenholt
+picked me out for this job. Medical cars can go
+anywhere even now; but we can do better on foot for the
+particular work you want to-night.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He seemed to be a man of few words; but I had been
+struck by the empty state of the garage and wished to know
+where the usual multitude of cars had gone.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Most owners took their machines away in the rush out
+of London. Any cars left were looted long ago. Have to
+leave a guard now on any car, otherwise we&#8217;d have the
+petrol stolen before we were back. You&#8217;ll see later.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There were no lights burning in the Euston Road, either
+in the streets or at house-windows. Coming in the car, I
+had given little heed to the lack of passers-by; but here, in
+a district which swarmed with population in the old days, I
+could not help being struck by the change of atmosphere.
+All inhabitants seemed to have vanished, leaving not a trace.
+I asked Glendyne if this region was entirely deserted; but
+he explained to me that in all probability there were still a
+number of survivors.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No one shows a light after dark in a house if they can
+help it,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It simply invites looters.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The full moon stood well above the house-tops, lighting
+up the streets far ahead of us. Wheeled traffic seemed<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_160"></a>[160]</span>
+non-existent; nor could I see a single human being. Just
+beyond the Tube Station, however, I observed what I took
+to be a bundle of clothes lying by the roadside. Closer
+inspection proved it to be a complete skeleton dressed in a
+shabby suit of serge. While I was puzzling over this,
+Glendyne, seeing my perplexity, gave me the explanation.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Looking for the flesh, I suppose? Gone long ago.
+<i>B. diazotans</i> takes care of that, or we should have had a real
+Plague instead of a fake one, considering the number of
+deaths there have been. As soon as life goes out, all flesh is
+attacked by bacteria, but <i>B. diazotans</i> beats the putrefying
+bacteria in quick action. You&#8217;ll find no decaying corpses
+about. Quite a clean affair.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Leaving the skeleton behind us, we continued our way.
+I suppose if I had been a novelist&#8217;s hero I should have
+examined the pockets of the man and discovered some
+document of priceless value in them. I must confess the
+idea of searching the clothes never occurred to me till long
+afterwards; and I doubt if there was anything useful in
+them anyway.</p>
+
+<p>As we walked eastwards towards Euston I noticed that
+the red glow before us was shot now and again with a
+tongue of flame. We passed several isolated corpses, or
+rather skeletons, and suddenly I came upon a group of them
+which covered most of the roadway. I noticed that all the
+heads pointed in one direction and that the greater number
+of the dead had accumulated on the steps of a looted public-house.
+Noticing my astonishment, Glendyne condescended
+to explain.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Crawled there at the last gasp looking for alcohol to
+brace them up for another day, I expect. See the attitudes?
+All making for the door. Hopeless, anyway. The stuff
+must have been looted long before they got near it. Curious
+how one finds them like that, all clustered together, either
+at the door of a pub or the porch of a church. A Martian<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_161"></a>[161]</span>
+would think that drink and religion were the only things
+which attracted humanity in the end.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was near Whitfield Street that I saw a relic of the
+exodus from London. Two cars, a limousine and a big
+five-seater, had collided at high speed; for both of them
+were badly wrecked, and the touring-car had been driven
+right across the pavement and through a shop-front. To
+judge from the skeletons in the limousine, its passengers had
+been killed by the shock.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving this scene of disaster, we walked eastward again.
+I glanced up each side-street as I passed, but there were no
+signs of living beings. In the stillness, our footsteps rang
+upon the pavements; but the noise attracted no one to our
+neighbourhood. It was not until we reached the corner of
+Tottenham Court Road that I was again reminded of my
+fellow-men. A sound of distant singing reached my ears:
+fifty or a hundred voices rising and falling in some simple
+air which had a strangely familiar ring, though I could not
+recall exactly what it reminded me of at the time. The
+singers were far off, however; for when we halted at the
+street-corner I could see no one in Tottenham Court Road;
+and we went on our way once more.</p>
+
+<p>The notice-boards at the gate of Euston Station were
+covered with recently-posted bills; and seeing the word
+PLAGUE in large letters upon some of them I halted for a
+moment to read the inscriptions. They were all of a kind:
+quack advertisements of nostrums to prevent the infection or
+to cure the disease. I was somewhat grimly amused to find
+that there was still a market for such trash even amid the
+final convulsion of humanity. The only difference between
+them and their fore-runners was that instead of money the
+vendors demanded food in exchange for their cures. Flour,
+bread, or oatmeal seemed to be the currency in vogue.</p>
+
+<p>The station itself was dark; but here and there in the
+Hotel windows glowed with lamp or candle-light. &#8220;Probably<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_162"></a>[162]</span>
+some select orgy or other,&#8221; was Glendyne&#8217;s explanation;
+and he refused to investigate further. &#8220;No use
+thrusting oneself in where one isn&#8217;t wanted. In these times
+the light alone is a danger signal when you know your way
+about.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was in Endsleigh Gardens that we came across another
+living creature. Half-way along, I caught sight of a figure
+crouching in a doorway. At first I took it for a skeleton;
+but as we drew near it rose to its feet and I found that it
+was a man, indescribably filthy and with a matted beard.
+When he spoke to us, I detected a Semitic tinge in his
+speech.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Give me some food, kind gentlemen! Jahveh will
+reward you. A sparrow, or even some biscuit crumbs?
+Be merciful, kind gentlemen.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Got none to spare,&#8221; said Glendyne roughly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ah, kind gentlemen, kind gentlemen, surely you have
+food for a starving man? See, I will pay you for it. A
+sovereign for a sparrow? <i>Two</i> sovereigns for a sparrow?
+Listen, kind gentlemen, five pounds for a rat&mdash;eight pounds
+if it is a fat one. I could make soup with a rat.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s no food here for you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But, gentlemen, you don&#8217;t understand; you don&#8217;t
+understand. I can make you rich. Gold, much fine gold,
+for a miserable sparrow&mdash;or a rat! You think I am too
+poor to have gold? You despise me because I am clothed
+in rags? What are rags to me, who am richer than
+Solomon? I can pay; I can pay.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He kept pace with us, shuffling along in the gutter; and
+I noticed that the sole of one of his boots flapped loose at
+each step he took. After glancing around suspiciously as
+though afraid of being overheard, he continued in a lower
+tone:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Jahveh has laid a great task upon me. I can <i>make</i>
+gold! Give me food, even the smallest scrap, and you shall<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_163"></a>[163]</span>
+be richer than Solomon. All that your hearts desire shall
+be yours, kind gentlemen. Apes, ivory, peacocks and the
+riches of the East shall come to you. I will give you gold
+for your palaces and you shall deck them with beryl and
+chrysoberyl, sapphire, chrysolite and sardonyx. Diamonds
+shall be yours, and the stones of Sardis.... These do not
+tempt you? I curse you by the bones of Isaac! May all
+the burden of Gerizim and Ebal fall upon you!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He broke off, almost inarticulate with rage; then, mastering
+himself, he continued in a calmer tone.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A few crumbs of bread, kind gentlemen; even the
+scrapings of your pocket-linings. Or a sparrow? Think
+what can be bought with my gold. Slaves to your desire,
+concubines of the fairest, brought from all the parts of the
+world, whose love is more than wine....&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It enraged me to hear this filthy object profaning all the
+material splendours of the world; and I thrust him aside
+roughly. My movement seemed to bring his suppressed
+anger to its climax.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You doubt me? You will not hear the word of
+Jahveh&#8217;s messenger? See, I will make gold before you;
+and then you shall fall down and offer me all the food you
+have&mdash;for I know you have food. Look well, O fools; I
+will make gold for you this moment.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He stooped down as though lifting something invisible in
+handfuls and then made the motion of throwing.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;See! My gold! I throw it abroad. Look how it
+glitters in the light of the moon. Hear how it tinkles as it
+falls upon the pavement. There&#8221;&mdash;he pointed suddenly&mdash;&#8220;see
+how the coins spin and run upon the ground. Gold!
+Much fine gold! Is it not enough? Then here is more.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He repeated his motion of lifting something, this time
+with both hands as though he were delving in loose sand.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;See! Gold dust! I throw it; and it falls in showers.
+I scatter it; and there is a golden cloud about us. I give it<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_164"></a>[164]</span>
+all to you, kind gentlemen. Surely all this is worth a rat,
+a fat one; a rat to make soup?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He looked at us expectantly, holding out his empty hands
+as though they contained something which he wished us to
+examine.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Still you are not convinced? Not so much as a sparrow
+for all this gold? I have fallen amid a generation of vipers.
+Ha! You would rob me of my gold; you would take it
+all and give me not so much as a rat? But I shall escape
+you. Even now I go to prepare the streets of the new
+Jerusalem. Jahveh has commanded me that I make them
+ready with my finest gold. He has prepared the smelting-furnace
+here in this city; it burns with fire; and I have
+but to lay my gold in its streets so that they shall all be
+covered. I go! Gold! Gold!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He ran from us; and we heard his voice in Gordon
+Street crying &#8220;Gold! Gold!&#8221; as he went.</p>
+
+<p>After he had left us, we came by Upper Woburn Place
+into Tavistock Square; and it was here that I met the first
+<i>petroleuse</i>. Some houses were burning in Burton Crescent.
+Suddenly at the corner of the entry I saw a figure appear, an
+oldish woman in rags, carrying a petrol tin and a dipper.
+She hobbled along, throwing liquid from her tin at every
+house-door as she passed. Sometimes she broke a window
+and threw petrol into the room beyond. I lost sight of her
+when she turned into Burton Street; but she soon reappeared,
+having evidently exhausted her stores. She now
+carried an improvised torch in her hand with which she set
+fire to the petrol spilled about the doors on her previous
+passage. Soon each doorway was a mass of flames; and she
+retired into Burton Crescent, with a final glance to see that
+her work had been well done.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That sort of thing is going on all over the East End
+now,&#8221; said Glendyne, &#8220;and you see that it is spreading
+westward too. It began by the East Enders running out of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_165"></a>[165]</span>
+coal. Then they took to lighting bonfires in the streets
+with wood from the houses, to keep themselves warm.
+And finally houses caught fire and they got the taste for
+destruction. You&#8217;re seeing the last of London. There are
+no fire-brigades now. It&#8217;s only a question of time before
+the whole city is ablaze.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Russell Square was dark like all the rest of the streets;
+but the moon lit it up sufficiently for us to see what was
+going on in Southampton Row, where a band of men were
+engaged in breaking into a druggist&#8217;s shop.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What do they expect to find there?&#8221; I asked. &#8220;It
+doesn&#8217;t seem very promising from the looter&#8217;s point of
+view.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Cocaine and morphia, of course,&#8221; Glendyne replied,
+&#8220;or ether to get drunk on, if they aren&#8217;t very sophisticated.
+They&#8217;ll do anything to keep down hunger pangs nowadays,
+you know.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>We crossed the south side of Russell Square, making for
+Montague Street, when my attention was attracted by the
+sound of singing which I had previously heard in Tottenham
+Court Road. The voices were nearer this time; and I was
+able to make out one line of the song:</p>
+
+<p class="center">&#8220;<i>Here we go dancing, under the Moon....</i>&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s that?&#8221; I asked Glendyne.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What? Oh, that? Some of the Dancers, I expect.
+We&#8217;ll come across them later on, no doubt. Nothing to
+be alarmed about. Come along!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Just as we were moving on, however, at the turning into
+Montague Street there came a soft whirring behind us; a
+great limousine car drew up at the kerb; and from its
+interior descended a tall figure which approached us. As
+he drew near, I saw in the moonlight that it was a thin
+and white-haired man, showing no signs of the usual grime.
+He seemed a gentle old man, out of place in this city of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_166"></a>[166]</span>
+nightmare; but as I looked more closely into his face I could
+see something abnormal in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You will excuse me for interrupting you, gentlemen;
+but I wish to put an important question to you. What is
+Truth?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Glendyne gave an impatient snarl in reply. Probably he
+was completely <i>blas&eacute;</i> by this time; and took little interest
+in the vagaries of the human mind. As for myself, I was
+so taken aback by this latest comer that I could only stare
+without answering.</p>
+
+<p>The old man looked at us eagerly for a moment; then
+disappointment clouded his face and he turned back to his
+car. We watched him without speaking as he stepped into
+it. The chauffeur drove on, leaving us as silently as he had
+come.</p>
+
+<p>When we reached the great gates of the British Museum,
+I was somewhat surprised to find them standing wide. I
+suppose that even amid the abnormalities of this new London
+my memory was working upon its old lines, and it seemed
+strange to see this entrance open at that time of night. To
+my astonishment, Glendyne turned into the court.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I just want to show you a curious survival in the
+Reading Room here.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Inside the building, all was dark; but by the light of an
+electric torch we found our way to the back of the premises.
+The Reading Room was dotted here and there with tiny
+lights like stars in the gloom; and within each nimbus I
+saw a face bent in the study of a volume.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Still reading, you see,&#8221; said Glendyne. &#8220;Even in the
+last crash some of them are eager for knowledge. How
+they find the books they want passes my comprehension;
+for, of course, there is no one left to give them out. But
+they seem able to pick out what they need from the shelves.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He threw his flashlight here and there in the gloom,
+lighting up figure after figure. Some of them turned and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_167"></a>[167]</span>
+gazed toward us with dazzled eyes; but others continued
+their reading without paying us any attention. It reminded
+me of a glimpse into the City of Dreadful Night; but it
+seemed better than the things we had met in our wanderings
+outside. After all, there was something almost heroic in
+this vain acquirement of learning at a moment when human
+things seemed doomed to destruction.</p>
+
+<p>As we emerged from the Museum, it seemed to me that
+the glare of the flames in the sky was brighter; but this
+may have been due merely to the increased sensitiveness of
+my retina after the darkness within the building. We turned
+to the right and followed Great Russell Street westwards.</p>
+
+<p>We crossed Oxford Street and turned down Charing
+Cross Road. At the lower end of the street, houses were
+burning furiously, and I could hear the sound of the fires
+and the crash of falling girders. Beyond Cambridge Circus
+the road was impassable. Sutton Street seemed to be the
+only way left to us. As we came into it, I noticed that the
+dead were much more numerous here and that many of them
+held clasped in their skeleton hands a crucifix or a rosary.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Making their way to St. Patrick&#8217;s when they died,&#8221;
+Glendyne explained to me. As we came closer to the
+church, we found living mingled with the dead. Some
+of them were so feeble that they could crawl no further;
+but others were still making efforts to drag themselves
+nearer to the door. Organ music came from the porch,
+and I halted amid the dead and dying to listen to the voices
+of the choir:</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="first">&#8220;<i>Dies irae, dies illa</i></div>
+<div class="verse"><i>Solvet saeclum in favilla....</i>&#8221;</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>It was weirdly apposite, there in the centre of that burning
+city. Then the choir continued:</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="first">&#8220;<i>Tuba mirum spargens sonum</i></div>
+<div class="verse"><i>Per sepulchra regionum</i></div>
+<div class="verse"><i>Coget omnes ante thronum.</i>&#8221;</div>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_168"></a>[168]</span>Hardly had the thunder of the great vowels died away when
+from the crowd around us came a bitter cry, the sound of
+some soul in its agony. It startled me; and as I turned
+round, there ran a movement through that multitude of
+dead and dying, as though in very truth the trumpets had
+called the dead to life and judgment. The cry had been
+heard within the church; for a priest came to the porch
+and blessed them. It seemed to bring comfort to those
+alive.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s get out of this,&#8221; I said to Glendyne. &#8220;We can&#8217;t
+help; and it&#8217;s needless to stay here. I can&#8217;t stand it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;All right,&#8221; he said philosophically. &#8220;Personally, I don&#8217;t
+mind this so much as some of the other things one sees.
+These people, you know, by their way of it, have put
+themselves under the protection of the Church. Their
+path is clear. There&#8217;s only Death now for them, and, after
+all, each of us comes to that in his own time. <i>They</i> will go
+out with easy minds.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As we came into Soho Square, I was reminded of the
+fact that even in this city of the dying, human passions still
+remained. From Greek Street came the sound of revolver
+shots: three in rapid succession, evidently a duel, and then
+a gasping cry, followed by a final shot. Then silence for
+a moment; and at last the noise of heavy foot-falls dying
+away in the direction of Old Compton Street.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s that?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How should I know?&#8221; Glendyne retorted. &#8220;Probably
+some of the foreign scum settling a difference among themselves.
+We never bother about this district. Too dangerous
+to poke one&#8217;s nose into. If I were to go and try to help,
+I&#8217;d most probably get shot for my pains. One gets to
+know one&#8217;s way about, after a time. A few weeks ago I
+tried the Good Samaritan on one of these foreigners and
+he almost succeeded in knifing me for my pains. I suppose
+he thought I was one of his friends come to finish the job.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_169"></a>[169]</span>
+He was shot through the lung anyway, so I don&#8217;t suppose I
+could have helped much, even if I had persisted.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Soho Square was deserted. The mingled red and silver
+light from the burning houses and the moon lay across it;
+but nothing moved. We turned northward into Soho
+Street. It also was empty when we entered it; but while
+we walked up it a figure entered it from the Oxford Street
+end. As it approached, Glendyne made a gesture of
+recognition, and when the two met it was evident that
+they were well acquainted with one another.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That you, Glendyne? Glad to see you again. It&#8217;s a
+week since we met, I think.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was a tall thin clergyman with a clear-cut ascetic face,
+clean-shaven in spite of the prevailing lack of soap. For
+the first time that night I saw that the city had thrown
+up a man who was definitely sane. His keen glance, his
+air of competence and his matter-of-fact mode of speech
+were in strong contrast to what I had become accustomed
+to expect from the inhabitants of this Inferno. Glendyne
+introduced me with some perfunctory words which left my
+presence unexplained; and the clergyman seemed to accept
+me without comment.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Things are going from bad to worse, Glendyne,&#8221; he
+said. &#8220;I&#8217;m sometimes tempted to take advantage of your
+offer and clear out some of these places with a bomb or
+two.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s wrong now?&#8221; Glendyne inquired, without
+much apparent interest.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, I can stand a good deal&mdash;have had to, you know.
+But when it comes to open idolatry in the West End, I
+must say I begin to draw the line.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Remember two can play at that game, if you <i>do</i> begin.
+If you interfere with them, they will interfere with you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Of course, you&#8217;re quite right. So far we have had no
+persecution; I&#8217;ll say that for them. But sometimes temptation<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_170"></a>[170]</span>
+is as bad as persecution, or even worse. Persecution
+couldn&#8217;t last long now anyway; and it would only knit
+us together: but temptation is a different matter. I&#8217;ve lost
+two girls in the last three days&mdash;enticed away by the
+Dancers. Sickening business, for one knows how that
+always ends. One of them was taken from my side as
+we were walking along the street together; and I was
+jammed in the crowd and could do nothing. She just
+cracked up, got hysterical and darted off. I lost sight of
+her almost at once. Of course she never came back.
+Damn them!&#8221; he ended with extraordinary bitterness.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, it can&#8217;t be helped. You do all that a man can
+do to keep them sane; and if you fail, it&#8217;s no fault of
+yours.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What has that to do with it?&#8221; cried the clergyman
+vehemently. &#8220;Do you think I care one way or another
+for that? It&#8217;s the sight of these souls going down to
+damnation that I care about. In a few days we must all
+meet our Judge, and these poor things go before Him soiled
+in body and soul! <i>That&#8217;s</i> what hurts, Glendyne. Six
+months ago we were all living a normal life; I was preaching
+the Gospel and doing my best to bring light into these
+people&#8217;s lives. I doubt I was slack in some ways, knowing
+what I do now. I didn&#8217;t realise the gulfs in the darkness
+through which we walked in this world. I knew very little
+of the horrors lurking under the surface. And now comes
+this outpouring of Hell! I used to think one should cover
+up all the worst in life, keep it from one&#8217;s eyes. Perhaps
+if I had known more, I might have been of more use now.
+But at first I didn&#8217;t know. I didn&#8217;t recognise the forms
+under which temptation could come. Half my flock had
+fallen before I had opened my eyes to what was happening.
+Think of that! My sheer ignorance of life, look what it
+has cost!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, well,&#8221; said Glendyne. &#8220;No use crying over spilt<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_171"></a>[171]</span>
+milk, is there? You did your best according to your lights.
+You weren&#8217;t trained as a mental specialist, you know.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Thanks so much, Bildad Redivivus, but I&#8217;m afraid your
+argument helps no more nowadays than it did a few thousand
+years ago in the Land of Uz. I <i>ought</i> to have known better;
+but I shut my eyes. I thought these things unclean and
+despised them; and now they have ruined my work because
+I did not take the trouble to understand them.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You can&#8217;t guess what it is like now, Glendyne. They
+are celebrating the Black Mass in Hyde Park and holding
+Witches&#8217; Sabbaths. All the old evil things which we
+thought had died out of the race have reappeared, all the
+foulest practices and superstitions have come to life. It&#8217;s
+terrible.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The old gods were never dead, although you pretended
+they were. Now they have come again, you have got to
+make the best of it. It&#8217;s not for long, anyway. Another
+week or two and the last food will be gone.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I pray for that day, Glendyne. I never thought to see
+it; but I go on my knees many times daily and pray that
+it may come soon. Some of my people I know will be
+stedfast; but the contagion attacks the younger ones with
+an awful swiftness.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Collective hysteria. I know. Keep them indoors as
+much as possible, especially the girls. You can do nothing
+more.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I suppose not. Anyway, I&#8217;ll do what I can, if only I
+can hold out till the end myself. And to think that once
+I used to imagine that a minister&#8217;s life circled round through
+sermons, prayer-meetings and visiting the sick! Why, I
+didn&#8217;t know the beginnings of it!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t worry about the past. I&#8217;m speaking as a medico
+now. Get on with your work and leave the thinking till
+you have time for it. Eternity&#8217;s pretty long, you know.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, if I take your advice I must be getting back to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_172"></a>[172]</span>
+my work. Good-night, both of you. I&#8217;ll see you next
+week again, perhaps, Glendyne.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He walked on, leaving us to continue our exploration.
+Glendyne was silent for some minutes. When at last he
+spoke, it was in a graver tone than I had heard him use
+before.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s a splendid chap,&#8221; he said, looking back over his
+shoulder at the tall figure behind us. &#8220;I don&#8217;t envy him,
+though. His awakening has been a rude one in this affair.
+Six months ago he knew absolutely nothing of life. He
+was earnest and all that; but a perfect child in things of
+the world. The result was that when the blow came he
+was absolutely helpless. He fought for a time with the old
+platitudes&mdash;and he fought well, I can tell you, for he has
+a tremendous personality. But he was out of court from
+the first. I&#8217;ve seen things done under his very eyes without
+his even noticing what was happening. At last I gave him
+a few pointers from my own experience; and now he has
+some vague ideas what the temptations really are and how
+he can best counter them. And he works like a Trojan.
+A splendid chap. What a chance he has, if he had only
+had the knowledge; and how he regrets it now, poor beggar.
+You know, at the very first, he simply led his people down
+the slope without knowing it. Worked up their religious
+emotion, you see, until they were simply gunpowder for
+the flame. What a mess! And all with the best intentions
+too.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was an extraordinarily long speech from Glendyne;
+and it gave me some measure of his liking for the clergyman.
+I gathered that they often met in the course of their
+work.</p>
+
+<p>By this time we had emerged into Oxford Street. Glendyne
+was about to cross the road, when suddenly he caught
+sight of a train of figures, about a hundred and fifty in all,
+I should say, who were advancing up the middle of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_173"></a>[173]</span>
+street. Each had his hands on the shoulders of the person
+in front of him and the procession advanced towards us
+slowly, whilst I heard again the air with which I had
+become familiar.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The Dancers!&#8221; muttered Glendyne. &#8220;Keep a grip
+on yourself, now, Flint. No hysteria, if you please.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I was angry at being treated in this way, for I am not
+an hysterical subject either outwardly or inwardly; but as
+the procession drew nearer I realised that he was right
+to give me a sharp warning. They advanced slowly, as I
+said, keeping time to the air which they sang and which
+I now recognised as being something like one of the old
+nursery lullabies I heard when I was a child. It had the
+knack of penetrating far into one&#8217;s subconsciousness and
+bringing up into the light all sorts of forgotten childish
+fancies which had long slipped from my waking thoughts.
+There was no regularity in the dancing, except that the
+whole procession kept time to the air: each individual
+danced as he chose, provided that he kept his hands upon
+the shoulders before him so that the line remained intact.
+Men and women were intermingled without any order in
+the company. Their faces were rapt, as though in some
+ecstasy; and a strange, compelling magnetism seemed to
+emanate from the whole scene.</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="first">&#8220;<i>Here we go ... dancing ... under the ... Moon,</i></div>
+<div class="verse"><i>Lifting our ... feet to the ... time of the ... tune.</i></div>
+<div class="verse"><i>Come, brother, ... Come, sister, ... join in our ... line;</i></div>
+<div class="verse"><i>Join with us ... now in this ... dancing divine.</i>&#8221;</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>So they came up toward us, while that strange magnetic
+attraction grew ever stronger upon me. For some reason
+which I could not fathom, I felt a profound desire to join
+in the procession. A kind of hallucinatory craving came
+over me, though I fought it down. At last Glendyne&#8217;s
+voice broke the spell.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Fine example of choreomania, isn&#8217;t it? Perfectly well-recognised<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_174"></a>[174]</span>
+type. The old Dancing Mania of the fourteenth
+century. Bound to arise under conditions like the present.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The phrases fell on my ear and by their matter-of-factness
+seemed to come between me and the fascination which the
+lullaby and the rhythmical motion had begun to exercise
+upon my mind. Almost without any feeling whatever, I
+watched the Dancers approaching.</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="first">&#8220;<i>Here we go ... dancing ... under the ... Moon.</i></div>
+<div class="verse"><i>Join in our ... chain, it will ... break all too ... soon.</i></div>
+<div class="verse"><i>When this verse ... ends, then ... scatter like ... rain;</i></div>
+<div class="verse"><i>And each dance a ... lone till we ... form it a ... gain.</i>&#8221;</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>At the last word of the verse, the procession dissolved
+into a whirling crowd of figures, dancing, springing, spinning
+in their aimless evolutions. We were caught up in the
+mob; and only Glendyne&#8217;s grip on my arm prevented my
+being jostled from his side. A knot of the Dancers came
+about us and strove to excite us into their revels. Women
+with tossing hair besought us breathlessly to join them;
+men dragged at us, striving to bring us out among them.
+All the faces wore the same look of ardency, the same
+expression about the lips. Some were weary; but still the
+excitement bore them up in their convulsions. The temptation
+to join them became almost irresistible; and I felt
+myself being drawn into their ranks when suddenly the
+singing broke out once more.</p>
+
+<p class="center">&#8220;<i>Here we go ... dancing ... under the ... Moon....</i>&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The procession reformed in haste, gathering length as it
+went; and the Dancers began again to move eastward along
+Oxford Street. I watched them go, still feeling the attraction
+long after they were past; and only some minutes later I
+realised that Glendyne was still gripping my arm.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Perhaps you understand now the way in which those
+two girls were lost,&#8221; he said. &#8220;A slight weakening of
+control, eh? Not so bad for a man; but when a girl gives<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_175"></a>[175]</span>
+in to it!... Let&#8217;s go up Rathbone Place, now. I expect
+we may meet something interesting in that direction.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Interesting! I had had enough of interest these last few
+minutes. I was still quivering with the rhythm of that
+doggerel song. However, I followed him across Oxford
+Street, into Rathbone Place. Here the clothed skeletons
+lay more thickly about our path. Between Oxford Street
+and Black Horse Yard I counted thirty-seven. Many of
+them lay in the road; but the majority were huddled in
+corners and doorways, as though the poor wretches had
+sought a quiet place in which to die. In the distance I
+heard wild shouting and the sound of something like a tom-tom
+being beaten intermittently; whilst in the silences
+between these outbursts, the roar of the flames somewhere
+in the neighbourhood came to me over the roofs.</p>
+
+<p>At the corner of Gresse Street, a gaunt creature sidled
+up to us furtively; looked us up and down for a moment;
+and whispered to me: &#8220;Are <i>you</i> one of us?&#8221; Then,
+catching sight of the Red Cross on my arm, he fled into
+the darkness of the side-street without waiting for an
+answer.</p>
+
+<p>In Percy Street, the <i>petroleuses</i> were at work, methodically
+drenching houses with oil and setting them alight. One
+side of the street was already ablaze; and the light wind
+was blowing clouds of sparks broadcast over the neighbouring
+roofs. London was clearly doomed. Nothing could
+save it now, even had anyone wished to do so. As we
+stood at the street-corner, one of the hags passed us and
+snarled as she went by:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll roast you out of the West End soon, you &mdash;&mdash;
+burjwaw! There&#8217;ll be lights enough for you and yer women
+to dance by when Molly comes with her pail. You&#8217;ve trod
+us down and starved us long enough. It&#8217;s our turn now.
+It&#8217;s our turn now, d&#8217;yer hear? I could burn ye as ye
+stand&#8221;&mdash;she drew back her bucket as though to drench us<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_176"></a>[176]</span>
+with petrol&mdash;&#8220;but I want ye to dance with the rest to
+make it complete. We&#8217;ll fix ye before long, we will.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>At the southern end of Charlotte Street a rough cross
+had been erected in the middle of the road and to it clung
+the remains of a skeleton. Most of the bones had fallen to
+the ground, but enough remained to show that a body&mdash;dead
+or alive&mdash;had been crucified there at one time. Over the
+head of the cross was nailed a placard with the inscription:</p>
+
+<p class="center">ACHTUNG!<br />
+EINGANG VERBOTEN.<br />
+WIR SIND HIER ZU HAUSE<br />
+ST&Ouml;REN UNS NICHT.</p>
+
+<p>Glendyne was evidently acquainted with the placard, for
+he did not come forward to read it. He turned to the left
+and led me into Upper Rathbone Place.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mostly Germans in Charlotte Street now,&#8221; he said.
+&#8220;A branch of the East End colony, and just about as bad
+as their friends. I pity anyone who falls into their hands.
+Ugh!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He spat on the ground as though he had a bad taste in
+his mouth.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Thank goodness, this is only a small colony, for that
+sort of thing is apt to contaminate everything in its neighbourhood.
+Down East it&#8217;s on a bigger scale. Hark to
+that!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Across the house-roofs between us and Charlotte Street
+there came a long quivering cry as of someone in the
+extremity of physical and mental agony; then it was
+drowned in a burst of laughter. Glendyne gritted his
+teeth.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;To-morrow night, if the moonlight holds, I&#8217;ll have an
+aeroplane down here and give them a taste. They&#8217;re all of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_177"></a>[177]</span>
+a kind, in there; so it&#8217;s easy enough to be sure we get the
+right ones. Loathsome swine!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>We cut across into Newman Street. At the door of
+St. Andrew&#8217;s Hall a weird figure was standing&mdash;a man dressed
+as a faun, evidently in a costume which had been looted
+from some theatrical wardrobe. When he caught sight of
+us, he ran in our direction, leaping and bounding in an ungainly
+fashion along the pavement and halting occasionally
+to blow shrilly upon a reed pipe.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Pan is not dead!&#8221; he cried. &#8220;I bring the good tidings!
+All the world awakes again after its long sleep; and the
+fauns in the forests are pursuing the hamadryads and
+following the light feet of the oreads once more upon the
+hills of Arcady. Io! Io! Evoh&eacute;! Swift be the hunting!</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The Old Gods slumbered; but Echo, watching by
+rock and pool, ever answered our calling through the years.
+Awake! Awake! O Gods! Hear again the pipes of
+Pan!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He blew a melancholy air upon his instrument, prancing
+grotesquely the while.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Syrinx, reed-maiden, men have not forgotten thee!
+Again they hear the wailings of thy soul in the pipes of
+Pan.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He danced again, looking up at the moon.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Diana! Long hast thou watched us from thy throne in
+the skies, but now the nights of thy hunting are come once
+more. Prepare the bow, gird on thy quiver and come with
+us again as in the days of old. Dost thou remember the
+white goat? Join us, O Huntress!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Again he made music with his pipes.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Syrinx, Syrinx! I come to seek thee in the reeds by the
+river. Awake! The world begins anew.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>And crying &#8220;Syrinx, O Syrinx!&#8221; he ran from us and
+disappeared into Mortimer Street.</p>
+
+<p>Glendyne turned into Castle Street East. I could not see<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_178"></a>[178]</span>
+any reason for these continual turnings and windings in our
+wanderings, but I suppose that he had some definite itinerary
+in his mind, some route which would give him the best
+opportunity of exhibiting to me the varied aspects of London
+at this time. Here again the skeletons lay scattered, though
+there appeared to be no aggregations of them in any particular
+localities. Behind us, the Tottenham Court Road
+district seemed ablaze; and flames leaped above the house-roofs
+to the east.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, after we had passed Berners Street, I heard a
+confused sound of shouting, yells, running feet and the notes
+of a horn. Glendyne started violently and dragged me
+rapidly into the shelter of a house-door near the corner of
+Wells Street.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;This is a case where the Red Cross is no protection,&#8221;
+he said hurriedly. &#8220;It&#8217;s Herne and his pack. Keep as much
+under cover as you can. We shall probably not be noticed,&#8221;
+he added. &#8220;They seem to be in full cry. There!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, a single man rushed into view at the corner.
+He was running with his head down, looking neither to
+right nor left, but I caught a glimpse of his face as he passed
+and I have never seen terror marked so deeply on any
+countenance. He was evidently exhausted, yet he seemed
+to be driven on by a frantic fear which kept him on his feet
+even though he staggered and slipped as he went by.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The quarry,&#8221; said Glendyne. &#8220;Now comes the pack.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Almost on the heels of the fugitive, a horde of pursuers
+swept into sight: about forty or fifty men and women running
+with long, easy strides. Some of them shouted as they
+ran, others passed in silence; but all had a dreadful air of
+intentness. It was more like the final stage of a fox-hunt
+than anything else that I can recall. Leading the crew was
+a huge negro, running with an open razor in his hand; and
+I saw flecks of foam on his mouth as he passed. Next to
+him was a chestnut-haired girl wearing an evening dress<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_179"></a>[179]</span>
+which had once been magnificent. She had kilted up the
+skirt for ease in running. A silver horn was in her hand;
+and on it she blew from time to time, whilst the pack yelled
+in reply. The whole thing passed in a flash; and we heard
+them retreating into the distance towards Oxford Street.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s that ghastly business?&#8221; I asked Glendyne. I
+had pulled out my pistol almost unconsciously when the pack
+swept into sight; but he had laid a grip on my wrist and
+prevented me from firing.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The nigger in front was Herne&mdash;Herne the Hunter,
+they call him. They hunt in a pack, you see, and run down
+any isolated individual they happen to come across in their
+prowlings. I wish we could get hold of them; but they
+seldom come near any of the picketed areas. They can get
+all the sport they need without that. Once the hunt is up,
+they recognise nothing. That&#8217;s why I told you the Red
+Cross wouldn&#8217;t save you. If they chase, they kill; and they
+seem able to run anyone down. I never heard of a victim
+escaping them.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What do they do it for?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Pleasure, fun, anything you like. It gives them a
+peculiar delight to hunt and kill. You see, Flint, in these
+times the instincts which are normally under control have
+all broken loose upon us; and the hunting instinct is one of
+the very oldest we have. In ordinary times, it comes out in
+fox-hunting or grouse-shooting or some wild form like that.
+But nowadays there is no restraint and the instinct can glut
+itself to the full. Man-hunting is the final touch of pleasure
+for these creatures.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Who was the girl at the head of them?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, that? She was Lady Angela.&#8221; He gave a
+sneering laugh. &#8220;What an incongruity there is in some
+names! Satanita was what she ought to have been christened
+if everyone had their rights. And yet, in the old days, one
+could never have suspected this in her. I knew her, you<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_180"></a>[180]</span>
+know, and I more than liked her. She used to sing me old
+French songs; and one of them was rather a horrible production.
+It ought to have put me on my guard; but I
+suppose every man is a fool where women are concerned.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He broke off and hummed to himself a snatch of an old
+air:</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="first">&#8220;<i>Pour passer ces nuits blanches,</i></div>
+<div class="indent"><i>Gallery, mes enfants,</i></div>
+<div class="verse"><i>Chassait tous les dimanches</i></div>
+<div class="indent"><i>Et battais les paysans.</i></div>
+<div class="indent3"><i>Entendez-vous la sarabande?...</i>&#8221;</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&#8220;And so now she&#8217;s running a kind of Chasse-Gallery on her
+own account along with that human devil, Herne. It
+shows how little one knows.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Just as we approached Oxford Mansions, I heard the
+sound of a pistol-shot, and when we came up to the spot
+we found a still warm body with a Colt automatic clasped
+in its hand. &#8220;Suicide,&#8221; said Glendyne briefly, after
+examining the body. &#8220;The short way out.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing to be done, so we turned away.
+As we did so a black shadow dropped out of the sky and
+I saw a huge crow alighting by the side of the corpse. I
+think that this incident made as great an effect upon me
+as any. Times had changed indeed when crows became
+night-birds. Glendyne watched me drive the brute away
+from the corpse without attempting to help.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s the use? It will be back as soon as we go;
+and I don&#8217;t suppose you want to stay here all night?
+Birds are desperate for food nowadays, and that fellow may
+give you more than you expect if you don&#8217;t leave him
+alone. The old fear of man has left them, you know,
+nowadays.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Before we had gone many steps, we encountered another
+inhabitant, a cadaverous young man with an acid stain on
+his sleeve. He stopped and wished us &#8220;Good-evening,&#8221;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_181"></a>[181]</span>
+being apparently glad to meet someone to whom he could
+talk. It was a relief to find that he appeared to be perfectly
+sane. I had become so accustomed to abnormality
+by this time that I think his sanity came almost as an
+unexpected thing. I asked him what he did to pass the
+time.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I was working at some alkaloid constitutions when the
+Plague came, and I just went on with that. I&#8217;ve got one
+definitely settled except for the position of a single methyl
+radicle, now; and I think I shall get that fixed in a day or
+two. But probably you aren&#8217;t a chemist?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No. Not my line.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Rather a pity&mdash;for me, I mean. One does like to
+explain what one has done; and there&#8217;s no chance of that
+now.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to me a pity that this enthusiast should be lost.
+Probably Nordenholt could find some use for him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I think I could put you in touch with some other
+chemists if you like; but you would need to trust me
+in the matter. Is there anyone depending on you, any
+relatives?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, they&#8217;re all gone by now.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, I think I might manage it. I believe I could
+put you in the way of being some use; and it might be the
+saving of your life, too, for I suppose your food is almost
+out.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A famished look came into his face and I realised what
+food meant to him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Could you? I&#8217;d be awfully grateful. I&#8217;m down to
+the laboratory stores of glycerine and fatty acids now for
+nourishment, and it&#8217;s pretty thin, I can tell you. Could
+you really do something?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In his excitement, he clutched my arm: and at that he
+recoiled with a look of horror on his face.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You damned cannibal!&#8221; he cried. &#8220;Did you think<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_182"></a>[182]</span>
+you would take me in? I suppose your friend was standing
+by with the sandbag, eh?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He retreated a few steps and cursed me with almost
+hysterical violence.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If I had a pistol I would finish you,&#8221; he cried. &#8220;You
+don&#8217;t deserve to live. And to think you nearly took me in.
+I suppose you would have enticed me to your den with that
+fairy-tale of yours.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>And with an indescribable sound of disgust he turned and
+ran up Margaret Court, cursing as he went.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s all that about?&#8221; I asked Glendyne. &#8220;It&#8217;s more
+than Greek to me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Of course you wouldn&#8217;t understand. I forgot that you
+people up in the North don&#8217;t know there&#8217;s a famine on.
+Don&#8217;t you see that when he gripped your sleeve he found
+a normal arm inside instead of a starved one; and he drew
+the natural conclusion.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What natural conclusion?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Really, Flint, you are a bit obtuse. You know that
+food here is almost unprocurable except by those who have
+rationed themselves carefully from the start and have still
+some stores to go on with. How do you think the rest of
+them live? Of course the poor beggar found you in normal
+condition and he jumped to the conclusion that you were
+a cannibal like a large number of the survivors. What else
+could he think? He imagined that we were holding him
+in talk until we could sandbag him or knock him out
+somehow for the sake of his valuable carcase. See now?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This seemed to be the last straw. Curiously enough,
+I had never given a thought to the food problem. I had
+simply assumed that these people in the streets were living
+on hoarded stores. Cannibalism! I had never dreamed of
+such a thing in London, even this London.</p>
+
+<p>Glendyne laughed sarcastically at the expression on my
+face. &#8220;Why, you are nearly as innocent as my poor clerical<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_183"></a>[183]</span>
+friend,&#8221; he said at last. &#8220;Can&#8217;t you understand that <i>nothing</i>
+counts nowadays. There isn&#8217;t any law, or order, or public
+opinion or anything else that might restrain brutes. You&#8217;ve
+got the final argument of civilisation in your pocket&mdash;a
+brace of them, besides the loose cartridges&mdash;and that&#8217;s the
+King and the Law Courts nowadays. The only thing left
+is the strong hand; everything else has gone long ago. For
+the most of the survivors there isn&#8217;t any morality or ethics
+or public spirit. They simply want to live and enjoy themselves;
+and they don&#8217;t care how they do it. Get that well
+into your head, Flint.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Over the next part of our exploration I may draw a veil.
+We traversed the stretch from Oxford Circus to Regent
+Circus, which was the centre of the remaining life of London
+in those days. One cannot describe the details of saturnalia;
+and I leave the matter at that. It surpassed my wildest
+anticipations. At Piccadilly Circus I found a gigantic negro
+acting as priest in some Voodoo mysteries. The court of
+Burlington House had been turned into a temple of Khama.
+I was glad indeed when we were able to make our way into
+the less frequented squares to the north. Even the quiet
+skeletons seemed more akin to me than these wretches whom
+I saw exulting in their devilry. Glendyne had under-estimated
+the thing when he said that there was no public
+opinion left to control men and women. There was a new
+public opinion based on the principle of &#8220;Eat, Drink, for
+to-morrow we die&#8221;; and the collective spirit of these crowds
+urged humanity on to excesses which no single individual
+would have dared.</p>
+
+<p>We came to the Langham by Cavendish Square and
+Chandos Street. As we stood at the hotel door, I could see
+the lights of the bonfires and hear the yells and shrieks of
+the revellers at the Circus; but Langham Place was comparatively
+quiet. Eastward, the sky was ruddy with the
+flames of the burning city; southward, the bonfires shone<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_184"></a>[184]</span>
+crimson against the pale moonlight; to the north, up
+Portland Place, the streets were half in shadow and half lit
+up by the brilliancy of the moon.</p>
+
+<p>We walked northward, taking the unshadowed side of the
+road. Glendyne had shown me the worst now, and only
+the return to our car remained before us. I drew a breath
+of relief as we turned the bend of Langham Place and the
+bulk of the Langham Hotel cut us off from the sight of
+these lights behind us. Here, under the moon, things
+seemed purer and more peaceful.</p>
+
+<p>We came to the corner of Duchess Street without seeing
+anyone; but just as we reached the crossing, a familiar
+figure stepped out. It was Lady Angela. This time I
+could see her plainly in the moonlight; a tall, chestnut-haired
+girl, beautiful certainly, but with the beauty of an
+animal type, tigress-like. Her dress was torn and a splash of
+fresh blood lay across her breast. In her hand was the silver
+horn which I had noticed before. She started as she
+recognised Glendyne.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, Geoffrey,&#8221; she said; &#8220;we haven&#8217;t met for some
+time. You&#8217;re looking thinner than when I saw you last.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was just as if she were greeting a friend whom she had
+lost sight of for a few weeks. She did not seem to see the
+incongruity of things. For all that her tone showed, they
+might have met casually in a drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s no use, Angela, I saw you in Berners Street to-night,
+you and your beasts. I knew all about you long ago.
+You needn&#8217;t pretend with me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She flushed, not with shame I could guess, but with
+anger.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;So you disapprove, do you, little man? You&#8217;re one of
+the kind that can&#8217;t understand a girl enjoying herself, are
+you? But if I were to whistle, you would come to heel
+quick enough. You were keen enough on me in the old
+days and I could make you keen again if I wished.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_185"></a>[185]</span>She drew herself up and, despite her tattered dress and
+disordered hair, she made a splendid figure. Her voice
+became coaxing.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Geoffrey, don&#8217;t you think you could take me away from
+all this? It isn&#8217;t my real self that does these things; it&#8217;s
+something that masters me and forces me to do them against
+my will. If you would help me, I could pull up. You
+used to be fond of me. Take me now.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Glendyne did not hesitate.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s no good, Angela. You&#8217;re corrupt to the core, and
+you can&#8217;t conceal it. I&#8217;ve no use for you. You couldn&#8217;t
+be straight if you tried. Do you think I want the associate
+of a nigger? And what a nigger at that!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She began to answer him, but her voice choked with fury.
+She raised the silver horn to her lips; blew shrilly for a
+moment and then cried: &#8220;Herne! Herne! Here&#8217;s sport
+for you! Here&#8217;s sport!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I might have known that brute wouldn&#8217;t be far off if
+you were here,&#8221; said Glendyne bitterly. &#8220;Flint, use your
+shots in groups of three. It&#8217;s a signal to the patrol. We
+may pull out yet. Here they come, the whole pack!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There was a trampling of feet in Duchess Street and I
+heard quite close at hand the hunting-cries of the band of
+ruffians. Glendyne fired nine times into the darkness of
+the street and we turned to run. Lady Angela watched us
+at first without moving, brooding on her revenge. By the
+time we had gone fifty yards, the whole pack was in full cry
+after us up Portland Place.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We may run across Sanderson&#8217;s car before they get us,&#8221;
+Glendyne panted as he ran beside me. &#8220;The triple shots
+may bring him. Run for all you&#8217;re worth.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He had removed the empty magazine as he ran and now
+turned for a moment and fired thrice in rapid succession at
+our pursuers. I did the same. But there was no check in
+the chase. We still maintained our distance ahead of them,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_186"></a>[186]</span>
+but we gained nothing. All at once I began to find that I
+was falling behind. I was hopelessly out of training; and
+my side ached, while my feet seemed leaden. I ran staggeringly,
+just as I had seen the other quarry run in the earlier
+part of the night; and I gasped for breath as I ran.</p>
+
+<p>I shall never forget that nightmare chase. Once I turned
+round and fired to gain time if possible. I heard Glendyne&#8217;s
+pistol also, more than once. But nothing seemed to check
+the pursuit. I felt it gaining on me; and the silver horn
+sounded always nearer each time it blew. It was no distance
+that we ran, but the pace was killing. I was afraid that we
+might be cut off by a fresh party emerging from Cavendish
+Street or Weymouth Street; but we passed these in safety.
+I learned afterwards that Herne&#8217;s band hunted like hounds,
+in a body, never separating into sections. Their pleasure
+was in the chase as much as anything; and they employed
+no strategy to trap their victims.</p>
+
+<p>Just south of Devonshire Street I stumbled and fell.
+Glendyne wheeled round at once and tried to keep off the
+pack with his pistols; but as I rose to my feet again I saw
+them still coming on. The moon showed up their brutal
+faces hardly twenty yards away. I had given myself up for
+lost, when Glendyne shouted: &#8220;Lie down!&#8221; and rolled
+me over with his hand on my shoulder while he flung
+himself face downwards on the road. A dazzling glare
+shone in my eyes and passed; and then I saw a motor
+swinging in the road and the squat shape of a Lewis gun
+projected over its side.</p>
+
+<p>I turned over and saw the pack almost upon us. Then
+came the roll of the Lewis gun and the maniacs stopped as
+though they had struck some invisible barrier. Herne
+crashed to the ground. Lady Angela staggered, stood for a
+moment fumbling with her horn, and then fell face downward.
+The remainder of the band turned and fled into
+Weymouth Street.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_187"></a>[187]</span>Glendyne picked himself up and went across to Lady
+Angela&#8217;s body. She was quite dead, at which he seemed
+relieved. I understood better when I saw one of the men
+in the patrol car going round amongst the wounded and
+finishing them with his revolver.</p>
+
+<p>Sanderson, the patrol leader, spoke a few words to
+Glendyne; and then the car swung off into Park Crescent
+and disappeared. The whole thing had taken only a
+few seconds; and we were left alone with the dead.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s all right now, Flint,&#8221; said Glendyne. &#8220;They won&#8217;t
+dare to come back. Besides, the leaders are gone&#8221;&mdash;he
+kicked the negro&#8217;s body&mdash;&#8220;and they were the worst. I&#8217;ll
+take this as a souvenir, I think.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He picked up the little silver horn; and I wondered what
+it would remind him of in later days.</p>
+
+<p>It was in Park Crescent that I got my last glimpse of the
+new London. On the pavement, half-way round to
+Copeland Road Station, I saw something moving; and on
+examining it closely I found that it was a dying man. All
+about him were rats which were attacking him, while he
+feebly tried to keep them at bay. He was too weak to
+defend himself and already he had been badly bitten.
+There was nothing to be done; but Glendyne and I stood
+beside him till he died, while the rats huddled in a circle
+about him, waiting their chance. Glendyne kept them
+back by flashing his electric torch on them when they
+became too venturesome.</p>
+
+<p>That was my last sight of London in these days; and
+looking back upon it, I cannot help feeling that this squalid
+tragedy was symbolical of greater things. The old civilisation
+went its way, healthy on the surface, full of life and vigour,
+apparently unshakable in its power. Yet all the while, at
+the back of it there lurked in odd corners the brutal instincts,
+darting into view at times for a moment and then returning
+into the darkness which was their home. Suddenly came<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_188"></a>[188]</span>
+the Famine: and civilisation shook, grew weaker and lost
+its power over men. With that, all the evil passions were
+unleashed and free to run abroad. Bolder and bolder they
+grew, till at last civilisation went down before them, feebly
+attempting to ward them off and failing more and more to
+protect itself. It was the dying man and the rats on a
+gigantic scale.</p>
+
+<p>I came back to the Clyde Valley a very different being.
+Now I knew what had to be fought if our Fata Morgana
+was to rise on solid foundations; and the task appalled me.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_189"></a>[189]</span>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak"><small>CHAPTER XIII</small><br />
+
+
+Reconstruction</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">When</span> I saw Nordenholt again after my return, I found
+that I had no need to describe my experiences. He seemed
+to know exactly where I had been and what had happened to
+me. I suspect that Glendyne must have furnished him with
+a full report of the night&#8217;s doings.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, Jack,&#8221; he greeted me; &#8220;what do you think of
+things now?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m down in the depths,&#8221; I confessed frankly. &#8220;If that&#8217;s
+what lies at the roots of humanity, I see no chance of
+building much upon such foundations. The trail of the
+brute&#8217;s over everything.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Of course it is! The whole of our machine is constructed
+on a brute basis. Did you need to go to London to see that?
+Why, man, every time you walk you swing your left hand
+and your right foot in time with each other; and that&#8217;s only
+a legacy of some four-footed ancestor which ran with the near
+fore-leg and off hind-leg acting in unison. Of course the
+brute is the basis. A wolf-pack will give you a microcosm
+of a nation: family life, struggles between wolf and wolf for
+a living, co-operation against an external enemy or prey. But
+don&#8217;t forget that humanity has refined things a little. Give
+it credit for that at least. People laugh at the calf-love of a
+boy; but in many cases that has no sexual feeling in it; it
+has touched a less brutal spring somewhere in the machine.
+There&#8217;s altruism, too; it isn&#8217;t so uncommon as you think.
+And patriotism isn&#8217;t necessarily confined to a mere tooth-and-claw<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_190"></a>[190]</span>
+grapple with a hated opponent; it might still exist even
+if wars were abolished. I know you&#8217;re still under the cloud,
+Jack; but don&#8217;t think that the sun has gone down for good
+simply because it&#8217;s hidden. All I wanted you to see was
+that you must be on your guard in your reconstruction.
+You and Elsa were planning for an ideal humanity. I want
+you to make things bearable for the flesh-and-blood units
+with which you have to work. Don&#8217;t strain them too
+high.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I wish I could find my way through it all,&#8221; I said.
+&#8220;But anyway I see your point. What you wanted was to
+let me know which was sand and which was rock to build on,
+wasn&#8217;t it? You were afraid I was mistaking it all for solid
+ground?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s about it. Remember, with decent luck you ought
+to have a clean slate to start with. Most of our old troubles
+have solved themselves, or will solve themselves in the course
+of the next few months. There&#8217;s no idle class in the
+Nitrogen Area; money&#8217;s only a convenient fiction and now
+they know it by experience; there&#8217;s no Parliament, no gabble
+about Democracy, no laws that a man can&#8217;t understand.
+I&#8217;ve made a clean sweep of most of the old system; and the
+rest will go down before we&#8217;re done.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I know that, but to tell the truth I don&#8217;t know where to
+begin building. It seems an impossible business; the more
+I look at it the less confidence I have in myself.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t worry so much about that. You&#8217;ll see that it
+will solve itself step by step. It&#8217;s not so much cut-and-dried
+plans you need as a flexible mind combined with general
+principles. It&#8217;s the principles that will worry you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I suppose you are right,&#8221; I said.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s obvious if you look at it. Your first stages will be
+the getting of these five million people into two sets: one on
+the land to cultivate it; the other still working on nitrogen.
+That&#8217;s evident. The whole of that part of the thing is a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_191"></a>[191]</span>
+matter of statistics and calculation; there&#8217;s nothing in it,
+so far as thinking goes. After that, you have to arrange to
+get the best out of the people mentally and morally; and
+I think Elsa will be a help to you there. By the way,
+she refuses to leave me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then how am I going to get her help?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, I&#8217;ve arranged that she is to have lighter work and
+she&#8217;ll have the evenings free; so you and she can consult
+then, if you will.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This seemed to be enough to go on with.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s another thing, Jack,&#8221; he continued, &#8220;I&#8217;ve got
+good news for you. It appears from the work that the
+bacteriologists are doing that <i>B. diazotans</i> is a short-lived
+creature. According to their results, the whole lot will die
+out in less than three months from now, as far as this part of
+the country is concerned. Apparently it combined tremendous
+reproductive power with a very short existence; and
+it&#8217;s now reaching the end of its tether. So in three months
+we ought to be able to get the nitrogenous stuff on to the
+fields without any fear of having it decomposed. That was
+what always frightened me; for if <i>B. diazotans</i> had been a
+permanent thing, the whole scheme would have collapsed. I
+foresaw that, but we just had to take the chance; and I
+always hoped that if the worst came to the worst we might
+hit on some anti-agent which would destroy the brutes. You
+know that in some places it hasn&#8217;t produced any effect at all;
+the local conditions seem against it, somehow.&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Reconstruction! I remember those early days when I sat
+in my office for hours together, making notes of schemes
+which I tore up next day with an ever-increasing irritation at
+my own sterility. Given a clean slate to start with, it seems
+at first sight the easiest thing in the world to draw the plans
+of a Utopia, or at any rate to rough in the outlines when one
+is not hampered by details. Try it yourself! You may<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_192"></a>[192]</span>
+have better luck or a greater imagination than I had; and
+possibly you may succeed in satisfying yourself: but remember
+that I had real responsibility upon me; mine was not the easy
+dreaming of a literary man dealing with puppets drawn from
+his ink-pot, malleable to his will; it was a flesh-and-blood
+humanity with all its weaknesses, its failings, its meannesses
+that I had to deal with in my schemes.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot tell how many sketches I made and discarded in
+turn. Most of them I had not even courage to put upon the
+files; so that I cannot now trace the evolution of my ideas.
+I can recall that, as time went on, my projects became more
+and more modest in their scope; and I think that they seem
+to fall into four main divisions.</p>
+
+<p>At the start, I began by imagining an ideal humanity, something
+like the dwellers in our Fata Morgana; and from
+this picture I deducted bit by bit all that seemed unrealisable
+with humanity as it was. I cut away a custom here, a
+tradition there, until I had reduced the whole sketch to a
+framework. And when I put this framework together upon
+paper and saw what it contained, I found it to be an invertebrate
+mass of disconnected shreds and tatters with no life in
+it and no hope of existence. I remember even now the
+disappointment which that discovery gave me. I began to
+understand the gulf between comfortable theories and hard
+facts.</p>
+
+<p>In the next stage of my development, I leaned mainly upon
+the future. I was still under the sting of my disillusion; and
+I discarded the idea that existing humanity could ever enter
+the courts of Fata Morgana. I tried to plan foundations upon
+which the newer generations could rise to the heights.
+Education! Had we ever in the old days understood the
+meaning of the word? Had we ever consciously tried to
+draw out all that was best in the human mind? Or had we
+merely stuffed the human intellect with disconnected scraps
+of knowledge, the mere bones from which all the flesh had<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_193"></a>[193]</span>
+wasted away? We had a clean slate&mdash;how often my mind
+recurred to that simile in those days&mdash;could we not write
+something better upon it than had been written in the past?
+A chasm separated us from the older days; we need be
+hampered by no traditions. Could we not start a fresh
+line?</p>
+
+<p>I pondered this for days on end. It seemed to be feasible
+in some ways; but in other directions I saw the difficulties
+to the full. The clean slate was not a real thing
+at all. Environment counts for so much; and all the adult
+minds in the community had been bred in the atmosphere
+of the past. Their influence would always be there to
+hamper us, bearing down upon the younger generations and
+cramping them in the old ideas. There could be no clean
+severance between present and future, only a gradual change of
+outlook through the years.</p>
+
+<p>My third stage of evolution led on from this conclusion. I
+accepted the present as it was and then tried to discover ways
+in which improvements might be made in the future. Again
+I spent days in picking out faults and making additions to the
+fabric of society; and at the end of it all I found, as I had done
+before, that the result was a patchwork, something which had
+no organic life of its own.</p>
+
+<p>At this point, I think, I began to despair entirely; and I
+fell back upon pure materialism. I considered the matter
+solely from the standpoint of the practical needs of the time;
+for there I felt myself upon sure ground. Whatever
+happened, I must have ready a concrete scheme which would
+tide us over our early stages in the future.</p>
+
+<p>I secured statistics showing the proportions of the population
+which would be required in all the different branches of labour
+during the coming year; and in doing this I had to divide
+them into groups according as they were to work on the land
+or were required for keeping up the supply of fixed nitrogen
+from the factories. My charts showed me the areas which<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_194"></a>[194]</span>
+we expected to have under cultivation at given dates in the
+future. I was back again in the unreal world of graphs and
+curves; and I think that in some ways it was an advantage
+to me to eliminate the human factor. It kept me from
+brooding too much over my recollections of humanity in its
+decline.</p>
+
+<p>On this materialistic basis, the whole thing resolved itself
+into a problem of labour economy: the devising of a method
+whereby the greatest yield of food could be obtained with the
+smallest expenditure of power. Here I was on familiar
+ground; for it was my factory problem over again, though the
+actual conditions were different. There were only two main
+sides to the question: on the one hand I had to ensure the
+greatest amount of food possible and on the other I had to
+look to the ease of distribution of that food when it was produced.
+The idea of huge tractor-ploughed areas followed as
+a matter of course; and from this developed the conception
+of humanity gathered into a number of moderately-sized
+aggregations rather than spread in cottages here and there
+throughout the country-side. Each of these centres of
+population would contain within itself all the essentials of
+existence and would thus be a single unit capable of almost
+independent existence.</p>
+
+<p>Having in this way roughed out my scheme, other factors
+forced themselves on my attention. I had no wish to utilise
+the old villages which still remained dotted here and there about
+the country-side. Their sizes and positions had been dictated
+by conditions which had now passed away; and it seemed
+better to make a clean sweep of them and start afresh. From
+the purely practical standpoint, the erection of huge phalansteries
+at fixed points would no doubt have been the simplest
+solution of the problem; but I rejected this conception. I
+wanted something better than barracks for my people to live
+in. I wanted variety, not a depressing uniformity. And I
+wanted beauty also.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_195"></a>[195]</span>Step by step I began to see my way clearer before me.
+And now that I look back upon it, I was simply following in
+the track of Nature herself. To make sure of the material
+things, to preserve the race first of all; then to increase comfort,
+to make some spot of the Earth&#8217;s surface different from
+the rest for each of us, to create a &#8220;home&#8221;; lastly, when the
+material side had been buttressed securely, to turn to the mind
+and open it to beauty: that seems to me to be the normal
+progress of humanity in the past, from the Stone Age
+onwards.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>It was at this period that Elsa Huntingtower came more
+into my life. While I was laying down the broad outlines
+of the material side of the coming reconstruction, I had
+preferred to work alone; for in dealing with problems of
+this nature, it seems to me best to have a single mind upon
+the work. It was largely a matter of dry statistics, calculations,
+graphs, estimates, cartography and so forth; and since
+it seemed to me to be governed almost entirely by practical
+factors, I did not think that much could be gained by calling
+for her help. I waited till I had the outlines of the project
+completed before applying to Nordenholt in the matter.
+When I spoke to him, he agreed with what I had done.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t want to see your plans, Jack. It&#8217;s your show;
+and if I were to see them I would probably want to make
+suggestions and shake your trust in your own judgment.
+Much better not.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What about Miss Huntingtower&#8217;s help? Am I not to
+get that?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s a different matter entirely. She ought to give
+you the feminine point of view, which I couldn&#8217;t do. Let&#8217;s
+see. She can consult with you in the evenings. Will
+that do?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I agreed; and it was arranged that thereafter I was to
+spend the evenings at Nordenholt&#8217;s house, where she and I<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_196"></a>[196]</span>
+could discuss things in peace. Nordenholt left us almost
+entirely to ourselves, though occasionally he would come
+into the room where we worked: but he refused to take
+any interest in our affairs.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;One thing at a time for me, nowadays,&#8221; he used to say,
+when she appealed to him. &#8220;My affair is to bring things
+up to the point where you two can take over. Your
+business is to be ready to pull the starting-lever when I
+give you the word. I won&#8217;t look beyond my limits.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>And, indeed, he had enough to do at that time. Things
+were not always smooth in the Nitrogen Area; and I could
+see signs that they might even become more difficult. Since I
+had left my own department, I had gained more information
+about the general state of affairs; and I could comprehend
+the possibilities of wreckage which menaced us as the
+months went by.</p>
+
+<p>I have said before that it is almost impossible for me to
+retrace in detail the evolution of my reconstruction plans;
+and in the part where Elsa Huntingtower and I collaborated,
+my recollections are even more confused than they are with
+regard to the work I did alone. So much of it was developed
+by discussions between us that in the end it was
+hard to say who was really responsible for the final form of
+the schemes which we laid down in common. She brought
+a totally new atmosphere into the problem, details mostly,
+but details which meant the remodelling of much that I
+had planned.</p>
+
+<p>One example will be sufficient to show what I mean.
+I had, as I have mentioned, planned a series of semi-isolated
+communities scattered over the cultivable area; and I had
+gone the length of getting my architects to design houses
+which I thought would be the best possible compromise:
+something that would please the average taste without
+offending people who happened to be particular in details.
+I showed some of these drawings to her, expecting approval.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_197"></a>[197]</span>
+She examined them carefully for a long time, without saying
+anything.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, Mr. Flint,&#8221; she said at last, &#8220;I know you will
+think I am very hard to please; but personally I wouldn&#8217;t
+live in one of these things if you paid me to do it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s wrong with them? That one was drawn by
+Atkinson, and I believe he&#8217;s supposed to be a rather good
+architect.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Of course he is. That&#8217;s just what condemns him in
+my mind. Don&#8217;t you know that for generations the &#8216;best
+architects&#8217; have been imposing on people, giving them
+something that no one wants; and carrying it off just
+because they are the &#8216;best architects&#8217; and are supposed
+to know what is the right thing. And not one of them
+ever seems to have taken the trouble to find out what
+a woman wants, in a house. Not one.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t you see the awful sameness in these designs, for
+one thing? You men seem to think that if you get four
+walls and a roof, everything is all right. Can&#8217;t you understand
+that one woman wants something different from
+another one?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There certainly was a monotony about the designs, now
+I came to look at them.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now here&#8217;s a suggestion,&#8221; she went on. &#8220;It may not
+be practical, but it&#8217;s your business to make it practicable,
+and not simply to accept what another man tells you is
+possible or impossible. You say that your trouble is that
+you want to standardise, so as to make production on a
+large scale easy. So you&#8217;ve simply set out to standardise
+your finished product; and you want to build so many
+houses of one type and so many of another type and let
+your people choose between the two types. Now my idea
+is quite different. Suppose that you were to standardise
+your <i>material</i> so that it is capable of adaptation? You
+see what I mean?&#8221;</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_198"></a>[198]</span>&#8220;I&#8217;m afraid I don&#8217;t,&#8221; I said.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Like Meccano. You get a dozen strips of metal and
+some screws and wheels; and out of that you can build
+fifty different models, using the same pieces in each model.
+Well, why not try to design your girders and beams and
+doors and so forth, in such a way that out of the same
+set you could erect a whole series of different houses. It
+doesn&#8217;t seem to me an impossibility if you get someone
+with brains to do it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It sounds all right in theory; but I&#8217;m not so sure about
+the practical side.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Of course if you put some old fogey on to it he won&#8217;t
+be able to do it; but try a young man who believes in the
+idea and you&#8217;ll get it done, I&#8217;m sure. It may mean
+making each part a little more complicated than it would
+normally be; but that doesn&#8217;t matter much in mass-production,
+does it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not an insuperable difficulty.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, another thing. Get your architect to draw up
+sketches of all the possible combinations he can get out
+of his standardised material; and then when people want
+a house, they can look at the different designs and among
+them all they are almost sure to find something that suits
+their taste. It is much better than your idea of three or
+four standard house-patterns, anyway.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll see what can be done.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, the thing will be easy enough if you mean to have
+it. A child can build endless castles with a single box of
+bricks; and surely a man&#8217;s brain ought to be able to do
+with beams and joists what a child does with bricks.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I give this as an example of her suggestions. Some of
+her improvements seemed trivial to me; but I took it that
+it was just these trivial things that made all the difference
+to a feminine mind; so I followed her more or less blindly.</p>
+
+<p>Our collaboration was an ideal one, notwithstanding some<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_199"></a>[199]</span>
+hard-fought debatable points. More and more, as time went
+on, I began to understand the wisdom Nordenholt had
+shown in demanding that I should take her into partnership.
+Our minds worked on totally different lines; but for that
+very reason we completed each other, one seeing what the
+other missed. I found that she was open to conviction if
+one could actually put a finger on any weak point in her
+schemes.</p>
+
+<p>And, behind the details of our plans, I began to see more
+and more clearly the outlines of her character. I suppose that
+most men, thrown into daily contact with any girl above
+the average in looks and brains, will drift into some sort of
+admiration which is hardly platonic; but in these affairs
+propinquity usually completes what it has begun by showing
+up weak points in character or little mannerisms which end
+by repelling instead of attracting. In a drawing-room,
+people are always on their guard to some extent; but in
+the midst of absorbing work, real character comes out.
+One sees gaps in intelligence; failures to follow out a line
+of thought become apparent; any inharmony in character
+soon makes itself felt. One seldom sees teachers marrying
+their girl-students. But in Elsa Huntingtower I found a
+brain as good as my own, though working along different
+lines. I expect that her association with Nordenholt had
+given her chances which few girls ever have; but she had
+natural abilities which had been sharpened by that contact.
+She puzzled me, I must admit. My mind works very much
+in the concrete; I like to see every step along the road,
+to test each foothold before trusting my weight upon it. To
+me, her mental processes seemed to depend more upon some
+intuition than did mine; but I believe now that her reasoning
+was as rigid as my own and that it seemed disjointed
+merely because her steps were different from mine. My
+brain worked in arithmetical progression, if I may put it
+so, whilst hers followed a geometrical progression. Often<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_200"></a>[200]</span>
+it was a dead heat between the hare and the tortoise; for
+my steady advance attained the goal just when her mysterious
+leaps of intelligence had brought her to the same point by
+a different path.</p>
+
+<p>It was not until we had cleared the ground of the main
+practical difficulties that we allowed ourselves to think of
+the future. At first, everything was subordinated to the
+necessity of getting something coherent planned which
+would be ready for the ensuing stage after the Nitrogen
+Area had done its work. But once we had convinced
+ourselves that we had roughed out things on the material
+side, we turned our minds in other directions as a kind
+of relaxation. Of course we held divergent opinions upon
+many questions.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What you want, Mr. Flint, is to build a kind of
+human rabbit hutch, designed on the best hygienic lines.
+I can see that at the back of your mind all the time. You
+think material things ought to come first, don&#8217;t you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I certainly want to see the people well housed and
+well cared for before going any further.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And then?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, after that, I want other things as well, naturally.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, I&#8217;ll tell you what I want. I want to see them
+<i>happy</i>.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I can still remember that evening. The table between
+us was covered with papers; and a shaded lamp threw a
+soothing light upon them. All the rest of the room was in
+shadow; and I saw her face against the setting of the
+darkness behind her. In the next room I could feel the
+slow steps of Nordenholt in his study, pacing up and down
+as he revolved some problem in his mind.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When I think about it,&#8221; she went on, after a pause,
+&#8220;you men amaze me. In the mass, I mean, of course;
+I&#8217;m not talking about individuals. There seem to be three
+classes of you. The biggest class is simply looking for what<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_201"></a>[201]</span>
+it calls &#8216;a good time.&#8217; It wants to enjoy itself; it looks on
+the world just as a playground; and it never seems to get
+beyond the stage of a child crying for amusement in a
+nursery. At the end of things, that type leaves the world
+just where the world was before. It achieves nothing; and
+often it merely bores itself. It doesn&#8217;t even know how to
+look for happiness. I don&#8217;t see much chance for that type
+in the future, now that things have changed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then there&#8217;s a second class which is a shade better.
+They want to make money; and they&#8217;re generally successful
+in that, for they are single-minded. But in concentrating
+on money, it seems to me, they lose everything
+else. In the end, they can do nothing with their money
+except turn it into more. They can&#8217;t spend it profitably;
+they haven&#8217;t had the education for that. They just gather
+money in, and gather it in, and become more and more
+slaves to their acquisitive instincts. To a certain extent
+they are better than the first type of men, for they do
+incidentally achieve something in the world. You can&#8217;t
+begin to make money without doing <i>something</i>. You need
+to manufacture or to transport goods or develop resources
+or organise in some way; so mankind as a whole profits
+incidentally.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then you come to the last of the types: the men who
+want to <i>do</i> something. Activity is their form of happiness.
+All the inventors and discoverers and explorers belong to
+that class, all the artists and engineers and builders of things,
+great or small. Their happiness is in creation, bringing
+something new into the world, whether it&#8217;s new knowledge
+or new methods or new beauty. But they are the smallest
+class of all.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What amazes you in that?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The difference in the proportions of men in the different
+classes, of course. You know what the third type
+get out of life: you&#8217;re one of them yourself. Wouldn&#8217;t<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_202"></a>[202]</span>
+things be better if everyone got these things? Don&#8217;t you
+think the pleasure of creation is the greatest of all?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Of course I do; but that&#8217;s because I&#8217;m built that way.
+I can&#8217;t help it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, I think that a good many of the rest of us have
+the instinct too; but it gets stifled very early. It seems to
+me that our education in the past has been all wrong. It
+has never been education at all, in the proper sense of the
+term. It&#8217;s been a case of putting things into minds instead
+of drawing out what the mind contains already.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I was struck by the similarity between her thoughts and
+my own upon this matter; but after all, there was nothing
+surprising in that; it was what everyone thought who had
+speculated at all on the problem. She was silent for a
+time; then she continued:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s just like the thing we were speaking of to-night.
+A child&#8217;s mind is like a box of bricks; and each child has
+a different box with bricks unlike those of any other
+child. Our educational system has been arranged to force
+each child to build a standard pattern of house from its
+bricks, whether the bricks were suitable or not. The whole
+training has been drawn up to suit what they call &#8216;the
+average child&#8217;&mdash;a thing that never existed. So you get
+each child&#8217;s mind cramped in all sorts of directions, capacities
+stifled, a rooted distaste for knowledge engendered&mdash;a
+pretty result to aim at!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think you realise the difficulties of the thing,&#8221;
+I said. &#8220;The younger generation isn&#8217;t a handful; it&#8217;s a
+largish mass to tackle: and one must cut one&#8217;s coat according
+to one&#8217;s cloth. The number of possible instructors is
+limited by the labour market.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hearken to the voice of the &#8216;practical man.&#8217;&#8221; She
+laughed, but not unkindly. &#8220;You don&#8217;t seem to realise,
+Mr. Flint, that things <i>can</i> be done if one is determined
+to do them&mdash;physical impossibilities apart, of course. When<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_203"></a>[203]</span>
+a conjurer devises a trick, do you think that he sets out by
+considering his available machinery? Not at all. He first
+thinks of the illusion he wants to produce; and he fits his
+machinery to that. What we need to do is to fix on our
+aim and then invent machinery for it. You seem to me
+always to put the cart before the horse and to work on the
+lines: &#8216;What can we do with the machinery we have?&#8217;
+That&#8217;s all wrong, you know. We&#8217;re on the edge of a new
+time now; and we can do as we please. The old system
+is gone; and we can set up anything we choose. What
+we have to be sure is that the end we work toward is the
+right one.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>We discussed education from various points of view, I
+remember; but what struck me most in her ideas was the
+emphasis which she laid on the faculty of wonder. One of
+her fears was that, in the stress of the new time, life would
+become machine-made and that the human race might
+degenerate into a mere set of engine-tenders to whom the
+whole world of imagination was closed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I would begin with the tiny children,&#8221; she said, &#8220;and
+feed their minds on fairy tales. Only they would be new
+kinds of fairy tales&mdash;something to bring the wonder of
+Fairyland into their daily life. The old fairy tales were
+always about things &#8216;once upon a time&#8217; and in some dim
+far-off country which no child ever reached. I want to
+bring Fairyland to their very doors and keep some of the
+mystery in life. I wouldn&#8217;t mind if they grew superstitious
+and believed in gnomes and elves and sprites and such
+things, so long as they felt the world was wonderful. We
+mustn&#8217;t let them become mere slaves to machinery. Life
+needs a tinge of unreality if one is to get the most out of
+it, so long as it is the right kind of unreality. Did you
+ever read Hudson&#8217;s <i>Crystal Age</i>?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, I never came across it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do you mind if I show you something in it?&#8221;</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_204"></a>[204]</span>She rose and took down a book from its shelf; then,
+coming back into the lamplight, searched for a passage and
+began to read:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Thus ... we come to the wilderness of Coradine....
+There a stony soil brings forth only thorns, and thistles, and
+sere tufts of grass; and blustering winds rush over the
+unsheltered reaches, where the rough-haired goats huddle
+for warmth; and there is no melody save the many-toned
+voices of the wind and the plover&#8217;s wild cry. There dwell
+the children of Coradine, on the threshold of the wind-vexed
+wilderness, where the stupendous columns of green
+glass uphold the roof of the House of Coradine; the ocean&#8217;s
+voice is in their rooms, and the inland-blowing wind brings
+to them the salt spray and yellow sand swept at low tide
+from the desolate floors of the sea, and the white-winged
+bird flying from the black tempest screams aloud in their
+shadowy halls. There, from the high terraces, when the
+moon is at its full, we see the children of Coradine gathered
+together, arrayed like no others, in shining garments of
+gossamer threads, when, like thistledown chased by eddying
+winds, now whirling in a cloud, now scattering far apart,
+they dance their moonlight dances on the wide alabaster
+floors; and coming and going they pass away, and seem
+to melt into the moonlight, yet ever to return again with
+changeful melody and new measures. And, seeing this, all
+those things in which we ourselves excel seem poor in comparison,
+becoming pale in our memories. For the winds
+and waves, and the whiteness and grace, have been ever
+with them; and the winged seed of the thistle, and the
+flight of the gull, and the storm-vexed sea, flowering in
+foam, and the light of the moon on sea and barren land,
+have taught them this art, and a swiftness and grace which
+they alone possess.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The moonbeam-haunted vision which the words called
+up seemed to touch something in my mind; a long-closed<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_205"></a>[205]</span>
+gate of Faery swung softly ajar; and once more I seemed
+to hear the faint and far-off horns of Elfland as I had
+heard them when I was a child. Wearied with toil in my
+ruthless world of the present, I paused, unconscious for a
+moment, before this gateway of the Unreal. I felt the
+call of the seas that wash the dim coasts of Ultima Thule
+and of the strange birds crying to each other in the trees of
+Hy-Brasil.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Huntingtower sat silent; and when I came out of
+these few seconds of reverie, I found that she had been
+watching my expression keenly:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You &#8216;wake from day-dreams to this real Night,&#8217; apparently,
+Mr. Flint. I could see you had gone a-wandering,
+even if it was only for an instant or two. I&#8217;m glad; for
+it shows you understand.&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>I have given an account of some of these apparently
+aimless and inconclusive discussions between us in order
+to show clearly the manner in which we went to work.
+At first, we oscillated between the practical side of things,
+the planning of houses, the laying out of towns, the applications
+of electricity and so forth, on the one hand, and
+the most abstract considerations of the mental side of the
+problem on the other. I remember that one evening we
+began with the desirability of uniforms for the population
+while at work. I was in favour of it on the grounds that
+it would facilitate mass-production and would also mark the
+worker&#8217;s trade and possibly thus develop a greater <i>esprit de
+corps</i>. She conceded these points, but insisted that women
+should be allowed to dress as they chose, once their work
+was done. This brought us to the question of luxury
+trades, and so led by degrees to the consideration of the
+cultivation of artistic taste and finally to the problems of
+Art in general under the new conditions. Looking back,
+I see that our earlier advances were mainly gropings<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_206"></a>[206]</span>
+towards something which we had not clearly conceived
+ourselves. We did not know exactly what we wanted;
+and we threshed out many matters more for the sake of
+clarifying our ideas than with any real intention of applying
+our conclusions in practice.</p>
+
+<p>Gradually, however, things grew more definite as we
+proceeded. We had certain ideas in common, general
+principles which we both accepted: and as time went
+on, this skeleton began to clothe itself in flesh and become
+a living organism. She converted me to her idea that
+happiness meant more than anything, provided it was
+gained in the right way. Altruism was her ideal, I found,
+because to her it appeared to be the most general mode of
+reaching contentment. At the back of all her ideas, this
+ideal seemed to lie. She wanted the new world to be a
+happy world; and each of her suggestions and all of her
+criticism took this as a basis.</p>
+
+<p>It seems hardly necessary to enter into an account of the
+final form which we gave to our plans. It was not Fata
+Morgana that we built; but I think that at least we laid the
+foundation-stone upon which our dream-city may yet arise.
+These far-flung communities which you know to-day, these
+groves and pleasure-grounds, these lakes and pleasances,
+bright streets and velvet lawns, all sprang from our brain:
+and the children who throng them, happier and more
+intelligent than their fathers in their day, are also in part our
+work, taught and trained in the ideals which inspired us.
+If anything, we were too timid in our planning, for we had
+no clue to what the future held in store for us. Had we
+known in time, we might have ventured to launch into the
+air the high towers of Fata Morgana itself to catch the
+rising sun. On the material side, we could have done it;
+but I believe we were wise in our timidity. Dream-cities
+are not to be trodden by the human foot. The refining
+of mankind will be a longer process than the building of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_207"></a>[207]</span>
+cities; and only a pure race could live in happiness in that
+Theleme which we planned.</p>
+
+<p>Looking backward, I think that during all these hours of
+designing and peering into the future I caught something of
+her spirit and she something of mine. By imperceptible
+stages we came together, mind reaching out to mind. Unnoticed
+by ourselves, our collaboration grew more efficient;
+our divergences less and less.</p>
+
+<p>I can still recall these long lamp-lit evenings, the rustle of
+her skirts as she moved about the room, the cadences of her
+voice, the eagerness and earnestness of her face under its crown
+of fair hair. Often, as we moulded the future in that quiet
+room with its shaded lights, we must have seemed like
+children with an ever-new plaything which changed continually
+beneath our hands. Meanwhile, over us and between
+us stood the shadow of Nordenholt, ever grimmer as the
+days went by, carrying his projects to their ruthless termination
+like some great machine which pursues its appointed
+course uninfluenced by human failings or human desires.
+To me, at that time, he seemed to loom above us like some
+labouring Titan, aloof, mysterious, inscrutable.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_208"></a>[208]</span>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak"><small>CHAPTER XIV</small><br />
+
+
+Winter in the Outer World</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My</span> narrative has hitherto been confined to affairs in the
+British Isles; but to give a complete picture of the time
+I must now deal, even though very briefly, with the effects
+of <i>B. diazotans</i> in other parts of the globe. My account
+will, of necessity, be incomplete: because our knowledge of
+that period is at best a scanty one.</p>
+
+<p>I have already indicated the part which the great air-ways
+played in distribution of <i>B. diazotans</i> over the world; but
+once it had been planted in the new centres to which the
+aeroplanes carried it, other factors came into action. From
+South-western Europe, the North-East Trade Winds bore
+the bacilli across the Atlantic and spread them upon the seaboard
+of South America, especially around the mouths of the
+Amazon. The winds on the coast of North America
+caught up the germs and drove them eventually to Scandinavia
+and even further east. New Guinea, Borneo, Sumatra
+and the other islands of the chain were devastated from the
+Australian centres. Madagascar was contaminated also,
+though the point of origin in this case is not definitely
+known. Probably the ocean currents played their part,
+as they certainly did in the destruction of Polynesian
+vegetation.</p>
+
+<p>Climate had a considerable influence upon the development
+of the bacilli, once they were scattered. In the
+Tropics, they multiplied with even greater rapidity than they
+had done in the North Temperate Zone. On the Congo<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_209"></a>[209]</span>
+and in the Amazonian forests they seem to have undergone
+a process of reproduction almost inconceivably swift. Those
+which drifted up into the frigid regions of the North and
+South, however, appear to have perished almost without a
+struggle: either on account of the low temperature or the
+lack of nitrogenous material, they produced very little effect
+in either of these districts. The sea-plants seem to have
+been unaffected by them there; and one of the strangest
+results of this inactivity was the complete change in habits
+of various fishes, which now sought in the freezing North
+the feeding and breeding-grounds which suited them best.
+The herring left the North Sea and the cod quitted the
+Banks in search of purer water. On the other hand, the
+great masses of weed in the Sargasso Sea were almost
+completely destroyed, along with the other accumulations
+south-east of New Zealand and in the North Pacific.</p>
+
+<p>It must not be assumed, however, that wherever the
+colonies of <i>B. diazotans</i> alighted, devastation followed as a
+matter of course. For some reason, which has never been
+made clear, certain areas proved themselves immune from
+attack; so that they remained like oases of cultivable land
+amid the surrounding deserts. The areas thus preserved
+from sterility were not of any great size; usually they
+amounted only to a few hundred acres in extent, though in
+isolated cases larger tracts were found unaffected here and
+there.</p>
+
+<p>With the recognition of the world-wide influence of <i>B.
+diazotans</i>, the land became divided into two sections: the
+food-producing districts and the consuming but non-productive
+areas. Nowhere was there sufficient grain to make
+safety a certainty. In America, most of the available food-stuffs
+were still in or near their places of origin when the
+panic began to grow.</p>
+
+<p>In the matter of meat, things were much in the same
+state. Those countries which produced great supplies of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_210"></a>[210]</span>
+cattle prohibited exports; and the beasts were hurriedly
+slaughtered and the carcases salted to preserve them, as soon
+as the failure of the grass made it impossible to conserve
+live-stock.</p>
+
+<p>Each country offered features of its own in the <i>d&eacute;b&acirc;cle</i>;
+but I can only deal with one or two outstanding cases
+here.</p>
+
+<p>The European conditions were so similar to those which
+I have already depicted in the case of Britain that I need not
+describe them at all. Southern Russia fared better than her
+neighbours; for after the Famine there were still some
+remnants of her population left alive; and it seems probable
+that the lower density of the Russian population retarded the
+extinction of humanity in this region long after the worst
+period had been reached in the western area.</p>
+
+<p>In Africa and India, the course of the devastation was
+marked by risings in which all Europeans seem to have
+perished. Thus we have no descriptions of the later stages
+of the disaster in either case.</p>
+
+<p>In China, the inhabitants of the densely-populated rice-growing
+districts of Eastern China were the first to have the
+true position of affairs forced upon their notice; and, leaving
+their useless fields, they began to move westwards. At first
+the stirrings were merely sporadic; but gradually these
+isolated movements reinforced one another until some
+millions of Chinese were drifting into Western China and
+setting up reactions among the populations which they
+encountered on their way. From Manchuria, great masses
+of them forced their way up the Amur Valley into Transbaikalia.
+Others, sweeping over Pekin on the road, emerged
+upon the banks of the Hoang Ho. The inhabitants of the
+Honan Province moved westward, increasing in numbers as
+they recruited from the local populations <i>en route</i>. A
+massacre of foreigners took place all over China.</p>
+
+<p>In its general character, this huge wandering of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_211"></a>[211]</span>
+Mongol races recalls the movements which led eventually
+to the downfall of the Roman Empire; but the parallel is
+illusory. In the days of Gengis Khan, the Eastern hordes
+could always find food to support them on their line of
+march, either in the form of local supplies which they
+captured, or in the herds which they drove with them as
+they advanced. But in this new tumultuous outbreak, food
+was unprocurable; and the irruption melted away almost
+before the confines of China had been reached. Some
+immense bands descended from Yunnan into Burmah; but
+they appear to have perished among the rotting vegetation.
+Another series of smaller bodies penetrated into Thibet,
+where they died among the snows. The furthest stirrings
+of the wave appear to have been felt in Chinese Turkestan;
+and apparently Kashgar and Yarkand were centres from
+which other waves might have spread: but it seems probable
+that these westernmost movements were checked by the
+tangle of the Pamirs and Karakorams. Nothing appears to
+have reached Samarkand. But here, again, it is difficult to
+discover what actually did occur. Any survivors who have
+been interrogated are of the illiterate class, who had no
+definite conception of the route which they followed in their
+wanderings.</p>
+
+<p>The history of Japan under the influence of <i>B. diazotans</i>
+is of especial interest, since it presents the closest parallel to
+our own experiences. At the outbreak of the Famine, the
+practical minds of the Japanese statesmen seem to have
+acted with the promptitude which Nordenholt had shown.
+They had not his psychological insight, it is true; but they
+had a simpler problem before them, since they could ignore
+public opinion entirely. Fairly complete accounts of their
+operations are in existence, so far as the outer manifestations
+of their policy are concerned, though we know little as yet
+of the inner history of the events.</p>
+
+<p>Kiyotome Zada appears to have been the Japanese<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_212"></a>[212]</span>
+Nordenholt. Under his direction, two great expeditions
+raided Manchuria and Eastern China with the object of
+capturing the largest possible quantity of food-stuffs. It is
+probable that these two invasions, with the consequent loss
+of food-supplies, led to the great stirrings among the
+population of China. A Nitrogen Area was set up in the
+South Island, the Kobe shipyards being its nucleus. Thereafter
+the history follows very closely upon that of the Clyde
+Valley experiment, except in its last stages.</p>
+
+<p>Among the other Pacific communities the Famine proved
+almost completely destructive. I have already told of the
+spreading of <i>B. diazotans</i> through the chain of islands
+between Australia and Burmah. In Australia itself no
+attempt was made to found a nitrogen-producing plant
+on a sufficiently large scale.</p>
+
+<p>One curious episode deserves mention. In the earlier
+days of the Famine, news reached the Australian ports that
+certain of the Polynesian islands were still free from the
+scourge; and a frenzied emigration followed. But each
+ship carried with it the freight of <i>B. diazotans</i>, so that this
+exodus merely served to spread the bacilli into spots which
+otherwise they might not have reached. Before very long
+the whole of Polynesia was involved in the disaster. Some
+diaries have been discovered on board deserted vessels; and
+in every case the history is the same: the long search
+through devastated islands, the discovery at last of some
+untouched spot in the ocean wilderness, the rejoicings, the
+landing, and then, a few days later, the realisation that here
+also the bacillus had made its appearance. What seems
+most curious is the fact that in many cases it was weeks
+before the ship&#8217;s company grasped the apparently obvious
+truth that their own appearance coincided with the arrival
+of the fatal germs. It never seems to have occurred to any
+of them that they bore with them the very thing which
+they were trying to escape. So they went from island to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_213"></a>[213]</span>
+island, seeking refuge from a plague which stood ever at
+their elbow, until at last their stores failed.</p>
+
+<p>On the West Coast of South America a new phenomenon
+appeared. The huge deposits of nitrates in Bolivia and
+South Peru formed the best breeding-ground for <i>B. diazotans</i>
+which had yet been detected, with the result that nitrogen
+poured into the atmosphere in unheard-of volumes. In
+most places the winds were sufficient to disperse these
+invisible clouds of gas; but in some spots the arrival of the
+bacilli coincided with a dead calm, so that the nitrogen
+remained in the neighbourhood in which it was generated.
+The great salt swamp in the Potosi district furnished the
+best example of this phenomenon. The whole surface
+frothed and boiled for days together; and the atmosphere in
+the neighbourhood became so heavily charged with nitrous
+fumes that the air was almost unbreatheable. All the inhabitants
+of the district fled before this, to them, inexplicable
+danger; and the effects extended as far as Llica and the
+railway junction at Uyuni. In this &#8220;caliche&#8221; district, the
+destruction of combined nitrogen probably attained its
+maximum; and the propagation of <i>B. diazotans</i> never
+reached such a level in any other part of the world.</p>
+
+<p>But with this enormous multiplication of the bacilli, other
+events followed. Carried north and east by winds, these
+huge quantities of the germs found their way into the headwaters
+of the Amazon and its tributaries, and were thus carried
+eastward into the very heart of the tropical forests, where they
+continued to breed with almost inconceivable rapidity. Soon
+the whole of the vegetation in this region was in a decline;
+and the Amazon valley degenerated into a swamp choked
+with dead and dying plants. Humanity was driven out long
+before the end came. Animal life could not persist in the
+midst of this noisome wilderness.</p>
+
+<p>The same phenomena appeared, though in a different
+form, over the southern part of South America. Here also<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_214"></a>[214]</span>
+the great rivers formed the main distributing agencies for the
+bacilli; and the whole cattle-raising district was devastated.
+The stock was slaughtered on a huge scale as soon as it
+became clear that vegetation had perished; but owing to
+mismanagement and transport difficulties the preservatives
+necessary to make the best of the meat thus obtained were
+not procurable in sufficient quantities. Nevertheless, by
+converting as much as possible into biltong, more than
+sufficient was preserved to keep a very large part of the
+population alive during the Famine; and in later days, by
+trading their surplus dried meat for cereals and nitrogenous
+compounds, they succeeded in rescuing a greater proportion
+of lives than might have been anticipated.</p>
+
+<p>To complete this survey of the world at that period, the
+effect of <i>B. diazotans</i> upon North America still remains to
+be told. I have already given some information with
+regard to the spread of the Blight across the Middle West;
+but I must mention that it was in this part of the world
+especially that these curious isolated immune areas were
+observed, wherein the bacillus seemed to make no headway.
+Thousands of acres in all were found to be untouched by
+the denitrifying organisms.</p>
+
+<p>At the time of the Famine the civilisation of North
+America was in a curious condition, mainly owing to the
+influx of a foreign element which had taken place to a
+greater and greater extent after the War. The immigrants
+had come in such numbers that assimilation of them was
+impossible, and in this way the stability of the central
+Government was weakened. To a great extent the Southern
+States had fallen into the hands of the negroes, but similar
+segregations were to be found in other parts of the country.
+Germans accumulated in one State, Italians in another, East
+Europeans and Slavs in yet other areas. Thus Congress
+became subject to the group system of government, with all
+the weaknesses which such a system brings in its train.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_215"></a>[215]</span>When <i>B. diazotans</i> first made its appearance in the
+Continent the Government in power was composed of
+feeble men, without character and unfitted for bold decisions.
+The prohibition of cereal exports was a measure
+arising from panic rather than foresight; and once this had
+been put in operation, the Government rested on its oars
+and awaited the turn of events.</p>
+
+<p>Thus at this period the United States presented the
+spectacle of a series of unsympathetic communities united
+by the slender bonds of a weak central Government, and
+divided amongst themselves by the very deepest cleavages.
+The grain-growing districts regarded the cities as parasites
+upon the food-supply which had been raised; while the city
+population, having only secured a certain amount of the
+available food-stuffs, looked upon the Middle Westerners as
+an anti-social group of hoarders. But even within these two
+large groups, minor cleavages had come to light. The
+poorer classes, appalled at the rise in prices, had begun to
+cry out against the rich. Hasty and ill-considered legislation
+was passed which, instead of curing the troubles, merely
+served to augment them; and soon the whole country was
+seething with undercurrents of hatred for government of
+any kind.</p>
+
+<p>With so much inflammable material, an outbreak was only
+a question of time; and soon something almost akin to anarchy
+prevailed. Food at any price became the cry. Those who
+controlled great stores of grain had to defend them; those
+who lacked sustenance had no reason to wait in patience.
+Civil war of the most bitter type broke out almost simultaneously
+throughout the country.</p>
+
+<p>Hostilities took a form which had never been imagined in
+any previous fighting. In the old days one of the main
+objectives in the siege of an area was the shutting out of
+supplies from the besieged garrison. In this American war,
+however, the exact opposite held good. A starving population<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_216"></a>[216]</span>
+encircled the areas in which food was stored and
+endeavoured to force its way in; while the defenders were
+well supplied with rations. Nor was this all. It was well
+recognised among the besiegers that the supplies within the
+besieged area were insufficient to meet the demands which
+would be made upon them if the attacking force as a whole
+broke through the line of the defence; and therefore each
+individual attacker felt that his comrades were also his
+competitors, whom he had no great desire to see survive.
+Again, in the previous history of warfare, any loss on the
+part of the garrison was irreparable, since no reinforcements
+could penetrate the encircling lines of enemies; but in this
+new form of combat any member of the attacking force was
+willing to secede to the garrison if they would allow him to
+do so, since by this means he could secure food. Thus the
+casualties of the garrison could be made good simply by
+admitting besiegers to take the place of those who had been
+killed.</p>
+
+<p>In the main, these sieges took place at points where the
+harvested grain, such as it was, had been accumulated for
+transport; but even the areas which had proved immune
+from the attacks of <i>B. diazotans</i> were attacked by far-sighted
+men who looked beyond the immediate future and who
+wished to control these remaining fertile areas in view of next
+year&#8217;s supplies.</p>
+
+<p>I have before me the diary of a combatant in one of these
+operations; and it appears to me that I can best give an idea
+of the prevailing conditions by summarising his narrative.</p>
+
+<p>At the time of the outbreak he resided in Omaha; and the
+earlier pages of his journal are occupied by a description of
+some rioting which occurred in that city, ending with its
+destruction by fire. During the upheaval he became possessed,
+in some way which he does not describe, of a rifle, a considerable
+amount of ammunition, a certain store of food. Thus
+equipped, and accompanied by four friends similarly provided,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_217"></a>[217]</span>
+young Hinkinson was able to get away in a Ford car from
+Omaha in advance of the main body of citizens who were now
+left houseless. Rumours of food-supplies led them towards
+Cedar Falls; but at Ackley they discovered the error of their
+information and were for a time at fault. Turning southward,
+they followed various indications and finally located a fertile
+area in the triangle Mexico-Moberly-Hannibal. At Palmyra,
+their motor broke down permanently; and they were forced
+to abandon it. Collecting as much of their equipment as they
+could carry, they tramped along the railway line and eventually
+reached Monroe City, which was very close to the outer edge
+of the contest raging around the fertile area.</p>
+
+<p>From indications in the diary, it seems clear that Hinkinson
+and his companions expected to find at Monroe City some
+sort of headquarters of the attacking forces; but as they were
+unable to discover anything of the kind, they continued their
+march, being joined by a small band of other armed men who
+had arrived at Monroe City about the same time as themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Almost before they were aware of it, they blundered into
+the firing-line. Apparently they had already been much
+surprised to find no signs of a controlling spirit in charge of
+the operations; but their actual coming under fire seems to
+have astounded them. They had expected to find a vast
+system of trench-warfare in existence; and had been keenly
+on the look-out for signs of digging which would indicate to
+them that they had reached the rear positions of the attacking
+force. What they actually found, as bullets began to whistle
+around them, was a thin line of civilians with rifles and
+bandoliers who were lying flat on the grass and firing, apparently
+aimlessly into the distance. At times, some of the riflemen
+would get up, run a few yards and then lie down again;
+but there seemed to be no discipline or ordered activity traceable
+in their methods. It appeared to be a purely individualistic
+form of warfare.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_218"></a>[218]</span>Hinkinson added himself to the skirmishing line, more
+from a desire for personal safety than with any understanding of
+what was happening. It appears that he lay there most of
+the afternoon, firing occasionally into the distance from which
+the bullets came. His four friends were also engaged in his
+immediate vicinity.</p>
+
+<p>Later in the day his neighbour in the skirmishing line
+spoke to him and suggested that he might form a sixth in the
+party. Hinkinson learned from this man that during the
+night the attackers generally fought among themselves for
+any food which there might be; and he proposed that the
+Hinkinson party should stand watch about during the darkness,
+so as to avoid robbery. They agreed to this; as it
+seemed the best policy: though Hinkinson himself, in the
+entry he made at the end of the day, seems to throw doubt
+upon the likelihood of such proceedings.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, they did not entirely trust their new comrade;
+and one of the five kept awake while pretending to sleep.
+When the night grew dark they heard movements in the
+skirmishing line, rifles were still blazing intermittently up and
+down the front, and here and there they caught the groans of
+the wounded. But in addition to these sounds, to which they
+had by this time grown accustomed, they heard scuffles, cries
+of anger, hard breathing and all the noises of men wrestling
+with each other. It was a cloudy, moonless night and
+nothing could be seen. At last, long before dawn, they
+discovered their friend of the afternoon engaged in rifling one
+of their food-bags. Finding himself discovered, he fled into
+the darkness and they never saw him again.</p>
+
+<p>It was not until well on in the next day that Hinkinson
+made any further discoveries; but fresh surprises were awaiting
+him. He learned that the firing-line to which he was opposed
+was not a portion of the defence of the area at all, but was
+part of the attacking group. This puzzled him for a day or
+two, to judge from the remarks which he made in his journal;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_219"></a>[219]</span>
+but at length he seems to have understood that his fellow-attackers
+were almost as much to be feared as the actual
+defenders.</p>
+
+<p>He gives a sketch on one page of his diary showing the
+situation as he understood it. In the centre lies the actual
+fertile area, surrounded by an elaborate system of entrenchments.
+This zone he terms the Defence Zone. About a
+mile outside this, but coming much closer in parts, lies what
+he describes as the Offensive-Defensive Circle. When he
+reached this section, as we learn from a later part of his
+journal, he found it very roughly entrenched, the main works
+being rifle-pits rather than connected trench-lines. This
+Offensive-Defensive Circle was occupied by part of the
+attacking force; but the actual fighting in it was upon both
+front and rear. The holders of this Circle wished to force
+their way into the Defence Zone; but having gained a start
+upon the late comers whose firing-line lay still further to the
+rear, they proposed to retard as far as possible any advance in
+force from the outermost lines. Thus the combatants of the
+Circle, as soon as they had forced their way into it, devoted
+their attention to sniping new-comers who might follow them
+up; then seizing any opportunity, they made their way forward
+toward the centre and joined the inner skirmishing line
+which directed its fire upon the entrenchments of the actual
+Defence Zone. The outermost region, in which Hinkinson
+and his friends found themselves, was composed of men who
+had either arrived late on the field or failed to struggle
+forward in face of the sniping from the Circle.</p>
+
+<p>In both the outer ring and the Circle the dominating idea
+was food. There was no commissariat and no central directing
+body of any kind. When a man joined the outer ring,
+he knew that he had only the supplies which he carried
+with him; beyond that, he could count upon nothing
+except what he could steal from his neighbours. The only
+chance of life was to fight a way up to the centre as soon<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_220"></a>[220]</span>
+as possible and take the chance of being recruited by the
+garrison.</p>
+
+<p>While the Hinkinson group remained intact, they were
+able to protect themselves from food-thieves; but on the
+fourth day in the skirmishing line one of the five was severely
+wounded; and, knowing how little care was given to
+wounded men, he shot himself. Two more were killed
+by snipers on the fifth day. Three days later, Hinkinson
+managed to establish himself in a rifle-pit of the Circle; and
+he thus lost sight of his remaining friend.</p>
+
+<p>Life in the Circle was lived under appalling conditions,
+for it was within range of both the Defence Zone and the
+outer skirmishing line; and there was very little chance of
+exercise even at night. Food was scarcer here than in the
+outer ring; and consequently raids for food were almost
+incessant during the hours of darkness. Ammunition was
+also very scarce; and Hinkinson was only able to keep up
+his supply by searching the bodies which lay in his neighbourhood.
+After two days in the rifle-pit he seems to have
+suffered from some form of influenza. The only thing
+which he notes with satisfaction is the fact that there was
+no artillery in the whole action. It was a case of rifle-fire
+from beginning to end.</p>
+
+<p>After his third day in the rifle-pit, he succeeded in making
+his way into the inner firing-line of the Circle, so that at
+last he was actually in contact with the Defence Zone.
+He was astonished to find that the defenders were using up
+ammunition much faster than the attacking forces; and it
+is clear that this puzzled him, as he could see no reason for
+it. He had expected to find them running short.</p>
+
+<p>His entry into the Defence Zone was due, apparently, to
+a stroke of good luck. On the day which brought him
+face to face with the defenders, he saw an attack made
+from the Circle upon the entrenchments before him. It
+was an utterly haphazard affair: first one man ran forward,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_221"></a>[221]</span>
+then two or three others joined him; and finally the force
+of suggestion brought the major part of the attackers to
+their feet and hurled them upon the trenches before them,
+which at this point were only a few hundred yards away.
+Despite its random character, it seems to have been successful
+to some extent. A considerable number went down before
+a bombing attack made from the trenches; but despite this
+a fairly large band surmounted the parapet and disappeared
+beyond. A confused sound of rifle-firing was followed by
+a short silence; and then a regular volley seemed to have
+been fired. None of the attacking party reappeared.</p>
+
+<p>According to Hinkinson&#8217;s reading of the situation, a
+number of the defenders had been killed in the hand-to-hand
+struggle in the trenches; and he concluded that this
+was his best opportunity to endeavour to gain a footing
+among the defence force, which would now be weakened
+slightly and possibly anxious for recruits.</p>
+
+<p>At this point, his diary is illegible and I can throw no
+light upon the subjects included in the hiatus. When it
+becomes readable again, I find him a member of the defending
+group.</p>
+
+<p>Apparently on this side of the debatable land discipline
+was as marked as it was absent from the other side. The
+death penalty was inflicted for the slightest error. Once
+or twice Hinkinson seems to have run considerable risks in
+this direction through no great fault of his own.</p>
+
+<p>He found that the defence problem was in some ways a
+complex one, whilst in other directions it was simplified
+considerably by the unique conditions of the new warfare.
+Owing to the enormous perimeter which had to be defended,
+the garrison was almost wholly used up in forming a very
+thin firing-line which was liable to be rushed at any point
+by strong bodies of the attacking force, as, indeed, he had
+already seen himself. Given sufficient spontaneous co-operation
+for a raid, the trenches could be entered without<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_222"></a>[222]</span>
+any real difficulty by the survivors of a charge. But once
+within the defended lines, the attackers were accepted as
+part of the defence force, provided that their numbers were
+not in excess of the casualties produced by their onset.
+Thus the <i>personnel</i> of the trench-lines changed from day to
+day, dead defenders being replaced by successful raiders
+whose main interest had changed sides. Under such conditions,
+the maintenance of discipline was a matter which
+required the sternest measures. The garrison was always up
+to full strength; but its members were not a military body
+in the usual sense, since they changed from time to time as
+new recruits took the places of the killed. Of <i>esprit de corps</i>
+in the usual meaning of the words there was not a trace;
+but its place was taken by the instinct of self-preservation,
+which seems to have made not a bad substitute.</p>
+
+<p>As to the question of ammunition-supply, which had
+puzzled Hinkinson so much during his experiences in the
+outer zones, it became simple when once he was inside the
+trench-lines. There appears to have been a regular traffic
+by aeroplane between the food-area and the outer world,
+munitions being imported by air in exchange for food which
+the air-craft took back on their return trips.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Readers can now picture for themselves the state of the
+world after the Famine had done its worst. The great
+cities which marked the culmination of civilisation had all
+shared the fate of London; and most of the towns had
+gone the same road. All the vast and complex machinery
+which mankind had so laboriously gathered together in these
+teeming areas had been destroyed by fire.</p>
+
+<p>Here and there&mdash;in Scotland, in Japan, and in a couple
+of American centres&mdash;Nitrogen Areas were in full activity;
+and the traditions of pre-Famine times were being kept
+alive, though with profound modifications; but outside the
+boundaries of these regions the only human beings left in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_223"></a>[223]</span>
+the world were a mere handful, scattered up and down the
+globe and existing hazardously upon chance discoveries of
+food-stuffs here and there. The Esquimaux had a better
+prospect of survival than most of these relics of civilisation.</p>
+
+<p>But the trifling changes involved in the downfall of
+humanity were overshadowed by the effects of <i>B. diazotans</i>
+upon the face of the earth. All that had once been arable
+land became a desert strewn with the bones of men. The
+vast virgin forests of America, Northern Europe and tropical
+Africa became mere heaps of rotting vegetation: pestilential
+swamps into which no man could penetrate and survive.
+Apart from these regions, the land-surface was sandy, except
+where boulder-clay deposits kept it together. Water ebbed
+away in these thirsty deserts; and with its disappearance
+the climate changed over vast areas of the world.</p>
+
+<p>Those who went out in the early aeroplane exploring
+expeditions across these stricken and barren lands came to
+understand, as they had never done before, the meaning of
+the abomination of desolation.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_224"></a>[224]</span>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak"><small>CHAPTER XV</small><br />
+
+
+Document B. 53. X. 15</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">I think</span> I have made it clear that when I took over the
+Reconstruction at Nordenholt&#8217;s request I did so in a disinterested
+spirit, by which I mean that no personal aims of
+my own were concerned. I began the work solely in the
+hope that my plans would ensure the welfare of some
+millions of people, hardly any of whom I knew as individuals.
+It is true that I put my whole heart into the task and that
+I strove with all my might to bring its conclusion within
+the scope of possibility. I could do no less, in view of the
+immense responsibility which I had undertaken. Possibly
+my narrative has minimised the labour which the effort
+involved; if so, I cannot help it.</p>
+
+<p>Even my early stages of collaboration with Elsa Huntingtower
+failed to alter this attitude of my mind. I still saw
+the problem as one in which great masses of people were
+involved; and although I appreciated the fact that these
+masses were composed of individuals each with his or her
+separate destiny to work out for good or ill, yet it never
+occurred to me to regard myself as one of them.</p>
+
+<p>I think that the vision of Fata Morgana, growing ever
+clearer in my mental vision, forced my thoughts into a fresh
+channel. In my mind&#8217;s eye I saw that happy city, thronged
+with its joyous people; and gradually I began to picture
+myself treading those lawns and wandering amid its gardens.
+Alone? No, I wanted some kindred spirit, someone who
+could share the victory with me; and Elsa Huntingtower<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_225"></a>[225]</span>
+was the only one who had part and lot in it. She and I
+had built its dreaming spires together by our common
+labour; and it was with her that I would stray in fancy
+through its courts. Of all humanity, we two alone had
+rightful seizin in its soil.</p>
+
+<p>It was late before I recognised where all this was leading
+me; but when at last I awakened, it drove me with ten-fold
+force. I wanted no dim future through which I might
+rove as a shadow among shadows; they had served their
+turn in the scheme of things and brought me face to face
+with reality. If Paradise lay before me, Eve must be there,
+else it would be a mockery: if I had to face failure, I needed
+a comforter. I wanted Elsa.</p>
+
+<p>I mistrust all novelists&#8217; descriptions of the psychology of
+a man in love. To me, that passion seems an integration
+of selfishness and selflessness each developed to its highest
+pitch and so intimately mingled that one cannot tell where
+the dividing line between them lies. Luckily, analysis of
+this kind is beyond the scope of my narrative. The affairs
+of Elsa Huntingtower and me, so far as they concerned
+ourselves alone, have no place upon my canvas; but since
+in their reactions they impinged upon a greater engine, I
+cannot pass them over in silence without omitting a factor
+which must have had its influence upon events.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>I suppose, from what I see around me, that the average
+man falls in love by degrees. He seems to be subjected to
+two forces which alternately act upon him in opposite
+directions, so that his advance to his goal is intermittent
+and sometimes slow. In my case, there was nothing of
+this wavering. Somehow, as soon as I realised what my
+feelings were, I could not delay an hour longer than was
+necessary. The real fact was, I suspect, that I did not
+suddenly fall in love, though I seemed, even to myself, to
+have done so. In all probability I had been falling in love<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_226"></a>[226]</span>
+for weeks without knowing it; and when the illumination
+came, the long sub-conscious travail had prepared me for
+instant action.</p>
+
+<p>As it happened, it was one of the days on which we
+usually motored into the country. At two o&#8217;clock I was
+in the Square with the car; and almost at once the door
+opened and Elsa appeared. My dreams had far outrun
+reality; and as the slim fur-clad figure came down the steps
+I felt my pulse leap. It lasted only for a moment, but I
+think she read my face like an open book. Behind her
+came Nordenholt, looking very tired. I could not help
+seeing the change which the last months had made in him.
+The deep lines on his face were deeper still; his eyes seemed
+to be different in some way, though as piercing as ever; and
+his step had lost the lightness it had when I saw him first in
+London. He looked me over, as he usually did, but said
+nothing as he stepped into the back of the car. Elsa took
+her customary place beside me; and it gave me a novel
+thrill as I arranged the rug about her. It seemed as though
+something had fallen from my eyes so that I saw her in
+a new and wonderful aspect.</p>
+
+<p>As we drove westward and over the Canal, I noticed that
+she seemed disinclined to talk; and as I myself was busy
+with my dreams, I did not try to force the conversation.
+We had passed Bearsden and were in the open country
+before she had spoken three sentences; and even these were
+wilfully commonplace. Reflecting on this, and being myself
+surcharged with emotion, I was vain enough to guess that
+she was thinking of me and of what I had to tell her; for I
+had a curious feeling that she must know what was in my
+mind. So the milestones swept by, and still the three of us
+remained silent.</p>
+
+<p>It was a dreary landscape through which we drove; but
+all landscapes in those days were bleak and sinister. In the
+little wood beyond Bearsden, the trees were uprooted and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_227"></a>[227]</span>
+slanting here and there, owing to the new soil giving them
+no support. Some, which had threatened to fall across the
+road, had been cut down. Further on, the Kilpatrick Hills
+loomed over us, dark from the lack of vegetation; while
+across the Blane valley, once so green, the smooth folds of
+the Campsies lay black under the wintry sky. Only here
+and there, where snow covered the ground, did things remind
+one of the old days.</p>
+
+<p>Past the Half Way House, along Stockiemuir with its
+blasted heather under its snow, up the hill at the foot of
+Finnick Glen the great car ran; and yet none of us spoke a
+word. Once, after that, Nordenholt gave me a direction;
+and we turned off toward Loch Lomond.</p>
+
+<p>When we reached the lochside, beyond Balloch, he made
+me stop the car.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m going to get out here and walk up towards Luss,&#8221;
+he said. &#8220;You take the car on to the head of the loch and
+pick me up on the way back. Don&#8217;t hurry. I want some
+exercise.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The door slammed; and we moved off. I looked back
+and saw him standing by the water-side; and it struck me
+that his attitude was that of an old man. He stood with his
+hands in the pockets of his motor-coat; and his position
+seemed to exaggerate the stoop of his shoulders. He looked
+so very, very tired. I realised, all at once, that he was ageing
+long before his time, worn out by his colossal task. An
+emotion which was as much dismay as pity swept over me
+in an instant. Then, as I watched, he pulled himself up
+and stood erect again, gazing over the water to the desolate
+islets. The car swung round a corner; and when I looked
+back once more, he was out of sight.</p>
+
+<p>But that picture haunted me as I drove up the loch. I
+guessed at last what this struggle was costing him. Somehow
+I had never realised it before. I had come to regard
+Nordenholt as almost akin to the natural forces, the embodiment<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_228"></a>[228]</span>
+of some great store of energy which worked upon
+human destiny calmly and ever certainly. I had looked up
+to his strength and leaned upon it unconsciously, knowing
+only that it was there. And now, in that brief vision, I had
+seen that my support was itself weakening, even though for
+an instant. There had been a recovery, the old dominating
+attitude reappeared as he pulled himself together again. But
+before this I had never seen effort in that attitude; and I
+saw it now. Even in my exalted condition, the sight of
+that weary figure struck down into my memory.</p>
+
+<p>Elsa had not looked back. She sat beside me, her clean-cut
+profile emerging from her dark furs, gazing straight
+before her at the road ahead. We ran through Luss without
+a word to each other. My heart was throbbing with
+excitement; and yet I hesitated to break the silence. Some
+miles further up the road, before we reached Tarbet, she
+asked me to stop the car and suggested that we should go
+down to the water&#8217;s edge.</p>
+
+<p>It was there that I at last found speech and, having found
+it, poured out what I had to say in a torrent of words none
+of which I can remember now. I had rehearsed that scene
+many a time in my mind, and yet it all came unexpectedly.
+I had never anticipated this opportunity. I had thought that
+some time, when we talked of the future we were planning,
+I would tell her what I needed to make it complete. And
+I had thought of how she would take my pleading: I had
+forecast how she would look and what she would reply.
+But in none of my visions had I foreseen the reality.</p>
+
+<p>She listened to me coldly, almost as if her mind were
+occupied with other things. I grew more passionate, I
+think, striving to make her understand my emotion; and
+yet she seemed almost indifferent to what I said. At last I
+stopped, chilled by this aloofness which I did not understand.
+In my wildest imaginings I had never thought of this <i>d&eacute;nouement</i>
+of the situation. I think I must have grown cold<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_229"></a>[229]</span>
+myself: for though I can recall nothing of my previous
+words, the rest of the scene is graven on my mind. For
+some moments after I had ceased, she remained silent; then
+at length she spoke, with an accent in her voice which I had
+never heard before. I remember that she had taken off one
+glove and stood twisting it in her hands while she talked.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I got you to stop the car here because I have something
+to ask you, something of tremendous importance to me.
+Forgive me if I put it first and don&#8217;t answer you immediately.
+I&#8217;m ... I&#8217;m very grateful for all you have said. But this
+thing comes before everything; and you must let me ask
+you about it before we come to ... to our own affairs.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A pang of apprehension shot through me. What could
+she be driving at which was of greater importance than our
+future?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;As I was going over my papers to-day,&#8221; she went on,
+&#8220;I came across one which seemed to have been missorted.
+It didn&#8217;t belong to my section. I glanced at it casually;
+and then I read it. Have you any idea what it referred to?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It said things I could hardly grasp. Even now I think it
+must be a mistake. I can&#8217;t believe it was a real document.
+It must have been a hoax or something like that. And yet,
+it had the usual serial numbers on it: B. 53. X. 15.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>My throat was dry, but I managed to pull myself together
+and make a sound like &#8220;Well?&#8221; She came close to me
+and looked me straight in the eyes&mdash;so like Nordenholt&#8217;s
+gaze in some ways&mdash;and I tried to bring my features into a
+mask.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Is it true that everyone outside the Area has been left
+to die? Is it true that there has been a deliberate plot to
+starve all the men, all the women, even the little children in
+the country? Tell me that, and tell me at once. Don&#8217;t
+wait to wrap it up in fine phrases. Tell me the truth
+<i>now</i>.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_230"></a>[230]</span>I stood before her, silent.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;So it <i>is</i> true; and you knew it! You acquiesced in it.
+You even helped in it; I can see it in your face. You
+cur!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Still I could not find my voice. This was a different
+scene from that I had thought of only ten short minutes
+before. It was not that I felt anything myself, except a
+sort of dull comprehension that my dreams were shattered;
+but the sight of the pain in her face moved me more than I
+could express in words. I wanted to help her. I wanted
+to justify the plan Nordenholt had made. And yet something
+kept me tongue-tied. I could find no phrase to open
+my explanations. The outpouring of speech which I had
+found so easy only a few seconds earlier now seemed dried
+up. I merely watched her, saying nothing. For a time she
+struggled with herself, trying to master her feelings. All
+this time her face had been set; not a tear had come to her
+eyelashes.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I have a right to know who planned this,&#8221; she continued,
+after a pause. &#8220;Do you know what I thought at first? I
+suspected Uncle Stanley. I even suspected <i>him</i>. But I
+don&#8217;t, now. I know him too well. I didn&#8217;t even question
+him about it. I didn&#8217;t want to worry him until I had found
+out whether it was true or not. But it <i>is</i> true. Who
+planned it? Answer me!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There was no concealment possible. Once she had the clue,
+she would discover everything almost immediately. Not
+even delay was to be gained by a lie. And with her clear
+eyes upon me, I could not have lied even had I wished to do
+so. She might never be mine; but I was hers to do as she
+wished. For a moment I hesitated, turning over in my mind
+the idea of referring her to Nordenholt himself; but I
+abandoned that almost instantaneously. The shock would
+be greater if it came from him; better let me bear the brunt.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Your uncle planned it. I helped him.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_231"></a>[231]</span>&#8220;Uncle Stanley! You don&#8217;t expect me to believe that?
+It shows how little you know of us both if you think....&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Her voice became tinged with doubt, and tears, too, came
+into it. The evidence was too clear. Only Nordenholt
+could have carried out such a gigantic scheme. And possibly
+she read the truth in my face as well. For a moment she
+seemed frozen, a rigid and silent statue. All the flush had
+left her cheeks and above the softness of her furs her features
+seemed as though carved in marble. When she spoke again,
+she seemed to be trying to convince herself.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Did Uncle Stanley suggest it? I can&#8217;t believe it. It&#8217;s
+impossible. He couldn&#8217;t do a thing like that. You don&#8217;t
+know him. He couldn&#8217;t. He couldn&#8217;t. I know he
+couldn&#8217;t.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Even in that moment of tension, I could not help reflecting
+how little a woman can know of a man&#8217;s mind. Half
+our mental processes are shut off from them, as probably half
+of theirs are closed books to us. The great barrier of sex
+divides us; and our outlook upon the world can never be
+the same. This girl had been in close communion with
+Nordenholt through most of her life; and yet she failed to
+recognise at once as his handiwork the greatest achievement
+to which he had put his powers.</p>
+
+<p>She wavered on her feet. I stepped forward to catch her
+but she struck aside my hand. Then she seated herself on
+a bank. I looked away; and when I saw her again she was
+sitting, her face buried in her hands, while her fragile figure
+shook with suppressed sobbing.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Elsa,&#8221; I said, &#8220;you don&#8217;t understand. It&#8217;s come upon
+you suddenly; and you&#8217;ve been swept off your feet by it.
+But it was all for the best. It had to be done.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She looked up. On her face, still wet with tears, I saw
+only contempt and bitterness.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It had to be done?&#8221; she echoed. &#8220;Do you mean that
+forty millions of people <i>had</i> to be robbed of their food and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_232"></a>[232]</span>
+left to starve? Can&#8217;t you see what it means, or are you
+made of stone? Think of men seeing their mothers dying;
+think of lovers watching their sweethearts starve; and the
+children in their mothers&#8217; arms. And you, <i>you</i> say calmly
+that &#8216;It had to be done.&#8217; You aren&#8217;t a machine. You had
+the right to choose. And you chose <i>that</i>!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t understand,&#8221; I repeated wearily. Somehow
+the strain of the situation seemed to have robbed me of my
+forces.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, I don&#8217;t understand. How can I, when it means
+that the men I thought most of in the world turn out to be
+nothing but murderers on a gigantic scale? I can&#8217;t believe
+it, even yet. Is it ... is it all a mistake? Oh! I want
+to wake up out of this nightmare; I want to wake up.
+Tell me it&#8217;s a nightmare and not real.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Her voice sounded almost like that of a terrified child in
+the dark.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s no nightmare,&#8221; I said. &#8220;Try to see what it meant.
+There wasn&#8217;t enough food for us all. Somebody had to die
+if the rest were to be saved.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And so you elected to be one of the rest? I congratulate
+you. A most laudable decision, I am sure,&#8221; she
+said contemptuously. &#8220;It would indeed have been a pity
+if you had gone short of food in order to save the lives
+of a mere score of children; tiny, helpless little things that
+can&#8217;t do more than cry as they starve.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t understand,&#8221; I repeated. &#8220;There was no
+chance of saving them in any case. They were doomed
+from the start. All we did was to ensure that <i>somebody</i>
+would survive. If the food had been evenly distributed,
+we should all have died; but your uncle laid his plans
+to save millions of people. Surely you can see that?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She thought for a moment; and then attacked in a fresh
+direction.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Who gave you the right to choose among them? You<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_233"></a>[233]</span>
+seem to think you are a demi-god with the power of life
+and death in your hands. How could <i>you</i> take the responsibility
+of the choice? And how could you bear to save
+yourself when you knew other men, and perhaps better
+men, had to die? I can&#8217;t understand you. You&#8217;re so
+different from what I thought you were. Somehow all
+my ideals seem to be breaking. You and Uncle Stanley
+were the two finest men I had met. I never dreamed
+for a moment that you would turn out to have feet of
+clay. And now....&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I tried hard to put our case before her. I explained the
+state of things at the outbreak of the Famine. I gave her
+figures to prove that Nordenholt had only worked to save
+what he could from the disaster. It was all of no avail.
+I think that the picture of the starving children filled her
+mind to the exclusion of almost everything else; and that
+she hardly listened to what I said. Once she whispered
+to herself, &#8220;Poor little mites,&#8221; just when I thought I had
+caught her attention at last. I gave it up in the end. She
+looked away across the loch, where the first stars were
+lighting up behind the hills; and we stood in silence, so
+close in space, so remote from each other in our thoughts.
+At last she spoke again.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Still I don&#8217;t understand it all. I see your view; but I
+can&#8217;t share it. It seems so cold-blooded, so horrible. But
+I can&#8217;t understand you, just when I thought I knew you
+through and through. Tell me, how could you talk of
+Fata Morgana and all our dreams when you <i>knew</i> that
+this terrible thing was happening? That&#8217;s what I don&#8217;t
+grasp.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t explain it to you. Probably I keep my mind
+in compartments. But never mind about me, Elsa; I&#8217;m
+done for now. I don&#8217;t matter. But you mustn&#8217;t condemn
+your uncle along with me. He never led you on to dream
+dreams, so you haven&#8217;t that against him. I want you to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_234"></a>[234]</span>
+believe me that he has been a saviour and not a destroyer,
+as you seem to think. Don&#8217;t lose your faith in him until you
+understand. Don&#8217;t prejudge things till you know everything.
+Speak to him yourself before you come to a conclusion.
+He depends on you, more than you think, perhaps. And
+he&#8217;s worked himself to the bone to save those few millions
+that are left to us. Don&#8217;t judge him till you know
+everything.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She looked at me more kindly than she had done since
+the beginning.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s just what I should have expected from what
+I knew of you, Mr. Flint. You think of him first and
+don&#8217;t bother about yourself. You aren&#8217;t selfish. I can&#8217;t
+understand you, somehow. You seem such a mixture;
+and until to-day I had no idea you were a mixture at
+all. It&#8217;s all so difficult.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She ended with a choke in her voice and turned towards
+the car. I followed her and switched on the head-lights,
+ready to start. She climbed into her seat; and I put the
+rug around her knees. Just as I was on the point of starting,
+she spoke again.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve told me all I need to know; but I must hear
+it from Uncle Stanley himself. I&#8217;ll go on being his
+secretary. I&#8217;ll do all I can to help. But I hate you
+both. Yes, if this is true, I hate him too. What else
+do you expect? You look on yourselves as saviours, it
+seems. You may be that, but you certainly are murderers.
+You can&#8217;t even see why I abhor you both. That shows
+you the gulf between us. Oh, I hate you, I hate you,
+with this cold calculation of yours: so much food, so
+many lives. Is that the way to handle human destinies?
+Drive on.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A little further down the road, she spoke again in a
+quivering voice which she strove to keep level and cold:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;This ends any work together. I couldn&#8217;t bear it in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_235"></a>[235]</span>
+your case. With Uncle Stanley it&#8217;s different. I will
+go back to my old place with him. But I never want
+to see <i>you</i> again, Mr. Flint. I&#8217;ve lost two illusions to-day;
+and I don&#8217;t wish to be reminded of them more than I
+need be. I promised him that I would always help him;
+and I&#8217;m going to keep my promise, cost what it may. But
+I never promised <i>you</i> anything.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>For a few minutes I drove on in silence. The whole
+world seemed to have fallen around me. All that I had
+longed for, all my future, seemed to have collapsed in
+that short afternoon. I was not angry; I don&#8217;t think I
+was even completely conscious of what it all meant. I
+felt stunned by an unexpected blow. At last I roused
+myself.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Elsa,&#8221; I said, &#8220;do you remember the first evening we
+met?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She never moved.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You sang that dirge from Cymbeline, you remember?
+When you&#8217;re calmer, I want you to think over it. I
+don&#8217;t want you to have any regrets. Mr. Nordenholt
+can&#8217;t last for ever under this strain. Think carefully.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She made no sign that she had heard me speak. The
+car whirred through the dusk, while we sat silent and aloof
+from each other. It was a return very different from that
+which I had hoped for when I set out. I was almost glad
+when, further down the loch, the beams of the head-lights
+showed us the figure of Nordenholt in the road. I pulled
+up the car beside him; and Elsa leaned forward in her
+seat.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Uncle Stanley, Mr. Flint has told me everything. I
+saw a document this morning, B. 53. X. 15; and I forced
+Mr. Flint to explain what it meant. Did you really plan
+this awful thing?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I could not see Nordenholt&#8217;s face in the shadow; but his
+voice was as steady as ever in his reply. Afterwards I<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_236"></a>[236]</span>
+realised that he must have foreseen such a situation as this
+long before.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is perfectly true, Elsa. Anything that Mr. Flint has
+told you is probably correct, though his connection with
+the matter is very slight.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But he says that you planned it all and that he helped
+you. I can&#8217;t ... I can&#8217;t quite understand it all. It&#8217;s
+a mistake, isn&#8217;t it? It&#8217;s not your real plan, surely. You&#8217;re
+going to save all these people in the South, aren&#8217;t you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Every soul that can be saved by me will be saved, Elsa.
+You can count on that.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But you will give them all a chance of life, won&#8217;t you?
+You won&#8217;t take away all the food from them?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s no food to spare.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>For a few moments there was silence. Elsa made a
+sudden movement, and I guessed that she had recoiled
+from Nordenholt&#8217;s touch. At last she spoke again, in a
+way I had not anticipated.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do you remember my three wishes, Uncle Stanley?
+You gave me two of them and now I want the third.
+You promised me the whole three; and you never broke
+your word yet. I want you to save these people in the
+South. That&#8217;s my third wish.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I think it was that which made me realise the gulf that
+yawned between us, more than anything that had gone before.
+How could she imagine that Nordenholt&#8217;s vast machine
+could be deflected on account of some childish promise?
+And yet her voice had taken on a new tone of confidence;
+everything, she thought, was going to be set right. It
+seems she must have believed, even then, that the treatment
+of the South was only one of a number of alternative
+schemes; and that she could force the adoption of some
+other, not so good, perhaps, but still possible, as a solution.
+Her very belief in Nordenholt&#8217;s powers led her to assume
+that he must have several plans ready pigeon-holed, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_237"></a>[237]</span>
+that the rejection of one merely entailed the substitution
+of some other which was already cut and dried.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When that promise was made, Elsa, there was one
+condition: your wish was not to be an impossible one.
+This <i>is</i> impossible.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh!&#8221; There was such an agony in her voice that I
+felt it rasp my already over-tried nerves.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That is final, Elsa. There is nothing more to be
+said.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>For almost a minute she made no reply. In the silence
+I could feel her struggling for control of her voice. When
+at last she spoke, she seemed to have fought down her
+emotion, for her tone was almost indifferent:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Very well, Uncle Stanley. You refuse to help these
+people; but I am not so easy in my mind. I will go into
+the South myself and do my best to help them; and if I
+cannot help, I can at least take the same risks as they do. <i>I</i>
+can&#8217;t stay here, well fed and well cared for when they are
+suffering.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You will not do that, Elsa. No, I don&#8217;t mean to
+prevent you going if you wish, though you have no idea
+what you would be going to. But I haven&#8217;t brought
+you up to be a shirker; and you&#8217;re needed here. You
+have the whole of your work at your finger-ends and if you
+go it will dislocate that department temporarily; and we
+can&#8217;t afford to have even a temporary upset at this stage.
+You promised you would stay, no matter what happened;
+and I ask you to keep your promise now. I also tell you
+that I need you, and your work here is helping to save lives
+in the Area, more lives than you could ever save outside.
+Now do you wish to go?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She thought for a time, evidently weighing one thing and
+another. While she was still silent, I broke in, wisely or
+unwisely I did not know.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If Elsa goes into the South, Nordenholt, I go with her<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_238"></a>[238]</span>
+to look after her. You must find someone else to take my
+place. I can&#8217;t let her go alone.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Nordenholt&#8217;s voice was as calm as ever.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You understand, Elsa? If you go, you take away
+Mr. Flint; and although I can replace you in your department,
+I doubt if I can get anyone as good as he is in his
+line. Go South and you cripple one of the essential parts
+of the Area. Stay here, and you help us all towards
+safety&mdash;and we are not near the safety-line yet. Which is
+it to be? I put no pressure on you. I only point out
+what I think is your duty.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I had expected some angry reply, some hurried decision
+which might bring disaster in its train; but luckily things
+took a different turn. I believe that the strain had been
+too great for her. Now came the collapse; and before I
+knew what had happened, she had broken into tears.
+Nordenholt leaned over her, trying to comfort her; but it
+was useless; and he let her work out her fit of emotion to
+the end. At last she pulled herself together.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If you are sure you need me, I will stay. But I hate
+you both. I hate the work. I hate the Area and everything
+in it. I&#8217;ll keep my promise to you; but things
+will never be the same again.... And, oh, this morning I
+was so happy.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Nordenholt climbed aboard the car without another
+word, and I drove on into the dark. Now and again I
+heard a half-suppressed sob from the girl at my side; but
+that was all. At the door of Nordenholt&#8217;s house I stopped.
+Elsa left me without uttering even &#8220;Good-night.&#8221; I
+watched her tall, slim figure go up the steps and disappear;
+and something blinded me. I found Nordenholt standing
+at the side of the car.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Poor chap,&#8221; he said, with an immense pity in his voice.
+&#8220;So you&#8217;re involved too? I wish it had been otherwise.
+Well, well; I couldn&#8217;t hope to keep it from her much<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_239"></a>[239]</span>
+longer at the best. But I&#8217;m very, very sorry. She&#8217;ll take
+it so hard. Her type never looks at these things the way
+we do.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He paused and looked at me keenly in the light of the
+terrace lamps. When he spoke once more, his voice
+sounded very weary.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Stand by me, Jack. Get your part ready in time.
+Don&#8217;t flinch because of this. I&#8217;m nearly at the end of my
+tether.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I could not trust myself to speak. We shook hands in
+silence, and he went up the steps into the house.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_240"></a>[240]</span>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak"><small>CHAPTER XVI</small><br />
+
+
+In the Nitrogen Area</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">I have</span> no wish to dwell overmuch upon my own affairs
+in this narrative; for they formed a mere ripple on the
+surface of the torrent of events which was bearing all of us
+along in its course. Yet to exclude them entirely would
+be to omit something which is of importance; for they
+must have influenced my outlook upon the situation as a
+whole and possibly made me view it through eyes different
+from those which I had used before.</p>
+
+<p>My dreams and desires had come to the ground almost
+ere they were in being; and what made it more bitter to
+me was that I felt they had been crushed, not on their
+merits, but merely as subsidiaries which had shared in the
+collapse of a more central matter. I guessed that Elsa had,
+to some extent, at any rate, shared my feelings; and it was
+this which made the downfall of my hopes all the harder
+to bear.</p>
+
+<p>Try as I would, I could find no reason behind her
+attitude; and even now, looking back upon that time, I
+cannot appreciate her motives. In the whole affair of the
+Nitrogen Area I had been guided by purely intellectual
+considerations. Nordenholt himself had advised me to keep
+a tight rein upon any feelings which might divert me from
+this course. And I was thus, perhaps, less able to appreciate
+her standpoint then than I would have been a few months
+earlier.</p>
+
+<p>On her side emotion, and not intellect, was the guiding<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_241"></a>[241]</span>
+star. The picture of starving millions which had broken
+upon her without warning had overpowered her normally
+clear brain. Thus there lay between us a gulf which
+nothing seemed capable of filling. I thought, and still
+believe, that emotion is a will-o&#8217;-the-wisp by which alone
+no man can steer a course; but it is useless to deny its
+power when once it has laid its influence upon a mind.
+Even had she given me a chance, I doubt if I would have
+tried to reason with her; and she gave me no chance. I
+never saw her alone; and when she met me perforce or by
+accident, she treated me practically as a stranger. All the
+long evenings of planning and dreaming had gone out of
+our lives.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as I could make an opportunity, I questioned
+Nordenholt as to the state of affairs. He answered me
+perfectly frankly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Elsa has never said a word to me about the South.
+I think she shrinks from the idea even in her own mind;
+and she shrinks from me because of it, as I can see. But
+she sticks to her work, even if she loathes coming into
+contact with me daily; and I keep her as hard at it as
+I can. The less time she has to think, the better for her;
+and I don&#8217;t mean to leave her any time to brood over the
+affair. Poor girl, you mustn&#8217;t feel hard about her, Jack.
+I can understand what it means to her; and to you also:
+and her part is the saddest. She simply hates me now; I
+can feel it. And neither of us can help her, that&#8217;s the worst
+of it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>To Nordenholt himself the situation must have been a
+terrible one; for Elsa was closer to him than any other
+human being could ever be: and the position now was
+worse even than if he had lost her entirely. I am sure that
+he had never felt anything more than affection for her;
+but she had become more to him, perhaps, just for that
+reason. I often used to think that they formed natural<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_242"></a>[242]</span>
+complements for one another: he with his great build and
+powerful personality, she with her slender grace and her
+character, strong as his own, perhaps, but in a far different
+sphere.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>It was about this period <i>B. diazotans</i> began to die out
+from the face of the world which it had wrecked. I have
+already told how Nordenholt had given me the news when
+it was still a possibility of the future. From their studies
+upon isolated colonies of the microbe, the bacteriologists
+had predicted its end. They had found a rapid falling-off
+in its power of multiplication; and the segregation of a
+number of the pests soon led to their perishing.</p>
+
+<p>When it became clear that <i>B. diazotans</i> was doomed,
+Nordenholt began to send out scouting aeroplanes to collect
+samples of soil from various districts and bring them back to
+the laboratories of the Nitrogen Area where they could be
+examined. All told the same tale of extinction. Gradually,
+the aeroplanes were sent further and further on their
+journeys into the stricken lands; and at last it became clear
+that as far as a large part of Europe was concerned, the
+terror was at an end. The soil, of course, was completely
+ruined; but there was little to fear in the way of a
+recrudescence of the blight.</p>
+
+<p>It seems, nowadays, very strange that we had not already
+foreseen this result; for the cause of it lay upon the surface
+of things. Once the denitrifying bacteria had destroyed
+all the nitrogen compounds in the soil, there was nothing
+left for them to live upon; and they perished of starvation
+in their turn, following in the track of all the larger
+organisms which their depredations had ruined.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as Nordenholt had established the definite decease
+of <i>B. diazotans</i> in the accessible parts of the European continent,
+he sent out the news to the whole remaining world
+with which he was in touch through his wireless installation;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_243"></a>[243]</span>
+and after some time had been spent in various centres
+in which the remnants of humanity were gathered together,
+word came back from the most widely-separated areas that
+all over the world <i>B. diazotans</i> had ceased to exist. In
+many places it had even left no traces of any kind behind
+it; for as some of the bacteria died their bodies, being nitrogenous,
+had served as food for those still living; until at last
+the merest trace of their organisms was all that could be
+found in the soil.</p>
+
+<p>So this plague passed from the world as swiftly as it came;
+and its passing left the future more certain than seemed
+possible in the early stages of its career.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>But if our gravest danger was thus removed, we in the
+Nitrogen Area had other troubles which were nearer to us
+at that time. In his very earliest calculations, Nordenholt,
+as I have told, had foreseen that disease would be prevalent
+owing to the monotony of the diet which was entailed by
+our conditions. The lack of fresh vegetables and the use of
+salted meat gave rise to scurvy, which we endeavoured to
+ward off by manufacturing a kind of synthetic lime juice
+for the population. The success of this was not complete,
+however, and the disease caused a very marked falling-off in
+the productive power of our labour. For a time it seemed
+as though we were actually losing ground in our factories,
+just at the moment when the destruction of the denitrifying
+bacteria had raised our hopes to a high degree.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was scurvy our only trouble. The debilitated health
+of the people laid them open to all sorts of minor diseases,
+with their concomitant decline in physical energy. Of
+these, the most serious was a new type of influenza which
+ravaged the Nitrogen Area and caused thousands of deaths.
+Here again, a fall in output coincided with the growth and
+spread of the disease; but since the death-roll was a heavy
+one, the number of mouths diminished markedly as well; so<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_244"></a>[244]</span>
+that it almost appeared as though the two factors might
+balance each other. If there were less food in the future,
+there would be fewer people to consume it.</p>
+
+<p>I think the period of the influenza epidemic was one of
+the most trying of all in the Nitrogen Area. As the
+reported cases increased in number, individual medical
+attention became impossible; for many doctors died of the
+scourge, and we could not risk the total annihilation of the
+medical profession. Treatment of the disease was standardised
+as far as possible and committed to the care of rapidly-trained
+laymen. Possibly this led to many deaths which
+might have been avoided with more efficient methods; but
+it was the only means which would leave us with a supply
+of trained medical men who would be required in the
+future.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>On the heels of the influenza epidemic, and possibly
+produced by it, came a period of labour unrest in the Area.
+It was only what I had always anticipated; for the strain
+which we were putting upon the workers had now increased
+almost to the breaking point. There was no way out of
+the difficulty, however; for unless the work was done, the
+safety of the whole community would be imperilled. None
+the less, I could not help finding excuses in my mind for
+those toiling millions. To them, the connection between
+the factories and the food-supply must have been difficult to
+trace; for they could hardly follow all the ramifications in
+the lines between the coal in the pits and the next harvest
+which was not even sown.</p>
+
+<p>Nordenholt succeeded in stifling most of the disaffection
+by means of a fresh newspaper campaign of propaganda.
+He had given his journals a long period of rest in this
+direction, purposely, I believe, in order that he might utilise
+them more effectively when this new emergency arose. But
+though he certainly produced a marked effect by his efforts,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_245"></a>[245]</span>
+there remained among the workers an under-current of
+discontent which could not be exorcised. It was not a case
+of open disaffection which could have been dealt with by
+drastic methods; the Intelligence section were unable to
+fasten upon any clear cases of what in the old days would
+have been called sedition. It was rather a change for the
+worse in the general attitude and outlook of the labouring
+part of the community: an affair of atmosphere which left
+nothing solid for Nordenholt to grasp firmly. Though I
+was out of direct touch with affairs at the time, even I
+could not help the feeling that things were out of joint.
+The demeanour of the workers in the streets was somehow
+different from what it had been in the earlier days.
+There was a sullenness and a tinge of aggressiveness in
+the air.</p>
+
+<p>And in Nordenholt himself I noticed a corresponding
+change. He seemed to me by degrees to be losing his
+impersonal standpoint. The new situation appeared to be
+making him more and more dictatorial as time went by.
+He had always acted as a Dictator; but in his personal
+contact with men he had preserved an attitude of aloofness
+and certainty which had taken the edge off the Dictatorship.
+Now, I noticed, his methods were becoming more direct;
+and he was making certain test-points into trials of strength,
+open and avowed, between himself and those who opposed
+him. He always won, of course; but it was a different
+state of things from that which had marked the inception of
+the Nitrogen Area. There was more of the master and
+less of the comrade about him now.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, looking back upon it all, I cannot but admit that
+his methods were justified. The disaffection was noticeable;
+and only a strong hand could put it down. Nordenholt&#8217;s
+tactics were probably the best under the circumstances; but
+nevertheless they brought him into a fresh orientation with
+regard to the workers. Instead of leading them, he began<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_246"></a>[246]</span>
+more and more openly to drive them along the road which
+he wished them to take.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>I see that I have omitted to mention the attempted
+invasion of the Nitrogen Area from the coasts of Europe
+which took place just before this. To tell the truth, it was
+so complete a fiasco that it had almost passed from my
+mind; but a few words may be devoted to it here.</p>
+
+<p>When the Famine had done its work in Germany there
+still remained for a time a number of inhabitants who had
+seized the food in the country by force and who were thus
+enabled to prolong their existence while their fellows died
+out. They belonged mainly to the old military class.
+When they in turn ran short of supplies, their natural
+thought was to plunder someone weaker than themselves;
+and learning of the existence of the Clyde Valley colony,
+they determined that it furnished the most probable source of
+loot. Apparently they imagined that the Fleet in the Firth
+of Forth was deserted; for in order to excite no suspicion
+they had kept their airships at long-range in the reconnaissances
+which they undoubtedly made in advance of their
+actual onset; and it seems most probable that they imagined
+they had nothing to fear beyond the risks incident to the
+invasion of an unprotected country. At least, so it appears to
+me; and there were no survivors of the expedition from
+whom the truth might have been discovered.</p>
+
+<p>Under cover of night, they seem to have put most of
+their men on board merchant ships and sailed for the British
+coast at a time which would have brought them off the land
+in the early hours of the morning when, no doubt, they
+expected to get ashore without attracting attention, since
+they must have supposed all the coastal inhabitants had
+perished. Actually, however, their man&#339;uvres had been
+followed by the seaplane patrol which cruised in the North
+Sea; and as soon as they left port, the Fleet was got<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_247"></a>[247]</span>
+into a state of preparedness. The two forces met somewhere
+on the high seas; the German squadron, utterly
+defenceless, was sunk without any resistance worthy of the
+name.</p>
+
+<p>This was the only actual attempt at invasion which the
+Nitrogen Area had to repel; for Nordenholt&#8217;s aeroplane
+propaganda had checked any desire on the part of the
+survivors of the Famine in this country to approach the
+Clyde Valley under any conditions.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Though Nordenholt succeeded in suppressing the outward
+manifestations of labour unrest at this period, I think
+it is fairly clear that he was unable to reach down to the
+sources of the trouble. At the root of things lay a vague
+dissatisfaction with general conditions, which it was impossible
+to exorcise; and this peculiar spirit manifested itself
+in all sorts of sporadic forms which gave a good deal of
+trouble before they could be got under control.</p>
+
+<p>For example, at about this time, there was an outbreak of
+something akin to the dancing mania which I had seen in
+London. It began by a rapid extension of normal dancing
+in the halls of the city; but from this it soon passed into
+revelry in the public squares at night; and finally took the
+form of corybantic displays in the streets. As soon as it
+began to demoralise the people, Nordenholt applied the
+drastic treatment of a fire-hose to the groups of dancers;
+and, between this method and ridicule, he succeeded in
+stamping out the disease before it had attained dangerous
+proportions.</p>
+
+<p>But this was only one of the symptoms of the grave
+troubles which were menacing the success of Nordenholt&#8217;s
+plans. I do not doubt that he had foreseen the condition
+into which affairs had drifted; but it seems to me that he
+recognised the impossibility of eradicating the roots of the
+discontent. Its origin lay in the actual material and moral<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_248"></a>[248]</span>
+states of affairs; and without abandoning his whole scheme
+it was impossible to change these things.</p>
+
+<p>I know that during these months he stiffened the discipline
+of the Labour Defence Force considerably in view of
+eventualities; and he had frequent conferences with the
+officers in command of its various units. I guessed, from
+what I saw, that in future he intended to drive the population
+into safety if he could not lead them there; and I
+confess that at times I took a very gloomy view of our
+chances of success.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>It was during this trying period, I think, that Nordenholt&#8217;s
+young men were his greatest source of strength. He
+was always in touch with them; and in some way he
+seemed to draw encouragement from them while spurring
+them on to further efforts. They seemed to lean on him
+and yet to support him in his work; and often I felt that
+without some comradeship as this our whole plans would
+have been doomed to failure. The Nordenholt Gang
+practically occupied all the posts of any responsibility in the
+Nitrogen Area; and this, I expect, rendered the working of
+the machine much smoother than it would otherwise have
+been.</p>
+
+<p>Since my new work brought me into touch with many
+fresh departments, my acquaintance with Nordenholt&#8217;s men
+increased; and I was amazed to find the ramifications of
+his system and the super-excellence of the human material
+in which he had dealt. They were all young, hardly any
+were over thirty-five and most were younger; yet they
+seemed to have a fund of moral courage and self-reliance
+which struck me especially in those dark times. They
+never seemed to doubt that in the end things would come
+right. It was not that they blindly trusted in Nordenholt
+to the exclusion of common sense: for they all seemed
+to face the facts quite squarely. But behind their even<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_249"></a>[249]</span>
+weighings of the situation I detected an unspoken yet whole-hearted
+belief that Nordenholt would bring us through
+without a hitch. Hero-worship has its uses, when it is
+soundly based; and all of them, it was easy to see, had
+made Nordenholt their hero. When I thought over the
+many-sided nature of their activities and the differences of
+personality among them, I could not help finding my view
+of Nordenholt himself expanding. They were all picked
+men, far above the average; their minds worked on different
+lines; their interests were as divergent as the Poles: and
+yet, one and all, they recognised Nordenholt as their master.
+I do not mean that he excelled them in their own special
+lines: for I doubt, in many cases, whether he had even a
+grip of the elements of the subjects which they had made
+their own. But he had been able to impress upon all these
+various intellects the feeling that he was in a class by
+himself; and that effect implied immense personality in him.</p>
+
+<p>Despite their widely different fields of activity, there was
+a very strong <i>esprit de corps</i> among them all; and it was not
+for some time that I felt myself to be received on equal
+terms with the rest. I think they felt that I was outside
+their particular circle, at first. But the real passport into it
+was efficiency; and when I had had time to show my
+power of organisation, they accepted me at once as one of
+themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Of them all, I think Henley-Davenport interested me
+most, though I can hardly put into words the reasons which
+led to this attraction. I never learned how Nordenholt had
+discovered him originally; but I found that when Henley-Davenport
+began to open up the subject of induced radioactivity,
+Nordenholt had stepped in and bought up for him
+a huge supply of various radioactive materials which he
+required in his work and which he had despaired of acquiring
+on account of their enormous cost.</p>
+
+<p>What struck me most about him was his fearlessness. Once<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_250"></a>[250]</span>
+he gave me, incidentally in the course of a talk upon something
+else, a suggestion of the risks which his work entailed.
+It seemed to me that I would have faced half a dozen
+other kinds of death rather than that one. Purely as a
+matter of physiological interest, he told me that the effect of
+radioactive materials on a large scale upon the human body
+would exceed the worst inventions of medi&aelig;val torturers.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The radiations, you know,&#8221; he said, drawing at his
+cigarette. &#8220;The radiations have a knack of destroying
+tissue; but they don&#8217;t produce immediate effects. The
+skin remains quite healthy, to all appearances, for days after
+the damage is done. Then you get festering sores appearing
+on the affected parts.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, on a large scale, the affected parts will be the
+whole surface of the body; so that in itself will be pretty
+bad, as you can see. Poor old Job will have to take a back
+seat after this.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then, again, I expect enormous quantities of radioactive
+gas will be evolved; and probably one will breathe some
+of it into one&#8217;s lungs. The result of that will be rather
+worse than the external injuries, of course. I doubt if a man
+will last half an hour under that treatment; but that half-hour
+will be the limit in pain.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Can&#8217;t you use a mask or some lead protection?&#8221; I
+asked. &#8220;Or could you not fix up the whole thing in a
+bomb-proof case which would keep the rays from things
+outside?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, that&#8217;s the first thing one thinks of, naturally;
+but to tell the truth it&#8217;s impracticable for various reasons.
+Some of them are implicit in the nature of the processes I&#8217;m
+using; but even apart from that, look at the state of affairs
+when the thing does go off with a bang. It will be one
+of the biggest explosions, considering the amounts I have to
+use; and if I&#8217;m going to be flung about like a child&#8217;s toy, I
+prefer to fly light and not have a sheet of lead mail to go<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_251"></a>[251]</span>
+along with me and crush me when I strike anything. As to
+a mask, nothing would stick on. You would simply be
+asking to have your face driven in, if you wore anything
+of the kind.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, I&#8217;ve been lucky so far. I&#8217;ve only lost three fingers
+in a minor burst-up. And I&#8217;m going to stake on my luck
+rather than risk certain damage. But if I can only pull
+it off, Flint.... Nordenholt thinks a lot of it; and I don&#8217;t
+want to disappoint him if I can help it. If I do go to glory,
+I&#8217;ll at least leave something behind me which will make it
+more than worth while.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Nordenholt, I learned later, <i>did</i> &#8220;think a lot of it.&#8221; I
+spoke to him on the subject one day; and I was astonished
+to find how much stress he laid on the Henley-Davenport
+work.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t realise it, Jack; but it&#8217;s just on the cards that
+our whole future turns on Henley-Davenport. I see things
+coming. They&#8217;re banking up on the horizon already; and
+if the storm bursts, nothing but Henley-Davenport can save
+us. And the worst of it is that he doesn&#8217;t seem to be getting
+ahead much at present. It&#8217;s no fault of his. No one could
+work harder; and the other two&mdash;Struthers and Anderson&mdash;are
+just as keen. But it doesn&#8217;t come out, somehow. And
+the tantalising thing is that he has proved it <i>can</i> be done;
+only at present it isn&#8217;t economical. He gets energy
+liberated, all right; but where we need a ton of gunpowder,
+he can only give us a percussion cap, so to speak. If only
+he can hit on it in time....&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>For my own part, that period was depressing. All the
+joy had gone out of my work. Only after I had lost her
+did I realise how great a part Elsa had played in my
+planning of the future. Her disappearance cast a shade over
+all my schemes; and soon I gave up entirely the side of the
+reconstruction in which we had collaborated. I could not<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_252"></a>[252]</span>
+bear to think over again the lines along which we had
+worked so intimately in common. I simply put them out of
+my mind and concentrated my attention exclusively upon
+the material aspects of the problem.</p>
+
+<p>I have said this quite freely; though possibly the reader
+may look upon me as a weak man for allowing such factors
+to enter into so vast a matter. Had I been superhuman, no
+doubt, I could have shut my mind to the past; and gone
+forward without flinching. But I never imagined that I
+was a super-man; and at this time especially I felt anything
+but superhuman. I was wounded to the quick; and all I
+desired was to avoid the whole subject of Elsa in my
+thoughts. And when I come to think of it, it seems quite
+probable that I did my best work in this way. If I had
+continued to dream of Fata Morgana and all its wonders,
+I should simply have drugged myself with a mental opiate
+and my work would have suffered on other sides.</p>
+
+<p>Elsa&#8217;s whole attitude to Nordenholt and myself had been
+a puzzle. I could not understand why she should have been
+so bitter against us; for try as I could, I failed to see
+anything discreditable in our doings. The logic of events
+had thrust us into the position we occupied, it seemed to
+me; and I could not appreciate her view of the situation.</p>
+
+<p>Nordenholt kept silence on the subject for some days after
+our trip up Loch Lomond; but he finally gave me his
+views in reply to urgent questioning.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I think it&#8217;s something like this, Jack: from what I
+know of Elsa in the past, she&#8217;s got a vivid imagination, very
+vivid; and it happens to be the pictorial imagination. Give
+her a line of description, and she has the power of calling
+up the scene in her mind, filling in missing details and
+producing something which impresses her profoundly.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, I don&#8217;t see what that&#8217;s got to do with calling
+me a brute,&#8221; I said. &#8220;It doesn&#8217;t seem to help me
+much.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_253"></a>[253]</span>&#8220;It&#8217;s quite clear to me. The few details she got from
+that confounded missorted form were enough to start her
+imagination. She instinctively called up a vision of starving
+people, suffering children and all the rest of the affairs in the
+South. And you know, Jack, these visions of hers are
+wonderfully clear and sharp. It wasn&#8217;t you who built Fata
+Morgana on these afternoons; it was her imagination that
+did it and you followed in her track.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, you&#8217;re quite right, Nordenholt. I don&#8217;t think I
+would have so much as thought of dream-cities if she hadn&#8217;t
+led the way. And she certainly had the knack of making
+them seem concrete.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Very well; assume she had this vision of starving
+humanity. You know her type of mind&mdash;everything for
+others? What sort of effect would that picture produce
+upon her? A tremendous revulsion of feeling, eh? Her
+whole emotional side would be up in arms; and she has
+strong emotions, though she doesn&#8217;t betray them. Her
+intellectual side didn&#8217;t get a chance against the combination
+of that picture and her ideals. It was simply swept out at
+once.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But in spite of all her emotions, she&#8217;s level-headed.
+Sooner or later she&#8217;ll begin to think more calmly. And
+she&#8217;s very just, too. That ought to help, I think. Oh, I
+don&#8217;t despair about her; or rather, I wouldn&#8217;t despair about
+her if it weren&#8217;t for some things that are coming yet. I&#8217;m
+not going to buoy you up with any hopes, Jack, for I believe
+in dealing straight. I can&#8217;t let you hope for much; we&#8217;ve
+both lost enormously in her eyes. But I&#8217;ve seen cases in
+which her imagination misled her before and her reason
+came out in the end. It may be so this time. But don&#8217;t
+expect anything, Jack; and don&#8217;t try to gain anything.
+She&#8217;s a very straight girl, and if she finds she has been wrong
+she won&#8217;t hesitate to come and admit it to you without any
+encouragement on your part. But it has been a horrible<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_254"></a>[254]</span>
+affair for her; and you must remember that, if you think
+hardly of her at times.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>I</i> think hardly of her! You don&#8217;t know me, Nordenholt,
+or you wouldn&#8217;t say that.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, for both our sakes, I hope her intellect will get
+control of her feelings. I hate to see her going about her
+work and know that she has lost all faith in me now. She
+was the one creature in the world that loved me, you know,
+Jack; and it&#8217;s hard.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then he laughed contemptuously, as though at his own
+weakness.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s quite evident I&#8217;m not the man I was, Jack. But
+somehow, in this affair we&#8217;re both in the same boat to some
+extent; and I let that slip out. You see that Elsa hasn&#8217;t
+the monopoly of an emotional temperament!&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>All great undertakings with uncertain ends appear to run
+the same course. First there is the period of inception, a
+time of high hopes and eager toil and self-sacrifice; then,
+as the novelty wears away, there follows a stage in which
+the first enthusiasm has died down and an almost automatic
+persistence takes the place of the great emotional driving-force
+of the early days; later still, when enthusiasm has
+vanished, there comes a time when the meaner side of
+human nature reasserts itself. My narrative has reached the
+point of junction between these last two divisions; and the
+pages which I have yet to write must perforce deal mainly
+with the troubles which beset us in the period of lassitude
+and nerve-strain which followed naturally upon the other
+phases of the situation.</p>
+
+<p>I have thrown this chapter into a series of isolated sections;
+for I believe that such a treatment best suggests the state
+of things at the time. We had lost the habit of connected
+thought, as far as the greater events were concerned. Our
+daily round absorbed our attention; and it was only<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_255"></a>[255]</span>
+occasionally that we were jarred out of our grooves by some
+event of salient importance.</p>
+
+<p>The whole atmosphere which surrounded us was depressing;
+and it slowly and surely made its impression upon
+our minds and formed the background upon which our
+thoughts moved. The gloom of the smoke-filled sky had
+its reaction upon our psychology. The old sunlight seemed
+to have vanished from our lives. And at this time we were
+all beginning to pay the price for the feverish activity of the
+earlier days in the Area. Our work, whether mental or
+physical, wearied us sooner than before; and its monotony
+irritated our nerves. Such recreations as we had&mdash;and they
+were few enough at this time&mdash;failed to relieve the tension.
+Among the labouring classes, in particular, this condition of
+lassitude showed itself in a marked degree.</p>
+
+<p>Nordenholt, with his finger on the pulse of things, grew
+more and more anxious as time went on. On the surface,
+he still appeared optimistic; but from chance phrases here
+and there I deduced that his uneasiness was increasing; and
+that he anticipated something which I myself could not
+foresee. Knowing what I do now, it seems to me that in
+those days I must have been blind indeed not to understand
+what was before us; but I frankly confess that I missed the
+many signs which lay in our path from day to day. When
+the disaster came upon us, it took me almost completely by
+surprise.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_256"></a>[256]</span>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak"><small>CHAPTER XVII</small><br />
+
+
+Per Iter Tenebricosum</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">After</span> Elsa had rejected any further collaboration with
+me, I was forced at times to consult Nordenholt upon certain
+points in my schemes which seemed to me to require the
+criticism of a fresh mind; and I thus fell into the habit of
+seeing him in his office at intervals.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Things are in a bad way, Jack,&#8221; he said to me at the
+end of one of these interviews. &#8220;You don&#8217;t see everything
+that&#8217;s going on, of course; so you couldn&#8217;t be expected to
+be on the alert for it; but it&#8217;s only right to warn you that
+we&#8217;re coming up against the biggest trouble we&#8217;ve had
+yet in the Area.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Of course things are anything but satisfactory, I know,&#8221;
+I replied. &#8220;The output&#8217;s going down and there seems to
+be no way of screwing the men up to increase it. But is
+it really fatal, do you think? We seem even now to have
+the thing well in hand.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I glanced up at the great Nitrogen Curve above the fireplace.
+The red and green lines upon it appeared to me to
+show a state of affairs which, if not all that we could wish,
+was at least satisfactory as compared with what might have
+been. Nordenholt followed my glance.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That practical trend of mind which you have, Jack,
+sometimes keeps you from seeing realities. What lies at
+the root of the trouble just now isn&#8217;t output or slackness or
+anything like that. These are only symptoms of the real
+disease. It&#8217;s not in the concrete things that I see the danger,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_257"></a>[257]</span>
+except indirectly. The true peril comes from the intangibles;
+ideas, states of mind, sub-conscious reflections. I&#8217;ve told you
+often that the material world is only the outward show
+which hardly matters: the real things are the minds of the
+men who live in it. It&#8217;s their movements you need to look
+at if you want to gauge affairs.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I stick to what I know, Nordenholt, as I&#8217;ve often told
+you. I&#8217;m no psychologist; and I have to look on the
+material side because I&#8217;m out of my depth in the other.
+But let&#8217;s hear what you have in your mind about the state
+of affairs.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, you&#8217;ve been busy enough with your own work;
+so probably you haven&#8217;t had time to observe how things
+are going; but I can put the thing in a nutshell. We&#8217;ve
+weathered a good many difficulties; but now we&#8217;re up
+against the biggest of them all. I see all the signs of a
+revival in the near future&mdash;and it isn&#8217;t going to be a Christian
+revival. It spells trouble of the worst description.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Now that my attention had been drawn to the point, a
+score of incidents flashed across my mind in confirmation
+of what he said. I had noticed an increased attendance at
+the meetings of street-preachers; and also a growth in the
+number of the preachers themselves. As I went about the
+city in the evenings I had seen in many places knots of
+people assembled round some speaker who, with emotion-contorted
+visage, was striving to move them by his
+eloquence.</p>
+
+<p>Once I had even stopped for a few minutes to listen to
+a sermon being preached outside the Central Station by the
+Reverend John P. Wester; and I still remembered the
+effect which it had produced upon me. He was a tall man
+with a flowing red beard and a voice which enabled him to
+make himself heard to huge audiences in the open air. He
+repelled me by the cloudiness of his utterances&mdash;I hate loose
+thinking&mdash;and also by the touch of fanaticism which clung<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_258"></a>[258]</span>
+to his discourses; for I instinctively detest a fanatic. Yet
+in spite of this I felt strangely attracted by him. He had
+the gift of gripping his hearers; and I could see how he
+played upon them as a great musician plays upon a favourite
+instrument. Remotely he reminded me of Nordenholt in
+the way in which he seemed to know by instinct the points
+to which his rhetorical attacks should be directed; but the
+resemblance between the two men ended at this. It was
+always reason to which Nordenholt appealed in the end;
+whilst emotional chords were the ones which the Reverend
+John fingered with success.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now you&#8217;ve told me, I believe you&#8217;re right,&#8221; I said.
+&#8220;I <i>have</i> seen signs of something like a revival. The crowds
+seem to be taking a greater interest in religion.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I wish they would,&#8221; Nordenholt returned, abruptly.
+&#8220;They won&#8217;t get it from the Reverend John. He&#8217;s out
+for something quite different. It&#8217;s just what I feared would
+happen, sooner or later. It always crops up under conditions
+like those we are in just now. We&#8217;ve strained the human
+machine to its utmost in all this work; and we&#8217;re on the
+edge of possibilities in the way of collective hysteria.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now that man Wester is at the root of half the trouble
+we are having just now. I don&#8217;t mean that he is creating
+it; nothing of that sort: but his personality forms a centre
+round which the thing collects. The thing itself is there
+anyway: but if it weren&#8217;t for him and some others, it would
+remain fluid; it wouldn&#8217;t become really dangerous. But
+Wester is a fanatic and with his oratorical powers he carries
+the weaker people off their feet, especially the women.
+He&#8217;s got a following. What worries me is, where he&#8217;s
+going to lead them. He&#8217;s got a kink in him. Still, I&#8217;m
+trusting that we may be able to weather the thing without
+using force even now. But if he goes too far, I&#8217;ll break
+him like <i>that</i>.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He tapped a stick of sealing wax on his desk and broke<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_259"></a>[259]</span>
+it in two. Again I reflected how unlike this was to the
+Nordenholt I had known at first, the man who could unfold
+huge plans without so much as a gesture to help out his
+meaning. He must have read the thought in my eyes, for
+he laughed, half at himself, I think.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Quite right, Jack. These theatrical touches seem to
+be growing on me, of late. I must really try to cure myself.
+But, all the same, I mean to keep my eye on the Reverend
+John. If he sets up as a prophet&mdash;and I expect he will do
+that one of these days&mdash;I&#8217;ll take the risk and put him down.
+But it&#8217;s a tricky business, I can tell you. Until he actually
+becomes dangerous, I shall let him go on.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was only natural, after that, for me to take more interest
+in the career of the Reverend John. I even attended one
+of his open-air meetings from start to finish; and I was still
+more impressed by his command over his hearers. The
+material of his sermons seemed to me commonplace in the
+extreme: it was not by the novelty of his subjects but by
+his personal force that he impressed his audiences and raised
+them to a state of exaltation. Zion, the River, The Tree
+of Life, Eden, the loosing of burdens, rest and joy eternal:
+all the old phrases were utilised. From what I heard of his
+preaching, it seemed to me innocuous. A brief time of
+suffering and sorrow upon earth and then the heavens would
+open and the Elect would enter into their endless happiness:
+these appeared to be the elements of the creed which he
+expounded; and I could see little reason for Nordenholt&#8217;s
+anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>At last, however, I began to notice something novel in the
+sermons. The change came so gradually that I could hardly
+be sure when it began. Probably he had opened up his
+fresh line so tentatively that I had not observed it at the
+time; and it was only after he had already been changing
+step by step in his subject that I became clearly conscious
+of his new tone.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_260"></a>[260]</span>With the greatest skill he contrived to use the old expressions
+while inflecting them with a fresh intention. At last,
+however, there could be no doubt as to his meaning. It
+was no longer Christianity that he preached, but a kind of
+bastard Buddhism. Up to that point in his career he had
+spoken of earthly affairs as a trial through which we must
+pass in order to attain to bliss in the Hereafter; but in his
+newer phase the things of the material world became
+entirely secondary.</p>
+
+<p>Eternal rest, eternal joy, eternal peace: these were his
+main themes; and to the exhausted and nerve-racked population
+they had an attraction of the most subtle kind. The
+Reverend John was a psychologist like Nordenholt, though
+he worked in a narrower groove; and he well knew how
+to utilise the levers of the human consciousness. Eternal
+rest! What more attractive prospect could be held out to
+that toil-worn race?</p>
+
+<p>Slowly, with the most gradual of transitions, he began to
+assume the mantle of a prophet; and with that phase new
+names began to emerge in his discourses. The Four Truths,
+the Middle Path, the Five Hindrances, Arahatship, Karma:
+these cropped up from time to time in sermons which were
+daily becoming wilder in their phraseology.</p>
+
+<p>I have no wish to be unfair to the Reverend John. He
+was a fanatic; and no fanatic is entirely sane. I am sure,
+also, that in the earlier stages of his campaign he strove
+merely for the spiritual good of the people as he understood
+it. But it is necessary to say also that I believe he became
+crazed in the end; and that the ultimate effect of his
+preaching led us to the very edge of disaster. It is not for
+me to weigh or judge him; he preferred his visions to
+material safety; whilst my own mind is concerned more
+with the things of this earth than with what may come
+later.</p>
+
+<p>His preaching now passed into a stage where even I could<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_261"></a>[261]</span>
+appreciate its dangerous character. More and more, his
+sermons took the form of belittlings of the material world;
+while the joys of eternal life were held up in comparison.
+It was not long until he was openly questioning whether
+our human existence was worth prolonging at all. Would
+it not be better, he asked, to throw off these shackles of the
+Flesh at once rather than live for a few years longer amid
+the sorrows and temptations of this world? Why not
+discard this earthly mantle and enter at once into Nirvana?</p>
+
+<p>This appeared to me a mere preaching of suicide; but if
+his followers chose to adopt his suggestions, it seemed to me
+a matter for themselves. I had always regarded suicide as
+the back-door out of life; though I had never under-estimated
+the courage of those who turn its handle. Yet
+it seemed to me evidence of a certain want of toughness of
+fibre, a lack of fitness to survive; and, personally, I had no
+desire to retain in the world anyone who seemed unable to
+bear its strains.</p>
+
+<p>His next phase of development, however, opened my eyes.
+By this time he had become a great power among the
+people. Many a king has been treated with less reverence
+than his followers showed to him. Crowds flocked to his
+meetings, standing thickly even when they stretched far
+beyond the reach of that magnificent voice. In the streets
+he was saluted as though he were a superhuman agent.
+There were attempts made to get him to touch the sick in
+the hope that he might heal them.</p>
+
+<p>From afar, Nordenholt watched all this rising surge of
+emotion. In some ways, the two men resembled each
+other; but their motives were wide apart as the Poles.
+Both had their ideals, higher than the normal; but these
+ideals were in deadly antagonism to each other. Both, it is
+possible, were right; but the clash of right with right is the
+highest form of tragedy; and collision between them was
+inevitable.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_262"></a>[262]</span>&#8220;The Reverend John has been a great disappointment to
+me, Jack,&#8221; Nordenholt admitted to me one day. &#8220;That
+man has the makings of a great demagogue or a great saint
+in him; and it seems to me that the spin of the coin has
+gone against me, for I thought the saint would come uppermost.
+He isn&#8217;t as big as I thought he was. His head has
+been turned by all this adulation; and unless I am mistaken
+again we shall find him becoming a public danger before
+very long. He thinks he has his own work to do, preparing
+for the Kingdom of Heaven; and in doing that he seems to
+sweep aside all earthly affairs as trifles. He despises them.
+I don&#8217;t. To me, he seems to be like a child in a game who
+won&#8217;t abide by the rules. His heaven may be all right;
+but if it is to be attained by shirking one&#8217;s work on earth&mdash;not
+<i>striving</i> to live&mdash;it seems to me a poor business. I think
+life is important, or it wouldn&#8217;t exist; and I&#8217;m working to
+keep it in existence. He seems to believe it is of no value,
+if he really means what he says. We can&#8217;t agree, that&#8217;s
+evident.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was not long before the Reverend John&#8217;s campaign
+filled even my mind with apprehension. His style of
+preaching changed and grew more incoherent; his phraseology
+became wilder; and a minatory tone crept into his
+sermons. And the tremendous personality of the speaker,
+coupled with all the art of the orator, made even these
+obscure ravings powerful to influence the minds of his
+hearers.</p>
+
+<p>He began to speak of curses from heaven upon a generation
+which had forgotten the right path. The Famine was
+a sign that all life was to be swept from the earth&#8217;s face.
+And thence he passed to the proposition that any struggling
+against the Famine was a hindrance to the workings of the
+universe.</p>
+
+<p>I think that it was about this time that he discarded
+ordinary clothes and began to go about clad in a curious<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_263"></a>[263]</span>
+garment manufactured from the skin of some animal.
+Except for his fiery beard, he recalled the sandal-shod John
+the Baptist represented in old illustrated Bibles. Nor was
+he alone in this fashion: some of his more prominent
+adherents also adopted it, though in their cases the results
+were not so imposing.</p>
+
+<p>And now things moved rapidly towards their end.</p>
+
+<p>The Reverend John preached daily in the streets, predicting
+a universal entry into Nirvana. His curses against
+those who worked for the physical salvation of the people to
+the detriment of their Karma became louder and more
+frequent; and it was not long until he spent most of his
+energies in comminations. From cursings, he passed to
+threats; and his attacks upon Nordenholt grew in vehemence
+day by day. And still Nordenholt, to my growing
+wonder, held his hand and forbore to strike.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the religious mania was spreading rapidly
+throughout the population of the Area. The skin-clad
+followers of the Reverend John ran nightly through the
+streets crying that the Great Day was at hand and calling
+upon the people to repent of their sins and turn to righteousness.
+Strange scenes were witnessed; and stranger doctrines
+preached. It was a weird time.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the preaching of the revivalist was becoming
+more and more exalted. He named himself a Prophet, the
+last and the greatest. He began to be more definite in his
+predictions; events which he foreshadowed were foretold as
+coming to pass at stated dates. At last he gave out that
+three days later he and his followers would publicly ascend
+to heaven in a cloud of glory; and that the world of
+earthly things would pass away as he did so.</p>
+
+<p>And still Nordenholt held his hand. I could not understand
+it; for by this time I had seen where the teaching of
+the Reverend John was leading us. Work was slowing
+down in the factories; crowds of all classes were spending<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_264"></a>[264]</span>
+their whole time following their Prophet; and the mere
+numbers of them were becoming a serious menace to the
+safety of the Area. At last I became so anxious on the
+subject that I went to consult Nordenholt on the matter.
+I had begun to doubt if he appreciated the gravity of the
+situation.</p>
+
+<p>I found him sitting before the fire in his office, smoking
+and gazing before him as though wrapped in his reflections.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Look here, Nordenholt,&#8221; I said. &#8220;I suppose you grasp
+the seriousness of affairs nowadays? Isn&#8217;t it about time
+something was done? It seems to me that you&#8217;ll need to
+grasp this nettle before long anyway. Why let it grow any
+bigger?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Afraid I&#8217;m losing my grip, eh? Not yet, Jack, not
+yet awhile. But I will <i>grasp</i> it before long. I&#8217;m only
+waiting the proper moment. I&#8217;ve waited for weeks; and
+now I think it&#8217;s nearly due at last.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But the man&#8217;s insane, Nordenholt. You see that, don&#8217;t
+you? Why wait any longer. Grab him now and be done
+with it&mdash;at least that&#8217;s what I should do if I were in
+charge.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, I&#8217;m going to give him three days more. If I
+interfered now, it would spoil everything. Wait till he
+has seen his prophecy fail, and then we can tackle him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t see any use waiting; but I suppose you know
+best.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I do know best, Jack, believe me. Come back here in
+three days, at half-past eleven, and you&#8217;ll see my methods.
+I&#8217;m going to teach these people a lesson this time.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He leaned back in his chair and fixed his eyes on the old
+stone image of the Pope&#8217;s head which, under its glass bell,
+forms part of the mantelpiece.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What differences there are in the way religion works on
+a man, Jack. There was an old chap in the dark ages,
+that Pope; and he believed in spreading the light by education.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_265"></a>[265]</span>
+He founded the University here. And then you
+have this fanatic to-day whose one idea seems to be to
+reduce everything to chaos again. What a difference!
+And yet each of them thinks that he is inspired to do the
+right thing in his day.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He threw away the end of his cigar and rose.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Come back in three days, Jack. You&#8217;ll see it all then.
+I needn&#8217;t explain it now.&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>The events of the following two days filled me with
+uneasiness; and I began to fear that for once Nordenholt
+had erred in his calculations. The tumult and agitation
+centring around the figure of the revivalist increased; his
+preaching became more and more menacing; and it seemed
+to me that he had been allowed too much rope. By this
+time he was quite frankly attacking the whole scheme of
+the Nitrogen Area as an act of impiety which would call
+down the wrath of the Divinity in the immediate future.
+And mingled with these cursings he poured forth his
+prophecies, which grew hourly more detailed. He and his
+Elect would ascend into the sky at noon, he declared; and
+that all men might see this come about, he proposed to take
+his stand by the Roberts&#8217; statue in Kelvingrove Park, from
+which eminence he would be visible to the assembled
+crowds.</p>
+
+<p>Rumours ran through the Area, growing wilder and yet
+more wild as they passed from lip to lip. Even the most
+unimaginative of the population felt the strange electric power
+which seemed to flow out from the revivalist; and the tales
+of his doings were magnified and distorted out of all
+semblance of reality. Just as Nordenholt had predicted,
+all the formless unrest of the Area crystallised round the
+personality of the preacher and took shape and substance.
+Work was abandoned by the greater part of the Area
+labour; and the factories, usually thronged by shift after<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_266"></a>[266]</span>
+shift, remained almost untenanted during those two days in
+which the populace awaited the promised miracle.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the followers of the revivalist redoubled their
+efforts and their conduct grew less and less restrained. The
+labourers who remained at work were assaulted by bands
+of these fanatics, and driven from the doors of the factories.
+Order seemed to have vanished from the Area; for I found
+that Nordenholt had withdrawn the Labour Defence Force
+entirely from the streets, allowing the madmen to do their
+will. It seemed as though the Area were being permitted
+to relapse into chaos.</p>
+
+<p>The uninterrupted preaching of the revivalist had wrought
+the whole population into a state of strained expectation.
+Even those who scoffed at his claims were affected by the
+atmosphere of the time; and there was in most minds an
+uneasy questioning: &#8220;Suppose that it should all be true?&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>At half-past eleven, I went to Nordenholt&#8217;s office as I
+had promised. He was alone, seated at his huge desk.
+The usual mass of papers had been cleared away and I
+noticed that their place had been taken by a small piece of
+apparatus like a telephone in some respects and an ordinary
+electric bell-push on a wooden stand. Temporary wires
+ran from these to the window.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Come in, Jack. You&#8217;re just in time for the curtain.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It seems to me, Nordenholt, that the curtain ought to
+have been rung down on this thing long ago. You&#8217;ve
+waited far too long, if you ask me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve miscalculated. And to tell you the
+truth, Jack, this is the biggest thing I&#8217;ve had to think out so
+far. It&#8217;s make or break with us this time; and we&#8217;ve never
+been as near disaster before. But I&#8217;ve thought it out; and
+I believe I&#8217;m right. Have a cigar.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He pushed a box across to me and I cut and lit one
+mechanically.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_267"></a>[267]</span>&#8220;This thing here,&#8221; he tapped the instrument, &#8220;is a
+dictaphone. The transmitter&#8217;s fixed up in the statue over
+there.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He nodded in the direction of the Park below our
+windows. I got up and looked out. As far as my view
+reached, the ground was concealed by a closely-packed crowd
+of people, all standing motionless and intent upon the group
+on the open space around the statue. There had been some
+singing of hymns earlier in the morning; but now the vast
+concourse had fallen silent as their expectation rose to fever-heat
+and the hour of the miracle drew near.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m going to give him every chance,&#8221; said Nordenholt&#8217;s
+voice behind me. &#8220;Let him pull off his miracle if he can.
+If he can&#8217;t, then I expect trouble; and at the first word of
+danger I hear, I&#8217;ll settle with him at last. I don&#8217;t mind
+his preaching suicide; but if he starts to threaten the work
+of the Area, it will be on his own head.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The three-quarters had struck from the great bells above
+our heads; and, a few minutes later, Nordenholt switched
+on the dictaphone. Suddenly the clarion voice of the
+revivalist seemed to fill the room in which we stood.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My brothers! In a few brief moments I shall leave
+you, ascending in glory to the skies. While I am yet with
+you, heed my words. Turn from this idle show which
+blinds your eyes. Turn from this heavy labour and unceasing
+toil. Turn from this valley of sin and sorrow. Turn
+from the lusts of the flesh and the lures of material things.
+Long and weary has been the way; life after life have we
+suffered, but when we pass into Nirvana there is rest for
+you, rest for each of you, eternal rest! O my brothers, all
+that are worn with the bearing of burdens, all that are taxed
+beyond your powers, all that are a-faint and borne down,
+follow after me into Nirvana, where none shall be a-weary and
+where all shall rest. There shall be no more toil, no more
+fatigue, no more striving and no more labour. There shall<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_268"></a>[268]</span>
+be rest, everlasting rest, a long sweet slumber under the
+trees, while the river flows by your feet and its murmur lulls
+you in your eternal rest.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Even in the harsh reproduction of the dictaphone I could
+feel the magic of the cadences of that splendid voice, soothing,
+comforting, promising the multitude the prize which to
+them must have seemed the most desirable of all. And
+through it all the steady repetition of &#8220;Rest&#8221; ran with an
+almost hypnotic effect. Incoherent though it was, the
+appeal struck at the very centre of each over-driven being in
+that throng.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Rest, rest for all. Surcease of toil. Do you not feel it
+already, my brothers? Languor creeps over you; you
+faint as you stand. And I promise rest to you all. Follow
+me and you shall rest in those fields; there where you may
+dream away the long, long days among the flowers, lying at
+ease. There where the songs of birds shall but stir you
+faintly in your dreams, and all the tumult of the world shall
+be stilled within your ears.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He paused; and the silence seemed almost like a continuation
+of his speech. The multitude seemed frozen into
+stone. Then came an isolated phrase:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Into Nirvana; Nirvana where there is rest....&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The voice died away in a soothing murmur which yet
+had its compelling power. Nordenholt looked at his watch.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Two minutes yet. So far, he hasn&#8217;t been actively
+objectionable; but I can guess what is coming.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Again the dictaphone sounded.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But a few moments now, my brothers, then I and my
+Elect shall ascend into the skies. Look well, O my
+brothers. Mark our passage to our rest.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>His voice ceased. There was a dead silence. Then,
+suddenly, with a preliminary vibration of machinery, the
+clock above us struck. Four double chimes for the quarters
+and then the heavy note of the hour-strokes. Nordenholt<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_269"></a>[269]</span>
+listened grimly until all twelve had been rung. Then I
+heard his voice, even as ever, without the faintest tinge of
+irony:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The passing bell!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>With the twelfth stroke there came through the windows
+a great wave of indescribable sound, the loosing of breath
+among the thousands who were gathered far below us in the
+Kelvin valley. Then again there was silence. Nordenholt
+suddenly leaned forward to his desk and placed his finger on
+the ivory button.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now&#8217;s the danger-point, Jack. He&#8217;ll try to divert
+attention from his failure. But I&#8217;m ready for him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I began mechanically to count seconds, with no particular
+reason, but simply because I felt I must do something.
+Two minutes passed; and then through the
+windows came a long groaning note, the voice of the multitude
+smitten with disillusion at the failure of the miracle
+which they had expected. It rolled in a huge volume of
+sound across the Park and then died away.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the dictaphone poured out a torrent of words.
+The voice was no longer calm; all the quiet strength had
+gone out of it, and, instead, the tones were those of an
+infuriated man seeking some object upon which to wreak
+his anger. But with all his rage the Reverend John had a
+ready mind. In a moment he seems to have seen a possible
+loophole of escape.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No!&#8221; he cried, &#8220;I will not ascend for yet awhile.
+Work remains to be done here, in this godless city; and I
+will renounce my rest until it has been brought to its end.
+Life must cease ere I can seek my rest. I bid you follow
+me that we may accomplish the task which has been laid
+upon me. Over yonder&#8221;&mdash;he evidently pointed towards
+us&mdash;&#8220;over yonder sits the Arch-Enemy; he who strives
+to chain pure spirits in this web of flesh. His hand is on
+all this city, so that the smoke of her burning goes up to the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_270"></a>[270]</span>
+skies. Break asunder the chains which he is forging.
+Destroy the evil works which he has planned. Wreck the
+engines which he has designed. Come, my brothers; the
+doom is pronounced against all the works of his hand.
+Come, follow me and end it all. Destroy! Destroy! so
+that this world of sorrow and of sin may pass away like an
+evil vision and life may be no more. Destroy! Destroy!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Nordenholt, listening intently, pressed his finger upon the
+ivory stud. There was a moment&#8217;s pause, and then from
+the eastern end of the building came a sound of machine-guns.
+It lasted only for a few seconds and then died out.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They couldn&#8217;t miss at that range,&#8221; said Nordenholt.
+&#8220;That&#8217;s the end of the Reverend John personally. But I
+doubt if we are finished with him altogether even now.&#8221;</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_271"></a>[271]</span>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak"><small>CHAPTER XVIII</small><br />
+
+
+The Eleventh Hour</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">I have</span> set down all my doubts as to the wisdom of
+Nordenholt&#8217;s treatment of the Reverend John; and it is
+only right to place on the other side the fact that events
+proved he had gauged matters better than I had done. He
+had foreseen the trend of the revivalist&#8217;s thoughts and had
+deduced their climax, probably long before Wester himself
+had understood the road he had placed his feet upon.
+Nordenholt had allowed the excitement to grow without
+check, even to its highest point, without interfering in the
+least; because he calculated that the supreme disillusion
+would produce a revulsion of feeling which could be attained
+in no other way. And his calculation proved to be correct.
+Morally shaken by the failure of the miracle which they
+had been led to expect, and which many of them had
+counted upon with certainty, the populace allowed itself to
+be driven back into the factories and mines without a word of
+protest. Their dreams were shattered and they fell back
+into reality without the strength to resist any dominant will.
+It seemed as though the last difficulties were disappearing
+before us; and that the path now led straight onward to our
+goal. So I thought, at least, but Nordenholt doubted.
+And, as it turned out, he again saw more clearly than I.
+We might be done with the Reverend John; but the
+Reverend John had not finished with us, dead as he was.</p>
+
+<p>The next ten days saw the institution of a merciless
+system in the works and mines of the Area. During the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_272"></a>[272]</span>
+period of the revivalist&#8217;s activity there had been an
+accelerated fall in the output; and Nordenholt determined
+that this must be made good as soon as possible. Possibly also
+he believed that a spell of intense physical exertion would
+exhaust the workers and leave them no time to indulge in
+recollections and reflections which might be dangerous.
+Whatever his motives may have been, his methods were
+drastic in the extreme. The minimum necessary output
+was trebled; and the members of any group who failed to
+attain it were promptly deported into the desert of the
+South. Surely entrenched behind the loyalty of the Labour
+Defence Force, Nordenholt threw aside any concealment
+and ruled the whole Area as a despot. The end in view
+was all that he now seemed to see; and he broke men and
+threw them aside without the slightest hesitation. More
+than ever, it seemed to me at this time, he was like a
+machine, rolling forward along its appointed path, careless of
+all the human lives and the human interests which he
+ground to powder under his irresistible wheels. I began to
+think of him at times in the likeness of Jagannatha, the
+Lord of the World, under whose car believers cast themselves
+to death. But none of Nordenholt&#8217;s victims were
+willing ones.</p>
+
+<p>Unlimited power, as Nordenholt himself had pointed out
+to me, is a perilous gift to any man. The human mind is
+not fitted for strains of this magnitude; and even Nordenholt&#8217;s
+colossal personality suffered, I believe, from the stress
+of his despotic rule. But where a smaller man would have
+frittered away his energies in petty oppression or aimless
+regulation, Nordenholt never lost sight of his main objective:
+and I believe that his harshness in the end arose merely from
+his ever-growing determination to bring his enterprise to
+success. Concentrating his mind entirely upon this, he may
+have suffered from a loss of perspective which made him
+ruthless in his demands upon the labouring masses of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_273"></a>[273]</span>
+Area. If this were so, I cannot find it in me to blame him,
+in view of the responsibility which he bore. But I have a
+suspicion that he feared a coming disaster, and that he was
+determined to take time by the forelock by forcing up
+production ere the catastrophe overtook us.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>After the death of the revivalist, his followers disappeared.
+The meetings at street corners no longer took place; the
+wild skin-clad figures ran no more through the city. I
+believe that Nordenholt took steps to arrest those of the
+inner circle who escaped the machine-guns in the Park;
+but many of them seem to have slipped through his fingers
+in spite of the efficiency of his Secret Service. Probably
+they were kept in concealment by sympathisers, of whom
+there were still a number in spite of the general disillusionment.
+On the surface, the whole movement appeared to
+have been arrested completely; but, as we were to learn, it
+was not blotted out.</p>
+
+<p>I can still remember the first news of the disaster. A
+trill on my telephone bell, and then the voice of Nordenholt
+speaking:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hullo!... That you, Jack?... Come over here,
+will you?... At my office. I may need you.... It&#8217;s a
+bad affair.... What?... Two of the pit-shafts have
+been destroyed. No way of reaching the crowd underground.
+I&#8217;m afraid it&#8217;s a bad business.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>When I reached his office he was still at the telephone,
+evidently speaking to the scene of the catastrophe.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes?... Shaft closed completely?... How long
+do you think it will take to reopen it?... Permanent?
+Mean to say you can&#8217;t reopen it?... Months?...
+How many men below just now?... Six hundred, you
+think?... That&#8217;s taking the number of lamps missing, I
+suppose.... Well, find out exactly as soon as you can.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He rang off and was just about to call up another number,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_274"></a>[274]</span>
+the second pit, I suppose, when the telephone bell sounded
+an inward call.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes?... What&#8217;s that? Numbers what?... Three,
+seven, eight, ten, thirteen, fourteen.... Ring off! I&#8217;ll
+speak to you again.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He rang furiously for the exchange.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Put me through to the Coal Control. Quick, now....
+Hullo! Is that you, Sinclair?... Nordenholt.... Send
+out a general call. Bring every man to the surface at once....
+Yes, every pit in the Area. Hurry! It&#8217;s life or
+death.... Report when you get news.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Without leaving the instrument he called up another
+number.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Go on. No. 14 was the last.... Take down these
+numbers, Jack.... 3, 7, 8, 10, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19.... That
+all?... Good. Get me the figures of losses as
+soon as you can. Also a note of the damage. Good-bye.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Behind this disjointed sequence of phrases I had caught
+hints of the magnitude of the calamity; and I was to some
+extent prepared for what I heard when he had time to turn
+to me at last.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Eleven pits have been destroyed almost simultaneously,
+Jack. No. 23 and No. 27 went first; and then that list
+I gave you just now. There are no details yet; but it&#8217;s
+quite evidently malicious. Dynamite, I think, to judge
+from the few facts I&#8217;ve got. The shafts are completely
+blocked, as far as we know; and every man underground
+is done for.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How many does that amount to?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There are no figures yet; but it will run into more
+than three figures anyway.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Again the shrill call of the telephone bell sounded. He
+took up the receiver.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes?... What&#8217;s that? No. 31 and No. 33?... Complete
+block? No hope?... Do your best.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_275"></a>[275]</span>He turned to me.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Two more gone, before we could get the men up. It&#8217;s
+a very widespread affair. I told you we hadn&#8217;t done with
+the Reverend John.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s he got to do with it?&#8221; I asked, astonished.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Some of his friends carrying out the work he left
+unfinished. They mean to smash the Area; and they&#8217;ve
+hit us on our weakest point, there&#8217;s no doubt. No coal,
+no work in the factories, no nitrogen. This is serious,
+Jack.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Another call on the telephone brought the news that
+three more pits had been destroyed. Nordenholt rang
+up the Coal Control once more and urged them to even
+greater haste in their efforts to get the men to the surface.
+Then he turned back to me.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do you realise what it all means, Jack? As far as
+I can see, it&#8217;s the beginning of the end for us. We can&#8217;t
+pull through on this basis; and I doubt if we have heard
+the full extent of the disaster even now.&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>I have endeavoured to convey the impression made upon
+my mind by the first news of the catastrophe; but little
+purpose would be served by continuing the story in detail.
+All that morning we stood by the telephone, gathering in
+the tale of disaster bit by bit in disjointed fragments as it
+came over the wire. Here and there, items of better news
+filtered through: reports that in some pits the whole of
+the underground workers had been brought safely to the
+surface, accounts of the immunity of certain shafts. But
+as a whole it was a black record which we gathered in.
+The work had been planned with skill; and the execution
+had not fallen below the level of the plan. In one or two
+cases the miscreants had been detected in the act and
+captured before they had time to do any damage; but these
+discoveries were very few. As far as most of the pits were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_276"></a>[276]</span>
+concerned, we never were able to establish how the work
+had been done; for all traces were buried under the debris
+in the wrecked shafts, which have been left unopened ever
+since the catastrophe. One thing was certain, the whole
+of the workers actually in the galleries at the time of the
+explosions were lost for good and all. They were far
+beyond the reach of any human help.</p>
+
+<p>It is no part of my plan to do more than indicate the
+horror of this calamity. I draw no pen-pictures of the
+crowds around the pit-heads, the crying of the women,
+the ever-recurring demands for the names of the lost. These
+were features common to all mining accidents in the old
+days; and this one differed from the rest only in its
+magnitude and not in its form.</p>
+
+<p>Owing to the colossal scale of the casualty list it was
+impossible to minimise the matter in any way. Nordenholt
+decided to tell the truth in full as soon as the total losses
+were definitely established. He gave his newspapers a free
+hand; and by the late afternoon the placards were in the
+streets.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<span class="smcap">Terrible Disasters in Coal District.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Many Shafts Blocked.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">All Underground Workers Entombed.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">11,000 Dead.</span></p>
+
+<p>To most of those who read the accounts of the catastrophe,
+it seemed a terrible blow of Fate; but we at the centre of
+things knew that the immediate loss was as nothing in
+comparison with the ultimate results which it would bring
+in its train. All the largest pits were out of action. The
+coal output, even at the best, could not possibly keep pace
+with the demands of the future; and with the failure of
+fuel, the whole activities of the Area must come to a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_277"></a>[277]</span>
+standstill. Just on the edge of success, it seemed all our
+efforts were to be in vain. From beyond the grave the
+dead fanatic had struck his blow at the material world
+which he hated; and we shuddered under the shock.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout that day I was with Nordenholt. I think
+that he felt the need of someone beside him, some audience
+which would force him to keep an outwardly unshaken front.
+But to me it was a nightmare. The <i>d&eacute;b&acirc;cle</i> in itself had
+broken my nerve, coming thus without warning; but
+Nordenholt&#8217;s prevision of the ultimate results which it
+would exercise seemed to take away the last ray of hope.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s no use whining, Jack; we&#8217;ve just got to take it as
+well as we can. First of all, the coal output will cease
+entirely for a long time. Not a man will go into even
+the &#8216;safe&#8217; pits after this until everything has been examined
+thoroughly; and that will take days and days. It&#8217;s no
+use blinking that side of it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why not force them in?&#8221; I asked. &#8220;Turn out the
+Defence Force and drive them to the pits. We <i>must</i> have
+coal.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No good. I know what they&#8217;re thinking now; and
+even if you shot half of them the rest wouldn&#8217;t go down.
+It&#8217;s no use thinking of it. I know.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why didn&#8217;t the Intelligence Section get wind of it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t blame them; they couldn&#8217;t have done more than
+they did. Don&#8217;t you realise that if a man is prepared to
+sacrifice his life&mdash;and these fanatics who did the damage
+were the first victims themselves&mdash;there&#8217;s nothing that can
+stop him? The Intelligence people had nothing to go on.
+The whole of this thing was organised and carried through
+by a handful of men, some of whom were evidently employed
+in the pits themselves. It was so rapidly planned
+and executed that no secret service could have got at it
+in time. Remember, we&#8217;re making explosives on a big
+scale, so that thefts are easy.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_278"></a>[278]</span>&#8220;And if you&#8217;re right, what is to happen?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Go on as long as we can; then see how we stand;
+and after that, if necessary, decimate the population of the
+Area so as to bring our numbers down to what we can
+feed in future. There&#8217;s nothing else for it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I hope it won&#8217;t come to that, Nordenholt.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s no choice of mine; but if it&#8217;s forced on me, I&#8217;ll
+do it. I&#8217;m going to see this thing through, Jack, at <i>any</i>
+cost now. Millions have been swept out of existence
+already by the Famine; and I&#8217;m not going to stick at the
+loss of a few more hundred thousands so long as we pull
+through in the end.&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>In the main, Nordenholt&#8217;s forecast of the attitude which
+the miners would adopt proved to be correct. A certain
+number of workers, braver or less imaginative than the
+rest, returned to work in the &#8220;safe&#8221; pits in the course
+of a day or two; but the main bulk of the labour remained
+sullenly aloof. Nothing would induce them to set foot in
+the galleries. Work above-ground they would do, wherever
+it was necessary to preserve the pits from deterioration;
+but they had no intention of descending into the subterranean
+world again. Better to starve in the light of day
+than run the risk of hungering in some prison in the bowels
+of the earth. Neither threats nor cajolings served to move
+them from this decision.</p>
+
+<p>Nordenholt, as a last resource, sent exploring parties into
+the South to examine the deserted coal-fields of England in
+the hope that some of them might be workable; but the
+various missions returned with reports that nothing could
+be done. During the period since the mining population
+had died out, the pits had become unsafe, some by the
+infiltration of water, others by the destruction of the
+machinery and yet more by the disrepair of the galleries.
+Here and there a mine was discovered which could still be<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_279"></a>[279]</span>
+operated; and parties were drafted South to work it; but
+in most cases so much labour was required to put the
+shafts and galleries in repair that we were unable to look
+forward to anything like the previous coal-supply even at
+the best.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Nordenholt, day by day, grew more and more
+grim. While there was any hope of utilising the mining
+population, he clung to it tenaciously; but as time passed
+it became clearer that the Area had received its death-blow.
+He began to draft his ex-miners into other branches of
+industry bit by bit; but with the fall in the coal-supply
+there was little use for them there, since very soon all the
+activities of the Area would have to cease.</p>
+
+<p>I watched him closely during that period; and I could
+see the effect which the strain was producing upon him.
+The disaster had struck us just when we seemed to have
+reached the turning-point in the Area&#8217;s history, at the very
+time when all seemed to be sure in front of us. It was a
+blow which would have prostrated a weaker man; but
+Nordenholt had a tenacity far above the ordinary. He
+meant, I know, to carry out his decision to decimate the
+Area if necessary; but he held his hand until it was
+absolutely certain that all was lost. I think he must have
+had at the back of his mind a hope that everything would
+come right in the end; though I doubt if his grounds for
+that belief were any but the most slender.</p>
+
+<p>For my own part, I went through that period like an
+automaton. The suddenness of the catastrophe seemed, in
+some way, to have deadened my imagination; and I carried
+on my work mechanically without thinking of where it
+was all leading us. With this new holocaust looming over
+the Area, Elsa seemed further away than ever. If she
+had revolted at the story of the South, it seemed to me
+that this fresh sacrifice of lives in the Area itself would
+deepen her hatred for the men who planned it.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_280"></a>[280]</span>It seemed the very irony of Fate that Nordenholt should
+choose this juncture to tell me his views on her feelings.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Elsa seems to be coming round a little at last, Jack,&#8221;
+he said to me one day, &#8220;I think her emotional side has
+worked itself out in the contemplation of the Famine; and
+her reason&#8217;s getting a chance again.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What makes you think that?&#8221; I asked. &#8220;I haven&#8217;t
+seen anything to make me hopeful about it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You wouldn&#8217;t notice anything. You don&#8217;t know her
+well enough&mdash;Oh, don&#8217;t get vexed. Even if you are in
+love with her, you&#8217;ve only known her for a very short time,
+whereas I&#8217;ve studied her since she was a child. I know the
+symptoms. She&#8217;s coming round a little.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Much good that will do now! If you decimate the
+Area it will be worse than ever. I hate to think of my
+own affairs in the middle of this catastrophe; but I simply
+can&#8217;t help it. If your plan goes through, it&#8217;s the end of my
+romance.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He played with the cord of his desk telephone for a
+moment before replying. I could see that he had some
+doubt as to whether he ought to speak or not. At last
+he made up his mind.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If you&#8217;re brooding over things as much as all that,
+Jack, I suppose I must say something; but I&#8217;m very much
+afraid of raising false hopes. You wonder, probably, why
+I don&#8217;t go straight ahead and weed out the useless mouths
+now and be done with it? Well, the fact is I&#8217;m staking
+it all on the next couple of days. Henley-Davenport seems,
+by his way of it, to be just on the edge of something definite
+at last. If he pulls it off, then all&#8217;s well. If not....&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What do you mean?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If Henley-Davenport gets his results, we won&#8217;t need
+coal; because we shall have all the energy we require from
+his process. I&#8217;ve stretched things to the limit in the hope
+that he will give us the ace of trumps and not the two. If<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_281"></a>[281]</span>
+he succeeds, we don&#8217;t need to weed out the Area; we can
+go on as we are; and we shall be absolutely certain to pull
+through with every soul alive. But I shouldn&#8217;t have told
+you this, perhaps; it may be only a false hope and will just
+depress you more by the reaction. But you look so miserable
+that I thought I had better take the risk.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When do you expect to know definitely?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He promised me that within two days he would be
+able to tell me, one way or the other. Of course, even if
+he fails now, he may pull it off later; but I can only wait
+two days more before beginning the elimination of all the
+useless mouths in the Area. Everything is ready to put
+into operation in that direction. But I hope we may not
+need these plans. It&#8217;s just a chance, Jack; so don&#8217;t build
+too much on it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was advice easy enough to give; but I found it very
+hard to follow. All that day my hopes were rising; things
+seemed brighter at last: and it was only now and again
+that I stopped to remind myself that the whole thing was
+a gamble with colossal stakes. Even Nordenholt himself
+was afraid to count too much upon Henley-Davenport,
+though I knew that he believed implicitly in his capacity.
+But even as I said this to myself I felt my spirits rising.
+After the certainty of disaster which had confronted us,
+even this hazard was a relief. For the first time in many
+weeks I began to build castles in the air once more. I was
+half-afraid to do so; but I could not help myself. And as
+the hours passed by bringing no news of success or failure, I
+think my nerves must have become more and more tense.
+A whole day went by without news of any kind.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>The morning of the following day seemed interminable
+to me. I knew that within another twenty-four hours
+Nordenholt would have given up all hope of Henley-Davenport&#8217;s
+success and would be setting in motion the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_282"></a>[282]</span>
+machinery which he had devised for reducing the population
+of the Area; and as hour after hour passed without bringing
+any news, I became more and more restless. I tried to
+work and to ease my mind by concentrating it upon details;
+but I soon found that this was useless. Strive as I might,
+I could not banish the thought of the tragedy which hung
+over us.</p>
+
+<p>At 3.27 p.m.&mdash;I know the exact minute, because my
+watch was stopped then and I read the time from it afterwards&mdash;I
+was standing beside my desk, consulting some
+papers on a file. Suddenly I heard a high detonation, a
+sound so sharp that I can liken it to nothing familiar. The
+air seemed full of flying splinters of glass; and simultaneously
+I was wrenched from my foothold and flung with
+tremendous violence against my desk. Then, it seemed,
+a dead silence fell.</p>
+
+<p>I found that my right hand was streaming with blood
+from various cuts made by the razor-edges of the broken
+glass of the window. More blood was pouring from a gash
+on my forehead; but my eyes had escaped injury. When
+I moved, I found I suffered acute pain; though no bones
+seemed to be broken. The concussion had completely
+deafened me; and, as I found afterwards, my left ear-drum
+had been perforated, so that even to this day I can hear
+nothing on that side.</p>
+
+<p>All about me the office was in confusion. Every pane of
+glass had been blown inward from the windows and the
+place looked as though a whirlwind had swept through it,
+scattering furniture and papers in its track. The shock had
+dazed me; and for several minutes I stood gazing stupidly
+at the havoc around me. It was, I am sure, at least five
+minutes before I grasped what had happened. As soon as
+I did so, I made my way, still in intense pain, down the
+stairs and into the quadrangle.</p>
+
+<p>The pavements were littered with fragments of broken<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_283"></a>[283]</span>
+glass which had fallen outward in the breaking of the
+windows; but there was not so much of this as I had
+expected, since most of the panes had been driven inward
+by the explosion. Quite a crowd of people were running
+out of the building and making in the direction of the new
+Chemistry Department in University Avenue. I followed
+them, noticing as I passed the Square that all the chimney-pots
+of the houses seemed to have been swept off, though
+I could see no traces of them on the ground. Later on, I
+found that they had been blown down on the further side
+of the terrace.</p>
+
+<p>When I came in sight of the Chemistry building I was
+amazed, even though I was prepared for a catastrophe.
+One whole wing had been reduced to a heap of ruins, a
+mere pile of building-stone and joists flung together in utter
+confusion. Here and there among the debris, jets of steam
+and dust were spouting up; and from time to time came an
+eruption of small stones from the wreckage. The remainder
+of the edifice still stood almost intact save for its broken
+windows and shattered doors.</p>
+
+<p>What astonished me at the time was that the whole
+scene recalled a cinema picture&mdash;violent motion without
+a sound to accompany it. I saw spouts of dust, falling
+masses of masonry, people running and gesticulating in the
+most excited manner; yet no whisper of sound reached me.
+It was only when someone came up and spoke directly to
+me that I discovered that I was temporarily stone deaf;
+for I could see his lips moving but could hear nothing
+whatever.</p>
+
+<p>Like everyone else, I began to remove the debris. I
+think that we understood even then that it was hopeless to
+think of saving anyone from this wreckage, but we were
+all moved to do something which might at least give us the
+illusion that we were helping. As I pulled and tugged with
+the others, I began to appreciate the enormous power of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_284"></a>[284]</span>
+explosive which had been at work. In an ordinary concussion,
+iron can be bent out of shape; but here I came across
+steel rafters which were cut clean through as though by a
+knife. I remember thinking vaguely that the explosive must
+have acted, as dynamite does, against the solid materials
+around it instead of spending its force upwards; for otherwise
+the whole place would have suffered a bombardment
+from flying blocks of stone.</p>
+
+<p>For some time I toiled with the others. I saw Nordenholt&#8217;s
+figure close at hand. Then the sky seemed to take
+on a tinge of violet which deepened suddenly. I saw a
+black spot before my eyes; and apparently I fainted from
+loss of blood.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Even now, the causes of the Chemistry Department
+disaster are unknown. Henley-Davenport and his two
+assistants perished instantaneously in the explosion&mdash;in fact
+Henley-Davenport&#8217;s body was never recovered from the
+wreckage at all. A third assistant, who had been in the
+next room at the time, lived long enough to tell us
+the exact stage at which the catastrophe occurred; but
+even he could throw no direct light upon its origin.</p>
+
+<p>From Henley-Davenport&#8217;s notes, which we found in his
+house, it seems clear that his efforts had been directed
+towards producing the disintegration of iron; and that on
+the morning of the accident he had completed his chain
+of radioactive materials which furnished the accelerated
+evolution of energy required to break up the iron atoms.
+As we know now, he succeeded in his experiment and his
+iron yielded the short-period isotopes of chromium, titanium
+and calcium until the end-product of the series&mdash;argon&mdash;was
+produced. The four successive alpha-ray changes,
+following each other at intervals of a few seconds, liberated
+a tremendous store of intra-atomic energy; but,
+knowing the extremely minute quantities with which<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_285"></a>[285]</span>
+Henley-Davenport worked, it seems difficult to believe
+that the explosion which destroyed his laboratory was produced
+by this trace of material. To me it seems much more
+probable that his apparatus was shattered at the moment of
+the first disintegration of iron and that thus some of the
+short-period products were scattered abroad throughout
+the room, setting up radioactive change in certain of the
+metallic objects which they touched. No other explanation
+appears to fit the facts. We shall never learn the
+truth of the matter now; but knowing Henley-Davenport&#8217;s
+care and foresight, I cannot see any other way of accounting
+for the violence of the explosion.</p>
+
+<p>Luckily for us, no radioactive gas is produced by the
+disintegration of iron; for had there been any such material
+among the decay products it is probable that most of those
+who had run to the scene of the disaster would have
+perished.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>When I recovered consciousness again I found myself
+lying on a couch. A doctor was bandaging my hand.
+Nordenholt, looking very white and shaken, was sitting in
+a chair by the fire. At first I was too weak to do more
+than look round me; but after a few minutes I felt better
+and was able to speak to Nordenholt.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What has happened? Did they get Henley-Davenport
+out of the wreck?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, there&#8217;s no hope of that, Jack. He&#8217;s dead; and
+the best thing one can say is that he must have been killed
+instantaneously. But he&#8217;s done the trick for us, if we can
+only follow his track. He evidently tapped atomic energy
+of some kind or other. Did you notice the sharpness of the
+explosion before you were knocked out? There&#8217;s never
+been anything like it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s going to happen now?&#8221; I was still unable to
+think clearly.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_286"></a>[286]</span>&#8220;I&#8217;ve sent Mitchell down to Henley-Davenport&#8217;s house
+to look at his last notes&mdash;he kept them there and he
+promised me to indicate each day what he proposed to
+do next, so that we&#8217;d have something to go on if
+anything like this happened. Mitchell will ring up as soon
+as he has found them.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I heard afterwards that among the ruins of the laboratory
+Nordenholt had been struck by a falling beam and had just
+escaped with his life; but his voice gave no hint of it.
+I think that his complete concentration upon the main
+problem prevented him from realising that he might be
+badly hurt.</p>
+
+<p>The telephone bell rang suddenly and Nordenholt went
+to the receiver.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, Mitchell.... You&#8217;ve got the notes?...
+Good.... You can repeat what he was doing?... No
+doubt about it?... All right. Start at once. We must
+have it immediately, cost what it may.... Come round
+here before you begin; but get going at once. There isn&#8217;t
+a minute to spare.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Nordenholt replaced the receiver.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I thought I could trust Henley-Davenport,&#8221; he said.
+&#8220;He&#8217;s left everything in order, notes written up to lunch-time
+complete and a full draft of his last experiment, which
+will allow Mitchell to carry on.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes later, Mitchell himself appeared and gave
+us some further details. In his jottings, Henley-Davenport
+had suggested some possible modifications of the experiment
+which had ended so disastrously; and Mitchell proposed to
+try the effect of these alterations in the conditions. Before
+he left us, he sat down at Nordenholt&#8217;s desk and made a
+few notes of the process he intended to try, handing the
+paper to Nordenholt when he had finished. I can still
+remember his alert expression as he wrote and the almost
+finical care with which he flicked the ash from the end of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_287"></a>[287]</span>
+the cigarette as he rose from the desk. It was the last time
+any of us saw him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, that&#8217;s all. I&#8217;m off.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Nordenholt rose stiffly from his chair and shook hands
+with Mitchell as he went out. Then he passed to the
+telephone and rang up a number.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Is that you, Kingan? Go across to the South Wing
+of the Chemistry place. Mitchell is there. See all that
+he does and then clear out before he tries the experiment.
+We must keep track of things, come what may.
+If he goes down, you will take on after him. Good-bye.&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Just after seven o&#8217;clock, there was another tremendous
+explosion; but this time the concussion seemed less violent
+than before. Mitchell himself was not killed outright; but
+he suffered injuries which proved fatal within a few days.
+Meanwhile the work went on. One after another, the
+Chemistry section of Nordenholt&#8217;s young men went into
+the furnace, some to be killed instantaneously, others to
+escape alive, but blasted almost out of recognition by the
+forces which they unchained. Yet none of them faltered.
+Link by link they built up the chain which was to bring
+safety to the Area; and each link represented a life lost or
+a body crippled. Day after day the work went on, interrupted
+periodically by the rending crash of these fearful
+explosions, until at last it seemed almost beyond hope that
+the problem would ever be solved. But ten days later
+Barclay staggered into Nordenholt&#8217;s room, smothered in
+bandages, with one arm useless at his side, and gasped out
+the news that he had been successful.</p>
+
+<p>Looking back on that moment, I sometimes wonder that
+we were not almost hysterical with joy; but as a matter of
+fact, none of us said anything at all. Probably we did not
+really grasp the thing at the time. I know that I was busy<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_288"></a>[288]</span>
+getting a drink ready for Barclay, who had collapsed as soon
+as he gave his news; and all that I remember of Nordenholt
+is a picture of him standing looking out of the window with
+his back to us. Certainly it wasn&#8217;t the kind of scene one
+might have imagined.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_289"></a>[289]</span>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak"><small>CHAPTER XIX</small><br />
+
+
+The Breaking-strain</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Although</span> Barclay&#8217;s work furnished us with the means
+of tapping the stores of energy which lie imprisoned within
+the atoms of elementary matter, it did not place us immediately
+in a position to utilise these immense forces for
+practical purposes. To tell the truth, we were in much
+the same position as a savage to whom a dynamite cartridge
+has been given, ready fitted with a detonator. We could
+liberate the energy, but at first we could not bring it under
+control.</p>
+
+<p>The next few weeks were spent in planning and building
+machine after machine. All the best talent of Nordenholt&#8217;s
+group of engineers was brought to bear on the problem;
+but time after time we had to admit failure. Either the
+engines were too fragile for the power which they employed
+or there was some radical defect in their construction which
+could only be detected on trial. Thus the days passed in a
+series of disappointments, until it seemed almost as though
+hope of success was fading before our eyes.</p>
+
+<p>During that period, Nordenholt himself grew visibly
+older. It was the last lap in his great race against Time;
+and I think that this final strain told on him more than
+any that had gone before. The mines of the Area were
+still empty and silent; no fuel was coming forward to fill
+the gaps in our ever-shrinking reserves; and within a very
+short period the whole industry of the Area must collapse
+for want of coal.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_290"></a>[290]</span>His anxiety was marked by a total change in his habits.
+Hitherto, he had sat in his office, directing from afar all the
+multitudinous activities of the Area, aloof from direct contact
+with details. Now, I noticed, he was continually about the
+machine-shops and factories in which the new atomic engines
+were being constructed; he had frequent consultations with
+his engineers and designers; he seemed to be incapable of
+isolating himself from the progress which was very slowly
+being made. Possibly he felt that in this last effort he must
+utilise all the magnetic power of his personality to stimulate
+his craftsmen in their labours.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever his motives may have been, when I think of
+him in those last days my memory always calls up a picture
+of that lean, dark figure against a background of drawing-office
+or engineering-shop. I see him discussing plans with
+his inventors, encouraging his workmen, watching the trial
+of engine after engine. And after every failure I seem to
+see him a little more weary, with a grimmer set in the lines
+about his mouth and a heavier stoop in his shoulders, as
+though the weight of his responsibilities was crushing him
+by degrees as the days went by.</p>
+
+<p>Yet he never outwardly wavered in his belief in success.
+He knew&mdash;we all knew&mdash;that the power was there if we
+could but find the means of harnessing it. The uncertainty
+had gone; and all that remained was a problem in chemistry
+and mechanics. But time was a vital factor to us; and
+more than once I myself began to doubt whether we should
+succeed in our efforts before it was too late.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>At last came success. One of my most vivid memories of
+that time is the scene in Beardmore&#8217;s yard when the Milne-Reid
+engine was tested for the first time. Nordenholt and
+I had motored down from the University to see the trial.
+By this time we were both familiar with the general appearance
+of atomic engines; but to me, at least, the new machine<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_291"></a>[291]</span>
+was a surprise. Its huge, distorted bulk seemed unlike anything
+which I had seen before: the enormous barrel of the
+disintegration-chamber overhung the main mass of machinery
+and gave it in some way a far-off resemblance to a gigantic
+howitzer on its carriage; and this resemblance was heightened
+by the absence of flywheels or any of the usual fittings
+of an engine. Although I was an engineer, I could make but
+little of this complex instrument, designed to utilise a power
+greater than any I had ever dreamed of; and I listened
+eagerly to the two inventors as they described its salient
+characteristics.</p>
+
+<p>Nordenholt, who had seen the plans, seemed to pay little
+attention to either Milne or Reid. He was evidently
+impatient for results and cared little for the methods by
+which they were to be obtained, so long as the machinery did
+its work.</p>
+
+<p>The last cables were being attached to the engine as we
+stood beside it; for Nordenholt had insisted on a test being
+made as soon as the machine was completed. The workmen
+screwed up the connections, everyone stood back a little, and
+then a switch was pushed home. Immediately the whole
+misshapen bulk seemed to be galvanised into violent activity
+and with a roar beyond the roof above us the torrent of
+escaping helium and argon made its way through the exhaust-pipe.
+The needle of the indicator dial jumped suddenly
+upward till it registered many thousands of horse-power.</p>
+
+<p>But we had seen all this before and had seen it, too,
+followed by a collapse; so that we waited eagerly to learn
+how the engine would stand the strain. For an hour we
+waited there, while the mechanics poured oil continually into
+the tanks to keep the racing bearings from heating; and still
+the machine ran smoothly and the thunder of the escape-pipe
+roared above us. It was impossible to make oneself heard
+amid that clangour; and we exchanged congratulations
+scribbled on odd pieces of paper. After an hour, Milne shut<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_292"></a>[292]</span>
+off the disintegrator; and the great engine slowly sank to
+rest.</p>
+
+<p>All of us were still deafened by the sound of the exhaust;
+and it was by dumb-show and a handshake that Nordenholt
+conveyed his thanks to the two designers. I heard a faint
+cheer from the workmen.</p>
+
+<p>Nordenholt did not stay long. Within a few minutes, he
+and I were back in the motor, on the way home. As we
+went, I heard behind us the tremendous blast of the escaping
+gases; they had restarted the engine; and to my ears it
+sounded sweeter than any symphony, for it meant safety to
+us all.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>When we reached the University, I noticed that Nordenholt
+stepped from the car with the air of an invalid. He seemed
+to have used up all his forces in a last effort; and now he
+moved slowly and almost with difficulty. At the Randolph
+Stair, he took my arm and leaned heavily on me as we climbed
+a step at a time. When we reached the top, he seemed out
+of breath. At last we reached his office and he dropped into
+his chair at the desk with visible relief.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s my heart, Jack,&#8221; he said, after a moment or two.
+&#8220;It&#8217;s been going wrong for months; and I think it&#8217;s badly
+strained. I knew it was going; and in ordinary circumstances
+I would have looked after myself; but it wasn&#8217;t worth while,
+as things were. I simply couldn&#8217;t take things easy. I had
+to work on until I saw daylight before me or dropped on the
+way.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He paused, as though pulling his strength together. In
+the next room I could hear Elsa&#8217;s typewriter clicking.
+Nordenholt heard it also; and rose after a few minutes. He
+went to the door between the two rooms and spoke to her,
+telling her the news of the engine.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s success at last, Elsa. We&#8217;re through. Everything&#8217;s
+safe now.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_293"></a>[293]</span>I heard her voice in reply; and then he closed the door
+and reseated himself at the desk.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s your turn now, Jack. I&#8217;ve done my part. I&#8217;m
+leaving the future in your hands; and I believe you&#8217;ll make
+good. I wish I could help you; but I&#8217;m done, now. I
+would only hamper you if I tried to do anything.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I tried to say something reassuring, but the words faltered
+on my lips. The sight of that drawn face was proof enough.
+Nordenholt had driven his physical machine as ruthlessly as
+he had driven his factory workers; and it was clear that he
+had overstrained his bodily powers. His tremendous will had
+kept him on his feet until the moment of success; but I
+could see now what it had cost him. He had drawn on his
+vital capital; and with the accomplishment of his task a revulsion
+had set in and the over-tired body was exacting its toll.</p>
+
+<p>As I sat looking at him there, a great feeling of loneliness
+swept over me. Here, before me, was the man upon whose
+strength I had leaned for the past months, the mind which
+had seen so clearly, the will which had held its line so
+tenaciously; and now, I felt, Nordenholt was leaning on me
+in his turn. It seemed almost an inversion of the course of
+Nature; and with the realisation of it, I felt a sense of an
+enormous loss. In the next stages of the Area&#8217;s history,
+there would be no Nordenholt to lean upon: I would have
+to stand on my own feet, and I doubted my capacity.
+Almost without my recognising it, I had been working always
+with Nordenholt in my mind, even in my own department.
+I had carried out things boldly because I knew that ever in
+reserve behind me were that brain and that will of his which
+could see further and drive harder than I could dare; and I
+had relied unconsciously upon him to steer me through my
+difficulties if they proved too great for my own powers.
+And now, by the look on his face and the weariness of his
+voice, I knew that I stood alone. I had no right to throw my
+burdens on his shoulders any more.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_294"></a>[294]</span>And with a gulp in the throat, I remembered that he trusted
+me to go forward. I suppose I ought to have felt some joy
+in the knowledge that he had left the reconstruction in my
+hands; but any pride I had in this was swallowed up in that
+devastating feeling of loss. With the collapse of Nordenholt,
+something had gone out of my world, never to return. It left
+me in some way maimed; and I felt as though the main source
+of my strength had been cut away just when I most needed all
+my powers.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ll do your best, Jack? The Area trusted us. Don&#8217;t
+let them down.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I tried to tell him I would do my utmost; but I had
+difficulty in finding words. I could see that he understood
+me, however.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s one thing I&#8217;m sorry about&mdash;Elsa. She hasn&#8217;t
+come round yet. But she will, in time. She hates me still,
+I know; and it&#8217;s a pity, for I need her now, more than I
+ever did before. I&#8217;m a very sick man, Jack. Luckily, this
+breach between us has let her stand on her own feet. She
+doesn&#8217;t need me so much as she did.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He fell silent; and for a time we sat without speaking.
+When he spoke again, I could see the lines on which his
+thoughts had been running.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If anything happens to me, Jack, you&#8217;ll look after Elsa,
+won&#8217;t you? I&#8217;d like to know that she was all right. I know
+it&#8217;s hard as things are; but you&#8217;ll do that for me, even
+though it tantalises you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I promised; and then I suggested telephoning for a
+doctor to look after him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not just now, Jack&mdash;I&#8217;m tired. I don&#8217;t want to be
+bothered answering questions. I&#8217;m very tired.... And
+I&#8217;ve finished my work at last. We&#8217;ve pulled through. I
+can take a rest.... Wake me in a quarter of an hour, will
+you? I want a sleep badly.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He leaned forward in his chair and rested his face on his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_295"></a>[295]</span>
+arms. In a moment he seemed to fall into slumber. I
+thought it was probably the best thing for him at the time;
+and I turned to the fire and to my thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>I fell to thinking of all that had happened since first I
+met him; and then I cast further back yet to the evening I
+had spent at Wotherspoon&#8217;s house. How the disaster had
+developed step by step, spreading its effects gradually and
+with slowly-increasing intensity over wider and ever-wider
+areas. If only Wotherspoon had stuck to chemistry and left
+bacteriology alone; if only he had chosen some other
+organisms than the denitrifying bacteria; if only the fire-ball
+had not come that night; if ... if ... if.... All the
+Might-have-beens rose before me as I gazed at the flickerings
+in the fire. If only Elsa had followed reason and not
+emotion ... if only.... And so the maddening train of
+thought went on, minute by minute, while in the next room
+I could hear the click of her typewriter. Emotion! After
+all I could not pretend to scorn it, for what were my own
+feelings but emotion too?</p>
+
+<p>The clock in the tower above me struck a quarter.
+Nordenholt did not stir and I let him sleep on. It appeared
+to me that rest was what he needed most.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed curious how divorced I had become from the
+Past. The old life had been swept away utterly and I found
+difficulty in recalling much of it to mind. The meeting
+with Nordenholt, the founding of the Area, my time with
+Elsa, London in its last days, the Reverend John: these were
+the things which seemed burned into my memory. All that
+had gone before was mirage, faint, unsubstantial, part of
+another existence. Even our Fata Morgana was more real
+to me than that old life.</p>
+
+<p>And with that I fell back into deeper gloom. I have not
+tried to paint myself other than I am. I had never reached
+the height of pure endeavour to which Nordenholt had
+attained, though sometimes, under his influence, I came near<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_296"></a>[296]</span>
+it. And now, at the recollection of our dream-city, I felt a
+keen pang. Why should I attempt to raise that fabric to the
+skies, why should I wear myself out in toiling to erect these
+halls and palaces through which I must wander alone?
+Why, indeed? What was the population of the Area to me,
+after all? But even amid my most bitter reflections I knew
+that I would do my best. Nordenholt had trusted me.</p>
+
+<p>A fresh chime from the great bell overhead roused me from
+my musings. I went across to Nordenholt, not knowing
+whether to wake him or not. When I reached his side,
+something in his attitude struck me. I touched his hand and
+found it cold.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment, I think I failed to recognise what had
+happened. Then I shook him gently; and the truth broke
+upon my mind. That great engine which had wrought so
+hard and so long would never move again. The brain
+which had guided the fortunes of the Area up to the last
+moment had sunk to its eternal rest.</p>
+
+<p>It was some minutes before I was able to pull myself together
+after the discovery. When I got my feelings under
+control, I was still badly shaken; for otherwise I would
+never have done what I did do. I went straight to the door
+and called Elsa. She was sitting at her desk and she looked
+up at my voice.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, what is it, Mr. Flint?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s.... Come here.... It&#8217;s Nordenholt; he....&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Before I had completed the sentence she had risen and
+passed me. I think she must have seen something in my face
+which led her to expect the worst news. She went up to the
+desk where Nordenholt was still leaning with his face on his
+arms. Like me, she did not immediately grasp what had
+happened.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Uncle Stanley! What&#8217;s wrong? Aren&#8217;t you well?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She rested her hand on his shoulder and shook him gently,
+just as I had done. In the silence, I heard, far down the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_297"></a>[297]</span>
+Clyde, the roaring of the atomic engine&mdash;the great call
+sweeping across the Area and bearing with it the news
+of Nordenholt&#8217;s final triumph. They were varying the
+running of the machine and the waves of sound rose and
+fell like the beating of gigantic wings above the city.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly she turned to me.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What is it? You don&#8217;t mean he&#8217;s <i>dead</i>?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I could only nod in answer; I could not find words.
+For an instant she stood, leaning over him, and then she
+slipped down beside his chair and put her arms round him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, he&#8217;s dead. He&#8217;s dead. He&#8217;ll never speak to me
+again!... And I hated him, I hated him.... I made it
+hard for him.... And now he can&#8217;t tell me if he forgives
+me.... Oh, what shall I do, Jack? What shall I do?
+Please help me. He was so good to me; and I hurt him
+so.... Oh, please help me, Jack. Tell me he forgave
+me.... I&#8217;ve only got <i>you</i> now....&#8221;</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_298"></a>[298]</span>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak"><small>CHAPTER XX</small><br />
+
+
+Asgard</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Immediately</span> after the death of Nordenholt, I took over
+the control of the Area and instituted the great reorganisation
+forced upon us by the new conditions. Almost our last
+reserves of coal were used up in the foundries where we built
+the new atomic engines; but we succeeded in manufacturing
+a number of machines sufficient for our purposes; and
+once these were complete, we had no further need of the old-fashioned
+fuel. The output of nitrogenous materials sprang
+up by leaps and bounds; and the danger of starvation was
+over.</p>
+
+<p>All our miners were sent into the neighbouring areas,
+where they were put to work in spreading synthetic nitrogenous
+manure upon the fields, after Hope&#8217;s colloids had
+been ploughed into the soil to retain water in the ground.
+At last came the harvest, poor in most places, yet sufficient
+for our needs. The game was won.</p>
+
+<p>It was after this that we began to send aeroplanes over the
+world in search of any other remnants of the human race
+which had survived. I was too much occupied with Area
+affairs to share in these voyages; but the airmen&#8217;s reports
+made clear enough the extent of the catastrophe which had
+befallen the planet. As I expected, the site of London was
+covered with a mere heap of charred and shattered ruins
+cumbering it to an extent that prevented us from even thinking
+of rebuilding the city in the new age. It was not worth
+while clearing away the debris, when other sites were open<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_299"></a>[299]</span>
+to us for our new centres of population. The same fate had
+befallen almost all the great cities, not only in Britain but
+also across the Continent. Above the ruins of Paris, the
+gaunt fabric of the Eiffel Tower still stood as a witness to
+men&#8217;s achievements in the past; but it was almost alone.
+Everything capable of destruction by fire had gone down in
+the frenzy of the last days of the old civilisation.</p>
+
+<p>I have already sketched the effects of the Famine upon
+the population of the globe. Our explorers found one or
+two colonies alive in America; and at a slightly later date
+we got in touch with the Japanese Area. Beyond this, the
+human race had perished from the face of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>The strangest of all the changes seen by the aerial explorers
+must have been in Central Africa and the Amazon
+Valley. There, where vegetable life had seemed undisputed
+sovereign of vast regions, only a blackened wilderness remained.
+Fires had raged over great spaces, leaving ashes
+behind them; but in general there was hardly a trace of the
+old-time forests and swamps. The Sahara stretched southward
+to the Equator; and the Kalahari Desert had extended
+up to the Great Lakes&mdash;so quickly had the soil of these
+regions degenerated into sand. In past ages, man had never
+tapped these vast store-houses of forest and veldt; and
+Fate decided that they should go down to destruction still
+unutilised.</p>
+
+<p>Once the safety-line was passed and we were assured of
+food sufficient to maintain our people, other troubles faced
+us; and I am not sure that the next ten years was not really
+our most dangerous period. Had Nordenholt lived, things
+would perhaps have been easier for us; but the difficulties
+besetting us were implicit in the nature of things and I
+question if he could have exorcised them entirely.</p>
+
+<p>We had, on the one side, a mass of manual labourers
+whose intelligence unfitted them for anything beyond bodily
+toil; while on the other hand we had supplies of physical<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_300"></a>[300]</span>
+energy from the atomic engines which made the employment
+of human labour supererogatory. Yet to leave the
+major part of our population entirely idle was to invite
+disaster. The development of the atomic engine had at one
+blow thrown out of gear the nicely-adjusted social machinery
+devised by Nordenholt; and we had to arrange almost
+instantly vast alterations in our methods of employment.</p>
+
+<p>It was under the pressure of these conditions that we
+became builders of great cities. Nineveh and Thebes were
+our first sketches; then came Atlantis, our main power-station
+which we built on Islay; after that we erected Lyonnesse
+and Tara, fairer than the others, for we learned as we
+wrought. Then, as I began to grope toward my masterpiece,
+I planned Theleme. And, last of all, the spires and
+towers of Asgard grew into the sky.</p>
+
+<p>Once the cities had been planned, we employed a further
+contingent of labour in constructing huge roads between
+them, gigantic arteries which cut across the country like the
+Roman ways in earlier centuries, arrow-straight, but broader
+and better engineered than anything before constructed.</p>
+
+<p>Our building materials were new. The introduction of
+atomic energy gave us electric furnaces on a scale undreamed
+of before; and we were able to produce a glassy and resistant
+substance which can be made in any tint. It is of this that
+Asgard is constructed; and I believe that no weather conditions
+alone will wear it down.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>As I sit here at my desk, I see outstretched before me the
+panorama of Asgard, the concrete embodiment of our Fata
+Morgana, so far as that vision could be made real in stone.
+It is not the City of our dreams, I admit; yet in its beauty
+there is a touch of wonder and of mystery that makes it kin
+to that builded phantom of our minds. None of our cities
+shall ever bear the name of Fata Morgana, which was the
+mother of them all. There shall be no profanation of that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_301"></a>[301]</span>
+castle in the air. Instead we have given to our cities titles
+which link their material splendours to the more ancient
+glories of myth and tradition; Asgard and Lyonnesse, Tara
+and Atlantis, Nineveh, Thebes and Theleme.</p>
+
+<p>Rarely, nowadays, do I feel despondent; but when the
+fit comes over me, I open the box in which I still keep the
+papers relating to the time when I was planning my garden
+cities. I finger my documents and turn over my sketches,
+ever amazed at the gulf which lies between my hopes of
+that day and our achievements of the present. Here and there,
+on the margin of some modest ground-plan, I find scribbled
+notes of caution to myself not to expect such vast projects to
+be practicable in the near future. And then, after losing
+myself in this atmosphere of the past, I go to the great
+windows and look down upon Asgard. For once, at least,
+in this world, hope has been far outrun by achievement.
+Splendours of which I never dreamed have come into being
+and lie before my eyes as I gaze. With all this confronting
+me, my despondency slips away and I regain sure confidence
+in the future.</p>
+
+<p>Cities and gardens have I raised in Dreamland. Other
+cities and other gardens I have seen spring from the ground
+of this world in answer to my call. But of all these, Asgard
+is nearest to my heart; for it is the last which I shall create.
+Other men will surpass me; new wonderlands will rise in
+the future: but Asgard is my masterpiece and I shall build
+no more.</p>
+
+<p>Ten years have gone by since the last stone was laid in
+my city; yet every morning as I come to my windows, I
+find in it fresh beauties to delight my eyes. Fronting the
+sea it stands; and its fore-court is a vast stretch of silver sand
+between the horns of the bay. Behind it the ground rises
+to a semicircle of low hills set here and there with groves
+and fretted with silver waterfalls. Through all the changes
+of the year these slopes are green; for snow never drifts<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_302"></a>[302]</span>
+upon them nor do mists gather to hide them from my view.
+Only the swift cloud-shadows flitting athwart them bring
+fresh lights and shades into the picture as they pass.</p>
+
+<p>Nor do I weary of this greenery. Slowly vegetation is
+creeping back upon the face of the world; but still there are
+vast deserts where no blade grows: and in my own cities I
+planned masses of verdure so that they might be like oases
+among the barren spaces of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Between the hills and the sea, the city stands&mdash;a vast
+space of woods and fields and gardens from among the greenery
+of which rise here and there high halls and palaces of rose-tinted
+stone. Here and there amid the green lie broad lakes
+to catch the sun; and great tree-shadowed pools, like crystal
+mirrors, stand rippleless among the groves. And throughout
+the city there is ever the sound of streams and rivulets
+falling from the hills and making music for us with their
+murmurings as they pass.</p>
+
+<p>Scattered about this pleasance are the dwellings of my
+citizens, built of the rose-coloured stone which breaks the
+monotony of the verdure; but the houses are sparse, for our
+population is small. Asgard is only for the few who can
+enjoy its beauties: the many have other cities more suited
+to their tastes; and they have no wish to come hither. But
+those who dwell with us have full time to fall under its
+spell; for Asgard is a city of leisure, though not an idle
+one.</p>
+
+<p>When darkness falls on Asgard, great soft beacons shine
+out upon the hills, throwing a mellow radiance across the
+valley; and down in the woods and along the broad ways
+of the city, the silver lamps are lighted, till all Asgard gleams
+in outline beside the sea. In the expanses of the parks and
+under the shadow of the woods are sprays of coloured orbs
+to guide the passer-by; and from hour to hour these change
+their tint, so that there is no sameness in them.</p>
+
+<p>Often I come to my windows in the night and gaze out<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_303"></a>[303]</span>
+upon that far-flung tracery of stars across the valley, rivalling
+the skies above, as though ten thousand meteors had fallen
+from the heavens and still blazed where they lay upon the
+earth. And through my open casement come the faint and
+perfumed breezes, bringing their subtropical warmth as they
+blow across the valley; and I hear, faint and afar, the sounds
+of music mingling with the rustling of the trees.</p>
+
+<p>Others may plan; others may build fairer cities in the
+sun: but I have given my best; and Asgard almost consoles
+me for the loss of that Fata Morgana which I shall never
+see.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak">FOOTNOTE:</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> Pronounce Di-ay&acute;-z&#333;-tans&acute;.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="transnote">
+<div class="chapter">
+<p class="ph1">TRANSCRIBER&#8217;S NOTE:</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.</p>
+
+<p>Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="pgx" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NORDENHOLT'S MILLION***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 64567-h.htm or 64567-h.zip *******</p>
+<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br />
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author	nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org>	2025-01-23 09:33:37 -0800
committer	nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org>	2025-01-23 09:33:37 -0800
commit	ba07b3f32c174548cfaf29eeb49da97f687890e1 (patch)
tree	67ad7d6c4ea2129065ba863503f5145f71672175