Latest / The H. G. Wells Library / Men Like Gods Book 2 Chapter 3 - Mr Barnstaple as a Traitor to Mankind

Transcript

Men Like Gods Book 2 Chapter 3 - Mr Barnstaple as a Traitor to Mankind · The H. G. Wells Library

0:00
Speaker 1: Section eleven of Men Like Gods. This is a LibriVox recording.
0:06
Speaker 1: While LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
0:10
Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Men
0:15
Speaker 1: Like Gods by H. G. Wells, Section eleven, Book two,
0:21
Speaker 1: Chapter three, Mister Barnstable as a Traitor to Mankind, Part one.
0:30
Speaker 1: Mister Barnstaple spent a large part of the night sitting
0:34
Speaker 1: upon his bed and brooding over the incalculable elements of
0:38
Speaker 1: the situation in which he found himself. What could he do?
0:42
Speaker 1: What ought he to do? Where did his loyalty lie?
0:46
Speaker 1: The dark traditions and infections of the earth had turned
0:49
Speaker 1: this wonderful encounter into an ugly and dangerous antagonism, far
0:54
Speaker 1: too swiftly for him to adjust his mind to the
0:57
Speaker 1: new situation before him. Now, only two possibilities seemed to open. Either,
1:03
Speaker 1: the Utopians would prove themselves altogether the stronger and the wiser,
1:08
Speaker 1: and he and all his fellow pirates would be crushed
1:11
Speaker 1: and killed like vermin Or, the desperate ambitions of mister
1:15
Speaker 1: Catskill would be realized, and they would become a spreading
1:19
Speaker 1: sore in the fair body of this noble civilization, band
1:23
Speaker 1: of robbers and destroyers, dragging Utopia year by year and
1:27
Speaker 1: age by age back to terrestrial conditions. There seemed only
1:33
Speaker 1: one escape from the dilemma. To get away from this
1:36
Speaker 1: fastness to the Utopians, to reveal the whole scheme of
1:40
Speaker 1: the Earthlings to them, and to throw himself in his
1:43
Speaker 1: associates upon their mercy. But this must be done soon
1:47
Speaker 1: before the hostages were seized and bloodshed began. But in
1:52
Speaker 1: the first place, it might be very difficult now to
1:54
Speaker 1: get away from the Earthling band. Mister Catskill would already
1:58
Speaker 1: have organized watchers and sentinels, and the peculiar position of
2:03
Speaker 1: the crag exposed every avenue of escape. And in the
2:07
Speaker 1: next place, mister Barnstaple had a lifelong habit of mind
2:11
Speaker 1: which predisposed him against tail bearing and dissentient action. His
2:17
Speaker 1: school training had molded him into subservience to any group
2:21
Speaker 1: or gang in which he found himself, his form, his side,
2:24
Speaker 1: his house, his school, his club, his party, and so forth.
2:29
Speaker 1: Yet his intelligence and his limitless curiosities had always been
2:33
Speaker 1: opposed to these narrow conspiracies against the world at large.
2:39
Speaker 1: His spirit had made him an uncomfortable rebel. Throughout his
2:42
Speaker 1: whole earthly existence. He loathed political parties and political leaders.
2:47
Speaker 1: He despised and rejected nationalism and imperialism, and all the
2:52
Speaker 1: tawdry loyalties associated with him. The aggressive conqueror of the
2:57
Speaker 1: grabbing financier, the shoving business men he hated, as he
3:01
Speaker 1: hated wasp rats, hyenas, sharks, fleas nettles, and the like.
3:08
Speaker 1: All his life he had been a citizen of Utopia,
3:11
Speaker 1: exiled from Earth. After his fashion, he has sought to
3:15
Speaker 1: serve Utopia. But why should he not serve Utopia now?
3:20
Speaker 1: Because his band was a little and desperate band, that
3:23
Speaker 1: was no reason why he should serve the things he hated.
3:26
Speaker 1: They were a desperate crew. The fact remained that they
3:29
Speaker 1: were also as a whole and evil crew. There was
3:32
Speaker 1: no reason why liberalism should degenerate into a morbid passion
3:37
Speaker 1: for minorities. Only two persons among the earthlings, Lady Stella
3:42
Speaker 1: and mister Burleigh, held any of his sympathy, and he
3:46
Speaker 1: had his doubts about mister Burleigh. Mister Burley was one
3:49
Speaker 1: of those strange people who seemed to understand everything and
3:52
Speaker 1: feel nothing. He impressed mister Barnstaple as being intelligently irresponsible.
3:59
Speaker 1: Wasn't that really evil than being unintelligently adventurous like Hunker
4:04
Speaker 1: or bar alonga Mister Barnstable's mind returned from a long
4:09
Speaker 1: excursion into ethics to the realities about him. Tomorrow he
4:14
Speaker 1: would survey the position and make his plans, and perhaps
4:18
Speaker 1: in the twilight he would slip away. Was entirely in
4:21
Speaker 1: his character to defer action in this way for the
4:24
Speaker 1: better part of the day. His life had been one
4:27
Speaker 1: of deferred action almost from the beginning Part two. But
4:33
Speaker 1: events could not wait for mister Barnstable. He was called
4:36
Speaker 1: at dawn by Pink, who told him that henceforth the
4:39
Speaker 1: garrison would be aroused every morning by an electric cooter
4:43
Speaker 1: he and Ridley had contrived. As Pink spoke a devastating
4:48
Speaker 1: how from this contrivance inaugurated the new era. He handed
4:53
Speaker 1: mister Barnstable a slip of paper torn from a note
4:57
Speaker 1: book on which mister Catskill had written non com Barnaby
5:02
Speaker 1: to assist Ridley prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner times and
5:06
Speaker 1: menu on messroom wall, clear away and wash up smartly,
5:10
Speaker 1: and at other times be at disposal of Lieutenant Hunker
5:14
Speaker 1: and chemical Laboratory for experimenting in bomb making. Keep laboratory clean.
5:21
Speaker 1: That's your job, said Penk. Ridley's waiting for you. Well,
5:25
Speaker 1: said mister Barnstable, and got up. It was no use
5:29
Speaker 1: precipitating a quarrel if he was going to escape, So
5:32
Speaker 1: he went to the s gard and bandage Ridley, and
5:34
Speaker 1: they produced a very good imitation of a British military kitchen.
5:39
Speaker 1: In that Great Row year nineteen fourteen. Every one was
5:43
Speaker 1: turned out to breakfast at half past six by a
5:47
Speaker 1: second solo on the hooter. The men were paraded and
5:50
Speaker 1: inspected by mister Catskill, with m DuPont standing beside him.
5:55
Speaker 1: Mister Hunker stood parallel with these two, and a few
5:58
Speaker 1: yards away. All the other men fell in, except mister Burleigh,
6:02
Speaker 1: who was to be civil commander in Utopia and was
6:06
Speaker 1: in that capacity in bed, and mister Barnstable, the non combatant.
6:11
Speaker 1: Miss Greeta Gray and Lady Stella sat in a sunny
6:14
Speaker 1: corner of the courtyard, sewing at a flag. It was
6:18
Speaker 1: to be a blue flag with a white star, a
6:20
Speaker 1: designed sufficiently unlike any existing national flag to avoid wounding
6:26
Speaker 1: the patriotic successibilities of any of the party it was
6:31
Speaker 1: to represent the Earthling League of Nations. After the parade,
6:35
Speaker 1: the little garrison dispersed to its various posts and duties.
6:39
Speaker 1: M DuPont assumed the chief command, and mister Catskill, who
6:43
Speaker 1: had watched all night, went to lie down. He had
6:47
Speaker 1: the Napoleonic quality of going off to sleep for an
6:50
Speaker 1: hour or so. At any time in the day, mister
6:54
Speaker 1: pank went up to the top of the castle where
6:56
Speaker 1: the hooter was installed, to keep a lookout. There were
7:00
Speaker 1: some moments to be snatched between the time when mister
7:03
Speaker 1: Barnstaple had finished with Ridley, in the time when Hunker
7:06
Speaker 1: would discover his help was available, and this time he
7:09
Speaker 1: devoted to an inspection of the castle wall on the
7:12
Speaker 1: side of the slopes. While he was standing on the
7:15
Speaker 1: old rampart weighing his chances of slipping away. That evening,
7:19
Speaker 1: in the twilight, an aeroplane appeared above the crag and
7:23
Speaker 1: came down upon the nearer slope. Two Utopians descended, taught
7:28
Speaker 1: with their aviator for a time, and then turned their
7:31
Speaker 1: faces toward the fastness of the Earthlings. A single note
7:35
Speaker 1: of the hooter brought out mister Catskill upon the rampart
7:39
Speaker 1: beside mister Barnstable. He produced a field glass and surveyed
7:43
Speaker 1: the approaching figures, Serpentine and cedar, he said, lowering his
7:49
Speaker 1: field glass, and they come alone. Good. He turned round
7:54
Speaker 1: and signaled with his hand to Penk, who responded with
7:57
Speaker 1: two short whoops of his instrument, the signal for a
8:01
Speaker 1: general assembly. Down below the courtyard appeared the rest of
8:05
Speaker 1: the allied force in mister Hunker, and fell in with
8:08
Speaker 1: a reasonable imitation of discipline. Mister Catskill passed mister Barnstable,
8:14
Speaker 1: without taking any notice of him, joined m DuPont, mister Hunker,
8:18
Speaker 1: and their subordinates below, and proceeded to instruct them in
8:22
Speaker 1: his plans for the forthcoming crisis. Mister Barnstable could not
8:27
Speaker 1: hear what was said. He noted, with sardonic disapproval that
8:31
Speaker 1: each man, as mister Catskill finished with him, clicked his
8:34
Speaker 1: heels together and saluted. Then at a word of command,
8:39
Speaker 1: they dispersed to their posts. There was a partly ruined
8:43
Speaker 1: flight of steps leading down from the general level of
8:46
Speaker 1: the courtyard through this great archway in the wall that
8:49
Speaker 1: gave access to and from the slopes below. Ridley and
8:53
Speaker 1: Mush went down to the right of these steps and
8:56
Speaker 1: placed themselves below a projecting mass of masonry. It was
9:00
Speaker 1: to be hidden from anyone approaching from below. Father Amberton
9:04
Speaker 1: and mister Hunker concealed themselves similarly to the left. Father Amerton,
9:10
Speaker 1: Mister barn Staple noted had been given a coil of rope,
9:13
Speaker 1: and then his roving eye discovered mister Mush glancing at
9:17
Speaker 1: a pistol in his hand and then replacing it in
9:20
Speaker 1: his pocket. Lord Barrelanga took up a position for himself
9:24
Speaker 1: some steps above mister Mush and produced a revolver, which
9:28
Speaker 1: he held in his one efficient hand. Mister Catskill remained
9:32
Speaker 1: at the head of the stairs. He also was holding
9:35
Speaker 1: a revolver. He turned to the citadel, considered the case
9:39
Speaker 1: of pank for a moment, and then motioned him down
9:42
Speaker 1: to join the others. M DuPont, armed with a stout
9:46
Speaker 1: table leg, placed himself at mister Catskill's right hand. For
9:51
Speaker 1: a time. Mister Barnstable watched these dispositions without any realization
9:56
Speaker 1: of their significance. Then his eyes went from the crouching
9:59
Speaker 1: figure within the castle to the two unsuspected Utopians who
10:04
Speaker 1: were coming up towards them, and he realized that in
10:07
Speaker 1: a couple of minutes Serpentine and Caesar would be struggling
10:11
Speaker 1: in the grip of their captors. He perceived he had
10:14
Speaker 1: to act, and his had been a contemplative, critical life
10:18
Speaker 1: with no habit of decision. He found himself trembling violently.
10:24
Speaker 1: Part three. He still desired some mediatory intervention, even in
10:29
Speaker 1: these fatal last moments. He raised an arm and cried high,
10:33
Speaker 1: as much to the earthlings below as to the utopians
10:36
Speaker 1: without No one noticed either his gesture or his feeble cry.
10:42
Speaker 1: Then his will seemed to break through a tangle of
10:44
Speaker 1: obstacles to one simple idea. Serpentine and Caesar must not
10:48
Speaker 1: be seized. He was amazed and indignant at his own vacillation.
10:53
Speaker 1: Of course, they must not be seized. This foolery must
10:57
Speaker 1: be thwarted forthwith and forced. He was on the wall
11:01
Speaker 1: above the archway, and now he was shouting loud and
11:04
Speaker 1: clear danger. He shouted danger, and again danger. He heard
11:09
Speaker 1: Catskill's cry of astonishment, and then a pistol bullet went
11:13
Speaker 1: through the air close to him. Serpentine stopped short and
11:16
Speaker 1: looked up, touched Caesar's arm, and pointed these Earthlings want
11:21
Speaker 1: to imprison you. Don't come here, danger, yelled mister Barnstable,
11:25
Speaker 1: waving his arms in pat Pat pat. Mister Catskill experienced
11:29
Speaker 1: the disappointments of revolver shooting. Serpentine and Cedar were turning back,
11:37
Speaker 1: but slowly and hesitatingly. For a moment, mister Catskill knew
11:41
Speaker 1: not what to do. Then he flung himself down the steps,
11:44
Speaker 1: crying after them, stop them, come on, go back, cry
11:48
Speaker 1: mister Barnstable to the Utopians, go back quickly. Quickly came
11:53
Speaker 1: a clatter of feet from below, and then the ape man,
11:55
Speaker 1: who constituted the combat strength of the Earthling forces in Utopia,
12:01
Speaker 1: emerged from under the archway, running towards the two astonished Utopians.
12:06
Speaker 1: Mister mush led with Ridley at his heels. He was
12:09
Speaker 1: pointing his revolver and shouting. Next came m DuPont, zealous
12:13
Speaker 1: and active. Father Amberton took up the rear with the rope.
12:17
Speaker 1: Go back, screamed mister Barnstable, with his voice breaking. Then
12:21
Speaker 1: he stopped shouting and watched with his hands clenched. The
12:26
Speaker 1: aviator was running down the slope from his machine, to
12:29
Speaker 1: the assistance of Serpentine, and Cedar, and above, out of
12:34
Speaker 1: the blue, two other aeroplanes had appeared. The two Utopians
12:38
Speaker 1: disdained to hurry, and in a few seconds their pursuers
12:41
Speaker 1: had come back up with them. Hunker, Ridley and Mush
12:44
Speaker 1: led the attack. M DuPont, flourishing his stick, was abreast
12:49
Speaker 1: with him, but running out to the right as though
12:51
Speaker 1: he intended to get between them and the aviator. Mister
12:55
Speaker 1: Catskill and Pink were a little behind the leading three.
12:59
Speaker 1: The one armed back alonga was perhaps ten yards behind,
13:02
Speaker 1: and Father Amberton had halted to recoil his rope more conveniently.
13:08
Speaker 1: There seemed to be a moment's parley, and then Serpentine
13:11
Speaker 1: had moved quickly as if to seize Hunker. A pistol cracked,
13:15
Speaker 1: and then another went off rapidly three times. Oh God,
13:19
Speaker 1: cried mister Barnstable, Oh God, as he saw Serpentine throw
13:22
Speaker 1: up his arms and fall backward. And then Cedar had
13:26
Speaker 1: grasped and lifted up Mush and hurled him at mister
13:29
Speaker 1: Catskill and Pink, bowling both of them over into one
13:32
Speaker 1: indistinguishable heap. With a wild cried m DuPont closed in
13:38
Speaker 1: on Cedar, but not quickly enough. His club shot into
13:41
Speaker 1: the air as Cedar parried his blow, and then the
13:44
Speaker 1: Utopian stooped, caught him by a leg, overthrew him, lifted him,
13:49
Speaker 1: and whirled him round as one might whirl a rabbit,
13:52
Speaker 1: to inflict a stunning blow on mister Hunker. Lord Barologa
13:57
Speaker 1: ran back some paces and began shooting at the approaching aviator.
14:02
Speaker 1: The confusion of legs and arms on the ground became
14:05
Speaker 1: three separate people again. Mister Catskill, shouting directions, made for Cedar,
14:10
Speaker 1: followed by Pink and Mush, and a moment after by
14:13
Speaker 1: Hunker and DuPont. They clung to Cedar. His hounds will
14:17
Speaker 1: cling to a boar. Time after time he flung them off.
14:21
Speaker 1: Father Amerton hovered unhelpfully with his rope. For some moments,
14:26
Speaker 1: mister Barnstaple's attention was concentrated upon this swaying and staggering
14:31
Speaker 1: attempt to overpower Seed, and then he became aware of
14:34
Speaker 1: other Utopians running down the slope to join the fray.
14:39
Speaker 1: The other two aeroplanes had landed. Mister Catskill realized the
14:43
Speaker 1: coming of these reinforcements almost as soon as mister Barnstaple
14:48
Speaker 1: his shouts of back back to the castle reached mister
14:51
Speaker 1: Barnstaple's ears. The Earthlings scattered away from the tall, disheveled figure,
14:56
Speaker 1: hesitated and began to walk, and then run back towards
15:00
Speaker 1: the castle, and then ridly turned and very deliberately shot Cedar,
15:05
Speaker 1: who clutched at his breast and fell into a sitting position.
15:09
Speaker 1: The Earthlings retreated to the foot of the steps that
15:12
Speaker 1: led up through the archway into the castle, and stood
15:15
Speaker 1: there in a panting, bruised and ruffled group. Fifty yards away,
15:20
Speaker 1: Serpentine lay still. The aviator whom Barolonga had shot, writhed
15:25
Speaker 1: and moaned, and Cedar sat up with blood upon his chest,
15:28
Speaker 1: trying to feel his back. Five other Utopians came hurrying
15:33
Speaker 1: to their assistance. What is all this firing, said Lady Stella,
15:37
Speaker 1: suddenly at mister Barnstaple's elbow. Have they caught their hostages?
15:42
Speaker 1: Asked Miss greeta Gray. For the life of me, said
15:46
Speaker 1: mister Burleigh, who had come out upon the wall a
15:48
Speaker 1: yard or so away. This ought never to have happened.
15:52
Speaker 1: How did this get muffed? Lady Stella? I called out
15:56
Speaker 1: to them, said mister Barnstaple, you called out to them,
16:02
Speaker 1: said mister Burleigh, incredulous treason, I did not calculate. Upon
16:07
Speaker 1: came the wrathful voice of mister Catskill, ascending out of
16:11
Speaker 1: the archway Part four. For some moments, mister Barnstaple made
16:17
Speaker 1: no attempt to escape the danger that closed in upon him.
16:20
Speaker 1: He had always lived a life of very great security,
16:23
Speaker 1: and with him, as with so many highly civilized types,
16:26
Speaker 1: the power of apprehending personal danger was very largely atrophied.
16:32
Speaker 1: He was a spectator by a temperament in training. Alike,
16:36
Speaker 1: he stood now as if he looked at himself, the
16:39
Speaker 1: central figure of a great and hopeless tragedy. The idea
16:43
Speaker 1: of flight came belatedly, in a reluctant and apologetic manner,
16:47
Speaker 1: into his mind. Shot as a trader, he said aloud.
16:53
Speaker 1: Shot as a trader. There was that bridge over the
16:57
Speaker 1: narrow gorge. He might still get over that if he
16:59
Speaker 1: went for it at once, if he was quick, quicker
17:02
Speaker 1: than they were. It was too intelligent to dash off
17:05
Speaker 1: for it. That would certainly have set the others running.
17:09
Speaker 1: He walked along the wall in a leisurely fashioned past.
17:12
Speaker 1: Mister Burleigh, himself too civilize to intervene In a quickening stroll,
17:17
Speaker 1: he gained the steps that led to the citadel. Then
17:20
Speaker 1: he stood still for a moment to survey the situation.
17:24
Speaker 1: Catskill was busy setting sentinels at the gate. Perhaps he
17:28
Speaker 1: had not thought yet of the little bridge, and imagined
17:31
Speaker 1: that mister Barnstaple was at his disposal at any time
17:35
Speaker 1: that suited him. Up the slope, the Utopians were carrying
17:39
Speaker 1: off the dead or wounded men. Mister Barnstaple descended the
17:43
Speaker 1: steps as if buried in thought, and stood on the
17:47
Speaker 1: citadel for some seconds, his hands in his trouser pockets,
17:51
Speaker 1: as if he surveyed the view. Then he turned to
17:54
Speaker 1: the winding staircase that went down to a sort of
17:58
Speaker 1: guard room below. As soon as he was surely out
18:02
Speaker 1: of sight, he began to think and moved very quickly.
18:05
Speaker 1: The guard room was perplexing. It had five doors, any
18:09
Speaker 1: one of which, except the one by which he had
18:11
Speaker 1: just entered the room, might lead down to the staircase.
18:15
Speaker 1: Against one, however, stood a pile of neat packing cases
18:19
Speaker 1: that left three to choose from. He ran from one
18:22
Speaker 1: to the other, leaving each door open. In each case,
18:26
Speaker 1: stone steps ran down to a landing in a turning place.
18:30
Speaker 1: He stood hesitating at the third and noted that a
18:32
Speaker 1: cold draft came blowing up it. Surely that meant that
18:36
Speaker 1: this went down to the cliff face, or whence came
18:39
Speaker 1: the air? Surely this was it? Should he shut the
18:42
Speaker 1: doors he had opened? No, leave them all open? He
18:46
Speaker 1: heard a clatter coming down the staircase from the citadel.
18:49
Speaker 1: Softly and swiftly he ran down the steps and halted
18:52
Speaker 1: for a second at the corner, landing. He was compelled
18:56
Speaker 1: to stop and listen to the movements of his pursuers.
18:59
Speaker 1: This is the door to the bridge, sir, he heard
19:02
Speaker 1: Ridley cry, and then he heard Catskill say, the Tarpeian
19:06
Speaker 1: rock and Barralanga exactly, why should we waste a cartridge?
19:10
Speaker 1: Are you sure this goes to the bridge? Ridley? The
19:13
Speaker 1: footsteps pattered across the guard room and passed down one
19:17
Speaker 1: of the other staircases. A reprieve whispered Barnstable, and then
19:23
Speaker 1: stop to gasp he was trapped. The staircase they were
19:27
Speaker 1: on was the staircase to the bridge. They would go
19:30
Speaker 1: down as far as the bridge, and as soon as
19:32
Speaker 1: they got to it, they would see that he was
19:35
Speaker 1: neither on it. Nor on the steps on the opposite
19:37
Speaker 1: side of the gorge, and that therefore he could not
19:40
Speaker 1: possibly have escaped. They would certainly bar that way, either
19:44
Speaker 1: by closing and fastening any door there might be, or
19:48
Speaker 1: failing such a barrier, by setting a sentinel, and then
19:52
Speaker 1: they would come back and hunt for him at their leisure.
19:56
Speaker 1: What was it, Catskill had been saying, the tarpaian rock horrible.
20:01
Speaker 1: They mustn't take him alive. He must fight like a
20:04
Speaker 1: rat in a corner and oblige them to shoot him.
20:08
Speaker 1: He went on down the staircase became very dark, and
20:12
Speaker 1: then grew light again. It ended in an ordinary big cellar,
20:16
Speaker 1: which may once have been a gunpit or magazine. It
20:20
Speaker 1: was fairly well lit by two unglazed windows cut in
20:23
Speaker 1: the rock. It now contained a store of provisions. Along
20:28
Speaker 1: one side stood an array of the flask like bottles
20:31
Speaker 1: that were used for wine in Utopia. Along the other
20:34
Speaker 1: was a miscellany of packing cases and cubes wrapped in
20:39
Speaker 1: gold leaf. He lifted one of the glass flasks by
20:43
Speaker 1: its neck. It would make an effective club. Suppose he
20:47
Speaker 1: made a sort of barrier of the packing cases across
20:50
Speaker 1: the entrance and stood beside it. And clubbed the pursuers
20:53
Speaker 1: as they came in, glass and wine would smash over
20:57
Speaker 1: their skulls. It would take time to make the barrier.
21:00
Speaker 1: He chose and carried three of the larger flasks of
21:03
Speaker 1: the doorway, where they would be handy for him. Then
21:06
Speaker 1: he had an inspiration and looked at the window. He
21:09
Speaker 1: listened at the door of the staircase for a time.
21:12
Speaker 1: Not a sound came from above. He went to the
21:16
Speaker 1: window and lay down in the deep embrasure, and wiggled
21:19
Speaker 1: forward until he could see out up and down. The
21:23
Speaker 1: cliff below fell sheer. He could have spat on to
21:27
Speaker 1: the brawling torrent fifteen feet perhaps below. The crag here
21:31
Speaker 1: was made up of almost vertical strata which projected and receded.
21:36
Speaker 1: A big buttress hid almost all of the bridge, except
21:39
Speaker 1: the far end, which seemed to be about twenty or
21:42
Speaker 1: thirty yards lower than the opening from which mister Barnstaple
21:46
Speaker 1: was looking. Mister Catskill appeared upon this bridge, very small
21:50
Speaker 1: and distant, scrutinizing the rocky stairway beyond the bridge. Mister
21:55
Speaker 1: Barnstaple withdrew his head hastily, then very discreetly again mister
22:01
Speaker 1: Catskill was no longer to be seen. He was coming
22:04
Speaker 1: back to business. There was not much time in his
22:07
Speaker 1: earlier days, before the Great War had made travel dearer
22:11
Speaker 1: and uncomfortable. Mister Barnstable had done some rock climbing in Switzerland,
22:16
Speaker 1: and he had also some experience in Cumberland and Wales.
22:20
Speaker 1: He surveyed now the rocks close at hand with an
22:22
Speaker 1: intelligent expertness. They were cut by almost horizontal joint plains,
22:28
Speaker 1: into which there had been a considerable infiltration, chiefly of
22:33
Speaker 1: white crystalline material. This stuff, which he guessed was calcite,
22:38
Speaker 1: had weathered more rapidly than the general material of the rock,
22:42
Speaker 1: leaving a series of irregular horizontal grooves. With luck, it
22:46
Speaker 1: might be possible to work along the cliff face, turned
22:50
Speaker 1: the buttress and scramble to the bridge. And then came
22:53
Speaker 1: an even more hopeful idea. He could easily get along
22:57
Speaker 1: the cliff face to the first recess himself there and
23:01
Speaker 1: remain until the earthlings had searched his cellar. After they
23:05
Speaker 1: had searched, he might creep back into the cellar. Even
23:08
Speaker 1: if they looked out of the window, they would not
23:10
Speaker 1: see him, and even if he left finger marks and
23:13
Speaker 1: so forth, in the embrasure. They would likely to conclude
23:17
Speaker 1: that he had either jumped or fallen down the crag
23:20
Speaker 1: into the gorge below. But at first it might be
23:24
Speaker 1: slow work negotiating the cliff face, and this would cut
23:27
Speaker 1: him off from his weapons the flasks. But the idea
23:31
Speaker 1: of hiding in the recess had taken a strong hold
23:34
Speaker 1: upon his imagination. Very cautiously he got out of the window,
23:39
Speaker 1: found a hand hold, got his feet onto his ledge,
23:42
Speaker 1: and began to work his way along toward his niche.
23:45
Speaker 1: But there were unexpected difficulties, a gap of nearly five
23:49
Speaker 1: yards in the hand hold nothing. He had to flatten
23:53
Speaker 1: himself and trust to his feet, and for a time
23:55
Speaker 1: he remained quite still in that position. Further on was
24:00
Speaker 1: the rotten lump of the vein mineral, and it broke
24:02
Speaker 1: away under him very disconcertingly, But happily his fingers had
24:06
Speaker 1: a grip and the other foot was firm. That detached
24:10
Speaker 1: crystals slithered down the rock face for a moment, and
24:13
Speaker 1: then made no further sound. They had dropped into the void.
24:17
Speaker 1: For a time he was paralyzed. I'm not in good form,
24:21
Speaker 1: whispered Barnstaple. I'm not in good form. He clung motionless
24:26
Speaker 1: and prayed with an effort. He resumed his traverse. He
24:30
Speaker 1: was at the very corner of the recess when some
24:33
Speaker 1: faint noise drew his eyes to the window from which
24:35
Speaker 1: he had emerged. Ridley's face was poked out slowly and cautiously,
24:40
Speaker 1: his eye read and fierce among his white bandages. Part five.
24:46
Speaker 1: He did not at first see mister Barnstaple, God, he said.
24:50
Speaker 1: When he did so, and withdrew his head hastily, came
24:53
Speaker 1: a sound of voices saying indistinguishable things. Some inappropriate instinct
24:58
Speaker 1: kept Barnstaple quite so still, though he could have gotten
25:01
Speaker 1: into cover in the recess quite easily before. Mister Catskill
25:05
Speaker 1: looked out, revolver in hands. For some moments, they stared
25:10
Speaker 1: at each other in silence. Come back, or I shoot,
25:13
Speaker 1: said mister Catskill. Unconvincingly, Shoot, said mister Barnstaple. After a
25:18
Speaker 1: moment's reflection, mister Catskill craned his head out and stared
25:23
Speaker 1: down into the shadowy blue depths of the canyon. It
25:28
Speaker 1: isn't necessary, he answered, We have to say cartridges. You
25:31
Speaker 1: haven't the gut, said mister Barnstaple. It's not quite that,
25:35
Speaker 1: said mister Catskill. No, said mister Barnstaple. It isn't. You
25:39
Speaker 1: are fundamentally a civilized man. Mister Catskill scowled at him
25:45
Speaker 1: without hostility. You have a very good imagination, mister Barnstaple reflected.
25:51
Speaker 1: The trouble is that you have been so damnably educated.
25:55
Speaker 1: What is the trouble with you? You are being kipplinged.
25:59
Speaker 1: Empire and Anglo Saxon and boy scout and sleuth are
26:02
Speaker 1: the stuff in your mind. If I had gone to eaton,
26:06
Speaker 1: I might have been the same as you are. I suppose,
26:09
Speaker 1: Harrow corrected mister Catskill, a perfectly beastly public school, suburban
26:15
Speaker 1: place where the boys were shignons and straw halos. I
26:19
Speaker 1: might have guessed, Harrow. But it's queer. I bear you
26:22
Speaker 1: no malice, given decent ideas, you might have been very
26:25
Speaker 1: different from what you are if I had been your schoolmaster.
26:30
Speaker 1: But it's too late now it is, said mister Rupert Catskill,
26:34
Speaker 1: smiling genially, and cocked his eye down into the canyon.
26:39
Speaker 1: Mister Barnstaple began to feel for his ledge round the
26:42
Speaker 1: corner with a foot. Don't go for a minute, said
26:45
Speaker 1: mister Catskill. I'm not going to shoot. A voice from within,
26:49
Speaker 1: probably Lord Barilonga said something about heaving a rock at
26:53
Speaker 1: mister Barnstaple. Someone else, probably ridily approved, ferociously, not without
26:59
Speaker 1: due form of trial, said mister Catskill over his shoulder.
27:03
Speaker 1: His face was inscrutable, but a fantastic idea began to
27:06
Speaker 1: run about in mister Barnstaple's mind that mister Catskill did
27:10
Speaker 1: not want to have him killed. He thought about things,
27:14
Speaker 1: and he wanted him now to escape to the Utopians
27:17
Speaker 1: and perhaps rig up some sort of settlement with them.
27:21
Speaker 1: We intend to try you, sir, said mister Catskill. We
27:24
Speaker 1: intend to try you. We cite you to appear. Mister
27:29
Speaker 1: Catskill moistened his lips and considered the court will sit
27:33
Speaker 1: almost at once. His little, bright brown eyes estimated the
27:37
Speaker 1: chances of mister Barnstaple's position very rapidly, he craned towards
27:43
Speaker 1: the bridge. We shall not waste time over our procedure,
27:47
Speaker 1: he said, And I have little doubt of our verdict.
27:50
Speaker 1: We shall condemn you to death. So there you are, sir.
27:54
Speaker 1: I doubt if we shall be more than a quarter
27:56
Speaker 1: of an hour before your fate is legally settled, he
28:00
Speaker 1: glanced up, trying to see the crest of the crag.
28:03
Speaker 1: We shall probably throw rocks, he said. Marie torus Te Salulo,
28:09
Speaker 1: said mister Barnstaple, with an air of making a witty remark.
28:13
Speaker 1: If you will forgive me, I will go on now
28:15
Speaker 1: to make a more comfortable position. Mister Catskill remained looking
28:19
Speaker 1: hard at him. I've never borne you any ill will,
28:23
Speaker 1: said mister Barnstaple. Had I been your schoolmaster, everything might
28:26
Speaker 1: have been different. Thanks for the quarter of an hour
28:29
Speaker 1: more you give me, And if by any chance exactly
28:32
Speaker 1: said mister Catskill, They understood one another. When mister Barnstaple
28:38
Speaker 1: stepped round the bend into the recess, mister Catskill was
28:41
Speaker 1: still looking out, and Lord Verilanga was faintly audible, advocating
28:46
Speaker 1: the immediate heaving of rocks. Part six. The ways of
28:51
Speaker 1: the human mind are passed finding out from desperation. Mister
28:55
Speaker 1: Barnstaple's mood had passed to exhilaration. His first sick horror
29:01
Speaker 1: of climbing above this immense height had given him place
29:04
Speaker 1: now to an almost boyish assurance. His sense of immediate
29:09
Speaker 1: death had gone. He was appreciating this adventure. Indeed, he
29:13
Speaker 1: was enjoyant, with an entire disregard now of how it
29:17
Speaker 1: was to end. He made fairly good time until he
29:20
Speaker 1: got to the angle of the buttress, though his arms
29:23
Speaker 1: began to ache rather badly, and then he had a shock.
29:27
Speaker 1: He now had a full view of the bridge and
29:30
Speaker 1: up the narrow gorge. The ledge he was working along
29:33
Speaker 1: did not run to the bridge at all. He ran
29:35
Speaker 1: a good thirty feet below it, and what was worse,
29:39
Speaker 1: between himself and the bridge were two gullies and chimneys
29:42
Speaker 1: of uncertain depth. At this discovery he regretted for the
29:46
Speaker 1: first time that he had not stayed in the cellar
29:49
Speaker 1: and made a fight for it. There he had some
29:52
Speaker 1: minutes of indecision, with the ache in his arms increasing.
29:56
Speaker 1: He was roused from his inaction by what he thought
29:59
Speaker 1: at first with the shadow of a swift flying bird
30:02
Speaker 1: on the rock. Presently it returned. He hoped he would
30:06
Speaker 1: not be assailed by birds. It read a story, but
30:09
Speaker 1: never mind that now. Then came a loud crack overhead,
30:13
Speaker 1: and he glanced up to see a lump of rock
30:15
Speaker 1: which had just struck a little bulge above him, fly
30:18
Speaker 1: to fragments from which incident. He gathered firstly that the
30:22
Speaker 1: court had delivered an adverse verdict rather in advance of
30:26
Speaker 1: mister Catskill's time, and secondly that he was visible from above.
30:31
Speaker 1: He resumed his traverse toward the shelter of the gully
30:34
Speaker 1: with feverish energy. The gully was better than he expected,
30:39
Speaker 1: a chimney, difficult, he thought, to ascend, but quite practicable downward.
30:44
Speaker 1: It was completely overhung, and perhaps one hundred feet below
30:48
Speaker 1: there was a sort of step in it that gave
30:51
Speaker 1: a quite broad recess shelter from above, and with room
30:55
Speaker 1: enough for a man to sprawl on it if he
30:57
Speaker 1: wanted to do so. There would be rest for mister
31:00
Speaker 1: Barnstaple's arms. And without any needless delay, he clamored down
31:06
Speaker 1: to it and abandoned himself to the delightful sensation of
31:10
Speaker 1: not holding on to anything. He was out of sight
31:13
Speaker 1: and out of reach of his earthling pursuers. In the
31:17
Speaker 1: back of the recess was a truckle of water. He
31:20
Speaker 1: drank and began to think of food, and to regret
31:23
Speaker 1: that he had not brought some provision for him from
31:26
Speaker 1: the store and the cellar. He might have opened one
31:29
Speaker 1: of those gold leaf covered cubes or pocketed a small
31:32
Speaker 1: flask of wine. Wine would be very heartening just now,
31:37
Speaker 1: but it did not do to think of that. He
31:40
Speaker 1: stayed for a long time, as it seemed to him,
31:43
Speaker 1: on this precious shelf, scrutinizing the chimney below very carefully.
31:49
Speaker 1: It seemed quite practicable for a long way down. The
31:52
Speaker 1: sides became very smooth, but they seemed close enough together
31:56
Speaker 1: to get down with his back against one side and
31:59
Speaker 1: his feet again against the other. He looked at his wristwatch.
32:03
Speaker 1: It was still not nine o'clock in the morning. It
32:06
Speaker 1: was about ten minutes to nine. He had been called
32:09
Speaker 1: by Ridley before half past five. At half past six
32:12
Speaker 1: he had been handing out breakfast in the courtyard. Serpentine
32:16
Speaker 1: and Cedar must have appeared about eight o'clock. In about
32:20
Speaker 1: ten minutes. Serpentine had been murdered. Then the flight and
32:24
Speaker 1: the pursuit. How quickly things happened, He had all day
32:29
Speaker 1: before him. He would resume his descent at half past nine.
32:33
Speaker 1: Until then he would rest. It was absurd to feel hungry.
32:37
Speaker 1: Yet he was climbing again before half past nine, for
32:41
Speaker 1: perhaps one hundred feet. It was easy then by imperceptible
32:45
Speaker 1: degrees the gully broadened. He only realized it when he
32:49
Speaker 1: found himself slipping. He slipped, struggling furiously for perhaps twenty feet,
32:54
Speaker 1: and then fell outright another ten and struck a rock,
32:57
Speaker 1: and was held by a second shelf broader than the
33:00
Speaker 1: one above. He came down on it with a jarring concussion,
33:04
Speaker 1: and happily he rolled inward. He was bruised, but not
33:08
Speaker 1: seriously hurt. My luck, he said, My luck holds good.
33:13
Speaker 1: He rested for a time, and then, confident that things
33:16
Speaker 1: would be all right, set himself to inspect the next
33:19
Speaker 1: stage of his descent. It was with a sort of
33:22
Speaker 1: incredulity that he discovered the chimney below his shelf was
33:26
Speaker 1: absolutely unclimbable. It was just a straight, smooth rock on
33:30
Speaker 1: either side for twenty yards at least, and six feet wide.
33:35
Speaker 1: He might as well fling himself over at once as
33:37
Speaker 1: try to get down that. Then he saw that it
33:40
Speaker 1: was equally impossible to retrace his steps. He could not
33:44
Speaker 1: believe it. It seemed too silly, he laughed, as one
33:48
Speaker 1: might laugh if one found one's own mother refusing to
33:52
Speaker 1: recognize one after a day's absence. Then Abruptly he stopped laughing.
33:58
Speaker 1: He repeated every point in his examination. He fingered the
34:02
Speaker 1: smooth rocks about him. But this is absurd, he said,
34:06
Speaker 1: breaking out into a cold perspiration. There was no way
34:10
Speaker 1: out of this corner into which he had so painfully
34:13
Speaker 1: and laboriously got himself. He could neither go on nor
34:18
Speaker 1: go back. He was caught. His luck had given out.
34:24
Speaker 1: Part seven at midday by his wristwatch, mister Barnstaple was
34:29
Speaker 1: sitting in his recess as a weary invalid suffering from
34:33
Speaker 1: some incurable disease might sit up in an armchair during
34:37
Speaker 1: a temporary respite from pain, with nothing to do and
34:41
Speaker 1: no hope before him. There was not one chance in
34:44
Speaker 1: ten thousand that anything could happen to release him from
34:48
Speaker 1: this trap into which he had clamored. There was a
34:51
Speaker 1: trickle of water at the back, but no food, not
34:54
Speaker 1: even a grass blated nipple. Unless he saw fit to
34:57
Speaker 1: pitch himself over into the gorge, he must starve to death.
35:02
Speaker 1: It would perhaps be cold at nights, but not cold
35:04
Speaker 1: enough to kill him. To this end, he had come then,
35:08
Speaker 1: out of the worried journalism of London and the domesticities
35:12
Speaker 1: of Sidingham Queer journey. It was that he, in the
35:17
Speaker 1: Yellow Peril, had made Camberwell, Victoria, Hanslow Slow Utopia, the
35:25
Speaker 1: Mountain paradise, a hundred fascinating and tantalizing glimpses of a
35:30
Speaker 1: world of real happiness and order, that long long aeroplane
35:34
Speaker 1: flight half round a world, and now death. The idea
35:41
Speaker 1: of abbreviating his sufferings by jumping over had no appeal
35:44
Speaker 1: for him. He would stay here and suffer such suffering
35:47
Speaker 1: as there might be before the end. And three hundred
35:51
Speaker 1: yards away or so were his fellow earthlings also awaiting
35:55
Speaker 1: their fate. Was amazing. It was prosaic, after all, to this,
36:02
Speaker 1: or something like this, humanity had come. Sooner or later.
36:06
Speaker 1: People had to lie and suffer. They had to think,
36:09
Speaker 1: and then think feverishly, and then weakly, and so fade
36:13
Speaker 1: to a final cessation of thought. On the whole. He
36:16
Speaker 1: thought it was preferable to die in this fashion, preferable
36:20
Speaker 1: to a sudden death. It was worth while to look
36:23
Speaker 1: death in the face for a time, to have leisure,
36:26
Speaker 1: to write finny in one's mind, to think over life
36:30
Speaker 1: and such living as one had done, and to think
36:32
Speaker 1: it over with a detachment in independence that that only
36:36
Speaker 1: an entire inability to alter one jot of it now
36:40
Speaker 1: could give. At present, his mind was clear and calm.
36:45
Speaker 1: Oblique serenity like a clear winter sky possessed him. They
36:49
Speaker 1: were suffering ahead, he knew, but he did not believe
36:52
Speaker 1: it would be intolerable suffering. If it proved intolerable, the
36:57
Speaker 1: canyon yawned below. In that respect, the shell for rock
37:02
Speaker 1: was a better death bed than most, a more convenient
37:05
Speaker 1: death bed, your sick bed, present to pain with a
37:08
Speaker 1: wide margin, set it up for your too complete examination.
37:13
Speaker 1: But the star was not so very dreadfull. He had
37:16
Speaker 1: read hunger and pain. There would be most distressful about
37:19
Speaker 1: the third day, and after that one became feeble and
37:23
Speaker 1: did not feel so much. It would not be like
37:27
Speaker 1: the torture of any cancer cases, or the agony of
37:30
Speaker 1: brain fever. It would not be one tithe as bad
37:33
Speaker 1: as that lonely it would be. But is one much
37:38
Speaker 1: less lonely on a deathbed at home? They come and
37:41
Speaker 1: say they're there, and do little serviceable things. But are
37:45
Speaker 1: there any other interchanges? You go your solitary way, speech
37:51
Speaker 1: and movement, and the desire to speak or move passing
37:54
Speaker 1: from you, and their voices fade everywhere. Death is very solitary,
38:00
Speaker 1: very active, going apart. A younger man would probably have
38:05
Speaker 1: found this loneliness in the gorge very terrible. But mister
38:08
Speaker 1: Barnstable had outlived the intenser delusions of companionship. He would
38:14
Speaker 1: have liked to last talk with his boys, and to
38:16
Speaker 1: have put his wife into a good frame of mind.
38:19
Speaker 1: But even these desires were perhaps more sentimental than real.
38:24
Speaker 1: When it came to talks with his boys, he was
38:27
Speaker 1: apt to feel shy. As they had come to have
38:30
Speaker 1: personalities of their own and to grow through adolescence, he
38:34
Speaker 1: had felt more and more that talking intimately to them
38:37
Speaker 1: was an invasion of their right to grow up along
38:41
Speaker 1: their own lines, And they, too, he felt, were shy
38:44
Speaker 1: with him, defensively shy. Perhaps later on sons come back
38:49
Speaker 1: to a man. That was a later on that he
38:51
Speaker 1: would never know now, But he wished he could have
38:54
Speaker 1: let them know what had happened to him that troubled him.
38:59
Speaker 1: It would set him right in their eyes. It would
39:01
Speaker 1: perhaps be better for their characters if they did not think,
39:04
Speaker 1: as they were almost bound to think, that he had
39:07
Speaker 1: run away from them or lapsed mentally, or even fallen
39:10
Speaker 1: into bad company and been made away with. As it was,
39:15
Speaker 1: they might be worried in a shame needlessly, or put
39:18
Speaker 1: to expense to find out where he was, and that
39:21
Speaker 1: would be a pity. One had to die. Many men
39:26
Speaker 1: had died as he was going to die, fallen into
39:29
Speaker 1: strange places, lost in dark caverns, marooned on desert islands,
39:34
Speaker 1: astray in the Australian bush, imprisoned and left to perish.
39:39
Speaker 1: It was good to die without great anguish or insult.
39:43
Speaker 1: He thought of the myriads of men who had been
39:45
Speaker 1: crucified by the Romans. Was it eight thousand or was
39:49
Speaker 1: it ten thousand of the army of Spartacus that they
39:52
Speaker 1: killed in that fashion along the Apian way of negroes,
39:57
Speaker 1: hung in chains to starve, And of endless variety of
40:01
Speaker 1: such deaths, shocking to young imagination. Such things were more
40:06
Speaker 1: and more fearful and thought than in reality. It is
40:10
Speaker 1: all a matter of a little more pain or a
40:12
Speaker 1: little less pain. But God will not have any great
40:15
Speaker 1: waste of pain. Cross wheel, electric chair or bed of suffering.
40:21
Speaker 1: The thing is, you die and have done. It's pleasant
40:24
Speaker 1: to find that one could think stoutly of these things.
40:27
Speaker 1: It was good to be caught, and to find that
40:30
Speaker 1: one was not frantic. Mister Barnstable was surprised to find
40:34
Speaker 1: how little he cared, now that he faced the issue closely,
40:39
Speaker 1: whether he was immortal or he was not. He was
40:43
Speaker 1: quite prepared to find himself immortal, or at least not
40:47
Speaker 1: ending with death in whole or in part. It was
40:50
Speaker 1: ridiculous to be dogmatic and say that, apart an impression
40:54
Speaker 1: of his conscience and even of his willing, life might
40:58
Speaker 1: not go on in some fashion. But he found it
41:01
Speaker 1: impossible to imagine how that could be. Who was unimaginable
41:06
Speaker 1: was not to be anticipated. He had no fear of
41:09
Speaker 1: that continuation. He had no thought nor fear of the
41:13
Speaker 1: possibility of punishment or cruelty. The universe had at time
41:17
Speaker 1: seemed to him to be very carelessly put together, but
41:20
Speaker 1: he had never believed that it was the work of
41:23
Speaker 1: a malignant imbecile. It impressed him as immensely careless, but
41:28
Speaker 1: not as but not as dominatingly cruel. He had been
41:33
Speaker 1: what he had been, weak and limited and sometimes silly.
41:36
Speaker 1: But the punishment of these defects lay in the defects themselves.
41:41
Speaker 1: He ceased to think about his own death, began to
41:45
Speaker 1: think of life generally, its present lowliness, its valiant aspiration.
41:51
Speaker 1: He found himself regretting bitterly that he was not to
41:53
Speaker 1: see more of this utopian world, which was, in so
41:57
Speaker 1: many respects so near an intimation of what our own
42:00
Speaker 1: world may become. It had been very heartening to see
42:04
Speaker 1: human dreams and human ideals vindicated by realization, but it
42:09
Speaker 1: was distressing to have had the vision snatched away while
42:13
Speaker 1: still only beginning to examine it. He found himself asking
42:18
Speaker 1: questions that had no answers for him, about economics, about
42:22
Speaker 1: love and struggle. Anyhow, he was glad to have seen
42:25
Speaker 1: as much as he had. It was good to have
42:28
Speaker 1: been purged by this vision and altogether lifted out of
42:31
Speaker 1: the dreary hopelessness of mister Peeve, to have gotten life
42:36
Speaker 1: into perspective again. The passions and conflicts and discomforts of
42:41
Speaker 1: a d nineteen twenty one were the discomforts of the
42:44
Speaker 1: fever of an uninoculated world. The age of confusion on
42:49
Speaker 1: the Earth also would in its own time work itself out,
42:54
Speaker 1: thanks to a certain obscure and indomitable righteousness in the
42:58
Speaker 1: blood of the human type squatting in a hole in
43:02
Speaker 1: the cliff of the great Crag, with unclamable heights and
43:05
Speaker 1: depths above him and below, chilly, hungry, and comfortable. This
43:11
Speaker 1: thought was a profound comfort to the strangely constituted mind
43:14
Speaker 1: of mister Barnstable. But how miserably had he and his
43:19
Speaker 1: companions failed to rise to the great occasions of utopia.
43:24
Speaker 1: No one had raised an effectual hand to restrain the
43:27
Speaker 1: puerile imaginations of mister Catskill in the mere brutal aggressiveness
43:32
Speaker 1: of his companions. How invincible had Father Amerton headed for
43:36
Speaker 1: the role of the ranting, hating, persecuting, quarrel making priest.
43:42
Speaker 1: How pitifully weak and dishonest mister Burleye and himself scarcely better, disapproving,
43:49
Speaker 1: always and always in ineffective opposition. What an unintelligent beauty cow?
43:55
Speaker 1: That woman greeta gray was receptive, acquisitive, and pavnerable to
44:00
Speaker 1: any idea, but the idea of what was due to
44:02
Speaker 1: her as a yielding female lady Stella was of finer clay,
44:08
Speaker 1: but fired to no service. Women, he thought, had not
44:12
Speaker 1: been well represented in this chance expedition, Just one waster
44:16
Speaker 1: and one ineffective was that a fair sample of Earth's womankind.
44:23
Speaker 1: All the use these earthlings had had for Utopia was
44:26
Speaker 1: to turn it back as speedily as possible to the aggressions, subjugations, cruelties,
44:31
Speaker 1: and disorders of the Age of Confusion, to which they belonged.
44:36
Speaker 1: Serpentine and Saar, the man of scientific power and the
44:40
Speaker 1: man of healing, they had sought to make hostages to disorder,
44:44
Speaker 1: and failing that they had killed or sought to kill them.
44:49
Speaker 1: They had tried to bring back utopia to the state
44:52
Speaker 1: of Earth. And indeed, but for the folly, malice, and
44:55
Speaker 1: weakness of men, Earth was now utopia. The old Earth
45:00
Speaker 1: was utopia, now a garden in a glory, the earthly paradise,
45:05
Speaker 1: except that it was trampled to dust and ruined by
45:08
Speaker 1: its caskills, hunkers, barrelungas, ridleys, DuPonts and their kind. Against
45:14
Speaker 1: their hasty trampling folly, nothing was pitted, it seemed, in
45:18
Speaker 1: the whole wide world at present, but the whinings of
45:21
Speaker 1: the peeves, the acquiescent disapproval of the Burlahs, and such
45:26
Speaker 1: immeasurable and effectiveness as his own protest and a few
45:30
Speaker 1: writers and teachers, who produced results at present untraceable. Once more,
45:37
Speaker 1: mister Barnstaple found himself thinking of his old friend, the
45:41
Speaker 1: school inspector and schoolbook writer, who had worked so steadfastly,
45:45
Speaker 1: and broken down and died so pitifully. He had worked
45:49
Speaker 1: for utopia all his days. Were there hundreds or thousands
45:53
Speaker 1: of such utopia as yet on earth? What magic upheld them?
45:58
Speaker 1: I wish I could get some message through to them,
46:01
Speaker 1: said mister Barnstable, to hearten them, for it was true,
46:05
Speaker 1: though he himself had to starve and die like a
46:08
Speaker 1: fallen beast into a pit. Nevertheless, utopia triumphed and would triumph.
46:13
Speaker 1: The grabbers and fighters, the persecutors and patriots, the lynchers
46:18
Speaker 1: and boycotters, and all the riff raft of short sighted
46:22
Speaker 1: human violence crowded on to final defeat. Even in their
46:27
Speaker 1: lives they know no happiness. They drive with excitement to excitement,
46:31
Speaker 1: and from gratification to exhaustion. Their enterprises and successes, their
46:37
Speaker 1: wars and glories, flare and pass. Only the truth thing grows,
46:43
Speaker 1: the truth, the clear idea year by year and age
46:47
Speaker 1: by age, slowly and invincibly, as a diamond grows amidst
46:52
Speaker 1: the darkness and pressures of the earth. Where as the
46:55
Speaker 1: dawn grows amidst the guttering lights of some belated orgy,
47:00
Speaker 1: What would be the end of those poor little people
47:03
Speaker 1: up above there? Their hold on life was even more
47:06
Speaker 1: precarious than his own. For he might lie and starve
47:09
Speaker 1: here slowly for weeks before his mind gave its last flicker.
47:13
Speaker 1: But they had openly pitted themselves against the might and
47:17
Speaker 1: wisdom of Utopia, and even now the order power of
47:21
Speaker 1: that world must be closing in upon them. He still
47:24
Speaker 1: had a faint, irrational remorse for his betrayal of Catskill's ambush.
47:30
Speaker 1: He smiled now at the passionate conviction he had felt
47:33
Speaker 1: at the time that, if once Catskill could capture his hostages,
47:38
Speaker 1: Earth might prevail over Utopia. That conviction had rushed him
47:43
Speaker 1: into action. His weak cries had seemed to be all
47:46
Speaker 1: that was left to avert this monstrous disaster. But suppose
47:51
Speaker 1: he had not been there at all, or suppose he
47:54
Speaker 1: had obeyed the lingering instinct of fellowship that urged him
47:58
Speaker 1: to fight with the others. What then, when he recalled
48:02
Speaker 1: the sight of Cedar throwing mush about as one might
48:05
Speaker 1: throw a lapdog about, and the height and shape of Serpentine.
48:09
Speaker 1: He doubted whether even upon the stairs in the archway,
48:13
Speaker 1: it would have been possible for the Earthlings to have
48:15
Speaker 1: overpowered these two. The revolvers would have come into use
48:20
Speaker 1: just as they had come into use upon the slope,
48:23
Speaker 1: and Catskill would have got no hostages, but only two
48:27
Speaker 1: murdered men. How utterly silly the whole scheme of Catskill
48:32
Speaker 1: had been, But it was no sillier than the behavior
48:35
Speaker 1: of Catskill. Burleigh and the rest of the world statesmen
48:38
Speaker 1: had been on Earth during the last few years. At times,
48:42
Speaker 1: during the world agony of the Great War, it had
48:45
Speaker 1: seemed that utopia drew near to Earth. The black clouds
48:48
Speaker 1: and smoke of these dark years had been shot with
48:51
Speaker 1: a light of strange hopes, with the promise of a
48:54
Speaker 1: world reborn. But the nationalists, financiers, priests, and patriots had
49:00
Speaker 1: brought all those hopes to nothing. They had trusted to
49:03
Speaker 1: old poisons and infections, and to the weak resistances of
49:07
Speaker 1: the civilized spirit. They had counted their weapons and set
49:11
Speaker 1: their ambushes, and kept their women busy sowing flags of discord.
49:16
Speaker 1: For a time they had killed hope, but only for
49:19
Speaker 1: a time. For hope the redeemer of mankind. There is
49:22
Speaker 1: perpetual resurrection. Utopia will win, said mister Barnstaple. And for
49:28
Speaker 1: a time he sat listening to a sound he had
49:31
Speaker 1: heard before, without heeding it very greatly, a purring throb
49:35
Speaker 1: in the rocks about him, like the running of some
49:38
Speaker 1: great machine. It grew louder, and then faded down to
49:42
Speaker 1: the imperceptible. Again, his thoughts came back to his erstwhile companions.
49:49
Speaker 1: He hoped that they were not too miserable or afraid
49:51
Speaker 1: up there. He was particularly desirous that something should happen
49:55
Speaker 1: to keep up Lady Stella's courage. He worried affectionately about
50:00
Speaker 1: Lady Stella. For the rest. It would be as well
50:03
Speaker 1: if they remained actively combative to the end. Possibly they
50:07
Speaker 1: were all toiling at some preposterous and wildly hopeful defensive
50:11
Speaker 1: scheme of catskills, except mister Burleigh, who would be resting,
50:16
Speaker 1: convinced that for him at least there would still be
50:19
Speaker 1: a gentlemanly way out, and perhaps not much afraid if
50:23
Speaker 1: there wasn't, Amerton, impossibly Mush might lapse into a religious
50:28
Speaker 1: revival that would irritate the others. A little, or possibly
50:32
Speaker 1: even provide a mental opiate for Lady Stella in miss
50:36
Speaker 1: greetic gray, then for Pink there was wine in the cellar.
50:41
Speaker 1: They would follow the laws of their being. They would
50:44
Speaker 1: do the things that nature and habit would require them.
50:47
Speaker 1: What else was possible? Mister Barnstaple plunged into a metaphysical gulf.
50:54
Speaker 1: Presently he caught himself looking at his wriststatch. It was
50:57
Speaker 1: twenty minutes past twelve. Was looking at his watch more
51:01
Speaker 1: and more frequently, or time was going more slowly? Should
51:05
Speaker 1: he wind his watch or let it run down? He
51:09
Speaker 1: was already feeling very hungry. That could not be real hunger,
51:12
Speaker 1: yet it must be his imagination getting out of control
51:20
Speaker 1: and of Section eleven.