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The Sleeper Awakes Chapter 16 - The Monoplane · The H. G. Wells Library

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Speaker 1: Chapter sixteen of The Sleeper Awakes. This is a LibriVox recording.
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Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
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Speaker 1: by M. B. The Sleeper Awakes by H. G. Wells,
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Speaker 1: Chapter sixteen, The Monoplaine. The Flying Stages of London were
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Speaker 1: collected together in an irregular crescent on the southern side
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Speaker 1: of the river. They formed three groups of two each
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Speaker 1: and retained the names of ancient suburban hills or villages.
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Speaker 1: They were named in order, Roehampton, Wimbledon Park, Stratham, Norwood, Blackheath,
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Speaker 1: and Shooter's Hill. They were uniform structures, rising high above
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Speaker 1: the general roof surface. Each was about four thousand yards
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Speaker 1: long and a thousand broad, and constructed at the compound
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Speaker 1: of aluminum and iron that had replaced iron in architecture.
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Speaker 1: Their higher tiers formed an open work of girders through
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Speaker 1: which lifts and staircases ascended. The upper surface was a
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Speaker 1: uniform expanse with portions the starting carriers that could be
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Speaker 1: raised and were then able to run on very slightly
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Speaker 1: inclined rails to the end of the fabric. Graham went
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Speaker 1: to the flying stages by the public ways. He was
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Speaker 1: accompanied by Asano, his Japanese attendant. Lincoln was called away
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Speaker 1: by Ostrog, who was busy with his administrative concerns. A
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Speaker 1: strong guard of wind Vane police awaited the Master outside
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Speaker 1: the wind Vane offices, and they cleared a space for
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Speaker 1: him on the upper moving platform. His passage to the
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Speaker 1: flying stage was unexpected. Nevertheless, a considerable crowd gathered and
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Speaker 1: followed him to his destination. As he went along, he
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Speaker 1: could hear the people shouting his name, and saw numberless
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Speaker 1: men and women and children in blue come swarming up
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Speaker 1: the staircases in the central path, gesticulating and shouting. He
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Speaker 1: could not hear what they shouted. He was struck again
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Speaker 1: by the evident existence of a vulgar dialect among the
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Speaker 1: poor of the city. When at last he descended, his
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Speaker 1: guards were immediately surrounded by a dense, excited crowd. Afterwards,
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Speaker 1: it occurred to him that some had attempted to reach
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Speaker 1: him with petitions. His guards cleared a passage for him
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Speaker 1: with difficulty. He found a monoplane in charge of an
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Speaker 1: aeronaut awaiting him on the westward stage. Seen close, this
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Speaker 1: mechanism was no longer small as it lay on its
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Speaker 1: launching carrier upon the wide expanse of the flying stage.
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Speaker 1: Its aluminum body skeleton was as big as the hall
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Speaker 1: of a twenty ton yacht. Its lateral supporting sails, braced
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Speaker 1: and stayed with metal nerves, almost like the nerves of
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Speaker 1: a bees wing, and made of some sort of glassy
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Speaker 1: artificial membrane, cast their shadow over many hundreds of square yards.
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Speaker 1: The chairs for the engineer and his passenger hung free
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Speaker 1: to swing by a complex tackle within the protecting ribs
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Speaker 1: of the frame and well abaft the middle. The passenger's
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Speaker 1: chair was protected by a wind guard and guarded about
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Speaker 1: with metallic rods carrying air cushions. It could, if desired,
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Speaker 1: be completely closed in, but Graham was anxious for novel
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Speaker 1: experiences and desired that it should be left open. The
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Speaker 1: aeronaut sat behind a glass that sheltered his face. The
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Speaker 1: passenger could secure himself firmly in his seat, and this
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Speaker 1: was almost unavoidable on landing, or he could move along
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Speaker 1: by means of a little rail and rod to a
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Speaker 1: locker at the stem of the misi, where his personal luggage,
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Speaker 1: his wraps and restoratives were placed, and which also with
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Speaker 1: the seats, served as a make weight to the parts
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Speaker 1: of the central engine that projected to the propeller at
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Speaker 1: the stern. The flying stage about him was empty save
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Speaker 1: for Asano and their suite of attendants. Directed by the aeronaut,
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Speaker 1: he placed himself in his seat. Asano stepped through the
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Speaker 1: bars of the hull and stood below on the stage.
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Speaker 1: Waving his hand, he seemed to slide along the stage
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Speaker 1: to the right and vanish. The engine was humming loudly,
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Speaker 1: the propeller spinning, and for a second the stage and
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Speaker 1: the buildings beyond were gliding swiftly and horizontally past Graham's eye.
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Speaker 1: Then these things seemed to tilt up abruptly. He gripped
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Speaker 1: the little rods on either side of him instinctively. He
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Speaker 1: felt himself moving upward, heard the air whistle over the
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Speaker 1: top of the wind screen. The propeller screw moved with
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Speaker 1: powerful rhythmic impulses one two three paws one two three,
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Speaker 1: which the engineer controlled very delicately. The machine began a
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Speaker 1: quivering vibration that continued throughout the flight, and the roof
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Speaker 1: areas seemed running away to starboard very quickly and growing
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Speaker 1: rapidly smaller. He looked from the face of the engineer
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Speaker 1: through the ribs of the machine, looking sideways. There was
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Speaker 1: nothing very startling in what he saw. A rapid funicular
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Speaker 1: railway might have given the same sensations. He recognized the
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Speaker 1: council House and the Highgate Ridge, and then he looked
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Speaker 1: straight down between his feet. For a moment, physical terror
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Speaker 1: possessed him, a passionate sense of insecurity. He held tight
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Speaker 1: for a second or so, he could not lift his eyes.
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Speaker 1: Some hundred feet or more sheer below him was one
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Speaker 1: of the big windvanes of southwest London, and beyond it
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Speaker 1: the southernmost flying stage, crowded with little black dots. These
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Speaker 1: things seemed to be falling away from him. For a
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Speaker 1: second he had an impulse to pursue the earth. He
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Speaker 1: set his teeth, He lifted his eyes by a muscular effort,
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Speaker 1: and the moment of panic passed. He remained for a
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Speaker 1: space with his teeth set hard, his eyes staring into
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Speaker 1: the sky. Throb throb throb beat. Went the engine throb
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Speaker 1: throb throb beat. He grabbed his bars tightly, glanced at
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Speaker 1: the aeronaut and saw a smile upon his sun tanned face.
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Speaker 1: He smiled in return, perhaps a little artificially, a little strange.
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Speaker 1: At first, he shouted before he recalled his dignity, but
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Speaker 1: he dared not look down again. For some time he
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Speaker 1: stared over the aeronaut head, to where a rim of
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Speaker 1: vague blue horizon crept up the sky. For a little
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Speaker 1: while he could not banish the thought of possible accidents
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Speaker 1: from his mind. Throb throb throb beat. Suppose some trivial
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Speaker 1: screw went wrong in that supporting engine. Suppose he made
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Speaker 1: a grim effort to dismiss all such suppositions. After a while,
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Speaker 1: they did, at least abandon the foreground of his thoughts,
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Speaker 1: And up he went, steadily, higher and higher into the
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Speaker 1: clear air. Once the mental shock of moving unsupported through
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Speaker 1: the air was over, his sensation ceased to be unpleasant
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Speaker 1: became very speedily pleasurable. He had been warned of air sickness,
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Speaker 1: but he found the pulsating movement of the monoplane as
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Speaker 1: it drove up the faint southwest breeze was very little
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Speaker 1: in excess of the pitching of a boat head on
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Speaker 1: to broad rollers in a moderate gale, And he was
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Speaker 1: constitutionally a good sailor, and the keenness of the more
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Speaker 1: rarefied air into which they ascended produced a sense of
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Speaker 1: lightness and exhilaration. He looked up and saw the blue
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Speaker 1: sky above, fretted with serous clouds. His eye came cautiously
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Speaker 1: down through the ribs and bars to a shining flight
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Speaker 1: of white birds that hung in the lower sky for
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Speaker 1: a space. He watched these, Then, going lower and less apprehensively,
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Speaker 1: he saw the slender figure of the wind vane keeper's
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Speaker 1: crow's nest, shining golden in the sunlight, and growing smaller
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Speaker 1: every moment as his eye fell with more confidence. Now
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Speaker 1: there came a blue line of hills, and then London,
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Speaker 1: already to leeward, an intricate space of roofing. Its near
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Speaker 1: edge came sharp and clear, and banished his last apprehensions
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Speaker 1: in a shock of surprise, For the boundary of London
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Speaker 1: was like a wall, like a cliff, a steep fall
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Speaker 1: of three or four hundred feet, a frontage broken only
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Speaker 1: by terraces. Here and there a complex decorative facade, the
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Speaker 1: gradual passage of town into country through an extensive sponge
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Speaker 1: of suburbs, which were so characteristic a feature of the
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Speaker 1: great cities of the nineteenth century existed no longer. Nothing
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Speaker 1: remained of it here but a waste of ruins, variegated
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Speaker 1: and dense with thickets of the heterogeneous growths that at
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Speaker 1: once adorned the gardens of the belt, interspersed along leveled
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Speaker 1: brown patches of sown ground and verdant stretches of winter greens.
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Speaker 1: The latter even spread among the vestiges of houses, but
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Speaker 1: for the most part the reefs and scerries of ruins.
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Speaker 1: The wreckage of suburban villas stood among their streets and
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Speaker 1: roads queer islands amidst the leveled expanses of green and brown,
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Speaker 1: abandoned and indeed by the inhabitants years since, but too substantial,
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Speaker 1: it seemed to be cleared out of the way of
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Speaker 1: the wholesale horticultural mechanisms of the time. The vegetation of
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Speaker 1: this waste undulated in froth amidst the countless cells of
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Speaker 1: crumbling house walls, and broke along the foot of the
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Speaker 1: city wall in a surf of bramble and holly, and
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Speaker 1: ivy and teasel and tall grasses. Here and there gaudy
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Speaker 1: pleasure palaces towered amidst the puny remains of Victorian times
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Speaker 1: and cable ways slanted to them from the city that
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Speaker 1: winter day, they seemed deserted. Deserted too, were the artificial
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Speaker 1: gardens among the ruins. The city limits were indeed as
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Speaker 1: sharply defined as in the ancient days, when the gates
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Speaker 1: were shot at nightfall and the robber of Foemen prowled
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Speaker 1: through the very walls. A huge semi circular throat poured
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Speaker 1: out a vigorous traffic upon the Edamite Bath road. So
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Speaker 1: the first prospect of the world beyond the city flashed
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Speaker 1: on Graham and dwindled, And when at last he could
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Speaker 1: look vertically downward again, he saw below him the vegetable
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Speaker 1: fields of the Thames Valley, innumerable minute oblongs of ruddy brown,
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Speaker 1: intersected by shining threads the sewage ditches. His exhilaration increased rapidly,
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Speaker 1: became a sort of intoxication. He found himself drawing deep
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Speaker 1: breaths of air, laughing aloud, desiring to shout. After a time,
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Speaker 1: that desire became too strong for him, and he shouted.
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Speaker 1: They curved about towards the south. They drove with a
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Speaker 1: slight list to leeward, and with a slow alteration of movement,
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Speaker 1: first a short sharp ascent, and then a long downward
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Speaker 1: glide that was very swift and pleasing. During these downward glides,
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Speaker 1: the propeller was inactive. Altogether, the sense gave Graham a
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Speaker 1: glorious sense of successful effort. The descents through the rarefied
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Speaker 1: air were beyond all experience. He wanted never to leave
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Speaker 1: the upper air again. For a time he was intent
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Speaker 1: upon the landscape that ran swiftly northward beneath him. Its minute,
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Speaker 1: clear detail pleased him exceedingly. He was impressed by the
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Speaker 1: ruin of the houses that had once dotted the country,
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Speaker 1: by the vast, treeless expanse of country from which all
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Speaker 1: farms and villages had gone save for crumbling ruins. He
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Speaker 1: had known the thing was so, but seeing it so
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Speaker 1: was an altogether different matter. He tried to make out
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Speaker 1: familiar places within the hollow basin of the world below,
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Speaker 1: but at first he could distinguish no data. Now that
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Speaker 1: the Thames Valley was left behind. Soon, however, they were
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Speaker 1: driving over a sharp chalk hill that he recognized as
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Speaker 1: Guildford Hog's Back because of the familiar outline of the
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Speaker 1: gorge at its eastward end, and because of the ruins
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Speaker 1: of the town that rose steeply on either lip of
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Speaker 1: this gorge. And from that he made out other points
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Speaker 1: Leith Hill, the sandy wastes of Aldershot, and so forth,
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Speaker 1: save where the broad Edomite Portsmouth Road, thickly dotted with
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Speaker 1: rushing shapes, followed the course of the old railway. The
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Speaker 1: gorge of the way was choked with thickets. The whole
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Speaker 1: expanse of the Down's escarpment, so far as the gray
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Speaker 1: haze permitted him to see, was set with wind wheels,
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Speaker 1: to which the largest of the city was but a
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Speaker 1: younger brother. They stirred with a stately motion before the
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Speaker 1: southwest wind. And here and there were patches dotted with
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Speaker 1: the sheep of the British Food Trust. And here and
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Speaker 1: there a mounted shepherd made a spot of black. Then,
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Speaker 1: rushing under the stern of the plain, came the wield
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Speaker 1: and heights the line of Hindhead, Pitch Hill and Leith Hill,
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Speaker 1: with a second row of wind wheels that seemed striving
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Speaker 1: to rob the Downland whirlers of their share of breeze.
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Speaker 1: The purple heather was speckled with yellow gorse, and on
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Speaker 1: the further side, a drove of black oxen stampeded before
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Speaker 1: a couple of mounted men. Swiftly these swept behind and
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Speaker 1: dwindled and lost color and became scarce, moving specks that
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Speaker 1: were swallowed up in haze. And when these had vanished
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Speaker 1: in the distance, Graham heard a pewet wailing. Close at hand.
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Speaker 1: He perceived he was now above the South Downs, and
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Speaker 1: staring over his shoulder, he saw the battlements of Portsmouth
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Speaker 1: landing stage towering over the ridge of portsdown Hill. In
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Speaker 1: another moment, there came into sight a spread of shipping
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Speaker 1: like floating cities, the little white cliffs of the Needles,
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Speaker 1: dwarfed in sunlit, and the gray and glittering waters of
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Speaker 1: the narrow sea. They seemed to leap the solent in
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Speaker 1: a moment, and in a few seconds the isle of
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Speaker 1: white was running past, and then beneath him spread a
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Speaker 1: wider and wider extent of sea. Here purple with the
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Speaker 1: shadow of a cloud, here gray, here a burnished mirror,
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Speaker 1: and here a spread of cloudy greenish blue. The isle
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Speaker 1: of white grew smaller and smaller. In a few more minutes.
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Speaker 1: A strip of gray haze detached itself from other strips
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Speaker 1: that were clouds, descended out of the sky and became
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Speaker 1: a coast line, sunlit and pleasant, the coast of northern France.
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Speaker 1: It rose, it took color, became definite and detailed, and
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Speaker 1: the counterpart of the Downland of England was speeding by below.
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Speaker 1: In a little time, as it seemed, Paris came above
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Speaker 1: the horizon and hung there for a space, and sank
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Speaker 1: out of sight again as the monoplane circled about to
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Speaker 1: the north. But he perceived the Eiffel Tower still standing,
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Speaker 1: and beside it a huge dome surmounted by a pin
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Speaker 1: point colossus. And he perceived, too, though he did not
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Speaker 1: understand it at the time, a slanting drift of smoke.
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Speaker 1: The aeronaut said something about troubling the under ways that
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Speaker 1: Graham did not heed. But he marked the minarets and
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Speaker 1: towers and slender masses that streamed skyward above the city
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Speaker 1: wind vanes, and knew that in the matter of grace,
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Speaker 1: at least Paris still kept in front of her larger rival.
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Speaker 1: And even as he looked, a pale blue shape ascended
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Speaker 1: very swiftly from the city, like a dead leaf driving
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Speaker 1: up before a gale. It curved round and soared towards them,
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Speaker 1: growing rapidly larger and larger. The aeronaut was saying something,
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Speaker 1: What said Graham? Loth to take his eyes from this
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Speaker 1: lad an aeroplane sire, bawled the aeronaut, pointing. They rose
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Speaker 1: and curved about northward as it drew, nearer nearer it came,
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Speaker 1: and nearer, larger and larger. The throb throb throb beat
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Speaker 1: of the monoplane's flight that had seemed so potent and
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Speaker 1: so swift, suddenly appeared slow by comparison with this tremendous rush.
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Speaker 1: How great the monster seemed, how swift and steady. It
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Speaker 1: passed quite closely beneath them, driving along silently a vast
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Speaker 1: spread of wire neted, translucent wings, a thing alive. Graham
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Speaker 1: had a momentary glimpse of the rows and rows of
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Speaker 1: wrapped up passengers slung in their little cradles behind wind screens,
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Speaker 1: of a white clothed engineer crawling against the gale along
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Speaker 1: the ladderway, of spouting engines beating together, of the whirling
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Speaker 1: wind screw, and of a wide waste of wing. He
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Speaker 1: exulted in the sight, and in an instant the thing
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Speaker 1: had passed. It rose slightly and their own little wings
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Speaker 1: swayed in the rush of its flight. It fell and
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Speaker 1: grew smaller, scarcely had they moved, as it seemed before,
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Speaker 1: it was again only a flat blue thing that dwindled
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Speaker 1: in the sky. This was the aeroplane that went to
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Speaker 1: and fro between London and Paris in fair weather, and
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Speaker 1: in peaceful times. It came and went four times a day.
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Speaker 1: They beat across the channel, slowly, as it seemed now
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Speaker 1: to Graham's enlarged ideas, and beechy head rose grayly to
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Speaker 1: the left of them. Land called the aeronaut, his voice
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Speaker 1: small against the whistling of the air over the wind screen.
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Speaker 1: Not yet, bawled Graham, laughing, not Land yet. I want
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Speaker 1: to learn more of this machine, I meant, said the aeronaut.
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Speaker 1: I want to learn more of this machine, repeated Graham.
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Speaker 1: I'm coming to you, he said, and had flung himself
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Speaker 1: free of his chair and taken a step along the
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Speaker 1: guarded rail between them. He stopped for a moment, and
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Speaker 1: his color changed, and his hands tightened. Another step, and
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Speaker 1: he was clinging close to the aeronaut. He felt a
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Speaker 1: weight on his shoulder, the pressure of the air. His
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Speaker 1: hat was a whirling speck behind the wind came in
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Speaker 1: gusts over his windscreen and blew his hair and streamers
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Speaker 1: past his cheek. The aeronaut made some hasty adjustments for
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Speaker 1: the shifting of the centers of gravity and pressure. I
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Speaker 1: want to have these things explained, said Graham. What do
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Speaker 1: you do when you move that engine forward? The aeronaut hesitated,
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Speaker 1: then he answered, they are complex, sire. I don't mind,
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Speaker 1: shouted Graham. I don't mind. There was a moment's pause.
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Speaker 1: Aeronautics is the secret, the privilege. I know, but I'm
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Speaker 1: the master, and I mean to know. He laughed, full
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Speaker 1: of this novel realization of power that was his gift
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Speaker 1: from the upper air. The monoplane curved about, and the
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Speaker 1: keen fresh wind cut across Graham's face, and his garment
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Speaker 1: lugged at his body. As the stem pointed round to
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Speaker 1: the west, the two men looked into each other's eyes. Sire,
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Speaker 1: there are rules, not where I am concerned, said Graham.
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Speaker 1: You seem to forget. The aeronaut scrutinized his face. No,
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Speaker 1: he said, I do not forget, sire. But in all
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Speaker 1: the earth, no man who's a sworn aeronaut has ever
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Speaker 1: a chance they come as passengers. I have heard something
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Speaker 1: of the sort, but I'm not going to argue these points.
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Speaker 1: Do you know why I have slept two hundred years
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Speaker 1: to fly, sire, said the aeronaut. The rules. If I
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Speaker 1: break the rules, Graham waved the penalties aside, then if
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Speaker 1: you will watch me, No, said Graham, swaying and gripping
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Speaker 1: tight as the machine lifted its nose again for an assent.
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Speaker 1: That's not my game. I want to do it myself.
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Speaker 1: Do it myself. If I smash for it, no, I
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Speaker 1: will see. I am going to clamber by this to
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Speaker 1: come and share your seat. Steady. I mean to fly
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Speaker 1: of my own accord. If I smash at the end
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Speaker 1: of it, I will have something to pay for my sleep.
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Speaker 1: Of all other things in my past, it was my
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Speaker 1: dream to fly. Now keep your balance. A dozen spies
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Speaker 1: are watching me, Sire. Graham's temper was at an end.
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Speaker 1: Perhaps he chose it should be he war. He swung
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Speaker 1: himself round the intervening mass of levers, and the monoplane swayed.
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Speaker 1: Am I master of the earth, he said? Or is
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Speaker 1: it your society? Now take your hands off those levers
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Speaker 1: and hold my wrists. Yes so, and now how do
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Speaker 1: we turn her nose down to the glide? Sire, said
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Speaker 1: the aeronaut. What is it You will protect me? Lord? Yes,
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Speaker 1: if I have to burn London now. And with that promise,
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Speaker 1: Graham bought his first lesson in aerial navigation. It's clearly
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Speaker 1: to your advantage this journey, he said, with a loud laugh,
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Speaker 1: for the air was like strong wine. To teach me quickly.
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Speaker 1: And well do I pull this? Ah? So, hullo back, sire,
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Speaker 1: back back right, one, two, three? Good god, ah, up
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Speaker 1: she go. But this is living. And now the machine
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Speaker 1: began to dance the strangest figures in the air. Now
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Speaker 1: it would sweep round a spiral of scarcely a hundred
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Speaker 1: yards diameter, now, rush up into the air, and swoop
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Speaker 1: down again, steeply, swiftly, falling like a hawk, to recover
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Speaker 1: in a rushing loop that swept it high again. In
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Speaker 1: one of these descents, it seemed driving straight at the
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Speaker 1: drifting park of balloons in the southeast, and only curved
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Speaker 1: about and cleared them by a sudden recovery of dexterity.
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Speaker 1: The extraordinary swiftness and smoothness of the motion, the extraordinary
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Speaker 1: effect of the rarefied air upon his constitution threw Graham
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Speaker 1: into a careless fury. But at last a queer incident
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Speaker 1: came to sober him, to send him flying down once
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Speaker 1: more to the crowded life below with all its dark,
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Speaker 1: insoluble riddles. As he swooped came a tap and something
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Speaker 1: flying past dust, and a drop like a drop of rain.
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Speaker 1: Then as he went down he saw something like a
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Speaker 1: white rag whirling down in his wake. What was that?
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Speaker 1: He asked, I did not see. The aeronaut glanced and
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Speaker 1: then clutched at the lever to recover, for they were
24:18
Speaker 1: sweeping down when the monoplane was rising again. He drew
24:23
Speaker 1: a deep breath and replied that, and he indicated the
24:28
Speaker 1: white things still fluttering down was a swan. I never
24:33
Speaker 1: saw it, said Graham. The aeronaut made no answer, and
24:37
Speaker 1: Graham saw little drops upon his forehead. They drove horizontally
24:42
Speaker 1: while Graham clambered back to the passenger's place out of
24:45
Speaker 1: the lash of the wind. And then came a swift
24:49
Speaker 1: rush down, with the wind screw whirling to check their fall,
24:53
Speaker 1: and the flying stage growing broad and dark before them,
24:58
Speaker 1: the sun sinking over the chalk hills in the west,
25:01
Speaker 1: flew with them, and left the sky a blaze of gold.
25:06
Speaker 1: Soon men could be seen as little specks. He heard
25:10
Speaker 1: a noise coming up to meet him, a noise like
25:12
Speaker 1: the sound of waves upon a pebbly beach, and saw
25:16
Speaker 1: that the roofs of the flying stage were dense with
25:19
Speaker 1: his people rejoicing over his safe return. A black mass
25:24
Speaker 1: was crushed together under the stage, a darkness stippled with
25:27
Speaker 1: innumerable faces, and quivering with the minute oscillation of waved
25:32
Speaker 1: white handkerchiefs and waving hands. End of Chapter sixteen.