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The War in the Air Chapter 7 Part 7 · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter seven, Part seven of War in the Air. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by doctor Heather Hamptill. War in
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  Speaker 1: the Air by H. G. Wells, Chapter seven, Part seven.
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  Speaker 1: Bert got the news last, and chiefly and broken English,
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  Speaker 1: from a linguist among his mates. It was only far
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  Speaker 1: on in the night that the weary telegrafist got an
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  Speaker 1: answer to his calls. But then the messages came clear
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  Speaker 1: and strong, and such news it was, I say, said
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  Speaker 1: Bert at his breakfast, amidst a great clamor tell us
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  Speaker 1: a bit. All de vorld is at voor, said the linguist,
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  Speaker 1: waving his cocoa in an illustrative manner. All de vorlt
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  Speaker 1: is at vor. Bert stared southward into the dawn. It
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  Speaker 1: did not seem so all de vorlt is at vor.
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  Speaker 1: De half burne Berlin, deh burn London, de half burned Hamburg,
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  Speaker 1: and Paris. Chapan has burned San Francisco. We have made
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  Speaker 1: a camp at Niagara dot is what they are telling us.
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  Speaker 1: China has caught chalk and flier at Muschuche beyond counting
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  Speaker 1: all de vorlt is at voor gall, said Bert. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: said the linguist, drinking his cocoa burnt up London, ave
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  Speaker 1: they like we did New York. It's buzz an bombardiment.
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  Speaker 1: They don't say anything about a place called Clapham or
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  Speaker 1: bun Hill, do they? I have heard nodding, said the linguist.
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  Speaker 1: That was all Bert could get for a time. But
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  Speaker 1: the excitement of all the men about him was contagious,
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  Speaker 1: and presently he saw Kurt standing alone, hands behind him
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  Speaker 1: and looking at one of the distant waterfalls. Very steadfastly
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  Speaker 1: he went up and saluted soldier fashion beg pardon, lieutenant,
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  Speaker 1: he said. Kurt turned his face. It was unusually grave
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  Speaker 1: that morning. I was just thinking I would like to
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  Speaker 1: see that waterfall closer, he said. It reminds me what
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  Speaker 1: do you want? I can't make ed or tale of
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  Speaker 1: what they're tellin, sir, Would you mind tellin me the news?
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  Speaker 1: Damn the news, said Kurt. You'll get news enough before
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  Speaker 1: the day's out. It's the end of the world. They're
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  Speaker 1: sending the graf Zeppelin for us. She'll be here by morning.
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  Speaker 1: And we ought to be at niagara or eternal smash
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  Speaker 1: within eight and forty hours. I want to look at
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  Speaker 1: that waterfall. You'd better come with me. Have you had
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  Speaker 1: your rations? Yes, sir, very well. Come and musing profoundly,
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  Speaker 1: Kurt led the way across the rocks towards the distant waterfall.
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  Speaker 1: For a time, Bert walked behind him in the character
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  Speaker 1: of an escort. Then, as they passed out of the
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  Speaker 1: atmosphere of the encampment, Kurt lagged for him to come alongside.
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  Speaker 1: We shall be back in it all in two days time,
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  Speaker 1: he said. And it's a devil of a war to
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  Speaker 1: go back to. That's the news. The world's gone mad.
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  Speaker 1: Our fleet beat the Americans the night we got disabled.
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  Speaker 1: That's clear. We lost eleven eleven airships certain and all
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  Speaker 1: their airplanes got smashed. God knows how much we smashed
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  Speaker 1: or how many we killed. But that was only the beginning.
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  Speaker 1: Our start's been like firing a magazine. Every count was
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  Speaker 1: hiding flying machines. They're fighting in the air all over Europe,
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  Speaker 1: all over the world. The Japanese and Chinese have joined in.
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  Speaker 1: That's the great fact, that's the supreme fact. They've pounced
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  Speaker 1: into our little quarrels. The Yellow Peril was apparel. After all,
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  Speaker 1: they've got thousands of airships. They're all over the world.
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  Speaker 1: We bombarded London and Paris, and now the French and
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  Speaker 1: English have smashed up Berlin, and now Asia is at
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  Speaker 1: us all and on top of us all it's Mania,
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  Speaker 1: China on top and they don't know where to stop.
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  Speaker 1: It's limitless. It's the last confusion. They're bombarding capitals, smashing
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  Speaker 1: up dockyards and factories, mines and fleets. Did they do
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  Speaker 1: much to London, Sir Bert, Heaven knows? He said no
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  Speaker 1: more for a time. This Labrador seems a quiet place,
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  Speaker 1: he resumed at last. I'm half a mind to stay here.
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  Speaker 1: Can't do that. No, I've got to see it through.
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  Speaker 1: You've got to every one. But why, I tell you,
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  Speaker 1: our world's gone to pieces. There's no way out of it,
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  Speaker 1: no way back. Here we are. We're like mice caught
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  Speaker 1: in a house on fire. We're like cattle overtaken by
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  Speaker 1: a flood. Presently we shall be picked up and back
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  Speaker 1: we shall go into fighting. We shall kill and smash again.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps it's a China Japanese air fleet this time, and
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  Speaker 1: the odds are against us. Our turns will come. What
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  Speaker 1: will happen to you? I don't know, But for myself
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  Speaker 1: I know quite well I shall be killed. You'll be
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  Speaker 1: all right, said Bert, after a queer pause, No, said Kurt,
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to be killed. I didn't know it before,
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  Speaker 1: but this morning, at dawn, I knew it as though
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  Speaker 1: i'd been told. How I tell you, I know? But
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  Speaker 1: how could you know? I know? Like being told, like
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  Speaker 1: being certain? I know, he repeated, and for a time
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  Speaker 1: they walked in silence towards the waterfall. Kurt, wrapped in
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  Speaker 1: his thoughts, walked heedlessly, and at last broke out again.
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  Speaker 1: I've always felt young before, smallways, but this morning I
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  Speaker 1: feel old, old, so old, nearer to death than old
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  Speaker 1: men feel. And I've always thought life was a lark.
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  Speaker 1: It isn't. This sort of thing has always been happening.
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  Speaker 1: I suppose these things, wars and earthquakes that sweep across
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  Speaker 1: all the decency of life. It's just as though I
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  Speaker 1: had woke up to it all for the first time.
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  Speaker 1: Every night since we were at New York, I've dreamt
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  Speaker 1: of it, and it's always been so. It's the way
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  Speaker 1: of life. People are torn away from the people they
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  Speaker 1: care for, homes are smashed. Creatures full of life and memories,
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  Speaker 1: and little peculiar gifts are scalded and smashed and torn
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  Speaker 1: to pieces, and starved and spoiled. London, Berlin, San Francisco.
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  Speaker 1: Think of all the human histories we ended in New York,
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  Speaker 1: and the others go on again, as though such things
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  Speaker 1: weren't possible. As I went on, like animals, Just like animals,
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  Speaker 1: he said nothing for a long time, and then he
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  Speaker 1: dropped out. The Prince is a lunatic. They came to
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  Speaker 1: a place where they had to climb, and then to
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  Speaker 1: a long peat level beside a rivulet. There a quantity
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  Speaker 1: of delicate, little pink flowers caught Bert's eye. Gaw, he said,
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  Speaker 1: and stooped to pick one. In a place like this,
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  Speaker 1: Kurt stopped and half turned his face winced. I never
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  Speaker 1: see such a flower, said Bert. It's so delicate. Pick
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  Speaker 1: some if you want to, said Kurt. Bert did so,
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  Speaker 1: while Kurt stood and watched him. Funny how one always
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  Speaker 1: wants to pick flowers, said Bert. Kurt had nothing to
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  Speaker 1: add to that. They went on again without talking for
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  Speaker 1: a long time. At last they came to a rocky hummock,
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  Speaker 1: from which the view of the waterfall opened out there,
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  Speaker 1: Kurt stopped and seated himself on a rock. That's much
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  Speaker 1: as I wanted to see, he explained. It isn't very like,
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  Speaker 1: but it's like enough. Like what another waterfall I knew.
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  Speaker 1: He asked a question abruptly, got a girl, small ways
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  Speaker 1: funny thing, said Bert. Those flowers, I suppose I was
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  Speaker 1: just thinking of her. So was I what Edna. No,
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  Speaker 1: I was thinking of my Edna. We've all got Edna's,
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  Speaker 1: I suppose for our imaginations to play about. This was
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  Speaker 1: a girl, But all that's past forever. It's hard to
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  Speaker 1: think I can't see her, just for a minute, just
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  Speaker 1: to let her know I'm thinking of her. Very likely,
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  Speaker 1: said Bert. You'll see her all right, No, said Kurt,
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  Speaker 1: with decision. I know I met her, he went on.
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  Speaker 1: In a place like this, the Alps Engstlen Alp, there's
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  Speaker 1: a waterfall rather like this one, a broad waterfall down
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  Speaker 1: towards in her kirchin. That's why I came up here
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  Speaker 1: this morning. We slipped away and had half a day
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  Speaker 1: together beside it, and we picked flowers, just such flowers
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  Speaker 1: as you picked the same for all I know, and gentsien,
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  Speaker 1: I know said Bert. Me and Edna we done things
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  Speaker 1: like that flowers, and all that seems years off now.
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  Speaker 1: She was beautiful and daring and shy. Mine got. I
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  Speaker 1: could hardly hold myself for the desire to see her
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  Speaker 1: and hear her voice again before I die. Where is she?
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  Speaker 1: Look here, Smallways, I shall write a sort of letter,
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  Speaker 1: And there's her portrait. He touched his breast pocket. You'll
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  Speaker 1: see her again, all right, said Bert. No, I shall
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  Speaker 1: never see her again. I don't understand why people should
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  Speaker 1: meet just to be torn apart. But I know she
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  Speaker 1: and I will never meet again. That I know, as
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  Speaker 1: surely as the sun will rise and that cascade comes
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  Speaker 1: shining over the rocks. As I'm dead and done. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: it's all foolishness and haste and violence and cruel folly,
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  Speaker 1: stupidity and blundering, hate and selfish ambition, all the things
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  Speaker 1: that men have done, all the things they will ever do, Got,
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  Speaker 1: small Ways. What a muddle and confusion. Life has always been.
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  Speaker 1: The battles and massacres and disasters, the hates and harsh acts,
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  Speaker 1: the murders and sweatings, the lynchings and cheatings. Oh, this morning,
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  Speaker 1: I'm tired of it. All as though I just found
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  Speaker 1: it out for the first time. I have found it out.
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  Speaker 1: When a man is tired of life, I suppose it's
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  Speaker 1: time for him to die. I've lost heart, and death
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  Speaker 1: is over me. Death is close to me, and I
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  Speaker 1: know I have got to end. But think of all
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  Speaker 1: the hopes I had only a little time ago, the
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  Speaker 1: sense of fine beginnings. It was all a sham. There
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  Speaker 1: were no beginnings. We're just ant hills and ant hill
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  Speaker 1: cities and a world that doesn't matter, that goes on
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  Speaker 1: and rambles into nothingness. New York, New York doesn't even
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  Speaker 1: strike me as horrible. New York was nothing but an
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  Speaker 1: ant hill kick to pieces by a fool. Think of it,
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  Speaker 1: small ways. There's war everywhere. There's smashing up civilization before
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  Speaker 1: they have made it, the sort of the thing that
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  Speaker 1: English did at Alexandria, the Japanese at Port Arthur, the
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  Speaker 1: French at Casablanca. It's going on everywhere, everywhere down in
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  Speaker 1: South America, even they are fighting among themselves. No place
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  Speaker 1: is safe, no place is at peace. There is no
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  Speaker 1: place where a woman and her daughter can hide and
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  Speaker 1: be at peace. The war comes through the air. Bombs
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  Speaker 1: drop in the night, quiet people go out in the
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  Speaker 1: morning and see air fleets passing overhead. Dripping death, dripping death.
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  Speaker 1: End of Chapter seven, Part seven recording by doctor Heather Hampton,