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The Food of the Gods and How it Came to Earth Book 3 Chapter 4 - Redwood's Two Days · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Book three, chapter four of The Food of the Gods
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  Speaker 1: and How It Came to Earth. This is the 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 Alexey Talander Davis, California. The Food of the Gods
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  Speaker 1: and How It Came to Earth by H. G. Wells,
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  Speaker 1: Book three, chapter four, Redwood's Two Days One. So soon
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  Speaker 1: as Catahan knew the moment for grasping as Nettle had come,
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  Speaker 1: he took the law into his own hands and said
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  Speaker 1: to arrest Cosser and Redwood. Redwoods was there for the taking.
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  Speaker 1: He had been undergoing operation in the side, and the
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  Speaker 1: doctors had kept all disturbing things from him until his
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  Speaker 1: convalescence was assured. Now they had released him. He was
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  Speaker 1: just out of bed, sitting in a fire warned room,
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  Speaker 1: with a heap of newspapers about him, reading for the
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  Speaker 1: first time of the agitation that had swept the country
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  Speaker 1: into the hands of Cataham, and of the trouble that
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  Speaker 1: was darkening over with the princess and his son. It
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  Speaker 1: was in the morning of the day when young Cattles died,
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  Speaker 1: and when the policemen tried to stop young Redwood on
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  Speaker 1: his way to the princess, the latest newspapers Redwood had
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  Speaker 1: did but vaguely prefigure these imminent things. He was rereading
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  Speaker 1: these first adumbrations of his disaster with a sinking heart,
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  Speaker 1: reading the shadow of death more and more perceptibly into them,
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  Speaker 1: reading to occupy his mind until further news should come.
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  Speaker 1: When the officers followed the servant into his room, he
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  Speaker 1: looked up eagerly. I thought it was an early evening paper,
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  Speaker 1: he said, then, standing up with a swift change of manner,
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  Speaker 1: what's this? And after that Redwood had no news of
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  Speaker 1: anything for two days. They had come with a vehicle
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  Speaker 1: to take him away, but when it became evident that
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  Speaker 1: he was ill, it was decided to leave him for
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  Speaker 1: a day or so until he could be safely removed,
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  Speaker 1: and his house was taken over by the police and
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  Speaker 1: converted into a temporary prison. It was the same house
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  Speaker 1: in which Giant Redwood had been born, and in which
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  Speaker 1: Heracicleophorbia had for the first time been given to a
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  Speaker 1: human being, and Redwood had now been a widower and
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  Speaker 1: had lived alone in it eight years he had become
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  Speaker 1: an iron gray man with the little pointed gray beard
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  Speaker 1: and still active brown eyes. He was slender and soft
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  Speaker 1: voice as he had ever been, but his features had
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  Speaker 1: now that indefinable quality that comes of brooding of a
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  Speaker 1: mighty things. To the arresting officer, his appearance was in
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  Speaker 1: impressive contrast to the enormity of his offenses. Here's this, fellow,
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  Speaker 1: said the officer in command to his next subordinate, has
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  Speaker 1: done his level best to bust up everything, and he's
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  Speaker 1: got a face like a quiet country gentleman. And here
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  Speaker 1: is Judge Hangbrow, keeping everything nice and in order for
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  Speaker 1: every one, and he's got ahead like a og. Then
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  Speaker 1: their manners, one all consideration, and the other snort and grunt,
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  Speaker 1: which Judge shows you. Doesn't it that appearances aught to
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  Speaker 1: be gone upon whatever else you do? But his praise
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  Speaker 1: of Redwood's consideration was presently dashed. The officers found in
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  Speaker 1: troublesome at first, until they had made it clear that
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  Speaker 1: it was useless for him to ask questions or beg
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  Speaker 1: for papers. They made a sort of inspection of his study, indeed,
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  Speaker 1: and cleared away even the papers he had. Redward's voice
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  Speaker 1: was high and expostulatory. But don't you see, he said,
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  Speaker 1: over and over again, it's my son, my only son,
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  Speaker 1: that is in this trouble. It isn't the food I
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  Speaker 1: care for, but my son. I wish indeed, I could
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  Speaker 1: tell you, sir, said the officer, But our orders are strict.
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  Speaker 1: Who gave the orders cried wowood ah that, sir, said.
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  Speaker 1: The officer moved towards the door. He's going up and
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  Speaker 1: down his room, said the second officer. When it superior
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  Speaker 1: came down. That's all right, he'll walk it off a bit.
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  Speaker 1: I hope he will, said the chief officer. The fact
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  Speaker 1: is I didn't see it in that light before. But
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  Speaker 1: this here, giant, what's been going on with the princess?
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  Speaker 1: You know it's this man's son. The two regarded one another,
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  Speaker 1: and the third policeman first base, then it's a bit
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  Speaker 1: rough on him, The third policeman said, it became out
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  Speaker 1: of the redwood. Had had still imperfectly apprehended the fact
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  Speaker 1: that an iron curtain had dropped between him and the
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  Speaker 1: outer world. They heard him go to the door, try
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  Speaker 1: the handle and ride of the lock. And then the
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  Speaker 1: voice of the officer who was stationed on the landing,
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  Speaker 1: telling him, it was no good to do that. Then
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  Speaker 1: afterwards they heard him at the windows and saw the
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  Speaker 1: man outside looking up. It's no good that way, said
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  Speaker 1: the second officer. Then Redwood began upon the bill. The
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  Speaker 1: senior officer went up and next, playing very patiently, that
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  Speaker 1: it could do no good to ring the bell like that,
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  Speaker 1: and if it was rung for nothing now it might
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  Speaker 1: be disregarded presently when he had need of something any
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  Speaker 1: reasonable attendant, sir, the officer said, But fearing it just
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  Speaker 1: by way, protess, we shall be obliged, sir, to disconnect.
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  Speaker 1: The last word the officer heard was Redwood's high pitch.
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  Speaker 1: But at least you might tell me if my son
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  Speaker 1: two after that, Redwood spent most of his time at
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  Speaker 1: the windows, but the windows offered him little of the
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  Speaker 1: march of events outside. It was a quiet street at
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  Speaker 1: all times, and that day was unusually quiet. Scarcely a cab,
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  Speaker 1: scarcely a tradesman's cart passed all that morning. Now and
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  Speaker 1: then men went by without any distinctive error of events.
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  Speaker 1: Now and then the little group of children, a nurse
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  Speaker 1: maid and a woman going shopping, and so forth, they
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  Speaker 1: came on to the stage right or left up or
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  Speaker 1: down the street with an exasperazing suggestion of indifference to
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  Speaker 1: any concerns more spacious than their own. They would discover
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  Speaker 1: the police guarded house with amazement, and exit in the
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  Speaker 1: opposite direction, where the great trusses of a giant hydrained
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  Speaker 1: jo hung up across the pavement, stirring back or pointing.
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  Speaker 1: Now and then a man would come and ask one
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  Speaker 1: of the policemen a question and get a curt reply. Opposite,
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  Speaker 1: the houses seemed dead. A housemaid appeared once at a
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  Speaker 1: bedroom window and stead for a space, and it occurred
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  Speaker 1: to Redwood to signal to her for a time. She
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  Speaker 1: watched his gestures as if with interest, and made a
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  Speaker 1: vague response to them, then looked over his shoulders suddenly
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  Speaker 1: and turned and went away. An old man hobbled out
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  Speaker 1: of number thirty seven and came down the steps and
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  Speaker 1: went off to the right, all together without looking up.
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  Speaker 1: For ten minutes, the only occupant of the road was
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  Speaker 1: a cat. With such events that interminable momentous morning lengthened out.
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  Speaker 1: About twelve there came a bawling of news vendors from
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  Speaker 1: the adjacent road, but it passed contrary to their wont
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  Speaker 1: they left Redwood Street alone, and a suspicion dawned upon
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  Speaker 1: him that the police were guarding the end of the street.
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  Speaker 1: He tried to open the window, but this brought a
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  Speaker 1: policeman of the room forthwith the clock of the parish
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  Speaker 1: church struck twelve, and after an abyss of time one
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  Speaker 1: they mocked him with lunch. He ate a mouthful and
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  Speaker 1: tumbled the food about a little in order to get
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  Speaker 1: it taken away, drank freely of whiskey, and then took
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  Speaker 1: a chair went back to the window. The minutes expanded
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  Speaker 1: into gray immensities, and for a time perhaps he slept.
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  Speaker 1: He woke with a vague impression of remote concussions. He
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  Speaker 1: perceived a rattling of the windows, like the quiver of
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  Speaker 1: an earthquake, that lasted for a minute or so and
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  Speaker 1: died away. Then, after a silence of return, then it
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  Speaker 1: died away again. He fancied it might be merely the
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  Speaker 1: passage of some heavy vehicle along the main road. What
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  Speaker 1: else could it be? After a time he began to
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  Speaker 1: doubt whether he had heard this sound. He began to
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  Speaker 1: reason interminably with himself, why, after all, was he seized
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  Speaker 1: Kataham had been in office two days, just long enough
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  Speaker 1: to grasp his nettle. Grasp his nettle, grasp his giant nettle.
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  Speaker 1: The refrain once started, sang through his mind and would
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  Speaker 1: not be dismissed. What, after all, could Kadahan do? He
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  Speaker 1: was a religious man. He was bound in a sort
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  Speaker 1: of way by that not to do violence without a cause.
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  Speaker 1: Grasp his nettle. I Perhaps, for example, the princess was
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  Speaker 1: to be seized and sent abroad. There might be trouble
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  Speaker 1: with his son, in which case, But why had he
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  Speaker 1: been arrested? Was? Why was it necessary to keep him
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  Speaker 1: in ignorance of a thing like that? The thing suggested
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  Speaker 1: something more extensive. Perhaps, for example, they meant to lay
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  Speaker 1: all the giants by the heels. They were all to
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  Speaker 1: be arrested together. They had been hints of that in
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  Speaker 1: the election speeches, and then no doubt they got costs her. Also,
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  Speaker 1: Canahan was a religious man. Redwood clung to that. The
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  Speaker 1: back of his mind was a black curtain, And on
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  Speaker 1: that curtain there came and went a word, a word
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  Speaker 1: written in letters of fix. He struggled perpetually against the
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  Speaker 1: wet word. It was always as if were beginning to
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  Speaker 1: get ridden on the curtain, and never getting completed, he
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  Speaker 1: faced it at last massacre. There was the word, in
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  Speaker 1: its full brutality. No, no, no, it was impossible. Catahan
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  Speaker 1: was a religious man, a civilized man. And besides, after
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  Speaker 1: all these years, after all these hopes, redwood sprang up.
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  Speaker 1: He paced the room. He spoke to himself. He shouted, No,
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  Speaker 1: mankind was surely not so mad as that. Surely not.
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  Speaker 1: It was impossible, It was incredible. It could not be.
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  Speaker 1: What good would it do to kill the giant human
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  Speaker 1: when the gigantic in all the lower things had now
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  Speaker 1: inevitably come. They could not be so mad as that.
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  Speaker 1: I must dismiss such an idea, he said aloud. Dismissed
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  Speaker 1: such an idea. Absolutely. He pulled up short. What was that?
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  Speaker 1: Certainly the windows had rattled. He went to look out
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  Speaker 1: into the street opposite saw the instant confirmation of his ears.
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  Speaker 1: At a bedroom at number thirty five was a woman
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  Speaker 1: tal in hand, and at the dining room, number thirty seven,
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  Speaker 1: a man was visible behind a great base of hypertrophied
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  Speaker 1: maiden hair fern, both staring out and up, both disquieted
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  Speaker 1: and curious. He could see now too, quite clearly that
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  Speaker 1: the policeman on the pavement had heard it also. The
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  Speaker 1: thing was not his imagination. He turned to the darkling room. Guns,
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  Speaker 1: he said, he brooded guns. They brought him in strong tea,
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  Speaker 1: such as was he was accustomed to have. It was
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  Speaker 1: evident his housekeeper had been taken into consultation. After drinking it,
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  Speaker 1: he was too restless to sit any long read the window,
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  Speaker 1: and he paced the room. His mind became more capable
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  Speaker 1: of consecutive thought. The room had been his study for
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  Speaker 1: four twenty years. It had been furnished at his marriage,
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  Speaker 1: and all the essential equipment dated from then. The large
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  Speaker 1: complex writing desk, the rotating chair, the easy chair at
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  Speaker 1: the fire, the rotating bookcase, the fixture of indexed pigeon
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  Speaker 1: holes that filled the further recess, the vivid turkey carpet,
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  Speaker 1: the late Victorian rugs and curtains had melowed now to
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  Speaker 1: a rich dignity of effect, and copper and brass shone
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  Speaker 1: warm about the flogg and fire. Electric lights had replaced
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  Speaker 1: the lamp of former days. That was the chief alteration
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  Speaker 1: in the original equipment. But among these things, this connection
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  Speaker 1: with the food had left abundant traces along one wall
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  Speaker 1: above the datto ran a crowded array of black framed
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  Speaker 1: photographs and photographers showing his sudden Cosser's sons and others
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  Speaker 1: of the boon, children of various ages, and amidst various surroundings,
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  Speaker 1: even young cattles vacant. Its visage had its place in
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  Speaker 1: its a collection. In the corner stood a sheaf of
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  Speaker 1: tassels of gigantic meadows grass from eight cheesing eyebright, and
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  Speaker 1: on the desk there lay three empty poffy heads as
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  Speaker 1: big as hats. The curtain rods were grass stems, and
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  Speaker 1: the trrendous skulls. The great hog of Oakum hung a
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  Speaker 1: portentous ivory over mantle, with a Chinese jar in either
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  Speaker 1: eye socket snouted down above the fire. It was to
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  Speaker 1: the photographs that Redwood went, and in particular to the
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  Speaker 1: photographs of his son. They brought by countless memories of
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  Speaker 1: things that had passed out of his mind, of the
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  Speaker 1: early days, of the food of Bensington's timid presence, of
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  Speaker 1: his cousin Jane of Cosser, and the night work in
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  Speaker 1: the experimental farm. These things came to him now, very
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  Speaker 1: little and bright and distinct, like things seen through a telescope.
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  Speaker 1: On a sunny day. And then there was the giant nursery,
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  Speaker 1: the giant childhood, the young giant's first efforts to speak,
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  Speaker 1: his first clear signs of affection. Guns. It floated on
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  Speaker 1: him irresistibly, overwhelmingly, that outside, there, outside this accursed silence
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  Speaker 1: and mystery, his son and cosser sons, and all these
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  Speaker 1: glorious first fruits of a greater age were even now fighting,
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  Speaker 1: fighting for life. Even now his son might be in
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  Speaker 1: some dismal quandary, cornered, wounded, overcome. He swung away from
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  Speaker 1: the pictures and went up and down the room, gesticulating.
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  Speaker 1: It cannot be, he cried, it cannot be, It cannot
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  Speaker 1: end like that? What was that? He stopped, stricken, rigid.
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  Speaker 1: The trembling the windows had begun again, and then had
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  Speaker 1: come a thud, a vast concussion that shook the house.
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  Speaker 1: The concussion seemed to last for an age. It must
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  Speaker 1: have been very near. For a moment, it seemed that
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  Speaker 1: something had struck the house above him, an enormous impact
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  Speaker 1: that broke into a tinkle of falling glass, and then
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  Speaker 1: a stillness that ended at last with a minute clear
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: sound of running feet in the street below. Those feet
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  Speaker 1: released him from his vigor. He turned towards the window
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  Speaker 1: and saw it starred and broken. His heart beat high
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  Speaker 1: with the sense of crisis, of conclusive occurrence of release,
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  Speaker 1: and then again his realization of impotent confinement fell about
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  Speaker 1: him like a curtain. He could see nothing outside except
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  Speaker 1: that the small electric lamp opposite was not lighted. He
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  Speaker 1: could hear nothing after the first suggestion of a wide alarm.
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  Speaker 1: He could add nothing to interpret or enlarge that mystery,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: except that presently that came a reddish, fluctuating brightness in
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  Speaker 1: the sky towards the southeast. This light waxed and waned.
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  Speaker 1: When it waned, he doubted if it had ever waxed.
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  Speaker 1: It had crept upon him very gradually, with the darkling.
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  Speaker 1: It became the predominant fact in his long night of suspense.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes it seemed to him and had the quiver one
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  Speaker 1: associated with dancing flames. At others he fancied it was
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  Speaker 1: no more than the normal reflection of the evening lights.
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  Speaker 1: It waxed and waned through the long hours, and only
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  Speaker 1: vanished at last, when it was submerged altogether under the
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  Speaker 1: rising tide of dawn. Did it mean? What could it mean?
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  Speaker 1: Almost certainly, with some sort of fire nearer remote, but
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  Speaker 1: he could not even tell whether it was smoke or
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: cloud drift that streamed across the sky. But about one
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  Speaker 1: o'clock there began a flickering of search lights athwart that
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  Speaker 1: ruddy tumult, and nickering that continued for the rest of
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  Speaker 1: the night. That too, might mean many things. What could
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  Speaker 1: it mean? What did it mean? Just this strained, unresentful
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  Speaker 1: sky he had, and the suggestion of a huge explosion
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  Speaker 1: to occupy his mind. There came no further sounds, no
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: further running, nothing but a shouting that might have been
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: only the distant efforts of drunken men. He did not
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: turn up his lights. He stood at his draft. He
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: broken window, a distressful slightly back outline to the officer,
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  Speaker 1: who looked ever and again into the room and exhorted
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  Speaker 1: him to the wrist. All night, Redwood remained at his window,
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  Speaker 1: peering up at the ambiguous drift of the sky, and
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  Speaker 1: only with the coming of the dawn did he obey
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  Speaker 1: his fatigue and lie down upon the little bed they
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: had prepared for him between his writing desk and the
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  Speaker 1: sinking fire in the fireplace under the great Hog's skull three.
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  Speaker 1: For thirty six long hours did Redwood remain in prison,
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  Speaker 1: closed in and shut off from the great drama of
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: the two days, while the little people in the dawn
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: of greatness fought against the children of the food. Then
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: abruptly the iron curtain rose again, and he found himself
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: near the very scine of the struggle. That cartain rose
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: as unexpectedly as it fell. In the late afternoon, he
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: was called to the window by the clatter of a
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: cab that stopped without The young man descended, and in
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  Speaker 1: another minute stood before him in the room, a slightly
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  Speaker 1: built young man of thirty perhaps, clean shaven, well dressed,
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  Speaker 1: well mannered, mister Redwood, Sir. He began which to be
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: willing to come to mister Callahan. He needs your prisons,
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  Speaker 1: very urgently, needs my presence. They left a question into
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  Speaker 1: Redwood's mind that for a moment he could not put.
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  Speaker 1: He hesitated that in a voice that broke he asked
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  Speaker 1: what has he done to my son? And stood breathless
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  Speaker 1: for the reply, Your son, sir, Your son is doing well,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: so at least we gather doing well. He was wounded, sir, yesterday.
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  Speaker 1: Have you not heard Redwood smote these pretenses aside. His
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: voice was no longer colored by fear, but by anger.
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  Speaker 1: You know I have not heard You know I have
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  Speaker 1: heard nothing. Mister Cadaham feared, sir. It was a time
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  Speaker 1: of uphebal every one take him by surprise. He arrested
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  Speaker 1: you to save you, sir, from any misadventure. He arrested
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  Speaker 1: me to prevent my giving any warning or advice to
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  Speaker 1: my son. Go on, tell me what has happened. Have
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: you succeeded? Have you killed them all? The young man
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  Speaker 1: made a pace or so towards the window and turned No, sir,
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  Speaker 1: he said, concisely, what have you to tell me? It's
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  Speaker 1: our proof, sir, that this fighting was not planned by us.
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  Speaker 1: They found us totally unprepared. You you mean, I mean, sir?
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  Speaker 1: The giants have, to a certain extent held their own.
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  Speaker 1: The world changed for Redwood for a moment, something like
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: hysteria had the muscles of his face and throat. Then
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  Speaker 1: he gave vent to a profound ah. His heart bounded
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  Speaker 1: towards exultation. The giants have held their own. There has
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  Speaker 1: been terrible fighting, terrible strestruction. It is all almost hideous.
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  Speaker 1: Misunderstanding in the north and Midlands. Giants have been killed everywhere.
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  Speaker 1: They are fighting now. No, sir, there was a flag
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  Speaker 1: of truce from them. No, sir, mister Cadahan sent a
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: flag of truce. The whole thing is the hideous misunderstanding.
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  Speaker 1: This is why he wants to talk to you and
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: put his case before you. They insist, sir, that you
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: should intervene. Redwood interrupted. Do you know what happened to
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: my son? He asked, He was wounded. Tell me, tell me.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: He and the princess came before the movement to surround
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: the cosser camp was complete, the cosser pit at Chiselhurst.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: They came suddenly, sir, crashing through a dense thicket of
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: giant oats near a river, upon a column of infantry.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: Soldiers have been very nervous all day, and this produced
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: a panic. They shot him. No, sir, they ran away.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Some shot at him mildly, against orders. Redwood gave a
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: note of denial. It's true, sir, not on account of
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: your son, I hope pretend, but on account of the princess. Yes,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: that's true. The two giants ran shouting towards the encampment.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: The soldiers ran this way and that, and then some
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: began firing. They say they saw him stagger ugh, yes, sir,
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: but we know he is not badly hurt. How he
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: sent the message, sir, that he was doing well to me?
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Who else, Sir? Redwood stood for nelly a minute with
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: his arms tightly folded, taking this in. Then his indignation
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: found a voice. Because you were fools in doing the thing,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: because he miscalculated and blundered. You would like me to
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: think you are not murderers in intention. And besides the rest,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: the young man looked interrogation the other giants. The young
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: man made no further pretense of misunderstanding. His tone fell thirteen, Sir,
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: are dead, another's wounded, yes, sir, and Cadahan, he gasped,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: wants to meet me. Where are the others? Some got
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: to the encampment during the fighting, Sir. They seem to
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: have known well, of course they did, if it hadn't
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: been for Cossar. Cosser is there, yes, sir, And all
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: the surviving giants are there. The ones who didn't get
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: to the camp in the fighting have gone or are
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: going now under the flag of truce. That means, said Redwood,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: that you are beaten. We are not beaten, No, sir,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: you cannot say we are beaten, For your sons are
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: broken the rules of war once last night and now
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: again after our attack had been withdrawn this afternoon, they
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: began to bombard London. That's legitimate. They've been firing shells
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: filled with poison. Poison, yes, poison, the food herakleophobia, yes, sir.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: Mister Cadahan, Sir, you're beaten. Of course, that beats you.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: It's carser I What have ye? Can you hope to do? Now?
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: What good is it to do anything? Now you're breathed
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: in the dust of every street. What is there to
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: fight for? More? Rules of war? Indeed, and now Cadahan
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: wants to humbug me to help him bargain good heavens man,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: why should I come to your exploded wind bag? He
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: has played his game, heurded and muddled. What should I
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: The young men stood with an air of vigilant respect.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: As a fact, sir, he interrupted that the giants insist
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: that they shall see you. They will have no ambassador
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: but you unless you come to them. I am afraid, sir,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: there will be more bloodshed on your side, perhaps no, sir,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: on both sides. The world is resolved. The thing must end.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Redwood looked about the study, His eyes rested for a
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: moment on the photograph of his boy. He turned and
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: met the expectation of the young man. Yes, he said,
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: at last, I will come four. His encounter with Cadahan
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: was entirely different from his anticipation. He had seen the
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: man only twice in his life, once at dinner and
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: once in the lobby of the house, and his imagination
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: had been active not with the man, but with the
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: creation of the newspapers and caricatures, the legendary Catahan Jack,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: the giant killer Perseus, and all the rest of it.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: The element of a human personality came into disorder. All
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: that here was not the face of the caricatures and portraits,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: but the face of a worn and sleepless man, lined
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: and drawn yellow in the whites of the eyes, a
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: little weakened about the mouth. Here, indeed, were the red
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: brown eyes, the black hair, the distinctive aquiline profile of
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: the great demagogue. But here was also something else that
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: smote any premeditated score and rhetoric aside. This man was suffering.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: He was suffering acutely. He was under enormous stress. From
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: the beginning, he had an air of impersonating himself. Presently,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: with a single gesture, the slightest movement he revealed to
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: Redwood that he was keeping himself up with drugs. He
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: moved a thumb to his waistcoat pocket, and then, after
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: a few sentences more threw concealment aside and slipped the
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: little tabloid to his lips. Moreover, in spite of the
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: stresses upon him, in spite of the fact that he
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: was in the wrong and Redwoods junior by a dozen years,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: that strange quality in him, the something personal magnetism one
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: way call it, for want of a better name, that
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: had won his way for him in this eminence of disaster,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: was with him still on That also Redwood had failed
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: to reckon from the first. So far as the coarse
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: and conduct of their speech went, Catahan prevailed of a
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: rede All the quality of the first phase of their
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: meeting was determined by him. All the tone and procedure
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: were his. That happened as if it was a matter
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: of course. All Redwood's expectations vanished at his presence. He
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: shook hands before Redwood remembered that he meant to parry
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: that familiarity. He pitched the note of their conference from
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: the outset, sure and clear, as a search for expedients
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: under a common catastrophe. If he made any mistake, it
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: was whenever and again his fatigue got the better of
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: his immediate attention, and the habit of the public meeting
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: carried him away. Then he drew himself up. Through all
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: their interview, both men stood and looked away from Redwood
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: and began to fence and justify. Once even, he said, gentlemen, quietly, expandingly,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: he began to talk. There were moments when Redwood ceased
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: even to feel himself in anlocutor, When he became the
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: mere auditor of a monolog he became the privileged spectator
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: of an extraordinary phenomenon. He perceived something almost like a
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: specific difference between himself and this being, whose beautiful voice
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: in belloton he was talking, talking. This mind before him
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: was so powerful and so limited from its driving energy,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: its personal weight, its invincible oblivion to certain things. There
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: sprang up in Redwood's mind the most grotesque and strange
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: of images. Instead of an antagonist who was a fellow creature,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: a man one could hold morally responsible and to whom
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: one could address reasonable appeals. He saw Catahan as something
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: something like a monstrous rhinoceros, as it were, a civilized
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: rhinoceros begotten of the jungle of democratic affairs, a monster
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: of irresistible onset and invincible resistance in all the crashing
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: conflicts of that tangle. He was supreme and beyond this
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: man was a being supremely adapted to make his way
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: through multitudes of men. For him, there was no fault
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: so important as self contradiction, no science so significant as
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: the reconciliation of interests, economic realities to topographical necessities. The
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: barely touched minds of scientific expedients existed for him. No
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: more than railways or rifled guns or geographical literature exist
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: for his animal prototype. What did exist were gatherings and
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: cauc and votes. Above all votes. He was votes incronate,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: the millions of votes, And now in the great crisis,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: with the giants broken but not beaten, this vote monster talked.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: It was so evident that even now he had everything
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: to learn, he did not know. There were physical laws
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: and economic laws, quantities and reactions that all humanity voting.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: Neman contraciente cannot vote away, and that our disobeyed only
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: at the price of destruction. He did not know where
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: there are moral laws that cannot be bent by any
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: force of glamor, or bent only by flyback with vindictive violence,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: in the face of shrapnel or of the judgment day.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: It was evident to Redwood that this man would have
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: sheltered behind some curiously dodged vote of the House of Commons.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: What most concerned his mind now was not the powers
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: that held the fastness away there to the south, not
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: defeat and death, but the effect of these things upon
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: his majority, the cardinal reality in his life. He had
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: to defeat the giants or go under. He was, by
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: no means absolutely despairful, and his hour is upmost failure,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: With blood and disaster upon his hands, and the rich
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: promise of still more horrible disaster, with the gigantic destinies
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: of the world towering and toppling over him, he was
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: capable of a belief that by sheer exertion of his voice,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: by explaining and qualifying and restating, he might yet reconstitute
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: his power. He was puzzled in distress, no doubt, fatigued
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: and suffering. But if only he could keep up, if
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: only he could keep talking. As he talked, he seemed
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: to Redwood to advance and recede, to dilate and contract.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: Redwood's share of the talk was of the most subsidiary sort, wedges,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: as it were, suddenly thrust in. That's all nonsense. No,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: it's no use suggesting that. Then why did you begin?
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: It is doubtful if cadahan really heard him at all.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Round such interpolations, Cadaham's speech flowed, indeed, like some swift
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: stream about a rock. There this incredible man stood on
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: his official hearth rug, talking, talking with enormous power, and
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: still talking as though a pause in his talk, his explanations,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: his presentation of standpoints and lights, of considerations and expedients,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: would permit some antagonistic influence to leave in a being,
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: in a vocal being, the only being he could comprehend.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: There he stood amidst the slightly faded splendors of that
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: official room in which one man after another had succumbed
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: to the belief that a certain power of intervention was
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: the creative control of an empire. The more he talked,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: the more certain Redwood's sens of stupendous futility grew. Did
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: this man realize that while he stood and talked there,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: the whole great world was moving, that the invisible tide
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: of growth flowed and flowed, That there were any hours
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: but parliamentary hours, or any weapons in the hands of
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: the avenges of blood. Outside, darkening the whole room, a
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: single leaf of giant Virginian creeper tapped unheeded on the pain.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: Redwood became anxious to end this amazing monolog, to escape
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: to sanity and judgment, to that beleagued camp, the fastness
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: of the future, where the very nucleus of greatness, the suns,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: were gathered together. For that this talking was endured. He
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: had a curious impression that unless this monolog ended, he
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: would presently find himself carried away by it. That he
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: must fight against Cadahan's bo voice as one fights against
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: the drug. Facts had altered and were altering beneath that spell.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: What was the man saying? Since Redwood had to report
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: it to the children, the food in a sort of way,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: he perceived it did matter. He would have to listen
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: and guard his sense of realities as well as he could.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: Much about blood guiltiness. That was eloquence, that didn't matter. Next,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: he was suggesting a convention. He was suggesting that the
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: surviving children the food should capitulate and go apart and
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: form a community of their own. There are precedents, he said,
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: for this, we would assign them territory. Where interjected Redwood,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: stooping to argue. Cadahuan snatched at this concession. He turned
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: his face to Redwood's and his voice fell to a
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: persuasive reasonableness that could be determined that, he contended, was
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: a quite subsidiary question. Then he went on to stipulate,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: and except for them and where they are, we must
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: have absolute control the food, and all the fruits of
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: the food must be stamped out. Ergood found himself bargaining,
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: the princess, she stands apart, No, said Redwood, struggling to
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: get back to the old footing. That's absurd that afterwards,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: at any rate, we are agreed that the making of
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: the food must stop. I have agreed to nothing. I
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: have said nothing, but on one planet, to have two
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: races of men, one great, one small. Consider what has happened.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: Consider that it is but a little foretaste of what
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: might presently happen. If this food has its way, consider
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: all you have already brought upon this world. If there
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: is to be a race of giants increasing and multiplying,
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: it is not for me to argue, said Redwood. I
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: must go to our sons. I want to go to
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: my son. That is why I have come to you.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Tell me exactly what you offer. Cataham made a speech
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: upon his terms. The children the food were to be
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: given a great reservation in North America perhaps or Africa,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: in which they might live out their lives in their
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: own fashion. But it's nonsense, said Redward. There are other
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: giants now abroad, all over Europe, here and there. They
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: could be at international convention. It's not impossible. Something of
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: the sword, indeed has already been spoken of. But in
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: this reservation, they can live out their lives in their
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: own way. They may do what they like, They may
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: make what they like. We shall be glad. If they
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: will make things, they may be happy. Think provided there
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: are no more children. Precisely, the children not for us,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: And so sir, we shall save the world. We shall
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: save it absolutely from the fruits of your terrible discovery.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: It's not too late for us only we are eager
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: to temper expediency with mercy. Even now we are burning
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: and searing the places their shells hit yesterday. We can
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: get it under. Trust me, we shall get it under.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: But in that way without cruelty, without injustice. And suppose
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: the children do not agree. For the first time, Cadahan
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: looked Redwood full in the face. They must. I don't
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: think they will. Why should they not agree, he asked,
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: in a richly toned amazement. Suppose they don't. What can
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: it be butt war? We cannot have the things go on.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: We cannot, sir, Have you scientific men, no imagination? Have
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: you no mercy? We cannot have our wall trampled under
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: a growing Who heard of such monsters? And monsters growths
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: as their food is made? We cannot and we cannot,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: I ask you, sir, what can it be but war?
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: And remember this that has happened is only a beginning,
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: This a skirmish, a mere affair of police. Believe me,
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: a mere affair of police. Do not be cheated by perspective,
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: by the immediate bigness of these newer things. Behind us
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: is the nation, is humanity. Behind the thousands who have died,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: there are millions were not for the fear of bloodshed, Sir.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: Beyond our first attacks, they will be forming other attacks
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: even now, Whether we can kill this food or not,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: most as surely we can kill your sons. You reckon
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: too much on the things of yesterday, on the happenings
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: of a mere score of years, on one battle. You
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: have no sense the slow course of history. I offer
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: this convention for the sake of lives, not because it
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: can change the inevitable end. If you think that your
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: poor two dozen of giants can resist all the forces
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: of our people and of all the alien peoples who
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: will come to our aid. If you can change humanity
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: at a blow, it is single generation, an alter the
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: nature and stature of man. He flung out an arm.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: Go to the now, sir, I see them for all
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: the evil they have done. Crouching among their wounded, he stopped,
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: as though he had glanced Atverdward's sun. By chance, that
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: came a pause. Go to them, he said, that is
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: what I want to do. Then go now. He turned
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: and pressed the button of a bell without in immediate
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: response came a sound of opening doors and hastening feet.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: The talk was at an end. The display was over abruptly.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Cadahan seemed to contract to shrivel up into a yellow faced,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: fagged out, mettle sized, middle aged man. He stepped forward
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: as if he were stepping out of a picture, and
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: with a complete assumption of that friendliness that lies behind
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: all the public conflicts of our race. He held out
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: his hand to Redwood as if it were a man.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: Of course, Redwood shook hands with him for the second time.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: End of Book three, Chapter four of The Food of
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: the Gods and How It Came to Earth. Recording by
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Alexei to Lander, Davis, California, w w W dot Alexetlander
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: dot com.