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The Sleeper Awakes Chapter 6 - The Hall of the Atlas · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter six 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. The
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  Speaker 1: Sleeper Awakes by H. G. Wells. The Hall of the Atlas.
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  Speaker 1: From the moment when the tailor had bowed his farewell
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  Speaker 1: to the moment when Graham found himself in the lift
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  Speaker 1: was altogether barely five minutes. As yet the haze of
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  Speaker 1: his vast interval of sleep hung about him. As yet
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  Speaker 1: the initial strangeness of his being alive at all in
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  Speaker 1: this remote age touched everything with wonder, with a sense
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  Speaker 1: of the irrational, with something of the quality of a
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  Speaker 1: realistic dream. He was still detached, an astonished spectator, still
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  Speaker 1: but half involved in life. What he had seen, and
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  Speaker 1: especially the last crowded tumult framed in the setting of
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  Speaker 1: the balcony, had a spectacular turn, like a thing witnessed
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  Speaker 1: from the box of a theater. I don't understand, he said,
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  Speaker 1: What was the trouble? My mind is in a word?
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  Speaker 1: Why were they shouting? What is the danger? We have
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  Speaker 1: our troubles? Said Howard. His eyes avoided Graham's inquiry. This
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  Speaker 1: is a time of unrest, and in fact your appearance
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  Speaker 1: you're waking just now, has a sort of connection. He
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  Speaker 1: spoke jerkily, like a man not quite sure of his breathing.
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  Speaker 1: He stopped abruptly. I don't understand, said Graham. It will
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  Speaker 1: be clearer later, said Howard. He glanced uneasily upward, as
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  Speaker 1: though he found the progress of the lift slow. I
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  Speaker 1: shall understand better, no doubt, when I have seen my
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  Speaker 1: way about a little, said Graham, puzzled. It will be.
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  Speaker 1: It is bound to be perplexing at present. It is
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  Speaker 1: all so strange. Anything seems possible anything, and the details,
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  Speaker 1: even your counting, I understand, is different. The lift stopped
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  Speaker 1: and they stepped out onto a narrow but very long
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  Speaker 1: passage between high walls, along which ran an extraordinary number
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  Speaker 1: of tubes and big cables. What a huge place this is,
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  Speaker 1: said Graham. Is it all when building? What place is it?
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  Speaker 1: This is one of the city ways for various public services,
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  Speaker 1: light and so forth. Was it a social trouble that
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  Speaker 1: in the great roadway place? How are you governed? Have
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  Speaker 1: you still a police? Several? Said Howard? Several about fourteen.
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  Speaker 1: I don't understand very probably not. Our social order will
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  Speaker 1: probably seem very complex to you. To tell you the truth,
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  Speaker 1: I don't understand it myself, very clearly, nobody does. You
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  Speaker 1: will perhaps by and by we have to go to
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  Speaker 1: the council. Graham's attention was divided between the urgent necessity
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  Speaker 1: of his inquiries and the people in the passages and
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  Speaker 1: halls they were traversing. For a moment his mind would
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  Speaker 1: be concentrated upon Howard and the halting answers he made,
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  Speaker 1: and then he would lose the thread in response to
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  Speaker 1: some vivid, unexpected impression. Along the passages. In the halls,
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  Speaker 1: half the people seem to be men in the red uniform.
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  Speaker 1: The pale blue canvas that had been so abundant in
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  Speaker 1: the aisle of moving ways did not appear. Invariably. These
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  Speaker 1: men looked at him and saluted him and Howard as
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  Speaker 1: they passed. He had a clear vision of entering a
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  Speaker 1: long corridor, and there were a number of girls sitting
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  Speaker 1: on low seats, as though in a class. He saw
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  Speaker 1: no teacher, but only a novel apparatus from which he
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  Speaker 1: fancied a voice proceeded. The girls regarded him and his conductor,
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  Speaker 1: he thought, with a curiosity and astonishment, but he was
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  Speaker 1: hurried on before he could form a clear idea of
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  Speaker 1: the gathering. He judged they knew Howard and not himself,
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  Speaker 1: and that they wondered who he was. This Howard, it seemed,
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  Speaker 1: was a person of importance. But then he was also
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  Speaker 1: merely Graham's guardian. That was odd. There came a passage
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  Speaker 1: in twilight, and into this passage of footway hung so
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  Speaker 1: that he could see the feet and ankles of people
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  Speaker 1: going to and fro thereon, but no more of them.
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  Speaker 1: Then vague impressions of galleries and of casual astonished passers
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  Speaker 1: by turning round to stare after the two of them
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  Speaker 1: with their red clad guard. The stimulus of the restoreds
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  Speaker 1: he had taken was only temporary. He was speedily fatigued
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  Speaker 1: by this excessive haste. He asked Howard to slacken his speed. Presently,
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  Speaker 1: he was in a lift that had a window upon
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  Speaker 1: the great street space, but this was glazed and did
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  Speaker 1: not open, and they were too high for him to
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  Speaker 1: see the moving platforms below. But he saw people going
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  Speaker 1: to and fro along cables and along strange, frail looking bridges.
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  Speaker 1: Thence they passed across the street, and at a vast
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  Speaker 1: height above it, they crossed by means of a narrow bridge,
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  Speaker 1: closed in with glass so clear that it made him
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  Speaker 1: giddy even to remember it. The floor of it also
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  Speaker 1: was of glass. From his memory of the cliffs between
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  Speaker 1: Newquay and boss Castle, so remote in time and so
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  Speaker 1: recent in his experience, it seemed to him that they
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  Speaker 1: must be near four hundred feet above the moving ways.
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  Speaker 1: He stopped, looked down between his legs upon the swarming
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  Speaker 1: blue and red multitudes, minute and foreshortened, struggling and gesticulating,
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  Speaker 1: still towards the little balcony, far below a little toy balcony,
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  Speaker 1: it seemed, where he had so recently been standing. A
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  Speaker 1: thin haze and the glare of the mighty globes of
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  Speaker 1: light obscured everything. A man seated in a little open
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  Speaker 1: work cradle, shot by, from some point still higher than
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  Speaker 1: the little narrow bridge, rushing down a cable as swiftly,
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  Speaker 1: almost as if he were falling. Graham stopped involuntarily to
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  Speaker 1: watch the strange passenger vanish below, and then his eyes
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  Speaker 1: went back to the tumultuous struggle. Along one of the
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  Speaker 1: faster ways, rushed a thick crowd of red spots. This
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  Speaker 1: broke up into individuals as it approached the balcony and
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  Speaker 1: went pouring down the slower ways towards the dense, struggling
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  Speaker 1: crowd on the central area. These men in red appeared
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  Speaker 1: to be armed with sticks or truncheons. They seemed to
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  Speaker 1: be striking and thrusting. A great shouting cries of wrath,
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  Speaker 1: screaming burst out and came up to Graham. Faint and thin,
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  Speaker 1: go on, cried Howard, laying hands on him. Another man
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  Speaker 1: rushed down a cable. Graham suddenly glanced up to see
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  Speaker 1: whence he came, and beheld through the glassy roof and
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  Speaker 1: the network of cables and girders dim rhythmically passing forms
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  Speaker 1: like the veins of windmills, and between them glimpses of
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  Speaker 1: a remote and pawky Then Howard had thrust him forward
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  Speaker 1: across the bridge, and he was in a little narrow
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  Speaker 1: passage decorated with geometrical patterns. I want to see more
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  Speaker 1: of that, cried Graham. Resisting. No, No, cried Howard, still
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  Speaker 1: gripping his arm. This way, you must go this way.
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  Speaker 1: And the men in red following them seemed ready to
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  Speaker 1: enforce his orders. Some negroes in a curious wasp like
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  Speaker 1: uniform of black and yellow appeared down the passage, and
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  Speaker 1: one hastened to throw up a sliding shutter that had
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  Speaker 1: seemed a door to Graham, and led the way through it.
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  Speaker 1: Graham found himself in a gallery overhanging the end of
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  Speaker 1: a great chamber. The attendant in black and yellow crossed
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  Speaker 1: those thrust up a second shutter, and stood waiting. This
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  Speaker 1: place had the appearance of an ante room. He saw
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  Speaker 1: a number of people in the central space, and at
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  Speaker 1: the opposite end a large and imposing doorway at the
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  Speaker 1: top of a flight of steps, heavily curtained, but giving
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  Speaker 1: a glimpse of some still larger hall beyond. He perceived
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  Speaker 1: white men in red and other negroes in black and yellow,
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  Speaker 1: standing stiffly about those portals. As they crossed the gallery,
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  Speaker 1: he heard a whisper from below the sleeper, and was
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  Speaker 1: aware of a turning of heads hum of observation. They
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  Speaker 1: entered another little passage in the wall of this antechamber,
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  Speaker 1: and then he found himself on an iron railed gallery
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  Speaker 1: of metal that passed around the side of the great hall.
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  Speaker 1: He had already seen through the curtains. He entered the
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  Speaker 1: place at the corner, so that he received the fullest
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  Speaker 1: impression of its huge proportions. The black in the wasp
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  Speaker 1: uniform stood aside like a well trained servant, and closed
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  Speaker 1: the valve behind him. Compared with any of the places
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  Speaker 1: Graham had seen thus far, the second hall appeared to
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  Speaker 1: be decorated with extreme richness. On a pedestal. At the
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  Speaker 1: remoter end, and more brilliantly lit than any other object,
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  Speaker 1: was a gigantic white figure of Atlas, strong and strenuous,
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  Speaker 1: the globe upon his bowed shoulders. It was the first
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  Speaker 1: thing to strike his attention. It was so vast, so
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  Speaker 1: patiently and painfully real, so white and simple. Save for
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  Speaker 1: this figure, and for a diis in the center, the
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  Speaker 1: wide floor of the place was a shining vacancy. The
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  Speaker 1: dias was remote in the greatness of the area. It
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  Speaker 1: would have looked a mere slab of metal had it
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  Speaker 1: not been for the group of seven men who stood
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  Speaker 1: about a table on it and gave an inkling of
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  Speaker 1: its proportions. They were all dressed in white robes. They
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  Speaker 1: seemed to have arisen that moment from their seats, and
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  Speaker 1: they were regarding Graham's steadfastly at the end of the table,
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  Speaker 1: he perceived the glitter of some mechanical appliances. Howard led
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  Speaker 1: him along the end gallery until they were opposite this
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  Speaker 1: mighty laboring figure. Then he stopped. The two men in red,
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  Speaker 1: who had followed them into the gallery, came and stood
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  Speaker 1: on either hand of Graham. You must remain here, murmured
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  Speaker 1: Howard for a few moments, and without waiting for a reply,
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  Speaker 1: hurried away along the gallery. But why, began Graham. He
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  Speaker 1: moved as if to follow Howard, and found his path
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  Speaker 1: obstructed by one of the men in red. You have
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  Speaker 1: to wait here, sire, said the man in red. Why orders, sire?
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  Speaker 1: Whose orders? Our orders? Sire? Graham looked his exasperation. What
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  Speaker 1: place is this? He said? Who are those men? They
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  Speaker 1: are the lords of the council, Sire? What council? The council, Oh,
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  Speaker 1: said Graham, And, after an equally ineffectual attempt at the
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  Speaker 1: other man, went to the railing and stared at the
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  Speaker 1: distant men in white, who stood watching him and whispering
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  Speaker 1: together the council. He perceived there were now eight. Though
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  Speaker 1: how the newcomer had arrived, he had not observed, They
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  Speaker 1: made no gestures of greeting. They stood regarding him, as
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  Speaker 1: in the nineteenth century a group of men might have
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  Speaker 1: stood in the street regarding a distant balloon that had
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  Speaker 1: suddenly floated into view. What council could it be that
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  Speaker 1: gathered there, that little body of men beneath the significant
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  Speaker 1: white atlas, secluded from every eavesdropper in this impressive spaciousness,
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  Speaker 1: And why should he be brought to them and be
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  Speaker 1: looked at strangely and spoken of inaudibly? Howard appeared beneath,
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  Speaker 1: walking quickly across the polished floor towards them. As he
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  Speaker 1: drew near, he bowed and performed certain peculiar movements, apparently
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  Speaker 1: of a ceremonious nature. Then he ascended the steps of
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  Speaker 1: the dayas and stood by the apparatus at the end
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  Speaker 1: of the table. Graham watched that visible, inaudible conversation. Occasionally
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  Speaker 1: one of the white robed men would glance towards him.
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  Speaker 1: He strained his ears in vain. The gesticulation of two
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  Speaker 1: of the speakers became animated. He glanced from them to
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  Speaker 1: the passive faces of his attendants. When he looked again,
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  Speaker 1: Howard was extending his hands and moving his head like
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  Speaker 1: a man who protests. He was interrupted, it seemed, by
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  Speaker 1: one of the white ribbed men wrapping the table. The
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  Speaker 1: conversation lasted an interminable time. To Graham's sense, his eyes
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  Speaker 1: rose to the still giant at whose feet the council set.
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  Speaker 1: Thence they wandered to the walls of the hall. It
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  Speaker 1: was decorated in long painted panels of the quasi Japanese type,
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  Speaker 1: many of them very beautiful. These panels were grouped in
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  Speaker 1: a great and elaborate framing of dark metal, which passed
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  Speaker 1: into the metallic caryatidae of the galleries and the great
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  Speaker 1: structural lines of the interior. The facile grace of these
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  Speaker 1: panels in heants the mighty white effort that labored in
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  Speaker 1: the center of the scheme. Graham's eyes came back to
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  Speaker 1: the council, and Howard was descending the steps. As he
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  Speaker 1: drew near, his features could be distinguished, and Graham saw
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  Speaker 1: that he was flushed and blowing out his cheeks. His
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  Speaker 1: countenance was still disturbed when presently he reappeared along the gallery.
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  Speaker 1: This way, he said concisely, and they went on in
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  Speaker 1: silence to a little door that opened at their approach.
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  Speaker 1: The two men in red stopped on either side of
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  Speaker 1: this door. Howard and Graham passed in, and Graham, glancing back,
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  Speaker 1: saw the white robed council still standing in a close
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  Speaker 1: group and looking at him. Then the door closed behind
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  Speaker 1: him with a heavy thud, and for the first time
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  Speaker 1: since his awakening, he was in silence. The floor even
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  Speaker 1: was noiseless to his feet. Howard opened another door, and
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  Speaker 1: they were in the first of two contiguous chambers, furnished
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  Speaker 1: in white and green. What council was that, began Graham.
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  Speaker 1: What were they discussing? What have they to do with me?
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  Speaker 1: Howard closed the door carefully, heaved a huge sign and
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  Speaker 1: said something in an undertone. He walked slanting ways across
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  Speaker 1: the room and turned, blowing out his cheeks again. Ugh,
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  Speaker 1: he grunted, a man relieved, Graham stood regarding him. You
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  Speaker 1: must understand, began Howard, abruptly, avoiding Graham's eyes, that our
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  Speaker 1: social order is very complex. A half explanation, a bare,
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  Speaker 1: unqualified statement, would give you false impressions. As a matter
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  Speaker 1: of fact, it is a case of compound interest, partly
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  Speaker 1: your small fortune and the fortune of your cousin warming
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  Speaker 1: which was left to you and certain other beginnings have
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  Speaker 1: become very considerable. And in other ways that will be
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  Speaker 1: hard for you to understand. You have become a person
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  Speaker 1: of significance, a very considerable significance, involved in the world's affairs.
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  Speaker 1: He stopped. Yes, said Graham, we have grave social troubles. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: things have come to such a pass that, in fact,
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  Speaker 1: it is advisable to seclude you here. Keep me prisoner,
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  Speaker 1: exclaimed Graham. Well to ask you to keep in seclusion.
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  Speaker 1: Graham turned on him. This is strange, he said. No
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  Speaker 1: harm will be done you, no harm, but you must
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  Speaker 1: be kept here while I learn my position. I presume
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  Speaker 1: precisely very well. Then begin Why harm not? Now? Why not?
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  Speaker 1: It is too long a story, sire, All the more
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  Speaker 1: reason I should begin at once. You say, I am
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  Speaker 1: a person of importance. What was that shouting I heard?
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  Speaker 1: Why is a great multitude shouting and excited because my
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  Speaker 1: chance is over? And who are the men in white
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  Speaker 1: in that huge council chamber? All in good time, sire,
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  Speaker 1: said Howard. But not crudely, Not crudely. This is one
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  Speaker 1: of those flimsy times when no man has a settled mind.
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  Speaker 1: Your awakening. No one expected your awakening. The council is consulting.
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  Speaker 1: What council? The council you saw. Graham made a petulant movement.
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  Speaker 1: This is not right, he said, I should be told
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  Speaker 1: what is happening. You must wait, really, you must wait.
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  Speaker 1: Graham sat down abruptly. I suppose, since I have waited
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  Speaker 1: so long to resume life. He said that I must
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  Speaker 1: wait a little longer. That is better, said Howard, Yes,
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  Speaker 1: that is much better. And I must leave you alone
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  Speaker 1: for a space while I attend the discussion in the council.
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  Speaker 1: I am sorry. He went towards the noiseless door, hesitated
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  Speaker 1: and vanished. Graham walked to the door, tried it, found
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  Speaker 1: it securely fastened in some way he never came to understand,
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  Speaker 1: turned about, paced the room, restlessly, made the circuit of
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  Speaker 1: the room, and sat down. He remained sitting for some
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  Speaker 1: time with folded arms and knitted brow, biting his finger
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  Speaker 1: nails and trying to piece together the kaleidoscopic impressions of
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  Speaker 1: this first hour of awakened life. The vast mechanical spaces,
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  Speaker 1: the endless series of chambers and passages, the great struggle
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  Speaker 1: that roared and splashed through these strains, the little group
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  Speaker 1: of remote, unsympathetic men beneath the colossal atlas Howard's mysterious behavior.
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  Speaker 1: There was an inkling of some vast inheritance already in
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  Speaker 1: his mind, a vast inheritance, perhaps misapplied, of some unprecedented
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  Speaker 1: importance and opportunity. What had he to do? And this
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  Speaker 1: room's secluded silence was eloquent of imprisonment. It came into
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  Speaker 1: Graham's mind with irresistible conviction that this series of magnificent
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  Speaker 1: impressions was a dream. He tried to shut his eyes
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  Speaker 1: and succeeded, but that time honored device led to no awakening. Presently,
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  Speaker 1: he began to touch and examine all the unfamiliar appointments
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  Speaker 1: of the two small rooms in which he found himself.
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  Speaker 1: In a long oval panel of mirror, he saw himself
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  Speaker 1: and stopped astonished. He was clad in a graceful costume
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  Speaker 1: of purple and bluish white, with a little gray shot
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  Speaker 1: beard trimmed to a point, and his hair its blackness
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  Speaker 1: streaked now with bands of gray arranged over his forehead
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  Speaker 1: in an unfamiliar but pleasing manner, he seemed a man
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  Speaker 1: of five and forty. Perhaps for a moment he did
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  Speaker 1: not perceive this was himself. A flash of laughter came
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  Speaker 1: with the recognition. To call on old warming like this,
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  Speaker 1: he exclaimed, and make him take me out to lunch.
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  Speaker 1: Then he thought of meeting first one and then another
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  Speaker 1: of the few familiar acquaintances of his early manhood, and
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  Speaker 1: in the midst of his amusement, realized that every soul
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  Speaker 1: with whom he might just had died many score of
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  Speaker 1: years ago. The thought smote him abruptly and keenly. He
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  Speaker 1: stopped short. The expression of his face changed to a
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  Speaker 1: white consternation. The tumultuous memory of the moving platforms and
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  Speaker 1: the huge facade of that wonderful street reasserted itself. The
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  Speaker 1: shouting multitudes came back clear and vivid, and those remote, inaudible,
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  Speaker 1: unfriendly counselors in white. He felt himself a little figure,
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  Speaker 1: very small and ineffectual, pitifully conspicuous, and all about him
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  Speaker 1: the world was strange. Ind of Chapter six