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The War in the Air Chapter 5 Parts 5 & 6 · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter five, Parts five and six of War in the Air.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by William tom Coe. War
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  Speaker 1: in the Air by H. G. Wells, Chapter five, Parts
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  Speaker 1: five and six. Part five. Steadily the vaterland soared, and
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  Speaker 1: the air fleet swared with her, and came round to
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  Speaker 1: head for New York, and the battle became a little thing,
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  Speaker 1: far away, an incident before the breakfast. It dwindled to
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  Speaker 1: a string of dark shapes and one smoking yellow flare
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  Speaker 1: that presently became a mere indistinct smear upon the vast horizon,
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  Speaker 1: and the bright new day that was at last altogether
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  Speaker 1: lost to sight. So it was that Bert smallways, So
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  Speaker 1: the first fight of the airship and the last fight
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  Speaker 1: of those strangest things in the whole history of war,
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  Speaker 1: the ironclad battleships, which began their career with the floating
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  Speaker 1: batteries of the Emperor Napoleon the Third in the Crimean War,
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  Speaker 1: and lasted with an enormous expenditure of human energy and
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  Speaker 1: resources for seventy years. In that space of time, the
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  Speaker 1: world produced over twelve thousand, five hundred of these strange
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  Speaker 1: monsters in schools, in types in series, each larger and
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  Speaker 1: heavier and more deadly than its predecessors. Each in its
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  Speaker 1: turn was hailed as the last birth of time. Most,
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  Speaker 1: in their turn were sold for old iron. Only about
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  Speaker 1: five percent of them ever fought in a battle. Some foundered,
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  Speaker 1: some went ashore and broke up, several rammed one another
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  Speaker 1: by accident and sank. The lives of countless men were
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  Speaker 1: spent in their service, the splendid genius and patients of
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  Speaker 1: thousands of engineers and inventors, well and material beyond estimating
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  Speaker 1: to their account, we must put stunted and starved lives
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  Speaker 1: on land, millions of children sent to toil unduly innumerable
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  Speaker 1: opportunities of fine living, undeveloped and lost money had to
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  Speaker 1: be found for them at any cost. That was the
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  Speaker 1: law of a nation's existence during that strange time. Surely
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  Speaker 1: they were the weirdest, most destructive, and wasteful megatheria in
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  Speaker 1: the whole history of mechanical invention. And then cheap things
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  Speaker 1: of gas and basket work made an end of them altogether,
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  Speaker 1: smiting out of the sky. Never before had Bert smallways
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  Speaker 1: seen pure destruction. Never had he realized the mischief and
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  Speaker 1: waste of war. His startled mind rose to the conception
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  Speaker 1: this also is in life. Out of all this fierce
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  Speaker 1: torrent of sensation, one impression rose and became cardinal, the
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  Speaker 1: impression of the men of the Theodore Roosevelt, who had
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  Speaker 1: struggled in the water after the explosion of the first bomb, gaw.
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  Speaker 1: He said at the memory it might have been me
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  Speaker 1: and grub. I suppose you kick about and get the
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  Speaker 1: water in your mouth. I don't suppose it lasts long.
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  Speaker 1: He became anxious to see how Kurt was affected by
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  Speaker 1: these things. Also, he perceived he was hungry. He hesitated
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  Speaker 1: towards the door of the cabin and peeped out into
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  Speaker 1: the passage. Down forward, near the gangway to the men's
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  Speaker 1: mess stood a little group of six sailors looking at
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  Speaker 1: something that was hidden from him in a recess. One
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  Speaker 1: of them was in the light diver's costume. Bird had
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  Speaker 1: already seen in the gas chamber turret, and he was
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  Speaker 1: moved to walk along and look at this person more closely,
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  Speaker 1: and examined the helmet he carried under his arm. But
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  Speaker 1: he forgot about the helmet when he got to the recess,
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  Speaker 1: because there he found lying on the floor the dead
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  Speaker 1: body of the boy who had been killed by a
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  Speaker 1: bullet from the Theodore Roosevelt. Bert had not observed that
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  Speaker 1: any bullets at all had reached the vata, or indeed
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  Speaker 1: imagine himself under fire. He could not understand for a
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  Speaker 1: time what had killed the lad, and no one explained
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  Speaker 1: to him. The boy lay just as he had fallen
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  Speaker 1: and died, with his jacket torn and scorched, his shoulder
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  Speaker 1: blades smashed and burst away from his body, and all
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  Speaker 1: the left side of his body ripped and rent. There
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  Speaker 1: was much blood. The sailor stood listening to the man
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  Speaker 1: with the helmet, who made explanations and pointed to the
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  Speaker 1: round bullet hole in the floor and the smash in
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  Speaker 1: the panel of the passage upon which the still vicious
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  Speaker 1: missile had spent the residue of its energy. All the
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  Speaker 1: faces were grave and earnest. They were the faces of sober, blond,
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  Speaker 1: blue eyed men, accustomed to obedience and an orderly life,
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  Speaker 1: to whom this waste, wet, painful thing that had been
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  Speaker 1: a comrade came almost as strangely as it did to Bert.
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  Speaker 1: A peal of wild laughter sounded down the passage in
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  Speaker 1: the direction of the little gallery, and something spoke, almost
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  Speaker 1: shouted in German in tones of exaltation. Other voices at
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  Speaker 1: a lower, more respectful pitch replied, Dear Prince, said a voice,
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  Speaker 1: and all the men became stiffer and less natural. Down
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  Speaker 1: the passage appeared a group of figures, Lieutenant Kurt walking
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  Speaker 1: in front, carrying a packet of papers. He stopped point
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  Speaker 1: blank when he saw the thing in the recess, and
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  Speaker 1: his ruddy face went white, so he said, in surprise.
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  Speaker 1: The Prince was following him, talking over his shoulder to
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  Speaker 1: Van Winterfeld and the Capitan. Eh, he said to Kurt,
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  Speaker 1: stopping in mid sentence, and followed the gesture of Kurt's hand.
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  Speaker 1: He glared at the crumpled object in the recess and
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  Speaker 1: seemed to think for a moment. He made a slight,
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  Speaker 1: careless gesture towards the boy's body and turned to the capitant.
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  Speaker 1: Dispose of that, he said in German, and passed on,
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  Speaker 1: finishing his scent to von Winterfeld in the same cheerful
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  Speaker 1: tone in which it had begun. Part six, The deep
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  Speaker 1: impression of helplessly drowning men that Bert had brought from
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  Speaker 1: the actual fight in the Atlantic mixed itself up inextricably
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  Speaker 1: with that of the lordly figure of Prince Carl Albert,
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  Speaker 1: gesturing aside the dead body of the Vaterland sailor. Hitherto,
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  Speaker 1: he had rather liked the idea of war as being
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  Speaker 1: a jolly, smashing, exciting affair, something like a bank holiday
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  Speaker 1: rag on a large scale, and on the whole agreeable
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  Speaker 1: and exhilarating. Now he knew it a little better. The
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  Speaker 1: next day there was added to his growing disillusionment a
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  Speaker 1: third ugly impression, trivial indeed to describe a mere, necessary,
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  Speaker 1: everyday incident of a state of war, but very distressing
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  Speaker 1: to his urbanist imagination, One writes urbanist to express the
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  Speaker 1: distinctive gentleness of the period. It was quite peculiar to
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  Speaker 1: the crowded townsmen of that time, and different altogether from
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  Speaker 1: the normal experience of any preceding age, that they never
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  Speaker 1: saw anything killed, never encountered, save through the mitigating media
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  Speaker 1: of book or picture, the fact of lethal violence that
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  Speaker 1: underlies all life. Three times in his existence, and three
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  Speaker 1: times only, had Bert seen a dead human being, And
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  Speaker 1: he had never assisted at the killing of anything bigger
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  Speaker 1: than a new born kitten. The incident that gave him
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  Speaker 1: his third shock was the execution of one of the
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  Speaker 1: men on the Addler for carrying a box of matches.
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  Speaker 1: The case was a flagrant one. The man had forgotten
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  Speaker 1: he had it upon him when coming aboard. Ample notice
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  Speaker 1: had been given to every one of the gravity of
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  Speaker 1: this offense, and notices appeared at numerous points all over
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  Speaker 1: the airships. The man's defense was that he had grown
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  Speaker 1: so used to the notices, and had been so preoccupied
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  Speaker 1: with his work, that he hadn't applied them to himself.
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  Speaker 1: He pleaded in his defense, what is indeed in military
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  Speaker 1: affairs and other serious crime inadvertency. He was tried by
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  Speaker 1: his captain, and the sentence confirmed by wireless telegraphy by
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  Speaker 1: the Prince, and it was decided to make his death
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  Speaker 1: an example to the whole fleet. The Germans, the Prince declared,
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  Speaker 1: hadn't crossed the Atlantic to go wool gathering, and in
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  Speaker 1: order that this lesson in discipline and obedience might be
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  Speaker 1: visible to every one, it was determined not to electrocute
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  Speaker 1: or drown, but hang the offender. Accordingly, the air fleet
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  Speaker 1: came clustering around the flagship like carp in a pond
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  Speaker 1: at feeding time. The addler hung at the zenith immediately
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  Speaker 1: alongside the flagship. The whole crew of the Vaterland assembled
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  Speaker 1: upon the hanging gallery. The crews of the other airships
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  Speaker 1: manned the air chambers, that is to say, clambered up
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  Speaker 1: the outer netting to the upper sides. The officers appeared
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  Speaker 1: upon the machine gun platforms. Bert thought it an altogether
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  Speaker 1: stupendous sight, looking down as he was, upon the entire fleet.
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  Speaker 1: Far off below, two steamers on the ripple blue water,
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  Speaker 1: one British and the other flying the American flag, seemed
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  Speaker 1: the minutest objects and marked the scale. They were immensely distant.
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  Speaker 1: Bert stood on the gallery, curious to see the execution,
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  Speaker 1: but uncomfortable because that terrible blond prince was within a
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  Speaker 1: dozen feet of him, glaring terribly. With his arms folded
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  Speaker 1: and his heels together in military fashion, they hung the
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  Speaker 1: man from the addler. They gave him sixty feet of rope,
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  Speaker 1: so that he should hang and dangle in the sight
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  Speaker 1: of all evildoers who might be hiding matches or contemplating
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  Speaker 1: any kindred disobedience. Bert saw the man standing, a living,
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  Speaker 1: reluctant man, no doubt, scared and rebellious enough in his heart,
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  Speaker 1: but outwardly erect and obedient, on the lower gallery of
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  Speaker 1: the Addler, about a hundre yards away. Then they had
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  Speaker 1: thrust him overboard. Down he fell, hands and feet extending
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  Speaker 1: until with a jerk, he was at the end of
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  Speaker 1: the rope. Then he ought to have died, and swung edifyingly,
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  Speaker 1: but instead a more terrible thing happened. His head came
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  Speaker 1: right off and down the body went, spinning to the sea. Feeble, grotesque, fantastic,
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  Speaker 1: with a head racing it in its fall, Hugh said Bert,
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  Speaker 1: clutching the rail before him, and a sympathetic grunt came
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  Speaker 1: from several of the men beside him. So said the Prince.
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  Speaker 1: Stiffer and Sterner glared for some seconds, then turned to
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  Speaker 1: the gang way up into the airship. For a long
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  Speaker 1: time Bert remained clinging to the railing of the gallery.
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  Speaker 1: He was almost physically sick with the horror of this
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  Speaker 1: trifling incident. He found it far more dreadful than the battle.
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  Speaker 1: He was, indeed a very degenerate, latter day civilized person.
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  Speaker 1: Late that after noon, Kurt came into the cabin and
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  Speaker 1: found him curled up on his locker and looking very
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  Speaker 1: white and miserable. Kurt had also lost something of his
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  Speaker 1: pristine freshness sea sick. He asked, No, we ought to
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  Speaker 1: reach New York this evening. There's a good breeze coming
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  Speaker 1: up under our tails. Then we shall see things. Bert
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  Speaker 1: did not answer. Kurt opened out folding chair and table
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  Speaker 1: and rustled for a time with the maps. Then he fell,
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  Speaker 1: thinking darkly. He roused himself presently and looked at his companion.
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  Speaker 1: What's the matter, he said nothing. Kurt stared threateningly. What's
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  Speaker 1: the matter? I saw them kill that chap. I saw
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  Speaker 1: that flying machine man hit the funnels of the big ironclad.
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  Speaker 1: I saw that dead chap in the passage. I seem
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  Speaker 1: too much smashing and killing lately, that's the matter. I
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  Speaker 1: don't like it. I didn't know war was this sort
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  Speaker 1: of thing. I'm a civilian. I don't like it. I
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  Speaker 1: don't like it, said Kurt by jove. No, I've read
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  Speaker 1: about war and all that, but when you see it,
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  Speaker 1: it's different, and I'm gettin giddy. I'm gettin giddy. I
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  Speaker 1: didn't mind a bit being up in that balloon at first,
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  Speaker 1: but all this looking down and floating over things and
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  Speaker 1: smashing of people. It's getting on my nerves. See, it'll
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  Speaker 1: have to get off again, Kurt thought, You're not the
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  Speaker 1: only one. The men are all getting strung up. The
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  Speaker 1: flying that's just flying naturally. It makes one a little
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  Speaker 1: swimmy in the head at first. As for the killing,
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  Speaker 1: we've got to be blooded, that's all. We're tame, civilized men,
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  Speaker 1: and we've got to get blooded. I suppose there's not
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  Speaker 1: a dozen men on the ship who've really seen bloodshed.
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  Speaker 1: Nice quiet, law abiding Germans. They've been so far here
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  Speaker 1: they are in for it. They're a bit screeamy now.
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  Speaker 1: But you wait till they've got their hands in, he reflected.
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  Speaker 1: Everybody's getting a bit strung up, he said. He turned
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  Speaker 1: again to his maps. Bert sat crumpled up in the corner,
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  Speaker 1: apparently heedless of him. For some time, both kept silence.
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  Speaker 1: What did the Prince want to go and hang that
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  Speaker 1: chap for? Asked Bert. Suddenly that was all right, said Kurt,
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  Speaker 1: That was all right, quite right. Here were the orders
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  Speaker 1: plain as the nose on your face, and here was
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  Speaker 1: that fool going about with matches. Gaw, I shan't forget
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  Speaker 1: that bit in a hurry, said Bert irrelevantly. Kurt did
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  Speaker 1: not answer him. He was measuring their distance from New
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  Speaker 1: York and speculating. Wonder what the American aeroplanes are like?
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  Speaker 1: He said, something like our draken flagger. We shall know
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  Speaker 1: by this time tomorrow. I wonder what we shall know?
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  Speaker 1: I wonder suppose after all they put up a fight,
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  Speaker 1: rum sort of fight. He whistled softly and mused. Presently,
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  Speaker 1: he fretted out of the cabin, and later Bert found
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  Speaker 1: him in the twilight upon the swinging platform, staring ahead
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  Speaker 1: and speculating about the things that might happen on the morrow.
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  Speaker 1: Clouds veiled the sea again, and the long straggling wedge
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  Speaker 1: of airships rising and falling as a flew, seemed like
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  Speaker 1: a flock of strange new berths in a chaos that
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  Speaker 1: had neither earth nor water, but only missed and sky.
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  Speaker 1: End of Chapter five, Parts five and six. Recording by
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  Speaker 1: William tom Co