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The War in the Air Chapter 9 Parts 1-3 · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter nine, Parts one, two, and three of War in
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  Speaker 1: the Air. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
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  Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
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  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by William tom Co
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  Speaker 1: War in the Air by H. G. Wells, Chapter nine,
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  Speaker 1: Parts one, two and three. Chapter nine on Goat Island,
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  Speaker 1: Part one. The whack of a bullet on the rocks
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  Speaker 1: beside him reminded him that he was a visible object
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  Speaker 1: and wearing at least portions of a German uniform. It
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  Speaker 1: drove him into the trees again, and for a time
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  Speaker 1: he dodged and dropped and sought cover, like a chick
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  Speaker 1: hiding among reeds from imaginary hawks. Beaten, he whispered, beaten
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  Speaker 1: and done for Chinese yellow chaps chasingham. At last he
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  Speaker 1: came to rest in a clump of bushes near a
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  Speaker 1: locked up and deserted refreshment shed, within view of the
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  Speaker 1: American side. They made a sort of hole and harbor
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  Speaker 1: for him. They bent completely overhead. He looked across the rapids,
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  Speaker 1: but the firing had ceased now altogether, and everything seemed quiet.
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  Speaker 1: The Asiatic aeroplane had moved from its former position above
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  Speaker 1: the suspension bridge, was motionless now above Niagara City, shadowing
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  Speaker 1: all that district about the powerhouse, which had been the
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  Speaker 1: scene of the land fight. The monster had an air
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  Speaker 1: of quiet and assured predominance, and from its stern it trailed,
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  Speaker 1: serene and ornamental, a long streaming flag, the red, black
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  Speaker 1: and yellow of the Great Alliance, the sunrise and the dragon.
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  Speaker 1: Beyond to the east, at a much higher level, hung
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  Speaker 1: a second consort, and Bert, presently gathering courage. Wriggled out
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  Speaker 1: and craned his neck to find another still airship against
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  Speaker 1: the sunset in the north. Gaw, he said, beaten and chased,
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  Speaker 1: my God. The fighting, it seemed, at first, was quite
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  Speaker 1: over in Niagara City, though a German flag was still
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  Speaker 1: flying from one shattered house. A white sheet was hoisted
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  Speaker 1: above the powerhouse, and this remained flying all through the
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  Speaker 1: events that followed. But presently came a sound of shots,
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  Speaker 1: and then German soldiers running. They disappeared among the houses,
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  Speaker 1: and then came two engineers in blue shirts and trousers,
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  Speaker 1: hotly pursued by three Japanese swordsmen. The foremost of the
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  Speaker 1: two fugitives was a shapely man and ran lightly and well.
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  Speaker 1: The second was a sturdy little man and rather fat.
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  Speaker 1: He ran comically in leaps and bounds, with his plump
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  Speaker 1: arms bent up by his side and his head thrown back.
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  Speaker 1: The pursuers ran with uniforms and dark, thin metal and
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  Speaker 1: leather head dresses. The little man stumbled and Bert gasped,
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  Speaker 1: realizing a new horror in war. The foremost swordsman won
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  Speaker 1: three strides on him and was near enough to slash
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  Speaker 1: at him and miss as he spurted. A dozen yards
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  Speaker 1: they ran, and then the swordsman slashed again, and Bert
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  Speaker 1: could hear across the waters a little sound like the
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  Speaker 1: moo of an elfin cow as a fat little man
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  Speaker 1: fell forward. Slash went the swordsman and slash at something
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  Speaker 1: on the ground that tried to save itself with ineffectual hands.
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  Speaker 1: Oh I can't, cried Bert, near blubbering and staring with
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  Speaker 1: starting eyes. The swordsman slashed a fourth time and went on.
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  Speaker 1: As his fellows came up after the better runner. The
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  Speaker 1: hindmost swordsman stopped and turned back. He had perceived some movement, perhaps,
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  Speaker 1: but at any rate he stood and ever and again
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  Speaker 1: slashed at the fallen body. Ooh, ooh, groaned bert at
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  Speaker 1: every slash, and shrank closer into the bushes and became
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  Speaker 1: very still. Presently came a sound of shots from the town,
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  Speaker 1: and then everything was quiet, everything even the hospital. He
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  Speaker 1: saw presently little figures sheathing swords come out from the
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  Speaker 1: houses and walked to the debris of the flying machines
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  Speaker 1: the bomb had destroyed. Others appeared wheeling undamaged aeroplanes upon
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  Speaker 1: their wheels as men might wheel bicycles, and sprang into
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  Speaker 1: the saddles and flapped into the air. A string of
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  Speaker 1: three airships appeared far away in the east and flew
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  Speaker 1: towards the zenith. The one that hung low above Niagara
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  Speaker 1: City came still lower and dropped a rope ladder to
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  Speaker 1: pick up men from the powerhouse. For a long time,
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  Speaker 1: he watched the further happenings in Niagara City as a
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  Speaker 1: rabbit might watch a meet. He saw men going from
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  Speaker 1: building to building to set fire to them, as he
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  Speaker 1: presently realized, and he heard a series of dull detonations
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  Speaker 1: from the wheel pit of the powerhouse. Some similar business
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  Speaker 1: went on among the works on the Canadian side. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: more and more airships appeared, and many more flying machines,
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  Speaker 1: until at last, it seemed to him nearly a third
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  Speaker 1: of the Asiatic fleet had reassembled. He watched them from
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  Speaker 1: his bush, cramped but immovable, watched them gather and range themselves,
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  Speaker 1: and signal and pick up men, until at last they
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  Speaker 1: sailed away towards the glowing sunset, going to the great
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  Speaker 1: Asiatic rendezvous above the oil wells of Cleveland. They dwindled
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  Speaker 1: and passed away, leaving him alone, so far as he
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  Speaker 1: could tell, the only living man in a world of
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  Speaker 1: ruin and strange loneliness almost beyond describing. He watched them
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  Speaker 1: recede and vanish. He stood gaping after them, gaw he said,
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  Speaker 1: at last, like one who rouses himself from a trance.
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  Speaker 1: It was far more than any personal desolation extremity that
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  Speaker 1: flooded his soul. It seemed to him, indeed, that this
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  Speaker 1: must be the sunset of his race. Part two. He
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  Speaker 1: did not at first envisage his own plight indefinite and
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  Speaker 1: comprehensible terms. Things happened to him so much of late.
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  Speaker 1: His own efforts had counted for so little that he
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  Speaker 1: had become passive and planless. His last scheme had been
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  Speaker 1: to go around the coast of England as a desert dervish,
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  Speaker 1: giving refined entertainment to his fellow creatures. Fate had seen
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  Speaker 1: fit to direct him to other destinies, had hurried him
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  Speaker 1: from point to point, and dropped him at last upon
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  Speaker 1: this little wedge of rock between the cataracts. It did
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  Speaker 1: not instantly occurred to him that now it was his
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  Speaker 1: turn to play. He had a singular feeling that all
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  Speaker 1: must end, as a dream ends, that presently, surely he
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  Speaker 1: would be back in the world of Grubb and Edna
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  Speaker 1: and bun Hill, that this roar, this glittering presence of
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  Speaker 1: incessant water, would be drawn aside as a curtain is
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  Speaker 1: drawn aside after a holiday lantern show and old familiar
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  Speaker 1: customary things reassumed their sway. It would be interesting to
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  Speaker 1: tell people how he had seen Niagara. And then Kurt's
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  Speaker 1: words came into his head. People torn away from the
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  Speaker 1: people they cared for, Homes smashed, creatures full of life
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  Speaker 1: and memories, and peculiar little gifts torn to pieces, starved
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  Speaker 1: and spoiled. He wondered, half incredulous if that was indeed true,
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  Speaker 1: It was so hard to realize it out beyond there
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  Speaker 1: was it possible that Tom and Jessica were also in
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  Speaker 1: some dire extremity, that the little Green grocer's shop was
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  Speaker 1: no longer standing open, with Jessica serving respectfully warming Tom's
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  Speaker 1: ear in sharp sides, or punctually sending out the goods.
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  Speaker 1: He tried to think what day of the week it was,
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  Speaker 1: and found he had lost his reckoning. Perhaps it was Sunday.
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  Speaker 1: If so, were they going to church? Or were they hiding?
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps in bushes? When had happened to the landlord Lord
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  Speaker 1: the Butcher, and to butter Ridge and all those people
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  Speaker 1: on dem Church Beach. Something he knew had happened to
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  Speaker 1: London a bombardment? But who had bombarded? Were Tom and Jessica?
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  Speaker 1: Two being chased by strange brown men with long, bare
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  Speaker 1: swords and evil eyes. He thought of various possible aspects
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  Speaker 1: of affliction, but presently one phase ousted all the others.
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  Speaker 1: Were they getting much to eat? The question haunted him,
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  Speaker 1: obsessed him. If one was very hungry, would one eat rats?
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  Speaker 1: It dawned upon him that a peculiar misery that oppressed
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  Speaker 1: him was not so much anxiety and patriotic sorrow as hunger.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, he was hungry, he reflected and turned his
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  Speaker 1: steps towards the little refreshment shed that stood near the
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  Speaker 1: end of the ruined bridge. Ought to be something. He
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  Speaker 1: strolled round it once or twice, and then attacked the
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  Speaker 1: shutters with his knife, reinforced presently by a wooden steak
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  Speaker 1: he found conveniently near. At last he got a shudder
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  Speaker 1: to give and tore it back and stuck in his
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  Speaker 1: head grub, he remarked. Anyhow, leastways he got at the
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  Speaker 1: inside fastening of the shutter, and at presently this establishment
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  Speaker 1: open for his exploration. He found several sealed bottles of
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  Speaker 1: sterilized milk, much mineral water, two tins of biscuits, and
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  Speaker 1: a crock of very stale cakes, cigarettes, and great quantity
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  Speaker 1: but very dry, some rather dry oranges, nuts, some tins
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  Speaker 1: of canned meat and fruit, and plates and knives and
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  Speaker 1: forks and glasses, sufficient for several score of people. There
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  Speaker 1: was also a zinc locker, but he was unable to
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  Speaker 1: negotiate the padlock of this. Shan't starve, said Bert for
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  Speaker 1: a bit, anyhow, He sat on the vendor seat and
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  Speaker 1: regaled himself with biscuits and milk, and felt for a moment,
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  Speaker 1: quite contented, quite RESTful, he muttered, munching and glancing about
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  Speaker 1: him restlessly. After what I've been through, cricke, what a day? Oh,
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  Speaker 1: what a day? Wonder took possession of him. Gaw, he cried,
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  Speaker 1: what a fight it's been, smashing up the poor fellers
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  Speaker 1: and long the airships, the flyers and all. I wonder
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  Speaker 1: what happened to the zeppelin and that chap Kurt? I
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  Speaker 1: wonder what happened to him? He was a good sort
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  Speaker 1: of chap, was Kurt? Some phantom of imperial solicitude floated
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  Speaker 1: through his mind. India, he said, A more practical interest arose.
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  Speaker 1: I wonder if there's anything to open one of these
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  Speaker 1: tins of corned beef? Part three. After he had feasted,
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  Speaker 1: Bert lit a cigarette and sat meditative for a time.
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  Speaker 1: Wonder where grub is? He said, I do wonder that.
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  Speaker 1: Wonder if any of them wonder about me. He reverted
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  Speaker 1: to his own circumstances to say, I shall have to
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  Speaker 1: stop on this island. For some time. He tried to
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  Speaker 1: feel at his ease and secure, but presently the indefinable
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  Speaker 1: restlessness of the social animal in solitude distressed him. He
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  Speaker 1: began to want to look over his shoulder, and as
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  Speaker 1: a corrective, roused himself to explore the rest of the island.
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  Speaker 1: It was only very slowly that he began to realize
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  Speaker 1: the peculiarities of his position, to perceive that the breaking
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  Speaker 1: down of the arch between Green Island and the mainland
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  Speaker 1: had cut him off completely from the world. Indeed, it
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  Speaker 1: was only when he came back to where the fore
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  Speaker 1: end of the hohens Aldern lay like a stranded ship,
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  Speaker 1: and was contemplating the shattered bridge, that this dawned upon him.
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  Speaker 1: Even then, it came with no sort of shock to
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  Speaker 1: his mind, a fact among a number of other extraordinary
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  Speaker 1: and unmanageable facts. He stared at the shattered cabins of
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  Speaker 1: the Hohen's Alarn and his widow's garment of disheveled silk
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  Speaker 1: for a time, but without any idea of its containing
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  Speaker 1: any living thing. It was also twisted and smashed and
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  Speaker 1: entirely upside down. Then for a while he gazed at
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  Speaker 1: the evening sky. A cloud haze was now appearing, and
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  Speaker 1: not an airship was in sight. A swallow flew by
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  Speaker 1: and snapped some invisible victim. Like a dream, he repeated.
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  Speaker 1: Then for a time, the rapids held his mind roaring.
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  Speaker 1: It keeps on roaring and splashing always, and always keeps on.
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  Speaker 1: At last his interests became personal. Wonder what I ought
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  Speaker 1: to do now? He reflected, Not an id, he said.
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  Speaker 1: He was chiefly conscious that a fortnight ago he had
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  Speaker 1: been in bun Hill with no idea of travel in
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  Speaker 1: his mind, and that now he was between the falls
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  Speaker 1: of Niagara amidst the devastation and ruins of the greatest
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  Speaker 1: air fight in the world, and that in the interval
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  Speaker 1: he had been across France, Belgium, Germany, England, Ireland, and
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  Speaker 1: a number of other countries. It was an interesting thought
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  Speaker 1: and suitable for conversation, but of no great practical utility.
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  Speaker 1: Wonder ow I can get off this, he said, Wonder
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  Speaker 1: if there is a way out? If not? Rummy further reflection, decided,
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  Speaker 1: I believe I got myself in a bit of an
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  Speaker 1: owl coming over that bridge. Any owl got me out
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  Speaker 1: of the way of them Japanese chaps wouldn't have taken
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  Speaker 1: him long to cut my froat. No. Still, he resolved
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  Speaker 1: to return to the point of Luna Island. For a
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  Speaker 1: long time he stood without stirring scrutinizing the Canadian shore
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  Speaker 1: and the wreckage of hotels and houses, and the fallen
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  Speaker 1: trees of the Victoria Park. Pink now in the light
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  Speaker 1: of sundown that a human being was perceptible in that
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  Speaker 1: scene of headlong destruction. Then he came back to the
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  Speaker 1: American side of the island, crossed close to the crumpled
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  Speaker 1: aluminum wreckage of the Hohenzollern to Green Islet and scrutinized
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  Speaker 1: the hopeless breach in the further bridge and the water
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  Speaker 1: that boiled beneath it. Toward Buffalo. There was still much smoke,
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  Speaker 1: and near the position of the Niagara Railway station, the
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  Speaker 1: houses were burning vigorously. Everything was deserted. Now everything was
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  Speaker 1: still one little abandoned thing. Lay on a transverse path
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  Speaker 1: between town and road, a crumpled heap of clothes with
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  Speaker 1: sprawling limbs. Have a look around, said Bert, and taking
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  Speaker 1: a path that ran through the middle of the island,
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  Speaker 1: he presently discovered the wreckage of the two Asiatic aeroplanes
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  Speaker 1: that had fallen out of the struggle that ended the
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  Speaker 1: hohen Zoldern. With the first, he found the wreckage of
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  Speaker 1: an aeronaut too. The machine had evidently dropped vertically and
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  Speaker 1: was badly knocked about amidst a lot of smashed branches
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  Speaker 1: in a clump of trees. Its bent and broken wings
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  Speaker 1: and shattered stays sprawled amidst new splintered wood, and its
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  Speaker 1: forepeak stuck into the ground. The aeronaut dangled weirdly, head
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  Speaker 1: downward among the leaves and branches some yards away, and
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  Speaker 1: Bert only discovered him as he turned from the aeroplane
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  Speaker 1: in the dusky evening light and stillness, for the sun
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  Speaker 1: had gone now and the wind had altogether fallen. This
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  Speaker 1: inverted yellow face was anything but a tranquilizing object to discover. Suddenly,
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  Speaker 1: a couple of yards away, a broken branch had run
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  Speaker 1: clean through the man's thorax, and he hung so stabbed,
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  Speaker 1: looking limp and absurd. In his hand, he still clutched
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  Speaker 1: with a grip of death a short light rifle. For
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  Speaker 1: some time Birch stood very still, expecting this thing. Then
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  Speaker 1: he began to walk away from it, looking constantly back
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  Speaker 1: at it. Presently in an open glade, he came to
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  Speaker 1: a stop. Gaw He whispered, I don't like dead body, somehow,
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  Speaker 1: I'd almost rather that shop was alive. He would not
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  Speaker 1: go along the path athwart which the chinaman hung. He
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: felt he would rather not have trees round him any more,
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  Speaker 1: and that it would be more comfortable to be quite
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  Speaker 1: close to the sociable splash and uproar of the rapids.
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  Speaker 1: He came upon the second aeroplane in a clear grassy
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  Speaker 1: space by the side of the streaming water, and it
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  Speaker 1: seemed scarcely damaged at all. It looked as though it
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  Speaker 1: had floated down into a position of rest. It lay
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  Speaker 1: on its side with one wing in the air. There
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: was no aeronaut near it, dead or alive. There it
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  Speaker 1: lay abandoned, with the water lapping about its long tail.
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  Speaker 1: Bert remained a little aloof from it for a long time,
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  Speaker 1: looking into the gathering shadows among the trees, in the
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  Speaker 1: expectation of another Chinaman, alive or dead. Then, very cautiously
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  Speaker 1: he approached the machine and stood regarding its widespread vans,
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  Speaker 1: its big steering wheel, and empty saddle. He did not
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  Speaker 1: venture to touch it. I wish that other chap wasn't there,
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  Speaker 1: he said, I do wish he wasn't there. He saw
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  Speaker 1: a few yards away something bobbing about in an eddy
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: that spun within a projecting head of rock. As it
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  Speaker 1: went round, it seemed to draw him unwillingly towards it.
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  Speaker 1: What could it be, blow, said Bert, it's another of
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  Speaker 1: em It held him. He told himself that it was
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  Speaker 1: the other aeronaut that had been shot in the fight
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: and fallen out of the saddle. As he strove to land,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: he tried to go away, and then it occurred to
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: him that he might get a branch or something and
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: put this rotating object out into the stream. That would
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: leave him with only one dead body to worry about.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: Perhaps he might get along with one. He hesitated, and
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: then with a certain emotion, forced himself to do this.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: He went towards the bushes and cut himself a wand,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: and returned to the rocks and clambered out to a
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: corner between the eddy and the stream. By that time
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: the sunset was over and the bats were abroad, and
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: he was wet with perspiration. He prodded the floating blue
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: clad thing with his wand failed, tried again successfully as
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: it came round, and as it went out into the
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  Speaker 1: stream it turned over. The light gleamed on golden hair,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: and it was kurt. It was curt, white and dead
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: and very calm. There was no mistaking him. There was
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: still plenty of light for that. The stream took him,
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: and he seemed to compose himself in its swift grip,
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  Speaker 1: as one who stretches himself to rest. White faced, he
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: was now and all the color gone out of him.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: A feeling of infinite distress swept over Bert as the
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: body swept out of sight towards the fall. Curt, he cried, Curt,
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  Speaker 1: I didn't mean to Curt. Don't leave me here, don't
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  Speaker 1: leave me. Loneliness and desolation overwhelmed him. He gave way.
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  Speaker 1: He stood on the rock in the evening light, weeping
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  Speaker 1: and wailing passionately, like a child. It was as though
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  Speaker 1: some link that had held him to all these things
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  Speaker 1: had broken and gone. He was afraid, like a child
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  Speaker 1: in a lonely room, shamelessly afraid. The twilight was closing
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  Speaker 1: about him. The trees were full now of strange shadows.
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  Speaker 1: All the things about him became strange and unfamiliar, with
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: that subtle queerness one feels oftenest in dreams. Oh God,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: I carn't stand this, he said, and crept back from
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  Speaker 1: the rock to the grass and crouched down, and suddenly
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  Speaker 1: wild sorrow for the death of Kurt. Kurt the brave,
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  Speaker 1: Kurt the kindly came to his help, and he broke
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  Speaker 1: from whimpering to weeping. He ceased to crouch. He sprawled
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  Speaker 1: upon the grass and clenched an impotent fist. This war,
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  Speaker 1: he cried, This blasted foolery of a war, Oh, Kurt,
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  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Kurt, I done, he said, I'd done. I've had
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  Speaker 1: all I want and more than I want. The world's
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: all rot and there ain't no sense in it. The
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: night's coming. If he comes after me, ye can't come
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: after me. Ye can't. If he comes after me, I'll
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: throw myself into the water. Presently, he was talking again,
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  Speaker 1: in a low undertone. There ain't nothing to be afraid of. Really,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: it's just imagination, Poor old Kurt. He thought it would happen,
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  Speaker 1: pre vision, like he never gave me that letter or
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: told me who the lady was. It's like what he said,
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: people tore away from everything they belonged to everywhere, exactly
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: like what he said. Here I am cast away thousands
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: of miles from Edna or Grubb or any of my lot,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: like a plant tore up by the roots. And every
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: war's been like this, Only I addn't the sense to
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: understand it? Always all sorts of owls and corners chaps
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: have died in and people addin' the sense to understand,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: addn't the sense to feel it and stop it? Thought
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: war was fine? My god dear old Edna. She was
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: a fair bit of all right. She was that time
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: we add a boat at Kingston. I bet i'll see
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: her again. Yet, won't be my fault if I don't.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: End of Chapter nine, Parts one, two and three. Recording
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: by William tom Coe