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The Country of the Blind and Other Stories - The Empire of the Ants · The H. G. Wells Library

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Speaker 1: Section thirty of the Country of the Blind and Other
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Speaker 1: Stories by H. G. Wells. This LibriVox recording is in
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Speaker 1: the public domain read by Peter Yearsley The Empire of
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Speaker 1: the Ants. When Captain Gerrieo received instructions to take his
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Speaker 1: new gunboat, the Benjamin Constant, to Badama on the Betamo
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Speaker 1: arm of the Guaramadema and there assist the inhabitants against
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Speaker 1: a plague of ants, he suspected the authorities of mockery.
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Speaker 1: His promotion had been romantic and irregular, the affections of
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Speaker 1: a prominent Brazilian lady and the captain's liquid eyes had
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Speaker 1: played a part in the process, and the Diario and
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Speaker 1: Ofuturo had been lamentably disrespectable in their comments. He felt
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Speaker 1: he was to give further occasion for disrespect. He was
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Speaker 1: a creole. His conceptions of etiquet and discipline were pure
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Speaker 1: blooded Portuguese, and it was only to Holroyd, the Lancashire engineer,
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Speaker 1: who had come over with the boat, and as an
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Speaker 1: exercise in the use of English, his th h sounds
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Speaker 1: were very uncertain that he opened his heart. It is
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Speaker 1: in effect, he said, to make me absurd. What can
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Speaker 1: a man do against ants. They come, di go, they say,
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Speaker 1: said Holroyd, that these don't go. That chap you said
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Speaker 1: was a sambo sambo. It is a sort of mixture
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Speaker 1: of blood. Sambo, you said. The people are going. The
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Speaker 1: captain smoked fretfully for a time. These things have to happen,
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Speaker 1: he said, at last, what is it? Plagues of ants
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Speaker 1: and such like? As God wills there was a plague
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Speaker 1: in Trinidad, the little ants that carry leaves, old orange trees,
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Speaker 1: old mangoes. What does it matter? Sometimes aunt armies come
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Speaker 1: into your houses fighting ants a different sort. You go
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Speaker 1: and they clean the house. Then you come back again.
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Speaker 1: The house is clean like new, No cockroaches, no fleas,
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Speaker 1: no jiggers in the floor. That sambo chap, said, Holroyd says,
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Speaker 1: these are a different sort of hand. The captain shrugged
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Speaker 1: his shoulders, fumed, and gave his attention to a cigarette. Afterwards,
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Speaker 1: he reopened the subject, My dear Olroyd, what am I
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Speaker 1: to do about these infernal ants? The captain reflected, It
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Speaker 1: is ridiculous, he said, But in the afternoon he put
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Speaker 1: on his full uniform and went ashore and jars and boxes.
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Speaker 1: Came back to the ship and subsequently he did, and
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Speaker 1: Holroyd sat on the deck in the evening coolness and
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Speaker 1: smoked profoundly and marveled at Brazil. They were six days
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Speaker 1: up the Amazon, some hundreds of miles from the ocean,
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Speaker 1: and east and west of him there was a horizon
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Speaker 1: like the sea, and to the south nothing but a
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Speaker 1: sandbank island with some tufts of scrub. The water was
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Speaker 1: always running like a sluice, thick with dirt, animated with
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Speaker 1: crocodiles and hovering birds, and fed by some inexhaustible source
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Speaker 1: of tree trunks. And the way of it, the headlong
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Speaker 1: waist of it, filled his soul. The town of Alemkre,
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Speaker 1: with its meager church, its thatched sheds for houses, its
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Speaker 1: discolored ruins of ampler days, seemed a little thing lost
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Speaker 1: in this wilderness of nature. A sixpence dropped on Sahara.
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Speaker 1: He was a young man. This was his first sight
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Speaker 1: of the tropics. He came straight from England, where nature
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Speaker 1: is hedged, ditched, and drained into the perfection of submission,
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Speaker 1: and he had suddenly discovered the insignificance of man. For
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Speaker 1: six days they had been steaming up from the sea
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Speaker 1: by unfrequented channels, and man had been as rare as
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Speaker 1: a rare butterfly. One saw one day a canoe, another
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Speaker 1: day a distant station, the next no men at all.
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Speaker 1: He began to perceive that man is indeed a rare animal,
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Speaker 1: having but a precarious hold upon this land. Perceived it
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Speaker 1: more clearly as the days passed, and he made his
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Speaker 1: devious way to the Batamo in the company of this
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Speaker 1: remarkable commander, who ruled over one big gun and was
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Speaker 1: forbidden to waste his ammunition. Holroyd was learning Spanish industriously,
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Speaker 1: but he was still in the present tense and substantive
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Speaker 1: stage of speech, and the only other person who had
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Speaker 1: any words of English was a Negro stoker, who had
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Speaker 1: them all wrong. The second in command was a Portuguese
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Speaker 1: dacuna who spoke French, but it was a difference or
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Speaker 1: of French, from the French Holroyd had learned in Southport,
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Speaker 1: and their intercourse was confined to politenesses and simple propositions
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Speaker 1: about the weather and the weather, like everything else in
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Speaker 1: this amazing new world, the weather had no human aspect,
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Speaker 1: and was hot by night and hot by day, and
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Speaker 1: the air steam even the wind was hot steam, smelling
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Speaker 1: of vegetation in decay, And the alligators and the strange birds,
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Speaker 1: the flies of many sorts and sizes, the beetles, the ants,
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Speaker 1: the snakes and monkeys seemed to wonder what man was
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Speaker 1: doing in an atmosphere that had no gladness in its
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Speaker 1: sunshine and no coolness in its night to where clothing
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Speaker 1: was intolerable. But to cast it aside was to scorch
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Speaker 1: by day and expose an ampler area to the mosquitoes
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Speaker 1: by night. To go on deck by day was to
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Speaker 1: be blinded by glare, and to stay below was to suffocate.
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Speaker 1: And in the daytime came certain flies, extremely clever and
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Speaker 1: noxious about one's wrist and ankle. Captain Guerrieau, who was
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Speaker 1: Holroyd's sole distraction from these physical distresses, developed into a
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Speaker 1: formidable bore, telling the simple story of his heart's affections
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Speaker 1: day by day a string of anonymous women, as if
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Speaker 1: he was telling beads. Sometimes he s jested sport, and
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Speaker 1: they shot at alligators, and at rare intervals, they came
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Speaker 1: to human aggregations in the waste of trees and stayed
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Speaker 1: for a day or so and drank and sat about,
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Speaker 1: and one night danced with the creole girls, who found
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Speaker 1: Olroyd's poor elements of Spanish, without either past, tense or future,
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Speaker 1: amptly sufficient for their purposes. But these were mere luminous
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Speaker 1: chinks in the long gray passage of the streaming river,
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Speaker 1: up which the throbbing engines beat a certain liberal heathen
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Speaker 1: deity in the shape of a demi John held seductive
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Speaker 1: court aft. And it is probable forward. But Guerriol learned
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Speaker 1: things about the ants, more things and more at this
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Speaker 1: stopping place and that, and became interested in his mission.
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Speaker 1: Dear a new sort of ant, he said, we have
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Speaker 1: got to be what do you call it? Entomology five
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Speaker 1: centimeters some bigger. It is ridiculous. We are like the
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Speaker 1: monkeys sent to pick insects, but they are eating up
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Speaker 1: the country. He burst out, indignantly. Suppose suddenly there are
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Speaker 1: complications with Europe. Here am I? Soon we shall be
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Speaker 1: above the Rio Negro and my gun useless. He nursed
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Speaker 1: his knee and mused, those people who were there at
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Speaker 1: the dancing place, they have come down. They have lost
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Speaker 1: all they got. D Ants come to dare house one afternoon.
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Speaker 1: Everyone run out, You know when the ants come. One must.
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Speaker 1: Every one runs out, and they go over the house.
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Speaker 1: If you stayed, they'd eat you. See. Well, presently they
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Speaker 1: go back. They say the ants have gone. The ants
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Speaker 1: haven't gone. They try to go in the sun. He
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Speaker 1: goes in. The ants fight, swarm over him, bite him.
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Speaker 1: Presently he comes out again, screaming and running. He runs
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Speaker 1: past them to the river. See he gets into the
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Speaker 1: water and drowns the ants. Yes, Garyo paused, brought his
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Speaker 1: liquid eyes close to Holroyd's face, tapped Holroyd's knee with
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Speaker 1: his knuckle. That night, he dies, just as if he
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Speaker 1: was stung by a snake, poisoned by the ants. Who knows.
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Speaker 1: Geryo shrugged his shoulders. Perhaps they bit him badly. When
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Speaker 1: I joined his service, I joined to fight men. These
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Speaker 1: things dese ants. They come and go. It is no
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Speaker 1: business for men. After that, he talked frequently of the
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Speaker 1: ants to Holroyd, and whenever they chanced to drift against
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Speaker 1: any speck of humanity in that waste of water and
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Speaker 1: sunshine and distant trees. Holroyd's improving knowledge of the language
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Speaker 1: enabled him to recognize the ascended word sauba more and
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Speaker 1: more completely, dominating the whole. He perceived the ants were
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Speaker 1: becoming interesting, and the nearer he drew to them, the
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Speaker 1: more interesting they became. Gueryeo abandoned his old themes almost suddenly,
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Speaker 1: and the Portuguese lieutenant became a conversation figure. He knew
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Speaker 1: something about the leaf cutting ant and expanded his knowledge.
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Speaker 1: Carrioh sometimes rendered what he had to tell to Holroyd.
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Speaker 1: He told of the little workers that swarm and fight,
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Speaker 1: and the big workers that command and rule, and how
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Speaker 1: these latter always crawled to the neck, and how their
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Speaker 1: bites drew blood. He told how they cut leaves and
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Speaker 1: made fungus beds, and how their nests in Caracas are
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Speaker 1: sometimes a hundred yards Across two days, the three men
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Speaker 1: spent disputing whether ants have eyes. The discussion grew dangerously
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Speaker 1: heated on the second afternoon, and Holroyd saved the situation
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Speaker 1: by going ashore in a boat to capture ants and see.
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Speaker 1: He captured various specimens and returned, and some had eyes
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Speaker 1: and some hadn't. Also, they argued to ants bite or sting.
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Speaker 1: These ants, said Gerrio, after collecting information, at Rancho have
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Speaker 1: big eyes. They don't run about blind, not as most
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Speaker 1: ants do. No, they getting corners, and watch what you do,
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Speaker 1: and they sting, asked Holroyd, Yes, they sting. There is
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Speaker 1: poison in the sting. He meditated, I do not see
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Speaker 1: what men can do against ants. They come and go,
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Speaker 1: but these don't go. They will, said Keryo. Past to Mandu,
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Speaker 1: there is a long low coast of eighty miles without
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Speaker 1: any population. And then one comes to the confluence of
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Speaker 1: the main river and the Botamo arm like a great lake.
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Speaker 1: And then the forest came nearer, came at last, intimately
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Speaker 1: near the character of the channel changes, snags abound, and
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Speaker 1: the Benjamin constant moored by a cable. That night, under
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Speaker 1: the very shadow of dark trees, for the first time
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Speaker 1: for many days, came a spell of coolness, and Holroyd
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Speaker 1: and Geryo sat late, smoking cigars and enjoying this delicious sensation.
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Speaker 1: Gerrio's mind was full of ants and what they could do.
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Speaker 1: He decided to sleep at last, and lay down on
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Speaker 1: an mattress on deck, a man hopelessly perplexed. His last words,
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Speaker 1: when he already seemed asleep, were to ask, with a
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Speaker 1: flourish of despair, what can one do with ants? The
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Speaker 1: whole thing is absurd? Holroyd was left to scratch his
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Speaker 1: bitten wrists and meditate alone. He sat on the bulwark
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Speaker 1: and listened to the little changes in Gerrio's breathing until
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Speaker 1: he was fast asleep. And then the ripple and lap
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Speaker 1: of the stream took his mind and brought back that
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Speaker 1: sense of immensity that had been growing upon him since
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Speaker 1: first he had left Para and come up the river.
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Speaker 1: The monitor showed but one small light, and there was
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Speaker 1: first a little talking forehead, and then stillness. His eyes
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Speaker 1: went from the dim black outlines of the middle works
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Speaker 1: of the gunboat towards the bank, to the black, overwhelming
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Speaker 1: mysteries of forest, lit now and then by a fire fly,
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Speaker 1: and never still from the murmur of alien and mysterious activities.
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Speaker 1: It was the inhuman immensity of this land that astonished
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Speaker 1: and oppressed him. He knew the skies were empty of men,
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Speaker 1: the stars were specks in an incredible vastness of space.
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Speaker 1: He knew the ocean was enormous and untameable. But in
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Speaker 1: England he had come to think of the land as man's.
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Speaker 1: In England it is indeed man's. The wild things live
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Speaker 1: by sufferance, grow on lease. Everywhere, the roads the fences
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Speaker 1: and absolute security runs in an atlas too. The land
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Speaker 1: is man's, and all colored to show his claim to it,
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Speaker 1: in vivid contrast to the universal, independent blueness of the sea.
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Speaker 1: He had taken it for granted that a day would
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Speaker 1: come when everywhere about the earth plow and culture, light tramways,
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Speaker 1: and good roads and ordered security would prevail. But now
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Speaker 1: he doubted this forest was interminable. It had an air
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Speaker 1: of being invincible, and man seemed at best an infrequent,
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Speaker 1: precarious intruder. One traveled for miles amidst the still silent
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Speaker 1: struggle of giant trees, of strangulating creepers, of assertive flowers.
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Speaker 1: Everywhere the alligator, the turtle, and endless varieties of birds
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Speaker 1: and insects seemed at home. Dwelt irreplaceably, But man man
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Speaker 1: at most held a footing upon resentful clearings. Forught weeds,
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Speaker 1: fought beasts and insects for the barest foothold, fell a
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Speaker 1: prey to snake and beast, insect and fever, and was
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Speaker 1: presently carried away in many places down the river. He
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Speaker 1: had been manifestly driven back this deserted creek, or that
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Speaker 1: preserved the name of a casa, and here and there
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Speaker 1: ruinous white walls and a shattered tower enforced the lesson.
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Speaker 1: The puma. The jaguar were more the masters here? Who
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Speaker 1: were the real masters? In a few miles of this forest?
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Speaker 1: There must be more ants than there are men in
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Speaker 1: the whole world. This seemed to Holroyd a perfectly new idea.
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Speaker 1: In a few thousand years, men had emerged from barbarism
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Speaker 1: to a state of civilization that made them feel lords
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Speaker 1: of the future and masters of the earth. But what
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Speaker 1: was to prevent the ants evolving? Also? Such ants, as
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Speaker 1: one knew, lived in little communities of a few thousand individuals,
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Speaker 1: made no concerted efforts against the greater world. But they
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Speaker 1: had a language, they had an intelligence. Why should things
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Speaker 1: stop at that any more than men had stopped at
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Speaker 1: the barbaric stage. Suppose presently the ants began to store knowledge,
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Speaker 1: just as men had done by means of books and records,
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Speaker 1: use weapons, form great empire, sustain a planned and organized war.
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Speaker 1: Things came back to him that Gerrio had gathered about
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Speaker 1: these ants. They were approaching. They used a poison like
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Speaker 1: the poison of snakes. They obeyed greater leaders, even as
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Speaker 1: the leaf cutting ants do. They were carnivorous, and where
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Speaker 1: they came they stayed. The forest was very still, The
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Speaker 1: water lapped incessantly against the side about the lantern. Overhead,
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Speaker 1: there eddied a noiseless whirl of phantom moths. Gerrio stirred
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Speaker 1: in the darkness and sighed, what can one do? He
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Speaker 1: murmured and turned over and was still again. Holroyd was
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Speaker 1: roused from meditations that were becoming sinister by the hum
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Speaker 1: of a mosquito. Part two. The next morning, Holroyd learnt
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Speaker 1: they were within forty kilometers of Badama, and his interest
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Speaker 1: in the banks intensified. He came up whenever an opportunity
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Speaker 1: offered to examine his surroundings. He could see no signs
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Speaker 1: of human occupation whatever, save for a weedy ruin of
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Speaker 1: a house, and the green stained facade of the long
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Speaker 1: deserted monastery at Modu, with a forest tree growing out
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Speaker 1: of a vacant window space, and great creepers netted across
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Speaker 1: its vacant portals. Several flights of strange yellow butterflies with
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Speaker 1: semi transparent wings crossed the river that morning, and many
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Speaker 1: alighted on the monitor and were killed by the men.
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Speaker 1: It was towards afternoon that they came upon the derelict Kuberta.
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Speaker 1: She did not at first appear to be derelict. Both
16:33
Speaker 1: her sails were set and hanging slack in the afternoon calm,
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Speaker 1: and there was the figure of a man sitting on
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Speaker 1: the fore planking beside the shipped sweeps. Another man appeared
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Speaker 1: to be sleeping face downwards, on the sort of longitudinal
16:46
Speaker 1: bridge these big canoes have in the waist. But it
16:49
Speaker 1: was presently apparent from the sway of her rudder and
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Speaker 1: the way she drifted into the course of the gunboat,
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Speaker 1: that something was out of order with her. Geryog surveyed
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Speaker 1: her through a field glass and became interested in the
17:03
Speaker 1: queer darkness of the face of the sitting man, A
17:06
Speaker 1: red faced man. He seemed without a nose. Crouching he
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Speaker 1: was rather than sitting. And the longer the captain looked,
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Speaker 1: the less he liked to look at him, and the
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Speaker 1: less able he was to take his glasses away. But
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Speaker 1: he did so at last, and went a little way
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Speaker 1: to cool up Holroyd. Then he went back to hail
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Speaker 1: the Cuberta. He held her again, and so she drove
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Speaker 1: past him. Santa Rosa stood out clearly as her name.
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Speaker 1: As she came by and into the wake of the monitor,
17:36
Speaker 1: she pitched a little, and suddenly the figure of the
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Speaker 1: crouching man collapsed, as though all its joints had given way.
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Speaker 1: His hat fell off, his head was not nice to
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Speaker 1: look at, and his body flopped lax and rolled out
17:49
Speaker 1: of sight behind the bulwarks. Cramba cried Gerrie and resorted
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Speaker 1: to Holroyd. Forthwith Holroyd was half way up the companion.
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Speaker 1: Did you see that? Said the captain said Holroyd. Yes,
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Speaker 1: you'd better send a boat aboard. There's something wrong. Did
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Speaker 1: you by any chance see his face? What was it like?
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Speaker 1: It was? Ah? I have no words. And the captain
18:13
Speaker 1: suddenly turned his back on Holroyd and became an active
18:16
Speaker 1: and strident commander. The gunboat came about, steamed parallel to
18:21
Speaker 1: the erratic course of the canoe, and dropped the boat
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Speaker 1: with Lieutenant d'acunha and three sailors to board her. Then
18:28
Speaker 1: the curiosity of the captain made him draw up almost
18:32
Speaker 1: alongside as the lieutenant got aboard, so that the whole
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Speaker 1: of the Santa Rosa deck and hold was visible to Holroyd.
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Speaker 1: He saw now clearly that the sole crew of the
18:43
Speaker 1: vessel was these two dead men. And though he could
18:46
Speaker 1: not see their faces, he saw by their outstretched hands,
18:50
Speaker 1: which were all of ragged flesh, that they had been
18:53
Speaker 1: subjected to some strange, exceptional process of decay. For a moment,
18:58
Speaker 1: his attention concentrated on those two enigmatical bundles of dirty
19:03
Speaker 1: clothes and laxley flung limbs. And then his eyes went
19:07
Speaker 1: forward to discover the open hold, piled high with trunks
19:11
Speaker 1: and cases, and aft to where the little cabin gaped
19:15
Speaker 1: inexplicably empty. Then he became aware that the planks of
19:19
Speaker 1: the middle decking were dotted with moving black specks. His
19:23
Speaker 1: attention was riveted by these specks. They were all walking
19:27
Speaker 1: in directions radiating from the fallen man. In a manner.
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Speaker 1: The image came unsought to his mind, like the crowd
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Speaker 1: dispersing from a bull fight. He became aware of Gerrio
19:38
Speaker 1: beside him, Capo, He said, can you focus as closely
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Speaker 1: as those planks? There? Gerrio made an effort, grunted, and
19:46
Speaker 1: handed him the glasses. There followed a moment of scrutiny.
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Speaker 1: It's ants, said the Englishman, and handed the focussed field
19:54
Speaker 1: glass back to Geryo. His impression of them was of
19:57
Speaker 1: a crowd of large black ants, very like ordinary ants,
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Speaker 1: except for their size, and for the fact that some
20:04
Speaker 1: of the larger of them bore a sort of clothing
20:07
Speaker 1: of gray. But at the time his inspection was too
20:09
Speaker 1: brief for particulars. The head of Lieutenant Dakunna appeared over
20:14
Speaker 1: the side of the Quiberta, and a brief colloquy ensued.
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Speaker 1: You must go aboard, said Geryo. The lieutenant objected that
20:22
Speaker 1: the boat was full of ants. You have your boots,
20:25
Speaker 1: said Geryo. The lieutenant changed the subject, how did those
20:29
Speaker 1: men die? Captain Geryo embarked upon speculations that Olroyd could
20:34
Speaker 1: not follow, and the two men disputed with a certain
20:37
Speaker 1: increasing vehemence. Olroyd took up the field glass and resumed
20:41
Speaker 1: his scrutiny, first of the ants and then of the
20:44
Speaker 1: dead man amidships. He has described these ants to me
20:49
Speaker 1: very particularly. He says they were as large as any
20:52
Speaker 1: ants he has ever seen, black and moving with a
20:55
Speaker 1: steady deliberation, very different from the mechanical fussiness of the
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Speaker 1: common ant. About one in twenty was much larger than
21:03
Speaker 1: its fellows, and with an exceptionally large head. These reminded
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Speaker 1: him at once of the master workers who are said
21:10
Speaker 1: to rule over the leaf cutter ants. Like them, they
21:13
Speaker 1: seemed to be directing and co ordinating the general movements.
21:16
Speaker 1: They tilted their bodies back in a manner altogether singular,
21:19
Speaker 1: as if they made some use of the forefeet, And
21:22
Speaker 1: he had a curious fancy that he was too far
21:24
Speaker 1: off to verify that most of these ants of both
21:27
Speaker 1: kinds were wearing accoutrements, had things strapped about their bodies
21:32
Speaker 1: by bright white bands like white metal threads. He put
21:36
Speaker 1: down the glasses abruptly, realizing that the question of discipline
21:39
Speaker 1: between the captain and his subordinate had become acute. It
21:43
Speaker 1: is your duty, said the captain, to go aboard. It
21:46
Speaker 1: is my instructions. The lieutenant seemed on the verge of refusing.
21:50
Speaker 1: The head of one of the Mulatto's sailors appeared beside him.
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Speaker 1: I believe these men were killed by the ants, said
21:56
Speaker 1: Holroyd abruptly in English. The captain burst in to a rage.
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Speaker 1: He made no answer to Holroyd. I have commanded you
22:03
Speaker 1: to go aboard, he screamed to his subordinate in Portuguese.
22:07
Speaker 1: If you do not go board forthwith It is mutiny,
22:10
Speaker 1: rank mutiny, mutiny and cowardice. Where is the courage that
22:13
Speaker 1: should animate us? I will have you in irons, I
22:16
Speaker 1: will have you shut like a dog. He began a
22:18
Speaker 1: torrent of abuse and curses. He danced to and fro.
22:22
Speaker 1: He shook his fists, He behaved as if beside himself
22:25
Speaker 1: with rage, and the lieutenant white and still stood looking
22:29
Speaker 1: at him. The crew appeared forehead with amazed faces. Suddenly,
22:33
Speaker 1: in a pause of this outbreak, the lieutenant came to
22:36
Speaker 1: some heroic decision, saluted, drew himself together, and clambered upon
22:41
Speaker 1: the deck of the Quiberta. Ah, said Gerrio, and his
22:45
Speaker 1: mouth shut like a trap. Holroyd saw the ants retreating
22:48
Speaker 1: before d'acuna's boots. The Portuguese walked slowly to the fallen man,
22:53
Speaker 1: stooped down, hesitated, clutched his coat, and turned him over.
22:57
Speaker 1: A black swarm of ants rushed out of the clothes,
23:00
Speaker 1: and Tacuna stepped back very quickly and trod two or
23:03
Speaker 1: three times on the deck. Holroyd put up the glasses.
23:06
Speaker 1: He saw the scattered ants about the invader's feet and
23:10
Speaker 1: doing what he had never seen ants doing before. They
23:13
Speaker 1: had nothing of the blind movements of the common ant.
23:17
Speaker 1: They were looking at him as a rallying crowd of
23:19
Speaker 1: men might look at some gigantic monster that had dispersed it.
23:23
Speaker 1: How did he die? The captain shouted. Holroyd understood the
23:27
Speaker 1: Portuguese to say, the body was too much eaten to tell.
23:31
Speaker 1: What is there forehead, asked Gerrio. The lieutenant walked a
23:35
Speaker 1: few paces and began his answer in Portuguese. He stopped
23:38
Speaker 1: abruptly and beat off something from his leg. He made
23:41
Speaker 1: some peculiar steps, as if he was trying to stamp
23:44
Speaker 1: on something invisible, and went quickly towards the side. Then
23:48
Speaker 1: he controlled himself, turned about, walked deliberately forward to the hole,
23:52
Speaker 1: clambered up to the fore decking from which the sweeps
23:55
Speaker 1: are worked, stooped for a time over the second man,
23:58
Speaker 1: groaned audibly and made his way back and aft to
24:02
Speaker 1: the cabin, moving very rigidly. He turned and began a
24:05
Speaker 1: conversation with his captain, cold and respectful in tone on
24:09
Speaker 1: either side, contrasting vividly with the wrath and insult of
24:13
Speaker 1: a few moments before. Holroyd gathered only fragments of its purport.
24:18
Speaker 1: He reverted to the field glass and was surprised to
24:21
Speaker 1: find the ants had vanished from all the exposed surfaces
24:24
Speaker 1: of the deck. He turned towards the shadows beneath the decking,
24:28
Speaker 1: and it seemed to him they were full of watching eyes.
24:32
Speaker 1: The Kuberta, it was agreed, was derelict, but too full
24:35
Speaker 1: of ants to put men aboard to sit and sleep.
24:39
Speaker 1: It must be towed. The lieutenant went forward to take
24:42
Speaker 1: in and adjust the cable, and the men in the
24:44
Speaker 1: boat stood up to be ready to help him. Holroyd's
24:47
Speaker 1: glasses searched the canoe. He became more and more impressed
24:51
Speaker 1: by the fact that a great, if minute and furtive
24:55
Speaker 1: activity was going on. He perceived that a number of
24:58
Speaker 1: gigantic ants they seemed nearly a couple of inches in length,
25:03
Speaker 1: carrying oddly shaped burdens for which he could imagine no
25:06
Speaker 1: use were moving in rushes from one point of obscurity
25:09
Speaker 1: to another. They did not move in columns across the
25:13
Speaker 1: exposed places, but in open, spaced out lines, oddly suggestive
25:18
Speaker 1: of the rushes of modern infantry advancing under fire. A
25:21
Speaker 1: number were taking cover under the dead man's clothes, and
25:24
Speaker 1: a perfect swarm was gathering along the side over which
25:28
Speaker 1: d'acuna must presently go. He did not see them actually
25:32
Speaker 1: rush for the Lieutenant as he returned, but he has
25:35
Speaker 1: no doubt they did make a concerted rush. Suddenly the
25:39
Speaker 1: Lieutenant was shouting and cursing and beating at his legs.
25:42
Speaker 1: I'm stung, he shouted, with a face of hate and
25:45
Speaker 1: accusation towards Geryo. Then he vanished over the side, dropped
25:49
Speaker 1: into his boat, and plunged at once into the water.
25:52
Speaker 1: Holroyd heard the splash. The three men in the boat
25:55
Speaker 1: pulled him out and brought him aboard, and that night
25:58
Speaker 1: he died. Part three. Holroyd and the Captain came out
26:03
Speaker 1: of the cabin in which the swollen and contorted body
26:06
Speaker 1: of the Lieutenant lay, and stood together at the stern
26:09
Speaker 1: of the monitor, staring at the sinister vessel they trailed
26:13
Speaker 1: behind them. It was a close, dark night that had
26:17
Speaker 1: only phantom flickerings of sheet lightning to illuminate it. The Cuberta,
26:21
Speaker 1: a vague black triangle, rocked about in the steamer's wake,
26:25
Speaker 1: her sails bobbing and flapping, and the black smoke from
26:28
Speaker 1: the funnels spark lit ever and again streamed over her
26:32
Speaker 1: swaying masts. Gerrio's mind was inclined to run on the
26:36
Speaker 1: unkind things the lieutenant had said in the heat of
26:38
Speaker 1: his last fever. He says, I murdered him. He protested,
26:43
Speaker 1: it is simply absurd somebody ADTs to go aboard. Are
26:46
Speaker 1: we to run away from his confounded ants? Whenever they
26:48
Speaker 1: show up? Holroyd said nothing. He was thinking of a
26:52
Speaker 1: disciplined rush of little black shapes across bare sunlit planking.
26:57
Speaker 1: It was his place to go, harped gerriol He died
27:01
Speaker 1: in the execution of his duty. What has he to
27:03
Speaker 1: complain of? Murdered? But the poor fellow was what is it? Demented?
27:09
Speaker 1: He was not in his right mind. The poison swelled him. Ooh,
27:13
Speaker 1: They came to a long silence. We will sink that
27:16
Speaker 1: canoe burn it? And then the inquiry irritated Gerrio. His
27:21
Speaker 1: shoulders went up, his hands flew out at right angles
27:24
Speaker 1: from his body. What is one to do, he said,
27:27
Speaker 1: his voice going up to an angry squeak. Anyhow, he
27:30
Speaker 1: broke out vindictively every and in debt cuberta, I will
27:35
Speaker 1: burn him alive. Holred was not moved to conversation. A
27:40
Speaker 1: distant allolation of howling monkeys filled the sultry night with
27:44
Speaker 1: foreboding sounds, and as the gunboat drew near the black,
27:48
Speaker 1: mysterious banks, this was reinforced by a depressing clamor of frogs.
27:54
Speaker 1: What is one to do? The captain repeated, after a
27:58
Speaker 1: vast interval, and suddenly becoming active and savage and blasphemous,
28:03
Speaker 1: decided to burn the Santa Rosa without further delay. Every
28:07
Speaker 1: one aboard as pleased by that idea, everyone helped with zest.
28:11
Speaker 1: They pulled in the cable, cut it and dropped the boat,
28:14
Speaker 1: and fired her with tow and kerosene, and soon the
28:17
Speaker 1: Cuberta was crackling and flaring merrily amidst the immensities of
28:21
Speaker 1: the tropical night. Holroyd watched the mounting yellow flare against
28:26
Speaker 1: the blackness, and the vivid flashes of sheet lightning that
28:29
Speaker 1: came and went above the forest summits, throwing them into
28:32
Speaker 1: momentary silhouette, and his stoker stood behind him watching also.
28:37
Speaker 1: The stoker was stirred to the depths of his linguistics.
28:41
Speaker 1: Thou bug hoop pop, he said, ha ha ha, and
28:45
Speaker 1: laughed richly, but Holroyd was thinking that these little creatures
28:49
Speaker 1: on the decked canoe had also eyes and brains. The
28:54
Speaker 1: whole thing impressed him as incredibly foolish and wrong. But
28:58
Speaker 1: what was one to do? This question came back enormously
29:02
Speaker 1: reenforced on the morrow, when at last the gunboat reached Padama.
29:07
Speaker 1: This place, with its leaf thatch covered houses and sheds,
29:11
Speaker 1: its creeper invaded sugar mill, Its little jetty of timber
29:15
Speaker 1: and canes, was very still in the morning heat, and
29:19
Speaker 1: showed never a sign of living men. Whatever ants they
29:22
Speaker 1: were at that distance were too small to see. All
29:26
Speaker 1: the people have gone, said Garyoh, but we will do
29:29
Speaker 1: one thing anyhow. We will hoot and whistle. So Holroyd
29:33
Speaker 1: hooted and whistled. Then the captain fell into a doubting
29:37
Speaker 1: fit of the worst kind. There is one thing we
29:40
Speaker 1: can do, he said, Presently, what's that? Said Holroyd. Hoot
29:44
Speaker 1: and whistle again, So they did. The captain walked his
29:48
Speaker 1: deck and gesticulated to himself. He seemed to have many
29:52
Speaker 1: things on his mind. Fragments of speeches came from his lips.
29:56
Speaker 1: He appeared to be addressing some imaginary public tribunal, either
30:00
Speaker 1: in Spanish or Portuguese. Holroyd's improving ear detected something about ammunition.
30:06
Speaker 1: He came out of these preoccupations suddenly into English. My
30:09
Speaker 1: dear olroight, he cried, and broke off with But what
30:12
Speaker 1: can one do? They took the boat and the field
30:15
Speaker 1: glasses and went close in to examine the place. They
30:19
Speaker 1: made out a number of big ants, whose still postures
30:22
Speaker 1: had a certain effect of watching them, dotted about the
30:26
Speaker 1: edge of the rude embarkation jetty. Gerrio tried ineffect your
30:30
Speaker 1: pistol shots at these. Holroyd thinks he distinguished curious earthworks
30:35
Speaker 1: running between the nearer houses that may have been the
30:38
Speaker 1: work of the insect conquerors of those human habitations. The
30:43
Speaker 1: explorers pulled past the jetty and became aware of a
30:46
Speaker 1: human skeleton wearing a loincloth, and very bright and clean
30:50
Speaker 1: and shining, lying beyond. They came to a pause regarding this.
30:56
Speaker 1: I have all there was lives to consider, said Geryo.
30:59
Speaker 1: Suddenly Holroyd turned and stared at the captain, realizing slowly
31:03
Speaker 1: that he referred to the unappetizing mixture of races that
31:07
Speaker 1: constituted his crew to send a landing party. It is impossible, impossible.
31:12
Speaker 1: They will be poisoned, they will swell They will swell
31:15
Speaker 1: up and abuse me and die. It is ugly impossible.
31:18
Speaker 1: If we land, I must land alone, alone in thick boots,
31:22
Speaker 1: and with my life in my hand. Perhaps I should live,
31:25
Speaker 1: or again I might not land. I do not know.
31:29
Speaker 1: I do not know. Holroyd thought he did, but he
31:32
Speaker 1: said nothing. The whole thing, said Garyo, suddenly has been
31:36
Speaker 1: got up to make me ridiculous. The whole thing. They
31:39
Speaker 1: paddled about and regarded the clean white skeleton from various
31:44
Speaker 1: points of view, and then they returned to the gunboat.
31:48
Speaker 1: Then Geryo's indecisions became terrible. Steam was got up, and
31:52
Speaker 1: in the afternoon the monitor went on up the river
31:54
Speaker 1: with an air of going to ask somebody something. And
31:57
Speaker 1: my sunset came back again and anger. A thunderstorm gathered
32:01
Speaker 1: and broke furiously. And then the night became beautifully cool
32:05
Speaker 1: and quiet, and everyone slept on deck, except Gerrio, who
32:09
Speaker 1: tossed and muttered. In the dawn. He awakened Holrod, Lord,
32:14
Speaker 1: said Holrod, What now I have decided? Said the captain.
32:19
Speaker 1: What to land? Said Holrod, sitting up brightly. No, said
32:24
Speaker 1: the captain, and was for a time very reserved. I
32:28
Speaker 1: have decided, he repeated, and Holroyd manifested symptoms of impatience. Well, yes,
32:35
Speaker 1: said the captain, I shall fire the big gun. And
32:39
Speaker 1: he did. Heaven knows what the ants thought of it,
32:43
Speaker 1: but he did. He fired it twice with great sternness
32:46
Speaker 1: and ceremony. All the crew had wadding in their ears,
32:50
Speaker 1: and there was an effect of going into action about
32:52
Speaker 1: the whole affair. And first they hit and wrecked the
32:56
Speaker 1: old sugar mill, and then they smashed the abandoned store
32:59
Speaker 1: behind the and then Geryo experienced the inevitable reaction. It
33:04
Speaker 1: is no good, he said to Holroyd, no good at all,
33:08
Speaker 1: no sort of bally good. We must go back for instructions.
33:12
Speaker 1: There will be the devil of a row about dis ammunition. Oh,
33:16
Speaker 1: the devil of a row. You don't know, Holroyd. He stood,
33:19
Speaker 1: regarding the world in infinite perplexity for a space. But
33:23
Speaker 1: what else was there to do? He cried. In the afternoon,
33:28
Speaker 1: the monitor started down stream again, and in the evening
33:31
Speaker 1: a landing party took the body of the lieutenant and
33:34
Speaker 1: buried it on the bank upon which the new ants
33:37
Speaker 1: have so far not appeared Part four. I heard this
33:42
Speaker 1: story in a fragmentary state from Holroyd not three weeks ago.
33:47
Speaker 1: These new ants have got into his brain and he
33:50
Speaker 1: has come back to England with the idea, as he says,
33:53
Speaker 1: of exciting people about them before it is too late.
33:58
Speaker 1: He says they threaten British Guiana, which cannot be much
34:01
Speaker 1: over a trifle of a thousand miles from their present
34:05
Speaker 1: sphere of activity, and that the Colonial Office ought to
34:09
Speaker 1: get to work upon them at once. He declaims with
34:13
Speaker 1: great passion, these are intelligent ants. Just think what that means.
34:18
Speaker 1: There can be no doubt they are a serious pest,
34:21
Speaker 1: and that the Brazilian government is well advised in offering
34:24
Speaker 1: a prize of five hundred pounds for some effectual method
34:28
Speaker 1: of extirpation. It is certain too that since they first
34:32
Speaker 1: appeared in the hills beyond Bedama about three years ago,
34:36
Speaker 1: they have achieved extraordinary conquests. The whole of the south
34:40
Speaker 1: bank of the Potamo River, for nearly sixty miles they
34:44
Speaker 1: have in their effectual occupation they have driven men out completely,
34:49
Speaker 1: occupied plantations and settlements, and boarded and captured at least
34:54
Speaker 1: one ship. It is even said, they have, in some
34:57
Speaker 1: inexplicable way, bridged the very conceit durable Capuarana arm and
35:02
Speaker 1: pushed many miles towards the Amazon itself. There can be
35:06
Speaker 1: little doubt that they are far more reasonable and with
35:09
Speaker 1: a far better social organization than any previously known ad species.
35:15
Speaker 1: Instead of being in dispersed societies, they are organized into
35:19
Speaker 1: what is in effect a single nation. But their peculiar
35:22
Speaker 1: and immediate formidableness lies not so much in this as
35:27
Speaker 1: in the intelligent use they make of poison against their
35:30
Speaker 1: larger enemies. It would seem this poison of theors is
35:34
Speaker 1: closely akin to snake poison, and it is highly probable
35:38
Speaker 1: they actually manufacture it, and that the larger individuals among
35:42
Speaker 1: them carry the needle like crystals of it in their
35:46
Speaker 1: attacks upon men. Of course, it is extremely difficult to
35:50
Speaker 1: get any detailed information about these new competitors for the
35:54
Speaker 1: sovereignty of the globe. No eyewitnesses of their activity, except
35:58
Speaker 1: for such glimpses as holrowids have survived the encounter. The
36:02
Speaker 1: most extraordinary legends of their prowess and capacity are in
36:07
Speaker 1: circulation in the region of the Upper Amazon, and grow
36:10
Speaker 1: daily as the steady advance of the invader stimulates men's
36:14
Speaker 1: imaginations through their fears. These strange little creatures are credited
36:19
Speaker 1: not only with the use of implements and a knowledge
36:22
Speaker 1: of fire and metals, and with organized feats of engineering
36:26
Speaker 1: that stagger our northern minds, unused as we are, to
36:31
Speaker 1: such feats as that of the Saubas of Rio de Geneiro,
36:34
Speaker 1: who in eighteen forty one drove a tunnel under the Parahiba,
36:39
Speaker 1: where it is as wide as the Thames at London Bridge,
36:42
Speaker 1: but with an organized and detailed method of record and
36:46
Speaker 1: communication analogous to our books. So far, their action has
36:51
Speaker 1: been a steady progressive settlement, involving the flight or slaughter
36:55
Speaker 1: of every human being in the new areas they invade.
36:59
Speaker 1: They are in increasing rapidly in numbers, and Holroyd at
37:02
Speaker 1: least is firmly convinced that they will finally dispossess man
37:07
Speaker 1: over the whole of Tropical South America. And why should
37:11
Speaker 1: they stop at Tropical South America. Well there they are anyhow,
37:16
Speaker 1: by nineteen eleven or thereabouts. If they go on as
37:20
Speaker 1: they are going, they ought to strike the Capuarana Extension
37:24
Speaker 1: Railway and force themselves upon the attention of the European capitalist.
37:29
Speaker 1: By nineteen twenty they will be half way down the
37:32
Speaker 1: Amazon I fix nineteen fifty or sixty at the latest
37:37
Speaker 1: for the Discovery of Europe. End of Chapter thirty