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The Sleeper Awakes Chapter 22 - The Struggle in the Council House · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty two of The Sleeper Awakes. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Zachary Brewster Geiss. The Sleeper Awakes by H. G. Wells,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty two, The struggle in the Council House. As
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  Speaker 1: Asano and Graham hurried along to the ruins about the
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  Speaker 1: Council House, they saw everywhere the excitement of the people
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  Speaker 1: rising to your wards, to your wards. Everywhere men and
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  Speaker 1: women in blue were hurrying from unknown subterranean employments up
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  Speaker 1: the staircases of the Middle Path. At one place, Graham
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  Speaker 1: saw an arsenal of the Revolutionary Committee besieged by a
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  Speaker 1: crowd of shouting men. At another, a couple of men
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  Speaker 1: in the hated yellow uniform of the Labor Police, pursued
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  Speaker 1: by a gathering crowd, fled precipitately along the swift way
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  Speaker 1: that went in the opposite direct. The cries of to
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  Speaker 1: your wards became at last a continuous shouting as they
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  Speaker 1: drew near the Government quarter. Many of the shouts were unintelligible.
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  Speaker 1: Ostrog has betrayed us one man bawled in a hoarse voice,
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  Speaker 1: again and again, dinning that refrain into Graham's ear until
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  Speaker 1: it haunted him. This person stayed close beside Graham and
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  Speaker 1: Asano on the swift way, shouting to the people who
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  Speaker 1: swarmed on the lower platforms. As he rushed past them.
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  Speaker 1: His cry about Ostrog alternated with some incomprehensible orders. Presently
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  Speaker 1: he went leaping down and disappeared. Graham's mind was filled
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  Speaker 1: with the din His plans were vague and unformed. He
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  Speaker 1: had one picture of some commanding position from which he
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  Speaker 1: could address the multitudes, another of meeting Ostrog faced face.
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  Speaker 1: He was full of rage, of tense muscular excitement. His
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  Speaker 1: hands gripped, his lips were pressed together. The way to
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  Speaker 1: the council House across the ruins was impassable, but Bassano
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  Speaker 1: met that difficulty and took Graham into the premises of
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  Speaker 1: the Central post Office. The post office was nominally at work,
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  Speaker 1: but the blue clothed porters moved sluggishly or had stopped
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  Speaker 1: to stare through the arches of their galleries, and the
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  Speaker 1: shouting men who were going by outside. Every man to
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  Speaker 1: his ward, every man to his ward. Here by Asano's advice,
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  Speaker 1: Graham revealed his identity. They crossed to the council House
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  Speaker 1: by a cable cradle. Already in the brief interval since
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  Speaker 1: the capitulation of the Councilors, a great change had been
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  Speaker 1: wrought in the appearance of the ruins. The spurting cascades
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  Speaker 1: of the ruptured sea water mains had been captured and tamed,
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  Speaker 1: and huge temporary pipes ran overhead along a flimsy looking
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  Speaker 1: fabric of girders. The sky was laced with restored cables
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  Speaker 1: and wires that served the council House, and a mass
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  Speaker 1: of new fabric, with cranes and other building machines going
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  Speaker 1: to and fro upon it projected to the left of
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  Speaker 1: the white pile, the moving ways that ran across the
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  Speaker 1: area had been restored, albeit for once running under the
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  Speaker 1: open sky. These were the ways that Graham had seen
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  Speaker 1: from the little balcony in the hour of his awakening,
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  Speaker 1: not nine days since, and the hall of his trance
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  Speaker 1: had been on the further side, where now shapeless piles
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  Speaker 1: of smashed and shattered masonry were heaped together. It was
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  Speaker 1: already high day, and the sun was shining brightly out
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  Speaker 1: of their tall caverns of blue electric light. Came the
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  Speaker 1: swift ways, crowded with multitudes of people, who poured off
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  Speaker 1: them and gathered ever denser over the wreckage and confusion
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  Speaker 1: of the ruins. The air was full of their shouting,
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  Speaker 1: and they were pressing and swaying towards the central building.
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  Speaker 1: For the most part that shouting mass consisted of shapeless swarms.
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  Speaker 1: But here and there Graham could see that a rude
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  Speaker 1: discipline struggled to establish itself, and every voice clamored for
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  Speaker 1: order in the chaos. To your wards, every man to
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  Speaker 1: his ward. The cable carried them into a hall, which
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  Speaker 1: Graham recognized as the ante chamber, to the hall of
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  Speaker 1: the Atlas, about the gallery of which he had walked
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  Speaker 1: days ago with Howard to show himself to the vanished council,
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  Speaker 1: an hour from his awakening. Now the place was empty
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  Speaker 1: except for two cable attendants. These men seemed hugely astonished
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  Speaker 1: to recognize the sleeper in the man who swung down
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  Speaker 1: from the cross seat. Where is Ostrog? He demanded, I
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  Speaker 1: must see Ostrog forthwith he has disobeyed me. I have
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  Speaker 1: come to take things out of his hands, without waiting
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  Speaker 1: for Asano. He went straight across the place, ascended the
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  Speaker 1: steps at the further end, and, pulling the curtain aside,
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  Speaker 1: found himself facing the perpetually laboring Titan. The hall was empty.
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  Speaker 1: Its appearance had changed very greatly since his first sight
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  Speaker 1: of it. It had suffered serious injury in the violent
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  Speaker 1: struggle of the first outbreak. On the right hand side
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  Speaker 1: of the great figure, the upper half of the wall
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  Speaker 1: had been torn away for nearly two hundred feet of
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  Speaker 1: its length. A sheet of the same glassy film that
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  Speaker 1: had enclosed Graham at his awakening had been drawn across
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  Speaker 1: the gap. This deadened, but did not altogether exclude the
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  Speaker 1: roar of the people outside. Wards wards wards, they seemed
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  Speaker 1: to be saying through it. There were visible the beams
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  Speaker 1: and supports of metal scaffoldings that rose and fell according
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  Speaker 1: to the requirements of a great crowd of workmen. An
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  Speaker 1: idle building machine with lank arms of red painted metal,
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  Speaker 1: stretched gauntly across this green tinted picture. On it were
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  Speaker 1: still a number of workmen staring at the crowd below.
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  Speaker 1: For a moment, he stood regarding these things, and Asano
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  Speaker 1: overtook him. Ostrog said, Asano will be in the small
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  Speaker 1: offices beyond there. The little man looked livid now, and
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: his eyes searched Graham's face. They had scarcely advanced ten
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  Speaker 1: paces from the curtain before a little panel to the
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  Speaker 1: left of the atlas rolled up, and Ostrog, accompanied by
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  Speaker 1: Lincoln and followed by two black and yellow clad negroes,
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  Speaker 1: appeared crossing the remote corner of the hall towards the
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  Speaker 1: second panel that was raised and open. Ostrog shouted Graham,
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  Speaker 1: and at the sound of his voice, the little party
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  Speaker 1: turned astonished. Ostrog said something to Lincoln and advanced alone.
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  Speaker 1: Graham was the first to speak. His voice was loud
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  Speaker 1: and dictatorial. What is this I hear? He asked? Are
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  Speaker 1: you bringing negroes here to keep the people down? It
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  Speaker 1: is none too soon, said Ostrog. They have been getting
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  Speaker 1: out of hand more and more since the revolt. I underestimated.
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  Speaker 1: Do you mean that these infernal negroes are on the
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  Speaker 1: way on the way as it is? You have seen
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  Speaker 1: the people outside, no wonder, but after what was said,
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  Speaker 1: you have taken too much on yourself, Ostrog. Ostrog said nothing,
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  Speaker 1: but drew nearer. These negroes must not come to London,
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  Speaker 1: said Graham. I am master and they shall not come.
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  Speaker 1: Ostrog glanced at Lincoln, who at once came towards them,
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  Speaker 1: with his two attendants close behind him. Why not, asked Ostrog.
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  Speaker 1: White men must be mastered by white men. Besides, the
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  Speaker 1: negroes are only an instrument. But that is not the question.
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  Speaker 1: I am the master. I mean to be the master,
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  Speaker 1: and I tell you these negroes shall not come the people.
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  Speaker 1: I believe in the people because you are an anachronism.
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  Speaker 1: You are a man out of the past, an accident.
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  Speaker 1: You are owner, perhaps of the world nominally legally, but
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  Speaker 1: you are not master. You do not know enough to
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  Speaker 1: be master. He glanced at Lincoln again. I know now
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  Speaker 1: what you think. I can guess something of what you
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  Speaker 1: mean to do. Even now it is not too late
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  Speaker 1: to warn you. You dream of human equality, of some
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  Speaker 1: sort of socialistic order. You have all those worn out
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  Speaker 1: dreams of the nineteenth century fresh and vivid in your mind,
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  Speaker 1: and you would rule this age that you do not understand. Listen,
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  Speaker 1: said Graham. You can hear it a sound like the sea,
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  Speaker 1: not voices, but a voice. Do you altogether understand We
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  Speaker 1: taught them that, said Ostrog, perhaps, but can you teach
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  Speaker 1: them to forget it. But enough of this, these negroes
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  Speaker 1: must not come. There was a pause, and Ostrog looked
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  Speaker 1: him in the eyes. They will, he said, I forbid it,
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  Speaker 1: said Graham, they have started. I will not have it, No,
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  Speaker 1: said Ostrog. Sorry, as I am to follow the method
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  Speaker 1: of the council for your own good. You must not
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  Speaker 1: side with disorder. And now that you are here, it
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  Speaker 1: was kind of you to come here. Lincoln laid his
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  Speaker 1: hand on Graham's shoulder. Abruptly, Graham realized the enormosmity of
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  Speaker 1: his blunder in coming to the council House. He turned
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  Speaker 1: towards the curtains that separated the hall from the antechamber.
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  Speaker 1: The clutching hand of Asano intervened. In another moment. Lincoln
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  Speaker 1: had grasped Graham's cloak. He turned and struck at Lincoln's face,
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  Speaker 1: and incontinently a negro had him by collar and arm.
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  Speaker 1: He wrenched himself away. His sleeve tore noisily, and he
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  Speaker 1: stumbled back to be tripped by the other attendant. Then
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  Speaker 1: he struck the ground heavily, and he was staring at
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  Speaker 1: the distant ceiling of the hall. He shouted, rolled over,
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  Speaker 1: struggling fiercely clutched an attendant leg and threw him headlong,
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  Speaker 1: and struggled to his feet. Lincoln appeared before him, went
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  Speaker 1: down heavily again with a blow under the point of
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  Speaker 1: the jaw, and lay still. Graham made two strides, stumbled,
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  Speaker 1: and then Ostrog's arm was round his neck. He was
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  Speaker 1: pulled over backward, fell heavily, and his arms were pinned
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  Speaker 1: to the ground. After a few violent efforts, he ceased
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  Speaker 1: to struggle and lay staring at Ostrog's heaving throat. You
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  Speaker 1: r a prisoner, panted Ostrog, exulting you were rather a
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  Speaker 1: fool to come back. Graham turned his head about and
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  Speaker 1: perceived through the irregular green window in the walls of
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  Speaker 1: the hall the men who had been working the building
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  Speaker 1: cranes gesticulating excitedly to the people below them. They had seen.
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  Speaker 1: Ostrog followed his eyes and started. He shouted something to Lincoln,
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  Speaker 1: but Lincoln did not move. A bullet smashed among the
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  Speaker 1: moldings above the atlas. The two sheets of transparent matter
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  Speaker 1: that had been stretched across this gap were rent. The
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  Speaker 1: edges of the torn aperture darkened, curved, ran rapidly towards
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  Speaker 1: the framework, and in a moment, the council chambers stood
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  Speaker 1: open to the air. A chilly gust blew in by
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  Speaker 1: the gap, bringing with it a war of voices from
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  Speaker 1: the ruinous spaces, without an elvish babblement save the master,
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  Speaker 1: What are they doing to the master? The Master is betrayed?
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  Speaker 1: And then he realized that Ostrog's attention was distracted, that
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  Speaker 1: Ostrog's grip had relaxed, and wrenching his arms free, he
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  Speaker 1: struggled to his knees. In another moment, he had thrust
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  Speaker 1: Ostrog back, and he was on one foot, his hand
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  Speaker 1: gripping Ostrog's throat, and Ostrog's hands clutching the silk about
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  Speaker 1: his neck. But now men were coming towards them, from
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  Speaker 1: the dais men, whose intentions he misunderstood. He had a
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  Speaker 1: glimpse of someone running in the distance towards the curtains
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  Speaker 1: of the antechamber, and then Ostrog had slipped from him,
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  Speaker 1: and these newcomers were upon him. To his infinite astonishment,
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  Speaker 1: they seized him. They obeyed the shouts of Ostrog. He
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  Speaker 1: was lugged a dozen yards before he realized that they
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  Speaker 1: were not friends, that they were dragging him towards the
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  Speaker 1: open panel. When he saw this, he pulled back. He
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  Speaker 1: tried to fling himself down. He shouted for help with
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  Speaker 1: all his strength, and this time they were answering cries.
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  Speaker 1: The grip upon his neck relaxed and behold in the
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  Speaker 1: lower corner of the rent upon the wall. First one
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  Speaker 1: and then a number of little black figures appeared, shouting
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  Speaker 1: and waving arms. They came leaping down from the gap
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  Speaker 1: into the light gallery that had led to the silent rooms.
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  Speaker 1: They ran along it. So near were they that Graham
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  Speaker 1: could see the weapons in their hands. Then Ostrog was
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  Speaker 1: shouting in his ear to the men who held him,
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  Speaker 1: and once more he was struggling with all his strength
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  Speaker 1: against their endeavors to thrust him towards the opening that
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  Speaker 1: yawned to receive him. They can't come down, panted Ostrog.
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  Speaker 1: They daren't fire. It's all right, we'll save him from them. Yet,
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  Speaker 1: for long minutes, as it seemed to Graham, that inglorious
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  Speaker 1: struggle continued. His clothes were rent in a dozen places,
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  Speaker 1: he was covered in dust, one hand had been trodden upon.
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  Speaker 1: He could hear the shouts of his supporters, and once
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  Speaker 1: he heard shots, he could feel his strength giving way
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  Speaker 1: feel his efforts wild and aimless, but no help came.
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  Speaker 1: And surely, irresistibly, that black, yawning opening came nearer. The
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  Speaker 1: pressure upon him relaxed, and he struggled up. He saw
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  Speaker 1: Ostrog's gray head receding, and perceived that he was no
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  Speaker 1: longer held. He turned about and came full in to
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  Speaker 1: a man in black. One of the green weapons cracked
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  Speaker 1: close to him, A drift of pungent smoke came into
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  Speaker 1: his face, and a steel blade flashed. The huge chamber
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  Speaker 1: span about him. He saw a man in pale blue
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  Speaker 1: stabbing one of the black and yellow attendants, not three
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  Speaker 1: yards from his face. Then hands were upon him again.
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  Speaker 1: He was being pulled in two directions. Now it seemed
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  Speaker 1: as though people were shouting to him. He wanted to
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  Speaker 1: understand and could not. Some one was clutching about his thighs.
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  Speaker 1: He was being hoisted in spite of his vigorous efforts.
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  Speaker 1: He understood. Suddenly he ceased to struggle. He was lifted
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  Speaker 1: up on men's shoulders and carried away from that devouring panel.
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  Speaker 1: Ten thousand throats were cheering. He saw men in blue
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  Speaker 1: and black hurrying after the retreating Ostrogites and firing. Lifted up,
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  Speaker 1: he saw now the whole expanse of the hall beneath
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  Speaker 1: the atlas image. Saw that he was being carried towards
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  Speaker 1: the raised platform in the center of the place. Our
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  Speaker 1: end of the hall was already full of people running
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  Speaker 1: towards him. They were looking at him and cheering. He
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  Speaker 1: became aware that a bodyguard surrounded him. Active men about
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  Speaker 1: him shouted vague orders. He saw close at hand the
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  Speaker 1: black mustached man in yellow who had been among those
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  Speaker 1: who had greeted him in the public theater, shouting directions.
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  Speaker 1: The hall was already densely packed with swaying people. The
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  Speaker 1: little metal gallery sagged with the shouting load. The curtains
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  Speaker 1: at the end had been torn away, and the ante
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  Speaker 1: chaper was revealed densely crowded. He could scarcely make the
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  Speaker 1: man near him hear for the tumult about them. Where
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  Speaker 1: has ostrog gone? He asked. The man he questioned pointed
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: over the heads towards the lower panels about the hall.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: On the side opposite the gap, they stood open and armed.
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  Speaker 1: Men blue clad with black sashes were running through them
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  Speaker 1: and vanishing into the chambers and passages beyond. It seemed
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  Speaker 1: to Graham that a sound of firing drifted through the riot.
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  Speaker 1: He was carried in a staggering curve cross the Great
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  Speaker 1: Hall towards an opening. Beneath the gap. He perceived men
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  Speaker 1: working with a sort of rude discipline to keep the
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  Speaker 1: crowd off him, to make a space clear about him.
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  Speaker 1: He passed out of the hall and saw a crude
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  Speaker 1: new wall rising blankly before him, topped by blue sky.
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  Speaker 1: He was swung down to his feet. Someone gripped his
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  Speaker 1: arm and guided him. He found the man in yellow
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  Speaker 1: close at hand. They were taking him up a narrow
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  Speaker 1: stairway of brick, and close at hand rose the great
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: red painted masses, the cranes and levers, and the still
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: engines of the big building machines. He was at the
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: top of the steps. He was hurried across a narrow
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: railed footway, and suddenly, with a vast shouting, the amphitheater
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  Speaker 1: of ruins opened again before him. The Master is with us,
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  Speaker 1: the Master, the Master. The shout swept athwart the lake
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: of faces like a wave, broke against the distant cliff
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  Speaker 1: of ruins, and came back in a welter of cries.
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  Speaker 1: The Master is on our side. Graham perceived that he
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: was no longer encompassed by people, that he was standing
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  Speaker 1: upon a little temporary platform of white metal, part of
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  Speaker 1: a flimsy seeming scaffolding that laced about the great mass
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  Speaker 1: of the council house. Over All, the huge expanse of
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: the ruins swayed and eddied the shouting people, And here
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: and there the black banners of the revolutionary societies ducked
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: and swayed and formed rare nuclei of organization in the chaos.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Up the steep stairs of wall and scaffolding by which
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: his rescuers had reached the opening in the Atlas chamber
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: clung a solid crowd, and little, energetic black figures clinging
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: to pillars and projections were strenuous to induce these congested
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: masses to stir behind him. At a higher point on
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: the scaffolding, a number of men struggled upwards with the
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: flapping folds of a huge black standard. Through the yawning
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: gap in the walls below him, he could look down
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: upon the packed, attentive multitudes in the hall of the Atlas.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: The distant flying stages to the south came out bright
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: and vivid, brought nearer as it seemed, by an unusual
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: translucency of the air, a solitary monoplane beat up from
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  Speaker 1: the central stage, as if to meet the coming aeroplanes.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: What has become of Ostrog? Asked Graham, And even as
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: he spoke, he saw that all eyes were turned from
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: him towards the crest of the council House building. He
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: looked also in this direction of universal attention. For a
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: moment he saw nothing but the jagged corner of a wall,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: hard and clear against the sky. Then in the shadow
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: he perceived the interior of a room and recognized with
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: a start the green and white decorations of his former prison.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: And coming quickly across this opened room and up to
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  Speaker 1: the very verge of the cliff of the ruins, came
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: a little, white clad figure, followed by two other, smaller
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: seeming figures in black and yellow. He heard the man
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  Speaker 1: beside him exclaim Ostrog, and turned to ask a question,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: but he never did because of the startled exclamation of
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: another of those who were with him, and a lank
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: finger suddenly pointing. He looked and behold the monoplane that
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: had been rising from the flying stage when last he
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: had looked in that direction was driving towards them. The swift,
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: steady flight was still novel enough to hold his attention
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: nearer it came, growing rapidly larger and larger, until it
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: had swept over the furdure edge of the ruins and
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: interview of the dense multitudes below. It drooped across the
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: space and rose and passed overhead, rising to clear the
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: mass of the council house, a filmy, translucent shape, with
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: the solitary aeronaut peering down through its ribs, It vanished
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: beyond the sky line of the ruins. Graham transferred his
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: attention to Ostrog. He was signaling with his hands, and
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: his attendants were busy breaking down the wall beside him.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: In another moment, the monoplane came into view again, a
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: little thing far away, coming round in a wide curve
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: and going slower. Then suddenly the man in yellow shouted,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: what are they doing? What are the people doing? Why
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: is Ostrog left there? Why is he not captured? They
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: will lift him, The monoplane will lift him. Ah. The
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: exclamation was echoed by a shout from the ruins. The
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: rattling sound of the green weapons drifted across the intervening
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: gulf to Graham, and looking down, he saw a number
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: of black and yellow uniforms running along one of the
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: galleries that lay open to the air below the promontory
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: upon which ostrog stood. They fired as they ran at
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: men unseen, and then emerged a number of pale blue
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: figures in pursuit. These minute fighting figures had the oddest effect.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: They seemed as they ran like little model soldiers in
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: a toy. This queer appearance of a house cut open
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: gave that struggle amidst furniture and passages a quality of unreality.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: It was perhaps two hundred yards away from him, and
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: very nearly fifty above the heads in the ruins below.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: The black and yellow men ran into an open archway
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: and turned and fired a volley. One of the blue pursuers,
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: striding forward close to the edge, flung up his arms,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: staggered sideways, seemed to Graham's sense to hang over the
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: edge for several seconds, and fell headlong down. Graham saw
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: him strike a projecting corner, fly out head over heels,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: head over heels, and vanish behind the red arm of
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: the building machine. And then a shadow came between Graham
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: and the sun He looked up, and the sky was clear,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: but he knew the little monoplane had passed. Ostrog had vanished.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: The man in yellow thrust before him, zealous and perspiring,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: pointing and blatant. They are grounding, cried the man in yellow.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: They are grounding. Tell the people to fire at him.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: Tell them to fire at him. Graham could not understand.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: He heard loud voices repeating these enigmatical orders. Suddenly he
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: saw the prow of the monoplane come gliding over the
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: edge of the ruins and stop at the jerk. In
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: a moment, Graham understood that the thing had grounded in
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: order that Ostrog might escape by it. He saw a
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: blue haze climbing out of the gulf, perceived that the
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: people below him were now firing up at the projecting stem.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: A man beside him cheered hoarsely, and he saw that
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: the blue rebels had gained the archway that had been
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: contested by the men in black and yellow a moment before,
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: and were running in a continual stream along the open passage.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: And suddenly the monoplane slipped over the edge of the
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: council house and fell like a diving swallow. It dropped,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: tilting at an angle of forty five degrees, so steeply
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: that it seemed to Graham it seemed, perhaps to most
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: of those below, that it could not possibly rise again.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: It fell so closely past him that he could see
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: Ostrog clutching the guides of the seat with his gray
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: hair streaming, see the white faced aeronaut wrenching over the
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: lever that turned the machine upward. He heard the apprehensive,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: vague cry of innumerable men below. Graham clutched the railing
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: before him and gasped. The second seemed in age. The
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: lower veane of the monoplane passed within an ace of
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: touching the people who yelled and screamed and trampled one
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: another below, and then it rose. For a moment it
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: looked as if it could not possibly clear the opposite cliff,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: and then that it could not possibly clear the wind
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: wheel that rotated beyond. And behold it was clear and soaring,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: still heeling sideways upward, upward into the wind swept sky.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: The suspense of the moment gave place to a fury
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: of exasperation as the swarming people realized that Ostrog had
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: escaped them. With belated activity, They renewed their fire, until
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: the rattling wove into a roar, until the whole area
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: became dim and blue, and the air pungent with the
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: thin smoke of their weapons. Too late, the flying machine
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: dwindled smaller and smaller, and curved about, and swept gracefully
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: downward to the flying stage from which it had so
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: lately risen. Ostrog had escaped. For a while, a confused
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: babblement arose from the ruins, and then the universal attention
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: came back to Graham. Pursed high among the scaffolding, he
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: saw the faces of the people turned towards him, heard
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: their shouts at his rescue. From the throat of the
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: ways came the song of the revolt, spreading like a
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: breeze across that swaying sea of men. The little group
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: of men about him shouted congratulations on his escape. The
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: man in yellow was close to him, with a set
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: face and shining eyes, and the song was rising louder
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: and louder. Tramp tramp, tramp, tramp. Slowly, the realization came
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: of the full meaning of these things to him, the
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: perception of the swift change in his position. Ostrog, who
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: had stood beside him whenever he had faced that shouting
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: multitude before was beyond there, the antagonist. There was no
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: one to rule for him any longer. Even the people
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: about him, the leaders and organizers of the multitude, looked
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: to see what he would do, looked to him to act,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: awaited his orders. He was king. Indeed, his puppet reign
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: was at an end. He was very intent to do
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: the thing that was expected of him. His nerves and
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: muscles were quivering. His mind was perhaps a little confused,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: but he felt neither fear nor anger. His hand that
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: had been trodden upon throbbed and was hot. He was
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: a little nervous about his bearing. He knew he was
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: not afraid, but he was anxious not to seem afraid.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: In his former life he had often been more excited
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: in playing games of skill. He was desirous of immediate action.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: He knew he must not think too much in detail
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: of the huge complexity of the struggle about him, lest
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: he should be paralyzed by the sense of its intricacy.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Over there, those square blue shapes, the flying stages, meant
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: Ostrog against Ostrog, who was so clear and definite and decisive,
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: He who was so vague and undecided was fighting for
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: the whole future of the world end of Chapter twenty two.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: This recording by Zachary Brewster Geiss, Greenbelt, Maryland, July two
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: thousand seven,