Latest / The H. G. Wells Library / The War in the Air Chapter 3 Parts 1-3

Transcript

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

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Chapter three, Parts one through three of War in the Air.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. War in the Air by H. G. Wells,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Chapter three, Parts one through three. Bert Smallways was a
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: vulgar little creature, the sort of pert limited soul that
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: the old civilization of the early twentieth century produced by
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: the million in every country of the world. He had
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: lived all his life in narrow streets and between mean
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: houses he could not look over, and in a narrow
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: circle of ideas from which there was no escape. He
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: thought the whole duty of man was to be smarter
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: than his fellows, get his hands, as he put it,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: on the DIBs, and have a good time. He was,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: in fact a sort of man who had made England
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: and America. They were. The luck had been against him
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: so far, but that was by the way. He was
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: a mere, aggressive and acquisitive individual, with no sense of
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: the state, no habitual loyalty, no devotion, no code of honor,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: no code even of courage. Now, by a curious accident
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: he found himself lifted out of his marvelous modern world
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: for a time, out of all the rush and confused
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: appeals of it, and floating like a thing, dead and
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: disembodied between sea and sky. It was as if Heaven
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: was experimenting with him, had picked him out as a
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: sample from the English millions, to look at him more nearly,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: and to see what was happening to the soul of man.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: But what Heaven made of him in that case I
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: cannot profess to imagine, for I have long since abandoned
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: all theories about the ideals and satisfactions of Heaven. To
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: be alone in a balloon at a height of fourteen
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: or fifteen thousand feet, and to that height bert smallways
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: presently rose is like nothing else in human experience. It
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: is one of the supreme things possible to man. No
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: flying machine can ever better it. It is to pass
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: extraordinarily out of human things. It is to be still
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: and alone to an unprecedented degree. It is solitude without
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: the suggestion of intervention. It is calm without a single
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: irrelevant murmur. It is to see the sky no sound
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: reaches one of all the roar and jar of humanity.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: The air is clear and sweet, beyond the thought of defilement.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: No bird, no insect comes so high. No wind blows
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: ever in a balloon, no breeze rustles, for it moves
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: with the wind, and is itself a part of the atmosphere.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Once started. It does not rock or sway. You cannot
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: feel whether it rises or falls. Bert felt acutely cold,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: but he wasn't and sick. He put on the coat
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: and overcoat and gloves Butteridge had discarded, put them over
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: the desert dervish sheet that covered his cheap best suit,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: and sat very still for a long time, overawed by
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: the new found quiet of the world. Above him was
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: the light, translucent, billowing globe of shining brown oiled silk,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: and the blazing sunlight, and the great, deep blue dome
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: of the sky. Below, far below was a torn floor
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: of sunlit clouds, slashed by enormous rents, through which he
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: saw the sea. If you had been watching him from below,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: you would have seen his head, a motionless, little black knob,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: sticking out from the car, first of all, for a
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: long time on one side, and then vanishing to appear
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: after a time at some other point. He wasn't in
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: the least degree uncomfortable, nor afraid. He did think that
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: as this uncontrollable thing had thus rushed up the sky
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: with him, it might presently rush down again. But this
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: consideration did not trouble him very much. Essentially, his state
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: was wonder There is no fear nor trouble in balloons
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: until they descend gullys, he said, feeling a need for talking.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: HiT's better than a motor bike. HiT's all right, I
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: suppose they're telegraphing about about May. The second hour found
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: him examining the equipment of the car with great particularity.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Above him was the throat of the balloon, bunched and
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: tied together, but with an open lumen through which Bert
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: could peer up into a vast, empty, quiet interior, and
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: out of which descended two fine cords of unknown import,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: one white, one crimson. Two pockets below the ring. The
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: netting about the balloon ended in cords attached to the
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: ring a big steel bound hoop to which the car
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: was slung by ropes. From it depended the trail rope
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: and grapnel, And over the sides of the car were
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: a number of canvas bags that Bert decided must be
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: ballast to chuck down if the balloon fell. Not much falling, Josh, yet,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: said Bert. There were an aniroid and another box shaped
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: instrument hanging from the ring. The latter had an ivory
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: plate bearing statoscope and other words in French, and a
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: little indicator quivered and waggled between Montei and des sante.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: That's all right, said Bert, That tells if you're going
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: up or down. On the crimson padded seat of the balloon,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: there lay a couple of rugs and a kodak, And
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: in opposite corners of the bottom of the car were
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: an empty champagne bottle and a glass refreshments, said Bert, meditatively,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: tilting the empty bottle. Then he had a brilliant idea.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: The two padded bed like seats, each with blankets and
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: mattress he perceived, were boxes, and within he found mister
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Butteridge's conception of an adequate equipment for a balloon ascent
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: a hamper, which included a game pie, a roman pie,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: a cold fowl, tomatoes, lettuce, ham sandwiches, shrimp sandwiches, a
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: large cake, knives and forks, and paper plates, self heating,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: tins of coffee and cocoa, bread, butter and marmalade. Several
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: carefully packed bottles of champagne, bottles of Perrier water, and
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: a big jar of water for washing, a portfolio, maps,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: and a compass, a rucksack containing a number of conveniences,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: including curling tongs and hair pins, a cap with ear flaps,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: and so forth. Alm from Alm, said Bert, surveying this provision,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: as he tied the ear flaps under his chin, he
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: looked over the side of the car far below with
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: the shining clouds. They had thickened so that the whole
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: world was hidden. Southward, they were piled in great snowy masses,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: so that he was half disposed to think the mountains
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: northward and eastward they were in wave like levels and
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: blindingly sunlit. Wonder how long a balloon keeps up? He said?
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: He imagined he was not moving so insensibly did the
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: monster drift with the air about it? Now? Good comin
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: down till we shift a bet, he said. He consulted
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: the statoscope. Still manty, he said, Wonder what would happen
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: if you're pulled a cord? Now? He decided, ain't going
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: to mess it a boat. Afterwards, he did pour both
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: the ripping and the valve cords, but as mister Butteridge
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: had already discovered they had fouled a fold of silk
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: in the throat. Nothing happened but for that little hitch.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: The ripping cord would have torn the balloon open as
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: though it had been slashed by a sword, and hurled
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: mister Smallways to a turn at the rate of some
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: thousand feet a second. Now go, he said, giving it
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: a final tug. Then he lunched. He opened a bottle
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: of champagne, which, as soon as he cut the wire,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: blew its cork out with incredible violence, and for the
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: most part, followed it into space. Bert, however, got about
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: a tumblerful hatmospheric pressure, said Bert, finding a use at
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: last for the elementary physiography of his seventh standard days.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: I'll have to be more careful next time. No good,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: waist and drunk. Then he routed about for matches to
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: utilize mister Butteridge's cigars. But there again luck was on
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: his side, and he couldn't find any wherewith to set
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: light to the gas above him, or else he would
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: have dropped in a flare. A splendid but transitory pyrotechnic
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: display A grub, said Bert, slapping unproductive pockets, yet not
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: kept my box. He's always sneaking matches. He reposed for
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: a time. Then he got up, paddled about, re arranged
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: the ballast bags on the floor, watched the clouds for
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: a time, and turned over the maps on the locker.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: Bert liked maps, and he spent some time in trying
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: to find one of France or the Channel, but they
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: were all British Ordnance maps of English counties. That set
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: him thinking about languages and trying to recall his seventh
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: standard French jay suie anglais seun meprize jayce sway arrive
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: par accident easy, He decided upon his convenient phrases. Then
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: it occurred to him that he would entertain himself by
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: reading mister Butteridge's letters and examining his pocket book. And
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: in this manner he whiled away the afternoon. Part two
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: his upon the padded locker, wrapped about very carefully for
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: the air, though calm was exhilaratingly cold and clear. He
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: was wearing first a modest suit of blue serge and
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: all the unpretending underwear of a suburban young man of fashion,
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: with sandal like cycling shoes and brown stockings drawn over
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: his trouser ends. Then the perforated sheet proper to a
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: desert dervish. Then the coat and waistcoat, and big fur
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: trimmed overcoat of mister Butteridge, then a lady's large fur cloak,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: and round his knees a blanket. Over his head was
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: a tow wig, surmounted by a large cap of mister Butteridge's,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: with the flaps down over his ears, and some fair
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: sleeping boots of mister Butteridges warmed his feet. The car
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: of the balloon was small and neat, some bags of
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: ballast the untidiest of its contents. And he had found
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: a light folding table and put it at his elbow.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: And on that was a glass with champagne. And about
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: him above and below was space, such a clear emptiness
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: and silence of space as only the aeronaut can experience.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: He did not know where he might be drifting, or
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: what might happen next. He accepted this state of affairs
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: with a serenity creditable to the small Way's courage, which
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: one might reasonably have expected to be of a more
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: degenerate and contemptible quality. Altogether, his impression was that he
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: was bound to come down somewhere, and that then, if
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: he wasn't smashed, some one, some society perhaps would probably
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: pack him in the balloon back to England. If not,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: he would ask very firmly for the British consul Le
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: Consuelo Britannique. He decided this would be a porte moi
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: a la consuelo Britannique. Civil play, he would say, for
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: he was by no means ignorant of French. In the meanwhile,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: he found the intimate aspects of mister Butteridge an interesting study.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: There were letters of an entirely private character addressed to
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: mister Butteridge, and among others, several love letters of a
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: devouring sort in a large feminine hand. These are no
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: business of ours, and one remarks with regret that Bert
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: read them. When he had read them, he remarked Colley's
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: in an awe stricken tone, And then, after a long interval,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: I wonder if that was her lore, he mused. For
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: a time he resumed his exploration of the Butteridge interior.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: It included a number of press cuttings of interviews, and
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: also several letters in German, then some in the same
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: German handwriting, but in English, Hallo, said Bert, one of
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: the latter the first he took. Began with an apology
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: to Butteridge for not writing to him in English before,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: and for the inconvenience and delay that had been caused
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: him by that, and went on to matter that Bert
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: found exciting in the highest degree. We can understand entirely
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: the difficulties of your position, and that you shall probably
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: be watched at the present juncture. But sir, we do
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: not believe that any serious obstacles will be put in
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: your way if you wish to endeavor to leave the
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: country and come to us with your plans by the
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: customary routes, either via Dover, Ostend, Boulogne or Depp. We
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: find it difficult to think you are right in supposing
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: yourself to be in danger of murder for your invaluable invention. Funny,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: said Bert, and meditated. Then he went through the other letters.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: They seem to want him to come, said Bert, But
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: they don't seem written themselves to get him or else
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: a shammen don't care to get his prices down. They
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: don't twice seemed to be the gunment, he reflected. After
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: an interval HiT's more like some firm's paper. All this
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: printed stuff at the top, Draken fleeger, draken balans, balon
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: stuffy google balons Greek to me, But he was trying
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: to sell his blessed secret abroad. That's all right, no
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Greek about that. Colley's here is the sacret. He tumbled
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: off the seat, opened the locker, and had the portfolio
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: opened before him on the folding table. It was full
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: of drawing Stunn in the peculiar flat style and conventional
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: colors engineers adopt. And in addition, there were some rather
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: under exposed photographs obviously done by an amateur at close
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: quarters of the actual machines Mutterings had made in its
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: shed near the Crystal Palace. Bert found he was trembling longry, say,
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: here are my y know blessed secret of flying lost
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: up here on the roof of everywhere we'll see. He
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: fell to studying the drawings and comparing them with the photographs.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: They puzzled him. Half of them seemed to be missing.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: He tried to imagine how they fitted together, and found
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: the effort too great for his mind. HiT's trying, said Bert.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: Oh wish i'd been brought to the engineering of what
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: could only make it out. He went to the side
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: of the car and remained for a time staring with
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: unseeing eyes at a large cluster of great clouds, a
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: cluster of slowly dissolving Monte Rosa's sunlit below. His attention
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: was arrested by a strange black spot that moved over them.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: It alarmed him. It was a black spot moving slowly
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: with him far below, following him down there, indefatigably over
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: the cloud mountains. Why should such a thing follow him?
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: What could it be? He had an inspiration, of course,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: he said it was the shadow of the balloon, but
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: he still watched it dubiously for a time. He returned
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: to the plans on the table. He spent a long
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: afternoon between his struggles to understand them. In fits of meditation,
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: he evolved a remarkably new sentence in French woissi mosseux
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: jesuis on inventeur anglais monnaume a butteridge be ou te
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: pe eh r i de get eh javet si poor
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: avendre la sicrete de la flying machine comprenae vendre poor
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: largent too sweet, largen armin comprenae sei la machine a
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: joue d'anglis comprene sail la machine a fair losul comprenay blance.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: We exact them by dear ls sus am fay ars
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: on propre jiu jed desire de vendres ssi our volte
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: government nacionale voules vu may direct de llah ramo expect
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: from the point of view a grammar, said Bert. But
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: they ought to get the hang of it, all right.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: But then if they asked me to explain the blessed thing,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: he turned in a worried way to the plans. I
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: don't believe it's all here, he said. He got more
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: and more perplexed up there among the clouds as to
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: what he should do with this wonderful find of his
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: at any moment, so far as he knew he might
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: descend among he knew not what foreign people. It's the
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: chance of me life, he said. It became more and
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: more manifest to him that it wasn't directly. I calmed down.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: They'll telegraph, put it in the papers, butter Ridge'll know
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: of it and come along a track. Butteridge would be
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: a terrible person to be on anyone's track. Bert thought
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: of the great black mustaches, the triangular nose, the searching
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: bellow in the glare. His afternoon's dream of a marvelous
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: seizure and sail of the great Butteridge secret crumpled up
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: in his mind, dissolved and vanished. He awoke to sanity again,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: wa'n't do what's a good of thinking of it? He
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: proceeded slowly and reluctantly to replace the Butteridge papers in
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: pockets and portfolio as he had found them. He became
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: aware of a splendid golden light upon the balloon above him,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: and of a new warmth in the blue dome of
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: the sky. He stood up and beheld the sun, a
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: great ball of blinding gold, setting upon a tumbled sea
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: of gold edged crimson, and in purple clouds strange and wonderful.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: Beyond imagining eastward, cloud land stretched forever, darkling blue, and
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: it seemed to bert the whole round hemisphere of the
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: world was under his eyes. Then, far away, over the
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: blue he caught sight of three long, dark shapes, like
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: hurrying fish, that drove one after the other as porpoises
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: follow one another in the water. They were very fish like, indeed,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: with tails. It was an unconvincing impression in that light.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: He blinked, his eyes stared again, and they had vanished
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: for a long time. He scrutinized those remote blue levels
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: and saw no more. Wonder if I ever saw anything,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: he said, And then there ain't such things. Down went
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: the sun, and down, not diving steeply, but passing northward
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: as it sank. And then suddenly daylight and the ex
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: expansive warmth of daylight had gone altogether, and the index
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: of the statoscope quivered over to DESCENTE Part three. Now
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: what's gonna happen? Said Bert? He found the cold gray
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: cloud wilderness rising toward him with a wide, slow steadiness.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: As he sank down among them, the clouds ceased to
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: seem the snow clad mountain slopes they had resembled. Heretofore
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: became unsubstantial, confessed an immense, silent drift, and eddy in
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: their substance. For a moment, when he was nearly among
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: their twilight masses, his descent was checked. Then abruptly the
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: sky was hidden, the last vestiges of daylight gone, and
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: he was falling rapidly in an evening twilight through a
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: whirl of fine snowflakes that streamed past him toward the zenith,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: that drifted in upon the things about him, and melted,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: that touched his face with ghostly fingers, shivered, his breath
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: came smoking from his lips, and everything was instantly bedewed
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: and wet. He had an impression of a snow storm
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: pouring with unexampled and increasing fury upward. Then he realized
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: that he was falling faster and faster, imperceptibly. A sound
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: grew upon his ears. The great silence of the world
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: was at an end. What was this confused sound? He
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: craned his head over the side, concerned, perplexed. First he
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: seemed to see, and then not to see. Then he
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: clearly saw little edges of foam pursuing each other, and
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: a wide waste of weltering waters blow him. Far away
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: was a pilot boat with a big sail bearing dim
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: black letters and a little pinkish yellow light, and it
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: was rolling and pitching, rolling and pitching in a gale,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: while he could feel no wind at all. Soon the
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: sound of waters was loud and near. He was dropping,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: dropping into the sea. He became confultedly active ballast he cried,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: and seized a little sack from the floor and heaved
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: it overboard. He did not wait for the effect of that,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: but sent another after it. He looked over in time
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: to see a minute white splash and the dim waters
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: blow him, and then he was back in the snow
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: and clouds again. He sent out, quite needlessly a third
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: sack of ballast and a fourth, and presently had the
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: immense satisfaction of soaring up out of the damp and
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: chill into the clear, cold upper air in which the
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: day still lingered. Thy Gordy, he said, with all his heart.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: A few stars now had pierced the blue, and in
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: the east there shone brightly a prolate moon. End of
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: Chapter three, Parts one through three.