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The World Set Free Chapter 3 - The Ending of War Part 2 · The H. G. Wells Library

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Speaker 1: Chapter three of the World Set Free by H. G. Wells.
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Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Adam Marcitich, June two
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Speaker 1: thousand nine, Alexandria, Virginia, Chapter the third, the Ending of War.
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Speaker 1: Section six. One single monarch held out against the general
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Speaker 1: acquiescence in the new rule, and that was the strange
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Speaker 1: survival of medievalism, the Slavic Fox, the king of the Balkans.
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Speaker 1: He debated and delayed his submissions. He showed an extraordinary
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Speaker 1: combination of cunning and temerity in his evasion of the
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Speaker 1: repeated summonses from Brisago. He affected ill health and a
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Speaker 1: great preoccupation with his new official mistress. For his semi
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Speaker 1: barbaric court was arranged on the best romantic models. His
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Speaker 1: tactics were ably seconded by doctor Pestovitch, his chief minister.
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Speaker 1: Failing to establish his claims to complete independence, King Ferdinand
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Speaker 1: Charles annoyed the conference by a proposal to be treated
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Speaker 1: as a protected state. Finally, he professed an unconvincing submission
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Speaker 1: and put a mass of obstacles in the way of
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Speaker 1: the transfer of his national officials to the new government.
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Speaker 1: In these things he was enthusiastically supported by his subjects,
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Speaker 1: still for the most part and illiterate peasantry, passionately if
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Speaker 1: confusedly patriotic, and so far with no practical knowledge of
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Speaker 1: the effect of atomic bombs. More particularly, he retained control
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Speaker 1: of all the Balkan aeroplanes. For once. The extreme naivete
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Speaker 1: of LeBlanc seems to have been mitigated by duplicity. He
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Speaker 1: went on with the general pacification of the world as
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Speaker 1: if the Balkan submission was made in absolute good faith.
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Speaker 1: But he announced the disbandment of the force of aeroplanes
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Speaker 1: that hitherto guarded the Council at Bresago upon the approaching
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Speaker 1: fifteenth of July. But instead he doubled the number upon
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Speaker 1: duty on that eventful day, and made various arrangements for
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Speaker 1: their disposition. He consulted certain experts, and when he took
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Speaker 1: King Egbert into his confidence, there was something in his
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Speaker 1: neat and explicit foresight that brought back to that ex
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Speaker 1: monarch's mind his half forgotten fantasy of LeBlanc as a
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Speaker 1: fisherman under a green umbrella out five o'clock in the
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Speaker 1: morning of the seventeenth of July, one of the outer
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Speaker 1: sentinels of the Brissago fleet, which was soaring unobtrusively over
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Speaker 1: the lower end of the Lake of Grata, sighted and
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Speaker 1: hailed a strange aeroplane that was flying westward, and, failing
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Speaker 1: to get a satisfactory reply, set its wireless apparatus talking
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Speaker 1: and gave chase. A swarm of consorts appeared very promptly
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Speaker 1: over the westward mountains, and before the unknown airplane had
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Speaker 1: sighted Como it had a dozen eager attendants closing upon it.
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Speaker 1: Its driver seems to have hesitated, dropped down among the mountains,
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Speaker 1: and then turned southward in flight, only to find an
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Speaker 1: intercepting biplane sweeping across his bows. Then he went round
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Speaker 1: into the eye of the rising sun and passed within
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Speaker 1: one hundred yards of his original pursuer. The sharpshooter therein
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Speaker 1: opened fire at once and showed an intelligent grasp of
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Speaker 1: the situation by disabling the passenger first. The man at
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Speaker 1: the wheel must have heard his companion cry out behind him,
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Speaker 1: but he was too intent on getting away to waste
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Speaker 1: even a glance behind. Twice after that he must have
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Speaker 1: heard shots. He let his engine go, He crouched down,
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Speaker 1: and for twenty minutes he must have steered in the
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Speaker 1: continual expectation of a bullet. It never came, and when
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Speaker 1: at last he glanced around, three planes were close upon him,
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Speaker 1: and his companion Thrice hit lay dead across the bombs.
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Speaker 1: His followers manifestly did not mean either to upset or
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Speaker 1: shoot him, but inexorably they drove him down down. At
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Speaker 1: last he was curving and flying one hundred yards or
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Speaker 1: less over the level fields of rice and maize. Ahead
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Speaker 1: of him, and dark against the morning sunrise, was a
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Speaker 1: village with a very tall and slender campanile and a
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Speaker 1: line of cable bearing metal standards that he could not clear.
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Speaker 1: He stopped his engine abruptly and dropped flat. He may
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Speaker 1: have hoped to get at the bombs when he came down,
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Speaker 1: but his pitiless pursuers drove right over him and shot him.
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Speaker 1: As he fell. Three other aeroplanes curved down and came
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Speaker 1: to rest amidst the grass close by the smashed machine.
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Speaker 1: Their passengers descended and ran, holding their light rifles in
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Speaker 1: their hands, towards the debris, and the two dead men.
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Speaker 1: The coffin shaped box that had occupied the center of
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Speaker 1: the machine had broken, and three block black objects, each
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Speaker 1: with two handles, like the ears of a pitcher, lay
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Speaker 1: peacefully amidst the litter. These objects were so tremendously important
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Speaker 1: in the eyes of their captors that they disregarded the
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Speaker 1: two dead men, who lay bloody and broken amidst the wreckage,
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Speaker 1: as they might have disregarded dead frogs by a country
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Speaker 1: pathway by God, cried the first. Here they are and unbroken,
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Speaker 1: said the second. I've never seen the things before, said
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Speaker 1: the first. Bigger than I thought, said the second. The
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Speaker 1: third comer arrived. He stared for a moment at the bombs,
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Speaker 1: and then turned his eyes to the dead man with
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Speaker 1: a crushed chest, who lay in a muddy place among
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Speaker 1: the green stems under the center of the machine. One
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Speaker 1: can take no risks, he said, with a faint suggestion
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Speaker 1: of apology. The other two now also turned to the victims.
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Speaker 1: We must signal, said the first man. A shadow passed
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Speaker 1: between them and the sun, and they looked up to
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Speaker 1: see the aeroplane that had fired the last shot. Shall
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Speaker 1: we signal? Came a megaphone, Hail, three bombs, they answered together.
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Speaker 1: Where do they come from? Asked the megaphone. The three
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Speaker 1: sharpshooters looked at each other, and then moved towards the
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Speaker 1: dead men. One of them had an idea signal that first,
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Speaker 1: he said, while we look. They were joined by their
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Speaker 1: aviators for the search, and all six men began a
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Speaker 1: hunt that was necessarily brutal in its haste for some
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Speaker 1: indication of identity. They examined the men's pocket, their blood
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Speaker 1: stained clothes, the machine, the framework. They turned the bodies
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Speaker 1: over and flung them aside. There was not a tattoo mark.
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Speaker 1: Everything was elaborately free of any indication of its origin.
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Speaker 1: We can't find out. They called it last. Not a sign,
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Speaker 1: Not a sign. I'm coming down, said the man overhead.
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Speaker 1: Section seven. The Slavic Fox stood upon a metal balcony
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Speaker 1: in his picturesque art nouveau palace that gave upon the
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Speaker 1: precipice that overhung his bright little capital, And beside him
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Speaker 1: stood Pestovitch, grizzled and cunning, and now full of an
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Speaker 1: ill suppressed excitement. Behind them, the window opened into a
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Speaker 1: large room, richly decorated in aluminum and crimson and enamel.
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Speaker 1: Across which the King, as he glanced ever and again
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Speaker 1: over his shoulder with a gesture of inquiry, could see
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Speaker 1: through the two open doors of a little azure walled
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Speaker 1: anti chamber. The wireless operator in the turret, working at
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Speaker 1: his incessant transcription. Two pompously uniformed messengers waited listlessly in
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Speaker 1: this apartment. The room was furnished with a stately dignity,
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Speaker 1: and had in the middle of it a big, green,
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Speaker 1: beige covered table with the massive white metal ink pots
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Speaker 1: an antiquated sandboxes natural to a new but romantic monarchy.
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Speaker 1: It was the King's council chamber, and about it now,
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Speaker 1: in attitudes of suspended intrigue, stood the half dozen ministers
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Speaker 1: who constituted his cabinet. They had been summoned for twelve o'clock,
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Speaker 1: but still at half past twelve, the King loitered in
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Speaker 1: the balcony and seemed to be waiting for some news
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Speaker 1: that did not come. The King and his minister had
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Speaker 1: talked at first in whispers, they had fallen silent, for
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Speaker 1: they found little now to express except a vague anxiety.
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Speaker 1: Away there on the mountain side there were the white
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Speaker 1: metal roofs of the long farm buildings beneath which the
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Speaker 1: bomb factory and the bombs were hidden. The chemist who
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Speaker 1: had made all of these for the king had died
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Speaker 1: suddenly after the declaration of Brissago. Nobody knew of that
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Speaker 1: store of mischief now but the King and his adviser
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Speaker 1: and three heavily faithful attendants. The aviators who waited now
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Speaker 1: in the midday blaze with their bomb carrying machines and
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Speaker 1: their passenger bomb throwers in the exercising grounds of the
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Speaker 1: motorcyclist barracks below, were still in ignorance of the position
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Speaker 1: of the ammunition they were presently to take up. It
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Speaker 1: was time they started. If the scheme was to work
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Speaker 1: as Pestovitch had planned it, he was a magnificent plan.
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Speaker 1: It aimed at no less than the Empire of the world,
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Speaker 1: the government of idealists and professors away there at Persago
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Speaker 1: was to be blown to fragments, and then east, west,
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Speaker 1: north and south. Those airplanes would go swarming over a
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Speaker 1: world that had disarmed itself, to proclaim Ferdinand Charles the
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Speaker 1: new Caesar, the master Lord of the Earth. He was
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Speaker 1: a magnificent plan. But the tension of this waiting for
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Speaker 1: news of the success of the first blow was considerable.
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Speaker 1: The Slavic fox was full of pallid fairness. He had
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Speaker 1: a remarkably long nose, a thick, short mustache, and small
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Speaker 1: blue eyes that were a little too near together to
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Speaker 1: be pleasant. It was his habit to worry his mustache
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Speaker 1: with short, nervous tugs whenever his restless mind troubled him,
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Speaker 1: And now this motion was becoming so incessant that it
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Speaker 1: irked Pestovitch beyond the limits of endurance. I will go,
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Speaker 1: said the minister, and see what the trouble is with
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Speaker 1: the wireless. They will give us nothing good or bad.
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Speaker 1: Left to himself, the king could worry his mustache without stint.
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Speaker 1: He leant his elbows forward on the balcony and gave
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Speaker 1: both of his long white hands to the work, so
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Speaker 1: that he looked like a pale dog gnawing a bone.
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Speaker 1: Suppose they caught his men? What should he do? Suppose
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Speaker 1: they caught his men? The clocks on the light gold
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Speaker 1: capped belfries of the town below presently intimated the half
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Speaker 1: hour after midday. Of course, he and Pestovitch had thought
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Speaker 1: it out. Even if they had caught those men, they
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Speaker 1: were pledged to secrecy. Probably they would be killed in
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Speaker 1: the catching. One could deny anyhow, deny and deny. And
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Speaker 1: then he became aware of half a dozen little shining
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Speaker 1: specks very high in the blue. Pestovitch came out to him. Presently,
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Speaker 1: the government messages, Sire, have all dropped into cipher, He said,
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Speaker 1: I have sent a man. Look interrupted the king and
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Speaker 1: pointed upward with a long, lean finger. Pestovitch followed that indication,
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Speaker 1: and then glanced for one questioning moment at the white
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Speaker 1: face before him. We have to face it out, sire.
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Speaker 1: For some moments they watched the steep spirals of descending messengers,
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Speaker 1: and then they began a hasty consultation. They decided that
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Speaker 1: to be holding a council upon the details of an
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Speaker 1: ultimate surrender to Bersago was an innocent looking as the
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Speaker 1: king could well be doing. And so when at last
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Speaker 1: the ex King Egbert, whom the council had sent as
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Speaker 1: its envoy, arrived upon the scene, he discovered the King
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Speaker 1: almost theatrically posed at the head of his councilors in
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Speaker 1: the midst of his court. The door upon the wireless
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Speaker 1: operators was shot. The ex King from Brisago came like
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Speaker 1: a draft through the curtains and attendance that gave a
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Speaker 1: wide margin to King Ferdinand State, and the familiar confidence
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Speaker 1: of his manner belied a certain hardness in his eye.
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Speaker 1: Fearman trotted behind him, and no one else was with him,
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Speaker 1: And as Ferdinand Charles rose to greet him, there came
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Speaker 1: into the heart of the Balkan king again that same
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Speaker 1: chilly feeling that he had felt upon the balcony, and
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Speaker 1: it passed at the careless gestures of his guest. For
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Speaker 1: surely anyone might outwit this foolish talker, who, for a
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Speaker 1: mere idea, at the command of a little French rationalist
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Speaker 1: in spectacles, had thrown away the most ancient crown in
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Speaker 1: all the world. One must deny, deny, And then slowly
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Speaker 1: and quite tiresomely, he realized that there was nothing to deny.
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Speaker 1: His visitor, with an amiable ease, went on talking about
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Speaker 1: everything in debate between himself and Bresago, except could it
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Speaker 1: be that they had been delayed? Could be that they
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Speaker 1: had to drop for repairs and were still uncaptured? Could
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Speaker 1: it be that even now, while this fool babbled, while
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Speaker 1: they were over there among the mountains, heaving their deadly
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Speaker 1: charge over the side of the aeroplane. Strange hopes began
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Speaker 1: to lift the tail of the Slavic fox again. What
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Speaker 1: was the man saying? One must talk to him anyhow,
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Speaker 1: until one knew at any moment the little brass door
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Speaker 1: behind him might open with the news of Brisago blown
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Speaker 1: to Adams. Then it would be a delightful relief to
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Speaker 1: the present tension to arrest this chatter. Forthwith he might
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Speaker 1: be killed. Perhaps what the king was repeating his observation,
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Speaker 1: they have a ridiculous fantasy that your confidence is based
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Speaker 1: on the possession of atomic bombs. King Ferdinand Charles pulled
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Speaker 1: himself together. He protested, Oh quite so, said the ex King.
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Speaker 1: Quite so? What grounds? The ex King permitted himself a gesture,
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Speaker 1: and the ghost of a chuckle. Why the devil should
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Speaker 1: he chuckle? Practically none, he said, But of course with
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Speaker 1: these things one has to be so careful. And then again,
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Speaker 1: for an instant, something like the faintest shadow of derision
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Speaker 1: gleamed out of the Envoy's eyes and recalled that chilly
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Speaker 1: feeling to the King Ferdinand's spine. Some kindred depression had
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Speaker 1: come to Pestovitch, who had been watching the drawn intensity
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Speaker 1: of fearman's face. He came to the help of his master,
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Speaker 1: who he feared might protest too much. A search, cried
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Speaker 1: the King. An embargo on our airplanes only a temporary expedient,
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Speaker 1: said the ex King Egbert. While the search is going on,
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Speaker 1: the King appealed to his council. The people will never
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Speaker 1: permit it, sire, said a bustling little man in a
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Speaker 1: gorgeous uniform. You'll have to make them, said the ex
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Speaker 1: King genially, addressing all the counselors. King Ferdinand glanced at
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Speaker 1: the closed brass door, through which no news would come.
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Speaker 1: When would you want to have this search? The ex
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Speaker 1: King was radiant. We couldn't possibly do it until the
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Speaker 1: day after tomorrow, he said, just the capital. Where else,
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Speaker 1: asked the ex King, still more cheerfully. For my own part,
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Speaker 1: said the ex King confidentially, I think the whole business ridict.
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Speaker 1: Who would be such a fool as to hide atomic bombs?
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Speaker 1: Nobody certain hanging if he's caught, certain and almost certain
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Speaker 1: blowing up if he isn't. But nowadays I have to
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Speaker 1: take orders like the rest of the world, and here
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Speaker 1: I am. The King thought he had never met such
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Speaker 1: detestable geniality. He glanced at Pestovitch, who nodded, almost imperceptibly.
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Speaker 1: It was well, anyhow, to have a fool to deal with,
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Speaker 1: they might have sent a diplomatist, of course, said the King.
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Speaker 1: I recognize the overpowering force and a kind of logic
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Speaker 1: in these orders from Brisago. I knew you would, said
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Speaker 1: the ex King, with an air of relief, and so
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Speaker 1: let us arrange. They arranged with a certain informality. No
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Speaker 1: Bulkan aeroplane was to adventure into the air until the
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Speaker 1: search was concluded, and meanwhile the fleets of the World
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Speaker 1: Government would soar and circle in the sky. The towns
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Speaker 1: were to be playcarded with officers of reward to anyone
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Speaker 1: who would help in the discovery of atomic bombs. You
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Speaker 1: will sign that, said the ex King. Why to show
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Speaker 1: that we aren't in any way hostile to you. Pestovitch
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Speaker 1: nodded yes to his master. And then you see, said
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Speaker 1: the ex King, in that easy way of his. We'll
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Speaker 1: have a lot of men here, borrow help from your police,
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Speaker 1: and run through all your things, and then everything will
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Speaker 1: be over. Meanwhile, if I may be your guest, when
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Speaker 1: presently Pestovitch was alone with the king again. He found
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Speaker 1: him in a state of jangling emotions. His spirit was
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Speaker 1: tossing like a wind whips see. One moment he was
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Speaker 1: exalted and full of contempt for that ass and his search.
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Speaker 1: The next he was down in a pit of dread.
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Speaker 1: They will find them, Pestovitch, and then he'll hang us,
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Speaker 1: Hang us. The king put his long nose into his
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Speaker 1: counselor's face. That grinning brute wants to hang us, he said,
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Speaker 1: And hang us he will if we give him a
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Speaker 1: shadow of a chance. But all their modern state civilization,
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Speaker 1: do you think there's any pity in that crew of
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Speaker 1: godless vivisecting prigs, cried this last king of Romance. Do
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Speaker 1: you think, Pestovitch, they understand anything of a high ambition
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Speaker 1: or a splendid dream? Do you think that our gallant
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Speaker 1: and sublime adventure has any appeal to them? Here am
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Speaker 1: I the last and greatest and most romantic of the Caesars.
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Speaker 1: And do you think they will miss the chance of
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Speaker 1: hanging me like a dog if they can killing me
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Speaker 1: like a rat in a hole? And that renegade, he
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Speaker 1: who was once an anointed king, I hate that sort
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Speaker 1: of eye that laughs and keeps hard, said the King.
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Speaker 1: I won't sit here and be caught like a fascinated rabbit,
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Speaker 1: said the King. In conclusion, we must shift those bombs
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Speaker 1: risk it, said Pestovitch. Leave them alone, No, said the King.
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Speaker 1: Shift them near the frontier. Then while they watch us here,
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Speaker 1: they will always watch us here. Now we can buy
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Speaker 1: an aeroplane abroad and pick them up. The King was
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Speaker 1: in a feverish, irritable mood all that evening, but he
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Speaker 1: made his plans nevertheless, with infinite cunning. They must get
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Speaker 1: the bombs away. There must be a couple of atomic
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Speaker 1: hay lorries. The bombs could be hidden under the hay.
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Speaker 1: Pestovitch went and came in, instructing trusty servants, planning and replanning.
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Speaker 1: The King and the ex king talked very pleasantly of
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Speaker 1: a number of subjects, all while at the back of
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Speaker 1: King Ferdinand, Charles mind fretted the mystery of his vanished aeroplane.
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Speaker 1: There came no news of its capture, and no news
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Speaker 1: of its success. At any moment, all that power at
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Speaker 1: the back of his visitor might crumble away and vanish.
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Speaker 1: It was past midnight when the King, in a cloak
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Speaker 1: and slouch hat that might equally have served a small
23:35
Speaker 1: farmer or any respectable middle class man, slipped out from
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Speaker 1: an inconspicuous service gate on the eastward side of his
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Speaker 1: palace into the thickly wooded gardens that sloped in a
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Speaker 1: series of terraces down to the town. Pestovitch and his
23:51
Speaker 1: guard Valet Peter, both wrapped about in a similar disguise,
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Speaker 1: came out among the laurels that bordered the pasay and
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Speaker 1: joined them. It was a clear, warm night, but the
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Speaker 1: stars seemed unusually little and remote because of the airplanes,
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Speaker 1: each trailing a searchlight that drove hither and thither across
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Speaker 1: the blue. One great beam seemed to rest on the
24:18
Speaker 1: King for a moment as he came out of the palace.
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Speaker 1: Then instantly and reassuringly, it had swept away. But while
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Speaker 1: they were still in the palace gardens, another found them
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Speaker 1: and looked at them. They see us, cried the king.
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Speaker 1: They make nothing of us, said Pestovitch. The King glanced
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Speaker 1: up and met a calm, round eye of light that
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Speaker 1: seemed to wink at him and vanish, leaving him blinded.
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Speaker 1: The three men went on their way near the little
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Speaker 1: gate in the garden railings that Pestovitch had caused to
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Speaker 1: be unlocked. The king paused under the shadow of a
24:59
Speaker 1: flex and look backed at the place. It was very
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Speaker 1: high and narrow, a twentieth century rendering of medievalism, medievalism
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Speaker 1: in stone and bronze and sham stone and opaque glass.
25:14
Speaker 1: Against the sky, it splashed a confusion of pinnacles high
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Speaker 1: up in the eastward wing, where the windows of the
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Speaker 1: apartments of the ex King Egbert. One of them was
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Speaker 1: brightly lit now, and against the light, a little black
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Speaker 1: figure stood very still and looked out upon the night.
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Speaker 1: The King snarled. He little knows how we slipped through
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Speaker 1: his fingers, said Pestovitch. And as he spoke they saw
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Speaker 1: the ex King stretch out his arms slowly like one
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Speaker 1: who yawns, knuckle his eyes, and turn inward, no doubt
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Speaker 1: to his bed down through the ancient, winding back streets
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Speaker 1: of his capital, hurried the King, and at an appointed
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Speaker 1: corner a shabby atomic automobile waited for the three. It
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Speaker 1: was a Hackney carriage of the lowest grade, with dnted
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Speaker 1: metal panels and deflated cushions. The driver was one of
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Speaker 1: the ordinary drivers of the capital. But beside him sat
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Speaker 1: the young secretary of Pestovitch, who knew the way to
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Speaker 1: the farm where the bombs were hidden. The automobile made
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Speaker 1: its way through the narrow streets of the old town,
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Speaker 1: which were still lit and uneasy, for the fleet of
26:31
Speaker 1: airships overhead had kept the cafes open, and people abroad
26:35
Speaker 1: over the great new bridge, and so by straggling outskirts
26:39
Speaker 1: to the city and all through his capital. The king,
26:43
Speaker 1: who hoped to outdo Caesar, sat back and was very still,
26:48
Speaker 1: and no one spoke. And as they got out into
26:51
Speaker 1: the dark country, they became aware of the searchlights wandering
26:55
Speaker 1: over the countryside, like the uneasy ghosts of giants. The
27:01
Speaker 1: king sat forward and looked at these flittering whitenesses, and
27:05
Speaker 1: every now and then peered up to see the flying
27:08
Speaker 1: ships overhead. I don't like them, said the king. Presently,
27:15
Speaker 1: one of these patches of moonlight came to rest about them,
27:18
Speaker 1: and seemed to be following their automobile. The king drew back.
27:23
Speaker 1: The things are confoundedly noiseless, said the king. It's like
27:29
Speaker 1: being stalked by lean white cats. He peered again that
27:34
Speaker 1: fellow was watching us, he said, And then suddenly he
27:39
Speaker 1: gave way to panic. Pestovitch, he said, clutching his minister's arm.
27:45
Speaker 1: They are watching us. I'm not going through with us.
27:48
Speaker 1: They are watching us. I'm going back, Pestovitch remonstrated. Tell
27:53
Speaker 1: him to go back, said the king, and tried to
27:56
Speaker 1: open the window. For a few moments, there was a
28:00
Speaker 1: grim struggle in the automobile, a gripping of wrists, and
28:03
Speaker 1: a blow. I can't go through with it, repeated the king.
28:07
Speaker 1: I can't go through with it. But they'll hang us,
28:11
Speaker 1: said Pestovitch. Not if we were to give up now,
28:15
Speaker 1: not if we were to surrender the bombs. It is
28:18
Speaker 1: you who brought me into this. At last, Pestovitch compromised.
28:23
Speaker 1: There was an inn perhaps half a mile from the farm.
28:27
Speaker 1: They could alight there, and the King could get brandy
28:30
Speaker 1: and rest his nerves for a time, and if he
28:33
Speaker 1: still thought fit to go back, he could go back. See,
28:38
Speaker 1: said Pestovitch, the light has gone on again. The king
28:42
Speaker 1: peered up. I believe he's following us without a light,
28:47
Speaker 1: said the king. In the little, old, dirty inn. The
28:51
Speaker 1: king hung doubtful for a time, and was for going
28:55
Speaker 1: back and throwing himself on the mercy of the council.
28:58
Speaker 1: If there is a council, said Pestovitch. By this time,
29:02
Speaker 1: your bombs may have settled it. But if so, these
29:06
Speaker 1: infernal aeroplanes would go. They may not know yet. But Pestovitch,
29:13
Speaker 1: why couldn't you do all this without me? Pestovitch made
29:17
Speaker 1: no answer for a moment. I was for leaving the
29:20
Speaker 1: bombs in their place, he said at last, and went
29:24
Speaker 1: to the window about their conveyance, shown a circle of
29:28
Speaker 1: bright light. Pestovitch had a brilliant idea. I will send
29:33
Speaker 1: my secretary out to make a kind of dispute with
29:36
Speaker 1: the driver, something that will make them watch up above there. Meanwhile,
29:41
Speaker 1: you and I and Peter will go out by the
29:44
Speaker 1: back way and up by the hedges to the farm.
29:48
Speaker 1: It was worthy of his subtle reputation, and it answered
29:52
Speaker 1: passing well. In ten minutes they were tumbling over the
29:56
Speaker 1: wall of the farm yard, wet, muddy and breathless, but unobserved.
30:01
Speaker 1: But as they ran toward the barns, the king gave
30:04
Speaker 1: vent to something between a groan and a curse, and
30:08
Speaker 1: all about them shone the light and passed, but had
30:12
Speaker 1: it passed at once or lingered for just a second.
30:16
Speaker 1: They didn't see us, said Peter. I don't think they
30:21
Speaker 1: saw us, said the king, and stared as the light
30:25
Speaker 1: went swooping up the mountain side, hung for a second
30:28
Speaker 1: about a hayrick, and then came pouring back in the barn,
30:33
Speaker 1: cried the king. He bruised his shin against something, and
30:36
Speaker 1: then all three men were inside the huge steel girdered barn,
30:41
Speaker 1: in which stood the two motor hay lorries that were
30:44
Speaker 1: to take the bombs away. Kurt and Abel, the two
30:48
Speaker 1: brothers of Peter, had brought the lorries thither in daylight.
30:53
Speaker 1: They had the upper half of the loads of hay
30:56
Speaker 1: thrown off, ready to cover the bombs so soon as
30:59
Speaker 1: the King should show the hiding place. There's a sort
31:03
Speaker 1: of pit here, said the King. Don't light another lantern.
31:08
Speaker 1: This key of mine releases a ring. For a time,
31:13
Speaker 1: scarcely a word was spoken in the darkness of the barn.
31:17
Speaker 1: There was a sound of a slab being lifted, and
31:20
Speaker 1: then of feet descending a ladder into a pit, then whispering,
31:24
Speaker 1: and then heavy breathing as Kurt came struggling up with
31:28
Speaker 1: the first of the hidden bombs. We shall do it yet,
31:33
Speaker 1: said the king, and then he gasped, curse that light.
31:38
Speaker 1: Why in the name of heaven didn't we shut the
31:40
Speaker 1: barn door. For the great doors stood wide open, and
31:44
Speaker 1: all the empty, lifeless yard outside, and the door and
31:48
Speaker 1: six feet of the floor of the barn were in
31:51
Speaker 1: the blue glare of an inquiring searchlight. Shut the door, Peter,
31:57
Speaker 1: said Pestovitch. No, cried the King, too late. As Peter
32:02
Speaker 1: went forward into the light. Don't show yourself, cried the king.
32:07
Speaker 1: Kurt made a step forward and plucked his brother back.
32:11
Speaker 1: For a time, all five men stood still. It seemed
32:15
Speaker 1: that light would never go, and then abruptly it was
32:19
Speaker 1: turned off, leaving them blinded. Now, said the King uneasily.
32:24
Speaker 1: Now shut the door, not completely, cried Pestovitch. Leave a
32:30
Speaker 1: chink for us to go out by. It was hot
32:34
Speaker 1: work shifting those bombs, and the king worked for a
32:37
Speaker 1: time like a common man. Kurt and Abel carried the
32:41
Speaker 1: great things up, and Peter brought them to the carts,
32:44
Speaker 1: and the king and Pestovitch helped him to place them
32:48
Speaker 1: among the hay. They made as little noise as they
32:51
Speaker 1: could sh cried the king, what's that? But Kurt and
32:57
Speaker 1: Abel did not hear, and came blundering up the ladder
33:01
Speaker 1: with the last of the load. Sh Peter ran forward
33:06
Speaker 1: to them with a whispered remonstrance. Now they were still,
33:11
Speaker 1: the barn door opened a little wider, and against the
33:14
Speaker 1: dim blue light outside, they saw the black shape of
33:18
Speaker 1: a man. Anyone here, he asked, speaking with an Italian accent.
33:25
Speaker 1: The king broke into a cold perspiration. Then Pestovitch answered,
33:30
Speaker 1: Only a poor farmer loading hay, he said, and picked
33:35
Speaker 1: up a huge hayfork and went forward softly. You load
33:41
Speaker 1: your hay at a very bad time and in a
33:43
Speaker 1: very bad light, said the man at the door, peering in.
33:48
Speaker 1: Have you no electric light here? Then suddenly he turned
33:53
Speaker 1: on an electric torch, and as he did so, Pestovitch
33:57
Speaker 1: sprang forward. Get out of my barn, he cried, and
34:02
Speaker 1: drove the fork full at the intruder's chest. He had
34:06
Speaker 1: a vague idea that he might stab the man to silence,
34:10
Speaker 1: But the man shouted loudly as the prongs pierced him
34:13
Speaker 1: and drove him backward, and instantly there was a sound
34:17
Speaker 1: of feet running across the yard, Bombs, cried the man
34:21
Speaker 1: upon the ground, struggling with the prongs in his hand,
34:25
Speaker 1: and as Pestovitch staggered forward into view with the force
34:29
Speaker 1: of his own thrust, he was shot through the body
34:32
Speaker 1: by one of the two newcomers. The man on the
34:35
Speaker 1: ground was hurt badly, but plucky Bombs. He repeated, and
34:40
Speaker 1: struggled up to a kneeling position and held his electric
34:44
Speaker 1: torch full upon the face of the king. Shoot them,
34:47
Speaker 1: he cried, coughing and spitting blood, so that the halo
34:51
Speaker 1: of light round the King's head danced about for a moment.
34:56
Speaker 1: In that shivering circle of light, the two men saw
34:59
Speaker 1: the King kneel up in the cart and Peter on
35:02
Speaker 1: the barn floor beside him. The old fox looked at
35:06
Speaker 1: them sideways, snared a white faced evil thing, and then,
35:11
Speaker 1: with a faltering, suicidal heroism, he leant forward over the
35:16
Speaker 1: bomb before him. They fired together and shot him through
35:19
Speaker 1: the head. The upper part of his face seemed to vanish.
35:24
Speaker 1: Shoot them, cried the man who had been stabbed. Shoot
35:27
Speaker 1: them all, and then his light went out, and he
35:31
Speaker 1: rolled over with a groan at the feet of his comrades.
35:36
Speaker 1: But each carried a light of his own, and in
35:38
Speaker 1: another moment everything in the barn was visible again. They
35:42
Speaker 1: shot Peter even as he held up his hands in
35:45
Speaker 1: sign of surrender. Curtin Abel, at the head of the
35:49
Speaker 1: latter hesitated for a moment and then plunged backwards into
35:54
Speaker 1: the pit. If we don't kill them, said one of
35:58
Speaker 1: the sharpshooters, they'll blow us to rags. They've gone down
36:03
Speaker 1: that hatchway. Come here they are, hands up. I say,
36:09
Speaker 1: hold your light while I shoot. Section eight. It was
36:16
Speaker 1: still quite dark when his valet and Fearman came together
36:21
Speaker 1: and told the ex King Egbert that the business was settled.
36:25
Speaker 1: He started up into a sitting position on the side
36:28
Speaker 1: of his bed. Did he go out, asked the ex King.
36:33
Speaker 1: He is dead, said Fearman. He was shot. The ex
36:39
Speaker 1: King reflected, that's about the best thing that could have happened.
36:44
Speaker 1: He said, where are the bombs in that farmhouse on
36:48
Speaker 1: the opposite hillside? Why the place is in sight? Let
36:53
Speaker 1: us go, I'll dress. Is there any one in that place?
36:57
Speaker 1: Fearman to get us a cup of coffee. Through the
37:01
Speaker 1: hungry twilight of the dawn, the ex King's automobile carried
37:05
Speaker 1: him to the farm house where the last rebel king
37:09
Speaker 1: was lying among his bombs. The rim of the sky flashed,
37:13
Speaker 1: the east grew bright, and the sun was just rising
37:17
Speaker 1: over the hills. When King Egbert reached the farm yard,
37:21
Speaker 1: there he found the hay lorries drawn out from the barn,
37:25
Speaker 1: with the dreadful bomb still packed upon them. A couple
37:29
Speaker 1: of score of aviators held the yard, and outside a
37:33
Speaker 1: few peasants stood in a little group and stared, ignorant
37:38
Speaker 1: as yet of what had happened. Against the stone wall
37:42
Speaker 1: of the farm yard, five bodies were lying neatly side
37:46
Speaker 1: to side, and Pestovitch had an expression of surprise on
37:50
Speaker 1: his face, and the king was chiefly identifiable by his
37:54
Speaker 1: long white hands and his blond mustache. The wounded Aeronaut
37:59
Speaker 1: had been carried down to the Inn, and after the
38:02
Speaker 1: ex King had given directions in what manner the bombs
38:06
Speaker 1: were to be taken to the new special laboratories above Zurich,
38:11
Speaker 1: where they could be unpacked in an atmosphere of chlorine,
38:14
Speaker 1: he turned to those five still shapes, their five pairs
38:20
Speaker 1: of feet stuck out with a curious, stiff unanimity. What
38:26
Speaker 1: else was there to do? He said? In answer, to
38:30
Speaker 1: some internal protest. I wonder, Furman, if there are any
38:34
Speaker 1: more of them bombs, Sir asked Furman. No such kings.
38:42
Speaker 1: The pitiful folly of it, said the ex King, following
38:46
Speaker 1: his thoughts Fearman, as an ex professor of international politics,
38:53
Speaker 1: I think it falls to you to bury them there. No,
38:57
Speaker 1: don't put them near the well. People will have to
39:00
Speaker 1: drink from that well. Bury them over there, some way
39:04
Speaker 1: off in the field. End of Chapter three