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The Sleeper Awakes Chapter 25 - The Coming of the Aeroplanes · The H. G. Wells Library

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Speaker 1: Chapter twenty five 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 are to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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Speaker 1: Recording by James Christopher The Sleeper Awakes by H. G. Wells,
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Speaker 1: Chapter twenty five, The Coming of the Aeroplanes. Two men
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Speaker 1: in pale blue were lying in the irregular line that
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Speaker 1: stretched along the edge of the captured Roehampton stage from
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Speaker 1: end to end, grasping their carbines and peering into the
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Speaker 1: shadows of the stage called Wimbledon Park. Now and then
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Speaker 1: they spoke to one another. They spoke the mutilated English
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Speaker 1: of their class. In period, the fire of the Ostrogites
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Speaker 1: had dwindled and ceased, and few of the enemy had
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Speaker 1: been seen for some time. But the echoes of the
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Speaker 1: fight that was going on now far below in the
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Speaker 1: lower galleries of that stage came every now and then
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Speaker 1: between the staccato of shots from the popular side. One
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Speaker 1: of these men was describing to the other how he
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Speaker 1: had seen a man down below there doz behind a girder,
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Speaker 1: and had aimed at a guest and hit him cleanly
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Speaker 1: as he dodged to far. He's down there still, said
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Speaker 1: the marksman. See that little patch, yes, between those bars.
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Speaker 1: A few yards behind them lay a dead stranger, face
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Speaker 1: upwards to the sky, with the blue canvas of his
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Speaker 1: jacket smoldering in a circle about the neat bullet hole
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Speaker 1: in his chest. Close behind him a wounded man with
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Speaker 1: a leg swathed about, set with an expressionless face, and
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Speaker 1: watched the progress of that burning. Behind them, athwart the
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Speaker 1: carrier lay the captured monoplane. I can't see him now,
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Speaker 1: said the second man, in a tone of provocation. The
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Speaker 1: marksmen became foul mouthed and high voiced in his earnest
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Speaker 1: endeavor to make things plain, and suddenly, interrupting him, came
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Speaker 1: a noisy shouting from the sub stage. What's going on now,
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Speaker 1: he said, and raised himself on one arm to survey
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Speaker 1: the stairheads and the central groove of the stage. A
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Speaker 1: number of blue figures were coming up these and swarming
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Speaker 1: across the stage. We don't want all these fools, said
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Speaker 1: his friend. They only crowd up and spoil shots. What
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Speaker 1: are they after, sh they're shouting something. The two men listened.
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Speaker 1: The newcomers had crowded densely about the machine, three ward leaders,
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Speaker 1: conspicuous by their black mantles and badges, clambered into the
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Speaker 1: body and appeared above it. The rank and file flung
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Speaker 1: themselves upon the vans, gripping hold of the edges, until
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Speaker 1: the entire outline of the thing was manned, in some
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Speaker 1: places three deep. One of the marksmen knelt up. They're
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Speaker 1: getting it on the carrier, that's what they're after. He
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Speaker 1: rose to his feet. His friend rose also. What's still good,
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Speaker 1: said his friend. We've got no aeronauts, that's what they're doing. Anyhow.
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Speaker 1: He looked at his rifle, looked at the struggling crowd,
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Speaker 1: and suddenly turned to the wounded man. Mind these, mate,
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Speaker 1: he said, handing his carbine and cartridge belt, and in
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Speaker 1: a moment he was running towards the monoplane. For a
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Speaker 1: quarter of an hour he was lugging, thrusting, shouting and
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Speaker 1: heating shouts, And then the thing was done, and he
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Speaker 1: stood with a multitude of others cheering their own achievement.
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Speaker 1: By this time he knew what. Indeed, every one in
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Speaker 1: the city knew that the Master raw Learner, though he
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Speaker 1: was intended to fly this machine himself, was coming even
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Speaker 1: now to take control of it, would let no no
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Speaker 1: other man attempted. He who takes the greatest danger, he
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Speaker 1: who bears the heaviest burden, That man is king. So
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Speaker 1: the Master was reported to have spoken. And even as
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Speaker 1: this man cheered, and while the beads of sweat still
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Speaker 1: chased one another from the disorder of his hair, he
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Speaker 1: heard the thunder of a great tumult, and in fitful
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Speaker 1: snatches the beat and impulse of the Revolutionary song. He
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Speaker 1: saw through a gap in the people, that a thick
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Speaker 1: stream of heads still poured up the stairway. The Master
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Speaker 1: is coming, shouted voices. The Master is coming, and the
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Speaker 1: crowd about him grew denser and denser. He began to
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Speaker 1: thrust himself towards the central groove. The Master is coming,
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Speaker 1: the sleeper, the Master God, and the Master roared the voices,
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Speaker 1: And suddenly, quite close to him were the black uniforms
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Speaker 1: of the Revolutionary Guard. And for the first and last
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Speaker 1: time in his life he saw Graham saw him quite nearly,
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Speaker 1: a tall, dark man in a flowing black robe. He
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Speaker 1: was with a white, resolute face and eyes fixed steadfastly
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Speaker 1: before him, a man, for all the little things about him,
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Speaker 1: had neither ears nor eyes nor thoughts for all his days.
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Speaker 1: That man remembered the passing of Graham's bloodless face. In
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Speaker 1: a moment, it had gone, and he was fighting in
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Speaker 1: the swaying crowd, a lad weeping with terror thrust against him,
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Speaker 1: pressing towards the stairways, yelling clear for the start, you fools.
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Speaker 1: The bell that cleared the flying stage became a loud,
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Speaker 1: unmelodious clanging. With that clanging in his ears, Graham drew
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Speaker 1: near the monoplane, marched into the shadow of its tilting wing.
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Speaker 1: He became aware that a number of people about him
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Speaker 1: were offering to accompany him, and wave their offers aside.
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Speaker 1: He wanted to think how one started the engine. The
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Speaker 1: bell clanged faster and faster, and the feet of the
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Speaker 1: retreating people roared faster and louder. The man in yellow
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Speaker 1: was assisting him to mount through the ribs of the body.
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Speaker 1: He clambered into the aeronaut's place, fixing himself very carefully
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Speaker 1: and deliberately. What was it? The man in yellow was
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Speaker 1: pointing to two small flying machines driving upward in the
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Speaker 1: southern sky. No doubt they were looking for the coming
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Speaker 1: aeroplanes that presently the thing to do now was to start.
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Speaker 1: Things were being shouted at him, questions, warnings. They bothered him.
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Speaker 1: He wanted to think about the machine, to recall every
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Speaker 1: item of his previous experience. He waved the people from him,
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Speaker 1: saw the man in yellow dropping off through the ribs,
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Speaker 1: saw the crowd cleft down the line of the girders
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Speaker 1: by his gesture. For a moment he was motionless, staring
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Speaker 1: at the levers, the wheel by which the engine shifted,
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Speaker 1: and all the delicate appliances of which he knew so little.
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Speaker 1: His eye caught a spirit level with the bubble towards him,
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Speaker 1: and he remembered something. Spent a dozen seconds in swinging
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Speaker 1: the engine forward until the bubble floated in the center
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Speaker 1: of the tube. He noted that the people were not shouting,
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Speaker 1: knew they watched his deliberations. A bullet smashed on the
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Speaker 1: bar above his head. Who fired? Was the line clear
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Speaker 1: of people? He stood up to sea and sat down again.
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Speaker 1: In another second, the propeller was spinning and he was
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Speaker 1: rushing down the guides. He gripped the wheel and swung
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Speaker 1: the engine back to lift the stem. Then it was
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Speaker 1: the people shouted. In a moment he was throbbing with
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Speaker 1: the quiver of the engine, and the shouts dwindled swiftly
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Speaker 1: behind rushed down to silence. The wind whistled over the
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Speaker 1: edges of the screen, and the world sank away from
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Speaker 1: him very swiftly. Throb throb throb throb throb throb. Up,
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Speaker 1: he drove. He fancied himself, free of all excitement, felt
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Speaker 1: cool and deliberate. He lifted the stem still more, opened
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Speaker 1: one valve on his left wing, and swept round and up.
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Speaker 1: He looked down with a steady head and up. One
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Speaker 1: of the ostrogeite monoplanes was driving across his course, so
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Speaker 1: that he drove obliquely towards it and was passed below
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Speaker 1: it at a steep angle. Its little aeronauts were peering
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Speaker 1: down at him. What did they mean to do? His
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Speaker 1: mind became action. One he saw held a weapon pointing,
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Speaker 1: seemed prepared to fire. What did they think he meant
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Speaker 1: to do? In a moment, he understood their tactics, and
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Speaker 1: his resolution was taken. His momentary lethargy was passed. He
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Speaker 1: opened two more valves to his left, swung round and
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Speaker 1: on to this hostile machine, closed his valves and shot
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Speaker 1: straight at it stem and wind screens shielding him from
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Speaker 1: the shot. They tilted a little as if to clear him.
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Speaker 1: He flung up his stem. Throb, pause, throb, throb, He
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Speaker 1: set his teeth, his face into an involuntary grimace, and crash.
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Speaker 1: He struck it. He struck upward beneath the nearer wing,
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Speaker 1: very slowly. The wing of his antagonist seemed to broaden,
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Speaker 1: as that the impetus of his blow turned it up.
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Speaker 1: He saw the full breadth of it, and then it
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Speaker 1: slid downward out of his sight. He felt his stem
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Speaker 1: going down. His hands tightened on the levers, whirled and
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Speaker 1: ran the engine back. He felt the jerk of a clearance.
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Speaker 1: The nose of the machine jerk upwards steeply, and for
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Speaker 1: a moment he seemed to be lying on his back.
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Speaker 1: The machine was reeling and staggering. It seemed to be
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Speaker 1: dancing on its screw. He made a huge effort, hung
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Speaker 1: for a moment on the levers, and slowly the engine
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Speaker 1: came forward again. He was driving upward, but no longer
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Speaker 1: so steeply. He gasped for a moment and flung himself
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Speaker 1: at the levers again. The wind whistled about him. One
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Speaker 1: further effort, and he was almost level he could breathe.
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Speaker 1: He turned his head for the first time to see
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Speaker 1: what had become of his antagonist, turned back to the
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Speaker 1: levers for a moment, and looked again. For a moment
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Speaker 1: he could have believed they were annihilated, And then he
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Speaker 1: saw between the two stages to the east was a chasm,
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Speaker 1: and down this something a slender edge, fell swiftly and
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Speaker 1: vanished as a sixpence falls down a crack. At first
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Speaker 1: he did not understand, and then a wild joy possessed him.
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Speaker 1: He shouted at the top of his voice in an
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Speaker 1: articulate shout, and drove higher and higher up the sky. Throb, throb, throb, paused, throb, throb, throb.
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Speaker 1: Where was the other he thought they too As he
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Speaker 1: looked round the empty heavens, he had a momentary fear
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Speaker 1: that this second machine had risen above him, and then
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Speaker 1: he saw it alighting on the Norwood stage. They had
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Speaker 1: meant shooting to risk being raned headlong two thousand feet
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Speaker 1: in the air was beyond their latter day courage. For
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Speaker 1: a little while, he circled, then swooped on a steep
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Speaker 1: descent towards the westward stage throb throb throb throb throb throb.
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Speaker 1: The twilight was creeping on apace. The smoke from the
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Speaker 1: street of stage that had been so dense and dark,
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Speaker 1: was now a pillar of fire, and all the lace
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Speaker 1: curves of the moving ways and the translucent roofs and
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Speaker 1: domes in the chasms between the buildings were glowing softly,
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Speaker 1: now lit by the tempered radiance of the electric light
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Speaker 1: that the glare of the day overpowered. The three efficient
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Speaker 1: stages at the Ostrogites held for Wimbledon Park was useless
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Speaker 1: because of the fire from Roehampton and Streatam was a
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Speaker 1: furnace were glowing with guide lights for the coming aeroplanes.
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Speaker 1: As he swept over the Roehampton stage, he saw the
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Speaker 1: dark masses of the people thereon he heard a clap
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Speaker 1: of frantic cheering, heard a bullet from the Wimbledon Park
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Speaker 1: stage tweet through the air, and went beating up above
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Speaker 1: the Surrey waste. He felt a breath of wind from
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Speaker 1: the southwest and lifted as westward wing as he had
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Speaker 1: learned to do, and so drove upward, healing into the
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Speaker 1: rare swift upper air were were were up. He drove
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Speaker 1: and up to that pulsing rhythm, until the country beneath
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Speaker 1: was blue and indistinct, and London spread like a little
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Speaker 1: map traced in light, like the mere model of the city.
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Speaker 1: Near the brim of the horizon, the southwest was a
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Speaker 1: sky of sapphire over the shadowy rim of the world.
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Speaker 1: And ever as he drove upward, the multitude of stars increased,
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Speaker 1: and behold in the southward, low down and glittering swiftly near,
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Speaker 1: with two patches of nebulous light, and then two more,
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Speaker 1: and then a glow of swiftly driving shapes. Presently he
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Speaker 1: could count them. There were four and twenty. The first
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Speaker 1: fleet of aeroplanes had come beyond appeared yet a greater glow.
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Speaker 1: He swept round in a half circle, staring at this
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Speaker 1: advancing fleet. It flew in a wedge like shape, a
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Speaker 1: triangular flight of gigantic, phosphorescent shapes, sweeping nearer through the
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Speaker 1: lower air. He made a swift calculation of their pace
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Speaker 1: and spun the little wheel that brought the engine forward.
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Speaker 1: He touched a lever, and the throbbing effort of the
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Speaker 1: engine ceased. He began to fall fell swifter and swifter.
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Speaker 1: He aimed at the apex of the wedge. He dropped
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Speaker 1: like a stone through the whistling air. It seemed scarce
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Speaker 1: a second from that soaring moment before he struck the
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Speaker 1: foremost aeroplane. No man of all that black multitude saw
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Speaker 1: the coming of his fate. No man among them dreamt
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Speaker 1: of the hawk that struck downward upon them out of
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Speaker 1: the sky. Those who were not limp in the agonies
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Speaker 1: of air sickness were craning their black necks and staring
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Speaker 1: to see the filmy city that was rising out of
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Speaker 1: the haze, a rich and splendid city to which massa
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Speaker 1: boss had brought their obedient muscles. Bright teeth gleamed, and
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Speaker 1: the glossy faces shone. They had heard of Paris. They
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Speaker 1: knew they were to have lordly times among the poor
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Speaker 1: white trash. Suddenly Graham hit them. He had aimed at
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Speaker 1: the body of the aeroplane, but at the very last
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Speaker 1: instant a better idea had flashed into his mind. He
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Speaker 1: twisted about and struck near the edge of the starboard
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Speaker 1: wing with all his accumulated weight. He was jerked back.
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Speaker 1: As he struck. His prow went gliding across its smooth
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Speaker 1: expanse towards the rim. He felt the forward rush of
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Speaker 1: the huge fabric sweeping him in his monoplane along with it,
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Speaker 1: and for a moment the seamed an age. He could
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Speaker 1: not tell what was happening. He heard a thousand throats yelling,
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Speaker 1: and perceived that his machine was balanced on the edge
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Speaker 1: of the gigantic float and driving down down. Glanced over
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Speaker 1: his shoulder and saw the backbone of the aeroplane and
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Speaker 1: the opposite float swaying up. He had a vision through
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Speaker 1: the ribs of the sliding chairs, staring faces and hands
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Speaker 1: clutching at the tilting guide bars. The fenestrations in the
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Speaker 1: further float flashed upon as the aeronaut tried the rider beyond,
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Speaker 1: and he saw a second aeroplane leaping steeply to escape
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Speaker 1: the whirl of its healing fellow. The broad area of
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Speaker 1: swaying wings seemed to jerk upward. He felt he had dropped,
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Speaker 1: clear that the monstrous fabric clean up turn hung like
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Speaker 1: a sloping wall above him. He did not clearly understand
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Speaker 1: that he had struck the side float of the aeroplane
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Speaker 1: and slipped off, but he perceived that he was flying
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Speaker 1: free on the down glide and rapidly nearing earth. What
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Speaker 1: had he done? His heart throbbed like a noisy engine
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Speaker 1: in his throat, and for a perilous instant he could
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Speaker 1: not move his levers because of the paralysis of his hands.
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Speaker 1: He wrenched the levers to throw his engine back, fought
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Speaker 1: for two seconds against the weight of it, felt himself riding,
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Speaker 1: driving horizontally, set the engine beating again. He looked upward
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Speaker 1: and saw two aeroplanes glide shouting far overhead. Looked back
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Speaker 1: and saw the main body of the fleet opening out
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Speaker 1: and rushing upward and outward. Saw the one he had
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Speaker 1: struck fall edgewise on and strike like a giant knife
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Speaker 1: blade along the wind wheels below it. He put down
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Speaker 1: his stern and looked again. He drove up, heedless of
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Speaker 1: his direction. As he watched, he saw the wind vanes give,
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Speaker 1: saw the huge fabric strike the earth, saw its downward
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Speaker 1: vanes crumbled with the weight of its descent, and then
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Speaker 1: the whole mass turned over and smashed upside down upon
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Speaker 1: the sloping wheels. Then from the heaving wreckage, a thin
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Speaker 1: tongue of white fire looked up towards the zenith. He
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Speaker 1: was aware of a huge mass flying through the air
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Speaker 1: towards him, and turned upwards just in time to escape
13:16
Speaker 1: the charge. If it was a charge of a second aeroplane,
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Speaker 1: it whirled by below, sucked him down a fathom, and
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Speaker 1: nearly turned him over in the gust of its close passage.
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Speaker 1: He became aware of three others rushing towards him, aware
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Speaker 1: of the urgent necessity of beating above them. Aeroplanes were
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Speaker 1: all about him, circling wildly to avoid him, as it
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Speaker 1: seemed they drove past him above below, eastward and westward.
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Speaker 1: Far away to the westward was the sound of a collision,
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Speaker 1: and two falling flares. Far away to the southward, a
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Speaker 1: second squadron was coming steadily. He beat upward presently. All
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Speaker 1: the aeroplanes were below him, but for a moment he
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Speaker 1: doubted the height he had of them, and did not
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Speaker 1: swoop again. And then he came down upon a second victim,
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Speaker 1: and all its load of soldiers saw him coming. The
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Speaker 1: big machine heeled and swayed as the fear mad men
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Speaker 1: scrambled to the stern for their weapons. A score of
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Speaker 1: bullets sung through the air, and there flashed a star
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Speaker 1: in the thick glass windshield that protected him. The aeroplane
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Speaker 1: slowed and dropped to foil his stroke, and dropped too low.
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Speaker 1: Just in time. He saw the wind wheels of Bromley
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Speaker 1: Hill rushing up towards him, and spun about and up.
14:17
Speaker 1: As the aeroplane he had chased crashed among them, all
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Speaker 1: its voices wove into a felt of yelling. The great
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Speaker 1: fabric seemed to be standing on end for a second
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Speaker 1: among the healing and splintering vans, and then it flew
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Speaker 1: to pieces. Huge splinters came flying through the air. Its
14:30
Speaker 1: engines burst like shells. A hot rush of flames shot
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Speaker 1: overhead into the darkling sky. Two. He cried with a
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Speaker 1: bomb from overhead, bursting as it fell and forthwith he
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Speaker 1: was beating up again. A glorious exhilaration possessed him, Now
14:43
Speaker 1: a giant activity, his troubles about humanity, about his inadequacy,
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Speaker 1: were gone. Forever. He was a man in battle, rejoicing
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Speaker 1: in his power. Aeroplanes seemed radiating from him in every direction,
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Speaker 1: intent only on avoiding him. The yelling of their packed
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Speaker 1: passengers came in short gust as they swept by. He
14:59
Speaker 1: chose as third quarry, struck hastily and did but turn
15:02
Speaker 1: it on edge, it escaped him to smash against the
15:05
Speaker 1: tall cliff of London Wall. Flying from that impact, he
15:08
Speaker 1: skimmed the darkling ground so nearly he could see a
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Speaker 1: frightened rabbit bolting up a slope. He jerked up steeply
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Speaker 1: and found himself driving over South London, with the air
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Speaker 1: about him vacant. To the right of him, a wild
15:18
Speaker 1: ride of signal rockets from the Ostrogites banged tumultuously in
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Speaker 1: the sky. To the south, the wreckage of half a
15:24
Speaker 1: dozen air ships flamed, and east and west and north
15:27
Speaker 1: they fled before him. They drove away to the east
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Speaker 1: and north and went about in the south, for they
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Speaker 1: could not pause in the air in their present confusion.
15:35
Speaker 1: Any attempt at evolution would amit disastrous collisions. He passed
15:38
Speaker 1: two hundred feet or so above the Roehampton stage. It
15:41
Speaker 1: was black with people and noisy with their frantic shouting.
15:44
Speaker 1: But why was the Wimbledon Park stage black and cheering? Two?
15:48
Speaker 1: The smoke and flame of Stretom now hid the three
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Speaker 1: further stages. He curved about and rows to see them
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Speaker 1: in the northern quarters. First came the square masses of
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Speaker 1: Shooters Hill in the sight from behind the smoke lit
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Speaker 1: orly with the aeroplane that had landed and its disembarking negroes.
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Speaker 1: Then came Black Heath, and then under the corner of
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Speaker 1: the Reek, the Northwood stage. On black Heath, no aeroplane
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Speaker 1: had landed, Norwood was covered by a swarm of little
16:13
Speaker 1: figures running to and fro in a passionate confusion. Why
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Speaker 1: abruptly he understood the stubborn defense of the flying stages
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Speaker 1: was over. The people were pouring into the underways of
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Speaker 1: these last strongholds of Ostrogos's usurpation. And then, from far away,
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Speaker 1: on the northern border of the city, full of glorious
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Speaker 1: import to them, came a sound, a signal, a note
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Speaker 1: of triumph, the leaden thud of a gun. His lips
16:36
Speaker 1: fell apart, his face was disturbed with emotion. He drew
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Speaker 1: an immense breath. They win. He shouted to the empty
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Speaker 1: air the people, when the sound of a second gun
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Speaker 1: came like an answer, And then he saw the monoplane
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Speaker 1: on Blackheath was running down its guides to launch. It
16:52
Speaker 1: lifted clean and rose. It shot up into the air,
16:55
Speaker 1: driving straight southward and away from him. In an instant
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Speaker 1: it came to him. What this meant? It must needs
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Speaker 1: be Ostrog in flight. He shouted and dropped towards it.
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Speaker 1: He had the momentum of his elevation and fell slanting
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Speaker 1: down the air, and very swiftly. It rose steeply at
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Speaker 1: his approach. He allowed for its velocity and drove straight
17:12
Speaker 1: upon it. It suddenly became a mere flat edge, and
17:15
Speaker 1: behold he was past it, and driving headlong down with
17:18
Speaker 1: all the force of his futile blow. He was furiously angry.
17:22
Speaker 1: He reeled the engine back along its shaft and went
17:24
Speaker 1: circling up. He saw Ostrog's machine beating up a spiral
17:28
Speaker 1: before him. He rose straight towards it, one above it.
17:31
Speaker 1: By virtue of the impetus of his swoop, and by
17:32
Speaker 1: the advantage and weight of a man, he dropped headlong,
17:36
Speaker 1: dropped and missed again. As he rushed past, he saw
17:39
Speaker 1: the face of Ostrog's air, not confident and cool, and
17:42
Speaker 1: in Ostrog's attitude a wincing resolution. Ostrog was looking steadfastly
17:46
Speaker 1: away from him to the south. He realized with a
17:49
Speaker 1: gleam of wrath, how bungling his flight must be. Below
17:52
Speaker 1: he saw the Croydon Hills. He jerked upward, and once
17:55
Speaker 1: more he gained on his enemy. He glanced over his shoulder,
17:58
Speaker 1: and his attention was arrested. The eastward stage, the one
18:01
Speaker 1: on Shooter's Hill, appeared to lift a flash, changing to
18:05
Speaker 1: a tall gray shape. A cow figure of smoke and
18:07
Speaker 1: dust jerked into the air. For a moment, this cow
18:10
Speaker 1: figure stood motionless, dropping huge masses of metal from its shoulders,
18:14
Speaker 1: and then it began to uncoil a dense head of smoke.
18:17
Speaker 1: The people had blown it up aeroplane and all as
18:20
Speaker 1: suddenly a second flash in gray shape sprang up from
18:23
Speaker 1: the Norwood stage, and even as he stared at this,
18:26
Speaker 1: came a dead report, and the air wave of the
18:28
Speaker 1: first explosion struck him. He was flung up and sideways.
18:32
Speaker 1: For a moment, his monoplane fell nearly edgewise with her
18:35
Speaker 1: nose down, and seemed to hesitate whether to overset altogether.
18:38
Speaker 1: He stood on his windshield, wrenching the wheel that swayed
18:41
Speaker 1: up over his head, and then the shock of the
18:43
Speaker 1: second explosion took his machine sideways. He found himself clinging
18:47
Speaker 1: to one of the ribs of his machine, and the
18:49
Speaker 1: air was blowing past him and upward. He seemed to
18:52
Speaker 1: be hanging quite still in the air, with the wind
18:54
Speaker 1: blowing past him. It occurred to him that he was falling.
18:57
Speaker 1: Then he was sure that he was falling. He could
19:00
Speaker 1: not look down. He found himself recapitulating with incredible swiftness
19:04
Speaker 1: all that had happened since his awakening, the days of doubt,
19:07
Speaker 1: the days of empire, and at last, the tumultuous discovery
19:10
Speaker 1: of Ostrog's calculated treachery. The vision had a quality of
19:14
Speaker 1: utter unreality. Who was he? Why was he holding so
19:17
Speaker 1: tightly with his hands? Why could he not let go?
19:21
Speaker 1: In such a fall as this? Countless dreams have ended.
19:24
Speaker 1: But in a moment he would wake. His thoughts ran
19:26
Speaker 1: swifter and swifter. He wondered if he should see Helen again.
19:30
Speaker 1: It seemed so unreasonable that he should not see her again.
19:33
Speaker 1: It must be a dream. Yet surely he would meet her.
19:37
Speaker 1: She at least was real. She was real. He would
19:40
Speaker 1: wake and meet her. Although he could not look at it.
19:44
Speaker 1: He was suddenly aware that the earth was very near
19:47
Speaker 1: the end. End of chapter twenty five, end of The
19:54
Speaker 1: Sleeper Awakes by H. G. Wells, Recorded by James Christopher
19:59
Speaker 1: j X Christopher at Yahoo dot com in Phoenix, Arizona,
20:03
Speaker 1: September two thousand and eight,