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Men Like Gods Book 2 Chapter 2 - The Castle on the Crag · The H. G. Wells Library

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Speaker 1: Section ten of Men Like Gods. This is a LibriVox recording.
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Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Men
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Speaker 1: Like Gods by H. G. Wells, Book two, Chapter two,
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Speaker 1: The Castle on the Crag, Section one. The quarantine place
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Speaker 1: to which the Earthlings were taken must have been att
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Speaker 1: a very considerable distance from the place of the conference,
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Speaker 1: because they were nearly six hours upon their journey, and
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Speaker 1: all the time they were flying high and very swiftly.
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Speaker 1: They were all together in one flying ship, was roomy
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Speaker 1: and comfortable, and could have felt preps four times as
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Speaker 1: many passengers. They were accompanied by about thirty utopians in
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Speaker 1: gas masks, among whom were two women. The aviators wore
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Speaker 1: dresses of a white, fleecy substance that aroused the interest
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Speaker 1: and envy of both Miss Gray and Lady Stella. The
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Speaker 1: flying ship passed down the valley and over the great plain,
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Speaker 1: and across the narrow sea and another land with a
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Speaker 1: rocky coast and dense forests, and across a great space
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Speaker 1: of empty sea. There was scarcely any shipping to be
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Speaker 1: seen upon the sea at all. It seemed to mister
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Speaker 1: Barnstaple that no earthly ocean would be so untraveled. Only
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Speaker 1: once or twice did he see very big, drifting vessels,
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Speaker 1: quite unlike any earthly ships, huge rafts or platforms, they
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Speaker 1: seemed to be rather than ships. And once or twice
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Speaker 1: he saw what was evidently a cargoble, one with rigged
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Speaker 1: masts and sails, and the air was hardly more frequented.
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Speaker 1: After he was out of sight of land, he saw
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Speaker 1: only three aeroplanes until the final landfall. They crossed a
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Speaker 1: rather thickly inhabited, very delightful looking coastal belt, and came
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Speaker 1: over what was evidently a rainless desert country given over
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Speaker 1: to mine into vast engineering operations. Far away were very high,
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Speaker 1: snowy mountains, but the aeroplane descended before it came to these.
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Speaker 1: For a time the earthlings were flying over enormous heaps
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Speaker 1: of slaggy accumulations, great mountains of them that seemed to
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Speaker 1: be derived from a huge well like excavation that went
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Speaker 1: down into the earth to an unknown depth. A tremendous
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Speaker 1: thunder of machinery came out of this pit, and much smoked.
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Speaker 1: Here there were crowds of workers, and they seemed to
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Speaker 1: be living in camps among the debris. Evidently the workers
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Speaker 1: came to this place merely for spells of work. There
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Speaker 1: were no signs of homes. The aeroplane of the Earthlings
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Speaker 1: skirted this region and flew on over a rocky and
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Speaker 1: almost treeless desert, deeply cut by steep gorgees of the
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Speaker 1: canyon type. Few people were to be seen, but there
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Speaker 1: were abundant signs of engineering activity. Every torrent, every cataract
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Speaker 1: was working. A turbine and great cables followed the cliffs
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Speaker 1: of the gorges and were carried across the desert places.
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Speaker 1: In the wider places of the gorges there were pine
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Speaker 1: woods and a fairly abundant vegetation. The High Crag, which
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Speaker 1: was their destination, stood out and almost completely isolated, headland
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Speaker 1: in the fork between two converged canyons. It towered up
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Speaker 1: to a height of perhaps two thousand feet above the
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Speaker 1: foaming clash of the torrents. Below a great mass of pale,
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Speaker 1: greenish and purple rocks, jagged and buttressed and cleft deeply
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Speaker 1: by joint plains and white crystalline veanes. The gorge on
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Speaker 1: one side of it was much steeper than that on
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Speaker 1: the other was so overhung, indeed as to be darkened
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Speaker 1: like a tunnel. And here, within a hundred feet or
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Speaker 1: so of the brow, a slender metallic bridge had been
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Speaker 1: flung across the gulf. Some yards above it were projections
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Speaker 1: that might have been the remains of an earlier bridge
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Speaker 1: of stone. Behind the crag fell steeply for some hundreds
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Speaker 1: of feet to a long slope covered with a sparse vegetation,
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Speaker 1: which rose again to the main masses of the mountain,
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Speaker 1: a wall of cliffs with a level top. It was
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Speaker 1: on the slope that the aeroplane came down, alongside of
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Speaker 1: three or four smaller machines. The crag was surmounted by
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Speaker 1: the tall ruins of an ancient castle, within the circle
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Speaker 1: of whose walls clustered a number of buildings, which had
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Speaker 1: recently harbored a group of chemical students. Their researches, which
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Speaker 1: had been upon some question of atomic structure quite incomprehensible
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Speaker 1: to mister Barnstaple, were finished now, and the place had
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Speaker 1: become vacant. Their laboratory was still stocked with apparatus and material,
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Speaker 1: and water and power were supplied to it from higher
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Speaker 1: up the gorge by means of pipes and cables. There
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Speaker 1: was also an abundant store of provisions. A number of
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Speaker 1: utopians were busily adapting the place to its new purpose
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Speaker 1: of isolation and disinfection. When the airthlings arrived, Serpentine appeared
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Speaker 1: in the company of a man in a gas mask
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Speaker 1: whose name was Cedar. This Cedar was a cyitologist, and
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Speaker 1: he was in charge of the arrangements for this improvised
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Speaker 1: setse um. Serpentine explained that he himself had flown to
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Speaker 1: the crag in advance because he understood the equipment of
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Speaker 1: the place and the research that had been going on there,
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Speaker 1: and because his knowledge of the earthlings and his comparative
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Speaker 1: immunity to their infections made him able to act as
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Speaker 1: in intermediary between them and the medical men who would
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Speaker 1: now take charge of their case. He made these explanations
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Speaker 1: to mister Burleigh, Mister Barnstaple, Lord Barralonga, and mister Hunker.
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Speaker 1: The other earthlings stood about in small groups beside the
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Speaker 1: aeroplane from which they had alighted, regarding the castellated summit
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Speaker 1: of the crag, The scrubby bushes of the bleak upland
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Speaker 1: about them, and the towering clefts the adjacent canyons with
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Speaker 1: no very favorable expressions. Mister Catskill had gone apart nearly
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Speaker 1: to the edge of the Great Canyon, was standing with
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Speaker 1: his hands behind his back in an attitude almost napoleonic,
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Speaker 1: Loston thought, gazing down into those endless depths. The roar
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Speaker 1: of the unseen waters below, now loud, now nearly inaudible,
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Speaker 1: quivered in the air. Miss Greetic Gray had suddenly produced
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Speaker 1: a Kodak camera. She had been reminded of its existence
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Speaker 1: when packing for this last journey. She was taking a
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Speaker 1: snapshot of the entire party. Cedar said that he would
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Speaker 1: explain the method of treatment he proposed to follow, and
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Speaker 1: Lord bar alonga called Rubert to bring mister Catskill into
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Speaker 1: the group of Cedar's hearers. Cedar was as explicit and
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Speaker 1: concise as Earthread had been. It was evident. He said
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Speaker 1: that the Earthlings were the hosts of a variety of
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Speaker 1: infectious organisms, which were kept in checking their bodies by
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Speaker 1: immunizing counter substances, but against which the Utopians had no
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Speaker 1: defenses ready, and could hope to secure immunity only after
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Speaker 1: a painful and disastrous epidemic. The only way to prevent
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Speaker 1: this epidemic devastating their whole planet, indeed, was firstly to
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Speaker 1: gather together and cure all the cases affected, which was
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Speaker 1: being done by converting the conference park into a big hospital,
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Speaker 1: and next to take the Earthings in hand and isolate
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Speaker 1: them absolutely from the Utopians until they could be cleaned
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Speaker 1: of their infections. It was, he confessed, an inhospitable thing
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Speaker 1: to do to the Earthlings, but it seemed the only
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Speaker 1: possible thing to do to bring them into this peculiarly
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Speaker 1: high and dry desert air and there to devise methods
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Speaker 1: for their complete physical cleansing. If that was possible, it
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Speaker 1: would be done, and then the Earthlings would again be
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Speaker 1: free to go and come as they pleased in Utopia.
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Speaker 1: But suppose it is not possible, said mister Catskill abruptly.
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Speaker 1: I think it will be. But if you fail, Satar
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Speaker 1: smiled at Serpentine. Physical research is taking up the work
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Speaker 1: in which Arten and Green Lake were foremost, and it
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Speaker 1: will not be long before we are able to repeat
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Speaker 1: their experiment, and then to reverse with us as your
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Speaker 1: raw material. Not until we are fairly sure of a
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Speaker 1: safe landing for you. You mean, said mister Mush, who
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Speaker 1: adjoined the circle about Cedar and Serpentine. That you are
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Speaker 1: going to send us back if we cannot keep you,
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Speaker 1: said Cesar, smiling. Delightful prospect, said mister Mush, unpleasantly to
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Speaker 1: be shot across space in a gun. Experimentally, may I
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Speaker 1: ask him, the voice of Father Amberton, May I ask
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Speaker 1: the nature of this treatment of yours, these experiments of
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Speaker 1: which we are to be the guinea pig, so to speak,
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Speaker 1: Is it to be anything in the nature of vaccination injections?
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Speaker 1: Explained mister Barnstaple. I have hardly decided yet, said Cedar.
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Speaker 1: The problem raises questions. This world has forgotten for ages.
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Speaker 1: I must say at once that I am a confirmed
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Speaker 1: anti vaccinationist, said Father Amberton. Absolutely, vaccination is an outrage
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Speaker 1: on nature. By I had any doubts before I came
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Speaker 1: into this world of viteation, I have no doubts now,
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Speaker 1: not a doubt. If God had meant us to have
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Speaker 1: these serums and ferments in our bodies, he would have
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Speaker 1: provided more natural and dignified means of getting them there
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Speaker 1: than a squirt. Cedar did not discuss the point. He
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Speaker 1: went on to further apologies. For a time he must
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Speaker 1: ask the earthlings to keep within certain limits, to confine
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Speaker 1: themselves to the crag and the slopes below it, as
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Speaker 1: far as the mountain cliffs, and further. It was impossible
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Speaker 1: to set young people to attend to them as had
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Speaker 1: hitherto been done. They must cook for themselves and see
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Speaker 1: to themselves. Generally. The appliances were all to be found
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Speaker 1: above upon the crest of the crag, and he in
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Speaker 1: Serpentine would make any explanations that were needful, They would
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Speaker 1: find there was ample provision for them. Then are we
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Speaker 1: to be left alone here, asked mister Catskill, for a time,
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Speaker 1: when we have our problem clearer, we will come again
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Speaker 1: and tell you what we mean to do. Good, said
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Speaker 1: mister Katskill. Good. I wish I hadn't sent my maid
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Speaker 1: by train, said Lady Stella. I have come to my
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Speaker 1: last clean collar, said Monsieur du Pont, with a little
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Speaker 1: humorous grimace. It is no joke this week end with
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Speaker 1: Lord Barolonga. Lord Barolonga turned suddenly to his particular minion.
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Speaker 1: I believe that Ridley has the makings of a very
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Speaker 1: good cook. I don't mind trying my hand, said Ridley.
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Speaker 1: I've done most things, and once I used to look
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Speaker 1: after a steam car. A man who can keep one
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Speaker 1: of those those things in order can do anything, said
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Speaker 1: mister Pank with unusual emotion. I've no objection to being
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Speaker 1: a temporary general utility along of mister Ridley. I began
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Speaker 1: my career in the pantry, and I ain't ashamed to
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Speaker 1: own it. If this gentleman will show us the gadget,
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Speaker 1: said mister Ridley, indicating Serpentine. Exactly, said mister Pank. And
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Speaker 1: if all of us give as little trouble as possible,
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Speaker 1: said miss Greeta bravely, I think we shall be able
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Speaker 1: to matter, said mister Burlye to Cedar, if at first
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Speaker 1: you can spare us a little advice and help. Section two.
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Speaker 1: Cedar and Serpentine remained with the Earthlings upon quarantine Cragg
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Speaker 1: till late in the afternoon. They helped to prepare a
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Speaker 1: supper and set it out in the courtyard of the castle.
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Speaker 1: They'd parted with a promise to return on the morrow,
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Speaker 1: and the Earthlings watched them and their accompanying aeroplanes soar
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Speaker 1: up into the sky. Mister Barnstaple was surprised to find
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Speaker 1: himself distressed at their going. He had a feeling that
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Speaker 1: mischief was brewing amongst his companions, that the withdrawal of
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Speaker 1: these Utopians removed a check upon this mischief. It helped
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Speaker 1: Lady Stella in the preparation of an omelet. He had
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Speaker 1: to carry back a dish in a frying pan to
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Speaker 1: the kitchen after it was served, so that he was
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Speaker 1: the last to seat himself at the supper table. He
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Speaker 1: found the mischief he dreaded wallafoot. Mister Catskill had finished
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Speaker 1: his supper already and was standing with his foot upon
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Speaker 1: a bench, orating to the rest of the company. I
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Speaker 1: ask you, ladies and gentlemen, mister Catskill was saying, I
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Speaker 1: ask you, is not destiny writ large upon this day's adventure.
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Speaker 1: Not for nothing was this place a fortress in ancient times.
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Speaker 1: Here it is ready to be a fortress again, hum
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Speaker 1: a fortress in such an adventure as will make these
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Speaker 1: stories of Cortes and Pizarro pale their ineffectual fires. My
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Speaker 1: dear Rupert, cried, mister Burleigh, what have you got in
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Speaker 1: that head of yours? Now? Mister Catskill waved two fingers dramatically,
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Speaker 1: the conquest of a world. Good God, cried mister Barnstaple.
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Speaker 1: Are you mad as Clive, said mister Catskill, or Sultan
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Speaker 1: Baber when he marched to Panipat. It's a tall proposition,
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Speaker 1: said mister Hunker, who seemed to have had his mind
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Speaker 1: already prepared for these suggestions. But I am inclined to
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Speaker 1: give it a huron. The alternative, so far as I
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Speaker 1: can figure it out, is to be scoured and whitewashed
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Speaker 1: inside and out, and then fired back into our own world,
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Speaker 1: with a chance of hitting something hard on the way.
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Speaker 1: You tell them, mister Catskill, tell them, said Lord bar Alango,
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Speaker 1: who had also been prepared. It's a gamble, I admit,
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Speaker 1: but there are situations where one has to gamble or
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Speaker 1: be gambled with. I'm all for the active voice. It's
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Speaker 1: a gamble, certainly, said mister Catskill. But upon this narrow peninsula,
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Speaker 1: upon this square mile or so of territory, the fate,
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Speaker 1: Sir of two universes, awaits decision. This is no time
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Speaker 1: for the faint heart and the paralyzing touch of discretion.
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Speaker 1: Plant swiftly, act, swiftly. This is simply thrilling, cried miss
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Speaker 1: greeta Gray, clasping her hands about her knees and smiling
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Speaker 1: radiantly at mister mush. These people, mister Barnstaple interrupted, are
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Speaker 1: three thousand years ahead of us. We are like a
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Speaker 1: handful of hottentots in a showman's van at Earl's court,
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Speaker 1: planning the conquest of London. Mister cat Skill, hands on
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Speaker 1: hips turned with extraordinary good humor upon mister Barnstaple, three
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Speaker 1: thousand years away from us. Yes, three thousand years ahead
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Speaker 1: of us. No, that is where you and I join issue.
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Speaker 1: You say these people are superman, hm, superman. I say
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Speaker 1: they are degenerate men. Let me call your attention to
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Speaker 1: my reasons for this belief. In spite of their beauty,
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Speaker 1: they're very considerable material and intellectual achievements and so forth,
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Speaker 1: ideal people, I admit. What then my case is that
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Speaker 1: they have reached a summit and passed it. That they
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Speaker 1: are going on by inertia, and that they have lost
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Speaker 1: the power not only of resistance to disease that weakness
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Speaker 1: we shall develop more and more, but also of meeting
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Speaker 1: strange and distressing emergencies. They are gentle altogether, too gentle.
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Speaker 1: They are ineffectual. They do not know what to do.
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Speaker 1: Here is father Amerton. He disturbed that first meeting in
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Speaker 1: the most insulting way. You know you did, mister Amerton.
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Speaker 1: I'm not blaming you. You are morally sensitive, and there
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Speaker 1: were things to outrage you. He was threatened as a
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Speaker 1: little boy is threatened by a feeble old woman. Something
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Speaker 1: was to be done to him? Has anything been done
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Speaker 1: to him? A man and a woman came and talked
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Speaker 1: to me, said Father Amerton. And what did you do?
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Speaker 1: Simply confuted them, lifted up my voice and confuted them.
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Speaker 1: What did they say? What could they say? We all
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Speaker 1: thought tremendous things were going to be done to poor
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Speaker 1: father Amerton. Well, and not take a graver case. Our
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Speaker 1: friend Lord bar Alonga ran him up with his car
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Speaker 1: and killed a man. Hmm. Even at home, they'd have
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Speaker 1: endorsed your license, you know, and find you're a man.
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Speaker 1: But here the thing has scarcely been mentioned since. Why
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Speaker 1: because they do not know what to say about it
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Speaker 1: or do about it. And now they have put us
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Speaker 1: here and begged us to be good until they are
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Speaker 1: ready to come and try experiments upon and inject things
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Speaker 1: into us. And I don't know what and if we submit, sir,
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Speaker 1: If we submit, we lose one of our greatest powers
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Speaker 1: over these people, our power of at once giving and
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Speaker 1: resisting melees. And in addition, I know not what powers
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Speaker 1: of initiative that may very well be associated with that
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Speaker 1: physiological toughness of which we are to be robbed. They
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Speaker 1: may trifle with our ductless clans, but SIUs tells us
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Speaker 1: that these very glands secrete our personalities. Mentally, morally, we
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Speaker 1: shall be dissolved if we submit, sir. If we submit,
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Speaker 1: But suppose we do not submit, what then, well, said
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Speaker 1: Lord Bara Langa, what then they will not know what
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Speaker 1: to do. Do not be deceived by any outward show
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Speaker 1: of beauty and prosperity. These people are living as the
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Speaker 1: ancient Peruvians were living in the time of Pizarro, in
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Speaker 1: an innervating dream. They have drunken the debilitating draft of socialism.
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Speaker 1: As in ancient Peru. There is no health, nor power
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Speaker 1: or will left in them any more. A handful of
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Speaker 1: resolute men and women who can dare, may not only dare,
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Speaker 1: but triumph in the face of such a world. And
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Speaker 1: thus it is I lay my plans before you. You
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Speaker 1: mean to jump this entire utopian planet, said mister Hunker.
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Speaker 1: Big orders, said Lord Barilanga, I mean, sir, to assert
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Speaker 1: the rights of a more vigorous form of social life
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Speaker 1: over a less vigorous form of social life. Here we
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Speaker 1: are in a fortress. It is a real fortress and
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Speaker 1: quite defensible. While you others have been unpacking, Barolanga and
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Speaker 1: Hunker and I have been seeing to that there is
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Speaker 1: a sheltered well, so that if need arises, we can
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Speaker 1: get water from the canyon below. The rock is excavated
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Speaker 1: into chambers and shelters. The wall on the land side
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Speaker 1: is sound and high glazed, so that it cannot be scaled.
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Speaker 1: This great archway can easily be barricaded when the need arises.
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Speaker 1: Steps go down through the rock to that little bridge,
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Speaker 1: which can, if necessary, be cut away. We have not
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Speaker 1: yet explored all the excavations in mister Hunker. We have
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Speaker 1: a chemist. He was a chemist before the movie picture
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Speaker 1: claimed him as its master. And he says there is
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Speaker 1: ample material in the laboratory for a store of bombs.
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Speaker 1: This party, I can find can muster five revolvers with ammunition.
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Speaker 1: I scarcely dared hope for that. We have food for
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Speaker 1: many days Oh, this is ridiculous, cried mister Barnstaple, standing
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Speaker 1: up and then sitting down again. This is preposterous to
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Speaker 1: turn on these friendly people. But they can blow this
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Speaker 1: little headland the Smithereens whenever they want to. Ah, said
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Speaker 1: mister Catskilen held him with his outstretched finger. We thought
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Speaker 1: of that, but we can take a leaf from the
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Speaker 1: book of Cortes, who in the very center of Mexico
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Speaker 1: held Montezuma as his prisoner and hostage. We too, will
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Speaker 1: have our hostage before we lift a finger. First, our
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Speaker 1: hostage aerial bombs. Is there such a thing in utopia
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Speaker 1: or such an idea? And again we must have our hostage.
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Speaker 1: Somebody of importance, said mister Hunker. Cesar and Serpentine are
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Speaker 1: both important people, said mister Burley in tones of disinterested observation.
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Speaker 1: But surely, sir, you do not countenance the schoolboy's dream
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Speaker 1: of piracy, cried mister Barnstaple. Sincerely shocked schoolboys, cried Father Hamerton,
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Speaker 1: your cabinet minister, a peer and a great entrepreneur, My
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Speaker 1: dear sir, said mister Burley. We are, after all, only
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Speaker 1: in visioning eventualities for the life of me. I do
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Speaker 1: not see why we should not thresh out these possibilities,
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Speaker 1: though I pray to Heaven we may never have to
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Speaker 1: realize them. You were saying, Rupert, we have to establish
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Speaker 1: ourselves here and assert our independence and make ourselves felt
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Speaker 1: by these utopians. Ear ear, said mister Ridley, cordially, one
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Speaker 1: or two. I'd like to make field personally. We have
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Speaker 1: to turn this prison into a capital, into the first
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Speaker 1: foot hold of mankind in this world. It is like
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Speaker 1: a foot thrust into a reluctant door that must never
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Speaker 1: more close upon our race. It is closed, said mister Barnstable.
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Speaker 1: Except by the mercy of these utopians, we shall never
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Speaker 1: see our world again. And even with their mercy, it
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Speaker 1: is doubtful that's been keeping me awake nights, said mister Uncer.
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Speaker 1: It's an idea that must have occurred to all of us,
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Speaker 1: said mister Burleigh. And it's an idea that's so thundering
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Speaker 1: disagreeable that one hasn't cared to talk about it, said
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Speaker 1: Lord Barolonga. I never had it until this moment, said Pink.
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Speaker 1: You don't really mean to say, sir, we can't get back.
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Speaker 1: Things will be as they will be, said mister Burley.
20:41
Speaker 1: That is why I am anxious to hear mister Catskill's ideas.
20:45
Speaker 1: Mister Catskill rested his hands on his hips, and his
20:48
Speaker 1: manner became very solemn. For once, he said, I am
20:52
Speaker 1: in agreement with mister Barnaby. I believe that the chances
20:55
Speaker 1: are against our ever seen the dear cities of our
20:58
Speaker 1: world again? I felt that, said Lady Stella, with white lips.
21:03
Speaker 1: I knew that two days ago. And so behold my
21:06
Speaker 1: week end expand to an eternity, said Monsieur DuPont, And
21:10
Speaker 1: for a long time no one said another word. It's
21:14
Speaker 1: as if Pank said at last, why one might be dead,
21:18
Speaker 1: but I merst be back. Miss Greeta Gay broke out abruptly,
21:22
Speaker 1: as one who sets aside a foolish idea. It's absurd.
21:25
Speaker 1: I have to go on at the Alambre on September
21:28
Speaker 1: the second. It's imperative. We came here quite easily. It's
21:32
Speaker 1: ridiculous to say I can't go back. In the same way,
21:35
Speaker 1: Lord Barolanga regarded her with affectionate malignity. You wait, he said,
21:41
Speaker 1: but immersed she sang, there's such things as impossibilities, even
21:46
Speaker 1: for Miss greeta gray charter a special aeroplane, she said anything.
21:51
Speaker 1: He regarded her with an elfin grin and shook his head.
21:55
Speaker 1: My dear man, she said, you've only seen me in
21:57
Speaker 1: a holiday mood so far. Work iss, my dear girl,
22:02
Speaker 1: that a lambra of yours is about as far from
22:04
Speaker 1: us now as the court of King Nabu chad Nassar.
22:09
Speaker 1: It can't be done, but it merged, she said in
22:12
Speaker 1: her queenly way, and that's all about it. Section three.
22:17
Speaker 1: Mister Barnstable got up from the table and walked apart
22:20
Speaker 1: to where a gap in the castle wall gave upon
22:23
Speaker 1: the darkling wilderness without he sat down there. His eyes
22:28
Speaker 1: went from the little group talking around the supper table,
22:31
Speaker 1: to the sunlit crest of the cliffs crossed the canyon,
22:34
Speaker 1: and to the wild and lonely mountain slopes below the headland.
22:38
Speaker 1: In this world he might have to live out the
22:40
Speaker 1: remainder of his days. In those days might not be
22:43
Speaker 1: very numerous. If mister Catskill had his way, Sydenham and
22:47
Speaker 1: his wife and the boys were indeed as far as
22:50
Speaker 1: the court of King Nabu chad Nassar. He had scarcely
22:54
Speaker 1: given his family a thought. Since he had posted his
22:57
Speaker 1: letter at Victoria, now he felt a queer wine of
23:00
Speaker 1: desire to send them some word or token. If only
23:03
Speaker 1: he could queer that they would never hear from him
23:06
Speaker 1: or of him again. How would they get on without him?
23:10
Speaker 1: Would there be any difficulty about the account at the bank,
23:13
Speaker 1: or about the insurance money? He had always intended to
23:16
Speaker 1: have a joint in several accounts with his wife at
23:19
Speaker 1: the bank, and he never quite liked to do it
23:22
Speaker 1: joint in several thing every man ought to do. His
23:25
Speaker 1: attention came back to mister Catskill, unfolding his plans. We
23:29
Speaker 1: have to make up our minds to what may be prolonged,
23:32
Speaker 1: a very prolonged stay here. Do not let us deceive
23:36
Speaker 1: ourselves upon that score. May last for years, may last
23:39
Speaker 1: for generations. Something struck pink in that I don't hardly see.
23:45
Speaker 1: He said, how that can be generations? I am coming
23:49
Speaker 1: to that, said mister Katskill. Unaptly said mister Penk, and
23:53
Speaker 1: became profoundly restrained and thoughtful, with his eyes on Lady Stella.
23:58
Speaker 1: We have to remain a little alien community in this
24:01
Speaker 1: world until we dominated, as the Romans dominated the Greeks
24:05
Speaker 1: and until we master a science and subdue it to
24:08
Speaker 1: our purpose. That may mean a long struggle, may mean
24:12
Speaker 1: a very long struggle, indeed, And meanwhile, we must maintain
24:15
Speaker 1: ourselves as a community. We must consider ourselves a colony,
24:19
Speaker 1: a garrison, until that day of reunion comes. We must
24:22
Speaker 1: hold our hostages, sir, and not only our hostages, may
24:27
Speaker 1: be necessary for our purpose. And if it is necessary
24:30
Speaker 1: for our purpose, so be it to get in others
24:33
Speaker 1: of these utopians, to catch them young before this so
24:36
Speaker 1: called education of theirs unfits them for our purpose, to
24:40
Speaker 1: train them in the great traditions of our empire, in
24:43
Speaker 1: our race. Mister Hunker seemed on the point of saying something,
24:46
Speaker 1: but refrained. Monsieur Duponte got up sharply from the table
24:51
Speaker 1: walk four paces away, returned and stood still watching. Mister
24:55
Speaker 1: Catskill generation, said mister penk Yes, said, mister Katskill Generations.
25:02
Speaker 1: For here we are strangers, strangers like that other little
25:05
Speaker 1: band of adventurers who established their citadel five and twenty
25:09
Speaker 1: centuries ago upon the capital beside the Russian Tiber. This
25:13
Speaker 1: is our capital, a greater capital of a greater Rome,
25:16
Speaker 1: in a vaster world. And like that band of Roman adventurers,
25:20
Speaker 1: We too may have to reinforce our scanty numbers at
25:23
Speaker 1: the expense of the sapines about us, and take to
25:27
Speaker 1: ourselves servants and helpers and mates. No sacrifice is too
25:31
Speaker 1: great for the high possibility of this adventure. Monsieur DuPont
25:35
Speaker 1: seemed to nerve himself for the sacrifice. Dowly married, injected
25:40
Speaker 1: father Amerton dowly married, said mister Catskill in parentheses. And so, sir,
25:46
Speaker 1: we will hold out here and maintain ourselves, and dominate
25:49
Speaker 1: this desert countryside, and spread our prestige and our influence
25:53
Speaker 1: in our spirit into the inert body of this decadent
25:57
Speaker 1: utopian world, until at last we were able to master
26:00
Speaker 1: the secret that Artin and green Lake were seeking and
26:03
Speaker 1: recover the way back to our own people, opening to
26:06
Speaker 1: the crowded millions of our empire. Section four. Just a moment,
26:11
Speaker 1: said mister Hunker. Just a moment about this empire, exactly,
26:15
Speaker 1: said Monsieur DuPont, recalled abruptly from some rheumatic dadream about
26:20
Speaker 1: your empire. Mister Catskill regarded them thoughtfully and defensively. When
26:25
Speaker 1: I say empire, I mean it in the most general sense, exactly.
26:30
Speaker 1: Snap Monsieur DuPont, I was thinking generally of our Atlantic
26:34
Speaker 1: civilization before, sir, you go on to talk of Anglo
26:38
Speaker 1: Saxon unity in the English speaking race, said Monsieur DuPont,
26:42
Speaker 1: with a rising note of bitterness in his voice. Permit
26:45
Speaker 1: me to remind you, sir, of one very important fact
26:48
Speaker 1: that you seem to be overlooking. The language of Utopia, Sir,
26:52
Speaker 1: is French. I want to remind you of that. I
26:55
Speaker 1: want to recall it to your mind. I will lay
26:57
Speaker 1: no stress here on the sacrifices and martyrdoms that France
27:01
Speaker 1: has endured in the cause of civilization. The voice of
27:05
Speaker 1: mister Burleigh interrupted, A very natural misconception. But if you
27:10
Speaker 1: will pardon the corruption, the language of Utopia is not French,
27:15
Speaker 1: of course, mister Barnstaple reflected. Monsieur du Pont had not
27:19
Speaker 1: heard the explanation of the language difficulty. Permit me, sir,
27:23
Speaker 1: to believe the evidence of my own ears, the Frenchman replied,
27:26
Speaker 1: with dignified politeness. These Utopians, I can assure you, speak
27:31
Speaker 1: French and nothing but French, Very excellent French. It is.
27:35
Speaker 1: They speak no language at all, said mister Burleigh, not
27:38
Speaker 1: even English. Sneered Monsieur Poupont. Not even English, not League
27:44
Speaker 1: of Nations perhaps, but bah, why do I argue they
27:47
Speaker 1: speak French? Not even a Boshe would deny it. It
27:50
Speaker 1: needs an Englishman. A beautiful wrangle, thought mister Barnstaple. There
27:55
Speaker 1: was no Utopian present to undeceive, Monsieur du Pont, and
27:59
Speaker 1: he stuck to his belief magnificently. With a mixture of
28:03
Speaker 1: pity and derision and anger. Mister Barnstaple listened to this
28:06
Speaker 1: little band of lost human beings in the twilight of
28:10
Speaker 1: a vast, strange, possibly inimical world, growing more and more
28:14
Speaker 1: fierce and keen in a dispute over the claims of
28:17
Speaker 1: their three nations to dominate Utopia, claims based entirely upon
28:22
Speaker 1: greeds and misconceptions. Their voices rose to shouts and sank
28:26
Speaker 1: to passionate intensity as their lifelong habits of national egotism
28:31
Speaker 1: reasserted themselves. Mister Hunker, would hear nothing of an empire,
28:35
Speaker 1: Monsieur du Pont, would hear of nothing but the supreme
28:38
Speaker 1: claim of France. Mister Catskill twisted in turn to mister Barnstaple,
28:43
Speaker 1: this conflict of patriotic prepossession seemed like a dog fight
28:48
Speaker 1: on a sinking ship. But at last mister Catskill, persistent
28:52
Speaker 1: and ingenious, made headway against his two antagonists. He stood
28:57
Speaker 1: at the end of the table explaining that he had
28:59
Speaker 1: used the word empire loosely, apologizing for using it, explaining
29:04
Speaker 1: that when he said empire, he had all Western civilization
29:07
Speaker 1: in mind. When I said it, he said, turning to
29:10
Speaker 1: mister Honker, I meant a common brotherhood of understanding. He
29:14
Speaker 1: faced toward Monsieur DuPont. I meant our tribe, an imperishable entant.
29:20
Speaker 1: There are at least no Russians here, said Monsieur du Pont,
29:24
Speaker 1: and no Germans, true, said Lord Barolanga. We start ahead
29:28
Speaker 1: of the hun here, and we can keep ahead. Can
29:31
Speaker 1: I take it? Said mister Hunker, that Japanese are barred.
29:35
Speaker 1: No reason why we shouldn't start clean with a complete
29:38
Speaker 1: color bar reflected Lord bar Langa. This seems to me
29:41
Speaker 1: a white man's world. At the same time, said Monsieur
29:45
Speaker 1: du Pont, coldly and insistently, you will forgive me if
29:49
Speaker 1: I ask you for some clearer definition of our present
29:51
Speaker 1: relationship and for some guarantee, some effective guarantee, that the
29:56
Speaker 1: immense sacrifices France has made and still makes in the
29:59
Speaker 1: cause of civilized life will receive their proper recognition and
30:03
Speaker 1: their due reward. In this adventure, I only ask for justice,
30:07
Speaker 1: said Monsieur du Pont. Section five. Indignation made mister Barnstaple bold.
30:14
Speaker 1: He got down from his perch upon the wall and
30:16
Speaker 1: came up to the table. Are you mad? He said?
30:19
Speaker 1: Or am i? This squabble over flags and countries, in
30:22
Speaker 1: fanciful rights and desserts? It is hopeless folly? Do you
30:26
Speaker 1: not realize even now the position we are in? His
30:29
Speaker 1: breath failed him for a moment, then he resumed. Are
30:32
Speaker 1: you incapable of thinking of human affairs except in terms
30:36
Speaker 1: of flags and fighting, in conquest and robbery? Can you
30:39
Speaker 1: not realize the proportion of things and the quality of
30:42
Speaker 1: this world into which we have fallen? As I have
30:45
Speaker 1: said already, we are like some band of savages in
30:48
Speaker 1: a show at Earl's court plotting the subjugation of London.
30:52
Speaker 1: We are like suppressed cannibals in the hearts of a
30:54
Speaker 1: great city, dreaming of a revival of our ancient and
30:57
Speaker 1: forgotten filthiness. What are chances in this fantastic struggle, mister
31:03
Speaker 1: Ridley spoke reprovingly you are forgetting everything You've just been
31:08
Speaker 1: told everything arf Their population is laid out with flu
31:12
Speaker 1: and measles, and there's no such thing as a elpy
31:15
Speaker 1: fighting will left in all utopia. Precisely said mister Catskill, Well,
31:20
Speaker 1: I suppose you have chances. That makes your scheme the
31:24
Speaker 1: more hopeful. It also makes it the more horrible. Here
31:27
Speaker 1: we are lifted up out of the troubles of our
31:29
Speaker 1: time to a vision, to a reality of civilization such
31:33
Speaker 1: as our own world can only hope to climb to,
31:36
Speaker 1: and scores as centuries. Here is a world at peace, splendid, happy,
31:40
Speaker 1: full of wisdom and hope. If our puny, strength and
31:43
Speaker 1: base cunning can contrive it, we are to shatter at all.
31:47
Speaker 1: We are proposing to wreck a world. I tell you
31:50
Speaker 1: it is not an adventure, it is a crime. It
31:53
Speaker 1: is an abomination. I will have no part in it.
31:56
Speaker 1: I'm against you in this attempt, Father Amerton, and would
32:00
Speaker 1: have spoken, but mister Burleigh arrested him by a gesture.
32:04
Speaker 1: What would you have us do, asked mister Burleigh. Submit
32:08
Speaker 1: to their science, learn what we can for them. In
32:11
Speaker 1: a little while, we may be cured of our inherent poisons,
32:14
Speaker 1: and we may be permitted to return from this outlying
32:18
Speaker 1: desert of mines and turbines and rock to those gardens
32:21
Speaker 1: of habitation we have as yet scarcely seen. There, we
32:26
Speaker 1: too may learn something of civilization. In the end, we
32:29
Speaker 1: may even go back to our own disordered world with knowledge,
32:33
Speaker 1: with hope, and help missionaries of a new order. But
32:37
Speaker 1: why began Father Amerton again. Mister Burleigh took the word
32:41
Speaker 1: Everything you say, he remarked, rests on unproven assumptions. You
32:46
Speaker 1: choose to see this utopia through rose tinted glasses, we others.
32:50
Speaker 1: For it is he counted eleven to one against you
32:53
Speaker 1: see things without such favorable preconceptions. And I may ask, sir,
32:59
Speaker 1: said Father Amberton, him springing to his feet and hitting
33:02
Speaker 1: the table a blow that set all the glasses talking.
33:05
Speaker 1: May I ask who you are to set yourself up
33:08
Speaker 1: as a judge and censor of the common opinion of mankind.
33:12
Speaker 1: For I tell you, sir, that here, in this lonely
33:15
Speaker 1: and wicked and strange world, we, here, we twelve, do
33:18
Speaker 1: represent mankind. We are the advance guard, the pioneers in
33:23
Speaker 1: the new world that God has given us, even as
33:25
Speaker 1: he gave Canaan to Israel has chosen three thousand years ago.
33:29
Speaker 1: Who are you? Exactly, said Pank Who are you? And
33:34
Speaker 1: mister Ridley reinforced him with a shout who the hell
33:37
Speaker 1: are you. Mister Barnstaple had no platform skill to meet
33:42
Speaker 1: so direct an attack. He stood helpless. Astonishingly, Lady Stella
33:47
Speaker 1: came to his rescue. That isn't fair, Father Amerton, she said.
33:51
Speaker 1: Mister Barnstaple, whoever he is, has a perfect right to
33:55
Speaker 1: express his own opinion. And having expressed it, said mister Catskill,
33:59
Speaker 1: who had been walking up and down on the other
34:01
Speaker 1: side of the table, to that on which mister Barnstaple stood,
34:05
Speaker 1: hum having expressed it, to allow us to proceed with
34:09
Speaker 1: the business in hand. I suppose it was inevitable that
34:12
Speaker 1: we should find the conscientious objector in our mist even
34:16
Speaker 1: in utopia the rest of us. I take it very
34:19
Speaker 1: much of one mind about our situation we are, said
34:22
Speaker 1: mister Mush, regarding mister Barnstaple with a malevolent expression. Very well, then,
34:28
Speaker 1: I suppose we must follow the precedents established for such cases.
34:33
Speaker 1: We will not ask mister mister Bastable to share the
34:37
Speaker 1: dangers and the honors of a combatant, will ask him
34:40
Speaker 1: merely to do civilian work of a helpful nature. Mister
34:44
Speaker 1: Barnstaple held up his hand. No, he said, I am
34:47
Speaker 1: not disposed to be helpful. I do not recognize the
34:51
Speaker 1: analogy of the situation to the needs of the Great War.
34:54
Speaker 1: And anyhow, I am entirely opposed to this project, this
34:58
Speaker 1: brigandage of a civilisation. You cannot call me a conscientious
35:02
Speaker 1: objector to fighting, because I do not object to fighting
35:05
Speaker 1: in a just cause. But this adventure of yours is
35:08
Speaker 1: not a just cause. I implore you, mister Burleigh, you who
35:13
Speaker 1: are not merely a politician but a man of culture
35:16
Speaker 1: and a philosopher, to reconsider what it is we are
35:19
Speaker 1: being urged towards, towards acts of violence and mischief from
35:22
Speaker 1: which there will be no drawing back. Mister Barnstaple, said
35:27
Speaker 1: mister Burleigh, with grave dignity and something like a note
35:30
Speaker 1: of reproach in his voice. I have considered, But I
35:34
Speaker 1: think I may venture to say that I am a
35:36
Speaker 1: man of some experience, some traditional experience in human affairs.
35:42
Speaker 1: I may not altogether agree with my friend mister Catskill nay.
35:46
Speaker 1: I will go further and say that in many respects
35:48
Speaker 1: I do not agree with him. If I were the
35:51
Speaker 1: autocrat here, I would say that we have to offer
35:54
Speaker 1: these utopians resistance for our self respect, but not to
35:58
Speaker 1: offer them the violence and aggressive resistance that he contemplates.
36:03
Speaker 1: I think we could be far more subtle, far more elaborate,
36:07
Speaker 1: and far more successful than mister Catskill is likely to be.
36:11
Speaker 1: But that is my own opinion. Neither mister Hunker, nor
36:15
Speaker 1: Lord Barolonga, nor mister mush nor Monsieur DuPont shares it,
36:20
Speaker 1: nor do mister our friends, the UH technical engineers here
36:25
Speaker 1: share it. And what I do perceive to be imperative
36:28
Speaker 1: upon our little band of earthlings lost here in a
36:31
Speaker 1: strange universe is unity of action. Whatever else betied, dissension
36:37
Speaker 1: must not betray us. We must hold together and act
36:40
Speaker 1: together as one body. Discuss it if you will, when
36:43
Speaker 1: there is any time for discussion, but in the end decide.
36:47
Speaker 1: And having decided to abide loyally by the decision upon
36:51
Speaker 1: the need of securing a hostage or two, I have
36:54
Speaker 1: no manner of doubt. Whatever mister Catskill is right, mister
36:58
Speaker 1: Barnstaple was a bad debater. But these Utopians are as
37:02
Speaker 1: human as we are. He said. All that is most
37:05
Speaker 1: sane and civilized in ourselves is with them. Mister Ridley interrupted,
37:10
Speaker 1: in a voice designedly rough. O Lord, he said, we
37:13
Speaker 1: can't go on jawing ere forever. It's sunset. And mister
37:18
Speaker 1: this gentleman, as ads say, and more than is say,
37:22
Speaker 1: we ought to have our places and know what is
37:24
Speaker 1: expected of us before night. May I propose that we
37:28
Speaker 1: elect mister Catskill our captain with full military powers. I
37:33
Speaker 1: second that, said mister Burleigh, with grave humility. Perhaps Monsieur
37:37
Speaker 1: du Pont said, mister Catskill will act with me as
37:40
Speaker 1: associated captain, representing our glorious ally his own great country
37:46
Speaker 1: in the absence of a more worthy representative, acquiesced Monsieur
37:51
Speaker 1: du Pont, And to see that French interests are duly respected.
37:55
Speaker 1: And if mister Hunker would act as my lieutenant, Lord
37:59
Speaker 1: Verolongo will be our quartermaster and father Amberton our chaplain
38:02
Speaker 1: and censor. Mister Burleigh, it goes without saying, will be
38:06
Speaker 1: our civil head. Mister Hunker coughed. He frowned with the
38:10
Speaker 1: expression of one who makes a difficult explanation. I won't
38:14
Speaker 1: be exactly lieutenant, he said, I'll take no official position.
38:18
Speaker 1: I've a sort of distaste for foreign entanglements. I'll be
38:22
Speaker 1: a looker on who helps, But I think you will
38:25
Speaker 1: find that you can count on me, gentlemen, when help
38:27
Speaker 1: is needed. Mister Catskill seated himself at the head of
38:31
Speaker 1: the table and indicated the chair next to his fort.
38:34
Speaker 1: Monsieur de Pont. Miss Greeta Gray seated herself on his
38:38
Speaker 1: other hand, between him and mister Hunker. Mister Burleigh remained
38:43
Speaker 1: in his place, a chair or so from mister Hunker.
38:46
Speaker 1: The rest came and stood round the captain except Lady
38:49
Speaker 1: Stella and mister Barnstaple. Almost ostentatiously, mister Barnstaple turned his
38:54
Speaker 1: back on the new command. Lady Stella, he saw, remained
38:57
Speaker 1: seated far down the table, looking dubiously at the little
39:01
Speaker 1: crowd of people at the end. Then her eyes went
39:03
Speaker 1: to the desolate mountain crest beyond. She shivered violently and
39:07
Speaker 1: stood up. It's going to be very cold here after sunset,
39:10
Speaker 1: she said, with nobody heeding her, I shall go and
39:14
Speaker 1: unpack a rap. She walked slowly to her quarters and
39:17
Speaker 1: did not reappear section six. Mister Barnstaple did not want
39:22
Speaker 1: to seem to listen to this council of war. He
39:25
Speaker 1: walked to the wall of the old castle and up
39:27
Speaker 1: a flight of stone steps and along the rampart to
39:31
Speaker 1: the peak of the headland. Here, the shattering and beating
39:34
Speaker 1: sound of the waters in the two convergent canyon was
39:37
Speaker 1: very loud. It was still a bright upper rim of
39:40
Speaker 1: sunlit rock on the mountain face behind, but all the
39:43
Speaker 1: rest of the world was now in a deepening blue shadow,
39:46
Speaker 1: and a fleecy white mist was gathering in the canyons
39:49
Speaker 1: below and hiding the noisy torrents. It drifted up almost
39:54
Speaker 1: to the level of the little bridge that spanned the
39:56
Speaker 1: narrower canyon, to a railed stepway from the crest of
39:59
Speaker 1: the further side. For the first time since he had
40:03
Speaker 1: arrived in Utopia, mister Barnstaple felt a chill in the
40:06
Speaker 1: air and loneliness like a pane upon the broader of
40:11
Speaker 1: the two meeting canyons. Some kind of engineering work was
40:14
Speaker 1: going on, and periodic flashes lit the drifting mist. Far
40:18
Speaker 1: away over the mountains, a solitary aeroplane very high caught
40:22
Speaker 1: the sun's rays ever and again, and sent down quivering
40:24
Speaker 1: flashes of dazzling gold light, and then, as it wheeled about,
40:28
Speaker 1: vanished again in the deepening blue. He looked down into
40:32
Speaker 1: the great courtyard of the ancient castle below him. The
40:36
Speaker 1: modern buildings in the twilight looked like phantom pavilions amidst
40:40
Speaker 1: the archaic masonry. Someone had brought a light, and Captain
40:44
Speaker 1: Rupert Catskill, the new Cortes, was writing orders while his
40:48
Speaker 1: commando stood about him. The light shone on the face
40:51
Speaker 1: and shoulders and arms of Miss Greeta Gray. She was
40:55
Speaker 1: peering over the Captain's arm to see what he was writing,
40:58
Speaker 1: and as mister Barnstaple looked, he saw her raise her
41:00
Speaker 1: hand suddenly to conceal an involuntary yawn. End of Book two,
41:07
Speaker 1: Chapter two