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Men Like Gods Book 2 Chapter 4 - The End of the Quarantine Crag · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Section twelve of Men Like Gods. This is the 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 four,
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  Speaker 1: The End of Quarantine Crag. Mister Barnstaple awoke slowly and
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  Speaker 1: reluctantly from a dream of a cookery. He was Sawyer,
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  Speaker 1: the celebrated chef of the Reform Club, and he was
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  Speaker 1: inventing and tasting new dishes. But in the pleasant way
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  Speaker 1: of dreamland. He was not only Sawyer, but at the
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  Speaker 1: same time he was a very clever utopian biologist and
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  Speaker 1: also God almighty, so that he could not only make
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  Speaker 1: new dishes, but also make new vegetables and meats to
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  Speaker 1: go into them. He was particularly interested in a new
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  Speaker 1: sort of fowl, the chateaubriand breed of fowls, which was
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  Speaker 1: to combine the rich quality of a very good beast
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  Speaker 1: steak with the size and delicacy of a fowl's breast.
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  Speaker 1: And he wanted to stuff it with a blood of pimento,
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  Speaker 1: onion and mushroom, except that the mushroom wasn't quite the thing,
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  Speaker 1: the mushrooms. He tasted them, indeed just the least little modification,
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  Speaker 1: and into the dream came an assistant cook, several assistant cooks,
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  Speaker 1: all naked as Utopians, bearing fowls from the pantry and
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  Speaker 1: saying that they had not kept they had gone high,
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  Speaker 1: and that they were going higher. In order to illustrate
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  Speaker 1: this idea of their going higher, these assistant cooks lifted
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  Speaker 1: the fowls above their heads and then began to climb
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  Speaker 1: the walls of the kitchen, which were rocky and for
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  Speaker 1: a kitchen, remarkably close together. Their figures became dark. They
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  Speaker 1: were thrown up in black outline against a luminous steam
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  Speaker 1: arising from a cauldron of boiling soup. It was boiling soup,
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  Speaker 1: and yet it was cold soup and cold steam. Mister
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  Speaker 1: Barnstable was awake. In the place of luminous steam, there
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  Speaker 1: was mist, brightly moonlit mist, filling the gorge. It threw
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  Speaker 1: up the figures of the two Utopians and black silhouette.
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  Speaker 1: What utopians. His mind struggled between dreaming and waking. He
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  Speaker 1: started up rigidly attentive. They moved with easy gestures, quite
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  Speaker 1: unaware of his presence so close to them. They had
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  Speaker 1: already got a thin rope ladder fixed to some point overhead.
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  Speaker 1: But how they had managed to do this he did
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  Speaker 1: not know. One still stood on the shelf, the other
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  Speaker 1: swayed above him, stretched across the gully, clinging to the
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  Speaker 1: rope with his feet against the rock. The head of
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  Speaker 1: a third figure appeared above the edge of the shelf.
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  Speaker 1: It swayed from side to side. He was evidently coming
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  Speaker 1: up by a second rope ladder. Some sort of discussion
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  Speaker 1: was in progress. It was borne in upon mister Barnstaple
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  Speaker 1: that this last comer thought that he and his companions
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  Speaker 1: had clambered high enough, but that the uppermost man insisted
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  Speaker 1: they should go higher. In a few moments the matter
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  Speaker 1: was settled. The uppermost utopian became very active, lunged upward,
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  Speaker 1: swung out, and vanished by jerks out of mister Barnstaple's
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  Speaker 1: field of view. His companions followed him, and one after
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  Speaker 1: the other was lost to sight, leaving nothing visible but
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  Speaker 1: the convulsively agitated rope ladder and a dangling rope that
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  Speaker 1: they seemed to be dragging up the crag with them.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Barnstaples taut muscles relaxed. He yawned silently, stretched his
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  Speaker 1: painful limbs, and stood up very cautiously. He peered up
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  Speaker 1: the going. The utopian seemed to have reached the shelf above,
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  Speaker 1: and to be busy there. The rope that had dangled
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  Speaker 1: came taut. They were hauling up something from below. It
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  Speaker 1: was a large bundle, possibly of tools or weapons, or material,
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  Speaker 1: wrapped in something that deadened its impact against the rock.
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  Speaker 1: It jumped into view, hung spinning for a moment, and
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  Speaker 1: was then snatched upward as the Utopians took in a
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  Speaker 1: fresh reef of rope. A period of silence followed. He
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  Speaker 1: heard a metallic clang, and then dud, dud, a dull,
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  Speaker 1: intermittent hammering. Then he jumped back as the end of
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  Speaker 1: a thin rope apparently running over a pulley, dropped past him.
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  Speaker 1: The sounds from above now were like filing, and then
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  Speaker 1: some bits of rock fell past him into the void.
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  Speaker 1: He did not know what to do. He was afraid
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  Speaker 1: to call to these Utopians and make his presence known
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  Speaker 1: to them. After the murder of Serpentine, he was very
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  Speaker 1: doubtful how a utopian would behave to an earthling, found
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  Speaker 1: hiding in a dark corner, examined the rope ladder that
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  Speaker 1: had brought these Utopians to his level. It was held
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  Speaker 1: by a long spike, the end of which was buried
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  Speaker 1: in the rock at the side of the gully. Possibly
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  Speaker 1: the spike had been fired at the rock from below
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  Speaker 1: while he was asleep. The ladder was made up of
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  Speaker 1: straight links in rings at intervals of perhaps two feet.
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  Speaker 1: It was of such light material that he would have
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  Speaker 1: doubted its capacity to bear a man if he had
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  Speaker 1: not seen the utopians upon it. It occurred to him
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  Speaker 1: that he might descend by this now and take his
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  Speaker 1: chances with any Utopians who might be below. He could
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  Speaker 1: not very well bring himself to the attention of these
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  Speaker 1: three utopians above, except by some sudden and startling action,
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  Speaker 1: which might provoke sudden and unpleasant responses. But if he
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  Speaker 1: appeared first, clamoring slowly from above, any Utopians beneath would
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  Speaker 1: have time to realize and consider the fact of his
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  Speaker 1: proximity before they dealt with him. And also, he was
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  Speaker 1: successively eager to get down from this jury ledge. He
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  Speaker 1: gripped a ring, thrust a leg backwards over the edge
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  Speaker 1: of the shelf, listened for some moments to the little
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  Speaker 1: noises of the three workers above him, and then began
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  Speaker 1: his descent. It was an enormous descent. Presently he found
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  Speaker 1: himself regretting that he had not begun counting the rings
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  Speaker 1: of the ladder. He must already have handed himself down
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  Speaker 1: hundreds and still when he craned his neck to look
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  Speaker 1: down the dark gulf beyond below, it had become very
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  Speaker 1: dark now. The moonlight did not cut down very deeply
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  Speaker 1: into the canyon, and the faint reflection from the thin
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  Speaker 1: mess above was all there was to break the blackness,
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  Speaker 1: and even overhead the moonlight seemed to be passing. Now
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  Speaker 1: he was near the rock. Now it fell away, and
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  Speaker 1: the rope ladder seemed to fall plumb into lightless, bottomless space.
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  Speaker 1: He had to feel for each ring, and his bare
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  Speaker 1: feet and hands were already chafed and painful. And a
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  Speaker 1: new and disagreeable idea had come into his head that
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  Speaker 1: some utopian might presently come rushing up the ladder, but
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  Speaker 1: he would get notice of that because the rope would
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  Speaker 1: tighten and quiver, and he would be able to cry out,
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  Speaker 1: I am an earthly coming down I am a harmless
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  Speaker 1: earthly He began to cry out these words experimentally. The
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  Speaker 1: gorge re echoed them, and there was no answering sound.
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  Speaker 1: He became silent again, descended grimly and as steadily as possible,
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  Speaker 1: because now an intense desire to get off this infernal
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  Speaker 1: rope ladder and rest his hot hands and feet was
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  Speaker 1: overmastering every other motive. Clang clang. In a flash of
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  Speaker 1: green light, he became rigid peering into the depths of
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  Speaker 1: the canyon. Came the green flash again. It revealed the
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  Speaker 1: depths of the gorge. Still as it seemed an immense
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  Speaker 1: distance below him and up the gorge, something he could
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  Speaker 1: not grasp what it was during that momentary revelation. At
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  Speaker 1: first he thought it was a huge serpent writhing its
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  Speaker 1: way down the gorge, and then he concluded it must
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  Speaker 1: be a big cable that was being brought along the
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  Speaker 1: gorge by a handful of utopians. But how the three
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  Speaker 1: or four figures he had indistinctly seen could move this
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  Speaker 1: colossal rope he could not imagine. The head of this
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  Speaker 1: cable serpent seemed to be lifting itself obliquely up the cliff.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps it was being dragged up by ropes he had
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  Speaker 1: not observed. He waited for a third flash, but none came.
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  Speaker 1: He listened, he could hear nothing but a throbbing sound
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  Speaker 1: he had already noted before, like the throbbing of an
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  Speaker 1: engine running very smoothly. He resumed his descent. When at
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  Speaker 1: last he reached the standing place, it took him by surprise.
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  Speaker 1: The rope ladder fell past it for some yards and ended.
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  Speaker 1: He was swaying more and more and beginning to realize
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  Speaker 1: that the rope ladder came to an end when he
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  Speaker 1: perceived the dim indication of a nearly horizontal gallery cut
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  Speaker 1: along the rock face. He put out a foot and
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  Speaker 1: felt an edge, and swung away out from it. He
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  Speaker 1: was now so weary and exhausted that for a time
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  Speaker 1: he could not relinquish his grip on the rope ladder
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  Speaker 1: and get a footing on the shelf. At last he
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  Speaker 1: perceived how this could be done. He released his feet
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  Speaker 1: and gave himself a push away from the rock. With them,
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  Speaker 1: he swung back into a convenient position for getting a foothold.
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  Speaker 1: He repeated this twice, and then had enough confidence to
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  Speaker 1: abandon his ladder and drop onto the shelf. The ladder
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  Speaker 1: dangled away from him into the darkness, and then came
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  Speaker 1: wriggling back to tap him playfully and startlingly on the
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  Speaker 1: shoulder blade. The gallery he found himself in seemed to
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  Speaker 1: follow a great veane of crystal i material along the
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  Speaker 1: cliff face, borings as high as a man ran into
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  Speaker 1: the rock. He peered and felt his way along the
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  Speaker 1: gallery for a time, manifestly, if this was a mine,
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  Speaker 1: there would be some way of ascending to it and
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  Speaker 1: descending from it into the gorge. The sound of the
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  Speaker 1: torrent was much louder now, and he judged he had
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  Speaker 1: perhaps come down two thirds of the height of the crag.
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  Speaker 1: He was inclined to wait for daylight. The illuminated dial
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  Speaker 1: of his wrist watch told him it was now four o'clock.
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  Speaker 1: It would not be long before dawn. He found a
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  Speaker 1: comfortable face of rock for his back and squatted down.
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  Speaker 1: Dawn seemed to come very quickly, but in reality he
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  Speaker 1: dozed away the interval, but he glanced at his watch again.
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  Speaker 1: It was half past five. He went to the edge
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  Speaker 1: of the gallery and peered up the gorge to where
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  Speaker 1: he had seen the cable. Things were pale and dim
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  Speaker 1: and very black and white, but perfectly clear. The walls
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  Speaker 1: of the canyon seemed to go up forever and vanish
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  Speaker 1: at last. In cloud he had a glimpse of a
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  Speaker 1: utopian below, was presently hidden by the curve of the gorge.
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  Speaker 1: He guessed that the great cable must have been brought
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  Speaker 1: so close up to the quarantine crag as to be
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  Speaker 1: invisible to him. He could find no down gooing steps
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  Speaker 1: from the gallery, but some thirty or forty yards off
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  Speaker 1: or five or six cableways running at a steep angle
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  Speaker 1: from the gallery to the opposite side of the gorge.
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  Speaker 1: They looked very black and distinct. He went logged to them.
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  Speaker 1: Each was a carrier cable on which ran a pm
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  Speaker 1: All carrier trolley with a big hook below. Three of
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  Speaker 1: the carrier cables were empty, but on two the trolley
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  Speaker 1: was hauled up. Mister Barnstable examined the trolleys and found
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  Speaker 1: a catch retained them. He turned over one of these
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  Speaker 1: catches and the trolley ran away, promptly, nearly dropping him
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  Speaker 1: into the gulf. He saved himself by clutching the carrier cable.
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  Speaker 1: He watched the trolley swoop down like a bird to
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  Speaker 1: the broad stretch of Sandy Beach on the other side
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  Speaker 1: of the Torrent, and come to rest there it seemed
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  Speaker 1: all right. Trembling violently, he turned to the remaining trolley.
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  Speaker 1: His nerves and will were so exhausted now that it
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  Speaker 1: was a long time before he could bring himself to
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  Speaker 1: trust to the hook of the remaining trolley and to
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  Speaker 1: release its catch. Then, smoothly and swiftly he swept across
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  Speaker 1: the gorge to the beach below. There were big heaps
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  Speaker 1: of crystal and mineral on this beach, and a cable,
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  Speaker 1: evidently for raising it, came down out of the mists
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  Speaker 1: above from some invisible crane. But out a utopian was
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  Speaker 1: in sight. He relinquished his hold and dropped safely on
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  Speaker 1: his feet. The beach broadened downstream, and he walked along it,
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  Speaker 1: close to the edge of the Torrent. The light grew
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  Speaker 1: stronger as he went. The world ceased to be a
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  Speaker 1: world of grays and blacks. Color came back to things.
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  Speaker 1: Everything was heavily bedewed, and he was hungry and almost
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  Speaker 1: intolerably weary. The sand changed in its nature and became
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  Speaker 1: soft and heavy for his feet. He felt he could
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  Speaker 1: walk no further he must wait for help. He sat
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  Speaker 1: down on a rock and looked upward towards quarantined crag
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  Speaker 1: towering overhead, sheer and high. The great Headland rose like
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  Speaker 1: the prowess of gigantic ship. Behind the two deep blue canyons.
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  Speaker 1: A few western layers of mist still hid from mister
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  Speaker 1: barnstable its crest, and the little bridge across the narrower gorge.
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  Speaker 1: The sky above, between the streaks of mist was now
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  Speaker 1: an intense blue, and even as he gazed, the mists
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  Speaker 1: whirled and dissolved. The rays of the rising sun smote
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  Speaker 1: the old castle to blinding gold, and the fastness of
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  Speaker 1: the earthling stood out clear and bright. The bridge and
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  Speaker 1: the castle were very remote, and all that part of
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  Speaker 1: the crag was like a little cap on the figure
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  Speaker 1: of a tall, upstanding soldier. Round beneath the level of
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  Speaker 1: the bridge, at about the height at which the three
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  Speaker 1: Utopians had worked or were still working, ran something dark,
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  Speaker 1: a ropelike band. He jumped to the conclusion that this
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  Speaker 1: must be the cable he had seen lit up by
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  Speaker 1: those green flashes in the night. Then he noted a
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  Speaker 1: peculiar body upon the crest of the more open of
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  Speaker 1: the two gorges. It was an enormous vertical coil, a
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  Speaker 1: coil flattened into a disk which had appeared on the
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  Speaker 1: edge of the cliff opposite to the Coronation Crag, less
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  Speaker 1: plainly seen because of a projecting mass of rock. Was
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  Speaker 1: a similar coil in the narrower canyon, close to the
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  Speaker 1: steps that led up from the little bridge. Two or
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  Speaker 1: three utopians, looking very small because they were so high,
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  Speaker 1: and very squat because they were so foreshortened, were moving
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  Speaker 1: along the cliff edge and handling something that apparently had
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  Speaker 1: to do with these coils. Mister Barnstable stared at these
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  Speaker 1: arrangements with much the same uncomprehending stare as that with
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  Speaker 1: which some savage who had never heard a shot fired
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  Speaker 1: in anger might watch the loading of a gun. Came
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  Speaker 1: a familiar sound, faint and little. It was the hooter
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  Speaker 1: of Quarantine Castle, sounding the Revelie, and almost simultaneously, the
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  Speaker 1: little Napoleonic figure of mister Rupert Catskill emerged against the blue.
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  Speaker 1: The head and soldiers of Fink rose and halted, and
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  Speaker 1: stood at attention behind him. The captain of the Earflings
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  Speaker 1: produced his field glasses and surveyed the coils through them.
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  Speaker 1: I wonder what he makes of them, said mister Barnstable.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Catskill turned and gave some direction to Pink, who
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  Speaker 1: saluted and vanished. A click from the nearer Gorge jerked
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  Speaker 1: his attention back to the little bridge. It had gone.
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  Speaker 1: His eye dropped and caught it up within a few
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  Speaker 1: yards of the water. He saw the water splash and
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  Speaker 1: the metal framework crumple up and dance two steps and
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  Speaker 1: lie still, And then a moment later the crash and
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  Speaker 1: clatter of the fall reached his ears. Now who did that,
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  Speaker 1: asked mister Barnstable, and mister Catskill answered his question by
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  Speaker 1: going hastily to that corner of the castle and staring
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  Speaker 1: down manifestly. He was surprised, manifestly. Therefore it was the
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  Speaker 1: Utopians who had cut the bridge. Mister Catskill was joined
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  Speaker 1: almost immediately by mister Hunker and Lord Verilanga. Their gestures
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  Speaker 1: suggested an animated discussion. The sunlight was creeping by impercept
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  Speaker 1: full degrees down the front of Quarantine Crag. It had
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  Speaker 1: now got down to the cable that encircled the crest.
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  Speaker 1: In the light, this shone with a coppery sheen, the
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  Speaker 1: three Utopians who had awakened mister Barnstable in the night,
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  Speaker 1: became descending the rope ladder very rapidly, and once more.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Barnstable was aware of that humming sound he had
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  Speaker 1: heard ever and again during the night, But now it
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  Speaker 1: was much louder, and it sounded everywhere about him, in
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  Speaker 1: the air, in the water, in the rocks, and in
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  Speaker 1: his bones. Abruptly, something black in spear shaped appeared beside
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  Speaker 1: the little group of earthlings above. It seemed to jump
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  Speaker 1: up beside them. It paused and jumped again, half the
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  Speaker 1: height of a man, and jumped again. It was a
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  Speaker 1: flag being hauled up, a flagstaff that mister Barnstable had
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  Speaker 1: not hitherto observed. It reached the top of the staff
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  Speaker 1: and hung limp. Then some eddie in the air caught it.
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  Speaker 1: It flapped out for a moment, displayed a white star
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  Speaker 1: on a blue ground, and dropped again. This was the
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  Speaker 1: flag of Earth. This was the flag of the crusade
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  Speaker 1: to restore the blessings of competition, conflict and warfare to Utopia.
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  Speaker 1: Beneath it the head of mister Burleigh, examining the Utopian
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  Speaker 1: coils through his glasses, the throbbing and humming in mister
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  Speaker 1: Barnstables's ears grew rapidly, louder, and rose acutely to an
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  Speaker 1: extreme intensity. Suddenly, great flashes of violet light leapt across
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  Speaker 1: from coil to coil, passing through Quarantine Castle as though
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  Speaker 1: it was not there for a moment longer it was there.
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  Speaker 1: The flag flared out madly and was torn from its staff.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Burleigh lost his hat a half length of mister
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  Speaker 1: Catskill became visible, struggling with his coattails, which had blown
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  Speaker 1: up and enveloped his head. At the same time, mister
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  Speaker 1: Barnstable saw the castle rotating upon the lower part of
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  Speaker 1: the crag, exactly as though some invisible giant had seized
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  Speaker 1: the upper tenth of the headland and was twisting it round.
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  Speaker 1: And then it vanished. As it did so, a great
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  Speaker 1: column of dust poured up into its place. The waters
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  Speaker 1: in the gorge sprung into the air in tall fountains
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  Speaker 1: and were splashed to spray, and a deafening thud smote
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  Speaker 1: mister Barnstable's ears. Aerial powers picked him up and tossed
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  Speaker 1: him a dozen yards, and he fell amidst a rain
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  Speaker 1: of dust and stones and water. He was bruised and stunned.
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  Speaker 1: My God, he cried, my God, and struggled to his knees,
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  Speaker 1: feeling violently sick. He had a glimpse of the crest
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  Speaker 1: of quarantine Cragg, truncated as neatly as though it had
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  Speaker 1: been cheese cut with a sharp knife. And then fatigue
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  Speaker 1: and exhaustion had their way with him, and he sprawled
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  Speaker 1: forward and lay insensible. End of Book two, Chapter four,