The Plague, Pestilence & Apocalypse MEGAPACK™
Page 62
slowly melt in our mouths . The taste of them, although pleasant,
was rather strange, but yet not altogether unfamiliar . The taste of the
first sort faintly resembled the taste of roast beef; of the second, of
pine-apple; of the third, of sweet wine, specially of muscatel . The
effect of them was extraordinary; we felt that we had partaken of an
agreeable and substantial meal; our hunger and thirst were gone, and
we were quite refreshed . And then, as will happen when one dines
well after a laborious and exciting day, we both fell sound asleep .
We slept all through the night and on until a little after sunrise, and,
not to go into details, we rose immediately and breakfasted as we
had dined. We had scarce finished our meal when we became aware
of the tramp of many men at no great distance from us, and we
hurried to the door . We saw then, what neither of us had noticed
the evening before, that the broad road, out of which we had turned
in order to reach our present resting-place, opened out at the dis-
tance of about two hundred yards from the flight of steps into a large
THE GERM GROWERS, by Robert Potter | 485
square, formed as the road itself was formed, and planted around the
borders with trees, under the shade of which were several benches .
In the square were some two or three hundred men, undergo-
ing some sort of review by the leader, with whom we had already
become acquainted . Whatever degree of mistrust either of us felt we
thought it as well not to show it, so we came forward leisurely until
we were within a few score paces of the men, and then we stood
and looked . We were not at once perceived, as neither the leader nor
his men were looking straight in our direction, and we were partly
shaded by a tree . The men were evidently of a much higher stamp
intellectually than those whom we had seen the day before, except-
ing the leader . The men, yesterday, seemed to differ from automatic
machines in one single point, namely, that they seemed to have a
will of their own, although they had surrendered it to their leader .
They seemed, you would say, quite incapable of action except as
prompted by him, although they gave themselves up to his prompt-
ing, no doubt, because of sympathy and unity of purpose with him .
The men to-day seemed, on the contrary, to be men of considerable
intelligence . You would suppose them to be quite capable of being
leaders themselves, and able to carry out in full detail instructions
which they might receive in the merest outline . It was evident that
they were now receiving instructions . These were being given, part-
ly by expressions and signs, and partly by some spoken language .
The language, which I heard several times in the next two days, bore
no resemblance at all to any language that I knew . It seemed to be
very artificial and elliptical. The former quality was suggested by
the regular recurrence and gradation of certain sounds, and the latter
quality was suggested by its great brevity . A word or two seemed to
suffice where we should require one or more sentences.
When the leader had given his instructions, one and another, and
then another, of the men stood out from the ranks and spoke to him,
and in each ease he replied . The men who spoke I judged to be in
some subordinate command. All the men stood in files now, one
man behind another, facing the leader, and in each case the man
who spoke stood in front of his file. These files formed themselves
THE GERM GROWERS, by Robert Potter | 486
quite suddenly and with great precision after the leader had given
his first orders and before the other men spoke. It seemed as if the
subordinate leaders were making suggestions or inquiries respecting
the details of the work about which they had just received instruc-
tions in outline .
Then followed what seemed like a numbering of the men, and
it soon became apparent that one file had two men missing, that is
to say, supposing all the files to have been at first equal in number.
As the deficiency became apparent a flash of baffled but furious
malignity passed across the leader’s face . Then I know that when
I had seen the like expression yesterday I was not dreaming . Jack
and I exchanged a momentary glance . Some words, as I judged of
inquiry and satisfactory reply, passed between the leader and one of
his subordinates, and then, in the progress of the drill, the men made
a partial turn by which they brought us into full view . In a moment
they saw us, and in a moment the same eager and threatening look
came over their faces which we had seen in the other men’s faces
yesterday . Jack and I both believed for that moment that our last
hour was come .
But the leader withheld them with a word and sign . What he said
or signified of course I did not really know, but I felt sure, neverthe-
less, that it was to this effect, that we should supply the places of
their comrades who had disappeared . The same thought occurred to
Jack . His word was received with a sound like a laugh, but it was a
very horrible and ghastly laugh . One sometimes hears of the horror
of a maniac’s laugh; but the maniac’s laugh is horrible by reason
of its vacancy . This laugh was by no means vacant, it was full of
expression, but it was the expression of relentless malignity .
Then the leader dismissed the men and they moved away towards
the further end of the valley . Then he turned and moved slowly to-
wards us and we moved slowly to meet him . He met us with the
same stately courtesy as before and we exchanged salutations . He
led us to the square where the men had been and he invited us to sit
down. Then he inquired briefly concerning our personal comfort and
THE GERM GROWERS, by Robert Potter | 487
we both expressed briefly our thanks and satisfaction. Then I went
on to say,
“My name, sir, is Easterley, and my friend is Mr . Wilbraham,
and we have only now to ask you by what name we are to know our
host, and to ask that he will add to the obligation under which he has
placed us, by giving us a guide to the nearest station or settlement of
English colonists .”
“I have more names than one,” he replied, “among your people,
but when I was last in Italy, which is a country that I know bet-
ter than most, I was known as Niccolo Davelli . I was an analyti-
cal chemist and something of an engineer, and I did, well, a little
political work among the country folk .” He said all this with a very
easy manner but with a very unpleasant smile . “Signor Davelli,” I
replied, speaking in Italian, “I am proud to thank you by name on
behalf of myself and my friend, and I trust you will find no difficulty
in giving the guidance we ask .” “Surely not,” he answered in the
same language, “but you will stay here for a little, will you not? I
have some curious things to show you, and you may perhaps meet
some old friends among my people, and my work is so interesting
and important that I have s
ome hope that you will see your way to
cast in your lot with us altogether . But,” said he, “you need not use
Italian, for I am not any more skilful in that than in your own equally
famous tongue .” Here again was the unpleasant smile, and I noticed
that although he spoke Italian, as far as I could judge quite perfectly,
he used this language as well as English with the deliberate and
measured enunciation of a foreigner .
“As you will,” I replied, returning to English, “we shall be glad
to see what you have to show us .”
Signor Davelli rose up at the word and invited us to follow him .
He went up the stair by which we had come down the day before,
and led us to the platform on which we had first seen him. He told us
briefly that his sojourn here was in fulfilment of a purpose to which
he and certain others of his fellowship were pledged . That they were
all acting in concert and that certain of them were leaders, and that
each leader had command of a station such as this, of which there
THE GERM GROWERS, by Robert Potter | 488
were several in different parts of the world . That it was essential to
the work that it should he carried on from regions far removed from
the haunts of men, at least of civilised men, for they could repel
the interference of savage races without endangering the fulfilment
of their purpose . He went on to tell us that in this station of his he
had two classes of work to do, one class consisting of intellectual
work of a high order, and affecting more directly the fulfilment of
the common purpose, the other class consisting of merely mechani-
cal work, affecting the routine of life and its conditions here . “The
men,” he went on to say, “who carry out the former are of high
and independent mental faculties and rank accordingly; these men
you have seen to-day . The men who carry out the latter are of a
very acute capacity to receive and execute instructions, but have no
originating power of conception or design . These are they whom
you saw yesterday . Their work is mainly the making of our food and
clothes, and the construction of our means of locomotion, and of the
machinery by which the work is done . That machinery is designed
and executed in model at the other end of the alley by the other men
in the intervals of their more important work . That work, however,
you cannot understand until you become better acquainted with us .”
We had now reached the platform, and we saw the men at work
just as we had seen them the day before . Signor Davelli uttered a
single word which I did not understand, and on hearing it the men
turned, and then followed for a very few minutes the same sort of
pantomimic action which I had already seen and have described .
Then they resumed work .
Signor Davelli then took us to the works and invited us to ob-
serve the construction of the various machines in use .
I must not, however, run the risk of tiring you by any minute ac-
count of them here. Let it suffice to say that there was a much higher
degree of mechanical skill exhibited in their construction than I have
ever seen anywhere before or since, and that besides there was much
that suggested the application of chemical and electrical science in a
manner greatly in advance of anything that is commonly known; and
further that there were certain complicated arrangements of prisms
THE GERM GROWERS, by Robert Potter | 489
and mirrors which indicated as I thought some use of the agency of
light which was quite new to me and which I did not understand .
One set of machines proved to be used for the manufacture of the
compressed food which we had already found so effective . Another
set of much simpler construction carried it away and stored it when
made . Yet another set was used for the manufacture of that invisible
paint, the use of which had so astonished me . These last were the
machines which attracted my curiosity most of all, and which im-
plied not only a use which did not comprehend of agencies which I
recognised, but the existence of other agencies of which knew noth-
ing at all . I observed, however, as carefully as possible and I made,
later on, very full notes of what did observe, and I shall be happy to
communicate these to our men of science in whose hands they can
hardly fail to become of much practical value . I need hardly say that
I asked a good many questions about this last set of machines, but
somehow I got very little information . Whether Signor Davelli was
unwilling to explain, or whether there was something in the process
which I was incapable of understanding, I am not quite sure . All I
could get from him was that there are some rays at either end of the
spectrum which are not visible, and that it is possible to treat some
substances so as to cause them to reflect these rays only, just as
other substances reflect only the yellow or only the red. But from a
word or two which he spoke, I suspect inadvertently, I gathered that
the rays he spoke of, which are invisible to us, were visible to him,
and differed as much from yellow, red, or blue, as these from one
another .
We now crossed the platform to the place where the cars were
being painted . I perceived as soon as I came upon the spot that the
cars were built at one level, and then raised by machinery to another
level at which they were painted, and that when painted they were
raised to a third level . Along each of these levels they were moved
by rollers of quite simple construction . Yesterday I had only seen
those on the second level; those on the first were too low to come
within the field of my view, and those on the third were invisible.
THE GERM GROWERS, by Robert Potter | 490
On this third level, however, one was to-day visible . As I after-
wards learned, Signor Davelli had caused it to be left unpainted . It
was otherwise finished. He caused it now to be rolled along to the
extremity of the platform, which ended to the southward in a sheer
precipice of some hundreds of feet . There was a ledge to keep it
from rolling over . Signor Davelli led us to this car and invited us to
enter it .
There was plenty of accommodation for two or three people .
There were easy benches and couches, and there were three boxes
with distinctive marks like numbers on the lids . At the end of the car
which was furthest from the ledge, the inside end, there was a great
deal of machinery, but not of such a size as I should have expected
considering the size of the car . This machinery consisted of two bat-
teries resembling galvanic batteries in many ways, but the stuff used
up in work was not fluid but solid; it consisted of large squares of
matter, which I think was wholly or mainly metallic . The batteries
were connected with a strong round bar, made, as I thought, of some
sort of metal3 running through the car and supporting a pair of huge
paddles, or wings, one on each side of the car . At each end of the
bar were certain little wheels and cranks,
devised not so as to cause
the paddles to revolve, but so as to give them a wing-like motion .
At the forward part of the ear were several vessels of a form which
suggested a chemical apparatus for generating gas . And on each side
of the car, constructed and placed with an evident view to balance
or trim it, were two balloons, which seemed absurdly small in view
of the size of the car . These were connected with the chemical appa-
ratus just mentioned, and were filled by it, when occasion required,
with a gas vastly lighter than hydrogen .
Signor Davelli, Jack, and I entered the ear, and the Signor took
a bottle of liquid out of one of the numbered boxes and poured it
into one of the vessels . Then in all the vessels there seemed to be a
sound like boiling, and presently the balloons became inflated and
raised the car very gently and quite evenly . When we had been thus
lifted to a height of about a hundred feet from the platform, he put
3
I discovered afterwards that it was not metallic .
THE GERM GROWERS, by Robert Potter | 491
on a dark-looking pair of gloves and laid hold of a strong thick wire,
which I had not seen before, which was fastened to the bar which
I had supposed to be of metal on the side further from where I sat .
This wire he connected with the batteries of either end, and immedi-
ately took off the gloves . Presently the paddles began to move with
a wing-like action, driving the ear straight forward through the air .
All this time we were still rising slowly, but when we had attained a
high degree of speed Signor Davelli turned the key of a valve which
communicated with both balloons and they presently collapsed, the
action of the paddles being now sufficient both to sustain us and to
urge us forward . The motion was easier than that of any conveyance
that I had ever yet travelled in . The seat on which Signor Davelli sat
was placed so that with one hand he could turn the key of the valve,
and with the other grasp either of two handles, by one of which he
managed the batteries, and by the other of which he changed at need
the direction of the paddles . I perceived, upon looking more closely,
that the key of the valve was fixed at the intersection of two tubes
shaped like a T, one at right angles to the other, the horizontal tube
joining the balloons and the perpendicular tube connected with the