The Plague, Pestilence & Apocalypse MEGAPACK™

by Robert Reed

  many now on all sides of us . Just then it seemed as if a cloud were

  passing over us quite near . We looked upward quickly, but there was

  no cloud, only a great shadow east, as it would seem, by nothing . In

  a few seconds it was gone, and presently after we heard the swish—

  sh—sh right over us of the wing-like paddles, and we could even

  detect the small regular rattle of the machinery . It was evident that

  we were being closely guarded, and perhaps we were overheard .

  Silently but with one impulse we turned and walked slowly back

  to the rooms that had been assigned to us .

  We refreshed ourselves with food and we had an hour’s rest be-

  fore it was time to keep our appointment with our host . We agreed

  meanwhile to observe everything very closely and to compare notes

  at night .

  “But,” said I, “is it safe for us to separate?”

  “Nothing, of course,” Jack answered, “is altogether safe, but for

  a little while I think that we are not in any more danger apart than

  together .”

  “But you know, Jack, you said that you thought he had some

  special design on me and that he didn’t want you . So he may have

  you quietly put out of the way if you go alone .”

  “He is bad enough for anything,” was the answer, “but he knows

  that to put me out of the way would so disturb you as to baffle his

  designs upon you . Your attention would be entirely diverted from

  the matters in which you are now taking so deep an interest, and by

  means of which he hopes to secure you . He would have to put you

  out of the way too, and he doesn’t want to do that . So he is going, as

  I have said, to throw me into the bargain .”

  “What course do you suggest then, when we are next left to our-

  selves?”

  “You try to get an interview with—what’s his name?—your old

  Welsh friend?”

  “James Redpath .”

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  “Just so, and I will try to pick up some information about the

  navigation of the cars .”

  At the appointed hour, which was rather early in the afternoon,

  we went together to the square, and we had hardly reached it when

  Signor Davelli arrived there too . His appearance was decidedly

  changed: his robe was ampler and longer, and this as well as his hat

  and sandals were apparently made of richer and lighter stuff than

  those which he had worn before, also there were various mottoes

  and devices wrought upon them . The devices were all of the sort I

  have before told you of, and the mottoes, or what I deemed such,

  were in a variety of characters, most of them altogether unknown to

  me . A few of them, however, were in languages that I knew . There

  was only one in English, and strange to say, I cannot remember what

  it was . On the front of the hat was an inscription in Hebrew charac-

  ters, but so oddly formed that I did no a first recognise them. I am

  not much skilled in Hebrew but I have no doubt that the inscription

  was “AS GODS”—written, however, in a character closely resem-

  bling that of the Palmyra inscriptions . As I came slowly to recognise

  the meaning of this inscription, it came to me much more forcibly

  (and with another sort of force), than if I had at once recognised it

  for what it was . And I would have at once recognised it if it had been

  in the ordinary square characters as I have written it here .

  Signor Davelli’s manner was, as I thought, very stately and even

  majestic, and yet at the same time quite easy and affable . Once or

  twice only I observed an air of effort, and even that seemed as of an

  effort graciously undertaken even if painful . Once or twice also a

  sort of spasm crossed his face as of self-repression of some sort . And

  once it seemed as if he were about to spring forward but checked

  himself, and his face then reminded me of the faces of his men yes-

  terday in this very square when they first recognised our presence.

  He bade us be seated, and he took a seat himself and began to talk

  to us . Our seats faced his and there was a pathway like a garden walk

  between us . I remember noticing as he began to speak that the same

  strange flowers and shrubs which I had seen outside grew in great

  abundance along this pathway .

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  Signor Davelli led the conversation quickly, but not at all with

  violence, to themes of an abstract character, and he presently settled

  down to the discussion of no less a subject than free will .

  You would not thank me if I were to give you (supposing I could

  do so) a full account of all that he said . I will, therefore, not make

  any such attempt . I will only say that his remarks were bold and

  interesting, although he presented no aspect of he question which

  was absolutely new to me, and that he spoke apparently with strong

  feeling and fervour, and even sometimes with a bitter air of despera-

  tion . Then he looked at me with an air of inquiry .

  After a long pause I said,

  “I see, Signor Davelli, that you are not a materialist .”

  “Materialist?” he said, with a very unpleasant mixture of smile

  and sneer . “No; materialism is very well for a beginning; but one

  must face the facts at last if one is to deal with them at all success-

  fully .”

  “But,” said I, “some teach that matter is the very ultimate of all

  fact .”

  “It is perhaps well,” he said, with a renewal of the same sneer and

  smile, “that they should teach so, but you and I know better; matter

  is evidence of the fact, but not the fact itself .”

  “And free will in your view is real?”

  “Yes, it is real, doubtless, although so given as to make it for all

  but the very boldest practically unreal .”

  “So given, you say; it is a gift then?”

  “Yes, it is a gift, if you call that ‘given’ which you use at your

  peril .”

  “And who gives it?” said I .

  “Never mind that,” he said, with a bitter scowl, which recalled

  for the moment, his malignant expression of the day but one before .

  “Call Him the Giver: a cursed way of giving is His . You know that

  you can use His gift if you dare, and you know that if you dare use it

  as you please He will scald you with what His bond-slaves call ‘the

  vials of His wrath’; that I think is the phrase .”

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  “Perhaps,” I said, “the scalding is one’s own doing: power to use

  the gift is power to use it rightly or wrongly: if one choose to use it

  wrongly one takes the consequences .”

  “Right and wrong,” he said, “what are they?” and he spoke now

  with great coolness and without a sign of sneer; “trace back the ideas

  to their origin . Right is what I will, and wrong is what I will not . So

  it is with the Giver, and why should it not be so with you and me?”

  I observed that as he said this some of the mottoes on his dress grew

  bright and even flashed. Among them was that in Hebrew letters

  which I told you of just no
w . “But I know there are slaves,” he went

  on to say, “slaves (you surely are not one of them) who are afraid

  of liberty, and who are jealous of those who are not afraid of it . And

  these,” he said, and here the scowl returned, “these make use of such

  words as right and wrong to perpetuate the tyrannous rule of Him

  who gives with a curse, and who takes again with a fresh curse .”

  “Is He,” I said, “the tyrant on whom you are making war?”

  “Oh, yes,” he said, “for all tyrants hold from Him; they are His

  hired bullies whom he pampers and lashes as you might lash and

  pamper your dog .”

  “You say that He gives and takes, will He take the gift of the

  freedom of will from you?”

  If I had foreseen the effect which this question would have pro-

  duced, I should certainly have been afraid to have asked it . His face

  became at once full of deadly fury and frenzy; “Yes,” he said, “curse

  Him! He will at last if He can!” And then he sprang up and caught

  at the air with both his hands, just like the hands, in the device of

  which I have told you, grasping at the forked lightning .

  In a moment, however, he resumed the quiet, stately and affable

  air, which he had worn before, and he sat down, and began to tall;

  again quite calmly .

  “Yes,” he said, “free will is no doubt real to the bold and desper-

  ate spirit . To all others it is in effect unreal . To make it in effect real

  to all, every free being ought to be able to do as he will, not only

  without let or hindrance, but also without what you I suppose would

  call penal consequences .”

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  “It seems to me,” I said, “that our little world is too limited for

  such freedom as you desire . We should speedily come into collision

  with each other if there were no limit of any sort to our freedom .”

  “Yes, if your world were the only world .”

  I did not notice at the time his use of the pronoun “your” for

  “our .” I only replied, “If our world were multiplied a hundred thou-

  sand fold, and I can well believe that there may be a hundred thou-

  sand such worlds, still the limits of habitable space must ultimately

  be a limit to freedom so that it cannot be unconditional .”

  “There are no limits,” he said, “to habitable space .”

  I began to think that he was a very clever madman, and I said

  nothing .

  “For such as you,” he continued, “the limit exists, but not for me,

  nor for such as I .”

  Now I was sure he was mad, and I still kept silence .

  “Nor yet for you,” he added, “either, if you have courage enough

  to overleap the limit .”

  Now I began to be afraid that the form of mania which affected

  him was homicidal, and that he would presently require me, as he

  said, “to overleap the limit .” But he rose to his feet with such a

  collected air, and looked so full of proud intellect and power that I

  began to change my mind and to think that I was going mad myself .

  He spoke again, stretching out his hand, “Space is unlimited, and

  wherever space is there is a dwelling-place for me . This form in

  which I live here is but my dress, which I assume when I come to

  live among you . I can put it off and live in space, I can put it on again

  and come back to you . See here!”

  Both his hands were now stretched upward, and his eyes were

  fixed on me with a domineering gaze, and mine on him with a mix-

  ture of wonder and of dread . Then he looked away straight out into

  the southern sky .

  Suppose now a great mass of metal to be so quickly molten and

  vaporized that it has no time to fall to the earth as fluid before it

  rises into the air as gas . That was how it seemed to happen to the

  body of this extraordinary man . As I looked at him I saw no longer

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  his body, but a great mass of apparently fluid substance, moved with

  a continuous ripple all through . Then it increased in volume vastly

  and spread upward like the smoke from an immense furnace . And

  as it spread it became thinner and finer, and still thinner and finer,

  until presently there was not the slightest trace of it any longer to be

  distinguished . How long a time it took to complete this transforma-

  tion I could not at all guess from my experience of it . As far as my

  recollection of that goes, it might have occupied hours, but I know

  from external facts such as the shadows of the trees and the clouds

  that it could have been little more than five minutes at most, and on

  comparing notes afterwards with Jack I became inclined to believe

  that although I had certainly observed a succession of changes the

  whole transformation and disappearance was practically instanta-

  neous .

  Jack and I said not a word, we were both quite stupefied for the

  moment . Partly recovering ourselves we both walked up to the spot

  where Signor Davelli had stood, and we saw what seemed to be he

  remains of the sandals, hat, and coat, which he had worn . Jack took

  them up one after another, looked at them, and handed them to me .

  The texture of none of them was in any way destroyed . But they

  were now wholly colourless, and not the least trace of any letter or

  device was anywhere to be seen on them .

  After the lapse of about ten minutes a slight explosion was heard

  a little way over our heads, and then a slight vapour appeared in the

  air very widely spread . Then I saw the same changes as before but in

  reverse order . The vapour thickened into smoke, the smoke became

  condensed into a fluid rapidly rippling throughout. This presently

  settled down over the spot where the discarded dress was lying,

  and became solidified; and as I looked I saw Signor Davelli with

  the same pose and attitude as before his disappearance, and with he

  same dress bearing the very same inscriptions and devices .

  As before, I am inclined to believe that the reappearance and

  transformation, although presented to me as a succession of chang-

  es, were practically instantaneous .

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  I stood looking at him, transfixed with wonder and horror. He

  signed to me to sit down; then he sat down himself, and began to

  speak again quite gently and persuasively . Jack stood for a minute

  or two as if in hesitation about something; then he, too, sat down

  and listened .

  Signor Davelli . Do no be alarmed, there is no occasion for alarm

  nor even for surprise . Nothing has been done but what is quite as

  fully susceptible of explanation as any simple chemical experiment .

  Easterley . That can hardly be so . Much even of what we saw yes-

  terday far exceeded any results of experimental science known to

  me, but I could readily believe it all to be explicable upon principles

  which I have studied, and which I partly understand . But the experi-

  ment which I have just witnessed (if I may call it an experiment)

  surely implies principles which far transcend any with which I am

 
in the slightest degree acquainted .

  Davelli . “Transcend” them, yes, but are nevertheless closely re-

  lated to them, and are never at variance with them . But I can put you

  through an experience quite similar to that which I have myself just

  undergone . You shall judge for yourself then .”

  He came quite near me, and went on to speak in a tone at once

  masterful and persuasive .

  “You shall experience my power,” he said, “and you shall criti-

  cise it . I will send you hence and back in quite a little time . You will

  remember what you see, and you shall compare it with what you

  know of your own world, and you shall say then whether it is not

  worth your while to come and join us . If you join us you will know

  nothing of what you call death, for death cannot touch the dwellers

  in space .”

  As he said these last words I felt a shudder pass through me;

  it reminded me of something, I knew not what, but afterwards I

  remembered .

  “Cannot death touch you?” I said . “Not even when you are dwell-

  ing here with us?”

  “No,” he replied; “anything that would kill you would simply

  drive us back into space .”

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  I have a very trustworthy instinct as to the truth or falsehood

  of those who speak to me, and I felt now that Signor Davelli was

  speaking the truth in this particular, but that he was deceiving me

  somehow .

  “Do you propose,” I said, “to send me among the dwellers in

  space and to fetch me back now?”

  I detected just the faintest turn of his eye towards Jack, and as he

  answered I knew that he was lying, and that if need were he would

  lie more .

  “You cannot acquire at once,” he said, “the powers of a dweller

  in space . But I shall send you out of this world and I will fetch you

  back, and your journey will help you to acquire the power to become

  a dweller in space by-and-by .”

  I distrusted him profoundly and I was not without fear of him . It

  was fear, however, that I could not easily define. Certainly it was not

  fear of death, for I feel quite sure that he was no going to kill me . I

  felt a consuming desire to know all about him, and I was willing to

  risk much in order to satisfy my desire. I felt also the influence of his

  masterful will . My distrust of him weighed one way, and he strength