The Plague, Pestilence & Apocalypse MEGAPACK™

by Robert Reed

  pierced the Divine Sufferer .

  Again there was a change; all at once there began to crowd into

  my mind in rapid succession all the questionings of life and of

  thought, of knowing and of being, that ever have tantalized the mind

  of man . And it seemed to me that only a thin veil was lying between

  me and the answers to them all . It seemed to me that the key of all

  knowledge was lying within my reach; as if the solution of all the

  moral and intellectual riddles that ever have plagued humanity were

  there now ready to my hand; as if all mysteries might be unsealed

  for me in one way, and only one way, and as if that way once again

  were to change my attitude of resistance, if only for a moment, for

  an attitude of acquiescence .

  And now the burning lust of knowledge seemed to grow into a

  force, far exceeding all the other forces that had been brought to

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  bear upon me . Rather it seemed to draw them all up into itself, and

  then to let them loose upon me . And for one dreadful moment I

  felt as if I must surrender . But with a sheer and last effort I offered

  myself to God .

  And then a whisper seemed to speak within, and say that the

  solution of all mysteries was only to be found in the Divine Self-

  Sacrifice. And then it seemed as if the cross and the figure upon the

  cross filled all my sight, and the evil glare of the eyes that had been

  fixed upon me slowly passed away.

  I don’t know if I fainted, I suppose I did, but if I did I was roused

  by a loud and furious curse, and starting into consciousness I saw

  Signor Niccolo looking at me with a look of baffled malignity, ha-

  tred, and fear .

  “Wretch!” he said, “you have resisted me and you must die . And

  yet not now, nor easily . Go back to prison . To-morrow you shall suf-

  fer again all and more than all that you have suffered to-day . You are

  in my power beyond hope of escape; you must yield to me or die .”

  Then he put a little phial to his mouth, and his body seemed first

  to melt and then to boil, and then to pass into a dark vapour, and then

  to disappear almost as quickly as I have written the words .

  After a few minutes I rose to my feet, saying, Thank God! I found

  that I was quite exhausted and scarce able for any exertion . I walked

  very slowly away .

  I soon saw Jack sanding near the foot of the eastern stairway . I

  made a signal to him and he hurried towards me . We met in a few

  minutes more; and in answer to Jack’s look of anxious inquiry, I

  whispered, “I have beaten him,” and Jack said, “Thank God!” and

  strange as it may seem, not another word on that part of the subject

  passed between us for months after .

  We returned to our quarters and rested and refreshed ourselves,

  and then we compared notes briefly. We knew exactly what we had

  to do, and the time was at hand . About an hour before sunset we

  left our quarters for the last time, and wandered about without any

  attempt at concealment, and exchanging only a brief word or two

  now and then .

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  The night came on cloudy and dark, and still we stayed without .

  It was about an hour after dark when we saw such a light as that

  which rested every night before our door moving about hither and

  thither . I seemed as if the bearers of the light were in search of us,

  and we were beginning to wonder how best we should baffle their

  scrutiny. Just then we saw the figures of two men walk up to the door

  of our quarters and enter . Then he door was closed, and the light

  settled down before the door and all was quiet .

  CHAPTER XI

  ESCAPE

  When we saw the light settle down before the door it was about

  eight o’clock, a little more than two hours after sunset . It was very

  cloudy but not absolutely dark . We turned our steps at once toward

  the stair. We had no expectation of any difficulty just yet. The watch

  which was kept upon us during the night was effectually neutralised;

  for the watchers, no doubt, supposed that we were safely housed,

  and that we could not stir without betraying our movements to them .

  Nevertheless, we walked very softly and spoke almost nothing until

  we reached the summit of the stair . Then we stopped and held a very

  brief conference . There were various points of detail as to which it

  was needful that we should understand one another more perfectly .

  But after glancing at them it seemed better that we should make a

  start first, and then we could converse without losing time.

  So we hurried along the platform to the car . It was on the very

  spot where we saw it first, on the evening when we made our first

  voyage in it . Everything was ready . One battery was in position, and

  another lay by it ready to take its place . There was a pocket on one

  side of the car filled with the lozenge-like articles of diet on which

  we had lived since we came here . There were two glasses like that

  with which I had observed the seed-beds, and Jack, after examina-

  tion, pronounced that there was an abundant store of the matters

  required for the production of the gas which was needed for the

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  inflation of the balloons. The light by which we saw all this stood

  in the fore part of the car just over a little binnacle where a compass

  was fixed. Leäfar had more than fulfilled his promise.

  I had noticed before in the cars a framework like this in which

  the compass was housed, but it never struck me what it was for .

  The compass card was very like ours . It had sixteen points only

  instead of thirty-two, and these were distinguished by colours and

  combinations of colours . The light was no doubt electric, for it was

  to all appearance produced by a battery acting on a system of wires .

  The wire did not seem to consume very rapidly, and it was supplied

  by automatic machinery from a large coil fixed under the binnacle.

  I have said “no doubt electric .” I ought to add that the machinery

  which produced the light had no perceptible effect on the ear’s com-

  passes nor yet on mine .

  As soon as we got into the car Jack proceeded to raise it, as Nic-

  colo Davelli had done, by inflating the balloons. This cannot be

  quickly done by any but a practised hand . If one who has had no

  practice tries it, the balloons are apt to get unequally inflated, and

  so the operator in bringing them every now and then to a state of

  equal inflation works the car from side to side with a rolling motion.

  Signor Davelli raised it quickly, without any rolling motion at all .

  This was only the second day of practice for Jack, but he managed

  by raising the car slowly to produce very little of the rolling motion .

  As soon as he had attained what he judged a sufficient height he

  connected the batteries with the paddles, and as the wind was, as

  the sailors say, “dead aft,” we soon began to make very great speed .

  I noticed now a point in the machinery which I had not observed

/>   before . There was a valve to each balloon, and both valves were

  worked by a sort of movable tap, one tap for both . The effect of

  these valves appeared to be the maintenance of the cars at a uniform

  height, or higher or lower as the driver wished . The tap was worked

  by the same machinery that drove the paddles . And if the driver for

  any reason wished to make the balloon act independently of the pad-

  dies he could disconnect the tap which worked the valves from the

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  machinery which worked the paddles . The connection and discon-

  nection was made by a handle within easy reach of the driver .

  After we had got well under way Jack began to speak .

  “Now, Bob,” he said, “do you think that you can steer while I

  speak? I have something to say . Here is the handle that you steer

  by: you see it is fixed so that you pull the way you want to go. That

  bright blue mark on the compass is East . Never mind the balloons, I

  will attend to them if there is need . You will have nothing to do but

  just keep the head of the car due east .”

  I found but little difficulty in managing the car as he directed, and

  after about twenty minutes’ practice I was able to steer and listen at

  the same time .

  Then Jack began, in a business-like manner, “You have seen the

  battery that we are driving by now; very well, here is the spare bat-

  tery which, according to Leäfar’s promise, I find.” He pointed to the

  spare battery, which was placed on a sort of bracket within my sight .

  He took it off, or rather out of, the bracket with his two hands and

  put it back again .

  “I see,” said I, “that it is larger; it seems heavier than the other,

  and in some details different: what of that?”

  “Thereby hangs a tale,” he said . “I have not been able to learn

  anything about the way of making these batteries . Indeed, I did not

  try; there was no time to spare from the more urgent matters . What I

  have learned is that they have two kinds of battery, one much more

  easily made and which wastes very much more quickly, but which

  drives the ears faster while it lasts . That is the sort that we are us-

  ing now. The other sort is more difficult of production and wastes

  very much more slowly, and drives the ears more slowly . On long

  voyages, as I understand, they use the latter sort mainly, reserving

  the former sort for short voyages and for spurts . Now the spare bat-

  tery is of the sort that wastes more slowly and drives the car more

  slowly; whereas it is a battery of the other sort that has been put into

  operation, what does that mean? I don’t know how Leäfar got the

  batteries, and I don’t know what he knows about their use . I think

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  it would not be safe to assume that he is beyond the risk of making

  mistakes . They have to learn things just as we have .”

  “He got the battery for us,” I replied, “and it seems the safer thing

  to conclude that he knows more about it than we do . But what does

  it matter any way?”

  “I’ll tell you as near as I can . Don’t mind a bit of rigmarole or

  what seems to be such . Trust me for coming to the point all the

  time .”

  “Go ahead,” said I .

  “Very well,” he said, “I want to know, or to make as near a guess

  as possible, at two or three things .

  “(1 .) How fast are we going now, and how far are we from the

  wire? or how far were we when we started? That means, how soon

  shall we reach the wire?

  “(2 .) What are we to do if we overshoot the wire? We have no

  way of telling the longitude; my watch indeed is a capital chronom-

  eter, but I have altered it by the sun two or three times as near as I

  could . Besides, we cannot get the sun’s place near enough . Now, if

  we overshoot the wire, we shall either have to cross the continent

  or else to make southward and look out for the Darling or for the

  Murray; or, failing either, for the sea .

  “I do not think that we can have made much more than three

  hundred miles of westing from the Daly Waters, and suppose that

  we are now travelling at the rate of thirty miles an hour, which is not

  unlikely, we ought, if we keep up the rate, to make the wire at seven

  or eight o’clock in the morning . If I have overrated the distance or

  underrated our speed only a little, we may cross the wire before

  sunrise .

  “So far, then, it seems clear to me that we ought to be travelling

  at the slow rate instead of the quick rate . I thought of this before, but

  I saw no means of securing one of the larger batteries, and I knew

  that I could slow the speed of the smaller one .

  “Why don’t I slow it now? you will say . Well, because I found

  the smaller and quicker battery put on, although the other was there:

  why was it put on unless to use all possible speed? I cannot but think

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  that Leäfar considers the prospect of pursuit so great that speed is in

  his view the first necessity. I may be wrong, but, somehow, this view

  of the case makes me unwilling to slow the machinery .”

  “I think you are right,” I said; “still it is quite possible that there

  may be nothing in it . The workers whom Leäfar employs may have

  been simply bidden to secure the batteries, and to put one of them

  on; the difference between the batteries may have been altogether

  overlooked .”

  “It may be so,” he said, “and one must not overlook the possibil-

  ity, but I don’t think it likely .”

  “Then you see something in the presence of the larger battery?”

  “That’s it,” he said . “If only the voyage to the wire were in view

  a second one of the smaller batteries would have given us an ample

  margin for contingencies . I think that the chance of our overshoot-

  ing the wire has been reckoned upon, and for that reason the other

  battery has been provided . The smaller battery wastes in less than

  twenty-four hours, the other lasts, I believe, about four weeks . But

  the speed of the larger is not much more than half the speed of the

  smaller . Now, if we do overshoot the wire, a spare battery of the

  smaller kind would fail us in the midst of the bush, while the larger

  one would enable us to reach some settlement .

  “Just one word more . We are now at full speed, and I found the

  machinery fixed for full speed when we came on board. Besides,

  the wind has not in any way changed since the middle of the day,

  and it is full in our favour now . Our speed is at the very highest, and

  whosoever put in the battery must have known that it would be so;

  even if the wind were to fall the difference would not be very great .

  Now, what do you say?”

  Easterly . I think we must go as we are going until dawn of day

  anyway . If we are not pursued before then, we shall not be pursued

  at all .

  Wilbraham . Why do you think that?

  Easterly . It seems to be the way of these fellows to keep as clear

  of civilis
ed men as is consistent with the pursuit of their malevolent

  purposes .

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  Wilbraham . What do you suppose to be their motive?

  Easterly . Well, it doesn’t seem very far to seek . Among civilised

  men there is very little belief in the existence of such beings; what

  little there is is usually not active, and so far as it is active it attri-

  butes to them, just as the belief of savage men does, powers greatly

  in excess of those which they really possess . Either state of mind is

  highly favourable to their ends, and anything substituted for either; a

  state of mind like neither would of course be avoided by them . They

  might almost live among savages without in any way detracting

  from a highly exaggerated view of their powers; but any decisive

  appearance of them among civilised men; any experience such as

  we have had, if established and accepted, would cause their powers

  to be examined and understood .

  Wilbraham . I see; we should take their measure and know how

  to manage them .

  Easterly . That’s it; as Mr . Morley says of the clergy, we should

  explain them .

  Wilbraham . And that would be worse for them than a sheer denial

  of their existence?

  Easterly . Very much worse . Their motives and purposes would be

  known and canvassed like other matters of fact, and much that holds

  up its head in the world now would be discredited in consequence .

  Wilbraham. In short, we may put our confidence in Leäfar’s

  opinion, and we may conclude that they will not pursue us into the

  clvilised settlements .

  Easterly . I think so, and therefore my opinion is that when day-

  light comes if we find no trace of pursuit we may slack speed, and

  lower the car and look for the wire .

  Wilbraham . Agreed . And now what do you think? Shall we be

  followed?

  Easterly . On the whole I think we shall, but it depends on circum-

  stances that we can only guess at .

  Wilbraham . Why do you think we shall be followed?

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  Easterly . Well, it seems to me likely that patrols of some kind

  are kept, and in that case the absence of the car will be discovered,

  perhaps is now discovered .

  Wilbraham . And what then?

  Easterly . Then our quarters will be searched, and our escape will