The Giant Stumbles

by John Lymington

  CHAPTER TWO

  I

  The sea rose in frothing anger. Nigel went out into the streaming rain and turned his face up into the sky, e narrowed against the sudden, tearing flashes of the lighting. In the bright blue glare he could see the piling; mountains of the thunderclouds, monstrous anvils of bright-edged black towering to terrifying heights in the sky. Clouds that had not been there half a minute before. He came back into the room, soaked. Thunder shuddered the building, and when the echoes had raced into the far distance, he said:

  “Well?”

  “I’ve never been so scared of a storm,” said Leila, “get me a drink, Rex.”

  Rex got one, his hands shaking very slightly. Benstead stood by the windows staring out, the folded handkerchief unconsciously held over his mouth.

  “I’ll just see the children,” Hal said, and went out of the room.

  Nigel just stood there, hands in his trousers pockets shirt sticking to him, staring. ’

  “You look all in, Nigel,” Rex said, and added, “I don’t wonder.”

  “I wish it hadn’t come,” Nigel said with sudden fury. “I wish it hadn’t come.”

  The storm stopped abruptly, just as it had the night before.

  “It didn’t move away, you see,” Nigel said. “It didn’t come from anywhere. It just formed over here, and it’s disintegrated over here.”

  Rex went out on to the wet stones of the veranda. The sky was clear again, the darkness lightened to the rising moon.

  “Where were the other storms last night?” he said, coming back.

  “There were four,” said Nigel. “Four, that is, tracked close to or over land. Two others were over sea and not noted. There happened to be no vessel or plane near the centre.”

  “Where….. ”

  “It doesn’t matter so much where,” Leila interrupted. “Have they happened again tonight?”

  “We can find that out,” Nigel said. “I have the calls booked beginning at ten-fifteen.”

  “They happen at the same time all over the world?” Rex asked.

  “Yes. It’s all part of the same outbreak.”

  Rex looked at Benstead.

  “It’s incredible how anyone could have found it out,” Rex said.

  “A great many discoveries—come through luck, Mr. Hason,” Benstead said.

  “It happened right over my head,” Nigel said. “A person without scientific knowledge might have put it down as a phenomenal storm; a freak of nature. I could have done myself, only I got this queer idea from somewhere. I can’t explain that.”

  “No one can explain inspiration,” Leila said impatiently. “What about those phone calls? It’s ten-ten.” Nigel looked at her.

  “Do you really need them?” Benstead said.

  Leila swung round to him, angry; but it was an anger that drained out of her.

  “No,” she said. “I’ve never seen a storm like that and I’ve never heard of anyone who could foresee the time to a few seconds.”

  “All right,” said Rex, an unpleasant sharpness in his voice. “Assume that this is all true. That it’s going to happen. What are we going to do?”

  There was a silence.

  “I believe it’s getting hotter,” said Mr. Benstead. “We’re slightly in the grip of high drama,” said Leila, as if shaking herself free of the hold it had on her. “Rex, go and phone. Let’s be scientific. Say nothing until we have all the facts.”

  Nigel brought a scrap of paper from his pocket.

  “You know where the phone is, Rex,” he said. “Heavens !” Rex said, taking the paper. “Don’t tell me the fate of mankind hangs on a bit of bumf like this.”

  He went out.

  Hal came back. The children had not been disturbed, but she had stayed by herself deliberately, remembering. She remembered what he had said about the barge; how he had been so sure that the buyer would never come to collect it; how he had not worried about Joe’s engagement, because he had known that within a week there would be no lives to worry about.

  Nigel glanced at her as she came in. He could see from the paleness of her face what she had been thinking.

  Leila went out on to the veranda.

  “It’s a beautiful night,” she said. “How on earth can we believe….. ”

  She glanced back uneasily into the room, then went down the steps to the beach. Benstead went out gingerly, as if not sure that he was allowed to, but his attitude showed he found relief in the cooler air out there.

  Nigel went to Hal.

  “You won’t worry too much,” he said.

  She laughed.

  “Darling, what a thing to say !”

  “Well, I don’t know what to say.”

  “I believe that you are right,” she said solemnly. “But don’t believe it can happen to us.”

  “That’s what everybody thinks. They wouldn’t live otherwise.”

  Rex came back sooner than expected.

  “Yup,” he said, bad-temperedly. “Everything as you said.”

  Then he took another drink. He looked sour and angry. Nigel was surprised. He had known Rex a long time but never seen this black side of him.

  II

  Leila came back, and Benstead, who had not left the veranda, looked into the room, glasses shining with uneasiness. Rex announced the news from the telephone.

  “So,” Leila said. “It looks as if Ni’s hit a very unpleasant nail on the head.”

  “It may mean nothing,” Rex said.

  “The figures, Mr. Hason,” said Benstead, his voice quivering a little, as if scared of his boldness.

  “Do you mean that figures are prophets” Rex snapped

  “In this case,” said Nigel, “they are.”

  Rex sat on the arm of a sofa , put his foot on the seat. He almost sneered.

  “Well, so what’s to be done?” he asked.

  All four looked at once to Nigel standing there staring at the carpet.

  “The maximum publicity” he said “people have got to know about this thing”.

  “I see” Rex said, his lip curling.

  “So that’s why I’m here – Laila too”.

  “You control the most widely-read newspaper in this country,” Nigel said. “And Leila has the biggest circulation in the States.”

  Leila came to the box on the table and took a cigarrette. She was very uneasy, and did not look at anyone.

  Rex just sat, resting his arm on his knee, eyes gleaming unpleasantly.

  “The maximum publicity ” he said. “Then what?”

  Nigel shrugged.

  “I don’t know. But in every case of danger man has been able to think of somethin to save himself.

  The more people who know the truth now, the more will have the chance to find the solution to this” .

  “You said gravity would fail,” said Rex

  “Momentarily, yes,” Nigel Said.

  “Buildings will collapse.”

  “They must do.”

  “Then shelters would be no good?”

  “No. Buidings or tunnellings would be obviously useless”.

  “Then what’s left?” Rex said

  It’s possible that a man somewhere will be able to think of a way—providing he knows in time,” Nigel said.

  Rex raised his eyebrows slightly, and gave Leila a quizzical look. She avoided his glance and went and leaned lightly against the window jamb, staring out.

  “So that is what you want us to do?” Rex said.

  “It must be done, mustn’t it?” Nigel said.

  Hal felt a tightness about her heart, as if she sensed the enemy in the room; almost as if Nigel were in danger.

  Rex shook his head slightly.

  “We can’t use a story like that, Nigel,” he said, with an edge to his voice.

  “You can’t use … ?” Nigel was shocked into speechlessness. “Do you realize how serious it is ?”

  “Of course I do ! ” Rex snapped. “I realize now that I may be dead next week. Bu
t all the same I’m not committing suicide now.”

  “I don’t understand,” said Nigel, shaking his head slowly.

  “My advertisers won’t like that kind of story,” said Rex slowly.

  “Your advertisers?” Nigel repeated, eyes widening.

  “My advertisers,” said Rex. “They keep my paper going, Nigel. I have to look after them. News like this would stop the public buying goods, to mention only one thing.”

  “But at the end of five days they won’t be able to buy anyway!” Nigel said.

  “We can’t run a paper on those lines, old boy. We have to assume that life goes on. Look. Suppose I run this story, and it doesn’t happen. My advertisers will have pulled out. And I shan’t get any more. So I shan’t have any paper. I wouldn’t take a risk like that.”

  Helpless, Nigel looked at Leila. She had turned her head and was looking over her shoulder at him. She understood his glance and shrugged very slightly.

  “Who could do it then?” Nigel said, turning angrily back to Rex.

  “Nobody,” he said. “What applies to me applies to all the rest. We could only publish such a yarn if the Government turned the heat on us, and I can’t see them doing that.”

  Leila turned back.

  “Are we the only ones who know?” she asked.

  Nigel did not answer, but the reply was plain. He had come directly to the two people who controlled the greatest circulations, whose influence could have got the warning round the world within hours.

  “This would apply to every paper everywhere,” he said.

  “Every one with a circulation,” Rex said. “And nobody takes any notice of the little ones. They don’t live long enough.”

  Nigel became suddenly angry.

  “But it’s got to be done!” he cried. “This is catastrophe! People must be warned! It’s the only chance there is of finding someone who will know what to do to save a few!”

  “There’s just one point,” Leila said. “Is it possible to negative this charge—this electricity in the earth, or whatever it is?”

  Nigel shook his head.

  “No. It’s gone too far for that. There’s nothing that could be done to stop it. All that might possibly be done is to find a way to save as much life as possible.”

  “Try Auntie B.B.C.,” said Rex ironically. “They might play. No use trying the commercial nets. They wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole.”

  “I’ve never worked for the B.B.C.,” Nigel said, staring at nothing. “I’ve only worked with Independent.”

  “I don’t say B.B.C. will do it either,” Rex said. “The danger is that these calculations are at fault and nothing will happen.”

  “There is no fault,” said Benstead hollowly.

  Rex shrugged.

  There was a silence, terrible and almost unbearable. Hal felt herself on the edge of a violent shudder and desperately sought escape.

  “Well, whatever’s going to happen, we must eat,” she said, getting up. “I’ve got snacks ready.”

  She went to the door.

  “I’ll give you a hand, Hal,” Nigel said.

  He went out in the silence and closed the door behind them. In the kitchen, empty since Mrs. Barnes had done her duty and gone, white napkin-covered trays of snacks stood on the table.

  Nigel caught Hal in his arms and looked furiously at her. “They’re going to try and suppress it,” he said desperately. “Do you see that?”

  “It’s obvious,” she said. “But everybody like them will do the same thing. No one will dare to do it, even for a stunt.”

  “A stunt!” he said bitterly. “Good God!”

  She squeezed him.

  “We’ll think of a way,” she said. “You mustn’t worry.” “Nobody may be able to think of anything—any way to dodge it,” he said, anxiously. “But there’s just a chance. We can’t throw it away. It might mean the only chance of saving mankind for the next million years!”

  “I don’t care about a million years,” Hal said, shaking her head. “We’ve just got to try and save somebody now.”

  He looked intently at her.

  “You do believe me, don’t you?”

  “Yes.” She looked very solemn. “Yes, I do. No man can call up storms like that……” she shivered suddenly. “It was horrible. There weren’t any clouds, Nigel! There weren’t any clouds until it started!” She buried her face against his shoulder. She was scared and bewildered; the day had been too much; though this last shock was unreal, it capped the uneasiness of the day and the shock of Joe’s engagement.

  He held her tightly.

  “We must think of another way,” he said huskily.

  She recovered and looked up at him, her eyes bright and wet.

  “Your friends—you know, the scientists and people. You must get them together. Make them—spread it round. You know—get them to publish it somehow— anyhow!”

  His eyes grew keener, the dullness of frustration passing.

  “By heaven, yes!” he said. “You’ve got it, Hal! That’s what I should have done at the start. I can get them on the phone. Several of ’em anyway … Why didn’t I think of that?”

  She went to get ice from the fridge. He marvelled at the ordinariness of the things she was doing.

  “I wish they hadn’t come,” he said.

  She looked at him suddenly.

  “Why? I think finding out their views was important. You would never have guessed it.”

  “Do you think they believe me?” he asked.

  She held the ice tray under the hot tap a moment, every action normal.

  “I think they do but I don’t think they want to.”

  “Nobody will want to,” he said.

  He walked to the window and looked out at the still night.

  “Do you know, Hal, I don’t understand why I believe it myself.”

  “What do you mean ? It’s the figures that prove it.”

  “No. I knew it was true before anything was worked out. I knew last night, but I don’t know why. Do you know, at first I thought I must be going mad, believing a thing like that. But then when I found all the facts slotted in—I felt, I don’t know how to explain it. Queer. Almost as if my own head wasn’t mine.”

  He put his hands to his temples and shut his eyes.

  “Hal, I must do it now. There’s Murray at the Californian Institute. I’ll get him first. I’ll tell him. See what he says. There may be a flaw, but if there is, I don’t know where it is. I’ll have to leave you with the visitors.”

  “That doesn’t matter.”

  He kissed her and turned to the door. He stopped as if to say something, then went on out. He went through the passage door and down to the soft lawn. He heard an animal rustle in a hutch. The moon was bright then, and the house cast inky shadows. He entered the door at the foot of the tower and went up the broad white stairs to The Bin.

  He switched on a green-shaded light and sat down at the desk where his typewriter, the telephone, his note blocks and pens lay. To either side his radio apparatus ranged out, dials gleaming neutral in the green shadows beyond the pale. On three sides the moonlit sea and the beach showed, stretching out beneath the deep shelter of the eaves.

  He reached out for the phone when the door behind him opened. He heard it and looked round. The man standing there was no more than a shadow as he closed the door behind him and stood with his back against it.

  “Don’t ring anybody, Ni,” Rex said. There was a queer tinge to his voice that touched Nigel like the edge of a razor.

  “What the hell, Rex?” he said, blankly.

  “You’ve got to sit on that story of yours, Ni,” said Rex.

  “You don’t understand, Rex. This isn’t a story. This is something that’s going to happen.”

  “I’ll take the risk,” Rex said.

  Nigel sat back in the chair.

  “You mean that you’re going to try and stop me broad-casting this?”

  “I shall stop you,” Rex said,
with ominous quietness.

  “But why, man, why?”

  “I don’t care if it’s true or not, Ni,” Rex said. “You may be right. You’re out of this world anyhow. You must be, or you’d realize what will happen if you prove your case. People aren’t rational. It isn’t only the advertisers who’ll react. I will. People will. If they get to believe what you tell them, they’ll start to panic. There’ll be a run on the banks, a sell-out on the Stock Exchange, because when they think anything might happen they want what’s theirs. Even I want that, Ni. I’m pretty rich, one way and another, but it’s all invested. The story you’ve got could skin me in a day. And I don’t want to be. skint before I die. I’m taking the risk I’m going to live, whatever happens to the world.”

  Nigel grinned bitterly.

  “You don’t believe me, do you?” he said.

  Rex came forward slowly, and Nigel saw the strange gleam in his eyes, shining yellow in the light.

  “I do, Ni, I do,” he said between his teeth. “I believe that you’re on a right track. I don’t know how you got there, but there’s something about you tonight that’s almost—holy. I don’t think you understand it yourself. You’ve caught some spark from somewhere and it’s bloody near electrocuted me—but not quite. I’ll take your word as to what’s going to happen because I don’t believe you know where that spark came from. As these storms go on, more and more people will believe you—if they get to know. I’m like everybody else. I don’t believe that it’s going to happen to me, and because I don’t believe in my mortality, I’m not skinning myself before the day. I’m taking the chance of getting my money out before anyone else knows. Do you get me?”

  Nigel saw a streak of sweat run down the side of the man’s face.

  “But you can’t stop me! ” Nigel said.

  He saw Rex’s fists bunch in his jacket pockets.

  “I will stop you, Ni,” Rex said.

  “You’d put your own interest before—before everyone’s?”

  “Why should I care about everyone ?” Rex said.