Sixty Days to Live

by Dennis Wheatley

  A trap-door in the centre of the living-room led downwards to a lower deck which was also divided into segments. Below it, where the bilge of an ordinary ship would have been, the space was utilised as a fuel tank; as the Ark had a keel which could be lowered to give it direction and an engine which would propel it although, owing to its shape, only in a calm sea at a few knots an hour.

  The lower deck housed the engine-room, the electric-light plant, the heating plant and a number of storerooms which at the moment were chock-full of supplies. In addition to food, which Hemmingway had estimated would last the passengers in the Ark for a couple of months, most of their purchases of seeds and implements and a collapsible canvas boat were packed away there; as well as a number of oxygen cylinders for use in the event of the Ark’s having to remain sealed for any considerable length of time and the air inside it becoming foul. Below decks there was also a baggage room for their spare clothes. Fortunately Hemmingway had had the fore-thought to send his down in advance and those of Derek and Roy had been stored there against their arrival.

  Margery immediately took charge of the kitchen, Oliver began to potter among his scientific instruments, Gervaise busied himself adjusting the ventilators, while Sam went below to test the engines out once more. They had counted on Derek as their engineer but on his non-arrival Sam had spent several hours running over them, as his knowledge of engines was sufficient to enable him to take over at a pinch.

  Now that they were on board the Ark, Lavina and Hemmingway felt the reaction from the strain of the previous days come suddenly upon them in all its strength. They were deadly tired and could hardly keep their heads up. There was nothing which required the urgent attention of either of them, so, at Gervaise’s suggestion, they retired to their cabins to go to bed.

  ‘Look! Look!’ exclaimed Oliver, and Gervaise joined him where he was staring through one of the living-room’s portholes. In the east the sun was now well up and below it, just above the distant trees, gleamed the red monster. It was bigger than the sun and flamed so fiercely that it would have been impossible to have looked at it without some protection for the eyes, but the mica screens provided that; although, even allowing for their colour distortion, it could be seen that the whole park was now transfused with a horrid, unnatural light.

  ‘We shall find the suspense of the next sixteen hours very trying, I fear,’ Gervaise remarked.

  His brother nodded. ‘I suppose you will but to me, of course, the whole thing is quite enthralling. Think of it, Gervaise, the millions of years that this world has been in existence; the æons of time it took to form the rocks. Even the life on our planet is a comparatively modern growth. Then, the great ages of the glacial periods and, coming nearer home to the sort of spans we can appreciate, the rise and fall of the great civilisations; Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, Mexico, Peru, Greece, Rome—the Christian era—a mere flicker of the eyelid in time, but so long to us. This might have occurred at any moment during all those countless years, yet it just happens in our time and we are to have the privilege of witnessing the end of it all at 10.55 to-night.’

  ‘If it does come to that, I shan’t mind for myself.’ Gervaise shrugged. ‘There is very little left in this modern age of cheapjack bluster that appeals to me and, in spite of some difficulty in preserving my own standards, I have managed to have a not unpleasant time; but it’s hard on the younger people who are just beginning their lives and can accept change more readily. Yes, it’s hard on them and I’m hoping, still, that we may escape.’

  Sam, who had just come up from the engine-room, remarked: ‘We wouldn’t stand an earthly if it were really coming slap at us as it appears to be at present; but since it’s not due to hit the earth until long after sunset I think we’ve got a sporting chance.’

  ‘I doubt it.’ Oliver lit one of his long, strong-smelling cheroots. ‘Even though the actual point of impact will be in the northeastern Pacific some hundreds of miles west of Southern California, the shock will be so terrific that I cannot see how the earth can fail to disintegrate.’

  They turned away then and went about their work again; but Sam refused to be depressed. He had reached Stapleton himself, as he had promised Lavina, on the afternoon of the 22nd. When he had failed to find her there he had spent an evening of ever increasing anxiety and sat up all night frantic with worry. To occupy his mind Gervaise had persuaded him to spend the morning of the 23rd overhauling the engines of the Ark, in case Derek failed them; but by midday Sam had been so distraught that he had declared his intention of returning to London. Feeling that if they allowed him to set off in search of Lavina his chances of finding her would be incredibly remote; and that if she arrived after all, as she still might at any time, she would become equally distraught at not finding him there; they had decided to lock him up for his own protection.

  His fifteen hours’ imprisonment had seemed to him like fifteen days, for during them he had conjured up every sort of harrowing vision in which the most frightful calamities had overtaken her. But now that she had arrived, tired yet safe and well, to relieve him of the frightful mental torture he had been suffering for the best part of two days, he felt that the worst positively must be over; that whatever happened he could not suffer like that again and that it would be a rank injustice on the part of Fate to destroy them both within a few hours of their reunion. Yet with him, too, the reaction from strain was setting in and Gervaise persuaded him also to go to bed for a few hours.

  As Sam left them Oliver tried out the wireless but the atmospherics were so bad that they could not get a coherent reception from any station.

  At ten-past eight there was another violent earth tremor. From a placid sheet of water the lake was suddenly broken into a small choppy sea with wavelets swishing up on to its banks, while the Ark began to rock and pull upon its anchors.

  As the Ark consisted of two spheres, one within the other, its inmates hardly felt the shock. The gyroscopes kept the deck steady but they could judge the violence of the tremor by the way the outer sphere gave to it and its portholes oscillated over those of the inner sphere, temporarily making it impossible to see out of the Ark because the two sets of port-holes were no longer directly opposite to each other.

  From that time onward lesser quakes occurred with increasing frequency until eleven when there was the worst upheaval they had so far witnessed, but after it the earth became quiet again. The sun and comet were now blazing from a brazen sky. It was intolerably hot and stuffy so that, although the ventilators of the Ark were fully open, Gervaise and Oliver sat perspiring in their shirt-sleeves and could breathe only with difficulty.

  At Sam’s wish, and with the willing consent of the others, Gervaise had been elected captain of the Ark and at midday he decided to release oxygen in order to revitalise the atmosphere.

  Margery, sweltering in the kitchen but with her usual sense of duty to be done, insisted on cooking them a lunch; but no one except Oliver could do justice to it. Hemmingway, Lavina and Sam, having slept through the morning, were roused for the meal and appeared in dressing-gowns; but all of them were so tense with excitement that they could hardly manage to swallow a few mouthfuls of the food that Margery had cooked.

  After the meal they tried the wireless again but it still gave out only a nerve-racking hotch-potch of unintelligible sounds. Then Sam helped to clear away. With a smile at Lavina, he said:

  ‘Hadn’t you better give Margery a hand in washing-up?’

  She did not return his smile, and it was the first time Sam had known that happen since they had been married. Instead, she almost scowled, glanced down at her beautiful, slender hands, and replied quietly:

  ‘If Margery wants any help she can call me; but if I’ve got to become a charwoman I rather hope the comet does hit us.’

  She would have performed any menial task without complaint for a person she loved, providing it was not expected of her as a daily drudgery, but she saw no reason whatever why she should do anything of the kind when
there was somebody else to do it for them. Margery was used to such things, and didn’t mind them, so Lavina considered that Sam had been extremely tactless in drawing attention to her own laziness.

  In the early afternoon there was another series of earthquake shocks, and, when the outer sphere of the Ark had righted itself again after one which was particularly severe, they were alarmed to see that the level of the lake was lower, and its waters appeared to be seeping away into some invisible chasm below it; but another shock restored the situation as a humped waterspout, about four feet high, suddenly appeared in its centre, and the waters came bubbling back to their original level.

  It was shortly after this that they observed a group of people running across the meadows towards the southern shore of the lake. Through binoculars it was as easy to study them as though they had been at comparatively close quarters. All of them were pouring with perspiration, and clad in the scantiest garments. On reaching the lake-side both women and men tore off their remaining clothes, and plunged into the water.

  ‘It’s the heat,’ said Oliver, tapping the dial of a thermometer which registered the temperature outside the Ark. ‘It’s over 120 degrees in the sun out there, as hot as in the Sahara. They’re trying to cool themselves by taking refuge in the water.’

  ‘Poor wretches,’ sighed Lavina. ‘Can’t we possibly take some of them into the Ark? It’s too awful to see them suffering like that.’

  ‘We’ve only got two spare bunks—those that Roy and Derek should have occupied,’ Sam replied doubtfully.

  But they were not called upon to make any such terrible decision as to whether they should overcrowd the Ark or leave the distraught people to their fate. Another tremor churned up the waters of the lake and, staggering to its banks, the terrified bathers dashed away stark naked over the meadow.

  ‘ “Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad,” ‘quoted Gervaise, ‘and it seems that a merciful god is intervening in this instance. The comet’s rays must be so strong now that everyone exposed to them is probably quite ignorant of what he is doing.’

  Lavina caught Hemmingway’s eye but they both looked quickly away from each other again.

  ‘That’s it,’ agreed Sam, ‘and if they have been driven mad they’ll at least be saved from this awful suspense or any real understanding of what’s happening when the last phase occurs to-night.’

  Sweltering still, they lay about in the easy-chairs while one or other of them continued to keep a look-out through the portholes. It was about half-past four when Margery suddenly cried:

  ‘Look! There’s a car coming.’

  They jumped to their feet and peered out in the direction of the drive, which was visible for some distance until it was hidden where it curved up to the house. A low, long-bonneted car was streaking along it.

  ‘By Jove, it’s mine!’ exclaimed Hemmingway.

  ‘Derek!’ cried Lavina. ‘Derek’s got here after all!’ The car suddenly swerved from the drive, apparently out of control, and came charging down the bank towards them. Leaving the grass it plunged into the water, sending up a great sheet of spray, and wallowed to a halt, half-submerged and with its tyres bogged in mud, about ten feet out from the bank. Its driver was thrown violently forward across the wheel and remained there sagging over it.

  ‘Quick! We must get him!’ cried Sam, as Gervaise sprang to the door of the Ark.

  The second he opened it a blast of hot air surged in, searing them like the breath of a furnace. But the men of the party all scrambled into the punt and started to propel it as swiftly as they could towards the water-logged car. Running to the door the girls watched them as they dragged Derek’s limp body from the wreckage and, having lain it in the bottom of the punt, began to pole back as though all the devils of hell were after them.

  When they reached the Ark perspiration was streaming from them; their shirts were soaking with it and all of them, temporarily affected by the comet’s rays, were laughing or cursing insanely. Gasping, swearing, staggering about like drunken people, they pulled Derek into the Ark and slammed its door shut again.

  It was several moments before the rescuers recovered physically or mentally from their brief adventure, but the two girls carried Derek’s unconscious form into the men’s cabin, bathed his face, undressed him and got him between the sheets in one of the bunks.

  Ten minutes later Gervaise, his handsome, aquiline features unusually grave, came to look at Derek and, after a brief examination, declared that he was suffering from concussion through his head’s having hit the windscreen of the car so hard as he was thrown forward. They did what they could for him and tucked him up; but Gervaise thought it probable that he would not come to for several hours and feared that, when he did, he might have lost his sanity from having been exposed for the whole day to the comet’s rays.

  Unnoticed by them while they had been looking after Derek, the sky had started to cloud over. Great, dense, sharp-edged, thunderous masses were rolling up from the east and the wind was rising.

  By six o’clock both the sun and the comet had been blotted out and the force of the wind had become terrific. They could not hear its screaming as the Ark was now sealed again, but watching through the port-holes they could witness the effect of the gale.

  With greedy insistence the wind was tearing at the leaves of the trees and shrubs in the park. Small branches were being broken off and carried bouncing away across the grass. Many of the smaller trees were bent right over in sharp curves. A great elm was torn up by its roots and crashed to earth. The wind increased to hurricane violence, bushes were uprooted and blown like pieces of paper across the unkempt garden. Tree after tree snapped under the terrific strain.

  The sky was still black but by the discoloration of the mica over the port-holes they knew that the awful red light must still be shining through it. Another ‘quake came and then the rain.

  It streamed down with tropical fury, in such a spate that they could not see a yard beyond the port-holes, and it seemed that the very heavens had opened, just as in the Biblical account of the Flood.

  By seven it had eased a little and great jagged streaks of lightning flashed almost continuously from the pitch-black sky. Even the fact of the Ark being sealed did not prevent the crash of the thunder reaching them. In peal after peal it rolled through the heavens like the echoing broadsides of great guns. The lake was churning like an angry sea and the outer sphere of the Ark was rocking wildly; but its internal platform was still held steady by its gyroscopes and its anchors prevented it from being washed up on the lake shore.

  ‘The house!’ cried Gervaise suddenly. ‘The house!’ And through the murk they saw a red glow up the slope in the distance. Stapleton Court had been struck by lightning and one side of it was burning fiercely.

  A quarter of an hour later the rain ceased and they watched the fire as it ate up the old mansion. Gervaise seemed heartbroken. It had been his home for so many years. He had resorted to so many shifts to keep it out of the clutches of mortgagees; exercised so much ingenuity to preserve it and its parklands from the hands of vandals. Even so sober a man could not quite grip the fact that a roving comet might really destroy the whole earth in a few hours’ time. Somehow he had always felt that after a brief sojourn in the Ark he would return to that beloved home, and now, whatever might befall, that could never be; it was being consumed before his eyes by flames.

  Sam began to mutter useless words of comfort but Lavina promptly stopped him; she knew better than any of them, even Margery, what her father was feeling in those moments.

  The lake had overflowed its banks, flooded by the terrific downpour. On one side it now stretched for half a mile across low-lying meadows, on the other it had risen half-way up the sloping lawn below the house. From time to time earth tremors made it sink or rise with startling suddenness and agitated its waters until they became like a rough sea, while on its shores oaks and elms crashed earthwards.

  By eight o’clock the house wa
s a flaming pile, more than half-consumed; but without warning another cloudburst shut it out from them and the spate of water was so solid that when the torrent eased, just about nine, they saw that it had extinguished the fire in the burning mansion.

  From what little they could see through the still sheeting rain the tempest raged without abatement. The lake was half full of shattered trees which had been blown into it and were now being thrown about upon the heaving waters. Earth tremors shook the land almost without cessation; fork-lightning streaked the skies; earsplitting thunder boomed and reverberated overhead; the fury of the elements was indescribable.

  From the time that they had rescued Derek the inmates of the Ark had thought of nothing but watching the incredibly terrible spectacle which was occurring before them. Hour after hour they had remained by the port-holes peering from them at every opportunity; nobody had even thought of suggesting an evening meal; they had forgotten the time and the fact that the chronometers might be ticking out the last minutes of their lives.

  It was Oliver who recalled them to the probability of their impending fate by saying quietly:

  ‘In case any of you wish to make last-minute preparations, I think I ought to warn you that it is now 10.45. We have only ten minutes to go.’

  They left the port-holes then and looked at each other. It seemed that there was nothing to say, nothing to be done but to commend themselves to the mercy of the Father of all things.

  Oliver alone remained near his instruments checking and recording. Margery went a little apart and, kneeling down, bowed her head in prayer. Sam’s instinct was to follow her example but Lavina stood beside him holding his hand and he did not like to withdraw it. Gervaise had never made his daughters follow a conventional religion. Since Margery liked going to church he showed his tacit approval because he recognised that such devotions took the place of other things for certain types of women but when, at the age of sixteen, Lavina had told him that she did not wish to go to church any more because it bored her, he told her that, in that case, the church had ceased to serve any useful purpose for her. Lavina had never gone again but she was supremely confident that there was a God who would deal justly with her if she died, without her kneeling down to mumble set phrases or personal pleas for assistance.