Chapter II
THE TIDE OF DEATH
As we crossed the hall the telephone-bell rang, and we were the
involuntary auditors of Professor Challenger's end of the
ensuing dialogue. I say "we," but no one within a hundred yards
could have failed to hear the booming of that monstrous voice,
which
reverberated through the house. His answers lingered in my mind.
"Yes, yes, of course, it is I.... Yes, certainly, THE Professor
Challenger, the famous Professor, who else?... Of course, every
word of it, otherwise I should not have written it.... I
shouldn't be surprised.... There is every indication of it....
Within a day or so at the furthest.... Well, I can't help that,
can I?... Very unpleasant, no doubt, but I rather fancy it will
affect more important people than you. There is no use whining
about it.... No, I couldn't possibly. You must take your
chance.... That's enough, sir. Nonsense! I have something more
important to do than to listen to such twaddle."
He shut off with a crash and led us upstairs into a large airy
apartment which formed his study. On the great mahogany desk
seven or eight unopened telegrams were lying.
"Really," he said as he gathered them up, "I begin to think that
it would save my correspondents' money if I were to adopt a
telegraphic address. Possibly `Noah, Rotherfield,' would be the
most appropriate."
As usual when he made an obscure joke, he leaned against the
desk and bellowed in a paroxysm of laughter, his hands shaking
so that he could hardly open the envelopes.
"Noah! Noah!" he gasped, with a face of beetroot, while Lord
John and I smiled in sympathy and Summerlee, like a dyspeptic
goat, wagged his head in sardonic disagreement. Finally
Challenger, still rumbling and exploding, began to open his
telegrams. The three of us stood in the bow window and occupied
ourselves in admiring the magnificent view.
It was certainly worth looking at. The road in its gentle curves
had really brought us to a considerable elevation--seven hundred
feet, as we afterwards discovered. Challenger's house was on the
very edge of the hill, and from its southern face, in which was
the study window, one looked across the vast stretch of the
weald to where the gentle curves of the South Downs formed an
undulating horizon. In a cleft of the hills a haze of smoke
marked the position of Lewes. Immediately at our feet there lay
a rolling plain of heather, with the long, vivid green stretches
of the Crowborough golf course, all dotted with the players. A
little to the south, through an opening in the woods, we could
see a section of the main line from London to Brighton. In the
immediate foreground, under our very noses, was a small enclosed
yard, in which stood the car which had brought us from the
station.
An ejaculation from Challenger caused us to turn. He had read
his telegrams and had arranged them in a little methodical pile
upon his desk. His broad, rugged face, or as much of it as was
visible over the matted beard, was still deeply flushed, and he
seemed to be under the influence of some strong excitement.
"Well, gentlemen," he said, in a voice as if he was addressing
a public meeting, "this is indeed an interesting reunion, and it
takes place under extraordinary--I may say
unprecedented--circumstances. May I ask if you have observed
anything upon your journey from town?"
"The only thing which I observed," said Summerlee with a sour
smile, "was that our young friend here has not improved in his
manners during the years that have passed. I am sorry to state
that I have had to seriously complain of his conduct in the
train, and I should be wanting in frankness if I did not say
that it has left a most unpleasant impression in my mind."
"Well, well, we all get a bit prosy sometimes," said Lord John.
"The young fellah meant no real harm. After all, he's an
International, so if he takes half an hour to describe a game of
football he has more right to do it than most folk."
"Half an hour to describe a game!" I cried indignantly. "Why, it
was you that took half an hour with some long-winded story about
a buffalo. Professor Summerlee will be my witness."
"I can hardly judge which of you was the most utterly wearisome,"
said Summerlee. "I declare to you, Challenger, that I never wish
to hear of football or of buffaloes so long as I live."
"I have never said one word to-day about football," I protested.
Lord John gave a shrill whistle, and Summerlee shook his head
sadly.
"So early in the day too," said he. "It is indeed deplorable.
As
I sat there in sad but thoughtful silence----"
"In silence!" cried Lord John. "Why, you were doin' a music-hall
turn of imitations all the way--more like a runaway gramophone
than a man."
Summerlee drew himself up in bitter protest.
"You are pleased to be facetious, Lord John," said he with a
face of vinegar.
"Why, dash it all, this is clear madness," cried Lord John.
"Each of us seems to know what the others did and none of us
knows what he did himself. Let's put it all together from the
first. We got into a first-class smoker, that's clear, ain't
it? Then we began to quarrel over friend Challenger's letter in
the Times."
"Oh, you did, did you?" rumbled our host, his eyelids beginning
to droop.
"You said, Summerlee, that there was no possible truth in his
contention."
"Dear me!" said Challenger, puffing out his chest and stroking
his beard. "No possible truth! I seem to have heard the words
before. And may I ask with what arguments the great and famous
Professor Summerlee proceeded to demolish the humble individual
who had ventured to express an opinion upon a matter of
scientific possibility? Perhaps before he exterminates that
unfortunate nonentity he will condescend to give some reasons
for the adverse views which he has formed."
He bowed and shrugged and spread open his hands as he spoke with
his elaborate and elephantine sarcasm.
"The reason was simple enough," said the dogged Summerlee. "I
contended that if the ether surrounding the earth was so toxic
in one quarter that it produced dangerous symptoms, it was
hardly likely that we three in the railway carriage should be
entirely unaffected."
The explanation only brought uproarious merriment from
Challenger. He laughed until everything in the room seemed to
rattle and quiver.
"Our worthy Summerlee is, not for the first time, somewhat out
of touch with the facts of the situation," said he at last,
mopping his heated brow. "Now, gentlemen, I cannot make my point
better than by detailing to you what I have myself done this
morning. You will the more easily condone any mental abberation
upon your own part when you realize that even I have had moments
when my balance has been disturbed. We have had for some years
in this household a housekeeper--one Sarah, with whose second
name I have never attempted to burden my memory. She is a woman
of a severe and forbidding aspect, prim and demure in her
bearing, very impassive in her nature, and never known within
our experience to show signs of any emotion. As I sat alone at
my breakfast--Mrs. Challenger is in the habit of keeping her
room of a morning--it suddenly entered my head that it would be
entertaining and instructive to see whether I could find any
limits to this woman's inperturbability. I devised a simple but
effective experiment. Having upset a small vase of flowers which
stood in the centre of the cloth, I rang the bell and slipped
under the table. She entered and, seeing the room empty,
imagined that I had withdrawn to the study. As I had expected,
she approached and leaned over the table to replace the vase. I
had a vision of a cotton stocking and an elastic-sided boot.
Protruding my head, I sank my teeth into the calf of her leg.
The experiment was successful beyond belief. For some moments
she stood paralyzed, staring down at my head. Then with a shriek
she tore herself free and rushed from the room. I pursued her
with some thoughts of an explanation, but she flew down the
drive, and some minutes afterwards I was able to pick her out
with my field-glasses traveling very rapidly in a south-westerly
direction. I tell you the anecdote for what it is worth. I drop
it into your brains and await its germination. Is it
illuminative? Has it conveyed anything to your minds? What do
YOU think of it, Lord John?"
Lord John shook his head gravely.
"You'll be gettin' into serious trouble some of these days if
you don't put a brake on," said he.
"Perhaps you have some observation to make, Summerlee?"
"You should drop all work instantly, Challenger, and take three
months in a German watering-place," said he.
"Profound! Profound!" cried Challenger. "Now, my young friend,
is it possible that wisdom may come from you where your seniors
have so signally failed?"
And it did. I say it with all modesty, but it did. Of course,
it
all seems obvious enough to you who know what occurred, but it
was not so very clear when everything was new. But it came on me
suddenly with the full force of absolute conviction.
"Poison!" I cried.
Then, even as I said the word, my mind flashed back over the
whole morning's experiences, past Lord John with his buffalo,
past my own hysterical tears, past the outrageous conduct of
Professor Summerlee, to the queer happenings in London, the row
in the park, the driving of the chauffeur, the quarrel at the
oxygen warehouse. Everything fitted suddenly into its place.
"Of course," I cried again. "It is poison. We are all
poisoned."
"Exactly," said Challenger, rubbing his hands, "we are all
poisoned. Our planet has swum into the poison belt of ether, and
is now flying deeper into it at the rate of some millions of
miles a minute. Our young friend has expressed the cause of all
our troubles and perplexities in a single word, `poison.'"
We looked at each other in amazed silence. No comment seemed to
meet the situation.
"There is a mental inhibition by which such symptoms can be
checked and controlled," said Challenger. "I cannot expect to
find it developed in all of you to the same point which it has
reached in me, for I suppose that the strength of our different
mental processes bears some proportion to each other.
But no doubt it is appreciable even in our young friend here.
After the little outburst of high spirits which so alarmed my
domestic I sat down and reasoned with myself. I put it to myself
that I had never before felt impelled to bite any of my
household. The impulse had then been an abnormal one. In an
instant I perceived the truth. My pulse upon examination was ten
beats above the usual, and my reflexes were increased. I called
upon my higher and saner self, the real G. E. C., seated serene
and impregnable behind all mere molecular disturbance. I
summoned him, I say, to watch the foolish mental tricks
which the poison would play. I found that I was indeed the
master. I could recognize and control a disordered mind. It was
a remarkable exhibition of the victory of mind over matter, for
it was a victory over that particular form of matter which is
most intimately connected with mind. I might almost say that
mind was at fault and that personality controlled it. Thus, when
my wife came downstairs and I was impelled to slip behind the
door and alarm her by some wild cry as she entered, I was able
to stifle the impulse and to greet her with dignity and
restraint. An overpowering desire to quack like a duck was met
and mastered in the same fashion.
Later, when I descended to order the car and found Austin
bending over it absorbed in repairs, I controlled my open hand
even after I had lifted it and refrained from giving him an
experience which would possibly have caused him to follow in the
steps of the housekeeper. On the contrary, I touched him on the
shoulder and ordered the car to be at the door in time to meet
your train. At the present instant I am most forcibly tempted to
take Professor Summerlee by that silly old beard of his and to
shake his head violently backwards and forwards. And yet, as you
see, I am perfectly restrained. Let me commend my example to
you."
"I'll look out for that buffalo," said Lord John.
"And I for the football match."
"It may be that you are right, Challenger," said Summerlee in a
chastened voice. "I am willing to admit that my turn of mind is
critical rather than constructive and that I am not a ready
convert to any new theory, especially when it happens to be so
unusual and fantastic as this one. However, as I cast my mind
back over the events of the morning, and as I reconsider the
fatuous conduct of my companions, I find it easy to believe that
some poison of an exciting kind was responsible for their
symptoms."
Challenger slapped his colleague good-humouredly upon the
shoulder. "We progress," said he. "Decidedly we progress."
"And pray, sir," asked Summerlee humbly, "what is your opinion
as to the present outlook?"
"With your permission I will say a few words upon that subject."
He seated himself upon his desk, his short, stumpy legs swinging
in front of him. "We are assisting at a tremendous and awful
function. It is, in my opinion, the end of the world."
The end of the world! Our eyes turned to the great bow-window
and we looked out at the summer beauty of the country-side, the
long slopes of heather, the great country-houses, the cozy
farms, the pleasure-seekers upon the links.
The end of the world! One had often heard the words, but the
idea that they could ever have an immediate practical
significance, that it should not be at some vague date, but now,
to-day, that was a tremendous, a staggering thought. We were all
struck solemn and waited in silence for Challenger to continue.
His overpowering presence and appearance lent such force to the
solemnity of his words that for a moment all the crudities and
absurdities of the man vanished, and he loomed before us as
something majestic and beyond the range of ordinary humanity.
Then to me, at least, there came back the cheering recollection
of how twice since we had entered the room he had roared with
laughter. Surely, I thought, there are limits to mental
detachment. The crisis cannot be so great or so pressing after
all.
`You will conceive a bunch of grapes," said he, "which are
covered by some infinitesimal but noxious bacillus. The gardener
passes it through a disinfecting medium. It may be that he
desires his grapes to be cleaner. It may be that he needs space
to breed some fresh bacillus less noxious than the last. He dips
it into the poison and they are gone. Our Gardener is, in my
opinion, about to dip the solar system, and the human bacillus,
the little mortal vibrio which twisted and wriggled upon the
outer rind of the earth, will in an instant be sterilized out of
existence."
Again there was silence. It was broken by the high trill of the
telephone-bell.
"There is one of our bacilli squeaking for help," said he with
a grim smile. "They are beginning to realize that their
continued
existence is not really one of the necessities of the universe."
He was gone from the room for a minute or two. I remember that
none of us spoke in his absence. The situation seemed beyond all
words or comments.
"The medical officer of health for Brighton," said he when he
returned. "The symptoms are for some reason developing more
rapidly upon the sea level. Our seven hundred feet of elevation
give us an advantage. Folk seem to have learned that I am the
first authority upon the question. No doubt it comes from my
letter in the Times. That was the mayor of a provincial town
with whom I talked when we first arrived. You may have heard me
upon the telephone. He seemed to put an entirely inflated value
upon his own life. I helped him to readjust his ideas."
Summerlee had risen and was standing by the window. His thin,
bony hands were trembling with his emotion.
"Challenger," said he earnestly, "this thing is too serious for
mere futile argument. Do not suppose that I desire to irritate
you by any question I may ask. But I put it to you whether there
may not be some fallacy in your information or in your
reasoning. There is the sun shining as brightly as ever in the
blue sky. There are the heather and the flowers and the birds.
There are the folk enjoying themselves upon the golf-links and
the laborers yonder cutting the corn. You tell us that they and
we may be upon the very brink of destruction--that this sunlit
day may be that day of doom which the human race has so long
awaited. So far as we know, you found this tremendous judgment
upon what? Upon some abnormal lines in a spectrum--upon rumours
from Sumatra--upon some curious personal excitement which we have
discerned in each other. This latter symptom is not so marked
but that you and we could, by a deliberate effort, control it.
You need not stand on ceremony with us, Challenger. We have all
faced death together before now. Speak out, and let us know
exactly where we stand, and what, in your opinion, are our
prospects for our future."
It was a brave, good speech, a speech from that stanch and
strong spirit which lay behind all the acidities and
angularities of the old zoologist. Lord John rose and shook him
by the hand.
"My sentiment to a tick," said he. "Now, Challenger, it's up to
you to tell us where we are. We ain't nervous folk, as you know
well; but when it comes to makin' a week-end visit and finding
you've run full butt into the Day of Judgment, it wants a bit of
explainin'. What's the danger, and how much of it is there, and
what are we goin' to do to meet it?"
He stood, tall and strong, in the sunshine at the window, with
his brown hand upon the shoulder of Summerlee. I was lying back
in an armchair, an extinguished cigarette between my lips, in
that sort of half-dazed state in which impressions become
exceedingly distinct. It may have been a new phase of the
poisoning, but the delirious promptings had all passed away and
were succeeded by an exceedingly languid and, at the same time,
perceptive state of mind. I was a spectator. It did not seem to
be any personal concern of mine. But here were three strong men
at a great crisis, and it was fascinating to observe them.
Challenger bent his heavy brows and stroked his beard before he
answered. One could see that he was very carefully weighing his
words.
"What was the last news when you left London?" he asked.
"I was at the Gazette office about ten," said I. "There was a
Reuter just come in from Singapore to the effect that the
sickness seemed to be universal in Sumatra and that the
lighthouses had not been lit in consequence."
"Events have been moving somewhat rapidly since then," said
Challenger, picking up his pile of telegrams. "I am in close
touch both with the authorities and with the press, so that news
is converging upon me from all parts. There is, in fact, a
general and very insistent demand that I should come to London;
but I see no good end to be served. From the accounts the
poisonous effect begins with mental excitement; the rioting in
Paris this morning is said to have been very violent, and the
Welsh colliers are in a state of uproar. So far as the evidence
to hand can be trusted, this stimulative stage, which varies
much in races and in individuals, is succeeded by a certain
exaltation and mental lucidity--I seem to discern some signs of
it in our young friend here--which, after an appreciable
interval, turns to coma, deepening rapidly into death. I fancy,
so far as my toxicology carries me, that there are some
vegetable nerve poisons----"
"Datura," suggested Summerlee.
"Excellent!" cried Challenger. "It would make for scientific
precision if we named our toxic agent. Let it be daturon. To
you, my dear Summerlee, belongs the honour--posthumous, alas, but
none the less unique--of having given a name to the universal
destroyer, the Great Gardener's disinfectant. The symptoms of
daturon, then, may be taken to be such as I indicate. That it
will involve the whole world and that no life can possibly
remain behind seems to me to be certain, since ether is a
universal medium. Up to now it has been capricious in the places
which it has attacked, but the difference is only a matter of a
few hours, and it is like an advancing tide which covers one
strip of sand and then another, running hither and thither in
irregular streams, until at last it has submerged it all. There
are laws at work in connection with the action and distribution
of daturon which would have been of deep interest had the time
at our disposal permitted us to study them. So far as I can
trace them"--here he glanced over his telegrams--"the less
developed races have been the first to respond to its influence.
There are deplorable accounts from Africa, and the Australian
aborigines appear to have been already exterminated. The
Northern races have as yet shown greater resisting power than
the Southern. This, you see, is dated from Marseilles at
nine-forty-five this morning. I give it to you verbatim:--
"`All night delirious excitement throughout Provence. Tumult of
vine growers at Nimes. Socialistic upheaval at Toulon. Sudden
illness attended by coma attacked population this morning.
PESTE FOUDROYANTE. Great numbers of dead in the streets.
Paralysis of business and universal chaos.'
"An hour later came the following, from the same source:--
"`We are threatened with utter extermination. Cathedrals and
churches full to overflowing. The dead outnumber the living. It
is inconceivable and horrible. Decease seems to be painless, but
swift and inevitable.'
"There is a similar telegram from Paris, where the development
is not yet as acute. India and Persia appear to be utterly wiped
out. The Slavonic population of Austria is down, while the
Teutonic has hardly been affected. Speaking generally, the
dwellers upon the plains and upon the seashore seem, so far as
my limited information goes, to have felt the effects more
rapidly than those inland or on the heights. Even a little
elevation makes a considerable difference, and perhaps if there
be a survivor of the human race, he will again be found upon the
summit of some Ararat. Even our own little hill may presently
prove to be a temporary island amid a sea of disaster. But at
the
present rate of advance a few short hours will submerge us all."
Lord John Roxton wiped his brow.
"What beats me," said he, "is how you could sit there laughin'
with that stack of telegrams under your hand. I've seen death as
often as most folk, but universal death--it's awful!"
"As to the laughter," said Challenger, "you will bear in mind
that, like yourselves, I have not been exempt from the
stimulating cerebral effects of the etheric poison. But as to
the horror with which universal death appears to inspire you, I
would put it to you that it is somewhat exaggerated. If you were
sent to sea alone in an open boat to some unknown destination,
your heart might well sink within you. The isolation, the
uncertainty, would oppress you. But if your voyage were made in
a goodly ship, which bore within it all your relations and your
friends, you would feel that, however uncertain your destination
might still remain, you would at least have one common and
simultaneous experience which would hold you to the end in the
same close communion. A lonely death may be terrible, but a
universal one, as painless as this would appear to be, is not,
in my judgment, a matter for apprehension. Indeed, I could
sympathize with the person who took the view that the horror lay
in the idea of surviving when all that is learned, famous, and
exalted had passed away."
"What, then, do you propose to do?" asked Summerlee, who had for
once nodded his assent to the reasoning of his brother scientist.
"To take our lunch," said Challenger as the boom of a gong
sounded through the house. "We have a cook whose omelettes are
only excelled by her cutlets. We can but trust that no cosmic
disturbance has dulled her excellent abilities. My Scharzberger
of '96 must also be rescued, so far as our earnest and united
efforts can do it, from what would be a deplorable waste of a
great vintage." He levered his great bulk off the desk, upon
which he had sat while he announced the doom of the planet.
"Come," said he. "If there is little time left, there is the
more need that we should spend it in sober and reasonable
enjoyment."
And, indeed, it proved to be a very merry meal. It is true that
we could not forget our awful situation. The full solemnity of
the event loomed ever at the back of our minds and tempered our
thoughts. But surely it is the soul which has never faced death
which shies strongly from it at the end. To each of us men it
had, for one great epoch in our lives, been a familiar presence.
As to the lady, she leaned upon the strong guidance of her
mighty husband and was well content to go whither his path might
lead. The future was our fate. The present was our own. We
passed it in goodly comradeship and gentle merriment. Our minds
were, as I have said, singularly lucid. Even I struck sparks at
times. As to Challenger, he was wonderful! Never have I so
realized the elemental greatness of the man, the sweep and power
of his understanding. Summerlee drew him on with his chorus of
subacid criticism, while Lord John and I laughed at the contest
and the lady, her hand upon his sleeve, controlled the
bellowings of the philosopher. Life, death, fate, the destiny of
man--these were the stupendous subjects of that memorable hour,
made vital by the fact that as the meal progressed strange,
sudden exaltations in my mind and tinglings in my limbs
proclaimed that the invisible tide of death was slowly and
gently rising around us. Once I saw Lord John put his hand
suddenly to his eyes, and once Summerlee dropped back for an
instant in his chair. Each breath we breathed was charged with
strange forces. And yet our minds were happy and at ease.
Presently Austin laid the cigarettes upon the table and was
about to withdraw.
"Austin!" said his master.
"Yes, sir?"
"I thank you for your faithful service." A smile stole over the
servant's gnarled face.
"I've done my duty, sir."
"I'm expecting the end of the world to-day, Austin."
"Yes, sir. What time, sir?"
"I can't say, Austin. Before evening."
"Very good, sir."
The taciturn Austin saluted and withdrew. Challenger lit a
cigarette, and, drawing his chair closer to his wife's, he
took her hand in his.
"You know how matters stand, dear," said he. "I have explained
it also to our friends here. You're not afraid are you?"
"It won't be painful, George?"
"No more than laughing-gas at the dentist's. Every time you have
had it you have practically died."
"But that is a pleasant sensation."
"So may death be. The worn-out bodily machine can't record its
impression, but we know the mental pleasure which lies in a
dream or a trance. Nature may build a beautiful door and hang it
with many a gauzy and shimmering curtain to make an entrance to
the new life for our wondering souls. In all my probings of the
actual, I have always found wisdom and kindness at the core; and
if ever the frightened mortal needs tenderness, it is surely as
he makes the passage perilous from life to life. No, Summerlee,
I will have none of your materialism, for I, at least, am too
great a thing to end in mere physical constituents, a packet of
salts and three bucketfuls of water. Here--here"--and he beat
his great head with his huge, hairy fist--"there is something
which uses matter, but is not of it--something which might
destroy death, but which death can never destroy."
"Talkin' of death," said Lord John. "I'm a Christian of sorts,
but it seems to me there was somethin' mighty natural in those
ancestors of ours who were buried with their axes and bows and
arrows and the like, same as if they were livin' on just the
same as they used to. I don't know," he added, looking round the
table in a shamefaced way, "that I wouldn't feel more homely
myself if I was put away with my old .450 Express and the
fowlin'-piece, the shorter one with the rubbered stock, and a
clip or two of cartridges--just a fool's fancy, of course, but
there it is. How does it strike you, Herr Professor?"
"Well," said Summerlee, "since you ask my opinion, it strikes me
as an indefensible throwback to the Stone Age or before it. I'm
of the twentieth century myself, and would wish to die like a
reasonable civilized man. I don't know that I am more afraid of
death than the rest of you, for I am an oldish man, and, come
what may, I can't have very much longer to live; but it is all
against my nature to sit waiting without a struggle like a sheep
for the butcher. Is it quite certain, Challenger, that there is
nothing we can do?"
"To save us--nothing," said Challenger. "To prolong our lives a
few hours and thus to see the evolution of this mighty tragedy
before we are actually involved in it--that may prove to be
within my powers. I have taken certain steps----"
"The oxygen?"
"Exactly. The oxygen."
"But what can oxygen effect in the face of a poisoning of the
ether? There is not a greater difference in quality between a
brick-bat and a gas than there is between oxygen and ether. They
are different planes of matter. They cannot impinge upon one
another. Come, Challenger, you could not defend such a
proposition."
"My good Summerlee, this etheric poison is most certainly
influenced by material agents. We see it in the methods and
distribution of the outbreak. We should not A PRIORI have
expected it, but it is undoubtedly a fact. Hence I am strongly
of opinion that a gas like oxygen, which increases the vitality
and the resisting power of the body, would be extremely likely
to delay the action of what you have so happily named the
daturon. It may be that I am mistaken, but I have every
confidence in the correctness of my reasoning."
"Well," said Lord John, "if we've got to sit suckin' at those
tubes like so many babies with their bottles, I'm not takin'
any."
"There will be no need for that," Challenger answered. "We have
made arrangements--it is to my wife that you chiefly owe
it--that her boudoir shall be made as airtight as is
practicable. With matting and varnished paper."
"Good heavens, Challenger, you don't suppose you can keep out
ether with varnished paper?"
"Really, my worthy friend, you are a trifle perverse in missing
the
point. It is not to keep out the ether that we have gone to such
trouble. It is to keep in the oxygen. I trust that if we can
ensure an atmosphere hyper-oxygenated to a certain point, we may
be able to retain our senses. I had two tubes of the gas and you
have brought me three more. It is not much, but it is
something."
"How long will they last?"
"I have not an idea. We will not turn them on until our symptoms
become unbearable. Then we shall dole the gas out as it is
urgently needed. It may give us some hours, possibly even some
days, on which we may look out upon a blasted world. Our own
fate is delayed to that extent, and we will have the very
singular experience, we five, of being, in all probability, the
absolute rear guard of the human race upon its march into the
unknown. Perhaps you will be kind enough now to give me a hand
with the cylinders. It seems to me that the atmosphere already
grows somewhat more oppressive."
