Slowly, broadly, invincibly, there grew upon Bert"s mind realisation of the immense tragedy of humanity into which his life was flowing; the appalling and universal nature of the epoch that had arrived; the conception of an end to security and order and habit. The whole world was at war and it could not get back to peace, it might never recover peace.
He had thought the things he had seen had been exceptional, conclusive things, that the besieging of New York and the battle of the Atlantic were epoch-making events between long years of security. And they had been but the first warning impacts of universal cataclysm. Each day destruction and hate and disaster grew, the fissures widened between man and man, new regions of the fabric of civilisation crumbled and gave way. Below, the armies grew and the people perished; above, the airships and aeroplanes fought and fled, raining destruction.
It is difficult perhaps for the broad-minded and long-perspectived reader to understand how incredible the breaking down of the scientific civilisation seemed to those who actually lived at this time, who in their own persons went down in that debacle. Progress had marched as it seemed invincible about the earth, never now to rest again. For three hundred years and more the long steadily accelerated diastole of Europeanised civilisation had been in progress: towns had been multiplying, populations increasing, values rising, new countries developing; thought, literature, knowledge unfolding and spreading. It seemed but a part of the process that every year the instruments of war were vaster and more powerful, and that armies and explosives outgrew all other growing things....
Three hundred years of diastole, and then came the swift and unexpected systole, like the closing of a fist. They could not understand it was systole.
They could not think of it as anything but a jolt, a hitch, a mere oscillatory indication of the swiftness of their progress. Collapse, though it happened all about them, remained incredible. Presently some falling ma.s.s smote them down, or the ground opened beneath their feet.
They died incredulous....
These men in the store made a minute, remote group under this immense canopy of disaster. They turned from one little aspect to another. What chiefly concerned them was defence against Asiatic raiders swooping for petrol or to destroy weapons or communications. Everywhere levies were being formed at that time to defend the plant of the railroads day and night in the hope that communication would speedily be restored. The land war was still far away. A man with a flat voice distinguished himself by a display of knowledge and cunning. He told them all with confidence just what had been wrong with the German drachenflieger and the American aeroplanes, just what advantage the j.a.panese flyers possessed. He launched out into a romantic description of the b.u.t.teridge machine and riveted Bert"s attention. "I SEE that," said Bert, and was smitten silent by a thought. The man with the flat voice talked on, without heeding him, of the strange irony of b.u.t.teridge"s death. At that Bert had a little twinge of relief--he would never meet b.u.t.teridge again. It appeared b.u.t.teridge had died suddenly, very suddenly.
"And his secret, sir, perished with him! When they came to look for the parts--none could find them. He had hidden them all too well."
"But couldn"t he tell?" asked the man in the straw hat. "Did he die so suddenly as that?"
"Struck down, sir. Rage and apoplexy. At a place called Dymchurch in England."
"That"s right," said Laurier. "I remember a page about it in the Sunday American. At the time they said it was a German spy had stolen his balloon."
"Well, sir," said the flat-voiced man, "that fit of apoplexy at Dyrnchurch was the worst thing--absolutely the worst thing that ever happened to the world. For if it had not been for the death of Mr.
b.u.t.teridge--"
"No one knows his secret?"
"Not a soul. It"s gone. His balloon, it appears, was lost at sea, with all the plans. Down it went, and they went with it."
Pause.
"With machines such as he made we could fight these Asiatic fliers on more than equal terms. We could outfly and beat down those scarlet humming-birds wherever they appeared. But it"s gone, it"s gone, and there"s no time to reinvent it now. We got to fight with what we got--and the odds are against us. THAT won"t stop us fightin". No! but just think of it!"
Bert was trembling violently. He cleared his throat hoa.r.s.ely.
"I say," he said, "look here, I--"
n.o.body regarded him. The man with the flat voice was opening a new branch of the subject.
"I allow--" he began.
Bert became violently excited. He stood up.
He made clawing motions with his hands. "I say!" he exclaimed, "Mr.
Laurier. Look "ere--I want--about that b.u.t.teridge machine--."
Mr. Laurier, sitting on an adjacent table, with a magnificent gesture, arrested the discourse of the flat-voiced man. "What"s HE saying?" said he.
Then the whole company realised that something was happening to Bert; either he was suffocating or going mad. He was spluttering.
"Look "ere! I say! "Old on a bit!" and trembling and eagerly unb.u.t.toning himself.
He tore open his collar and opened vest and shirt. He plunged into his interior and for an instant it seemed he was plucking forth his liver.
Then as he struggled with b.u.t.tons on his shoulder they perceived this flattened horror was in fact a terribly dirty flannel chest-protector.
In an other moment Bert, in a state of irregular decolletage, was standing over the table displaying a sheaf of papers.
"These!" he gasped. "These are the plans!... You know! Mr.
b.u.t.teridge--his machine! What died! I was the chap that went off in that balloon!"
For some seconds every one was silent. They stared from these papers to Bert"s white face and blazing eyes, and back to the papers on the table.
n.o.body moved. Then the man with the flat voice spoke.
"Irony!" he said, with a note of satisfaction. "Real rightdown Irony!
When it"s too late to think of making "em any more!"
4
They would all no doubt have been eager to hear Bert"s story over again, but it was it this point that Laurier showed his quality. "No, SIR," he said, and slid from off his table.
He impounded the dispersing b.u.t.teridge plans with one comprehensive sweep of his arm, rescuing them even from the expository finger-marks of the man with the flat voice, and handed them to Bert. "Put those back,"
he said, "where you had "em. We have a journey before us."
Bert took them.
"Whar?" said the man in the straw hat.
"Why, sir, we are going to find the President of these States and give these plans over to him. I decline to believe, sir, we are too late."
"Where is the President?" asked Bert weakly in that pause that followed.
"Logan," said Laurier, disregarding that feeble inquiry, "you must help us in this."
It seemed only a matter of a few minutes before Bert and Laurier and the storekeeper were examining a number of bicycles that were stowed in the hinder room of the store. Bert didn"t like any of them very much. They had wood rims and an experience of wood rims in the English climate had taught him to hate them. That, however, and one or two other objections to an immediate start were overruled by Laurier. "But where IS the President?" Bert repeated as they stood behind Logan while he pumped up a deflated tyre.
Laurier looked down on him. "He is reported in the neighbourhood of Albany--out towards the Berkshire Hills. He is moving from place to place and, as far as he can, organising the defence by telegraph and telephones The Asiatic air-fleet is trying to locate him. When they think they have located the seat of government, they throw bombs. This inconveniences him, but so far they have not come within ten miles of him. The Asiatic air-fleet is at present scattered all over the Eastern States, seeking out and destroying gas-works and whatever seems conducive to the building of airships or the transport of troops.
Our retaliatory measures are slight in the extreme. But with these machines--Sir, this ride of ours will count among the historical rides of the world!"
He came near to striking an att.i.tude. "We shan"t get to him to-night?"
asked Bert.
"No, sir!" said Laurier. "We shall have to ride some days, sure!"
"And suppose we can"t get a lift on a train--or anything?"
"No, sir! There"s been no transit by Tanooda for three days. It is no good waiting. We shall have to get on as well as we can."
"Startin" now?"
"Starting now!"