Adventure, June 1911 — page 150: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

336 called in his ear, entreating him to wake, but without the slightest effect. I sat down again on my cushions—I seemed to have been made more confortable than any one else, and I was sure that I had to thank Mr. Raynor for that—and took up the “‘history”; but I was afraid to read it and learn what horrible things had come to pass—perhaps to find that I was all alone. I prayed a prayer that some one might be still waking in the world and come to me. And then I heard voices in the passage. At first I thought they came in answer to my prayer, but, after listening for a few moments, some instinct checked the call on my lips. I went, cold with fear, and lay down hastily and covered myself and the book with the rug, and pretended to sleep. “They are enemies,” I told myself. ‘‘ Ene- mies! If they should come in They came in, and I peeped at them under my eyelashes. They were a red-faced, eld- erly man and a gray-haired lady, with a pale, handsome face and cold, cruel eyes. It was she whom I feared. I think I should have spoken to the man, if he had been alone, though I did not like him. 49? emg =“SINCE you will see him,” he said, Siting speaking as if she had annoyed him, ‘there he is!”? He jerked his head toward Mr. Raynor, and she knelt beside the unconscious sleeper. ‘“‘He is due to wake in three days?” ““Yes,” he answered; ‘‘and the girl the day after, according to the books; but the reinoculations do not always last their full time, you know. She might happen to rouse ‘a day sooner; two or three days even.” “Oh, shel’? said the woman scornfully. “She doesn’t matter. She goes to-night, with the rest of them.” : “You can’t dispose of them all,” the man protested. ‘‘We must have some to fight the cursed wolves. It’s no use shaking your head. We must, I tell you! We needn’t rouse them all, but I can’t get along without a few thousand men. The beasts are get- ting too much for me. You know what it was like coming here.” “Yes, yes,” she said. ‘‘You can have your men; but we don’t want women; at any rate, not her. She dies to-night!” “Very well,” he said rather sulkily. “The women can go—those of this batch. You'll have to save some of the later sections, or you'll have a mutiny. But it doesn’t mat- Adventure ter about: her in particular. She’s just an ordinary, stupid, pretty girl, so far as I can see. The only point is that he has an infatu- ation about her. The important question is, what are you going to do about him? I rather like the chap, but——’” “T don’t know,” she said, rocking herself to and fro. “He has disobeyed three times. I gave my word that the third time he should die— He is so like my son!” <E suppose, ’ the red-faced man com- mented, “‘your son was like you. If he is, and he wakes and finds that you have made away with this ‘214,713, London’ of his, he’ll kill you! If you must wake him, why not wake the girl and let him have her? He'll be all right then. If you kill her and spare him, he’ll be our worst enemy. I warn you.’ “‘He’d be my enemy anyhow,” the woman — said bitterly. “He would not serve me as I need service, for his own life, or even for hers. They must go to-night with the rest of their batch. Keep 6,000 men—no women and children; 2,000 of them in London. The rest in the usual propor- tions. Telegraph at once. Yes. He must die. But he’s like my son!” She bent and kissed him, laughing a strange laugh. It reminded me of the howling of the beasts. Then she rose, “My last weakness,” she said. “It’s over. I shall go onto the end now, do not fear.”’ “T’ve never feared anything all my life, © except you,” the red-faced man said. ‘‘Sometimes I think you’re the salvation of the world. Sometimes I think you’ re the Devil! I don’t know.” “T don’t know myself,” said the gray- haired woman. . Then they went, and I fainted again. B= WHEN I came to, I judged from the light that it was the after- think properly. I believe I should have simply lain still and waited to be killed, if Mr. Raynor had not been before my eyes and if I had not felt sure that I owed my life; so far, to him. “They shall ot kill you!” I declared, and sat up and clenched my teeth and hands, and made myself consider what I could do to save him. I decided that the first step. was to read the history, which would proba- CONMIC S (C@ | noon. I felt weak and ill and very - thirsty, and so terrified that I could not JOO