by Robert Reed
and there were smugglers and gipsies, and what not, about . And so
he began to improve the breed in quite another direction . He se-
lected the fierce and snappish pups and bred exclusively from them.
Leopold . And so from one ancestral pair of, say, a hundred or a
hundred and fifty years ago, you have Tommy there, with his won-
derful mixture of gentleness and pluck, and his intelligence all but
human, and your cousin has a kennel of unintelligent and blood-
thirsty brutes, that have to be caged and chained as if they were wild
beasts .
Furniss . Just so, but I don’t quite see what you are driving at .
Leopold . Wait a minute . Do you suppose the germs of cow-pox
and small-pox to be of the same breed?
Furniss. Well, yes; you know that I hold them to be specifically
identical . I see what you are at now .
Leopold. But one of them fulfils some obscure function in the
physique of the cow, some function certainly harmless and probably
beneficent, and the other is the malignant small-pox of the London
hospitals .
Furniss . So you mean to infer that in the latter case the germ has
been cultivated downwards by intelligent purpose .
Leopold . What if I do?
Furniss . You think, then, that there is a secret guild of malignant
men of medicine sworn to wage war against their fellow-men, that
they are spread over all the world and have existed since before the
dawn of history . I don’t believe that there are any men as bad as that,
THE GERM GROWERS, by Robert Potter | 434
and if there were, I should call them devils and hunt them down like
mad dogs .
Leopold . I don’t wish to use misleading words, but I will say
that I believe there are intelligences, not human, who have access
to realms of nature that we are but just beginning to explore; and
I believe that some of them are enemies to humanity, and that they
use their knowledge to breed such things as malignant small-pox or
the red sickness out of germs which were originally of a harmless or
even of a beneficent nature.
Furniss . Just as my cousins have bred those wild beasts of theirs
out of such harmless creatures as poor Tommy’s ancestors .
Leopold . Just so .
Furniss . And you think that we can contend successfully against
such enemies .
Leopold . Why not? They can only have nature to work upon . And
very likely their only advantage over us is that they know more of
nature than we do . They cannot go beyond the limits of nature to do
less or more . As long as we sought after spells and enchantments
and that sort of nonsense we were very much at their mercy . But we
are now learning to fight them with their own weapons, which con-
sist of the knowledge of nature . Witness vaccination, and witness
also our little victory over the red sickness .
Furniss . You’re a queer mixture, Leopold, but we must get back
to the picnic people .
And so they got up and went back together to the dancers, nod-
ding to me as they went . I sat there for awhile, going over and over
the conversation in my mind and putting together my own thoughts
and Mr . Leopold’s .
Then I joined the company and was merry as the merriest for the
remainder of the day . But that night I dreamt; of strange-looking
clouds and of the shadows of invisible cars, and of demons riding in
the cars and sowing the seeds of pestilence on the earth and catching
away such evil specimens of humanity as James Redpath to rein-
force the ranks of their own malignant order .
THE GERM GROWERS, by Robert Potter | 435
CHAPTER III
AT SEA
It is my purpose to pass briefly over everything in my own history
which does not concern the tale that I have to tell, and there is very
little therefore for me to say about the seven or eight years which
followed upon the events at Penruddock which I have just recorded .
I went in due course to Oxford, where I stayed the usual time . I
did not make any great failures there, nor did I gain much distinc-
tion . I was a diligent reader, but much of my reading was outside
the regulation lines . The literature of my own country, the poetry of
mediaeval Italy, and the philosophy of modern Germany, more than
divided my attention with classics and mathematics . Novels, mostly
of the sensational type, amused me in vacations and on holidays, but
very seldom found their way into my working days .
I travelled over most of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and spent
some time in some of the principal cities of the Continent . I became
a fair linguist, speaking German, French, and Italian, with some flu-
ency, although my accent always betrayed me . I took a second class
in classics, bade adieu to Oxford, and began to make up my mind
as to what I should do with my life . I had thought of the various
professions in turn, and had decided against them all; and, finally,
as I had no taste for idleness, and as I had some money, I resolved
to invest it in sheep or cattle farming in some of the new countries .
I thought successively of New Zealand, the United States, Canada,
and Australia, and I was determined in favour of Australia by falling
in with Jack Wilbrahmn . He and I had gone into residence at Oxford
about the same time, but not at the same college, and we took our
degrees in the same year; but we hardly belonged to the same set .
Jack was more of a sporting than a reading man, and I was not much
of either, at least as either was understood at the University . So Jack
and I, although we heard of one another occasionally, did not meet
until a few months before we left Oxford .
THE GERM GROWERS, by Robert Potter | 436
Then we became fast friends, and, as he had already determined
to go to Australia, I made up my mind to go with him . We took our
passage of course in the same ship . It was not yet the day of the great
steamers and the canal was not yet open . We sailed from Liverpool
in a clipper ship and we went round the Cape . But I think that we
were quire as comfortable and as well taken care of as we should
be now in the best of the Orient or Peninsular boats . Our voyage
was altogether without disaster . Indeed it was like a picnic of ninety
days’ duration, and I do not know that I had ever enjoyed any three
months of my life as much . But there were no details that I need
mention except the fact that we formed-an acquaintance (Jack and I)
which determined our immediate course on our arrival in Australia,
and so led us on to the mysterious experience of which I have to tell .
Not indeed that our new acquaintance was one who might fairly
be expected to introduce us to anything mysterious . Mr . Fetherston,
as I shall call him here, was a thoroughly good fellow, and proved
himself to be a staunch friend, but he was utterly destitute of imagi-
nation, and he had the greatest contempt for what he used to call
“queer stories”; he used queer in a special sense; he meant simply
mysteriou
s, or savouring of what is commonly called the supernatu-
ral .One bright evening in the tropics some such stories were going
round . The air was delicious, and the moon and stars were just be-
ginning to shine. The first mate, myself, and Mr. Fetherston were the
principal talkers, but we had a good many listeners. The first mate
began the conversation by telling two or three stories of the type
I have mentioned; one of them especially took my fancy . I cannot
remember it in detail, but I know that it was provokingly mysteri-
ous, and seemed to admit of no solution but a supernatural one . The
main incident was something like this . A farmer who lived about
twelve miles from Bristol left home one evening with the intention
of spending the night in that city in order to transact some business
there at an early hour in the morning . He had to stop at a station
about half-way to see some one who lived near there, and then to
take another train in . He got out all right at the half-way station and
THE GERM GROWERS, by Robert Potter | 437
walked towards the man’s house whom he wanted to see . A stranger
met him on the way and drew him into conversation . As they came
to certain cross roads the stranger turned, looked him in the face and
said very deliberately, “Go home by next train, you will be just in
time .” Then he walked away quickly down one of the cross roads .
The farmer stood like one stunned for a minute or two, and then hur-
ried after the stranger intending to stop him . But he could see him
no more . There were several houses and gardens about and he might
have passed into one of them, but anyhow he was lost Go sight . The
farmer did as he was told and hurried home . He arrived just in time
to save his house from being burned to the ground, and more than
that, for his wife and children and servants were in bed and asleep .
When the story was told, Mr . Fetherston gave his opinion of it
very freely . I never saw contempt more effectually expressed . He
spoke without the least atom of temper . Men who get angry and
denounce that sort of thing are usually afraid of believing it, or at
least of seeming to believe it . Nothing was further from Mr . Fether-
ston’s thought . But you saw plainly that such stories were for him
on a level with the most senseless of nursery rhymes and nothing
better than mere idiot’s chatter . He did not say so in as many words
nor at all offensively, but he made it quite clear nevertheless that he
felt himself to be looking down from the platform of a mysterious
intelligence on some very contemptible folly .
I felt as if reproach were in the air, and I knew that if it were
deserved I was one of hose who deserved it . So, although it would
have been pleasanter to be silent, I felt that I was bound to speak .
So I said, Mr . Fetherston, isn’t it all a matter of evidence?”
Fetherston . Evidence! And pray on what evidence would you
believe such a story as that which we have just heard?
Easterley . Upon the statement on the honour of any sane man
that I knew and trusted: how I might account for it is another matter .
Fetherston . If a man whom I knew and trusted told me such a
story on his honour I should trust him no longer, and I should be-
lieve him to be either insane or dishonest .
THE GERM GROWERS, by Robert Potter | 438
Easterley . Suppose that ten men whom you knew and trusted
agreed in telling you the same story?
Fetherston (with a slight laugh) . Then I should begin to suspect
that I had gone mad myself, but I should never believe it .
Easterly . Yet you believe a story which is nearly two thousand
years old and which is full of mystery from beginning to end: the
story of a man who was born mysteriously, who exercised mysteri-
ous powers during his life, and after death by violence lived again
mysteriously, and at last left this world mysteriously . [Now you must
know I spoke here knowing what I was about, for Fetherston was
an enthusiastic churchman, and in company with a clergyman who
was one of us he had organized a regular Sunday service, and, on the
very last Sunday, was one of a small number to whom the clergyman
had administered the sacrament .] It seems to me, Mr . Fetherston, I
went on to say, that you, like some people I have met, can believe
a thing with one side of your head and disbelieve it with the other .
Fetherston . You are certainly like some people I have met . You
throw the Christian religion overboard and then you take to believ-
ing a lot of puerile absurdities .
Easterly . Softly now, you must not say that I throw the Christian
religion overboard . It may be that I do not accept it in quite the same
sense as you, still I accept it . And as for the supernatural, if I said
that I believed in it or that I did not believe in it, I should most likely
to some extent deceive you .
Fetherston . You mean that you could not answer with a plain
“yes” or “no .”
Easterly . Not quite that; but I could not answer as you do with
“yes” and “no .” I should have to distinguish .
Fetherston . Distinguish then, please .
Easterley . Well, when you say that you don’t believe in the su-
pernatural, I reply that what I don’t believe in is the natural .
Fetherston . I am afraid I must ask you to explain your explana-
tion . Easterley . What I mean is this . I believe that there is nothing
at all, from a bucket of saltwater to the head on your shoulders, of
THE GERM GROWERS, by Robert Potter | 439
which a full account can be given by any man . You go further and
further back until you can get no further, but still you see hat you
are not at the end . Every natural thing implies a principle which is
outside nature .
Fetherston . But you believe that there is a law for everything?
Easterly . I believe that order prevails everywhere, and that every-
thing has its place in that order; you may if you like call that order
nature . Then I say that if there be ghosts they are part of nature;
they have their place in nature as well as we . And we as well as the
ghosts, and the air and the water as well as we, imply something that
is not nature . Everything is natural and everything is supernatural .
Fetherston . Easterly, I am afraid you are a philosopher . Come
with me to Central Australia and we’ll knock the philosophy out of
you and make you a practical man .
Easterley . Are you going to Central Australia?
Fetherston . Yes; I am to have charge of a company of surveyors
who are to be engaged about the laying of the overland line to Port
Darwin .
Easterley . I’ll think of it . I rather think I should like it . I suppose
we shall see no ghosts there, Fetherston?
Fetherston . I don’t know about that . I dare say we may, for we
shall often have to live on salt junk and damper .
So there our talk ended . I had heard of Mr . Fetherston’s business
before, and even I believe of his destination; but I had forgotten
the p
articulars, and certainly it never had struck me that I should
care to go with him . But now I thought I should like to talk it over
with Jack . So I went in search of him . I found him by himself at the
farthest aft part of the ship, standing just above the companion with
his back against a rail . He had been chatting with two or three of the
ladies, and they had just gone below . He came at once to meet me,
and we both went forward and lit our pipes and stocked some time
in silence . Then Jack spoke . “I see that you have something to say,
Bob; what is it?”
THE GERM GROWERS, by Robert Potter | 440
“Fetherston,” said I, “is going with a survey party to assist in lay-
ing the overland wire to Port Darwin: he proposes that we should go
with him; he was only in jest, but I think I should like it .”
Jack thought it would be a very good beginning: we should see
much of the country, we should get experience, and have something
to talk about . Poor Jack! if he had only known! We have never
ventured to talk much about that journey, not much to one another,
and not at all to anyone else; but I must not anticipate . We both
took a fancy to the scheme . There would be much of the interest
of exploring without any of the special risks . We would, no doubt,
have some hardships to put up with, but there would be depôts at
intervals along the way, and our communication would be kept open
all through . So I spoke to Fetherston a few days later . “Fetherston,”
I said, “will you take two volunteers with you on your survey party
northward? We shall pay our own expenses, but we shall want your
guidance and protection, and we shall have nothing to give you in
return but our company .”
Fetherston said that he thought it might on such terms be easily
managed, and it was managed accordingly .
CHAPTER IV
OVERLAND
Jack and I had intended to go on to Melbourne and thence to Syd-
ney, but upon our arrival at Adelaide we found that arrangements
had been made which required that Mr . Fetherston should start
northward as soon as possible . We had, therefore, little enough time
to make preparation for the journey, and so we had to give up for the
present all thought of making acquaintance with the great Australian
cities . Mr . Fetherston, although he was but little over thirty years
old, was a veteran Australian explorer; for about ten years before he
