by Robert Reed
out without being plainly seen . I started up a once and looked for a
shadow, for it occurred to me immediately that this light was thrown
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from one of the invisible cars . But there was no moonlight, for the
moon was just then hidden by clouds, and so there was no shadow
except such as the light itself might cause . But presently, by walk-
ing backward from the window and again towards it, and then this
way and that way before it, I discovered a star which appeared and
disappeared as I walked . On further inspection it became evident
that when the star disappeared it was hidden by some object which,
though dark itself, was nevertheless that from which the light before
the door proceeded . There could be no doubt that the light in ques-
tion was thrown from one of the cars, and that the car from which it
was thrown was not a hundred feet from the ground .
“Look,” I said, “look! we are closely watched even here .” But
Jack was already fast asleep . I threw myself upon my bed and lay
for hours broad awake .
CHAPTER IX
THE SEED BEDS
As I lay awake the events of the last few days passed and re-
passed before my mind, and the more I thought over them the less
I felt myself able to give any satisfactory account of them or to see
any way of escape . I could make up my mind to no plan of action, to
nothing except passive but obstinate resistance .
But although I did not see any way of escape I did not feel as if
we were going to die . I suppose that youth and a sanguine temper
enabled me to keep hoping . Anyhow I found myself again and again
reckoning upon a return to civilisation .
But what kept my thoughts busiest was the fact that Jack and I
were to be separated next day, and I asked myself over and over
again, what could be the purpose of such separation . And here, after
a while, I thought I saw my way a little . Such and such at least I felt
I could say is not the purpose . Foul play is no doubt what our host is
quite capable of; but what is to be gained by foul play? Why not kill
either or both of us openly if he wishes? And when I had gotten as
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far as that I began to see, clearly enough, part at least of his purpose
in separating us. And the revelation was greatly more flattering to
Jack than to myself . Then I fell asleep and slept quite soundly for
some hours, and I got up quite refreshed .
After we had dressed and refreshed ourselves there still remained
an hour before it would be time to keep our appointments . For Jack
had arranged with the man who had been told off to keep him com-
pany to meet him at nine o’clock, the same hour at which I was
to meet Signor Davelli . And here I may as well mention that these
men or whatever they were, understood our way of reckoning time .
But they did not, as far as I could see, make use of it themselves .
They had a method of reckoning time but I was not able to discover
exactly what it was . I have sometimes thought since then that they
were able to measure the earth’s diurnal motion directly . But they
used no clockwork nor (as far as I could see) any observation of the
altitude of sun or stars .
In some of the cars which were fitted for long voyages there was
fixed an instrument about a foot long, and this consisted of a hand
moving along a graduated scale . I made sure (so far as my very brief
opportunity of observation permitted) that this hand did not move
by clockwork, but I was quite unable to discover by what power it
did move .
I told Jack very briefly about the light I had seen last night, and
then we held a brief conference before we parted .
“Jack,” said I, “you thought yesterday that Signor Niccolo had
given his man instructions either to kill you or to put you in the way
of killing yourself?”
“Yes,” he said, “under certain circumstances . If I attempt to make
my escape the fellow is undoubtedly under orders to compass my
death . But not otherwise; certainly not at present . And I need not say
that I am not going to attempt my escape without you . If you and
I agree to force a crisis, good and well; then we shall both run the
risk of our lives . But you seem to think, and I am disposed to agree
with you, that we had better for the present keep on the watch and let
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things take their course . Very well, then, I shall not be in any special
danger to-morrow .”
“Why do you think so?”
“Because, as I have said before, this man, or call him what you
will, has got some design upon you . What that design is will prob-
ably appear shortly . And he will not hinder the success of it by al-
lowing anything to happen to me .”
“And if it succeeds?”
“Then it will depend on circumstances not now evident what will
become of me .”
“And if it fails?”
“Then I think that you and I are certain to be put to death unless
we can manage to make our escape from this place .”
“Which appears hardly to be expected .”
“Yes, hardly to be expected, but the unexpected happens .”
“And now, Jack,” said I, “I agree with you in all that you have
said; but do you know why he is sending you away?”
“Well, no, I don’t .”
“I’ll tell you why: he fears your influence over me. I came to that
conclusion as I lay awake last night . And he means to try on some
new game to-day or to begin to try . But as I thought over all that I
couldn’t but go on to ask, why does he want me and not you, and
why is he shy of you? What do you think?”
“I can’t say, Bob, unless it be that I am not clever enough .”
“Clever! you’re a modest man, Jack, I know, but if I did not know
you to be genuine I should say now that some of the modesty was
put on . Not clever enough? You’ve seen through this fellow sooner
and farther than I . You might better say too clever, but that is not it
either .”
“Well, what is it, then?”
“You are too good for him . You have too quick and clear a per-
ception of what is right, and you are not ready enough to let the lust
of knowledge blind your conscience . But, please God, this fellow
will find that I am not after all quite the sort of man he takes me to
be .”
THE GERM GROWERS, by Robert Potter | 517
“My dear Bob, I am just as likely as you are to have dust thrown
in the eyes of my conscience, only a different sort of dust . Your turn
has come first, that is all. You’ll baffle him and then my turn perhaps
won’t come at all . Let us both keep our eyes open to-day . If I can
learn how to manage those cars of theirs, and if they give us half a
chance, we will make a run for it .”
“Do you forget the light last night?”
“I forget nothing, but we will give them the slip somehow .”
“Well, perhaps we may, for one thing is c
lear me, Jack: those
fellows once they come among us have to work under the same
conditions as we .”
“Did not Dr . Leopold say something of that sort?”
“Yes, and he was right; that we have seen proves it: everything
that they do is done by some chemical or mechanical or other con-
trivance, they have to get round their work just as we have; they
know more of nature than we do, and so they can do more . But if we
knew as much we could do as much as they .”
“Well, all that is so much in our favour .”
We were now at the foot of the stairway, and it was within a few
minutes of nine . So we shook hands and parted . Jack went up the
stairway, and I made my way to the square .
I saw in the centre of the square a car somewhat smaller than that
in which we had travelled previously, but, like it, visible throughout .
It was just alighting as I came up . Signor Davelli was standing in
the square, and the man in the car was the same whom he had as-
signed yesterday to Jack, and as he alighted he addressed him with
a few words and signs as before, and the man went away towards
the stairway .
Signor Niccolo turned to me, and, after the usual salutation, he
said shortly but civilly, “I have had a car prepared like the other .
As we use them ourselves, you might find them awkward and even
dangerous . I have left the larger car for your friend .”
“Thank you,” I replied . “I dare say we shall both do very well .”
I was glad to know that Jack would have the opportunity that he
wished for, and I felt sure that he would make the most of it . I felt
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confident now that we were on the verge of a desperate effort for
freedom . It was likely enough, indeed most likely, that the issue of
such an effort would be immediately fatal to us, but, if not imme-
diately fatal, then I thought that we might escape . Meanwhile I was
determined to observe as closely as possible every person and thing
that should come under my notice to-day .
There was no difference between this car and the other except in
respect of size . This one was a shade smaller . Also this one was fur-
nished with some instruments which I had not observed in the other .
There were two good field-glasses and a very powerful microscope.
There were also some instruments whose use I did not recognise, but
they seemed to suggest spectrum analysis . In addition to these there
were some glass instruments that looked like test tubes, and other
chemical apparatus of apparently simple construction, but quite un-
familiar to me .
We got under way just as formerly, and we moved rapidly to-
wards the western end of the valley . I reckon that it was two miles,
or perhaps a little more, from the eastern to the western extrem-
ity . The valley was bounded all round by hills . But I seemed to see
to-day more than ever before an air of artificial construction about
these . From some points of view this disappeared altogether, while
from other points the evidence of it was all but conclusive . I made
sure sometimes that I could detect the junction of a great embank-
ment with the hills on either side, but in each case after I had got
another view I was not quite so sure . Just the same impression, as I
have told you, was produced on me by the view of the hills when I
first approached them from the east; but the appearance or impres-
sion of artificial construction was very much stronger now.
I had on this day a very full view of the arrangement of the val-
ley from end to end . You remember the large square in which on
the second day we had seen the men drilled, and in which on the
day after we had witnessed our host’s wonderful disappearance and
reappearance . You remember also the broad walk which led from
the eastern stairway to the square . Very well; at the further end of the
square that walk was continued . It was the same breadth all the way
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through, and it was planted with trees and with flowering shrubs,
mostly of a kind which I had never seen elsewhere . On each side
of it narrower ways branched off, leading to houses of the same
style as those in which Jack and I were lodged . There was an air of
trimness and regularity about the whole but no beauty . I can imagine
one looking at the scene and pronouncing it stiff and formal and
nothing more . But as I looked I felt that if there was no beauty there
was at least an eerie suggestiveness that took the place of beauty .
Seen from above, as we saw, even trimness and regularity have
an odd look . But after all the trimness and regularity of the scene
were its least remarkable characteristics . The frowning hills with
rampart-like ridges between them that might be walls or that might
be natural embankments; the silence broken only by the whirr of our
motion through the air, for there was no bird in the valley from end
to end, and indeed no living creature of any sort except its human (if
they were human) inhabitants, and I think a few snakes; the uncouth
aspect of the chimneyless and smokeless houses; the absence of ev-
ery object that might remind one of the cares and pleasures of life:
no garden, or orchard, or playground, no child or woman;—all this
formed altogether a picture as unearthly and inhuman as the barren
surface of the moon . The odd-looking trees and shrubs which, as
I have told you, were planted along the roadway, made this worse
and not better . Their approach to naturalness made the unnaturalness
of all the rest only the more apparent . Besides, their very presence
made you feel that it was not nature, as on the surface of the moon,
which caused the silence and desolation, but some foul and malefi-
cent influence which was external to nature. The broad walk and the
rows of houses both ended abruptly, abutting upon a belt of timber
artificially planted. The trees were like the blue gum, they were so
close together that no passage between them was possible, and as
far as I could judge the intervals from tree to tree were quite equal
and regular . This plantation extended a good way up the cliff on both
sides, and it was a hundred yards across, or more . Beyond it was a
space of about twenty feet, and then another row of trees of quite a
different kind, and like nothing that I had ever seen . But as far as I
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could guess from such a height the leaves were as thick as the gum
leaves, but in other ways much larger . This row of trees was nearly
of the same depth as the other, and extended like it high up on either
side of the cliff . I have little doubt that all these trees were intended
as a defence against the vapours which were generated by certain
works which were carried on beyond, and of which I must now try
to tell you what I saw .
From what I have said it will be clear to you that there was only
one way from the eastern part of the valley to the western, and that
&
nbsp; was through the air . No one could pass through either belt of timber .
And as we floated over them I noticed that Signor Niccolo at once
raised the car several hundred feet, and kept well away to the south .
Then he stopped; then he lowered the car a little and asked me what
I saw .
I saw several very unequal belts of what seemed to be cultivated
ground . But it was a very queer-looking sort of cultivation . There
was almost no green from end to end of it, and what green there
was looked like the scum that you sometimes see floating upon the
surface of a stagnant pool . And even this was only to be seen at the
southern extremity of the cultivated ground . As you looked north
the growth was more and more foul and offensive, and thick, filthy
looking vapours floated over it here and there. I thought of Shelley’s
ruined garden, where—
“Agaric and fungi with mildew and mould
Started like mist from the wet ground cold.”
Only that here certainly it was not lack of care that produced all
the foulness, for there was plenty of evidence of care everywhere .
The beds were divided according to a well-marked plan: they were
six in all . The bed on the southern extremity must have been over
two hundred and fifty feet wide, and it had several narrow pathways
through it, well formed from end to end . Then there was a wide
pathway, say about eight feet in width, separating it from the next
bed . The next bed was only half the width, with about half as many
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narrow pathways through it, and then a walk twice as wide as that
which separated it from the first bed. Then the third bed was only
half the width of the second, with a separating walk of about thirty-
two feet across . And so on, the width of the beds decreasing and the
width of the walks increasing in geometrical progression, so that the
last bed was only about eight feet wide, while the walk beyond it
was about two hundred and fifty feet wide.
All the beds and walks were the same length . As I was making
these approximate measurements mentally, with the aid of a power-
ful field-glass, I observed another fact that seems worthy of notice.
The foul growths and vapours which, as I have told you, increased
from the southern extremity of the ground northward, came abso-
