City of Endless Night

by Hastings , Milo M. ;

  It was Marguerite who broke the bewildering silence. ‘I wish you would go now,’ she said coolly; ‘I am afraid I misunderstood.’

  ‘And shall I come again?’ I asked awkwardly.

  She looked up at me and smiled bravely. ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘if – you are sure you wish to.’

  A resurge of passionate longing to take her in my arms swept over me, but she held out her hand with such rare and dignified grace that I could only take the slender fingers and press them hungrily to my fevered lips and so bid her a wordless adieu.

  III

  But despite wild longing to see her again, I did not return to Marguerite’s apartment for many weeks. A crisis in my work at the laboratory denied me even a single hour of leisure outside brief snatches of food and sleep.

  I had previously reported to the Chemical Staff that I had found means to increase materially the extraction percentage of the precious element protium from the crude imported ore. I had now received word that I should prepare to make a trial demonstration before the Staff.

  Already I had revealed certain results of my progress to Herr von Uhl, as this had been necessary in order to get further grants of the rare material and of expensive equipment needed for the research, but in these smaller demonstrations, I had not been called upon to disclose my method. Now the Staff, hopeful that I had made the great discovery, insisted that I prepare at once to make a large scale demonstration and reveal the method that it might immediately be adopted for the wholesale extraction in the industrial works.

  If I now gave away the full secret of my process, I would receive compensation that would indeed seem lavish for a man whose mental horizon was bounded by these enclosing walls; yet to me for whom these walls would always be a prison, credit at the banks of Berlin and the baubles of decoration and rank and social honor would be sounding brass. But I wanted power; and, with the secret of protium extraction in my possession, I would have control of life or death over three hundred million men. Why should I sacrifice such power for useless credit and empty honor? If Eitel I of the House of Hohenzollern would lengthen the days of his rule, let him deal with me and meet whatever terms I chose to name, for in my chemical retorts I had brewed a secret before which vaunted efficiency and hypocritical divinity could be made to bend a hungry belly and beg for food!

  It was a laudable and rather thrilling ambition, and yet I was not clear as to just what terms I would dictate, nor how I could enforce the dictation. To ask for an audience with the Emperor now and to take any such preposterous stand would merely be to get myself locked up for a lunatic. But I reasoned that if I could make the demonstration so that it would be accepted as genuine and yet not give away my secret, the situation would be in my hands. Yet I was expected to reveal the process step by step as the demonstration proceeded. There was but one way out and that was to make a genuine demonstration, but with falsely written formulas.

  To plan and prepare such a demonstration required more genuine invention than had the discovery of the process, but I set about the task with feverish enthusiasm. I kept my assistants busy with the preparation of the apparatus and the more simple work which there was no need to disguise, while night after night I worked alone, altering and disguising the secret steps on which my great discovery hinged. As these preparations were nearing completion I sent for Dr. Zimmern and Col. Hellar to meet me at my apartment.

  ‘Comrades,’ I said, ‘you have endangered your own lives by confiding in me your secret desires to overthrow the rule of the House of Hohenzollern as it was overthrown once before. You have done this because you believed that I would have power that others do not have.’

  The two old men nodded in grave assent.

  ‘And you have been quite fortunate in your choice,’ I concluded, ‘for not only have I pledged myself to your ends, but I shall soon possess the coveted power. In a few days I shall demonstrate my process on a large scale before the Chemical Staff. But I shall do this thing without revealing the method. The formulas I shall give them will be meaningless. As long as I am in charge in my own laboratory the process will be a success; when it is tried elsewhere it will fail, until I choose to make further revelations.

  ‘So you see, for a time, unless I be killed or tortured into confession, I shall have great power. How then may I use that power to help you in the cause to which we are pledged?’

  The older men seemed greatly impressed with my declaration and danced about me and cried with joy. When they had regained their composure Zimmern said: ‘There is but one thing you can do for us and that is to find some way to get word of the protium mines to the authorities of the World State. Berlin will then be at their mercy, but whatever happens can be no worse than the continuance of things as they are.’

  ‘But how,’ I said, ‘can a message be sent from Berlin to the outer world?’

  ‘There is only one way,’ replied Hellar, ‘and that is by the submarines that go out for this ore. The Submarine Staff are members of the Royal House. So, indeed, are the captains. We have tried for years to gain the confidence of some of these men, but without avail. Perhaps through your work on the protium ore you can succeed where we have failed.’

  ‘And how,’ I asked eagerly, ‘do the ore-bringing vessels get from Berlin to the sea?’

  My visitors glanced at each other significantly. ‘Do you not know that?’ exclaimed Zimmern. ‘We had supposed you would have been told when you were assigned to the protium research.’

  By way of answer I explained that I knew the source of the ore but not the route of its coming.

  ‘All such knowledge is suppressed in books,’ commented Hellar; ‘we older men know of this by word of mouth from the days when the submarine tunnel was completed to the sea, but you are younger. Unless this was told you at the time you were assigned the work it is not to be expected that you would know.’

  I questioned Hellar and Zimmern closely but found that all they knew was that a submarine tunnel did exist leading from Berlin somewhere into the open sea; but its exact location they did not know. Again I pressed my question as to what I could do with the power of my secret and they could only repeat that they staked their hopes on getting word to the outer world by way of submarines.

  Much as I might admire the strength of character that would lead men to rebel against the only life they knew because they sensed that it was hopeless, I now found myself a little exasperated at the vagueness of their plans. Yet I had none better. To defy the Emperor would merely be to risk my life and the possible loss of my knowledge to the world. Perhaps after all the older heads were wiser than my own rebellious spirit; and so, without making any more definite plans, I ended the interview with a promise to let them know of the outcome of the demonstration.

  Returning once more to my work I finished my preparations and sent word to the Chemical Staff that all was ready. They came with solemn faces. The laboratory was locked and guards were posted. The place was examined thoroughly, the apparatus was studied in detail. All my ingredients were tested for the presence of extracted protium, lest I be trying to ‘salt the mine’. But happily for me they accepted my statement as to their chemical nature in other respects. Then when all had been approved the test lot of ore was run. It took us thirty hours to run the extraction and sample and weigh and test the product. But everything went through exactly as I had planned.

  With solemn faces the Chemical Staff unanimously declared that the problem had been solved and marveled that the solution should come from the brain of so young a man. And so I received their adulation and worship, for I could not give credit to the chemists of the world outside to whom I was really indebted for my seeming miraculous genius. Telling me to take my rest and prepare myself for an audience with His Majesty three days later, the Chemical Staff departed, carrying, with guarded secrecy, my false formulas.

  IV

  Exultant and happy I left the laboratory. I had not slept for forty hours and scarcely half my regular allotment for many weeks. And
yet I was not sleepy now but awake and excited. I had won a great victory, and I wanted to rejoice and share my conquest with sympathetic ears. I could go to Zimmern, but instead I turned my steps toward the elevator and, alighting on the Level of the Free Women, I went straightway to Marguerite’s apartment.

  Despite my feeling of exhilaration, my face must have revealed something of my real state of exhaustion, for Marguerite cried in alarm at the sight of me.

  ‘A little tired,’ I replied, in answer to her solicitous questions; ‘I have just finished my demonstration before the Chemical Staff.’

  ‘And you won?’ cried Marguerite in a burst of joy. ‘You deceived them just as the doctor said you would. And they know you have solved the protium problem and they do not know how you did it?’

  ‘That is correct,’ I said, sinking back into the cushions of the divan. ‘I have done all that. I came here first to tell you. You see I could not come before, all these weeks, I have had no time for sleep or anything. I would have telephoned or written but I feared it would not be safe. Did you think I was not coming again?’

  ‘I missed you at first, I mean at first I thought you were staying away because you did not want to see me, and then Dr. Zimmern told me what you were doing, and I understood – and waited, for I somehow knew you would come as soon as you could.’

  ‘Yes, of course you knew. Of course, I had to come – Marguerite –’ But Marguerite faded before my vision. I reached out my hand for her – and it seemed to wave in empty space…

  V

  When I awoke, I was lying on a couch and a screen bedecked with cupids was standing before me. At first I thought I was alone and then I realized that I was in Marguerite’s apartment and that Marguerite herself was seated on a low stool beside the couch and gazing at me out of dreamy eyes.

  ‘How did I get here?’ I asked.

  ‘You fell asleep while you were talking, and then someone came for books, and when the bell rang I hid you with the screen.’

  ‘How long have I slept?’

  ‘For many hours,’ she answered.

  ‘I ought not to have come,’ I said, but despite my remark I made no haste to go, but reached out and ran my fingers through her massy hair. And then I slowly drew her toward me until her luxuriant locks were tumbled about my neck and face and her head was pillowed on my breast.

  ‘I am so happy,’ she whispered. ‘I am so glad you came first to me.’

  For a moment my reason was drugged by the opiate of her touch; and then, as the realization of the circumstances reformed in my brain, the feeling of guilt arose and routed the dreamy bliss. Yet I could only blame myself, for there was no guile in her act or word, nor could I believe there was guile in her heart. Gently I pushed her away and arose, stating that I must leave at once.

  It was plainly evident that Marguerite did not share my sense of embarrassment, that she was aware of no breach of ethics. But her ease only served to impress upon me the greater burden of my responsibility and emphasize the breach of honor of which I was guilty in permitting this expression of my love to a woman whom circumstances had bound to Zimmern.

  Pleading need for rest and for time to plan my interview with His Majesty, I hastened away, feeling that I dare not trust myself alone with her again.

  VI

  I returned to my own apartment, and when another day had passed, food and sleep had fully restored me to a normal state. I then recalled my promise to inform Hellar and Zimmern of the outcome of my demonstration. I called at Zimmern’s quarters but he was not at home. Hence I went to call on Hellar, to ask of Zimmern’s whereabouts.

  ‘I have an appointment to meet him tonight,’ said Hellar, ‘on the Level of Free Women. Will you not come along?’

  I could not well do otherwise than accept, and Hellar led me again to the apartment from which I had fled twenty-four hours before. There we found Zimmern, who received me with his usual graciousness.

  ‘I have already heard from Marguerite,’ said Zimmern, ‘of your success.’

  I glanced apprehensively at the girl but she was in no wise disturbed, and proceeded to relate for Hellar’s information the story of my coming to her exhausted from my work and of my falling asleep in her apartment. All of them seemed to think it amusing, but there was no evidence that anyone considered it the least improper. Their matter-of-fact attitude puzzled and annoyed me; they seemed to treat the incident as if it had been the experience of a couple of children.

  This angered me, for it seemed proof that they considered Marguerite’s love as the common property of any and all.

  ‘Could it be,’ I asked myself, ‘that jealousy has been bred and trained out of this race? Is it possible they have killed the instinct that demands private and individual property in love?’ Even as I pondered the problem it seemed answered, for as I sat and talked with Zimmern and Hellar of my chemical demonstration and the coming interview with His Majesty, Marguerite came and seated herself on the arm of my chair and pillowed her head on my shoulder.

  Troubled and embarrassed, yet not having the courage to repulse her caresses, I stared at Zimmern, who smiled on us with indulgence. In fact it seemed that he actually enjoyed the scene. My anger flamed up against him, but for Marguerite I had only pity, for her action seemed so natural and unaffected that I could not believe that she was making sport of me, and could only conclude that she had been so bred in the spirit of the place that she knew nothing else.

  My talk with the men ended as had the last one, without arriving at any particular plan of action, and when Hellar arose first to go, I took the opportunity to escape from what to me was an intolerable situation.

  VII

  I separated from Hellar and for an hour or more I wandered on the level. Then resolving to end the strain of my enigmatical position I turned again toward Marguerite’s apartment. She answered my ring. I entered and found her alone.

  ‘Marguerite,’ I began, ‘I cannot stand this intolerable situation. I cannot share the love of a woman with another man – I cannot steal a woman’s love from a man who is my friend –’

  At this outburst Marguerite only stared at me in puzzled amazement. ‘Then you do not want me to love you,’ she stammered.

  ‘God knows,’ I cried, ‘how I do want you to love me, but it must not be while Dr. Zimmern is alive and you –’

  ‘So,’ said a voice – and glancing up I saw Zimmern himself framed in the doorway of the book room. The old doctor looked from me to Marguerite, while a smile beamed on his courtly countenance.

  ‘Sit down and calm yourself, Armstadt,’ said Zimmern. ‘It is time I spoke to you of Marguerite and of the relation I bear to her. As you know, I brought her to this level from the school for girls of forbidden birth. But what you do not know is that she was born on the Royal Level.

  ‘I knew Marguerite’s mother. She was Princess Fedora, a third cousin of the Empress. I was her physician, for I have not always been in the Eugenic Service. But Marguerite was born out of wedlock, and the mother declined to name the father of her child. Because of that the child was consigned to the school for forbidden love children, which meant that she would be fated for the life of a free woman and become the property of such men as had the price to pay.

  ‘When her child was taken away from her, the mother killed herself; and because I declined to testify as to what I knew of the case I lost my commission as a physician of royalty. But still having the freedom of the school levels, I was permitted to keep track of Marguerite. As soon as she reached the age of her freedom I brought her here, and by the aid of her splendid birth and the companionship of thinking men she has become the woman you now find her.’

  In my jealousy I had listened to the first words of the old doctor with but little comprehension. But as he talked on so calmly and kindly an eager hope leaped up within me. Was it possible that it had been I who had misunderstood – and that Zimmern’s love for Marguerite was of another sort than mine?

  Tensely I awaited his furth
er words, but I did not dare to look at Marguerite, who had taken her place beside him.

  ‘I brought her here,’ Zimmern continued, ‘for there was no other place where she could go except into the keeping of some man. I have given her the work of guarding our books, and for that I could have well afforded to pay for her living.

  ‘You find in Marguerite a woman of intelligence, and there are few enough like her. And she finds in you a man of rare gifts, and you are both young, so it is not strange that you two should love each other. All this I considered before I brought you here to meet her. I was happy when Marguerite told me that it was so. But your happiness is marred, because you, Armstadt, think that I am in the way; you have believed that I bear the relation to Marguerite that the fact of my paying for her presence on this level would imply.

  ‘It speaks well of your honor,’ the doctor went on, ‘that you have felt as you did. I should have explained sooner, but I did not wish to speak of this until it was necessary to Marguerite’s happiness. But now that I have spoken there is nothing to stand in the way of your happiness, for Marguerite is as worthy of your love as if she had but made her debut on the Royal Level to which she was born. As for what is to be between you, I can only leave it to the best that is in yourselves, and whatever that may be has my blessing.’

  As I listened to the doctor’s words entranced with rapture, the vision of Marguerite floated hazily before my eyes as if she were an ethereal essence that might, at any moment, be snatched away. But as the doctor’s words ceased my eyes met Marguerite’s and all else seemed to fade but the love light that shone from out their liquid depths.

  Forgetting utterly the presence of the man whose words had set us free, our hearts reached out with hungry arms to claim their own.

  For us, time lost her reckoning amidst our tears and kisses, and when my brain at last made known to me the existence of other souls than ours, I looked up and found that we were alone. A saucy little clock ticked rhythmically on a mantle. I felt an absurd desire to smash it, for the impudent thing had been running all the while.