Chapter XX. Oro and Arbuthnot Travel by Night
As time went on, Oro began to visit me more and more frequently, till atlast scarcely a night went by that he did not appear mysteriously in mysleeping-place. The odd thing was that neither Bickley nor Bastin seemedto be aware of these nocturnal calls. Indeed, when I mentioned them onone or two occasions, they stared at me and said it was strange that heshould have come and gone as they saw nothing of him.
On my speaking again of the matter, Bickley at once turned theconversation, from which I gathered that he believed me to be sufferingfrom delusions consequent on my illness, or perhaps to have takento dreaming. This was not wonderful since, as I learned afterwards,Bickley, after he was sure that I was asleep, made a practice of tyinga thread across my doorway and of ascertaining at the dawn that itremained unbroken. But Oro was not to be caught in that way. I suppose,as it was impossible for him to pass through the latticework of the openside of the house, that he undid the thread and fastened it again whenhe left; at least, that was Bastin's explanation, or, rather, one ofthem. Another was that he crawled beneath it, but this I could notbelieve. I am quite certain that during all his prolonged existence Oronever crawled.
At any rate, he came, or seemed to come, and pumped me--I can use noother word--most energetically as to existing conditions in theworld, especially those of the civilised countries, their methods ofgovernment, their social state, the physical characteristics of thevarious races, their religions, the exact degrees of civilisation thatthey had developed, their attainments in art, science and literature,their martial capacities, their laws, and I know not what besides.
I told him all I could, but did not in the least seem to satisfy hisperennial thirst for information.
"I should prefer to judge for myself," he said at last. "Why are you soanxious to learn about all these nations, Oro?" I asked, exhausted.
"Because the knowledge I gather may affect my plans for the future," hereplied darkly.
"I am told, Oro, that your people acquired the power of transportingthemselves from place to place."
"It is true that the lords of the Sons of Wisdom had such power, andthat I have it still, O Humphrey."
"Then why do you not go to look with your own eyes?" I suggested.
"Because I should need a guide; one who could explain much in a shorttime," he said, contemplating me with his burning glance until I beganto feel uncomfortable.
To change the subject I asked him whether he had any further informationabout the war, which he had told me was raging in Europe.
He answered: "Not much; only that it was going on with varying success,and would continue to do so until the nations involved therein wereexhausted," or so he believed. The war did not seem greatly to interestOro. It was, he remarked, but a small affair compared to those which hehad known in the old days. Then he departed, and I went to sleep.
Next night he appeared again, and, after talking a little on differentsubjects, remarked quietly that he had been thinking over what I hadsaid as to his visiting the modern world, and intended to act upon thesuggestion.
"When?" I asked.
"Now," he said. "I am going to visit this England of yours and the townyou call London, and you will accompany me."
"It is not possible!" I exclaimed. "We have no ship."
"We can travel without a ship," said Oro.
I grew alarmed, and suggested that Bastin or Bickley would be a muchbetter companion than I should in my present weak state.
"An empty-headed man, or one who always doubts and argues, would beuseless," he replied sharply. "You shall come and you only."
I expostulated; I tried to get up and fly--which, indeed, I did do, inanother sense.
But Oro fixed his eyes upon me and slowly waved his thin hand to and froabove my head.
My senses reeled. Then came a great darkness.
They returned again. Now I was standing in an icy, reeking fog, which Iknew could belong to one place only--London, in December, and at my sidewas Oro.
"Is this the climate of your wonderful city?" he asked, or seemed toask, in an aggrieved tone.
I replied that it was, for about three months in the year, and began tolook about me.
Soon I found my bearings. In front of me were great piles of buildings,looking dim and mysterious in the fog, in which I recognised the Housesof Parliament and Westminster Abbey, for both could be seen from wherewe stood in front of the Westminster Bridge Station. I explained theiridentity to Oro.
"Good," he said. "Let us enter your Place of Talk."
"But I am not a member, and we have no passes for the Strangers'Gallery," I expostulated.
"We shall not need any," he replied contemptuously. "Lead on."
Thus adjured, I crossed the road, Oro following me. Looking round, tomy horror I saw him right in the path of a motor-bus which seemed to goover him.
"There's an end to Oro," thought I to myself. "Well, at any rate, I havegot home."
Next instant he was at my side quite undisturbed by the incident of thebus. We came to a policeman at the door and I hesitated, expecting tobe challenged. But the policeman seemed absolutely indifferent to ourpresence, even when Oro marched past him in his flowing robes. SoI followed with a like success. Then I understood that we must beinvisible.
We passed to the lobby, where members were hurrying to and fro, andconstituents and pressmen were gathered, and so on into the House. Orowalked up its floor and took his stand by the table, in front of theSpeaker. I followed him, none saying us No.
As it chanced there was what is called a scene in progress--I think itwas over Irish matters; the details are of no account. Members shouted,Ministers prevaricated and grew angry, the Speaker intervened. On thewhole, it was rather a degrading spectacle. I stood, or seemed tostand, and watched it all. Oro, in his sweeping robes, which lookedso incongruous in that place, stepped, or seemed to step, up to theprincipal personages of the Government and Opposition, whom I indicatedto him, and inspected them one by one, as a naturalist might examinestrange insects. Then, returning to me, he said:
"Come away; I have seen and heard enough. Who would have thought thatthis nation of yours was struggling for its life in war?"
We passed out of the House and somehow came to Trafalgar Square. Ameeting was in progress there, convened, apparently, to advocate therights of Labour, also those of women, also to protest against thingsin general, especially the threat of Conscription in the service of thecountry.
Here the noise was tremendous, and, the fog having lifted somewhat, wecould see everything. Speakers bawled from the base of Nelson's column.Their supporters cheered, their adversaries rushed at them, and in oneor two instances succeeded in pulling them down. A woman climbed upand began to scream out something which could only be heard by a fewreporters gathered round her. I thought her an unpleasant-lookingperson, and evidently her remarks were not palatable to the majority ofher auditors. There was a rush, and she was dragged from the base of oneof Landseer's lions on which she stood. Her skirt was half rent offher and her bodice split down the back. Finally, she was conveyedaway, kicking, biting, and scratching, by a number of police. It was adisgusting sight, and tumult ensued.
"Let us go," said Oro. "Your officers of order are good; the rest is notgood."
Later we found ourselves opposite to the doors of a famous restaurantwhere a magnificent and gigantic commissionaire helped ladies frommotor-cars, receiving in return money from the men who attended on them.We entered; it was the hour of dinner. The place sparkled with gems,and the naked backs of the women gleamed in the electric light. Coursefollowed upon course; champagne flowed, a fine band played, everythingwas costly; everything was, in a sense, repellent.
"These are the wealthy citizens of a nation engaged in fighting for itslife," remarked Oro to me, stroking his long beard. "It is interesting,very interesting. Let us go."
We went out and on, passing a public-house crowded with women who hadleft their babies in charge
of children in the icy street. It was aday of Intercession for the success of England in the war. This wasplacarded everywhere. We entered, or, rather, Oro did, I followinghim, one of the churches in the Strand where an evening service was inprogress. The preacher in the pulpit, a very able man, was holding forthupon the necessity for national repentance and self-denial; also ofprayer. In the body of the church exactly thirty-two people, mostof them elderly women, were listening to him with an air of placidacceptance.
"The priest talks well, but his hearers are not many," said Oro. "Let usgo."
We came to the flaunting doors of a great music-hall and passed throughthem, though to others this would have been impossible, for the placewas filled from floor to roof. In its promenades men were drinking andsmoking, while gaudy women, painted and low-robed, leered at them. Onthe stage girls danced, throwing their legs above their heads. Then theyvanished amidst applause, and a woman in a yellow robe, who pretendedto be tipsy, sang a horrible and vulgar song full of topical allusions,which was received with screams of delight by the enormous audience.
"Here the hearers are very many, but those to whom they listen do nottalk well. Let us go," said Oro, and we went.
At a recruiting station we paused a moment to consider posters supposedto be attractive, the very sight of which sent a thrill of shame throughme. I remember that the inscription under one of them was: "What willyour best girl say?"
"Is that how you gather your soldiers? Later it will be otherwise," saidOro, and passed on.
We reached Blackfriars and entered a hall at the doors of which stoodwomen in poke-bonnets, very sweet-faced, earnest-looking women. Theircountenances seemed to strike Oro, and he motioned me to follow himinto the hall. It was quite full of a miserable-looking congregationof perhaps a thousand people. A man in the blue and red uniform of theSalvation Army was preaching of duty to God and country, of self-denial,hope and forgiveness. He seemed a humble person, but his words wereearnest, and love flowed from him. Some of his miserable congregationwept, others stared at him open-mouthed, a few, who were very weary,slept. He called them up to receive pardon, and a number, led by thesweet-faced women, came and knelt before him. He and others whispered tothem, then seemed to bless them, and they rose with their faces changed.
"Let us go," said Oro. "I do not understand these rites, but at lastin your great and wonderful city I have seen something that is pure andnoble."
We went out. In the streets there was great excitement. People ran toand fro pointing upwards. Searchlights, like huge fingers of flame,stole across the sky; guns boomed. At last, in the glare of asearchlight, we saw a long and sinister object floating high above usand gleaming as though it were made of silver. Flashes came from itfollowed by terrible booming reports that grew nearer and nearer. Ahouse collapsed with a crash just behind us.
"Ah!" said Oro, with a smile. "I know this--it is war, war as it waswhen the world was different and yet the same."
As he spoke, a motor-bus rumbled past. Another flash and explosion. Aman, walking with his arms round the waist of a girl just ahead ofus; seemed to be tossed up and to melt. The girl fell in a heap on thepavement; somehow her head and her feet had come quite close togetherand yet she appeared to be sitting down. The motor-bus burst intofragments and its passengers hurtled through the air, mere hideous lumpsthat had been men and women. The head of one of them came dancing downthe pavement towards us, a cigar still stuck in the corner of its mouth.
"Yes, this is war," said Oro. "It makes me young again to see it. Butdoes this city of yours understand?"
We watched a while. A crowd gathered. Policemen ran up, ambulances came.The place was cleared, and all that was left they carried away. A fewminutes later another man passed by with his arm round the waist ofanother girl. Another motor-bus rumbled up, and, avoiding the hole inthe roadway, travelled on, its conductor keeping a keen look-out forfares.
The street was cleared by the police; the airship continued its course,spawning bombs in the distance, and vanished. The incident was closed.
"Let us go home," said Oro. "I have seen enough of your great andwonderful city. I would rest in the quiet of Nyo and think."
The next thing that I remember was the voice of Bastin, saying:
"If you don't mind, Arbuthnot, I wish that you would get up. TheGlittering Lady (he still called her that) is coming here to have a talkwith me which I should prefer to be private. Excuse me for disturbingyou, but you have overslept yourself; indeed, I think it must be nineo'clock, so far as I can judge by the sun, for my watch is very erraticnow, ever since Bickley tried to clean it."
"I am sorry, my dear fellow," I said sleepily, "but do you know Ithought I was in London--in fact, I could swear that I have been there."
"Then," interrupted Bickley, who had followed Bastin into the hut,giving me that doubtful glance with which I was now familiar, "I wish togoodness that you had brought back an evening paper with you."
A night or two later I was again suddenly awakened to feel that Oro wasapproaching. He appeared like a ghost in the bright moonlight, greetedme, and said:
"Tonight, Humphrey, we must make another journey. I would visit the seatof the war."
"I do not wish to go," I said feebly.
"What you wish does not matter," he replied. "I wish that you should go,and therefore you must."
"Listen, Oro," I exclaimed. "I do not like this business; it seemsdangerous to me."
"There is no danger if you are obedient, Humphrey."
"I think there is. I do not understand what happens. Do you make use ofwhat the Lady Yva called the Fourth Dimension, so that our bodiespass over the seas and through mountains, like the vibrations of ourWireless, of which I was speaking to you?"
"No, Humphrey. That method is good and easy, but I do not use it becauseif I did we should be visible in the places which we visit, since thereall the atoms that make a man would collect together again and be aman."
"What, then, do you do?" I asked, exasperated.
"Man, Humphrey, is not one; he is many. Thus, amongst other things hehas a Double, which can see and hear, as he can in the flesh, if it isseparated from the flesh."
"The old Egyptians believed that," I said.
"Did they? Doubtless they inherited the knowledge from us, the Sons ofWisdom. The cup of our learning was so full that, keep it secret as wewould, from time to time some of it overflowed among the vulgar, anddoubtless thus the light of our knowledge still burns feebly in theworld."
I reflected to myself that whatever might be their othercharacteristics, the Sons of Wisdom had lost that of modesty, but I onlyasked how he used his Double, supposing that it existed.
"Very easily," he answered. "In sleep it can be drawn from the body andsent upon its mission by one that is its master."
"Then while you were asleep for all those thousands of years your Doublemust have made many journeys."
"Perhaps," he replied quietly, "and my spirit also, which is anotherpart of me that may have dwelt in the bodies of other men. Butunhappily, if so I forget, and that is why I have so much to learn andmust even make use of such poor instruments as you, Humphrey."
"Then if I sleep and you distil my Double out of me, I suppose that yousleep too. In that case who distils your Double out of you, Lord Oro?"
He grew angry and answered:
"Ask no more questions, blind and ignorant as you are. It is your partnot to examine, but to obey. Sleep now," and again he waved his handover me.
In an instant, as it seemed, we were standing in a grey old town that Ijudged from its appearance must be either in northern France or Belgium.It was much shattered by bombardment; the church, for instance, was aruin; also many of the houses had been burnt. Now, however, no firingwas going on for the town had been taken. The streets were full of armedmen wearing the German uniform and helmet. We passed down them andwere able to see into the houses. In some of these were German soldiersengaged in looting and in other things so horrible that even the unmovedO
ro turned away his head.
We came to the market-place. It was crowded with German troops, alsowith a great number of the inhabitants of the town, most of them elderlymen and women with children, who had fallen into their power. TheGermans, under the command of officers, were dragging the men fromthe arms of their wives and children to one side, and with rifle-buttsbeating back the screaming women. Among the men I noticed two or threepriests who were doing their best to soothe their companions and evengiving them absolution in hurried whispers.
At length the separation was effected, whereon at a hoarse word ofcommand, a company of soldiers began to fire at the men and continueddoing so until all had fallen. Then petty officers went among theslaughtered and with pistols blew out the brains of any who still moved.
"These butchers, you say, are Germans?" asked Oro of me.
"Yes," I answered, sick with horror, for though I was in the mind andnot in the body, I could feel as the mind does. Had I been in the bodyalso, I should have fainted.
"Then we need not waste time in visiting their country. It is enough;let us go on."
We passed out into the open land and came to a village. It was in theoccupation of German cavalry. Two of them held a little girl of nineor ten, one by her body, the other by her right hand. An officer stoodbetween them with a drawn sword fronting the terrified child. He wasa horrible, coarse-faced man who looked to me as though he had beendrinking.
"I'll teach the young devil to show us the wrong road and let thoseFrench swine escape," he shouted, and struck with the sword. The girl'sright hand fell to the ground.
"War as practised by the Germans!" remarked Oro. Then he stepped, orseemed to step up to the man and whispered, or seemed to whisper, in hisear.
I do not know what tongue or what spirit speech he used, or what hesaid, but the bloated-faced brute turned pale. Yes, he drew sick withfear.
"I think there are spirits in this place," he said with a German oath."I could have sworn that something told me that I was going to die.Mount!"
The Uhlans mounted and began to ride away.
"Watch," said Oro.
As he spoke out of a dark cloud appeared an aeroplane. Its pilot saw theband of Germans beneath and dropped a bomb. The aim was good, for themissile exploded in the midst of them, causing a great cloud of dustfrom which arose the screams of men and horses.
"Come and see," said Oro.
We were there. Out of the cloud of dust appeared one man gallopingfuriously. He was a young fellow who, as I noted, had turned his headaway and hidden his eyes with his hand when the horror was done yonder.All the others were dead except the officer who had worked the deed. Hewas still living, but both his hands and one of his feet had been blownaway. Presently he died, screaming to God for mercy.
We passed on and came to a barn with wide doors that swung a little inthe wind, causing the rusted hinges to scream like a creature in pain.On each of these doors hung a dead man crucified. The hat of one ofthem lay upon the ground, and I knew from the shape of it that he was aColonial soldier.
"Did you not tell me," said Oro after surveying them, "that theseGermans are of your Christian faith?"
"Yes; and the Name of God is always on their ruler's lips."
"Ah!" he said, "I am glad that I worship Fate. Bastin the priest needtrouble me no more."
"There is something behind Fate," I said, quoting Bastin himself.
"Perhaps. So indeed I have always held, but after much study I cannotunderstand the manner of its working. Fate is enough for me."
We went on and came to a flat country that was lined with ditches, allof them full of men, Germans on one side, English and French upon theother. A terrible bombardment shook the earth, the shells raining uponthe ditches. Presently that from the English guns ceased and out of thetrenches in front of them thousands of men were vomited, who ran forwardthrough a hail of fire in which scores and hundreds fell, across an openpiece of ground that was pitted with shell craters. They came to barbedwire defenses, or what remained of them, cut the wire with nippers andpulled up the posts. Then through the gaps they surged in, shouting andhurling hand grenades. They reached the German trenches, they leapt intothem and from those holes arose a hellish din. Pistols were fired andeverywhere bayonets flashed.
Behind them rushed a horde of little, dark-skinned men, Indians whocarried great knives in their hands. Those leapt over the first trenchand running on with wild yells, dived into the second, those who wereleft of them, and there began hacking with their knives at the defendersand the soldiers who worked the spitting maxim guns. In twenty minutesit was over; those lines of trenches were taken, and once more fromeither side the guns began to boom.
"War again," said Oro, "clean, honest war, such as the god I call Fatedecrees for man. I have seen enough. Now I would visit those whom youcall Turks. I understand they have another worship and perhaps they arenobler than these Christians."
We came to a hilly country which I recognised as Armenia, for once Itravelled there, and stopped on an seashore. Here were the Turks inthousands. They were engaged in driving before them mobs of men, womenand children in countless numbers. On and on they drove them tillthey reached the shore. There they massacred them with bayonets, withbullets, or by drowning. I remember a dreadful scene of a poor womanstanding up to her waist in the water. Three children were clinging toher--but I cannot go on, really I cannot go on. In the end a Turk wadedout and bayoneted her while she strove to protect the last living childwith her poor body whence it sprang.
"These, I understand," said Oro, pointing to the Turkish soldiers,"worship a prophet who they say is the voice of God."
"Yes," I answered, "and therefore they massacre these who are Christiansbecause they worship God without a prophet."
"And what do the Christians massacre each other for?"
"Power and the wealth and territories that are power. That is, the Kingof the Germans wishes to rule the world, but the other Nations do notdesire his dominion. Therefore they fight for Liberty and Justice."
"As it was, so it is and shall be," remarked Oro, "only with thisdifference. In the old world some were wise, but here--" and he stopped,his eyes fixed upon the Armenian woman struggling in her death agonywhile the murderer drowned her child, then added: "Let us go."
Our road ran across the sea. On it we saw a ship so large that itattracted Oro's attention, and for once he expressed astonishment.
"In my day," he said, "we had no vessels of this greatness in the world.I wish to look upon it."
We landed on the deck of the ship, or rather the floating palace, andexamined her. She carried many passengers, some English, some American,and I pointed out to Oro the differences between the two peoples. Thesewere not, he remarked, very wide except that the American women woremore jewels, also that some of the American men, to whom we listenedas they conversed, spoke of the greatness of their country, whereasthe Englishmen, if they said anything concerning it, belittled theircountry.
Presently, on the surface of the sea at a little distance appearedsomething strange, a small and ominous object like a can on the top of apole. A voice cried out "Submarine!" and everyone near rushed to look.
"If those Germans try any of their monkey tricks on us, I guess theUnited States will give them hell," said another voice near by.
Then from the direction of the pole with the tin can on the top ofit, came something which caused a disturbance in the smooth water andbubbles to rise in its wake.
"A torpedo!" cried some.
"Shut your mouth," said the voice. "Who dare torpedo a vessel full ofthe citizens of the United States?"
Next came a booming crash and a flood of upthrown water, in the wash ofwhich that speaker was carried away into the deep. Then horror! horror!horror! indescribable, as the mighty vessel went wallowing to her doom.Boats launched; boats overset; boats dragged under by her rush throughthe water which could not be stayed. Maddened men and women runningto and fro, their eyes starting from their heads, clasping
children,fastening lifebelts over their costly gowns, or appearing from theircabins, their hands filled with jewels that they sought to save. Orderscried from high places by stern-faced officers doing their duty to thelast. And a little way off that thin pole with a tin can on the top ofit watching its work.
Then the plunge of the enormous ship into the deep, its huge screwsstill whirling in the air and the boom of the bursting boilers. Lastlyeverything gone save a few boats floating on the quiet sea and aroundthem dots that were the heads of struggling human beings.
"Let us go home," said Oro. "I grow tired of this war of your Christianpeoples. It is no better than that of the barbarian nations of the earlyworld. Indeed it is worse, since then we worshipped Fate and but a fewof us had wisdom. Now you all claim wisdom and declare that you worshipa God of Mercy."
With these words still ringing in my ears I woke up upon the Island ofOrofena, filled with terror at the horrible possibilities of nightmare.
What else could it be? There was the brown and ancient cone of theextinct volcano. There were the tall palms of the main island and thelake glittering in the sunlight between. There was Bastin conductinga kind of Sunday school of Orofenans upon the point of the Rock ofOfferings, as now he had obtained the leave of Oro to do. There was themouth of the cave, and issuing from it Bickley, who by help of one ofthe hurricane lamps had been making an examination of the buriedremains of what he supposed to be flying machines. Without doubt it wasnightmare, and I would say nothing to them about it for fear of mockery.
Yet two nights later Oro came again and after the usual preliminaries,said:
"Humphrey, this night we will visit that mighty American nation, ofwhich you have told me so much, and the other Neutral Countries."
[At this point there is a gap in Mr. Arbuthnot's M.S., so Oro'sreflections on the Neutral Nations, if any, remain unrecorded. Itcontinues:]
On our homeward way we passed over Australia, making a detour to do so.Of the cities Oro took no account. He said that they were too large andtoo many, but the country interested him so much that I gathered he musthave given great attention to agriculture at some time in the past. Hepointed out to me that the climate was fine, and the land so fertilethat with a proper system of irrigation and water-storage it couldsupport tens of millions and feed not only itself but a great part ofthe outlying world.
"But where are the people?" he asked. "Outside of those huge hives," andhe indicated the great cities, "I see few of them, though doubtless someof the men are fighting in this war. Well, in the days to come this mustbe remedied."
Over New Zealand, which he found beautiful, he shook his head for thesame reason.
On another night we visited the East. China with its teeming millionsinterested him extremely, partly because he declared these to be thedescendants of one of the barbarian nations of his own day. He madea remark to the effect that this race had always possessed pointsand capacities, and that he thought that with proper government andinstruction their Chinese offspring would be of use in a regeneratedworld.
For the Japanese and all that they had done in two short generations, hewent so far as to express real admiration, a very rare thing with Oro,who was by nature critical. I could see that mentally he put a whitemark against their name.
India, too, really moved him. He admired the ancient buildings at Delhiand Agra, especially the Taj Mahal. This, he declared, was reminiscentof some of the palaces that stood at Pani, the capital city of the Sonsof Wisdom, before it was destroyed by the Barbarians.
The English administration of the country also attracted a word ofpraise from him, I think because of its rather autocratic character.Indeed he went so far as to declare that, with certain modifications,it should be continued in the future, and even to intimate that he wouldbear the matter in mind. Democratic forms of government had no charmsfor Oro.
Amongst other places, we stopped at Benares and watched the funeralrites in progress upon the banks of the holy Ganges. The bearers of thedead brought the body of a woman wrapped in a red shroud that glitteredwith tinsel ornaments. Coming forward at a run and chanting as they ran,they placed it upon the stones for a little while, then lifted it upagain and carried it down the steps to the edge of the river. Here theytook water and poured it over the corpse, thus performing the rite ofthe baptism of death. This done, they placed its feet in the waterand left it looking very small and lonely. Presently appeared a tall,white-draped woman who took her stand by the body and wailed. It was thedead one's mother. Again the bearers approached and laid the corpse uponthe flaming pyre.
"These rites are ancient," said Oro. "When I ruled as King of the Worldthey were practised in this very place. It is pleasant to me to findsomething that has survived the changefulness of Time. Let it continuetill the end."
Here I will cease. These experiences that I have recorded are butsamples, for also we visited Russia and other countries. Perhaps, too,they were not experiences at all, but only dreams consequent on my stateof health. I cannot say for certain, though much of what I seemed tosee fitted in very well indeed with what I learned in after days, andcertainly at the time they appeared as real as though Oro and I hadstood together upon those various shores.
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