Darkness and Dawn

by George Allan England

  CHAPTER XXVII

  TO WORK!

  The engineer awoke with a start--awoke to find daylight gone,to find that dusk had settled, had shrouded the whole place in gloom.

  Confused, he started up. He was about to call out, when prudence mutedhis voice. For the moment he could not recollect just what hadhappened or where he was; but a vast impending consciousness of eviland of danger weighed upon him. It warned him to keep still, to makeno outcry. A burning thirst quickened his memory.

  Then his comprehension returned. Still weak and shaken, yet greatlybenefited by his sleep, he took a few steps toward the door. Where wasthe girl? Was he alone? What could all this mean?

  "Beatrice! Oh, Beatrice!" he called thickly, in guarded tones. "Whereare you? Answer me!"

  "Here--coming!" he heard her voice. And then he saw her, dimly, in thedoorway.

  "What is it? Where have you been? How long have I been asleep?"

  She did not answer his questions, but came quickly to him, took hishand, and with her own smoothed his brow.

  "Better, now?" asked she.

  "Lots! I'll be all right in a little while. It's nothing. But whathave _you_ been doing all this time?"

  "Come, and I'll show you." She led him toward the other room.

  He followed, in growing wonder.

  "No attack, yet?"

  "None. But the drums have been beating for a long time now. Hear_that?_"

  They listened. To them drifted a dull, monotonous sound, harbinger ofwar.

  Stern laughed bitterly, chokingly, by reason of his thirst.

  "Much good their orchestra will do them," said he, "when it comes tofacing soft-nosed .38's! But tell me, what was it you were going toshow me?"

  Quickly she went over to their crude table, took up a dish and cameback to him.

  "Drink this!" bade she.

  He took it, wondering.

  "What? _Coffee?_ But--"

  "Drink! I've had mine, already. Drink!"

  Half-stupefied, he obeyed. He drained the whole dish at a draft, thencaught his breath in a long sigh.

  "But this means water!" cried he, with renewed vigor. "And--?"

  "Look here," she directed, pointing. There on the circular hearthstood the copper kettle, three-quarters full.

  "Water! You've got _water?_" He started forward in amazement. "WhileI've been sleeping? Where--?"

  She laughed with real enjoyment.

  "It's nothing," she disclaimed. "After what you've done for me, thisis the merest trifle, Allan. You know that big cavity made by theboiler-explosion? Yes? Well, when we looked down into it, before weventured out to the spring, I noticed a good deal of water at thebottom, stagnant water, that had run out of the boiler and settled onthe hard clay floor and in among the cracked cement. I just merelybrought up some, and strained and boiled it, that's all. So you see--"

  "But, my Lord!" burst out the man, "d'you mean to say you--you wentdown _there--alone?_"

  Once more the girl laughed.

  "Not alone," she answered. "One of the automatics was kind enough tobear me company. Of course the main stairway was impassable. But Ifound another way, off through the east end of the building and downsome stairs we haven't used at all, yet. They may be useful, by theway, in case of--well--a retreat. Once I'd reached the arcade, therest was easy. I had that leather rope tied to the kettle handle, yousee. So all I had to do was--"

  "But the Horde! The Horde?"

  "None of them down there, now--that is, alive. None when I was there.All at the war-council, I imagine. I just happened to strike it right,you see. It wasn't anything. We simply _had_ to have water, so I wentand got some, that's all."

  "That's all?" echoed Stern, in a trembling voice. "That's--_all!_"

  Then, lest she see his face even by the dim light through the window,he turned aside a minute. For the tears in his eyes, he felt, were aweakness which he would not care to reveal.

  But presently he faced the girl again.

  "Beatrice," said he, "words fall so flat, so hopelessly dead; they'reso inadequate, so anticlimactic at a time like this, that I'm justgoing to skip them all. It's no use thanking you, or analyzing thisthing, or saying any of the commonplace, stupid things. Let it pass.You've got water, that's enough. You've made good, where I failed.Well--"

  His voice broke again, and he grew silent. But she, peering at himwith wonder, laid a hand upon his shoulder.

  "Come," said she, "you must eat something, too. I've got a littlesupper ready. After that, the Pulverite?"

  He started as though shot.

  "That's so! I _can_ make it now!" cried he, new life and energysuffusing him. "Even with my one hand, if you help me, I can make it!Supper? No, no! To _work!_"

  But she insisted, womanlike; and he at last consented to a bite. Whenthis was over, they began preparations for the manufacture of theterrible explosive, Stern's own secret and invention, which, had notthe cataclysm intervened, would have made him ten times over amillionaire. More precious now to him, that knowledge, than all thegolden treasures of the dead, forsaken world!

  "We've got to risk a light," said he. "If it's turned low, and shaded,maybe they won't learn our whereabouts. But however that may be, wecan't work in the dark. It would be too horribly perilous. One falsemove, one wrong combination, even the addition of one ingredient atthe improper moment, and--well--you understand."

  She nodded.

  "Yes," said she. "And we don't want to quit--just _yet!_"

  So they lighted the smaller of their copper lamps, and set to work inearnest.

  On the table, cleared of dishes and of food, Stern placed in ordereight glass bottles, containing the eight basic chemicals for hisreaction.

  Beside him, at his left hand, he set a large metal dish with threequarts of water, still warm. In front of him stood his coppertea-kettle--the strangest retort, surely in which the terrificcompound ever had been distilled.

  "Now our chairs, and the lamp," said he, "and we're ready to begin.But first," and, looking earnestly at her, "first, tell me frankly,wouldn't you just a little rather have me carry out this experimentalone? You could wait elsewhere, you know. With these uncertainmaterials and all the crude conditions we've got to work under,there's no telling what--might happen.

  "I've never yet found a man who would willingly stand by and see mebuild Pulverite, much less a woman. It's frightful, this stuff is!Don't be ashamed to tell me; are you afraid?"

  For a long moment the girl looked at him.

  "Afraid--with _you?_" said she.