City of Endless Night

by Milo Hastings

  CHAPTER VII

  THE SUN SHINES UPON A KING AND A GIRL READS OF THE FALL OF BABYLON

  ~1~

  Embittered by this unhappy ending of my romance, I turned to my workwith savage zeal, determined not again to be diverted by a personaleffort to save the Germans from their sins. But this application to mytest-tubes was presently interrupted by a German holiday which was knownas The Day of the Sun.

  From the conversation of my assistants I gathered that this was anannual occasion of particular importance. It was, in fact, His Majesty'sbirthday, and was celebrated by permitting the favoured classes to seethe ruler himself at the Place in the Sun. For this Royal exhibition Ireceived a blue ticket of which my assistants were curiously envious.They inspected the number of it and the hour of my admittance to theRoyal Level. "It is the first appearance of the day," they said. "HisMajesty will be fresh to speak; you will be near; you will be able tosee His Face without the aid of a glass; you will be able to hear HisVoice, and not merely the reproducing horns."

  In the morning our news bulletin was wholly devoted to announcements andpatriotic exuberances. Across the sheet was flamed a headline statingthat the meteorologist of the Roof Observatory reported that the sunwould shine in full brilliancy upon the throne. This seemed verypuzzling to me. For the Place in the Sun was clearly located on theRoyal Level and some hundred metres beneath the roof of the city.

  I went, at the hour announced on my ticket, to the indicated elevator;and, with an eager crowd of fellow scientists, stepped forth into a vastopen space where the vaulted ceiling was supported by massive flutedcolumns that rose to twice the height of the ordinary spacing of thelevels of the city.

  An enormous crowd of men of the higher ranks was gathering. Closelypacked and standing, the multitude extended to the sides and the rear ofmy position for many hundred metres until it seemed quite lost under theglowing lights in the distance. Before us a huge curtain hung.Emblazoned on its dull crimson background of subdued socialism was agigantic black eagle, the leering emblem of autocracy. Above andextending back over us, appeared in the ceiling a deep andunlighted crevice.

  As the crowd seemed complete the men about me consulted their watchesand then suddenly grew quiet in expectancy. The lights blinked twice andwent out, and we were bathed in a hush of darkness. The heavy curtainrustled like the mantle of Jove while from somewhere above I heard theshutters of the windows of heaven move heavily on their rollers. Aflashing brilliant beam of light shot through the blackness and fell inwondrous splendour upon a dazzling metallic dais, whereon rested thegilded throne of the House of Hohenzollern.

  Seated upon the throne was a man--a very little man he seemed amidstsuch vast and vivid surroundings. He was robed in a cape of dazzlingwhite, and on his head he wore a helmet of burnished platinum. Beforethe throne and slightly to one side stood the round form of apaper globe.

  His Majesty rose, stepped a few paces forward; and, as he with solemndeliberation raised his hand into the shaft of burning light, from thethrong there came a frenzied shouting, which soon changed into a sort ofchanting and then into a throaty song.

  His Majesty lowered his hand; the song ceased; a great stillness hungover the multitude. Eitel I, Emperor of the Germans, now raised his faceand stared for a moment unblinkingly into the beam of sunlight, then helowered his gaze toward the sea of upturned faces.

  "My people," he said, in a voice which for all his pompous effort, fellrather flat in the immensity, "you are assembled here in the Place ofthe Sun to do honour to God's anointed ruler of the world."

  From ten thousand throats came forth another raucous shout.

  "Two and a half centuries ago," now spoke His Majesty, "God appointedthe German race, under William the Great, of the House of Hohenzollern,to be the rulers of the world.

  "For nineteen hundred years, God in his infinite patience, had awaitedthe outcome of the test of the Nazarene's doctrine of servile humilityand effeminate peace. But the Christian nations of the earth wereweighed in the balance of Divine wrath and found wanting. Wallowing inhypocrisy and ignorance, wanting in courage and valour; behind apretence of altruism they cloaked their selfish greed for gold.

  "Of all the people of the earth our race alone possessed the two keys topower, the mastery of science and the mastery of the sword. So theGermans were called of God to instil fear and reverence into the heartsof the inferior races. That was the purpose of the First World War undermy noble ancestor, William II.

  "But the envious nations, desperate in their greed, banded together todefy our old German God, and destroy His chosen people. But this wasonly a divine trial of our worth, for the plans of God are for eternity.His days to us are centuries. And we did well to patiently abide thecomplete unfoldment of the Divine plan.

  "Before two generations had passed our German ancestors cast off theyoke of enslavement and routed the oppressors in the Second World War.Lest His chosen race be contaminated by the swinish herds of the mongrelnations God called upon His people to relinquish for a time the fruitsof conquest, that they might be further purged by science and become apure-bred race of super-men.

  "That purification has been accomplished for every German is bred andtrained by science as ordained by God. There are no longer any mongrelsamong the men of Germany, for every one of you is created for hisspecial purpose and every German is fitted for his particular place as amember of the super-race.

  "The time now draws near when the final purpose of our good old GermanGod is to be fulfilled. The day of this fulfilment is known unto me. Thesun which shines upon this throne is but a symbol of that which has beendenied you while all these things were being made ready. But now the daydraws near when you shall, under my leadership, rule over the world andthe mongrel peoples. And to each of you shall be given a place inthe sun."

  The voice had ceased. A great stillness hung over the multitude. EitelI, Emperor of the Germans, threw back his cape and drew his sword. Witha sweeping flourish he slashed the paper globe in twain.

  From the myriad throated throng came a reverberating shout that rolledand echoed through the vaulted catacomb. The crimson curtain dropped.The shutters were thrown athwart the reflected beam of sunlight. Thelights of man again glowed pale amidst the maze of columns.

  Singing and marching, the men filed toward the elevators. The guardsurged haste to clear the way, for the God of the Germans could not staythe march of the sun across the roof of Berlin, and a score of paperglobes must yet be slashed for other shouting multitudes before thesun's last gleam be twisted down to shine upon a king.

  ~2~

  Although the working hours of the day were scarcely one-fourth gone, itwas impossible for me to return to my laboratory for the lightingcurrent was shut off for the day. I therefore decided to utilize theoccasion by returning the geography which I had rescued from Bertha.

  Dr. Zimmern's invitation to make use of his library had been cordialenough, but its location in Marguerite's apartment had made me a littlereticent about going there except in the Doctor's company. Yet I did notwish to admit to Zimmern my sensitiveness in the matter--and thegeography had been kept overlong.

  This occasion being a holiday, I found the resorts on the Level of FreeWomen crowded with merrymakers. But I sought the quieter side streetsand made my way towards Marguerite's apartment.

  "I thought you would be celebrating today," she said as I entered.

  "I feel that I can utilize the time better by reading," I replied."There is so much I want to learn, and, thanks to Dr. Zimmern, I nowhave the opportunity."

  "But surely you are to see the Emperor in the Place in the Sun," saidMarguerite when she had returned the geography to the secret shelf.

  "I have already seen him," I replied, "my ticket was for the firstperformance."

  "It must be a magnificent sight," she sighed. "I should so love to seethe sunlight. The pictures show us His Majesty's likeness, but what is apicture of sunlight?"

  "But you speak only of a reflected beam; how
would you like to see realsunshine?"

  "Oh, on the roof of Berlin? But that is only for Royalty and the roofguards. I've tried to imagine that, but I know that I fail as a blindman must fail to imagine colour."

  "Close your eyes," I said playfully, "and try very hard."

  Solemnly Marguerite closed her eyes.

  For a moment I smiled, and then the smile relaxed, for I felt as one whoscoffs at prayer.

  "And did you see the sunlight?" I asked, as she opened her eyes andgazed at me with dilated pupils.

  "No," she answered hoarsely, "I only saw man-light as far as the wallsof Berlin, and beyond that it was all empty blackness--and itfrightens me."

  "The fear of darkness," I said, "is the fear of ignorance."

  "You try," and she reached over with a soft touch of her finger tips onmy closing eyelids. "Now keep them closed and tell me what you see. Tellme it is not all black."

  "I see light," I said, "white light, on a billowy sea of clouds, as froma flying plane.... And now I see the sun--it is sinking behind a ruggedline of snowy peaks and the light is dimming.... It is gone now, but itis not dark, for moonlight, pale and silvery, is shimmering on a choppysea.... Now it is the darkest hour, but it is never black, only a dark,dark grey, for the roof of the world is pricked with a million points oflight.... The grey of the east is shot with the rose of dawn.... Therose brightens to scarlet and the curve of the sun appears--red like theblood of war.... And now the sky is crystal blue and the grey sands ofthe desert have turned to glittering gold."

  I had ceased my poetic visioning and was looking into Marguerite's face.The light of worship I saw in her eyes filled me with a strangetrembling and holy awe.

  "And I saw only blackness," she faltered. "Is it that I am born blindand you with vision?"

  "Perhaps what you call vision is only memory," I said--but, as Irealized where my words were leading, I hastened to add--"Memory, fromanother life. Have you ever heard of such a thing as the reincarnationof the soul?"

  "That means," she said hesitatingly, "that there is something in us thatdoes not die--immortality, is it not?"

  "Well, it is something like that," I answered huskily, as I wonderedwhat she might know or dream of that which lay beyond the ken of thegross materialism of her race. "Immortality is a very beautiful idea," Iwent on, "and science has destroyed much that is beautiful. But it is apity that Col. Hellar had to eliminate the idea of immortality from theGerman Bible. Surely such a book makes no pretence of being scientific."

  "So Col. Hellar has told you that he wrote 'God's Anointed'?" exclaimedMarguerite with eager interest.

  "Yes, he told me of that and I re-read the book with an entirelydifferent viewpoint since I came to understand the spirit in which itwas written."

  "Ah--I see." Marguerite rose and stepped toward the library. "We have abook here," she called, "that you have not read, and one that you cannotbuy. It will show you the source of Col. Hellar's inspiration."

  She brought out a battered volume. "This book," she stated, "has giventhe inspectors more trouble than any other book in existence. Thoughthey have searched for thirty years, they say there are more copies ofit still at large than of all other forbidden books combined."

  I gazed at the volume she handed me--I was holding a copy of theChristian Bible translated six centuries previous by Martin Luther. Itwas indeed the very text from which as a boy I had acquired much of myreading knowledge of the language. But I decided that I had best notreveal to Marguerite my familiarity with it, and so I sat down andturned the pages with assumed perplexity.

  "It is a very odd book," I remarked presently. "Have you read it?"

  "Oh, yes," exclaimed Marguerite. "I often read it; I think it is moreinteresting than all these modern books, but perhaps that is because Icannot understand it; I love mysterious things."

  "There is too much of it for a man as busy as I am to hope to read," Iremarked, after turning a few more pages, "and so I had better notbegin. Will you not choose something and read it aloud to me?"

  Marguerite declined at first; but, when I insisted, she took thetattered Bible and turned slowly through its pages.

  And when she read, it was the story of a king who revelled with hislords, and of a hand that wrote upon a wall.

  Her voice was low, and possessed a rhythm and cadence that transmutedthe guttural German tongue into musical poetry.

  Again she read, of a man who, though shorn of his strength by the wilesof a woman and blinded by his enemies, yet pushed asunder the pillarsof a city.

  At random she read other tales, of rulers and of slaves, of harlots andof queens--the wisdom of prophets--the songs of kings.

  Together we pondered the meanings of these strange things, and exultedin the beauty of that which was meaningless. And so the hours passed;the day drew near its close and Marguerite read from the last pages ofthe book, of a voice that cried mightily--"Babylon the great is fallen,is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils and the hold of everyfoul spirit."