The Poison Belt

wonder how long we sat! None of us afterwards could agree at all on that point. We were bewildered, stunned, semi-conscious. We had all braced our courage for death, but this

ave to live. Our eyes turned in silent horror upon those of our companions and found the same answering look in theirs. Instead of the joy which men might have been expected to feel who had so narrowly escaped an imminent death, a terrible wave of darkest depression submerged us. Everything on eart

sobs. "If we had only passed with the others! Oh, why did you sav

uge, hairy paw closed upon the outstretched hand of his wife. I had observed tha

lways found that the highest wisdom lies in an acquiescence with the actual.

iesce," said S

ou don't," remarked Lord John. "You've got to take it, whether you take it fi

re the thing began, and nobody's likely to ask it now.

patting his wife's hand. "You can swim with the tide and have peace in mind and soul, or you can thrust again

ith our lives?" I asked, appealing in

There are no newspapers, so t

, and no more soldierin', so there

ts, so there's an end of

e, so I can thank heaven that ther

science is not dead, and this catastrophe in itself will

s and we were gazing out upon th

noon that the world finally entered the poison belt to the extent of being completely su

ery bad at day

te as eight o'clock I distinctly felt the same

sonous ether. For that length of time the Great Gardener has sterilized the human mold which had grown over the surf

aid Lord John. "Why should we be

t the poison was so virulent that even a man who is as strong as an ox and has not a nerve in his body, like Malone here, could h

and made preparation, same a

eyelids. "The combination of observation, inference, and anticipatory imagination which e

on is that everyone

e. It is strange, indeed, that it should be so; but it presents one of those features which will afford us in the future a fascinating field for study. One could imagine, therefore,

as well talk about survivors in the moon," said Lord John. "But what I'm

s clear and fine," said he in a very dubious voice; "but so i

shrugged hi

erience before, which is not outside the range of possibility, it was certainly a very long

ve a second one right on the top of it. I think we'd be wise to stretch our legs and have a breath of a

eariness and a profitless exertion. Even Challenger had succumbed to it, and sat in his chair, with his great head leaning upon his hands and his thoughts far away, until Lord John and I, catching him by each arm, fairly lifted him on to

e few tasks appealed to us at once, since they lay ready to our hands. We descended into the kitchen and laid the two domestics upon their respective beds. They seemed to have died without suffering, one in the chair by the fire, the other upon the scullery floor. Then we carried in poor Austin from the yard. His muscles were set as hard as a board in the

-room whilst we partook of some food, "I don't know how you fellows fe

ou would have the kindness to sugg

s and see all th

I should mys

llage. We can see from the window

ould we g

Lond

-mile walk, but I'm not so sure about Challenger, with his stumpy legs,

marks to your own physical peculiarities, you would f

friend. "You can't be held responsible for your own physique. If nature has

y growl and blink and bristle. Lord John hastened

ing. Why should w

a train?" asked Chall

the motor-car? Why sho

t in supposing that the human intellect in its higher manifestations should be sufficiently flexible to t

of the kind," said Su

u only tried once, and you remember how y

allenger complacently. "You can consider the matter

was relieved

he car?"

-horsepow

I'd live to take the whole human race in one load. There's just room for five, as

he lady, a useful little buffer state, was squeezed in between the two men of wrath at the back. Then Lord John released his brakes, slid his le

gentle hum of life which pervades a closely-settled country, so deep and constant that one ceases to observe it, as the dweller by the sea loses all sense of the constant murmur of the waves. The twitter of birds, the buzz of insects, the far-off echo of voices, the lowing of cattle, the distant barking of dogs, roar of trains, and rattle of carts-all these form one low, unremitting note, striking unheeded upon the ear. We missed it now. This deadly si

nd the young man inside with his hand upon the open door in the very act of springing out. Lower down were six reapers all in a litter, their limbs crossing, their dead, unwinking eyes gazing upwards at the glare of heaven. These things I see as in a photograph. But soon, by the merciful provision of nature, the over-excited nerve ceased to respond. The very vastness of the

aught them in its net. Great numbers of people were at the open windows of the houses. In Tunbridge Wells there was hardly one which had not its staring, smiling face. At the last instant the need of air, that very craving for oxygen which we alone had been able to satisfy, had sent them flying to the window. The sidewalks too were littered with men and women, hatless and bonnetless, who ha

m with a Peking spaniel upon her lap. With them were a rakish-looking elderly man and a young aristocrat, his eyeglass still in his eye, his cigarette burned down to the stub between the fingers of his begloved hand. Death must have come on them in an instant and fixed them as they sat. Save that the elderly man had at the last moment torn out his collar in an effort to breathe, they might all have been a

number of school children, all kneeling at prayer. In front of them was a fringe of nuns, and higher up the slope, facing towards them, a single figure whom we took to be the Mother Superior. Unlike

acts. Even Summerlee and Challenger were crushed, and we heard nothing of our companions behind us save an occasional whimper from the lady. As to Lord John, he was too intent upon his wheel and the difficult task of thr

doin's

"Pretty doin's! What!" he cried, as we descended the station hill at Rotherfield, and it was still "Pretty doin'

, thin human arm. Never had the sight of unexpected death caused our hearts to stop and then throb so wildly as did this amazing indication of life. Lord John ran the m

ir, was a cylinder of oxygen, smaller but of the same shape as those which had saved our own

here forever," said she, "for I

swered, "it is a lucky chanc

lemen, I beg that you will be frank with me. What effect will t

er life had been regulated by the rise and fall of the dividend, and she could form no conception of existence save as it was affected by the quotation of her shares. In vain we pointed out to her that all the money in the wo

isis. She had naturally inhaled some as had been her habit when there was a difficulty with her breathing. It had given her relief, and by doling out her supply she had managed to survive the night. Finally she had fallen asleep and been awakened by

esex side were choked from end to end with frozen traffic which made all further advance in that direction impossible. A ship was blazing brightly alongside one of the wharves near the bridge, and the air

tandstill, "but it seems to me the country is more cheerful than the town. Dead Londo

e what we can hope for here

ult for us to conceive that out of seven millions of people there is only this one old woman who by so

them, George?" asked the lady. "And yet I agree wi

w was open and we all stepped out upon the balcony. From it we could see the crowded city streets radiating in every direction, while below us the road was black from side to side with the tops of the motionless taxis. All, or nearly all, had their heads pointed outwards, showing how the terrified men of the city had at the last moment made a vain endeavor to rejoin their families in the suburbs or the country. Here and there amid the

leaning his back against the post in so natural an attitude that it was hard to realize that he was not alive, while at his feet there lay a ragged newsboy with his bundle of papers on the ground beside him. A paper-cart had got blocked in the crowd, and we could read in

is chest and stroke his beard as he looked at it. It pleased and flattered that complex mind to think that London had died with his na

to the last, Chall

silent and all choked up with death, "I really see no purpose to be served by our staying any longer in London. I suggest that

in every posture of supplication and abasement. At the last dreadful moment, brought suddenly face to face with the realities of life, those terrific realities which hang over us even while we follow the shadows, the terrified people had rushed into those old city churches which for generations had hardly ever held a congregation. There they huddled as close as they could kneel, many of them in their agitation still wearing thei

hung the ropes for the bell-ringers. Why should we not send a message out over London which would attract to us anyone who might still be aliv

his coat. "You've hit on a dooced good notion. G

nd we turned the more earnestly to our work, dragged two feet off the earth with each upward jerk of the rope, but all straining together on the downward heave, Challenger the lowest of all, bending all his great strength to the task and flopping up and down like a monstrous bull-frog, croaking with every pull. It was at that moment that an artist might have taken a picture of the fou

No one is le

's sake, George, let us get back to Rotherfield. Another

und and turned her to the south. To us the chapter seemed closed.