Part 17 (1/2)
Brande heeded them not.
”This night,” said he, with culminating enthusiasm, ”the cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, shall dissolve. To this great globe itself--this paltry speck of less account in s.p.a.ce than a dew-drop in an ocean--and all its sorrow and pain, its trials and temptations, all the pathos and bathos of our tragic human farce, the end is near. The way has been hard, and the journey overlong, and the burden often beyond man's strength. But that long-drawn sorrow now shall cease. The tears will be wiped away. The burden will fall from weary shoulders. For the fulness of time has come. This earth shall die! And death is peace.
”I stand,” he cried out in a strident voice, raising his arm aloft, ”I may say, with one foot on sea and one on land, for I hold the elemental secret of them both. And I swear by the living G.o.d--Science incarnate--that the suffering of the centuries is over, that for this earth and all that it contains, from this night and for ever, _Time will be no more!_”
A great cry rose from the people. ”Give us another day--only another day!”
But Brande made answer: ”It is now too late.”
”Too late!” the people wailed.
”Yes, too late. I warned you long ago. Are you not yet ready? In two hours the disintegrating agent will enter on its work. No human power could stop it now. Not if every particle of the material I have compounded were separated and scattered to the winds. Before I set my foot upon this rock I applied the key which will release its inherent energy. I myself am powerless.”
”Powerless,” sobbed the auditors.
”Powerless! And if I had ten thousand times the power which I have called forth from the universal element, I would use it towards the issue I have forecast.”
Thereupon he turned away. Doom sounded in his words. The hand of Death laid clammy fingers on us. Edith Metford's strength failed at last. It had been sorely tested. She sank into my arms.
”Courage, true heart, our time has come,” I whispered. ”We start for the steamer at once. The horses are ready.” My arrangements had been already made. My plan had been as carefully matured as any ever made by Brande himself.
”How many horses?”
”Three. One for you; another for Natalie; the third for myself. The rest must accept the fate they have selected.”
The girl shuddered as she said, ”But your interference with the formula?
You are sure it will destroy the effect?”
”I am certain that the particular result on which Brande calculates will not take place. But short of that, he has still enough explosive matter stored to cause an earthquake. We are not safe within a radius of fifty miles. It will be a race against time.”
”Natalie will not come.”
”Not voluntarily. You must think of some plan. Your brain is quick. We have not a moment to lose. Ah, there she is! Speak to her.”
Natalie was crossing the open ground which led from the glen to Brande's laboratory. She did not observe us till Edith called to her. Then she approached hastily and embraced her friend with visible emotion. Even to me she offered her cheek without reserve.
”Natalie,” I said quickly, ”there are three horses saddled and waiting in the palm grove. The _Esmeralda_ is still lying in the harbour where we landed. You will come with us. Indeed, you have no choice. You must come if I have to carry you to your horse and tie you to the saddle. You will not force me to put that indignity upon you. To the horses, then!
Come!”
For answer she called her brother loudly by his name. Brande immediately appeared at the door of his laboratory, and when he perceived from whom the call had come he joined us.
”Herbert,” said Natalie, ”our friend is deserting us. He must still cling to the thought that your purpose may fail, and he expects to escape on horseback from the fate of the earth. Reason with him yet a little further.”
”There is no time to reason,” I interrupted. ”The horses are ready. This girl (pointing as I spoke to Edith Metford) takes one, I another, and you the third--whether your brother agrees or not.”
”Surely you have not lost your reason? Have you forgotten the drop of water in the English Channel?” Brande said quietly.
”Brande,” I answered, ”the sooner you induce your sister to come with me the better; and the sooner you induce these maniac friends of yours to clear out the better, for your enterprise will fail.”