Holding my exposed position for an instant, I
wrenched myself clear of the pulsating throngs, and succeeded in gaining
the low summit above me. Here I was free to look around me. My guide was
gone, the Council House was lost to view; I was alone. Below passed the
surging crowd, made up of youths and girls, with few older men or women,
many beautiful, all expressing the Martian distinction, but now
strangely bewildered and uncontrolled. It was a reversed emotional
picture from that buoyant, frenzied throng that a few weeks ago carried
me into the Hall of the Patenta.
"Faces were turned toward the sky, and hands, as if in ejaculation, were
waved up and down, or thrust in significant indices toward that fatal
blurred blot of splendor in the heavens. I followed their direction. The
approaching nebula had grown sensibly since an hour ago. It glittered,
the size of a shield, and a light coruscation seemed emanating from its
edges. The faces of the multitude were justified. The mass above us was
a train of celestial missiles, hurling toward Mars. Its contact seemed
more and more imminent. I felt a nameless terror. The thought of
isolation in this new world, the unknown awfulness of this planetary
disturbance, the sudden extinction of the hopes that were feeding my
heart with a new life, and the forecasting of the impossible agonies of
universal death in this great, strange place I had so wonderfully
entered, overcame me. I fell sobbing to the glassy floor on which I was
standing.
Pages:
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173