English drama -- 20th century; English fiction -- 20th century; Short stories, English
They forcibly fed him again the following morning and again on the day
after. On the fourth day pneumonia, the result of shock, complicated
by acute inflammation of the throat and pleura, set in. The fever and
pain gained ground. Dick had not the strength to resist their ravages,
and his condition grew hourly worse. His mind, however, continued to
work clearly--too clearly. It occurred to him that he might very
likely die. He asked for pencil and paper to be brought him, and
putting forth all the little strength he had left, he began to make
his testament.
"I am perfectly sane," he wrote at the top of the page, and underlined
the words three times. "I am confined here by the most intol. injust."
As soon as he began, he realized how little time and strength were
left him; it was a waste to finish the long words. "They are killing
me for my opins. I regard this war and all wars as utter bad.
Capitalists' war. The devils will be smashed sooner later. Wish I
could help. But it won't make any difference," he added on a new line
and as though by an afterthought. "World will always be hell. Cap. or
Lab., Engl. or Germ.--all beasts. One in a mill. is GOOD. I wasn't.
Selfish intellect. Perhaps Pearl Bellairs better. If die, send corp.
to hosp. for anatomy. Useful for once in my life!"
Quite suddenly, he lapsed into delirium. The clear lucidity of his
mind became troubled. The real world disappeared from before his eyes,
and in its place he saw a succession of bright, unsteady visions
created by his sick fantasy. Scenes from his childhood, long
forgotten, bubbled up and disappeared. Unknown, hideous faces crowded
in upon him; old friends revisited him. He was living in a bewildering
mixture of the familiar and the strange. And all the while, across
this changing unsubstantial world, there hurried a continual,
interminable procession of dromedaries--countless high-domed beasts,
with gargoyle faces and stiff legs and necks that bobbed as though on
springs. Do what he could, he was unable to drive them away. He lost
his temper with the brutes at last, struck at them, shouted; but in
vain. The room rang with his cries of, "Get away, you beasts. Bloody
humps. None of your nonconformist faces here." And while he was
yelling and gesticulating (with his left hand only), his right hand
was still busily engaged in writing. The words were clear and legible;
the sentences consecutive and eminently sane. Dick might rave, but
Pearl Bellairs remained calm and in full possession of her deplorable
faculties. And what was Pearl doing with her busy pencil, while Dick,
like a frenzied Betsy Trotwood, shouted at the trespassing camels? The
first thing she did was to scratch out all that poor Dick had said
about the war. Underneath it she wrote:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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