Tales of Space and TimeWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Science
Tales of Space and Time
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Science fiction, English
He rose with a sigh, and limped across to the telephonic apparatus that
communicated with his solicitor. In ten minutes a will duly attested and
with its proper thumb-mark signature lay in the solicitor's office three
miles away. And then for a space Bindon sat very still.
Suddenly he started out of a vague reverie and pressed an investigatory
hand to his side.
Then he jumped eagerly to his feet and rushed to the telephone. The
Euthanasia Company had rarely been called by a client in a greater
hurry.
So it came at last that Denton and his Elizabeth, against all hope,
returned unseparated from the labour servitude to which they had fallen.
Elizabeth came out from her cramped subterranean den of metal-beaters
and all the sordid circumstances of blue canvas, as one comes out of a
nightmare. Back towards the sunlight their fortune took them; once the
bequest was known to them, the bare thought of another day's hammering
became intolerable. They went up long lifts and stairs to levels that
they had not seen since the days of their disaster. At first she was
full of this sensation of escape; even to think of the underways was
intolerable; only after many months could she begin to recall with
sympathy the faded women who were still below there, murmuring scandals
and reminiscences and folly, and tapping away their lives.
Her choice of the apartments they presently took expressed the vehemence
of her release. They were rooms upon the very verge of the city; they
had a roof space and a balcony upon the city wall, wide open to the sun
and wind, the country and the sky.
And in that balcony comes the last scene in this story. It was a summer
sunsetting, and the hills of Surrey were very blue and clear. Denton
leant upon the balcony regarding them, and Elizabeth sat by his side.
Very wide and spacious was the view, for their balcony hung five hundred
feet above the ancient level of the ground. The oblongs of the Food
Company, broken here and there by the ruins--grotesque little holes and
sheds--of the ancient suburbs, and intersected by shining streams of
sewage, passed at last into a remote diapering at the foot of the
distant hills. There once had been the squatting-place of the children
of Uya. On those further slopes gaunt machines of unknown import worked
slackly at the end of their spell, and the hill crest was set with
stagnant wind vanes. Along the great south road the Labour Company's
field workers in huge wheeled mechanical vehicles, were hurrying back to
their meals, their last spell finished. And through the air a dozen
little private aëroplanes sailed down towards the city. Familiar scene
as it was to the eyes of Denton and Elizabeth, it would have filled the
minds of their ancestors with incredulous amazement. Denton's thoughts
fluttered towards the future in a vain attempt at what that scene might
be in another two hundred years, and, recoiling, turned towards the
past.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account