The Germ Growers: An Australian story of adventure and mysteryPotter, Robert
Science
The Germ Growers: An Australian story of adventure and mystery
Potter, Robert
Science fiction, Australian
In the square were some two or three hundred men, undergoing some sort
of review by the leader, with whom we had already become acquainted.
Whatever degree of mistrust either of us felt we thought it as well
not to show it, so we came forward leisurely until we were within a
few score paces of the men, and then we stood and looked. We were not
at once perceived, as neither the leader nor his men were looking
straight in our direction, and we were partly shaded by a tree. The
men were evidently of a much higher stamp intellectually than those
whom we had seen the day before, excepting the leader. The men,
yesterday, seemed to differ from automatic machines in one single
point, namely, that they seemed to have a will of their own, although
they had surrendered it to their leader. They seemed, you would say,
quite incapable of action except as prompted by him, although they
gave themselves up to his prompting, no doubt, because of sympathy and
unity of purpose with him. The men to-day seemed, on the contrary, to
be men of considerable intelligence. You would suppose them to be
quite capable of being leaders themselves, and able to carry out in
full detail instructions which they might receive in the merest
outline. It was evident that they were now receiving instructions.
These were being given, partly by expressions and signs, and partly by
some spoken language. The language, which I heard several times in the
next two days, bore no resemblance at all to any language that I knew.
It seemed to be very artificial and elliptical. The former quality was
suggested by the regular recurrence and gradation of certain sounds,
and the latter quality was suggested by its great brevity. A word or
two seemed to suffice where we should require one or more sentences.
When the leader had given his instructions, one and another, and then
another, of the men stood out from the ranks and spoke to him, and in
each case he replied. The men who spoke I judged to be in some
subordinate command. All the men stood in files now, one man behind
another, facing the leader, and in each case the man who spoke stood
in front of his file. These files formed themselves quite suddenly and
with great precision after the leader had given his first orders and
before the other men spoke. It seemed as if the subordinate leaders
were making suggestions or inquiries respecting the details of the
work about which they had just received instructions in outline.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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