With a little cry of alarm, Markett bent over the form of a child and felt its pulse and skin. "Still alive," she said anxiously. "How do you combat this?" "A kind of berry," replied Isral. "But there were none growing this year when we left. They were small and bitter." "I know the general type," said Markett. "The bark does just as well, if you soak it in water. Have you any of the wood about?" "Here," replied the Heber, pointing to a bush outside the gate. "This is the kind that grows the berries. And there are others in the forest." He turned to the bearers. "You!" he barked. "Go pull up every fever-bush you can find and bring it here. You, Samel, draw clean water from the Old Well and fill some tubs. Wash them first. You three, dig a trench. Some of our people are past any service save that." "That settles it," broke in Stevens grimly. "You can't live here any longer." "Why not, friend?" asked Isral, his eyes on the men who were carrying out his orders. "This sort of thing might strike you any moment. To save those who are still here, we have to kill every fever-bush by uprooting and stripping the bark. How many people live here?" "There are about two thousand in this suburb. Of these, one thousand may already have died; others have fled to our other cities and towns. In them, if the plague has not been spread; and we have means of keeping it down if there is time for warning; we have seventy thousands in all." "Seventy thousand," Stevens whispered to himself. Then, with a great roar, he cried: "We'll do it!" "What?" "Go South--all of us, men, women and children. We can do it easily--take the city from which I fled and live there, peacefully and healthily." Isral stared at him. "How can we take a great city of the South?" "Isral," answered Stevens, "you don't know what has happened to men in the great cities. They have become soft and helpless. A score of them, all armed, came after me, and fled at the first sign of opposition. A band of determined infants could take the city, for these city-dwellers are incapable of violence. What do you say to that, friend?" "I say," declared Heber slowly, "that we'll do it!" * * * * * The Historian faced the little group of men, sweeping the small room with a glance. "Where's Denning?" he asked. The General Practitioner coughed. "The Rightmen got him," he said. "Since Alfreed linked up the entire scientific council with what he calls the subversives, none of us have been able to appear in public safely. Denning's apartment was raided last night and I think he's been liquidated." The Neuro-specialist drummed the table-top nervously. "It's incredible the way this psychopathia has spread all over the city. In three short months Alfreed and his followers have become so powerful that they do not need to intimidate opposition; they're a majority."