All the country was now in a tumult, I might almost say in a delirium. The regular currents of life had stopped short; men no longer went about their daily duties; the libraries and art galleries were deserted; the young were without tutors, the governmental departments without clerks; and the cities would have been without bread, had it not been for the drastic orders of the High Chief Adviser. But citizens who once had been amply occupied would loiter aimlessly about the streets, or would flock to the Hall of Public Enlightenment to hear the latest report over the Autophone; or else they would pace nervously along the colonnades, or stand discussing in small groups, nerve-racked and bewildered as men under sentence of death. Though I never heard them mention the fear that must have been uppermost in their minds, yet their pale faces and shuddery manner gave proof of the dread that was preying upon them; and my former shipmates and I had reason to know how overmastering was their terror, for that aversion I had already noted was deepening, and the people would glance at us with hostility and even accusation in their eyes, looking mute reproach at us, as though our coming had been responsible (as indeed it had been) for the threatened end of their world. Every morning five or six of the little intra-atomic submarines would leave Atlantis through the valve in the eastern wall, where the waters of the Salty River were forced back into the sea. And in the evening (if they survived till evening) they would return through the valve in the western wall, where the waters of the Salty River found entrance. In the interval, their occupants would work as courageously as I had ever known men to work, warring against odds that were apparently insurmountable; while all Atlantis would stand watching, or waiting at the Autophone for news of their progress. It seemed wrongful to my comrades and me that these men, brave and willing as they were, should risk their lives to repair an injury which we had caused; and so at Captain Gavison’s suggestion several of us volunteered to join the rescuing forces. But the High Chief Adviser, although expressing his gratitude, refused our offer in terms that could admit of no reply; for the repairing crews, as he explained, consisted of skilled mechanics especially trained for their duties and therefore irreplaceable.