Thirty Strange StoriesWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Science
Thirty Strange Stories
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Fantasy fiction, English; Science fiction, English; Short stories, English
At last his dim feelings grew more distinct, and took shape in thoughts
and acts. When he came into the roaring shed one morning he salaamed to
the Lord of the Dynamos; and then, when Holroyd was away, he went and
whispered to the thundering machine that he was its servant, and prayed
it to have pity on him and save him from Holroyd. As he did so a rare
gleam of light came in through the open archway of the throbbing
machine-shed, and the Lord of the Dynamos, as he whirled and roared, was
radiant with pale gold. Then Azuma-zi knew that his service was
acceptable to his Lord. After that he did not feel so lonely as he had
done, and he had indeed been very much alone in London. And even when
his work time was over, which was rare, he loitered about the shed.
Then, the next time Holroyd maltreated him, Azuma-zi went presently to
the Lord of the Dynamos and whispered, “Thou seest, O my Lord!” and the
angry whirr of the machinery seemed to answer him. Thereafter it
appeared to him that whenever Holroyd came into the shed a different
note came into the sounds of the great dynamo. “My Lord bides his time,”
said Azuma-zi to himself. “The iniquity of the fool is not yet ripe.”
And he waited and watched for the day of reckoning. One day there was
evidence of short circuiting, and Holroyd, making an unwary
examination—it was in the afternoon—got a rather severe shock. Azuma-zi
from behind the engine saw him jump off and curse at the peccant coil.
“He is warned,” said Azuma-zi to himself. “Surely my Lord is very
patient.”
Holroyd had at first initiated his “nigger” into such elementary
conceptions of the dynamo’s working as would enable him to take
temporary charge of the shed in his absence. But when he noticed the
manner in which Azuma-zi hung about the monster, he became suspicious.
He dimly perceived his assistant was “up to something,” and connecting
him with the anointing of the coils with oil that had rotted the varnish
in one place, he issued an edict, shouted above the confusion of the
machinery, “Don’t ’ee go nigh that big dynamo any more, Pooh-bah, or a
’ll take thy skin off!” Besides, if it pleased Azuma-zi to be near the
big machine, it was plain sense and decency to keep him away from it.
Azuma-zi obeyed at the time, but later he was caught bowing before the
Lord of the Dynamos. At which Holroyd twisted his arm and kicked him as
he turned to go away. As Azuma-zi presently stood behind the engine and
glared at the back of the hated Holroyd, the noises of the machinery
took a new rhythm, and sounded like four words in his native tongue.
It is hard to say exactly what madness is. I fancy Azuma-zi was mad. The
incessant din and whirl of the dynamo shed may have churned up his
little store of knowledge and big store of superstitious fancy, at last,
into something akin to frenzy. At any rate, when the idea of making
Holroyd a sacrifice to the Dynamo Fetich was thus suggested to him, it
filled him with a strange tumult of exultant emotion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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