Машина ужаса

DERIUGIN was no longer in Paris. Though hot on his trail, Eitel did not follow him immediately to Italy. In these days of frightful nightmares, it was not easy to travel from one country to another. All depots were beleaguered by enormous crowds of people. Bloody encounters were fought in order to get into a railroad car. The immense city was in hot delirium. Eitel observed with timid curiosity the panic which possessed the human ant-hill and it found a live response in his own heart. And what he saw redoubled his hatred for the supposed author of the unprecedented catastrophe. Paris was dying before his eyes.

All this occurred two days before Eitel’s arrival in Paris. As soon as the news about the appearance of the atomic vortex in the Vosges and about its movements westward were received, an unprecedented confusion broke out on the Bourse. The most solid values tumbled with amazing speed. In the next twenty-four hours, several of the largest concerns in the country were forced to discontinue payments. Hordes of people hastened to withdraw their money from-the banks. In a word, it was an ordinary financial panic multiplied several times by ten.

A human sea inundated the streets and squares of the city and splashed out there all its hatred, malice and fear that was kept locked within the stony boxes— their houses. Here and there, amid the living tempestuous stream, gonfalone fluctuated and statues of saints and of the Madonna vascilated on their litters in the processions that implored Heaven to deliver them from the impending disaster. Improvised choruses alternated, church bells pealed and women shrieked.

On the day of Eitel’s arrival in Paris there appeared in “Figaro” an article which played the role of a barrel of gasoline poured upon an incipient fire. One of the most renowned authorities in the field of radioactivity was summing up the course of events and reached the following definite conclusion: that the earth was coming to an end, that man is in no position to arrest the breaking up of the atoms within the atomic vortex, that by now the speed of its growth has been constantly progressing, that it is expected in the near future to reach colossal dimensions and velocity, precluding almost an immediate cataclysm. This is imminent and seemed only a question of time. Any struggle with the enemy was fruitless and ridiculous. Civilization has fulfilled its mission, reached its culminating point of development and must leave the stage…

As an aftermath of the article, it appeared as if some sluices have opened in the gigantic city as well as in the hearts of the people. Prayers and anathemas, wailing and sighing, licentious songs and gospels of priests were intermingled and rolled into one. Throngs of insensates appeared in the streets. Some raised their hands to heaven in mute prayer, others openly gave vent to wild profligacies. One great financier and millionaire, now the possessor of only worthless securities, appeared on the balcony of his palatial residence and gazing down upon the maddening crowds, he began to tear into shreds, notes and paper currency worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, shouting in wild frenzy:

“Our earth is coming to an end! It’s the end of the world!”

The wild scenes completely possessed Eitel’s mind. He was certain now that he was summoned from above to save the Earth from the impending destruction and, the only way to accomplish this, was to wipe off from the face of the Earth that person who, in his opinion, was the embodiment of all the dreadful occurrences.

When the atomic vortex flew past Paris without causing any damage, the first wave of refugees that sought salvation outside the walls of Paris, surged back into the city. Eitel dashed off for Genoa. Despite the fact that at that moment the city was not in immediate danger, young Flinder found in it almost the same picture as in Paris.

In the city full of commotion and beset with despair, there was a little island against which live waves dashed themselves to pieces. Here, day and night, in fire and heat of the melting furnaces, and amid the clank and din of machines, thousands of people worked, like the children of Vulcan in the blacksmith shops of hell. The world could rage with madness, as it saw fit, but here they forged implements for the struggle for its existence, while there still was a drop of hope left.

At the time of Deriugin’s arrival, three powerful engines were completed, while another five were still in work. Every day, from early morning, leaving behind him the filthy and narrow streets of the noisy city, the engineer would enter the smoky kingdom of iron and steel, whence it was destined to launch at the needed moment the iron giants, wherever the enemy was expected.