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When the Sleeper Wakes H. G. [Herbert George] Wells

While The Aerolanes Were Coming


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He stopped. She sat in silence. Her face was a white riddle.

For a moment they heeded nothing of a sudden stir outside, a running to and fro, and cries. Then Helen started to an attitude of tense attention. "It is--," she cried and stood up, speechless, incredulous, triumphant. And Graham, too, heard. Metallic voices were shouting "Victory!" Yes it was "Victory!" He stood up also with the light of a desperate hope in his eyes.

Bursting through the curtains appeared the man in yellow, startled and dishevelled with excitement. "Victory," he cried, "victory! The people are winning. Ostrog's people have collapsed."

She rose." Victory? " And her voice was hoarse and faint.

"What do you mean? " asked Graham. "Tell me! What?"

"We have driven them out of the under galleries at Norwood, Streatham is afire and burning wildly, and Roehampton is ours. Ours!--and we have taken the aeropile that lay thereon."

For an instant Graham and Helen stood in silence, their hearts were beating fast, they looked at one another. For one last moment there gleamed in Graham his dream of empire, of kingship, with Helen by his side. It gleamed, and passed.

A shrill bell rang. An agitated grey-headed man appeared from the room of the Ward Leaders." It is all over," he cried.

"What matters it now that we have Roehampton? The aeroplanes have been sighted at Boulogne!"

"The Channel! " said the man in yellow. He calculated swiftly." Half an hour."

"They still have three of the flying stages," said the old man.

"Those guns?" cried Graham.

" We cannot mount them--in half an hour."

" Do you mean they are found?"

"Too late," said the old man.

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"If we could stop them another hour! " cried the man in yellow.

"Nothing can stop them now," said the old man. they have near a hundred aeroplanes in the first fleet."

"Another hour? " asked Graham.

"To be so near!" said the Ward Leader. "Now that we have found those guns. To be so near--. If once we could get them out upon the roof spaces."

"How long would that take? " asked Graham suddenly.

" An hour--certainly."

"Too late," cried the Ward Leader, " too late."

"Is it too late?" said Graham. "Even now--. An hour! "

He had suddenly perceived a possibility. He tried to speak calmly, but his face was white. "There is one chance. You said there was an aeropile--? "

"On the Roehampton stage, Sire."

"Smashed? "

"No. It is lying crossways to the carrier. It might be got upon the guides--easily. But there is no aeronaut--."

Graham glanced at the two men and then at Helen. He spoke after a long pause. "We have no aeronauts? "

"None."

"The aeroplanes are clumsy," he said thoughtfully, "compared with the aeropiles."

He turned suddenly to Helen. His decision was made. "I must do it."

 
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When the Sleeper Wakes
H. G. [Herbert George] Wells

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