Edgar Wallace

“ A thrill of horror crept up Bevan’s spine, as he realized, for the first time, just what world blindness meant.
“All the trains have stopped,” the professor went on. “I’ve been figuring it out in my room, this morning, just what it means. There are blind men in the signal boxes and blind men on the engines. All transport has come to a standstill. How are you going to get the food to the people? In a day’s time, the shops, if the people can reach them, will be sold out, and it will be impossible to replenish the local stores. You can neither milk nor reap. ”

“ Professor van der Bergh was one of those elderly men who never grow old. His blue eye was as clear as it had been on his twentieth birthday. A professor of pathology, a great anatomist, and one of the fore most bacteriologists in the United States, Bevan was relieved to discover that he had merely accelerated the great man’s departure from New York, and was not wholly responsible for a trip which might end in disappointment. ”

“ The professor entered, with slow, halting footsteps, and Bevan shut the door behind him, and led the way to the study.
“I’ve been two hours getting here,” said the professor. “Ouch!”
“Are you hurt?” asked Bevan.
“I ran against an infernal motor bus in the middle of the street. It had been left stranded,” said the professor. “I think the blindness is general.”
Stuart had stumbled into the room soon after them, had found a chair, and sat down upon it.
“Now,” said Van der Bergh briskly, “you’ve got to find your way to your government offices and interview somebody in authority. ”

“ She walked with unfaltering footsteps, and with such decision, that the doctor thought she had been spared the supreme affliction. He asked her this and she laughed.
“Oh, no,” she said cheerfully. “You see, I’ve been blind all my life. The government has put us on point duty, at various places, to help people who have lost their way.”
She told them that, according to her information, big fires were raging in half a dozen parts of London. She had heard of no railway collisions, and the prime minister told her——
“Told you?” said Bevan in surprise, and again she laughed. ”

“ Government has wonderful faith in this doctor, Bevan, by the way.”
“I hope their faith is justified,” said Bevan grimly. “I happen to be the wonderful doctor.”
“Are you really?” she said with a new note of interest. “Listen!” They stopped, and he heard the tinkle of a bell. “That is one of our people from St. Mildred’s,” she said. “The government is initiating a system of town criers. It is the only way we can get news to the people.”
The girl led him to his house and there left him. Old Professor van der Bergh roared a greeting as he came into the room. ”

“ Others “pooh-poohed” the whole idea.
“Have you any doubt on the matter yourself?” asked the professor, and Bevan hesitated.
“The only doubt I have, sir,” he said, “is whether my calculations as to the time are accurate. I have noticed in previous experiments with these rabbits, the disease develops about twice as fast as in the human body; but I am far from satisfied that this rule is invariable.”
Van der Bergh nodded.
“My embassy has wired the particulars to Washington,” he said, “and Washington takes a very serious view of your discovery. They are making whatever preparations they can.” ”

“ He slept, that night, in his room at the institute. He awoke with the subconscious feeling that he had slept his usual allowance and was curiously alive and awake. The room was in pitch darkness, and he remembered with a frown that, because of his work, he had not gone to bed until four o’clock in the morning. He could not have slept two hours. He put out his hand and switched on the light, to discover the time. Apparently the light was not working. ”

“ The days that followed were days of nightmare, days when men groped and stumbled in an unknown world, shrieking for food. On the evening of the second day the water failed. The pumping stations had ceased to work. ”

“ Bevan nodded, and turned to Stuart Gold.
“Will you cancel my lecture, Gold?” he said. “I’ll go down and see Sexton, though he wither me!”
Sir Douglas Sexton had a large house in a very large square. ”