H. G. Wells

“ Hinchcliff, "really believe that——"
"Is the Forbidden Fruit."
There was no mistaking the earnestness of the man's manner and his perfect sanity. "The Fruit of Knowledge," he said.
"Suppose it was?" said Mr. Hinchcliff, after a pause, still staring at it. "But after all," said Mr. Hinchcliff, "it's not my kind of knowledge—not the sort of knowledge. I mean, Adam and Eve have eaten it already."
"We inherit their sins—not their knowledge," said the stranger. "That would make it all clear and bright again. ”

“ Hinchcliff had a dream, and saw the valley and the flaming swords, and the contorted trees, and knew that it really was the Apple of the Tree of Knowledge that he had thrown regardlessly away. And he awoke very unhappy. ”

“ And fleeing from imminent pursuit they came to a slope high among the mountain peaks, green with a grass like knife-blades, that cut and slashed most pitilessly at anyone who went into it. The Kurds were close behind and there was nothing for it but to plunge in, and the worst of it was that the paths they made through it at the price of their blood served for the Kurds to follow. Every one of the fugitives was killed save this Armenian and another. ”

“ There he was, all torn and bloody from the knife-blades of the grass, the rocks blazing under the afternoon sun—the sky molten brass—and the smoke of the fire driving towards him. He dared not stay there. Death he did not mind, but torture! Far away beyond the smoke he heard shouts and cries. ”

“ He felt something in his hand, saw the half-eaten apple and flung it petulantly aside. And there they grow, in that desolate valley, girdled round with the everlasting snows, and there the fiery swords keep ward against the Judgment Day."
"But I thought these things were"—Mr. Hinchcliff paused—"fables—parables rather. Do you mean to tell me that there in Armenia——"
The stranger answered the unfinished question with the fruit In his open hand.
"But you don't know," said Mr. Hinchcliff, "that that is the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. The man may have had—a sort of mirage, say. ”

“ It was certainly a strange-looking globe, not really an apple, Mr. Hinchcliff saw, and a curious glowing golden colour, almost as though light itself was wrought into its substance. As he looked at it he began to see more vividly the desolate valley among the mountains, the guarding swords of fire, the strange antiquities of the story he had just heard. He rubbed a knuckle into his eye. "But——" said he.
"It has kept like that, smooth and full, three months. Longer than that it is now by some days. No drying, no withering, no decay."
"And you yourself," said Mr. ”