Owen Oliver

“ They killed the heap on top of us, throwing them aside as they slew them and smiting the next. We rose red with the slaughter, and a man, also red, held out his hand to the Chief Physician—a stout, panting, disheveled old Jew man, who seemed to be directing everybody. ”

“ Nearly all the inhabitants of the earth went into the sleep, the account said. Those who remained awake were almost all clever, cruel people. They formed new governments, and called the head people “Powers.” The Chief Power in England was the gray-haired woman. Her name was Ashbury. She did not wish the sleepers to wake, because she wanted to go on ruling. So she proposed to kill them. The Power of the World, an American Jew named Abrahams, who had been a hotel-keeper and considered a bad and unscrupulous man, but who was really a good one, would not agree to this. ”

“ Raynor. “He's a dangerous man.”
“He's had the usual dose,” the operator answered. “The Chief Physician always said that more was dangerous.”
The red-faced man made no comment, and they passed on, finished their work, and went out. The wolves howled right under the window just then. Soon afterward I went to sleep. I felt as if a weight were crushing me; and I thought that perhaps the antidote had failed. I did not seem to care about myself—it would be good to be at rest, I thought—only about Mr. Raynor and the Chief Physician. ”

“ But their fellow-wolves had done it for him.
“We are saved,” he declared, “if we can get through the next few days. We have to draft the people to their homes without losing trace of them, and to get the food sup plies distributed to them. We must work, work, work! Nothing like work!” said the stout, disheveled, big old Jew man, who looked like a butcher. I had expected a noble patriarch, and I felt disappointed in him—then. Now I know that he is greater than all the rest.
Mr. Raynor and I had said little all the time, only held hands tightly and looked into each other's eyes. ”

“ But if you think you owe anything to me, who owe everything to my faithful followers; if you think that the waking of the world is due in any part to my efforts, make it a world of love and good-fellowship—a world that was worth making! ”

“ There are thousands of empty houses where we could hide, if we once got away and if we escaped the wolves—and the human wolves, the followers of the Chief Power. If you and I were alone, there would be a chance; a poor one, but I think our best. With our friend here to carry, there would be no chance at all of escaping so.” A howling rose in the distance, and he took me to the window looking down Whitehall to Big Ben. ”

“ Shrieks and shrieks and shrieks came from inside.
Outside, the men and women, coming both from Charing Cross and from West minster, slew and slew. Every now and then a rush of the wolves—those that were not driven into the building or killed—swept them off their legs. The men and women closed up again and still slaughtered. I can see one little fair-haired woman now, smiting and smiting and smiting. She was a mistress from my old school, and she had always been such a gentle little thing; but the wolves had killed her child. ”

“ Ashbury, but would never agree to harming the sleepers. He did not know her fate. Mrs. Ashbury and her followers meant to wake only enough of the sleepers to fight the wolves—and perhaps a few women and children later—and to kill the rest. He had refused to help in the slaughter, and they had to get another doctor to help them. So they threatened to kill him with the first batch that very night.
“I'm afraid they will, little one,” he said; “and you, too. We might possibly get away by ourselves; but not with—our burden.” He shook his head at Mr. Raynor, whom I had lifted on a couch. ”

“ There is nothing really wrong. It is a question whether his heart is strong enough to outlast the struggle between the poison and the antidote. The heart beats more feebly in the sleep, you see. Are you brave enough to be left?”
“I am brave enough not to let you go alone,” I answered.
We went to the door, and peeped out. The wolves had gone. So we decided to take Mr. Raynor up-stairs again, carrying him between us.
We were half-way up the first stairs when we heard a terrific howling overhead, and the shouts of men, and a few women. The wolves had evidently gone up above ”

“ Three men had large syringes. A lad carried a pail of fluid from which they replenished them. The red-faced man watched. They went along the room in pairs, one holding the lantern while the other knelt by the sleeper and made the injection—two strokes of the piston with a pause between. One pair came to Mr. Raynor and another to me at the same time. I was too numb to feel pain when the great syringe dug deeply into my flesh, but it was well for me that I could not scream. As it was, I made a faint sound.
“Must have been near waking,” the injector said, putting the rug over my shoulders again. ”

“ If they have not changed its prescription—you must risk that—I can inoculate you with an antidote. It will take away all power to move, and a good deal of your sensibility; not all. You will suffer—suffer in body and in mind, my poor child, but you will live. ”

“ A large party of armed men—about two hundred—were coming from Parliament Street in our direction. Innumerable wolves—dogs of all kinds and sizes, and yet changed from dogs—were following. Sometimes they approached so near that the men faced round with fixed bayonets, or axes. Sometimes a few ran by the side of the party and snapped at men till they were stabbed; and then the other wolves rushed upon them and devoured them. ”

“ If England did not rise to support him he must die, he knew. “We run that risk every day,” he said, “and I believed in England.” His belief had been justified. The people had gone over to him everywhere, as soon as they knew what Mrs. Ashbury intended; and though hundreds of thousands of sleepers had been poisoned under her orders—her tools mostly believing that they were merely using the sleeping injection—he had been in time to stop most of the slaughter.
About thirty thousand of the first batch of sleepers had already roused and joined him. He was clearing away the wolves and seeking Mrs. ”

“ If he is, and he wakes and finds that you have made away with this '214,713, London' of his, he'll kill you! If you must wake him, why not wake the girl and let him have her? He'll be all right then. If you kill her and spare him, he'll be our worst enemy. ”