Title: The belt
Author: West, Wallace
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The belt" ***


                               The Belt

                            By Wallace West

       Scientific theories are never "true or "false"; they are
       "good" or "bad" in various degrees, and the criterion is
         one of usefulness--predictability and manipulation to
       (seeming) advantage. Theories are often discarded, simply
        because evidence may be insufficient for one, where it
        seems to sustain another--or where another can account
          for observed phenomena more simply. Take Lamarck's
         theories on the effect of environment on heredity; so
           far, the evidence seems to put this in the "bad"
     classification. But if certain experiments could be made....

           [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
               Science Fiction Quarterly November 1951.
         Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
         the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]


No one foresaw what would come of the social experiment Jonathan
Robertson started early in the 18th Century, on this little island. And
Jonathan the 7th found the terrible fruit of what had been sown....

"Rum port to come home to, if I may say so, sir." The captain spat
over the rail into the blue waters.

"Rum?" Jonathan Robertson, 7th, continued to study the cliffs which he
had not seen for twenty years. "Why?"

"Oh, I dunno. Gives me the jumps every time I touch here. Maybe it's
the name--New Patmos."

"Yes, Saint John did have a rough time when he was exiled on the
original Isle of Patmos, didn't he?"

"And then there's that gang on the dock...."

"It's just Old Tom and some of my father's workmen."

"I know." The captain relit his pipe. "But any other Caribbean port I
stop at, the dock workers are singing and skylarking. Those fellows
never say a word. Rum, I call it! Some of my crew think they're
jumbies ... won't set foot on shore here."

"Jumbies are one thing I can assure you they're not, captain," Jonathan
chuckled. "They're just plain workmen--and English to boot. As for the
Old Tom, he carried me on his shoulders when I was a kid."

"Cheerio, Tom," he continued after the lines had been made fast and the
ebony-colored ancient was clambering over the rail. "Where's father?"

"I'm sorry, sir." The answer came in the clipped British accent of the
West Indies. "Your father is dead, sir, these two weeks."

"Dead!" A picture of the sixth Jonathan Robertson, austere in his white
linens, flashed through Jonathan's mind. It seemed impossible that he
was no longer striding on his daily rounds to the factory and mine.

"Yes sir. Perhaps we'd better go up to the house at once, sir, if you
don't mind. I'll tell the men to follow with the cargo." Tom turned to
the leaden-faced, overall-clad trio on the pier and shouted; "Men! Take
cargo to store-house. Bill! Ye ken?"

"Yah!" grunted the man on the left.

"Fred! Ye ken? Cargo to store-house?"

"Yah!" The tone was identical.

"Dick! Ye ken?"

"Yah!"

Tom picked up Jonathan's bags and led the way up a rocky path which
eventually rounded a cliff which had hidden the Robertson mansion.

It was a pleasant enough place although sadly in need of paint. A grove
of palm trees half-concealed the ravages which time had made on its
tall pillars. The house had an atmosphere of peace and quiet, but the
effect was spoiled by an ugly factory which clung to the cliffside on
the other side of the valley. Although it was Sunday, Jonathan noticed
that smoke was belching from the factory chimney.

"I know it's ungodly, this working on the Sabbath, sir," said Tom as
his new master stared, "but They _will_ work all the time. Even during
the funeral...." He broke off and hobbled forward to swing the door of
the mansion open.

Everything was orderly inside. Lattices were drawn to keep out the
equatorial sun; teakwood floors gleamed; dozens of canaries twittered
in their cages near the windows.

"This way, sir."

Jonathan climbed a winding staircase which seemed smaller than he
remembered it and was ushered into the master bedroom. This was a cool,
high-ceilinged chamber with many long windows looking out across the
valley toward the crouching factory.

"Your father wished you to stay here, sir. He said it would give you
the feel of the place. On the desk there you'll find the letter he was
writing to you just before he died."

"Thank you, Tom. That will be all for the present."

       *       *       *       *       *

Jonathan picked up the envelope and ripped it open.

_My beloved son_: The words were penned in a Spencerian script which
wavered ever so slightly.

_I should have told you years ago all the things which you will find
written here but I was afraid--afraid you would never return to take up
the task which is now slipping through my fingers._

_You were too young when you left here to understand the strangeness of
this place. Suffice to say it killed your mother and is now killing me.
It has a curse--placed on our line by Sir Jonathan Robertson. Now it is
time for you to face that curse._

_To start at the beginning: Sir Jonathan purchased this island from
the Crown in 1709. He had discovered a vein of Lapis Lazuli here which
was to make him and his descendants immensely wealthy. God pity them
all._

_The stone had to be worked just after it was taken from the mine and
before it hardened by contact with the air, so Sir Jonathan conceived
the idea of a colony and a factory right on the island._

_He had served Queen Anne well, both as warrior and explorer, so he
petitioned to purchase convicts from English prisons to work the mine
and factory for him. That was a legitimate practice in those times.
He received a shipment of some 200 prisoners of both sexes--ranging
from debtors to murderers--and set them to work under an iron-fisted
supervisor named Jock MacPherson._

_At first MacPherson and the criminals fought each other bitterly. But
the supervisor gave them better food than most had received in their
lives, kept them working hard under heavy guard from dawn to dusk and
did not hesitate to crop the ears and even the noses of incipient
rebels. Within a few years they were behaving quite well...._

Glancing up as he turned a page, Jonathan found that old Tom was
standing behind him, reading over his shoulder.

"I said that would be all," he repeated firmly.

"Yes sir." The man hobbled out of the room, closing the door softly
behind him.

_Sir Jonathan seems to have been one of the first men to discover the
meaning of efficiency and the value of division of labor; I have often
read the journal in which he described the manner in which he made the
prisoners work. Each man had a certain amount of labor of a special
kind to perform. That is, one would blast the ore; another would bring
it to the surface. A third would split the stone into workable pieces.
A fourth would chip it into rough shape, and so on. Each did his own
job ... and nothing else._

_Thus each man and woman had a very definite and very circumscribed set
of duties to perform each and every day. After twelve or fourteen hours
of this, you can imagine that they had little time or energy to think
of revolt; instead, they went to their mews and slept like animals._

_Late in life, Sir Jonathan had a son whom he sent to Paris to be
educated--since he had amassed a considerable fortune by this time. In
France, Jonathan, 2nd. made the acquaintance of young Jean Baptiste
Pierre Antoine de Monet de Lamarck and became fired with the latter's
still-nebulous ideas about the effect of environment upon heredity._

_The second Jonathan rushed back to New Patmos and started
experimenting along lines suggested by Lamarck's theories. He set about
arranging the marriages of his workers and managing practically every
moment of their daily lives. Again there was some trouble, but the
aging Jock MacPherson put it down; the details are bloody but they do
not matter at this late date._

_Sir Jonathan's grandson was able to dispense with guards. By this time
the descendants of the original prisoners had lost all initiative. They
plodded through their deadly, unvarying tasks and mated as they were
told like the automatons they were fast becoming...._

       *       *       *       *       *

Jonathan laid down the letter and stared out at the clanking factory.
So this was why? Even as a child he had felt the oppression of
this place and had danced with joy on leaving it. The haggard,
half-remembered face of his mother floated for a moment before his
eyes. No wonder she had seemed always sad.

_I was the first Robertson to rebel; I had been educated in England. On
my way home I stopped at Jamaica, fell in love with your mother, and,
without realizing the hell I was bringing her to, married her. Tom came
with us to New Patmos._

_I considered myself something of a radical in those days. When
I learned of conditions here, I demanded that my father free our
laborers. The old man--he died a few months later--merely shrugged and
declared they were free. "Their unending toil and inbreeding have made
machines of them," he said. "They are helpless now. You must care for
them, my son; you can never leave the island again lest they starve."_

_God help me, I tried my best to make men and women of them again. You
will see what success I had. Try in your turn if you must. It will be
useless, but the effort will permit you to sleep. The centuries have
dug a rut too deep for the creatures to climb out of. They have become
like my canaries, poor...._

The letter ended as if the hand of death had snatched pen from paper.

For a long while Jonathan stared at the pages. The singing of the
canaries--their cages occupied every corner of the bedroom--finally
roused him.

"Tom!"

"Yes sir." The old man had been waiting outside the door.

"Turn all these damned birds loose."

"But you'll need them to test the air in the mine, sir; the gas gets
bad at times."

"Turn them loose, I said. At once!"

"Yes sir." Quietly the Negro went about the room, opening cage doors.
Jonathan followed his progress with growing horror. The birds, so long
accustomed to captivity, refused freedom. A few came to the opened
wickets, then retreated to their perches with frightened twitters.

"Yes sir. Anything else, sir?"

"Go down to the pier and tell Captain Parker to hold the steamer; we're
sailing with him."

"But you can't do that, sir. You can't leave your people to starve."
The whites of Tom's eyes glistened. "You have to send out shipments of
stones and the ultramarine dye which is made at the factory; you have
to distribute the food which comes in."

"Nonsense. I'll pay them off and arrange for a boat to pick them up if
they want to leave the island. They'll get along...."

"You'd better see your people first." The servant pointed toward the
cowering birds. "You don't understand."

"All right, then, we'll visit the factory. Come on."

Morosely he strode along the weed-grown path across the valley. Midway
they passed the little cemetery where six generations of Robertsons lay
side by side.

"I had to bury him myself, sir." Tom indicated a fresh mound of
earth. "They couldn't help ... couldn't perform a task they were not
accustomed to."

       *       *       *       *       *

In contrast with the neglect apparent on the rest of the island, the
factory, despite its age and ugliness, hummed with life. As they
approached they heard the clink of hammers and the endless flapping of
belts. When his eyes became accustomed to the dimness inside, Jonathan
saw long lines of men and women bent over ancient work benches,
operating the lathes and forges of another age. They were doing all
manner of complicated tasks in complete silence and with perfect
concentration.

Not a worker glanced up as he entered. The tempo of toil continued
without a break.

"Are they always like this, Tom?" The heir of all the Robertsons felt
his hair prickle. "Don't they ever talk?"

"Always like this, sir. When the gong rings they have their lunch. The
next time it sounds they march back to the barracks behind the factory.
In the morning it calls them to work at daybreak."

"But what do they do when not working?"

"Eat. Sleep. Breed."

"And the children?"

"They work, too, as soon as they can walk. It is the law. They have
obeyed it during eight or more generations, for their lives are short;
it's too late to change them now."

Stopping before a time-blackened bench, Jonathan picked up a piece of
blue stone upon which a gaunt, stoop-shouldered young man was working.

The effect was instant and frightful. With a snarl like a dog from
which one has snatched a bone, the laborer grabbed the jewel from the
intruder's hand. Then, as he again began working upon it, his face
resumed its previous vacant stare.

"You see, sir?" Tom said. "It's the same way in the mine. They've lost
most human characteristics. Notice that one's fingers ... long and
slender for delicate work. And this one's ... so tough that he can
reach right into his forge."

"Have they lost the power of speech?"

"Oh, no, sir. They talk when speech is necessary in carrying on their
work. Just a few words, though--like parrots, I would say."

Oppressed by the horror of this silent, noisy place, they hurried
along until they came to a better-lighted section of the building.
There a number of women were engaged in etching delicate designs on
almost-finished stones.

Dressed in black nun-like robes, they crouched over their work while
their fingers flew. Most of them were ugly and toothless, with dirty
hair and shoulders permanently rounded. A few retained some semblance
of good looks and made pitiful attempts at adornment. One had a
drooping flower in her unkempt locks; another wore an ancient ring.
Those little things sent a thrill through the newcomer. Perhaps....

       *       *       *       *       *

Glancing away from this group of harpies, Jonathan drew in his breath
sharply. On a platform near a broken window sat a girl who was looking
at him with a faint show of interest in her great, sad eyes. Her
chestnut hair was held back with a strip of cloth. Her robe was clean.
Her face reminded him of a Watteau shepherdess.

"Who is she?" he whispered.

"The women's overseer, sir; she talks a bit."

"Good morning," Jonathan addressed the girl hesitantly. "I'm the new
master. Do you like to work here? Have you any complaints?" He stopped,
feeling foolish, as he realized that, although she still was looking at
him, her fragile fingers had not ceased their endless task of sorting
little blue stones.

"Good morning, new master," she answered in a voice faint from disuse.
"I do like to work here. I have no com-com...." She stumbled over the
unfamiliar word.

"What is your name?"

"Jo."

"Jo what?"

"Jo." He detected a look of fright in her blue eyes.

"Would you like to leave this place?"

"No!" With a gasp Jo dropped her eyes and sorted with increased speed.
Jonathan thought of the fluttering canaries.

"Would you like a holiday, Jo?"

She did not answer. Her face was white and her breath jerked.

"Better leave her alone, sir," said Tom; "you're getting her all upset.
Come. I'll show you the mine."

Heartsick, he left the squat building through a tunnel which led into
the cliff. Tom switched on a flashlight. By the aid of its beam they
scrambled down a long incline. The air was thick and fetid; walls
dripped with icy moisture.

"What's that?" A shuffling sound nearby had startled him.

"One of the miners, sir. They don't need lights any more; they seem to
feel or smell the vein of Lapis. Look."

He swung the beam to disclose a naked horror which was scrabbling at
the end of the tunnel with a crowbar. The creature snarled through a
matted beard and hid its eyes.

"The miners only come out after dark," said Tom. "They've almost lost
the power of sight.... Look out--here comes an ore car." He dragged his
master aside as a loaded car trundled out of the depths and skittered
by them on rickety wheels, pushed by another monster.

"Good Lord," panted Jonathan. "Get me out of here before I go mad. This
air...."

"The pumps aren't adequate, sir. Your father was going to install new
ones, but the miners don't seem bothered by the foulness. The air may
become highly explosive. That's why we keep the canaries. But since the
miners have stopped using lights...." He plodded toward the surface
while his master walked close beside him as the one remaining link to
the world of reality.

Back in the factory workroom at last, Jonathan mounted a bench and
shouted for attention. The belt flapped idly on; work continued. Most
of the laborers lifted their eyes to stare at him dully.

"I am the new master," he yelled above the din. "I do not want you to
work on Sunday. Turn off the power; go home. Come back tomorrow. This
is the day of rest."

The belt flapped on. Most of them gaped at him without comprehension.
In a far corner, however, an ancient and twisted man rose from his
bench and started fumbling at his leather apron. After half a minute
another followed his example.

"No!" Another voice, harsh and sharp as a steel file, cut through the
uproar. "Work! Work! Is the Law! God say: 'By the sweat of brow!'
Work! Ye ken?" It was the cadaverous individual with the snarl who was
speaking. "Ye ken?"

"We ken!" The answer came in chorus, like a ragged thunderclap. The old
man refastened his apron and sat down again, as did his companion. The
belt flapped.

"Now look here!" Jonathan was furious. "I said...."

"It's no use, sir." Tom was plucking at his sleeve. "You might as well
talk to the Lapis, now; come."

       *       *       *       *       *

At the mansion, Jonathan sat for hours with his head between his hands,
trying to think of some way to lift the curse riveted on New Patmos. He
waved away the luncheon which Tom brought, then, as the old man started
to leave the room, called him back. "Who's in charge at the factory?"
he asked.

"There's nobody rightly in charge, sir; things just run themselves."

"Who is that creature with the voice like a squeaky hinge, then?"

"Oh, that's Jock, the men's supervisor, sir. He only...."

"Jock!" Jonathan caught his breath. "Could that be Jock MacPherson,
7th, a descendant of Sir Jonathan's original overseer?"

"I wouldn't rightly know, sir. But you had better watch him; I think he
is jealous."

"Jealous? Why, for heaven's sake?"

"Because you spoke to his girl Jo, sir. Under the law they will mate
soon to produce another generation of supervisors."

"You're a doddering old fool!" Jonathan's face was pink.

"Yes, sir; anything else, sir?" Tom turned stiffly toward the door.

"I'm sorry, Tom. Forget it. I've got the jumps trying to figure out a
way to shut down that factory. Can you suggest anything?"

"You might try locking the doors tonight, as soon as everybody is out.
But...."

"Splendid idea; that might break the chain. We'll try it."

In the brief dusk after sunset they slipped across the valley and
padlocked the sagging doors of the plant. Then, as they turned to
retrace their steps, Jonathan grasped the old man's arm.

"I've been thinking," he said softly. "Perhaps I'm going at this thing
backwards. Maybe I ought to try to win Jock over first. Do you know
where he lives?"

"I ... I think so, sir. Only...."

"Lead the way, then."

In silence they skirted the factory and reached the mews which nestled
under the cliffs like swallow's nests. The narrow alleys were unpaved
and unlighted. Already the workers were asleep--or hiding perhaps?
Jonathan wondered--in their warren of tumble-down shacks. In no time
Tom became hopelessly lost in the maze. Once they asked directions of
an old crone hunched on a mouldering doorstep ... and were answered
with a gale of crazy laughter. All the while they felt hundreds of eyes
watching their progress ... mocking at them.

"I'm sorry, sir," Tom shivered at last after several minutes of
hammering on a door which he thought might be the right one had brought
no response. "It's no use; we'll have to come back in daylight...."

"... when Jock will be at the factory. Perhaps I can talk to him there,
though. Let's get out of this."

       *       *       *       *       *

Jonathan rose from his tumbled bed before sunup and set himself to
watch the factory through a pair of field glasses. Despite the fact
that the gong had not sounded as usual, workers already were streaming
toward the plant.

The first to reach the locked doors halted uncertainly but did not turn
away. They merely stood there like a herd of cattle. The scene reminded
Jonathan unpleasantly of pictures of mill lockouts he had seen in
newspapers.

As he watched with bated breath, a surging movement began to grow
in the crowd. Good Lord! They were pushing at the heavy doors. The
iron-bound panels sagged. A splintering crash sounded across the
valley. The doors were down! The silent mob started moving across the
threshold. Again his effort to break the spell had failed.

"I told you, sir." Tom had entered the room unheard and was standing at
his elbow like a venerable Satan. "Might as well make the best of it.
Why don't you go back to England, marry a nice girl and bring her back
here...." He dodged with amazing nimbleness as his master lashed out
with a long arm. "I beg your pardon, sir. No offense meant; no offense
at all."

"Very well. But stop calling me 'sir.' And get these damned canary
cages out of here before I smash them."

"Yes, Mister Johnny." Tom moved about the room collecting the birds.
"Don't take things so hard; you'll only become ill."

       *       *       *       *       *

For several days Jonathan wandered about the island, avoiding the sight
of the factory. But the place fascinated him and at last drew him back
to its mildewed corridors. He might have been only a shadow so far
as most of the workers were concerned. Jock remembered him, however,
snarling softly and crouching more closely over his work when his
master passed by. And the girl by the window even smiled faintly upon
catching sight of him.

On one of his trips Jonathan found Jo outside the factory during lunch
hours. "Would you take a walk with me?" he asked on the spur of the
moment.

"Walk? Yes. Not far. Gong," she answered shyly.

He tried to take her arm but she flinched away. Nevertheless, when he
turned away she wandered down the path beside him.

Using simple, childish words, he tried to get her interested in the
flowers, trees and birds along the way and fancied that he was
arousing her dormant mind. At any rate, she did not notice that they
had left the factory far behind until the recall gong sounded.

Instantly she whirled and started running back down the path. In
vain he pleaded with her not to hurry; that it didn't matter if
she were late. She ran on without a word, as he had sometimes seen
school-children run when they were tardy--her face puckered as though
to cry; her breath short and rapid.

At the factory door he caught and tried to hold her. She beat her fists
against his breast and sobbed in a wild burst of hysteria. At last she
twisted herself free and rushed to her bench. There, almost magically,
her face resumed its sweet serenity as she began her accustomed task.

Yet, as he returned home, defeated once more, Jonathan was certain that
he had partially awakened her. And he also realized that, as Tom had
hinted, he was falling under the spell of this strange, twisted being.
She was almost an automaton, but not quite. No, she was more like a
person obsessed by the craving for a narcotic. He clenched his fists
and swore to save her, or to kill her in the attempt.

       *       *       *       *       *

A week later, when he believed the effect of Jo's fright had worn off,
Jonathan posted himself outside the mews and waited for the morning
gong. He told himself that he was looking for Jock but his heart leaped
when he saw the girl approaching before the harsh echoes of the "first
bell" had died away. He noticed with delight that she was taking more
care of her appearance than before. A white flower shone in her hair,
which was newly washed and neatly combed. Her bare feet peeped from
beneath the hem of a fresh robe.

"Good morning, Jo," he smiled at her. "Would you like to see my house?
It's not far; you have time."

For a long moment she looked at him dubiously. Then her curiosity
overcame her fear. "Ye-es. Jo will go. Must be back when second gong
rings."

"Come then. We must hurry." This time she let him hold her arm. "I
found some new flowers in the valley this morning," he continued softly.

"Flowers?" She glanced at him under fringed lashes.

"Yes.... Like the one you wear in your hair. What is it called?"

"It called.... It called...." She shook her head at last. "Jo ...
forget."

"And this tree, all covered with blossoms. What is its name?"

"Jo think it called mim ... mimo ... mimosa?"

"Right. Well, here's the house. Come right in."

"Oh no. Law say...."

"The devil with the law. It's my house; come in."

After repeated urgings she crept through the big door. Her work
completely forgotten for once, she marvelled at the lacy curtains, the
waxed floors which made walking so difficult and the paintings on the
walls.

While she was testing the softness of the big bed upstairs with
open-mouthed astonishment, Jonathan slipped out of the room and locked
the door.

Tom, his white head bobbing with worry, was watching him from the
landing. "I wouldn't have done it, Mister Johnny," he muttered. "It
would be better for you to get a girl in England or the States...."

"Damn you, shut your mouth," his master exploded. "There's no danger;
she can't get out. This may jolt her out of her rut. Then she can help
the others."

He was interrupted by the snarling clangor of the second gong, followed
by a wild hammering on the upstairs door.

"You'd better let her out," Tom's head was shaking worse than before.
"I know! Your father...."

A terrified scream cut him short.

Jonathan went up the stairs three at a time. Tearing open the door, he
plunged inside, then halted, stunned. The room was empty!

But not quite! Jo's strained white hands were clinging to the window
sill.

"Wait! Jo!" he shouted. "Hold on. I'm coming!"

Instead of waiting, she relaxed her hold. He reached the window to see
her crash into the iron porch railing twenty feet below.

[Illustration: Jonathan watched in horror as the girl fell....]

"She's dead, Tom." He looked up from Jo's still face a few minutes
later. "Fractured her skull." His voice was matter-of-fact, but there
was death in his heart. Now that it was too late, he realized that he
had loved her. "Poor child. I treated her very badly, you know."

"I told you so, Mister Johnny. You can't do anything. They live in
darkness." Suddenly losing his English stoicism, Tom dropped to his
knees, threw his arms around his master's knees and sobbed: "Oh, Mister
Johnny. I'm afraid!"

"There, there, Tom." Although his heart was breaking, it warmed to this
display of humanness in the old man. "We'll lick this thing yet. Tell
you what.... Tonight we'll go to the factory, barricade the doors and
windows ... keep the fools out until they come to their senses."

"It won't be any use." Tom rose slowly, his fat old face drawn in stern
lines. "Nevertheless, we'll fight it out together, if you wish."

"Very well, Tom." Jonathan stretched out his hand and grasped that of
the other over the body of the dead girl. "Together it is, then."

       *       *       *       *       *

That night, after they had said a simple prayer over Jo's grave,
they hurried to the plant, repaired the doors and spent long hours
barricading them and the windows from within. Often they felt eyes upon
them, but no one interfered with their work. Dawn was breaking by the
time they finished.

The morning gong soon was followed by scuffling sounds of the
gathering crowd outside. Like a pack of hounds, the workers sniffed
around the building, trying to find an entrance. When this was
unsuccessful, there was a long silence. Then, when the pair inside had
begun to take hope, they heard the crash of some heavy weapon against
the doors.

"They're thinking a bit, anyway," said Jonathan; "they've hit on the
idea of using a log for a battering ram."

The hammering gathered force and rhythm, and began to be accompanied by
a grunting chant which sounded oddly familiar.

"They're remembering something else." Tom held his jaw to stop his
chattering teeth. "I haven't heard them sing for a score of years."

"What is it they're chanting?"

"It's Luther's hymn, _A Mighty Fortress_, Mister Johnny."

"Rather appropriate, what? We'd better get some more work benches
against those doors. They're sagging."

As the unintelligible hymn reached its climax the doors caved inward
despite Jonathan's best efforts. The benches were pushed aside. The mob
poured in.

It might have ended there, with the creatures going quietly to work,
except for the fact that the whole place was in disorder. For a moment
the workers milled sullenly about, looking for their accustomed tools.
Then Jock spotted the two intruders.

"He!" shouted the man-monster, pointing wildly and shaking his matted
hair. "He kill Jo. He shut doors. He laugh at law."

The ragged men and women shifted their bare feet uncertainly. For a
few seconds Jock seemed at a loss, groping for words. Then a look of
cunning overspread his hideous face.

"He shut doors again," yelled the mad overseer. "He burn down plant. We
no can work. Kill him. Kill! Kill!"

This time Jock got the response he had been seeking. The workers--more
than 500 of them--surged forward, snarling deep in their throats.

Jonathan took a step toward the mob but Tom pulled him back. "Wait,
Mister Johnny. They know me. If anybody can check them, I can."

The old man clambered onto one of the few upright benches and shouted
for silence. For a moment he got it. Then Jock hurled a chisel. The
blade slashed Tom's cheek. At the sight of blood the crowd went wild
and charged.

Before Jonathan could make a move to save him, Tom was dragged from the
bench. A scream rang out. A black arm reached upward. Then there was
only a sound such as pigs make at a trough.

Life, which before had seemed so bitter and worthless, became suddenly
sweet to Jonathan. The factory had turned into a howling madhouse,
but behind him was the entrance to the mine! He leaped through it and
sprinted down the black tunnel.

       *       *       *       *       *

When he recovered from his hysteria, Jonathan found himself hopelessly
lost in a maze of parallels. Controlling his nerves by sheer will
power, he crouched in the pitch darkness and waited. Would they forget
him? The blood-lust he had seen on those half-animal faces did not
reassure him.

He listened ... and could hear nothing but the blood drumming in his
ears. Now that it was too late, he realized that he had gone about the
whole thing clumsily ... in the outmoded swashbuckling, Empire building
fashion. He had tried to do, in a few weeks, a job which required
years ... decades ... perhaps a lifetime. He should have started by
winning Jock's confidence ... or, if that couldn't be done, he should
have killed the monster outright. Without Jock's influence the others
might well return to sanity in a short time.

Might what? He shook his head to clear his wandering thoughts. The
heavy, gaseous air was choking him. His mouth had become dry and
gluey. Red spots danced before his eyes.

What was that? He leaped to his feet, remembering that the miners
needed light. A pebble, dislodged by his movement, rattled down the
wall with a sound like thunder. Then he laughed shakily. The sound he
had heard was the far distant flapping of the factory belt. They had
turned on the machinery.

A long time later he thought he heard another sound. Nearer this time!
He pressed his knuckles against his lips to keep from screaming. He
turned to run. But where? The sound had come again. On the other side
now, it seemed.

He picked up a piece of rock and hurled it with all his force.

Nothing! Or was that the echo of a maniac laugh.

"Get away, you hairy devil," he yelled. "I have a gun here."

No answer. Yet the blackness was peopled with horrors. Was he going
crazy? He mustn't give 'way. Britishers have been in more ticklish
spots than his and come out on top; England expects every man to ... to
pull himself together in an emergency. There must be some way out of
this maze.

"Tom," he whispered, "hand me your flashlight."

"Sorry, Mister Johnny," the answer came; "it was broken when they
killed me."

"Oh, that's right. I forgot you were dead, Tom. Can you help me out of
this mess?"

"Sorry, Mister Johnny. But dying isn't so bad though, honestly--"

"England expects ... England expects...." Jonathan Robertson 7th was
fighting hard to retain _his_ sanity.

There came a chuckling sound ... not ten feet away now.

Light! Light! His shaking hands sought his pockets. Ah! Matches!

"Mind the gas, Mister Johnny." Good old Tom.... A shame he's dead.

"I'll have to chance it!" His voice was quite calm now.

The match scratched against the sandpaper.

"The devil! It didn't light. Steady now.... (Keep your paws off me just
a moment longer, you scum).... One.... Two.... Three!"

This time the flame caught, flickered, was reflected for a split second
in the eyes of a gaunt, stoop-shouldered young man at the other side of
the tunnel, then burst into the searing glory of a thousand suns....



*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The belt" ***


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