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Published on the first Sunday of each month as a section of the N. Y. American, Boston American, Chicago Examiner, Hearst's American, Atlanta, Ga.. and the second Sunday of each month with the San Francisco Examiner and Los Angeles Examiner
Jack
London
Synopsis of Previous Instalment—It was in
the year 2073. Sixty years had passed since the
Scarlet Plague had tumbled civilization back into
the hunting and fishing stage. The last survivor
of the great disaster was telling his savage grand
children as they sat on the de
serted beach near San Fran
cisco, of how it all happened.
He had been a Professor of
English Literature. When the
plague reached San Francisco
the population
fled in mobs to
ward the coun
try, fighting,
robbing and kill-
Copyright, 1913. by Jack London ing cac h Other.
Chapter III
ETURNING to the corner, I found
the two robbers were gone. The Poet
and his wife lay dead on the pave
ment. It was a shocking sight. The
two children had vanished—whither
I could not tell. And I knew, now,
why it was that the fleeing persons I
encountered slipped along so furtive
ly and with such white faces. In the midst of our civil
ization, down in our slums and labor-ghettos, we had
bred a race of barbarians, of savages, and now, in the
time of our calamity, they turned upon us like the wild
beasts they were and destroyed us. And they destroy
ed themselves as well. They inflamed themselves with
strong drink and committed a thousand atrocities, quar
reling and killing one another in the general madness.
One group of workingmen I saw, of the better sort, who
had banded together, and, with their women and chil
dren in their midst, the sick and aged in litters and being
carried, and with a number of horses pulling a truckload
of provisions, they were fighting their way out of the
city. They made a fine spectacle as they came down the
street through the drifting smoke, though they nearly
shot me when I first appeared in their path. As they
went by, one of their leaders shouted out to me in
apologetic explanation. He said they were killing the
robbers and looters on sight, and that they had thus
banded together as the only means by which to
escape the prowlers.
“It was here that I saw for the first time what I was
soon to see so often. One of the marching men had
suddenly shown the unmistakable mark of the plague.
Immediately those about him drew away, and he, with
out a remonstrance, stepped out of his place to let
them pass on. A womali, most probably his wife,
attempted to follow him. She was leading a little
boy by the hand. But the husband commanded
her sternly to go on, while others laid hands on her
and restrained her from following him. This I saw,
and I saw the man, also, with his scarlet blaze of
face, step into a doorway on the opposite side of the
street. I heard the report of his pistol and saw
him sink lifeless to the ground.
“After being turned aside twice again by advanc
ing fires, I succeeded in getting through to the
university. On the edge of the campus I came upon
a party of university folk who were going in the
direction of the Chemistry Building. They were
all family men, and their families were with them,
including the nurses and the servants. Professor
Badminton greeted me, and I had difficulty in recog
nizing him. Somewhere he had gone through flames,
and his beard was singed off. About his head was a
bloody bandage, and his clothes were filthy. He
told me he had been cruelly beaten by prowlers, and
that his brother had been killed the previous night,
in the defense of their dwelling.
“Midway across the campus he pointed out sud
denly to Mrs. Swinton’s face. The unmistakable
scarlet was there. Immediately all the other women
set up a screaming and began to run away from her.
Her two children were with a nurse, and these also
ran with the women. But her husband, Dr. Swin-
ton, remained with her.
“ ‘Go on, Smith,’ he told me. ‘Keep an eye on
the children. As for me, I shall stay with my wife.
I know she is as already dead, but I can’t leave her.
Afterward, if I escape, 1 shall come to the Chemis
try Building, and do you watch for me and let me in.’
“I left him bending over his wife and soothing her
last moments, while I ran to overtake the party.
We were the last to be admitted to the Chemistry
Building. After that, with our automatic rifles, we
maintained our isolation. By our plans, we had
arranged for a company of sixty to be in this refuge.
Instead, every one of the number originally planned
had added relatives and friends and whole families
until there were over four hundred souls. But the
Chemistry Building was large, and, standing by it
self, was in no danger of being burned by the great
fires that raged everywhere in the city.
“A large quantity of provisions had been gathered,
and a food committee took charge of it, issuing
Just as we were opposite him, he suddenly drew a
pistol and shot Dombey through the head
rations daily to the various families and groups
that arranged themselves into messes. A number
of committees were appointed, and we developed a
very efficient organization. 1 was on the committee
of defense, though for the first day no prowlers
came near. We could see them in the distance,
however, and by the smoke of their fires knew that
several camps of them were occupying the far edge
of the campus. Drunkenness was rife, and often
we heard them singing ribald songs or insanely shout
ing. While the world crashed to ruin about them
and all the air was filled with the smoke of its burn
ing, these low creatures gave rein to their bestiality
and fought and drank and died. And after all,
what did it matter? Everybody died anyw'ay, and
the good and the bad, the efficient and the weaklings,
those that loved to live and those that scorned to
live. They passed. Everything passed.
“When twenty-four hours had gone by and no
signs of the plague were apparent, we congratulated
ourselves and set about (figging a well. You have
seen the great iron pipes which in those days carried
water to all the city-dwellers. We feared that the
fires in the city would burst the pipes and empty the
reservoirs. So we tore up the cement floor of the
3
Copyright, 1911, by the Star Co.