TheScarletPlague 10178662

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W O RL D S EEM ED I N F LA M ES
A UTH O R OF “ T HE SEA w o rm,” “T H E CA LL O F
” “
E W I LD , TH E mnr m v or
THE SCA R L E T
PL A G U E
H E way led a lo n g u p o n what had

once been the embankment of a
railroad , But no tr ain had ru n
upon it for many yea r s . T he for est on

eithe r side swelled up the s 10 pes of the
\
emban kment and c rested ac ros s it in a
green wave of t rees and bushes . T he trail
’
was as narrow as a man s body and , w as
no mo r e than a wild animal runway -

. Oc
c a sio n a l l y, a piece of rus t y i ron showing ,
through the forest-m ould ,

advertis ed that
the r ail and the ties still r emained . In one
place ,
a ten inch tree
-
,
bu rsting through
I I
12 TH E SCARLET PLAGUE
at a connection ,
had lifted the end of
a r ail c lea rly into V iew . The tie had
evidently followed the r ail held to it by
,
the spike long enough fo r its bed to be filled

with gravel and rotten leaves so that now ,
the c ru mbling ,
r otten ti m be r th rust itself
up at a cu rious slant . Old as the road was ,
it was manifest that it had been of the

m ono-r ail type .
A n old m an and a boy travelled along

this r unway . T hey moved slowly for the ,
old man was ve ry old a touch of palsy made ,
his m ovements tremulous ,

and he leaned
heavily upon his staff . A r ude skull-cap
of goat-skin p rotected his head from the
sun . F rom beneath this fell a scant fringe
of stained and dirty white hai r - . A viso r ,
ingeniously made from a la rge leaf s hielded ,
his eyes, . a nd from under this he pee red at

the way of h is feet on the trail . His bea r d ,
TH E SCARLET PLAGUE 13
which should have been snow white but -
which s howed the same weather wea r a nd -
camp -stain as his hai r fell nearly to , . b is

w aist in a great tangled mass . A bout his
chest and shoulde r s hung a single mangy ,
ga rm ent of goat-s kin . His a r ms and le gs ,
withered and skinny , betokened ext re ihe

age as well as did their sunbu r n and sca r s
,
and scratches betoken long years o f exposu re

to the elements .
The boy who led the

,
w a y, checking the
eagernes s of his mu scles to the slow progress
of the elder likewise wo re a single garment
,
— a ragge d-edged piece of bea r skin with -

,
a hole in the middle through which he had

“
thru st his he ad . He could not have been

more than twelve years old . T ucked
co q uettis hly over one ear was the freshly
severed tail of a pig . In one hand he
car r ied a mediu m -sized bow and an arrow .
14 THE SCARL E T PLAGUE
On his back was a quive rful of a rrows .
From a sheath hanging about his neck on

a thong p roj ected the b atte red handle
,
of
a hunting knife . He was as brown a s a

berry and walked softly with almost a
, ,
catlike tread . In marked contrast with his

sunburned skin were his eyes —
blue , deep
blue but keen and shar p as a pair
,
of gim
lets . They seemed to bore into all about
him in a way that was habitual . A s he went
along he smelled things , as well , his dis
tended ,
quive ring nostrils carrying to his
brain an endless series of mess ages from the
outside world . A lso his hearing was acute
, ,
and had been so tr ained that it operated

automatically . Without conscious e ffort he ,
heard all the slight sounds in the apparent

quiet heard and differentiated and class i
, ,
fi ed these sounds whether they were of
the wind rustling the leaves , of the hum
TH E SCARLE T PLAGUE 15
ming of bees a nd gnats , of the distant

rumble of the sea that drifted to him only
in lulls or of the gopher just under his foot
, , ,
shoving a pouchful o f earth into the entrance

of his hole .
S uddenly he became alertly tense .
S ound , s ight , and odor had given him a

s imultaneous warnin g . His hand went
b ac k to the o ld man touching him and the
, ,
pair stood still . A head at , o ne side of the

t op of the emb ankment arose ,
a c r ackling
’
sound and the boy s gaze was fixed
, ,
on the
top s of the a g itated bushes . Then a large
bear a grizzly, crashed into
,
V iew and like
,
wise stopped abruptly ,

at sight of the
human s . He did no t like them and growled ,
q uerulously . S lowly the bo y fitted the

arrow to the b o w ,
and slowly he p ulled
the bowstring taut . But he never removed
his eyes from the bear . T he o ld m an peered
16 THE SCARLET PLAGUE
‘
Gfl ‘Q
h
N l M n
LOWLY m
S : P ULLED TEE B owsm uc AUT
T
fr o m unde r his green leaf at the dange r and ,
S tood as quietly as the boy . Fo r a few sec

o n ds this m utual scrutinizing went on ;
then , the bea r bet r aying a growing irri
t a b ilit y , the boy with a movement of his
,
head indicated that the old man

, m ust step
aside from the tr ail and go down the
emb ankment . T he boy followed ,
going
b ac kwa r d , still holding the bow taut and
ready . They waited till a c r ashing a m ong
the bushes from the O pposite side o f the
embankment told them the bea r had gone
on . T he bo y grin ned as he led back to the
trail .
“
A big un, G ra n ser , he chuckled .
The o ld man shook his head .
“
They get thicker eve ry day , he com
plained in a thin ,
undependab le falsetto .
’
Who d have thou ght I d live
’
to see the
time when a man would be afraid of his
18 THE SCARLET PLAGU E
life on the way to the Cliff House . When

I was a boy E dwin , ,
m en and women and
little babies used to come o ut he re from
S an Francisco by tens of thousands on a
nice day “
. A nd the r e we r en t any bears ’
then . No ,
sir . T hey used to pay money
to look at them in cages , they were that
”
ra re .
“ ”
What is money G ,
ra n ser ?
Befo re the o ld man could answer the boy ,
recollected an d triumphantly shoved his

hand into a pouch under his bear-s kin and
pulled for th a battered and ta r nished silver
’
dolla r . The o ld man s eyes glistened ,
as
he held the coin close to them .
“ ’ ”
I can t see ,
he muttered . look
and see if you can make o ut the date , Ed
”
w in.
The bo y laughed .
“
'ou re a great G
’
ranser,
”
he c r ied de
THE SCARLE T PLAGUE 19
ligh t edly, always ma k ing b e l ieve them

little mar k s mean somethin g .
The o ld man manifested an accustomed

chag rin as he brought the coin back again
close to his own eyes .
he shrilled and then fell ,

to cack
“
ling grotes q uely . That was the year
Morgan the Fifth was appointed P resi
dent of the U nited S tates by the Board of
Magnates . It must have been one of the

last coins minted ,
for the S carlet D eath
came in 20 1 3 . L ord ' L ord ' think of
it ' S ixty yea r s a go , and I am the only

person alive t o -day that lived in those
”
times . Where did you find it , E dwin ?
The b o y ,
wh o h ad been regarding him
with the tolerant cu r iousness o ne accords
to the prattlings of the feeb l e-minded ,
answered promptly .
“
I go t it o ff o f H o o -H o o . He found it
when we was h erdin goats down near S an ’
Jos ' last spring . Hoo Hoo - said it was

”
m oney . A in t
’
yo u hungry G ,
r a n ser ?
The ancient caught his staff in a tighter

grip and u rged along the tr ail his old eyes ,
shining greedily .
“
I hope H a r— Lip ’
s found a c r ab
or two ,
”
he mu m bled .
“
T hey re good eat
’
’
ing crabs mighty good eating when you ve
, ,
’
no m ore teeth and you ve got grandsons
that love thei r o ld grandsire and make a
point of catching crabs fo r him . When I
was a boy
But E dwin , sudden ly stopped by what
he saw was d r awing the bowstr ing on a
,
fitted a rrow . He had paused on the brink

of a c revasse in the e m bankment . An
ancient culvert had he re washed o ut ,
and the
strea m , no longer confined had cut a pas ,
sage through the fill . On the Opposite
side the end

, of a r ail p roj ected and ove r
hung . It showed rustily th rough the c r eep
ing vines which overran it . Beyond ,
c rouching by a bush a r abbit looked acros s

,
at him in trembling hesitancy . Fully fifty

feet was the distance but the a rrow flashed ,
true ; and the transfixed rabbit c r ying , o ut
in sudden fright and hurt st ruggled pain ,
fully away into the b rush . T he bo y him

self was a flas h of b rown s kin an d flying
fu r as he bounded down the steep wall
of the gap and up the othe r side .
His lean muscles we re springs of
steel that r eleased i nto gr ace ;
ful and e ffi cient action . A

hundred feet beyond , in a
tangle of bushes ,
he ove r
took the wounded c r ea
ture knocked its head
,
on a conven i ent tree
22 THE SCARLE T PLAGUE
t runk, and turned it ove r to G ra n ser to
ca rry .
“
R abbit is good very good , ,
the ancient
quave red ,
but when it co m es to a toothso m e
del icacy I p r efe r c r ab . When I was a boy
“
Why do you say so much that ain t got ’
”
no sense ? E dwin i m patiently inte r rupted
’
the othe r s threatened ga rrulousnes s .
The boy did no t exactly utte r these

words , b ut something that remotely te
sembled them and that w as m ore guttu r al

and explosive and economical of qualifying
phrases . His speech showed distant kin
ship with that of th e old man and the latte r s ,
’
speech was approxi m ately an E nglish that

had gone th rough a b ath of co rrupt us age .
”
What I want to know ,
E dwin co n
t inu ed,
“ ‘
is why yo u call crab toothsome
’
delicacy ? Cr ab is c r ab ,
ain ’t it ? No
”
o ne I never heard calls it such funny things .
THE SCARLET PLAGU E 23
The old man sighed but did not answer ,
and they moved on in silence . The sur f

grew suddenly loude r , as they emerged
from the forest upon a stretch o f sand dunes
b ordering the sea . A few goats we re brows
ing among the sandy hillocks and a s kin ,
clad boy ,
aided by a w o lfi sh -looking dog
that was only faintly reminiscent o f a collie ,
was watching them . Mingled with the

roar of the surf was a continuous , deep
th roated b arking or b ellowing which came,
from a cluste r of j agged r ocks a hundred

yards o ut from s hore . Here huge sea lions -
hauled themselves up to lie in the sun or

b attle with one another . In the im
m ediate foreground arose the smoke o f a
fire, tended by a th i r d s avage looking boy - .
C rouched nea r h im we re seve r al w o lfi sh
dogs similar to the one that guarded the

goats .
T he old man accelerated his pace sniffing ,
eage r ly as he neared the fi re .
“
Mussels ' ”
he m utte red ecstatically .
Mussels ' A nd ain t that a c r ab ’

, Hoo
Hoo ? A in t that a crab ?
’
My my you
, ,
”
boys a re good to you r old grandsire .
Hoo-Hoo ,
who w as appa rently of the
same age as E dwin gr inned ,
.
“
A ll you want , G r a n ser . I got fou r .
T he old m an s’
palsied eage r ness was
pitiful . S itting down in the sand as q uickly
as his stiff limbs would let him he poked ,
a la rge rock-mussel from out of the coals .
The heat had fo r ced its shells apart and ,
the meat ,
salmon color ed
-
, was tho roughly
cooked . Between thumb and forefinge r in ,
tremblin g haste he caught the morsel and

,
car ried it to his m outh . But it was too

hot ,
and the ne x t mo m ent was violently
ej ected . T he old m an splutte r ed with the
pain and tears

, ra n out of his eyes and down
his cheeks .
The boys we re true savages ,

pos sessing
only the c ruel humor of the s avage . To
them the incident was excruciatingly funny “
and they burst into loud laughte r . Hoo

Ho o danced up and down , while E dwin
rolled gleefully on the g round . T he bo y
with the goats came running to join in the

fun .
’
S et em
’
to cool E dwin set em to cool
, , ,
the old man besought in the ,

m idst '
of his
grief making no atte m pt
,
to wipe away the
“
tears that still flowed from his eyes . A nd
cool a crab E dwin too , ,
. You know you r
grandsire likes c r ab s .
From the coals a rose a great sizzling ,
which proceeded from the m any mussels

bursting O pen their shells and e xuding their
moistu r e . They were la r ge shellfish running ,
from th ree to six inches in length . The

boys raked them o ut with sticks and placed
them on a large piece of d riftwood to cool .
“
When I was a boy ,
we did not laugh at
”
our elders ; we r espected them .
The boys took no notice and G ,

ra n ser
continued to b abble an incohe rent flow of

com plaint and censu re . But this time he
was m ore ca reful ,
and did no t bu r n his
m outh . A ll began to eat ,
using nothing
but thei r hands and m aking loud mouth
noises and lip -s m ackings . The thi r d boy ,
wh o was called H a r e-L ip , slyly deposite d a

pinch of sand on a mussel the ancient was
ca rrying to his mouth ; and when the grit
’
of it bit into the old fellow s mucous mem
brane and gums , the laughter was again
uproarious . He was unawa re that a joke
had been played on him , and splutte r ed
and spat until E dwin ,
r elenting gave h im ,
a gourd of fresh water with which to wash

out his mouth .
“ ’
Where s them crab s Hoo-Hoo ,
E dwin
“
G
’
demanded . ra nser s set upon having a
kf
’
sn a c
’
A gain G r a nser s eyes bu rned with greedi
ness as a large crab was handed to him .
I t Wa s a shell with legs and all complete ,
bu t the meat had long since dep arted .
With shaky fingers and b abblings of antici

p a t io n , the old man broke o ff a leg and found
it filled with emptiness .
The crabs Hoo-Hoo ,

he wailed . The
c r ab s
'
“ ’ ’
I was foolin , G r a n ser . They ain t no
”
crab s . I neve r found one .
The boys were ove r whelmed with delight

at sight of the tear s of senile disappoint
’
ment th at dribb led down the old man s
cheeks . Then , unnoticed Hoo H o o rep laced ,
-
the e m pty shell w ith a fr esh cooked c r ab

- .
A lready dis me m be re d from the c r acked legs ,
the white meat sent fo rth a s mall cloud of

savory stea m . T his att acted the old
r m
’
an s
nostr ils and he looked down in amazement
,
.
T he change of his m ood to one of joy was

imm ediate fll ed and mutte red and
. He snu
mumbled m aking al m ost a c roon of delight

, ,
as he began to eat Of this the boys took .
little notice fo r it was an accustomed

,
spectacle No r did they notice his occa

.
sio n a l exclamations and utte r ances of phrases
which meant nothing to them as fo r in , ,
stance when he smacked his lips and champed

,
his gums while m utt e ring : “

Mayonnaise '
Just think m ayonnaise ' A nd it s six ty ’
year s since the last was ever m ade ' Tw o

generations and neve r a smell of it ' Why ,
in those days it was served in eve ry r estan

”
r ant with c r ab .
T HI S am
‘
u rn rm : Ow M AN ’
S No srm s
When he could cat no m o re the old man

,
sighed wiped his hands on his naked legs

, ,
and gazed out ove r the sea . With the con

tent o f a full stomach he waxed reminiscent
, .
“
To think of it ' I ve seen this beach ’
alive with men women and children on a

, ,
30 THE SCARLE T PLAGU E
pleasant S unday . A nd the re we ren t any ’
bea r s to eat them up either ,

. A nd r ight
up there on the cliff was a big r estaurant
where you could get anything yo u wanted
to eat . Fou r m illion people lived in S an
F r ancisco then . A nd now ,
in the whole
’
city and county the re a ren t fo rty all told .
A nd out the r e on the sea we r e ships and

ships always to be seen going in ,
fo r the
Golden G ate or com ing out . A nd ai r ships
in the a ir di rigibles and flying machines .
T hey could tr avel two hundred miles an

hou r T he mail contr acts with the New
.
Yo r k an d S an F ra ncisco L imited demanded

that fo r the minimu m . T he re was a chap ,
a F renchman I forget his nam e

, , wh o suc
ceeded in m aking three hundred ; but the
thing was risky too r is ky for conservative
,
persons . But he was on the r ight clew and ,
he would have managed it if it hadn t been ’
for the G reat P lague . When I was a boy

the r e we re men alive who re m embered the
co m ing of the first aeroplanes and now I ,
have lived to see the last of them, and that

”
sixty yea r s ago .
The o ld man b abbled on unheeded by ,
the boys who were long accustomed to his

,
ga rrulousness and whose vocabula ries

, ,
be
sides ,
lacked the gr eate r portion of the
words he used . It was noticeable that in
these r ambling soliloq uies his E nglish seemed
to r ecrudesce into better const ruction and
phraseology . But when he talked di rectly
with the boys it lapsed la rgely into thei r , ,
own u ncouth and simpler forms .
“
But there we r en t ’
m any crabs in those
” “
days ,
the old man wandered on . They
were fis hed out and they we r e great deli ,
cacies . The open season was only a month

long, too . A nd now crabs are accessible
the whole yea r a ro u nd . T hink of it

catching all the c r abs you want any ti m e ,
you want in the su rf of the Clifl House

,
’
beach ' ”
A sudden co m motion a m ong the goats

b rought the boys to thei r feet . T he dogs
about the fi re r ush ed to join thei r
s n a r l in g fe l low who gu arded
the goats while ,
1: he g0 a t s
the m selves sta m p eded in the
d i re c tio n of thei r human
p rotector s . A half dozen
fo rm s ,
lean and gray ,
glided about on the s and hill

oc ks or faced t he bri s tl ing dogs .
E dw inarched an a rrow that fell s h o r t .
But Ha r e L ip with a sling such as D avid

-
,
carried into battle against G oliath hu rled a ,
stone th rou gh the a ir that whistled from

the speed of its flight . It fell squa rely
T HE SCA RLET PLAGUE 33
a m ong the wolves and caused them to slink

away towa r d the da r k depths of the eu ca lyp
tus fo r est .
T he boys laughed and lay down again

in the s and while G ,
r a n ser sighed ponde r
o u sly . He had e aten too much and with , ,
hands clasped on his paunch ,

the fingers
inte rlaced he resu m ed his ,
m aunde rings .
‘
“
T he fleeting syste m s lapse like foam ,
he mu m bled what was evidently a quota

tion .
“
T hat s ’
it foam and fleeting
,
. A ll
m an s toil upon the planet was j u st so much
’
foam . He domesticated the se rviceable ani

m als de st royed the hostile ones and clea red
, ,
the land of its wild vegetation . A nd then

he pas sed and the flood of p rimor dial life
,
r olled back again sweeping his handiwork ,
away the weeds and the forest inundated

his fields the beasts of p rey swept ove r his
,
fl ocks ,
and now the re a re wolves on the
D
C liff H ouse beach He was appalled by

“
the thought . Whe re fou r m illion people
disported themselves the wild wolves roa m ,
to-day and the s avage p rogeny of

,
o ur loins ,
with p rehisto ric weapons defend themselves ,
against the fanged despoile r s . T hink of it '

A nd all becau se of the S carlet D eath
T he adj ective had caught Ha e L ip s
r -
’
ea r .
“ ’
He s always saying that ,
he s aid to
“ ”
E dwin . What is sca r l et ?
“ ‘
T he sca rlet of the m aples can shake
m e like the cry of bugles going the old
m an quoted .
“ ’
It s red, E dwin answe r ed the q uestion .
A nd you don t know it because you com e

’
from the C hauffeu r T ribe . T hey neve r did

know nothing , none of them . Sca r let is
”
r ed I know that .
”
R ed is red , ain t ’
it ? Har e-L ip
THE SCARL ET PLAGU E 35
grumb led . Then what s ’

the
good of
’
gettin cocky and callin g it scarlet ? ”
“
G r a n ser, what for do you always say so
”
much what nobody knows ? he as ked .
“ ’
S ca rlet ain t anything , but red is red .
’ ”
Why don t you s ay r ed, then ?
R ed is not the r ight word , w as the
reply The plague was sca rlet . T he
whole face and body turned sca rlet in an
hour s time ’
. D on t I know ? D idn t I see
’ ’
enough of it ? A nd I am telling you it was

scarlet becau se well becau se it
,
wa s sca r
”
let . The r e is no other word for it .
“ ”
R ed is good enough for me , Ha r e-L ip
“
muttered obstinately . My dad calls red
re d, and he ought to know . He says eve ry

body died of the R ed D e ath .
Your dad is a common fellow descended ,
”
from a common fellow , G ra n ser r etorted
“
heatedly . D on t I know the beginnings
’
of the C hau ffeu r s ? You r grandsire w as a

chauffeu r a se rvant and without education
, ,
.
He w o r ked fo r othe r persons . But you r

grandmothe r was of good stock only the ,
did not take afte r h er . D on t I ’
r e m e m ber w hen I fi r st m et the m catching

fish at L ake T e m escal
What is edu ca t i on E dw in asked .
C alling red sca r let ,

Ha re L ip snee red
-
,
then r etu rned to the attack on G r a n ser .
“
M y dad told me an he got it fro m his dad ,
’
afore he c roaked that you r wife was a S anta

,
R osan an that she

,
’
w as su re no account .
He said she was a h a sh -sli ng” befo re the

R ed D eath though I don t know what a
,
’
”
h a sh -sli ng” is . You can tell me E dwin ,
.
But E dwin shook his head in token of
ignorance .
“
It is true she was a waitress
, , G ra n ser
“
acknowledged . But she was a good woman ,
and your mothe r was h er daughte r . Wo m en

we r e very sca rce in the days afte r the P lague .
S he was the only wife I could find even if ,
she was a h a r k-sli ngcr , as you r fathe r calls

it . But it is not nice to talk about o ur p ro
”
genitors that way .
“
D ad says that the wife of the fi r st C hau i
feur was a l a dy
“ ”
What s a ’
la dy ? Hoo Hoo de m anded
- .
A l a dy
’
5 a C hau ffeu r squaw ,
’
was the
q uic k r eply of H a r e- L ip .
“
T he first C hau ffeur was Bill a common ,
”
fellow as I said before
, ,
the old man e x
pounded ; but his wife was a lady a great ,
lady . Before the S car l et D eath she was the

wife of Van Worden . He was Pr esident of
the Boa r d of Indust rial Magnates and was ,
one of the dozen men wh o ruled A merica .
He was wo rth one billion , eight hundred

m illions of dolla r s —
coins like yo u have
38 THE SCA RLE T PLAGUE
there in your pouch , E dwin . A nd then came

the S carlet D eath , and his wife became the
wife o f Bill the first C hauffeur
, . He u sed to
”
beat her, t oo . I have seen it myself .
Ho o -H oo , lying on his stomach and idly

digging his toes in the sand, c r ied o ut and
investigated , first , his toe-nail ,
and next ,
the small hole he had dug . The other two

boys joined him, excavating the s and rap idly
with their hands till ther e lay three s kelet ons
expos ed . Tw o were of adults the third being ,
th at of a part-g rown child . T he o ld man

b udged along on the ground and peered at the
find .
“ “
P lague victims , he announced . That s
’
the w ay they died eve ryw here in the last

days . This must have been a family, run
ni ng away from the contagion and peris hing
here on the C liff House beach . They
”
what are yo u doing E dwin ?
,
THE SCAR LET PLAGUE 39
T his q uestion was as ked in sudden dismay ,
as E dwi n , usin g the b ack o f his hunting knife ,
began to k noc k out the teet h from the j aws

o f o ne o f the s kulls .
“ ’
Going to string em , was the response .
The three boys were now hard at it ; and

q uite a knocking and hammering arose in ,
which G ra n ser babbled on unnoticed .
“
'o u are true savages . Al ready has
begun the custom of wear in g human teeth .
I n another generation you will be perforating

your noses and ears and wearing ornaments
of bone and shell . I know . The human
race is doomed to s ink b ac k farther and
farther into the prim itive night ere again it
begins its bloody climb upward to civiliza
tion . When we inc r ease and feel the lack
of room, we will proceed to k ill o ne another .
A nd th en I su p pose yo u will wear hu man

scalp-locks at your waist as well ,
. as yo u ,
Digitiz ed b y Micros oft'

E dwin who are the gentlest of my gr andsons

, ,
h ave already begun with that vile pigtail .
Throw it aw ay E dwin boy ; th row it away

, ,
.
“
What a gabble the old geezer makes ,
H are-L ip r ema r ked ,

w hen , the teeth all
e x tracted they began an attempt at e q ual
,
division .
T hey we re very q uick and ab rupt in thei r

actions , and their speech in mom ents of hot ,
discussion over the allotment of the choicer

teeth was t ruly a gabble
, . They spoke in
monosyllables a nd short j e r ky sentences
that was m o re a gibberish than a language .
A nd yet th rough it ran hints of gr ammatical

,
construction and appeared vestiges of the

,
conj ugation of some superior cultu re . E ven

the speech of G ra nser was so cor rupt that
were it put down lite r ally i t would be a l
most so m uch nonsense to the r eade r This ,
however was when he talked with the boys

, .
When he got into the full swing of babbling

to himself it slowly pu rged itself into pu re
,
E nglis h . The sentences grew longer and

We re enunciated with a r hyth m and ease
that was re m iniscent of the lectu re platfor m .
“ ”
Tell u s abou t the R ed D eath G ,
ra n ser,
Hare L ip demanded when the teeth affai r

-
,
had been satisfacto r ily co ncluded .
”
The S ca r let D eath , E dwin co rrected .
A n don t wor k all that funny lingo on

’ ’
us ,
Ha re L ip went on
-
. T alk sensible ,
G r a n ser , lik e a S anta R osan ought to talk .
Other S anta R osans don t talk like ’
II
H E old man showed pleasu re in

being thus called up on . He cleared
his th roat and began .
T wenty o r thi rty yea r s ago my story was

in gr eat de m and . But in these days nobody
seems inte r ested
“
The re you go ' Ha re L ip cried h otly
”
- .
C ut out the funny stu ff and talk sensible .
’
What s i nt er ested ? You talk l ike a baby
’ ”
that don t know how .
“ ”
L et him alone ,
E dwin u rged ,
or he ll
’
get mad and won t talk at all ’

. S kip the
’
funny places . We ll catch on to some of
what he tells us .
“
L et h er go ,
G ra n ser , Hoo—Hoo en
co u ra ged ; fo r the old man was al ready

45
maundering about the disrespect for elders

and the r eversion to cruelty of all humans
t hat fell from high culture to p r imitive co n
dit io n s .
T he tale began .
“
T here we re very many people in the wo rld
in those days . S an F r ancisco alone held
fou r millions
“ ”
What is m illions ? E dwin inte rrupted .
G ra nser looked at h im kindly .
“
I know you cannot count beyond ten ,
so I will tell you . Hold up y ou r two hands .
On both of the m you have altogether ten

fingers and thumbs . Ve ry well . I now take
”
thi s g rain of sand you hold it Hoo Hoo
,
- .
He dropped the g rain of sand into the lad s ’
“
palm and went on . Now that grain of sand
stands fo r the ten fingers of E dwin . I add
anothe r g rain . T hat s ten more finge r s
’
.
A nd I add anothe r and a nothe r and anothe r

, ,
THE SCARLET PLAGU E 47
until I have added as many g rains as E dwin

has fingers and thumbs . That ma kes what
I call o ne hund red . R emember that wo r d
hu ndred Now I put this pebble in
'
—
0 ne .
’
Hare L i p s hand
- . I t stands for ten grains
of s and, or ten tens o f finge r s , o r o ne hundred
finge r s . I put in ten pe b bles . They stand
fo r a thous and fingers . I take a mussel-shell ,
and it stands fo r ten pebbles , o r o ne hundred

grains o f s and , or one thousand fingers .
A nd so o n, laboriously, and with much

r eiteration he strove ,
to build up in thei r
minds a crude conception of numbers . As
th e q u antities increased he had the boys ,
holding different magnitudes in each of thei r

hands . Fo r still hi g her sums , he laid the
symbols on the lo g of driftwood ; and fo r
symbols he was hard put, being compelled
to use the teeth from the s kulls for millions ,
and the crab-s hells fo r billions . It was here
Digitiz ed by Micros oft'

that he stopped ,
fo r the boys we r e showing
signs of becom ing ti red .
“
T he re w ere fou r m illion people in S an
”
F rancisco fou r teeth .
T he boys eyes anged along from the teeth

’
r
and fro m hand to hand down th r ough the ,
pebbles and s and gr ains to - E dwin

’
s finge r s .
A nd back again they r anged along the ascend

ing se ries in the effo r t to g r asp such in co n
c eiv a b l e nu m be rs .
“
T hat w as a lot of folks ,
G r a n ser ,
E dwin at last haza rded .
“
L ike s and on the beach he r e like sand ,
on the beach each gr ain of sand a

, m a n, o r
wom an ,
or child . Yes ,
my boy all those
,
people lived r ight he r e in S an Francisco .
A nd at o ne ti m e or anothe r all those people

ca m e out on this ve ry beach mo re peopl e
than the re a re g rains of sand . Mo re — mo re
—
mor e . A nd S an F r ancisco was a noble
city . A nd across the b ay — whe re we

camped last yea r even , m o r e people lived ,
clea r fro m Point R ich m ond on the level ,
ground and on t he hills all the way around

,
to S an L eandro — one great city of seven

million peopl e S even teeth the r e
'
.
,
’ ”
that s it seven millions
, .
A gain the boys eyes r anged up and down ’
from E dwin s finge r s to the teeth on the log

’
.
“
The wo rld was full of people . The
census of 20 1 0 gave eight billions for the
whole wor ld — eight c r ab-shells yes eight , ,
billions . It was not like to—day . Mankind

knew a great deal m or e about getting food .
A nd the mo re food the r e was ,

the mor e
people the r e we r e . I n the yea r 1 8 00 , the re
we re one hu nd r ed and seventy millions in
E urope alone . One hund red yea r s late r
a grain of s and Hoo Hoo — one hund red
,
-
yea r s late r, at 1 9 00 , the r e were five hund red
millions in E u rope — fiv e g r ains of sand ,
H o o-Hoo, and this one tooth . T his shows

how easy was the getting of food and how ,
men inc reased . A nd in the yea r

200 0 , the re we re fifteen hund red
millions in Eu rope . A nd it was the
same all ove r the r est of the
worl d . E i g h t c r a b -s h e l l s
the re yes, ,
eight billion
people we re alive on
the ea rth when the S carlet
D eath began .
“
I was a young m an when
the P lague ca m e —
twenty-s even
yea r s old ; and I lived on the othe r
I WAS A p k om sson OF side of S an F r ancisco
ENG LI SH R R
LI TE ATU E '
,
Bay in Be r keley . You

,
remembe r those great stone houses E dwin , ,
when we came down the hills from Contr a

Co sta ? That was whe re I lived in those ,
stone houses . I was a professor o f E nglish

”
lite r ature .
Much of this was over the heads of the

b 0ys but they str ove to com p r ehend dimly
,
this tale of the past .
“ ”
What was them stone hou ses fo r ?
Ha re L ip que r ied
- .
“
'o u r e m embe r when your dad taught
” “
you to swim ? The boy nodded . Well ,
in the U niversity of C alifornia — that is

the name we had for the houses we
taught young men and women h o w to think ,
j ust as I have taught you now by s and ,
and pebbles and shells to know ,

h ow many
people lived in those days . T he r e was
very much to teach The young men and

'
women we taught were called students .
We had large rooms in which we taught .
I tal k ed to them forty , or fifty at a time ,
j ust as I am talking to you now . I told
them about the books othe r men had w rit

ten before thei r time and even some t imes
, , , ,
in thei r time
“
Was that all you did ? just talk talk
, ,
” “
talk ? Hoo Hoo de m anded
- . Who hunted
you r meat for you ? and milked the goats ?
”
and caught the fish ?
A sensible question ,
Hoo Hoo -
, a sen
sible question . A s I have told you in those ,
days food getting was easy

- . We were ve r y
wise . A few m en got th e , fo o d for many
men . The o t h er m en did othe r things . As
you say I talked ,
. I talked all the time ,
and fo r this food was given me — m uch

food fine food beautiful food food that I
, , ,
have not tasted in si x ty yea r s and shall

neve r taste again . I som eti m es think the
most wonde rful achievement of o ur tre
m en do u s civilization was food — its in co n
‘
ceiv a bl e abundance its infinite va r iety its
, ,
marvellous delicacy O my gr andsons life .

,
was life in those days when we had such ,
”
wonderful things to eat .
This was beyond the boys and they let ,
it slip by wor ds and thoughts

, , as a me re
senile wande r ing in the na rrative .
“
Ou r
food—gette r s we re called fr eem en .
This w a s a j oke We of the ruling classes

.
owned all the land all the ,

m achines eve ry ,
thing . T hese food gette r s we re - o ur S laves .
We took al m ost all the food they got and ,
left them a little so that they m ight eat ,
and wo rk and get us

,
m or e food
“
I d have gone into the fo rest and got
’
”
food for myself ,
H a r e-L ip announced ;
“
and if any m an tried to take it away
”
fro m me I d have killed him
,
’
.
T he old man laughe d .
“
D id I no t tell you that we of the ruling
class owned a l l the land , all the forest ,
everything ? A ny food-gette r who would

no t get food for us him we punished or com
,
p el led to starve to death . A nd ve ry few

did that . T hey prefe rred to get food fo r
us and make clothes

,
fo r us and prepare and
,
administe r to us a thousand — a mussel

shell ,
Hoo-Hoo a thousand s atisfactions
and delights . A nd I was Professor S mith
in those days P rofessor James Howard
S mith . A nd my lecture courses we re ve ry
popula r — that is very many , of the young
men and women liked .
to hear me talk about
the books othe r men had wr it ten .
“
A nd I was ve ry happy and I had beau ,
tiful things to eat . A nd my hands we re

soft because I did no wo r k with them and
, ,
my body was clean all ove r and d ressed in

n
the softest garments He su rveyed his
“
mangy goat s kin with disgust
-
. We did
not wea r such things in those days . E ven
the l
s aves had better garments . A nd we
were most c l ean . We washed o ur faces

and hands o ften eve ry day . 'o u b oys
n ever wash unless you fall into the water
”
or go in swim min g .
Ne i the r do yo u,
G ran
s er , HOO HOO retorted .
I k now I , know . I am
a fi lthy o ld man . But

times h ave changed No .
b ody washes the s e d ays ,
1 1 .
and there are ( no co nv enien

'3
a
ce s . It is sixty years since I h ave

seen a piece of soap . 'o u do no t know
what soap is , and I shall no t tell yo u , fo r I
am te ll ing the story of the S carlet D eath .
'o u k now what sickness is . We ca ll ed it

a disease . Very many of the diseases came
from what we ca ll ed germs . R ememb er that
word g erms . A germ is a very small
Digitized b y Microsoft'
thing . It is like a woodtick such as , yo u

find on the dogs in the Spring of the yea r
when they run in the forest . Only the
ge rm is ve ry small . It is so small that
you cannot see it
Hoo Hoo began to laugh
- .
“
You re a queer
’
u n, G ra n ser, talking
’
about things yo u can t see
’
. If you can t
’
see em how do you know they are ?
’
,
That s
what I want to know . H o w do yo u know
’ ”
anything you can t see ?
A good question a ve ry , goo d q uestion ,
H o o —Hoo . But we did see some of them .
We had what we called m ic roscopes and

ult r a m ico sco p es, and we put them to o ur
eyes and looked th rough the m ,

so that we
s aw things larger than they r eally were ,
and many things we could no t see without

the mic roscopes at all . Ou r best u lt r a m i
c ro sco p es could make a germ look for ty
THE SCARLET PLAGUE 57
th ous and times larger . A m ussel-she ll is a

thousand fingers like E dwin s ’
. T ake forty
mussel shells and by as many times large r
-
,
was the germ when we looked at it through

a mic roscope . A nd afte r that we had other
,
ways , by using what we called moving

pictures , of making the forty thous and -
times germ many , many thous and times

la rge r still . A nd thus we saw all these
things which o ur eyes of the m selves could
not see . Take a gr ain of s and . B reak it
into ten pieces . T ake one piece and break
it into ten . Break one of those pieces into
ten and one of those into ten and one ,
of
,
those into ten and one of those into ten and

, ,
do it all day and , m aybe by sunset

, , yo u will
have a piece as s m all as one of the ge r ms .
T he boys we r e O penly incre dulous . Ha re

L ip sniffed and sneered and H o o -Hoo snick
ered until E dwin nudged them
,
to be silent .
The woodtick sucks the b lood of the

dog but the germ being so ve ry small
, , ,
goes right into the blood of the body , and

there it has many child ren . In those days
the r e would be as many as a billion — a
c r ab -shell please
,
— as m any as that crab
’
shell in one m an s body . We called germs
mic ro organisms
- . When a few million or ,
a billion of them were in a

,
m a n, in all the
blood of a man he was S ick,
. These germs
we re a disease . There we r e many different
kinds of them m ore diffe rent kinds than
the re are grains of sand on this beach . We
knew only a few of the kinds . The m ic ro
organic wo rld was an invisible world ,
a
wo rld we could not see and we knew very ,
little about it . Yet we did know so m e

thing . T here was the ba cillus a n th r a c s ; i
there was the m i cr ococcus ; the re was the
B a cter i um t erm o, and the B a cter i um la ct is
’
that s What turns the goat milk sour even
to this day , Hare -L ip ; and there we re
S ch izom ycetes without end . A nd there were
many others .
Here the o ld man launched into a

dis q uisition on germs and their natures ,
usin g word s and phrases of such ex
t rao rdina r y len g th and meaninglessness ,
that the boys g rinned at one anothe r

an d looked o ut ove r the dese r ted ocean
til l they forgot the o ld man w as b a bb ling
on .
“
But the Scarlet D eath , G ra nser, Ed
w in at l ast suggested .
G ra nser recollected himsel f and with a ,
start tore himsel f away from the rostrum

of the lecture-hall , where , to another-world
au dience ,
he had been expounding the
latest theo ry ,
sixty years g one ,
of germs
and germ diseases - .
Digitized by Mi cros oft'

Yes ,
yes ,
E dwin ; I had fo rgotten .
S ometimes the memo ry of the past is ve r y

strong upon m e, and I fo rget th a t I am a
di rty old m an, clad in goat S kin wande ring -
,
with m y s avage g randsons who a re goat

‘
he rds in the p rimeval wilde rness T he
fleeting systems lapse like foa m ,
’
and so
lapsed our glo rious ,
colossal civilization .
I am G ra n ser , a ti red old m an . I belong

to the t ribe of S anta Rosans . I ma rr ied
into that t ribe . My Sons and daughte r s
m a rried into the Ch a uffeursr the
- —
, Sacra m en
tos ,
and the P alo A ltos - . 'o u , Ha re-L ip ,
are of the C hauffeu rs . You E dwin are of
, ,
the S ac r a m ento s . A nd you Hoo Hoo ,

-
,
a re
of the P alo A ltos

- . You r t ribe takes its
na m e from a town that was n ea r the seat
of anothe r g reat institution of lea rning . It
was called S tanfor d U nive rsity . Yes ,
I
r emembe r now . It is pe rfectly clear . I
T HE SCARLET PLAGUE 61
was telling you of the S carlet D eath .
”
Where w as I in my story ?
You was telling about ge rms the things ,
’ ”
you can t see but which make men sick ,
E dwin prompted .
“
Yes ,
’
that s where I was . A man did
not notice at first when only a few of these
ge rm s got into his body . But each ge r m
b roke in half and became tw o ge rms and ,
they kept doing this ve r y r apidly so that in

a sho rt time there we re many millions of
them in the body . Then the man w as sick .
He had a disease and the disease was named

,
afte r the kind of a germ that was in h im .
It might be measles it might be influenza , ,
it might be yellow fever ; it might be any

of thou sands and thous ands of kinds of
diseases .
“
Now this is the st range thing about
these germs . T he r e we re always new ones
coming to live in men s bodies ’

. .
L ong and
long and long ago when there we re only
,
a few men in the world there we r e few dis ,
e ases . But as men inc reased and lived

closely togethe r in great cities and civil
iza t io ns, new diseases arose new kinds of ,
ge rms entered thei r bodies . Thus were

countles s m illions and billions of human
beings killed . A nd the m o re thickly men
packed togethe r the ,
m o r e te rr ible we re the
new diseases that came to be . L ong be
fore my time ,
in the middle ages there was ,
the Black P lague that swept ac ross E urope .
It swe p t acros s E urope many times . There

was tu b erculosis , that ente red into men
wherever they were thic k ly packed . A
hundred years before my time there was
the bubonic plague . A nd in Africa w as
the sleeping sickness . The bacteriol ogists

fought all these sicknesses and destroyed
THE SCARLET PLAGUE ?
63
them j ust as you boys fight the wolves

,
away from your goats ,

or squash the mos
q u it o es that light on you . T he b a ct e
r io lo gist s
“
But , G ra n ser, what is a what-yo u
”
call - it ? E dwin inte rrupted .
'o u , E dwin ,
a re a goatherd . You r
tas k is to watch the goats . You know a
great deal about goats . A bacte riologist
watches ge rms . T hat s his tas k and he
’
,
knows a great deal about them . S o as I,
was s aying the bacte r iologists fought with

,
the germs and destroyed them some

times . T here was leprosy ,
a horrible dis
ease . A hund red yea r s befo re I was born ,
the bacte r iologists discove r ed the ge r m of

leprosy . They knew all about ir . . They
made pictu res of it . I have seen those
pictures ; But they neve r found a way
to kill it . But in 1 9 8 4, there was the P an
t o b l a st P lague a disease that b roke

,
o ut in
a count ry called B razil and that killed mil
lions Of people . But the bacte riologists
found it out and found the way to kill it
, ,
so that the P a nt o b l a st Plague went no

farthe r . T hey m ade what they called a
se ru m ,
which they put into a man s body ’
and which killed the p a nt o b l a st ge rm s

without killing the m an . A nd in 1 9 1 0,
there was P ellagr a and also the hookwo

,
rm .
T hese we re easily killed by the bacte r iol

o gist s . But in 1 947 the r e a rose a new
disease that had neve r been seen befo re .
It got into the bodies of babies of only

ten months old or less and it made them
,
unable to move their hands and feet ,

or
“
to eat or anything ; and the bacteriol
,
o gist s we re eleven yea r s in discove r ing how

to kill that particular ge r m and s ave the
babies .
In spite of all these diseases and , of all

the new ones that continued to a r ise there
,
we re mo r e and more men in the wo rld .
T his was because it w a s easy to get food .
T he easie r it was t o get food the mor e men ,
the re we re ; the more men the re were ,
the more thickly were they packed togethe r

on the ea rth ; and the m ore thickly they
we re packed ,the mor e new kinds of ge rm s
became diseases . There we re war nings .
So l dervet zsky , as ea rly as 1 9 29 , told the

b acteriologists that they had no gua r anty
against some new disease a thous and times ,
mor e deadly than any they knew arising ,
and killing by the hund reds of millions

and even by the billion . You see , the
m icro-organic wor ld r e m ained a mystery
to the end . They knew there was such
'
a world and that from time to

,
t im e a rm ies
o f new germs emerged from it to kill men .
66 TH E SCARLE T PLAGUE
A nd that was all they knew about it Fo r .
all they knew in that invisible mic ro ,
o rganic world there might be as many

diffe rent kinds of germs as the r e a re gr ains
of sand on this beach . A nd also in that ,
s ame inv i sible world it might well be that

new kinds of ge r ms came to be . It might
‘
be the re that life or iginated the abys mal
fecundity So l derv et zsky called it apply
7
, ,
ing the wo rds of othe r men wh o had wr itten

before h im .
It was at this point that Ha re L ip - r ose

to his feet an exp r ession of huge contempt
,
on his face .
“ “
G ra nser, he announced , you make
’
me sick with your gabble . Why don t yo u tell
about the R ed D eath ? If you ain t going ’
’ ’
t o, s ay so , an we ll start b ack for cam p .
The o ld man looked at h im and silently

began to cry . The weak tea r s of age rolled
THE SCARLET PLAGU E
down his cheeks and all ,
the fee b leness o f his eighty

seven years showed in his
g r i e f - s tr i c ke n co u n t e
nance .
“
S it down ,
E dwin coun
sel l e d sooth
in gly . G ran
ser s ’
a ll right .
’
He s just get
’
tin t o the
S carlet D e ath ,
’
ain t you ,
’
G r a n se r ? He s j u st
goin ’
to te l l us about
it r ight now . Sit
down , Hare L ip - .
G o ahead , G ran
G RA NSER , HE A O UNCED
NN ,
'OU
ser . MA E
K ME Srex WI TH YOUR G A B BLE .
”
III
H E old m an wiped the tea r s away

on his gr i m y knuckles and took
up the tale in a tremulous piping ,
voice that soon strengthened as he go t the

swing of the nar r ative .
“
It was in the summer of 20 1 3 that the
P l ague came . I was twenty s even years -
o l d, and w ell do I remember it . Wireless

despatches
Hare L ip spat loudly his disgust
-
, and
G ra nser hastened to make amends .
“
We tal ked through the air in those days ,
thousands and thousands of miles . A nd

the wor d came of a strange disease that had
broken out in N ew York . The re we re
seventeen millions of people living then in
that noblest city of A merica . N obody

thought anything about the news . It was
only a s m all thing . T here had been only
a few deaths . It see m ed , though , that
they had died very quickly and that one ,
of the fi r st signs of the disease was the

turning red of the face and all the body .
Within twenty fou r hou r s ca m e the

- r eport
of the fi r st case in C hicago . A nd on the
same day it was
, m ade public that London ,
the greatest city in the wo rld ne x t , to C hi

cago had been sec retly fighting the plague
,
fo r two weeks and censor ing the news des

patches that is not pe r mitting the wo rd
,
to go forth to the r est of the world that

London had the plague .
“
It looked se rious but we in C alifornia ,
,
like eve rywhe re else we re not alarmed

, . We
were su re that the bacte riologists would find
a way to ove rcome this new ge rm just as ,
TH E SCARLET PLAGU E 73
they had ove rcome other ge r ms in the past .
But the t rouble was the astonishing q uicknes s

with which this ge r m destroyed human
beings and the fact that it inevitably killed
,
any human body it ente red . N o one eve r

r ecove red . T here w as the old A siatic
chole r a when you
,
m ight eat dinne r with a
well m an in the evening ,
and the ne xt
morning if you got up early enough
, , yo u
would see him being hauled by you r window
in the death ca r t - . But this new plague was
q uicke r than that — much quicke r . F rom
the moment of the fi r st signs of it a man ,
would be dead in an hou r . S ome lasted fo r
seve r al hou r s . M any died within ten or
fifteen minutes of the appearance of the

first signs .
“
T he heart began to beat faste r and the
heat of the body to inc rease . Then came
the scar let r ash spreading like wildfi re over
,
B UT THI S NEW P LAGU W Q U C ER HAN THAT

E AS I K T
MUCH Q U C E R
I K .
”
the face and body . Most pe r sons never

noticed the inc rease in heat and heart-beat ,
and the first they knew was when the scarlet

rash came o ut . U sually they had , co nvul
sions at the time of the appearance of the

rash . But these convu lsions did no t last
lon g and were not very seve r e . If o ne lived
through them he became pe rfectly q uiet

, ,
and only did he feel a nu m bness swiftly

creeping u p his body from the feet . The
heels became numb first then the legs and , ,
hips ,
and when the numbness r eached as
high as his hea rt he died . They did not
r ave or sleep . T hei r minds always re
m ained cool and calm u p to th e moment

thei r hea r t numbed and stopped . A nd
anothe r st r ange thing was the r apidity of
decomposition . N o soone r was a person

dead than the body seemed to fall to pieces ,
to fly apa rt to melt away even as you looked

,
at it . T hat was one of the r easons the

plague sp r ead o
s r apidly . A ll the billions
of ge rms in a corpse were so immediately
released .
“
A nd it was because of all this that the
b act erio lo gist s h a d so little chance in fi ghting
the germs . They were killed in their labora
to r ies even as they studied the germ of the

S carlet D eath . T hey we re he roes . A s fast
as they pe r ished othe r s stepped forth and
,
took thei r places . It was in L ondon that

they fi rst isolated it . T he news was tele
gr aphed eve rywhe re . T r as k was the na m e
of the m an wh o succeeded in this but within ,
thi rty hou rs he was dead . Then came the

struggle in all the labor ator ies to find some
thing that would kill the plague ge rm s .
,
A ll
drugs failed . You see the p roblem was to
,
get a d rug ,
or se ru m that would kill the ge rms
,
in the body and not kill the body . T hey

tried to fight it with othe r ge rm s to put ,
into the body of a sick man ge rm s that we re

the enemies of the plague ge r ms
“ ’
A nd you can t see these germ-things ,
“
G ra n ser, Ha e L ip obj ected
r -
,
and here
yo u gabble gabble gabble about the m as
, ,
if they was anything when they re nothing

,
’
at all . A nything you can t ’

see ain t that s’
,
’
what . F ighting things that ain t with things

th at ain t ' They ’
m ust have been all fools
in them days . T hat s why they c roaked
’
.
’ ’
I ain t goin to b elieve in such rot I tell you ,
that .
G r a n se r promptly began to weep while ,
E dwin hotly took up his defence .
“
L ook he re ,
H a re-L ip , you believe in lots
of things you can t see ’
.
Hare L ip shook - h ishead .
“
You believe in dead men walking about .
You neve r seen one dead man walk about .
“ ’
I tell yo u I seen em las t winte r when I, ,
”
was wolf hunting with dad- .
“
Well you always spit when you cros s
,
”
r unning wate r ,
E dwin challenged .
“ ”
That s to keep o ff bad luck
’
, was Hare
L ip s defence
’
.
”
You believe in b ad luck ?
78 THE SCARLET PLAGU E
S ure .
A n you ain t neve r seen bad luck

’ ’
,
’
E dwin concluded triu m phantly . You re
j ust as bad as G r a n ser and his germs . You
G
’
believe in what yo u don t see . o o n,
”
G r a n ser .
Hare-L ip , c r ushed by this metaphysical

defeat ,
r e m ained si l ent and the , o ld man
went on . Often and often ,
though this
narrative must not be clogged by the de
tails was G
,
ra n ser s
’
ta le interrupted while
the boys s quabbled among themselves .
A lso , among themselves they kept up a

constant low-voiced exchange
, of explana
tion and conj ecture as they strove , to follow
the o ld man into his unknown and vanished
world .
“
The S carlet D eath broke in San o ut
F r ancisco . T he first death came on a M o n

day morning . By Th ursday they we re
dying like flies in Oakland and S an F ra n

cisco . They d ied eve rywhere in thei r
beds at thei r wo r k walking alo ng the street
, ,
.
It was on T uesday that I saw my first

death — Miss Collb r an one ,
of my students ,
sitting r ight the r e before my eyes in my ,
lectu r e-roo m . I noticed h er face while I

was talking . It h ad suddenly tu r ned scar
l et . I ceased speaking and could only look
at h er , fo r the first fea r of the plague was
al ready on all of us and we knew that it
had come . T he young women sc reamed
and ran out of the room . S o did the young
men ru n out all but two
,
. Miss Collb r an s ’
convulsions we r e ve ry mild and lasted less

than a minute . One of the young men
fetched h er a glass of water . S he drank
only a little o f it and cried ,
o ut
My feet ' A ll sensation has left them .

’
‘
After a minute she said , I have no
feet . I am unaware th at I have a ny feet .
A nd my knees are cold . I can scarcely

’
feel that I have knees .
“
Sh e lay o n the floor a b undle ,
of note
boo k s under her head . And we could do
not hing . T he coldnes s and the numbness
cre p t up past her hips to h er heart, and
when it reached her heart she was dead .
In fifteen minutes , by the clock — I timed

it she w as dead , the r e , in my o wn class
r oom, dead . A nd she was a ve ry beauti
ful ,
strong , healthy young woman . A nd
from the fi r st sign o f t h e plague to her death
only fifteen minutes elapsed . That will
S how yo u how swift was the S ca r let D eath .
“
'et in t hose few minutes I r emained
with the dying woman in my class roo m, th e
alarm had spread ove r the unive rsity ; and

the students by thousands all
, , of them , had
deserted the lecture room and laboratories
-
.
Digitized by Mi cros oft '

T HE SCARLE T PLAGUE 81
When I emerged on my way , to make report

to the Pr esident of the F aculty I found the ,
u niversity dese rted . A cross the ca m pus

we r e seve r al stragglers hu r rying fo r thei r
homes . Two of them we re running .
“
P resident Hoag , I found in his offi ce ,
all alone looking ve ry old and very gray

, ,
with a multitude of wrinkles in his face that

I had neve r seen before . A t the sight of
me , he pulled himself to his feet and

tottered away to the inner o fl
i ce banging
,
the door afte r him and locking it . You

see he knew I had been e xposed and he
, ,
was afraid . He shouted to me through

the door to go away . I shall never forget
my feelings as I walked down the silent
corrido r s and out across that deserted
campus . I was not afraid . I had been
exposed , and I looked upon myself as
already dead . It was no t that but a feel
,
ing of awful depression that imp ressed me .
E verything had stopped . It was like the

end of the world to me my wor ld . I
had been born within sight and sound of
the university . It had been my predestined

career . My fathe r had been a professor
there before me and his fathe r before him ,
.
Fo r a century and a half had this univer

sit y, like a splendid machine been running ,
steadily on . A nd now ,
in an instant ,
it
had stopped . It was like seeing the c ed
Sa r
flame die down on some th r ice-sac r ed alta r .
I was shocked unutterably shoc ked ,

.
“
When I a r r ived home my housekeepe r ,
sc reamed as I entered and fled away , . A nd

when I r ang ,
I found the housemaid
had likewise fled . I investigated . In the
kitchen I found the cook on the point of
departu r e . But she screamed too and in , ,
h er haste dropped a suitcase of h er pe r sonal
b elongings and ran out of the hou se and

across the grounds still screaming , . I can
hear her sc r ea m to this day . You see , we
did not act in this way when ordina ry dis
eases s m ote us . We were always calm
over such things and sent for the doctor s
,
and nu rses who knew just what to do . But

this was diffe rent . It struck so suddenly ,
and killed so swiftly and never missed a ,
‘
stroke . When the sca rlet r a sh appeared
’
on a person s face that pe r son was ma r ked
,
by death . T here w as never a known case

of a r ecove ry .
“
I was alone in my big house . As I
have told you often befo re in those days we ,
could talk with one anothe r ove r wires or

through the a ir . The telephone bell r ang ,
and I found m y brothe r talking to me .
He told me that he was not coming home

for fea r of catching the plague from me ,
84 THE SCARLET P LAGUE
and that he had taken o ur t wo sisters to
stop at P rofes sor Bacon s home ’

. He ad
vi sed me to
r emain whe re
I w a s, and
wait to find
o ut wheth er
THE TE P N B ELE HO E LL H N
A NG , A D
I
FOUND M' B ROTH R TAL NG
E KI
”
To ME .
or no t I had caught the

plague .
“
To a ll of this I agreed ,
staying in m y house and fo r the first time
in my life attemp tin g to cook . A nd the
Digitized by Mi '
cros oft
'
plague did not come out on me . By

means of the telephone I could talk with
whomsoever I pleased and get the news .
A lso ,
t he r e we re the newspape rs ,
and I
o r de red all of them to be th rown up to my
doo r so that I could know what was hap
pening with the rest of the world .
“
New York C ity and C hicago were in
chaos . A nd what happened with them
w as happening in all the la rge cities . A
thi r d of the New Yo r k police we re dead .
Thei r chief was also dead ,

likewise the
mayor . A ll law and o rde r had ceased .
The bodies we r e lying in the streets un
bu ried . A ll railroads and vessels carrying

food and such things into the gr eat city
had ceased running and mobs of the hungry
,
poor we re pillaging the stores and wa re

hou ses . Mu r der and robbery and d runken
nes s were everywhe r e . A lready the people
ha d fled from the city by m illions — at
fi r st the r ich ,
in thei r p rivate moto r ca r s -
and di rigibles and then the gr eat mass of

,
the population on foot ca rrying the plague

, ,
with the m themselves sta rving and pillaging

,
the fa r me r s and all the towns and villages

on th eway .
“
T he m an who sent this news the wi re ,
less ope r ato r was alone with his instru m ent

,
on the top of a lofty building . T he people

r emaining in the city he estimated them
at seve r al hundred thous and had gone
m ad from fea r and d rink and on all S ides of ,
h im g r eat fi res we re r aging . He was a

he ro that
,
m an who staid by his post an
obscu re newspape rm an most likely ,
.
“
Fo r twenty-fou r hou r s ,
he s aid ,
no
tr ansatlantic ai rships had a rrived and no ,
m o re m ess ages we re com ing from E ngland .
He did state though that a , ,

m essage fro m
Berlin that s’
in G erm any announced
that Hoffmeye r ,
a bacte riologist of the
Metchnikoff S chool , had discovered the
se ru m fo r the plague . That Wa s the last
word to this day that we of A merica eve r
, ,
received from E urope . If Ho

ffmeye r dis
cove red the se rum it was t oo late or othe r

, ,
wise long,
ere this e x plo re r s from E urope
,
would have come looking fo r us . We can

only conclude that what happened in A me rica
happened in E urope and that at the best , , ,
some seve r al score may have survived the

S ca rlet D eath on that whole continent .
“
F or one day longe r the despatches con
t inu ed to come from N ew Yo r k . Then
they , t oo , ceased . T he man who had sent
them ,
pe r ched in his lofty building , had
either died o f the plague or been consumed
in the great fla gra t io ns he had desc ribed
co n
as raging around him A nd what h a d .
O RI NG
P U OUT OF T HE C TY
I B' M 1 LL10NS
occurred in New Yor k had been duplicated

in all the other cities . It was the same in
S an F r ancisco and Oakland and Berkeley
, , .
By Thursday the people we re dying so
rapidly that their corpses could not be

handled and dead bodies lay eve rywhere
, .
Thursday night the panic outrush for the

country began . I magine ,
my grandsons ,
people , thicker than the salmon-run you

have seen on the S acramento r ive r pou r ing ,
o ut of the cities by millions ,

madly over
the country in vain attempt to escape the
,
ubi q uitous death . You see ,

they ca rr ied
the ge r ms with them . E ven the airships
of the r ich fleeing , fo r mountain and dese r t
fastnesses ca r ried the germs
,
.
“
Hundreds of these ai r ships escaped to
Hawaii and ,
no t only did they bring the
plague with them but they found the plague ,
alrea dy there before them . T his we learned ,
by the despatches ,
u ntil all orde r in S an
F r ancisco vanished ,
and the re were no
ope rator s left at their posts to receive or
send . It was a m azing ,

astounding , this
loss of communication with the wor ld . It
w as e x actly as if the wor ld had ceased been ,
blotted out . Fo r S ix ty yea r s that wo r ld

has no longe r e x isted fo r me . I know the r e
must be such places as New Yor k E u rope , ,
A sia and A fr ica ; but not one

,
w or d has
been hear d of them not in si xty yea r s .
With the co m ing of the S ca r let D eath the

wor ld fell apa rt ,
absolutely ,
irretr ievably .
Ten thousand yea r s of cultu re and civiliza

tion passed in the twinkling of an eye ,
‘ ’
lapsed like foam .
“
I was telling about the ai r ships of the
r ich . T hey ca rr ied the plague with them
and no matte r w here they fled they died ,
.
~
( F. 3
I neve r encountered but one su r ii i v o r of
TH E SCARLET PLAGUE 9:
any of them M u n ger so n . He was afte r

war ds a S anta R os an and he ma rried my
,
eldest daughter . He came into the tr ibe

eight yea r s afte r the plague . He was then
nineteen year s old and he was compelled ,
to wait twelve yea r s more before he could

ma rr y . You see the re we re no un m ar ried
,
women ,
and some of the olde r daughte r s
of the S anta Rosans we re al r eady bespoken .
S o he was fo r ced to wait until my Ma ry had

grown to six teen yea r s . It was his son ,
G im pl-L eg , w h o w a s killed last year by the

mountain lion .
“
M un ger so n was eleven yea r s o ld at the
time of the plague . His fathe r was one of
the Indus trial Magnates a ve r y wealthy , ,
powe rful man . It was on his ai r ship the ,
Condor that they we r e fleeing with all the

, ,
family ,
fo r the wilds of B r itish Columbia ,
which is far to the nor th of h e r e . But
there was some accident ,

and they we r e
wrecked nea r Mount S hasta . You have
heard of that mountain . It is fa r to the
north . The plague b roke out amongst them ,
and this boy of eleven was the only su r vivor .
For eight yea r s he was alone ,

wandering
over a deserted land and looking vainly fo r
his own kind . A nd at last t r avelling south

, ,
he picked up with us the S anta R osans ,

.
“
But I am ahead of my story . When
the great e xodus from the cities a round
S an Fr ancisco Bay began ,
and while the
telephones we re still working I talked with ,
my b rothe r . I told him this flight from the

cities was insanity ,
that the re we re no
symptoms of the plague in me and that the ,
thing for us to do was to isolate ourselves

and o ur relatives in some safe place . We
decided on the C hemistry Building at the ,
unive r sity ,
and we planned to lay in a
THE SCARLE T PLAG U E 93
su pp l y of provisions and by force , of arms

to p revent any other persons from forcin g
their presence upon us after we had retired
t o o ur re fuge .
“
A ll this being arranged ,
my b rother
b e gged me to sta y in my o wn house fo r at
least twenty-fou r hours mor e , on th e chance
of the plague developing in me . To this
I a greed and he promised
, to come fo r me
next day . We talked on over the details
o f the p rovisioning and the de fendin g o f the
Ch em ist ry B uilding until the tele p hone died .
I t died in the midst o f o ur conversation .
That evenin g there were no electric lights ,

and I w as alone in my house in the darknes s .
No more newspapers we r e being printed ,

so I had no k nowledge of what was ta kin g
place outside . I heard sou nds of rioting
and of p istol shots and from my windows
,
I cou l d see the glare of . the s ky of some
I HEARD SOUNDS or RI OTI NG A ND or PI STOL SHOTS .
co n fla grat io n in the direction of Oakland .
It was a night of terror . I did not sleep a

w i nk . A man —
why and how I do no t
know was killed on the sidewalk in front

of the house . I heard the r apid r epor ts of
an automatic pistol ,
and a few minutes
later the wounded wretch crawled up to my
door ,
m oaning and c rying o ut fo r help .
Ar ming myself with two automatics I went ,
to him . By the light of a match I a scer
t a in ed that while he was dying of the bullet

wounds at the s ame time the plague was
,
on him . I fled indoors ,

whence I hea r d
him moan and cry out for half an hou r
longe r .
“
In the morning my b rothe r came ,
to me .
I had gathe red into a handbag what things

of value I purposed taking but when I s aw ,
his face I knew that he would neve r a cco m
pan y me the Ch em ist ry Building T he

'
to .
plague was on him . He intended shaking

my hand but I went back hurr iedly before
,
him .
“
L ook at yourself in the
”
mi rror ,
I commanded .
‘
He did so and at sight
,
of his sca r let face ,

color
LOOK ATYOURSELF I N
MI RROR I COMMANDED
”
, .
deepening as he looked at it, he sank down

nervelessly in a chai r .
‘’
My G o d 'he said ’
. I ve go t it . D on t ’
come near me . I am a dead man .

’
“
T hen the convulsions seized him . He
w a s two hou r s in dying and he was conscious,
to the last complaining about the coldness

,
and loss of sensation in his feet his calves , ,
his thighs until at last it

, was his heart and
he was dead .
“
That was the w ay the S carlet D eath
slew . I caught up m y handbag and fled .
The sights in the streets were terrible .
One stumbled on bodies eve rywhe re . S ome

we re no t yet dead . A nd even as you looked ,
yo u sa w men sin k down with the death

fastened upon them . The r e were numerous
fires burning in Be r keley whi l e Oakland and ,
S an Francisco were apparently being swept

by vast co n flagra t io n s . T he s moke of the
b u r ning filled the heavens so that the ,

m id
day was as a gloo m y twilight and in the , ,
shifts of wind ,
sometimes the su n shone
th rough dimly a dull ,
red o rb . T ruly ,
my
gr andsons it was like the last days

,
of the
end of the wor ld .
T he re wer e nume rous stalled motor ca r s ,
S howing that the gasoline and the engine

supplies of the ga r ages had given out . I re
membe r one such ca r . A man and a woman

lay back dead in the seats and on the pave ,
ment near it we r e two mor e women and a

child . S tr ange and te rrible sights the r e we re
on every hand . People slipped by silently ,
fu rtively li ke ghosts
,
white faced women -
car rying infants in thei r a r ms ; fathe r s

leading child ren by the hand singly ,
and in couples and in families

,
—
all flee
ing out of the city of death . S ome ca rr ied
supplies of food others blankets and valu
,
ables , and there we r e many wh o carried

nothing .
“
The r e was a grocery store — a place
where food w as sold . T he m an to w hom it
belonged — I kne w him well a qu iet ,
sober but stupid and obstinate fellow

, ,
w as
defending it . T he window s an d doo r s had

been b roken in but he inside hiding behind
, , ,
a counte r was discharging his pistol at a

,
number of men on the side w alk who we re

b reaking in In the entr ance we re seve r al ,
bodies —
of men I decided
, ,
w hom he had
killed ea r lie r in the day . E ven as I looked
on from a distance I saw one of the robbe r s
,
break the windows of the adjoining sto r e ,
a place w he re shoes we re sold and ,

delib
er a t ely set fire to it . I did not go to the

gro cerym an s
’
assistance . The time for such
acts had alr eady passed . C ivilization was
c ru m bling and it was each fo r himself
,
.
IV
WENT away hastily down a c ross ,
street and at the fi r st corner I s aw

,
anothe r t r agedy . Two men of the

wo r king class had caught a m an and a
woman with two child ren and we r e robbing ,
the m . I knew the m an by sight though ,
I had neve r been int roduced to h im . He

was a poet whose ve r ses I had long
ad m i red . Yet I did not go to his help ,
fo r at the moment I came upon the

scene the re was a pistol S hot and I saw
,
him sinking to the ground . The wo m an

screamed and she was felled with a
,
fi st -blow
by one o f the b rutes . I c r ied out th reaten

in gly, whereupon they discharged their pis
1 03
1 04 TH E SCARLE T PLAGUE
Now, 1N THE or OUR CALAM TY TH EY TUR NE D

I ,
U ON U
P S
TH E SCARLET PLAGUE 1 05
tols at me and I ra n aw ay a round the corner .
He re I was blocked by an advancing con

fla gr a t io n . The buildings on both sides we r e
bu r ning and the street was filled with S moke
,
and fla m e . F rom somewhe r e in that m urk

’
ca m e a woman s voice callin g shrilly for help .
But I did not go to h er . A m an s hea r t

’
tu r ned to i ron a m id such scenes and , o ne
hea r d all too many appeals for help .
“
R etu r ning to the co rne r I found the two ,
robbe rs we r e gone . The poet and his wife

lay dead on the pave m ent . It was a shock
ing sight . The two children had vanished
whithe r I could not tell . A nd I knew ,
'
now why,
it w a s that the fleeing pe r sons I
encounte red S lipped along so fu rtively and
with such white faces . In the m idst of o ur
civilization down in ,
o ur slums and labo r
ghettos we had b red a r ace of barbarians
, ,
of savages ; and now in the ti m e ,

o f o ur
1 06 THE SCARLE T PLAGUE
calamity they turned upon us like the wild

,
beasts they we re and dest royed u s . A nd

they dest royed themselves as well . They
inflamed themselves with st rong d rink and
committed a thousand at rocities , quar rel
ing and killing one anothe r in the general
m adness . One group of wo r kingm en I s aw ,
of the better so rt who had banded togethe r

, ,
and with thei r wom en and child ren in their

,
midst the sick and aged in litte r s and being

,
ca rried and with a nu m be r of ho rses pulling

,
a t ruck load of p rovisions they

-
,
w e re fi gh t
ing thei r way out of the City . T hey m ade a
fi ne spectacle as they c a m e down the st r eet
th rough the d rifting s m oke ,
though they
nea rly shot m e when I fi r st appea r ed in
thei r path . A s they went by one of thei r ,
leade r s shouted out to me in apologetic

e x planation . He s aid they were killing the
r obbe r s and loote rs on sight and that they ,
THE SCARLET PLAGUE 1 07
had thus b anded togethe r as the only

m eans by which to escape the p rowle r s .
“
It was he re that I s aw fo r the fi rst time
what I was soon to see so often . One of
the ma rching men had suddenly shown the
unmistakable ma r k of the plague . Im m e
dia t ely those about h im drew away and he , ,
without a remonstr ance stepped out of his ,
place to let the m pas s on . A woman most ,
p robably his wife attempted to follow him

, .
S he was leading a little boy by the hand .
But the husband com m anded h er sternly

to go on while othe r s laid hands on
, h er and
r estrained h er from following h im . T his I
s aw and I saw the
,
m an also with his scarlet
,
blaze of face step into a doorway on the

,
opposite side of the st reet . I heard the

r eport of his pistol and s aw ,
h im sink life
les s to th e ground .
“
A fte r being turned aside twice again
by advancing fi res I succeeded in getting

,
through to the unive r sity . On the edge of

the campus I came upon a party of unive r
sit y folk who we re going in the direction of
the C hemistry Building . T hey we re all
family men and thei r fa m ilies we r e with
,
them including the nu r ses and the se rvants

,
.
sso r B ad m inton gr eeted me ,
and I had difl

i cul t y in
r ecognizin g h im .
S omewhe r e he had
gone th rough flames ,
and his bea r d was singed

of
f . A bout his head
was a bloody bandage ,
and his clothes we r e

filthy . He told m e he
had been c ruelly beaten by
HE TOLD ME HE H AD p rowle rs and that his
B EEN CRUELLY EATE N
B
,
B' Pno wm ns ”
b rothe r had been ki lled
THE SCARLE T PLAGUE 1 09
the previou s night in the defence , of the ir

dwelling .
“
Midway across the campus he pointed ,
su ddenly to M rs S winton s face .

’
. T he un
mistakable scarlet was the re . Immediately

all the othe r wom en set up a screaming and
began to ru n away from h er . H er two
child ren were with a nu r se and these also ,
ran with the women . But her husb and ,
D octo r S winton ,
r emained with her .
“ ‘ ‘
G o on S mith
, ,
’
he told me . Keep an
eye on the child r en . A s for me I shall stay
,
with m y wife . I know she is as already

dead but I can t leave
,
’
h er . A fte rwa r ds if ,
I escape ,
I S hall come to the C hemistry
Building, and do you watch for me and let
’
me in .
“
I left him bending over his wi fe and
soothing h er last moments while I ,
ra n to
overtake the party . We were the last to be
admitted to the C hemistry Building . A fte r

that with
, our automatic r ifles we main
t a ined our isolation . By o ur plans we had
,
arranged fo r a company of si x ty to be in this

refuge . Instead eve r y one of the numbe r
,
o riginally planned h a d added r elatives and

friends and whole families until the r e w ere
ove r fou r hund red souls . But the C he m istry

Building was la rge and standing by itself , , ,
was in no dange r of being bu rned by the

great fires that r aged eve rywhe re in the city .
“
A la rge quantity of p rovisions had been
gathe red and a food com m ittee took cha rge
,
of it issuing rations dai ly to the va rious

,
families and g roups that a rranged them

elves into messes
s . A numbe r of commit
tees we r e appointed and we developed a ,
very efficient organization . I was on the

committee of defence though for the fi r st ,
day no p rowle r s ca m e nea r . We could see
them in the distance however , and b y the ,
smo k e of thei r fi res knew that several

camps o f them were occupying the far edg e
o f the campus . D runkenness was rife, and
often we hea r d them singing ribald son g s
or insanely s houting . While the world
crashed to ruin about them and all the air
w as filled with the s moke of its b urning ,
these low creatures gave rein to their

b estia l ity and fought and d r an k and died .
A nd after all what did it matter ?

,
E very
b ody died anyway the good and the b ad , ,
the e ffi cients and the weaklings those that ,
loved to live and those that scor ned to live .
They p assed . E ve ry thing passed .
“
When twenty-fou r hou r s had gone b y
and no signs of the plague we r e a pp arent,
we con g ratulated ou r selves and set ab out
di g ging a well . You have seen the g reat
iron p ip es which in th ose days car r ied water
to all the City dwelle rs - . We fea red that the

fi res in the city would bu rst the pipes and
e m pty the r ese rvoi r s . S o we tor e up the
cement floo r of the centr al court of the
C he m ist ry Building and du g a well . T he re
we re m any young m en , unde rgr aduates ,
with us and we wo r ked night and day on

,
the well . A nd o ur fea rs we re confi rmed .
T h ree hou r s before we reached wate r the ,
pipes went dr y .
“
A second twenty-fou r hou r s passed and ,
still the plague did not appea r a m ong us .
We thought we we r e s aved . But we did

not know what I afte rwa rds decided to be
t rue na m ely that the pe riod of the
, ,
i n cu
b a t io n of the plague ge rms in a hu m an s ’
body was a m atte r of a numbe r of days . It

slew S0 swiftly when once it m anifested it
self that we we re led to believe that the

,
pe riod of incubation was equally swift . So ,
when two days had left us unscathed we ,
we r e elated with the idea that we we re free '
of the contagion .
“
But the thi r d day disillusioned us .
. I
can neve r fo rget the night p r eceding it . I
had cha r ge o f the night gua r ds from eight
to twelve and from the roof of the building
,
I watched the passing of all man s glor ious ’
works . S o ter r ible we r e the local co nfi a
gra t io n s that all the sky was lighted up .
One could r ead the finest p rint in the r ed
gla r e . A ll the wo rld seemed w r apped in

flames . S an F r ancisco spouted smoke and
fi re from a scor e of vast co n fla gra t io n s that
we r e like so many active volcanoes . Oak
land ,
S an L eandro ,
Haywa r ds — all we re
bu r ning ; and to the nor thwa r d ,
clear to
P oint R ich m ond other fi res we r e at work
,
.
It was an a w e- inspi r ing spectacle . C ivili

za t io n, m y grandsons civilization was pass
,
ing in a sheet of fla m e and a b r eath of death .
A t ten o clock that night the g r eat powde r

’
,
m agazines at Point Pinole e xploded in r apid

succession . S o te rr ific we re the concussions
that the strong building r ocked as in an
ea r thq u ake while eve ry pane of glass
,
w as
b roken . It was then that I left the r oof

and went down the long co rrido r s fro m ,
r oo m to roo m quieting the ala r med wo m en

,
and telling them what had happened .
A n hou r late r ,
at a window on the
ground floo r I hea r d pandemoniu m break
,
out in the ca m ps of the p rowle r s . T here

we r e c r ies and sc reams ,
and shots fro m
m any pistols . A s we afte rwa r d conj ectu r ed ,
this fight had been p recipitated by an

attempt on the pa rt of those that we re well
to d r ive out those that we r e sick . A t any
r ate ,
a nu m be r of the plague st ricken
-
p rowle r s escaped ac ross the c a m p u s and
TH E SCARLE T PLAGUE 1 15
d r ifted against o ur doo r s . We warned the m

back but they cu rsed us and discharged a
,
q ill a de from thei r pistol s . Professo r

Me rryweathe r at one of the windows was
, ,
instantly killed , the bullet striki ng him

squ a r ely between the eyes . We opened fi re
in tu r n and all the p rowle r s fled away
, w ith
the e x ception of th ree . One was a woman .
T he plague was on them and they we re

r eckless . L ike foul fiends the r e in the , red
gla re from the s kies with faces blazing , ,
they continued to cu r se us and fi re at us .
One of the men I shot with my own hand .
A fte r that the othe r m an and the wom an ,
still cu r sing us lay down under our windows

, ,
whe re we we re compelled to watch them die

of the plague .
“
The situ ation wa s c ritical . The exp o l
sions of the powde r magazines had broken
all the windows of the C hemistry Building ,
1 16 THE S CARLE T PLAGUE
so that we were exposed to the ge rms from

the corpses . The s anita ry committee was
called upon to act and it ,
r esponded nobly . Two

m en w r e e r e q ui red to
go out and remove
the co rpses ,
and
this meant the
p robable sac
r ific e of thei r
own lives fo r , ,
h aving per
fo r m e d the
task they
were not to be
pe rmitted to
WE THR UST HER ORTH F
enter the
F ROM THE B U LD NG I I
r e-
building One .
of the professo rs who was a bachelo r and

, ,
one of the underg r aduates voluntee red . T hey
bade good bye to us and went fo rth

-
. They
we r e he roes . They gave up thei r lives
that fou r hund red others might live . A fte r
they had perfo r med thei r wo r k they stood ,
fo r a moment at a distance looking at u s

, ,
wistfully . T hen they waved thei r hands

in fa rewell and went away slowly ac ross
the campus towa rd the bu r ning city .
“
A nd yet it was all useles s . T he ne x t
m o r ning the fi r s t one of us was s m itten
with th e plague a little n urse-gi rl in the
family of Professo r S tout . It was no ti m e
fo r weak kneed
-
,
sentimental policies . On
the chance that she m ight be the only one ,
we thrust h er fo rth from the buil ding and

com manded h er to be gone . S he went
away slowly ac ross the ca m pus , wringing
her hands and crying pitifully . We felt
like brutes ,
but what we re we to do ?
The r e were four hund red of us , and indi
v idu al s had to be sac rificed .
THE SCARLE T PLAGUE
In o ne of the labor atories th ree

families had domiciled the m selves , and
that afte r noon we found among the m
no less than fou r corpses and seven
cases of the plague in all its diffe rent
stages .
“
Then it was that the hor ro r began .
L eaving the dead lie we forced the living ,
ones to seg regate the m selves in anothe r

room . Th e plague began to break out
among the r est of us and as fast as the
,
symptom s appea red we sent ,

th e st r icken
ones to these seg regated roo m s . We com

p ell ed th em to walk there by the m selves ,
so as to avoid laying hands on them . It

was hea rtrending . But still the plague
raged a m ong us and room afte r room was
,
filled with the dead and dying . A nd so

we who we re yet clean r etreated to the next
floor and to the next befo re this , se a of the
dead ,
that ,
r oom by r oo m and floor by
floor inundated the building
, .
“
The place became a cha r nel house and ,
in the m iddle of the nig

ht the survivors
fled fo rth taking nothing with them e x cept
,
arms and ammunition and a heavy sto re of

tinned foods . We camped on the opposite
s ide of the campus fro m the p rowle r s and , ,
while some stood guard othe rs of us , v o lu n
tee red to s cout into the city in q uest of

horses ,
m otor cars ,
carts , and wagons ,
or
anything that would ca r ry o ur provisions

and enable us to emulate the banded wo r k
ingm en I had seen fighting their way out
to the open count ry .
“
I was one of these scouts ; and D octor
Hoyle ,
r e m embe ring that his moto r car had
b een left behind in his home garage told me ,
to look fo r it . We scouted in pairs and ,
D ombey ,
a young undergradu ate , a ecom
p a nied me . We had to cros s half a mile

of th e residence po rtion of the city to get
to D octor Hoyle s home ’
. He re the build
ings stood apart in the ,
m idst of trees and
gr assy lawns and he re the fi res had played
,
freaks ,
bu r ning whole blocks ,
skipping
blocks and often skipping a single hou se in
a block . A nd he re too the p rowle rs we re
, ,
still at thei r wor k -

. We ca rried our auto
m atic pistols O penly in o ur hands ,
and
looked despe rate enough fo r sooth to keep , ,
them from attacking us . But at D octo r

Un
’
Hoyle s house the thing happened .
touched by fi re, even as we came to it the

s m oke of flames bu rst for th .
“
The miscreant who had set fi re to it
staggered down the steps and out along
the driveway . S ticking out of his coat
pockets we re bottles of Whis key ,
and he
was ve r y drunk . My fi r s t impulse was
THE SCARL ET PLAGU E 121
to shoot him , and I have never ceased

regretting that I did no t . S taggering and
maundering to himself with bloodshot eyes
, ,
and a raw and bleeding s lash down o ne
side of his bewhis kered face he was alto ,
gether the most nauseating speci m en of

degradation and filth I h ad eve r e n co u n
t ered . I did no t shoot him and he leaned

,
against a tree on the lawn to let us go by .
It was the most absolute ,

wanton act s
Just as we were opposite him he suddenly ,
drew a pistol and shot D ombey th rough

the head . T he next instant I shot him .
But it was too late . D ombey e xpir ed

without a groan immediately,
. I doubt if
he even knew what had happened to him .
L eaving the t wo corpses I hur ried ,

on
past the burning house to the garage and ,
there found D octor Hoyle s ’

moto r car .
The tanks were filled with gasoline and it ,
was ready fo r use . A nd it was in this car

that I threaded the streets of
'
the ruined
c i ty and came back to the survivors on the
campus . The other scouts returned , but
none had been so fortunate . P ro fessor
Fairmead had found a S hetland pony, but
the p oor creature , tied in a stable and
ab andoned fo r days was so weak from want ,
of food and water that it c ould carry no
burden at all . S ome of the men were fo r

turning it loose but I insisted that we should
,
lead it along with us so that if we got , , o ut
of food we would have it to eat

, .
“
There we re forty-seven of u s when we
started many being women and children

, .
The P resident of the Faculty , an ol d man

to begin with and ,
no w hopelessly broken
by t h e awful happenings of the past week,
rode in th e motor car with several young
chi l dren and the aged mother of Professor
Fai r mead . Wat h op e a young professor of

,
E nglish who had a grievou s bullet wound

,
-
in his le g drove the ,

ca r . The rest of us
walked ,
P rofessor Fairmead leading the
pony .
“
It was what Should have been a bright
summer day but the smoke from the burn
,
ing wor ld filled the s ky through which the ,
sun shone murkily a dull ,

a nd lifeless o rb ,
blood red and ominous

- . But we had grown
accustomed to that blood—red sun . With
the s moke it was different . It bit into
o ur nostrils and eyes ,
and the re was not
one of us whose eyes we re not bloodshot .
We directed o ur cou r se to the southeast

through the endless miles of subu rban
r esidences ,
travelling along where the fi r st
swells of lo w hills rose from the flat of the
central city . It was b y this w a y, only ,
that we could expect to gain the country .
1 24 TH E SCARLET PLAGUE
Ou r p rogress was painfully slow . T he

women and child ren could not walk fast .
They did not d ream of walking ,

my grand
sons ,
in the way all people walk to-day .
In t ruth none of ,
us knew how to walk .
It was not u ntil afte r the plague that I

lea r ned really to walk . S o it was that the
pace of the slowest was the pace of all ,
fo r
we da red not sepa r ate on account of the

p rowle r sT her e were not so many now
.
of these human be asts of p rey T he plague .
had alre ady well di m inished thei r numbe r s ,
but enough still lived to be a constant

menace to us . Many of the beautiful
r esidences we re untouched by fi re , yet
smoking ruins we re e ve rywhe re . T he
p rowle r s , too , seemed to have got ove r
thei r insensate desire to bu r n and it was ,
more rarely that we saw houses freshl y on

fire .
THE SCARLE T PLAGU E 1 25
S evera l of us scouted amon g the private

gar ages in search o f motor cars and g asoline .
But in this we w ere unsuccess fu l . T he

fi r st great fli ghts from the cities had swept
all such utilities away . C algan ,
a fine
young man , was lost in this wo r k . He
was S hot by prowlers while crossing a lawn .
Yet this was o ur only casu alty ,

though ,
once a drunken b rute deliberately opened

,
fire on all of us . L uckily he fired wildly

, ,
and we shot him before he had done any

hurt .
“
A t F ruitva l e sti ll in the heart
,
o f th e
magnificent residence section of the city ,
the plagu e again smote u s . P ro fessor Fa ir

mead w as the victim . Making signs to us
that his mother was not to know he turned ,
a side into the grounds of a beautifu l

m ansion . He s at down forlornly on the
step s of the front ve r anda and I having , ,

linge red waved him a last farewell

,
. That
night sev eral miles beyond F ru it v a le and
,
still in the city we made camp ,

. A nd that
night we shifted ca m p twice to get away
from o ur dead . In the mo r ning the re
we re thirty of us . I shall neve r for get
th e President of the Faculty . D u ring the
mo r ning s ’
m a r ch his wife who was walk ,
ing betrayed the fatal sy m ptoms and when

, ,
she drew aside to let us go on he insisted ,
on leaving the m otor ca r a nd r emaining

with her . The re was quite a discussion
about this but in the end we gave in
,
. It
was just as well ,
fo r w e kne w not which
ones of us if any might ultimately escap e
, , .
“
T hat night the second of, o ur m a r ch ,
we camped beyond Haywa r ds in the first

stretches of country . A nd in the morning
there were eleven of us that lived . Also ,
during the night Wa t h o p e the p rofessor, ,
THE SCARLE T PLAGU E 1 27
with the wounded leg deserted us in the ,
moto r ca r . He took with him his siste r

and his mothe r and mo st of o ur tinned p ro
visions . It was that day in the afte rnoon , ,
while resting by the wayside that I saw the ,
last ai r ship I shall eve r see . T he s m oke was

m uch thinner he re in the country and I first ,
sigh ted the ship d rifting and vee ring help

lessly at an elevation of two thous and feet .
What had happened I could not conj ectu re ,
but even as we looked we s aw h er bow dip

down lower and lowe r . T hen the bulkheads
of the va r iou s gas cha m be r s must have burst
-
,
fo r , quite pe rpendicula r she fell like a plu m

,
met to the earth . A nd from that day to

this I have not seen anothe r ai r ship . Often
and often ,
du r ing the ne x t few yea r s I ,
scanned the S ky for them, hoping against

hope that somewhe re in the world civiliza
tion had su rvived . But it was not to be .
1 28 THE SCARLE T PLAGU E
What happened with us in California must

h ave h a p pen ed
with e v e r yb o d y
everywhere .
A nothe r day, and

at Niles there we re
th ree of us . Beyond
Niles , in the middle of
the highway , we found
Wa t h Ope The motor c a r
.
had b roken down and ,
the re on the ru g s which

,
they had spread on the

ground lay the bodies of
,
his siste r his mothe r , ,
and himself .
“
Wea ried by the un
u sual exercise of
continual walking
SHE FE LL L KE A PLUMMET
I
,
To THE EAR TH that night I slept

”
'
heavil y . In the mor ning I wa s alone in

the wo rld . Ca nfi el d and P arsons my last
,
c ompanions ,
we re dead of the plague .
Of the fou r hund red that sought shelte r

in the C he m ist ry Buildin g ,
and of the
fo rty seven that began the
- m a r ch I alone
,
r e m ained —
I and the S hetland pony .
Why this should be so t he r e is no e x

pl aining . I d id
”
not catch the plague that ,
is all . I was immune . I was me rely the

one lucky m an in a million j u st as
every Survivor was one in a million ,
o r,
r athe r ,
in seve r al m illions , fo r the pro
portion at least that .
V
OR t wo days I she l t ered in a

p leasant grove Where there had
b een no deaths . I n those t wo
d ays , while b adly dep ressed and believing

that my turn wou ld com e at any moment,
nevertheless I rested and recu p erated .
So did the p ony . A nd on the third day ,
putting what s mall store of tinned p ro

visions I p os ses sed on the pony ’
s b ac k I
,
started on across a ve ry lonely land . No t

a live man , woman , or child did I encou nter
, ,
though the dead we r e eve r ywhere . Food ,
however ,
w as abundant . T he land then
w as no t as it is no w It . w as all cleared o f
trees and b rush , and it w as cultivated . The
food fo r millions of mouths was growing ,
133
r ipening , and going to waste . F rom the

fields and o rcha r ds I gathe red vegetables ,
fruits , and be rries . A round the dese rted

fa rm houses I got eggs and caught chickens .
A nd frequently I fou nd supplies of tinned

p rovisions in the sto re-room s .
“
A st r ange thing was wh at was taking
pl ace with all the do m estic ani m als . E ve r y
whe re they w ere going wild and p reying on

one anothe r . T he chickens and ducks We re
the first to be dest royed ,
while the pigs
we r e the fi r st to go wild followed by the ,
cats . No r we re the dogs long in adapting

the m selves to the Changed conditions . T he er
was a ve ritable plague of dogs . T hey de

v o u r ed the corpses ba r ked and howled du ring
,
the nights and in the dayti m e slunk about

,
in the distance . As the ti m e went by I ,
noticed a change in thei r behavio r . A t fi rst

they we re apa r t fro m one anothe r ,
very
THE SCARLE T PLAGU E 135
sus p iciou s and ve ry p rone to fight . But

after a not very long while they b e g a n to come
to gether and run in packs . The do g you ,
see , always was a social animal and this was ,
true before eve r he came to be domesticated

by man . In the last days of t h e world
before the plagu e ,
t he r e we r e many many
very di fferent kinds o f dogs dogs without
hair and dogs with wa rm fu r, dogs so small
that they would make sca r cely a mouthful
fo r o t her dogs that we r e as la rge as mountain
lions . Well , all the small dogs and the weak ,
types were killed by thei r fellows

,
. Al so ,
the very lar ge ones were not adapted fo r

th e wild life and bred out . A s a result the ,
many different kinds o f dogs disappeared , and

there remained , running in packs the medium ,
sized wo lfi sh dogs that you know to-day

“
B ut the cats don t run in packs G
’
,
ra n ser,
Hoo -Ho o obj ected .
T he cat was neve r a social animal .
As o ne writer in the nineteenth century said ,
the cat walks by himself . He always walked

by himself from before the time he was
,
tamed by man down through the long ages

,
of domestication ,
t o t o- day when once mo re
he is wild .
“
The hor ses also went wild and all the ,
fine breeds we had degenerated into the small

mustang horse you know to- day . T he cows
likewise went wild as did the pigeons and the
,
sheep . A nd that a few of the chickens su r
v iv ed you know you r self . But the wild

chicken of to day is quite a diffe rent thing
-
from the chickens we had in those days .
“
But I m ust go on with my stor y . I
tr avell ed through a dese rted land . A s the
time went by I began to yea r n mo re and
more fo r human beings . But I never found
o ne , and I grew lonelie r and lonel ier . I
THE SCARL ET PLAGUE 137
cros sed Liver m ore Valley and the mountains

between it and the great valley of th e S an
Joa q uin . 'o u have never seen t hat vall ey ,
but it is very large and it is the home o f the

wild horse . There are great droves there ,
thous ands and tens of thousands . I te
visited it thirty years after, so I know . 'o u

think there are l ots o f wild horses down here
in t h e coast valleys but they are as not hing
,
comp ared with those of th e S an Joa quin .
S tr an ge to say the cows when they went

, ,
wild , went back into the l ower mountains .
E vidently they we r e better a b l e to p rotect

themselves there .
I n the country districts the ghouls and

prowl ers had b een les s in eviden ce , fo r I
found many vil l ages and towns untouched
by fire . B ut they were filled b y the p esti
lent ia l dead , and I p assed by W ithout e x
p lo ring them . It wa s near L athrop t hat,
out of my loneliness I picked ,

up a pair of
collie dogs that we re so newly free that they
we re ur gently willing to r etu r n to their
allegiance to m an . These collies a ecom
p a n ied me for many years and the S trains ,
of them are in those ve ry dogs the re that yo u

boys have to day - . B ut in six ty yea r s the
collie strain has wo r ked out T hese b r ute s
are more like domesticated wolves than
”
anything else .
H a r e-L ip r ose to his feet glanced to see ,
that the goats we re safe and looked at the ,
’
sun s position in the afte r noon s ky adve r tis ,
ing i m patience at the p roli x ity of the old

man s tale ’
. Urged to hu rry by E dwin ,
G ra n ser went on .
“
T he re is little m ore to tell . With my
two dogs and my pony and r iding a ho r se

,
I had m anaged to capture I c rossed the ,
S an J oaquin and went on to a wonde rful
TH E SCARLE T PLAGU E 139
valley in the S ierras called Yosemite . In

the great hotel the re I found a prodigious
supply of tinned p rovisions . The pastu re
was abundant as was the game and the, ,
r ive r that ra n th rough the valley was full

of trout . I r emained there three yea r s in
an utte r loneliness that none but a man who
has once been highly civilized can unde r stand .
Then I could stand it no more . I felt th at I

was going c r azy . L ike the dog I was a social
,
animal and I needed my kind . I reasoned

that si nce I had su r vived the plague there ,
was a possibility that othe r s had survived .
A lso I r easoned that afte r three years the

,
plague ge r ms m ust all be gone and the land

be Clean again .
“
With my horse and dogs and pony I ,
set out . A gain I crossed the S an Joa q uin

Valley ,
the m ount ains beyond , and came
do Wn into L ivermo r e Valley . The change
1 40 THE SCARLE T P LAG U E
in those three year s was amazing All the .
land had been splendidly tilled , and now I
WI TH M' H ORSE A ND D O GS A ND PO N', I SET OUT .

”
could s carcely recognize it, such w as the

sea of rank vegetation that had overrun
the agricultural handiwork of man 'o u
’

see , th e wheat the vegetables and orchard

, ,
trees had always been ca r ed fo r and nursed

by man ,
so that they we re soft and tender .
The weeds and wild bushes and such things ,
on the cont r a r y , h ad always been fought b y

m an, so that they we re tough and resistant .
A s a result when the hand ,

of man was re
moved the wild vegetation smothered and

,
destroyed practically all the do m esticated

vegetation . The coyotes we r e greatly 1n
creased and it was at this time that I first

,
encounte red wolves , straying in twos and

th rees and small p acks down from the
regions whe re they had always persisted .
“
It was at L ake Temescal ,
no t far fro m
the o ne- time city of Oa kland that I came
,
upon the first live human beings . Oh my

,
grandsons how can I describe,

to yo u my
emotion when astride my horse and drop
, ,
ping down the hillside to the lake I saw the,
smoke of a ca m pfire r ising th rough the

trees . A l m ost did my hear t stop beating .
I felt that I was going crazy . T hen I hear d

the cry of a babe —
a hu m an b abe . A nd
dogs bar ked and my dogs answe red
,
. I did
not know but what I was the one hu m an
alive in the whole w o r ld . It could not be
t rue that he r e w ere othe r s s moke , and
the cr y of a babe .
“
E me r gi ng on the lake the re before my , ,
eyes not a hund red yar ds away I

, , sa w a
man a la r ge man
, . He w as st anding on an
outj utting r ock and fishing . I was ove r
come . I stopped my hor se . I tr ied to call
out but could not . I waved my hand . It
seemed to me that the man looked at m e,
but he did not appear to wave . T hen I

laid my head on my a r ms the re in the
s addle . I was afraid to look again for I ,
knew it was an hallucination and I knew ,
THE SCARLET PLAGU E 1 43
that if I looked the man would be gone .
A nd so p reciou s was the hallucination that ,
I wanted it to p ersist yet a little while . I

knew , t oo, that as long as I did no t look it
would p ers ist .
“
Thus I remained until I heard my dogs
snarling, and a man 8 voice . What do yo u
thin k the voice said ? I will tell yo u . It
‘
s aid : Wh ere i n h el l did you
fr om ? com e
’
“
Those were the wo r ds the exact words ,
.
That was what you r other grandfather said

to me Hare-L ip when
, ,
he gree t ed me there
on the shore of L ake Temescal fift y-seven
years a go . A nd they were the most in
effable words I have ever heard . I opened

my eyes and the r e he stood be fore me, a
,
large , dark, hairy man , heavy-j awed slant ,
browed , fi erce-e yed . How I go t Of

f my
horse I do not know . . But it seemed that
the next I knew I was clas p in g his hand
Digiti ze d b y Microsoft'
1 44 THE SCARLET PLAGUE
with both of mine and crying . I would

have embraced h im , but he was ever a
narrow-minded ,
suspicious man ,
and he
drew away from me . Yet did I cling to
”
his hand and cry .
’
G ra n ser s voice faltered and broke at the
recollection , and the weak tea r s streamed
down his cheeks while the boys looked on
and giggled .
Yet did I cry , he continued ,

and
desi re to e m b r ace h im , though the C hau ffeu r
was a b rute , a pe rfect brute the most
abhorrent man I have eve r known . His
name was strange ,
how I have fo r
gotten his name . E verybody called h im
C hau ffeu r — it was the name of his o ccu
p a t io n , and it stuck That is h ow, to this

day , the tribe he founded is called the
C hauffeur T ribe .
“
He was a violent, unjust man . Why
the plague germs spared h im I can never

understand . It would seem in spite of ,
o ur
old metaphysical notions about absolute

j ustice that the re is no justice in the uni
,
verse . Why did he live ?

an ini q uitous ,
mor al m on
ster a blot on the face

,
of
nature ,
a c ruel relent
,
less ,
bestial cheat as
well . A ll he could talk
about was m oto r
car s machine ry gas
, ,
oline and ga r ages

,
and especially , and

with huge delight ,
of
CRA W FE UR
his mean pilferings

and sordid S windlings of the persons
wh o had employed him in the days be
fo r e the coming of the plague . A nd

yet he was spared while hundreds of
,
millions ,
yea billions
, ,
of better men were
destroyed .
“
I went on with him to his camp , and
there I s aw her Vesta , the one woman
,
. It
was glorious and pitiful . There s he
wa s , Ve s ta Va n Wa rd e n , the
young wife of John Van Wa r
den , clad in rags , with
marred and sca r red and
toil-calloused hands bend ,
ing over the campfi r e and

doi ng s c u l l io n wor k she ,
Vesta , wh o had been bor n to the

pu rp l e o f th e “
VE STA , TH E ONE
gr eatest bar
o mage o f wealth WOMAN ” the world
has eve r known . John Van Wa r den her ,
husband ,
worth o ne billion ,
eight hu n
dred millions an d P resident of the Board
of I ndustrial M agnates , had been the
ruler of America . A lso sittin g
, on the In
t erna t io n a l Board of Control he had been ,
one of the seven men who ruled the world .
A nd she herself had come of e qually noble

stock . Her father , P hilip S axon had been ,
P resident of the Boar d of Industrial Mag

n ates up to the time of his death . This
offi ce was in p rocess of becoming he reditary ,
and had P hilip S axon had a son that so n
would have succeeded him . But his only

child was Vesta the perfect flowe r
,
of gene r a
tions of the highest culture thi s planet has
ever p roduced . It was no t until the en
ga gem ent b etween Vesta and Van Warden

took place that S axon indicated the latte r
,
as his successor . I t was , I am sure , a

political marriage . I have reason to believe
that Vesta neve r r eally loved her husband
in the mad passionate way of which the
p oets u sed to sing . It wa s more like the
mar r iages that obtained among crowned
1 43 THE SCARLET PLAG UE
heads in the days before they we re dis p l aced

by the Magnates .
“
A nd there she w a s, boilin g fi sh -chowder
in a soot-covered pot her glorious eyes in ,
flamed by the acrid s moke of the open fire .
Hers was a sad stor y . S he was the o ne
survivor in a mill ion , as I had been , as the

C hauffeu r had been . On a crowning emi
n ence of the A lameda Hills , ove r looking
S an F rancisco Bay Van Warden had built
,
a vast summer p alace . It was surrounded

by a park of a thousand acres . When the
plague broke o ut , Van War den sent her
there . Ar med guards patrolled the bound
aries o f the park and nothin g ente red in the
,
w ay of p rovisions or eve n mail matter that

'
w a s no t fi rst f u m iga t ed . A nd yet did the

pla gue enter , killing the guards at their
posts , the servants at their tas ks sweeping ,
away the w hole army of retainers o r, at
Digitized by Mi cros oft '

HE RE SHE
T W AS BOI LI NG FI SH CHOWDE R
- IN A SOOT
C OVERE D POT
least all
, of them who did not flee to die
elsewhere . S o it was that Vesta found h er
self the sole living pe rson in the palace that
had become a cha r nel house .
Now the C hauffeu r had been one of the

servants that ra n away . R eturning ,
t wo
months afterward he discovered Vesta in a ,
little summer pavilion whe re the r e had

been no deaths and whe r e she had estab
l ish ed herself . He was a brute . S he w as
afraid and she ran away and hid among the

,
trees . T hat night on fo ot she fled into the

, ,
mountains —
h
s e, whose tende r feet and
delicate body had neve r known the b ruise
of stones no r the sc r atch of b r iars . He
followed , and that night he caught h er .
He struck h er . D o you unde r stand ? He

beat her with those te rr ible fists of his and
made her his slave . It was she wh o had
to gather the fi rewood build the fi res coo k , , ,
THE SCARLET P LAGUE 15 1
and do all the degrading camp -labor sh e,

wh o had never perfo r med a menial act in
h er life . These things he compelled her to
do , while he a p roper savage elected to lie

, ,
a round camp and look on . He did nothing ,
absolutely nothing except , on occasion to

”
hunt meat or catch fish .
“
Good fo r C hau ffeur , Hare L ip
-
co m
m ent ed in an undertone to the o ther boys .
“
I remembe r him before he died . He was
a corker . But he did things and he made ,
things go . 'o u know , D ad mar ried his

’
d aughter an you ought to see the way he
,
knocked the spots outa D ad . T he C hauffeur

was a so n-o f-a - gun . He made us kids stand
around . E ven when he was cro a kin
’
, he
’
reached o ut fo r me once an laid my head
, ,
op en with that long S tick he kept always

”
beside him .
Hare - Lip rubbed his bullet head remi
niscent l y, and th e boys retu r ned to the old

man ,
who was maundering ecstatically
a bout Vesta the s q uaw of the founde r
,
of
the C hauffeu r T ribe .
“
A nd so I say to yo u that you cannot
understand the awfulness of the S ituation .
T he C hauffeu r was a se rvant ,

u nde r stand ,
a servant . A nd he c ringed , with bowed

head to such as she
,
. S he was a lord of
life both by bi rth and by ma rr iage
,
. T he
destinies o f millions such as h e she car ried , ,
in the hol low of h er pink white hand A nd - .

,
in the days befo re the plague the slightest ,
contact with such as he would have been

pollution . Oh , I have seen it . Once ,
I
r emembe r the re was M rs Goldwin wife of
,
.
,
o ne of the great magnates . It was on a

landing stage j ust as she was emba r king in
,
h er p rivate dir igible that she d ropped , h er
parasol . A se rvant picked it up and made
the mistake o f handing it to her — to her ,
o ne o f the gr eatest royal ladies o f the land '

S he shran k b ack as though he were a lep er
, ,
and indicated h er secretar y to receive it .
Al so she or dered
, h er sec retary to ascerta i n
’
the c reature s name and to see that he was
immediately dischar ged from service . A nd

such a woman was Vesta Van Warden .
A nd her the C hauffeur beat a rid made his

.
slave .
Bill that was it ; Bill the C hauffeur , .
That w as his na m e . He was a wretched ,
p rimitive man wholly devoid o f the fi ner

,
instincts and chivalrous p rom ptings of a

cultured soul . No ,
there is no absolute
justice for to him fell that wonder o f woman
,
hood Vesta V an Warden The grievous

,
.
nes s o f this you will never unders t and , my

grandsons ; fo r yo u are you rselves p ri mi
tive little s avages ,
unaware o f aught else
but savagery . Why should Vesta not have

been mine ? I was a man of culture and
A ND H ER TH E C HAUFFEUR B EAT MADE HI S LA E

S V .
r efine m ent a p rofesso r in a g reat university

,
.
E ven so ,
in the time befo re the plague ,
such w as her e x alted position , she would
no t have deigned to know that I e x isted .
Mark , then , the abysmal deg r adation to

which s he fell at the hands of the C hau ffeu r .
Nothing les s than the dest ruction of all

mankind had made it possible that I should
know h er , look in her eyes converse with ,
h er , touch h er hand a y, and love h er and

know that her feelings towa r d me were ve ry
kindly . I have reason to believe that she ,
even she would have loved me there being

‘
, ,
no othe r man in the wo rld e x cept the Ch auf

feur . Why when it destroyed eight billions
,
of souls did not the plague dest roy j ust one

,
more man , and that m an the C hauffeur ?

“
Once ,
when the C hauffeu r was away
fishing ,
Sh e begged me to kill him . With
tea r s in her eyes she begged m e to kill him .
But he was a st rong and violent man and ,
I was afraid . Afte rwa r ds , I talked with

him . I offe red h im my horse , my pony ,
my dogs all that I possessed if he would

, ,
give Vesta to m e . A nd he grinned in my
face and S hook his head . He was ve ry

insulting . He said that in the old days he
had been a se rvant had been di rt unde r ,
the feet of m en like m e and of wo m en like

Vesta and that now he had the g reatest
,
lady in the land to be se rvant to h im and

‘
cook his food and nu r se his b r ats . You
had you r day befo re the plague ,
’
he said ;
‘
but this is my day and a da m ned good
,
day it is . I wouldn t t r a de back to the old

’
times fo r anything S uch wo r ds he S poke

.
,
but they a re not his wo rds . H e was a vulga r ,
low—m inded man ,

and vile oaths fell con
t in u a lly from his lips .
“
A l so , h e . told m e that if he caught me
m aking eyes at his wo m an he d wring ’
m y
neck and give h er a beating as well . What

was I to do ? I was afr aid . He was a
T HE SCARLE T PLAGU E 157
b r ute . That fi r st night when I discovered ,
the camp Vesta and I had great talk abou t

,
the things of o ur vanis hed world . We

talked of a rt , and books and poet ry ; and
,
the C hau ffeur listened and grinned and

sneered . He was bo red and ange red by
our way of speech which he did not comp re
hend and finall y he spoke up and s aid
,
‘
A nd this is Vesta Van Wa rden one time ,
-
wife of Van Warden the Magnate a high

and stuck-u p beauty ,
wh o is now m y squaw .
Eh ,
P rofes sor S mith ,
times is changed ,
times is changed . He re you woman take

, , ,
o ff my moccas ins ,
and lively about it . I
want Professo r S mith to see how well I
’
have you tr ained .
“
I saw her clench h er teeth and the flame ,
of r evolt r ise in her face . He dr ew back

his gnarled fist to strike and I was afraid , ,
and sick at heart . I could do nothing to
prevail against him . S o I got up to go ,
and not be witness to such indignity . But

the C hau ffeu r laughed and threatened me
with a beating if I did not stay and behold .
A nd I sa t the re perforce by the campfire

, ,
on the shor e of L ake Temescal , and saw

Vesta Vesta Van Wa r den kneel and remove
, ,
the moccasins of that grinning hairy ape , ,
like hu m an b rute .
Oh , you do no t und erstand , my

grandsons . You have never known any
thing else and you do not understand
, .
“ ‘
Halte b roke r- and bridle wise -
,
’
the
C hau ffeur gloated while she performed that ,
‘
d readful ,
m enial task . A t rifle balky at
times , Professor a trifle balky ; but a clout
,
alongside the j aw makes h er as meek and

’
gentle as a l amb .
“ ‘
A nd anothe r time he said : ’
We ve got
to sta rt all over and replenish the ea rth and
TH E SCARLE T PLAG U E 1 59
mu l ti p ly . 'ou re handicapped , P rofesso r

’
.
'o u ain t ’
go t no wife , and we re u p a g ainst ’
a re gular G arden-o f-E den p rop osi t ion . But

I ain t p roud
’
. I ll tell
’
yo u what Pro fessor
, .
’
He p ointed at their little infant, b arely a

‘
year o ld . T here s you r wife though you ll
’
,
’
have to wait till s he grows u p . I t s rich

’
,
ain t it ?
’
We re all e q uals here , and I m
’ ’
the b i ggest toad in the splash . But I ain t ’
stuck u p not I . I do you the honor ,
P rofessor S mith the very great honor of ,
betrothing to you my and Vesta Van

Warden s daughter’
. A in t it cussed bad
’
that Van Warden ain t he r e to see ? ’ ’
VI
LI VED three weeks of infinite tor

ment the re in the C hau ffeur s camp ’
.
A nd then one day ti ring

, , of me , or
of what to him was my bad effect on Vesta ,
he told m e that the year before wandering ,
through the Contra C osta Hills to the

S traits of C a r quinez acros s the S traits he
,
had seen a sm oke . This meant that there

we re still other human beings and that for ,
three weeks he had kept this inestimably

preciou s information fr om me . I depa rted
at once
“
,
with my dogs and ho r ses ,
and
j ourneyed acros s the Contr a Costa Hills
to the S tr aits . I s aw no smoke on the
other side but at Port Costa discovered
,
a small steel b arge on which I was a b le

1 63
to emba rk my animals . O ld canvas which

I found se rved me fo r a sail , and a
southe r ly b r eeze fanned m e ac ros s the
S tr aits and up to the r uins of Vallej o .
He re on the outs kirts of the city I found

, ,
evidences of a r ecently occupied camp .
Many clam-shells showed m e. why thes e

hu m ans had co m e to the sho res of the B ay
'
T his was the S anta Ros a T ribe and I fol ,
lowed its tr ack along the old r ail road right

of way ac ros s th e s alt mars hes to S onom a
Valley . He r e at the old b r ickya r d at G len
,
E llen , I ca m e upon the ca m p . T here we r e

Two wer e old men
eighteen souls all told .
,
one of whom was Jones a banker T he , .
othe r was H a rrison , a r eti red pawnbroke r ,
who had taken fo r wife the matron of the

S tate H ospital fo r the Ins ane at Napa . Of
all the pe rsons of the city of N apa and of all ,
the othe r towns and villages in that r ich
I OUND
F EVI D ENCES or A RE CENTLY O CCU ED CAM
PI P
and populous valley she had been the only ,
su rvivo r . Next, there we re the three young

m en C a r diff and Hale ,
who had been
fa rme rs and Wainw right a common day
, ,
labo re r . A ll th ree had found wives . To

Hale a c rude illiterate farme r had fallen
, , ,
Is adore the greatest p rize ne x t to Vesta

, , ,
of the wo m en who came throu gh the plague .
S he was one of the wor ld s most noted ’
singers and the plague had caught

, h er at
S an F r ancisco . S he has talked with me
for hou r s at a ti m e telling , m e of h er a dv en
tu res until at last

, , ,
r escued by Hale in the
Mendocino Forest R ese rve ,
the r e had re
mained nothing fo r her to do but become

his wife . But H ale was a good fellow in ,
S pite of his illite r acy . He had a keen sense

of justice and r ight-dealing ,
and she was
fa rhappie r with him than was Vesta with
the C hauffeu r .
The wives of C ardiff and Wainwright

we re ordinary women accusto m ed to toil ,
with strong constitutions just the type

for the wild new life which they we r e com
p elled to live . I n addition we re two adult
idiots from the feebl e-minded home at El
d redge and five

,
or S ix young children and
infants born after the formation of the
S anta R os a T r ibe . A lso the re was Be r tha
,
.
S he was a good woman Hare-L ip in spite , ,
of the snee r s of you r fathe r . Her I took

fo r wife . S he was the mothe r of you r fathe r ,
E dwin and of yours Hoo-Ho o

, , . A nd it was
our daughter ,
Vera ,
who m a rr ied you r
father ,
Ha re-Lip — you r father , S andow ,
who w a s the oldest son of Vesta Van Wa r den

and the C hau ffeur .
A nd so it was that I became the nine

t eent h member of the S anta R osa Tribe .
There we r e only t wo outsiders added after
me . One was M ungerso n descended from ,
the Magnates who wandered alone in the ,
w ilds of Nor thern C alifo rnia fo r eight yea rs

befo re he came south and j oined us . He
it w as wh o waited tw elve yea r s m or e be
fo re he m a rried my daughte r Ma ry ,
. The
o the r was Johnson the ,
m an who founde d
the U tah T ribe That w a s whe re he came .
from U tah a count ry t hat lies ve ry far

, ,
away fro m he re ac r oss the great dese r ts , ,
to the east . It was not until twenty seven -
yea r s afte r the plague that Johnson r e a ched

C alifo rnia . In all that Utah r egion he
r epo rted but th ree su rvivo r s himself , o n e,
and all men . Fo r m any yea r s these th ree

men live d and hunted togethe r ,
until ,
at
last , despe rate , fea r ing that with them
the human r ace w ould pe r ish utterly fro m
the planet they headed , w estwa r d on the
possibility of finding women su rvivor s in
C alifornia . Johnson alone came th rough

the great desert whe re his two companions
,
died . He was forty -S

ix years old when he
joined us and he ,
m a rried the fou r th da u gh
t er of Isado r e and Hale and his eldest son ,
ma r ried you r aunt Hare-L ip who was the , ,
thir d daughter of Vesta and the C han f

feu r . Johnson was a strong man with a ,
will of his own . A nd it was because of

this that he seceded fro m the S anta Rosans
and formed th e U tah Tribe at S an Jos' .
It is a s mall tribe — there are only nine

in it ; but though he is dead , , such was
his influence and the strength of his
breed that it will grow into a st rong tr ibe
,
and play a leading part in the reciv iliza
tion of the planet .
“
The re are only t wo oth er tribes that we
know of — the L os A ngelitos and the Ca r

m elit o s . The latte r sta r ted from one man
and woman . He was called Lopez , and

he was descended from the ancient Mexi
cans and was very black . He was a co w
herd in the ranges beyond C armel and his ,
wife was a maidservant in the great D el

Monte Hotel . It was seven y ears before
we first got in touch with the Los A nge
litos . T hey have a good country down
the re but it is too wa r m
,
. I estimate the
p r esent population of the wor ld at between
th ree h u nd red and fifty and four hund red
— p rovided of cou r se that there a re no
, ,
scatte red little tribes elsewhe r e in the

wo rld . If there be such we have not heard ,
from them . S ince Johnson crossed the

desert from U tah no word
, no r S ign has
co m e from the E ast or anywhere else . Th e
great world which I knew in my boyhood
and early manhood is gone . It has ceased
to be . I am the last man wh o was alive
in the days of the plague and wh o knows

the wonders of th at fa r-o ff time . We ,
wh o mastered the planet -

its earth ,
and
sea and s ky
, and wh o were as very gods ,
now live in p r imitive savagery along the
water courses of this C alifornia country .
“
But we are increasing r ap i dly your
siste r Hare -L ip al ready has fou r child ren
, ,
.
We are inc reas ing r apidly and making ready

fo r a new climb towa r d civilization . In
time pressure of population will compel us
,
to spread o ut ,
and a hund red gene rations
from now . we may expect o ur descendants
to start across the S ier r as ,
oozing slowly
along ,
generation by generation , ove r the
great continent to the colonization of the
E ast — a new A ryan d r ift around the
wo r ld .
“
But it will be slow very S low ; we have ,
so fa r to climb . We fell so hopelessly fa r .
If only one physicist or one chemist had

su r vived ' But it was not to be and we ,
have for gotten eve rything . T he C hau ffeur

sta r ted wor king in i ron . He made the
fo rge which we use to this day . But he
was a lazy m an , and when he died he took
with h im all he knew of metals and
m achi ne ry . What was I to know of such
things ? I was a classical schola r ,
no t a
chemist . T he other men wh o survived
we re not educated . Only two things did
the Chau ffeu r acco m plish the b rewing
of strong d r ink and the growing of tobacco .
It w as while h e was d runk once that he , ,
killed Vesta . I fi r mly believe that he

killed Vesta in a fit of d run ken c r uelty
though he always maintained that she
fell into the lake and was d rowned .
A nd my grandsons let me warn you

, ,
against the medicine men -

. T hey call
T HE SCARLET PLAGUE 1 73
themselves doct or s, t r avestying what was

once a noble p rofession but in reality they ,
a re medicine-men devil devil men and they

,
-
,
make fo r supe r stition and da r kness . T hey

a re cheats and liars . But so debased and
deg raded a re we ,
that we believe thei r
lies . T hey too will inc rease in nu mbe r s
, ,
as we inc rease and they will strive to rule

,
us . Yet a re they lia r s and C ha r latans .
L ook at young Cross E yes -

, posing as a
doctor ,
selling cha r m s against S ickness ,
giving good hunti ng ,

e x changing promises
of fai r weather fo r good meat and s kins ,
sending the death-stick pe r forming a thou ,
sand abom i nations . Yet I say to you ,
th at when he S ays he can do thes e things ,
he lies . I ,
P rofesso r S mith , P rofessor
James Howa r d S mith say that he lies ,
. I
have told him so to his teeth . Why has he
not se nt me the death stick ? -
Because he
knows that with me it is without avail .
But yo u, Hare-L ip ,
so deeply are yo u
sun k in black superstition that did yo u
awake t his night and find th e death-stic k
beside yo u, yo u would su r ely die . And
would die no t because o f any vi rtues
yo u ,
in the stick but because

, yo u are a s avage
with the dar k and clouded mind o f a s avage .
“
The docto r s m ust be destroyed , and
all that was lost m ust be discovered over
again . Where fo re ea r nestly I repeat unto
, ,
yo u certain things which you must remem

ber and tell to your child ren afte r yo u .
'o u must tell them that when water is

made h o t by fire the r e r esides in it a
, wo n
derful thing called steam which is stronger,
than ten thousand men and which can do

’
all man s wor k for him . There are other
very useful things . In the lightn in g
flash resides a si m i la r ly strong s ervant of
man which was

, o f o ld his slave and which
some day will be his slave again .
“
Q uite a diffe r ent thing is the alpha
bet I t is what enables me t o know the
.
meaning of fine markings whereas

, yo u
boys know only r ude picture-writing . In
that dry cave on Telegr aph Hill where ,
yo u see me often g o when the tr ibe is down
by the sea I have stored many books

,
. In
them is great wisdom . A ls
with them I have placed,
a key to the alpha

bet so that
,
o ne wh o
knows pictu r e-writ

ing may also know
p r int . S ome day
men will read again ;
and then ,
if no accident
has befallen my
H
IN T E C AVE I HA E STORED
V
c a ve , th e y W i l l MANY B ooxs ”
know that P rofesso r Ja m es H owa r d S m ith

once lived and saved fo r them the knowl
edge of the ancients .
T he re is anothe r little device that men

i nevitably will rediscove r . It is called gun
powde r . It was w hat enabled us to kill
su rely and at long distances . C e r tain
things which a re found in the ground ,
when combined in the r ight p ropo r tions ,
will make this gunpowde r . What these

things a re, I have for gotten ,
or else I neve r
knew . But I wish I did know . T hen
would I make powde r and then would I ,
ce rtainly kill C ross E yes and rid the land -
of supe r stition
“
Afte r I am man-grown I am going to
give C ross E yes all the goats
-
,
and meat ,
and s kins I can get so that he ll teach me ’

'
to be a docto r ,
”
H Hoo as se rted
oo - .
“
A nd
’
when I know I ll make eve rybody else s it
,
up and take notice . T hey ll get down ’
”
in the di rt to me you bet , .
The o ld ma n nodded his head solemnly ,
and murmured
S trange it is to hea r the vestiges and
r e mnants of the complicated A ryan speech
falling from the lips of a filthy little s kin
clad s avage . A ll the world is topsy-tu rvy .
A nd it has been topsy-turvy eve r since

”
the plague .
“
'o u won t make me ’
S it up , Ha re-L ip
boasted to the would-b e medicine-m a n .
If I paid you fo r a sending of t h e death

’ ’
stick and it didn t work I d bust in you r ,
”
head — understand ,
you Hoo Ho o -
, yo u ?
“
I m going
’
to get G ra n ser to r emembe r
”
this here gun p owde r stu ff , E dwin s aid
softl y ,
“
and then I ll have you ’
a ll on the
ru n . You Hare-L ip will do my fighting
, ,
fo r me and get my meat fo r me and , yo u ,
Hoo-Hoo, will send the death stick - fo r me

and m ake eve rybody afr aid . A nd if I
catch Ha re-L ip t rying to bust you r head ,
Hoo Hoo I ll fi x
-
,
’
h im with that s ame gun
powde r G ain t such a fool as you
’
. ra n ser
think and , I
’
m going to listen to him and
som e day I ll be bos s ove r the whole bunch
’
”
of you .
T he old m an shook his head sadly and ,
s aid
“
The gunpowder will come . Nothing
can stop it the sa m e old sto ry ove r an d
ove r . Man will inc rease ,
and m en will
fight . T he gunpowde r will enable men to
kill m illions of m en , and in this way only ,
by fi re and blood will a new civilization in

, ,
som e r e m ote day ,

be evolved . A nd of
what p rofit will it be ? Just as the old
civilization passed , so will the new . It
may take fifty thousand yea r s to build but ,
it will pass . A ll things pass . Only te
main cos mic fo rce and matte r ever in flu x , ,
eve r acting and reacting and realizing the

ete rnal types —
the p r iest the soldie r and
, ,
the king . Out of the mouths of babes

com es the wis do m of all the ages . S ome
Will fight so m e will
, r ule so m e will p r ay ;
,
and all the r est will toil and su ffe r so re while

on their bleeding ca rcasses is reared again ,
and yet again , without end the amazing ,
beauty and surpassing wonde r of the civil

ized state . It we re j ust as well that I de
stroyed those cave stored books - whethe r
the y r emain or pe rish all thei r old t ruths
,
will be discovered their , o ld lies lived and

h an ded down . What is the profit
Ha re-L ip leaped to his feet , giving a
q uick glance at the pastu r ing goats and the
a fternoon sun .
“ “
G ee ' he muttere d
”
to E dwin . The
old geeze r gets mo re long-winded every

”
L et s pull fo r
’
day . camp .
While the othe r two aided by the dogs , ,
assembled the goats and started them for

the t r ail th rough th e . fo rest , E dwin stayed
by the old m an and guided him in the s a m e
di rection . When they reached the old r ight
of way E dwin stopped sudden l y and looked
,
back . Ha re L ip - and Hoo Hoo - and the

dogs and the goats passed on . E dwin
was looking at a sm all herd of wild horses
which had come down on the hard s and .
T he re were at least twenty of them you ng ,
colts and yea rlings and mares ,

led by a
beautiful stallion which stood in the foam
at the edge of the su rf with a rched nec k ,
and bright wild eyes , sni fling the salt air

from o ff the sea .
“ ”
What is it ? G ra n ser queried .
” “
Hor se s, was the answe r . Fi r st time
’
I ever s een em on the beach .
’
It s the
mountain lions getting thicker and thic ker
’ ”
and driving em down .
The lo w sun shot re d shafts o f lig ht, fan

sha p ed , u p from a cloud-tumbled horizon .
A nd close at hand in the white waste ,

of
shore-lashed waters ,
th e sea-lions b el l owing
,
their o ld p rimeval chant hauled up ,

o ut of
the sea on the b lack rocks and fought and

loved ;
“
C ome o n, G ra n ser, E dwin prom p ted .
A nd o ld man and b o y, s kin-clad and

b arb aric turned and went along the right
,
of w ay into the forest in the wa k e of the

goats .
T H E END
h e Muti ny o f t h e Elsi no re
O
By j ACK L ND ON. Auth or o f Th e S ea olf, W ' “
Th e Call of th e W ild ,
et c W ith fron'dSpiece in col o rs by A nton Fisch er

. .
CM , n o w,
Every one wh o rem em b ers Th e S ea Wolf with pl easure will en oyj th is vigorous
arrafi ve of a voyage from New 'ork aro un d Ca pe H o rn in a large sailing vessel .
h e M utiny of th e E lsinor e is th e sam e kin d of tal e as its fa m o us p redecessor, and
y th ose wh o h ave read it , it is p ro no unced even m ore sfi rring . Mr Lo ndon is

.
ere writing of scenes an d ty es o f p p pl

eo e with wh ich b e is very fam iliar , th e sea
nd sh i p s and th ose wh o live in s h ip s.I n additi o n t o th e adventure elem ent . of
h ich th ere is an a bundance o f th e usual Londo n kind . at m ost satisfying kind it is,
0 . th ere is a. th rea d of ro m an ce invo l ving a wea lth y. t ired young m an wh o takes
e tri p on th e E lsi nor e, and th e ca tain s p '

daugh ter . Th e pl ya o f incident , o n th e
ne h and th e sh i p '
s am azing crew and on th e oth er th e l o vers, gives a st ory in wh ich
e int erest never l ags and wh ich dem o nstra t es a n ew wh at a m aster of h is art Mr .
o ndon is.
It Is a real Jack London tal e b risk , adventurous, exciting, rom anti c. and very
sity. N ew 'or k Ti m es .
One of th e b est sea-ro m an ces in th e l a nguage. S a n F r ancisco Ch r onicl e .
N ever b efore with all h is fertility o f inventi o n and fluency of s eech h as M r p ,
o n don let h im self go so unrestrainedl y as in m M uti ny of t/u E lsinor e B oston .
‘
Wm m pt .
S trong ch ara cteriza t io ns and a s lendid p pi cture o f indom ita bl e sailing m asters .
TH E M A CM I L LA N CO M P A N'
Publ i sh ers 6 4 -66 Fift h Avenue New 'ork
JACK LONDON S
’
OTHER WORKS
‘
T h e V a lley o f th e M o o n
Erm a-
piece i n col ors by G eorge H ar er , p decorat ed cover,
leso m t h m t int e ting th e m ost acceptable

Th e m ost wh o e, e os res
book“that M‘ Lo nd n h as writ
,
r. Th e Di lo
—
a
Read Th e Valley f t h M n b
.
egin it and you can t

’
On o e oo ce
’
Th e Valley of th e Moon
‘
.
let it alone unt il y u h finish ed it o a ve .

’
is th at kind of a hook y Pittsburgh P t — os .
A alo a hum an .
d cum ent f real v lue B o ion G lob

o o a
”—
s e
f m ut ual t rust and happi
. .
As winning genuin n idyl of l ve

“
, as e a o , o
ness i but a singl uni t ed aim in lif as n ca n desire A m erican to
o e e o e
p
.
,
wh l ro m ant i t i cal — N ' Tri bune

' ”
t h e core; cture
s qu m e, o e
so e, c. ra c
ny book o f h is w ha m t bef re
. . . .
ext rem el y
“
U ik e a e ve e o
pleasant and genial holds t h e reader s at tention to th e end ’
.
”
“
A fine wo th y b o k i ndeed ; t
, r p pul p haps but th e finest
o , oo o a r, er ,
M r London h as M i h g n Ch r /m um
°
— c s a a o
A d ligh t ful pict u e of Cali
. .
“
J k Lond n s goo d t o y
’
ac o s r e r
l bl p i
.
f rni lif
o a su h
e cTh st y i
a n excel
o va e a r e or sa
lent one fo grouch y p n I t ugh t t u t h m — B rooklyn Eagle
.
”
r erso s . o o c re e . .
T h e St re ngt h o f t h e St ro ng
B' JA CK
Cloth , I zm o, 5
his volum e repres ent ing th e m ture
T a r work o f M r Londo n h as
t ha t co m p elling st yl port ray l and in t h e con
.
t h a t sk ill m h a ract er
p e. a
st ructio n f unusu l pl t wh ich

o na h first began t o wri t e fict ion
o si ce e
h ave al wa m arked h im part f m t h rank nd fil e f no velists a No
ro e a o
y is m re pra i sed t h a n M Lond n f th e co lor of h is st ories

.
writer o r o or
t rengt h of h is prose for t h e
.
,
f r t h e fert ilit y of h is im aginat i n f r t h

o o o e s
way in whi ch h e m a k es h is peopl li
, ,
His versat ili ty f r h e n t urn

e ve o ca
t a l bri m m ing wit h h um or wit h equal
.
,
o ut a bit f grim t ragedy

o or a e
f cili t y m akes h im v ybo dy
a ut h e Th er p n t book is a col’
s a or e re
se
l ct ion of part icul ly hum n tories based n var iet y of
.
,
e ar a s o a
worked out wit h consum m t e m t e y f h is art a as r o .
TH E M A CM I LLAN COM PA N'

P ublish ers Fifth Avenue New 'ork
JAC K LO N D O N S O T H ER W O R KS
’
urn ng i Dayli ght

D ecor a ted cl ot/r, ill u str a ted, n o w,
Fi cti on L i br a ry E diti on, 3 5(.
A gr ippi ng st ory o f M illio n s a nd a M id

a .
”
N ew 'or k H er a ld .
o st Face
A V o lu m e of S t ro n g , V ivid , and H um an Sto ries
I ll ustr a ted, l
c ot/z, l a m a,
T h e st o r i e are st o ng a nd r bu t nd t h e charact ri at i ons e

s r o s a e z ar no 1
nciful c r e a t i o ns b ut t h e act ual h a pp n i n s o f an ex i st enc

e whi ch th
g e r
ut h or h as lived and now vividly d escrib es .
a rt n i Eden
Cloth , m ore,
“
Th e y po esses subst ance fo rm vigor and vit li ty
st o r ss , doe , , a ,
as s
v eryt h ing t h t M r L nd o n w ri t
a . I t i fi l l d w i t h t h e w i ne o f life
o es . s e
it h a life t h t M L o nd n h
a r hi m self li ved nd t o w h ich h e ne e
. o as ,
a v r
c ri es o f gi vi ng eve y pa t o f hi m self
”
a r B ost n E vening Tr a m cr zpt
r .
— o .
h e Ho use o f Pri de
I l l ust r a ted, decor a ted clot/i , l a m a,
H o nolulu M o l k i t h e l epe s i la nd
,
o a , r
’
s ,
a nd o t h ers o f t h e H awa iia n
o up afi o rd sp l endid set t i ng for t h e t al e
'
r s.
,
TH E M A CM I L L A N CO M P A N '
Publ i sh ers 6 4— 66 Fift h A venu e New 'or k
JAC K L O N D O N S S O C I AL
’
S T UDI ES
Revo lut i o n
Cl ofi , l a m a,
S ta n da r d L i br a ry E dit i on
H ere is a fi eld whe ein Lo nd on i ent irely at h om and t h e

r s e,
i
t ve ra di at es w it h pict u sque d cri pt io n and vi vid ch aract eriza
re es
B r ookly n D a ily E agle .
Th e War o f t h e Classes
Cl aik , 1 2 7720,
S ta n da r d L ibr a ry E d it i on
“
M r Lo ndo n’s
. b ook is t h o rough ly int e st ing nd M Lo n
re , a r .
pi o nt o f v ew i is, as m ay be r , su m i sed very different fr o m t hat
l
c oset h
t eor st i .
”
Spr i ngfield R ep ublica n .
Peop le o f t h e A byss
I l l ustr a ted cl ot/l ,
i life h as been pictu ed m any t i m es befo e co m pl c nt '

“ Th s r r — a e
so ot hi ngly b y P o f ss W lt er A W yckofi lu idly b y M r

'
r e or a .
, r .
scient ifically b y M r Ch arl s B oo t h B ut M r Lo ndo n al one h as

. e . .
it real a nd present t o u Th e I ndependent s.

'
.
Th e Ro ad
I ll ustr a ted, cl oth , l a m a,
As lit e al ecord of life a mong t am p

a r r r s, o f t rave l f om
r end to e
t h e count y it s signifi cance i g ea t

r , s r .
Th e lro n Heel A N ovel

Cl ot/r, l e nt o,
“P
o wer is cert a n i ly y
t h e k e no t e of t h s i book . E ver y wo r d t
wt i h it . It is a gr ea t b ook , o ne t ath d eser ves to be d a nd po n
rea
It co nt a ns a i m igh t y l esso n an d a m ost i m pressive war
TH E M A C M I LLA N C O M P A N '
Publi sh ers 8 4—66 Fift h Avenue New 'ork

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H E way led a lo n g u p o n what had

upon it for many yea r s . T he for est on

no mo r e than a wild animal runway -

through the forest-m ould ,

the spike long enough fo r its bed to be ﬁlled

it was manifest that it had been of the

A n old m an and a boy travelled along

old man was ve ry old a touch of palsy made ,

his m ovements tremulous ,

ingeniously made from a la rge leaf s hielded ,

his eyes, . a nd from under this he pee red at

which should have been snow white but -

which s howed the same weather wea r a nd -

camp -stain as his hai r fell nearly to , . b is

ga rm ent of goat-s kin . His a r ms and le gs ,

withered and skinny , betokened ext re ihe

and scratches betoken long years o f exposu re

The boy who led the

— a ragge d-edged piece of bea r skin with -

a hole in the middle through which he had

thru st his he ad . He could not have been

On his back was a quive rful of a rrows .

From a sheath hanging about his neck on

a hunting knife . He was as brown a s a

catlike tread . In marked contrast with his

and had been so tr ained that it operated

heard all the slight sounds in the apparent

ﬁ ed these sounds whether they were of

the wind rustling the leaves , of the hum

ming of bees a nd gnats , of the distant

shoving a pouchful o f earth into the entrance

S uddenly he became alertly tense .

S ound , s ight , and odor had given him a

pair stood still . A head at , o ne side of the

wise stopped abruptly ,

q uerulously . S lowly the bo y ﬁtted the

fr o m unde r his green leaf at the dange r and ,

S tood as quietly as the boy . Fo r a few sec

head indicated that the old man

The o ld man shook his head .

life on the way to the Cliff House . When

. A nd the r e we r en t any bears ’

recollected an d triumphantly shoved his

ligh t edly, always ma k ing b e l ieve them

The o ld man manifested an accustomed

he shrilled and then fell ,

Magnates . It must have been one of the

it ' S ixty yea r s a go , and I am the only

when we was h erdin goats down near S an ’

Jos ' last spring . Hoo Hoo - said it was

The ancient caught his staff in a tighter

ﬁtted a rrow . He had paused on the brink

sage through the ﬁll . On the Opposite

side the end

c rouching by a bush a r abbit looked acros s

at him in trembling hesitancy . Fully ﬁfty

true ; and the transﬁxed rabbit c r ying , o ut