When the Sleeper Wakes by H. G. Wells (tharntype novel english txt) ๐
It was a yellow figure lying lax upon a water-bed and clad in a flowing shirt, a figure with a shrunken face and a stubby beard, lean limbs and lank nails, and about it was a case of thin glass. This glass seemed to mark off the sleeper from the reality of life about him, he was a thing apart, a strange, isolated abnormality. The two men stood close to the glass, peering in.
"The thing gave me a shock," said Isbister "I feel a queer sort of surprise even now when I think of his white eyes. They were white, you know, rolled up. Coming here again brings it all back to me.
"Have you never seen him since that time?" asked Warming.
"Often wanted to come," said Isbister; "but business nowadays is too serious a thing for much holiday keeping. I've been in America most of the time
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The man with the fair beard made some inaudible remark, and Graham looking over his shoulder saw approaching a very short, fat, and thickset beardless man, with aquiline nose and heavy neck and chin. Very thick black and slightly sloping eyebrows that almost met over his nose and overhung deep grey eyes, gave his face an oddly formidable expression. He scowled momentarily at Graham and then his regard returned to the man with the flaxen beard. โThese others,โ he said in a voice of extreme irritation. โYou had better go.โ
โGo?โ said the red-bearded man.
โCertainly โ go now. But see the doorways are closed as you go.โ
The two men addressed turned obediently, after one reluctant glance at Graham, and instead of going through the archway as he expected, walked straight to the dead wall of the apartment opposite the archway. And then came a strange thing; a long strip of this apparently solid wall rolled up with a snap, hung over the two retreating men and fell again, and immediately Graham was alone with the new comer and the purple-robed man with the flaxen beard.
For a space the thickset man took not the slightest notice of Graham, but proceeded to interrogate the other โ obviously his subordinate โ upon the treatment of their charge. He spoke clearly, but in phrases only partially intelligible to Graham. The awakening seemed not only a matter of surprise but of consternation and annoyance to him. He was evidently profoundly excited.
โYou must not confuse his mind by telling him things,โ he repeated again and again. โYou must not confuse his mind.โ
His questions answered, he turned quickly and eyed the awakened sleeper with an ambiguous expression.
โFeel queer?โ he asked.
โVery.โ
โThe world, what you see of it, seems strange to you?โ
โI suppose I have to live in it, strange as it seems.โ
โI suppose so, now.โ
โIn the first place, hadnโt I better have some clothes?โ
โThey โโ said the thickset man and stopped, and the flaxen-bearded man met his eye and went away. โYou will very speedily have clothes,โ said the thickset man.
โIs it true indeed, that I have been asleep two hundred โ ?โ asked Graham.
โThey have told you that, have they? Two hundred and three, as a matter of fact.โ
Graham accepted the indisputable now with raised eyebrows and depressed mouth. He sat silent for a moment, and then asked a question, โIs there a mill or dynamo near here?โ He did not wait for an answer. โThings have changed tremendously, I suppose?โ he said.
โWhat is that shouting?โ he asked abruptly.
โNothing,โ said the thickset man impatiently. โItโs people. Youโll understand better later โ perhaps. As you say, things have changed.โ He spoke shortly, his brows were knit, and he glanced about him like a man trying to decide in an emergency. โWe must get you clothes and so forth, at any rate.
Better wait here until some can come. No one will come near you. You want shaving.โ
Graham rubbed his chin.
The man with the flaxen beard came back towards them, turned suddenly, listened for a moment, lifted his eyebrows at the older man, and hurried off through the archway towards the balcony. The tumult of shouting grew louder, and the thickset man turned and listened also. He cursed suddenly under his breath, and turned his eyes upon Graham with an unfriendly expression. It was a surge of many voices, rising and falling, shouting and screaming, and once came a sound like blows and sharp cries, and then a snapping like the crackling of dry sticks. Graham strained his ears to draw some single thread of sound from the woven tumult.
Then he perceived, repeated again and again, a certain formula. For a time he doubted his ears. But surely these were the words: โShow us the Sleeper! Show us the Sleeper!โ
The thickset man rushed suddenly to the archway.
โWild!โ he cried, โHow do they know? Do they know? Or is it guessing?โ
There was perhaps an answer.
โI canโt come,โ said the thickset man; โI have him to see to. But shout from the balcony.โ
There was an inaudible reply.
โSay he is not awake. Anything! I leave it to you.โ
He came hurrying back to Graham. โYou must have clothes at once,โ he said. โYou cannot stop here โ and it will be impossible to โโ
He rushed away, Graham shouting unanswered questions after him. In a moment he was back.
โI canโt tell you what is happening. It is too complex to explain. In a moment you shall have your clothes made. Yes โ in a moment. And then I can take you away from here. You will find out our troubles soon enough.โ
โBut those voices. They were shouting โ ?โ
โSomething about the Sleeper โ thatโs you. They have some twisted idea. I donโt know what it is. I know nothing.โ
A shrill bell jetted acutely across the indistinct mingling of remote noises, and this brusque person sprang to a little group of appliances in the corner of the room. He listened for a moment, regarding a ball of crystal, nodded, and said a few indistinct words; then he walked to the wall through which the two men had vanished. It rolled up again like a curtain, and he stood waiting.
Graham lifted his arm and was astonished to find what strength the restoratives had given him. He thrust one leg over the side of the couch and then the other. His head no longer swam. He could scarcely credit his rapid recovery. He sat feeling his limbs.
The man with the flaxen beard re-entered from the archway, and as he did so the cage of a lift came sliding down in front of the thickset man, and a lean, grey-bearded man, carrying a roll, and wearing a tightly-fitting costume of dark green, appeared therein.
โThis is the tailor,โ said the thickset man with an introductory gesture.โ It will never do for you to wear that black. I cannot understand how it got here. But I shall. I shall. You will be as rapid as possible?โ he said to the tailor.
The man in green bowed, and, advancing, seated himself by Graham on the bed. His manner was calm, but his eyes were full of curiosity. โYou will find the fashions altered, Sire,โ he said. He glanced from under his brows at the thickset man.
He opened the roller with a quick movement, and a confusion of brilliant fabrics poured out over his knees. โYou lived, Sire, in a period essentially cylindrical โ the Victorian. With a tendency to the hemisphere in hats. Circular curves always. Now โโ He flicked out a little appliance the size and appearance of a keyless watch, whirled the knob, and behold โ a little figure in white appeared kinetoscope fashion on the dial, walking and turning. The tailor caught up a pattern of bluish white satin. โThat is my conception of your immediate treatment,โ he said.
The thickset man came and stood by the shoulder of Graham.
โWe have very little time,โ he said.
โTrust me,โ said the tailor. โMy machine follows. What do you think of this?โ
โWhat is that?โ asked the man from the nineteenth century.
โIn your days they showed you a fashion-plate,โ said the tailor,โ but this is our modern development See here.โ The little figure repeated its evolutions, but in a different costume. โOr this,โ and with a click another small figure in a more voluminous type of robe marched on to the dial. The tailor was very quick in his movements, and glanced twice towards the lift as he did these things.
It rumbled again, and a crop-haired anaemic lad with features of the Chinese type, clad in coarse pale blue canvas, appeared together with a complicated machine, which he pushed noiselessly on little castors into the room. Incontinently the little kinetoscope was dropped, Graham was invited to stand in front of the machine and the tailor muttered some instructions to the crop-haired lad, who answered in guttural tones and with words Graham did not recognise. The boy then went to conduct an incomprehensible monologue in the corner, and the tailor pulled out a number of slotted arms terminating in little discs, pulling them out until the discs were flat against the body of Graham, one at each shoulder blade, one at the elbows, one at the neck and so forth, so that at last there were, perhaps, two score of them upon his body and limbs. At the same time, some other person entered the room by the lift, behind Graham. The tailor set moving a mechanism that initiated a faint-sounding rhythmic movement of parts in the machine, and in another moment he was knocking up the levers and Graham was released. The tailor replaced his cloak of black, and the man with the flaxen beard proffered him a little glass of some refreshing fluid. Graham saw over the rim of the glass a pale-faced young man regarding him with a singular fixity.
The thickset man had been pacing the room fretfully, and now turned and went through the archway towards the balcony, from which the noise of a distant crowd still came in gusts and cadences. The cropheaded lad handed the tailor a roll of the bluish satin and the two began fixing this in the mechanism in a manner reminiscent of a roll of paper in a nineteenth century printing machine. Then they ran the entire thing on its easy, noiseless bearings across the room to a remote corner where a twisted cable looped rather gracefully from the wall. They made some connexion and the machine became energetic and swift.
โWhat is that doing?โ asked Graham, pointing with the empty glass to the busy figures and trying to ignore the scrutiny of the new comer. โIs that โ some sort of force โ laid on?โ
โYes,โ said the man with the flaxen beard.
โWho is that?โ He indicated the archway behind him.
The man in purple stroked his little beard, hesitated, and answered in an undertone, โHe is Howard, your chief guardian. You see, Sire, โ itโs a little difficult to explain. The Council appoints a guardian and assistants. This hall has under certain restrictions been public. In order that people might satisfy themselves. We have barred the doorways for the first time. But I think โ if you donโt mind, I will leave him to explain.โ
โOddโ said Graham. โGuardian? Council?โ Then turning his back on the new comer, he asked in an undertone, โWhy is this man glaring at me? Is he a mesmerist?โ
โMesmerist! He is a capillotomist.โ
โCapillotomist!โ
โYes โ one of the chief. His yearly fee is sixdoz lions.โ
It sounded sheer nonsense. Graham snatched at the last phrase with an unsteady mind. โSixdoz lions?โ he said.
โDidnโt you have lions? I suppose not. You had the old pounds? They are our monetary units.โ
โBut what was that you said โ sixdoz?โ
โYes. Six dozen, Sire. Of course things, even these little things, have altered. You lived in the days of the decimal system, the Arab system โ tens, and little hundreds and thousands. We have eleven numerals now. We have single figures for both ten and eleven, two figures for a dozen, and a dozen dozen makes a gross, a great hundred, you know, a dozen gross a dozand, and a dozand dozand a myriad. Very simple?โ
โI suppose so,โ said Graham. โBut about this cap โ what was it?โ
The man with the flaxen beard glanced over his shoulder.
โHere are your clothes!โ he said. Graham turned round sharply and saw the tailor standing at his elbow smiling, and holding some palpably new garments over his arm. The cropheaded boy, by means of one finger, was impelling the complicated machine towards the lift by which he had arrived. Graham stared
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