f culture and civilization passed in the twinkling of an
eye, 'lapsed like foam.'

"I was telling about the airships of the rich. They carried the plague
with them and no matter where they fled, they died. I never encountered
but one survivor of any of them--Mungerson. He was afterwards a Santa
Rosan, and he married my eldest daughter. He came into the tribe eight
years after the plague. He was then nineteen years old, and he was
compelled to wait twelve years more before he could marry. You see,
there were no unmarried women, and some of the older daughters of the
Santa Rosans were already bespoken. So he was forced to wait until
my Mary had grown to sixteen years. It was his son, Gimp-Leg, who was
killed last year by the mountain lion.

"Mungerson was eleven years old at the time of the plague. His father
was one of the Industrial Magnates, a very wealthy, powerful man. It was
on his airship, the Condor, that they were fleeing, with all the family,
for the wilds of British Columbia, which is far to the north of here.
But there was some accident, and they were wrecked near Mount Shasta.
You have heard of that mountain. It is far to the north. The plague
broke out amongst them, and this boy of eleven was the only survivor.
For eight years he was alone, wandering over a deserted land and looking
vainly for his own kind. And at last, travelling south, he picked up
with us, the Santa Rosans.

"But I am ahead of my story. When the great exodus from the cities
around San Francisco Bay began, and while the telephones were still
working, I talked with my brother. I told him this flight from the
cities was insanity, that there were no symptoms of the plague in
me, and that the thing for us to do was to isolate ourselves and our
relatives in some safe place. We decided on the Chemistry Building, at
the university, and we planned to lay in a supply of provisions, and by
force of arms to prevent any other persons from forcing their presence
upon us after we had retired to our refuge.

"All this being arranged, my brother begged me to stay in my own
house for at least twenty-four hours more, on the chance of the plague
developing in me. To this I agreed, and he promised to come for me next
day. We talked on over the details of the provisioning and the defending
of the Chemistry Building until the telephone died. It died in the midst
of our conversation. That evening there were no electric lights, and
I was alone in my house in