ad been Cruelly Beaten 112]

"He told me he had prowlers, and that his brother had been killed the
previous night, in the defence of their dwelling.

"Midway across the campus, he pointed suddenly to Mrs. Swinton's face.
The unmistakable scarlet was there. Immediately all the other women set
up a screaming and began to run away from her. Her two children were
with a nurse, and these also ran with the women. But her husband, Doctor
Swinton, remained with her.

"'Go on, Smith,' he told me. 'Keep an eye on the children. As for me,
I shall stay with my wife. I know she is as already dead, but I can't
leave her. Afterwards, if I escape, I shall come to the Chemistry
Building, and do you watch for me and let me in.'

"I left him bending over his wife and soothing her last moments, while
I ran to overtake the party. We were the last to be admitted to the
Chemistry Building. After that, with our automatic rifles we maintained
our isolation. By our plans, we had arranged for a company of sixty to
be in this refuge. Instead, every one of the number originally planned
had added relatives and friends and whole families until there were over
four hundred souls. But the Chemistry Building was large, and, standing
by itself, was in no danger of being burned by the great fires that
raged everywhere in the city.

"A large quantity of provisions had been gathered, and a food committee
took charge of it, issuing rations daily to the various families and
groups that arranged themselves into messes. A number of committees were
appointed, and we developed a very efficient organization. I was on the
committee of defence, though for the first day no prowlers came near. We
could see them in the distance, however, and by the smoke of their fires
knew that several camps of them were occupying the far edge of the
campus. Drunkenness was rife, and often we heard them singing ribald
songs or insanely shouting. While the world crashed to ruin about them
and all the air was filled with the smoke of its burning, these low
creatures gave rein to their bestiality and fought and drank and died.
And after all, what did it matter? Everybody died anyway, the good and
the bad, the efficients and the weaklings, those that loved to live and
those that scorned to live. They passed. Everything passed.

"When twenty-four hours had gone by and no signs of the plague were
apparent, we congratulated ourselves and set about digging a well. You
have seen the grea