forecastle will be
G. Bernard Shaw."

_90._ In spite of the anarchic and unspeakable conditions on the
Continent, I could not refrain from making one last tour of inspection.
The thought of flooded mines, pillaged factories and gutted mills was
more than I could bear. The stocks of oil in England were running short,
but I commanded enough to fill my great transportplane. We flew low over
roads crawling with humanity as a sick animal crawls with vermin. Some
cities were empty, obscenely bereft of population; others choked with
wanderers.

The Ruhr was a valley filled with the dead, with men tearing each
other's throats in a frenzy of hunger, with the unburied and the soon to
be buried sleeping sidebyside through restless nights. Not a building
was still whole; what had not been torn down in pointless rage had been
razed by reasonless arson. Not one brick of the great openhearths had
been left in place, not one girder of the great sheds remained erect.

The Saar was in little better case and the mines of Alsace were useless
for the next quartercentury. The industrial district around Paris had
been leveled to the ground by the mobs and Belgium looked as it had
after the worst devastation of war. I had expected to find a shambles,
but my utmost anticipations were exceeded. I could bring myself to look
upon no more and my pilot informing me that our gas was low, I ordered
him to return.

We were in sight of the Channel, not far from Calais, when both
starboard engines developed trouble simultaneously and my pilot headed
for a landingfield below. "What are you about, you fool?" I shouted at
him.

"Gasline fouled. I think I can fix it in a few minutes, Mr Weener."

"Not down among those savages. We wouldnt have a chance."

"We wouldnt have a chance over the Channel, sir. I'd rather risk my neck
among fellow humans than in the water."

"Maybe you would, but I wouldnt. Straighten out the plane and go on."

"Sorry, Mr Weener; I'm going to have to land here."

And in spite of my protests he did so. I was instantly proved right, for
before we came to a stop we were surrounded by an assortment of filthy
and emaciated men and women bearing scythes and pitchforks, shouting,
yelling and gesticulating, making in fact, such an uproar that no
comprehension was possible. However, there was no misunderstanding their
brusque motions ordering us away from the plane or the threa