all records,
financial, political, governmental and private, so that some opportunity
of starting afresh might be given to mankind, enslaved to the past and
fettered by law and custom. But the danger of chaos resulting from such
a step deterred him. He confessed that the more he thought on the
subject the more clearly he saw that under the circumstances belonging
to its stage of evolution, the organization of the world was suited to
the race that inhabited it. All change, he saw, had to come from within,
and that to alter external conditions suddenly and artificially might do
incredible harm. We were constructed to develop against resistance, and
to remove such resistances before they had been overcome naturally was
to tamper with the inner laws of life. And so, after long discussion,
they did nothing....

It is curious to reflect that they, earnest men devoted to progress,
having at their mercy the machinery of existence, walked through the
midst of sleeping London and did nothing. But then none of them were
fanatics, for Thornduck stated that the fanatics fell early to sleep,
thus proving that the motives behind their fanaticism were egotistical,
and a source of satisfaction to themselves. He made a point of visiting
the homes of some of them. Philanthropists, too, succumbed early.

On the seventh day after the great sleep had overtaken London the
effects of the germ began to wane. Those who had fallen asleep latest
were the earliest to open their eyes. The blue stain rapidly vanished
from eyes, skin and nails.... I regained my waking sense on the evening
of the seventh day and found myself in a small country cottage whither
Thornduck had borne me in a motor-car, fearing lest awakened London
might seek some revenge on the discoverers of the germ. Sarakoff lay on
a couch beside me, still fast asleep.

The first clear idea that came to me concerned Alice Annot. I determined
to go to her at once. Then I remembered with vexation that I had
wantonly smashed two vases worth ten pounds apiece.

I struggled to my feet. My hands were thin and wasted. I was ravenous
with hunger. I felt giddy.

"What's the time?" I called confusedly. "It must be very late. Wake up!"

And I stooped down and began to shake Sarakoff violently.

THE END

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[Transcriber's Note: The following typographical error