Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1914-10-28
THE WORLD SET FREE :
Copyright. 1914. BY II. G WELLS
By H. G. WELLS

! At first she could not join on what
she saw to any previous experience.
She seemed to be in strange world,
soundless, ruinous world, world OF
heaped broken things. And it was lit
and somehow this was more familiar
to her mind than any other fact about
her-by Pickering, purplish crimson
light Then close to her, rising above
q confusion of debris, she recognized
the Trocadero. 1t was changed; some
thing had gone from it, but its out
line was unm1stakable. 1t stood out
against streaming, whirling uprush
Of red lit steam, and with that she re-
called Paris and the Seine and the
warm, overcast evening and the beau
ttful luminous organization of the war
control.
She drew herself little way up
the slope Of earth on which she lay
and examined her surroundings with
an increasing understanding.
The earth on which she was living
projected like cape into the river.
Quite close to her was q trimming
lake of damned up water. from
which these warm rivulets and tor
rents were trickling. Wisps of vapor
came into circling existence a foot or
so from its mirror-like surface. Near
at hand and reflected exactly in the
water was the upper part of a ia
mlliar looking stone pillar. On the
side Of her away from the water the
heaped ruins rose steeply in a confus-
ed slope up to a glaring crest. Above
and rejecting this glare lowered pill
lowed masses Of steam rolling swiftly
upward to the zenith. 1t was from
this crest that the nvid glow that lit
the world about her proceeded, and
slowly her mind connected this mound
with the vanished buildings of tho
war control.
"Mais!' she whispered and remained
with staring eyes quite motionless for
time. crouching close to the warm
earth.
Then presently this dim, broken hui
man thing began to look about it again.
She began to feel the need Of fellow
ship. She wanted to question. wanted
to speak, wanted to relate her expe-
rience. And her foot hurt her afro
ciously. There ought to be an ambu-
lance. A little gust Of querulous crit
ic1sms blew across her mind. This
surely was a disaster! Always after
disaster there should be ambulances
and helpers moving about
She craned her head. There was
something there But everything was
so still!
"Monsieurr she cried. Her ears,
she noted, felt queer, and she began
to suspect that all was not we'll with
them
1t was terribly lonely in this chaotic
strangeness, and perhaps this man-1f
it was a man, for it was difficult to see
might for all his stiffness be merely
insensible. He might have been stun
ned.
The leaping glare beyond sent a ray
into his corner and for a moment every
little detail was distinct. It was Mar
shall Dubois. He was lying against a
huge slab Of the war map. To it there
stuck and from it there dangled little
wooden objects, symbols Of infantry
and cavalry and guns as they were
disposed upon the frontier. He did not
seem to be aware Of this at his back.
he had an effect Of inattention. not
Indifferent attention, but as If he were
thinking.
She could not see the eyes beneath
his shaggy brows, but it was evident
be frowned. He frowned slightly. He
had an air Of not wanting to be dis.
turbed. His face still bore that express
Sion OF assured confidence, that con-
viction that If things were left to him
France might obey in security.
She did not cry out to him again, but
she crept little nearer. A strange
surmise made her eyes dilate. With a
painful wrench, she pulled herself up
so that she could see completely over
the intervening Jumps Of smashed up
masonry. Her hand touched some
thing wet, and after one convulsiye
movement she became rigid.
To be continued)
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