THE END OF THE OLD ORDER
So as Graham was able to judge, it was near when the white banner of the Council fell. But some hours had to it was possible to the capitulation, and so after he had spoken his "Word" he retired to his new in the wind-vane offices. The of the last twelve hours had left him fatigued, his was exhausted; for a space he sat and with open eyes, and for a space he slept. He was by two medical attendants, come prepared with to him through the next occasion. After he had taken their and by their in cold water, he a return of and energy, and was presently able and to Ostrog through miles (as it seemed) of passages, lifts, and to the of the White Council's rule.
The way ran through a of buildings. They came at last to a passage that about, and him an opening, clouds with sunset, and the of the Council House. A of came up to him. In another moment they had come out high up on the of the of that the wreckage. The area opened to Graham's eyes, none the less and for the view he had had of it in the mirror.
This space now the part of a mile to its edge. It was gold on the left hand, the sunlight, and and to the right clear and cold in the shadow. Above the Council House that in the of it, the great black banner of the still in against the sunset. Severed rooms, and passages strangely, of metal from the wreckage, of like seaweed, and from its came a of voices, concussions, and the of trumpets. All about this great white was a ring of desolation; the and masses, the and of the that had been by the Council's orders, of girders, Titanic of wall, of pillars. Amongst the beneath, water and glistened, and away across the space, out of the of a of buildings, there the end of a water-main, two hundred in the air, a cascade. And great of people.
Wherever there was space and foothold, people swarmed, little people, small and clear, where the touched them to gold. They up the walls, they in and groups about the high-standing pillars. They along the of the circle of ruins. The air was full of their shouting, and they were pressing and the space.
The upper of the Council House deserted, not a being was visible. Only the banner of the against the light. The were the Council House, or by the people, or away. Graham see only a neglected in and of the ruins, and the water.
"Will you let them see you, Sire?" said Ostrog. "They are very to see you."
Graham hesitated, and then walked to where the of sheer. He looking down, a lonely, tall, black against the sky.
Very slowly the aware of him. And as they did so little of black-uniformed men appeared remotely, through the the Council House. He saw little black pink, looking at him, saw by that means a of across the space. It to him that he should them some recognition. He up his arm, then pointed to the Council House and his hand. The voices unanimous, volume, came up to him as of cheering.
The western sky was a green, and Jupiter high in the south, the was accomplished. Above was a slow change, the of night and beautiful; was hurry, excitement, orders, pauses, of organisation, a and confusion. Before the Council came out, men, by a of shouts, hundreds of those who had in the hand-to-hand those long passages and chambers….
Guards in black the way that the Council would come, and as as the into the of the ruins, and now at every possible point in the Council House and along the of its buildings, were people, and their voices, when they were not cheering, were as the of the sea upon a beach. Ostrog had a of and masonry, and on this a stage of and metal was being constructed. Its parts were complete, but and still in the this temporary edifice.
The stage had a small higher on which Graham with Ostrog and Lincoln close him, a little in of a group of minor officers. A stage this quarter-deck, and on this were the black-uniformed of the with the little green very names Graham still did not know. Those about him that his from the people in the about him to the of the White Council House, the Trustees would presently come, and to the of that him, and so to the people. The voices of the to a tumult.
He saw the Councillors off in the of one of the temporary lights that marked their path, a little group of white in a black archway. In the Council House they had been in darkness. He them approaching, nearer past this electric star and then that; the of the over their power had for a hundred and fifty years along them. As they still nearer their came out weary, white, and anxious. He saw them up through the about him and Ostrog. He their cold looks in the Hall of Atlas…. Presently he of them; the man who had the table at Howard, a man with a red beard, and one delicate-featured, short, dark man with a long skull. He noted that two were together and looking him at Ostrog. Next there came a tall, dark and man, walking downcast. Abruptly he up, his touched Graham for a moment, and passed him to Ostrog. The way that had been for them was so that they had to past and about they came to the path of that to the stage where their was to be made.
"The Master, the Master! God and the Master," the people. "To with the Council!" Graham looked at their multitudes, into a haze, and then at Ostrog him, white and and still. His again to the little group of White Councillors. And then he looked up at the familiar overhead. The in his was vivid. Could that be his indeed, that little life in his memory two hundred years gone by—and this as well?
