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'Ay, ay, sir. Arnott's hand went to his cap, and we heard the hull of the Victor Pirolo ring to the command: 'Lamps! Both watches stand by! Lamps! Lamps! Lamps! 'Keep still! Takahira whispered to me. 'Blinkers, please, quartermaster. 'It's all right all right! said Pirolo from behind, and to my horror slipped over my head some sort of rubber helmet that locked with a snap.
Our Planet prefers to know Victor Pirolo as a gentle, grey-haired enthusiast who spends his time near Foggia, inventing or creating new breeds of Spanish-Italian olive-trees; but there is another side to his nature the manufacture of quaint inventions, of which the Victor Pirolo is, perhaps, not the least surprising. She and a few score sister-craft of the same type embody his latest ideas.
'Come along up! said De Forest to the captives, 'Breakfast is quite ready. It appeared, however, that they did not wish to go. They intended to remain in Chicago and make crowds. They pointed out that De Forest's proposal was gross invasion of privacy. 'My dear fellow, said Pirolo to the most voluble of the leaders, 'you hurry, or your crowd that can't be wrong will kill you!
'I may be ass enough to walk into a ground-circuit, said Arnott, 'but I don't dismiss my Fleet till I'm reasonably sure that trouble is over. They're in position still, and I intend to keep 'em there till the Serviles are shipped out of the district. That last little crowd meant murder, my friends. 'Nerves! All nerves! said Pirolo. 'You cannot argue with agoraphobia.
'Pardon! Dragomiroff moaned. 'I have never seen Death. I have never seen the Board take action. Shall we go down and burn them alive, or is that already done? 'Oh, hush, said Pirolo, and I think he rocked him in his arms. 'Do we repeat, sir? Arnott asked De Forest. 'Give 'em a minute's break, De Forest replied. 'They may need it.
My lower deck isn't noisome, and I saw to the finger-bowls myself. 'My people talk like that sometimes in Little Russia, said Dragomiroff. 'We reason with them. We never kill. No! 'But it's not true, Arnott insisted. 'What can you do with people who don't tell facts? They're mad! 'Hsh! said Pirolo, his hand to his ear. 'It is such a little time since all the Planet told lies.
Eight or nine hundred folk kept pawing and buzzing like flies in treacle for two hours, while a pack of perfectly safe Serviles invades their mental and spiritual privacy, may be amusing to watch, but they are not pleasant to handle afterwards. Pirolo chuckled. 'Our folk own themselves. They were of opinion things were going too far and too fiery.
As we neared the garden gate I could have sworn we had stepped knee-deep in quicksand, for we could scarcely drag our feet against the prickling currents that clogged them. After five paces we stopped, wiping our foreheads, as hopelessly stuck on dry smooth turf as so many cows in a bog. 'Pest! cried Pirolo angrily. 'We are ground-circuited. And it is my own system of ground-circuits too!
They raged, they stormed, they palpitated, flushed and exhausted their poor, torn nerves, panted themselves into silence, and renewed the senseless, shameless attacks. 'But can't you understand, said Pirolo pathetically to a shrieking woman, 'that if we'd left you in Chicago you'd have been killed? 'No, we shouldn't. You were bound to save us from being murdered.
There isn't a spark left down there. De Forest pointed. 'They'll be deaf and blind. 'Oh, I think not, sir. The demonstration lasted less than ten minutes. 'Marvellous! Takahira sighed. 'I should have said it was half a night. Now, shall we go down and pick up the pieces? 'But first a small drink, said Pirolo. 'The Board must not arrive weeping at its own works.
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