Our nation once more demonstrated its love for the orator4 who preaches smooth things. The Honorable Plato Barker praised the President for his brave stand for the rights and dignity of the Republic in his heroic defense5 of the Monroe Doctrine6.
In the same breath he acclaimed7 the President of Chile who led the way to the court of reason as a new prophet of humanity. He would not yield one inch in the maintenance of the Monroe Doctrine—no! But it had been demonstrated that such issues could be settled by moral suasion! The next session of the august Parliament of Man, he declared, would ratify8 the decision of the Pan-American Congress without a dissenting9 voice.
The long pent energies of our nation drove us forward now at lightning speed. During the last year of the great war our commerce had practically come to dominate the world. Anticipating conditions at its close, Congress passed a new high tariff10 which closed our ports to the flood of cheap goods Europe was ready to dump on our shores. Every wheel in America was turning, every man at work, wages leaped upward with profits mounting to unheard-of figures. The distress11 in Europe from the glut12 of an overstocked market sent us millions of laborers13 and still our industries clamored for more.
A hundred million Americans went mad with prosperity. Our wealth had already mounted steadily14 during the war. We were not only the richest nation on earth, there was no rival in sight.
New York ascended15 her throne as the money center of the world, and wealth beyond the dreams of avarice16 poured into the coffers of her captains of industry.
The one thing on which we had failed to make relative progress was the development of our national defenses. We had more ships, more guns, more forts, more aircraft and more submarines than ever before, but our relative position in power of defense had dropped to the lowest record in history.
At the beginning of the great war in 1914 our navy stood third on the list in power and efficiency. Only Great Britain and Germany outranked us and Germany’s balance of power was so slight that our advantageous17 position was deemed sufficient to overcome it.
At the end of the great war we had sunk to sixth place among the nations in power and efficiency of defense.
Great Britain, Germany, France, Russia and Japan outranked us so far that we could not consider ourselves in their class. The armies of each of these powers were so tremendous in their aggregate18 the mind could not grasp the import of such figures.
In spite of all the losses, Germany’s mobile forces, ready at a moment’s notice, numbered 5,000,000 trained veterans with muscles of steel and equipment unparalleled in the history of warfare19. Russia had 9,000,000 men armed and hardened by war, France had 3,000,000, Great Britain 3,000,000, Austria-Hungary 3,000,000, Japan 4,000,000.
The navies of the world had also grown by leaps and bounds in spite of the few ships that had been sunk in the conflict. Great Britain still stood first, Germany next and then France, Russia and Japan. The navies of each of these nations not only outranked us in the number of ships, submarines, hydroplanes and the range of their guns, but the complete and perfect organization of their governing and directing powers more than doubled their fighting efficiency as compared to ours, gun for gun and man for man.
We were still trusting to blind luck. We had no general staff whose business it is to study conditions and create plans of defense. We had no plans for conducting a war of defense at all either on land or sea. Our admirals had warned the Government and the people, under solemn oath before Congress, that it would require five years of superhuman effort properly to equip, man and train to battle efficiency a navy which could meet the ships of either of the five great nations with any hope of success.
And nothing had been done about it.
The energies of a hundred million people were now absorbed, under the guidance of Waldron and his associated groups of propagandists, preparing to celebrate the great Peace Jubilee20 the week preceding the meeting of the Pan-American Congress called to settle the problem of the Monroe Doctrine.
This celebration was planned on a scale of lavish22 expenditure23, in pageantry, oratory25, illuminations, processions, and revelry unheard of in our history. The programmes were identical in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Washington, Baltimore, Norfolk, New Orleans, Cleveland, Detroit, St. Louis, Denver, San Francisco, and Los Angeles and a score of smaller cities.
John Vassar refused to accept the invitation of the Mayor of New York to address the mass meeting of naturalized Americans in the Madison Square Garden.
Virginia Holland not only refused to lead the grand Pageant24 of Peace in its march up Fifth Avenue to the speakers’ stand, but she resigned as president of the Woman’s Federation26 of Clubs of America, shut herself in her room at their country place on Long Island and refused to be interviewed.
John Vassar read the announcement with joy. The leaven27 of his ideas had begun to stir the depths of her brilliant mind and pure heart! The defeats of the past were as nothing if they brought her again into his life.
He wrote her a long, tender, passionate28 appeal that he might see her again.
He posted it at midnight on the opening day of the Jubilee. He had read of her resignation only in the afternoon papers. The managers of the ceremonies had taken for granted her approval and announced that she would lead the pageant of symbolic29 floats on a snow-white horse as grand marshal.
Vassar waited with impatience30 for her answer the next day. If the mails were properly handled his letter should have reached her by noon. An immediate31 answer posted in Babylon at one o’clock might be delivered at Stuyvesant Square by six. He started at every call of the postman’s whistle in vain. He was sure an answer would come in the morning. Nothing came. He put his hand on the telephone once to call her and decided32 against the possibility of a second bungling33 of his cause.
Instead he called the post-office and learned that a congestion34 of mail, owing to the disorganization of the service by the Jubilee, had caused a delay of twenty-four hours in the delivery to points on Long Island.
He waited in vain another day. He walked alone through the crowded streets that night studying the curious contagion35 of hysteria which had swept the entire city from its moorings of an orderly sane36 life.
The din21 of horns and the shouts of boys and girls, crowding and jostling on the densely37 packed pavements, surpassed the orgies of any New Year’s riot he had ever witnessed. Every dance hall in Greater New York was thronged38 with merrymakers. The committee in charge of the Jubilee, supplied with unlimited39 money, had hired every foot of floor space that could be used for dancing and placed it at the disposal of the social organizations of the city. Wine was flowing like water. The police winked40 at folly41. A world’s holiday was on for a week.
Vassar visited Jack’s, Maxim’s, Bustanoby’s, Rector’s, and Churchill’s to watch the orgie at its height. Every seat was filled and surging crowds were waiting their turn at the tables. Hundreds of pretty girls, flushed with wine, were throwing confetti and thrusting feathers into the faces of passing men. The bolder of them were seated on the laps of their sweethearts, shouting the joys of peaceful conquest.
Professional dancers led the revelry with excesses of suggestive step and pose that brought wild rounds of approval from the more reckless observers.
Vassar left the last place at 12:30 with a sense of sickening anger. The fun had only begun. It would not reach the climax42 before two o’clock. At three the girls who were throwing confetti would be too drunk to sit in their chairs.
He drew a deep breath of fresh air and started up Broadway for a turn in the park.
He paused in front of a vacant cab. The chauffeur43 tipped his cap.
“Cab, sir? Free for two hours. Take you anywhere you want to go for a song. All mine on the side. Engaged here for the night. They won’t be out till morning. They’ve just set down.”
A sudden impulse seized him to drive past Waldron’s castle and see its illumination. No doubt the place would be a blaze of dazzling electric lights.
He called his order mechanically and stepped into the cab. His mind was not on the glowing lights or pleasure mad crowds. He was dreaming of the woman who had taken him to that house a little more than two years before. Every detail of that ride and interview with Waldron stood out now in his imagination with startling vividness. His mind persisted in picturing the two corseted young men who stepped from the elevator so suddenly. He wondered again what the devil they had been doing there and where they came from—and above all why they were accompanied by Villard.
Before he realized that he had started the river flashed in view from the heights south of Waldron’s castle. He had told the chauffeur to keep off the Drive, stick to Broadway and turn up Fort Washington Avenue which ran through the center of Waldron’s estate.
To his amazement44 the banker’s house was dark save the light from a single window in the tower that gleamed like the eye of a demon3 crouching45 in the shadows of the skies. The tall steel flag staff on the tower had been lengthened46 to a hundred and fifty feet. Its white line could be distinctly seen against the stars. And from the top of this staff now hung the arm of a wireless47 station. Waldron had no doubt gone in for wireless experiments as another one of his fads48.
Far up in the sky he caught the hum of an aeroplane motor. He leaped from the cab and listened. The sound was unmistakable. He had been on the Congressional committees and witnessed a hundred experiments by the Army Aviation Corps49.
“What the devil can that mean at one o’clock at night?” he muttered.
He leaped into the cab, calling to his driver:
“Go back to Times Square and drop me at the Times Building—quick.”
He made up his mind to report this extraordinary discovery to the night editor and try by his wireless plant to get in touch with Waldron’s tower.
The cab was just sweeping50 down Broadway between two famous restaurants and the orgies inside were at their height. The shouts and songs and drunken calls, the clash of dishes, the pop of champagne51 corks52 and twang of music poured through the open windows.
The cab suddenly lurched, and rose into the air, lifted on a floor of asphalt. An explosion shook the earth and ripped the sky with a sword of flame.
The cab crashed downward and lit squarely on the flat roof of a low-pitched building right side up.
Vassar leaped out in time to hear the dull roar of the second explosion.
The first had blown up and blocked the subway and elevated systems. The second had destroyed the power plants of the surface lines.
It had come—the war he had vainly fought to prevent! And he knew with unerring certainty the hand and brain directing the first treacherous53 assault.
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1
sublimest
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| 伟大的( sublime的最高级 )； 令人赞叹的； 极端的； 不顾后果的 | |
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banish
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| vt.放逐，驱逐；消除，排除 | |
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demon
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| n.魔鬼，恶魔 | |
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orator
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| n.演说者，演讲者，雄辩家 | |
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defense
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| n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩 | |
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doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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acclaimed
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| adj.受人欢迎的 | |
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ratify
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| v.批准，认可，追认 | |
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dissenting
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| adj.不同意的 | |
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tariff
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| n.关税，税率；(旅馆、饭店等)价目表，收费表 | |
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distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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glut
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| n.存货过多，供过于求；v.狼吞虎咽 | |
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laborers
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| n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工 | |
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14
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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avarice
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| n.贪婪；贪心 | |
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advantageous
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| adj.有利的；有帮助的 | |
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aggregate
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| adj.总计的，集合的；n.总数；v.合计；集合 | |
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19
warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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jubilee
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| n.周年纪念；欢乐 | |
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din
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| n.喧闹声，嘈杂声 | |
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lavish
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| adj.无节制的；浪费的；vt.慷慨地给予，挥霍 | |
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23
expenditure
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| n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出；使用，消耗 | |
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pageant
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| n.壮观的游行；露天历史剧 | |
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oratory
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| n.演讲术；词藻华丽的言辞 | |
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federation
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| n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会 | |
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leaven
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| v.使发酵；n.酵母；影响 | |
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passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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symbolic
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| adj.象征性的，符号的，象征主义的 | |
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impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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31
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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32
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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33
bungling
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| adj.笨拙的，粗劣的v.搞糟，完不成( bungle的现在分词 )；笨手笨脚地做；失败；完不成 | |
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34
congestion
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| n.阻塞，消化不良 | |
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contagion
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| n.(通过接触的疾病)传染；蔓延 | |
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sane
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| adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的 | |
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densely
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| ad.密集地；浓厚地 | |
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thronged
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| v.成群，挤满( throng的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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unlimited
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| adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的 | |
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40
winked
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| v.使眼色( wink的过去式和过去分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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41
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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42
climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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43
chauffeur
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| n.(受雇于私人或公司的)司机；v.为…开车 | |
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44
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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45
crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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46
lengthened
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| （时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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47
wireless
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| adj.无线的；n.无线电 | |
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48
fads
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| n.一时的流行，一时的风尚( fad的名词复数 ) | |
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49
corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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50
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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51
champagne
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| n.香槟酒；微黄色 | |
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52
corks
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| n.脐梅衣；软木( cork的名词复数 )；软木塞 | |
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53
treacherous
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| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
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