Page 69 - BraveNewWorld

IDPH 69

Six times twenty-four-no, it would be nearer six times thirty-six. Bernard was
pale and trembling with impatience. But inexorably the booming continued.

“. about sixty thousand Indians and half-breeds. absolute savages. our inspec-
tors occasionally visit. otherwise, no communication whatever with the civili-
zed world. still preserve their repulsive habits and customs. marriage, if you
know what that is, my dear young lady; families. no conditioning. monstrous
superstitions. Christianity and totemism and ancestor worship. extinct langua-
ges, such as Zuñi and Spanish and Athapascan. pumas, porcupines and other
ferocious animals. infectious diseases. priests. venomous lizards .”
“You don’t say so?”
They got away at last. Bernard dashed to the telephone. Quick, quick; but it
took him nearly three minutes to get on to Helmholtz Watson. “We might be
among the savages already,” he complained. “Damned incompetence!”

“Have a gramme,” suggested Lenina.
He refused, preferring his anger. And at last, thank Ford, he was through and,
yes, it was Helmholtz; Helmholtz, to whom he explained what had happened,
and who promised to go round at once, at once, and turn off the tap, yes, at
once, but took this opportunity to tell him what the D.H.C. had said, in public,
yesterday evening.
“What? He’s looking out for some one to take my place?” Bernard’s voice was
agonized. “So it’s actually decided? Did he mention Iceland? You say he did?
Ford! Iceland .” He hung up the receiver and turned back to Lenina. His face
was pale, his expression utterly dejected.

“What’s the matter?” she asked.
“The matter?” He dropped heavily into a chair. “I’m going to be sent to Ice-
land.”
Often in the past he had wondered what it would be like to be subjected (soma-
less and with nothing but his own inward resources to rely on) to some great tri-
al, some pain, some persecution; he had even longed for affliction. As recently
as a week ago, in the Director’s office, he had imagined himself courageously
resisting, stoically accepting suffering without a word. The Director’s threats
had actually elated him, made him feel larger than life. But that, as he now
realized, was because he had not taken the threats quite seriously, he had not
believed that, when it came to the point, the D.H.C. would ever do anything.
Now that it looked as though the threats were really to be fulfilled, Bernard was
appalled. Of that imagined stoicism, that theoretical courage, not a trace was
left.
He raged against himself-what a fool!-against the Director-how unfair not to

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