The wind whistled, the air seemed to be stuffed to the limit with
something invisible. I had difficulty in breathing, difficulty in
walking, and with difficulty, slowly but without stopping for a
second the hand of the Accumulating Tower was crawling, at the
end of the avenue. The peak of the Tower reached into the very
clouds;--dull, blue, groaning in a subdued way, sucking electricity
from the clouds. The tubes of the Musical Tower resounded.
As always--four abreast. But the rows did not seem as firm as usual;
they were swinging, bending more and more, perhaps because of the
wind. There! They seemed to have stumbled upon something at the
corner, and they drew back and stopped, congealed, a close mass, a
clot, breathing rapidly; at once all had stretched their necks like
geese.
"Look! No look, look--there, quick!"
"_They?_ Are those _they_?"
"Ah, never! Never! I'd rather put my head straight into the
Machine...."
"Silence! Are you crazy?"
On the corner the doors of the auditorium were ajar, a heavy column
of about fifty people--. The word "people" is not the right one.
These were heavy-wheeled automatons bound in iron and moved by an
invisible mechanism. Not people but a sort of human-like tractor.
Over their heads, floating in the air--a white banner with a golden
sun embroidered on it, and the rays of the sun: "We are the first!
We have already been operated upon! Follow us, all of you!"
They slowly, unhesitatingly mowed through the crowd, and it was
clear that if they had had in their way a wall, a tree, a house,
they would have moved on with no more hesitation through wall, tree
or house. In the middle of the avenue they fused and stretched out
into a chain, arm in arm, their faces turned towards us. And we,
a human clot, tense, the hair pricking our heads, we waited. Our
necks were stretched out goose-fashion. Clouds. The wind whistled.
Suddenly the wings of the chain from right and left bent quickly
around us, and faster, faster, like a heavy engine descending a
hill, they closed the ring and pulled us toward the yawning doors
and inside....