Investigations of the Future by Brian Stableford

Author:Brian Stableford [Stableford, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Black Coat Press
Published: 2012-10-23T00:00:00+00:00

V. The Engineer

I had learned in Denver that John Eddy had installed himself some time before in a territory that was very sparsely populated. Once in the Far West, I immediately set out I search of the celebrated engineer, very hopeful of obtaining from my visit a few useful notes about the organization of the world of the future. In that region, barely furrowed by few poor trails that marked out occasional embryonic villages, it is difficult for a traveler to obtain information. Moreover, John Eddy, having retreated so far in order to avoid the curiosity of his compatriots, carefully concealed his address. So it was by chance that I picked up his trail. I immediately hired a guide, who, for an immoderate price, consented to take me through the mountain country the bordered the prairies, and we left.

After a long day of exceedingly difficult travel, we arrived at a farmhouse, similar to three or four that we had previously encountered, but better constructed. According to the directions, it had to be John Eddy’s. We introduced ourselves as travelers asking for shelter for the night.

I was allowed into a hallway where I saw the conditions of hospitality pinned up in three languages: English, German and Italian. It was afforded according to a fixed but high tariff. I obtained tickets for our rooms and supper, and for fodder and stabling for our horses, from automatic distributors. After briefly freshening up, we sat down at table.

No one asked who we were or what we wanted. Serving-women busied themselves with their occupations without paying any more attention to us than they would if they had known us for a long time. We had encountered those alert and vigorous female servants everywhere, in the hallway as well as the dining-room and the stables. It is necessary to say that a nearby waterfall had singularly simplified the service, for electricity was distributed in abundance and in all its forms: light, motive force, heat, ventilation, telephones, etc.

When we were sufficiently restored, my guide felt the need to go to bed, and I allowed him to retire alone, counting on taking advantage of being alone with the serving-woman in order to question her and find out from her how to get to see her master. At hazard, I had filled my pockets with the catalogues of illustrious French manufacturers, and although it was improbable that a French company had ever had the audacity to send a commercial traveler to the Far West, I introduced myself as such to the serving-woman.

Without pausing in clearing the table, she was letting me speak with the indifference of a deaf-mute, when a tall fellow came in, in short sleeves, who looked like some kind of civil servant. I called to him and asked him whether the boss—whose name I was careful not to pronounce—might like to see some quite extraordinary models of dynamos.

“No,” he replied, in a tone so lacking in courtesy that I countered, rudely:

“How do you know? Are you

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