Page:The Wreck of a World - Grove - 1890.djvu/38

22 forces of the enemy increased and multiplied. Not only so, but each new-born machine was of a higher and more powerful type than its progenitors, as we afterwards learnt to our cost. Not only in structural features was this the case, but in the intelligent powers, if I may so call them, there was a progressive development. Our man-made Engines had a certain power of self-preservation: they could stop themselves in the presence of danger; but the new generation of nature-made, or demon-made machines, possessed powers of attack. They could pursue their foes, and when overtaken employ all their complex rescources in conflict. Nay more, they showed themselves capable of combination—of acting in concert—which is more than can be accomplished by the humbler members of the animal world.

It was about a year after the events recorded in the last chapter that the storm burst. I was then living, a widower of eighteen months standing, alone with my daughter Aurelia, at Jefferson City, Missouri, where I had some practice as a consulting physician: though in truth I regarded the pursuit of my legitimate profession as little more than a distraction, my