Page:The world set free.djvu/150

 mental setting had far more of the effect of a huge natural catastrophe. The atomic bombs had dwarfed the international issues to complete insignificance. When our minds wandered from the preoccupations of our immediate needs, we speculated upon the possibility of stopping the use of these frightful explosives before the world was utterly destroyed. For to us it seemed quite plain that these bombs and the still greater power of destruction of which they were the precursors might quite easily shatter every relationship and institution of mankind.

What will they be doing,' asked Mylius, 'what will they be doing? It's plain we've got to put an end to war. It's plain things have to be run some way. This—all this—is impossible.'

"I made no immediate answer. Something—I cannot think what—had brought back to me the figure of that man I had seen wounded on the very first day of actual fighting. I saw again his angry, tearful eyes, and that poor, dripping, bloody mess that had been a skilful human hand five minutes before, thrust out in indignant protest. 'Damned foolery,' he had stormed and sobbed, 'damned foolery. My right hand, sir! My right hand!'

'My faith had for a time gone altogether out of me. "I think we are too—too silly," I said