Page:Thea von Harbou Metropolis eng 1927.pdf/161

 METROPOLIS "Deathl" yelled the victorious mob. «Death to the machinesl" yelled the victorious moh. They did not see that they no longer had a leader. They did not see that the girl was missing from the procession. The girl was standing hefore the Heart-machine of the city. Her smile was cool and silver. She stretched out her hand, which was more dellcate than glass. she seized the weighty lever. which was set to «Safety," She pressed the lever round, still smiling, then walked out. with light, mad, step. . Behind her the machine began to race. Above the deep mysteries of its delicate joints, like the sun's disc-like the halo of a divine being-stood the silver racing wheel, the spokes of which appeared. in the whirl of revolution. as a single circling disc. The heart of Metropolis, Joh Fredersen's city, hegan to run up a temperature, seized by a deadly illness. ','.

CHAPTER XVI "FATHER-II' Joh Fredersen's son knew quite well that his father could not hear him. for he, the son, was standing in the lowest part of the pedestal of the New Tower of Bahel, whither the twitching pulse of the street had tlu:own him. and his father was high, high, above the boiling of the city, the untouched brain. in the cool brain-pan. But yet he shouted for him and had to shout, and his shout, itself, was a cry for help and an accusation. The round structure of the New Tower of Babel was throwing up people who pushed out into the street, laughing as if insane. They were sucked up by the pulp of those in the street. The New Tower of Babel was deserted. Those who had occupied its rooms and passages-those who had been poured by the buckets of the Pater-noster works down to

166