Van Deventer spoke encouragingly, and then asked for volunteers for
immediate work. There was hardly any response. Every one seemed
sunk in despondency. Arthur then began to talk straight from the
shoulder and succeeded in rousing them a little, but every one was
still rather too frightened to realize that work could help at all.

In desperation the dozen or so men who had gathered in Van Deventer's
office went about among the gathering and simply selected men at
random, ordering them to follow and begin work. This began to awaken
the crowd, but they wakened to fear rather than resolution. They
were city-bred, and unaccustomed to face the unusual or the alarming.

Arthur noted the new restlessness, but attributed it to growing
uneasiness rather than selfish panic. He was rather pleased that they
were outgrowing their apathy. When the meeting had come to an end he
felt satisfied that by morning the latent resolution among the people
would have crystallized and they would be ready to work earnestly
and intelligently on whatever tasks they were directed to undertake.

He returned to the ground floor of the building feeling much more
hopeful than before. Two thousand people all earnestly working
for one end are hard to down even when faced with such a task as
confronted the inhabitants of the runaway skyscraper. Even if they
were never able to return to modern times they would still be able
to form a community that might do much to hasten the development
of civilization in other parts of the world.

His hope received a rude shock when he reached the great hallway on
the lower floor. There was a fruit and confectionery stand here, and