pardon--until at last he was out of the crowd, and standing in the
open way which had been cleared for the procession, a seemingly
endless road lined with solid walls of human beings, with
blue-uniformed policemen holding them back. Peter started to run
across--and at that same instant came the end of the world.






Section 2





One who seeks to tell about events in words comes occasionally upon
a fundamental difficulty. An event of colossal and overwhelming
significance may happen all at once, but the words which describe it
have to come one by one in a long chain. The event may reveal itself
without a moment's warning; but if one is to give a sense of it in
words, one must prepare for it, build up to it, awaken anticipation,
establish a climax. If the description of this event which fate
sprung upon Peter Gudge as he was crossing the street were limited
to the one word "BANG" in letters a couple of inches high across the
page, the impression would hardly be adequate.

The end of the world, it seemed to Peter, when he was able to
collect enough of his terrified wits to think about it. But at first