r than beggars. They were people
in whom the desire of life played a minor part. They were those people
who are commonly regarded as being failures, people who live and die
unknown to the world. They were those people who devote themselves to an
obscure existence, shun the rewards of successful careers, and are
ridiculed by all prosperous individuals. It seems that Thornduck was
instrumental in calling a meeting of these people at St. Paul's. There
were about two thousand of them in all, but many in the outlying suburbs
remained ignorant of the meeting, and Thornduck considers that in the
London district alone there must have been some thousands who did not
attend. At the meeting, which must have been the strangest in all
history, the question of the future was discussed. Many believed that
the effect of the germ on those in the great sleep would ultimately lead
to a cessation of life owing to starvation. Thornduck held that the germ
would pass, arguing on principles that were so unscientific that I
refrain from giving them. Eventually it appears that a decision was
reached to leave London on a certain date and migrate southwards in
search of a region where a colony might be founded under laws and
customs suitable for Immortals. Thornduck says that there was one thing
that struck him very forcibly at the meeting at St. Paul's. All the
people gathered there had about them a certain sweetness and strength,
which, although it was very noticeable, escaped his powers of analysis.

He attempted on several occasions to get into telegraphic communication
with the Continent, but failed. In his wanderings he entered many homes,
always being careful to lay out at full length any of the unconscious
inmates who were asleep on chairs, for he feared that they might come to
harm, and that their limbs might become stiffened into unnatural
postures.

All the time he had a firm conviction that the phase of sleep was
temporary. He himself had moments in which a slight drowsiness overtook
him, but he never lost the enhanced power of thought that I had
experienced in the early stages of the Blue Disease. So absolute was
his conviction that a general awakening would come about that he began
to busy his mind with the question as to what he could do, in
conjunction with the other Immortals who were still awake, to benefit
humanity when it should emerge from the trance. This question was
discussed continually. Many thought that they should burn