THE WORLD SET FREE
been silent ever since I had come into the district, were beginning, with a sort of rheumatic difficulty, to ring. Presently they warmed a little to the work, and we realised what was going on. They were ringing a peal. We listened with an unbelieving astonishment and looking into each other's yellow faces.
"'They mean it,' said my colleague.
"'But what can they do now?' I asked. 'Everything is broken down. . . .'"
And on that sentence, with an unexpected artistry, Barnet abruptly ends his story.
§ 5.
From the first the new government handled affairs with a certain greatness of spirit. Indeed, it was inevitable that they should act greatly. From the first they had to see the round globe as one problem; it was impossible any longer to deal with it piece by piece. They had to secure it universally from any fresh outbreak of atomic destruction, and they had to ensure a permanent and universal pacification. On this capacity to grasp and wield the whole round globe their existence depended. There was no scope for any further performance.
So soon as the seizure of the existing supplies of atomic ammunition and the apparatus for
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