METROPOLIS
CHAPTER IX THE AEROPLANE which had carried }osaphat away from Metropolis swam in the golden air of the setting sun, rushing towards it at a tearing speed, as though fastened to the westward sinking ball by metal cords. ]osaphat sat behind the pilot. From the moment when the aerodrome bad sunk below them and the stone mosaic of the great Metropolis had paled away into the inscrutable depths, he had not given the least token that he was a human being with the faculty for breathing and moving. The pilot seemed to be taking a pale grey stone, which had the form of a man. with him as freight and. when he once turned around. he looked full into the wide open eyes of this petrified being without meeting a glance or the least sign of consciousness. Nevertheless Josaphat had intercepted the movement of the pilot's head with his brain. Not immediately. Not soon. Yet the vision of this cautious, yet certain and vigilant movement remained in his memory until he at last comprehended it. Then the petrified image seemed to become a human being again, whose breast rose in a long neglected breath, who raised his eyes upwards, looking into the empty greenish blue sky and down again to the earth which formed a Bat, round carpet, deep down in infinity-and at the sun which was rolling westwards like a glowing ball. Last of all, however, at the head of the pilot who sat before him, at the airman's cap which turned, neckless, into shoulders filled with a bull-like strength and a forceful calm. The powerful engine of the aeroplane worked in perfect silence. But the air through which the aeroplane tore was fined with a mysterious thunder, as though the dome of heaven were catching up the roaring in the globe and throwing it angrily back again.
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