Oro And Arbuthnot Travel By Night

: When The World Shook

As time went on, Oro began to visit me more and more frequently, till at

last scarcely a night went by that he did not appear mysteriously in my

sleeping-place. The odd thing was that neither Bickley nor Bastin seemed

to be aware of these nocturnal calls. Indeed, when I mentioned them on

one or two occasions, they stared at me and said it was strange that he

should have come and gone as they saw nothing of him.


br /> On my speaking again of the matter, Bickley at once turned the

conversation, from which I gathered that he believed me to be suffering

from delusions consequent on my illness, or perhaps to have taken

to dreaming. This was not wonderful since, as I learned afterwards,

Bickley, after he was sure that I was asleep, made a practice of tying

a thread across my doorway and of ascertaining at the dawn that it

remained unbroken. But Oro was not to be caught in that way. I suppose,

as it was impossible for him to pass through the latticework of the open

side of the house, that he undid the thread and fastened it again when

he left; at least, that was Bastin's explanation, or, rather, one of

them. Another was that he crawled beneath it, but this I could not

believe. I am quite certain that during all his prolonged existence Oro

never crawled.



At any rate, he came, or seemed to come, and pumped me--I can use no

other word--most energetically as to existing conditions in the

world, especially those of the civilised countries, their methods of

government, their social state, the physical characteristics of the

various races, their religions, the exact degrees of civilisation that

they had developed, their attainments in art, science and literature,

their martial capacities, their laws, and I know not what besides.



I told him all I could, but did not in the least seem to satisfy his

perennial thirst for information.



"I should prefer to judge for myself," he said at last. "Why are you so

anxious to learn about all these nations, Oro?" I asked, exhausted.



"Because the knowledge I gather may affect my plans for the future," he

replied darkly.



"I am told, Oro, that your people acquired the power of transporting

themselves from place to place."



"It is true that the lords of the Sons of Wisdom had such power, and

that I have it still, O Humphrey."



"Then why do you not go to look with your own eyes?" I suggested.



"Because I should need a guide; one who could explain much in a short

time," he said, contemplating me with his burning glance until I began

to feel uncomfortable.



To change the subject I asked him whether he had any further information

about the war, which he had told me was raging in Europe.



He answered: "Not much; only that it was going on with varying success,

and would continue to do so until the nations involved therein were

exhausted," or so he believed. The war did not seem greatly to interest

Oro. It was, he remarked, but a small affair compared to those which he

had known in the old days. Then he departed, and I went to sleep.



Next night he appeared again, and, after talking a little on different

subjects, remarked quietly that he had been thinking over what I had

said as to his visiting the modern world, and intended to act upon the

suggestion.



"When?" I asked.



"Now," he said. "I am going to visit this England of yours and the town

you call London, and you will accompany me."



"It is not possible!" I exclaimed. "We have no ship."



"We can travel without a ship," said Oro.



I grew alarmed, and suggested that Bastin or Bickley would be a much

better companion than I should in my present weak state.



"An empty-headed man, or one who always doubts and argues, would be

useless," he replied sharply. "You shall come and you only."



I expostulated; I tried to get up and fly--which, indeed, I did do, in

another sense.



But Oro fixed his eyes upon me and slowly waved his thin hand to and fro

above my head.



My senses reeled. Then came a great darkness.





They returned again. Now I was standing in an icy, reeking fog, which I

knew could belong to one place only--London, in December, and at my side

was Oro.



"Is this the climate of your wonderful city?" he asked, or seemed to

ask, in an aggrieved tone.



I replied that it was, for about three months in the year, and began to

look about me.



Soon I found my bearings. In front of me were great piles of buildings,

looking dim and mysterious in the fog, in which I recognised the Houses

of Parliament and Westminster Abbey, for both could be seen from where

we stood in front of the Westminster Bridge Station. I explained their

identity to Oro.



"Good," he said. "Let us enter your Place of Talk."



"But I am not a member, and we have no passes for the Strangers'

Gallery," I expostulated.



"We shall not need any," he replied contemptuously. "Lead on."



Thus adjured, I crossed the road, Oro following me. Looking round, to

my horror I saw him right in the path of a motor-bus which seemed to go

over him.



"There's an end to Oro," thought I to myself. "Well, at any rate, I have

got home."



Next instant he was at my side quite undisturbed by the incident of the

bus. We came to a policeman at the door and I hesitated, expecting to

be challenged. But the policeman seemed absolutely indifferent to our

presence, even when Oro marched past him in his flowing robes. So

I followed with a like success. Then I understood that we must be

invisible.



We passed to the lobby, where members were hurrying to and fro, and

constituents and pressmen were gathered, and so on into the House. Oro

walked up its floor and took his stand by the table, in front of the

Speaker. I followed him, none saying us No.



As it chanced there was what is called a scene in progress--I think it

was over Irish matters; the details are of no account. Members shouted,

Ministers prevaricated and grew angry, the Speaker intervened. On the

whole, it was rather a degrading spectacle. I stood, or seemed to

stand, and watched it all. Oro, in his sweeping robes, which looked

so incongruous in that place, stepped, or seemed to step, up to the

principal personages of the Government and Opposition, whom I indicated

to him, and inspected them one by one, as a naturalist might examine

strange insects. Then, returning to me, he said:



"Come away; I have seen and heard enough. Who would have thought that

this nation of yours was struggling for its life in war?"



We passed out of the House and somehow came to Trafalgar Square. A

meeting was in progress there, convened, apparently, to advocate the

rights of Labour, also those of women, also to protest against things

in general, especially the threat of Conscription in the service of the

country.



Here the noise was tremendous, and, the fog having lifted somewhat, we

could see everything. Speakers bawled from the base of Nelson's column.

Their supporters cheered, their adversaries rushed at them, and in one

or two instances succeeded in pulling them down. A woman climbed up

and began to scream out something which could only be heard by a few

reporters gathered round her. I thought her an unpleasant-looking

person, and evidently her remarks were not palatable to the majority of

her auditors. There was a rush, and she was dragged from the base of one

of Landseer's lions on which she stood. Her skirt was half rent off

her and her bodice split down the back. Finally, she was conveyed

away, kicking, biting, and scratching, by a number of police. It was a

disgusting sight, and tumult ensued.



"Let us go," said Oro. "Your officers of order are good; the rest is not

good."



Later we found ourselves opposite to the doors of a famous restaurant

where a magnificent and gigantic commissionaire helped ladies from

motor-cars, receiving in return money from the men who attended on them.

We entered; it was the hour of dinner. The place sparkled with gems,

and the naked backs of the women gleamed in the electric light. Course

followed upon course; champagne flowed, a fine band played, everything

was costly; everything was, in a sense, repellent.



"These are the wealthy citizens of a nation engaged in fighting for its

life," remarked Oro to me, stroking his long beard. "It is interesting,

very interesting. Let us go."



We went out and on, passing a public-house crowded with women who had

left their babies in charge of children in the icy street. It was a

day of Intercession for the success of England in the war. This was

placarded everywhere. We entered, or, rather, Oro did, I following

him, one of the churches in the Strand where an evening service was in

progress. The preacher in the pulpit, a very able man, was holding forth

upon the necessity for national repentance and self-denial; also of

prayer. In the body of the church exactly thirty-two people, most

of them elderly women, were listening to him with an air of placid

acceptance.



"The priest talks well, but his hearers are not many," said Oro. "Let us

go."



We came to the flaunting doors of a great music-hall and passed through

them, though to others this would have been impossible, for the place

was filled from floor to roof. In its promenades men were drinking and

smoking, while gaudy women, painted and low-robed, leered at them. On

the stage girls danced, throwing their legs above their heads. Then they

vanished amidst applause, and a woman in a yellow robe, who pretended

to be tipsy, sang a horrible and vulgar song full of topical allusions,

which was received with screams of delight by the enormous audience.



"Here the hearers are very many, but those to whom they listen do not

talk well. Let us go," said Oro, and we went.



At a recruiting station we paused a moment to consider posters supposed

to be attractive, the very sight of which sent a thrill of shame through

me. I remember that the inscription under one of them was: "What will

your best girl say?"



"Is that how you gather your soldiers? Later it will be otherwise," said

Oro, and passed on.



We reached Blackfriars and entered a hall at the doors of which stood

women in poke-bonnets, very sweet-faced, earnest-looking women. Their

countenances seemed to strike Oro, and he motioned me to follow him

into the hall. It was quite full of a miserable-looking congregation

of perhaps a thousand people. A man in the blue and red uniform of the

Salvation Army was preaching of duty to God and country, of self-denial,

hope and forgiveness. He seemed a humble person, but his words were

earnest, and love flowed from him. Some of his miserable congregation

wept, others stared at him open-mouthed, a few, who were very weary,

slept. He called them up to receive pardon, and a number, led by the

sweet-faced women, came and knelt before him. He and others whispered to

them, then seemed to bless them, and they rose with their faces changed.



"Let us go," said Oro. "I do not understand these rites, but at last

in your great and wonderful city I have seen something that is pure and

noble."



We went out. In the streets there was great excitement. People ran to

and fro pointing upwards. Searchlights, like huge fingers of flame,

stole across the sky; guns boomed. At last, in the glare of a

searchlight, we saw a long and sinister object floating high above us

and gleaming as though it were made of silver. Flashes came from it

followed by terrible booming reports that grew nearer and nearer. A

house collapsed with a crash just behind us.



"Ah!" said Oro, with a smile. "I know this--it is war, war as it was

when the world was different and yet the same."



As he spoke, a motor-bus rumbled past. Another flash and explosion. A

man, walking with his arms round the waist of a girl just ahead of

us; seemed to be tossed up and to melt. The girl fell in a heap on the

pavement; somehow her head and her feet had come quite close together

and yet she appeared to be sitting down. The motor-bus burst into

fragments and its passengers hurtled through the air, mere hideous lumps

that had been men and women. The head of one of them came dancing down

the pavement towards us, a cigar still stuck in the corner of its mouth.



"Yes, this is war," said Oro. "It makes me young again to see it. But

does this city of yours understand?"



We watched a while. A crowd gathered. Policemen ran up, ambulances came.

The place was cleared, and all that was left they carried away. A few

minutes later another man passed by with his arm round the waist of

another girl. Another motor-bus rumbled up, and, avoiding the hole in

the roadway, travelled on, its conductor keeping a keen look-out for

fares.



The street was cleared by the police; the airship continued its course,

spawning bombs in the distance, and vanished. The incident was closed.



"Let us go home," said Oro. "I have seen enough of your great and

wonderful city. I would rest in the quiet of Nyo and think."



The next thing that I remember was the voice of Bastin, saying:



"If you don't mind, Arbuthnot, I wish that you would get up. The

Glittering Lady (he still called her that) is coming here to have a talk

with me which I should prefer to be private. Excuse me for disturbing

you, but you have overslept yourself; indeed, I think it must be nine

o'clock, so far as I can judge by the sun, for my watch is very erratic

now, ever since Bickley tried to clean it."



"I am sorry, my dear fellow," I said sleepily, "but do you know I

thought I was in London--in fact, I could swear that I have been there."



"Then," interrupted Bickley, who had followed Bastin into the hut,

giving me that doubtful glance with which I was now familiar, "I wish to

goodness that you had brought back an evening paper with you."



A night or two later I was again suddenly awakened to feel that Oro was

approaching. He appeared like a ghost in the bright moonlight, greeted

me, and said:



"Tonight, Humphrey, we must make another journey. I would visit the seat

of the war."



"I do not wish to go," I said feebly.



"What you wish does not matter," he replied. "I wish that you should go,

and therefore you must."



"Listen, Oro," I exclaimed. "I do not like this business; it seems

dangerous to me."



"There is no danger if you are obedient, Humphrey."



"I think there is. I do not understand what happens. Do you make use of

what the Lady Yva called the Fourth Dimension, so that our bodies

pass over the seas and through mountains, like the vibrations of our

Wireless, of which I was speaking to you?"



"No, Humphrey. That method is good and easy, but I do not use it because

if I did we should be visible in the places which we visit, since there

all the atoms that make a man would collect together again and be a

man."



"What, then, do you do?" I asked, exasperated.



"Man, Humphrey, is not one; he is many. Thus, amongst other things he

has a Double, which can see and hear, as he can in the flesh, if it is

separated from the flesh."



"The old Egyptians believed that," I said.



"Did they? Doubtless they inherited the knowledge from us, the Sons of

Wisdom. The cup of our learning was so full that, keep it secret as we

would, from time to time some of it overflowed among the vulgar, and

doubtless thus the light of our knowledge still burns feebly in the

world."



I reflected to myself that whatever might be their other

characteristics, the Sons of Wisdom had lost that of modesty, but I only

asked how he used his Double, supposing that it existed.



"Very easily," he answered. "In sleep it can be drawn from the body and

sent upon its mission by one that is its master."



"Then while you were asleep for all those thousands of years your Double

must have made many journeys."



"Perhaps," he replied quietly, "and my spirit also, which is another

part of me that may have dwelt in the bodies of other men. But

unhappily, if so I forget, and that is why I have so much to learn and

must even make use of such poor instruments as you, Humphrey."



"Then if I sleep and you distil my Double out of me, I suppose that you

sleep too. In that case who distils your Double out of you, Lord Oro?"



He grew angry and answered:



"Ask no more questions, blind and ignorant as you are. It is your part

not to examine, but to obey. Sleep now," and again he waved his hand

over me.





In an instant, as it seemed, we were standing in a grey old town that I

judged from its appearance must be either in northern France or Belgium.

It was much shattered by bombardment; the church, for instance, was a

ruin; also many of the houses had been burnt. Now, however, no firing

was going on for the town had been taken. The streets were full of armed

men wearing the German uniform and helmet. We passed down them and

were able to see into the houses. In some of these were German soldiers

engaged in looting and in other things so horrible that even the unmoved

Oro turned away his head.



We came to the market-place. It was crowded with German troops, also

with a great number of the inhabitants of the town, most of them elderly

men and women with children, who had fallen into their power. The

Germans, under the command of officers, were dragging the men from

the arms of their wives and children to one side, and with rifle-butts

beating back the screaming women. Among the men I noticed two or three

priests who were doing their best to soothe their companions and even

giving them absolution in hurried whispers.



At length the separation was effected, whereon at a hoarse word of

command, a company of soldiers began to fire at the men and continued

doing so until all had fallen. Then petty officers went among the

slaughtered and with pistols blew out the brains of any who still moved.



"These butchers, you say, are Germans?" asked Oro of me.



"Yes," I answered, sick with horror, for though I was in the mind and

not in the body, I could feel as the mind does. Had I been in the body

also, I should have fainted.



"Then we need not waste time in visiting their country. It is enough;

let us go on."



We passed out into the open land and came to a village. It was in the

occupation of German cavalry. Two of them held a little girl of nine

or ten, one by her body, the other by her right hand. An officer stood

between them with a drawn sword fronting the terrified child. He was

a horrible, coarse-faced man who looked to me as though he had been

drinking.



"I'll teach the young devil to show us the wrong road and let those

French swine escape," he shouted, and struck with the sword. The girl's

right hand fell to the ground.



"War as practised by the Germans!" remarked Oro. Then he stepped, or

seemed to step up to the man and whispered, or seemed to whisper, in his

ear.



I do not know what tongue or what spirit speech he used, or what he

said, but the bloated-faced brute turned pale. Yes, he drew sick with

fear.



"I think there are spirits in this place," he said with a German oath.

"I could have sworn that something told me that I was going to die.

Mount!"



The Uhlans mounted and began to ride away.



"Watch," said Oro.



As he spoke out of a dark cloud appeared an aeroplane. Its pilot saw the

band of Germans beneath and dropped a bomb. The aim was good, for the

missile exploded in the midst of them, causing a great cloud of dust

from which arose the screams of men and horses.



"Come and see," said Oro.



We were there. Out of the cloud of dust appeared one man galloping

furiously. He was a young fellow who, as I noted, had turned his head

away and hidden his eyes with his hand when the horror was done yonder.

All the others were dead except the officer who had worked the deed. He

was still living, but both his hands and one of his feet had been blown

away. Presently he died, screaming to God for mercy.



We passed on and came to a barn with wide doors that swung a little in

the wind, causing the rusted hinges to scream like a creature in pain.

On each of these doors hung a dead man crucified. The hat of one of

them lay upon the ground, and I knew from the shape of it that he was a

Colonial soldier.



"Did you not tell me," said Oro after surveying them, "that these

Germans are of your Christian faith?"



"Yes; and the Name of God is always on their ruler's lips."



"Ah!" he said, "I am glad that I worship Fate. Bastin the priest need

trouble me no more."



"There is something behind Fate," I said, quoting Bastin himself.



"Perhaps. So indeed I have always held, but after much study I cannot

understand the manner of its working. Fate is enough for me."



We went on and came to a flat country that was lined with ditches, all

of them full of men, Germans on one side, English and French upon the

other. A terrible bombardment shook the earth, the shells raining upon

the ditches. Presently that from the English guns ceased and out of the

trenches in front of them thousands of men were vomited, who ran forward

through a hail of fire in which scores and hundreds fell, across an open

piece of ground that was pitted with shell craters. They came to barbed

wire defenses, or what remained of them, cut the wire with nippers and

pulled up the posts. Then through the gaps they surged in, shouting and

hurling hand grenades. They reached the German trenches, they leapt into

them and from those holes arose a hellish din. Pistols were fired and

everywhere bayonets flashed.



Behind them rushed a horde of little, dark-skinned men, Indians who

carried great knives in their hands. Those leapt over the first trench

and running on with wild yells, dived into the second, those who were

left of them, and there began hacking with their knives at the defenders

and the soldiers who worked the spitting maxim guns. In twenty minutes

it was over; those lines of trenches were taken, and once more from

either side the guns began to boom.



"War again," said Oro, "clean, honest war, such as the god I call Fate

decrees for man. I have seen enough. Now I would visit those whom you

call Turks. I understand they have another worship and perhaps they are

nobler than these Christians."



We came to a hilly country which I recognised as Armenia, for once I

travelled there, and stopped on an seashore. Here were the Turks in

thousands. They were engaged in driving before them mobs of men, women

and children in countless numbers. On and on they drove them till

they reached the shore. There they massacred them with bayonets, with

bullets, or by drowning. I remember a dreadful scene of a poor woman

standing up to her waist in the water. Three children were clinging to

her--but I cannot go on, really I cannot go on. In the end a Turk waded

out and bayoneted her while she strove to protect the last living child

with her poor body whence it sprang.



"These, I understand," said Oro, pointing to the Turkish soldiers,

"worship a prophet who they say is the voice of God."



"Yes," I answered, "and therefore they massacre these who are Christians

because they worship God without a prophet."



"And what do the Christians massacre each other for?"



"Power and the wealth and territories that are power. That is, the King

of the Germans wishes to rule the world, but the other Nations do not

desire his dominion. Therefore they fight for Liberty and Justice."



"As it was, so it is and shall be," remarked Oro, "only with this

difference. In the old world some were wise, but here--" and he stopped,

his eyes fixed upon the Armenian woman struggling in her death agony

while the murderer drowned her child, then added: "Let us go."



Our road ran across the sea. On it we saw a ship so large that it

attracted Oro's attention, and for once he expressed astonishment.



"In my day," he said, "we had no vessels of this greatness in the world.

I wish to look upon it."



We landed on the deck of the ship, or rather the floating palace, and

examined her. She carried many passengers, some English, some American,

and I pointed out to Oro the differences between the two peoples. These

were not, he remarked, very wide except that the American women wore

more jewels, also that some of the American men, to whom we listened

as they conversed, spoke of the greatness of their country, whereas

the Englishmen, if they said anything concerning it, belittled their

country.



Presently, on the surface of the sea at a little distance appeared

something strange, a small and ominous object like a can on the top of a

pole. A voice cried out "Submarine!" and everyone near rushed to look.



"If those Germans try any of their monkey tricks on us, I guess the

United States will give them hell," said another voice near by.



Then from the direction of the pole with the tin can on the top of

it, came something which caused a disturbance in the smooth water and

bubbles to rise in its wake.



"A torpedo!" cried some.



"Shut your mouth," said the voice. "Who dare torpedo a vessel full of

the citizens of the United States?"



Next came a booming crash and a flood of upthrown water, in the wash of

which that speaker was carried away into the deep. Then horror! horror!

horror! indescribable, as the mighty vessel went wallowing to her doom.

Boats launched; boats overset; boats dragged under by her rush through

the water which could not be stayed. Maddened men and women running

to and fro, their eyes starting from their heads, clasping children,

fastening lifebelts over their costly gowns, or appearing from their

cabins, their hands filled with jewels that they sought to save. Orders

cried from high places by stern-faced officers doing their duty to the

last. And a little way off that thin pole with a tin can on the top of

it watching its work.



Then the plunge of the enormous ship into the deep, its huge screws

still whirling in the air and the boom of the bursting boilers. Lastly

everything gone save a few boats floating on the quiet sea and around

them dots that were the heads of struggling human beings.



"Let us go home," said Oro. "I grow tired of this war of your Christian

peoples. It is no better than that of the barbarian nations of the early

world. Indeed it is worse, since then we worshipped Fate and but a few

of us had wisdom. Now you all claim wisdom and declare that you worship

a God of Mercy."





With these words still ringing in my ears I woke up upon the Island of

Orofena, filled with terror at the horrible possibilities of nightmare.



What else could it be? There was the brown and ancient cone of the

extinct volcano. There were the tall palms of the main island and the

lake glittering in the sunlight between. There was Bastin conducting

a kind of Sunday school of Orofenans upon the point of the Rock of

Offerings, as now he had obtained the leave of Oro to do. There was the

mouth of the cave, and issuing from it Bickley, who by help of one of

the hurricane lamps had been making an examination of the buried

remains of what he supposed to be flying machines. Without doubt it was

nightmare, and I would say nothing to them about it for fear of mockery.



Yet two nights later Oro came again and after the usual preliminaries,

said:



"Humphrey, this night we will visit that mighty American nation, of

which you have told me so much, and the other Neutral Countries."





[At this point there is a gap in Mr. Arbuthnot's M.S., so Oro's

reflections on the Neutral Nations, if any, remain unrecorded. It

continues:]





On our homeward way we passed over Australia, making a detour to do so.

Of the cities Oro took no account. He said that they were too large and

too many, but the country interested him so much that I gathered he must

have given great attention to agriculture at some time in the past. He

pointed out to me that the climate was fine, and the land so fertile

that with a proper system of irrigation and water-storage it could

support tens of millions and feed not only itself but a great part of

the outlying world.



"But where are the people?" he asked. "Outside of those huge hives," and

he indicated the great cities, "I see few of them, though doubtless some

of the men are fighting in this war. Well, in the days to come this must

be remedied."



Over New Zealand, which he found beautiful, he shook his head for the

same reason.



On another night we visited the East. China with its teeming millions

interested him extremely, partly because he declared these to be the

descendants of one of the barbarian nations of his own day. He made

a remark to the effect that this race had always possessed points

and capacities, and that he thought that with proper government and

instruction their Chinese offspring would be of use in a regenerated

world.



For the Japanese and all that they had done in two short generations, he

went so far as to express real admiration, a very rare thing with Oro,

who was by nature critical. I could see that mentally he put a white

mark against their name.



India, too, really moved him. He admired the ancient buildings at Delhi

and Agra, especially the Taj Mahal. This, he declared, was reminiscent

of some of the palaces that stood at Pani, the capital city of the Sons

of Wisdom, before it was destroyed by the Barbarians.



The English administration of the country also attracted a word of

praise from him, I think because of its rather autocratic character.

Indeed he went so far as to declare that, with certain modifications,

it should be continued in the future, and even to intimate that he would

bear the matter in mind. Democratic forms of government had no charms

for Oro.



Amongst other places, we stopped at Benares and watched the funeral

rites in progress upon the banks of the holy Ganges. The bearers of the

dead brought the body of a woman wrapped in a red shroud that glittered

with tinsel ornaments. Coming forward at a run and chanting as they ran,

they placed it upon the stones for a little while, then lifted it up

again and carried it down the steps to the edge of the river. Here they

took water and poured it over the corpse, thus performing the rite of

the baptism of death. This done, they placed its feet in the water

and left it looking very small and lonely. Presently appeared a tall,

white-draped woman who took her stand by the body and wailed. It was the

dead one's mother. Again the bearers approached and laid the corpse upon

the flaming pyre.



"These rites are ancient," said Oro. "When I ruled as King of the World

they were practised in this very place. It is pleasant to me to find

something that has survived the changefulness of Time. Let it continue

till the end."





Here I will cease. These experiences that I have recorded are but

samples, for also we visited Russia and other countries. Perhaps, too,

they were not experiences at all, but only dreams consequent on my state

of health. I cannot say for certain, though much of what I seemed to

see fitted in very well indeed with what I learned in after days, and

certainly at the time they appeared as real as though Oro and I had

stood together upon those various shores.



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