"Devastation!" stated Somat solemnly. He waved a hand, to include all
that lay within the ruined city. "Not altogether because of the workers,
although they were scarcely fit for ruling but because the former rulers
and others of that kind, who liked to oppose their wills upon others,
saw fit to start a fresh rebellion. Conflict followed conflict;
sometimes workers were in power, and sometimes aristocrats. But the
fighting ended not until"--he drew a deep breath--"until there were none
left to fight!"
"Ye mean," demanded Rolla incredulously, "that your people killed
themselves off in this fashion?"
Aye," sorrowfully. "There were a few of us--they called us 'the middle
class'--who urged equality. We wanted a government in which all classes
were represented fairly; what we called a democracy. Once the experiment
was started, but it failed.
"Saw ye the skeletons in the streets?" he went on." 'Twas a dreadful
sight, those last few days. I were but a lad, yet I remember it all too
well." He paused, then broke out fiercely: "I tell ye that I saw brother
slay brother, father slay son, son slay mother, in those last days!
"Lucky am I that I fled, I and my parents! They took me to a mountainous
country, but even there the madness spread, and one day a soldier of the
army killed my father and my mother.
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