so the attendance paper is circulating start from here again newcomers please sign only once for this hour not twice as you are not here last hour all right so please in the previous slide I was talking about the changing profile of terrorist groups their motivations their organization and their capabilities are changing this does not mean that the so-called old school or old-fashioned or traditional or older however you name it this doesn't mean that these groups are out are obsolete no they exist they still continue to carry out attacks or pursue whatever goals they have but what is important to underline here is that of course if you are to concentrate ourselves on one of the threats on the horizon it is worth considering more especially the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction no matter how low the probability might be but should it occur the consequences of an attack with weapons of mass destruction even if it is not a sophisticated attack or even if it may not be yield the the result that may naturally come from a weapons of mass destruction attacks still they say very scary scenario because I mean there are certain reasons why the chain the new type of transnational terrorist organizations may wish to carry out attacks with weapons of mass destruction there are certain reasons yes of course there is this debate going on in academia as well as in the security circles what is this is a really serious threat how serious is the threat posed by the you know terrorist activities with weapons of mass destruction I'm going to open a website here let's where is it sorry this is the website of the center of excellence defense against terrorism did I write correctly silly dot I guess here we go I mean here this is the journal where I'm the editor in chief if you send an article you may have an image to get it published of course provided it's a good one and this is volume 2 number 2 that is fall 2009 and I suggest all of you to read this article do we really need to worry some reflections on the threat of nuclear terrorism by Peter Zimmerman he is one of the very few people who can really make any comment on this subject because some people tend to exaggerate the dimensions of the problem with respect to the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction terrorism because they do not they do not know necessarily the technicalities or the scientific aspects of this as to how this could be realized and but on the other hand some tend to under undermine the threat or underestimate not only the probability but also the consequences on the grounds that well so far there have there has not been any significant you know attack with weapons of mass destruction why should we worry that much Peter Zimmerman actually is making this analysis not just by blah blah not at all but he is saying here are the capabilities here are the technical scientific capabilities material capabilities and who here is what is needed to carry out this kind of attacks and here are the capabilities of organizations and therefore this is possible on that hand the second article Charles Ferguson again a friend and he is now the president of Federation of American Scientist FAS is one of the think tanks and which maintains a very important website where which most researchers around the world visit from time to time because it is very rich in terms of knowledge information FAS.org Charles Ferguson and Misha Smith they have co-authored this piece and it says the possibility of and also the effects consequence of a radiological attack and this is something what that most people knowing or unknowingly correctly or incorrectly call dirty bombs not sophisticated weapons not weapons per se that could that might have any military usefulness but something that can cause you know the effects that I will just mention in a moment and therefore we which are actually such weapons within the reach of terrorist organizations and both authors explaining very much detail and these are articles that you are definitely required to read by the time of the final exam so the website go ahead here COA dot NATO int and this is center of excellence defense against terrorism this is defense against terrorism review and well this is the editor's note you may or may not read it you know this guy and Peter Zimmerman and Charles Ferguson two leading authorities in the world who may have a lot to say about this issue of course others are suggested to read well Rohan no I'm him actually is one of the most people called next generation brightest scientists he's still doing his PhD in Israel so therefore the two the first two articles are required and in which you will sort of read in much more detail and understand proper life of issues that I am now going to mention here so why WMD why is it that oops what the problem is have you watched National Security the movie National Security no okay so the reason why WMD might be attractive or might be the weapon of choice by the new type of terrorist organizations are a few actually but before going on this with this subject I would like to emphasize something of course I cannot make a definitive comment I cannot say the so-called traditional or old-school old-fashioned or older or the previously existing terrorist organizations if you want to be much descriptive these kind of terrorist organizations would most likely not resort to weapons of mass destruction because they have they are politically motivated they are ideologically motivated they have separatist ambitions and in order to sort of pursue their ambitions their goals they need not only logistical support financial support or otherwise they also need political support and most ideologically motivated separatist you know old-fashioned sort of speak terrorist organizations need to create a certain degree of legitimacy in the eyes of if not their own population I mean the population with where within which they operate but in the eyes of the world populations so they need a certain degree of sympathy they need a certain degree of legitimacy and therefore by carrying out a attacks with weapons of mass destruction they would they they will most likely if they do so they will most likely lose this legitimacy or a huge proportion of it so it is not expected from terrorist organizations like the PKK the IRA the ETA and Temmels do not exist anymore well you know of course there are people mutants spread to different parts of the world because of the heavy attack that they so they were subject to and there is an article in this journal in the coming issue actually on the Tamil Tigers anyway by Amit Hashim is not Amit Hashim that you know from Turkish novel but an expert on this issue and because these organizations would not like to lose the legitimacy that they have built pens taking lay in the eyes of large populations around the world so weapons of mass destruction I cannot say definitely I cannot say well they will never no one can say no one can know what might be the weapon of choice by terrorist organizations for reasons that I mentioned here terrorist organization this also applicable to transnational terrorist organizations they are not necessarily bound by moral restraints so you cannot expect a certain degree of more morality or a certain degree of responsible behavior if the so-called traditional terrorist organizations will not resort to weapons of mass destruction this is most likely not definitive of course this is not because this is in this is found to be immoral by them I don't think they have any such concerns but this is not found to be practical and this is something that may cause a huge drop in the legitimacy in the eyes of the rest of the population so therefore weapons of mass destruction might be preferred if at all are going to be preferred might be preferred by what we call the transnational terrorist organizations which are motivated by religious beliefs or mystical beliefs because they are not bound by moral restraint of political ideology then they would require them to seek the support of populations within which they operate and the second reason is some transnational terrorist organizations are reportedly committed to taking the revenge of millions who have been allegedly victimized in the hands of the infidels well what does this mean there are reports or news that we see from time-to-time that the leadership cadre in an individual or just a you know a note sent to the press or a video or something broadcast on news channels and there is this talk of you know crusaders you know taking the lives of millions of Muslims around the world of course most most specifically in the greater Middle Eastern area and so far throughout history there were you know five or six or so millions of them who were killed in the hands of the crusaders and their revenge will be taken this is for sure this is what what is you know propagated and they say you know we are going to take this revenge so considering that on 9 11 on September 11 2001 there were approximately 3,000 people who were killed in that incident and if we talk about millions like six millions or three millions of Muslims killed in the hands of the infidels throughout this crusade crusades well of course by such individual attacks which make claim the lives of say 5,000 and 10,000 well that requires a number of or maybe thousands of such attacks but an attack with weapons of mass destruction with with a nuclear weapon for instance or chemical or biological weapons or by radiological material the casual trait might be much higher and therefore if these groups as reported in the media or in some academic research if they are after taking the revenge of the millions of people and if they are going to attack they would most like to prefer weapons of mass destruction in order to attain such a goal so this there is this logical consequence there is this correlation which makes the possibility and therefore the probability and because of possible it and the probability of the WMD weapons of mass destruction being the weapon of choice a much bigger one in terms of probability and as I just mentioned here in the previous hour access to nuclear chemical biologic weapons and material use in the manufacture of these weapons well I don't mean to say it's all easy I mean if you just go with a you know suitcase full of greens and banknotes of thousands of millions of dollars whatever you can just you know shop around well give me two chemical weapons and well just one package of biological agents and well to SS 20s well you cannot do so easily of course this is not that an open market but for countries or groups transnational networks because they are actually common rods I mean friends against the common enemy they may easily cooperate in opening the each other's illicit network by you know through this networks they may have access to these weapons or the material well I never said this it is easy sometimes even though I emphasize this maybe ten times in the exam papers to this right it is very easy to get one well no one is saying that no one says it is easy but for transnational networks which have access to other networks which are committed and which are in dough which have in dough themselves with competent people some of them are former security analysts some of them are meter personnel high ranking some of them are even diplomats or scientists they know where to go how to go whom to meet and what to get and what to assemble together so for committed groups and states these are not beyond the reach and these are not extremely difficult I don't mean to say it's easy not at all but something that is doable so therefore when combined with this ambition and this possibility WMD is not a remote possibility anymore and there's also another factor the fear factor is something that makes it all the more attractive because even if the WMD attack may not be successful or may not yield the results the terrorist organization may have expected from the weapon or the material they used the fear factor that the havoc that will be created among the public and people say look you know these are so powerful these are so capable people that even there are you know tens of dozens or country states fighting against them they can still stage these attacks in the middle of a city here so this will cause a fear among society which is one of the most important if not the most important sort of objectives of terrorist organizations to cause fear among the population because after all no terrorist activity is without a purpose and in most cases if not in all because there are certain targeted assassinations but in most cases targets are or the victims are not necessarily targets these are not people who are necessarily you know whose lives mean anything to the terrorist organizations but the mere fact that there are high rate of casualties and type of weapon may cause huge amount of fear within the society when we talk about weapons of mass destruction you know very well we talk about basically three categories of weapons nuclear weapons and chemical weapons and biological weapons and nuclear weapons are explosive devices that this is my definition I don't know where it's a good one that just you know bear in mind our explosive devices that release huge amounts of energy and radiation achieved by splitting the fissile material highly entertaining or plutonium so nuclear weapons we have seen the effects in well at least in documentaries we have seen the effects of the explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in a simply second thousands of people died and other tens of tons of others died from radiation from cancer from burning bodies etc chemical weapons are actually toxic chemical substances that cause incapacitation incapacitation means you cannot move you cannot do anything you cannot fight you can just even you can barely survive cause incapacitation injury or death of humans and animals due to severe burnings and their effects on the nervous or respiratory system because these are chemical substances mostly in form of gas some of them are in liquid form and of course depending on which type of chemical weapons the effects may be faster slower or wider in terms of outreach etc and biological weapons actually the term biological weapon is a misnomer is not a proper term because biological agents are living microorganisms which are deliberately spread into the air into the atmosphere in order to cause infectious diseases for again incapacitating people or killing the target population including humans animals and plants so these are three different categories of weapons which are not necessarily totally beyond the reach of terrorist organizations especially transnational terrorist organizations because the classical ones for reasons that I explained even if they may have access to these weapons even if they can get these weapons they may not necessarily use in their attacks because they would not like most probably we don't we cannot make any definitive comment but they would not like to lose their legitimacy whatever legitimacy that might be in the eyes of other countries populations and therefore these three categories of weapons as a certain you know other category which is called radiological weapons or dirty bombs these are you know so-called material not necessarily a weapon because a weapon is a minute or turn weapon is something whose consequences or the extent of the yield the effect is more or less known to the commander in the battlefield you know you know what kind of effect a nuclear weapons nuclear weapon might have or chemical or biological weapon but there are certain material radiological materials or some dump chemicals some if not you know purely worked out but some you know some raw agents let's say if explode or just spread into the air may still cause if not you know large numbers of casualties but may create havoc or just panic in the society of course the question is after you know where the terrorist organizations would or could use WMD and having seen what type of WMD exists you know in the world and which one and why might be the weapon of choice the most preferred so I would like to concentrate a little bit on this subject which is something which hopefully not yet became a reality but you know this is one of the scary scenarios in my mind I mean this is something that you know keeps me awake of course I'm not in a position to make anything concrete other than you know raising awareness in the public or teaching you the subject for some of you in your future capacities might somehow pay more attention when you become a politician or a decision maker but something that or whose past probability as well as possibility concern me a lot and this is of course indeed and in principle all categories of weapons of mass distraction are equally attractive especially to transnational terrorist organizations but nuclear and chemical materials are visible and they also detectable because they emit radiation and it is difficult to smuggle these material because transnational terrorist organizations they would need some very you know specific hideouts some some places where they would have to develop something if not a weapon but something crude something dirty well bomb whatever and they would have to do beyond reach of you know security forces away from the eyes of the intelligence units etc but still they would have to you know mobile in certain times because they would have to take some material from one place to another and considering that there are thousands of detectors everywhere in big cities especially chemical substance detectors nuclear material detectors as well as biological bio agents detectors it is very difficult to smuggle these but it is all the more difficult in the nuclear and chemical area because you know even the the lowest non-sophisticated detected detecting machines detectors might detect them but biological agents are not that easy to detect and of course there are many ways of carrying this because these are living organisms and they can be carried out within the body of a sick man who's I mean who may carry a contagious you know illness or there are other methods there are other motives and whatever so certain unique features of biological agents make biologic weapons unfortunately I use this as a in quotations as perfect terrorist weapons of choice these are weapons that may be preferred by terrorist organizations for reasons that I will explain right in the next slide here the threat of biological weapons and bioterrorism actually this is a separate field this is separate exposit that I you know had several times I use in my conferences classes and you can find again on my website as a separate presentation but I brought in here to this presentation some important slides a for for fullest presentation you may have to go to my website and go to the power points and pick up the one with the threat the title threat of weapons by weapons and bioterrorism biological agents can be dispersed by simple vehicles such as civilian aircraft our agricultural sprayers and when equipped with a fan and specialized ventilators or by choosing just simply an up in location belej tepe in some stadiums as you know somewhere up by watching the wind you can just release the agent that would with the help of the wind may just go toward the you know population center so I mean for a chemical weapon or biological weapon or chemical biological material that would be you know exploded with some high explosives I mean you would have to assemble as some some sort of a sophisticated device that you would have to take from one place to another with some detectable you know deliver deliver vehicles or the material themselves may be detected before they are delivered from one place to another but in the case of biological agents it's they can be delivered by some vehicles that are used almost every now and then everywhere without necessarily giving out any sort of a signal that they are going to do anything a malign anything you know harmful to the population what is important here is because biological agents except for toxins well if this is a spectrum of let's say chemical weapons and biological weapons are a certain material here this area is what I call toxic because toxins are in between this chemical and biological weapons area these are I mean these are artificial material produced I mean artificially generated in labs biological agents are living organisms that are found in nature and toxins are actually in between they are not necessarily living some might be but these are not also they are not necessarily created in in the laboratories but because there are some toxins in nature cobras in them for instance some toxic you know material in the bodies of some animals or some some plants so therefore it is somewhere in between here anyway with the exception of toxins biological agents I mean these are microbes that you know when when you're ill there is a biological agent in your body which infected your body which incapacitated your body to some extent and cause this illness and what makes this a biological weapon quote unquote is that this illness you know what is brought into your body not true natural occurrence like interpersonal communication and by you know by chance you get this micro from someone who is just you know spreading this but in the case of biologic weapons some people deliberately dispersed this into the air and in the past for instance Chinese Japanese have conducted biological weapons tests in Manchuria I mean all throughout the 1920s and 30s especially 1930s before the second war war and they tested biological agents and they observed they visualize which biological agent and how does it kill what is the length of you know illness and what is the type of you know dying or what suffering by the humans etc they tested the Japanese the Imperial Japan not Japan of today of course Imperial Japan tested biological agents on real human people who were most the prisoners and some also were villagers anyway so and these are agents that know cause illness but since they cause this illness just like any illness then you know almost all of you all of us have suffered in the past and maybe in today it takes time it is not like an instant or instantly happening thing like a need to weapon is dropped you know people are killed instantly in a second or chemical weapons are dropped it takes if not minutes or seconds it takes several minutes maybe unless you are properly protected against with the you know gas mask or the gear thing that you you have to put on your body but biological agents once they enter the body and if there's enough dose which enters the body it takes some time to multiply within the body to cause a certain degree of illness and therefore and not only in the human beings but also animals as well as plants so it takes time to develop and sometimes in some cases it may take days and even weeks in some cases some toxins like aflatoxin for instance it causes the liver cancer within three four or five years so the person might be subject to this toxin and within two three years or five years he or she might die just because of this toxin which may be somehow injected to his body or just true inhaling something whatever so therefore biological agents their effects take time days weeks even longer and therefore let's see the next slide due to due to this the the effects that are delayed by agents they can be used for attacking fixed targets which is denser populated residential areas airports naval bases naval ports emergency and other vital public services if a terrorist organization decides to attack a country and wants to kill thousands or or tens of or hundreds of thousands of people and if they think biological agent is the weapon of choice because of some of the quote-unquote advantages from their perspective of course they may wish to use this agent against some fixed targets where the population may be subject or may be exposed to this material to this agent and they can do so without being noticed because when there's an explosion everybody hears and the security are dispatched to the area and people you know created within a certain perimeter they start searching and it sometimes those who are responsible for the attack even if they are they have not died already within the attack if there's not a suicide bombing they can be arrested with some effective search on pursuit of these people because now I mean you know that just five minutes ago there was such a such attack somewhere you heard the explosion and if you take controls in the entry points or exit points of the city and if you just conduct an effective search you may or may not reach to these people who are responsible but in this case it takes days and weeks how can you know when actually that agent was released or who released it anyway so therefore it it it creates a certain advantages from the terrorist perspective because they can after having committed a staged attack they can just disappear go to the farthest distance from the location of attack and they can just disappear within the population because they will most likely not be known when actually they have attacked or when they have staged attack this is something also why budget agents are more attractive to terrorist organizations but not necessary to state in the past as I said like Japan the Imperial Japan in the 30s against the Chinese when they occupied Manchuria or other states have conducted chemical and biological weapons research and they also built these weapons they had certain things in mind there was also the stiff rice between a race between the states with governments so they produced large amounts of chemical and biological weapons especially biological weapons but one thing must be definitely bored in mind is that if an area it could be an open village area or just a residential area if that area is contaminated by a biological agent it is very difficult to decontaminate because I mean if and when chemical weapon or chemical agent is used in an area due to the effects of sun or wind or other weather conditions the chemical substance even by its own just disappear after a while just might take hours or days at most and then that area might be safely used by the large populations but if biological agent is you know used in an area and if the area is contaminated and especially if it's an agriculture area these these agents which are living organisms will somehow survive under the toughest weather conditions from minus 50 degrees Celsius to plus 50 degrees Celsius in you know most freezing or hottest weather conditions climatic conditions and they can be carried from one place to another by birds especially etc so therefore it is not wise for any state to use biological agents in their attacks because if they do not have any ambition to occupy a territory and gain territory well they might use it but still you may never be 100% sure as to whether you can contain the sort of effects of the spread of biological agent we have seen in the SARS in the births flu in swine flu that because of this you know a huge rate of you know transportation of you know transfers of people from one point to another millions of them even the smallest number of incidents may increase overnight so therefore and if a state has any ambition to gain territory it will be totally unwise to use biological agents in that territory because they cannot decontaminate 100% and they cannot open to the residents of their population or to agriculture so it would be loss of the territory even if you fought for it so therefore it is not something that the states would aim in their attacks but since terrorist organizations especially transnational terrorist organizations unlike the so-called traditional separatists which fight for a certain territory transnational terrorist organizations are not known as having any ambition to occupy a territory or separate a territory and therefore because they don't have any such territorial claims even for this reason biological agents might be a weapon of choice in addition to the other factors that might make it more attractive from their perspective and in addition to that of course the cost of establishing a biological weapons program is not as high as any others well of course when compared to IED improvised explosive devices IED improvised explosive device of course this is maybe the cheapest maybe the easiest still there are certain complications but when compared to other categories of weapons of mass destruction biological agents are easier in terms of knowledge required of course still not easy don't write anything like this well it is very easy to have a biological weapons program no not at all but because of the composition of the transnational organization that we mentioned earlier there are people who are well educated who are competent and in their previous occupations careers they may have had access to these weapons or they may have even produced these weapons themselves so you don't know and these people either because of their mystical beliefs or religious beliefs may join the ranks of this kind of transnational organizations or they may be forced to do so or they may be motivated they may be inside it they may be encouraged to join the ranks they may be given large amounts of money or their lives or their family's life may be threatened or they may just you know want to take revenge from the institutions from the country that they were sort of hired as an academic or as a researcher so therefore it is another factor that make it attractive from the terrorist perspective of course what is important here it is the task of the state the you know polity as we call it or the political structures ministries organizations institutions agencies within the state and also international or at the international level or in the international arena they are entitled to take these measures and it is their duty you could they cannot just say well I don't care this is your problem this it's the very purpose of their being their raison d'etre so therefore this is important and there are basically two types of measures that can be taken defensive and offensive measures to preempt or to prevent well this preemption is not necessary type of prevention that W. Bush jr. mentioned in his preempt of war this is preemption in terms of you know stopping or arresting the those who are contemplating of attacking or using any type of weapons of menstruation or any type of weapons in their attacks against most likely innocent civilians or even security forces and doesn't mean that security force are in not innocent either so therefore especially those who are you know serving Dimitri as part of draft they may or may not have any intention to serve the country but they are taken to this position and they have to serve as part of their citizenship duty so therefore it is important to preempt and prevent preempt in order to disrupt to sort of you know take such measures that would before even they start you know carrying the attack or prevent at a time of attack or at some point so these measures are both offensive and defensive let me just go the next stage here within NATO there are such capabilities that are now being put together which I will not go into very much detail and I will send this email PowerPoint slide with with the with an email and there is this WMD Center at the near headquarters which was established about a decade ago which is becoming even more effective every every other year so now there is this issue as to how to prevent it because this is the if not the single most challenge but something that is being recurring as the most threatening theme subject in the what is called the defense white papers or nation security policies strategies strategic documents that you know different governments issue from time to time while on the one hand there is this group of people who differently knowingly and consciously undermined the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction for their own good reason and I'm not in a place to comment on on these sort of arguments because they so believe and they do not believe in the probability even or the possibility of and therefore they do not believe in probability of a you know terrorism with weapons of mass destruction while on the one hand there is this group of people and they say this is all you know conspiracies that like any other conspiracies serve the very purpose of big states in order to keep people on their constant state of mind full of fear in order to impose their hegemonic policies this is one view there is also another view which just look at the capabilities as well as the intentions of the organizations and say as I always say here threat is a combination of capabilities and intentions the problem here of course threat is a combination of capabilities and intentions well we understand from the publications from the broadcasts from the messages or here and there just you know whenever they just surface and they are made public from time to time that existing transnational terrorist networks either directly from their leaders or some of within the leadership cadre they express quite explicitly unequivocally when without any ambiguity they explain their intentions that they want to do certain things they want to cause some damage to particularly a number of countries such as the united states israel in the first place they also threaten some other states for instance in one of the most recent videotapes of Osama bin Laden who is the leader of the al-qaeda network he also threatened turkey or someone from his cadre if not in a direct way but in an indirect way and threatened turkey not to be so close with the united states and especially israel so as not to be also found guilty by them that could divert their attention also towards turkey and might might make turkey target of al-qaeda so therefore intentions of the existing networks i don't think it's debatable it is something that they have made it quite explicit for sure the problem is in order to gauge i mean whether the threat is up or down or constant we have to i mean this is sure constant i mean in the increase i mean they every now and they now and then they explain their plans what about capabilities yes there are some reports conflicting reports which may not be so much convincing about their exact capabilities and it's not always possible to know exactly what you know specifically they may have but looking at what they have done and what they are what kind of people you know are found in these organizations and these disinformation comes from the the ones who are arrested or through intelligence units who are infiltrated into this group they see that you know we can say that if not very fast but the capabilities are also increasing so there is this intention as well as capabilities which are you know going in the direction that we would like to see and therefore threat is something that we could conclude is increasing well again low probability but high and unbearable consequences the the answer to whether the or like peter zimmermann like pete as mentioned in the in his article is here literally we should really be we should be really worried i think it's up to you you will make this judgment yourselves i only try to give you a picture with an unbiased picture to the extent possible based on my research of the objective and scientific research and i talk about their intentions which are rather clear i commented on their capabilities which are known to be there are some hard evidence convincing evidence or substation evidence about increasing capabilities or there are some facilitating factors that may help them increase their capabilities and therefore it is the threat is on the rise well doesn't mean that it's gonna hit tomorrow we don't know or maybe 10 years from today we don't know but the problem is here whether there is regardless of whether this is a low probability high consequence your decision will depend on are you ready to bear the consequences if and when attack is occurred so if you can say i don't care well if it's gonna happen ksr rsr i you can just you know it's not a typical statement ship but you may just not care much about this threat but if you're concerned and if you are if you if you feel responsible then the even the with the lowest probability regarding it capabilities and intentions your calculation of threat posed by especially this type of terrorism and its possible consequences must give you some clue about what kind of decision you should have with respect to this issue all right um on Friday please let every single member of your teams that there will be a rehearsal in the last 20 minutes of the course or maybe during the course i don't know and that every member should be here because i see some members of some groups actually are constantly violating their obligations towards their team members so it is better if everyone is here on Friday there will be a rehearsal we will just see you know how we should proceed with the simulation and that will be something that will facilitate and i may give you some hints if i see something that you would have to or you will need to correct before you just go to enjoy the weekend all right i'll see you on Friday and don't forget to read these two articles for the final you're responsible i did not send with as an attachment or in a mail by Peter Zimmerman and Charles Ferguson together with Misha Smith the first two articles you're responsible for i'll see you later thanks for coming


37 At once we moved aboard the ghost occupying our old state rooms and cooking in the galley. The imprisonment of Wolf Lois and it happened most opportunely. For what must have been the Indian summer of this high latitude was gone and drizzling stormy weather had set in. We were very comfortable and the inadequate shears with the four masks suspended from them gave a business-like error to the schooner and a promise of departure. And now that we had Wolf Lois and then Irons, how little did we need it. Like his first attack, his second had been accompanied by serious disablement. Maud made the discovery in the afternoon while trying to give him nourishment. He had shown signs of consciousness and she had spoken to him, eliciting no response. He was lying on his left side at the time and in evident pain. With the restless movement he rolled his head around, blurring his left ear from the pillow against which it had been pressed. At once he heard and answered her, and at once she came to me. Pressing the pillow against his left ear, I asked if he heard me, but he gave no sign. Between the pillow and repeating the question, he answered promptly that he did. Do you know you were deaf in the right ear? I asked. Yes, he answered in a low, strong voice. And worse than that, my whole right side is affected. It seems asleep. I cannot move arm or leg. Feigning again, I demanded angrily.  It was indeed a twisted smile, for it was on the left side only, the facial muscles of the right side moving not at all. That was the last play of the wolf, he said. I am paralyzed. I shall never walk again. Oh, only on the other side, he added, as though divining the suspicious glance, I flung at his left leg, the knee of which had just then drawn up and elevated the blankets. It's unfortunate, he continued. I'd like to have done for you first, hump, and I thought I had that much left in me. But why, I asked partly in horror, partly out of curiosity. Again his stern mouth framed the twisted smile, as he said.  But to die this way. He shrugged his shoulders, or attempted to shrug them, rather, for the left shoulder alone moved. Like the smile the shrug was twisted. But how can you account for it? I asked. Where is the seat of you trouble? The brain, he said at once. It was those cursed headaches brought it on. Symptoms, I said. He nodded his head. There is no accounting for it.  Things gone wrong with my brain. A cancer, a tumor, or something of that nature, a thing that devours and destroys. It's attacking my nerve centers, aiding them up bit by bit, cell by cell, from the pain. The motor centers too, I suggested. So it would seem, and the curse of it is that I must lie here, conscious, mentally unimpaired, knowing that the lines are going down, breaking bit by bit communication with the world. I cannot see, hearing, and feeling are leaving me. At this rate I shall soon cease to speak. Yet all the time I shall be here, alive, active, and powerless. When you say you are here, I'd suggest the likelihood of the soul, I said. Bosh! was his reply. It simply means that in the attack on my brain the higher psychical centers are untouched. I can remember, I can think and reason. When that goes, I go. I am not. The soul? He broke out and mocking laughter, then turned his left ear to the pillow as a sign that he wished no further conversation. Maude and I went about our work, oppressed by the fearful fate which had overtaken him. How fearful we were yet fully to realize. There was the awfulness of the retribution about it. Our thoughts were deep and solemn, and we spoke to each other scarcely above whispers. You might remove the handcuffs, he said that night, as we stood in consultation over him. It's dead safe. I'm a paralytic now. The next thing to watch out for is bed sores. He smiled as twisted smile, and Maude, her eyes wide with horror, was compelled to turn away her head. Do you know that your smile is crooked? I asked him, for I knew that she must attend him, and I wished to save her as much as possible. Then I shall smile no more, he said calmly. I thought something was wrong. My right cheek has been numb all day. Yes, and I've had warnings of this for the last three days. My spells, my right side seemed going to sleep, sometimes arm or hand, sometimes leg or foot. But my smile is crooked, he queried, a short while after. Well consider henceforth that I smile internally, with my soul, if you please, my soul. Consider that I am smiling now. And for the space of several minutes he lay there, quiet, indulging his grotesque fancy. The man of him was not changed. It was the old, indomitable, terrible Wolf Larson, imprisoned somewhere within that flesh which had once been so invincible and splendid. Now it bound him with insentient fetters, walling his soul in darkness and silence, blocking it from the world which to him had been a riot of action. No more would he conjugate the verb to do in every mood intense. To be was all that remained of him. To be as he had defined death without movement, to will, but not to execute, to think, and reason, and in the spirit of him to be as alive as ever, but in the flesh to be dead, quite dead. And yet, although I even removed the handcuffs, we could not adjust ourselves to his condition. Our minds revolted. To him he was full of potentiality. We knew not what to expect of him next, but fearful thing rising above the flesh that he might break out and do. Our experience warranted this state of mind, and we went about our work with anxiety always upon us. I had solved the problem which had arisen through the shortness of the shears. By means of the watchtackle I had made a new one. I heaved the butt of the foremast across the rail and then lowered it to the deck. Next, by means of the shears, I hoisted the main boom on board. Its 40 feet of length would supply the height necessary properly to swing the mast. By means of a secondary tackle I had attached to the shears. I swung the boom to an early perpendicular position, then lowered the butt to the deck where, to prevent slipping, I spiked great cleats around it. The single block of my original shears tackle I had attached to the end of the boom. Thus, by carrying this tackle to the windlass, I could raise and lower the end of the boom at will. The butt always remained in stationary, and by means of guise I could swing the boom from side to side. To the end of the boom I had likewise rigged a hoisting tackle, and when the whole arrangement was completed I could not but be startled by the power and latitude it gave me. Of course, two days' work was required for the accomplishment of this part of my task, and it was not till the morning of the third day that I swung the formast from the deck and proceeded to square its butt to fit the step. Here I was especially awkward. I sawed, and chopped, and chiseled the weathered wood, till it had the appearance of having been gnawed by some gigantic mass, but it fitted. It will work, I know it will work, I cried. Do you know Dr. Jordan's final test of truth? Maude asked. I shook my head and paused in the act of dislodging the shavings which had drifted down my neck. Can we make it work? Can we trust our lives to it? Is the test. He is a favorite of yours, I said. When I dismantled my own pantheon and cast out Napoleon and Caesar and their fellows, I strayed away erected a new pantheon, she answered gravely, and the first I installed is Dr. Jordan, a modern hero, and a greater because modern, she added. How can the old world heroes compare with ours? I shook my head. We were too much alike in many things for argument. Our points of view and outlook on life, at least, were very alike. For a pair of critics we agree famously, I laughed. And as shipwright and able assistant, she laughed back. But there was little time for laughter in those days, out of our heavy work and of the awfulness of Wolf Larson's living death. He had received another stroke. He had lost his voice, or he was losing it. He had only intermittent use of it. As he phrased it, the wires were like the stock market, now up, now down. Occasionally the wires were up and he spoke as well as ever, though slowly and heavily. One speech would suddenly desert him, in the middle of a sentence, perhaps, and for hours sometimes we would wait for the connection to be re-established. He complained of great pain in his head, and it was during this period that he arranged a system of communication against the time when speech should leave him altogether. One pressure of the hand for yes, two for no. It was well that it was arranged, for by evening his voice had gone from him. By hand pressures after that he answered our questions, and when he wished to speak he scrawled his thoughts with his left hand, quite legibly, on a sheet of paper. The first winter had now descended upon his. Gale followed Gale with snow and sleet and rain. The seals had started on their great southern migration, and the rickery was practically deserted. I worked feverishly. In spite of the bad weather and of the wind which especially hindered me, I was on deck from daylight till dark and making substantial progress. I profited by my lesson learned through raising the shears and then climbing them to attach the guys. To the top of the fore-mast, which was just lifted conveniently from the deck, I attached the rigging, stays and throat and peak halyards. As usual I had underrated the amount of work involved in this portion of the task, and two long days were necessary to complete it. And there was so much yet to be done, the sails, for instance, which practically had to be made over. While I toiled at rigging the fore-mask, Maud sewed on canvas, always ready to drop everything and come to my assistance, when more hands than two were required. The canvas was heavy and hard, and she sewed with a regular sailor's palm and three-cornered sail-needle. Her hands were soon sadly blistered, but she struggled bravely on, and in addition during the cooking and taking care of the sick man. A fig for Zufristition, I said on Friday morning. That mask goes in today. Crine was ready for the attempt. Carrying the boom-tackle to the wind-list, I hoisted the mask nearly clear of the deck. Making this tackle fast, I took to the wind-list the shear's tackle, which was connected with the end of the boom. And with a few turns had the mask perpendicular and clear. Maud clapped her hands, the instant she was relieved from holding the turn, crying. It works. It works. We'll trust our lives to it. Then she assumed a rueful expression. It's not over the hole, she had. Will you have to begin all over? I smiled in superior fashion, and slacking off on one of the boom-guys and taking in on the other, swung the mask perfectly in the center of the deck. Still, it was not over the hole. Again the rueful expression came on her face, and again I smiled in a superior way. Moving away on the boom-tackle, and hoisting in an equivalent amount on the shear's tackle, I brought the butt of the mask into position directly over the hole in the deck. Then I gave Maud careful instructions for lowering away, and went into the hole to the step on the schooner's bottom. I called to her, and the mask moved easily and accurately, straight toward the square hole of the step the square butt descended. But as it descended, it slowly twisted so that square would not fit into square. But I had not even a moment's in decision. Calling to Maud to cease lowering, I went on deck and made the watch tackle fast to the mask with a rolling hitch. I left Maud to pull on it while I went below. By the light of the lantern I saw the butt twist slowly around till its sides coincided with the sides of the step. Maud made fast and returned to the windlass. Slowly the butt descended the several intervening inches at the same time slightly twisting again. Again Maud rectified the twist with the watch tackle, and again she lowered away from the windlass. Square fitted into square. The mask was tapped. I raised a shout, and she ran down to sea. In the yellow lantern light, we peered at what we had accomplished. We looked at each other, and our hands felt their way enclasped. The eyes of both of us, I think, were moist with the joy of success. It was done so easily after all, I remarked. All the work was in the preparation. And all the wonder in the completion, Maud added. I can scarcely bring myself to realize that that great mast is really up and in, that you have lifted it from the water, swung it through the air, and deposited it here where it belongs. It is a titan's task, and they made themselves many inventions. I began merrily, then paused to sniff the air. I looked hastily at the lantern. It was not smoking. Again I sniffed. Something was burning, Maud said, with sudden conviction. We sprang together for the latter, but I raced past her to the deck. A dense volume of smoke was pouring out of the steerage companion-way. The wolf is not yet dead. I muttered to myself as I sprang down through the smoke. It was so thick in the confined space that I was compelled to feel my way, and so potent was the spell of wolf-warsen on my imagination. I was quite prepared for the helpless giant to grip my neck in the stranglehold. I hesitated, the desire to race back and up the steps to the deck almost overpowering me. Then I recollected Maud. The vision of her, as I had last seen her, in the lantern-light of the schooner's hold, her brown eyes warm and moist with joy, flashed before me, and I knew that I could not go back. I was choking and suffocating by the time I reached wolf-warsen's bunk. I reached my hand and felt for his. He was lying motionless, but moved slightly at the touch of my hand. I felt over and under his blankets. There was no warmth, no sign of fire. Yet that smoke, which blinded me and made me cough and gassed, must have a source. I lost my head temporarily and dashed frantically about the steerage. A collision with the table partially knocked the wind from my body and brought me to myself. I reasoned that a helpless man could start a fire only nearer to where he lay. I returned to wolf-warsen's bunk, there I encountered Maud. How long she had been there in that suffocating atmosphere I could not guess. Go up on deck, I commanded preemptually. But home-free, she began to protest in a queer, husky voice. Please, please, I shouted at her harshly. She drew away obediently, and then I thought, what if she cannot find the steps? I started after her to stop at the foot of the companion-way. Perhaps she had gone up. As I stood there hesitant, I heard her cry softly. Oh, home-free, I am lost. I found her fumbling at the wall of the after-bulkhead, and half-leading her, half-carrying her, I took her up the companion-way. The pure air was like nectar. Maud was only faint and dizzy, and I left her lying on the deck when I took my second plunge below. The source of the smoke must be very close to wolf-warsen. My mind was made up on this, and I went straight to his bunk. As I fell among his blank, had something hot fell on the back of my hand. It burned me, and I jerked my hand away. Then I understood. Through the cracks in the bottom of the upper bunk, he had set fire to the mattress. He still retained sufficient use of his left hand to do this. The damp straw of the mattress, fired from beneath and denied air, had been smoldering all the while. As I dragged the mattress out of the bunk, it seemed to disintegrate in mid-air, at the same time bursting in the flames. I beat out the burning remnants of straw in the bunk, then made a dash for the deck for fresh air. Several buckets of water sufficed to put out the burning mattress in the middle of the storage floor, and ten minutes later, when the smoke had fairly cleared, I allowed Maud to come below. Wolf-warsen was unconscious, but it was a matter of minutes for the fresh air to restore him. We were working over him, however, when he signed for paper and pencil. "'Pray do not interrupt me,' he wrote. I am smiling. I am still a bit of the ferment, you see,' he wrote a little later. "'I am glad you are as small a bed as you are,' I said. "'Thank you,' he wrote. "'But just think how much smaller I shall be before I die. And yet I am all here,' humped he wrote with a final flourish. I can think more clearly than ever in my life before. Nothing did disturb me. Concentration is perfect. I am all here and more than here.' It was like a message from the night of the grave, for this man's body had become as mausoleum. And there, in so strange sepulcher, his spirit fluttered and lived. They would flutter and live till the last line of communication was broken. And after that, who was to say how much longer it might continue to flutter and live? CHAPTER 38 I think my left side is going, Wolf Larson wrote, the morning after his attempt to fire the ship. The numbness is growing. I can hardly move my hand. You will have to speak louder. The last lines are going down. "'Are you in pain?' I asked. I was compelled to repeat my question loudly before he answered. Not all the time. The left hand stumbled slowly and painfully across the paper, and it was with extreme difficulty that we deciphered the scroll. It was like a spirit message, such are delivered at seances of spiritualists for a dollar admission. But I am still here, all here. The hand scrawled more slowly and painfully than ever. The pencil dropped, and we had to replace it in the hand. When there is no pain, I have perfect peace and quiet. I have never thought so clearly. I can ponder life and death like a Hindu sage. In immortality, Maud queried gladly in near. Three times the hand desayed to write, but fumbled hopelessly. The pencil fell. In vain we tried to replace it. The fingers could not close on it. Then Maud pressed and held the fingers about the pencil with her own hand, and the hand wrote in large letters, and so slowly that the minutes ticked off to each letter. B-O-S-H It was Wolf Larson's last word. Bush, skeptical and invincible to the end. The arm and hand relaxed. The trunk of the body moved slightly. Then there was no movement. Maud released the hand. The fingers spread slightly, falling apart of their own weight, and the pencil rolled away. Do you still hear? I shouted, holding the fingers and waiting for the single pressure which would signify yes. There was no response. The hand was dead. I noticed the lips moved slightly, Maud said. I repeated the question. The lips moved. She placed her fingers on them. Again I repeated the question. Yes, Maud announced. We looked at each other expectantly. What good is it? I asked. What can we say now? Oh, ask him. She hesitated. Ask him something that requires no for an answer, I suggested. Then we will know for certainty. Are you hungry? She cried. The lips moved under her fingers, and she answered, yes. Will you have some beef? Was her next query. No, she announced. Beef tea? Yes. You will have some beef tea, she said quietly, looking up at me. Until his hearing goes, we shall be able to communicate with him. And after that she looked at me querily. I saw her lips trembling, and the tears swimming up in her eyes. She swayed toward me, and I caught her in my arms. Oh, Humphrey, she sobbed. When will it all end? I am so tired, so tired.  Her frail form shaken with the storm of weeping. She was like a feather in my arms, so slender, so ethereal. She has broken down at last, I thought. What can I do without her help? But I soothed and comforted her, till she pulled herself bravely together, and recuperated mentally as quickly as she was wont to do physically. I ought to be ashamed of myself, she said, then added, with a whimsical smile I adored. But I am only one small woman. That phrase, the one small woman, startled me like an electric shock. It was my own phrase, my pet secret phrase, my love phrase for her. Or did you get that phrase, I demanded, within an abruptness that in turn startled her? What phrase, she asked, one small woman? Is it yours? She asked. Yes, I answered mine. I made it. Then you must have talked in your sleep, she smiled. The dancing tremulous light was in her eyes. Mine I knew were speaking beyond the will of my speech. I leaned toward her. Without volition I leaned toward her, as a tree is swayed by the wind. Ah, we were very close together in that moment. But she shook her head as one might shake off sleep or a dream sane. I have known it all my life. It was my father's name for my mother. It is my phrase too, I said stubbornly. For your mother? No, I answered. And she questioned no further, though I could have sworn her eyes retained for some time a mocking, teasing expression. With the foremast in, the work now went on a pace. Almost before I knew it, and without one serious hitch I had the main-mass stepped. A derrick boom rigged to the foremast that accomplished this, and several days more found all stays and shrouds in place and everything set up taut. Top sales would be a nuisance and a danger for a crew of two, so I heaved the top mass on deck and lashed them fast. Several more days were consumed in finishing the sales and putting them on. There were only three—the jib, foresail, and mainsail—and patched, shortened, and distorted. They were a ridiculously ill-fitting suit for so-tremant craft as the ghost. But they'll work, Maude cried jubilantly. We'll make them work and trust our lives to them—certainly among my many new trades I shone least as a sailmaker. I could sail them better than make them, and I had no doubt of my power to bring the schooner to some northern port of Japan. In fact, I had crammed navigation from textbooks aboard, and besides, there was Wolf Larson's starscale—so simple a device that a child could work it. As for its inventor, beyond an increasing deafness and the movement of the lips growing fainter and fainter, there had been little change in his condition for a week. But on the day we finished bending the schooner's sail, he heard his last, and the last movement of his lips died away. But not before I asked him, Are you all there? And the lips had answered, Yes. The last line was down, somewhere within that tomb of flesh still dwelt the soul of the man, walled by the living clay, that fierce intelligence we had known burned on, but had burned on in silence and darkness. And it was disembodied. To that intelligence there could be no objective knowledge of a body that knew no body. The very world was not. It knew only itself and the vastness and profanity of the quiet and the dark. CHAPTER 39 The day came for our departure. There was no longer anything to detain us on Endeavour Island. The ghost-stumpy masks were in place, her crazy sails bent. All my handy work was strong, none of it beautiful, but I knew that it would work and I felt myself a man of power as I looked at it. I did it. I did it. With my own hands I did it. I wanted to cry aloud. But Maude and I had a way of voicing each other's thought, and she said, as we prepared to hoist the mainsail, To think, Humphrey, you did it all with your own hands. But there were two other hands, I answered. Two small hands, and don't say that was a phrase also of your father.  I can never get them clean again, she wailed, Nor softened the weather beat. Then dirt and weather-beach shall be your Gurdian of honor, I said, holding them in mine. And spite of my resolutions I would have kissed the two dear hands had she not swiftly withdrawn them. Her comrade ship was becoming tremulous. I had mastered my love long and well, But now it was mastering me. Willfully had it disobeyed, and won my eyes to speech, And now it was winning my tongue. A. in my lips, for they were mad this moment to kiss the two small hands, Which had toiled so faithfully and hard. And I too was mad. There was a cry in my being like bugles calling me to her. And there was a wind blowing upon me which I could not resist, So I in the very body of mine till I leaned toward her, All unconscious that I leaned. And she knew it. She could not but know it, as she swiftly drew away her hands, And yet could not forbear one quick searching look before she turned away her eyes. By means of deck-tackles I had arranged to carry the halyards forward to the lindless, And now I hoisted the mainsail, Week in throat, at the same time. It was a clumsy way, but it did not take long, And soon the foresail, as well, was up and fluttering. We could never get that anchor up in this narrow place, Once it is left the bottom, I said. We should be on the rocks first. What can you do? She asked. Slip it, was my answer. And when I do, you must do your first work on the lindless. I shall have to run it once to the wheel, And at the same time you must be hoisting the jib. This maneuver of getting under way I had studied and worked out a score of times, And with the jib halyard to the lindless, I knew that Maud was capable of hoisting that most necessary sail. A brisk wind was blowing into the cove, And though the water was calm, rapid work was required to get us safely out. When I knocked the shackle bolt loose, The chain roared out through the haze-hole and into the sea. I raced aft, putting the wheel up. The ghost seemed to start into life as she healed to the first fill of her sails. The jib was rising. As it filled, the ghost's bow swung off and I had to put the wheel down a few spokes and steady her. I had devised an automatic jib sheet which passed the jib across of itself, so there was no need for Maud to attend to that, but she was still hoisting the jib when I put the wheel hard down. It was a moment of anxiety for the ghost was rushing directly upon the beach and stones throw distant, but she swung obediently on her heel into the wind. There was a great fluttering and flapping of canvas and reef points, most welcome to my ears, then she filled away on the other tack. Maud had finished her task and come aft, for she stood beside me.  Her brown eyes were like a startled dears. There was a wild keen look in them I had never seen before, and her lips parted and her breath suspended as a ghost charging upon the wall of rocks at the entrance of the inner cove, swept into the wind and filled away into safe water. My first mate's birth on the ceiling ground stood me in good stead, and I cleared the inner cove and laid a long tack along the shore of the outer cove. Once again about, and the ghost headed out to open sea. She had now caught the bosom breathing of the ocean and was herself a breath with the rhythm of it as she smoothly mounted and slipped down each broad-backed wave. The day had been dull and overcast, but the sun now burst through the clouds, a welcome omen, and shone upon the curving beach where together we had dared the lords of the harem and swine the whole as chicky. All Endeavour Island brightened under the sun. Even the grim southwestern frommatory showed less grim, and here and there where the sea-spray wet at surface highlights flashed and dazzled in the sun. I shall always think of it with pride, I said to Mad. She threw her head back in a queenly way but said, Dear, dear Endeavour Island, I shall always love it. And I, I said quickly, it seemed our eyes must meet in a great understanding, and yet, lo, they struggled away and did not meet. There was a silence which I might almost call awkward till I broke it, saying, See those black clouds to windward.  And the sun is gone. She said, her eyes still fixed upon our island, where we had proved our mastery over matter and attained to the truest comradeship that may fall to man and woman. And it slack off the sheets for Japan, I cried gaily. A fair wind and a flowing sheet, you know, or however it goes. Lashing the wheel I ran forward, eased the fore and mainsheets, took in on the boom tackles, and trimmed everything for the quartering breeze which was ours. It was a fresh breeze, very fresh, but I resolved to run as long as I dared. Unfortunately, when running free, it is impossible to lash the wheel, so I faced an all-night watch. Mad insisted on relieving me, but proved that she had not the strength to steer in a heavy sea, even if she could have gained the wisdom on such short notice. She appeared quite heartbroken over the discovery, but recovered her spirits by coiling down tackles and halayards and all-stray ropes. Then there were meals to be cooked in the gaily, beds to make, wolf-larsen to be attended upon. And she finished the day with a grand housecleaning to tack upon the cabin and steerage. All night I steered without relief the wind slowly and steadily increasing and the sea rising. At five in the morning, Mad brought me hot coffee and biscuits she had baked, and at seven a substantial and piping hot breakfast put new lift into me. Throughout the day, and as slowly and steadily as ever, the wind increased. It impressed one with its solemn determination to blow and blow harder and keep on blowing. And still the ghost foamed along, racing off the miles till I was certain she was making at least 11 knots. It was too good to lose, but by nightfall I was exhausted. Though in splendid physical trim, a 36-hour trick at the wheel was the limit of my endurance. Besides, Mad begged me to heave, too, and I knew if the wind and sea increased at the same rate during the night that it would soon be impossible to heave, too. So as twilight deepened gladly and at the same time reluctantly, I brought the ghost up on the wind. But I had not reckoned upon the colossal task the reefing of three sails meant for one man. While running away from the wind, I had not appreciated its force, but when we ceased to run, I learned to my sorrow and well-nigh to my despair how fiercely it was really blowing. The wind blocked my every effort, ripping the canvas out of my hands, and in an instant undoing what I had gained by ten minutes of severe struggle. At eight o'clock I had succeeded only in putting the second reef into the foresail. At eleven o'clock I was no further along. Blood dripped from every finger end while the nails were broken to the quick. From pain and sheer exhaustion I wept in the darkness secretly, so that Mad should not know. Then, in desperation, I abandoned the attempt to reef the mainsail and resolved to try the experiment of heaving two under the close reefed foresail. Three hours more were required to gasket the mainsail and jib, and at two in the morning, nearly dead, the life almost buffeted and worked out of me. I had barely sufficient consciousness to know the experiment was a success. The close reefed foresail worked. The ghost clung on close to the wind and betrayed no inclination to fall off broadside to the trough. I was famished, but Mad tried vainly to get me to eat.  I would fall asleep in the act of carrying food to my mouth and waken in torment to find the act yet uncompleted. So sleepily helpless was I that she was compelled to hold me in my chair to prevent my being flung to the floor by the violent pitching of the schooner. Of the passage from the galley to the cab, and I knew nothing, it was a sleepwalker, Mad guided and supported. In fact, I was aware of nothing till I awoke, how long after I could not imagine, in my bunk with my boots off. It was dark. I was stiff and lame and cried out with pain when the bedclothes touched my poor finger-attens. Morning had evidently not come, so I closed my eyes and went to sleep again. I did not know it, but I had slept the clock around, and it was night again. Once more I awoke, troubled because I could sleep no better. I struck a match and looked at my watch. It marked midnight. And I had not left the deck until three. I should have been puzzled had I not guessed the solution. No wonder I was sleeping brokenly. I had slept twenty-one hours. I listened for a while to the behavior of the ghost, to the pounding of the seas and the muffled roar of the wind on deck, and then turned over on my ride and slept peacefully until morning. When I arose at seven, I saw no sign of Mad, and concluded she was in the galley preparing breakfast. On deck I found the ghost doing splendidly under her patch of canvas. But in the galley, though a fire was burning and water boiling, I found no Mad. I discovered her in the steerage by Wolf Larsen's bunk. I looked at him, the man who had been hurled down from the topmost pitch of life to be buried alive and be worse than dead.  Mad looked at me, and I understood. His life flickered out in the storm, I said. But he still lives, she answered, infinite faith in her voice. He had too great strength. Yes, she said, but now it no longer shackles him. He is a free spirit. He is a free spirit, surely, I answered. In taking her hand I let her on deck. The storm broke that night, which is to say that it diminished as slowly as it had arisen. After breakfast next morning, when I had hoisted Wolf Larsen's body on deck ready for burial, it was still blowing heavily, and a large sea was running. The deck was continually awash with the sea which came inboard over the rail and through the scuppers. The wind smote the schooner with a sudden gust, and she healed over till her lee rail was buried, the roar in her rigging, rising in pitch to a shriek. We stood in the water to our knees as I buried my head. I can remember only one part of the service, I said, and that is, and the body shall be cast into the sea. Maude looked at me, surprised and shocked, but the spirit of something I had seen before was strong upon me, impaling me to give service to Wolf Larsen as Wolf Larsen had once given service to another man. I lifted the end of the hatch cover, and the canvas shrouded body swept feet first into the sea. The weight of iron dragged it down. It was gone. Goodbye, Lucifer, proud spirit. Maude whispered so low that it was drowned by the shouting of the wind, but I saw the movement of her lips and knew. As we clung to the lee rail and worked our way aft, I happened a glance to leeward. Two or three miles away, rolling and pitching, head on to the sea as it steamed toward us. It was painted black, and from the talk of the hunters of their poaching exploits I recognized it as the United States Revenue Cutter. I pointed it out to Maude and hurriedly led her aft to the safety of the poop. I started to rush below to the flag locker, then remembered that in rigging the ghost I had forgotten to make provisions for a flag halyard. We need no distress signal, Maude said. They have only to see us. We are saved, I said, soberly and solemnly. And then, in an exuberance of joy, I hardly know whether to be glad or not. I looked at her. Our eyes were not loath to meet. We leaned toward each other, and before I knew it, my arms were about her. Need I? I asked. And she answered. There is no need, though the telling of it would be sweet, so sweet. Her lips met the press of mine, and by what strange trick of the imagination I know not. The scene in the cabin of the ghost flashed upon me when she had pressed her fingers lightly on my lips and said, Hush, hush. My woman, my one small woman, I said, my free hand petting her shoulder in the way all lovers know they'll never learn in school.  I looked toward the cutter. It was very close. A boat was being lowered. One kiss, dear love, I whispered. One kiss more before they come. And rescue us from ourselves, she completed, with a most adorable smile, whimsical as I had never seen it, for it was whimsical with love. End of chapter 39. End of The Seawolf by Jack London. The Seawolf was read by Tom Crawford in Cool, California, USA, and proof listened by Sheila in Nottinghamshire, England in spring and summer of 2009.


Salaam from the People's Dispatch Studios here in New Delhi. I am Siddharth Ani and you're watching The Daily Debrief. On the show today, we look at the violation of democratic institutions which continues almost unabated in major world nations already in the early days of 2023. We'll examine the new Brazilian government's response to a violent riot and storming of key buildings in the capital, Brasilia. In the United States, do events in the House of Representatives over the past few days, portend policy and governance paralysis over the next two years. And finally, Israel has a new set of punitive measures against Palestinians and why the new government there is now directly targeting the Palestinian Authority. First up in response to the organized invasion of the Supreme Federal Court, the National Congress and the Planalto Palace, which is the office of the president. This is all in Brazil. By supporters of the far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday, the Lula government has taken rapid steps to safeguard democratic institutions and curtail the impact of this attempted coup. Bolsonaro and his supporters have, for years, raised false and unbacked accusations against Brazil's electoral system, leading up to the shocking scenes that we witnessed on TV yesterday and today, where in thousands of far-right hooligans went on a rampage in Brasilia in a continued rejection of the election results in which Bolsonaro lost to current president Luiz Inasio Lula da Silva. Zoe joins me for more on this developing story. Zoe, since Don has broken in that part of the world, what further details are you getting in terms of report coming in from various parts of Brazil? And what's the government's response been to this, what has to be called an attempted coup? Well, since this morning, the arrests have been continuing. The army has now evicted one of the major Bolsonarista camps that was outside one of the army quartels bases. In Brasilia, over a thousand people have been arrested. Until now, 1,200 people, I think, to be exact. Those arrests, I think, will continue as we know there were thousands of people that actually traveled to Brasilia to carry out this attempted coup. And meanwhile, in São Paulo and in the south of the country, road blockades have been erected, burning tires, impeding traffic. So it's yet to be seen how those will be dealt with. We know that in earlier moments, especially right after the elections, actually the highway police worked with these Bolsonaristas. We're refusing to stop these blockades. So it's definitely developing situation. However, the federal government has called for all of the people that participated in these actions, who finance these actions, who are in any way related to permitting that these take place be tried and be brought to justice. Lula gave a very, very firm speech yesterday, saying that no one will go unpunished. Also important to point out that we wrote, we shared an article from Brazil, the fact about this is about the complicity of the federal district's governor, Ibanez Rosha. He actually was responsible for scaling down the security in Brasilia around the minister's espionade, essentially allowing this to take place. He also appointed the Bolsonaristas Minister of Justice and Security as the federal district's justice for the minister of security. So because of all these reasons, he's actually been taken out of his post. He's been taken away for three months. This is a very strong action, you know, right after last night after Lula's address after the decree that he said that there was a federal intervention in the police forces. Ibanez made a pronouncement and said that he was very sorry and that he didn't approve of what had happened. But of course that's really too little too late. Knowing that these buses were headed to Brasilia, knowing about the threat of violence that had been shared really widely on social media. This actually, while it is a shocking event, it is not shocking that it happened. They had been announcing it for days. They had made major preparations and plans to actually carry this out. And so the fact that other security forces in Brasilia were not prepared and really intentionally were not preparing. They believe is the fault of Ibanez Rosha and as such he has been taken aside. Bolsonaro is currently in the United States, Zoe, and there's pressure from within the Democratic Party on Joe Biden to sort of take steps towards repatriating him towards Brazil so he can face the consequences of this orchestrated plot. What is the progress on that? What have the reactions been from the, I suppose, political establishment and other sections in the US? Well, it's quite interesting because many people have compared what happened on January 8 to January 6, 2021 and they're quite right for that. The images are very silent, similar. The actions that they carried out are very similar just complete destruction of the state institutions related to allegations of electoral fraud. Of course, in this case it's a bit bizarre because Bolsonaro was already out of the country. It doesn't seem like there's actually any possibility that he would return and even take office. He himself seems to have a defeatist attitude. So that's one major difference. But I think because of these similarities, I really struck a nerve with Democrats who were also kind of the target of this style of invasion in a sense. And even before the elections, many Democrats had made statements and pronouncements regarding the possibility of a January 6 style scenario in Brazil. And many of them warned about this and said that, for example, some members of Congress had tried to pass a clause saying that the aid to Brazil would be contingent on the armed forces not responding to these to the elections, etc. So I think what we saw yesterday is that Alexandria Ocasio Cortez took a very, very bold position and said that she condemned what was happening in Brasilia, and she called on the US government to cease giving refuge to Jair Bolsonaro. He traveled to Florida on December 30, maybe thinking that he would be received by Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, but he was not. And now he's staying with a Brazilian MMA fighter in Florida, kind of just wandering around enjoying the fact that he doesn't have to really face up to any of the crimes he committed as president. And so, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Joaquin Castro, they're all calling for him to be extradited to Brazil. There are multiple investigations that have been opened up into Jair Bolsonaro, even when he was president. And especially now with this coup attempt with his supporters carrying this out, and I'm sure that once the investigations are underway, there will be clear indications of his participation of members of his government, his former government's participation in everything that happened. And so that's that's one of the reasons I don't think this has advanced while the United States government and Joe Biden himself have released statements condemning what happened. So far, they've showed no signs of kind of moving on this demand to extradite Jair Bolsonaro. Thanks very much, Zoe. And we'll hear from you on Brazil in the next few days, I'm sure. As pressure mounts on US President Joe Biden from his own party to return Jair Bolsonaro, of course, who is living in the US at the moment back to his home country. Meanwhile, the US House of Representatives have elected Republican Kevin McCarthy as its speaker after being voted down on the first 14 attempts. Anish has been following the story closely and joins us with his take on the events as well as the impact they might have. Anish, welcome back to the show. It's kind of ironic, but also somehow fitting that these events concluded almost two years exactly after the January 6th, 21 riots. And that Kevin McCarthy was elected speaker after, you know, all the drama that took place at some time seemed like episodes of a sitcom even. What did you make of it both procedurally as well as the actual battle that was ongoing? And what are your sort of key takeaways from this entire situation? Well, one takeaway is that the pro-Trump sort of faction within the what is called as the Freedom House caucus of the Republican Party, which is a small minority within the Republican Party itself, which was divided during the whole speaker election. But a very small number actually managed to get a lot more than they could have imagined in like maybe with a larger majority. So the fact that Republicans won just a very small majority actually helped them quite a bit and that gave them the leverage to extract the sort of demands that would eventually give them the power to do what they want in the House, or more power than what they would have usually had in an earlier version of how things worked in the House. So some of the takeaways that we can think of is like the fact that this could have been done earlier by the left within or the so-called left within the Democratic Party, but we are not going to get into that. But it's a fact that a lot of things were possible in an earlier House of Representatives under a Democratic majority, which did not happen. And that only saddens that the fact that this was demonstrated by a very right wing, a very sort of pro-Trump kind of grouping, a very small minority to begin with, which was not very successful also in the elections, which kind of did that extraction from the House, which actually made it like at least on paper from a Democratic. Some of the, if you look at some of the demands that they got include the fact that even a single member can initiate a sort of speaker reelection. And that was something that the previous Democratic majority in the House actually kind of overturned and turned it into a, like requiring at least five members to do that. So all the other things include the fact that they want an internal majority to decide on what kind of bills and what kind of legislations are introduced in the House and will be passed within the House. And that is an important thing because we have to remember that the American congressional system does not work in the same way that parliamentary systems around the world do, or even most legislatures, even within a presidential system works. So it's more or less the leadership within the ruling block that pretty much dictates the entire business within the House. Obviously, there are individual members who do end up, you know, tabling bills and everything. But if you look at the significant ones, especially spending bills and so on, those are something that the leadership of the majority block decides. And if the majority, and this sort of majority within the majority is kind of like a very Westminster thing as well, that the ruling blocks majority will now sort of set the agenda for the House. The speaker gets reduced like a cut in size in many ways because of that. It also brings down the powers of the establishment within the Republican Party on how things work, not just in the congressional point of view, but the legislative point of view, but also within how the party works outside of the Congress as well. So these are very significant demands. These are very procedural demands. We have to remember that none of these are very clear cut policy demands. Very few actually, they do have some policy demands that they made, and we think that those have been agreed upon. But these procedural demands are the ones that are going to empower this small group of 19 congressmen to essentially now decide a whole host of things in the coming two years or thousand. Makes sense Anish, but we also have to like you pointing out, move on to the governance and policy sort of impact that this will have for the next two years. Are we likely to see a complete paralysis of government, essentially? Yes, so we need to really remember some of the very little policy details that were made clear and were demanded by the small group of 19 right wing congress persons, apart from obviously increasing border policing also includes budget cuts, spending cuts, massive spending cuts that can actually also affect the military or the defense budget that the US has recently passed. And that in itself is something that a majority of Republicans who call themselves moderates obviously, but are pretty much just conservatives would not be very happy with because they are very happy with welfare cuts. They're happy with cuts on education on other sorts of things. But they're never happy with any kind of spending cut on the military. And that especially considering the fact that the very right wing of the Republican Party are of the opinion that the war in Ukraine is very costly to the United States.  They can just paralyze the entire Congress if they want to because obviously the small majority is going to unless obviously the Republicans cross the aisle and gain support from the Democrats, which can also happen. We have seen that happen multiple times when it comes to defense spending and foreign policy issues. But obviously these people have shown that they can actually put the entire proceedings of the House to a standstill if they want to. And they are quite stubborn in many ways in getting what they want. Very much Anish for that detailed update on what's going on in the U.S. And finally, Israel's government has revoked the travel permits of the Palestinian authorities foreign minister Riyad Al Maliki along with several other prominent Palestinians who are allowed to use these permits to freely move in and out of the occupied territories on diplomatic, political and other governance related work. The Netanyahu government claims that the move is part of a series of punitive measures taken by it against the Palestinian Authority for pushing a United Nations General Assembly vote last month. The vote sought a legal opinion from the International Court of Justice on the status of the Israeli occupation. Abdul is in studio now and joins us for more details on this story. Abdul, welcome back to the show. We've seen this year already the new government in place and a series of steps, measures, this time being called retaliatory measures being taken by the Israeli government against Palestinians living in the occupied territories. What led up to the latest set of announcements and measures including the blocking of visa to the foreign minister? I think on December 30th there was an even vote in General Assembly which basically talked about is mostly a rhetorical resolution which talks about taking legal opinion from the International Court of Justice about the status of the Israeli occupation. Of course the resolution despite the fact that Israel was very dismissive about the entire process, it seems that Israel has not, there is some effect of that resolution and the extremist right wing government which Israel now has basically taken it on heart and now basically trying to corner the Palestinian Authority claiming that what they are doing is against the interest of the Israel. And therefore they have not only taken some kind of travel restrictions, imposed some kind of travel restrictions on certain significant officials of the Palestinian Authority in violation of the Oslo agreement. Of course, for example the foreign minister when he was coming back from Brazil, he came to know that his permit has been revoked. It means that there is no difference between the PA officials and the common Palestinians who have to take permission every time they want to move out of the occupied territories. So that is one, apart from that they have also transferred around 39 million dollars from the Palestinian Authority's tax collections. According to the Oslo agreement there is an arrangement where the taxes are collected by the Israeli government and they are transferred to the Palestinian Authority from the occupied territories. And while transferring they have kept 39 million dollars of that crucial fund claiming that now it will go to the Palestinian victims of the terrorism in Israel. Instead of what they claim the Palestinians give this money to encourage terrorism. It means the Palestinians have been using part of their revenue to help the families who were basically affected by the Israeli armed forces killing and other imprisonments and so on and so forth. Apart from that there are also several other measures. For example, Itamar Ben-Guir who is now the National Security Minister has banned Israeli lawmakers to visit Palestinian prisoners. He has also announced the banning of any display of Palestinian flag as a promotion he claims is waving Palestinian flag is promotion of terrorism and so on and so forth. So these are the measures which Israeli government has taken against that vote. In the financial sense, Abdul this is taking a sort of play out of the United States' book and what they did with Afghanistan by saying it is for victims of terrorism but just Israeli victims instead of Palestinians. What kind of impact will this have? Of course the economic impact is quite obvious. Palestinians are already in a very bad condition when it comes to economic. Not only because of the Israeli blockade on Gaza which has deteriorated the economic conditions there made it one of the worst places to live in. Even the West Bank, the COVID of course has an impact. Apart from that the other global events also have an impact. Apart from that the occupation itself is a big reason for the deteriorating economic conditions in the West Bank. They are not allowed to export freely. The imports are also restricted. The foreign funding which used to be a very crucial source of Palestinian kind of revenue has also been restricted in last few years. So over and above that whatever extra, whatever revenue was coming even from that a significant part, $39 million is a big amount for a small economy in West Bank. So it is going to impact massively as far as the economic part is concerned. Apart from that the travel restrictions will create a lot of problems for Palestinian authority to kind of carry forward their mission. Because now the Palestinian authority if we talk about only that part of Palestinian resistance is mostly relying on the making international public opinion against the occupation status. And if they have to seek visa each time they want to move out from the West Bank, it means their one-to-one contact with the foreign diplomats is going to be massively affected. Whether this will sustain, this measure will remain in practice for long or not, we do not know. But given the statements which Itmar, Ben Guyer, Netanyahu and other ministers in the Israeli government have made yesterday, it seems they are quite convinced that this measure will go on further. In fact, Smotry is one of the ministers in the Israeli government even said that he does not care if the PA remains in existence or not. And that is a contrast from the previous administrations in Israel which no matter what they wanted to keep the Palestinian authority intact. So this time it seems they don't want the Palestinian, they are attacking the Palestinian authority itself. Alright, thank you very much for that update Abdul. That's all we have on this episode of The Daily Debrief. As always we invite you to head to our website peoplesdispatch.org for more details on these stories as well as all of the other work we do. Also don't forget to give us a follow on the social media platform of your choice. We'll be back same time, same place tomorrow with another episode. Until then stay safe. Goodbye.


Skyfaring by Mark van Honecker. Narrated by John Moratus. Here, as everywhere else, it is the same age. In cities, in settlements of mud, light has never had epochs. Near the rusty harbor around Port of Spain, bright suburbs fade into words. Maravel, Diego Martin. The highways long as regrets and steeple so tiny, you couldn't hear their bells. Nor the sharp exclamation of whitewashed minarets from green villages. The lowering window resounds over pages of earth. The cane fields set in stanzas. Skimming over an ochre swamp, like a fast cloud of egrets, are nouns that find their branches as simply as birds. It comes too fast, this shelving sense of home. Canes rushing the wing, a fence. A world that still stands as the trundling tires keep shaking and shaking the heart. Midsummer, Derek Walcott. Author's note. I occasionally struggle to decide which units and terms to use in this book, as aviation itself, though otherwise so globalized, is not always consistent. Heights, altitudes, and flight levels, for example, are enumerated in feet over most, but not all of the world, whether or not the metric system is used by those on the ground below. Winds are usually quoted in knots, but sometimes in meters per second. Visibility in some places is typically quoted in kilometers. In other places, it is quantified in statute, not nautical miles. Though kilograms and metric tons are units of mass, I have referred to them as units of weight and everyday informality that echoes not only our cockpit conversations, but also the fine print of our technical manuals. If you have a favorite photograph from the window seat, please send it along to me via the website skyfaring.com. I would love to see it. London, October 2014. Lift. I've been asleep in a small, windowless room, a room so dark, it's as if I'm below the waterline of a ship. My head is near the wall. Through the wall comes the sound of steady rushing, the sense of numberless particles slipping past as water rounds a stone in a str- Sample complete. Ready to continue?