Darkness and Dawn

ence of her own senses, striving again to force upon

It mustn't be. There's a mistake somewhere.

t's dead? Can we see it all from here? Why, all we see is just a little segm

ok his

"no matter how far you look. But, just the same, it w

observation-platform. The quicker we know all the avail

a heap of friable disintegration that lay where once his

n shreds of clothing tore and ripped at eve

ere. Quickly he plunged his hands into the rubbish

. "Thank Heaven, brass and

his hand the girl sa

o view. "The wooden tripod's long since gone. Th

e main thing is that the telescope itself

-piece and the objective with a

h verdigris, but they still held firmly. And the lenses, when Ste

come with

ay while the girl followed. As she went she gathere

, this wreck of all the world, ho

ow the rust-bitten steel showed through the corroded ston

ad to be brushed down. There, still more bats bun

l toward the top of the climb, they flushed up a score of mud-swallow

dents of this sort, they reached the upper pl

ading, testing each foot of the way before the girl. They reac

t that the hand of time and of this madd

long it's been we can't tell. But to judge by the appearance up here, it's

e's grass growing in the dust that's settled between the tiles. And--why, h

nd acorns," she answered in an awed voice. "Think

h a sudden wonder, "tell me how we've ev

we haven't frozen to death in all these bi

ill we learn the facts, if we ever do,"

live embedded in rock for centuries? How fish, ha

are huma

er, might have made no more of us than of non-

a while. On my word, we've got enough to do for

ong, undetermined period of time has passed

you judge it?" she

have been something extraordinary--proba

e exposed to the weather." He pointed at the heavy st

rd. Its débris lay in confusion, blockin

t each corner, slanting downward and bracing a rail

displacement of the stone blocks, between which the vines

f those stones." Firmly he held her back as she, eager

ll be rotten and undermined, for anything

inspected i

n't too bad. Putting everything together, I'll probably be able before long to make some sor

under her breath. "Good He

t them the warm summer wind swept onward to the sea, out over the sparkl

e felt its silken caress on his half-naked shoulder, and i

. Stern did not even feel weak or shaken. On the contrary, n

throbbing heavily, but he bit his lip

body. Beatrice did not shrink from him. She needed his prot

comfort could not fail. And, despite everything, she cou

since their awakening, was all consciousness of

eous, yet unapproachable

ed and breathed just a man, a young man, thewed with the vigor of his

ed stenographer he remembered, busy only with her machine, her file-boxes, and her carbon-cop

ituation which oppressed him, he began a

studied a wide section of the dead and buried world

's swept clean away. Nothing left

rsal ruin. We're all alone in this whole world,

hing--a

e future--the future

her he looked, a great new tenderness possessing

nd bowed her head. Filled with strange em

t in this monstrous Ragnarok of all humanity no ordinary relations o

igh in the pure air of mid-heaven, he comforted the gir