Show f bawn balim and P map t aal 0 ej bd e sern ice SYNOPSIS OF PRECEDING CHAPTERS david ransdell arrives at now york from south africa commissioned by lord and professor bronson the astronomer to lo deliver phu chulo t 0 P dialed to dr colo cole handron tony drake calls at the hendro Hen drons n s apartment ransdell janadell Ra nadell arrives and eye eve Ilen clendron dron with whom tony Is deeply in love introduces tony to ransdell A published statement by hendron says lays professor bronson has discovered two planets that have been brought under the attraction of our sun the result of the inevitable collision r must just be the end of the earth the approaching bodies aro are referred to as bronson alpha and bronson beta bronson beta will pass but tho the other will hit bit the earth and demolish it to devise means of transferring to bronson deta Is what Is occupying the minds of the members of the league of the last days tony rounds up suitable men and women to build the space ship on which hendron hopes to make a landing on bronson beta Ilen hendron dron has not been able to find a metal which will with alth stand the heat and pressure of atomic energy to be used in propelling the space ship tides rush through the streets of new york CHAPTER CHA TER V continued 9 jack taylor was beside tony when they readied reached the roof As god lives a marvelous thing ile he stared at the two yellow discs in the sky think of it I 1 the heavens are falling upon us and a few hundred men here and there are sitting on this stymied golf ball figuring how bow to get away look down now said a different voice at the street it was a young mans voice carefully controlled troll ed but in spite of its constraint ringing with nn unusually vibrant and vital quality tony recognized a recruit whom he had bad not himself selected it was eliot james an englishman from oxford and a poet by profession and by nature he was the most impractical of all the company and one of the most moat attractive in spite of his affectation if it was that of a small beard the beard became him ile he was tall broad shou shouldered aquiline in feature brown the baleful moonlight of the bronson bodies glinted up from the street water some bome one said yes the tide its flowing in from the cross streets from the hudson and from the east river too now ilow high will it rise tonight oh how lit high b not above the bridges tonight but bot of course the power houses bouses will go eo and the tunnels will be filled of course there are people down there wading in the street why did they stay been warned enough weve business here i so had they they supposed and as important to them as we imagined ours to be to us besides safe enough tonight they can climb three stories in almost 1 any building and be safe the tide ebbs of course to in six hours then comes again big higher herl 1 yes res much higher for the eronson bronson bodies are rushing at us j now i exactly how asked eliot james i do they aliey look through the telescope the big one bronson alpha replied jack taylor as they all looked up from the street not very different from before it seems to be gaseous chiefly it always was chiefly gaseous unlike the earth and mars but like jupiter and sat 5 urn and neptune its approach to the sun lias has increased the tem tempera era ture of its envelope but lias has u brought out no detail of its geography if you could call it that bronson alpha offers us no real surface as such it seems to be a great globe with a massive nucleus surrounded by an immense atmosphere what we see Is only the outer surface of the atmosphere could it ever have been inhabited T the poet ask asked ed in no such sense as we understand the word ord for one thing it if we found ourselves on bronson alpha we would never find any surface to live on there is probably no sudden alteration of material mch inch as ext exits ats on the earth when air stops and land and water begin put but the other world dronson bronson teta beta Is different very different from its companion up there but not so different troia from our world it seems it has a surface we can see bee with air and clouds lo in its atmosphere there arc a fixed led details which do not chan change and which prove a surface crust exists the atmosphere was frozen id in the journey through spince space out but the sun has haa thawed out the air and has hag started at least on thawing rg out the seas have you seen asked the poet anything like titles cities the ruins of cities I 1 mean that globe lived la in the sunshine of a star that at was an octillion miles away I 1 thought ought just now looking at it that on it were cities like this where people once watched the corning IB of whatever pulled them loose from on their sun and dropped them to the black mouth of space would you rather we went that way eve sold said to him slipping into space falling away all of us to in the world together retreating farther and farther away from our sun gradually freezing as we went into darkness eliot james shook his handsome head no if I 1 had my choice I 1 think id elect our way yet I 1 wonder how they faced it what they did 1 I wonder said eve her eyes upon the yellow orb if well ever know look proclaimed some one else who was gazing down the lights are beginning to po go ile he meant the street lamps or of new york which had bee been n switched on nn its as usual and maintained to this minute thousands of them still prevailed indeed but a huge oblong ion which had been lighted before was darkened now the lood flood has caught the conduits and with ith the word the little littie gleaming rows which etched the streets throughout another district died but the rest burned on in beautiful defiance the city officially was abandoned but men remained some men whatever the danger refused to suri sun ender they stuck to their duties and to their seril sen ices ces to the last some men and some boys and some women and girls too and so on this night new york had lights I 1 it kept communication telephone and telegraph too but now another pattern of blocks disappeared brooklyn went black beacons burned airplane guides and lighthouses ships having baying their own onn electric installations could be seen seeking the sea that too thought tony was only a splendid gesture yet the sight of the ships like the stubborn persistence of the lights threw a tingle in his blood and made him more proud of his people they give up some of them what use to steer them out to sea for what would they be saved yet captains and crews could be found to steer and stoke them now the street gave up sounds the rush of water mater na as the loud edge of the flood advanced filling the last floor of the canyons between the buildings all over the world at the seaboard it must be the same except that some already were over swept eliot james moved closer to eve what does it do to you he said she answered too much yes he be said and its only begun its not begun whispered eve this this Is really nothing tonight the waters will merely rise over the lower buildings of the city and then subside we will nil fill leave in the ebb tide which I 1 suppose will drain the rivers dry there was clearly no practical purpose for staying this twelve hours longer but I 1 am glad we did I 1 would not have escaped this sensation tony drew lve eve away ile he made the excuse that her ber father having taken her away from the others lie he kept her to himself uve eve weve got to marry my dear what aliat would marriage mean now but you feel it dont you need for you As never before eve 7 yes tony its as be said oh my dearl dear the waters overwhelm you the flood rising and rising and those two yellow discs doing it and no one can stop them coming on tony coming on to lift the water higher and higher coming on to crack open the shell of the earth I 1 tony oh hold roe me 1 I have you eve you have me mol I 1 here we are two of us together la in pairs wherever they are in new york tonight uve eve you see them wherever they waited a woman waited with a man theres only one answer to annihilation hi lif it tony I 1 my dear that your name some ones searching tor for you in the yellow light on the roof they could see a uniformed boy ile ha had bad arrived at the building nn an hour ago the boy was saying baying with the elevators stopped he climbed to the root roof by the stairs tony took his telegram tore it open and read mrs airs madeline drake murdered by looters footers who raided several connecticut farms and estates late lata today the paper dropped from tonys ringers fingers ile he slumped to a bench and covered his face with ills his hands lie III felt eves hand band and looked up utter despair on his face read head that lie ile saw that she held its his telegram 1 I have read it tonyp tony P 1 I should have gone to her or I 1 should have taken her away but I 1 believed it best to leave her in her home as long iong its as possible I 1 was a going to her tomorrow now now she checked his flow of recrimination In atlon sitting on the lie bench beside him and reaching up to smoothed his hair as if he were only a child you have done a thine tony all over the country bands of men have been running like wolves tony leaped to his feet 1 I must go to her of course and ill go with you but we must wait for the tide to fall I 1 tide ile he stalked to the edge of the root roof now he saw the streets running full not with the foul water of the harbor but with a clean g green reen flood the bronson bodies lit it almost to dim daylight tony gazed up at them aghast my mind can understand it eve but good 0 d she was my mother erl murdered the d n cowards ile he did not finish lie ile was racked by a succession of 0 great sobs eve caught his hand and brought him again to the bench still they were alone and she sat close beside him holding him in her arms for a long time they said not nothing then they arose returned to the parapet and gazed down at the water strange sounds arose with the how flow of the flood the collapse of windows under the weight of 0 water the of air the inrush of the tide smoke drifted like a mist between the buildings as the water the final enemy of fire began to to cause conflagrations but there was no wind tonight so the flood isolated each fire here and there a building burned but the huge terraced towers of manhattan stood dark and silent intact you must try to sleep tony and aou till the tide goes out yes tony ril ill try if you will she kissed him and they went in together to separate at the door of the room where she was to sleep tony went on to the bed allotted him and lay down without undressing when he be awoke lie he stalked to the window to look down at water now rushing seaward the roll of the world while he be had slept had turned the city and the coast away from the bronson bodies so that now they sucked the sea outward and the wash made whirlpools at the cross streets in the g gray ray light of dawn coffee said kyto you will need yes tes admitted tony turning ill need coffee 1 miss I eve insists to pour it oh ashes up iver very y ready to see you an airplane hummed overhead at some small distance several others ransdell Kans dell undoubtedly was in one of them inspection from the air of effects upon the earth was one of his duties a sort of reconnaissance of the lines of destruction st tony thought of ransdell looking down and wondering about eve the flyers admiration of her amounted to openly desirous ador adoration atlon there was the poet eliot james too they were bound with hini him and with eve in the close company of the league of the last days whose function lay no longer in the vague future the peculiar rules and regulations of 0 f the league already were operative in part others would clamp their control u upon pon him immediately tony today resented it he made no attempt to shake off his over possessive jealousy of ransdell ansdell It or eliot james over eve she would go home with him today to ills his home where hi his mother had bad been murdered eve and he would leave his home together tor for what next destination tin ti to return her to her father who forbade tony attempting to exercise any exclusive claim upon her no tony bould not return tier her to her father hendron had arisen and as if through the file wall he had read tonys defiance he opened the door and entered lie ile offered its his hand band 1 I have heard beard tony the news which reached you after I 1 retired I 1 am sorry youre not returned tony it was no morning for perfunctory politeness lit eness youre right acceded cendron Uen lien dron im not I 1 know it Is altogether better that your mother died now I 1 am sorry only for the shock to you which you cannot argue away eve tells me th that at she goes home with you I 1 am glad of that last night tony the bronson nod bod leg lea were studied in every observatory on the side of the world turned to then them of course they were closer than ever before and conditions were highly favorable for observation I 1 would have liked to be at a telescope but that Is tha prerogative of others my duty was here Bo however wever a few reports have reached me tony cities have been seen cities said gald tony on bronson ecta bronson IS ronson alpha continues to turn like a great gaseous globe but bronson beta which already had displayed air and land and water lost last night exhibited cities we can see the geography of bronson rS ronson beta quite quile plainly Y it rotates probably at the same rote rate it turned making day and night when it was spinning about its sun it makes a rotation in slightly over thirty hours you may remember and it happens to rotate at such an angle relative to us that we have studied its entire surface something more than two thirds of 0 the surface is sea the land lies chiefly in four continents with two well marked archipelagoes behave we have seen acen not merely the seas and the lines of the shores but the mountain ranges and the river valleys at prints upon the seacoasts and at points in the river valleys where intelligent beings if they once lived on the gibbe g obe would have built cities there are areas plainly marked which have distinct characteristics acte of their own there Is no doubt in the minds of the men who have studied them there Is no important disagreement the telescopes of 0 the world were trained last night tony upon the sites of cities on that world tony for millions of years there was life on bronson deta beta as there has been ure life here for more than a thousand million years we believe the slow cautious but cruel process of evolution had been going on there as it has here it Is a developed world a fully developed world which approaches us tony with its cities that we now can see not inhabited cities objected tony of course not inhabited now but once there can be no possible doubt that every one on that world is dead the point Is they lived so very likely we also can live on their world if we merely reach it berely Ne merely rely replied tony mockingly yes said Ilen clendron dron ignoring his tone it Is most likely that where they lived we can and think of stepping upon that soil up there finding a road leading to one of their cities and entering it ile he recollected himself suddenly and extended ills his hand you have an errand tony to complete between the tides I 1 gladly lend you eve to accompany you she will tell you later what we all have to do lie ile led tony to eves door but did not linger thereafter tony went in alone CHAPTER VI VE was at a tiny table where a E EVE blue flame dame burned below a coffee percolator and where an oil lamp following the failure of electricity tri city augmented the faint gray of approaching dawn was it the light tony wondered or was eve ere this morning really so pale lie ile came to her and whatever the rules for this day he claimed her with his bis arms and kissed her now he be said |