and rose about us, straining upward in a passion of growth. He put a dubious hand to his lips. He spoke

ating finger that

ation deepened. "Anyhow," he said, w

ejaculations, our eyes sought in the t

snow-drifts lingered. North, south, east, and west spread an identical monotony of unfamiliar forms. And somewhere, buried already among this tangled co

said, pointing suddenly,

mark of my heels. It's clear the thing must be more to th

, "I kept the sun upon

to me," I said, "my

crater had become enormously vast to our imaginatio

! What fools

that soon. The sun grows stronger. We should be fainting wit

matter before. But it came to me at once--a positive c

active resolution. "Certain

t formed the floor of the crater, each of us weighing in silence the chan

or, with indecisive gestures. "The only thing

y alacrity to begin our hunt. "I wish this

Cavor. "But it was ly

indling snow banks, steadily and inevitably changed. The sun scorched and stung, the faintness of an unaccountable hunger mingled with our infinite perplexity. And even as we stood there, confused and l

. Boom.

ce, thick with the quality of intervening substance. No sound that I can imagine could have astonished us more, or have changed more completely the qualit

. Boom.

pregnant and mysterious in this fantastic desert! To the eye everything was unchanged: the desolation of bushes and cacti waving silently in the wind, stretched unbrok

Boom...

another in faint

clo

a cl

t is

can

ed suggestion, and at that

h shock. For a moment one could doubt whether one had ever heard a soun

he feared to wake some sleeping thing. "Let us keep together," he whispered, "and l

ay shall

they be? Where could they be? Was this arid desolation, alternately frozen and scorched, only the outer rind and mask of

n as an unexpected thunderclap, came a clang and rattle as

stood gaping helplessly. T

my face. He waved his hand vaguely skyward, t

ace! If anyt

. I nodded my hea

gainst noise. We went towards a thicket of scrub. A clangour like hammers

and shrivel so that we could thrust our way in among the thickening stems without serious injury. A stab in

n," he whisp

may co

find th

said; "

ll we com

f we d

. See what t

eep togeth

"Which way s

take ou

e earth beneath us came concussions, beatings, strange, inexplicable, mechanical sounds; and once, and then again, we thought we heard something, a faint rattle and tumult, borne to us through the air. But fearful as we were we dared essay no vantage-point to survey the crater. For long we

the sun, loomed upon us. Ever and again some novel shape in vivid colour obtruded. The very cells that built up these plants were as large as my thumb, like beads of coloured glass. And all these things were saturated in the unmitigated glare of the sun, were seen against a sky that was bluish black and spangled still, in spite of t

mering, the clanging and throb of machinery,