EVENING LEBGEB-PHILABEIilPHIA, BATTIRDAY, NOVEMBEB 18, 1910
ismiiiiesiissln SKniidsjSfB WfnHiWrf W V
'WieYACA
M,
Kr
i'
fiy Geonfe cAlJan Endland
(Cetxrthl. !. br Ft"'' A. Mutiny Co.)
CHAPTER I
The Awakening
DIMLY, llko Ihe daybreak glimmer of a
iky Ionic wrapped In ' 'in of
eonsetousnem began to dawn In the fnca of
Once more the breath of life began to Rtlr
In thst full bosom, to which again a vital
warmth had on this day of days crept
lowly back
s And as he '" th'rfl Prone upon the
lJ?,y floor, her beautiful face burled and
kh!ldel In the hollow of nor arm, a nigh
tiled from her lips.
iriif was flowing back again t Tlu
f- ftltacle of miracles was growing to reality.
t Fwalntlr now she breathed; vaguely her
Start began to throb once more. She stirred
Ehe moaned, stilt for themoment powerless
lo cast off wholly tho enshrouding Incubus
If that tremendous, dreamless sleep.
Then her hands closed, Tho finely tapered
lingers tangled themsolves In tho masses
of thick, luxuriant hair which lay out
tpread all over and about hr- The eyelids
And. a moment later, Beatrice Kcndrlck
vis sitting up, dazed and utterly uncom
prehending, peering about her at the
.. n.eFllon which since tho world bo-
ran had ever been tho lot of any human
creature to behold tho vision of a placo
' transformed beyond nil power or mo Intel
, Jed to understand.
For of the room which she remembered,
' which had been her last sight when (so
" Mas4, so very long, ago) hT eyes had closed
With that sudden and unconquerable drows
iness, of that room, I say, remained only
walls, celling, door of rust-red steel and
crumbling cement
Quite gono was all tho plaster, as by
jnsglc. Hero and thcro a heap of whitish
fluit betrayed whero somo of Its detritus
Oone was every picture, chart nnd map
which but an hour since It seemed to her
had decked this ofllco of Allan Stern, con
sulting engineer, this nerlo up In tho forty
eighth story of tho Metropolitan Tower.
Furniture, there was none, Over tho stlll
intact glass of the windows cobwebs wero
draped so thickly ns almost to exclude tho
light of day a strange, fly-Infested cur
tain where onco neat green shade-rollers
fead hung, ...
ETtn as tho bewildered girl sat there,
lips parted, eyci wldo with amnzo, a spider
lelied his buzzing prey nnd scampered Lack
Into a hole In tho wall.
A huge, leathery bat, suspended upside
gown In the far corner, cheeped with dry,
repliant sounds of Irritation.
Beatrice rubbed her eyes,
i What?" sho said, quite Blowly. "Drcam
I tog? How singular I I only wish I could
remember this when I wako up. Of all tho
dreams 1'vo ever had, this one's certainly
the strangest. So real, so vivid I "Why, I
' could Swear I was awake and yet "
' All at onco a sudden doubt Hashed Into
htr mind An uneasy expression dawned
across her face. Her eyes grow wild with a
ret fear; tho fear of utter and absolute
Incomprehension
j Something about this room, Itha weird
, , awakening, bore In upon her consciousness
'a the dread tidings this was not a dream I
( i siSomethIng drove homo to her tho fact
1 I Oat It was real, objective, positive I And
t f With a gasp of f r ght sho struggled up
1 1 amid the litter and tho rubbish of that un-
' ciany room
'"Oh!" sho cried In terror, aB a huge scor-
Mon. ihnlevolent. and with Its tall raised
jdftfto strike, scuttled away and vanished
' .tx through a gaping oll whero onco tho cor-
., A?. 1 mtJtm ., - U-.l ., KHh l.l Whip
y JUU( UUUI IIUU otvuiit,. Wt, w,, I,,.u.w
Un I? What what has happoncd?"
, Horrified beyond all words, pale and
''tiring, both hands clutched to her breast,
' whereon her very clothing now had torn
' and crumbled, oho faced about.
To her It seemed as though some mon
strous, evil thing wero lurking In the dim
corntr at her back. She tried to scream,
but could utter no sound, savs a choked
gasp. ,
Then sho started toward tho doorway.
Even as she took the first few steps her
' gown a mere tattered mockery of raiment
"fell away from her
l And, confronted by a new problem, she
topped short About her she peered In
vain for something to protect her disarray.
There was nothing!
"Why Where's whero's my chair? My
desk!" she exclaimed thickly, staring to
ward the place by tho window whero they
"should have been, and were not Her
He,,, shapely feet fell soundlessly In that strange
j ( and Impalpable dust which thickly coated
"My typewriter? Is can that bo my
typewriter? Great Heavens! What's tho
matter here, with everything? Am I mad?"
St There before her lay a somewhat larger
1 Vile of dust mixed with soft and punky
' splinters of rotten wood. Amid all this
decay she saw soma bits of rust, a cor
roded typebar or two, even a few rubber
! keycaps, ttfill recognizable, though with tho
letters quite obliterated.
. All about her, veiling her completely In a
mantle of wondrous gloss and beauty, her
lustrous hair fell, as Bhe stooped to see this
trange, Incomprehensible phenomenon.
6he tried to pick up one of the rubber caps.
i M her merest touch It crumbled to an Im-
Palpable white powder.
Back with a shuddering cry the gtrl
Prang, terrified.
"Merciful heavens I" aha Buppllcated.
"Whit what does all this mean?"
For a moment ahe stood there, her every
Power of thought, of motion, numbed.
Jreathlng not she only started In a wild
Una of cringing amazement, as perhaps
you might do If you should sea a dead man
Z30V,
Then to the door she ran. Out Into the
aall she peered, this way and that down
a dismantled corridor, up the wreckage
, the stairs, all cumbered, like the oflica
"lf, with dust and webs and vermin.
Aloud she hallsh: "Oh! Help, help,
S 1" No an,wer. Even the echoes flung
Bftex only dull, vacuous sounds that deep
nd her sense, of awful and Incredible Iso
lation. What? No nolsa of human life anywhere
be heard? Nonel No familiar hum of
tae metropolis now roso from what when
at had fallen asleep, had been swarming
Hreets and miles on mile's of habitations.
Instead, a blank, unbroken leaden sl
nee, that seemed part of the musty, chok
JUJ atmosphere a silence that weighed
Sown on Beatrlco like funeral palls.
Durofounded by all this, and by the uni
versal crumbling of every perishable
jr. tho girl ran, shuddering, back Into
offlee. There in the dust her foot struck
enwthing hard,
ult lrtoope,1 ,De caught Jt up and.stared
,. "My glass Inkwelll What? Only such
wags remain r
No dream, then, but reality? She knew
length that some catastrophe, incredibly
Ir ft 80m disaster cosmic In the tragedy
iS weP. had desolated the world.
Oh, tny mother!" cried she. "My mother
JesdT Dead, now, how long?"
tm did not weep, but Just stood cower-
chill of anguished horror racking
r. All at once her teeth began to chat
" her body to shake as with an ague.
Thus for a moment dazed and stunned
W remained there, knowing not which
a to turn nor what to do. Then her
Mrror-au-icjtea eal0 fen 0n the doorway
onur trom, her outer office to the Inner
hsre Stern had had hU laboratory
M cowaiitatlon room.
UM QA, Mnw I... MM A . .AVOTJt(l ftfl
etrww
. . --- unrrw iiuua, at rf m wm- .-
Toward It she staggered. About her she
drew the sheltering masses of her hair, like
a QodlVa Of another ni; nn.l In hoi- va
1 womanlike, the hot tears mounted. As she
...7 crlea m a V0,C9 of horror.
Mr. Stern! Oh Mr. Stern! Are are you
dead, too? lou can't be It's too frightful 1"
She renched, tho door. The mere touch
of her outstretched hand disintegrated It
Uown In a crumbling mass It fell. Thick
dust bellied up In a cloud, through which a
single sun lay that entered the cobwebbed
pane shot a radiant arrow.
Hesitant fearful of even greater ter
tors In that other room, Ucatrlco peered
through this du.t hazo. A sick foreboding
of evil possessed her at thought of what sho
might nnd thore yet moro afraid was she
of what she knew lay behind her.
An Instant she stood within the ruined
doorway, her left hand resting on the moldy
Jam. Then, with a cry, she started forward
a cry In which terror had given place to
Joy, despair to hope.
Forgotten now tho fact that save for
the shrouding of her massy hair, she stood
naked. Forgotten the wreck, the desola
tion everywhere.
"Oh thank heaven!" gasped she.
Thcro, In that Inner omce. half rising
from tho wrack of many things that had
been nnd wero now no more, her startled
eyes beheld the flguro of a man of Allan
Stern!
Ho lived I
At her ho peered with eyes thnt saw not.
ot; townrd her he groped a vague, un
steady hand.
Ho llvod!
Not qulto alona In 'this world-ruin, not
all nlono was sho I
CHAPTER II
Realization
THU Joy In Hcatrlco's eyes gave way to
poignant wonder as she gazed on him.
Could this bn ho?
Yes, well sho knew It wns. Sho recog-'
nlzcd him even through tho grotcsquery of
his clinging rags, oven behind tho mask
of a long, red, dusty beard nnd formidable
mustache, oven desplto tho ulld nnd staring
Incohcrenco of his wholo expression.
Yet how Incrcdlblo the mctnmorphoslst
To her Unshed a memory of this man, her
othcr-tlmo employor keen and smooth
shaven, nlort, well dressed, self centered,
dominant, tho master of a. hundred complox
problems, the directing mind of engineering
works Innumerable.
Faltorlng and uncertain now he stood
there. Then, at the sound of tho girl's
voice, he staggered toward her with out
flung handa. Ho stopped, and for a moment
stared at her.
For he had had no time as yet to correlate
his thoughts, to pull himself together.
And while ono's heart might throb ten
times. Beatrlco saw terror In his blinking,
bloodshot eyes.
But almost at onco the engineer mastered
himself. Even ns Beatrice watched him,
breathlessly, from tho door, Bhe saw his fear
die out, sho saw lih courage well up fresh
and strong.
It was almost as though something
tangible wero limning the man's soul upon
his face Sho thrilled nt Bight of him.
And though for a long moment no word
wbb spoken, whllo tho man nnd woman
stood looking nt each other like two chil
dren In Rome drond nnd unfamiliar attic, an
understanding leaped between them.
Then, uomanllko. Instinctively as Bhe
breathed, tho girl ran to him. Forgetful of
overy convention nnd of her disarray, sho
seized his hand. And In a voice that
trembled till It broke she cried
"What Is It? What does all this mean?
Tolt mo!"
To him she clung.
"Tell me the truth and eavo met Is It
real?"
Stern looked at her wonderlngly. He
smiled b. strange, wan, mirthless smile.
All about him he looked. Then his lips
moved, but for the moment no sound came.
Ho mado another effort, this time suc
cessful "There, there," eald'he huskily, as though
the dust and dryness of the Innumerable
years had got Into his very voice. "There,
now, don't be afraldl
"Something seems to have taken place
hero while we've been asleep. What?
What la It? I don't know yet I'll And out
Thero's nothing to be alarmed about at
any rate."
"But look!" She pointed at the hideous
desolation.
"Yes, I see. But no matter. You're
alive. I'm alive. That's two of us, any
how. Maybe there are a lot more. We'll
soon see. Whatever It may be, we'll win."
Ho turned and, trailing rags and stream
era of rotten cloth that ones had been a
business suit he waded through the con
fusion of wreckage on the floor to the
window.
If you have seen a weather-beaten scare
crow Happing In the wind, you have some
notion of his outward guise. No tramp
you ever laid eyes on could have offered so
preposterous an appearance.
Down over his shoulders fell the matted,
dusty hair. Ills tangled beard reached far
below his waist Even his eyebrows,
naturally rather light, had grown to a
heavy thatch above his eyes.
Save that ho was not gray or bent, and
that he still seemed to have kept the
resilient force of vigorous manhood, you
might have thought him some Incredibly
ancient Itlp Van Winkle come to life upon
that singular stage, there In the tower.
But little time gave he to Introspection
or the matter of his own appearance. With
one quick gesture he swept away the shroud
ing tangle of webs, spiders and dead flies
that obscured the window. Out he peered.
"Oood heavens I" cried he, and started
back a pace.
She ran to him. .
"What Is It?" she breathlessly exclaimed.
"Why. I don't know -yet But this Is
something big) Something universal! It's
It's no; no, you'd better not look out not
Just yet"
"I must know everything, trst me seer
Now she was at his side, and, like him,
staring out Into the clear sunshine, out over
the vast expanses of the city,
A moment's utter silence fell. Quite
clearly hummed the protest of an Imprison
ed fly In a web at the top of the window.
The breathing of the man and woman
sounded quick and loud. . ,
"All wrecked T" cried Beatrice, "Bur
then" "Wrecked? It looks that way," the en
gineer made answer, with a strong effort
holding his emotions in control. "Why not
be (rank about this? You'd better make
up your mind at once to accept the very
worst I tee no signs of anything else,
"The worst? You mean"
"I mean Just what we see out there. Ton
can Interpret It as well as'l."
Again the alienee while they looked, with
emotions that could find no voicing In
word. Instinctively the engineer passed
an arm about the frightened glri and drew
her close to him.
i "And the last thing I rememher,"
whispered she, "was Just Just after you'd
finished dictating those Taunton Bridge
specifications. J suddenly felt oh, so
sleepyl Only for a minute I thought I'd
close my eyes and rest, and then then"
"This?" ,
She nodded.
"Same" here," said he. "What the deuce
can have struck us? Us and everybody
and everything? Talk about your prob-.
Umt Lucky I'm cane and sound, and ,
and
He did not onun, but reu once more to
.jGt&Wffift
ifW
iix-iz-K&swrj i f gj'i,ve.vii i i ;'M.vfit.'iixiy.'j-TjLs -."" 2'j-ir:irt.xAv7-Ci7i-ijfra'r.ii
ll&fiisy ,rhor. Jn that innor offtcc. hn" rising ir tho wra&
Sfe startled eyes beheld tho flguro of a man Allan Stern.
wav enTs. TH
. .... I.. .,. ,1 I I. I J . , I . , I . II -I I .....-! II ..I Ill II I I I H H .
Their view was townrd the east, but over
the river and tho reaches of what had once
upon a time been Long Island City and
Brooklyn, ns familiar a scene In tho other
days as could be possibly Imagined. - But
now how nltored an aspect greeted them!
"It's surely all wiped out, all gone, gone
Into ruins," said Stern slowly nnd carefully,
weighing each word "No hallucination
about that." Ho swept tho sky-lino with
his eyes, that now peered keenly out from
benenth those bushy brows. Instinctively
he brought his hand up to his breast He
started with surprise.
"What's this?" ho cried. "Why. I I've
got a full yard of whiskers. My good
Lord I Whiskers on me? And I used to
say "
He burst out laughing. At his beard he
plucked with merriment jthat Jangled hor
ribly on the girl's tense nerves. Suddenly
he grew serious. For the flrst time he
seemed to take clear notice of his compan
ion's plight
"Why, what a time It must have been!"
cried he. "Here's some calculation all cut
out for me. all right But you can't go
that way, Miss Kendrlck. It It won't do,
you know. Got to have something to put
on. Great heavens, what a situation I"
He tried to peel off his remnant of a coat
but at the merest touch It tore to shreds
and fell away. The girl restrained him.
"Never mind." Bald she, with quiet,
modest dignity, "My hair protects me very
well for the present If you and I are all
that's left of the people In the world, this
Is no time for trifles."
A moment he studied her. Then he
nodded, .and grew very grave.
"Forgive me," he whispered, laying a
hand on her shoulder. Once mors he turned
to the window and looked out
"So then. It's all goner he queried,
speaking as to himself. "Only a skyscraper
standing here or there? And the bridges
and the Islands all changed.
"Not a sign of life anywhere; not a
sound; the forests growing thick among
the ruins? A dead world If If all the
world Is like this part of It I All dead,
save you and met"
In silence they stood there, striving to
realize the full Import of the catastrophe.
And Stern, deep down In hla heart caught
some glimmering Insight of the future and
was glad,
CHAPTER III
On the Tower Platform
SUDDENLY the,' girl started, rebelling
against the Evidence of her own senses,
striving again to force upon herself the be
lief that, after all, t could not be so,
"No, no, nol" she cried 'This can't be
true. Jt mustn't be. There's a mistake
somewhere. This simply must be all an
Illusion, a dream I
"If the whole world's dead, how does It
happen we're alive? How do we know
It's dead? Can we see It all from here?
Why, all we see la Just a little segment of
things. Perhaps If we could know the
truth, look farther, and know "
, He shook bis head.
"I guesa you'll And It real enough," he
answered, "no matter how far you look.
But, Just the same, it won't do any harm
to extend our radius of observation.
"Come, let's go up on top of the tower,
up to the observation platform. The quicker
we know all the available facts the better.
Now. It I only had a telascoper !"
Be thought hard a moment, then turned
mdjstrode eye ""'?j " fci dWo-
i. . ,j. . o j-e. i i i ii i i - ir - 1IW.JSJ1; iTJ !v t.. )UL,:jr.n..fc J r" w Wu .-r."ttTf-V. "IT.. !. .iiVI T. .f f IT I '.Tin tt.eee-IT'La.
tegratlon that lay where once his Instru
ment case had stood, containing his sur
veying tools.
Down on his ragged knees he fell; his
rotten Bhreds of clothing tore and ripped
nt every movement like so much water
soaked paper.
A strange, hairy, dust-covered figure, he
knelt there Quickly he plunged his hands
Into the rubbish nnd began pawing It over
and over with eager haste.
"Ah!" he cried with triumph. "Thank
heaven, brass and lenses haven't crumbled
yet!"
Up he stood again. In his hand the girl
saw a peculiar telescope.
"My 'level,' see?" he exclaimed, holding
It up to view. "Tho woodoh tripod's long
since gone The fixtures that held It on
won't bother me much.
"Neither will the splrlt-glass on ton. The
main thing Is that the telescope Itself seems
to be still Intact Now we'll see."
Speaking, he dusted oft the eyepiece and
the objective with a bit of rag from his
coat sleeve.
Beatrice noted that the brass tubes were
all eaten and pitted with verdigris, but they
still held flrmly. And the lenses, when
Stern had finished cleaning them, showed
an bright and clear as ever.
"Come, now; come with me," he bade.
Out through the doorway Into the hall
he made his way while the girl followed.
As she went she gathered her wondrous
veil of hair more closely about her.
In this' universal disorganization, this
wreck of all tho world, how little the con
ventions counted I
Together, picking their wuy up the
broken stairs, where now the rust-bitten
steel showed through the corroded stone
and cement In a thousand places, they cau
tiously climbed.
Here, spider webs thickly shrouded the
way, and had to be brushed down. There,
still more bats hung and chlppered In pro
test as tho Intruders passed.
A fluffy little white owl blinked at them
from a dark niche ; and, well toward the top
of tho climb, they flushed up a score of mud
swallows which had ensconced themselves
comfortably along a broken balustrade.
At last, however, despite all unforeseen
Incidents of this sort they reached- the
upper platform, nearly a thousand feet
above thosearth.
Out through the relics of the revolving
door they crept, he leading, testing each
foot of tho way before the glrL They
reached the narrow platform of red tiling
that surrounded the tower.
Even here they saw with growing amaze
ment that the hand of time and of this
maddening mystery had laid Its heavy Im
print "Lookl" he exclaimed, pointing. "What
this all means we don't know yet How
long It's been we can't telL But to Judge
by the appearance up here, It's even longer
than I thought See, the very tiles are
cracked and crumbling.
"Tllework Is usually considered highly
recalcitrant but this la gone. There's grass
growing In the dust that's settled between
tho tiles. And why, here's a young oak
that's taken root and forced a dozen slabs
out of place "
"The winds and birds have carried seed
up here, and acorns," she answered In an
awed voice. "Think of the time that must
have passed. Years and years.
"But tell me," and her brow wrinkled
with a sudden wonder, "tell me how we've
ever lived to long? I can't understand It
"Not only have we escaped starvation,
but we haven't frozen to death tn all these
bitter winters. How can that have hap
pened?" "Lot It all go ns suspended animation
till wo learn tho facts, If we ever do," he
replied, glancing about with wonder.
"You know, of course, how toads have
been known to llvo Imbedded tn rock for
centuries? How fish, hnrd frozen, have
been brought to llfo ngaln? Well"
"But wo are human beings."
"I know. Certain unknown natural forces,
however, might have made no more of us
than of nonmammallan and less highly or
ganized creatures.
"Don't bother your hesd about these
problems yet a while. On my word, we've
got enough to do for the present without
much caring about how or why.
"All we definitely know Is that some very
long, undetermined period of time has
passed, leaving us still alive. The rest can
wait"
"How long a time do you Judge It?" she
anxiously Inquired.
"Impossible to say at once. But It must
havo been something extraordinary prob
ably far longer than either of us suspect
"See, for example, tho attrition of every
thing up here exposed to the weather." He
pointed at tho heavy stono railing. "See
how that la wrecked, for Instanco."
A whole segment. Indeed, had fallen In
ward. Its debris lay In contusion, blocking
all the southern sldo of the platform.
The bronze bars, which Stern well re
membered two at each corner, slanting
downward and bracing a rail had now
wasted to mere pockmarked shells of metal.
Threo had broken entirely and sagged
wantonly awry with the displacement of
the stone blocks, between which the vines
and grasses had long been carrying on tbelr
destructive work.
"Look out!" Stem cautioned. "Don't lean
against any of those stones." Firmly he
held her back as she, eagerly Inquisitive,
started to advance toward the ratling.
"Don't go anywhere near the edge. It
may all be rotten and undermined for any
thing we know. Keep back here, close to
the wall."
Sharply be Inspected It a moment
"Facing stones are pretty well gone,"
said he, "but, so far as I can see, the steel
frame Isn't too bad, Putting everything to
gether, I'll probably be able before long to
make some sort of calculation of the date.
But for now we'll hare to call it "X, and
let It go at that"
"The year XI" she whispered under her
breath. "Oood heavens, am I as old as
that?"
He made no answer, but only drew her to
hlra protectlngly, while all about them the
warm summer wind swept onward to the
sea, out over the sparkling expanses of the
bay alone unchanged tn all that universal
wreckage.
In the breeze her heavy masses of hair
stirred lurtngly. He felt Its silken caress
on his half-naked shoulder, and In his ears
the blood began-.to pound with strange in
sistence. Quite gone now the daze and drowsiness
of the first wakening. Stern did not even
feeUweak or shaken. On the contrary, never
had life bounded more warmly, more fully,
in hla veins.
The presence of the girl set his heart
throbbing heavily, but he bit his Up and
restrained every untoward thought
Only bis arm tightened a little about that
warmly clinging body. Beatrice did not
shrink from him. She needed hla protec
tion a never since the world begto had
v'" nce44 man, WA
To her It seemed that come what might,
his strength nnd comfort could not fall.
And, desplto everything, she could not for
the moment find unhnpplness within her
heart
Quite vanished now,evon In those brief
mlnufts slnco their awakening, was all con
sciousness of tholr former relationship
omployer and employed.
Tho self-contained, courteous yet unap
proachable engineer had disappeared.
Now, through all the extraneous disguise
of his outer self, there lived and breathed
Just a man, n young man, thewed with the
vigor of his plenitude. All else had been
swept clean away by this great change.
Tho girl Vas different too. Was this
strong woman, eager-oyed and brave, the
quiet, low-voiced stenographer he remem
bered, busy only with her machlno, her
file boxes and her carbon copies? Stern
dared not realise the transmutation. He
ventured hardly fringe It In hla thoughts.
, To divert his wonderlngs and to ease a
situation which oppressed him he began
adjusting the "lever' telescope to his eye.
With his back planted firmly against the
tower, he studied a wide section of the dead
and burled World so very far below them.
With astonishment he cried:
"It Is true, Beatrice I Everything's swept
clean away. Nothing left, nothing at all
no signs of life!
"As far ns I can reach with these lenses,
universal ruin. We're all alone In this
whole world, Just you and I and every
thing belongs to us I"
"Everything all ours?"
"Everything I Even the future the future
of the human race I"
Suddenly he felt her tremble at his stds.
Down at her he looked, a great new ten
derness possessing him. He saw that tears
were forming in her eyes.
Beatrice pressed both hands to her face
and bowed her head. Filled with strange
emotions, the man watched her for a
moment
Then In silence, realizing the uselessness
of any words, knowing that In this mon
strous Bagnarbk of all humanity no ordi
nary relations of life could bear either cog
ency or meaning, he took her In hla arms.
And there alone with her, far above the
ruined world, high In the pure air of mid
heaven, he comforted the girl with words
till then unthought-of and unknown to him.
CHAPTER IV
The Cltu of Death
PRESENTLY Beatrice grew calmer. For
though grief and terror still weighed
upon her soul, ahe realized that this was
no fit time to yield to any weakness now
When a thousand things were pressing for
accomplishment, If their own lives, too, were
not presently to be snuffed out Jn all this
universal death.
"Come, come," said Stern reassuringly.
"I want you, too, to get a complete idea
of what has happened. From now on ypu
must know all, share all, with me." And
taking her by the hand he led her along
the crumbling and uncertain platform.
Together, very cautiously, they explored
the three sides of the platform still un
choked by ruins.
Out oyer the incredible mausoleum of civ
ilization they peered. Now and again they
fortified their vision by recourse to the
telescope.
Nowhere, as he had said, was any slight
est sign, of life to be discerned. Nowhere
a thread of stsopke arose ; no whs re a sound
eeho4 upward-
Dead lay the oily, between Its r!vrs,
wherein now no sail glinted In the sunlight,
no tug puffed vehemently with plumy J eta
of steam, no liner Idled at anchor or nosed
Its slow course out to sea.
The Jersey shore, the Palisades, the
Bronx and Long Island all lay burled In
dense forests of conifers and oak, with
only hero and there some skeleton mockery
of a steel structure Jutting through.
The Islands In the harbor, too, ware
thickly overgrown. On Ellis no sign of
the Immigrant station remained. Castle
William was quite gone. And with a gasp
of dismay nnd pain, Beatrice pointed out
the fact that no longer Liberty held hut
bronze torch aloft
Save for a blaok, misshapen mass pro
truding through the tree-tops, the huge
gift of Franco was no more.
Fringing the water-front, all the way
around, the mournful remains of the docks
and piers lay In a mere sodden Jumble of
decay, with an occasional hulk sunk along
side. Even over these wrecks of liners, vegeta
tion was growing, rank and green. Alt the
wooden ships, barges and schooners had
utterly vanished.
Tho telescope showed only a stray, lolling
mast of steel, here or yonder, thrusting
up from the desolation, like a mute appeal
ing hand raised to a heaven that responded
not
"See," remarked Stem, "uptown almost
all the buildings seem to have crumbled:
In upon themselves or to have fallen out
ward Into tho streets. What an Inconceiv
able tangle of detritus those streets mutt
be I
"And, do you notice the park hardly
shows at all? Everything's so overgrown
with trees you can't tell where It begins
or ends. Nature has her revenge at last,
on man I"
"The universal claim, mads real." saM
Beatrlco. 'Those rather clearer lines of
green. I suppose, must be the larger streets.
Soe how tho avenues stretqh away and
away, like ribbons of green velvet!
"Everywhere that roots, can hold at
all, Mother Nature has set up her flags
again. Hark I What's that?"
A moment they listened Intently. TJp to
them, from very far, ross a walling cry,
tremulous, long-drawn, formidable,
"Oh I Then there are people, aftsr all?"
faltered the girl, grasping Stern's arm.
He laughed.
"Nol hardly 1" answered he. "I see you
don't know the wolf-cry. I didn't till I
heard It In tho Hudson Bay country last
winter that Is, last winter, plus X. Not
very pleaaant. Is lt7"
"Wolves I Then there are r
"Why not? Trobably all sorts of game
on tho Island now. Why shouldn't there
be? All In Mother Nature's stock-in-trade,
you know.
"But come, come, don't let that worry
you. We're safe, for the present Tlme
enough to consider hunting later, tet'a
creep around here to the other side of the
tower and see what we can see."
Silently "kho acquiesced. Together they
readied tho southern part of the platform,
making their way as far as tho Jumbled
rocks of the fallen railing would permit
Very carefully they progressed, fearful
every moment lest the support break be
nenth them nnd hurl them down along tho
sloping side of'the, pinnacle to death.
"Lookl" bndo Stern, pointing, "That
very long green lino there used to be Broad
way. Quito a respectable Forest of Ardon
now, Isn't It?" He swept his hand far out
ward, "See those steel cages, those tiny, far-off
ones with daylight shining through? You
know them tho Park How, the Singer, tbs
Woolworth and all the rest And the
bridges, look nt those 1"
She shivered at the desolate sight Or
tho Brooklyn Bridge only the towera were
visible.
Tho watchers, two Isolated castaways on
their Island In the sea of uttermost desola
tion, beheld a dragging mass of 'wreckage
that drooped from these towers on either
Bhore, down to tho sparkling flood.
Tho other bridges, newer and stronger
far, Btlll remained standing. But even from
that distance Stern could quite plainly see,
without the telescope, that the Williams
burg Bridge had "buckled" downward and
that the farther span of the Blackwell's
Island Bridge was tn ruinous disrepair.
"How horrible, how ghastly la all this
waste and ruin I" thought the engineer.
"Yet, even In their overthrow, how wonder
ful are tho works of man I"
A vast wonder seized him as he stood
there gazing: a fierce desire to rehabilitate
all this wreckage, to set It right, to start
the wheels of the world-machinery running
once more.
At the thought of his own powerlessnea
a bitter smile curled his lips.
Beatrice seemed to share something of hla
wonder.
"Can It be possible," whispered she, "that
you and and I are really like Macaulay's
lone watcher of the world-wreck on London
Bridge?
"That we are actually seeing the thine
so often dreamed of by prophets and poets?
That 'All this mighty heart is lying still.'
at .asi roroverr The heart or the world,
never to beat again?"
He made no answer, save to shake his
head; but fast his thoughts were running.
So then, could he nnd Beatrice, Just they
two, be In stern reality the sole survivors
of the entire human race? That race for
whose material welfare he had, once on a,
tlme, done such tremendous work?
Could they be destined, he and she, to
witness the closing chapter In the long,
painful, glorious Book of Evolution?
Slightly he shivered and glanced around.
Till he could adjust his reason to the
facts, could learn the truth and weigh It,
he knew, he must not analyse too closely ;
he felt he must try not to (hlnk. For that
way lay madness I
Far out she gazed.
The sun, declining, shot a broad glory
all across the eky. Purple and gold and
crimson lay the light bands over the breast
of the Hudson.
Dark blue the shadows streamed across
the ruined city with its crowding forests.
Us blank staring windows and sagging
walls. Its thousands of gaping vacancies
where wood and stone and brick had crum
bled down the city where once the tides
of human life had ebbed and flowed, roar
ing reststlessly.
High overhead drifted a few rosy clouds,
part of that changeless nature which ajone
did not repel or mystify these two be
leaguered waifs, these chance survivors,
this man. this woman, left alone together
by the band of fate.
They were dased, fascinated by the
splendor of that sunset over a world
devoid of human life, for the moment giving
up all efforts tQ Judge or understand.
Stern and hrs mate peered closer, down
at the Interwoven Jungles of Upton Square,
the leafy frond-massel that marked the
one-time course of Twenty-third street, the
forest in Madison Square, and the trun
cated column of the tpwer where no longer
Diana turned her huntress bov to every
varying breeze.
They heard their own hearts beat Tfe
intake of their breath sfunded stranger
loud. Above them, on a broken cornice,
some resting swallows twittered.
CONTINUED IN
MONDAY'S
IZueniug (4 Htbntt
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