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."'They shall bear thee in their hands; that thou hurt not thy foot against a stone.'"It stayed in my head, hearing it at the church where Mother used to take me.I'd read it in theresponses, too.I remember that, I suppose, because it's beautiful--if no more.""If no more," said Eve; and very gently, she freed herself from him; for, far more faithfully thanhe, she heeded her father.He sighed.She looked up at him."They tell me, Tony, that you kept the whole camp goingsingle-handed," she returned him to practical affairs."I just rallied around and looked at people who were doing something and said: 'Great! Goahead.' That's all I did."She laughed, proud of him."You put heart in them all again.That's you, Tony.Did you knowProfessor Bronson is here?""Yes; I saw him--spoke to him.Funny feeling I had, when I heard his name.Bronson--of theBronson Bodies.It made him almost to blame for them.How did he happen to come?""He'd arrived in the country and was almost here when the storm struck.He's known about whatwas to happen, and he's been figuring it out for a longer time than any one else.He's had the highestrespect for Father.Of course you know it was to Father that he sent his results.They had to get together,Father and he.They agreed it was better to work here than in South Africa; so he did the traveling.He'llbe invaluable--if we do get away.""You mean, if we get away from the world.""Yes.You see, Father's chief work has been--and will be--on the Space Ship; how to get awayfrom the world and reach Bronson Beta, when it returns.""And before Bronson Alpha smashes us as it did the moon," said Tony grimly.Eve nodded."That's all Father can possibly arrange--if not more.He can't take any time tofiguring how we'll live, if we reach that other world.But Professor Bronson has been doing that formonths.For more than a year he practically lived--in his mind--on Bronson Beta.So he's here to makethe right preparation for the party that goes on the ship: who they should be, what they should carry, andwhat they must do to live--if they land there."In three days the static in the air vanished to such an extent that messages from various parts ofthe world became audible.Out of those messages a large map was constructed in the executive offices.It was a speculative map, and its accuracy was by no means guaranteed.It showed islands whereAustralia had been, two huge islands in the place of South America, and only the central and southernpart of Europe and Asia.There was a blank in place of Africa, for no one knew what had happened tothe Dark Continent.A few points of land were all that was left of the British Isles, and over the air camethe terrible story of the last-minute flight from London across the Channel, in which the populace wasoverwhelmed on the Great Lowland Plain.Among the minor phenomena reported was the disappearanceof the Great Lakes, which had been inclined from west to east and tipped like trays of water into thevalley of the St.Lawrence.On the fifth day they learned that an airplane flight had been made over whatwas the site of New York.The Hudson River Valley was a deep estuary; the sea rolled up to Newburgh;and the entire coast along its new line was scoured with east-to-west-running valleys which were piledhigh with the wreckage of a mighty civilization.Everywhere were still fetid plains of cooling lava; and in many areas, apparently, the flow from the earth had been not molten rock but metal, which lay infantastic and solidified seas already red with rust.It was impossible to make any estimate whatsoever of the number of people who had survivedthe catastrophe.Doubtless the figure ran into scores of millions; but except in a few fortunate andprearranged places, they were destitute, disorganized and doomed to perish of hunger and exposure.On the tenth day the sun shone for the first time
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