The real climax was in silence. And of all the world only Professor
Williams beheld it. The two lights coalesced and spread out; what it
was on Mars, of course, we do not know.
But in a few moments all was gone. Only the green of the Martian Sea
winked in the sunlight. The luminous opal was gone from the Sargasso.
The ocean lay in peace.
It was a terrible three days. Had it not been for the work of Robold
and Huyck life would have been destroyed. The pity of it that all of
their discoveries have gone with them. Not even Charley realized how
terrific the force he was about to loosen.
He had carefully locked everything in vaults for a safe delivery to
man. He had expected death, but not the cataclysm. The whole of Mount
Robold was shorn away; in its place we have a lake fifty miles in
diameter.
So much for celestial kinetics.
And we look to a green and beautiful Mars. We hold no enmity. It was
but the law of self-preservation. Let us hope they have enough water;
and that their seas will hold. We don’t blame them, and we don’t blame
ourselves, either for that matter. We need what we have, and we hope
to keep it.
(The End.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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