No one knew, but the women still refused to climb aboard the filament. Finn turned to Tagart. "Here, old one, show these women how it is; climb on!" "No, no," he cried. "I fear the air; this is not for me." "Climb on, old man, then we follow." Wheezing and fearful, clenching his hands deep into the spongy mass, Tagart pulled himself out onto the air, spindly shanks hanging over into nothing. "Now," spoke Finn, "who next?" The women still refused. "You go then, yourself," cried Gisa. "And leave you, my last guarantee against hunger? Aboard now!" "No. The air is too small; let the old one go and we will follow on a larger." "Very well." Finn released his grip. The air floated off over the plain, Tagart straddling and clutching for dear life. They watched him curiously. "Observe," said Finn, "how fast and easily moves the air. Above the Organisms, over all the slime and uncertainty." But the air itself was uncertain, and the old man's raft dissolved. Clutching at the departing wisps, Tagart sought to hold his cushion together. It fled from under him, and he fell. * * * * * On the peak the three watched the spindly shape flap and twist on its way to earth far below. "Now," Reak exclaimed vexatiously, "we even have no more meat." "None," said Gisa, "except the visionary Finn himself." They surveyed Finn. Together they would more than outmatch him. "Careful," cried Finn. "I am the last of the Men. You are my women, subject to my orders." They ignored him, muttering to each other, looking at him from the side of their faces. "Careful!" cried Finn. "I will throw you both from this peak." "That is what we plan for you," said Gisa. They advanced with sinister caution. "Stop! I am the last Man!" "We are better off without you." "One moment! Look at the Organisms!" The women looked. The Organisms stood in a knot, staring at the sky. "Look at the sky!" The women looked; the frosted glass was cracking, breaking, curling aside. "The blue! The blue sky of old times!" A terribly bright light burnt down, seared their eyes. The rays warmed their naked backs. "The sun," they said in awed voices. "The sun has come back to Earth." The shrouded sky was gone; the sun rode proud and bright in a sea of blue. The ground below churned, cracked, heaved, solidified. They felt the obsidian harden under their feet; its color shifted to glossy black. The Earth, the sun, the galaxy, had departed the region of freedom; the other time with its restrictions and logic was once more with them. "This is Old Earth," cried Finn. "We are Men of Old Earth! The land is once again ours!" "And what of the Organisms?" "If this is the Earth of old, then let the Organisms beware!" The Organisms stood on a low rise of ground beside a runnel of water that was rapidly becoming a river flowing out onto the plain.