The hour was passing--and, as they watched, the onlookers could see that the white streak that was the sun was gradually turning on its axis so that the single burning spot would soon be hidden from sight of those on Earth. And it would be many, many hours before the Earthlings would catch sight of it again. The grayness was gradually fading into darkness again. The myriad of stars overhead continued to gleam, sparkling in all their splendor, twinkling like the eyes of a man overcome by laughter--laughing at the plight of a doomed world. With sighs and low murmurings the crowds dispersed from the rooms. Ramo and Kuila did not leave yet. The Earth may grow senile, but youth tells the same old story. And the two had much to tell each other. Astronomers both, they spoke the same language, had the same hopes and desires. And then, they were young. Two hours later they agreed to descend from the roof. As they had just arrived in the city neither had taken up new quarters as yet, and they went down to the office where they would be assigned quarters. They had but to speak their name, number, and rating into a machine like the one to which they had already reported, and in answer came a small piece of circular metal having upon it, in the strange numerical writing of that day, their new address. Each giant building was a city in itself. Each had its auditorium where gathered for general announcements, amusements, lectures and discussions, the tenants of the building. There were large conservatories where was planted what verdure and vegetation had been preserved through the centuries. A few birds and smaller animals had been kept alive in the same manner. Canned sunlight, the light of the sun that had been gathered by scientists many years before and stored in giant vats, took the place of the ineffectual sun. Here people spent much of their time. * * * * * The Home of the Five Another floor was devoted entirely to a commissary to provide the building with its necessities. Three entire floors were devoted to the offices that recorded automatically every small detail in the life of its tenants. The remaining floors were given over to living quarters. This particular building which now housed Kuila and Ramo was the Scientific Building, and herein dwelt all those who belonged to one branch or another of Science. Once every building in the city had been filled to capacity and there had been a continual overflowing into new buildings--but in the centuries that had just preceded this, the population of the world had diminished so greatly that city after city had been deserted until only Central City and the City of Children were inhabited.