except to direct the
appliances about them--this last trio of mortals loved to leave the
shelter of the cottage, now that they had nothing further to fear from
the sea-monster, when the westering sun was low, and ramble among the
shadows of the cliffs and commune with the past, until the chill of
night drove them indoors. Sometimes sitting there in the dusk Thalma and
Alpha would listen to Omega's rich voice as he recounted an epic story
in the life of long ago. So to-day seated together on a cliff above the
airship, they watched the sun descend. Thalma and Alpha had asked for a
story, but Omega refused. For some time he had sat silent, his great,
brilliant eyes on the flaming sun as it sank toward the rim of the
earth. A great loneliness had suddenly seized him. He recognized it as a
presentiment of disaster. It was beyond the analysis of reason, but for
the first time in his life he longed to hold back that sun. Somehow he
feared the advent of the night. It seemed to him that before the morning
light would again flood the earth a dire calamity would befall them.

"Why so sad?" asked Thalma fearfully, and Alpha, at his father's knees,
looked up in wonder.

"It is nothing," replied Omega with forced composure as he caressed the
boy. "Some foolish thoughts of mine. Now as it is getting chilly I think
we had better go down. Oh, how I dread this awful cold which is creeping
steadily and mercilessly over the world!" he added softly, his eyes
lingering on the sun.

With her usual sweet smile Thalma agreed. So they rose and floated down.
When they reached the floor of the valley they paused and regarded the
cloud that screened the lake.

"It does well," remarked Omega. "It will make the water last into the
years."

"Yes, and all for our boy," said Thalma proudly. Alpha had left them and
was playing along the shore.

"It is now time that a mate for him be on the way," went on Omega
wistfully. "He must have a sister, you know."

"It is true," she agreed with a glad smile.

Omega had spoken truly. Without a mate Alpha could not perpetuate the
race. And so it was arranged that before the rising of the morrow's sun
a new life should begin.

Science had steadily advanced the span of life. When Alpha was born
Omega was two hundred years old, but that was only middle age. Thalma
was twenty-five years his junior. The human birth-rate had decreased
with the passing of the centuries and nature now demanded the most
exacting