ption was good with the Moon base, the space platforms
had no difficulty making reports, and the radio news beamed out as
usual. In Lima, there was a little static, and direct transmission with
Brazil seemed partially disrupted, but that was all.

In the following five days, the Denning expedition had managed the
difficult climb over the next range of mountains and had come down in
the high plateau valley between. In this same period, the world began to
realize that the dimness of the sky was not a temporary phenomenon.

* * * * *

Weather stations noted that the past few days had all been several
degrees under the average. Reports had come in that farmers were
querying the unusual drop in the temperatures at night. And astronomers,
measuring the surface heat of the Sun, came up with strange
discrepancies from previous data.

One astronomer communicated with another, and a general exchange of
advice began. In a short while, a communication was laid on the desk of
the President of the United States, who scanned it and had it
immediately transmitted to the Secretary General of the United Nations.
The Secretary General circulated the report among the scientific bureaus
of all member nations, and this led in turn to a meeting of the Security
Council. This meeting was held in quiet, without benefit of newspaper
reporters or audience.

There was no longer any doubt. The radiation of the Sun reaching the
face of the Earth had decreased. The facts were indisputable. Where a
day should have registered, in some places, at least 90 deg. in the Sun, a
reading of only 84 deg. was noted. Measurements definitely showed that the
face of the Sun visible to man on Earth had dimmed by just that margin.

This might not prove serious at first, but as the scientists called in
by the Security Council pointed out, it promised terrible things as the
year went on. A difference of five or ten degrees all over the Earth
could mean the ruin of certain crops, it could mean an increase in
snowfall and frost that could very rapidly destroy the economies and
habitability of many places on the Earth's teeming surface.

"But what," asked the Chairman of the Council, "is causing this decrease
in solar energy?"

This the astronomers could not answer. But they pointed to one factor.
The reports from the U.S. Moon Base did not agree with the observations
from Earth. Moon instruments claimed no decrease whatsoever in the