he rock ramparts. And
after a while the night hid him in its sable fold.

The man climbed the last ridge of the giant sand dune and looked down at
a setting moon sending a long slanting fan of silver over an immense
lake. He had seen the lake many years before, had almost forgotten its
existence so long ago had it been.

He turned and looked at the ruins, rising pyramid-like from the tree
line to the north. Chicago had been the name of a vast city which had
existed here. There had been other cities as large, and some larger.
From the deepest recesses of his mind, Stanton remembered an almost
forgotten fact. There had been more than three _billion_ people on the
Earth at one time. Then, on an afternoon long gone, a bomb was dropped
on one of the cities. It had been called an atom bomb. The name of the
destroyed city was soon forgotten, as were the other cities which were
soon wiped off the face of the Earth. For man had discovered in the atom
bomb a weapon which proved to be the agency of his destruction. It led
to bigger bombs, better bombs, more efficient bombs, and at the last a
bomb which by chain reaction killed almost all the people on Earth. And
those whom it did not kill it made sterile.

That was the beginning of the end. For in the new way of life, the force
of creation died. Men thought of nothing but hatred of other men. So
they fought, first with weapons of complex design. Then, as the creative
desire was stifled, the weapons became more simple, until at the last
man went back to a sword and a knife blade for his murderous tasks.

But it was in the death of woman that man suffered his worst loss. With
sterility, woman felt their reason for existence was no longer
justified. And so they died, one by one, until now there was no record
of any.

* * * * *

These were the thoughts of Bly Stanton as he plodded over the ridge of
another dune. Then, all thoughts were wiped from his mind. He dropped to
his knees at the sight of the blaze in the hollow between two dunes
directly below.

Their proximity to the fire and the light of the moon combined to make
their features readily discernible. There was no mistaking the Mongoloid
features of Himlo men. And if that was not enough, two of them were
dressed in garments of fur which would have identified them immediately.
The wind was coming from their direction, so Bly was safe for the
moment. They had keen senses of smell, and had th