And everywhere and always there reigned an incredible
death-silence and desolation. The immutable, awful quiet of a
dying world.
All this time, the days and nights were lengthening, perceptibly.
Already, each day occupied, maybe, some two hours from dawn to dusk. At
night, I had been surprised to find that there were very few stars
overhead, and these small, though of an extraordinary brightness; which
I attributed to the peculiar, but clear, blackness of the nighttime.
Away to the North, I could discern a nebulous sort of mistiness; not
unlike, in appearance, a small portion of the Milky Way. It might have
been an extremely remote star-cluster; or--the thought came to me
suddenly--perhaps it was the sidereal universe that I had known, and now
left far behind, forever--a small, dimly glowing mist of stars, far in
the depths of space.
Still, the days and nights lengthened, slowly. Each time, the sun rose
duller than it had set. And the dark belts increased in breadth.
About this time, there happened a fresh thing.
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