ticular burbling
moved through the dark wood beyond the clearing.

It was not wholly dark where they were, even aside from their own small
fire. The burning trees in the departing ship's rocket-trail sent up a
column of white which remaining flames illuminated. The remarkably
primitive camp Cochrane had made looked like a camp on a tiny
snow-field, because of the ashes.

"We've got to think about shelter," said Babs presently, very quietly
indeed. "If there are glaciers, there must be winter here. If there is
winter, we have to find out which animals we can eat, and how to store
them."

"Hold on!" protested Cochrane. "That's looking too far ahead!"

Babs clasped her hands together. It could have been to keep their
trembling from being seen. Cochrane was regarding her face. She kept
that under admirable control.

"Is it?" asked Babs. "On the broadcast Mr. Jamison said that there was
as much land here as on all the continent of Asia. Maybe he exaggerated.
Say there's only as much land not ice-covered as there is in South
America. It's all forest and plain and--uninhabited." She moistened her
lips, but her voice was very steady. "If all of South America was
uninhabited, and there were two people lost in it, and nobody knew where
they were--how long would it take to find them?"

"It would be a matter of luck," admitted Cochrane.

"If the ship comes back, it can't hover to look for us. There isn't fuel
enough. It couldn't spot us from space if it went in an orbit like a
space platform. By the time they could get help--they wouldn't even be
sure we were alive. If we can't count on being found right away, this
burned-over place will be green again. In two or three weeks they
couldn't find it anyhow."

Cochrane fidgeted. He had worked out all this for himself. He'd been
disturbed at having to tell it, or even admit it to Babs. Now she said
in a constrained voice:

"If men came to this planet and built a city and hunted for us, it might
still be a hundred years before anybody happened to come into this
valley. Looking for us would be worse than looking for a needle in a
haystack. I don't think we're going to be found again."

Cochrane was silent. He felt guiltily relieved that he did not have to
break this news to Babs. Most men have an instinctive feeling that a
woman will blame them for bad news they hear.

A long time later, Babs said as quietly as before:

"Johnny Simms asked me to come along while he went hun