ng behind a mass of coral they waited, but throughout the long,
still night they watched without reward, for nothing moved within their
range of vision. The stars, wonderfully large and brilliant in that
rarefied atmosphere, seemed to be the only link between them and the
unknown. Only their own hurried breathing and the muffled thumps of
their wildly beating hearts broke the silence. And as the sun rose again
above the dead plains, weary and discouraged they returned to the ship.

While keeping up a bold front for Thalma's sake, Omega's heart was sad,
for he well knew that unless they could vanquish that marine monster
they were doomed. That such a dreadful creature had come to them from
the mists of antiquity, as it were, was incredible. Yet he had seen it,
Thalma had seen it, and it resembled some of the sea-monsters he had
heard of in the past. They could not doubt its existence and must
prepare for the worst.

Omega's name had been conferred on him by an ironical whim of fate. When
he was born there were still many people on earth inhabiting the low
valleys of the Pacific's floor where much water still remained. But the
droughts had increased with the years, and before Omega had reached
middle-life all rain had ceased to fall. The atmosphere became so rare,
even near the ground, that it was difficult for the people with the aid
of their machines to draw sufficient oxygen and nitrogen from it to
prepare the food which had been man's principal sustenance for ages.

Gradually the weaker peoples had succumbed. But the remnants of the
nations gathered about the receding waters, all foreseeing the end, but
all determined to defer it as long as possible. There was no recourse.
For ages before Omega was born the nations, knowing that the earth was
drying up, had fought one another for the privilege of migrating to
another planet to fight its inhabitants for its possession. The battle
had been so bitterly contested that two-thirds of the combatants were
slain. By the aid of their space-cars the victors colonized other
planets in our solar system leaving the vanquished on earth to shift for
themselves. There was nothing for them to do but to fight on and await
the end, for no space-car that man had ever devised was able to
penetrate the cold, far-reaches of space. Only among the family of our
own sun could he navigate his ships. And now, like the earth, every
member of that once glorious family was dead or dying. For millio