at chasm opened up through the
heart of the city. Tall buildings swayed and crumbled, falling into
heaps of twisted metal and crushed masonry and burying hundreds of the
populace in their fall. The confusion was indescribable, the uproar
terrific, and within the space of a very few minutes the entire city
was a mass of ruins, fully half of the wrecked area having been
swallowed up by the heaving waters of the ocean.

* * * * *

Phaestra stifled a sob. "Thus it began," she stated. "Trovus was
first--the city you just saw--then came three more of the cities of
the western coast in rapid succession. Computations of the scientists
showed that the upheaval was widespread and that the entire continent
was to be engulfed in a very short time. The exodus began, but it was
too late, and only a few hundred people were able to escape the
continent before it was finally destroyed. The ocean became the tomb
of two hundred millions. The handful of survivors reached the coast of
what is now North America. But the rigors of the climate proved severe
and more than three-quarters of them perished within a few days after
their planes landed. Then the rest took to the caves along the shore,
and for a while were safe."

She manipulated the controls once more and there was a quick shift to
another coast, a rugged, wave-beaten shore. Closer they drew until
they observed a lofty palisade that extended for miles along the
barren waterfront. They saw a fire atop this elevation and active men
and women at various tasks within the narrow circle of its warmth. A
cave mouth opened at the brink of the precipice near the spot they
occupied.

Then came a repetition of the upheaval at Trovus. The ocean rushed in
and beat against the cliff with such ferocity that its spray was
tossed hundreds of feet in the air. The earth shook and the group of
people around the fire made a hasty retreat to the mouth of the cave.
The sky darkened and the winds howled with demoniac fury. Quake after
quake rent the rugged cliffs: huge sections toppled into the angry
waters. Then a great tidal wave swept in and covered everything,
cliffs, cave mouths and all. Nought remained where they had been but
the seething waters.

* * * * *

"But some escaped!" exulted Phaestra, "and these discovered Theros.
Though many miles of the eastern seaboard of your United States were
submerged and the coastline entirely alt