arth altogether.
Mankind was later replaced by various other forms of life which
dominated the globe for their allotted spaces of time before they too
became extinct. The years piled up on one another, running into
millions, and still the Jameson Satellite kept its lonely vigil around
the earth, gradually closing the distance between satellite and planet,
yielding reluctantly to the latter's powerful attraction.

Forty million years later, its orbit ranged some twenty thousand miles
from the earth while the dead world edged ever nearer the cooling sun
whose dull, red ball covered a large expanse of the sky. Surrounding
the flaming sphere, many of the stars could be perceived through the
earth's thin, rarefied atmosphere. As the earth cut in slowly and
gradually toward the solar luminary, so was the moon revolving ever
nearer the earth, appearing like a great gem glowing in the twilight
sky.

The rocket containing the remains of Professor Jameson continued its
endless travel around the great ball of the earth whose rotation had now
ceased entirely--one side forever facing the dying sun. There it pursued
its lonely way, a cosmic coffin, accompanied by its funeral cortege of
scintillating stars amid the deep silence of the eternal space which
enshrouded it. Solitary it remained, except for the occasional passing
of a meteor flitting by at a remarkable speed on its aimless journey
through the vacuum between the far-flung worlds.

Would the satellite follow its orbit to the world's end, or would its
supply of radium soon exhaust itself after so many eons of time,
converting the rocket into the prey of the first large meteor which
chanced that way? Would it some day return to the earth as its nearer
approach portended, and increase its acceleration in a long arc to crash
upon the surface of the dead planet? And when the rocket terminated its
career, would the body of Professor Jameson be found perfectly preserved
or merely a crumbled mound of dust?

CHAPTER I

_40,000,000 Years After_

Entering within the boundaries of the solar system, a long, dark,
pointed craft sped across the realms of space towards the tiny point of
light which marked the dull red ball of the dying sun which would some
day lie cold and dark forever. Like a huge meteor it flashed into the
solar system from another chain of planets far out in the illimitable
Universe of stars and worlds, heading towards the great red sun at an
inconceivable