stricken
noises. He worshiped Evelyn and she was isolated in a hostile world
which was vastly more unreachable than could be measured by millions
or trillions of miles. But at last he said unsteadily:

"We'll be comin', Mr. Reames. We'll come, if we have t' blow half the
world apart!"

Tommy said grimly: "Then hunt up the Golden City and bring extra
ammunition. Mostly explosive bullets. Good-by."

* * * * *

He untwisted the wires from the shattered phone units and thrust them
in his pocket. Evelyn was picking up stray small objects from the
ground.

"I've found some cartridges, Tommy," she said constrainedly, "and a
pistol I think will work."

"Then listen for visitors," commanded Tommy, "while I look for more."

For half in hour he scoured the area around the shattered Tube. He
found where some clumsy-wheeled thing had been pushed to a spot near
the Tube--undoubtedly the machine which had sprayed the flaming stuff
upon it. He found two pockets full of shells. He found an extra
magazine, for the sub-machine gun. It was nearly full and only a
little bent. That was all.

"Now," he said briskly, "we'll start. I've got a hunch the jungle
thins out over that way. We'll find a clearing, try to locate the
Golden City either by seeing it or by watching for aircraft flying to
it, and then make for it. They're making war on Earth there. They
don't understand. We've got to make them understand. O. K.?"

Evelyn nodded. She put out her hand suddenly, a brave slender figure
amid the incredible growths about her.

"I'm glad, Tommy," she said slowly, "that if--if anything happens, it
will be the--the two of us. Funny, isn't it?"

Tommy kissed the twisted little smile from her face.

"And now that that's over," he observed, ashamed of his own emotion,
"let's go!"

* * * * *

They went. Tommy watched the sun and kept approximately a straight
line. They traveled three miles, and the jungle broke abruptly. Before
them was a spongy surface neither solid earth or marsh. It shelved
gently down to a vast and steaming morass upon which the dull-red sun
shone hotly. It was vast, that marsh, and a steaming haze hung over
it, and it seemed to reach to the world's end. But vaguely, through
the attenuating upper layers of the steamy haze, they saw the outlines
of a city beyond: tall towers and soaring spires, buildings of a grace
and perfection of outline unknown upon