* * * *

We passed through the tunnel in five or six seconds. In another five
seconds, we had not only taken off, but had worked up a formidable
speed. We barely felt the explosion when it came. But on the instrument
board in front of Virginia Crane, gleamed a little box with a
ground-glass top, and in that we saw, as by a magic, what happened on
Orcon.

First the mountains which topped the subterranean power houses were
lifted off. Then the whole planet rocked. Finally the caverns were
inundated by the deluge of the sea which, in the beginning, had so
nearly swallowed us.

Orcon was not destroyed, but we knew even then that such of its
inhabitants as might remain alive would not soon again dream of making
an attack upon Earth.

On the way back, as Earth took form and grew round in the interminable
reaches of space ahead of us, I got on well with Captain Crane. It
started when she asked me if I were still so cocksure that woman had no
place in the U. S. W. Upper Zone Patrol, and I was forced to answer that
I was not. After that, one thing led to another.

We were photographed together when we landed beside the colossal,
metal-roofed hangars of the Long Island station of the U. S. W. The
snapshot was published in that afternoon's tabloids under the caption:
Betrothed.

Transcriber's Note:

This e-text was produced from Astounding Stories January 1932. Extensive
research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this
publication was renewed.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Winged Men of Orcon, by David R. Sparks

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