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"In the beginning," he cohtfully, "our people were as yours; they were the sa of the world took place very e portion was split, and it became as the moon you tell of, only dark It circled about the earth--"

"By Jove!" cried Stern, and started to his feet "That dark patch in the sky! That alow on the Hudson!"

"You irl exclaimed

"It's a new planetoid! Another satellite of the earth! It's the split-off part of the world!"

"Another satellite?"

"Of course! Hang it, yes! See now? The great explosion that liberated the poisonous gases and killed practically everybody in the world ed this new planet out of the flank of Mother Earth in the latter part of 1920 The ejected portions, millions of millions of tons, hundreds of thousands of cubic o, Milwaukee, St Louis, O in a fixed, regular orbit, some few thousand miles or so fro hu out the stars! This explains everything--the singular changes in the tides and in the direction of the e things we noticed, but couldn't understand By Gad! What a discovery!"

The patriarch listened eagerly while Stern and the girl discussed the strange phenomenon; but when their exciteain to hear hireat catastrophe And, as you know,the canyons of the Rocky Mountains--so says the tradition; is it right? Were there such mountains?"

"Yes, yes! Go on!"

"In those canyons a few handfuls of hardy people still survived Some perished of famine and exposure; soas that still hung heavy there Soreat fire that the tradition says swept the earth after the explosion But a few still lived At one tihteen oes"

"And then?"

"Then," continued the patriarch, his brorinkled in deep thought, "then ca their English tongue, now dead save for you two, and still with some tools and even a few books, retreated into caves and fissures in the canyons And so they careat descent"