Part 4 (1/1)

But it was hardly necessary for hiht that rimace of appalled amazement flashed over his features

Where the shi+p had rested there noas nothing at all, save a saze, there was no indication that anything had ever been here The little valley was virgin of any sign of human habitation Only the bitter wind existed here, as always it had, keening along glittering ice surfaces, sporting with the snow

Nellon felt the sudden nausea and weakness of a terrible fear But a bit of flotsahts, and he clutched at it with the eagerness of despair

He must, he told himself, have accidentally encountered a site similar to the one in which the shi+p had lain He had but to find the correct ridge and everything would be all right

Nursing this hope, he started on a tour of the vicinity Soon he realized, however, that there was no other ridge, and he had to face the fact that he had originally been at the real site The only difference was that the shi+p was gone

But Nellon felt that he had to e rose like a sheltering wall, he searched about in the deep snow One of the first objects he discovered was a large, metal box On one side were stenciled words which burned into his brain:

_The Harton-Finston Institute_

He kne beyond any lingering doubt that he was in the right place and that the shi+p was gone, for it was the Institute which had sponsored the expedition And he had seen other boxes like that piled compactly in the holds of the shi+p

Nellon was stunned, crushed But out of his despair a sloonder rose

How long had he been unconscious there beside the great green cylinder?

The degree to which the snow had blotted out the litter of the caested that it must have been many months For a moment it seemed incredible that his lobe could have produced such a result Then he res, circular row upon circular row of thee flooded over his were not dead Exposed constantly to the rays of the globe, they weredreanant as his own had been

They were sleeping and dreauardian, soothing, nourishi+ng

And Big Ti Tiain Suddenly his fear and hate of the storm returned in full and terrible force Because when his batteries were exhausted, his suit would cool--and the storm would kill him Slowly, inexorably, death would come to hi