For the first time Brant was able to see it as a whole, for it was now floating almost level with his eyes and he could encompass it at a glance. It was roughly cylindrical in shape, but ended in complex polyhedral structures whose functions were beyond conjecture. The great curving back bristled with equally mysterious bulges, flutings, and cupolas. There was power and purpose here, but nothing of beauty, and Brant looked upon it with distaste.
This brooding monster usurping the sky—if only it would vanish, like the clouds that drifted past its flanks! But it would not disappear because he willed it; against the forces that were gathering now, Brant knew that he and his problems were of no importance. This was the pause when history held its breath, the hushed moment between the lightning flash and the advent of the first concussion. Soon the thunder would be rolling round the world; and soon there might be no world at all, while he and his people would be homeless exiles among the stars. That was the future he did not care to face— the future he feared more deeply than Trescon and his fellows, to whom the universe had been a plaything for five thousand years, could ever understand.
It seemed unfair that this should have happened in his time, after all these centuries of rest. But men cannot bargain with Fate, and choose peace or adventure as they wish. Adventure and Change had come to the world again, and he must make the best of it—as his ancestors had done when the age of space had opened, and their first frail ships had stormed the stars.
For the last time he saluted Shastar, then turned his back upon the sea. The sun was shining in his eyes, and the road before him seemed veiled with a bright, shimmering mist, so that it quivered like a mirage, or the track of the Moon upon troubled waters. For a moment Brant wondered if his eyes had been deceiving him; then he saw that it was no illusion.
As far as the eye could see, the road and the land on either side of it were draped with countless strands of gossamer, so frail and fine that only the glancing sunlight revealed their presence. For the last quarter-mile he had been walking through them, and they had resisted his passage no more than coils of smoke.
Throughout the morning, the wind-borne spiders must have been falling in millions from the sky; and as he stared up into the blue, Brant could still catch momentary glimpses of sunlight upon drifting silk as belated voyagers went sailing by. Not knowing whither they would travel, these tiny creatures had ventured forth into an abyss more friendless and more fathomless than any he would face when the time came to say farewell to Earth. It was a lesson he would remember in the weeks and months ahead.
Slowly the Sphinx sank into the sky line as it joined Shastar beyond the eclipsing crescent of the hills. Only once did Brant look back at the crouching monster, whose agelong vigil was now drawing to its close. Then he walked slowly forward into the sun, while ever and again impalpable fingers brushed his face, as the strands of silk came drifting down the wind that blew from home.
Harbrace Paperbound Library
ARTHUR C. CLARKE
The City and the Stars (hpl i)
The Deep Range (hpl 36)
A Fall of Moondust (hpl 46)
The Other Side of the Sky (hpl 25)
Tales of Ten Worlds (hpl 47) VALENTINE DAV1ES
Miracle on 34th Street (hpl 19) KATHERINE DUNHAM
A Touch of Innocence (hpl 42) PAUL DE KRUIF
Hunger Fighters (hpl 20)
Microbe Hunters (hpl 2) RAYMOND L. DITMARS
Strange Animals I Have Known (hpl 3) AMELIA EARHART
Last Flight (hpl 26) T. S. ELIOT
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (hpl 31)
Selected Poems (hpl 21) KATHRYN FORBES
Mama's Bank Account (hpl 27) IOLA FULLER
The Loon Feather (hpl 13) ELLEN GLASGOW
Vein of Iron (hpl 22) WILLIAM GOLDING
Pincher Martin (hpl 32) MARGARET IRWIN
Young Bess (hpl 4) JAMES WELDON JOHNSON, ed.
The Book of American Negro Poetry (hpl 43) ANNE MORROW LINDBERGH
My Sister Eileen (hpl 28)
GEORGE ORWELL
A Clergyman's Daughter (hpl 37)
A Collection of Essays (hpl 48)
Coming Up for Air (hpl 44)
Keep the Aspidistra Flying (hpl 38) LEONARD Q. ROSS
The Education of Hyman Kaplan (hpl 29) ANTOINE DE SAINT EXUPERY
Flight to Arras (hpl 45)
The Little Prince (hpl 30)
Le Petit Prince (hpl 39)
Wind, Sand and Stars (hpl 14) CARL SANDBURG
Honey and Salt (hpl 15) DOROTHY L. SAYERS
The Nine Tailors (hpl 6) ERNST SCHNABEL
Anne Frank: A Portrait in Courage (hpl 16) JEAN STAFFORD
Boston Adventure (hpl 17) LYTTON STRACHEY
Eminent Victorians (hpl 40)
Queen Victoria (hpl 7) JAN STRUTHER
Mrs. Miniver (hpl 8) JAMES THURBER
My World—And Welcome To It (hpl 41)
The White Deer (hpl 33) MILDRED WALKER
Winter Wheat (hpl 9) ROBERT PENN WARREN
The Circus in the Attic and Other Stories (hpl 34) EUDORA WELTY
The Ponder Heart (hpl 23) JESSAMYN WEST
Cress Delahanty (hpl 18)
The Friendly Persuasion (hpl 10)
Love, Death, and the Ladies' Drill Team (hpl 35) W. L. WHITE
Lost Boundaries (hpl 24)
Flush: A Biography (hpl 12)
Books by Arthur C. Clarke
NONFICTION
Interplanetary Flight
The Exploration of Space
Going into Space
The Making of a Moon
The Coast of Coral
The Reefs of Taprobane
Voice Across the Sea
The Challenge of the Spaceship
The Challenge of the Sea
Profiles of the Future
Voices from the Sky
The Coming of the Space Age
(anthology)
The Promise of Space
FICTION
Prelude to Space
The Sands of Mars
Against the Fall of Night
Islands in the Shy
Childhood's End
Expedition to Earth
Earthlight
Reach for Tomorrow
The City and the Stars
The Deep Range
The Other Side of the Sky
Across the Sea of Stars (omnibus)
A Fall of Moondust
WITH R. A. SMITH
The Exploration of the Moon
WITH MIKE WILSON
Boy Beneath the Sea The First Five Fathoms Indian Ocean Adventure The Treasure of the Great Reef Indian Ocean Treasure
WITH THE EDITORS OF LIFE
Man and Space
From the Ocean, From the Stars
(omnibus)
Tales of Ten Worlds
Dolphin Island
Glide Path
Prelude to Mars (omnibus)
The Nine Billion Names of God
The Lion of Comarre and
Against the Fall of Night
Time Probe (anthology)
WITH STANLEY KUBRICK
2001: A Space Odyssey