At night, on the moonward side,
the earth was studded with brilliant spikes, all pointed at the heart
of its child in the sky.
But the looting of the moon brought disaster to the robber planet. So
mad were the efforts to get the precious metal that the surface of our
globe was fairly showered with it, productive fields were, in some
cases, almost smothered under a metallic coating, the air was filled
with shining dust, until finally famine and pestilence joined hands
with financial disaster to punish the grasping world.
Then, at last, the various governments took effective measures to
protect themselves and their people. Another combined effort resulted
in an international agreement whereby the production of the precious
moon metal was once more rigidly controlled. But the existence of a
monopoly, such as Dr. Syx had so long enjoyed, and in the enjoyment of
which Andrew Hall had for a brief period succeeded him, was henceforth
rendered impossible.
XIV
THE LAST OF DR. SYX
Many years after the events last recorded I sat, at the close of a
brilliant autumn day, side by side with my old friend Andrew Hall, on
a broad, vine-shaded piazza which faced the east, where the full moon
was just rising above the rim of the Sierra, and replacing the rosy
counter-glow of sunset with its silvery radiance.
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