Tony jumped up and ran about on the terrain; a few feet away, Eve stooped again. Other plants were burgeoning. Mosses, ferns, fungi—vegetation of species he could not classify, but some surely represented growths larger than mere mosses.
He heaped Eve’s hands and his own, and together they ran back to the three who were staring, as they earlier had gazed, at the green sky.
Then Duquesne saw what Eve and Tony held. “Sacré nom de Dieu!” He leaped to his feet. Hendron and James were beside him.
With one accord, they rushed toward the Space Ship.
“Get Higgins!” Hendron shouted. “He’ll go mad! Think of it! A whole new world to classify!… And it means that we will live!”
Before they reached the sides of the ship, the lock opened. The gangplank dropped to earth. Von Beitz appeared in the aperture, and Hendron shouted to him the news.
People poured from the Ark; they stepped upon the new soil. They waved their arms. They stared at the hills, the sky, the sea. They breathed deep of the air. They handled the mosses, and ran about finding more of their own. They shouted, sang. They laughed and danced.
The first day on the new earth had begun.
THE END