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The End of the World

Page 14

by Donald A. Wollheim


  There at the end of the hall sat huddled in his robes a withered, shrunken man who seemed very near to death.

  Galos Gann spoke to him in a strange voice and said, “Who are you, and where are the others of the races of men?”

  The other raised his swaying head, and peering blindly at Galos Gann he answered, “There are no others, for I am the last survivor of all the race of man.

  “Millioned millions of years ago our life began in the protoplasm of the world’s warm seas, and developed through many forms into man, and the civilization and power, of man grew great.

  “But the seas dried up, and as Earth withered, our race withered and died also, until I alone am left in this dead city. And my own death is upon me.”

  With these words, the shrunken, swaying man fell forward, and sighed once, and lay dead upon the floor.

  And Galos Gann, the last man, looked across his body at the sinking sun.

 

 

 


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