The trouble is that I didn't think we would succeed as we have! Heaven
knows I could have gotten helicopters!"
He helped her up a small steep incline, where rock protruded from a
hillside.
The ground trembled again. Not alarmingly, but Babs' hold of his hand
tightened a little. They continued to climb. They came out atop a small
bare prominence which rose above the forest. Here they could see over
the treetops in a truly extensive view. The mountains all about were
clearly visible. Some were ten and some twenty miles away. Some, still
farther, were barely visible in the thin haze of distance. But there was
a thick pall of smoke hovering about one of the farthest. It was
mushroom-shaped. At one time in human history, it would have seemed
typically a volcanic cloud. To Cochrane and Babs, it was typically the
cloud of an atomic explosion.
The ground shook sharply underfoot. Babs staggered.
Flying things rose from the forests in swarms. They hovered and darted
and flapped above the tree-tops. Temblors did not alarm the creatures of
the valley. But ground-shocks like this last were another matter.
A great tree, rearing above its fellows, toppled slowly.
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