
Ned Vince races down a winding country road, eager to meet the girl he loves before nightfall. A sudden flash of headlights and a treacherous bend send his car careening into a deep, alkaline pool, and the world goes dark as water rushes in. In his last conscious moments he clings to thoughts of home, family, and a future that seems suddenly out of reach.
When the silence lifts, an eerie chorus of unearthly clicks and whistles erupts from the surrounding canyon, hinting at a civilization long vanished beneath layers of stone. The alien sounds echo off ancient, jagged cliffs that bear the scars of forgotten wars and the remnants of a once‑great empire. As Ned’s fate hangs in the balance, listeners are drawn into a mystery that bridges a single tragic moment with a world whose history stretches far beyond human memory.
Language
en
Duration
~25 minutes (24K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2008-10-31
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects

1911–1994
A pioneer of early science fiction, this pulp-era writer helped shape the genre with imaginative stories that appeared in major magazines of the 1930s. His work is especially remembered for its cosmic wonder and for introducing ideas that later became science fiction staples.
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