And then it was I heard, not loud and penetrating as at first, but faint and dim like a dying voice, that tolling, that same tolling that had welcomed the coming of the day: Boom!⁠ ⁠… Boom!⁠ ⁠… Boom!⁠ ⁠…

It echoed about the crater, it seemed to throb with the throbbing of the greater stars, the bloodred crescent of the sun’s disk sank as it tolled out: Boom!⁠ ⁠… Boom!⁠ ⁠… Boom!

What had happened to Cavor? All through that tolling I stood there stupidly, and at last the tolling ceased.

And suddenly the open mouth of the tunnel down below there, shut like an eye and vanished out of sight.

Then indeed was I alone.