“It is the year 3831,” came the reply.
“3831?” questioned his mind. Unbelievable! Nearly two thousand years of earth-time had elapsed during their journey, and to them it had seemed but the matter of a year. Turning to Sana, Carl said, “Is it possible that Einstein was right?”
If such changes had been wrought at the pole, what had happened to the rest of the world? What had become of the great cities of the world and their people? Sadly they realized that they alone of the old order of things existed. This world, their home, would be as strange to them as Mars!
They might as well utilize their means of travel and visit the other parts of the globe. The “Meteor,” although badly strained by the severe use to which it had been subjected in their flight, would still suffice them on earth. They, in turn, had become nomads of the earth—wanderers without a place they could call home. Men without a world!
Their supply of the artificial food had about been exhausted, and Carl questioned the strange folk as to where he could purchase food. At his remark, “But I have little money,” they asked curiously, “Money? What is that?”
Carl tried to explain, but they did not understand. He knew then that they, in their primitiveness had not yet reached the stage where a standard form of exchange was required. So he reverted to their method of barter.
He had not much choice in the way of what to offer. In fact the only things he had were his books. Perhaps they would serve his purpose. And serve his purpose they did. Cooked meats, fruits and vegetables galore were given him in exchange for a single book—a book of wild game hunt in Africa. He noted with a smile, that it was the pictures that interested these people. They passed the book from hand to hand, looking at the highly colored illustrations, like so many amused school children.
Promising these new made friends that they would return to them, to tell them of what they had seen in their tour of the world, they said goodbye, and headed for Europe.
The Europe they had known was gone—gone were the great centers of population, gone were the peoples they had known, swallowed up, all, in the relentless march of Time!
Gone too, were the great nations of Europe, as Carl and Sana knew them. All that remained of the once great British Empire was the little isle of England—the rest of her domains had shaken off the yoke and were independent countries.