"What is the meaning of this? Know you not that we are all doomed? Think you this is the moment for such unseemly laughter?"
But one of the Underlings laughed in his face; a carefree laugh of heart-filled happiness.
"Doomed, my leader? We have but begun to live! Behold—the two whom the Masters thrust through the Ground Gate five full hours since!"
Larry nodded. It was they, all right. Borl, who had been terrified, and his companion who had cheered him. He said, "Then in five hours the radiation did not destroy them?"
It was Borl who answered.
"In five hours? Nay, not in five years! Behold, my brothers, those have lived on the Outside for these past ten or more years. Remember you Treg ... and Daiv ... and our friend Mundro?"
Sert said dazedly, "I do! It is they. There is no doubt about it. But how—?"
Sandra said, "Don't you see? It is true that the Heaviside layer once broke down under the strain of excess drainage. But that was centuries, millenia, ago. And ever since that time, men have been living beneath the domes. The Heaviside, being nothing but a gigantic field of force, regained its full potential, became once more an efficient shield between Earth and the deadly radiation from beyond.
"But within the domes, the Masters dared not venture outside to discover this thing. They exiled over-bold Underlings to their supposed death—and when the Underlings never returned, they assumed the radiation still existed. Actually, the men were glad to be free—"
The one named Mundro laughed heartily. "But naturally! Why should we return to slavery when we had a wide and beautiful world in which to live?