"I didn't say anything," said Greg gruffly.
"But you did. I heard you say—Omigawd!" Sparks made a sudden leap toward the bench on which rested the forgotten crystal set. "It's this! Listen!"
Static still boiled through the speaker of the tiny set. But now, above the static, riding its vibrations, was superimposed the sound of a human voice. And the voice was calling, over and over again,
"Space Patrol Cruiser Orestes ... calling survivors of the Carefree. We are looking for you. Where are you ... where are you? Come in, Carefree survivors. Space Patrol Cruiser Orestes ... calling survivors...."
Greg looked at 'Tina. Then once again at Crystal, whose face, upturned with sudden, speechless joy, was the radiant vision of unattainable perfection. Then at Sparks, whose gaze met his reluctantly. He said, "Sparks—press the plunger."
Hannigan's hand moved slowly toward the control that would set into flame the gigantic brush-signal on the plain below. With strange reluctance, everything considered. For certainly Sparks realized as plainly as he, Greg, that the snow was falling with increasing rapidity, that the cruiser must be almost directly overhead for its signal to penetrate the raucous interference of static, that if this opportunity were lost it might be years and years before....
Sparks voice was low in his ears.
"Are you sure, Greg?"
And suddenly there was deathly silence in the cave. Never until that moment had Gregory Malcolm realized how completely was he the ruler of this tiny clan. Here, where all life and the future of life and the future of these men and women were concerned, the last great judgment was relegated to him.