Sutton looked behind him and saw for the first time the true, savage wildness of the place. A frozen whirlpool of star-speckled terrain stretched below them…great yawning gulfs of blackness above which stood brooding peaks and spirelike pinnacles.
Sutton shivered at the sight. "Let's get on," he said.
They climbed the last hundred yards and reached the man-made plateau, then stood and stared across the nightmare landscape, and as he looked, Sutton felt the cold hand of loneliness reach down with icy fingers to take him in its grip. For here was sheer, mad loneliness such as he had never dreamed. Here was the very negation of life and motion, here was the stark, bald beginning when there was no life, nor even thought of life. Here anything that knew or thought or moved was an alien thing, a disease, a cancer on the face of nothingness.
A footstep crunched behind them and they swung around.
A man moved out of the starry darkness. His voice was pleasant and heavy as he spoke to them.
"Good evening," he said and waited for a moment, then added by way of explanation, "We heard you land and I walked out to meet you."
Eva's voice was cold and just a little angry. "You take us by surprise," she said. "We had not expected anyone."
The man's tone stiffened. "I hope we are not trespassing. We are friends of Mr. Benton and he told us to use the place at our convenience."
"Mr. Benton is dead," said Eva, frostily. "This man is the new owner."
The man's head turned toward Sutton.