"
He paused, and then added quietly, "By the way, did either of you
notice any mountains just now?"
Smith and Van Emmon both said they had. "Why?"
"Of course, it isn't likely, but--did you see anything like a
volcano anywhere?"
"No," both replied.
"Another thing," Kinney went on. "So far, I've seen nothing that
would indicate lightning, much less the thing itself. Did either of
you," explicitly, "run across such a thing as a blasted tree?"
They said they had not. Billie hesitated a little with her reply,
then stated that she had noted a tree or two in a state of
disintegration, but none that showed the unmistakable scars due to
being struck by lightning.
"Then we've got the key to the mystery!" declared the doctor.
"Remember how brown and barren everything looks excepting only where
there's artificial vegetation? Well, putting two and two together, I
come to the conclusion that Sanus differs radically from the earth
in this respect:
"The humans have arrived rather late in the planet's history.
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