Paul looked up. The sky itself seemed ablaze; as if all life must be purged from a violated wilderness in retribution for mans presumption and negligence. Then fierce heat settled around him again. Flames above leaped and roared in great red licks. He waited hopelessly, his whole being outraged because of what this nightmare in vivid Technicolor was doing. In his anguish, he thought of Lynn, and he saw her face before him. She was smiling. He heard her voice whisper, "I am here, my love. Hold but for a minute longer." Then the turbulence died down, as though something up there had relented.