The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-07-12

first cause of his discontent. So rapidly did the Enganians die that he was left strangely alone and began to regret that he had ever discovered the elixir of life. A thousand years had passed away, and Poienix was a wanderer over the earth. Looked upon as a maniac and summed by his fellows, he was beginning to taste the first bitterness of a long ex- istence. Pleasure had long ago palled on his satiated appetite and he longed constantly for the end of a tedious life. but 1t was not yet to be. He had taken the fatal potion and there was no es- cape. He was doomed to live until the end of the world. When he looked for ward Into the ages yet to come and real ized the frightful monotony that they held in store his very soul shuddered within him, and he dreamed of suicide as the greatest pleasure that remained. But, even this was denied, for his courage was not sufficient for the destruction of his life Time and again Polenix thrust him self in the path of death, but with the strange persistency of fate he remained unscathed
 Rumors of the approaching doom of the world were filling the Englanians with terror, and this was another cause of the dispair which was enveloping Pole nix. Unless he could destroy himself he would live to see the sun go out and would feel the lev hand of death with the last of the Englanians. Alone, in his splendid palace he brooded over these things and was filled with dread. He mingled no more with the gay throrgs of Petrax. He became a silent wander CT who was in the world, but not of 1t.
 At last the tedium became to great to be endured Polenx decided to roam In ht1f uyffh fO of discovery to give him inspiration. The years remaining to the world were too few in number for the human race to attempt further progress
 Polenix departed alone from Petrax in his alrship, and launched out into space for the first time since he returned from his trip to Uranus 20Oo years before When far out in limltless space his soul became peaceful. Directing his course toward the sun, he slxirted the great globe at a distance of 40,000000 miles, which would have been an impossible feat had it not been that the cooling process was already far advanced and the heat of the sun was greatly de- creased
 Leaving the central regions of the uni- toward Uranus No one else had ever reached the planet after his successful trip and he felt a desire to retrace his journey made ages before. He took no heed of the flight of time and for cen turtles wandered about fin space from one planet to another, returning at long intervals to Mars, where he had needed repairs made and provisioned his ship for another voyage.
 In the year 2o,ooOooo A. D.. Polenix touched Mars and found a cold, silent world, on which all life had ceased. The dying of the sun had shrouded the planet in ice. and he shuddered to think of the conditions then prevailing on the earth and in his native city of Petrax. Chill ed by the intense cold which was felt even through the walls of his airship, and trembling with a great fear, Polenix made haste to quit the deso1ate planet. Some irresistible impulse drew him back to the earth. He turned his ship toward