16. “THE MOVIES ARE IN TOWN”
The sun set behind far peaks of snow; the desert purpled under a sprinkling of stars. In the thermometer that hung on a patio wall the mercury began its quick relentless fall, a sharp wind swept over the desolate waste, and loneliness settled on the world.
“Warm food needed now,” remarked Chan. “With your permission I will open numerous cans.”
“Anything but the arsenic,” Eden told him. He departed for the cookhouse.
Holley had long since gone, and Bob Eden sat alone by the window, looking out at a vast silence. Lots of room left in America yet, he reflected. Did they think that, those throngs of people packed into subways at this hour, seeking tables in noisy restaurants, waiting at jammed corners for the traffic signal, climbing weary and worn at last to t
