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diff --git a/23731.txt b/23731.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..81fc634 --- /dev/null +++ b/23731.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1552 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Martian Odyssey, by Stanley Grauman Weinbaum + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Martian Odyssey + +Author: Stanley Grauman Weinbaum + +Release Date: December 4, 2007 [EBook #23731] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MARTIAN ODYSSEY *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Joel Schlosberg and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + +This eBook was produced from the 1949 book _A Martian Odyssey and +Others_ by Stanley G. Weinbaum, pp. 1-27. Extensive research did not +uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was +renewed. + + + + +A MARTIAN ODYSSEY + + +Jarvis stretched himself as luxuriously as he could in the cramped +general quarters of the _Ares_. + +"Air you can breathe!" he exulted. "It feels as thick as soup after the +thin stuff out there!" He nodded at the Martian landscape stretching +flat and desolate in the light of the nearer moon, beyond the glass of +the port. + +The other three stared at him sympathetically--Putz, the engineer, +Leroy, the biologist, and Harrison, the astronomer and captain of the +expedition. Dick Jarvis was chemist of the famous crew, the _Ares_ +expedition, first human beings to set foot on the mysterious neighbor of +the earth, the planet Mars. This, of course, was in the old days, less +than twenty years after the mad American Doheny perfected the atomic +blast at the cost of his life, and only a decade after the equally mad +Cardoza rode on it to the moon. They were true pioneers, these four of +the _Ares_. Except for a half-dozen moon expeditions and the ill-fated +de Lancey flight aimed at the seductive orb of Venus, they were the +first men to feel other gravity than earth's, and certainly the first +successful crew to leave the earth-moon system. And they deserved that +success when one considers the difficulties and discomforts--the months +spent in acclimatization chambers back on earth, learning to breathe the +air as tenuous as that of Mars, the challenging of the void in the tiny +rocket driven by the cranky reaction motors of the twenty-first century, +and mostly the facing of an absolutely unknown world. + +Jarvis stretched and fingered the raw and peeling tip of his +frost-bitten nose. He sighed again contentedly. + +"Well," exploded Harrison abruptly, "are we going to hear what happened? +You set out all shipshape in an auxiliary rocket, we don't get a peep +for ten days, and finally Putz here picks you out of a lunatic ant-heap +with a freak ostrich as your pal! Spill it, man!" + +"Speel?" queried Leroy perplexedly. "Speel what?" + +"He means '_spiel_'," explained Putz soberly. "It iss to tell." + +Jarvis met Harrison's amused glance without the shadow of a smile. +"That's right, Karl," he said in grave agreement with Putz. "_Ich spiel +es!_" He grunted comfortably and began. + +"According to orders," he said, "I watched Karl here take off toward the +North, and then I got into my flying sweat-box and headed South. You'll +remember, Cap--we had orders not to land, but just scout about for +points of interest. I set the two cameras clicking and buzzed along, +riding pretty high--about two thousand feet--for a couple of reasons. +First, it gave the cameras a greater field, and second, the under-jets +travel so far in this half-vacuum they call air here that they stir up +dust if you move low." + +"We know all that from Putz," grunted Harrison. "I wish you'd saved the +films, though. They'd have paid the cost of this junket; remember how +the public mobbed the first moon pictures?" + +"The films are safe," retorted Jarvis. "Well," he resumed, "as I said, I +buzzed along at a pretty good clip; just as we figured, the wings +haven't much lift in this air at less than a hundred miles per hour, and +even then I had to use the under-jets. + +"So, with the speed and the altitude and the blurring caused by the +under-jets, the seeing wasn't any too good. I could see enough, though, +to distinguish that what I sailed over was just more of this grey plain +that we'd been examining the whole week since our landing--same blobby +growths and the same eternal carpet of crawling little plant-animals, or +biopods, as Leroy calls them. So I sailed along, calling back my +position every hour as instructed, and not knowing whether you heard +me." + +"I did!" snapped Harrison. + +"A hundred and fifty miles south," continued Jarvis imperturbably, "the +surface changed to a sort of low plateau, nothing but desert and +orange-tinted sand. I figured that we were right in our guess, then, +and this grey plain we dropped on was really the Mare Cimmerium which +would make my orange desert the region called Xanthus. If I were right, +I ought to hit another grey plain, the Mare Chronium in another couple +of hundred miles, and then another orange desert, Thyle I or II. And so +I did." + +"Putz verified our position a week and a half ago!" grumbled the +captain. "Let's get to the point." + +"Coming!" remarked Jarvis. "Twenty miles into Thyle--believe it or +not--I crossed a canal!" + +"Putz photographed a hundred! Let's hear something new!" + +"And did he also see a city?" + +"Twenty of 'em, if you call those heaps of mud cities!" + +"Well," observed Jarvis, "from here on I'll be telling a few things Putz +didn't see!" He rubbed his tingling nose, and continued. "I knew that I +had sixteen hours of daylight at this season, so eight hours--eight +hundred miles--from here, I decided to turn back. I was still over +Thyle, whether I or II I'm not sure, not more than twenty-five miles +into it. And right there, Putz's pet motor quit!" + +"Quit? How?" Putz was solicitous. + +"The atomic blast got weak. I started losing altitude right away, and +suddenly there I was with a thump right in the middle of Thyle! Smashed +my nose on the window, too!" He rubbed the injured member ruefully. + +"Did you maybe try vashing der combustion chamber mit acid sulphuric?" +inquired Putz. "Sometimes der lead giffs a secondary radiation--" + +"Naw!" said Jarvis disgustedly. "I wouldn't try that, of course--not +more than ten times! Besides, the bump flattened the landing gear and +busted off the under-jets. Suppose I got the thing working--what then? +Ten miles with the blast coming right out of the bottom and I'd have +melted the floor from under me!" He rubbed his nose again. "Lucky for me +a pound only weighs seven ounces here, or I'd have been mashed flat!" + +"I could have fixed!" ejaculated the engineer. "I bet it vas not +serious." + +"Probably not," agreed Jarvis sarcastically. "Only it wouldn't fly. +Nothing serious, but I had my choice of waiting to be picked up or +trying to walk back--eight hundred miles, and perhaps twenty days before +we had to leave! Forty miles a day! Well," he concluded, "I chose to +walk. Just as much chance of being picked up, and it kept me busy." + +"We'd have found you," said Harrison. + +"No doubt. Anyway, I rigged up a harness from some seat straps, and put +the water tank on my back, took a cartridge belt and revolver, and some +iron rations, and started out." + +"Water tank!" exclaimed the little biologist, Leroy. "She weigh +one-quarter ton!" + +"Wasn't full. Weighed about two hundred and fifty pounds earth-weight, +which is eighty-five here. Then, besides, my own personal two hundred +and ten pounds is only seventy on Mars, so, tank and all, I grossed a +hundred and fifty-five, or fifty-five pounds less than my everyday +earth-weight. I figured on that when I undertook the forty-mile daily +stroll. Oh--of course I took a thermo-skin sleeping bag for these wintry +Martian nights. + +"Off I went, bouncing along pretty quickly. Eight hours of daylight +meant twenty miles or more. It got tiresome, of course--plugging along +over a soft sand desert with nothing to see, not even Leroy's crawling +biopods. But an hour or so brought me to the canal--just a dry ditch +about four hundred feet wide, and straight as a railroad on its own +company map. + +"There'd been water in it sometime, though. The ditch was covered with +what looked like a nice green lawn. Only, as I approached, the lawn +moved out of my way!" + +"Eh?" said Leroy. + +"Yeah, it was a relative of your biopods. I caught one--a little +grass-like blade about as long as my finger, with two thin, stemmy +legs." + +"He is where?" Leroy was eager. + +"He is let go! I had to move, so I plowed along with the walking grass +opening in front and closing behind. And then I was out on the orange +desert of Thyle again. + +"I plugged steadily along, cussing the sand that made going so tiresome, +and, incidentally, cussing that cranky motor of yours, Karl. It was just +before twilight that I reached the edge of Thyle, and looked down over +the gray Mare Chronium. And I knew there was seventy-five miles of +_that_ to be walked over, and then a couple of hundred miles of that +Xanthus desert, and about as much more Mare Cimmerium. Was I pleased? I +started cussing you fellows for not picking me up!" + +"We were trying, you sap!" said Harrison. + +"That didn't help. Well, I figured I might as well use what was left of +daylight in getting down the cliff that bounded Thyle. I found an easy +place, and down I went. Mare Chronium was just the same sort of place as +this--crazy leafless plants and a bunch of crawlers; I gave it a glance +and hauled out my sleeping bag. Up to that time, you know, I hadn't seen +anything worth worrying about on this half-dead world--nothing +dangerous, that is." + +"Did you?" queried Harrison. + +"_Did I!_ You'll hear about it when I come to it. Well, I was just about +to turn in when suddenly I heard the wildest sort of shenanigans!" + +"Vot iss shenanigans?" inquired Putz. + +"He says, 'Je ne sais quoi,'" explained Leroy. "It is to say, 'I don't +know what.'" + +"That's right," agreed Jarvis. "I didn't know what, so I sneaked over to +find out. There was a racket like a flock of crows eating a bunch of +canaries--whistles, cackles, caws, trills, and what have you. I rounded +a clump of stumps, and there was Tweel!" + +"Tweel?" said Harrison, and "Tveel?" said Leroy and Putz. + +"That freak ostrich," explained the narrator. "At least, Tweel is as +near as I can pronounce it without sputtering. He called it something +like 'Trrrweerrlll.'" + +"What was he doing?" asked the Captain. + +"He was being eaten! And squealing, of course, as any one would." + +"Eaten! By what?" + +"I found out later. All I could see then was a bunch of black ropy arms +tangled around what looked like, as Putz described it to you, an +ostrich. I wasn't going to interfere, naturally; if both creatures were +dangerous, I'd have one less to worry about. + +"But the bird-like thing was putting up a good battle, dealing vicious +blows with an eighteen-inch beak, between screeches. And besides, I +caught a glimpse or two of what was on the end of those arms!" Jarvis +shuddered. "But the clincher was when I noticed a little black bag or +case hung about the neck of the bird-thing! It was intelligent! That or +tame, I assumed. Anyway, it clinched my decision. I pulled out my +automatic and fired into what I could see of its antagonist. + +"There was a flurry of tentacles and a spurt of black corruption, and +then the thing, with a disgusting sucking noise, pulled itself and its +arms into a hole in the ground. The other let out a series of clacks, +staggered around on legs about as thick as golf sticks, and turned +suddenly to face me. I held my weapon ready, and the two of us stared at +each other. + +"The Martian wasn't a bird, really. It wasn't even bird-like, except +just at first glance. It had a beak all right, and a few feathery +appendages, but the beak wasn't really a beak. It was somewhat flexible; +I could see the tip bend slowly from side to side; it was almost like a +cross between a beak and a trunk. It had four-toed feet, and four +fingered things--hands, you'd have to call them, and a little roundish +body, and a long neck ending in a tiny head--and that beak. It stood an +inch or so taller than I, and--well, Putz saw it!" + +The engineer nodded. "_Ja!_ I saw!" + +Jarvis continued. "So--we stared at each other. Finally the creature +went into a series of clackings and twitterings and held out its hands +toward me, empty. I took that as a gesture of friendship." + +"Perhaps," suggested Harrison, "it looked at that nose of yours and +thought you were its brother!" + +"Huh! You can be funny without talking! Anyway, I put up my gun and said +'Aw, don't mention it,' or something of the sort, and the thing came +over and we were pals. + +"By that time, the sun was pretty low and I knew that I'd better build a +fire or get into my thermo-skin. I decided on the fire. I picked a spot +at the base of the Thyle cliff, where the rock could reflect a little +heat on my back. I started breaking off chunks of this desiccated +Martian vegetation, and my companion caught the idea and brought in an +armful. I reached for a match, but the Martian fished into his pouch and +brought out something that looked like a glowing coal; one touch of it, +and the fire was blazing--and you all know what a job we have starting a +fire in this atmosphere! + +"And that bag of his!" continued the narrator. "That was a manufactured +article, my friends; press an end and she popped open--press the middle +and she sealed so perfectly you couldn't see the line. Better than +zippers. + +"Well, we stared at the fire a while and I decided to attempt some sort +of communication with the Martian. I pointed at myself and said 'Dick'; +he caught the drift immediately, stretched a bony claw at me and +repeated 'Tick.' Then I pointed at him, and he gave that whistle I +called Tweel; I can't imitate his accent. Things were going smoothly; to +emphasize the names, I repeated 'Dick,' and then, pointing at him, +'Tweel.' + +"There we stuck! He gave some clacks that sounded negative, and said +something like 'P-p-p-proot.' And that was just the beginning; I was +always 'Tick,' but as for him--part of the time he was 'Tweel,' and part +of the time he was 'P-p-p-proot,' and part of the time he was sixteen +other noises! + +"We just couldn't connect. I tried 'rock,' and I tried 'star,' and +'tree,' and 'fire,' and Lord knows what else, and try as I would, I +couldn't get a single word! Nothing was the same for two successive +minutes, and if that's a language, I'm an alchemist! Finally I gave it +up and called him Tweel, and that seemed to do. + +"But Tweel hung on to some of my words. He remembered a couple of them, +which I suppose is a great achievement if you're used to a language you +have to make up as you go along. But I couldn't get the hang of his +talk; either I missed some subtle point or we just didn't _think_ +alike--and I rather believe the latter view. + +"I've other reasons for believing that. After a while I gave up the +language business, and tried mathematics. I scratched two plus two +equals four on the ground, and demonstrated it with pebbles. Again Tweel +caught the idea, and informed me that three plus three equals six. Once +more we seemed to be getting somewhere. + +"So, knowing that Tweel had at least a grammar school education, I drew +a circle for the sun, pointing first at it, and then at the last glow of +the sun. Then I sketched in Mercury, and Venus, and Mother Earth, and +Mars, and finally, pointing to Mars, I swept my hand around in a sort of +inclusive gesture to indicate that Mars was our current environment. I +was working up to putting over the idea that my home was on the earth. + +"Tweel understood my diagram all right. He poked his beak at it, and +with a great deal of trilling and clucking, he added Deimos and Phobos +to Mars, and then sketched in the earth's moon! + +"Do you see what that proves? It proves that Tweel's race uses +telescopes--that they're civilized!" + +"Does not!" snapped Harrison. "The moon is visible from here as a fifth +magnitude star. They could see its revolution with the naked eye." + +"The moon, yes!" said Jarvis. "You've missed my point. Mercury isn't +visible! And Tweel knew of Mercury because he placed the Moon at the +_third_ planet, not the second. If he didn't know Mercury, he'd put the +earth second, and Mars third, instead of fourth! See?" + +"Humph!" said Harrison. + +"Anyway," proceeded Jarvis, "I went on with my lesson. Things were going +smoothly, and it looked as if I could put the idea over. I pointed at +the earth on my diagram, and then at myself, and then, to clinch it, I +pointed to myself and then to the earth itself shining bright green +almost at the zenith. + +"Tweel set up such an excited clacking that I was certain he understood. +He jumped up and down, and suddenly he pointed at himself and then at +the sky, and then at himself and at the sky again. He pointed at his +middle and then at Arcturus, at his head and then at Spica, at his feet +and then at half a dozen stars, while I just gaped at him. Then, all of +a sudden, he gave a tremendous leap. Man, what a hop! He shot straight +up into the starlight, seventy-five feet if an inch! I saw him +silhouetted against the sky, saw him turn and come down at me head +first, and land smack on his beak like a javelin! There he stuck square +in the center of my sun-circle in the sand--a bull's eye!" + +"Nuts!" observed the captain. "Plain nuts!" + +"That's what I thought, too! I just stared at him open-mouthed while he +pulled his head out of the sand and stood up. Then I figured he'd missed +my point, and I went through the whole blamed rigamarole again, and it +ended the same way, with Tweel on his nose in the middle of my picture!" + +"Maybe it's a religious rite," suggested Harrison. + +"Maybe," said Jarvis dubiously. "Well, there we were. We could exchange +ideas up to a certain point, and then--blooey! Something in us was +different, unrelated; I don't doubt that Tweel thought me just as screwy +as I thought him. Our minds simply looked at the world from different +viewpoints, and perhaps his viewpoint is as true as ours. But--we +couldn't get together, that's all. Yet, in spite of all difficulties, I +_liked_ Tweel, and I have a queer certainty that he liked me." + +"Nuts!" repeated the captain. "Just daffy!" + +"Yeah? Wait and see. A couple of times I've thought that perhaps we--" +He paused, and then resumed his narrative. "Anyway, I finally gave it +up, and got into my thermo-skin to sleep. The fire hadn't kept me any +too warm, but that damned sleeping bag did. Got stuffy five minutes +after I closed myself in. I opened it a little and bingo! Some +eighty-below-zero air hit my nose, and that's when I got this pleasant +little frostbite to add to the bump I acquired during the crash of my +rocket. + +"I don't know what Tweel made of my sleeping. He sat around, but when I +woke up, he was gone. I'd just crawled out of my bag, though, when I +heard some twittering, and there he came, sailing down from that +three-story Thyle cliff to alight on his beak beside me. I pointed to +myself and toward the north, and he pointed at himself and toward the +south, but when I loaded up and started away, he came along. + +"Man, how he traveled! A hundred and fifty feet at a jump, sailing +through the air stretched out like a spear, and landing on his beak. He +seemed surprised at my plodding, but after a few moments he fell in +beside me, only every few minutes he'd go into one of his leaps, and +stick his nose into the sand a block ahead of me. Then he'd come +shooting back at me; it made me nervous at first to see that beak of his +coming at me like a spear, but he always ended in the sand at my side. + +"So the two of us plugged along across the Mare Chronium. Same sort of +place as this--same crazy plants and same little green biopods growing +in the sand, or crawling out of your way. We talked--not that we +understood each other, you know, but just for company. I sang songs, and +I suspect Tweel did too; at least, some of his trillings and twitterings +had a subtle sort of rhythm. + +"Then, for variety, Tweel would display his smattering of English words. +He'd point to an outcropping and say 'rock,' and point to a pebble and +say it again; or he'd touch my arm and say 'Tick,' and then repeat it. +He seemed terrifically amused that the same word meant the same thing +twice in succession, or that the same word could apply to two different +objects. It set me wondering if perhaps his language wasn't like the +primitive speech of some earth people--you know, Captain, like the +Negritoes, for instance, who haven't any generic words. No word for food +or water or man--words for good food and bad food, or rain water and sea +water, or strong man and weak man--but no names for general classes. +They're too primitive to understand that rain water and sea water are +just different aspects of the same thing. But that wasn't the case with +Tweel; it was just that we were somehow mysteriously different--our +minds were alien to each other. And yet--we _liked_ each other!" + +"Looney, that's all," remarked Harrison. "That's why you two were so +fond of each other." + +"Well, I like _you_!" countered Jarvis wickedly. "Anyway," he resumed, +"don't get the idea that there was anything screwy about Tweel. In fact, +I'm not so sure but that he couldn't teach our highly praised human +intelligence a trick or two. Oh, he wasn't an intellectual superman, I +guess; but don't overlook the point that he managed to understand a +little of my mental workings, and I never even got a glimmering of his." + +"Because he didn't have any!" suggested the captain, while Putz and +Leroy blinked attentively. + +"You can judge of that when I'm through," said Jarvis. "Well, we plugged +along across the Mare Chronium all that day, and all the next. Mare +Chronium--Sea of Time! Say, I was willing to agree with Schiaparelli's +name by the end of that march! Just that grey, endless plain of weird +plants, and never a sign of any other life. It was so monotonous that I +was even glad to see the desert of Xanthus toward the evening of the +second day. + +"I was fair worn out, but Tweel seemed as fresh as ever, for all I never +saw him drink or eat. I think he could have crossed the Mare Chronium in +a couple of hours with those block-long nose dives of his, but he stuck +along with me. I offered him some water once or twice; he took the cup +from me and sucked the liquid into his beak, and then carefully squirted +it all back into the cup and gravely returned it. + +"Just as we sighted Xanthus, or the cliffs that bounded it, one of those +nasty sand clouds blew along, not as bad as the one we had here, but +mean to travel against. I pulled the transparent flap of my thermo-skin +bag across my face and managed pretty well, and I noticed that Tweel +used some feathery appendages growing like a mustache at the base of his +beak to cover his nostrils, and some similar fuzz to shield his eyes." + +"He is a desert creature!" ejaculated the little biologist, Leroy. + +"Huh? Why?" + +"He drink no water--he is adapt' for sand storm--" + +"Proves nothing! There's not enough water to waste any where on this +desiccated pill called Mars. We'd call all of it desert on earth, you +know." He paused. "Anyway, after the sand storm blew over, a little wind +kept blowing in our faces, not strong enough to stir the sand. But +suddenly things came drifting along from the Xanthus cliffs--small, +transparent spheres, for all the world like glass tennis balls! But +light--they were almost light enough to float even in this thin +air--empty, too; at least, I cracked open a couple and nothing came out +but a bad smell. I asked Tweel about them, but all he said was 'No, no, +no,' which I took to mean that he knew nothing about them. So they went +bouncing by like tumbleweeds, or like soap bubbles, and we plugged on +toward Xanthus. Tweel pointed at one of the crystal balls once and said +'rock,' but I was too tired to argue with him. Later I discovered what +he meant. + +"We came to the bottom of the Xanthus cliffs finally, when there wasn't +much daylight left. I decided to sleep on the plateau if possible; +anything dangerous, I reasoned, would be more likely to prowl through +the vegetation of the Mare Chronium than the sand of Xanthus. Not that +I'd seen a single sign of menace, except the rope-armed black thing that +had trapped Tweel, and apparently that didn't prowl at all, but lured +its victims within reach. It couldn't lure me while I slept, especially +as Tweel didn't seem to sleep at all, but simply sat patiently around +all night. I wondered how the creature had managed to trap Tweel, but +there wasn't any way of asking him. I found that out too, later; it's +devilish! + +"However, we were ambling around the base of the Xanthus barrier looking +for an easy spot to climb. At least, I was. Tweel could have leaped it +easily, for the cliffs were lower than Thyle--perhaps sixty feet. I +found a place and started up, swearing at the water tank strapped to my +back--it didn't bother me except when climbing--and suddenly I heard a +sound that I thought I recognized! + +"You know how deceptive sounds are in this thin air. A shot sounds like +the pop of a cork. But this sound was the drone of a rocket, and sure +enough, there went our second auxiliary about ten miles to westward, +between me and the sunset!" + +"Vas me!" said Putz. "I hunt for you." + +"Yeah; I knew that, but what good did it do me? I hung on to the cliff +and yelled and waved with one hand. Tweel saw it too, and set up a +trilling and twittering, leaping to the top of the barrier and then high +into the air. And while I watched, the machine droned on into the +shadows to the south. + +"I scrambled to the top of the cliff. Tweel was still pointing and +trilling excitedly, shooting up toward the sky and coming down head-on +to stick upside down on his beak in the sand. I pointed toward the south +and at myself, and he said, 'Yes--Yes--Yes'; but somehow I gathered that +he thought the flying thing was a relative of mine, probably a parent. +Perhaps I did his intellect an injustice; I think now that I did. + +"I was bitterly disappointed by the failure to attract attention. I +pulled out my thermo-skin bag and crawled into it, as the night chill +was already apparent. Tweel stuck his beak into the sand and drew up his +legs and arms and looked for all the world like one of those leafless +shrubs out there. I think he stayed that way all night." + +"Protective mimicry!" ejaculated Leroy. "See? He is desert creature!" + +"In the morning," resumed Jarvis, "we started off again. We hadn't gone +a hundred yards into Xanthus when I saw something queer! This is one +thing Putz didn't photograph, I'll wager! + +"There was a line of little pyramids--tiny ones, not more than six +inches high, stretching across Xanthus as far as I could see! Little +buildings made of pygmy bricks, they were, hollow inside and truncated, +or at least broken at the top and empty. I pointed at them and said +'What?' to Tweel, but he gave some negative twitters to indicate, I +suppose, that he didn't know. So off we went, following the row of +pyramids because they ran north, and I was going north. + +"Man, we trailed that line for hours! After a while, I noticed another +queer thing: they were getting larger. Same number of bricks in each +one, but the bricks were larger. + +"By noon they were shoulder high. I looked into a couple--all just the +same, broken at the top and empty. I examined a brick or two as well; +they were silica, and old as creation itself!" + +"How you know?" asked Leroy. + +"They were weathered--edges rounded. Silica doesn't weather easily even +on earth, and in this climate--!" + +"How old you think?" + +"Fifty thousand--a hundred thousand years. How can I tell? The little +ones we saw in the morning were older--perhaps ten times as old. +Crumbling. How old would that make _them_? Half a million years? Who +knows?" Jarvis paused a moment. "Well," he resumed, "we followed the +line. Tweel pointed at them and said 'rock' once or twice, but he'd done +that many times before. Besides, he was more or less right about these. + +"I tried questioning him. I pointed at a pyramid and asked 'People?' and +indicated the two of us. He set up a negative sort of clucking and said, +'No, no, no. No one-one-two. No two-two-four,' meanwhile rubbing his +stomach. I just stared at him and he went through the business again. +'No one-one-two. No two-two-four.' I just gaped at him." + +"That proves it!" exclaimed Harrison. "Nuts!" + +"You think so?" queried Jarvis sardonically. "Well, I figured it out +different! 'No one-one-two!' You don't get it, of course, do you?" + +"Nope--nor do you!" + +"I think I do! Tweel was using the few English words he knew to put over +a very complex idea. What, let me ask, does mathematics make you think +of?" + +"Why--of astronomy. Or--or logic!" + +"That's it! 'No one-one-two!' Tweel was telling me that the builders of +the pyramids weren't people--or that they weren't intelligent, that they +weren't reasoning creatures! Get it?" + +"Huh! I'll be damned!" + +"You probably will." + +"Why," put in Leroy, "he rub his belly?" + +"Why? Because, my dear biologist, that's where his brains are! Not in +his tiny head--in his middle!" + +"_C'est_ impossible!" + +"Not on Mars, it isn't! This flora and fauna aren't earthly; your +biopods prove that!" Jarvis grinned and took up his narrative. "Anyway, +we plugged along across Xanthus and in about the middle of the +afternoon, something else queer happened. The pyramids ended." + +"Ended!" + +"Yeah; the queer part was that the last one--and now they were +ten-footers--was capped! See? Whatever built it was still inside; we'd +trailed 'em from their half-million-year-old origin to the present. + +"Tweel and I noticed it about the same time. I yanked out my automatic +(I had a clip of Boland explosive bullets in it) and Tweel, quick as a +sleight-of-hand trick, snapped a queer little glass revolver out of his +bag. It was much like our weapons, except that the grip was larger to +accommodate his four-taloned hand. And we held our weapons ready while +we sneaked up along the lines of empty pyramids. + +"Tweel saw the movement first. The top tiers of bricks were heaving, +shaking, and suddenly slid down the sides with a thin crash. And +then--something--something was coming out! + +"A long, silvery-grey arm appeared, dragging after it an armored body. +Armored, I mean, with scales, silver-grey and dull-shining. The arm +heaved the body out of the hole; the beast crashed to the sand. + +"It was a nondescript creature--body like a big grey cask, arm and a +sort of mouth-hole at one end; stiff, pointed tail at the other--and +that's all. No other limbs, no eyes, ears, nose--nothing! The thing +dragged itself a few yards, inserted its pointed tail in the sand, +pushed itself upright, and just sat. + +"Tweel and I watched it for ten minutes before it moved. Then, with a +creaking and rustling like--oh, like crumpling stiff paper--its arm +moved to the mouth-hole and out came a brick! The arm placed the brick +carefully on the ground, and the thing was still again. + +"Another ten minutes--another brick. Just one of Nature's bricklayers. +I was about to slip away and move on when Tweel pointed at the thing and +said 'rock'! I went 'huh?' and he said it again. Then, to the +accompaniment of some of his trilling, he said, 'No--no--,' and gave two +or three whistling breaths. + +"Well, I got his meaning, for a wonder! I said, 'No breath?' and +demonstrated the word. Tweel was ecstatic; he said, 'Yes, yes, yes! No, +no, no breet!' Then he gave a leap and sailed out to land on his nose +about one pace from the monster! + +"I was startled, you can imagine! The arm was going up for a brick, and +I expected to see Tweel caught and mangled, but--nothing happened! Tweel +pounded on the creature, and the arm took the brick and placed it neatly +beside the first. Tweel rapped on its body again, and said 'rock,' and I +got up nerve enough to take a look myself. + +"Tweel was right again. The creature was rock, and it didn't breathe!" + +"How you know?" snapped Leroy, his black eyes blazing interest. + +"Because I'm a chemist. The beast was made of silica! There must have +been pure silicon in the sand, and it lived on that. Get it? We, and +Tweel, and those plants out there, and even the biopods are _carbon_ +life; this thing lived by a different set of chemical reactions. It was +silicon life!" + +"_La vie silicieuse!_" shouted Leroy. "I have suspect, and now it is +proof! I must go see! _Il faut que je--_" + +"All right! All right!" said Jarvis. "You can go see. Anyhow, there the +thing was, alive and yet not alive, moving every ten minutes, and then +only to remove a brick. Those bricks were its waste matter. See, +Frenchy? We're carbon, and our waste is carbon dioxide, and this thing +is silicon, and _its_ waste is silicon dioxide--silica. But silica is a +solid, hence the bricks. And it builds itself in, and when it is +covered, it moves over to a fresh place to start over. No wonder it +creaked! A living creature half a million years old!" + +"How you know how old?" Leroy was frantic. + +"We trailed its pyramids from the beginning, didn't we? If this weren't +the original pyramid builder, the series would have ended somewhere +before we found him, wouldn't it?--ended and started over with the small +ones. That's simple enough, isn't it? + +"But he reproduces, or tries to. Before the third brick came out, there +was a little rustle and out popped a whole stream of those little +crystal balls. They're his spores, or eggs, or seeds--call 'em what you +want. They went bouncing by across Xanthus just as they'd bounced by us +back in the Mare Chronium. I've a hunch how they work, too--this is for +your information, Leroy. I think the crystal shell of silica is no more +than a protective covering, like an eggshell, and that the active +principle is the smell inside. It's some sort of gas that attacks +silicon, and if the shell is broken near a supply of that element, some +reaction starts that ultimately develops into a beast like that one." + +"You should try!" exclaimed the little Frenchman. "We must break one to +see!" + +"Yeah? Well, I did. I smashed a couple against the sand. Would you like +to come back in about ten thousand years to see if I planted some +pyramid monsters? You'd most likely be able to tell by that time!" +Jarvis paused and drew a deep breath. "Lord! That queer creature! Do you +picture it? Blind, deaf, nerveless, brainless--just a mechanism, and +yet--immortal! Bound to go on making bricks, building pyramids, as long +as silicon and oxygen exist, and even afterwards it'll just stop. It +won't be dead. If the accidents of a million years bring it its food +again, there it'll be, ready to run again, while brains and +civilizations are part of the past. A queer beast--yet I met a stranger +one!" + +"If you did, it must have been in your dreams!" growled Harrison. + +"You're right!" said Jarvis soberly. "In a way, you're right. The +dream-beast! That's the best name for it--and it's the most fiendish, +terrifying creation one could imagine! More dangerous than a lion, more +insidious than a snake!" + +"Tell me!" begged Leroy. "I must go see!" + +"Not _this_ devil!" He paused again. "Well," he resumed, "Tweel and I +left the pyramid creature and plowed along through Xanthus. I was tired +and a little disheartened by Putz's failure to pick me up, and Tweel's +trilling got on my nerves, as did his flying nosedives. So I just strode +along without a word, hour after hour across that monotonous desert. + +"Toward mid-afternoon we came in sight of a low dark line on the +horizon. I knew what it was. It was a canal; I'd crossed it in the +rocket and it meant that we were just one-third of the way across +Xanthus. Pleasant thought, wasn't it? And still, I was keeping up to +schedule. + +"We approached the canal slowly; I remembered that this one was bordered +by a wide fringe of vegetation and that Mud-heap City was on it. + +"I was tired, as I said. I kept thinking of a good hot meal, and then +from that I jumped to reflections of how nice and home-like even Borneo +would seem after this crazy planet, and from that, to thoughts of little +old New York, and then to thinking about a girl I know there--Fancy +Long. Know her?" + +"Vision entertainer," said Harrison. "I've tuned her in. Nice +blonde--dances and sings on the _Yerba Mate_ hour." + +"That's her," said Jarvis ungrammatically. "I know her pretty well--just +friends, get me?--though she came down to see us off in the _Ares_. +Well, I was thinking about her, feeling pretty lonesome, and all the +time we were approaching that line of rubbery plants. + +"And then--I said, 'What 'n Hell!' and stared. And there she was--Fancy +Long, standing plain as day under one of those crack-brained trees, and +smiling and waving just the way I remembered her when we left!" + +"Now you're nuts, too!" observed the captain. + +"Boy, I almost agreed with you! I stared and pinched myself and closed +my eyes and then stared again--and every time, there was Fancy Long +smiling and waving! Tweel saw something, too; he was trilling and +clucking away, but I scarcely heard him. I was bounding toward her over +the sand, too amazed even to ask myself questions. + +"I wasn't twenty feet from her when Tweel caught me with one of his +flying leaps. He grabbed my arm, yelling, 'No--no--no!' in his squeaky +voice. I tried to shake him off--he was as light as if he were built of +bamboo--but he dug his claws in and yelled. And finally some sort of +sanity returned to me and I stopped less than ten feet from her. There +she stood, looking as solid as Putz's head!" + +"Vot?" said the engineer. + +"She smiled and waved, and waved and smiled, and I stood there dumb as +Leroy, while Tweel squeaked and chattered. I _knew_ it couldn't be real, +yet--there she was! + +"Finally I said, 'Fancy! Fancy Long!' She just kept on smiling and +waving, but looking as real as if I hadn't left her thirty-seven million +miles away. + +"Tweel had his glass pistol out, pointing it at her. I grabbed his arm, +but he tried to push me away. He pointed at her and said, 'No breet! No +breet!' and I understood that he meant that the Fancy Long thing wasn't +alive. Man, my head was whirling! + +"Still, it gave me the jitters to see him pointing his weapon at her. I +don't know why I stood there watching him take careful aim, but I did. +Then he squeezed the handle of his weapon; there was a little puff of +steam, and Fancy Long was gone! And in her place was one of those +writhing, black, rope-armed horrors like the one I'd saved Tweel from! + +"The dream-beast! I stood there dizzy, watching it die while Tweel +trilled and whistled. Finally he touched my arm, pointed at the twisting +thing, and said, 'You one-one-two, he one-one-two.' After he'd repeated +it eight or ten times, I got it. Do any of you?" + +"_Oui!_" shrilled Leroy. "_Moi--je le comprends!_ He mean you think of +something, the beast he know, and you see it! _Un chien_--a hungry dog, +he would see the big bone with meat! Or smell it--not?" + +"Right!" said Jarvis. "The dream-beast uses its victim's longings and +desires to trap its prey. The bird at nesting season would see its mate, +the fox, prowling for its own prey, would see a helpless rabbit!" + +"How he do?" queried Leroy. + +"How do I know? How does a snake back on earth charm a bird into its +very jaws? And aren't there deep-sea fish that lure their victims into +their mouths? Lord!" Jarvis shuddered. "Do you see how insidious the +monster is? We're warned now--but henceforth we can't trust even our +eyes. You might see me--I might see one of you--and back of it may be +nothing but another of those black horrors!" + +"How'd your friend know?" asked the captain abruptly. + +"Tweel? I wonder! Perhaps he was thinking of something that couldn't +possibly have interested me, and when I started to run, he realized +that I saw something different and was warned. Or perhaps the +dream-beast can only project a single vision, and Tweel saw what I +saw--or nothing. I couldn't ask him. But it's just another proof that +his intelligence is equal to ours or greater." + +"He's daffy, I tell you!" said Harrison. "What makes you think his +intellect ranks with the human?" + +"Plenty of things! First, the pyramid-beast. He hadn't seen one before; +he said as much. Yet he recognized it as a dead-alive automaton of +silicon." + +"He could have heard of it," objected Harrison. "He lives around here, +you know." + +"Well how about the language? I couldn't pick up a single idea of his +and he learned six or seven words of mine. And do you realize what +complex ideas he put over with no more than those six or seven words? +The pyramid-monster--the dream-beast! In a single phrase he told me that +one was a harmless automaton and the other a deadly hypnotist. What +about that?" + +"Huh!" said the captain. + +"_Huh_ if you wish! Could you have done it knowing only six words of +English? Could you go even further, as Tweel did, and tell me that +another creature was of a sort of intelligence so different from ours +that understanding was impossible--even more impossible than that +between Tweel and me?" + +"Eh? What was that?" + +"Later. The point I'm making is that Tweel and his race are worthy of +our friendship. Somewhere on Mars--and you'll find I'm right--is a +civilization and culture equal to ours, and maybe more than equal. And +communication is possible between them and us; Tweel proves that. It may +take years of patient trial, for their minds are alien, but less alien +than the next minds we encountered--if they _are_ minds." + +"The next ones? What next ones?" + +"The people of the mud cities along the canals." Jarvis frowned, then +resumed his narrative. "I thought the dream-beast and the +silicon-monster were the strangest beings conceivable, but I was wrong. +These creatures are still more alien, less understandable than either +and far less comprehensible than Tweel, with whom friendship is +possible, and even, by patience and concentration, the exchange of +ideas. + +"Well," he continued, "we left the dream-beast dying, dragging itself +back into its hole, and we moved toward the canal. There was a carpet of +that queer walking-grass scampering out of our way, and when we reached +the bank, there was a yellow trickle of water flowing. The mound city +I'd noticed from the rocket was a mile or so to the right and I was +curious enough to want to take a look at it. + +"It had seemed deserted from my previous glimpse of it, and if any +creatures were lurking in it--well, Tweel and I were both armed. And by +the way, that crystal weapon of Tweel's was an interesting device; I +took a look at it after the dream-beast episode. It fired a little glass +splinter, poisoned, I suppose, and I guess it held at least a hundred of +'em to a load. The propellent was steam--just plain steam!" + +"Shteam!" echoed Putz. "From vot come, shteam?" + +"From water, of course! You could see the water through the transparent +handle and about a gill of another liquid, thick and yellowish. When +Tweel squeezed the handle--there was no trigger--a drop of water and a +drop of the yellow stuff squirted into the firing chamber, and the water +vaporized--pop!--like that. It's not so difficult; I think we could +develop the same principle. Concentrated sulphuric acid will heat water +almost to boiling, and so will quicklime, and there's potassium and +sodium-- + +"Of course, his weapon hadn't the range of mine, but it wasn't so bad in +this thin air, and it _did_ hold as many shots as a cowboy's gun in a +Western movie. It was effective, too, at least against Martian life; I +tried it out, aiming at one of the crazy plants, and darned if the plant +didn't wither up and fall apart! That's why I think the glass splinters +were poisoned. + +"Anyway, we trudged along toward the mud-heap city and I began to wonder +whether the city builders dug the canals. I pointed to the city and then +at the canal, and Tweel said 'No--no--no!' and gestured toward the +south. I took it to mean that some other race had created the canal +system, perhaps Tweel's people. I don't know; maybe there's still +another intelligent race on the planet, or a dozen others. Mars is a +queer little world. + +"A hundred yards from the city we crossed a sort of road--just a +hard-packed mud trail, and then, all of a sudden, along came one of the +mound builders! + +"Man, talk about fantastic beings! It looked rather like a barrel +trotting along on four legs with four other arms or tentacles. It had no +head, just body and members and a row of eyes completely around it. The +top end of the barrel-body was a diaphragm stretched as tight as a drum +head, and that was all. It was pushing a little coppery cart and tore +right past us like the proverbial bat out of Hell. It didn't even notice +us, although I thought the eyes on my side shifted a little as it +passed. + +"A moment later another came along, pushing another empty cart. Same +thing--it just scooted past us. Well, I wasn't going to be ignored by a +bunch of barrels playing train, so when the third one approached, I +planted myself in the way--ready to jump, of course, if the thing didn't +stop. + +"But it did. It stopped and set up a sort of drumming from the diaphragm +on top. And I held out both hands and said, 'We are friends!' And what +do you suppose the thing did?" + +"Said, 'Pleased to meet you,' I'll bet!" suggested Harrison. + +"I couldn't have been more surprised if it had! It drummed on its +diaphragm, and then suddenly boomed out, 'We are v-r-r-riends!' and gave +its pushcart a vicious poke at me! I jumped aside, and away it went +while I stared dumbly after it. + +"A minute later another one came hurrying along. This one didn't pause, +but simply drummed out, 'We are v-r-r-riends!' and scurried by. How did +it learn the phrase? Were all of the creatures in some sort of +communication with each other? Were they all parts of some central +organism? I don't know, though I think Tweel does. + +"Anyway, the creatures went sailing past us, every one greeting +us with the same statement. It got to be funny; I never thought to +find so many friends on this God-forsaken ball! Finally I made a +puzzled gesture to Tweel; I guess he understood, for he said, +'One-one-two--yes!--two-two-four--no!' Get it?" + +"Sure," said Harrison, "It's a Martian nursery rhyme." + +"Yeah! Well, I was getting used to Tweel's symbolism, and I figured it +out this way. 'One-one-two--yes!' The creatures were intelligent. +'Two-two-four--no!' Their intelligence was not of our order, but +something different and beyond the logic of two and two is four. Maybe I +missed his meaning. Perhaps he meant that their minds were of low +degree, able to figure out the simple things--'One-one-two--yes!'--but +not more difficult things--'Two-two-four--no!' But I think from what we +saw later that he meant the other. + +"After a few moments, the creatures came rushing back--first one, then +another. Their pushcarts were full of stones, sand, chunks of rubbery +plants, and such rubbish as that. They droned out their friendly +greeting, which didn't really sound so friendly, and dashed on. The +third one I assumed to be my first acquaintance and I decided to have +another chat with him. I stepped into his path again and waited. + +"Up he came, booming out his 'We are v-r-r-riends' and stopped. I looked +at him; four or five of his eyes looked at me. He tried his password +again and gave a shove on his cart, but I stood firm. And then the--the +dashed creature reached out one of his arms, and two finger-like nippers +tweaked my nose!" + +"Haw!" roared Harrison. "Maybe the things have a sense of beauty!" + +"Laugh!" grumbled Jarvis. "I'd already had a nasty bump and a mean +frostbite on that nose. Anyway, I yelled 'Ouch!' and jumped aside and +the creature dashed away; but from then on, their greeting was 'We are +v-r-r-riends! Ouch!' Queer beasts! + +"Tweel and I followed the road squarely up to the nearest mound. The +creatures were coming and going, paying us not the slightest attention, +fetching their loads of rubbish. The road simply dived into an opening, +and slanted down like an old mine, and in and out darted the +barrel-people, greeting us with their eternal phrase. + +"I looked in; there was a light somewhere below, and I was curious to +see it. It didn't look like a flame or torch, you understand, but more +like a civilized light, and I thought that I might get some clue as to +the creatures' development. So in I went and Tweel tagged along, not +without a few trills and twitters, however. + +"The light was curious; it sputtered and flared like an old arc light, +but came from a single black rod set in the wall of the corridor. It +was electric, beyond doubt. The creatures were fairly civilized, +apparently. + +"Then I saw another light shining on something that glittered and I went +on to look at that, but it was only a heap of shiny sand. I turned +toward the entrance to leave, and the Devil take me if it wasn't gone! + +"I suppose the corridor had curved, or I'd stepped into a side passage. +Anyway, I walked back in that direction I thought we'd come, and all I +saw was more dimlit corridor. The place was a labyrinth! There was +nothing but twisting passages running every way, lit by occasional +lights, and now and then a creature running by, sometimes with a +pushcart, sometimes without. + +"Well, I wasn't much worried at first. Tweel and I had only come a few +steps from the entrance. But every move we made after that seemed to get +us in deeper. Finally I tried following one of the creatures with an +empty cart, thinking that he'd be going out for his rubbish, but he ran +around aimlessly, into one passage and out another. When he started +dashing around a pillar like one of these Japanese waltzing mice, I gave +up, dumped my water tank on the floor, and sat down. + +"Tweel was as lost as I. I pointed up and he said 'No--no--no!' in a +sort of helpless trill. And we couldn't get any help from the natives. +They paid no attention at all, except to assure us they were +friends--ouch! + +"Lord! I don't know how many hours or days we wandered around there! I +slept twice from sheer exhaustion; Tweel never seemed to need sleep. We +tried following only the upward corridors, but they'd run uphill a ways +and then curve downwards. The temperature in that damned ant hill was +constant; you couldn't tell night from day and after my first sleep I +didn't know whether I'd slept one hour or thirteen, so I couldn't tell +from my watch whether it was midnight or noon. + +"We saw plenty of strange things. There were machines running in some of +the corridors, but they didn't seem to be doing anything--just wheels +turning. And several times I saw two barrel-beasts with a little one +growing between them, joined to both." + +"Parthenogenesis!" exulted Leroy. "Parthenogenesis by budding like _les +tulipes_!" + +"If you say so, Frenchy," agreed Jarvis. "The things never noticed us at +all, except, as I say, to greet us with 'We are v-r-r-riends! Ouch!' +They seemed to have no home-life of any sort, but just scurried around +with their pushcarts, bringing in rubbish. And finally I discovered what +they did with it. + +"We'd had a little luck with a corridor, one that slanted upwards for a +great distance. I was feeling that we ought to be close to the surface +when suddenly the passage debouched into a domed chamber, the only one +we'd seen. And man!--I felt like dancing when I saw what looked like +daylight through a crevice in the roof. + +"There was a--a sort of machine in the chamber, just an enormous wheel +that turned slowly, and one of the creatures was in the act of dumping +his rubbish below it. The wheel ground it with a crunch--sand, stones, +plants, all into powder that sifted away somewhere. While we watched, +others filed in, repeating the process, and that seemed to be all. No +rhyme nor reason to the whole thing--but that's characteristic of this +crazy planet. And there was another fact that's almost too bizarre to +believe. + +"One of the creatures, having dumped his load, pushed his cart aside +with a crash and calmly shoved himself under the wheel! I watched him +being crushed, too stupefied to make a sound, and a moment later, +another followed him! They were perfectly methodical about it, too; one +of the cartless creatures took the abandoned pushcart. + +"Tweel didn't seem surprised; I pointed out the next suicide to him, and +he just gave the most human-like shrug imaginable, as much as to say, +'What can I do about it?' He must have known more or less about these +creatures. + +"Then I saw something else. There was something beyond the wheel, +something shining on a sort of low pedestal. I walked over; there was a +little crystal about the size of an egg, fluorescing to beat Tophet. The +light from it stung my hands and face, almost like a static discharge, +and then I noticed another funny thing. Remember that wart I had on my +left thumb? Look!" Jarvis extended his hand. "It dried up and fell +off--just like that! And my abused nose--say, the pain went out of it +like magic! The thing had the property of hard x-rays or gamma +radiations, only more so; it destroyed diseased tissue and left healthy +tissue unharmed! + +"I was thinking what a present _that'd_ be to take back to Mother Earth +when a lot of racket interrupted. We dashed back to the other side of +the wheel in time to see one of the pushcarts ground up. Some suicide +had been careless, it seems. + +"Then suddenly the creatures were booming and drumming all around us and +their noise was decidedly menacing. A crowd of them advanced toward us; +we backed out of what I thought was the passage we'd entered by, and +they came rumbling after us, some pushing carts and some not. Crazy +brutes! There was a whole chorus of 'We are v-r-r-riends! Ouch!' I +didn't like the 'ouch'; it was rather suggestive. + +"Tweel had his glass gun out and I dumped my water tank for greater +freedom and got mine. We backed up the corridor with the barrel-beasts +following--about twenty of them. Queer thing--the ones coming in with +loaded carts moved past us inches away without a sign. + +"Tweel must have noticed that. Suddenly, he snatched out that glowing +coal cigar-lighter of his and touched a cart-load of plant limbs. Puff! +The whole load was burning--and the crazy beast pushing it went right +along without a change of pace! It created some disturbance among our +'V-r-r-riends,' however--and then I noticed the smoke eddying and +swirling past us, and sure enough, there was the entrance! + +"I grabbed Tweel and out we dashed and after us our twenty pursuers. The +daylight felt like Heaven, though I saw at first glance that the sun was +all but set, and that was bad, since I couldn't live outside my +thermo-skin bag in a Martian night--at least, without a fire. + +"And things got worse in a hurry. They cornered us in an angle between +two mounds, and there we stood. I hadn't fired nor had Tweel; there +wasn't any use in irritating the brutes. They stopped a little distance +away and began their booming about friendship and ouches. + +"Then things got still worse! A barrel-brute came out with a pushcart +and they all grabbed into it and came out with handfuls of foot-long +copper darts--sharp-looking ones--and all of a sudden one sailed past my +ear--zing! And it was shoot or die then. + +"We were doing pretty well for a while. We picked off the ones next to +the pushcart and managed to keep the darts at a minimum, but suddenly +there was a thunderous booming of 'v-r-r-riends' and 'ouches,' and a +whole army of 'em came out of their hole. + +"Man! We were through and I knew it! Then I realized that Tweel wasn't. +He could have leaped the mound behind us as easily as not. He was +staying for me! + +"Say, I could have cried if there'd been time! I'd liked Tweel from the +first, but whether I'd have had gratitude to do what he was +doing--suppose I _had_ saved him from the first dream-beast--he'd done +as much for me, hadn't he? I grabbed his arm, and said 'Tweel,' and +pointed up, and he understood. He said, 'No--no--no, Tick!' and popped +away with his glass pistol. + +"What could I do? I'd be a goner anyway when the sun set, but I couldn't +explain that to him. I said, 'Thanks, Tweel. You're a man!' and felt +that I wasn't paying him any compliment at all. A man! There are mighty +few men who'd do that. + +"So I went 'bang' with my gun and Tweel went 'puff' with his, and the +barrels were throwing darts and getting ready to rush us, and booming +about being friends. I had given up hope. Then suddenly an angel dropped +right down from Heaven in the shape of Putz, with his under-jets +blasting the barrels into very small pieces! + +"Wow! I let out a yell and dashed for the rocket; Putz opened the door +and in I went, laughing and crying and shouting! It was a moment or so +before I remembered Tweel; I looked around in time to see him rising in +one of his nosedives over the mound and away. + +"I had a devil of a job arguing Putz into following! By the time we got +the rocket aloft, darkness was down; you know how it comes here--like +turning off a light. We sailed out over the desert and put down once or +twice. I yelled 'Tweel!' and yelled it a hundred times, I guess. We +couldn't find him; he could travel like the wind and all I got--or else +I imagined it--was a faint trilling and twittering drifting out of the +south. He'd gone, and damn it! I wish--I wish he hadn't!" + +The four men of the _Ares_ were silent--even the sardonic Harrison. At +last little Leroy broke the stillness. + +"I should like to see," he murmured. + +"Yeah," said Harrison. "And the wart-cure. Too bad you missed that; it +might be the cancer cure they've been hunting for a century and a half." + +"Oh, that!" muttered Jarvis gloomily. "That's what started the fight!" +He drew a glistening object from his pocket. + +"Here it is." + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Martian Odyssey, by Stanley Grauman Weinbaum + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MARTIAN ODYSSEY *** + +***** This file should be named 23731.txt or 23731.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/7/3/23731/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Joel Schlosberg and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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