diff options
Diffstat (limited to '32054-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 32054-h/32054-h.htm | 1917 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32054-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 0 -> 39333 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32054-h/images/image_001.jpg | bin | 0 -> 50607 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32054-h/images/image_002.jpg | bin | 0 -> 39937 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32054-h/images/image_003_01.jpg | bin | 0 -> 27892 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32054-h/images/image_003_02.jpg | bin | 0 -> 21098 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32054-h/images/image_a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 1568 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32054-h/images/image_e.jpg | bin | 0 -> 4891 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32054-h/images/image_f.jpg | bin | 0 -> 4652 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32054-h/images/image_h.jpg | bin | 0 -> 4074 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32054-h/images/image_i.jpg | bin | 0 -> 4268 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32054-h/images/image_l.jpg | bin | 0 -> 4571 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32054-h/images/image_m.jpg | bin | 0 -> 5227 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32054-h/images/image_n.jpg | bin | 0 -> 4908 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32054-h/images/image_o.jpg | bin | 0 -> 4880 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32054-h/images/image_s.jpg | bin | 0 -> 3972 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32054-h/images/image_t.jpg | bin | 0 -> 4639 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32054-h/images/image_t1.jpg | bin | 0 -> 5081 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32054-h/images/image_w.jpg | bin | 0 -> 5343 bytes |
19 files changed, 1917 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/32054-h/32054-h.htm b/32054-h/32054-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1e64667 --- /dev/null +++ b/32054-h/32054-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1917 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Stamped Caution, by Raymond Z. Gallun + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; background-color: #FFFFFF; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +.tr {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 2em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: dotted black 1px;} + +.img1 {border:solid 1px; } + +.p1 { margin-left: 70%; } + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-right: 0.25em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft1 { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-top: 0em; + margin-right: 0.5em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft2 { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 0.25em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + + + +/* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Stamped Caution, by Raymond Zinke Gallun + +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: Stamped Caution + +Author: Raymond Zinke Gallun + +Translator: Kossin + +Release Date: April 19, 2010 [EBook #32054] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STAMPED CAUTION *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<div class="tr"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:</p> +<p class="center">This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction August 1953. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.</p></div> +<p> </p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img class="img1" src="images/cover.jpg" width="400" height="536" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<p> </p> +<h1>stamped CAUTION</h1> +<p> </p> +<h2>By RAYMOND Z. GALLUN</h2> +<p> </p> +<h3>Illustrated by KOSSIN</h3> +<p> </p> +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>It's a funny thing, but most monsters seem to be of the +opinion that it's men who are the monsters. You know, they +have a point.</i></p></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img class="img1" src="images/image_001.jpg" width="600" height="542" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<div class="figleft2"><img src="images/image_t1.jpg" alt="T" width="45" height="50" /></div> +<p>en minutes after the crackup, somebody phoned for the Army. That +meant us. The black smoke of the fire, and the oily residues, which +were later analyzed, proved the presence of a probable petroleum +derivative. The oil was heavily tainted with radioactivity. Most +likely it was fuel from the odd, conchlike reaction-motors, the exact +principles of which died, as far as we were concerned, with the +crash.</p> + +<p>The craft was mainly of aluminum, magnesium and a kind of stainless +steel, proving that, confronted with problems similar to ones we had +encountered, aliens might solve them in similar ways. From the +crumpled-up wreckage which we dug out of that Missouri hillside, Klein +even noticed a familiar method of making girders and braces lighter. +Circular holes were punched out of them at spaced intervals.</p> + +<p>I kept hunting conviction by telling myself that, for the first time +in all remembered history, we were peeking behind the veil of another +planet. This should be the beginning of a new era, one of immensely +widened horizons, and of high romance—but with a dark side, too. The +sky was no longer a limit. There were things beyond it that would have +to be reckoned with. And how does unknown meet unknown? Suppose one +has no hand to shake?</p> + +<p>The mass of that wreck reeked like a hot cinder-pile and a burning +garbage dump combined. It oozed blackened goo. There were crushed +pieces of calcined material that looked like cuttlebone. The thin +plates of charred stuff might almost have been pressed cardboard. +Foot-long tubes of thin, tin-coated iron contained combined chemicals +identifiable as proteins, carbohydrates and fats. Food, we decided.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_n.jpg" alt="N" width="37" height="40" /></div> + +<p>aturally, we figured that here was a wonderful clue to the plant and +animal life of another world. Take a can of ordinary beef goulash; you +can see the fibrous muscle and fat structure of the meat, and the +cellular components of the vegetables. And here it was true, too, to a +lesser degree. There were thin flakes and small, segmented cylinders +which must have been parts of plants. But most was a homogeneous mush +like gelatin.</p> + +<p>Evidently there had been three occupants of the craft. But the crash +and the fire had almost destroyed their forms. Craig, our biologist, +made careful slides of the remains, tagging this as horny epidermis, +this as nerve or brain tissue, this as skeletal substance, and this as +muscle from a tactile member—the original had been as thin as +spaghetti, and dark-blooded.</p> + +<p>Under the microscope, muscle cells proved to be very long and thin. +Nerve cells were large and extremely complex. Yet you could say that +Nature, starting from scratch in another place, and working through +other and perhaps more numerous millions of years, had arrived at +somewhat the same results as it had achieved on Earth.</p> + +<p>I wonder how an other-world entity, ignorant of humans, would explain +a shaving-kit or a lipstick. Probably for like reasons, much of the +stuff mashed into that wreck had to remain incomprehensible to us. +Wrenches and screwdrivers, however, we could make sense of, even +though the grips of those tools were not <i>hand</i>-grips. We saw screws +and bolts, too. One device we found had been a simple crystal +diaphragm with metal details—a radio. There were also queer rifles. +Lord knows how many people have wondered what the extraterrestrial +equivalents of common human devices would look like. Well, here were +some answers.</p> + +<p>A few of the instruments even had dials with pointers. And the numeral +<i>1</i> used on them was a vertical bar, almost like our own. But zero was +a plus sign. And they counted by twelves, not tens.</p> + +<p>But all these parallels with our own culture seemed canceled by the +fact that, even when this ship was in its original undamaged state, no +man could have gotten inside it. The difficulty was less a matter of +human size than of shape and physical behavior. The craft seemed to +have been circular, with compartmentation in spiral form, like a +chambered nautilus.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="36" height="40" /></div> +<p>his complete divergence from things we knew sent frost imps racing up +and down my spine.</p> + +<p>And it prompted Blaine to say: "I suppose that emotions, drives, and +purposes among off-Earth intelligences must be utterly inconceivable +to us."</p> + +<p>We were assembled in the big trailer that had been brought out for us +to live in, while we made a preliminary survey of the wreck.</p> + +<p>"Only about halfway, Blaine," Miller answered. "Granting that the +life-chemistry of those intelligences is the same as ours—the need +for food creates the drive of hunger. Awareness of death is balanced +by the urge to avoid it. There you have fear and combativeness. And is +it so hard to tack on the drives of curiosity, invention, and +ambition, especially when you know that these beings made a spaceship? +Cast an intelligence in any outward form, anywhere, it ought to come +out much the same. Still, there are bound to be wide differences of +detail—with wide variations of viewpoint. They could be horrible to +us. And most likely it's mutual."</p> + +<p>I felt that Miller was right. The duplication of a human race on other +worlds by another chain of evolution was highly improbable. And to +suppose that we might get along with other entities on a human basis +seemed pitifully naive.</p> + +<p>With all our scientific thoroughness, when it came to examining, +photographing and recording everything in the wreck, there was no +better evidence of the clumsy way we were investigating unknown things +than the fact that at first we neglected our supreme find almost +entirely.</p> + +<p>It was a round lump of dried red mud, the size of a soft baseball. +When Craig finally did get around to X-raying it, indications of a +less dense interior and feathery markings suggesting a soft bone +structure showed up on the plate. Not entirely sure that it was the +right thing to do, he opened the shell carefully.</p> + +<p>Think of an artichoke ... but not a vegetable. Dusky pink, with thin, +translucent mouth-flaps moving feebly. The blood in the tiny arteries +was very red—rich in hemoglobin, for a rare atmosphere.</p> + +<p>As a youngster, I had once opened a chicken egg, when it was ten days +short of hatching. The memory came back now.</p> + +<p>"It looks like a growing embryo of some kind," Klein stated.</p> + +<p>"Close the lump again, Craig," Miller ordered softly.</p> + +<p>The biologist obeyed.</p> + +<p>"A highly intelligent race of beings wouldn't encase their developing +young in mud, would they?" Klein almost whispered.</p> + +<p>"You're judging by a human esthetic standard," Craig offered. +"Actually, mud can be as sterile as the cleanest surgical gauze."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="36" height="40" /></div> +<p>he discussion was developing unspoken and shadowy ramifications. The +thing in the dusty red lump—whether the young of a dominant species, +or merely a lower animal—had been born, hatched, started in life +probably during the weeks or months of a vast space journey. Nobody +would know anything about its true nature until, and if, it manifested +itself. And we had no idea of what that manifestation might be. The +creature might emerge an infant or an adult. Friendly or malevolent. +Or even deadly.</p> + +<p>Blaine shrugged. Something scared and half-savage showed in his face. +"What'll we do with the thing?" he asked. "Keep it safe and see what +happens. Yet it might be best to get rid of it fast—with chloroform, +cyanide or the back of a shovel."</p> + +<p>Miller's smile was very gentle. "Could be you're right, Blaine."</p> + +<p>I'd never known Miller to pull rank on any of the bunch. Only +deliberate thought would remind us that he was a colonel. But he +wasn't really a military man; he was a scientist whom the Army had +called in to keep a finger on a possibility that they had long known +might be realized. Yes—space travel. And Miller was the right guy for +the job. He had the dream even in the wrinkles around his deep-set +gray eyes.</p> + +<p>Blaine wasn't the right guy. He was a fine technician, good at +machinery, radar—anything of the sort. And a nice fellow. Maybe he'd +just blown off steam—uncertainty, tension. I knew that no paper +relating to him would be marked, "Psychologically unsuited for task in +hand." But I knew just as surely that he would be quietly transferred. +In a big thing like this, Miller would surround himself only with men +who saw things his way.</p> + +<p>That night we moved everything to our labs on the outskirts of St. +Louis. Every particle of that extraterrestrial wreck had been packed +and crated with utmost care. Klein and Craig went to work to build a +special refuge for that mud lump and what was in it. They were top +men. But I had got tied up with Miller more or less by chance, and I +figured I'd be replaced by an expert. I can say that I was a college +man, but that's nothing.</p> + +<p>I guess you can't give up participation in high romance without some +regret. Yet I wasn't too sorry. I liked things the way they'd always +been. My beer. My Saturday night dates with Alice. On the job, the +atmosphere was getting a bit too rich and futuristic.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_l.jpg" alt="L" width="33" height="40" /></div> +<p>ater that evening, Miller drew me aside. "You've handled carrier +pigeons and you've trained dogs, Nolan," he said. "You were good at +both."</p> + +<p>"Here I go, back to the farm-yard."</p> + +<p>"In a way. But you expand your operations, Nolan. You specialize as +nurse for a piece of off-the-Earth animal life."</p> + +<p>"Look, Miller," I pointed out. "Ten thousand professors are a million +times better qualified, and rarin' to go."</p> + +<p>"They're liable to <i>think</i> they're well qualified, when no man could +be—yet. That's bad, Nolan. The one who does it has to be humble +enough to be wary—ready for whatever <i>might</i> happen. I think a knack +with animals might help. That's the best I can do, Nolan."</p> + +<p>"Thanks, Miller." I felt proud—and a little like a damn fool.</p> + +<p>"I haven't finished talking yet," Miller said. "We know that real +contact between our kind and the inhabitants of another world can't be +far off. Either they'll send another ship or we'll build one on Earth. +I like the idea, Nolan, but it also scares the hell out of me. Men +have had plenty of trouble with other ethnic groups of their own +species, through prejudice, misunderstanding, honest suspicion. How +will it be at the first critical meeting of two kinds of things that +will look like hallucinations to each other? I suspect an awful and +inevitable feeling of separateness that nothing can bridge—except +maybe an impulse to do murder.</p> + +<p>"It could be a real menace. But it doesn't have to be. So we've got to +find out what we're up against, if we can. We've got to prepare and +scheme. Otherwise, even if intentions on that other world are okay, +there's liable to be an incident at that first meeting that can spoil +a contact across space for all time, and make interplanetary travel +not the success it ought to be, but a constant danger. So do you see +our main objective, Nolan?"</p> + +<p>I told Miller that I understood.</p> + +<p>That same night, Klein and Craig put the lump of mud in a small glass +case from which two-thirds of the air had been exhausted. The +remainder was kept dehydrated and chilled. It was guess work, backed +up by evidence: The rusty red of that mud; the high hemoglobin content +of the alien blood we had seen; the dead-air cells—resistant to +cold—in the shreds of rough skin that we had examined. And then there +was the fair proximity of Mars and Earth in their orbits at the time.</p> + +<p>My job didn't really begin till the following evening, when Craig and +Klein had completed a much larger glass cage, to which my +outlandish—or, rather, outworldish—ward was transferred. Miller +provided me with a wire-braced, airtight costume and oxygen helmet, +the kind fliers use at extreme altitudes. Okay, call it a spacesuit. +He also gave me a small tear-gas pistol, an automatic, and a knife.</p> + +<p>All there was to pit such armament against was a seemingly helpless +lump of protoplasm, two inches in diameter. Still, here was an +illustration of how cautiously you are prompted to treat so unknown a +quantity. You are unable to gauge its powers, or lack of them, for you +have nothing on which to base a judgment.</p> + +<p>I became like a monk—my pressure armor was my robe; the chilly +semi-vacuum inside that glass cage, my cell. Nights out with Alice +were going to be far between.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_o.jpg" alt="O" width="38" height="40" /></div> +<p>n the third evening, that lump of mud, resting in dried-out soil +similar to itself, split along the line where Craig had originally cut +it. Out onto the cage floor crept what the records designated as +<i>E.T.L.</i>—Extra-Terrestrial-Life. It was finished with the mud shell +that had enabled it to survive a crash and fire.</p> + +<p>Craig, Klein, Miller and a lot of news reporters stared into the glass +cage from outside. There was nothing for me to do just then except +watch that tiny monster, and try to read, in its every clumsy, +dragging movement, some fragmentary unveiling of many riddles.</p> + +<p>Although it might have shrunk a bit since I had last seen it, it +looked more complete. The dusky pink of its wrinkled integument was +darker. It had dozens of short tendrils, hardly thicker than +horsehair, with which it pulled itself along. It had lost some +leaflike pieces of skin. Laterally, two eyes gleamed, clear and +slit-pupiled. Its jaws, hinged on a horizontal plane, opened and +closed between fleshy flaps. Through the thin plastic of my oxygen +helmet, I heard a querulous "chip-chip-chip," which reminded me of the +squeaking of an infant bat.</p> + +<p>The E.T.L. crept in a small looping course on the cage floor, back to +one half of the mud shell that had encased it. It tried to mount this, +perhaps to gain a vantage point for better observation. But it fell +and turned over. Its ventral surface was ceiling-ward; its tendrils +writhed furiously as it tried to right itself. I thought of a +horseshoe crab, stranded on its back and kicking helplessly. But this +thing's form and movement were even more alien.</p> + +<p>After a moment, I followed an impulse which was part duty to my job +and part pity. I tipped the little horror back on its bottom, glad +that there was a glove between me and it. Then I did the same thing I +would do with a pet puppy or kitten. I set a dish of food—chemically +prepared to duplicate the contents of the tubes we had found in the +wreck—right down in front of the E.T.L.</p> + +<p>It fumbled at the stuff and, possibly because of a gravity +two-and-a-half times as great as it was made for, it almost got itself +stuck in the mess. But it freed itself. Its mouth-flaps began to make +lapping movements as it sucked the nourishment.</p> + +<p>I felt prematurely relieved. This was no potentially dominant wizard +in a strange body, I told myself. This was pure animal.</p> + +<p>Over my helmet radiophone—there was a mike outside the cage, so they +could communicate with me when I was inside—I heard Miller say to the +reporters:</p> + +<p>"The feeding instinct. They've got it, too. Now we know for sure...."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="19" height="40" /></div> +<p> think that the E.T.L. had colic from that first meal, though, like +any half-smart puppy trainer, I tried not to let it eat too much. It +writhed for a while, as if in pain. And I was on pins. How was I +supposed to know just what was best to feed the thing, so it would +survive? Everything was guesswork, varying formulas cautiously, +groping. And it wasn't only the food. There was the searching for the +temperature, the air-pressure and the degree of dryness at which the +E.T.L. seemed most comfortable. And there was also the fiddling around +with light-composition and intensities, variable in the sun lamps, to +find what seemed best.</p> + +<p>We seemed to have figured things out right—or else the monster was +just rugged. It shed several skins, thrived and grew active. Its size +increased steadily. And other things began to grow in that cage. Odd, +hard-shelled, bluish-green weeds; lichenous patches, dry as dust; +invisible, un-Earthly bacteria—all were harmless, possibly even +beneficial, to my charge.</p> + +<p>How did all this stuff come into being? Miller and Craig had examined +the dried clay of the E.T.L.'s discarded casing with microscopes. They +scraped dust from every fragment of the wreck that hadn't been blasted +too much with fire, and made cultures. They were looking for spores +and seeds and microbes. And it wasn't long before they had classified +quite a list of other-world biological forms. The most common of these +they transplanted into the cage.</p> + +<p>Often I even slept inside the cage, clad in my armor. That's devotion +to a purpose for you. In a way, it was like living on a little piece +of Mars. Often enough I was bored stiff.</p> + +<p>But plenty did happen. From the start Etl—we began calling the thing +that—showed an almost electrically intense curiosity for everything. +Some of the habits of its kind were written in its instincts. It +basked in strong light, but it liked dark corners, too. At night—when +we turned the sun lamps off, that is—it would bury itself in the +dusty soil. Protection against nocturnal cold might have been the +reason for that.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_w.jpg" alt="W" width="51" height="40" /></div> +<p>hen he was a month and two days out of his clay shell, Etl tried to +rear up vertically on his tendrils. He kept toppling over. Maybe he +was trying to "walk." But there were no bones in those tendrils and, +of course, the strong Earth gravity defeated him.</p> + +<p>Lots of times I tried to see what he could do. A real scientist would +call this "making tests." I just called it fooling around. I made him +climb a stool for his food. He seemed to make a careful survey first, +eying each rung; then he drew himself up in one motion.</p> + +<p>During one of my rare nights in town—to get a refresher from +outlandish stuff in Alice's company—I bought some toys. When I came +back to relieve Craig, who had taken care of Etl during my absence, I +said: "Etl, here's a rubber ball. Let's play."</p> + +<p>He caught it on the second try, in those swift, dextrous tendrils. +There was a savagery in the way he did it. I thought of a dog snapping +a bumblebee out of the air. Yet my idea that Etl was just an animal +had almost vanished by then.</p> + +<p>I got into the habit of talking to him the way you do to a pup. Sort +of crooning. "Good fella, Etl. Smart. You learn fast, don't you?"</p> + +<p>Stuff like that. And I'd coax him to climb up the front of my +spacesuit. There were fine, barb-like prongs along the length of his +many tentacles; I could feel them pulling in the tough, rubberized +fabric, like the claws of a climbing kitten. And he would make a kind +of contented chirping that might have had affection in it.</p> + +<p>But then there was the time when he bit me. I don't know the reason, +unless it was that I had held onto his ball too long. He got my +finger, through the glove, with his snaggy, chalk-hued mandibles, +while he made a thin hissing noise.</p> + +<p>Pretty soon my hand swelled up to twice its size, and I felt sick. +Klein had to relieve me in the cage for a while. The bite turned out +to be mildly venomous. Before that, I'd had a rash on my arms. An +allergy, probably; maybe some substance from those Martian plants had +gotten inside my spacesuit and rubbed onto my skin. Who knows? Perhaps +Earthly flesh can sense alien life, and reddens to fight it off. And +there you have one of the potential disadvantages of contact with +unknown worlds.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="36" height="40" /></div> +<p>hat poisoned bite was one thing. But Etl's show of rage was +another—a sign of the mixed nature of all his kind, emerging a bit +from the shadows of enigma. Here revealed was the emotion on which +things like murder are based. These creatures had it, just as we did. +Maybe it's necessary for any kind of thing that can progress upward +from nothing. Still, people did not find it reassuring when they heard +about it on the newscast.</p> + +<p>After that, popular opinion insisted that the cage be constantly +surrounded by four manned machine-guns pointing inward. And tanks of +cyanogen were so arranged that the poison gas could be sent gushing +into the cage at any time.</p> + +<p>Part of my mind felt these precautions were completely exaggerated. +There is a certain, ever-present segment of any public, whose jittery +imagination is a constant fuse-cap for panic. Such cowardice angered +me.</p> + +<p>But the rest of me went along with Miller when he said: "We're in the +dark, Nolan. For all we know, we might be up against very swift +maturity and inherited memory. And we've got to go on testing Etl ... +with toys, psychological apparatus and tools and devices made by his +own people. Suppose he 'remembers' skills from his ancestors, and can +build dangerous new devices, or make old ones work again? If his kind +are bent on being enemies, we'd better find it out as soon as +possible, too, hadn't we? No, I don't truly expect any serious +developments, Nolan. Still—just for insurance—eh?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="37" height="40" /></div> +<p> year passed without great mishap—unless I should mention that Alice +and I got married. But it didn't spoil anything, and it raised my +morale. We got a bungalow right on the lab grounds.</p> + +<p>A lot had been accomplished, otherwise. Once I let Etl play with my +gun, minus cartridges. He was avidly interested; but he paid no +attention to the Hopalong cap pistol that I left in its place when I +took the gun back. He figured out how to grip simple Martian tools, +threading his tactile members through the holes in their handles; but +complicated devices of the same origin seemed more of a puzzle to him +than to the rest of us. So our inherited-memory idea faded out.</p> + +<p>Etl liked to work with those slender tendrils of his. The dexterity +and speed with which he soon learned to build many things with a +construction set seemed to prove a race background of perhaps ages of +such activities. I made a tower or a bridge, while he watched. Then he +was ready to try it on his own, using screwdrivers that Klein had made +with special grips.</p> + +<p>Of course we tried dozens of intelligence tests on Etl, mostly of the +puzzle variety, like fitting odd-shaped pieces of plastic together to +form a sphere or a cube. He was hard to rate on any common human I.Q. +scale. Even for an Earthian, an I.Q. rating is pretty much of a +makeshift proposition. There are too many scattered factors that can't +be touched.</p> + +<p>With Etl, it was even tougher. But at the end of that first year +Miller had him pegged at about 120, judging him on the same basis as a +five-year-old child. This score scared people a lot, because it seemed +to hint at a race of super-beings.</p> + +<p>But Miller wasn't jumping to conclusions. He pointed out to the +reporters that Etl's kind seemed to grow up very rapidly; 120 was +only twenty points above the norm—not uncommon among Earth +youngsters, especially those from more gifted families. Etl seemed to +have sprung from corresponding parentage, he said, for it seemed clear +that they had been of the kind that does big things. They'd made a +pioneering voyage across space, hadn't they?</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_e.jpg" alt="E" width="34" height="40" /></div> +<p>tl could make chirps and squeaks and weird animal cries. Human +speech, however, was beyond his vocal powers, though I knew that he +could understand simple orders. He had a large tympanic membrane or +"ear" on his ventral surface. Of course we wondered how his kind +communicated with one another. The way he groped at my fingers with +certain of his tentacles gave us a clue. There were tiny, nerve-like +threads at their extremities. Seeing them prompted Miller to do +something as brave as it was foolhardy.</p> + +<p>He called in a surgeon and had a nerve in his arm bared. It must have +hurt like the devil, but he let Etl clutch it with those thread-like +members.</p> + +<p>I was cockeyed enough to follow Miller's example and found out how +much it really hurt. The idea was to establish a nerve channel, brain +to brain, along which thoughts might pass. But nothing came through +except a vague and restless questioning, mixed with the pain of our +experiment.</p> + +<p>"It doesn't work with us, Nolan," Miller said regretfully. "Our +nervous systems aren't hooked up right for this sort of stunt, or +Etl's nerve cells are too different from ours."</p> + +<p>So we had to fall back on simpler methods of communication with Etl. +We tried teaching him sign language, but it didn't work too well, +because tentacles aren't hands. Klein's inventive ability, plus some +pointers from me about how Etl used his tendrils, finally solved the +problem.</p> + +<p>Klein made a cylindrical apparatus with a tonal buzzer, operated by +electricity, at one end. It had dozens of stops and controls, their +grips in the shape of tiny metal rings, along the sides of the +cylinder.</p> + +<p>First I had to learn a little about how to work that instrument with +my big fingers. The trick was to mold the sounds of the buzzer, as +human lips and tongue mold and shape tones of the vocal cords, so that +they became syllables and words.</p> + +<p>"Hell-oh-g-g-Et-t-l-l.... Chee-s-s-ee-whad-d I-ee got-t?"</p> + +<p>It was tougher for me than learning to play a saxophone is for a boy +of ten. And the noises were almost as bad.</p> + +<p>I turned the apparatus over to Etl as soon as I could. Let him figure +out how to use it. I'd just give him the words, the ideas. Of course +he had to get educated, learn his cat, dog and rat, and his +arithmetic, the same as a human kid, even if he was from another +world. In a way, it was the law. You can't let a youngster, capable of +learning, stay home from school.</p> + +<p>And I was Etl's tutor. I thought what a crazy situation we had here; +an entity from one planet being brought up on another, without any +real knowledge of his own folks, and unable to be very close to those +entities by whom he was being reared. It was strange and sad and a +little comic.</p> + +<p>For a while I thought I had a stammering parrot on my hands: +"Hel-l-l-l-o ... Hell-oh-g-o ... N-n-ol-l-an-n-n ... Hell-lo-oh."</p> + +<p>Etl never lost that habit of repetition. But he made progress in his +studies.</p> + +<p>"One, two, t'ree, fo', fibe, siss ... One time one ee one, toot time +one ee two...."</p> + +<p>Picture it the way it was—I, clad in a spacesuit, crouching beside +Etl in the cold, thin air inside that cage, tracing numbers and words +in the dusty soil on the floor, while he read aloud with his voice +tube or copied my words and figures with a sharp stick. Outside the +transparent cage, the television cameras would be watching. And I +would think that maybe in a way Etl was like Tarzan, being raised by +apes.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_f.jpg" alt="F" width="32" height="40" /></div> +<p>our more years went by. I had offspring of my own. Patty and Ron. +Good-looking, lovable brats. But Etl was my job—and maybe a little +more than that.</p> + +<p>At the end of two years, he stopped growing. He weighed fifty-two +pounds and he was the ugliest-looking, elongated, gray-pink, leathery +ovoid that you could imagine. But with his voice tube clutched in his +tendrils, he could talk like a man.</p> + +<p>He could take the finest watch, apart, repair and clean it in +jig-time—and this was just one skill among scores. Toward the end of +the four years, a Professor Jonas was coming in regularly and getting +into a spacesuit to give him lessons in physics, chemistry, college +math, astronomy and biology. Etl was having his troubles with +calculus.</p> + +<p>And Etl could at least ape the outward aspects of the thoughts and +feelings of men. There were things he said to me that were +characteristic, though they came out of apparent sullenness that, for +all I knew, had seeds of murder in it: "You're my pal, Nolan. Sort of +my uncle. I won't say my father; you wouldn't like that."</p> + +<p>Nice, embarrassing sentiment, on the surface. Maybe it was just cool +mimicry—a keen mind adding up human ways from observation of me and +my kids, and making up something that sounded the same, without being +the same at all. Yet somehow I hoped that Etl was sincere.</p> + +<p>Almost from the building of the cage, of course, we'd kept photographs +and drawings of Mars inside for Etl to see.</p> + +<p>Hundreds of times I had said to him things like: "It's a ninety-nine +and ninety-nine hundredths per cent probability that your race lives +on that world, Etl. Before the ship that brought you crashed on Earth, +we weren't at all sure that it was inhabited, and it's still an awful +mystery. I guess maybe you'll want to go there. Maybe you'll help us +make contact and establish amicable relations with the inhabitants—if +there's any way we can do that."</p> + +<p>During those five years, no more ships came to Earth from space, as +far as we knew. I guessed that the Martians understood how supremely +hard it would be to make friendly contact between the peoples of two +worlds that had always been separate. There was difference of form, +and certainly difference of esthetic concepts. Of custom, nothing +could be the same. We didn't have even an inkling of what the Martian +civilization would be like.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_o.jpg" alt="O" width="38" height="40" /></div> +<p>ne thing happened during the third year of Etl's existence. And his +presence on Earth was responsible. Enough serious interest in space +travel was built up to overcome the human inertia that had +counteracted the long-standing knowledge that such things were +possible. A hydrogen-fusion reaction motor was built into a rocket, +which was then hurled to the moon.</p> + +<p>Miller went along, ostensibly to help establish the first Army +experimental station there, but mostly to acquire the practical +experience for a far longer leap.</p> + +<p>In a way, I wished I could have gone, too; but, after all, the shadows +in Etl's background were far more intriguing than the dead and airless +craters and plains of the lunar surface.</p> + +<p>Before Miller and the other moon-voyagers even returned, Detroit was +busy forging, casting and machining the parts for a better, larger and +much longer-range rocket, to be assembled in White Sands, New Mexico.</p> + +<p>When Miller got back, he was too eager and busy to say much about the +moon. For the next two and a half years, he was mostly out in White +Sands.</p> + +<p>But during the first of our now infrequent meetings, he said to Craig +and Klein and me: "When I go out to Mars, I'd like to keep my old +bunch as crew. I need men I'm used to working with, those who +understand the problems we're up against. I have a plan that makes +sense. The trouble is, to join this expedition, a man has to be part +damn-fool."</p> + +<p>Klein chuckled. "I'll sell you some of mine."</p> + +<p>I just nodded my way in. I'd never thought of backing out.</p> + +<p>Craig grabbed Miller's hand and shook it.</p> + +<p>Miller gave Etl a chance to say no. "You can stay on Earth if you want +to, Etl."</p> + +<p>But the creature said: "I have lived all my life with the idea of +going, Miller. Thank you."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_m.jpg" alt="M" width="43" height="40" /></div> +<p>iller briefed us about his plan. Then he, Klein, Craig and I all took +a lot of psych tests—trick questioning and so forth to reveal defects +of conviction and control. But we were all pretty well indoctrinated +and steady. Etl had taken so many tests already that, if there were +any flaws still hidden in him, they would probably never be found.</p> + +<p>Mars and Earth were approaching closer to each other again in their +orbital positions. A month before takeoff time, Craig, Klein and I +took Etl, in a small air-conditioned cage, to White Sands. The ship +towered there, silvery, already completed. We knew its structure and +the function of its machinery intimately from study of its blueprints. +But our acquaintance with it had to be actual, too. So we went over it +again and again, under Miller's tutelage.</p> + +<p>Miller wrote a last message, to be handed to the newscast boys after +our departure:</p> + +<p>"<i>If by Martian action, we fail to return, don't blame the Martians +too quickly, because there is a difference and a doubt. Contact +between worlds is worth more than the poison of a grudge....</i>"</p> + +<p>I said good-by to Alice and the kids, who had come out to see me off. +I felt pretty punk. Maybe I was a stinker, going off like that. But, +on the other hand, that wasn't entirely the right way to look at +things, because Patty's and Ron's faces fairly glowed with pride for +their pa. The tough part, then, was for Alice, who knew what it was +all about. Yet she looked proud, too. And she didn't go damp.</p> + +<p>"If it weren't for the kids, I'd be trying to go along, Louie," she +told me. "Take care of yourself."</p> + +<p>She knew that a guy has to do what's in his heart. I think that the +basic and initial motive of exploration is that richest of human +commodities—high romance. The metallic ores and other commercial +stuff that get involved later are only cheap by-products. To make the +dream of space travel a reality was one of our purposes. But to try to +forestall the danger behind it was at least as important.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_w.jpg" alt="W" width="51" height="40" /></div> +<p>e blasted off in a rush of fire that must have knocked down some +self-operating television cameras. We endured the strangling thrust of +acceleration, and then the weightlessness of just coasting on our +built-up velocity. We saw the stars and the black sky of space. We saw +the Earth dwindle away behind us.</p> + +<p>But the journey itself, though it lasted ninety days, was no real +adventure—comparatively speaking. There was nothing unpredictable in +it. Space conditions were known. We even knew about the tension of +nostalgia. But we understood, too, the mental attitudes that could +lessen the strain. Crossing space to another world under the +tremendous power of atomic fusion, and under the precise guidance of +mathematics and piloting devices, reduces the process almost to a +formula. If things go right, you get where you're going; if not, there +isn't much you can do. Anyway, we had the feeling that the technical +side of interplanetary travel was the simplest part.</p> + +<p>There is a marking near the Martian equator shaped like the funnel of +a gigantic tornado. It is the red planet's most conspicuous feature +and it includes probably the least arid territory of a cold, arid +world. Syrtis Major, it is called. Astronomers had always supposed it +to be an ancient sea-bottom. That was where our piloting devices were +set to take us.</p> + +<p>Over it, our retarding fore-jets blazed for the last time. Our +retractable wings slid from their sockets and took hold of the thin +atmosphere with a thump and a soft rustle. On great rubber-tired +wheels, our ship—horizontal now, like a plane—landed in a broad +valley that must have been cleared of boulders by Martian engineers +countless ages before.</p> + +<p>Our craft stopped rumbling. We peered from the windows of our cabin, +saw the deep blue of the sky and the smaller but brilliant Sun. We saw +little dusty whirlwinds, carven monoliths that were weathering away, +strange blue-green vegetation, some of which we could recognize. To +the east, a metal tower glinted. And a mile beyond it there was a +tremendous flat structure. An expanse of glassy roof shone. What might +have been a highway curved like a white ribbon into the distance.</p> + +<p>The scene was quiet, beautiful and sad. You could feel that here maybe +a hundred civilizations had risen, and had sunk back into the dust. +Mars was no older than the Earth; but it was smaller, had cooled +faster and must have borne life sooner. Perhaps some of those earlier +cultures had achieved space travel. But, if so, it had been forgotten +until recent years. Very soon now its result would be tested. The +meeting of alien entity with alien entity was at hand.</p> + +<p>I looked at Etl, still in his air-conditioned cage. His stalked eyes +had a glow and they swayed nervously. Here was the home-planet that he +had never seen. Was he eager or frightened, or both?</p> + +<p>His education and experience were Earthly. He knew no more of Mars +than we did. Yet, now that he was here and probably at home, did +difference of physical structure and emotion make him feel that the +rest of us were enemies, forever too different for friendly contact? +My hide began to pucker.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="41" height="40" /></div> + +<p>igh in the sky, some kind of aircraft glistened. On the distant +turnpike there were the shining specks of vehicles that vanished from +sight behind a ridge shaggy with vegetation.</p> + +<p>Miller had a tight, nervous smile. "Remember, men," he said. +"Passivity. Three men can't afford to get into a fight with a whole +planet."</p> + +<p>We put on spacesuits, which we'd need if someone damaged our rocket. +It had been known for years that Martian air was too thin and far too +poor in oxygen for human lungs. Even Etl, in his cage, had an oxygen +mask that Klein had made for him. We had provided him with this +because the Martian atmosphere, drifting away through the ages, might +be even leaner than the mixture we'd given Etl on Earth. That had been +based on spectroscopic analyses at 40 to 60 million miles' distance, +which isn't close enough for any certainty.</p> + +<p>Now all we could do was wait and see what would happen. I know that +some jerks, trying to make contact with the inhabitants of an unknown +world, would just barge in and take over. Maybe they'd wave a few +times and grin. If instead of being met like brothers, they were shot +at, they'd be inclined to start shooting. If they got out alive, their +hatred would be everlasting. We had more sense.</p> + +<p>Yet <i>passivity</i> was a word that I didn't entirely like. It sounded +spineless. The art of balancing naive trust exactly against hard +cynicism, to try to produce something that makes a little sense, isn't +always easy. Though we knew something of Martians, we didn't know +nearly enough. Our plan might be wrong; we might turn out to be dead +idiots in a short time. Still, it was the best thing that we could +think of.</p> + +<p>The afternoon wore on. With the dropping temperature, a cold pearly +haze began to form around the horizon. The landscape around us was too +quiet. And there was plenty of vegetation at hand to provide cover. +Maybe it had been a mistake to land here. But we couldn't see that an +arid place would be any good either. We had needed to come to a region +that was probably inhabited.</p> + +<p>We saw a Martian only once—scampering across an open glade, holding +himself high on his stiffened tentacles. Here, where the gravity was +only thirty-eight percent of the terrestrial, that was possible. It +lessened the eeriness a lot to know beforehand what a Martian looked +like. He looked like Etl.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_l.jpg" alt="L" width="33" height="40" /></div> +<p>ater, something pinged savagely against the flank of our rocket. So +there were trigger-happy individuals here, too. But I remembered how, +on Earth, Etl's cage had been surrounded by machine-guns and cyanogen +tanks, rigged to kill him quickly if it became necessary. That hadn't +been malice, only sensible precaution against the unpredictable. And +wasn't our being surrounded by weapons here only the same thing, from +another viewpoint? Yet it didn't feel pleasant, sensible or not.</p> + +<p>There were no more shots for half an hour. But our tension mounted +with the waiting.</p> + +<p>Finally Klein said through his helmet phone: "Maybe Etl ought to go +out and scout around now."</p> + +<p>Etl was naturally the only one of us who had much chance for success.</p> + +<p>"Go only if you really want to, Etl," Miller said. "It could be +dangerous even for you."</p> + +<p>But Etl had already put on his oxygen mask. Air hissed into his cage +from the greater pressure outside as he turned a valve. Then he +unlatched the cage-door. He wouldn't be harmed by the brief exposure +to atmosphere of Earth-density while he moved to our rocket's airlock. +Now he was getting around high on his tendrils. Like a true Martian.</p> + +<p>He left his specially built pistol behind, according to plan. We had +weapons, but we didn't mean to use them unless everything went dead +wrong.</p> + +<p>Etl's tendrils touched the dusty surface of Mars. A minute later, he +disappeared behind some scrub growths. Then, for ten minutes, the +pendant silence was heavy. It was broken by the sound of a shot, +coming back to us thinly through the rarefied air.</p> + +<p>"Maybe they got him," Craig said anxiously.</p> + +<p>Nobody answered. I thought of an old story I'd read about a boy being +brought up by wolves. His ways were so like an animal's that hunters +had shot him. He had come back to civilization dead. Perhaps there was +no other way.</p> + +<p>By sundown, Etl had not returned. So three things seemed possible: He +had been murdered. He had been captured. Or else he had deserted to +his own kind. I began to wonder. What if we were complete fools? What +if there were more than differences of body and background, plus the +dread of newness, between Earthmen and Martians, preventing their +friendship?</p> + +<p>What if Martians were basically malevolent?</p> + +<p>But speculation was useless now. We were committed to a line of +action. We had to follow it through.</p> + +<p>We ate a meager supper. The brief dusk changed to a night blazing with +frigid stars. But the darkness on the ground remained until the jagged +lump of light that was Phobos, the nearer moon, arose out of the west. +Then we saw two shapes rushing toward our ship to find cover closer to +it. As they hid themselves behind a clump of cactiform shrubs, I had +only the memory of how I had seen them for a moment, their odd masks +and accoutrements glinting, their supporting tendrils looking like +tattered rags come alive in the dim moonlight.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_w.jpg" alt="W" width="51" height="40" /></div> +<p>e'd turned the light out in our cabin, so we couldn't be seen through +the windows. But now we heard soft, scraping sounds against the outer +skin of our rocket. Probably they meant that the Martians were trying +to get in. I began to sweat all over, because I knew what Miller meant +to do. Here was a situation that we had visualized beforehand.</p> + +<p>"We could shut them out till dawn, Miller," I whispered hoarsely. +"We'd all feel better if the meeting took place in day-light. And +there'd be less chance of things going wrong."</p> + +<p>But Miller said, "We can't tell what they'd be doing in the dark +meanwhile, Nolan. Maybe fixing to blow us up. So we'd better get this +thing over with now."</p> + +<p>I knew he was right. Active resistance to the Martians could never +save us, if they intended to destroy us. We might have taken the +rocket off the ground like a plane, seeking safety in the upper air +for a while, if we could get it launched that way from the rough +terrain. But using our jets might kill some of the Martians just +outside. They could interpret it as a hostile act.</p> + +<p>We didn't matter much, except to ourselves. And our primary objective +was to make friendly contact with the beings of this planet, without +friction, if it could be done. If we failed, space travel might become +a genuine menace to Earth.</p> + +<p>At Miller's order, Craig turned on our cabin lights. Miller pressed +the controls of our ship's airlock. While its outer valve remained +wide, the inner valve unsealed itself and swung slowly toward us. Our +air whooshed out.</p> + +<p>The opening of that inner valve meant we were letting horror in. We +kept out of line of possible fire through the open door.</p> + +<p>Our idea was to control our instinctive reactions to strangeness, to +remain passive, giving the Martians a chance to get over their own +probable terror of us by finding out that we meant no harm. Otherwise +we might be murdering each other.</p> + +<p>The long wait was agony. In spite of the dehumidifying unit of my +spacesuit, I could feel the sweat from my body collecting in puddles +in the bottoms of my boots. A dozen times there were soft rustles and +scrapes at the airlock; then sounds of hurried retreat.</p> + +<p>But at last a mass of gray-pink tendrils intruded over the threshold. +And we saw the stalked eyes, faintly luminous in the shadowy interior +of the lock. Grotesquely up-ended on its tentacles, the monster seemed +to flow into the cabin. Over its mouth-palps was the cup of what must +have been its oxygen mask.</p> + +<p>What was clearly the muzzle of some kind of pistol, smoothly machined, +was held ready by a mass of tendrils that suggested Gorgon hair. +Behind the first monster was a second, similarly armed. Behind him was +a third. After that I lost count, as the horde, impelled by fear to +grab control in one savage rush, spilled into the cabin with a +dry-leaf rustle.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="37" height="40" /></div> +<p>ll my instincts urged me to yank my automatic out of my belt and let +go at that flood of horror. Yes, that was in me, although I'd been in +intimate association with Etl for four years. Psychologists say that +no will power could keep a man's reflexes from withdrawing his hand +from a hot stove for very long. And going for my gun seemed almost a +reflex action.</p> + +<p>There was plenty of sound logic to back up the urge to shoot. In the +presence of the unfathomable, how could you replace the tried defenses +of instinct with intellectual ideas of good will?</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img class="img1" src="images/image_002.jpg" width="400" height="553" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>On the other hand, to shoot now would be suicide and ruin our hopes, +besides. So maybe there'd have to be human sacrifices to faith between +the planets. If we succeeded in following the plan, our faith would +be proven either right or wrong. If we didn't act passively, the +failure would be partly our fault. In any case, if we didn't get back +to Earth, hatred and fear of the Martians would inevitably arise +there, whether it had been the Martians' fault or ours. The message +that Miller had left for newscast might only give people the +self-righteous attitude that Earthly intentions had been good. If +another expedition ever came to Mars, it might shoot any inhabitants +on sight, and maybe get wiped out itself.</p> + +<p>Still, how could we know that the Martians weren't preparing the kind +of invasion of Earth that has been imagined so often? It was a corny +notion, but the basis for it remained sound. Mars was a dying world. +Couldn't the Martians still want a new planet to move to?</p> + +<p>All these old thoughts popped back into my head during that very bad +moment. And if I was almost going for my pistol, how much worse was it +for Craig, Klein and Miller, who hadn't been as friendly with Etl as I +had been? Maybe we should have put our weapons out of our own reach, +in preparation for this incident. Then there would have been no danger +of our using them.</p> + +<p>But any freedom of action was swiftly wrested from us. The Martians +rolled over us in a wave. Thousands of dark tendrils with fine, +sawlike spines latched onto our bodies. I was glad that I wore a +spacesuit, as much from the revulsion I felt at a direct contact as +for the small protection it gave against injury.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="19" height="40" /></div> +<p> am sure that there was panic behind that wild Martian rush. To get +us pinned down and helpless quickly, they drove themselves in spite of +their own fear of the horrid human forms. For did I feel a tremor in +those tendrils, a tendency to recoil from me? I was trembling and +sweating. Still, my impressions were vivid. Those monsters held us +down as if they were Malay beaters holding down trapped pythons. Maybe +they had known beforehand what men looked like—from previous, secret +expeditions to Earth. Just as we had known about Martians from Etl. +But it wouldn't have made any difference.</p> + +<p>Or perhaps they weren't even aware that we were from the neighboring +planet. But it would be obvious that we were from another world; +nothing from their own planet could be so strange.</p> + +<p>Our own reactions to the situation differed a little. Craig gasped +curses through his helmet phones. Miller said, "Easy, men! Easy!" It +was as if he were trying to build up his own morale, too. I couldn't +utter a sound.</p> + +<p>It wasn't hard for our captors to recognize our weapons. We were +disarmed. They carried us out into the night and around a hill. We +were piled onto a flat metallic surface. A vehicle under us began to +throb and move; you could have called it a truck. The nature of its +mechanism was hinted at only by a small, frosty wisp of steam or vapor +up front. Perhaps it came from a leak. The Martians continued to hold +us down as savagely as ever. Now and then a pair of them would join +the nerve-ends of tendrils, perhaps to converse. Others would chirp or +hoot for no reason that I could understand.</p> + +<p>The highway rolled away behind us, under the light of Phobos. +Buildings passed, vague as buildings along a road usually are at +night. It was the same with the clumps of vegetation. Lights, which +might have been electrical, flashed into my eyes and passed by. In a +deep valley through which we moved in part of our short trip, a dense, +stratified fog arose between the lights and me. I noticed with an odd +detachment that the fog was composed of minute ice crystals, which +glinted in the glow of the strange lamps. I tried to remember our +course. I knew that it was generally east. Off in the night there were +clangings and hisses that might have been factory noises.</p> + +<p>Once Miller asked, "Is everybody okay?"</p> + +<p>Klein's and Craig's responses were gruff and unsteady in the phones.</p> + +<p>"Sure...."</p> + +<p>"More or less—if heart-failure doesn't get me."</p> + +<p>"I guess our skins are still intact," I said.</p> + +<p>We didn't talk after that.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="37" height="40" /></div> +<p>t last we entered a long, downward-slanting tunnel, full of soft +luminescence that seemed to come out of the white-tiled walls +themselves. My attention grew a little vague. It could be that my mind +turned in on itself, like a turtle drawing in its head for protection. +In that state of semiconsciousness, I experienced a phantasm. I +imagined I was a helpless grub being dragged down into the depths of +an ant-hill.</p> + +<p>But such a grub belongs in an ant-hill a lot more than a man belonged +where I was going. This became plainer when the large tunnel ended, +and we were dragged and carried along winding burrows, never more than +three feet in diameter. Mostly they were tiled, but often their walls +were of bare rock or soil. Twice we passed through air-locks.</p> + +<p>I couldn't describe too much of what I saw or the noises I heard in +those warrens. In one place, incandescence glowed and wheels turned. +In a great low-ceilinged chamber full of artificial sun-rays there was +a garden with strange blooms. The architecture of the city was not +altogether utilitarian and it was not unpleasing. I saw a lot more. +But my mind was somewhat fuzzy, probably from shock and fatigue.</p> + +<p>I know we traversed another chamber, where trays full of round lumps +of soil were set in frames. A Martian nursery, no doubt.</p> + +<p>Some minutes later, my companions and I were left in a small room, +high enough so that we could stand erect in it. Here the Martians let +go of us. We sprawled on the floor, faces down. We'd had a busy day. +Our nerve-energy was burned out.</p> + +<p>Hopelessness warped all of my thoughts. I must have slipped into the +coma of exhaustion. I had jangled dreams about Alice and the kids and +home, and almost imagined I was there.</p> + +<p>Half awake again, I had a cursing spree, calling myself fifty kinds of +a numbskull. Be passive before the people of other worlds! Reassure +them! How did we ever think up that one? We'd been crazy. Why didn't +we at least use our guns when we'd had the chance? It wouldn't have +made any difference to be killed right away.</p> + +<p>Now we were sacrificial lambs on the altar of a featherbrained idea +that the inhabitants of worlds that had always been separate from the +beginning should become friends, learn to swap and to benefit from the +diverse phases of each other's cultures. How could Martians who +hatched out of lumps of mud be like humans at all?</p> + +<p>Klein, Craig, Miller and I were alone in that room. There were +crystal-glazed spy-windows in the walls. Perhaps we were still being +observed.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_w.jpg" alt="W" width="51" height="40" /></div> +<p>hile I was sleeping, the exit had been sealed with a circular piece +of glassy stuff. Near the floor there were vents through which air was +being forced into the room. Hidden pumps, which must have been hastily +rigged for our reception, throbbed steadily.</p> + +<p>Miller, beside me, had removed his oxygen helmet. His grin was +slightly warped as he said to me: "Well, Nolan, here's another +parallel with what we've known before. We had to keep Etl alive in a +cage. Now the same thing is being done to us."</p> + +<p>This could be regarded as a service, a favor. Yet I was more inclined +to feel that I was like something locked up in a zoo. Maybe Etl's +case was a little different. For the first thing he had known in life +was his cage.</p> + +<p>I removed my oxygen helmet, too, mainly to conserve its air-purifier +unit, which I hoped I might need sometime soon—in an escape.</p> + +<p>"Don't look so glum, Nolan," Miller told me. "Here we have just what +we need, a chance to observe and learn and know the Martians better. +And it's the same for them in relation to us. It's the best situation +possible for both worlds."</p> + +<p>I was thinking mostly—belatedly—of my wife and kids. Right then, +Miller was a crackpot to me, a monomaniac, a guy whose philosophical +viewpoint went way beyond the healthy norm. And I soon found that +Craig and Klein agreed with me now. Something in our attitude had +shifted.</p> + +<p>I don't know how long we were in that sealed room. A week, perhaps. We +couldn't see the day-light. Our watches had vanished along with our +weapons. Sometimes there were sounds of much movement in the tunnels +around us; sometimes little. But the variation was too irregular to +indicate a change based on night and day.</p> + +<p>Lots of things happened to us. The air we breathed had a chemical +smell. And the Martians kept changing its composition and density +constantly—experimenting, no doubt. Now it would be oppressively +heavy and humid; now it would be so dry and thin that we began to feel +faint. They also varied the temperature, from below freezing to +Earthly desert heat. And I suspected that at times there was a drug in +the air.</p> + +<p>Food was lowered to us in metal containers from a circular airlock in +the ceiling. It was the same kind of gelatinous stuff that we had +found in the wreck of the ship that had brought the infant Etl to +Earth. We knew that it was nourishing. Its bland sweetishness was not +to our taste, but we had to eat.</p> + +<p>Various apparatus was also lowered to us. There were odd mechanical +puzzles that made me think how grotesquely Earthly Martian scientific +attitudes were. And there was s little globe on a wire, the purpose of +which we never figured out, though Miller got an electric shock from +it.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="19" height="40" /></div> +<p> kept looking for Etl among the Martians at the spy-windows, hoping +that he'd turn up again. I had noticed that Martians showed variations +of appearance, like humans—longer or shorter eye-stalks, lighter or +darker tendrils.... I figured I'd recognize Etl. But I didn't see him.</p> + +<p>We were none of us quite ourselves. Not even Miller, whose scientific +interest in the things around him sustained him even in captivity. +Mine had worn out. And Klein and Craig were no better off. I was +desperately homesick, and I felt a little ill, besides.</p> + +<p>I managed to loosen the metal heel-plate from one of my boots, and +with this, when I thought that no Martian was watching, I started to +dig the gummy cement from around the circular glassy disc with which +the main exit of our quarters had been sealed. Craig, Klein and I +worked at it in brief and sporadic shifts. We didn't really hope that +we could escape. It was just something to do.</p> + +<p>"We're going to try to get to the ship, Miller, if it's still there," +I whispered once. "Probably it won't work. Want to join up with the +rest of us?"</p> + +<p>I just didn't think of him as being in command now. And he seemed to +agree, because he didn't protest against my high-handed way of +talking. Also, he didn't argue against a projected rashness that could +easily get us killed. Apparently he understood that our lives weren't +worth much to us as things were.</p> + +<p>He smiled a little. "I'll stick around, Nolan. If you do manage to get +back to Earth, don't make the Martians sound too bad."</p> + +<p>"I won't," I answered, troubled by an odd sense of regret.</p> + +<p>Loosening that exit disc proved in the end to be no special trick. +Then we just waited for a lull in the activity in the tunnels around +us. We all put on our oxygen helmets, Miller included, for the +air-pressure here in our "cage" would drop as soon as the loosened +disc was dislodged. We put our shoulders against it and pushed. It +popped outward. Then the three of us, with Miller staying behind, +scrambled on hands and knees through the tunnel that lay before us.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="37" height="40" /></div> +<p> crazy kind of luck seemed to be with us. For one thing, we didn't +have to retrace our way along the complicated route by which we had +been brought down to our prison. In a minute we reached a wide tunnel +that slanted upward. A glassy rotary airlock worked by a simple +lever—for, of course, most of the city's air would be pressurized to +some extent for the Martians—led into it.</p> + +<p>The main passage wasn't exactly deserted, but we traversed it in leaps +and bounds, taking advantage of the weak Martian gravity. Shapes +scattered before us, chirping and squeaking.</p> + +<p>We reached the surface quickly. It was frigid night. We stumbled away +into it, taking cover under some lichenous bushes, while we looked +for the highway. It was there, plain to see, in the light of Phobos. +We dashed on toward it, across what seemed to be a planted field. A +white layer of ice-crystal mist flowed between and over those tough +cold-endured growths. For a minute, just as two shots rang out behind +us, we were concealed by it completely.</p> + +<div> +<img class="figleft1" src="images/image_003_01.jpg" width="287" height="508" alt="" title="" /> +<img class="figleft1" src="images/image_003_02.jpg" width="600" height="256" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>I thought to myself that, to the Martians, we were like escaped tigers +or leopards—only worse. For a moment I felt that we had jumped from +the frying pan into the fire. But, as we reached the highway, my +spirits began to soar. Perhaps—only perhaps—I'd see my family again +before too long. There was traffic on the road, trains of great +soft-tired wagons, pulled by powered vehicles ahead. I wondered if, +like on Earth, much freight was moved at night to avoid congestion.</p> + +<p>"When I was a college kid, I used to hitchhike sometimes," Craig +remarked.</p> + +<p>"I don't guess we had better try that here," Klein said. "What we can +do is more of a hobo stunt."</p> + +<p>We found the westerly direction we needed easily enough from the +stars. The constellations naturally looked the same as they did at +home. We hid behind some rustling leaves, dry as paper, and waited for +the next truck train to pass. When one came, we used the agility which +Martian gravity gave us and rushed for the tail-end wagon and +scrambled aboard. There we hid ourselves under a kind of +coarse-fibered tarpaulin.</p> + +<p>Peering past boxes and bales, we kept cautious watch of the road. We +saw strange placques, which might have served as highway signs. Again +we saw buildings and passing lights.</p> + +<p>We were dopes, of course, ever to think that we were going to get away +with this. Our overwrought nerves had urged us to unreasoning +rebellion, and we had yielded to them.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>Our last hope was punctured when at last we saw the flood-lights that +bathed our ship. The taste on my tongue was suddenly bitter. There +were roughly three things we could do now, and none of the choices was +especially attractive.</p> + +<p>We could go back where we had come from. We could try to keep +concealed in the countryside, until we were finally hunted down, or +until our helmet air-purifiers wore out and we smothered. Or we could +proceed to our rocket, which was now surrounded by a horde of +Martians. Whichever one we chose, it looked as if the end would be the +same—death.</p> + +<p>"I'm for going on to the ship," Klein said in a harsh whisper.</p> + +<p>"The same with me," Craig agreed. "It's where we want to go. If +they're going to kill or capture us, it might as well be there."</p> + +<p>Suddenly, for no good reason, I thought of something. No special +safeguards had been set up around that sealed room in the city.</p> + +<p>Escape had been easy. What did that mean?</p> + +<p>"Okay," I said. "Maybe you've both got the same hunch I just got. We +walk very slowly toward our rocket. We get into the light as soon as +possible. Does that sound right to you? We'd be going back to the +plan. And, it could be, to common sense."</p> + +<p>"All right," Klein answered.</p> + +<p>"We'll give it a whirl," Craig agreed.</p> + +<p>We jumped off that freight wagon at the proper moment and moved toward +the rocket. Nothing that we'd done on Mars—not even making our first +acquaintance with the inhabitants—was as ticklish an act.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_s.jpg" alt="S" width="26" height="40" /></div> +<p>tep after slow step, we approached the floodlighted area, keeping +close together before that horde which still looked horrible to us. +One thing in our favor was that the Martians here had probably been +warned of our escape by whatever means of communication they used. And +they could certainly guess that our first objective would be our ship. +Hence they would not be startled into violence by our sudden +appearance.</p> + +<p>One of them fired a shot which passed over our heads. But we kept on +going, making our movements as unfrightening as we could to counteract +the dread of us that they must have still felt.</p> + +<p>Panic and the instinctive fear of the strange were balanced in our +minds against reason. We got to the nose of our ship, then to the open +doors of its airlock. The horde kept moving back before us and we +clambered inside. Martian eyes remained wary, but no more action was +taken against us.</p> + +<p>Our cabin had been ransacked. Most of the loose stuff had been removed ... +even my picture of Alice, and our two kids.</p> + +<p>"Who cares about trifles?" I muttered. "Rap on wood, guys—I think +we've won. So have the local people."</p> + +<p>"You're right," Klein breathed. "What other reason can there be for +their not jumping us? Miller's passive strategy must've worked the +first time. The story that we meant no harm must have gotten around. +They don't want to make trouble, either. And who, with any sense +does?"</p> + +<p>I felt good—maybe too good. I wondered if the Martians felt the same +eager fascination for the enigmas of space that we felt, in spite of +the same fear of the nameless that we too could feel. My guess was +that they did. Undoubtedly they also wanted interplanetary relations +to be smooth. They could control their instinctive doubts to help +attain this objective. If they coveted Earth's resources, it was still +far away, and could defend itself. Besides, they were not built to +live in comfort under the raw conditions of its strange environment. +Commerce was the only answer.</p> + +<p>Suddenly Mars was no longer a hostile region to me, out in the reaches +of space. Again it was full of endless, intriguing mysteries. It was +beautiful. And knowledge of that beauty and mystery had been won, in +spite of some blundering. The scheme that we had practiced, and that +Miller had stuck to, had paid off. It had broken down that first +inevitable barrier of alienness between Earthmen and Martians enough +so that they now had a chance to start looking for the countless +similarities between us.</p> + +<p>A fraction of our food stores aboard the rocket had been taken, +probably for analysis. But there was plenty more. We closed the +airlock, repressurized the cabin from air-tanks, and cooked ourselves +a meal. Then we slept in shifts, one of us always awake as guard.</p> + +<p>At dawn, Miller hammered at a window. He'd been brought out from the +city. We weren't too surprised by then.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_e.jpg" alt="E" width="34" height="40" /></div> +<p>tl turned up at noon. He came in a kind of plane, which landed right +beside our rocket, making quite a noise. I recognized him easily +enough; I'd know those eye-stalks anywhere. Besides, as he came out of +the plane, he was carrying the speech-tube that Klein had made for +him.</p> + +<p>We let him into the cabin. "Hello, gang," he said, manipulating the +tube with his tendrils. "I see you passed your tests almost as well as +I did on those weird things you were always making me take on Earth."</p> + +<p>"So they were tests," I said.</p> + +<p>"Sure. Otherwise, why do you think I didn't come to you before? They +said you had to solve your own problems."</p> + +<p>"How did they treat you?" Miller wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"Mostly my people were nice to me. They took me to a great desert +city, far away. Sort of the capital of Mars. It's in an 'oasis' where +a network of 'canals' join. The canals fit an old theory of your +astronomers. They're ribbons of irrigated vegetation. But the water is +piped underground. I spoke to my people in the way that you once +thought I would, trying to convince them that you were okay. But I +guess that you did most of the job yourselves."</p> + +<p>"In spite of a lot of blunders, maybe we did, Etl," I replied dryly. +"What are your plans? Going to stay here now? Or will you come back +with us?"</p> + +<p>I sensed that he would stay. It was natural. Maybe I even sensed a +remoteness in him, a kind of withdrawal. Not unfriendly, but ... we +both knew it was the parting of the ways.</p> + +<p>"It's best for what we're trying to accomplish, Nolan," he said. "I +can tell my people about Earth; you can tell yours about Mars. +Besides, I like it here. But I'll be back on Earth some time. Just so +you'll come here again. Thanks to you guys for everything."</p> + +<p>"I'd like to stay too, Nolan," Miller said, smiling. "If they'll have +me. Under Etl's instructions, they might improve my quarters."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_s.jpg" alt="S" width="26" height="40" /></div> +<p>o that much was settled. I felt a certain longing myself now. But I'm +a family man, with home still in my blood. Klein and Craig weren't +tied as I was, but they had a lot to hold them to Earth. Besides, +somebody had to report back.</p> + +<p>We were on Mars two days longer, though we didn't go any farther than +back to the neighboring city. We took thousands of photographs. We +were given samples of common Martian apparatus, pieces of jade that +were covered with queer, beautiful carvings made millions of years +before, bars of radioactive metal.</p> + +<p>Earth was still near enough in its orbit to be reached without too +much trouble. We jacked our rocket into a vertical position, from +which an interplanetary takeoff could best be made. The cabin, +swinging on its universal joints, stayed level. Martians watched, +interested, but still obviously not quite ready to cast aside their +deeper suspicions. Yet, when we blasted clear, we knew that a ship of +theirs, halfway around the planet, was doing the same and would follow +us back to Earth. Ambassadors, of course, and commercial attachés.</p> + +<p>I'd lost my picture of Alice, Patty and Ron to some local souvenir +hunter. But I knew that I was going to see them....</p> + +<p>The friendly contact between Earth and Mars can still be queered by +somebody's silly blunder, of course. Human or Martian. You have to be +careful. But a beginning has been made.</p> + +<p class="p1"><b>—RAYMOND Z. GALLUN</b></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Stamped Caution, by Raymond Zinke Gallun + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STAMPED CAUTION *** + +***** This file should be named 32054-h.htm or 32054-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/0/5/32054/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, 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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/32054-h/images/cover.jpg b/32054-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2bbbfa4 --- /dev/null +++ b/32054-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/32054-h/images/image_001.jpg b/32054-h/images/image_001.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..70f40e3 --- /dev/null +++ b/32054-h/images/image_001.jpg diff --git a/32054-h/images/image_002.jpg b/32054-h/images/image_002.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8a6dd2f --- /dev/null +++ b/32054-h/images/image_002.jpg diff --git a/32054-h/images/image_003_01.jpg b/32054-h/images/image_003_01.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f538e0 --- /dev/null +++ b/32054-h/images/image_003_01.jpg diff --git a/32054-h/images/image_003_02.jpg b/32054-h/images/image_003_02.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ce0123c --- /dev/null +++ b/32054-h/images/image_003_02.jpg diff --git a/32054-h/images/image_a.jpg b/32054-h/images/image_a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8b9adc1 --- /dev/null +++ b/32054-h/images/image_a.jpg diff --git a/32054-h/images/image_e.jpg b/32054-h/images/image_e.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..57a86fa --- /dev/null +++ b/32054-h/images/image_e.jpg diff --git a/32054-h/images/image_f.jpg b/32054-h/images/image_f.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4b9af57 --- /dev/null +++ b/32054-h/images/image_f.jpg diff --git a/32054-h/images/image_h.jpg b/32054-h/images/image_h.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2d92beb --- /dev/null +++ b/32054-h/images/image_h.jpg diff --git a/32054-h/images/image_i.jpg b/32054-h/images/image_i.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f20023 --- /dev/null +++ b/32054-h/images/image_i.jpg diff --git a/32054-h/images/image_l.jpg b/32054-h/images/image_l.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7467c02 --- /dev/null +++ b/32054-h/images/image_l.jpg diff --git a/32054-h/images/image_m.jpg b/32054-h/images/image_m.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cc6da0a --- /dev/null +++ b/32054-h/images/image_m.jpg diff --git a/32054-h/images/image_n.jpg b/32054-h/images/image_n.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..35ba994 --- /dev/null +++ b/32054-h/images/image_n.jpg diff --git a/32054-h/images/image_o.jpg b/32054-h/images/image_o.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ec272d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/32054-h/images/image_o.jpg diff --git a/32054-h/images/image_s.jpg b/32054-h/images/image_s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..118513e --- /dev/null +++ b/32054-h/images/image_s.jpg diff --git a/32054-h/images/image_t.jpg b/32054-h/images/image_t.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f842a67 --- /dev/null +++ b/32054-h/images/image_t.jpg diff --git a/32054-h/images/image_t1.jpg b/32054-h/images/image_t1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a4bcb66 --- /dev/null +++ b/32054-h/images/image_t1.jpg diff --git a/32054-h/images/image_w.jpg b/32054-h/images/image_w.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..89ae4f0 --- /dev/null +++ b/32054-h/images/image_w.jpg |
