An Earthman on Venus (Originally titled "The Radio Man")Farley, Ralph Milne
Science
An Earthman on Venus (Originally titled "The Radio Man")
Farley, Ralph Milne
Life on other planets -- Fiction; Science fiction; Venus (Planet) -- Fiction
We ceased our work, exhausted. But before turning in for the night,
Toron taught me how to say in Porovian language the following sentence:
“The planet Minos sends to the planet Poros, and informs Poros that
Minos was right. Communication between Porovians _is_ electrical.”
I told him that my name was Myles S. Cabot, a fact which I had
previously had no means of imparting to any one. Then we separated for
the night.
The next morning the committee were astounded at my success. Although I
was most anxious to get back to Wautoosa at once, the committee insisted
on my remaining and demonstrating my apparatus, and this took several
weeks more.
But at last I was permitted to return.
On my arrival I was informed that the girl was still there, so at once I
requested an interview. At first she refused to receive me, but Doggo,
who acted as go-between, finally succeeded in arousing her interest by
hinting to her that the scientists at Mooni had discovered that I was
really a Cupian after all. And a very handsome one at that, now that
they had succeeded in completely removing my former deformities. So at
last she reluctantly consented. Apparently she had heard no news of the
great doings at Mooni.
I planned for this meeting with even more care and application than I
had spent upon my radio apparatus. Everything that Doggo and I were to
say and do was carefully rehearsed. My speeches, of course, had to be
learned by rote, for I had as yet no opportunity to study the spoken
language of Poros.
We built a head frame of heavy wire concealed in my hair, and arranged
the phones so that they would lie unobserved under the locks which
covered my ears. The batteries, tubes, tuning-apparatus and one rod were
on my back, carried by a belt and hidden beneath my toga. The other rod
and a dummy mate to it were affixed to my forehead and camouflaged to
resemble Cupian antennae. My small microphone was located between my
collar bones, where the front edge of my toga just concealed it. Of
course, I could have mounted both of my real rods on my forehead, but
that would have reduced the capacity enough so as to have increased my
wave length out of the required range. Hence the seemingly unnecessary
complication of my arrangement.
The need for tuning-apparatus requires some explanation. Porovians tune
for the slight difference in individual wave length, by moving their
antennae; but this, of course, was not practicable to me, so I employed
for this purpose a microscopically small variable condenser on my belt.
To complete my disguise we even went to the extent of fastening
artificial wings to my back, so that, except for the slight peculiarity
of my hands and feet, I looked and sounded like a real Cupian.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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