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
Several more questions he asked, at which I got more and more rattled.
Then abruptly he said: “There is something wrong here. For some
unaccountable reason I suspected you from the first, and evidently my
suspicions were correct. Your passport is invalid. It is dated three
days ago and purports to be signed by No. 340-7-11. Yet he ceased to be
a member of the Imperial Council over a sangth ago. Then this is not the
kerkool to which I have been accustomed as Prince Toron’s. You see, I am
recently from Mooni myself. Prince Toron is assigned to the electrical,
and not the agricultural, department; and, anyhow, they don’t teach
about cows under the head of agriculture. Accordingly your entire story
breaks down, and I shall be compelled to hold you until I can notify my
superiors. You see—”
I saw all right. And I didn’t intend to permit him to finish his
harangue. So while his attention was still directed upon his own good
opinion of himself as a detective, I threw the car into full speed
ahead, thus putting an end to the sentry’s conversation. In fact, it
nearly put an end to the sentry himself. But, instead of having sense
enough to run him down, I instinctively steered around him.
Of course, he immediately gave the alarm, and soon Lilla informed me
that she could see the lights of a pursuing kerkool behind us on the
road.
Then I began to have difficulty with the controls of the car. It started
to wabble uncertainly, although it did not decrease its speed.
“Do you understand these machines?” I asked.
“Yes,” she replied, “I frequently have driven one.”
“What seems to be the matter with it now?”
She thought a moment intently, and then answered: “It seems to me that
the gyroscopes are slowing down. If this be so, we must come to a stop
directly, or the kerkool will overturn.”
I decided to take her advice; and so, stopping the kerkool as quickly as
possible, we each seized a small spotlight with which the car was
equipped, and struck off into the dense woods that lined the road.
A few moments later I heard the pursuing car crash into our deserted
one. I had hoped that my maneuver might effectively wreck our pursuers,
but apparently it did not do so, for soon I heard the sounds of ant-men
following us through the wood.
As we were not using our lights, they could not follow us by sight, and,
as we were not talking, they could not follow us by sound, for of course
they could hear nothing but radiations from our antennae, regardless of
how we crashed through the underbrush. Luckily I thought of this and so
did not waste any time in trying to be noiseless.
The sound of the ant-men grew fainter and fainter behind us, until
suddenly we stumbled into a network of ropes. It was an old and stale
spider’s web. Immediately a bright idea occurred to me, and flashing on
my light, I hunted for, and found, the spider’s cave; and into it I led
the princess.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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