He gazed out through the cave mouth and calculated their chances. There
were none. Not against that horde of barbarians; there were too many of
the devils to fight with their bare hands. If only they had their ray
pistols, or a torpedo projector. At least they could sell their lives
dearly. His eyes narrowed speculatively when they came to rest on a
peculiar egg-shaped object that stood out there in the open. It was
Nazu's ovoid. Here was an idea!
But he saw that its entrance door was open and that the space inside was
too small for any of them excepting one of the small stature of the
Titanese. It was crammed with machinery. Nazu was the only one of their
number who could squeeze into the thing; in fact he alone knew how to
operate the queer flying machine. There must be others of his kind,
plenty of them; another country, or a city full of them at least.
Perhaps he might obtain aid if only he could be made to understand, and
if they could get him out there safely somehow.
"Mado," he called, pointing, "do you suppose we could dope out a way of
getting Nazu aboard his sky vehicle to go for help?"
The Martian stared, his mouth stuffed with food and his jaws in full
action. He strained suddenly to swallow the huge mouthful so he could
make reply.
"Not a chance," he grunted. "Why, there's a million of them out there.
You won't catch them napping."
But he turned his attention from the basket of fruit and made a
desperate effort to convey the idea to Nazu, whose bright eyes took in
his every significant motion and whose sensitive fingers traced images
in the sand that conveyed his own thoughts to the mind of the Martian in
rapid succession.
"He's got it!" Mado gloated. "The game little cuss would go in a minute
if we could get him to the ovoid. He's got a picture of a big island
here, so help me! An island covered with circular dwellings, made of
metal like the ovoids, he indicates. Look here."
* * * * *
Carr and Ora moved over to watch the swift sketching of the Titanese
lad. By means of pantomime and his carefully drawn pictures, he told
them of his people, making it clear that they were forced to live in
insulated dwellings and travel only in the ovoids, which likewise were
insulated against the devastating vibrations that emanated from Saturn's
rings. He sketched those rings, illustrating the vibrations and tapping
his own forehead in explanation of the effect on the brain; pointing to
the savages to indicate the ultimate fate of his kind. The protective
insulation, it appeared, was not permanent; sooner or later, all of them
would become barbarians like the others.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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