Nalte laughed joyously. "I just squeezed through," she admitted. "I
wonder what they would say back in Andoo if they knew that I, the
daughter of their jong, was considered fit only to scrub floors in
Havatoo!" and again she laughed happily. It was plain to be seen that
her pride had not suffered by reason of her assignment. "But after
all," she continued, "it is a high honor to be considered fit to remain
on any footing among such a race of super-men.
"And you! I am very proud of you, Carson Napier, for I have been told
that you were elevated to a high place among them."
It was my turn to laugh now. "I did not pass the examination at all,"
I admitted. "I would have been destroyed but for my knowledge of a
science that is unknown to Amtor. It was rather a jolt to my self
esteem."
We drove along the Korgan Lat, through the great public park and
parade ground in the center of which stands a magnificent stadium, and
thus to the Avenue of the Gates which forms a great arc nearly eight
miles long just inside the outer wall on the land side of Havatoo.
Here are the factories and the shops in the district included between
the Avenue of Gates and the Yorgan Lat, a wide avenue a third of a mile
inside the wall, all the principal shops being located along the Avenue
of Gates. The avenue and the shops were brilliantly lighted, the street
swarmed with vehicles, and the walkways at the level of the second
stories were crowded with pedestrians.
We drove twice the full length of the avenue, enjoying the life and
beauty of the scene; then we drove into one of the parking places, to
which all of the ground floors on the main arteries are devoted, and
were lifted by an escalator to the walkway on the level above.
Here shops displayed their wares in show windows, much as is the custom
in American cities, though many of the displays aimed solely to please
the eye rather than to call attention to the goods for sale within.
The scientists of Havatoo have developed a light that is brilliant and
at the same time soft with which they attain effects impossible of
achievement by our relatively crude lighting methods. At no place is
the source of the light apparent; it casts soft shadows and gives forth
no heat. Ordinarily it resembles sunlight, but it can also produce
soft, pastel shades of various hues.
After we had enjoyed the spectacle for an hour, mingling with the happy
crowd upon the walkway, I made a few small purchases, including a gift
for Nalte; then we returned to my car, and I took my companion home.
* * * * *
The next morning I was busy organizing my classes in astronomy, and so
numerous were those wishing to enroll that I had to organize several
large classes, and as only four hours a day are ordinarily devoted to
work of any nature it was evident that I should have to devote my time
at first to the training of instructors if the new science was to be
expounded to all the inhabitants who were interested.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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