It _was_ a metal cap he wore, and it did have protruding knobs--two of
them--slanting at 45 degree angles from his temples like horns. I
wondered at their use, but it was impossible for me to imagine. Perhaps
they covered some actual growth; he might have had real horns for all I
knew. Nothing would have been too strange to expect.
His clothing showed up as a simple, white, one piece garment, like a
shirt and gym shorts. The shorts ended at the knee, and from there down
he was bare except for a covering on his feet which appeared more like
gloves than shoes. Whatever he wore to protect his feet, it allowed free
movement of his toes.
It struck me that this little man's native habitat must have been very
warm. His attire suggested this. For a moment I considered plugging in
my small heater; my room certainly had no tropical or sub-tropical
temperature at that time of the morning--and how was I to know whether
he shivered when he felt chill. Maybe he blew his horns. Anyway, I
figured a living Eighth Wonder would be more valuable than a dead one;
and I didn't think he could be stuffed. But somehow I forgot it in my
interest in examining this unusual personage.
The little man had dropped the cloth now, and was staring in my
direction. Of course, "my direction" was very general to him; but he
seemed to be conscious of me. He certainly impressed _me_ as being
awfully different, but what his reactions were, I didn't know.
But someone else knew.
* * * * *
In a world deep down in Smallness, in an electron of a dead cell of a
piece of wood, five scientists were grouped before a complicated
instrument with a horn like the early radios. Two sat and three stood,
but their attention upon the apparatus was unanimous. From small
hollowed cups worn on their fingers like rings, came a smoke from
burning incense. These cups they held to their noses frequently, and
their eyes shone as they inhaled. The scientists of infra-smallness were
smoking!
With the exception of a recent prolonged silence, which was causing them
great anxiety, sounds had been issuing from the instrument for days.
There had been breaks before, but this silence had been long-enduring.
Now the voice was speaking again; a voice that was a telepathic
communication made audible. The scientists brightened.
"There is much that I cannot understand," it said. The words were
hesitant, filled with awe. "I seem to have been in many worlds. At the
completion of my experiment, I stood on a land which was brown and black
and very rough of surface. With startling suddenness, I was propelled
across this harsh country, and, terrifyingly, I was falling. I must have
dropped seventy-five feet, but the strange buoyant atmosphere of this
strange world saved me from harm.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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