The spear had been knocked aside in the tussle and Robin looked at it
with a glance. One glance was enough to make the young man realize that
he had had a narrow escape. Its tip was bright and as sharp as a piece
of broken glass. If the creature had thought to jab that spear, it
might have been deadly.
But now the captured being was sitting quietly in a sort of
resignation, merely looking at Robin with the same curiosity that Robin
bestowed upon it. It was very much like a human being, perhaps some
four feet tall. But its head was somewhat triangular in shape, having
only one eye (Robin never found any Moon creatures with two), and was
topped with a large yellow light bulb that extended a foot above.
Robin took the bit of meat, cut off a piece and held it out to the
creature. The Moonman looked at it, then reached out a hand and took
it. It smelled it, then tasted it, and, finding the taste to its
liking, swiftly gobbled it down.
Robin ate some too, and this gesture seemed to reconcile the other. A
fairly universal gesture, Robin thought. Only friends would share a
meal. Probably would hold true anywhere in the universe.
Now Robin picked up the other's spear and examined it. Seeing this, the
creature picked up one of Robin's sacks and also looked at it.
The sharp point of the spear was something that looked like glass but
glistened far more, seemed sharper, harder, and heavier. Robin turned
it over, and the realization struck him that this spearhead was a
diamond, a single six-inch-long shard of diamond!
After the first shock of this discovery, Robin realized that he should
have expected it. On such a volcanic world as the Moon had once been,
there might well be lots of diamond in great masses. What could be
easier to use for weapons and cutting edges than chunks broken from
such masses. Such a chunk brought back to Earth might be worth an
emperor's ransom--but who could think of such values here?
Getting the friendship of the Moonman proved to be easy after that
first effort. For the creature made no further effort to escape, seemed
itself to desire Robin's companionship. In fact, as it turned out,
Robin would have had a hard time getting rid of it. It seemed anxious
now to stay close to the Earthling, to share him with Cheeky.
The glass-skinned being had a language, for it soon began to jabber
away at Robin in a high-pitched squeaky tongue. After a little
experimentation, Robin was able to get it to repeat the name Robin, and
in turn, he found out that the Glassie's own name was something nearly
like Korree.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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