His uneasiness had been growing. Those on the speakers' platform were grinning more widely at Zeke's antics. The uneasiness was growing into a kind of fear. And then he heard someone introducing Zeke. "Oh no," Johnson whispered. "Wait a minute--he's not up to this ... not now...." "What is the trouble?" Zeke asked. The United Nations Secretary was introducing Zeke. Something about inter-world friendship ... the beginning of an inter-world union that would spread to the stars.... Someone was saying in Johnson's ear, "Go ahead. You act as interpreter...." "What is everyone looking at me for?" Zeke asked. "You are to make a speech like the rest of us," Johnson whispered dryly. "Just say something ... anything ... something short. They won't know what you're saying anyway. Just a gesture--" To Zeke everything was deadly serious. A long historical background had made the Martians that way. They were old. "About how much I want to learn about you here on Earth? How I will enjoy my stay here? How glad I am that the Earth and Mars are in contact and are friends?" "Yes, yes, anything. Just a formality anyway." "But I think that I am somewhat afraid," Zeke said. "Things I am not accustomed to. Too many people. Too much noise and confusion. And the air. I cannot seem to breathe properly." The air was thinner on Mars, Johnson thought as he stepped toward the microphones again, in front of television eyes. But it's the air here too--the people--the suppression-- Zeke was there standing beside him. Johnson stepped aside. Zeke stood there in his place. Johnson's knees got weak. He felt the sweat running down his face then, and the cold shivery feeling as though he'd suddenly contracted a high fever. The laughter was starting. It was starting around the platform as the big spotlights caught Zeke full, and it spread backward and upward, growing and expanding. Zeke, in his alien way talked, and he gestured with his entire body as he talked sincerely, with deep feeling, about how he felt about this first visit to Earth. The laughter rose higher and more voluminous until Johnson's body began to quiver as though from some physical assault. The trouble was a complete misunderstanding of Zeke, his grotesqueness, the fact that no one had any idea what he was really saying. What his gestures meant. All that--and whatever it was in human beings that made them laugh. Zeke leaned toward Johnson, yelled in his ear. "Look, they are all doing it now." "Yes," Johnson managed to scream. "They like you. They're all stirred up with excitement. Think nothing of it. They're expressing their extreme excitement and appreciation--" The twistings of Zeke's body, his facial distortions as he sought to express himself in the best and most intelligible manner, grew more intense. Laughter became a sweeping thunder. No one could hear Johnson's interpretation. He stopped interpreting.