Life on other planets -- Fiction; Science fiction; Venus (Planet) -- Fiction
Turning to Doggo, Myles extended his left palm, and made a motion as
though writing on it with the thumb and forefinger of his right hand.
But the ant-man waved a negative with one of his forepaws. It was
evident that there were no writing materials aboard the ship. Myles
would have to wait until they reached their landing place; for doubtless
they would soon hover down in some city or town, though just which one
he could not guess, as the country below was wholly unfamiliar.
Finally a small settlement loomed ahead. It was of the familiar style of
toy-building-block architecture affected by the ant-men, and, from its
appearance, was very new. On its outskirts further building operations
were actively in progress. Apparently a few survivors of the accursed
race of Formians were consolidating their position and attempting to
build up a new empire in some out-of-the-way portion of the continent.
As the earth-man was turning these thoughts over in his mind the plane
softly settled down upon one of the flat roofs, and its occupants
disembarked. Three of the ants advanced menacingly toward Myles, but
Doggo held them off. Then all of the party descended down one of the
ramps to the lower levels of the building.
Narrow slitlike window openings gave onto courtyards, where fountains
played and masses of blue and yellow flowers bloomed, amid gray-branched
lichens with red and purple twig-knobs. It was in just such a garden,
through just such a window, that he had first looked upon the lovely
blue-eyed, golden-haired Lilla, Crown Princess of Cupia.
The earth-man sighed. Where was his beloved wife now? That she needed
his help was certain. He must therefore get busy. So once again he made
motions of writing on the palm of his left hand with the thumb and
forefinger of his right; and this time the sign language produced
results, for Doggo halted the procession and led Cabot into a room.
It was a plain bare room, devoid of any furniture except a small table,
for ant-men have no use for chairs and couches. The sky outside was
already beginning to pinken with the unseen sun.
With a sweep of his paw, Doggo indicated that this was to be Cabot’s
quarters. Then, with another wave, he pointed to the table, where lay a
pad of paper and stylus, not a pencil-like stylus as employed by the
Cupians, but rather one equipped with straps for attaching it to the
claw of a Formian.
Even so, it was better than nothing. The earth-man seized it eagerly,
but before he could begin writing an ant entered bearing a Cupian toga,
short-sleeved and bordered with Grecian wave designs in blue. Myles put
on this garment, and then quickly filled a sheet with questions:
“How is my princess and my son, the baby king? Whence come all you
Formians, whose race I thought had been exterminated? What part of Cupia
is this? What is this city? Where is Prince Yuri? And what do you intend
to do with me _this_ time?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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