Part 5 (1/2)

I began to fear I should not get on very well in Mars if all the inhabitants talked in such riddles, but I said, as politely as I could:

”I am sure I need not wait to get to the s.h.i.+p to be pleased. I am delighted to see you and your companions here.”

While we were returning to the vessel I gave Thorwald, for such I found to be his name, a brief account of our journey on the moon and of my mysterious arrival on their planet. I expatiated on the merits of the doctor, and told Thorwald that he was probably still on the moon or else at the bottom of their ocean.

I was thinking that Thorwald did not show much sympathy with me, when, our boat having nearly reached the s.h.i.+p's side, I looked up and saw the doctor himself standing on the deck, a pigmy among giants. I was soon by his side, and we embraced before our new-found friends without a blush.

”Where's Mona?” were the first words he said.

”Mona!” I replied. ”Who's Mona?”

”Who's Mona?” he returned. ”Well, you have recovered pretty rapidly.”

I now discovered that, although I had found the body of my friend, the best part of him was missing. In the fall from the moon he had evidently lost his wits. I thought I would not let him know too suddenly what was the matter, and so I merely said:

”Yes, I went into the water, but was not much hurt. When I came to my senses I found myself in our car still. Tell me how you escaped.”

”Oh, I happened to fall near this s.h.i.+p, fortunately, and they picked me up, and then, at my request, they set out to search for you and Mona.”

”Well,” said I, ”you found me, and I am very thankful for it, but Mona I fear you will never see.”

”What was the last you saw of her?” he asked.

I had great difficulty in keeping myself from laughing in the doctor's face at his odd fancy, but the thought came to me with some force that I must not let his mental condition become known to the men of Mars around us; and so, instead of replying to his question, I turned to Thorwald and asked him if he could tell us how the moon had landed us so easily on their planet.

In answer he gave it as his opinion that as the moon came rus.h.i.+ng toward them so swiftly it compressed the air in its path to such a degree that it acted as a cus.h.i.+on, preventing a collision and sending the moon bounding back over the path by which it had come. Probably at the moment when it was nearest the surface, we had fallen off into the ocean.

The rebound, he supposed, was not sufficient to carry it beyond the attraction of the planet, and so it poised itself and began to make a revolution around Mars in its old-fas.h.i.+oned way.

Thorwald told us we had taken the best possible time to visit them, for Mars had not been so near the earth before in a great while.

Our new acquaintances were from nine to ten feet tall and proportionately large every other way, so that they appeared quite monstrous to us. But they were agile and even graceful in their movements, while in manner they were so gentle and pleasing that we recognized at once their high culture.

The vessel was soon under way and made rapid progress, and though our voyage was not very long, it proved to be an exceedingly profitable one to the doctor and me, for we learned more, through conversation with our new friends, about the history and condition of Mars than we could have gained in any other way. The men were all kind to us and seemed to be all equally able to impart information, but most of our intercourse was with Thorwald. He gave us much of his time, at intervals as he could be spared from work, for every man helped at the service of the s.h.i.+p. There seemed to be no system of leaders.h.i.+p, but all appeared to know what was to be done, and did it without orders and without clas.h.i.+ng.

As we entered into conversation about the earth and Mars, I was surprised to find the doctor taking his full share in it with his usual intelligence. His questions and answers were all so pertinent that I should have supposed his mind was entirely unaffected, had I not known to the contrary. When I saw he could hold his own so well, I determined to take the first opportunity when we were alone to ask him again who Mona was.

CHAPTER VI

A REMARKABLE PEOPLE.

The conversation with our new friends was not all on one side, for we had many questions to answer about the earth, the Martian mind showing as great a thirst for knowledge as ours. One of the first things Thorwald said after we had settled down to a good talk was:

”But, Doctor, your little head is so full of thought that it seems to me you ought not to have been surprised to find us so large here. You knew before you came that Mars is much smaller than the earth and, therefore, the attraction of gravitation being less, that everything can grow more easily. Things may as well be one size as another if only they are well adapted to each other, and we would never have known we were large or that you were small had we not been brought together. In the sight of Him who made both the earth and Mars, and fas.h.i.+oned one for you and the other for us, we are neither great nor small. In fact, size is never absolute but only relative.”

”That is very clear to us now,” said the doctor, ”and I promise not to be surprised again, even when I walk the streets of your cities and see you in your houses.”

”Then, Doctor,” said I, ”if we had found inhabitants on the moon what great folks they must have seemed to us.”