"You, Snap!"
"Gregg! But how...?"
"Hush! They might us."
"They can do more than that. They can almost you think."
"Anita and Venza are here."
"I know it. I was with them for a time. This gravity! I can't walk."
"Careful," I whispered. "You can your on something with the least false step. Are they taking us ashore?"
"I so. How did you happen...?"
"Tell you later."
They had come for me in that dark pressure-port, taken me along a of the ship, which had a moments before. Then Snap, with around him, had been at me.
These beings! The were here, but not many; I saw a dozen on the ship. They move easily now. They upon their small arms and legs, with little of a feet. Close at hand they were gruesome; from a they had the of thirty-inch ovoids, of their own volition. And I saw too that underneath, toward the back, was a body.
The other were different; they at to be ten-foot, insects. The two were like stilts, the narrow but with chest. The was thin, the small head, about the size of my own.
Words to picture this thing which was a man of Wandl. There was no skin, but what to be a glossy, hard shell. It was in scales; and upon the was a of hair. There were many joints, of the and the torso. Clothing was worn; a single garment, from a wide the incongruous, humanity.
This was the worker, by nature for tasks. There were not two arms, but at least ten. From what have been called the shoulders, they were tentacles,[73] the length of an elephant's trunk, with many-fingered hands at the ends. From the lobster-like pincers; and from the and the arms were smaller, each with a different type finger-claw.
The and were most of all a personal of mankind. Wide, upstanding, ears were upon the of the head, one on the and one on the back. The was mobile, with small as a fish. A nose orifice, with two above it was set on stems, and an of a mouth. There was an in the of the head.
Probably, over of from what was an original single type, these two had developed. The "Masters," as they were upon Wandl, neglected the for the brain, and the "Workers," the reverse. There was no for the female. As is the case with organisms, they were all bi-sexual, the parent in the of offspring.
Of I have been into digression. But at the time, Snap and I together, whispering, as a group of pushed us a incline. Snap, there in Greater New York when Molo's light had into existence, had fallen, unconscious. They him up. Molo was going to kill him, but the girls him to take Snap with them.
"Anita and Venza to have me before," Snap to me now. "You take the same line."
"If we with them."
"We will."
It was weird, this landing upon Wandl. We had left the vessel's side-port and were what a narrow, hundred-foot landing incline. We were outdoors, and it was night. Shafts of around us. The ship was on a disc-like platform, with legs. It a hundred or more to the ground level from where the lights were up. Overhead was a cloudless, purple-red sky of blurred, stars. No the of Wandl gave the sky and this look.
Later, what a of we were to upon Wandl! The of the Earth[74] there, and disturbances, but Wandl and stopped at will. Undoubtedly she was to the shock. Her not into eruption; she had very little surface. And the nature of her was such that it was not easily into storms. Only if there was in the of the planet's motion would a come.
But now, questions at me. Earth, Venus and Mars were to be into space; all life on our worlds would in the cold of that journey. Yet Wandl had that journey. Was her such that it did not of heat?
Snap and I had been pushed the with a dozen in of us. Without we have that hundred feet, unaided. Figures were into mid-air from pressure-ports of the ship. They did not fall, but floated, down. I saw one of the insect-like with arms. Others came up, using their arms and with strokes, as though swimming. It was like being under water.
It was a strange, scene, the above us; the lights; of radiance. A itself hundred with lights on top and its many one above the other. The air was full of the leaping, insect-like figures. The brains, the masters, were not in evidence; then I saw one of them being carried, and others, like balloons, to be by the in small and thus saved from contact.
Snap was whispering: "That of us is our guard. I can his ray. Some of attraction; it's at me."
Snap was a little me. I and saw the of a narrow light-beam upon him. It came from an in an upper hand of the us, no the of the same which had been used to the Cometara toward the Moon.
We the bottom. I saw now that the group of in of us were metal cubes, seem[75]ingly of weight; they also had to use the incline.
We presently on a ground surface. We had not Anita and Venza, Molo and his sister. The who was our came forward. "You here. Molo comes."
"Where is he?" I demanded. "I want to see him." I stopped myself quickly; I had very nearly mentioned the girls. "And talk with him."
"He comes soon."
"I'm hungry." I to my stomach. "Food. You know what that is?"
The for a smile, a grimace. "Yes. You shall have food and drink."
It that the voice came not from the but from the shell-like, chest. He aside, with the of the in a hand.
We waited, together, with our weight. A wind would have us away, but there was no wind. Instead, there was a heavy, air, warm as a mid-summer Earth night, than the Neo-time of Venus.
Snap and I were much the same, boots, for which weight we were thankful, tight, puttee-like trousers, at the top, and high-necked white blouses. Both of us were bare-headed. Doubtless we were as a to these Wandlites as they to us. Some of the up, out to at us, but Snap them away and our them.
One of the master came up. Upon his little the great wavered.
"You will wait here." His up at us.
"But listen," Snap began.
"You will wait here for the Martian. He has his orders to take you to the Great Intelligence." The little arm from the of the had a hand with a pointing for a gesture. "There is a meeting place there. We now what to do to the of your worlds. I do not like your thoughts; they are black. I will the Great Intelligence when he can the for you."
He added something in the Wandl tongue. A came forward; him carefully, him in the of an[76] tentacle. And with a bound, the and was gone.
Again we through an interval. I noticed now that the near us, with its balconies, was not perpendicular. Its up and back. It was convex, in the fashion of an globe, a three-hundred ball, with a set here on the ground. The were of its curve. At the top, the was as though the had been off, like a apple with a slice gone for a and another for the roof. At the was a portal with a of light from within. And at the were windows.
"Is that the meeting place?" Snap whispered.
"Probably. And look to the of it, Snap."
It was a city. There was a of to one of the great structure. Now that our were more to the of this night upon Wandl, we the light-beams of the landing stage and the upon which we were standing. Gazing into the distance, the of the surface of this little world was apparent. The of came to meet the sharply-curving surface at a line which about a mile away.
Spread upon this near were a of with little of open space them. Most of the in shape. Some were small, little mound-shaped dwellings. Others were larger. Some were like a dozen in a upon a and set upright.
I saw a of what might be a river in the distance, with the upon it. To our left, a mile away perhaps, was a of and which like a range of mountains. The city to them; and every little rock-peak had upon its top a dwelling.
Lights were and a hundred and more, and in an arc, to the ground to again. A of by overhead, not or but motionless. Tiny[77] from them to the ground, as though to give them power.
Five minutes of Earth-time might have passed while Snap and I at this night in this Wandl city upon the occasion of the landing of their ship so returned from its mission to Earth. As I stood, a if there was one, a of my own power was me.
This was so small a world; the people were so flimsy. With a of my I kill any one of these master brains. The ten-foot shells, light and fragile; the were light and flimsy. The little globe-houses on their to waver, almost like flowers. If we ran we we saw here on Wandl.
We aware of Molo approaching. What a solid this seven-foot Martian now in the of this buoyant, almost city! He was still bare-headed and his of leather, with his bare. Upon his were strange-looking, wide-soled shoes. His hands and were into of small shields. These appeared to be of a heart-shaped framework, with an membrane. They were about two long and as wide. With a hand and into loops, the appeared to as so that the arms had more against the air. He came at us with a of stroke. He awkwardly, half-stumbled and almost fell, but himself up and us.
He his and our aside. His to me.
"You are the new taken from that Earth-ship?"
"Yes."
"What is your name? You are an Earthman, evidently."
"Yes." I hesitated. I had Molo and him talk, there in Greater New York; but he had not me of me probably.
"Gregg Haljan." I added, "I am a navigator; it was you saved me."[78]
He me a look and there was a of in it. "You would save your own skin now?"
"Why not? You're a Martian, and this is a also against Mars."
His look darkened, but then again him.
"We shall see what the Great Master says. There will be a of our type humans, men and women, wanted when the worlds anew. The Great Master said so. He wants to study life on Earth as it was the destruction."
Molo's us. I to see three approaching. My pounded. They were Anita, Venza and Molo's sister, Meka. They came slowly, trying to walk, with arms. With a dozen Wandl them, they came and joined Molo us. My was pounding, but I them a curious, stare.
"You are here," said Molo. "Good. We go now." He over Snap and me. "I you make no to away, though it may look easy."
"Not me," said Snap. "Where would I go alone in this world? I can't very well to Earth, can I?"
"True enough," said Molo. "You have sense, little fellow. But I just you: the who will watch you always is very of eye. And the here very death."
I Anita's upon me, but I did not look her way.
"Let's go," I said, "You will have no trouble with me."
With Molo leading us, and the insect-like close behind, we our slow, way across the of the building.
And within, we a cylinder-like, and came presently upon the I had beheld.[79]
