 6. Radio plays its part. I have already told you how dismayed I was at the horror displayed by the pretty cupion when she was led into my presence. It is neither flattering nor reassuring to have a lady register fear and disgust upon seeing you for the first time. It is even worse if the lady happens to be the most divinely beautiful creature you have ever seen, and still more unbearable if she happens to furnish the one human touch on an entire planet. Yet, was she to be blamed? I was heavily bearded, whereas Malcupians, so Dago said, were their hair on the top half of their heads only. I had particularly mushroomy growths, my ears, on the sides of my face. I had one finger too few on each hand and one toe too few on each foot, and I was devoid of antennae. All together I must have looked like a strange and ferocious wild beast, all the more repulsive because of its resemblance to a cupion being, and if I had then known what I do now as to the reason why she had been brought to my quarters I should have been even more sympathetic with her viewpoint. But, although her horror was entirely justified, this fact in no way mitigated my chagrin. With great care I drafted a letter of apology which I sent to her by Dago, only to have her return it unopened with the statement that cupian ladies had nothing to do with the lower beasts. Oh, if I could only talk, if she could only hear my words, I felt sure that I could break down her hostility. How did these creatures communicate anyhow? They undoubtedly had some means, for had I not seen Dago halt Satan when the latter had been about to kill me, and had I not seen Dago place on paper the questions which the four professors had wished to ask me, and then I remembered the speculations of some earth scientist, which had been running in the newspaper shortly before my departure from that sphere. The opinion had been expressed that insects communicate by very short length radio waves. I had made a note to investigate this subject later, but at that time I had been too engrossed with my machine for the transmission of matter to be able to give the question of insect speech more than a mere passing thought. It had not crossed my mind again until, immediately after my sad meeting with the beautiful cupian, I was rocking my brains for some means of talking with her. The very thing. How strange that I, a radio engineer whose life was the capture and subjugation of the Hertzian wave, should have missed the solution for so long. The solution certainly was plausible, if fireflies can produce a 95% efficient light, and if electric eels can generate a current sufficient to kill a horse, why should not an insect be able to send out and receive radio messages over short distances? If animals can create light and electricity in their bodies, why can they not create radios? Perhaps Dago could enlighten me. Dago, wrote I. Only I called him by his number, 334-2-18, instead of Dago. Can ant men and cupians communicate in any way other than writing? Of course they can, he replied. They use their antennae to talk and to hear. Or to send and receive. I don't know just which way to translate the words which he used, but I caught his meaning. In my world, I wrote, people send with their mouths and receive with their ears. Let me show you how. So speaking a few words aloud, I wrote on my pad, that constitutes our kind of sending. But he shook his head, for he had not received a single word. He then sent, and of course this time it was I who failed to receive. But at least we had made a beginning in interplanetary communication, for we had each tried to communicate. Was it not strange that all this time, while I had been accusing the inhabitants of this planet of deafness and dumbness, they had been making the same accusation against me? At this moment the electric lights went on, and they gave me an inspiration. Pointing at them I wrote, where are those things made? Is there a department at the university devoted to that subject? He answered, there is a department of electricity at Munai, with an electrical factory attached to the department. That, I said, was my line of work on earth. Do you suppose that you could take me to Munai? If you could, I believe that I can construct electrical antennae which will turn your kind of message into my kind, and vice versa, thus enabling us actually to talk together. I doubt very much, he replied, whether anything you do will ever enable you to talk or to hear, for you have no antennae. Of course no one can either talk or hear without antennae, but there will certainly be no harm in giving you a chance to try. So a petition was drawn up and signed by Dago and me, humbly begging the Council of Twelve to assent to my transfer. In due course of time the Professor of Anatomy, of the four professors who had so often examined me, visited us again, bringing with him a new ant man, the Professor of Electricity. They were both very skeptical of my theories, but were glad to assist in obtaining my transfer, as that would give them better facilities for studying me, and also an opportunity to exhibit me to the students. There seemed to be some doubt, however, as to the advisability of taking me away from the beautiful girl. For the reason of this I could not guess at the time, as I was sure that the further away I was, the better it would certainly suit her. Before the two ant professors left, I wrote for them the still unanswered question. What conclusions have been reached as to the sort of animal I am? They replied, The majority opinion is that you must have come from some other continent overseas. The presence of the boiling ocean, which entirely surrounds continental porous, has prevented us Perovians from ever exploring the rest of our world, and even the airplanes do not dare penetrate the steam clouds which overhang the sea. But there is a tradition that a strange race, something like the cupians, live beyond the waves. You must be one of that race, since it is inconceivable that you could have come from another planet. A minority, however, are of the opinion that passage across the boiling sea is just as absurd, no more and no less than a trip through interplanetary space, and this minority are inclined to give credence to the theory that you come from Minos, the planet next further from the sun. In other words, the earth. All this conversation was in writing, of course, and was very slow and tedious. From their statements I gathered that the Professor of Anatomy was one of the minority, so I gave him some evidence to support his point of view. Things way more where I come from, wrote I, and in my world a year consists of 265 days. This was, of course, in duodecimal notation. The 265 in Perovian notation means 2 times 144 plus 6 times 12 plus 5, which equals 365 in earth notation. Because of the 12 fingers, the cupians count in twelves, and the Formians have adopted the same system. My statements about the earth impressed him greatly, and confirmed his belief that I was a Minorian. Then the Professors withdrew after promising to assist in trying to obtain my transfer. While waiting for the decision of the Council of 12, time would have hung heavy on my hands if Dago had not thoughtfully procured for me a book entitled, Electricity for the Newly Hatched. Of course I needed no instruction in elementary electricity, nor even in advanced electricity, but I did need an introduction to the technical terms and electrical symbols of the ant language, and this the book gave me. The Council were a long time in deciding, for many important matters were pending, and my petition had to wait its regular turn. At last, however, Dago brought me the joyful news that my transfer to the University of Munai had been approved, and that he was to be permitted to accompany me. I saw the beautiful girl only once more before my departure. She came to my courtyard to pick flowers, as she had regularly done before the fatal day of our meeting. But this time she noticed my presence at the window, and hastily left the garden with her head tossed high and a disdainful sneer on her lips. This made me more determined than ever to make good in my new venture. The day of departure finally arrived, and Dago and I prepared to make the trip. I took Tabi, while Dago took a strange animal of a sort I had never seen before. I had never known that Dago had a pet, but have since learned that an excess of pets is one of the worst vices of the Formians. In fact, one of their professors, who has devoted his life to the subject, reports that the Formians possess some fifteen hundred species of domesticated animals, many of which do not exist at all in a wild state, and most of which have absolutely no practical use. Dago's little beast was a math lab, closely resembling a rabbit in size and appearance, except that it had antennae instead of ears, and had brick-red fur. These creatures are very docile and affectionate, but breed rapidly, and thus are not so expensive nor so much esteemed as some of the rarer varieties of beetles such as Tabi. A closely related animal, slightly larger, black in color and not so tame, is kept for its flesh and also for its eggs, which are a staple article of Perovian diet. In their wild state both species are preyed upon by a fierce carnivore named the Wufus, so that their great fecundity is all that saves them from absolute extinction. Munai lies about one hundred stads east of Watusa, the city where I had been residing. The journey was made in a kerkool, a two-wheeled automobile whose balance is maintained by a pair of rapidly rotating gyroscopes, driven by the same motor which propels the vehicle. The fuel, as I later learned, is a synthetic liquid resembling alcohol and supposed to be extremely poisonous. There were no seats, for antmen do not sit, but a chair for me had thoughtfully been added to the equipment. The chauffeur, or curco, as they call him, wore goggles very much like those used on the earth, and similar pairs were provided for dago and me. The trip was easily and pleasantly made in about one Perovian hour. The way lay through rolling fields, where grazed herds of green cows guarded by huge spiders, and through fragrant woods where I saw many strange animals, taken unawares by the swift approach of our kerkool. Many questions were on the tip of my pencil, but the conversation was difficult, for the motion of the kerkool jiggled my pad. At Munai there was a large crowd of antmen awaiting our arrival, and mingled with them were many cupians, the first that I had seen other than the girl at Watusa. They were a handsome race, and I began to wonder what chance I could possibly have in competition with them as an aspirant for the hand of one of their women, even if I were to shave, grow wings and antennae, and cut off my ears. Their complexions ranged from pink and white to tan, and their hair, sometimes close and sometimes curly, ran through all the colors of human hair. The ant professor of electricity met us at the city gate, and introduced me to the crowd with a few inaudible remarks, which were received in silence. Then he showed me to my quarters, where I had a chance to wash up, put on a clean toga, and take a much needed rest. That evening a dinner was given in my honor at a large banquet hall. At the head table stood the president of the Ant University, the committee of four antmen who had examined me so often, the ant professor of electricity, a visiting cupian professor, dago, and myself. At the other tables stood other and lesser members of the faculty and students, both cupian and formian. I was the signusher of all eyes, and, so dago informed me in writing, the subject of most of the speeches. I had to take his word for it that there were speeches, for, so far as I could tell, not a word was said. I could not even watch the speaker rise and give his talk for all of you who were already standing. All together it was a very dull occasion for me, in spite of my being the lion of the evening. Besides, I was eager to be done with the preliminaries and get busy with my real work. The food was plenteous and varied. Among the dishes, which I remember, were a highly seasoned stew of the red lobster-like parasite which afflicts the aphids, minced wild math lab with math lab egg sauce, and something resembling mushrooms only not so rich. Several of the cupian maidens in the audience made eyes at me. Not that they thought me prepossessing with my big black beard, but rather in much the same spirit that would introduce an earth maiden to flirt with a gorilla in a cage, just to see what effect it would have on the beast. It had absolutely no effect on me, for the picture of the girl at Watusa was ever present in my mind. So I was glad when the banquet was over and I could go to my room and my bed and pleasant dreams in which a cupian damsel and I walked hand in hand through a rosette future. No guard was placed over me at Munai, but Dago shared my room. The next morning I was introduced into the laboratory. The critical point of my career had arrived. Was I to succeed and become a nine days wonder and perhaps distinguish myself sufficiently to find favor in the eyes of the beautiful girl at Watusa, or was I to fail and return discredited, heaven only knew, but time would tell. The aunt superintendent of the laboratory assigned me a bench, a kit of tools, and two cupian slaves as assistants. He was most differential and did all that he could to help me, but my handicaps were many. I was not versed in their electrical machinery. I was unaccustomed to their tools, which looked for all the world as though they had been copied from the monstrosities, which appear weekly in the official Gazette of the United States Patent Office. All my conversations with either supervisors or subordinates had to be carried on in writing, in a strange language which I had only just recently and just barely mastered. But worst of all, most of my time had to be devoted to appearing before classes as a horrible example of what nature can do in an off moment to being examined both physically and in writing by committees of scientists, to entertainments staged in my honor and sight seeing about the city. My hosts were determined to do everything in their power to make me enjoy my visit, when if they had but known it my only desire was to devote myself to my self appointed task so that I could speedily return to Watusa, which held all that was dear to me on this planet. From time to time I would inquire about her of Dago, and he would assure me that she was due to stay indefinitely at Watusa and would certainly be there upon my return. In spite of vexatious interruptions my work gradually progressed. I found that although all electric current on Poros is delivered from dynamos of a multicellinoidal oscillating type, and although batteries are unknown, yet the Perovians do possess efficient storage batteries in which a large amount of current can be stored in a very small space. These I used for my A batteries. For my B and C batteries I constructed dry cells to the amazement of my associates who could not figure out where the current came from. Even though my main experiment failed, this feat of plucking electricity out of nowhere as it were would make my fame secure on Poros. The sightseeing trips included the various factories, each under the control of the appropriate university department. For the Formians are well skilled in all the arts, although the fine work has to be done by cupian slaves whose fingers are more efficient than the claws of the ant men. Only practical arts are employed in Formia, although the cupians go in for painting, sculpture, architecture, etc. I slung the three batteries on a belt about my waist. This belt also carried a tube and a tuning apparatus of a particularly sensitive type which I had designed on earth and for which I now have a United States patent pending, unless my patent attorneys have abandoned it through want of word from me. I now adapted this design to an unusually short wavelength in order to comply with what I remembered to be the speculations of earth scientists on the method of insect communication. My tubes were of the instructotype invented by me on earth, or they never could have withstood my subsequent adventures. From a skull cap I suspended two earphones and a microphone, and on top of the cap I mounted a small pancake coil. The microphone gave me more trouble than any other part of the set, as carbon of the exact sort required seemed hard to get on Poros. But finally, after testing several hundred other materials, I hit upon a very common light silvery metal which did just as well. This metal I am unable to identify, but I think that it is one of the platinum group more probably osmium. I spent four months of earth time in the laboratories of Munai, growing more and more homesick for Wautusa. If it had not been for the counseling assurances of the faithful dago, I do not think that I could have stood it, so many were the interruptions to my work. Of all the diversions offered me, only one interested me at all, and that was the zoo, or gurul, i.e. animal place, as they termed it, and the most amusing part of the gurul was the monkey house. Of course there are no monkeys on Poros, but I refer to this place as a monkey house because that is what it would correspond to on earth. Here were kept specimens of all the wild species of ant known on the planet, except in size and color I could discover no features which would distinguish any of them from the ant men. One day, seeing my interest, dago wrote down for me, some of the species are very intelligent, so much so that they were formally bred in large quantities for slaves before the Treaty of Munai supplied Formia with a superior substitute. Did it ever occur to anyone, I asked, that these creatures might be either immature or degenerate Formians? He was horrified. These wild ants, he explained, are the basis of one of the great intellectual disputes of this planet, namely, as to whether or not we are merely a superior species of ants, or whether we are an entirely distinct type of being specially created and not a part of the animal kingdom at all. Most of the university men hold that we are related to these brutes, and this is likewise the more modern view. But fortunately there is an influential body of opinion high in the politics of this country which considers that such a view is too degrading to admit of acceptance, and accordingly the Council of Twelve is even now seriously considering a law intended to prohibit the teaching of this dangerous doctrine. How about the cupians, I asked. Have they any such evolutionary problems? No, he wrote. Fortunately for them they have no problem of evolution, for they are the only non-egg-laying creatures on Poros, and so do not regard themselves even as mammals. Where had I wondered to myself whether it was not probable that it was this distinctiveness of the cupians which had inspired the jealous formians to deny their own obvious kinship to the ants? In addition to the gurul, I frequently visited the stuffed specimens in the Museum of their Department of Biology. The absence of any birds, either here or at the gurul, perplexed me, until I reflected that birds are merely a specialized form of flying lizards on my own earth, and that their occurrence, even on earth, was merely a not-to-have-been-expected accident. Creatures similar to pterodactyls were among the extinct species on exhibit at Munai. But birds had never been known on Poros, although I could have sworn to having seen some sort of small bird flitting in tandem pairs in the woods on my second day on the planet. But to get back to radio. By the way, that is how I always felt during my trips to the gurul and my other diversions. Oh, to get back to radio! One of the cupian slaves who was assisting me turned out to be Prince Tauron, second nephew of King Q-12. Tauron's older brother, Your Eye, was the crown prince, as the king was a widower and childless, except for a daughter, Leela. Tauron's term of slavery was nearly completed and he was anxious to return to Cupidia, where a day's work was only two parts, or Peruvian hours, instead of the five as prevailed here. Think of the degradation of having a prince of the royal house of Cupidia held as a slave in the factories of an alien race. Think of the further degradation involved in the fact that no one saw anything improper in the situation. They even celebrated annually as peace-day the anniversary of the treaty which had imposed this indignity upon them. Tauron, I wrote one day, would not war be infinitely better than such a peace? Yes, he admitted. There is some sentiment among the younger men of my country against the rule of the antmen, but the antmen are all powerful and promptly suppressed treason with an iron hand, so I am afraid that our cause is hopeless. As the time for the completion of my experiment drew near, I thought of my massive beard and I decided that it must be removed before I again face the beautiful girl at Wattusa. Also my hair needed attention. Cupidian hair does not have to be cut and does not grow at all on the face, which must be a great convenience to them. With the aid of Tauron and a pair of wire clippers, I managed to trim my hair to a respectable state, leaving long locks, however, to obscure my ears. I also clipped my beard as close as possible and then finished the job with a sharp laboratory knife of the sort of copper, commonly but erroneously called, tempered, on earth, and some lubricating grease. And behold, with a minor exception of wings, fingers, toes, and antennae, I was as presentable appearing a cupien as anyone would wish to see. Thereafter I kept the knife and shaved daily, later making myself real soap for the purpose. The change in my appearance resulted in more delay, for I was immediately exhibited to all the classes again and was forced to write a long essay on haircuts and shaving as practiced upon my own planet, Minos. Interest in me had lagged somewhat and I had been given more time with my work, but now interest revived again and interrupted me considerably. Nevertheless, my apparatus was at last completed and I was ready for the test. The next day my work was to be inspected by a committee of ant-scientists, so with trembling fingers I adjusted the controls and bade torons speak to me. The result was silence. END OF CHAPTER VI A hunting trip. My radio set was a failure. I could not hear Toran and he could not hear me. All my labor of four months in the laboratories of Mooney had gone to waste. Perhaps the Peruvian scientists were right and the Earth scientists were wrong and insects did not communicate by radio waves after all. Yet I was unwilling to give up. So I begged Toran to talk in as many different ways as he could and at last was rewarded by a slight squeak in my earphones. Then I myself tried, talking now loud, now soft, now high, now low until at last when I yelled a particularly high pitch Toran reported that he too had heard. The Earth scientists were vindicated. Communication was established. The sounds had been received and sent at the very shortest wavelengths within the powers of my apparatus so I now determined to reduce that wavelength still further. Late into the night I worked frantically and Toran catching some of my contagious enthusiasm worked with me. At first I experimented with various sizes and shapes of coil antennae but I was confronted with weak signals of short wavelength. Any change in my apparatus which reduced my wavelength also reduced my receptivity and any change which increased my receptivity likewise increased my wavelength. So I was between the devil and the deep sea. Finally I tried a condenser antenna without plates, two rods, and then we were rewarded by speech, clear, distinct, and unmistakable. We ceased our work, exhausted, but before turning in for the night Toran taught me how to say in Peruvian language the following sentence, the planet Minos sends to the planet Poros and informs Poros that Minos was right. Communication between Peruvians is electrical. I told him that my name was Miles S. Cabot, a fact which I had previously had no means of imparting to anyone. Then we separated for the night. The next morning the committee were astounded at my success, although I was most anxious to get back to Watusa at once. The committee insisted on my remaining and demonstrating my apparatus and this took several weeks more. But at last I was permitted to return. On my arrival I was informed that the girl was still there, so at once I requested an interview. At first she refused to receive me, but Dogo who acted as go-between finally succeeded in arousing her interest by hinting to her that the scientist at Mooney had discovered that I was really a cupian after all, and a very handsome one at that, now that they had succeeded in completely removing my former deformities. So at last she reluctantly consented. Apparently she had heard no news of the great-doings at Mooney. I planned for this meeting with even more care and application than I had spent upon my radio apparatus. Everything that Dogo and I were to say and do was carefully rehearsed. My speeches, of course, had to be learned by rote for I had as yet no opportunity to study the spoken language of Poros. We built a headframe of heavy wire concealed in my hair and arranged the phones so that they would lie unobserved under the locks which covered my ears. The batteries, tubes, tuning apparatus, and one rod were on my back carried by a belt and hidden beneath my toga. The other rod and a dummy mate to it were fixed to my forehead and camouflaged to resemble cupian antenna. My small microphone was located between my collar bones where the front edge of my toga just concealed it. I could have mounted both of my real rods on my forehead but that would have reduced the capacity enough so as to have increased my wavelength out of the required range. Hence the seemingly unnecessary complication of my arrangement. The need for tuning apparatus requires some explanation. Perovians tuned for the slight difference in individual wavelength by moving their antenna. But this of course was not practicable to me so I employed for this purpose a microscopically small variable condenser on my belt. To complete my disguise we even went to the extent of fastening artificial wings to my back so that except for the peculiarity of my hands and feet I looked and sounded like a real cupian. Then we were ushered into the presence of the lady. She was a beautiful and regal figure as she sat poised upon a richly upholstered dais garbed in the grecian simplicity of the cupian national costume. In her arms snuggled a pet math lab which I noted with a twinge of jealousy. She was unmistakenly taken aback by the change in my appearance and only a hasty glance at my hands and feet convinced her that she was not being made the victim of a practical joke. But she quickly recovered her dignity and frigidly awaited our advances. Doggo opened the conversation. Gracious lady he said, Myles Cabot and I pay our most humble respects. As you can see he is now a full fledged cupian with a minor exception of fingers and toes. The object of this interview is that he may reassure you and apologize for the fright which he caused you when last you two met. Then I stepped forward. In spite of my transformation she cringed a bit I must admit. Evidently she still remembered my horrible beard for she kept studying my face inquiringly. I spoke my memorized piece as follows. Gracious lady I am your everlasting slave from whom you need fear no harm. And then she spoke. The sweetest most tinkling silvery voice that I have ever heard. Somehow I had known that her voice must be like that. Of course I did not yet understand the spoken language of this planet but I stood enchanted. Doggo afterwards wrote out for me the substance of her remarks which were that she was thrown in contact with me against her will but that if I comported myself circumspectly she would condescend to tolerate my acquaintance or worse to that effect. Never once did her cold manner relax and yet I fancied the merest twinkle of interest in her heaven blue eyes. We withdrew fully satisfied that an opening had been made. Doggo at once wanted to report the occurrence to headquarters whereas I insisted that the affair concerned no one but myself. Why should headquarters care? I asked. His reply astounded me. It took paper and pencil and a great deal of explaining before I finally grasped the horrible fact that the Coupian girl had been brought to Watusa so that the Formians might breed us like cattle in an attempt to perpetuate my peculiar species. No wonder that she still revolted from me in spite of my more presentable appearance. Teach me to talk, I pleaded on paper, in order that I may explain to her that she has nothing to fear from me and that I will guard her honor with my life. Doggo cannot understand my sentiments, but he had enough friendship for me so that he respected them on my account. Accordingly, he set to work instructing me, chiefly by making me read aloud and take dictation. The language turned out to be fanatic after all. In fact, it is very like Pittman's shorthand although not quite so compact. As I already knew the written language pretty thoroughly, I made rapid progress in the radiated language so that in a very few weeks I became really proficient. Now I learned the names Coupian and Formian and a great many other words which I have used earlier in this narrative, although only the written forms were known to me at that time. I was now able to write my name phonetically. Here, before, I had used for my name the plural of the character for their unit of measure, stad, a poor pun for miles. Every few days I saw the lady briefly. At first our conversations were very formal, consisting on my part almost entirely of set speeches committed to memory, but gradually I became able to understand her and to improvise a bit. One afternoon, about 50 days after my return from Mooney, I said to Dogo, doubtless apropos of something that was in my lesson, tell me, have you any name of your own? I have called you Dogo right along and you haven't seemed to mind it so it has never occurred to me before to ask your real name. No, he replied, I have no name. That is when I felt highly honored when you called me one. Coupians have names, but we Formians, except in the case of our Queen Formus, have merely numbers. These numbers are in three parts, the first part representing the year of hatching, the second, the month of hatching, and the third, the serial registration number of the individual. Thus, my number 344-2-18, I was the 20th Formian hatched in the second month of the 484th year following the Great Peace. Let me explain here that a year on poros is made up of 20 months of 12 days each. A day is 12 parts, or about 22 and a half earth hours, so that a part is about one hour and 52 and a half minutes of earth time. I would have asked him then what was the meaning of the other and smaller numbers on his back, but I was more interested in learning about the beautiful lady. It was strange that I had never asked her name of either herself or Doggo, but I had always called her Gracious Lady with never a thought of any further title. If Coupians have names, what then is the name of the Gracious Lady? At this question, Doggo's antenna quivered with suppressed excitement. Never ask that question of anyone, he adjured me. Do not even ask the lady herself. There are reasons of state against your being told. To relieve this strained situation, I changed the subject, saying, oh, by the way, it has occurred to me to ask the cause of the accident to our airplane on the day of my capture. Where at, Doggo, mollified, explaining as follows, our airplanes are stabilized entirely by gyroscopes. I interjected, on my planet Minos, we depend upon the shape and design of the wings. Be that as it may, Doggo continued, we use gyroscopes. On the particular occasion in question, the gyroscopes broke down, thus crippling the plane as completely as if it had lost a wing, and so bringing it to the ground. As we were on the subject, I asked, what is the reason for the peculiar shape of your flying machines? For I had noticed that they were built with long flexible tails, so that the general appearance was that of a dragonfly. Oh, Doggo explained, the tail is the fighting element of a Peruvian airship. The green cows, whose milk furnishes such an important part of the diet of us Formians, are preyed upon by the enormous bees, such as the one who fell into the same spider web with you shortly after your arrival on this planet. These bees are chiefly noted for their honey, and for the peculiar shrill noise which they radiate, on which account they are called whistling bees. Airplanes exist for the sole purpose of combating these predatory creatures. By one of the terms of the Treaty of Boone, the Koopians are not allowed to possess planes, and accordingly, all of the policing of the air has to be done by the Imperial Air Navy of the Formians. This city, Watusi, where we are now staying, is the barracks for the Air Navy, and contains nothing else which accounts for the absence of visiting Koopians here. I am a high-ranking naval officer, an eclat, whereas the one you call Satan is only a putah. Thus explained Doggo, I gathered that the ranks of eclat and putah corresponded respectively to Commander and Lieutenant Junior Grade on earth. I, having done my share to relieve the tension, caused by my asking of Doggo, the name of the Koopian girl, he now, in turn, invited me to go on a bee hunt, which I accepted purely for politeness's sake, as I did not care to travel far from the lady, but perhaps such a diversion would be just as well, until I had made more progress in mastering the spoken language. So about a week after the conversation above related, I embarked with two young officers for a part of the country, where it had been reported that several bees were praying upon the flocks. Doggo remained behind at Watusi because of certain important military duties. The trip took almost a day, and we put up for the night at a small farming village. The farmer ants displayed a true rustic interest in my peculiarities, which the two young bar putahs, or ensigns, took great pleasure in showing off. My fame had evidently reached this community, but with it, a myth to the effect that my electrical antenna could discharge not only speech, but also death-dealing lightning at will. I treasured this piece of information. It might come in handy sometime. Early the next morning, we started forth to the field where the most recent bovisides had taken place, and concealed our plane in some woods by the edge of the field. We had not long to wait, for soon we were rewarded by a whistling sound at which we sailed out to meet the enemy. The nation's air navies, grappling in the central blue of which Tennyson sings, can't hold a candle to a battle between an ant-flyer and a whistling bee. At the start, we circled each other, each looking for an opening, and trying to get on the back of the other. In this game, the airplane had a certain advantage for which it was provided with grappling hooks, both above and below, and could work its tail either up or down to strike at its antagonist, whereas the bee, of course, had legs only on the bottom side and could bend his sting only downward. Thus, even if the bee should alight on top of the plane, the fight would remain fairly even, but if the plane should alight on top of the bee, it would be all over for the poor bee. In addition, the plane had its fuel tank and its control levers located way to the front, as far as possible, out of reach of the sting of the bee. But the bee had the advantage of unified control. That is to say, one of the ant-insins flew the machine, while the other manipulated the flying tail, whereas the bee controlled both his sting and his wings with a single brain. Round and round we circled, first the plane on top and then the bee. The two young ant men were accomplished flyers, so that loop the loops, tail spins, direct drops, and other maneuvers were possible, and it took all these expedients to elude our antagonist. But at last the bee made some slight misplay, and instantly we were up on his back with the grappling hooks, sunk in his sides, and in a moment our fighting tail was driven home and the battle was over. The grappling hooks were then released and the carcass cast to the ground. Upon our alighting, shortly thereafter, one of the ant men exclaimed, We certainly are in luck, for there is the bee's honeypot. And sure enough, there in front of us was a silk-lined opening in the ground, more than a yard in diameter. And now I learned whence came the honey, which the formians had frequently served me, for it seems that these huge bees, as largest horses, burrow into the ground to a depth of ten or twelve feet, line the hole with silk of their own spinning, and then use it as a reservoir for their most excellent honey. This, in spite of their coniferous proclivities, is almost identical to the honeys made by bees on earth. One of the bar putas now uncoiled a long hose from the airship and stuck the end into the honey reservoir while the other started up the motor. And soon we were filling one of our spare tanks with the luscious syrup of which there were about one hundred gallons in the hole. But we had made one mistake, for this was not the whole of our late victim, it belonged instead to another bee who suddenly appeared angrily on the scene. If we had not been warned by his whistling, we should have been out of luck. And as it was, we barely had time to scramble aboard and rise from the ground before he was upon us. Then began a repetition of our former fight, but with a difference as we soon noticed, for this bee was a master of aerial tactics. Once when we were nearly upon his back, he darted ahead and then rose and halted so that we nearly drove our ship into the point of his sting. But fortunately our pilot caught the idea of the maneuver almost before it was executed and quickly threw us into a left-hand spiral, thus not only escaping the deadly sting, but also giving the bee a bad bruise with one of our wings as we shot by. A move like this would, of course, be rendered entirely impossible by the steadying influence of the gyroscopes were it not for the fact that the control apparatus is so arranged that the gyroscopes maintain their position while the whole rest of the machine spirals around them. For a while thereafter we had the advantage and finally by a clever shift descended squarely upon the back of the bee. But just as our hooks were about to take hold, the bee again darted forward and looped in front of us turning over at the same time so that he was right side up above us. Then, as we passed under him, he dropped upon the front of our machine out of reach of our tail. My, but that was a well executed move, one of the bar putas exclaimed. I never saw a whistling bee do that before. Airmen are always appreciative of a clever opponent on poros as on earth and even in defeat. These were the last words my friend ever spoke for at that moment he was impaled by the enemy. The next stroke punctured the fuel tank, the other ant man jumped and the plane crashed to earth pinning me beneath it. I lay stunned for a few moments and then the angry bee bunned the wreck to one side, pulling me from beneath it and brandishing his sting above me preparatory to driving it into my vitals. End of Chapter 7 Section 8 OF AN EARTHMAN ON VENUS by Ralph Milne Farley This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by M. Bradley Peters An Earthman on Venus by Ralph Milne Farley Chapter 8 The Conspiracy Just as the sting was about to pierce my breast I recognized the bee. It was the same one which had been my companion in the spiderweb and which I had rescued. There was the leg stump and the scarred abdomen. What irony of faith that this bee should have now returned to kill me. Don't! I shrieked aloud. Was it for this that I saved you from the spider? And it almost seemed as though he heard me and understood me. For he stayed his rapier in mid-air. Then he recognized me too. At least he must have done so. For in no other way can I explain his sudden clemency. Instead of finishing his stroke, the bee withdrew his sting, gazed intently on me for several seconds, and then flew heavily away. Once more my life was saved. When I had recovered my breath, I struggled weakly to my feet and looked about me. The plane was a hopeless wreck. The impaled bar puta was still in his place at the levers. The one who had jumped was lying crushed and silent nearby. I was alone in a small open spot in the woods. After ascertaining that the crushed ant man was beyond all help, I started off in as nearly a straight direction as I could. Lining up first one pair of trees, and then another in order to keep from traveling in a circle. The absence of any direct sunlight made orientation very difficult. For without any shadows to judge by, it was impossible to tell north from south or east from west. Again, as on my second day on this planet, I noticed the peculiar fawn of the woods. And especially the strange birds which seemed to fly in tandem pairs. Finally, as I passed through a small clearing, a pair flew near me, and to my surprise, I found that it was not a pair at all, but rather a single animal. In fact, it was not a bird at all, but rather a reptile of some sort resembling a lizard with a wing where each leg should be, a veritable flying snake about three feet long. As this peculiar winged creature fluttered near and saw me, it uttered a shrill squeak and rushed at my head. The squeak was answered in various directions, and almost immediately several more flying snakes began to converge upon me from all sides. Luckily for me, there was a stout stick lying close at hand, and seizing this, I began to defend myself. More and more of the strange aerial snakes arrived, and soon I was surrounded by a swarm of them, all striving to strike at my head, regardless of my frantic attempts to beat them off. I was rapidly tiring from my efforts, when a diversion offered, in the form of a new enemy, a lavender-colored, hairless cat-like beast about the size of a large dog, which bounded into the clearing with a blood-curdling scream. Forgotten were the flying snakes as I clambered into a tree, just barely in time to escape this new onslaught, and forgotten apparently was I by them, for they scattered to the four winds of heaven, leaving me alone with the purple beast, which paced screaming beneath my tree. I felt perfectly safe where I sat, for the creature did not appear to be a climber, but its hideous howls were most annoying until I noticed that the noise came entirely from my headset, so I switched off the current, and instantly, all with silence. But even the silence and the comparative safety of the tree were not particularly pleasant. The beast was anything but pretty, resembling a mountain lion, except that it was lavender-colored and hairless, within ten-eye and webbed feet. So this was the wufus, of which I had heard so much, the most dreaded carnivore on all of Poros. One of these, it was said, was easily a match for three or four antmen, so what chance had I perched in my tree, if my captor chose to hang around until hunger and thirst should force me to descend? But this question was never answered, for, luckily for me, something else presently attracted the attention of the wufus, and it trotted off into the woods. I switched on my radio and heard its screams gradually fade in the distance. When all was silent again, I descended, picked up the line of trees which I had been following when I entered the clearing. Soon I came to another clearing. There in the center lay a crippled airplane, and beside it the dead body of a huge ant. It was my own plane. I had traveled in a circle after all. In despair, I sat down on the side of the airship. How was I ever going to get out of this woods? And then the fading daylight gave me a clue. To one side, the silver gray of the sky was darkening, while to the other, it was assuming a pinkish hue. I could now tell east from west, and if I hurried, and if the way was not too far, I could follow a straight line out of the wood while it was still light. So off I sat, due west toward the pink of the unseen setting sun. Just as the pink light finally died out before me and all became jet-black on every hand, I reached a concrete road at last, and sat down exhausted on its edge. I must have slept. For the next thing that I knew, I was flooded by a bright light, and then a kirk will stop beside me, and I was held by a cheery, YAHOO! I struggled sleepily to my feet. YAHOO! I said. Whither? To Watusa, he replied. Can I accommodate you? You certainly can, said I, for I am from Watusa myself, and have just been in an airplane wreck which killed both my companions, two bartoutas of the Imperial Air Navy. Crile and then, said he. So I accepted his invitation and promptly fell sound asleep again in the bottom of the kirk will, where my new host had the decency to let me lie undisturbed. In the morning, we stopped at a roadside tavern, where I was awakened for breakfast. The driver of the kirk will was a rich farmer ant on the way to Watusa on government business from one of the southern provinces. He had heard of me and was very much interested in my recent adventures, and I in turn was glad to find that I could talk with him quite fluently. We spent the morning chatting pleasantly as we rode along and stopped for lunch at another tavern, where we ate a particularly delectable mess of fried mashed purple grasshoppers served with honey. In the afternoon, conversation lagged a bit, and finally, to kill time, my host undertook to teach me how to drive the kirk will. The control was not unlike that of an earth automobile, so I caught on readily enough, and in fact drove the machine for the last hour or so and into Watusa, which we reached just before supper time. There I bade farewell to the ant and proceeded at once to headquarters to report the loss of the plane to the Winko, or admiral of the entire air navy. Then I returned to my quarters, where I bathed and changed, and had supper with Dago, to whom I related the sad fate of his friends. Tabby was there and glad to see me, but I should not say see, for these pet butt-loads of the ants are totally blind, being guided entirely by their sense of smell, which is very keen. They smell with their antennae, as well as here, these two senses being commingled in much the same way as we were taught on earth to regard the two components of radio waves, namely electrostatic and electromagnetic. But enough of Tabby's methods of perception, Dago informed me, to my joy, that the Coupian lady had been moved to quarters adjoining my own, and had expressed herself as no longer unfriendly toward me. The next morning I called upon her. I had now made sufficient progress with the spoken language so that we were able to chat quite pleasantly. She had me tell my entire adventure since my arrival on the planet, and punctuated my narrative with many pretty ooze and ahs at the various points at which my life was endangered and spared. We parted very good friends, it seemed to me. At least she no longer regarded me as a repulsive wild beast, which was some consolation and encouragement. In the succeeding days we became better and better acquainted, she telling me a great deal about her planet, and I in turn telling her about my life on earth. But I, warned by Dago, never once suggested that she tell me who she was, and she on her part showed no inclination to do so. Dago, at my insistence, made no report to headquarters that her hostility to me had ceased. Frequently she and I dined together. Our favorite dish was a stew of alta, the mushroom-like plant which the ant man cultivate underground on beds of chopped tartan leaves. The secret of growing this plant had been carefully guarded by the Formians and has never been learned by the Koopians. It tastes much like chestnuts, only not so rich, and forms the chief part of ant diet, much like rice among the Japanese. All this time I had seen nothing of my old enemy Satan. In fact, I had seen nothing of him since he had tried to kill me many months ago. I had dismissed him from my mind, and so was much surprised when one day he swaggered into my quarters in a particularly trunculate mood. Dago was with me at the time, and bristled up at the other's approach. It was plain that the two did not care for each other. How is your pet math lab from the planet Meneth, sneered Satan. Now to call a person a math lab is one of the worst insults that can be offered on the planet Poros. It is as bad to call a man a skunk, a sandless puppy, and a curr all at once in the United States or a chameau in France. And although the insult was directed at me, yet it was spoken to my friend Dago and it was he who had been really insulted. Dago kept his temper admirably, but answered the sneer with another sneer. You forget yourself to speak so to a superior officer. My only explanation is that you have been chewing the safra root. The safra is a peculiar narcotic plant, which is cultivated on Poros both for its anesthetic qualities and also for use in much the same way as alcohol is employed on earth, so that Dago had virtually accused Satan of being drunk, which was both a charitable way of explaining Satan's insubordinate language and a deadly insult in itself. Satan clicked his jaws in rage and hurled at Dago the words I'll get ya number, to which Dago calmly replied, I'll get ya's. And to my surprise, the two rusted each other and started fighting, never before having seen a duel between two ant men. I did not know then how common duels are, nor that they transcend all rank The proper formality for challenging to a duel is to, as Satan had said, I'll get your number. And the proper formality for accepting the challenge is to speak as Dago had spoken. The battle was a sort of combined wrestling bout and fencing match, the two huge creatures tumbling over and over on the floor, each trying to get his mandibles at the other's neck and each pairing with his own mandibles at the thrust of the other. Finally, to my horror, Satan slipped by Dago's guard and fastened his jaws on Dago's throat. He could easily and instantly have severed Dago's head, but he apparently preferred to hold him for a moment and gloat over his victim, and this delay gave me the opportunity to come out of my coma, seize a chair, and rush to Dago's rescue. But, to my surprise, it was Dago himself who ordered me back. This duel is to the death, he said. And it is not adequate for anyone to interfere. Satan turned his horrid eyes to me and remarked, Wait a few minutes until I finish your friend, and I will get your number two. Go to it, I replied in English, not then knowing the correct formalities, but being perfectly willing to try my chances again with my old enemy. What was that peculiar remark? asked Satan, math-lab language, or perchance, the way that halfwits talk on minnows. Keeping my temper, I answered. What I said was for you to come and get my number if you can. This diversion proved unfortunate for Satan. He should have suffered Dago's head while he had him in his power. Four, while his attention was distracted by his conversation with me, Dago suddenly wrenched loose and with a snap rolled Satan's head upon the floor. Then Dago shook himself, went to the door and called for assistance. And shortly three ant soldiers entered, two of whom removed the dead body, and the third of whom brought a paint pot and brush, with which he proceeded to paint on Dago's back, under Dago's own number, and the string of smaller ones, the number which had been Satan's in life. So this was the meaning of the small numbers, and also of the formal words used in challenge in accepting the challenge to a duel. Dago had got Satan's number in truth, and now, so far as I knew, I had no enemy on all poros. A few days later, in one of the corridors, I ran across the first male Coupian whom I had ever seen at Watusa. He was even handsomer than the Coupians whom I had met at the University of Mooney. In fact, he was the most handsome Coupian man that I had ever seen, either before or since. He had curly chestnut hair, a straight nose, and regal features and bearing. But he seemed furtive and in a great hurry. Dragging me into a nearby room, he closed the curtains. Place your antennae close to mine, he cautioned, and radiated very softly. This is a matter of life and death to one who is very dear to both of us. The beautiful Coupian, I guess? The very same, he replied. The Princess Lilla, daughter of King Kuu of Coupia, illegally detained as a prisoner by the Formians. So that was why her identity was sealed. And who are you? I asked. I am her unhappy cousin, Yiri, next in succession to the throne of Coupia. He answered. Yes, I had heard of him from his younger brother, Prince Toron. Who had been my assistant in the laboratories of Mooney. Yiri continued. I have long loved the beautiful Princess, but she ignored me. And so, behind a dull sense of right and wrong by my passion, I arranged with the Department of Eugenics at Mooney to have her kidnapped into Formia. For the purpose of forcing her to marry me and thus inaugurate a strain of perfect Coupians. I knew from Toron of Yiri's great influence among the Antmen, due to his being the leader of the Court Party in Coupia who believed in the most abject adherence to the Treaty of Mooney. And I could well believe that a splendid race would spring from this pair. The two most perfect specimens of all Coupia. Yiri went on with his tale. Olive Coupia turned upside down, searching for the Princess. But of course, no searching for Coupians was possible in Formia. And the authorities of the latter country gave out no intimation that they knew the whereabouts of the Princess. My implication and Lila's kidnapping was unknown to her. And so, I am meeting me here at Watusa. She held me as a possible rescuer. I could restrain my indignation no longer. What duplicity, I shouted. I am tempted to try to get your number. But Yiri held up a restraining hand. Quiet for Lila's sake, he implored. And do not blame you, for I am deserving of censure. But hear me out. Hear how I plan with your aid to atone for my crimes. Just as my suit was progressing admirably, you, Myles Cabot, arrived on this planet. And the plans of the Department of Eugenics abruptly changed for merely mating the two most beautiful Koopians to a really much more interesting experiment with a strange new breed. I shuddered and Yiri smiled. He went on. At first, I was jealous of you. And quite naturally so. So, Satan was a particularly loyal henchman of mine. And it was my influence that fostered and perpetrated his original hostility toward you. But now Satan is dead. So let the past stay gone. I no longer bear you any ill will. For I have seen that the Princess Lila is even more versed to the stranger from Menos than she ever was to her devoted cousin. So now I am willing to take a chance on you as a rival and enlist your support and assistance in my efforts to rescue our beloved Princess from the Formians and return her to her own country. All this he hurriedly told me in the room into which he had dragged me. Of course, I was horrified at the part which he had played. But appreciating his change of heart, I assured him that I was willing to help him rescue the Princess. Then he outlined his plans. End of Section 8 Chapter 9 of an Earthman on Venus This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org recording by M. Bradley Peters and Earthman on Venus by Ralph Milne Farley Chapter 9 The Rescue The idea was for Yuri to return to Kupia as that would make the Antmen less suspicious. Ever since the Department of Eugenics had changed their plans with respect to the Princess, Yuri had been carefully watched for fear that he would go do the obvious thing and try to return her to Kupia. In fact, although he had made up his mind many days ago to enlist my support, yet he had been so closely shadowed that it was only now that he had been able to make my acquaintance and snatch a few hurried words with me. And even now, every moment that we spent together rendered the danger of our detection just so much more imminent. On my way to Kupia, he said, I shall wait at the third gate where the guard will be duly bribed to let you through if you should succeed in reaching it. Of course, the Four-Means will trust Lilla much more freely with Miles Cabot than they would with Prince Yuri, due to their intense desire to perpetrate the race of Minos. So you will have plenty of opportunity to convey these plans to Lilla and to arrange for her flight. All the details have been carefully thought out. I will leave my Kirkul behind at the Kirkul at Watusa for you to use. One of the city gates opens directly from the Kirkul onto the main travelled highway and the guard there is a hintment of mine who has already been instructed to let you pass. I have even had the forethought to prepare a forged passport which will get you and Lilla safely by the Antmen who might see fit to stop you and question you on the road. I sent to all these arrangements how glad I was of an opportunity to be of service to Lilla. Yuri might be willing to take a chance with me as a rival based on the well-known fact that the Princess had greeted me with horror at our first meeting and had with difficulty been induced to associate with me even after my triumphant return from Mooney with my means for radio communication. But Yuri did not know how splendidly we had been getting along together during the past few sinks and I thought it just as well not to tell him. Here was a chance to do a favour for Princess Lilla and at the same time greet myself from my ant captors. So I assured Yuri that I would cooperate to the utmost. We patted each other's cheeks to bind the bargain and then he first and I a few minutes later sneaked out of the room without either of us being observed. I hastened to the quarters of the Princess and told her the entire plan to which she gladly agreed. A few nights later it was an easy matter for Lilla and me to meet by pre-arrangement at the city Kirkwall with my false antenna and artificial wings. I looked very much like a Coupian as it was and with the addition of the automobile goggles which the Kirkwu Ulu garage keeper supplied me I would have been willing to challenge anyone to tell me from the genuine article. Yuri's Kirkwall was very similar to the Ant-Man's Kirkwall and which I had returned for my ill-fated bee hunt but it was smaller and provided with seats very much like those of an earthly automobile. This was a great relief as it was very tiring to drive a Kirkwall standing up as is the habit among the Ant-Man. We settled ourselves in the car thanked the attendant and soon were on the open road headed for the Coupian boundary and freedom. Thus far our plans had been carried out like clockwork and yet this fact made it seem all the more likely that there was trouble ahead. I was filled with suspense and excitement and evidently my companion was under much the same strain for she clung to my left arm with both her little hands. I could feel her heart beating heavily and rapidly against my side and ever now and then she would shiver although the night was warm. I longed to draw her to me and comfort her but the Kirkwall demanded all of my attention and besides she was a princess of the royal house of Coupia and I. Why I was merely an educated animal yet her intimate presence thrilled me and her confiding trust gave me courage to face any dangers. No longer was she the haughty regal princess she was now merely a very frightened little girl and man-like I had gloried in my protective strength. It was a long time since I had taken an automobile ride with a girl. The night was warm and moist and fragrant as are all nights on poros. I had not been a drinking man on earth and on the planet Venus I have never chewed this aphor root but I can never wish for a more intoxicating and exhilarating experience than that ride through the warm fragrant velvet blackness of the Peruvian night with my princess snuggle close at my side. There wasn't much opportunity for conversation however for I was such a novice with these machines that I had to keep pretty much of my entire attention on the control levers and on the road ahead. I went nicely until at a turn of the road I saw a formian standing ahead of me holding at one paw at the signal for us to stop so I halted the curcool. Who are you? he asked but I had already prepared the replies for such an expected catechism and so answered readily enough. We are Jodek and Janek students at the University of Mooney now bound for the Royal University of Cupia Jodek and Janek being two very common names on Poros like Smith and Jones on the earth The road does not run from Mooney said the Sentinel but rather from La Tusa and I now know that there are no cupians at La Tusa then that very piece of knowledge of yours I countered should convince you that we are not from La Tusa as a matter of fact we are from Saltona which was the name of the farming village where I had hunted the whistling bees where we were sent by the University authorities to study a new breed of green cows which has been produced there we left Saltona early this morning and came through La Tusa about an hour ago see here is our pass and I showed him an official formian pass signed by one of the council 12 and authorizing Jodek and Janek with one curcool and their baggage to leave the country by the third gate so far as I could see there was not the slightest flaw in my story nor even anything to arouse his suspicion but evidently the ant man thought differently for he proceeded to question me in detail who's cargo is that this is a question which I had not expected it suddenly occurred to me that as this was Yuri's curcool it might bear some identifying royal insignia which I had not noticed and yet it would probably be unwise to admit that it was his for such an admission might suggest to an intelligent sleuthound such as my inquisitor seemed to be that my companion might be the princess Lilla what seemed a happy inspiration came to mind and I answered this curcool belongs to prince Toron of Kupia now assigned to the sand department in which we have been studying at Mooney and what department may that be agriculture of course is that how you came to be studying the cows yes I heard Lilla gasp and felt her hands tighten convulsively on my arm evidently I had made some misplay several more questions he asked at which I got more and more rattled then appropriately he said that is something wrong here for some unaccountable reason I suspected you from the first and evidently my suspicions were correct your passport is invalid it is dated three days ago and purports to be signed by number 340-7-11 yet he ceased to be a member of the imperial council over a sink the go then this is not the curcool to which I have been accustomed as Prince Toron's you see I am recently from Mooney myself Prince Toron is assigned to the electrical and not the agricultural department and anyhow they don't teach about cows under the head of agriculture accordingly your entire story breaks down and I shall be compelled to hold you until I can notify my superiors you see I saw all right and I didn't intend to permit him to finish his herring so while his attention was still directed upon his own good opinion of himself as a detective I threw the car into full speed ahead thus putting an end to the sentry's conversation in fact it nearly put an end to the sentry himself but instead of having sense enough to run him down I instinctively steered around him of course he immediately gave the alarm and soon little informed me that she could see the lights of a pursuit and curcool behind us on the road then I began to have difficulty with the controls of the car it seemed to wobble uncertainly although it did not decrease its speed do you understand these machines I ask yes she replied I have frequently driven one what seems to be the matter with it now she thought a moment intently and then answered it seems to me that the gyroscopes are slowing down if this be so we must come to a stop directly or the curcool will overturn I decided to take her advice and so stopping the curcool as quickly as possible we each seized a small spotlight with which the car was equipped and struck off into the dense woods that line the road a few moments later I heard the pursuing car crash into our deserted one I had hoped that my maneuver might effectively wreck our pursuers but apparently it did not do so for soon I heard the sounds of ant men falling us through the wood as we were not using our lights they could not follow us by sight and as we were not talking they could not follow us by sound for of course they could hear nothing but radiations from our antenna regardless of how we crashed through the underbrush luckily I thought of this and so did not waste any time in trying to be noiseless the sound of the ant man grew fainter and fainter behind us until suddenly we stumbled into a network of ropes it was an old stale spider's web immediately a bright idea occurred to me and flashing on my light I hunted for and found the spider's cave and into it I led the princess the tunnel of the spider was about four feet in diameter I crawled ahead on my hands and knees and the princess followed me they'll never think to look for us in a deserted spider nest said I am a low voice and was just about to add some more reassuring words when Lilla broke in with quick miles there's something following us get behind me I cautioned as I hurriedly wheeled and crawled past her true something was following us down the passage I switched on my flashlight and found myself face to face with a huge spider so the nest had not been deserted after all the spider steadily approached I held my ground and Lilla cowered behind me one touch of his horrid spit meant certain death as I well knew and yet how could I combat him at least I could die fighting and when he had killed us both there was a satisfaction of knowing that Yuri would never learn what had become of us and would always picture us together somewhere safe from his clutches and who knows but perhaps he would be right if God provided the same heaven for both Koopians and earth folk all these thoughts ran through my head much less time than it takes to set them down and then I prepared to defend myself or rather to defend the beautiful creature who depended upon me I had no weapon I did not even have anything to use for a weapon except the folding umbrella which hung on my side these umbrellas are of a very light but strong construction the ribs and handle are made of alloy steel of a great springiness the covering is remarkable opaque silk cloth when open they are about four feet in diameter and closely resembled an ordinary parasol such as we have on earth but when closed they are scarcely larger than a rolled up copy of a magazine accordingly in the folding condition in which it hung on my side it was not likely to prove of much value for defensive purposes so I endeavored to extend it to its full length and had to open it first in order to do so the opened umbrella entirely filled the tunnel with its point toward the spider and its handle towards me and an instant I realized that I'd effectively blocked the way against my adversary the umbrella although not much good as a sword might prove quite valuable as a shield and so it turned out the spider hurled himself against it rending the silk cover but driving the ends of the ribs firmly into the walls of the passageway the spring steel proved strong enough to withstand his onslaught so Lilla and I withdrew out of reach of his legs and waited for the developments we had not long to wait for soon we heard the radiations of ant-man outside the entrance they must have gone in here said one but it is here that I saw their lights flash and heard the screen a light appeared at the opening and I could see that the spider had turned around was now facing the other way evidently our pursuers could see this too for one of them remarked the spider has got them cooped up in there come you keep his attention diverted while we go around behind and dig them out I seized Lilla by the hand come on I whispered I don't know where this tunnel leads to but let us at least go down it as far as possible and perhaps barricade ourselves with your umbrella at the bottom so we presumed our crawl the way seemed endless but the further we went the more my spirits brightened princess I said before he seems to be a wild species and not the domestic kind which the formings keep to guard their herds of aphids or if they get by the spider they may hesitate to crawl through a dark tunnel come on the air smelled stale and musty but at last to our surprise began to get fresh again and then the ground felt rough under my knees a twig snapped and I found that I could stand erect we were out in the woods again and no formium pursuers within sight or earshot close behind the exit was a thicket of tartan bushes that plant with a large heart-shaped leaf so beloved of the purple grasshoppers the safest place for us I whispered will be right here by the mouth of the tunnel if they follow us through they will never think to look for us close at hand and the thickness of the foliage will prevent their discovering us accidentally so together we plunge into the center of this bower of hearts and we lay down and listened presently we heard voices at the mouth of the tunnel and I heard the crashing of the ants in the underbrush but so thick was our leapy covering that we could not catch even a glimmer of their spotlights their voices became fainter and fainter in the distance and at last we knew we were safe at least for this night but as their conversations died away another sound came to our antenna the distant howl of a wufus answered from another quarter by the cry of his mate lila shuttered at my side as we listened to this new menace grow near and near but at last this too died away and when my straining ears could no longer catch the slightest sound of it I was surprised to find that I was holding the princess clasp tightly in both my arms she too noticed where she was and yet made no effort to draw away I was so frightened miles she said softly you will take care of me won't you dear for answer I held her close she heaved a little sigh and like a tired baby nestled down to sleep in my arms and thus all through the perfumed tropical night I held and watched over the beautiful creature who had made life on poros mean more to me than it ever meant on earth gather ye rose buds while you may I thought for she is the princess royal of all coupia and you for all that the professors have decided may not even be human the fairy orchestra of the wood grasshoppers played its sweetest wind bell tunes which earthly years alone could hear delicate fragrances crept in on an occasional breeze the night was velvet soft and in my arms lay sweetly breathing in perfect peace and trust the dearest being any world could hold thus we lay in our bower of leafy hearts until the invisible sun rose over poros the next morning when lila finally awakened it was with the sweet dewy smile of a little child I kissed her lightly on the cheek and she smiled again and said you are very good to me miles cabin better than I deserve who treated you so hit his morning my princess said I and we must be on our way she gave a slight shutter that is so she regally replied I am a princess this bell was broken and we arose and set out together through the wood traveling due west for we had left the road on the east side the night before and this way I had hoped to reach the road again and continue along it to the border we were able to tell the points of the compass in the early morning light owing to the pinkness of the eastern sky and the darkness of the western reaching the road and safety we set out northward along it I blessing my keen sense of hearing which enabled me to keep a keen ear out for approaching curcles each one of which we dodged by hiding in the woods at the side of the road in this manner we kept on without further adventure for the entire day slaking our thirst at an occasional brook and staving off hunger by means of certain edible plants with which the princess was well acquainted at last on topping a slight rise we saw before us a long wall stretching away out of sight into the distance to both the right and left is this the pale of which I've heard so much I ask it is lila replied and beyond it lies coupia and safety look directly before us at the foot of the hill is the third gate with a cry of joy we rushed down the hill hand in hand together sure enough there stood yuri talking with the coupian sentinel just beyond the gates to the kirk wall yuri greeted the princess respectfully and assisted her into the car the sentinel offering no objection but as I sought to follow her the sentinel stopped before me and drew a short broadsword which he held menacingly in his hand yuri I called this guard won't let me pass please tell him that it's all right yuri turned around in his seat in the car and gradually a mocking smile spread over his features then he spoke to the sentinel I don't know this fellow he declared probably he hasn't escaped a coupian slave you had better arrest him the princess shrieked yuri's car shot ahead and they disappeared northward leaving me staring after them with mouth agape perhaps I could have argued it out or even fought it out with my bare hands with a coupian sentinel but at that moment a formula sentinel emerged from the guardhouse of the gate to take his tour of duty together the pair seized and shackled me and placed me on a cell thus just as my hopes had been highest they were dashed to the ground here I was alone and chains still in formula awaiting transportation to the south again while my beloved free was speeding northward with my deceitful rival end of chapter 9 recording by m bradley peters chapter 10 of an earth man on venus this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libravox.org recording by m bradley peters chapter 10 of an earth man on venus by rob millney farley before queen formus and so while my princess was born northward by her cousin and lover prince yuri I was led southward in chains a prisoner charged with high treason against the ant empire yuri had tricked me and had used me as a cat's paw to rescue his sweetheart from her captors but if I had not been so blindly in love I should have seen through him and I could have married lilat peace under formian auspices yet somehow I did not feel sorry for what I had done I had set lila free I had won her love and trust for one night and I was prepared to pay the penalty in fact I was glad to pay the penalty for I realized that marriage between her a princess and me a commoner would of course never have been possible back in my old room again in watusa it seemed like home somehow and yet how different from before for now I was no longer a guest but a prisoner tabby my pet butt load was glad to smell me again and my conscience gave me a twinge for having so unceremoniously left her behind yet if I had taken her with me what would have become of her in the wreck of the kirk wool and the flight through the spider's tunnel doggo was overwhelmed with grief at the jam I was in and he was reproachful too why did you do it he would ask again and again and in spite of my repeated and detailed explanations would reiterate why did you do it when all was going so well here god's would place over me again as on my first arrival on the planet but this time instead of being high-ranking officers such as doggo they were mere common soldier ants who gested coarsely at me and without sympathy I complained to doggo and he promptly put a stop to their tormenting and when they found out that I was still in the good graces of one of their eclats they became on the surface quite differential although they continued to annoy me in many petty and underhanded ways doggo spent a great deal of time with me and kept me posted on the latest news from kuana the capital of kupia in fact he even dispatched one of his bar putis to ascertain for me just how the princess fared rapport had it that the princess was almost constantly in the company of prince yuri and that he was held as a popular hero for having rescuer that she seemed unaccountably sad which item cheered me that the king was momentarily expected to announce her betrothal to prince yuri which item did not cheer me that an influential faction headed by prince toron insisted upon an explanation being demanded between formists because of the detention of princess lila by the antmen and that only the new popularity of prince yuri was able to control the movement of his younger brother oh what a fool I had been not to have told lila that yuri had been responsible for her imprisonment at watusa now of course she believed him a hero rather than the scoundrel he was but how could he satisfactorily explain his repudiation of me no if she retained the slightest friendly feeling for me she could not regard him as anything other than a double-crossing crook and did not the report state that she seemed sad why else than either because of my fate or because she did not look forward with pleasure to a union with yuri but if the latter then why did she associate with him it must be that he was holding over ahead a threat of some sort my poor princess of the butterfly wings and graceful antenna I tried to get a word to her but doggo informed me that criminals were not allowed the privilege of letter writing my interest was so centered in a beautiful lila that it never occurred to me to inquire as to my own fate but doggo insisted on bringing it to my attention he had obtained his own assignment as my defense counsel and so it was up to him to discuss with me the coming trial I was accused of high treason against the empire and that I had assisted in the escape of a cupian slave had uttered a forged pass had obstructed the highway had nearly run down a pinkie and had presumably slandered the formians to a member of the royal house of coupia doggo said that I clearly had no defense as all the items except the slander were easily provable but that he should attempt to argue that the accusations were void for inconsistency due to the fact that the same person was described in them as being both a slave and royalty so far as I was concerned this line of defense seemed absolute bunk but no more so than any equally silly sounding legal rules on earth the trial was to take place at the imperial city before queen formus in the council of 12 for apparently I had committed a most important and serious crime in case of conviction which seemed certain her majesty would have the choice of two punishments first laying eggs in me or secondly casting me into the valley of the howling rocks both sounded very interesting and were reserved for the worst criminals all of the ant men of the entire nation of formia are raised from eggs laid by the ruling monarch the vocation of any given ant man is determined long before he is hatched or even before his eggs laid from an elaborate system of records kept in the imperial council the council of 12 is able to determine as to each batch of eggs whether it should produce professors farmers laborers officers soldiers servants or what and the eggs are accordingly laid in the appropriate food sort of tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are the young ants from fully grown and in the cocoon stage are transported by truckloads to the part of the empire where they are to be trained and where their life is to be spent thus the pupae for soldiers and officers are sent to watusa for instance not only is occupation determined in advance but so also to a large extent is sex thus only enough males are produced to supply the queen's harem the rest of the royal offspring being sexless females whenever a queen dies the council immediately chooses several likely larvae and changes their food so as to produce fully developed females the first of these to reach maturity being queen and the rest being killed the food chosen for the production of the higher classes of ant men consist of condemned criminals this was where I came in at this point in the explanation an idea occurred to me do you really mean to say doggo I gasp that you are a lady and not a man that the whole nation of four means or females yes he replied and furthermore the more highly developed of us occasionally lay eggs though of course we never try to hatch them for that would be even worse a treason than the one with which you are charged I myself have even laid eggs but it is generally supposed that such eggs would not hatch I could hardly believe it a nation of amazons I could not help continuing to regard them as males but to go on with the alternative penalties I have described the egg laying the other penalty namely the valley of the howling rocks supplied a most diabolical form of punishment this valley extends about a mile along the international boundary line so that the pale stops at one end and begins at the other its sides are steep and unscalable and into it are cast the worst criminals of both countries some undetermined natural cause within the valley sets up such a terrific then that the victims are driven crazy and perish because of the sound I thought I should prefer any noise however awful to the alternative of having eggs laid in me but doggo assured me that the valley was by far the worst of the two however my wish is finally prevailed and doggo promised to try and secure the valley punishment and event of a conviction in due course the time arrived for the trial and I was led and changed to the imperial city doggo accompanied me and brought tabby to to console me for some reason I could not get it all excited over the performance it seems so absurdly like the trial of Alice in Wonderland as she is reported to have exclaimed why you are nothing but a pack of cards so I was often tempted to exclaim why you are nothing but a nest of ants as a matter of fact I was much more interested in how my princess was getting on than I was in my own impending fate on the day of the trial I was led into the awful presence of Queen Formus she stood nearly twice the size of any other formian and her dignity was enhanced by a raised platform surmounted by a scarlet canopy which set off the perfect proportions of her jet black body grouped on each side of her stood six ant men whose refined and intelligent appearance made even my professional friends at the University of Mooney look like common worker ants by comparison ant messengers hurried to and fro doing the bidding of the dread 13 while several large clumsy ants of a type which I had never seen before wondered aimlessly around the chamber the royal husband's dog won't form me so these were the drones of Formia they were very stupid looking fellows who appeared to be accorded great privileges but no deference my jailers led me to the foot of the throne where under instructions from doggo I made a low obeisance to the queen then I was locked into a wicker cage at one side and the trial began first one of the council read the accusation and then the witnesses were called each being permitted to tell his story in his own way and not being subjected to cross examination by doggo though any member of the court could ask him questions on the whole the procedure seemed much fairer than a trial on earth for the evident object here was to ascertain the whole truth unhampered by rules of evidence rather than to afford a sparring match between rival attorneys the keeper of the kirkool at Watusa testified in substances follows the prisoner came at me unawares overcame me trust me up in a corner where it took me a path and a half to escape from my bonds while I lay bound Cabot stole Prince Yuri's car I saw no one with Cabot and in fact did not see Cabot take the car but I judged that he took it for later I found it gone I object I cried keep quiet doggo growled no one else paid any attention to my interruption the witness continued immediately upon getting loose I notified the Winko one of the Winko's attendants then took the stand and corroborated him in this it was a well framed up story and I had no inclination to get the keeper of the kirkool into trouble by disputing it the traffic sentinel ant gave an exact and straightforward account of how he had stopped us and had trapped me into many damaging statements also how I had tried to run him down with the kirkool which was not exactly the truth but doubtless it seemed that way to him then he produced the forge pass which was handed around and carefully inspected by the council several ant men then testified as to their pursuit of us including the wrecking of their own car by means of ours they had tried to dig into the tunnel and had failed so they killed the spider with a long pole they had confidently expected to find us behind the umbrella never before having seen a double-ended spider cave they had not scattered through the woods to cut off our retreat even so they could not account for our escape especially as they had kept the road from there to the border constantly patrolled by kirkools from that time on until my arrest at the third gate you see they had slipped up by not realizing that I possessed the sense of hearing which had enabled me to avoid the patrols the coupion sentinel at the third gate had claimed his official privilege of refusing to testify but the ant sentinel quoted his coupion colleague as saying that he had let the princess lilla pass through because he had no authority over members of the royal family but had duly arrested me as required by law no mention was made of prince yuri's presence at the gate to rescue her from me I tried to get doggo to object on the ground of hearsay for this was the first and only attempt by the prosecution at identifying my companion in flight and hence was the most damaging but doggo replied that hearsay testimony was perfectly allowable on poros unless one could impeach either the absent or the present witness how much more sensible than the rule in america then I was called upon do I have to take the stand I asked no answered doggo but if you don't your silence will be used against you again a more sensible rule than which prevails in america only all those for me and improvements over american criminal practice were decidedly to my own disadvantage I was just about to tell how yuri had planned lilla's rescue with me when something stayed me I wish now that it had not for to have told the truth at this time would have prevented the tragedy which later occurred but my new england spirit of fair play deterred me and I decided to settle with yuri myself and personally though how I ever hoped to escape from the ants in order to do so I did not stop to consider so I spoke as follows everything testified so far as a truth but I wish to ask your majesty in all respect just what justification had formed you to detain the princess of gupia as a slave you should have treated her as a visiting royalty and in that capacity she had a perfect right to command my assistance and had a perfect right to obey let me tell the rulers of formia that but I got no further for the queen thundered stop I find the prison are guilty by his own admission for their evidence is superfluous and I shall pursue descendants has anyone any suggestions to make on the subject whereupon my old friend the professor of anatomy stepped forward doggo had evidently primed him to do me a good turn for he said the prisoner is neither a cubian nor a formian nor is it apparent just what sort of animal he is he seems to be a reasoning species and so can be tried for a crime in a court of the same privileges of trial as in the case of a member of either of the two recognized reasoning species of the planet but as he is an unknown type of creature it is extremely likely that his flesh would prove harmful to the royal babies accordingly for the good of the empire I advise that your majesty imposed a more severe of the alternative sentences namely the valley of the hulling rocks as no one else present had any suggestion to make queen formus and the council conferred together for a few moments and then the sentence was announced as I hoped it was the valley the professor had done well convicted criminals on poros are not kept in suspense day after day is on earth we started for the valley the very next morning apparently an execution is an important day to occasion on this planet for a long line of kirk rules trailed out of the imperial city carrying the queen several of the council and some lesser dignitaries as well as doggo tabby myself and my guards doggo was deeply touched by grief but for myself I was still unable to get up any very great excitement over the affair perhaps I am a fatalist but I could not believe that I was really going to die it all seemed like a dream from which I was soon about to awake and even if I should appear to die in this planet was it not likely that I would awake on the earth again in my boston laboratory and thus put an end to a very interesting set of imaginary adventures but at this thought a pain stabbed my heart I resolved that I had rather actually die than have it turn out that my meeting with the prince of thula had not been a fact the authorities permitted me to write her a note of farewell and doggo guaranteed to deliver it personally thus assuring that it would get past yuri into this letter I crowded all of my pent-up love and urged her to feel no regrets at my having been sacrificed on her behalf as that sacrifice was gladly and happily given then I patted my little pet tabby farewell turned her over to doggo's care and was led by my executioners to the edge of the abyss it was a harmless enough looking gulch but the scores of human skeletons and ant shells scattered about at the bottom bore a mute witness to its dread possibilities and witness not mute was born by the volume of noise which rolled up over the edge of the valley I had thought that I had heard the limit of stupendous sound when years ago I stood at the brink of the niagara but the roar which arose in the valley of the howling rocks dwarfed even niagara by comparison and into this chaos infernal I was about to be lowered it was of course impossible to hear spoken farewells so I patted the side of doggo's head goodbye at which last demonstration he turned away broken-hearted but the others seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the spectacle then my shackles were removed so as to give free play to my amusing antics during the torture a strong rope was placed under my arms and I was lowered into the pit even as I passed over the edge my thoughts consisted chiefly in wondering not what fate was in store for me but rather what it was that made the noise always I shall remain an inquisitive scientist I suppose the noise became unbearable looking upward as the ropes spun me around I saw the hoared face of the ant queen leering over the edge she lifted up a paw to my surprise the foreman who held the ropes began to raise me again a reprieve life again on the planet poros with a possible chance of seeing my princess once more no merely a respite or rather a cat and mouse game which they were playing with me several more times I was lowered into the pit was held there until I could scarcely bear the noise and then was hauled up again for a brief breathing space but finally my feet were permitted to touch the bottom and the rope was pulled up from beneath my arms that awful noise I cannot describe the agony of it madly I dashed back and forth trying to avoid it but there was no escape lila lila I shrieked in agony but the terrific den kept even me from hearing my own words I stumbled on a boulder and falling struck my head against a sharp rock then blessed oblivion end of chapter 10 this is a recording by m bradley peters