XIV

Returning to the rocket, we found that the problem of getting the

strange passenger out of it had been solved by the foreman of the

estate, a very ingenious and alert young man. Without the slightest

indication of fear, he had passed a strong rope under the arms of the

creature, padding the rope where it touched the body, as a protective

measure against injury. Outside, he had rigged up a small derrick. His

idea was to hoist the passenger by the shoulders, through the opening

in the rocket.

One of the chauffeurs had brought a stretcher and some blankets from

the garage in the car. Everything was set for the performance when I

heard Henry murmur: "The providence of heaven for this rocket to land

here!"

I was just pushing forward to get another peep. The creature was

anything but pleasant to look at, or be near, and I was thankful that

I was smoking a strong cigar. After it had been hoisted out of the

rocket, and placed with tender care on the stretcher, I found myself

still staring at this queerest of queer things; so extremely hideous

as to be almost fascinating to the gaze; a sort of living satire on a

man-beast, which might have been imagined by Jonathan Swift, or drawn

by Doré.

He was unclothed, of course, and there was a strong probability that he

had never worn any clothes at all, not even a loin cloth. But out of

the strange fellow's face gleamed a pair of unusually bright, wondering

eyes. His look was suggestive of extreme gratitude for our rescuing

him from his perilous plight.

Our first gesture of good-will and hospitality was made by Niki, who

had brought from the castle two long-necked bottles, one containing

milk, the other, sherry. Just before the creature was lifted out of

the rocket, and was held in an upright position by the ropes from the

derrick, Niki, at Henry's suggestion, had offered it the choice of the

two bottles. To our amazement, the creature's sharp eyes had fastened

themselves at once on the bottle containing the sherry, while a hand,

that was suggestively like a chimpanzee's, pointed to it. Then he

opened his enormous mouth and held it open.

Niki poked the bottle of sherry down his throat, and gave him an

inordinately large dose of it, and the creature gulped it down as if it

had been a teaspoonful of cough syrup; such a dose would have made me

jump; in him, it did not produce the flicker of an eye-lash. The sherry

was followed by a small dose of milk.

It is only fair to describe the creature in his natural state, for a

few days later, Henry dressed him in custom clothes, under which his

hairy ugliness, and revolting uncouthness, were almost completely

hidden.

When first discovered, he appeared to be in a coma, his head drooped

over to one side; his face was puffed and blotched, a little greenish.

Henry had explained this condition as arising from the lassitude of

space, for the rocket must have traveled at a frightening speed. At

first touch, his body felt cold; there was hardly any pulse.

To my mind he was human, but a separate species, similar to the

skeletons of the ancient type of man recovered from deposits in certain

sections of our globe. As I studied him, I realized that the term

"human" should be employed with reservation.

Judged by a human standard, I placed him at once in my mind as being in

the zone between the form of man and ape, a man type but not a fully

evolved product. His massive jaws, for one thing, suggested the ape. He

was at least six feet in height. His shoulders were broad and massive,

and his arms were a little longer in proportion to a man's. He had very

broad hands, with short, thick fingers. But the fingers, I noticed,

were not united by a web, which is characteristic of apes on the earth,

this web often extending to the first finger joint.

His skin was as black as the Negro types of Africa. It was covered with

large coarse hair, under which was a coat of short, curly hair; a very

ample bodily protection, I figured, provided by nature, against the

range of temperatures on his planet. He had a small skull, and enormous

canine teeth. The perplexing aspect was his human-like countenance. The

skin of his face was a pinkish white, like a baby's, and of a glossy

appearance. The beard-line was marked with a light powdery growth of

hair, common to boys approaching manhood; under his chin was a real

beard, a short and thick one. Judged humanly, he would pass for a man

in his late twenties.

While I was studying his general appearance, it struck me as strange

that so far he hadn't spoken. When Henry walked over to the stretcher

from the rocket, I sounded him on the talk question.

"There's the possibility that the creature is still in the monosyllabic

stage," he replied. "We won't know if he has the power of speech until

he comes out of the terrific strain he's been under, and becomes

acclimated. I dare say he'll be sluggish for some time, because of the

earth's heavy gravitational pull, so different from that on Mars,

where the people walk and leap with feathery lightness because of the

planet's small size. While, on the sun, for instance, the gravitational

pull is so powerful that you or I could only move about with the

assistance of a steam-crane."

I smiled at the thought of being assisted in walking by a steam-crane,

and wondered what would happen if I were in a hurry to catch a train.

Then I laughed out loud. My laughter, however, was provoked at the

sight of the creature opening his mouth, and holding it open, at the

approach of Niki, as if to signify that he wanted another dose of

sherry. Certainly he had brains even if he couldn't talk.

Calling the servants over to the stretcher, Henry said: "Now, men,

this stranger from a far distant world needs our immediate assistance.

Everybody give a hand, and we'll carry him to the car and then drive to

the castle."

"Surely you're not going to take him inside the castle?" I said.

"Why not?" Henry retorted. "We're not used to this sort of guest, I

know, but we'll just have to get used to him. I regard this helpless

creature as an ambassador of good will from another world, and I intend

to extend to him the same hospitality I would offer the Ambassador of

Great Britain, if he were my guest."

"Have you consulted Jane about this?" I persisted.

"No!" he roared; adding, testily: "Am I not master in my own house?"

"You are being absurd, Henry. That's all I've got to say." This closed

the conversation so far as I was concerned.

Henry went on, however, though in a more subdued tone. "In any case,"

he said, "since you've brought the matter up, I'll give you my word

that as long as the creature is a guest in our home, he shall be kept

under careful surveillance."

He walked off, and in a few moments, he was leading the way, as six

men, with their uncanny burden, swung away toward the car. I followed

them, at some distance, and to my stunned amazement, on arriving at

the castle, I learned from Jane that Henry had put the thing to bed in

our guest chamber de luxe, which we called the State Apartment. Jane

was more disturbed than she cared to admit. She and Pat had both seen

the creature, and she spoke of it as looking "rather dreadful." When I

asked her how Pat had taken it, she said Pat had looked surprised but

not at all startled.

"Listen, Jane," I said, in a serious tone. "Do you think if Henry was

in his right mind, he would be capable of such action, housing this

awful, frightful thing in with the rest of us?"

Jane pretended not to be listening.

"Nevertheless," I continued, "you know that our beloved parent went

insane before he died, but it was kept quiet, and we can't afford to

ignore a thing like this, breaking out in Henry, to conceal an old

scandal in our family."

At this Jane turned on me. "Be careful, Livingston," she admonished;

"no good rattling the skeleton in our closet with a reporter in our

midst. I think Henry's acting very sanely, considering the strain

he's been under, and I can't help thinking, as he does, that it was a

definite act of providence for this rocket from Mars to fall near our

beach. As for the creature that came in the rocket, in its present

state, I'm sure it can do no harm."

I tried to prolong the argument, but she refused to discuss the subject

any further, and finally left me. On my way to breakfast, I ran into

Pat, who had just finished hers. "Oh, Uncle Livingston!" she exclaimed.

"What a lot of fun we're going to have with this big Teddy Bear in the

house!" A remark so incredible that I almost gasped.

"It will be quite pleasant, won't it?" I observed, sardonically. "But

some people mightn't like it."

Then she caught me by the arm, and drew me aside. She dropped the gay

tone of her voice, and glanced round half-fearfully before speaking.

"I really don't like the idea so much myself," she admitted. "But you

see--now brace yourself for this--I must pretend I'm not shocked, or

frightened, because Mr. McGinity says all this makes a whale of a good

story, even better and bigger than the fall of the meteor in Times

Square, and establishing radio communication with Mars. And, you know,

I'm too good a friend of his to spoil--a whale of a good story."

"Isn't this stretching things rather fine?" I asked. "Mr. McGinity is a

smart young man, as I believe I've said before, but there's no reason

under heaven why you should jeopardize your comfort and personal safety

just for the sake of his getting a story. It's dangerous business."

"Call it what you like," she returned evasively. "I've made up my mind

not to be frightened, and I'm going to stick to it even if--" She

checked herself, and I saw that she was trembling.

I was startled. "Look here, Pat," I said. "We can't have you work

yourself into a state of nerves over this. I'll go and find Henry, and

order him to get this Barnum's 'What Is It?' out of the house, quickly;

and if he doesn't, I'll have it removed by force, and hand it over to

the Bronx Zoo. Why--why, the creature might sneak out, in the dead of

night, and get in your bedroom!"

"Why, in heaven's name, should it want to get in my room?" she said,

with a return of her usual composure. "That sounds rather silly to me."

"I suppose I shouldn't be telling you this, Pat," I said, doubtfully,

"as you're still very young, and--"

"I don't think you can tell me much I don't know," she interrupted.

"Anyway, Niki is going to act as the creature's guard and valet, and

he's very much pleased about it."

"Oh, Niki will do anything, now, short of murder, to please Henry,"

I said; "he's hot after that $25,000 reward. But the whole matter to

me--now prepare yourself--'ain't what you'd call natural.' If putting a

big chimpanzee in our bedchamber de luxe, and giving it valet service,

isn't the act of a lunatic, I don't know what is."

"I agree with you," Pat rejoined, "but I'm afraid, as far as Uncle

Henry is concerned, the matter is hopeless. We must try to get his

point of view."

"No; I'll be darned if I will!" I said to myself. Then I said, aloud:

"Anyway, you will lock your door carefully, Pat?"

"I always do," she replied, laughing, and left me.

She had no sooner gone, when McGinity came downstairs, and we had

breakfast together. He didn't say very much; apparently he was lost in

thought. My mind was too confused to work properly, but while we ate,

in strained silence, I was trying to think a way out of all the mess

as best I could. Presently, McGinity broke the silence by exclaiming,

partly to himself: "That terrible ape in the same house with Pat! Think

of it!"

"I have thought, to my own shame, and to the shame of our house," I

returned. "But Henry seems to think this visitor from Mars the gentlest

thing alive."

"My hands are tied," he said, despondently. "Can't you suggest

something?"

"The only thing I can suggest is that you stay on with us, if you can

arrange to do your writing here," I said, "as a sort of personal guard

for Pat. As Henry seems to have grown rather fond of you, I'm sure he

can hold no objection. Of course, not a word to Pat about it."

McGinity sat up suddenly in his chair. "That's a great idea," he

exclaimed. "My City Editor just ordered me to stick on the job, and I

was planning to stay at a hotel in the village."

"If you were to act as personal guard for Pat," I remarked, "there

would be nothing sentimental about it, of course."

"Oh, of course, nothing like that," McGinity replied; and he colored

and looked at Pat's white cockatoo, on its perch, by the window, the

furniture, the ceiling--anywhere but at me.

"I'm sure I can arrange it with Henry to have you stay," I said. "If

he insists on keeping this Teddy Bear, as Pat jokingly calls it, in

the house, I'm afraid, I'm sadly afraid, there's going to be trouble.

Unpleasantness, at any rate."

McGinity looked me square in the eyes. "Pardon me, Mr. Livingston," he

said, "but--is there any insanity running in your family?"

Recalling Jane's admonishment, I hesitated a moment before replying.

"Isn't there a chance of an abnormal state of mind bobbing up in any

family?" I said at last, and let it go at that.

"Anyway, we've got to keep Pat safe," McGinity said. "And as long as

this creature is kept in the house, she should be instructed never to

wander round alone, upstairs or downstairs. Why, I've got nerves of

steel, myself, but I'll confess that if I bumped unexpectedly into a

creature like that, in the dark, I'd run like hell."

At this, Henry entered the picture, remaining just long enough to dash

down a cup of black coffee, and to invite McGinity and me down to the

beach for a more detailed study of the rocket, and to search for the

parchment scroll concealed therein, the deciphering of which he felt

would help solve the riddle of Mars.

"I'm mighty glad to have your assistance, McGinity," he said, over his

hasty cup of coffee, "and I've been wondering if you could arrange with

your newspaper to remain with us, and write your stories here."

McGinity gave me a significant side glance, then replied: "I'm sure I

can fix it, Mr. Royce. Thanks a lot for the honor and compliment."

On our way out, Henry further informed us that he had called in the

best physician in the neighborhood, who was now at the bedside of the

visitor from Mars, rendering every possible medical aid. He seemed

rather disgruntled when Pat met us on the terrace, and insisted on

accompanying us to the beach. But this mood was quickly offset by the

appearance of Olinski, who had raced from the city to the castle as

fast as a taxi-cab could get him there, in response to Henry's urgent

telephone call.