His voice clipped off as Grannie began to read. She read slowly
at first, then intoned the words and sentences faster and more
dramatically.
And out in the swamp a vast hush fell as if unseen ears were listening.
"... _the space liner was over on her beam ends now as another shot
from the raider's vessel crashed into the stern hold. In the control
cabin Cuthbert Strong twisted vainly at his bonds as he sought to free
himself. Opposite him, lashed by strong Martian vinta ropes to the
gravascope, Louise Belmont sobbed softly, wringing her hands in mute
appeal._"
A restless rustling sounded out in the marsh, as if hundreds of bodies
were surging closer. Karn nodded in awe.
"She's got 'em!" he whispered. "Listen. They're eatin' up every word."
I heard it then, and I thought I must be dreaming. From somewhere out
in the swamp a sound rose into the thick air. A high-pitched chuckle,
it was. The chuckle came again. Now it was followed by another and
another. An instant later a wave of low subdued laughter rose into the
air.
Ezra Karn gulped. "Gripes!" he said. "They're laughing already.
_They're laughing at her book!_ And look, the old lady's gettin' sore."
Up on the roof of the envelope Grannie Annie halted her reading to
glare savagely out into the darkness.
The laughter was a roar now. It rose louder and louder, peal after peal
of mirthful yells and hysterical shouts. And for the first time in my
life, I saw Annabella C. Flowers mad. She stamped her foot; she shook
her fist at the unseen hordes out before her.
"Ignorant slap-happy fools!" she screamed. "You don't know good science
fiction when you hear it."
I turned to Karn and said quietly, "Turn on the visi set. Doctor
Universe should be broadcasting now. Tune your microphone to pull in
as much of that laughter as you can."
* * * * *
It took three weeks to make the return trip to Swamp City. The Varsoom
followed us far beyond the frontier of their country like an unseen
army in the throes of laughing gas. Not until we reached Level Five did
the last chuckle fade into the distance.
All during that trek back, Grannie sat in the dugout, staring silently
out before her.
But when we reached Swamp City, the news was flung at us from all
sides. One newspaper headline accurately told the story: DOCTOR
UNIVERSE BID FOR SYSTEM DICTATORSHIP SQUELCHED BY RIDICULE OF UNSEEN
AUDIENCE. QUIZ MASTER NOW IN HANDS OF I.P. COUP FAILURE.
"Grannie," I said that night as we sat again in a rear booth of THE
JET, "what are you going to do now? Give up writing science fiction?"
She looked at me soberly, then broke into a smile.
"Just because some silly form of life that can't even be seen doesn't
appreciate it? I should say not. Right now I've got an idea for a swell
yarn about Mars. Want to come along while I dig up some background
material?"