“Things which equal the same thing equal each other, do they not?
Therefore, the inner and outer boundaries of Trabol are of equal length,
and this is true because of the truth of the theory of relativity of
distance. The degree is our unit of linear measure. It would be
ridiculous to say that the farther one was removed from the center of
Amtor the longer the unit of distance became; it only appears to become
longer; in relation to the circumference of the circle and in relation
to the distance from the center of Amtor it is precisely the same.
“I know,” he admitted, “that on the map it does not appear to be the
same, nor do actual surveys indicate that it is the same; but it must be
the same, for if it were not, it is obvious that Amtor would be larger
around the closer one approached the center and smallest of all at the
perimeter, which is so obviously ridiculous as to require no refutation.
“This seeming discrepancy caused the ancients considerable perturbation
until about three thousand years ago, when Klufar, the great scientist,
expounded the theory of relativity of distance and demonstrated that the
real and apparent measurements of distance could be reconciled by
multiplying each by the square root of minus one.”
I saw that argument was useless and said no more; there is no use
arguing with a man who can multiply anything by the square root of minus
one.
V
THE GIRL IN THE GARDEN
For some time I had been aware that I was in the house of Mintep, the
king, and that the country was called Vepaja. Jong, which I had
originally thought to be his name, was his title; it is Amtorian for
king. I learned that Duran was of the house of Zar and that Olthar and
Kamlot were his sons; Zuro, one of the women I had met there, was
attached to Duran; the other, Alzo, was attached to Olthar; Kamlot had
no woman. I use the word attached partially because it is a reasonably
close translation of the Amtorian word for the connection and partially
because no other word seems exactly to explain the relationship between
these men and women.
They were not married, because the institution of marriage is unknown
here. One could not say that they belonged to the men, because they were
in no sense slaves or servants, nor had they been acquired by purchase
or feat of arms. They had come willingly, following a courtship, and
they were free to depart whenever they chose, just as the men were free
to depart and seek other connections; but, as I was to learn later,
these connections are seldom broken, while infidelity is as rare here as
it is prevalent on earth.
Each day I took exercise on the broad veranda that encircled the tree at
the level upon which my apartment was located; at least, I assumed that
it encircled the tree, but I did not know, as that portion assigned to
me was but a hundred feet long, a fifteenth part of the circumference of
the great tree. At each end of my little segment was a fence. The
section adjoining mine on the right appeared to be a garden, as it was a
mass of flowers and shrubbery growing in soil that must have been
brought up from that distant surface of the planet that I had as yet
neither set foot upon nor seen. The section on my left extended in front
of the quarters of several young officers attached to the household of
the king. I call them young because Danus told me they were young, but
they appear to be about the same age as all the other Amtorians I have
seen. They were pleasant fellows, and after I learned to speak their
language we occasionally had friendly chats together.
But in the section at my right I had never seen a human being; and then
one day, when Danus was absent and I was walking alone, I saw a girl
among the flowers there. She did not see me; and I only caught the
briefest glimpse of her, but there was something about her that made me
want to see her again, and thereafter I rather neglected the young
officers on my left.
Though I haunted the end of my veranda next the garden for several days,
I did not again see the girl during all that time. The place seemed
utterly deserted until one day I saw the figure of a man among the
shrubbery. He was moving with great caution, creeping stealthily; and
presently, behind him, I saw another and another, until I had counted
five of them all together.
They were similar to the Vepajans, yet there was a difference. They
appeared coarser, more brutal, than any of the men I had as yet seen;
and in other ways they were dissimilar to Danus, Duran, Kamlot, and my
other Venusan acquaintances. There was something menacing and sinister,
too, in their silent, stealthy movements.
I wondered what they were doing there; and then I thought of the girl,
and for some reason the conclusion was forced upon me that the presence
of these men here had something to do with her, and that it boded her
harm. Just in what way I could not even surmise, knowing so little of
the people among whom fate had thrown me; but the impression was quite
definite, and it excited me. Perhaps it rather overcame my better
judgment, too, if my next act is an index to the matter.
Without thought of the consequences and in total ignorance of the
identity of the men or the purpose for which they were in the garden, I
vaulted the low fence and followed them. I made no noise. They had not
seen me originally because I had been hidden from their view by a larger
shrub that grew close to the fence that separated the garden from my
veranda. It was through the foliage of this shrub that I had observed
them, myself unobserved.
Moving cautiously but swiftly, I soon overtook the hindmost man and saw
that the five were moving toward an open doorway beyond which, in a
richly furnished apartment, I saw the girl who had aroused my curiosity
and whose beautiful face had led me into this mad adventure. Almost
simultaneously, the girl glanced up and saw the leading man at the
doorway. She screamed, and then I knew that I had not come in vain.
Instantly I leaped upon the man in front of me, and as I did so I gave a
great shout, hoping by that means to distract the attention of the other
four from the girl to me, and in that I was wholly successful. The other
four turned instantly. I had taken my man so completely by surprise that
I was able to snatch his sword from its scabbard before he could recover
his wits; and as he drew his dagger and struck at me, I ran his own
blade through his heart; then the others were upon me.
Their faces were contorted by rage, and I could see that they would give
me no quarter.
The narrow spaces between the shrubbery reduced the advantage which four
men would ordinarily have had over a single antagonist, for they could
attack me only singly; but I knew what the outcome must eventually be if
help did not reach me, and as my only goal was to keep the men from the
girl, I backed slowly toward the fence and my own veranda as I saw that
all four of the men were following me.
My shout and the girl’s scream had attracted attention; and presently I
heard men running in the apartment in which I had seen the girl, and her
voice directing them toward the garden. I hoped they would come before
the fellows had backed me against the wall, where I was confident that I
must go down in defeat beneath four swords wielded by men more
accustomed to them than I. I thanked the good fortune, however, that had
led me to take up fencing seriously in Germany, for it was helping me
now, though I could not long hold out against these men with the Venusan
sword which was a new weapon to me.
I had reached the fence at last and was fighting with my back toward it.
The fellow facing me was cutting viciously at me. I could hear the men
coming from the apartment Could I hold out? Then my opponent swung a
terrific cut at my head, and, instead of parrying it, I leaped to one
side and simultaneously stepped in and cut at him. His own swing had
carried him off balance, and, of course, his guard was down. My blade
cut deep into his neck, severing his jugular. From behind him another
man was rushing upon me.
Relief was coming. The girl was safe. I could accomplish no more by
remaining there and being cut to pieces, a fate I had only narrowly
averted in the past few seconds. I hurled my sword, point first, at the
oncoming Venusan; and as it tore into his breast I turned and vaulted
the fence into my own veranda.
Then, as I looked back, I saw a dozen Vepajan warriors overwhelm the two
remaining intruders, butchering them like cattle. There was no shouting
and no sound other than the brief clash of swords as the two sought
desperately but futilely to defend themselves. The Vepajans spoke no
word. They seemed shocked and terrified, though their terror had most
certainly not been the result of any fear of their late antagonists.
There was something else which I did not understand, something
mysterious in their manner, their silence, and their actions immediately
following the encounter.
Quickly they seized the bodies of the five strange warriors that had
been killed and carrying them to the outer garden wall, hurled them over
into that bottomless abyss of the forest the terrific depths of which my
eyes had never been able to plumb. Then, in equal silence, they departed
from the garden by the same path by which they had entered it.
I realized that they had not seen me, and I knew that the girl had not.
I wondered a little how they accounted for the deaths of the three men I
had disposed of, but I never learned. The whole affair was a mystery to
me and was only explained long after in the light of ensuing events.
I thought that Danus might mention it and thus give me an opportunity to
question him; but he never did, and something kept me from broaching the
subject to him, modesty perhaps. In other respects, however, my
curiosity concerning these people was insatiable; and I fear that I
bored Danus to the verge of distraction with my incessant questioning,
but I excused myself on the plea that I could only learn the language by
speaking it and hearing it spoken; and Danus, that most delightful of
men, insisted that it was not only a pleasure to inform me but his duty
as well, the jong having requested him to inform me fully concerning the
life, customs, and history of the Vepajans.
One of the many things that puzzled me was why such an intelligent and
cultured people should be living in trees, apparently without servants
or slaves and with no intercourse, as far as I had been able to
discover, with other peoples; so one evening I asked him.
“It is a long story,” replied Danus; “much of it you will find in the
histories here upon my shelves, but I can give you a brief outline that
will at least answer your question.
“Hundreds of years ago the kings of Vepaja ruled a great country. It was
not this forest island where you now find us, but a broad empire that
embraced a thousand islands and extended from Strabol to Karbol; it
included broad land masses and great oceans; it was graced by mighty
cities and boasted a wealth and commerce unsurpassed through all the
centuries before or since.
“The people of Vepaja in those days were numbered in the millions; there
were millions of merchants and millions of wage earners and millions of
slaves, and there was a smaller class of brain workers. This class
included the learned professions of science, medicine, and law, of
letters and the creative arts. The military leaders were selected from
all classes. Over all was the hereditary jong.
“The lines between the classes were neither definitely nor strictly
drawn; a slave might become a free man, a free man might become anything
he chose within the limits of his ability, short of jong. In social
intercourse the four principal classes did not intermingle with each
other, due to the fact that members of one class had little in common
with members of the other classes and not through any feeling of
superiority or inferiority. When a member of a lower class had won by
virtue of culture, learning, or genius to a position in a higher class,
he was received upon an equal footing, and no thought was given to his
antecedents.
“Vepaja was prosperous and happy, yet there were malcontents. These were
the lazy and incompetent. Many of them were of the criminal class. They
were envious of those who had won to positions which they were not
mentally equipped to attain. Over a long period of time they were
responsible for minor discord and dissension, but the people either paid
no attention to them or laughed them down. Then they found a leader. He
was a laborer named Thor, a man with a criminal record.
“This man founded a secret order known as Thorists and preached a gospel
of class hatred called Thorism. By means of lying propaganda he gained a
large following, and as all his energies were directed against a single
class, he had all the vast millions of the other three classes to draw
from, though naturally he found few converts among the merchants and
employers which also included the agrarian class.
“The sole end of the Thorist leaders was personal power and
aggrandizement; their aims were wholly selfish, yet, because they worked
solely among the ignorant masses, they had little difficulty in
deceiving their dupes, who finally rose under their false leaders in a
bloody revolution that sounded the doom of the civilization and
advancement of a world.
“Their purpose was the absolute destruction of the cultured class. Those
of the other classes who opposed them were to be subjugated or
destroyed; the jong and his family were to be killed. These things
accomplished, the people would enjoy absolute freedom; there would be no
masters, no taxes, no laws.
“They succeeded in killing most of us and a large proportion of the
merchant class; then the people discovered what the agitators already
knew, that someone must rule, and the leaders of Thorism were ready to
take over the reins of government. The people had exchanged the
beneficent rule of an experienced and cultured class for that of greedy
incompetents and theorists.
“Now they are all reduced to virtual slavery. An army of spies watches
over them, and an army of warriors keeps them from turning against their
masters; they are miserable, helpless, and hopeless.
“Those of us who escaped with our jong sought out this distant,
uninhabited island. Here we constructed tree cities, such as this, far
above the ground, from which they cannot be seen. We brought our culture
with us and little else; but our wants are few, and we are happy. We
would not return to the old system if we might. We have learned our
lesson, that a people divided amongst themselves cannot be happy. Where
there are even slight class distinctions there are envy and jealousy.
Here there are none; we are all of the same class. We have no servants;
whatever there is to do we do better than servants ever did it. Even
those who serve the jong are not servants in the sense that they are
menials, for their positions are considered posts of honor, and the
greatest among us take turns in filling them.”
“But I still do not understand why you choose to live in trees, far
above the ground,” I said.
“For years the Thorists hunted us down to kill us,” he explained, “and
we were forced to live in hidden, inaccessible places; this type of city
was the solution of our problem. The Thorists still hunt us; and there
are still occasional raids, but now they are for a very different
purpose. Instead of wishing to kill us, they now wish to capture as many
of us as they can.
“Having killed or driven away the brains of the nation, their
civilization has deteriorated, disease is making frightful inroads upon
them which they are unable to check, old age has reappeared and is
taking its toll; so they seek to capture the brains and the skill and
the knowledge which they have been unable to produce and which we alone
possess.”
“Old age is reappearing! What do you mean?” I asked.
“Have you not noticed that there are no signs of old age among us?” he
inquired.
“Yes, of course,” I replied, “nor any children. I have often meant to
ask you for an explanation.”
“These are not natural phenomena,” he assured me; “they are the crowning
achievements of medical science. A thousand years ago the serum of
longevity was perfected. It is injected every two years and not only
provides immunity from all diseases but insures the complete restoration
of all wasted tissue.
“But even in good there is evil. As none grew old and none died, except
those who met with violent death, we were faced with the grave dangers
of overpopulation. To combat this, birth control became obligatory.
Children are permitted now only in sufficient numbers to replace actual
losses in population. If a member of a house is killed, a woman of that
house is permitted to bear a child, if she can; but after generations of
childlessness there is a constantly decreasing number of women who are
capable of bearing children. This situation we have met by anticipating
it.
“Statistics compiled over a period of a thousand years indicate the
average death rate expectancy per thousand people; they have also
demonstrated that only fifty per cent of our women are capable of
bearing children; therefore, fifty per cent of the required children are
permitted yearly to those who wish them, in the order in which their
applications are filed.”
“I have not seen a child since I arrived in Amtor,” I told him.
“There are children here,” he replied, “but, of course, not many.”
“And no old people,” I mused. “Could you administer that serum to me,
Danus?”
He smiled. “With Mintep’s permission, which I imagine will not be
difficult to obtain. Come,” he added, “I’ll take some blood tests now to
determine the type and attenuation of serum best adapted to your
requirements.” He motioned me into his laboratory.
When he had completed the tests, which he accomplished with ease and
rapidity, he was shocked by the variety and nature of malignant bacteria
they revealed.
“You are a menace to the continued existence of human life on Amtor,” he
exclaimed with a laugh.
“I am considered a very healthy man in my own world,” I assured him.
“How old are you?” he asked.
“Twenty-seven.”
“You would not be so healthy two hundred years from now if all those
bacteria were permitted to have their way with you.”
“How old might I live to be if they were eradicated?” I asked.
He shrugged. “We do not know. The serum was perfected a thousand years
ago. There are people among us today who were of the first to receive
injections. I am over five hundred years old; Mintep is seven hundred.
We believe that, barring accidents, we shall live forever; but, of
course, we do not know. Theoretically, we should.”
He was called away at this juncture; and I went out on the veranda to
take my exercise, of which I have found that I require a great deal,
having always been athletically inclined. Swimming, boxing, and
wrestling had strengthened and developed my muscles since I had returned
to America with my mother when I was eleven, and I became interested in
fencing while I was travelling in Europe after she died. During my
college days I was amateur middleweight boxer of California, and I
captured several medals for distance swimming; so the inforced
inactivity of the past two months had galled me considerably. Toward the
end of my college days I had grown into the heavyweight class, but that
had been due to an increase of healthy bone and sinew; now I was at
least twenty pounds heavier and that twenty pounds was all fat.
On my one hundred feet of veranda I did the best I could to reduce. I
ran miles, I shadow boxed, I skipped rope, and I spent hours with the
old seventeen setting-up exercises of drill regulations. Today I was
shadow boxing near the right end of my veranda when I suddenly
discovered the girl in the garden observing me. As our eyes met I halted
in my tracks and smiled at her. A frightened look came into her eyes,
and she turned and fled. I wondered why.
Puzzled, I walked slowly back toward my apartment, my exercises
forgotten. This time I had seen the girl’s full face, looked her
squarely in the eyes, and I had been absolutely dumfounded by her
beauty. Every man and woman I had seen since I had come to Venus had
been beautiful; I had come to expect that. But I had not expected to see
in this or any other world such indescribable perfection of coloring and
features, combined with character and intelligence, as that which I had
just seen in the garden beyond my little fence. But why had she run away
when I smiled?
Possibly she had run away merely because she had been discovered
watching me for, after all, human nature is about the same everywhere.
Even twenty-six million miles from earth there are human beings like
ourselves and a girl, with quite human curiosity, who runs away when she
is discovered. I wondered if she resembled earthly girls in other
respects, but she seemed too beautiful to be just like anything on earth
or in heaven. Was she young or old? Suppose she were seven hundred years
old!
I went to my apartment and prepared to bathe and change my loincloth; I
had long since adopted the apparel of Amtor. As I glanced in a mirror
that hangs in my bathroom I suddenly understood why the girl may have
looked frightened and run away—my beard! It was nearly a month old now
and might easily have frightened anyone who had never before seen a
beard.
When Danus returned I asked him what I could do about it. He stepped
into another room and returned with a bottle of salve.
“Rub this into the roots of the hair on your face,” he directed, “but be
careful not to get it on your eyebrows, lashes, or the hair on your
head. Leave it there a minute and then wash your face.”
I stepped into my bathroom and opened the jar; its contents looked like
vaseline and smelled like the devil, but I rubbed it into the roots of
my beard as Danus had directed. When I washed my face a moment later my
beard came off, leaving my face smooth and hairless. I hurried back to
the room where I had left Danus.
“You are quite handsome after all,” he remarked. “Do all the people of
this fabulous world of which you have told me have hair growing on their
faces?”
“Nearly all,” I replied, “but in my country the majority of men keep it
shaved off.”
“I should think the women would be the ones to shave,” he commented. “A
woman with hair on her face would be quite repulsive to an Amtorian.”
“But our women do not have hair on their faces,” I assured him.
“And the men do! A fabulous world indeed.”
“But if Amtorians do not grow beards, what was the need of this salve
that you gave me?” I asked.
“It was perfected as an aid to surgery,” he explained. “In treating
scalp wounds and in craniectomies it is necessary to remove the hair
from about the wound. This unguent serves the purpose better than
shaving and also retards the growth of new hair for a longer time.”
“But the hair will grow out again?” I asked.
“Yes, if you do not apply the unguent too frequently,” he replied.
“How frequently?” I demanded.
“Use it every day for six days and the hair will never again grow on
your face. We used to use it on the heads of confirmed criminals.
Whenever one saw a bald-headed man or a man wearing a wig he watched his
valuables.”
“In my country when one sees a bald-headed man,” I said, “he watches his
girls. And that reminds me; I have seen a beautiful girl in a garden
just to the right of us here. Who is she?”
“She is one whom you are not supposed to see,” he replied. “Were I you,
I should not again mention the fact that you have seen her. Did she see
you?”
“She saw me,” I replied.
“What did she do?” His tone was serious.
“She appeared frightened and ran.”
“Perhaps you had best keep away from that end of the veranda,” he
suggested.
There was that in his manner which precluded questions, and I did not
pursue the subject further. Here was a mystery, the first suggestion of
mystery that I had encountered in the life of Vepaja, and naturally it
piqued my curiosity. Why should I not look at the girl? I had looked at
other women without incurring displeasure. Was it only this particular
girl upon whom I must not look, or were there other girls equally
sacrosanct? It occurred to me that she might be a priestess of some holy
order, but I was forced to discard that theory because of my belief that
these people had no religion, at least none that I could discover in my
talks with Danus. I had attempted to describe some of our earthly
religious beliefs to him, but he simply could not perceive either their
purpose or meaning any more than he could visualize the solar system of
the universe.
Having once seen the girl, I was anxious to see her again; and now that
the thing was proscribed, I was infinitely more desirous than ever to
look upon her divine loveliness and to speak with her. I had not
promised Danus that I would heed his suggestions, for I was determined
to ignore them should the opportunity arise.
I was commencing to tire of the virtual imprisonment that had been my
lot ever since my advent upon Amtor, for even a kindly jailer and a
benign prison régime are not satisfactory substitutes for freedom. I had
asked Danus what my status was and what they planned for me in the
future, but he had evaded a more direct answer by saying that I was the
guest of Mintep, the jong, and that my future would be a matter of
discussion when Mintep granted me an audience.
Suddenly now I felt more than before the restrictions of my situation,
and they galled me. I had committed no crime. I was a peaceful visitor
to Vepaja. I had neither the desire nor the power to harm anyone. These
considerations decided me. I determined to force the issue.
A few minutes ago I had been contented with my lot, willing to wait the
pleasure of my hosts; now I was discontented. What had induced this
sudden change? Could it be the mysterious alchemy of personality that
had transmuted the lead of lethargy to the gold of ambitious desire? Had
the aura of a vision of feminine loveliness thus instantly reversed my
outlook upon life?
I turned toward Danus. “You have been very kind to me,” I said, “and my
days here have been happy, but I am of a race of people who desire
freedom above all things. As I have explained to you, I am here through
no intentional fault of my own; but I am here, and being here I expect
the same treatment that would be accorded you were you to visit my
country under similar circumstances.”
“And what treatment would that be?” he asked.
“The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—freedom,” I
explained. I did not think it necessary to mention chambers of commerce
dinners, Rotary and Kiwanis luncheons, triumphal parades and ticker
tape, keys to cities, press representatives and photographers, nor news
reel cameramen, the price that he would undoubtedly have had to pay for
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
“But, my dear friend, one would think from your words that you are a
prisoner here!” he exclaimed.
“I am, Danus,” I replied, “and none knows it better than you.”
He shrugged. “I am sorry that you feel that way about it, Carson.”
“How much longer is it going to last?” I demanded.
“The jong is the jong,” he replied. “He will send for you in his own
time; until then, let us continue the friendly relations that have
marked our association up to now.”
“I hope they will never be changed, Danus,” I told him, “but you may
tell Mintep, if you will, that I cannot accept his hospitality much
longer; if he does not send for me soon, I shall leave on my own
accord.”
“Do not attempt that, my friend,” he warned me.
“And why not?”
“You would not live to take a dozen steps from the apartments that have
been assigned you,” he assured me seriously.
“Who would stop me?”
“There are warriors posted in the corridors,” he explained; “they have
their orders from the jong.”
“And yet I am not a prisoner!” I exclaimed with a bitter laugh.
“I am sorry that you raised the question,” he said, “as otherwise you
might never have known.”
Here indeed was the iron hand in the velvet glove. I hoped it was not
wielded by a wolf in sheep’s clothing. My position was not an enviable
one. Even had I the means to escape, there was no place that I could go.
But I did not want to leave Vepaja—I had seen the girl in the garden.
VI
GATHERING TAREL
A week passed, a week during which I permanently discarded my reddish
whiskers and received an injection of the longevity serum. The latter
event suggested that possibly Mintep would eventually liberate me, for
why bestow immortality upon a potential enemy who is one’s prisoner; but
then I knew that the serum did not confer absolute immortality—Mintep
could have me destroyed if he wished, by which thought was suggested the
possibility that the serum had been administered for the purpose of
lulling me into a sense of security which I did not, in reality, enjoy.
I was becoming suspicious.
While Danus was injecting the serum, I asked him if there were many
doctors in Vepaja. “Not so many in proportion to the population as there
were a thousand years ago,” he replied. “All the people are now trained
in the care of their bodies and taught the essentials of health and
longevity. Even without the serums we use to maintain resistance to
disease constantly in the human body, our people would live to great
ages. Sanitation, diet, and exercise can accomplish wonders by
themselves.
“But we must have some doctors. Their numbers are limited now to about
one to each five thousand citizens, and in addition to administering the
serum, the doctors attend those who are injured by the accidents of
daily life, in the hunt, and in duels and war.
“Formerly there were many more doctors than could eke out an honest
living, but now there are various agencies that restrict their numbers.
Not only is there a law restricting these, but the ten years of study
required, the long apprenticeship thereafter, and the difficult
examinations that must be passed have all tended to reduce the numbers
who seek to follow this profession; but another factor probably achieved
more than all else to rapidly reduce the great number of doctors that
threatened the continuance of human life on Amtor in the past.
“This was a regulation that compelled every physician and surgeon to
file a complete history of each of his cases with the chief medical
officer of his district. From diagnosis to complete recovery or death,
each detail of the handling of each case had to be recorded and placed
on record for the public to consult. When a citizen requires the
services of a physician or surgeon now, he may easily determine those
who have been successful and those who have not. Fortunately, today
there are few of the latter. The law has proved a good one.”
This was interesting, for I had had experience with physicians and
surgeons on earth. “How many doctors survived the operation of this new
law?” I asked.
“About two per cent,” he replied.
“There must have been a larger proportion of good doctors on Amtor than
on earth,” I commented.
Time hung heavily upon my hands. I read a great deal, but an active
young man cannot satisfy all his varied life interests with books alone.
And then there was the garden at my right. I had been advised to avoid
that end of my veranda, but I did not, at least not when Danus was
absent. When he was away I haunted that end of the veranda, but it
seemed deserted. And then one day I caught a glimpse of her; she was
watching me from behind a flowering shrub.
I was close to the fence that separated my runway from her garden; it
was not a high fence, perhaps slightly under five feet. She did not run
this time, but stood looking straight at me, possibly thinking that I
could not see her because of the intervening foliage. I could not see
her plainly enough, that is true; and, God, how I wanted to see her!
What is that inexplicable, subtle attraction that some woman holds for
every man? For some men there is only one woman in the world who
exercises this influence upon him, or perhaps if there are more, the
others do not cross his path; for other men there are several; for some
none. For me there was this girl of an alien race, upon an alien planet.
Perhaps there were others, but if there were, I had never met them. In
all my life before I had never been moved by such an irresistible urge.
What I did, I did upon the strength of an impulse as uncontrollable as a
law of nature; perhaps it was a law of nature that motivated me. I
vaulted the fence.
Before the girl could escape me, I stood before her. There were
consternation and horror in her eyes. I thought that she was afraid of
me.
“Do not be afraid,” I said; “I have not come to harm you, only to speak
to you.”
She drew herself up proudly. “I am not afraid of you,” she said; “I—,”
she hesitated and then started over. “If you are seen here you will be
destroyed. Go back to your quarters at once and never dare such a rash
act again.”
I thrilled to the thought that the fear that I had seen so clearly
reflected in her eyes was for my safety. “How may I see you?” I asked.
“You may never see me,” she replied.
“But I have seen you, and I intend seeing you again. I am going to see a
lot of you, or die in the attempt.”
“Either you do not know what you are doing or you are mad,” she said and
turned her back on me as she started to walk away.