The chief squeaked, eyes concerned.
"Stand still," Allenby ordered. "He's trying to warn you of some
danger."
The chief pointed down the street again and, instead of squealing,
revealed that there was another sound at his command. He said,
"Whooooooosh!"
We all stared at the end of the street.
* * * * *
Nothing! Just the wide avenue between the houses, and the high sand dune
down at the end of it, from which we had first looked upon the village.
The chief described a large circle with one hand, sweeping the hand
above his head, down to his knees, up again, as fast as he could. He
pursed his monkey-lips and said, "Whooooooosh!" And made the circle
again.
A Martian emerged from the door in the side of a house across the avenue
and blinked at the Sun, as if he had just awakened. Then he saw what was
going on below and blinked again, this time in interest. He made his way
down around the winding lamp and started to cross the street.
About halfway, he paused, eyed the calendar on the house wall, glanced
at his shadow. Then he got down on his hands and knees and _crawled_
across the middle of the street. Once past the middle, he rose, walked
the rest of the way to join one of the groups and calmly stared at us
along with the rest of them.
"They're all crazy," Randolph said disgustedly. "I'm going to cross that
street!"
"Shut up. So it's a certain time of a certain day," Allenby mused. "And
from the way the chief is acting, he's afraid for you to cross the
street. And that other one just _crawled_. By God, do you know what this
might tie in with?"