"Terribly sorry, sir."
"To get on," Heidel said finally, his voice a cutting sound. "Dr. Kingly
had injected his solution and then ... Well, at any rate, when he
returned to his laboratory, it was night. His laboratory was black as
pitch--I'm trying to paint the picture for you, gentlemen--and the
cadaver was stretched out on a table, you see. And before Dr. Kingly
switched on the lights, he saw the eyes of this dead Martian glowing in
the dark like a pair of hot coals."
"Weird," said Sadler, unblinking.
"Ghostly," said Clarke.
"The important thing," Heidel said curtly, "is that Dr. Kingly
discovered the difference, then, between the Martian and the Earthman.
The difference is the eyes. The solution, you see, had reacted
chemically to the membranes of the eyeballs, so that as it happened
they lit up like electric lights. I won't go into what Dr. Kingly found
further, when he dissected the eyeballs. Let it suffice to say, the
Martian eyeball is a physical element entirely different from our
own--at least from those of five of us, I should say."
His grin gleamed. He was working this precisely and carefully, and it
was effective. "Now, however," he continued, "it is this _sixth_ man who
is at issue right now. The fly in the soup, shall we say. And in just a
few seconds I am going to exterminate that fly."
He picked up the pistol from the table. "As I told you, gentlemen, I am
quite versatile with this weapon. I am a dead shot, in other words. And
I am going to demonstrate it to you." He glanced from face to face.
"You will notice that since Mr. Meehan has moved, I have a clear field
across the table. I don't believe a little lead in the woodwork will mar
the room too much, would you say, Forbes?"