Finally Ted found what he was looking for. He was able to make out a
little furry body struggling at the bog’s edge. The animal appeared to
be trapped in the marsh. One stubby paw was grasping a root growing out
of the bank. Ted handed the glasses to Randy.
“It’s a color bear,” Randy whispered. “He’s stuck in the bog. He’ll
never get out by himself.”
Ted saw a wistful look on Randy’s face. “I sure hate to see anything
happen to those little fellows. They’re so friendly.”
“You mean they make good pets?” Ted wanted to know.
“They sure do,” Randy answered. “I owned one once, until he fell into a
bog. It seems they always end up in one sooner or later.”
“I wonder if we could help him,” Ted suggested.
“It may be dangerous,” Randy warned. “If we should slip....”
“You’ve been around them before, haven’t you?”
“Yes.”
“I’m willing to try it if you are,” Ted said.
“Let’s go then.”
“We’ll have to be careful not to wake the others,” Ted said.
Softly they crept down the hall to the space-suit closet. Silently they
dressed and inflated their suits with oxygen. Then they went through the
air lock and on outdoors.
Ted had brought a flashlight. The cone of whiteness fanned out ahead of
them, leading the way for them over the red sands. As they drew near the
sand bog, the wails of the trapped animal became louder and more
frantic.
“We’d better hurry,” Randy said. “He may go down any moment.”
They broke into a run and finally reached the side of the little fellow.
The only part of him visible now was his round head, from which
projected big cup-handle ears. His short forepaws still clung to the
root, but even now the boys could see his grip loosening.
As they knelt beside him, they saw his violet button eyes turned
pleadingly up to them.
“The bank seems firm,” Randy said. “Let’s brace ourselves and each take
one of his paws.”
The black mud pulled strongly against them. After a few moments the
boys’ arms ached from the tug of war, but they appeared to be winning
the battle. Slowly the bear rose out of his trap. Just as Ted thought
his own arms would be pulled off from the strain, the animal sucked free
of the clutching slime and came tumbling up over Ted and Randy.
As the boys climbed to their feet, the color bear ran up first to one
and then to the other, and licked their helmets gratefully with his long
red tongue!
[Illustration]
The little creature stood about two and a half feet tall and was so
roly-poly, he must have been nearly that wide. The mud caked his body,
some of it crawling like thick molasses down into a black puddle around
his flat feet. He walked upright just as they did.
“What’ll we do with him?” Randy asked.
“Let him go, I guess,” Ted replied. “I wish we could keep him, but I’m
afraid Dad wouldn’t agree. For some reason, he doesn’t like color bears.
Besides, there’s no place to keep him.”
They walked back toward the house. Presently Ted turned and saw what he
had feared. The bear was trudging along behind. They tried to shoo him
off. This only made him hesitate momentarily and then start following
again. Finally they gave up, permitting him to trail along at a
distance.
When they reached the air lock, they opened the door. As they waited for
the pressure to come up, the color bear stood outside looking in at
them. Ted thought he had the most plaintive expression he had ever seen.
It was almost human.
“We can’t let him stand out there like that all night,” Ted said. “He
might wake up the whole house with his cries. They do cry, don’t they?”
“Just like babies,” Randy said.
“I forgot, though,” Ted said. “They can’t breathe our air mixture, can
they?”
“Yes, they can.” Randy told him. “They have a valve in their bodies that
takes care of that.”
“I believe we can wash that goo off him and leave him in the kitchen
until morning,” Ted said. “Maybe he’ll be quiet if he’s clean.”
They let the bear in, and in appreciation he licked their helmets again.
“If you want to stay in here, you’ll have to be quiet,” Randy warned,
just as though the animal could understand.
“Hey!” Ted cried. “What’s wrong with him?” The little animal was reeling
around as though he could hardly keep his feet, and his eyes were
glazed.
“They always do that the first few times they enter our atmosphere,”
Randy answered.
The color bear adjusted himself quickly to the change and then seemed
all right again. Quietly the boys led him down the hall toward the
shower. In the bathroom they shut the door, removed their helmets and
turned on the shower in a gentle spray. The bear did not take to water
willingly, and the boys had to force him under. When he began squealing
and kicking, Ted put his hand over his mouth. As the little animal felt
the warm water, however, his broad mouth turned upward in a grin, and he
sat down in the middle of the plastic basin to enjoy his bath.
While the mud was washing down the drain Ted began to see what a
beautiful creature the color bear really was. His soft fur was white
next to the body, then merged into reddish brown at the tip. To make him
even more colorful, his paws, legs, and head had a bluish tinge. “What a
patriotic creature he would be on Earth,” Ted thought. He had all the
colors of the American flag.
When the animal was clean, Ted got out a blotting towel that dried the
bear in a matter of seconds. The little fellow looked happy after his
bath and grinned at them. When he tried to lick their bare faces, they
had to cover up. He seemed hurt by their gesture and pouted for a
moment, with his lower lip quivering.
“See what I mean?” Randy said, grinning. “They’re almost human.”
“I wish we could keep him,” Ted said longingly. “He seems like lots of
fun. I think I’ll ask Dad about it.”
As they were cleaning up the bathroom, Ted, who was leaning over the
shower basin, felt Randy’s hand press sharply on his shoulder. Ted spun
around. Standing in the doorway was his father, a stern look on his
face.
CHAPTER TEN
_School on Mars_
“What in the world are you two doing?” Dr. Kenton asked.
Ted told him the whole story of the rescue, ending up with a request
that they keep the Martian animal for a pet.
Ted’s father shook his head. “That’s impossible. There’s no place to
keep him.” His face grew stern again. “You two did a very foolish thing
going out alone near that bog. You might have fallen in. I want you to
promise that you won’t go near that place again.”
They promised. Ted knew it was no use arguing about keeping the color
bear. When his father made up his mind, he rarely changed it.
As the three walked along the hallway with the bear, Dr. Kenton said,
“You kids woke me up with all that splashing in the bathroom, but,
fortunately, Mom is still asleep. We must be quiet so that we won’t
waken her and Jill.”
The bear was reluctant to be forced out of the house through the air
lock. Ted knew the animal felt no worse than he did. He had become quite
attached to the little fellow in even this short time.
When the bear was outside in the dark, he looked mournfully through the
transparent doors at his former friends who had rejected him. Then he
began wailing softly. Ted looked hopefully at his father, wishing that
he would have a change of heart. But Dr. Kenton’s expression was set,
and Ted knew there was no chance of the color bear coming back inside.
The three of them retired to bed, but Ted was a long time getting to
sleep. For almost an hour the Martian creature kept up a soft wail. Ted
covered up his ears with his air-filled pillow, and he was finally able
to drop off to sleep.
The next morning Ted and Randy went to the front door the first thing
after they rose. There was no sign of the color bear.
“I guess he finally gave up,” said Ted unhappily.
“I can’t understand his being alone like he was,” Randy said. “Usually
the little bears travel around in families of about ten. I guess this
one was an orphan.”
Hearing this, Ted felt even worse. “Maybe a wild animal got him,” he
murmured. “If it hasn’t already, it probably will sooner or later. By
the way, what kind of wild animals do they have here?”
“None of them ever come close to the colony,” Randy answered. “Hundreds
of miles away, there’s the Great Martian Forest where all kinds of them
live. One of the fiercest kinds are the elephant ants. Big herds of blue
rovers run across the desert closer by. There are different kinds of
birds here, too.”
“I’ve heard of a dangerous plant in the Great Forest,” Ted said. “What’s
it called?”
“The whip tree,” Randy answered. “It throws tentacles around anything
that’s near and draws it into its center mouth.”
Realizing the dangers to the lonely little bear, Ted had not much
appetite for breakfast. Neither of the boys nor Dr. Kenton had mentioned
the adventure of the night before, but Mrs. Kenton had heard some
noises, although they had thought she was asleep. She began asking
questions and finally got the whole story.
“I wish we could have kept that little animal!” Jill sighed. “He sounds
wonderful!”
“We can’t adopt every stray animal that comes along,” Dr. Kenton said.
“I’m sure the color bear will get back to his family all right. He
probably just strayed temporarily.”
Dr. Kenton next said that he was going to report to the science
organization this morning. He asked the children if they wanted to go
along and register in school. They’d have to within the next few days
anyhow.
“Are the schools like they are back home?” Jill asked.
“They sure are,” her father said. “Just as modern as you’ll find
anywhere.”
Hearing this, the children were eager to go. Schools in the twenty-first
century were a combination of wholesome entertainment and instruction.
No dry textbooks or cramped wooden desks with hard seats. Ted and Jill
had heard about the poor children of the mid-1900’s who had to plod
through school with such handicaps as these, and they felt sorry for
them.
Ted noticed that Dad seemed reluctant to leave Mom by herself, but she
did not seem to mind.
“Don’t worry about me,” Mrs. Kenton said merrily. “I’ll have plenty to
do unpacking our clothes and things that they dumped in the living room
yesterday. I won’t even miss you _four_ children!”
When the young folks and Dr. Kenton went outside in their space suits,
Ted saw that the sun was just a little above the horizon. He had learned
that men rose early on Mars to take advantage of the warmth and
illumination of daylight.
Dr. Kenton looked into the purple sky through which the stars gleamed.
“It’s exactly six-fifteen now,” he said.
“How did you know that?” Ted asked in surprise. “You didn’t look at your
watch.”
“I didn’t have to,” his father answered. “That little disk in the sky
gives it to me.”
“That’s Phobos,” Ted supplied.
“Right,” his father answered. “It takes only six hours for the moon to
go from one horizon to the other, so you can actually see its movement
in a few minutes’ time. By judging its distance from the star around it,
I can get the time.”
“That sure must take a lot of knowledge of the stars to know just where
each one should be at any one time!” Ted said.
“It does,” the scientist replied, “but you’ll learn it in school. I’ll
bet Randy knows how to do it now. How about it, Randy?”
“Yes sir,” Randy replied with a grin, “but I guess I’m a little off
after being away so long. I thought the time was six-thirty.”
Dr. Kenton took another look, and Ted could see his face redden inside
his helmet. “I’m the one who’s a little bit off, Randy!” he admitted.
“It _is_ six-thirty.”
Suddenly Jill cried, “Ooo—look!”
A half dozen large birds were swooping down on the boat. Dr. Kenton did
not appear alarmed—only amused. “They won’t hurt us,” he said. “They’re
whee birds and very friendly.”
The beautiful birds folded their scarlet wings, tipped in yellow, and
perched on the sides of the boat. Then they began giving out a peculiar,
“Whee-whee,” as though they were enjoying the boat ride.
“Don’t they sound funny!” Ted said.
The birds soared away as the boat turned into Main Canal. A few minutes
later, Dr. Kenton drove up to the building they had registered in the
day before. But instead of docking at the building, Dr. Kenton continued
along the canal beside the building in the direction of the other large
building next to it.
“We’re going to the science building today,” the scientist explained.
“Why is that as big as the administration building?” Jill asked.
[Illustration: _The birds soared away._]
“Don’t forget, Jill, that science and research is our main business on
Mars,” Dr. Kenton told her. “Every imaginable research project is
carried on there. Your schoolroom is there, too.”
Dr. Kenton docked the boat at the science building, and the four got out
and entered. When they had removed their space suits, Dr. Kenton took
the children to the school superintendent’s office, where he left them.
The superintendent had them fill out cards, and then he took them down a
hall.
“We have only a hundred and fifty students enrolled, so we don’t need
many classrooms,” he said, and stopped before one of the rooms, knocking
on the door.
A dark-haired young man opened it, and the superintendent introduced him
to the children as their teacher, Mr. Garland. He assigned the newcomers
seats, and since school had already begun for the day, he went on with
his lesson.
The room darkened, and a regular three-dimensional color movie flashed
on the screen. It was a picture about the wonders of the Earth. Ted felt
a lump rise in his throat as he watched. What he was looking at was the
Natural Bridge in Virginia, not far from their old home. Ted looked at
Jill. A stray pencil of light from the camera showed tears glistening in
her eyes. Ted was feeling a wave of homesickness himself. The wonders of
Mars were exciting, but there was no substitute in all the universe for
their own little plot of ground on Earth where they had been born.
Ted was glad when the movie was over and another subject was taken up.
With slides, Mr. Garland demonstrated the geography of Mars. Ted learned
that the red planet was mostly a vast stretch of desert through which
ran the marvelous network of canals. Mr. Garland likened the climate of
Mars to that atop a high mountain on earth—the air thin and cold.
Ted was glad when the recreation period came and he could exercise.
It was his first such opportunity since leaving Earth. In the boys’ gym
the athletic instructor was teaching the game of basketball. Some of the
students like Randy had been born on Mars and knew nothing at all about
the game. Ted said that he had played a lot of it in school back on
Earth and volunteered to help the instructor, who was glad of the
assistance.
When school was out, the young Kentons and Randy reported to the
science-building office, where Dr. Kenton was waiting for them.
“Did you get your assignment?” Jill asked.
“Yes,” he replied. “I’ll be leaving you in a few days. We’re going on an
expedition to Hellespontus, where some mysterious fossils have been
discovered. They may be bones of the ancient Martians. If so, they could
solve the baffling riddle of what happened to those remarkable canal
builders.”
After getting into space clothes, they went to their boat and started
homeward. As they approached their isolated house at the end of the
winding watercourse, Ted rose in his seat and pointed.
“Look!” he exclaimed. “There’s the color bear again!”
Sure enough, seated on the front doorstep, as though waiting for them to
return, was the little Martian animal they had rescued the night before.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
_Yank_
“Isn’t he the cutest thing!” exclaimed Jill, as she saw the
red-white-and-blue creature.
“I thought we were rid of him,” Dr. Kenton groaned.
He brought the boat to the end of the waterway and tied it up. The
children leaped out and ran to the bear, who climbed to his chubby feet
to greet them. He licked the suits of Ted and Randy but merely stared at
Jill and Dr. Kenton.
“It looks like we just can’t get rid of him,” Ted said, renewing his
hope for possession of the animal.
“Oh, Father, can’t we keep him?” Jill pleaded, stroking the color bear.
Randy patted the little round head, and the bear made a sort of purring,
contented sound as the children fondled him.
Dr. Kenton threw up his hands helplessly. “I guess I know when I’m
licked!” he burst out. “If Mother agrees, we’ll try and keep him. But
you kids will have to attend to him yourselves, and mind you keep him
out of the sand bog, or you won’t have him long.”
“We will!” Jill said. Now that she had made friends with the bear, he
seemed ready to accept her and licked her suit as a sign of friendship.
Randy stayed outside with the bear while the other children went inside
to talk persuasively with their mother. She objected at first, but
finally yielded to their persistence.
“We’ll have to make out a requisition for plastic material for his
outdoor house,” Dr. Kenton said. “Are you children willing to chip in
part of your allowance to pay for it?”
They nodded.
“We’ll order it the same time as we do supplies for the garden,” the
scientist said.
“We’re going to have a garden?” Jill burst out.
“I thought we’d try it,” her father said. “That’s the only way we can
get fresh vegetables.”
When Dr. Kenton went to the study to make out the requisition slip, Ted
asked his mother, “Why didn’t Dad want to keep the bear? It seems to me
that he doesn’t like those little guys, or is afraid of them, or
something.”
“As a matter of fact, he is a little shy of them, I believe,” she
answered. “He accidentally hurt a baby one badly in one of his
explorations a few years ago, when he crushed its forepaw under his boot
and it ran off crying. Your father’s so tender-hearted he’s probably
reminded of that painful incident every time he sees one of the
animals.”
“Maybe he’ll change after the bear has been around for a while,” Jill
put in.
The air-lock door opened, and Randy stuck his head in.
“We’d forgotten all about you, Randy!” Jill exclaimed.
“Are we going to keep him?” Randy asked anxiously.
“We sure are!” Jill piped. “Bring him in and let’s introduce him to
Mother.”
Randy let the color bear inside. When he began staggering about, Mrs.
Kenton exclaimed with horror: “He’s dying, the poor little fellow.”
Randy assured her he wasn’t really—that he behaved like this because of
the extra oxygen in the air. Randy said that before long the bear would
be able to go in and out without any bad effects at all.
Ted brought the animal over to his mother. She gingerly patted his blue
furry head. In response he licked her dress. “Now we’re friends,” Mrs.
Kenton said.
“We’ve got to give him a name,” Jill said. “What’ll we call him?”
“How about Fuzzy?” suggested Mrs. Kenton.
“No. Teddy!” Jill said.
Ted wrinkled his nose. “Then you’d get him mixed up with me. I think he
ought to have a patriotic name because of his colors.”
“How about Yank, then?” Mrs. Kenton said.
“That’s a good one!” Jill agreed.
“Yeah, that’s swell!” Ted said. “What do you think, Randy?”
He shrugged and grinned. “It sounds all right to me, but I don’t know
what it means.”
Ted explained the word as being sort of a nickname for America and
Americans. Randy had learned quite a bit about the United States flag,
but the word Yankee was a new one to him. After he learned its meaning,
he agreed that Yank was a perfect name for the color bear. When Dr.
Kenton returned, Ted felt that the final introduction to the newest
member of their family should be made.
“Yank, meet Dr. Kenton,” Ted said formally.
Ted’s father smiled and approached the little animal. “Hi, Yank,” he
said.
His hand went out to pat the round head, but to everyone’s surprise,
Yank drew back with a cry of fright. Dr. Kenton’s face went red as if he
had been snubbed by a human being. Ted felt sorry for his father. Did
the bear unconsciously know what the scientist had done to another
member of his kind?
“Don’t worry, John,” Mrs. Kenton said soothingly. “He’ll come around to
you before long.”
Her husband quickly changed the subject. “I’ve made out the
requisitions. I’ll send them over to headquarters now on the
video-sender.”
[Illustration]
The children watched interestedly as he went to the video-sender, which
was connected to the radiophone. He fastened the slips face down on a
glass plate and held open a switch for several seconds. About a minute
later, a buzz came over the radiophone.
“That means it’s been received,” Dr. Kenton said. “I asked to have it
sent to us tomorrow.”
“Why couldn’t you just phone it in?” Ted asked.
“This way there doesn’t have to be anyone on the other end,” his father
explained. “The requisition was handled by an automatic machine.”
Yank was given temporary quarters in the basement. Dr. Kenton said he
could not live indefinitely inside like this—that an outside shelter was
absolutely necessary.
The next afternoon after school, Dr. Kenton brought the children home.
Sitting outside the house on the ground were two pieces of specially
formed plastic.
“Here are the things we ordered,” Dr. Kenton said. “The manufacturers
shaped them on molds they already have on hand.”
The color bear’s house was a rounded dome resembling an Eskimo igloo.
The garden shelter was oval and about twenty-five feet long.
“How are we going to lift those things?” Ted asked. “They must be
awfully heavy!”
“On the contrary, they’re quite light,” Dr. Kenton said. “Each of you
grab a handle on the side of the garden top and I’ll show you.”
They discovered they could lift the large object with ease. They carried
it around the house, and Dr. Kenton showed how it would fit close to the
wall. The entrance would be by way of the back door.
“The dome is double-walled!” Ted said.
“Of course, it is,” Dr. Kenton answered. “So is our house—and all the
buildings on Mars.”
“Why?” Ted asked.
“For insulation against the cold,” was the reply. “The outer wall gets
almost as cold as the temperature outside, but the vacuum between it and
the inner wall keeps the inside nice and warm.”
“The walls are so clear in the house, I never noticed they were double,”
Ted said.
“Shall we get started on the garden?” Dr. Kenton asked. “The sooner we
get it in shape, the sooner we can grow tomatoes and beans and dwarf
fruit trees.”
They first went into the house, where Mrs. Kenton showed them a large
pile of supplies that had been sent along with the shelter tops.
“Here’s a foam-rubber mattress for Yank,” the scientist said, pulling
out two bundles, “and a supply of food for him. Everything else is for
the garden.”
The first thing the four of them did outside was set up Yank’s house,
close to the front door, and lay out his sleeping mat. When this was
done, the little animal walked cautiously inside and sniffed all around.
Then he curled up on the soft cushion and closed his eyes.
“He seems satisfied with it,” said Jill.
First work on the garden was to air-seal it to the rear of the house.
This was done with a strange-looking gun that shot a thick gluey liquid
out along the seams between the plastic cover and the house. The rest of
the work had to be done under the dome itself. The workers went back
indoors and hauled all the equipment under the garden shelter.
“First we bring the warm house atmosphere into here, so that we can
remove our space gear,” Dr. Kenton said.
When this was done, and with their space suits off, the workers could
move about more efficiently.
“After supper we’ll prepare the ground, and tomorrow we can plant
seeds,” Dr. Kenton said.
Ted thumped the hard, cold ground with his shoe. “How can we work this?”
he asked. “It’s hard as stone, and it must be awfully cold.”
His father pulled some long steel spikes out of the mass of equipment.
Then he took out a sledge hammer. He hammered the spikes at intervals in
the ground along the sides of the dome. Then he attached an electrical
circuit to each of them and the whole to a generator.
As the generator purred in operation, he said, “Infrared heat rays are
being sent out by the spikes into the ground, warming it. After supper
the ground will be thawed out so that we can till it.”
When they returned to the garden area after their last meal of the day,
they found that the ground could be worked easily. Electric tools made
the job quick and efficient. Fertilizer and soil conditioner were worked
into the ground after the surface had been loosened up for several feet
down.
“Did you say we could plant seeds tomorrow?” Jill asked, when they were
through.