The contents of this message were immediately transmitted to the
President of the United States, and he lost no time in calling a council
of the Associated Governments of the Earth by radiovisiphone. Ted Dustin
was a party to the conference, and assisted in drafting a placatory note
to P’an-ku. The note, which was sent to Dr. Wu for translation into the
Lunite language, was as follows:
_To the Imperial Government of P’an-ku_:
_Greeting_:
The Associated Governments of the Earth regret the destruction of Ur,
and are willing to do all in their power to make amends.
The destruction was unintentional, as the Associated Governments of
the Earth were unaware that Ma Gong was inhabited.
The Associated Governments of the Earth make full apology for having
wronged the people of Ur, and stand willing to pay a reasonable
indemnity in treasure, food, raw materials, or manufactured products,
but are united in the purpose to resist and retaliate for any attempt
at conquest.
After the note had been drafted and dispatched it was unanimously
decided at the meeting that Ted was entitled to the million dollar
reward, there being now no longer any doubt that his projectile had
struck the moon. The treasurer of the association was, accordingly,
ordered to pay him that amount.
It was late in the evening when Ted called Roger into his private
office.
“Get that translation from Dr. Wu, yet?” he asked.
“Yes. I had it painted in large white letters on a black placard and
mounted on an easel in front of the big disc.”
“Good. We’ll go up now. Everything will be ordered off the air in five
minutes, and we’ll try to get it through.”
They took the elevator to the tower room, where the linguists,
scientists, and representatives of the associated powers were assembled
as before. President Whitmore was not present, however, because of
urgent business in Washington. His place was taken by the Secretary of
State. Dr. Wu, who was also unable to be present, was represented by Dr.
Fang, a Chinese scholar of almost equal repute.
At ten o’clock, the zero hour, Ted promptly pressed the button and began
manipulating the dials.
This time he was instantly rewarded by the appearance of the dazzlingly
beautiful girl who had faded from his vision on the occasion of his last
attempt at communication. She was attended by two armed guards as
before, and in addition by a bent, graybearded man who wore a richly
embroidered robe of dark blue, and sandals.
Both glanced at the writing on the placard which Ted held up. Eagerly
watching their faces, he saw that they registered amazement and horror.
Wondering what there could be about this pacific message to cause such a
reaction, he called Dr. Fang and asked him to write the query: “What is
wrong?”
The doctor, a thin, rat-faced Manchu, came forward, but said he did not
know the symbols for the words.
The girl, meanwhile, had a scroll and writing brush brought forward by a
female attendant. The latter held the scroll aloft so its surface was
fully visible, and the girl began rapidly writing two sets of characters
thereon. One set was similar to those which had been used in the
previous communication. The other was totally unlike it and bore no
resemblance to any known earthly characters. Her purpose, however, was
quite evident. The two sets of characters were written in alternating
perpendicular line side by side, in order that the former language might
be used as a key to the latter.
Quick to grasp her idea, Ted called for the photo-record of the message
from the Imperial Government of P’an-ku. Beside it, he wrote the English
translation, using Roman capital letters for the sake of simplicity.
Then beside the placarded note to the Government of P’an-ku, he wrote
the original of that note, also in Roman capitals. In addition, he
pointed out and distinctly pronounced the English words, one by one.
The girl nodded, smiled, and pointed questioningly at him.
“Ted Dustin,” he said.
She pointed to herself and said:
“_Maza an Ma Gong._”
He repeated the name after her, and pointed to the scroll she had
written. She was pronouncing and pointing out each word when she was
suddenly crowded out as before by the appearance of P’an-ku and his
attendants.
The rotund and imperious P’an-ku read the message on the placard, then
turned to the old man who stood beside him and smiled. Ted thought there
was a trace of a sneer in his smile. He ordered the old fellow to write
his reply, then turned and stalked majestically out of the range of
vision. The old man held his message aloft for a few moments as if fully
aware that it was being recorded. Then he let his arm fall to his side,
and the disc became blank.
After supplying Dr. Fang with a set of photo-records of the messages,
and dispatching another to Dr. Wu, Ted and Roger went to the private
office of the former for a conference.
“It seems to me,” said Ted, after he had his briar going, “that there’s
something putrid in Denmark. Did you notice the expression of horror on
the faces of the girl and the graybearded man when they read our
messages?”
“Queer, wasn’t it?” replied Roger. “Must have been something in that
message that was quite a shock to them. Wonder what it could have been.”
“That’s precisely what I’ve been wondering—and it has led to a rather
unpleasant thought. I wouldn’t mention it to anyone in the world but
you—not at present, anyhow—but it looks to me as if Dr. Wu may have
double crossed us.”
“How?”
“By writing a message of his own in the place of the one we asked him to
translate for us.”
“But what message of his own could he possibly have written?”
“That,” said Ted, “is what I propose to try to find out just as soon as
I possibly can. Just before we came up here I sent Bevans to Peiping in
the 800. He has orders to bring Professor Ederson back with him. We can
bank on the professor to shoot square, and it’s quite possible that he
can check up on Wu’s message. At any rate, he’s probably the best versed
white man in the world on the ancient writings of China and Tibet. Has
made a life-time study of them, I’m told.”
“What about the learned Manchu, Dr. Fang?”
“I think he was bluffing. If there’s mischief afoot, you can safely bet
he’s in on it, and knows how to play his part. He’s not so ignorant as
he pretends to be. Did you notice the expression on the face of the man
in the golden armor? He smiled when he read our message, but the smile
was half a sneer.”
“It was a mean smile, all right,” agreed Roger. “More like the snarl of
an animal than the smile of a human being.”
“I’d rather have a person frown at me than smile that way,” said Ted.
Shortly after midnight a radiogram from Professor Fowler of the Yerkes
Observatory arrived. He stated that he had seen five flashes on the
moon, coming from the region of the lunar crater, Stadius.
In the wee, small hours of the morning, Chicago was shaken by a terrific
detonation.