ANIMALS OR MEN?
Of course we did not reach all these conclusions in a few moments,
but I have given them here merely as the outcome of our deductions
following a considerable experience within the Moon. Several miles
from the ship rose foothills which climbed picturesquely toward the
cloudy heights of the loftier mountains behind them, and as we looked
in the direction of these latter, and then out across the forest,
there was appreciable to us a strangeness that at first we could not
explain, but which we later discovered was due to the fact that there
was no horizon, the distance that one could see being dependent
solely upon one’s power of vision. The general effect was of being in
the bottom of a tremendous bowl, with sides so high that one might
not see the top.
The ground about us was covered with rank vegetation of pale hues—
lavenders, violets, pinks and yellows predominating. Pink grasses
which became distinctly flesh-color at maturity grew in abundance,
and the stalks of most of the flowering plants were of this same
peculiar hue. The flowers themselves were often of highly complex
form, of pale and delicate shades, of great size and rare beauty.
There were low shrubs that bore a berry-like fruit, and many of the
trees of the forest carried fruit of considerable size and of a
variety of forms and colors. Norton and Jay were debating the
possible edibility of some of these, but I gave orders that no one
was to taste them until we had had an opportunity to learn by
analysis or otherwise those varieties that were non-poisonous.
There was aboard _The Barsoom_ a small laboratory equipped especially
for the purpose of analyzing the vegetable and mineral products of
Mars according to earthly standards, as well as other means of
conducting research work upon our sister planet. As we had sufficient
food aboard for a period of fifteen years, there was no immediate
necessity for eating any of the lunar fruit, but I was anxious to
ascertain the chemical properties of the water since the manufacture
of this necessity was slow, laborious and expensive. I therefore
instructed West to take a sample from the stream and subject it to
laboratory tests, and the others I ordered below for sleep.
They were rather more keen to set out upon a tour of exploration, nor
could I blame them, but as none of us had slept for rather better
than forty-eight hours I considered it of importance that we
recuperate our vital forces against whatever contingency might
confront us in this unknown world. Here were air, water and
vegetation—the three prime requisites for the support of animal life—
and so I judged it only reasonable to assume that animal life existed
within the Moon. If it did exist, it might be in some highly
predatory form, against which it would tax our resources to the
utmost to defend ourselves. I insisted, therefore, upon each of us
obtaining his full quota of sleep before venturing from the safety of
_The Barsoom_.
We already had seen evidences of life of a low order, both reptile
and insect, or perhaps it would be better to describe the latter as
flying reptiles, as they later proved to be—toad-like creatures with
the wings of bats, that flitted among the fleshy boughs of the
forest, emitting plaintive cries. Upon the ground near the ship we
had seen but a single creature, though the moving grasses had assured
us that there were others there aplenty. The thing that we had seen
had been plainly visible to us all and may be best described as a
five-foot snake with four frog-like legs, and a flat head with a
single eye in the center of the forehead. Its legs were very short,
and as it moved along the ground it both wriggled like a true snake
and scrambled with its four short legs. We watched it to the edge of
the river and saw it dive in and disappear beneath the surface.
“Silly looking beggar,” remarked Jay, “and devilish unearthly.”
“I don’t know about that,” I returned. “He possessed nothing visible
to us that we are not familiar with on Earth. Possibly he was
assembled after a slightly different plan from any Earth creature;
but aside from that he is familiar to us, even to his amphibious
habits. And these flying toads, too; what of them? I see nothing
particularly remarkable about them. We have just as strange forms on
Earth, though nothing precisely like these. Mars, too, has forms of
animal and vegetable life peculiar to herself, yet nothing the
existence of which would be impossible upon Earth, and she has, as
well, human forms almost identical with our own. You see what I am
trying to suggest?”
“Yes, sir,” replied Jay; “that there may be human life similar to our
own within the Moon.”
“I see no reason to be surprised should we discover human beings here,”
I said; “nor would I be surprised to find a reasoning creature of
some widely divergent form. I would be surprised, however, were we to
find no form analogous to the human race of Earth.”
“That is, a dominant race with well developed reasoning faculties?”
asked Norton.
“Yes, and it is because of this possibility that we must have sleep
and keep ourselves fit, since we may not know the disposition of
these creatures, provided they exist, nor the reception that they
will accord us. And so, Mr. Norton, if you will get a receptacle and
fetch some water from the stream we will leave Mr. West on watch to
make his analysis and the rest of us will turn in.”
Norton went below and returned with a glass jar in which to carry the
water and the balance of us lined the rail with our service revolvers
ready in the event of an emergency as he went over the side. None of
us had walked more than a few steps since coming on deck after our
landing. I had noticed a slightly peculiar sensation of buoyancy, but
in view of the numerous other distractions had given it no
consideration. As Norton reached the bottom of the ladder and set
foot on lunar soil I called to him to make haste. Just in front of
him was a low bush and beyond it lay the river, about thirty feet
distant. In response to my command he gave a slight leap to clear the
bush and, to our amazement as well as to his own consternation, rose
fully eighteen feet into the air, cleared a space of fully thirty-
five feet and lit in the river.
“Come!” I said to the others, wishing them to follow me to Norton’s
aid, and sprang for the rail; but I was too impetuous. I never
touched the rail, but cleared it by many feet, sailed over the
intervening strip of land, and disappeared beneath the icy waters of
the lunar river. How deep it was I do not know; but at least it was
over my head. I found myself in a sluggish, yet powerful current, the
water seeming to move much as a heavy oil moves to the gravity of
Earth. As I came to the surface I saw Norton swimming strongly for
the bank and a second later Jay emerged not far from me. I glanced
quickly around for West, whom I immediately perceived was still on
the deck of _The Barsoom_, where, of course, it was his duty to
remain, since it was his watch.
The moment that I realized that my companions were all safe I could
not repress a smile, and then Norton and Jay commenced to laugh, and
we were still laughing when we pulled ourselves from the stream a
short distance below the ship.
“Get your sample, Norton?” I asked.
“I still have the container, sir,” he replied, and indeed he had
clung to it throughout his surprising adventure, as Jay and I,
fortunately, had clung to our revolvers. Norton removed the cap from
the bottle and dipped the latter into the stream. Then he looked up
at me and smiled.
“I think we have beaten Mr. West to it, sir,” he said. “It seems like
very good water, sir, and when I struck it I was so surprised that I
must have swallowed at least a quart.”
“I tested a bit of it myself,” I replied. “As far as we three are
concerned, Mr. West’s analysis will not interest us if he discovers
that lunar water contains poisonous matter, but for his own
protection we will let him proceed with his investigation.”
“It is strange, sir,” remarked Jay, “that none of us thought of the
natural effects of the lesser gravity of the Moon. We have discussed
the matter upon many occasions, as you will recall, yet when we faced
the actual condition we gave it no consideration whatsoever.”
“I am glad,” remarked Norton, “that I did not attempt to jump the
river—I should have been going yet. Probably landed on the top of
some mountain.”
As we approached the ship I saw West awaiting us with a most serious
and dignified mien; but when he saw that we were all laughing he
joined us, telling us after we reached the deck, that he had never
witnessed a more surprising or ludicrous sight in his life.
We went below then and after closing and securing the hatch, three of
us repaired to our bunks, while West with the sample of lunar water
went to the laboratory. I was very tired and slept soundly for some
ten hours, for it was the middle of Norton’s watch before I awoke.
The only important entry upon the log since I had turned in was
West’s report of the results of his analysis of the water, which
showed that it was not only perfectly safe for drinking purposes but
unusually pure, with an extremely low saline content.
I had been up about a half an hour when West came to me, saying that
Orthis requested permission to speak to me. Twenty-four hours before,
I had been fairly well determined to bring Orthis to trial and
execute him immediately, but that had been when I had felt that we
were all hopelessly doomed to death on his account. Now, however,
with a habitable world beneath our feet, surrounded by conditions
almost identical with those which existed upon Earth, our future
looked less dark, and because of this I found myself in a quandary as
to what course of action to pursue in the matter of Orthis’
punishment. That he deserved death there was no question, but when
men have faced death so closely and escaped, temporarily at least, I
believe that they must look upon life as a most sacred thing and be
less inclined to deny life to others. Be that as it may, the fact
remains that having sent for Orthis in compliance with his request I
received him in a mood of less stern and uncompromising justice than
would have been the case twenty-four hours previous. When he had been
brought to my stateroom and stood before me, I asked him what he
wished to say to me. He was entirely sober now and bore himself with
a certain dignity that was not untinged with humility.
“I do not know what has occurred since I was put in irons, as you
have instructed the others not to speak to me or answer my questions.
I know, of course, however, that the ship is at rest and that pure
air is circulating through it, and I have heard the hatch raised and
footsteps upon the upper deck. From the time that has elapsed since I
was placed under arrest I know that the only planet upon which we
have had time to make a landing is the Moon, and so I may guess that
we are upon the surface of the Moon. I have had ample time to reflect
upon my actions. That I was intoxicated is, of course, no valid
excuse, and yet it is the only excuse that I have to offer. I beg,
sir, that you will accept the assurance of my sincere regret of the
unforgivable things that I have done, and that you will permit me to
live and atone for my wrongdoings, for if we are indeed upon the
surface of the Moon it may be that we can ill spare a single member
of our small party. I throw myself, sir, entirely upon your mercy,
but beg that you will give me another chance.”
Realizing my natural antipathy for the man and wishing most sincerely
not to be influenced against him because of it, I let his plea
influence me against my better judgement with the result that I
promised him that I would give the matter careful consideration,
discuss it with the others, and be influenced largely by their
decision. I had him returned to his stateroom then and sent for the
other members of the party. With what fidelity my memory permitted I
repeated to them in Orthis’ own words his request for mercy.
“And now, gentlemen,” I said, “I would like to have your opinions in
the matter. It is of as much moment to you as to me, and under the
peculiar circumstances in which we are placed, I prefer in so far as
possible to defer wherever I can to the judgment of the majority.
Whatever my final action, the responsibility will be mine. I do not
seek to divide that, and it may be that I shall act contrary to the
wishes of the majority in some matters, but in this one I really wish
to abide by your desires because of the personal antagonism that has
existed between Lieutenant Commander Orthis and myself since
boyhood.”
I knew that none of these men liked Orthis, yet I knew, too, that
they would approach the matter in a spirit of justice tempered by
mercy, and so I was not at all surprised when one after another they
assured me that they would be glad if I would give the man another
opportunity.
Again I sent for Orthis, and after explaining to him that inasmuch as
he had given me his word to commit no disloyal act in the future I
should place him on parole, his eventual fate depending entirely upon
his own conduct; then had his irons removed and told him that he was
to return to duty. He seemed most grateful and assured us that we
would never have cause to regret our decision. Would to God that
instead of freeing him I had drawn my revolver and shot him through
the heart!
We were all pretty well rested up by this time, and I undertook to do
a little exploring in the vicinity of the ship, going out for a few
hours each day with a single companion, leaving the other three upon
the ship. I never went far afield at first, confining myself to an
area some five miles in diameter between the crater and the river.
Upon both sides of the latter, below where the ship had landed, was a
considerable extent of forest. I ventured into this upon several
occasions and once, just about time for us to return to the ship, I
came upon a well marked trail in the dust of which were the imprints
of three-toed feet. Each day I set the extreme limit of time that I
would absent myself from the ship with instructions that two of those
remaining aboard should set out in search of me and my companion,
should we be absent over the specified number of hours. Therefore, I
was unable to follow the trail the day upon which I discovered it,
since we had scarcely more than enough time to make a brief
examination of the tracks if we were to reach the ship within the
limit I had allowed.
It chanced that Norton was with me that day and in his quiet way was
much excited by our discovery. We were both positive that the tracks
had been made by a four-footed animal, something that weighed between
two hundred and fifty and three hundred pounds. How recently it had
been used we could scarcely estimate, but the trail itself gave every
indication of being a very old one. I was sorry that we had no time
to pursue the animal which had made the tracks but determined that
upon the following day I should do so. We reached the ship and told
the others what we had discovered. They were much interested and many
and varied were the conjectures as to the nature of the animals whose
tracks we had seen.
After Orthis had been released from arrest Norton had asked
permission to return to the former’s stateroom. I had granted his
request and the two had been very much together ever since. I could
not understand Norton’s apparent friendship for this man, and it
almost made me doubt the young ensign. One day I was to learn the
secret of this intimacy, but at the time I must confess that it
puzzled me considerably and bothered me not a little, for I had taken
a great liking to Norton and disliked to see him so much in the
company of a man of Orthis’ character.
Each of the men had now accompanied me on my short excursions of
exploration with the exception of Orthis. Inasmuch as his parole had
fully reinstated him among us in theory at least, I could not very
well discriminate against him and leave him alone of all the others
aboard ship as I pursued my investigations of the surrounding
country.
The day following our discovery of the trail, I accordingly invited
him to accompany me, and we set out early, each armed with a revolver
and a rifle. I advised West, who automatically took command of the
ship during my absence, that we might be gone considerably longer
than usual and that he was to feel no apprehension and send out no
relief party unless we should be gone a full twenty-four hours, as I
wished to follow up the spoor we had discovered, learn where the
trail led and have a look at the animal that had made it.
I led the way directly to the spot at which we had found the trail,
about four miles down river from the ship and apparently in the heart
of dense forest.
The flying-toads darted from tree to tree about us, uttering their
weird and plaintive cries, while upon several occasions, as in the
past, we saw four-legged snakes’ such as we had seen upon the day of
our landing. Neither the toads nor the snakes bothered us, seeming
only to wish to avoid us.
Just before we came upon the trail, both Orthis and I thought we
heard the sound of footsteps ahead of us—something similar to that
made by a galloping animal—and when we came upon the trail a moment
later it was apparent to both of us that dust was hanging in the air
and slowly settling on the vegetation nearby. Something, therefore,
had passed over the trail but a minute or two before we arrived. A
brief examination of the spoor revealed the fact that it had been
made by a three-toed animal whose direction of travel was to our
right and toward the river, at this point some half mile from us.
I could not help but feel considerable inward excitement, and I was
sorry that one of the others had not been with me, for I never felt
perfectly at ease with Orthis. I had done considerable hunting in
various parts of the world where wild game still exists but I had
never experienced such a thrill as I did at the moment that I
undertook to stalk this unknown beast upon an unknown trail in an
unknown world. Where the trail would lead me, what I should find upon
it, I never knew from one step to another, and the lure of it because
of that was tremendous. The fact that there were almost nine million
square miles of this world for me to explore, and that no Earth Man
had ever before set foot upon an inch of it, helped a great deal to
compensate for the fact that I knew I could never return to my own
Earth again.
The trail led to the edge of the river which at this point was very
wide and shallow. Upon the opposite shore, I could see the trail
again directly opposite and I knew therefore that this was a ford.
Without hesitating, I stepped into the river, and as I did so I
glanced to my left to see stretching before me as far as my eye could
reach a vast expanse of water. Here then I had stumbled upon the
mouth of the river and, beyond, a lunar sea.
The land upon the opposite side of the river was rolling and grass-
covered, but in so far as I could see, almost treeless. As I turned
my eyes from the sea back toward the opposite shore, I saw that which
caused me to halt in my tracks, cock my rifle and issue a cautious
warning to Orthis for silence, for there before us upon a knoll stood
a small horse-like animal.
It would have been a long shot, possibly five hundred yards, and I
should have preferred to have come closer but there was no chance to
do that now, for we were in the middle of the river in plain view of
the animal which stood there watching us intently. I had scarcely
raised my rifle, however, ere it wheeled and disappeared over the
edge of the knoll upon which it had been standing.
“What did it look like to you, Orthis?” I asked my companion.
“It was a good ways off,” he replied, “and I only just got my
binoculars on it as it disappeared, but I could have sworn that it
wore a harness of some sort. It was about the size of a small pony, I
should say, but it didn’t have a pony’s head.”
“It appeared tailless to me,” I remarked.
“I saw no tail,” said Orthis, “nor any ears or horns. It was a
devilish funny looking thing. I don’t understand it. There was
something about it—” he paused. “My God, sir, there was something
about it that looked human.”
“It gave me that same impression, too, Orthis, and I doubt if I
should have fired had I been able to cover it, for just at the
instant that I threw my rifle to my shoulder I felt that same strange
impression that you mention. There was something human about the
thing.”
As we talked, we had been moving on across the ford which we found an
excellent one, the water at no time coming to our waists while the
current was scarcely appreciable. Finally, we stepped out on the
opposite shore and a moment later, far to the left, we caught another
glimpse of the creature that we had previously seen. It stood upon a
distant knoll, evidently watching us.
Orthis and I raised our binoculars to our eyes almost simultaneously
and for a full minute we examined the thing as it stood there,
neither of us speaking, and then we dropped our glasses and looked at
each other.
“What do you make of it, sir?” he asked.
I shook my head. “I don’t know what to make of it, Orthis,” I
replied; “but I should swear that I was looking straight into a human
face, and yet the body was that of a quadruped.”
“There can be no doubt of it, sir,” he replied, “and this time one
could see the harness and the clothing quite plainly. It appears to
have some sort of a weapon hanging at its left side. Did you notice
it, sir?”
“Yes, I noticed it, but I don’t understand it.”
A moment longer we stood watching the creature until it turned and
galloped off, disappearing behind the knoll on which it had stood. We
decided to follow the trail which led in a southerly direction,
feeling reasonably assured that we were more likely to come in
contact with the creature or others similar to it upon the trail than
off of it. We had gone but a short distance when the trail approached
the river again, which puzzled me at the time somewhat, as we had
gone apparently directly away from the river since we had left the
ford, but after we had gone some mile and a half, we found the
explanation, since we came again to another ford while on beyond we
saw the river emptying into the sea and realized that we had crossed
an island lying in the mouth of the river.
I was hesitating as to whether to make the crossing and continue
along the trail or to go back and search the island for the strange
creature we had discovered. I rather hoped to capture it, but since I
had finally descried its human face, I had given up all intention of
shooting it unless I found that it would be necessary to do so in
self defense. As I stood there, rather undecided, our attention was
attracted back to the island by a slight noise, and as we looked in
the direction of the disturbance, we saw five of the creatures eyeing
us from high land a quarter of a mile away. When they saw that they
were discovered they galloped boldly toward us. They had come a short
distance only, when they stopped again upon a high knoll, and then
one of them raised his face toward the sky and emitted a series of
piercing howls. They they came on again toward us nor did they pause
until they were within fifty feet of us, when they came to a sudden
halt.