CHAPTER IV.
The Circus
He was breathing hard now, and his face was flushed. For a long time hesat very still and listened, but he heard no sound. At last, moving veryslowly, he carried his cylinder to the door. He raised it, and placedthe point against the metal lock, under the knob. He pressed his lipstightly together, and set his jaw.... With the end of the wire which hehad not connected he touched a point on the cylinder.
There was no sound. There was no movement of the cylinder. Yet the metallock dissolved, and daylight shot through the place where it had been. Acloud of light grey dust drifted lazily to the floor.
He disconnected the wires. Carefully he hid the thing under the cushionsof his bed. Then he pushed open the door, and crawled out into thesunlight. The sun felt warm and pleasant on his back.
He heard a cry, and looked up fearfully. One of the men of Toon wasrunning towards him carrying a dish. It was the man that brought hisfood.
His throat was tight, and he was trembling. He knew that this was thesupreme moment. He nodded his head and smiled. He raised one hand, palmupward.
The man stopped directly in front of him, and growled--then raised anarm, pointing at the door of his prison.
He made a little murmuring sound to the man; and raising his face to thesun, smiled and nodded once more. The man pushed him backwards with onefoot, always pointing at the door.
He turned, and crawled back into the shed. Dully he watched the man; whostood for a long time staring at the door where the lock had been--thenstrode to the pile of metal and picked up a chain.
He did not move when he felt the chain around his body. He closed hiseyes, and did not open them until he heard the door shut. He did notmove all that day. He only watched the little window. When, finally, thelittle window grew black, he drew his machine from under the cushions,and connected it again at the wall. The chain was fastened to a leg ofthe bench, and allowed him to do this. He destroyed a portion of thechain, and loosened it from his body. He crawled to the wall farthestfrom the house where the people lived. Moving the machine in a slow arc,he cut a hole in the wall. Disconnecting the wires, he used them tofasten the machine around his waist. Then he went out into the night.
He did not know where he was going--except that he was going away fromthese beings that held him prisoner without a reason. At first they hadseemed kind--but they were kind no longer. Something had changed them,he thought; but he could not guess what....
He had progressed less than a hundred yards when a sudden tumult ofsound froze him with terror. It was coming at him through the dark, ahoarse, senseless, animal cry. And bounding toward him he saw the darkshadow of a beast. He knew instinctively that here was an unreasoningcreature--and all the strength went out of him. He lay flat and limp onhis face. Now he heard its panting breath, and felt the heat of it onhis body....
At the same time, but only semi-consciously, he heard the loud shouts ofmen. As in a dream, he felt himself grasped roughly and lifted from theground. Soon he knew that he was back in the shed again. He saw a manstanding above him holding his machine.
He felt strangely detached--as if he were not there at all. He saw theman look at the machine; look at the door; look at the chain; look atthe hole in the wall; look at the light cord. He saw the man connectinghis machine to the light cord; he felt powerless to warn the man that hemight be connecting it wrong--that there were two ways: one right, onewrong....
An explosion threw the man heavily against the wall. He could see theman struggling slowly up--coming towards him--kicking him. But he couldhardly feel the kick at all--and everything got dark....
When light came back it was just a small square above him. That puzzledhim, until he reached out and found wooden walls all around him--veryclose. He was in a box. He became suddenly fully conscious of the fact.Looking down at him from above he saw the faces of two of the men ofToon.
He cried out involuntarily, struggling to escape. One of the creaturesshook a heavy piece of metal threateningly over his head. He cowereddown, shuddering, at sight of the merciless gleam in its eyes. The lightwas blotted out, as they placed a cover over him; and he was deafened bya long and thunderous pounding.
Then began a time of horror in the darkness. His active mind had nothingto feed upon but fear. Only too clearly was it brought to him that hedid not know the ways of these creatures of Toon. What was deadly fearto him might be commonplace to them. He had hoped to find them friendly,merciful--yet friendship and mercy were qualities of his own experiencein a world different from theirs. Why had he thought to find them here?
* * * * *
He had no measure of time. For endless hours he lay there in the dark,bracing himself against the sides to protect his head and body as muchas possible; for the box seemed almost constantly in motion--jolting,tilting, and bumping until he was weak and breathless from the strain.
His mind, worn out by its relentless self-torture, sank at last tosemi-consciousness.
Suddenly light returned, and he was dragged roughly from his prison. Hewas in a large room where the combination of odor, heat, and noise wasoverpowering. Great numbers of the men of Toon were there, hurrying inall directions, seemingly very busy. He noted immediately that theirclothing was different from that which he had seen, and wondered whatthe significance of that might be.... He felt strangely calm, now.
Before him was an immense, bulky man, who stood with legs apart and armsfolded, staring at him with wide, unwinking eyes. This man had a facethat was light red in color and rounded, almost swollen-looking inshape. He nodded, and his cheeks shook loosely. He nodded several times,and seemed very pleased. He spoke sharply; and others, standing around,sprang into action.
They brought a red cloth, and tied it around the captive's loins. Theyforced him to crawl back and forth on the floor, while the big manlooked on, nodding and chuckling. Then the big man ran hot, cushion-likehands over his head and body; pried open his mouth; grasped his hand andshook it vigorously up and down; and, with a final nod, turned andwalked away.
He understood none of this, and was very unhappy.
They placed him upon a high, draped platform, where there was a smallchair and nothing else. There were a number of similar platforms in theroom.
It was impossible for him to maintain his previous indifference to hissurroundings. Around the walls of the room were long rows of barredenclosures, containing creatures of every conceivable size, shape, andcolor. Some were hideous; some were strangely beautiful; all wereabsorbingly interesting. For a time, he forgot everything else while hewatched them and listened to the sounds that they made. Certainly, hethought, a scientist of the Loten would give twenty years of his lifefor the opportunity to see these creatures! Some of them were amazinglylike reconstructions that had been made from fossilized bones found onthe Loten.
They brought him food, which he judged must be the cooked seeds ofgrain. It was soft, and he forced himself to eat a little, although hewas not hungry. He feared that he would have to learn to eat daily, forfood concentrates seemed to be unknown here.
His mind was occupied trying to understand the meaning of this place.Great numbers of people were crowding into the room, now. Rows of themstood around his platform.
The other platforms were now occupied also. On them were beingsresembling the people around them, but each one differing in somestrange way from the normal. Some were enormously large, some small. Andhe saw one which was shaped like the men of Toon, yet was no taller thanhimself.
An endless stream of people surged through the room, circulating aroundthe platforms and cages--gazing fixedly at their occupants.
He began to understand. These were exhibits--creatures strange to thecrowds who came to look at them. Toon was very large; and transportationmethods were poorly developed. Perhaps, therefore, these people hadnever seen many of the parts of their own globe.
Their staring eyes made him uncomfortable. Wherever he looked theywere--staring ey
es and gaping mouths. He felt suddenly ashamed. Hewanted to hide himself--but they would not let him do that, he knew. Howlong would they keep him here, he wondered? There seemed to be no limitto the crowds. This must be a great center of population....
And in a flash he had forgotten the people, with their staring eyes,forgotten his shame, forgotten his bodily discomfort.... A center ofpopulation! Those words blazed in his mind. Once more, he knew the joyof hope.
With a sudden clear perception he realized that they could not havehelped him more if they had done it consciously. He had arrived at agoal, which, a few days ago, had seemed impossible of attainment. Here,if anywhere, he would find help....
He must learn the language. That was imperative.... And again his goodfortune amazed him. These people were constantly talking. His positionwas ideal for studying their speech. From what he already knew, it wasquite simple; and it should not take long to learn enough to serve hispurpose.
* * * * *
It took longer than he had expected, mainly because the people were notthere all of the time. They came only at certain periods of the day; andhe soon made a surprising discovery--that they slept during a great partof every night. In fact, almost one third of their time seemed to bespent in an unconscious state. The creatures in the cages slept evenmore. He could see no signs of intelligence in these caged creatures.They were dumb, and were completely dominated by the men.
He missed the sun badly. These people, in their dark houses and theirdraped bodies, did not seem to need it. Often he felt quite ill, buttried not to worry about his health.
At night, when alone, he practiced the sounds he had learned; andrehearsed the things he was going to say when his chance came.
He passed through a sleep period; and then, on the ninth day, decidedthat he was ready. To the attendant who brought his food he said:
"I talk."
The man started violently, and gaped at him.
"Talk?" he repeated blankly.
"Yes!"
The attendant looked at him uncertainly for a long time, and then walkedslowly away.
He was disappointed. But he was not kept waiting long. Soon the manreturned, accompanied by another.
"Blumberg wants to see you," they said. He did not understand that, andshook his head. However, they lifted him from his platform, and carriedhim out of the room. They took him up a long series of steps and throughdark corridors, into a small room.
Here it was cool and light. In the center was a desk, and behind it satthe large man he had seen once before.
"Set him on the desk here," ordered the large man. "Now, littlefeller--they tell me you're talking!"
"I talk."
"Well, well, well!" said the large man jovially. "What'll we talkabout?... I'm Blumberg, and I run this circus.... Who are you?"
He understood only the last words, but they were what he was waitingfor.
"I am man of Loten," he said carefully. "Loten is world more far fromheat star."
"What? Say that again!"
"I not live in your world--in this world...."
"The hell you don't."
Again he did not understand what the large man meant, and looked aroundhelplessly. Then he saw a writing instrument on the desk, and picked itup. Blumberg pushed forward a piece of white paper. Quickly he drew, inits center, a large circle with lines extending from its circumferenceto indicate radiation. Outside it he drew four small circles at varyingdistances from the central one.
"Hey, Edgar--come here!" called Blumberg.
A pale young man who had been sitting in a corner approached the desk,saying, "Yes?"
He looked pleadingly at the pale young man. He placed his fingertip onthe large circle, and said, "Heat star!"
"Sun," said the young man quickly.
"Sun!" he repeated gratefully. Next he indicated the third little circlefrom the center.
"This world?" he said.
"Earth," said the young man.
"Earth? This world is Earth?"
"Yes."
Blumberg grumbled: "What is this--a joke?"
He could not understand Blumberg. Eagerly he looked into the face of thepale young man, and indicated the fourth little circle.
"Mars," said Edgar.
"Mars!" he cried jubilantly. He pointed his finger at himself. "I am manof Mars," he said.
There was silence in the room, while they both stared at him. Then thebig man began to laugh. His body shook, and his red cheeks jumped up anddown.
"So you are a Martian--eh?"
"Yes--a Martian."
Blumberg was still laughing. "That oughta go big in the show--huh,Edgar?" he said.
"Yes, sir," said the young man.
"If you live on Mars, what're you doing here?"
The Martian had been expecting this question.
"They send me away to Earth."
"Why did they send you away to Earth?"