age of not knowing what form the danger would take, or the direction from which it would come. Its intangibility might have caused it temporarily to fade from his mind, and allow him a few hours' rest, but he was deterred by his knowledge of the anxiety of one better able than he to gauge the possibilities of the situation.
Through such uneasy somnolence as he allowed himself, and however much he endeavored to keep that being in the mental background, there would persist in sometimes looming up before him the menace of the Martian.
The next morning Professor Rudge rose early. In spite of his disturbed rest, he felt his anxiety less insistent than on the night before. His was a spirit that soon rebounded from depression. With the daylight he felt again almost his own sanguine and jovial self. It was not that he forgot for one moment his danger and responsibility, but that the morning brought him greater confidence in his ability to meet the situation.
He roused Macrae, and together they set off to the cliff and inhaled the breeze from the ocean, cool in the early hours.
He took Macrae with him, partly that he might not be left at the station without his supervision, and partly that he might take the earliest opportunity of tactfully probing his mind and thoughts on the subject of his experiences on his first visit to the island. He wished to see if any further light could be thrown on Macrae's desire to return to Station X. Professor Rudge was careful not to let it appear to his companion that he was being examined, or that the talk was with any definite object.
The point raised by the Venerian, that there was ground for suspicion in the desire of Macrae to return to Station X, where his previous experience had been so terrible, would not have occurred to the Professor, but he now saw the full force of it. He remembered that Macrae had never given him any reason for his wish, and now ascertained, without abrupty asking the question, that he had none to give. This did not come as a surprise to the Professor, who knew more than most men about that obscure subject of the subconscious ego. He saw that the fact went to support the Venerian's opinion.
A Conference With the Venerians
When they returned from their walk, both eager for their breakfast, Professor Rudge was thoroughly satisfied that Macrae had no conscious wish to communicate with the Martian, "the second voice," as he invariably called it. The Professor noticed that whenever Macrae used that phrase, and he never did unless led to it, the same expression of awe crept into his look and tone as had been noticed on that first occasion on board the Sagitta.
Short as the contact had been, almost momentary, and few, if any, the words that could have passed, the impression made on Macrae had been enormous. It was something, however, to know that if Macrae were likely to attempt anything that had to be guarded against, he was himself totally ignorant of the fact.
With this partial relief of his anxiety, the natural bent of Professor Rudge's mind asserted itself. His thoughts again reverted to the great acquisition of knowledge so strangely given him. He got from Macrae the written report of the conversation of the previous afternoon. He spent the greater part of the morning on this and in making notes of subjects he desired to speak about on the next occasion.
At the usual hour he and Macrae went again to the signal-room.
The Professor noticed that his first call was answered without a second's avoidable interval. The fact impressed him with the fact of the constant attention evidently now given at the other end. Whatever uneasiness he might feel, he became convinced that greater uneasiness existed there, a circumstance that increased his own. It was not so much his own acquaintance with the facts of the case that maintained his fears at the necessary level, as the evident anxiety felt on Venus. Apart from that, and the daily reiteration of the warning, those fears would inevitably have become lulled by the complete absence of any outward sign to stimulate them.
Promptly to the usual call, "Are you there?" came the reply.
"Do not repeat! Answer with one word, yes or no. Has there been any sign or indications of what we fear?"
"No."
"On what subject, Professor Rudge, do you wish to converse to-day?”
Cosmic History Told by the Venerians
A long discourse ensued that ranged over a variety of subjects, all of such intense interest to Professor Rudge, as indeed they would have been to any man of scientific leanings, or even ordinary intelligence, that, for the time, all worry over other matters was forgotten.
These subjects included among others—Nature's general method, always, in the material realm, proceeding in cycles, never toward finality. This was no new theory to Professor Rudge, but now elucidated and exemplified in a way that thrilled him with admiration. The origin of life was shown to be a thing quite outside the bounds of any finite intelligence, whether human, Venerian, or even Martian. The absolute futility was indicated of the human endeavor to find out when and how matter first began to live, the fact being that no matter ever did or ever would live. The mystery of death was shown to be the mere withdrawal of a hand from a machine that would no longer work. The illusion was caused by the fact of our waking consciousness being able only to see the machine.
He was given the geological period, with dates, of man's evolution as such, and a short account of the ancestry of the present human races, going back to remote times, to which our historic period is as yesterday. This was followed by a comparison of the present political and social state of the two worlds. Here again Professor Rudge caught every word with intense avidity. He quickly saw two things; one that in this respect the state of things in the Venerian world was ideal beyond his previous dreams of what any state could be; the other that it would be worse than useless here, spelling absolute anarchy.
At the conclusion of this part of the discourse there was a pause and, remembering the similar pause of the day before, the listener was on his
