"'Men of Mars, that Death which tore from me my wife set his seal at
last on me, but before the summons was executed, I had made arrangements
in every possible detail to communicate with my son. We agreed upon a
cypher, and I have so imprinted each measure of our compact upon my
memory that all of it is as clear to my mind as it was before I left the
Earth. Give me possession of your great instruments, let me bridge the
millions of miles to our earth, and in an instant stir the populations
of the Earth into fierce attention, so that from now on through all the
coming years you Martians shall speak with the people of the earth and
again from Mars, as from some relay station, messages shall pass outward
to the stars, and thus from planet to planet the reinforced utterance
may pierce the universe of worlds.'
"I finished; a great shout arose from the immense multitude; with one
impulse the light blue metal caps were swung from their heads and tossed
upward, while the cheers passing out into the streets were caught up,
and in refluent waves of sound rolled back upon me like the murmur of a
distant storm at sea.
"I do not think I was quite understood, but the chief feature of my
speech was realized, and the Martians, quick to respond to any
suggestion, and inflammable of nature, had become enthusiastic over the
prospects of this new revelation.
"I stood an instant uncertain what I should do, or what new development
would follow my evident popularity.
Pages:
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121