The waves of
glorious soft radiance bathed the village about us, the waters of the
canal, and the arid crusts of rock beyond, the circle of encompassing
darkness straining like a great black wall, on its spent edges.
"Song and music closed the day, and after eating the wine-soaked cakes
of Pintu, we made our way to the white and simple bedchamber and waited
for the morning.
"It came, fresh and splendid. The air of this latitude of Mars is so
pure, vivid and dustless! My strength and power and vitality seemed
boundless. And as in the broad mirror of my bedchamber I viewed my
reflection, I leaped with wonder to see the youth I had been, formed
anew in lineaments, fairer than Earth's. My son, I have become younger
than yourself, age has vanished, and all the restraint of differing
years between has vanished with it.
"Alca, Chapman and myself, as is the Martian habit, walked to the quarry
mouth, up a winding and hard stone road. This dreary and desolate region
seemed to have a charm. Its expanse of rigid waves of stone, pimpled
with sharp excrescences, and as deeply pitted with cavernous grottoes,
where no life seemed able to survive, save a stunted herbage, sparsely
assembled in vagrant groups, or gathered in thirsty lines around the lip
of the still pools, was full of scenic interest, but more deeply
eloquent of great geological convulsions.
"Chapman and Alca were in front of me, speaking the Martian tongue,
while I stood looking backward every few steps, delighted to trace the
broad river of the canal winding through the desolation for miles
beyond.
Pages:
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152