He was conscious, but gravely injured. I knelt
beside him, and as I raised his head upon my knee, he looked up, and his
lips moved; at first he was inarticulate, but soon his words became
audible and intelligent.
"'Dodd,' he said, 'this ends me for Mars. Take the papers to the Council
at Scandor. They are in the cabin in my desk. They are sealed. I know
there is a celestial runaway that is going to strike this planet. I
overheard that much at the Patenta. And its direct path, the point of
impingement, will be at Scandor. The fires ascending from Scandor are
signals that they, too, have divined the disaster. I think so at least!
Hurry on! You may see the strangest phenomenon eyes have ever seen. But,
Dodd, enough of that. I am turned down for this world. I was not in
agreement, as the philosophers call it, and the true mental Martian
immunity from accident was not in me. I am injured mortally.'
"He groaned and tried to rise, but his crushed body was incapable. The
Superintendent, Alca, had hurried to the spot where the crowding men
stood around us ejaculating their amazement. Alca tore open the garment
about Chapman, and placing his forehead on the body, poured out as it
were, the full tide of his mental sympathy and power.
"I could see the struggle between the mortality of Chapman, born of
doubt, and his unfittedness and apathy, and the spiritual power of the
brave Superintendent. The flame of life in Chapman would be stimulated
or excited, and then flicker and die down.
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