And finally, he told of their premature discovery of his plan; of their great anger and fear; of their determination to punish him as no man had ever been punished before; of his banishment from the very world in which he lived.
There was a long silence when he had finished. At last Blumberg coughed, and shook himself.
"That's a fine story," he grumbled, "but you left somethin' out.... What I wanta know is: how did you get here?"
"In a space traveller," said the Martian.
"What's that?"
Carefully, laboriously, he described the space ship. With the pencil he sketched diagram after diagram, while the pale young man helped him and labeled them as he directed. The young man was becoming visibly excited. When the Martian had finished, he burst out:
"By god, it would—it would do it!... Look—"
"Shut up!" said Blumberg. The perspiration was standing out in large beads on his forehead.
"Fellow," he said heavily, "if you're lying, you've got one hell of an imagination!"
"You not have space travellers?" asked the Martian tensely.