"What are you going to do with me?"
"We haven't decided yet. So you were going to take one of us back with you for Marsten's circus. To exhibit one of us to your stupid race. My followers wanted to kill you when this information was learned. But I believe I have a better idea."
He went away. I yelled for him to come back. I yelled till my throat was dry. Eventually he did come back. He came back with Joe Roane and ... myself.
"I want you to meet Klar and Grat," he said. "They have taken over your bodies; you will take theirs—and return to Marsten. We have a transformer machine to accomplish this. Only we never had an opportunity to use it until you were so gracious as to visit us." He spoke on, telling me of his idea. I shuddered and wished for death. I begged him to kill me.
Then a contraption was fitted over me and it hummed and I passed out. I remember the trip back to earth.
I'm no longer Nick Faber. I'm Marty the Martian. What a cute title Marsten had hung on me. I've got a nice home and I get plenty to eat. Only my home is a cage and it's made of glass. People come from all over the world just to see me. And Marsten has been to see me every day. He chews on his big cigar and there's a smile on his face a yard wide.
I've tried to talk to my keepers but all I can manage is some crazy kind of gibberish. I also see Klar and Grat. But they're only there when Marsten is around. They're keeping very close to him. My being transformed into a Martian was just part of it. Klar and Grat were going to carry out the rest of it.
On one dark night, and very soon, Klar, Grat, and Marsten were going to disappear.
Maybe I was the greatest attraction on earth. But Norbert Marsten was going to be the greatest attraction on Mars.