"We will speak of that when it is dawn again," he said with his thoughts. "Now we must rest."
He sat in a corner of the cave and leaned back against the wall. His eyes were half shut and he pretended to doze. Actually he was studying the white ones.
The man with the silver hair seemed very old and weak, but very wise. The other men had hair as black as any Martian's, but their skin was pure white. They were handsome, Ro thought, in a barbaric sort of way. One was lean and determined, the other, equally determined, but stouter and less impressive. Ro then centered his attention on the girl. Her golden hair gleamed proudly, even in the dusk. She was very beautiful, almost as lovely as Na.
"Tell me," he asked suddenly, "where is this strange place you come from? And how is it that you can speak and cause others to speak with their minds?"
It was the old man who answered.
"We come from a place called Earth, many millions of miles away through space. My daughter, Charlotte, my two assistants, Carlson—" the lean man nodded—"Grimm—" the stouter man acknowledged the introduction—"and myself are an expedition. We came here to Mars to study."
Ro introduced himself and Na.
"What manner of a place is this Earth?" he asked, after the formalities.
"Our part of Earth, America, is a great country. Our cities are built of steel and stone, and we travel about in space boats. Now tell me, what is it like here on Mars? Surely the whole planet isn't wilderness. What year is it?"
"You have seen what it is like here," Ro answered. "As for 'year,' I don't understand."