The boy, of course, had understood just the one word “Gold.” He probably would have missed that, except for the fact that Ken had accentuated it as one does a foreign word; but as it was, he thought that the previous conversation had been addressed to him. He had not distinguished the two voices, and all the sounds had come from the torpedo still poised just above Ken’s head.
“I don’t want any of your gold — not if it’s like the last batch!” Again only one word was understood by the listener. Ken grew hopeful Maybe this creature hadn’t heard, or maybe they had completely misinterpreted the sounds he and Feth had heard during the atmosphere test.
“Gold? “he asked.
“NO!” Roger shook his head negatively and backed away as he gave the emphatic answer. The first gesture meant nothing to the watching Sarrian, but the second seemed clear enough.
“Did you get that last sound of his on record, Feth? Judging by his actions, that’s the negative in their language. No gold!” he addressed the last two words after a brief pause. Roger relaxed visibly, but still spoke emphatically.
“No gold, no platinum, — I have no tobacco.” He spread empty hands and turned out his pockets, giving the Sarrian scientist a clue he had been waiting for on just how much of his covering was artificial.
“Point to things and name them!” Feth cut in from above. “How else can you learn a language? This chatter sounds as silly as anything I’ve ever heard!”
“All right — only remember, I can see as well as hear. That makes a bit of difference. If you expect any results, keep quiet; how’s this thing going to tell who’s talking? It all comes from the same loudspeaker. I’ll call you when I want to hear from you.” Feth gave no answer to this very sound point, and after waiting a minute Ken began to follow the mechanic’s suggestion.
Since Roger had been thinking of exactly the same thing, he caught on at once, and thereby gave the Sarrian a higher opinion of human intelligence than his conversations with Laj Drai had caused him to hold previously. The English words for rock, tree, bush, mountain, cloud, and the numbers up to ten were learned in short order. A few verbs were managed easily enough. At this point operations seemed likely to be suspended, and Roger was rather relieved to have the subject changed by a distant hail.
“My gosh! I forgot all about Edie! She must think I fell off a cliff or something!” He turned in the direction from which the faint voice seemed to be coming, and put all the strength of his lungs into an answering hail. His sister heard it and responded; and ten or fifteen minutes of lung strain brought her to the scene. She seemed a little dubious about approaching Ken at all closely, to Roger’s surprise.