It felt right to him. He decided that the rest of his memory would return.
"Are you able to rise?" asked the other, extending a helpful tentacle.
The Earthman managed to haul himself stiffly to his feet.
"Say, my name is Holmes," he introduced himself dizzily.
"I am Kho Theki. In your language, learned years since from other spacemen, I might say 'Fiery Canalman.'"
"Has to be Mars," muttered Charlie under his breath. "What a bump! When can you show me what's left of the ship?"
"There will be no time," answered the Martian.
Bunches of small muscles twitched here and there across the front of his round, pudgy head. Charlie was getting used to the single eye, half the size of an orange and not much duller. With imagination, the various lumps and organs surrounding it might be considered a face.
"The priestesses will lead the crowd here," predicted Kho. "They know I took an Earthman, and I fear they have finished with the others."
"Finished with—What?" demanded the Earthman, shaking his head in hopes of clearing it enough to figure out what was wrong.