"You mean it's unfashionable but serviceable?" said Kroner. "Like a spring-driven phonograph?"
"That's about it, Sergeant," Tandy nodded. "Anything else, you're going to have to ask the Martians themselves."
"Which brings me back to my earlier apprehension," said Kroner. "I don't like the idea of two of those guys being missing. Hold on—there they come! And with a small cannon, unless I miss my guess!"
The Earthmen were all on their feet now, facing the pair of aliens who lugged a heavy contraption with a tubular nozzle on the front of it up the street toward the waiting group.
"It can't be a cannon," said Lloyd, puzzled. "Why would they bother, when hand-weapons would do?"
By that time, Ulkay and his crony had the gadget set down on a tripod base and were turning dials on its side. The Earthmen, every one of them, loosened pistols in their holsters, but only Tandy actually brought his out.
Then they jumped as a metallic voice came out through the gadget's nozzle. "Men!" said the voice. "Do not possess fear."
"A miracle!" gasped Craig. "It's a translating machine!" He rushed forward to view this thing, his face glowing with delight.
Lloyd, recovering from his start, saw that Ulkay was speaking into a tube at the side of the machine, and realized that his translated voice had been the one heard.
"Ulkay," he said, going toward the machine, "does this work both ways?"