“Yes, they are trees,” after a while came the affirmative assurance. The Professor was studying them with our field glass.
“They are trees, of some narrow leaved or coniferous genus. They are so densely, darkly gathered together. A wood now would indeed be welcome, but we are fated for a rather trying march over another desert. I can see a sand plain stretching away ahead of us, terminating perhaps in this new region beyond. I have a strong presentiment that this wood forms the last screen to the grand revelation we are certain to be vouchsafed. It surrounds the home of the RADIUMITES.”
“That’s a cheerful view of it, Professor, and not a bad name. And if we are getting as warm as all that don’t you think we might conjure up some plan of operation before we meet these—these—electrons? How’s that, Erickson? You see I have a talking acquaintance with Science after all, even if I haven’t got so far as to call her by her first name. Electrons and Radiumites are rather related terms. Eh?”
“Well,” I said, “Hopkins’ suggestion is surely a wise one. These remarkable creatures have obtained some curious insight into chemical laws. They are our masters if we meet them. Before we can do a thing they will transfix us with chemical ions, or something like them, and decompose us into our original elements. I’ve been thinking about those little lead pipes they carried. I saw them press them and wave them, and whenever they did either, something happened; they went up and down, or any way else, as they wished. The balloons were not so very small; they appeared, I think, smaller than they really were, and they did look too small to lift their loads, little and light as they seemed, even if they contained our lightest gas-hydrogen. I tell you they’ve refined methods in radio-chemistry perhaps, that enable them to generate an even lighter gas, and its buoyancy is out of all proportion to the gas volumes represented in these small balloons. These little men are formidable savants, who may get rid of us, if they want to, like that,” and I snapped my fingers.
This harangue stirred the Professor. I meant it should. His hair, which now seemed almost redder than when we started, and had grown so that it enveloped his head in a penumbral glory, like a sunset fire, rose, as it were, to the occasion.
“Erickson,” he retorted, “put away your fears. The very fact of the intellectual promotion of these people would make it certain that they have abandoned savage ways, and that they would recognize in us, to say the least,” it may be the Professor blushed slightly, though the rufescent splendor of his hair disguised it, “representatives of a culture that will excite their curiosity, their—Ahem—envy. Personally I feel confident that—Ahem—once some sort of communication is established between us, I can interest them. I should feel honored even to present their contributions to science before the Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm. In the hierarchy of scientific authors their names would arrest the attention of the whole earth.”
After this flight there was a respectful pause, until Hopkins resumed:
“Say Professor, the particular culture that would impress them most now would be a wash, a clean shirt, a shave and a haircut. Eh?”
The Professor contemptuously ignored the interruption, though a furtively repressed approach of laughter on his face showed his appreciation of its justice. We were indeed frights.
“And, Alfred, as to your suggestion of a gas lighter than hydrogen in the balloons, perhaps you are aware that so far as the apparent transmutation of the elements permits any conclusions in the matter, hydrogen has hitherto yielded only helium, neon, carbon and sulphur, all heavier bodies. I don’t say you are not right. It’s tremendously interesting. However, you may have underestimated the size of the balloons and over-estimated the weight of the little men. They had a very papery look to me, and of course,” the Professor always had this pragmatic style of insisting you knew, when he was inwardly crowing over his chance of illuminating your ignorance, “you know that the levitation of hydrogen equals seventy pounds to one thousand cubic feet of gas—at ordinary pressures. Those balloons were larger than they seemed; some reflexion in the air diminished them, and really those aged infants, I believe, scarcely exceeded thirty pounds in weight. Do you know,” he became excitedly radiant, “perhaps their tenuity has some relation to their intellectual development—they represent some final stage of human evolution, when the body shrinks, and the mind enlarges, and—”