"It doesn't seem possible," Mr. Scoville remarked. "Life, conditions, everything on Mars must be so totally different from things as they exist here."
Henry smiled, and said: "I firmly believe that all things in the beginning were created alike. The countless stars, suns and moons, and all the great planets, are largely composed of the same material that entered into the composition of this world. These meteorites that are falling about us contain the same metals, among them, iron and tin, which we mine from the earth. There is also a striking similarity between things of the material universe and the invisible, or spiritual, world. In Heaven, so we are told in the Bible, there are cities, streets, mansions, trees, gates and fountains. All of which makes it certain that human beings, like ourselves, not the grotesque monsters, as so often pictured, inhabit other planets."
"I'm inclined to agree with you in that," said Mr. Scoville, fingering his chin thoughtfully; "but I can't get it into my head about these Martians having a knowledge of the English language."
"You must take this fact into consideration, my dear Mr. Scoville," said Henry, "that for some years our radio short waves have been bombarding the planets, including Mars, with speeches and songs in English."
"If that is so, then the Martians may be learning to speak English with our nasal, American accent—what?" Mr. Scoville interposed, laughing. And the audience seemed to enjoy this witticism.
"Hardly," said Henry, trying his best to look grave, as the laughter subsided. "I have no reason to believe that, but I do believe the Martians have devised a means to pick up our language from the radio waves, and are adapting it for the purpose of communicating intelligently with us, just as we study, and often use, in various ways, other languages besides our own."
"Are their code messages decipherable in good English?" Mr. Scoville asked.
"Their spelling is very crude, but the liberal transcription, surprisingly enough, reads rather classical."
"By the bye, what station signals do you use?"
"I'll show you," said Henry. He motioned to Olinski, who rose, and moved quickly to a large blackboard, which had been placed in the center of the stage. With chalk, Olinski wrote in big capital letters: "ABUBCUC."