Adventures in the Far Future & Tales of Outer Space — page 244: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“And when we've said that much—that’s about all we can say. Because that’s all we know about them. We've watched those Candles for five hundred years and they still are strangers to us.” “You think they are intelligent?” asked Page, and the question was a sneer. “Why not?” snarled Craig. “You think they aren't because Man can’t communicate with them—just because they didn’t break their necks to talk with men. “Just because they haven't talked doesn’t mean they aren't intelligent. Perhaps they haven’t communicated with uS because their thought and reasoning would have no common basis for intelligent communication with mankind. Perhaps it’s because they regard Man as an inferior race—a race upon which it isn’t even worth their while to waste their time.” “You're crazy,” yelled Page. “They have watched us all these years. They’ve seen what we can do. They've seen our Space ships; they’ve seen us build this plant; they’ve seen us shoot power across millions of miles to the other planets.” “Sure,” agreed Craig, “they’ve seen all that. But would It impress them? Are you sure it would? Man, the great architect! Would you bust a gut trying to talk to a spider, or an orchard oriole, or a mud wasp? You bet your sweet life you wouldn't. And they're great architects, every one of them.” Page bounced angrily in his chair. “If they’re superior to us,” he roared, “where are the things they’ve done? Where are their cities, their machines, their civilizations?” “Perhaps,” suggested Craig, “they outlived machines and cities millennia ago. Perhaps they've reached a stage of civilization where they don’t need mechanical things.” He tapped the pencil on the desk. CORniclooo SS CO