Amazing Stories, Vol. 3, No. 2 — page 55: what you’re looking at

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

150 suddenly. We have been.on Mars eight days now and still we know practically nothing of this most miracu- lous world. Every day brings more tremendous sur- prises and at night we are usually exhausted from all the excitement of the continuous bombardment of our brains by new and wondrous things. “But to come back to the wondrous salon of our host, who, as we found out later, was the reigning Ruler of the Planet Mars, The house in which we were was a sort of executive mansion or palace, and the room in which we were standing was what you might call the Ruler’s office. “Here I must stop again to advise you that it is ex- tremely difficult for me to explain in existing terrestrial terms what we see, hear and feel, for everything on Mars is so totally different from what we are accus- tomed to on Earth, that my best comparisons with ter- restrial things must of necessity fall far short of actual conditions on Mars. However, I will do my best to convey a true picture to you. “The thing that struck us with the greatest force at first was that everything in this immense room appeared transparent. The room, which is about 150 feet im diameter, is about 60 feet high, with an immense golden transparent cupola forming the ceiling. The tables, the chairs, all the furniture, as well as all the objéets for which we had no names, seemed transparent. Even the walls seemed transparent, as well as the soft, rug-like — carpets on which we walked. But the wonder was centered not solely in the transparency of the strange material, but in the fact that it gave forth a soft, white light. Imagine a solid chair of glass, glowing in a mel- low, white light—not a brilliant light—and you have a good idea of what we beheld. It struck us at once that this wonderful material could be treated at will by the Martians; for, the luminous rugs on which we stood were soft as velvet, while a desk-like object nearby seemed hard as steel. The next thing which attracted most of our attention were the luminous walls. They were all paneled in a curious manner, and, were, of course, transparent and luminous. Each panel had a vast amount of small hexagonal plate-like facets ar- ranged somewhat in honeycomb fashion. These hex- agonal cells were constantly changing in soft colors, and the most unique, as well as pleasing, geometrical designs in colors were thus unendingly produced. It was a fascinating sight, and we found it hard to take our eyes from these walls. “At the far end of the room we noticed four Mar- tians whom we recognized at once as females on ac- count of their mass of hair and their more delicate fea- tures. Their heads seemed somewhat smaller than those of the males, but they appeared to dress exactly like the men, except that the color of their metallic look- ing dresses was of a much lighter shade. But it was not so much the ‘girls’ that drew our attention as what they were doing. We could not rid ourselves of the idea that these females were some sort of secretaries to our host, and it was manifest that they were ‘working’ at some-— thing. They appeared to be working earnestly and dili- gently, too, but there were no pencils, no books, no paper, no typewriters; in fact, there was nothing what- 5 AMAZING STORIES -soever that a terrestrial secretary requires to get up her superior’s reports. “Each girl sat motionless in front of a small glass- like table which was entirely bare and flat, except for the center, from which projected two small glass-like rods, each about 4 inches high and as thick as a pencil. At the top they bent over and formed a gooseneck pointing in the direction of the girls. The rods were both pointed at their ends, and while one appeared luminous, the other seemed dark. “The ‘operators’ were watching the point of the luminous rod intently, and the expression of their faces indicated that they were reading something. Every once in a while they seemed to relax and at that moment a curious white ray seemed to pass from the light point of the rod into the point of the dark one. That was all we could see. “While we were still wondering our host motioned us to sit down on the comfortable looking arm chairs. These chairs, as already mentioned, appeared like trans- parent glass, but when we put our hands on them they felt like satin and not at all hard or cold. The trans- parent seats, which had a moment before appeared as glass, were soft and flexible as an air-cuishion and extremely comfortable. The only trouble with the chairs was that they were too big for us. Built for large 8-foot Martians, our feet hardly reached. the floor, so we sat in the chairs just as children sit in big armchairs —our backs resting against the inside back of the chair and our legs and feet projecting straight out on the seat; Only then were we quite comfortable. “This position, ridiculous as it doubtless was, evoked a faint smile from our host, who sat down in his own chair in front of a large piece of furniture that was a cross between a rectangular table and a flat-top desk, garnished in its center with a huge birthday-cake-like affair with 10 transparent and 10 dark glass-like can- dies, curved in gooseneck form. “Our host then turned to us and looked us over long and earnestly. His large, liquid blue eyes were won- derful in their depth; in them shone a wisdom such as we had never before beheld. His face had a very benev- olent expression, and the features were clear and sharply defined. He appeared tremendously intellectual, yet will-power and strength of character radiated from his face in an amazing manner. We thought that at last he was going to speak to us, but instead he motioned to us to close our eyes, which we did. The following then happened and I will describe it as well as I can. No sooner had I closed my eyes than a clear picture of the Earth with its continents was flashed in my mind, just as if I had tried to think intently of the terrestrial globe, as it stands silhouetted against a dark sky. Then in quick succession followed our ‘Inter- stellar, the Planet Mars, a picture of our capture by the Martians with their yellow rays and their floating fortresses, then an exact picture of how we appeared at our landing on Mars. “Tt then. dawned on us that our host was ‘talking? to : us, not in words and not in a strange language, but mo- tion-picture-wise. We had experienced the first trans- ference of thoughts, and had understood everything our host had ‘said,’ because he thought in pictures which ~ Copmiclooolks.conn ee ~