"
"I see what he means," said Redgrave, looking towards Zaidie. "The
Martian people have developed along practically the same lines as we are
doing, but they have done it faster and got a long way ahead of us. We
are finding out that the speech we call English is the shortest and most
convenient. The Martians found it out long ago and killed everybody who
spoke anything else. After all, what we call speech is only the
translation of thoughts into sounds. These people have been thinking for
ages with the same sort of brains as ours, and they've translated their
thoughts into the same sounds. What we call English they, I daresay,
call Martian, and that's all there is in it that I can see."
"Of course," laughed Zaidie. "Wonderful until you know how, eh? Like
most things. Still I must say that our friend here speaks English
something like a phonograph, and if he'll excuse me saying so, which of
course he will, he doesn't seem to have much more human nature about
him."
"I'm not quite so sure on that point," said Redgrave, "but----"
"Oh, never mind about that now!" she interrupted, and then, turning
towards the Martian, who had been listening intently as though he was
trying to make sense out of what they had been saying, she went on
speaking slowly and very plainly----
"Tell me, sir, if you please, do you know what 'angry' means? Are you
not angry with us for destroying your air-ships up there in the clouds,
and the one that came down, and for shooting all those people of yours?"
The Martian looked at her with a little light in his big blue eyes, and
two faint little spots of red just under them, and said:
"Anger! Yes, I remember, that is what we called brain-heat.
Pages:
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145