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Martian-Allen Glasser, Alec Rowley Hilliard · American Bee Journal

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  Speaker 1: Chapter one of The Martian. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: by Paul Harvey. The Martian by Alan Glacier and A. R. Hilliard.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Chapter one, the water was evaporated by the ever shining sun,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: until there was none left for the thirsty plants. Every
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: year more workers died in misery. Many writers of science fiction,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: who have not given the matter much thought, assume that
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: a man of intelligence from one planet would meet a
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  Speaker 1: cordial and sympathetic welcome on another world. It is assumed
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  Speaker 1: that people are everywhere educated, curious about other worlds and
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: other cultures, and eager to help a visitor from an
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  Speaker 1: alien race. Unfortunately, there is no assurance that such is
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: the case. Even were the members of another race on
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  Speaker 1: another world possessed of education, there would be bound to
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  Speaker 1: be among them low and brutish elements. And if a
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  Speaker 1: stranger from another world, dazed by new conditions and unable
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  Speaker 1: to make his wants known, were to fall into their hands,
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  Speaker 1: his fate might not be happy. We have read no
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  Speaker 1: story the pictures with such clarity. And insight the experiences
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  Speaker 1: of a man on another world than his own. Then
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: does this present story, with the basis of a splendid plot,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: mister Hilliard has worked up a simply marvelous story. The
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  Speaker 1: rolling yellow sand reflected the heat of the sun and
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  Speaker 1: little shimmering waves. It reflected the sun's light blindingly throughout
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  Speaker 1: all its visible expanse, with the exception of one spot,
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  Speaker 1: where lay a circular shadow. In the great, steely blue
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  Speaker 1: dome of the sky. There were no clouds. The shadow,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: although not large, was very dark and distinct. The curved
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  Speaker 1: even line of its circumference was precisely drawn. In the
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  Speaker 1: air was a persistent rattle of sound, a series of
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: closely spaced explosions, ever rising in intensity. Suddenly, a small,
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  Speaker 1: uneven shadow detached itself from the circular one and floated
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  Speaker 1: swiftly across the sand. The rattling sound increased to a tremendous,
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  Speaker 1: booming roar, and the large shadow began to fade. At
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  Speaker 1: the same time, the smaller one grew steadily darker. High
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  Speaker 1: above the sand, a man was falling much too swiftly.
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  Speaker 1: The surface of the sand had been shaped into hills
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  Speaker 1: by the prevailing winds. These long, ridgelike hills or dunes
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  Speaker 1: were convex and gradual in slope on their windward sides,
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  Speaker 1: but on their lee sides there were concave and very steep.
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  Speaker 1: It was near the top of one of these steep
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  Speaker 1: slopes that the man landed. His frail legs and body
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  Speaker 1: crumpled under the weight of his head. He pitched forward
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  Speaker 1: and half rolled, half slid to the bottom, where he
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: came to rest more gently, the target of a small
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  Speaker 1: avalanche of sand. Immediately he began to struggle, and, failing
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  Speaker 1: in his attempts to rise, stretched his slim arms skyward
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  Speaker 1: and uttered a sharp, squealing cry. Painfully prolonged far above him,
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  Speaker 1: a spherical object, rapidly diminished in Sighe fixedly. He watched
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  Speaker 1: the sunlight glinting on its polished gray sides, watched it
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  Speaker 1: shrink to a tiny ball, a point, and then nothing.
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  Speaker 1: He was alone. The pressure was horrible. He buried his
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  Speaker 1: head in the hot sand and clapped his ears in
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  Speaker 1: a vain attempt to ease the throbbing pain. They must
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: have underestimated the weight of the Tunian atmosphere if they
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  Speaker 1: had expected him to live long here. It did not
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  Speaker 1: hurt his body, but his head was being crushed. He
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  Speaker 1: knew that he would soon die, and was glad this wild,
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  Speaker 1: senseless punishment would be at an end. He opened his
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  Speaker 1: eyes again and stared in growing fascination and wonder at
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  Speaker 1: the great arched blue dome above him. Gradually the spectacle
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  Speaker 1: of the this weirdly beautiful canopy occupied his whole attention.
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  Speaker 1: It was like a soft curtain of light blue material
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  Speaker 1: hiding the blackness of the sky and the gleaming stars.
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  Speaker 1: Yet the sun shone through. For a moment. He forgot
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  Speaker 1: his loneliness, his pain in rapt contemplation of the immense
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  Speaker 1: perfection above him, but only for a moment. Then the
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  Speaker 1: explanation came to him. That beautiful blue was the heavy
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  Speaker 1: atmosphere of Tune, which was slowly crushing him to death.
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  Speaker 1: He closed his eyes. The heat was terrific, but not
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  Speaker 1: as intense as he had expected. Tune was nearer the
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  Speaker 1: sun than was his own world, millions of miles nearer.
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  Speaker 1: Yet he was not badly burnt, and this puzzledom. The
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  Speaker 1: explanation must again lie in the heavy atmosphere serving as insolation.
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  Speaker 1: He finally decided he didn't care. He felt strangely detached.
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  Speaker 1: What signifies life nor death to a tiny being, separated
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  Speaker 1: by fifty million miles from any of its kind. Deposited
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  Speaker 1: on this strange planet, he had no hopes of survival.
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  Speaker 1: His only emotion was astonishment that he had lived a moment.
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  Speaker 1: He struggled to remove the parachute that had been so inadequate,
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  Speaker 1: an easiness fall movement, even the raising of an arm
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  Speaker 1: with serious effort. He was glued to the ground by
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  Speaker 1: the tremendous gravitational pull of a planet so much greater
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  Speaker 1: in size than his own. He relaxed, why struggle With
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: the passing of hope, All incentive to effort passes. Also,
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  Speaker 1: he felt no distress at the thought of death. Life
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  Speaker 1: not death would be freakish in this great waste land,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: and he was past anger now. What they had done
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  Speaker 1: to him they had done through hate and fear. Only
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  Speaker 1: hate and fear could conceive of so fantastic a torture
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  Speaker 1: for a fellow being. There was no satisfaction now in
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  Speaker 1: the knowledge that they had feared him, nor did he
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  Speaker 1: care about their hate. They had won. They would have
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  Speaker 1: their way, and all the people of the Latin would
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  Speaker 1: suffer in consequence Latin. A wave of sick loneliness swept
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  Speaker 1: over him. A point in the sky obscured by a
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  Speaker 1: weird curtain of blue his home. Certainly no man had
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  Speaker 1: ever suffered. Thus a surge of self pity welled up
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  Speaker 1: within him. Certainly, no being had ever been forced to
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  Speaker 1: long for the world, the globe which gave it birth.
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  Speaker 1: This horror was reserved for him alone. He clenched his fists.
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  Speaker 1: Reason returned to rescue him from emotion. Lawton did not
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  Speaker 1: exist for him. He was outside of the world, a
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  Speaker 1: tiny flame of consciousness and space. And what did that
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  Speaker 1: amount to? After all? He asked himself, what but death?
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  Speaker 1: For a long time, he lay there in the sand,
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  Speaker 1: quite motionless. The sun was sinking, Its blazing heat was
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: abating somewhat. Its face was large and red. For miles
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  Speaker 1: across the surface of the sand. The shadows of the
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: dunes were stretching out and out of the sunset. A
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  Speaker 1: tiny speck of black appeared where he lay. The man
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  Speaker 1: heard the sound of it, a steady drone or buzz.
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  Speaker 1: At first, it did not catch his attention. Its inception
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  Speaker 1: was so good radule, but soon it became a roar
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  Speaker 1: and he opened his eyes with a start. He had
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  Speaker 1: heard no sound since the departure of the spaceship, had
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  Speaker 1: expected none, and uneasy excitement gripped him. He strained his
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  Speaker 1: eyes upward. Suddenly, over the dune against which he lay,
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  Speaker 1: there shot a something, roaring thunderously. He cowered down, stunned
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  Speaker 1: by the terrific sound of it, but he watched it
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  Speaker 1: with wide eyes as it moved across the sky. It
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  Speaker 1: was t shaped, with the cross piece going before. Beneath
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  Speaker 1: it hung two wheels. It gleamed metallically, without attempting to rise.
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  Speaker 1: He howled shrilly, time after time, catching his breath and gasps.
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  Speaker 1: While the thing moved steadily away, following an undeviating line.
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  Speaker 1: It left him far behind, diminished to a speck, and disappeared.
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  Speaker 1: The sound of it lingered when he could see it
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  Speaker 1: no longer. His breath came quickly spasmodically through parted lips.
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  Speaker 1: His throat was tight, and his heart pounded. The staggering
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  Speaker 1: surprise of what he had seen and heard left him
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  Speaker 1: incapable of thought. His mind was a racing turmoil of questions.
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  Speaker 1: His contentment, his resignation were gone destroyed in a moment,
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  Speaker 1: and in their place rose a great uneasiness. The return
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  Speaker 1: of hope to a man who has definitely put it
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  Speaker 1: away from him is a joy closely akin to pain
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  Speaker 1: in its intensity. His whole body shook as he struggled
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  Speaker 1: with the sand, attempting to rise. He had seen a machine.
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  Speaker 1: He knew it could not have been an animal. It
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  Speaker 1: was not alive, and it was made of metal. A
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  Speaker 1: machine meant reasoning beans. There must be reasoning beans on Tune,
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  Speaker 1: where Lawton's scientists had argued that they could not be,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: and machines that traveled through space. Perhaps, as the new
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  Speaker 1: possibilities of his situation burst upon him, his homesickness returned
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  Speaker 1: a thousandfold, and he knew that he could rest no longer,
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  Speaker 1: could not wait in the sand for death. He must struggle.
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  Speaker 1: He must strive until the end came, because there was
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  Speaker 1: a chance. Immediately, his mind became purposeful, and he took
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  Speaker 1: stock of his position. He knew that the whole of
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  Speaker 1: Tune was not like this great stretch of sand. Thousands
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  Speaker 1: of years of observation of the bright planet had convinced
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  Speaker 1: the scientists of the Loten that it bore vegetation and
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  Speaker 1: probably animal life of some sort but rational beings. His
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  Speaker 1: astonishment reasserted itself. Five thousand years of systematic signaling had
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  Speaker 1: brought no response, and the project had lately been abandoned.
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  Speaker 1: Yet he shook his head and returned to his problem.
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  Speaker 1: He must not waste time. Now he had food enough
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  Speaker 1: in his stomach to last three days at least, and
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  Speaker 1: he would not need water for even longer. He suddenly realized,
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  Speaker 1: with enormous satisfaction that the pain in his head was
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  Speaker 1: considerably less than at first. Perhaps his system would be
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  Speaker 1: able to adjust itself to the atmospheric pressure. The great
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  Speaker 1: question was where and how to go. He must go somewhere.
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  Speaker 1: Only motion would satisfy his craving for accomplishment of some sort.
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  Speaker 1: He would get no help on this greate, sterile plane.
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  Speaker 1: He had no guarantee that another of the flying machines
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  Speaker 1: would come near him, and even if it did, there
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  Speaker 1: was not much hope of attracting its attention. No, he
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  Speaker 1: must move. He decided to follow in the direction the
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  Speaker 1: machine had taken. Its destination might be nearby, or it
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  Speaker 1: might be thousands of miles away. The probability seemed to
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  Speaker 1: be in favor of the former hypothesis, because the machine
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  Speaker 1: had been moving so very slowly anyway, it was a
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  Speaker 1: chance pulling his legs up under him. He made another
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  Speaker 1: determined attempt to rise, and finally succeeded in standing erect
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  Speaker 1: But it made his legs ache terribly, and when he
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  Speaker 1: tried a step he slipped, falling back with a jarring thud.
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  Speaker 1: He would have to crawl, ridding himself of the parachute,
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  Speaker 1: and with no further hesitation, he set out, crawling slowly
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  Speaker 1: and laboriously, keeping the sun at his back. The heat
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  Speaker 1: was less oppressive now the sun had sunk to a
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  Speaker 1: point where its rays were no hotter than at midday
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  Speaker 1: on his lottin, and he marveled at the similarity of
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: the two climates. He had seen none of the water
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: vapors that astronomers described as almost constantly enveloping tune tune.
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  Speaker 1: What had he seen of it seemed to be as
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  Speaker 1: dry as the Latin, if not more so. He climbed
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  Speaker 1: the long, gradual slope of a dune, and, after surveying
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  Speaker 1: the endless stretch of sand which met his view at
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  Speaker 1: the top, slid down the steep side and crawled doggedly.
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  Speaker 1: On night was falling, the blue dome above him steadily
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: darkened until it began to take on the appearance of
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  Speaker 1: his own native sky. He was dead tired within an hour.
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  Speaker 1: He lay still for a time, breathing deeply, marshaling his strength.
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  Speaker 1: He was in excellent physical condition, but here his body
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  Speaker 1: was so heavy that the slightest motion it was a strain. Soon, however,
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  Speaker 1: his eager spirit drove him onward. At the end of
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  Speaker 1: another hour, happening to raise his head, he uttered an
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  Speaker 1: involuntary cry. Points of light glimmered in the sky, so
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  Speaker 1: he was to see the stars after all. The only
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  Speaker 1: at night, it seemed he was relieved. In the back
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  Speaker 1: of his mind had been the ever growing certainty that
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  Speaker 1: he would not be able to keep a direct course.
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  Speaker 1: He rested again and picked out certain designs that would
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  Speaker 1: be helpful as guides. He wondered if one of them
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  Speaker 1: were Latin. They were very dim in a blink strain,
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  Speaker 1: and their arrangement was meaningless to him. He fixed upon
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  Speaker 1: one of them, the brightest, and imagined that it might
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  Speaker 1: be his world, where his friends were and his enemies,
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  Speaker 1: where his wives grieved for him, perhaps, where his children
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  Speaker 1: laughed and played, where he might one day return he
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  Speaker 1: crawled along through the sand. It was not really dark,
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  Speaker 1: only twilight. He wondered, if this were night on Tune,
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  Speaker 1: it must be almost directly ahead of him, just a
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  Speaker 1: little to the right was a radiance, close to the horizon.
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  Speaker 1: It puzzled him. Soon it was spreading over the sky,
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  Speaker 1: a pale, ghostly light. Then a bright point appeared, a line.
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  Speaker 1: It grew. He stared in abject wonder while a great
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: white disk mounted into the sky, illuminating the scene around.
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  Speaker 1: He rested awhile and watched it. It was Tune's satellite.
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  Speaker 1: It could be nothing else, but beside it, the two
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  Speaker 1: luminaries of his own world were his pigmies. He was
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  Speaker 1: still watching it, fascinated when he resumed his journey. End
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  Speaker 1: of chapter one recording by Paul Harvey. Chapter two of
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: The Martian by Alan Glazier. This LibriVox recording is in
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Recording by Paul Harvey. Signs of life.
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  Speaker 1: All through the night he traveled and into the rising sun.
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  Speaker 1: The noonday heat forced him to take a prolonged rest,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: but he fought on as soon as possible, and sunset
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  Speaker 1: found him crawling weakly onward. The cool of night revived
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: him somewhat. He knew that the strain under which he
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: labored would hasten his time of sleep, and that worried him.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: Even now he was often in a semi conscious state. Still,
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  Speaker 1: he could not stop. When the sun rose again, it
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: shone through trees, and far across the yellow sand, his
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: tired eyes saw green hills. The sight invigorated him, spurred
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: him on to stronger efforts. Soon after midday he lay
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: panting in the shade of trees. The trees astonished him.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: They towered above him, fully, five times as high as
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: any he had ever seen. Their stems were of enormous girth,
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  Speaker 1: rough and hard to the touch. There seemed to be
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: something moving in their heavy foliage far above him, and
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: he heard faint, sharp whistling sounds. He looked around uneasily.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: The size of the trees worried him. If there were
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: animal life, it might be proportionately large. He shuddered. The desert,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: although uncomfortable, had had one advantage he had been alone there. Still,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: it was not loneliness that he was seeking, he thought grimly. Obviously,
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: he he stiffened. He had been staring abstractly at the
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: coarse grass which grew thickly around him. Now his eyes
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: became focused upon a movement there, not three feet away.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: The grass was waving strangely in a peculiar uneven line,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: and he caught sight of something slim and green that
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: was not the grass. His throat contracted painfully. The thing
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: did not seem to move, yet it was coming nearer.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: Whenever he caught sight of a part of its body,
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: it appeared stationary. Yet the waving of the grass was
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: closer and ever closer. It was very close now. Suddenly
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: his power of locomotion returned. He rolled over backward and
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: scrambled along the ground to a tree. Grasping the rough trunk,
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: he pulled himself erect and held himself in that position, panting.
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  Speaker 1: He could see the thing more plainly now. It was
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: like a long green whip in the grass. Its forepart
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: was raised in the air and terminated in a triangular
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: head with two bright eyes, whose steady, unwinking stare made
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: him tremble weakly. With an effort, he took his eyes
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: from the creature, and, pushing himself away from the tree,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: ran desperately as far as his legs would carry him.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: When he fell, and he continued to crawl farther, and
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: even farther into the green woods. He wondered if all
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: creatures crawled in this world of tune, perhaps the great
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: gravitational pull made erect postures impossible. For a long time,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: he climbed steadily, threading his way through the underbrush, skirting
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: fallen trees. He felt increasingly drowsy. His sleep period would
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: come soon. He knew he could not stave it off
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: much longer, and when he had slept, he must eat.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: He came to level ground. A head was an opening
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: in the trees, where a wide ledge of stone was revealed.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Out upon this, he crawled and gazed at the scene
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: that opened out below. Miles of waving tree tops met
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: his view, but what held his attention was a strip
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: of silver cutting the green. He felt a warm glow
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: of satisfaction. Water, in his mind was closely associated with organization,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: transportation facilities, reasoning beans, yet he must be wary. He
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: had no idea what sort of beans they might be.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: This might be a canal, but it was strangely irregular
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: in its course. At least he was making progress. A
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: peculiar ringing sound came from the trees below. It was
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: utterly unfamiliar to him. Nerving himself, he determined to discover
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: what it was. He climbed down from the stone and
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: began the journey down the hill. As he progressed, the
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: sound became louder, and others were added. He was puzzled
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: by a low, intermittent muttering. It made him vaguely uneasy,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: and with every moment his agitation increased. The muttering was
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: now very definitely spaced into irregular but continuous tones, and
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: he knew that he was listening to a conversation. He
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: was frightened now that he was so near to what
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: he had been seeking. His courage left him, and he
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: lay trembling flat on the ground, awed by the booming
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: voices of the creatures. They must be very large, she thought,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: to utter such deep tones. He had lain there for
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: perhaps five minutes, when suddenly there came a rending crash,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: and peering ahead, he saw the green top of a
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: tree sway, violently, sink and disappear from sight. At the
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: same time, there came a louder cry, followed by the
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: blending of two thunderous voices speaking simultaneously, then a heavy
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: thud and another cry. He crawled cautiously forward. He reached
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: the fallen tree. Its trunk was suspended above the ground
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: by the projection of a number of its large branches.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: He peered beneath it. Directly before him, in a small clearing,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: two creatures were struggling together. They stood erect upon their
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: huge legs, using their crudely bulky arms and hands to
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: strike and tug at each other. They were tremendous in size,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: fully three times human stature, yet their heads were smaller
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: than men's. Their erect posture gave them a weirdly half
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: human look, which was belied by the brutal savagery of
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: their aspects. Their brows were low, their heads were covered
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: with long hair, and in their gaping mouths he saw
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: rows of sharp white fangs. Their skin, instead of being golden,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: was a dirty gray in color, and was covered with short,
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: curling hair or fur. But he could see very little
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: of their bodies because, and this sight seemed to him
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: the strangest of all, they were almost entirely covered with cloth.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: This woven material was brown in color and shaped to
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: hang close to their bodies, even over the arms and legs.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: He lay very still, watching the titanic struggle with ever
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: growing wonder They appeared to be evenly matched. Once one
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: of them was hurled heavily to the ground, but he
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: leaped effortlessly to his feet. Both of them grunted and
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: uttered sharp exclamations. At intervals, they tramped back and forth,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: tearing up the grass, crushing down the small bushes. They
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: must greatly hate each other, he thought, or perhaps it
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: was natural for them to fight like this. Now one
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: of them was tiring, the smaller. Its movements were slower,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: and it stepped almost constantly backward. Suddenly, from its bulbuous
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: nose spurted a red stream. He shuddered. The sight of
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: these two strangely manlike creatures beating and tearing at one
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: another sickened him. The larger creature was pressing its advantage,
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: advancing upon the other with cruel flailing blows. Suddenly the
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: smaller one crumpled to the ground and lay still. The
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: other turned away. It seemed satisfied. It grasped an object
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: which was leaning against a tree, a cutting tool apparently
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: consisting of an edged block of metal attached to a
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: long handle of wood, and without a backward glance at
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: its fallen foe made off through the trees. The creature
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: on the ground was alive. He could see the rise
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: and fall of its breathing under the cloth covering of
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: its breast, but the bright red blood was still running
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: out of the nose. It had lost an astonishing amount,
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: and he feared that, unassisted, it would soon die. He
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: must try to help. With wildly beating heart, he crawled
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: under the tree trunk and out into the clearing. As
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: he moved through the grass, he made a slight rustling sound,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: which the creature heard. It turned its head and stared
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: directly at him. He stopped fearfully. The creature uttered a
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: loud cry and scrambled to its feet. He raised one hand,
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: attempting a friendly gesture, but the creature, after watching him
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: for a moment with wide eyes, bounded swiftly away into
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: the woods. He heard the thumping and crashing of its
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: passage through the underbrush long after it had disappeared from sight.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: His first sensation was one of immense relief. He had
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: been desperately afraid. Evidently the thing had been afraid of
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: him too, and now was surprising. Clearly, these could not
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: be the reasoning things that had built the flying machine
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: he had seen. His relief was quickly followed by disappointment.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: For a moment, he had imagined that his first objective
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: had been reached. Now he realized that he might be
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: as far from it as ever. Tune was immense. Probably
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: now he was in a country inhabited by inferior beings,
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: beings that would be constantly hostile and dangerous to him.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: If that were so, his quest would end here. He knew.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: Sleep could not be worded off any longer. He could
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: not protect himself. Soon he must eat, and there was
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: no food. He crawled into the bushes and lay down,
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: lonely and sick. He would stay here. This was failure
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: and the end. But he was not sorry for having tried.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: Above him, the sky was not blue now, but a strange,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: dead gray. Nowhere could he see the sun. The wind
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: sighed mournfully in the trees. He slept. End of Chapter
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: two recording by Paul Harvey. Chapter three of The Martian
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: by Alan Glasser. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: Recording by Paul Harvey. In confinement, he awakened in shivering terror.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: His entire body was wet, and water was falling on him.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: It was falling on the ground all around, and on
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: the trees, thousands, millions of drops. He choked as he
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: tried to breathe that damp, saturated air. Desperately. He looked
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: round for some protection, but there was none. He covered
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: his face as best he could with his folded arms
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: and cried out in fear. There came a shout, and
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: he heard something moving toward him, but he did not care.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: Horror of the falling water crowded all other emotions from
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: his mind. One of the creatures was standing over him.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: He heard others approaching. They were shouting loudly back and
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: forth to one another. In a moment, there was a
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: circle of them all around him. He was too distressed
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: to pay them any attention. After a time, one of
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: them bent down and grasped him under the armpits. He
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: felt himself lifted into the air. He did not struggle,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: even when their faces were all around him very close.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: Now they were walking through the trees, one of them
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: carrying him in its huge arms quite gently. He was
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: scarcely conscious of his surroundings. It was becoming more and
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: more difficult to breathe. Then he felt himself laid down
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: on something soft and dry. The water was not falling
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: on him. Now he opened his eyes. They had placed
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: him under a shelter. He could hear the water on
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: the black covering above him. There was one of them
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: on each side of him, where he lay on what
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: seemed to be a cushioned seat. Suddenly there came a rumble,
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: and the seat beneath him quivered and shook. He struggled
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: to sit up. One of the creatures aided him and
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: wrapped a dry cloth about his body. He was grateful.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: The seat was bumping up and down violently on each side.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: He could see the trees moving slowly backward. He realized
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: that he was in a vehicle. It jolted constantly, and
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: he imagined that it must run directly on the rough ground.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: It made a continuous and tremendous noise, but it was
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: a machine of transportation, however crude, and he quickly forgot
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: his bodily discomfort. As the implications of this fact crowded
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: through his mind, he looked with a new interest at
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: his captors. They were talking together excitedly, evidently about him,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: for they never removed their eyes from him. In spite
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: of their strangeness and savagery. They must have reasoning minds,
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: he could be pretty sure of that. Now the vehicle
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: came to rest, and to either side he saw structures
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: made evidently of cut trees. Then his heart leaped again
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: as he saw that they had glass, so they knew
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: how to make that. There were only a few pieces
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: of it let into the walls, but it was certainly glass,
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: and his hopes rose a bit higher. They carried him
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: into one of the houses. It was quite dark. They
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: set him down upon a large table. They were increasing
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: rapidly in numbers, jostling in through the door and crowding
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: around the table. In the wall near him there was
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: one of the pieces of glass, abashed by the dozens
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: of staring eyes. He looked through this and saw a
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: broad field, its soil turned up in long, straight rows,
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: evidently for planting. Near the center of the field were
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: two creatures which immediately commanded his attention. They were not alike.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: One was similar to those he had already seen, but
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: the other was even larger and of a different shape.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: Four legs carried the great, bulky body, which rested in
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: a horizontal position, as did the thick neck and long
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: tapering head. It was dragging the tool which turned up
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: the furrows of soil, while the other followed behind, governing
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: its direction. Clearly, he thought there were many types of
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: creatures on tune. He would have to try to understand
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: their relations to one another. Inside the room, there was
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: much noise, and the air was hot, damp, and very
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: unpleasant to breathe. He was not afraid of the creatures now,
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: and instinctively he realized that it was curiosity that brought
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: them here, and that they meant him no harm. A
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: few were trying to speak to him, looking directly into
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: his eyes and making monosyllabic sounds. This amused him at first.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: They would not be quite so hopeful if they understood
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: from where he had come. But in another moment his
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: amusement had vanished. One of the creatures standing near placed
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: a finger close to where he sat, at the same
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: time uttering a short disyllabic sound. Table A thrill shot
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: through him. He had expected no such intelligence on the
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: part of his captors. A new wave of hope surged
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: up within him. Carefully, he repeated the gesture and the word.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: His action was followed by a burst of excited conversation
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: in the room, several made sharp guttural noises, which he
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: guessed meant gratification or amusement. Immediately a number of them
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: took up the game, and he eagerly did his part,
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: repeating the sounds they made and identified them with objects.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: With every possible gesture, he tried to indicate to them
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: his pleasure and gratification. He was sorry when they began
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: to go away. It had been getting steadily darker for
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: some time when suddenly the room was brilliantly illuminated, and
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: looking quickly around, he saw a number of bright globes.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: This event brought him to a high pitch of elation.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: The character of the vehicle in which he had ridden
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: had made him fear that they knew nothing of electricity,
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: But here was tangible evidence that they did. His dream
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: of a return to Lawton seemed less like a wild imagining.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: At every moment, he was beginning to think of these
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: creatures as people, almost human beings. Now only two of
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: them remained. From their glances, he knew that they were
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: talking about him. Finally, one of them lifted him from
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: the table, and, walking swiftly, carried him through the door
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: across a short stretch of open ground and into a
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: smaller and darker structure. There, laying him down upon a
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: bed of cloths and cushions in one quarter of the
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: single room. The other followed them in, carrying a china
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: dish and cup, setting these beside him. They both pointed
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: with their fingers to their open mouths. He understood immediately
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: and was glad. He needed nourishment badly, But when he
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: looked into the dish, his pleasure abated. It contained an
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: assortment of what appeared to be parts of plants, and
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: he tried to conceal his horror animal flesh. Looking up,
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: he nodded a gesture that he had quickly learned, and
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: to his great relief, they turned and left the room,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: closing the door. He heard a sharp click. The flesh
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: he immediately put aside. He did not like to think
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: what its origin might be. He studied the plants. They
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: had evidently been subjected to a heat process, but had
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: not been chemically refined in any way. The percentage of
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: nourishment in them must be very low, and it would
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: be necessary for him to eat great quantities to sustain
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: his strength. He wondered how long his stomach could stand it.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: These people must eat almost daily to sustain themselves on
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: such fare, he reasoned, marveling with a prolonged implement that
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: they had given him, He set to work to mash
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: the food into as soft mass as possible. This process
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: they accomplished easily. With their fayings. He knew the taste
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: was anything but pleasing, and he had great difficulty in swallowing,
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: but he finally managed to assuage his hunger and felt better.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: He drank a little water from the cup, which contained
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: enough to supply him for at least five days. This done,
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: he stretched himself out upon the bed and gave himself
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: over to pleasant reflection. A far cry, he thought, from
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: the man lying helpless in the desert, devoid of all hope,
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: to the one who would establish contact with a race
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: of intelligent beings, who would doubtless be willing to help
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: him return to his own native world. He reflected that
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: if the flying ship had not happened to come near him,
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: he would most certainly have perished by now, perished in
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: a foreign world, far away from those he loved, never
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: knowing there was a chance for his salvation. But now
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: he had taken the first step, anything was possible. Now
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: his attention returned to his surroundings. The bare room was
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: lighted by a bulb hanging from wires in the center.
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: From it dangled accord, the purpose of which he quickly guessed.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: The walls and floor were bare wood and rough. Along
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: the whole length of one wall extended a low, narrow
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: table or bench, strewn with the miscellaneous collection of objects
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: which aroused his curiosity. He crawled to the bench and
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: pulled himself erect by grasping its edge. He was just
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: tall enough to see along its surface. Near him rested
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: a large roll of what he first thought was cord,
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: but on closer examination he decided that it was metal
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: wire covered with the fiber insulation. Obviously, it was for
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: the conduction of electricity. Scattered around it were a number
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: of cylinders of varying sizes, which he saw were wound
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: closely with very fine wires. Clearly, these people did more
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: with electricity than make light, he thought, encouraged. There was
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: nothing else in the room except a pile of rust
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: metal in one corner. The whole place was depressingly dirty
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: and dreary. He thought that he would feel better without
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: the light. He made his way to the center of
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: the room and stretched upwards. Finding that he could just
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: reach the cord, he jerked it and returned in the
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: darkness to his cot. He lay there quietly, trying to
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: calm his nerves. He wondered what they would do with him.
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: He was still wondering the same thing at the end
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: of four days. They did not move him. They did
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: nothing except come and look at him, a great many
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: of them at first, but less and less as time
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: went on. They came in the daytime, never at night.
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: They fed him, and a few still tried to talk
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: to him. This pleased him, and he strove eagerly to
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: understand and imitate, but they soon got tired and stopped.
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: He learned to distinguish the males and females among the
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: people that came by differences in stature, length of hair,
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: and clothing. He observed with complete bewilderment that the males
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: often carried in their hands burning cylinders, which they raised
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: regularly to their mouths, blowing out smoke into the air.
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: He guessed finally that this must be some sort of
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: sanitary precaution. Now, however, he was left alone most of
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: the time, They brought him food and then went away.
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: He was uneasy physically. He felt far from well. The
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: damp air made his throat and chest ache, and he
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: feared that the long deprivation of sunlight was hurting him.
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: He could not understand. Gathering his courage, one day, he
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: attempted to open the door. He reached up and turned
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: the knob the way he had seen the people do,
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: but it would not move when he pushed. He remembered
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: the clicking sound he had heard every time after they
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: went out. He became frightened. He did not understand this confinement.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: Why would they not let him out? There passed another
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: day of mental torture. Would they let him die in
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: his dark, dreary place. Had all his efforts merely led
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: to a lonely, purposeless death. He wondered what they would
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: do if he went out of his own accord, and
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: finally decided that he must do it, even at the
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: risk of offending them further in activity he could not bear.
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: Within five minutes he had formed a plan of action.
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: It was night, the best time to work, for he
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: must work undisturbed for a time. He made his way
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: to the bench and collected three of the wound wire coils,
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: which he dropped to the floor. With a cutting tool
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: that he found, he managed to get a length of
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: wire from the large roll. The tool was very heavy. Next,
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: he crawled to the corner and selected a number of
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: small pieces of metal. He rested for a while, studying
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: the light bulb which hung in the center of the room.
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: From the light it gave and the size of the filament,
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: he roughly estimated the power of the current. Then, with
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: a graphite writing instrument that he had found, he drew
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: a diagram on the floor. He took a very long
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: time doing this and labeled it carefully. When he had finished,
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: the little window at the end of the room showed
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: that dawn was breaking outside. Hurriedly, then he set to
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: work with the metal, the coils and the wire, twisting, winding,
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: connecting and cross connecting, constantly, glancing at his diagram and
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: at the window. Finally, when it was broad daylight outside,
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: he gave a sigh of satisfaction. He had achieved an ugly,
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: jumbled apparatus, vaguely cylindrical in shape, with a point of
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: metal at one end. He laid it on the floor
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: and making his way to the bench secured two more
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: lengths of wire. He crawled under the bench to where
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: the power line for the light ran down the wall,
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: and there connected them. Then, securing his cup of water,
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: he dipped it into the ends of the two wires
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: and observed them for a moment. Satisfied, he carried them
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: to a cylindrical apparatus and connected one of them at
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: the end opposite the metal point. The other he did
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: not immediately connect. End of Chapter three recording by Paul Harvey.
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: Chapter four of The Martian by Alan Glasser. This LibriVox
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain by Paul Harvey. The
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: circus he was breathing hard now, and his face was flushed.
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: For a long time, he sat very still and listened,
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: but he heard no sound. At last, moving very slowly,
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: he carried a cylinder to the door. He raised it
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: and placed the point against the metal lock under the knob.
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: He pressed his lips tightly together and sat his jaw
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: with the end of the wire, which he had not connected.
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: He touched a point on the cylinder. There was no sound.
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: There was no movement of the cylinder. Yet the metal
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: lock dissolved, and daylight shot through the place where it
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: had been a cloud of light gray dust drifted lazily
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: to the floor. He disconnected the wires carefully. He hid
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: the thing under the cushions of his bed. Then he
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: pushed open the door and crawled out into the sunlight.
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: The sun felt warm and pleasant on his back. He
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: heard a cry and looked up fearfully. One of the
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: men of tune was running towards him, carrying a dish.
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: It was the man that brought his food. His throat
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: was tight and he was trembling. He knew that this
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: was the supreme moment. He nodded his head and smiled.
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: He raised one hand pulm upward. The man stopped directly
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: in front of him and growled, then raised an arm
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: pointing at the door of his prison. He made a
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: little murmuring sound to the man and raised his face
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: to the sun. Smiled and nodded once more. The man
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: pushed him backwards with one foot, always pointing at the door.
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: He turned and crawled back into the shed dully. He
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: watched the man, who stood for a long time staring
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: at the door where the lock had been, then strode
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: to the pile of metal and picked up a chain.
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: He did not move. When he felt the chain around
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: his body, he closed his eyes and did not open
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: them until he heard the door shut. He did not
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: move all that day, He only watched the little window.
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: When finally the little window grew black, he drew his
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: machine from under the cushions and connected it again at
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: the wall. The chain was fastened to a leg of
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: the bench and allowed him to do this. He destroyed
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: a portion of the chain and loosened it from his body.
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: He crawled to the wall farthest from the house where
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: the people lived, moving the machine in a slow arc,
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: he cut a hole in the wall, disconnecting the wires.
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: He used them to fasten the machine around his waist.
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: Then he went out into the night. He did not
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: know where he was going, except that he was going
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: away from these beans that held him prisoner without a reason.
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: At first they had seemed kind, But they were kind
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: no longer. Something had changed them, he thought, But he
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: could not guess what. He had progressed less than a
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: hundred yards when a sudden tumult of sound froze him
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: with terror. It was coming at him through the dark,
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: a hoarse, senseless animal cry, and bounding toward him. He
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: saw the dark shadow of a beast. He knew instinctively
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: that here was an unreasoning creature, and all the strength
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: went out of him. He lay flat and limp on
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: his face. Now he heard its panting breath and felt
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: the heat of it on his body at the same time,
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: but only semi consciously, he heard the loud shouts of
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: men as in a He felt himself grasped roughly and
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: lifted from the ground. Soon he knew that he was
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: back in the shed again. He saw a man standing
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: above him, holding his machine. He felt strangely detached, as
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: if he were not there at all. He saw the man,
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: look at the machine, look at the door, look at
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: the chain, look at the hole in the wall, look
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: at the light cord. He saw the man connecting his
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: machine to the light cord. He felt powerless to warn
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: the man that he might be connecting it wrong, that
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: there were two ways, one right, one wrong. An explosion
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: threw the man heavily against the wall. He could see
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: the man struggling slowly up coming towards him, kicking him,
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: but he could hardly feel the kick at all, and
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: everything got dark. When light came back, it was just
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: a small square above him. That puzzled him until he
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: reached out and found wooden walls all around him. Very close.
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: He was in a box. He became suddenly fully conscious
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: of the fact. Looking down at him from above, he
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: saw the faces of two of the men of Tune.
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: He cried out involuntarily, struggling to escape. One of the
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: creatures shook a heavy piece of metal threateningly over his head.
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: He cowered down, shuddering at sight of the merciless gleam
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: in its eyes. The light was blotted out as they
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: placed to cover over him, and he was deafened by
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: a long and thunderous pounding. Then began a time of
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: horror in the darkness. His active mind had nothing to
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: feed upon but fear. Only too clearly was it brought
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: to him that he did not know the ways of
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: these creatures of Tune. What was deadly fear to him
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: might be commonplace to them. He had hoped to find
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: them friendly, merciful. Yet friendship and mercy were qualities of
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: his own experience in a world different from theirs. Why
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: had he thought to find them here? He had no
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: measure of time. For endless hours he lay there in
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: the dark, bracing himself against the sides to protect his
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: head and body as much as possible, for the box
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: seemed almost constantly in motion, jolting, tilting, and bumping, until
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: he was weak and breathless from the strain. His mind,
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: worn out by its relentless self torture, sank at last
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: to semi consciousness. Suddenly light returned, and he was dragged
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: roughly from his prison. He was in a large room
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: where the combination of odor, heat, and noise was overpower.
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: Great numbers of men of tune were there, hurrying in
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: all directions, seemingly very busy. He noted immediately that their
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: clothing was different from that which he had seen, and
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: wondered what the significance of that might be. He felt
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: strangely calm. Now before him was an immense bulky man
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: who stood with legs apart and arms folded, staring at
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: him with wide, unwinking eyes. This man had a face
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: that was light red in color and rounded, almost swollen
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: looking in shape. He nodded, and his cheeks shook loosely.
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: He nodded several times and seemed very pleased. He spoke sharply,
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: and others standing around sprang into action. They brought a
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: red cloth and tied it around the captive's loins. They
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: forced him to crawl back and forth on the floor
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: while the big man looked on, nodding and chuckling. Then
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: the big man ran hot, cushioned like hands over his
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: head and body, pried open his mouth, grasped his hand
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: and shook it vigorously up and down, and with a
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: final nod, turned and walked away. He understood none of
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: this and was very unhappy. They placed him upon a high,
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: draped platform where there was a small chair and nothing else.
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: There were a number of similar platforms in the room.
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: It was impossible for him to maintain his previous indifference
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: to his surroundings. Around the walls of the room there
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: were long rows of barred enclosures containing creatures of every
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: conceivable size, shape, and color. Some were hideous, some were
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: strangely beautiful. All were absorbingly interesting. For a time, he
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: forgot everything else while he watched them and listened to
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: the sounds that they made. Certainly he thought a scientist
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: of the Latin would give twenty years of his life
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: for the opportunity to see these creatures. Some of them
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: were amazingly like reconstructions that had been made from fossilized
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: bones found on the Lottin. They brought him food, which
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: he judged must be the cooked seeds of grain. It
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: was soft, and he forced himself to eat a little.
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: Although he was not hungry, he feared that he would
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: have to learn to eat daily, for food concentrates seemed
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: to be unknown. Here his mind was occupied trying to
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: understand the meaning of this place. Great numbers of people
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: were crowding into the room. Now, rows of them stood
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: around his platform. The other platforms were now occupied. Also
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: on them were beings resembling the people around them, but
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: each one differing in some strange way from the normal.
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: Some were enormously large, some small, And he saw one
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: which was shaped like the men of Tune, yet was
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: no taller than himself. An endless stream of people surged
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: through the room, circulating around the platforms and cages, gazing
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: fixedly at their occupants. He began to understand these were exhibits,
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: creatures strange to the crowds who came to look at them.
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: Tune was very large, and transportation methods were poorly developed.
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: Perhaps therefore these people had never seen many of the
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: parts of their own globe. Their staring eyes made him uncomfortable.
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: Where ever he looked, they were staring eyes and gaping mouths.
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: He felt suddenly ashamed. He wanted to hide himself, but
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: they would not let him do that. He knew how
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: long would they keep him here? He wondered, There seemed
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: to be no limit to the crowds. This must be
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: a great center of population, And in a flash he
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: had forgotten the people with their staring eyes, forgotten his shame,
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: forgotten his bodily discomfort. A center of population, those words
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: blazed in his mind once more he knew the joy
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: of hope. With a sudden, clear perception, he realized that
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: they could not have helped him more if they had
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: done it consciously. He had arrived at a goal which
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: a few days ago it seemed impossible of attainment. Here,
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: if anywhere he would find help, he must learn the
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: language that was imperative, And again his good fortune amazed him.
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: These people were constantly talking. His position was ideal for
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: studying their speech. From what he already knew, it was
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: quite simple, and it should not take long to learn
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: enough to serve his purpose. It took longer than he
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: had expected, mainly because the people were not there all
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: the time. They came only at certain periods of the day,
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: and he soon made a surprising discovery that they slept
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: during a great part of every night. In fact, almost
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: one third of their time seemed to be spent in
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: an unconscious state. The creatures in the cages slept even more.
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: He could see no signs of intelligence in these caged creatures.
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: They were dumb and were completely dominated by the men.
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: He missed the sun badly. These people, and their dark
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: houses and their draped bodies did not seem to need
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: it often. He felt quite ill, but tried not to
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: worry about his health. At night, when alone, he practiced
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: the sounds he had learned, and rehearsed the things he
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: was going to say when his chance came. He passed
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: through a sleep period, and then on the ninth day
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: decided that he was ready to the attendant who brought
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: his food. He said, I talk. The man started violently
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: and gaped at him. Talk. He repeated blankly. Yes. The
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: attendant looked at him uncertainly for a long time, and
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: then walked slowly away. He was disappointed, but he was
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: not kept waiting long. Soon the man returned, accompanied by another.
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: Bloomberg wants to see you, they said. He did not
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: understand that and shook his head. However, they lifted him
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: from his platform and carried him out of the room.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: They took him up a long series of steps and
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: through dark corridors and into a small room. Here it
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: was cool and light. In the center was a desk,
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: and behind it sat the large man he had seen
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: once before. Set him on the desk here, ordered the
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: large man. Now, little Feller, they tell me you're talking.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: I talk well, well, well, said the large man jovially.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: What'll we talk about now? I'm Bloomberg and I run
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: this circus. Who are you? He understood only the last words,
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: but they were what he was waiting for. I am
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: man of Lawton, he said, carefully. Lawton is world more
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: far from heat Star. What say that again? I not
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: live in your world? In this world? The hell you
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: don't again. He did not understand what the large man
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: meant and looked around helplessly. Then he saw a writing
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: instrument on the desk and picked it up. Bloomberg pushed
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: forward a piece of white paper. Quickly he drew in
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: its center a large circle with lines extending from its circumference.
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: To indicate radiation outside it. He drew four small circles
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: at varying distance from the central one. Hey, Edgar, come here,
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: called Bloomberg. A pale young man who had been sitting
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: in a corner approached the desk, saying yes. He looked
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: pleadingly at the pale young man. He placed his fingertip
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: on the large circle and said heat, star, Sun, said
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: the young man quickly, Son, he repeated, gratefully. Next, he
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: indicated the third little circle from the center. This world,
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: he said, Earth, said the young man, Earth. This world
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: is Earth. Yes, Bloomberg grumbled, What is this a joke?
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: He could not understand. Bloomberg eagerly he looked into the
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: face of the pale young man and indicated the fourth
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: little circle. Mars, said Edgar, Mars, he cried jubilantly. He
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: pointed his finger at himself. I am man of Mars,
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: he said. There was silence in the room while they
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: both stared at him. Then the big man began to laugh.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: His body shook and his red cheeks jumped up and down.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: So you are a Martian, eh, yes, a martian. Bloomberg
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: was still laughing. That ought to go big in the show.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: Ha Edgar. He said, yes, sir, said the young man,
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: if you live on Mars, what are you doing here?
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: The Martian had been expecting this question. They send me
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: away to Earth? Why did they send you away to Earth?
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: End of chapter four recording by Paul Harvey. Chapter five
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: of The Martian by Alan Glasser. This LibriVox recording is
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Recording by Paul Harvey. Blumberg promises
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: the Martian began to speak slowly, carefully. Through long days
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: and nights. He had rehearsed his story, knowing he would
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: have to tell it. The pale young man helped him
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: often it points where he lacked words. He told of
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: the scarcity of water on Mars, of how there was
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: only a little that had to be preserved carefully. Blumberg interrupted,
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: how much water has this chap been drinking? Less than
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: a cup? Sir, in almost ten days, said Edgar. The
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: attendant was telling me. Blumberg grunted, go on, he said.
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: He told of the social order of Mars, of the
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: three great classes, the aristocrats, the scientists, and the workers.
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: The aristocrats, he explained, were the rulers who utilized the
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: knowledge of the scientists and the energy of the workers
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: to build up a state for themselves. He told how
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: once a year the water rushed down the canals from
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: the melting polar ice caps, spreading vegetation over the face
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: of the planet, and of how quickly this precious water disappeared,
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: evaporated by the ever shining sun, until there was none
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: left for the thirsty plants, and they died. Thus, every
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: year the famine was worse on Mars, and more workers died.
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: He told how he and other scientists had wanted to
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: spread oil on the canals to stop evaporation, and of
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: how the aristocrats had forbidden them to do it. He
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: told of the plan he had conceived to control the
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: waters at the head of the canals when the ice
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: melted in the spring, so as to force the aristocrats
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: to come to terms. And finally, he told of the
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: premature discovery of his plan, of their great anger and fear,
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: of their determination to punish him as no man had
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: ever been punished before, of his banishment from the very
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: world in which he lived. There was a long silence.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: When he had finished. At last, Blumber coughed and shook himself.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: That's a fine story, he grumbled, but you left something out.
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: What I want to know is how did you get
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: here in a space traveler? Said the martian. What's that?
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: Carefully laboriously, he described the spaceship With the pencil, he
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: sketched diagram after diagram. Well. The pale young man helped
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: him and labeled them as he directed. The young man
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: was becoming visibly excited. When the martian had finished, he
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: burst out by got it it would it would do it?
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: Look shut up, said Blumberd. The perspiration was standing out
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: in large beads on his forehead. Fellow, he said heavily.
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: If you're lying, you've got one hell of an imagination.
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: You not have space travelers, asked the martian tensely. No,
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: just ships, a travel in air, answered the pale young man.
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: He heard the other's painful ketch of breath and continued quickly.
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: But with these diagrams, it would be easy to shut up, Edgar.
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: Shut up and get out of here, barked the big man.
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: The other turned and left the room without a word.
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: Now look here, fellow said Blumberg. I'm going to take
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: your word for it. I'm probably crazy to believe you,
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: but I've seen most of the funny critters of this
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: world in my time, and I ever seen one like you.
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: So you may come from Mars for all I know.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: The other looked at him eagerly, trying to understand his words.
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: You think I am a man low of Mars. Yes,
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: that's right, the martian quivered with excitement. He held out
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: his arms in a gesture of appeal. You help me, Yes,
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: you help me go to Mars. Blumberg looked down at
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: the desktop and was silent. Yes, and I'll help you,
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: said Blumberg. Suddenly, he stood up and patted the other
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: softly on the head. Sure, you bet. The martian lay
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: upon his back on a leather couch in a small
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: room where they had taken him. His eyes were wide
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: and shining. His hands clenched and opened convulsively. It seemed
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: to him that he had been waiting for days. The
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: door opened and Blumberg entered, followed by a smaller man.
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: As the Martian struggled to his knees to greet him,
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: he spoke heartily, Hello, there, think I wasn't coming, no
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: use being in too much of a hurry. You know,
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: meet doctor Smith. He is a scientist like you. The
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: Martian nodded and smiled at them happily. Doctor Smith looked
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: at him long and curiously. Meanwhile, automatically seating himself in
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: a chair close to the couch, Blumberg, who was pacing
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: the room, cleared his throat. Now look here, he said,
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: I'm willing to help you, but you've got to help
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: me do it. The Martian understood him immediately. Yes, he
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: replied quickly. Yes. Good. Now, Doctor Smith is going to
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: ask you questions about things we need to know. You
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: tell them all you can, Yes, I tell him. Doctor
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: Smith had many questions to ask on many and diverse subjects.
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: At first, communication between the two was very difficult, but
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: both were highly intelligent and understanding men, and before long
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: they became fairly successful in exchanging ideas. Blumberg paced constantly
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: about the room. Occasionally he went out, but always reached
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: earned quickly. The catechism went on for hours and ended
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: only to be resumed early the next day, and so
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: it continued on the following day and on the day after.
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: The Martian was puzzled. They seemed to want to know
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: so many things. Doctor Smith had questioned him on every subject, mechanics, electricity, magnetism, chemistry, colloids, catalysts,
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: transmutation of metals, everything. He feared that they were wasting time,
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: but did not think it proper to object when they
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: were going to so much trouble on his account. Nevertheless,
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: he could not help worrying, And that night, when the
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: pale young man brought him his food, he asked, timidly,
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: do they make the ship? The pale young man looked
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: at the floor, biting his lips. Then he went to
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: the door, opened it and looked out into the hall.
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: He closed the door softly and came near the couch.
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: He looked straight into the martian's eyes. There is no ship,
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: No ship. No. The young man was flushed and angry.
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: He spoke very fast. That fat crook is not helping you,
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: but you are helping him, you bet? Does Does he
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: not think think I am the Martian? Oh? He thinks
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: you're a martian, all right. He knows you are. He's
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: taking out patents already. The other shook his head uncomprehendingly.
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: Don't you see it? Where you come from, they know
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: things that they never even imagined. Here you got knowledge
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: in your head worth millions of dollars. I mean you
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: have facts which are of great value to Blumberg. Why
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: already you told him to make gold out of lead,
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: something very precious from something worthless, and a hundred other things. Besides,
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: he does not care about you. He cares about your knowledge,
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: do you see yes? The young man's anger suddenly bated,
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: and he glanced fearfully at the door. I'm sorry, he said, gruffly,
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: but somebody had to tell you. You won't get any help here.
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: He turned and almost ran from the room. The martian
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: sat perfectly still for a long time. Then he climbed
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: down from the couch and crawled to the door. He
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: reached up and grasped the knob. The young man had
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: left it unlocked, and in a moment he was in
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: the dim hallway. He crawled along, keeping close to the wall,
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: until he came to the top of the stairway. He
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: felt the cool night air on his face. Very slowly,
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: he lowered himself down the stair He came to a
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: wide door leading out into the open. Seated in a
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: chair by this doorway was a man whistling. The Martian
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: waited patiently in the shadows until the man stood up, yawned,
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: and strolled away. Outside. There were high, dark buildings all
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: around him. He found himself in a narrow canyon running
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: between them. He crawled down this canyon to the right,
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: close against the buildings. The paving beneath him was hard
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: and hurt his knees, but he did not stop. Someone
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: was walking towards him. He could not escape being seen.
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: He was near a large light on a pole. He
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: raised his hand in a gesture of greeting. It was
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: a woman. Suddenly she saw him and gasped. Then she
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: screamed piercingly. The sound echoed and re echoed between the
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: high walls of the buildings. Windows and doors banged, footsteps
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: pounded on the pavement. Soon there were many people around him.
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: Some of them were holding the woman. She hung limply
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: in their arms. A man strode into the group, swinging
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: a club and speaking authoritatively. Here, what's the trouble, Move
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: on there. He glanced at the woman. Fainted. Take her
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: to a drug store, somebody, she'll be all right. What's this?
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: He grasped the martian by the arm and raised him
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: to the light. Well, I'm damned. Followed by the curious crowd.
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: He half carried, half dragged his captive along the street,
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: around a corner and through a lighted doorway. He slammed
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: the door shut. Found a freak, your honor, scared a
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: woman half to death. It must have got out of
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: the garden I found on forty ninth Street. The man
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: seated behind the high desk nodded and picked up a telephone.
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: Into this he spoke in a low voice, waited, and
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: then spoke again. Finally, he laid it down and said
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: he is coming over. Hold on to it. He resumed
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: his writing. The martian watched the man writing on the
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: high desk. He thought that this man must be some
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: person of authority, some ruler of the people. Perhaps, after
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: long and painful uncertainty, he nerved himself to speak, Please
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: help me. The man behind the desk looked up and smiled. Yes,
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: that's what we are here for. Only be patient, he said,
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: and returned to his writing. The martian remained quiet. He
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: would not dare disturb the man again, but he kept
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: watching him. Good morning, your Honor. At the sound of
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: the voice, he gave a start of surprise and fear.
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: Blumberg walked towards him, smiling. He struggled and averted his eyes,
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: but his captor held him tightly. Blumberg patted him on
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: the head with his large, soft hand. He trembled. What
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: of yours, said the man behind the high desk. What
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: is the trouble with him? He seems distressed. Blumberg smiled
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: at the other and tapped his own head three times
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: with his finger tip. The other raised his eyebrows. Tell
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: the judge about yourself, said Blumberg softly. He is a
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: great man and he can help you. The martian was
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: surprised that Blumberg and would allow him to speak. He
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: made a desperate effort. I am a native of Mars.
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: Please I must return home. Please help me, I see,
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: said Blumberg. He was laughing. The judge nodded. Can you
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: handle him? He asked. Sure. They get along better with
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: me than in other places. I know how to treat them,
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: and they make a good living. All right, said the judge.
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: Take them along, but don't let me catch him running
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: around the streets again, or you might rate a fine.
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: Don't worry. We're going on the road in a couple
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: of days. Now you won't see him again. Well, good
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: morning to you, Good morning, said the judge. The martian
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: lay face down on the leather couch over him, stood blumbered,
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: breathing hard. With the light cane that he carried, he
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: struck the martian sharply on his frail back. Don't try
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: it again, or you'll get more of that, he said softly.
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: The martian did not move or utter a sound until
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: he heard the door slam. Then he made his way
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: to the table, and, grasping the edge, pulled himself erect.
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: There was something on the table that he wanted. The
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: door opened softly, and the pale young man came in.
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: You should not have tried it, he whispered. The martian
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: pointed to the window over the top of a building
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: lower than its neighbors. A small square patch of sky
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: was visible, and in this patch a few stars twinkled faintly.
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: Is Mars there? He asked. The young man was silent
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: for a moment, looking at the floor and biting his lips.
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: Then yes, he said, as it happens, it is. Mars.
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: Is the brightest of those stars, and the topmost. Thank you,
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: said the martian, You have been very kind to me.
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: The pale young man looked at him and at the table.
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: Then he turned without a word and left the room.
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: The Martian did not take his eyes from the little
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: point of light, but one of his hands reached over
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: the table and grasped a knife which lay there. His
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: eyes still unlatten his home, he plunged the knife into
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: his heart, and the little point of light, while he
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: fixedly watched, it, flickered and died. The end end of
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: Chapter five recording by Paul Harvey. End of The Martian
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: by Ellen Glasser