'Why do you smile?' inquired a member of the board. 'Does death seem an amusing thing to you? Or do you smile because you expect to escape death through some ruse?'
'I smile,' I replied, 'when perhaps I should weep—weep at the thought of all the toil and knowledge and energy that were wasted to transport me twenty-six million miles just to die because five men of another world believe that I have inherited some bad genes.'
'Twenty-six million miles!' exclaimed a member of the board; and a second:
'Another world! What do you mean?'
'I mean that I came here from another world twenty-six million miles from Amtor,' I replied. 'A world much further advanced in some respects than yours.'
The members of the board stared at each other. I heard one of them remark to another: 'This bears out the theory that many of us have long held.'
'Most interesting, and not improbable,' said another.'
'You say that Amtor is not the only world?' demanded Kantum Shogan; 'that there is another?'
'The heavens are filled with countless worlds,' I replied. 'Your world and mine and at least eight other worlds revolve around a great ball of flaming gases that we call a sun, and this sun with its worlds or planets is called a solar system. The illimitable void of the heavens is starred with countless other suns, many of which are the centers of other solar systems; and no man knows how many worlds there are.'
'Wait!' said Kantum Shogan. 'You have said enough to suggest that our examination of you may have been faulty in that it presumed that we possessed the sum total of available human knowledge. Now it appears that you may possess knowledge of such vast importance as to outweigh the biological inadequacies inherent in you.
'We shall question you further upon the subject of this theory which you have propounded, and in the meantime the execution of our sentence is postponed. Our final decision as to your future will depend upon the outcome of this further questioning. Science may ignore no possible source of knowledge, and if your theory is sound and opens a new field to science, you shall be free to enjoy Havatoo for life; nor shall you go unhonored.'
Although I had graduated with honors from a college of high scholastic standing I realized as I stood in the presence of these super-men of science that what Kantum Shogan had said to me was true. By comparison with them I was poorly trained and uncultured—my degrees meaningless, my diploma a mere scrap of paper. Yet in one field of science I surpassed them, and as I explained the solar system and drew diagrams of it for them I saw the keen interest and the ready understanding with which they grasped all I said.
Now, for the first time, they were listening to an explanation of the phenomena of the transition from day to night and from night to day, of the seasons, of the tides. Their vision restricted by the cloud envelopes that constantly enshroud Venus, they had been able to see nothing upon which to base a planetary theory; and so it is not strange that astronomy was an unknown science to them, that the sun and the stars did not exist insofar as they were concerned.
* * * * *
For four hours they listened to me and questioned me; then they instructed Ero Shan and Herlak to withdraw to an anteroom with me and wait there until we were again summoned.
We did not have long to wait. In less than fifteen minutes we were recalled before the board.
'It is our unanimous opinion,' announced Kantum Shogan, 'that your value of humanity far outweighs the danger that it incurs from your inherited defects. You are to live and enjoy the freedom of Havatoo. Your duties will consist of instructing others in that new science which you call astronomy and in applying it for the welfare of humanity.
'As you are now the only member of your class you may live in any section of the city you choose. Your requisitions for all that you require for your personal needs and the advancement of your department will be honored by the Sera Tartum.
'For the time being I recommend you to the guidance of Korgan Sentar Ero Shan as you are a stranger to Havatoo and will wish to become familiar with our customs and our manners.'
With that he dismissed us.
'Before I go may I ask what is to become of the girl, Nalte, who was taken with me yesterday?' I inquired.
'She was considered fit to remain in the yorgan section of Havatoo,' he replied. 'When her duties have been definitely determined and her living quarters assigned her I will let you know where you may find her.'
It was with a feeling of relief that I left the Sera Tartum with Ero Shan and Herlak. Nalte was safe, and so was I. Now if I could only find Duare!
I spent the following several days familiarizing myself with the city and purchasing such things as I required, an of which were suggested by Ero Shan. Among them was a car. It was very easy—all I had to do was sign a voucher.
'But what check have they on my expenditures?' I asked my friend. 'I do not even know how much has been placed to my credit.'
'Why should they check what you spend?' he asked.
'But I might be dishonest. I might buy things for which I had no need and resell them.'
Ero Shan laughed. 'They know you will not do that,' he assured me. 'If the psychologist who examined you had not known that you are an honorable man, not even your knowledge of astronomy would have saved you; that is one vice we will not tolerate in Havatoo. When Mankar destroyed the corrupt and the vicious he almost completely eradicated the breeds in Havatoo, and during the many generations of men that have followed him we have succeeded in completing the work he inaugurated. There are no dishonest men in Havatoo.'
I often talked with Ero Shan about Duare. I wanted to cross the river to Kormor and search for her, but he convinced me that it would be suicidal to attempt it. And in view of the fact that I had no reason to believe that she was there I reluctantly put the idea away from me.
'If I had an airplane,' I said, 'I would find a way to search Kormor.'
'What is an airplane?' asked Ero Shan, and when I explained it he became very much interested, as flying has never been developed in Amtor, at least in those portions with which I am familiar.
The idea intrigued my companion to such an extent that he could scarcely talk to anything else. I explained the various types of both heavier and lighter than air ships and described the rocket in which I had traversed space from Earth to Venus. In the evening he had me sketch the several types I had explained. His interest seemed to be becoming an obsession.
One evening when I returned to the house I now shared with Ero Shan I found a message awaiting me. It was from an under-clerk of the board of examiners and it gave the address of the house in which Nalte lived.
As I was now familiar with the city I started out in my car after the evening meal to visit Nalte. I went alone as Ero Shan had another engagement.
I found the house in which Nalte lived in the yorgan section of a quiet street not far from the Korgan Lat. the Avenue of Warriors. The house was occupied by women who cleaned the preparatory schools on the Korgan Lat. nearby. One of their number admitted me and said that she would call Nalte; then she conducted me to a living room in which were eight or ten women. One of them was playing a musical instrument, the others were painting, embroidering, or reading.
As I entered, they stopped what they were doing and greeted me pleasantly. There was not one among them that was not beautiful, and all were intelligent and cultured. These were the scrub women of Havatoo! Breeding had done for the people of Havatoo what it has done for our prize-winning dairy herds; it has advanced them all toward perfection.
Nalte was glad to see me, and as I wished to visit with her alone I asked her to come for a ride with me.
'I am glad that you passed your examination successfully,' I said as we started toward the Korgan Lat.
Nalte laughed joyously. 'I just squeezed through,' she admitted. 'I wonder what they would say back in Andoo if they knew that I, the daughter of their jong, was considered fit only to scrub floors in Havatoo!' and again she laughed happily. It was plain to be seen that her pride had not suffered by reason of her assignment. 'But after all,' she continued, 'it is a high honor to be considered fit to remain on any footing among such a race of super- men.
'And you! I am very proud of you, Carson Napier, for I have been told that you were elevated to a high place
