Red Planet Read Online Free PDF Page B

slope at a good clip.
    Jim ran after him, shouting, ‘Hey, Willis!’
    The Martian stopped and exchanged a couple of remarks with Willis; the bouncer called out, ‘Jim wait.’
    'Tell him to put you down.’
    'Willis fine. Jim wait.’ The Martian started up again at a pace that Jim could not possibly match. Jim went disconsolately back to the start of the ramp and sat down on the ledge thereof.
    'What are you going to do?’ demanded Frank.
    'Wait, I suppose. What else can I do? What are you going to do?’
    'Oh, I'll stick. But I'm not going to miss the scooter.’
    'Well, neither am I. We couldn't stay here after sundown anyhow.’
    The precipitous drop in temperature at sunset on Mars is almost all the weather there is, but it means death by freezing for an Earth human unless he is specially clothed and continuously exercising.
    They sat and waited and watched spin bugs skitter past. One stopped by Jim's knee, a little tripod of a creature, less than an inch high; it appeared to study him. He touched it; it flung out its limbs and whirled away. The boys were not even alert, since a water-seeker will not come close to a Martian settlement; they simply waited.
    Perhaps a half hour later the Martian—or, at least, a Martian of the same size—came back. He did not have Willis with him. Jim's face fell. But the Martian said, ‘Come with me,’ in his own tongue, prefacing the remark with the question symbol.
    'Do we or don't we?’ asked Frank.
    'We do. Tell him so.’ Frank complied. The three started down. The Martian laid a great hand flap on the shoulders of each boy and herded him along. Shortly he stopped and picked them up. This time they made no objection.
    The tunnel seemed to remain in full daylight even after they had penetrated several hundred yards underground. The light came from everywhere but especially from the ceiling. The tunnel was large by human standards but no more than comfortably roomy for Martians. They passed several other natives; if another was moving their host always boomed a greeting, but if he was frozen in the characteristic trance-like immobility no sound was made.
    Once their guide stepped over a ball about three feet in diameter. Jim could not make out what it was at first, then he did a double-take and was still more puzzled. He twisted his neck and looked back at it. It couldn't be— but it was!
    He was gazing at something few humans ever see, and no human ever wants to see: a Martian folded and rolled into a ball, his hand flaps covering everything but his curved back. Martians—modern, civilized Martians—do not hibernate, but at some time remote eons in the past their ancestors must have done so, for they are still articulated so that they can assume the proper, heat-conserving, moisture-conserving globular shape, if they wish.
    They hardly ever so wish.
    For a Martian to roll up is the moral equivalent of an Earthly duel to the death and is resorted to only when that Martian is offended so completely that nothing less will suffice. It means: I cast you out, I leave your world, I deny your existence.
    The first pioneers on Mars did not understand this, and, through ignorance of Martian values, offended more than once. This delayed human colonization of Mars by many years; it took the most skilled diplomats and semanticians of Earth to repair the unwitting harm. Jim stared unbelievingly at the withdrawn Martian and wondered what could possibly have caused him to do that to an entire city. He remembered a grisly tale told him by Doctor MacRae concerning the second expedition to Mars. ‘So this dumb fool,’ the doctor had said, ‘a medical lieutenant he was, though I hate to admit it—this idiot grabs hold of the beggar's flaps and tries to unroll him. Then it happened.’
    'What happened?’ Jim had demanded.
    'He disappeared.’
    'The Martian?’
    'No, the medical officer.’
    'Huh? How did he disappear?’
    'Don't ask me; I didn't see it. The witnesses—four of ‘em, with