like bees and flowers on earth. The flowers give honey forthe bees; the bees carry the pollen for the flowers. See? The barrelstend the works and Tweel's people build the canal system. The Xanthuscity must have been a boosting station; that explains the mysteriousmachines I saw. And Leroy believes further that it isn't an intelligentarrangement--not on the part of the barrels, at least--but that it's beendone for so many thousands of generations that it's becomeinstinctive--a tropism--just like the actions of ants and bees. Thecreatures have been bred to it!"
"Nuts!" observed Harrison. "Let's hear you explain the reason for thatbig empty city, then."
"Sure. Tweel's civilization is decadent, that's the reason. It's a dyingrace, and out of all the millions that must once have lived there,Tweel's couple of hundred companions are the remnant. They're anoutpost, left to tend the source of the water at the polar cap; probablythere are still a few respectable cities left somewhere on the canalsystem, most likely near the tropics. It's the last gasp of a race--anda race that reached a higher peak of culture than Man!"
"Huh?" said Harrison. "Then why are they dying? Lack of water?"
"I don't think so," responded the chemist. "If my guess at the city'sage is right, fifteen thousand years wouldn't make enough difference inthe water supply--nor a hundred thousand, for that matter. It'ssomething else, though the water's doubtless a factor."
"_Das wasser_," cut in Putz. "Vere goes dot?"
"Even a chemist knows that!" scoffed Jarvis. "At least on earth. HereI'm not so sure, but on earth, every time there's a lightning flash, itelectrolyzes some water vapor into hydrogen and oxygen, and then thehydrogen escapes into space, because terrestrial gravitation won't holdit permanently. And every time there's an earthquake, some water is lostto the interior. Slow--but damned certain." He turned to Harrison."Right, Cap?"
"Right," conceded the captain. "But here, of course--no earthquakes, nothunderstorms--the loss must be very slow. Then why is the race dying?"
"The sun-power plant answers that," countered Jarvis. "Lack of fuel!Lack of power! No oil left, no coal left--if Mars ever had aCarboniferous Age--and no water-power--just the driblets of energy theycan get from the sun. That's why they're dying."
"With the limitless energy of the atom?" exploded Harrison.
"They don't know about atomic energy. Probably never did. Must have usedsome other principle in their space-ship."
"Then," snapped the captain, "what makes you rate their intelligenceabove the human? We've finally cracked open the atom!"
"Sure we have. We had a clue, didn't we? Radium and uranium. Do youthink we'd ever have learned how without those elements? We'd never evenhave suspected that atomic energy existed!"
"Well? Haven't they--?"
"No, they haven't. You've told me yourself that Mars has only 73 percentof the earth's density. Even a chemist can see that that means a lack ofheavy metals--no osmium, no uranium, no radium. They didn't have theclue."
"Even so, that doesn't prove they're more advanced than we are. If theywere _more_ advanced, they'd have discovered it anyway."
"Maybe," conceded Jarvis. "I'm not claiming that we don't surpass themin some ways. But in others, they're far ahead of us."
"In what, for instance?"
"Well--socially, for one thing."
"Huh? How do you mean?"
Jarvis glanced in turn at each of the three that faced him. Hehesitated. "I wonder how you chaps will take this," he muttered."Naturally, everybody likes his own system best." He frowned. "Lookhere--on the earth we have three types of society, haven't we? Andthere's a member of each type right here. Putz lives under adictatorship--an autocracy. Leroy's a citizen of the Sixth Commune inFrance. Harrison and I are Americans, members of a democracy. There youare--autocracy, democracy, communism--the three types of terrestrialsocieties. Tweel's people have a different system from any of us."
"Different? What is it?"
"The one no earthly nation has tried. Anarchy!"
"Anarchy!" the captain and Putz burst out together.
"That's right."
"But--" Harrison was sputtering. "What do you mean--they're ahead of us?Anarchy! Bah!"
"All right--bah!" retorted Jarvis. "I'm not saying it would work for us,or for any race of men. But it works for them."
"But--anarchy!" The captain was indignant.
"Well, when you come right down to it," argued Jarvis defensively,"anarchy is the ideal form of government, if it works. Emerson said thatthe best government was that which governs least, and so did WendellPhillips, and I think George Washington. And you can't have any form ofgovernment which governs less than anarchy, which is no government atall!"
The captain was sputtering. "But--it's unnatural! Even savage tribeshave their chiefs! Even a pack of wolves has its leader!"
"Well," retorted Jarvis defiantly, "that only proves that government isa primitive device, doesn't it? With a perfect race you wouldn't need itat all; government is a confession of weakness, isn't it? It's aconfession that part of the people won't cooperate with the rest andthat you need laws to restrain those individuals which a psychologistcalls anti-social. If there were no anti-social persons--criminals andsuch--you wouldn't need laws or police, would you?"
"But government! You'd need government! How about publicworks--wars--taxes?"
"No wars on Mars, in spite of being named after the War God. No point inwars here; the population is too thin and too scattered, and besides, ittakes the help of every single community to keep the canal systemfunctioning. No taxes because, apparently, all individuals cooperate inbuilding public works. No competition to cause trouble, because anybodycan help himself to anything. As I said, with a perfect race governmentis entirely unnecessary."
"And do you consider the Martians a perfect race?" asked the captaingrimly.
"Not at all! But they've existed so much longer than man that they'reevolved, socially at least, to the point where they don't needgovernment. They work together, that's all." Jarvis paused. "Queer,isn't it--as if Mother Nature were carrying on two experiments, one athome and one on Mars. On earth it's trial of an emotional, highlycompetitive race in a world of plenty; here it's the trial of a quiet,friendly race on a desert, unproductive, and inhospitable world.Everything here makes for cooperation. Why, there isn't even the factorthat causes so much trouble at home--sex!"
"Huh?"
"Yeah: Tweel's people reproduce just like the barrels in the mud cities;two individuals grow a third one between them. Another proof of Leroy'stheory that Martian life is neither animal nor vegetable. Besides, Tweelwas a good enough host to let him poke down his beak and twiddle hisfeathers, and the examination convinced Leroy."
"_Oui_," confirmed the biologist. "It is true."
"But anarchy!" grumbled Harrison disgustedly. "It would show up on adizzy, half-dead pill like Mars!"
"It'll be a good many centuries before you'll have to worry about it onearth," grinned Jarvis. He resumed his narrative.
"Well, we wandered through that sepulchral city, taking pictures ofeverything. And then--" Jarvis paused and shuddered--"then I took anotion to have a look at that valley we'd spotted from the rocket. Idon't know why. But when we tried to steer Tweel in that direction, heset up such a squawking and screeching that I thought he'd gone batty."
"If possible!" jeered Harrison.
"So we started over there without him; he kept wailing and screaming,'No-no-no! Tick!' but that made us the more curious. He sailed over ourheads and stuck on his beak, and went through a dozen other antics, butwe ploughed on, and finally he gave up and trudged disconsolately alongwith us.
"The valley wasn't more than a mile southeast of the city. Tweel couldhave covered the distance in twenty jumps, but he lagged and loiteredand kept pointing back at the city and wailing 'No--no--no!' Then he'dsail up into the air and zip down on his beak directly in front of us,and we'd have to walk around him. I'd seen him do lots of crazy thingsbefore, of course; I was used to them, but it was as plain as print t
hathe didn't want us to see that valley."
"Why?" queried Harrison.
"You asked why we came back like tramps," said Jarvis with a faintshudder. "You'll learn. We plugged along up a low
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