rocky hill thatbounded it, and as we neared the top, Tweel said, 'No breet', Tick! Nobreet'!' Well, those were the words he used to describe the siliconmonster; they were also the words he had used to tell me that the imageof Fancy Long, the one that had almost lured me to the dream-beast,wasn't real. I remembered that, but it meant nothing to me--then!
"Right after that, Tweel said, 'You one-one-two, he one-one-two,' andthen I began to see. That was the phrase he had used to explain thedream-beast to tell me that what I thought, the creature thought--totell me how the thing lured its victims by their own desires. So Iwarned Leroy; it seemed to me that even the dream-beast couldn't bedangerous if we were warned and expecting it. Well, I was wrong!
"As we reached the crest, Tweel spun his head completely around, so hisfeet were forward but his eyes looked backward, as if he feared to gazeinto the valley. Leroy and I stared out over it, just a gray waste likethis around us, with the gleam of the south polar cap far beyond itssouthern rim. That's what it was one second; the next it was--Paradise!"
"What?" exclaimed the captain.
Jarvis turned to Leroy. "Can you describe it?" he asked.
The biologist waved helpless hands, "_C'est impossible!_" he whispered."_Il me rend muet!_"
"It strikes me dumb, too," muttered Jarvis. "I don't know how to tellit; I'm a chemist, not a poet. Paradise is as good a word as I can thinkof, and that's not at all right. It was Paradise and Hell in one!"
"Will you talk sense?" growled Harrison.
"As much of it as makes sense. I tell you, one moment we were looking ata grey valley covered with blobby plants, and the next--Lord! You can'timagine that next moment! How would you like to see all your dreams madereal? Every desire you'd ever had gratified? Everything you'd everwanted there for the taking?"
"I'd like it fine!" said the captain.
"You're welcome, then!--not only your noble desires, remember! Everygood impulse, yes--but also every nasty little wish, every viciousthought, everything you'd ever desired, good or bad! The dream-beastsare marvelous salesmen, but they lack the moral sense!"
"The dream-beasts?"
"Yes. It was a valley of them. Hundreds, I suppose, maybe thousands.Enough, at any rate, to spread out a complete picture of your desires,even all the forgotten ones that must have been drawn out of thesubconscious. A Paradise--of sorts! I saw a dozen Fancy Longs, in everycostume I'd ever admired on her, and some I must have imagined. I sawevery beautiful woman I've ever known, and all of them pleading for myattention. I saw every lovely place I'd ever wanted to be, all packedqueerly into that little valley. And I saw--other things." He shook hishead soberly. "It wasn't all exactly pretty. Lord! How much of the beastis left in us! I suppose if every man alive could have one look at thatweird valley, and could see just once what nastiness is hidden inhim--well, the world might gain by it. I thanked heaven afterwards thatLeroy--and even Tweel--saw their own pictures and not mine!"
Jarvis paused again, then resumed, "I turned dizzy with a sort ofecstasy. I closed my eyes--and with eyes closed, I still saw the wholething! That beautiful, evil, devilish panorama was in my mind, not myeyes. That's how those fiends work--through the mind. I knew it was thedream-beasts; I didn't need Tweel's wail of 'No breet'! No breet'!'But--_I couldn't keep away!_ I knew it was death beckoning, but it wasworth it for one moment with the vision."
"Which particular vision?" asked Harrison dryly.
Jarvis flushed. "No matter," he said. "But beside me I heard Leroy's cryof 'Yvonne! Yvonne!' and I knew he was trapped like myself. I fought forsanity; I kept telling myself to stop, and all the time I was rushingheadlong into the snare!
"Then something tripped me. Tweel! He had come leaping from behind; as Icrashed down I saw him flash over me straight toward--toward what I'dbeen running to, with his vicious beak pointed right at her heart!"
"Oh!" nodded the captain. "_Her_ heart!"
"Never mind that. When I scrambled up, that particular image was gone,and Tweel was in a twist of black ropey arms, just as when I first sawhim. He'd missed a vital point in the beast's anatomy, but was jabbingaway desperately with his beak.
"Somehow, the spell had lifted, or partially lifted. I wasn't five feetfrom Tweel, and it took a terrific struggle, but I managed to raise myrevolver and put a Boland shell into the beast. Out came a spurt ofhorrible black corruption, drenching Tweel and me--and I guess thesickening smell of it helped to destroy the illusion of that valley ofbeauty. Anyway, we managed to get Leroy away from the devil that hadhim, and the three of us staggered to the ridge and over. I had presenceof mind enough to raise my camera over the crest and take a shot of thevalley, but I'll bet it shows nothing but gray waste and writhinghorrors. What we saw was with our minds, not our eyes."
Jarvis paused and shuddered. "The brute half poisoned Leroy," hecontinued. "We dragged ourselves back to the auxiliary, called you, anddid what we could to treat ourselves. Leroy took a long dose of thecognac that we had with us; we didn't dare try anything of Tweel'sbecause his metabolism is so different from ours that what cured himmight kill us. But the cognac seemed to work, and so, after I'd done oneother thing I wanted to do, we came back here--and that's all."
"All, is it?" queried Harrison. "So you've solved all the mysteries ofMars, eh?"
"Not by a damned sight!" retorted Jarvis. "Plenty of unansweredquestions are left."
"_Ja!_" snapped Putz. "Der evaporation--dot iss shtopped how?"
"In the canals? I wondered about that, too; in those thousands of miles,and against this low air-pressure, you'd think they'd lose a lot. Butthe answer's simple; they float a skin of oil on the water."
Putz nodded, but Harrison cut in. "Here's a puzzler. With only coal andoil--just combustion or electric power--where'd they get the energy tobuild a planet-wide canal system, thousands and thousands of miles of'em? Think of the job we had cutting the Panama Canal to sea level, andthen answer that!"
"Easy!" grinned Jarvis. "Martian gravity and Martian air--that's theanswer. Figure it out: First, the dirt they dug only weighed a third itsearth-weight. Second, a steam engine here expands against ten pounds persquare inch less air pressure than on earth. Third, they could build theengine three times as large here with no greater internal weight. Andfourth, the whole planet's nearly level. Right, Putz?"
The engineer nodded. "_Ja!_ Der shteam--engine--it iss _sieben-undzwanzig_--twenty-seven times so effective here."
"Well, there _does_ go the last mystery then," mused Harrison.
"Yeah?" queried Jarvis sardonically. "You answer these, then. What wasthe nature of that vast empty city? Why do the Martians _need_ canals,since we never saw them eat or drink? Did they really visit the earthbefore the dawn of history, and, if not atomic energy, what poweredtheir ship? Since Tweel's race seems to need little or no water, arethey merely operating the canals for some higher creature that does?_Are_ there other intelligences on Mars? If not, what was thedemon-faced imp we saw with the book? There are a few mysteries foryou!"
"I know one or two more!" growled Harrison, glaring suddenly at littleLeroy. "You and your visions! 'Yvonne!' eh? Your wife's name is Marie,isn't it?"
The little biologist turned crimson. "_Oui_," he admitted unhappily. Heturned pleading eyes on the captain. "Please," he said. "In Paris _toutle monde_--everybody he think differently of those things--no?" Hetwisted uncomfortably. "Please, you will not tell Marie, _n'est-cepas_?"
Harrison chuckled. "None of my business," he said. "One more question,Jarvis. What was the one other thing you did before returning here?"
Jarvis looked diffident. "Oh--that." He hesitated. "Well I sort of feltwe owed Tweel a lot, so after some trouble, we coaxed him into therocket and sailed him out to the wreck of the first one, over on ThyleII. Then," he finished apologetically, "I showed him the atomic blast,got it working--and gave it to him!"
"You _what_?" roared the Captain. "You turned something as powerful asthat over to an alien race--maybe some day as an enemy race?"
"Yes, I did,"
said Jarvis. "Look here," he argued defensively. "Thislousy, dried-up pill of a desert called Mars'll never support much humanpopulation. The Sahara desert is just as good a field for imperialism,and a lot closer to home. So we'll never find Tweel's race enemies. Theonly value we'll find here is commercial trade with the Martians. Thenwhy shouldn't I
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