Page:A thousand years hence. Being personal experiences (IA thousandyearshen00gree).djvu/291

 "pointer." While all were wistfully gazing at this phenomenon, a voice suddenly electrified the assembly with the suggestion that this play of light was no other than the energy-waste of transmitted speech, which we were as yet unable to deal with. The suggestion proved to be correct. We were unable, just then, to transfer the ether vibration to the air, and thus to hear the transmitted sounds.

But, first of all, we must ascertain whence the voice had come, and this was happily quite within our power. Alike by the direction, and by the time interval of our response signal, we could not doubt that the message was from Venus, that planet being then comparatively near to us, and situated in her orbit just opposite to where the message line had struck our earth, showing, in this latter fact, a wonderful and doubtless long-practised precision of calculated aim. We were quite aware that our act of response to the Venus message would at once indicate to the Venus people the fact of our having attained to the scientific stage of the duplication. We were already, in fact, in electro-light line connection with that world, and it was now for us to wait upon, and learn from, our confessed superior. We were soon indeed aware, from the changed behaviour of the pointer, that our responsive action had been duly apprehended; for, at once, there began that small but steady and uniform energy stream, which would prove the easiest of transfer from ether to air. We were not altogether unprepared for this transfer operation, but of course we had never dealt, in that respect, with an outside message. But, after half an hour's various blundering, we were at length aware