Page:Amazing Stories Volume 07 Number 08.djvu/58

Rh they may be able to hear what we say and know what we are talking about."

"I don't think there is any doubt of it," Brink declared.

"Do you mean to say that those bozos can understand English."

"Not word for word, of course. But I wouldn't be a bit surprised if they could read our thoughts."

"You mean by mental telepathy or something like that?"

"Yes. Something like that. Take that chap out there in front of our cage, for instance. Doesn't his attitude suggest attention and intelligence?"

"To me, he's just a bowl of applesauce turned upside down."

Even as Sullivan spoke these words, the shapeless heap of jelly elevated itself and swayed in the direction of the two Earth-men.

"See there!" the captain cried. "Doesn't that look as if he understood what we said? Not only that, but I have the most peculiar feeling that he is trying to communicate with us. How about yourself? Don't you have a sort of funny mental impression, such as you have when someone is looking at you from a distance?"

"Now that you mention it, I do have some peculiar mental impressions. Darned if I can interpret them, though."

"I think I can," Brink asserted. "Unless the telepathic signals are haywire, that Titanian out there is trying to ask us where we came from. Just for the fun of it, I'm going to see if I can carry on a conversation with him."

Then, addressing himself to the formless creature who was squatting on the floor, like an enormous wad of chewing gum, Brink said, "We came from Ganymede, my friend. But our original home is on earth."

The Titanian swayed, as if to indicate that it had received the message. Then, without any sound being uttered, Brink imagined that this thought came into his mind. "These are only your own names for these places, oh stranger. Tell me, do you come from a land that is warmed by the same sun as ours, or is this place you call Ganymede in some other system?"

"Did you get what he said, Jimmy?" Brink whispered.

"I think so," Sullivan replied. "He wants to know if we belong in the same solar system as Saturn."

"Those are not the exact words as I got them," Frank told him, "But the thoughts I received were almost identical with yours."

Resuming his "conversation" with the Titanian, he explained: "Ganymede is the largest moon of the largest planet in the solar system. Do you understand now?"

The thought-answer was, "I understand perfectly. And where is this place you call earth?"

"It is a planet—the third one from the sun."

HILE the Titanian was getting ready to propound another query, Brink said, "Listen, Jimmy, I believe I'll turn the tables on that chap and do some questioning on my own hook. Maybe I can pump some valuable information out of him."

"A good idea," Sullivan agreed. "Go to it."

Moving forward a step or two, Brink asked, "Are you a male or a female?"

The Titanian indicated that he did not understand this.

Brink tried to make it clear to him:

"The people on earth, as well as most of the animals that live there, are divided into two sexes. We call them male and female. Both of us in this cell are males. The two persons in that other cage down there are females. Do you comprehend now?"

"Yes," came the answer. "But here we have no sexes."

"Then how do you multiply?"

Although Brink's knowledge of biology helped him to anticipate the reply, he was nevertheless astonished when this message came into his mind: "We propagate by division. Any adult can divide itself into two smaller but complete parts whenever it wishes. Watch me and I'll show you how it is done." And right there, in that public place, the creature squeezed itself in the middle until it looked like two balls of jelly stuck together. Through the transparent substance of the amoeba-man, Brink observed that the greyish nucleus, which he assumed to be the brain, was also cleaving apart. In less than a minute, each of the two separate brain portions had moved to the center of its half of the protoplasmic material and what had before been one organism became two.

"Remarkable!" Brink exclaimed. "And now can you reverse the process? Can you join yourself together again?"

The answer was: "No! That is impossible. Now that I have divided myself, we must remain as two separate individuals. Each of us is now a child, but we will soon grow to maturity."

"Do you ever fight with each other?" Sullivan wanted to know.

"You mean my brother and me?" As this message came through, one of the newly formed entities extended a pseudo-podium and pointed to his companion.

"I mean do any of you Titanians ever fight among yourselves."

"Nothing like that has ever happened so far as we know."

"Don't any of you ever die? Isn't it possible for you to be killed by one of the other inhabitants of this city?"

"I don't see how that could be."

"Isn't there any kind of weapon or projectile or missile that can cause the death of one of you?"

"What you call weapons, such as knives, projectiles and missiles, cannot harm us in the least. There is only one thing of which we are afraid and that is"

Just as a telephone conversation is cut off when the operator pulls out the connecting plug, so the important message which the Titanian was about to impart was interrupted abruptly.

With their bodies trembling in a way that plainly indicated intense fear, the two creatures who had been so accommodating in giving information, slid rapidly out of the building. Their place in front of the cell was taken by another of the amoeba-men. Because of its unusual size, as well as some other individual peculiarities, Brink thought he recognized this one as the Titanian who had inspected them in the first building they had entered.

If you can imagine a shapeless mass of gelatinous protoplasm registering anger, then you will have a clear picture of how that creature looked as it reared up and rocked itself back and forth.

"The old boy seems to be slightly peeved," Sullivan remarked.

From the direction of the Valentine Sister's cage came these softly spoken words, "That's the beast that cut up poor Omar."