Page:The Atlantic Monthly Volume 24.djvu/691

1869.] were hemlocks by their shape, and among them were moving to and fro flies? Of course, I cannot see flies ! But something is moving, coming, going. One, two, three, ten ; there are more than thirty in all ! They are men and women and their chil- dren !

Could it be possible ? It was possi- ble ! Orcutt and Brannan and the rest of them had survived that giddy flight through the ether, and were going and coming on the surface of their own lit- tle world, bound to it .by its own at- traction and living by its own laws !

As I watched, I saw one of them leap from that surface. He passed wholly out of my field of vision, but in a minute, more or less, returned. Why not ! Of course, the attraction of his world must be very small, while he retained the same power of muscle he had when he was here. They must be horribly crowded, I thought. No. They had three acres of surface, and there were but thirty-seven of them. Not so much crowded as people are in Rox- bury, not nearly so much as in Boston ; and besides, these people, are living underground, and have the whole of their surface for their exercise.

I watched their every movement as they approached the edge and as they left it. Often they passed beyond it, so that I could see them no more. Often they sheltered themselves from that tropical sun beneath the trees. Think of living on a world where from the -vertical heat of the hottest noon of the equator to the twilight of the poles is a -walk of only fifty paces ! What atmos- phere they had, to temper and diffuse those rays, I could not then conjec- ture.

I knew that at half past ten they would pass into the inevitable eclipse which struck them every night at this period of their orbit, and must, I thought, be a luxury to them, as recall- ing old memories of night when they were on this world. As they approached the line of shadow, some fifteen min- utes before it was due, I counted on the edge thirty-seven specks arranged evidently in order ; and, at one mo- ment, as by one signal, all thirty-seven jumped into the air, high jumps. Again they did it, and again. Then a low jump ; then a high one. I caught the idea in a moment. They were tele- graphing to our world, in the hope of an observer. Long leaps and short leaps, the long and short of Morse's Telegraph Alphabet, were communi- cating ideas. My paper and pencil had been of course before me. I jotted down the despatch, whose language I knew perfectly :

" Show ' I understand ' on the Saw- Mill Flat."

" Show ' I understand ' on the Saw- Mill Flat."

" Show ' I understand ' on the Saw- Mill Flat."

By " I understand " they meant the responsive signal given, in all telegra- phy, by an operator who has received and understood a message.

As soon as this exercise had been three times repeated, they proceeded in a solid body much the most ap- parent object I had had until now to Circle No. 3, and then evidently de- scended into the Moon.

The eclipse soon began, but I knew the Moon's path now, and followed the dusky, coppery spot without difficulty. At 1.33 it Demerged, and in a very few moments I saw the solid column pass from Circle No. 3, again, deploy on the edge again, and repeat three times the signal :

" Show ' I understand ' on the Saw- Mill Flat."

" Show ' I understand ' on the Saw- Mill Flat"

" Show ' I understand ' on the Saw- Mill Flat."

It was clear that Orcutt had known that the edge of his little world would be most easy of observation, and that he had guessed that the moments of ob- scuration and of emersion were the mo- ments when observers would be most careful. After this signal they broke up again, and I could not follow them. With daylight I sent off a despatch to