Read Online The Secret of the Martian Moons by Donald A. Wollheim - Free Book Online
Authors: Donald A. Wollheim
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abandoned track for a railway structure. He mentioned this to Jim, who took the eyepiece and looked himself.
‘‘Yes,” said Worden thoughtfully, “I know that spot. I was there briefly. Its probably one of the oldest cities on Mars, might correspond to an Athens or a Jerusalem in their culture, yet when you are there, it looks as modem as any other. What you can see by eye from the air is often almost invisible or unrecognizable from the ground. Still ... I always intended to go back and spend more time there, for it might have proved profitable. The catacomb structure there is rather more elementary than in most of the cities and might have been the first such, built way back when the Martians first realized their world was drying up. In fact, I remember there were a couple sealed caverns there that our radar screens indicated clearly as museums. Ah, well, we couldn’t break in there any more than we succeeded elsewhere!”
Nelson took back the eyepiece and stared again. “Gee, it would be something to find out the history of that city. I wonder if the Martians wouldn’t be likely to show up there first?”
He stared steadily at the vacant city, but no motion or change rewarded his eye. Jim said, as he watched, “One thing I’m sure of. The Martians were sentimental about themselves. They had museums, they protected their property and homes, just as the ancient Egyptians did. They may have had a religion that held they would return someday after death, but the trouble with that is that, unlike the Egyptians, they simply wouldn't make any pictures or statues of themselves. Not one!”
“Maybe they had a superstitious idea that if aliens looked on their likeness it would somehow hurt then-souls,” said Nelson. “Some backward savages on Earth look on photography that way.”
“Ahh,” murmured Jim, “that would be all very well if the Martians were backward—but they were not!”
Time passed steadily. Even under the strange circumstances routine began to quiet the tension. The Earth was moving ever farther from them, and began to diminish as a brilliant star, to cling closer and closer to the flaming corona of the sun. Drawing ever farther away from Mars, it would soon pass behind the sun, and vanish from the sight of the stranded six for several long months.
As they took their turns at die observation post, they began to expect no changes. They watched but no longer switched back when tricks of their eyes made them imagine a flicker of motion where there had been none. Once McQueen called an alarm, but it turned out that he had seen a brief dust spout occasioned from the bare sand by a rare freak of the red-desert winds.
The seasons of Mars were changing steadily, and Nelson watched the gleaming white polar cap dwindle and the southern polar cap build up. The Earth clung so close to the sun that it could be glimpsed only by straining against the sun's fiery glare, and at last came the moment when the tiny green dot vanished completely from their sky. This was a somber moment for the expedition. For a brief spell they went around silent and thoughtful, feeling more than ever how thoroughly they were cut off from their parent world and all they held dear.
But the observations never ceased. Always two men were out watching, checking, measuring. Jim and Nelse were on duty during a period when Mars was but a quarter crescent with night creeping steadily across its face. On the edge of the daylight portion, the city which Jim had called one of the oldest was in view, and Nelson concentrated his scope upon it. Several times he had returned to this Martian Athens, his mind speculating on the mystery of a history no man might ever learn. His eye moved over its hexagonal buildings, as the shadows of twilight lengthened steadily. He stared down at the circular doorways set in the homes. He looked at the square flat plates in the ground that opened into underground
‘‘Yes,” said Worden thoughtfully, “I know that spot. I was there briefly. Its probably one of the oldest cities on Mars, might correspond to an Athens or a Jerusalem in their culture, yet when you are there, it looks as modem as any other. What you can see by eye from the air is often almost invisible or unrecognizable from the ground. Still ... I always intended to go back and spend more time there, for it might have proved profitable. The catacomb structure there is rather more elementary than in most of the cities and might have been the first such, built way back when the Martians first realized their world was drying up. In fact, I remember there were a couple sealed caverns there that our radar screens indicated clearly as museums. Ah, well, we couldn’t break in there any more than we succeeded elsewhere!”
Nelson took back the eyepiece and stared again. “Gee, it would be something to find out the history of that city. I wonder if the Martians wouldn’t be likely to show up there first?”
He stared steadily at the vacant city, but no motion or change rewarded his eye. Jim said, as he watched, “One thing I’m sure of. The Martians were sentimental about themselves. They had museums, they protected their property and homes, just as the ancient Egyptians did. They may have had a religion that held they would return someday after death, but the trouble with that is that, unlike the Egyptians, they simply wouldn't make any pictures or statues of themselves. Not one!”
“Maybe they had a superstitious idea that if aliens looked on their likeness it would somehow hurt then-souls,” said Nelson. “Some backward savages on Earth look on photography that way.”
“Ahh,” murmured Jim, “that would be all very well if the Martians were backward—but they were not!”
Time passed steadily. Even under the strange circumstances routine began to quiet the tension. The Earth was moving ever farther from them, and began to diminish as a brilliant star, to cling closer and closer to the flaming corona of the sun. Drawing ever farther away from Mars, it would soon pass behind the sun, and vanish from the sight of the stranded six for several long months.
As they took their turns at die observation post, they began to expect no changes. They watched but no longer switched back when tricks of their eyes made them imagine a flicker of motion where there had been none. Once McQueen called an alarm, but it turned out that he had seen a brief dust spout occasioned from the bare sand by a rare freak of the red-desert winds.
The seasons of Mars were changing steadily, and Nelson watched the gleaming white polar cap dwindle and the southern polar cap build up. The Earth clung so close to the sun that it could be glimpsed only by straining against the sun's fiery glare, and at last came the moment when the tiny green dot vanished completely from their sky. This was a somber moment for the expedition. For a brief spell they went around silent and thoughtful, feeling more than ever how thoroughly they were cut off from their parent world and all they held dear.
But the observations never ceased. Always two men were out watching, checking, measuring. Jim and Nelse were on duty during a period when Mars was but a quarter crescent with night creeping steadily across its face. On the edge of the daylight portion, the city which Jim had called one of the oldest was in view, and Nelson concentrated his scope upon it. Several times he had returned to this Martian Athens, his mind speculating on the mystery of a history no man might ever learn. His eye moved over its hexagonal buildings, as the shadows of twilight lengthened steadily. He stared down at the circular doorways set in the homes. He looked at the square flat plates in the ground that opened into underground
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