Amazing Stories — page 86: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Ay pa flat foot. eand = ages “Baron Man Sie chhausen’ S SSCIENTINE Aventures By HUGO GERNSBACK (Continued from page 47) dicted the existence of a new planet, Sp apeune, which no one had ever seen before.* “The Martian that I was gaping at, who was standing nearest to me, was between eight and nine feet tall, a veritable giant. He had an immense head with a straight forehead, at least seven inches high. His light blue eyes were about two inches in diameter and placed close together; moreover, they had a marvelously intelligent, as well as keen look in them, impossible to describe. Their hypnotic gaze held one spellbound and seemed to go clear through you. “The long thin nose was enormous, but harmon- ized well with the rest of the face; the complexion was somewhat brown, The large ears stood out straight and looked like enormous oyster shells, with the inside turned towards me, However, what caught my eye particularly was the strange ‘caps’ all Mar- tians wore. These caps looked as if they were made of a flexible metal. Irom their back dangled what I thought to be a flexible metal wire. We were soon to know their purpose. “The chest, or rather the torso of the Martians, was simply out of all proportion to the rest of the body. [t was enormous, and made him look strangely top-heavy. His arms appeared thin and emaciated, as did his legs. His hands had each two thumbs and four fingers, the extra thumb being between the thumb and index finger, as compared to the human hand. The hand itself was very small; in fact, it looked much like an Earth woman's hand, “The feet were almost circular in shape and meas- ured at least 18 inches in diameter. The base looked very much like an elephant’s foot, although the ankle was rather small and graceful, as compared to the big The outside of the Martian’s dress glis- tened strangely in the sunlight, and I felt sure that it must be made of a flexible metal, unknown to us. It fitted rather loosely and did not appear to have much style. The upper part of the body was en- closed in a sort of blouse, such as our young boys wear on [arth. The trousers looked like knickers, except that they extended down to the ankles, “While we were still gazing enraptured at these strange, marvelous beings, we suddenly became con- scious that our brains were being filled with a won- derful sort of music which seemed to originate inside our heads, Instantly, the Martians who had _ stood around in a haphazard manner, formed a lane, the center of which was formed by ourselves. At the one end we now perceived a colossal, bewildering structure with a church-like appearance, which seemed to turn around slowly on its axis. When its ponderous portals, measuring at least 200 feet in height, had swung around so that they pointed in our direction, the structure ceased revolving. Immedi- ately the portals slid back and out stepped a dis- tinguished looking Martian, taller even than his brothers. He was dressed like them, except that his metallic cap appeared yellow in color. “At a gesture, two Martians stepped toward us and, taking off our headgear, replaced them with the soft metallic caps. By this time the distinguished looking Martian had come up close to us and stood still, only five feet away. He next placed the tips of the fingers of both hands to his temples, which we took to be a salute. We hastened to respond likewise, but we must have executed the motion poorly, for a faint, rather amused smile flitted over the brownish features of the august Martian. Then he turned around and some attendants bade us with a motion to follow the chief, which we did. He then entered the church-like structure and we fol- lowed him deferentially, “Well, Alier, my boy, I guess the telegraphone wire must be almost full by this time. So I guess I will have to close for today. Now don’t forget to listen in tomorrow night, for there’s a lot to be said about this wonderful planet. Good-night .. .” A low, rhythmic hum for a few seconds, then click, click-click-click, click, a snapping sound and the ether between the Moon and old mother Earth was undisturbed once more. * Jean Joseph Leverrier, a French astronomer, on August 31, 1846, ina paper to the Ecole Polytechnique, declared that he had computed the orbit of a supposed new planet still further removed than Uranius, which was then thought to be the last planet in the solar system. Not only did Leverrier predict the new planet, but he predicted it to be a star of the eighth magnitude. Most wonderful of all, however, he actually indicated where this new planet should be located in the heavens, and he asked that astronomers should look for it there. This, Galle, of the Berlin Observatory, did on September 23, of the same year, and he found the new planet within less than 1° from the spot indicated by Leverrier, who had never seen the planet himself. Leverrier had based his scientific prophecy upon certain observed irregularities of the planet Uranius, although Neptune is 2.654, 560, 000 miles away from the earth—an enormous distance, (To be continued next month) for September and October, 1927. tion department. Thank you, WANTED | The publishers need a quantity of back numbers of AMAZING STORIES ‘If you have copies of these issues, please communicate with the circula- _ THE PUBLISHERS.