gy
and nerve currents are of our human life. Animate, moving, sentient
combinations of metal and electric energy."

He said:

"The opening of the Disk from the globe and of the two blasting stars
from the pyramids show the flexibility of the outer--plate would you
call it? I couldn't help thinking of the armadillo after I had time to
think at all."

"It may be"--I struggled against the conviction now strong upon me--"it
may be that within that metallic shell is an organic body, something
soft--animal, as there is within the horny carapace of the turtle, the
nacreous valves of the oyster, the shells of the crustaceans--it may be
that even their inner surface is organic--"

"No," he interrupted, "if there is a body--as we know a body--it must
be between the outer surface and the inner, for the latter is crystal,
jewel hard, impenetrable.

"Goodwin--Ventnor's bullets hit fair. I saw them strike. They did not
ricochet--they dropped dead. Like flies dashed up against a rock--and
the Thing was no more conscious of their striking than a rock would have
been of those flies."

"Drake," I said, "my own conviction is that these creatures are
absolutely metallic, entirely inorganic--incredible, unknown forms. Let
us go on that basis."

"I think so, too," he nodded; "but I wanted you to say it first. And
yet--is it so incredible, Goodwin? What is the definition of vital
intelligence--sentience?

"Haeckel's is the accepted one. Anything which can receive a stimulus,
that can react to a stimulus and retains memory of a stimulus must be
called an intelligent, conscious entity. The gap between what we have
long called the organic and the inorganic is steadily decreasing. Do you
know of the remarkable experiments of Lillie upon various metals?"

"Vaguely," I said.

"Lillie," he went on, "proved that under the electric current and other
exciting mediums metals exhibited practically every reaction of the
human nerve and muscle. It grew weary, rested, and after resting
was perceptibly stronger than before; it got what was practically
indigestion, and it exhibited a peculiar but unmistakable memory. Also,
he found, it could acquire disease and die.

"Lillie concluded that there existed a real metallic consciousness. It
was Le Bon who first proved also that metal is more sensitive than
man, and that its immobility is only apparent. (Le Bon in 'Evolution of
Matter,' Chapter eleven.)

"Take the block of magnetic iron that sta