ried Leroy.

"How do I know? How does a snake back on earth charm a bird into its
very jaws? And aren't there deep-sea fish that lure their victims into
their mouths? Lord!" Jarvis shuddered. "Do you see how insidious the
monster is? We're warned now--but henceforth we can't trust even our
eyes. You might see me--I might see one of you--and back of it may be
nothing but another of those black horrors!"

"How'd your friend know?" asked the captain abruptly.

"Tweel? I wonder! Perhaps he was thinking of something that couldn't
possibly have interested me, and when I started to run, he realized
that I saw something different and was warned. Or perhaps the
dream-beast can only project a single vision, and Tweel saw what I
saw--or nothing. I couldn't ask him. But it's just another proof that
his intelligence is equal to ours or greater."

"He's daffy, I tell you!" said Harrison. "What makes you think his
intellect ranks with the human?"

"Plenty of things! First, the pyramid-beast. He hadn't seen one before;
he said as much. Yet he recognized it as a dead-alive automaton of
silicon."

"He could have heard of it," objected Harrison. "He lives around here,
you know."

"Well how about the language? I couldn't pick up a single idea of his
and he learned six or seven words of mine. And do you realize what
complex ideas he put over with no more than those six or seven words?
The pyramid-monster--the dream-beast! In a single phrase he told me that
one was a harmless automaton and the other a deadly hypnotist. What
about that?"

"Huh!" said the captain.

"_Huh_ if you wish! Could you have done it knowing only six words of
English? Could you go even further, as Tweel did, and tell me that
another creature was of a sort of intelligence so different from ours
that understanding was impossible--even more impossible than that
between Tweel and me?"

"Eh? What was that?"

"Later. The point I'm making is that Tweel and his race are worthy of
our friendship. Somewhere on Mars--and you'll find I'm right--is a
civilization and culture equal to ours, and maybe more than equal. And
communication is possible between them and us; Tweel proves that. It may
take years of patient trial, for their minds are alien, but less alien
than the next minds we encountered--if they _are_ minds."

"The next ones? What next ones?"

"The people of the mud cities along the canals." Jarvis frowned, then
resumed his narrative. "I thought the dream-