made a sweeping gesture, as
of benediction.

"Toma annerson!" His voice rang out like the clear note of a bell,
filling that vast auditorium. In a great wave, the assembled people
seated themselves, and sat watching us, silent and motionless.

* * * * *

Artur walked to the edge of the dais, and stood for a moment as though
lost in thought. Then he spoke, not in the language which I understood,
but in a melodious tongue which was utterly strange. His voice was
grave and tender; he spoke with a degree of feeling which stirred me
even though I understood no word that he spoke. Now and again I heard
one recognizable sequence of syllables, that now familiar phrase, "toma
annerson."

"Wonder what that means, sir?" whispered Hendricks. "'Toma annerson?'
Something very special, from the way he brings it out. And do you know
what we are here for, and what all this means?"

"No," I admitted. "I have some ideas, but they're too wild for
utterance. We'll just go slow, and take things as they come."

As I spoke, Artur concluded his speech, and turned to us.

"John Hanson," he said softly, "our people would hear your voice."

"But--but what am I to say?" I stammered. "I don't speak their
language."

"It will be enough," he muttered, "that they have heard your voice."

He stood aside, and there was nothing for me to do but walk to the edge
of the platform, as he had done, and speak.

My own voice, in that hushed silence, frightened me. I would not have
believed that so great a gathering could maintain such utter, deathly
silence. I stammered like a school-child reciting for the first time
before his class.

"People of Strobus," I said--this is as nearly as I remember it, and
perhaps my actual words were even less intelligent--"we are glad to be
here. The welcome accorded us overwhelms us. We have come ... we have
come from worlds like your own, and ... and we have never seen a more
beautiful one. Nor more kindly people. We like you, and we hope that
you will like us. We won't be here long, anyway. I thank you!"

* * * * *

I was perspiring and red-faced by the time I finished, and I caught
Hendricks in the very act of grinning at his commander's discomfiture.
One black scowl wiped that grin off so quickly, however, that I thought
I must have imagined it.

"How was that, Artur?" I asked. "All right?"

"Your words were good to hear, Jo