The knowledge had not been given to me that I should guard it
selfishly. The hope that, even though I could never call Zarlah my own,
I might often spend a few happy hours with her in her Martian paradise
was now shattered forever. I must stifle my love or commit a crime
against every living soul on Earth; and as I paced my room in agony,
with my hands pressed to my temples to ease their throbbing, a great cry
of anguish from the multitude in Death's grasp rang through my brain. My
heart was torn asunder by two great conflicting emotions, Love and Duty,
and in this torture of mind and body I moved restlessly back and forth
in my room, until the fading light warned me of the near approach of
wave contact with Mars.
There was but one course open to me; I would tell Almos of my experience
with the rays, and if he should decide that they were the same as the
regenerating rays, possessing all their properties, and that continual
life was now within reach of the people on Earth, I would make my
discovery public on the morrow. This would be my solemn duty, no matter
what sacrifice it involved, and I could not help feeling that this
second visit to Mars might be the last.
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