Yet here he was, apparently on terms of confidence
with her whom we had regarded as our only sure friend.
"Hang him!" exclaimed Jack. "There he is! By Jo, if Edmund had only
invented a noiseless gun of forty million atom power, I'd rid Venus of
_him_, in the two-billionth part of a second!"
"Keep quiet," said Edmund, sternly, "and remember what I now tell you; in
no way, by look or act, is any one of us to indicate to him the slightest
resentment for what he did. Ignore him, as if you had never seen him."
By this time the car had nearly touched the landing. Edmund stepped
inside a moment and brought it completely to rest, anchoring it, as he
whispered to me, by "atomic attraction." When the throng on the tower saw
the car stop dead still, just in contact with the landing, but manifestly
supported by nothing but the air--no wings, no aeroplanes, no screws, no
mechanism of any kind visible--there arose the first _voice of a crowd_
that we had heard on the planet. It fairly made me jump, so unexpected,
and so contrary to all that we had hitherto observed, was the sound. And
this multitudinous voice itself had a quality, or timbre, that was unlike
any sound that had ever entered my ears.
Pages:
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279