The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1902-01-09

s-sos
hidden feelings, while his inquisitive
nose stood forth in the midst Of their
ceaseless play like perpetual interro-
CATION point that would have electrified
the sphinx into life and set its stone
lips Cabling answers and explanations
The girl looked on, partly astonisbed,
partly amused and partly comprehend
ing Sometimes she smiled, and then
the beauty Of her face became most cap
tivating. OCCASIONALLY she burst into
CHEEKY laugh when the professor was
executing some of his extraordinary
gyrations before her
1t WAS a marvellous exhibition of what
the human intellect, when all its pow
ers are concentrated upon single OBJ
ject, is capable of achieving. 1t seemed
to me, as | looked at the performance,
that if all the races of men who had
been stricken asunder at the foot of the
tower OF Babel by the miracle which
made the tongues of each to speak a
language unknown to the others could be
brought together again at the foot of the
same tower, with all the advantages
which thousands of years of education
had in the meantime impaired to them,
they Would be able, without any mira
Gle, to make themselves mutually I'M
derstood
And it was evident that an under.
standing was actually growing between
the girl and the professor Their minds
were plainly meeting, and when both
had become focused upon the same point
it was perfectly certain that the object
of the experiment would be attained
Whenever the professor got from the
girl an intelligent reply to his panto-
mimic inquiries or whenever he believed
that he got such reply it was immedi-
ately jotted down in the ever open note
book which he carried in his hand
And then he would turn to us, stand
ing by, and with one hand on his heart
and the other sweeping grandly through
the air, would make profound bow
and say
1.-THE young lady and great progress
make already. | have her words COM
pretended We shall wondrous mystic
ries solve. Jawohl Wunderlich Make
yourselves, gentlemen, easy. OF the
human race the ancestral stem have |
here discovered -
Once | glanced over a page of his
notebook, and there l read this:
Mars-Zahmor
"Copper--Hayez
"Sword---Anz.
81 jump-Aitesna.
81 slay--Amontha.
&C cut off a head-Ksutaskofa
81 sleep--Zicha.
81 LevZa."
When | saw this last entry, / looked
suspiciously at the professor.
Was he trying to make love without
our knowing it to the beautiful captive
from Mars?
II so, | felt certain that he would get
himself into difficulty. She had made
a deep impression upon every man in
the flagship, and knew that there was
more than one Of the younger men who
would have promptly called him to ac-
count if they had suspected him of try
ing to learn from those beautiful lips
the words, II love. ="
pictured to myself the state of mind
of Colonel Alonzo Jefferson Smith if in
my place he had glanced over the note
book and read what had read
And then | thought of another hand
some young fellow in the flagship-Syd-
uey Phillips-who, if mere actions and
looks could make him so, had become
exceedingly devoted to this long lost
and happily recovered daughter of Eve.
In fact, / had already questioned
within my own mind whether the peace
would be strictly kept between Colonel
Smith and Mr.. Phillips, for the former
had, to my knowledge, noticed the
young fellows adoring chances and had
begun to regard him out of the corners
OF his eyes as if he considered him no
better than an Apache or a Mexican
Greaser.
But what, l asked myself, "would
be the vengeance that Colonel Smith
would take upon this skinny professor
from Heidelberg if he thought that he,
taking advantage of his linguistic pow
ers, had stepped in between him and
the damsel whom he had rescued?''
bONoNcI, Wutu L tOOk second look
at the professor l became convinced
that he was innocent of any such amor
Gus Intentions aud that he had learned,
or believed he had learned, the word
for love- simply in pursuance of the
method by which he meant to acquire
the language of the girl.
There was one thing which gave some
of us considerable misgiving, and that
was the question whether after all the
language the professor was acquiring
was really the girls own tongue or one
that she had learned from the Martians
But the professor babe us rest easy on
that point. He assured us, in the first
place, that this girl could not be the
only human being living upon Mars
but that she must have friends and rela-
tlyes there. That being so, they unaues-
tionably had language of their own,
which they spoke when they were
among themselves. Here, finding herself
among beings belonging to her own
race, she would naturally speak her
own tongue and not that which she had
acquired from the Martians
Moreover, gentlemen" he added.
n So l..... 4