Carrizozo outlook. [volume] (Carrizozo, N.M.) 1910-1945, 1918-01-18

Wouldn't the time come when they,
too, would feel the impulse TO migrate
into the sum-"
mo, Mastermnn. Their breathing"
II know what you're going to say,
lieutenant. You're going to tell me
that, even II they could breathe air,
they couldn't live when the pressure
OF those miles Of ocean was removed.
But suppose nature has been busy
preparing for the change during thou
sands OF years. while she has been
modifying their gllls into lungs, as
she worked on the brontosaurs. That's
how nature works-quletly. softly, Sc
cretly, till she's ready to launch her
thunderbolt.
Suppose n second human swarm.
mans poor cousins, IL getting ready
to overrun the earth, and put down
man from his throne. Suppose the
7 any swarms OF monkey-men, white,
yellow and black. that crawl upon the
face OF the globe and imagine them
selves its owners, ARE going to be OBJ
liberated, not FROM Mars or Venus, but
out OF the enrth's own vltals |"
Captain Mastermnn sat bolt upright
as he spoke; he looked like some old
prophet spelling out the doom OF man.
The intense earnestness In his words
shook paget's %lncredullty for n mo-
ment, and left him sick with horror.
suppose that civilization, every
thing which has gone to make up the
life we know-fnmlly love, books,
monuments, pnrliaments, shlps-ail OF
II Is to be ut the mercy OF this MGR
clless horde. and that we are going
to fight harder than we have fought
since the days when we held our own
against the saber.toothl Who'd think
or care then whether he wns an Eng
llshman or u Dutchman who'd trouble
whether his friends were white men,
negroes, Hottentots or Chinese, SO
long as they were human? Wouldn't
that make for the brotherhood OF man,
Donald7 Wouldn't we set all our con.
vlcts free7 Wouldn't kings shake
hands with anarchists and college pro-
fessors with coal heavers7 Wouldn't
class and race vanish like dreams
when the nights over7 And maybe
that's what Gods working for. lieu
tenant !"
"But the lmposslblllty, Mastcrmnn
Granting the incredible s%upposltlon
that these deep.sen organisms exist,
and could live under n pressure enor-
mously increased, and breathe"
Were supposlng that, lieutenant"
How could they survive the strug-
gle for existence In an unnatural ele-
mentf"
Lieutenant, man has existed since
tertiary times, but he never learned
TO fly till 1908. lie never went up In
n balloon until a hundred and fifty
years ago. Our lm%aglnntlons can't
rise to the realization of whit this
generation has done, but our descend
ants will look ON us as demigods, and
the Wright brothers will become
myths, like that chap that invented
cooking, Prom-Prom-1"
"Prometheus."
Eyes, sir. Well, then, after living
for thousands OF years at the bottom
OF five miles OF air, an ocean OF oxy-
gen and nitrogen, we've found out how
to get up on top OF Il. They are llv-
Ing at the bottom OF an ocean OF oxy-
gen and hydrogen. Suppose they
learned to fly, tool
"You can see what they'd do. Some
OF their scouts, who had gone on
ahead, would discover that the dry
land was teemlng with food. Food In
such quantities MS these hungry mon.
stcrs had dreamed about. Food
in solid chunks, instead OF dissolved
particles Of plnnkton, varied with nm
occasional cnnnibal dinner. And light
by which TO capture lt-sunllght No
more hunting down their prey with
phosphoresccnt tOrchesl
AT first they'd nlbble the grass and
leaves OF the trees. But they'd find
that cellulose Is pretty lndlgestlble
stun. Then n OF them would dis
cover n dead bird or rabbit, and nn.
other that sheep and cattle nuke good
eating, and then"
"Then manr' muttered Donald,
gripping the arms Of his chair. The
madmnn's picture had become dread
fully real 20 him.
"Other bodies would follow the
scouts, Donald. They wouldn't be
quite adapted to dry land nc first.
They'd mike their way along the
river beds. They'd swarm up the Hud-
son, the Rhine, the Severn, the Mis-
sisslppl. That's what we did, and
even today we haven't got very far
from the river banks. Well, they'd
rest aud recupernte. eating the fish