Robert Silverberg - Lost Race of Mars

“You friends are searching for you,” the Martian said. “I would not want them to see me, I will leave you now. Good-by, my young Earth friends. Perhaps we will meet again sometime.”

“Good-by,” Jim answered. “And thanks for—” [All the fish???]

“He’s gone,” Sally told him.

“Gone?”

“Vanished,” she replied, looking back. “He just sort of winked out of sight. Another of his mental tricks, I guess.”

“So the Old Martians do exist!” Jim exclaimed. “And they’re so very nice—but I wish they weren’t so shy.”

“They’re small and gentle,” Sally agreed. “I suppose they’re afraid of Earth men, no matter what mental powers they have.”

The motorsled was quite close to them now. The driver was waving his hands for them to pull up. When they came closer, Jim and Sally saw that it was Martin Huber.

“Hello there!” Jim called over his suit-radio.

“Hello yourself!” Martin called back. “Where have you two been? Half the colony is out looking for you!”

Jim gulped. “What time is it?”

“Almost six,” Martin said. “Your parents are worried crazy. They’ve been hunting for you all day.”

Martin broadcast a general announcement telling the other searchers that Jim and Sally had been found, and the two motorsleds headed for the dome. Martin led the way, with Jim driving right behind him.

Dr. and Mrs. Chambers were waiting at the air lock when Jim and Sally arrived. Jim and Sally had never seen their father quite so angry before. His face looked dark and thundery. Their mother did not seem angry as much as frightened. She was very pale.

Jim and Sally hurriedly got out of their breathing suits. Other motorsleds were arriving at the air lock. Obviously quite a large search party had been hunting for them.

“Guess what, Dad,” Jim cried. “We found—”

“Never mind what you found, young man,” Dr. Chambers interrupted sternly. “Suppose you explain what you and your sister meant by slipping off into the desert without telling anyone!”

“We searched all over for you at lunchtime.” Mrs. Chambers was almost weeping. “But nobody had seen you all morning. We were terrified.”

Jim nodded. “I know we shouldn’t have done it—”

“Just where did you think you were heading?” Dr. Chambers thundered.

“It was my idea, Dad,” Sally said. “We were trying to help you. We went looking for the cave of the Old Martians, you see, and this sandstorm came up—”

“Yes, we were caught in the sandstorm,” Jim took up, “and the compass and the clock got smashed—”

“Looking for the Old Martians?” their father repeated. Several of the colonists began to laugh.

The emergency over, they were interested now in seeing what punishment Jim and Sally would get.

“Yes,” Jim shouted. “And we found them! They have a cave about fifty or sixty miles from here! They’re little gray gnomish people with big eyes, and Mitten was a pet of theirs—only they let us keep him—and they have plants that give off oxygen and other plants that store up water, and—”

He stopped. He saw that everyone was laughing at him, everyone but Dr. and Mrs. Chambers, who looked very angry.

“He isn’t making it up,” Sally said stoutly.

“Old Martians, yet,” one of the colonists chuckled. “Next he’ll tell us he found a plutonium mine out there, too!”

“If any son of mine tried to tell me a whopper like that,” added someone else, “I’d make the seat of his pants plenty warm. Old Martians indeed!”

“We did find them!” Jim yelled. “I don’t care if you don’t believe me! They talk by mental telepathy, and they’re very shy, and—”

“That’s enough,” Dr. Chambers exploded. “It’s bad enough that you and your sister went on this escapade, without having you embroider fancy lies, too. But this is no place for a family uproar. We’ll see about your Martians when we get home.”

The colonists were still snickering as Jim and Sally were hustled away toward the elevator.

They rode down in silence, and walked quickly in front of their parents, toward their house.

Inside, Dr. Chambers said, more calmly, “Listen to me, you two. You know I don’t believe in punishment, but this time you’ve gone too far.”

“We were frightened half out of our minds,” Mrs. Chambers murmured, shaking her head. “Why did you do it?”

“We told you,” Sally answered. “We wanted to find the Old Martians—for Dad.”

“And we did,” Jim said. “Honest, we did—”

“That’s enough about that!” Dr. Chambers snapped. “Any more talk about the Old Martians and I’m really likely to lose my temper. Do you realize how much trouble you caused today?

Dozens of men had to give up their precious time to go cruising around in the desert looking for you. The whole colony was upset and inconvenienced. I have a hard enough time getting any cooperation out of the colony authorities, as it is. And now that they think my children are just a couple of juvenile delinquents who like to run off and take joy rides in the desert, I’ll probably have to stand on my head and whistle before I get any more help from the colony! I can’t understand how you could have done such a thing. Maybe your mother and I have given you too much freedom—”

“Dad, please listen to me,” Jim begged. “We were wrong to go out into the desert without asking permission. We should have asked you. We know. But never mind that for now. We found the Old Martians. I swear it—on my word of honor!”

There was silence in the room. Dr. Chambers had said frequently that a man’s honor was his most precious possession. Jim’s words were very serious.

After a moment his father said quietly, “I’ll give you a chance to take that back, Jim. I’ll pretend I didn’t hear it, this time. If you think you can cover up one bad deed by another, you’re mistaken. Lying isn’t going to help you.”

“I’m not lying, Dad.”

“He isn’t,” agreed Sally earnestly. “Why won’t anyone believe us?”

Dr. Chambers passed his head wearily over his forehead. “I know you two aren’t in the habit of lying. And I trust you both. Go on, then. Tell me about these Old Martians of yours. But if it’s all a story you’ve invented, you’ll be very sorry.”

“It’s the truth, Dad,” Jim said. “We headed south, and we were caught in that sandstorm. It busted the compass and the other dials. Then Mitten ran away. We followed in the sled and he led us right to this hole at the base of a cliff.”

“And the whole was the entrance to a cave,” Sally broke in. “We looked in and saw this Martian. He was a little man with a big head and big eyes, and he told us not to be afraid.”

“He told you?” Mrs. Chambers repeated. “I’m afraid that’s a little unbelievable!”

“He was using telepathy,” Jim said. “Talking with his mind, sort of. And we went down into the cave—”

Taking turns, Jim and Sally described their visit to the cave. Interrupting each other every time the other thought of a new point to add, they described the wonderful plants that gave the Martians food, water, light, and oxygen, told why the shy little gnomish people did not want to have anything to do with their new neighbors, the Earth men, and how the mouth of the cave was ordinarily hidden by mental illusion.

“And then we started back to the dome,” Jim finally finished. “Old of the Old Martians came with us as a guide. But the moment one of the search sleds came close, he disappeared.

That’s the whole story.”

Dr. Chambers was silent for a long moment after Jim concluded. At length he said, “It’s believable, in a cockeyed sort of way. Plants that liberate oxygen—pockets of air below the ground—beings adapted to get along on practically no food and less water—yes, it’s possible! One last time: You aren’t making all this up?”