I

'So your Martians are coming after all, Davis,' said Dr. Holdman Stedding.

'I've given you my facts,' said Mr. Davis, 'a new sort of human being is appearing. Of that I am convinced…. I never said they were Martians.'

'The name's got into the story. And after all, you know—they may be.'

'Why not the star–men?' said Keppel. 'Homosideralis? How would one say Star–Begotten as a specific adjective?'

'One name seems to be as good as another,' said Davis, affecting indifference. 'Until we know better what they are, why trouble about the name? Let us stick to Martians.'

'The newspapers have no doubt about it. Either there are Martians, they insist, or there is nothing.'

Davis shrugged his shoulders.

'On the whole I wish this hadn't leaked out to the press,' said Keppel, crouching upon his arms over his mahogany and looking malignantly intelligent. 'Marvellous how the press can make almost anything—unbelievable. What has the press made of it? First this Thunderclap boom. Then general derison. Then general disregard. Nothing stales so rapidly as a new popular idea. What have we now? General indifference. A few pathetic believers run about, half ashamed of themselves, and assert their faith by starting silly–looking little special periodicals and societies. I am told there are at least two pro–Martian societies in London, and three against. The people who produce that pink–covered journal called Welcome seem to be the chief. In America there are quite a lot of associations, I'm told, but all small. Most of them have a tendency to amalgamate with occultists and mix up Mars with Tibet. Then a new type of delusional insanity has appeared. God Almighty, it seems, is out of fashion among our lunatics. They are all Martians nowadays and most of them are Kings or Emperors of Mars. What else has come out of your great disclosure? Ourselves—we toughs, who knew all along just how much there was in it, and were too wise to shout.'

He looked sideways at Davis from under his overhanging brow.

'You believe really—?' asked Davis.

Keppel would neither assent nor deny.

'No one would believe what we in our bones feel to be the reality. We're not quite sure—but we feel it. We're not quite definite but a reality is there. It is unbelievable. So why incur suspicion and contempt by talking about it? Nothing is to be done. We cannot control what is happening. We cannot avert it. Here they come. Here we are.'

'I want to talk about it,' said Keppel. 'I want badly to talk about it.'

'I find myself thinking about it a lot,' said Dr. Holdman Stedding.

'I think now of nothing else,' said Davis.

It seemed to him that Keppel had got this Martian fever now almost as badly as himself. That grotesque, distorted dark face was flushed, and every gesture suggested the repression of a profound excitement But Keppel's resolve to control the stir in his imagination and to keep things as matter–of–fact as possible was very evident.

The three men were dining at Keppel's house for the express purpose of receiving and discussing the first results of Davis's investigations.

'Let's see how far we have got,' said Keppel. 'Let us try to disentangle as far as we can the pure guess–fantasy of an extra–terrestrial intervention, from the established realities that Davis has been elucidating. A new sort of mind is coming into the world, with a new, simpler, clearer, and more powerful way of thinking. That I think is manifest. It has already got into operation individually here and there and produced a sort of disorder of innovation in human affairs. But so far these new minds haven't got together for any sort of associated living. So far. They are hardly aware of themselves, much less of each other. They are scattered about anyhow. All that, I think, seems to be established?'

Mr. Davis nodded assent.

These new types have made their presence felt, as yet, chiefly through discoveries in material science and mechanical invention. At this present stage they are too scattered and isolated for novel social inventions. That sort of thing requires extensive co–operations. It is on a different plane. These newcomers are dispersed; they are not appearing in bunches; they do not even know that they are a peculiar people; each one of them has been deeply embedded, so to speak, in the circumstances of his or her own birth. From birth they have all been presented with established views of the world and compelled to adjust their social behaviour to established institutions. Many no doubt have been completely baffled by the dogmatic unreason of the normal human arrangements in which they found themselves set. In—what shall I say?—in human affairs, they've never had a chance so far. But in regard to things, bits of glass, scraps of metal, springs and balances, they have not been encumbered to the same extent. There they have been able to think freely almost from the outset.

'That has been the opening phase. Nobody has ever tried to explain the immense advance in scientific knowledge in the past century and a half—but this does explain it. There has been a great outbreak of precise mechanical discovery and invention. That meant—that means—a necessary discordance in human affairs—scattered inventions everywhere, a great forward drive, a revolutionary drive in mechanical science and a relative lag in social understanding. There is an almost complete inability to make new ideas in the latter field real. That is a tougher proposition altogether. I think it is easy to explain why that should be so. But there is the reason why every one nowadays is contrasting our material progress with what is called—how do the bishops put it?—our ethical and social backwardness. A temporary phase.'

'But a damned unpleasant one,' said Dr. Holdman Stedding. 'When the superman makes an aeroplane and the ape gets hold of it.'

'Nevertheless—a temporary phase,' continued Keppel, holding to his argument with resolute tenacity. 'Because, as I say, to begin with, these Martians have been rare and scattered. But as they become more numerous—and I assume that there is no reason whatever why they should not become more and more numerous—they will necessarily become aware of one another, and get into touch with one another. Such minds, following the line of least resistence, will gravitate to scientific work. They will note and classify mental types. This must lead almost directly to self–discovery. They will observe how they resemble each other and how they differ from the wimble–wamble of the common world. They will begin to know themselves for what they are.'

'A new chapter in history,' said Mr. Davis, contemplating it. 'And then?'

'Let us think this out for a bit,' said Keppel. 'I believe a considerable amount of analysis of what is coming is possible. I think myself we can already make a rough forecast, but I shall feel much more certain about that when I have put what I have in mind before you two. If I get away with it. It does seem worth while to ask a few fairly obvious questions.. What is going to be the next phase in this invasion? As these Martians multiply among us, they will, I assume, tend to crystallize out in some such way as I have indicated. They will develop a distinctively Martian view of life. They will begin to realize themselves for what they are, look for their own sort, feel their way towards a common understanding. They will emerge to social action in some fashion…. In what fashion?'