II

He kept the doctor waiting for a moment.

'The point is, do you, with your experience, think that latterly—how shall I put it?—exceptional children have become rather more frequent than they used to be?'

'Exceptional? Gifted?'

'Yes, gifted. In some cases perhaps. And also—what shall I say?—abnormalities?'

'H'm!' said the doctor. He was interested. He attempted a brief survey of his experience. 'There are some rather surprising children and youngsters about. But I suppose something of that sort has always been going on.'

'To the same extent?' pressed Davis. 'To the same extent?'

'Possibly not. It is very hard to say. Naturally in this part of London and with a clientele like mine, we have exceptional parents. My impression, my unchecked and uncontrolled impression, is that, in the world I know, maternal mortality is extremely low and the infants are—bright is the word. Some with biggish heads. But anything in the way—of out–of–the–way novelties, no. If you are worrying about monstrosities—you need not worry. And exceptionally bright children are nothing to worry about. The Caesarean operation is probably more frequent nowadays…. That may be due rather to improved gynaecology than to any increase in mutations….'

Pause.

'I would like to talk to you rather fantastically,' said Davis abruptly. 'It's not only my wife I am thinking about. Don't think I'm mad in what I am saying to you, but just think I am letting my imagination out for a romp.'

'Nothing better,' said Dr. Holdman Stedding, who like most medical practitioners nowadays had a disposition towards a rather amateurish psycho–analysis. 'Say what you like. Let it rip.'

'Well,' said Mr. Davis, and hesitated at the strangeness and difficulty of the ideas he had to explain. 'Biologists—I was talking to Foxfield the other day—biologists say that when a species comes to a difficult phase in its struggle for existence—and I suppose no one can say that is not fairly true of the human situation nowadays—there is an increased disposition to vary. There is—how did Foxfield put it?—for one thing, there is less insistence on the normal. Less insistence on the normal. It is as if the species began to try round and feel for new possibilities.'

'Ye–es,' said the doctor, with non–committal encouragement in his tone.

'And as if it became more capable of accepting abnormalities and weaving them into its destinies.'

'Yes,' said the doctor, weighing the proposition. 'That is in accordance with current ideas.'

'As an industrious student of history,' began Mr. Davis. 'You know I have written one or two books?'

'Who does not? My two nephews got your Alexander, or Youth the Conqueror and your Story of the Spanish Main as prizes last term, and I can assure you I read them myself with great delight.'

'Well. It seems to me that for ages human life has been playing much the same tune with variations—but much the same tune. What we call human nature. The general behaviour, the normal system of reactions, has been the same. The old, old story. Abnormal people have been kept in their places. You don't think, Doctor, that that uniformity of human experience is going to be disturbed?'

'I wish you would explain a little more.'

'Suppose there are—Martians.'

'Well.'

'Suppose there are beings, real material beings like ourselves, in another planet, but far wiser, more intelligent, much more highly developed. Suppose they are able to see us and know about us—as we know about the creatures under a microscope, which have no suspicion of us…. Mind you, this isn't my idea. I'm only repeating something I heard in the club. But suppose that in some way these older, wiser, greater, and better organized intelligences are able to influence human life.'

'How?'

'They may have tried all sorts of ways. They may have been experimenting for ages. Much as we might run a reagent into a microscope slide. The amoebae and so on would have no idea….'

'If you are thinking of anything like inter–planetary telepathy, anything of that sort, I'm not with you. Even between closely similar minds, between identical twins for example, I doubt if such a thing is possible…. I detest telepathy.'

'This is quite a different idea.'

'Well?'

'Suppose that for the last few thousand years they have been experimenting in human genetics. Suppose they have been trying to alter mankind in some way, through the human genes.'

'But how?'

'You have heard of cosmic rays, Doctor?'

The doctor took it in with some deliberation. 'It is a quite fantastic idea,' he said after a pause.

'But neither impossible nor incredible.'

'Some things one puts outside the range of practical possibility.'

'And some things refuse to be put outside the range of practical possibility.'

'But you don't mean to tell me you believe—?'

'No. But I face a possibility with an open mind.'

'Which is?'

'That these Martians—'

'But we don't know there are any Martians!'

'We don't know that there aren't.'

'No.'

'Quite possibly these rays do not come from Mars—more probably than not. But—let us call the senders—'

'Senders?'

'Well, whatever originates them. Let us call them Martians—just to avoid inventing a new name—'

'Very well. And your suggestion is—?'

'That these Martians have been firing away with increasing accuracy and effectiveness at our chromosomes—perhaps for long ages. That is the story, the fancy if you like, that I want in some way to put to the test. Every now and then in history, strange exceptional figures have appeared, Confucius, Buddha; men with strange memories, men with uncanny mathematical gifts, men with unaccountable intuitions. Mostly they have been persons in advance of their times, as we say, and out of step with their times…. Do you see what I am driving at, Doctor?'

'But this is the purest fantasy!'

'Or the realization of a fantastic fact.'

'But—!'