“ ‘He’⁠—turning to Tsi-puff⁠—‘love remember words. Remember wonderful more than any. Think no, draw no⁠—remember. Say’⁠—here he referred to his gifted assistant for a word⁠—‘histories⁠—all things. He hear once⁠—say ever.’

“It is more wonderful to me than I dreamt that anything ever could be again, to hear, in this perpetual obscurity, these extraordinary creatures⁠—for even familiarity fails to weaken the inhuman effect of their appearance⁠—continually piping a nearer approach to coherent earthly speech⁠—asking questions, giving answers. I feel that I am casting back to the fable-hearing period of childhood again, when the ant and the grasshopper talked together and the bee judged between them.⁠ ⁠…”

And while these linguistic exercises were going on Cavor seems to have experienced a considerable relaxation of his confinement. “The first dread and distrust our unfortunate conflict aroused is being,” he said, “continually effaced by the deliberate rationality of all I do.”⁠ ⁠… “I am now able to come and go as I please, or I am restricted only for my own good. So it is I have been able to get at this apparatus, and, assisted by a happy find among the material that is littered in this enormous store-cave, I have contrived to despatch these messages. So far not the slightest attempt has been made to interfere with me in this, though I have made it quite clear to Phi-oo that I am signalling to the earth.

“ ‘You talk to other?’ he asked, watching me.

“ ‘Others,’ said I.

“ ‘Others,’ he said. ‘Oh yes. Men?’

“And I went on transmitting.”