I could not restrain an exclamation of astonishment at this prediction, but Almos at once reassured me by stating that when the time did come, it would be the beginning of universal peace and happiness on Earth.

“Am I to understand, then,” said I, “that a condition of perfect happiness prevails on Mars?”

“Unhappiness is considered a disease with us,” Almos rejoined.  “It is heard of, but very rarely, and is treated as a serious malady.  But you will understand these things better as you gradually become acquainted with the conditions here.  You must remember that you are in the position of a man over fifteen hundred years in advance of his day.

“Having become convinced, through close observations, that the progress of Earth was identical with that of Mars, and that Earth, being the younger planet, was consequently following our lead, we anxiously watched for the discovery on Earth of the wonderful power that had been the means of bringing us into such close visual contact with you.  When you discovered radium, we realized that this would eventually lead to the discovery of the higher power, but we feared that this might not be for hundreds of years.

“That communication was possible through the medium of radium and electricity, we were totally ignorant of.  It was the responsive properties of radium in your instrument, however, that first attracted my attention while searching over Paris for an object I had previously been observing.  Thereafter my interest in your progress was as great as your own, and every twenty-four hours, when the eastern hemisphere of Earth was turned toward Mars, I searched with the radioscope until I got the response of your instrument.

“I have kept my success in communicating with Earth a secret, as it involves an invention of mine which I have not yet made public, and of which I will now tell you.  This invention is the radiphone, through which we are now conversing, and to which the diaphragm of your instrument responds, as it doubtless contains radium also.  My entire life has been devoted to the development of Martian-Earthly communication, and this instrument has been the goal which I have striven to reach since boyhood, and yet its success in communicating with Earth came as a great surprise to me.”

So accustomed was I to hear the Martian speak of the most miraculous occurrences in an ordinary conversational tone, that the idea of there still remaining something on Mars to be discovered appeared a still greater wonder.

“We have made a most important discovery,” pursued Almos.  “I say ‘we,’ as without the response of your instrument the action of a super-radium current on sound-waves would not have been discovered.”

“I feel that I can hardly share in the honors,” I protested modestly.  “Without the super-radium current from Mars, I would still be experimenting with the hope of finding a substitute for glass.”

I now entered into a full account of the experiments I had conducted, describing how, quite accidentally, I had made a substance responsive to the waves from Mars.  He was greatly amused upon hearing of my astonishment at finding that Martians resembled the people on Earth; and when I drew for him a verbal picture of the ferocious creatures the inhabitants of Mars were supposed to be, he laughed aloud.