Then I returned to the city of jeweled web, to our good city among the high trees, under the sun, in the fresh sky. It was beginning to rain a new rain. As I reached the place of my children and my children’s children, I heard some words from far below and saw the creatures stand in the portway of their ship, looking up at me. The words were these:
“Friendly, by God. Friendly spiders.”
“How can that be?”
Feeling very well, I started this tapestry and this narration, using wild lime-plums and peaches and oranges strung upon golden web. It made a fine pattern.
A NIGHT PASSED. The cool rains fell and washed our cities and hung them with clear jewels. I said to my friends, let the craft lie there alone, let the creatures therein accustom themselves to our world, they will venture out farther, at last, and we will be friends, and their fear will vanish as all fears must, with love and friendship present. There will be much for our two cultures to learn. They, new, and boldly venturing into space in metal seeds, and us, very old and comfortable and hanging in our cities at midnight, feeling the rain fall upon us benevolently. We will teach them the philosophy of wind and stars and how the green grows up and how the sky is when it is blue and warm at noon. Surely they will want to know this. And they, in turn, will refresh us with tales of their far planet, perhaps even of their wars and conflicts, to remind us of our own past and what we, with common sense, have put away, like evil toys, in the sea. Let them be, friends, patience. In a few days, all will be well.
IT WAS CERTAINLY OF INTEREST. The air of confusion and horror that lay over that ship for a week. Again and again, from our comfortable sites in the trees, in the sky, we saw the creatures gazing at us. I put my mind into their ship and heard their words, unable to guess their meaning, but getting an emotional content, anyway:
“Spiders! My God!”
“Big ones! Your turn to go out, Negley.”
“No, not me!”
It was on the afternoon of the seventh day that one of the creatures came forth, alone, unarmed, and called up to me in the sky. I called back and sent him friendship, warmly, and with good intent. In an instant, the great jeweled city was trembling behind me in the sun. I stood by the visitor.
I should have known better. He broke and ran.
I pulled up short, continually sending my best and kindest thoughts. He calmed and returned. I sensed that they had had some sort of volunteering or contest. And this creature had been picked.
“Do not tremble,” I thought.
“No,” he thought, in my own language.
It was my turn to be surprised, but delighted.
“I’ve learned your language,” he said, aloud, slowly, his eyes turning wildly, his mouth shaking. “With machines. During the week. You are friendly, aren’t you?”
“Of course.” I squatted, so we were on an equal level, eye to eye. We were perhaps six feet apart. He kept edging away. I smiled. “What do you fear? Not me, surely?”
“Oh, no, no,” he said, hastil
y.
I heard his heart thumping in the air, a drum, a warm murmur, quick and deep.
In his mind, without knowing that I could read it, he thought, using our language: “Well, if I’m killed, the ship will only be out one man. Better lose one, than all.”
“Kill!” I cried, shocked by the thought, stunned and amused. “Why, nobody has died in violence on our world for one hundred thousand years. Please put the thought away. We shall be friends.”
The creature swallowed. “We’ve been studying you with instruments. Telepathy machines. Various gauges,” he said. “You have a civilization here?”
“As you see,” I said.
“Your IQ,” he said, “has astounded us. From what we see and hear, it is above two hundred.”
The term was a trifle ambiguous, but, again, of a fine humor to me, and I gave him a thought of joy and pleasure. “Yes,” I said.
“I am the captain’s aide,” said the creature, venturing what I learned to be his own smile. The difference being, note, he smiled horizontally, instead of on the vertical, as do we members of the city of the trees.
“Where is the captain?” I asked.
“Ill,” he replied. “Ill since the day of arrival.”
“I’d like to meet him,” I said.