The last time we saw the Gregory Party in Euclidia, that mysterious colony beneath the sea,
we found our friends in happier circumstances than they have enjoyed for some time.
Jerry and Joan went on a sightseeing tour of one of the mammoth natural caverns under the ocean,
one of the giant rooms which have been used by the Euclideans to house their weird city.
And there they saw strange sights, not unique and terrifying scientific devices,
but natural things, pigs and chickens, green grass and tall trees.
The most surprising things possible for this world beneath the water.
Their pleasure lasts but a few moments, however, as G-47 takes Jerry away.
Mrs. Gregory and Captain Bradford find Joan very worried.
I do not like it, Mother. G-47 may harm Jerry.
Oh, I think not, Joan. He promised we would all be quite safe so long as we remain quietly in Euclidia.
You're right, Pat. We're in no danger unless we try to escape.
We're not liable to try that 400 feet below the surface of the ocean.
No, Joan dear. Let's think about more pleasant things for a moment.
You said you and Jerry saw the old skipper.
He is caring for the chickens on the other side of that soundproof wall.
We better not disturb him if he's busy. The Euclidians might not like that.
I think that is the correct attitude, Captain.
Then perhaps we can find our old yacht engineer, McCloud.
He is attending the pigs.
Attending the pigs? I bet the pigs would appreciate that if they could hear how nicely you word it, Joan.
But never mind that. I'd like to see Mac for a minute even if he is busy.
I have no idea where the pigs are to be found.
In what manner of place would pigs be likely to congregate?
Oh, my dear. You'll never realize how much good you're doing us until you live for some time in our world.
Pigs are not usually referred to as congregating, but I suppose that will do.
I am sorry I do not have a larger acquaintance with pigs.
Forget it, Joan. Let's walk around here a while and see what we can see.
All this perfectly natural vegetating is amazing to me.
There might be a good reason for it, if my opinion is any good.
What is that, Captain?
Do you remember when we vested the cloth mill up in the island where they make the euclidean cloth and seaweed?
To be sure, I conducted you to that room.
Who could forget that place?
Where the machines made such a frightful clatter you could hardly hear yourself think.
That's what I'm getting at.
When we stumbled into that room we had been walking without making a sound,
opening and closing doors without a sound,
riding in noiseless elevators.
Then all at once a terrific din struck our ears.
It was all done for a good reason.
Precisely, Captain Bedford.
As you so promptly surmised at the time, those machines were deliberately made noisy
to aid the euclideans in retaining their normal sense of hearing.
Well, I'm sorry to have been so stupid about this, but I'm finally getting the idea.
All of this naturalness, cows, trees, noise when we walk,
all of these things are kept here in their natural state
so that the euclideans will remember how to behave when their time comes to go out into our world.
I am glad we will be allowed to see things as they are in your world.
All of my life, until you came, was spent up in the island,
and there everything was artificial.
Even our food was strange in comparison to what I now know as normal food.
I think this atmosphere is good for all of us, Joan.
We can keep up our spirits a lot easier among things we understand.
That's all right, but let's not forget that these euclideans are just as dangerous
and just as watchful in this weird undersea city as they were on the island.
I would like very much to explore some of the other large caverns.
The others?
Are there others, Joan?
Yes, the submarine commander explained to Jerry and me that this is only one of thirteen such chambers.
Do you know what is in those other caves?
No, Mother.
Let's go and find out.
I would enjoy that, but I do not want to leave Jerry here.
We're certainly not getting anywhere this way.
Don't be too sure of that. We're on one of those noiseless steel runways now.
So we are, and I believe it leads upwards.
Well, let's take a chance and go up on it.
Perhaps we can come out on that balcony again,
and this time we'll watch everything that's to be seen and plan our tour.
Hello there.
Pat, did you hear that?
I did hear something.
Perhaps Jerry is calling us.
Jerry never saw the day he could make a noise like that.
Hi over there. Hello.
Tex, that sounds like McCloud.
That's who it is, and he's coming this way.
Is this gentleman the engineer from your yacht, Mother?
Yes, dear.
And poor Mac has been down here ever since we first found the island, I suppose.
Aye, there you'll be, Mrs. Gregory and Captain Bradford.
Hello, Mac.
Oh, I'm glad to see that you're alive and well, Mac.
How do you do?
Aye, and how do you do, my lassie?
You're as beautiful as your mother,
and heretofore I had no thought that possible.
Well, thank you, Mac.
I see you're diplomatic as ever.
More so, Mrs. Gregory.
I've got a bit of a job here now that requires no little diplomacy.
I thought you had something to do with pigs now, Mac.
Pigs they are, and a fine task it is to handle them.
But even so, it's no on the easy side compared to marine moors.
What did I tell you about the old skipper, Mother?
Now you can see that Mr. MacLeod likes his pigs better than he did your yacht.
Why, Mac, that's treason.
That treason makes the most of it.
I never want to leave this place again.
Mac, you're not serious about this thing.
You wouldn't actually stay here through choice.
I would, Dad, aye.
Everything is perfect here.
Even the sunlight is regulated properly
so my pigs get a right amount of it every day.
I was trying to explain that to Jerry.
Sunlight? What do you mean, Mac?
Aye, the artificial sunlight we use here in the domestic animal sector.
Opera violet light is something like it, but this is better.
How is it different and better?
I cannot explain it to you, Captain.
Put G-47, Will, if you ask him.
Now I must get along to my pigs.
Hold on a minute, Mac. I have some questions to ask you.
Sorry, the question will have to wait.
I must see both my pigs.
Well, Tex, what do you think of that?
I don't understand it, Pat, and I don't like it.
McCloud was one of the best marine engineers
who ever held a ticket for all engines in all oceans.
And he loved the sea and an outdoor life
more than any man I've ever known.
Yet he seems content to stay here with Euclidean pigs.
That's the very thing I'm so afraid of.
The thing I've tried to warn you against all along.
It's so easy to find things attractive in this sort of life.
Yet we know it's wrong.
The whole purpose of this hidden colony is wrong.
And we must keep ourselves from liking it
no matter what we have to do.
I do not understand you, Mother.
This part of Euclidean is exactly like your world.
No, it isn't exactly like our world, Joan.
And I think I know what your mother means.
This artificial sunlight apparently has the same results as real sunlight.
But it isn't real.
Oh, nothing here is real.
Did you say nothing?
Oh.
Well, where did you come from?
From whence did the heavens come, or the sea, or the sands of time?
Well, who are you?
I'm called Keops, the builder.
This is getting back into my ancient history days.
I thought they found your tomb in the center of the Great Pyramid.
That was Keops I, whom the Egyptians called Khufu,
from the building of the first or Great Pyramid 5,000 years ago.
The blood of Keops has come down through the centuries, until now I, Keops,
the builder of Euclidia, stand before you as the architectural wizard of the world.
I'm beginning to understand your position here.
In your modest way, you are letting us know that the responsibility
for the marvelous construction in this weird colony rests on your shoulders.
No.
Only a fool would carry a burden on his shoulders.
I carry them with my intelligence.
Well, maybe you're right, but there must have been some strong backs
and willing shoulders somewhere along the line when all this construction went on.
Now we reach the point which caused me to appear before you.
I was studying in my laboratory behind this wall when I heard your careless remark.
If we have been mistaken in the nature of our conversation,
the fault is entirely mine, Keops.
My mother and Captain Bradford are not familiar with Euclidean regulations.
Silence, Cleostra!
You needn't shout at her like that, and we need no apologies.
What is the reason for appearing out of nothing and giving us your history?
Careful, Pat. You need not warn the lady Captain Bradford.
There is little harm in the desperate prattle
of one who is driven to nervous expressions of complete helplessness.
We're not helpless.
Please, Mother, it will avail you nothing.
You have not forgotten your Euclidean training, Cleostra.
Now, if you will allow me a period of silence,
I will correct your erroneous impression as to the reality of certain things in Euclidea.
We feel that the whole thing is mighty unreal.
You'll never change that impression.
You may change a great number of your opinions while you are on Euclidea, my precious Captain.
You have said that your sunlight was not real.
We know it isn't.
Sunlight doesn't penetrate 400 feet of water
and the rock and steel roof and walls of these caves.
You see all about you evidence that our sunlight will do everything
that can be done with the light and heat of the sun.
Yes, we see that all right, but what will the effect of this artificial light be on future generations?
How long can you sustain life under these conditions?
That you must ask Thales, as the production of electrical energy is within his province.
However, for your immediate information,
Thales has established the fact that this light in which you now stand
will prolong the span of human life to well over a century.
Text. Do you suppose that's possible?
Well, we sure can't prove that it isn't possible.
I have heard the scientists speak of experiments along those lines
and they have been most successful.
Precisely. As for the reality of the construction around you,
these arches, pyroses, bridges and walls, which I have designed and created,
will retain their present form and usefulness for a period of 50,000 years.
50,000 years?
How can you prove that?
You are a man of science, are you not, Captain Bradford?
Well, I thought I was until I came here.
At least you will recognize the value of one of my construction materials.
I have unearthed the greatest secret of the ancient engineers.
I have tempered copper.
Tempered copper?
But scientists have been trying that for thousands of years
and they've all failed miserably.
You will enter my laboratory.
I wish you to see a little experiment with the tempered copper. Enter.
And just as easy as that, the door is open for us.
I suppose the plain wooden floor is for the usual purpose of keeping in tune
with the normal things in our world.
Precisely. You, Mrs. Greggie, will stand there.
You there, Cleostrup.
Now, Captain Bradford, will you step over here with me?
That's a sheet of copper foil you have there, isn't it?
No. Foil is much heavier.
This sheet of copper leaf is one ten thousandth of one inch in thickness.
That's getting it thin all right.
But how can you temper a sheet of copper so thin it's practically transparent?
The secret of the ages must remain my secret.
Now, Captain, I have mounted a similar square of copper leaf in this heavy wooden frame.
I will place the frame on these two supports.
So, I ask you to feel that copper.
Why, it's so delicate that it quivers under the touch.
Precisely. Now, will you be so good as to stand on it?
Stand on it? Stand on that sheet of copper which is so thin you can see through it?
Precisely. Stand on it.
Okay, but don't blame me when I fall through.
Mother, the captain is standing on it.
Tex, it's not real. You're not actually standing on that sheet of copper.
Yes, I am. I'm standing right in the middle of a sheet of copper one yard square
and one ten thousandth of an inch thick. And it doesn't even quiver.
Perhaps you will realize after this little demonstration that Euclidia is a very real place.
And before you attempt to dispute any statement of mine in the future,
it would be well for you to remember that my knowledge is as old as the pyramids and as new as tomorrow.