bed three days running they got mad and
decided to go to the hills. They looked in the hills until they found a
nice dry cave. There they relaxed with deep sighs of contentment and
went to sleep. Day after day, week after week, they slept undisturbed.

"Then one day a dog wandered into the cave, saw the three breathing
mountains of flesh and heard the din of their deep snoring; and, scared
half to death, let out a shrill yip and skedaddled.

"A week later one of the three sleepers stirred, opened his eyes
briefly, and muttered, 'What was that noise?' Then he promptly went back
to sleep.

"Ten days later the second sleeper stirred, muttered, 'Damfino,' and
went back to sleep.

"Nearly a month later the third sleeper opened his eyes suddenly, stared
at the roof of the cave for a moment, and said, 'I think it was a dog.'
Then he went back to sleep. The way the story goes nothing ever came
near the cave again, so they are still there, fast asleep--still fat,
too, I suppose."

"I see what you're driving at," Harold said, chuckling over the story.
"We assume that any intelligent being whatever, if it exists, thinks at
the same RATE we do; but it might not."

"That's right," Gordon admitted. "And there are even more subtle
assumptions we make unconsciously. For one, we assume that a thinking
creature must think in the same way we do. We might not even be able to
recognize thinking when we meet it, on another planet. No--" he held up
his hand to silence the question on Harold's lips, "--I don't know
exactly what I mean. I'll put it this way. We have steam engines and
gasoline engines. We also have electric motors. Suppose we have
steam-engine thought. How would we recognize electric-motor thinking?

"Or perhaps a little closer to what I'm trying to express, we have
arithmetic and algebra. Suppose with our arithmetic minds with no
slightest inkling of the existence of a variable, we run into an algebra
mind? We might mistake it for something far removed from thinking or
intelligence. We go on the assumption that anything that doesn't stomp
up, give a salute, and solemnly announce 'How', is unintelligent."

"It might just be more interested in its own thoughts than in the
visitors from Earth," Harold suggested.

"It might," Gordon said. "Or it might be intensely curious and studying
the Earthmen very closely with senses other than sight and hearing."

* * * * *

"But," Ont added thought