UTOPIAN ECONOMICS
"By the Oberalp?"
"No."
"The Furka?"
"No."
"Not up from the lake?"
"No."
He looks puzzled.
"We came," I say, "from another world."
He seems trying to understand. Then a thought strikes him, and he sends away his little girl with a needless message to her mother.
"Ah!" he says. "Another world—eh? Meaning———?"
"Another world—far in the deeps of space."
Then at the expression of his face one realises that a modern Utopia will probably keep its more intelligent citizens for better work than inn-tending. He is evidently inaccessible to the idea we think of putting before him. He stares at us a moment and then remarks, "There's the book to sign."
We find ourselves confronted with a book, a little after the fashion of the familiar hotel visitors' book of earth. He places this before us, and beside it puts pen and ink and a slab, upon which ink has been freshly smeared.
"Thumbmarks," says my scientific friend hastily in English.
"You show me how to do it," I say as quickly.
He signs first, and I look over his shoulder.
He is displaying more readiness than I should have expected. The book is ruled in broad transverse lines, and has a space for a name, for a number, and a
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