Suppose all their civilisations have worn out and they are degenerating into the same struggle for sheer existence those poor creatures in the moon must have had." "Or suppose," said Redgrave rather seriously, "we find that they have passed the zenith of civilisation, and are dropping back into savagery, but still have the use of weapons and means of destruction which we, perhaps, have no notion of, and are inclined to use them?
We'd better be careful, dear." "What do you mean, Lenox ?" she said.

"They wouldn't try to do us any harm, would they?
Why should they ?" "I don't say they would," he replied; "but still you never know.

You see, their ideas of right and wrong and hospitality and all that sort of thing may be quite different to what we have on the earth.

In fact, they may not be men at all, but just a sort of monster with perhaps a superhuman intellect with all sorts of extra-human ideas in it.
"Then there's another thing," he went on.

"Suppose they fancied a trip through Space, and thought that they had as good a right to the _Astronef_ as we have?
I daresay they've seen us by this time if they've got telescopes, as no doubt they have, perhaps a good deal more powerful than ours, and they may be getting ready to receive us now.