But that doesn't matter, at least not just now," she continued with American directness.

"What we want to know just now is, why you speak English, and what sort of a world this Mars is ?" The Martian evidently only understood the most direct essentials of her speech.

He saw that she asked two questions, and he answered them.
"Speak English ?" he replied, with a little shake of his huge head.

"We know not English, but there is no other speech.

There is only ours.
Cycles ago there were other speeches here, but those who spoke them were killed.