"Why, the people who live there."

"There are none."

This great statement almost took Rob's breath away, and caused him to
stare hard at his visitor.

"It's generally thought," he resumed, in an annoyed tone, "that Mars
has inhabitants who are far in advance of ourselves in civilization.
Many scientific men think the people of Mars have been trying to
signal us for years, only we don't understand their signals. And
great novelists have written about the Martians and their wonderful
civilization, and--"

"And they all know as much about that little planet as you do
yourself," interrupted the Demon, impatiently. "The trouble with you
Earth people is that you delight in guessing about what you can not
know. Now I happen to know all about Mars, because I can traverse all
space and have had ample leisure to investigate the different planets.
Mars is not peopled at all, nor is any other of the planets you
recognize in the heavens. Some contain low orders of beasts, to be
sure, but Earth alone has an intelligent, thinking, reasoning
population, and your scientists and novelists would do better trying
to comprehend their own planet than in groping through space to
unravel the mysteries of barren and unimportant worlds."

Rob listened to this with surprise and disappointment; but he
reflected that the Demon ought to know what he was talking about, so
he did not venture to contradict him.