Smith tried hard not to share the thrill. He had been reading biology
the previous week. "I may as well protest, first as last, that I don't
see how human intelligence can ever be developed outside the human form.
Not--possibly!"

Van Emmon also was skeptical, but his wife declared the idea merely
unusual, not impossible. "Is there any particular reason against it?"
she demanded of the doctor.

"I will say this much," cautiously. "Given certain conditions, and
inevitably the human form will most certainly become the supreme
creature, superior to all the others.

"However, suppose the planetary conditions are entirely different. I
conceive it entirely possible for one of the other animals to forge
ahead of the man-ape; quite possible, Smith," as the engineer started to
object, "if only the conditions are different ENOUGH.

"At any rate, we shall soon find out. I have been reading further in the
library the Venusians gave us, and I assure you that I've found some
astonishing things." He fingered one of the diminutive volumes. "There
is one planet in particular whose name I have forgotten, where all
animal life has disappeared entirely. There are none but vegetable forms
on the land, and all of them are the rankest sort of weeds. They have
literally choked off everything else!

"And the highest form of life there is a weed; a hideous monstrosity,
shaped something like an octopus, and capable of the most horrible--" He
stopped abruptly, remembering that one of his hearers was a woman.
"Never mind about that now."