Latest / The H. G. Wells Library / The First Men in the Moon Chapter 2 - The First Making of Cavorite

Transcript

The First Men in the Moon Chapter 2 - The First Making of Cavorite · The H. G. Wells Library

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Chapter two of the First Men in the Moon. This
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. This recording is by Mark Smith of Simpsonville,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: South Carolina. The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Chapter two The first making of Cavaright. But Cavore's fears
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: were groundless so far as the actual making was concerned.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: On the fourteenth of October eighteen ninety nine, this incredible
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: substance was made. Oddly enough. It was made at last
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: by accident, when mister Cavore least expected it. He had
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: fused to gather a number of medals and certain other things.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: I wish I knew the particulars now, and he intended
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: to leave the mixture a week and then allow it
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: to cool slowly. Unless he had miscalculated, the last stage
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: in the combination would occur when the stuff sank to
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: a temperature of sixty degrees fahrenheit. But it chanced that,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: unknown to Cavour, dissension had arisen about the furnace tending Gibbs,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: who had previously seen to this, had suddenly attempted to
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: shift it to the man who had been a gardener,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: on the score that coal was soil being dug and
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: therefore could not possibly fall within the province of a joiner.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: The man who had been a jobbing gardener alleged, however,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: that coal was a metallic or ore like substance, let
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: alone that he was cook But Spargues insisted on Gibbs
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: doing the coaling, seeing that he was a joiner and
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: that coal is notoriously fossil wood. Consequently, Gibbs ceased to
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: replenish the furnace, and no one else did so, and
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Cavore was too much immersed in certain interesting problems concerning
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: a cavalright flying machine, neglecting the resistance of the air,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: and one or two other points points to perceive that
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: anything was wrong, And the premature birth of his invention
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: took place just as he was coming across the field
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: to my bungalow for our afternoon talk and tea. I
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: remember the occasion with extreme vividness. The water was boiling,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: and everything was prepared, and the sound of his tutsu
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: had brought me out upon the verandah. His active little
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: figure was black against the autumnal sunset, and to the
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: right the chimneys of his house just rose above a
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: gloriously tinted group of trees. Remoter rose the wielding hills,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: faint and blue, while to the left the hazy marsh
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: spread out, spacious and serene. And then the chimneys jerked heavenward,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: smashing into a string of bricks as they rose, and
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: the roof and a miscellany of furniture followed. Then overtaking
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: them came a huge white flame. The trees about the
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: building swayed and whirled and tore themselves to pieces that
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: sprang towards the flare. My ears were smitten by a
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: clap of thunder that left me deaf on one side
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: for life, and all about me windows smashed unheeded. I
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: took three steps from the veranda toward Kaivore's house, and
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: even as I did so, came the wind. Instantly, my
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: coat tails were over my head, and I was progressing
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: in great leaps and bounds, and quite against my will,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: towards him. In the same moment, the discoverer was seized,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: whirled about, and flew through the screaming air. I saw
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: one of my chimney pots hit the ground within six
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: yards of me, leap a score of feet, and so
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: hurry in great strides towards the focus of the disturbance. Cavoor,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: kicking and flapping, came down again, rolled over and over
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: on the ground for a space, struggled up, and was
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: lifted and borne forward at an enormous velocity, vanishing at
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: last among the laboring lash trees that writhed about his house.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: A mass of smoke and ashes, and a square of
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: bluish shining substance rushed up towards the zenith. A large
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: fragment of fencing came sailing past me, dropped edgeways, hit
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: the ground, and fell flat. And then the worst was over.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: The aerial commotion fell swiftly until it was a mere
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: strong gale, and I became once more aware that I
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: had breath and feet. By leaning back against the wind,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: I managed to stop and could collect such wits as
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: still remained to me. In that instant, the whole face
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: of the world had changed. The tranquil sunset had vanished,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: the sky was dark with scurrying clouds. Everything was flattened
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: and swaying with the gale. I glanced back to see
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: if my bungalow was still in a general way, standing,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: then staggered forwards toward the trees, amongst which Kavor had vanished,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: and through whose tall and leaf denuded branches shown the
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: flames of his burning house. I entered the copse, dashing
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: from one tree to another and clinging to them, and
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: for a space I sought him in vain. Then, amidst
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: a heap of smashed branches and fencing that it banked
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: itself against a portion of his garden wall, I perceived
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: something stir. I made a run for this, but before
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: I reached it, a brown object separated itself, rose on
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: two muddy legs, and protruded two drooping, bleeding hands. Some
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: tattered ends of garment fluttered out from its middle portion
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: and streamed before the wind. For a moment I did
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: not recognize this earthy lump, and then I saw that
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: it was Cavor, caked in the mud in which he
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: had rolled. He leaned forward against the wind, rubbing the
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: dirt from his eyes mouth. He extended a muddy lump
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: of hand and staggered a pace towards me. His face
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: worked with emotion. Little lumps of blood kept falling from it,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: he looked as damaged and pitiful as any living creature
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: I have ever seen, and his remark therefore amazed me exceedingly.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Gratulate me, he gasped, Gratulate me. Congratulate you, said, I good. Heavens,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: what for I've done it? You have what on earth
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: caused that explosion? A gust of wind blew his words away.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: I understood him to say that it wasn't an explosion
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: at all. The wind hurled me into collision with him,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: and we stood, clinging to one another. Try and get
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: back to my bungalow, I bawled in his ear. He
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: did not hear me, and shouted something about three martyrs science,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: and also something about not much good. At the time,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: he labored under the impression that his three attendants had
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: perished in the whirlwind. Happily this was incorrect. Directly he
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: had left from my bungalow. They had gone off to
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: the public house in Limny to discussed the question of
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: the furnaces over some trivial refreshment. I repeated my suggestion
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: of getting back to my bungalow, and this time he understood.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: We clung arm and arm and started, and managed at
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: last to reach the shelter of as much roof as
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: was left to me for a space. We sat in
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: armchairs and panted. All the windows were broken, and the
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: lighter articles of furniture were in great disorder, but no
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: irrevocable damage was done. Happily, the kitchen door had stood
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: the pressure upon it, so that all my crockery and
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: cooking materials had survived. The oil stove was still burning,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: and I put on the water to boil again for tea,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: and that prepared I could turn on Cavore for his explanation.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Quite correct, he insisted, Quite correct, I've done it, and
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: it's all right. But I protested, all right, why there
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: can't be a brick standing, or a fence or a
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: thatched roof on damage for twenty miles around? It's all right, really.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: I didn't, of course, foresee this little upset. My mind
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: was preoccupied with another problem, and I'm apt to disregard
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: these practical side issues. But it's all right, my dear sir,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: I cried, don't you see you've done thousands of pounds
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: worth of damage there? I throw myself on your discretion.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: I'm not a practical man, of course, but don't you
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: think they will regard it as a cyclone. But the
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: explosion it was not an explosion is perfectly simple. Only,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: as I say, I'm apt to overlook these little things.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: It's that szue business on a larger scale. Inadvertently, I
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: made this substance of mine, this cavalite, and in a thin,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: wide sheet. He paused, you are quite clear that the
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: stuff is open to gravitation, that it cuts off things
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: from gravitating towards each other. Yes, said I. Yes. Well,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: so soon as it reached a temperature of sixty degrees fahrenheit,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: and the process of its manufacture was complete, the air
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: above it, the portions of roof and ceiling and floor
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: above it, cease to have weight. I suppose you know.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: Everybody knows nowadays that, as a usual thing, the air
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: has weight, that it presses on everything at the surface
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: of the Earth, presses in all directions with a pressure
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: of fourteen and a half pounds to the square inch.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: I know that, said I go on, I know that too,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: he remarked. Only this shows you how useless knowledge is
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: unless you apply it. You see, over our cavarite, this
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: ceased to be the case. The air there ceased to
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: exert any pressure, and the air around it and not
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: over the cavarite was exerting a pressure of fourteen pounds
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: in an hour half to the square in upon this
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: suddenly weightless air. Ah, you begin to see the air
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: all about the cavalright crushed in upon the air above
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: it with irresistible force. The air above the cavarite was
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: forced upward violently. The air that rushed in to replace
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: it immediately lost weight, ceased to exert any pressure, followed
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: suit blew the ceiling through and the roof off. You perceive,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: he said, it formed a sort of atmospheric fountain, a
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: kind of chimney in the atmosphere. And if the cavaright
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: itself hadn't been loose and so got sucked up the chimney,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: does it occur to you what would have happened? I thought,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: I suppose, I said, the air would be rushing up
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: and up over that infernal piece of stuff. Now precisely,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: he said, a huge fountain spouting into space. Good heavens, why,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: it would have squirted all the atmosphere of the Earth away.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: It would have robbed the world of air. It would
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: have been the death of all mankind. That little lump
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: of stuff not exactly into space, said Cavor, but as
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: bad practically it would have whipped the air off the
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: world as one peals a banana and flung at thousands
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: of miles. It would have dropped back again, of course,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: but on an asphyxiated world. From our point of view,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: very little better than if it had never come back.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: I stared, as yet I was too amazed to realize
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: how all my expectations had been upset. What do you
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: mean to do now, I asked. In the first place,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: if I may borrow a garden trowel, I will remove
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: some of this earth with which I am encased. And then,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: if I may avail myself of your domestic conveniences, I
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: will have a bath. This done, we will converse more
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: at leisure. It will be wise, I think. He laid
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: a muddy hand on my arm. If nothing were said
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: of this affair beyond ourselves, I know I have caused
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: great damage. Probably even dwelling houses may be ruined here
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: and there upon the countryside. But on the other hand,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: I cannot possibly pay for the damage I have done.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: And if the real cause of this is published, it
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: will lead only to heartburning and the obstruction of my work.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: One cannot foresee everything you know, and I cannot consent
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: for one moment to add the burthen of practical considerations
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: to my theorizing. Later on, when you've come in with
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: your practical mind and cavalright is floated, floated is the word,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: isn't it? And it is realized all you anticipate for it.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: We may set matters right with these persons, but not now,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: not now. If no other explanation is offered. People in
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: the present unsatisfactory state of meteorologicals, science will ascribe all
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: this to a cyclone. There might be a public subscription,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: and as my house is collapse and been burnt, I
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: should in that case receive a considerable share in the compensation,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: which would be extremely helpful to the prosecution of our researches.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: But if it is known that I caused this, there
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: will be no public subscription and everybody will be put out. Practically,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: I should never get a chance of working in peace again.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: My three assistants may or may not have perished, that
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: is a detail. If they have, it is no great loss.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: They were more zealous than able, and this premature event
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: must be largely due to their joint neglect of the furnace.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: If they have not perished, I doubt if they have
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: the intelligence to explain the affair, they will accept the
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: cyclone's story. And if during the temporary unfitness of my
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: house for occupation, I may lodge in one of the
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: untenanted rooms of this bungalow of yours, he paused and
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: regarded me a man of such possibility, as I reflected,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: is no ordinary guests to entertain, perhaps, said I, rising
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: to my feet, We had better begin by looking for
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: a trowel, and I led the way to the scattered
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: vestiges of the greenhouse, and while he was having his bath,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: I considered the entire question alone. It was clear that
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: there were drawbacks to mister Kavor society. I had not
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: foreseen the absent mindedness that had just escaped depopulating the
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: terrestrial globe might at any moment result in some other
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: grave inconvenience. On the other hand, I was young, My
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: affairs were in a mess, and I was in just
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: the mood for reckless adventure or the chance of something
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: good at the end of it. I had quite settled
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: in my mind that I was to have half, at
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: least in that aspect of the affair. Fortunately, I I
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: held my bungalow, as I have already explained, on a
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: three year agreement, without being responsible for repairs, and my furniture,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: such as there was of it, had been hastily purchased,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: was unpaid for, insured, and altogether devoid of associations. In
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: the end, I decided to keep on with him and
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: see the business through. Certainly, the aspect of things had
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: changed very greatly. I no longer doubted at all the
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: enormous possibilities of the substance, but I began to have
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: doubts about the gun carriage and the patent boots. We
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: set to work at once to reconstruct his laboratory and
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: proceed with our experiments. Kavort talked more on my level
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: than he had ever done before when it came to
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: the question of how we should make the stuff next.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: Of course we must make it again, he said, with
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: a sort of glee I had not expected in him.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: Of course we must make it again. We've caught a target, perhaps,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: but we have left the theoretical behind us for good
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: and all. If we can possibly avoid wrecking this little
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: planet of ours, we will but there must be risks,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: there must be an experimental work, there always are, And here,
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: as a practical man, you must come in for my
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: own part. It seems to me we might make it edgeways, perhaps,
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: and very thin. Yet I don't know. I have a
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: certain dim perception of another method. I can hardly explain
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: it yet, But curiously enough it came into my mind
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: while I was rolling over and over in the mud
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: before the wind, and very doubtful how the whole adventure
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: was to end, as being absolutely the thing I ought
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: to have done. Even with my aid, we found some
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: little difficulty, And meanwhile we kept at work restoring the laboratory.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: There was plenty to do before it became absolutely necessary
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: to decide upon the precise form and method of our
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: second attempt. Our only hitch was the strike of the
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: three laborers, who objected to my activity as a foreman.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: But that matter we compromised after two days delay. End
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: of chapter