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The First Men in the Moon Chapter 6 - The Landing on the Moon · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter six of the First Men in the Moon. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. This recording is by Mark Smith of Simpsonville,
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  Speaker 1: South Carolina. The First Man in the Moon by H. G. Wells,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter six, The Landing on the Moon. I remember how
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  Speaker 1: one day Cavor suddenly opened six of our shutters and
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  Speaker 1: blinded me, so that I cried aloud at him. The
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  Speaker 1: whole area was moon, a stupendous scimitar of white dawn,
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  Speaker 1: with its edge hacked out by notches of darkness, the
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  Speaker 1: crescent shore of an ebbing tide of darkness, out of
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  Speaker 1: which peaks and pinnacles came glittering into the blaze of
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  Speaker 1: the Sun. I take it the reader has seen pictures
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  Speaker 1: or photographs of the Moon, and that I need not
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  Speaker 1: describe the broader features of that landscape, those spacious, ring
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  Speaker 1: like ranges, vaster than any terrestrial mountains, their summits shining
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  Speaker 1: in the day, their shadows harsh and deep. The gray
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  Speaker 1: disordered plains, the ridges, hills and craterlets, all passing at
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  Speaker 1: last from a blazing illumination into a common mystery of
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  Speaker 1: black athwart this world. We were flying scarcely one hundred
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  Speaker 1: miles above its crests and pinnacles. And now we could
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  Speaker 1: see what no eye on Earth will ever see. That
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  Speaker 1: under the blaze of the day, the harsh outlines of
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  Speaker 1: the rocks and ravines of the plains and crater floor
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  Speaker 1: grew gray and indistinct, under a thickening haze, that the
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  Speaker 1: white of their lit surfaces broke into lumps and patches,
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  Speaker 1: and broke again, and shrank and vanished. And that here
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  Speaker 1: and there strange tints of brown and olive grew and spread.
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  Speaker 1: But little we had for watching then, for now we
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  Speaker 1: had come to the real danger of our journey. We
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  Speaker 1: had to drop ever closer to the Moon as we
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  Speaker 1: spun about it, to slacken our pace and watch our chants,
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  Speaker 1: until at last we could dare to drop upon its surface.
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  Speaker 1: For Cavor, that was a time of intense exertion. For me,
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  Speaker 1: it wasn't anxious inactivity. I seemed perpetually to be getting
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  Speaker 1: out of his way. He leaped about the sphere from
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  Speaker 1: point to point with an agility that would have been
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  Speaker 1: impossible on Earth. He was perpetually opening and closing the
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  Speaker 1: cavaright windows, making calculations, consulting his chronometer by means of
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  Speaker 1: the glow lamp. During those last eventful hours. For a
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  Speaker 1: long time we had all our windows closed and hung
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  Speaker 1: silently in darkness, hurling through space. Then he was feeling
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  Speaker 1: for the shutter studs, and suddenly four windows were open.
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  Speaker 1: I staggered and covered, my eyes, drenched and scorched and
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  Speaker 1: blinded by the unaccustomed splendor of the sun beneath my feet.
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  Speaker 1: Then again the shutters snapped, leaving my brains spinning in
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  Speaker 1: a darkness that pressed against the eyes. And after that
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  Speaker 1: I floated in another vast black silence. Then Kvor switched
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  Speaker 1: on the electric light and told me he proposed to
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  Speaker 1: bind all our luggage together with the blankets about it,
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  Speaker 1: against the concussion of our descent. We did this with
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  Speaker 1: our windows closed, because in that way our goods arranged
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  Speaker 1: themselves naturally at the center of the sphere. That too,
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  Speaker 1: was a strange business, we two men floating loose in
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  Speaker 1: that spherical space and packing and pulling ropes. Imagine it
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  Speaker 1: if you can no up nor down, and every effort
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  Speaker 1: resulting in unexpected movements. Now I would be pressed against
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  Speaker 1: the glass with a full force of Kivorus thrust. Now
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  Speaker 1: I would be kicking helplessly and avoid Now the star
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  Speaker 1: of the electric light would be overhead, now underfoot. Now
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  Speaker 1: Kavore's feet would float up before my eyes. And now
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  Speaker 1: we would be crossways to each other. But at last
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  Speaker 1: our goods were safely bound together in a big soft bale,
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  Speaker 1: all except two blankets with headholes that we were to
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  Speaker 1: wrap about ourselves. Then, for a flash, Cavoor opened a
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  Speaker 1: window moonward, and we saw that we were dropping towards
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  Speaker 1: a huge central crater, with a number of minor craters
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  Speaker 1: grouped in a sort of cross about it. And then
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  Speaker 1: again Kavore flung our little sphere open to the scorching,
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  Speaker 1: blinding sun. I think he was using the sun's attraction
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  Speaker 1: as a break covery yourself with a blanket, he cried,
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  Speaker 1: thrusting himself from me, and for a moment I did
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  Speaker 1: not understand. Then I hauled the blanket from beneath my
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  Speaker 1: feet and got it about me and over my head
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  Speaker 1: and eyes. Abruptly he closed the shutters again, snapped one
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  Speaker 1: open again, and closed it. Then suddenly began snapping them
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  Speaker 1: all open, each safely into its steel roller. There came
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  Speaker 1: a jar, and then we were rolling over and over,
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  Speaker 1: bumping against the glass and against the big bail of
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  Speaker 1: our luggage, and clutching at each other. And outside some
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  Speaker 1: white substance splashed, as if we were rolling down a
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  Speaker 1: slope of snow over clutch bump, clutch, bump. Over came
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  Speaker 1: a thud, and I was half buried under the bail
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  Speaker 1: of our possessions, and for a space everything was still.
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  Speaker 1: Then I could hear kavor puffing and grunting, and the
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  Speaker 1: snapping of a shutter in its sash. I made an
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  Speaker 1: effort thrust back our blanket wrapped luggage and emerged from
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  Speaker 1: beneath it. Our open windows were just visible as a
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  Speaker 1: deeper black set with stars. We were still alive, and
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  Speaker 1: we were lying in the darkness of the shadow of
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  Speaker 1: the wall of the great crater into which we had fallen.
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  Speaker 1: We sat, getting our breath again and feeling the bruises
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  Speaker 1: on our limbs. I don't think either of us had
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  Speaker 1: had a very clear expectation of such rough handling as
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  Speaker 1: we had received. I struggled painfully to my feet, and
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  Speaker 1: now said I to look at the landscape of the moon.
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  Speaker 1: But it's tremendously dark cavore. The glass was dewy, and
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  Speaker 1: as I spoke, I wiped at it with my blanket.
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  Speaker 1: We are half an hour or so beyond the day,
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  Speaker 1: he said, We must wait. It was impossible to distinguish anything.
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  Speaker 1: We might have been in a sphere of steel, for
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  Speaker 1: all that we could see. My rubbing with the blanket
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  Speaker 1: simply smeared the glass, and as fast as I wiped
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  Speaker 1: it it became opaque again, with freshly condensed moisture mixed
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  Speaker 1: with it an increasing quantity of blanket hares. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: I ought not to have used the blanket. In my
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  Speaker 1: efforts to clear the glass. I slipped upon the damp
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  Speaker 1: surface and hurt my shin against one of the oxygen
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  Speaker 1: cylinders that protruded from our bail. The thing was exasperating,
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  Speaker 1: It was absurd. Here we were just arrived upon the
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  Speaker 1: moon amidst We knew not what wonders, and all we
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  Speaker 1: could see was the gray and streaming wall of the
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  Speaker 1: bubble in which we had come confound it. I said,
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  Speaker 1: but at this rate we might have stopped at home.
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  Speaker 1: And I squatted on the bail and shivered and drew
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  Speaker 1: my blanket closer about me. Abruptly, the moisture turned to
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  Speaker 1: spangles and fronds of frost. Can you reach the electric heater?
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  Speaker 1: Said Cavor, Yes, that black knob, or we shall freeze.
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  Speaker 1: I did not wait to be told twice, and now
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  Speaker 1: said I what are we to do? Wait? He said, wait.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, we shall have to wait until our air
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  Speaker 1: gets warm again, and then this glass will clear. We
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  Speaker 1: can't do anything till then. It's night here. Yet we
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  Speaker 1: must wait for the day to overtake us. Meanwhile, don't
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  Speaker 1: you feel hungry for a space? I did not answer him,
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  Speaker 1: but sat fretting. I turned reluctantly from the smeared puzzle
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  Speaker 1: of the glass and stared at his face. Yes, I said,
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  Speaker 1: I am hungry. I feel somehow enormously disappointed I had expected.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know what I had expected, but not this.
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  Speaker 1: I summoned my philosophy, and, rearranging my blanket about me,
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  Speaker 1: sat down on the bail again and began my first
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  Speaker 1: meal on the moon. I don't think I finished it.
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  Speaker 1: I forget presently, first in patches, then running rapidly together
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  Speaker 1: into wider spaces. Came the clearing of the glass came
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  Speaker 1: the drawing of the misty veil that hid the moon
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  Speaker 1: world from our eyes, we peered out upon the landscape
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  Speaker 1: of the Moon. End of chapter