Latest / The H. G. Wells Library / The First Men in the Moon Chapter 15 - The Giddy Bridge

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The First Men in the Moon Chapter 15 - The Giddy Bridge · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter fifteen 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 as by Mark Smith of Simpsonville,
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  Speaker 1: South Carolina. The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter fifteen, The Giddy Bridge. Just for a moment, that
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  Speaker 1: hostile pause endured. I suppose that both we and the
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  Speaker 1: Selenites did some very rapid thinking. My clearest impression was
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  Speaker 1: that there was nothing to put my back against, and
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  Speaker 1: that we were bound to be surrounded and killed. The
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  Speaker 1: overwhelming folly of our presence there loomed over me in black,
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  Speaker 1: enormous reproach. Why had I ever launched myself on this
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  Speaker 1: mad inhuman expedition. Cavor came to my side and laid
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  Speaker 1: his hand on my arm. His pale and terrified face
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  Speaker 1: was ghastly in the blue light. We can't do anything,
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  Speaker 1: he said, it's a mistake. They don't understand. We must
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  Speaker 1: go as they want us to go. I looked down
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  Speaker 1: at him, and then at the fresh Slemnites, who were
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  Speaker 1: coming to help their fellows. If I had my hands
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  Speaker 1: free it's no use, he panted. No, we'll go, and
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  Speaker 1: he turned about and led the way in the direction
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  Speaker 1: that had been indicated for us. I followed, trying to
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  Speaker 1: look as subdued as possible, and feeling at the chains
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  Speaker 1: about my wrists. My blood was boiling. I noted nothing
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  Speaker 1: more of that cavern, though it seemed to take a
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  Speaker 1: long time before we had marched across it, Or if
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  Speaker 1: I noted anything, I forgot it as I saw it.
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  Speaker 1: My thoughts were concentrated, I think upon my chain and
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  Speaker 1: the Selenites, and particularly upon the helmeted ones were the Goads.
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  Speaker 1: At first they marched parallel with us and at a
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  Speaker 1: respectful distance, but presently they were overtaken by three others,
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  Speaker 1: and then they drew nearer until they were within arm's length. Again.
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  Speaker 1: I winced like a beaten horse as they came near
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  Speaker 1: to us. The shorter, thicker Selenite marched it first on
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  Speaker 1: our right flank, but presently came in front of us again.
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  Speaker 1: How well the picture of that grouping has bitten into
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  Speaker 1: my brain. The back of Cavor's downcast head just in
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  Speaker 1: front of me, and the dejected droop of his shoulders,
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  Speaker 1: and our guides gaping visage, perpetually jerking about him, and
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  Speaker 1: the goad bearers on either side, watchful yet open mouthed,
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  Speaker 1: a blue monochrome. And after all, I do remember one
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  Speaker 1: other thing besides the purely personal affair, which is that
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  Speaker 1: a sort of gutter came presently across the floor of
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  Speaker 1: the cavern and then ran along by the side of
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  Speaker 1: the path of rock. We followed, and it was full
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  Speaker 1: of that same bright blue luminous stuff that flowed out
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  Speaker 1: of the great machine. I walked close beside it, and
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  Speaker 1: I can testify it radiated not a particle of heat.
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  Speaker 1: It was brightly shining, and yet it was neither warmer
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  Speaker 1: nor colder than anything else in the cavern. Clang, clang, clang.
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  Speaker 1: We passed right under the thumping levers of another vast machine,
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  Speaker 1: and so came at last to a wide tunnel in
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  Speaker 1: which we could even hear the pad pad of our
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  Speaker 1: shoeless feet, and which, save for the trickling thread of
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  Speaker 1: blue to the right of us, was quite unlit. The
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  Speaker 1: shadows made gigantic travesties of our shapes and those of
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  Speaker 1: the Selenites on the irregular wall and roof of the tunnel. Ever,
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  Speaker 1: and again, crystals in the walls of the tunnel scintillated
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  Speaker 1: like gems. Ever and again, the tunnel expanded into a
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  Speaker 1: stalactitic cavern, or gave off branches that vanished into darkness.
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  Speaker 1: We seemed to be marching down that tunnel for a
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  Speaker 1: long time, trickle trickle, want the flowing light very softly,
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  Speaker 1: and our footfalls and their echoes made an irregular paddle battle.
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  Speaker 1: My mind settled down to the question of my chains.
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  Speaker 1: If I were to slip off one turn so, and
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  Speaker 1: then to twist it so, if I tried to do
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  Speaker 1: it very gradually, would they see I was slipping my
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  Speaker 1: wrist out of the looser turn. If they did, what
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  Speaker 1: would they do? Bedford said, cavor it goes down, it
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  Speaker 1: keeps on going down. His remark roused me from my
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  Speaker 1: sullen preoccupation. If they wanted to kill us, he said,
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  Speaker 1: dropping back to come level with me, there is no
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  Speaker 1: reason reason why they should not have done it. No,
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  Speaker 1: I admitted, that's true. They don't understand us, he said.
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  Speaker 1: They think we are merely strange animals, some wild sort
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  Speaker 1: of moon calf birth. Perhaps it will be only when
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  Speaker 1: they have observed us better that they will begin to
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  Speaker 1: think we have minds when you trace those geometrical problems,
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  Speaker 1: said I. It may be that we tramped on for
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  Speaker 1: a space you see, said Cavor. These may be slenites
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  Speaker 1: of a lower class, the infernal fools, said I, viciously
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  Speaker 1: glancing at their exasperating faces. If we endure what they
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  Speaker 1: do to us, we've got to endure it, said I.
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  Speaker 1: There may be others less stupid. This is the mere
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  Speaker 1: outer fringe of their world. It must go down and
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  Speaker 1: down cavern passage tunnel, down at last to the sea,
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  Speaker 1: hundreds of miles below. His words. Maybe think of the
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  Speaker 1: mile or so of rock and tunnel that might be
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  Speaker 1: over our heads already. It was like a weight dropping
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  Speaker 1: on my shoulders. Away from the sun and air, I said,
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  Speaker 1: even a mine half a mile deep is stuffy. I remarked,
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  Speaker 1: this is not anyhow, It's probable ventilation. The air would
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  Speaker 1: blow from the dark side of the moon to the sunlit,
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  Speaker 1: and all the carbonic acid would well out there and
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  Speaker 1: feed those plants up this tunnel. For example, there is
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  Speaker 1: quite a breeze. And what a world it must be.
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  Speaker 1: The earnest we have in that shaft, and those machines,
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  Speaker 1: and the goad, I said, don't forget the goad. He
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  Speaker 1: walked a little in front of me for a time.
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  Speaker 1: Even that goad, he said, Well, I was angry at
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  Speaker 1: the time, but it was perhaps necessary. We should get on.
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  Speaker 1: They have different skins and probably different nerves. They may
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  Speaker 1: not understand our objection, just as a being from Mars
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  Speaker 1: might not like our earthly habit of nudging. They'd better
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  Speaker 1: be careful how they nudge me, and about that geometry.
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  Speaker 1: After all, their way is a way of understanding too.
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  Speaker 1: They begin with the elements of life, and not of thought, food, compulsion, pain.
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  Speaker 1: They strike it fundamentals. There's no doubt about that, I said.
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  Speaker 1: He went on to talk of the enormous and wonderful
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  Speaker 1: world into which we were being taken. I realized slowly
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  Speaker 1: from his tone that even now he was not absolutely
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  Speaker 1: in despair at the prospect of going ever deeper into
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  Speaker 1: this in human planet. Burrow. His mind ran on machines
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  Speaker 1: and invention, to the exclusion of a thousand dark things
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  Speaker 1: that beset me. It wasn't that he intended to make
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  Speaker 1: any use of these things. He simply wanted to know them.
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  Speaker 1: After all, he said, this is a tremendous occasion. It
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  Speaker 1: is the meaning of two worlds. What are we going
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  Speaker 1: to see? Think of what is below us? Here? We
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  Speaker 1: shan't see much if the light isn't better, I remarked,
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  Speaker 1: this is only the outer crust. Down below. On this
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  Speaker 1: scale there will be everything. Do you notice how different
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  Speaker 1: they seem one from another? The story we shall take
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  Speaker 1: back some rare sort of animal, I said, might comfort
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  Speaker 1: himself in that way while they were bringing him to
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  Speaker 1: the zoo. It doesn't follow that we are going to
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  Speaker 1: be shown all these things. When they find we have
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  Speaker 1: reasoned minds, said Cavour, they will want to learn about
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  Speaker 1: the earth, even if they have no generous emotions. They
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  Speaker 1: will teach in order to learn, and the things they
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  Speaker 1: must know, the unanticipated things. He went on to speculate
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  Speaker 1: on the possibility of their knowing things he had never
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  Speaker 1: hoped to learn on earth, speculating in that way with
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  Speaker 1: a raw wound from that goat already in his skin,
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  Speaker 1: much that he said, I forget, for my attention was
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  Speaker 1: drawn to the fact that the tunnel along which we
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  Speaker 1: have been marching was opening out wider and wider. We seemed,
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  Speaker 1: from the feeling of the air, to be going out
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  Speaker 1: into a huge space. But how big the space might
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  Speaker 1: really be, we could not tell, because it was unlit.
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  Speaker 1: Our little stream of light ran in a dwindling thread
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  Speaker 1: and vanished far ahead. Presently the rocky walls had vanished altogether.
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  Speaker 1: On either hand. There was nothing to be seen but
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  Speaker 1: the path in front of us and the trickling, hurrying
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  Speaker 1: rivulet of blue phosphorescence. The figures of Cavor and the
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  Speaker 1: guiding Selenite marched before me. The sides of their legs
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  Speaker 1: and heads that were towards the rivulet were clear and
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  Speaker 1: bright blue. Their darkened sides, now that the reflection of
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  Speaker 1: the tunnel wall no longer lit them, merged indistinguishably in
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  Speaker 1: the darkness beyond. And soon I perceived that we were
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  Speaker 1: approaching a declivity of some sort, because the little blue
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  Speaker 1: stream dipped suddenly out of sight. In another moment, as
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  Speaker 1: it seemed we had reached the edge, the shining stream
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  Speaker 1: gave one meander of hesitation, and then rushed over. It
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  Speaker 1: fell to a depth at which the sound of its
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  Speaker 1: descent was absolutely lost to us. Far below was a
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  Speaker 1: bluish glow, a sort of blue mist at an infinite
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  Speaker 1: distance below, and the darkness the stream dropped out of
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  Speaker 1: became utterly void and black, save that a thing like
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  Speaker 1: a plank projected from the edge of the cliff and
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  Speaker 1: stretched out and faded and vanished altogether. There was a
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  Speaker 1: warm air blowing up out of the gulf. For a moment,
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  Speaker 1: I and Cavor stood as near the edge as we dared,
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  Speaker 1: peering into a blue tinge profundity. And then our guide
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  Speaker 1: was pulling at my arm. Then he left me and
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  Speaker 1: walked to the end of that plank and stepped upon it,
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  Speaker 1: looking back. Then when he perceived we watched him, he
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  Speaker 1: turned about and went on along it, walking as surely
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  Speaker 1: as though he was on firm earth. For a moment
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  Speaker 1: his form was indistinct. Then he became a blue blur,
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  Speaker 1: and then vanished into the obscurity. I became aware of
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  Speaker 1: some vague shape looming darkly out at the black There
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  Speaker 1: was a pause, surely, said Kavoor. One of the other
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  Speaker 1: Selenites walked a few paces out upon the plank and
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  Speaker 1: turned and looked back at us unconcernedly. The others stood
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  Speaker 1: ready to follow after us. Our guide's expectant figure reappeared.
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  Speaker 1: He was returning to see why we had not advanced
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  Speaker 1: what is that beyond there? I asked. I can't see.
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  Speaker 1: We can't cross this at any price, said I. I
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  Speaker 1: could not go three steps on it, said Cavour, even
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  Speaker 1: with my hands free. We looked at each other's drawn
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  Speaker 1: faces in blank consternation. They can't know what it is
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  Speaker 1: to be giddy, said Cavour. It's quite impossible for us
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  Speaker 1: to walk that plank. I don't believe they see as
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  Speaker 1: we do. I've been watching them. I wonder if they
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  Speaker 1: know this is simply blackness for us. How can we
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  Speaker 1: make them understand? Anyhow? We must make them understand. I
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  Speaker 1: think we said these things with a vague half hope
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  Speaker 1: the Selenites might somehow understand. I knew quite clearly that
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  Speaker 1: all that was needed was an explanation. Then, as I
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  Speaker 1: saw their faces, I realized that an explanation was impossible.
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  Speaker 1: Just here it was that our resemblances were not going
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  Speaker 1: to abridge our differences. Well, I wasn't going to walk
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  Speaker 1: the plank anyhow. I slipped my wrist very quickly out
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  Speaker 1: of the coil of chain that was loose, and then
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  Speaker 1: began to twist my wrists in opposite directions. I was
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  Speaker 1: standing nearest to the bridge, and as I did this.
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  Speaker 1: Two of the Selenites laid hold of me and pulled
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  Speaker 1: me gently towards it. I shook my head violently. No go,
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  Speaker 1: I said, no use, you don't understand. Another Selenite added
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  Speaker 1: his compulsion. I was forced to step forward. I've got
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  Speaker 1: an idea, said Cavor, But I knew his ideas. Look here,
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  Speaker 1: I exclaimed to the Selenites. Steady on, it's all very
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  Speaker 1: well for you. I sprang round upon my heel. I
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  Speaker 1: burst out into curses, for one of the armed Selenites
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  Speaker 1: had stabbed me behind with his goad. I wrenched my
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  Speaker 1: wrists free from the little tentacles that held them. I
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  Speaker 1: turned on the goad bearer. Confound you, I cried, I've
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  Speaker 1: warned you of that. What on earth do you think
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  Speaker 1: I'm made of to stick that into me? If you
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  Speaker 1: touch me again? By way of answer, he pricked me forthwith.
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  Speaker 1: I heard Cavor's voice in alarm and entreaty. Even then.
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  Speaker 1: I think he wanted to compromise with these creatures, I
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  Speaker 1: say Bedford. He cried, I know a way. But the
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  Speaker 1: sting of that second stab seemed to set free some
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  Speaker 1: pent up reserve of energy in my being. Instantly, the
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  Speaker 1: link of the wrist chain snapped, and with it snapped
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  Speaker 1: all considerations that had held us unresisting in the hands
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  Speaker 1: of these moon creatures. For that second at least, I
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  Speaker 1: was mad with fear and anger. I took no thought
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  Speaker 1: of consequences. I hit straight out at the face of
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  Speaker 1: the thing with the goat. The chain was twisted round
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  Speaker 1: my fist. There came another of those beastly surprises of
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  Speaker 1: which the moon world is full. My mailed hand seemed
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  Speaker 1: to go clean through him. He smashed, like like some
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  Speaker 1: softish sort of sweet with liquid in it. He broke
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  Speaker 1: right in. He squelched and splashed. It was like hitting
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  Speaker 1: a damp toadstool. The flimsy body went spinning a dozen
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  Speaker 1: yards and fell with a flabby impact. I was astonished.
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  Speaker 1: I was incredulous that any living thing could be so flimsy.
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  Speaker 1: For an instant I could have believed the whole thing
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  Speaker 1: a dream. Then it had become real and imminent again.
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  Speaker 1: Neither Kavor nor the other Selenites seemed to have done
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  Speaker 1: anything from the time when I had turned about to
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  Speaker 1: the time when the dead Selenite hit the ground. Everyone
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  Speaker 1: stood back from us too, Everyone alert that arrest seemed
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  Speaker 1: to last at least a second. After the Selenite was down.
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  Speaker 1: Everyone must have been taking the thing in. I seemed
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  Speaker 1: to remember myself standing with my arm half retracted, trying
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  Speaker 1: also to take it in. What next clamored my brain?
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  Speaker 1: What next? Then, in a moment everyone was moving. I
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  Speaker 1: perceived we must get our chains loose, and that before
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  Speaker 1: we could do this, these Selenites had to be beaten off.
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  Speaker 1: I faced towards the group of the three goad bearers. Instantly,
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  Speaker 1: one threw his goat at me. It swished over my head,
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  Speaker 1: and I suppose went flying into the abyss behind. I
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  Speaker 1: leaped right at him with all my might. As the
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  Speaker 1: goad flew over me. He turned to run as I jumped,
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  Speaker 1: and I bore him to the ground. Came down right
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  Speaker 1: upon him, and slipped upon his smashed body and fell.
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  Speaker 1: He seemed to wriggle under my foot. I came into
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  Speaker 1: a sitting position, and on every hand the blue backs
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  Speaker 1: of the Selenites were receding into the darkness. I bent
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  Speaker 1: a link by main force and untwisted the chain that
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  Speaker 1: had hampered me about the ankles, and sprang to my
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  Speaker 1: feet with a chain in my hand. Another goad flung
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  Speaker 1: javelin wise whistled by me, and I made a rush
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  Speaker 1: towards the darkness out of which it had come. Then
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  Speaker 1: I turned back towards Kvor, who was still standing in
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  Speaker 1: the light of the rivulet near the gulf, convulsively busy
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  Speaker 1: with his wrists and at the same time jabbering nonsense
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  Speaker 1: about his idea. Come on, I cried my hands, he answered. Then,
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  Speaker 1: realizing that I dared not run back to him because
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  Speaker 1: my ill calculated steps might carry me over the edge,
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  Speaker 1: he came shuffling towards me with his hands held out
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  Speaker 1: before him. Gripped his chains at once to unfasten them.
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  Speaker 1: Where are they, he panted, Run away, they'll come back.
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  Speaker 1: They're throwing things. Which way shall we go by the
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  Speaker 1: light to that tunnel? Eh? Yes, said I, and his
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  Speaker 1: hands were free. I dropped on my knees and fell
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  Speaker 1: to work on his ankle bonds. Whack came something I
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  Speaker 1: know not what, and splashed the livid streamlet into drops
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  Speaker 1: about us. Far away on our right, a piping and
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  Speaker 1: whistling began. I whipped the chain off his feet and
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  Speaker 1: put it in his hand. Hit with that, I said,
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  Speaker 1: and without waiting for an answer, set off in big
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  Speaker 1: bounds along the path by which we had come. I
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  Speaker 1: had a nasty sort of feeling that these things could
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  Speaker 1: jump out of the darkness onto my back. I heard
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: the impact of his leaps come following after me. We
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  Speaker 1: ran in vast strides. But that running, you must understand,
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  Speaker 1: wasn't altogether different thing from any running on Earth. On Earth,
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  Speaker 1: one leaps and almost instantly hits the ground again, but
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  Speaker 1: on the Moon, because of its weaker pull, one shot
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  Speaker 1: through the air for several seconds before one came to Earth.
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  Speaker 1: In spite of our violent hurry. This gave an effect
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  Speaker 1: of long pauses, pauses in which one might have counted
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  Speaker 1: seven or eight step and one soared off. All sorts
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  Speaker 1: of questions ran through my mind. Where are the Selenites?
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  Speaker 1: What will they do? Shall we ever get to that
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  Speaker 1: tunnel is cavor far behind? Are they likely to cut
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  Speaker 1: him off? Then whack stride and off again for another step.
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  Speaker 1: I saw a Selenite running in front of me, his
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  Speaker 1: legs going exactly as a man's would go on Earth.
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  Speaker 1: Saw him glance over his shoulder, and heard him shriek
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  Speaker 1: as he ran aside out of my way into the darkness.
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  Speaker 1: He was, I think our guide, but I'm not sure.
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  Speaker 1: Then in another vast stride, the walls of rock had
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  Speaker 1: come into view on either hand, and in two more strides,
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  Speaker 1: I was in the tunnel and tampering my pace to
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  Speaker 1: its low roof. I went on to a bend, then
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  Speaker 1: stopped and turned back and plug, plug plug. Cavore came
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  Speaker 1: into view, splashing into the stream of blue light at
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  Speaker 1: every stride, and grew larger and blundered into me. We
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: stood clutching each other for a moment. At least we
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  Speaker 1: had shaken off our captors and were alone. We were
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  Speaker 1: both very much out of breath. We spoke in panting
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  Speaker 1: broken sentences. You spoil it all, panted Cavour. Nonsense, I cried.
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  Speaker 1: It was that or death. What are we to do? Hide?
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  Speaker 1: How can we? It's dark enough? But where up one
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  Speaker 1: of these side caverns? And then think right? Come on?
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  Speaker 1: We strode on, and presently came to a radiating dark cavern.
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  Speaker 1: Cavor was in front. He hesitated and chose a black
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  Speaker 1: mouth that seemed to promise good hiding. He went towards
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  Speaker 1: it and turned It's dark, He said, your legs and
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  Speaker 1: feet will light us. You're wet with that luminous stuff.
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  Speaker 1: But a tumult of sounds, and in particular a sound
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: like a clanging gong advancing up the main tunnel, became audible.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: It was horribly suggestive of a tumultuous pursuit. We made
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: a bolt for the unlit side cavern forthwith As we
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: ran along it, our way was lit by the irradiation
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: of Kavore's legs. It's lucky, I panted, they took off
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: our boots, or we should fill this place with clatter.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: On we rushed, taking as small steps as we could
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: to avoid striking the roof of the cavern. After a
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: time we seemed to be gaining on the uproar, It
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: became muffled, it dwindled, it died away. I stopped and
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: looked back, and I heard the pad pad of Kavore's
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: feet receding. Then he stopped, also Bedford. He whispered, there's
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: a sort of light in front of us. I looked,
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: and at first could see nothing. Then I perceived his
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: head and shoulders dimly outlined against a fainter darkness. I
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: saw also that this mitigation of the darkness was not blue,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: as all the other light within the moon had been
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: but a pallid gray, a very vague, faint white, the
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: daylight color. Cavoor noted this difference as soon or sooner
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: than I did, and I think too that it filled
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: him with much the same wild hope. Bedford. He whispered,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: and his voice trembled that light. It is possible he
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: did not dare to say the thing he hoped. There
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: came a pause. Suddenly I knew, by the sound of
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: his feet that he was striding toward that pallor. I
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: followed him with a beating heart. End of Chapter