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The First Men in the Moon Chapter 16 - Points of View · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter sixteen 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 sixteen, Points of View. The light grew stronger as
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  Speaker 1: we advanced. In a little time, it was nearly as
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  Speaker 1: strong as the phosphorescence on Cavour's legs Our tunnel was
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  Speaker 1: expanding into a cavern, and this new light was at
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  Speaker 1: the farther end of it. I perceived something that's set
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  Speaker 1: by hopes, leaping and bounding. Cavour I said, it comes
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  Speaker 1: from above. I am certain it comes from above. He
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  Speaker 1: made no answer, but herried on indisputably. It was a
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  Speaker 1: gray light, a silvery light. In another moment we were
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  Speaker 1: beneath it. It filtered down through a chink in the
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  Speaker 1: walls of the cavern, and as I stared up, drip
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  Speaker 1: came a drop of water upon my face. I started
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  Speaker 1: and stood aside. Drip fell another drop, quite audibly on
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  Speaker 1: the rocky floor. Cavor I said, if one of us
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  Speaker 1: lifts the other he can reach that crack. I'll lift you,
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  Speaker 1: he said, and incontinently hoisted me as though I was
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  Speaker 1: a baby. I thrust an arm into the crack, and
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  Speaker 1: just at my finger tips found a little ledge by
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  Speaker 1: which I could hold. I could see the white light
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  Speaker 1: was very much brighter now. I pulled myself up by
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  Speaker 1: two fingers with scarcely an effort, though on earth I
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  Speaker 1: weigh twelve stone, reached to a still higher corner of
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  Speaker 1: the rock, and so got my feet on the narrow ledge.
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  Speaker 1: I stood up and searched up the rocks with my fingers.
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  Speaker 1: The cleft broadened out upwardly. It's climbable, I said to Cavour.
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  Speaker 1: Can you jump up to my hand if I hold
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  Speaker 1: it down to you. I wedged myself between the sides
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  Speaker 1: of the cleft, rested knee and foot on the ledge,
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  Speaker 1: and extended a hand. I could not see Kavore, but
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  Speaker 1: I could hear the rustle of his movements as he
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  Speaker 1: crouched to spring, then whack, and he was hanging to
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  Speaker 1: my arm and no heavier than a kitten. I lugged
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  Speaker 1: him up until he had a hand on my ledge
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  Speaker 1: and could release me. Confound it, I said, any one
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  Speaker 1: could be a mountaineer on the moon, and so set
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  Speaker 1: myself in earnest to the climbing. For a few minutes
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  Speaker 1: I clambered steadily, and then I looked up again. The
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  Speaker 1: cleft opened out steadily, and the light was brighter. Only
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  Speaker 1: it was not daylight after all. In another moment I
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  Speaker 1: could see what it was, and at the sight I
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  Speaker 1: could have beaten my head against the rocks with disappointment,
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  Speaker 1: for I beheld simply an irregularly sloping open space, and
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  Speaker 1: all over its slanting floor stood a forest of little
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  Speaker 1: club shaped fungi, each shining gloriously with that pinkish silvery light.
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  Speaker 1: For a moment I stared at their soft radiance, then
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  Speaker 1: sprang forward and upward among them. I plucked up half
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  Speaker 1: a dozen and flung them against the rocks, and then
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  Speaker 1: sat down, laughing bitterly. As Kavor's ruddy face came into
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  Speaker 1: view it's phosphorescence again, I said, no need to hurry,
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  Speaker 1: sit down and make yourself at home. And as he
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  Speaker 1: spluttered over our disappointment, I began to lob more of
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  Speaker 1: these growths into the cleft. I thought it was daylight,
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  Speaker 1: he said, daylight, cried I daybreak sunset clouds and windy skies.
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  Speaker 1: Shall we ever see such things again? As I spoke,
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  Speaker 1: a little picture of our world seemed to rise before me,
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  Speaker 1: bright and little and clear, like the background of some
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  Speaker 1: old Italian picture. The sky that changes, and the sea
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  Speaker 1: that changes, and the hills and the green trees, and
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  Speaker 1: the towns and cities shining in the sun. Think of
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  Speaker 1: a wet roof at sunset, cavor, think of the windows
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  Speaker 1: of a westward house. He made no answer. Here we
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  Speaker 1: are burrowing in this beastly world that isn't a world
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  Speaker 1: with its inky ocean hidden in some abominable blackness below
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  Speaker 1: and outside that tore a day, and that death stillness
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  Speaker 1: of night, and all these things that are chasing us now,
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  Speaker 1: beastly men of leather, insect, men that come out of
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  Speaker 1: a nightmare. After all, they're right, What business have we
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  Speaker 1: here smashing them and disturbing their world? For all we know,
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  Speaker 1: the whole planet is up and after us. Already in
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  Speaker 1: a minute we may hear them whimpering and their gongs going.
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  Speaker 1: What are we to do? What are we to do? Here?
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  Speaker 1: We are as comfortable as snakes from jamracks loose in
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  Speaker 1: a surbiton villa. It was your fault, said Cavoor, My fault,
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  Speaker 1: I shouted, good Lord, I had an idea, curse your ideas.
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  Speaker 1: If we had refused to budge under those goads, Yes,
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  Speaker 1: they would have carried us over that bridge. Yes, they
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  Speaker 1: must have carried us from outside. I'd rather be carried
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  Speaker 1: by a fly across a ceiling. Good heavens. I resumed
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  Speaker 1: my destruction of the fungi. Then suddenly I saw something
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  Speaker 1: that struck me even then cavour I said, these chains
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  Speaker 1: are of gold. He was thinking intently with his hands
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  Speaker 1: gripping his cheeks. He turned his head slowly and stared
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  Speaker 1: at me, And when I had repeated my words at
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  Speaker 1: the twisted chain about his right hand, so they are,
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  Speaker 1: he said, so they are. His face lost its transitory
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  Speaker 1: interest even as he looked. He hesitated for a moment,
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  Speaker 1: then went on with his interrupted meditation. I sat for
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  Speaker 1: a space, puzzling over the fact that I had only
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  Speaker 1: just observed this, until I considered the blue light in
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  Speaker 1: which we had been, and which had taken all the
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  Speaker 1: color out of the metal. And from that discovery I
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  Speaker 1: also started upon a train of thought that carried me
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  Speaker 1: wide and far. I forgot that I had just been
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  Speaker 1: asking what business we had in the moon gold. It
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  Speaker 1: was Kavor who spoke first. It seems to me that
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  Speaker 1: there are two courses open to us well. Either we
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  Speaker 1: can attempt to make our way, fight our way if necessary,
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  Speaker 1: out to the exterior again, and then hunt for us
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  Speaker 1: fear until we find it, or the cold of the
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  Speaker 1: night comes to kill us. Or else he paused. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: I said, though I knew what was coming, we might
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  Speaker 1: attempt once more to establish some sort of understanding with
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  Speaker 1: the minds of the people in the moon. So far
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  Speaker 1: as I'm concerned, it's the first I doubt I don't
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  Speaker 1: you see, said Cavor. I do not think we can
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  Speaker 1: adjudge the Selenites by what we have seen of them.
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  Speaker 1: Their central world, their civilized world, will be far below
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  Speaker 1: in the profounder caverns about their sea. This region of
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  Speaker 1: the crust in which which we are is an outlying district,
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  Speaker 1: a pastoral region. At any rate, that is my interpretation.
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  Speaker 1: These Selenites we have seen may be only the equivalent
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  Speaker 1: of cowboys and engine tenders. Their use of goades in
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  Speaker 1: all probability moon calf goads, the lack of imagination they
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  Speaker 1: show in expecting us to be able to do just
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  Speaker 1: what they can do. Their indisputable brutality all seemed to
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  Speaker 1: point to something of that sort. But if we endured,
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  Speaker 1: neither of us could endure a six inch plank across
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  Speaker 1: the bottomless pit for very long, no, said Cavor. But
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  Speaker 1: then I won't, I said. He discovered a new line
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  Speaker 1: of possibilities. Well, suppose we got ourselves into some corner
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  Speaker 1: where we could defend ourselves against these hinds and laborers. If,
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  Speaker 1: for example, we could hold out for a week or so,
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  Speaker 1: it is probable that the news of our appearance would
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  Speaker 1: filter down to the more intelligent and populous parts. If
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  Speaker 1: they exist, they must exist, or whence came those tremendous machines?
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  Speaker 1: That's possible, But it's the worst of the two chances.
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  Speaker 1: We might write up inscriptions on walls. How do we
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  Speaker 1: know their eyes would see the sort of marks we
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  Speaker 1: made if we cut them? That's possible. Of course, I
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  Speaker 1: took up a new threat of thought. After all, I said,
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  Speaker 1: I suppose you don't think these celenites so infinitely wiser
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  Speaker 1: than men. They must know a lot more, or at
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  Speaker 1: least a lot of different things. Yes, But I hesitated.
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  Speaker 1: I think you'll quite admit, Kavor, that you're rather an
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  Speaker 1: exceptional man. How well, you're a rather lonely man have been,
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  Speaker 1: that is, you haven't married, never wanted to, but why
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  Speaker 1: And you never grew richer than you happened to be,
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  Speaker 1: never wanted that either. You've just rooted after knowledge. Well,
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  Speaker 1: a certain curiosity is natural, you think, so that's just it.
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  Speaker 1: You think every other mind wants to know. I remember
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  Speaker 1: once when I asked you why you conducted all these researches.
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  Speaker 1: You said you wanted your frs and to have the
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  Speaker 1: stuff called cavarete and things like that. You know perfectly
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  Speaker 1: well you didn't do it for that, But at the
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  Speaker 1: time my question took you by surprise, and you felt
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  Speaker 1: you ought to have something to look like a motive. Really,
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  Speaker 1: you conducted researches because you had to. It's your twist,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps it is, It isn't one man in a million
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  Speaker 1: has that twist. Most men want well various things, but
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  Speaker 1: very few want knowledge for its own sake. I don't
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  Speaker 1: I know perfectly well. Now, these Selenites seem to be
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  Speaker 1: a driving, busy sort of being. But how do you
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  Speaker 1: know that even the most intelligent will take an interest
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  Speaker 1: in us or our world. I don't believe they'll even
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  Speaker 1: know we have a world. They never come out at night.
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  Speaker 1: They'd freeze if they did. They've probably never seen any
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  Speaker 1: heavenly body at all except the blazing sun. How are
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  Speaker 1: they to know there is another world? What does it
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  Speaker 1: matter to them if they do? Well? Even if they
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  Speaker 1: have had a glimpse of a few stars, or even
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  Speaker 1: of the Earth crescent, What of that? Why should people
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  Speaker 1: living inside a planet trouble to observe that sort of thing?
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  Speaker 1: Men wouldn't have done it except for the seasons and sailing.
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  Speaker 1: Why should the moon people? Well, suppose there are few
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  Speaker 1: philosophers like yourself. They are just the very Selenites who
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  Speaker 1: will never have heard of our existence. Suppose a Selenite
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  Speaker 1: had dropped on the Earth when you were at Lympney,
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  Speaker 1: you'd have been the last man in the world to
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  Speaker 1: hear he had come. You never read a newspaper, You
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  Speaker 1: see the chances against you. Well, it's for these chances
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  Speaker 1: we're sitting here doing nothing while precious time is flying.
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  Speaker 1: I tell you we've got into a fix. We've come unarmed,
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  Speaker 1: we've lost our sphere, We've got no food. We've shown
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  Speaker 1: ourselves to the Selenites and made them think we're strange, strong,
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  Speaker 1: dangerous animals. And unless these Selenites are perfect fools, they'll
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  Speaker 1: set about now and haunt us till they find us.
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  Speaker 1: And when they find us, they'll try to take us
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  Speaker 1: if they can, and kill us if they can't. And
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  Speaker 1: that's the end of the matter. If they take us,
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  Speaker 1: they'll probably kill us through some misunderstanding after we're done
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  Speaker 1: for they may discuss us, perhaps, but we shan't get
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  Speaker 1: much fun out of that go on. On the other hand,
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  Speaker 1: here's gold knocking about like cast iron at home. If
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  Speaker 1: only we can get some of it back, If only
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  Speaker 1: we can find our sphere again before they do and
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  Speaker 1: get back, then yes, we might put the thing on
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  Speaker 1: a sounder footing, come back into bigger sphere with guns.
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  Speaker 1: Good lord, cried Cavore. As though that was horrible, I
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  Speaker 1: shied another luminous fungus down the cleft. Look here, Cavore,
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  Speaker 1: I said, I've half that voting power anyhow in this affair.
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  Speaker 1: And this is a case for a practical man. I'm
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  Speaker 1: a practical man and you are not. I'm not going
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  Speaker 1: to trust to Selenites and geometrical diagrams. If I can
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  Speaker 1: help it, that's all. Get back, drop all this secrecy,
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  Speaker 1: or most of it, and come again. He reflected, when
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  Speaker 1: I came to the Moon, he said, I ought to
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  Speaker 1: have come alone. The question before the meeting, I said,
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  Speaker 1: is how to get back to the sphere. For a
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  Speaker 1: time we nursed our knees in silence. Then he seemed
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  Speaker 1: to decide for my reasons, I think, he said, one
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  Speaker 1: can get data. It is clear that while the sun
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  Speaker 1: is on this side of the Moon, the air will
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  Speaker 1: be blowing through this planet's sponge from the dark side.
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  Speaker 1: Hither on this side, at any rate, the air will
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  Speaker 1: be expanding and flowing out of the moon caverns into
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  Speaker 1: the craters. Very well, there's a draft here, So there is,
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  Speaker 1: and that means that this is not a dead end.
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  Speaker 1: Somewhere behind us. This cleft goes on and up. The
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  Speaker 1: draft is blowing up, and that is the way we
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  Speaker 1: have to go. We try to get up any sort
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  Speaker 1: of chimney or gully there is. We shall not only
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  Speaker 1: get out of these passages where they are hunting for us.
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  Speaker 1: But suppose the gully is too narrow, we'll come down again. Shoo,
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  Speaker 1: I said, suddenly, what's that? We listened. At first it
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  Speaker 1: was an indistinct murmur, and then one picked out the
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  Speaker 1: clang of a gong. They must think we are moon calves,
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  Speaker 1: said I. To be frightened at that. They're coming along
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  Speaker 1: that passage, said k'voor. They must be. They'll not think
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  Speaker 1: of the cleft. They'll go past. I listened again for
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  Speaker 1: a space. This time I whispered, they're likely to have
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  Speaker 1: some sort of weapon. Then suddenly I sprang to my feet.
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  Speaker 1: Good Heaven's k'vore, I cried, But they will, they'll see
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  Speaker 1: the fungi I've been pitching down. They'll I didn't finish
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  Speaker 1: my sentence. I turned about and made a leap over
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  Speaker 1: the fungus tops towards the upper end of the cavity.
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  Speaker 1: I saw that the space turned upward and became a
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  Speaker 1: drafty cleft again, ascending to impenetrable darkness. I was about
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  Speaker 1: to clamber up into this, and then, with a happy inspiration,
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  Speaker 1: turned back. What are you doing, asked kvoor. Go On,
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  Speaker 1: said I, and went back and got two of the
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  Speaker 1: shining fungi, and putting one into the breast pocket of
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  Speaker 1: my flannel jacket, so that it stuck out to light
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  Speaker 1: our climbing went back with the other for Cavour. The
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  Speaker 1: noise of the Selenites was now so loud that it
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  Speaker 1: seemed they must be already beneath the cleft. But it
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  Speaker 1: might be they would have difficulty in clambering into it,
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  Speaker 1: or might hesitate to ascend it against our possible resistance.
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  Speaker 1: At any rate, we had now the comforting knowledge of
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  Speaker 1: the enormous muscular superiority our berth in another planet gave us.
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  Speaker 1: In another minute, I was clambering with gigantic vigor after
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  Speaker 1: Cavor's blue lit heels end of chapter