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The First Men in the Moon Chapter 17 - The Fight in the Cave of the Moon Butchers · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter seventeen 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 Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter seventeen, The Fight in the Cave of the Moon Butchers.
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  Speaker 1: I do not know how far we clambered before we
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  Speaker 1: came to the grating. It may be we ascended only
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  Speaker 1: a few hundred feet, but at the time it seemed
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  Speaker 1: to me we might have hauled and jammed and hopped
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  Speaker 1: and wedged ourselves through a mile or more of vertical ascent.
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  Speaker 1: Whenever I recall that time, there comes into my head
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  Speaker 1: the heavy clank of our golden chains that followed every movement.
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  Speaker 1: Very soon my knuckles and knees were raw, and I
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  Speaker 1: had a bruise on one cheek. After a time, the
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  Speaker 1: first violence of our efforts diminished, and our movements became
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  Speaker 1: more deliberate and less painful. The noise of the pursuing
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  Speaker 1: Selenites had died away altogether. It seemed almost as though
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  Speaker 1: they had not traced us up the crack, after all,
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  Speaker 1: in spite of the tell tale heap of broken fungi
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  Speaker 1: that must have lain beneath it. At times the cleft
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  Speaker 1: narrowed so much that we could scarce squeeze up it.
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  Speaker 1: At others it expanded into great, droosy cavities studded with
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  Speaker 1: prickly crystals, or thickly beset with dull, shining fungoid pimples.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes it twisted spirally, and at other times slanted down
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  Speaker 1: nearly to the horizontal direction. Ever and again there was
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  Speaker 1: the intermittent drip and trickle of water by us. Once
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  Speaker 1: or twice, it seemed to us that small living things
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  Speaker 1: had rustled out of our reach. But what they were
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  Speaker 1: we never saw. They may have been venomous beast for
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  Speaker 1: all I know, but they did us no harm. And
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  Speaker 1: we were now tuned to a pitch when a weird
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  Speaker 1: creeping thing more or less mattered little, and at last,
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  Speaker 1: far above came the familiar bluish light again, And then
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  Speaker 1: we saw that it filtered through a grating that barred
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  Speaker 1: our way. We whispered as we pointed this out to
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  Speaker 1: one another, and became more and more cautious in our
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  Speaker 1: ascent Presently we were close under the grating, and by
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  Speaker 1: pressing my face against its bars, I could see a
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  Speaker 1: limited portion of the cavern beyond. It was clearly a
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  Speaker 1: large space, and lit, no doubt by some rivulet of
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  Speaker 1: the same blue light that we had seen flow from
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  Speaker 1: the beating machinery. An intermittent trickle of water dropped ever
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  Speaker 1: and again between the bars near my face. My first
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  Speaker 1: endeavor was naturally to see what might be upon the
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  Speaker 1: floor of the cavern, but our grating lay in a
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  Speaker 1: depression whose rim hid all this from our eyes. Our
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  Speaker 1: foiled attention then fell back upon the suggestion of the
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  Speaker 1: various sounds we heard, and presently my eye caught a
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  Speaker 1: number of faint shadows that played across the dim roof
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  Speaker 1: far overhead. Indisputably, there were several selenites, perhaps a considerable number,
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  Speaker 1: in the space, for we could hear the noises of
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  Speaker 1: their intercourse, and faint sounds that I identified as their footfalls.
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  Speaker 1: There was also a succession of regularly repeated sounds chid, chid, chid,
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  Speaker 1: which began and ceased suggestive of a knife or spade
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  Speaker 1: hacking at some soft substance. Then came a clank, as
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  Speaker 1: if of chains a whistle and a rumble, as of
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  Speaker 1: a truck running over a hollowed place, and then again
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  Speaker 1: that chid chid Chid resumed. The shadows told of shapes
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  Speaker 1: that moved quickly and rhythmically in agreement with that regular sound,
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  Speaker 1: and rested when it ceased. We put our heads close
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  Speaker 1: together and began to discuss these things in noiseless whispers.
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  Speaker 1: They are occupied, I said, they are occupied in some way. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: they're not seeking us or thinking of us. Perhaps they
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  Speaker 1: have not heard of us. Those others are hunting about below.
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  Speaker 1: If suddenly we appeared here. We looked at one another,
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  Speaker 1: there might be chance to parley, said cavor No, I
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  Speaker 1: said not, as we are for a space. We remained,
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  Speaker 1: each occupied by his own thoughts. Chid chid Chid went
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  Speaker 1: the chipping, and the shadows moved to and fro. I
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  Speaker 1: looked at the grating. It's flimsy, I said, we might
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  Speaker 1: bend two of the bars and crawl through. We wasted
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  Speaker 1: the little time in vague discussion. Then I took one
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  Speaker 1: of the bars in both hands and got my feet
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  Speaker 1: up against the rock until they were almost on a
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  Speaker 1: level with my head, and so thrust against the bar.
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  Speaker 1: It bent so suddenly that I almost slipped. I clambered
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  Speaker 1: about and bent the adjacent bar in the opposite direction,
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  Speaker 1: and then took the luminous fungus from my pocket and
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  Speaker 1: dropped it down the fissure. Don't do anything hastily, whispered Cavour,
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  Speaker 1: as I twisted myself up through the opening I had enlarged.
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  Speaker 1: I had a glimpse of busy figures as I came
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  Speaker 1: through the grating, and immediately bent down, so that the
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  Speaker 1: rim of the depression in which the grating lay hid
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  Speaker 1: me from their eyes, and so lay flat, signaling advice
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  Speaker 1: to Cavore, as he also prepared to come through. Presently,
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  Speaker 1: we were side by side in the depression, peering over
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  Speaker 1: the edge at the cavern and its occupants. It was
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  Speaker 1: a much larger cavern than we had supposed from our
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  Speaker 1: first glimpse of it, and we looked up from the
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  Speaker 1: lowest portion of its sloping floor. It widened out as
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  Speaker 1: it receded from us, and its roof came down and
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  Speaker 1: hid the remoter portion altogether, and lying in a line
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  Speaker 1: along its length, vanishing at last. Far away in that
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  Speaker 1: tremendous perspective were a number of huge shapes, huge pallid
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  Speaker 1: hulls upon which the Selenites were busy. At first they
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  Speaker 1: seemed big white cylinders of vague import. Then I noted
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  Speaker 1: the heads upon them, lying towards us, eyeless and skinless,
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  Speaker 1: like the heads of sheep at a butcher's, and perceived
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  Speaker 1: they were the carcasses of moon calves being cut up,
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  Speaker 1: much as the crew of a whaler might cut up
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  Speaker 1: a moored whale. They were cutting off the flesh in strips,
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  Speaker 1: and on some of the farther trunks the white ribs
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  Speaker 1: were showing. It was the sound of their hatchets that
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  Speaker 1: made that chid. Some way away, a thing like a
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  Speaker 1: trolley cable drawn and loaded with chunks of lax meat,
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  Speaker 1: was running up the slope of the cavern floor. This enormous,
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  Speaker 1: long avenue of hulls that were destined to be food
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  Speaker 1: gave us a sense of the vast populousness of the
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  Speaker 1: moon world, second only to the effect of our first
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  Speaker 1: glimpse down the shaft. It seemed to me at first
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  Speaker 1: that the cell knights must be standing on trestles supported planks,
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  Speaker 1: And then I saw that the planks and supports and
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  Speaker 1: the hatchets were really of the same leaden hue as
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  Speaker 1: my fetters had seen before white light came to bear
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  Speaker 1: on them. A number of very thick looking crowbars lay
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  Speaker 1: about the floor and had apparently assisted to turn the
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  Speaker 1: dead mooncalf over on its side. They were perhaps six
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  Speaker 1: feet long, with shaped handles very tempting looking weapons. The
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  Speaker 1: whole place was lit by three transverse streams of the
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  Speaker 1: blue fluid. Footnote. I do not remember seeing any wooden
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  Speaker 1: things on the moon doors tables. Everything corresponding to our
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  Speaker 1: terrestrial joinery was made of metal, and I believe for
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  Speaker 1: the most part of gold, which as a metal, would
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  Speaker 1: of course naturally recommend itself, other things being equal on
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  Speaker 1: account of the ease in working it, and its toughness
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  Speaker 1: and durability. And a footnote. We lay for a long time,
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  Speaker 1: noting all these things in silence, well, said Kavor. At
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  Speaker 1: last I crouched over and turned to him. I had
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  Speaker 1: come upon a brilliant idea. Unless they lowered those bodies
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  Speaker 1: by a crane, I said, we must be nearer the
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  Speaker 1: surface than I thought. Why the mooncalf doesn't hop, and
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  Speaker 1: it hasn't got wings. We peered over the edge of
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  Speaker 1: the hollow again. I wonder now he began, after all
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  Speaker 1: we have never gone far from the surface. I stopped
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  Speaker 1: him by a grip on his arm. I had heard
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  Speaker 1: a noise from the cleft below us. We twisted ourselves
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  Speaker 1: about and lay as still as death, with every sense alert,
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  Speaker 1: and a little while I did not doubt that something
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  Speaker 1: was quietly ascending the cleft, very slowly and quite noiselessly.
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  Speaker 1: I assured myself of a good grip on my chain
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  Speaker 1: and waited for that something to appear. Just look at
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  Speaker 1: those chaps with the hatchets again, I said, they're all right,
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  Speaker 1: said Cavor. I took a sort of provisional aim at
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  Speaker 1: the gap and the grating. I could hear now quite distinctly,
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  Speaker 1: the soft twittering of the ascending Selenites, the dab of
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  Speaker 1: their hands against the rock, and the falling of dust
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  Speaker 1: from their grips as they clambered. Then I could see
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  Speaker 1: that there was something moving dimly in the blackness below
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  Speaker 1: the grating, But what it might be I could not distinguish.
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  Speaker 1: The whole thing seemed to hang fire just for a moment.
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  Speaker 1: Then smash. I had sprung to my feet, struck savagely
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  Speaker 1: at something that had flashed out at me. It was
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  Speaker 1: the keen point of a spear. I have thought since
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  Speaker 1: that its length in the narrowness of the cleft must
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  Speaker 1: have prevented its being slope to reach me. Anyhow, it
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  Speaker 1: shot out from the grating like the tongue of a snake,
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  Speaker 1: and missed, and flew back and flashed again. But the
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  Speaker 1: second time I snatched and caught it and wrenched it away,
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  Speaker 1: but not before another had darted ineffectually at me. I
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  Speaker 1: shouted with triumph as I felt the hold of the
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  Speaker 1: Selenit resist my pull for a moment and give, And
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  Speaker 1: then I was jabbing down through the bars amidst squeals
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  Speaker 1: from the darkness, and Cavor had snapped off the other
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  Speaker 1: spear and was jabbing and flourishing it beside me and
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  Speaker 1: making inefficient jabs. Clang, clang, came up through the grating,
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  Speaker 1: and then an axe hurtled through the air and whacked
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  Speaker 1: against the rocks beyond, to remind me of the fleshers
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  Speaker 1: at the carcasses up in the cavern. I turned and
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  Speaker 1: they were all coming towards us in open order, waving
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  Speaker 1: their axes. They were short, thick, little beggars with long arms,
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  Speaker 1: strikingly different from the ones we had seen before. If
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  Speaker 1: they had not heard of us before, they must have
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  Speaker 1: realized the situation with incredible swiftness. I stared at them
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  Speaker 1: for a moment, spear in hand guard the grating cavor.
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  Speaker 1: I cried, howled to intimidate them, and rushed to meet them.
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  Speaker 1: Two of them missed with their hatchets, and the rest
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  Speaker 1: fled incontinently. Then the two also were spreading away up
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  Speaker 1: the cavern, with hands clenched and heads down. I never
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  Speaker 1: saw men run like them. I knew the spear I
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  Speaker 1: had was no good for me. It was thin and flimsy,
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  Speaker 1: only effectual for thrust, and too long for a quick recover.
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  Speaker 1: So I only chased the Selenites as far as as
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  Speaker 1: the first carcass, and stopped there and picked up one
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  Speaker 1: of the crowbars that were lying about. It felt comfortingly
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  Speaker 1: heavy and equal to smashing any number of Selenites. I
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  Speaker 1: threw away my spear and picked up a second crowbar
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  Speaker 1: for the other hand. I felt five times better than
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  Speaker 1: I had with the spear. I shook the two threateningly
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  Speaker 1: at the Selenites, who had come to a halt in
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  Speaker 1: a little crowd far away up the cavern, and then
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  Speaker 1: turned about to look at cavor. He was leaping from
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  Speaker 1: side to side of the grating, making threatening jabs with
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  Speaker 1: his broken spear. That was all right, It would keep
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  Speaker 1: the Selenites down for a time, at any rate. I
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  Speaker 1: looked up the cavern again. What on earth were we
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  Speaker 1: going to do? Now? We were cornered in a sort
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  Speaker 1: of way already, But these butchers up the cavern had
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  Speaker 1: been surprised. They were probably scared, and they had no
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  Speaker 1: special weapons, only these little hatchets of theirs, and that
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  Speaker 1: way lay escape. Their sturdy little forms, ever so much
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  Speaker 1: shorter and thicker than the mooncalf herds, were scattered up
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  Speaker 1: the slope in a way that was eloquent of indecision.
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  Speaker 1: I had the moral advantage of a mad bull in
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  Speaker 1: a street. But for all that, there seemed a tremendous
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  Speaker 1: crowd of them. Very probably there was. Those Selenites down
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  Speaker 1: the cleft did certainly some infernally long spears. It might
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  Speaker 1: be they had other surprises for us. But confound it
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  Speaker 1: if we charged up the cave, we should let them
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  Speaker 1: up behind us. And if we didn't, those little brutes
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  Speaker 1: up the cave would probably get reinforced. Heaven alone knew
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  Speaker 1: what tremendous engines of warfare, guns, bombs, terrestrial torpedoes. This
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  Speaker 1: unknown world below our feet, this vaster world of which
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  Speaker 1: we had only pricked the outer cuticle, might not presently
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  Speaker 1: send up to our destruction. It became clear the only
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  Speaker 1: thing to do was to charge. It became clearer as
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  Speaker 1: the legs of a number of fresh Selenites appeared running
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  Speaker 1: down the cavern towards us. Bedford cried, Cavore, and behold,
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  Speaker 1: he was half way between me and the grating. Go back,
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  Speaker 1: I cried, what are you doing. They've got it's like
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  Speaker 1: a gun. And struggling in the grating. Between those defensive spears,
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  Speaker 1: appeared the head and shoulders of a singularly lean and
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  Speaker 1: angular Selenite bearing some complicated apparatus. I realized Cavore's utter
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  Speaker 1: incapacity for the fight we had in hand. For a
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  Speaker 1: moment I hesitated. Then I rushed past him, whirling my
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  Speaker 1: crowbars and shouting to confound the aim of the Selenite.
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  Speaker 1: He was aiming in the queerest way with the thing
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  Speaker 1: against his stomach. Juz, the thing wasn't a gun. It
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  Speaker 1: went off like a crossbow more and dropped me in
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  Speaker 1: the middle of a leap. I didn't fall down. I
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  Speaker 1: simply came down a little shorter than I should have
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  Speaker 1: done if I hadn't been here, and from the feel
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  Speaker 1: of my shoulder, the thing might have tapped me and
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  Speaker 1: glanced off. Then my left hand hit again the shaft,
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  Speaker 1: and I perceived there was a sort of spear sticking
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  Speaker 1: half through my shoulder. The moment after I got home
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  Speaker 1: with the crowbar in my right hand and hit the
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  Speaker 1: selenite fair and square, he collapsed. He crushed and crumpled,
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  Speaker 1: his head smashed like an egg. I dropped a crowbar,
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  Speaker 1: pulled the spear out of my shoulder and began to
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  Speaker 1: jab it down the grating into the darkness. At each
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  Speaker 1: jab came a shriek in a twitter. Finally, I hurled
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  Speaker 1: the spear down upon them with all my strength, leaped up,
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  Speaker 1: picked up the crowbar again and started for the multitude
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  Speaker 1: up the cavern. Bedvert cried, Kavor Bedvert. As I flew
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  Speaker 1: past him. I seemed to remember his footsteps coming on
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  Speaker 1: behind me. Step leap, whack, step leap. Each leap seemed
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  Speaker 1: to last ages. With each the cave opened out and
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  Speaker 1: the number of selenites visible increased. At first, They seemed
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  Speaker 1: all running about like ants in a disturbed ant hill,
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  Speaker 1: one or two waving hatchets and coming to meet me,
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  Speaker 1: more running away, some bolting sideways into the avenue of carcasses.
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  Speaker 1: Then presently others came in sight, carrying spears, and then others.
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  Speaker 1: I saw a most extraordinary thing, all hands and feet
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  Speaker 1: bolding for cover. The cavern grew darker, farther up flick.
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  Speaker 1: Something flew over my head, flick as a sword. In
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  Speaker 1: mid stride, I saw a spear hit and quiver in
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  Speaker 1: one of the carcasses to my left. Then as I
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  Speaker 1: came down, one hit the ground before me, and I
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  Speaker 1: heard the remote chuzzz with which their things were fired,
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  Speaker 1: flick flick. For a moment it was a shower. They
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  Speaker 1: were volleying. I stopped dead. I don't think, I thought clearly.
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  Speaker 1: Then I seemed to remember were a kind of stereotype
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  Speaker 1: phrase running through my mind zone a fire, seek cover,
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  Speaker 1: I know. I made a dash for the space between
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  Speaker 1: two of the carcasses and stood there, panting and feeling
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  Speaker 1: very wicked. I looked round for Cavour, and for a
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  Speaker 1: moment it seemed as if he had vanished from the world.
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  Speaker 1: Then he came out of the darkness between the row
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  Speaker 1: of the carcasses and the rocky wall of the cavern.
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  Speaker 1: I saw his little face, dark and blue and shining
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  Speaker 1: with perspiration and emotion. He was saying something, but what
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  Speaker 1: it was I did not heed. I had realized that
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  Speaker 1: we might work from mooncalf to mooncalf up the cave
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  Speaker 1: until we were near enough to charge home. It was
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  Speaker 1: charge or nothing. Come on, I said, and led the
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  Speaker 1: way bed forred. He cried unfailingly. My mind was busy
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: as we went up that narrow alley between the dead
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  Speaker 1: bodies and the wall of the cavern. The rocks curved about.
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  Speaker 1: They could not inflate us. Though in that narrow space
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  Speaker 1: we could not leap. Yet with our earth born strength
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  Speaker 1: we were still able to go very much faster than
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  Speaker 1: the Selenites. I reckon we should presently come right among them.
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  Speaker 1: Once we were on them, they would be nearly as
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  Speaker 1: formidable as black beetles. Only there would first of all
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  Speaker 1: be a volley. I thought of a stratagem. I whipped
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  Speaker 1: off my flannel jacket as I ran bedvert panted cavore
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  Speaker 1: behind me. I glanced back. What said I? He was
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  Speaker 1: pointing upward over the carcasses. White light, he said, White light. Again.
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  Speaker 1: I looked, and it was even so, a faint white
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  Speaker 1: ghost of light in the remoter cavern roof that seemed
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  Speaker 1: to give me double strength. Keep close, I said. A
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  Speaker 1: flat long Selenite dashed out of the darkness and squealed
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  Speaker 1: and fled. I halted and stopped cavore with my hand.
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  Speaker 1: I hung my jacket over my crowbar, ducked around the
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  Speaker 1: next carcass, dropped jacket and crowbar, showed myself and darted back.
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  Speaker 1: Cheez flick. Just one arrow came. We were close on
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  Speaker 1: the Celemnites, and they were standing in a crowd broad
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  Speaker 1: short and tall, together with a little battery of their
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  Speaker 1: shooting implements pointing down the cave. Three or four other
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  Speaker 1: arrows followed the first. Then their fire ceased. I stuck
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  Speaker 1: out my head and escaped by a hair's breadth. This
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  Speaker 1: time I drew a dozen shots or more, and heard
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  Speaker 1: the Celennite shouting and twittering as if with excitement as
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  Speaker 1: they shot. I picked up jacket and crowbar again, now
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  Speaker 1: said I, and thrust out the jacket. Chozues chuz. In
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  Speaker 1: an instant, my jacket had grown a thick beard of arrows,
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  Speaker 1: and they were quivering all over the carcass behind us.
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  Speaker 1: Instantly I slipped the crowbar out of the jacket, dropped
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  Speaker 1: the jacket for all all I know to the contrary
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  Speaker 1: it is lying up there in the moon now, and
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: rushed out upon them for a minute. Perhaps it was
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  Speaker 1: a massacre. I was too fierce to discriminate, and the
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  Speaker 1: Selenites were probably too scared to fight. At any rate,
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  Speaker 1: they made no sort of fight against me. I saw scarlet,
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  Speaker 1: as the saying is. I remember. I seemed to be
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  Speaker 1: wading among those leathery thin things as a man wades
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  Speaker 1: through tall grass, mowing and hitting first right, then left, smash,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Little drops of moisture flew about. I trod on things
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: that crushed and piped and went slippery. The crowd seemed
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: to open and close and flow like water. They seemed
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: to have no combined plan whatever there were spears flew
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: about me. I was grazed over the ear by one.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: I was stabbed once in the arm and once in
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: the cheek. But I only found that out afterwards, when
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: the blood had had time to run and cool and
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: feel wet. What cavor did I do not know for space.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: It seemed that this fighting had lasted for an age,
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: and must needs go on forever. Then suddenly it was
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: all over, and there was nothing to be seen but
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: the backs of heads bobbing up and down as their
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: owners ran in all directions. I seemed altogether unhurt. I
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: ran forward some paces, shouting, then turned again. I was
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: amazed I had come right through them in vast flying strides.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: They were all behind me and running hither and thither
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: to hide. I felt an enormous astonishment at the evaporation
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: of the great fight into which I had hurled myself,
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: and not a little exultation. It did not seem to
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: me that I had discovered the Selenites were unexpectedly flimsy,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: but that I was unexpectedly strong. I laughed stupidly this
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: fantastic moon. I glanced for a moment at the smashed
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: and writhing bodies that were scattered over the cavern floor,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: with a vague idea of further violence, then hurried on
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: after cavour end of chapter