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The First Men in the Moon Chapter 14 - Experiments in intercourse · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter fourteen 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 fourteen, Experiments in Intercourse. When at last we had
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  Speaker 1: made an end of eating, the Selenites linked our hands
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  Speaker 1: closely together again, and then untwisted the chains about our
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  Speaker 1: feet and rebound them so as to give us a
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  Speaker 1: limited freedom of movement. Then they unfastened the chains about
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  Speaker 1: our waists. To do all this they had to handle
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  Speaker 1: us freely, and ever and again one of their queer
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  Speaker 1: heads came down close to my face, or a soft
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  Speaker 1: tentacle hand touched my head or neck. I don't remember
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  Speaker 1: that I was afraid then or repelled by their proximity.
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  Speaker 1: I think that our incurable anthropomorphism made us imagine they
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  Speaker 1: were human heads inside their masks. The skin, like everything else,
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  Speaker 1: looked bluish, but that was on account of the light,
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  Speaker 1: and it was hard and shiny, quite in the beetle
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  Speaker 1: wing fashion, not soft or moist or hairy as the
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  Speaker 1: vertebrated animals would be. Along the crest of the head
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  Speaker 1: was a low ridge of whitish spines running from back
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  Speaker 1: to front, and a much larger ridge curved on either
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  Speaker 1: side over the eyes. The Selenite who untied me used
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  Speaker 1: his mouth to help his hands. They seem to be
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  Speaker 1: releasing us, said kavor, Remember we are on the moon.
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  Speaker 1: Make no sudden movements. Are you going to try that geometry?
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  Speaker 1: If I get a chance, But of course they may
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  Speaker 1: make an advance first. We remained, and the Selenites, having
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  Speaker 1: finished their arrangements, stood back from us and seemed to
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  Speaker 1: be looking at us. I say seemed to be, because
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  Speaker 1: as their eyes were at the side and not in front,
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  Speaker 1: one had the same difficulty in determining the direction in
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  Speaker 1: which they were looking as one has in the case
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  Speaker 1: of a hen or a fish. They conversed with one
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  Speaker 1: another in their reedy tones that seemed to me impossible
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  Speaker 1: to imitate or to find. The door behind us opened wider,
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  Speaker 1: and glancing over my shoulder, I saw a vague, large
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  Speaker 1: space beyond in which quite a little crowd of Selenites
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  Speaker 1: were standing. They seemed a curiously miscellaneous rabble do they
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  Speaker 1: want us to imitate those sounds, I asked cavor I
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  Speaker 1: don't think so, he said. It seems to me that
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  Speaker 1: they are trying to make us understand something. I can't
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  Speaker 1: make anything of their gestures. Do you notice this one
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  Speaker 1: who was worrying with his head like a man with
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  Speaker 1: an uncomfortable collar. Let us shake our heads at him.
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  Speaker 1: We did that, and, finding it ineffectual, attempted an imitation
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  Speaker 1: of the Selenite's movements that seemed to interest them at
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  Speaker 1: any rate. They all set up the same movement, but
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  Speaker 1: as that seemed to lead to nothing, we desisted at last,
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  Speaker 1: and so did they, and fell into a piping argument
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  Speaker 1: among themselves. Then one of them, shorter and very much
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  Speaker 1: thicker than the others, and with a particularly wide mouth,
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  Speaker 1: squatted down suddenly beside Cavore, and put his hands and
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  Speaker 1: feet in the same posture as Cavours were bound, And then,
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  Speaker 1: by a dexterous movement, stood up. Cavour I shouted, they
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  Speaker 1: want us to get up? He stared, open mouthed. That's it,
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  Speaker 1: he said, and with much heaving and grunting, because our
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  Speaker 1: hands were tied together, we contrived to struggle to our feet.
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  Speaker 1: The Selenites made way for our elephantine heavings, and seemed
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  Speaker 1: to twitter more volubly. As soon as we were on
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  Speaker 1: our feet, the thick set Selenite came and patted each
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  Speaker 1: of our faces with his tentacles, and walked towards the
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  Speaker 1: open doorway that also was plain enough, and we followed him.
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  Speaker 1: We saw that four of the Selenites standing in the
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  Speaker 1: doorway were much taller than the others, and clothed in
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  Speaker 1: the same manner as those we had seen in the crater,
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  Speaker 1: namely with spiked round helmets and cylindrical body cases, and
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  Speaker 1: that each of the four carried a goad with spike
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  Speaker 1: and guard made of that same dull looking metal as
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  Speaker 1: the bowls. These four closed about us, one on either
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  Speaker 1: side of each of us. As we emerged from our
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  Speaker 1: chamber into the cavern from which the light had come,
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  Speaker 1: we did not get our impression of that cavern all
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  Speaker 1: at once. Our attention was taken up by the movements
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  Speaker 1: and attitudes of the Selenites immediately about us, and by
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  Speaker 1: the necessity of controlling our motion lest we should startle
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  Speaker 1: and alarm them and ourselves by some excessive stride. In
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  Speaker 1: front of us was the short, thick set being who
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  Speaker 1: had solved the problem of asking us to get up,
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  Speaker 1: moving with gestures that seemed almost all of them intelligible
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  Speaker 1: to us, inviting us to follow him, His spout like
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  Speaker 1: face turned from one of us to the other with
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  Speaker 1: a quickness that was clearly interrogative. For a time, I
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  Speaker 1: say we were taken up with these things. But at
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  Speaker 1: last the great place that formed a background to our
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  Speaker 1: movements asserted itself. It became apparent that the source of such,
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  Speaker 1: at least of the tumult of sounds which had filled
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  Speaker 1: our ears ever since we had recovered from the stupefaction
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  Speaker 1: of the fungus, was a vast mass of machinery and
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  Speaker 1: active movement, whose flying and whirling parts were visible indistinctly
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  Speaker 1: over the heads and betray between the bodies of the
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  Speaker 1: Selenites who walked about us. And not only did the
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  Speaker 1: web of sounds that filled the air proceed from this mechanism,
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  Speaker 1: but also the peculiar blue light that irradiated the whole place.
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  Speaker 1: We had taken it as a natural thing that a
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  Speaker 1: subterranean cavern should be artificially lit, and even now, though
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  Speaker 1: the fact was patent to my eyes, I did not
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  Speaker 1: really grasp its import until presently the darkness came. The
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  Speaker 1: meaning and structure of this huge apparatus we saw, I
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  Speaker 1: cannot explain, because we neither of us learned what it
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  Speaker 1: was for or how it worked. One after another, big
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  Speaker 1: shafts of metal flung out and up from its center,
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  Speaker 1: their heads traveling in what seemed to me to be
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  Speaker 1: a parabolic path. Each dropped a sort of dangling arm
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  Speaker 1: as it rose towards the apex of its flight and
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  Speaker 1: plunged down into a vertical cylinder, forcing this down before
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  Speaker 1: it about it moved the shapes of tenders, little figures
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  Speaker 1: that seemed vaguely different from the beings about us. As
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  Speaker 1: each of the three dangling arms of the machine plunged down,
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  Speaker 1: there was a clank and then a roaring, and out
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  Speaker 1: of the top of the vertical cylinder came pouring this
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  Speaker 1: incandescent substance that lit the place and ran over his milk,
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  Speaker 1: runs over a boiling pot, and dripped luminously into a
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  Speaker 1: tank of light below. It was a cold blue light,
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  Speaker 1: a sort of phosphorescent glow, but infinitely brighter, and from
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  Speaker 1: the tanks into which it fell it ran in conduits
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  Speaker 1: athwart the cavern. Thud thud, thud, thud, came the sweeping
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  Speaker 1: arms of this unintelligible apparatus, and the light substance hissed
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  Speaker 1: and poured. At first, the thing seemed only reasonably large
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  Speaker 1: and near to us, And then I saw how exceedingly
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  Speaker 1: little the Selenites upon it seemed, and I realized the
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  Speaker 1: full immense density of cavern and machine. I looked from
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  Speaker 1: this tremendous affair to the faces of the Selenites with
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  Speaker 1: a new respect. I stopped, and Cavore stopped and stared
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  Speaker 1: at this thunderous engine. But this is stupendous, I said,
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  Speaker 1: what can it be? For Cavoor's blue lit face was
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  Speaker 1: full of an intelligent respect. I can't dream. Surely these
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  Speaker 1: beings men could not make a thing like that. Look
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  Speaker 1: at those arms? Are they on connecting rods? The thick
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  Speaker 1: set Selenite had gone some paces unheeded. He came back
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  Speaker 1: and stood between us and the great machine. I avoided
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  Speaker 1: seeing him because I had guessed somehow that his idea
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  Speaker 1: was to beckon us onward. He walked away in the
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  Speaker 1: direction he wished us to go, and turned and came
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  Speaker 1: back and flicked our faces to attract our attention. Cavore
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  Speaker 1: and I looked at one another. Cannot we show him
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  Speaker 1: we are interested in the machine? I said, Yes, said Cavour,
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  Speaker 1: we'll try that. He turned to our guide and smiled,
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  Speaker 1: and pointed to the machine, and pointed again, and then
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  Speaker 1: to his head, and then to the machine. By some
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  Speaker 1: defect of reasoning, he seemed to imagine that broken English
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  Speaker 1: might help these gestures. Me look 'em, he said, me
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  Speaker 1: think em very much. Yes. His behaviors seemed to check
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  Speaker 1: the Selenites in their desire for our progress. For a
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  Speaker 1: moment they faced one another. Their queer heads moved. The
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  Speaker 1: twittering voices came thick and liquid. Then one of them,
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  Speaker 1: a lean, tall creature with a sort of mantle added
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  Speaker 1: to the pattie in which the others were dressed, twisted
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  Speaker 1: his elephant trunk of a hand about Kivoor's waist and
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  Speaker 1: pulled him gently to follow our guide, who again went
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  Speaker 1: on ahead. Cavoor resisted, we may just as well. We'll
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  Speaker 1: begin explaining ourselves. Now. They may think we are new animals,
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  Speaker 1: a new sort of mooncalf. Perhaps it is most important
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  Speaker 1: that we should show an intelligent interest from the outset.
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  Speaker 1: He began to shake his head violently. No, no, he
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  Speaker 1: said me, not come on one minute, me look at him.
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  Speaker 1: Isn't there some geometrical point you might bring in apropos
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  Speaker 1: of that affair? I suggested, as the Selenites conferred again,
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  Speaker 1: possibly a parabolic he began. He yelled loudly and leaped
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  Speaker 1: six feet or more. One of the four armed moon
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  Speaker 1: men had pricked him with a goad. I turned on
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  Speaker 1: the goat bearer behind me with a swift, threatening gesture,
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  Speaker 1: and he started back. This and Cavor's sudden shouting leap
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  Speaker 1: clearly astonished all the Selenites. They receded hastily, facing us.
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  Speaker 1: For one of those moments that seemed to last forever,
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  Speaker 1: we stood an angry protest, with a scattered semicircle of
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  Speaker 1: these inhuman beings about us. He pricked me, said Cavor,
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  Speaker 1: with a catching of the voice. I saw him. I answered,
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  Speaker 1: confound it. I said to the Selenites, We're not going
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  Speaker 1: to stand that. What on earth do you take us for?
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  Speaker 1: I glanced quickly right and left, far away across the
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  Speaker 1: blue wilderness of Cavern, I saw a number of other
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  Speaker 1: Selenites running towards us, broad and slender, they were, and
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  Speaker 1: one with a larger head than the others. The cavern
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  Speaker 1: spread wide and low, and receded in every direction into darkness.
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  Speaker 1: Its roof, I remember, seemed to bulge down, as if
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  Speaker 1: with the weight of the vast thickness of rocks that
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  Speaker 1: prisoned us. There was no way out of it, no
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  Speaker 1: way out of it. Above, below, in every direction was
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  Speaker 1: the unknown, and these inhuman creatures with goads and gestures
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  Speaker 1: confronting us, And we too, unsupported men. End of chapter