Even with my aid some little difficulty, and meanwhile we kept at work restoring the laboratory plenty before it became absolutely necessary to decide precise form and method second attempt Our only hitch strike three labourers, who objected to my activity as foreman But that matter we compromised after two days' delay

Chapter 3

The Building sphere

I REMEMBER the occasion very distinctly when Cavor told me idea sphere He had had intimations of it before, but it seemed to him in rush We were returning bungalow for tea, and way he fell humming Suddenly he shouted, "That's it ! That finishes it ! sort of roller blind ! "

"Finishes what ? " I asked

"Space - anywhere ! The moon "

"What ? "

"Mean ? Why - it sphere ! That's what I mean ! "

out of it, and for time I let him talk own fashion I hadn't the ghost of an idea then drift But after he had taken tea it clear

"It's like this," "Last time I ran this stuff that cuts things off from gravitation into flat tank with an overlap that held it down And directly it had cooled manufacture was completed all that uproar happened, nothing above it weighed anything, the air went squirting up, the house squirted up, and stuff itself hadn't squirted up too, I don't Know what happened ! But suppose the substance is loose, and quite free up ? "

" go up at once ! "

"Exactly With no more disturbance than firing big gun "

"But what good will ? "

"I'm going up with it ! "

I put down my teacup and stared at him

"Imagine sphere," he explained, "large enough to hold two people and their luggage made of steel lined with thick glass; contain proper store of solidified air, concentrated food, water distilling apparatus, and so forth And enamelled, as it were, outer steel - "

"Cavorite ? "

"Yes "

"But how get inside ? "

" similar problem about dumpling "

"Yes, But how ? "

"That's perfectly easy An air-tight manhole is all needed That, , little complicated; have valve, things thrown out, if necessary, without much loss of air "

"Like Jules Verne's thing in Trip Moon "

But Cavor was not reader of fiction

"I begin ," slowly "And get in and screw yourself up while the Cavorite was warm, and it cooled it would become impervious to gravitation, and off fly -"

"At tangent "

" go off in straight line - " I stopped abruptly " the thing travelling in straight line into space for ever ? " I asked "You're not safe anywhere, and - how get back ? "

"I've just thought ," said Cavor "That's what I meant when the thing is finished The inner glass sphere air-tight, and, except manhole, continuous, steel sphere made in sections, each section capable of rolling up fashion of roller blind These can easily be worked by springs, and released and checked by electricity conveyed by platinum wires fused glass All merely question of detail So , that except thickness blind rollers, the Cavorite exterior sphere will consist of windows or blinds, whichever you like them Well, when all these windows or blinds are shut, no light, no heat, no gravitation, no radiant energy of any sort will get inside sphere, fly on through space in straight line, say But open window, imagine windows open Then at once any heavy body that chances direction will attract us "

I sat taking it in

" ? "

"Oh, "

"Practically to tack about in space just as Get attracted "

"Oh, yes That's clear enough Only - "

" Well ? "

"I don't quite see what for ! It's really only jumping off the world and back again "

"Surely ! For example, one might go moon "

"And when one got there ? What would you find ? "

"We - Oh ! consider the new knowledge "

" air there ? "

" "

"It's fine idea," , "but it strikes me as large order all the same The moon ! I'd much rather try some smaller things first "

"They're , because air difficulty "

" apply that idea of spring blinds - Cavorite blinds in strong steel cases - to lifting weights ? "

"It wouldn't work," he insisted "After all, into outer space worse, if at all, than polar expedition Men go on polar expeditions "

"Not business men And besides, they get paid for polar expeditions And if anything goes wrong relief parties But this - it's just firing ourselves off the world for nothing "

"Call it prospecting "

"You'll have it that . . One might make book of it perhaps,"

" minerals," said Cavor

"For example ? "

"Oh ! sulphur, ores, gold perhaps, possibly new elements "

"Cost of carriage," " you're not practical man The moon's quarter of million miles away "

"It seems it wouldn't cost much to cart any weight anywhere packed it in Cavorite case "

I thought "Delivered free on head of purchaser, eh ? "

"It isn't we were confined moon "

"You mean ? "

"There's Mars - clear atmosphere, novel surroundings, exhilarating sense of lightness It pleasant there "

" air on Mars ? "

"Oh, yes ! "

"Seems run it as sanatorium , how far is Mars ? "

"Two hundred million miles at present," said Cavor airily; "and you go close sun "

My imagination was picking itself up again "After all," , there's something things There's travel -"

An extraordinary possibility came rushing into my mind Suddenly , as in vision, the whole solar system threaded with Cavorite liners and spheres deluxe "Rights of pre-emption," came floating into my head - planetary rights of pre-emption I recalled the old Spanish monopoly in American gold It wasn't just this planet or that - all I stared at Cavor's rubicund face, and suddenly my imagination was leaping and dancing I stood up, I walked up and down; my tongue was unloosened

"I'm beginning it in," ; "I'm beginning it in " The transition from doubt to enthusiasm seemed scarcely at all "But tremendous ! " I cried " Imperial ! I haven't been dreaming sort of thing "

Once the chill opposition was removed, his own pent-up excitement had play He too got up and paced He too gesticulated and shouted We behaved like men inspired We were men inspired

"We'll settle all that ! " in answer to some incidental difficulty that had pulled me up "We'll soon settle that ! We'll start the drawings for mouldings this very night "

"We'll start them now," I responded, and we hurried off laboratory work forthwith