Something was at work upon my face, some thin feelers worried my ears Then I discovered the brilliance landscape around was mitigated by blue spectacles Cavor bent over me, and his face upside down, his eyes also protected by tinted goggles His breath came irregularly, lip was bleeding from bruise "Better ? " , wiping the blood back hand

Everything seemed swaying for space, but that was simply my giddiness I perceived that he had closed shutters outer sphere to save me - direct blaze sun aware that everything about us was very brilliant

"Lord ! I gasped "But this -"

I craned my neck I perceived blinding glare outside, an utter change gloomy darkness first impressions "Have I been insensible long ? " I asked

"I don't know - the chronometer is broken Some little time . . My dear chap ! afraid . "

I lay for space taking this in his face still bore evidences of emotion For while nothing I passed an inquisitive hand over my contusions, and surveyed ['is face for similar damages The back right hand had suffered most, and was skinless and raw My forehead was bruised and had bled He handed me little measure with restorative - I forget the name of it - he had brought After time little better I began to stretch my limbs carefully Soon talk

"It wouldn't ," , there no interval

"No ! it wouldn't "

He thought, his hands hanging over his knees He peered glass and then stared at me

"Good Lord ! " "No ! "

"What has happened ? " I asked after pause "Have we jumped tropics ? "

" as I expected This air has evaporated - air At any rate, it has evaporated, surface moon is showing lying on bank of earthy rock Here and there bare soil is exposed queer sort of soil ! "

It occurred to him unnecessary to explain He assisted me into sitting position, and I with my own eyes

Chapter 8

Lunar Morning

The harsh emphasis, the pitiless black and white of scenery had altogether disappeared The glare sun had taken upon itself faint tinge of amber; the shadows cliff crater wall were deeply purple eastward dark bank of fog still crouched and sheltered sunrise, but westward the sky was blue and clear I began to realise the length insensibility

We were no longer in void An atmosphere had arisen about us The outline of things had gained in character, had grown acute and varied; save for shadowed space of white substance here and there, white substance that was no longer air but snow, the arctic appearance had gone altogether Everywhere broad rusty brown spaces of bare and tumbled earth spread blaze sun Here and there edge snowdrifts were transient little pools and eddies of water, the only things stirring expanse of barrenness The sunlight inundated the upper two blinds sphere and turned our climate to high summer, but our feet were still in shadow, sphere was lying upon drift of snow

And scattered here and there slope, and emphasised by little white threads of unthawed snow upon their shady sides, were shapes like sticks, dry twisted sticks same rusty hue rock they lay That caught one's thoughts sharply Sticks ! On lifeless world ? Then as my eye grew more accustomed texture substance, I perceived that almost all this surface had fibrous texture, like the carpet of brown needles one finds beneath the shade of pine trees

"Cavor ! "

"Yes "

"It dead world now - but once -"

Something arrested my attention I had discovered needles number of little round objects And it seemed that had moved "Cavor," I whispered

"What ? "

But answer at once I stared incredulous For an instant believe my eyes an inarticulate cry I gripped his arm I pointed "Look ! " I cried, finding my tongue "There ! Yes ! And there ! "

His eyes followed my pointing finger "Eh ? "

How can I describe the thing ? so petty thing to state, and yet it seemed so wonderful, so pregnant with emotion said that amidst the stick-like litter were these rounded bodies, these little oval bodies that passed as pebbles And now first one and then another had stirred, had rolled over and cracked, and down the crack of each showed minute line of yellowish green, thrusting outward to meet the hot encouragement newly-risen sun For moment that was all, and then there stirred, and burst third !

" seed," said Cavor And then I heard him whisper very softly, "Life ! "

"Life ! " And immediately it poured upon us vast journey made in vain, that we had come to no arid waste of minerals, but to world that lived and moved ! We watched intensely I remember I kept rubbing the glass before me with my sleeve, jealous faintest suspicion of mist

The picture was clear and vivid only middle field All centre the dead fibres and seeds were magnified and distorted b~ the curvature glass But we enough ! One after another all down the sunlit slope these miraculous little brown bodies burst and gaped apart, like seed-pods, like the husks of fruits; opened eager mouths that drank heat and light pouring in cascade newly-risen sun

Every moment more seed coats ruptured, and even so the swelling pioneers overflowed their rent-distended seed-cases, and passed second stage of growth With steady assurance, swift deliberation, these amazing seeds thrust rootlet downward earth and queer little bundle-like bud air In little while the whole slope was dotted with minute plantlets standing at attention blaze sun

stand for long The bundle-like buds swelled and strained and opened with jerk, thrusting out coronet of little sharp tips, spreading whorl of tiny, spiky, brownish leaves, that lengthened rapidly, lengthened visibly even watched The movement was slower than any animal's, swifter than any plant's ever seen before How can it - the way that growth went on ? The leaf tips grew so moved onward even while we looked at them The brown seed-case shrivelled and was absorbed with an equal rapidity ever on cold day taken thermometer into your warm hand and watched the little thread of mercury creep up the tube ? These moon plants grew like that

, as it seemed, the buds more forward plants had lengthened into stem and were even putting forth second whorl of leaves, and all the slope that had seemed so recently lifeless stretch of litter was now dark stunted olive-green herbage of bristling spikes that swayed vigour growing

I turned about, and behold ! along the upper edge of rock eastward similar fringe in scarcely less forward condition swayed and bent, dark against the blinding glare sun And beyond this fringe silhouette of plant mass, branching clumsily like cactus, and swelling visibly, swelling like bladder that fills with air

Then westward also I discovered that another such distended form was rising over the scrub But here the light fell upon its sleek sides, and I that its colour was vivid orange hue It rose as one watched it; if one looked away for minute and then back, its outline had changed; it thrust out blunt congested branches until in little time it rose coralline shape of many feet in height Compared growth the terrestrial puff-ball, which will sometimes swell foot in diameter in single night, hopeless laggard But then the puff-ball grows against gravitational pull six times that moon Beyond, out of gullies and flats that hidden , but not quickening sun, over reefs and banks of shining rock, bristling beard of spiky and fleshy vegetation was straining into view, hurrying tumultuously to tale advantage brief day it must flower and fruit and seed again and die like miracle, that growth So, one must imagine, the trees and plants arose Creation and covered the desolation new-made earth