Chapter 9

Prospecting Begins

WE ceased to gaze We turned to , the same thought, the same question eyes plants to grow, some air, however attenuated, air that we also able to breathe

"The manhole ? "

"Yes ! " said Cavor, " air we see ! "

"In little while," , "these plants as high Suppose - suppose after all - certain ? How that stuff is air ? It nitrogen - it carbonic acid even ! "

"That's easy," , and set about proving it He produced big piece of crumpled paper bale, lit it, and thrust it hastily man-hole valve I bent forward and peered down thick glass for its appearance outside, that little flame on whose evidence depended !

the paper drop out and lie lightly snow The pink flame burning vanished For an instant it seemed extinguished And then little blue tongue edge of it that trembled, and crept, and spread !

Quietly the whole sheet, save where it lay in Immediate contact snow, charred and shrivelled and sent up quivering thread of smoke left ; the atmosphere moon was either pure oxygen or air, and capable therefore - unless its tenuity was excessive - of supporting our alien life emerge - and live !

I sat down with my legs on either side manhole and prepared to unscrew it, but Cavor stopped me " first little precaution," He pointed out that although certainly an oxygenated atmosphere outside, it might still be so rarefied cause us grave injury He reminded me of mountain sickness, and bleeding that often afflicts aeronauts ascended too swiftly, and he spent preparation of sickly-tasting drink which he insisted on my sharing It made me feel little numb, but otherwise had no effect on me Then he permitted me unscrewing

Presently the glass stopper manhole was undone denser air within our sphere began to escape along the thread screw, singing as kettle sings before it boils Thereupon me desist It speedily became evident pressure outside was within less we had no means of telling

I sat grasping the stopper with both hands, ready to close it again if, intense hope, the lunar atmosphere should after all prove too rarefied , and Cavor sat with cylinder of compressed oxygen at hand to restore our pressure We looked at one another in silence, and then fantastic vegetation that swayed and grew visibly and noiselessly without And ever that shrill piping continued

My blood-vessels began to throb in my ears, sound of Cavor's movements diminished I noted how still everything had become, because thinning air

As our air sizzled out screw the moisture of it condensed in little puffs

Presently I experienced peculiar shortness of breath that lasted indeed during the whole time exposure moon's exterior atmosphere, and rather unpleasant sensation ears and finger-nails back throat grew upon my attention, and presently passed off again

But then came vertigo and nausea that abruptly changed the quality courage the lid manhole half turn and made hasty explanation to Cavor; but now he more sanguine He answered me in voice that seemed extraordinarily small and remote, because thinness air that carried the sound He recommended nip of brandy, and set me the example, and presently better I turned the manhole stopper back again The throbbing in my ears grew louder, and then I remarked piping note outrush had ceased For time I sure had ceased

"Well ? " said Cavor, ghost of voice

"Well ? " said I

"Shall we go on ? "

" all ? "

" stand it "

By way of answer I went on unscrewing I lifted the circular operculum from its place and laid it carefully bale flake or so of snow whirled and vanished thin and unfamiliar air took possession sphere I knelt, and then seated myself edge manhole, peering over it Beneath, within yard face, lay the untrodden snow moon

There came little pause Our eyes met

"It doesn't distress your lungs ? " said Cavor

"No," " stand this "

He stretched out his hand blanket, thrust his head central hole, and wrapped it about him He sat down edge manhole, he let his feet drop until they were within six inches lunar ground He hesitated for moment, then thrust himself forward, dropped these intervening inches, and stood untrodden soil moon

As he stepped forward lie was refracted grotesquely edge glass He stood for moment looking Then he drew himself together and leapt

The glass distorted everything, but it seemed even then an extremely big leap He had at one bound become remote twenty or thirty feet off standing high upon rocky mass and gesticulating back Perhaps shouting - but the sound reach me But how the deuce had he done this ? like man who has just seen new conjuring trick

In puzzled state of mind I too dropped manhole I stood up Just in front of me the snowdrift had fallen away and made sort of ditch step and jumped

myself flying air, saw the rock he stood coming to meet me, clutched it and clung in state of infinite amazement

I gasped painful laugh tremendously confused Cavor bent down arid shouted in piping tones careful

I had forgotten that moon, with only an eighth part earth's mass and quarter diameter, my weight was barely sixth what on earth But now that fact insisted on being remembered

" out of Mother Earth's leading - strings now,"

With guarded effort I raised myself top, and moving as cautiously as rheumatic patient, stood up beside him under the blaze sun The sphere lay behind us on its dwindling snowdrift thirty feet away

As far eye over the enormous disorder of rocks that formed the crater floor, the same bristling scrub that surrounded us was starting into life, diversified here and there by bulging masses of cactus form, and scarlet and purple lichens that grew so fast they seemed to crawl over the rocks The whole area crater seemed then one similar wilderness very foot surrounding cliff

This cliff was apparently bare of vegetation save at its base, and with buttresses and terraces and platforms that very greatly attract our attention many miles away in every direction, we seemed almost centre crater, and we saw it through certain haziness that drove wind For even wind now thin air, swift yet weak wind that chilled exceedingly but exerted little pressure blowing I round the crater, as it seemed, hot illuminated side foggy darkness under the sunward wall difficult to look eastward fog; we had to peer with half-closed eyes beneath the shade hands, because fierce intensity motionless sun

"It deserted," said Cavor, "absolutely desolate "

I looked about me again I retained even then clinging hope of some quasi-human evidence, some pinnacle of building, some house or engine, but everywhere one looked spread the tumbled rocks in peaks and crests, darting scrub and those bulging cacti that swelled and swelled, flat negation as it seemed of all such hope

"It looks these plants had it to themselves," " no trace of creature "

"No insects - no birds, no ! Not trace, not scrap nor particle of animal life If - what would night ? . No; there's just these plants alone "