All about us sunlit slopes frothed and swayed the darting shrubs, the swelling cactus, the creeping lichens, and wherever the shade remained the snow-drifts lingered North, south, east, and west spread an identical monotony of unfamiliar forms And somewhere, buried already among this tangled confusion, was our sphere, our home, our only provision, our only hope of escape fantastic wilderness of ephemeral growths into which we had come

" after all," , pointing suddenly, "it over there "

"No," " turned in curve See ! mark heels It's clear the thing more eastward, much more No - the sphere over there "

" ," said Cavor, "I kept the sun upon my right all the time "

"Every leap, it seems ," , "my shadow flew before me "

We stared into one another's eyes The area crater had become enormously vast to our imaginations, the growing thickets already impenetrably dense

"Good heavens ! What fools ! "

"It's evident that find it again," said Cavor, " soon The sun grows stronger fainting heat already wasn't so dry And . I'm hungry "

I stared at him I suspected this aspect matter before But it came at once - positive craving "Yes," with emphasis " hungry too "

He stood up with look of active resolution "Certainly find the sphere "

As calmly as possible we surveyed the interminable reefs and thickets that formed the floor crater, each of us weighing in silence the chances finding the sphere before we were overtaken by heat and hunger

"It can't be fifty yards from here," said Cavor, with indecisive gestures " is to beat round about until we come upon it "

" all do," , without any alacrity our hunt " this confounded spike bush grow so fast ! "

"That's just it," said Cavor "But lying on bank of snow "

I stared about me vain hope of recognising some knoll or shrub that near the sphere But everywhere was confusing sameness, everywhere the aspiring bushes, the distending fungi, the dwindling snow banks, steadily and inevitably changed The sun scorched and stung, the faintness of an unaccountable hunger mingled infinite perplexity And even stood there, confused and lost amidst unprecedented things, we became aware first time of sound moon the air growing plants, the faint sighing wind, or those that we ourselves had made

Boom . . Boom . . Boom

It came from beneath our feet, sound earth We seemed to hear it feet as ears Its dull resonance was muffled by distance, thick quality of intervening substance No sound that imagine astonished us more, or have changed more completely the quality of things about us sound, rich, slow, and deliberate, seemed it nothing but the striking of some gigantic buried clock

Boom . . Boom . . Boom

Sound suggestive of still cloisters, of sleepless nights in crowded cities, of vigils awaited hour, cf all orderly and methodical in life, booming out pregnant and mysterious fantastic desert ! eye everything was unchanged: the desolation of bushes and cacti waving silently wind, stretched unbroken distant cliffs, the still dark sky was empty overhead, hot sun hung and burned And through it all, warning, threat, throbbed this enigma of sound

Boom . . Boom . . Boom . .

We questioned one another in faint and faded voices

"A clock ? "

"Like clock ! "

" it ? "

"What can it be ? "

"Count," was Cavor's belated suggestion, and word the striking ceased

The silence, the rhythmic disappointment silence, came as fresh shock For moment one could doubt whether one had ever heard sound Or whether it still be going on Had I indeed heard sound ?

the pressure of Cavor's hand upon my arm He spoke in an undertone, he feared to wake some sleeping thing " keep together," he whispered, "and look sphere get back sphere beyond our understanding "

" shall we go ? "

He hesitated An intense persuasion of presences, of unseen things about us and near us, dominated our minds What could they be ? Where could they be ? arid desolation, alternately frozen and scorched, only the outer rind and mask of some subterranean world ? And , what sort of world ? What sort of inhabitants might it not presently disgorge upon us ?

And then, stabbing the aching stillness as vivid and sudden as an unexpected thunderclap, came clang and rattle great gates of metal had suddenly been flung apart

It arrested our steps We stood gaping helplessly Then Cavor stole towards me

" understand ! " he whispered close to my face He waved his hand vaguely skyward, the vague suggestion of still vaguer thoughts

"A hiding-place ! If anything came . "

I looked about us I nodded my head in assent to him

We started off, moving stealthily most exaggerated precautions against noise We went towards thicket of scrub clangour like hammers flung about boiler hastened our steps " crawl," whispered Cavor

The lower leaves bayonet plants, already overshadowed newer ones above, were beginning to wilt and shrivel thrust our way in thickening stems without serious injury stab face or arm heed heart thicket I stopped, and stared panting into Cavor's face

"Subterranean," he whispered "Below "

" come out "

" find the sphere ! "

"Yes," ; "but how ? "

"Crawl till we come "

"But don't ? "

"Keep hidden See what like "

" keep together," said I

He thought " shall we go ? "

" take our chance "

We peered Then very circumspectly, we began to crawl lower jungle, making, as judge, circuit, halting now at every waving fungus, at every sound, intent only sphere we had so foolishly emerged Ever and again from earth beneath us came concussions, beatings, strange, inexplicable, mechanical sounds; and once, and then again, we thought we heard something, faint rattle and tumult, borne air But fearful were we dared essay no vantage-point to survey the crater For long we saw nothing beings whose sounds were so abundant and insistent But faintness hunger drying throats that crawling had the quality of very vivid dream so absolutely unreal The only element with any touch of reality was these sounds

Figure it to yourself ! About us the dream-like jungle, silent bayonet leaves darting overhead, silent, vivid, sun-splashed lichens under our hands and knees, waving vigour growth as carpet waves wind gets beneath it Ever and again bladder fungi, bulging and distending under the sun, loomed upon us Ever and again some novel shape in vivid colour obtruded The very cells that built up these plants were as large as my thumb, like beads of coloured glass And all these things were saturated unmitigated glare sun, were seen against sky that was bluish black and spangled still, sunlight, with few surviving stars Strange ! the very forms and texture stones were strange all strange, the feeling of one's body was unprecedented, movement ended in surprise The breath sucked thin in one's throat, the blood flowed through one's ears in throbbing tide - thud, thud, thud, thud . .

And ever and again came gusts of turmoil, hammering, the clanging and throb of machinery, and presently - the bellowing of great beasts !

Chapter 11

The Mooncalf Pastures

SO we two poor terrestrial castaways, lost wild-growing moon jungle, crawled in terror sounds that had come upon us We crawled, as it seemed, before we saw either Selenite or mooncalf, though we heard the bellowing and gruntulous noises latter continually drawing nearer We crawled through stony ravines, over snow slopes, amidst fungi that ripped like thin bladders at our thrust, emitting watery humour, over perfect pavement of things like puff-balls, and beneath interminable thickets of scrub And ever more helplessly our eyes sought abandoned sphere The noise mooncalves would at times be vast flat calf-like sound, at times it rose to an amazed and wrathy bellowing, and again it would become clogged bestial sound, these unseen creatures had sought to eat and bellow same time

Our first view was but an inadequate transitory glimpse, yet none the less disturbing because incomplete Cavor was crawling in front , and he first was aware proximity He stopped dead, arresting me with single gesture