For minute perhaps massacre too fierce to discriminate, Selenites were probably too scared to fight At any rate they made no sort of fight against me scarlet, saying is I remember I seemed wading among those leathery, thin things as man wades through tall grass, mowing and hitting, first right, then left; smash Little drops of moisture flew about I trod on things that crushed and piped and went slippery The crowd seemed to open and close and flow like water They seemed no combined plan whatever There were spears flew about me, grazed over the ear by one stabbed once arm and once cheek, but I only found that out afterwards, blood had had time to run and cool and feel wet

What Cavor did know For space it seemed fighting had lasted for an age, and must needs go on for ever Then suddenly all over, and nothing seen but the backs of heads bobbing up and down as their owners ran in all directions . . I seemed altogether unhurt I ran forward some paces, shouting, then turned about amazed

I had come right through them in vast flying strides, they were all behind me, and running hither and thither to hide

an enormous astonishment evaporation great fight into which I had hurled myself, and not little exultation It seem that I had discovered the Selenites were unexpectedly flimsy, but that unexpectedly strong I laughed stupidly This fantastic moon !

I glanced for moment smashed and writhing bodies that were scattered over the cavern floor, with vague idea of further violence, then hurried on after Cavor

Chapter 18

Sunlight

PRESENTLY we saw cavern opened upon hazy void In another moment we had emerged upon sort of slanting gallery, that projected into vast circular space, huge cylindrical pit running vertically up and down Round this pit the slanting gallery ran without any parapet or protection for turn and half, and then plunged high above rock again Somehow it reminded me then one spiral turns railway Saint Gothard all tremendously huge scarcely hope to convey the Titanic proportion of all that place, the Titanic effect of it Our eyes followed up the vast declivity pit wall, and overhead and far above we beheld round opening set with faint stars, and half lip well nigh blinding white light sun we cried aloud simultaneously

"Come on ! " , leading the way

"But there ? " said Cavor, and very carefully stepped nearer the edge gallery I followed his example, and craned forward and looked down, but dazzled gleam of light above, and I only bottomless darkness with spectral patches of crimson and purple floating therein Yet if I , hear Out darkness came sound, sound like the angry hum one can hear if one puts one's ear outside hive of bees, sound out enormous hollow, it , four miles beneath our feet .

For moment I listened, then tightened my grip on my crowbar, and led the way up the gallery

"This the shaft we looked down upon," said Cavor "Under that lid "

"And below there, is where we saw the lights "

"The lights ! " said he " Yes - the lights world that now never see "

"We'll come back," , for now we had escaped rashly sanguine that recover the sphere

His answer catch

"Eh ? " I asked

"It doesn't matter," he answered, and we hurried on in silence

I suppose that slanting lateral way was four or five miles long, allowing for its curvature, and it ascended at slope made it almost impossibly steep on earth, but which one strode up easily under lunar conditions We saw only two Selenites during all that portion flight, and directly they became aware of us they ran headlong clear knowledge strength and violence had reached them Our way exterior was unexpectedly plain The spiral gallery straightened into steeply ascendent tunnel, its floor bearing abundant traces mooncalves, and so straight and short in proportion to its vast arch, that no part of absolutely dark Almost immediately it began to lighten, and then far off and high up, and quite blindingly brilliant, appeared its opening exterior, slope of Alpine steepness surmounted by crest of bayonet shrub, tall and broken down now, and dry and dead, in spiky silhouette against the sun

And strange that we men, this very vegetation had seemed so weird and horrible little time ago, should now behold it emotion home-coming exile might feel at sight native land We welcomed even the rareness air that made us pant ran, and which rendered speaking no longer the easy thing , but an effort oneself heard Larger grew the sunlit circle above us, and larger, and all the nearer tunnel sank into rim of indistinguishable black We saw the dead bayonet shrub no longer with any touch of green , but brown and dry and thick, arid the M shadow upper branches high out of sight made densely interlaced pattern tumbled rocks And immediate mouth tunnel was wide trampled space where the mooncalves had come and gone

We came out space at last into light and heat that hit and pressed upon us We traversed the exposed area painfully, and clambered up slope scrub stems, and sat down at last panting in high place beneath the shadow of mass of twisted lava Even shade the rock felt hot

The air was intensely hot, and we were in great physical discomfort, but for all that we were no longer in nightmare We seemed come to our own province again, beneath the stars All the fear and stress flight dim passages and fissures below had fallen That last fight bad filled us with an enormous confidence in ourselves Selenites were concerned We looked back almost incredulously black opening we had just emerged Down there , in blue glow that now memories seemed the next thing to absolute darkness, we had met with things like mad mockeries of men, helmet-headed creatures, and had walked in fear before them, and had submitted until submit no longer And behold, they had smashed like wax and scattered like chaff, and fled and vanished like the creatures of dream !

I rubbed my eyes, doubting whether we slept and dreamt these things by reason fungus we had eaten, and suddenly discovered the blood upon my face, and then that my shirt was sticking painfully to my shoulder and arm

"Confound it ! " , gauging my injuries with an investigatory hand, and suddenly that distant tunnel mouth became, as it were, watching eye

"Cavor ! " ; " they going now ? And we going ? "

He shook his head, eyes fixed tunnel "How can one tell what do ? "

"It depends on what of us, and I don't see how begin to guess that And it depends upon what in reserve It's say, Cavor, touched the merest outside world They all sorts of things inside here Even with those shooting things make it bad . .

"Yet after all," , "even don't find the sphere at once, chance hold out Even night go down there again and make fight "

I stared about me with speculative eyes The character scenery had altered altogether by reason enormous growth and subsequent drying scrub The crest we sat was high, and commanded wide prospect crater landscape, and we saw it now all sere and dry late autumn lunar afternoon Rising one behind the other were long slopes and fields of trampled brown where the mooncalves had pastured, and far away full blaze sun drove basked slumberously, scattered shapes, each with blot of shadow against it like sheep side of down But never sign of Selenite was seen Whether they had fled emergence interior passages, or whether they were accustomed to retire after driving out the mooncalves, guess I believed the former case

" were to set fire to all this stuff, , " find the sphere ashes "

Cavor seem to hear me peering under his hand stars, that still, intense sunlight, were abundantly visible sky "How long we've here ? " he asked at last

"Been where ? "

" moon "

"Two earthly days, perhaps "

"More nearly ten , the sun is past its zenith, and sinking west In four days' time or less night "

"But - we've only eaten once ! "