I ordered up writing materials, and addressed letter New Romney Bank - the nearest, the waiter informed me - telling the manager I wished to open an account , and requesting him to send two trustworthy persons properly authenticated in cab with good horse to fetch some hundredweight of gold I happened encumbered I signed the letter "Blake," which seemed thoroughly respectable sort of name This done, I got Folkstone Blue Book, picked out an outfitter, and asked him to send cutter to measure me for dark tweed suit, ordering same time valise, dressing bag, brown boots, shirts, hat (to fit), and so forth; and from watchmaker I also ordered watch And these letters being despatched, I had up as good lunch hotel could give, and then lay smoking cigar, as calm and ordinary as possible, until in accordance with my instructions two duly authenticated clerks came bank and weighed and took away my gold After which I pulled the clothes over my ears to drown any knocking, and went very comfortably to sleep

I went to sleep prosaic thing first man back moon , and imagine young and imaginative reader my behaviour disappointing But horribly fatigued and bothered, and, confound it ! what else was there ? There certainly was not the remotest chance being believed, if I had told my story then, and it would certainly have subjected me to intolerable annoyances I went to sleep When at last I woke up again ready the world as always been accustomed it since to years of discretion And so I got away to Italy, and there writing this story world will not have it as fact, then the world may take it as fiction no concern

And now account is finished, amazed how completely this adventure is gone and done with Everybody believes that Cavor was not very brilliant scientific experimenter who blew up his house and himself at Lympne, explain the bang that followed my arrival at Littlestone by reference experiments with explosives going on continually government establishment of Lydd, two miles away confess that hitherto acknowledged my share disappearance of Master Tommy Simmons, that little boy's name That, perhaps, may prove difficult item of corroboration to explain away They account appearance in rags with two bars of indisputable gold Littlestone beach in various ingenious ways - it doesn't worry me what of me They say strung all these things together to avoid being questioned too closely source wealth like the man invent story hold together like Well, take it as fiction - there

told my story - and now, I suppose, up the worries terrestrial life again Even if one moon, one has still to earn living So working here at Amalfi, scenario play I sketched before Cavor came walking into my world, and trying to piece my life together as before ever him confess that it hard my mind play moonshine comes into my room full moon here, and last night out pergola for hours, staring away shining blankness that hides Imagine it ! tables and chairs, and trestles and bars of gold ! Confound it ! - if could hit Cavorite again ! But thing like that doesn't come twice in life Here , little better off than at Lympne, is all And Cavor has committed suicide in more elaborate way than any human being ever did before So the story closes as, finally and completely as dream It fits in so little with all the other things of life, of so utterly remote from all human experience, the leaping, the eating, the breathing, and these weightless times, that indeed moments when, moon gold, more than half believe myself whole thing was dream . .

Chapter 22

The Astonishing Communication of Mr Julius Wendigee

WHEN I had finished my account return earth at Littlestone, , "The End," made flourish, and threw my pen aside, fully believing whole story First Men Moon had I done this, but I had placed my manuscript hands of literary agent, had permitted it sold, had seen the greater portion of it appear Strand Magazine, and was setting to work again scenario play I had commenced at Lympne before I realised end was not yet And then, following me from Amalfi to Algiers, there reached me ( now about six ) astounding communications ever been fated to receive Briefly, it informed me that Mr Julius Wendigee, Dutch electrician, who experimenting with certain apparatus akin apparatus used Tesla in America, hope of discovering some method of communication with Mars, was receiving day by day curiously fragmentary message in English, indisputably emanating from Mr Cavor moon

At first the thing was an elaborate practical by some one who had seen the manuscript narrative I answered Mr Wendigee jestingly, but he replied in manner that put such suspicion altogether aside, and in state of inconceivable excitement I hurried from Algiers little observatory St Gothard working presence record appliances - and above all messages from Cavor that were coming to hand - my lingering doubts vanished I decided at once to accept proposal to remain , assisting him down the record from day to day, and endeavouring to send message back moon Cavor, we learnt, was alive, but free, midst of an almost inconceivable community ant-like beings, these ant-men, blue darkness lunar caves lamed, it seemed, but otherwise in quite good health - in better health, he distinctly said, than he usually enjoyed on earth He had had fever, but it had left no bad effects But curiously enough labouring under conviction that either dead moon crater or lost deep of space

His message began received Wendigee gentleman was engaged in quite different investigation The reader will recall the little excitement that began the century, arising out an announcement Nikola Tesla, the American electrical celebrity, that he had received message from Mars His announcement renewed attention to fact that had long been familiar to scientific people, namely: that from some unknown source in space, waves of electromagnetic disturbance, entirely similar those used by Signor Marconi wireless telegraphy, are constantly reaching the earth Besides Tesla quite number of other observers engaged in perfecting apparatus for receiving and recording these vibrations, though few would go to consider them actual messages from some extraterrestrial sender Among that few, however, certainly count Mr Wendigee 1898 he had devoted himself almost entirely subject, and being man of ample means he had erected an observatory flanks of Monte Rosa, singularly adapted in every way for such observations

My scientific attainments, admit, great, but enable me to judge, Mr Wendigee's contrivances for detecting and recording any disturbances electromagnetic conditions of space are singularly original and ingenious And by happy combination of circumstances they were set up and in operation about two months before Cavor made his first attempt up the earth Consequently fragments communication even beginning Unhappily, only fragments, most momentous of all the things that he had humanity - the instructions, , making of Cavorite, if, indeed, he ever transmitted them - have throbbed themselves away unrecorded into space We never succeeded in getting response back to Cavor unable , therefore, what we had received or what we had missed; nor, indeed, did he certainly know that on earth was really aware efforts to persistence he displayed in sending eighteen long descriptions of lunar affairs - as had them complete - shows his mind turned back towards his native planet since he left it two

imagine how amazed Mr Wendigee must when he discovered his record of electromagnetic disturbances interlaced by Cavor's straightforward English Mr Wendigee knew nothing wild journey moonward, and suddenly - this English void !