The First Men in the Moon

cting

me question in our eyes. For these plants to grow, there must be som

nhole?"

avor, "if it

are. Suppose-suppose after all- Is it certain? How do you know th

bale, lit it, and thrust it hastily through the man-hole valve. I bent forward and peered down thro

burning vanished. For an instant it seemed to be extinguished. And then I saw

a quivering thread of smoke. There was no doubt left to me; the atmosphere of the moon was either pure oxygen or a

nated atmosphere outside, it might still be so rarefied as to cause us grave injury. He reminded me of mountain sickness, and of the bleeding that often afflicts aeronauts who have ascended too swiftly, an

g the thread of the screw, singing as a kettle sings before it boils. Thereupon he made me desist. It speedily became e

prove too rarefied for us, and Cavor sat with a cylinder of compressed oxygen at hand to restore our pressure. We looked at one another in

nd of Cavor's movements diminished. I noted how still e

the screw the moisture of

me of our exposure to the moon's exterior atmosphere, and a rather unpleasant sensation about the ea

wered me in a voice that seemed extraordinarily small and remote, because of the thinness of the air that carried the sound. He recommended a nip of brandy, and set me the example, and presently I felt b

avor, in the g

?" sa

l we

t. "Is t

can st

lake or so of snow whirled and vanished as that thin and unfamiliar air took possession of our sphere. I knelt, and then sea

little pause.

ss your lungs too

d. "I can s

n on the edge of the manhole, he let his feet drop until they were within six inches of the lunar ground. He hesitated fo

he edge of the glass. He stood for a moment looking thi

e seemed twenty or thirty feet off. He was standing high upon a rocky mass and gesticulating back to me. Perhaps he was shoutin

le. I stood up. Just in front of me the snowdrift had fall

ock on which he stood coming to meet me, clutche

usly confused. Cavor bent down and shout

th's mass and a quarter of its diameter, my weight was barely a sixth

r Earth's leading-st

ly as a rheumatic patient, stood up beside him under the blaze of the su

arting into life, diversified here and there by bulging masses of a cactus form, and scarlet and purple lichens that grew so fast they seemed to

entre of the crater, and we saw it through a certain haziness that drove before the wind. For there was even a wind now in the thin air, a swift yet weak wind that chilled exceedingly but exerted little pressure. It was blowing round the crater, as it s

rted," said Cavor, "

uilding, some house or engine, but everywhere one looked spread the tumbled rocks in peaks and crests, and the

ad it to themselves," I said. "I s

particle of animal life. If there was-what would they d

ike earthly land plants than the things one imagines among the rocks at the bottom of the s

he fresh mornin

This is no world for men," he sai

time, then commenced

of livid lichen lapping over my shoe. I kicked at it

d pricked him. He hesitated, his eyes sought among the rocks about us. A sudden blaze of pi

rning, and behold

it carried me six-a good five yards over the edge. For the moment the thing had something of the effect of those nightmares when one falls and falls. For while one falls sixteen feet in the first second of a fall on earth, on the moon one falls two, and with only a sixth of one

Cavor!" I cried; but

louder, and the

he rocks and clambered

voice sounded like th

and for a moment a horrible feeli

twenty or thirty yards away. I could not hear his voice, but "jump" said his gestures. I hesitated, the di

ered myself together, an

up in the air as though

my leap had been altogether too violent. I flew clean over Cavor's head and beheld a spiky confusion in

range spores in every direction, and covering me with orange powder. I ro

e shouted some faded inquiry. "Eh?" I tried to shout, but could not do so for

id. "This moon has no discipline

too much," he said, dabbing at the yellow stu

and lecture me upon my misfortunes. "We don't quite allow for the gravitation. Our musc

ulder of rock. My muscles were quivering, and I had that feeling of personal d

ght. We found that beyond a few abrasions I had received no serious injuries from my tumble, and at Cavor's suggestion we were presently looking round fo

t difficulty, and I must confess I found a certain satisfaction in Cavor's falling short by a foot or so and tasting the spikes of the scrub. "One has to

cles to the new standard. I could never have believed had I not experienced it, how rapid that adaptation would be. In a very little tim

ker and taller, spiked plants, green cactus masses, fungi, fleshy and lichenous things, strangest radiate and sinu

hich I am certain contained a much larger proportion of oxygen than our terrestrial atmosphere. In spite of the strange quality of all about us, I felt as adventurous and experimental

ee steps and went off to a tempting slope of snow a good twenty yards and more beyond. I stood for a moment struck by the grotesque effect of his soaring figure-his dirty cricket cap, and spiky hair, his little

ding our sides and recovering our breath, looking appreciation to one another. Cavor panted something about "amazing sensations." And then came

aid, "where exact

oked at

what we were sayin

ng a hand on his arm,