XI THE MOONCALF PASTURES
So we two poor terrestrial castaways, lost in that wild-growing moonjungle, crawled in terror before the sounds that had come upon us. Wecrawled, as it seemed, a long time before we saw either Selenite ormooncalf, though we heard the bellowing and gruntulous noises of theselatter continually drawing nearer to us. We crawled through stonyravines, over snow slopes, amidst fungi that ripped like thin bladdersat our thrust, emitting a watery humour, over a perfect pavement ofthings like puff-balls, and beneath interminable thickets of scrub.And ever more hopelessly our eyes sought for our abandoned sphere. Thenoise of the mooncalves would at times be a vast flat calf-like sound,at times it rose to an amazed and wrathy bellowing, and again it wouldbecome a clogged bestial sound, as though these unseen creatures hadsought to eat and bellow at the same time.
Our first view was but an inadequate transitory glimpse, yet none theless disturbing because it was incomplete. Cavor was crawling in frontat the time, and he first was aware of their proximity. He stoppeddead, arresting me with a single gesture.
A crackling and smashing of the scrub appeared to be advancing directlyupon us, and then, as we squatted close and endeavoured to judge ofthe nearness and direction of this noise, there came a terrific bellowbehind us, so close and vehement that the tops of the bayonet scrubbent before it, and one felt the breath of it hot and moist. And,turning about, we saw indistinctly through a crowd of swaying stemsthe mooncalf’s shining sides, and the long line of its back loomed outagainst the sky.
Of course it is hard for me now to say how much I saw at that time,because my impressions were corrected by subsequent observation. Firstof all impressions was its enormous size; the girth of its body wassome fourscore feet, its length perhaps two hundred. Its sides roseand fell with its laboured breathing. I perceived that its gigantic,flabby body lay along the ground, and that its skin was of a corrugatedwhite, dappling into blackness along the backbone. But of its feet wesaw nothing. I think also that we saw then the profile at least of thealmost brainless head, with its fat-encumbered neck, its slobberingomnivorous mouth, its little nostrils, and tight shut eyes. (For themooncalf invariably shuts its eyes in the presence of the sun.) Wehad a glimpse of a vast red pit as it opened its mouth to bleat andbellow again; we had a breath from the pit, and then the monster heeledover like a ship, dragged forward along the ground, creasing all itsleathery skin, rolled again, and so wallowed past us, smashing a pathamidst the scrub, and was speedily hidden from our eyes by the denseinterlacings beyond. Another appeared more distantly, and then another,and then, as though he was guiding these animated lumps of provenderto their pasture, a Selenite came momentarily into ken. My grip uponCavor’s foot became convulsive at the sight of him, and we remainedmotionless and peering long after he had passed out of our range.
By contrast with the mooncalves he seemed a trivial being, a mere ant,scarcely five feet high. He was wearing garments of some leatherysubstance, so that no portion of his actual body appeared, but ofthis, of course, we were entirely ignorant. He presented himself,therefore, as a compact, bristling creature, having much of the qualityof a complicated insect, with whip-like tentacles and a clanging armprojecting from his shining cylindrical body case. The form of his headwas hidden by his enormous many-spiked helmet--we discovered afterwardsthat he used the spikes for prodding refractory mooncalves--and apair of goggles of darkened glass, set very much at the side, gave abird-like quality to the metallic apparatus that covered his face. Hisarms did not project beyond his body case, and he carried himself uponshort legs that, wrapped though they were in warm coverings, seemed toour terrestrial eyes inordinately flimsy. They had very short thighs,very long shanks, and little feet.
In spite of his heavy-looking clothing, he was progressing with whatwould be, from the terrestrial point of view, very considerablestrides, and his clanging arm was busy. The quality of his motionduring the instant of his passing suggested haste and a certain anger,and soon after we had lost sight of him we heard the bellow of amooncalf change abruptly into a short, sharp squeal, followed by thescuffle of its acceleration. And gradually that bellowing receded, andthen came to an end, as if the pastures sought had been attained.
We listened. For a space the moon world was still. But it was some timebefore we resumed our crawling search for the vanished sphere.
When next we saw mooncalves they were some little distance away from usin a place of tumbled rocks. The less vertical surfaces of the rockswere thick with a speckled green plant growing in dense mossy clumps,upon which these creatures were browsing. We stopped at the edge of thereeds amidst which we were crawling at the sight of them, peering outat them and looking round for a second glimpse of a Selenite. They layagainst their food like stupendous slugs, huge, greasy hulls, eatinggreedily and noisily, with a sort of sobbing avidity. They seemedmonsters of mere fatness, clumsy and overwhelmed to a degree that wouldmake a Smithfield ox seem a model of agility. Their busy, writhing,chewing mouths, and eyes closed, together with the appetising soundof their munching, made up an effect of animal enjoyment that wassingularly stimulating to our empty frames.
“Hogs!” said Cavor with unusual passion. “Disgusting hogs!” and afterone glare of angry envy crawled off through the bushes to our right.I stayed long enough to see that the speckled plant was quite hopelessfor human nourishment, then crawled after him, nibbling a quill of itbetween my teeth.
Presently we were arrested again by the proximity of a Selenite, andthis time we were able to observe him more exactly. Now we could seethat the Selenite covering was indeed clothing, and not a sort ofcrustacean integument. He was quite similar in his costume to theformer one we had glimpsed, except that ends of something like waddingwere protruding from his neck, and he stood on a promontory of rockand moved his head this way and that, as though he was surveying thecrater. We lay quite still, fearing to attract his attention if wemoved, and after a time he turned about and disappeared.
We came upon another drove of mooncalves bellowing up a ravine, andthen we passed over a place of sounds, sounds of beating machinery, asif some huge hall of industry came near the surface there. And whilethese sounds were still about us we came to the edge of a great openspace, perhaps two hundred yards in diameter, and perfectly level.Save for a few lichens that advanced from its margin this space wasbare, and presented a powdery surface of a dusty yellow colour. Wewere afraid to strike out across this space, but as it presented lessobstruction to our crawling than the scrub, we went down upon it andbegan very circumspectly to skirt its edge.
For a little while the noises from below ceased, and everything, savefor the faint stir of the growing vegetation, was very still. Thenabruptly there began an uproar, louder, more vehement, and nearerthan any we had so far heard. Of a certainty it came from below.Instinctively we crouched as flat as we could, ready for a promptplunge into the thicket beside us. Each knock and throb seemed tovibrate through our bodies. Louder grew this throbbing and beating, andthat irregular vibration increased until the whole moon world seemed tobe jerking and pulsing.
“Cover,” whispered Cavor, and I turned towards the bushes.
At that instant came a thud like the thud of a gun, and then a thinghappened--it still haunts me in my dreams. I had turned my head to lookat Cavor’s face, and thrust out my hand in front of me as I did so. Andmy hand met nothing! Plunged suddenly into a bottomless hole!
My chest hit something hard, and I found myself with my chin on theedge of an unfathomable abyss that had suddenly opened beneath me, myhand extended stiffly into the void. The whole of that flat circulararea was no more than a gigantic lid, that was now sliding sidewaysfrom off the pit it had covered into a slot prepared for it.
Had it not been for Cavor I think I should have remained rigid, hangingover this margin and staring into the enormous gulf below, until atlast the edges of the slot scraped me off and hurled me into itsdepths. But Cavor had not received the shock that had paralysed me. Hehad been a little distance from t
he edge when the lid had first opened,and perceiving the peril that held me helpless, gripped my legs andpulled me backward. I came into a sitting position, crawled away fromthe edge for a space on all fours, then staggered up and ran afterhim across the thundering, quivering sheet of metal. It seemed to beswinging open with a steadily accelerated velocity, and the bushes infront of me shifted sideways as I ran.
I was none too soon. Cavor’s back vanished amidst the bristlingthicket, and as I scrambled up after him, the monstrous valve cameinto its position with a clang. For a long time we lay panting, notdaring to approach the pit.
But at last very cautiously and bit by bit we crept into a positionfrom which we could peer down. The bushes about us creaked and wavedwith the force of a breeze that was blowing down the shaft. We could seenothing at first except smooth vertical walls descending at last intoan impenetrable black. And then very gradually we became aware of anumber of very faint and little lights going to and fro.
For a time that stupendous gulf of mystery held us so that we forgoteven our sphere. In time, as we grew more accustomed to the darkness,we could make out very small, dim, elusive shapes moving about amongthose needle-point illuminations. We peered amazed and incredulous,understanding so little that we could find no words to say. We coulddistinguish nothing that would give us a clue to the meaning of thefaint shapes we saw.
“What can it be?” I asked; “what can it be?”
“The engineering!... They must live in these caverns during the night,and come out during the day.”
“Cavor!” I said. “Can they be--_that_--it was something like--men?”
“_That_ was not a man.”
“We dare risk nothing!”
“We dare do nothing until we find the sphere!”
“We can do nothing until we find the sphere.”
He assented with a groan and stirred himself to move. He staredabout him for a space, sighed, and indicated a direction. We struckout through the jungle. For a time we crawled resolutely, then withdiminishing vigour. Presently among great shapes of flabby purple therecame a noise of trampling and cries about us. We lay close, and for along time the sounds went to and fro and very near. But this time wesaw nothing. I tried to whisper to Cavor that I could hardly go withoutfood much longer, but my mouth had become too dry for whispering.
“Cavor,” I said, “I must have food.”
He turned a face full of dismay towards me. “It’s a case for holdingout,” he said.
“But I _must_,” I said, “and look at my lips!”
“I’ve been thirsty some time.”
“If only some of that snow had remained!”
“It’s clean gone! We’re driving from arctic to tropical at the rate ofa degree a minute....”
I gnawed my hand.
“The sphere!” he said. “There is nothing for it but the sphere.”
We roused ourselves to another spurt of crawling. My mind ran entirelyon edible things, on the hissing profundity of summer drinks, moreparticularly I craved for beer. I was haunted by the memory of asixteen gallon cask that had swaggered in my Lympne cellar. I thoughtof the adjacent larder, and especially of steak and kidney pie--tendersteak and plenty of kidney, and rich, thick gravy between. Ever andagain I was seized with fits of hungry yawning. We came to flat placesovergrown with fleshy red things, monstrous coralline growths; as wepushed against them they snapped and broke. I noted the quality of thebroken surfaces. The confounded stuff certainly looked of a biteabletexture. Then it seemed to me that it smelt rather well.
I picked up a fragment and sniffed at it.
“Cavor,” I said in a hoarse undertone.
He glanced at me with his face screwed up. “Don’t,” he said. I put downthe fragment, and we crawled on through this tempting fleshiness for aspace.
“Cavor,” I asked, “why _not_?”
“Poison,” I heard him say, but he did not look round.
We crawled some way before I decided.
“I’ll chance it,” said I.
He made a belated gesture to prevent me. I stuffed my mouth full. Hecrouched watching my face, his own twisted into the oddest expression.“It’s good,” I said.
“O Lord!” he cried.
He watched me munch, his face wrinkled between desire and disapproval,then suddenly succumbed to appetite, and began to tear off hugemouthfuls. For a time we did nothing but eat.
The stuff was not unlike a terrestrial mushroom, only it was much laxerin texture, and, as one swallowed it, it warmed the throat. At first weexperienced a mere mechanical satisfaction in eating; then our bloodbegan to run warmer, and we tingled at the lips and fingers, and thennew and slightly irrelevant ideas came bubbling up in our minds.
“It’s good,” said I. “Infernally good! What a home for our surpluspopulation! Our poor surplus population,” and I broke off another largeportion.
It filled me with a curiously benevolent satisfaction that there wassuch good food in the moon. The depression of my hunger gave way to anirrational exhilaration. The dread and discomfort in which I had beenliving vanished entirely. I perceived the moon no longer as a planetfrom which I most earnestly desired the means of escape, but as apossible refuge for human destitution. I think I forgot the Selenites,the mooncalves, the lid, and the noises completely so soon as I hadeaten that fungus.
Cavor replied to my third repetition of my “surplus population”remark with similar words of approval. I felt that my head swam, butI put this down to the stimulating effect of food after a long fast.“Ess’lent discov’ry yours, Cavor,” said I. “Se’nd on’y to the ’tato.”
“Whajer mean?” asked Cavor. “’Scovery of the moon--se’nd on’y to the’tato?”
I looked at him, shocked at his suddenly hoarse voice, and by thebadness of his articulation. It occurred to me in a flash that hewas intoxicated, possibly by the fungus. It also occurred to me thathe erred in imagining that he had discovered the moon; he had notdiscovered it, he had only reached it. I tried to lay my hand onhis arm and explain this to him, but the issue was too subtle forhis brain. It was also unexpectedly difficult to express. After amomentary attempt to understand me--I remember wondering if the fungushad made my eyes as fishy as his--he set off upon some observations onhis own account.
“We are,” he announced with a solemn hiccup, “the creashurs o’ what weeat and drink.”
He repeated this, and as I was now in one of my subtle moods, Idetermined to dispute it. Possibly I wandered a little from the point.But Cavor certainly did not attend at all properly. He stood up as wellas he could, putting a hand on my head to steady himself, which wasdisrespectful, and stood staring about him, quite devoid now of anyfear of the moon beings.
I tried to point out that this was dangerous for some reason that wasnot perfectly clear to me, but the word “dangerous” had somehow gotmixed with “indiscreet,” and came out rather more like “injurious”than either; and after an attempt to disentangle them, I resumed myargument, addressing myself principally to the unfamiliar but attentivecoralline growths on either side. I felt that it was necessary to clearup this confusion between the moon and a potato at once--I wanderedinto a long parenthesis on the importance of precision of definitionin argument. I did my best to ignore the fact that my bodily sensationswere no longer agreeable.
In some way that I have now forgotten, my mind was led back to projectsof colonisation. “We must annex this moon,” I said. “There must beno shilly-shally. This is part of the White Man’s Burthen. Cavor--weare--_hic_--Satap--mean Satraps! Nempire Cæsar never dreamt. B’in allthe newspapers. Cavorecia. Bedfordecia. Bedfordecia--hic--Limited.Mean--unlimited! Practically.”
Certainly I was intoxicated.
I embarked upon an argument to show the infinite benefits our arrivalwould confer on the moon. I involved myself in a rather difficult proofthat the arrival of Columbus was, on the whole, beneficial to America.I found I had forgotten the line of argument I had intended to pursue,and continued to repeat
“Simlar to C’lumbus,” to fill up time.
From that point my memory of the action of that abominable fungusbecomes confused. I remember vaguely that we declared our intentionof standing no nonsense from any confounded insects, that we decidedit ill became men to hide shamefully upon a mere satellite, that weequipped ourselves with huge armfuls of the fungus--whether formissile purposes or not I do not know--and, heedless of the stabs ofthe bayonet scrub, we started forth into the sunshine.
Almost immediately we must have come upon the Selenites. There weresix of them, and they were marching in single file over a rockyplace, making the most remarkable piping and whining sounds. They allseemed to become aware of us at once, all instantly became silent andmotionless, like animals, with their faces turned towards us.
For a moment I was sobered.
“Insects,” murmured Cavor, “insects! And they think I’m going to crawlabout on my stomach--on my vertebrated stomach!
“Stomach,” he repeated slowly, as though he chewed the indignity.
“Insects,” murmured Cavor, “insects”]
Then suddenly, with a shout of fury, he made three vast strides andleapt towards them. He leapt badly; he made a series of somersaults inthe air, whirled right over them, and vanished with an enormous splashamidst the cactus bladders. What the Selenites made of this amazing,and to my mind undignified irruption from another planet, I have nomeans of guessing. I seem to remember the sight of their backs as theyran in all directions, but I am not sure. All these last incidentsbefore oblivion came are vague and faint in my mind. I know I made astep to follow Cavor, and tripped and fell headlong among the rocks. Iwas, I am certain, suddenly and vehemently ill. I seem to remember aviolent struggle, and being gripped by metallic clasps....
* * * * *
My next clear recollection is that we were prisoners at we knew notwhat depth beneath the moon’s surface; we were in darkness amidststrange distracting noises; our bodies were covered with scratches andbruises, and our heads racked with pain.