XVII THE FIGHT IN THE CAVE OF THE MOON BUTCHERS
I do not know how far we clambered before we came to the grating. Itmay be we ascended only a few hundred feet, but at the time it seemedto me we might have hauled and jammed and hopped and wedged ourselvesthrough a mile or more of vertical ascent. Whenever I recall that time,there comes into my head the heavy clank of our golden chains thatfollowed every movement. Very soon my knuckles and knees were raw, andI had a bruise on one cheek. After a time the first violence of ourefforts diminished, and our movements became more deliberate and lesspainful. The noise of the pursuing Selenites had died away altogether.It seemed almost as though they had not traced us up the crack afterall, in spite of the tell-tale heap of broken fungi that must havelain beneath it. At times the cleft narrowed so much that we couldscarce squeeze up it; at others it expanded into great drusy cavities,studded with prickly crystals, or thickly beset with dull, shiningfungoid pimples. Sometimes it twisted spirally, and at other timesslanted down nearly to the horizontal direction. Ever and again therewas the intermittent drip and trickle of water by us. Once or twice itseemed to us that small living things had rustled out of our reach, butwhat they were we never saw. They may have been venomous beasts for allI know, but they did us no harm, and we were now tuned to a pitch whena weird creeping thing more or less mattered little. And at last, farabove, came the familiar bluish light again, and then we saw that itfiltered through a grating that barred our way.
We whispered as we pointed this out to one another, and became more andmore cautious in our ascent. Presently we were close under the grating,and by pressing my face against its bars I could see a limited portionof the cavern beyond. It was clearly a large space, and lit no doubtby some rivulet of the same blue light that we had seen flow from thebeating machinery. An intermittent trickle of water dropped ever andagain between the bars near my face.
My first endeavour was naturally to see what might be upon the floorof the cavern, but our grating lay in a depression whose rim hid allthis from our eyes. Our foiled attention then fell back upon thesuggestion of the various sounds we heard, and presently my eye caughta number of faint shadows that played across the dim roof far overhead.
Indisputably there were several Selenites, perhaps a considerablenumber, in this space, for we could hear the noises of theirintercourse, and faint sounds that I identified as their footfalls.There was also a succession of regularly repeated sounds--chid, chid,chid--which began and ceased, suggestive of a knife or spade hacking atsome soft substance. Then came a clank as if of chains, a whistle and arumble as of a truck running over a hollowed place, and then again thatchid, chid, chid resumed. The shadows told of shapes that moved quicklyand rhythmically, in agreement with that regular sound, and rested whenit ceased.
We put our heads close together, and began to discuss these things innoiseless whispers.
“They are occupied,” I said, “they are occupied in some way.”
“Yes.”
“They’re not seeking us, or thinking of us.”
“Perhaps they have not heard of us.”
“Those others are hunting about below. If suddenly we appeared here----”
We looked at one another.
“There might be a chance to parley,” said Cavor.
“No,” I said. “Not as we are.”
For a space we remained, each occupied by his own thoughts.
Chid, chid, chid went the chopping, and the shadows moved to and fro.
I looked at the grating. “It’s flimsy,” I said. “We might bend two ofthe bars and crawl through.”
We wasted a little time in vague discussion. Then I took one of thebars in both hands, and got my feet up against the rock until theywere almost on a level with my head, and so thrust against the bar.It bent so suddenly that I almost slipped. I clambered about and bentthe adjacent bar in the opposite direction, and then took the luminousfungus from my pocket and dropped it down the fissure.
“Don’t do anything hastily,” whispered Cavor, as I twisted myself upthrough the opening I had enlarged. I had a glimpse of busy figures asI came through the grating, and immediately bent down, so that the rimof the depression in which the grating lay hid me from their eyes, andso lay flat, signalling advice to Cavor as he also prepared to comethrough. Presently we were side by side in the depression, peering overthe edge at the cavern and its occupants.
It was a much larger cavern than we had supposed from our first glimpseof it, and we looked up from the lowest portion of its sloping floor.It widened out as it receded from us, and its roof came down and hidthe remoter portion altogether. And lying in a line along its length,vanishing at last far away in that tremendous perspective, were anumber of huge shapes, huge pallid hulls, upon which the Selenites werebusy. At first they seemed big white cylinders of vague import. ThenI noted the heads upon them lying towards us, eyeless and skinlesslike the heads of sheep at a butcher’s, and perceived they were thecarcasses of mooncalves being cut up, much as the crew of a whalermight cut up a moored whale. They were cutting off the flesh in strips,and on some of the farther trunks the white ribs were showing. It wasthe sound of their hatchets that made that chid, chid. Some way away athing like a trolley cable, drawn and loaded with chunks of lax meat,was running up the slope of the cavern floor. This enormous long avenueof hulls that were destined to be food, gave us a sense of the vastpopulousness of the moon world second only to the effect of our firstglimpse down the shaft.
It seemed to me at first that the Selenites must be standing ontrestle-supported planks,[2] and then I saw that the planks andsupports and their hatchets were really of the same leaden hue as myfetters had seemed before white light came to bear on them. A numberof very thick-looking crowbars lay about the floor, and had apparentlyassisted to turn the dead mooncalf over on its side. They were perhapssix feet long, with shaped handles, very tempting-looking weapons. Thewhole place was lit by three transverse streams of the blue fluid.
We lay for a long time noting all these things in silence. “Well?” saidCavor at last.
I crouched lower and turned to him. I had come upon a brilliant idea.“Unless they lowered those bodies by a crane,” I said, “we must benearer the surface than I thought.”
“Why?”
“The mooncalf doesn’t hop, and it hasn’t got wings.”
He peered over the edge of the hollow again. “I wonder now ...” hebegan. “After all, we have never gone far from the surface----”
I stopped him by a grip on his arm. I had heard a noise from the cleftbelow us!
We twisted ourselves about, and lay as still as death, with every sensealert. In a little while I did not doubt that something was quietlyascending the cleft. Very slowly and quite noiselessly I assured myselfof a good grip on my chain, and waited for that something to appear.
“Just look at those chaps with the hatchets again,” I said.
“They’re all right,” said Cavor.
I took a sort of provisional aim at the gap in the grating. I couldhear now quite distinctly the soft twittering of the ascendingSelenites, the dab of their hands against the rock, and the falling ofdust from their grips as they clambered.
Then I could see that there was something moving dimly in the blacknessbelow the grating, but what it might be I could not distinguish. Thewhole thing seemed to hang fire just for a moment--then smash! I hadsprung to my feet, struck savagely at something that had flashed outat me. It was the keen point of a spear. I have thought since that itslength in the narrowness of the cleft must have prevented its beingsloped to reach me. Anyhow, it shot out from the grating like thetongue of a snake, and missed and flew back and flashed again. But thesecond time I snatched and caught it, and wrenched it away, but notbefore another had darted ineffectually at me.
I shouted with triumph as I felt the hold of the Selenite resist mypull for a moment and give, and then I was jabbing down through thebars, amidst squeals from the darkness, and Cavor had snapped off theother spear, and
was leaping and flourishing it beside me, and makinginefficient jabs. Clang, clang, came up through the grating, and thenan axe hurtled through the air and whacked against the rocks beyond, toremind me of the fleshers at the carcasses up the cavern.
I turned, and they were all coming towards us in open order wavingtheir axes. They were short, thick, little beggars, with long arms,strikingly different from the ones we had seen before. If they hadnot heard of us before, they must have realised the situation withincredible swiftness. I stared at them for a moment, spear in hand.“Guard that grating, Cavor,” I cried, howled to intimidate them, andrushed to meet them. Two of them missed with their hatchets, and therest fled incontinently. Then the two also were sprinting away up thecavern, with hands clenched and heads down. I never saw men run likethem!
I knew the spear I had was no good for me. It was thin and flimsy,only effectual for a thrust, and too long for a quick recover. So Ionly chased the Selenites as far as the first carcass, and stoppedthere and picked up one of the crowbars that were lying about. It feltcomfortingly heavy, and equal to smashing any number of Selenites.I threw away my spear, and picked up a second crowbar for the otherhand. I felt five times better than I had with the spear. I shook thetwo threateningly at the Selenites, who had come to a halt in a littlecrowd far away up the cavern, and then turned about to look at Cavor.
He was leaping from side to side of the grating, making threateningjabs with his broken spear. That was all right. It would keep theSelenites down--for a time at any rate. I looked up the cavern again.What on earth were we going to do now?
We were cornered in a sort of way already. But these butchers up thecavern had been surprised, they were probably scared, and they had nospecial weapons, only those little hatchets of theirs. And that way layescape. Their sturdy little forms--ever so much shorter and thickerthan the mooncalf herds--were scattered up the slope in a way that waseloquent of indecision. I had the moral advantage of a mad bull in astreet. But for all that, there seemed a tremendous crowd of them.Very probably there was. Those Selenites down the cleft had certainlysome infernally long spears. It might be they had other surprises forus.... But, confound it! if we charged up the cave we should let themup behind us, and if we didn’t, those little brutes up the cave wouldprobably get reinforced. Heaven alone knew what tremendous engines ofwarfare--guns, bombs, terrestrial torpedoes--this unknown world belowour feet, this vaster world of which we had only pricked the outercuticle, might not presently send up to our destruction. It becameclear the only thing to do was to charge! It became clearer as thelegs of a number of fresh Selenites appeared running down the caverntowards us.
“Bedford!” cried Cavor, and behold! he was half-way between me and thegrating.
“Go back!” I cried. “What are you doing----”
“They’ve got--it’s like a gun!”
And struggling in the grating between those defensive spears appearedthe head and shoulders of a singularly lean and angular Selenite,bearing some complicated apparatus.
I realised Cavor’s utter incapacity for the fight we had in hand. Fora moment I hesitated. Then I rushed past him whirling my crowbars, andshouting to confound the aim of the Selenite. He was aiming in thequeerest way with the thing against his stomach. “_Chuzz!_” The thingwasn’t a gun; it went off like a cross-bow more, and dropped me in themiddle of a leap.
I didn’t fall down, I simply came down a little shorter than I shouldhave done if I hadn’t been hit, and from the feel of my shoulder thething might have tapped me and glanced off. Then my left hand hitagainst the shaft, and I perceived there was a sort of spear stickinghalf through my shoulder. The moment after I got home with thecrowbar in my right hand, and hit the Selenite fair and square. Hecollapsed--he crushed and crumpled--his head smashed like an egg.
I dropped a crowbar, pulled the spear out of my shoulder, and began tojab it down the grating into the darkness. At each jab came a shriekand twitter. Finally I hurled the spear down upon them with all mystrength, leapt up, picked up the crowbar again, and started for themultitude up the cavern.
“Bedford!” cried Cavor. “Bedford!” as I flew past him.
I seem to remember his footsteps coming on behind me.
Step, leap ... whack, step, leap.... Each leap seemed to last ages.With each, the cave opened out and the number of Selenites visibleincreased. At first they seemed all running about like ants in adisturbed ant-hill, one or two waving hatchets and coming to meet me,more running away, some bolting sideways into the avenue of carcasses,then presently others came in sight carrying spears, and then others. Isaw a most extraordinary thing, all hands and feet, bolting for cover.The cavern grew darker farther up. Flick! something flew over my head.Flick! As I soared in mid-stride I saw a spear hit and quiver in oneof the carcasses to my left. Then, as I came down, one hit the groundbefore me, and I heard the remote chuzz! with which their things werefired. Flick, flick! for a moment it was a shower. They were volleying!
I stopped dead.
I don’t think I thought clearly then. I seem to remember a kind ofstereotyped phrase running through my mind: “Zone of fire, seek cover!”I know I made a dash for the space between two of the carcasses, andstood there panting and feeling very wicked.
I looked round for Cavor, and for a moment it seemed as if he hadvanished from the world. Then he came out of the darkness between therow of the carcasses and the rocky wall of the cavern. I saw his littleface, dark and blue, and shining with perspiration and emotion.
He was saying something, but what it was I did not heed. I had realisedthat we might work from mooncalf to mooncalf up the cave until we werenear enough to charge home. It was charge or nothing. “Come on!” Isaid, and led the way.
“Bedford!” he cried unavailingly.
My mind was busy as we went up that narrow alley between the deadbodies and the wall of the cavern. The rocks curved about--they couldnot enfilade us. Though in that narrow space we could not leap, yetwith our earth-born strength we were still able to go very much fasterthan the Selenites. I reckoned we should presently come right amongthem. Once we were on them, they would be nearly as formidable as blackbeetles. Only!--there would first of all be a volley. I thought of astratagem. I whipped off my flannel jacket as I ran.
“Bedford!” panted Cavor behind me.
I glanced back. “What?” said I.
He was pointing upward over the carcasses. “White light!” he said.“White light again!”
I looked, and it was even so, a faint white ghost of twilight in theremoter cavern roof. That seemed to give me double strength.
“Keep close,” I said. A flat, long Selenite dashed out of the darkness,and squealed and fled. I halted, and stopped Cavor with my hand. Ihung my jacket over my crowbar, ducked round the next carcass, droppedjacket and crowbar, showed myself, and darted back.
“Chuzz--flick,” just one arrow came. We were close on the Selenites,and they were standing in a crowd, broad, short, and tall together,with a little battery of their shooting implements pointing down thecave. Three or four other arrows followed the first, and then theirfire ceased.
I stuck out my head, and escaped by a hair’s-breadth. This time I drewa dozen shots or more, and heard the Selenites shouting and twitteringas if with excitement as they shot. I picked up jacket and crowbaragain.
“_Now!_” said I, and thrust out the jacket.
“Chuzz-zz-zz-zz! Chuzz!” In an instant my jacket had grown a thickbeard of arrows, and they were quivering all over the carcass behindus. Instantly I slipped the crowbar out of the jacket, dropped thejacket--for all I know to the contrary it is lying up there in the moonnow--and rushed out upon them.
For a minute perhaps it was massacre. I was too fierce to discriminate,and the Selenites were probably too scared to fight. At any rate theymade no sort of fight against me. I saw scarlet, as the saying is. Iremember I seemed to be wading among those leathery, thin things as aman wades through tall grass, mowing and hitting, first right, thenleft; smash
, smash. Little drops of moisture flew about. I trod onthings that crushed and piped and went slippery. The crowd seemed toopen and close and flow like water. They seemed to have no combinedplan whatever. There were spears flew about me, I was grazed over theear by one. I was stabbed once in the arm and once in the cheek, but Ionly found that out afterwards, when the blood had had time to run andcool and feel wet.
What Cavor did I do not know. For a space it seemed that this fightinghad lasted for an age, and must needs go on for ever. Then suddenly itwas all over, and there was nothing to be seen but the backs of headsbobbing up and down as their owners ran in all directions ... I seemedaltogether unhurt. I ran forward some paces, shouting, then turnedabout. I was amazed.
I had come right through them in vast flying strides, they were allbehind me, and running hither and thither to hide.
I felt an enormous astonishment at the evaporation of the great fightinto which I had hurled myself, and not a little of exultation. It didnot seem to me that I had discovered the Selenites were unexpectedlyflimsy, but that I was unexpectedly strong. I laughed stupidly. Thisfantastic moon!
I glanced for a moment at the smashed and writhing bodies that werescattered over the cavern floor, with a vague idea of further violence,then hurried on after Cavor.
FOOTNOTE:
[2] I do not remember seeing any wooden things on the moon; doors,tables, everything corresponding to our terrestrial joinery was made ofmetal, and I believe for the most part of gold, which as a metal would,of course, naturally recommend itself--other things being equal--onaccount of the ease in working it, and its toughness and durability.