When at last we had made an end of eating, the Selenites linked our hands closely together again, and then untwisted the chains about our feet and rebound1 them, so as to give us a limited freedom of movement. Then they unfastened the chains about our waists. To do all this they had to handle us freely, and ever and again one of their queer heads came down close to my face, or a soft tentacle-hand touched my head or neck. I don't remember that I was afraid then or repelled2 by their proximity3. I think that our incurable4 anthropomorphism made us imagine there were human heads inside their masks. The skin, like everything else, looked bluish, but that was on account of the light; and it was hard and shiny, quite in the beetle-wing fashion, not soft, or moist, or hairy, as a vertebrated animal's would be. Along the crest5 of the head was a low ridge6 of whitish spines7 running from back to front, and a much larger ridge curved on either side over the eyes. The Selenite who untied8 me used his mouth to help his hands.
"They seem to be releasing us," said Cavor. "Remember we are on the moon! Make no sudden movements!"
"Are you going to try that geometry?"
"If I get a chance. But, of course, they may make an advance first."
We remained passive, and the Selenites, having finished their arrangements, stood back from us, and seemed to be looking at us. I say seemed to be, because as their eyes were at the side and not in front, one had the same difficulty in determining the direction in which they were looking as one has in the case of a hen or a fish. They conversed9 with one another in their reedy tones, that seemed to me impossible to imitate or define. The door behind us opened wider, and, glancing over my shoulder, I saw a vague large space beyond, in which quite a little crowd of Selenites were standing10. They seemed a curiously11 miscellaneous rabble12.
"Do they want us to imitate those sounds?" I asked Cavor.
"I don't think so," he said.
"It seems to me that they are trying to make us understand something."
"I can't make anything of their gestures. Do you notice this one, who is worrying with his head like a man with an uncomfortable collar?"
"Let us shake our heads at him."
We did that, and finding it ineffectual, attempted an imitation of the Selenites' movements. That seemed to interest them. At any rate they all set up the same movement. But as that seemed to lead to nothing, we desisted at last and so did they, and fell into a piping argument among themselves. Then one of them, shorter and very much thicker than the others, and with a particularly wide mouth, squatted13 down suddenly beside Cavor, and put his hands and feet in the same posture14 as Cavor's were bound, and then by a dexterous15 movement stood up.
"Cavor," I shouted, "they want us to get up!"
He stared open-mouthed. "That's it!" he said.
And with much heaving and grunting16, because our hands were tied together, we contrived17 to struggle to our feet. The Selenites made way for our elephantine heavings, and seemed to twitter more volubly. As soon as we were on our feet the thick-set Selenite came and patted each of our faces with his tentacles18, and walked towards the open doorway19. That also was plain enough, and we followed him. We saw that four of the Selenites standing in the doorway were much taller than the others, and clothed in the same manner as those we had seen in the crater20, namely, with spiked22 round helmets and cylindrical23 body-cases, and that each of the four carried a goad24 with spike21 and guard made of that same dull-looking metal as the bowls. These four closed about us, one on either side of each of us, as we emerged from our chamber25 into the cavern26 from which the light had come.
We did not get our impression of that cavern all at once. Our attention was taken up by the movements and attitudes of the Selenites immediately about us, and by the necessity of controlling our motion, lest we should startle and alarm them and ourselves by some excessive stride. In front of us was the short, thick-set being who had solved the problem of asking us to get up, moving with gestures that seemed, almost all of them, intelligible27 to us, inviting28 us to follow him. His spout-like face turned from one of us to the other with a quickness that was clearly interrogative. For a time, I say, we were taken up with these things.
But at last the great place that formed a background to our movements asserted itself. It became apparent that the source of much, at least, of the tumult29 of sounds which had filled our ears ever since we had recovered from the stupefaction of the fungus30 was a vast mass of machinery31 in active movement, whose flying and whirling parts were visible indistinctly over the heads and between the bodies of the Selenites who walked about us. And not only did the web of sounds that filled the air proceed from this mechanism32, but also the peculiar33 blue light that irradiated the whole place. We had taken it as a natural thing that a subterranean34 cavern should be artificially lit, and even now, though the fact was patent to my eyes, I did not really grasp its import until presently the darkness came. The meaning and structure of this huge apparatus35 we saw I cannot explain, because we neither of us learnt what it was for or how it worked. One after another, big shafts36 of metal flung out and up from its centre, their heads travelling in what seemed to me to be a parabolic path; each dropped a sort of dangling37 arm as it rose towards the apex38 of its flight and plunged39 down into a vertical40 cylinder41, forcing this down before it. About it moved the shapes of tenders, little figures that seemed vaguely42 different from the beings about us. As each of the three dangling arms of the machine plunged down, there was a clank and then a roaring, and out of the top of the vertical cylinder came pouring this incandescent43 substance that lit the place, and ran over as milk runs over a boiling pot, and dripped luminously44 into a tank of light below. It was a cold blue light, a sort of phosphorescent glow but infinitely45 brighter, and from the tanks into which it fell it ran in conduits athwart the cavern.
Thud, thud, thud, thud, came the sweeping46 arms of this unintelligible47 apparatus, and the light substance hissed48 and poured. At first the thing seemed only reasonably large and near to us, and then I saw how exceedingly little the Selenites upon it seemed, and I realised the full immensity of cavern and machine. I looked from this tremendous affair to the faces of the Selenites with a new respect. I stopped, and Cavor stopped, and stared at this thunderous engine.
"But this is stupendous!" I said. "What can it be for?"
Cavor's blue-lit face was full of an intelligent respect. "I can't dream! Surely these beings-- Men could not make a thing like that! Look at those arms, are they on connecting rods?"
The thick-set Selenite had gone some paces unheeded. He came back and stood between us and the great machine. I avoided seeing him, because I guessed somehow that his idea was to beckon49 us onward50. He walked away in the direction he wished us to go, and turned and came back, and flicked51 our faces to attract our attention.
Cavor and I looked at one another.
"Cannot we show him we are interested in the machine?" I said.
"Yes," said Cavor. "We'll try that." He turned to our guide and smiled, and pointed52 to the machine, and pointed again, and then to his head, and then to the machine. By some defect of reasoning he seemed to imagine that broken English might help these gestures. "Me look 'im," he said, "me think 'im very much. Yes."
His behaviour seemed to check the Selenites in their desire for our progress for a moment. They faced one another, their queer heads moved, the twittering voices came quick and liquid. Then one of them, a lean, tall creature, with a sort of mantle53 added to the puttee in which the others were dressed, twisted his elephant trunk of a hand about Cavor's waist, and pulled him gently to follow our guide, who again went on ahead. Cavor resisted. "We may just as well begin explaining ourselves now. They may think we are new animals, a new sort of mooncalf perhaps! It is most important that we should show an intelligent interest from the outset."
He began to shake his head violently. "No, no," he said, "me not come on one minute. Me look at 'im."
"Isn't there some geometrical point you might bring in apropos54 of that affair?" I suggested, as the Selenites conferred again.
"Possibly a parabolic--" he began.
He yelled loudly, and leaped six feet or more!
One of the four armed moon-men had pricked55 him with a goad!
I turned on the goad-bearer behind me with a swift threatening gesture, and he started back. This and Cavor's sudden shout and leap clearly astonished all the Selenites. They receded56 hastily, facing us. For one of those moments that seem to last for ever, we stood in angry protest, with a scattered57 semicircle of these inhuman58 beings about us.
"He pricked me!" said Cavor, with a catching59 of the voice.
"I saw him," I answered.
"Confound it!" I said to the Selenites; "we're not going to stand that! What on earth do you take us for?"
I glanced quickly right and left. Far away across the blue wilderness60 of cavern I saw a number of other Selenites running towards us; broad and slender they were, and one with a larger head than the others. The cavern spread wide and low, and receded in every direction into darkness. Its roof, I remember, seemed to bulge61 down as if with the weight of the vast thickness of rocks that prisoned us. There was no way out of it--no way out of it. Above, below, in every direction, was the unknown, and these inhuman creatures, with goads62 and gestures, confronting us, and we two unsupported men!
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1
rebound
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| v.弹回；n.弹回，跳回 | |
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repelled
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| v.击退( repel的过去式和过去分词 )；使厌恶；排斥；推开 | |
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proximity
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| n.接近，邻近 | |
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incurable
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| adj.不能医治的，不能矫正的，无救的；n.不治的病人，无救的人 | |
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crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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spines
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| n.脊柱( spine的名词复数 )；脊椎；（动植物的）刺；书脊 | |
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untied
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| 松开，解开( untie的过去式和过去分词 )； 解除，使自由； 解决 | |
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conversed
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的过去式 ) | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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rabble
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| n.乌合之众，暴民；下等人 | |
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squatted
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的过去式和过去分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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posture
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| n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势 | |
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dexterous
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| adj.灵敏的；灵巧的 | |
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grunting
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| 咕哝的，呼噜的 | |
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contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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tentacles
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| n.触手( tentacle的名词复数 )；触角；触须；触毛 | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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crater
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| n.火山口，弹坑 | |
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spike
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| n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效 | |
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spiked
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| adj.有穗的；成锥形的；有尖顶的 | |
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cylindrical
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| adj.圆筒形的 | |
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goad
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| n.刺棒，刺痛物；激励；vt.激励，刺激 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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cavern
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| n.洞穴，大山洞 | |
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intelligible
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| adj.可理解的，明白易懂的，清楚的 | |
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inviting
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| adj.诱人的，引人注目的 | |
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tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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fungus
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| n.真菌，真菌类植物 | |
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machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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subterranean
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| adj.地下的，地表下的 | |
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apparatus
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| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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36
shafts
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| n.轴( shaft的名词复数 )；（箭、高尔夫球棒等的）杆；通风井；一阵（疼痛、害怕等） | |
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37
dangling
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| 悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
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apex
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| n.顶点，最高点 | |
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plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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vertical
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| adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置 | |
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41
cylinder
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| n.圆筒，柱(面)，汽缸 | |
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42
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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43
incandescent
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| adj.遇热发光的， 白炽的，感情强烈的 | |
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44
luminously
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| 发光的； 明亮的； 清楚的； 辉赫 | |
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infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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46
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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47
unintelligible
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| adj.无法了解的，难解的，莫明其妙的 | |
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48
hissed
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| 发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对 | |
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49
beckon
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| v.(以点头或打手势)向...示意，召唤 | |
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50
onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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51
flicked
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| （尤指用手指或手快速地）轻击( flick的过去式和过去分词 )； （用…）轻挥； （快速地）按开关； 向…笑了一下（或瞥了一眼等） | |
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52
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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53
mantle
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| n.斗篷，覆罩之物，罩子；v.罩住，覆盖，脸红 | |
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54
apropos
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| adv.恰好地；adj.恰当的；关于 | |
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55
pricked
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| 刺，扎，戳( prick的过去式和过去分词 )； 刺伤； 刺痛； 使剧痛 | |
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56
receded
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| v.逐渐远离( recede的过去式和过去分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题 | |
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57
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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58
inhuman
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| adj.残忍的，不人道的，无人性的 | |
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59
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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60
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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61
bulge
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| n.突出，膨胀，激增；vt.突出，膨胀 | |
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62
goads
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| n.赶牲口的尖棒( goad的名词复数 )v.刺激( goad的第三人称单数 )；激励；（用尖棒）驱赶；驱使（或怂恿、刺激）某人 | |
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