The First Men in the Moon by H. Wells (the alpha prince and his bride full story free TXT) ๐
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- Author: H. Wells
Read book online ยซThe First Men in the Moon by H. Wells (the alpha prince and his bride full story free TXT) ๐ยป. Author - H. Wells
โIt looks as though these plants had it to themselves,โ I said. โI see no trace of any other creature.โ
โNo insectsโโโno birdsโโโno! Not a trace, not a scrap nor particle of animal life. If there wasโโโwhat would they do in the night?โ.โ.โ.โNo; thereโs just these plants alone.โ
I shaded my eyes with my hand. โItโs like the landscape of a dream. These things are less like earthly land plants than the things one imagines among the rocks at the bottom of the sea. Look at that, yonder! One might imagine it a lizard changed into a plant. And the glare!โ
โThis is only the fresh morning,โ said Cavor.
He sighed and looked about him. โThis is no world for men,โ he said. โAnd yet in a wayโโโit appeals.โ
He became silent for a time, then commenced his meditative humming.
I started at a gentle touch, and found a thin sheet of livid lichen lapping over my shoe. I kicked at it and it fell to powder, and each speck began to grow.
I heard Cavor exclaim sharply, and perceived that one of the fixed bayonets of the scrub had pricked him.
He hesitated, his eyes sought among the rocks about us. A sudden blaze of pink had crept up a ragged pillar of crag. It was a most extraordinary pink, a livid magenta.
โLook!โ said I, turning, and behold Cavor had vanished!
For an instant I stood transfixed. Then I made a hasty step to look over the verge of the rock. But in my surprise at his disappearance I forgot once more that we were on the moon. The thrust of my foot that I made in striding would have carried me a yard on earth; on the moon it carried me sixโโโa 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 oneโs weight. I fell, or rather I jumped down, about ten yards I suppose. It seemed to take quite a long time, five or six seconds, I should think. I floated through the air and fell like a feather, knee-deep in a snow-drift in the bottom of a gully of blue-grey, white-veined rock.
I looked about me. โCavor!โ I cried; but no Cavor was visible.
โCavor!โ I cried louder, and the rocks echoed me.
I turned fiercely to the rocks and clambered to the summit of them. โCavor!โ I cried. My voice sounded like the voice of a lost lamb.
The sphere, too, was not in sight, and for a moment a horrible feeling of desolation pinched my heart.
Then I saw him. He was laughing and gesticulating to attract my attention. He was on a bare patch of rock twenty or thirty yards away. I could not hear his voice, but โjump!โ said his gestures. I hesitated, the distance seemed enormous. Yet I reflected that surely I must be able to clear a greater distance than Cavor.
I made a step back, gathered myself together, and leapt with all my might. I seemed to shoot right up in the air as though I should never come down.โ.โ.โ.
It was horrible and delightful, and as wild as a nightmare, to go flying off in this fashion. I realised my leap had been altogether too violent. I flew clean over Cavorโs head and beheld a spiky confusion in a gully spreading to meet my fall. I gave a yelp of alarm. I put out my hands and straightened my legs.
I hit a huge fungoid bulk that burst all about me, scattering a mass of orange spores in every direction, and covering me with orange powder. I rolled over spluttering, and came to rest convulsed with breathless laughter.
I became aware of Cavorโs little round face peering over a bristling hedge. He shouted some faded inquiry. โEh?โ I tried to shout, but could not do so for want of breath. He made his way towards me, coming gingerly among the bushes.
โWeโve got to be careful,โ he said. โThis moon has no discipline. Sheโll let us smash ourselves.โ
He helped me to my feet. โYou exerted yourself too much,โ he said, dabbing at the yellow stuff with his hand to remove it from my garments.
I stood passive and panting, allowing him to beat off the jelly from my knees and elbows and lecture me upon my misfortunes. โWe donโt quite allow for the gravitation. Our muscles are scarcely educated yet. We must practise a little, when you have got your breath.โ
I pulled two or three little thorns out of my hand, and sat for a time on a boulder of rock. My muscles were quivering, and I had that feeling of personal disillusionment that comes at the first fall to the learner of cycling on earth.
It suddenly occurred to Cavor that the cold air in the gully, after the brightness of the sun, might give me a fever. So we clambered back into the sunlight. We found that beyond a few abrasions I had received no serious injuries from my tumble, and at Cavorโs suggestion we were presently looking round for some safe and easy landing-place for my next leap. We chose a rocky slab some ten yards off, separated from us by a little thicket of olive-green spikes.
โImagine it there!โ said Cavor, who was assuming the airs of a trainer, and he pointed to a spot about four feet from my toes. This leap I managed without difficulty, and I must confess I found a certain satisfaction in Cavorโs falling short by a foot or so and tasting the
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