nd from that discovery I also
started upon a train of thought that carried me wide and far. I forgot
that I had just been asking what business we had in the moon. Gold....

It was Cavor who spoke first. "It seems to me that there are two courses
open to us."

"Well?"

"Either we can attempt to make our way--fight our way if necessary--out
to the exterior again, and then hunt for our sphere until we find it, or
the cold of the night comes to kill us, or else--"

He paused. "Yes?" I said, though I knew what was coming.

"We might attempt once more to establish some sort of understanding with
the minds of the people in the moon."

"So far as I'm concerned--it's the first."

"I doubt."

"I don't."

"You see," said Cavor, "I do not think we can judge the Selenites by what
we have seen of them. Their central world, their civilised world will be
far below in the profounder caverns about their sea. This region of the
crust in which we are is an outlying district, a pastoral region. At any
rate, that is my interpretation. These Selenites we have seen may be only
the equivalent of cowboys and engine-tenders. Their use of goads--in all
probability mooncalf goads--the lack of imagination they show in expecting
us to be able to do just what they can do, their indisputable brutality,
all seem to point to something of that sort. But if we endured--"

"Neither of us could endure a six-inch plank across the bottomless pit for
very long."

"No," said Cavor; "but then--"

"I _won't_," I said.

He discovered a new line of possibilities. "Well, suppose we got ourselves
into some corner, where we could defend ourselves against these hinds and
labourers. If, for example, we could hold out for a week or so, it is
probable that the news of our appearance would filter down to the more
intelligent and populous parts--"

"If they exist."

"They must exist, or whence came those tremendous machines?"

"That's possible, but it's the worst of the two chances."

"We might write up inscriptions on walls--"

"How do we know their eyes would see the sort of marks we made?"

"If we cut them--"

"That's possible, of course."

I took up a new thread of thought. "After all," I said, "I suppose you
don't think these Selenites so infinitely wiser than men."

"They must know a lot more--or at least a lot of different things."

"Yes, but--" I hesitated.

"I think you'll quite admit, Cavor, that you're rather an exceptional
man."