d from
now onward as a lower, sympathetic note to all his other sensations. It
gnawed away at him continuously; sometimes it embittered and irritated
him, at other times he forgot it.

He felt something hard on his forehead. Putting his hand up, he
discovered there a fleshy protuberance the size of a small plum, having
a cavity in the middle, of which he could not feel the bottom. Then
he also became aware of a large knob on each side of his neck, an inch
below the ear.

From the region of his heart, a tentacle had budded. It was as long as
his arm, but thin, like whipcord, and soft and flexible.

As soon as he thoroughly realised the significance of these new organs,
his heart began to pump. Whatever might, or might not, be their use,
they proved one thing that he was in a new world.

One part of the sky began to get lighter than the rest. Maskull cried
out to his companions, but received no response. This frightened him.
He went on shouting out, at irregular intervals--equally alarmed at the
silence and at the sound of his own voice. Finally, as no answering hail
came, he thought it wiser not to make too much noise, and after that he
lay quiet, waiting in cold blood for what might happen.

In a short while he perceived dim shadows around him, but these were not
his friends.

A pale, milky vapour over the ground began to succeed the black night,
while in the upper sky rosy tints appeared. On earth, one would have
said that day was breaking. The brightness went on imperceptibly
increasing for a very long time.

Maskull then discovered that he was lying on sand. The colour of the
sand was scarlet. The obscure shadows he had seen were bushes, with
black stems and purple leaves. So far, nothing else was visible.

The day surged up. It was too misty for direct sunshine, but before long
the brilliance of the light was already greater than that of the midday
sun on earth. The heat, too, was intense, but Maskull welcomed it--it
relieved his pain and diminished his sense of crushing weight. The wind
had dropped with the rising of the sun.

He now tried to get onto his feet, but succeeded only in kneeling. He
was unable to see far. The mists had no more than partially dissolved,
and all that he could distinguish was a narrow circle of red sand dotted
with ten or twenty bushes.

He felt a soft, cool touch on the back of his neck. He started forward
in nervous fright and, in doing so, tumbled over onto the sand. Lookin