CHAPTER 16

Mr. Bedford Alone

I hunted for a time, but the heat was still very great, and the thin air made me breathless. I came presently to a hollow place with tall dry plants about its edge, and I sat down under these to rest and cool myself. The rocks here were all veined with gold, and here and there knobs of gold projected from among the dry grasses. What did that matter now? I did not believe for a moment that we should ever find the sphere in that wilderness. I was greatly fatigued, and I slept.

When I awoke, I felt active again. I rose to my feet, carried my golden crowbars on my shoulders, and resumed my search.

The sun was much lower than it had been; the air was very much cooler. I must have slept some time. I leapt to a rock and surveyed the crater. I could see no sign of mooncalves or Selenites, nor could I see Cavor, but I could see my handkerchief far off.

I walked in a semicircle, and back again in a still greater curve. It was very fatiguing and hopeless. I was oppressed by the idea that the Selenites would presently close their lids and shut us out under the pitiless lunar night.

I took no thought any more of the sphere. I thought only of finding Cavor. I was half inclined to go back into the moon without him, rather than seek him until it was too late. I was already half-way back towards my handkerchief, when suddenly—

I saw the sphere!

It was lying much farther to the west than I had gone, and the rays of the setting sun reflected from its glass had suddenly revealed its presence in a dazzling beam.

I threw up my arms, I shouted, and set off in vast leaps towards it. My last leap flung me with my hands hard against its glass; then I lay against it, panting, and trying vainly to shout, "Cavor! Here is the sphere!" I crept inside and sat down among the bundles. I looked through the glass at the moon world and shivered. I laid down my gold clubs and took a little food. Then it occurred to me that it was time to go out and signal for Cavor. With an effort I got myself out of the sphere. I shivered as I emerged, for the evening air was growing very cold.

I leapt to a rock. I could see the little white handkerchief fluttering on the bushes. But Cavor was not in sight. I tried to shout, and was reminded of the thinness of the air. A cold wind was blowing.

I felt I must act instantly if I was to save Cavor. I took off my vest and flung it as a mark on the dry shrubs behind me, and then set off leaping in a straight line towards the handkerchief.

When I got there I stepped up on a rock and shouted, "Cavor!" but my voice was useless in this thin air.

Silence. The silence of death.

Suddenly my eye caught something lying among the broken branches. I went near to it. It was the little cricket-cap Cavor had worn. A dozen yards away, the rising breeze dragged something white into view. It was a little piece of paper crumpled tightly. I picked it up, and on it were stains of blood. My eyes caught faint pencil-marks. I smoothed it out, and this is what I read:

"I have been injured about the knee, and I cannot run or crawl. They have been chasing me, and it is only a question of time before they get me ... I can hear them ... a different sort of Selenites altogether ... They have larger heads and thinner bodies, and very short legs. They make gentle noises and move in an orderly manner. Their appearance still gives me hope—They have not shot at me or attempted ... injury. I intend—"

Then came a crooked line across the paper, and on the back and edges—blood!

And as I stood there stupid and perplexed, something very soft and light and cold touched my hand and vanished. It was a tiny snowflake, the first sign of the night.

I looked up with a start, and the sky had darkened now almost to blackness, and was thickly dotted with stars. Westwards, the setting sun was touching the edge of the crater and sinking out of sight. A cold wind set all the crater shivering. Suddenly it began to snow, and all the world about me was grey and dim.

And then I heard that same sound that had welcomed the coming of the day: Boom! ... Boom! ... Boom! ... 

What had happened to Cavor? I stood there stupidly, and at last the noise ceased. And suddenly the open mouth of the tunnel shut like an eye and vanished out of sight.

Then indeed was I alone.

Over me, around me, closing in on me, was the infinite space, the endless night. The hands of Death almost touched me.

"No," I cried. "No! Not yet! Not yet! Wait! Wait! Oh, wait!" My voice went up to a shriek. With all the will that was in me, I leapt out towards the sphere.

I was about two miles away from it, a hundred leaps or more, and the air about me was thinning out, and the cold was gripping at my joints. But had I died, I should have died leaping. I slipped and fell several times on the gathering snow. My breathing made a piping noise, and it was as though knives were stabbing my lungs. "Shall I reach it? O Heavens! Shall I reach it?

"Lie down!" screamed my pain and despair; "lie down!"

I stumbled, I bruised and cut myself and did not bleed.

It was in sight.

I fell on all fours and crawled. The frost gathered on my lips. I was a dozen yards from it. My eyes had become dim. "Lie down!" screamed Despair. "Lie down!"

I touched it, and halted. "Too late!" screamed Despair; "lie down!"

I was on the edge of the manhole, a half-dead being. The snow was all about me. I pulled myself in. Within, the air was a little warmer. The snowflakes danced in and about me, as I tried with freezing hands to thrust the manhole lid in and screwed it tight. And then with trembling fingers I turned to the blind studs. As I handled them awkwardly, something clicked under my hands and in an instant the moon world was hidden from my eyes. I was in the silence and darkness of the sphere.