THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON
"The infernal fools," said I viciously, glancing at their exasperating faces.
"If we endure what they do to us———"
"We've got to endure it," said I.
"There may be others less stupid. This is the mere outer fringe of their world. It must go down and down, cavern, passage, tunnel, down at last to the sea, hundreds of miles below."
His words made me think of the mile or so of rock and tunnel that might be over our heads already. It was like a weight dropping on my shoulders. "Away from the sun and air," I said. "Even a mine half a mile deep is stuffy."
"This is not—anyhow. It's probable— Ventilation! The air would blow from the dark side of the moon to the sunlit, and all the carbonic acid would well out there and feed those plants. Up this tunnel, for example—there is quite a breeze. And what a world it must be! The earnest we have in that shaft, and those machines———"
"And the goad," I said. "Don't forget the goad!"
He walked a little in front of me for a time.
"Even that goad—" he said.
"Well?"
"I was angry at the time. But—it was perhaps necessary we should get on. They have different skins and probably different nerves. They may not understand our objection—just as a being from Mars might not like our earthly habit of nudging."
"They'd better be careful how they nudge me."
"And about that geometry. After all, their way
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