Page:Wells - The First Men in the Moon, 1901.djvu/167

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
MR. CAVOR MAKES SUGGESTIONS
141

When he spoke again it was to confess, "After all, they are more human than we had a right to expect. I suppose———"

He stopped irritatingly.

"Yes?"

"I suppose, anyhow—on any planet where there is an intelligent animal—it will carry its brain case upward, and have hands, and walk erect . . ."

Presently he broke away in another direction.

"We are some way in," he said. "I mean—perhaps a couple of thousand feet or more."

"Why?"

"It's cooler. And our voices are so much louder. That faded quality—it has altogether gone. And the feeling in one's ears and throat."

I had not noted that, but I did now.

"The air is denser. We must be some depth—a mile even, we may be—inside the moon."

"We never thought of a world inside the moon."

"No."

"How could we?"

"We might have done. Only— One gets into habits of mind."

He thought for a time.