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being cut up, much as the crew of a whaler might cut up a moored whale.
They were cutting off the flesh in strips, and on some of the farther
trunks the white ribs were showing. It was the sound of their hatchets
that made that chid, chid, chid. Some way away a thing like a trolley
cable, drawn and loaded with chunks of lax meat, was running up the slope
of the cavern floor. This enormous long avenue of hulls that were destined
to be food gave us a sense of the vast populousness of the moon world
second only to the effect of our first glimpse down the shaft.
It seemed to me at first that the Selenites must be standing on
trestle-supported planks,[*] and then I saw that the planks and supports
and the hatchets were really of the same leaden hue as my fetters had
seemed before white light came to bear on them. A number of very
thick-looking crowbars lay about the floor, and had apparently assisted
to turn the dead mooncalf over on its side. They were perhaps six feet
long, with shaped handles, very tempting-looking weapons. The whole
place was lit by three transverse streams of the blue fluid.
[
* Footnote: I do not remember seeing any wooden things on the moon; doors
tables, everything corresponding to our terrestrial joinery was made of
metal, and I believe for the most part of gold, which as a metal would,
of course, naturally recommend itself--other things being equal--on
account of the ease in working it, and its toughness and durability.]
We lay for a long time noting all these things in silence. "Well?" said
Cavor at last.
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