But little time we had for watching then. For now we had come to the real

danger of our journey. We had to drop ever closer to the moon as we spun

about it, to slacken our pace and watch our chance, until at last we could

dare to drop upon its surface.

For Cavor that was a time of intense exertion; for me it was an anxious

inactivity. I seemed perpetually to be getting out of his way. He leapt

about the sphere from point to point with an agility that would have been

impossible on earth. He was perpetually opening and closing the Cavorite

windows, making calculations, consulting his chronometer by means of the

glow lamp during those last eventful hours. For a long time we had all our

windows closed and hung silently in darkness hurling through space.

Then he was feeling for the shutter studs, and suddenly four windows were

open. I staggered and covered my eyes, drenched and scorched and blinded

by the unaccustomed splendour of the sun beneath my feet. Then again the

shutters snapped, leaving my brain spinning in a darkness that pressed

against the eyes. And after that I floated in another vast, black silence.

Then Cavor switched on the electric light, and told me he proposed to bind

all our luggage together with the blankets about it, against the

concussion of our descent. We did this with our windows closed, because in

that way our goods arranged themselves naturally at the centre of the

sphere. That too was a strange business; we two men floating loose in that

spherical space, and packing and pulling ropes. Imagine it if you can! No

up nor down, and every effort resulting in unexpected movements. Now I

The First Men In The Moon