"Thank God!” she murmured. "I should have hated to die out there, in that vast cemetery—that Valley of Death.”
He pressed her hand—now so warm, yet so cold only a few minutes before.
"Yes,” he answered. "Yet, isn’t it beautiful, with its blazing lights and black-velvet shadows? We shall never see anything like it again—unless we make another trip to the moon.” "The sun doesn’t seem to move at all,” she hazarded.
"It’s because the days are so long,” he replied. "The sun’s motion would be hardly perceptible on the earth if our days were ten times longer than they are."
"But what nights!” she ejaculated.
"No longer—not so long as those near the terrestrial poles," continued Bennie. "The earth stays always in the same spot in the sky, just where we see it now as a huge crescent near the sun. As the sun sinks toward the horizon, the earth waxes like the moon seen from the earth, reaching its half-stage at sunset. Then, through the long lunar night it grows, until, at seven of our days after sundown, it becomes full. Then it wanes again, reaching the half at sunrise a week later. If we had landed on the other side of the moon, the earth would have remained invisible. If there were people living on the other side, they would never see the earth—their moon—at all.."
"Unless they came over to this side for an excursion," interpolated Rhoda.
"The earth would be worth their seeing, all right!" chuckled Burke. "And think of the wonderful lunar light! I wish we could stay until sunset and see the moon by earth-light."
"Tea is served!" called Atterbury, and they all gathered hungrily around the chart-table.
"I bet we’re the first folks that ever had tea on the moon,’’ remarked Burke.
"That’s your one best bet!" retorted Atterbury. "Or ham sandwiches, either!"
PART V
THE ATTACK ON THE ASTEROID
I
"It’s time we were off," announced Bennie presently, glancing at his watch. "We’ve been here over two hours, and Medusa is coming on fast."
Rhoda went to the glass port-hole and looked out.
"By the way, where is she now?" she asked.
"Below us,” answered Bennie. "We’re on the earth-side of the moon. The asteroid is away off in space on the other side.”
"Then we shall see the other side of the moon," exclaimed Rhoda, "the side we never see from the earth!"
"Not much of it, I’m afraid," said Bennie. "It’s nearly full-moon now, and the other side will be in darkness. Start up the dynamo, Atterbury, and run slow at first. We’ve got to rise from the surface without a starting-stage, and there may be trouble.”
Burke took his place at the control-lever, and presently the Ring pulsated again with the throb of the machinery. A dense cloud of dust arose around them, and loosened fragments of rock beat a thunderous tattoo against the under surface of the machine. The din and uproar increased second by second, the giant ray, as it bored down upon the moon’s surface, making a sort of hole, into which the Ring, at first, seemed inclined to settle. Then the glare grew brighter, and the machine suddenly lifted itself out of the turmoil into full sunlight again. Once more they were pressed heavily toward the floor, and knew that the full acceleration of the tractor had been developed. They were off-off into space again, bound for the tilting sward of the celestial tournament, ready for the fiery joust, with their burning lance at rest!
Below them, the surface of the moon shone like a desolate ruin in the midst of a sandy desert. Rhoda could see the entire plain which had been the scene of her adventure, and her heart beat strangely as she picked out the pinnacle and the ridge where she had given herself tup for lost. Thirty or forty miles to the north, Copernicus raised its glistening cone. Again the hollows of its surrounding craters, the crevasses, the valleys glowed with weird, phosphorescent colors—reddish, sapphire, and green.
The moon began to lose its metallic hardness and to gain a mellow luster that was almost friendly. Each moment, new beauties revealed themselves—vast concentric mountain chains gleaming like jewels; strange gulfs, dried-up seas, former islands, and archipelagoes; odd, luminous streaks or furrows, shining as if with snow; patches of grayish yellow, like autumn forests; great peaks, twenty-thousand feet in height, their circumferences geometrically perfect, concentric circles with a dazzling world of soft, ineffable beauty—our moon! And how swiftly it was dropping away!
"We’re high enough up now, I think," said Bennie. "Navigate her around to the other side, where we can get our bearings."
Burke slanted the tractor gradually, while Bennie watched the surface below them with a field-glass. This maneuver had to be executed with some care, for the atmospheric valve, which controlled the angle of the helium blast and insured the horizontal flight of the Ring at a fixed elevation over the surface of the earth, could not be used over the moon, devoid as it was of atmosphere. Everything had to be controlled by hand, as in the case of the first aeroplanes.
"Better keep her rising a little all the time," directed Bennie, watching a crater intently. "We can't judge our elevation when we get over the dark part, and it would be bad if we had to descend without knowing what it was. That's about right. Hold her there! Now give her a touch more of the vertical force. There! The crater is getting a little smaller."
The glowing surface of the moon was now sliding rapidly along below them as they circled around it. Over the Mare Tran-quillitatis they passed, its gray lava-beds glistening in the sunlight like black glass or obsidian. So rapid was the play of light on its uneven crust that the surface itself seemed in motion—like water rippling in the moonlight. Then came a rough region of jumbled rocks, and beyond, in the distance, the great, gray basin of the Mare Crisium opened before them.
They were now nearing the line along the lunar surface at which the sun was setting, as they could tell from the long shadow's of the volcanic cones beneath them, and presently there appeared on the distant horizon a wall of blackness, where the il-luminated surface ended abruptly on the inky background of the sky. Nearer and nearer came the dark curtain, studded along the edge with countless brilliant spots and points of light.
"The terminator!" cried Rhoda. "Just see the light of the setting sun on the tops of those mountain peaks! Did you ever see anything so beautiful?"
The vast luminous plain below slowly drew away and shrank into a great crescent of light which, with the sun blazing close to its edge, ran half-way around the distant horizon. They were now over the dark side of the moon—the side that is turned always from the earth, the side which no human eye had ever gazed upon before. The room was flooded with sunlight, which came in through the side deadlight.
"Bother it all!" cried Bennie. "One can’t see anything in
this glare." He pressed his face against the glass in the floor
and shielded his eyes with his hands. "One might be able to see something of the surface by starlight."
"Wait a minute!" said Rhoda. "I’ll get a black cloth to
throw over your head."