“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 .”