“Confound it!” I said, gauging my injuries with an investigatory hand, and suddenly that distant tunnel mouth became, as it were, a watching eye.

“Cavor!” I said; “what are they going to do now? And what are we going to do?”

He shook his head, with his eyes fixed upon the tunnel. “How can one tell what they will do?”

“It depends on what they think of us, and I don’t see how we can begin to guess that. And it depends upon what they have in reserve. It’s as you say, Cavor, we have touched the merest outside of this world. They may have all sorts of things inside here. Even with those shooting things they might make it bad for us.⁠ ⁠…

“Yet after all,” I said, “even if we don’t find the sphere at once, there is a chance for us. We might hold out. Even through the night. We might go down there again and make a fight for it.”