For the clear white light was the first normal lighting he had seen
in all the time he had been marooned below. Now he received the first
true color visualization of himself and his companion. He saw from
his hands that he had become very pale-skinned; all his normal tan
had been lost in the cavern worlds. He unpacked the bright, gleaming
space helmet and used it as a makeshift mirror. His hair had faded to a
light blond, and there were several white hairs now visible, the result
presumably of his period of exposure to the unshielded rays of the sun
during his passage through space.
In the clear light Korree seemed even more transparent than ever,
and indeed Robin could make out the shadowy, pulsating shapes of his
internal organs quite clearly--his skeleton standing out sharply. He
realized how dim and abnormal the phosphorescence of the caverns had
really been.
Reshouldering his pack, they continued up the deep canyon. In a little
while, the gray ashy surface gave way to sandy soil and there was a
dampness in the air that indicated the presence of one of the deposits
of water. Now the familiar Lunar vegetation was making its presence
known and before long they were wandering through a very dense thicket
of huge ball-trees and plants.
Robin had never seen such a dense jungle growth on the Moon before and
he attributed it to the occasional bath of sunlight this one cavern
received. It was like a hothouse, a natural one, more or less sealed
with a high dampness, natural warmth augmented by screened sunlight.
Soon the two found themselves forcing their way single file through the
growth, while Cheeky swung into the tops and made his own way, happy
in the sort of thick, warm forest his monkey nature demanded. Robin
pushed his way through first, with Korree following in the path the
Earthling cleared.
Robin went on through the jungle, struggling in spite of his powerful
Earth muscles to push his pack along. After a while he stopped to rest,
looked back. He saw behind him only the bruised and broken stalks of
the ball-trees he'd passed through. There was no sign of Korree.
Robin stared, but the forest was too thick to allow much vision. He set
the pack down, called, "Korree!"
There was no answer. Somewhere in the distance a stalk snapped. Robin
called again. Still no answer. He started back a few steps, retracing
his path, but there was still no sign of his Glassie friend.
He suddenly felt uneasy. What was going on here? How had his companion
vanished? He went back to where he had left his pack, waited, again
calling his friend's name. But still there was no answer. There were
more crackling noises somewhere in the thick vegetation. Perhaps Korree
was in trouble there?
Robin turned in that direction, started to push through the barrier of
tree stalks. Suddenly there was a rushing noise, a chorus of shrieks
all around, and something heavy fell around him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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