Thirty Strange StoriesWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Science
Thirty Strange Stories
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Fantasy fiction, English; Science fiction, English; Short stories, English
The doctor was a blockhead, a half-qualified general practitioner, and
quite ignorant of mental science. He simply said there was no moth. Had
he possessed the wit, he might still, perhaps, have saved Hapley from
his fate by entering into his delusion and covering his face with gauze,
as he prayed might be done. But, as I say, the doctor was a blockhead,
and until the leg was healed Hapley was kept tied to his bed, and with
the imaginary moth crawling over him. It never left him while he was
awake and it grew to a monster in his dreams. While he was awake he
longed for sleep, and from sleep he awoke screaming.
So now Hapley is spending the remainder of his days in a padded room,
worried by a moth that no one else can see. The asylum doctor calls it
hallucination; but Hapley, when he is in his easier mood, and can talk,
says it is the ghost of Pawkins, and consequently a unique specimen and
well worth the trouble of catching.
IN THE ABYSS
The lieutenant stood in front of the steel sphere and gnawed a piece of
pine splinter. “What do you think of it, Steevens?” he asked.
“It’s an idea,” said Steevens, in the tone of one who keeps an open
mind.
“I believe it will smash—flat,” said the lieutenant.
“He seems to have calculated it all out pretty well,” said Steevens,
still impartial.
“But think of the pressure,” said the lieutenant. “At the surface of the
water it’s fourteen pounds to the inch, thirty feet down it’s double
that; sixty, treble; ninety, four times; nine hundred, forty times; five
thousand three hundred—that’s a mile—it’s two hundred and forty times
fourteen pounds; that’s—let’s see—thirty hundredweight—a ton and a half,
Steevens; _a ton and a half_ to the square inch. And the ocean where
he’s going is five miles deep. That’s seven and a half—”
“Sounds a lot,” said Steevens, “but it’s jolly thick steel.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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