XIII
MR. CAVOR MAKES SOME SUGGESTIONS
For a time neither of us spoke. To focus together all the things we had brought upon ourselves seemed beyond my mental powers.
"They've got us," I said at last.
"It was that fungus."
"Well—if I hadn't taken it we should have fainted and starved."
"We might have found the sphere."
I lost my temper at his persistence, and swore to myself. For a time we hated one another in silence. I drummed with my fingers on the floor between my knees, and gritted the links of my fetters together. Presently I was forced to talk again.
"What do you make of it, anyhow?" I asked humbly.
"They are reasonable creatures—they can make things and do things— Those lights we saw . . ."
He stopped. It was clear he could make nothing of it.
140