I leaped to their position. Chapman exclaimed: 'You remember the
meteor we saw. Well, there it is.'
"Extended like a gigantic and deformed missile lay an iron meteorite
before us, the same thing as the Siderites that appear in your Museums
on Earth. It was yet warm, a crevice spread down into its interior, and
it had apparently rolled from the spot of its first impact, since a
hammered side, abraded and worn on the hard rock, lay uppermost. It bore
the significant pits, thumb-marks and depressions of the terrestrial
objects, while streaming striations spread from its front breast where
the iron in melting had run like tears over its surface. It measured
some four feet in length, and must have weighed many tons.
"Then a curious thing happened, or seemed to happen. Alca, the
Superintendent, advanced to it, and bending against it with
outstretched arm, muttered a few words, frowned as if in concentrated
thought, and--was it credible--the iron object moved. I looked aghast at
Chapman, who turned away with what I dismally interpreted was an
expression of disgust. I pressed up close to him, and he murmured, 'Was
that a miracle? If it was I should like to get back to common sense and
jack-screws.'
"We continued upward, and now the terrific gulf piercing the ground for
over two terrestrial miles yawned at our feet. The steep precipice, lost
in a twilight dusk below, was disconcerting. The blocks of stone were
hoisted from the gigantic pit by hoists worked by hand.
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