"We started up. At first the ascent was simple, and the view backward
just a little exciting. We continued, and I noticed that the path
contracted, and nervously looking on ahead, was startled to find it
broken with short gaps, which must be crossed by jumping. I had felt the
vague premonitions about Chapman increasing, and somehow, by that
intuition which becomes prophetic, in this semi-etherealized
constitution of our bodies and minds, in Mars, I knew an impending blow
hung over us.
"I looked back and saw Chapman gravely following me. The cheer and
laughter had disappeared from his face, the jesting gayety had fled, and
he seemed enfeebled. I hastened to him, and he raised his face with a
reassuring smile.
"'Dodd,' he said, 'I am dizzy. I feel strangely here,' and he felt his
forehead. 'I wonder that it is so. But come! Don't be frightened. It
will pass over.' He pushed me from him. For an instant we stood and
gazed around us. Far up we saw the outer sunlight beating on the barren
exposures of the mountain, around us was black excavated rock, and below
the shining walls, faintly blue and pink.
"'Chapman,' I said, 'let us go back. The hoists will take us out.'
'Folly,' was the answer. 'I shall be all right. Why, a Martian has no
physical weakness or dread. Come, Dodd, you have not yet acquired the
Martian defiance of accident, disease, or death. You are sneaking back
under the cover of fear for me.'
"His voice seemed peevish.
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