With this promise our enjoyable mealtime visit was drawn to a close as all left their places at the tables and went outside again for a final look around before our takeoff. Of course the natives have all been left with our ship before, so we have no last details to take care of in that respect.
However we notice that one of the Martonian scientists has brought a small instrument that looks like a microphone with a cord attached to it out of the ship with him. This cord he is attaching to our ship, while the instrument itself he is placing in front of it, a little to one side.
As we watched this procedure we wondered what it was all about, and as if in answer to our unspoken question our host explained to us that no harm would come to the ship through this instrument. Later on we would see for ourselves the purpose of its being attached as it was.
After this was done, the Martonians and the four of us from Earth re-entered their ship and we took up very gently into the air, almost straight up. There wasn't any noise to the ship.
First thing we knew, we were over one of the craters and lowering again. The hatch was opened, the same kind of a hatch that the first Martonian ship had. Through this hatch we are observing the bottom of the crater, just as though we were walking on it; in fact a lot better than we could have done had we been walking on the ground. For from this low altitude we can see the bottom and the sides all at the same time. The lenses magnified to a certain extent and sure enough, this was a hot water crater. We can definitely see the water line, especially when it began to vanish, for it left a ring around the crater like dirty water would in a tub.
Then the hatch was closed and the ship began to rise.
Within half a mile we started lowering again over another crater. Again the hatch was opened and the bottom of this crater was just as flat as anything could be, and the sides of it showed a definite upheaval had taken place here.
Our scientist friend explained, "this is where a meteor did fall, as you men call them. There are only a few such craters on the whole Moon, while there are hundreds of the others. Notice that the bottom of this crater is absolutely flat, while the bottom of the other craters are not. They have mountains within them towering thousands of feet. If a meteor had made those craters, there would not have been any mountains in the bottom of them. The water left them."
Then the hatch was closed and we started rising again. We flew over a ledge of rugged mountains and the hatch was opened again and the scientist speaker told us to now look at these jagged peaks and rugged mountains, these were volcanic upheavals. And sure enough they were, definitely so, yet in crevices we could see moss-like vegetation growing. In some places there would be a trickle of water we could see.
We flew over a large territory of the so-called light side of the Moon. The heat upon this side was terrific, yet the ship was of normal temperature, very comfortable.