修理装置に見つかったクーノー。監視装置の役目も果たしているようですな。
“I screamed. I did everything that I should not have done, I stamped upon the creature instead of flying from it, and it at once curled round the ankle. Then we fought. The worm let me run all over the dell, but edged up my leg as I ran. ‘Help!’ I cried. (That part is too awful. It belongs to the part that you will never know.) ‘Help!’ I cried. (Why cannot we suffer in silence?) ‘Help!’ I cried. When my feet were wound together, I fell, I was dragged away from the dear ferns and the living hills, and past the great metal stopper (I can tell you this part), and I thought it might save me again if I caught hold of the handle. It also was enwrapped, it also. Oh, the whole dell was full of the things. They were searching it in all directions, they were denuding it, and the white snouts of others peeped out of the hole, ready if needed. Everything that could be moved they brought ―― brushwood, bundles of fern, everything, and down we all went intertwined into hell. The last things that I saw, ere the stopper closed after us, were certain stars, and I felt that a man of my sort lived in the sky. For I did fight, I fought till the very end, and it was only my head hitting against the ladder that quieted me. I woke up in this room. The worms had vanished. I was surrounded by artificial air, artificial light, artificial peace, and my friends were calling to me down speaking-tubes to know whether I had come across any new ideas lately.”
Here his story ended. Discussion of it was impossible, and Vashti turned to go.
“It will end in Homelessness,” she said quietly.
“I wish it would,” retorted Kuno.
“The Machine has been most merciful.”
“I prefer the mercy of God.”
“By that superstitious phrase, do you mean that you could live in the outer air?”
“Yes.”
“Have you ever seen, round the vomitories, the bones of those who were extruded after the Great Rebellion?”
“Yes.”
“They were left where they perished for our edification. A few crawled away, but they perished, too ―― who can doubt it? And so with the Homeless of our own day. The surface of the earth supports life no longer.”
“Indeed.”
“Ferns and a little grass may survive, but all higher forms have perished. Has any air-ship detected them?”
“No.”
“Has any lecturer dealt with them?”
“No.”
“Then why this obstinacy?”
“Because I have seen them,” he exploded.
“Seen what?”
“Because I have seen her in the twilight ―― because she came to my help when I called ―― because she, too, was entangled by the worms, and, luckier than I, was killed by one of them piercing her throat.”
He was mad. Vashti departed, nor, in the troubles that followed, did she ever see his face again.
地上の空気では、高等動物は生きることができない、というヴァシュティに「黄昏の中で彼女を見たからだ（Because I have seen her in the twilight）」とクーノーは告白します。ヴァシュティはクーノーを「頭がおかしくなった」と思い、そのまま二度と会うことがなかったのでした。
おつかれさまです。ここで第２章が終了。次はいよいよクライマックス！