noon
The car 's interior was exactly as they had left it , and they were glad to be in it again . `` Now , '' said Bearwarden , `` we can have a sound and undisturbed sleep , which is what I want more than anything else . No prowlers can trouble us here , and we shall not need the protection-wires . '' They then opened a window in each side -- for the large glass plates , admitting the sun when closed , made the Callisto rather warm -- and placed a stout wire netting within them to keep out birds and bats , and then , though it was but little past noon , got into their comfortable beds and slept nine hours at a stretch . Their strong metal house was securely at rest , receiving the sunlight and shedding the rain and dew as it might have done on earth . No winds or storms , lightnings or floods , could trouble it , while the multiformed monsters of antiquity and mythology restored in life , with which the terrestrials had been thrown into such close contact , roamed about its polished walls . Not even the fiercest could affect them , and they would but see themselves reflected in any vain assaults .