Reading Help War of the worlds Book 2
of alarming the Martians, I attacked the creaking rain-water pump that `
` stood by the sink, and got a couple of glassfuls of blackened and `
` tainted rain water. I was greatly refreshed by this, and emboldened `
` by the fact that no enquiring tentacle followed the noise of my `
` pumping. `
` `
` During these days, in a rambling, inconclusive way, I thought much `
` of the curate and of the manner of his death. `
` `
` On the thirteenth day I drank some more water, and dozed and `
` thought disjointedly of eating and of vague impossible plans of `
` escape. Whenever I dozed I dreamt of horrible phantasms, of the death `
` of the curate, or of sumptuous dinners; but, asleep or awake, I felt a `
` keen pain that urged me to drink again and again. The light that came `
` into the scullery was no longer grey, but red. To my disordered `
` imagination it seemed the colour of blood. `
` `
` On the fourteenth day I went into the kitchen, and I was surprised `
` to find that the fronds of the red weed had grown right across `
` the hole in the wall, turning the half-light of the place into a `
` crimson-coloured obscurity. `
` `
` It was early on the fifteenth day that I heard a curious, familiar `
` sequence of sounds in the kitchen, and, listening, identified it as `
` the snuffing and scratching of a dog. Going into the kitchen, I saw a `
` dog's nose peering in through a break among the ruddy fronds. This `
` greatly surprised me. At the scent of me he barked shortly. `
` `
` I thought if I could induce him to come into the place quietly I `
` should be able, perhaps, to kill and eat him; and in any case, it `
` would be advisable to kill him, lest his actions attracted the `
` attention of the Martians. `
` `
` I crept forward, saying "Good dog!" very softly; but he suddenly `
` withdrew his head and disappeared. `
` `
` I listened--I was not deaf--but certainly the pit was still. I `
` heard a sound like the flutter of a bird's wings, and a hoarse `
` croaking, but that was all. `
` `
` For a long while I lay close to the peephole, but not daring to `
` move aside the red plants that obscured it. Once or twice I heard a `
` faint pitter-patter like the feet of the dog going hither and thither `
` on the sand far below me, and there were more birdlike sounds, but `
` that was all. At length, encouraged by the silence, I looked out. `
` `
` Except in the corner, where a multitude of crows hopped and fought `
` over the skeletons of the dead the Martians had consumed, there was `
` not a living thing in the pit. `
` `
` I stared about me, scarcely believing my eyes. All the machinery `
` had gone. Save for the big mound of greyish-blue powder in one `
` corner, certain bars of aluminium in another, the black birds, and the `
` skeletons of the killed, the place was merely an empty circular pit in `
` the sand. `
` `
` Slowly I thrust myself out through the red weed, and stood upon the `
` mound of rubble. I could see in any direction save behind me, to the `
` north, and neither Martians nor sign of Martians were to be seen. The `
` pit dropped sheerly from my feet, but a little way along the rubbish `
` afforded a practicable slope to the summit of the ruins. My chance of `
` escape had come. I began to tremble. `
` `
` I hesitated for some time, and then, in a gust of desperate `
` resolution, and with a heart that throbbed violently, I scrambled to `
` the top of the mound in which I had been buried so long. `
` `
` I looked about again. To the northward, too, no Martian was `
` visible. `
` `
` When I had last seen this part of Sheen in the daylight it had been `
` a straggling street of comfortable white and red houses, interspersed `
` with abundant shady trees. Now I stood on a mound of smashed `
` brickwork, clay, and gravel, over which spread a multitude of red `
` cactus-shaped plants, knee-high, without a solitary terrestrial growth `
` to dispute their footing. The trees near me were dead and brown, but `
` further a network of red thread scaled the still living stems. `
` `
` The neighbouring houses had all been wrecked, but none had been `
` burned; their walls stood, sometimes to the second story, with smashed `
` windows and shattered doors. The red weed grew tumultuously in their `
` roofless rooms. Below me was the great pit, with the crows struggling `
` for its refuse. A number of other birds hopped about among the ruins. `
` Far away I saw a gaunt cat slink crouchingly along a wall, but traces `
` of men there were none. `
` `
` The day seemed, by contrast with my recent confinement, dazzlingly `
` bright, the sky a glowing blue. A gentle breeze kept the red weed `
` that covered every scrap of unoccupied ground gently swaying. And oh! `
` the sweetness of the air! `
` `
` `
` `
` CHAPTER SIX `
` `
` THE WORK OF FIFTEEN DAYS `
` `
` `
` For some time I stood tottering on the mound regardless of my `
` safety. Within that noisome den from which I had emerged I had `
` thought with a narrow intensity only of our immediate security. I had `
` not realised what had been happening to the world, had not anticipated `
` this startling vision of unfamiliar things. I had expected to see `
` Sheen in ruins--I found about me the landscape, weird and lurid, of `
` another planet. `
` `
` For that moment I touched an emotion beyond the common range of `
` men, yet one that the poor brutes we dominate know only too well. I `
` felt as a rabbit might feel returning to his burrow and suddenly `
` confronted by the work of a dozen busy navvies digging the foundations `
` of a house. I felt the first inkling of a thing that presently grew `
` quite clear in my mind, that oppressed me for many days, a sense of `
` dethronement, a persuasion that I was no longer a master, but an `
` animal among the animals, under the Martian heel. With us it would be `
` as with them, to lurk and watch, to run and hide; the fear and empire `
` of man had passed away. `
` `
` But so soon as this strangeness had been realised it passed, and my `
` dominant motive became the hunger of my long and dismal fast. In the `
` direction away from the pit I saw, beyond a red-covered wall, a patch `
` of garden ground unburied. This gave me a hint, and I went knee-deep, `
` and sometimes neck-deep, in the red weed. The density of the `
` weed gave me a reassuring sense of hiding. The wall was some six feet `
` high, and when I attempted to clamber it I found I could not lift my `
` feet to the crest. So I went along by the side of it, and came to a `
` corner and a rockwork that enabled me to get to the top, and tumble `
` into the garden I coveted. Here I found some young onions, a couple `
` of gladiolus bulbs, and a quantity of immature carrots, all of which I `
` secured, and, scrambling over a ruined wall, went on my way through `
` scarlet and crimson trees towards Kew--it was like walking through an `
` avenue of gigantic blood drops--possessed with two ideas: to get more `
` food, and to limp, as soon and as far as my strength permitted, out of `
` this accursed unearthly region of the pit. `
` `
` Some way farther, in a grassy place, was a group of mushrooms which `
` also I devoured, and then I came upon a brown sheet of flowing shallow `
` water, where meadows used to be. These fragments of nourishment served `
` only to whet my hunger. At first I was surprised at this flood in a `
` hot, dry summer, but afterwards I discovered that it was caused by the `
` tropical exuberance of the red weed. Directly this extraordinary `
` growth encountered water it straightway became gigantic and of `
` unparalleled fecundity. Its seeds were simply poured down into the `
` water of the Wey and Thames, and its swiftly growing and Titanic water `
` fronds speedily choked both those rivers. `
` `
` At Putney, as I afterwards saw, the bridge was almost lost in a `
` tangle of this weed, and at Richmond, too, the Thames water poured in `
` a broad and shallow stream across the meadows of Hampton and `
` Twickenham. As the water spread the weed followed them, until the `
` ruined villas of the Thames valley were for a time lost in this red `
` swamp, whose margin I explored, and much of the desolation the `
` Martians had caused was concealed. `
` `
` In the end the red weed succumbed almost as quickly as it had `
` spread. A cankering disease, due, it is believed, to the action of `
` certain bacteria, presently seized upon it. Now by the action of `
` natural selection, all terrestrial plants have acquired a resisting `
` power against bacterial diseases--they never succumb without a severe `
` struggle, but the red weed rotted like a thing already dead. The `
` fronds became bleached, and then shrivelled and brittle. They broke `
` off at the least touch, and the waters that had stimulated their early `
` growth carried their last vestiges out to sea. `
` `
` My first act on coming to this water was, of course, to slake my `
` thirst. I drank a great deal of it and, moved by an impulse, gnawed `
` some fronds of red weed; but they were watery, and had a sickly, `
` metallic taste. I found the water was sufficiently shallow for me to `
` wade securely, although the red weed impeded my feet a little; but the `
` flood evidently got deeper towards the river, and I turned back to `
` Mortlake. I managed to make out the road by means of occasional ruins `
` of its villas and fences and lamps, and so presently I got out of this `
` spate and made my way to the hill going up towards Roehampton and came `
` out on Putney Common. `
` `
` Here the scenery changed from the strange and unfamiliar to the `
` wreckage of the familiar: patches of ground exhibited the devastation `
` of a cyclone, and in a few score yards I would come upon perfectly `
` undisturbed spaces, houses with their blinds trimly drawn and doors `
` closed, as if they had been left for a day by the owners, or as if `
` their inhabitants slept within. The red weed was less abundant; the `
` tall trees along the lane were free from the red creeper. I hunted `
` for food among the trees, finding nothing, and I also raided a couple `
` of silent houses, but they had already been broken into and ransacked. `
` I rested for the remainder of the daylight in a shrubbery, being, in `
` my enfeebled condition, too fatigued to push on. `
` `
` All this time I saw no human beings, and no signs of the Martians. `
` I encountered a couple of hungry-looking dogs, but both hurried `
` circuitously away from the advances I made them. Near Roehampton I `
` had seen two human skeletons--not bodies, but skeletons, picked `
` clean--and in the wood by me I found the crushed and scattered bones `
` of several cats and rabbits and the skull of a sheep. But though I `
` gnawed parts of these in my mouth, there was nothing to be got from `
` them. `
` `
` After sunset I struggled on along the road towards Putney, where I `
` think the Heat-Ray must have been used for some reason. And in the `
` garden beyond Roehampton I got a quantity of immature potatoes, `
` sufficient to stay my hunger. From this garden one looked down upon `
` Putney and the river. The aspect of the place in the dusk was `
` singularly desolate: blackened trees, blackened, desolate ruins, and `
`
` stood by the sink, and got a couple of glassfuls of blackened and `
` tainted rain water. I was greatly refreshed by this, and emboldened `
` by the fact that no enquiring tentacle followed the noise of my `
` pumping. `
` `
` During these days, in a rambling, inconclusive way, I thought much `
` of the curate and of the manner of his death. `
` `
` On the thirteenth day I drank some more water, and dozed and `
` thought disjointedly of eating and of vague impossible plans of `
` escape. Whenever I dozed I dreamt of horrible phantasms, of the death `
` of the curate, or of sumptuous dinners; but, asleep or awake, I felt a `
` keen pain that urged me to drink again and again. The light that came `
` into the scullery was no longer grey, but red. To my disordered `
` imagination it seemed the colour of blood. `
` `
` On the fourteenth day I went into the kitchen, and I was surprised `
` to find that the fronds of the red weed had grown right across `
` the hole in the wall, turning the half-light of the place into a `
` crimson-coloured obscurity. `
` `
` It was early on the fifteenth day that I heard a curious, familiar `
` sequence of sounds in the kitchen, and, listening, identified it as `
` the snuffing and scratching of a dog. Going into the kitchen, I saw a `
` dog's nose peering in through a break among the ruddy fronds. This `
` greatly surprised me. At the scent of me he barked shortly. `
` `
` I thought if I could induce him to come into the place quietly I `
` should be able, perhaps, to kill and eat him; and in any case, it `
` would be advisable to kill him, lest his actions attracted the `
` attention of the Martians. `
` `
` I crept forward, saying "Good dog!" very softly; but he suddenly `
` withdrew his head and disappeared. `
` `
` I listened--I was not deaf--but certainly the pit was still. I `
` heard a sound like the flutter of a bird's wings, and a hoarse `
` croaking, but that was all. `
` `
` For a long while I lay close to the peephole, but not daring to `
` move aside the red plants that obscured it. Once or twice I heard a `
` faint pitter-patter like the feet of the dog going hither and thither `
` on the sand far below me, and there were more birdlike sounds, but `
` that was all. At length, encouraged by the silence, I looked out. `
` `
` Except in the corner, where a multitude of crows hopped and fought `
` over the skeletons of the dead the Martians had consumed, there was `
` not a living thing in the pit. `
` `
` I stared about me, scarcely believing my eyes. All the machinery `
` had gone. Save for the big mound of greyish-blue powder in one `
` corner, certain bars of aluminium in another, the black birds, and the `
` skeletons of the killed, the place was merely an empty circular pit in `
` the sand. `
` `
` Slowly I thrust myself out through the red weed, and stood upon the `
` mound of rubble. I could see in any direction save behind me, to the `
` north, and neither Martians nor sign of Martians were to be seen. The `
` pit dropped sheerly from my feet, but a little way along the rubbish `
` afforded a practicable slope to the summit of the ruins. My chance of `
` escape had come. I began to tremble. `
` `
` I hesitated for some time, and then, in a gust of desperate `
` resolution, and with a heart that throbbed violently, I scrambled to `
` the top of the mound in which I had been buried so long. `
` `
` I looked about again. To the northward, too, no Martian was `
` visible. `
` `
` When I had last seen this part of Sheen in the daylight it had been `
` a straggling street of comfortable white and red houses, interspersed `
` with abundant shady trees. Now I stood on a mound of smashed `
` brickwork, clay, and gravel, over which spread a multitude of red `
` cactus-shaped plants, knee-high, without a solitary terrestrial growth `
` to dispute their footing. The trees near me were dead and brown, but `
` further a network of red thread scaled the still living stems. `
` `
` The neighbouring houses had all been wrecked, but none had been `
` burned; their walls stood, sometimes to the second story, with smashed `
` windows and shattered doors. The red weed grew tumultuously in their `
` roofless rooms. Below me was the great pit, with the crows struggling `
` for its refuse. A number of other birds hopped about among the ruins. `
` Far away I saw a gaunt cat slink crouchingly along a wall, but traces `
` of men there were none. `
` `
` The day seemed, by contrast with my recent confinement, dazzlingly `
` bright, the sky a glowing blue. A gentle breeze kept the red weed `
` that covered every scrap of unoccupied ground gently swaying. And oh! `
` the sweetness of the air! `
` `
` `
` `
` CHAPTER SIX `
` `
` THE WORK OF FIFTEEN DAYS `
` `
` `
` For some time I stood tottering on the mound regardless of my `
` safety. Within that noisome den from which I had emerged I had `
` thought with a narrow intensity only of our immediate security. I had `
` not realised what had been happening to the world, had not anticipated `
` this startling vision of unfamiliar things. I had expected to see `
` Sheen in ruins--I found about me the landscape, weird and lurid, of `
` another planet. `
` `
` For that moment I touched an emotion beyond the common range of `
` men, yet one that the poor brutes we dominate know only too well. I `
` felt as a rabbit might feel returning to his burrow and suddenly `
` confronted by the work of a dozen busy navvies digging the foundations `
` of a house. I felt the first inkling of a thing that presently grew `
` quite clear in my mind, that oppressed me for many days, a sense of `
` dethronement, a persuasion that I was no longer a master, but an `
` animal among the animals, under the Martian heel. With us it would be `
` as with them, to lurk and watch, to run and hide; the fear and empire `
` of man had passed away. `
` `
` But so soon as this strangeness had been realised it passed, and my `
` dominant motive became the hunger of my long and dismal fast. In the `
` direction away from the pit I saw, beyond a red-covered wall, a patch `
` of garden ground unburied. This gave me a hint, and I went knee-deep, `
` and sometimes neck-deep, in the red weed. The density of the `
` weed gave me a reassuring sense of hiding. The wall was some six feet `
` high, and when I attempted to clamber it I found I could not lift my `
` feet to the crest. So I went along by the side of it, and came to a `
` corner and a rockwork that enabled me to get to the top, and tumble `
` into the garden I coveted. Here I found some young onions, a couple `
` of gladiolus bulbs, and a quantity of immature carrots, all of which I `
` secured, and, scrambling over a ruined wall, went on my way through `
` scarlet and crimson trees towards Kew--it was like walking through an `
` avenue of gigantic blood drops--possessed with two ideas: to get more `
` food, and to limp, as soon and as far as my strength permitted, out of `
` this accursed unearthly region of the pit. `
` `
` Some way farther, in a grassy place, was a group of mushrooms which `
` also I devoured, and then I came upon a brown sheet of flowing shallow `
` water, where meadows used to be. These fragments of nourishment served `
` only to whet my hunger. At first I was surprised at this flood in a `
` hot, dry summer, but afterwards I discovered that it was caused by the `
` tropical exuberance of the red weed. Directly this extraordinary `
` growth encountered water it straightway became gigantic and of `
` unparalleled fecundity. Its seeds were simply poured down into the `
` water of the Wey and Thames, and its swiftly growing and Titanic water `
` fronds speedily choked both those rivers. `
` `
` At Putney, as I afterwards saw, the bridge was almost lost in a `
` tangle of this weed, and at Richmond, too, the Thames water poured in `
` a broad and shallow stream across the meadows of Hampton and `
` Twickenham. As the water spread the weed followed them, until the `
` ruined villas of the Thames valley were for a time lost in this red `
` swamp, whose margin I explored, and much of the desolation the `
` Martians had caused was concealed. `
` `
` In the end the red weed succumbed almost as quickly as it had `
` spread. A cankering disease, due, it is believed, to the action of `
` certain bacteria, presently seized upon it. Now by the action of `
` natural selection, all terrestrial plants have acquired a resisting `
` power against bacterial diseases--they never succumb without a severe `
` struggle, but the red weed rotted like a thing already dead. The `
` fronds became bleached, and then shrivelled and brittle. They broke `
` off at the least touch, and the waters that had stimulated their early `
` growth carried their last vestiges out to sea. `
` `
` My first act on coming to this water was, of course, to slake my `
` thirst. I drank a great deal of it and, moved by an impulse, gnawed `
` some fronds of red weed; but they were watery, and had a sickly, `
` metallic taste. I found the water was sufficiently shallow for me to `
` wade securely, although the red weed impeded my feet a little; but the `
` flood evidently got deeper towards the river, and I turned back to `
` Mortlake. I managed to make out the road by means of occasional ruins `
` of its villas and fences and lamps, and so presently I got out of this `
` spate and made my way to the hill going up towards Roehampton and came `
` out on Putney Common. `
` `
` Here the scenery changed from the strange and unfamiliar to the `
` wreckage of the familiar: patches of ground exhibited the devastation `
` of a cyclone, and in a few score yards I would come upon perfectly `
` undisturbed spaces, houses with their blinds trimly drawn and doors `
` closed, as if they had been left for a day by the owners, or as if `
` their inhabitants slept within. The red weed was less abundant; the `
` tall trees along the lane were free from the red creeper. I hunted `
` for food among the trees, finding nothing, and I also raided a couple `
` of silent houses, but they had already been broken into and ransacked. `
` I rested for the remainder of the daylight in a shrubbery, being, in `
` my enfeebled condition, too fatigued to push on. `
` `
` All this time I saw no human beings, and no signs of the Martians. `
` I encountered a couple of hungry-looking dogs, but both hurried `
` circuitously away from the advances I made them. Near Roehampton I `
` had seen two human skeletons--not bodies, but skeletons, picked `
` clean--and in the wood by me I found the crushed and scattered bones `
` of several cats and rabbits and the skull of a sheep. But though I `
` gnawed parts of these in my mouth, there was nothing to be got from `
` them. `
` `
` After sunset I struggled on along the road towards Putney, where I `
` think the Heat-Ray must have been used for some reason. And in the `
` garden beyond Roehampton I got a quantity of immature potatoes, `
` sufficient to stay my hunger. From this garden one looked down upon `
` Putney and the river. The aspect of the place in the dusk was `
` singularly desolate: blackened trees, blackened, desolate ruins, and `
`