Reading Help War of the worlds by H. G. Wells. Book 1
news in this, and went again to Waterloo station to find out if `
` communication were restored. The omnibuses, carriages, cyclists, and `
` innumerable people walking in their best clothes seemed scarcely `
` affected by the strange intelligence that the news venders were `
` disseminating. People were interested, or, if alarmed, alarmed only `
` on account of the local residents. At the station he heard for the `
` first time that the Windsor and Chertsey lines were now interrupted. `
` The porters told him that several remarkable telegrams had been `
` received in the morning from Byfleet and Chertsey stations, but that `
` these had abruptly ceased. My brother could get very little precise `
` detail out of them. `
` `
` "There's fighting going on about Weybridge" was the extent of their `
` information. `
` `
` The train service was now very much disorganised. Quite a number `
` of people who had been expecting friends from places on the `
` South-Western network were standing about the station. One `
` grey-headed old gentleman came and abused the South-Western Company `
` bitterly to my brother. "It wants showing up," he said. `
` `
` One or two trains came in from Richmond, Putney, and Kingston, `
` containing people who had gone out for a day's boating and found the `
` locks closed and a feeling of panic in the air. A man in a blue and `
` white blazer addressed my brother, full of strange tidings. `
` `
` "There's hosts of people driving into Kingston in traps and carts `
` and things, with boxes of valuables and all that," he said. "They `
` come from Molesey and Weybridge and Walton, and they say there's been `
` guns heard at Chertsey, heavy firing, and that mounted soldiers have `
` told them to get off at once because the Martians are coming. We `
` heard guns firing at Hampton Court station, but we thought it was `
` thunder. What the dickens does it all mean? The Martians can't get `
` out of their pit, can they?" `
` `
` My brother could not tell him. `
` `
` Afterwards he found that the vague feeling of alarm had spread to `
` the clients of the underground railway, and that the Sunday `
` excursionists began to return from all over the South-Western `
` "lung"--Barnes, Wimbledon, Richmond Park, Kew, and so forth--at `
` unnaturally early hours; but not a soul had anything more than vague `
` hearsay to tell of. Everyone connected with the terminus seemed `
` ill-tempered. `
` `
` About five o'clock the gathering crowd in the station was immensely `
` excited by the opening of the line of communication, which is almost `
` invariably closed, between the South-Eastern and the South-Western `
` stations, and the passage of carriage trucks bearing huge guns and `
` carriages crammed with soldiers. These were the guns that were `
` brought up from Woolwich and Chatham to cover Kingston. There was `
` an exchange of pleasantries: "You'll get eaten!" "We're the `
` beast-tamers!" and so forth. A little while after that a squad of `
` police came into the station and began to clear the public off the `
` platforms, and my brother went out into the street again. `
` `
` The church bells were ringing for evensong, and a squad of `
` Salvation Army lassies came singing down Waterloo Road. On the bridge `
` a number of loafers were watching a curious brown scum that came `
` drifting down the stream in patches. The sun was just setting, and the `
` Clock Tower and the Houses of Parliament rose against one of the most `
` peaceful skies it is possible to imagine, a sky of gold, barred with `
` long transverse stripes of reddish-purple cloud. There was talk of a `
` floating body. One of the men there, a reservist he said he was, told `
` my brother he had seen the heliograph flickering in the west. `
` `
` In Wellington Street my brother met a couple of sturdy roughs who `
` had just been rushed out of Fleet Street with still-wet newspapers and `
` staring placards. "Dreadful catastrophe!" they bawled one to the `
` other down Wellington Street. "Fighting at Weybridge! Full `
` description! Repulse of the Martians! London in Danger!" He had to `
` give threepence for a copy of that paper. `
` `
` Then it was, and then only, that he realised something of the full `
` power and terror of these monsters. He learned that they were not `
` merely a handful of small sluggish creatures, but that they were minds `
` swaying vast mechanical bodies; and that they could move swiftly and `
` smite with such power that even the mightiest guns could not stand `
` against them. `
` `
` They were described as "vast spiderlike machines, nearly a hundred `
` feet high, capable of the speed of an express train, and able to shoot `
` out a beam of intense heat." Masked batteries, chiefly of field guns, `
` had been planted in the country about Horsell Common, and especially `
` between the Woking district and London. Five of the machines had been `
` seen moving towards the Thames, and one, by a happy chance, had been `
` destroyed. In the other cases the shells had missed, and the `
` batteries had been at once annihilated by the Heat-Rays. Heavy `
` losses of soldiers were mentioned, but the tone of the dispatch was `
` optimistic. `
` `
` The Martians had been repulsed; they were not invulnerable. They `
` had retreated to their triangle of cylinders again, in the circle `
` about Woking. Signallers with heliographs were pushing forward upon `
` them from all sides. Guns were in rapid transit from Windsor, `
` Portsmouth, Aldershot, Woolwich--even from the north; among others, `
` long wire-guns of ninety-five tons from Woolwich. Altogether one `
` hundred and sixteen were in position or being hastily placed, chiefly `
` covering London. Never before in England had there been such a vast `
` or rapid concentration of military material. `
` `
` Any further cylinders that fell, it was hoped, could be destroyed `
` at once by high explosives, which were being rapidly manufactured and `
` distributed. No doubt, ran the report, the situation was of the `
` strangest and gravest description, but the public was exhorted to `
` avoid and discourage panic. No doubt the Martians were strange and `
` terrible in the extreme, but at the outside there could not be more `
` than twenty of them against our millions. `
` `
` The authorities had reason to suppose, from the size of the `
` cylinders, that at the outside there could not be more than five in `
` each cylinder--fifteen altogether. And one at least was disposed `
` of--perhaps more. The public would be fairly warned of the approach `
` of danger, and elaborate measures were being taken for the protection `
` of the people in the threatened southwestern suburbs. And so, with `
` reiterated assurances of the safety of London and the ability of the `
` authorities to cope with the difficulty, this quasi-proclamation `
` closed. `
` `
` This was printed in enormous type on paper so fresh that it was `
` still wet, and there had been no time to add a word of comment. It `
` was curious, my brother said, to see how ruthlessly the usual contents `
` of the paper had been hacked and taken out to give this place. `
` `
` All down Wellington Street people could be seen fluttering out the `
` pink sheets and reading, and the Strand was suddenly noisy with the `
` voices of an army of hawkers following these pioneers. Men came `
` scrambling off buses to secure copies. Certainly this news excited `
` people intensely, whatever their previous apathy. The shutters of a `
` map shop in the Strand were being taken down, my brother said, and a `
` man in his Sunday raiment, lemon-yellow gloves even, was visible `
` inside the window hastily fastening maps of Surrey to the glass. `
` `
` Going on along the Strand to Trafalgar Square, the paper in his `
` hand, my brother saw some of the fugitives from West Surrey. There `
` was a man with his wife and two boys and some articles of furniture in `
` a cart such as greengrocers use. He was driving from the direction of `
` Westminster Bridge; and close behind him came a hay waggon with five `
` or six respectable-looking people in it, and some boxes and bundles. `
` The faces of these people were haggard, and their entire appearance `
` contrasted conspicuously with the Sabbath-best appearance of the `
` people on the omnibuses. People in fashionable clothing peeped at `
` them out of cabs. They stopped at the Square as if undecided which `
` way to take, and finally turned eastward along the Strand. Some way `
` behind these came a man in workday clothes, riding one of those `
` old-fashioned tricycles with a small front wheel. He was dirty and `
` white in the face. `
` `
` My brother turned down towards Victoria, and met a number of such `
` people. He had a vague idea that he might see something of me. He `
` noticed an unusual number of police regulating the traffic. Some of `
` the refugees were exchanging news with the people on the omnibuses. `
` One was professing to have seen the Martians. "Boilers on stilts, I `
` tell you, striding along like men." Most of them were excited and `
` animated by their strange experience. `
` `
` Beyond Victoria the public-houses were doing a lively trade with `
` these arrivals. At all the street corners groups of people were `
` reading papers, talking excitedly, or staring at these unusual Sunday `
` visitors. They seemed to increase as night drew on, until at last the `
` roads, my brother said, were like Epsom High Street on a Derby Day. My `
` brother addressed several of these fugitives and got unsatisfactory `
` answers from most. `
` `
` None of them could tell him any news of Woking except one man, who `
` assured him that Woking had been entirely destroyed on the previous `
` night. `
` `
` "I come from Byfleet," he said; "man on a bicycle came through the `
` place in the early morning, and ran from door to door warning us to `
` come away. Then came soldiers. We went out to look, and there were `
` clouds of smoke to the south--nothing but smoke, and not a soul coming `
` that way. Then we heard the guns at Chertsey, and folks coming from `
` Weybridge. So I've locked up my house and come on." `
` `
` At the time there was a strong feeling in the streets that the `
` authorities were to blame for their incapacity to dispose of the `
` invaders without all this inconvenience. `
` `
` About eight o'clock a noise of heavy firing was distinctly audible `
` all over the south of London. My brother could not hear it for the `
` traffic in the main thoroughfares, but by striking through the quiet `
` back streets to the river he was able to distinguish it quite plainly. `
` `
` He walked from Westminster to his apartments near Regent's Park, `
` about two. He was now very anxious on my account, and disturbed at `
` the evident magnitude of the trouble. His mind was inclined to run, `
` even as mine had run on Saturday, on military details. He thought of `
` all those silent, expectant guns, of the suddenly nomadic countryside; `
` he tried to imagine "boilers on stilts" a hundred feet high. `
` `
` There were one or two cartloads of refugees passing along Oxford `
` Street, and several in the Marylebone Road, but so slowly was the news `
` spreading that Regent Street and Portland Place were full of their `
` usual Sunday-night promenaders, albeit they talked in groups, and `
` along the edge of Regent's Park there were as many silent couples `
` "walking out" together under the scattered gas lamps as ever there had `
` been. The night was warm and still, and a little oppressive; the `
` sound of guns continued intermittently, and after midnight there `
` seemed to be sheet lightning in the south. `
` `
`
` communication were restored. The omnibuses, carriages, cyclists, and `
` innumerable people walking in their best clothes seemed scarcely `
` affected by the strange intelligence that the news venders were `
` disseminating. People were interested, or, if alarmed, alarmed only `
` on account of the local residents. At the station he heard for the `
` first time that the Windsor and Chertsey lines were now interrupted. `
` The porters told him that several remarkable telegrams had been `
` received in the morning from Byfleet and Chertsey stations, but that `
` these had abruptly ceased. My brother could get very little precise `
` detail out of them. `
` `
` "There's fighting going on about Weybridge" was the extent of their `
` information. `
` `
` The train service was now very much disorganised. Quite a number `
` of people who had been expecting friends from places on the `
` South-Western network were standing about the station. One `
` grey-headed old gentleman came and abused the South-Western Company `
` bitterly to my brother. "It wants showing up," he said. `
` `
` One or two trains came in from Richmond, Putney, and Kingston, `
` containing people who had gone out for a day's boating and found the `
` locks closed and a feeling of panic in the air. A man in a blue and `
` white blazer addressed my brother, full of strange tidings. `
` `
` "There's hosts of people driving into Kingston in traps and carts `
` and things, with boxes of valuables and all that," he said. "They `
` come from Molesey and Weybridge and Walton, and they say there's been `
` guns heard at Chertsey, heavy firing, and that mounted soldiers have `
` told them to get off at once because the Martians are coming. We `
` heard guns firing at Hampton Court station, but we thought it was `
` thunder. What the dickens does it all mean? The Martians can't get `
` out of their pit, can they?" `
` `
` My brother could not tell him. `
` `
` Afterwards he found that the vague feeling of alarm had spread to `
` the clients of the underground railway, and that the Sunday `
` excursionists began to return from all over the South-Western `
` "lung"--Barnes, Wimbledon, Richmond Park, Kew, and so forth--at `
` unnaturally early hours; but not a soul had anything more than vague `
` hearsay to tell of. Everyone connected with the terminus seemed `
` ill-tempered. `
` `
` About five o'clock the gathering crowd in the station was immensely `
` excited by the opening of the line of communication, which is almost `
` invariably closed, between the South-Eastern and the South-Western `
` stations, and the passage of carriage trucks bearing huge guns and `
` carriages crammed with soldiers. These were the guns that were `
` brought up from Woolwich and Chatham to cover Kingston. There was `
` an exchange of pleasantries: "You'll get eaten!" "We're the `
` beast-tamers!" and so forth. A little while after that a squad of `
` police came into the station and began to clear the public off the `
` platforms, and my brother went out into the street again. `
` `
` The church bells were ringing for evensong, and a squad of `
` Salvation Army lassies came singing down Waterloo Road. On the bridge `
` a number of loafers were watching a curious brown scum that came `
` drifting down the stream in patches. The sun was just setting, and the `
` Clock Tower and the Houses of Parliament rose against one of the most `
` peaceful skies it is possible to imagine, a sky of gold, barred with `
` long transverse stripes of reddish-purple cloud. There was talk of a `
` floating body. One of the men there, a reservist he said he was, told `
` my brother he had seen the heliograph flickering in the west. `
` `
` In Wellington Street my brother met a couple of sturdy roughs who `
` had just been rushed out of Fleet Street with still-wet newspapers and `
` staring placards. "Dreadful catastrophe!" they bawled one to the `
` other down Wellington Street. "Fighting at Weybridge! Full `
` description! Repulse of the Martians! London in Danger!" He had to `
` give threepence for a copy of that paper. `
` `
` Then it was, and then only, that he realised something of the full `
` power and terror of these monsters. He learned that they were not `
` merely a handful of small sluggish creatures, but that they were minds `
` swaying vast mechanical bodies; and that they could move swiftly and `
` smite with such power that even the mightiest guns could not stand `
` against them. `
` `
` They were described as "vast spiderlike machines, nearly a hundred `
` feet high, capable of the speed of an express train, and able to shoot `
` out a beam of intense heat." Masked batteries, chiefly of field guns, `
` had been planted in the country about Horsell Common, and especially `
` between the Woking district and London. Five of the machines had been `
` seen moving towards the Thames, and one, by a happy chance, had been `
` destroyed. In the other cases the shells had missed, and the `
` batteries had been at once annihilated by the Heat-Rays. Heavy `
` losses of soldiers were mentioned, but the tone of the dispatch was `
` optimistic. `
` `
` The Martians had been repulsed; they were not invulnerable. They `
` had retreated to their triangle of cylinders again, in the circle `
` about Woking. Signallers with heliographs were pushing forward upon `
` them from all sides. Guns were in rapid transit from Windsor, `
` Portsmouth, Aldershot, Woolwich--even from the north; among others, `
` long wire-guns of ninety-five tons from Woolwich. Altogether one `
` hundred and sixteen were in position or being hastily placed, chiefly `
` covering London. Never before in England had there been such a vast `
` or rapid concentration of military material. `
` `
` Any further cylinders that fell, it was hoped, could be destroyed `
` at once by high explosives, which were being rapidly manufactured and `
` distributed. No doubt, ran the report, the situation was of the `
` strangest and gravest description, but the public was exhorted to `
` avoid and discourage panic. No doubt the Martians were strange and `
` terrible in the extreme, but at the outside there could not be more `
` than twenty of them against our millions. `
` `
` The authorities had reason to suppose, from the size of the `
` cylinders, that at the outside there could not be more than five in `
` each cylinder--fifteen altogether. And one at least was disposed `
` of--perhaps more. The public would be fairly warned of the approach `
` of danger, and elaborate measures were being taken for the protection `
` of the people in the threatened southwestern suburbs. And so, with `
` reiterated assurances of the safety of London and the ability of the `
` authorities to cope with the difficulty, this quasi-proclamation `
` closed. `
` `
` This was printed in enormous type on paper so fresh that it was `
` still wet, and there had been no time to add a word of comment. It `
` was curious, my brother said, to see how ruthlessly the usual contents `
` of the paper had been hacked and taken out to give this place. `
` `
` All down Wellington Street people could be seen fluttering out the `
` pink sheets and reading, and the Strand was suddenly noisy with the `
` voices of an army of hawkers following these pioneers. Men came `
` scrambling off buses to secure copies. Certainly this news excited `
` people intensely, whatever their previous apathy. The shutters of a `
` map shop in the Strand were being taken down, my brother said, and a `
` man in his Sunday raiment, lemon-yellow gloves even, was visible `
` inside the window hastily fastening maps of Surrey to the glass. `
` `
` Going on along the Strand to Trafalgar Square, the paper in his `
` hand, my brother saw some of the fugitives from West Surrey. There `
` was a man with his wife and two boys and some articles of furniture in `
` a cart such as greengrocers use. He was driving from the direction of `
` Westminster Bridge; and close behind him came a hay waggon with five `
` or six respectable-looking people in it, and some boxes and bundles. `
` The faces of these people were haggard, and their entire appearance `
` contrasted conspicuously with the Sabbath-best appearance of the `
` people on the omnibuses. People in fashionable clothing peeped at `
` them out of cabs. They stopped at the Square as if undecided which `
` way to take, and finally turned eastward along the Strand. Some way `
` behind these came a man in workday clothes, riding one of those `
` old-fashioned tricycles with a small front wheel. He was dirty and `
` white in the face. `
` `
` My brother turned down towards Victoria, and met a number of such `
` people. He had a vague idea that he might see something of me. He `
` noticed an unusual number of police regulating the traffic. Some of `
` the refugees were exchanging news with the people on the omnibuses. `
` One was professing to have seen the Martians. "Boilers on stilts, I `
` tell you, striding along like men." Most of them were excited and `
` animated by their strange experience. `
` `
` Beyond Victoria the public-houses were doing a lively trade with `
` these arrivals. At all the street corners groups of people were `
` reading papers, talking excitedly, or staring at these unusual Sunday `
` visitors. They seemed to increase as night drew on, until at last the `
` roads, my brother said, were like Epsom High Street on a Derby Day. My `
` brother addressed several of these fugitives and got unsatisfactory `
` answers from most. `
` `
` None of them could tell him any news of Woking except one man, who `
` assured him that Woking had been entirely destroyed on the previous `
` night. `
` `
` "I come from Byfleet," he said; "man on a bicycle came through the `
` place in the early morning, and ran from door to door warning us to `
` come away. Then came soldiers. We went out to look, and there were `
` clouds of smoke to the south--nothing but smoke, and not a soul coming `
` that way. Then we heard the guns at Chertsey, and folks coming from `
` Weybridge. So I've locked up my house and come on." `
` `
` At the time there was a strong feeling in the streets that the `
` authorities were to blame for their incapacity to dispose of the `
` invaders without all this inconvenience. `
` `
` About eight o'clock a noise of heavy firing was distinctly audible `
` all over the south of London. My brother could not hear it for the `
` traffic in the main thoroughfares, but by striking through the quiet `
` back streets to the river he was able to distinguish it quite plainly. `
` `
` He walked from Westminster to his apartments near Regent's Park, `
` about two. He was now very anxious on my account, and disturbed at `
` the evident magnitude of the trouble. His mind was inclined to run, `
` even as mine had run on Saturday, on military details. He thought of `
` all those silent, expectant guns, of the suddenly nomadic countryside; `
` he tried to imagine "boilers on stilts" a hundred feet high. `
` `
` There were one or two cartloads of refugees passing along Oxford `
` Street, and several in the Marylebone Road, but so slowly was the news `
` spreading that Regent Street and Portland Place were full of their `
` usual Sunday-night promenaders, albeit they talked in groups, and `
` along the edge of Regent's Park there were as many silent couples `
` "walking out" together under the scattered gas lamps as ever there had `
` been. The night was warm and still, and a little oppressive; the `
` sound of guns continued intermittently, and after midnight there `
` seemed to be sheet lightning in the south. `
` `
`