Reading Help War of the worlds by H. G. Wells. Book 1
last expiring effort, rousing the population of London to the `
` necessity of flight. `
` `
` `
` `
` CHAPTER SIXTEEN `
` `
` THE EXODUS FROM LONDON `
` `
` `
` So you understand the roaring wave of fear that swept through the `
` greatest city in the world just as Monday was dawning--the stream of `
` flight rising swiftly to a torrent, lashing in a foaming tumult round `
` the railway stations, banked up into a horrible struggle about the `
` shipping in the Thames, and hurrying by every available channel `
` northward and eastward. By ten o'clock the police organisation, and `
` by midday even the railway organisations, were losing coherency, `
` losing shape and efficiency, guttering, softening, running at last in `
` that swift liquefaction of the social body. `
` `
` All the railway lines north of the Thames and the South-Eastern `
` people at Cannon Street had been warned by midnight on Sunday, and `
` trains were being filled. People were fighting savagely for `
` standing-room in the carriages even at two o'clock. By three, people `
` were being trampled and crushed even in Bishopsgate Street, a couple `
` of hundred yards or more from Liverpool Street station; revolvers were `
` fired, people stabbed, and the policemen who had been sent to direct `
` the traffic, exhausted and infuriated, were breaking the heads of the `
` people they were called out to protect. `
` `
` And as the day advanced and the engine drivers and stokers refused `
` to return to London, the pressure of the flight drove the people in an `
` ever-thickening multitude away from the stations and along the `
` northward-running roads. By midday a Martian had been seen at Barnes, `
` and a cloud of slowly sinking black vapour drove along the Thames and `
` across the flats of Lambeth, cutting off all escape over the bridges `
` in its sluggish advance. Another bank drove over Ealing, and `
` surrounded a little island of survivors on Castle Hill, alive, but `
` unable to escape. `
` `
` After a fruitless struggle to get aboard a North-Western train at `
` Chalk Farm--the engines of the trains that had loaded in the goods `
` yard there _ploughed_ through shrieking people, and a dozen stalwart men `
` fought to keep the crowd from crushing the driver against his `
` furnace--my brother emerged upon the Chalk Farm road, dodged across `
` through a hurrying swarm of vehicles, and had the luck to be foremost `
` in the sack of a cycle shop. The front tire of the machine he got was `
` punctured in dragging it through the window, but he got up and off, `
` notwithstanding, with no further injury than a cut wrist. The steep `
` foot of Haverstock Hill was impassable owing to several overturned `
` horses, and my brother struck into Belsize Road. `
` `
` So he got out of the fury of the panic, and, skirting the Edgware `
` Road, reached Edgware about seven, fasting and wearied, but well ahead `
` of the crowd. Along the road people were standing in the roadway, `
` curious, wondering. He was passed by a number of cyclists, some `
` horsemen, and two motor cars. A mile from Edgware the rim of the `
` wheel broke, and the machine became unridable. He left it by the `
` roadside and trudged through the village. There were shops half `
` opened in the main street of the place, and people crowded on the `
` pavement and in the doorways and windows, staring astonished at this `
` extraordinary procession of fugitives that was beginning. He `
` succeeded in getting some food at an inn. `
` `
` For a time he remained in Edgware not knowing what next to do. The `
` flying people increased in number. Many of them, like my brother, `
` seemed inclined to loiter in the place. There was no fresh news of `
` the invaders from Mars. `
` `
` At that time the road was crowded, but as yet far from congested. `
` Most of the fugitives at that hour were mounted on cycles, but there `
` were soon motor cars, hansom cabs, and carriages hurrying along, and `
` the dust hung in heavy clouds along the road to St. Albans. `
` `
` It was perhaps a vague idea of making his way to Chelmsford, where `
` some friends of his lived, that at last induced my brother to strike `
` into a quiet lane running eastward. Presently he came upon a stile, `
` and, crossing it, followed a footpath northeastward. He passed near `
` several farmhouses and some little places whose names he did not `
` learn. He saw few fugitives until, in a grass lane towards High `
` Barnet, he happened upon two ladies who became his fellow travellers. `
` He came upon them just in time to save them. `
` `
` He heard their screams, and, hurrying round the corner, saw a `
` couple of men struggling to drag them out of the little pony-chaise in `
` which they had been driving, while a third with difficulty held the `
` frightened pony's head. One of the ladies, a short woman dressed in `
` white, was simply screaming; the other, a dark, slender figure, `
` slashed at the man who gripped her arm with a whip she held in her `
` disengaged hand. `
` `
` My brother immediately grasped the situation, shouted, and hurried `
` towards the struggle. One of the men desisted and turned towards him, `
` and my brother, realising from his antagonist's face that a fight was `
` unavoidable, and being an expert boxer, went into him forthwith and `
` sent him down against the wheel of the chaise. `
` `
` It was no time for pugilistic chivalry and my brother laid him `
` quiet with a kick, and gripped the collar of the man who pulled at the `
` slender lady's arm. He heard the clatter of hoofs, the whip stung `
` across his face, a third antagonist struck him between the eyes, and `
` the man he held wrenched himself free and made off down the lane in `
` the direction from which he had come. `
` `
` Partly stunned, he found himself facing the man who had held the `
` horse's head, and became aware of the chaise receding from him down `
` the lane, swaying from side to side, and with the women in it looking `
` back. The man before him, a burly rough, tried to close, and he `
` stopped him with a blow in the face. Then, realising that he was `
` deserted, he dodged round and made off down the lane after the chaise, `
` with the sturdy man close behind him, and the fugitive, who had turned `
` now, following remotely. `
` `
` Suddenly he stumbled and fell; his immediate pursuer went headlong, `
` and he rose to his feet to find himself with a couple of antagonists `
` again. He would have had little chance against them had not the `
` slender lady very pluckily pulled up and returned to his help. It `
` seems she had had a revolver all this time, but it had been under the `
` seat when she and her companion were attacked. She fired at six `
` yards' distance, narrowly missing my brother. The less courageous of `
` the robbers made off, and his companion followed him, cursing his `
` cowardice. They both stopped in sight down the lane, where the third `
` man lay insensible. `
` `
` "Take this!" said the slender lady, and she gave my brother her `
` revolver. `
` `
` "Go back to the chaise," said my brother, wiping the blood from his `
` split lip. `
` `
` She turned without a word--they were both panting--and they went `
` back to where the lady in white struggled to hold back the frightened `
` pony. `
` `
` The robbers had evidently had enough of it. When my brother looked `
` again they were retreating. `
` `
` "I'll sit here," said my brother, "if I may"; and he got upon the `
` empty front seat. The lady looked over her shoulder. `
` `
` "Give me the reins," she said, and laid the whip along the pony's `
` side. In another moment a bend in the road hid the three men from my `
` brother's eyes. `
` `
` So, quite unexpectedly, my brother found himself, panting, with a `
` cut mouth, a bruised jaw, and bloodstained knuckles, driving along an `
` unknown lane with these two women. `
` `
` He learned they were the wife and the younger sister of a surgeon `
` living at Stanmore, who had come in the small hours from a dangerous `
` case at Pinner, and heard at some railway station on his way of the `
` Martian advance. He had hurried home, roused the women--their servant `
` had left them two days before--packed some provisions, put his `
` revolver under the seat--luckily for my brother--and told them to `
` drive on to Edgware, with the idea of getting a train there. He `
` stopped behind to tell the neighbours. He would overtake them, he `
` said, at about half past four in the morning, and now it was nearly `
` nine and they had seen nothing of him. They could not stop in Edgware `
` because of the growing traffic through the place, and so they had come `
` into this side lane. `
` `
` That was the story they told my brother in fragments when presently `
` they stopped again, nearer to New Barnet. He promised to stay with `
` them, at least until they could determine what to do, or until the `
` missing man arrived, and professed to be an expert shot with the `
` revolver--a weapon strange to him--in order to give them confidence. `
` `
` They made a sort of encampment by the wayside, and the pony became `
` happy in the hedge. He told them of his own escape out of London, and `
` all that he knew of these Martians and their ways. The sun crept `
` higher in the sky, and after a time their talk died out and gave place `
` to an uneasy state of anticipation. Several wayfarers came along the `
` lane, and of these my brother gathered such news as he could. Every `
` broken answer he had deepened his impression of the great disaster `
` that had come on humanity, deepened his persuasion of the immediate `
` necessity for prosecuting this flight. He urged the matter upon them. `
` `
` "We have money," said the slender woman, and hesitated. `
` `
` Her eyes met my brother's, and her hesitation ended. `
` `
` "So have I," said my brother. `
` `
` She explained that they had as much as thirty pounds in gold, `
` besides a five-pound note, and suggested that with that they might get `
` upon a train at St. Albans or New Barnet. My brother thought that was `
` hopeless, seeing the fury of the Londoners to crowd upon the trains, `
` and broached his own idea of striking across Essex towards Harwich and `
` thence escaping from the country altogether. `
` `
` Mrs. Elphinstone--that was the name of the woman in white--would `
` listen to no reasoning, and kept calling upon "George"; but her `
` sister-in-law was astonishingly quiet and deliberate, and at last `
` agreed to my brother's suggestion. So, designing to cross the Great `
` North Road, they went on towards Barnet, my brother leading the pony `
` to save it as much as possible. As the sun crept up the sky the day `
` became excessively hot, and under foot a thick, whitish sand grew `
` burning and blinding, so that they travelled only very slowly. The `
` hedges were grey with dust. And as they advanced towards Barnet a `
` tumultuous murmuring grew stronger. `
` `
`
` necessity of flight. `
` `
` `
` `
` CHAPTER SIXTEEN `
` `
` THE EXODUS FROM LONDON `
` `
` `
` So you understand the roaring wave of fear that swept through the `
` greatest city in the world just as Monday was dawning--the stream of `
` flight rising swiftly to a torrent, lashing in a foaming tumult round `
` the railway stations, banked up into a horrible struggle about the `
` shipping in the Thames, and hurrying by every available channel `
` northward and eastward. By ten o'clock the police organisation, and `
` by midday even the railway organisations, were losing coherency, `
` losing shape and efficiency, guttering, softening, running at last in `
` that swift liquefaction of the social body. `
` `
` All the railway lines north of the Thames and the South-Eastern `
` people at Cannon Street had been warned by midnight on Sunday, and `
` trains were being filled. People were fighting savagely for `
` standing-room in the carriages even at two o'clock. By three, people `
` were being trampled and crushed even in Bishopsgate Street, a couple `
` of hundred yards or more from Liverpool Street station; revolvers were `
` fired, people stabbed, and the policemen who had been sent to direct `
` the traffic, exhausted and infuriated, were breaking the heads of the `
` people they were called out to protect. `
` `
` And as the day advanced and the engine drivers and stokers refused `
` to return to London, the pressure of the flight drove the people in an `
` ever-thickening multitude away from the stations and along the `
` northward-running roads. By midday a Martian had been seen at Barnes, `
` and a cloud of slowly sinking black vapour drove along the Thames and `
` across the flats of Lambeth, cutting off all escape over the bridges `
` in its sluggish advance. Another bank drove over Ealing, and `
` surrounded a little island of survivors on Castle Hill, alive, but `
` unable to escape. `
` `
` After a fruitless struggle to get aboard a North-Western train at `
` Chalk Farm--the engines of the trains that had loaded in the goods `
` yard there _ploughed_ through shrieking people, and a dozen stalwart men `
` fought to keep the crowd from crushing the driver against his `
` furnace--my brother emerged upon the Chalk Farm road, dodged across `
` through a hurrying swarm of vehicles, and had the luck to be foremost `
` in the sack of a cycle shop. The front tire of the machine he got was `
` punctured in dragging it through the window, but he got up and off, `
` notwithstanding, with no further injury than a cut wrist. The steep `
` foot of Haverstock Hill was impassable owing to several overturned `
` horses, and my brother struck into Belsize Road. `
` `
` So he got out of the fury of the panic, and, skirting the Edgware `
` Road, reached Edgware about seven, fasting and wearied, but well ahead `
` of the crowd. Along the road people were standing in the roadway, `
` curious, wondering. He was passed by a number of cyclists, some `
` horsemen, and two motor cars. A mile from Edgware the rim of the `
` wheel broke, and the machine became unridable. He left it by the `
` roadside and trudged through the village. There were shops half `
` opened in the main street of the place, and people crowded on the `
` pavement and in the doorways and windows, staring astonished at this `
` extraordinary procession of fugitives that was beginning. He `
` succeeded in getting some food at an inn. `
` `
` For a time he remained in Edgware not knowing what next to do. The `
` flying people increased in number. Many of them, like my brother, `
` seemed inclined to loiter in the place. There was no fresh news of `
` the invaders from Mars. `
` `
` At that time the road was crowded, but as yet far from congested. `
` Most of the fugitives at that hour were mounted on cycles, but there `
` were soon motor cars, hansom cabs, and carriages hurrying along, and `
` the dust hung in heavy clouds along the road to St. Albans. `
` `
` It was perhaps a vague idea of making his way to Chelmsford, where `
` some friends of his lived, that at last induced my brother to strike `
` into a quiet lane running eastward. Presently he came upon a stile, `
` and, crossing it, followed a footpath northeastward. He passed near `
` several farmhouses and some little places whose names he did not `
` learn. He saw few fugitives until, in a grass lane towards High `
` Barnet, he happened upon two ladies who became his fellow travellers. `
` He came upon them just in time to save them. `
` `
` He heard their screams, and, hurrying round the corner, saw a `
` couple of men struggling to drag them out of the little pony-chaise in `
` which they had been driving, while a third with difficulty held the `
` frightened pony's head. One of the ladies, a short woman dressed in `
` white, was simply screaming; the other, a dark, slender figure, `
` slashed at the man who gripped her arm with a whip she held in her `
` disengaged hand. `
` `
` My brother immediately grasped the situation, shouted, and hurried `
` towards the struggle. One of the men desisted and turned towards him, `
` and my brother, realising from his antagonist's face that a fight was `
` unavoidable, and being an expert boxer, went into him forthwith and `
` sent him down against the wheel of the chaise. `
` `
` It was no time for pugilistic chivalry and my brother laid him `
` quiet with a kick, and gripped the collar of the man who pulled at the `
` slender lady's arm. He heard the clatter of hoofs, the whip stung `
` across his face, a third antagonist struck him between the eyes, and `
` the man he held wrenched himself free and made off down the lane in `
` the direction from which he had come. `
` `
` Partly stunned, he found himself facing the man who had held the `
` horse's head, and became aware of the chaise receding from him down `
` the lane, swaying from side to side, and with the women in it looking `
` back. The man before him, a burly rough, tried to close, and he `
` stopped him with a blow in the face. Then, realising that he was `
` deserted, he dodged round and made off down the lane after the chaise, `
` with the sturdy man close behind him, and the fugitive, who had turned `
` now, following remotely. `
` `
` Suddenly he stumbled and fell; his immediate pursuer went headlong, `
` and he rose to his feet to find himself with a couple of antagonists `
` again. He would have had little chance against them had not the `
` slender lady very pluckily pulled up and returned to his help. It `
` seems she had had a revolver all this time, but it had been under the `
` seat when she and her companion were attacked. She fired at six `
` yards' distance, narrowly missing my brother. The less courageous of `
` the robbers made off, and his companion followed him, cursing his `
` cowardice. They both stopped in sight down the lane, where the third `
` man lay insensible. `
` `
` "Take this!" said the slender lady, and she gave my brother her `
` revolver. `
` `
` "Go back to the chaise," said my brother, wiping the blood from his `
` split lip. `
` `
` She turned without a word--they were both panting--and they went `
` back to where the lady in white struggled to hold back the frightened `
` pony. `
` `
` The robbers had evidently had enough of it. When my brother looked `
` again they were retreating. `
` `
` "I'll sit here," said my brother, "if I may"; and he got upon the `
` empty front seat. The lady looked over her shoulder. `
` `
` "Give me the reins," she said, and laid the whip along the pony's `
` side. In another moment a bend in the road hid the three men from my `
` brother's eyes. `
` `
` So, quite unexpectedly, my brother found himself, panting, with a `
` cut mouth, a bruised jaw, and bloodstained knuckles, driving along an `
` unknown lane with these two women. `
` `
` He learned they were the wife and the younger sister of a surgeon `
` living at Stanmore, who had come in the small hours from a dangerous `
` case at Pinner, and heard at some railway station on his way of the `
` Martian advance. He had hurried home, roused the women--their servant `
` had left them two days before--packed some provisions, put his `
` revolver under the seat--luckily for my brother--and told them to `
` drive on to Edgware, with the idea of getting a train there. He `
` stopped behind to tell the neighbours. He would overtake them, he `
` said, at about half past four in the morning, and now it was nearly `
` nine and they had seen nothing of him. They could not stop in Edgware `
` because of the growing traffic through the place, and so they had come `
` into this side lane. `
` `
` That was the story they told my brother in fragments when presently `
` they stopped again, nearer to New Barnet. He promised to stay with `
` them, at least until they could determine what to do, or until the `
` missing man arrived, and professed to be an expert shot with the `
` revolver--a weapon strange to him--in order to give them confidence. `
` `
` They made a sort of encampment by the wayside, and the pony became `
` happy in the hedge. He told them of his own escape out of London, and `
` all that he knew of these Martians and their ways. The sun crept `
` higher in the sky, and after a time their talk died out and gave place `
` to an uneasy state of anticipation. Several wayfarers came along the `
` lane, and of these my brother gathered such news as he could. Every `
` broken answer he had deepened his impression of the great disaster `
` that had come on humanity, deepened his persuasion of the immediate `
` necessity for prosecuting this flight. He urged the matter upon them. `
` `
` "We have money," said the slender woman, and hesitated. `
` `
` Her eyes met my brother's, and her hesitation ended. `
` `
` "So have I," said my brother. `
` `
` She explained that they had as much as thirty pounds in gold, `
` besides a five-pound note, and suggested that with that they might get `
` upon a train at St. Albans or New Barnet. My brother thought that was `
` hopeless, seeing the fury of the Londoners to crowd upon the trains, `
` and broached his own idea of striking across Essex towards Harwich and `
` thence escaping from the country altogether. `
` `
` Mrs. Elphinstone--that was the name of the woman in white--would `
` listen to no reasoning, and kept calling upon "George"; but her `
` sister-in-law was astonishingly quiet and deliberate, and at last `
` agreed to my brother's suggestion. So, designing to cross the Great `
` North Road, they went on towards Barnet, my brother leading the pony `
` to save it as much as possible. As the sun crept up the sky the day `
` became excessively hot, and under foot a thick, whitish sand grew `
` burning and blinding, so that they travelled only very slowly. The `
` hedges were grey with dust. And as they advanced towards Barnet a `
` tumultuous murmuring grew stronger. `
` `
`