Reading Help War of the worlds by H. G. Wells. Book 1
`
` They began to meet more people. For the most part these were `
` staring before them, murmuring indistinct questions, jaded, haggard, `
` unclean. One man in evening dress passed them on foot, his eyes on `
` the ground. They heard his voice, and, looking back at him, saw one `
` hand clutched in his hair and the other beating invisible things. His `
` paroxysm of rage over, he went on his way without once looking back. `
` `
` As my brother's party went on towards the crossroads to the south `
` of Barnet they saw a woman approaching the road across some fields on `
` their left, carrying a child and with two other children; and then `
` passed a man in dirty black, with a thick stick in one hand and a `
` small portmanteau in the other. Then round the corner of the lane, `
` from between the villas that guarded it at its confluence with the `
` high road, came a little cart drawn by a sweating black pony and `
` driven by a sallow youth in a bowler hat, grey with dust. There were `
` three girls, East End factory girls, and a couple of little children `
` crowded in the cart. `
` `
` "This'll tike us rahnd Edgware?" asked the driver, wild-eyed, `
` white-faced; and when my brother told him it would if he turned to the `
` left, he whipped up at once without the formality of thanks. `
` `
` My brother noticed a pale grey smoke or haze rising among the `
` houses in front of them, and veiling the white facade of a terrace `
` beyond the road that appeared between the backs of the villas. Mrs. `
` Elphinstone suddenly cried out at a number of tongues of smoky red `
` flame leaping up above the houses in front of them against the hot, `
` blue sky. The tumultuous noise resolved itself now into the `
` disorderly mingling of many voices, the gride of many wheels, the `
` creaking of waggons, and the staccato of hoofs. The lane came round `
` sharply not fifty yards from the crossroads. `
` `
` "Good heavens!" cried Mrs. Elphinstone. "What is this you are `
` driving us into?" `
` `
` My brother stopped. `
` `
` For the main road was a boiling stream of people, a torrent of `
` human beings rushing northward, one pressing on another. A great bank `
` of dust, white and luminous in the blaze of the sun, made everything `
` within twenty feet of the ground grey and indistinct and was `
` perpetually renewed by the hurrying feet of a dense crowd of horses `
` and of men and women on foot, and by the wheels of vehicles of every `
` description. `
` `
` "Way!" my brother heard voices crying. "Make way!" `
` `
` It was like riding into the smoke of a fire to approach the meeting `
` point of the lane and road; the crowd roared like a fire, and the dust `
` was hot and pungent. And, indeed, a little way up the road a villa `
` was burning and sending rolling masses of black smoke across the road `
` to add to the confusion. `
` `
` Two men came past them. Then a dirty woman, carrying a heavy `
` bundle and weeping. A lost retriever dog, with hanging tongue, `
` circled dubiously round them, scared and wretched, and fled at my `
` brother's threat. `
` `
` So much as they could see of the road Londonward between the houses `
` to the right was a tumultuous stream of dirty, hurrying people, pent `
` in between the villas on either side; the black heads, the crowded `
` forms, grew into distinctness as they rushed towards the corner, `
` hurried past, and merged their individuality again in a receding `
` multitude that was swallowed up at last in a cloud of dust. `
` `
` "Go on! Go on!" cried the voices. "Way! Way!" `
` `
` One man's hands pressed on the back of another. My brother stood `
` at the pony's head. Irresistibly attracted, he advanced slowly, pace `
` by pace, down the lane. `
` `
` Edgware had been a scene of confusion, Chalk Farm a riotous tumult, `
` but this was a whole population in movement. It is hard to imagine `
` that host. It had no character of its own. The figures poured out `
` past the corner, and receded with their backs to the group in the `
` lane. Along the margin came those who were on foot threatened by the `
` wheels, stumbling in the ditches, blundering into one another. `
` `
` The carts and carriages crowded close upon one another, making `
` little way for those swifter and more impatient vehicles that darted `
` forward every now and then when an opportunity showed itself of doing `
` so, sending the people scattering against the fences and gates of the `
` villas. `
` `
` "Push on!" was the cry. "Push on! They are coming!" `
` `
` In one cart stood a blind man in the uniform of the Salvation Army, `
` gesticulating with his crooked fingers and bawling, "Eternity! `
` Eternity!" His voice was hoarse and very loud so that my brother `
` could hear him long after he was lost to sight in the dust. Some of `
` the people who crowded in the carts whipped stupidly at their horses `
` and quarrelled with other drivers; some sat motionless, staring at `
` nothing with miserable eyes; some gnawed their hands with thirst, or `
` lay prostrate in the bottoms of their conveyances. The horses' bits `
` were covered with foam, their eyes bloodshot. `
` `
` There were cabs, carriages, shop cars, waggons, beyond counting; a `
` mail cart, a road-cleaner's cart marked "Vestry of St. Pancras," a `
` huge timber waggon crowded with roughs. A brewer's dray rumbled by `
` with its two near wheels splashed with fresh blood. `
` `
` "Clear the way!" cried the voices. "Clear the way!" `
` `
` "Eter-nity! Eter-nity!" came echoing down the road. `
` `
` There were sad, haggard women tramping by, well dressed, with `
` children that cried and stumbled, their dainty clothes smothered in `
` dust, their weary faces smeared with tears. With many of these came `
` men, sometimes helpful, sometimes lowering and savage. Fighting side `
` by side with them pushed some weary street outcast in faded black `
` rags, wide-eyed, loud-voiced, and foul-mouthed. There were sturdy `
` workmen thrusting their way along, wretched, unkempt men, clothed like `
` clerks or shopmen, struggling spasmodically; a wounded soldier my `
` brother noticed, men dressed in the clothes of railway porters, one `
` wretched creature in a nightshirt with a coat thrown over it. `
` `
` But varied as its composition was, certain things all that host had `
` in common. There were fear and pain on their faces, and fear behind `
` them. A tumult up the road, a quarrel for a place in a waggon, sent `
` the whole host of them quickening their pace; even a man so scared and `
` broken that his knees bent under him was galvanised for a moment into `
` renewed activity. The heat and dust had already been at work upon `
` this multitude. Their skins were dry, their lips black and cracked. `
` They were all thirsty, weary, and footsore. And amid the various `
` cries one heard disputes, reproaches, groans of weariness and fatigue; `
` the voices of most of them were hoarse and weak. Through it all ran a `
` refrain: `
` `
` "Way! Way! The Martians are coming!" `
` `
` Few stopped and came aside from that flood. The lane opened `
` slantingly into the main road with a narrow opening, and had a `
` delusive appearance of coming from the direction of London. Yet a `
` kind of eddy of people drove into its mouth; weaklings elbowed out of `
` the stream, who for the most part rested but a moment before plunging `
` into it again. A little way down the lane, with two friends bending `
` over him, lay a man with a bare leg, wrapped about with bloody rags. `
` He was a lucky man to have friends. `
` `
` A little old man, with a grey military moustache and a filthy black `
` frock coat, limped out and sat down beside the trap, removed his `
` boot--his sock was blood-stained--shook out a pebble, and hobbled on `
` again; and then a little girl of eight or nine, all alone, threw `
` herself under the hedge close by my brother, weeping. `
` `
` "I can't go on! I can't go on!" `
` `
` My brother woke from his torpor of astonishment and lifted her up, `
` speaking gently to her, and carried her to Miss Elphinstone. So soon `
` as my brother touched her she became quite still, as if frightened. `
` `
` "Ellen!" shrieked a woman in the crowd, with tears in her `
` voice--"Ellen!" And the child suddenly darted away from my brother, `
` crying "Mother!" `
` `
` "They are coming," said a man on horseback, riding past along the `
` lane. `
` `
` "Out of the way, there!" bawled a coachman, towering high; and my `
` brother saw a closed carriage turning into the lane. `
` `
` The people crushed back on one another to avoid the horse. My `
` brother pushed the pony and chaise back into the hedge, and the man `
` drove by and stopped at the turn of the way. It was a carriage, with `
` a pole for a pair of horses, but only one was in the traces. My `
` brother saw dimly through the dust that two men lifted out something `
` on a white stretcher and put it gently on the grass beneath the privet `
` hedge. `
` `
` One of the men came running to my brother. `
` `
` "Where is there any water?" he said. "He is dying fast, and very `
` thirsty. It is Lord Garrick." `
` `
` "Lord Garrick!" said my brother; "the Chief Justice?" `
` `
` "The water?" he said. `
` `
` "There may be a tap," said my brother, "in some of the houses. We `
` have no water. I dare not leave my people." `
` `
` The man pushed against the crowd towards the gate of the corner `
` house. `
` `
` "Go on!" said the people, thrusting at him. "They are coming! Go `
` on!" `
` `
` Then my brother's attention was distracted by a bearded, eagle-faced `
` man lugging a small handbag, which split even as my brother's `
` eyes rested on it and disgorged a mass of sovereigns that seemed to `
` break up into separate coins as it struck the ground. They rolled `
` hither and thither among the struggling feet of men and horses. The `
` man stopped and looked stupidly at the heap, and the shaft of a cab `
` struck his shoulder and sent him reeling. He gave a shriek and dodged `
` back, and a cartwheel shaved him narrowly. `
` `
` "Way!" cried the men all about him. "Make way!" `
` `
` So soon as the cab had passed, he flung himself, with both hands `
` open, upon the heap of coins, and began thrusting handfuls in his `
`
` They began to meet more people. For the most part these were `
` staring before them, murmuring indistinct questions, jaded, haggard, `
` unclean. One man in evening dress passed them on foot, his eyes on `
` the ground. They heard his voice, and, looking back at him, saw one `
` hand clutched in his hair and the other beating invisible things. His `
` paroxysm of rage over, he went on his way without once looking back. `
` `
` As my brother's party went on towards the crossroads to the south `
` of Barnet they saw a woman approaching the road across some fields on `
` their left, carrying a child and with two other children; and then `
` passed a man in dirty black, with a thick stick in one hand and a `
` small portmanteau in the other. Then round the corner of the lane, `
` from between the villas that guarded it at its confluence with the `
` high road, came a little cart drawn by a sweating black pony and `
` driven by a sallow youth in a bowler hat, grey with dust. There were `
` three girls, East End factory girls, and a couple of little children `
` crowded in the cart. `
` `
` "This'll tike us rahnd Edgware?" asked the driver, wild-eyed, `
` white-faced; and when my brother told him it would if he turned to the `
` left, he whipped up at once without the formality of thanks. `
` `
` My brother noticed a pale grey smoke or haze rising among the `
` houses in front of them, and veiling the white facade of a terrace `
` beyond the road that appeared between the backs of the villas. Mrs. `
` Elphinstone suddenly cried out at a number of tongues of smoky red `
` flame leaping up above the houses in front of them against the hot, `
` blue sky. The tumultuous noise resolved itself now into the `
` disorderly mingling of many voices, the gride of many wheels, the `
` creaking of waggons, and the staccato of hoofs. The lane came round `
` sharply not fifty yards from the crossroads. `
` `
` "Good heavens!" cried Mrs. Elphinstone. "What is this you are `
` driving us into?" `
` `
` My brother stopped. `
` `
` For the main road was a boiling stream of people, a torrent of `
` human beings rushing northward, one pressing on another. A great bank `
` of dust, white and luminous in the blaze of the sun, made everything `
` within twenty feet of the ground grey and indistinct and was `
` perpetually renewed by the hurrying feet of a dense crowd of horses `
` and of men and women on foot, and by the wheels of vehicles of every `
` description. `
` `
` "Way!" my brother heard voices crying. "Make way!" `
` `
` It was like riding into the smoke of a fire to approach the meeting `
` point of the lane and road; the crowd roared like a fire, and the dust `
` was hot and pungent. And, indeed, a little way up the road a villa `
` was burning and sending rolling masses of black smoke across the road `
` to add to the confusion. `
` `
` Two men came past them. Then a dirty woman, carrying a heavy `
` bundle and weeping. A lost retriever dog, with hanging tongue, `
` circled dubiously round them, scared and wretched, and fled at my `
` brother's threat. `
` `
` So much as they could see of the road Londonward between the houses `
` to the right was a tumultuous stream of dirty, hurrying people, pent `
` in between the villas on either side; the black heads, the crowded `
` forms, grew into distinctness as they rushed towards the corner, `
` hurried past, and merged their individuality again in a receding `
` multitude that was swallowed up at last in a cloud of dust. `
` `
` "Go on! Go on!" cried the voices. "Way! Way!" `
` `
` One man's hands pressed on the back of another. My brother stood `
` at the pony's head. Irresistibly attracted, he advanced slowly, pace `
` by pace, down the lane. `
` `
` Edgware had been a scene of confusion, Chalk Farm a riotous tumult, `
` but this was a whole population in movement. It is hard to imagine `
` that host. It had no character of its own. The figures poured out `
` past the corner, and receded with their backs to the group in the `
` lane. Along the margin came those who were on foot threatened by the `
` wheels, stumbling in the ditches, blundering into one another. `
` `
` The carts and carriages crowded close upon one another, making `
` little way for those swifter and more impatient vehicles that darted `
` forward every now and then when an opportunity showed itself of doing `
` so, sending the people scattering against the fences and gates of the `
` villas. `
` `
` "Push on!" was the cry. "Push on! They are coming!" `
` `
` In one cart stood a blind man in the uniform of the Salvation Army, `
` gesticulating with his crooked fingers and bawling, "Eternity! `
` Eternity!" His voice was hoarse and very loud so that my brother `
` could hear him long after he was lost to sight in the dust. Some of `
` the people who crowded in the carts whipped stupidly at their horses `
` and quarrelled with other drivers; some sat motionless, staring at `
` nothing with miserable eyes; some gnawed their hands with thirst, or `
` lay prostrate in the bottoms of their conveyances. The horses' bits `
` were covered with foam, their eyes bloodshot. `
` `
` There were cabs, carriages, shop cars, waggons, beyond counting; a `
` mail cart, a road-cleaner's cart marked "Vestry of St. Pancras," a `
` huge timber waggon crowded with roughs. A brewer's dray rumbled by `
` with its two near wheels splashed with fresh blood. `
` `
` "Clear the way!" cried the voices. "Clear the way!" `
` `
` "Eter-nity! Eter-nity!" came echoing down the road. `
` `
` There were sad, haggard women tramping by, well dressed, with `
` children that cried and stumbled, their dainty clothes smothered in `
` dust, their weary faces smeared with tears. With many of these came `
` men, sometimes helpful, sometimes lowering and savage. Fighting side `
` by side with them pushed some weary street outcast in faded black `
` rags, wide-eyed, loud-voiced, and foul-mouthed. There were sturdy `
` workmen thrusting their way along, wretched, unkempt men, clothed like `
` clerks or shopmen, struggling spasmodically; a wounded soldier my `
` brother noticed, men dressed in the clothes of railway porters, one `
` wretched creature in a nightshirt with a coat thrown over it. `
` `
` But varied as its composition was, certain things all that host had `
` in common. There were fear and pain on their faces, and fear behind `
` them. A tumult up the road, a quarrel for a place in a waggon, sent `
` the whole host of them quickening their pace; even a man so scared and `
` broken that his knees bent under him was galvanised for a moment into `
` renewed activity. The heat and dust had already been at work upon `
` this multitude. Their skins were dry, their lips black and cracked. `
` They were all thirsty, weary, and footsore. And amid the various `
` cries one heard disputes, reproaches, groans of weariness and fatigue; `
` the voices of most of them were hoarse and weak. Through it all ran a `
` refrain: `
` `
` "Way! Way! The Martians are coming!" `
` `
` Few stopped and came aside from that flood. The lane opened `
` slantingly into the main road with a narrow opening, and had a `
` delusive appearance of coming from the direction of London. Yet a `
` kind of eddy of people drove into its mouth; weaklings elbowed out of `
` the stream, who for the most part rested but a moment before plunging `
` into it again. A little way down the lane, with two friends bending `
` over him, lay a man with a bare leg, wrapped about with bloody rags. `
` He was a lucky man to have friends. `
` `
` A little old man, with a grey military moustache and a filthy black `
` frock coat, limped out and sat down beside the trap, removed his `
` boot--his sock was blood-stained--shook out a pebble, and hobbled on `
` again; and then a little girl of eight or nine, all alone, threw `
` herself under the hedge close by my brother, weeping. `
` `
` "I can't go on! I can't go on!" `
` `
` My brother woke from his torpor of astonishment and lifted her up, `
` speaking gently to her, and carried her to Miss Elphinstone. So soon `
` as my brother touched her she became quite still, as if frightened. `
` `
` "Ellen!" shrieked a woman in the crowd, with tears in her `
` voice--"Ellen!" And the child suddenly darted away from my brother, `
` crying "Mother!" `
` `
` "They are coming," said a man on horseback, riding past along the `
` lane. `
` `
` "Out of the way, there!" bawled a coachman, towering high; and my `
` brother saw a closed carriage turning into the lane. `
` `
` The people crushed back on one another to avoid the horse. My `
` brother pushed the pony and chaise back into the hedge, and the man `
` drove by and stopped at the turn of the way. It was a carriage, with `
` a pole for a pair of horses, but only one was in the traces. My `
` brother saw dimly through the dust that two men lifted out something `
` on a white stretcher and put it gently on the grass beneath the privet `
` hedge. `
` `
` One of the men came running to my brother. `
` `
` "Where is there any water?" he said. "He is dying fast, and very `
` thirsty. It is Lord Garrick." `
` `
` "Lord Garrick!" said my brother; "the Chief Justice?" `
` `
` "The water?" he said. `
` `
` "There may be a tap," said my brother, "in some of the houses. We `
` have no water. I dare not leave my people." `
` `
` The man pushed against the crowd towards the gate of the corner `
` house. `
` `
` "Go on!" said the people, thrusting at him. "They are coming! Go `
` on!" `
` `
` Then my brother's attention was distracted by a bearded, eagle-faced `
` man lugging a small handbag, which split even as my brother's `
` eyes rested on it and disgorged a mass of sovereigns that seemed to `
` break up into separate coins as it struck the ground. They rolled `
` hither and thither among the struggling feet of men and horses. The `
` man stopped and looked stupidly at the heap, and the shaft of a cab `
` struck his shoulder and sent him reeling. He gave a shriek and dodged `
` back, and a cartwheel shaved him narrowly. `
` `
` "Way!" cried the men all about him. "Make way!" `
` `
` So soon as the cab had passed, he flung himself, with both hands `
` open, upon the heap of coins, and began thrusting handfuls in his `
`