Reading Help War of the worlds by H. G. Wells. Book 1
weigh three times more than on Mars, albeit his muscular strength `
` would be the same. His own body would be a cope of lead to him. That, `
` indeed, was the general opinion. Both _The Times_ and the _Daily `
` Telegraph_, for instance, insisted on it the next morning, and both `
` overlooked, just as I did, two obvious modifying influences. `
` `
` The atmosphere of the earth, we now know, contains far more oxygen `
` or far less argon (whichever way one likes to put it) than does Mars. `
` The invigorating influences of this excess of oxygen upon the Martians `
` indisputably did much to counterbalance the increased weight of their `
` bodies. And, in the second place, we all overlooked the fact that `
` such mechanical intelligence as the Martian possessed was quite able `
` to dispense with muscular exertion at a pinch. `
` `
` But I did not consider these points at the time, and so my `
` reasoning was dead against the chances of the invaders. With wine and `
` food, the confidence of my own table, and the necessity of reassuring `
` my wife, I grew by insensible degrees courageous and secure. `
` `
` "They have done a foolish thing," said I, fingering my wineglass. `
` "They are dangerous because, no doubt, they are mad with terror. `
` Perhaps they expected to find no living things--certainly no `
` intelligent living things." `
` `
` "A shell in the pit" said I, "if the worst comes to the worst will `
` kill them all." `
` `
` The intense excitement of the events had no doubt left my `
` perceptive powers in a state of erethism. I remember that dinner `
` table with extraordinary vividness even now. My dear wife's sweet `
` anxious face peering at me from under the pink lamp shade, the white `
` cloth with its silver and glass table furniture--for in those days `
` even philosophical writers had many little luxuries--the crimson-purple `
` wine in my glass, are photographically distinct. At the end of `
` it I sat, tempering nuts with a cigarette, regretting Ogilvy's `
` rashness, and denouncing the shortsighted timidity of the Martians. `
` `
` So some respectable dodo in the Mauritius might have lorded it in `
` his nest, and discussed the arrival of that shipful of pitiless `
` sailors in want of animal food. "We will peck them to death tomorrow, `
` my dear." `
` `
` I did not know it, but that was the last civilised dinner I was to `
` eat for very many strange and terrible days. `
` `
` `
` `
` CHAPTER EIGHT `
` `
` FRIDAY NIGHT `
` `
` `
` The most extraordinary thing to my mind, of all the strange and `
` wonderful things that happened upon that Friday, was the dovetailing `
` of the commonplace habits of our social order with the first `
` beginnings of the series of events that was to topple that social `
` order headlong. If on Friday night you had taken a pair of compasses `
` and drawn a circle with a radius of five miles round the Woking sand `
` pits, I doubt if you would have had one human being outside it, unless `
` it were some relation of Stent or of the three or four cyclists or `
` London people lying dead on the common, whose emotions or habits were `
` at all affected by the new-comers. Many people had heard of the `
` cylinder, of course, and talked about it in their leisure, but it `
` certainly did not make the sensation that an ultimatum to Germany `
` would have done. `
` `
` In London that night poor Henderson's telegram describing the `
` gradual unscrewing of the shot was judged to be a canard, and his `
` evening paper, after wiring for authentication from him and receiving `
` no reply--the man was killed--decided not to print a special edition. `
` `
` Even within the five-mile circle the great majority of people were `
` inert. I have already described the behaviour of the men and women to `
` whom I spoke. All over the district people were dining and supping; `
` working men were gardening after the labours of the day, children `
` were being put to bed, young people were wandering through the lanes `
` love-making, students sat over their books. `
` `
` Maybe there was a murmur in the village streets, a novel and `
` dominant topic in the public-houses, and here and there a messenger, `
` or even an eye-witness of the later occurrences, caused a whirl of `
` excitement, a shouting, and a running to and fro; but for the most `
` part the daily routine of working, eating, drinking, sleeping, went on `
` as it had done for countless years--as though no planet Mars existed `
` in the sky. Even at Woking station and Horsell and Chobham that was `
` the case. `
` `
` In Woking junction, until a late hour, trains were stopping and `
` going on, others were shunting on the sidings, passengers were `
` alighting and waiting, and everything was proceeding in the most `
` ordinary way. A boy from the town, trenching on Smith's monopoly, was `
` selling papers with the afternoon's news. The ringing impact of `
` trucks, the sharp whistle of the engines from the junction, mingled `
` with their shouts of "Men from Mars!" Excited men came into the `
` station about nine o'clock with incredible tidings, and caused no more `
` disturbance than drunkards might have done. People rattling `
` Londonwards peered into the darkness outside the carriage windows, and `
` saw only a rare, flickering, vanishing spark dance up from the `
` direction of Horsell, a red glow and a thin veil of smoke driving `
` across the stars, and thought that nothing more serious than a heath `
` fire was happening. It was only round the edge of the common that any `
` disturbance was perceptible. There were half a dozen villas burning `
` on the Woking border. There were lights in all the houses on the `
` common side of the three villages, and the people there kept awake `
` till dawn. `
` `
` A curious crowd lingered restlessly, people coming and going but `
` the crowd remaining, both on the Chobham and Horsell bridges. One or `
` two adventurous souls, it was afterwards found, went into the darkness `
` and crawled quite near the Martians; but they never returned, for now `
` and again a light-ray, like the beam of a warship's searchlight swept `
` the common, and the Heat-Ray was ready to follow. Save for such, that `
` big area of common was silent and desolate, and the charred bodies lay `
` about on it all night under the stars, and all the next day. A noise `
` of hammering from the pit was heard by many people. `
` `
` So you have the state of things on Friday night. In the centre, `
` sticking into the skin of our old planet Earth like a poisoned dart, `
` was this cylinder. But the poison was scarcely working yet. Around `
` it was a patch of silent common, smouldering in places, and with a few `
` dark, dimly seen objects lying in contorted attitudes here and there. `
` Here and there was a burning bush or tree. Beyond was a fringe of `
` excitement, and farther than that fringe the inflammation had not `
` crept as yet. In the rest of the world the stream of life still `
` flowed as it had flowed for immemorial years. The fever of war that `
` would presently clog vein and artery, deaden nerve and destroy brain, `
` had still to develop. `
` `
` All night long the Martians were hammering and stirring, sleepless, `
` indefatigable, at work upon the machines they were making ready, and `
` ever and again a puff of greenish-white smoke whirled up to the `
` starlit sky. `
` `
` About eleven a company of soldiers came through Horsell, and `
` deployed along the edge of the common to form a cordon. Later a `
` second company marched through Chobham to deploy on the north side of `
` the common. Several officers from the Inkerman barracks had been on `
` the common earlier in the day, and one, Major Eden, was reported to be `
` missing. The colonel of the regiment came to the Chobham bridge and `
` was busy questioning the crowd at midnight. The military authorities `
` were certainly alive to the seriousness of the business. About `
` eleven, the next morning's papers were able to say, a squadron of `
` hussars, two Maxims, and about four hundred men of the Cardigan `
` regiment started from Aldershot. `
` `
` A few seconds after midnight the crowd in the Chertsey road, `
` Woking, saw a star fall from heaven into the pine woods to the `
` northwest. It had a greenish colour, and caused a silent brightness `
` like summer lightning. This was the second cylinder. `
` `
` `
` `
` CHAPTER NINE `
` `
` THE FIGHTING BEGINS `
` `
` `
` Saturday lives in my memory as a day of suspense. It was a day of `
` lassitude too, hot and close, with, I am told, a rapidly fluctuating `
` barometer. I had slept but little, though my wife had succeeded in `
` sleeping, and I rose early. I went into my garden before breakfast `
` and stood listening, but towards the common there was nothing stirring `
` but a lark. `
` `
` The milkman came as usual. I heard the rattle of his chariot and I `
` went round to the side gate to ask the latest news. He told me that `
` during the night the Martians had been surrounded by troops, and that `
` guns were expected. Then--a familiar, reassuring note--I heard a train `
` running towards Woking. `
` `
` "They aren't to be killed," said the milkman, "if that can possibly `
` be avoided." `
` `
` I saw my neighbour gardening, chatted with him for a time, and then `
` strolled in to breakfast. It was a most unexceptional morning. My `
` neighbour was of opinion that the troops would be able to capture or `
` to destroy the Martians during the day. `
` `
` "It's a pity they make themselves so unapproachable," he said. "It `
` would be curious to know how they live on another planet; we might `
` learn a thing or two." `
` `
` He came up to the fence and extended a handful of strawberries, for `
` his gardening was as generous as it was enthusiastic. At the same `
` time he told me of the burning of the pine woods about the Byfleet `
` Golf Links. `
` `
` "They say," said he, "that there's another of those blessed things `
` fallen there--number two. But one's enough, surely. This lot'll cost `
` the insurance people a pretty penny before everything's settled." He `
` laughed with an air of the greatest good humour as he said this. The `
` woods, he said, were still burning, and pointed out a haze of smoke to `
` me. "They will be hot under foot for days, on account of the thick `
` soil of pine needles and turf," he said, and then grew serious over `
` "poor Ogilvy." `
` `
` After breakfast, instead of working, I decided to walk down `
` towards the common. Under the railway bridge I found a group of `
` soldiers--sappers, I think, men in small round caps, dirty red jackets `
` unbuttoned, and showing their blue shirts, dark trousers, and boots `
` coming to the calf. They told me no one was allowed over the canal, `
`
` would be the same. His own body would be a cope of lead to him. That, `
` indeed, was the general opinion. Both _The Times_ and the _Daily `
` Telegraph_, for instance, insisted on it the next morning, and both `
` overlooked, just as I did, two obvious modifying influences. `
` `
` The atmosphere of the earth, we now know, contains far more oxygen `
` or far less argon (whichever way one likes to put it) than does Mars. `
` The invigorating influences of this excess of oxygen upon the Martians `
` indisputably did much to counterbalance the increased weight of their `
` bodies. And, in the second place, we all overlooked the fact that `
` such mechanical intelligence as the Martian possessed was quite able `
` to dispense with muscular exertion at a pinch. `
` `
` But I did not consider these points at the time, and so my `
` reasoning was dead against the chances of the invaders. With wine and `
` food, the confidence of my own table, and the necessity of reassuring `
` my wife, I grew by insensible degrees courageous and secure. `
` `
` "They have done a foolish thing," said I, fingering my wineglass. `
` "They are dangerous because, no doubt, they are mad with terror. `
` Perhaps they expected to find no living things--certainly no `
` intelligent living things." `
` `
` "A shell in the pit" said I, "if the worst comes to the worst will `
` kill them all." `
` `
` The intense excitement of the events had no doubt left my `
` perceptive powers in a state of erethism. I remember that dinner `
` table with extraordinary vividness even now. My dear wife's sweet `
` anxious face peering at me from under the pink lamp shade, the white `
` cloth with its silver and glass table furniture--for in those days `
` even philosophical writers had many little luxuries--the crimson-purple `
` wine in my glass, are photographically distinct. At the end of `
` it I sat, tempering nuts with a cigarette, regretting Ogilvy's `
` rashness, and denouncing the shortsighted timidity of the Martians. `
` `
` So some respectable dodo in the Mauritius might have lorded it in `
` his nest, and discussed the arrival of that shipful of pitiless `
` sailors in want of animal food. "We will peck them to death tomorrow, `
` my dear." `
` `
` I did not know it, but that was the last civilised dinner I was to `
` eat for very many strange and terrible days. `
` `
` `
` `
` CHAPTER EIGHT `
` `
` FRIDAY NIGHT `
` `
` `
` The most extraordinary thing to my mind, of all the strange and `
` wonderful things that happened upon that Friday, was the dovetailing `
` of the commonplace habits of our social order with the first `
` beginnings of the series of events that was to topple that social `
` order headlong. If on Friday night you had taken a pair of compasses `
` and drawn a circle with a radius of five miles round the Woking sand `
` pits, I doubt if you would have had one human being outside it, unless `
` it were some relation of Stent or of the three or four cyclists or `
` London people lying dead on the common, whose emotions or habits were `
` at all affected by the new-comers. Many people had heard of the `
` cylinder, of course, and talked about it in their leisure, but it `
` certainly did not make the sensation that an ultimatum to Germany `
` would have done. `
` `
` In London that night poor Henderson's telegram describing the `
` gradual unscrewing of the shot was judged to be a canard, and his `
` evening paper, after wiring for authentication from him and receiving `
` no reply--the man was killed--decided not to print a special edition. `
` `
` Even within the five-mile circle the great majority of people were `
` inert. I have already described the behaviour of the men and women to `
` whom I spoke. All over the district people were dining and supping; `
` working men were gardening after the labours of the day, children `
` were being put to bed, young people were wandering through the lanes `
` love-making, students sat over their books. `
` `
` Maybe there was a murmur in the village streets, a novel and `
` dominant topic in the public-houses, and here and there a messenger, `
` or even an eye-witness of the later occurrences, caused a whirl of `
` excitement, a shouting, and a running to and fro; but for the most `
` part the daily routine of working, eating, drinking, sleeping, went on `
` as it had done for countless years--as though no planet Mars existed `
` in the sky. Even at Woking station and Horsell and Chobham that was `
` the case. `
` `
` In Woking junction, until a late hour, trains were stopping and `
` going on, others were shunting on the sidings, passengers were `
` alighting and waiting, and everything was proceeding in the most `
` ordinary way. A boy from the town, trenching on Smith's monopoly, was `
` selling papers with the afternoon's news. The ringing impact of `
` trucks, the sharp whistle of the engines from the junction, mingled `
` with their shouts of "Men from Mars!" Excited men came into the `
` station about nine o'clock with incredible tidings, and caused no more `
` disturbance than drunkards might have done. People rattling `
` Londonwards peered into the darkness outside the carriage windows, and `
` saw only a rare, flickering, vanishing spark dance up from the `
` direction of Horsell, a red glow and a thin veil of smoke driving `
` across the stars, and thought that nothing more serious than a heath `
` fire was happening. It was only round the edge of the common that any `
` disturbance was perceptible. There were half a dozen villas burning `
` on the Woking border. There were lights in all the houses on the `
` common side of the three villages, and the people there kept awake `
` till dawn. `
` `
` A curious crowd lingered restlessly, people coming and going but `
` the crowd remaining, both on the Chobham and Horsell bridges. One or `
` two adventurous souls, it was afterwards found, went into the darkness `
` and crawled quite near the Martians; but they never returned, for now `
` and again a light-ray, like the beam of a warship's searchlight swept `
` the common, and the Heat-Ray was ready to follow. Save for such, that `
` big area of common was silent and desolate, and the charred bodies lay `
` about on it all night under the stars, and all the next day. A noise `
` of hammering from the pit was heard by many people. `
` `
` So you have the state of things on Friday night. In the centre, `
` sticking into the skin of our old planet Earth like a poisoned dart, `
` was this cylinder. But the poison was scarcely working yet. Around `
` it was a patch of silent common, smouldering in places, and with a few `
` dark, dimly seen objects lying in contorted attitudes here and there. `
` Here and there was a burning bush or tree. Beyond was a fringe of `
` excitement, and farther than that fringe the inflammation had not `
` crept as yet. In the rest of the world the stream of life still `
` flowed as it had flowed for immemorial years. The fever of war that `
` would presently clog vein and artery, deaden nerve and destroy brain, `
` had still to develop. `
` `
` All night long the Martians were hammering and stirring, sleepless, `
` indefatigable, at work upon the machines they were making ready, and `
` ever and again a puff of greenish-white smoke whirled up to the `
` starlit sky. `
` `
` About eleven a company of soldiers came through Horsell, and `
` deployed along the edge of the common to form a cordon. Later a `
` second company marched through Chobham to deploy on the north side of `
` the common. Several officers from the Inkerman barracks had been on `
` the common earlier in the day, and one, Major Eden, was reported to be `
` missing. The colonel of the regiment came to the Chobham bridge and `
` was busy questioning the crowd at midnight. The military authorities `
` were certainly alive to the seriousness of the business. About `
` eleven, the next morning's papers were able to say, a squadron of `
` hussars, two Maxims, and about four hundred men of the Cardigan `
` regiment started from Aldershot. `
` `
` A few seconds after midnight the crowd in the Chertsey road, `
` Woking, saw a star fall from heaven into the pine woods to the `
` northwest. It had a greenish colour, and caused a silent brightness `
` like summer lightning. This was the second cylinder. `
` `
` `
` `
` CHAPTER NINE `
` `
` THE FIGHTING BEGINS `
` `
` `
` Saturday lives in my memory as a day of suspense. It was a day of `
` lassitude too, hot and close, with, I am told, a rapidly fluctuating `
` barometer. I had slept but little, though my wife had succeeded in `
` sleeping, and I rose early. I went into my garden before breakfast `
` and stood listening, but towards the common there was nothing stirring `
` but a lark. `
` `
` The milkman came as usual. I heard the rattle of his chariot and I `
` went round to the side gate to ask the latest news. He told me that `
` during the night the Martians had been surrounded by troops, and that `
` guns were expected. Then--a familiar, reassuring note--I heard a train `
` running towards Woking. `
` `
` "They aren't to be killed," said the milkman, "if that can possibly `
` be avoided." `
` `
` I saw my neighbour gardening, chatted with him for a time, and then `
` strolled in to breakfast. It was a most unexceptional morning. My `
` neighbour was of opinion that the troops would be able to capture or `
` to destroy the Martians during the day. `
` `
` "It's a pity they make themselves so unapproachable," he said. "It `
` would be curious to know how they live on another planet; we might `
` learn a thing or two." `
` `
` He came up to the fence and extended a handful of strawberries, for `
` his gardening was as generous as it was enthusiastic. At the same `
` time he told me of the burning of the pine woods about the Byfleet `
` Golf Links. `
` `
` "They say," said he, "that there's another of those blessed things `
` fallen there--number two. But one's enough, surely. This lot'll cost `
` the insurance people a pretty penny before everything's settled." He `
` laughed with an air of the greatest good humour as he said this. The `
` woods, he said, were still burning, and pointed out a haze of smoke to `
` me. "They will be hot under foot for days, on account of the thick `
` soil of pine needles and turf," he said, and then grew serious over `
` "poor Ogilvy." `
` `
` After breakfast, instead of working, I decided to walk down `
` towards the common. Under the railway bridge I found a group of `
` soldiers--sappers, I think, men in small round caps, dirty red jackets `
` unbuttoned, and showing their blue shirts, dark trousers, and boots `
` coming to the calf. They told me no one was allowed over the canal, `
`