Reading Help War of the worlds by H. G. Wells. Book 1
hedges on either side were sweet and gay with multitudes of dog-roses. `
` The heavy firing that had broken out while we were driving down `
` Maybury Hill ceased as abruptly as it began, leaving the evening very `
` peaceful and still. We got to Leatherhead without misadventure about `
` nine o'clock, and the horse had an hour's rest while I took supper `
` with my cousins and commended my wife to their care. `
` `
` My wife was curiously silent throughout the drive, and seemed `
` oppressed with forebodings of evil. I talked to her reassuringly, `
` pointing out that the Martians were tied to the Pit by sheer `
` heaviness, and at the utmost could but crawl a little out of it; but `
` she answered only in monosyllables. Had it not been for my promise to `
` the innkeeper, she would, I think, have urged me to stay in `
` Leatherhead that night. Would that I had! Her face, I remember, was `
` very white as we parted. `
` `
` For my own part, I had been feverishly excited all day. Something `
` very like the war fever that occasionally runs through a civilised `
` community had got into my blood, and in my heart I was not so very `
` sorry that I had to return to Maybury that night. I was even afraid `
` that that last fusillade I had heard might mean the extermination of `
` our invaders from Mars. I can best express my state of mind by saying `
` that I wanted to be in at the death. `
` `
` It was nearly eleven when I started to return. The night was `
` unexpectedly dark; to me, walking out of the lighted passage of my `
` cousins' house, it seemed indeed black, and it was as hot and close as `
` the day. Overhead the clouds were driving fast, albeit not a breath `
` stirred the shrubs about us. My cousins' man lit both lamps. Happily, `
` I knew the road intimately. My wife stood in the light of the `
` doorway, and watched me until I jumped up into the dog cart. Then `
` abruptly she turned and went in, leaving my cousins side by side `
` wishing me good hap. `
` `
` I was a little depressed at first with the contagion of my wife's `
` fears, but very soon my thoughts reverted to the Martians. At that `
` time I was absolutely in the dark as to the course of the evening's `
` fighting. I did not know even the circumstances that had precipitated `
` the conflict. As I came through Ockham (for that was the way I `
` returned, and not through Send and Old Woking) I saw along the western `
` horizon a blood-red glow, which as I drew nearer, crept slowly up the `
` sky. The driving clouds of the gathering thunderstorm mingled there `
` with masses of black and red smoke. `
` `
` Ripley Street was deserted, and except for a lighted window or so `
` the village showed not a sign of life; but I narrowly escaped an `
` accident at the corner of the road to Pyrford, where a knot of people `
` stood with their backs to me. They said nothing to me as I passed. I `
` do not know what they knew of the things happening beyond the hill, `
` nor do I know if the silent houses I passed on my way were sleeping `
` securely, or deserted and empty, or harassed and watching against the `
` terror of the night. `
` `
` From Ripley until I came through Pyrford I was in the valley of the `
` Wey, and the red glare was hidden from me. As I ascended the little `
` hill beyond Pyrford Church the glare came into view again, and the `
` trees about me shivered with the first intimation of the storm that `
` was upon me. Then I heard midnight pealing out from Pyrford Church `
` behind me, and then came the silhouette of Maybury Hill, with its `
` tree-tops and roofs black and sharp against the red. `
` `
` Even as I beheld this a lurid green glare lit the road about me and `
` showed the distant woods towards Addlestone. I felt a tug at the `
` reins. I saw that the driving clouds had been pierced as it were by a `
` thread of green fire, suddenly lighting their confusion and falling `
` into the field to my left. It was the third falling star! `
` `
` Close on its apparition, and blindingly violet by contrast, danced `
` out the first lightning of the gathering storm, and the thunder burst `
` like a rocket overhead. The horse took the bit between his teeth and `
` bolted. `
` `
` A moderate incline runs towards the foot of Maybury Hill, and down `
` this we clattered. Once the lightning had begun, it went on in as `
` rapid a succession of flashes as I have ever seen. The thunderclaps, `
` treading one on the heels of another and with a strange crackling `
` accompaniment, sounded more like the working of a gigantic electric `
` machine than the usual detonating reverberations. The flickering `
` light was blinding and confusing, and a thin hail smote gustily at my `
` face as I drove down the slope. `
` `
` At first I regarded little but the road before me, and then `
` abruptly my attention was arrested by something that was moving `
` rapidly down the opposite slope of Maybury Hill. At first I took it `
` for the wet roof of a house, but one flash following another showed it `
` to be in swift rolling movement. It was an elusive vision--a moment `
` of bewildering darkness, and then, in a flash like daylight, the red `
` masses of the Orphanage near the crest of the hill, the green tops of `
` the pine trees, and this problematical object came out clear and sharp `
` and bright. `
` `
` And this Thing I saw! How can I describe it? A monstrous tripod, `
` higher than many houses, striding over the young pine trees, and `
` smashing them aside in its career; a walking engine of glittering `
` metal, striding now across the heather; articulate ropes of steel `
` dangling from it, and the clattering tumult of its passage mingling `
` with the riot of the thunder. A flash, and it came out vividly, `
` heeling over one way with two feet in the air, to vanish and reappear `
` almost instantly as it seemed, with the next flash, a hundred yards `
` nearer. Can you imagine a milking stool tilted and bowled violently `
` along the ground? That was the impression those instant flashes gave. `
` But instead of a milking stool imagine it a great body of machinery on `
` a tripod stand. `
` `
` Then suddenly the trees in the pine wood ahead of me were parted, `
` as brittle reeds are parted by a man thrusting through them; they were `
` snapped off and driven headlong, and a second huge tripod appeared, `
` rushing, as it seemed, headlong towards me. And I was galloping hard `
` to meet it! At the sight of the second monster my nerve went `
` altogether. Not stopping to look again, I wrenched the horse's head `
` hard round to the right and in another moment the dog cart had heeled `
` over upon the horse; the shafts smashed noisily, and I was flung `
` sideways and fell heavily into a shallow pool of water. `
` `
` I crawled out almost immediately, and crouched, my feet still in `
` the water, under a clump of furze. The horse lay motionless (his neck `
` was broken, poor brute!) and by the lightning flashes I saw the black `
` bulk of the overturned dog cart and the silhouette of the wheel still `
` spinning slowly. In another moment the colossal mechanism went `
` striding by me, and passed uphill towards Pyrford. `
` `
` Seen nearer, the Thing was incredibly strange, for it was no mere `
` insensate machine driving on its way. Machine it was, with a ringing `
` metallic pace, and long, flexible, glittering tentacles (one of which `
` gripped a young pine tree) swinging and rattling about its strange `
` body. It picked its road as it went striding along, and the brazen `
` hood that surmounted it moved to and fro with the inevitable `
` suggestion of a head looking about. Behind the main body was a huge `
` mass of white metal like a gigantic fisherman's basket, and puffs of `
` green smoke squirted out from the joints of the limbs as the monster `
` swept by me. And in an instant it was gone. `
` `
` So much I saw then, all vaguely for the flickering of the `
` lightning, in blinding highlights and dense black shadows. `
` `
` As it passed it set up an exultant deafening howl that drowned the `
` thunder--"Aloo! Aloo!"--and in another minute it was with its `
` companion, half a mile away, stooping over something in the field. I `
` have no doubt this Thing in the field was the third of the ten `
` cylinders they had fired at us from Mars. `
` `
` For some minutes I lay there in the rain and darkness watching, by `
` the intermittent light, these monstrous beings of metal moving about `
` in the distance over the hedge tops. A thin hail was now beginning, `
` and as it came and went their figures grew misty and then flashed into `
` clearness again. Now and then came a gap in the lightning, and the `
` night swallowed them up. `
` `
` I was soaked with hail above and puddle water below. It was some `
` time before my blank astonishment would let me struggle up the bank to `
` a drier position, or think at all of my imminent peril. `
` `
` Not far from me was a little one-roomed squatter's hut of wood, `
` surrounded by a patch of potato garden. I struggled to my feet at `
` last, and, crouching and making use of every chance of cover, I made a `
` run for this. I hammered at the door, but I could not make the people `
` hear (if there were any people inside), and after a time I desisted, `
` and, availing myself of a ditch for the greater part of the way, `
` succeeded in crawling, unobserved by these monstrous machines, into `
` the pine woods towards Maybury. `
` `
` Under cover of this I pushed on, wet and shivering now, towards my `
` own house. I walked among the trees trying to find the footpath. It `
` was very dark indeed in the wood, for the lightning was now becoming `
` infrequent, and the hail, which was pouring down in a torrent, fell in `
` columns through the gaps in the heavy foliage. `
` `
` If I had fully realised the meaning of all the things I had seen I `
` should have immediately worked my way round through Byfleet to Street `
` Cobham, and so gone back to rejoin my wife at Leatherhead. But that `
` night the strangeness of things about me, and my physical `
` wretchedness, prevented me, for I was bruised, weary, wet to the skin, `
` deafened and blinded by the storm. `
` `
` I had a vague idea of going on to my own house, and that was as `
` much motive as I had. I staggered through the trees, fell into a `
` ditch and bruised my knees against a plank, and finally splashed out `
` into the lane that ran down from the College Arms. I say splashed, `
` for the storm water was sweeping the sand down the hill in a muddy `
` torrent. There in the darkness a man blundered into me and sent me `
` reeling back. `
` `
` He gave a cry of terror, sprang sideways, and rushed on before I `
` could gather my wits sufficiently to speak to him. So heavy was the `
` stress of the storm just at this place that I had the hardest task to `
` win my way up the hill. I went close up to the fence on the left and `
` worked my way along its palings. `
` `
` Near the top I stumbled upon something soft, and, by a flash of `
` lightning, saw between my feet a heap of black broadcloth and a pair `
` of boots. Before I could distinguish clearly how the man lay, the `
` flicker of light had passed. I stood over him waiting for the next `
` flash. When it came, I saw that he was a sturdy man, cheaply but not `
` shabbily dressed; his head was bent under his body, and he lay `
` crumpled up close to the fence, as though he had been flung violently `
` against it. `
` `
` Overcoming the repugnance natural to one who had never before `
` touched a dead body, I stooped and turned him over to feel for his `
` heart. He was quite dead. Apparently his neck had been broken. The `
` lightning flashed for a third time, and his face leaped upon me. I `
`
` The heavy firing that had broken out while we were driving down `
` Maybury Hill ceased as abruptly as it began, leaving the evening very `
` peaceful and still. We got to Leatherhead without misadventure about `
` nine o'clock, and the horse had an hour's rest while I took supper `
` with my cousins and commended my wife to their care. `
` `
` My wife was curiously silent throughout the drive, and seemed `
` oppressed with forebodings of evil. I talked to her reassuringly, `
` pointing out that the Martians were tied to the Pit by sheer `
` heaviness, and at the utmost could but crawl a little out of it; but `
` she answered only in monosyllables. Had it not been for my promise to `
` the innkeeper, she would, I think, have urged me to stay in `
` Leatherhead that night. Would that I had! Her face, I remember, was `
` very white as we parted. `
` `
` For my own part, I had been feverishly excited all day. Something `
` very like the war fever that occasionally runs through a civilised `
` community had got into my blood, and in my heart I was not so very `
` sorry that I had to return to Maybury that night. I was even afraid `
` that that last fusillade I had heard might mean the extermination of `
` our invaders from Mars. I can best express my state of mind by saying `
` that I wanted to be in at the death. `
` `
` It was nearly eleven when I started to return. The night was `
` unexpectedly dark; to me, walking out of the lighted passage of my `
` cousins' house, it seemed indeed black, and it was as hot and close as `
` the day. Overhead the clouds were driving fast, albeit not a breath `
` stirred the shrubs about us. My cousins' man lit both lamps. Happily, `
` I knew the road intimately. My wife stood in the light of the `
` doorway, and watched me until I jumped up into the dog cart. Then `
` abruptly she turned and went in, leaving my cousins side by side `
` wishing me good hap. `
` `
` I was a little depressed at first with the contagion of my wife's `
` fears, but very soon my thoughts reverted to the Martians. At that `
` time I was absolutely in the dark as to the course of the evening's `
` fighting. I did not know even the circumstances that had precipitated `
` the conflict. As I came through Ockham (for that was the way I `
` returned, and not through Send and Old Woking) I saw along the western `
` horizon a blood-red glow, which as I drew nearer, crept slowly up the `
` sky. The driving clouds of the gathering thunderstorm mingled there `
` with masses of black and red smoke. `
` `
` Ripley Street was deserted, and except for a lighted window or so `
` the village showed not a sign of life; but I narrowly escaped an `
` accident at the corner of the road to Pyrford, where a knot of people `
` stood with their backs to me. They said nothing to me as I passed. I `
` do not know what they knew of the things happening beyond the hill, `
` nor do I know if the silent houses I passed on my way were sleeping `
` securely, or deserted and empty, or harassed and watching against the `
` terror of the night. `
` `
` From Ripley until I came through Pyrford I was in the valley of the `
` Wey, and the red glare was hidden from me. As I ascended the little `
` hill beyond Pyrford Church the glare came into view again, and the `
` trees about me shivered with the first intimation of the storm that `
` was upon me. Then I heard midnight pealing out from Pyrford Church `
` behind me, and then came the silhouette of Maybury Hill, with its `
` tree-tops and roofs black and sharp against the red. `
` `
` Even as I beheld this a lurid green glare lit the road about me and `
` showed the distant woods towards Addlestone. I felt a tug at the `
` reins. I saw that the driving clouds had been pierced as it were by a `
` thread of green fire, suddenly lighting their confusion and falling `
` into the field to my left. It was the third falling star! `
` `
` Close on its apparition, and blindingly violet by contrast, danced `
` out the first lightning of the gathering storm, and the thunder burst `
` like a rocket overhead. The horse took the bit between his teeth and `
` bolted. `
` `
` A moderate incline runs towards the foot of Maybury Hill, and down `
` this we clattered. Once the lightning had begun, it went on in as `
` rapid a succession of flashes as I have ever seen. The thunderclaps, `
` treading one on the heels of another and with a strange crackling `
` accompaniment, sounded more like the working of a gigantic electric `
` machine than the usual detonating reverberations. The flickering `
` light was blinding and confusing, and a thin hail smote gustily at my `
` face as I drove down the slope. `
` `
` At first I regarded little but the road before me, and then `
` abruptly my attention was arrested by something that was moving `
` rapidly down the opposite slope of Maybury Hill. At first I took it `
` for the wet roof of a house, but one flash following another showed it `
` to be in swift rolling movement. It was an elusive vision--a moment `
` of bewildering darkness, and then, in a flash like daylight, the red `
` masses of the Orphanage near the crest of the hill, the green tops of `
` the pine trees, and this problematical object came out clear and sharp `
` and bright. `
` `
` And this Thing I saw! How can I describe it? A monstrous tripod, `
` higher than many houses, striding over the young pine trees, and `
` smashing them aside in its career; a walking engine of glittering `
` metal, striding now across the heather; articulate ropes of steel `
` dangling from it, and the clattering tumult of its passage mingling `
` with the riot of the thunder. A flash, and it came out vividly, `
` heeling over one way with two feet in the air, to vanish and reappear `
` almost instantly as it seemed, with the next flash, a hundred yards `
` nearer. Can you imagine a milking stool tilted and bowled violently `
` along the ground? That was the impression those instant flashes gave. `
` But instead of a milking stool imagine it a great body of machinery on `
` a tripod stand. `
` `
` Then suddenly the trees in the pine wood ahead of me were parted, `
` as brittle reeds are parted by a man thrusting through them; they were `
` snapped off and driven headlong, and a second huge tripod appeared, `
` rushing, as it seemed, headlong towards me. And I was galloping hard `
` to meet it! At the sight of the second monster my nerve went `
` altogether. Not stopping to look again, I wrenched the horse's head `
` hard round to the right and in another moment the dog cart had heeled `
` over upon the horse; the shafts smashed noisily, and I was flung `
` sideways and fell heavily into a shallow pool of water. `
` `
` I crawled out almost immediately, and crouched, my feet still in `
` the water, under a clump of furze. The horse lay motionless (his neck `
` was broken, poor brute!) and by the lightning flashes I saw the black `
` bulk of the overturned dog cart and the silhouette of the wheel still `
` spinning slowly. In another moment the colossal mechanism went `
` striding by me, and passed uphill towards Pyrford. `
` `
` Seen nearer, the Thing was incredibly strange, for it was no mere `
` insensate machine driving on its way. Machine it was, with a ringing `
` metallic pace, and long, flexible, glittering tentacles (one of which `
` gripped a young pine tree) swinging and rattling about its strange `
` body. It picked its road as it went striding along, and the brazen `
` hood that surmounted it moved to and fro with the inevitable `
` suggestion of a head looking about. Behind the main body was a huge `
` mass of white metal like a gigantic fisherman's basket, and puffs of `
` green smoke squirted out from the joints of the limbs as the monster `
` swept by me. And in an instant it was gone. `
` `
` So much I saw then, all vaguely for the flickering of the `
` lightning, in blinding highlights and dense black shadows. `
` `
` As it passed it set up an exultant deafening howl that drowned the `
` thunder--"Aloo! Aloo!"--and in another minute it was with its `
` companion, half a mile away, stooping over something in the field. I `
` have no doubt this Thing in the field was the third of the ten `
` cylinders they had fired at us from Mars. `
` `
` For some minutes I lay there in the rain and darkness watching, by `
` the intermittent light, these monstrous beings of metal moving about `
` in the distance over the hedge tops. A thin hail was now beginning, `
` and as it came and went their figures grew misty and then flashed into `
` clearness again. Now and then came a gap in the lightning, and the `
` night swallowed them up. `
` `
` I was soaked with hail above and puddle water below. It was some `
` time before my blank astonishment would let me struggle up the bank to `
` a drier position, or think at all of my imminent peril. `
` `
` Not far from me was a little one-roomed squatter's hut of wood, `
` surrounded by a patch of potato garden. I struggled to my feet at `
` last, and, crouching and making use of every chance of cover, I made a `
` run for this. I hammered at the door, but I could not make the people `
` hear (if there were any people inside), and after a time I desisted, `
` and, availing myself of a ditch for the greater part of the way, `
` succeeded in crawling, unobserved by these monstrous machines, into `
` the pine woods towards Maybury. `
` `
` Under cover of this I pushed on, wet and shivering now, towards my `
` own house. I walked among the trees trying to find the footpath. It `
` was very dark indeed in the wood, for the lightning was now becoming `
` infrequent, and the hail, which was pouring down in a torrent, fell in `
` columns through the gaps in the heavy foliage. `
` `
` If I had fully realised the meaning of all the things I had seen I `
` should have immediately worked my way round through Byfleet to Street `
` Cobham, and so gone back to rejoin my wife at Leatherhead. But that `
` night the strangeness of things about me, and my physical `
` wretchedness, prevented me, for I was bruised, weary, wet to the skin, `
` deafened and blinded by the storm. `
` `
` I had a vague idea of going on to my own house, and that was as `
` much motive as I had. I staggered through the trees, fell into a `
` ditch and bruised my knees against a plank, and finally splashed out `
` into the lane that ran down from the College Arms. I say splashed, `
` for the storm water was sweeping the sand down the hill in a muddy `
` torrent. There in the darkness a man blundered into me and sent me `
` reeling back. `
` `
` He gave a cry of terror, sprang sideways, and rushed on before I `
` could gather my wits sufficiently to speak to him. So heavy was the `
` stress of the storm just at this place that I had the hardest task to `
` win my way up the hill. I went close up to the fence on the left and `
` worked my way along its palings. `
` `
` Near the top I stumbled upon something soft, and, by a flash of `
` lightning, saw between my feet a heap of black broadcloth and a pair `
` of boots. Before I could distinguish clearly how the man lay, the `
` flicker of light had passed. I stood over him waiting for the next `
` flash. When it came, I saw that he was a sturdy man, cheaply but not `
` shabbily dressed; his head was bent under his body, and he lay `
` crumpled up close to the fence, as though he had been flung violently `
` against it. `
` `
` Overcoming the repugnance natural to one who had never before `
` touched a dead body, I stooped and turned him over to feel for his `
` heart. He was quite dead. Apparently his neck had been broken. The `
` lightning flashed for a third time, and his face leaped upon me. I `
`