|
BOOK TWO `
`
`
`
THE EARTH UNDER THE MARTIANS `
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
CHAPTER ONE `
`
`
`
UNDER FOOT `
`
`
`
`
`
In the first book I have wandered so much from my own adventures to `
`
tell of the experiences of my brother that all through the last two `
`
chapters I and the curate have been lurking in the empty house at `
`
Halliford whither we fled to escape the Black Smoke. There I will `
`
resume. We stopped there all Sunday night and all the next day--the `
`
day of the panic--in a little island of daylight, cut off by the Black `
`
Smoke from the rest of the world. We could do nothing but wait in `
`
aching inactivity during those two weary days. `
`
`
`
My mind was occupied by anxiety for my wife. I figured her at `
`
Leatherhead, terrified, in danger, mourning me already as a dead man. `
`
I paced the rooms and cried aloud when I thought of how I was cut off `
`
from her, of all that might happen to her in my absence. My cousin I `
`
knew was brave enough for any emergency, but he was not the sort of `
`
man to realise danger quickly, to rise promptly. What was needed now `
`
was not bravery, but circumspection. My only consolation was to `
`
believe that the Martians were moving London-ward and away from her. `
`
Such vague anxieties keep the mind sensitive and painful. I grew very `
`
weary and irritable with the curate's perpetual ejaculations; I tired `
`
of the sight of his selfish despair. After some ineffectual `
`
remonstrance I kept away from him, staying in a room--evidently a `
`
children's schoolroom--containing globes, forms, and copybooks. When `
`
he followed me thither, I went to a box room at the top of the house `
`
and, in order to be alone with my aching miseries, locked myself in. `
`
`
`
We were hopelessly hemmed in by the Black Smoke all that day and `
`
the morning of the next. There were signs of people in the next house `
`
on Sunday evening--a face at a window and moving lights, and later the `
`
slamming of a door. But I do not know who these people were, nor what `
`
became of them. We saw nothing of them next day. The Black Smoke `
`
drifted slowly riverward all through Monday morning, creeping nearer `
`
and nearer to us, driving at last along the roadway outside the house `
`
that hid us. `
`
`
`
A Martian came across the fields about midday, laying the stuff `
`
with a jet of superheated steam that hissed against the walls, smashed `
`
all the windows it touched, and scalded the curate's hand as he fled `
`
out of the front room. When at last we crept across the sodden rooms `
`
and looked out again, the country northward was as though a black `
`
snowstorm had passed over it. Looking towards the river, we were `
`
astonished to see an unaccountable redness mingling with the black of `
`
the scorched meadows. `
`
`
`
For a time we did not see how this change affected our position, `
`
save that we were relieved of our fear of the Black Smoke. But later `
`
I perceived that we were no longer hemmed in, that now we might get `
`
away. So soon as I realised that the way of escape was open, my dream `
`
of action returned. But the curate was lethargic, unreasonable. `
`
`
`
"We are safe here," he repeated; "safe here." `
`
`
`
I resolved to leave him--would that I had! Wiser now for the `
`
artilleryman's teaching, I sought out food and drink. I had found oil `
`
and rags for my burns, and I also took a hat and a flannel shirt that `
`
I found in one of the bedrooms. When it was clear to him that I meant `
`
to go alone--had reconciled myself to going alone--he suddenly roused `
`
himself to come. And all being quiet throughout the afternoon, we `
`
started about five o'clock, as I should judge, along the blackened `
`
road to Sunbury. `
`
`
`
In Sunbury, and at intervals along the road, were dead bodies lying `
`
in contorted attitudes, horses as well as men, overturned carts and `
`
luggage, all covered thickly with black dust. That pall of cindery `
`
powder made me think of what I had read of the destruction of Pompeii. `
`
We got to Hampton Court without misadventure, our minds full of `
`
strange and unfamiliar appearances, and at Hampton Court our eyes were `
`
relieved to find a patch of green that had escaped the suffocating `
`
drift. We went through Bushey Park, with its deer going to and fro `
`
under the chestnuts, and some men and women hurrying in the distance `
`
towards Hampton, and so we came to Twickenham. These were the first `
`
people we saw. `
`
`
`
Away across the road the woods beyond Ham and Petersham were still `
`
afire. Twickenham was uninjured by either Heat-Ray or Black Smoke, `
`
and there were more people about here, though none could give us news. `
`
For the most part they were like ourselves, taking advantage of a lull `
`
to shift their quarters. I have an impression that many of the houses `
`
here were still occupied by scared inhabitants, too frightened even `
`
for flight. Here too the evidence of a hasty rout was abundant along `
`
the road. I remember most vividly three smashed bicycles in a heap, `
`
pounded into the road by the wheels of subsequent carts. We crossed `
`
Richmond Bridge about half past eight. We hurried across the exposed `
`
bridge, of course, but I noticed floating down the stream a number `
`
of red masses, some many feet across. I did not know what these `
`
were--there was no time for scrutiny--and I put a more horrible `
`
interpretation on them than they deserved. Here again on the Surrey `
`
side were black dust that had once been smoke, and dead bodies--a heap `
`
near the approach to the station; but we had no glimpse of the `
`
Martians until we were some way towards Barnes. `
`
`
`
We saw in the blackened distance a group of three people running `
`
down a side street towards the river, but otherwise it seemed `
`
deserted. Up the hill Richmond town was burning briskly; outside the `
`
town of Richmond there was no trace of the Black Smoke. `
`
`
`
Then suddenly, as we approached Kew, came a number of people `
`
running, and the upperworks of a Martian fighting-machine loomed in `
`
sight over the housetops, not a hundred yards away from us. We stood `
`
aghast at our danger, and had the Martian looked down we must `
`
immediately have perished. We were so terrified that we dared not go `
`
on, but turned aside and hid in a shed in a garden. There the curate `
`
crouched, weeping silently, and refusing to stir again. `
`
`
`
But my fixed idea of reaching Leatherhead would not let me rest, `
`
and in the twilight I ventured out again. I went through a shrubbery, `
`
and along a passage beside a big house standing in its own grounds, `
`
and so emerged upon the road towards Kew. The curate I left in the `
`
shed, but he came hurrying after me. `
`
`
`
That second start was the most foolhardy thing I ever did. For it `
`
was manifest the Martians were about us. No sooner had the curate `
`
overtaken me than we saw either the fighting-machine we had seen `
`
before or another, far away across the meadows in the direction of Kew `
`
Lodge. Four or five little black figures hurried before it across the `
`
green-grey of the field, and in a moment it was evident this Martian `
`
pursued them. In three strides he was among them, and they ran `
`
radiating from his feet in all directions. He used no Heat-Ray to `
`
destroy them, but picked them up one by one. Apparently he tossed `
`
them into the great metallic carrier which projected behind him, much `
`
as a workman's basket hangs over his shoulder. `
`
`
`
It was the first time I realised that the Martians might have any `
`
other purpose than destruction with defeated humanity. We stood for a `
`
moment petrified, then turned and fled through a gate behind us into a `
`
walled garden, fell into, rather than found, a fortunate ditch, and `
`
lay there, scarce daring to whisper to each other until the stars were `
`
out. `
`
`
`
I suppose it was nearly eleven o'clock before we gathered courage `
`
to start again, no longer venturing into the road, but sneaking along `
`
hedgerows and through plantations, and watching keenly through the `
`
darkness, he on the right and I on the left, for the Martians, who `
`
seemed to be all about us. In one place we blundered upon a scorched `
`
and blackened area, now cooling and ashen, and a number of scattered `
`
dead bodies of men, burned horribly about the heads and trunks but `
`
with their legs and boots mostly intact; and of dead horses, fifty `
`
feet, perhaps, behind a line of four ripped guns and smashed gun `
`
carriages. `
`
`
`
Sheen, it seemed, had escaped destruction, but the place was silent `
`
and deserted. Here we happened on no dead, though the night was too `
`
dark for us to see into the side roads of the place. In Sheen my `
`
companion suddenly complained of faintness and thirst, and we decided `
`
to try one of the houses. `
`
`
`
The first house we entered, after a little difficulty with the `
`
window, was a small semi-detached villa, and I found nothing eatable `
`
left in the place but some mouldy cheese. There was, however, water `
`
to drink; and I took a hatchet, which promised to be useful in our `
`
next house-breaking. `
`
`
`
We then crossed to a place where the road turns towards Mortlake. `
`
Here there stood a white house within a walled garden, and in the `
`
pantry of this domicile we found a store of food--two loaves of bread `
`
in a pan, an uncooked steak, and the half of a ham. I give this `
`
catalogue so precisely because, as it happened, we were destined to `
`
subsist upon this store for the next fortnight. Bottled beer stood `
`
under a shelf, and there were two bags of haricot beans and some limp `
`
lettuces. This pantry opened into a kind of wash-up kitchen, and in `
`
this was firewood; there was also a cupboard, in which we found nearly `
`
a dozen of burgundy, tinned soups and salmon, and two tins of `
`
biscuits. `
`
`
`
We sat in the adjacent kitchen in the dark--for we dared not strike `
`
a light--and ate bread and ham, and drank beer out of the same bottle. `
`
The curate, who was still timorous and restless, was now, oddly `
`
enough, for pushing on, and I was urging him to keep up his strength `
`
by eating when the thing happened that was to imprison us. `
`
`
`
"It can't be midnight yet," I said, and then came a blinding glare `
`
of vivid green light. Everything in the kitchen leaped out, clearly `
`
visible in green and black, and vanished again. And then followed such `
`
a concussion as I have never heard before or since. So close on the `
`
heels of this as to seem instantaneous came a thud behind me, a clash `
`
of glass, a crash and rattle of falling masonry all about us, and the `
`
plaster of the ceiling came down upon us, smashing into a multitude of `
`
fragments upon our heads. I was knocked headlong across the floor `
`
against the oven handle and stunned. I was insensible for a long `
`
time, the curate told me, and when I came to we were in darkness `
`
again, and he, with a face wet, as I found afterwards, with blood from `
`
a cut forehead, was dabbing water over me. `
`
`
`
For some time I could not recollect what had happened. Then things `
`
came to me slowly. A bruise on my temple asserted itself. `
`
`
`
"Are you better?" asked the curate in a whisper. `
`
`
`
At last I answered him. I sat up. `
`
`
`
"Don't move," he said. "The floor is covered with smashed crockery `
`
|