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about midnight, and again the night after; and so for ten nights, a `
`
flame each night. Why the shots ceased after the tenth no one on `
`
earth has attempted to explain. It may be the gases of the firing `
`
caused the Martians inconvenience. Dense clouds of smoke or dust, `
`
visible through a powerful telescope on earth as little grey, `
`
fluctuating patches, spread through the clearness of the planet's `
`
atmosphere and obscured its more familiar features. `
`
`
`
Even the daily papers woke up to the disturbances at last, and `
`
popular notes appeared here, there, and everywhere concerning the `
`
volcanoes upon Mars. The seriocomic periodical _Punch_, I remember, `
`
made a happy use of it in the political cartoon. And, all `
`
unsuspected, those missiles the Martians had fired at us drew `
`
earthward, rushing now at a pace of many miles a second through the `
`
empty gulf of space, hour by hour and day by day, nearer and nearer. `
`
It seems to me now almost incredibly wonderful that, with that swift `
`
fate hanging over us, men could go about their petty concerns as they `
`
did. I remember how jubilant Markham was at securing a new photograph `
`
of the planet for the illustrated paper he edited in those days. `
`
People in these latter times scarcely realise the abundance and `
`
enterprise of our nineteenth-century papers. For my own part, I was `
`
much occupied in learning to ride the bicycle, and busy upon a series `
`
of papers discussing the probable developments of moral ideas as `
`
civilisation progressed. `
`
`
`
One night (the first missile then could scarcely have been `
`
10,000,000 miles away) I went for a walk with my wife. It was `
`
starlight and I explained the Signs of the Zodiac to her, and pointed `
`
out Mars, a bright dot of light creeping zenithward, towards which so `
`
many telescopes were pointed. It was a warm night. Coming home, a `
`
party of excursionists from Chertsey or Isleworth passed us singing `
`
and playing music. There were lights in the upper windows of the `
`
houses as the people went to bed. From the railway station in the `
`
distance came the sound of shunting trains, ringing and rumbling, `
`
softened almost into melody by the distance. My wife pointed out to `
`
me the brightness of the red, green, and yellow signal lights hanging `
`
in a framework against the sky. It seemed so safe and tranquil. `
`
`
`
`
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`
`
CHAPTER TWO `
`
`
`
THE FALLING STAR `
`
`
`
`
`
Then came the night of the first falling star. It was seen early `
`
in the morning, rushing over Winchester eastward, a line of flame high `
`
in the atmosphere. Hundreds must have seen it, and taken it for an `
`
ordinary falling star. Albin described it as leaving a greenish `
`
streak behind it that glowed for some seconds. Denning, our greatest `
`
authority on meteorites, stated that the height of its first `
`
appearance was about ninety or one hundred miles. It seemed to him `
`
that it fell to earth about one hundred miles east of him. `
`
`
`
I was at home at that hour and writing in my study; and although my `
`
French windows face towards Ottershaw and the blind was up (for I `
`
loved in those days to look up at the night sky), I saw nothing of it. `
`
Yet this strangest of all things that ever came to earth from outer `
`
space must have fallen while I was sitting there, visible to me had I `
`
only looked up as it passed. Some of those who saw its flight say it `
`
travelled with a hissing sound. I myself heard nothing of that. Many `
`
people in Berkshire, Surrey, and Middlesex must have seen the fall of `
`
it, and, at most, have thought that another meteorite had descended. `
`
No one seems to have troubled to look for the fallen mass that night. `
`
`
`
But very early in the morning poor Ogilvy, who had seen the `
`
shooting star and who was persuaded that a meteorite lay somewhere on `
`
the common between Horsell, Ottershaw, and Woking, rose early with the `
`
idea of finding it. Find it he did, soon after dawn, and not far from `
`
the sand pits. An enormous hole had been made by the impact of the `
`
projectile, and the sand and gravel had been flung violently in every `
`
direction over the heath, forming heaps visible a mile and a half `
`
`
`
away. The heather was on fire eastward, and a thin blue smoke rose `
`
against the dawn. `
`
`
`
The Thing itself lay almost entirely buried in sand, amidst the `
`
scattered splinters of a fir tree it had shivered to fragments in its `
`
descent. The uncovered part had the appearance of a huge cylinder, `
`
caked over and its outline softened by a thick scaly dun-coloured `
`
incrustation. It had a diameter of about thirty yards. He approached `
`
the mass, surprised at the size and more so at the shape, since most `
`
meteorites are rounded more or less completely. It was, however, `
`
still so hot from its flight through the air as to forbid his near `
`
approach. A stirring noise within its cylinder he ascribed to the `
`
unequal cooling of its surface; for at that time it had not occurred `
`
to him that it might be hollow. `
`
`
`
He remained standing at the edge of the pit that the Thing had made `
`
for itself, staring at its strange appearance, astonished chiefly at `
`
its unusual shape and colour, and dimly perceiving even then some `
`
evidence of design in its arrival. The early morning was wonderfully `
`
still, and the sun, just clearing the pine trees towards Weybridge, `
`
was already warm. He did not remember hearing any birds that morning, `
`
there was certainly no breeze stirring, and the only sounds were the `
`
faint movements from within the cindery cylinder. He was all alone on `
`
the common. `
`
`
`
Then suddenly he noticed with a start that some of the grey `
`
clinker, the ashy incrustation that covered the meteorite, was falling `
`
off the circular edge of the end. It was dropping off in flakes and `
`
raining down upon the sand. A large piece suddenly came off and fell `
`
with a sharp noise that brought his heart into his mouth. `
`
`
`
For a minute he scarcely realised what this meant, and, although `
`
the heat was excessive, he clambered down into the pit close to the `
`
bulk to see the Thing more clearly. He fancied even then that the `
`
cooling of the body might account for this, but what disturbed that `
`
idea was the fact that the ash was falling only from the end of the `
`
cylinder. `
`
`
`
And then he perceived that, very slowly, the circular top of the `
`
cylinder was rotating on its body. It was such a gradual movement `
`
that he discovered it only through noticing that a black mark that had `
`
been near him five minutes ago was now at the other side of the `
`
circumference. Even then he scarcely understood what this indicated, `
`
until he heard a muffled grating sound and saw the black mark jerk `
`
forward an inch or so. Then the thing came upon him in a flash. The `
`
cylinder was artificial--hollow--with an end that screwed out! `
`
Something within the cylinder was unscrewing the top! `
`
`
`
"Good heavens!" said Ogilvy. "There's a man in it--men in it! Half `
`
roasted to death! Trying to escape!" `
`
`
`
At once, with a quick mental leap, he linked the Thing with the `
`
flash upon Mars. `
`
`
`
The thought of the confined creature was so dreadful to him that he `
`
forgot the heat and went forward to the cylinder to help turn. But `
`
luckily the dull radiation arrested him before he could burn his hands `
`
on the still-glowing metal. At that he stood irresolute for a moment, `
`
then turned, scrambled out of the pit, and set off running wildly into `
`
Woking. The time then must have been somewhere about six o'clock. `
`
He met a waggoner and tried to make him understand, but the tale he `
`
told and his appearance were so wild--his hat had fallen off in the `
`
pit--that the man simply drove on. He was equally unsuccessful with the `
`
potman who was just unlocking the doors of the public-house by Horsell `
`
Bridge. The fellow thought he was a lunatic at large and made an `
`
unsuccessful attempt to shut him into the taproom. That sobered him a `
`
little; and when he saw Henderson, the London journalist, in his `
`
garden, he called over the palings and made himself understood. `
`
`
`
"Henderson," he called, "you saw that shooting star last night?" `
`
`
`
"Well?" said Henderson. `
`
`
`
"It's out on Horsell Common now." `
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`
`
"Good Lord!" said Henderson. "Fallen meteorite! That's good." `
`
`
`
"But it's something more than a meteorite. It's a cylinder--an `
`
artificial cylinder, man! And there's something inside." `
`
`
`
Henderson stood up with his spade in his hand. `
`
`
`
"What's that?" he said. He was deaf in one ear. `
`
`
`
Ogilvy told him all that he had seen. Henderson was a minute or so `
`
taking it in. Then he dropped his spade, snatched up his jacket, and `
`
came out into the road. The two men hurried back at once to the `
`
common, and found the cylinder still lying in the same position. But `
`
now the sounds inside had ceased, and a thin circle of bright metal `
`
showed between the top and the body of the cylinder. Air was either `
`
entering or escaping at the rim with a thin, sizzling sound. `
`
`
`
They listened, rapped on the scaly burnt metal with a stick, and, `
`
meeting with no response, they both concluded the man or men inside `
`
must be insensible or dead. `
`
`
`
Of course the two were quite unable to do anything. They shouted `
`
consolation and promises, and went off back to the town again to get `
`
help. One can imagine them, covered with sand, excited and `
`
disordered, running up the little street in the bright sunlight just `
`
as the shop folks were taking down their shutters and people were `
`
opening their bedroom windows. Henderson went into the railway `
`
station at once, in order to telegraph the news to London. The `
`
newspaper articles had prepared men's minds for the reception of the `
`
idea. `
`
`
`
By eight o'clock a number of boys and unemployed men had already `
`
started for the common to see the "dead men from Mars." That was the `
`
form the story took. I heard of it first from my newspaper boy about `
`
a quarter to nine when I went out to get my _Daily Chronicle_. I was `
`
naturally startled, and lost no time in going out and across the `
`
Ottershaw bridge to the sand pits. `
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
CHAPTER THREE `
`
`
`
ON HORSELL COMMON `
`
`
`
`
`
I found a little crowd of perhaps twenty people surrounding the `
`
huge hole in which the cylinder lay. I have already described the `
`
appearance of that colossal bulk, embedded in the ground. The turf `
`
and gravel about it seemed charred as if by a sudden explosion. No `
`
doubt its impact had caused a flash of fire. Henderson and Ogilvy `
`
were not there. I think they perceived that nothing was to be done `
`
for the present, and had gone away to breakfast at Henderson's house. `
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