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I turned and, running madly, made for the first group of trees, `
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perhaps a hundred yards away; but I ran slantingly and stumbling, for `
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I could not avert my face from these things. `
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There, among some young pine trees and furze bushes, I stopped, `
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panting, and waited further developments. The common round the sand `
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pits was dotted with people, standing like myself in a half-fascinated `
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terror, staring at these creatures, or rather at the heaped gravel at `
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the edge of the pit in which they lay. And then, with a renewed `
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horror, I saw a round, black object bobbing up and down on the edge of `
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the pit. It was the head of the shopman who had fallen in, but `
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showing as a little black object against the hot western sun. Now he `
`
got his shoulder and knee up, and again he seemed to slip back until `
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only his head was visible. Suddenly he vanished, and I could have `
`
fancied a faint shriek had reached me. I had a momentary impulse to `
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go back and help him that my fears overruled. `
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Everything was then quite invisible, hidden by the deep pit and the `
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heap of sand that the fall of the cylinder had made. Anyone coming `
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along the road from Chobham or Woking would have been amazed at the `
`
sight--a dwindling multitude of perhaps a hundred people or more `
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standing in a great irregular circle, in ditches, behind bushes, `
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behind gates and hedges, saying little to one another and that in `
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short, excited shouts, and staring, staring hard at a few heaps of `
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sand. The barrow of ginger beer stood, a queer derelict, black `
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against the burning sky, and in the sand pits was a row of deserted `
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vehicles with their horses feeding out of nosebags or pawing the `
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ground. `
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CHAPTER FIVE `
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`
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THE HEAT-RAY `
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After the glimpse I had had of the Martians emerging from the `
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cylinder in which they had come to the earth from their planet, a kind `
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of fascination paralysed my actions. I remained standing knee-deep in `
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the heather, staring at the mound that hid them. I was a battleground `
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of fear and curiosity. `
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`
`
I did not dare to go back towards the pit, but I felt a passionate `
`
longing to peer into it. I began walking, therefore, in a big curve, `
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seeking some point of vantage and continually looking at the sand `
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heaps that hid these new-comers to our earth. Once a leash of thin `
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black whips, like the arms of an octopus, flashed across the sunset `
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and was immediately withdrawn, and afterwards a thin rod rose up, `
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joint by joint, bearing at its apex a circular disk that spun with a `
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wobbling motion. What could be going on there? `
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`
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Most of the spectators had gathered in one or two groups--one a `
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little crowd towards Woking, the other a knot of people in the `
`
direction of Chobham. Evidently they shared my mental conflict. `
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There were few near me. One man I approached--he was, I perceived, `
`
a neighbour of mine, though I did not know his name--and accosted. `
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But it was scarcely a time for articulate conversation. `
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`
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"What ugly _brutes_!" he said. "Good God! What ugly brutes!" He `
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repeated this over and over again. `
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`
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"Did you see a man in the pit?" I said; but he made no answer to `
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that. We became silent, and stood watching for a time side by side, `
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deriving, I fancy, a certain comfort in one another's company. Then I `
`
shifted my position to a little knoll that gave me the advantage of a `
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yard or more of elevation and when I looked for him presently he was `
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walking towards Woking. `
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The sunset faded to twilight before anything further happened. The `
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crowd far away on the left, towards Woking, seemed to grow, and I `
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heard now a faint murmur from it. The little knot of people towards `
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Chobham dispersed. There was scarcely an intimation of movement from `
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the pit. `
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It was this, as much as anything, that gave people courage, and I `
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suppose the new arrivals from Woking also helped to restore `
`
confidence. At any rate, as the dusk came on a slow, intermittent `
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movement upon the sand pits began, a movement that seemed to gather `
`
force as the stillness of the evening about the cylinder remained `
`
unbroken. Vertical black figures in twos and threes would advance, `
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stop, watch, and advance again, spreading out as they did so in a thin `
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irregular crescent that promised to enclose the pit in its attenuated `
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horns. I, too, on my side began to move towards the pit. `
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Then I saw some cabmen and others had walked boldly into the sand `
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pits, and heard the clatter of hoofs and the gride of wheels. I saw a `
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lad trundling off the barrow of apples. And then, within thirty yards `
`
of the pit, advancing from the direction of Horsell, I noted a little `
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black knot of men, the foremost of whom was waving a white flag. `
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This was the Deputation. There had been a hasty consultation, and `
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since the Martians were evidently, in spite of their repulsive forms, `
`
intelligent creatures, it had been resolved to show them, by `
`
approaching them with signals, that we too were intelligent. `
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`
`
Flutter, flutter, went the flag, first to the right, then to the `
`
left. It was too far for me to recognise anyone there, but afterwards `
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I learned that Ogilvy, Stent, and Henderson were with others in this `
`
attempt at communication. This little group had in its advance `
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dragged inward, so to speak, the circumference of the now almost `
`
complete circle of people, and a number of dim black figures followed `
`
it at discreet distances. `
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`
`
Suddenly there was a flash of light, and a quantity of luminous `
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greenish smoke came out of the pit in three distinct puffs, which `
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drove up, one after the other, straight into the still air. `
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This smoke (or flame, perhaps, would be the better word for it) was `
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so bright that the deep blue sky overhead and the hazy stretches of `
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brown common towards Chertsey, set with black pine trees, seemed to `
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darken abruptly as these puffs arose, and to remain the darker after `
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their dispersal. At the same time a faint hissing sound became `
`
audible. `
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Beyond the pit stood the little wedge of people with the white flag `
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at its apex, arrested by these phenomena, a little knot of small `
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vertical black shapes upon the black ground. As the green smoke arose, `
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their faces flashed out pallid green, and faded again as it vanished. `
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Then slowly the hissing passed into a humming, into a long, loud, `
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droning noise. Slowly a humped shape rose out of the pit, and the `
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ghost of a beam of light seemed to flicker out from it. `
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`
`
Forthwith flashes of actual flame, a bright glare leaping from one `
`
to another, sprang from the scattered group of men. It was as if some `
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invisible jet impinged upon them and flashed into white flame. It was `
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as if each man were suddenly and momentarily turned to fire. `
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`
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Then, by the light of their own destruction, I saw them staggering `
`
and falling, and their supporters turning to run. `
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`
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I stood staring, not as yet realising that this was death leaping `
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from man to man in that little distant crowd. All I felt was that it `
`
was something very strange. An almost noiseless and blinding flash of `
`
light, and a man fell headlong and lay still; and as the unseen shaft `
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of heat passed over them, pine trees burst into fire, and every dry `
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furze bush became with one dull thud a mass of flames. And far away `
`
towards Knaphill I saw the flashes of trees and hedges and wooden `
`
buildings suddenly set alight. `
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`
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It was sweeping round swiftly and steadily, this flaming death, `
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this invisible, inevitable sword of heat. I perceived it coming `
`
towards me by the flashing bushes it touched, and was too astounded `
`
and stupefied to stir. I heard the crackle of fire in the sand pits `
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and the sudden squeal of a horse that was as suddenly stilled. Then `
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it was as if an invisible yet intensely heated finger were drawn `
`
through the heather between me and the Martians, and all along a `
`
curving line beyond the sand pits the dark ground smoked and crackled. `
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Something fell with a crash far away to the left where the road from `
`
Woking station opens out on the common. Forth-with the hissing and `
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humming ceased, and the black, dome-like object sank slowly out of `
`
sight into the pit. `
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`
`
All this had happened with such swiftness that I had stood `
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motionless, dumbfounded and dazzled by the flashes of light. Had that `
`
death swept through a full circle, it must inevitably have slain me in `
`
my surprise. But it passed and spared me, and left the night about me `
`
suddenly dark and unfamiliar. `
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`
`
The undulating common seemed now dark almost to blackness, except `
`
where its roadways lay grey and pale under the deep blue sky of the `
`
early night. It was dark, and suddenly void of men. Overhead the `
`
stars were mustering, and in the west the sky was still a pale, `
`
bright, almost greenish blue. The tops of the pine trees and the `
`
roofs of Horsell came out sharp and black against the western `
`
afterglow. The Martians and their appliances were altogether `
`
invisible, save for that thin mast upon which their restless mirror `
`
wobbled. Patches of bush and isolated trees here and there smoked and `
`
glowed still, and the houses towards Woking station were sending up `
`
spires of flame into the stillness of the evening air. `
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`
`
Nothing was changed save for that and a terrible astonishment. The `
`
little group of black specks with the flag of white had been swept out `
`
of existence, and the stillness of the evening, so it seemed to me, `
`
had scarcely been broken. `
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`
`
It came to me that I was upon this dark common, helpless, `
`
unprotected, and alone. Suddenly, like a thing falling upon me from `
`
without, came--fear. `
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`
`
With an effort I turned and began a stumbling run through the `
`
heather. `
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`
`
The fear I felt was no rational fear, but a panic terror not only `
`
of the Martians, but of the dusk and stillness all about me. Such an `
`
extraordinary effect in unmanning me it had that I ran weeping `
`
silently as a child might do. Once I had turned, I did not dare to `
`
look back. `
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`
`
I remember I felt an extraordinary persuasion that I was being `
`
played with, that presently, when I was upon the very verge of safety, `
`
this mysterious death--as swift as the passage of light--would leap `
`
after me from the pit about the cylinder and strike me down. `
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CHAPTER SIX `
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THE HEAT-RAY IN THE CHOBHAM ROAD `
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It is still a matter of wonder how the Martians are able to slay `
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