The War of the Worlds

HEAT

he earth from their planet, a kind of fascination paralysed my actions. I remained standing knee-d

ntinually looking at the sand heaps that hid these new-comers to our earth. Once a leash of thin black whips, like the arms of an octopus, flashed across the sunset and was

direction of Chobham. Evidently they shared my mental conflict. There were few near me. One man I approached--he was, I perce

od God! What ugly brutes!" He re

de by side, deriving, I fancy, a certain comfort in one another's company. Then I shifted my position to a little knoll t

t, towards Woking, seemed to grow, and I heard now a faint murmur from it. The little knot o

ment 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,

ide of wheels. I saw a lad trundling off the barrow of apples. And then, within thirty yards of the pit, advancin

were evidently, in spite of their repulsive forms, intelligent creatures, it had been

ed that Ogilvy, Stent, and Henderson were with others in this attempt at communication. This little group had in its advance dragged inward, s

greenish smoke came out of the pit in three distinct puffs, wh

the hazy stretches of brown common towards Chertsey, set with black pine trees, seemed to darken abruptly as these

s upon the black ground. As the green smoke arose, their faces flashed out pallid green, and faded again as it vanished. Then slowly the hissing passed i

m the scattered group of men. It was as if some invisible jet impinged upon them and flas

ction, I saw them staggering and falli

ost noiseless and blinding flash of light, and a man fell headlong and lay still; and as the unseen shaft of heat passed over them, pine trees burst into fire, and every

he sand pits and the sudden squeal of a horse that was as suddenly stilled. Then 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 da

he flashes of light. Had that death swept through a full circle, it must inevitably have slain me i

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 tha

up of black specks with the flag of white had been swept out of existence, an

helpless, unprotected, and alone. Suddenly, like

and began a stumbling

he dusk and stillness all about me. Such an extraordinary effect in unmanning me it had tha

tly, when I was upon the very verge of safety, this mysterious death--as swift as the p