Reading Help War of the worlds by H. G. Wells. Book 1

`
` Byfleet was in a tumult; people packing, and a score of hussars, `
` some of them dismounted, some on horseback, were hunting them about. `
` Three or four black government waggons, with crosses in white circles, `
` and an old omnibus, among other vehicles, were being loaded in the `
` village street. There were scores of people, most of them `
` sufficiently sabbatical to have assumed their best clothes. The `
` soldiers were having the greatest difficulty in making them realise `
` the gravity of their position. We saw one shrivelled old fellow with `
` a huge box and a score or more of flower pots containing orchids, `
` angrily expostulating with the corporal who would leave them behind. `
` I stopped and gripped his arm. `
` `
` "Do you know what's over there?" I said, pointing at the pine tops `
` that hid the Martians. `
` `
` "Eh?" said he, turning. "I was explainin' these is vallyble." `
` `
` "Death!" I shouted. "Death is coming! Death!" and leaving him to `
` digest that if he could, I hurried on after the artillery-man. At the `
` corner I looked back. The soldier had left him, and he was still `
` standing by his box, with the pots of orchids on the lid of it, and `
` staring vaguely over the trees. `
` `
` No one in Weybridge could tell us where the headquarters were `
` established; the whole place was in such confusion as I had never seen `
` in any town before. Carts, carriages everywhere, the most astonishing `
` miscellany of conveyances and horseflesh. The respectable inhabitants `
` of the place, men in golf and boating costumes, wives prettily `
` dressed, were packing, river-side loafers energetically helping, `
` children excited, and, for the most part, highly delighted at this `
` astonishing variation of their Sunday experiences. In the midst of it `
` all the worthy vicar was very pluckily holding an early celebration, `
` and his bell was jangling out above the excitement. `
` `
` I and the artilleryman, seated on the step of the drinking `
` fountain, made a very passable meal upon what we had brought with `
` us. Patrols of soldiers--here no longer hussars, but grenadiers in `
` white--were warning people to move now or to take refuge in their `
` cellars as soon as the firing began. We saw as we crossed the `
` railway bridge that a growing crowd of people had assembled in and `
` about the railway station, and the swarming platform was piled with `
` boxes and packages. The ordinary traffic had been stopped, I believe, `
` in order to allow of the passage of troops and guns to Chertsey, and `
` I have heard since that a savage struggle occurred for places in the `
` special trains that were put on at a later hour. `
` `
` We remained at Weybridge until midday, and at that hour we found `
` ourselves at the place near Shepperton Lock where the Wey and Thames `
` join. Part of the time we spent helping two old women to pack a `
` little cart. The Wey has a treble mouth, and at this point boats are `
` to be hired, and there was a ferry across the river. On the `
` Shepperton side was an inn with a lawn, and beyond that the tower of `
` Shepperton Church--it has been replaced by a spire--rose above the `
` trees. `
` `
` Here we found an excited and noisy crowd of fugitives. As yet the `
` flight had not grown to a panic, but there were already far more `
` people than all the boats going to and fro could enable to cross. `
` People came panting along under heavy burdens; one husband and wife `
` were even carrying a small outhouse door between them, with some of `
` their household goods piled thereon. One man told us he meant to try `
` to get away from Shepperton station. `
` `
` There was a lot of shouting, and one man was even jesting. The idea `
` people seemed to have here was that the Martians were simply `
` formidable human beings, who might attack and sack the town, to be `
` certainly destroyed in the end. Every now and then people would `
` glance nervously across the Wey, at the meadows towards Chertsey, but `
` everything over there was still. `
` `
` Across the Thames, except just where the boats landed, everything `
` was quiet, in vivid contrast with the Surrey side. The people who `
` landed there from the boats went tramping off down the lane. The big `
` ferryboat had just made a journey. Three or four soldiers stood on `
` the lawn of the inn, staring and jesting at the fugitives, without `
` offering to help. The inn was closed, as it was now within prohibited `
` hours. `
` `
` "What's that?" cried a boatman, and "Shut up, you fool!" said a man `
` near me to a yelping dog. Then the sound came again, this time from `
` the direction of Chertsey, a muffled thud--the sound of a gun. `
` `
` The fighting was beginning. Almost immediately unseen batteries `
` across the river to our right, unseen because of the trees, took up `
` the chorus, firing heavily one after the other. A woman screamed. `
` Everyone stood arrested by the sudden stir of battle, near us and yet `
` invisible to us. Nothing was to be seen save flat meadows, cows `
` feeding unconcernedly for the most part, and silvery pollard willows `
` motionless in the warm sunlight. `
` `
` "The sojers'll stop 'em," said a woman beside me, doubtfully. A `
` haziness rose over the treetops. `
` `
` Then suddenly we saw a rush of smoke far away up the river, a puff `
` of smoke that jerked up into the air and hung; and forthwith the `
` ground heaved under foot and a heavy explosion shook the air, smashing `
` two or three windows in the houses near, and leaving us astonished. `
` `
` "Here they are!" shouted a man in a blue jersey. "Yonder! D'yer `
` see them? Yonder!" `
` `
` Quickly, one after the other, one, two, three, four of the armoured `
` Martians appeared, far away over the little trees, across the flat `
` meadows that stretched towards Chertsey, and striding hurriedly `
` towards the river. Little cowled figures they seemed at first, going `
` with a rolling motion and as fast as flying birds. `
` `
` Then, advancing obliquely towards us, came a fifth. Their armoured `
` bodies glittered in the sun as they swept swiftly forward upon the `
` guns, growing rapidly larger as they drew nearer. One on the extreme `
` left, the remotest that is, flourished a huge case high in the air, `
` and the ghostly, terrible Heat-Ray I had already seen on Friday night `
` smote towards Chertsey, and struck the town. `
` `
` At sight of these strange, swift, and terrible creatures the crowd `
` near the water's edge seemed to me to be for a moment horror-struck. `
` There was no screaming or shouting, but a silence. Then a hoarse `
` murmur and a movement of feet--a splashing from the water. A man, too `
` frightened to drop the portmanteau he carried on his shoulder, swung `
` round and sent me staggering with a blow from the corner of his `
` burden. A woman thrust at me with her hand and rushed past me. I `
` turned with the rush of the people, but I was not too terrified for `
` thought. The terrible Heat-Ray was in my mind. To get under water! `
` That was it! `
` `
` "Get under water!" I shouted, unheeded. `
` `
` I faced about again, and rushed towards the approaching Martian, `
` rushed right down the gravelly beach and headlong into the water. `
` Others did the same. A boatload of people putting back came leaping `
` out as I rushed past. The stones under my feet were muddy and `
` slippery, and the river was so low that I ran perhaps twenty feet `
` scarcely waist-deep. Then, as the Martian towered overhead scarcely `
` a couple of hundred yards away, I flung myself forward under the `
` surface. The splashes of the people in the boats leaping into the `
` river sounded like thunderclaps in my ears. People were landing `
` hastily on both sides of the river. But the Martian machine took no `
` more notice for the moment of the people running this way and that `
` than a man would of the confusion of ants in a nest against which his `
` foot has kicked. When, half suffocated, I raised my head above water, `
` the Martian's hood pointed at the batteries that were still firing `
` across the river, and as it advanced it swung loose what must have `
` been the generator of the Heat-Ray. `
` `
` In another moment it was on the bank, and in a stride wading `
` halfway across. The knees of its foremost legs bent at the farther `
` bank, and in another moment it had raised itself to its full height `
` again, close to the village of Shepperton. Forthwith the six guns `
` which, unknown to anyone on the right bank, had been hidden behind the `
` outskirts of that village, fired simultaneously. The sudden near `
` concussion, the last close upon the first, made my heart jump. The `
` monster was already raising the case generating the Heat-Ray as the `
` first shell burst six yards above the hood. `
` `
` I gave a cry of astonishment. I saw and thought nothing of the `
` other four Martian monsters; my attention was riveted upon the nearer `
` incident. Simultaneously two other shells burst in the air near the `
` body as the hood twisted round in time to receive, but not in time to `
` dodge, the fourth shell. `
` `
` `
` The shell burst clean in the face of the Thing. The hood bulged, `
` flashed, was whirled off in a dozen tattered fragments of red flesh `
` and glittering metal. `
` `
` "Hit!" shouted I, with something between a scream and a cheer. `
` `
` I heard answering shouts from the people in the water about me. I `
` could have leaped out of the water with that momentary exultation. `
` `
` The decapitated colossus reeled like a drunken giant; but it did `
` not fall over. It recovered its balance by a miracle, and, no longer `
` heeding its steps and with the camera that fired the Heat-Ray now `
` rigidly upheld, it reeled swiftly upon Shepperton. The living `
` intelligence, the Martian within the hood, was slain and splashed to `
` the four winds of heaven, and the Thing was now but a mere intricate `
` device of metal whirling to destruction. It drove along in a straight `
` line, incapable of guidance. It struck the tower of Shepperton `
` Church, smashing it down as the impact of a battering ram might have `
` done, swerved aside, blundered on and collapsed with tremendous force `
` into the river out of my sight. `
` `
` A violent explosion shook the air, and a spout of water, steam, `
` mud, and shattered metal shot far up into the sky. As the camera of `
` the Heat-Ray hit the water, the latter had immediately flashed into `
` steam. In another moment a huge wave, like a muddy tidal bore but `
` almost scaldingly hot, came sweeping round the bend upstream. I saw `
` people struggling shorewards, and heard their screaming and shouting `
` faintly above the seething and roar of the Martian's collapse. `
` `
` For a moment I heeded nothing of the heat, forgot the patent need `
` of self-preservation. I splashed through the tumultuous water, `
` pushing aside a man in black to do so, until I could see round the `
` bend. Half a dozen deserted boats pitched aimlessly upon the `
` confusion of the waves. The fallen Martian came into sight `
` downstream, lying across the river, and for the most part submerged. `
` `
` Thick clouds of steam were pouring off the wreckage, and through `
` the tumultuously whirling wisps I could see, intermittently and `
` vaguely, the gigantic limbs churning the water and flinging a splash `
`