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valuables, such plate as we had, and so forth. The beech trees below the house were burning while I did this,
and the palings up the road glowed red. While I was occupied in this way, one of the dismounted hussars
came running up. He was going from house to house, warning people to leave. He was going on as I came out
of my front door, lugging my treasures, done up in a tablecloth. I shouted after him:
"What news?"
He turned, stared, bawled something about "crawling out in a thing like a dish cover," and ran on to the gate
of the house at the crest. A sudden whirl of black smoke driving across the road hid him for a moment. I ran to
my neighbour's door and rapped to satisfy myself of what I already knew, that his wife had gone to London
with him and had locked up their house. I went in again, according to my promise, to get my servant's box,
lugged it out, clapped it beside her on the tail of the dog cart, and then caught the reins and jumped up into the
driver's seat beside my wife. In another moment we were clear of the smoke and noise, and spanking down the
CHAPTER NINE 30
opposite slope of Maybury Hill towards Old Woking.
In front was a quiet sunny landscape, a wheat field ahead on either side of the road, and the Maybury Inn with
its swinging sign. I saw the doctor's cart ahead of me. At the bottom of the hill I turned my head to look at the
hillside I was leaving. Thick streamers of black smoke shot with threads of red fire were driving up into the
still air, and throwing dark shadows upon the green treetops eastward. The smoke already extended far away
to the east and west--to the Byfleet pine woods eastward, and to Woking on the west. The road was dotted
with people running towards us. And very faint now, but very distinct through the hot, quiet air, one heard the
whirr of a machine-gun that was presently stilled, and an intermittent cracking of rifles. Apparently the
Martians were setting fire to everything within range of their Heat-Ray.
I am not an expert driver, and I had immediately to turn my attention to the horse. When I looked back again
the second hill had hidden the black smoke. I slashed the horse with the whip, and gave him a loose rein until
Woking and Send lay between us and that quivering tumult. I overtook and passed the doctor between
Woking and Send.
CHAPTER TEN 31
CHAPTER TEN
IN THE STORM
Leatherhead is about twelve miles from Maybury Hill. The scent of hay was in the air through the lush
meadows beyond Pyrford, and the hedges on either side were sweet and gay with multitudes of dog-roses. The
heavy firing that had broken out while we were driving down Maybury Hill ceased as abruptly as it began,
leaving the evening very peaceful and still. We got to Leatherhead without misadventure about nine o'clock,
and the horse had an hour's rest while I took supper with my cousins and commended my wife to their care.
My wife was curiously silent throughout the drive, and seemed oppressed with forebodings of evil. I talked to
her reassuringly, pointing out that the Martians were tied to the Pit by sheer heaviness, and at the utmost could
but crawl a little out of it; but she answered only in monosyllables. Had it not been for my promise to the
innkeeper, she would, I think, have urged me to stay in Leatherhead that night. Would that I had! Her face, I
remember, was very white as we parted.
For my own part, I had been feverishly excited all day. Something very like the war fever that occasionally
runs through a civilised community had got into my blood, and in my heart I was not so very sorry that I had
to return to Maybury that night. I was even afraid that that last fusillade I had heard might mean the
extermination of our invaders from Mars. I can best express my state of mind by saying that I wanted to be in
at the death.
It was nearly eleven when I started to return. The night was unexpectedly dark; to me, walking out of the
lighted passage of my cousins' house, it seemed indeed black, and it was as hot and close as the day. Overhead [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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