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1The sun sank into grey clouds, the sky flushed and darkened, the evening star trembled into sight. It was deep twilight
2when the captain cried out and pointed. My brother strained his eyes. Something rushed up into the sky out of the
3greyness--rushed slantingly upward and very swiftly into the luminous clearness above the clouds in the western sky;
4something flat and broad, and very large, that swept round in a vast curve, grew smaller, sank slowly, and vanished
5again into the grey mystery of the night. And as it flew it rained down darkness upon the land. BOOK TWO THE EARTH UNDER
6THE MARTIANS. I. UNDER FOOT. In the first book I have wandered so much from my own adventures to tell of the experiences
7of my brother that all through the last two chapters I and the curate have been lurking in the empty house at Halliford
8whither we fled to escape the Black Smoke. There I will resume. We stopped there all Sunday night and all the next
9day--the day of the panic--in a little island of daylight, cut off by the Black Smoke from the rest of the world. We
10could do nothing but wait in aching inactivity during those two weary days. My mind was occupied by anxiety for my wife.
11I figured her at Leatherhead, terrified, in danger, mourning me already as a dead man. I paced the rooms and cried aloud
12when I thought of how I was cut off from her, of all that might happen to her in my absence. My cousin I knew was brave
13enough for any emergency, but he was not the sort of man to realise danger quickly, to rise promptly. What was needed
14now was not bravery, but circumspection. My only consolation was to believe that the Martians were moving Londonward and
15away from her. Such vague anxieties keep the mind sensitive and painful. I grew very weary and irritable with the
16curate's perpetual ejaculations; I tired of the sight of his selfish despair. After some ineffectual remonstrance I kept
17away from him, staying in a room--evidently a children's schoolroom--containing globes, forms, and copybooks. When he
18followed me thither, I went to a box room at the top of the house and, in order to be alone with my aching miseries,
19locked myself in. We were hopelessly hemmed in by the Black Smoke all that day and the morning of the next. There were
20signs of people in the next house on Sunday evening--a face at a window and moving lights, and later the slamming of a
21door. But I do not know who these people were, nor what became of them. We saw nothing of them next day. The Black Smoke
22drifted slowly riverward all through Monday morning, creeping nearer and nearer to us, driving at last along the roadway
23outside the house that hid us. A Martian came across the fields about midday, laying the stuff with a jet of superheated
24steam that hissed against the walls, smashed all the windows it touched, and scalded the curate's hand as he fled out of
25the front room. When at last we crept across the sodden rooms and looked out again, the country northward was as though
26a black snowstorm had passed over it. Looking towards the river, we were astonished to see an unaccountable redness
27mingling with the black of the scorched meadows. For a time we did not see how this change affected our position, save
28that we were relieved of our fear of the Black Smoke. But later I perceived that we were no longer hemmed in, that now
29we might get away. So soon as I realised that the way of escape was open, my dream of action returned. But the curate
30was lethargic, unreasonable. "We are safe here," he repeated; "safe here." I resolved to leave him--would that I had!
31Wiser now for the artilleryman's teaching, I sought out food and drink. I had found oil and rags for my burns, and I
32also took a hat and a flannel shirt that I found in one of the bedrooms. When it was clear to him that I meant to go
33alone--had reconciled myself to going alone--he suddenly roused himself to come. And all being quiet throughout the
34afternoon, we started about five o'clock, as I should judge, along the blackened road to Sunbury. In Sunbury, and at
35intervals along the road, were dead bodies lying in contorted attitudes, horses as well as men, overturned carts and
36luggage, all covered thickly with black dust. That pall of cindery powder made me think of what I had read of the
37destruction of Pompeii. We got to Hampton Court without misadventure, our minds full of strange and unfamiliar
38appearances, and at Hampton Court our eyes were relieved to find a patch of green that had escaped the suffocating
39drift. We went through Bushey Park, with its deer going to and fro under the chestnuts, and some men and women hurrying
40in the distance towards Hampton, and so we came to Twickenham. These were the first people we saw. Away across the road
41the woods beyond Ham and Petersham were still afire. Twickenham was uninjured by either Heat-Ray or Black Smoke, and
42there were more people about here, though none could give us news. For the most part they were like ourselves, taking
43advantage of a lull to shift their quarters. I have an impression that many of the houses here were still occupied by
44scared inhabitants, too frightened even for flight. Here too the evidence of a hasty rout was abundant along the road. I
45remember most vividly three smashed bicycles in a heap, pounded into the road by the wheels of subsequent carts. We
46crossed Richmond Bridge about half past eight. We hurried across the exposed bridge, of course, but I noticed floating
47down the stream a number of red masses, some many feet across. I did not know what these were--there was no time for
48scrutiny--and I put a more horrible interpretation on them than they deserved. Here again on the Surrey side were black
49dust that had once been smoke, and dead bodies--a heap near the approach to the station; but we had no glimpse of the
50Martians until we were some way towards Barnes. We saw in the blackened distance a group of three people running down a
51side street towards the river, but otherwise it seemed deserted. Up the hill Richmond town was burning briskly; outside
52the town of Richmond there was no trace of the Black Smoke. Then suddenly, as we approached Kew, came a number of people
53running, and the upperworks of a Martian fighting-machine loomed in sight over the housetops, not a hundred yards away
54from us. We stood aghast at our danger, and had the Martian looked down we must immediately have perished. We were so
55terrified that we dared not go on, but turned aside and hid in a shed in a garden. There the curate crouched, weeping
56silently, and refusing to stir again. But my fixed idea of reaching Leatherhead would not let me rest, and in the
57twilight I ventured out again. I went through a shrubbery, and along a passage beside a big house standing in its own
58grounds, and so emerged upon the road towards Kew. The curate I left in the shed, but he came hurrying after me. That
59second start was the most foolhardy thing I ever did. For it was manifest the Martians were about us. No sooner had the
60curate overtaken me than we saw either the fighting-machine we had seen before or another, far away across the meadows
61in the direction of Kew Lodge. Four or five little black figures hurried before it across the green-grey of the field,
62and in a moment it was evident this Martian pursued them. In three strides he was among them, and they ran radiating
63from his feet in all directions. He used no Heat-Ray to destroy them, but picked them up one by one. Apparently he
64tossed them into the great metallic carrier which projected behind him, much as a workman's basket hangs over his
65shoulder. It was the first time I realised that the Martians might have any other purpose than destruction with defeated
66humanity. We stood for a moment petrified, then turned and fled through a gate behind us into a walled garden, fell
67into, rather than found, a fortunate ditch, and lay there, scarce daring to whisper to each other until the stars were
68out.
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