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1"Well, those who mean to escape their catching must get ready. I'm getting ready. Mind you, it isn't all of us that are
2made for wild beasts; and that's what it's got to be. That's why I watched you. I had my doubts. You're slender. I
3didn't know that it was you, you see, or just how you'd been buried. All these--the sort of people that lived in these
4houses, and all those damn little clerks that used to live down that way--they'd be no good. They haven't any spirit in
5them--no proud dreams and no proud lusts; and a man who hasn't one or the other--Lord! What is he but funk and
6precautions? They just used to skedaddle off to work--I've seen hundreds of 'em, bit of breakfast in hand, running wild
7and shining to catch their little season-ticket train, for fear they'd get dismissed if they didn't; working at
8businesses they were afraid to take the trouble to understand; skedaddling back for fear they wouldn't be in time for
9dinner; keeping indoors after dinner for fear of the back streets, and sleeping with the wives they married, not because
10they wanted them, but because they had a bit of money that would make for safety in their one little miserable skedaddle
11through the world. Lives insured and a bit invested for fear of accidents. And on Sundays--fear of the hereafter. As if
12hell was built for rabbits! Well, the Martians will just be a godsend to these. Nice roomy cages, fattening food,
13careful breeding, no worry. After a week or so chasing about the fields and lands on empty stomachs, they'll come and be
14caught cheerful. They'll be quite glad after a bit. They'll wonder what people did before there were Martians to take
15care of them. And the bar loafers, and mashers, and singers--I can imagine them. I can imagine them," he said, with a
16sort of sombre gratification. "There'll be any amount of sentiment and religion loose among them. There's hundreds of
17things I saw with my eyes that I've only begun to see clearly these last few days. There's lots will take things as they
18are--fat and stupid; and lots will be worried by a sort of feeling that it's all wrong, and that they ought to be doing
19something. Now whenever things are so that a lot of people feel they ought to be doing something, the weak, and those
20who go weak with a lot of complicated thinking, always make for a sort of do-nothing religion, very pious and superior,
21and submit to persecution and the will of the Lord. Very likely you've seen the same thing. It's energy in a gale of
22funk, and turned clean inside out. These cages will be full of psalms and hymns and piety. And those of a less simple
23sort will work in a bit of--what is it?--eroticism." He paused. "Very likely these Martians will make pets of some of
24them; train them to do tricks--who knows?--get sentimental over the pet boy who grew up and had to be killed. And some,
25maybe, they will train to hunt us." "No," I cried, "that's impossible! No human being----" "What's the good of going on
26with such lies?" said the artilleryman. "There's men who'd do it cheerful. What nonsense to pretend there isn't!" And I
27succumbed to his conviction. "If they come after me," he said; "Lord, if they come after me!" and subsided into a grim
28meditation. I sat contemplating these things. I could find nothing to bring against this man's reasoning. In the days
29before the invasion no one would have questioned my intellectual superiority to his--I, a professed and recognised
30writer on philosophical themes, and he, a common soldier; and yet he had already formulated a situation that I had
31scarcely realised. "What are you doing?" I said presently. "What plans have you made?" He hesitated. "Well, it's like
32this," he said. "What have we to do? We have to invent a sort of life where men can live and breed, and be sufficiently
33secure to bring the children up. Yes--wait a bit, and I'll make it clearer what I think ought to be done. The tame ones
34will go like all tame beasts; in a few generations they'll be big, beautiful, rich-blooded, stupid--rubbish! The risk is
35that we who keep wild will go savage--degenerate into a sort of big, savage rat. . . . You see, how I mean to live is
36underground. I've been thinking about the drains. Of course those who don't know drains think horrible things; but under
37this London are miles and miles--hundreds of miles--and a few days rain and London empty will leave them sweet and
38clean. The main drains are big enough and airy enough for anyone. Then there's cellars, vaults, stores, from which
39bolting passages may be made to the drains. And the railway tunnels and subways. Eh? You begin to see? And we form a
40band--able-bodied, clean-minded men. We're not going to pick up any rubbish that drifts in. Weaklings go out again." "As
41you meant me to go?" "Well--I parleyed, didn't I?" "We won't quarrel about that. Go on." "Those who stop obey orders.
42Able-bodied, clean-minded women we want also--mothers and teachers. No lackadaisical ladies--no blasted rolling eyes. We
43can't have any weak or silly. Life is real again, and the useless and cumbersome and mischievous have to die. They ought
44to die. They ought to be willing to die. It's a sort of disloyalty, after all, to live and taint the race. And they
45can't be happy. Moreover, dying's none so dreadful; it's the funking makes it bad. And in all those places we shall
46gather. Our district will be London. And we may even be able to keep a watch, and run about in the open when the
47Martians keep away. Play cricket, perhaps. That's how we shall save the race. Eh? It's a possible thing? But saving the
48race is nothing in itself. As I say, that's only being rats. It's saving our knowledge and adding to it is the thing.
49There men like you come in. There's books, there's models. We must make great safe places down deep, and get all the
50books we can; not novels and poetry swipes, but ideas, science books. That's where men like you come in. We must go to
51the British Museum and pick all those books through. Especially we must keep up our science--learn more. We must watch
52these Martians. Some of us must go as spies. When it's all working, perhaps I will. Get caught, I mean. And the great
53thing is, we must leave the Martians alone. We mustn't even steal. If we get in their way, we clear out. We must show
54them we mean no harm. Yes, I know. But they're intelligent things, and they won't hunt us down if they have all they
55want, and think we're just harmless vermin." The artilleryman paused and laid a brown hand upon my arm. "After all, it
56may not be so much we may have to learn before--Just imagine this: four or five of their fighting machines suddenly
57starting off--Heat-Rays right and left, and not a Martian in 'em. Not a Martian in 'em, but men--men who have learned
58the way how. It may be in my time, even--those men. Fancy having one of them lovely things, with its Heat-Ray wide and
59free! Fancy having it in control! What would it matter if you smashed to smithereens at the end of the run, after a bust
60like that? I reckon the Martians'll open their beautiful eyes! Can't you see them, man? Can't you see them hurrying,
61hurrying--puffing and blowing and hooting to their other mechanical affairs? Something out of gear in every case. And
62swish, bang, rattle, swish! Just as they are fumbling over it, swish comes the Heat-Ray, and, behold! man has come back
63to his own."
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