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1There were half a dozen flys or more from the Woking station standing in the road by the sand-pits, a basket-chaise from
2Chobham, and a rather lordly carriage. Besides that, there was quite a heap of bicycles. In addition, a large number of
3people must have walked, in spite of the heat of the day, from Woking and Chertsey, so that there was altogether quite a
4considerable crowd--one or two gaily dressed ladies among the others. It was glaringly hot, not a cloud in the sky nor a
5breath of wind, and the only shadow was that of the few scattered pine trees. The burning heather had been extinguished,
6but the level ground towards Ottershaw was blackened as far as one could see, and still giving off vertical streamers of
7smoke. An enterprising sweet-stuff dealer in the Chobham Road had sent up his son with a barrow-load of green apples and
8ginger beer. Going to the edge of the pit, I found it occupied by a group of about half a dozen men--Henderson, Ogilvy,
9and a tall, fair-haired man that I afterwards learned was Stent, the Astronomer Royal, with several workmen wielding
10spades and pickaxes. Stent was giving directions in a clear, high-pitched voice. He was standing on the cylinder, which
11was now evidently much cooler; his face was crimson and streaming with perspiration, and something seemed to have
12irritated him. A large portion of the cylinder had been uncovered, though its lower end was still embedded. As soon as
13Ogilvy saw me among the staring crowd on the edge of the pit he called to me to come down, and asked me if I would mind
14going over to see Lord Hilton, the lord of the manor. The growing crowd, he said, was becoming a serious impediment to
15their excavations, especially the boys. They wanted a light railing put up, and help to keep the people back. He told me
16that a faint stirring was occasionally still audible within the case, but that the workmen had failed to unscrew the
17top, as it afforded no grip to them. The case appeared to be enormously thick, and it was possible that the faint sounds
18we heard represented a noisy tumult in the interior. I was very glad to do as he asked, and so become one of the
19privileged spectators within the contemplated enclosure. I failed to find Lord Hilton at his house, but I was told he
20was expected from London by the six o'clock train from Waterloo; and as it was then about a quarter past five, I went
21home, had some tea, and walked up to the station to waylay him. IV. THE CYLINDER OPENS. When I returned to the common
22the sun was setting. Scattered groups were hurrying from the direction of Woking, and one or two persons were returning.
23The crowd about the pit had increased, and stood out black against the lemon yellow of the sky--a couple of hundred
24people, perhaps. There were raised voices, and some sort of struggle appeared to be going on about the pit. Strange
25imaginings passed through my mind. As I drew nearer I heard Stent's voice: "Keep back! Keep back!" A boy came running
26towards me. "It's a-movin'," he said to me as he passed; "a-screwin' and a-screwin' out. I don't like it. I'm a-goin'
27'ome, I am." I went on to the crowd. There were really, I should think, two or three hundred people elbowing and
28jostling one another, the one or two ladies there being by no means the least active. "He's fallen in the pit!" cried
29some one. "Keep back!" said several. The crowd swayed a little, and I elbowed my way through. Every one seemed greatly
30excited. I heard a peculiar humming sound from the pit. "I say!" said Ogilvy; "help keep these idiots back. We don't
31know what's in the confounded thing, you know!" I saw a young man, a shop assistant in Woking I believe he was, standing
32on the cylinder and trying to scramble out of the hole again. The crowd had pushed him in. The end of the cylinder was
33being screwed out from within. Nearly two feet of shining screw projected. Somebody blundered against me, and I narrowly
34missed being pitched onto the top of the screw. I turned, and as I did so the screw must have come out, for the lid of
35the cylinder fell upon the gravel with a ringing concussion. I stuck my elbow into the person behind me, and turned my
36head towards the Thing again. For a moment that circular cavity seemed perfectly black. I had the sunset in my eyes. I
37think everyone expected to see a man emerge--possibly something a little unlike us terrestrial men, but in all
38essentials a man. I know I did. But, looking, I presently saw something stirring within the shadow: greyish billowy
39movements, one above another, and then two luminous disks--like eyes. Then something resembling a little grey snake,
40about the thickness of a walking stick, coiled up out of the writhing middle, and wriggled in the air towards me--and
41then another. A sudden chill came over me. There was a loud shriek from a woman behind. I half turned, keeping my eyes
42fixed upon the cylinder still, from which other tentacles were now projecting, and began pushing my way back from the
43edge of the pit. I saw astonishment giving place to horror on the faces of the people about me. I heard inarticulate
44exclamations on all sides. There was a general movement backwards. I saw the shopman struggling still on the edge of the
45pit. I found myself alone, and saw the people on the other side of the pit running off, Stent among them. I looked again
46at the cylinder, and ungovernable terror gripped me. I stood petrified and staring. A big greyish rounded bulk, the
47size, perhaps, of a bear, was rising slowly and painfully out of the cylinder. As it bulged up and caught the light, it
48glistened like wet leather. Two large dark-coloured eyes were regarding me steadfastly. The mass that framed them, the
49head of the thing, was rounded, and had, one might say, a face. There was a mouth under the eyes, the lipless brim of
50which quivered and panted, and dropped saliva. The whole creature heaved and pulsated convulsively. A lank tentacular
51appendage gripped the edge of the cylinder, another swayed in the air. Those who have never seen a living Martian can
52scarcely imagine the strange horror of its appearance. The peculiar V-shaped mouth with its pointed upper lip, the
53absence of brow ridges, the absence of a chin beneath the wedgelike lower lip, the incessant quivering of this mouth,
54the Gorgon groups of tentacles, the tumultuous breathing of the lungs in a strange atmosphere, the evident heaviness and
55painfulness of movement due to the greater gravitational energy of the earth--above all, the extraordinary intensity of
56the immense eyes--were at once vital, intense, inhuman, crippled and monstrous. There was something fungoid in the oily
57brown skin, something in the clumsy deliberation of the tedious movements unspeakably nasty. Even at this first
58encounter, this first glimpse, I was overcome with disgust and dread. Suddenly the monster vanished. It had toppled over
59the brim of the cylinder and fallen into the pit, with a thud like the fall of a great mass of leather. I heard it give
60a peculiar thick cry, and forthwith another of these creatures appeared darkly in the deep shadow of the aperture. I
61turned and, running madly, made for the first group of trees, perhaps a hundred yards away; but I ran slantingly and
62stumbling, for I could not avert my face from these things. There, among some young pine trees and furze bushes, I
63stopped, panting, and waited further developments. The common round the sand-pits was dotted with people, standing like
64myself in a half-fascinated terror, staring at these creatures, or rather at the heaped gravel at the edge of the pit in
65which they lay. And then, with a renewed horror, I saw a round, black object bobbing up and down on the edge of the pit.
66It was the head of the shopman who had fallen in, but showing as a little black object against the hot western sun. Now
67he got his shoulder and knee up, and again he seemed to slip back until only his head was visible. Suddenly he vanished,
68and I could have fancied a faint shriek had reached me. I had a momentary impulse to go back and help him that my fears
69overruled.
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