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1And as the day advanced and the engine drivers and stokers refused to return to London, the pressure of the flight drove
2the people in an ever-thickening multitude away from the stations and along the northward-running roads. By midday a
3Martian had been seen at Barnes, and a cloud of slowly sinking black vapour drove along the Thames and across the flats
4of Lambeth, cutting off all escape over the bridges in its sluggish advance. Another bank drove over Ealing, and
5surrounded a little island of survivors on Castle Hill, alive, but unable to escape. After a fruitless struggle to get
6aboard a North-Western train at Chalk Farm--the engines of the trains that had loaded in the goods yard there ploughed
7through shrieking people, and a dozen stalwart men fought to keep the crowd from crushing the driver against his
8furnace--my brother emerged upon the Chalk Farm road, dodged across through a hurrying swarm of vehicles, and had the
9luck to be foremost in the sack of a cycle shop. The front tire of the machine he got was punctured in dragging it
10through the window, but he got up and off, notwithstanding, with no further injury than a cut wrist. The steep foot of
11Haverstock Hill was impassable owing to several overturned horses, and my brother struck into Belsize Road. So he got
12out of the fury of the panic, and, skirting the Edgware Road, reached Edgware about seven, fasting and wearied, but well
13ahead of the crowd. Along the road people were standing in the roadway, curious, wondering. He was passed by a number of
14cyclists, some horsemen, and two motor cars. A mile from Edgware the rim of the wheel broke, and the machine became
15unridable. He left it by the roadside and trudged through the village. There were shops half opened in the main street
16of the place, and people crowded on the pavement and in the doorways and windows, staring astonished at this
17extraordinary procession of fugitives that was beginning. He succeeded in getting some food at an inn. For a time he
18remained in Edgware not knowing what next to do. The flying people increased in number. Many of them, like my brother,
19seemed inclined to loiter in the place. There was no fresh news of the invaders from Mars. At that time the road was
20crowded, but as yet far from congested. Most of the fugitives at that hour were mounted on cycles, but there were soon
21motor cars, hansom cabs, and carriages hurrying along, and the dust hung in heavy clouds along the road to St. Albans.
22It was perhaps a vague idea of making his way to Chelmsford, where some friends of his lived, that at last induced my
23brother to strike into a quiet lane running eastward. Presently he came upon a stile, and, crossing it, followed a
24footpath northeastward. He passed near several farmhouses and some little places whose names he did not learn. He saw
25few fugitives until, in a grass lane towards High Barnet, he happened upon two ladies who became his fellow travellers.
26He came upon them just in time to save them. He heard their screams, and, hurrying round the corner, saw a couple of men
27struggling to drag them out of the little pony-chaise in which they had been driving, while a third with difficulty held
28the frightened pony's head. One of the ladies, a short woman dressed in white, was simply screaming; the other, a dark,
29slender figure, slashed at the man who gripped her arm with a whip she held in her disengaged hand. My brother
30immediately grasped the situation, shouted, and hurried towards the struggle. One of the men desisted and turned towards
31him, and my brother, realising from his antagonist's face that a fight was unavoidable, and being an expert boxer, went
32into him forthwith and sent him down against the wheel of the chaise. It was no time for pugilistic chivalry and my
33brother laid him quiet with a kick, and gripped the collar of the man who pulled at the slender lady's arm. He heard the
34clatter of hoofs, the whip stung across his face, a third antagonist struck him between the eyes, and the man he held
35wrenched himself free and made off down the lane in the direction from which he had come. Partly stunned, he found
36himself facing the man who had held the horse's head, and became aware of the chaise receding from him down the lane,
37swaying from side to side, and with the women in it looking back. The man before him, a burly rough, tried to close, and
38he stopped him with a blow in the face. Then, realising that he was deserted, he dodged round and made off down the lane
39after the chaise, with the sturdy man close behind him, and the fugitive, who had turned now, following remotely.
40Suddenly he stumbled and fell; his immediate pursuer went headlong, and he rose to his feet to find himself with a
41couple of antagonists again. He would have had little chance against them had not the slender lady very pluckily pulled
42up and returned to his help. It seems she had had a revolver all this time, but it had been under the seat when she and
43her companion were attacked. She fired at six yards' distance, narrowly missing my brother. The less courageous of the
44robbers made off, and his companion followed him, cursing his cowardice. They both stopped in sight down the lane, where
45the third man lay insensible. "Take this!" said the slender lady, and she gave my brother her revolver. "Go back to the
46chaise," said my brother, wiping the blood from his split lip. She turned without a word--they were both panting--and
47they went back to where the lady in white struggled to hold back the frightened pony. The robbers had evidently had
48enough of it. When my brother looked again they were retreating. "I'll sit here," said my brother, "if I may"; and he
49got upon the empty front seat. The lady looked over her shoulder. "Give me the reins," she said, and laid the whip along
50the pony's side. In another moment a bend in the road hid the three men from my brother's eyes. So, quite unexpectedly,
51my brother found himself, panting, with a cut mouth, a bruised jaw, and bloodstained knuckles, driving along an unknown
52lane with these two women. He learned they were the wife and the younger sister of a surgeon living at Stanmore, who had
53come in the small hours from a dangerous case at Pinner, and heard at some railway station on his way of the Martian
54advance. He had hurried home, roused the women--their servant had left them two days before--packed some provisions, put
55his revolver under the seat--luckily for my brother--and told them to drive on to Edgware, with the idea of getting a
56train there. He stopped behind to tell the neighbours. He would overtake them, he said, at about half past four in the
57morning, and now it was nearly nine and they had seen nothing of him. They could not stop in Edgware because of the
58growing traffic through the place, and so they had come into this side lane. That was the story they told my brother in
59fragments when presently they stopped again, nearer to New Barnet. He promised to stay with them, at least until they
60could determine what to do, or until the missing man arrived, and professed to be an expert shot with the revolver--a
61weapon strange to him--in order to give them confidence. They made a sort of encampment by the wayside, and the pony
62became happy in the hedge. He told them of his own escape out of London, and all that he knew of these Martians and
63their ways. The sun crept higher in the sky, and after a time their talk died out and gave place to an uneasy state of
64anticipation. Several wayfarers came along the lane, and of these my brother gathered such news as he could. Every
65broken answer he had deepened his impression of the great disaster that had come on humanity, deepened his persuasion of
66the immediate necessity for prosecuting this flight. He urged the matter upon them. "We have money," said the slender
67woman, and hesitated. Her eyes met my brother's, and her hesitation ended. "So have I," said my brother. She explained
68that they had as much as thirty pounds in gold, besides a five-pound note, and suggested that with that they might get
69upon a train at St. Albans or New Barnet. My brother thought that was hopeless, seeing the fury of the Londoners to
70crowd upon the trains, and broached his own idea of striking across Essex towards Harwich and thence escaping from the
71country altogether.
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