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03 - On Horsell Common - The War of the Worlds - H G Wells · Daily Sci-Fi Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter three, on Horsell Common, I found a little crowd
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  Speaker 1: of perhaps twenty people surrounding the huge hole in which
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  Speaker 1: the cylinder lay. I have already described the appearance of
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  Speaker 1: that colossal bulk embedded in the ground. The turf and
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  Speaker 1: gravel about it seemed charred, as if by a sudden explosion.
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  Speaker 1: No doubt its impact had caused a flash of fire.
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  Speaker 1: Henderson and Ogilvy were not there. I think they perceived
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  Speaker 1: that nothing was to be done for the present, and
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  Speaker 1: had gone away to breakfast at Henderson's house. There were
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  Speaker 1: four or five boys sitting on the edge of the pit,
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  Speaker 1: with their feet dangling and amusing themselves until I stopped
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  Speaker 1: them by throwing stones at the giant mass. After I
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  Speaker 1: had spoken to them about it, they began playing at
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  Speaker 1: touch in and out of the group of bystanders. Among
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  Speaker 1: these were a couple of cyclists, a jobing gardener I
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  Speaker 1: employed sometimes times, a girl carrying a baby, Gregg the
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  Speaker 1: butcher and his little boy, and two or three loafers
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  Speaker 1: and golf caddies who were accustomed to hang about the
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  Speaker 1: railway station. There was very little talking. Few of the
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  Speaker 1: common people in England had anything but the vaguest astronomical
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  Speaker 1: ideas in those days. Most of them were staring quietly
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  Speaker 1: at the big table like end of the cylinder, which
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  Speaker 1: was still as Ogilvy and Henderson had left it. I
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  Speaker 1: fancy the popular expectation of a heap of charred corpses,
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  Speaker 1: was disappointed at this inanimate bulk. Some went away while
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  Speaker 1: I was there, and other people came. I clambered into
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  Speaker 1: the pit and fancied. I heard a faint movement under
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  Speaker 1: my feet. The top had certainly ceased to rotate. It
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  Speaker 1: was only when I got thus close to it that
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  Speaker 1: the strangeness of this object was at all evident to me.
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  Speaker 1: At the first glance, it was really no more exciting
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  Speaker 1: than an overturned carriage or a tree blown across the road.
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  Speaker 1: Not so much so. Indeed, it looked like a rusty
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  Speaker 1: gas float. It required a certain amount of scientific education
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  Speaker 1: to perceive that the gray scale of the thing was
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  Speaker 1: no common oxide, that the yellowish white metal that gleamed
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  Speaker 1: in the crack between the lid and the cylinder had
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  Speaker 1: an unfamiliar hue. Extra terrestrial had no meaning for most
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  Speaker 1: of the onlookers at that time. It was quite clear
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  Speaker 1: in my own mind that the thing had come from
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  Speaker 1: the planet Mars, but I judged it improbable that it
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  Speaker 1: contained any living creature. I thought the unscrewing might be automatic.
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  Speaker 1: In spite of Ogilvy, I still believed that there were
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  Speaker 1: men in Mars. My mind ran fancifully on the possibilities
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  Speaker 1: of its containing manuscript, on the difficulties in translation that
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  Speaker 1: might arise, whether we should find coins and models in it,
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  Speaker 1: and so forth. Yet it was a little too large
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  Speaker 1: for assurance. On this idea. I felt an impatience to
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  Speaker 1: see it opened about eleven, as nothing seemed happening. I
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  Speaker 1: walked back, full of such thought to my home in Maybury,
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  Speaker 1: but I found it difficult to get to work upon
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  Speaker 1: my abstract investigations. In the afternoon, the appearance of the
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  Speaker 1: common had altered very much. The early editions of the
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  Speaker 1: evening papers had startled London with enormous headlines, a message
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  Speaker 1: received from Mars, remarkable story from Woking, and so forth.
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  Speaker 1: In addition, Ogilvy's wire to the Astronomical Exchange had roused
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  Speaker 1: every observatory in the three Kingdoms. There were half a
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  Speaker 1: dozen flies or more from the Woking station standing in
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  Speaker 1: the road by the sand pits. A basket chaise from
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  Speaker 1: Chobham and a rather lordly carriage. Besides that, there was
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  Speaker 1: quite a heap of bicycles. In addition, a large number
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  Speaker 1: of people must have walked in spite of the heat
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  Speaker 1: of the day from Woking and Chertsey, so that there
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  Speaker 1: was altogether quite a considerable crowd, one or two gaily
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  Speaker 1: dressed ladies among the others. It was glaringly hot, not
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  Speaker 1: a cloud in the sky nor a breath of wind,
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  Speaker 1: and the only shadow was that of the few scattered
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  Speaker 1: pine trees. The burning heather had been extinguished, but the
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  Speaker 1: level ground towards Otter Shore was blackened as far as
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  Speaker 1: one could see, and still giving off vertical streamers of smoke.
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  Speaker 1: An enterprising sweet stuff dealer in the Chobham road had
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  Speaker 1: sent up his son with a barrow load of green
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  Speaker 1: apples and ginger beer. Going to the edge of the pit,
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  Speaker 1: I found it occupied by a group of about half
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  Speaker 1: a dozen men, Henderson Ogilvie, and a tall, fair haired
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  Speaker 1: man that I offered towards learned was Stent, the astronomer Royal,
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  Speaker 1: with several workmen wielding spades and pickaxes. Stent was giving
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  Speaker 1: directions in a clear high pitched voice. He was standing
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  Speaker 1: on the cylinder, which was now evidently much cooler. His
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  Speaker 1: face was crimson and streaming with perspiration, and something seemed
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  Speaker 1: to have irritated him. A large portion of the cylinder
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  Speaker 1: had been uncovered, though its lower end was still embedded.
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  Speaker 1: As soon as Ogilvy saw me among the staring crowd
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  Speaker 1: on the edge of the pit, he called to me
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  Speaker 1: to come down and asked me if I would mind
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  Speaker 1: going over to see Lord Hilton, the Lord of the Manor.
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  Speaker 1: The growing crowd, he said, was becoming a serious impediment
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  Speaker 1: to their excavations, especially the boys. They wanted a light
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  Speaker 1: railing put up and helped to keep the people back.
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  Speaker 1: He told me that a faint stirring was occasionally still
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  Speaker 1: audible within the case, but that the workmen had failed
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  Speaker 1: to unscrew the top as it afforded no grip to them.
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  Speaker 1: The case appeared to be enormously thick, and it was
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  Speaker 1: possible that the faint sounds we heard represented a noisy
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  Speaker 1: tumult in the interior. I was very glad to do
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  Speaker 1: as he asked, and so become one of the privileged
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  Speaker 1: spectators within the contemplated enclosure. I failed to find Lord
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  Speaker 1: Hilton at his house, but I was told he was
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  Speaker 1: expected from London by the six o'clock train from Waterloo,
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  Speaker 1: and as it was then about a quarter past five,
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  Speaker 1: I went home, had some tea and walked up to
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  Speaker 1: the station to waylay him. End of Section three.