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05 - The Heat-ray - The War of the Worlds - H G Wells · Daily Sci-Fi Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter five, The heat Ray. After the glimpse I had
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  Speaker 1: had of the Martians emerging from the cylinder in which
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  Speaker 1: they had come to the Earth from their planet, a
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  Speaker 1: kind of fascination paralyzed my actions. I remained standing knee
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  Speaker 1: deep in the heather, staring at the mound that hid them.
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  Speaker 1: I was a battleground of fear and curiosity. I did
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  Speaker 1: not dare to go back towards the pit, but I
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  Speaker 1: felt a passionate longing to peer into it. I began
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  Speaker 1: walking therefore, in a big curve, seeking some point of vantage,
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  Speaker 1: and continually looking at the sand heaps that hid these
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  Speaker 1: newcomers to our Earth. Once a leash of thin black whips,
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  Speaker 1: like the arms of an octopus, flashed across the sunset,
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  Speaker 1: and was immediately withdrawn. And afterwards a thin rod rose up,
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  Speaker 1: joined by joint, bearing at its apex a certain disc
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  Speaker 1: that spun with a wobbling motion. What could be going
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  Speaker 1: on there? Most of the spectators had gathered in one
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  Speaker 1: or two groups, one a little crowd towards Woking, the
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  Speaker 1: other a knot of people in the direction of Chobham.
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  Speaker 1: Evidently they shared my mental conflict. There were few near me.
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  Speaker 1: One man I approached he was. I perceived a neighbor
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  Speaker 1: of mine, though I did not know his name, and accosted.
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  Speaker 1: But it was scarcely a time for articulate conversation. What
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  Speaker 1: ugly brutes, he said, Good God, what ugly brutes. He
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  Speaker 1: repeated this over and over again. Did you see a
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  Speaker 1: man in the pit? I said, But he made no
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  Speaker 1: answer to that. We became silent and stood watching for
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  Speaker 1: a time, side by side, deriving. I found a certain
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  Speaker 1: comfort in one another's company. Then I shifted my position
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  Speaker 1: to a little knoll that gave me the advantage of
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  Speaker 1: a yard or more of elevation, and when I looked
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  Speaker 1: for him, presently he was walking towards Woking. The sunset
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  Speaker 1: faded to twilight. Before anything further happened, the crowd far
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  Speaker 1: away on the left towards Woking seemed to grow, and
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  Speaker 1: I heard now a faint murmur from it. The little
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  Speaker 1: knot of people towards Chopham dispersed. There was scarcely an
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  Speaker 1: intimation of movement from the pit. It was this, as
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  Speaker 1: much as anything, that gave people courage, and I suppose
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  Speaker 1: the new arrivals from Woking also helped to restore confidence
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  Speaker 1: at any rate. As the dusk came on, a slow,
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  Speaker 1: intermittent movement upon the sand pits began, a movement that
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  Speaker 1: seemed to gather force as the stillness of the evening
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  Speaker 1: about the cylinder remained unbroken. Vertical black figures in twos
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  Speaker 1: and threes would advance, stop watch, and advance again, spreading
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  Speaker 1: out as they did so in a thin, irregular crescent
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  Speaker 1: that promised to enclose the pit in its attenuated horns.
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  Speaker 1: I too, on my side, began to move towards the pit.
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  Speaker 1: Then I saw some cabmen and others had walked boldly
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  Speaker 1: into the sand pits, and heard the clatter of hoofs
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  Speaker 1: and the grind of wheels. I saw a lad trundling
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  Speaker 1: off the barrow of apples, and then within thirty yards
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  Speaker 1: of the pit, advancing from the direction of horseal, I
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  Speaker 1: noted a little black knot of men, the foremost of
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  Speaker 1: whom was waving a white flag. This was the deputation.
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  Speaker 1: There had been a hasty consultation, and since the Martians were, evidently,
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  Speaker 1: in spite of their repulsive forms, intelligent creatures, it had
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  Speaker 1: been resolved to show them by a aproaching them with
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  Speaker 1: signals that we too were intelligent. Flutter flutter went the flag,
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  Speaker 1: first to the right, then to the left. It was
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  Speaker 1: too far for me to recognize anyone there, but afterwards
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  Speaker 1: I learned that Ogilvie, Stent and Hendersome were with others
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  Speaker 1: in this attempt at communication. This little group had in
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  Speaker 1: its advance dragged inward, so to speak, the circumference of
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  Speaker 1: the now almost complete circle of people, and a number
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  Speaker 1: of dim black figures followed it at discreet distances. Suddenly
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  Speaker 1: there was a flash of light, and a quantity of
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  Speaker 1: luminous greenish smoke came out of the pit in three
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  Speaker 1: distinct puffs, which drove up, one after the other, straight
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  Speaker 1: into the still air. This smoke or flame perhaps would
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  Speaker 1: be the better word, for it was so bright that
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  Speaker 1: the deep blue sky overhead, and the hazy stretches of
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  Speaker 1: brown common towards Chertsey, set with black pine trees, seemed
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  Speaker 1: to darken abruptly as these puffs arose, and to remain
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  Speaker 1: the darker after their dispersal. At the same time, a
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  Speaker 1: faint hissing sound became audible. Beyond the pit stood the
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  Speaker 1: little wedge of people with the white flag at its apex,
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  Speaker 1: arrested by these phenomena, a little knot of small, vertical
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  Speaker 1: black shapes upon the black ground. As the green smoke arose,
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  Speaker 1: their faces flashed out pallid green, and faded again as
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  Speaker 1: it vanished. Then slowly the hissing passed into a humming,
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  Speaker 1: into a long, loud, droning noise. Slowly a humped shape
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  Speaker 1: rose out of the pit, and the ghost of a
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  Speaker 1: beam of light seemed to flicker out from it. Forthwith
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  Speaker 1: flashes of actual flame, A bright glare leaping from from
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  Speaker 1: one to another, sprang from the scattered group of men.
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  Speaker 1: It was as if some invisible jet impinged upon them
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  Speaker 1: and flashed into white flame. It was as if each
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  Speaker 1: man were suddenly and momentarily turned to fire. Then by
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  Speaker 1: the light of their own destruction, I saw them staggering
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  Speaker 1: and falling, and their supporters turning to run. I stood staring,
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  Speaker 1: not as yet realizing that this was death leaping from
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  Speaker 1: man to man in that little distant crowd. All I
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  Speaker 1: felt was that it was something very strange, an almost
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  Speaker 1: noiseless and blinding flash of light. And man fell headlong
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  Speaker 1: and lay still. And as the unseen shaft of light
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  Speaker 1: passed over them, pine trees burst into fire, and every
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  Speaker 1: dry furze bush became with one dull thud, a mass
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  Speaker 1: of flames, and far away towards Naphill, I saw the
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  Speaker 1: flashes of trees and hedges and wooden buildings suddenly set alight.
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  Speaker 1: It was sweeping round, swiftly and steadily, this flaming death,
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  Speaker 1: this invisible, inevitable sword of heat. I perceived it coming
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  Speaker 1: towards me by the flashing bushes it touched, and was
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  Speaker 1: too astounded and stupefied to stir. I heard the crackle
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  Speaker 1: of fire in the sand pits, and the sudden squeal
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  Speaker 1: of a horse that was as suddenly stilled. Then it
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  Speaker 1: was as if an invisible yet intensely heated finger were
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  Speaker 1: drawn through the heather between me and the Martians, and
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  Speaker 1: all along a curving line beyond the sand pits, the
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  Speaker 1: dark ground smoked and crackled. Something fell with a crash
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  Speaker 1: far away to the left, where the road from Woking
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  Speaker 1: Station opens out on the common forthwith the hissing and
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  Speaker 1: humming ceased, and the black dome like object sank slowly
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  Speaker 1: out of sight in the pit. All this had happened
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  Speaker 1: with such swiftness that I had stood motionless, dumbfounded, and
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  Speaker 1: dazzled by the flashes of light. Had that death swept
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  Speaker 1: through a full circle, it must inevitably have slain me
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  Speaker 1: in my surprise. But it passed and spared me, and
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  Speaker 1: left the night about me suddenly dark and unfamiliar. The
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  Speaker 1: undulating common seemed now dark, almost to blackness, except where
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  Speaker 1: its roadways lay gray and pale. Under the deep blue
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  Speaker 1: sky of the early night, it was dark and suddenly
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  Speaker 1: void of men. Overhead, the stars were mustering, and in
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  Speaker 1: the west the sky was still a pale, bright, almost
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  Speaker 1: greenish blue. The tops of the pine trees and the
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  Speaker 1: roofs of harsal came out sharp and black against the
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  Speaker 1: western afterglow. The martians and their appliances were altogether invisible,
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  Speaker 1: save for that thin mast upon which their restless mirror wobbled.
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  Speaker 1: Patches of bush and isolated trees here and there smoked
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  Speaker 1: and glowed still, and the houses towards Woking Station were
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  Speaker 1: sending up spires of flame into the stillness of the
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  Speaker 1: evening air. Nothing was changed save for that and a
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  Speaker 1: terrible astonishment. The little group of black specks with the
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  Speaker 1: flag of white had been swept out of existence, and
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  Speaker 1: the stillness of the evening, so it seemed to me
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  Speaker 1: had scarcely been broken. It came to me that I
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  Speaker 1: was upon this dark common helpless, unprotected and alone. Suddenly,
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  Speaker 1: like a thing falling upon me from without, came fear.
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  Speaker 1: With an effort. I turned and began a stumbling run
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  Speaker 1: through the heather. The fear I felt was no rational fear,
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  Speaker 1: but a panic, terror, not only of the Martians, but
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  Speaker 1: of the dusk and stillness all about me. Such an
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  Speaker 1: extraordinary effect in unmanning me it had that I ran,
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  Speaker 1: weeping silently, as a child might do. Once I had turned,
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  Speaker 1: I did not dare to look back. I remember, I
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  Speaker 1: felt an extraordinary persuasion that I was being played with,
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  Speaker 1: that presently, when I was upon the very verge of safety,
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  Speaker 1: this mysterious death, as swift as the passage of light,
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  Speaker 1: would leap after me from the pit about the cylinder
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  Speaker 1: and strike me down. End of Section five.