Latest / Daily Classic Sci Fi Books / 09 - The Fighting Begins - The War of the Worlds - H G Wells

Transcript

09 - The Fighting Begins - The War of the Worlds - H G Wells · Daily Classic Sci Fi Books

0:00
Chapter nine, The Fighting begins. Saturday lives in my memory as a day
0:07
of suspense. It was a day of lassitude, too hot and close with
0:13
I am told a rapidly fluctuating barometer. I had slept but little, though
0:20
my wife had succeeded in sleeping, and I rose early. I went into
0:25
my garden before breakfast and stood listening. But towards the common there was nothing
0:30
stirring but a lark. The milkman came as usual. I heard the rattle
0:36
of his chariot, and I went round to the side gate to ask the
0:39
latest news. He told me that during the night the Martians had been surrounded
0:45
by troops and that guns were expected. Then a familiar reassuring note, I
0:52
heard a train running towards Woking. They aren't be killed, said the milkman,
0:58
if that can possibly be of avoided. I saw my neighbor gardening,
1:03
chatted with him for a time, and then strolled in to breakfast. It
1:07
was a most unexceptional morning. My neighbor was of opinion that the troops would
1:12
be able to capture or to destroy the Martians during the day. It's a
1:18
pity they make themselves so unapproachable, he said, it would be curious to
1:23
know how they live on another planet. We might learn a thing or two.
1:27
He came up to the fence and extended a handful of strawberries for his
1:32
gardening was as generous as it was enthusiastic. At the same time, he
1:37
told me of the burning of the pine woods, about the Byfleet golf links,
1:42
they say, said he that there's another of those blessed things fallen there,
1:46
number two, but one's enough. Surely this lot'll cost the insurance people
1:51
a pretty penny before everything's settled. He laughed with an air of the greatest
1:57
good humor as he said this. The woods, he said, were still
2:00
burning, and pointed out a haze of smoke to me. They will be
2:06
hot under foot for days on account of the thick soil of pine needles and
2:08
turf, he said, and then grew serious over poor ogilvy. After breakfast,
2:15
instead of working, I decided to walk down towards the common under the
2:21
railway bridge. I found a group of soldiers, sappers, I think,
2:24
men in small round caps, dirty red jackets, unbuttoned and showing their blue
2:30
shirts, dark trousers and boots coming to the calf. They told me no
2:35
one was allowed over the canal, and looking along the road towards the bridge,
2:39
I saw one of the Cardigan men standing sentinel there. I talked with
2:45
these soldiers for a time. I told them of my sight of the Martians
2:49
on the previous evening. None of them had seen the Martians, and they
2:53
had but the vaguest ideas of them, so that they plied me with questions.
2:59
They said that they did not know who had authorized the movements of the
3:01
troops. Their idea was that a dispute had arisen at the horse guards.
3:07
The ordinary sapper is a great deal better educated than the common soldier, and
3:12
they discussed the peculiar conditions of the possible fight with some acuteness. I described
3:17
the heat ray to them, and they began to argue among themselves. Crawl
3:23
up under cover and rush em, say I said one get at, said
3:27
another, what cover against this? Here? Eat sticks to cook ya.
3:30
What we got to do is to go as near as the ground'll let us,
3:34
and then drive a trench. Blow your trenches. You always want trenches.
3:38
You ought to have been born a rabbit. Snippy. Ain't they got
3:43
any necks? Then, said a third, abruptly, A little contemplative dark
3:47
man smoking a pipe. I repeated my description octopuses, said he that's what
3:54
I call them, talk about fishes of men, fighters of fish. It
3:59
is this time. It ain't no murder killing beasts like that, said the
4:03
first speaker. Why not shell the darned things? Strit off and finish em,
4:09
said the little dark man. You can't tell what they might do.
4:13
Where's your shells? Said the first speaker. There ain't no time. Do
4:16
it in a rush, that's my tip, and do it at once.
4:20
So they discussed it. After a while. I left them and went on
4:26
to the railway station to get as many morning papers as I could. But
4:30
I will not weary the reader with the description of that long morning and of
4:34
the longer afternoon. I did not succeed in getting a glimpse of the common
4:40
for even Hawsele and Chobham church towers were in the hands of the military authorities.
4:46
The soldiers I addressed didn't know anything. The officers were mysterious as well
4:49
as busy. I found people in the town quite secure again in the presence
4:56
of the military, and I heard for the first time from Marshall the bacconist,
5:00
that his son was among the dead on the common. The soldiers had
5:04
made the people on the outskirts of Hawsel lock up and leave their houses.
5:10
I got back to lunch about two very tired, for as I have said,
5:15
the day was extremely hot and dull, and in order to refresh myself
5:18
I took a cold bath. In the afternoon, about half past four,
5:24
I went up to the railway station to get an evening paper. For the
5:27
morning papers had contained only a very inaccurate description of the killing of Stent Henderson,
5:31
Ogilvy and the others. But there was little I didn't know. The
5:38
Martians did not show an inch of themselves. They seemed busy in their pit,
5:43
and there was a sound of hammering and an almost continuous streamer of smoke.
5:47
Apparently they were busy getting ready for a struggle. Fresh attempts have been
5:53
made to signal, but without success. Was the stereotyped formula of the papers.
6:00
A sapper told me it was done by a man in a ditch with
6:02
a flag on a long pole. The Martians took as much notice of such
6:06
advances as we should of the lowing of a cow. I must confess the
6:13
sight of all this armament, all this preparation greatly excited me. My imagination
6:18
became belligerent and defeated the invaders in a dozen striking ways. Something of my
6:25
schoolboy dreams of battle and heroism came back. It hardly seemed a fair fight
6:30
to me at that time. They seemed very helpless in that pit of theirs.
6:35
About three o'clock there began the thud of a gun. At measured intervals
6:40
from Chertsey or Addlestone. I learned that the smoldering pine wood into which the
6:45
second cylinder had fallen was being shelled in the hope of destroying that object before
6:49
it opened. It was only about five, however, that a field gun
6:55
reached Chobham for use against the first body of martians. About six in the
7:00
evening, as I sat at tea with my wife in the summer house,
7:03
talking vigorously about the battle that was lowering upon us, I heard a muffled
7:09
detonation from the common, and immediately after a gust of firing. Close on
7:15
the heels of that came a violent rattling crash quite close to us that shook
7:19
the ground, and starting out upon the lawn, I saw the tops of
7:25
the trees about the Oriental College burst into smoky red flame, and the tower
7:30
of the little church beside it slide down into ruin. The pinnacle of the
7:34
mosque had vanished, and the roof line of the College itself looked as if
7:39
a hundred ton gun had been at work upon it. One of our chimneys
7:44
cracked, as if a shot had hit. It flew, and a piece
7:46
of it came clattering down the tiles and made a heap of broken red fragments
7:50
upon the flower bed by my study window. I and my wife stood amazed.
7:58
Then I realized that the breast of Maybury Hill must be within range of
8:01
the Martians heat ray, now that the College was cleared out of the way.
8:07
At that I gripped my wife's arm and without ceremony, ran her out
8:11
into the road. Then I fetched out the servant, telling her I would
8:15
go upstairs myself for the box. She was clamoring for. We can't possibly
8:20
stay here, I said, And as I spoke, the firing reopened for
8:24
a moment upon the common. But where are we to go? Said my
8:28
wife in terror, I thought, perplexed. Then I remembered her cousins at
8:33
Leatherhead. Leatherhead, I shouted above the sudden noise. She looked away from
8:41
me downhill. The people were coming out of their houses, astonished. How
8:46
are we to get to Leatherhead, she said. Down the hill, I
8:50
saw a bevy of his ars ride under the railway bridge. Three galloped through
8:54
the open gates of the Oriental College. Two others dismounted and began running from
9:00
house to house. The sun shining through the smoke that drove up from the
9:05
tops of the trees, seemed blood red and threw an unfamiliar lurid light upon
9:11
everything. Stop here, said I, you are safe here. And I
9:16
started off at once for the spotted dog. For I knew the landlord had
9:20
a horse and dog cart. I ran, for I perceived that in a
9:24
moment every one upon this side of the hill would be moving. I found
9:28
him in his bar, quite unaware of what was going on. Behind his
9:31
house, a man stood with his back to me talking to him. I
9:37
must have a pound, said the landlord, and I've no one to drive
9:41
it. I'll give you two, said I over the stranger's shoulder. What
9:46
for, and I'll bring it back by midnight, I said, lord,
9:52
said the landlord. What's the hurry? I'm selling my bit of a pig
9:56
two pounds, and you bring it back. What's going on now? I
10:01
explained hastily that I had to leave my home, and so secured the dog
10:05
cart. At the time, it did not seem to me nearly so urgent
10:09
that the landlord should leave his I took care to have the cart there,
10:15
and then drove it off down the road, and leaving it in charge of
10:18
my wife and servant, rushed into my house and packed a few valuables,
10:24
such plate as we had, and so forth. The beech trees below the
10:28
house were burning while I did this, and the palings up the road glowed
10:31
red. While I was occupied in this way, one of the dismounted hussars
10:37
came running up. He was going from house to house warning people to leave.
10:43
He was going on. As I came out of my front door,
10:46
lugging my treasures done up in a tablecloth. I shouted after him, what
10:50
news. He turned, stared, bawled something about crawling out in a thing
10:58
like a dish cover, and ran on to the gate of the house.
11:01
At the crest, A sudden whirl of black smoke driving across the road hid
11:05
him for a moment, I ran to my neighbor's door and rapped to satisfy
11:11
myself of what I already knew, that his wife had gone to London with
11:15
him and had locked up their house. I went in again, according to
11:18
my promise to get my servant's box, lugged it out, clapped it beside
11:24
her on the tail of the dog cart, and then caught the reins and
11:26
jumped up into the driver's seat beside my wife. In another moment, we
11:31
were clear of the smoke and noise, and spanking down the opposite slope of
11:35
Maybury Hill towards Old Woking. In front was a quiet, sunny landscape,
11:41
a wheat field ahead on either side of the road, and the Maybury Inn
11:46
with its swinging sign. I saw the doctor's cart ahead of me at the
11:52
bottom of the hill. I turned my head to look at the hillside I
11:54
was leaving. Thick streamers of black smoke shot with the threads of red fire,
12:01
were driving up into the still air and throwing dark shadows upon the green
12:05
tree tops eastward. The smoke already extended far away to the east and west,
12:11
to the Byfleet pine woods eastward, and to Woking on the west.
12:16
The road was dotted with people running towards us, and very faint now but
12:24
very distinct through the hot, quiet air, one heard the whir of a
12:28
machine gun that was presently stilled, and an intermittent cracking of rifles. Apparently
12:35
the Martians were setting fire to everything within range of their heat. Ray.
12:39
I am not an expert driver, and I had immediately to turn my attention
12:43
to the horse. When I looked back again, the second hill had hidden
12:48
the black smoke. I slashed the horse with the whip and gave him a
12:52
loose rein until Woking and Send lay between us and that quivering tumult. I
12:58
overtook and asked the doctor between Woking and Send. End of Section nine