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16 - The Exodus from London - The War of the Worlds - H G Wells · Classic Science Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter sixteen, The Exodus from London. So you understand the
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  Speaker 1: roaring wave of fear that swept through the greatest city
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  Speaker 1: in the world just as Monday was dawning, the stream
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  Speaker 1: of flight rising swiftly to a torrent lashing in a
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  Speaker 1: foaming tumult round the railway stations, banked up into a
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  Speaker 1: horrible struggle about the shipping in the Thames, and hurrying
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  Speaker 1: by every available channel northward and eastward. By ten o'clock,
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  Speaker 1: the police organization, and by midday even the railway organizations
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  Speaker 1: were losing coherency, losing shape and efficiency, guttering, softening, running
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  Speaker 1: at last, in that swift liquefaction of the social body,
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  Speaker 1: all the railway lines north of the Thames and the
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  Speaker 1: Southeastern people at Cannon Street had been warned by midnight
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  Speaker 1: on Sunday, and trains were being filled. People were fighting savagely,
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  Speaker 1: standing room in the carriages even at two o'clock. By
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  Speaker 1: three people were being trampled and crushed, even in Bishopsgate Street,
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  Speaker 1: a couple of hundred yards or more from Liverpool Street station.
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  Speaker 1: Revolvers were fired, people stabbed, and the policemen who had
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  Speaker 1: been sent to direct the traffic exhausted and infuriated, were
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  Speaker 1: breaking the heads of the people they were called out
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  Speaker 1: to protect. And as the day advanced and the engine
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  Speaker 1: drivers and stokers refused to return to London, the pressure
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  Speaker 1: of the flight drove the people in an ever thickening
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  Speaker 1: multitude away from the stations and along the northward running roads.
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  Speaker 1: By midday a martian had been seen at Barnes, and
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  Speaker 1: a cloud of slowly sinking black vapor drove along the
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  Speaker 1: Thames and across the flats of Lambeth, cutting off all
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  Speaker 1: escape over the bridges. In its sluggish advance. Another bank
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  Speaker 1: drove over ealing and surrounded a little island of survivors
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  Speaker 1: on Castle Hill, alive but unable to escape. After a
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  Speaker 1: fruitless struggle to get aboard a Northwestern train at Chalk Farm,
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  Speaker 1: the engines of the trains that had loaded in the
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  Speaker 1: goods yard there plowed through shrieking people, and a dozen
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  Speaker 1: stalwart men fought to keep the crowd from crushing the
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  Speaker 1: driver against his furnace. My brother emerged upon the Chalk
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  Speaker 1: Farm road, dodged across through a hurrying swarm of vehicles,
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  Speaker 1: and had the luck to be foremost in the sack
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  Speaker 1: of a cycle shop. The front tire of the machine
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  Speaker 1: he got was punctured in dragging it through the window,
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  Speaker 1: but he got up and off, notwithstanding with no further
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  Speaker 1: injury than a cut wrist. The steep foot of Havistock
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  Speaker 1: Hill was impassable owing to several overturned horses, and my
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  Speaker 1: brother struck into Belsize Road, so he got out of
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  Speaker 1: the fury of the panic and skirting the Edgeware Road.
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  Speaker 1: Reached Edgeware about seven, fasting and wearied, but well ahead
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  Speaker 1: of the crowd along the road. People were standing in
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  Speaker 1: the roadway curious wondering. He was passed by a number
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  Speaker 1: of cyclists, some horsemen, and two motor cars. A mile
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  Speaker 1: from Edgeware, the rim of the wheel broke and the
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  Speaker 1: machine became unrideable. He left it by the roadside and
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  Speaker 1: trudged through the village. There were shops half opened in
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  Speaker 1: the main street of the place, and people crowded on
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  Speaker 1: the pavement and in the doorways and windows, staring, astonished
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  Speaker 1: at this extraordinary procession of fugitives that was beginning. He
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  Speaker 1: succeeded in getting some food at an inn. For a
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  Speaker 1: time he remained in Edgeware, not knowing what next to do.
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  Speaker 1: The flying people increased in number. Many of them, like
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  Speaker 1: my brother, seemed inclined to loiter in the place. There
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  Speaker 1: was no fresh news of the invaders from Mars at
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  Speaker 1: that time. The road was crowded, but as yet far
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  Speaker 1: from congeest. Most of the fugitives at that hour were
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  Speaker 1: mounted on cycles, but there were soon motor cars, handsome
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  Speaker 1: cabs and carriages hurrying along, and the dust hung in
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  Speaker 1: heavy clouds along the road to Saint Albans. It was
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  Speaker 1: perhaps a vague idea of making his way to Chelmsford,
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  Speaker 1: where some friends of his lived, that at last induced
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  Speaker 1: my brother to strike into a quiet lane running eastward.
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  Speaker 1: Presently he came upon a stile, and crossing it, followed
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  Speaker 1: a footpath northeastward. He passed near several farm houses and
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  Speaker 1: some little places whose names he did not learn. He
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  Speaker 1: saw few fugitives, until in a grass lane towards high
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  Speaker 1: Barnet he happened upon two ladies who became his fellow travelers.
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  Speaker 1: He came upon them just in time to save them.
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  Speaker 1: He heard their screams, and, hurrying round the corner, saw
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  Speaker 1: a couple of men struggling to drag them out of
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  Speaker 1: the little pony chaise in which they had been driving,
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  Speaker 1: while a third with difficulty held the frightened pony's head.
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  Speaker 1: One of the ladies, a short woman dressed in white,
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  Speaker 1: was simply screaming. The other, a dark, slender figure, slashed
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  Speaker 1: at the man, who gripped her arm with a whip
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  Speaker 1: she held in her disengaged hand. My brother immediately grasped
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  Speaker 1: the situation, shouted and hurried towards the struggle. One of
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  Speaker 1: the men desisted and turned towards him, and my brother,
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  Speaker 1: realizing from his antagonist's face, that a fight was unavoidable,
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  Speaker 1: and being an expert boxer, went into him forthwith and
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  Speaker 1: sent him down against the wheel of the chaise. It
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  Speaker 1: was no time for pugilistic chivalry, and my brother laid
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  Speaker 1: him quiet with a kick and gripped the collar of
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  Speaker 1: the man who pulled at the slender lady's arm. He
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  Speaker 1: heard the clatter of the hoofs the whip stung across
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  Speaker 1: his face. A third antagonist struck him between the eyes
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  Speaker 1: and the man he held. Wrenched himself free and made
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  Speaker 1: off down the lane in the direction from which he
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  Speaker 1: had come. Partly stunned, he found himself facing the man
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  Speaker 1: who had held the horse's head, and became aware of
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  Speaker 1: the chaise receding from him down the lane, swaying from
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  Speaker 1: side to side, and with the women in it looking back.
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  Speaker 1: The man before him, a burly ruff tried to close,
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  Speaker 1: and he stopped him with a blow in the face. Then,
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  Speaker 1: realizing that he was deserted, he dodged round and made
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  Speaker 1: off down the lane after the chaise, with the sturdy
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  Speaker 1: man close behind him, and the fugitive, who had turned
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  Speaker 1: now following remotely. Suddenly he stumbled and fell. His immediate
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  Speaker 1: pursuer went headlong, and he rose to his feet to
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  Speaker 1: find himself with a couple of antagonists. Again. He would
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  Speaker 1: have had little chance against them, had not the slender
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  Speaker 1: lady very pluckily pulled up and returned to his help.
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  Speaker 1: It seems she had had a revolver all this time,
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  Speaker 1: but it had been under the seat when she and
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  Speaker 1: her companion were attacked. She fired at six yards distance,
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  Speaker 1: narrowly missing my brother. The less courageous of the robbers
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  Speaker 1: made off, and his companion followed him, cursing his cowardice.
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  Speaker 1: They both stopped in sight down the lane, where the
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  Speaker 1: third man lay insensible. Take this, said the slender lady,
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  Speaker 1: and she gave my brother her revolver. Go back to
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  Speaker 1: the chaise, said my brother, wiping the blood from his
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  Speaker 1: split lip. She turned without a word. They were both panting,
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  Speaker 1: and they went back to where the lady in white
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  Speaker 1: struggled to hold back the frightened pony. The robbers had
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  Speaker 1: evidently had enough of it. When my brother looked again,
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  Speaker 1: they were retreating. I'll sit here, said my brother if
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  Speaker 1: I may, and he got upon the empty front seat.
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  Speaker 1: The lady looked over her shoulder. Give me the reins,
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  Speaker 1: she said, and laid the whip along the pony's side.
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  Speaker 1: In another moment, a bend in the road hid the
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  Speaker 1: three men from my brother's eyes. So quite unexpectedly, my
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  Speaker 1: brother found himself, panting, with a cut mouth, a bruised jaw,
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  Speaker 1: and blood stained knuckles, driving along an unknown lane with
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  Speaker 1: these two women. He learned they were the wife and
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  Speaker 1: the younger sister of a surgeon living at Stanmore, who
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  Speaker 1: had come in the small hours from a dangerous case
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  Speaker 1: at Pinna and heard at some railway station on his
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  Speaker 1: way of the Martian Advance. He had hurried home roused
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  Speaker 1: the women. Their servant had left them two days before,
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  Speaker 1: packed some provisions, put his revolver under the seat, luckily
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  Speaker 1: for my brother, and told them to drive on to Edgeware,
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  Speaker 1: with the idea of getting a train there. He stopped
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  Speaker 1: behind to tell the neighbors he would overtake them, he said,
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  Speaker 1: at about half past four in the morning, and now
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  Speaker 1: it was nearly nine, and they had seen nothing of him.
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  Speaker 1: They could not stop in Edgeware because of the growing
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  Speaker 1: traffic through the place, and so they had come into
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  Speaker 1: this lane. That was the story they told my brother
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  Speaker 1: in fragments. When presently they stopped again nearer to New Barnet,
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  Speaker 1: he promised to stay with them at least until they
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  Speaker 1: could determine what to do, or until the missing man arrived,
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  Speaker 1: and professed to be an expert shot with the revolver,
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  Speaker 1: a weapon strange to him. In order to give them confidence,
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  Speaker 1: they made a sort of encampment by the wayside, and
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  Speaker 1: the pony became happy in the hedge. He told them
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  Speaker 1: of his own escape out of London and all that
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  Speaker 1: he knew of these martians and their ways. The sun
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  Speaker 1: crept higher in the sky, and after a time their
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  Speaker 1: talk died out and gave place to an uneasy state
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  Speaker 1: of anticipation, several wayfarers came along the lane, and of
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  Speaker 1: these my brother gathered such news as he could. Every
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  Speaker 1: broken answer he had deepened his impression of the great
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  Speaker 1: disaster that had come on humanity, deepened his persuasion of
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  Speaker 1: the immediate necess for prosecuting this flight. He urged the
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  Speaker 1: matter upon them. We have money, said the slender woman,
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  Speaker 1: and hesitated. Her eyes met my brothers, and her hesitation ended,
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  Speaker 1: So have I, said my brother. She explained that they
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  Speaker 1: had as much as thirty pounds in gold besides a
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  Speaker 1: five pound note, and suggested that with that they might
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  Speaker 1: get upon a train at Saint Alban's or New Barnet.
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  Speaker 1: My brother thought that was hopeless, seeing the fury of
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  Speaker 1: the Londoners to crowd upon the trains, and broached his
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  Speaker 1: own idea of striking across Essex towards harriage, and thence
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  Speaker 1: escaping from the country altogether. Missus Elphinstone, that was the
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  Speaker 1: name of the woman in white, would listen to no reasoning,
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  Speaker 1: and kept calling upon George. But her sister in law
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  Speaker 1: was astonishingly quiet and deliberate, and at last agreed to
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  Speaker 1: my brother's suggestion, so designing to cross the Great North Road.
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  Speaker 1: They went on towards Barney, my brother leading the pony,
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  Speaker 1: to save it as much as possible. As the sun
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  Speaker 1: crept up the sky, the day became excessively hot, and
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  Speaker 1: under foot a thick, whitish sand grew, burning and blinding,
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  Speaker 1: so that they traveled only very slowly. The hedges were
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  Speaker 1: gray with dust, and as they advanced towards Barnet, a
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  Speaker 1: tumultuous murmuring grew stronger. They began to meet more people.
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  Speaker 1: For the most part, these were staring before them, murmuring
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  Speaker 1: indistinct questions, jaded, haggard, unclean. One man in evening dress
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  Speaker 1: passed them on foot, his eyes on the ground. They
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  Speaker 1: heard his voice, and looking back at him, saw one
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  Speaker 1: hand clutched in his hair and the other beating invisible things.
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  Speaker 1: His paroxysm of rage over, he went on his way
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  Speaker 1: without once looking back. As my brother's party went on
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  Speaker 1: towards the cross roads to the south of Barnet, they
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: saw a woman approaching the road across some fields on
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  Speaker 1: their left, carrying a child and with two other children,
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  Speaker 1: And then passed a man in dirty black with a
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  Speaker 1: thick stick in one hand and a small portmanteau in
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  Speaker 1: the other. Then round the corner of the lane, from
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  Speaker 1: between the villas that guarded it, at its confluence with
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  Speaker 1: the high road, came a little cart, drawn by a
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  Speaker 1: sweating black pony and driven by a sallow youth in
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  Speaker 1: a bowler hat gray with dust. There were three girls
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  Speaker 1: east end factory girls, and a couple of little children
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  Speaker 1: crowded in the cart. This'll take us round Edgeware, asked
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  Speaker 1: the driver, wild eyed, white faced, And when my brother
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  Speaker 1: told him it would if he turned to the left,
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  Speaker 1: he whipped up at once, without the formality of thanks.
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  Speaker 1: My brother noticed a pale gray smoke or haze rising
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  Speaker 1: among the houses in front of them, and veiling the
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  Speaker 1: white facade of a terrace beyond the road that appeared
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  Speaker 1: between the backs of the villas. Missus Elphins and suddenly
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  Speaker 1: cried out at a number of tongues of smoky red
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  Speaker 1: flame leaping up above the houses in front of them
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  Speaker 1: against the hot blue sky. The tumultuous noise resolved itself
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  Speaker 1: now into the disorderly mingling of many voices, the gride
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  Speaker 1: of many wheels, the creaking of wagons, and the staccato
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  Speaker 1: of hoofs. The lane came round sharply, not fifty yards
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  Speaker 1: from the cross roads. Good heavens, cried, missus elfinstone, what
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  Speaker 1: is this you are driving us into? My brother stopped
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  Speaker 1: for the main road was a boiling stream of people,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: a torrent of human beings rushing northward, one pressing on another.
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  Speaker 1: A great bank of dust, white and luminous in the
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: blaze of the sun, made everything within twenty feet of
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  Speaker 1: the ground gray and indistinct, and was perpetually renewed by
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  Speaker 1: the hurrying feet of a dense crowd of horses, and
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: of men and women on foot, and by the wheels
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  Speaker 1: of vehicles of every description. Way. My brother heard voices
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  Speaker 1: crying make way. It was like riding into the smoke
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  Speaker 1: of a fire. To approach the meeting point of the
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: lane and road. The crowd roared like a fire, and
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: the dust was hot and pungent, and indeed, a little
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: way up the road a villa was burning and sending
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: rolling masses of black smoke across the road. To add
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  Speaker 1: to the confusion, two men came past them, then a
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  Speaker 1: dirty woman carrying a heavy bundle and weeping A lost
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: retriever dog with hanging tongue circled dubiously round them, scared
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  Speaker 1: and wretched, and fled at my brother's threat. So much
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  Speaker 1: as they could see of the road London Wood. Between
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: the houses to the right was a tumultuous stream of dirty,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: hurrying people pent in between the villas on either side
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: the black heads. The crowded forms grew into distinctness as
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  Speaker 1: they rushed towards the corner. Hurry passed and merged their
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  Speaker 1: individuality again in a receding multitude that was swallowed up
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  Speaker 1: at last in a cloud of dust. Go On, go on,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: cried the voices way way. One man's hands pressed on
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  Speaker 1: the back of another. My brother stood at the pony's head,
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  Speaker 1: irresistibly attracted, he advanced slowly, pace by pace down the lane.
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  Speaker 1: Edgeware had been a scene of confusion chalk Farm, a
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  Speaker 1: riotous tumult but this was a whole population and movement.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: It is hard to imagine that host It had no
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: character of its own. The figures poured out past the
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: corner and receded with their backs to the group in
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: the lane. Along the margin came those who were on foot,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: threatened by the wheels, stumbling in the ditches, blundering into
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: one another. The carts and carriages crowded close upon one another,
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  Speaker 1: making little way for those swifter and more impatient vehicles
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: that darted forward every now and then when an opportunity
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: showed itself of doing so, sending the people scattering against
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: the fences and gates of the villas. Push on was
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: the cry, push on, they are coming. In one cart
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: stood a blind man in the uniform of the Salvation Army,
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: gesticulating with his crooked fingers and bawling eternity, eternity. His
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: voice was hoarse and very loud, so that my brother
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: could hear him long after he was lost to sight
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: in the dust. Some of the people who crowded in
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: the carts whipped stupidly at their horses and quarreled with
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: other drivers. Some sat motionless, staring at nothing with miserable eyes.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Some gnawed their hands with thirst, or lay prostrate in
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: the bottoms of their conveyances. The horses bits were covered
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: with foam, their eyes bloodshot. There were cabs, carriages, shop cars,
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  Speaker 1: wagons beyond counting, a mail cart, a road cleaner's cart
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: marked vestry of Saint Pancras, a huge timber wagon crowded
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  Speaker 1: with ruffs. A brewer's dray rumbled by with its two
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: near wheels splashed with fresh blood. Clear the way, cried
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: the voices, Clear the way, eternity, eternity came echoing down
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: the road. There were sad, haggard women tramping by, well
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: dressed with children, that cried and stumbled, their dainty clothes
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: smothered in dust, their weary faces smeared with tears. With
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: many of these came men, sometimes helpful, sometimes lowering, and savage,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: fighting side by side with them, pushed some weary street
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: outcast in faded black rags, wide eyed, loud voiced, and
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: foul mouthed. There were sturdy workmen thrusting their way along, wretched,
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: unkempt men clothed like clerks or shopmen, struggling spasmodically, a
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: wounded soldier. My brother noticed men dressed in the clothes
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: of railway porters. One wretched creature in a night shirt
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: with a coat thrown over it, but varied as its
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: composition was certain things all that host had in common.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: There were fear and pain on their faces, and fear
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: behind them. A tumult up the road, a quarrel for
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: a place in a wagon, sent the whole host of
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: them quickening their pace. Even a man so scared and
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: broken that his knees bent under him, was galvanized for
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: a moment into renewed activity. The heat and dust had
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: already been at work upon this multitude. Their skins were dry,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: their lips black and cracked. They were all thirsty, weary,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: and footsore, and amid them various cries one heard, disputes, reproaches,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: groans of weariness and fatigue. The voices of most of
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: them were hoarse and weak. Through it all ran a
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: afrain way way The Martians are coming. Few stopped and
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: came aside from that flood. The lane opened slantingly into
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: the main road, with a narrow opening, and had a
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: delusive appearance of coming from the direction of London. Yet
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: a kind of eddy of people drove into its mouth.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: Weaklings elbowed out of the stream, who for the most
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: part rested but a moment before plunging into it again.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: A little way down the lane, with two friends bending
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: over him, lay a man with a bare leg, wrapped
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: about with bloody rags. He was a lucky man to
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: have friends. A little old man with a gray military
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: mustache and a filthy black frock coat limped out and
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: sat down beside the trap, removed his boot, his sock
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: was blood stained, shook out a pebble and hobbled on again.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: And then a little girl of eight or nine, all alone,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: threw herself under the hedge close by my brother, weeping,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: I can't go on, I can't go on. My brother
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: woke from his torpor of astonishment and lifted her up,
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: speaking gently to her, and carried her to Miss Elfinstone.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: So soon as my brother touched her, she became quite still,
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: as if frightened. Ellen shrieked a woman in the crowd,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: with tears in her voice. Ellen, and the child suddenly
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: darted away from my brother, crying, mother. They are coming,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: said a man on horseback, riding past along the lane.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: Out of the way, there bawled a coachman towering high,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: and my brother saw a closed carriage turning into the lane.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: The people crushed back on one another to avoid the horse.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: My brother pushed the pony in chaise back into the hedge,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: and the man drove by and stopped at the turn
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: of the way. It was a carriage with a pole
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: for a pair of horses. But only one was in
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: the traces. My brother saw dimly through the dust. The
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: two men lifted out something on a white stretcher and
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: put it gently on the grass beneath the privet hedge.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: One of the men came running to my brother. Where
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: is there any water? He said, he is dying fast
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: and very thirsty. It is Lord Garrick. Lord Garrick, said
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: my brother, the chief justice. The water, he said, There
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: may be a tap, said my brother, in some of
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: the houses we have no water. I dare not leave
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: my people. The man pushed against the crowd towards the
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: gate of the corner house. Go On, said the people,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: thrusting at him. They are coming. Go on. Then my
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: brother's attention was distracted by a bearded, eagle faced man
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: lugging a small hand, which split even as my brother's
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: eyes rested on it, and disgorged a mass of sovereigns
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: that seemed to break up into separate coins as it
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: struck the ground. They rolled hither and thither among the
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: struggling feet of men and horses. The man stopped and
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: looked stupidly at the heap, and the shaft of a
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: cab struck his shoulder. And sent him reeling. He gave
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: a shriek and dodged back, and a cartwheel shaved him narrowly. Way,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: cried the men all about him, make way. So soon
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: as the cab had passed, he flung himself with both
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: hands open upon the heap of coins and began thrusting
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: handfuls in his pocket. A horse rose close upon him,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: and in another moment, half rising, he had been borne
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: down under the horse's hoofs. Stop, screamed my brother, and,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: pushing a woman out of his way, tried to clutch
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: the bit of the horse. Before he could get to it,
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: he heard a scream under the wheels, and saw through
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: the dust the rim passing over the poor wretch's back.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: The driver of the card slashed his whip at my brother,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: who ran round behind the cart. The multitudinous shouting confused
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: his ears. The man was writhing in the dust among
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: his scattered money, unable to rise, for the wheel had
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: broken his back, and his lower limbs lay limp and dead.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: My brother stood up and yelled at the next driver,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: and a man on a black horse came to his assistance.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: Get him out of the road, said he, and clutching
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: the man's collar with his free hand. My brother lugged
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: him sideways, but he still clutched after his money and
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: regarded my brother fiercely, hammering at his arm with a
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: handful of gold. Go On, go On, shouted angry voices.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Behind way Way, There was a smash as the pole
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: of a carriage crashed into the cart that the man
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: on horseback ssid. My brother looked up, and the man
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: with the gold twisted his head round and bit the
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: wrist that held his collar. There was a concussion, and
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: the black horse came staggering sideways, and the cart horse
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: pushed beside it. A hoof missed my brother's foot by
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: a hair's breadth. He released his grip on the fallen
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: man and jumped back. He saw anger changed to terror
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: on the face of the poor wretch on the ground,
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: and in a moment he was hidden, and my brother
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: was borne backward and carried past the entrance of the
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: lane and had to fight hard in the torrent to
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: recover it. He saw Miss Elphinstone covering her eyes, and
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: a little child with all the child's want of sympathetic imagination,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: staring with dilated eyes at a dusty something that lay
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: black and still ground and crushed under the rolling wheels.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: Let us go back, he shouted, and began turning the
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: pony round. We cannot cross this hell, he said, and
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: they went back a hundred yards the way they had come,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: until the fighting crowd was hidden. As they passed the
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: bend in the lane, my brother saw the face of
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: the dying man in the ditch under the privet, deadly
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: white and drawn and shining with perspiration. The two women
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: sat silent, crouching in their seat and shivering. Then beyond
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: the bend, my brother stopped again. Miss Elphinstone was pale
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: and white, and her sister in law sat weeping, too
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: wretched even to call upon George. My brother was horrified
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: and perplexed. So soon as they had retreated, he realized
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: how urgent and unavoidable it was to attempt this crossing.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: He turned to Miss Elphinstone, suddenly resolute. We must go
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: that way, he said, and led the pony round again.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: For the second time that day, This girl proved her
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: quality to force their way into the torrent of people.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: My brother plunged into the traffic and held back a
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: cab horse while she drove the pony across its head.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: A wagon locked wheels for a moment and ripped a
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: long splinter from the chaise. In another moment, they were
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: caught and swept forward by the stream. My brother, with
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: the cabman's whip marks red across his face and hands,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: scrambled into the chaise and took the reins from her.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: Point the revolver at the man behind, he said, giving
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: it to her if he presses us too hard. No
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: pointed at his horse. Then he began to look for
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: a chance of edging to the right across the road,
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: But once in the stream he seemed to lose volition
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: to become a part of that dusty route. They swept
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: through Chipping Barnet with the torrent. They were nearly a
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: mile beyond the center of the village. Before they had
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: fought across to the opposite side of the way. It
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: was din and confusion indescribable. But in and beyond the
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: town the road forks repeatedly, and this to some extent
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: relieved the stress. They struck eastward through Hadley and there
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: on either side of the road, and at another place
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: farther on they came upon a great multitude of people
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: drinking at the stream, some fighting to come at the water.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: And farther on from a lull near East Barnet, they
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: saw two trains running slowly, one after the other, without
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: signal or order. Trains swarming with people, with men even
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: among the coals behind the engines going northward along the
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: Great Northern Line. My brother supposes they must have filled
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: outside London, for at that time the furious terror of
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: the people had rendered the central termini impossible. Near this
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: place they halted for the rest of the afternoon, for
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: the violence of the day had already utterly exhausted all
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: three of them. They began to suffer the beginnings of hunger.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: The night was cold, and none of them dared to sleep,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: And in the evening many people came hurrying along the
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: road near by their stopping place, fleeing from unknown dangers
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: before them, and going in the direction from which my
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: brother had come. End of Section sixteen.