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09 - The Fighting Begins - The War of the Worlds - H G Wells · Classic Science Fiction Books

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