Amazing Stories, August 1927 — page 18: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

432 describing the gradual unscrewing of the shot was judged to be a canard, and his evening paper, after wiring for authentication from him and receiving no reply—the man was killed—decided not to print a special edition. Within the five-mile circle even the great ma- jority of people were inert. I have already de- scribed the behaviour of the men and women to whom I spoke. All over the district people were dining and supping; working-men were gardening after the labors of the day, children’ were being /put to bed, young people were wandering through the lanes love-making, students sat over their books. Maybe there was a murmur in the village streets, a novel and dominant topic in the public-houses, and here and thee a messenger, or even an eye- witness of the later occurrences, caused a whirl of excitement, a shouting and a running to and fro; but for the most part the daily routine of working, eating, drinking, sleeping, went on as it had done for countless years— ag though no planet Mars existed in the sky. Even at Woking Station and Horsell and Chobham that was the case. In Woking Junction, until a late hour, traing were stopping and going on, others were shunting on the sidings, passengers were alighting and wait- ing, and everything was proceeding in the most ordinary way. A boy from town, trenching on Smith’s monopoly, was selling papers with the afternoon’s news. The ringing and impact of trucks, the sharp whistle of the engines from the junction, mingled with his shouts of “Men from Mars!” Excited men came into the station about nine o’clock, with incredible tidings, and caused no more disturbance than drunkards might have done. People rattling Londonwards peered into the dark- ness outside the carriage windows and saw only a rare, flickering, vanishing spark dance up from the direction of Horsell, a red glow and a thin veil of smoke driving across the stars, and thought that nothing more serious than a heath fire was hap- . pening. It was only around the edge of the common that any disturbance was perceptible. There were half a dozen villas burning on the Woking border. There were lights in all the houses on the common side of the three villages, and the people there kept awake till dawn. A curious crowd lingered restlessly, people com- ing and going but the crowd remaining, both on the Chobham and Horsell bridges. One or two adventurous souls, it was afterwards found, went into the darkness and crawled quite near the Mar- tians, but they never returned, for now and again a light-ray, like the beam of a warship’s. search- lizht, swept the common, and the Heat-Ray was ready to follow. Save for such, that big area of common was silent and desolate, and the charred bodies lay, about on it all night under the stars, and all the next day. A noise of hammering from the | pit was heard by many people. a iar eek ase aoe <i es eee AMAZING STORIES | t. VEY + objects lying in contorted attitudes here and there. Here and there was a burning bush or tree. Beyond was a fringe of excitement, and further than that fringe the inflammation had not crept as yet. In ~ the rest of the world the stream of life still flowed as it had flowed for immemorial years. The fever of war that would presently clog vein and artery, — deaden nerve and destroy brain, had still to de- — velop. ee All night long the Mertend were hammering < and stirring, sleepless, indefatigable, at work upon | the machines they were making ready, and ever and again a puff of greenish-white smoke whirled up to the starlit sky. About eleven a company of soldiers came through Horsell, and deployed along the edge of the com- mon to form a cordon. Later a second company marched through Chobham to deploy on the north side of the common. Several officers from. the Inkerman barracks had been on the common earlier in the day, and one, Major Eden, was reported to be missing, The Colonel of the regiment came to the Chobham bridge, and was busy questioning the crowd at midnight. The military authorities were certainly alive to the seriousness of the busi ness. About eleven, the next morning’s paper. were able to say, a squadron of hussars, tw Maxims, and about 400 men of the Cardigan regi ment, started from Aldershot. A few seconds after midnight the crowd in the Chertsey road, Woking, saw a star fall from heaver into the pine-woods to the north-west. It fell with oe Be ‘ CHAPTER IX The Fighting Begins ATURDAY lives in my memory as a day o suspense. It was a day of lassitude too, hot y and close, with, I am told, a rapidly fluctu-— ating barometer. I had slept but little, though my ~ wife had succeeded in sleeping, and I rose early. I went into my garden before breakfast, and stood listening, but towards the common there was noth- ing stirring but a lark. The milkman came as usual. I heard the rattle of his chariot, and I went round to the side-gate to ask the latest news. He told me thateduring the night the Martians had been surrounded by troops, and that guns were expected. Then, a familiar reassuring note, I heard a train running towards — Woking. % “They aren’t to be killed,” said the milkman, “if that can possibly be avoided. se ie I saw my neighbor gardening, chatted with him : for a time, and then strolled in to breakfast. I was a most unexceptional morning. My neighboi that the troops would be able t ; es me 3 s