The Washington herald., 1919-06-27

and there the curate Joined me. He
was half-mad with fright and clung
to me. We plodded on to suburb
where we sought refuge In a deserted
house. At midnight came a binding
fash, When day broke. we peered
through a peephole and In the garden
was a Marian. Embedded In the
earth was another glowing cylinder.
For fifteen days / was penned there,
so ! saw more of the monsters than
any other man now living. l watched
their intricate machines--the automa-
tic digger. the sensitive handling
machine like a metallic spider.-so
flexible and so swiftly sure that they
seemed centuries in advance of our
rigid machinery. / could study too
the Maisian habits. learned that
evolution had made them all brain.
cold. remorseless intelligences un-
swayed by emotion. They neither
slept nor ate: they were sexless and
young of corals. Most horrible to me
was the fact that they injected mems
blood into their veins for nourishment.
1t was this that drove me to act
as l did when the curate went raving
mad. / knew that his shouts would
warn the Martlaps OF our presence
and I tried to silence him. He broke
away and 1 caught him in the kitchen
where 1 felled him with a meat
chopper. He dropped stunned ana
then l saw two dark eyes at the win
dow. | fed to the coal cellar ana
above me I heard a tapping. tapping,
and then the noise of a heavy body
being dragged across the floor.
/ piled wood and coal over me when
heard that tapping at the cellar
door. Through crevices I could see
the terrible arm of a handling ma
chine. waving. feeling. examining.
Once 1t ran across the heel OF my
boot and I nearly screamed. Then
1t went away.
A week passed before l dared look
out. About the peephole was massed
quantities of the red weed that -.ne
Martians had brought. evidently vege-
tation on Mars is red. / pushed 1t
aside and gazed out. The garden was
deserted.
l crept into a desolate world. About
me was a smashed village. / strug-
gled on through the outskirts OF Lon
don and not until 1 reached VIM
bledon Common did I meet a man.
He had food and drink and plans for
the future. visions of a people living
in the great drains until they h.-L
science enough to conquer their con-
querors. ] stayed with him until 1
had regained my strength and then
walked into dead London.
The metropolis was stilled of all
its humming life. Here and there
were heaps OF dead, withered by
Black Smoke; here and there were
signs OF destruction but 1t was little
changed except for the horrible quiet.
1 was near South Kensington when 1
heard the mournful bowling. "ulla.
ulla," Not until the next day did
see the hood of the giant that was
making this sobbing~ wall. He did
not move nor did three others that
/ saw, standing strangely still. Driven
by fear, l resolved to end it all. 1
walked toward the Thing nearest me
and saw birds circling about the hood.
tearing at something within.
l scrambled hastily up a great ram
part and below me was the Marian
camp. They were all dead. nearly
fifty of them. some in their machines
and others prone upon the ground.
They could conquer man but they
had fallen before mans most relent-
Whatever destruction, was done,
the hand of the destroyer was stayed.
All the gaunt wrecks. the blackened
skeletons of houses that stared so
dismally at the sunlit grass of ,..e
hill. would presently be echoing with
the hammers of the restorers and ring
ing with the tapping of the trowels.
At the thought 1 extended my hands
toward the sky and began thanking
God. In year. thought-in a year
..........
Copyright. 1919. by Pcs. Publishing Co. CThe
Boston Postl. Printed by permissinon of, and
arrangement with. Harper & Bros. authorized
pIbIishers
"The Marble Fnun,- one of the
most beautiful of Nathaniel Haw-
thorne's romances. condensed by
Rev. Paul Revere Rockingham, will
be printed tomorrow.