The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-06-27

hole and in the garden was 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. watched
their intricate machines the auto
matte digger, the sensitive handling
machine like metallic spider so
flexible and so swiftly sure that they
seemed centuries in advance Of our
rigid machinery. could study too
the Marian habits. / learned that
evolution had made them all brain,
cold, remorseless intelligences I'M
swayed by emotion. They neithe:
slept nor ate; they we're sexless and
their young we're budded of, like the
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 Martians of our presence
| and I tried to silence him He broke
away and ! caught him in the kitchen
where / felled him with a meat-chop
! per. He dropped stunned and then
| saw two dark eyes at the window.
| fed to the coal-cellar and above me
heard a tapping, tapping, and then
| the noise of heavy body being
dragged across the floor.
| piled wood and coal over me when
l heard that tapping at the cellar-door
| Through creviees I could see the ter
rible arm of handling machine, wav-
/ ing, feeling, examining. Once it ran
across the heel of my boot and l near
/ ly screamed. Then it went away
| A week passed before l dared look
out. About the peep-hole was massed
| quantities of the red weed that the
Martians had brought-evidently veg
| citation on Mars is red. I pushed it
aside and gazed out. The garden was
/ deserted.
/ crept into a desolate world. About
me was a smashed village I strug-
gled on through the outskirts of Lon
don and not until l reached Wimble-
don Common Gid 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 had sci
ence enough to conquer their conquer
ors. / stayed with him until l had
lregained 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 was
near South kensington when l heard
the mournful bowling, Julia, u1la.'
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 I saw, stand
ing strangely still. Driven by fear
l resolved to end it all. I walked to
ward the Thing nearest me and saw
birds circling about the hood, tearins
at something within.
I scrambled hastily up a great ram
part and below me was the Marian
camp. They were all dead, nearly st
of them, some in their machines anf
; others prone upon the ground The,
could conquer man but they had fall
: en- before mans most relentless foe
the disease bacteria Of earth.
Whatever destruction was done
the hand OF the destroyer was stayed
All the gaunt wrecks, the blackenet
skeletons of houses that stared so dis
: mally at the sunlit grass of the hill
would presently be echoing with tn,
hammers of the restorers and ringin,
with the tapping of the trowels. A
, the thought l extended my hands to
: ward the sky and began thanking God
? In year, thought lin a year -"
! Copyright, 1919. by Post Publfshin,
. Co fThe Boston PosD. Printed by per
. mission of. and arrangement with. Har
Ter & Bros, authorized publishers
: The Marble Faun," one of the mos
: beautiful of Nathaniel Hawthorne,
$ ron1ances, condensed by Rev. Pau
K Revere rockingham, will be printed
: tomorrow.