The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1920-05-05

gantic legs like an exaggerated tr
pod driving on with an express-train's
speed, smashing everything in theiT
path. At the tops, crOuched In meta, |
hoods, lay the Martians.
Looking out from my windows at
dawn, l beheld an abOminable desola'
ton. q blackened world that had beer
green and fair I struck out for Lou
don and for miles saw not living BIZ
ing. l had reached the Thames when
l saw the Things coming, five OF them.
l ran for the water. Straight toward
me sped one, but I might have been
an ant in a mans path. 1t STRIDE
through the river and lowered above
Shepperton. Then six hidden guns
belched together. One shell struck
the hood and there was horrible
confusion of flesh and blood and me-
tai. Something drove the uncontrolled
machine on, crashing through the VII
lage, topping over the church-tower.
collapsing in the river. The others
rushed to the spot and the air was
filled with kissing Of Heat Rays and
cracking of fires. Shepperton leaped
into flame. l staggered to the shore
and when I looked up. the Things
were bearing away the smashed ma
chine.
stumbled on, panic-stricken, dazed
The world was doomed. These mon
sters could STAY with Heat Rays be-
yond the range. of our biggest guns.
Not again could we kill one Of them
by surprise. Terror stalked through
London. To the horror Of Heat Rays
had been added the Black Smoke. a
cloud Of poison that blighted all liv-
ing things. So London streamed In
flight, 100000 people roaring out
along the highways until they were
rivers In food.
. fell into q doze under hedge and
!; there the curate joined me. He was
/ talf-mad with fright and chung to me.
: We plodded on to a. suburb where we
sought refuge in a deserted house. At
, midnight came binding flash. When
day broke, we peered through a peep
! hole and In the garden was Marian.
: Embedded in the earth was another
: glowing cylinder.
For fifteen days was penned there,
so I saw more of the monsters than
i any other man now living. I watched
e their intricate machines-the auto
e matte digger, the sensitive handling
> machine like a metallic spider.-so
d flexible and SO swiftly sure that they
n seemed centuries in advance OF our
9 rigid machinery. I could study too
s the Marian habits. I learned that
! evolution had made them all brain.
a cold, remorseless intelligeEsss I'M
swayed by emotion. They neither
slept nor ate; they were sexless and
their young were 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 1 tried to silence him. He broke
- away and I caught him in the kitchen
!. where felled him with meat-chop.
per. He dropped stunned and then
=, saw two dark eyes at the window
~ 1 fed to the coal-celfar and above me
:. 1 heard a tapping, tapping, and then
- the noise of a heavy body being drag
ged 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 it ran across the heel Of my
boot and l nearly screamed. Then II
!, went away.
IL A week passed before dared looh
=. out. About the peep-hole was masset
~ quantities of the red weed that the
Martians had brought-evidently vege
" tation on Mars is red. pushed II
,' aside and gazed out. The garden wal
!. deserted.
~ l crept into desolate world. Abou
~ me was a smashed village. struggled
in through the outskirts of London ant
not until 1 reached Wimbledon Com
~ mon did I meet a man. He had foot
- and drink and plans for the future
" visions Of a people living in the grea
. drains until they had science enough
y. to conquer their conquerors. stayet
~ with him until had regained m!
10 strength and then walked into deaf
London.
20 The metropolis was stilled of all 1T
~ humming life. Here and there wer'
~ heaps of dead, withered by Blacl
Smoke; here and there were signs O
- destruction but it was little changed
% except for the horrible quiet. l wa
~ near South Kensington when I heart
"a the mournful bowling, Julia, ulla =