The Penn's Grove record., 1920-05-14

Looking out from my windows OF
dawn, I beheld an abominable desOla-
ton, a blackened world that had been
green and fair. / struck out for Lon
don and for miles saw net a living be-
ing. / had reached the Thames when
l saw the Things coming, five Of them
| ran for the water. Straight toward
me sped one, but l might have been
an ant in a mans path. 1t STROBE
through the river and lowered above
~Shepperton. Then six hidden guns
belched together. One shell struck
the hood and there was a 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 vas
filed with kissing of Heat Rays and
i cracking of fires. Shepperton leaped
into flame. / staggered to the shore
and when 1 looked up. the Things
were bearing away the smashed ma
chine,
I 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
To,1 sc -ofeon that hlfnhfad oil 1fv.
ing things. So London streamed in
flight, 6,O00.0 600 people roaring out
along the highways until they were
rivers In flood.
I fell into a doze under a hedge and
there the curate Joined me. He was
half-mad with fright and chung to me,
We plodded on to a suburb where we
sought refuge In a deserted house. AT
midnight came a binding fashs When
Gay broke, we peered through peep
hole and in the garden vas a Marian.
Embedded in the earth was another
glowing cylinder.
For fifteen days I was penned there,
so | saw more of the monsters than
| uIIN olt1Cl lhd ~" wing
their intricate machines-the auto
matte 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. 1 could study too
evolution had made them all brain,
cold, remorseless intelligences un-
swayed by emotion. They neither
slept nor ate; they were sexless and
their young were budded off, 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 hat 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 l 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
I heard a tapping, tapping, and then
the noise of a heavy body being drag
ged across the floor.
I piled wood and coal owe me when
I heard that tapping at the cellar
door. Through crevices 1 could see
the terrible arm of a handling-ma-
chine, waving, feeling, examining.
Once it ran across the heel of my
boot and I nearly screamed. Then it
went away.
A week passed before l dared look
nut. About the peep-hole was massed
quantities of the red weed that the
Martians had brought-evidently vege-
tation on Mars is red. 1 pushed it
aside and gaZed out. The garden was
deserted.
l crept into a desolate world. About
me was a smashed village. / struggled
in through the outskirts of London and
not until I reached Wimbledon Com
mon 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 had science enough
10 COuuueT tltiI tOlluuClOiS. L SidSCh
with him until I 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 it was little changed
except for the horrible quiet. / was
near South Kensington when 1 heard
the mournful bowling, Julia, ulla J"
Not until the next day did l see the
hood of the giant that was making
this sobbing wall. He did not move
nor did three others that l saw, stand
ing strangely still. Driven by fear, ]
resolved to end it all. l walked toward
the Thing nearest me and saw birds
c~ircling about the hood, tearing al
something within.
I scrambled hastily up a great ram.
part and below me was the Marian
camp. They were all dead, nearly 80