"Herbert George Wells. The War of the Worlds" - читать интересную книгу автора

of moral ideas as civilisation progressed.

One night (the first missile then could scarcely have been
10,000,000 miles away) I went for a walk with my wife. It
was starlight and I explained the Signs of the Zodiac to
her, and pointed out Mars, a bright dot of light creeping
zenithward, towards which so many telescopes were pointed.
It was a warm night. Coming home, a party of excursionists
from Chertsey or Isleworth passed us singing and playing
music. There were lights in the upper windows of the houses
as the people went to bed. From the railway station in the
distance came the sound of shunting trains, ringing and
rumbling, softened almost into melody by the distance. My
wife pointed out to me the brightness of the red, green, and
yellow signal lights hanging in a framework against the sky.
It seemed so safe and tranquil.



CHAPTER TWO


THE FALLING STAR


Then came the night of the first falling star. It was seen
early in the morning, rushing over Winchester eastward, a
line of flame high in the atmosphere. Hundreds must have
seen it, and taken it for an ordinary falling star. Albin de-
scribed it as leaving a greenish streak behind it that glowed
for some seconds. Denning, our greatest authority on meteor-
ites, stated that the height of its first appearance was about
ninety or one hundred miles. It seemed to him that it fell
to earth about one hundred miles east of him.

I was at home at that hour and writing in my study; and
although my French windows face towards Ottershaw and
the blind was up (for I loved in those days to look up at
the night sky), I saw nothing of it. Yet this strangest of all
things that ever came to earth from outer space must have
fallen while I was sitting there, visible to me had I only
looked up as it passed. Some of those who saw its flight say
it travelled with a hissing sound. I myself heard nothing
of that. Many people in Berkshire, Surrey, and Middlesex
must have seen the fall of it, and, at most, have thought
that another meteorite had descended. No one seems to have
troubled to look for the fallen mass that night.

But very early in the morning poor Ogilvy, who had seen
the shooting star and who was persuaded that a meteorite lay