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

that a black mark that had been near him five minutes ago
was now at the other side of the circumference. Even then
he scarcely understood what this indicated, until he heard a
muffled grating sound and saw the black mark jerk forward
an inch or so. Then the thing came upon him in a flash. The
cylinder was artificial--hollow--with an end that screwed
out! Something within the cylinder was unscrewing the top!

"Good heavens!" said Ogilvy. "There's a man in it--men
in it! Half roasted to death! Trying to escape!"

At once, with a quick mental leap, he linked the Thing
with the flash upon Mars.

The thought of the confined creature was so dreadful to
him that he forgot the heat and went forward to the cylinder
to help turn. But luckily the dull radiation arrested him before
he could burn his hands on the still-glowing metal. At that
he stood irresolute for a moment, then turned, scrambled out
of the pit, and set off running wildly into Woking. The time
then must have been somewhere about six o'clock. He met a
waggoner and tried to make him understand, but the tale
he told and his appearance were so wild--his hat had fallen
off in the pit--that the man simply drove on. He was equally
unsuccessful with the potman who was just unlocking the
doors of the public-house by Horsell Bridge. The fellow
thought he was a lunatic at large and made an unsuccessful
attempt to shut him into the taproom. That sobered him a
little; and when he saw Henderson, the London journalist,
in his garden, he called over the palings and made himself
understood.

"Henderson," he called, "you saw that shooting star last
night?"

"Well?" said Henderson.

"It's out on Horsell Common now."

"Good Lord!" said Henderson. "Fallen meteorite! That's
good."

"But it's something more than a meteorite. It's a cylinder
--an artificial cylinder, man! And there's something inside."

Henderson stood up with his spade in his hand.

"What's that?" he said. He was deaf in one ear.

Ogilvy told him all that he had seen. Henderson was a