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

minute or so taking it in. Then he dropped his spade, snatched
up his jacket, and came out into the road. The two men
hurried back at once to the common, and found the cylinder
still lying in the same position. But now the sounds inside
had ceased, and a thin circle of bright metal showed between
the top and the body of the cylinder. Air was either entering
or escaping at the rim with a thin, sizzling sound.

They listened, rapped on the scaly burnt metal with a
stick, and, meeting with no response, they both concluded
the man or men inside must be insensible or dead.

Of course the two were quite unable to do anything. They
shouted consolation and promises, and went off back to the
town again to get help. One can imagine them, covered
with sand, excited and disordered, running up the little
street in the bright sunlight just as the shop folks were
taking down their shutters and people were opening their
bedroom windows. Henderson went into the railway station
at once, in order to telegraph the news to London. The
newspaper articles had prepared men's minds for the re-
ception of the idea.

By eight o'clock a number of boys and unemployed men
had already started for the common to see the "dead men from
Mars." That was the form the story took. I heard of it first
from my newspaper boy about a quarter to nine when I went out
to get my DAILY CHRONICLE. I was naturally startled, and
lost no time in going out and across the Ottershaw bridge
to the sand pits.





CHAPTER THREE


ON HORSELL COMMON



I found a little crowd of perhaps twenty people sur-
rounding the huge hole in which the cylinder lay. I have
already described the appearance of that colossal bulk, em-
bedded in the ground. The turf and gravel about it seemed
charred as if by a sudden explosion. No doubt its impact
had caused a flash of fire. Henderson and Ogilvy were not
there. I think they perceived that nothing was to be done for
the present, and had gone away to breakfast at Henderson's