BOOK ONE: THE COMING OF THE MARTIANS
CHAPTER 15: WHAT HAD HAPPENED IN SURREY
It was while the curate had sat and talked so wildly to
me under the hedge in the flat meadows near Halliford, and
while my brother was watching the fugitives stream over
Westminster Bridge, that the Martians had resumed the offensive. So far as one can ascertain from the conflicting
accounts that have been put forth, the majority of them
remained busied with preparations in the Horsell pit until
nine that night, hurrying on some operation that disengaged
huge volumes of green smoke.
But three certainly came out about eight o'clock and,
advancing slowly and cautiously, made their way through
Byfleet and Pyrford towards Ripley and Weybridge, and so
came in sight of the expectant batteries against the setting
sun. These Martians did not advance in a body, but in a line,
each perhaps a mile and a half from his nearest fellow. They
communicated with one another by means of sirenlike howls,
running up and down the scale from one note to another.
It was this howling and firing of the guns at Ripley and
St. George's Hill that we had heard at Upper Halliford. The
Ripley gunners, unseasoned artillery volunteers who ought
never to have been placed in such a position, fired one wild,
premature, ineffectual volley, and bolted on horse and foot
through the deserted village, while the Martian, without using
his Heat-Ray, walked serenely over their guns, stepped gingerly among them, passed in front of them, and so came
unexpectedly upon the guns in Painshill Park, which he
destroyed.
The St. George's Hill men, however, were better led or of
a better mettle. Hidden by a pine wood as they were, they
seem to have been quite unsuspected by the Martian nearest
to them. They laid their guns as deliberately as if they had
been on parade, and fired at about a thousand yards' range.
The shells flashed all round him, and he was seen to
advance a few paces, stagger, and go down. Everybody yelled
together, and the guns were reloaded in frantic haste. The
overthrown Martian set up a prolonged ululation, and immediately a second glittering giant, answering him, appeared
over the trees to the south. It would seem that a leg of the
tripod had been smashed by one of the shells. The whole of
the second volley flew wide of the Martian on the ground,
and, simultaneously, both his companions brought their Heat-Rays to bear on the battery. The ammunition blew up, the
pine trees all about the guns flashed into fire, and only one or
two of the men who were already running over the crest of
the hill escaped.
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