weary, starving and sun-scorched, the earth under the blue sky and

against the prospect of the distant hills a velvet-black expanse, with

red roofs, green trees, and, later, black-veiled shrubs and gates,

barns, outhouses, and walls, rising here and there into the sunlight.

But that was at Street Cobham, where the black vapour was allowed

to remain until it sank of its own accord into the ground. As a rule

the Martians, when it had served its purpose, cleared the air of it

again by wading into it and directing a jet of steam upon it.

This they did with the vapour banks near us, as we saw in the

starlight from the window of a deserted house at Upper Halliford,

whither we had returned. From there we could see the searchlights on

Richmond Hill and Kingston Hill going to and fro, and about eleven the

windows rattled, and we heard the sound of the huge siege guns that

had been put in position there. These continued intermittently for

the space of a quarter of an hour, sending chance shots at the

invisible Martians at Hampton and Ditton, and then the pale beams of

the electric light vanished, and were replaced by a bright red glow.

Then the fourth cylinder fell--a brilliant green meteor--as I

learned afterwards, in Bushey Park. Before the guns on the Richmond

and Kingston line of hills began, there was a fitful cannonade far

away in the southwest, due, I believe, to guns being fired haphazard

before the black vapour could overwhelm the gunners.

128

The War of the Worlds