Then I saw some cabmen and others had walked boldly into the sand

pits, and heard the clatter of hoofs and the gride of wheels. I saw a

lad trundling off the barrow of apples. And then, within thirty yards

of the pit, advancing from the direction of Horsell, I noted a little

black knot of men, the foremost of whom was waving a white flag.

This was the Deputation. There had been a hasty consultation, and

since the Martians were evidently, in spite of their repulsive forms,

intelligent creatures, it had been resolved to show them, by

approaching them with signals, that we too were intelligent.

Flutter, flutter, went the flag, first to the right, then to the

left. It was too far for me to recognise anyone there, but afterwards

I learned that Ogilvy, Stent, and Henderson were with others in this

attempt at communication. This little group had in its advance

dragged inward, so to speak, the circumference of the now almost

complete circle of people, and a number of dim black figures followed

it at discreet distances.

Suddenly there was a flash of light, and a quantity of luminous

greenish smoke came out of the pit in three distinct puffs, which

drove up, one after the other, straight into the still air.

This smoke (or flame, perhaps, would be the better word for it) was

so bright that the deep blue sky overhead and the hazy stretches of

The War of the Worlds