trees, through the blackened and smoking arcades that had been but a

day ago pine spinneys, crawled the devoted scouts with the heliographs

that were presently to warn the gunners of the Martian approach. But

the Martians now understood our command of artillery and the danger of

human proximity, and not a man ventured within a mile of either

cylinder, save at the price of his life.

It would seem that these giants spent the earlier part of the

afternoon in going to and fro, transferring everything from the second

and third cylinders--the second in Addlestone Golf Links and the third

at Pyrford--to their original pit on Horsell Common. Over that, above

the blackened heather and ruined buildings that stretched far and

wide, stood one as sentinel, while the rest abandoned their vast

fighting-machines and descended into the pit. They were hard at work

there far into the night, and the towering pillar of dense green smoke

that rose therefrom could be seen from the hills about Merrow, and

even, it is said, from Banstead and Epsom Downs.

And while the Martians behind me were thus preparing for their next

sally, and in front of me Humanity gathered for the battle, I made my

way with infinite pains and labour from the fire and smoke of burning

Weybridge towards London.

I saw an abandoned boat, very small and remote, drifting down-stream;

and throwing off the most of my sodden clothes, I went after it,

gained it, and so escaped out of that destruction. There were no

The War of the Worlds