Война миров / The War of the Worlds

Close on the heels of that came a violent rattling crash, quite close to us, that shook the ground; and, starting out upon the lawn, I saw the tops of the trees about the Oriental College burst into smoky red flame, and the tower of the little church beside it slide down into ruin. The pinnacle of the mosque had vanished, and the roof line of the college itself looked as if a hundred-ton gun had been at work upon it. One of our chimneys cracked as if a shot had hit it, flew, and a piece of it came clattering down the tiles and made a heap of broken red fragments upon the flower bed by my study window.

I and my wife stood amazed. Then I realised that the crest of Maybury Hill must be within range of the Martians’ Heat-Ray now that the college was cleared out of the way.

At that I gripped my wife’s arm, and without ceremony ran her out into the road. Then I fetched out the servant, telling her I would go upstairs myself for the box she was clamouring for.

�We can’t possibly stay here,’ I said; and as I spoke the firing reopened for a moment upon the common.

�But where are we to go?’ said my wife in terror.

I thought perplexed. Then I remembered her cousins at Leatherhead.

�Leatherhead!’ I shouted above the sudden noise.

She looked away from me downhill. The people were coming out of their houses, astonished.

�How are we to get to Leatherhead?’ she said.

Down the hill I saw a bevy of hussars ride under the railway bridge; three galloped through the open gates of the Oriental College; two others dismounted, and began running from house to house.

The sun, shining through the smoke that drove up from the tops of the trees, seemed blood red, and threw an unfamiliar lurid light upon everything.

�Stop here,’ said I; �you are safe here’; and I started off at once for the Spotted Dog, for I knew the landlord had a horse and dog cart. I ran, for I perceived that in a moment everyone upon this side of the hill would be moving.

I found him in his bar, quite unaware of what was going on behind his house. A man stood with his back to me, talking to him.

�I must have a pound,’ said the landlord, �and I’ve no one to drive it.’

�I’ll give you two,’ said I, over the stranger’s shoulder.

�What for?’

�And I’ll bring it back by midnight,’ I said.

�Lord!’ said the landlord; �what’s the hurry? I’m selling my bit of a pig.