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The War of the Worlds
Chapter 6. THE HEAT-RAY IN THE CHOBHAM ROAD
It's still a matter of wonder how the Martians are able to kill men so quickly and so silently.
Many think that in some way they can create an intense heat in a chamber that doesn't conduct heat at all.
They project this intense heat in a straight beam against any object they choose, using a polished curved mirror of unknown material.
The mirror works much like the curved mirror of a lighthouse, projecting a beam of light.
But no one has completely proved these details.
However it's done, it's certain that a beam of heat is the main thing.
Heat, and invisible, instead of visible, light.
Whatever burns catches fire on contact, lead runs like water, iron softens, glass cracks and melts, and water instantly explodes into steam.
That night nearly forty people lay under the starlight around the pit, burned and twisted beyond recognition.
All night long the common from Horsell to Maybury was empty and brightly burning.
The news of the killing probably reached Chobham, Woking, and Ottershaw about the same time.
In Woking, the shops had closed when the tragedy happened.
A number of people, shop people and others, were walking over the Horsell Bridge.
They were attracted by the stories they had heard.
They walked along the road between the hedges that leads to the common.
The young people dressed up after the day's labors.
They used this new thing as an excuse to walk together and enjoy a small flirtation.
You can picture to yourself the hum of voices along the road in the evening light.
Of course, few people in Woking even knew the cylinder had opened.
Poor Henderson had sent a messenger on a bicycle to the post office.
The messenger carried a special telegram to an evening paper.
These folks came out by twos and threes upon the open.
They found small groups of people talking excitedly.
The groups were looking at the spinning mirror over the sand-pits.
The newcomers were soon infected by the excitement of the occasion.
By half past eight, the Deputation was destroyed.
There may have been a crowd of three hundred people or more at this place.
This count didn't include those who had left the road to approach the Martians nearer.
There were three policemen, one of whom was on a horse, doing their best under instructions from Stent.
They tried to keep the people back and stop them from approaching the cylinder.
There was some booing from those more thoughtless and excitable souls to whom a crowd is always an occasion for noise and rough play.
Stent and Ogilvy expected a possible fight.
They telegraphed from Horsell to the barracks when the Martians came out.
They asked for a company of soldiers to protect the strange creatures from violence.
After that they returned to lead that unlucky advance.
The description of their death, as seen by the crowd, matches very closely with my own impressions.
I saw the three puffs of green smoke, the deep humming note, and the flashes of flame.
But that crowd of people had a far narrower escape than mine.
Only the fact that a small hill of sandy heather blocked the lower part of the Heat-Ray saved them.
If the elevation of the curved mirror had been a few yards higher, none could have lived to tell the tale.
They saw the flashes and the men falling and an invisible hand, as it were, lit the bushes as it hurried towards them through the twilight.
The beam swung close over their heads.
It made a whistling sound above the pit's droning.
It lit the tops of the beech trees along the road.
It split bricks, smashed windows, and set the frames on fire.
It brought down part of the nearest house's gable in crumbling ruin.
In the sudden thud, hiss, and glare of the burning trees, the panicked crowd seems to have swayed uncertainly for some moments.
Sparks and burning twigs began to fall into the road, and single leaves like puffs of flame.
Hats and dresses caught fire, then came a crying from the common.
There were shrieks and shouts, and suddenly a policeman on a horse came galloping through the confusion with his hands clasped over his head, screaming.
"They're coming!" a woman shrieked, and immediately everyone was turning and pushing at those behind, in order to clear their way to Woking again.
They must have run away as blindly as a flock of sheep.
Where the road grows narrow and dark between the high banks the crowd jammed, and a desperate struggle occurred.
Not all the crowd escaped, at least three people, two women and a little boy, were crushed, trampled, left dying in darkness.