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Horsell Common And The Heat Ray
Jeff Waynes
Popularity ยท High
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๐ฌ๐ง English ยท Original
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Next morning, a crowd gathered on the Common, hypnotized by the unscrewing of the cylinder
Two feet of shining screw projected when, suddenly, the lid fell off!
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Two luminous disc-like eyes appeared above the rim
A huge, rounded bulk, larger than a bear, rose up slowly, glistening like wet leather
Its lipless mouth quivered and slavered, and snake-like tentacles writhed as the clumsy body heaved and pulsated
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A few young men crept closer to the pit
A tall funnel rose, then an invisible ray of heat leapt from man to man and there was a bright glare, as each was instantly turned to fire
Every tree and bush became a mass of flames at the touch of this savage, unearthly Heat Ray
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People clawed their way off the Common, and I ran too
I felt I was being toyed with, that when I was on the very verge of safety, this mysterious death would leap after me and strike me down
At last I reached Maybury Hill and in the dim coolness of my home I wrote an account for my newspaper before I sank into a restless, haunted sleep
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I awoke to alien sounds of hammering from the pit, and hurried to the railway station to buy the paper
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Around me, the daily routine of life, working, eating, sleeping, was continuing serenely as it had for countless years
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On Horsell Common, the Martians continued hammering and stirring, sleepless, indefatigable, at work upon the machines they were making
Now and again a light, like the beam of a warship's searchlight, swept the Common and the Heat Ray was ready to follow
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In the afternoon, a company of soldiers came through and deployed along the edge of the Common, to form a cordon
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That evening, there was a violent crash and I realized with horror that my home was now within range of the Martian's Heat Ray
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At dawn, a falling star with a trail of green mist landed with a flash like summer lightning
This was the second cylinder
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