@migu music@

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

Two luminous, disc like eyes

Appeared above the rim

A huge, rounded bulk, larger than a bear

Rose up slowly, glistening like wet leather

It's lip less mouth quivered

And snake like tentacles writhed

As the clumsy body heaved and pulsated

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 to fire

Every tree and bush

Became a mass of flames

At the touch of this savage

Unearthly Heat Ray

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

I awoke to alien sounds

Of hammering from the pit

And hurried to the railway station

To buy the paper

Around me, the daily routine

Of life working, eating, sleeping

Was continuing serenely

As it had for countless years

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

In the afternoon, a company of soldiers

Came through and deployed along the edge

Of the Common, to form a cordon

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

At down, a falling star

With a trail of green mist landed

With a flash like summer lightning

This was the second cylinder