I saw my neighbour gardening, chatted with him for a time, and then
strolled in to breakfast. It was a most unexceptional morning. My
neighbour was of opinion that the troops would be able to capture or to
destroy the Martians during the day.
It s a pity they make themselves so unapproachable, he said. It
would be curious to know how they live on another planet; we might
learn a thing or two.
He came up to the fence and extended a handful of strawberries, for his
gardening was as generous as it was enthusiastic. At the same time he
told me of the burning of the pine woods about the Byfleet Golf Links.
They say, said he, that there s another of those blessed things
fallen there number two. But one s enough, surely. This lot ll cost the
insurance people a pretty penny before everything s settled. He
laughed with an air of the greatest good humour as he said this. The
woods, he said, were still burning, and pointed out a haze of smoke to
me. They will be hot under foot for days, on account of the thick soil
of pine needles and turf, he said, and then grew serious over poor
Ogilvy.
After breakfast, instead of working, I decided to walk down towards the
common. Under the railway bridge I found a group of soldiers sappers, I
think, men in small round caps, dirty red jackets unbuttoned, and
showing their blue shirts, dark trousers, and boots coming to the calf.
They told me no one was allowed over the canal, and, looking along the
road towards the bridge, I saw one of the Cardigan men standing
sentinel there. I talked with these soldiers for a time; I told them of
my sight of the Martians on the previous evening. None of them had seen
the Martians, and they had but the vaguest ideas of them, so that they
plied me with questions. They said that they did not know who had
authorised the movements of the troops; their idea was that a dispute
had arisen at the Horse Guards. The ordinary sapper is a great deal
better educated than the common soldier, and they discussed the
peculiar conditions of the possible fight with some acuteness. I
described the Heat-Ray to them, and they began to argue among
themselves.
Crawl up under cover and rush em, say I, said one.
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