afterwards, in Bushey Park. Before the guns on the Richmond and
Kingston line of hills began, there was a fitful cannonade far away in
the southwest, due, I believe, to guns being fired haphazard before the
black vapour could overwhelm the gunners.
So, setting about it as methodically as men might smoke out a wasps
nest, the Martians spread this strange stifling vapour over the
Londonward country. The horns of the crescent slowly moved apart, until
at last they formed a line from Hanwell to Coombe and Malden. All night
through their destructive tubes advanced. Never once, after the Martian
at St. George s Hill was brought down, did they give the artillery the
ghost of a chance against them. Wherever there was a possibility of
guns being laid for them unseen, a fresh canister of the black vapour
was discharged, and where the guns were openly displayed the Heat-Ray
was brought to bear.
By midnight the blazing trees along the slopes of Richmond Park and the
glare of Kingston Hill threw their light upon a network of black smoke,
blotting out the whole valley of the Thames and extending as far as the
eye could reach. And through this two Martians slowly waded, and turned
their hissing steam jets this way and that.
They were sparing of the Heat-Ray that night, either because they had
but a limited supply of material for its production or because they did
not wish to destroy the country but only to crush and overawe the
opposition they had aroused. In the latter aim they certainly
succeeded. Sunday night was the end of the organised opposition to
their movements. After that no body of men would stand against them, so
hopeless was the enterprise. Even the crews of the torpedo-boats and
destroyers that had brought their quick-firers up the Thames refused to
stop, mutinied, and went down again. The only offensive operation men
ventured upon after that night was the preparation of mines and
pitfalls, and even in that their energies were frantic and spasmodic.
One has to imagine, as well as one may, the fate of those batteries
towards Esher, waiting so tensely in the twilight. Survivors there were
none. One may picture the orderly expectation, the officers alert and
watchful, the gunners ready, the ammunition piled to hand, the limber
gunners with their horses and waggons, the groups of civilian
spectators standing as near as they were permitted, the evening
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