CHAPTER SUMMARIES WITH NOTES



CHAPTER SUMMARIES

Book One: The Coming of the Martians

Chapter One - The Eve of the War Summary

The book begins with “No one would have believed in the last years’ of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own.” People are going about their lives on Earth, with little concern for extraterrestrial life beyond pondering its possibility. But this will soon change.

Mars, being older than Earth, is therefore further along in the evolutionary process. The planet is now in its final stage, that of cooling off. For the inhabitants that have lived there since before human development on Earth began, the problems posed by cooler temperatures and smaller oceans has led them to develop great intellectual powers, in order to meet the needs of the moment. When they turn their newly created instruments towards Earth, 35,000,000 miles away, they see a way to survive.

By 1894, the Martians have developed space travel, which from Earth’s perspective, appears as if “a colossal puff of flame suddenly and violently squirted out of the planet, ‘as flaming gases rushed out of a gun.’” The event causes little stir on Earth at first, but the narrator meets Ogilvy, an astronomer who is quite interested in it, and agrees to join him at the observatory that night.

Again, around midnight, there is a shot, and this continues for a total of 10 consecutive nights. Then it stops; speculation is that it could possibly be that the gases caused by the shots were disrupting the Martian atmosphere, thereby forcing them to stop the launchings.

People then took note, but continued about as they had always done; the narrator, for example, was learning to ride a bicycle. He went for a starlit walk with his wife one night, and took comfort in “the brightness of the red, green, and yellow signal lights hanging in a framework against the sky.” And every day the “Things” from Mars were quickly approaching Earth.

Chapter Two - The Falling Stars

Summary

In Chapter Two, the Martian landing takes place and the news of it begins to spread. The narrator himself misses the craft streaking across the sky, but many other people see it, though they mistake it for a falling star. Early the next morning, Ogilvy starts out and finds the “meteorite” (as he at first supposes it is) near the sand pits in Horsell Common. Its impact on Earth has made a big hole and left the Thing itself mostly covered in sand. From what could be seen though, Ogilvy notes that it looked like a huge cylinder with a 30 yard diameter. He could hear a “stirring noise” coming from within it but it is too hot from its descent through the atmosphere for him to draw nearer.

“Then suddenly he noticed with a start that some of the grey clinker, the ashy incrustation that covered the meteorite, was falling off the circular edge of the end.” As he noticed this was due to it rotating very slowly, (think of the opening of a submarine hatch after it surfaces), he grasps that the Thing was not a meteorite at all, but artificial, hollow, and with something alive inside. The flashes from Mars come to his mind and he makes the connection.

Excited, Ogilvy takes off for the nearest town, Woking. Although taken for crazy by the first two men he tells, he manages to get his story out to Henderson, a journalist, who quickly follows him back to the pit.

The cylinder is silent now, and, after hitting it with a stick provokes no response, they hurry back to town, believing whatever was inside to be dead. As the news spread, many, including the narrator, head off “to see the ‘dead men from Mars.’”

Chapter Three - On Horsell Common Summary

The narrator arrives at the scene of the crash landing to find Henderson and Ogilvy gone, having left to go to breakfast. A small group has gathered in their place, whose members also come and go. Some of the boys are throwing stones at the object but the narrator makes them stop.

Standing about the growing crowd, the narrator ponders that it is likely the cylinder did indeed come from Mars, but thinks it might contain a manuscript, rather than a living creature. Growing bored with the cylinder’s lack of movement, he goes home, only to return that afternoon.

The reports in the newspapers have caused a considerable number of people to gather about the site. Excavation is going on inside the pit by a small group of men, including Henderson and Ogilvy. So far, a lot of the cylinder has been unearthed but the one end is still in the ground and the top is on tight. Ogilvy asks the narrator to go see Lord Hilton, who owns the land, and request permission to keep the people out of the way, as they are hindering the excavators’ work. He heads off to do so, and plans to meet Lord Hilton when he comes in on the 6:00 train.

Chapter Four - The Cylinder Opens Summary

There are now a few hundred people about, all struggling to get a better view despite the constant shouts to “‘Keep back!’” The crowd’s pushy movements have already resulted in one man, a young shop assistant, falling into the pit.

While he attempts to get back out, the lid of the cylinder continues to unscrew, extending out for about two feet before it clatters to the ground. The crowd prepares for the appearance of a creature similar to men. Then tentacles begin to project from the cylinder, and the onlookers move hurriedly backwards, looks of horror on their faces.

The creature from Mars emerges with slow and pained movements, made so by the effect of gravity and an unfamiliar atmosphere. It is about the size of a bear and grayish in color, with the appearance of wet leather when the in the sunlight. It has what could be considered a face, rounded and with two big, “intense, inhuman” eyes. Saliva drops from the V-shaped mouth, which lacks lips, as well as a chin beneath it.

Then it disappears from view, as it manages to pull itself out of the cylinder and fall to the ground. Another creature appears from the darkness as the narrator runs away, his eyes still on the pit, coming to a stop behind a cluster of trees. Many others have acted similarly, staring intently at the scene from around tree trunks and bushes.

For a brief moment, the dark figure of the fallen shopkeeper can be seen against the sun, still struggling to escape from the pit. Then suddenly he drops again below the surface, but a deep fear prevents anyone from coming to his aide.

Unable to see much, the people stand about and watch the pit with growing fear.

Chapter Five - The Heat-Ray Summary

Out of the pit rises a pole with an awkwardly spinning disk at its top. Now very concerned about what could be happening, the fear-stricken onlookers begin to move cautiously about, forming up in two groups. The narrator heads toward a higher vantage point, stopping to speak briefly to one of his neighbors before going on.

Others are beginning to move forward slowly, encouraged by the lack of movement in the pit and the presence of more people coming in from Woking, the nearby town. The Deputation, a small group of men bearing a white flag, arrive and lead.

The advance halts when three bright puffs of green smoke rise in the air, illuminating the frozen figures around the pit. A hissing noise, followed by a loud humming, announces the appearance of a domed object. Silent flames flashed out from it, directed at one man after another. A brief moment of fire, followed by a stumbling fall, pronounced the death of each. Trees, bushes, and buildings burst into flames as the concentrated heat came.

The narrator finds himself standing right in its the path, but is unable to move, transfixed and uncomprehending. Before reaching him though, the object lowers back down into the pit, leaving behind some smoking remnants and an eerily undisturbed silence.

Fear struck the narrator with a sudden blow, and he turned and ran. His quiet tears were accompanied by a strong sense that the cylinder’s death would reach him right before he reached safety.

Chapter Six - The Heat-Ray in the Chobham Road Summary

There is general amazement over the Martians’ methods of killing. Although there is a theory that the machine’s heat beam works similarly to a lighthouse’s ray of light, it is not known for sure; the only thing that is, is that heat is the foundation for the silent killing instrument. Almost forty people already lie dead from it.

At this point, the narrator takes a more general view, instead of one based primarily on his own experiences, to recap events. There are no plot developments; it is simply a look back at the public sentiment and experience from hearing of the news of the cylinder to fleeing from the site.

He imagines how the people, after finishing their day’s work, headed out to see the “novelty.” The atmosphere was casual and fun (almost like that of those going to see fireworks today), not at all expecting the horror and fear that would come later that night. Stent, the Astronomer Royal who had been on the scene since earlier that day, helping to direct excavations, was the only one who took any precautions. He had given directions to the three policemen in attendance to keep people away from the cylinder, and had also put in a call for a company of soldiers at the first sight of the Martians, though he originally was thinking of their protection from humans, not vice versa.

When the Heat-Ray emerged, many had a view of the deaths of those in the Deputation like that of the narrator’s. The only thing that saved the crowd itself from a similar fate is a small mound of heather (a plant with little purplish pink flowers), that took the impact of the Heat-Ray.

But as the world around them caught fire, the people panicked. In the chaos that followed as they hastened to get away, two women and a little boy were trampled to death.

Chapter Seven - How I Reached Home Summary

The narrator takes note of little during his frantic run, finally collapsing by a bridge, exhausted after fleeing from the terrors he sees all around him. When he was again able to move, he at first cannot remember the events of the past few hours. As it comes back to him in this still untouched world, it all begins to seem unreal. The three things that had seemed so pressing to him just awhile ago-the vastness of his surroundings, his own weakness, and the coming death-were gone, leaving him as he has always been.

As he starts walking, he sees the sights of ordinary life, a workman and a little boy, as well as a train and other signs of industry. Two men and a woman standing by a gate laughingly dismiss the narrator’s concerns about the Martians. His wife however, takes the threat they pose in all seriousness.

The narrator recounts his experiences to her over a cold, untouched dinner. Seeing the anxiety clearly written in her white face, he begins to feel that he perhaps overestimated the threat the Martians posed. As he attempts to reassure her and his confidence increases, he comes to believe that it really would not take much to kill the creatures and that they are probably only so destructive out of fear.

He finds comfort in the sluggishness of the Martians, a result of the tripled strength of gravity on Earth. However, he, as well as the newspapers, have forgotten to take into account the different atmospheric composition (the Earth has more oxygen, less argon) and the benefits of mechanical abilities that more than counter the gravitational effects.

The narrator remembers the dinner vividly, as it would be the last of its kind for some time.

Chapter Eight - Friday Night Summary

It was a Friday night like any other, something the narrator finds remarkable. No one outside a five mile radius, except relations of those killed by the Heat-Ray, was affected at all by the Martians. The excited shouts of news boys seemed to decline in urgency when heard from railway stations of bustling people going about their business. In fact, most of the people within the radius were still doing everyday things.

But there were some for whom the night was a sleepless one. Those who had houses that backed the common stayed awake. The Martians themselves were up the whole time, busy working on their machines. Every so often, the light beam would sweep the area around the pit, followed shortly by the Heat-Ray, to take care of those few people who ventured too close.

By this time, a concerned military was becoming involved. Of the soldiers already deployed, one, a Major Eden, was missing. More troops are headed to the area to provide reinforcements.

Right after midnight, the constant crowd that had gathered saw the second cylinder fall to the Earth.

Chapter Nine - The Fighting Begins Summary

After a night of little sleep, the narrator awakes early to a hot and restless Saturday and goes outside. He is unable to hear anything from the direction of the Martians, but then the milkman arrives, bringing news that troops surrounded the pit during the night.

His gardener neighbor seems unconcerned by this, or by view of the still-smoking woods around the Byfleet Golf Links, where the second cylinder landed. When the narrator spoke with a group of sappers (a kind of soldier) near the common, they had not seen the Martians nor were they familiar with the Heat-Ray. Once the narrator tells them what he knew, they argue about the best way to approach the pit.

After going to the railway station and finding that the newspapers contain no new information, the narrator continues in his attempts to find out more. However, his efforts are encumbered by the military, which has taken possession of any vantage points from which to view the common and are unable to tell him anything.

The evening newspapers also have little to satisfy his curiosity. The Martians have been busy hammering and smoke has been flowing nearly constantly from the pit, but they have not appeared again. Nonetheless, the narrator is excited by the preparations going on around him and once again feels confident in the humans’ chances.

Around 3:00, the military starts shelling the second cylinder, in hopes of destroying it before it opens. About three hours later, firing on the original cylinder begins. Rushing outside, the narrator sees the nearby Oriental College’s trees catch fire and the church tower collapse. Realizing that his home on top of Maybury Hill is now vulnerable to the Heat-Ray, he knows he cannot stay.

The landlord of the Spotted Dog inn has a horse and dog cart and is too concerned with the sale of a pig to notice the events taking place outside, something he will soon regret. He loans the cart to the narrator, who hurries to pack a few of his belongings and get his wife and servant. Three hussars, another type of soldier, are rushing about warning people, but all the narrator gets out of the one nearest him is that the Martians are in a new contraption and are leaving the pit.

After knocking on his neighbor’s door to confirm that they are in London, he takes off for Leatherhead, where his wife has cousins. By the time he is confident enough to slow the horse down, the two small towns of Woking and Send are behind them and they have passed the doctor’s cart that was also on the road.

Chapter Ten - In the Storm Summary

After arriving in Leatherhead around 9:00 pm and eating supper, the narrator is anxious to return to the scene of the action. Although his wife is quiet and grave for most of the evening, she does not try to dissuade him from keeping his promise to the innkeeper to have the cart back that night. He sets off eagerly at about 11:00 pm, taking a route through Ockham. That night, it is a town of silent houses, with only a small, quiet group of people out. He gets back to Maybury Hill just slightly after midnight.

Against the backdrop of the surmounting storm, the narrator sees a third cylinder fall to Earth. As flashes of lightning illuminate the sky, his horse takes off down the hill, but he is still able to make out the Martians’ new machine. It is a metal tripod that stands higher than several houses. At the top is a sort of head that turns about, as if planning out a path, and the steel that hangs down in tentacle-like fashion is easily taking care of any trees in the way. A green smoke is emitted from its joints.

Realizing that the machine is headed his way, the narrator panics and pulls the reins to the right so hard that the horse falls, breaking its neck. The cart overturns, landing him in a large puddle of water. The machine passes by, meeting up with the other one at the site of the newly fallen third cylinder.

Though the lightning has become intermittent, the hail is coming down heavily.

He gets no answer at a nearby small house, and fails to think then of escaping back to Leatherhead, and so the narrator starts out on the difficult walk to his house. After crawling along in a ditch and using trees as cover, he struggles out onto a lane. A man runs into him, but is too scared to do anything but scream and run off.

The storm is strong, so the narrator begins using a fence as a guide and support. His foot catches something, and by the brief flashes of lightning, he recognizes the dead body of the man whom he had borrowed the dog cart from, the landlord of the Spotted Dog.

Finally arriving home, the narrator goes inside, locks the door, and sits at the bottom of the staircase, cold and distraught.

Chapter Eleven - At the Window Summary

Becoming aware that his clothes and himself are still dripping wet from both falling into the puddle and walking around while it hailed, the narrator takes a drink of whiskey and changes his clothes.

He goes upstairs to his study, where a window was left open. To one side, he is able to see the scorched trees around Byfleet Courses; to the other, a wrecked train and some houses with a few dying fires still among them. No people are visible, except for a few black images framed by the light of the train station. There are now three of the large metal machines, however, and all are moving busily about the pit. The narrator wonders if it is a similar experience to what animals think when they see a train.

Eager for some human company, he jumps at the chance when a soldier, looking for shelter, enters his garden. The narrator lets him in and offers him a drink of whiskey. Then the soldier puts his head down and begins to cry. When he regains enough control, he starts to tell his story.

The soldier was an artillery driver that came on the scene around 7:00 pm. When the first of the Martians’ new machines rose out of the pit, his horse tripped and a gun went off, blowing up the ammunition and leaving him pinned to the ground. He stayed hidden under the horse while the machine blasted away with the Heat-Ray. When nearly everything was destroyed, it turned the weapon off and met up with the rising second machine.

He then decides to move, but with great caution. The people he sees are trying to hide and escape amidst burning ruins. One especially unfortunate man was grabbed by one of the machines and thrown against a tree. The soldier is making his way in the direction of London when the narrator took him in.

After eating and finishing the conversation, both men are calmer. As the narrator and soldier go upstairs and look out the window, dawn is breaking on a landscape of ruins and smoke. There are only a few objects that have survived the night of destruction. By the pit, stand the three Martian machines.

Chapter Twelve - What I Saw of the Destruction of Weybridge and Shepperton Summary

With the beginning of the day, the narrator makes plans to get his wife and leave the country, while the artilleryman intends to meet up with his battery. At the latter’s insistence, the narrator agrees to join him on a detour around the third cylinder and the Martians’ machines that are towering by it. They take provisions of food and whiskey and head off. In the street are three burned bodies, numerous dropped possessions, and a broken cart. The houses are mostly intact, but there is no sign of inhabitants, most of which have escaped or hidden. Though the woods on one side of the railroad line are almost completely burned to the ground, the trees on the other side bear only a few scorch marks.

When the narrator and artilleryman come out of the forest and onto the road, they meet up with three cavalrymen and tell them about the Martians. Although he seems a little skeptical, the lieutenant in the group tells the soldier to report to Brigadier-General Marvin in Weybridge. Since the narrator knows the way, he continues with him.

As they travel out of the Heat-Ray’s range, they see women and children cleaning out a small house, six guns waiting at attention, and troops whose work was interspersed with glances in the direction of the approaching Martians. The town of Byfleet is a mess, as people prepare to leave. They have not yet realized the gravity of their situation, as demonstrated by one man who is insisting to a soldier that his potted orchids come along. The narrator attempts to convince him otherwise, but even his words do not seem to drive all self-assurance out of the man.

Weybridge is in a great state of disorder as well. The regular trains have been stopped in order to transport the military and its equipment, so a crowd of people are waiting on the platform, soon to be engaged in an intense struggle for seats. The boats that ferry people across the river to land in front of an in with a lawn are running, but it is already evident that they will not be able to take everyone. The general atmosphere is not yet one of panic, people are confident in their eventual success over the Martians, but there are anxious glances at the skyline and frequent shouts.

Suddenly shots are fired but the guns are concealed by the trees and the Martians still out of sight. The battle continued for some moments, invisible to the crowd, until five Martian machines appeared, heading towards the river. There was silence among the crowd and then panic broke out. Recognizing the Heat-Ray in the hands of one, the narrator and others begin jumping into the river.

As one of the machines starts wading across, the six guns hidden behind the town of Shepperton go off. The fourth shell hits it directly in the face, killing the Martian concealed inside the metal machine. Excitement seizes the narrator and others, over this first victory. The machine staggers on, until it finally falls in the river. This, and its still flailing tentacles made the water quite hot and whirling about but the narrator did not get out. With the other machines still advancing and the guns having no affect this time, he went under the water. When he resurfaced, they were standing near the mangled metal.

The Martians use their Heat-Ray on Weybridge and the surrounding area. People who were running frantically about the towing path beside the river were picked off, one by one. The Heat-Ray sweeps over the water and onto the town of Shepperton, sending a scalding wave down on the narrator and forcing him to struggle to shore. He falls in full sight of the Martians and one of the machine’s feet lands close by his head, but he is spared, as the four machines carry the fallen metal body off.

Chapter Thirteen - How I Fell in with the Curate Summary

The machines return to Horsell Common, without finishing their annihilation of the many people lying about, helpless and vulnerable to the Heat-Ray. Instead of pushing on to a still-defenseless London, the Martians spend the day moving everything from the other two cylinders to the pit. Then they get out of their machines and also descend into it, all except one who is left to stand guard. Reinforcements continue to arrive, as the cylinders land every 24 hours.

The military is putting every effort into building up a force to face the Martians. Guns are put in every possible location and scouts are placed in position for signaling (using a heliograph, which is basically a device that reflects the sun’s rays off a mirror), though none venture within a mile of the pit.

As for the narrator, he spots an abandoned boat downstream and manages to reach it. His situation is now a little better but there are no paddles so he must use his sore hands. Plus he had to shed his soaked clothes, except for trousers and socks, in order to be able to reach the boat, and the sun burns his back. However, he figures that it is best to stick to the water so that if the machines return, he can go under and have a chance of evading the Heat-Ray.

On the way down the river, he passes the town of Halliford. Though some of the buildings are on fire, there is no crowd out. By late afternoon, he is too sick and weary to go further and lands on the Middlesex bank. He is angry with his wife, though he can find no reason for it, and all other thoughts are overshadowed by his thirst. He drifts asleep for some time in the grass and when he awakes, the curate (the head clergyman of the Weybridge parish) is sitting next to him.

Except for his sleeves, which have soot marks, the curate has a clean appearance, with precise curls about the top of his shaven face. Physically, he is in better shape than the narrator but mentally it is just the opposite. The curate is deeply in shock over seeing the destruction of his church and town. He is trying, without much success, to figure out why it happened, what horrible sin the people of Weybridge committed to bring such ruin. It is difficult for him to comprehend how all their dutiful work can suddenly have nothing to show for it. He wonders if this is the beginning of the end of the world.

The narrator tells him to keep his head and his hope. After lengthy reasoning and appeals to the past when disasters that were overcome fail to improve the curate’s state, the narrator points out that one of the Martians’ machines was destroyed. This news seems to help, along with the sight of a heliograph signal in the sky.

After the distant sounds of gunshots and a strange crying noise give way to silence, the narrator decides that it would be best for them to head north.

Chapter Fourteen - In London Summary

This chapter is from the point of view of the narrator’s younger brother, a medical student in London. He first learns of the Martians in the Saturday morning paper, which, although it stirs up some interest, is limited in its reports to military maneuvers and the burning woods. It also incorrectly argues that the effects of gravity will limit the Martians to a lethargic state. Curious rather than concerned, he plans to go down to the narrator’s house to see them.

The telegraph he sends about his plans never reaches the narrator but neither does he. An accident has stopped the train to Woking, but few think to tie it to the activities of the Martians. This is partly because Londoners did not take it personally, feeling themselves secure as well as dulled by years of a constant flow of news. Most did not bother reading even the Sunday paper.

After hearing news of an invasion while in church, the brother gets a newspaper and heads over to the railroad station. It is disorganized and he can get very little information before officers begin clearing off the platform to make way for the soldiers and weapons using the line. Like others who are now starting to focus on the Martians, he gets a newspaper, with its ink still drying. It gives a more accurate description of the Martians and the fighting so far but still fails to grasp the severity of the situation. Instead, the paper discourages panic and tells of the immense military buildup. Besides, judging by the size of the cylinders, it is thought that there can be no more than twenty Martians. Still holding the paper, the brother watches the arrival of the refugees, whose worn appearance contrasts sharply with the Londoners in their Sunday best. He talks with a few of them and one man tells him that Woking has been destroyed. The brother is further concerned when he hears quite clearly the sounds of intense firing while walking through the quiet streets.

He finally manages to get to sleep, only to be awakened in the early hours of Monday morning. The brother, like so many others, opens a window to find out what is going on. A policeman is hurrying up and down the streets, knocking on doors and shouting warnings of the Martians’ approach. While he stands there, lights begin going on and vehicles start fleeing through the streets. Another lodger comes into the room and joins him in watching the scene below. The brother hastily gets dressed and then goes down to the street.

There he is able to get a newspaper, sold for profit, which contains a dispatch from the Commander-in-Chief. It says that the Martians and their “Black Smoke” (a new weapon discussed in the next chapter) were unstoppable and that escape is the only option. It works in getting the population of London excited. With dawn breaking, more and more people are preparing for flight. The brother is among them. After passing by his landlady and her husband at the door, he hurries to his room, pockets all his money, and goes back into the street.

Chapter Fifteen - What Had Happened in Surrey Summary

Around 8:00 pm, three of the Martians come out of the pit and, communicating by howls, begin advancing in a line that spans about three miles. The men operating the Ripley guns fire a few shots in vain and then hastily take off, while their target continues to gain ground. Those on St. George’s Hill are more successful. A shell brings the machine down, having damaged one of its legs. Then the other two machines come to its aid, using the Heat-Ray on the Hill and standing guard for the half hour that it takes the Martian to repair the leg.

A little before 9:00 pm, four more Martian machines appear, carrying black pipes. They hand the extras to the original three, and then all of them spread out. Standing in a crescent shape and armed with these new weapons, they begin to move forward. The narrator knows it is useless to try to outrun their approach so he takes cover in a roadside ditch. The curate on the other hand, panics at their approach and runs, until he sees what the narrator is doing and follows suit.

Standing there, the narrator thinks of all the guns waiting quietly for the machines to come within range. He thinks that the main question on their minds is one of understanding-whether the Martians think of us as sentient beings plotting opposition, or simply frustrated animals, pursuing random antics.

His thoughts are forgotten as the night air is disrupted by remote shots, but not from men’s weapons. The narrator watches as the Martian nearest him holds the tube like a gun and shoots out a canister. There is no answering fire from the hidden military, only silence. The narrator and curate notice the low-lying mounds that are gathering but are unable to figure out what is happening.

Later the narrator learns more about the Martians’ new weapon. The tubes fire out canisters that hit the ground and let loose a kind of black smoke. However, it does not act like a gas. It is heavier than air and settles like dust along the ground. Therefore it is possible to escape by sticking to buildings and trees over fifty feet in height. When it comes in contact with water, it forms a “powdery scum” that eventually sinks. Water that is strained from it was safe but, in the more gaseous form, it is deadly.

The Martians rely mostly on the black canisters that night, firing them wherever they suspect weapons are hidden. The switch from the Heat-Ray is explained as either because its materials are of a limited supply or because they had no desire to destroy the land they are invading. This is supported by their cleaning up of most of the vapor, which they did by shooting steam into it.

Men were firing off shots in vain just before the vapor reached them. After this, efforts would be limited to mines and pitfalls; there would be no more organized assaults against the machines. It was all that could be done to alert London to the need for flight. The fourth cylinder falls that night.

Chapter Sixteen - The Exodus from London Summary

As the massive emptying of London continues, the trains soon become a center of brutal fighting. Since midnight, they have been leaving the station loaded; a few hours later, there are people being trampled and stabbed as others fight for their lives to secure a spot. The brother is even at the scene when a train runs right through a crowd of near-hysterical people. Then the trains stop returning to London, the engineers fearful of both the Martians and the people.

After failing to get a ride on a train, the brother walks through the streets and is able to take advantage of the raiding of a shop to get a bicycle for himself. Although he has to abandon it when the wheel rim breaks, it does help him reach Edgware quickly. He gets some food while many others start to arrive. The townspeople stand about in amazement at this sudden flow of travelers. There is little new information about the Martians, but as the town starts to get crowded, the brother decides to take some back roads to go to a town where some of his friends live.

While traveling, he sees two women in a carriage, fighting off three robbers. He immediately rushes to their defense and fights the men while the carriage rides off. He manages to knock one out and hit another in the face, but it is not enough. Luckily for him, he is saved when one of the women returns, a revolver in hand. The men take off after a single shot is fired.

The brother joins the two women in the carriage, whom he finds out are the wife and younger sister of a surgeon named George Elphinstone. The man had heard of the Martians and, upon his return home, had sent the two women off to seek safety. The plan had been for him to stay behind to alert the neighbors and he would catch up with them earlier that morning. By then he is more than four hours late and there is no sign of him.

The three wait a bit and then decide that there is nothing to be done but to keep going. Knowing the trains would be crowded over capacity, they chose instead to follow a route that will take them out of the country. The brother leads the pony along the path while the hot day wears on.

They pass by a number of people, all looking worn out and unsettled. There are flames shooting up over the houses in front of them. Suddenly the carriage comes in view of a great mass of people, all scared, thirsty, and tired. There is no distinction anymore, as homeless plod alongside clerks, all fleeing in fear of the Martians. They walk along the side and try to avoid getting in the way of the many, varied vehicles that fill the street. Constant calls to keep moving northward mingle with one man’s shouts of “Eternity!”

One man is searching for water for the dying Lord Garrick. Farther down the street is a man with a bloody leg, fortunate enough to have two friends with him. Then there is the incident with the man whose bag of money breaks open, spilling everywhere. As he frantically tries to pick it up, he is run over by a horse and cart. The narrator’s brother gets some help and they attempt to move him to safety but the man keeps trying to grab his fallen money. The brother looks up at the sound of a crash and, during that moment’s distraction, the injured man bites his wrist in an attempt to get back to the coins. The brother narrowly misses getting hit by a horse’s hoof and he lets go of the man to move back. The man with the money gets crushed under the wheels of an anxious cart.

The brother turns the carriage around and travels away from the packed street, though he soon realizes that he must go into it. This he does and they follow along in the great crowd until they collapse, wiped out, near where people are fighting for water and packed trains pass by. The three spend a sleepless night here and watch as people rush along the trail, some going in the opposite direction of the carriage.

Chapter Seventeen (The “Thunder Child”) Summary

As the Martians continue in their slow and demoralizing advance, London’s six million inhabitants continue in their hurried escape. The narrator thinks it would be quite a sight from a hot-air balloon, the sudden flow of people looking like ink spreading over paper. The Thames is packed with ships until 1:00 pm, when a bit of black vapor is spotted nearby. Panic breaks out among the crowded vessels but by 2:00 when the Martian arrives, there is nothing left but floating debris. Presumably, there were a number of collisions in the unsuccessful rush to get out of the jammed river before the vapor overtook the sailors and would-be escapees.

That same Monday but a day’s travel away, the narrator’s brother is standing guard over the carriage when he sees the sixth cylinder fall. The small party sets out again the next morning. They hear the news of the fall of London to the Martians and that around half the government has convened in Birmingham. There, officials are busily working on getting explosives for mines ready and providing bread for distribution among the fleeing population. That night, the seventh cylinder falls, this time with Miss Elphinstone watching.

On Wednesday, the three lose the pony to the Committee of Public Supply, which is basically a self-appointed group of thieves. They push on to Tillingham and, a little ways past it, they come upon the great mass of ships, diverted here now that the Thames is unusable. They are able to secure passage on a paddle steamer away to Ostend but Mrs. Elphinstone needs persuading. She wants to go back to the town of Stanmore, not go out on the sea to some foreign land. But her protests are overridden and they manage to get her on board.

The steamer stays in place for another three hours, taking on passengers until it is quite packed. At a sound of guns coming from the south, the steamer finally sets off, as do many other vessels. Ironclads appear but attention is soon focused instead on three quickly approaching Martians, the first that the brother has seen. Suddenly the steamer makes a sharp turn, throwing the brother to the ground. He gets to his feet in time to see the torpedo ram “Thunder Child” going by, to the cheers of his fellow passengers.

“Thunder Child” fires no gun and is therefore able to approach quite close to the Martians, who do not know what to make of it. The smoke canister they shoot bounces off ineffectively of the warship’s metal sides. Then they try the Heat-Ray, with more success. It penetrates the hull, and the ship responds with enough firepower to bring the Martian down.

The ship is still going. It heads towards the second Martian, who fires the Heat-Ray at it, causing it to explode. The flaming ruins of “Thunder Child” continued forward with momentum until it hits the second Martian, bringing it down. Cheering breaks out on the deck of the brother’s steamer, echoed on all the other ships around. Then the steam and the black vapor cover the scene, masking even the third Martian.

The crowded ship continues on its way, as the sun sets and guns go off in the distance. Suddenly a large, smooth object appears, going across the sky. The night is dark when it disappears from sight.

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