who live there It made them smarter more powerful and hard-hearted As they looked across space they saw our planet They saw hope for themselves in this green world Their only hope to survive was to make war and escape their own death The Martians seemed to have planned their arrival with amazing detail They carried out their plans in unity Although scientifi c men watched the red planet of Mars they did not understand the changes on the planet as the Martians got ready In 1894 a great light was seen that lit up the planet It was seen by many scientists I think that this blaze may have been the fi ring of a huge gun Around midnight on the twelfth of August a fast-moving mass of fl aming gas moved toward Earth The next day nothing of this was mentioned in the papers I would not have heard of the eruption on Mars if I had not met Ogilvy the well-known 6
astronomer He invited me to watch the red planet with him that night I watched Mars through the telescope What I could not see at that distance was the Thing that they were sending to us drawing nearer every minute It was the Thing that would bring so much struggle disaster and death to Earth That night again at midnight I saw another red fl ash of light and gas coming from the planet Another invisible missile started on its way to Earth from Mars Ogilvy laughed at the idea of Mars having people He believed it was meteor showers or a huge volcano exploding The chances of anything manlike on Mars are a million to one he said For ten nights hundreds of scientists saw the fl ame After the tenth night the shots ceased Even the newspapers began to write about them But no one suspected that the missiles the Martians had fi red at us came closer to 7
Earth rushing many miles a second through space hour by hour and day by day coming nearer We went about our normal lives One night I went for a walk with my wife I pointed out Mars among the stars where so many telescopes were now pointed It was a warm night There were people out singing and playing music We heard the sound of trains in the distance Everything seemed so safe and peaceful Then came the night of the fi rst falling star Early one morning it was seen rushing over Winchester a line of fl ame high in the sky Many who saw it must have thought it was an ordinary falling star It left a greenish streak behind it that glowed for several seconds Denning our greatest authority on meteorites said it seemed to fall to Earth about 100 miles east I was at home writing in my study near an open window yet I did not see it fall Some said it traveled with a hissing sound 9
