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
Poor Ogilvy had seen the shooting star and believed a meteorite lay somewhere between Horsell Ottershaw and Woking Very early in the morning he went out to fi nd it He found it soon after dawn not far from the sand pits A huge hole had been made by its landing The sand had been tossed in every direction into huge piles that could be seen a mile and a half away The grass was on fi re eastward and thin blue smoke rose above it The Thing lay almost completely buried in sand There were scattered splinters of a tree that had shaken to pieces in the meteorite’s falling The uncovered part of the meteor looked like a huge cylinder It was covered with a thick scaly crust It was about thirty yards around Ogilvy approached it but it was so hot that he could not get close A noise came from inside the cylinder He believed it was the cooling of its surface He never thought it might be hollow inside 10
Ogilvy stood at the edge of the pit amazed at its unusual shape and color There were no sounds of bird or wind only quiet sounds coming from the cylinder He was alone Suddenly Ogilvy noticed that some of the gray ashes covering the meteorite were falling off the round end They dropped off in fl akes A large piece fell with a loud noise For a minute he wasn’t sure what this meant Even though it was still hot he climbed down into the pit to see the Thing more clearly What upset him was that the ash fell only from the end of the cylinder Then Ogilvy saw that very slowly the round top of the cylinder was turning It was such a slow movement that he only noticed it because of a black mark that had been near him fi ve minutes before The mark was now on the other side Ogilvy heard a grating sound and saw the black mark jerk forward The cylinder was hollow and had an end that screwed out 11
