Война миров / The War of the Worlds

�What news from the common?’ said I.

There were two men and a woman at the gate.

�Eh?’ said one of the men, turning.

�What news from the common?’ I said.

�Ain’t yer just BEEN there?’ asked the men.

�People seem fair silly about the common,’ said the woman over the gate. �What’s it all abart?’

�Haven’t you heard of the men from Mars?’ said I; �the creatures from Mars?’

�Quite enough,’ said the woman over the gate. �Thenks’; and all three of them laughed.

I felt foolish and angry. I tried and found I could not tell them what I had seen. They laughed again at my broken sentences.

�You’ll hear more yet,’ I said, and went on to my home.

I startled my wife at the doorway, so haggard was I. I went into the dining room, sat down, drank some wine, and so soon as I could collect myself sufficiently I told her the things I had seen. The dinner, which was a cold one, had already been served, and remained neglected on the table while I told my story.

�There is one thing,’ I said, to allay the fears I had aroused; �they are the most sluggish things I ever saw crawl. They may keep the pit and kill people who come near them, but they cannot get out of it… But the horror of them!’

�Don’t, dear!’ said my wife, knitting her brows and putting her hand on mine.

�Poor Ogilvy!’ I said. �To think he may be lying dead there!’

My wife at least did not find my experience incredible. When I saw how deadly white her face was, I ceased abruptly.

�They may come here,’ she said again and again.

I pressed her to take wine, and tried to reassure her.

�They can scarcely move,’ I said.

I began to comfort her and myself by repeating all that Ogilvy had told me of the impossibility of the Martians establishing themselves on the earth. In particular I laid stress on the gravitational difficulty. On the surface of the earth the force of gravity is three times what it is on the surface of Mars.

A Martian, therefore, would weigh three times more than on Mars, albeit his muscular strength would be the same. His own body would be a cope of lead to him. That, indeed, was the general opinion. Both THE TIMES and the DAILY TELEGRAPH,[11 - Times и Daily Telegraph – популярные британские газеты.] for instance, insisted on it the next morning, and both overlooked, just as I did, two obvious modifying influences.