登陆注册
4718800000047

第47章

The Man on Putney Hill I spent that night in the inn that stands at the top of Putney Hill, sleeping in a made bed for the first time since my flight to Leatherhead. I will not tell the needless trouble I had breaking into that house--afterwards I found the front door was on the latch--nor how I ransacked every room for food, until just on the verge of despair, in what seemed to me to be a servant's bedroom, I found a rat- gnawed crust and two tins of pineapple.

The place had been already searched and emptied. In the bar I afterwards found some biscuits and sandwiches that had been over- looked. The latter I could not eat, they were too rotten, but the former not only stayed my hunger, but filled my pockets. I lit no lamps, fearing some Martian might come beating that part of London for food in the night. Before I went to bed I had an interval of restlessness, and prowled from window to window, peering out for some sign of these monsters. I slept little. As I lay in bed I found myself think- ing consecutively--a thing I do not remember to have done since my last argument with the curate. During all the inter-vening time my mental condition had been a hurrying suc- cession of vague emotional states or a sort of stupid recep- tivity. But in the night my brain, reinforced, I suppose, by the food I had eaten, grew clear again, and I thought.

Three things struggled for possession of my mind: the killing of the curate, the whereabouts of the Martians, and the possible fate of my wife.

The former gave me no sensa- tion of horror or remorse to recall; I saw it simply as a thing done, a memory infinitely disagreeable but quite without the quality of remorse. I saw myself then as I see myself now, driven step by step towards that hasty blow, the creature of a sequence of accidents leading inevitably to that. I felt no condemnation; yet the memory, static, unprogressive, haunted me. In the silence of the night, with that sense of the near- ness of God that sometimes comes into the stillness and the darkness, I stood my trial, my only trial, for that moment of wrath and fear. I retraced every step of our conversation from the moment when Ihad found him crouching beside me, heedless of my thirst, and pointing to the fire and smoke that streamed up from the ruins of Weybridge. We had been incapable of co-operation--grim chance had taken no heed of that.

Had I foreseen, I should have left him at Halliford. But I did not foresee;and crime is to foresee and do. And I set this down as I have set all this story down, as it was. There were no witnesses--all these things I might have con- cealed. But I set it down, and the reader must form his judgment as he will.

And when, by an effort, I had set aside that picture of a prostrate body, I faced the problem of the Martians and the fate of my wife. For the former I had no data; I could imagine a hundred things, and so, unhappily, I could for the latter. And suddenly that night became terrible. I found myself sitting up in bed, staring at the dark. I found my- self praying that the Heat-Ray might have suddenly and painlessly struck her out of being. Since the night of my return from Leatherhead I had not prayed.

I had uttered prayers, fetish prayers, had prayed as heathens mutter charms when I was in extremity; but now I prayed indeed, plead- ing steadfastly and sanely, face to face with the darkness of God. Strange night! Strangest in this, that so soon as dawn had come, I, who had talked with God, crept out of the house like a rat leaving its hiding place--a creature scarcely larger, an inferior animal, a thing that for any passing whim of our masters might be hunted and killed. Perhaps they also prayed confidently to God.

Surely, if we have learned noth- ing else, this war has taught us pity--pity for those witless souls that suffer our dominion.

The morning was bright and fine, and the eastern sky glowed pink, and was fretted with little golden clouds. In the road that runs from the top of Putney Hill to Wimbledon was a number of poor vestiges of the panic torrent that must have poured Londonward on the Sunday night after the fighting began. There was a little two-wheeled cart inscribed with the name of Thomas Lobb, Greengrocer, New Malden, with a smashed wheel and an abandoned tin trunk; there was a straw hat trampled into the now hardened mud, and at the top of West Hill a lot of blood-stained glass about the overturned water trough. My movements were languid, my plans of the vaguest.

I had an idea of going to Leatherhead, though I knew that there I had the poorest chance of finding my wife. Certainly, unless death had overtaken them sud- denly, my cousins and she would have fled thence; but it seemed to me I might find or learn there whither the Surrey people had fled. Iknew I wanted to find my wife, that my heart ached for her and the world of men, but I had no clear idea how the finding might be done. I was also sharply aware now of my intense loneliness. From the corner I went, under cover of a thicket of trees and bushes, to the edge of Wimbledon Common, stretching wide and far.

That dark expanse was lit in patches by yellow gorse and broom; there was no red weed to be seen, and as I prowled, hesitating, on the verge of the open, the sun rose, flooding it all with light and vitality. I came upon a busy swarm of little frogs in a swampy place among the trees. Istopped to look at them, drawing a lesson from their stout resolve to live.

And presently, turning suddenly, with an odd feeling of being watched, I beheld something crouching amid a clump of bushes. I stood regarding this. I made a step towards it, and it rose up and became a man armed with a cutlass. I approached him slowly. He stood silent and motionless, regarding me.

同类推荐
  • 杨式太极拳拳谱全体大用诀

    杨式太极拳拳谱全体大用诀

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 泰族训

    泰族训

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Historical Lecturers and Essays

    Historical Lecturers and Essays

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 太上导引三光宝真妙经

    太上导引三光宝真妙经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 女科折衷纂要

    女科折衷纂要

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 鱼类上岸指南

    鱼类上岸指南

    敲重点:前期校园,中后期末世~余姚就只是去海边浪了一圈,因为”以大欺小“遭了个现世报,可怎么世界突然就变得不一样了...拼尽全力给女主开了金手指,但也只是会划水,擅长游野泳...一切都是为了生存?已有百万完本《重返青葱岁月》欢迎围观,更新在每天12点左右,喜欢请收藏,投票~\(≧▽≦)/~
  • 离城未归人

    离城未归人

    或许我喜欢你是命中注定,你喜欢她也是命中注定,所以,我成全你和她的命中注定
  • 现果随录

    现果随录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 快捷便当

    快捷便当

    《快捷厨艺丛书》精选了不同快捷烹饪技法做出来的1000种美食,包含1000多种营养功效知识及小贴士,读者既能学到做美食的基本技法,又能了解相关的营养知识,照本习读,新手亦能快速做出郁香昧美的美食来。
  • 天地崖

    天地崖

    老大说:我要教给你传说里都没有的武功。于是我修炼了《向日葵宝典》。当我要出去闯荡江湖时,我说:老大,我叫什么名字?老大这才发现十几年里我没有名字,老大说:我取了个适合主角的名字——秋千秋。老大是一个那么奇怪的人。江湖里,我遇到很莫名的捕快刘六(连名字也怪怪的),一着不慎吃亏的苗若兰,将我当俘虏的何灵,来历非凡的李裕,遇强不战的神秘东方不败,更神秘的明教明尊烈焰,最后最后就是神秘又神秘,高深又莫测的天地崖了。天地崖到底是什么?这是一个问题。
  • 皇子太妖孽

    皇子太妖孽

    一朝穿越,成了丞相之妹。在无情宫中处处生情。都说宫中乃无情之地,但与悠然和芷卉的姐妹情,与五皇子和太子的知己情,都无半点虚假。安妃真诚相待,颜先生倾尽所学的教导,卿尘最初的依赖,都让沐果深陷其中。纵使最后所有的情义都支离破碎,但至少曾经拥有。皇宫中看似步步惊心,处处明争暗斗,但终是抹不了寒冬中的暖意。本是无情心何处惹情义。这宫闱坚不可摧的,不是厚厚的城墙,是人心。只是去年秋,如何泪先流。
  • 脱线驱鬼师

    脱线驱鬼师

    美人墓被盗,墓主人连同陪葬的火灵珠一起神秘消失。火灵珠,传说中上古四灵之一朱雀之物,朱雀形似火凤,相传火灵珠最大的作用便是能使人起死回生,取“凤凰涅槃”之意!为了复活爱人,他踏上了寻找火灵珠之旅……他是“X”组织的一员,是个半吊子驱鬼师,个性有点小迷糊,闯的祸不计其数,他长得很美,有个好听的名字叫美人,在处理一系列的诡异事件中,他分别结识了声称要用火灵珠复活爱人的男子冥玄攸、异能青年叶子墨以及一只声称自己是上古朱雀的“小红鸡”,加上与自己情同兄弟的刑天,展开了四人一萌宠的冒险历程。--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 独宠医妃:王爷你放手

    独宠医妃:王爷你放手

    【1V1甜宠】一只手镯穿越,两个灵魂相遇。她是21世纪医术精湛的特种军医,他是大庆朝清冷疏离的益王殿下。当她遇上他,他立即化作忠犬。她救他,他护她。……“你留下来吧!我娶你!”某白舔着脸说道。“可是我听说皇子都会三妻四妾……”某晚十分担心此事。哎!某白长叹一声,光你一个都头疼,哪里会有其他人。“成亲之后,钱全归你。”某白信誓旦旦的保证着。“可我比你有钱。”某晚平静地说出了个事实。“那你肯定不介意养我。”某白觉得吃软饭也是凭本事的。
  • 爱你,是我的执念

    爱你,是我的执念

    他以为她是死对头的女人,可还是在看到她的第一眼就沦陷了……所以,她只能是他的!情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 神秘的太空(神秘的太空世界丛书)

    神秘的太空(神秘的太空世界丛书)

    宇宙是什么?宇宙是怎样形成的?它经历了怎样的历程才成为今天的模样?关于这些问题,人类很早就开始了探寻。对宇宙的形成,人们根据对日月星辰的观察和了解,逐渐提出了自己的推断:从天圆地方的“盖天说”到骇人听闻的“大爆炸学说”,虽然有些推断显得很幼稚,但毕竟是人类对宇宙形成的一种解释,一种探求真理的努力和尝试,这在一定程度上表明了人类的进取精神。但假说毕竟是假说,不能当做真理,探索刚刚开始,相信终有一日人类会圆满解决宇宙是如何形成的这一重大问题的。