CHAPTER TWO

A Star Falls

Then, one morning, came reports of a falling star. Those who had seen it said that it had a green tall that remained in the sky a few minutes after the falling object had disappeared.

At the moment it fell, I had been working in my study. My window was open, but I was too lost in thought to have noticed anything around me, let alone something falling from the sky. Hundreds of people saw it, but, amazingly, no one thought to try and find where it had landed: no one, except for my friend, Ogilvy.

He guessed that it should have struck the earth near the Woking sand pits. And his guess was right. He arrived there to find a huge hole in the ground. Trees and huge piles of dirt had been thrown in all directions for hundreds of yards. Those trees that still stood were burning brightly in the night. Inside, almost entirely covered in sand, was the fallen object. It seemed to be shaped like a cylinder, about thirty meters wide. Ogilvy could see a strange, rough, black material covering the entire disc, like a shell. It was still very hot from its entrance into the earth's atmosphere.

Then, suddenly, the black material began to fall away from the object in small pieces, until one huge piece finally came off. When Ogilvy approached the pit to have a better look, he was surprised to see that the top of the Thing was moving round and round, in a circle. The top then began to slowly rise. It was at this point that Ogilvy realized that there was someone or something inside. And it was trying to get out!

Without thinking, he ran down into the pit to try and help whomever it was inside to escape, but, luckily, the heat of the machine prevented him from getting too close to touch the metal and burn himself. Ogilvy then ran for help.

He met a farmer on the road and tried to explain what he had seen, but the farmer thought he was crazy and drove quickly away. Nor did the man opening the town store believe him when he was told the story. He thought that Ogilvy was dangerously mad, in fact, and tried to lock him inside the store. Ogilvy, however, escaped and realized that he had to calm down a little before approaching anyone else. He then visited a local journalist, named Henderson.

"Did you see that falling star this morning?" he asked the man.

"Yes. What about it?" responded the journalist.

"It's just over the hill there, at Horsell Bridge! It's not a common space rock, either. There's something inside of it!"

Henderson dropped his gardening tools and ran off to the sandpits with Ogilvy. When they arrived, the Thing was just as Ogilvy had left it, but now there was a thin, bright piece of metal that wrapped around the center of the cylinder; and air seemed to be coming from or going into it. They knocked on the metal surface with a stick, but no response came. The two men decided to inform all of the newspapers about it.

By eight o'clock all kinds of men had gathered around the sandpit to have a look at the "dead Martians". That's how the newspaper stories were describing the strange Thing in the pit. I heard my newspaper boy shouting the news in the street soon after, while I was writing in my study. I could hardly believe my ears and wasted no time getting to the pits as quickly as I could.

(end of section)