CHAPTER FOUR

The Opening of the Cylinder

By sunset, the crowd around the pit had grown to two or three hundred. Upon my return, I noticed that those gathered around were shouting and pushing each other so that they could see inside the pit better. I wondered what could be happening. Then a boy started running away from the crowd. As he passed me, he shouted: "It's opening! The thing's opening! I think it's dangerous! I'm leaving!"

As soon as I joined the excited crowd, I heard people shouting that a man had fallen into the pit. I fought my way toward the front and, once there, saw a man trying to climb back out of the hole. He looked terribly frightened.

Behind him, the top of the cylinder was, indeed, starting to turn and rise up, like a screw.

"Stay away from it!" I heard Ogilvy shout to the people.

A moment later, the top of the machine had risen as far as it could and then fell over into the pit. It made a loud crashing sound as it struck the metal below. Then there was silence while everyone stared into the dark entrance of the machine.

I think everyone believed that a thing that looked like a human would come out to greet them. However, what slowly rose up out of the darkness was not at all human, not even close. It looked more like a thin, gray snake. Then more snake-like things started to follow. The interest of the people around the pit quickly changed to great fear. Everyone began to run away. I, however, found that I could not stop watching. The best that I could do was to back up slowly. The poor fellow, who had fallen in earlier, was still trying to climb his way out of the pit.

Then a large Thing about the size of a bear slowly rose from the cylinder's entrance. It was a grayish color and, from the way it shined in the sunlight, its skin appeared to be wet. Its head was very large and round. Its face was made up of two huge eyes and a small V-shaped mouth, which dripped with water. From the sound of its labored breathing, it seemed to be struggling to rise against the—earth's gravity. Its appearance was horrible to see. I was frightened by it.

Suddenly, the Martian fell over into the pit. It made a loud "THUD" as it hit the metal below. And, immediately, another head rose up from out of the entrance.

My curiosity long having been satisfied, I now felt nothing but fear. So, I ran as quickly as I could to the nearest trees. When I looked back toward the pit, I saw the head of the man who had fallen in. He had managed to get one leg over the edge of the pit, but then he fell back a little. Finally, he disappeared entirely, and I thought that I could hear a scream from below. I wanted to run and help him, but my fear was too great. And the same was true for the hundreds of people hiding behind trees, bushes, behind anything that they could find, like myself.

If anyone had come along at that time, they would have found a strange sight, indeed. All of these people hiding and silently waiting; their horses left alone to eat their oats in the middle of the sandpits.

(end of section)