"Human minds, save for a very few like that of Holmes and the only one now existing of my caliber, are absurdly limited," Challenger said. "Decades must pass, my dear Dr. Watson, before the public can accept these truths so manifest to us."
"At least Wells should be refuted," I said.
"He is better ignored, as both Holmes and I shall do. To enter any public discussion is irksome to me, as it necessitates a descent to such simple terms as an ignorant audience can grasp. Which brings me to the notion that your own style might better suit the situation. At present, my attention must be given to my forthcoming expedition to the Amazonian jungles, where I propose to study the conclusions of Alfred Russell Wallace and Henry Walter Bates on the racial aspects of savage tribes there. I may be able to verify some of their opinions, and, quite probably, set right what I apprehend to be several glaring inconsistencies. A scientist's manifest duty is to seek out new truths and give them to the world."
With which ringing pronouncement he bent over a great map, and I took my departure. Nevertheless, this supplementary chronicle of mine will now also be offered to the reader in the hope that the findings of my two brilliant friends may be fully vindicated by the more perceptive.
I have already told how, on the afternoon of the tenth day of the War of the Worlds, we three clustered around the carcass of the invader which had died almost as it crawled through the window into our sitting room at 221-B Baker Street. It lay motionless below the sill, a great oval of a body with dull, dead eyes and two limply hanging sprawls of tentacles, eight in each cluster.
"Man may yet live, and perhaps deserve his rule on earth," rumbled Challenger in the dark thicket of his beard. "As Dr. Watson has so accurately suggested, terrestrial bacteria are killing these creatures, when the best weapons we could muster against them have failed."
Squatting down like a giant toad, he tugged at the body. "It is heavy," he grunted, "but the three of us can get it to the basement."
Together we dragged it to the door and down the steps to the ground floor. It taxed our combined strength, and the odor of decay was sickening. We all panted with exertion as we rolled it down another flight of stairs into Mrs. Hudson's basement. Holmes lighted a candle and we made out a cement-faced trough in the tiled floor, some nine feet by four and more than a yard deep, as I estimated.
"Once a carpet-maker had his establishment here, and this was his vat for the dyeing of fabrics," said Holmes. "Very well, in with our specimen, but take care not to damage it."
We found cord and looped it around the slack form to lower it. Then again we mounted to the street door. The great war machine of the invader slumped there against the wall outside, almost blocking the street. We raced across to Dolamore's wine and spirits shop. Challenger drove in the door with a mighty kick of his heavy boot. Inside, Holmes and I took big baskets and filled them with bottles of brandy, whisky, and gin. Challenger hoisted a twenty-gallon keg of rum upon the great ledge of his shoulder. Back across we went and down into the basement again. Carefully we heaped loose tiles and fragments of broken cement here and there around the carcass in the trough and poured in our spirits. Holmes muttered unhappily as I trickled out a bottle of choice Scotch whisky. Several more trips to Dolamore's produced enough liquor of various kinds to submerge our dead invader completely.
It was dusk by the time we left the cellar, went upstairs to our lodgings, and washed thoroughly. Holmes produced a tin of tongue and some excellent cream crackers for supper, while I managed a pot of coffee on our spirit stove. After eating, we had brandy and some of Holmes's excellent cigars.
"Suppose that we take time to attempt an estimate of our situation," said Holmes. "We are now aware that these invaders are dying from disease, and also that they are not Martians after all."
"Because they breathe oxygen, and there is but a trace of that element in the thin atmosphere of Mars," amplified Challenger again. "Wherever they originated, oxygen was present for their breathing, and oxygen, as every schoolboy should know, is a necessity for the production and sustaining of organic life. Remember, too, that only ten cylinders crossed space to us from their launching site on Mars. The last departed before the first landed. That last cylinder must have arrived on earth only last midnight."
"Then its crew of five should be undiseased as yet," suggested Holmes. "From those late arrivals, we may well look for some menace in the days to come."
"Perhaps not so greatly," I said. "If they have no natural resistance whatever to infection, they will feel damaging effects very promptly indeed. A system not conditioned to resist bacteria of disease and decay will suffer. The one we captured may well be a late arrival, and his companions from the earlier cylinders may even have succumbed ere this."
"My congratulations, Watson," smiled Holmes. "Often in the past I have observed to you that deductive reason is in itself contagious. Your own medical judgment there "is a sound one."
"Commonplace," said Challenger, sipping brandy. "Dr. Watson states a basic truth, one which undoubtedly was taught him at an early stage of his medical education. I am encouraged that the one that came here has not as yet been followed. He visited us on a desperate, solitary undertaking, to repossess their interplanetary signaling device yonder on the chair."
He gestured with his cigar toward where the crystal lay in its open casket. Holmes rose and walked to where it was. I saw a faint wash of blue light on his hawk face.
"Turn down the lamp, Watson," he said, and I leaned across and did so. "Now," he reported, "I can see what must be the cockpit of this machine just outside our window."
He shifted his head, as though for a clearer view. "There is a light there, and an intricate assembly of what looks like switches and panels on either side. Very well, Watson, you may turn the lamp up again."
He came back to his chair and sat down. We began to speak about the probable bodily structure of the invaders. I knew something of comparative anatomy, and Challenger spoke as though he knew everything.
"Again I wish to speak in endorsement of Dr. Watson's suggestion that they have been developed to their present form by special breeding," he said, as though conferring an honor upon me. "As we have discerned, they are for the most part a highly organized but at the same time simplified arrangement of brain and hands. Organically, in some ways, they have evolved as far beyond man as man has evolved beyond four-footed animals, but in others they have become rudimentary. They have kept active lungs, their optical processes apparently are quite good, but they would appear to be utterly lacking in the digestive tract. When they feed, they draw living blood from their prey into their circulatory systems."
"To their own destruction," added Holmes.
"Here on earth, that has been their destruction. But to continue: I have not yet determined whether they sleep, although our specimen's eyes are furnished with lids. Holmes, I must confess that from the very first you had the right of it. Perhaps, in long ages past, their ancestors were not greatly different in physique from some humanoid form."
"And their minds?" I inquired.
"Here, Watson, I appropriate another of your suggestions about them," said Holmes. "I mean, your suggestion that the intelligence differential produced by a specially controlled evolution has been less than the radical difference in organic structure. I have several times drawn an analogy of baboons fighting an attack of human hunters, but perhaps the chimpanzee is a better comparison than the baboon. Chimpanzees are able to learn to ride bicycles and to eat with knives and forks. Who knows?" Again he turned to gaze toward the crystal egg. "We may learn in time to make profitable use of some of their devices."
"We have already done that, with the crystal," said Challenger, and he yawned. "But we are all tired, I think. Our exertions today have been considerable. What do you say to sleeping on it?"
Holmes insisted that Challenger take his bedroom, and he lay down on the sofa in his old blue dressing gown. I went into my own room, and with deep gratitude soug
ht my bed for the first time in ten days. Sleep came soothingly upon me, and I did not even dream.
When I wakened it was sunrise, and Holmes was talking excitedly in the next room.
Instantly I sprang out of bed, my heart racing. I snatched my robe from its hook, hurried it on, and ran out into the sitting room.
Our landlady, Mrs. Hudson, was there, her blond hair disordered and her white shirtwaist and dark skirt crumpled and dusty. Her usually vigorous form drooped weakly. Holmes was helping her to a seat on the sofa.
"Martha!" he cried, the only time I ever remember his using her Christian name. "I told you to stay in Donnithorpe, where you would be safe for a time, at least."
"But I had to find out what had become of you," she said, weeping. "Even if the worst had befallen, I had to know."
Sitting beside her, he held her to him. "Get her some brandy, Watson," he said, and I poured a generous tot. He took it and held it to her trembling lips. She drank gratefully and looked up, as though it had calmed and revived her.
"I had to find out," she said again, more strongly this time.
"You have come more than a hundred miles," Holmes said. "You rode on a velocipede, I perceive. It is quite obvious, the old-fashioned sort kicks up dust on the clothing in just that fashion."
"I started on foot, day before yesterday," she managed. "I found the velocipede by the side of the road, and I came on it into London last evening. Bit by bit, I made my way here."
"Did you see any of the invaders?" rang out the voice of Challenger. He, too, had come into the sitting room. He was in his shirt sleeves, drawing his braces up over the jutting ledges of his shoulders.
"I saw two of them, but far away, thank heaven."
Again tears had come to her eyes, and she bowed her face in her hands. Solicitously Holmes helped her to her feet and led her to the door of his bedroom, from which Challenger had just emerged.
Challenger tapped my shoulder, as authoritatively as a constable. "Come," he said.
"But Mrs. Hudson may need my help," I demurred.
"Holmes can look after her very well without any help from you."
"At least let me put on some clothes."
"Nonsense, man. There is nobody on the street to see us, not even an invader. Come as you are, I say."
Grasping my arm, he fairly hustled me out upon the landing, then down the stairs. At the street door we looked carefully, as usual, for any hint of danger. Nothing stirred in the summer morning except a starling.
"Did I not see a stepladder down in the cellar yesterday?" Challenger asked. "Come and help me bring it up. I want to go up into this abandoned machine."
We found the ladder and carried it up to the street. The machine crouched where its operator had left it the previous day. Its gigantic legs were telescoped down to a fraction of their usual height, with their joints doubled so that the oval body was opposite the upper window. I steadied the ladder while Challenger climbed, nimbly for all his bulk. He set a foot on the sill above and crept into the headlike pilot chamber from which the invader had crawled to enter our sitting room. There he remained out of sight for well over a minute, while I stood barefoot in the street.
Still no invaders appeared there, though I briefly glimpsed a distant fleck in the blue sky that might have been their flying machine. At last Challenger dragged himself back into view and descended, with something slung to his back. Standing beside me, he exhibited his find. It was an S-shaped metal arrangement, from which dangled wires. Along its curves showed studs that looked movable. In one bend of the S was set a crystal resembling the one Challenger has brought to our rooms.
"This is exactly the device I expected to find, the one I suggested might be called television," he said. "As you see, there is another crystal egg, furnished with keys and switches to direct its power." Again he slung it to his shoulder by the loose wires. "And now, since we are already downstairs, we can go across to Dolamore's."
He walked across the street, and obediently I followed him. Inside, he fumbled in a bin and brought out a tall bottle, which he inspected with satisfaction.
"This is Chambertin, and of what I take to be a very good year," he announced, drawing the cork. "Nor is this too early in the morning for a small sip, would you say?"
On a table stood glasses, and into two of these he poured some wine. I tasted it and found it excellent.
"Why did you climb into the machine from the street, Professor?" I asked. "You could more, easily have gone out through our window."
"I preferred not to disturb any researches Holmes might be making," he replied. "But observe this other crystal I have recovered."
It was dim enough in the wine shop for us to make out some details of our familiar sitting-room.
"I see Holmes there, standing with Mrs. Hudson," I said gazing. "He is holding her hand, Hullo, it's gone cloudy. I can see nothing now."
"Inadvertently I touched this key," said Challenger. "That must have blurred the transmission of the image. Before we return, let us fetch along more of these very fine wines."
He took excessive care in his selection from bin after bin. It was fully half an hour before we slipped across the street to our door, bearing armfuls of bottles. It seemed to me that Challenger stamped loudly as he mounted the stairs.
Holmes let us in at the door, smiling over his morning pipe. Mrs. Hudson, he said, was much more cheerful, and was even then preparing breakfast in her own kitchen. She bore a tray with a great platter of griddle cakes, a dish of butter, and a pitcher of syrup. Coffee was already brewing on the spirit stove. Challenger drew up a fourth chair to the table and insisted almost dictatorially that Mrs. Hudson sit and take breakfast with us.
The cakes were excellent, and I, at least, relaxed a trifle as I partook of them.
"There seem to be no enemies strolling officiously outside," declared Challenger as he finished his third stack of cakes. "Come, Doctor, I propose to go out and find some fresh clothes. Holmes undoubtedly is eager to examine this communication apparatus I brought out of that machine."
I dressed hastily in my room and went downstairs with him. Nothing moved in the streets save for some twittering sparrows and a forlorn dog that hastened away as we approached. Challenger broke the lock of a haberdasher's and prowled within for shirts to fit his huge frame—he was fifty-four inches around the chest, he told me, and he could find only two shirts large enough. From there we traveled as far as a provision store. It has already been visited by looters, but Challenger found a claw hammer and wrenched open a storage cabinet. From the shelves within we took smoked sausages done up in silver paper, a pineapple cheese, and some tinned vegetables. With these prizes, we returned home at noon.
Holmes sat alone in the sitting room. He told us that Mrs. Hudson was asleep in her own quarters.
"I have been looking at both crystals, but now I have covered them in hopes that the invaders cannot locate them here," he said. "Our original crystal shows a considerable camp of them."
Challenger thrust his shaggy head under the covering blanket.
"I verify your observation, Holmes," his muffled voice came out to us. "I see what would seem to be a considerable pit with rough earthen banks all around. There is a fighting-machine, too, against the rampart, not moving. Yes, and two handling-machines, with only a slight stir to their tentacles." He emerged, blinking. "I daresay it is the headquarters Dr. Watson approached on Primrose Hill."
"Did you see any of the invaders?" asked Holmes, and again Challenger dived under the fabric.
"Yes," he told us. "One is face to face with me this instant. I see the great, intent eyes. Now it is gone again, and I see the same camp. Several others are in view, lying prone on the ground. They move only slightly, even painfully."
"They suffer from disease," I offered.
"And are probably starving," amplified Holmes, "By now, they must have realized that to drink human blood is to drink death."
"It follows that there ar
e no bacteria on Mars, as well as on their native planet," said Challenger, "or they would have perished on Mars instead of here."
"Professor, at what point did you realize that they were not Martians?" I asked.
"Almost at the very first, at Woking," he replied, standing up. "From my first sight of them as they ventured out of their cylinder and breathed our air. Their slow, hesitant movements impelled Ogilvy to mention earth's gravity, to remind me and others that it is almost three times that of Mars. But in my mind I ascribed that slowness to the natural caution of sensible aliens venturing into any unfamiliar territory. But I kept my council until I could be sure."
"And when were you sure?" I pursued.
"I became very sure indeed yesterday, when our specimen grappled me so powerfully, even in its dying moments. Wherever it came from, there is quite enough gravity, to make it strong and active."
That evening, Mrs. Hudson appeared with a good dinner from her kitchen. We drew the curtains and lighted lamps, so confident were we that no attack would come. Holmes brought out his violin to play Strauss waltzes. It was quite a cheerful party. All of us rested well that night.
On both the twelfth and thirteenth days the three of us made more explorations. Mounting the highest roofs in the area, we observed through a pair of powerful binoculars belonging to Holmes. We saw several machines on streets near Primrose Hill, moving slowly in the direction of the main camp.
"They are coming together in their misery," said Holmes. "I am becoming certain, Challenger, that at close quarters they communicate by telepathy. Perhaps they gather in hopes of working out some solution to their desperate plight."
"But any telepathic power might fail as they weaken," said Challenger.
We became bolder in our excursions. Challenger seemed anxious to take me with him as he went scouting here and there. Early on the afternoon of the fifteenth day, he and I determined to push to the very borders of the enemy camp. Northward we stole, up Baker Street and across Park Road through the Clarence Gate into Regent's Park.
Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds Page 17
