backwards and forwards with strange, sudden movements. I forced myself back into the hall. I shook violently and could hardly stand straight. Had the Martian seen me? What was it doing now?
Then 1 heard the sound of a heavy body - I knew whose it was - being dragged across the floor of the kitchen towards the opening. 1 could not stop myself — I moved to the door and looked back into the kitchen. In the light from outside, I saw the Martian studying the curate's head. 1 thought at once that it would know that I was there from the mark of the hammer.
I shut the door and moved back into the hall and tried to hide myself in the corner. Then I heard a faint metallic sound as the tentacle moved back across the kitchen floor. I thought that it might not be long enough to reach me. I prayed. Then I heard it touching the handle. It had found the door. The Martians understood doors!
It moved the handle up and down for a moment, and then the door opened.
In the darkness I could just see the thing moving towards me and examining the wall and the floor. It was like a black snake moving its head from side to side.
Once, even, it touched my boot. I almost screamed, but I bit my hand. For a time it did not move, then it moved back through the door.
I heard it go into the food cupboard, It moved the tins and a bottle broke. Then there was silence.
Had it gone?
At last I decided that it had.
The tentacle did not come into the hall again, but I lay all the
tenth day in the darkness, too frightened even to move for a drink. I did not enter the kitchen again for two days. When at last I did, I found that the food cupboard was now empty. The Martians had taken everything. On that day and the next I had no food and nothing to drink. On the twelfth day my thirst was so bad that I went into the kitchen and used the noisy rainwater pump that stood by the sink. I managed to get a couple of glasses of dirty water. This made me feel a lot better, and the noise of the pump did not bring a tentacle in through the opening.
On the thirteenth day I drank some more water, and thought of impossible plans of escape. Whenever 1 slept, I dreamed either of the death of the curate or of wonderful dinners.
Then, early on the fifteenth day, I heard the sound of a dog outside. This greatly surprised me. I went into the kitchen and saw its head looking in through the hole.
I thought that if I could attract it in quietly, I would be able, perhaps, to kill and eat it. It would be a good idea to kill it anyway, in case its actions attracted the attention of the Martians.
I moved forwards, saying, 'Good dog!' very softly, but it suddenly pulled his head back and disappeared.
I listened. 1 heard the sound of some birds but that was all.
For a long time I lay close to the opening until, encouraged by the silence, I looked out.
Except in the corner, where a number of birds fought over some dead bodies, there was not a living thing in the pit.
I stared around, hardly believing my eyes. All the machinery had gone. Slowly I made the opening larger and pushed myself through it. I could see in every direction except behind me and there were no Martians in sight.
I hesitated, then with a rush of desperate courage, and with my heart beating violently. I climbed to the top of the pile of earth in which I had been buried.
When I had last seen this part of Sheen, it had been a street of comfortable white and red houses. Now the neighbouring ones had all been destroyed. Far away I saw a thin cat walking along a wall, but there was no sign of people.
After my time in the darkness, the day seemed very bright, the