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The War of the Worlds, The War of the Worlds: Chapter 10 (1)

The War of the Worlds: Chapter 10 (1)

Chapter Ten In the Storm

Leatherhead is about twelve miles from Maybury Hill. The scent of hay was in the air through the lush meadows beyond Pyrford, and the hedges on either side were sweet and gay with multitudes of dog-roses. The heavy firing that had broken out while we were driving down Maybury Hill ceased as abruptly as it began, leaving the evening very peaceful and still. We got to Leatherhead without misadventure about nine o'clock, and the horse had an hour's rest while I took supper with my cousins and commended my wife to their care. My wife was curiously silent throughout the drive, and seemed oppressed with forebodings of evil. I talked to her reassuringly, pointing out that the Martians were tied to the Pit by sheer heaviness, and at the utmost could but crawl a little out of it; but she answered only in monosyllables. Had it not been for my promise to the innkeeper, she would, I think, have urged me to stay in Leatherhead that night. Would that I had! Her face, I remember, was very white as we parted.

For my own part, I had been feverishly excited all day. Something very like the war fever that occasionally runs through a civilised community had got into my blood, and in my heart I was not so very sorry that I had to return to Maybury that night. I was even afraid that that last fusillade I had heard might mean the extermination of our invaders from Mars. I can best express my state of mind by saying that I wanted to be in at the death.

It was nearly eleven when I started to return. The night was unexpectedly dark; to me, walking out of the lighted passage of my cousins' house, it seemed indeed black, and it was as hot and close as the day. Overhead the clouds were driving fast, albeit not a breath stirred the shrubs about us. My cousins' man lit both lamps. Happily, I knew the road intimately. My wife stood in the light of the doorway, and watched me until I jumped up into the dog cart. Then abruptly she turned and went in, leaving my cousins side by side wishing me good hap.

I was a little depressed at first with the contagion of my wife's fears, but very soon my thoughts reverted to the Martians. At that time I was absolutely in the dark as to the course of the evening's fighting. I did not know even the circumstances that had precipitated the conflict. As I came through Ockham (for that was the way I returned, and not through Send and Old Woking) I saw along the western horizon a blood-red glow, which as I drew nearer, crept slowly up the sky. The driving clouds of the gathering thunderstorm mingled there with masses of black and red smoke.

Ripley Street was deserted, and except for a lighted window or so the village showed not a sign of life; but I narrowly escaped an accident at the corner of the road to Pyrford, where a knot of people stood with their backs to me. They said nothing to me as I passed. I do not know what they knew of the things happening beyond the hill, nor do I know if the silent houses I passed on my way were sleeping securely, or deserted and empty, or harassed and watching against the terror of the night.

From Ripley until I came through Pyrford I was in the valley of the Wey, and the red glare was hidden from me. As I ascended the little hill beyond Pyrford Church the glare came into view again, and the trees about me shivered with the first intimation of the storm that was upon me. Then I heard midnight pealing out from Pyrford Church behind me, and then came the silhouette of Maybury Hill, with its treetops and roofs black and sharp against the red.

Even as I beheld this a lurid green glare lit the road about me and showed the distant woods towards Addlestone. I felt a tug at the reins. I saw that the driving clouds had been pierced as it were by a thread of green fire, suddenly lighting their confusion and falling into the field to my left. It was the third falling star!

Close on its apparition, and blindingly violet by contrast, danced out the first lightning of the gathering storm, and the thunder burst like a rocket overhead. The horse took the bit between his teeth and bolted.

A moderate incline runs towards the foot of Maybury Hill, and down this we clattered. Once the lightning had begun, it went on in as rapid a succession of flashes as I have ever seen. The thunderclaps, treading one on the heels of another and with a strange crackling accompaniment, sounded more like the working of a gigantic electric machine than the usual detonating reverberations. The flickering light was blinding and confusing, and a thin hail smote gustily at my face as I drove down the slope.

At first I regarded little but the road before me, and then abruptly my attention was arrested by something that was moving rapidly down the opposite slope of Maybury Hill. At first I took it for the wet roof of a house, but one flash following another showed it to be in swift rolling movement. It was an elusive vision—a moment of bewildering darkness, and then, in a flash like daylight, the red masses of the Orphanage near the crest of the hill, the green tops of the pine trees, and this problematical object came out clear and sharp and bright.

And this Thing I saw! How can I describe it? A monstrous tripod, higher than many houses, striding over the young pine trees, and smashing them aside in its career; a walking engine of glittering metal, striding now across the heather; articulate ropes of steel dangling from it, and the clattering tumult of its passage mingling with the riot of the thunder. A flash, and it came out vividly, heeling over one way with two feet in the air, to vanish and reappear almost instantly as it seemed, with the next flash, a hundred yards nearer. Can you imagine a milking stool tilted and bowled violently along the ground? That was the impression those instant flashes gave. But instead of a milking stool imagine it a great body of machinery on a tripod stand.

Then suddenly the trees in the pine wood ahead of me were parted, as brittle reeds are parted by a man thrusting through them; they were snapped off and driven headlong, and a second huge tripod appeared, rushing, as it seemed, headlong towards me. And I was galloping hard to meet it! At the sight of the second monster my nerve went altogether. Not stopping to look again, I wrenched the horse's head hard round to the right and in another moment the dog cart had heeled over upon the horse; the shafts smashed noisily, and I was flung sideways and fell heavily into a shallow pool of water. I crawled out almost immediately, and crouched, my feet still in the water, under a clump of furze. The horse lay motionless (his neck was broken, poor brute!) and by the lightning flashes I saw the black bulk of the overturned dog cart and the silhouette of the wheel still spinning slowly. In another moment the colossal mechanism went striding by me, and passed uphill towards Pyrford.

Seen nearer, the Thing was incredibly strange, for it was no mere insensate machine driving on its way. Machine it was, with a ringing metallic pace, and long, flexible, glittering tentacles (one of which gripped a young pine tree) swinging and rattling about its strange body. It picked its road as it went striding along, and the brazen hood that surmounted it moved to and fro with the inevitable suggestion of a head looking about. Behind the main body was a huge mass of white metal like a gigantic fisherman's basket, and puffs of green smoke squirted out from the joints of the limbs as the monster swept by me. And in an instant it was gone.

So much I saw then, all vaguely for the flickering of the lightning, in blinding highlights and dense black shadows.

As it passed it set up an exultant deafening howl that drowned the thunder—“Aloo! Aloo!”—and in another minute it was with its companion, half a mile away, stooping over something in the field. I have no doubt this Thing in the field was the third of the ten cylinders they had fired at us from Mars.

For some minutes I lay there in the rain and darkness watching, by the intermittent light, these monstrous beings of metal moving about in the distance over the hedge tops. A thin hail was now beginning, and as it came and went their figures grew misty and then flashed into clearness again. Now and then came a gap in the lightning, and the night swallowed them up.

I was soaked with hail above and puddle water below. It was some time before my blank astonishment would let me struggle up the bank to a drier position, or think at all of my imminent peril.

Not far from me was a little one-roomed squatter's hut of wood, surrounded by a patch of potato garden. I struggled to my feet at last, and, crouching and making use of every chance of cover, I made a run for this. I hammered at the door, but I could not make the people hear (if there were any people inside), and after a time I desisted, and, availing myself of a ditch for the greater part of the way, succeeded in crawling, unobserved by these monstrous machines, into the pine woods towards Maybury.

Under cover of this I pushed on, wet and shivering now, towards my own house. I walked among the trees trying to find the footpath. It was very dark indeed in the wood, for the lightning was now becoming infrequent, and the hail, which was pouring down in a torrent, fell in columns through the gaps in the heavy foliage.

If I had fully realised the meaning of all the things I had seen I should have immediately worked my way round through Byfleet to Street Cobham, and so gone back to rejoin my wife at Leatherhead. But that night the strangeness of things about me, and my physical wretchedness, prevented me, for I was bruised, weary, wet to the skin, deafened and blinded by the storm.

I had a vague idea of going on to my own house, and that was as much motive as I had. I staggered through the trees, fell into a ditch and bruised my knees against a plank, and finally splashed out into the lane that ran down from the College Arms. I say splashed, for the storm water was sweeping the sand down the hill in a muddy torrent. There in the darkness a man blundered into me and sent me reeling back.

He gave a cry of terror, sprang sideways, and rushed on before I could gather my wits sufficiently to speak to him. So heavy was the stress of the storm just at this place that I had the hardest task to win my way up the hill. I went close up to the fence on the left and worked my way along its palings.

Near the top I stumbled upon something soft, and, by a flash of lightning, saw between my feet a heap of black broadcloth and a pair of boots. Before I could distinguish clearly how the man lay, the flicker of light had passed. I stood over him waiting for the next flash. When it came, I saw that he was a sturdy man, cheaply but not shabbily dressed; his head was bent under his body, and he lay crumpled up close to the fence, as though he had been flung violently against it.

Overcoming the repugnance natural to one who had never before touched a dead body, I stooped and turned him over to feel for his heart. He was quite dead. Apparently his neck had been broken. The lightning flashed for a third time, and his face leaped upon me. I sprang to my feet. It was the landlord of the Spotted Dog, whose conveyance I had taken.

The War of the Worlds: Chapter 10 (1) Der Krieg der Welten: Kapitel 10 (1) La guerra de los mundos: Capítulo 10 (1) La guerre des mondes : chapitre 10 (1) La guerra dei mondi: capitolo 10 (1)

Chapter Ten In the Storm

Leatherhead is about twelve miles from Maybury Hill. The scent of hay was in the air through the lush meadows beyond Pyrford, and the hedges on either side were sweet and gay with multitudes of dog-roses. O cheiro de feno estava no ar através dos prados exuberantes além de Pyrford, e as sebes de ambos os lados eram doces e alegres com multidões de rosas caninas. The heavy firing that had broken out while we were driving down Maybury Hill ceased as abruptly as it began, leaving the evening very peaceful and still. O pesado tiroteio que irrompeu enquanto descíamos a colina Maybury cessou tão abruptamente quanto começou, deixando a noite muito tranquila e tranquila. We got to Leatherhead without misadventure about nine o’clock, and the horse had an hour’s rest while I took supper with my cousins and commended my wife to their care. Chegamos a Leatherhead sem contratempos por volta das nove horas, e o cavalo teve uma hora de descanso enquanto eu jantava com meus primos e mandava minha esposa aos cuidados deles. My wife was curiously silent throughout the drive, and seemed oppressed with forebodings of evil. Minha esposa ficou curiosamente silenciosa durante todo o trajeto e parecia oprimida por pressentimentos do mal. I talked to her reassuringly, pointing out that the Martians were tied to the Pit by sheer heaviness, and at the utmost could but crawl a little out of it; but she answered only in monosyllables. Conversei com ela de modo tranqüilizador, observando que os marcianos estavam amarrados ao Poço pelo peso absoluto e, no máximo, só podiam rastejar um pouco para fora dele; mas ela respondeu apenas em monossílabos. Had it not been for my promise to the innkeeper, she would, I think, have urged me to stay in Leatherhead that night. Se não fosse pela minha promessa ao estalajadeiro, ela teria, eu acho, insistido para que eu ficasse em Leatherhead naquela noite. Would that I had! Quem dera eu tivesse! Her face, I remember, was very white as we parted. Seu rosto, eu me lembro, estava muito branco quando nos separamos.

For my own part, I had been feverishly excited all day. De minha parte, fiquei muito animado o dia todo. Something very like the war fever that occasionally runs through a civilised community had got into my blood, and in my heart I was not so very sorry that I had to return to Maybury that night. Algo muito parecido com a febre da guerra que ocasionalmente atravessa uma comunidade civilizada entrou em meu sangue, e no meu coração eu não estava tão triste por ter que voltar para Maybury naquela noite. I was even afraid that that last fusillade I had heard might mean the extermination of our invaders from Mars. Tive até medo de que aquela última fuzilaria que ouvi pudesse significar o extermínio de nossos invasores de Marte. I can best express my state of mind by saying that I wanted to be in at the death. Posso expressar melhor meu estado de espírito dizendo que queria estar presente na hora da morte.

It was nearly eleven when I started to return. Eram quase onze horas quando comecei a voltar. The night was unexpectedly dark; to me, walking out of the lighted passage of my cousins' house, it seemed indeed black, and it was as hot and close as the day. A noite estava inesperadamente escura; para mim, saindo da passagem iluminada da casa dos meus primos, parecia mesmo preto, e estava tão quente e fechado como o dia. Overhead the clouds were driving fast, albeit not a breath stirred the shrubs about us. Acima, as nuvens se moviam rapidamente, embora nem um sopro agitasse os arbustos ao nosso redor. My cousins' man lit both lamps. O homem dos meus primos acendeu as duas lâmpadas. Happily, I knew the road intimately. Felizmente, eu conhecia a estrada intimamente. My wife stood in the light of the doorway, and watched me until I jumped up into the dog cart. Minha esposa ficou parada à luz da porta e ficou me olhando até que pulei para dentro do carrinho de cachorro. Then abruptly she turned and went in, leaving my cousins side by side wishing me good hap. Então, abruptamente, ela se virou e entrou, deixando meus primos lado a lado me desejando boa sorte.

I was a little depressed at first with the contagion of my wife’s fears, but very soon my thoughts reverted to the Martians. Fiquei um pouco deprimido no início com o contágio dos medos de minha esposa, mas logo meus pensamentos se voltaram para os marcianos. At that time I was absolutely in the dark as to the course of the evening’s fighting. Naquela época, eu estava absolutamente sem saber o que aconteceria na luta daquela noite. I did not know even the circumstances that had precipitated the conflict. Não sabia nem mesmo as circunstâncias que precipitaram o conflito. As I came through Ockham (for that was the way I returned, and not through Send and Old Woking) I saw along the western horizon a blood-red glow, which as I drew nearer, crept slowly up the sky. Ao passar por Ockham (pois foi por esse caminho que voltei, e não por Send e Old Woking), vi ao longo do horizonte oeste um brilho vermelho-sangue que, à medida que me aproximava, subia lentamente pelo céu. The driving clouds of the gathering thunderstorm mingled there with masses of black and red smoke. As nuvens da tempestade que se acumulava se misturavam ali com massas de fumaça preta e vermelha.

Ripley Street was deserted, and except for a lighted window or so the village showed not a sign of life; but I narrowly escaped an accident at the corner of the road to Pyrford, where a knot of people stood with their backs to me. A rua Ripley estava deserta e, exceto por uma janela iluminada, a vila não mostrava nenhum sinal de vida; mas escapei por pouco de um acidente na esquina da estrada para Pyrford, onde um grupo de pessoas estava de costas para mim. They said nothing to me as I passed. Eles não disseram nada para mim enquanto eu passava. I do not know what they knew of the things happening beyond the hill, nor do I know if the silent houses I passed on my way were sleeping securely, or deserted and empty, or harassed and watching against the terror of the night. Não sei o que eles sabiam das coisas que aconteciam além da colina, nem sei se as casas silenciosas pelas quais passei no meu caminho estavam dormindo em segurança, ou desertas e vazias, ou acossadas e vigiando contra o terror da noite.

From Ripley until I came through Pyrford I was in the valley of the Wey, and the red glare was hidden from me. De Ripley até chegar a Pyrford, estava no vale do Wey, e o brilho vermelho estava escondido de mim. As I ascended the little hill beyond Pyrford Church the glare came into view again, and the trees about me shivered with the first intimation of the storm that was upon me. Enquanto eu subia a pequena colina além da Igreja de Pyrford, o clarão apareceu novamente, e as árvores ao meu redor estremeceram com a primeira insinuação da tempestade que estava sobre mim. Then I heard midnight pealing out from Pyrford Church behind me, and then came the silhouette of Maybury Hill, with its treetops and roofs black and sharp against the red. Então ouvi a meia-noite ressoar da Igreja de Pyrford atrás de mim, e então veio a silhueta de Maybury Hill, com suas copas de árvore e telhados pretos e nítidos contra o vermelho.

Even as I beheld this a lurid green glare lit the road about me and showed the distant woods towards Addlestone. No momento em que vi isso, um clarão verde lúgubre iluminou a estrada ao meu redor e mostrou a floresta distante em direção a Addlestone. I felt a tug at the reins. Senti um puxão nas rédeas. I saw that the driving clouds had been pierced as it were by a thread of green fire, suddenly lighting their confusion and falling into the field to my left. Eu vi que as nuvens fortes haviam sido perfuradas por um fio de fogo verde, de repente iluminando sua confusão e caindo no campo à minha esquerda. It was the third falling star! Foi a terceira estrela cadente!

Close on its apparition, and blindingly violet by contrast, danced out the first lightning of the gathering storm, and the thunder burst like a rocket overhead. Perto de sua aparição, e em contraste cegamente violeta, dançou o primeiro relâmpago da tempestade que se aproximava, e o trovão explodiu como um foguete acima. The horse took the bit between his teeth and bolted. O cavalo levou a mordida entre os dentes e fugiu.

A moderate incline runs towards the foot of Maybury Hill, and down this we clattered. Uma inclinação moderada segue em direção ao sopé da colina Maybury, e descemos com estrépito. Once the lightning had begun, it went on in as rapid a succession of flashes as I have ever seen. Depois que o relâmpago começou, ele continuou em uma sucessão de flashes tão rápida quanto eu já vi. The thunderclaps, treading one on the heels of another and with a strange crackling accompaniment, sounded more like the working of a gigantic electric machine than the usual detonating reverberations. Os trovões, pisando nos calcanhares de outro e com um estranho acompanhamento crepitante, pareciam mais o funcionamento de uma gigantesca máquina elétrica do que as habituais reverberações detonantes. The flickering light was blinding and confusing, and a thin hail smote gustily at my face as I drove down the slope. A luz bruxuleante era cegante e confusa, e um granizo fino atingiu meu rosto enquanto eu dirigia pela encosta.

At first I regarded little but the road before me, and then abruptly my attention was arrested by something that was moving rapidly down the opposite slope of Maybury Hill. A princípio, olhei apenas para a estrada à minha frente e, então, de repente, minha atenção foi atraída por algo que estava descendo rapidamente a encosta oposta da colina Maybury. At first I took it for the wet roof of a house, but one flash following another showed it to be in swift rolling movement. No início, pensei que fosse o telhado molhado de uma casa, mas um flash após o outro mostrou que ele estava em um movimento rápido de rolamento. It was an elusive vision—a moment of bewildering darkness, and then, in a flash like daylight, the red masses of the Orphanage near the crest of the hill, the green tops of the pine trees, and this problematical object came out clear and sharp and bright. Foi uma visão evasiva - um momento de escuridão desconcertante e, em seguida, em um flash como a luz do dia, as massas vermelhas do Orfanato perto da crista da colina, os topos verdes dos pinheiros, e este objeto problemático ficou claro e nítido e brilhante.

And this Thing I saw! E essa coisa eu vi! How can I describe it? Como posso descrever? A monstrous tripod, higher than many houses, striding over the young pine trees, and smashing them aside in its career; a walking engine of glittering metal, striding now across the heather; articulate ropes of steel dangling from it, and the clattering tumult of its passage mingling with the riot of the thunder. Um tripé monstruoso, mais alto do que muitas casas, avançando sobre os pinheiros jovens e despedaçando-os em sua carreira; uma locomotiva ambulante de metal cintilante, agora avançando pela urze; articular cordas de aço penduradas nele, e o tumulto estrondoso de sua passagem misturando-se com o tumulto do trovão. A flash, and it came out vividly, heeling over one way with two feet in the air, to vanish and reappear almost instantly as it seemed, with the next flash, a hundred yards nearer. Um flash, e saiu vividamente, inclinando-se para um lado com dois pés no ar, para desaparecer e reaparecer quase instantaneamente como parecia, com o próximo flash, cem metros mais perto. Can you imagine a milking stool tilted and bowled violently along the ground? Você consegue imaginar um banquinho de ordenha inclinado e rolando violentamente pelo chão? That was the impression those instant flashes gave. Essa foi a impressão que aqueles flashes instantâneos deram. But instead of a milking stool imagine it a great body of machinery on a tripod stand. Mas, em vez de um banquinho de ordenha, imagine um grande corpo de máquinas em um tripé.

Then suddenly the trees in the pine wood ahead of me were parted, as brittle reeds are parted by a man thrusting through them; they were snapped off and driven headlong, and a second huge tripod appeared, rushing, as it seemed, headlong towards me. Então, de repente, as árvores no bosque de pinheiros à minha frente se separaram, como os juncos quebradiços se partem por um homem que passa por eles; eles foram arrancados e empurrados de cabeça para baixo, e um segundo enorme tripé apareceu, correndo, ao que parecia, de cabeça para baixo em minha direção. And I was galloping hard to meet it! E eu estava galopando muito para enfrentá-lo! At the sight of the second monster my nerve went altogether. Ao ver o segundo monstro, minha coragem acabou. Not stopping to look again, I wrenched the horse’s head hard round to the right and in another moment the dog cart had heeled over upon the horse; the shafts smashed noisily, and I was flung sideways and fell heavily into a shallow pool of water. Sem parar para olhar de novo, girei a cabeça do cavalo com força para a direita e, em um momento seguinte, a carroça do cão saltou sobre o cavalo; as flechas se quebraram ruidosamente e eu fui atirado para o lado e caí pesadamente em uma poça de água rasa. I crawled out almost immediately, and crouched, my feet still in the water, under a clump of furze. Arrastei-me para fora quase imediatamente e me agachei, meus pés ainda na água, sob uma moita de tojo. The horse lay motionless (his neck was broken, poor brute!) O cavalo ficou imóvel (seu pescoço estava quebrado, pobre brutamontes!) and by the lightning flashes I saw the black bulk of the overturned dog cart and the silhouette of the wheel still spinning slowly. e pelos relâmpagos eu vi o vulto negro da carroça de cachorro virada e a silhueta da roda ainda girando lentamente. In another moment the colossal mechanism went striding by me, and passed uphill towards Pyrford. Em outro momento, o mecanismo colossal passou por mim a passos largos e subiu a colina em direção a Pyrford.

Seen nearer, the Thing was incredibly strange, for it was no mere insensate machine driving on its way. Visto de perto, o Coisa era incrivelmente estranho, pois não era uma mera máquina insensata dirigindo em seu caminho. Machine it was, with a ringing metallic pace, and long, flexible, glittering tentacles (one of which gripped a young pine tree) swinging and rattling about its strange body. Era uma máquina, com um ritmo metálico retumbante, e tentáculos longos, flexíveis e brilhantes (um dos quais agarrou um jovem pinheiro) balançando e chacoalhando sobre seu corpo estranho. It picked its road as it went striding along, and the brazen hood that surmounted it moved to and fro with the inevitable suggestion of a head looking about. Ele escolheu seu caminho à medida que avançava, e o capuz de bronze que o encimava se movia de um lado para outro com a inevitável sugestão de uma cabeça olhando em volta. Behind the main body was a huge mass of white metal like a gigantic fisherman’s basket, and puffs of green smoke squirted out from the joints of the limbs as the monster swept by me. Atrás do corpo principal havia uma enorme massa de metal branco como uma gigantesca cesta de pescador, e baforadas de fumaça verde espirraram das juntas dos membros quando o monstro passou por mim. And in an instant it was gone. E em um instante ele se foi.

So much I saw then, all vaguely for the flickering of the lightning, in blinding highlights and dense black shadows. Tanto eu vi então, tudo vagamente pela cintilação do relâmpago, em destaques ofuscantes e sombras pretas densas.

As it passed it set up an exultant deafening howl that drowned the thunder—“Aloo! Ao passar, deu um uivo ensurdecedor e exultante que abafou o trovão - “Aloo! Aloo!”—and in another minute it was with its companion, half a mile away, stooping over something in the field. Aloo! ”- e em um minuto ele estava com seu companheiro, a oitocentos metros de distância, inclinando-se sobre algo no campo. I have no doubt this Thing in the field was the third of the ten cylinders they had fired at us from Mars.

For some minutes I lay there in the rain and darkness watching, by the intermittent light, these monstrous beings of metal moving about in the distance over the hedge tops. Por alguns minutos, fiquei ali deitado, na chuva e na escuridão, observando, sob a luz intermitente, esses monstruosos seres de metal movendo-se à distância sobre os topos das sebes. A thin hail was now beginning, and as it came and went their figures grew misty and then flashed into clearness again. Uma fina chuva de granizo estava começando agora e, à medida que ia e vinha, suas figuras ficavam nebulosas e, em seguida, tornavam-se claras de novo. Now and then came a gap in the lightning, and the night swallowed them up. De vez em quando, surgia uma brecha no relâmpago e a noite os engolia.

I was soaked with hail above and puddle water below. Eu estava encharcado de granizo acima e poça d'água abaixo. It was some time before my blank astonishment would let me struggle up the bank to a drier position, or think at all of my imminent peril. Demorou algum tempo antes que meu espanto vazio me permitisse subir a margem até uma posição mais seca, ou pensar em meu perigo iminente.

Not far from me was a little one-roomed squatter’s hut of wood, surrounded by a patch of potato garden. Não muito longe de mim estava uma pequena cabana de madeira de um ocupante de um cômodo, cercada por um canteiro de batata. I struggled to my feet at last, and, crouching and making use of every chance of cover, I made a run for this. Finalmente consegui me levantar e, agachando-me e aproveitando todas as chances de cobertura, corri. I hammered at the door, but I could not make the people hear (if there were any people inside), and after a time I desisted, and, availing myself of a ditch for the greater part of the way, succeeded in crawling, unobserved by these monstrous machines, into the pine woods towards Maybury. Bati na porta, mas não consegui fazer as pessoas ouvirem (se é que havia gente lá dentro), e depois de um tempo desisti e, aproveitando-me de uma vala na maior parte do caminho, consegui rastejar, sem ser observado por essas máquinas monstruosas, na floresta de pinheiros em direção a Maybury.

Under cover of this I pushed on, wet and shivering now, towards my own house. Sob a cobertura disso, continuei, molhado e trêmulo agora, em direção à minha própria casa. I walked among the trees trying to find the footpath. Caminhei entre as árvores tentando encontrar a trilha. It was very dark indeed in the wood, for the lightning was now becoming infrequent, and the hail, which was pouring down in a torrent, fell in columns through the gaps in the heavy foliage. Estava realmente muito escuro na floresta, pois os relâmpagos agora estavam se tornando raros, e o granizo, que caía em uma torrente, caía em colunas pelas fendas na folhagem densa.

If I had fully realised the meaning of all the things I had seen I should have immediately worked my way round through Byfleet to Street Cobham, and so gone back to rejoin my wife at Leatherhead. Se eu tivesse compreendido completamente o significado de todas as coisas que vi, teria imediatamente percorrido Byfleet até a Street Cobham e voltado para me reunir com minha esposa em Leatherhead. Если бы я полностью осознал значение всего увиденного, я бы немедленно пробрался через Байфлит на улицу Кобхэм и вернулся бы к своей жене в Лезерхед. But that night the strangeness of things about me, and my physical wretchedness, prevented me, for I was bruised, weary, wet to the skin, deafened and blinded by the storm. Mas naquela noite, a estranheza das coisas sobre mim e minha miséria física me impediram, pois eu estava machucado, cansado, com a pele molhada, surdo e cego pela tempestade. Но в ту ночь странность окружавших меня вещей и мое физическое убожество помешали мне, потому что я был весь в синяках, устал, промок до нитки, оглушен и ослеплен бурей.

I had a vague idea of going on to my own house, and that was as much motive as I had. Tive uma vaga ideia de ir para minha própria casa, e esse foi o meu motivo. I staggered through the trees, fell into a ditch and bruised my knees against a plank, and finally splashed out into the lane that ran down from the College Arms. Cambaleei por entre as árvores, caí em uma vala e machuquei os joelhos contra uma prancha e, finalmente, saltei para a estrada que descia do College Arms. I say splashed, for the storm water was sweeping the sand down the hill in a muddy torrent. Digo salpicado, pois a água da chuva estava varrendo a areia colina abaixo em uma torrente lamacenta. There in the darkness a man blundered into me and sent me reeling back. Lá, na escuridão, um homem tropeçou em mim e me mandou cambaleando de volta. Там, в темноте, на меня наткнулся человек и отбросил меня назад.

He gave a cry of terror, sprang sideways, and rushed on before I could gather my wits sufficiently to speak to him. Ele deu um grito de terror, saltou para o lado e correu antes que eu pudesse me recompor o suficiente para falar com ele. So heavy was the stress of the storm just at this place that I had the hardest task to win my way up the hill. Tão forte era o estresse da tempestade exatamente naquele lugar que eu tive a tarefa mais difícil de vencer o meu caminho até a colina. I went close up to the fence on the left and worked my way along its palings. Aproximei-me da cerca à esquerda e abri caminho ao longo de suas estacas.

Near the top I stumbled upon something soft, and, by a flash of lightning, saw between my feet a heap of black broadcloth and a pair of boots. Perto do topo, tropecei em algo macio e, por um relâmpago, vi entre meus pés uma pilha de lonas pretas e um par de botas. Before I could distinguish clearly how the man lay, the flicker of light had passed. Antes que eu pudesse distinguir claramente como o homem estava deitado, o lampejo de luz havia passado. I stood over him waiting for the next flash. Fiquei parado perto dele esperando o próximo flash. When it came, I saw that he was a sturdy man, cheaply but not shabbily dressed; his head was bent under his body, and he lay crumpled up close to the fence, as though he had been flung violently against it. Quando chegou, vi que ele era um homem robusto, barato, mas não mal vestido; sua cabeça estava curvada sob o corpo, e ele jazia encolhido perto da cerca, como se tivesse sido jogado violentamente contra ela.

Overcoming the repugnance natural to one who had never before touched a dead body, I stooped and turned him over to feel for his heart. Vencendo a repugnância natural de quem nunca havia tocado em um cadáver, abaixei-me e virei-o para sentir seu coração. Преодолевая отвращение, естественное для того, кто никогда прежде не прикасался к мертвому телу, я нагнулся и перевернул его, чтобы нащупать его сердце. He was quite dead. Ele estava morto. Apparently his neck had been broken. The lightning flashed for a third time, and his face leaped upon me. O relâmpago brilhou pela terceira vez e seu rosto saltou sobre mim. Молния сверкнула в третий раз, и его лицо прыгнуло на меня. I sprang to my feet. Eu pulei de pé. It was the landlord of the Spotted Dog, whose conveyance I had taken. Era o dono do Spotted Dog, cujo meio de transporte eu pegara. Это был хозяин «Пёстрого пса», чью перевозку я взял.