Remain with us until the end of this strange
circumstance is known.'
"As he finished, a noise of indescribable lamentation from a multitude
of voices broke upon our ears--the sound of running feet and sharp cries
of amazement, crashed in upon the half ominous silence about us.
"I turned instinctively to my guide. He stood statue-like beside me,
with a stealing pallor crossing his face, and then, the doors of the
apartment swung open, and loud voices were heard crying, 'The Peril
comes. Stand forward. To the Hills!'
"Panic, that nameless associated mental terror of the unknown and the
impending, which on Earth spreads fever-like through multitudes, had
arisen amongst the Martians, and hurrying crowds were hastening in a
wild retreat from the City to the hills.
"All thought of the Council, of my errand, or of the new relation I had
been graciously accorded, disappeared from my mind. Frightened by the
sudden premonition of destruction, bewildered by the torrent of new
sensations, and even yet only half confident that my existence in the
new world was altogether real, I was impelled to spring forward.
Reaching the doors, hands shot out around me, and I was swept in the
tide of running forms.
"It was a living stream of manifold complexity. Only for one moment did
I lose consciousness. The next I was struggling to escape from the
spreading tentacles of this involved current. I leaped to the projection
of a low pedestal, upon which an unfinished construction or group of
statues was in progress.
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