No one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space. No one could have dreamed that we were being [bad word]  as someone with a microscope studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. Few men even considered the possibility of life on other planets and yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely, they drew their plans against us.

At midnight on the twelfth of August, a huge mass of luminous gas [bad word] from Mars and sped towards Earth. Across two hundred million miles of void, invisibly hurtling towards us were the first of the missiles that were to bring so much calamity to Earth. As I watched, there was another jet of gas. It was another missile starting on its way.

And that’s how it was for the next ten nights. flare, spurting out from Mars – bright green, drawing a green mist behind it – a beautiful, but somehow disturbing sight. Ogilvy the astronomer, assured me we were in no danger. He was convinced that there could be no living thing on that remote forbidding planet.

“The chances of [bad word] from mars are a million to one”, he said.
“The chances of [bad word] from mars are a million to one – but still [bad word] ”

Journalist: Then came the night the first missile approached Earth. It was thought to be an ordinary falling star, but next day there was huge crater in the middle of [bad word]  and Ogilvy came to examine what lay there: a cylinder, thirty yards across, glowing hot… And with faint sounds of [bad word] from within.

Suddenly the top began moving, rotating, unscrewing, and Ogilvy feared there was a man inside, trying to escape. [bad word] to the cylinder, but the intense heat stopped him before he could burn himself on the metal.

“The chances of [bad word] from mars are a million to one – but still [bad word] ”
“The chances of [bad word] from mars are a million to one”, he said.
“The chances of [bad word] from mars are a million to one – but still [bad word] ”
“Yes, the chances of [bad word] from mars are a million to one – but still [bad word] ”

It seems totally incredible to me now that everyone spent that evening as though it were just like any other. From the railway station came the sound of shunting trains, ringing [bad word]  softened almost into melody by the distance.

It all seemed to safe and tranquil.