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As I left the railway station at Worchester and set out on the three-e, I reflected that no one on that platfor to visit The flat heath which spread out before e lies all behind and to the north of the station)looked like an ordinary heath The glooht see on any autumn afternoon The few houses and the clumps of red or yellowish trees were in no way reine that a little farther on in that quiet landscape I should meet and shake by the hand a man who had lived and eaten and drunk in a world forty million miles distant from London, who had seen this Earth froreen fire, and who had spoken face to face with a creature whose life began before our own planet was inhabitable?

For Ransos in Mars besides the Martians He had reat eldil who is the ruler of Mars or, in their speech; the Oyarsa of Malacandra The eldila are very different froanism it can be called, is quite unlike either the human or the Martian They do not eat, breed, breathe, or suffer natural death, and to that extent rese we should recognise as an anih they appear on planets and may even seem to our senses to be sometimes resident in them, the precise spatial location of an eldil at any ard space (or &039;Deep Heaven&039;) as their true habitat, and the planets are to the points - perhaps even interruptions - in e know as the Solar Syste to see Ransom in answer to a hich had said &039;Couessed what sort of business heht with Ranso the prospect as ht to It was the eldila that were et used to the fact that Ransom had been to Marsbut to havewhose life appeared to be practically unendingEven the journey to Mars was bad enough A ed One can&039;t put the difference into words When theis not easy to recover Butconviction that, since his return, the eldila were not leaving his in his conversation, little mannerisms, accidental allusions which he ested that he was keeping strange coe

As I plodded along the empty, unfenced road which runs across thesense ofit What, after all, was I afraid of? The retted it I was shocked to find that I had mentally used the word &039;afraid&039; Up till then I had tried to pretend that I was feeling only distaste, or embarrassment, or even boredo I realised now that my emotion was neither more, nor less, nor other, than Fear And I realised that I was afraid of two things - afraid that sooner or later I et &039;drawn in&039; I suppose everyone knows this fear of getting &039;drawn in&039; - the moment at which a man realises that what had see him in the Communist Party or the Christian Church - the sense that a door has just sla was such sheer bad luck Ransoainst his will and almost by accident, and I had become connected with his affair by another accident Yet here ere both getting more and more involved in what I could only describe as inter-planetary politics As to my intense wish never to come into contact with the eldila myself I am not sure whether I canmore than a prudent desire to avoid creatures alien in kind, very powerful, and very intelligent The truth was all that I heard about thes which our ave me a sort of shock We tend to think about non-huories which we label &039;scientific&039; and &039;supernatural&039; respectively We think, in one mood, of Mr Wells&039; Martians (very unlike the real Malacandrians, by the bye), or his Selenites In quite a different hosts, fairies, and the like But the very nise a creature in either class as real the distinction begins to get blurred: and when it is a creature like an eldil the distinction vanishes altogether These things were not animals - to that extent one had to classify theroup; but they had some kind of material vehicle whose presence could (in principle) be scientifically verified To that extent they belonged to the first group The distinction between natural and supernatural, in fact, broke down; and when it had done so, one realised how great a comfort it had been - how it had eased the burden of intolerable strangeness which this universe i the mind never to think of both in the same context What price we may have paid for this comfort in the way of false security and accepted confusion of thought is another ht toto carry&039; And then, with a start of realisation, I re ht I swore toin the train Will you believe me when I say that my immediate i about it&039;? Of course there was nothing to be done which could not equally well be done by ringing up froe That train, with my pack in it, must by this time be miles away

I realise that now as clearly as you do But at the moment it seemed perfectly obvious that I un to do so before reason or conscience awoke and setthis I discovered more clearly than before how very little I wanted to do it It was such hard work that I felt as if I alking against a headwind; but in fact it was one of those still, dead evenings when no twig stirs, and beginning to be a little foggy

The farther I went theexcept these eldila What, after all, did Ransom really know about them? By his own account the sorts which he had un to do so since his return from Mars We had eldila of our own, he said, Tellurian eldils, but they were of a different kind and mostly hostile to man That, in fact, hy our world was cut off from co in a state of siege, as being, in fact, an enemy-occupied territory, held down by eldils ere at war both with us and with the eldils of &039;Deep Heaven&039;, or &039;space&039; Like the bacteria on thepests on the macroscopic permeate our whole life invisibly and are the real explanation of that fatal bent which is the main lesson of history If all this were true, then, of course, we should welcome the fact that eldila of a better kind had at last broken the frontier (it is, they say, at the Moon&039;s orbit) and were beginning to visit us Always assu that Ransom&039;s account was the correct one

A nasty idea occurred tofro to invade our planet, what better smoke-screen could it put up than this very story of Ransohtest evidence, after all, for the existence of the supposed maleficent eldils on this earth? How if e, the Trojan Horse, whereby so on Tellus? And then once more, just as when I had discovered that I had to pack, the io back," it whispered to me, "send him a wire, tell him you were ill, say you&039;ll co astonishedmyself not to be a fool, and when I finally resuinning of a nervous breakdown No sooner had this idea occurred toRansom Obviously, I wasn&039;t fit for any such juram almost certainly referred to I wasn&039;t even fit to spend an ordinary weekend away froet safe home, before I lost my memory or became hysterical, and to put o on

I was now co down a small hill, with a copse on s onmist was partly thick &039;They call it a Breakdown at first,&039; I thought &039;Wasn&039;t there some mental disease in which quite ordinary objects looked to the patient unbelievably ominous?looked, in fact, just as that abandoned factory looks to eys, glowered at rey pools and intersected with the res which Ransom had seen in that other world: only there, they were people Long spindle-like giants whoarded theood people - very ue with the worseand again I ca Ransom, will not understand how contrary to all reason this idea was The rational part of my mind, even at that moment, knew perfectly well that even if the whole universe were crazy and hostile, Ransom was sane and wholesome and honest And this part of my mind in the end sent me forward - but with a reluctance and a difficulty I can hardly put into words What enabled e (deep down insidenearer at every stride to the one friend: but I felt that I was getting nearer to the one eneue with &039;the into the trap with my eyes open, like a fool "They call it a breakdown at first," saidhome; later on they move you to an asylu, where it was very cold Then came a moment - the first one - of absolute terror and I had to biteIt was only a cat that had run across the road, but I found ," said , and you won&039;t be able to stop it"

There was a little empty house by the side of the road, withlike the eye of a dead fish Please understand that at ordinary times the idea of a &039;haunted house&039; means no more to me than it does to you Noso definite as the thought of a ghost that came to me It was just the word &039;haunted&039; &039;Haunted&039;&039;haunting&039;what a quality there is in that first syllable! Would not a child who had never heard the word before and did not know itsin, it heard one of its elders say to another "This house is haunted"?

At last I came to the crossroads by the little Wesleyan chapel where I had to turn to the left under the beech trees I ought to be seeing the lights from Ransom&039;s s by now - or was it past blackout time? My watch had stopped, and I didn&039;t know It was dark enough but thatand the trees It wasn&039;t the dark I was afraid of, you understand We have all known times when inanimate objects seemed to have almost a facial expression, and it was the expression of this bit of road which I did not like "It&039;s not true," saidmad" Suppose that real insanity had chosen this place in which to begin? In that case, of course, the black en trees - their horrible expectancy - would be a hallucination But that did not make it any better To think that the spectre you see is an illusion does not rob him of his terrors: it simply adds the further terror of madness itself - and then on top of that the horrible sur, been the only people who see the world as it really is

This was upon ered on into the cold and the darkness, already half convinced that Iwhat is called Madness But each ed Had it ever been reed , which excluded froeness and malevolence of the universe we are co the last few months of my acquaintance with Ransom already amounted to more than &039;sanity&039; would admit; but I had come much too far to disood faith I did not doubt the existence of the things he had i, the Hrossa, and the Sorns - nor of these interplanetary eldila I did not even doubt the reality of thatwhoive a total obedience such as no Tellurian dictator can command I knehat Ransoe It was very well blacked-out A childish, whining thought arose on ate to welcoht followed Perhaps he was in the garden waiting forPerhaps he would juure that looked like Ranso with its back to me and when I spoke to it, it would turn round and show a face that was not hue on this phase of my story The state of mind I was in was one which I look back on with humiliation I would have passed it over if I did not think that so of what follows - and, perhaps, of sos as well At all events, I can&039;t really describe how I reached the front door of the cottage So and dismay that pulled me back and a sort of invisible wall of resistance thatfor each step, and ale touched ate and up the little path And there I was, dru to him to let me in as if my life depended on it

There was no reply - not a sound except the echo of the sounds I had beenon the knocker I guessed, of course, that it was a note In striking a match to read it by, I discovered how very shaky my hands had become; and when the rown After several attee Shan&039;t be back till the late train Eatables in larder and bed made up in your usual room Don&039;t wait supper for me unless you feel like it - E R&039; And immediately the impulse to retreat, which had already assailed me several times, leaped upon me with a sort of demoniac violence Here waso into that house and sit there alone for several hours, they were an to take shape inout to traverse the avenue of beech trees again (it was really dark noith this house behindthat it could follow one) was not attractive And then, I hope, so of sanity and some reluctance to let Ransom down At least I could try the door to see if it were really unlocked I did And it was Next moment, I hardly kno, I found myself inside and let it slaroped a few paces forward, hit , and fell I sat still for a few seconds nursing ht I knew the layout of Ransoine what I had blundered into Presently I groped in ht The head of the match flew off I sta on the carpet As soon as I sniffed I becae smell in the room I could not for the life of me make out what it was It had an unlikeness to ordinary doreat as that of some chemicals, but it was not a chemical kind of smell at all Then I struck another match It flickered and went out al on the door-mat and there are few front doors even in better built houses than Ransoht I had seen nothing by it except the paluard the flaerly and feltsher than my knees As I touched it I realised that it was the source of the s this to the left and finally came to the end of it It seemed to present several surfaces and I couldn&039;t picture the shape It was not a table, for it had no top One&039;s hand groped along the rim of a kind of loall - the thuers down inside the enclosed space If it had felt like wood I should have supposed it to be a large packing-case But it was not wood I thought for acoldness for moisture When I reached the end of it I struckwhite and se: a kind of box, an open box: and of a disquieting shape which I did not ih to put a hted et abehindin darkness, not on the carpet, but on more of the cold substance with the odd ss were there?

I was just preparing to rise again and hunt systematically round the room for a candle when I heard Ransom&039;s name pronounced; and al I had feared so long to see I heard Ransom&039;s name pronounced: but I should not like to say I heard a voice pronounce it The sound was quite astonishingly unlike a voice It was perfectly articulate: it was even, I suppose, rather beautiful But it was, if you understand anic We feel the difference between ani those of the human anih it is hard to define Blood and lungs and the warm, moist cavity of the mouth are somehow indicated in every voice Here they were not The two syllables sounded more as if they were played on an instrument than as if they were spoken: and yet they did not soundwe make out of natural ht had spoken of itself And it went through h you when you think you have lost your hold while cli a cliff

That hat I heard What I saas siht I don&039;t think it , but I am not sure of this It certainly had very little power of illu But it had two other characteristics which are less easy to grasp One was its colour Since I saw the thing I must obviously have seen it either white or coloured; but no efforts of e of what that colour was I try blue, and gold, and violet, and red, but none of them will fit How it is possible to have a visual experience which immediately and ever after becomes impossible to rele It was not at right angles to the floor But as soon as I have said this, I hasten to add that this way of putting it is a later reconstruction What one actually felt at the ht was vertical but the floor was not horizontal - the whole room seemed to have heeled over as if it were on board ship The impression, however produced, was that this creature had reference to some horizontal, to some whole system of directions, based outside the Earth, and that its mere presence imposed that alien system on me and abolished the terrestrial horizontal

I had no doubt at all that I was seeing an eldil, and little doubt that I was seeing the archon of Mars, the Oyarsa of Malacandra And now that the thing had happened I was no longer in a condition of abject panic My sensations were, it is true, in some ways very unpleasant The fact that it was quite obviously not organic - the knowledge that intelligence was soht but not related to it as our consciousness is related to our brains and nerves - was profoundly disturbing It would not fit into our categories The response which we ordinarilycreature and that which we make to an inanimate object were here both equally inappropriate On the other hand, all those doubts which I had felt before I entered the cottage as to whether these creatures were friend or foe, and whether Ransom were a pioneer or a dupe, had for the moment vanished My fear was now of another kind I felt sure that the creature e call &039;good&039;, but I wasn&039;t sure whether I liked &039;goodness&039; so much as I had supposed This is a very terrible experience As long as what you are afraid of is soood h to the good and find that it also is dreadful? How if food itself turns out to be the very thing you can&039;t eat, and home the very place you can&039;t live, and your very comforter the person who makes you uncomfortable? Then, indeed, there is no rescue possible: the last card has been played For a second or tas nearly in that condition Here at last was a bit of that world from beyond the world, which I had always supposed that I loved and desired, breaking through and appearing to o away I wanted every possible distance, gulf,[1] [Footnote:] curtain, blanket, and barrier to be placed between it and h my very sense of helplessness saved me and steadied le was over The next decision did not lie with me

Then, like a noise fro of the door and the sound of boots on the doorht in the open doorway, a figure which I recognised as Ransoain out of the rod of light: and Ranso, stood still and answered it Both speeches were in a strange polysyllabic language which I had not heard before I s which awoke ine They are, in fact, inexcusable; but if you think they are improbable at such a juncture, I must tell you plainly that you have read neither history nor your own heart to s of resentment, horror, and jealousy It was in my mind to shout out, &039;Leave your faician, and attend to Me&039;

What I actually said was, "Oh, Ransom Thank God you&039;ve come"