But still these creatures were human, or at least their forefathers had
been. Hearts beat in their breasts, blood of a sort still flowed through
their veins, and so the magic of this marvellous vision instantly awoke
the long-slumbering elementary instincts of a bygone age. A low murmur
ran through the vast throng, a murmur half-human, half-brutish, which
swiftly rose to a hoarse screaming roar.
"Look out, my Lord! Quick! Shut the door, they're coming! It's her
ladyship they want; she must look like an angel from Heaven to them.
Shall I fire?"
"Yes," said Redgrave, gripping the lever, and bringing the door down.
"Zaidie, if this fellow moves put a bullet through him. I'm going to
talk to that air-ship before he gets his poison-guns to work."
As the last word left his lips Murgatroyd put his thumb on the spring on
the Maxim. A roar such as Martian ears had never heard before resounded
through the vast square, and was flung back with a thousand echoes from
the walls of the huge palaces on every side. A stream of smoke and flame
poured out of the little port-hole, and then the onward-swarming throng
seemed to stop, and the front ranks of it began to sink down silently in
long rows.
Then through the roaring rattle of the Maxim sounded the deep, sharp
bang of Redgrave's gun, as he sent ten pounds weight of Rennickite, as
he had christened it, into the Martian air-ship.
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