“I Declare,” cried my uncle, striking the table fiercely with his fist, “I declare to you it is Runic–and contains some wonderful secret, which I must get at, at any price.”

however, that this thought did not occur to me until the following day removes any possible right to a claim to heroism to which the narration of this episode might possibly otherwise entitle me.

“O Machine!” she murmured, and caressed her Book, and was comforted.

The War of the Worlds describes the fictional 1895 invasion of Earth by aliens from Mars