Book 2: Chapter 2, What We Saw from the Ruined House Summary

The pair sleeps in the windowless scullery. The author wakes to find the curate sleeping below the triangular opening in the wall. The cylinder has been opened and work is happening in the pit. The author gets a very close look at one of the fighting machines and describes it. It is less like a tripod than he first thought. It has five legs and many tentacles that are able to reach, grab, and carry things. The joints in the big machine move fluidly. It is not an awkwardly made machine but very flexible.

His attention turns toward the Martians themselves. Their body consists of only a head. It had large eyes and a fleshy, beak-like mouth. There appears to be some sort of eardrum located on...