It was only when I got thus close to it that the strangeness of
this object was at all evident to me.  At the first glance it was
really no more exciting than an overturned carriage or a tree blown
across the road.  Not so much so, indeed.  It looked like a rusty gas
float.  It required a certain amount of scientific education to
perceive that the grey scale of the Thing was no common oxide, that
the yellowish-white metal that gleamed in the crack between the lid
and the cylinder had an unfamiliar hue.  "Extra-terrestrial" had no
meaning for most of the onlookers.