I crouched, watching this fighting-machine closely, satisfying
myself now for the first time that the hood did indeed contain a
Martian.  As the green flames lifted I could see the oily gleam of
his integument and the brightness of his eyes.  And suddenly I heard
a yell, and saw a long tentacle reaching over the shoulder of the
machine to the little cage that hunched upon its back.  Then
something--something struggling violently--was lifted high against the
sky, a black, vague enigma against the starlight; and as this black
object came down again, I saw by the green brightness that it was a
man.  For an instant he was clearly visible.  He was a stout, ruddy,
middle-aged man, well dressed; three days before, he must have been
walking the world, a man of considerable consequence.  I could see his
staring eyes and gleams of light on his studs and watch chain.  He
vanished behind the mound, and for a moment there was silence.  And
then began a shrieking and a sustained and cheerful hooting from the
Martians.