"Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes -
and slowly and surely they drew their plans against us."
The part that made me shudder as a 10-year old (and still does!) was in the coal cellar when the probing tentacle touched the heel of his boot.