A curious crowd lingered restlessly, people coming and going but
the crowd remaining, both on the Chobham and Horsell bridges.  One or
two adventurous souls, it was afterwards found, went into the darkness
and crawled quite near the Martians; but they never returned, for now
and again a light-ray, like the beam of a warship's searchlight swept
the common, and the Heat-Ray was ready to follow.  Save for such, that
big area of common was silent and desolate, and the charred bodies lay
about on it all night under the stars, and all the next day.  A noise
of hammering from the pit was heard by many people.