Then suddenly the white flashes of the Heat-Ray came leaping
towards me.  The houses caved in as they dissolved at its touch, and
darted out flames; the trees changed to fire with a roar.  The Ray
flickered up and down the towing path, licking off the people who ran
this way and that, and came down to the water's edge not fifty yards
from where I stood.  It swept across the river to Shepperton, and the
water in its track rose in a boiling weal crested with steam.  I
turned shoreward.