about eight o’clock
As my brother began to realise the import of all these things , he turned hastily to his own room , put all his available money -- some ten pounds altogether -- into his pockets , and went out again into the streets . It was while the curate had sat and talked so wildly to me under the hedge in the flat meadows near Halliford , and while my brother was watching the fugitives stream over Westminster Bridge , that the Martians had resumed the offensive . So far as one can ascertain from the conflicting accounts that have been put forth , the majority of them remained busied with preparations in the Horsell pit until nine that night , hurrying on some operation that disengaged huge volumes of green smoke . But three certainly came out about eight o'clock and , advancing slowly and cautiously , made their way through Byfleet and Pyrford towards Ripley and Weybridge , and so came in sight of the expectant batteries against the setting sun . These Martians did not advance in a body , but in a line , each perhaps a mile and a half from his nearest fellow . They communicated with one another by means of sirenlike howls , running up and down the scale from one note to another . It was this howling and firing of the guns at Ripley and St. George 's Hill that we had heard at Upper Halliford .