midday
Here there were rumours of Martians at Epping , and news of the destruction of Waltham Abbey Powder Mills in a vain attempt to blow up one of the invaders . People were watching for Martians here from the church towers . My brother , very luckily for him as it chanced , preferred to push on at once to the coast rather than wait for food , although all three of them were very hungry . By midday they passed through Tillingham , which , strangely enough , seemed to be quite silent and deserted , save for a few furtive plunderers hunting for food . Near Tillingham they suddenly came in sight of the sea , and the most amazing crowd of shipping of all sorts that it is possible to imagine . For after the sailors could no longer come up the Thames , they came on to the Essex coast , to Harwich and Walton and Clacton , and afterwards to Foulness and Shoebury , to bring off the people . They lay in a huge sickle-shaped curve that vanished into mist at last towards the Naze .