midnight
All night through their destructive tubes advanced . Never once , after the Martian at St. George 's Hill was brought down , did they give the artillery the ghost of a chance against them . Wherever there was a possibility of guns being laid for them unseen , a fresh canister of the black vapour was discharged , and where the guns were openly displayed the Heat-Ray was brought to bear . By midnight the blazing trees along the slopes of Richmond Park and the glare of Kingston Hill threw their light upon a network of black smoke , blotting out the whole valley of the Thames and extending as far as the eye could reach . And through this two Martians slowly waded , and turned their hissing steam jets this way and that . They were sparing of the Heat-Ray that night , either because they had but a limited supply of material for its production or because they did not wish to destroy the country but only to crush and overawe the opposition they had aroused . In the latter aim they certainly succeeded .