It was sweeping round swiftly and steadily, this flaming death,
this invisible, inevitable sword of heat.  I perceived it coming
towards me by the flashing bushes it touched, and was too astounded
and stupefied to stir.  I heard the crackle of fire in the sand pits
and the sudden squeal of a horse that was as suddenly stilled.  Then
it was as if an invisible yet intensely heated finger were drawn
through the heather between me and the Martians, and all along a
curving line beyond the sand pits the dark ground smoked and crackled.
Something fell with a crash far away to the left where the road from
Woking station opens out on the common.  Forth-with the hissing and
humming ceased, and the black, dome-like object sank slowly out of
sight into the pit.