The news of the massacre probably reached Chobham, Woking, and
Ottershaw about the same time.  In Woking the shops had closed when
the tragedy happened, and a number of people, shop people and so
forth, attracted by the stories they had heard, were walking over the
Horsell Bridge and along the road between the hedges that runs out at
last upon the common.  You may imagine the young people brushed up
after the labours of the day, and making this novelty, as they would
make any novelty, the excuse for walking together and enjoying a
trivial flirtation.  You may figure to yourself the hum of voices
along the road in the gloaming. . . .