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X . IN THE STORM . Leatherhead is about twelve miles from Maybury Hill . The scent of hay was in the air through the lush meadows beyond Pyrford , and the hedges on either side were sweet and gay with multitudes of dog - roses . The heavy firing that had broken out while we were driving down Maybury Hill ceased as abruptly as it began , leaving the evening very peaceful and still . We got to Leatherhead without misadventure about nine o’clock , and the horse had an hour’s rest while I took supper with my cousins and commended my wife to their care . My wife was curiously silent throughout the drive , and seemed oppressed with forebodings of evil . I talked to her reassuringly , pointing out that the Martians were tied to the pit by sheer heaviness , and at the utmost could but crawl a little out of it ; but she answered only in monosyllables . Had it not been for my promise to the innkeeper , she would , I think , have urged me to stay in Leatherhead that night . Would that I had ! Her face , I remember , was very white as we parted . For my own part , I had been feverishly excited all day . Something very like the war fever that occasionally runs through a civilised community had got into my blood , and in my heart I was not so very sorry that I had to return to Maybury that night . I was even afraid that that last fusillade I had heard might mean the extermination of our invaders from Mars . I can best express my state of mind by saying that I wanted to be in at the death . It was nearly eleven when I started to return . The night was unexpectedly dark ; to me , walking out of the lighted passage of my cousins ’ house , it seemed indeed black , and it was as hot and close as the day . Overhead the clouds were driving fast , albeit not a breath stirred the shrubs about us . My cousins ’ man lit both lamps . Happily , I knew the road intimately . My wife stood in the light of the doorway , and watched me until I jumped up into the dog cart . Then abruptly she turned and went in , leaving my cousins side by side wishing me good hap . I was a little depressed at first with the contagion of my wife’s fears , but very soon my thoughts reverted to the Martians . At that time I was absolutely in the dark as to the course of the evening’s fighting . I did not know even the circumstances that had precipitated the conflict . As I came through Ockham ( for that was the way I returned , and not through Send and Old Woking ) I saw along the western horizon a blood - red glow , which as I drew nearer , crept slowly up the sky . The driving clouds of the gathering thunderstorm mingled there with masses of black and red smoke . Ripley Street was deserted , and except for a lighted window or so the village showed not a sign of life ; but I narrowly escaped an accident at the corner of the road to Pyrford , where a knot of people stood with their backs to me . They said nothing to me as I passed . I do not know what they knew of the things happening beyond the hill , nor do I know if the silent houses I passed on my way were sleeping securely , or deserted and empty , or harassed and watching against the terror of the night .
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