Many strange and wonderful things happened on that Friday. The strangest thing was that life stayed normal for most people. If you drew a circle five miles wide around the pit, people were not worried. Only the families of the dead people felt sad. Many people talked about the cylinder in their free time, but they were not very excited.
In London, the newspaper received a telegram (a fast, written message) from Henderson. The message described how the cylinder was opening. The newspaper thought the story was a lie. They tried to call Henderson for more information, but he did not answer. He was already dead. So, the newspaper did not print the news.
Most people near the common did nothing. I already told you about the people I spoke to. All over the area, people were eating their dinner. Men worked in their gardens after a long day of work. Parents put their children to bed. Students read their books.
Some people in the village talked about the news. In the pubs, the Martians were a new thing to talk about. A few people saw the fire and they shouted. But most people did their daily work. They ate, drank, and slept. They did not think about the planet Mars.
At the Woking train station, everything was normal. The trains did not stop their work. People got on and off the trains. A boy was selling newspapers and he shouted, "Men from Mars!" Some excited men came to the station at nine o'clock. They told strange stories, but people thought they were just drunk.
People on the trains to London looked out the windows into the dark. They saw a small red light and some smoke. They thought it was only a small grass fire. Only the people near the common were worried. Six houses were burning near the town of Woking. People in the villages stayed awake until the sun came up.
Many people stood on the bridges near the common. Some brave people walked into the dark toward the Martians. These people never came back. The Martians used a searchlight (a very strong beam of light used to see in the dark). The Heat-Ray was ready to kill anyone. The common was quiet and the dead bodies lay under the stars.
This was the situation on Friday night. The cylinder was in the ground like a sharp dart (a small, sharp object that people throw). It brought a danger that was starting to spread. In the rest of the world, life was normal. The terrible war did not start yet.
The Martians worked all night and they did not sleep. They were making their machines ready. Sometimes, green and white smoke went up to the sky. People heard the sound of hammering coming from the pit.
At eleven o'clock, a group of soldiers arrived in Horsell. They stood in a line around the common. This line is called a cordon (a circle of soldiers to stop people from entering). More soldiers went to the north side of the common. One officer, Major Eden, was missing. The leader of the soldiers asked the crowd many questions at midnight.
The army was now worried about the Martians. More soldiers were coming from a town called Aldershot. They had many men and big guns. They wanted to be ready for a fight the next morning.
It was just after midnight. People on the road saw a star fall from the sky. It fell into the trees to the northwest. It was a green color and it was very bright. This was the second cylinder.