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I cannot tell you all the story of that long afternoon. It the things were dummies, as I might have guessed from their
would require a great effort of memory to recall my explora- presence. I really believe that had they not been so, I should
tions in at all the proper order. I remember a long gallery of have rushed off incontinently and blown Sphinx, bronze doors,
rusting stands of arms, and how I hesitated between my crow- and (as it proved) my chances of finding the Time Machine,
bar and a hatchet or a sword. I could not carry both, however, all together into nonexistence.
and my bar of iron promised best against the bronze gates. It was after that, I think, that we came to a little open
There were numbers of guns, pistols, and rifles. The most court within the palace. It was turfed, and had three fruit-
were masses of rust, but many were of some new metal, and trees. So we rested and refreshed ourselves. Towards sunset I
still fairly sound. But any cartridges or powder there may began to consider our position. Night was creeping upon us,
once have been had rotted into dust. One corner I saw was and my inaccessible hiding-place had still to be found. But
charred and shattered; perhaps, I thought, by an explosion that troubled me very little now. I had in my possession a
among the specimens. In another place was a vast array of thing that was, perhaps, the best of all defences against the
Contents
H. G. Wells. The Time Machine.
100 101
Morlocks I had matches! I had the camphor in my pocket,
too, if a blaze were needed. It seemed to me that the best
thing we could do would be to pass the night in the open,
protected by a fire. In the morning there was the getting of
the Time Machine. Towards that, as yet, I had only my iron
mace. But now, with my growing knowledge, I felt very dif-
ferently towards those bronze doors. Up to this, I had re-
frained from forcing them, largely because of the mystery on
the other side. They had never impressed me as being very
strong, and I hoped to find my bar of iron not altogether
9.
inadequate for the work.
We emerged from the palace while the sun was still in
part above the horizon. I was determined to reach the White
Sphinx early the next morning, and ere the dusk I purposed
pushing through the woods that had stopped me on the pre-
vious journey. My plan was to go as far as possible that night,
and then, building a fire, to sleep in the protection of its
glare. Accordingly, as we went along I gathered any sticks or
dried grass I saw, and presently had my arms full of such
litter. Thus loaded, our progress was slower than I had antici-
pated, and besides Weena was tired. And I began to suffer
from sleepiness too; so that it was full night before we reached
the wood. Upon the shrubby hill of its edge Weena would
have stopped, fearing the darkness before us; but a singular
sense of impending calamity, that should indeed have served
Contents
H. G. Wells. The Time Machine.
102 103
me as a warning, drove me onward. I had been without sleep of fire-making had been forgotten on the earth. The red
for a night and two days, and I was feverish and irritable. I tongues that went licking up my heap of wood were an alto-
felt sleep coming upon me, and the Morlocks with it. gether new and strange thing to Weena.
While we hesitated, among the black bushes behind us, She wanted to run to it and play with it. I believe she
and dim against their blackness, I saw three crouching fig- would have cast herself into it had I not restrained her. But I
ures. There was scrub and long grass all about us, and I did caught her up, and in spite of her struggles, plunged boldly
not feel safe from their insidious approach. The forest, I cal- before me into the wood. For a little way the glare of my fire
culated, was rather less than a mile across. If we could get lit the path. Looking back presently, I could see, through the
through it to the bare hill-side, there, as it seemed to me, was crowded stems, that from my heap of sticks the blaze had
an altogether safer resting-place; I thought that with my spread to some bushes adjacent, and a curved line of fire was
matches and my camphor I could contrive to keep my path creeping up the grass of the hill. I laughed at that, and turned
illuminated through the woods. Yet it was evident that if I again to the dark trees before me. It was very black, and
was to flourish matches with my hands I should have to aban- Weena clung to me convulsively, but there was still, as my
don my firewood; so, rather reluctantly, I put it down. And eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, sufficient light for me
then it came into my head that I would amaze our friends to avoid the stems. Overhead it was simply black, except where
behind by lighting it. I was to discover the atrocious folly of a gap of remote blue sky shone down upon us here and there.
this proceeding, but it came to my mind as an ingenious move I struck none of my matches because I had no hand free.
for covering our retreat. Upon my left arm I carried my little one, in my right hand I
I don t know if you have ever thought what a rare thing had my iron bar.
flame must be in the absence of man and in a temperate cli- For some way I heard nothing but the crackling twigs
mate. The sun s heat is rarely strong enough to burn, even under my feet, the faint rustle of the breeze above, and my
when it is focused by dewdrops, as is sometimes the case in own breathing and the throb of the blood-vessels in my ears.
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