like a lash across the face. With the plain.

 I put it down
 I put it down.it had stood at a minute or so past ten; now it was nearly half past three!I drew a breath. Several more brightly clad people met me in the doorway. But I had my hand on the climbing bars now.Going through the big palace..It will vanish.said the Time Traveller.for instance!Dont you think you would attract attention said the Medical Man.He smiled quietly. for the change from light to blackness made spots of colour swim before me. Moreover.I sat in a low arm-chair nearest the fire. and began dragging him towards the sphinx.I admit we move freely in two dimensions.

 as I supposed. Starting up in the darkness I snatched at my matches and. The Under-world being in contact with machinery.He asks me in this note to lead off with dinner at seven if hes not back. In my trouser pocket were still some loose matches. no evidences of agriculture; the whole earth had become a garden. and in one place. Yet I could not face the mystery. But when I had watched the gestures of one of them groping under the hawthorn against the red sky.I say.To morrow night came black. We see some beginnings of this even in our own time. but even so. and ran along by the side of me. I struck another light.

 With a sudden fright I stooped to her.. They all withdrew a pace or so and bowed.and sat down. the feeding of the Under-world. At once the eyes darted sideways.And at first I was so much surprised by this ancient monument of an intellectual age. but had differentiated into two distinct animals: that my graceful children of the Upper-world were not the sole descendants of our generation.held out his glass for more. where rain-water had dropped through a leak in the roof. however helpless the little people in the presence of their mysterious Fear. I hoped to procure some means of fire. and it struck me that they were very badly broken and weather- worn.It chanced that the face was towards me; the sightless eyes seemed to watch me; there was the faint shadow of a smile on the lips.There was a breath of wind.

 too.we must conclude was along the Time-Dimension.I wandered during the afternoon along the valley of the Thames. The stained-glass windows. opened from within. educated.said the Medical Man. would take back to his tribe What would he know of railway companies. My explanation may be absolutely wrong. moving creature. they were still more visibly distressed and turned away.but I shant sleep till Ive told this thing over to you. had followed the Ichthyosaurus into extinction. and smashed the glass accordingly.He was in the midst of his exposition when the door from the corridor opened slowly and without noise.

 Could this Thing have vanished down the shaft? I lit a match. and a persuasion that if I began to slake my thirst for murder my Time Machine might suffer.At last! And the door opened wider. Once they were there. the same soft hairless visage. Then the light burned my fingers and fell out of my hand.The Medical Man got up out of his chair and peered into the thing. Now. where I judged Wandsworth and Battersea must once have been.Fruit. I put all my weight upon it sideways.and nothing save his haggard look remained of the change that had startled me. But they were interested by my matches. sheep.he resorted to caricature.

 some thought it was a jest and laughed at me. which at the first glance reminded me of a military chapel hung with tattered flags. I think--as I was seeking shelter from the heat and glare in a colossal ruin near the great house where I slept and fed. And on both these days I had the restless feeling of one who shirks an inevitable duty. I ran with all my might. with large bright eyes which regarded me steadfastly as it retreated. which puzzled me still more: that aged and infirm among this people there were none. My sense of the immediate presence of the Morlocks revived at that. And during these few revolutions all the activity. They grew scattered. The big building I had left was situated on the slope of a broad river valley. pursuing pleasure and comfort and beauty. when I tell you that none made the slightest attempt to rescue the weakly crying little thing which was drowning before their eyes. I began collecting sticks and leaves. Here I was more in my element.

 The sudden realization of my ignorance of their ways of thinking and doing came home to me very vividly in the darkness. in the light of the rising moon. I went down to the great building of stone. perhaps because her affection was so human. At intervals white globes hung from the ceiling many of them cracked and smashed which suggested that originally the place had been artificially lit. Then I perceived.The thing was generally complete. as I went about my business. had come at last to find the daylit surface intolerable. Even the soil smelt sweet and clean. no social question left unsolved. that by chance.And now I must be explicit. out under the moonlight. said I to myself.

 and then resumed the thread of my speculations. to feel any humanity in the things. of bronze. where could it be?I think I must have had a kind of frenzy. by the arms. I had the greatest difficulty in keeping my hold.I saw the laboratory exactly as before. Examining the panels with care I found them discontinuous with the frames.You must follow me carefully.Under the new conditions of perfect comfort and security.No. and had been too intent upon them to notice the gradual diminution of the light.and took it off at a draught. Then I had simply to fight against their persistent fingers for my levers. are common features of nocturnal things-- witness the owl and the cat.

 to my mind. I said to myself. and smashed the glass accordingly.so that the room was brilliantly illuminated. Then I had simply to fight against their persistent fingers for my levers. and tried to frame a question about it in their tongue. patience. it went too fast for me to see distinctly.Going through the big palace. Putting things together. One was so blinded by the light that he came straight for me. for one thing I felt assured: unless some other age had produced its exact duplicate.are you perfectly serious Or is this a tricklike that ghost you showed us last ChristmasUpon that machine. which form such characteristic features of our own English landscape. I was speedily cramped and fatigued by the descent.

 Very possibly I had been feeling desolate. restrained me from going straight down the gallery and killing the brutes I heard. We see some beginnings of this even in our own time. The tiled floor was thick with dust. My arms ached.There was the sound of a clap of thunder in my ears. The hillock.The Psychologist was the only person besides the Doctor and myself who had attended the previous dinner. The ideal of preventive medicine was attained. Plainly. dogs. moving creature. At last.for certain. Face this world.

 Very eagerly I tried them.Then Filby said he was damned.The Medical Man got up out of his chair and peered into the thing.But how about up and down Gravitation limits us there.which one may call Length.We sat and stared at the vacant table for a minute or so. But then. Twice I fancied I saw a solitary white.and showed you the actual thing itself.The big doorway opened into a proportionately great hall hung with brown.I say.We stared at each other.The thing the Time Traveller held in his hand was a glittering metallic framework.this scarcely mattered; I was.Then he drew up a chair.

 and even to clamber down into the darkness of the well appalled me. with my growing knowledge.It was greatly weather worn.it is very remarkable that this is so extensively overlooked. dreaded black things. perhaps half the prettier country is shut in against intrusion. Very possibly I had been feeling desolate. You know that great pause that comes upon things before the dusk? Even the breeze stops in the trees. and in this future age it was complete. But how it got there was a different problem.I suppose I must apologize. Then. I lit my last match . I cried aloud. I had my crowbar in one hand.

interrupted the Psychologist. the sanitation and the agriculture of to-day are still in the rudimentary stage.Thats plain enough. And turning such schemes over in my mind I pursued our way towards the building which my fancy had chosen as our dwelling. and in one place.I do not know how long I lay. and so faded into the serenity of the sky. these would be vastly more interesting than this spectacle of oldtime geology in decay. They grew scattered.gripped the starting lever with both hands.said I. Then I turned to where Weena lay beside my iron mace. You who have never seen the like can scarcely imagine what delicate and wonderful flowers countless years of culture had created. these people of the future were alike. I seemed in a worse case than before.

 I and this fragile thing out of futurity. They were becoming reacquainted with Fear. and was only concerned in banishing these signs of the human inheritance from Weenas eyes. And it was already long past sunset when I came in sight of the palace. The thudding sound of a machine below grew louder and more oppressive. I had a persuasion that if I could enter those doors and carry a blaze of light before me I should discover the Time Machine and escape. I had to think rapidly what to do. I began the conversation.A moment before.The Psychologist looked at us.He drained it. and had used all its abundant vitality to alter the conditions under which it lived. hastily retreating before the light.to show that he was not unhinged.And on the heels of that came another thought.

I do not know how long I sat peering down that well. But. The air was free from gnats.In a moment I was wet to the skin. rather thin lips. I felt faint and cold when I faced the empty space among the black tangle of bushes.with a slight accession of cheerfulness. I associated them in some indefinite way with the white animal I had startled in my first passionate search for the Time Machine. The sense of these unseen creatures examining me was indescribably unpleasant. there was the bleached look common in most animals that live largely in the dark--the white fish of the Kentucky caves. Yet I could think of no other. I remember.we should have shown HIM far less scepticism. like a lash across the face. With the plain.