felt tolerably sure of the avoidance.

said I
said I. I felt assured now of what it was. and it must have made me heavy of a sudden.And the whole tableful turned towards the door. were fairly complex specimens of metalwork. I remember creeping noiselessly into the great hall where the little people were sleeping in the moonlight--that night Weena was among them--and feeling reassured by their presence. Only ragged vestiges of glass remained in its windows. for instance. Beyond this was another arm of the burning forest. and I stayed my hand. And I am not a young man. the explosive thud as each fresh tree burst into flame. or had already arrived at. I carefully wrapped her in my jacket.I supposed the laboratory had been destroyed and I had come into the open air. Man had been content to live in ease and delight upon the labours of his fellow man.While I was musing upon these things.and then Ill come down and explain things.

I wandered during the afternoon along the valley of the Thames. I tried a sweet-looking little chap in white next. as it seemed to me.Just think! One might invest all ones money.)It seemed to me that I had happened upon humanity upon the wane. Above me shone the stars.I will suppose. I was surprised to see a large estuary. I caught the poor mite and drew her safe to land. Why had the Morlocks taken my Time Machine? For I felt sure it was they who had taken it. It was the darkness of the new moon. and on a raised place in the corner of this was the Time Machine. I fancied that if I could solve their puzzles I should find myself in possession of powers that might be of use against the Morlocks. for a time.Not exactly. too. In the first place. I had judged the strength of the lever pretty correctly.

 In the next place.And on the heels of that came another thought. for it snapped after a minutes strain. It must have been very queer to them.said the Time Traveller. and it strengthened my belief in a perfect conquest of Nature.The Time Traveller looked at us. of which I have told you.still as it were feeling his way among his words. running across the sunlit space behind me. and I could reason with myself. and went down.remarked the Provincial Mayor. and silently placed two withered flowers.Yes. and then stopped abruptly. to show no concern and to abstain from any pursuit of them.)It seemed to me that I had happened upon humanity upon the wane.

I looked for the building I knew. and a persuasion that if I began to slake my thirst for murder my Time Machine might suffer.And this brought my attention back to the bright dinner-table. and all of a sudden I let him go.three which we call the three planes of Space. different in character from any I had hitherto seen. and for a moment I was free. And when other meat failed them.I am absolutely certain there was no trickery. with the certainty that sometimes comes with excessive dread. Weena grew tired and wanted to return to the house of grey stone. an experience I dreaded.whats the matter cried the Medical Man.The peculiar risk lay in the possibility of my finding some substance in the space which I. it had attained its hopes--to come to this at last. as I stared about me.For a minute.and reassured us.

 I could not find it at first; but. In my excitement I fancied that they would receive my invasion of their burrows as a declaration of war. As I thought of that. through the extinction of bacteria and fungi.For a minute. I said to myself.Like an impatient fool. no wasting disease to require strength of constitution. to the mystery of the ghosts; to say nothing of a hint at the meaning of the bronze gates and the fate of the Time Machine And very vaguely there came a suggestion towards the solution of the economic problem that had puzzled me. But Weena was a pleasant substitute. I fancied I could even feel the hollowness of the ground beneath my feet: could. the slumbrous murmur that was growing now into a gusty roar. a long gallery lit by many side windows. my attention was attracted by a pretty little structure. For.leave it to accumulate at interest.Things that would have made the frame of a less clever man seemed tricks in his hands. I woke with a start.

 but to wait inactive for twenty-four hours--that is another matter.Im starving for a bit of meat. I could see the silver birch against it.A sudden thought came into my head as I stooped towards the portal. towards the hiding-place of the Time Machine. and it was no great wonder to see four at once. I found another short gallery running transversely to the first.said the Psychologist. I threw my iron bar away. Plainly. art. At first she would not understand my questions. while little Weenas head showed as a round black projection. Face this world. no signs of proprietary rights. was a great heap of granite. again.Hallo! I said.

 And the intelligence that would have made this state of things a torment had gone. deserted in the central aisle. as you know.and the rest of us echoed Agreed. I suppose.At the sight of him I suddenly regained confidence. and intelligent.I felt as perhaps a bird may feel in the clear air. the tenderness for offspring. and fell.I was in an agony of discomfort. in bathing in the river. That is what dismayed me: the sense of some hitherto unsuspected power. It seemed odd how it floated into my mind: not stirred up as it were by the current of my meditations. I dont know if you will understand my feeling. A flow of disappointment rushed across my mind. and reaching over the bars of the machine I unscrewed the little levers that would set it in motion. reasonable daylight.

Im all right. I shook her off. and so out upon the flagstones in front of the palace. which form such characteristic features of our own English landscape. Yet all the same. Further in the gallery was the huge skeleton barrel of a Brontosaurus.I took Weenas hand. I began to suspect their true import.As they made no effort to communicate with me.The dinner was resumed. "No. and she simply laughed at them. then.for this that followsunless his explanation is to be acceptedis an absolutely unaccountable thing. after all. laid with what seemed a meal.Professor Simon Newcomb was expounding this to the New York Mathematical Society only a month or so ago. and the like conveniences.

 We improve our favourite plants and animals and how few they are gradually by selective breeding; now a new and better peach. find its hiding-place. would take back to his tribe What would he know of railway companies. I hastily took a lump of camphor from my pocket. the Upper-world man had drifted towards his feeble prettiness. In some of these visions of Utopias and coming times which I have read. the dawn came.in shape something like a winged sphinx. as the darkness grew deeper.Its against reason. Several times my head swam.The building had a huge entry. past a number of sleeping houses. and how wide the interval between myself and these of the Golden Age I was sensible of much which was unseen.It is a mistake to do things too easily.became indistinct. and even the verb to eat. I took my own hint.

 was my speculation at the time. took off my shoes.interrupted the Psychologist. The male pursued the female. The last few yards was a frightful struggle against this faintness. and presently she refused to answer them.only the more dreadful and disgusting for our common likeness a foul creature to be incontinently slain.Noticing that. was my theory at the time.the Very Young Man thought. the fact remains that the sun was very much hotter than we know it. and the Morlocks had their hands upon me. A sudden thought came to me.One might get ones Greek from the very lips of Homer and Plato. Nevertheless she was. and I tried him once more.of an imminent smash. Even that would fade in the end into a contented inactivity.

Had anything happened? For a moment I suspected that my intellect had tricked me. The science of our time has attacked but a little department of the field of human disease. though undecorated. a noiseless owl flitted by. amidst which were thick heaps of very beautiful pagoda-like plants nettles possibly but wonderfully tinted with brown about the leaves. in what appeared to me impenetrable darkness. I think. As these catastrophes occur. I tried what I could to revive her.He said he had seen a similar thing at Tubingen.I suppose it took her a minute or so to traverse the place.are you in earnest about this Do you seriously believe that that machine has travelled into timeCertainly. educated. A pair of eyes. a kind of bluish-green. My sense of the immediate presence of the Morlocks revived at that. They had to chatter and explain the business at great length to each other. All the time I ran I was saying to myself: "They have moved it a little.

 Yet it was evident that if I was to flourish matches with my hands I should have to abandon my firewood; so. It seemed odd how it floated into my mind: not stirred up as it were by the current of my meditations. And now came the reaction of the altered conditions.and then be told Im a quack. I was not loath to follow their example.said the Very Young Man. MINUS the head.I found that one of the nickel bars was exactly one inch too short.the dance of the shadows. With a pretty absence of ceremony they began to eat the fruit with their hands. like children.His glance flickered over our faces with a certain dull approval. But the day was growing late.and another a quiet.While we hesitated. Then came one hand upon me and then another..apparently without seeing me.

 and ended--as I will tell youShe was exactly like a child. put his hand into his pocket. and blundering hither and thither against each other in their bewilderment. For. My iron bar still gripped. went blundering across the big dining-hall again.I do not know how long I sat peering down that well. And very soon she was smiling and clapping her hands. to get a clear idea of the method of my loss. Lightning may blast and blacken. I was differently constituted. Several more brightly clad people met me in the doorway.They merged at last into a kind of hysterical exhilaration.and every minute marking a day.Three-Dimensional representations of his Four-Dimensioned being. I saw mankind housed in splendid shelters. Everything was so entirely different from the world I had known even the flowers. Suddenly I halted spellbound.

 thousands of generations ago. I say.I thought. I and this fragile thing out of futurity..That.will you What will you take for the lotThe Time Traveller came to the place reserved for him without a word. Either I missed some subtle point or their language was excessively simple--almost exclusively composed of concrete substantives and verbs. the complex organizations. think how narrow the gap between a negro and a white man of our own times.There I found a seat of some yellow metal that I did not recognize. came back again. The wood.Nor. discords in a refined and pleasant life.held out his glass for more. The main current ran rather swiftly.the Time Traveller proceeded.

 must have been done. at some time in the Long Ago of human decay the Morlocks' food had run short.after the pause required for the proper assimilation of this. It must have been very queer to them. I inferred.and his head was bare. For. . and watched this strange incredible company of blind things groping to and fro. At last. and the same odd noises I had heard down the well. their lack of intelligence. and had three fruit- trees.I gave it a last tap.shivered.I was on what seemed to be a little lawn in a garden. and contrived to make her understand that we were seeking a refuge there from her Fear. The dawn was still indistinct.

 I said. that drove me further and further afield in my exploring expeditions.apparently without seeing me. But I said to myself.we should have shown HIM far less scepticism.It struck my chin violently.and remain there.the Journalist was saying or rather shouting when the Time Traveller came back. after all my elaborate preparations for the siege of the White Sphinx. pointing to my ears.and with his hands deep in his trousers pockets. but the devil begotten of fear and blind anger was ill curbed and still eager to take advantage of my perplexity. strength. I heard cries of terror and their little feet running and stumbling this way and that. and. physically at least.another at fifteen. I must remind you.

 now green and pleasant instead of black and forbidding. And in the confidence of renewed day it almost seemed to me that my fear had been unreasonable. I determined to build a fire and encamp where we were.said the Time Traveller. whistling THE LAND OF THE LEAL as cheerfully as I could. and as I did so. Great shapes like big machines rose out of the dimness. wasting good breath thereby. And the harvest was what I saw!After all. and only waiting for the darkness to come at me again! Then the match burned down. In some of these visions of Utopias and coming times which I have read.The material of the Palace proved on examination to be indeed porcelain.What might appear when that hazy curtain was altogether withdrawn? What might not have happened to men? What if cruelty had grown into a common passion? What if in this interval the race had lost its manliness and had developed into something inhuman.said the Editor. and set up a train of thinking. and sat down. its head held down in a peculiar manner.The Journalist tried to relieve the tension by telling anecdotes of Hettie Potter.

 and wellnigh secured my boot as a trophy. but to wait inactive for twenty-four hours--that is another matter.Then I shall go to bed. Now.and suddenly looked under the table. This difference in aspect suggested a difference in use. It seemed to me that the best thing we could do would be to pass the night in the open.Now. my back was cramped.making spasmodic efforts to relight his cigar over the lamp; that . that drove me further and further afield in my exploring expeditions. The air was free from gnats. a hand touched mine. this second species of Man was subterranean. and while I stood in the dark. It was plain that they had left her poor little body in the forest.Why said the Time Traveller. Yet I felt tolerably sure of the avoidance.