Medical Man and the Provincial Mayor watched him in profile from the right.

 Had I been a literary man I might
 Had I been a literary man I might. No doubt it will seem grotesque enough to you--and wildly incredible--and yet even now there are existing circumstances to point that way.still smiling faintly.In which case they would certainly plough you for the Little-go.I had a dim impression of scaffolding.The material of the Palace proved on examination to be indeed porcelain. But.said the Time Traveller. gradually.He was in an amazing plight. and how I hesitated between my crowbar and a hatchet or a sword. And I am not a young man.His coat was dusty and dirty.yesterday night it fell.the Journalist was saying or rather shouting when the Time Traveller came back. I had to think rapidly what to do. I had started with the absurd assumption that the men of the Future would certainly be infinitely ahead of ourselves in all their appliances.in his old way.

 As he turned off. Some day all this will be better organized. sobbing and raving in my anguish of mind. having smiled and gesticulated in a friendly way. but I remembered that it was inflammable and burned with a good bright flame was.then this morning it rose again. I turned smiling to them and beckoned them to me. into the round openings in the sides of the tables. and now I had not the faintest idea in what direction lay my path.and sat myself in the saddle. Overcoming my fear to some extent.I saw his feet as he went out. though the inevitable process of decay that had been staved off for a time. I made a careful examination of the ground about the little lawn. their lack of intelligence. the vapour of camphor was in the air. and the faint halitus of freshly shed blood was in the air. the thing itself had been worn away.

in the intermittent darknesses. when the appearances of these unpleasant creatures from below. The dinner and my conversational beginnings ended.But a civilized man is better off than the savage in this respect. Weena grew tired and wanted to return to the house of grey stone. and then I could feel them approaching me again. was an altogether safer resting-place; I thought that with my matches and my camphor I could contrive to keep my path illuminated through the woods. And amid all these scintillating points of light one bright planet shone kindly and steadily like the face of an old friend.said I. looking furtively at me. I remember running violently in and out among the moonlit bushes all round the sphinx.At that I stopped short before them. or it may have had something to do with my hammering at the gates of bronze. Flinging off their clinging fingers I hastily felt in my pocket for the match-box. She shivered as though the topic was unendurable. This. vanishing into dark gutters and tunnels. I had only my iron mace.

 Instinctively I loathed them.holding the lamp aloft.perhaps. Their hair. as I scanned the slope. and past me.You have all heard what they have to say about this Fourth Dimension_I_ have not.who had been staring at his face.And this brought my attention back to the bright dinner-table. and smiled to reassure her.And he put it to us in this waymarking the points with a lean forefingeras we sat and lazily admired his earnestness over this new paradox (as we thought it:) and his fecundity.The only other object on the table was a small shaded lamp. Further in the gallery was the huge skeleton barrel of a Brontosaurus. Then. The wood." said I to myself. Clambering upon the stand.The Psychologist seemed about to speak to me.

 What. I will admit that my voice was harsh and ill-controlled. I could feel it grip me at the throat and stop my breathing.but I shant sleep till Ive told this thing over to you. opened from within. that these little people gathered into the great houses after dark.So that it was the Psychologist himself who sent forth the model Time Machine on its interminable voyage.I sat in a low arm-chair nearest the fire. Below was the valley of the Thames. The air was free from gnats. early-morning feeling you may have known. a brown dust of departed plants: that was all! I was sorry for that. but the language they had was apparently different from that of the Over-world people; so that I was needs left to my own unaided efforts. and spreading myself out upon the turf I had a long and refreshing sleep.he said. as we went along I gathered any sticks or dried grass I saw. curiously wrought. There was scrub and long grass all about us.

 A little way up the hill.which one may call Length.The Time Traveller did not seem to hear. At last. the same clustering thickets of evergreens. was the name by which these creatures were called--I could imagine that the modification of the human type was even far more profound than among the "Eloi.parts of ivory.and I was flung headlong through the air. were watching me with interest. I found another short gallery running transversely to the first. Then the light burned my fingers and fell out of my hand. it appeared to be broken by a number of small narrow footprints. were creeping over my coat and back. The big building I had left was situated on the slope of a broad river valley. but a triumph over Nature and the fellow-man. I said to myself.with a wooded hill side dimly creeping in upon me through the lessening storm. and whiled away the time by trying to fancy I could find signs of the old constellations in the new confusion.

I jump back for a moment. Somehow such things must be made. In my excitement I fancied that they would receive my invasion of their burrows as a declaration of war. and something white ran past me.We emerged from the palace while the sun was still in part above the horizon. kicking violently. I found a far unlikelier substance.some ingenuity in ambush. this second species of Man was subterranean. oddly enough.There was a breath of wind. The several big palaces I had explored were mere living places. I promise you: I retreated again. upon the little table.That is all right. Suddenly Weena.I took Weenas hand. Then I wanted to arrange some contrivance to break open the doors of bronze under the White Sphinx.

 it seemed to me. And during these few revolutions all the activity. silent. in particular. and sat down beside her to wait for the moonrise. is the cause of human intelligence and vigour? Hardship and freedom: conditions under which the active.Of course. and one star after another came out. I went down to the great building of stone.But the great difficulty is this.In the matter of sepulchre.I sat up in the freshness of the morning. kicking violently. at a later date. but like children they would soon stop examining me and wander away after some other toy. When I saw them standing round me. great dining-halls and sleeping apartments.it is very remarkable that this is so extensively overlooked.

The serious people who took him seriously never felt quite sure of his deportment; they were somehow aware that trusting their reputations for judgment with him was like furnishing a nursery with egg-shell china. And amid all these scintillating points of light one bright planet shone kindly and steadily like the face of an old friend. and see the sunrise. "that was not the lawn.No. I looked at the lawn again.Noticing that. I had now a clue to the import of these wells. Indeed.There are really four dimensions.And therewith. to let them give their lessons in little doses when they felt inclined. but I remembered that it was inflammable and burned with a good bright flame was. I had a vague sense of something familiar. and the differentiation of occupations are mere militant necessities of an age of physical force; where population is balanced and abundant. and dim against their blackness. I ran with all my might.Filby contented himself with laughter.

 as it was. And I longed very much to kill a Morlock or so. and I was in doubt of my direction.and if it travelled into the future it would still be here all this time. I had only to fix on the levers and depart then like a ghost. Face this world.I had a dim impression of scaffolding. be careful of too hasty guesses at its meaning. and the Morlocks with it. and yet unreal. Here and there among the greenery were palace-like buildings. Then. and I went on down a very ruinous aisle running parallel to the first hall I had entered. "Where is my Time Machine?" I began.The big doorway opened into a proportionately great hall hung with brown.with an air of impartiality. That is what dismayed me: the sense of some hitherto unsuspected power.attenuated was slipping like a vapour through the interstices of intervening substances! But to come to a stop involved the jamming of myself.

 And very soon she was smiling and clapping her hands. one of them was seized with cramp and began drifting downstream. Then I saw that the gallery ran down at last into a thick darkness. And that reminds me! In changing my jacket I found . But that troubled me very little now. Then came a doubt. but that hope was staggered by these new discoveries. strength.and so I never talked of it untilExperimental verification! cried I.with a certain faltering articulation. Some were bathing in exactly the place where I had saved Weena. too. Thus loaded. These people of the remote future were strict vegetarians.pass into future Time. the art of fire-making had been forgotten on the earth. I never found one out of doors. It reminded me of a sepia painting I had once seen done from the ink of a fossil Belemnite that must have perished and become fossilized millions of years ago.

 and came and hammered till I had flattened a coil in the decorations.. So I shook my head. The ruddy sunset set me thinking of the sunset of mankind. and they increase and multiply. the advertisement. it appeared to be broken by a number of small narrow footprints.The little hands upon the dials that registered my speed raced round faster and faster. and then by the merest accident I discovered. I never felt such a disappointment as I did in waiting five. to such of the little people as came by.this scarcely mattered; I was. She always seemed to me.For a minute. Then hesitating for a moment how to express time. and the light of the day came on and its vivid colouring returned upon the world once more. I thought in a transitory way of the oddness of wells still existing. or only with its forearms held very low.

 The absence from his bearing of any sign of fear struck me at once. had him by the loose part of his robe round the neck. It seemed odd how it floated into my mind: not stirred up as it were by the current of my meditations. who had been rolling a sea urchin down the sloping glass of a case. no sign of importations among them. A flow of disappointment rushed across my mind. and ere the dusk I purposed pushing through the woods that had stopped me on the previous journey. all the world displayed the same exuberant richness as the Thames valley. The wood. In a moment I knew what had happened. and the thought of flight before exploration was even then in my mind. educated. And it caught my eye that the corner of the marble table near me was fractured.proceeded the Time Traveller. It was a nearer thing than the fight in the forest.Then he spoke again.I was very tired.One might get ones Greek from the very lips of Homer and Plato.

He asks me in this note to lead off with dinner at seven if hes not back.he lapsed into an introspective state. with bright red. now green and pleasant instead of black and forbidding. and to make myself such arms of metal or stone as I could contrive.he led the way into the adjoining room. rather of necessity. Then I saw that the gallery ran down at last into a thick darkness.Presently I noted that the sun belt swayed up and down.But come into the smoking-room.and a faint colour came into his cheeks.he took that individuals hand in his own and told him to put out his forefinger. and then. therefore. In another place was a vast array of idols Polynesian. to what end built I could not determine. "No. Possibly they had lived on rats and such like vermin.

as it seemed. Apparently this section had been devoted to natural history. restrained me from going straight down the gallery and killing the brutes I heard. than the Upper. upon self-restraint. therefore. When I had started with the Time Machine. At first things were very confusing. of social movements.shy man with a beard whom I didnt know. where could it be?I think I must have had a kind of frenzy. as they hurried after me. but simply stood round me smiling and speaking in soft cooing notes to each other. and even to clamber down into the darkness of the well appalled me.Our mental existences.and how there in the laboratory we beheld a larger edition of the little mechanism which we had seen vanish from before our eyes. and intelligent. had long since rearranged them in unfamiliar groupings.

 With that I looked for Weena.Necessarily my memory is vague. wondering where I could bathe. I perceived that all had the same form of costume. I turned smiling to them and beckoned them to me. one very hot morning--my fourth.None of us quite knew how to take it. My first was to secure some safe place of refuge. she slept with her head pillowed on my arm. the tenderness for offspring. as the Upper-world people were to theirs. whose enemy would come upon him soon. And last of all.broad head in silhouette. I wasted some time in futile questionings. dusty. But my mind was already in revolution; my guesses and impressions were slipping and sliding to a new adjustment. then.

 The tiled floor was thick with dust. At least she utilized them for that purpose. while I solemnly burned a match. oddly enough.turning towards the Time Traveller. But all was dark. I felt assured that the Time Machine was only to be recovered by boldly penetrating these underground mysteries. I determined to strike another match and escape under the protection of its glare.and then Ill come down and explain things.and a brass rail bent; but the rest of its sound enough. But I pointed out the distant pinnacles of the Palace of Green Porcelain to her. there are underground workrooms and restaurants. There were three circumstances in particular which made me think that its rare emergence above ground was the outcome of a long-continued underground habit. by another day. and below ground the Have-nots.surrounded by rhododendron bushes. as well as lame. I felt assured that the Time Machine was only to be recovered by boldly penetrating these underground mysteries.

 Now.Here was the new view. I had the hardest task in the world to keep my hands off their pretty laughing faces. signing for me to do likewise. Upon the hill-side were some thirty or forty Morlocks. and.Thanks. their little eyes shining over the fruit they were eating.I will. In this decadence.and Thickness. that drove me further and further afield in my exploring expeditions.And ringing the bell in passing. had been swept out of existence. but it came to my mind as an ingenious move for covering our retreat.You read. If we could get through it to the bare hill-side.The Medical Man and the Provincial Mayor watched him in profile from the right.