minutes for an explosion that never came.

 and the like conveniences
 and the like conveniences. Everything save that little disk above was profoundly dark. towards the hiding-place of the Time Machine. At once a quaintly pretty little figure in chequered purple and white followed my gesture.Hallo! I said. bronze doors. in this old familiar room.said I. would be out of place. it was rimmed with bronze. But at last I emerged upon a small open space. Here I was more in my element. and ran along by the side of me. and none answered. and it struck me that they were very badly broken and weather- worn. if they were doors. to dance.

 It lay very high upon a turfy down. Apparently as time went on. my attention was attracted by a pretty little structure. The sense of these unseen creatures examining me was indescribably unpleasant.instead of being carried vertically at the sides. I suppose it was the unexpected nature of my loss that maddened me.the curious possibilities of anachronism and of utter confusion it suggested. my arm against the overturned pillar. gradually. And I shall have to tell you later that even the processes of putrefaction and decay had been profoundly affected by these changes.The peculiar risk lay in the possibility of my finding some substance in the space which I. And turning such schemes over in my mind I pursued our way towards the building which my fancy had chosen as our dwelling. They did it as a standing horse paws with his foot. to judge by their wells.The laboratory grew faint and hazy.I was on what seemed to be a little lawn in a garden.The dim suggestion of the laboratory seemed presently to fall away from me.

 and dim against their blackness. two dynamite cartridges! I shouted "Eureka!" and smashed the case with joy.I could already hear their murmuring laughter as they came towards me. The forest seemed full of the smell of burning wood. for I never met people more indolent or more easily fatigued.I was in an agony of discomfort. the arm-rests cast and filed into the resemblance of griffins heads. If we could get through it to the bare hill-side. and the same girlish rotundity of limb. My breath came with pain.It will vanish. when everything is colourless and clear cut. The forest seemed full of the smell of burning wood. however. to get a clear idea of the method of my loss.and that the sky was lightening with the promise of the Sun. but after a while she desired me to let her down.

 but when she saw me lean over the mouth and look downward. Apparently this section had been devoted to natural history.Our Special Correspondent in the Day after To-morrow reports. of course. we came to what may once have been a gallery of technical chemistry. "Patience. as well as I was able. After all.shy man with a beard whom I didnt know.There were others coming. and then come languor and decay.and that there is an odd twinkling appearance about this bar. and the darker hours before the old moon rose were still to come.the Journalist was saying or rather shouting when the Time Traveller came back. for the night was very clear. I had to think rapidly what to do. Some I recognized as a kind of hypertrophied raspberry and orange.

 It seemed odd how it floated into my mind: not stirred up as it were by the current of my meditations.the curious possibilities of anachronism and of utter confusion it suggested. But my story slips away from me as I speak of her. stretching myself. down upon a turfy bole. savage survivals.and vanished. My fire would not need replenishing for an hour or so. I might be facing back towards the Palace of Green Porcelain. But even on this supposition the balanced civilization that was at last attained must have long since passed its zenith. I found myself in a cold sweat.The Editor began a question. I cannot even say whether it ran on all-fours.What reason said the Time Traveller. perhaps. In addition. pursuing pleasure and comfort and beauty.

still smiling faintly. as you know. A pair of eyes.parts of ivory.I saw the moon spinning swiftly through her quarters from new to full. coming suddenly out of the quiet darkness with inarticulate noises and the splutter and flare of a match. and cast grotesque black shadows. for it snapped after a minutes strain. And the Morlocks made their garments. Apparently as time went on. I never felt such a disappointment as I did in waiting five.It was from her. Then came a doubt.his queer. for I felt thirsty and hungry. But I could find no saltpeter; indeed. but that this bleached.

dumb confusedness descended on my mind. there happened this strange thing: Clambering among these heaps of masonry. and then there came a horrible realization. that promotion by intermarriage which at present retards the splitting of our species along lines of social stratification. You see I had always anticipated that the people of the year Eight Hundred and Two Thousand odd would be incredibly in front of us in knowledge. But I was too restless to watch long; I am too Occidental for a long vigil. white. touched with some horizontal bars of purple and crimson.For some way I heard nothing but the crackling twigs under my feet. and I made it my staple. and empty save for a few horizontal bars far down in the sunset. The whole world will be intelligent. No doubt in that perfect world there had been no unemployed problem. I tried to intimate my wish to open it.Thats a simple point of psychology. for I feared my courage might leak away! At first she watched me in amazement." the beautiful race that I already knew.

Would you like to see the Time Machine itself asked the Time Traveller. Very inhuman.I found the Palace of Green Porcelain. Below was the valley of the Thames. I felt assured that the Time Machine was only to be recovered by boldly penetrating these underground mysteries. The mouths were small. Somehow. But I made a sudden motion to warn them when I saw their little pink hands feeling at the Time Machine.I dont want to waste this model." Nevertheless.I suppose a suicide who holds a pistol to his skull feels much the same wonder at what will come next as I felt then. But. and even the verb to eat.Remarkable Behaviour of an Eminent Scientist. I felt--how shall I put it? Suppose you found an inscription. I began leaping up and dragging down branches. but I determined to make the Morlocks pay for their meat.

SeeI think so. almost see through it the Morlocks on their ant hill going hither and thither and waiting for the dark. I found the old familiar glass cases of our own time. the machine had only been taken away. Apparently this section had been devoted to natural history. I had slept. But Weena was gone.I thought of the flickering pillars and of my theory of an underground ventilation.The Psychologist seemed about to speak to me. be careful of too hasty guesses at its meaning. As for the rest of the contents of that gallery. in a flash. and it had gone! Then they gripped and closed with me again. and I hoped to find my bar of iron not altogether inadequate for the work.scarce thought of anything but these new sensations. The attachment of the levers--I will show you the method later-- prevented any one from tampering with it in that way when they were removed. a balanced society with security and permanency as its watchword.

 and why I had such a profound sense of desertion and despair. Then I thought of the Great Fear that was between the two species.The peculiar risk lay in the possibility of my finding some substance in the space which I.I think I have said how much hotter than our own was the weather of this Golden Age.and very delicately made. It was not too soon. even a library! To me. but from the black of the wood there came now and then a stir of living things. There were evidently several of the Morlocks. I still think that for this box of matches to have escaped the wear of time for immemorial years was a most strange. I felt assured now of what it was. Darkness to her was the one thing dreadful. desiccated mummies in jars that had once held spirit. The dinner and my conversational beginnings ended. But even on this supposition the balanced civilization that was at last attained must have long since passed its zenith. parental self-devotion. The delicate little people must have heard me hammering in gusty outbreaks a mile away on either hand.

 and by a statue a Faun. I had struggled with the overturned machine. But I saw no vestige of my white figures. and I failed to convey or understand any but the simplest propositions.for a silver birch tree touched its shoulder.and Thickness. trembling as I did so. I hoped to procure some means of fire. Hitherto. No doubt the exquisite beauty of the buildings I saw was the outcome of the last surgings of the now purposeless energy of mankind before it settled down into perfect harmony with the conditions under which it lived the flourish of that triumph which began the last great peace. But any cartridges or powder there may once have been had rotted into dust. If only I had had a companion it would have been different. In a moment I knew what had happened.said Filby. instead of fluttering slowly down.He can go up against gravitation in a balloon. said I to myself.

 and the dying moonlight and the first pallor of dawn were mingled in a ghastly half-light. too. for I never met people more indolent or more easily fatigued. and when I looked up again Weena had disappeared. The attachment of the levers--I will show you the method later-- prevented any one from tampering with it in that way when they were removed. It was a singularly passionate emotion. the best of all defences against the Morlocks I had matches! I had the camphor in my pocket. they were still more visibly distressed and turned away. in bathing in the river. but I determined to make the Morlocks pay for their meat. were broken in many places. The stained-glass windows.Is that plain I was never more serious in my life. energetic.and is always definable by reference to three planes.In another moment we were standing face to face. I scanned the view keenly.

 parental self-devotion. and they were closing in upon me. a noiseless owl flitted by.Im funny! Be all right in a minute. and I struck some to amuse them.know which. What so natural.You can show black is white by argument.night again.said the Very Young Man.which one may call Length. They had slid down into grooves. I stood glaring at the blackness. We improve our favourite plants and animals and how few they are gradually by selective breeding; now a new and better peach. The Time Machine was goneAt once. that intellectual versatility is the compensation for change. as for me it was a most fortunate thing.

 The place was very silent. or might be happening. Like the others.Sandals or buskins I could not clearly distinguish which were on his feet; his legs were bare to the knees. And at that I understood the smell of burning wood.But I was not beaten yet. I was in the dark--trapped. It had set itself steadfastly towards comfort and ease. no evidences of agriculture; the whole earth had become a garden.In another moment we were standing face to face. I very soon felt that it fell far short of the truth. they are altogether inaccessible to a real traveller amid such realities as I found here.day again.The Editor filled a glass of champagne. the flames of the burning forest. but from the black of the wood there came now and then a stir of living things.Possibly not.

 But I caught her up. At last. I noted for the first time that almost all those who had surrounded me at first were gone. I found a box of matches.We sat and stared at the vacant table for a minute or so. which I had followed during my first walk. armed with a perfected science and working to a logical conclusion the industrial system of to-day.Id give a shilling a line for a verbatim note.said the Psychologist. Presently the walls fell away from me.It sounds plausible enough to-night. . setting loose a quivering horror that made me quick to elude him. shaking the human rats from me. and rifles.But. I must be calm and patient.

 I inferred.Hadnt they any clothes-brushes in the Future The Journalist too. The male pursued the female. my arm against the overturned pillar.and only the face of the Journalist and the legs of the Silent Man from the knees downward were illuminated. Then I wanted to arrange some contrivance to break open the doors of bronze under the White Sphinx. nor could I start any reflection with a lighted match. and then. it was rimmed with bronze. I determined to descend and find where I could sleep. I held it flaring. In this decadence. as I think I have said. There were no signs of struggle. But I pointed out the distant pinnacles of the Palace of Green Porcelain to her. while I solemnly burned a match. Flinging off their clinging fingers I hastily felt in my pocket for the match-box.

 and that was their lack of interest. One thing was clear enough to my mind. But the jest was unsatisfying. as if the thing might be hidden in a corner. in fact. They had long since dropped to pieces. and I went on down a very ruinous aisle running parallel to the first hall I had entered. as is sometimes the case in more tropical districts. Then I turned again to see what I could do in the way of communication. But in all of them I heard a certain sound: a thud-thud-thud. however: that slow movement which is imperceptible in a hundred human lifetimes.. I felt the box of matches in my hand being gently disengaged. however it was effected. with exactly the same result. I could no longer see the Palace of Green Porcelain. fifteen minutes for an explosion that never came.