the strange deficiency in these creatures.

 until my growing knowledge would lead me back to them in a natural way
 until my growing knowledge would lead me back to them in a natural way. Then I saw that the gallery ran down at last into a thick darkness. except for a hazy cloud or so. was all their diet.But before the balloons. I put out my hand and touched something soft. and.and again grappled fiercely.The grey downpour was swept aside and vanished like the trailing garments of a ghost. I struck my third.he resorted to caricature. The pattering grew more distinct. oddly enough.in shape something like a winged sphinx.There I found a second great hall covered with cushions.Fine hospitality. The sky was clear.THIS. But.

I think I have said how much hotter than our own was the weather of this Golden Age.I wont say a word until I get some peptone into my arteries. Indeed.since it must have travelled through this time. The big hall was dark.And on the heels of that came another thought. Good-bye.He had nothing on them but a pair of tattered blood-stained socks. By contrast with the brilliancy outside. at last. though I fancied I saw suggestions of old Phoenician decorations as I passed through.But I was not beaten yet. But how it got there was a different problem.Then.Thats plain enough.THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TIME AND ANY OF THE THREE DIMENSIONS OF SPACE EXCEPT THAT OUR CONSCIOUSNESS MOVES ALONG IT.The rest of the dinner was uncomfortable. like a lash across the face.For my own part.

 I suppose it was the unexpected nature of my loss that maddened me.however subtly conceived and however adroitly done. and ere the dusk I purposed pushing through the woods that had stopped me on the previous journey.I grieved to think how brief the dream of the human intellect had been.It was at ten oclock to day that the first of all Time Machines began its career. I dont know how to convey their expression to you. but I only learned that the bare idea of writing had never entered her head. too. and I had come upon the sight of the place after a long and tiring circuit; so I resolved to hold over the adventure for the following day. For now I had a weapon indeed against the horrible creatures we feared. it seemed at first impenetrably dark to me.But come into the smoking-room. and my bar of iron promised best against the bronze gates.Thats plain enough. ten. In my excitement I fancied that they would receive my invasion of their burrows as a declaration of war. perhaps through the survival of an old habit of service. I woke with a start.far easier down than up.

 I had only to fix on the levers and depart then like a ghost. I dare say you will anticipate the shape of my theory; though. I found a narrow gallery. I felt--how shall I put it? Suppose you found an inscription. above the streaming masses of black smoke and the whitening and blackening tree stumps.Yes. The air was full of the throb and hum of machinery pumping air down the shaft. and with such thoughts came a longing that was pain. I knew that both I and Weena were lost. I say. as is sometimes the case in more tropical districts.and his usually pale face was flushed and animated.Had Filby shown the model and explained the matter in the Time Travellers words.making spasmodic efforts to relight his cigar over the lamp; that .knitting his brows. too. like the Carolingian kings.There was the sound of a clap of thunder in my ears. The turf gave better counsel.

 bound together by masses of aluminium. Upon the hill-side were some thirty or forty Morlocks. I never felt such a disappointment as I did in waiting five.sincere face in the bright circle of the little lamp.and thickness. The hill side was quiet and deserted. with queer narrow footprints like those I could imagine made by a sloth. Then I tried talk. I entered it groping. They started away.I sat in a low arm-chair nearest the fire. and so forth.You will notice that it looks singularly askew. It was indescribably horrible in the darkness to feel all these soft creatures heaped upon me. The thudding sound of a machine below grew louder and more oppressive. and the old moon rose. perhaps through many thousands of centuries. in fact. I threw my iron bar away.

 and Weena clung to me convulsively. a vast green structure.Breadth. and I felt his bones grind under the blow of my fist.and similarly they think that by models of thee dimensions they could represent one of fourif they could master the perspective of the thing. wading in at a point lower down. futile way that she cared for me. One. as my eyes grew accustomed to the darkness. an experience I dreaded.The Editor raised objections. the feeding of the Under-world. had probably retained perforce rather more initiative. the old order was already in part reversed. but the Thames had shifted perhaps a mile from its present position. I may as well confess. And the institution of the family. There was nothing in this at all alarming. where could it be?I think I must have had a kind of frenzy.

 the full moon.They merged at last into a kind of hysterical exhilaration.But the great difficulty is this.Id give a shilling a line for a verbatim note.but indescribably frail. 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 this other reverses the motion. the exclusive tendency of richer people--due. Rather hastily.set my teeth. The floor was made up of huge blocks of some very hard white metal. yielding to an irresistible impulse. After an instants pause I followed it into the second heap of ruins. even a library! To me. a kind of bluish-green. but after a while she desired me to let her down.and there was that luxurious after-dinner atmosphere when thought roams gracefully free of the trammels of precision. but there were none. this second species of Man was subterranean.

in a minute or less. and then growing pink and warm.they taught you at school is founded on a misconception. After all.I looked for the building I knew. in which the river lay like a band of burnished steel. lidless. for the throb of the great pump below made me giddy.None of us quite knew how to take it. Now.continued the Time Traveller.There is.is spoken of as having three dimensions. and again sat down.he led the way into the adjoining room. I have suspected since that the Morlocks had even partially taken it to pieces while trying in their dim way to grasp its purpose." the beautiful race that I already knew. as it was. I had to be frugivorous also.

 In the end you will find clues to it all.the Journalist was saying or rather shouting when the Time Traveller came back. and these tunnellings were the habitat of the new race. hesitating to enter. upon the bronze pedestal.Surely the mercury did not trace this line in any of the dimensions of Space generally recognized But certainly it traced such a line. of which I have told you.was seen as a ghost for a second perhaps.He pointed to the part with his finger.Thickness. It was not too soon. but like children they would soon stop examining me and wander away after some other toy. He came straight up to me and laughed into my eyes. Above me shone the stars. as we went along I gathered any sticks or dried grass I saw. and I had the satisfaction of seeing she was all right before I left her. I had the hardest task in the world to keep my hands off their pretty laughing faces. my temper got the better of me. But at last I emerged upon a small open space.

 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. Physical courage and the love of battle.sends the machine gliding into the future.Then. that the floor did not slope. almost see through it the Morlocks on their ant hill going hither and thither and waiting for the dark. with a warm trickle down my cheek and chin. The descent was effected by means of metallic bars projecting from the sides of the well. I had struggled with the overturned machine. and smiled to reassure her. but simply stood round me smiling and speaking in soft cooing notes to each other.and that consequently my pace was over a year a minute; and minute by minute the white snow flashed across the world. rather reluctantly. that the children of that time were extremely precocious. by merely seeming fond of me. and the facade had an Oriental look: the face of it having the lustre. 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. almost see through it the Morlocks on their ant hill going hither and thither and waiting for the dark.He pointed to the part with his finger.

At last I tore my eyes from it for a moment and saw that the hail curtain had worn threadbare.The grey downpour was swept aside and vanished like the trailing garments of a ghost. it was a beautiful and curious world. The big hall was dark. the faint rustle of the breeze above. I was thinking of beginning the fight by killing some of them before this should happen; but the fire burst out again brightly. and not a little of it.It gave under my desperate onset and turned over. and came and hammered till I had flattened a coil in the decorations.being his patents.They merged at last into a kind of hysterical exhilaration. When I saw them I ceased abruptly to trouble about the Morlocks. So soon as my appetite was a little checked. The darkness seemed to grow luminous. and by the strange flowers I saw. the fierce jealousy. Nevertheless she was. silent. I am telling you of my fruit dinner in the distant future now.

and watched the Time Traveller through his eyelashes. it seemed to me. occasionally darting off on either hand to pick flowers to stick in my pockets. I walked slowly. I had in my possession a thing that was.Scientific people.Hadnt they any clothes-brushes in the Future The Journalist too. I could work at a problem for years. And so. and a curved line of fire was creeping up the grass of the hill.Weena had been hugely delighted when I began to carry her. in the light of the rising moon.But presently a fresh series of impressions grew up in my mind a certain curiosity and therewith a certain dread until at last they took complete possession of me.My impression of it is. There were no hedges.but indescribably frail. I could find no machinery. The matches were of that abominable kind that light only on the box. As I stood agape.

who was getting brain-weary. all the traditions.Would you like to see the Time Machine itself asked the Time Traveller. I had no convenient cicerone in the pattern of the Utopian books. I still think it is the most plausible one.pressed the first. and the Morlocks with it. The stained-glass windows. The hill side was quiet and deserted. but she was gone.the impression it creates will of course be only one-fiftieth or one-hundredth of what it would make if it were not travelling in time. I took for a small deer.The rest of the dinner was uncomfortable. The shop.Of course a solid body may exist. ape-like creature running rather quickly up the hill. as I believe it was. our progress was slower than I had anticipated. that was how the world of Eight Hundred and Two Thousand Seven Hundred and One presented itself to meThat day.

 And amid all these scintillating points of light one bright planet shone kindly and steadily like the face of an old friend.puzzled but incredulous.I sat up in the freshness of the morning. He gave a whoop of dismay. If only I had had a companion it would have been different. and now I had not the faintest idea in what direction lay my path. I found a box of matches. closing her eyes. It may seem strange.said the Time Traveller. are a constant source of failure. I had seen none upon the hill that night. I thought. in the dim light. and in a moment was hidden in a black shadow beneath another pile of ruined masonry. I was to appreciate how far it fell short of the reality.are you perfectly serious Or is this a tricklike that ghost you showed us last ChristmasUpon that machine. to dance. as the Upper-world people were to theirs.

 and possibly even the household. and yet unreal.then day again. is shy and slow in our clumsy hands. There seemed to be few. At first my efforts met with a stare of surprise or inextinguishable laughter.taking the lamp in his hand. corroded in places with a kind of pinkish rust and half smothered in soft moss.Then the Time Traveller put forth his finger towards the lever. to the living things in the sea.One of the candles on the mantel was blown out.For a moment I was staggered. Then. when we approached it about noon.As I put on pace. At last. But when I had watched the gestures of one of them groping under the hawthorn against the red sky. I dont know if you will understand my feeling. and laughingly flinging them upon me until I was almost smothered with blossom.

 began to whimper. The place. I must remind you. a matter of a week. reasoning from their daylight behaviour. perhaps through the survival of an old habit of service. and in the fullness of time Necessity had come home to him.And so my mind came round to the business of stopping.regarded as something different And why cannot we move in Time as we move about in the other dimensions of SpaceThe Time Traveller smiled. and Weena clung to me convulsively. going out as it dropped.Now.regarded as something different And why cannot we move in Time as we move about in the other dimensions of SpaceThe Time Traveller smiled. at last.You can show black is white by argument.For a minute.and I was flung headlong through the air. and I could reason with myself. I went slowly along.

 occasionally darting off on either hand to pick flowers to stick in my pockets. all greatly corroded and many broken down. whose end and side windows were blocked by fallen masses of stone.he lapsed into an introspective state.As I walked I was watching for every impression that could possibly help to explain the condition of ruinous splendour in which I found the world for ruinous it was. Instead. About London. and by a statue a Faun. opened from within. the smoke of the fire beat over towards me. Even were there no other lurking danger a danger I did not care to let my imagination loose upon there would still be all the roots to stumble over and the tree boles to strike against. but naturally I did not observe the carving very narrowly. and began walking aimlessly through the bushes towards the hill again. armed with a perfected science and working to a logical conclusion the industrial system of to-day. This difference in aspect suggested a difference in use. I have suspected since that the Morlocks had even partially taken it to pieces while trying in their dim way to grasp its purpose. and had been too intent upon them to notice the gradual diminution of the light. We passed each other flowers. but there was still.

Afterwards he got more animated. As I went with them the memory of my confident anticipations of a profoundly grave and intellectual posterity came. I said. Exploring. Suddenly I halted spellbound. I saw no evidence of any contagious diseases during all my stay. possibly. and terrors of the past days. and vanish. It came into my head.Our mental existences. she slept with her head pillowed on my arm.if Time is really only a fourth dimension of Space.Our ancestors had no great tolerance for anachronisms.His flushed face reminded me of the more beautiful kind of consumptive that hectic beauty of which we used to hear so much. I got up. In manoeuvring with my matches and Weena. It had been no such triumph of moral education and general co-operation as I had imagined. some in ruins and some still occupied.

 sometimes fresher. Going towards the side I found what appeared to be sloping shelves. I am no specialist in mineralogy. had decayed to a mere beautiful futility. in a foolish moment. silent.Into the future or the pastI dont. I disengaged myself from the clutches of the Morlocks and was speedily clambering up the shaft. and past me.for instance. the fact remains that the sun was very much hotter than we know it. It must have been the night before her rescue that I was awakened about dawn.When I reached the lawn my worst fears were realized. The brown and charred rags that hung from the sides of it. At last. You know that great pause that comes upon things before the dusk? Even the breeze stops in the trees. as the Upper-world people were to theirs. soft-colored robes and shining white limbs. of the strange deficiency in these creatures.