Amazing Stories, Vol. 2, No. 2 — page 64: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

168 cient and departed necessities had impressed it on the organism. But clearly the old order was already in part reversed. The Nemesis of the delicate ones was creeping on apace. Ages ago, thousands of generations ago, man had thrust his brother man out of the ease and sunlight of life. And now that brother was coming back—changed. Already the Eloi had begun to learn one old lesson anew. They were becoming acquainted again with Fear. “Then suddenly came into my head the memory of the meat I had seen in the underworld. It seemed odd how this memory floated into my mind, not stirred up, as it were, by the current of my medi- tations, but coming in almost like a question from outside. I tried to recall the form of it. I hada vague sense of something familiar, but at that time I could not tell what it was. ~ “Still, however helpless the little people might be in the presence of their mysterious Fear, I was dif- ferently constituted. I came out of this age of ours, this ripe prime of the human race, when fear does not paralyze and mystery has Jost its terrors. I at least would defend myself. Without further delay I determined to make myself arms and a fastness where I might sleep with some security. From that refuge as a base I could face the strange world with some confidence again, a confidence I had lost now that I realized to what uncanny creatures I nightly lay exposed. I felt I could never sleep again until my bed was secure from them. I shud- dered with horror to think how they must already have examined me during my sleep. “T wandered during the afternoon along the val- ley of the Thames, but found nothing that com- mended itself to my mind as a sufficiently inacces- sible retiring place. All the buildings and trees seemed easily practicable to such dexterous climbers as the Morlocks—to judge by their wells—must be. Then the tall pinnacles of the Palace of Green Por- celain, and the polished gleam of its walls, came back to my memory, and in the evening, taking Weena like a child upon my shoulder, I went up the hills toward the southwest. “Now the distance I had reckoned was seven or eight miles, but it must have been nearer eighteen. I had first seen the Palace on a moist afternoon when distances are deceptively diminished. In ad- dition, the heel of one of my shoes was loose, and a nail was working through the sole,—they were comfortable old shoes I wear about indoors,—so that I was lame. It was already long past sunset before I came in sight of the Palace, standing out in black silhouette against the pale yellow of the sky. “Weena had been hugely delighted when first I carried her, but after a time she desired me to let her down and ran along by the side of me, occa- sionally. darting off on either hand to pick flowers to stick in my pockets. My pockets had always puz- zled Weena, but at the last she had concluded they were an eccentric kind of vases for floral decora- tion. At least she utilized them for that purpose. ‘‘And that reminds me! As I changed my jacket I found aS (The Time Traveler paused, put his hand into his pocket, and silently placed two withered flowers, not AMAZING STORIES unlike very large white mallows, upon the little table. Then he resumed his narrative.) <4 AS the hush of evening crept over the world and we proceeded over the hill-crest toward Wimbledon, Weena became tired and wanted to re- turn to the house of gray stone. But I pointed out the distant pinnacles of the Palace of Green Porce- lain to her, and contrived to make her understand that we were seeking a refuge there from her Fear. “You know that great pause that comes upon things before the dusk. Even the breeze stops in the trees. There is to me always an air of expecta- tion about that evening stillness. The sky was clear, remote, and empty, save for a few horizontal bars far down in the sunset. “That night the expectation took the color of my fears. In the darkling calm my senses seemed pre- ternaturally sharpened. I fancied I could even feel the hollowness of the ground beneath my feet, could indeed almost see through it, the Morlocks in their ant-hill going hither and thither and waiting for the dark. In this excited state I fancied that they would take my invasion of their burrows as a declaration of war. And why had they taken my Time Machine? : “So we went on in the quiet, and the twilicht deepened into night. The clear blue of the distance faded and one star after another came out. The ground grew dim and the trees black. Weena’s fears and her fatigue grew upon her. I took her in my arms and talked to her and caressed her. Then as the darkness grew profounder she put her arms round my neck, and closing her eyes tightly pressed her face against my shoulder. “We went down a long slope into a valley, and there in the dimness I almost walked into a little river. This I waded, and went up the opposite side of the valley, past a number of sleeping houses, and by a statue that appeared to me in the indistinct light to represent a faun, or some such figure, minus the head. Here, too, were acacias. So far, I had seen nothing of the Morlocks, but it was yet early in the night, and the darker hours before the old moon rose were still to come. “From the brow of the next hill I saw a thick wood spreading wide and black before me. At this I hesitated. I could see no end to it either to the right or to the left. Feeling tired,—my feet, in particular, were véry sore,—I carefully lowered Weena from my shoulder as I halted, and sat down upon the turf. I could no longer see the Palace of Green Porcelain, and I was in doubt of my direction. “IT looked into the thickness of the wood, and thought of what it might hide. Under that dense tangle of branches one would be out of sight of the stars. Even were there no other lurking dan- ger there,—a danger I did not care to let my imag- ination loose upon,—there would still be all the roots to stumble over, and the tree boles to strike myself against. I was very tired, too, after the excitements of the day, and I decided that I would not face it, but would pass the night upon the open hill. “Weena, I was glad to discover, was fast asleep. I carefully wrapped her in my jacket, and sat down ~ beside her to wait for the moonrise. The hillside | upon which I sat was quiet an. ich; OOksS: Com \