Amazing Stories, Vol. 2, No. 2 — page 73: what you’re looking at

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

THE TIME MACHINE central shadow of the eclipse sweeping toward me. In another moment the pale stars alone were visible. All else was rayless obscurity. The sky was abso- lutely black. “A horror of this great darkness came upon me. The cold that smote to my marrow, and the pain I felt in breathing, overcame me. I shivered and a deadly nausea seized me. Then like a red-hot bow in the sky appeared the edge of the sun. “T got off the Machine to recover myself. I felt giddy and incapable of facing the return journey. _ As I stood sick and confused I saw again the mov- ing thing upon the shoal—there was no mistake now that it was a moving thing—against the red water of the sea. It was a round thing, of the size of a football perhaps, or bigger; it seemed black against the weltering blood-red water, and it was hopping fitfully about. Then I felt I was fainting. A ter- rible dread of lying helpless in that remote twilight sustained me while I clambered upon the saddle. “So I came home. For a long time I must have been insensible upon the Machine. The blinking succession of the days and nights was resumed, the sun grew golden again, the sky blue. I breathed with greater freedom. The fluctuating contours of the land ebbed and flowed. The hands spun back- ward upon the dials. At last I saw again the dim shadows of homes, the evidences of decadent human- ity. These, too, changed and passed, and others came. Presently when the millions dial was at zero I slackened speed, and began to recognize our own pretty and familiar architecture. The thousands hand ran back to the starting point, the night and day flapped slower and slower. Then the old walls of the laboratory came round me. Very gently now I diminished the pace of the mechanism. “T saw one little thing that seemed odd to me. I think I have told you that when I set out, before my velocity became very high, Mrs. Watchett had walked across the room, traveling, as it seemed to me, like a rocket. As I returned I passed again across that minute when she traversed the labora- tory. But now every motion appeared to be the exact inversion of her previous one. The door at the lower end opened and she glided quietly up the laboratory, back foremost, and disappeared behind the door by which she had previously entered. “Then I stopped the Machine, and saw about me again the old familiar laboratory, my tools, my ap- pliances, just as I had left them. I got off the thing very shakily and sat down upon my bench. For several minutes I trembled violently. Then I became calmer. Around me was my old workshop again, exactly as it had been. I might have slept there and the whole thing have been a dream. “And yet not exactly. The thing had started from the southeast corner of the laboratory. It had come to rest again in the northwest, against the wall, where you will find it. That gives you the exact distance from my little lawn to the pedestal ‘of the white sphinx. _. “For a time my brain became stagnant. Pres- ently I got up and came through the passage here, limping, because my heel was still painful, and feeling begrimed. I saw the Pall Mall Gazette on the table by the door. I found the date was indeed to-day, and looking at the timepiece, saw the hour 177 was almost eight o’clock. I heard your voices and the clatter of plates. I hesitated—I felt so sick and weak. Then I sniffed good wholesome meat, and opened the door. You know the rest. I washed and dined, and now I am telling you the story. 4 ccy KNOW,” he said after a while, “that all this will be absolutely incredible to you, but to me the one incredible thing is that I am here to-night in this old familiar room, looking into your whole- some faces, and telling you all these strange adven- tures.” He looked at the Medical Man. “No; I cannot expect you to believe it. Take it as a lie, or a prophecy. Say I dreamed it in the workshop. Consider I have been speculating upon the destinies of our race, until I have hatched this fiction. Treat my assertion of its truth as a mere stroke of art to enhance its interest. And taking it as a story, what do you think of it?” He took up his pipe and began in his old accus- tomed manner to tap upon the bars of the grate. CHAPTER XIV After the Time Traveler’s Story HERE was a momentary stillness. Then chairs began to creak and shoes to scrape upon the carpet. I took my eyes off the Time Traveler’s face and looked around at his audience. They were in the dark and little spots of color swam before them. The Medical Man seemed ab- sorbed in the contemplation of our host. The Edi- tor was looking hard at the end of his cigar—the sixth. The Journalist fumbled for his watch. The others as far as I remember were motionless. The Editor stood up with a sigh. “What a pity it is you’re not a writer of stories!” he said, putting his hand on the Time Traveler’s shoulder. “You don’t believe it?” Weel ; “IT thought not.” The Time Traveler turned round to us. ‘“‘Where are the matches?” he said. He lit one and spoke over his pipe, puffing, ‘‘To tell you all the truth—I hardly believe it myself—and ver His eyes fell with a mute inquiry upon the with- ered white flowers upon the little table. Then he turned over the hand holding his pipe, and I saw he was looking at some half healed scars on his knuckles. The Medical Man rose, came to the lamp, and examined the flowers. “The gyncecium’s odd,” he said. The Psychologist leaned forward to see, holding out his hand for a specimen. “l’m hanged if it isn’t a quarter to one,” the Journalist. ‘How shall we get home?” “Plenty of cabs at the station,” said the Psychol: ogist. “It’s a curious thing,” said the Medical Man: “but I certainly don’t know the natural order of these flowers. May I have them?” The Time Traveler hesitated. Then suddenly, said “Certainly not.” EComicbooks (aCe)