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|
 'We emerged from the palace while the sun was still in part |
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| above the horizon. I was determined to reach the White Sphinx |
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| early the next morning, and ere the dusk I purposed pushing |
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| through the woods that had stopped me on the previous journey. |
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| My plan was to go as far as possible that night, and then, |
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| building a fire, to sleep in the protection of its glare. |
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| Accordingly, as we went along I gathered any sticks or dried |
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| grass I saw, and presently had my arms full of such litter. Thus |
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| loaded, our progress was slower than I had anticipated, and |
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| besides Weena was tired. And I began to suffer from sleepiness |
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| too; so that it was full night before we reached the wood. Upon |
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| the shrubby hill of its edge Weena would have stopped, fearing |
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| the darkness before us; but a singular sense of impending |
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| calamity, that should indeed have served me as a warning, drove |
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| me onward. I had been without sleep for a night and two days, |
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| and I was feverish and irritable. I felt sleep coming upon me, |
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| and the Morlocks with it. |
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| 'While we hesitated, among the black bushes behind us, and dim |
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| against their blackness, I saw three crouching figures. There |
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| was scrub and long grass all about us, and I did not feel safe |
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| from their insidious approach. The forest, I calculated, was |
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| rather less than a mile across. If we could get through it to |
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| the bare hill-side, there, as it seemed to me, was an altogether |
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| safer resting-place; I thought that with my matches and my |
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| camphor I could contrive to keep my path illuminated through the |
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| woods. Yet it was evident that if I was to flourish matches with |
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| my hands I should have to abandon my firewood; so, rather |
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| reluctantly, I put it down. And then it came into my head that I |
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| would amaze our friends behind by lighting it. I was to discover |
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| the atrocious folly of this proceeding, but it came to my mind as |
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| an ingenious move for covering our retreat. |
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| 'I don't know if you have ever thought what a rare thing flame |
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| must be in the absence of man and in a temperate climate. The |
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| sun's heat is rarely strong enough to burn, even when it is |
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| focused by dewdrops, as is sometimes the case in more tropical |
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| districts. Lightning may blast and blacken, but it rarely gives |
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| rise to widespread fire. Decaying vegetation may occasionally |
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| smoulder with the heat of its fermentation, but this rarely |
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| results in flame. In this decadence, too, the art of fire-making |
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| had been forgotten on the earth. The red tongues that went |
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| licking up my heap of wood were an altogether new and strange |
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| thing to Weena. |
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| 'She wanted to run to it and play with it. I believe she |
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| would have cast herself into it had I not restrained her. But I |
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| caught her up, and in spite of her struggles, plunged boldly |
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| before me into the wood. For a little way the glare of my fire |
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| lit the path. Looking back presently, I could see, through the |
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| crowded stems, that from my heap of sticks the blaze had spread |
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| to some bushes adjacent, and a curved line of fire was creeping |
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| up the grass of the hill. I laughed at that, and turned again to |
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| the dark trees before me. It was very black, and Weena clung to |
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| me convulsively, but there was still, as my eyes grew accustomed |
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| to the darkness, sufficient light for me to avoid the stems. |
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| Overhead it was simply black, except where a gap of remote blue |
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| sky shone down upon us here and there. I struck none of my |
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| matches because I had no hand free. Upon my left arm I carried |
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| my little one, in my right hand I had my iron bar. |
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| 'For some way I heard nothing but the crackling twigs under my |
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| feet, the faint rustle of the breeze above, and my own breathing |
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| and the throb of the blood-vessels in my ears. Then I seemed to |
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| know of a pattering about me. I pushed on grimly. The pattering |
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| grew more distinct, and then I caught the same queer sound and |
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| voices I had heard in the Under-world. There were evidently |
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| several of the Morlocks, and they were closing in upon me. |
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| Indeed, in another minute I felt a tug at my coat, then something |
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| at my arm. And Weena shivered violently, and became quite still. |
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| 'It was time for a match. But to get one I must put her down. |
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| I did so, and, as I fumbled with my pocket, a struggle began in |
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| the darkness about my knees, perfectly silent on her part and |
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| with the same peculiar cooing sounds from the Morlocks. Soft |
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| little hands, too, were creeping over my coat and back, touching |
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| even my neck. Then the match scratched and fizzed. I held it |
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| flaring, and saw the white backs of the Morlocks in flight amid |
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| the trees. I hastily took a lump of camphor from my pocket, and |
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| prepared to light is as soon as the match should wane. Then I |
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| looked at Weena. She was lying clutching my feet and quite |
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| motionless, with her face to the ground. With a sudden fright I |
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| stooped to her. She seemed scarcely to breathe. I lit the block |
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| of camphor and flung it to the ground, and as it split and flared |
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| up and drove back the Morlocks and the shadows, I knelt down and |
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| lifted her. The wood behind seemed full of the stir and murmur |
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| of a great company! |
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| 'She seemed to have fainted. I put her carefully upon my |
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| shoulder and rose to push on, and then there came a horrible |
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| realization. In manoeuvring with my matches and Weena, I had |
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| turned myself about several times, and now I had not the faintest |
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| idea in what direction lay my path. For all I knew, I might be |
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| facing back towards the Palace of Green Porcelain. I found |
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| myself in a cold sweat. I had to think rapidly what to do. I |
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| determined to build a fire and encamp where we were. I put |
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| Weena, still motionless, down upon a turfy bole, and very |
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| hastily, as my first lump of camphor waned, I began collecting |
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| sticks and leaves. Here and there out of the darkness round me |
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| the Morlocks' eyes shone like carbuncles. |
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| 'The camphor flickered and went out. I lit a match, and as I |
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| did so, two white forms that had been approaching Weena dashed |
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| hastily away. One was so blinded by the light that he came |
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| straight for me, and I felt his bones grind under the blow of my |
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| fist. He gave a whoop of dismay, staggered a little way, and |
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| fell down. I lit another piece of camphor, and went on gathering |
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| my bonfire. Presently I noticed how dry was some of the foliage |
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| above me, for since my arrival on the Time Machine, a matter of a |
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| week, no rain had fallen. So, instead of casting about among the |
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| trees for fallen twigs, I began leaping up and dragging down |
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| branches. Very soon I had a choking smoky fire of green wood and |
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| dry sticks, and could economize my camphor. Then I turned to |
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| where Weena lay beside my iron mace. I tried what I could to |
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| revive her, but she lay like one dead. I could not even satisfy |
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| myself whether or not she breathed. |
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| 'Now, the smoke of the fire beat over towards me, and it must |
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| have made me heavy of a sudden. Moreover, the vapour of camphor |
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| was in the air. My fire would not need replenishing for an hour |
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| or so. I felt very weary after my exertion, and sat down. The |
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| wood, too, was full of a slumbrous murmur that I did not |
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| understand. I seemed just to nod and open my eyes. But all was |
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| dark, and the Morlocks had their hands upon me. Flinging off |
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| their clinging fingers I hastily felt in my pocket for the |
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| match-box, and—it had gone! Then they gripped and closed with |
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| me again. In a moment I knew what had happened. I had slept, |
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| and my fire had gone out, and the bitterness of death came over |
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| my soul. The forest seemed full of the smell of burning wood. I |
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| was caught by the neck, by the hair, by the arms, and pulled |
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| down. It was indescribably horrible in the darkness to feel all |
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| these soft creatures heaped upon me. I felt as if I was in a |
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| monstrous spider's web. I was overpowered, and went down. I |
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| felt little teeth nipping at my neck. I rolled over, and as I |
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| did so my hand came against my iron lever. It gave me strength. |
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| I struggled up, shaking the human rats from me, and, holding the |
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| bar short, I thrust where I judged their faces might be. I could |
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| feel the succulent giving of flesh and bone under my blows, and |
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| for a moment I was free. |
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| 'The strange exultation that so often seems to accompany hard |
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| fighting came upon me. I knew that both I and Weena were lost, |
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| but I determined to make the Morlocks pay for their meat. I |
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| stood with my back to a tree, swinging the iron bar before me. |
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| The whole wood was full of the stir and cries of them. A minute |
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| passed. Their voices seemed to rise to a higher pitch of |
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| excitement, and their movements grew faster. Yet none came |
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| within reach. I stood glaring at the blackness. Then suddenly |
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| came hope. What if the Morlocks were afraid? And close on the |
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| heels of that came a strange thing. The darkness seemed to grow |
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| luminous. Very dimly I began to see the Morlocks about me—three |
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| battered at my feet—and then I recognized, with incredulous |
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| surprise, that the others were running, in an incessant stream, |
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| as it seemed, from behind me, and away through the wood in front. |
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| And their backs seemed no longer white, but reddish. As I stood |
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| agape, I saw a little red spark go drifting across a gap of |
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| starlight between the branches, and vanish. And at that I |
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| understood the smell of burning wood, the slumbrous murmur that |
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| was growing now into a gusty roar, the red glow, and the |
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| Morlocks' flight. |
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| 'Stepping out from behind my tree and looking back, I saw, |
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| through the black pillars of the nearer trees, the flames of the |
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| burning forest. It was my first fire coming after me. With that |
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| I looked for Weena, but she was gone. The hissing and crackling |
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| behind me, the explosive thud as each fresh tree burst into |
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| flame, left little time for reflection. My iron bar still |
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| gripped, I followed in the Morlocks' path. It was a close race. |
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| Once the flames crept forward so swiftly on my right as I ran |
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| that I was outflanked and had to strike off to the left. But at |
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| last I emerged upon a small open space, and as I did so, a |
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| Morlock came blundering towards me, and past me, and went on |
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| straight into the fire! |
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| 'And now I was to see the most weird and horrible thing, I |
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| think, of all that I beheld in that future age. This whole space |
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| was as bright as day with the reflection of the fire. In the |
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|
| centre was a hillock or tumulus, surmounted by a scorched |
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|
| hawthorn. Beyond this was another arm of the burning forest, |
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|
| with yellow tongues already writhing from it, completely |
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|
| encircling the space with a fence of fire. Upon the hill-side |
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| were some thirty or forty Morlocks, dazzled by the light and |
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| heat, and blundering hither and thither against each other in |
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| their bewilderment. At first I did not realize their blindness, |
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| and struck furiously at them with my bar, in a frenzy of fear, as |
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| they approached me, killing one and crippling several more. But |
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| when I had watched the gestures of one of them groping under the |
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| hawthorn against the red sky, and heard their moans, I was |
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| assured of their absolute helplessness and misery in the glare, |
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| and I struck no more of them. |
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| 'Yet every now and then one would come straight towards me, |
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| setting loose a quivering horror that made me quick to elude him. |
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| At one time the flames died down somewhat, and I feared the foul |
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| creatures would presently be able to see me. I was thinking of |
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| beginning the fight by killing some of them before this should |
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| happen; but the fire burst out again brightly, and I stayed my |
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| hand. I walked about the hill among them and avoided them, |
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| looking for some trace of Weena. But Weena was gone. |
|
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|
|
| 'At last I sat down on the summit of the hillock, and watched |
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| this strange incredible company of blind things groping to and |
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| fro, and making uncanny noises to each other, as the glare of the |
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|
| fire beat on them. The coiling uprush of smoke streamed across |
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|
| the sky, and through the rare tatters of that red canopy, remote |
|
|
| as though they belonged to another universe, shone the little |
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| stars. Two or three Morlocks came blundering into me, and I |
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| drove them off with blows of my fists, trembling as I did so. |
|
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|
| 'For the most part of that night I was persuaded it was a |
|
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| nightmare. I bit myself and screamed in a passionate desire to |
|
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| awake. I beat the ground with my hands, and got up and sat down |
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| again, and wandered here and there, and again sat down. Then I |
|
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| would fall to rubbing my eyes and calling upon God to let me |
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|
| awake. Thrice I saw Morlocks put their heads down in a kind of |
|
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| agony and rush into the flames. But, at last, above the |
|
|
| subsiding red of the fire, above the streaming masses of black |
|
|
| smoke and the whitening and blackening tree stumps, and the |
|
|
| diminishing numbers of these dim creatures, came the white light |
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|
| of the day. |
|
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|
|
| 'I searched again for traces of Weena, but there were none. |
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|
| It was plain that they had left her poor little body in the |
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|
| forest. I cannot describe how it relieved me to think that it |
|
|
| had escaped the awful fate to which it seemed destined. As I |
|
|
| thought of that, I was almost moved to begin a massacre of the |
|
|
| helpless abominations about me, but I contained myself. The |
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|
| hillock, as I have said, was a kind of island in the forest. |
|
|
| From its summit I could now make out through a haze of smoke the |
|
|
| Palace of Green Porcelain, and from that I could get my bearings |
|
|
| for the White Sphinx. And so, leaving the remnant of these |
|
|
| damned souls still going hither and thither and moaning, as the |
|
|
| day grew clearer, I tied some grass about my feet and limped on |
|
|
| across smoking ashes and among black stems, that still pulsated |
|
|
| internally with fire, towards the hiding-place of the Time |
|
|
| Machine. I walked slowly, for I was almost exhausted, as well as |
|
|
| lame, and I felt the intensest wretchedness for the horrible |
|
|
| death of little Weena. It seemed an overwhelming calamity. Now, |
|
|
| in this old familiar room, it is more like the sorrow of a dream |
|
|
| than an actual loss. But that morning it left me absolutely |
|
|
| lonely again—terribly alone. I began to think of this house of |
|
|
| mine, of this fireside, of some of you, and with such thoughts |
|
|
| came a longing that was pain. |
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|
