time. That's plain enough.' He passed his hand through the space in

which the machine had been. 'You see?' he said, laughing.

We sat and stared at the vacant table for a minute or so. Then the

Time Traveller asked us what we thought of it all.

'It sounds plausible enough to-night,' said the Medical Man; 'but

wait until to-morrow. Wait for the common sense of the morning.'

'Would you like to see the Time Machine itself?' asked the Time

Traveller. And therewith, taking the lamp in his hand, he led the

way down the long, draughty corridor to his laboratory. I remember

vividly the flickering light, his queer, broad head in silhouette,

the dance of the shadows, how we all followed him, puzzled but

incredulous, and how there in the laboratory we beheld a larger

edition of the little mechanism which we had seen vanish from before

our eyes. Parts were of nickel, parts of ivory, parts had certainly

been filed or sawn out of rock crystal. The thing was generally

complete, but the twisted crystalline bars lay unfinished upon the

bench beside some sheets of drawings, and I took one up for a better

look at it. Quartz it seemed to be.

'Look here,' said the Medical Man, 'are you perfectly serious?

Or is this a trick--like that ghost you showed us last Christmas?'

'Upon that machine,' said the Time Traveller, holding the lamp

The Time Machine