'In another moment we were standing face to face, I and this fragile

thing out of futurity. He came straight up to me and laughed into my

eyes. The absence from his bearing of any sign of fear struck me at

once. Then he turned to the two others who were following him and

spoke to them in a strange and very sweet and liquid tongue.

There were others coming, and presently a little group of perhaps

eight or ten of these exquisite creatures were about me. One of them

addressed me. It came into my head, oddly enough, that my voice was

too harsh and deep for them. So I shook my head, and, pointing to my

ears, shook it again. He came a step forward, hesitated, and then

touched my hand. Then I felt other soft little tentacles upon my

back and shoulders. They wanted to make sure I was real. There was

nothing in this at all alarming. Indeed, there was something in

these pretty little people that inspired confidence--a graceful

gentleness, a certain childlike ease. And besides, they looked so

frail that I could fancy myself flinging the whole dozen of them

about like nine-pins. But I made a sudden motion to warn them when I

saw their little pink hands feeling at the Time Machine. Happily

then, when it was not too late, I thought of a danger I had hitherto

forgotten, and reaching over the bars of the machine I unscrewed the

little levers that would set it in motion, and put these in my

pocket. Then I turned again to see what I could do in the way of

The Time Machine