but possibly the panels, if they were doors, as I supposed, opened

from within. One thing was clear enough to my mind. It took no very

great mental effort to infer that my Time Machine was inside that

pedestal. But how it got there was a different problem.

'I saw the heads of two orange-clad people coming through the bushes

and under some blossom-covered apple-trees towards me. I turned

smiling to them and beckoned them to me. They came, and then,

pointing to the bronze pedestal, I tried to intimate my wish to open

it. But at my first gesture towards this they behaved very oddly. I

don't know how to convey their expression to you. Suppose you were

to use a grossly improper gesture to a delicate-minded woman--it is

how she would look. They went off as if they had received the last

possible insult. I tried a sweet-looking little chap in white next,

with exactly the same result. Somehow, his manner made me feel

ashamed of myself. But, as you know, I wanted the Time Machine, and

I tried him once more. As he turned off, like the others, my temper

got the better of me. In three strides I was after him, had him by

the loose part of his robe round the neck, and began dragging him

towards the sphinx. Then I saw the horror and repugnance of his

face, and all of a sudden I let him go.

'But I was not beaten yet. I banged with my fist at the bronze

panels. I thought I heard something stir inside--to be explicit,

I thought I heard a sound like a chuckle--but I must have been

mistaken. Then I got a big pebble from the river, and came and

The Time Machine