hammered till I had flattened a coil in the decorations, and the

verdigris came off in powdery flakes. The delicate little people

must have heard me hammering in gusty outbreaks a mile away on

either hand, but nothing came of it. I saw a crowd of them upon the

slopes, looking furtively at me. At last, hot and tired, I sat down

to watch the place. But I was too restless to watch long; I am too

Occidental for a long vigil. I could work at a problem for years,

but to wait inactive for twenty-four hours--that is another matter.

'I got up after a time, and began walking aimlessly through the

bushes towards the hill again. "Patience," said I to myself. "If you

want your machine again you must leave that sphinx alone. If they

mean to take your machine away, it's little good your wrecking their

bronze panels, and if they don't, you will get it back as soon as

you can ask for it. To sit among all those unknown things before a

puzzle like that is hopeless. That way lies monomania. Face this

world. Learn its ways, watch it, be careful of too hasty guesses

at its meaning. In the end you will find clues to it all." Then

suddenly the humour of the situation came into my mind: the thought

of the years I had spent in study and toil to get into the future

age, and now my passion of anxiety to get out of it. I had made

myself the most complicated and the most hopeless trap that ever a

man devised. Although it was at my own expense, I could not help

myself. I laughed aloud.

'Going through the big palace, it seemed to me that the little

The Time Machine