'Little Weena ran with me. She danced beside me to the well, but

when she saw me lean over the mouth and look downward, she seemed

strangely disconcerted. "Good-bye, little Weena," I said, kissing

her; and then putting her down, I began to feel over the parapet

for the climbing hooks. Rather hastily, I may as well confess, for

I feared my courage might leak away! At first she watched me in

amazement. Then she gave a most piteous cry, and running to me, she

began to pull at me with her little hands. I think her opposition

nerved me rather to proceed. I shook her off, perhaps a little

roughly, and in another moment I was in the throat of the well. I

saw her agonized face over the parapet, and smiled to reassure her.

Then I had to look down at the unstable hooks to which I clung.

'I had to clamber down a shaft of perhaps two hundred yards. The

descent was effected by means of metallic bars projecting from

the sides of the well, and these being adapted to the needs of

a creature much smaller and lighter than myself, I was speedily

cramped and fatigued by the descent. And not simply fatigued! One of

the bars bent suddenly under my weight, and almost swung me off into

the blackness beneath. For a moment I hung by one hand, and after

that experience I did not dare to rest again. Though my arms and

back were presently acutely painful, I went on clambering down the

sheer descent with as quick a motion as possible. Glancing upward,

I saw the aperture, a small blue disk, in which a star was visible,

while little Weena's head showed as a round black projection. The

thudding sound of a machine below grew louder and more oppressive.

The Time Machine