gutters and tunnels, from which their eyes glared at me in the

strangest fashion.

'I tried to call to them, but the language they had was apparently

different from that of the Over-world people; so that I was needs

left to my own unaided efforts, and the thought of flight before

exploration was even then in my mind. But I said to myself, "You are

in for it now," and, feeling my way along the tunnel, I found the

noise of machinery grow louder. Presently the walls fell away from

me, and I came to a large open space, and striking another match,

saw that I had entered a vast arched cavern, which stretched into

utter darkness beyond the range of my light. The view I had of it

was as much as one could see in the burning of a match.

'Necessarily my memory is vague. Great shapes like big machines rose

out of the dimness, and cast grotesque black shadows, in which dim

spectral Morlocks sheltered from the glare. The place, by the by,

was very stuffy and oppressive, and the faint halitus of freshly

shed blood was in the air. Some way down the central vista was a

little table of white metal, laid with what seemed a meal. The

Morlocks at any rate were carnivorous! Even at the time, I remember

wondering what large animal could have survived to furnish the red

joint I saw. It was all very indistinct: the heavy smell, the big

unmeaning shapes, the obscene figures lurking in the shadows, and

only waiting for the darkness to come at me again! Then the match

burned down, and stung my fingers, and fell, a wriggling red spot

The Time Machine