unpleasant. The sudden realization of my ignorance of their ways of

thinking and doing came home to me very vividly in the darkness. I

shouted at them as loudly as I could. They started away, and then

I could feel them approaching me again. They clutched at me more

boldly, whispering odd sounds to each other. I shivered violently,

and shouted again--rather discordantly. This time they were not so

seriously alarmed, and they made a queer laughing noise as they came

back at me. I will confess I was horribly frightened. I determined

to strike another match and escape under the protection of its

glare. I did so, and eking out the flicker with a scrap of paper

from my pocket, I made good my retreat to the narrow tunnel. But I

had scarce entered this when my light was blown out and in the

blackness I could hear the Morlocks rustling like wind among leaves,

and pattering like the rain, as they hurried after me.

'In a moment I was clutched by several hands, and there was no

mistaking that they were trying to haul me back. I struck another

light, and waved it in their dazzled faces. You can scarce imagine

how nauseatingly inhuman they looked--those pale, chinless faces

and great, lidless, pinkish-grey eyes!--as they stared in their

blindness and bewilderment. But I did not stay to look, I promise

you: I retreated again, and when my second match had ended, I struck

my third. It had almost burned through when I reached the opening

into the shaft. I lay down on the edge, for the throb of the great

pump below made me giddy. Then I felt sideways for the projecting

hooks, and, as I did so, my feet were grasped from behind, and I

The Time Machine