Reading Help The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
saddle, but sideways and in an unstable fashion. For an indefinite `
` time I clung to the machine as it swayed and vibrated, quite `
` unheeding how I went, and when I brought myself to look at the dials `
` again I was amazed to find where I had arrived. One dial records `
` days, and another thousands of days, another millions of days, and `
` another thousands of millions. Now, instead of reversing the levers, `
` I had pulled them over so as to go forward with them, and when I `
` came to look at these indicators I found that the thousands hand was `
` sweeping round as fast as the seconds hand of a watch--into `
` futurity. `
` `
` 'As I drove on, a peculiar change crept over the appearance of `
` things. The palpitating greyness grew darker; then--though I was `
` still travelling with prodigious velocity--the blinking succession `
` of day and night, which was usually indicative of a slower pace, `
` returned, and grew more and more marked. This puzzled me very much `
` at first. The alternations of night and day grew slower and slower, `
` and so did the passage of the sun across the sky, until they seemed `
` to stretch through centuries. At last a steady twilight brooded over `
` the earth, a twilight only broken now and then when a comet glared `
` across the darkling sky. The band of light that had indicated the `
` sun had long since disappeared; for the sun had ceased to set--it `
` simply rose and fell in the west, and grew ever broader and more `
` red. All trace of the moon had vanished. The circling of the stars, `
` growing slower and slower, had given place to creeping points of `
` light. At last, some time before I stopped, the sun, red and very `
` large, halted motionless upon the horizon, a vast dome glowing with `
` a dull heat, and now and then suffering a momentary extinction. At `
` one time it had for a little while glowed more brilliantly again, `
` but it speedily reverted to its sullen red heat. I perceived by this `
` slowing down of its rising and setting that the work of the tidal `
` drag was done. The earth had come to rest with one face to the sun, `
` even as in our own time the moon faces the earth. Very cautiously, `
` for I remembered my former headlong fall, I began to reverse `
` my motion. Slower and slower went the circling hands until the `
` thousands one seemed motionless and the daily one was no longer a `
` mere mist upon its scale. Still slower, until the dim outlines of a `
` desolate beach grew visible. `
` `
` 'I stopped very gently and sat upon the Time Machine, looking round. `
` The sky was no longer blue. North-eastward it was inky black, `
` and out of the blackness shone brightly and steadily the pale `
` white stars. Overhead it was a deep Indian red and starless, and `
` south-eastward it grew brighter to a glowing scarlet where, cut by `
` the horizon, lay the huge hull of the sun, red and motionless. The `
` rocks about me were of a harsh reddish colour, and all the trace of `
` life that I could see at first was the intensely green vegetation `
` that covered every projecting point on their south-eastern face. It `
` was the same rich green that one sees on forest moss or on the `
` lichen in caves: plants which like these grow in a perpetual `
` twilight. `
` `
` 'The machine was standing on a sloping beach. The sea stretched away `
` to the south-west, to rise into a sharp bright horizon against the `
` wan sky. There were no breakers and no waves, for not a breath of `
` wind was stirring. Only a slight oily swell rose and fell like a `
` gentle breathing, and showed that the eternal sea was still moving `
` and living. And along the margin where the water sometimes broke was `
` a thick incrustation of salt--pink under the lurid sky. There was a `
` sense of oppression in my head, and I noticed that I was breathing `
` very fast. The sensation reminded me of my only experience of `
` mountaineering, and from that I judged the air to be more rarefied `
` than it is now. `
` `
` 'Far away up the desolate slope I heard a harsh scream, and saw a `
` thing like a huge white butterfly go slanting and fluttering up into `
` the sky and, circling, disappear over some low hillocks beyond. The `
` sound of its voice was so dismal that I shivered and seated myself `
` more firmly upon the machine. Looking round me again, I saw that, `
` quite near, what I had taken to be a reddish mass of rock was moving `
` slowly towards me. Then I saw the thing was really a monstrous `
` crab-like creature. Can you imagine a crab as large as yonder table, `
` with its many legs moving slowly and uncertainly, its big claws `
` swaying, its long antennae, like carters' whips, waving and feeling, `
` and its stalked eyes gleaming at you on either side of its metallic `
` front? Its back was corrugated and ornamented with ungainly bosses, `
` and a greenish incrustation blotched it here and there. I could see `
` the many palps of its complicated mouth flickering and feeling as it `
` moved. `
` `
` 'As I stared at this sinister apparition crawling towards me, I felt `
` a tickling on my cheek as though a fly had lighted there. I tried to `
` brush it away with my hand, but in a moment it returned, and almost `
` immediately came another by my ear. I struck at this, and caught `
` something threadlike. It was drawn swiftly out of my hand. With a `
` frightful qualm, I turned, and I saw that I had grasped the antenna `
` of another monster crab that stood just behind me. Its evil eyes `
` were wriggling on their stalks, its mouth was all alive with `
` appetite, and its vast ungainly claws, smeared with an algal slime, `
` were descending upon me. In a moment my hand was on the lever, and `
` I had placed a month between myself and these monsters. But I was `
` still on the same beach, and I saw them distinctly now as soon as I `
` stopped. Dozens of them seemed to be crawling here and there, in the `
` sombre light, among the foliated sheets of intense green. `
` `
` 'I cannot convey the sense of abominable desolation that hung over `
` the world. The red eastern sky, the northward blackness, the salt `
` Dead Sea, the stony beach crawling with these foul, slow-stirring `
` monsters, the uniform poisonous-looking green of the lichenous `
` plants, the thin air that hurts one's lungs: all contributed to an `
` appalling effect. I moved on a hundred years, and there was the same `
` red sun--a little larger, a little duller--the same dying sea, the `
` same chill air, and the same crowd of earthy crustacea creeping in `
` and out among the green weed and the red rocks. And in the westward `
` sky, I saw a curved pale line like a vast new moon. `
` `
` 'So I travelled, stopping ever and again, in great strides of a `
` thousand years or more, drawn on by the mystery of the earth's fate, `
` watching with a strange fascination the sun grow larger and duller `
` in the westward sky, and the life of the old earth ebb away. At `
` last, more than thirty million years hence, the huge red-hot dome of `
` the sun had come to obscure nearly a tenth part of the darkling `
` heavens. Then I stopped once more, for the crawling multitude of `
` crabs had disappeared, and the red beach, save for its livid green `
` liverworts and lichens, seemed lifeless. And now it was flecked with `
` white. A bitter cold assailed me. Rare white flakes ever and again `
` came eddying down. To the north-eastward, the glare of snow lay `
` under the starlight of the sable sky and I could see an undulating `
` crest of hillocks pinkish white. There were fringes of ice along the `
` sea margin, with drifting masses further out; but the main expanse `
` of that salt ocean, all bloody under the eternal sunset, was still `
` unfrozen. `
` `
` 'I looked about me to see if any traces of animal life remained. A `
` certain indefinable apprehension still kept me in the saddle of the `
` machine. But I saw nothing moving, in earth or sky or sea. The green `
` slime on the rocks alone testified that life was not extinct. A `
` shallow sandbank had appeared in the sea and the water had receded `
` from the beach. I fancied I saw some black object flopping about `
` upon this bank, but it became motionless as I looked at it, and I `
` judged that my eye had been deceived, and that the black object was `
` merely a rock. The stars in the sky were intensely bright and seemed `
` to me to twinkle very little. `
` `
` 'Suddenly I noticed that the circular westward outline of the sun `
` had changed; that a concavity, a bay, had appeared in the curve. I `
` saw this grow larger. For a minute perhaps I stared aghast at this `
` blackness that was creeping over the day, and then I realized that `
` an eclipse was beginning. Either the moon or the planet Mercury was `
` passing across the sun's disk. Naturally, at first I took it to be `
` the moon, but there is much to incline me to believe that what I `
` really saw was the transit of an inner planet passing very near to `
` the earth. `
` `
` 'The darkness grew apace; a cold wind began to blow in freshening `
` gusts from the east, and the showering white flakes in the air `
` increased in number. From the edge of the sea came a ripple and `
` whisper. Beyond these lifeless sounds the world was silent. Silent? `
` It would be hard to convey the stillness of it. All the sounds of `
` man, the bleating of sheep, the cries of birds, the hum of insects, `
` the stir that makes the background of our lives--all that was over. `
` As the darkness thickened, the eddying flakes grew more abundant, `
` dancing before my eyes; and the cold of the air more intense. At `
` last, one by one, swiftly, one after the other, the white peaks of `
` the distant hills vanished into blackness. The breeze rose to a `
` moaning wind. I saw the black central shadow of the eclipse sweeping `
` towards me. In another moment the pale stars alone were visible. All `
` else was rayless obscurity. The sky was absolutely black. `
` `
` 'A horror of this great darkness came on me. The cold, that smote `
` to my marrow, and the pain I felt in breathing, overcame me. I `
` shivered, and a deadly nausea seized me. Then like a red-hot bow `
` in the sky appeared the edge of the sun. I got off the machine to `
` recover myself. I felt giddy and incapable of facing the return `
` journey. As I stood sick and confused I saw again the moving thing `
` upon the shoal--there was no mistake now that it was a moving `
` thing--against the red water of the sea. It was a round thing, the `
` size of a football perhaps, or, it may be, bigger, and tentacles `
` trailed down from it; it seemed black against the weltering `
` blood-red water, and it was hopping fitfully about. Then I felt I `
` was fainting. But a terrible dread of lying helpless in that remote `
` and awful twilight sustained me while I clambered upon the saddle. `
` `
` `
` `
` XII `
` `
` `
` 'So I came back. For a long time I must have been insensible upon `
` the machine. The blinking succession of the days and nights was `
` resumed, the sun got golden again, the sky blue. I breathed with `
` greater freedom. The fluctuating contours of the land ebbed and `
` flowed. The hands spun backward upon the dials. At last I saw again `
` the dim shadows of houses, the evidences of decadent humanity. `
` These, too, changed and passed, and others came. Presently, when the `
` million dial was at zero, I slackened speed. I began to recognize `
` our own petty and familiar architecture, the thousands hand ran back `
` to the starting-point, the night and day flapped slower and slower. `
` Then the old walls of the laboratory came round me. Very gently, `
` now, I slowed the mechanism down. `
` `
` 'I saw one little thing that seemed odd to me. I think I have told `
` you that when I set out, before my velocity became very high, Mrs. `
` Watchett had walked across the room, travelling, as it seemed to me, `
` like a rocket. As I returned, I passed again across that minute when `
` she traversed the laboratory. But now her every motion appeared to `
` be the exact inversion of her previous ones. The door at the lower `
` end opened, and she glided quietly up the laboratory, back foremost, `
` and disappeared behind the door by which she had previously entered. `
` Just before that I seemed to see Hillyer for a moment; but he passed `
` like a flash. `
`
` time I clung to the machine as it swayed and vibrated, quite `
` unheeding how I went, and when I brought myself to look at the dials `
` again I was amazed to find where I had arrived. One dial records `
` days, and another thousands of days, another millions of days, and `
` another thousands of millions. Now, instead of reversing the levers, `
` I had pulled them over so as to go forward with them, and when I `
` came to look at these indicators I found that the thousands hand was `
` sweeping round as fast as the seconds hand of a watch--into `
` futurity. `
` `
` 'As I drove on, a peculiar change crept over the appearance of `
` things. The palpitating greyness grew darker; then--though I was `
` still travelling with prodigious velocity--the blinking succession `
` of day and night, which was usually indicative of a slower pace, `
` returned, and grew more and more marked. This puzzled me very much `
` at first. The alternations of night and day grew slower and slower, `
` and so did the passage of the sun across the sky, until they seemed `
` to stretch through centuries. At last a steady twilight brooded over `
` the earth, a twilight only broken now and then when a comet glared `
` across the darkling sky. The band of light that had indicated the `
` sun had long since disappeared; for the sun had ceased to set--it `
` simply rose and fell in the west, and grew ever broader and more `
` red. All trace of the moon had vanished. The circling of the stars, `
` growing slower and slower, had given place to creeping points of `
` light. At last, some time before I stopped, the sun, red and very `
` large, halted motionless upon the horizon, a vast dome glowing with `
` a dull heat, and now and then suffering a momentary extinction. At `
` one time it had for a little while glowed more brilliantly again, `
` but it speedily reverted to its sullen red heat. I perceived by this `
` slowing down of its rising and setting that the work of the tidal `
` drag was done. The earth had come to rest with one face to the sun, `
` even as in our own time the moon faces the earth. Very cautiously, `
` for I remembered my former headlong fall, I began to reverse `
` my motion. Slower and slower went the circling hands until the `
` thousands one seemed motionless and the daily one was no longer a `
` mere mist upon its scale. Still slower, until the dim outlines of a `
` desolate beach grew visible. `
` `
` 'I stopped very gently and sat upon the Time Machine, looking round. `
` The sky was no longer blue. North-eastward it was inky black, `
` and out of the blackness shone brightly and steadily the pale `
` white stars. Overhead it was a deep Indian red and starless, and `
` south-eastward it grew brighter to a glowing scarlet where, cut by `
` the horizon, lay the huge hull of the sun, red and motionless. The `
` rocks about me were of a harsh reddish colour, and all the trace of `
` life that I could see at first was the intensely green vegetation `
` that covered every projecting point on their south-eastern face. It `
` was the same rich green that one sees on forest moss or on the `
` lichen in caves: plants which like these grow in a perpetual `
` twilight. `
` `
` 'The machine was standing on a sloping beach. The sea stretched away `
` to the south-west, to rise into a sharp bright horizon against the `
` wan sky. There were no breakers and no waves, for not a breath of `
` wind was stirring. Only a slight oily swell rose and fell like a `
` gentle breathing, and showed that the eternal sea was still moving `
` and living. And along the margin where the water sometimes broke was `
` a thick incrustation of salt--pink under the lurid sky. There was a `
` sense of oppression in my head, and I noticed that I was breathing `
` very fast. The sensation reminded me of my only experience of `
` mountaineering, and from that I judged the air to be more rarefied `
` than it is now. `
` `
` 'Far away up the desolate slope I heard a harsh scream, and saw a `
` thing like a huge white butterfly go slanting and fluttering up into `
` the sky and, circling, disappear over some low hillocks beyond. The `
` sound of its voice was so dismal that I shivered and seated myself `
` more firmly upon the machine. Looking round me again, I saw that, `
` quite near, what I had taken to be a reddish mass of rock was moving `
` slowly towards me. Then I saw the thing was really a monstrous `
` crab-like creature. Can you imagine a crab as large as yonder table, `
` with its many legs moving slowly and uncertainly, its big claws `
` swaying, its long antennae, like carters' whips, waving and feeling, `
` and its stalked eyes gleaming at you on either side of its metallic `
` front? Its back was corrugated and ornamented with ungainly bosses, `
` and a greenish incrustation blotched it here and there. I could see `
` the many palps of its complicated mouth flickering and feeling as it `
` moved. `
` `
` 'As I stared at this sinister apparition crawling towards me, I felt `
` a tickling on my cheek as though a fly had lighted there. I tried to `
` brush it away with my hand, but in a moment it returned, and almost `
` immediately came another by my ear. I struck at this, and caught `
` something threadlike. It was drawn swiftly out of my hand. With a `
` frightful qualm, I turned, and I saw that I had grasped the antenna `
` of another monster crab that stood just behind me. Its evil eyes `
` were wriggling on their stalks, its mouth was all alive with `
` appetite, and its vast ungainly claws, smeared with an algal slime, `
` were descending upon me. In a moment my hand was on the lever, and `
` I had placed a month between myself and these monsters. But I was `
` still on the same beach, and I saw them distinctly now as soon as I `
` stopped. Dozens of them seemed to be crawling here and there, in the `
` sombre light, among the foliated sheets of intense green. `
` `
` 'I cannot convey the sense of abominable desolation that hung over `
` the world. The red eastern sky, the northward blackness, the salt `
` Dead Sea, the stony beach crawling with these foul, slow-stirring `
` monsters, the uniform poisonous-looking green of the lichenous `
` plants, the thin air that hurts one's lungs: all contributed to an `
` appalling effect. I moved on a hundred years, and there was the same `
` red sun--a little larger, a little duller--the same dying sea, the `
` same chill air, and the same crowd of earthy crustacea creeping in `
` and out among the green weed and the red rocks. And in the westward `
` sky, I saw a curved pale line like a vast new moon. `
` `
` 'So I travelled, stopping ever and again, in great strides of a `
` thousand years or more, drawn on by the mystery of the earth's fate, `
` watching with a strange fascination the sun grow larger and duller `
` in the westward sky, and the life of the old earth ebb away. At `
` last, more than thirty million years hence, the huge red-hot dome of `
` the sun had come to obscure nearly a tenth part of the darkling `
` heavens. Then I stopped once more, for the crawling multitude of `
` crabs had disappeared, and the red beach, save for its livid green `
` liverworts and lichens, seemed lifeless. And now it was flecked with `
` white. A bitter cold assailed me. Rare white flakes ever and again `
` came eddying down. To the north-eastward, the glare of snow lay `
` under the starlight of the sable sky and I could see an undulating `
` crest of hillocks pinkish white. There were fringes of ice along the `
` sea margin, with drifting masses further out; but the main expanse `
` of that salt ocean, all bloody under the eternal sunset, was still `
` unfrozen. `
` `
` 'I looked about me to see if any traces of animal life remained. A `
` certain indefinable apprehension still kept me in the saddle of the `
` machine. But I saw nothing moving, in earth or sky or sea. The green `
` slime on the rocks alone testified that life was not extinct. A `
` shallow sandbank had appeared in the sea and the water had receded `
` from the beach. I fancied I saw some black object flopping about `
` upon this bank, but it became motionless as I looked at it, and I `
` judged that my eye had been deceived, and that the black object was `
` merely a rock. The stars in the sky were intensely bright and seemed `
` to me to twinkle very little. `
` `
` 'Suddenly I noticed that the circular westward outline of the sun `
` had changed; that a concavity, a bay, had appeared in the curve. I `
` saw this grow larger. For a minute perhaps I stared aghast at this `
` blackness that was creeping over the day, and then I realized that `
` an eclipse was beginning. Either the moon or the planet Mercury was `
` passing across the sun's disk. Naturally, at first I took it to be `
` the moon, but there is much to incline me to believe that what I `
` really saw was the transit of an inner planet passing very near to `
` the earth. `
` `
` 'The darkness grew apace; a cold wind began to blow in freshening `
` gusts from the east, and the showering white flakes in the air `
` increased in number. From the edge of the sea came a ripple and `
` whisper. Beyond these lifeless sounds the world was silent. Silent? `
` It would be hard to convey the stillness of it. All the sounds of `
` man, the bleating of sheep, the cries of birds, the hum of insects, `
` the stir that makes the background of our lives--all that was over. `
` As the darkness thickened, the eddying flakes grew more abundant, `
` dancing before my eyes; and the cold of the air more intense. At `
` last, one by one, swiftly, one after the other, the white peaks of `
` the distant hills vanished into blackness. The breeze rose to a `
` moaning wind. I saw the black central shadow of the eclipse sweeping `
` towards me. In another moment the pale stars alone were visible. All `
` else was rayless obscurity. The sky was absolutely black. `
` `
` 'A horror of this great darkness came on me. The cold, that smote `
` to my marrow, and the pain I felt in breathing, overcame me. I `
` shivered, and a deadly nausea seized me. Then like a red-hot bow `
` in the sky appeared the edge of the sun. I got off the machine to `
` recover myself. I felt giddy and incapable of facing the return `
` journey. As I stood sick and confused I saw again the moving thing `
` upon the shoal--there was no mistake now that it was a moving `
` thing--against the red water of the sea. It was a round thing, the `
` size of a football perhaps, or, it may be, bigger, and tentacles `
` trailed down from it; it seemed black against the weltering `
` blood-red water, and it was hopping fitfully about. Then I felt I `
` was fainting. But a terrible dread of lying helpless in that remote `
` and awful twilight sustained me while I clambered upon the saddle. `
` `
` `
` `
` XII `
` `
` `
` 'So I came back. For a long time I must have been insensible upon `
` the machine. The blinking succession of the days and nights was `
` resumed, the sun got golden again, the sky blue. I breathed with `
` greater freedom. The fluctuating contours of the land ebbed and `
` flowed. The hands spun backward upon the dials. At last I saw again `
` the dim shadows of houses, the evidences of decadent humanity. `
` These, too, changed and passed, and others came. Presently, when the `
` million dial was at zero, I slackened speed. I began to recognize `
` our own petty and familiar architecture, the thousands hand ran back `
` to the starting-point, the night and day flapped slower and slower. `
` Then the old walls of the laboratory came round me. Very gently, `
` now, I slowed the mechanism down. `
` `
` 'I saw one little thing that seemed odd to me. I think I have told `
` you that when I set out, before my velocity became very high, Mrs. `
` Watchett had walked across the room, travelling, as it seemed to me, `
` like a rocket. As I returned, I passed again across that minute when `
` she traversed the laboratory. But now her every motion appeared to `
` be the exact inversion of her previous ones. The door at the lower `
` end opened, and she glided quietly up the laboratory, back foremost, `
` and disappeared behind the door by which she had previously entered. `
` Just before that I seemed to see Hillyer for a moment; but he passed `
` like a flash. `
`