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'To discover a society,' said I, 'erected on a strictly communistic `
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basis.' `
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'Of all the wild extravagant theories!' began the Psychologist. `
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'Yes, so it seemed to me, and so I never talked of it until--' `
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'Experimental verification!' cried I. 'You are going to verify `
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_that_?' `
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'The experiment!' cried Filby, who was getting brain-weary. `
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'Let's see your experiment anyhow,' said the Psychologist, 'though `
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it's all humbug, you know.' `
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The Time Traveller smiled round at us. Then, still smiling faintly, `
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and with his hands deep in his trousers pockets, he walked slowly `
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out of the room, and we heard his slippers shuffling down the long `
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passage to his laboratory. `
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The Psychologist looked at us. 'I wonder what he's got?' `
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'Some sleight-of-hand trick or other,' said the Medical Man, and `
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Filby tried to tell us about a conjurer he had seen at Burslem; but `
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before he had finished his preface the Time Traveller came back, and `
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Filby's anecdote collapsed. `
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The thing the Time Traveller held in his hand was a glittering `
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metallic framework, scarcely larger than a small clock, and very `
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delicately made. There was ivory in it, and some transparent `
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crystalline substance. And now I must be explicit, for this that `
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follows--unless his explanation is to be accepted--is an absolutely `
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unaccountable thing. He took one of the small octagonal tables that `
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were scattered about the room, and set it in front of the fire, with `
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two legs on the hearthrug. On this table he placed the mechanism. `
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Then he drew up a chair, and sat down. The only other object on the `
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table was a small shaded lamp, the bright light of which fell upon `
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the model. There were also perhaps a dozen candles about, two in `
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brass candlesticks upon the mantel and several in sconces, so that `
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the room was brilliantly illuminated. I sat in a low arm-chair `
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nearest the fire, and I drew this forward so as to be almost between `
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the Time Traveller and the fireplace. Filby sat behind him, looking `
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over his shoulder. The Medical Man and the Provincial Mayor watched `
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him in profile from the right, the Psychologist from the left. The `
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Very Young Man stood behind the Psychologist. We were all on the `
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alert. It appears incredible to me that any kind of trick, however `
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subtly conceived and however adroitly done, could have been played `
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upon us under these conditions. `
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The Time Traveller looked at us, and then at the mechanism. 'Well?' `
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said the Psychologist. `
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'This little affair,' said the Time Traveller, resting his elbows `
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upon the table and pressing his hands together above the apparatus, `
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'is only a model. It is my plan for a machine to travel through `
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time. You will notice that it looks singularly askew, and that there `
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is an odd twinkling appearance about this bar, as though it was in `
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some way unreal.' He pointed to the part with his finger. 'Also, `
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here is one little white lever, and here is another.' `
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The Medical Man got up out of his chair and peered into the thing. `
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'It's beautifully made,' he said. `
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'It took two years to make,' retorted the Time Traveller. Then, when `
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we had all imitated the action of the Medical Man, he said: 'Now I `
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want you clearly to understand that this lever, being pressed over, `
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sends the machine gliding into the future, and this other reverses `
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the motion. This saddle represents the seat of a time traveller. `
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Presently I am going to press the lever, and off the machine will `
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go. It will vanish, pass into future Time, and disappear. Have a `
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good look at the thing. Look at the table too, and satisfy `
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yourselves there is no trickery. I don't want to waste this model, `
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and then be told I'm a quack.' `
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There was a minute's pause perhaps. The Psychologist seemed about to `
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speak to me, but changed his mind. Then the Time Traveller put forth `
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his finger towards the lever. 'No,' he said suddenly. 'Lend me your `
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hand.' And turning to the Psychologist, he took that individual's `
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hand in his own and told him to put out his forefinger. So that it `
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was the Psychologist himself who sent forth the model Time Machine `
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on its interminable voyage. We all saw the lever turn. I am `
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absolutely certain there was no trickery. There was a breath of `
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wind, and the lamp flame jumped. One of the candles on the mantel `
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was blown out, and the little machine suddenly swung round, became `
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indistinct, was seen as a ghost for a second perhaps, as an eddy of `
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faintly glittering brass and ivory; and it was gone--vanished! Save `
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for the lamp the table was bare. `
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Everyone was silent for a minute. Then Filby said he was damned. `
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The Psychologist recovered from his stupor, and suddenly looked `
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under the table. At that the Time Traveller laughed cheerfully. `
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'Well?' he said, with a reminiscence of the Psychologist. Then, `
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getting up, he went to the tobacco jar on the mantel, and with his `
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back to us began to fill his pipe. `
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We stared at each other. 'Look here,' said the Medical Man, 'are you `
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in earnest about this? Do you seriously believe that that machine `
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has travelled into time?' `
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'Certainly,' said the Time Traveller, stooping to light a spill at `
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the fire. Then he turned, lighting his pipe, to look at the `
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Psychologist's face. (The Psychologist, to show that he was not `
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unhinged, helped himself to a cigar and tried to light it uncut.) `
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'What is more, I have a big machine nearly finished in there'--he `
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indicated the laboratory--'and when that is put together I mean to `
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have a journey on my own account.' `
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'You mean to say that that machine has travelled into the future?' `
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said Filby. `
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'Into the future or the past--I don't, for certain, know which.' `
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After an interval the Psychologist had an inspiration. 'It must have `
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gone into the past if it has gone anywhere,' he said. `
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'Why?' said the Time Traveller. `
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'Because I presume that it has not moved in space, and if it `
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travelled into the future it would still be here all this time, `
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since it must have travelled through this time.' `
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'But,' I said, 'If it travelled into the past it would have been `
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visible when we came first into this room; and last Thursday when we `
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were here; and the Thursday before that; and so forth!' `
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'Serious objections,' remarked the Provincial Mayor, with an air of `
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impartiality, turning towards the Time Traveller. `
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'Not a bit,' said the Time Traveller, and, to the Psychologist: 'You `
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think. You can explain that. It's presentation below the threshold, `
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you know, diluted presentation.' `
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'Of course,' said the Psychologist, and reassured us. 'That's a `
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simple point of psychology. I should have thought of it. It's plain `
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enough, and helps the paradox delightfully. We cannot see it, nor `
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can we appreciate this machine, any more than we can the spoke of `
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a wheel spinning, or a bullet flying through the air. If it is `
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travelling through time fifty times or a hundred times faster than `
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we are, if it gets through a minute while we get through a second, `
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the impression it creates will of course be only one-fiftieth or `
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one-hundredth of what it would make if it were not travelling in `
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time. That's plain enough.' He passed his hand through the space in `
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which the machine had been. 'You see?' he said, laughing. `
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We sat and stared at the vacant table for a minute or so. Then the `
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Time Traveller asked us what we thought of it all. `
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'It sounds plausible enough to-night,' said the Medical Man; 'but `
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wait until to-morrow. Wait for the common sense of the morning.' `
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'Would you like to see the Time Machine itself?' asked the Time `
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Traveller. And therewith, taking the lamp in his hand, he led the `
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way down the long, draughty corridor to his laboratory. I remember `
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vividly the flickering light, his queer, broad head in silhouette, `
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the dance of the shadows, how we all followed him, puzzled but `
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incredulous, and how there in the laboratory we beheld a larger `
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edition of the little mechanism which we had seen vanish from before `
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our eyes. Parts were of nickel, parts of ivory, parts had certainly `
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been filed or sawn out of rock crystal. The thing was generally `
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complete, but the twisted crystalline bars lay unfinished upon the `
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bench beside some sheets of drawings, and I took one up for a better `
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look at it. Quartz it seemed to be. `
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'Look here,' said the Medical Man, 'are you perfectly serious? `
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Or is this a trick--like that ghost you showed us last Christmas?' `
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'Upon that machine,' said the Time Traveller, holding the lamp `
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aloft, 'I intend to explore time. Is that plain? I was never more `
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serious in my life.' `
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None of us quite knew how to take it. `
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I caught Filby's eye over the shoulder of the Medical Man, and he `
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winked at me solemnly. `
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II `
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I think that at that time none of us quite believed in the Time `
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Machine. The fact is, the Time Traveller was one of those men who `
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are too clever to be believed: you never felt that you saw all round `
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him; you always suspected some subtle reserve, some ingenuity in `
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ambush, behind his lucid frankness. Had Filby shown the model and `
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explained the matter in the Time Traveller's words, we should have `
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shown _him_ far less scepticism. For we should have perceived his `
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motives; a pork butcher could understand Filby. But the Time `
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Traveller had more than a touch of whim among his elements, and we `
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distrusted him. Things that would have made the frame of a less `
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clever man seemed tricks in his hands. It is a mistake to do things `
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too easily. The serious people who took him seriously never felt `
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quite sure of his deportment; they were somehow aware that trusting `
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their reputations for judgment with him was like furnishing a `
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nursery with egg-shell china. So I don't think any of us said very `
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much about time travelling in the interval between that Thursday and `
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the next, though its odd potentialities ran, no doubt, in most of `
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our minds: its plausibility, that is, its practical incredibleness, `
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the curious possibilities of anachronism and of utter confusion it `
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suggested. For my own part, I was particularly preoccupied with the `
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