The Time Machine - International World History Project

The Time MachineeBook brought to you byCreate, view, and edit PDF. Download the free trial version.and become fossilized millions of years ago. I was about tothrow it away, but I remembered that it was inflammableand burned with a good bright flame—was, in fact, anexcellent candle—and I put it in my pocket. I found noexplosives, however, nor any means of breaking down thebronze doors. As yet my iron crowbar was the mosthelpful thing I had chanced upon. Nevertheless I left thatgallery greatly elated.‘I cannot tell you all the story of that long afternoon. Itwould require a great effort of memory to recall myexplorations in at all the proper order. I remember a longgallery of rusting stands of arms, and how I hesitatedbetween my crowbar and a hatchet or a sword. I couldnot carry both, however, and my bar of iron promisedbest against the bronze gates. There were numbers ofguns, pistols, and rifles. The most were masses of rust, butmany were of some new metal, and still fairly sound. Butany cartridges or powder there may once have been hadrotted into dust. One corner I saw was charred andshattered; perhaps, I thought, by an explosion among thespecimens. In another place was a vast array of idols—Polynesian, Mexican, Grecian, Phoenician, every countryon earth I should think. And here, yielding to anirresistible impulse, I wrote my name upon the nose of a111 of 148