The Time Machine - International World History Project

The Time Machinesteatite monster from South America that particularly tookmy fancy.‘As the evening drew on, my interest waned. I wentthrough gallery after gallery, dusty, silent, often ruinous,the exhibits sometimes mere heaps of rust and lignite,sometimes fresher. In one place I suddenly found myselfnear the model of a tin-mine, and then by the merestaccident I discovered, in an air-tight case, two dynamitecartridges! I shouted ‘Eureka!’ and smashed the case withjoy. Then came a doubt. I hesitated. Then, selecting alittle side gallery, I made my essay. I never felt such adisappointment as I did in waiting five, ten, fifteenminutes for an explosion that never came. Of course thethings were dummies, as I might have guessed from theirpresence. I really believe that had they not been so, Ishould have rushed off incontinently and blown Sphinx,bronze doors, and (as it proved) my chances of finding theTime Machine, all together into nonexistence.‘It was after that, I think, that we came to a little opencourt within the palace. It was turfed, and had three fruittrees.So we rested and refreshed ourselves. Towardssunset I began to consider our position. Night wascreeping upon us, and my inaccessible hiding-place hadstill to be found. But that troubled me very little now. I112 of 148