The Time Machine - International World History Project

The Time Machineof my feet where, on arrival, I had struggled with theoverturned machine. There were other signs of removalabout, with queer narrow footprints like those I couldimagine made by a sloth. This directed my closer attentionto the pedestal. It was, as I think I have said, of bronze. Itwas not a mere block, but highly decorated with deepframed panels on either side. I went and rapped at these.The pedestal was hollow. Examining the panels with careI found them discontinuous with the frames. There wereno handles or keyholes, but possibly the panels, if theywere doors, as I supposed, opened from within. One thingwas clear enough to my mind. It took no very greatmental effort to infer that my Time Machine was insidethat pedestal. But how it got there was a differentproblem.‘I saw the heads of two orange-clad people comingthrough the bushes and under some blossom-coveredapple-trees towards me. I turned smiling to them andbeckoned them to me. They came, and then, pointing tothe bronze pedestal, I tried to intimate my wish to open it.But at my first gesture towards this they behaved veryoddly. I don’t know how to convey their expression toyou. Suppose you were to use a grossly improper gestureto a delicate-minded woman—it is how she would look.60 of 148