The Time Machine - International World History Project

The Time MachineVII‘Now, indeed, I seemed in a worse case than before.Hitherto, except during my night’s anguish at the loss ofthe Time Machine, I had felt a sustaining hope of ultimateescape, but that hope was staggered by these newdiscoveries. Hitherto I had merely thought myselfimpeded by the childish simplicity of the little people, andby some unknown forces which I had only to understandto overcome; but there was an altogether new element inthe sickening quality of the Morlocks—a somethinginhuman and malign. Instinctively I loathed them. Before,I had felt as a man might feel who had fallen into a pit: myconcern was with the pit and how to get out of it. Now Ifelt like a beast in a trap, whose enemy would come uponhim soon.‘The enemy I dreaded may surprise you. It was thedarkness of the new moon. Weena had put this into myhead by some at first incomprehensible remarks about theDark Nights. It was not now such a very difficult problemto guess what the coming Dark Nights might mean. Themoon was on the wane: each night there was a longerinterval of darkness. And I now understood to some slight92 of 148