’It was after that, I think, that we came to
a little open court within the palace. It was
turfed, and had three fruit-trees. So we rested
and refreshed ourselves. Towards sunset I began
to consider our position. Night was creeping
upon us, and my inaccessible hiding-place had still
to be found. But that troubled me very little
now. I had in my possession a thing that was,
perhaps, the best of all defences against the Morlocks—I
had matches! I had the camphor in my pocket,
too, if a blaze were needed. It seemed to me that
the best thing we could do would be to pass the night
in the open, protected by a fire. In the morning
there was the getting of the Time Machine. Towards
that, as yet, I had only my iron mace. But now,
with my growing knowledge, I felt very differently
towards those bronze doors. Up to this, I had
refrained from forcing them, largely because of the
mystery on the other side. They had never impressed
me as being very strong, and I hoped to find my bar
of iron not altogether inadequate for the work.
IX
’We emerged from the palace while the sun was
still in part above the horizon. I was determined
to reach the White Sphinx early the next morning,
and ere the dusk I purposed pushing through the woods
that had stopped me on the previous journey. My
plan was to go as far as possible that night, and
then, building a fire, to sleep in the protection
of its glare. Accordingly, as we went along I
gathered any sticks or dried grass I saw, and presently
had my arms full of such litter. Thus loaded,
our progress was slower than I had anticipated, and
besides Weena was tired. And I began to suffer
from sleepiness too; so that it was full night before
we reached the wood. Upon the shrubby hill of
its edge Weena would have stopped, fearing the darkness
before us; but a singular sense of impending calamity,
that should indeed have served me as a warning, drove
me onward. I had been without sleep for a night
and two days, and I was feverish and irritable.
I felt sleep coming upon me, and the Morlocks with
it.
’While we hesitated, among the black bushes
behind us, and dim against their blackness, I saw
three crouching figures. There was scrub and
long grass all about us, and I did not feel safe from
their insidious approach. The forest, I calculated,
was rather less than a mile across. If we could
get through it to the bare hill-side, there, as it
seemed to me, was an altogether safer resting-place;
I thought that with my matches and my camphor I could
contrive to keep my path illuminated through the woods.
Yet it was evident that if I was to flourish matches
with my hands I should have to abandon my firewood;
so, rather reluctantly, I put it down. And then
it came into my head that I would amaze our friends
behind by lighting it. I was to discover the
atrocious folly of this proceeding, but it came to
my mind as an ingenious move for covering our retreat.
