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1A Sudden Shock "As I stood there musing over this too perfect triumph of man, the full moon, yellow and gibbous, came up
2out of an overflow of silver light in the north-east. The bright little figures ceased to move about below, a noiseless
3owl flitted by, and I shivered with the chill of the night. I determined to descend and find where I could sleep. "I
4looked for the building I knew. Then my eye travelled along to the figure of the White Sphinx upon the pedestal of
5bronze, growing distinct as the light of the rising moon grew brighter. I could see the silver birch against it. There
6was the tangle of rhododendron bushes, black in the pale light, and there was the little lawn. I looked at the lawn
7again. A queer doubt chilled my complacency. 'No,' said I stoutly to myself, 'that was not the lawn.' "But it was the
8lawn. For the white leprous face of the sphinx was towards it. Can you imagine what I felt as this conviction came home
9to me? But you cannot. The Time Machine was gone! "At once, like a lash across the face, came the possibility of losing
10my own age, of being left helpless in this strange new world. The bare thought of it was an actual physical sensation. I
11could feel it grip me at the throat and stop my breathing. In another moment I was in a passion of fear and running with
12great leaping strides down the slope. Once I fell headlong and cut my face; I lost no time in stanching the blood, but
13jumped up and ran on, with a warm trickle down my cheek and chin. All the time I ran I was saying to myself: 'They have
14moved it a little, pushed it under the bushes out of the way.' Nevertheless, I ran with all my might. All the time, with
15the certainty that sometimes comes with excessive dread, I knew that such assurance was folly, knew instinctively that
16the machine was removed out of my reach. My breath came with pain. I suppose I covered the whole distance from the hill
17crest to the little lawn, two miles perhaps, in ten minutes. And I am not a young man. I cursed aloud, as I ran, at my
18confident folly in leaving the machine, wasting good breath thereby. I cried aloud, and none answered. Not a creature
19seemed to be stirring in that moonlit world. "When I reached the lawn my worst fears were realised. Not a trace of the
20thing was to be seen. I felt faint and cold when I faced the empty space among the black tangle of bushes. I ran round
21it furiously, as if the thing might be hidden in a corner, and then stopped abruptly, with my hands clutching my hair.
22Above me towered the sphinx, upon the bronze pedestal, white, shining, leprous, in the light of the rising moon. It
23seemed to smile in mockery of my dismay. "I might have consoled myself by imagining the little people had put the
24mechanism in some shelter for me, had I not felt assured of their physical and intellectual inadequacy. That is what
25dismayed me: the sense of some hitherto unsuspected power, through whose intervention my invention had vanished. Yet,
26for one thing I felt assured: unless some other age had produced its exact duplicate, the machine could not have moved
27in time. The attachment of the levers--I will show you the method later--prevented anyone from tampering with it in that
28way when they were removed. It had moved, and was hid, only in space. But then, where could it be? "I think I must have
29had a kind of frenzy. I remember running violently in and out among the moonlit bushes all round the sphinx, and
30startling some white animal that, in the dim light, I took for a small deer. I remember, too, late that night, beating
31the bushes with my clenched fist until my knuckles were gashed and bleeding from the broken twigs. Then, sobbing and
32raving in my anguish of mind, I went down to the great building of stone. The big hall was dark, silent, and deserted. I
33slipped on the uneven floor, and fell over one of the malachite tables, almost breaking my shin. I lit a match and went
34on past the dusty curtains, of which I have told you. "There I found a second great hall covered with cushions, upon
35which, perhaps, a score or so of the little people were sleeping. I have no doubt they found my second appearance
36strange enough, coming suddenly out of the quiet darkness with inarticulate noises and the splutter and flare of a
37match. For they had forgotten about matches. 'Where is my Time Machine?' I began, bawling like an angry child, laying
38hands upon them and shaking them up together. It must have been very queer to them. Some laughed, most of them looked
39sorely frightened. When I saw them standing round me, it came into my head that I was doing as foolish a thing as it was
40possible for me to do under the circumstances, in trying to revive the sensation of fear. For, reasoning from their
41daylight behaviour, I thought that fear must be forgotten. "Abruptly, I dashed down the match, and knocking one of the
42people over in my course, went blundering across the big dining-hall again, out under the moonlight. I heard cries of
43terror and their little feet running and stumbling this way and that. I do not remember all I did as the moon crept up
44the sky. I suppose it was the unexpected nature of my loss that maddened me. I felt hopelessly cut off from my own
45kind--a strange animal in an unknown world. I must have raved to and fro, screaming and crying upon God and Fate. I have
46a memory of horrible fatigue, as the long night of despair wore away; of looking in this impossible place and that; of
47groping among moonlit ruins and touching strange creatures in the black shadows; at last, of lying on the ground near
48the sphinx and weeping with absolute wretchedness, even anger at the folly of leaving the machine having leaked away
49with my strength. I had nothing left but misery. Then I slept, and when I woke again it was full day, and a couple of
50sparrows were hopping round me on the turf within reach of my arm. "I sat up in the freshness of the morning, trying to
51remember how I had got there, and why I had such a profound sense of desertion and despair. Then things came clear in my
52mind. With the plain, reasonable daylight, I could look my circumstances fairly in the face. I saw the wild folly of my
53frenzy overnight, and I could reason with myself. 'Suppose the worst?' I said. 'Suppose the machine altogether
54lost--perhaps destroyed? It behoves me to be calm and patient, to learn the way of the people, to get a clear idea of
55the method of my loss, and the means of getting materials and tools; so that in the end, perhaps, I may make another.'
56That would be my only hope, a poor hope, perhaps, but better than despair. And, after all, it was a beautiful and
57curious world.
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