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1"Well, mace in one hand and Weena in the other, I went out of that gallery and into another and still larger one, which
2at the first glance reminded me of a military chapel hung with tattered flags. The brown and charred rags that hung from
3the sides of it, I presently recognised as the decaying vestiges of books. They had long since dropped to pieces, and
4every semblance of print had left them. But here and there were warped boards and cracked metallic clasps that told the
5tale well enough. Had I been a literary man I might, perhaps, have moralised upon the futility of all ambition. But as
6it was, the thing that struck me with keenest force was the enormous waste of labour to which this sombre wilderness of
7rotting paper testified. At the time I will confess that I thought chiefly of the Philosophical Transactions and my own
8seventeen papers upon physical optics. "Then, going up a broad staircase, we came to what may once have been a gallery
9of technical chemistry. And here I had not a little hope of useful discoveries. Except at one end where the roof had
10collapsed, this gallery was well preserved. I went eagerly to every unbroken case. And at last, in one of the really
11air-tight cases, I found a box of matches. Very eagerly I tried them. They were perfectly good. They were not even damp.
12I turned to Weena. 'Dance,' I cried to her in her own tongue. For now I had a weapon indeed against the horrible
13creatures we feared. And so, in that derelict museum, upon the thick soft carpeting of dust, to Weena's huge delight, I
14solemnly performed a kind of composite dance, whistling The Land of the Leal as cheerfully as I could. In part it was a
15modest cancan, in part a step dance, in part a skirt dance (so far as my tail-coat permitted), and in part original. For
16I am naturally inventive, as you know. "Now, I still think that for this box of matches to have escaped the wear of time
17for immemorial years was a most strange, as for me it was a most fortunate, thing. Yet, oddly enough, I found a far
18unlikelier substance, and that was camphor. I found it in a sealed jar, that by chance, I suppose, had been really
19hermetically sealed. I fancied at first that it was paraffin wax, and smashed the glass accordingly. But the odour of
20camphor was unmistakable. In the universal decay this volatile substance had chanced to survive, perhaps through many
21thousands of centuries. It reminded me of a sepia painting I had once seen done from the ink of a fossil Belemnite that
22must have perished and become fossilised millions of years ago. I was about to throw it away, but I remembered that it
23was inflammable and burnt with a good bright flame--was, in fact, an excellent candle--and I put it in my pocket. I
24found no explosives, however, nor any means of breaking down the bronze doors. As yet my iron crowbar was the most
25helpful thing I had chanced upon. Nevertheless I left that gallery greatly elated. "I cannot tell you all the story of
26that long afternoon. It would require a great effort of memory to recall my explorations in at all the proper order. I
27remember a long gallery of rusting stands of arms, and how I hesitated between my crowbar and a hatchet or a sword. I
28could not carry both, however, and my bar of iron promised best against the bronze gates. There were numbers of guns,
29pistols, and rifles. The most were masses of rust, but many were of some new metal, and still fairly sound. But any
30cartridges or powder there may once have been had rotted into dust. One corner I saw was charred and shattered; perhaps,
31I thought, by an explosion among the specimens. In another place was a vast array of idols--Polynesian, Mexican,
32Grecian, Phœnician, every country on earth, I should think. And here, yielding to an irresistible impulse, I wrote my
33name upon the nose of a steatite monster from South America that particularly took my fancy. "As the evening drew on, my
34interest waned. I went through gallery after gallery, dusty, silent, often ruinous, the exhibits sometimes mere heaps of
35rust and lignite, sometimes fresher. In one place I suddenly found myself near the model of a tin mine, and then by the
36merest accident I discovered, in an air-tight case, two dynamite cartridges! I shouted 'Eureka!' and smashed the case
37with joy. Then came a doubt. I hesitated. Then, selecting a little side gallery, I made my essay. I never felt such a
38disappointment as I did in waiting five, ten, fifteen minutes for an explosion that never came. Of course the things
39were dummies, as I might have guessed from their presence. I really believe that had they not been so, I should have
40rushed off incontinently and blown Sphinx, bronze doors, and (as it proved) my chances of finding the Time Machine, all
41together into non-existence. "It was after that, I think, that we came to a little open court within the palace. It was
42turfed, and had three fruit-trees. So we rested and refreshed ourselves. Towards sunset I began to consider our
43position. Night was creeping upon us, and my inaccessible hiding-place had still to be found. But that troubled me very
44little now. I had in my possession a thing that was, perhaps, the best of all defences against the Morlocks--I had
45matches! I had the camphor in my pocket, too, if a blaze were needed. It seemed to me that the best thing we could do
46would be to pass the night in the open, protected by a fire. In the morning there was the getting of the Time Machine.
47Towards that, as yet, I had only my iron mace. But now, with my growing knowledge, I felt very differently towards those
48bronze doors. Up to this, I had refrained from forcing them, largely because of the mystery on the other side. They had
49never impressed me as being very strong, and I hoped to find my bar of iron not altogether inadequate for the work.
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