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1In the Darkness "We emerged from the Palace while the sun was still in part above the horizon. I was determined to reach
2the White Sphinx early the next morning, and ere the dusk I purposed pushing through the woods that had stopped me on
3the previous journey. My plan was to go as far as possible that night, and then, building a fire, to sleep in the
4protection of its glare. Accordingly, as we went along I gathered any sticks or dried grass I saw, and presently had my
5arms full of such litter. Thus loaded, our progress was slower than I had anticipated, and besides Weena was tired. And
6I, also, began to suffer from sleepiness too; so that it was full night before we reached the wood. Upon the shrubby
7hill of its edge Weena would have stopped, fearing the darkness before us; but a singular sense of impending calamity,
8that should indeed have served me as a warning, drove me onward. I had been without sleep for a night and two days, and
9I was feverish and irritable. I felt sleep coming upon me, and the Morlocks with it. "While we hesitated, among the
10black bushes behind us, and dim against their blackness, I saw three crouching figures. There was scrub and long grass
11all about us, and I did not feel safe from their insidious approach. The forest, I calculated, was rather less than a
12mile across. If we could get through it to the bare hillside, there, as it seemed to me, was an altogether safer
13resting-place; I thought that with my matches and my camphor I could contrive to keep my path illuminated through the
14woods. Yet it was evident that if I was to flourish matches with my hands I should have to abandon my firewood; so,
15rather reluctantly, I put it down. And then it came into my head that I would amaze our friends behind by lighting it. I
16was to discover the atrocious folly of this proceeding, but it came to my mind as an ingenious move for covering our
17retreat. "I don't know if you have ever thought what a rare thing flame must be in the absence of man and in a temperate
18climate. The sun's heat is rarely strong enough to burn, even when it is focused by dewdrops, as is sometimes the case
19in more tropical districts. Lightning may blast and blacken, but it rarely gives rise to widespread fire. Decaying
20vegetation may occasionally smoulder with the heat of its fermentation, but this rarely results in flame. In this
21decadence, too, the art of fire-making had been forgotten on the earth. The red tongues that went licking up my heap of
22wood were an altogether new and strange thing to Weena. "She wanted to run to it and play with it. I believe she would
23have cast herself into it had I not restrained her. But I caught her up, and in spite of her struggles, plunged boldly
24before me into the wood. For a little way the glare of my fire lit the path. Looking back presently, I could see,
25through the crowded stems, that from my heap of sticks the blaze had spread to some bushes adjacent, and a curved line
26of fire was creeping up the grass of the hill. I laughed at that, and turned again to the dark trees before me. It was
27very black, and Weena clung to me convulsively, but there was still, as my eyes grew accustomed to the darkness,
28sufficient light for me to avoid the stems. Overhead it was simply black, except where a gap of remote blue sky shone
29down upon us here and there. I lit none of my matches because I had no hand free. Upon my left arm I carried my little
30one, in my right hand I had my iron bar. "For some way I heard nothing but the crackling twigs under my feet, the faint
31rustle of the breeze above, and my own breathing and the throb of the blood-vessels in my ears. Then I seemed to know of
32a pattering behind me. I pushed on grimly. The pattering grew more distinct, and then I caught the same queer sound and
33voices I had heard in the Underworld. There were evidently several of the Morlocks, and they were closing in upon me.
34Indeed, in another minute I felt a tug at my coat, then something at my arm. And Weena shivered violently, and became
35quite still. "It was time for a match. But to get one I must put her down. I did so, and, as I fumbled with my pocket, a
36struggle began in the darkness about my knees, perfectly silent on her part and with the same peculiar cooing sounds
37from the Morlocks. Soft little hands, too, were creeping over my coat and back, touching even my neck. Then the match
38scratched and fizzed. I held it flaring, and saw the white backs of the Morlocks in flight amid the trees. I hastily
39took a lump of camphor from my pocket, and prepared to light it as soon as the match should wane. Then I looked at
40Weena. She was lying clutching my feet and quite motionless, with her face to the ground. With a sudden fright I stooped
41to her. She seemed scarcely to breathe. I lit the block of camphor and flung it to the ground, and as it split and
42flared up and drove back the Morlocks and the shadows, I knelt down and lifted her. The wood behind seemed full of the
43stir and murmur of a great company! "She seemed to have fainted. I put her carefully upon my shoulder and rose to push
44on, and then there came a horrible realisation. In manœuvring with my matches and Weena, I had turned myself about
45several times, and now I had not the faintest idea in what direction lay my path. For all I knew, I might be facing back
46towards the Palace of Green Porcelain. I found myself in a cold sweat. I had to think rapidly what to do. I determined
47to build a fire and encamp where we were. I put Weena, still motionless, down upon a turfy bole, and very hastily, as my
48first lump of camphor waned, I began collecting sticks and leaves. Here and there out of the darkness round me the
49Morlocks' eyes shone like carbuncles. "The camphor flickered and went out. I lit a match, and as I did so, two white
50forms that had been approaching Weena dashed hastily away. One was so blinded by the light that he came straight for me,
51and I felt his bones grind under the blow of my fist. He gave a whoop of dismay, staggered a little way, and fell down.
52I lit another piece of camphor, and went on gathering my bonfire. Presently I noticed how dry was some of the foliage
53above me, for since my arrival on the Time Machine, a matter of a week, no rain had fallen. So, instead of casting about
54among the trees for fallen twigs, I began leaping up and dragging down branches. Very soon I had a choking smoky fire of
55green wood and dry sticks, and could economise my camphor. Then I turned to where Weena lay beside my iron mace. I tried
56what I could to revive her, but she lay like one dead. I could not even satisfy myself whether or not she breathed.
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