Philip Van Doren Stern (ed) (52 page)

"I
stopped
very
gently
and
sat
upon
the
Time
Machine,
looking round.
The
sky
was
no
longer
blue.
North-eastward
it
was
inky
black, and
out
of
the
blackness
shone
brightly
and
steadily
the
pale
white stars.
Overhead
it
was
a
deep
Indian
red
and
starless,
and
southeastward
it
grew
brighter
to
a
glowing
scarlet
where,
cut
by
the
horizon,
lay
the
huge
hull
of
the
sun,
red
and
motionless.
The
rocks
about
i
nc
were
of
a
harsh
reddish
colour,
and
all
the
trace
of
life
that
I
could see
at
first
was
the
intensely
green
vegetation
that
covered
every
projecting
point
on
their
south-eastern
face.
It
was
the
same
rich
green
11
iat
one
sees
on
forest
moss
or
on
the
lichen
in
caves:
plants
which like
these
grow
in
a
perpetual
twilight.

"The
machine
was
standing
on
a
sloping
beach.
The
sea
stretched away
to
the
south-west,
to
rise
into
a
sharp
bright
horizon
against
the wan
sky.
There
were
no
breakers
and
no
waves,
for
not
a
breath
of wind
was
stirring.
Only
a
slight
oily
swell
rose
and
fell
like
a
gentle breathing,
and
showed
that
the
eternal
sea
was
still
moving
and
living. And
along
the
margin
where
the
water
sometimes
broke
was
a
thick incrustation
of
salt—pink
under
the
lurid
sky.
There
was
a
sense
of oppression
in
my
head,
and
I
noticed
that
I
was
breathing
very
fast. The
sensation
reminded
me
of
my
only
experience
of
mountaineering,
and
from
that
I
judged
the
air
to
be
more
rarefied
than
it
is
now.

"Far
away
up
the
desolate
slope
I
heard
a
harsh
scream,
and
saw
a thing
like
a
huge
white
butterfly
go
slanting
and
fluttering
up
into the
sky
and,
circling,
disappear
over
some
low
hillocks
beyond.
The sound
of
its
voice
was
so
dismal
that
I
shivered
and
seated
myself more
firmly
upon
the
machine.
Looking
round
me
again,
I
saw
that, quite
near,
what
I
had
taken
to
be
a
reddish
mass
of
rock
was
moving slowly
towards
me.
Then
I
saw
the
thing
was
really
a
monstrous
crab-like
creature.
Can
you
imagine
a
crab
as
large
as
yonder
table,
with
its many
legs
moving
slowly
and
uncertainly,
its
big
claws
swaying,
its long
antennas,
like
carters'
whips,
waving
and
feeling,
and
its
stalked eyes
gleaming
at
you
on
either
side
of
its
metallic
front?
Its
back
was corrugated
and
ornamented
with
ungainly
bosses,
and
a
greenish
incrustation
blotched
it
here
and
there.
I
could
see
the
many
palps
of its
complicated
mouth
flickering
and
feeling
as
it
moved.

"As
I
stared
at
this
sinister
apparition
crawling
towards
me,
I
felt a
tickling
on
my
cheek
as
though
a
fly
had
lighted
there.
I
tried
to brush
it
away
with
my
hand,
but
in
a
moment
it
returned,
and
almost
immediately
came
another
by
my
ear.
I
struck
at
this,
and caught
something
threadlike.
It
was
drawn
swiftly
out
of
my
hand. With
a
frightful
qualm,
I
turned,
and
saw
that
I
had
grasped
the antenna
of
another
monster
crab
that
stood
just
behind
me.
Its
evil eyes
were
wriggling
on
their
stalks,
its
mouth
was
all
alive
with
appetite,
and
its
vast
ungainly
claws,
smeared
with
an
algal
slime,
were descending
upon
me.
In
a
moment
my
hand
was
on
the
lever,
and I
had
placed
a
month
between
myself
and
these
monsters.
But
I
was still
on
the
same
beach,
and
I
saw
them
distinctly
now
as
soon
as I
stopped.
Dozens
of
them
seemed
to
be
crawling
here
and
there,
in the
sombre
light,
among
the
foliated
sheets
of
intense
green.