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“ 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 . XII . In the Darkness “ 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 , also , 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 hillside , 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 .
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