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“ The darkness grew apace ; a cold wind began to blow in freshening gusts from the east , and the showering white flakes in the air increased in number . From the edge of the sea came a ripple and whisper . Beyond these lifeless sounds the world was silent . Silent ? It would be hard to convey the stillness of it . All the sounds of man , the bleating of sheep , the cries of birds , the hum of insects , the stir that makes the background of our lives — all that was over . As the darkness thickened , the eddying flakes grew more abundant , dancing before my eyes ; and the cold of the air more intense . At last , one by one , swiftly , one after the other , the white peaks of the distant hills vanished into blackness . The breeze rose to a moaning wind . I saw the black central shadow of the eclipse sweeping towards me . In another moment the pale stars alone were visible . All else was rayless obscurity . The sky was absolutely black . “ A horror of this great darkness came on me . The cold , that smote to my marrow , and the pain I felt in breathing , overcame me . I shivered , and a deadly nausea seized me . Then like a red - hot bow in the sky appeared the edge of the sun . I got off the machine to recover myself . I felt giddy and incapable of facing the return journey . As I stood sick and confused I saw again the moving thing upon the shoal — there was no mistake now that it was a moving thing — against the red water of the sea . It was a round thing , the size of a football perhaps , or , it may be , bigger , and tentacles trailed down from it ; it seemed black against the weltering blood - red water , and it was hopping fitfully about . Then I felt I was fainting . But a terrible dread of lying helpless in that remote and awful twilight sustained me while I clambered upon the saddle . XV . The Time Traveller’s Return “ So I came back . For a long time I must have been insensible upon the machine . The blinking succession of the days and nights was resumed , the sun got golden again , the sky blue . I breathed with greater freedom . The fluctuating contours of the land ebbed and flowed . The hands spun backward upon the dials . At last I saw again the dim shadows of houses , the evidences of decadent humanity . These , too , changed and passed , and others came . Presently , when the million dial was at zero , I slackened speed . I began to recognise our own pretty and familiar architecture , the thousands hand ran back to the starting - point , the night and day flapped slower and slower . Then the old walls of the laboratory came round me . Very gently , now , I slowed the mechanism down . “ I saw one little thing that seemed odd to me . I think I have told you that when I set out , before my velocity became very high , Mrs . Watchett had walked across the room , travelling , as it seemed to me , like a rocket . As I returned , I passed again across that minute when she traversed the laboratory . But now her every motion appeared to be the exact inversion of her previous ones . The door at the lower end opened , and she glided quietly up the laboratory , back foremost , and disappeared behind the door by which she had previously entered . Just before that I seemed to see Hillyer for a moment ; but he passed like a flash .
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