# The Morlocks

An episode of [H. G. Wells, The Time Machine](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1862100391), 12 Dec 2025, 13 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/69014432/09_time_machine_version_7_by_h_g_wells.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Chapter nine of The Time Machine by H. G. Wells.
[0:05] Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by
[0:09] Speaker 1: Cliffstone of Sydney, Australia, Chapter nine, the Morlocks. It may
[0:17] Speaker 1: seem odd to you, but it was two days before
[0:19] Speaker 1: I could follow up the new found clue in what
[0:22] Speaker 1: was manifestly the proper way. I felt a peculiar shrinking
[0:26] Speaker 1: from those pallid bodies. They were just the half bleached
[0:31] Speaker 1: color of the worms and things one sees preserved in
[0:34] Speaker 1: spirit in a zoological museum, and they were felthily cold
[0:38] Speaker 1: to the touch. Probably my shrinking was largely due to
[0:42] Speaker 1: the sympathetic influence of the eloy, whose disgust of the
[0:46] Speaker 1: molocks I now began to appreciate. The next night I
[0:50] Speaker 1: did not sleep well. Probably my health was a little disordered.
[0:55] Speaker 1: I was oppressed with perplexity and doubt. Once or twice
[0:58] Speaker 1: I had a feeling of intentil man sphere for which
[1:00] Speaker 1: I could perceive no definite reason. I remembered creeping noiselessly
[1:05] Speaker 1: into the Great Hall where the little people were sleeping
[1:08] Speaker 1: in the moonlight that night. Weena was among them, and
[1:11] Speaker 1: feeling reassured by their presence. It occurred to me even
[1:15] Speaker 1: then that in the course of a few days, the
[1:18] Speaker 1: moon must pass through its last quarter, and the nights
[1:21] Speaker 1: grow dark, when the appearances of these unpleasant creatures from below,
[1:25] Speaker 1: these white and lemurs, this new vermin that had replaced
[1:28] Speaker 1: the old, might be more abundant. And on both these
[1:32] Speaker 1: days I had the restless feeling of one who shirks
[1:35] Speaker 1: an inevitable duty. I felt assured that the time machine
[1:39] Speaker 1: was only to be recovered by boldly penetrating these mysteries
[1:43] Speaker 1: of underground. Yet I could not face the mystery. If
[1:47] Speaker 1: only I had had a companion, it would have been different.
[1:51] Speaker 1: But I was so horribly alone, and even to clamber
[1:54] Speaker 1: down into the darkness of the well appalled me. I
[1:58] Speaker 1: don't know if you will understand my feeling, but I
[2:01] Speaker 1: never felt quite safe at my back. It was this restlessness,
[2:06] Speaker 1: this insecurity, perhaps that drove me farther and farther afield.
[2:10] Speaker 1: In my exploring expeditions. Going to the southwestward towards the
[2:15] Speaker 1: rising country that is now called combe Wood, I observed,
[2:19] Speaker 1: far off in the direction of nineteenth century Bandstead, a
[2:23] Speaker 1: vast green structure, different in character from any I had
[2:27] Speaker 1: hitherto seen It was larger than the largest of the
[2:30] Speaker 1: palaces or ruins I knew, and the facade had an
[2:33] Speaker 1: oriental look, the face of it having the luster as
[2:37] Speaker 1: well as the pale green tint, a kind of bluish
[2:40] Speaker 1: green of a certain type of Chinese porcelain. This difference
[2:45] Speaker 1: in aspects suggested a difference in use, and I was
[2:48] Speaker 1: minded to push on and explore. But the day was
[2:51] Speaker 1: growing late, and I had come upon the site of
[2:54] Speaker 1: the place after a long and tiring circuit. So I
[2:57] Speaker 1: resolved to hold over the adventure for the following day,
[3:00] Speaker 1: and I returned to the welcome and the caresses of
[3:03] Speaker 1: Little Weena. But next morning I perceived clearly enough that
[3:07] Speaker 1: my curiosity regarding the Palace of Green Porcelain was a
[3:11] Speaker 1: piece of self deception to enable me to shirk by
[3:15] Speaker 1: another day and experience I dreaded. I resolved I would
[3:19] Speaker 1: make the descent without further waste of time, and started
[3:23] Speaker 1: out in the early morning towards a well near the
[3:25] Speaker 1: ruins of granite and aluminium. Little Weena ran with me.
[3:31] Speaker 1: She danced beside me to the well, and when she
[3:33] Speaker 1: saw me lean over the mouth and looked downward, she
[3:36] Speaker 1: seemed strangely disconcerted. Good Bye, little Weena, I said, kissing her,
[3:43] Speaker 1: and then putting her down. I began to feel over
[3:45] Speaker 1: the parapet for the climbing hooks rather hastily, I may
[3:49] Speaker 1: as well confess, for I feared my courage might leak away.
[3:53] Speaker 1: At first she watched me in amazement. Then she gave
[3:56] Speaker 1: a most piteous cry, and running to me, she began
[3:59] Speaker 1: to call at me with her little hands. I think
[4:02] Speaker 1: her opposition nerved me rather to proceed. I shook her off,
[4:06] Speaker 1: perhaps a little roughly, and in another moment I was
[4:09] Speaker 1: in the throat of the well. I saw her agonized
[4:12] Speaker 1: face over the parapet, and smiled to reassure her. Then
[4:17] Speaker 1: I had to look down at the unstable hooks to
[4:19] Speaker 1: which I clung. I had to clamber down a shaft
[4:23] Speaker 1: of perhaps two hundred yards. The descent was effected by
[4:27] Speaker 1: means of metallic bars projecting from the sides of the well,
[4:31] Speaker 1: and these being adapted to the needs of a creature
[4:33] Speaker 1: much smaller and lighter than myself. I was speedily cramped
[4:37] Speaker 1: and fatigued by the descent, and not simply fatigued. One
[4:41] Speaker 1: of the bars bent suddenly under my weight, and almost
[4:44] Speaker 1: swung me off into the blackness beneath. For a moment
[4:47] Speaker 1: I hung by one hand, and after that experience I
[4:50] Speaker 1: did not dare to rest the game. Though my arms
[4:53] Speaker 1: and back were presently acutely painful, I went on clambering
[4:58] Speaker 1: down the sheer descent with as quick a as possible.
[5:01] Speaker 1: Glancing upward, I saw the aperture a small blue disk
[5:05] Speaker 1: in which a star was visible, while Little Weena's head
[5:08] Speaker 1: showed as a round black projection. The thudding sound of
[5:13] Speaker 1: a machine below grew louder and more oppressive. Everything save
[5:17] Speaker 1: that little disk above was profoundly dark, and when I
[5:20] Speaker 1: looked up again, Weena had disappeared. I was in an
[5:25] Speaker 1: agony of discomfort. I had some thought of trying to
[5:28] Speaker 1: go up the shaft again and leave the underworld alone,
[5:31] Speaker 1: But even while I turned this over in my mind,
[5:34] Speaker 1: I continued to descend. At last, with intense relief, I
[5:38] Speaker 1: saw dimly coming up a foot to the right of me,
[5:41] Speaker 1: a slender loophole in the wall. Swinging myself in, I
[5:45] Speaker 1: found it was the aperture of a narrow, horizontal tunnel
[5:48] Speaker 1: in which I could lie down and rest. It was
[5:51] Speaker 1: not too soon my arms ached my back was cramped,
[5:55] Speaker 1: and I was trembling with the prolonged terror of a fall.
[5:58] Speaker 1: Besides this, the young, broken darkness had had a distressing
[6:02] Speaker 1: effect upon my eyes. The air was full of the
[6:05] Speaker 1: throb and hum of machinery pumping air down the shaft.
[6:09] Speaker 1: I do not know how long I lay. I was
[6:11] Speaker 1: aroused by a soft hand touching my face. Starting up
[6:15] Speaker 1: in the darkness, I snatched at my matches and hastily
[6:18] Speaker 1: striking one, I saw three stooping white creatures, similar to
[6:21] Speaker 1: the one I had seen above ground in the ruin,
[6:24] Speaker 1: hastily retreating before the light, living as they did in
[6:28] Speaker 1: what appeared to me impenetrable darkness. Their eyes were abnormally
[6:32] Speaker 1: large and sensitive, just as are the pupils of the
[6:35] Speaker 1: abysmal fishes, and they reflected the light in the same way.
[6:40] Speaker 1: I have no doubt they could see me in that
[6:42] Speaker 1: rayless obscurity, and they did not seem to have any
[6:45] Speaker 1: fear of me apart from the light. But so soon
[6:48] Speaker 1: as I struck a match in order to see them,
[6:51] Speaker 1: they fled incontinently, vanishing into dark gutters and tunnels, from
[6:55] Speaker 1: which their eyes glared at me in the strangest fashion.
[6:59] Speaker 1: I tried to call to them, but the language they
[7:01] Speaker 1: had was apparently different from that of the overwell people,
[7:04] Speaker 1: so that I was needs left to my own unaided efforts,
[7:08] Speaker 1: and the thought of flight before exploration was even then
[7:11] Speaker 1: in my mind. But I said to myself, you are
[7:14] Speaker 1: in for it now, And feeling my way along the tunnel,
[7:18] Speaker 1: I found the noise of machinery grow louder. Presently the
[7:22] Speaker 1: walls fell away from me, and I came to a
[7:24] Speaker 1: large open space, and, striking another match, saw that I
[7:28] Speaker 1: had entered a vast, arched cabin which stretched into utter
[7:32] Speaker 1: darkness beyond the range of my light. The view I
[7:35] Speaker 1: had of it was as much as one could see
[7:38] Speaker 1: in the burning of a match. Necessarily, my memory is vague.
[7:43] Speaker 1: Great shapes like big machines rose out of the dimness
[7:46] Speaker 1: and cast grotesque black shadows in which dim spectral morlocks
[7:51] Speaker 1: sheltered from the glare. The place by the by was
[7:54] Speaker 1: very stuffy and oppressive, and the faint halitus of freshly
[7:57] Speaker 1: shed blood was in the air. Some Way down the
[8:01] Speaker 1: central vista was a little table of white metal laid
[8:04] Speaker 1: with what seemed a meal. The morlocks, at any rate,
[8:07] Speaker 1: were carnivorous, even at the time, I remember wondering what
[8:11] Speaker 1: large animal could have survived to furnish the red joint.
[8:14] Speaker 1: I saw it was all very indistinct, the heavy smell,
[8:18] Speaker 1: the big, unmeaning shapes, the obscene figures lurking in the shadows,
[8:22] Speaker 1: and only waiting for the darkness to come at me again.
[8:26] Speaker 1: Then the match burnt down and stung my fingers, and
[8:29] Speaker 1: fell a wriggling red spot in the blackness. I have
[8:34] Speaker 1: thought since how particularly ill equipped I was for such
[8:37] Speaker 1: an experience. When I had started with the time machine,
[8:40] Speaker 1: I had started with the absurd assumption that the men
[8:43] Speaker 1: of the future would certainly be infinitely ahead of ourselves
[8:47] Speaker 1: in all their appliances. I had come without arms, without medicine,
[8:51] Speaker 1: without anything to smoke. At times I missed tobacco frightfully,
[8:56] Speaker 1: even without enough matches. If only I had thought of
[8:59] Speaker 1: a deck, I could have flashed that glimpse of the
[9:02] Speaker 1: underworld in a second and examined it at leisure. But
[9:06] Speaker 1: as it was, I stood there with only the weapons
[9:09] Speaker 1: and the powers that nature had endowed me with hands, feet,
[9:13] Speaker 1: and teeth, these and four safety matches that still remained
[9:17] Speaker 1: to me. I was afraid to push my way in
[9:20] Speaker 1: among all this machinery in the dark, and it was
[9:23] Speaker 1: only with my last glimpse of light I discovered that
[9:26] Speaker 1: my store of matches had run low. It had never
[9:29] Speaker 1: occurred to me until that moment that there was any
[9:32] Speaker 1: need to economize them, and I had wasted almost half
[9:35] Speaker 1: the box and astonishing the overworlders, to whom fire was
[9:39] Speaker 1: a novelty. Now, as I say, I had four left.
[9:43] Speaker 1: And while I stood in the dark, a hand touched mine.
[9:47] Speaker 1: Lank fingers came feeling over my face, and I was
[9:50] Speaker 1: sensible of a peculiar, unpleasant odor. I fancied. I heard
[9:54] Speaker 1: the breathing of a crowd of those dreadful little beings
[9:57] Speaker 1: about me. I felt the box of matches in my
[10:00] Speaker 1: hand being gently disengaged, and other hands behind me plucking
[10:04] Speaker 1: at my clothing. The sense of these unseen creatures examining
[10:08] Speaker 1: me was indescribably unpleasant. The sudden realization of my ignorance
[10:13] Speaker 1: of their ways of thinking and doing came home to
[10:16] Speaker 1: me very vividly. In the darkness. I shouted at them
[10:19] Speaker 1: as loudly as I could. They started away, and then
[10:22] Speaker 1: I could feel them approaching me again. They clutched at
[10:26] Speaker 1: me more boldly whispering odd sounds to each other. I
[10:30] Speaker 1: shivered violently and shouted again, rather discordantly. This time they
[10:35] Speaker 1: were not so seriously alarmed, and they made a queer,
[10:38] Speaker 1: laughing noise as they came back at me. I well
[10:42] Speaker 1: confess I was horribly frightened. I determined to strike another
[10:46] Speaker 1: match and escape under the protection of his sclare. I
[10:49] Speaker 1: did so, and eking out the flicker with a scrap
[10:52] Speaker 1: of paper from my pocket, I made good my retreat
[10:55] Speaker 1: to the narrow tunnel. But I had scarce entered this
[10:58] Speaker 1: when my light was blown out, and in the blackness
[11:01] Speaker 1: I could hear the morlocks rustling like wind among leaves
[11:03] Speaker 1: and pattering like the rain as they hurried after me.
[11:08] Speaker 1: In a moment, I was clutched by several hands, and
[11:10] Speaker 1: there was no mistaking that they were trying to haun
[11:13] Speaker 1: me back. I struck another light and waved it in
[11:16] Speaker 1: their dazzled faces. You can scarce imagine how nauseatingly inhuman
[11:21] Speaker 1: they looked, those pale, chinless faces and great, lidless, pinkish
[11:26] Speaker 1: gray eyes as they stared in their blindness and bewilderment.
[11:30] Speaker 1: But I did not stay to look. I promise you
[11:33] Speaker 1: I retreated again, and when my second match had ended,
[11:36] Speaker 1: I struck my third. It had almost burnt through. When
[11:39] Speaker 1: I reached the opening into the shaft, I lay down
[11:42] Speaker 1: on the edge, for the throb of the great pump
[11:45] Speaker 1: below made me giddy. Then I felt sideways for the
[11:48] Speaker 1: projecting hooks, and as I did so, my feet were
[11:51] Speaker 1: grasped from behind, and I was violently tugged backward. I
[11:56] Speaker 1: lit my last match, and it incontinently went out. But
[12:00] Speaker 1: I had my hand on the climbing bars now, and
[12:02] Speaker 1: kicking violently. I disengaged myself from the clutches of the
[12:05] Speaker 1: morlocks and were speedily clambering up the shaft, while they
[12:09] Speaker 1: stayed peering and blinking up at me. All but one
[12:12] Speaker 1: little wretch, who followed me for some way and well
[12:15] Speaker 1: nigh secured my boot as a trophy. That climb seemed
[12:20] Speaker 1: interminable to me. With the last twenty or thirty feet
[12:23] Speaker 1: of it, a deadly nausea came upon me. I had
[12:26] Speaker 1: the greatest difficulty in keeping my hold. The last few
[12:29] Speaker 1: yards was a frightful struggle against this faintness. Several times
[12:33] Speaker 1: my head swam, and I felt all the sensations of
[12:36] Speaker 1: falling at last, however, I got over the well mouthed somehow,
[12:41] Speaker 1: and staggered out of the ruin into the blinding sunlight.
[12:44] Speaker 1: I fell upon my face. Even the soil smelt sweet
[12:48] Speaker 1: and clean. Then I remember Weena kissing my hands and ears,
[12:52] Speaker 1: and the voices of others among the eloy Then for
[12:56] Speaker 1: a time I was insensible. End of Chapter nine

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