(continued)

'As the evening drew on, my interest waned.  I went through gallery after gallery, dusty, silent, often ruinous, the exhibits sometimes mere heaps of rust and lignite, sometimes fresher.  In one place I suddenly found myself near the model of a tin-mine, and then by the merest accident I discovered, in an air-tight case, two dynamite cartridges!  I shouted "Eureka!"  and smashed the case with joy.  Then came a doubt.  I hesitated.  Then, selecting a little side gallery, I made my essay.  I never felt such a disappointment as I did in waiting five, ten, fifteen minutes for an explosion that never came.  Of course the things were dummies, as I might have guessed from their presence.  I really believe that had they not been so, I should have rushed off incontinently and blown Sphinx, bronze doors, and (as it proved) my chances of finding the Time Machine, all together into non-existence.

'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.

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