The Time Traveller held a small object in his hand. It was made of metal and was a little bigger than a clock. It was very beautiful and delicate. It had ivory (a hard, white material from elephant tusks) and crystal (a clear, hard material like glass) in it.
I must be very clear about what happened next. If you do not believe the Time Traveller, then this story is impossible to explain. The Time Traveller moved a small table in front of the fire. He placed the machine on the table.
Then the Time Traveller sat down in a chair. A small lamp on the table gave a bright light. There were twelve candles in the room too. The light was very bright.
I sat in a chair near the fire. Filby sat behind the Time Traveller. The Medical Man and the Provincial Mayor sat on the right. The Psychologist sat on the left.
The Very Young Man stood behind the Psychologist. We all watched very closely. We did not believe this was a magic trick. We wanted to see what happened next.
The Time Traveller looked at the machine. He told us it was a model for a time machine. He pointed to a small white lever (a handle that you push to make a machine work). There was another lever on the machine too.
The Medical Man looked closely at the machine. He said the machine was beautiful. The Time Traveller said it took two years to make. The Time Traveller explained the machine to us.
He said that one lever sends the machine to the future. The other lever moves the machine back to the past. There was also a small saddle (a seat for a rider) on the machine. This was the seat for the traveller.
The Time Traveller said the machine would vanish soon. He told us to look at the table. He wanted to show us there was no trick. We all looked at the machine and the table.
The Time Traveller moved his finger toward the lever. Then the Time Traveller stopped. He took the hand of the Psychologist. He asked the Psychologist to push the lever.
The Psychologist pushed the lever. We saw the machine move. There was a small wind and a candle went out. The machine became hard to see for one second.
Then the machine was gone. The table was empty. Only the lamp was still there. Everyone was silent for a minute.
Filby was very surprised and spoke loudly. The Psychologist looked under the table. The Time Traveller laughed. Then the Time Traveller went to get his pipe.
We stared at each other. The Medical Man asked a question. He asked if the machine really traveled through time. The Time Traveller said yes.
The Time Traveller lit his pipe with the fire. He said he had a big machine in his laboratory (a room for scientific work). He wanted to travel in the big machine himself. Filby asked where the model went.
The Time Traveller did not know the direction. The Psychologist said the model went to the past. He said the machine stayed in the same place in space. I did not agree with him.
I asked the Time Traveller a question. If the machine went to the past, we could see it before. We were in this room last week. But we did not see the machine on the table then.
The Psychologist explained the idea. He said the machine moves very fast. It moves faster than a wheel or a bullet. If it moves fast, the human eye cannot see it.
We looked at the empty table. The Medical Man was not sure about the idea. He wanted to wait until the morning. He wanted to use common sense.
The Time Traveller asked if we wanted to see the big machine. We followed him to the laboratory. We walked down a long hall. It was dark and cold.
In the laboratory, we saw a very big machine. It looked like the small model. It had parts made of metal and ivory. Some parts were not finished yet.
There were bars made of quartz (a clear, hard stone) on a table. I picked one bar up to look at it. The Medical Man asked if this was a trick. The Time Traveller said he was very serious.
He wanted to explore time. None of us knew what to think. Filby looked at me. Then Filby winked at me.