Chapter 9 Encounter of the Ghost Later that same morning, I went on another hike.
It was very early, but the morning was already hot.
The world of the future was much warmer than the world of today.
Maybe it was because the sun had grown hotter, or maybe the earth was closer to the sun.
Whatever the reason, it was so hot that I went in search of some cool shelter.
I came to a large building that had started to fall apart and climbed in through a hole in one wall.
Inside, I found a hallway.
It was very dark because the windows were blocked with broken stone and metal.
Suddenly, I stopped.
A pair of glowing eyes looked out at me from the dark shadows.
The eyes made me think of the creature I had seen in the bushes and the ghost-like animals on the hill.
I wanted to run, but I managed to stay calm.
Instead of fleeing, I took a step forward and said, Who's there?
I slowly walked closer.
I put out my hand and felt something soft.
I gasped as something ran past me from the shadow.
It was a strange, ape-like creature.
It ran into the light behind me with its head down.
It must have had its eyes closed, too, because it ran into a wall and stumbled.
The thing got up quickly and darted into the shadows behind a pile of rubble.
I didn't get a good look at it, but I knew it was covered in white hair and had large grayish-pink eyes.
Still, I couldn't tell if it ran on four legs or whether it used its arms to help itself run.
Fighting my fear, I followed it into the shadows.
I couldn't see it anywhere.
It was as if it had disappeared.
As I searched the darkness, I found a well, just like the ones I had seen outside.
I wondered if the thing had climbed down into it.
I lit a match and peered over the edge.
There it was, looking up at me with its shining eyes.
It clung to a twisted metal ladder that wound its way down the side of the well.
The thing looked like a human spider as it clambered down from rung to rung.
Then the match burned my finger and I dropped it.
By the time I'd lit another, the creature was gone.
I sat staring into the inky darkness for a long time.
As I peered down the well, I realized that the thing wasn't some kind of animal.
It was covered in hair.
It moved like an ape.
But when I saw its face, I knew it wasn't a wild creature.
It had to be human.
In an instant, everything I had thought about the world of the future changed.
I now saw that there were two kinds of humans.
There were the gentle little people who lived in the upper world, and there were the ape-like humans who lived underground and did not like the bright light of day.
Just then, two Eloi ran into the hallway.
They became upset when they saw me looking down the well.
I tried to ask them a question, but they were frightened and turned to go.
I lit a match to see down the well.
At the sight of the flame, the two Eloi stopped.
They approached me and stood looking at the match.
Their eyes widened and they smiled with delight.
It was as if they were seeing the most beautiful sight ever.
The Eloi had probably forgotten how to make fire long ago, and fires from lightning would be very rare, so the sight of a flame was magical to them.
They stared at the flickering match.
I asked them another question about the well, but they didn't answer, and when the flame died, they left.
So I went outside, too, and started to look for Weena.
My mind was spinning as I made my way to the white building.
I thought I'd understood how the world had changed in 800000 years, but I had been wrong about so much.
Now I saw that the ghost-like creatures lived underground.
They had large eyes, just like owls or cats that prowl at night.
With such large eyes they found the sunlight too bright.
That's why the thing had closed its eyes and run into the wall.
Their white hair reminded me of animals that live in caves and never see the sun.
Those animals are often white, too.
I passed by another well.
I'd already guessed that fresh air flowed down the wells, and foul air came up through the chimneys.
Now I knew why.
The air was so these creatures could breathe.
I saw the wells everywhere I went, so I knew there must be miles and miles of tunnels and caves beneath my feet.
This answered so many of my questions.
The humans who lived underground must do all the work.
They gathered the fruit at night and placed it on the tables while the Eloi slept.
They also made the robes and sandals for the little people.
As a handful of Eloi began to walk with me, I wondered how the human race had become two races.
I started to think about the London I had left behind.
I thought of the many people who spend most of their day below ground.
There are people who work on the underground railways and in the tunnels and sewers that run under the city.
There are miners and there are workers who toil in the depths of dark factories.
Every year their numbers grow.
We build more tunnels, dig deeper mines, and put more of our city below ground.
Even today, many Londoners spend most of their lives working, eating and sleeping without seeing the sun.
And so, as the centuries passed, we must have put more of the city underground.
More and more workers left the surface for lives in the underworld.
Meanwhile, the educated and rich stayed above ground.
They built their parks and gardens and put up statues.
They lived easy and simple lives while the people who lived underground did all the work.
As a white building appeared through the bushes, I imagined that this may have worked fine for a long time, but slowly the two groups had grown more and more different.
By the time I arrived in the future, they had become two completely different races.
The people of the upper world didn't work, so they became weak, lazy, and fearful.
I didn't know very much about the creatures who lived below, but it was easy to see that they were turning into animals.
I learned that the underworld creatures were called Morlocks.
I was now sure that they had taken my time machine, but why?
And if the Eloi were the masters, why couldn't the little people make the Morlocks return it to me?
Whenever I asked Weena these questions, she would get very upset.
I don't know if she really understood what I was asking, but the word Morlocks frightened her.
Once she even cried, and so I stopped asking her about the things that puzzled me.
