A group of diminutive, beautiful but frail people appeared, dressed in short robes. One female showed an interest in the Traveller. Their language was strange, so the Traveller got frustrated. They thought the Traveller came from the sun on a thunderbolt – hardly the perfect intellectual society he had hoped to meet. He removed the starting handle from his machine as he was led to a communal building where he was given fruit to eat.
The female communicated that she was called Henna and her people were the Eloi. The Traveller pointed to her where the landmarks of his London were. Where Wimbledon once was, stood a huge palace of green porcelain. The Traveller knew that the Eloi couldn’t have built it. Henna gave him a flower as he tells her that he wanted to travel back to the past to meet the people who made the last remaining buildings. A few hours later, he returned to the monument and finds his machine missing. He panics, and then realizes the Eloi lack the strength to move it, and he had the starting handle. Someone else has taken it. He had not the slightest idea as to who would have taken the machine.
The next morning while the Traveller was with Henna, he heard the sound of machinery coming from a large well. Henna was scared of the well but the Traveller decided to go down into it.
Descending, he found a platform, and then became aware of the number of creatures in the darkness around him. He had to fight desperately to escape from them and return to the surface.
The underground people were the Draculas and they once tended machines. But now they feed on the flesh of their one-time masters, the Eloi…. The Traveller and Henna traveled to the green palace and discovered it was a museum. They then realized the buildings were infested with draculas, and so they left the buildings as soon as possible. As dusk fell they reached a wood to rest.
The next morning as the Traveller woke up, he found himself surrounded by Draculas. He fought them off and realized that Henna was gone.
The Traveller once more returned to the monument and noticed a bronze door in it. He opened it and to his surprise found the Time machine inside. And when he went in, he got trapped by the Draculas again but he somehow managed to reattach the starting handle and took off in the Time machine as soon as possible. He traveled out far into the future, where there was only rocks covered in green lichen. He then traveled to a beach where he was menaced by giant crabs…. Terrified, the Traveller put his machine into reverse. And at long last, the laboratory walls reformed around him.
The Traveller related his tale to his friends, back in his living room. He was still dirty and so tired from his adventure. His friends didn’t believe him and they found his tale rather amusing and told him that it was all just a dream. The Traveller then laughed and everything seemed to fade away from his mind. He murmured, “But they say life is a dream,” as he filled his pipe. He put his hand into his pocket for a match and brought out the flower he was given. He softly said, “Henna”….
