A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, April 1950 — page 78: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

78 A. MERRITT’S FANTASY dragged him in. You didn’t know it.” “And what in all perdition have mad cats to do with it?” Tott demanded. “Since I’ve nothing to do—and apparent- ly neither have you—what is this fool theory of yours, reduced to practical terms?” “That’s just what you can’t do—teduce it to practical shape,” Gees told him. “What do you think would happen to a coroner, if he recorded as his verdict that the deceased met her death by means of a particularly evil sort of ancient god- dess, who maintains her existence by the sacrifices of human lives at intervals, said sacrifices being procured for her when pos- sible by her only surviving priest?” “Said coroner would get what ought to happen to you,” Tott responded. ‘“Medi- eal examination, and a long rest in a men- tal institution.” He took out his pipe, filled and lighted it, and Gees went on eating. “You're trying to tell me those mad cats were planted to fog the issue,” Tott accused. “Never mind about your fool goddess.” “They appear to have fogged it pretty thoroughly.” “And who planted ’em—and how?” “T’d have to revert to my theory to tell you,’’ Gees answered, “‘and if I do, evi- dently you'll start walking up the wall.” “Go on, man, revert to anything you like!” Tott said savagely, “Were the two wild ones and their three kittens fetched here as a sort of smoke screen in front of this goddess of yours?” “Not mine, fortunately,” Gees an- swered, “but I’d say you've struck the bull’s-eye. Well, not quite, because the fhe pr doesn’t need any smoke screen. e priest does.” “And where did he get ’em?” Tott persisted satirically. Gees shook his head. “He might be able to tell you. Do you know anything about time as a fourth dimension?’’. “An! Now I’ve got you!” Tott ex- claimed. “Because the Einstein theory in- terested me, and I read up all [ could about it. If you try to tell me your priest raked those cats out of the fourth di- mension, I will walk up the wall—and throw. things at you!” - “J was thinking, last night. About get- ting into what may be a fifth dimension, a _¢ space altogether out of time, a state in which you live and act and feel between two moments, so that as far as your con- sciousness is concerned the whole world appears to have stopped. You're so utter- ly removed from time that even a watch seems to have stopped ticking. In time, of course, it’s going on as usual, but you're quite outside time, not moving with it.” “T’ve no idea what you're getting at,” Tott said seriously, “but—well, theoret- ically, I suppose, it might be possible. But to keep between two moments you'd have to travel back along time.” “That’s just what you don’t,” Gees contradicted. “You're merely outside it, and it goes static while you retain the power of movement. That way, every- thing around you appears fixed; all sound ceases, and even a fire appears to have stopped burning. And thinking over it as I lay in bed, it suddenly occurred to me that you yourself, if you were in that state outside time, would be invisible to anyone who was in and traveling with time—carried on by it.” 664 \BVIOUSLY,” Tott’s interest was fully aroused now. “Because, if you were living in that state between two moments, and the static people round you were in reality moving along time as usual, you'd be no more than a flash on their sight as your fraction of a second passed by them.” “One way of accounting for ghosts,” Gees remarked. “They stand still outside time while you pass them as you travel along it, and when you’ve passed the point where they happen to be standing, they naturally aren’t there any more. And . suppose this priest got his wild cats and doctored the tame ones that way? Just moved himself out of time and out of sees Dilits and came back into time when he’ a a “Oh, cut it out!” Tott interrupted, in angry disgust. “I enjoy speculating along the lines of a fourth dimension, but if you're going to bring your damned god- dess into it, I quit. = ~“Umm-yah!” Half-yawning, Gees got on his feet and went to the hearth rug to stand before the fire. “Inspector,” he went on deliberately, ‘ “vou <0 deriding com.