Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 58: what you’re looking at

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

< 692 ing overhead. . They illuminated the com- partment. The windows were black rec- tangles; it was night outside. “I was cold; I could see my breath in the chill of the room, even though one of the electric heaters was in operation. Every- thing close to me was oppressively silent; the humming still seemed to persist vaguely, but I knew it was only the reaction from it roaring in my ears. And from the next compartment came the drone from the Frazia helicopter motors. ‘When I had fairly recovered normality, IT went to the nearest window. The sky was blue-black. There was no moon; the stars seemed a trifle hazy. Beneath me I could make out a barren expanse of snow. I was blowing swiftly to the southward.” ‘““ How could you tell the direction?” the Big Business Man interrupted. ‘“ You couldn’t see any familiar conformation to that landscape at night, could you?” “No, sir. But I had a compass. Its needle had steadied now, and I saw that my drift was almost directly south. I was alarmed. I knew that, even with the com- pass, [ could easily get lost—geographically, so to speak, = ‘“ My first action was to increase the revo- lutions of the helicopters and ascend. When I was up some six thousand feet I shut them off, folded the helicopter propellers, and went into a glide. A moment more and I was flying—back northward, against the wind. ‘““ [ was hopelessly lost—both in time, and in space. I could distinguish nothing in the starlit, snowy landscape that seemed familiar. Whether or not I had passed the time world I was seeking, I had no idea. “T flew low, skimming the snow no more than a hundred or two feet above it. There were houses! Huts would be a better word.™I think they were built of snow—lI could not tell. It seemed an Arctic world.” “You went too far. You passed the girl’s world,” Georgie said eagerly. “Yes. I decided to stay near there until morning. Fortunately that proved only a short time away. Within half an hour the east began to brighten. ‘The stars paled; twilight came and passed, and the sun rose —a huge, red, glowing ball. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. “TI was circling about, quite high—six or eight thousand feet possibly. By this reddish light of early morning I could see the bay south of me. There was no Long Island; the ocean had closed in to the north and east, and I was near its shore— a cold, snowy beach, with lazy rollers. But west of me there was a river—the Hudson, I was sure—a river double the breadth of the one I had known. It seemed to come from a mountainous region in the northwest, and an arm of it north of Manhattan emp- tied into the sea. “Everywhere was snow. The bay was full of floating ice. Across the river was an area of stunted trees. I was over Man- hattan Island, I was sure. I circled around, searching. It was not the time world I was seeking—that was obvious. Should I go on—or back through the centuries I had passed? JI decided on the latter. ‘““T had now been away from you nearly sixteen hours. I was worn out. I flew across the river, found a level plateau to the north. There was no sign of human habita- tion in the vicinity. Shutting off my Frazia motors completely, I descended, and came to rest on the surface of the snow, in a time world forty-six thousand and eight years beyond our present. I ate a little, and dropping to the floor of the cabin, fell asleep.” “ Wasn’t that rather unwise?” the Doctor suggested. ‘‘ Suppose some inhabitants of that time world had come upon you sleeping there?” “Yes,” Loto agreed. “ But I had to take the chance. Even with the abnormally large reserve tanks of my Frazia plane, I had not enough petrol to run the motors more than a hundred hours. I could not afford to waste it.” He shrugged. “ At all events, I awakened without hav- ing been disturbed. It was night again. I had slept some twelve hours. I flew up- ward, back over Manhattan Island—and threw the opposite Proton current into its first intensity. ““T need not go into further details, gen- tlemen. My sensations were the same as before, though they bothered me less, as I grew more accustomed to them. I came Comicoooks (S@)