(1/15) The Golden Age of Science Fiction: An Anthology of 50 Short Stories

by Various

  "There's the trouble, right there," he muttered. "I provided only three stages of amplification, whereas four would have been barely enough. No wonder the phase didn't carry through!"

  "I guess I don't follow you," Miller faltered. "You mean--something you did--"

  "I should think it was something I did!" The baldish stranger scratched his head with the tip of his pencil. "I'm John Erickson--you know, the Wanamaker Institute."

  Miller said: "Oh!" in an understanding voice. Erickson was head of Wanamaker Institute, first laboratory of them all when it came to exploding atoms and blazing trails into the wildernesses of science.

  * * * * *

  Erickson's piercing eyes were suddenly boring into the younger man.

  "You've been sick, haven't you?" he demanded.

  "Well--no--not really sick." The druggist colored. "I'll have to admit to being drunk a few hours ago, though."

  "Drunk--" Erickson stuck his tongue in his cheek, shook his head, scowled. "No, that would hardly do it. There must have been something else. The impulsor isn't that powerful. I can understand about the dog, poor fellow. He must have been run over, and I caught him just at the instant of passing from life to death."

  "Oh!" Dave Miller lifted his head, knowing now what Erickson was driving at. "Well, I may as well be frank. I'm--I committed suicide. That's how drunk I was. There hasn't been a suicide in the Miller family in centuries. It took a skinful of liquor to set the precedent."

  Erickson nodded wisely. "Perhaps we will find the precedent hasn't really been set! But no matter--" His lifted hand stopped Miller's eager, wondering exclamation. "The point is, young man, we three are in a tough spot, and it's up to us to get out of it. And not only we, but heaven knows how many others the world over!"

  "Would you--maybe you can explain to my lay mind what's happened," Miller suggested.

  "Of course. Forgive me. You see, Mr.--"

  "Miller. Dave Miller."

  "Dave it is. I have a feeling we're going to be pretty well acquainted before this is over. You see, Dave, I'm a nut on so-called 'time theories.' I've seen time compared to everything from an entity to a long, pink worm. But I disagree with them all, because they postulate the idea that time is constantly being manufactured. Such reasoning is fantastic!

  "Time exists. Not as an ever-growing chain of links, because such a chain would have to have a tail end, if it has a front end; and who can imagine the period when time did not exist? So I think time is like a circular train-track. Unending. We who live and die merely travel around on it. The future exists simultaneously with the past, for one instant when they meet."

  * * * * *

  Miller's brain was humming. Erickson shot the words at him staccato-fashion, as if they were things known from Great Primer days. The young druggist scratched his head.

  "You've got me licked," he admitted. "I'm a stranger here, myself."

  "Naturally you can't be expected to understand things I've been all my life puzzling about. Simplest way I can explain it is that we are on a train following this immense circular railway.

  "When the train reaches the point where it started, it is about to plunge into the past; but this is impossible, because the point where it started is simply the caboose of the train! And that point is always ahead--and behind--the time-train.

  "Now, my idea was that with the proper stimulus a man could be thrust across the diameter of this circular railway to a point in his past. Because of the nature of time, he could neither go ahead of the train to meet the future nor could he stand still and let the caboose catch up with him. But--he could detour across the circle and land farther back on the train! And that, my dear Dave, is what you and I and Major have done--almost."

  "Almost?" Miller said hoarsely.

  Erickson pursed his lips. "We are somewhere partway across the space between present and past. We are living in an instant that can move neither forward nor back. You and I, Dave, and Major--and the Lord knows how many others the world over--have been thrust by my time impulsor onto a timeless beach of eternity. We have been caught in time's backwash. Castaways, you might say."

  An objection clamored for attention in Miller's mind.

  "But if this is so, where are the rest of them? Where is my wife?"

  "They are right here," Erickson explained. "No doubt you could see your wife if you could find her. But we see them as statues, because, for us, time no longer exists. But there was something I did not count on. I did not know that it would be possible to live in one small instant of time, as we are doing. And I did not know that only those who are hovering between life and death can deviate from the normal process of time!"

  "You mean--we're dead!" Miller's voice was a bitter monotone.

  "Obviously not. We're talking and moving, aren't we? But--we are on the fence. When I gave my impulsor the jolt of high power, it went wrong and I think something must have happened to me. At the same instant, you had shot yourself.

  "Perhaps, Dave, you are dying. The only way for us to find out is to try to get the machine working and topple ourselves one way or the other. If we fall back, we will all live. If we fall into the present--we may die."

  "Either way, it's better than this!" Miller said fervently.

  "I came to the library here, hoping to find out the things I must know. My own books are locked in my study. And these--they might be cemented in their places, for all their use to me. I suppose we might as well go back to the lab."

  Miller nodded, murmuring: "Maybe you'll get an idea when you look at the machine again."

  "Let's hope so," said Erickson grimly. "God knows I've failed so far!"

  CHAPTER III

  Splendid Sacrifice

  It was a solid hour's walk out to West Wilshire, where the laboratory was. The immense bronze and glass doors of Wanamaker Institute were closed, and so barred to the two men. But Erickson led the way down the side.

  "We can get in a service door. Then we climb through transoms and ventilators until we get to my lab."

  Major frisked along beside them. He was enjoying the action and the companionship. It was less of an adventure to Miller, who knew death might be ahead for the three of them.

  Two workmen were moving a heavy cabinet in the side service door. To get in, they climbed up the back of the rear workman, walked across the cabinet, and scaled down the front of the leading man. They went up the stairs to the fifteenth floor. Here they crawled through a transom into the wing marked:

  "Experimental. Enter Only By Appointment."

  Major was helped through it, then they were crawling along the dark metal tunnel of an air-conditioning ventilator. It was small, and took some wriggling.

  In the next room, they were confronted by a stern receptionist on whose desk was a little brass sign, reading:

  "Have you an appointment?"

  Miller had had his share of experience with receptionists' ways, in his days as a pharmaceutical salesman. He took the greatest pleasure now in lighting his cigarette from a match struck on the girl's nose. Then he blew the smoke in her face and hastened to crawl through the final transom.

  John Erickson's laboratory was well lighted by a glass-brick wall and a huge skylight. The sun's rays glinted on the time impulsor.[1] The scientist explained the impulsor in concise terms. When he had finished, Dave Miller knew just as little as before, and the outfit still resembled three transformers in a line, of the type seen on power-poles, connected to a great bronze globe hanging from the ceiling.

  "There's the monster that put us in this plight," Erickson grunted. "Too strong to be legal, too weak to do the job right. Take a good look!"

  * * * * *

  With his hands jammed in his pockets, he frowned at the complex machinery. Miller stared a few moments; then transferred his interests to other things in the room. He was immediately struck by the resemblance of a transformer in a far corner to the ones linked up with the impulsor.

  "What's that?" he asked quickly. "Looks the sa
me as the ones you used over there."

  "It is."

  "But-- Didn't you say all you needed was another stage of power?"

  "That's right."

  "Maybe I'm crazy!" Miller stared from impulsor to transformer and back again. "Why don't you use it, then?"

  "Using what for the connection?" Erickson's eyes gently mocked him.

  "Wire, of course!"

  The scientist jerked a thumb at a small bale of heavy copper wire.

  "Bring it over and we'll try it."

  Miller was halfway to it when he brought up short. Then a sheepish grin spread over his features.

  "I get it," he chuckled. "That bale of wire might be the Empire State Building, as far as we're concerned. Forgive my stupidity."

  Erickson suddenly became serious.

  "I'd like to be optimistic, Dave," he muttered, "but in all fairness to you I must tell you I see no way out of this. The machine is, of course, still working, and with that extra stage of power, the uncertainty would be over. But where, in this world of immovable things, will we find a piece of wire twenty-five feet long?"

  * * * * *

  There was a warm, moist sensation against Miller's hand, and when he looked down Major stared up at him commiseratingly. Miller scratched him behind the ear, and the dog closed his eyes, reassured and happy. The young druggist sighed, wishing there were some giant hand to scratch him behind the ear and smooth his troubles over.

  "And if we don't get out," he said soberly, "we'll starve, I suppose."

  "No, I don't think it will be that quick. I haven't felt any hunger. I don't expect to. After all, our bodies are still living in one instant of time, and a man can't work up a healthy appetite in one second. Of course, this elastic-second business precludes the possibility of disease.

  "Our bodies must go on unchanged. The only hope I see is--when we are on the verge of madness, suicide. That means jumping off a bridge, I suppose. Poison, guns, knives--all the usual wherewithal--are denied to us."

  Black despair closed down on Dave Miller. He thrust it back, forcing a crooked grin.

  "Let's make a bargain," he offered. "When we finish fooling around with this apparatus, we split up. We'll only be at each other's throat if we stick together. I'll be blaming you for my plight, and I don't want to. It's my fault as much as yours. How about it?"

  John Erickson gripped his hand. "You're all right, Dave. Let me give you some advice. If ever you do get back to the present ... keep away from liquor. Liquor and the Irish never did mix. You'll have that store on its feet again in no time."

  "Thanks!" Miller said fervently. "And I think I can promise that nothing less than a whiskey antidote for snake bite will ever make me bend an elbow again!"

  * * * * *

  For the next couple of hours, despondency reigned in the laboratory. But it was soon to be deposed again by hope.

  Despite all of Erickson's scientific training, it was Dave Miller himself who grasped the down-to-earth idea that started them hoping again. He was walking about the lab, jingling keys in his pocket, when suddenly he stopped short. He jerked the ring of keys into his hand.

  "Erickson!" he gasped. "We've been blind. Look at this!"

  The scientist looked; but he remained puzzled.

  "Well--?" he asked skeptically.

  "There's our wire!" Dave Miller exclaimed. "You've got keys; I've got keys. We've got coins, knives, wristwatches. Why can't we lay them all end to end--"

  Erickson's features looked as if he had been electrically shocked.

  "You've hit it!" he cried. "If we've got enough!"

  With one accord, they began emptying their pockets, tearing off wristwatches, searching for pencils. The finds made a little heap in the middle of the floor. Erickson let his long fingers claw through thinning hair.

  "God give us enough! We'll only need the one wire. The thing is plugged in already and only the positive pole has to be connected to the globe. Come on!"

  Scooping up the assortment of metal articles, they rushed across the room. With his pocket-knife, Dave Miller began breaking up the metal wrist-watch straps, opening the links out so that they could be laid end-to-end for the greatest possible length. They patiently broke the watches to pieces, and of the junk they garnered made a ragged foot and a half of "wire." Their coins stretched the line still further.

  They had ten feet covered before the stuff was half used up. Their metal pencils, taken apart, gave them a good two feet. Key chains helped generously. With eighteen feet covered, their progress began to slow down.

  Perspiration poured down Miller's face. Desperately, he tore off his lodge ring and cut it in two to pound it flat. From garters and suspenders they won a few inches more. And then--they stopped--feet from their goal.

  Miller groaned. He tossed his pocket-knife in his hand.

  "We can get a foot out of this," he estimated. "But that still leaves us way short."

  Abruptly, Erickson snapped his fingers.

  "Shoes!" he gasped. "They're full of nails. Get to work with that knife, Dave. We'll cut out every one of 'em!"

  * * * * *

  In ten minutes, the shoes were reduced to ragged piles of tattered leather. Erickson's deft fingers painstakingly placed the nails, one by one, in the line. The distance left to cover was less than six inches!

  He lined up the last few nails. Then both men were sinking back on their heels, as they saw there was a gap of three inches to cover!

  "Beaten!" Erickson ground out. "By three inches! Three inches from the present ... and yet it might as well be a million miles!"

  Miller's body felt as though it were in a vise. His muscles ached with strain. So taut were his nerves that he leaped as though stung when Major nuzzled a cool nose into his hand again. Automatically, he began to stroke the dog's neck.

  "Well, that licks us," he muttered. "There isn't another piece of movable metal in the world."

  Major kept whimpering and pushing against him. Annoyed, the druggist shoved him away.

  "Go 'way," he muttered. "I don't feel like--"

  Suddenly then his eyes widened, as his touch encountered warm metal. He whirled.

  "There it is!" he yelled. "The last link. The nameplate on Major's collar!"

  In a flash, he had torn the little rectangular brass plate from the dog collar. Erickson took it from his grasp. Sweat stood shiny on his skin. He held the bit of metal over the gap between wire and pole.

  "This is it!" he smiled brittlely. "We're on our way, Dave. Where, I don't know. To death, or back to life. But--we're going!"

  The metal clinked into place. Live, writhing power leaped through the wire, snarling across partial breaks. The transformers began to hum. The humming grew louder. Singing softly, the bronze globe over their heads glowed green. Dave Miller felt a curious lightness. There was a snap in his brain, and Erickson, Major and the laboratory faded from his senses.

  Then came an interval when the only sound was the soft sobbing he had been hearing as if in a dream. That, and blackness that enfolded him like soft velvet. Then Miller was opening his eyes, to see the familiar walls of his own kitchen around him!

  Someone cried out.

  "Dave! Oh, Dave, dear!"

  It was Helen's voice, and it was Helen who cradled his head in her lap and bent her face close to his.

  "Oh, thank God that you're alive--!"

  "Helen!" Miller murmured. "What--are--you--doing here?"

  "I couldn't go through with it. I--I just couldn't leave you. I came back and--and I heard the shot and ran in. The doctor should be here. I called him five minutes ago."

  "Five minutes ... How long has it been since I shot myself?"

  "Oh, just six or seven minutes. I called the doctor right away."

  Miller took a deep breath. Then it must have been a dream. All that--to happen in a few minutes-- It wasn't possible!

  "How--how could I have botched the job?" he muttered. "I wasn't drunk enough to miss myself completely."

&n
bsp; Helen looked at the huge revolver lying in the sink.

  "Oh, that old forty-five of Grandfather's! It hasn't been loaded since the Civil War. I guess the powder got damp or something. It just sort of sputtered instead of exploding properly. Dave, promise me something! You won't ever do anything like this again, if I promise not to nag you?"

  Dave Miller closed his eyes. "There won't be any need to nag, Helen. Some people take a lot of teaching, but I've had my lesson. I've got ideas about the store which I'd been too lazy to try out. You know, I feel more like fighting right now than I have for years! We'll lick 'em, won't we, honey?"

  Helen buried her face in the hollow of his shoulder and cried softly. Her words were too muffled to be intelligible. But Dave Miller understood what she meant.

  * * * * *

  He had thought the whole thing a dream--John Erickson, the "time impulsor" and Major. But that night he read an item in the Evening Courier that was to keep him thinking for many days.

  POLICE INVESTIGATE DEATH OF SCIENTIST HERE IN LABORATORY

  John M. Erickson, director of the Wanamaker Institute, died at his work last night. Erickson was a beloved and valuable figure in the world of science, famous for his recently publicized "time lapse" theory.

  Two strange circumstances surrounded his death. One was the presence of a German shepherd dog in the laboratory, its head crushed as if with a sledgehammer. The other was a chain of small metal objects stretching from one corner of the room to the other, as if intended to take the place of wire in a circuit.

  Police, however, discount this idea, as there was a roll of wire only a few feet from the body.

  THE END

  FOOTNOTES:

  [1] Obviously this electric time impulsor is a machine in the nature of an atomic integrator. It "broadcasts" great waves of electrons which align all atomic objects in rigid suspension.

  That is to say, atomic structures are literally "frozen." Living bodies are similarly affected. It is a widely held belief on the part of many eminent scientists that all matter, broken down into its elementary atomic composition, is electrical in structure.

  That being so, there is no reason to suppose why Professor Erickson may not have discovered a time impulsor which, broadcasting electronic impulses, "froze" everything within its range.--ED.