generation that included that of my great
gripped each other’s arms, as slowly, oh! so
grandparents. I am Professor Alexis Halden of
slowly that circle of death contracted toward
Europolis, the capital of the United States of
us. Thru a haze I saw the leering faces of the
Europe. And my era is that of 2045.”
creatures outside and the cool indifferent gaze
“And how did you come to fit into this
of the Khan. Madness struck me then, I guess.
particular adventure,” pursued Clay, rather
Wonder Stories
18
truculently. “It seemed a mighty funny story
journey.”
that you tell.”
“Yes, I see.”
“It certainly is,” said Halden. “Perhaps
“We’re all ears, professor.”
I can enlighten you on some phases of it. To
Halden smiled. “To make my story
begin with I met your friend, Mr. Stenson,
short, Mr. Stenson invited me to accompany
when his time machine invaded my laboratory
him on his journey. This caprice of your friend
at the University of Europolis. You can at first startled me. Really I have always been imagine my astonishment, gentlemen, when
a timid soul, gentlemen, but the marvelous
Mr. Stenson appeared before me. Never possibilities of journeying into the future before had I seen a man attired as he was. He
struck me as worth any risk. I accepted the
seemed to have stepped out of the air.
invitation.
“And where is Stenson now?” I
“And then the trouble started?” I
demanded.
laughed.
“Indeed, yes. I will not bore
“He is back in the year 2250—the you with details, except to say that we reached period of the blackest tragedy of history. But
the year 2418, to which you in turn had
please, gentlemen, let me continue. I want to
journeyed, and I decided to leave the time
make my story coherent.”
machine the better to explore conditions
“And you will pardon our existing at that period. Mr. Stenson said he interruptions, I hope,” said Clay in a quiet
would go to the period of 2250 in order to
tone.
learn about the tragic destruction of humanity
“And let us thank you for saving us,” I
occurring in that year.”
said. “But please continue.”
“And you left the time machine?”
asked Clay incredulously.
“Yes, I very foolishly did. And I
CHAPTER VI
suppose by doing so I let loose all sorts of
A Chase Thru Time
complications. Because I can plainly see that
Mr. Stenson must have left the time machine
himself at 2250, but inadvertently failed to
PROFESSOR Halden cleared his throat rather
safeguard the machine against a journey of its
primly, like a teacher about to lecture on own accord back to its starting point.”
science. I smiled, forgetting my raw wounds
“He left a scratch on the indicator at
in contemplation of our new acquaintance. But
2250,” I remarked.
his serious face checked me and my lips grew
“So I’ve observed,” said the Savant.
somber.
“Doubtless, he realized that in leaving it, with
“I will make my explanation rather
none in the machine, that the machine might
short, my friends,” said Halden. “You can
became unmanageable—returning as I’ve said
readily imagine my utter astonishment when
to its original point.”
Mr. Stenson appeared. The doors of my
“You mean the machinery or
laboratory were locked. While I had heard, of
mechanics of the thing went wild or
course, of time machine theories, the something?” I inquired.
possibility of their being actually used for a
“Something like that. I really can’t say.
voyage through time had never struck me. Mr.
But I’m convinced you’ll find Mr. Stenson at
Stenson told me he had just stepped out of a
2250. That is unless some catastrophe has
time machine, having been attracted by my
befallen him.”
laboratory as he sped on his marvelous
“But how was it that I came to stop
The Time Annihilator
19
this machine at the year 2418?” said Clay
whose labors had changed the climate of the
nonplused.
globe and reared an industrial civilization
“You understand, of course, that the
surpassing anything we had ever seen in the
time machine describes a parabolic course in
twentieth century.
time. It would be an error to assume that it
“Where did these creatures come
moves—if I might use such terms—in lateral
from?” asked Clay.
as well as horizontal planes at one and the
“I do not know,” said Halden gravely.
same time. No, Mr. Stenson explained it to
“There is a mystery about their origin that is
me. He said the machine follows an baffling.”
undeviating line.”
“But I can’t understand how I came to
WE huddled together in the whirling time-
stop at 2418, just as you and Stenson had done
girdling machine, cutting through the year as a
before,” said Clay. “I was at the controls and
ship’s prow breasts surging waves. I could not
just picked out that particular date offhand.”
help but think of the years as waves, beating
“There is such a thing as thought in endless succession on the sands of eternity.
waves,” said Halden with a slow smile. They wore all away before them with pitiless
“When you stopped at the year 2418, near the
attrition. Time seemed to eat all with dragon
very spot of the tomb of Chang Hsu, you
jaws.
merely followed out an old law of telepathy.
“We are the creatures, the playtoys of
You stopped—because somewhere along the
time,” said Halden.
line of travel, subconsciously of course, you
“It just juggles us about and casts us
obeyed that law. The thought of making your
aside,” remarked Clay.
destination there was too impelling to be
The year 2250 loomed before us.
resisted.”
Never had a single year been so filled with
“And you waited in the tomb?”
catastrophe for humanity. We were hovering
“Yes, I was in hiding there. I nearly
above a world of ruins. Below us, drawing
was captured twice by the guards, but I eluded
nearer, was New York.
them. I waited there for the machine to come
New York, with buildings crumbling,
for me. Now I know, from the fact that you
swept into nothingness, was a city in the midst
are here instead of Mr. Stenson, that of despair. From the roof of a building that something has befallen him. See, I have set
soared a third of a mile into the air, where the
th
e indicator for the year 2250. That was time machine had landed, we watched throngs where he said he would be. The course of the
of refugees pour through the streets far below,
machine will bring us over the same path he
lashed into frenzy of fear by the tragedy that
traveled. If he is still alive I am sure we can
engulfed them. We descended to the streets.
save him.”
For a few moments I studied the great
“I’m glad you’ve got some track of
metropolis of the future, spellbound by its
him,” I said. “We would have been lost in the
immensity. Buildings rose above us, 2,500
hunt. Imagine looking over half of eternity for
feet into the air with ground bases that
any one.”
covered thousands of square feet. Aerial
Again the panorama of passing years
roadways wound amid these huge structures
swept past. We saw cities of marble, rising
and fleets of airships sped through the wind
like mountain peaks, with gigantic aircraft seeking safety from the cloud of doom.
winging overhead. Again we had brief
The unbelievable had happened.
glimpses of the dome-headed men of Pei Doomsday had come to humanity and death
Wonder Stories
20
laid leprous hands on millions throughout the
If we left the confines of the time machine,
world.
abandoning the anomalous invisibility that
Flames leaped into the sky, adding to
confined us, we would share their dangers, be
the destruction carried on the wind by of them in their period of tribulation.
invisible death rays. We knew that the brood
That was what Stenson had done. The
of domed-headed men, brought into being by
adventurous heart of the young scientist had
Chang Hsu, were starting their career of prompted him to desert the confines of the destruction, the fruition of which we had seen
machine—only to have it swept away back to
in the year 2418.
1945. He was stranded on the vague shore of
I stared at the scene before me in the future.
horror, realizing I was gazing upon the
We walked for perhaps a mile down a
supreme tragedy in the history of the world.
wide boulevard. Palm trees rose in majestic
Before my eyes a city of at least 25,000.000
splendor and I marveled at their presence.
people was being laid waste. We mingled There was no smoke in this New York of the invisible in the streets amid scurrying throngs.
future; indeed the air had a tropical aroma that
Moving sidewalks were filled with men, caused me to believe that a change in the Gulf women and children, clad in brilliant silk Stream, brought about possibly by human robes, who passed us unseeing. Cries of ingenuity, had given the metropolis a climate despair arose on all sides.
such as Florida had enjoyed during the early
“This is dreadful,” said Professor part of the twentieth century.
Halden. “It is an awful sight.”
“We must find Stenson,” I cried.
I QUESTIONED Professor Halden on this
“The airships have all gone,” a heavy
point and he nodded.
set man shouted.
“Yes, that is exactly what has taken
He was at my side, barely three feet
place,” he said. “But it came about through
away, and I turned to ask him where they had
natural causes. Even in my own era, in 2045,
gone; but my voice failed to reach him out of
the Gulf Stream had changed so that New
the cycle of time that separated us, confined as
York was converted into a semi-tropical city.
we were by the machine’s walls.
The condition has brought about all these
A woman was at his right, her changes of verdure which doubtless seem beautiful face torn with fear. Two little astonishing to you men from more than a children trailed at her skirts, clinging to her as
hundred years before my period.”
if for protection. They were without doubt a
Passing through a wide side street,
father, mother and their brood.
blooming with gorgeous flowers along a
“Do you think Stenson is still here,
parkway in the center, we came to a great
professor?” asked Clay.
square. This open space was the scene of wild
“I cannot say. But he told me he would
pandemonium. As we crossed the square,
be in New York in the middle of May, year
which was adorned with marble statuary, we
2250.”
ran into currents of humanity in terrified
“It will be impossible to find him, I’m
flight.
afraid,” I remarked as our machine moved
“There is a vast park over there,” said
through the crowds. The passing multitudes
Halden. “Let us go there.”
swept at our side, utterly oblivious of our
“Look—quick!”
presence. They moved like astral shadows.
Clay seized my arm and pointed. A
The strangeness of our position troubled me.
great building was in the process of
The Time Annihilator
21
destruction. The annihilating waves touched
that the people of 2250 had developed an ease
the structure and it vanished rapidly. A cloud
of life incomparably beyond the crude era of
of dust rose in the air. Terrible cries arose
1945. As we crossed the park we watched the
from the stampeded multitude.
white, frightened faces of the refugees. They
“The domed-headed devils are live in my memory yet as visions of a wrecking civilization,” I cried. “Is there no
nightmare. They were our own people,
way to stop all this horror, professor?”
descendants of the early Americans of our
“I’m afraid we are utterly powerless.
own day.
We saw the future holds when we were in the
Again the time machine rose to a high
year 2418. Here we are less than two hundred
building and I glanced at the golden sunlight.
years before the epoch we visited in Pei. We
The day was like other days since time
are gazing into inevitable consequences.”
immemorial in its general aspects. A clear,
We reached the park and found almost cloudless sky, blue and benevolent, ourselves amid magnificent palms and flowers
spread above us. But invisible death rained out
of all the hues of the rainbow. I abandoned
of the sky upon a people who had long
hope of ever finding Stenson. Doubt filled my
abolished war and poverty. Humanity at the
mind that he still survived. We reached a
peak of its glory was doomed.
boulevard that bisected the park and saw
My memory swept to the scenes in the
round machines, that bore a faint resemblance
desert of Pei where the three domed men had
to automobiles, moving about on the ground.
guarded the floating palace. I recalled their
Struggling throngs were fighting to get into
conversation. The words had sunk deep into
these vehicles. Two o
f the machines shot my memory: vertically into the air and sped into the sky.
“After the electric air rays Invented by
They were little airships.
Chang Hsu brought about the destruction of
I watched a group of men attack a third
most of the human race, did not our forebears
machine, hurling two women, a man and three
spread about the globe taking over many
children into the street. The women and lands?”
children screamed and their male escort
So, one of the guardians of the gate
battled with his fists. But the group that had
had asked Slan Cho. And I recalled Slan
seized the machine were brutal in their Cho’s answer: determination to retain possession. The thin
“Yes, Chang Hsu left us the rays of
veneer of civilization which surrounded these
death. As we grew strong in numbers, here in
beings of the future, was swept away in the
the desolate land of Pei, we plotted the
struggle for existence. The attackers leaped
destruction of the earthmen who called
into the air machine and rose into the faint
themselves human.”
breeze.
The guardians of the flying palace had
But if cowardice played its part in this
spoken of events that took place centuries
tragedy that shook the world, there was before their own time. Now we were gazing glorious heroism. Three young men turned
into these tragic happenings. We had seen the
over their air machine to the ejected party. A
cause long after observing the effect.
glow of admiration shone in Halden’s eyes.
“Look,” he said, “they are going afoot.
CHAPTER VII
The Time Annihilator by Edgar A, Manley and Walter Thode Page 5
