The Old Die Rich - H. L. Gold - X Minus One Project

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
The Old Dye Rich by H.L. Gould, Part one. It
is the kind of news item youread at least a dozen times a year,
wonder about briefly, and then promptlyforget. But the real story is
the one that the reporters are unableto cover you again, Weldon, the
medical examiner, said wearily. Inodded pleasantly and looked around the shabby room

(00:23):
with a feeling of hopeful eagerness.Maybe this time I thought I'd get the
answer. I had the same sensationI always had in these places, the
quavery scenile, despair at being closedin a room with the single shaky chair,
tottering bureau dim bulb hanging from theceiling, the flaking metal bed.
There was a woman on the bed, an old woman with white hair thin

(00:46):
enough to show the tight drawn scalp, her face and body so emaciated that
the flush between the bones formed parchmentpockets. The Emmy was going over her
as if she were a sight ofbeef that he had to put a federal
grade stamp on, grumbling meanwhile aboutme and Sergeant lou Pape, who had
brought me here. When are yougoing to stop taking Weldon around to these
cases. Sergeant the Emmy demanded anannoyance damned actor in his morbid curiosity.

(01:11):
For the first time, lou wasstung into defending me. Mister Weldon is
a friend of mine. I usedto be an actor too before I joined
the force, and he's a followerof Stanislovski. The beat cop who'd reported
the da whipped around at the doora red. I let Loupepe explain what
the Stanislovsky method of acting was whileI sat down on the one chair and
tried to apply it. Stanislovsky wasthe great pre Revolution Russian stage director whose

(01:38):
idea was that actors had to thinkand feel like the characters they portrayed so
they could be them. A Stanislovskianworks out everything about a character, right
up to the point where a placestarts, where he was born, when
his relationship with his parents, education, childhood and a lescence, maturity,
attitudes towards men, women, sex, money, success, including incidents.

(02:00):
Play itself is just an extension ofthe life history created by the actor.
How does that tie in with theold woman who had died well, I'd
had the cock eyed kind of luckto go bald at twenty five, and
I'd been playing old men ever since. I had them down pretty well.
It's not just a matter of shufflingaround all hunched over and talking in a
high cracked voice, which is cornballacting, but learning what old people are

(02:22):
like inside. And these cases Italked lou Pape into taking me on were
studies and senility. I wanted tounderstand them, know what made them do
what they did, feel the compulsionthat drove them to it. The old
woman on the bed, for instance, had thirty two thousand dollars in five
bank accounts, and she'd died ofstarvation. You've come across such cases in

(02:42):
the news at least a dozen ayear, and wondered who they were and
why they did it. But youread the items, thought about them for
a little while, and then forgotthem. My interest was professional. I
made my living playing old people,and I had to know as much about
them as I could. That's howit started off, at any rate.
But the more cases I investigated,the less sense they made to me,
until finally they were practically an obsession. Look, they almost always have around

(03:07):
thirty thousand dollars pinned to their underwear, hidden in mattresses or parked in the
bank, yet they starved themselves todeath. If I could understand them,
I could write a play, orhave one written. I might really make
a name for myself, even geta Hollywood contract, maybe if I could
act them as they should be acted. So I sat there in the lone
chair, trying to reconstruct the characterof the old woman who had died rather

(03:30):
than spend a single scent of herthirty two thousand dollars for food malnutrition induced
by senile psychosis, the emmy said, writing out the death certificate. He
turned to me, there's no mysteryto at Weldon. They starved because they're
less afraid of death than digging intotheir savings. I'd been imagining myself growing
weak from hunger and trying to decidethat I ought to eat, even if

(03:52):
it cost me something. I cameout of it and said, that's what
you keep telling me. I keephoping it'll convince you so you won't come
around any more. What are thechances, Weldon depends I will when I'm
sure you're right, I'm not.He shrugged, disgustedly, ordered the wicker
basket from the meat wagon and hadthe old woman carried out he and the

(04:13):
beep cop left with the basket team. He could at least have said goodbye.
He never did, though a fatlot I cared about his attitude or
dogmatic medical opinion. Getting inside thischaracter was more important. The setting should
have helped. It was depressing rankwith the feel of solitary desperation and needless
death. Loupepe stood looking out theone dirty window, waiting patiently for me.

(04:35):
I let my joints stiffen, asif they were thirty years older and
more worn out than they were,and empathized myself into a dilemma between getting
still weaker from hunger and drawing alittle money out of the bank. I
worked at it for half an houror so, with the deep concentration you
acquire when you use the Stanislovsky method. Then I gave up the Emmy is

(04:56):
wrong, lou I said, itdoesn't feel right. Who turned around from
the window. He'd stood there allthat time without once coughing or scratching or
doing anything else that might have distractedme. He knows his business mark,
but he doesn't know old people.What is it you don't get, he
prompted, helping me dig my waythrough a characterization like the trained Stanislovski.

(05:16):
And he was and still would havebeen if he hadn't gotten so sick of
the insecurity of acting that he'd becomea cop. Can't money be more important
to a psychotic than eating? Sure? I agreed up to a point under
eating yes, actual starvation No,Why not you and the EMI think it's
easy to starve to death? Itisn't. Not when you can buy day

(05:39):
old bread at the bakeryes soup bonesfor about a nickel a pound, wilted
vegetables that groceries are glad to getrid of. Anybody who's willing to eat
that stuff can stay alive on nearlynothing a day, nearly nothing, lou
and hunger is a damned potent instinct. I can understand hating to spend even
those few cents. I can't seegoing without food altogether. He took out
a cigarette he hadn't until then becausehe didn't want to interrupt my concentration.

(06:03):
Maybe they get too weak to goout after old bread and meat bones and
wilted vegetables. It still doesn't figure. I got up off the shaky chair.
My joints now really stiff from sittingin it. Do you know how
long it takes to die of starvation? That depends on age, health,
amount of activity nuts I said itwould take weeks. So it takes weeks.

(06:25):
Where's the problem if there is one? I lit the pipe I'd learned
to smoke instead of cigarettes. Oldmen seem to use pipes more than anything
else, though maybe it'll be differentin the next generation. More cigarette smokers
now, you see, and they'dstick to the habit unless the doctor ordered
them to cut it out. Didyou ever try starving for weeks? Lou,
I asked, no, did you? In a way? All these

(06:46):
cases you've been taking me on forthe last couple of years, I've tried
to be them. But let's sayit's possible to die of starvation when you
have thousands of dollars put away.Let's say you don't think of scrounging off
food stores or working out a wayof freeloading, or hitting soup lines.
Let's say you stay in your roomand slowly starved to death. He slowly
picked a fluck of tobacco off hislip and flicked it away, his sharp

(07:10):
black eyes poking holes in the situationI'd built up for him. But He
wasn't ready to say anything yet.There's charity, I went on relief except
for those who have their doing bankswhere it can be checked on old age,
pension, panhandling, cadging off neighbors. He said. We know these
cases or hermits, they don't makecontact with anybody, even when they're starting

(07:30):
to get real hungry. You've gotsomething, Mark, But that's the wrong
tack, he said thoughtfully. Thepoint is that they don't have to make
contact. Other people know them orabout them. Somebody would check after a
few days or a week, thejanitor or the landlord, someone in the
house or the neighborhood, so they'dbe found before they died. You'd think
so, wouldn't you, He agreedreluctantly. They don't generally have friends,

(07:55):
and the relatives are usually so distant. They hardly know these old people and
whether they're allowed or not. Maybethat's what threw us off. But you
don't need friends and relatives to startwondering and investigate when you haven't shown up
for a while. He lifted hishead and looked at me. What does
that prove, Mark, that there'ssomething wrong with these cases? I want
to find out what I got Louto take me down to headquarters, where

(08:18):
he let me see the bank booksthe old woman had left. She took
damned good care of them, Isaid, they look almost new. Wouldn't
you take damned good care of themost important thing in the world to you?
He asked, you've seen the hoardsof money the others leave, same
thing. I peered closely at theearliest entry, April twenty third, nineteen
oh seven, one hundred fifty dollars. My eyes aren't that bad. I

(08:39):
was peering at the ink. Itwas dark, unfaded. I pointed it
out to Lou from not being exposedto daylight much. She said, they
don't haul out the bank books ormoney very often. I guess, and
that adds up for you. Ican see them being psychotics all their lives,
but not senile psychotics. They hoardedMark adds up for me, funny,

(09:01):
I said, watching him maneuver hiscigarette as if he loved the feel
of it, drawing the smoke downand letting it out in plumes of different
shapes, from rings to slender streams. What a living he could make doing
cigarette commercials on TV. I cansee you turn into one of these cases.
Lou. He looked startled for asecond, but then crushed out the
butt carefully so he could watch itinstead of me. Yeah, how so

(09:26):
you've been too scared by poverty totake a chance. You know you could
do all right acting, but youdon't. Dare giving up this crummy job.
Carry that far enough, and youtry to stop spending money, then
cut out eating, and finally windup dead of starvation in a cheap room.
Me. I'd never get that scaredof being broke at the age of
seventy or eighty, Especially then I'dprobably tear loose for a while and then

(09:48):
buy into a home for the aged. I wanted to grin, but I
didn't. He'd proved my point.He'd also shown that he was as bothered
by these old people as I was. Tell me, Lou, if somebody
kept you from die, would yougive him any dough for it? Even
if you were a senile psychotic?I could see him using the Stanislovsky method
to feel his way to the answer. He shook his head. Not while

(10:09):
I was alive? Will it?Maybe not give it? How would that
be as a motive? He leanedagainst a metal filing cabinet. No good
mark you know what a hell ofa time we have tracking down relatives to
give the money to. Because thesepeople don't leave wills. The few relatives
we find are always surprised when theyget their inheritance. Most of them hardly

(10:30):
remember dear old whoever it was thatdied and left it to them. All
the other estates eventually go to thestate treasury unclaimed. Well, it was
an idea. I opened the oldestbank book again. Anybody ever think of
testing the ink, lou what forthe bank's records? Always check these arn't
forgeries, if that's what you're thinking. I don't know what I'm thinking,

(10:50):
I admitted, but I'd like toturn a chemist loose on this for a
little while. Look, Mark,there's a lot I'm willing to do for
you, and I think I've doneplenty, but there's a limit. I
let him explain why he couldn't letme borrow the book, and then waited
while he figured out how it couldbe done and did it. He was
still grumbling when he helped me picka chemist out of the telephone directory and
went along to the lab with me. But don't get any wrong notions,

(11:13):
he said on the way, Ihave to protect state property. That's all
because I signed for it and I'mresponsible. Sure, Sure, I agreed
to humor him. If you're notcurious, why not just wait outside for
me? He gave me one ofthose white tooth grins that he had no
right to deprive women audiences of Icould do that, but I'd rather see
you make a sap of yourself.I turned the bank book over to the

(11:35):
chemist and we waited for the report. When it came, it had to
be translated. The ink was typicalof those used fifty years ago. Lou
Pape gave me a jab in theribs at that, But then the chemist
said that according to the amount ofoxidation, it seemed fresh enough to be
only a few months or years old, and it was loose turn to get
jabbed. Lou pushed him about theaging, asking if it couldn't be the

(11:56):
result of unusually good care. Thechemist couldn't say. That depended on the
kind of care an air tight compartment, perhaps filled with one of the inert
gases or a vacuum. They hadn'tbeen kept that way, of course,
So Lou looked as baffled as Ifelt. He took the bank book and
we went out to the street.See what I mean, I asked,

(12:16):
quietly, not wanting to rub itin. I see something, but I
don't know. What do you Iwish I could say, yes, it
doesn't make any more sense than anythingelse about these cases. What do you
do next? Damned? If Iknow there are thousands of old people in
the city, only a few ofthem take this way out. I have
to try to find them before theydo. If they're loaded, they won't

(12:39):
say so, Mark, and there'sno way of telling them from those who
are down and out. I rubbedmy pipe disgruntledly against the side of my
nose to oil it. Ain't thisa beautiful problem? I wish I liked
problems. I hate them. Louhad to get back on duty. I
had nowhere to go and nothing todo except worry my way through this tangle.

(13:00):
He headed back to headquarters, andI went over to the park and
sat in the sun, warming myselfand trying to think like a senile psychotic
who would rather die of starvation thanspend a few cents for food. I
didn't get anywhere, naturally, thereare too many ways of beating starvation,
too many chances of being found beforeit's too late, and the fresh ink
over half a century old. Itook to hanging around banks, hoping i'd

(13:24):
see some one come in with anold bank book that had fresh ink from
fifty years before. Louis some helpthere. He convinced the guards and tellers
that I wasn't an old looking guycasing the place for a gang, and
even got the tellers to watch outfor particularly dark ink and ancient bank books.
I stuck at it for a month, although there were a few stage
calls that didn't turn out right,and one radio and two t V parts
which did and kept me going.I was almost glad the stage parts hadn't

(13:48):
been given to me. They'd haveinterrupted my outside work. After a month
without a thing turning up at thebanks, though, I went back to
my two rooms in the Theatrical hotelone night, tired and discouraged, and
I found Lou there. I expectedhim to give me another talk on dropping
the whole thing. He'd been doingthat for a couple of weeks now.
Every time we got together. Ifelt too low to put up an argument.
But Lou was holding back his excitement, acting like a cop, you

(14:11):
know, instead of projecting his feelings, and he couldn't haul me out to
his car as fast as he probablywanted me to go. Been trying to
get in touch with you all day. Mark, some old guy was found
wandering around, dazed and suffering frommalnutrition. Was seventeen thousand dollars in cash
inside the lightning of his jacket.Alive, I asked, shocked right into
eagerness again, just barely. They'retrying intra venus feeding to pull him through.

(14:35):
I don't think he'll make it.For God's sake, let's get there
before he conks out. Lou racedme to the city hospital and up to
the ward there was a scrawny oldman in a bed, nothing but a
papery skin stretched thin over a facelike a skull, and a body like
a Halloween skeleton, shivering as ifhe was cold. I knew it wasn't
the cold. The medics were injectinga heart stimulant into him, and he

(14:56):
was vibrating like a rattletrap car racingover a gravel road. Who are you,
I practically yelled, grabbing his skinnyarm. What happened to you?
He went on, shaking, withhis eyes closed and his mouth open,
ah, hell, I said,disgusted. He's in a coma. He
might start talking. Lu told meI fixed it up so you can sit

(15:18):
here and listen in case he does, so I can listen to delirious ravings.
You mean, Luke got me achair and put it next to the
bed. What are you kicking about? This is the first live one you've
seen, isn't it that ought tobe good enough for you? He looked
as annoyed as a director. Besides, you can get biographical data out of
delirium that you'd never get if hewas conscious. He was right, of
course, not only data, butattitudes, wishes, resentments that would normally

(15:41):
be repressed. I wasn't thinking ofacting at the moment, though. Here
was somebody who could tell me whatI wanted to know. Only he couldn't
talk. Lu went to the door. Good luck, he said, and
went out. I sat down andstared at the old man, willing him
to talk. I don't have toask if you've ever done that. Everybody
has. You keep thinking over andover, getting more and more tense.

(16:03):
Talk damn, you talk until youfind that every muscle in your body is
a fist and your jaws are achingbecause you've been clenching your teeth so hard
you might just as well not bother. But once in a while a coincidence
makes you think you've done it.Like now, the old man sort of
came to that is, he openedhis eyes and looked around without seeing anything,
or it was so far away andlong ago that nobody else could see

(16:26):
what he saw. I hunched forwardon the chair and willed harder than ever.
Nothing happened. He stared at theceiling and threw and beyond me.
Then he closed his eyes again,and I slumped back, defeated and bitter.
But that was when he began talking. There were a couple of women,
though they might have been little girlsin his childhood, and he had
his troubles with them. He waspraying for a toy train, a roadster,

(16:49):
to pass his tests, to keepfrom being fired, to be less
lonely, and back to toys again. He hated his father, and his
mother was too busy with church bazaarsand such to pay much attention to him.
There was a sister. She diedwhen he was a kid. He
was glad she died, hoping maybenow his mother would notice him. But
he was also filled with guilt becausehe was glad. Then somebody he felt

(17:11):
was trying to shove him out ofhis job. The intravenous feeding kept dripping
into his vein, and he wenton rambling. After ten or fifteen minutes
of it, he fell asleep.I felt so disappointed that I could have
slapped him awake, only it wouldn'thave done any good. Smoking would have
helped me relax, but it wasn'tallowed, and I didn't dare go outside
for one for fear he might reviveagain, and this time come up to

(17:32):
the present broke. He suddenly shrieked, trying to sit up. I pushed
him down gently, and he wenton in frightful terror. Old and poor,
nowhere to go, Nobody wants me. Can't make a living, read
the ads every day, No jobsfor old men. He blurted through weeks,
months, years, I don't knowof fear and despair, and finally

(17:53):
he came to something that made hisface glow like a radium dial an ad
no variance needed, good salary.His face got dark and awful. All
he added was el greco or somethingthat sounded like it, and then he
went into terminal breathing. I rangfor the nurse, and she went for

(18:14):
the doctor. I couldn't stand thelong moments when the old man's chest stopped
moving, the abrupt, frantic gulpsof air followed by no breath at all.
I wanted to get away from it, but I had to wait for
whatever more he might say. Itdidn't come. His eyes fogged and rolled
up, and he stopped taking thosespasmodic, strangling breaths. The nurse came
back with a doctor, who felthis pulse and shook his head. She

(18:34):
pulled the blanket over the old man'sface. I left feeling sick. I'd
learned things I already knew about hateand love and fear and hope and frustration.
There was an ad in it somewhere, but I had no way of
telling if it had been years agoor recently. And a name that sounded
like El Greco that was a Spanishpainter of four or five hundred years ago.

(18:56):
Had the old guy been remembering apicture he'd seen, he'd come up
at least close to the present.The ad seemed to solve his problem about
being broke, But what about theseventeen thousand dollars that had been found in
the lining of his jacket. Hehadn't mentioned that. Of course, being
a senile psychotic, he could haveconsidered himself broke even with that amount of
money none coming in. You see, that didn't add up either. His

(19:18):
was the terror of being old andjobless. If he'd had money, he
would have figured out how to makeit last, and that would have come
through in one way or another.There was the ad, there was his
hope, and there was this ElGreco, a Greek restaurant maybe where he
might have been bumming his meals.But where did the seventeen thousand dollars fit
in? Lou Pape was too fedup with the whole thing to discuss it

(19:41):
with me. He just gave methe weary eye and said, you're writing
this too hard. Mark. Theguy was talking from fever. How do
I know what figures and what doesn'twhen I'm dealing with insanity or delirium?
But you admit there's plenty about thesecases that doesn't figure. Sure, did
you take a look at the conditionthe world is in lately? Why should
these old people be the exception?I couldn't blame him. He pulled me

(20:02):
in on the cases with plenty oftrouble to himself just to do me a
favor. Now he was fed up. I guess it wasn't even that he
thought I was ruining myself at leastfinancially, and may be worse by trying
to run down the problem. Hesaid he'd be glad to see me any
time and gas about anything, orhelp me with whatever might be bothering me
if he could, but not thesecases anymore. He told me to lay

(20:23):
off them, and then he leftme on my own. I don't know
what he could have done. Actually, I didn't need him to go through
the want ads with me, whichI was doing every day. Figuring there
might be something in the ravings aboutan ad. I spent more time than
I liked checking no slanted at oldpeople, only to find they were supposed
to become messengers. And such onebrought me to an old brown stone five

(20:45):
story house in the East eighties.I got online with the rest of the
applicants. There were men and women, all decrepit, all looking badly in
need of money, and waited myturn. My face was lined with colodeon
wrinkles, and I wore an antiqueshiny suit and run down shoes. I
didn't look more prosperous or any youngerthan they did. I finally came up
to the woman who was doing theinterviewing. She sat behind a plain office

(21:07):
desk down in the main floor hall, with a pile of application cards in
front of her and a ballpoint penin one strong, slender hand. She
had red hair with gold lights init, and eyes so pale blue that
they would have seemed the same coloras the whites if she'd been on the
stage. Her face would have beenbeautiful except for her rigid control of expression.

(21:27):
She smiled abruptly shut it off justlike that, looked me over with
all the impersonality and penetration of anX ray from the soles to the bald
head, exactly as she'd done withthe others. But that skin, if
it was as perfect as that allover her slim, stiffly erect, proudly
shaped body. She had no businessoff the stage. Name addressed, previous

(21:49):
occupation, Social security number, sheasked, in a voice with good clarity,
resonance, addiction. She wrote itall down while I gave the information
to her. Then she asked mefor ferences, and I mentioned Sergeant Loopape.
Fine, she said, We'll getin touch with you. If anything
comes up. Don't call us,we'll call you. I hung around to
see who'd be picked. There wasonly one, an old man two ahead

(22:11):
of me in the line, whohad no social Security number, no references,
not even any relatives or friends.She could have checked up on him
with. Damn of course that waswhat she wanted. Hadn't all the starvation
cases been people without social security references, either no friends and relatives, or
those they'd lost track of. I'dpulled a blooper. But how was I
to know until too late? Well, there was a way of making it

(22:33):
right. When it was good anddark that evening, I stood on the
corner and watched the lights in thebrown stone house. The ones on the
first two floors went out, leavingonly those on the third and fourth closed
for the day or opened for business. I got into a building a few
doors down by pushing a button andwaiting until the buzzer answered, then racing
up to the roof while some manyelled down the stairs to find out who
was there. I crossed the topsof the two houses between and went down

(22:57):
the fire escape. It wasn't easy, though not as tough as you might
imagine, the fact is that I'ma whole year younger than lou Pape.
Even if I could play his grandpaprofessionally, I still have muscles left,
and I used them to get downthe fire escape at the rear of the
house. The fourth floor room Ilooked into had some kind of wire mesh
cage and some hooded machinery. Nobodythere. The third floor room was the

(23:19):
Redheads. She was coming out ofthe bathroom with a terrycloth bathrobe and a
towel turban on. When I lookedin, she slid the robe off and
began dusting herself with powder. Thatskin did cover her. She turned and
moved toward a vanity against the wallthat I was on the other side of.
The next thing, I knew thewindow was flung open, and she
had a gun on me. Comeright in, mister Weldon, isn't it,

(23:42):
she said, in that completely controlledvoice of hers. One day her
control would crack, I thought,irrelevantly, and the pieces would be found
from Dallas to North Carolina. Ihad an idea. You seemed more curious
than was justified by a help wantedad man. My age doesn't get to
see any pretty girls, I toldher, making my own voice crack pathetically

(24:04):
in a senile whinny. She motionedme into the room. When I was
inside, I saw a light overthe window, blinking red. It stopped
the moment I was in the room, a silent burglar alarm. She let
her pale blue eyes wash insolently overme. A man your age can see
all the pretty girls he wants to. You're not old, and you use

(24:25):
a rinse, I retorted. Sheignored it. I specifically advertised for old
people. Why did you apply?It had happened so abruptly that I hadn't
had a chance to use the Stanislovskymethod to feel old in the presence of
a beautiful nude woman. I don'teven know if it would have worked.
Nothing's perfect. I needed a job, awful bad, I answered, sullenly,

(24:47):
knowing it sounded like an ad lib. She smiled with more contempt than
humor. You had a job,mister Weldon. You were very busy trying
to find out why senile psychotics starvedthemselves to death. How did you know
that, I asked, startled alittle investigation of my own. I also
happened to know you didn't tell youa friend, Sergeant Pape, that you

(25:10):
were going to be here to night. That was a fact too. I
hadn't felt sure enough that i'd foundthe answer to call him about it.
Looking at the gun in her steadyhand, I was sorry I hadn't.
But you did find out I ownthis building, that my name is May
Roberts, and that I'm the daughterof the late doctor Anthony Roberts, the
physicist. She continued, Is thereanything else you want me to tell you

(25:32):
about yourself? I know enough already. I'm more interested in you in the
starvation cases. If you weren't connectedwith them, you wouldn't have known I
was investigating them. That's obvious,isn't it. She reached for a cigarette
on the vanity and used a lighterwith her free hand. The big mirror
gave me another view of her lovelybody, But that was beginning to interest

(25:52):
me less than the gun. Ithought of making a grab for it.
There was too much distance between us, though, and she knew better than
to take her eyes off me whileshe was lighting up. I'm not afraid
of professional detectives, mister Weldon.They deal only with facts, and every
one of them will draw the sameconclusions from a given set of circumstances.
I don't like amateurs. They guesstoo much, they don't stick to reality.

(26:15):
The result, her pale eyes chilledand her shapely mouth went hard,
is that they are likely to gettoo close to the truth. I wanted
to smoke myself, but I wasn'twilling to make a move toward the pipe
in my pocket. I may beclose to the truth, miss Roberts,
but I don't know what the devilit is. I still don't know how
you're tied in with the senile psychoticsor why they starve with all that money.

(26:38):
You could let me go and Iwouldn't have a thing on you.
She glanced down at herself and laughedfor real for the first time. You
wouldn't wut you. On the otherhand, you know where I'm working from
and could nag Sergeant Pape into gettinga search warrant. It wouldn't incriminate me,
but it would be inconvenient. Idon't care to be inconvenienced, which

(27:00):
means what you want to find outmy connection with senile psychotics. I intend
to show you how she gestured dangerouslywith the gun. Turn your face to
the wall and stay that way whileI get dressed. Make one attempt to
turn around before I tell you to, and I'll shoot you. You're guilty
of house breaking. You know.It would be a little inconvenient for me

(27:22):
to have an investigation, but notas inconvenient as for you. I faced
the wall feeling my stomach braid itselfinto a tight, painful knot of fear
of what I didn't know yet,only that old people who had something to
do with her died of starvation.I wasn't old, but that didn't seem
very comforting. She was the mostfrigid, calculating, deadly woman I'd ever

(27:47):
met. That alone was enough toscare hell out of me. And there
was the problem of what she wascapable of. Hearing the sounds of her
dressing behind me, I wanted tolunge around and rush her, taking a
chance that she might be too busypulling on a girdle or reaching back to
fasten abraa to have the gun inher hand. It was a suicidal impulse,
and I gave it up instantly.Other women might compulsively finish concealing themselves

(28:10):
before snatching up the gun. Nother, all right, she said.
At last, I faced her.She was wearing coveralls that, if anything,
emphasized the curves of her figure.She had a sort of babushka that
covered her red hair and kept itin place, the kind of thing women
workers used to wear in factories duringthe war. She had looked lethal with
nothing on but a gun and ahard expression. She looked like a sentence

(28:33):
of execution. Now open that door, turn to the right, and go
upstairs, she told me, indicatingdirections with the gun. I went.
It was the longest, most anxious, short walk I've ever taken. She
ordered me to open a door onthe fourth floor, and we were inside
the room I'd seen from the fireescape. The mesh cage seemed like a
torture chamber to me, the hoodedmotors designed to shoot an agonizing current through

(28:57):
my emaciating body. You're going todo to me what you did to the
old man you hired to day,I probed, hoping for an answer that
would really answer. She flipped onthe switch that started the motors, and
there was a shrill, menacing wine. The wire mesh of the cage began
blurring oddly, as if vibrating likethe tines of a tuning fork. You've

(29:18):
been an unexpected nuisance, Weldon,she said, above the motors. I
never thought you'd get this far,but as long as you have, we
might as well both benefit by it. Benefit, I repeated, both of
us. She opened the drawer ofa work table and pulled out a stack
of envelopes held with a rubber band. She put the stack at the other
edge of the table. Would yourather have all cash or bank accounts or

(29:42):
both? My heart began to beat. She was where the money came from.
You're trying to tell me you're aphilanthropist, I demanded. Business is
philanthropy in a way, She answeredcalmly, you need money and I need
your services. To that extent,we're doing each other a favor. I

(30:03):
think you'll find that the favor I'mgoing to do for you is a pretty
considerable one. Would you mind pickingup the envelopes on the table. I
took the stack and stared at thetop envelope. May fifteen, nineteen thirty
one. I read aloud and lookedsuspiciously at her. What's this for?
I don't think it's something that canbe explained, at least it's never been
possible before, and I doubt ifit would be now. I'm assuming you

(30:26):
want both cash and bank accounts.Is that right? Well, yes,
only we'll discuss it later. Shelooked along a row of shelves against one
wall, searching the labels on thestacks of bundles. There. She drew
one out and pushed it toward me. Please open that and put on the
things you'll find inside. I toreopen the bundle. It contained a very

(30:47):
plain business suit, black shoes,shirt tie, and a hat with a
narrow brim. Are they supposed tobe my burial clothes? I asked you
to put them on, She said, If you want me to make that
a command, I'll do it.I looked at the gun, and I
looked at the clothes, and thenfor some shelter I could change behind.
There wasn't any, She smiled.You didn't seem concerned about my modesty.

(31:10):
I don't see why your own shouldbother you get dressed. I obeyed my
mind, anxiously, chasing one possibilityafter another, all of them ending up
with my death. I got intothe other things and felt even more uncomfortable.
They were all only an approximate fit. The shoes a little too tight,
and pointed the collar of the shirttoo stiffly starched and too high under

(31:30):
my chin. The gray suit toonarrow at the shoulders and the ankles.
I wished I had a mirror tosee myself in. I felt like an
ultra conservative Wall Street broker, andI was sure I resembled one. All
right, She said, put theenvelopes in your inside pocket. You'll find
instructions on each follow them carefully.I don't get it, I protested.

(31:52):
You will now step into the meshcage. Use the envelopes in the order
there arranged in But what's this allabout? I can tell you just one
thing, mister Weldon. Don't tryto escape. It can't be done.
Your other questions will answer themselves ifyou follow the instructions on the envelopes.
She had the gun in her hand. I went into the mesh cage,

(32:14):
not knowing what to expect, andyet too afraid of her to refuse.
I didn't want to end up deadof starvation, no matter how much money
she might have given me. ButI didn't want to get shot either.
She closed the mesh gate and pushedthe switch as far as it would go.
The motors screamed as they picked upspeed. The mesh cage vibrated more
swiftly. I could see her throughit, as if there were nothing between

(32:34):
us, And then I couldn't seeher at all. I was outside a
bank on a sunny day in spring. My fear evaporated instantly. I'd escaped
somehow, But then a couple ofrealizations slapped me from each side. It
was day instead of night. Iwas out on the street and not in
her brownstone house, even the seasonhad changed. Dazed, I stared at

(32:58):
the people passing by. They lookedlike characters in a TV movie. The
women wearing long dresses and flower pothats, their faces made up with petulant
rosebud mouths and bright blotches of rouge. The men in hard straw hats,
suit with narrow shoulders, plain blackor brown shoes, the same kind of
clothes I was wearing. The rumbleof traffic in the street caught me next

(33:20):
cars with square bodies, tubular radiators. For a moment, I let terror
soak through me. Then I rememberedthe mesh cage and the motors. May
Roberts could have given me electro shockkept me under long enough for the season
to change, or taken me southand left me on a street in daylight.
But this was a street in NewYork. I recognized it, though
some of the buildings seemed changed,the people dressed more shabbily, shrewd stage

(33:45):
setting hypnosis. That was it.Of course, she'd hypnotize me, except
that a subject under hypnosis doesn't knowhe's been hypnotized. Completely confused, I
took out the stack of envelopes I'dput in my pocket. I was supposed
to have both cash and a bankaccount, and I was outside a bank.
She obviously wanted me to go in, so I did. I handed

(34:07):
the top envelope to the teller.He hauled one hundred and fifty dollars out
of it and looked at me asif that was enough to buy and sell
the bank. He asked me ifI had an account there. I didn't.
He took me over to an officerof the bank, a fellow with
a hoover collar and a John Gilbertmustache, who signed me up more cordially
than I'd been treated in years.I walked out to the street, gaping

(34:29):
at the entry in the bank book. He'd handed me my pulse was jumping
lumpily, my lungs refusing to workright, my head doing a hopie rain
dance. The dayt he'd stamped wasMay fifteenth, nineteen thirty one. I
didn't know which I was more afraidof being stranded middle aged in the worst
of the depression, or being yankedback to that brownstone house. I had

(34:51):
only an instant to realize that Iwas a kid in high school uptown right
at that moment. Then the wholescene vanished as fast as blinking, and
I was out side another bank somewhereelse in the city. The date on
the envelope was May twenty ninth,and it was still nineteen thirty one.
I made a seventy five dollars depositthere, that a hundred dollars in another
place a few days later, andso forth, spending only a few minutes

(35:14):
each time, and going forward anywherefrom a couple of days to almost a
month. Every now and then Ihad a stamped, addressed envelope to mail
at a corner box. They wereaddressed to different stockbrokers, and when I
got one open before mailing it andtook a look inside, it turned out
to be an order to buy afew hundred shares of stock in a soft
drink company in the name of doctorAnthony Roberts. I hadn't remembered the price

(35:36):
of the shares being that low.The last time I had seen the quotation,
it was more than five times asmuch as it was then. I
was making doe myself, but Iwas doing even better for May Roberts.
A few times I had to stayaround for an hour or so. It
was the night I found myself ina flashy speakeasy with two envelopes that I
was to bet the contents of accordingto the instructions on the outside. It

(35:59):
was June when he first, nineteenthirty two, and I had to bet
on Jack Sharkey to take the heavyweighttitle away from Max Schmelling. The place
was serious and quiet, no morethan three women, a couple of bartenders,
and the rest mail customers, includingtwo cops. Huddling up close to
the radio. An affable character wastaking bets. He gave me a wise
little smile when I put the moneydown on Sharkey. Well, it's a

(36:21):
pleasure to do business with a manwho wants an American to win, he
said, And the hell with asmart dough. Eh yeah, I said,
and tried to smile back. Butso much of the smart money was
going on schmelling that I wondered ifmay Roberts hadn't made a mistake. I
couldn't remember who'd won. You knowwhat, JP Morgan said, don't sell
America short. I'll take a buckfor my share, said a sour guy

(36:44):
who barely managed to stand. Lousygrass growing in the lousiest streets, nobody
working, no future, nothing,We'll come out of it, okay,
I told him confidently. He snortedinto his gin. In our lifetime,
mat it'd take a miracle to putthis country on its feet again. I

(37:05):
don't believe in miracles. He puthis scowling face up close to mine and
breathed blearily and belligerently at me.Do you shut up? Gus, one
of the bartenders, said, thefight's starting. I had some tough moments
and a lot of bad Scotch listening. It went the whole fifteen rounds sharky
one, and I was in almostas bad shape as Gus, who'd passed

(37:28):
out halfway through the battle. AllI can recall is the affable character handing
over a big roll and saying luckyfor me, more guys don't sell America
short, and trying to separate themoney into the right amounts and put them
into the right envelopes while stumbling outof the door. When everything changed and
I was outside a bank again,I thought, my god, what a
hangover cure. I was as soberas if I hadn't had a drink when

(37:50):
I made that deposit. There weremore envelopes to mail, and more deposits
to make, and bets to putdown on Singing Wood in nineteen thirty three
at Belmont Park, and Max barover Premier Canaro, and then Cavalcade at
Churchill Downs in nineteen thirty four,and James Braddock over Bare in nineteen thirty
five, and a big daily doublepayoff winoah Arrakay at Tropical Park, and

(38:10):
so on, skipping through the yearslike a flat stone over water, touching
here and there for a few minutesto an hour at a time. I
kept the envelopes from May Roberts andmyself in different pockets, and the bank
books in another. The envelopes werebeginning to bulge, and the deposits and
a crude interest were something to watchgrow The whole thing, in fact,
was so exciting that it was earlyOctober of nineteen thirty eight, a total

(38:31):
of maybe four or five hours subjectivelybefore I realized what she had me doing.
I wasn't thinking much about the factthat I was time traveling or how
she did it. I accepted thatthough the sensation in some ways was creepy,
like raising the dead, my fatherand mother, for instance, were
still alive in nineteen thirty eight.If I could break away from whatever it
was that kept pulling me jumpily throughtime, I could go and see them.

(38:54):
The thought attracted me enough to makeme shake badly with intent, yet
pumped dread through me. I wantedso damned badly to see them again,
and I didn't dare I couldn't.Why couldn't I? Maybe the machine covered
only the area around the various banks, speakeasies, bars, and horse parlors.

(39:14):
If I could get out of thearea, whatever it might be,
I could avoid coming back to whatevermay Roberts had lined up for me.
Because naturally, I knew now whatI was doing. I was making deposits
and winning sherbets, just as thesenile psychotics had done. The ink on
their bank books and bills was fresh. Because it was fresh, it wasn't
given a chance to oxidize. Atthe rate I was going, I'd be

(39:37):
back to my own time in anotherfew hours or so, with fifteen thousand
dollars or better in deposits, compoundinterest and cash. If i'd been around
seventy, You see, she couldhave sent me back to the beginning of
the century with the same amount ofmoney, which would have accumulated to something
like thirty thousand dollars. Get itnow, I did, and I felt
sick and frightened. The old peoplehad died of starvation somehow with all that

(40:01):
dough in cash or banks. Ididn't give a hang if the time travel
was responsible or something else was.I wasn't going to be found dead in
my hotel and have lou Pape cursemy corpse because I'd been borrowing from him
when since nineteen thirty one I'd hada little fortune put away. He'd call
me a premature, senile psychotic,and he'd be right from his point of

(40:22):
view, not knowing the truth.Rather than make the deposit in October nineteen
thirty eight, I grabbed a batteredold cab and told the driver to step
on it. When I showed himthe ten dollar bill that was in it
for him, he squashed down thegas pedal. In nineteen thirty eight,
ten dollars was real money. Wegot a mile away from the bank,
and the driver looked at me inthe rearview mirror. How far you want

(40:42):
to go, mister? My teethwere together so hard that I had to
unclench them before I could answer,as far away as we can get cops
after you. No, but somebodyis. Don't be surprised at anything that
happens, no matter what it is. You mean, like getting shot at,
he asked, worriedly, slowing down. You're not in any day,
your friend, I am. Relaxand step on it again. I wondered

(41:02):
if she could still reach me thisfar from the bank, and handed the
guy the bill no justice, stickinghim for the ride. In case she
should. He pushed the pedal downeven harder than he had been doing before.
We must have been close to threemiles away when I blinked and was
standing outside the first bank I'd seenin nineteen thirty one. I don't know
what the cab driver thought when Ivanished out of his hack. He probably
figured I'd opened the door and jumpedwhile he wasn't looking. Maybe he even

(41:25):
went back and searched for a bodysplashed all over the street. Well,
it would have been a hopeless hunt. I was a week ahead. I
gave up and drearily made my deposit. The one from early October that i'd
missed I put in with this one. There was no way to escape the
babe with the beautiful hard face,gorgeous warm body, and plans for me
that all seemed to add up todeath. I didn't try any more.

(41:47):
I went on making deposits, mailingorders to her stockbrokers, and putting down
bets that couldn't miss because they wereall past history. I don't even remember
what The last one was a fightor a race. I hung around the
bar that had long ago replaced thespeakeasy until the inevitable payoff, got myself
a hamburger and headed out the door. All the envelopes I was supposed to

(42:07):
use were gone, and I feltshaky, knowing that the next place I'd
see was the room with the wiremesh cage and the hooded motors. It
was she was on the other sideof the cage, and I had five
bank books and envelopes filled with cashamounting to more than fifteen thousand dollars.
But all I could think of wasthat I was hungry and something had happened
to the Hamburger while I was travelingthrough time. I must have fallen and

(42:30):
dropped it. Because my hand wascovered with dust or dirt. I brushed
it off and quickly felt my faceand pulled up my sleeves to look at
my arms. Very smart, Isaid, but I'm nowhere near emaciation.
What made you think you would be, she asked, because the others always
were. She cut the motors toidling speed, and the vibrating mesh slowed
down. I glared at her throughit. God, she was lovely,

(42:53):
as lovely as an ice sculpture,the kind of face you'd loved to kiss
and slap, kiss and slap.You came here with a preconceived notion,
mister Welton. I'm a businesswoman,not a monster. I like to think
there's even a good deal of thealtruist in me. I could hire only
young people, but the old oneshave more trouble finding work. And you've

(43:15):
seen for yourself how I provide nesteggs for them they'd otherwise never have,
and take care of yourself at thesame time. That's the business woman in
me. I need money to operate, so do the old people. Only
they die and you don't. Sheopened the gate and invited me out.
I make mistakes occasionally. I sometimespick men and women who prove to be

(43:35):
too old to stand the strain.I try not to let it happen,
but they need money and work sobadly that they don't always tell the truth
about their age and state of health. You could take those who have Social
Security cards and references, but thosewho don't are in worse need. She
paused. You probably think I wantonly the money you when they bring back,

(43:57):
that it's merely some kind of profitmaking scheme. It isn't you mean?
The idea is not just to buildup a fortune for you with a
cut for whoever helps you do it. I said, I need money to
operate, mister Weldon, and thismethod serves. But there are other purposes
much more important. What you havegone through is basic training. You might
say, you know now that it'spossible to travel through time, and what

(44:20):
it's like the initial shock. Inother words, is gone, and you're
batter equipped to do something for mein another era, something else. I
stared at her, puzzledly. Whatelse could you want? Let's have dinner
first. You must be hungry.I was, and that reminded me.
I've bought a hamburger just before youbrought me back. I don't know what

(44:40):
happened to it. My hand wasdirty and the hamburger was gone, as
if I'd fallen somehow and dropped itand got dirt on my hand. She
looked worriedly at the hand, probablyafraid I'd cut it and disqualified myself.
I could understand that you never knowwhat kind of diseases can be picked up
in different times, because I rememberreading somewhere that germs keep changing according to
conditions. Right now, for instance, strains of bacteria are becoming resistant to

(45:04):
antibiotics. I knew her concern wasn'treally for me, but it was pleasant
all the same. That could bethe explanation, I suppose, she said.
The truth is that I've never takena time voyage. Somebody has to
operate the controls in the present,so I can't say if it's possible or
impossible to fall it must be sinceyou did. Perhaps the wrench back from
the past was too violent and youslipped just before you returned. She led

(45:28):
me down to an ornate dining roomwhere the table had been set for two.
The food was waiting on the table, steaming and smelling tasty. Nobody
was around to service. She pointedout a chair to me, and we
sat down and began eating. Iwas a little nervous at first, afraid
there might be something in the food, but it tasted fine, and nothing
happened after I swallowed a little andwaited for some effect. You did try

(45:49):
to escape the time tractor beam,didn't you, mister Weldon, she asked.
I didn't have to answer. Sheknew. That's a mistaken notion of
how it functions. The control beamdoesn't cover area, it covers era.
You could have flown to any partof the world and the beam would still
have brought you back. Do Imake myself clear? She did, too,
bloody clear. I waited for therest. I assume you've already formed

(46:14):
an opinion of me, she wenton, a rather unflattering one. I
imagine. Bitch is the cleanest wordI can find, but a clever one.
Anybody who could invent a time machinewould have to be a genius.
I didn't invent it. My fatherdid, doctor Anthony Roberts, using the
funds you and others helped me providehim with. Her face grew soft and

(46:34):
tender. My father was a wonderfulman, a great man, but he
was called a crackpot. He waskept from teaching or working anywhere. It
was just as well, I suppose, though he was too hurt to think,
so he had more leisure to developthe time machine. He could have
used it to extort repayment from mankindfor his humiliation, but he didn't.
He used it to help mankind,like how I goaded. It doesn't matter,

(47:00):
mister Weldon. You're determined to hateme and consider me a liar.
Nothing I tell you can change that. She was right about the first part.
I hadn't dared let myself do anythingexcept hate and fear her. But
she was wrong about the second.I remember thinking how lou Pape would have
felt if I had died of starvationwith over fifteen thousand dollars after borrowing from
him all the time between jobs,not knowing how I'd got it. He'd

(47:22):
have been sore, thinking I'd playedhim for a patsy. What I'm trying
to say is that lou wouldn't havehad enough information to judge me. I
didn't have enough information yet either tojudge her. What do you want me
to do? I asked, warily. Everybody but one person was sent into
the past on specific errands to saveart, treasures and relics that would otherwise

(47:45):
have been lost to humanity, notbecause the things might be worth a lotted
dough, I said, nastily,you've already seen that I can get all
the money I want. There wereupheavals in the past, great fires,
wars, revolutions, vandalism, andI had my associate save things that would
have been destroyed. Ow beautiful things, mister Weldon, the world would have

(48:06):
been so much poorer without them.El Greco, for instance, I asked,
remembering the raving old man who hadbeen found wandering with seventeen thousand dollars
in his coat lining. El Grecotoo, several paintings that had been lost
for centuries. She became more briskand efficient, seeming except for the one
man I mentioned. I concentrated onthe past. The future is too completely

(48:28):
unknown to us, and there's anadditional reason why I tentatively explored it only
once. But the one person whowent there discovered something that would be of
immense value to the world. Whathappened to him? She looked regretful.
He was too old. He survivedjust long enough to tell me that the
future has something we need. It'sa metal box, small enough to carry

(48:50):
that could supply this whole city withpower to run its industries and light its
homes and streets. Sounds good,Who'd you say benefits? If I get
it? We share the profits equally, of course, but it must be
understood that we sell the power socheaply that everybody can afford it. I'm
not arguing. What's the other reasonyou didn't bother with the future? You

(49:12):
can't bring anything from the future tothe present that doesn't exist right now.
I won't go into the theory,but it should be obvious that nothing can
exist before it exists. You can'tbring the box. I want only the
technical data to build one technical data. I'm an actor, not a scientist.
You'll have pens and weatherproof notebooks tocopy it down in. I couldn't

(49:32):
make up my mind about her.I've already said she was beautiful, which
always prejudices a man in a woman'sfavor. But I couldn't forget the starvation
cases. They hadn't shared anything butmalnutrition, useless money, and death.
Then again, maybe her explanation wasa good one, that she wanted to
help those who needed help most,and some of them lied about their age
and physical condition because they wanted thejobs so badly. All I knew about

(49:55):
were those who had died. Howdid I know there weren't others, a
lot more of them than the fatalcases, perhaps who came through all right
and were able to enjoy their littlefortunes. And there was her story about
saving the treasures of the past andwanting to provide power at really low cost.
She was right about one thing.She didn't need any of that to
make money with. Her method wasplenty good enough, using the actual records

(50:17):
of the past to invest in stocks, but on sports all sure, gambols.
But those starvation cases. Do Iget any guarantees? I demanded,
She looked annoyed. I'll need youfor the data, You'll need me to
turn it into manufacture. Is thatenough of a guarantee? No? Do
I come out of this alive,mister Weldon, please use some logic.

(50:40):
I'm the one who's taking the risk. I've already given you more money than
you've ever had at one time inyour life. Part of my motive was
to pay for services about to berendered. Mostly it was to give you
experience in traveling through time and toprove to me that I can't run out.
I added that happens to be anecessary tribute of the machine. I
couldn't very well move you about throughtime unless it worked that way. If

(51:05):
you'd look at my point of view, you'd see that I lose my investment.
If you don't bring back the data, I can't withdraw your money.
You realize I don't know what tothink, I said, dissatisfied with myself,
because I couldn't find out what,if anything, was wrong with the
deal. I'll get you the datafor the power box, if it's at
all possible, and then we'll seewhat happens. Finishing eating, we went

(51:27):
upstairs and I got into the cage. She closed the circuit. The motors
screamed, the mesh blurred, andI was in a world I never knew,
and of the old dye Rich byH. L. Gold Part one,
Part two. You'd call it acity. I suppose there were enough
buildings to make it one, Butno city ever had so much greenery.

(51:51):
It wasn't just tree lined streets likeunter den Linden in Berlin, or islands
covered with shrubbery like Park Avenue inNew York. The grass and trees and
shrubs grew around every building, separatingthem from each other by wide lawns.
The buildings were more glass or whatlooked like glass, than anything else.
A few of the windows were opaqueagainst the sun, but I couldn't see

(52:13):
any shades or blinds, some kindof polarizing glass or plastic. I felt
uneasy being there, but it wasa thrill just the same, to be
alive in the future when I andeverybody who lived in my day was supposed
to be dead. The air smelledlike the country. There was no foul
gas boiling from the teardrop cars onthe glass level road. They were made

(52:34):
of transparent clastic, clear around andfrom top to bottom, and they moved
along at a fair clip, butmore smoothly than swiftly. If I hadn't
seen the airship overhead, I wouldn'thave known it was there. It flew
silently, a graceful ball without wings, seeming to be borne by the wind,
from one horizon to the other,except that no wind ever moved that
fast. One car stopped nearby andsomeone shouted, here we are. Several

(52:59):
people leaped out and headed for me. I didn't think. I ran.
I crossed the lawn and ducked intothe nearest building and dodged through long,
smoothly walled, shadowlessly lit corridors untilI found a door that would open.
I slammed it shut and locked itben panting, I fell into a soft
chair that seemed to form itself aroundmy body, and felt like kicking myself
for the bloody idiot I was.What in hell had I run for?

(53:22):
They couldn't have known who I was. If I'd arrived in a time when
people wore togas or bathing suits,there would have been some reason for singling
me out. But they had allhad clothes just like ours, suits and
shirts and ties for the men,a dress and high heels for the one
woman with them. I felt somewhatdisappointed the clothes hadn't changed any but it
worked out to my advantage. Iwouldn't be so conspicuous. Yet, why

(53:44):
should anyone have yelled here we are, unless no, they must have thought
I was somebody else. It didn'tfigure any other way. I had run
because it was my first startled reaction, and probably because I knew I was
there on what might be considered illegalbusiness. If I succeeded, some poor
inventor would be done out of hisroyalties. I wished I hadn't run.

(54:05):
Besides making me feel like a scaredfool, I was sweaty and out of
breath. Playing old men doesn't makeclimbing down fire escapes much tougher than it
should be, But it doesn't exactlymake a sprinter out of you, not
by several longfuls. I sat there, breathing hard and trying to guess what
next. I had no more ideaof where to go for what I wanted
than an ancient Egyptian set down inthe middle of Times Square with instructions to

(54:27):
sneak a mummy out of the MetropolitanMuseum. I didn't even have that much
information. I didn't know any partof the city, how it was laid
out, or where to get thedata that may Roberts had sent me for.
I opened the door quietly and lookedboth ways before going out. After
losing myself in the cross connecting corridorsa few times, I finally came to
an outside door. I stopped,tense, trying to get my courage.

(54:51):
My inclination was to slip, sneakor dart out, but I made myself
walk away like a decent, innocentcitizen. That was one disguise they'd never
be able to crack. All Ihad to do was act as if I
belonged to that time and place,and who would know the difference. There
were other people walking as if theywere in no hurry to get anywhere.
I slowed down to their speed,but I wished wistfully that there was a

(55:13):
crowd to dive into and get lost. A man dropped into step and said,
politely, I beg your pardon.Are you a stranger in town?
I almost halted an alarm, butthat might have been a giveaway. What
makes you think? So, Iasked, forcing myself to keep at the
same easy pace. I didn't recognizeyour face, and I thought it's a

(55:35):
big city, I said, coldly, you can't know everyone. If there's
anything I can do to help,I told him there wasn't, and left
him standing there. It was plaincommon sense. I had decided quickly while
he was talking to me not totake any risks by admitting anything. I
might have been dumped into a policestate where the country could have been at
war without my knowing it. Ormaybe they were suspicious of strangers for one

(55:58):
reason or another, ranging from vagrancyto espionage. I could be pulled in,
tortured, executed, god knows what. The place looked peaceful enough,
but that didn't prove a thing.I went on walking, looking for something
I couldn't be sure existed in acity I was completely unfamiliar with in a
time when I had no right tobe alive. It wasn't just a matter
of getting the information she wanted.I'd have been satisfied to hang around until

(56:21):
she pulled me back without the data, But then what would happen? Maybe
the starvation cases were people who hadfailed her. For that matter, she
could shoot me and send the remainsanywhere in time to get rid of the
evidence. Damn it. I didn'tknow if she was better or worse than
I'd supposed, but I wasn't goingto take any chances. I had to
bring her what she wanted. Therewas a sign up ahead. It read

(56:42):
two shopping center. The arrow pointedalong the road. When I came to
a fork and wondered which way togo, there was another sign, then
another pointing to still more farther on. I followed them to the middle of
the city, a big square witha park in the center and shops of
all kinds rimming it. The onlyshop was interested in, said electrical appliances.
I went in. A neat youngsalesman came up and politely asked me

(57:07):
if he could do anything for me. I sounded stupid, even to myself,
but I said no, thanks,I'd just like to do a little
browsing and gave a silly, nervouslaugh, me an actor, behaving like
a frightened yokel. I felt ashamedof myself. He tried not to look
surprised, but he didn't really succeed. Somebody else came in, though,
for which I was grateful, andhe left me alone to look around.

(57:28):
I don't know if I can getmy feelings across to you. It's a
situation that nobody would ever expect tofind himself in, so it isn't easy
to tell what it's like, ButI've got to try. Let's stick with
the ancient Egyptian I mentioned a whileback, the one ordered to sneak a
mummy out of the Metropolitan Museum.Maybe that'll make it clearer. The poor
guy has no money he can usenaturally, and no idea of what New

(57:51):
York's transportation system is like, wherethe museum is, how to get there,
what visitors to a museum do,and say, the regulations he might
unwittingly break. How much in ordinarycitizen is supposed to know about which customs
and such. Now add the possibledanger that he might be slapped into jail
or an insane asylum if he makesa mistake, And you've got a rough
notion of the spot I felt Iwas in. Being able to speak English

(58:14):
doesn't make much difference. Not knowingwhat's regard it is right and wrong,
and the unknown consequences are enough topanic anybody that doesn't make it clear enough.
Well, look, take the electricalappliances in that store. That might
give you an idea of the situationand the way it affected me. The
appliances must have been as familiar tothe people of that time as toasters and

(58:34):
t V sets and lamps are tous. But the things didn't make a
bit of sense to me any morethan our appliances would to the ancient Egyptian.
Can you imagine him trying to figureout what those items are for and
how they work. Here are somegadgets you can puzzle over. There was
a light fixture that you put againstany part of a wall, no screws,
no cement, no wires even,and it held there and lit up,

(58:57):
and it stayed lit no matter whereyou moved it on the wall.
Talk about pin up lamps. Thiswas really it. Then I came across
something that looked like an ashtray witha blue electric shimmer obscuring the bottom of
the bowl. I lit my pipe. Others i'd passed had been smoking,
so I knew it was safe todo the same, and flicked in the
match. It disappeared. I don'tmean it was swirled into some hidden compartment.

(59:20):
It vanished. I emptied the pipeinto the ashtray and that went too.
Looking around to make sure nobody waswatching, I dredged some coins out
of my pocket and let them dropinto the tray. They were gone,
not a particle of them was lefta descendicrator. I haven't got the slightest
idea. There were little mirror boxeswith three tiny dials on the front of
each. I turned the dials onone. It was like using three dial

(59:44):
telephones at the same time, anda pretty girl's face popped onto the mirror
surface and looked expectantly at me.Yes, she said, and waited for
me to answer. I am wrongnumber, I guess, I answered,
putting the box down in a hurryand going to the other side of the
shop because I didn't have even adim notion how to turn it off.
The thing I was looking for wason a counter, a tinted metal box

(01:00:07):
no bigger than a suitcase, witha lipped hole on top, and small
undisguised verniers in front. I didn'tknow i'd found it, actually, until
I twisted a vernier, and everylight in the store suddenly glared, and
the salesman came rushing over and politelymoved me aside to shut it off.
We don't want to burn out everyappliance in the place, do we,
he asked quietly. I just wantedto see if it worked all right,

(01:00:30):
I said, still shaking slightly.He could have blown up or electrocuted me
for all I knew. But theyalways work, he said, ah,
always. Of course. The principleis simple, and there are no parts
to get worn out, so theylast indefinitely. He suddenly smiled, as
if he'd just caught the gist.Oh, you were joking. Naturally,

(01:00:50):
everybody learns about the dynah pack inprimary education. You were interested in acquiring
one? No, no, no, no, the old one is good
enough. I was just well,you know, I'm interested in knowing if
the new models are much different orbetter than the old ones. But there
haven't been any new models since twentyseventy three, he said. Can you
think of any reason why there shouldbe? I guess not, I stammered.

(01:01:14):
But you never can tell. Youcan with dynapacks, he said,
And he would have gone on ifI hadn't lost my nerve and mumbled my
way out of the store as fastas I could. You want to know
why, He'd asked me, ifI wanted to acquire a dynapack, not
buy one. I didn't know whatacquire meant in that society. It could
be anything from saving up coupons towinning whatever you wanted at some kind of

(01:01:37):
lottery, or maybe working up theright number of labor units on the job,
in which case he'd want to knowwhere I was employed and the equivalent
of social Security and similar information,which I naturally didn't have. Or it
could just be fancy sales talk forbuying. I couldn't guess, and I
didn't care to expose myself any morethan I had already, and my blunder
about the dynapack working and the newmodels was nothing to make me feel at

(01:01:58):
all easier. Lord, the uncertaintiesand hazards of being in a world you
don't know anything about. Daydreaming aboutvisiting another age may be pleasant, but
the reality is something else. Again. Wait a minute, friend, I
heard the salesman call out behind me. I looked back as casually, I
hoped as the pedestrians who heard him. He was walking quickly toward me,
with a very worried expression on hisface. I stepped up my own pace

(01:02:22):
as unobtrusively as possible, trying tokeep a lot of people between us,
meanwhile praying that they'd think I wasjust somebody who was late for an appointment.
The salesman didn't break into a runor yell for the cops, but
I couldn't be sure he wouldn't.As soon as I came to a corner,
I turned it and ran like hell. There was a sort of alley
down the block. I jumped intoit, found a basement door, and
stayed inside, pressed against the wall, quivering with tension and sucking air like

(01:02:45):
a swimmer who'd stayed under water toolong. Even after I got my wind
back, I wasn't anxious to goout. The place could have been cordoned
off, with the police, thearmy, and the navy all cooperating to
nab me. What made me thinkso Not a thing, except remembering how
puzzled our ancient Egyptian would have beenif he got arrested in the subway for
doing something everybody did casually and withoutpunishment in his own time, spitting.

(01:03:09):
I could have done something just asinnocent, as far as you and I
are concerned, that this era wouldconsider a misdemeanor or a major crime,
and in what age was ignorance ofthe law ever an excuse. Instead of
going back out, I prowled carefullyinto the building. It was strangely silent
and deserted, I couldn't understand whyuntil I came to a laboratory. There

(01:03:29):
were little commodes and wash basins thatcame up to barely above my knees.
The place was a school, naturally, it was deserted. The kids were
through for the day. I couldfeel the tension dissolve in me, like
a ramrod of ice melting, nolonger keeping my back and neck stiff and
taut. There probably wasn't a betterplace in the city for me to hide.
A primary school, the salesman hadsaid to me. Everybody learns about

(01:03:54):
the dynapack in primary education. Goingthrough the school was eerie, like visiting
a familiar childhood scene that had beendistorted by time into something almost totally unrecognizable.
There were no blackboards, teachers,big desk, children's little desks,
ink wells, pointers, globes,or books. Yet it was a school.

(01:04:15):
The small fixtures in the lavatory downstairshad told me that, and so
did the miniature chairs drawn neatly underthe low, vividly painted tables in the
various schoolrooms. A large comfortable chairwas evidently where the teacher sat when not
wandering among the pupils. In frontof each chair firmly attached to the table
was a box with a screen,and both sides of the box held spools
of wire on blunt, little spindles. The spools had large, clear numbers

(01:04:39):
on them. Near the teacher's chairwas a compact case with more spools on
spindles, and there was a largescreen on the inside wall opposite the enormous
windows. I went into one ofthe rooms and sat down in the teacher's
chair, wondering how I was goingto find out about the dynapack. I
felt like an archeologist guessing at thefunctions of strange relics he'd found in a
dead city. Sitting in the chairwas like sitting on a column of air

(01:05:02):
that let me sit upright or slumpas I chose. One of the arms
had a row of buttons. Ipressed one and waited nervously to find out
if I'd done something that would getme into trouble. Concealed lights in the
ceiling and walls began glowing, gettingbrighter, while the room gradually turned dark.
I glanced around bewilderedly to see why. Because it was still daylight,

(01:05:24):
the windows seemed to be sliding slightly, very slowly, and as they slid
the sunlight was damped out. Igrinned, thinking of what my ancient Egyptian
would make of that. I knewthere were two sheets of polarizing glass,
probably with a vacuum between to keepout the cold and the heat, and
the lights in the room were beautifullysynchronized with the polarized sliding glass. I

(01:05:45):
wasn't doing so badly. The restof the objects might not be too hard
to figure out. The spools inthe case alongside the teacher's chair could be
wire recordings. I looked for somethingto play them with, but there was
no sign of a playback machine.I tried to lift a spool off a
spindle. It wouldn't come off,ha The wire led down the spindle to
the base of the box, holdingthe spool in place. That meant the

(01:06:06):
spools could be played right in thatposition, but what started them playing.
I hunted over the box minutely.Every part of it was featureless, no
dials, switches, or any unfamiliarcounterparts. I even tried moving my hands
over it, figuring it might belike a pheroman, and spoke to it
in different shades of command. Becauseit could have been built to respond to
vocal orders. Nothing happened. Rememberthe post story that shows the best place

(01:06:30):
to hide something is right out inthe open, which is the last place
anyone would look. While these thingsweren't manufactured to baffle people any more than
our devices generally are, but it'sonly by trying everything that somebody who didn't
know what a switch is would startup a vacuum cleaners, say, or
light a big chandelier from a wallclear across the room. I'd pressed every
inch of the box, hoping somepart of it might act as a switch,

(01:06:51):
and I finally touched one of thespindles. The spool immediately began spinning
at a very low speed, andthe screen on the wall of deposite the
window glowed into life. The historyof the exploration of the Solar system,
said an announcer's deep voice, isone of the most adventuresome in Mankind's long
list of achievements, beginning with thecrude rockets developed during World War Two.

(01:07:16):
There were newsreel shots of V oneand V two being blasted from their takeoff
ramps, and a montage of laterexperimental models. I wished I could see
how it all turned out, butI was afraid to waste the time watching.
At any moment I might hear thefootsteps of a guard or janitor,
or whoever tended buildings. Then Ipushed the spindle again. It checked the
spool, which rewound swiftly and silently, and stopped itself. When the rewinding

(01:07:40):
was finished, I tried another.A nightmare underwater scene appeared with the aid
of energy screens. Said another voice, The oceans of the world were completely
charted by the year twenty twenty seven. I turned it off. Then another
on developments in medicine, one onarchitecture, one on history, the geography
of such places as the interior ofSouth America and Africa that were or are

(01:08:03):
unknown today. And I was gettingfrantic, starting the wonderful wire films that
held full frequency sound and pictures inabsolutely faithful color, and shutting them off
hastily when I discovered they didn't havewhat I was looking for. They were
courses for children, but they allcontained information that our scientists are still groping
for, and I couldn't chance watchingone all the way through. I was

(01:08:26):
frustratedly switching off a film on psychologywhen a female voice said from the door,
may I help you, I snappedaround to face her in sudden fright.
She was young and slim and slight, but she could scream loud enough
to get help. Judging by theway she was looking at me, outwardly
polite and yet visibly nervous, thatscream would be coming at any second.
I must have wandered in here bymistake, I said, and pushed past

(01:08:48):
her to the corridor, where Ibegan running back the way I had come.
But you don't understand, she criedafter me. I really want to
help. Yeah, help, Ithought, pounding towards the street door.
A gag right out of that psychologyfilm. Probably get the patient to hold
still, humor him until he canget somebody to put him where he belongs.
That's what one of our teachers woulddo, provided she wasn't too scared

(01:09:10):
to think straight, if she foundan old looking guy thumbing frenziedly through the
textbooks in a grammar school classroom.When I came to the outside door,
I stopped. I had no wayof knowing whether she'd given out an alarm
or how she might have done it, but the obvious place to find me
would be out on the street.Dodging for cover somewhere, I pushed the
door open and let it slam shot, hoping she'd hear it upstairs. Then

(01:09:32):
I found a door, sneaked itopen, and went silently down the steps
in the basement. I looked fora furnace, or a coal bin or
a fuel tank to hide behind,but there weren't any. I don't know
how they got their heat in thewinter or cooled the building in the summer.
Probably some central atomic plant that tookcare of the whole city, piping
in the heat, or coolant inunderground conduits that were led up through the

(01:09:53):
walls. Because there weren't even anypipes visible, I hunched into the darkest
corner I could find and hope theywouldn't look for me there. By the
time night came, hunger drove meout of the school, but I did
it warily, making sure nobody wasin sight. The streets of the shopping
center were more or less deserted.There was no sign of a restaurant.
I was so empty that I feltdizzy as I hunted for one. But

(01:10:15):
then a shocking realization made me halton the sidewalk and sweat with horror.
Even if there had been a restaurant, what would I have used for money?
Now I got the whole foul picture. She had sent old people back
through time on errands like mine,and they had starved to death because they
couldn't buy food. Nah, thatwasn't right. I remembered what I had

(01:10:36):
told lou Pape. Anybody who getshungry enough can always find a truck garden
or a food store to rob.Only I hadn't seen a truck garden or
food store anywhere in this city,and I thought about people in the past
having their hands cut off for stealinga loaf of bread. This civilization didn't
look as if it went in forsuch drastic punishments, assuming I could find

(01:10:59):
a loaf of bread to steal,but neither did most of the civilizations that
practiced those barbarisms. I was moretired, hungry, and scared than I'd
ever believed a human being could getlost, completely lost in a totally alien
world, but one in which Icould still be killed or starved to death.
And God knew what was waiting forme in my own time in case

(01:11:19):
I came back without the information shewanted, or maybe even if I came
back with it. That suspicion madeup my mind for me. Whatever happened
to me now couldn't be worse thanwhat she might do. At least I
didn't have to starve. I stoppeda man in the street. I'd let
several others go by before picking himdeliberately because he was middle aged, had

(01:11:40):
a kindly face, and was smallerthan me, so I could slug him
and run if he raised a row. Look, friend, I told him,
I'm just passing through town. Ah, he said pleasantly, and I
seemed to have mislaid. No,that was dangerous. I'd been about to
say i'd mislaid my wallet, butI still didn't know whether they used money
in this era. He waited witha patient, friendly smile while I decided

(01:12:02):
just how to put it. Thefact is that I haven't eaten all day,
and I wonder if you could helpme get a meal, he said,
in the most neighborly voice imaginable.I'll be glad to do anything I
can, mister Weldon. My entireface seemed to drop open. You you
called me, mister Weldon, herepeated, still looking up at me with

(01:12:25):
that neighborly smile. Mark Weldon,isn't it from the twentieth century? I
tried to answer, but my throathad tightened up, worse than on any
opening night I'd ever had to livethrough. I nodded, wondered terrifiedly.
What was going on? Please relax, he said, persuasively. You're not
in any danger. Whatever we offeryou our utmost hospitality, our time,

(01:12:47):
you might say, is your time. You know who I am. I
managed to get out through my constrictedclaudys. I've been doing all this running
and ducking and hiding for nothing,he shrugged sympathetically. Everyone in the city
was instructed to help you, butyou were so nervous that we were afraid

(01:13:08):
to alarm you with a direct approach. Every time we tried to. As
a matter of fact, you vanishedinto one place or another. We didn't
follow for fear of the effect onyou. We had to wait until you
came voluntarily to us. My brainwas racing again and getting nowhere. Part
of it was dizziness from hunger,but only part. The rest was plain
frightened confusion. They knew who Iwas, They'd been expecting me. They

(01:13:30):
probably even knew what I was after, and they wanted to help. Let's
not go into explanations now, hesaid, although I'd like to smooth away
the bewilderment and fear on your face, but you need to be fed first.
Then we'll call in the others.And I pulled back, what others?
How do I know you're not settingup something for me that I'll wish
I hadn't gotten into before you approachedme, Mister Weldon, you first had

(01:13:55):
to decide that we represented no greatermenace than may Roberts. Please believe me,
we don't. So he knew aboutthat too. All right, I'll
take my chances. I gave inresignedly. Where does a guy find a
place to eat in this city?It was a handsome restaurant with soft light
coming from three dimensional, full colorednature murals that I might mistakenly have walked

(01:14:17):
into if I'd been alone. Theylooked so much like gardens and forests and
plains. It was no wonder Icouldn't find a restaurant or food store or
truck garden anywhere. Food came upthrough pneumatic shoots in each building I'd been
told on the way, over grownin hydroponic tanks in cities that specialized in
agriculture, and those who wanted toeat out could drop into the restaurant.

(01:14:39):
Each building had each city had itsown function. This one was for people
in the arts. I liked thatthere was a glowing menu on the table
with buttons alongside the various selections.I looked starvingly at the items, trying
to decide which I wanted most.I picked oysters onion soup, breast of
guinea hen under plexiglass, and washunting for the tastiest and most recognized will

(01:15:00):
dessert. When the pleasant little guyshook his head regretfully and emphatically. I'm
afraid you can't eat any of thosefoods, mister Weldon, he said,
in a sad voice. We'll explainwhy. In a moment, a waiter
and the manager came over. Theyobviously didn't want to stare at me,
but they couldn't help it. Icouldn't blame them. I'd have stared at
somebody from George Washington's time, whichis about what I must have represented to

(01:15:21):
them. Will you please arrange tohave the special food for mister Weldon delivered
here? Immediately? The little guyasked, every restaurant has been standing by
for this, mister Carr, saidthe manager. It's on its way prepared.
Of course, it's been ready sincehe first arrived. Fine, said
the little guy Carr. It can'tbe too soon. He's very hungry.

(01:15:43):
I glanced around and noticed for thefirst time that there was nobody else in
the restaurant. It was past thedinner hour, but even so there are
always late diners. We had theplace all to ourselves, and it bothered
me. They could have ganged upon me, but they didn't. A
light gong sounded, and the waiterand manager hurried over to a slot of
a door and brought out a coupleof trays loaded with covered dishes. Your

(01:16:03):
dinner, mister Weldon, the managersaid, putting the plates in front of
me and removing the lids. Istared down at the food. This,
I told them angrily, is ahell of a trick to play out a
starving man. They all looked unhappilymashed dehydrated potatoes, canned meat, and
canned vegetables. Carr replied, notvery appetizing, I know, but I'm

(01:16:25):
afraid it's all we can allow youto eat. I took the cover off
the dessert dish dried fruits, Isaid, in disgust, rather excessively dried,
I'm sorry to say. The manageragreed mournfully. I sipped the blue
stuff in a glass and almost spatit out powdered milk. Are these things
what you people have to live on? No, our diet is quite varied,

(01:16:47):
Car said, in embarrassment, Butwe unfortunately can't give you any of
the foods we normally eat ourselves.And why in blazes not please eat,
mister Weldon, Car begged with franticearnestness. There's so much to explain.
This is part of it, ofcourse, and it would be best if
you heard it on a full stomach. I was famished enough to get the
stuff down, which wasn't easy.Uninviting as it looked, it tasted still

(01:17:12):
worse. When I was through,Car pushed silver buttons on the glowing menu.
Dishes came up from an opening inthe center of the table, and
he showed me the luscious foods theycontained. Given your choice, he said,
you'd have preferred them to what youhave eaten. Isn't that so,
mister Weldon? You bet I would, I answered, sore, because I
hadn't been given that choice, andyou would have died like the pathetic old

(01:17:33):
people you were investigating, said avoice behind me. I turned around,
startled. Several men and women hadcome in while I'd been eating, Their
footsteps as silent as cats on arug. I looked blankly from them to
car and back again. These arethe clothes we ordinarily wear, Carr said,
an eighteenth century motif. As youcan see, updated knee breeches and

(01:17:55):
shirtwaists, a modified stock for theman, the daring low bodices of that
era, the full skirts treated ina modern way by using sheer materials.
For the women, bright colors andsheens, buckled shoes of spun synthetics.
Very gay, very ornamental, verycomfortable, and thoroughly suitable to our time.
But every one I saw was dressedlike me. I protested only to

(01:18:16):
keep you from feeling more conspicuous andanxious than you already were. It was
quite a project, I can tellyou. Your styles varied so greatly from
decade to decade, especially those werewomen, and the materials were a genuine
problem. They'd gone out of existencelong ago. We had the textile and
tailoring cities working a full six monthsto close the inhabitants of this city,
including of course the children. Everybodyhad to be clad as your contemporaries were,

(01:18:41):
because we knew only that you wouldarrive in the vicinity, not where
you might wander through the city.There was one small difference you didn't notice,
added a handsome, mature woman,you were the only man in a
gray suit. We had a fulldescription of what you were wearing, you
see, and we made sure nobodyelse was dressed that way. Naturally,
everybody knew who you were, andso we were kept informed of your movements.

(01:19:01):
What for, I demanded an alarm, what's this all about? Pulling
up chairs? They sat down,looking to me like a witchcraft jury from
some old painting. I'm Leo Blundell, said a tall man in plumb and
gold clothes. As chairman of theMark Weldon Committee, it's my responsibility to
handle this project correctly, project,to make certain that history is fulfilled.

(01:19:28):
I have to tell you as muchas you must know. I wish somebody
would very well. Let me beginby telling you much of what you undoubtedly
know already. In a sense,you are more a victim of doctor Anthony
Roberts than his daughter Roberts was abrilliant physicist, but because of his eccentric
behavior, he was ridiculed for hisseries and hated for his arrogance. He

(01:19:50):
was an almost perfect example of selfdefeat, the way in which a man
will hamper his career and wrecked hishappiness and then blame the world for his
failure and misery. To get backto his connection with you, however,
he invented a time machine, unfortunatelyits secret has since been lost and never
rediscovered, and used it for antisocialpurposes. When he died, his daughter

(01:20:13):
May carried on with his work.It was she who sent you to this
time to learn the principle by whichthe dynapack operates. She was a thoroughly
ruthless woman. Are you sure,i asked uneasily. Quite sure. I
know a number of old people diedafter she sent them on errands through time.
But she said they'd lied about theirage and health. One would expect

(01:20:33):
her to say that a woman putin cuttingly. Blundell turned to her and
shook his head. Let mister Weldonclarify his feelings about her, Rhoda.
They are obviously very mixed. Theyare, I admitted, She seemed hard
the first time I saw when Ianswered her ad. But she could have
just been acting business like. Imean, she had a lot of people

(01:20:54):
to pick from, and she hadto be impersonal and make certain she had
the right one the next time.You don't know about that. It was
really my fault for breaking into herroom. I really had a lot of
admiration for the way she handled thesituation. Go on. Carr encouraged me,
and I can't complain about the dealshe gave me. Sure, she
came out ahead on the money Ibet and invested for. But I did

(01:21:15):
all right myself. I was richerthan I'd ever been in my life,
and she gave that money to mebefore I even did anything to earn it.
Besides which somebody else said, sheoffered you half of the profits on
the DNA pack. I looked aroundat the faces for signs of hostility.
I saw none. That was surprising. I had come from the past to
steal something from them, and theyweren't at all angry. Well, no,

(01:21:41):
it wasn't really stealing. I wouldn'tbe depriving them of the DYNA pack.
It just would have been invented beforeit was supposed to be she did,
I said, though I wouldn't callthat part of it philanthropy. She
needed me for the data, andI needed her to manufacture the things,
and she was a very beautiful woman. Blundell added, I squirmed a bit.
Yes, mister Weldon, we knowa good deal about her from notes

(01:22:03):
that have come down to us.Among her private papers, she had a
safety deposit bucks under a false name. I won't tell you the name.
It was not discovered until many yearslater, and we will not voluntarily meddle
with the past. I sat upand listened sharply. So that's how you
knew who I was, and whatI'd be wearing, and what I came
for. You even knew when andwhere I'd arrive. Correct, Blundell said,

(01:22:27):
what else do you know? Thatyou suspected her of being responsible for
the deaths of many old people bystarvation. Your suspicion was justified, except
that her father had caused all thosethat occurred before. In nineteen forty seven,
when she took over after his owndeath, all but two people were
sent into the past. Roberts wascurious about the future, of course,
but he did not want to wastea victim on a trip that would probably

(01:22:48):
be fruitless. In the past.You understand, he knew precisely what he
was after the future was completely unknownterritory. But she took the chance,
I said, if you can calldeliberate murder taking a chance. Yes,
one man arrived in twenty ninety four, over fifty years ago. The other
was yourself. The first one,as you know, died of malnutrition when

(01:23:10):
he was brought back to your era. And what happened to me? I
asked, jittering, you will notdie. We intend to make sure of
that. All the other victims.I presume you're interested in their errands.
I think I know, but I'dlike to find out just the same.
They were sent to the past tobuy or steal treasures of various sorts,

(01:23:31):
art, sculpture, jewelry, fabulouslyvaluable manuscripts and books, anything that had
great scarcity value. It's not possible, I objected. She had all the
money she wanted. Anytime she neededmore, all she had to do was
send somebody back to put down batsand buy stocks that she knew were winners.
She had the records, didn't sheThere was no way she or her

(01:23:54):
father could lose He moved his shouldersin a plum and gold shrug. Most
of the treasures they accumulated were foracquisition's sake and for the sake of vengeance
for the way they believed doctor Robertshad been treated. When there were unusual
expenses, such as replacing the verycostly parts of the time machine that required

(01:24:14):
more than they could produce in readycash, both Roberts and his daughter discovered
these treasures. He waited while Idigested the miserable meal and the disturbing information
he had given me. I thoughtI'd found a loophole in his explanation.
You said people were sent back tothe past to buy treasures, besides stealing
them, I did. He agreedthey were provided with currency of whatever era

(01:24:40):
they were to visit. I feltmy forehead wrinkle up as my theory fell
apart. Then they could buy food. Why should they have died of malnutrition?
Because, as may Roberts herself toldyou, nothing can exist before it
exists, Neither can anything exist afterit is out of existence. If returned
with a dynapack, for example,it would revert to a lump of various

(01:25:02):
metals, because that was what itwas in your period. But let me
give you a more personal instance.Do you remember coming back from your first
trip with dust on your hand?Yes? I must have fallen on one
hand. No, mister Weldon mayRoberts was greatly upset by the incident.
She was afraid you would realize whythe hamburger had turned to dust, and

(01:25:24):
why the old people died of starvation, all of them, not just a
few. He paused, giving mea chance to understand what he had just
said. I did with a sickshock. If I ate your food,
I said shakily, I'd feel satisfieduntil I returned to my own time.
But the food wouldn't go along withme. Blundell nodded gravely, and so

(01:25:49):
you, too would die of malnutrition. The foods we have given you existed
in your era. We were verycareful of that, so careful that many
of them probably were stored years beforeyou left your time. We regret that
they are not very palatable, butat least we are positive they will go
back with you. You will beas healthy when you arrive in the past

(01:26:09):
as when you left. Incidentally,she made you change your clothes for the
same reason they had been made innineteen thirty. She had clothing from every
era she wanted visited, and choseold people who would fit them best.
Otherwise, you see, they'd havearrived naked. I began to shake,
as if I were as old asI'd pretended to be on the stage.
She's going to pull me back ifI don't bring her information about the dynapack.

(01:26:32):
She'll shoot me. That, misterWeldon, is our problem, Blundell
said, putting his hand comfortingly onmy arm. To call me your problem.
I'm the one who will get shot, not you. But we know
in complete detail what will happen whenyou are returned to the twentieth century.
I pulled my arm away and grabbedhis. You know that. Tell me

(01:26:54):
I'm sorry, mister Weldon. Ifwe tell you what you did, you
might think of some alternate action,and there is no knowing what the result
would be. But I didn't getshod or die of malnutrition. That much
we can tell you neither. Theyall stood up so bright and attractive in
their colorful clothes that I felt likea shirt sleeved stage hand who'd wandered in

(01:27:14):
on a costume play. You willbe returned in a month, According to
the notes May Roberts left. Shegave you plenty of time to get the
data. You see. We proposeto make that month an enjoyable one for
you. The resources of our cityand any others you care to visit,
are at your disposal. We wishyou to take full advantage of them and
the dynapack. Let us worry aboutthat. We want you to have a

(01:27:38):
good time while you are our guest. I did. It was the most
wonderful month of my life. Themesh cage blurred around me. I could
see may Roberts threw it her hand, just leaving the switch. She was
as beautiful as ever, but Isaw beneath her beauty the vengeful, vicious
creature. Her father's bitterness had turnedher into Blundell and Carr had let me

(01:28:00):
read some of her notes, andI knew. I wished I could have
spent the rest of my years inthe future instead of having to come back
to this. She came over andopened the gate, smiling like an angel
welcoming a bright new soul. Thenher eyes traveled startledly over me, and
her smile almost dropped off, butshe held it firmly in place. She

(01:28:20):
had to while she asked, doyou have the notes I sent you for?
Right here, I said, Ireached into my breast pocket and brought
out a stubby automatic and shot herthrough the right arm. Her closed hand
opened, and a little derringer clankedon the floor. She gaped at me
with an expression of horrified surprise thatshould have been recorded permanently. It would

(01:28:41):
have served as a model for generationsof actors and actresses. You brought back
a weapon, she gasped, Youshot me. She stared vacantly at her
bleeding arm, and then at myautomatic. But you can't bring anything back
from the future, and you aren'tdying of malnutrition. She said it all

(01:29:01):
in a voice shocked into toneless wonder. The food I ate and this gun
are from the present, I said. The people of the future knew I
was coming. They gave me foodthat wouldn't vanish from my cells when I
returned. They also gave me thegun instead of the plans for the dynapack,
and you took it. She screamedat me, you idiot. I'd
have shared the prophets honestly with you. You'd have been worth millions. With

(01:29:27):
acute malnutrition, I amended. Ilike it better this way. Thanks,
poor but alive or relatively poor,I should say, because you've been very
generous, and I appreciate it.By shooting me, I hated to puncture
that lovely arm, but it wasn'tas painful as starving or getting shot myself.
Now, if you don't mind,or even if you do, it's
your turn to get into the cage, miss Roberts. She tried to grab

(01:29:50):
for the derringer on the floor withher left hand. Don't bother, I
said quietly. You can't reach itbefore a bullet reaches you. She up,
staring at me for the first timewith terror in her eyes. What
are you going to do to me? She whispered. I could kill you
as easily as you could have killedme. Kill you and send your body

(01:30:12):
into some other era. How manydozens of deaths were you responsible for?
The law couldn't convict you of them? But I can, and I couldn't
be convicted either. She put herhand on the wound. Blood seeped through
her fingers as she lifted her chinat me. I won't beg for my
life, Weldon. If that's whatyou want, I could offer you a
partnership. But I'm not really ina position to offer it, am I.

(01:30:34):
She was magnificent, terrifyingly intelligent,brave, clear through, and deadlier
than a plague. I had toremember that. Into the cage, I
said, I have some friends inthe future who have plans for you.
I won't tell you what they are. Of course, you didn't tell me
what i'd go through. Did yougive my friends my fondest regards. If

(01:30:54):
I can manage it, I'll visitthem and you. She backed warily into
the cage. Would have been pleasantto kiss those wonderful lips goodbye. I'd
thought about them for a whole month, wanting them and loathing them at the
same time. It would have beenlike kissing a coral snake. I knew
it, and I concentrated on shuttingthe gate on her. You'd like to

(01:31:14):
be rich, wouldn't you, Weldon, she asked through the mesh. I
can be, I said, Ihave the machine. I can send people
into the past or future and makemyself a pile of dough. Only i'd
give them food to take along.I wouldn't kill them off to keep the
secret to myself. Anything else onyour mind? You want me, she
stated. I didn't argue. Youcould have me just long enough to get

(01:31:40):
my throat slid or brains blown out. I don't want anything that much.
I rammed the switch closed, Themesh cage blurred, and she was gone.
Her blood was on the floor,but she was gone into the future
I had just come from. Thatwas when the reaction hit me. I'd
escaped starvation and her gun, butI wasn't a hero, and the release
of tension flipped my stomach over andunhinged my knees. Shaking badly, I

(01:32:02):
stumbled through the big empty house untilI found a phone. Lou Pape got
there so quickly that I still hadn'tgotten over the tremors. In spite of
a bottle of brandy, I dugout of a credenza. May be because
the date on the label, seventeensixty three, gave me a new case
of the shivers. I could seethe worry on Lou's face vanished when he
assured himself that I was all right. It came back again, though,

(01:32:25):
when I told him what had happened, he didn't believe any of it.
Naturally, I guess I hadn't reallyexpected him to if I didn't know you,
Mark, he said, shaking hisbig dark head unhappily, I'd send
you over to Bellevue for observation,even knowing you. Maybe that's what I
ought to do. All right,Let's see if there's any proof, I
suggested tiredly. From what I wastold, there ought to be plenty.

(01:32:49):
We searched the house clear down tothe basement, where he stood with his
face slack christ he breathed the annexedto the Metropolitan Museum. The basement ran
the length and breadth of the houseand was twice as high as an average
room, And the whole glittering placewas crammed with paintings and rich heavy frames,

(01:33:10):
statuettes, books, manuscripts, gobletsand ewers, and jewelry made of
gold, and huge gems and tapestriesin brilliant color. And everything was as
bright and sparkling and new as theday it was made, which was almost
true of a lot of it.The Dame was loaded, and she was
an art collector, that's all,lu said. You can't sell me that

(01:33:30):
screwy story of yours. She wasa collector, and she knew where to
find things. She's certainly dead Iagreed. What did you do with her?
I told you I shot her throughthe arm before she could shoot me,
and I sent her into the future. He took me by the front
of the jacket. You killed hermark. You wanted all the stuff for
yourself, so you knocked her offand got rid of her body somehow.

(01:33:54):
Why don't you go back to actingwhere you belong, lou and leave sleuthing
to people who know how? Iasked, too warm to pull his hands
loose. Would I kill her andcall you up to get right over here?
Wouldn't I have sneaked these things outfirst, or more likely, I'd
have sneaked them out, hidden them, and nobody, including you, would
know I'd ever been here. Comeon, use your head, that's easy.

(01:34:15):
You lost your nerve. I'm noteven losing my patience. He pushed
me away savagely. If you killedher for this stuff or because of that
crazy yarn you gave me, I'ma cop and you're no friend. You're
just a plain killer. I happento have known once, and I'll make
sure you fry. You always didhave a taste for that kind of dialogue.

(01:34:36):
Go ahead and wrap me up inan airtight case. Have them throw
the book at me, send meup the river, put me in the
hot squat. But you'll have todo the proving, not me. He
headed for the stairs. I will, and don't try to make a break,
or I'll plug you as if Inever saw you before. He put
in a call at the phone upstairs. I didn't give a particular damn who

(01:34:57):
it was he'd called. I wastoo relieved that I hadn't klled may Roberts,
destroying anything that beautiful. However,evil would have stayed with me the
rest of my life. There wasanother reason for my relief. If I'd
killed her and left the evidence forLudi find, he'd never help me.
No, that's not quite so.He'd probably have tried to get me to
plead insanity on the basis of myunbelievable explanation. But most of all,

(01:35:18):
I couldn't get rid of the lookon her face when i'd shot her through
the arm, the arm that wasso wonderful to look at, and that
had held a murderous little gun togreet me with. She was in the
future. Now she wouldn't be executedby them. They regarded crime as an
illness and they'd treat her with theirmarvelously advanced therapy, and she'd become a
useful, contented citizen, living outher existence in an era that had given

(01:35:41):
me more happiness than I'd ever had. I sat and tried to stupefy myself
with brandy that should long ago havedried to brick hardness, while Lou Pape
stood at the door with his handnear his holster and glared at me.
He didn't take his eyes off meuntil somebody named Professor Jeremiah Arranson came in
and was introduced briefly and flatly tome. Ben Lou took him upstairs.

(01:36:03):
It was minutes before I realized whatthey were going to do. I ran
up after them. I was justin time to see Aaronson carefully take the
housing off the hooded motors and leapback. Suddenly, from the fury of
lightning sparks, the whole machine fused. While we watched helplessly. Motors,
switches, panel and mesh cage.They flashed blindingly and blew apart and melted

(01:36:23):
together in a charred and molten pile. Rigged Aaronson said in the tone of
a bitter curse set to short ifit was tampered with, I wouldn't be
surprised if there were incendiaries placed atstrategic spots. Nothing else could have made
a mess like this. He finallyglanced down at his hand and saw it
was scorched. He hissed with therealization of pain, blew on the burn,

(01:36:45):
shook it in the air to coolit, and pulled a handkerchief out
of his back pocket by reaching allthe way around the rear for it with
his left hand. Lou looked helplesslyat the heap of cooling slag. Can
you make any sense of it?Proff he asked, Can you, retorted,
melt down a microtome or any otherpiece of machinery you're unfamiliar with,
and see if you can identify itwhen it looks like this. He went

(01:37:09):
out, wrapping his hand in thehandkerchief. Luke kicked glumly at a piece
of twisted tubing. Aaronson is atop physicist, Mark. I was hoping
he'd make enough out of the machine, too. How hell I wanted to
believe you, I couldn't. Istill can't. Now we'll have to dig
through the house to find her body. You won't find it or the secret

(01:37:29):
of the machine, I answered miserably. I told you they said the secret
would be lost. This is hownow I'll never be able to visit the
future again. I'll never see themor may Roberts. They'll straighten her out,
get rid of her hate and vindictiveness, and it won't do me a
damned bit of good, because themachine is gone and she's generations ahead of
me. He turned to me puzzledly. You're not afraid to have us dig

(01:37:51):
for her body, mark tear theplace apart if you want, We'll have
to, he said. I'm callinghomicide all in the Marines, call in
anybody you like. You'll have tostay in my custody until we're through.
I shrugged. As long as you'llleave me alone while you're doing your digging,
I don't give a hang if I'munder arrest for suspicion of murder,

(01:38:13):
I've got to do some straightening out. I wish the people in the future
could take on the job. Theycould do it faster and better than I
can, but some nice, peacefulquiet would help. He didn't touch me
or say a word to me.As we waited for the squad to arrive.
I sat in the chair and shutout first him, and then the
men with their sounding hammers and crowbarsand all the rest. She'd been ruthless
and callous, and she'd murdered oldpeople with no more pity than a wolf

(01:38:36):
among the herd of helpless sheep.But Blundell and Carr had told me that
she was as much a victim asthe oldsters who'd died of starvation with the
richest she'd given them, still untouchedon deposit in the banks, or stuffed
into hiding places, or pinned totheir shabby clothes. She needed treatment for
the illness her father had inflicted onher. But even he, they'd said,

(01:38:56):
had been suffering from a severe emotionaldisturbance, and proper care could have
made a great and honored scientist outof him. They'd told me the truth
and made me hate her, Andthey told me their viewpoint and made that
hatred impossible. I was here inthe present without her, The machine was
gone. Yearning over something I couldn'tchange would destroy me. I had no
right to destroy myself. Nobody did, they told me, And nobody who

(01:39:20):
reconciles himself to the fact that somesituations just are impossible to work out,
ever could I'd realized that when thesquad packed up and left and Lou Pape
came over to where I was sitting, you knew we wouldn't find her,
he said. That's what I kepttelling you. Where is she in Port
sa'yed, exotic hell, whole ofthe world, where she's dancing in veils

(01:39:43):
for the depraved? Cut out thekidding. Where is she? What's the
difference, Lou, She's not here, is she? That doesn't mean she
can't be somewhere else dead. She'snot dead. You don't have to believe
me about anything else, just that. He haled me out of the chair
and stared hard, hard at myface. You aren't lying, he said.
I know you well enough to knowyou're not all right then, But

(01:40:08):
you're a damned fool to think adish like that would have any part of
you. I don't mean you're nothinga woman would go for, but she's
more fang than female. You'd haveto be richer and better looking than her,
for one thing. Not after myfriends get through with her. She'll
know a good man when she seesone, and I'd be what she wants.
I slid my hand over my nakedscalp with a head of hair.

(01:40:29):
I'd look my real age, whichhappens to be a year younger than you,
if you remember, she'd go forme. They checked our emotional quotients,
and we'd be a natural together.The only thing was that I was
bald. They could have grown hairon my head, which would have taken
care of that, and then we'dhave gotten together like gin and Tonic lu
arched his black eyebrows at me.They really could grow hair on you.

(01:40:51):
Sure, Now you want to knowwhy I didn't let em. I glanced
out the window at the smoky city. That's why they couldn't tell me if
I'd ever get back to the future. I wasn't taking any chances as long
as there was a possibility that I'dbe stranded in my own time. I
wasn't going to lose my livelihood,which reminds me you have anything else to

(01:41:12):
do. Here. There'll be aguard stationed around the house, and all
her holdings in art will be takenover until she comes back. She won't
or is declared legally dead, andme, I broke in. We can't
hold you without proof of murder.Good enough, then let's get out of
here. I have to go backon duty, he objected, not any
more. I've got over fifteen thousanddollars in cash and deposits, enough to

(01:41:36):
finance you and me, enough tokill her for enough to finance you and
me, I repeated, doggedly.I told you I had the money before
she sent me into the future.All right, all right, he interrupted,
let's not go into that again.We couldn't find a body, so
you're free. Now, what's thisabout financing the two of us. I

(01:41:57):
put my fingers around his arm andsteered him out the street. The city
has never had a worse cop thanyou, I said, why, Because
you're an actor, not a cop. You're going back to acting, lou
This money will keep us both goinguntil we get a break. He gave
me the slid eyed look he'd pickedup in line of duty. That wouldn't
be a bribe, would it?Call it am kind of memorial to a

(01:42:19):
lot of poor, innocent, oldpeople and a sick, tormented woman.
We walked along in silence, outin the clean sunshine. It was our
silence. The sleek cars and burlytrucks made their noise, and the pedestrians
added their gabble. But a goodStanislovski actor like Lou wouldn't notice that.
Neither would I ordinarily, But Iwas giving him a chance to work his

(01:42:40):
way through this situation. I won'thand you a lie mark, he said.
Finally, I never stopped wanting toact. I'll take your deal on
two considerations. All right, Whatare they? That? Whatever I take
off you is strictly alone, noargument. What's the other? He had
an unlit cigarette almost to his lips. He held it there while he said

(01:43:00):
that any time you come across acase of an old person who died of
starvation with thirty thousand dollars stashed awaysomewhere, you turn fast to the theatrical
page and not tell me or eventhink about it. I don't have to
agree to that. He lowered thecigarette, stopped and turned to me.
You mean it's no deal, Notthat, I said. I mean there

(01:43:20):
won't be any more of those casesbetween knowing that and both of us back
acting again. I'm satisfied. Youdon't have to believe me. Nobody does.
He lit up and blew out apretty plume, fine and slow and
straight, which would have televised likea million in the bank. Then he
grinned, you wouldn't want a beton that, would you not? With

(01:43:42):
a friend, I do all myshare thing betting with bookies. Then make
it a token bet. He said, one buck that somebody dies of starvation
with a big poke within a year. I took the bet. I took
the dollar a year later, andof the old dye rit by H.
L. Gould