Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 61: what you’re looking at

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

THE MAN WHO MASTERED TIME. then, but if it had not snowed that night I should never have returned to you. But it did snow—tremendous flakes, that soon came in a thick, soft cloud, and blotted out everything around me. “T had put into my pocket my fur cap with ear tabs. I soon found I would have to wear it, but I would take it off before there was any chance of the girl seeing me. “ ¥ was heading across the wind, plowing through the loose snow, I-could see only a few feet ahead of me. . It was a path- less waste. And suddenly the whimsical thought came that I was crossing Fifty- Ninth Street, from the ferry, and soon I - would be near Columbus Circle. It was the same space, the same location. Nothing was different but the time—the changes time had brought.” Loto smiled at his friends. « “The same space,’ murmured the Big Business Man. “ Just think what an in- finity of things that same space holds! Fifty-Ninth Street, from the ferry to Co- Jumbus Circle! Think of itin 1776! Or at the time of Christ! Or before the Stone Age!” ‘And all the centuries between,” the Doctor added. 3 “ Or that gigantic city at its height, two thousand years from now,” Georgie put in. “Think of what that space held then!” “T took out my compass,” Loto resumed, “and by the light of my electric torch, I consulted it, heading as nearly as I could toward the hotise. So far as I had been able to tell before, there was no other habitation on the island. “I suppose I struggled along for nearly an hour. I figured I must be in the vicinity of the house now—though I could see noth- mg but the snow covered ground a few feet ahead of me, the whirling flakes close at hand, and blackness overhead. Without warning, through a rift in the clouds to the east, came moonlight—a gigantic, egg shaped moon with a reddish tinge to it that gave the scene a lurid, extremely weird look. “The house was in sight, ahead and to the left on a slight rise of ground no more than a quarter of a mile away. I was faced now with the necessity for a definite course of action. From the laboratory, “main doorway of the house. 695 with my telescope, I had occasionally seen the girl late at night sitting in the central living room of the house. I had seen her through the transparent door and windows; and she had always left the public room to the southeast. The house faced south; I felt that her room was in the southeast end. The inclosure lay mostly behind the house —to the north, with the dog kennel in its extreme northern wall. | “This was all advantageous to me. I knew I had to keep down the wind from those dogs. With a wind of from twenty to thirty miles an hour blowing from them to me, I felt sure that they would not get my scent. My plan was to get into the house—either through a sort of gateway in the southeast wall of the inclosure or directly in through a window. I would jocate the girl, carry her away—by force, I suppose. I was confident—absurdly so, I realize now. I think it was the enthusiasm —the excitement of being actually engaged in what I had contemplated for two long years—had worked so hard to attain. ‘“My heart was beating fast as I crept forward, Collinger in my gloved hand. It was still snowing hard, and presently the cloud swept back over the newly risen moon; but I was now so close up that I could see the dark outlines of the house, and the wall of the inclosure. “The building was only one story, but quite high, with a queer looking overhang- ing roof—mound shaped, The wall of the inclosure was some ten feet high. I circled to the south, and was soon close up to the The whole place was piled with snow. There was not a sound—only the wind howling as it swept in gusts under the low eaves. “The glass door—I suppose it was glass was a single rectangular pane in a dark nar- row frame. It was no more than three feet broad, and at least twelve feet high. Be- hind it I could see the interior dimly lighted —a soft, blue-white light. I could not see where it came from. “For quite a while I must have stood there motionless, peering in. A portion of a large room -was in the line of my sight. It seemed unoccupied—a back wall hung with something dark; a sort oO CORMICLOOKSsEO Tape hon | hh, ppb 4s Bre Mid nee a de ash is