Time for Sale by Ralph Milne Farley Read online

Page 3

wildest expectations, so that instead of an

  while minutes lagged within. Porter wanted to

  hour of your time equaling a mere two weeks

  get out. He felt caged.

  of mine, it will equal several years.”

  Finally with a snort of exasperation he

  sat down again and stooped to pick up the

  Porter glanced at his wrist-watch with

  newspaper from the floor.

  growing panic, then hurriedly read on:

  And then for the first time he noticed

  an envelope lying on the floor beside the table.

  “I shall let you out thirty years or so

  It was sealed and addressed to him in the

  from now. By that time Evelyn will be an old

  handwriting of Dr. Hatch. Porter’s heart woman, no longer physically attractive to you, skipped a beat, and then raced madly, as he

  who will be still in your youth. And I shall

  picked up the envelope, slit it open, and have had her to myself all that intervening spread out the contents on the table. Leaning

  period.

  over it, he read with increasing alarm: “My

  “The controls are automatic—you had

  not been told that fact either—and so I can

  Dear Young Assistant.

  wall-off this cabinet, and forget about it until

  “Last night for the first time I noticed

  the appointed time. Meanwhile a forged letter

  your infatuation for my wife. I suppose that it from you to Mrs. Hatch will explain that you

  is my fault for marrying one so young and

  have come out of the cabinet and have gone

  beautiful.

  away to some distant land to forget about

  “It explains a lot of things about you

  her—a gentlemanly gesture of renunciation,

  and her which have been vaguely puzzling me

  which will effectively prevent Evelyn and your for some time. When a full realization finally father from looking for you. I shall send her

  Amazing Stories

  10

  on a short trip which she has been wanting to

  and act quickly.

  take; and, when she returns, she will find your But how about the locked door?

  letter. The cabinet containing you will by then He could break the glass.

  be gone.”

  But how about the danger from the

  sudden equalization of entropy?

  Now what on earth could Dr. Hatch

  Porter smiled grimly to himself. Dr.

  mean by that, Porter wondered uneasily! He

  Hatch’s letter had cited a number of things

  continued to read:

  which Porter did not know; but one thing

  which Hatch himself did not know was that

  “If anything should happen to me his assistant had been experimenting with this before your brief-seeming imprisonment of equalization-of-entropy theory, and had found thirty years is over, the need for it and hence it to be not altogether correct.

  the imprisonment itself will come to an end

  He had tried opening the door of one

  through the shutting off of the power for of the guinea-pig cabinets without first nonpayment of meter-charges.

  switching off the electric power, and had

  “But, barring that, I shan’t let you out

  discovered that if the door were opened just a

  until Evelyn has aged sufficiently to be in no mere crack, and if the little animals were kept

  further danger of your unwelcome advances.

  far enough away from the opening until the

  “The door is locked. Don’t break the

  entropy inside had had a chance to equalize

  glass—the rush of entropy would kill you.

  with that outside, no bad results were

  P.

  LANFORD

  HATCH.”

  noticeable.

  Porter set his jaw, and ran his fingers

  So now he’d make just a small hole in

  through his shaggy black hair. So this is how

  the glass, and P. Lanford Hatch, Ph.D., would

  Dr. Hatch repaid him for playing square. Now

  be thwarted!

  for the first time Porter realized how much

  Porter picked up one of the chairs

  Evelyn Hatch—the mere sight of her flaming

  which helped to furnish his narrow cell, and

  presence in the office every day—had meant

  posed it preparatory to jamming one of its legs

  to him, and how much self-restraint he had

  against the black glass panel of the door. Then

  really exhibited in not making love to her.

  hesitated.

  Evelyn aging? Those copper-gold

  For it was one thing to subject a

  locks losing their metallic luster, and guinea-pig to the rush of entropy, but quite becoming muddy and then gray? Those clear

  another matter to try the experiment on

  cool green eyes dimming? The pink himself even after several guinea-pigs had peach-bloom fading from her cheeks? Her demonstrated its safety.

  luscious curves sagging and turning flabby?

  Lowering the chair and placing it on

  Impossible!

  the floor with deliberation, Porter sat down

  He must get out of this entropy-cabinet

  heavily upon it, leaned his elbows on the

  before that sacrilege occurred! And, once out

  table, and buried his sinewy fingers in his dark

  of here, he’d no longer let Dr. Hatch stand in

  shaggy hair. What to do?

  his way. This scurvy trick which his boss had

  But no ideas came. Gradually his

  played on him, made them quits. All is fair in

  thoughts roamed off to Evelyn as he had seen

  love and war. Dr. Hatch had declared war. So

  her last, seated cool and assured at her desk,

  be it!

  when he had bade her an airy au revoir a

  Porter glanced at his wrist-watch couple of hours ago. A couple of hours? Years again. An hour and thirty-eight minutes! Two

  and years, probably. God!

  or three years had sped outside! He must act,

  Porter glanced at his wrist-watch. It

  Time for Sale

  11

  registered two hours, almost to a dot. But just

  transparent, no longer black, although thick

  how much time this represented in the world

  with dust. Most of the panes were cracked,

  outside he could only guess. Ten years and many were completely smashed. When he perhaps.

  had entered this enclosure two hours or so

  He rose unsteadily to his feet, blinked

  ago, it had stood in one corner of the open

  his blue eyes a couple of times, then gave his

  laboratory of Dr. Hatch; but now it was

  massive head a shuddering shake to clear the

  closely surrounded by a gray brick wall, old

  cobwebs from his brain. The flaming Evelyn

  and shattered. So this is what the doctor’s

  was worth any risk! He picked up the chair

  letter had meant about the cabinet being

  with renewed resolution, and poised it to “gone”!

  thrust one of its legs against the confining

  Several pieces of brick had penetrated

  glass.

  his enclosure through the broken window

  But he never completed the thrust. An

  panes, and lay about him on the floor.

  echoing crash smote him an invisible blow

  Opposite the glass door of his enclosure there

  which hurled him to the floor. Intense heat
/>
  was an iron door in the brick wall.

  unbearably seared him through to the marrow,

  Getting dazedly to his feet, Porter

  until he speedily lapsed into blessed picked up a chair and smashed his way out.

  unconsciousness.

  But he was unable to open the iron door,

  evidently locked on the outside.

  CHAPTER IV

  He surveyed the brick barrier all about

  An Unexpected Adjustment

  him. One of the jagged holes in the wrecked

  wall seemed large enough for him to squeeze

  PORTER awoke still lying on the floor of the

  his body through, so he smashed enough of

  entropy cabinet. An icy chill pervaded the air,

  the glass of his cabinet on that side to avoid

  and he reached instinctively for the blankets,

  risk of cutting himself, and then wormed his

  thinking himself in bed.

  way out through the gap.

  Suddenly his mind cleared, and he sat

  Once more he stood in the laboratory

  bolt upright and stared around him. He of Dr. Hatch. Except for the fact that this one remembered now—he had been about to corner had been walled off, and that some of thrust a chair-leg through the black glass wall

  the electrical apparatus seemed older and

  of his prison, when an explosion had occurred,

  more complicated, very few alterations

  throwing him to the floor. Had this explosion

  appeared to have been made in the ten years or

  been of his own causing, he wondered. Had he

  so which had elapsed.

  smashed too large an area of glass, and been

  But the whole place lay devastated.

  overwhelmed by the sudden equalization of

  Windows broken. Huge gaps in the walls. A

  entropy? This thought caused him to large section of the ceiling fallen down. The remember the unbearable burning sensation

  laboratory looked exactly as though it had

  which he had experienced just before he had

  been under shell-fire!

  become unconscious; so now he ran his

  As if in answer to this thought, there

  powerful hands gingerly over his body—but

  wafted in from the distance a number of dull

  there was no evidence of any burns.

  booms, followed by what seemed the staccato

  The chill was now abating—it rattle as of anti-aircraft machine-gun fire.

  appeared to have been an internal chill, rather

  (Later he found out the explosion resulted

  than due to any coldness of the air.

  from some experiments in war explosives

  Porter

  stared

  around him more being conducted by Dr. Hatch for the War seeingly. The glass walls of his cabinet were

  Department.)

  Amazing Stories

  12

  Where was Evelyn in all this?

  years and years since Dr. Hatch locked me up

  Galvanized to action, Porter clambered

  in that time-cabinet, but I didn’t think that

  over a pile of debris which blocked the you’d forget me so easily.”

  doorway between the laboratory and the front

  “Where is my father?” asked the girl.

  office. Where her desk had stood, there was a

  “What!”

  huge heap of bricks piled up against the

  “And mother, too. I’m looking for

  elevator shaft, and above the heap the sky

  them. I ran home just as fast as I could, after

  showed through a gap in the floor above and

  we heard the explosion. And who are you?”

  in the roof above that.

  A great light dawned on Tom Porter.

  Evelyn might be lying helpless beneath

  “You’re little Evelyn!” he cried.

  all those bricks.

  “Of course. And now I remember you.

  Lunging forward, Porter set to heaving

  You’re that nice football man, who told me all

  bricks off the pile. For a few moments he

  those interesting stories one evening at home

  worked with frantic desperation. Then ten years ago. Ever since that night, you’ve realizing that his chances of saving Evelyn

  been my hero. But I never saw you again. And

  Hatch would be improved by more systematic

  whenever I asked about you, Daddy always

  effort, he strove to calm himself and conserve

  glared, and Mother always looked sad; so

  his strength.

  finally I stopped asking. We must look for

  His muscles rippling in rhythmic them.”

  cadence, he hauled and heaved. The heap of

  “Little Evelyn!” Porter’s voice was full

  bricks dwindled. One corner of the desk of awe, as he appraised her. Then, “Your appeared. Then the entire desk, crushed and

  mother and father aren’t here, dear. There was

  marred by the jagged weight which had only one pile of debris big enough to cover descended upon it.

  them, and I’ve just frantically dug that away

  “No human body could live under this

  looking for her—them.”

  pile!” Porter exclaimed in an agonized tone.

  The iron door of the stair-well clanged

  Yet, with bleeding hands, aching muscles, and

  and creaked open again. There stood Dr.

  tortured lungs, he continued to struggle on.

  Hatch, older now and stooped, and completely

  He uncovered her beloved chair. bald. And Mrs. Hatch, still beautiful, but Finally the last brick was heaved away, and

  matronly and with hair now a chestnut shade

  Porter stopped his labors, panting. A great

  instead of copper-gold.

  peace descended over him. Evelyn Hatch’s

  With a glad little cry, their daughter

  body was not there!

  dashed over to them. “Daddy! Mother!” She

  A metal door off to one side clanged,

  nestled in their embrace.

  and then creaked rustily open. Porter wearily

  Dr. Hatch stared at Porter through

  turned. And there, framed in the doorway of

  thick-lensed glasses, and recoiled fearfully as

  the stair-shaft, stood a vision of flaming hair

  though he expected to be struck.

  and jade-green eyes, more glorious and radiant

  But Porter smiled reassuringly at him.

  than ever.

  Then, as he compared the mature beauty of

  “Evelyn!” Porter gasped, stumbling Mrs. Hatch with the glorious youthfulness of toward her.

  her daughter, he said, “I hold nothing but

  But she recoiled with surprise and gratitude for you, doctor. Do you remember uncertainty.

  the words of the letter which you left in the

  “Who are you?” she exclaimed, in cabinet for me ten years ago, that the entropy those well-remembered tones.

  machine could be used to adjust disparate

  “Don’t you know me? Of course it’s

  ages. Well, in my case at least, it appears to

  Time for Sale

  13

  have justified that use.”

  blushed a delightful, happy pink and smiled

  Little Evelyn, in her mother’s arms,

  understandingly up at him.

 

 

 
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