Tourmalin's Time Cheques

F. Anstey
GREENHILL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY


TOURMALIN'S TIME CHEQUES

Tourmalin's Time Cheques.
On Deck .— Curry and Culture .— Alternative Distractions .— A Period of Probation .— The Oath and the Talisman .— Wavering .— A Chronological Error .— The Time Bargain .— Tourmalin Opens an Account.
Mr. Peter Tourmalin was sitting, or rather lying, in a steamer-chair on the first-class saloon-deck of the P. and O. steamer Boomerang , which had not been many days as yet on the voyage home from Sydney. He had been trying to read; but it was a hot morning, and the curry, of which he had partaken freely at breakfast, had made him feel a little heavy and disinclined for mental exertion just then, particularly as Buckle's History of Civilisation , the first volume of which he had brought up from the ship's library, is not exactly light literature at any time.

He wanted distraction of some sort, but he could not summon up sufficient energy to rise and pace the deck, as his only acquaintance on board, a Mr. Perkins, was doing with a breezy vigour which Tourmalin found himself feebly resenting.