"Edigo—you know, Jack, that fellow still reminds me of somebody I know—Edigo explained it to me when I made him admit this future business was true. The future can be changed, and we could change the present if we could influence the past. And don't I wish I could manage that trick!" Ken added greedily. "So every time we put a dime in their account—pop!—at their end, they've got an extra hundred dollars or more in the bank."
"I suppose so," said Jack thoughtfully. "But how about this fellow Edigo digging the basement? The basement's already there now. The real one, I mean."
"In a hundred years, two hundred years, you think it'll still be there?" demanded Ken scornfully. "Old Caswell's basement's going to fill in again, and some time in the future, this fellow Edigo Adaman's going to dig it out again. You know, Jack, with that name, he could be a descendant of mine."
"He seemed to think he might be, from what he said that first evening."
"Look, buddy, we'll have to go back," said Ken, pulling the car into a cloverleaf to turn around. "I've got a date with Lorene tonight, and I'm sure anxious to see her face when she climbs into this buggy."
"Sure," said Jack. "But drop me off at the bargain basement, will you? I've got an idea for something I want to buy."
Edigo looked at Jack curiously. There was that odd familiarity to the man's face that Jack couldn't quite place.
"We have strict regulations against influencing an individual's attitudes by artificial means," he said. "But I don't suppose it's against the law in your time, is it?"
"Not unless it's a dangerous or habit-forming drug," said Jack. "Possession of certain drugs, you know, can get you a stiff prison sentence. But there are milder things, like perfumes and alcohol, that influence people temporarily. That's sort of what I had in mind, only with a stronger effect—not a habit-forming drug."