"'You would not be afraid to return to your own time, Henri?' asked Rastin, and I shook my head.
"'I want to return to it,' I told them. 'I want to tell my people there what I have seen—what the future is that they must strive for.'
"'But if they should not believe you?' Thicourt asked.
"'Still I must go—must tell them,' I said.
"Rastin grasped my hand. 'You are a man, Henri,' he said. Then, throwing aside the cloak and hat I had worn outside, they went with me down to the big white-walled room where first I had found myself.
"It was lit brightly now by many of the shining glass things on ceiling and walls, and in it were many men. They all stared strangely at me and at my clothes, and talked excitedly so fast that I could not understand. Rastin began to address them.
"He seemed explaining how he had brought me from my own time to his. He used many terms and words that I could not understand, incomprehensible references and phrases, and I could understand but little. I heard again the names of Einstein and De Sitter that I had heard before, repeated frequently by these men as they disputed with Rastin and Thicourt. They seemed disputing about me.
"One big man was saying, 'Impossible! I tell you, Rastin, you have faked this fellow!'
"Rastin smiled. 'You don't believe that Thicourt and I brought him here from his own time across five centuries?'
"A chorus of excited negatives answered him. He had me stand up and speak to them. They asked me many questions, part of which I could not understand. I told them of my life, and of the city of my own time, and of king and priest and noble, and of many simple things that they seemed quite ignorant of. Some appeared to believe me but others did not, and again their dispute broke out.