CHAPTER VI
SHIPWRECKED ON THE SANDS OF TIME
Rebecca was the first of the three to waken. Over her small window she had hung a black shawl to keep out the light, and upon this screen were thrown recurrent flashes of sunlight.
"Still a-swingin'," she murmured. "Wonder how fur back we be now!"
She was herself surprised at the eagerness she felt to observe at last the results of their extraordinary attempt.
She rose quickly and was very soon ready to leave her room. She was longing to see Phœbe—Phœbe as she had been when a girl.
Opening her door, she was astonished to find the lamps of the main room aglow and to see Copernicus in his shirt-sleeves, asleep with his head on the table.
As she stepped out of her own room, her senses were offended by the odor of alcohol. With horror she realized that rum, the spirit of all the sources of evil, had found its way into their abode.
She entertained so violent a repugnance for liquors and for men under their influence that she could not bring herself to approach Copernicus.