"Well—that's it, then. All aboard, gang. Time-machine leaves on Track 3 in five minutes."
But curiously none stepped forward to join him and Sheila. Red stared at his companions impatiently.
"Well, what's the matter? Doc, are you ready?"
Dr. Aiken coughed apologetically.
"Sheila, my dear," he said to his daughter, "I—I am not returning with you. I am an old man. There is not a great deal of time remaining in the hourglass of my years. I would spend those last remaining sands seeing new things, learning secrets all men have longed to know. Sugriva has said I may return with him to Gaanelia. It is a temptation too great to resist. You—you understand, my dear?"
Sheila cried, "But if you don't return, daddy, then neither will we. Ramey and I will remain with you—"
"No!" the archeologist's voice was firm. "No, you must return! Someone must carry back to the Twentieth Century a knowledge of what we have seen and done here in a forgotten age. You bear precious knowledge, vital information, to Earth's scientists. You alone can read the cipher of Angkor Vat, tell men whence it came and why, and where vanished its once mighty populace."
Ramey said, "We alone? But you speak as if Sheila and I were the only ones returning!"
Syd O'Brien spoke for the twins. He said, "I can't take Lake back to our time now, Ramey. The machine would set us in a desolate spot, perhaps in danger. And he is blind. Here he can receive medical care. Perhaps, later on, after Sugriva has lifted the veil from Lake's eyes—as he has said he can and will—we will join you again. But for the time being—Well, you see how it is."