And then, out of the formless veil, came a shimmer of light. A nebulous something that grew more solid, became more and more sharply visible as our cries attracted it, and finally coalesced into—
Our own time-machine! With us sitting in it!
CHAPTER V
The Time Twins
It's funny how, in moments of stress, dejection, or great elation, your mind will focus upon some tiny, relatively unimportant point.
I should have been whooping with joy to look upon a set of familiar faces, even though those faces were our own. But do you know, my first conscious reaction was one of rage? And why? Because, naturally, the first guy I looked at was myself—and there I was, sitting in that other ship, calmly munching on a great big rosy apple!
I said, "Why, you damn glutton! You ought to be ashamed! I've got half a notion to—"
I grinned at me ... I mean, he grinned at me ... or I mean I grinned at he ... oh, hell, you know what I mean! The other Jim Blakeson grinned at me and said, "What's the fuss, pal? Hungry? We figured you might be. Here, catch!"
And he tossed the remainder of his apple at me. I clutched at it greedily. But of course it fell right into and through my grasping fingers, through my lap and the base of the time-ship, and into the emptiness below. I've often wondered what became of that apple. At that particular moment, we had just lifted ourselves from a weird America where the ruling class was made up of magicians, necromancers and students of demonology. I've often wondered if the apple came tumbling out of the sky to smack some son of a witch on the head.