Tampering with events of the past could bring
disastrous results in the future. It was why
Brek was given a pair of six-guns to catch—
THE TIME SNATCHER
By Randall Garrett
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy
February 1957
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
"We're in a hell of a jam, Brek," the Councillor said. "If Sagginer isn't stopped, he'll change history. The situation's desperate."
Time Patrolman Brek Halliday nodded in agreement. It was a tense situation. Time travel, he knew, was possible only so long as the traveller into the past did nothing that would change history significantly; the time-stream itself would straighten out little changes in the past so that overall history would remain the same.
But a big change was something else again. If you stick your finger in a river, there are a few ripples around it, but the flow of the river remains the same. If you build a dam, though....
"When is he?" Brek asked. "Do we know?"
"Fortunately, yes. He forced one of our operators to use one of the chronokinetic projectors, and then kidnapped her and took her with him. But he didn't know that the power drain was measurable and had been recorded on the meters. We know how much energy he used, so we know how far into the past he went. We've got him pinpointed in the area of the old United States, somewhere between 1880 and 1895."