“Then let us return to the drawing-room at once.”
She turned away from me, and walked towards the Time Machine. She gripped one of the brass rails in her hands, and immediately the Machine trembled as before.
She said: “You heard what Sir William said. Time and Space are inseparable. There is no need for you to leave in the next few minutes. Although the Machine is designed to travel into futurity, it will also move across spatial distances. In short, although it will journey across thousands of years, it can also be used for a trip as prosaic as taking a friend to the station.”
“You are still jesting,” I said. “Nor am I convinced that the Machine will even travel in Time.”
“But it has been proved.”
“Not to my satisfaction it hasn’t,” I said.
She turned to face me, and her expression was as serious as before. “Then allow me to demonstrate it to you!”
“No, Amelia! It would be foolhardy to drive the Machine!”
“Why, Edward? I know what to do … I have watched Sir William’s tests often enough.”
“But we do not know the craft is safe!”
“There would be no danger.”
I simply shook my head with the agony of the moment. Amelia turned back to the Machine and reached over to one of the dials. She did something to this, then pulled back the lever with the bicycle handle-bar attached.
Instantly, the Time Machine vanished!
ii
“Look at the clock on the wall, Edward.”
“What have you done with the Machine?” I said.
“Never mind that… what is the time by the clock?”
I stared up. “Eighteen minutes to ten.
“Very well. At exactly sixteen minutes to ten the Machine will re-appear.”
“From where?” I said.
“From the past … or, more precisely, from now. It is presently travelling through Time, to a point two minutes in the future of its departure.”
“But why has it vanished? Where is it at this moment?”
“Within the attenuated Temporal Dimension.” Amelia stepped forward to where the Machine had been, and walked through the vacancy waving her arms. She glanced up at the clock.
“Stand well back, Edward. The Machine will re-appear exactly where it was.”
“Then you must come away too,” I said.
I pulled her by the arm, and held her close beside me a few yards from where the Machine had been. We both watched the clock. The second hand moved slowly round … and at exactly four seconds after sixteen minutes to ten, the Time Machine reappeared.
“There!” said Amelia, triumphantly. “Just as I said.” I stared dumbly at the Machine. The great fly-wheel was turning slowly as before.
Amelia took my hand again. “Edward … we must now mount the Machine.”
“What?” I said, appalled at the idea.
“It is absolutely imperative. You see, while Sir William has been testing the Machine he has incorporated a safety-device into it which automatically returns the Machine to its moment of departure. That is activated exactly three minutes after its arrival here, and if we are not aboard it will be lost forever in the past.”
I frowned a little at this, but said: “You could switch that off, though?”
“Yes … but I’m not going to. I wish to prove that the Machine is no folly.”
“I say you are drunk.”
“And I say you are too. Come on!”
Before I could stop her, Amelia had skipped over to the Machine, squeezed under the brass rail and mounted the saddle. To do this she was obliged to raise her skirt a few inches above her ankles, and I confess that I found this sight considerably more alluring than any expedition through Time could have been.
She said: “The Machine will return in under a minute, Edward. Are you to be left behind?”
I hesitated no more. I went to her side, and clambered on to the saddle behind her. At her instruction I put my arms around her waist, and pressed my chest against her back.
She said: “Look at the clock, Edward.”
I stared up at it. The time was now thirteen minutes to ten. The second hand reached the minute, moved on, then reached he time of four seconds past.
It stopped moving.
Then, it began to move in reverse… slowly at first, then faster.
“We are travelling backwards in Time,” Amelia said, a little breathlessly. “Do you see the clock, Edward?”
“Yes,” I said, my whole attention on it. “Yes, I do!”
The second hand moved backwards through four minutes, then began to slow down. As it approached four seconds past eighteen minutes to ten it slowed right down, then halted altogether. Presently it began to sweep forward in a normal way.
“We are back at the moment in which I pressed the lever,” said Amelia. “Do you now believe that the Time Machine is no fraud?”
I still sat with my arms around her waist, and our bodies were pressed together in the most intimate way imaginable. Her hair lay gently against my face, and I could think of nothing but the nearness of her.
“Show me again,” I said, dreaming of an eternity of such closeness. “Take me into futurity!”
iii
“Can you see what I am doing?” Amelia said. “These dials can be preset to the very second. I can choose how many hours, days or even years we can travel.”
I roused myself from my passionate imaginings, and peered over her shoulder. I saw her indicating a row of small dials, which were marked with days of the week, months of the year … and then several others which counted tens, hundreds and then thousands of years.
“Please don’t set our destination too far,” I said, looking at the last dial. “I still have to think of my train.”
“But we will return to our moment of departure, even if we should travel a hundred years!”
“Maybe so. Let us not be rash.”
“If you are nervous, Edward, we need travel only as far as’ tomorrow.”
“No … let us make a long trip. You have shown me the Time Machine is safe. Let us go to the next century!”
“As you wish. We can go to the one beyond, if you prefer.”
“It is the Twentieth Century I am interested in … let us first go forward ten years.”
“Only ten? That hardly seems adventurous.”
“We must be systematic,” I said, for although l am not fainthearted, I am not an adventurous person. “Let us go first to 1903, and then to 1913, and so on at ten-yearly intervals through the century. Perhaps we will see a few changes.”
“All right. Are you ready now?”
“That I am,” I said, settling my arms about her waist again. Amelia made further adjustments to the dials. I saw her select the year 1903, but the day and month dials were too low for me to see.
She said: “I have selected 22nd June. That is the first day of summer, so we shall probably find the weather clement.”
She placed her hands on the lever, and then straightened. I braced myself for our departure.
Then, much to my surprise, Amelia suddenly stood up and moved away from the saddle.
“Please wait for a moment’ Edward,” she said. “Where are you going?” I said, in some alarm. “The Machine will take me with it.”
“Not until the lever is moved. It is just. … Well, if we are going such a long distance, I should like to take my hand-bag.”
“Whatever for?” I said, hardly believing my ears. Amelia looked a little embarrassed. “I don’t know, Edward It is just that I never go anywhere without my hand-bag.”
“Then bring your bonnet too,” I said, laughing at this most unlikely revelation of feminine foibles.