rk right!" he said aloud. "Didn't I go back five weeks
with that future man? Didn't he----"

A fearful thought struck him. Had he perhaps made a mistake? Had they
been cutting meridians the wrong way?

But no; the indicator could not be wrong, and that registered a
constantly earlier date.

"Ah, I know!" he suddenly exclaimed. "I'll ask Cousin Phoebe."

He reflected a moment. Yes--the idea was a good one. She would be only
fifteen years old by this time, and must certainly have changed to an
extent of which he was at his age incapable. Besides, she had been
asleep, and nervous insomnia could not be responsible for retarding the
evidences of youth in her case. His agony of dread lest this great
experiment fail made him bold.

He walked directly to Phoebe's door and knocked--first softly, then
more loudly.

"Cousin Phoebe--Cousin Phoebe," he said.

After a few calls and knockings, there came a sleepy reply from within.

"Well--what--who is it?"

"It's Cousin Copernicus," he said. "Please tell me. Hev ye shrunk any
yet?"

"What--how?" The tones were very sleepy indeed.

"Hev ye shrunk any yet? Are ye growin' littler in there? Oh, please feel
fer the footboard with yer toe!"

He waited and heard a rustling as of someone moving in bed.

"Did ye feel the footboard?" he asked.

"Yes--kicked it good--now let me sleep." She was ill-natured with much
drowsiness.

Poor Droop staggered away from the door as though he had been struck.

All had failed, then. They were circling uselessly. Those inventions
would never be his. The golden dreams he had been nursing--oh,
impossible! It was unbearable!

He put both hands to his head and walked across the room. He paused
half-consciously before a small closet partly hidden in the wall.

With an instinctive movement, he touched a spring and the door slid
back. He drew from the cupboard thus revealed two bottles and a glass
and returned to seat himself at the table.

A half an hour later the Panchronicon, circling in the outer brightness
and silence, contained three unconscious travellers, and one of them sat
with his arms flung across the table supporting his head, and beside him
an empty bottle.

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