. But to go ahead, with the
current at one's back, was different. I spent six years on the
problem, working day and night, handicapped by lack of funds,
ridiculed by the press--Look!"

Harbauer reached inside his antiquated costume and drew forth a flat
packet which he passed to me. I unfolded it curiously, my fingers
clumsy with excitement.

I could hardly believe my eyes. The thing Harbauer had handed me was a
folded fragment of newspaper, such as I had often seen in museums. I
recognized the old-fashioned type, and the peculiar arrangement of the
columns. But, instead of being yellow and brittle with age, and
preserved in fragments behind sealed glass, this paper was fresh and
white, and the ink was as black as the day it had been printed. What
this man said, then, must be true! He must--

"I can understand your amazement," said Harbauer. "It had not occurred
to me that a paper which, to me, was printed only yesterday, would
seem so antique to you. But that must appear as remarkable to you as
fresh papyrus, newly inscribed with the hieroglyphics of the ancient
Egyptians, would seem to one of my own day and age. But read it; you
will see how my world viewed my efforts!" There was a sharpness, a
bitterness, in his voice that made me vaguely uneasy; even though he
had solved the riddle of moving in time as men have always moved in
space, my first conjecture that I had a madman to deal with might not
be so far from the truth. Ridicule and persecution have unseated the
reason of all too many men.

* * * * *

The type was unfamiliar to me, and the spelling was archaic, but I
managed to stumble through the article. It read, as nearly as I can
recall it, like this:

Harbauer Says Time

Is Like Great River

Jacob Harbauer, local inventor, in an exclusive interview,
propounds the theory that man can move about in time exactly
as a boat moves about on the surface of a swift-flowing
river, save that he cannot go back into time, on account of
the opposition of the current.

That is very fortunate, this writer feels; it would be a
terrible thing for example, if some good-looking scamp from
our present Twenty-first Century were to dive into the past
and steal Cleopatra from Antony, or start an affair with
Josephine and send Napoleon scurrying back from the front
and let the Napoleonic wars