He carried her, then, to where the picture Gustav Jerbette had painted
stood. A strange picture, for that day and age, for it portrayed Mark
Carter and his fiancee, Elaine Duchard, standing side by side in front
of a building clearly identifiable as Professor Duchard's laboratory.
And the pair were dressed, not in the garb of eighteenth century France,
but in that of twentieth century America.

"Shut your eyes, Elaine!"

Wearily, the dying girl obeyed.

With one savage jerk, Mark whipped the cover from another stand. A stand
on which stood a mirror. A mirror whose surface seemed to ripple in the
fading light. A circular mirror, full three feet in diameter. A mirror
with a garishly ornate frame.

His hands trembling with feverish haste, Mark adjusted the picture to
reflect in the glass.

Already the door was cracking.

He snatched Elaine from where she lay. Held her half-conscious body
before the mirror.

"Open your eyes, Elaine! Open your eyes and look at that girl in the
mirror! Concentrate on her, Elaine! _Concentrate!_"

His own eyes were fixed on the image of his twentieth century self that
Gustav Jerbette had painted. His brain ached with the force of will he
was exerting. He felt himself falling through endless miles of space.
Falling ... falling ... falling....

"Thank God!" exclaimed Professor Duchard fervently. "You both are safe!"

Dazedly, Mark and Elaine looked at each other across the narrow aisle
separating their white hospital beds. Across the room, sunlight streamed
in an open window, its rays glistening on the snowy linen of a third but
empty bed.

"What happened?" Mark queried in a bewildered tone. "I was in your
laboratory, professor, and Vance rushed in--"

"You went through the time mirror, my boy. Back to eighteenth century
France. And Vance went with you. Apparently he came too close to the
glass in his eagerness to stop you; his eyes must have focussed on one
of the other figures from Jerbette's picture, reflected in the gap
through the space-time barrier. He fell in a coma at the same instant
you did."

"But I don't remember anything!" Mark protested. "I was going to go back
through time to save Elaine, even if I had to change history to do it.
Then Vance came in, and everything went blank--"

"Yes," broke in Elaine. "The same thing happened to me. I was sitting in
front of the mirror Adrian gave me. Then I saw my ancestor from the
painting, and I seemed to be falling--"

P