al box,
small enough to carry, that could supply this whole city with power to
run its industries and light its homes and streets!"

"Sounds good. Who'd you say benefits if I get it?"

"We share the profits equally, of course. But it must be understood
that we sell the power so cheaply that everybody can afford it."

"I'm not arguing. What's the other reason you didn't bother with the
future?"

"You can't bring anything from the future to the present that doesn't
exist right now. I won't go into the theory, but it should be obvious
that nothing can exist before it exists. You can't bring the box I
want, only the technical data to build one."

"Technical data? I'm an actor, not a scientist."

"You'll have pens and weatherproof notebooks to copy it down in."

* * * * *

I couldn't make up my mind about her. I've already said she was
beautiful, which always prejudices a man in a woman's favor, but I
couldn't forget the starvation cases. They hadn't shared anything but
malnutrition, useless money and death. Then again, maybe her
explanation was a good one, that she wanted to help those who needed
help most and some of them lied about their age and physical condition
because they wanted the jobs so badly. All I knew about were those who
had died. How did I know there weren't others--a lot more of them than
the fatal cases, perhaps--who came through all right and were able to
enjoy their little fortunes?

And there was her story about saving the treasures of the past and
wanting to provide power at really low cost. She was right about one
thing: she didn't need any of that to make money with; her method was
plenty good enough, using the actual records of the past to invest in
stocks, bet on sports--all sure gambles.

But those starvation cases....

"Do I get any guarantees?" I demanded.

She looked annoyed. "I'll need you for the data. You'll need me to
turn it into manufacture. Is that enough of a guarantee?"

"No. Do I come out of this alive?"

"Mr. Weldon, please use some logic. I'm the one who's taking the risk.
I've already given you more money than you've ever had at one time in
your life. Part of my motive was to pay for services about to be
rendered. Mostly, it was to give you experience in traveling through
time."

"And to prove to me that I can't run out," I added.

"That happens to be a necessary attribute of the machine. I couldn't
very well move you about throug