e. A vague
luminosity.

Tina moved toward the instrument controls nearby. "Watch closely,
Harl. I will slow us down."

* * * * *

It seemed to Larry that the humming with which everything around him
was endowed, now began descending in pitch. And his head suddenly was
unsteady. A singular, wild, queer feeling was within him. An unrest. A
tugging torment of every tiny cell of his body.

Tina said. "Hold steady, Larry, for when we stop."

"Will it shock me?"

"Yes--at first. But the shock will not harm you: it is nearly all
mental."

The mirror held an image now--the other cage. Larry saw, on the
six-inch square mirror surface, a crawling, melting scene of movement.
And in the midst of it, the image of the other cage, faint and
spectral. In all the mirrored movement, only the apparition of the
cage was still. And this marked it; made it visible.

Over an interval, while Larry stared, the ghostly image grew plainer.
They were approaching its Time-factor!

"It is stopping," Harl murmured. Larry was aware that he had left the
eyepiece and joined Tina at the controls.

"Tina, let us try to get it right this time."

"Yes."

"In 1777; but which month, would you say?"

"It has stopped! See?"

* * * * *

Larry heard them clicking switches, and setting the controls for a
stop. Then he felt Tina gently push him.

"Sit here. Standing, you might fall."

He found himself on a bench. He could still see the mirror. The ghost
of the other cage was now lined more plainly upon it.

"This month," said Tina, setting a switch. "Would not you say so? And
this day."

"But the hour, Tina? The minute?"

The vast intricate corridors of Time!

"It would be in the night. Hasten, Harl, or we will pass! Try the
night--around midnight. Even Migul has the mechanical intelligence to
fear a daylight pausing."

The controls were set for the stop. Larry heard Tina murmuring, "Oh, I
pray we may have judged with correctness!"

The vehicle was rapidly coming to a stop. Larry gripped the table,
struggling to hold firm to his reeling senses. This soundless,
grinding halt! His swaying gaze strayed from the mirror. Outside the
glowing bars he could now discern the luminous greyness separating.
Swift, soundless claps of light and dark, alternating. Daylight and
darkness. They had been blended, but now they were separating. The
passing, retrograding days--a dozen to the se