Astounding Stories of Super-Science April 1931: The Exile of Time - Chapter III

Astounding Stories of Super-Science April 1931, by Astounding Stories is part of HackerNoon’s Book Blog Post series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here. The Exile of Time - Chapter III: Tugh, the Cripple

CHAPTER III. Tugh, the Cripple

The portals of this mystery had swung wide to receive us. The tumbling events which menaced all our world of 1935 were upon us now. A maelstrom. A torrent in the midst of which we were caught up like tiny bits of cork and whirled away.But we thought we understood the mystery. We believed we were acting for the best. What we did was no doubt ill-considered; but the human mind is so far from omniscient! And this thing was so strange!Alten said, "You have a right to be overwrought, Mistress Mary Atwood. But this thing is as strange to us as it is to you. I called that iron monster a Robot. But it does not belong to our age: if it does I have never seen one such as you describe. And traveling through Time—"He smiled down at her. "That is not a commonplace everyday occurrence to us, I assure you. The difference is that in this world of ours we can understand—or at least explain—these things as being scientific. And so they have not the terror of the supernatural."Mary was calmer now. She returned his smile. "I realize that; or at least I am trying to realize it."What a level-headed girl was this! I touched her arm. "You are very wonderful—"Alten brushed me away. "Let's try and reduce it to rationality. The cage was—is, I should say, since of course it still exists—that cage is a Time-traveling vehicle. It is traveling back and forth through Time, operated by a Robot. Call it that. A pseudo-human monster fashioned of metal in the guise of a man."Even Alten had to force himself to speak calmly, as he gazed from one to the other of us. "It came, no doubt from some future age, where half-human mechanisms are common, and Time-traveling is known. That cage probably does not travel in Space, but only in Time. In the future—somewhere—the Space of that house on Patton Place may be the laboratory of a famous scientist. And in the past—in the year 1777—that same Space was the garden of Mistress Atwood's home. So much is obvious. But why—""Why," Larry burst out, "did that iron monster stop in 1777 and abduct this girl?""And why," I intercepted, "did it stop here in 1935?" I gazed at Mary. "And it told you it would return?""Yes."Alten was pondering. "There must be some connection, of course.... Mistress Mary, had you never seen this cage before?""No.""Nor anything like it? Was anything like that known to your Time?""No. Oh, I cannot truly say that. Some people believe in phantoms, omens and witchcraft. There was in Salem, in the Massachusetts Colony, not so many years ago—""I don't mean that. I mean Time-traveling.""There were soothsayers and fortune-tellers, and necromancers with crystals to gaze into the future.""We still have them," Alten smiled. "You see, we don't know much more than you do about this thing."I said, "Did you have any enemy? Anyone who wished you harm?"She thought a moment. "No—yes, there was one." She shuddered at the memory. "A man—a cripple—a horribly repulsive man of about one score and ten years. He lives down near the Battery." She paused.

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