Time for Sale by Ralph Milne Farley
Page 3
wildest expectations, so that instead of an
while minutes lagged within. Porter wanted to
hour of your time equaling a mere two weeks
get out. He felt caged.
of mine, it will equal several years.”
Finally with a snort of exasperation he
sat down again and stooped to pick up the
Porter glanced at his wrist-watch with
newspaper from the floor.
growing panic, then hurriedly read on:
And then for the first time he noticed
an envelope lying on the floor beside the table.
“I shall let you out thirty years or so
It was sealed and addressed to him in the
from now. By that time Evelyn will be an old
handwriting of Dr. Hatch. Porter’s heart woman, no longer physically attractive to you, skipped a beat, and then raced madly, as he
who will be still in your youth. And I shall
picked up the envelope, slit it open, and have had her to myself all that intervening spread out the contents on the table. Leaning
period.
over it, he read with increasing alarm: “My
“The controls are automatic—you had
not been told that fact either—and so I can
Dear Young Assistant.
wall-off this cabinet, and forget about it until
“Last night for the first time I noticed
the appointed time. Meanwhile a forged letter
your infatuation for my wife. I suppose that it from you to Mrs. Hatch will explain that you
is my fault for marrying one so young and
have come out of the cabinet and have gone
beautiful.
away to some distant land to forget about
“It explains a lot of things about you
her—a gentlemanly gesture of renunciation,
and her which have been vaguely puzzling me
which will effectively prevent Evelyn and your for some time. When a full realization finally father from looking for you. I shall send her
Amazing Stories
10
on a short trip which she has been wanting to
and act quickly.
take; and, when she returns, she will find your But how about the locked door?
letter. The cabinet containing you will by then He could break the glass.
be gone.”
But how about the danger from the
sudden equalization of entropy?
Now what on earth could Dr. Hatch
Porter smiled grimly to himself. Dr.
mean by that, Porter wondered uneasily! He
Hatch’s letter had cited a number of things
continued to read:
which Porter did not know; but one thing
which Hatch himself did not know was that
“If anything should happen to me his assistant had been experimenting with this before your brief-seeming imprisonment of equalization-of-entropy theory, and had found thirty years is over, the need for it and hence it to be not altogether correct.
the imprisonment itself will come to an end
He had tried opening the door of one
through the shutting off of the power for of the guinea-pig cabinets without first nonpayment of meter-charges.
switching off the electric power, and had
“But, barring that, I shan’t let you out
discovered that if the door were opened just a
until Evelyn has aged sufficiently to be in no mere crack, and if the little animals were kept
further danger of your unwelcome advances.
far enough away from the opening until the
“The door is locked. Don’t break the
entropy inside had had a chance to equalize
glass—the rush of entropy would kill you.
with that outside, no bad results were
P.
LANFORD
HATCH.”
noticeable.
Porter set his jaw, and ran his fingers
So now he’d make just a small hole in
through his shaggy black hair. So this is how
the glass, and P. Lanford Hatch, Ph.D., would
Dr. Hatch repaid him for playing square. Now
be thwarted!
for the first time Porter realized how much
Porter picked up one of the chairs
Evelyn Hatch—the mere sight of her flaming
which helped to furnish his narrow cell, and
presence in the office every day—had meant
posed it preparatory to jamming one of its legs
to him, and how much self-restraint he had
against the black glass panel of the door. Then
really exhibited in not making love to her.
hesitated.
Evelyn aging? Those copper-gold
For it was one thing to subject a
locks losing their metallic luster, and guinea-pig to the rush of entropy, but quite becoming muddy and then gray? Those clear
another matter to try the experiment on
cool green eyes dimming? The pink himself even after several guinea-pigs had peach-bloom fading from her cheeks? Her demonstrated its safety.
luscious curves sagging and turning flabby?
Lowering the chair and placing it on
Impossible!
the floor with deliberation, Porter sat down
He must get out of this entropy-cabinet
heavily upon it, leaned his elbows on the
before that sacrilege occurred! And, once out
table, and buried his sinewy fingers in his dark
of here, he’d no longer let Dr. Hatch stand in
shaggy hair. What to do?
his way. This scurvy trick which his boss had
But no ideas came. Gradually his
played on him, made them quits. All is fair in
thoughts roamed off to Evelyn as he had seen
love and war. Dr. Hatch had declared war. So
her last, seated cool and assured at her desk,
be it!
when he had bade her an airy au revoir a
Porter glanced at his wrist-watch couple of hours ago. A couple of hours? Years again. An hour and thirty-eight minutes! Two
and years, probably. God!
or three years had sped outside! He must act,
Porter glanced at his wrist-watch. It
Time for Sale
11
registered two hours, almost to a dot. But just
transparent, no longer black, although thick
how much time this represented in the world
with dust. Most of the panes were cracked,
outside he could only guess. Ten years and many were completely smashed. When he perhaps.
had entered this enclosure two hours or so
He rose unsteadily to his feet, blinked
ago, it had stood in one corner of the open
his blue eyes a couple of times, then gave his
laboratory of Dr. Hatch; but now it was
massive head a shuddering shake to clear the
closely surrounded by a gray brick wall, old
cobwebs from his brain. The flaming Evelyn
and shattered. So this is what the doctor’s
was worth any risk! He picked up the chair
letter had meant about the cabinet being
with renewed resolution, and poised it to “gone”!
thrust one of its legs against the confining
Several pieces of brick had penetrated
glass.
his enclosure through the broken window
But he never completed the thrust. An
panes, and lay about him on the floor.
echoing crash smote him an invisible blow
Opposite the glass door of his enclosure there
which hurled him to the floor. Intense heat
/>
was an iron door in the brick wall.
unbearably seared him through to the marrow,
Getting dazedly to his feet, Porter
until he speedily lapsed into blessed picked up a chair and smashed his way out.
unconsciousness.
But he was unable to open the iron door,
evidently locked on the outside.
CHAPTER IV
He surveyed the brick barrier all about
An Unexpected Adjustment
him. One of the jagged holes in the wrecked
wall seemed large enough for him to squeeze
PORTER awoke still lying on the floor of the
his body through, so he smashed enough of
entropy cabinet. An icy chill pervaded the air,
the glass of his cabinet on that side to avoid
and he reached instinctively for the blankets,
risk of cutting himself, and then wormed his
thinking himself in bed.
way out through the gap.
Suddenly his mind cleared, and he sat
Once more he stood in the laboratory
bolt upright and stared around him. He of Dr. Hatch. Except for the fact that this one remembered now—he had been about to corner had been walled off, and that some of thrust a chair-leg through the black glass wall
the electrical apparatus seemed older and
of his prison, when an explosion had occurred,
more complicated, very few alterations
throwing him to the floor. Had this explosion
appeared to have been made in the ten years or
been of his own causing, he wondered. Had he
so which had elapsed.
smashed too large an area of glass, and been
But the whole place lay devastated.
overwhelmed by the sudden equalization of
Windows broken. Huge gaps in the walls. A
entropy? This thought caused him to large section of the ceiling fallen down. The remember the unbearable burning sensation
laboratory looked exactly as though it had
which he had experienced just before he had
been under shell-fire!
become unconscious; so now he ran his
As if in answer to this thought, there
powerful hands gingerly over his body—but
wafted in from the distance a number of dull
there was no evidence of any burns.
booms, followed by what seemed the staccato
The chill was now abating—it rattle as of anti-aircraft machine-gun fire.
appeared to have been an internal chill, rather
(Later he found out the explosion resulted
than due to any coldness of the air.
from some experiments in war explosives
Porter
stared
around him more being conducted by Dr. Hatch for the War seeingly. The glass walls of his cabinet were
Department.)
Amazing Stories
12
Where was Evelyn in all this?
years and years since Dr. Hatch locked me up
Galvanized to action, Porter clambered
in that time-cabinet, but I didn’t think that
over a pile of debris which blocked the you’d forget me so easily.”
doorway between the laboratory and the front
“Where is my father?” asked the girl.
office. Where her desk had stood, there was a
“What!”
huge heap of bricks piled up against the
“And mother, too. I’m looking for
elevator shaft, and above the heap the sky
them. I ran home just as fast as I could, after
showed through a gap in the floor above and
we heard the explosion. And who are you?”
in the roof above that.
A great light dawned on Tom Porter.
Evelyn might be lying helpless beneath
“You’re little Evelyn!” he cried.
all those bricks.
“Of course. And now I remember you.
Lunging forward, Porter set to heaving
You’re that nice football man, who told me all
bricks off the pile. For a few moments he
those interesting stories one evening at home
worked with frantic desperation. Then ten years ago. Ever since that night, you’ve realizing that his chances of saving Evelyn
been my hero. But I never saw you again. And
Hatch would be improved by more systematic
whenever I asked about you, Daddy always
effort, he strove to calm himself and conserve
glared, and Mother always looked sad; so
his strength.
finally I stopped asking. We must look for
His muscles rippling in rhythmic them.”
cadence, he hauled and heaved. The heap of
“Little Evelyn!” Porter’s voice was full
bricks dwindled. One corner of the desk of awe, as he appraised her. Then, “Your appeared. Then the entire desk, crushed and
mother and father aren’t here, dear. There was
marred by the jagged weight which had only one pile of debris big enough to cover descended upon it.
them, and I’ve just frantically dug that away
“No human body could live under this
looking for her—them.”
pile!” Porter exclaimed in an agonized tone.
The iron door of the stair-well clanged
Yet, with bleeding hands, aching muscles, and
and creaked open again. There stood Dr.
tortured lungs, he continued to struggle on.
Hatch, older now and stooped, and completely
He uncovered her beloved chair. bald. And Mrs. Hatch, still beautiful, but Finally the last brick was heaved away, and
matronly and with hair now a chestnut shade
Porter stopped his labors, panting. A great
instead of copper-gold.
peace descended over him. Evelyn Hatch’s
With a glad little cry, their daughter
body was not there!
dashed over to them. “Daddy! Mother!” She
A metal door off to one side clanged,
nestled in their embrace.
and then creaked rustily open. Porter wearily
Dr. Hatch stared at Porter through
turned. And there, framed in the doorway of
thick-lensed glasses, and recoiled fearfully as
the stair-shaft, stood a vision of flaming hair
though he expected to be struck.
and jade-green eyes, more glorious and radiant
But Porter smiled reassuringly at him.
than ever.
Then, as he compared the mature beauty of
“Evelyn!” Porter gasped, stumbling Mrs. Hatch with the glorious youthfulness of toward her.
her daughter, he said, “I hold nothing but
But she recoiled with surprise and gratitude for you, doctor. Do you remember uncertainty.
the words of the letter which you left in the
“Who are you?” she exclaimed, in cabinet for me ten years ago, that the entropy those well-remembered tones.
machine could be used to adjust disparate
“Don’t you know me? Of course it’s
ages. Well, in my case at least, it appears to
Time for Sale
13
have justified that use.”
blushed a delightful, happy pink and smiled
Little Evelyn, in her mother’s arms,
understandingly up at him.
ook with friends