"Maybe I"m crazy!" Miller stared from impulsor to transformer and back again. "Why don"t you use it, then?"
"Using what for the connection?" Erickson"s eyes gently mocked him.
"Wire, of course!"
The scientist jerked a thumb at a small bale of heavy copper wire.
"Bring it over and we"ll try it."
Miller was halfway to it when he brought up short. Then a sheepish grin spread over his features.
"I get it," he chuckled. "That bale of wire might be the Empire State Building, as far as we"re concerned. Forgive my stupidity."
Erickson suddenly became serious.
"I"d like to be optimistic, Dave," he muttered, "but in all fairness to you I must tell you I see no way out of this. The machine is, of course, still working, and with that extra stage of power, the uncertainty would be over. But where, in this world of immovable things, will we find a piece of wire twenty-five feet long?"
There was a warm, moist sensation against Miller"s hand, and when he looked down Major stared up at him commiseratingly. Miller scratched him behind the ear, and the dog closed his eyes, rea.s.sured and happy. The young druggist sighed, wishing there were some giant hand to scratch him behind the ear and smooth _his_ troubles over.
"And if we don"t get out," he said soberly, "we"ll starve, I suppose."
"No, I don"t think it will be that quick. I haven"t felt any hunger. I don"t expect to. After all, our bodies are still living in one instant of time, and a man can"t work up a healthy appet.i.te in one second. Of course, this elastic-second business precludes the possibility of disease.
"Our bodies must go on unchanged. The only hope I see is--when we are on the verge of madness, suicide. That means jumping off a bridge, I suppose. Poison, guns, knives--all the usual wherewithal--are denied to us."
Black despair closed down on Dave Miller. He thrust it back, forcing a crooked grin.
"Let"s make a bargain," he offered. "When we finish fooling around with this apparatus, we split up. We"ll only be at each other"s throat if we stick together. I"ll be blaming you for my plight, and I don"t want to.
It"s my fault as much as yours. How about it?"
John Erickson gripped his hand. "You"re all right, Dave. Let me give you some advice. If ever you do get back to the present ... keep away from liquor. Liquor and the Irish never did mix. You"ll have that store on its feet again in no time."
"Thanks!" Miller said fervently. "And I think I can promise that nothing less than a whiskey antidote for snake bite will ever make me bend an elbow again!"
For the next couple of hours, despondency reigned in the laboratory. But it was soon to be deposed again by hope.
Despite all of Erickson"s scientific training, it was Dave Miller himself who grasped the down-to-earth idea that started them hoping again. He was walking about the lab, jingling keys in his pocket, when suddenly he stopped short. He jerked the ring of keys into his hand.
"Erickson!" he gasped. "We"ve been blind. Look at this!"
The scientist looked; but he remained puzzled.
"Well--?" he asked skeptically.
"There"s our wire!" Dave Miller exclaimed. "You"ve got keys; I"ve got keys. We"ve got coins, knives, wrist.w.a.tches. Why can"t we lay them all end to end--"
Erickson"s features looked as if he had been electrically shocked.
"You"ve hit it!" he cried. "If we"ve got enough!"
With one accord, they began emptying their pockets, tearing off wrist.w.a.tches, searching for pencils. The finds made a little heap in the middle of the floor. Erickson let his long fingers claw through thinning hair.
"G.o.d give us enough! We"ll only need the one wire. The thing is plugged in already and only the positive pole has to be connected to the globe.
Come on!"
Scooping up the a.s.sortment of metal articles, they rushed across the room. With his pocket-knife, Dave Miller began breaking up the metal wrist-watch straps, opening the links out so that they could be laid end-to-end for the greatest possible length. They patiently broke the watches to pieces, and of the junk they garnered made a ragged foot and a half of "wire." Their coins stretched the line still further.
They had ten feet covered before the stuff was half used up. Their metal pencils, taken apart, gave them a good two feet. Key chains helped generously. With eighteen feet covered, their progress began to slow down.
Perspiration poured down Miller"s face. Desperately, he tore off his lodge ring and cut it in two to pound it flat. From garters and suspenders they won a few inches more. And then--they stopped--feet from their goal.
Miller groaned. He tossed his pocket-knife in his hand.
"We can get a foot out of this," he estimated. "But that still leaves us way short."
Abruptly, Erickson snapped his fingers.
"Shoes!" he gasped. "They"re full of nails. Get to work with that knife, Dave. We"ll cut out every one of "em!"
In ten minutes, the shoes were reduced to ragged piles of tattered leather. Erickson"s deft fingers painstakingly placed the nails, one by one, in the line. The distance left to cover was less than six inches!
He lined up the last few nails. Then both men were sinking back on their heels, as they saw there was a gap of three inches to cover!
"Beaten!" Erickson ground out. "By three inches! Three inches from the present ... and yet it might as well be a million miles!"
Miller"s body felt as though it were in a vise. His muscles ached with strain. So taut were his nerves that he leaped as though stung when Major nuzzled a cool nose into his hand again. Automatically, he began to stroke the dog"s neck.
"Well, that licks us," he muttered. "There isn"t another piece of movable metal in the world."
Major kept whimpering and pushing against him. Annoyed, the druggist shoved him away.
"Go "way," he muttered. "I don"t feel like--"
Suddenly then his eyes widened, as his touch encountered warm metal. He whirled.
"There it is!" he yelled. "The last link. _The nameplate on Major"s collar!_"
In a flash, he had torn the little rectangular bra.s.s plate from the dog collar. Erickson took it from his grasp. Sweat stood shiny on his skin.
He held the bit of metal over the gap between wire and pole.
"This is it!" he smiled brittlely. "We"re on our way, Dave. Where, I don"t know. To death, or back to life. But--we"re going!"