just six or seven minutes. I called the doctor right away."

Miller took a deep breath. Then it _must_ have been a dream. All
that--to happen in a few minutes-- It wasn't possible!

"How--how could I have botched the job?" he muttered. "I wasn't drunk
enough to miss myself completely."

Helen looked at the huge revolver lying in the sink.

"Oh, that old forty-five of Grandfather's! It hasn't been loaded since
the Civil War. I guess the powder got damp or something. It just sort of
sputtered instead of exploding properly. Dave, promise me something!
You won't ever do anything like this again, if I promise not to nag
you?"

Dave Miller closed his eyes. "There won't be any need to nag, Helen.
Some people take a lot of teaching, but I've had my lesson. I've got
ideas about the store which I'd been too lazy to try out. You know, I
feel more like fighting right now than I have for years! We'll lick 'em,
won't we, honey?"

Helen buried her face in the hollow of his shoulder and cried softly.
Her words were too muffled to be intelligible. But Dave Miller
understood what she meant.

* * * * *

He had thought the whole thing a dream--John Erickson, the "time
impulsor" and Major. But that night he read an item in the _Evening
Courier_ that was to keep him thinking for many days.

POLICE INVESTIGATE DEATH OF SCIENTIST HERE IN LABORATORY

John M. Erickson, director of the Wanamaker Institute, died at his
work last night. Erickson was a beloved and valuable figure in the
world of science, famous for his recently publicized "time lapse"
theory.

Two strange circumstances surrounded his death. One was the presence
of a German shepherd dog in the laboratory, its head crushed as if
with a sledgehammer. The other was a chain of small metal objects
stretching from one corner of the room to the other, as if intended
to take the place of wire in a circuit.

Police, however, discount this idea, as there was a roll of wire
only a few feet from the body.

THE END

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Obviously this electric time impulsor is a machine in the nature of
an atomic integrator. It "broadcasts" great waves of electrons which
align all atomic objects in rigid suspension.

That is to say, atomic structures are literally "frozen." Living bodies
are similarly affected. It is a widely held belief on the part of many
eminent scientists that all matter, broke