at, of course, the mysterious mechanism in the guise
of a giant man had abducted Mary Atwood and me in the larger
Time-cage.

Alten became aware that people were bending over him. The shots we had
taken at the Robot had aroused the neighborhood. A policeman arrived.

The sleeping neighbors had heard the shots, but it seemed that none
had seen the cage, or the metal man who had come from it. Alten said
nothing. He was taken to the nearest police station where grudgingly,
he told his story. He was laughed at; reprimanded for alcoholism.
Evidently, according to the police sergeant, there had been a fight,
and Alten had drawn the loser's end. The police confiscated the two
rifles and the revolver and decided that no one but Alten had been
hurt. But at best it was a queer affair. Alten had not been shot; he
was just stiff with cold; he said a dull-red ray had fallen upon him
and stiffened him with its frigid blast. Utter nonsense!

Dr. Alten was a man of standing. It was a reprehensible affair, but he
was released upon his own recognizance. He was charged with breaking
into the untenanted home of one Tugh; of illegally possessing
firearms; of disturbing the peace--a variety of offenses all rational
to the year 1935.

* * * * *

But Alten's case never reached even its hearing in the Magistrate's
Court. He arrived home just after dawn, that June 9, still cold and
stiff from the effects of the ray, and bruised and battered by the
sweeping blow of Miguel's great iron arm. He recalled vaguely seeing
Larry fall, and the iron monster bearing Mary Atwood and me away. What
had happened to Larry, Alten could not guess, unless the Robot had
returned, ignored him and taken his friend away.

During that day of June 9 Alten summoned several of his scientific
friends, and to them he told fully what had happened to him. They
listened with a keen understanding and a rational knowledge of the
possibility that what he said was true; but credibility they could not
give him.

The noon papers came out.

NOTED ALIENIST ATTACKED BY GHOST Felled by One of the
Fantastic Monsters of His Brain

A jocular, jibing account. Then Alten gave it up. He had about decided
to plead guilty in the Magistrate's Court to disorderly conduct and
all the rest of it! That was preferable to being judged a liar, or
insane.

* * * * *

And then, at about 9 P.M. on the evening of June 9,