e.

MARY

John, don't have anything to do with him.

JOHN

All right, Mary. But who is your master?

ALI

He is carved of one piece of jade, a god in
the greenest mountains. The years are his
dreams. This crystal is his treasure. Guard
it safely, for his power is in this more than
in all the peaks of his native hills. See what
I give you, master.

JOHN

Well, really, it's very good of you.

MARY

Good night, Mr. Ali. We are very much
obliged for your kind offer, which we are so
sorry we can't avail ourselves of.

JOHN

One moment, Mary. Do you mean that
I can go back ten years, and live till--till now
again, and only be away a day?

ALI

Start early and you will be here before
midnight.

JOHN

Would eight o'clock do!

ALI

You could be back by eleven that evening.

JOHN

I don't quite see how ten years could go
in a single day.

ALI

They will go as dreams go.

JOHN

Even so, it seems rather unusual, doesn't
it?

ALI

Time is the slave of my master

MARY

John!

JOHN

All right, Mary. [In a lower voice.] I'm
only trying to see what he'll say.

MARY

All right, John, only...

ALI

Is there no step that you would wish
untrodden, nor stride that you would make
where once you faltered?

JOHN

I say, why don't you use it yourself?

ALI

I? I am afraid of the past. But you
Engleesh, and the great firm of Briggs, Cater,
and Beal; you are afraid of nothing.

JOHN

Ha, ha. Well--I wouldn't go quite as far
as that, but--well, give me the crystal.

MARY

Don't take it, John! Don't take it.

JOHN

Why, Mary? It won't hurt me.

MARY

If it can do all that--if it can do all that...

JOHN

Well?

MARY

Why, you might never have met me.

JOHN

Never have met you? I never thought of
that.

MARY

Leave the past alone, John.

JOHN

All right, Mary. I needn't use it. But I
want to hear about it, it's so odd, it's so
what-you-might-call queer; I don't think I
ever----- [To ALI.] You mean if I work
hard for ten years, which will only be all
to-morrow, I may be Governor of the Bank
of England to-morrow night.

ALI

Even so.

MARY

O, don't do it, John.

JOHN

But you said--I'll be back here before
midnight to-morrow.

ALI

It is so.

JOHN

But the Governor of the Bank of England
would live in the City, and he'd have a much
bigger house anyway. He wouldn't live in
Lewisham.

ALI

The crystal will bring you to this hou