"The Space Machine" - читать интересную книгу автора (Priest Christopher)

ii

“Look at the clock on the wall, Edward.”

“What have you done with the Machine?” I said.

“Never mind that… what is the time by the clock?”

I stared up. “Eighteen minutes to ten.

“Very well. At exactly sixteen minutes to ten the Machine will re-appear.”

“From where?” I said.

“From the past … or, more precisely, from now. It is presently travelling through Time, to a point two minutes in the future of its departure.”

“But why has it vanished? Where is it at this moment?”

“Within the attenuated Temporal Dimension.” Amelia stepped forward to where the Machine had been, and walked through the vacancy waving her arms. She glanced up at the clock.

“Stand well back, Edward. The Machine will re-appear exactly where it was.”

“Then you must come away too,” I said.

I pulled her by the arm, and held her close beside me a few yards from where the Machine had been. We both watched the clock. The second hand moved slowly round … and at exactly four seconds after sixteen minutes to ten, the Time Machine reappeared.

“There!” said Amelia, triumphantly. “Just as I said.” I stared dumbly at the Machine. The great fly-wheel was turning slowly as before.

Amelia took my hand again. “Edward … we must now mount the Machine.”

“What?” I said, appalled at the idea.

“It is absolutely imperative. You see, while Sir William has been testing the Machine he has incorporated a safety-device into it which automatically returns the Machine to its moment of departure. That is activated exactly three minutes after its arrival here, and if we are not aboard it will be lost forever in the past.”

I frowned a little at this, but said: “You could switch that off, though?”

“Yes … but I’m not going to. I wish to prove that the Machine is no folly.”

“I say you are drunk.”

“And I say you are too. Come on!”

Before I could stop her, Amelia had skipped over to the Machine, squeezed under the brass rail and mounted the saddle. To do this she was obliged to raise her skirt a few inches above her ankles, and I confess that I found this sight considerably more alluring than any expedition through Time could have been.

She said: “The Machine will return in under a minute, Edward. Are you to be left behind?”

I hesitated no more. I went to her side, and clambered on to the saddle behind her. At her instruction I put my arms around her waist, and pressed my chest against her back.

She said: “Look at the clock, Edward.”

I stared up at it. The time was now thirteen minutes to ten. The second hand reached the minute, moved on, then reached he time of four seconds past.

It stopped moving.

Then, it began to move in reverse… slowly at first, then faster.

“We are travelling backwards in Time,” Amelia said, a little breathlessly. “Do you see the clock, Edward?”

“Yes,” I said, my whole attention on it. “Yes, I do!”

The second hand moved backwards through four minutes, then began to slow down. As it approached four seconds past eighteen minutes to ten it slowed right down, then halted altogether. Presently it began to sweep forward in a normal way.

“We are back at the moment in which I pressed the lever,” said Amelia. “Do you now believe that the Time Machine is no fraud?”

I still sat with my arms around her waist, and our bodies were pressed together in the most intimate way imaginable. Her hair lay gently against my face, and I could think of nothing but the nearness of her.

“Show me again,” I said, dreaming of an eternity of such closeness. “Take me into futurity!”