_From Out of the Past_
"Sane?" said Dr. Alten. "Of course she's sane." He stood gazing down
at Mary Atwood. He was a tall, slim fellow, this famous young
alienist, with dark hair turning slightly grey at the temples and a
neat black mustache that made him look older than he was. Dr. Alten at
this time, in spite of his eminence, had not yet turned forty.
"She's sane," he reiterated. "Though from what you tell me, it's a
wonder that she is." He smiled gently at the girl. "If you don't mind,
my dear, tell us just what happened to you, as calmly as you can."
She sat by an electrolier in Dr. Alten's living room. The yellow light
gleamed on her white satin dress, on her white shoulders, her
beautiful face with its little round black beauty patch, and the curls
of the white wig dangling to her neck. From beneath the billowing,
flounced skirt the two satin points of her slippers showed.
A beauty of the year 1777! This thing so strange! I gazed at her with
quickened pulse. It seemed that I was dreaming; that as I sat before
her in my tweed business suit with its tubular trousers I was the
anachronism! This should have been candle-light illumining us; I
should have been a powdered and bewigged gallant, in gorgeous satin
and frilled shirt to match her dress. How strange, how futuristic we
three men of 1935 must have looked to her! And this city through which
we had whirled her in the throbbing taxi--no wonder she was
overwrought.
Alten fumbled in the pockets of his dressing gown for cigarettes. "Go
ahead, Miss Mary. You are among friends. I promise we will try and
understand."
* * * * *
She smiled. "Yes. I--I believe you." Her voice was low. She sat
staring at the floor, choosing her words carefully; and though she
stumbled a little, her story was coherent. Upon the wings of her words
my fancy conjured that other Time-world, more than a hundred and fifty
years ago.
"I was at home to-night," she began. "To-night after dinner. I have no
relatives except my father. He is General Washington's aide. We
live--our home is north of the city. I was alone, except for the
servants.
"Father sent word to-night that he was coming to see me. The
messenger got through the British lines. But the redcoats are
everywhere. They were quartered in our house. For months I have been
little more than a servant to a dozen of My Lord's Howe's officers.
They are gentlemen, though: I have no complaint. Then they left, and
father, knowing it, wanted to come to see me.
"He should not have tried it. Our house is watched. He promised me he
would not wear the British red." She shuddered. "Anything but that--to
have him executed as a spy. He would not risk that, but wear merely a
long black cloak.
"He was to come about ten o'clock. But at midnight there was no sign
of him. The servants were asleep. I sat alone, and every pounding
hoof-beat on the road matched my heart.
"Then I went into the garden. There was a dim moon in and out of the
clouds. It was hot, like to-night. I mean, why it _was_ to-night. It's
so strange--"
* * * * *
In the silence of Alten's living room we could hear the hurried
ticking of his little mantle clock, and from the street outside came
the roar of a passing elevated train and the honk of a taxi. This was
New York of 1935. But to me the crowding ghosts of the past were here.
In fancy I saw the white pillars of the moonlit Atwood home. A garden
with a dirt road beside it. Red-coated British soldiers passing....
And to the south the little city of New York extending northward from
crooked Maiden Lane and the Bowling Green....
"Go on, Mistress Mary."
"I sat on a bench in the garden. And suddenly before me there was a
white ghost. A shape. A wraith of something which a moment before had
not been there. I sat too frightened to move. I could not call out. I
tried to, but the sound would not come.
"The shape was like a mist, a little ball of cloud in the center of
the garden lawn. Then in a second or two it was solid--a thing like a
shining cage, with crisscrossing white bars. It was like a room; a
metal cage like a room. I thought that the thing was a phantom or that
I was asleep and dreaming. But it was real."
Alten interrupted. "How big was it?"
"As large as this room; perhaps larger. But it was square, and about
twice as high as a man."
A cage, then, some twenty feet square and twelve feet high.
She went on: "The cage door opened. I think I was standing, then, and
I tried to run but could not. The--the _thing_ came from the door of
the cage and walked toward me. It was about ten feet tall. It
looked--oh, it looked like a man!"
* * * * *
She buried her face in her hands. Again the room was silent. Larry was
seated, staring at her; all of us were breathless.
"Like a man?" Alten prompted gently.
"Yes; like a man." She raised her white face. This girl out of the
past! Admiration for her swept me anew--she was bravely trying to
smile.
"Like a man. A thing with legs, a body, a great round head and swaying
arms. A jointed man of metal! You surely must know all about them."
"A Robot!" Larry muttered.
"You have them here, I suppose. Like that rumbling carriage without
horses, this jointed iron man came walking toward me. And it spoke! A
most horrible hollow voice--but it seemed almost human. And what it
said I do not know, for I fainted. I remember falling as it came
walking toward me, with stiff-jointed legs.
"When I came to my senses I was in the cage. Everything was humming and
glowing. There was a glow outside the bars like a moonlit mist. The iron
monster was sitting at a table, with peculiar things--mechanical things--"
"The controls of the cage-mechanisms," said Alten. "How long were you
in the cage?"
"I don't know. Time seemed to stop. Everything was silent except the
humming noises. They were everywhere. I guess I was only half
conscious. The monster sat motionless. In front of him were big round
clock faces with whirling hands. Oh, I suppose you don't find this
strange; but to me--!"
* * * * *
"Could you see anything outside the cage?" Alten persisted. "No. Just
a fog. But it was crawling and shifting. Yes!--I remember now--I could
not see anything out there, but I had the thought, the feeling, that
there were tremendous things to see! The monster spoke again and told
me to be careful; that we were going to stop. Its iron hands pulled at
levers. Then the humming grew fainter; died away; and I felt a shock.
"I thought I had fainted again. I could just remember being pulled
through the cage door. The monster left me on the ground. It said,
'Lie there, for I will return very soon.'
"The cage vanished. I saw a great cliff of stone near me; it had
yellow-lighted openings, high up in the air. And big stone fences
hemmed me in. Then I realized I was in an open space between a lot of
stone houses. One towered like a cliff, or the side of a pyramid--"
"The back yard of that house on Patton Place!" Larry exclaimed. He
looked at me. "Has it any back yard, George?"
"How should I know?" I retorted. "Probably has."
"Go on," Alten was prompting.
"That is nearly all. I found a doorway leading to a dark room. I
crawled through it toward a glow of light. I passed through another
room. I thought I was in a nightmare, and that this was my home. I
remembered that the cage had not moved. It had hardly lurched. Just
trembled; vibrated.
"But this was not my home. The rooms were small and dark. Then I
peered through a window on a strange stone street. And saw these
strange-looking young men. And that is all--all I can tell you."
She had evidently held herself calm by a desperate effort. She broke
down now, sobbing without restraint.