"Was it the past?" the Doctor interposed. "Were you looking back into
the past?"
"We were looking across countless centuries into the future," said Loto.
"The future!"
"Yes," declared Rogers. "Must you always think of the future as a
wonderful civilization of marvelous inventions, mammoth buildings and
airplanes like ocean steamships? All that lies ahead of us, no doubt. A
hundred years--two hundred--a thousand--will bring all that. But further
on? What about then, gentlemen? Ten thousand years from now? Or fifty
thousand? Do you anticipate that civilization will always climb steadily
upward? You are wrong. There must be a peak, and then a down grade--the
decadence of mankind."
"Please, let me go on," Loto said eagerly. "I need not tell you all now
exactly how we knew we were looking into the future, and not the past.
We, ourselves, did not know it that first evening. But later, when I
studied the scene more closely, I could tell easily."
"How?" the Banker demanded.
"By the details I saw. The type of building. That animal that looked
like a dog. The sun--I'll tell you about that in a moment. An artificial
light in the house--I saw it once or twice when it was night there. And
the girl. Her manner of dress--"
"There was a girl?" said George quickly. "A girl! Tell us about her,
Loto. Was she pretty? Was she--"
"Go on, boy," growled the Banker. "Tell it from where you left off."
"Yes, she was very pretty," said Loto gravely. "She--" He stopped
suddenly, his gaze drifting off into distance.
"Oh boy!" breathed George, but at the Banker's glare he sat back,
abashed.
Loto went on after a moment: "I won't go into details now. While my
father was sick, I was able to examine the scene many times. I even
think I--well, I sat watching it most of the time for a week at least.
"The house had a sort of stable--or a kennel, if you want to call it
that--behind it. And there was an open space, like a garden, with a wall
around it. There was a little tree in the garden; a tree all covered
with snow. But after a few days the sun came out and melted the snow on
the tree branches.
"The girl was a captive. I guess they were bringing her in on that sled
the night we first saw them. There was another woman about the place,
and an old man. And a younger man--the one who was holding the girl a
prisoner."
"You said the house looked about a quarter of a mile away," the Banker
declared. "How could you see all these details?"
"I had a small telescope, sir."
"The scene actually was there," Rogers put in. "Loto used a telescope
quite as he would have used one through the window to see Central Park.
Go on, Loto."
"The girl..." George prompted.
"She was a small girl. Very slender--about sixteen, I guess. She had
long, golden hair, but it was red when she stood outside with the sun on
it. That's because the sun was red; an enormous glowing red ball, like
the end of a cigar. It tinged the snow with blood, but there didn't seem
to be much heat from it.
"Sometimes I could see the girl through the doorway. There was a door,
but it was transparent--glass, perhaps--and the house was lighted
inside. She would sit on a low seat, with her hair in sort of braids
down over her shoulders. Once she played on some little stringed
instrument. And sang. I could see her so plainly it seemed curious not
to hear her voice.
"They appeared to treat her kindly, even though she was a captive. But
once the man came in and tried to kiss her. She fended him off. Then he
went out and got on his sled and drove away. He was gone several hours.
"The girl cried that night. She cried for a long time. Once she ran
outside, but one of those huge dogs came leaping out of the other
building and drove her back. The dog's baying must have aroused the
place. The old man and the woman appeared, and they locked the girl up
in some other room. I never saw her again.
"A week or two went by and father was better. But the next time I went
to the laboratory, the apparatus wouldn't work. Perhaps the chemicals on
the screen were worn out--We're not really sure. But we've never been
able since to make a screen that would do more than glow. We've never
had another that would affect the time-space behind it."
"You mean," said the Big Business Man softly, "that after those brief
glimpses into the future, it is closed again to you?"