"Why no, I do not mind telling you," I say, "though you might find it
hard to believe what I have gone through. But first--where am I and
what month is it?"
The doctor lets go of my wrist.
"You are in New York," he says, "and it is September of the year
Twenty-five O Seven."
"Just a minute," I say, "I must misunderstand you. I thought you said
the year was Twenty-five O Seven."
"That is what I did say," says the doc.
"But that cannot be true," I tell him. "Why I was born in 1914 and it
is not possible for me to be living at such a period in history."
He picks up my wrist again.
"You are a little excited," he says, "and I think you had better get a
bit more rest. Then we can talk this thing over later."
I see him say something to the nurse who is standing in the doorway all
this time, and she nods as he goes out. I start to call to him but I
figure it is no use. So I go back to sleep.
The second time I wake up, the doc is back and he has four other men
with him. They are sitting in chairs around the room watching me; as
soon as they see I am awake they come over to my bed.
"These men are very much interested in your case," the doctor tells
me. "I have been telling them about your statement and the strange
circumstances attending your appearance on Fifty-Second Street today.
Now I feel that you have had enough rest and I want you to tell them
the entire story."
Well, I know they will figure I am off the beat, but I start at
the beginning and relate the whole story anyway. They do not say a
word until I have finished. Then they look at each other and have a
whispered session on the other side of the room. Finally one of them
speaks up.
"Mr. McRae," he says, "we want to question you a little further if you
don't mind. Will you please put on your clothes and come with us?"
I do like they say since there is nothing else for me to do, and when
I am dressed they take me down the hall to a big light room which is
practically all glass, and they ask me to sit down at a large table.
"Now, Mr. McRae," the first doc says, "I want you to do something for
me."
He hands me ten little blocks of different sizes and informs me that I
am to place them in the proper holes in a board which he has ready for
just that purpose. I do as he asks.
These seems to surprise him, but he is all set with another test, and I
spend the rest of the afternoon playing these little games, until I am
plenty weary of it and I say so to him.
"Well," he says, "as you likely know, we have been trying to determine
your sanity. I will say that you have demonstrated yourself to be
entirely normal."
"That is fine," I say, "but now that we have decided that will someone
kindly tell me what is this business about Twenty-Five O Seven--and
what has been happening to me anyhow."
Another of the doctors answers me.
"There seems to be only one other explanation," he says, "one which we
are reluctant to accept but which we must consider if your story is
true. You have been in a fourth dimension. The passage of time there
is something that we know nothing of, and it is possible that the few
months you spent in it were equivalent to the centuries which have
passed in this dimension. You have apparently evolved a unique and
purely personal method for entering and leaving the fourth dimension,
and since it seems entirely dependent on your own physical skill
together with a large element of chance, it is of little value for
scientific exploitation. That is the pity."
While he is giving out this statement, the rest of the doctors grow
very excited, and soon as he has finished they begin throwing questions
at him about curvature of space and Neilson's theory and a lot of other
stuff which is very confusing to me indeed.
Finally I stop them.
"If you will kindly return my trombone," I tell them, "I will be on my
way, as I do not know anything of all this and I would like to get out
and see what it is like in Twenty-Five O Seven A.D."
"Of course, of course," says the first doctor who is the one who
brought me to the hospital. "It is very thoughtless of us. I shall get
your instrument and you can come home with me until you are able to
adjust yourself to our way of living. It will be a great pleasure to
show you what we have accomplished in the time since you can remember,
though I must say that none of us has done what you have."
He laughs a little at that, and I figure he is a nice guy, so I say I
will be happy to accept his offer.
I go home with him and he introduces me to his wife who is a very nice
appearing female. He tells her all about me and he keeps saying how
remarkable it is all the time.
* * * * *
It is the next morning when I come down to breakfast that I meet the
doctor's daughter, who is a very lovely little number of about twenty,
and I see that my stay is going to be a very pleasant one indeed.
She says, "Dad has been telling me all about you, Mr. McRae, and I'm
going to see to it that you really see the New York of Twenty-Five
O Seven. He wants to drag you to a lot of stuffy old lectures and
scientific conventions, and exhibits you like a freak, but I'm taking
charge today."