He was speaking rapidly again now.
"I was hurrying back to the University with the _Zloomph_ to prove a
point of ancient history to those fools. They don't believe that
instruments which make music actually existed before the tapes! It was
dark--and some fool researcher had forgotten to set a force-field over
the hole--I fell through."
I closed my eyes. "Now wait a minute. Did you drop something, lose it
in the hole--is that why you have to find it?"
"Oh I didn't lose anything important," he snapped, "_just_ my own time
dimension. And if I don't get back they will think I couldn't prove my
theory, that I'm ashamed to come back, and I'll be discredited."
His chest sagged for an instant. Then he straightened. "But there's
still time for my plan to work out--with the relative difference taken
into account. Only I get so tired just thinking about it."
"Yes, I can see where thinking about it would tire any one."