* * * * * "Good! You are a good sort Hanson, but don't take any chances. I'm not going to, I promise you. You see,"--and he laughed again, the light in his long eyes dancing with evil--"I'm not likely to be punished for a few killings committed centuries after I'm dead. I have never killed a man, but I won't hesitate to do so now, if one--or more--should get in my way." "But why," I asked soothingly, "should you wish to kill anyone? You have what you came for, you say; why not depart in peace?" He smiled crookedly, and his eyes narrowed with cunning. "You approve of my little plan to dominate the world?" he asked softly, his eyes searching my face. "No," I said boldly, refusing to lie to him. "I do not, and you know it." "Very true." He pulled out his watch with his left hand, and held it before his eyes so that he could observe the time without losing sight of me for even an instant. "I doubted that I could secure your willing cooperation; therefore, I am commanding it. "You see, there are certain instruments and pieces of equipment that I should like to take back to my laboratory with me. Perhaps I would be able to reproduce them without models, but with the models my task will be much easier. "The question remaining is a simple one: will you give the proper orders to have this equipment removed to the spot where you first saw me, or shall I be obliged to return to my own era without this equipment--leaving behind me a dead commander of the Special Patrol Service, and any other who may try to stop me?" * * * * * I tried to keep cool under the lash of his mocking voice. I have never been adept at holding my temper when I should, but somehow I managed it this time. Frowning, I kept him waiting for a reply, utilizing the time to do what was perhaps the hardest, fastest thinking of my life. There wasn't a particle of doubt in my mind regarding his ability to make good his threat, nor his readiness to do so. I caught the faint glimmering of an idea and fenced with it eagerly. "How are you going to go back to your own period--your own era?" I asked him. "You told me, I believe, that it was impossible to move backward in time." "That's not answering my question," he said, leering. "Don't think you're fooling me! But I'll tell you, just the same. I can go back to my own era: that is, back to my own actual existence. I shall return just two hours after I leave; I could not go back farther than that, and it's not necessary that I do so. I can go back only because I came from that present; I am not really of this future at all. I go back from whence I came."