"That night, Frank. And others--but there was no sign of movement. Another year--that was last year--we saw the girl partly aware of her danger. This year--a month ago--she was fully aware of it. Frightened--her eyes stricken wide with terror. But she had had no time as yet to move. "Don't you understand, Frank? That drama is going on out there now. Like size of Matter and Space--and rate of Motion--there is no absolute Time. It is all comparative. To that realm out there of which we have been given a little vision, our tiny worlds here in the heavens are mere whirling electrons, like the electrons within one of our own atoms which to our consciousness of Time revolve many times a second. "A year! A single revolution of our earth about its sun! To that girl out there, what we call a year is merely an electron in a fraction of a second revolving about its fellow. Even that is very slow--for she herself is wholly within the atom of a greater world outside her. A year as we call it--a second or less, to her. And though she is in full movement, how can we hope to see it by watching for a night? If a year were a second to her--an eight-hour vigil of ours would encompass less than a thousandth part of a second of her life! "All comparative, Frank. There is nothing wonderful or really strange about it. In what we would experience to be a hundred years from now that girl will be fully faced with the menace of her assailants. A moment only, to her consciousness. It is that, Frank, we meant by the infinity of Time." "Tell him what we're going to do," Martt insisted breathlessly. It came from Brett in a burst almost incoherent. "I was not satisfied merely to see into this comparative infinity. Nor was Father. We have worked three feverish years, Frank, to climax all the labor of Father's which had gone before. And we have found a way--not merely to see, but to transport ourselves into these greater realms. A vehicle--I'll show you--explain it all. Its size can be changed--the state of the matter composing it is within our control. Its position in Space can be changed--simple enough, Frank, to enlarge upon the principles of our interplanetary vehicles. And--with one factor so interdependent upon the other--we have been able to control the rate of its Time-progress. It travels through Time as it does through Space." His words were tumbling over each other. "You'll see it in a moment, Frank--test it--we have it here, ready yesterday. It sets us free, don't you understand? Free at last in Space and Time. And I'm going in it tonight--with Martt perhaps--we're going out to reach that girl upon an equality of Size and Time-progress. Going out to explore infinity!" _CHAPTER 2_ "THIS COULD DESTROY THE UNIVERSE"