THE MAN WHO MASTERED TIME RAY CUMMINGS ACE BOOKS A Division of A. A. Wyn, Inc. 23 West 47th Street, New York 36, N. Y. THE MAN WHO MASTERED TIME Copyright, 1929, by Ray Cummings An Ace Book, by arrangement with the author. TO GABRIELLE Who has given me affectionate assistance for a long, long time. Printed in U. S. A. CHAPTER ONE "Time," said George, "why I can give you a definition of time. It's what keeps everything from happening at once." A ripple of laughter went about the little group of men. "Quite so," agreed the Chemist. "And, gentlemen, that's not nearly so funny as it sounds. As a matter of fact, it is really not a bad scientific definition. Time and space are all that separate one event from another. Everything happens some_where_ at some_time_." "You intimated you had something vitally important to tell us," the Big Business Man suggested. "Something, Rogers, that would amaze us. Some project you were about to undertake--" Rogers raised his hand. "In a moment, gentlemen. I want to prepare you first--to some extent, at least. That's why I have led you into this discussion. I want you to realize that your preconceived ideas of time are wrong, inadequate. You must think along entirely different lines, in terms of, I shall say, the _new science_." "I will," agreed George, "only tell me how." "You said that time, space, and matter are not separate, distinct entities, but are blended together," the Doctor declared. "Just what do you mean?" Rogers gazed earnestly about the room. "This, my friends. Those are the three factors which make up our universe as we know it. I said they were blended. I mean that the actual reality underlying all the manifestations we experience is not temporal or spatial or material, but a blend of all three. It is we who, in our minds, have split up the original unity into three such supposedly different things as time, space and matter." "Take space and time," said the Big Business Man. "Those two seem wholly different to me. I shouldn't think they had the slightest connection." "But they have. Between the three planes of space--length, breadth and thickness--and time, there is no essential distinction. We think of them differently; we instinctively feel differently about them. But science is not concerned with our feelings--and science recognizes today that time is a property of space, just as are length, breadth and thickness." "That's easy to say," growled the Banker. "Any one can make statements that can't be proven."