"To find that girl," George finished eagerly. "To rescue her. Don't you remember he saw her in that--" "Be quiet, boy," the Banker commanded. "Loto, what is this other mechanism your father mentioned?" "It is not particularly complicated," the young man answered readily. "In general principle, that is. The Frazia mechanism causes the machine to travel through space--to change its space-factors at the will of the operator. That's clear, isn't it?" "Of course it is," said the Banker impatiently. "It's clear because you've always been able to travel through space yourself," interjected the Big Business Man. "Don't be so self-satisfied, Donald. If you'd been rooted to one spot all your life--like a tree--you wouldn't have a chance on earth of understanding an airplane." "That's exactly what I mean," said Loto quickly. "My other mechanism changes the time-factor of the entire apparatus. I can explain it best this way: Every particle of matter in that machine--as well as my own body--is electrical in its basic nature. My mechanism circulates a current through every particle of that matter. Not an electrical current, but something closely allied to it. The nature of this I do not yet know. But it causes the inherent vibratory movements of the protons of matter to change their character. The matter changes its state. It acquires a different time-factor, in other words." "Is this change instantaneous?" the Doctor asked. "No, sir. It is progressive. To reach the time-factor of tomorrow night, take the first few minutes of time as it seems to us to pass. The time-factor of next week would be reached during the succeeding two or three minutes." "In other words, it picks up speed," said the Big Business Man. "Yes. How long the acceleration will last I do not know. I have a series of dials for registering the time-movement. By altering the strength, the intensity of the current, I can vary the speed, or check it entirely." "But why have this apparatus in the form of an airplane?" asked the Banker. "You're going through time, not space." Rogers answered: "In a hundred years from now this building will not be here. If we were to stop his time-movement at that point, he would drop twenty stories through space to the ground." "Why, of course!" exclaimed the Big Business Man. "But in the air..." "Exactly," said Loto. "I shall not start the propellers until later; until I am launched into future time, and need them." Rogers looked at his watch. "Have you much to do before you start, Loto?" "No, sir--nothing. I have food and water, clothing, and everything else I need. I filled our list very carefully, and checked over everything this afternoon. I could have started then; I've left nothing to do tonight." "Then you might as well get away at once. You'll remember everything I've told you, Loto? You'll come back here, as quickly as possible? Here to this rooftop?"