"You need not. Her brother Alan--there is no complication with him since we left him dead back there in the park." It sent a shudder over me; but somehow I did not believe it. A man stood at the door. "Wolf Turber, will you come?" "Coming, Jonas." Turber leaned smilingly over me. Against all my will, I shrank back from his grinning, massive face. "I will not kill you. But this you need not mention to Nanette--there are things not so pleasant as being swiftly killed. We will take you with us. She and I--we'll take you to my great city. And when we get there she will see you as a hideous object, Williams." His chuckle was gruesome. "If she has love in her heart for you, it will vanish when she beholds you as you will be then." He straightened. "Lie where you are. When I call you can come out--if you promise not to be troublesome." He closed the door upon me. CHAPTER IX THE WOMAN JOSEFA This Time-voyage in the Turber aero seemed in duration four or five hours. Crowded hours! A cosmorama of whirling eons. Turber flung us far backward in Time. I did not see any of this part of the trip. I lay in the cabin, pondering what Turber had said--wondering what I could do to escape with Nanette. And wondering if Alan really were dead. Then Turber called me for the meal. I found Nanette white and solemn and very silent. She spoke to me, casually, it seemed cautiously. I had always known Nanette to have a will of her own; and she was nimble-witted. I saw now that she was wholly on her guard. She was silent, apparently docile with Turber. Watchful. She found opportunity once to press my hand. And to murmur, "Careful, Edward--do not anger him." A new mood was upon Turber. He seemed in a high good humor. He was courtly with Nanette. Pleasant enough with me; but there was an edge of irony to his pleasantness. "A long trip, Williams, but we are comfortable enough. If you cause no trouble you may sit in the control room later. A wonderful view from there." I asked, "Where are we going?" "Nowhere," he said. "In Space we are not moving. I have us poised over what you and I used to call the shore of the Hudson River. You remember it? About the foot of Eightieth Street." He seemed pleased to talk--probably for Nanette's benefit, to please his vanity by exalting himself. "I'm taking us back in Time--back near the beginning of life on this earth. Then coming forward. I have several stops to make. Mere pauses--though in the year 1664 we shall have to make a longer stop. Stay there perhaps for the passing of a night. It's a quaint world here, in 1664." He chuckled. "It is to yield me, I hope, quite a little treasure. Gold and jewels. Money, as you know, is an all-powerful thing."