"By-the-by," he said, "don't put your glass down. Keep it in your

hand and rest your hand on your knee. Yes--so. And now--"



He raised his glass.



"The New Accelerator," I said.



"The New Accelerator," he answered, and we touched glasses and

drank, and instantly I closed my eyes.



You know that blank non-existence into which one drops when one

has taken "gas." For an indefinite interval it was like that. Then

I heard Gibberne telling me to wake up, and I stirred and opened

my eyes. There he stood as he had been standing, glass still

in hand. It was empty, that was all the difference.



"Well?" said I.



"Nothing out of the way?"



"Nothing. A slight feeling of exhilaration, perhaps. Nothing more."



"Sounds?"



"Things are still," I said. "By Jove! yes! They ARE still. Except the

sort of faint pat, patter, like rain falling on different things.

What is it?"



"Analysed sounds," I think he said, but I am not sure. He glanced

at the window. "Have you ever seen a curtain before a window fixed

in that way before?"



I followed his eyes, and there was the end of the curtain, frozen,

as it were, corner high, in the act of flapping briskly in the breeze.



"No," said I; "that's odd."



"And here," he said, and opened the hand that held the glass. Naturally

I winced, expecting the glass to smash. But so far from smashing

it did not even seem to stir; it hung in mid-air--motionless.



"Roughly speaking," said Gibberne, "an object in these latitudes

falls 16 feet in the first second. This glass is falling 16 feet in

a second now. Only, you see, it hasn't been falling yet for the

hundredth part of a second. That gives you some idea of the pace

of my Accelerator." And he waved his hand round and round, over and

under the slowly sinking glass. Finally, he took it by the bottom,

pulled it down, and placed it very carefully on the table. "Eh?"

he said to me, and laughed.





<< previous page | next page >>

Jump to page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 100 | 101 | 102 | 103 | 104 | 105 | 106 | 107 | 108 | 109 | 110 | 111 | 112 | 113 | 114 | 115 | 116 | 117 | 118 | 119 | 120 | 121 | 122 | 123 | 124 | 125 | 126 | 127 | 128 | 129 | 130 | 131 | 132 | 133 | 134 | 135 | 136 | 137 | 138 | 139 | 140 | 141 | 142 | 143 | 144 | 145 | 146 | 147 | 148 | 149 | 150 | 151 | 152 | 153 | 154 | 155 | 156 | 157 | 158 | 159 | 160 | 161 |