really be forward, so we should be going in the right direction, back where we came from. After that it will just be a matter of cracking out of the time flow at the right place. All right, all set. Will you do the honors, Sally, darling? We foolishly got you into this, and let's see if your sweet finger will be the one to get us out of this. Press here.'
She smiled at them all, blowing little kisses in their direction, then pushed delicately on the doorbell button that had been wired into the circuitry to actuate it.
Instantly everything went black. Outside, that is, but inside the plane it was as it was before, except everything seemed to move sluggishly, and it was an effort to do anything.
'Fighting. . . against. . . the current of time. . .'
Jerry said, forcing the words from his lips. It was like moving through a sea of invisible molasses – but moving they were, for the time dial was slowly turning in reverse, and as it moved, faster and faster, their movements became easier until they were almost normal again.
'Wow!' Sally gasped, then sat down. 'I don't want to have to go through that again!'
'You may have to when we get out,' Chuck said, mumbling over some math. 'There we go past one million b.c. Better get ready. Jerry, better adjust the frabbislator, see if we can come out near Earth.'
'Right, it's done. Get ready, everyone – better strap in, because this might be the rough one.'
Strap in they did, and the tension mounted as the needle spun. Back through the age of the giant saurians, the coming of the mammals, the emergence of man. Then Egypt, fiery Atlantis sinking, great Greece arising, a certain son of a carpenter born in Galilee, Roman orgies, bold King Arthur, the Dark Ages, the Magna Carta, knighthood in flower, the New World, the Industrial Revolution, pollution, world war, world war again, cold war, faster and faster and. . . .
'Now!' Jerry shouted and pressed.
With a sickening crunch the great 747 plunged through the time barrier and into the midnight sky of Earth. But the transition was not an easy one, for the time barrier is more solid than any sound barrier. Vibration racked the ship; equipment tore loose from its solid mooring; the right wing broke in half and hung, flapping, from a few remaining shards of metal. The left wing folded back over the plane with a horrifying crackling sound. The tail broke and almost fell off.
'Not bad,' Chuck said, smiling. 'We came through, and we're not dead yet. Where are we?'
'About thirty thousand feet up and falling fast,' John said, tapping the altimeter. 'I see lights down there, a city of some kind, and we're dropping right down on top of it.'
'No point in trying to start the engines, is there?' Jerry laughed. 'Not without any wings.'
'No point at all,' John agreed, looking out at the solid Earth that was rushing up toward them.
Sally screamed.
21
VICTORY WRENCHED FROM THE SALIVATING JAWS OF DEFEAT!
'Sally, Sally,' Chuck said tenderly, patting her shoulder.
'Now don't worry your pretty little head. We'll think of something. We have plenty of other gadgets aboard the ship. For instance the cheddite projector. . . .'
'Try again,' Jerry said, picking up the bent and crushed projector from under a piece of heavy equipment that had fallen on it.
They tried, but it didn't seem to be much good. It was John who finally thought of the magnetic rays and who tore open the control case on the projector and exposed the interior wiring.
'Look, guys, if this is a magnetic attractor ray, why can't you reverse the thing and turn it into a magnetic deflector ray and stop our fall with it?'
'Twenty thousand feet up,' Jerry said. 'A great idea. Hand me a screwdriver, someone.' Tension filled the air while he sweated and worked.
'Ten thousand feet and falling fast,' Chuck said to cheer him on, then ignored the viciously snarled answer.
'You know,' John mused, looking out the window at the ground rushing up toward them, 'I could be wrong, but that sure looks like Pleasantville down there.'
'You are right,' Sally gasped. 'I can see the school, and my father's house, and there is the airport with a plane ready to take off.'
'Five thousand feet,' Chuck observed. 'How does it look, old buddy?'
'One more connection – there. Strap in everyone.'
They did, and at two thousand feet altitude he pressed the button. The sudden deceleration hit them like a solid blow, and the fabric of the great plane screamed in protest. Things banged and crashed, and both wings fell off but remained hanging from the plane by pipes and cables and such, while the broken tail now fell off as well and hung in the same fashion. Deceleration grabbed them and crushed them, then eased up and vanished altogether.
'Phew,' John said, 'we're less than a thousand feet up and hovering.'
'And right over the airport too. Hold it there a mo, Jerry, there is another plane taking off, going by right under us why. . . look!'
They looked – and gasped – for the other plane was the Pleasantville Eagle!
'I don't understand this,' Sally said as the plane rushed by and was gone.
'Did you see who the pilot was?' John asked, shocked.
'Why . . . it was me!'
'I think I know what has happened,' Chuck said. 'We timed our arrival back in our own time a little too precisely. So it looks like we have arrived back on Earth just before we originally took off. That is us going off, kidnapped by John.'
'And the great adventure begins,' Jerry said, looking after the great 747 now vanishing into the darkness. 'If only we knew what we were getting into!'
'Don't tell us and ruin the fun!' John said, and they all laughed and the plane gave a sickening lurch and dropped.
'Wiring shorted!' Jerry cried, then labored over it. Down they went, down and down, and they were just feet above the runway when he fixed it. He could slow their descent but not stop it and the plane crashed into the hard concrete with a horrendous crunch and instantly burst into flame.
'Save Sally!' someone shouted.
'I have her!' John called out, tearing her safety belt open and throwing her over one shoulder. 'Take care of Chuck – he's been knocked cold!'
'I have him!' Jerry shouted, tearing open Chuck's safety belt in the same manner and shouldering his heavier burden. Thus laden, they staggered through the smokefilled cabin to the exit ramp, which luckily had been jarred open by the crash and now reached down to the ground. Down it they went, with the flames licking at their very heels, and into a staggering run across the dew-wet grass. A welcome drainage ditch gaped before them, and even as they fell into it, the gallant old Eagle exploded with a roar of flame. And a crackle of shells as well, as all the ammunition went up.
'We made it!' Jerry gasped. 'And what a grand show the old Eagle is making – what a way to go!'
The pyrotechnics lit up the entire sky and threw a flickering glow onto their faces as Sally opened her eyes. 'Safe,' John said, simply, and in the instant she was in his arms, and their lips met, and they embraced. Sally liked to kiss with her eyes open, so she could see, over his strong shoulder, that Chuck had come to as well and that Jerry had taken him in his firm embrace and that they were kissing as well, passionately and long.
Since John and Sally had started first, they ran out of breath first, and their lips drew apart, but their arms still remained about each other as they sat and watched Jerry and Chuck slowly disengage. The two boys looked up and realized they were being watched, and, blushing, drew away from each other.
'No, that's all right,' Sally said, smiling with understanding. 'I've known for a long time that you both were AC-DC, and I was waiting for you to make your mind up which way you were finally going to jump. I know why you kept that cot in the laboratory.' She laughed, and they laughed too and looked deep into each other's eyes and drew
