The Incomplete Enchanter

universes are easier of access than others. Ours —»

«Would be one of the hard kind?»

«Ahem. Don’t interrupt, please. Yes. Now as to the time dimension, I’m inclined to think we can travel among universes only at right angles to the pencil of space-time vectors, if you follow my use of a. a somewhat misleading analogy.»

«However, it appears likely that our vectors are curved. A lapse of time, along the inner side of the curve would correspond to a greater lapse of time along the outer. You know the theme in certain fairy tales — the hero comes to fairyland, spends three days, and returns to find he has been gone three minutes or three years.»

«The same feature would account for the possibility of landing in someone’s imagined idea of the future. This is clearly a case where a mind has been running along one of the outer curved vectors at a speed which has outstripped the passage of time along our own inner side of the curve. The result — Harold, are you following me?»

Shea’s highball glass had rolled onto the rug with a gentle plunk, and the suspicion of a snore came from his chair. Fatigue had caught up with him at last.

* * *

Next week-end, Harold Shea went up to Cleveland. He was approaching this second time-journey with some misgivings. Chalmers was an astute old bird — no doubt about that, A good theorist. But it was the pursuit of the theory rather than its result that interested the old boy. How would he work out as a companion in a life of arduous adventure — a man of fifty-six, who had always led a sedentary life, and for that matter, who always seemed to prefer discussion to experience —

Well, too late to pull out now, Shea told himself, as he entered the shop of the Montrose Costume Co. He asked to see medieval stuff. A clerk, who seemed to think that the word «medieval» had something to do with pirates, finally produced an assortment of doublets and hose, feathered hats, and floppy boots of thin yellow leather. Shea selected a costume that had once been worn by the leading man in De Koven’s Robin Hood. It had no pockets, but a tailor could be found to remedy that. For Chalmers, he bought a similar but plainer outfit, with a monkish robe and attached hood. Chalmers was to go as a palmer, or pilgrim, a character which both felt would give him some standing.

The costume company’s assortment of arms and armour proved not only phony but impractical. The chain mail was knitted woollens dipped in aluminium paint. The plate was sheets of tin-can thinness. The swords had neither edge, balance, nor temper. The antique shops had nothing better; their antique weapons were mostly civil War cavalry sabres. Shea decided to use his own fencing epee. It had a rather stiff blade, and if he unscrewed the point d’arrкt, ground the end down to a sharp point, and contrived some kind of sheath, the weapon would do till he got something better.

The most serious question, as he explained to Chalmers on his return, was concern with the formulas of the magic they intended to use on their arrival. «How do you expect to read English in the land of Faerie when I couldn’t in Scandinavia?» he demanded.

«I’ve allowed for that,» Chalmers replied. «You forget that mathematics is a. a universal language, independent of words.»

«All right. But will your mathematical symbols mean the same things?»

«Glance at this sheet, Harold. Knowing the principles of symbolic logic to begin with, I can look over this pictured equation with an apple at the left and a great many apples at the right, and thus realize it means that an apple belongs to the class of apples. From that I shall infer that the horseshoe-shaped symbol in the centre means ‘is a member of the class of’.»

«You think that’ll work, honest? But, say, how do we know that you and I will land in the same part of the Faerie world?»

Chalmers shrugged. «For that matter, how do we know we shan’t land in Greek mythology? There are still laws of this method of transference to be worked out. We can only hold on to each other, read the formulas in chorus, and hope for the best.»

Shea grinned. «And if it doesn’t work, what the hell? Well, I guess we’re ready.» He inhaled deeply. «If P equals not-Q, Q implies not-P. which is equivalent to saying either P or Q but not both. But if not-P is not implied by not-Q — Come in, Mrs. Ladd.»

Shea’s landlady opened the door, and opened her mouth to say something, But the something failed to come forth. She stared agape at a pair of respectable psychologists, standing side by side in medieval costumes, with rucksacks on their shoulders. They were holding hands and with their free hands holding sheets of paper. Chalmers purpled with embarrassment.

Shea bowed easily. «We’re doing an experiment, Mrs. Ladd. We may be away for some time. If Mr. Bayard asks for us, let him in and tell him he can look at the papers in the top right-hand drawer. And you might mail this letter. Thanks.» He explained to Chalmers: «It’s to Gert; to tell her not to waste her money by setting Johnson after us.»

«But, Mr. Shea —» said the landlady.

«Please, Mrs. Ladd. You can sit down and watch if you like. Let’s go, Doctor — a conclusion can he drawn concerning the relation between two classes even if the evidence refers only to a part of some third class to which both are related. Whatever is predicated affirmatively or negatively of a class may be predicated in like manner of everything asserted to be contained in that class —»

Mrs. Ladd watched, ample bosom heaving. Her eyes bulged from her head: she’d have material for backfence conversation for months to come.

Pfmp! There was a movement of air, muttering the papers on the table and whirling ashes from the ash trays. Mrs. Ladd, pulling herself together, moved a trembling hand through the space where her stangely dressed lodgers had stood.

It met no resistance.

TWO

Chalmers spoke first. «Astounding! I should have thought the passage more difficult.»

«Uh-huh.» Shea looked around, sniffing the air with his head up. «Looks like a plain forest to me. Not as cold as the last one, thank God.»

«I. I suppose so. Though I’m sure I don’t know what type of tree that is.»

«I’d say some kind of eucalyptus,» replied Shea «That would mean a warm, dry climate. But look where the sun is. That means late afternoon, so we better get started.»

«Dear me, I suppose so. Which direction would you suggest?»

«Dunno, but I can find out.» Shea dropped his rucksack and swarmed up the nearest tree. He called down: «Can’t see much. No, wait, there’s a slope off that direction.» He waved an arm, almost lost his footing, and slid down again in a small torrent of bark and leaves.

They started towards the slope in the hope that it represented a river valley, where they could expect to find human habitations. After half a mile a scraping sound halted him wordlessly. They crept forward, peering. A tall, spotted buck was rubbing its horns against a tree. It flung up its head as it heard them, gave a sneezelike snort, and leaped gracefully away.

Shea said: «If he’s just getting rid of his velvet, it ought to be late summer or early fall.»

«I wasn’t aware you were so much of a woodsman, Harold.»

«What the hell, Doc. Doctor, I’ve been having practice. What’s that?»

Something far off had gone «Ow-ooh,» a sort of musical grunt, as though somebody had casually scraped the C string of a cello.

Chalmers fingered his chin. «It sounds remarkably like a lion. I trust we need not expect to encounter lions in this country.»

The noise came again, louder. «Don’t bet on it, Doctor,» said Shea. «If you remember your Spenser, there were plenty of lions around; also camels, bears, wolves, leopards, and aurochs, as well as human fauna like giants and Saracens. Not to mention the Blatant Beast, which had the worst qualities of all and slandered people