My Troubles With Time by Benson Grayson Read Free Book Online Page A

effect; I fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.
    I was awakened the next morning by a loud knocking at the door. Sunlight streamed into the room. I got out of bed slowly, feeling very stiff and sore and with a bad hangover. Passing my hand over my face, I realized I badly needed a shave. I shrugged. There was nothing I could do about it. I had left my electric razor at home for obvious reasons and had neglected to buy a straight razor before setting out in the time machine.
    Opening the door, I found myself face to face with a soldier, one of the orderlies who had helped serve the dinner the night before. He saluted and spoke rapidly in French, his words so slurred that I had difficulty in grasping his meaning. After some concentration, I gathered he was informing me he was Colbert’s orderly and that it was essential that I go with him at once if I wished to eat.
    I was too hungry to delay and risk missing breakfast. Pausing only to hurriedly put on my boots, I followed him out of the room without taking time to wash or smooth my clothes, ruffled from sleeping all night in them.
    The orderly led me to the same room in which I had dined the night before. There were no others eating, although the used plates and silverware on the table showed that others had eaten there before my arrival.
    I was offered no choice. The orderly silently brought out a mug of steaming dark liquid and a piece of dark bread. The liquid tuned out when I tasted it to be a type of ersatz coffee, the bread was tasteless and so hard as to virtually defy chewing. I was about to complain when I realized that this was what the defenders of Paris had been reduced to eating as their regular fare because of the German siege. It revealed to me the extent that Colonel De Porte and his officers had gone to entertain me as well as they had the previous night.
    I finally managed to get the bread down with the aid of the so-called coffee and found I was still hungry. The orderly was nowhere in sight, but I heard sounds of conversation in the next room, which I assumed was the kitchen. I thought of going there to request more food, but concluded it would be unfair to do so when food was in such short supply.
    Leaving the dining room, I decided to see what it was like outside, and if I was free to leave the building. The sentry on duty looked at me curiously, but made no move to stop me. I proceeded down the street, taking pains to remember landmarks so that I could find my way back.
    Turning one corner, I recognized the street as the one on which the shed housing my time machine was located. The moment might be opportune, I realized, for me to attempt to repair the damage the machine had suffered and to return to my own time without further delay.
    After several minutes of anxious searching, I found the shed.
    Entering it, however, was more difficult. As I strode to the shed, I was stopped by an armed militiaman, posted there to guard it. He brandished his gun, saying something to me in French that I gathered was a warning that no one was permitted to enter without authorization.
    I was about to retreat when I recalled that I had passed myself off successfully to his officers as an American colonel.
    “Haven’t you been taught to salute officers?” I snapped at him, trying to sound more confident than I felt. “I am a colonel and the apparatus you are guarding is mine. Get out of my way or I’ll have you shot for insubordination!”
    He gave me a grudging salute, a sullen expression on his face, and I pushed past him and entered the shed. I was pleased to find the time machine in the same condition as I had left it.
    Doffing my uniform coat, I opened the door of the time machine and took out the emergency repair kit I had brought with me. I unscrewed the control panel concealing the wiring and carefully inspected the fuses and the batteries.
    As I had feared, several of the fuses had been burned out in a futile effort to protect the batteries from the strains I