> turned in consternation and caught sight for the first time of

Phoebe's face. Her eyes and pretty nose were red and her mouth was

drawn into a curve of plaintive rebellion.



"Set down, Mr. Droop. Give me yer hat," she said; and there was a

suspicious catch in her voice.



The visitor seated himself by the centre-table beside the lamp and sat

slowly rubbing his hands, the while he gazed mournfully from one to the

other of the silent sisters. Phoebe sat on the long horse-hair

"settle," and played moodily with the tassel hanging at its head.



There was a long pause. Each of the women seemed bent on forcing the

other to break the silence.



Poor Droop felt that his plans were doomed, and he dared not urge either

woman to speech, lest he hear the death-sentence of his hopes. Finally,

however, the awkward silence became unbearable.



"Well?" he said, inquiringly, still rubbing his hands.



"Well," Rebecca exclaimed, "it seems it's not to be done," and she

looked reproachfully at Phoebe.



The words fulfilled his fears, but the tone and glance produced a thrill

of hope. It was evident that Rebecca at least favored his plans.



Turning now to the younger sister, Droop asked, in a melancholy tone:



"Don't you want to get rich, Cousin Phoebe?"



"Rich--me!" she replied, indignantly. "A mighty lot of riches it'll

bring me, won't it? That's just what riles me so! You an' Rebecca just

think of nothin' but your own selves. You never stop to think of me!"



Droop opened his eyes very wide indeed, and Rebecca said, earnestly:



"Phoebe, you know you ain't got any call to say sech a thing!"



"Oh, haven't I?" cried Phoebe, in broken accents. "Did either of you

think what would happen to me if we all went back to 1876? Two years

old! That's what I'd be! A little toddling baby, like Susan Mellick's

Annie! Put to bed before supper--carried about in everybody's arms--fed

on a bottle and--and perhaps--and perhaps getting spanked!"



With the last word, Phoebe burst into tears of mingled grief and

mortification and rushed from the room.



The others dared not meet each other's guilty eyes. Droop gazed about

the room in painful indecision. He could not bear to give up all hope,

and yet--this unforeseen objection really seemed a very serious one. To

leave the younger sister behind was out of the question. On the other

hand, the consequences of the opposite course were--well, painful to her

at least.



In his nervousness he unconsciously grasped a small object on the table

upon which his left hand had been lying. It was a miniature daintily

painted on ivory. He looked vacantly upon it; his mind at first quite

absent from his eyes. But as he gazed, something familiar in the lovely

face depicted there fixed his attention. Before long he was examining

the picture with the greatest interest.



"Well, now!" he exclaimed, at length. "Ain't that pretty! Looks jest

like her, too. When was that tuck, Miss Wise?"



"That ain't Phoebe," said Rebecca, dejectedly.



"Ain't Phoebe!" Droop cried, in amazement. "Why, it's the finest

likeness--why--but--it must be yer sister!"



"Well, 'tain't. Thet pictur is jest three hundred years old."



"Three hundred--" he began--then very slowly, "Well, now, do tell!" he

said.



"Phoebe's got the old letter that tells about it. The's a lot of 'em

in that little carved-wood box there. They say it come over in the

Mayflower."



Droop could not take his eyes from the picture. The likeness was

perfect. Here was the pretty youthful oval of her face--the same playful

blue eye--the sensitive red lips seeming about to sparkle into a

smile--even the golden brown mist of hair that hid the delicately turned

ear!



Then Droop suddenly remembered his plans, and with his hand he dropped

the picture as his mind dismissed it. He rose and looked about for his

hat.



"Ye wouldn't want to come back to '76 with me an' leave Cousin Phoebe

behind, would ye?" he suggested, dismally.



"What!" cried Rebecca, giving vent to her pent-up feelings, "an' never

see my sister again! Why, I'd hev to come livin' along up behind her,

and, all I could do, I'd never catch up with her--never! You'd ought to

be ashamed to stand there an' think o' sech a thing, Copernicus Droop!"



For some time he stood with bent head and shoulders, twirling his hat

between his fingers. At length he straightened up suddenly and moved

toward the door.



"Well," he said, "the' isn't any use you seem' the Panchronicon now, is

the'?"



"What's it like, Mr. Droop?" Rebecca inquired.



He paused helpless before the very thought of description.



"Oh," he said, weakly, "et's like--et's a--why--Oh, it's a machine!"



"Hez it got wings?"



"Not exactly wings," he began, then, more earnestly, "why don't ye come

and see it, anyway! It can't do ye any harm to jest look at it!"



Rebecca dropped her hands into her lap and replied, with a hesitating

manner:



"I'd like to fust rate--it must be an awful queer machine! But I don't

get much time fer traipsin' 'round now days."



"Why can't ye come right along now?" Droop asked, eagerly. "It's dry as

a bone underfoot down in the swamp now. The's ben no rain in a long

time."



She pondered some time before replying. Her first impulse was to reject

the proposal as preposterous. The hour seemed very ill chosen. Rebecca

was not accustomed to leaving home for any purpose at night, and she was

extremely conservative.



On the other hand, she felt that only under cover of the darkness could

she consent to go anywhere in company with the village reprobate. Every

tongue in the place would be set wagging were she seen walking with

Copernicus Droop. She had not herself known how strong was the curiosity

which his startling theories and incredible story had awakened in her.

She looked up at her visitor with indecision in her eyes.



"I don't see how I could go now," she said. "Besides, it's mos' too

dark to see the thing, ain't it?"



"Not a mite," he replied, confidently. "The's lights inside I can turn

on, an' we'll see the hull thing better'n by daylight."



Then, as she still remained undecided, he continued, in an undertone:



"Cousin Phoebe's up in her room, ain't she? Ye might not get another

chance so easy."



He had guessed instinctively that, under the circumstances, Rebecca

preferred not revealing to Phoebe her own continued interest in the

wonderful machine.



The suggestion was vital. Phoebe was in all probability sulking in her

own bedroom, and in that event would not quit it for an hour. It seemed

now or never.



Rebecca rolled up her knitting work and rose to her feet.



"Jest wait here a spell," she said, rapidly. "I won't be a minute!"



* * * * *



Shortly afterward, two swiftly moving, shadowy figures emerged from the

little white gate and turned into a dark lane made more gloomy by

overhanging maples. This was the shortest route to Burnham's swamp.



Copernicus was now more hopeful. He could not but feel that, if the

elder sister came face to face with his marvellous machine, good must

result for his plans. Rebecca walked with nervous haste, dreading

Phoebe's possible discovery of this most unconventional conduct.



The night was moonless, and the two stumbled and groped their way down

the lane at a pace whose slowness exasperated Rebecca.



"Ef I'd a-known!" she exclaimed, under her breath.



"We're 'most there, Cousin Rebecca," said Copernicus, with deprecating

softness. "Here, give me holt o' yer hand while we climb over the wall.

Here's Burnham's swamp right now."



Accepting the proffered aid, Rebecca found herself in the midst of a

thicket of bushes, many of which were thorny and all of which seemed

bent upon repelling nocturnal adventurers.



Droop, going ahead, did his best to draw aside the obstinate twigs, and

Rebecca followed him with half-averted head, lifting her skirts and

walking sidewise.



"'Mighty lucky, 'tain't wet weather!" she mumbled.



At that moment her guide stood still.



"There!" he exclaimed, in a low, half-awed voice.



Rebecca stopped and gazed about. A little to the right the dark gray of

the sky was cut by a looming black mass of uncertain form.



It looked like the crouching phantom of some shapeless sea-monster.

Rebecca half expected to see it dissolve like a wind-driven fog.



Their physical sight could distinguish nothing of the outer

characteristics of this mysterious structure; but for this very reason,

the imagination was the more active. Rebecca, with all her directness of

nature and commonplace experience, felt in this unwonted presence that

sense of awed mystery which she would have called a "creepy feeling."



What unknown and incomprehensible forces were locked within that

formless mass? By what manner of race as yet unborn had its elements

been brought together--no, no--would they be brought together? How

assume a comfortable mental attitude toward this creation whose present

existence so long antedated its own origin?



One sentiment, at least, Rebecca could entertain with hearty

consistency. Curiosity asserted its supremacy over every other feeling.



"Can't we get into the thing, an' light a candle or suthin'?" she said.



"Of course we can," said Droop. "That's what I brought ye here fer. Take

holt o' my hand an' lift yer feet, or you'll stumble."



Leading his companion by the hand, Copernicus approached the dark form,

moving with great caution over the clumps of grassy turf. Presently he

reached the side of the machine. Rebecca heard him strike it with his

hand two or three times, as though groping for something. Then she was

drawn forward again, and suddenly found herself entering an invisible

doorway. She stumbled on the threshold and flung out her free hand for

support. She clutched at a hand-rail that seemed to lead spirally

upward.



Droop's voice came out of the blackness.



"Jest wait here a minute," he said. "I'll go up an' turn on the light."



She heard him climbing a short flight of stairs, and a few moments later

a flood of light streamed from a doorway above her head, amply lighting

the little hallway in which Rebecca was standing.



The hand-rail to which she was already clinging skirted the iron stairs

leading to the light, and she started at once up this narrow spiral.



She was met at the door by Copernicus, who was smiling with a proud

complacency.



"Wal, Cousin Rebecca," he said, with a sweeping gesture indicating their

general surroundings, "what d'ye think o' this?"



They were standing at the head of a sort of companion-way in a roomy

antechamber much resembling the general cabin of a luxurious old-time

sailing-packet. The top of the stairs was placed between two windows in

one side wall of the machine, through which there was just then entering

a gentle breeze. Two similar openings faced these in the opposite side

wall, and under each of the four windows there was a long wooden bench

carrying a flat mattress cushion.



In the middle of the room, on a square deep-piled rug, stood a table

covered with a red cloth and surrounded by three or four solid-looking

upholstered chairs. Here were some books and papers, and directly over

the table a handsome electric chandelier hung from the ceiling of

dark-wood panels. This was the source of their present illumination.



"This here's the settin'-room," Droop explained. "An' these are the

state-rooms--that's what he called 'em."



He walked toward two doors in one of the end walls and, opening one of

them, turned the switch of the lamp within.



"'Lectric lights in it, like down to Keene," Rebecca remarked,

approaching the cabin and peering in.



She saw a small bedroom comfortably furnished. The carpet was apparently

new, and on the tastefully papered walls hung a number of small

oil-paintings.



Droop opened the other door.



"They're both alike," he said.



Rebecca glanced into the second apartment, which was indeed the

counterpart of its companion.



"Well, it wouldn't do no harm to sweep an' beat these carpets!" she

exclaimed. Then, slipping her forefinger gingerly over the edge of a

chair: "Look at that dust!" she said, severely, holding up her hand for

inspection.



But Droop had bustled off to another part of the room.



"Here's lockers under these window-seats," he explained, with a

dignified wave of the hand. "Here's books an' maps in this set o'

shelves. Here's a small pianner that plays itself when you turn on the

electricity----"



There was a stumbling crash and a suppressed cry at the foot of the

stairs.



With his heart in his mouth, Droop leaped to the chandelier and turned

out the lights; then rushed to the state-rooms and was about to turn

their switches as well, when a familiar voice greeted their ears from

below--



"Don't be scared--it's only Phoebe."



"What ever possessed--" began Rebecca, in a low tone.



But at that moment Phoebe's head appeared over the stair rail in the

light shed from the two state-rooms.



"Won't you light up again, Mr. Droop?" she said, merrily, smiling the

while into her sister's crestfallen face. "I heard you two leavin' the

house, an' I just guessed what you'd be up to. So I followed you down

here."



She dropped into one of the chairs beside the table just as Droop

relighted the lamps.



With one slender hand resting upon the table, she looked up into Droop's

face and went on:



"I was havin' a dreadful time, stumbling over stocks an' stones at every

step, till suddenly there was quite a light struck my face, and first I

knew I was lookin' right into your lighted windows. I guess we'll have a

pleasant meetin' here of all the folks in town pretty soon--not to

mention the skeeters, which are comin' right early this year!"



"Lands sakes!" cried Rebecca.



"There now!" exclaimed Copernicus, bustling toward the windows, "I must

be a nateral born fool!"



Phoebe laughed in high spirits at thought of her prank, while Droop

closed the tight iron shutters at each window, thus confining every ray

of light.



Rebecca seated herself opposite Phoebe and looked severely straight

before her with her hands folded in her lap. She was ashamed of her

curiosity and much chagrined at being discovered in this unconventional

situation by her younger sister.



Phoebe gazed about her and, having taken in the general aspect of the

antechamber in which they were assembled, she explored the two

state-rooms. Thence she returned for a more detailed survey. Droop

followed her about explaining everything, but Rebecca remained unmoved.



"What's all those dials on the wall, Mr. Droop?" asked the younger

sister.



"I wish't you'd call me Cousin Copernicus," said Droop, appealingly.



Phoebe ran up very close to a large steel dial-plate covered with

figures.



"Now what the land is this for?" she exclaimed.



"Thet," said Droop, slowly, "is an indicator of height above ground and

tells yer direction."



"And what d'ye do with this little handle?"



"Why, you set that for north or west or any other way, an' the hull

machine keeps headed that way until ye change it."



"Oh, is that the rudder?"



"No, that is fer settin' jest one course fer a long ride--like's ef we

was goin' north to the pole, ye know. The rudder's in here, 'long with

the other machinery."



He walked to one of the two doors which faced the state-rooms.



Phoebe followed him and found herself in the presence of a bewildering

array of controlling and guiding handles--gauges--test cocks--meters and

indicators. She was quite overawed, and listened with a new respect for

her distant relative as he explained the uses of the various

instruments. It was evident that he had quite mastered the significance

of each implement.



When Droop had completed his lecture, Phoebe found that she understood

the uses of three of the levers. The rest was a mystery to her.



"This is the starting-lever," she said. "This steers, and this reverses.

Is that it?"



"That's correct," said Droop, "an' if----"



She cut him short by whisking out of the room.



"What drives the thing?" she asked, as he meekly followed her.



"Oh, the's power storage an' all kinds o' works down below stairs."



"An' what's this room for?" she asked, opening the door next the

engine-room.



"Thet's the kitchen an' butler's pantry," said Droop. "It's mighty

finely fitted up, I tell ye. That future-man was what ye call a

conusure. My, but he could cook up fine victuals!"



Rebecca found this temptation stronger than her ill humor, and she rose

with alacrity and followed her companions into the now brightly lighted

kitchen.



Here the appointments were the completest possible, and, after she and

Phoebe had mastered the theory of the electric range, they agreed that

they had never seen such a satisfactory equipment.



Phoebe stood in the middle of the room and looked about her with

kindling eyes. The novelty of this adventure had intoxicated her.

Rebecca's enthusiasm was repeated threefold in the more youthful bosom

of her sister.



"My!" she cried, "wouldn't it be lovely if we could make this our house

down here for a while! What would the Mellicks an' the Tituses an'----"



"They'd take us for a lunatic asylum," Rebecca exclaimed, severely.



Phoebe considered a moment and then gravely replied:



"Yes, I s'pose they would."



Copernicus was pacing slowly up and down from range to china-closet and

back, rubbing his hands slowly over each other.



"I wish't you'd try to see ef ye couldn't change yer mind, Cousin

Phoebe," he said, earnestly. "Jest think of all there is in this

extrordnery vessel--what with kitchen an' little cunnin'

state-rooms--what with the hull machinery an' all--it's a sinful waste

to leave it all to rot away down in this here swamp when we might all go

back to the Centennial an' get rich as--as Solomon's temple!"



Phoebe led the way in silence to the outer room again, and Droop

carefully extinguished the lights in the kitchen and engine-room.



As the three stood together under the main chandelier their faces were

the exponents of three different moods.



Droop was wistful--anxious.



Rebecca looked grimly regretful.



In Phoebe's eyes there shone a cheerful light--but her expression was

enigmatic.



"Now let's go home," she said, briskly. "I've got somethin' that I want

to talk to Rebecca about. Can't you call in to-morrow mornin', Mr.

Droop?"



"Don't ye believe ye might change yer mind?" he asked, mournfully.



"We'll be through with the breakfast an' have things set to rights by

eight o'clock," said Phoebe.