Factor, Unknown
by Sam Merwin, Jr.
In order to save the world, wealthy young Houghton travels back fifty years to set
straight his great-uncle’s world-threatening mistakes, but it’s Alison—Houghton’s
fiery tempered cousin-once-removed—who has a more genuine interest in saving the future
than her father does.
— Michael Main
“This is most extraordinary,” he said in an unexpectedly high-pitched voice,
regarding Houghton benignly from the tall white fortress of his collar. “You say that
you have come back through time to instruct me how to arrange my affairs so that they
will not be instrumental in destroying the world some fifty years hence.”
“Factor, Unknown” by Sam Merwin, Jr., Other Worlds Science Stories, June 1952.