The Beetle in the Amber

Using hypnosis and a dark liquid, the mystic and scientist Oliver Kent sends the superconscious minds of his life-long friends Donald and Joane Cromwell back to the Pleistocene where they inhabit prehuman existences of themselves and discover the origin of Joane’s present-day unease. The Brontosaurus who makes an appearance is out of place in the Pleistocene, but never mind.

Joane Cromwell was the maiden name of Skidmore’s wife, and her name shows up as a character in several of Skidmore’s stories, although not as the same character. However, Oliver Kent does show up in a later story, “The First Flight,” where he once again sends a friend into a previous incarnation.