Newspaper reporter Derek Williams leaps into a time machine that’s come from the 9th millennium to rescue the condemned murderer Mike Spinnot because he’s worshiped as a hero in that future time.
Michael Main
You know as well as I that in 1932 the Earth was groaning under a tyranny more brutal, morehorrible, thanany in all recorded history.

Tags

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Variants

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  1. “The Time Impostor” by Nat Schachner, Astounding Stories, March 1934.
  2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Nat Schachner

Indexer Notes

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  1. Tags—In the story’s final line, Derek wonders whether Spinnot’s death will cause Merle to never be born, but it is an offhand thought, not developed, and not a grandfather paradox that I can see. Had Merle and her father succeeded in rescuing Spinnot so that he could later father their line, then it would have been a nice grandchild paradox, but that didn’t happen either.