Short Story
A Traveler in Time
- by August Derleth
- in Orbit, March 1953
Derleth’s newspaper reporter Tex Harrigan had at least one time-travel encounter: a man named Vanderkamp who saw an atomic war thirty years in the future and then considered escaping back to 1650 New Amsterdam. But 1650 has a shrewish woman who reminds him a bit too much of his own shrewish sister, so that’s obviously not an ideal destination. The machine also has a curious effect on aging that Tex never did figure out (and neither did this reader).
It looked like a top. The first thing I thought of was Brick Bradford, and before I could catch myself, I’d asked, “Is that pure Brick Bradford?”
He didn’t turn a hair. “Not by a long shot,” he answered. “H. G. Wells was there first. I owe it to Wells.”
