being born, logically he should prevent himself from being born. But I couldn't visualize him vanishing. Common sense was against it. "I'll cover that." I gave Randall three dollars.

If Pangborn did not vanish, Randall would owe me nine. If Pangborn did not vanish I would be disappointed, and money would be some consolation.

Pangborn passed us through the security guards and into the Physics laboratories. No need to describe the temporal transducer, it looked like the usual thing in gadgets—coils, tubes, pipes, condensers, wires, tubes—with a little screen overhead that lets the operator, who stays behind, watch what is happening to his passenger. Pangborn was extremely proud of it. He showed us all over the machine, pointing and naming every part. Von Juntz got his beard caught in a control wheel.

That made Pangborn almost good-natured.

Then he wanted to choose someone to operate the machine for him. He said my hands shook too much, and Von Juntz would not allow his beard to get within five feet of the controls, so we steadied Doctor Randall against a safety railing and instructed him how to operate the machine. Pangborn set the dials.

"There's one place where I'm certain to find Grandfather any time between 1893 and 1906," Pangborn told us. "The Andrew Jackson Saloon Bar on Decatur Street. He spent a lot of time there. Used it for his office they tell me. He was a lawyer. I've set the machine for there, for the month of September 1896. A good month to die in. Ha!" Pangborn ostentatiously checked the cylinders of a huge antique revolver.

"Forty-five caliber," Pangborn said grimly. "Poke me, will he? Ha!"

And he climbed into the machine.

All of us crowded around the screen, Von Juntz carefully holding his beard. We saw the picture forming, the cut glass and bright gas lamps and polished wood of the Saloon Bar.

"Four to one Pangborn vanishes," Randall said suddenly, "Any takers, speak now."

I reached for my wallet.

Von Juntz said, "If he vanishes, it will be because he was never born. And if he was never born, you won't remember taking bets on him."

"Here," I said hastily to Randall, "I gave you some already. I'll hold my money, hand it back."

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