Time Tunnel Read Online Free Page B

privately?”
    “Well… yes,” Harrison admitted.
    “And you do not want to make trouble for her!” said Pepe sardonically. “Ah, you rascal! In fifteen minutes you made her remember you, you learned about her tragic and unhappy life, and you made a date! You’re a fast worker, my friend!”
    Harrison said angrily:
    “Look here, Pepe! I won’t have that! I…”
    Pepe waved his hand.
    “Oh, I am helpless! I admit it! I’ve taken upon myself to rescue a skilled craftsman from peonage to French shopkeepers, than which there could be no worse slavery. But you can spoil things for me. You could tell Valerie of my noble purpose, and she could tell her aunt, which would spoil my altruistic scheme. So I’ll make a deal with you.”
    Harrison glared at him. Pepe grinned.
    “We go to the shop together. Again. Maybe Madame Carroll won’t be there. In that case you can talk to Valerie. A bribe, eh? All I’ll do is plant the idea of a specially-made article. If she or Dubois are there, I’ll set up the idea of a fine swindle of which I’m to be the victim. Then they’ll be amiable to you because you are my friend. They may even try to enlist you to help them swindle me! They…”
    “It won’t work,” said Harrison.
    “But I shall try it,” said Pepe, still grinning. “You can’t keep me from trying. But I’ll let you come along if you like.”
    Very grudgingly, Harrison stood up. He was very far from happy. He was again unable to dismiss the completely foolish ideas stemming from dusty, elaborately shaded hand-written documents in the Bibliothèque Nationale. They were too fantastic to be credited, but he needed badly to find some excuse for dismissing them. He needed the excuse more than ever today, because he’d been trying not to think of the possibility that if the past could be visited, it could be changed, and if it were changed the present might follow and he, in person, could vanish like a puff of smoke. And Valerie could vanish too!
    “I’m crazy,” he said bitterly, “but let’s go!”
    Pepe walked beside him with a splendid, self-satisfied air. Presently they walked down the Rue Flamel and past the little café where they’d encountered each other the day before.
    “If Valerie tends the shop,” Pepe observed, “I ask if I can have a special article made, and then I’ll browse among the objects on sale while you chat. If her aunt is there, I’ll do all the talking.”
    “We’re fools!” said Harrison. “Morons! Idiots!”
    “If you speak of my altruism,” said Pepe cheerfully, “I agree. But if you speak of your interest in a very pretty girl, then I point out that nobody is ever as happy as while he is making a fool of himself over a woman. When, in addition, his intentions are honorable…”
    They reached the corner. They came to the shop. Only Valerie was inside. She greeted Harrison with relief.
    “I am so glad you came!” she said breathlessly. “Something happened, and I won’t be able to meet you as we agreed! And you forgot to tell me where you are living, so I couldn’t have sent you word!”
    Pepe said benignly:
    “Providence arranges that I benefit all my friends! I am responsible for your friend’s presence, Ma’mselle! ”
    Harrison found himself yearning over Valerie. The idea that anything could happen to her was intolerable. The most imaginary of dangers, if it might affect her, was appalling.
    “My aunt was called to St. Jean-sur-Seine,” explained Valerie, looking at Harrison. “Her husband, M’sieur Carroll, was… difficult. A crisis in the business developed. He and my uncle M’sieur Dubois were unable to agree upon a course of action. They actually telephoned by long-distance! So she went to St. Jean-sur-Seine to decide the matter. And I cannot leave the shop. So we would have missed our appointment.”
    Harrison was elated that Valerie hadn’t wanted to miss seeing him.
    “Let us to business,” said Pepe profoundly. “I wish, Ma’mselle