“I get it,” Neil said. “This way, we go into the air first, and then activate the crystal. It doesn’t matter if we carry air along with us.”
“Exactly.”
“So what’s the problem?” Neil asked.
“Just this,” Dave replied. “I’m missing an oscillator coil. Without that, I can’t supply high-frequency current to the crystal.”
“Well, why don’t you make one?”
“With what? I haven’t a piece of copper in the entire machine that can be used. Remember, it’s mostly aluminum. We planned it that way so it’d be lighter.”
“Is copper the only thing we can use?”
“No, there are other good conductors of electricity. But you can bet your boots these Mayas haven’t got any of them.”
Neil thought silently for a moment.
“What about gold?” he asked.
“Gold?”
“They’ve got plenty of that,” Neil said. “Will it con…”
“Gold!” Dave threw his arms around Neil and hugged him tightly. “Of course! How could I have missed it?”
“It’ll do?” Neil asked.
“Will it do? Gold is a much better conductor than copper, Neil.” He began to laugh. “But who can afford it?”
The Mayas could afford it.
Neil and Dave watched carefully as the gold was heated. The Maya jeweler looked at the oscillator coil curiously and then shaped the gold into an exact duplicate.
Dave could hardly wait for the jeweler to dip the coil into a jar of water. A sizzling spurt of steam shot out of the jar, and the jeweler reached in for the coil and handed it to Dave. The engineer thanked him hastily and ran back to the machine, holding the precious coil between careful fingers.
And so the Mayas were witness to two leave-takings within the space of a week.
Gifts were again presented, prayers were offered to the gods, and then they stood in a circle around the ship as Neil and Dave prepared to leave.
Talu was confused. “You are not taking your ship to the beach?” he asked.
“No,” Neil replied. “We are leaving from within the city.
“But I do not understand.”
“Do not be frightened,” Neil said. “Whatever happens, do not be frightened.”
“May the gods go with you,” Talu said. He shook hands with Neil and Dave.
“Take care of your people,” Neil said, gripping the priest’s hand.
He stepped into the machine and sealed the hatchway, looking out over the clean, ordered streets of Chichen-Itza. The Mayas crowded around the machine as the two travelers mounted the aluminum steps leading to the control room.
Dave sat before the control panel. He held up a pair of crossed fingers and said, “Here’s hoping.”
“Amen,” Neil offered.
Dave turned on the ignition and the motor hummed into life.
He waited several seconds before he said, “Up we go-
Slowly, slowly, the machine began to rise.
“So far, so good,” Dave said.
Below them, Neil could hear the gasps of wonder as the Mayas watched the machine rise.
“Here goes the time crystal,” Dave said. He reached out for a switch on the panel, and a steady hum filled the machine.
The machine continued rising slowly, and finally Dave said, “Space travel is going on full speed, Neil. I’m cutting in the time crystal.”
Neil remembered the time when Dave had first said those words. It was long, long ago. Shortly afterwards the machine had crashed.
Dave reached for another switch on the instrument panel, and a louder hum filled the control room. Outside, everything turned gray, a swirling, turbulent fog that swept past the portholes.
Dave sighed deeply.
“Nothing to do now but wait.”
“And hope,” Neil added.
They brought the machine down much, much later.
Dave had cut off the time crystal, and the gray outside had settled into the pale light of twilight.
“By all the instruments, this should be it.”
Neil felt a momentary pang of fear. “And if it isn’t?”
Dave shrugged. “If it isn’t…”
“If it isn’t,” Neil answered his own question, “we might be anywhere, any time again.”
“That’s right.”
The machine dropped slowly to the ground, Dave steering it between the weathered treetops below them.
At last it dropped to a gentle rest between two large trees. The men climbed down the ladder and stepped out of the machine.
“A forest,” Neil said.
Overhead, the sound of birds filled the deepening gloom.
“Mm-m-m-m,” Dave answered.
“But where?” Neil asked.
“Only one way to find out,” Dave said. “Let’s start hiking.”
For about ten minutes they walked in silence, without seeing any sign of anyone or anything familiar.
“You know,” Dave said suddenly, “I just thought of something.”
“What?” Neil asked.
“Wouldn’t it be funny if we were right back in the forest outside Chichen-Itza?”
Neil stopped. “Is… is that possible?”
“Sure. Anything’s possible with this baby.”
Neil started walking again. But this time his eyes were on the lookout for strange animals. And more than once he thought he could see the slitted yellow eyes of a jaguar peering from behind the low bushes around them.
Chapter 18
A God Is Found
Night fell quickly in the forest, a black shroud covering everything in deep, bold shadow. Neil and Dave plodded onward, their doubts increasing with the deepening gloom.
The night insects took up their songs, chirping in the darkness. Overhead the stars blinked shyly at first and then filled the sky with their dazzling light. A thin crescent of a moon hung against the sky like a big, winking eye.
Can this be Yucatan? Neil wondered. Are we back in Yucatan again?
It seemed impossible. They’d been in the time machine for such a long time, listening to the steady roar of the engines, the throbbing of the instruments. All that time they thought they were winging back toward home, whisking through time and space, back to America and the twentieth century.
But suppose something had gone wrong? Suppose Dave hadn’t really repaired the machine? Suppose that gold oscillator coil wasn’t a good substitute? Suppose the…
“Mmm Look at that!”
… instruments hadn’t been calibrated correctly? Suppose, suppose, suppose they were really and truly back in Yucatan again, far from…
“Neil, are you listening to me?”
Neil snapped out of his gloomy thoughts. “I… I’m sorry, Dave. What did you say?”
“Look at that! A light, Neil. An electric light! A good, old, one-hundred-percent American electric light bulb!”
“What?”
“Yes! There, right ahead. It’s a house and a light.”
Neil stared, hardly willing to believe his eyes. “It is! It’s a light.” He looked closer. “Well, for crying out loud!”
“What’s the matter?” Dave asked.
Neil began laughing, his raucous bellow splitting the night air.
“What is it?” Dave demanded.
“That house,” Neil said between gales of laughter. “It’s Student Hall. We’re right on the campus, Dave. We’ve been right here since we landed.”
Dave stared around him in bewilderment. Then he slapped one hand against the other and started laughing. “You’re right! We’ve been floundering around in the woods behind the stadium. We’re home, boy! Home!”
They broke into a run, dashing out of the woods and onto the paved streets of the campus.