Philip Van Doren Stern (ed) (251 page)

"But
I
received
no
answer.
I
ran
round
the
house
again,
thinking that he might just have started home, but I saw no signs of
him. There were some outhouses which it was his business to look after, and I
visited them,
opening
the door of each of them and calling him by
name.
Then I went down the drive to the gate, thinking that I might perhaps
catch
a
glimpse
of
him
upon
the
road,
but
again
I
was
disappointed.
I then returned to the house, shut the front
door, and there in the hall still stood Humphreys in his ridiculous
attitude
with the tea tray in his hands. I passed him and went back into the
billiard
room. He
took no notice
of
me
whatever.
I looked
at
the
clock
upon the
mantelshelf,
and
I
saw
that
I
had
been
away
just
fourteen
minutes. For
fourteen
minutes Humphreys had been
standing
on
one
leg
in
the
hall. It seemed as incredible as it was
ludicrous.
Yet
there
was
the
clock to bear me out. I sat down on my chair with my hands trembling, my mind
in
a
maze. The strangest
thought
had
come
to
me,
and
while
I
revolved it in my mind, the clock
resumed
its
ticking, the door opened, and Humphreys
appeared
with
the tea tray in his hand.

"
'You
have
been
a
Jong
time,
Humphreys' I said, and the man looked at me
quickly. My voice was shaking with excitement, my face, no doubt, had
a
disordered
look.

" 'I
prepared
the tea at
once,
sir,'
he answered.

" 'It is twenty
minutes
by
the
clock since I
rang
the
beJJ,'
I
said.

"Humphreys
placed the tea on a small table at my side
and
then looked
at
the
clock.
An
expression
of
surprise
came over his face. He compared it with the dial
of
his own
watch.

"
'The
clock
wants
regulating, sir,'
he
said. T set it by the kitchen clock this morning, and it has
gained fourteen minutes.'

"I
whipped my own watch out
of
my pocket and stared at it. Humphreys was quite right; the clock upon the
mantelshelf had gained fourteen minutes upon all our
watches.
Yes,
but
it
had
gained
those
fourteen minutes in a second, and that was the least part
of
the marvel. I myself had had the
benefit
of
those
fourteen
minutes.
I
had snatched them, as it were, from Time itself. I had looked at my watch when
I rang the bell. It had marked Eve minutes to Eve. I had remained yet another
four minutes in the room before I had remembered my forgotten instructions to
the keeper. I had then gone out. I had visited the
gun
room
and
tlie
outhouses,
J
had
walked
to
the front gate, I had returned. I had taken
fourteen minutes over my search
—f
couJd
not
Jiave
taken
Jess—and
here
were
tlie
hands
of
my watcJi
now
still
pointing
towards
Eve,
still short
of
the hour. Indeed, as I
replaced my watch in my pocket, the clock in the hall outside
struck
Eve.

" 'As
you
passed
through
the
hall,
Humphreys,
you
saw
no
one,
I
suppose,'
I
said.

"Humphreys
raised his eyebrows with a look
of
perplexity. 'No, sir, I saw no one,' he returned, 'but it seemed to me that the
front
door
banged.
J
think it must have been
left
open.'

"
'Very
likely,'
said I. 'That will do,' and Humphreys went out
of
the room.

"Imagine
my
feelings.
Time
is
relative, it is a
condition
of
our
senses,
it
is nothing more
—that
we
know.
But
its
relation
to
me
was
different from
its relation to others. The clock had given
me fourteen minutes
which
it
denied
to
all
the
world
besides. Fourteen full minutes for me, yet
they passed for others in less than the fraction of
a
second.
And not
once
only
had
it
made
me
this gift, but many times. The admiral's
pause, unnoticed by Mr. Stiles, was now explained to me. He had not
paused;
he
had
gone
straight
on
with his flow of talk, and Mr. Stiles had
gone straight on listening. But between two of Admiral Palkins words, Time had
stood still for me. Similarly, Humphreys had not poised himself
upon
one
ridiculous
leg
in
the
hall.
He
had
taken
a step
in
the
usual
way,
but
while his leg was raised, fourteen minutes
were given to me. I had walked through the hall, I had
walked
back through
the
hall,
yet
Humphreys
had
not
seen
me.
He
could
not
have seen
me,
for
there
had
been
no
interval
of
time
for
him
to use his eyes. I had gone and come quicker than any flash, for even a
flash is appreciable as some fraction of
a
second.

"J
asked
you
to
imagine my feelings. Only with those which I
first experienced
would
you,
from
your
sane
and
comfortable
outlook
upon
life, have any sympathy, for at the beginning
I was
shocked.
I had more than an inclination then to dash that clock
upon
the
hearth
and deny
myself its bizarre and
unnatural
gift.
Would
that
I
had done so! But the inclination was passed, and was succeeded by an incredible
lightness of spirit. I had a gift which raised me
above
kings,
which
fanned
into
a
flame
every
spark
of
vanity
within
me.
I had so much more of time than any other man. I
amused
myself
by
making
plans
to use it, and thereupon I suffered
a
disappointment.
For
there
was
so little
one
could
do
in
fourteen minutes, and the more I realised how
little there was which I could do in my own private special stretch
of
time, the more I
wanted
to
do,
the
more
completely
J
wished to live in it, the more I wished to pluck
power
and
advantage
from
it.
Thus I
began
to
look
forward
to
the
sudden
cessation
of
the
ticking
of
the clock; I began
to wait
for
it, to live for it, and
when it came, I could make no use
of
it. I
gained
fourteen
minutes
now
and
then,
but
I
lost
more and more
of
the
hours
which I shared with other men. They lost their salt for me. I became
tortured with the waste
of
those minutes
of
my own. I
had
the
power;
what
I
wanted
now
was
to
employ it.
The
desire
became
an
obsession
occupying my thoughts, harassing my
dreams.