fresh air and found himself even then comparing its quality with that of the city. Eatelle stared about her with unbelieving eyes. She turned and saw the great bulk of the office building behind her, then faced this small clearing with a virgin forest ■ on its farther side. She found herself trembling from some undefined cause. Arthur glanced at her. He saw the tremb- ling and knew she would have a iit of nerves in a moment if something did not come up demanding instant attention. "We'd better take a look at this village," he said in an off-hand voice. "We can probably find out how long ago it is from the weapons and so on," He grasped her arm firmly and led her in the direction of the tents. The other people, left be- hind, displayed their emotions in different ways. iTwo or three of them— women — sat frankly down on the steps and indulged in tears of bewilderment, fright and relief in a peculiar combination defying analysis. Two or three of the men swore, in shaken voices. Meantime, the elevators inside the building were rushing and clanging, and the hall filled with a white-faced mob, desperately anxious to find out what had happened and why. The people poured out of the door and stared ab9ut blankly. There was a peculiar, expression of doubt oii every one of their faces. Each one was asking himself if he were awake, and having proved that by. pinches, openly administered, the next query was whether they had gone tnad. Arthur led Estelle cautiously among the tents. The village contained about a dozen wigwams. Most of them wfere made of strips of birch-bark, cleverly overlapping each other, the seams cemented with gum. Ail had hide flaps for doors, and one or two were built almost entirely of hides, sewed together . with strips of sinew. Arthur made only a cursory examination of the tery at all. It's a basket that was woven of reeds and then smeared with clay to make it fire-resisting. The people who made that didn't know about baking clay to make it say put. When America was dis- covered nearly all the tribes knew something about pottery." "But what are we going to do?" Estelle tearfully insisted, "We're going to muddle along as well as we can," answered Arthur cheerfully, "until we can get back to where we started from. Maybe the people back in the twentieth century can send a relief pai'ty after us. When the skyscraper vanished it must have left a hole of some sort, and it may be possible for them to follow us down." "If that's so," said Estelle quickly, "why can't we climb up it without waiting for them to come after us?" Arthur scratched his head. He looked across the clearing at the skyscraper. It seemed to rest very solidly on the ground. He looted up. The sky seemed normal. "To tell the truth," seem to be any hole. I up than anything else." Estelle clenched her t on herself, "Just tell me the truth," she said quietly. "I was rather foolish, but tell me what you honestly think." Arthur eyed her keenly. "In that case," he said reluctantly, "I'll admit we're in a pretty bad fix. I don't know what has happened, how it happened, or anything about it. I'm just going to keep on going until I see a way clear to get out of this mess. There are two thou- sand of us people, more or less, and among all of us we must be able to find a way out." EsteHe had turned very pale. ""V^Sre in no great danger from Indians," went 6fi Arthur thoughtfully, "or from anything else

admitted, "there doesn't

lid that more to cheer you s tightly and took a grip village. His principal motive in taking Estelle 43iat'I 'know of— except one thing.' there was to give her some mental occupation to q' "What is that?" asked Estelle quickly, ward off the reaction from the excitement of the . Arifliur shook his head and led' her back toward cataclysm, ' the Skyscraper, which was now thronged with the He looked into one or two of the tents and found '^Jieofge from all the floors who had come down to the merely couches of hides, with'minor domestic uten- ^ground and were standing excitedly about the con- sils scattered about. He brought from one tent a *«ourse askyig each other what had happened, bow and guivei,; of arrows. The workmanship was "^ Arthur M Estelle to one of the corners, good, but very evidently the maker had no knowl- O ii^ait f pt me here," he ordered. "I'm going to edge of metal tools. ""^talk to thifi/crowd." Arthur's acquaintance with archeological subjects He pusSed his way through until ha could reach ■ was very, slight, but he observed that the arrow- the confectionery and news-stand in the main hall- heads were chipped, and not rubbed smooth. They were attached to the shafts with strips of gut or tendon. Arthur was still pursuing his investigation when a sob from Estelle made him stop and look at her. "Oh, what are we going to do?" she asked tear- fully. "What are we going to do? Where are we?" "You mean, when are we," Arthur corrected with a grim smile. "I don't know. Way back before the discovery of America, though. You can see in every- thing in the village that there isn't a trace of Euro- pean civilization. I suspect that we are several thou- sand years back. I can't tell, of course, but this pottery makes me think so. See this bowl?" He pointed to a bowl of red clay lying on the ground before one of the wigwams. "If you'll look, you'll see that it isn't really pot- way. Here he climbed up on the counter and shouted : "People, listen to me! I'm going to tell you what's happened!" In an instant there was dead silence. He found himself the center of a sea of white faces, every one contorted with fear and anxiety. "To begin with," he said confidently, "there's nothing to be afraid of. We're going to get back . to where we started from! I don't know how, yet, but we'll do it. Don't get frightened. Now I'll tell you what's happened." He rapidly 'sketched out for them, in words as simple as he could make them, his theoi*y that^a flaw in the rock on which the foundations rested had developed and let the skyscraper sink, not down- ward, but into the Fourth Dimension.