The Man Who Saw the Future Read online

widerstreets, my eyes and ears numbed by what I saw about me. Then thebuildings grew smaller, after we had gone for miles through them, andwe were passing through the city's outskirts. I could not believe,hardly, that it was Paris in which I was.

  "We came to a great flat and open field outside the city and thereThicourt stopped and we got out of the vehicle. There were big buildingsat the field's end, and I saw other vehicles rolling out of them acrossthe field, ones different from any I had yet seen, with flat winglikeprojections on either side. They rolled out over the field very fast andthen I cried out as I saw them rising from the ground into the air.Mother of God, they were flying! The men in them were flying!

  "Rastin and Thicourt took me forward to the great buildings. They spoketo men there and one brought forward one of the winged cars. Rastin toldme to get in, and though I was terribly afraid, there was too terrible afascination that drew me in. Thicourt and Rastin entered after me, andwe sat in seats with the other man. He had before him levers andbuttons, while at the car's front was a great thing like a double-oar orpaddle. A loud roaring came and that double-blade began to whirl soswiftly that I could not see it. Then the car rolled swiftly forward,bumping on the ground, and then ceased to bump. I looked down, thenshuddered. The ground was already far beneath! I too, was flying in theair!

  "We swept upward at terrible speed that increased steadily. The thunderof the car was terrific, and, as the man at the levers changed theirposition, we curved around and over downward and upward as though birds.Rastin tried to explain to me how the car flew, but it was all toowonderful, and I could not understand. I only knew that a wild thrillingexcitement held me, and that it were worth life and death to fly thus,if but for once, as I had always dreamed that men might some day do.

  "Higher and higher we went. The earth lay far beneath and I saw now thatParis was indeed a mighty city, its vast mass of buildings stretchingaway almost to the horizons below us. A mighty city of the future thatit had been given my eyes to look on!

  "There were other winged cars darting to and fro in the air about us,and they said that many of these were starting or finishing journeys ofhundreds of leagues in the air. Then I cried out as I saw a great shapecoming nearer us in the air. It was many rods in length, tapering to apoint at both ends, a vast ship sailing in the air! There were greatcabins on its lower part and in them we glimpsed people gazing out,coming and going inside, dancing even! They told me that vast ships ofthe air like this sailed to and fro for thousands of leagues withhundreds inside them.

  "The huge vessel of the air passed us and then our winged car began todescend. It circled smoothly down to the field like a swooping bird,and, when we landed there, Rastin and Thicourt led me back to theground-vehicle. It was late afternoon by then, the sun sinking westward,and darkness had descended by the time we rolled back into the greatcity.

  "But in that city was not darkness! Lights were everywhere in it,flashing brilliant lights that shone from its mighty buildings and thatblinked and burned and ran like water in great symbols upon thebuildings above the streets. Their glare was like that of day! Westopped before a great building into which Rastin and Thicourt led me.

  "It was vast inside and in it were many people in rows on rows of seats.I thought it a cathedral at first but saw soon that it was not. The wallat one end of it, toward which all in it were gazing, had on it picturesof people, great in size, and those pictures were moving as thoughthemselves alive! And they were talking one to another, too, as thoughwith living voices! I trembled. What magic!

  "With Rastin and Thicourt in seats beside me, I watched the picturesenthralled. It was like looking through a great window into strangeworlds. I saw the sea, seemingly tossing and roaring there before me,and then saw on it a ship, a vast ship of size incredible, without sailsor oars, holding thousands of people. I seemed on that ship as Iwatched, seemed moving forward with it. They told me it was sailing overthe western ocean that never men had crossed. I feared!

  "Then another scene, land appearing from the ship. A great statue,upholding a torch, and we on the ship seemed passing beneath it. Theysaid that the ship was approaching a city, the city of New York, butmists hid all before us. Then suddenly the mists before the ship clearedand there before me seemed the city.

  * * * * *

  "Mother of God, what a city! Climbing range on range of greatmountain-like buildings that aspired up as though to scale heavenitself! Far beneath narrow streets pierced through them and inthe picture we seemed to land from the ship, to go through thosestreets of the city. It was an incredible city of madness! Thestreets and ways were mere chasms between the sky-toppling buildings!People--people--people--millions on millions of them rushed through theendless streets. Countless ground-vehicles rushed to and fro also, andother different ones that roared above the streets and still othersbelow them!

  "Winged flying-cars and great airships were sailing to and fro over thetitanic city, and in the waters around it great ships of the sea andsmaller ships were coming as man never dreamed of surely, that reachedout from the mighty city on all sides. And with the coming of darkness,the city blazed with living light!

  "The pictures changed, showed other mighty cities, though none soterrible as that one. It showed great mechanisms that appalled me. Giantmetal things that scooped in an instant from the earth as much as a manmight dig in days. Vast things that poured molten metal from them likewater. Others that lifted loads that hundreds of men and oxen could nothave stirred.

  "They showed men of knowledge like Rastin and Thicourt beside me. Somewere healers, working miraculous cures in a way that I could notunderstand. Others were gazing through giant tubes at the stars, and thepictures showed what they saw, showed that all of the stars were greatsuns like our sun, and that our sun was greater than earth, that earthmoved around it instead of the reverse! How could such things be, Iwondered. Yet they said that it was so, that earth was round like anapple, and that with other earths like it, the planets, moved round thesun. I heard, but could scarce understand.

  "At last Rastin and Thicourt led me out of that place of living picturesand to their ground-vehicle. We went again through the streets to theirbuilding, where first I had found myself. As we went I saw that nonechallenged my right to go, nor asked who was my lord. And Rastin saidthat none now had lords, but that all were lord, king and priest andnoble, having no more power than any in the land. Each man was his ownmaster! It was what I had hardly dared to hope for, in my own time, andthis, I thought, was greatest of all the marvels they had shown me!

  "We entered again their building but Rastin and Thicourt took me firstto another room than the one in which I had found myself. They said thattheir men of knowledge were gathered there to hear of their feat, and tohave it proved to them.

  "'You would not be afraid to return to your own time, Henri?' askedRastin, and I shook my head.

  "'I want to return to it,' I told them. 'I want to tell my people therewhat I have seen--what the future is that they must strive for.'

  "'But if they should not believe you?' Thicourt asked.

  "'Still I must go--must tell them,' I said.

  "Rastin grasped my hand. 'You are a man, Henri,' he said. Then, throwingaside the cloak and hat I had worn outside, they went with me down tothe big white-walled room where first I had found myself.

  "It was lit brightly now by many of the shining glass things on ceilingand walls, and in it were many men. They all stared strangely at me andat my clothes, and talked excitedly so fast that I could not understand.Rastin began to address them.

  "He seemed explaining how he had brought me from my own time to his. Heused many terms and words that I could not understand, incomprehensiblereferences and phrases, and I could understand but little. I heard againthe names of Einstein and De Sitter that I had heard before, repeatedfrequently by these men as they disputed with Rastin and Thicourt. Theyseemed disputing about me.

  "One big man was saying, 'Impossible! I tell you, Rastin, you
have fakedthis fellow!'

  "Rastin smiled. 'You don't believe that Thicourt and I brought him herefrom his own time across five centuries?'

  "A chorus of excited negatives answered him. He had me stand up andspeak to them. They asked me many questions, part of which I could notunderstand. I told them of my life, and of the city of my own time, andof king and priest and noble, and of many simple things that they seemedquite ignorant of. Some appeared to believe me but others did not, andagain their dispute broke out.

  "'There is a way to settle the argument, gentlemen,' said Rastinfinally.

  "'How?' all cried.

  "'Thicourt and I brought Henri across five centuries by rotating thetime-dimensions at this spot,' he said. 'Suppose we reverse thatrotation and send him back before your eyes--would that be