
In a smoky 18th‑century English tavern, the usual clamor of clinking mugs is broken by an impossible sight: a translucent figure in a twentieth‑century tuxedo appears beside a startled cat, its shadow swallowing the room for a heartbeat. The inn’s boisterous host and his patrons react with bewildered humor, while the night outside is punctuated by a lone feline’s mournful howl. This strange intrusion hints at forces that can tear the veil between eras, setting the stage for a bewildering mystery.
Enter Dr. Hugh Tracy, an astronomer whose ordinary life is upended when a violent burst of light throws him from a modern apartment into a low‑ceilinged log cabin populated by oddly dressed men from a bygone century. As he struggles to explain his presence, the strangers speak of “Yero” and a world that has become a dumping ground for the universe’s oddities, suggesting a larger, unseen conflict. Between baffling temporal jumps and witty, uneasy dialogue, Tracy’s adventure promises a blend of humor, intrigue, and the tantalizing question of what lies hidden in the cracks of time.
Language
en
Duration
~45 minutes (43K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Original publisher
United States: Better Publications, Inc.,1948.
Credits
Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2022-08-24
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1921–1975
Known for blending big scientific ideas with moral and religious questions, this influential science fiction writer helped shape the genre in the 1950s and 1960s. His best-known work includes the Cities in Flight books, the Hugo-winning novel A Case of Conscience, and widely read Star Trek adaptations.
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