Books > The Time Thief > Excerpts

One

Oxford Street

In which the Tar Man has his first encounterwith the twenty-first century, and Kate and Dr. Dyeragree to conceal the truth from the police

It was late afternoon on December 30, the last Saturday of the Christmas holidays, and freezing fog had settled, shroudlike, over London. It had been dark since four o'clock and wherever street lamps cast their orange glow, droplets of moisture could be seen dancing in the icy air.

In Trafalgar Square, seagulls, drawn inland by the severe weather, perched on top of Nelson's head. In St. James's Park, pelicans skidded on frozen ponds. Harrods, its immense contours outlined by a million twinkling lights, appeared to float down Knightsbridge like a luxury liner. To the east of the city, dwarfing St. Paul's Cathedral, gigantic skyscrapers disappeared into the fog, their position betrayed only by warning lights blinking like ghostly spaceships from within the mists.

Meanwhile, in a dank, dark alley off Oxford Street -- a road that in centuries past led to a place of execution at Tyburn -- a homeless man was stuffing newspapers down his jacket and covering himself with layers of blankets. His black and white dog, who had more than a touch of sheepdog in him, lay at his side, shivering. The echoing noise of the street and the drip, drip, drip of a leaking gutter swiftly lulled the man to sleep and he did not even stir when his dog got to its feet and gave a long, low growl. If the man had looked up he would have seen, looming over him at some yards distant, silhouetted black on black, and perfectly still, an alert figure in a three-cornered hat who sat astride a powerfully built horse. His head was cocked to one side as if straining to hear something. Satisfied that he was alone, the dark figure slumped forward and laid his cheek against the horse's neck, expelling the breath that he had been holding in.

"What manner of place is this," he complained into the animal's ear, "to unleash all the hounds of hell for making off with a single prancer? Though 'tis true you wouldn't look amiss even in the stables at Tempest House. You have spirit -- I shall keep you if I can."

The Tar Man patted the horse's neck and wiped the sweat from his brow, though every nerve and sinew was ready for flight or combat. In his years as Lord Luxon's henchman he had earned a fearsome reputation. Few dared say no to him, and if they did they soon changed their mind. He had his hooks caught into enough rogues across London, and beyond, that with one twitch of his line he could reel in anything and anyone. Nothing happened without the Tar Man hearing of it first. But here, wherever "here" was, he was alone and unknown and understood nothing. It suddenly struck him that his journey here had stripped him of everything -- except himself. He clutched instinctively at the scar where the noose had seared into his flesh so long ago. What I need, he thought, is sanctuary. And a guide in this new world...

The Tar Man knew precisely where he was and yet he was lost. The roads were the same but everything in them was different.... This seemed to be London yet it was a London alive with infernal carriages that moved of their own accord at breathtaking speed. The noises and the smells and the sights of this familiar, yet foreign, city tore his senses apart. He had hoped that the magic machine would take him to some enchanted land where the pavements would be lined with gold. Not this...

He became suddenly aware of a faint scraping of heels on gravel behind him. Then a flicker of torchlight illuminated the deeply etched scar that cut a track down the blue-black stubble from his jaw to his forehead. He wheeled around.

"Stop! Police!" came the cry.

The Tar Man did not answer but dug his heels into the sides of the horse he had stolen two hours earlier from the mounted policeman on Hampstead Heath. Without a second's hesitation, horse and rider jumped clear over the vagrant and his dog and plunged headlong into the crowds. The frenzied barks that followed him were lost in the blast of noise that emanated from the busiest street in the world.

Wild-eyed, the Tar Man stared frantically around him. It was the time of the Christmas sales and half of London, after a week of seasonal overindulgence, was out in search of bargains. Oxford Street was heaving with shoppers, packed so densely that it took determination to walk a few feet. Never-ending streams of red double-decker buses and black cabs, their exhausts steaming in the cold, moved at a snail's pace down the wide thoroughfare.

The Tar Man drove his horse on, vainly trying to breach the solid wall of shouting pedestrians that hemmed him in. His heart was racing. He had stepped into a trap of his own making. He berated himself furiously. Numbskull! Have I left my head behind as well as my nerve? Do I not have sense enough to look before I leap?

If he could have, the Tar Man would have mown down these people like a cavalry officer charging into enemy infantry. But he could scarcely move an inch. He was trapped. Glancing around, he saw a group of men in dark blue uniforms emerging from the alley, pushing their way violently toward him, as menacing as any band of footpads of his acquaintance. Curiously, one of them was shouting into a small object he held to his lips.

Everyone was jostling and pressing up against him and screaming at him to get out of the way. All save a little girl who reached up to stroke the horse's moist nose. Her mother snatched her hand away. The Tar Man's eyes blazed. I have not come this far to fall at the first post! They shall not have me! They shall not! And he leaned down into the mass of pedestrians that pushed against him, and when he reappeared he was gripping a large black umbrella as if it were a sword. He thrust it at the crowd, jabbing at people's chests and threatening to thwack them around the head to make them move away. Their piercing screams reached the policemen, who renewed their efforts to reach him through the crowds. Soon, though, the Tar Man had won a small circle of space in which to maneuver. He reversed the horse as far as it could go and whispered something into its ear. The policemen, now only five yards away, watched open-mouthed as they beheld a display of horsemanship the likes of which they were unlikely ever to see again.

The Tar Man held the horse still for an instant and then urged his mount into a majestic leap. Four horse hooves exploded like a thunderclap onto the top of a black cab. The impact was deafening. All heads turned to discover the source of the commotion. Skidding and sliding on the shiny metal, the horse could not keep its footing for long and the Tar Man, his great black coat flying behind him, guided it onto the next cab and then the next and the next.... Hysterical passengers scrambled to get out onto the street. Pedestrians stopped dead in their tracks. And, looking down from their ringside seats on the upper decks of buses, people gawked in disbelief at the spectacle of the Tar Man and his horse playing leapfrog with the black cabs from Selfridges to beyond John Lewis. Soon screams were replaced by laughter and whoops and cheers and the furious shouts of a long line of outraged cabbies. The merest hint of a smile appeared on the Tar Man's face, but just as the thought flashed through his mind to snatch off his three-cornered hat and take a bow, he became aware of an unworldly wind and a rhythmic thrumming that caused the ground beneath him to vibrate. He looked up.

The police helicopter slowly descended. It hovered directly above the Tar Man, its blades rotating in a sickening blur. When a booming voice, like the voice of God, spoke, he held up an arm to his face and paled visibly, paralyzed with fear.

"Get off your horse. Get off your horse and lie on the ground!"

A pencil beam of blinding, blue-white light moved over the Tar Man. He was center stage, spotlit for all to see. The visitor from 1763 could not have orchestrated a more public entrance into the twenty-first century if he had hired the best publicist in London.

The pilot's magnified and distorted voice bounced off the high buildings into the foggy air:

"GET OFF YOUR HORSE! NOW!"

The Tar Man did not -- could not -- move. The helicopter descended even lower. In a reflex action to stop his three-cornered hat from blowing away, he clasped it to his head and, somehow, this simple action seemed to break the spell. He managed to tear his gaze away from the giant, flying beast and quickly scanned his surroundings for an escape route. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he recognized an alley from the Oxford Road he knew. Praying it would not be a dead end, he tugged sharply on the reins and urged his horse on. The crowd was less dense here and the Tar Man broke out, unchallenged, from the circle of light and vanished into black shadows. The helicopter pilot, anxious not to lose his prey, instantly flew higher and headed to the south of Oxford Street, training his searchlight onto half-lit sidewalks and picking out bewildered shoppers in its powerful beam, but the fugitive horseman was lost to sight.

The Tar Man emerged from the alley and rode at breakneck speed through the network of quieter streets toward Piccadilly. Onward the Tar Man galloped, never stopping nor slowing down. He encountered few of these outlandish carriages that moved without horses, and whenever he did see one, the Tar Man charged directly at it, wielding his umbrella fearlessly and daring it to attack him. In every case the strategy worked -- the carriages squealed to an immediate halt. But how little bottom their passengers displayed, cowering behind those queer, curved windows! Faith, they are meeker than milkmaids! Why do they not challenge me?

"Does no one ride in this city?" he yelled at a young man in a black MINI Cooper. "Where are the horses? Where is the dirt?"

The bewildered man shook his head slowly from side to side.

The Tar Man took off again. Onward he galloped, but always above and behind him he sensed the thudding of the flying beast getting nearer. He backtracked and hid in doorways and still managed to outwit his airborne pursuer. As he rode, window displays of impossible refinement flashed by -- extraordinary costumes and shimmering jewels, all illuminated by lights that seemed as bright as the sun. With candles or lamps as powerful as these, he thought, the city need never sleep. Moon-cursers and cutthroats and assassins would be at pains to find a dark enough spot in which to do their business.

Sirens still wailed all around, but like the insistent whirring sound of the helicopter, the fearful noise was beginning to recede into the distance. The Tar Man allowed himself to slow down and he scrutinized the sky above. To the west of him, he could just make out the fuzzy white line of the helicopter's searchlight piercing through the swirling fog. He let out a sigh of relief.

The horse was tiring. Steam rose from its flanks and its breath came out in short bursts. When the Tar Man turned a corner into a grand square and saw that there was an enclosed garden at its center, he decided to rest there awhile. He whispered into his horse's ear, clicked his tongue, and galloped toward the iron railings. The horse sailed over them and came to a halt under the cover of trees. The square was deserted except for a few couples strolling around its perimeter. The Tar Man slid off the horse and patted its neck.

"You have done well, my friend," he said. The horse blew noisily through its velvet nostrils and reached down to tear what blades of grass it could from the clipped turf. The Tar Man walked over to one of the wooden benches that lined the gravel path and slumped down. He put his head in his hands. He was trembling -- whether on account of the cold or the danger he did not know.

Unnoticed by the Tar Man, a police car glided into Berkeley Square, and when its driver spotted the horse, he turned off his engine and spoke into his radio. Slowly and quietly, two police officers got out of the patrol car and scrambled over the iron railings, landing noiselessly on damp earth.

A gray squirrel, ferreting about among plastic wrappers in the litter bin next to the Tar Man, disturbed him. He looked up. As he did so, he caught sight of the row of fine, tall buildings on the east side of the square. Distressed, he jumped up and looked at the west side and then looked to the south. His heart skipped a beat. Did he find himself in Berkeley Square? Could that huge edifice be Landsdowne House? He tipped back his head and peered up at the topmost branches of plane trees. These trees must be nearly two hundred years old!

"How in heaven can this be?" he exclaimed aloud. "This is Berkeley Square!"

He had accompanied Lord Luxon here only last month on a trip to see Mr. Adams, the architect, who was trying to persuade his master to sell his house on Bird Cage Walk and build a five-story house here in Berkeley Square instead. Yet there had not been a single plane tree in sight on that day and the front facade of Landsdowne House was barely started! The thought struck him that he had understood right from the start why this London was at the same time friend and stranger to him -- yet he could not admit it to himself until now.

"I am undone!" he exclaimed aloud. "The machine has brought me to the future! How am I to return home?"

"Would this be your horse, sir?" asked a flat, deep voice behind him.

The Tar Man swung around. He had been surprised in attack too often in his time to hesitate. As soon as he saw the two men, dressed in the same uniform as his pursuers on Oxford Street, he dived straight at their legs and grabbed a knee each, so that they toppled over one on top of the other. Before they were back on their feet, the Tar Man had already leaped onto his horse and was galloping away up the gravel path beneath the plane trees. The policemen ran back to their patrol car, radioing for assistance as they went.

The Tar Man's heart was pounding. These soldiers, with their ugly dark blue uniforms and cropped hair, were clearly not about to give up the chase. He was the fox and the pack of hounds was baying for his blood. Sirens blared from all directions. Then he heard the helicopter alter its course and move nearer. It was beyond his understanding how they did it, yet he was convinced that the soldiers could signal to each other from great distances....

He had to find his way back to his old haunts, seek sanctuary at St. Paul's Church in Covent Garden. At all costs he must avoid the main thoroughfares where he would be easy game for the flying beast. Instead, he would head south toward Green Park and then east toward Leicester Square, taking care to avoid Piccadilly.

When the Tar Man turned into Dover Street, however, he was confronted by another horseless carriage, this time with blue lights blazing on its roof and a wailing siren so piercing it hurt his ears. It accelerated straight at him at tremendous speed. The Tar Man pulled on the reins so sharply that the horse reared up into the air on its back legs. He retreated backward and turned around, only to see two more police cars coming toward him from the direction of Berkeley Square. Now he fled toward Albermarle Street, but fearing that he would be trapped into riding into Piccadilly itself where he would be too exposed, he pulled up sharply and turned right into New Bond Street instead. London was clad in different, garish clothes and yet, here, its bone structure was still the same. He knew these streets. He galloped recklessly on, but a moment later he knew, without even needing to turn around, that his pursuers were upon him.

"So," he cried to the horse, "it seems that you are the last prancer in London and I am to be hunted down by persons determined to offer me hospitality of a kind I should prefer to refuse.... Ha! Damn their eyes, I say! If they're bent on nabbing us, let us not give them an easy ride!"

He swerved right into the Burlington Arcade and even as he rode for his life through the glass tunnel of luxury shops, all crystal and silver and jewels and silks, his jaw dropped at the sight of such rich pickings. It was near closing time and there were only half a dozen people left in the arcade. The air rang with the deafening sound of horse hooves striking polished stone.

"Hold, there!" he cried and pulled hard on the reins. His mount reared briefly onto its hind legs and horse and rider came to a skidding halt outside the window of a jeweler's shop. The Tar Man's eyes devoured the king's ransom of precious stones and gold that nestled in dove-gray velvet before him. A woman in a pearl necklace and cashmere coat stood cowering next to the same display. If the Tar Man was transfixed by the sight of a sapphire as big as a chestnut, sparkling under a spotlight, the woman was equally transfixed by the dark figure towering above her. She could feel the heat coming off his horse's steaming sides. The explosive roar of police motorcycles flying into Burlington Arcade broke the sapphire's spell, but the Tar Man was not going to flee without some reward. He switched his attention from the shop window to the woman's necklace in the blink of an eye. He snatched hold of her pearls and gave them a sharp tug. The clasp broke, leaving her neck bare and her face frozen in shock. Two powerful motorbikes screeched past her as, opening and closing her mouth like a fish out of water, she watched the Tar Man -- and her pearl necklace -- vanish out of sight into Piccadilly.

A few hundred yards away lay Piccadilly Circus. London was coming to life for the evening. Giant neon signs blinked on and off above the bustle of the street, black cabs deposited theatergoers close to Shaftsbury Avenue, and couples stood hand in hand outside restaurants, examining the menus. A large group of young tourists sat on the edge of the fountain under the statue of Eros. They were drinking from cans and were dressed in T-shirts despite the bitter cold. One of them filmed his friends as they stood, laughing and posing outrageously, on the steps beneath the fountain. When they suddenly stopped playing around, their attention drawn by something behind him, the boy turned and focused his lens on a sight that had not been advertised in the travel brochures.

A lone figure on horseback was galloping toward them, picking his way through the crowds on the sidewalk and the traffic in the street. In front of him, people scrabbled desperately to get out of his way. When a stunned driver braked right in front of him, the horseman simply jumped onto the roof of the car before continuing on his way toward Piccadilly Circus.

"Wow!" exclaimed the boy and zoomed in on the Tar Man's pursuers. A wall of police cars and motorcyles, headlights blazing and sirens screaming, stretched fully from one side of the street to the other. Above them all, a helicopter hovered angrily, like a wasp that has been brushed aside once too often and is getting ready to strike.

The boy trained his camera on the rider. He was wearing a bizarre black hat as well as a look of intense concentration, and the boy recognized an unmistakeable glint of enjoyment cross his face. A surfer on the crest of a wave of police cars! This guy was actually having fun! The boy gave a whoop of appreciation. Whatever he'd done, he sure had gotten under the skin of the police -- they looked mad!

When the rider drew close to Piccadilly Circus tube station, and he saw the steady flow of people descending beneath the sidewalk, he slowed down briefly. Giving a cursory glance over his shoulder at the stream of patrol cars sweeping up behind him, he suddenly turned one hundred and eighty degrees and disappeared down the steep stairs into the London Underground. The horse had such confidence in his new master that he trotted down willingly, for all the world as if he caught the tube every day. Up above, police cars and motorcycles screeched to a halt. Passengers started to flee up the stairs in panic but immediately had to press themselves against the walls as a small army of uniformed officers converged on the ticket hall in hot pursuit of the desperado on horseback who had left a trail of destruction halfway across London.

A few minutes later, shortly after the horse had trotted calmly back up the steps, a man emerged from a different exit, wearing a tweed jacket several sizes too big for him. He had long black hair which settled in rats' tails on his collar and fell forward across his face, concealing the rather nasty scar on one cheek. The man set off, head down and hands in his pockets, in the direction of Covent Garden.

Kate woke up screaming, "Peter!"

Dr. Pirretti, who was driving the hired estate car up the M1 through dense fog, swerved involuntarily with the shock of it.

"Whoa!" she exclaimed. "That was a close call!"

Kate's Labrador, Molly, who was sitting in the trunk, started to whimper and put her golden head over the rear seat so that she could lick her face. Kate's father, Dr. Dyer, pushed the dog away.

"Everything's all right, Kate," he reassured her. "You're safe. I thought you were never going to wake up -- you've missed all the fun...."

"Where am I, Dad? What's happening?"

Kate was not quite awake and felt sick and confused and disoriented.

"You're going home. Anita is driving us back up to Derbyshire."

"Anita?"

"Dr. Anita Pirretti -- from NASA. I told you -- she and Ed Jacob came over from the States when they heard that you and Peter had disappeared from the lab. She's been team-leading the antigravity project...."

"Too much detail!" protested Dr. Pirretti. "The poor kid's scarcely conscious!"

"Anita and Ed managed to get us out of Hampstead Heath without attracting too much attention."

"If we'd been spotted," laughed Dr. Pirretti, "we'd be in police custody by now! Your dad and I must have looked a tad suspicious bundling an unconscious girl and a dog into a car in the dark...."

"Ed was no better. He certainly looked as if he was up to no good sliding the antigravity machine into the back of that massive van...."

"Better too big than too small!...Kate, you don't know how glad I am to meet you at last...."

But Kate was not listening.

"Dad!" she exclaimed, ignoring Dr. Pirretti. "What happened to Peter? Where is he? Did he make it?"

There was a pause. "No. Peter was left behind. The Tar Man took his place.... There was nothing I could do...."

"But we've got to go back! We can't leave him there on his own!"

"I'm taking you back to your mother before we decide what to do next...."

"What's to decide? We have to go back and get him!"

"Ssshh...Kate. Calm down. Everything will be fine...."

"We are going back to get him, aren't we? I promised I'd never leave the eighteenth century without him!"

"Of course we are, love, but I'm not going to keep you from your mum a second longer than I have to.... She's been through enough. Not to mention your brothers and sisters. Sam was there when your mum took the phone call. He was beside himself -- I couldn't tell if he was laughing or crying."

"Poor Sam."

Kate sighed deeply and let her tired eyelids close, but immediately the vivid memory of Peter being hurled backward from the antigravity machine came at her again, and for a split second she relived the horror of that moment. The dismay in Peter's dark eyes as he faded from view...She shuddered involuntarily and put her hand to her forehead.

"Does your head hurt?"

Kate nodded.

"Mine too. I'll give you some something for it."

"Do you think Molly's got a headache, too?"

"Probably."

Kate twisted round and stroked Molly's soft ears.

"Good girl."

Dr. Dyer poured some hot, sweet tea from a vacuum flask and passed it to Kate. She swallowed the painkillers her father held out for her, and then gobbled down the chocolate he proffered to take the taste away.

"Mmmm...I've missed chocolate."

Her father laughed. "So are you going to say hello to Anita?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. Hello, Anita."

"Good to meet you, Kate," said Dr. Pirretti. She spoke in a mellow Californian accent. "You've been on an amazing and unique journey -- but I sure hope there won't be anyone following in your footsteps!"

"But we've got to go back for Peter!" exclaimed Kate, looking alarmed.

"Of course, we will," said Dr. Dyer quickly. "But for the time being, at least, we can be grateful that he's with friends. Gideon will look out for him until we can rescue him...."

"But, Dad, Gideon will be on the run!"

"Well, if Peter is with Gideon, they'll just both have to be on the run for a while, won't they? And Gideon, of all people, knows how to handle himself when he's up against it. If he needs to get lost and stay lost in 1763, he'll do it. It's not like today, when you can't take a step without a security camera pointing at you."

"I swore I wouldn't come back without him. I feel so guilty that he's still there and I'm here...."

"It was hardly your fault! Kate, I really think you should get some rest while you can. You look even worse than I feel and we won't be at the farm for a couple of hours at least."

"But -- "

"No buts. You'll just have to be patient until we can sort this mess out.... Okay?"

Kate nodded reluctantly. She snuggled up to her father's shoulder and closed her eyes. She felt terrible, as if recovering from a bad illness. She fell in and out of sleep, vaguely aware of the hum of the car engine and the spasmodic conversation between her father and the woman with the American accent. Once she woke up and heard herself ask, still half-asleep: "Where's the Tar Man?"

"I don't know, love. When I woke up he was already gone."

When he was sure that Kate was finally asleep, Dr. Dyer discussed with Dr. Pirretti what they, or rather Kate, should say to the police -- not to mention Peter's parents. They agreed that the only course of action open to them was to insist that Kate was suffering from amnesia. She would have to say that she could remember nothing that happened to her after running down the corridor after Molly in the laboratory.

"Will Kate be able to pull it off, do you think?" asked Dr. Pirretti.

"She understands how vital this is. I know she'll do her best. And although Inspector Wheeler won't give her an easy ride whatever she tells him, it'll be much easier for her to deny remembering anything than coming up with some far-fetched story which Inspector Wheeler will take great pleasure in demolishing. If he catches even the vaguest scent of the truth, we've had it. We'll never be able to kick over the traces."

They fell silent as the car sped through the foggy night toward Derbyshire. After a while Dr. Dyer said: "I wish I'd managed to tell Peter that his father had tried to telephone him just as he and Kate were being catapulted across time.... They'd had a serious falling-out apparently. It occurred to me a couple of times to say something, but people were around and it just wasn't the right moment. I don't know what Peter's last memory of his dad was, but it certainly wasn't a good one. It's too late now...."

"Don't beat yourself up about it, Andrew. How were you expected to know that the boy was going to leap off the machine and that an eighteenth-century villain was going to hitch a lift to the twenty-first century?"

"I feel bad about it all the same.... So what are you planning to do with the antigravity machine?"

"I've told Ed Jacob to keep it locked up in the van until he can find a safe hiding place. Then I want him to go back to the States to see Russ Merrick at MIT. I told you that one of the main reasons we came over to see you after Kate and Peter's disappearance was because Russ's antigravity machine vanished without trace the same night as his office cleaner...."

Dr. Dyer nodded. "And you were speculating that the same thing had happened on both sides of the Atlantic...."

"Except that now it transpires it was all a red herring. The cleaner wasn't lost in the mists of time, after all -- he turned up in North Carolina."

"And the machine?"

Dr. Pirretti shrugged her shoulders. "It's a mystery. I feel uneasy about not even knowing whether it was stolen or not. I sincerely hope we won't live to regret being unable to trace it. Russ called me last night to say that he has nearly completed a prototype of an antigravity machine which incorporates elements of your friend Tim Williamson's design with his own."

"Did you tell him the real reason you commissioned him to build it so quickly?"

"No...and he's not going to be happy when Ed tells him that now that we have Tim's machine I want him to stop work on it. I don't think I'll mention that we intend to destroy it...."

"Destroy it! But surely we should wait until we've got Peter back -- what happens if Tim's machine has been damaged?"

"It's because of Tim Williamson that I'm in such a hurry to destroy both antigravity machines."

"What do you mean?" asked Dr. Dyer, alarmed at the mention of his colleague. "What's he done?"

"It's more a question of what he will do. He came to see me a couple of days ago. He said that if we've discovered time travel, before long someone else will, too. You can't un-discover something. You can't turn back the clock. Ha! Except now, it seems, you can. He said that it was absurd and illogical to walk away from something so momentous as the discovery of time travel."

"And, of course, if you say it quickly enough, that sounds perfectly reasonable," said Dr. Dyer.

"He was talking about patenting 'his' invention and approaching the Ministry of Defence to ensure that it didn't fall into the wrong hands..."

"How can it not, sooner or later, get into the wrong hands? People would kill for such a secret -- surely Tim can see that!"

"I have this sinking feeling," continued Dr. Pirretti, "that there will never be an end to this.... We're doomed to failure. A bunch of King Canutes ordering the waves to stop."

"I'll go and see Tim and try and talk some sense into him. I can't say I'm surprised, though. A bit tough to know you've made a world-shattering discovery only to be told that you have to deny all knowledge of it...."

Dr. Pirretti did not respond and Dr. Dyer saw a frown appear on her face in the rearview mirror. She looked exhausted.

"I keep thinking about the first nuclear explosion," she said. "And what Oppenheimer said when he saw that deadly cloud rise up into the sky, knowing that it was his own creation -- 'I am become Shiva, destroyer of worlds.'"

"Is that how you feel about time travel?" asked Dr. Dyer.

"Don't you? The more I think about it, the more terrified I am by what we've done."

Kate groaned in her sleep and her father tried to make her more comfortable, tucking in the blue tartan blanket that covered her knees and smoothing back the strands of red hair that tumbled over her face.

"Is she okay?" asked Dr. Pirretti.

"Yes. She's fast asleep. By the way," continued Dr. Dyer. "I meant to ask how you are doing. Did the hospital sort out your headaches?"

"No. Plus I'm now having problems with my hearing. Not that I can't hear...sort of the reverse. It's difficult to describe.... Sometimes I think I'm..."

"What?"

"No...I mustn't make too much of it. My overactive imagination sometimes plays tricks on me." She changed the subject abruptly. "What are we going to do about our uninvited guest from the past? I guess it's our duty to track him down and send him back to his own time -- though I suspect that he'll disappear out of sight never to be heard of again. After all, who's going to believe he's from the eighteenth century? What did you call him?"

"The Tar Man. It's on account of him being hanged for a crime which he probably didn't commit. Unfortunately for him, they didn't find out he was still alive until after he'd been covered in tar and strung up from a gibbet on the village green for the crows."

Dr. Pirretti shuddered. "Great...so you didn't just bring back anyone, you brought back an eighteenth-century villain with a grudge against the world!"

"It's not the Tar Man who's worrying me -- it's Peter. You're...you're not actively against trying to rescue him, are you?"

Dr. Pirretti did not answer right away and then replied: "If you knew, for sure, that going back in time again could potentially damage the universe in some catastrophic way we can't yet envisage, would it be right to risk the safety of the rest of humanity for the sake of one innocent boy? That's the question I've been asking myself -- and I don't know the answer."

The evening air in Covent Garden was full of applause and laughter. Large circles of people had formed around one of the street entertainers who are always ready to perform for the crowds near the market halls. This particular entertainer was riding on a unicycle as tall as a bus. He was inviting members of the audience to throw up a variety of objects, all of which he would endeavor to catch on his head, balancing all the while by pedaling backward and forward and holding his arms stretched out wide. Someone had thrown up an empty beer can and he had managed to balance it on his forehead while whistling "Oh my darling Clementine." This earned him a big round of applause. The Tar Man marveled at the bizarre contraption which the entertainer rode with such skill, and idly wondered about the beer can, which looked as if it were made of metal and yet appeared to weigh so little.

He stood, half-hidden behind a pillar, under the portico of St. Paul's Church, which rose up like a small Roman temple on the west side of Covent Garden Piazza. The Tar Man had stood in this selfsame spot so many times in his life -- either sheltering from the rain or, more likely, on the lookout for fresh talent, as he watched the spectacle of London's villains plying their trade. He would admire the skill of a cutpurse filching a snuffbox, or perhaps a lace handkerchief, from a gentleman on his way to see Mr. Garrick in his latest role at the Covent Garden Theatre -- and if he was any good his victim would be none the wiser. Or, on a moonless night, he would watch a gang of footpads lurking at the entrance to an alley, waiting for the linkboy to reappear, panting, into the Piazza. The linkboy, paid to escort a party through an unlit passage with his high lantern, would abandon his terrified victims in the darkness, helpless and ripe for the picking....

The main entrance to St. Paul's Church was not in the Piazza but at the opposite end of the building through a pleasant churchyard to be reached via Bedford Street. The Tar Man had just come from there and he was not well pleased with the elderly church official who had refused him entry.

The church was hosting a concert that evening and a soprano's voice trilled and soared up into the night. It was fortunate for the Tar Man that the police had lost his trail because the sanctuary that he had claimed at St. Paul's was not going to be granted to him on this evening. The old man had even gone so far as to try and sell him a ticket.

"I ask for sanctuary and you demand ten pounds!"

"Or five for concessions. Are you a student or unemployed?" asked the old man, but his outraged interlocutor had already left in disgust.

Now, as the Tar Man stood looking out over Covent Garden Piazza, refused sanctuary in this world as he had been in his own, his mind turned to how he was going to make his way in this strange, modern world. It would be a new beginning. Powerful though he had been, the Tar Man was tired of being Lord Luxon's henchman. In this London he would bow to no one.... Fate had led him to the magic machine in Derbyshire and nothing would stop him from making his mark.

The crowd in front of him burst into peals of laughter. The Tar Man looked over and saw the cause of the merriment. A little girl, perhaps five years old, who announced that her name was La-La, had been invited to throw up some plastic rings for the entertainer to catch in his teeth. She found that she got more applause if she missed, and started to throw them randomly into the crowd instead. Sensing the entertainer's thinly disguised anger, the crowd was in fits of laughter. Soon, the entertainer had had enough of a child stealing his thunder and wound up the show. He took his final bow and passed around a top hat. The spectators reached into their pockets and coins rained into its silk interior. Those who drifted off without contributing, he shamed by shouting after them. Most of them sloped back guiltily and dropped fat pound coins onto the pile with a clink. When the entertainer thrust his hat at the Tar Man, he glanced up at him and coolly shook his head.

The street entertainer insisted and poked his hat, jingling with coins, at the Tar Man once more.

"So you expect me to provide you with free entertainment, do you?"

The Tar Man laughed in his face in such a way that the entertainer felt obliged to join in even though he felt the hackles rise on the back of his neck.

"Upon my word, sir, you do entertain me vastly!"

The Tar Man grabbed hold of the entertainer's arm with an iron grip and forcibly wrenched the hat from his grasp. He had stopped laughing and was fixing the entertainer with a stare that made his blood go cold. Without breaking eye contact the Tar Man flung the hat and all its contents onto the Piazza so that dozens of coins rolled all over the cobblestones.

"Oi!" squawked the entertainer and raised an arm in a fist as if to thump him. But the Tar Man easily deflected the halfhearted blow, and taking hold of the entertainer's ear, he twisted it mercilessly until the man sank to his knees, crying out with the pain of it.

"Where I come from, beggars have better manners," the Tar Man commented with an expression on his face that discouraged any thought of retaliation. "Pray that our paths do not cross again."

It pleased the Tar Man that his old haunts were as busy and lively as ever. And so respectable now that it made him want to laugh -- what sights he had witnessed in these streets! No doubt the men in the dark blue uniforms had put a stop to that sort of thing....

It is astonishing how quickly novelty wears off. After half an evening strolling around Covent Garden, the Tar Man was no longer shocked at the sight of women in trousers and with their hair cut short. In fact, he even appreciated it, in a way. But how the cloth merchants must suffer, he thought, on account of this fashion. Why, the material needed for one dress in his time would surely clothe three or four women now. He was no longer taken aback by girls revealing their ankles -- and knees and thighs, for that matter. And he was already accustomed to seeing the large number of foreign faces. It took him longer, however, to get over the lack of poverty and malnourished faces on every street corner.... Gone were the armies of barefoot children and beggars in rags, skin stretched tight over bone. Instead he saw plump, clear complexions and shining hair and such white teeth! This truly was a land of plenty. He drank it all in and reveled in it. Was the whole of London like this? He loved the shop windows bright as a sunny day and the neon signs and the orange streetlights. The Tar Man quickly learned to keep to the sidewalk and noticed that if people wanted to cross to the other side of the street, they tended to walk over black and white stripes painted on the hard, dark surface. The Tar Man preferred to take his chances and darted through traffic, causing waves of drivers to screech to a halt or sound their horns. But as he played tag with the streams of horseless carriages, he began to take some interest in them. He admired the way they glided along and how the passengers looked so at ease inside. A low, silver carriage, parked on a quiet back street, caught his eye and the desire swept over him to sit inside it. He struggled in vain to open the door and ended up kicking it in frustration. When the vehicle came to life, screaming at him with an unworldly, pulsing, deafening howl and with lights flashing, the Tar Man fled as fast as his legs would carry him. But at the end of the street he turned back to look and saw an elderly man walking past the protesting vehicle, quite unconcerned. Intrigued, the Tar Man walked up to another carriage, this time a large, shiny green one, and waited until no one was looking. This time he did not jump quite as much when his kick provoked a stream of high-pitched staccato beeping. Again, no one seemed to take any notice. The Tar Man smiled to himself. If these carriages could talk, he thought, they would be shouting "Stop, thief!" Save their plea falls on stony ground, for the good citizens do not care a fig for their predicament....Back in the main thoroughfares, the Tar Man observed that when people raised their hands, large black carriages would swoop to the pavement, whereupon the passenger would climb into the back and recline on a spacious seat and be transported away. Soon he, too, would command a carriage and ride in style through the streets of the city -- but not yet. First, he needed to learn the rules of the game...and above all he needed a guide.

As the evening wore on, he became increasingly tired and hungry and thirsty. He stopped for a moment in front of a French restaurant and peered through an abundant display of flowers at elegant couples who sat at circular tables bathed in pools of gentle light and at attentive waiters in black waistcoats who proffered menus and brushed crumbs off white linen tablecloths. The Tar Man licked his lips. This was a tempting chop house; he could smell meat.

He made a note of the entrance where waiters periodically appeared laden with plates of steaming food. Then he waited for the right moment and walked confidently into the restaurant, weaving between the tables and making directly for the kitchens. London is a tolerant city that welcomes eccentrics and the Tar Man's dress -- overlarge tweed jacket over knee britches and buckled shoes, with a hairstyle resembling dreadlocks -- provoked little comment and at least one complimentary remark. A girl indicated his knee britches, smiled, and gave him the thumbs-up sign. Unsure of the meaning of her gesture, the Tar Man nevertheless bowed his head in acknowledgment and continued into the bright, white kitchen.

A young chef was pouring brandy over a pan of sizzling steak. He paused for a moment when he saw the Tar Man.

"Ze toilets is to ze right, monsieur," he said in a strong French accent, indicating the direction with a wooden spoon.

The Tar Man nodded and smiled and glanced around the cluttered surfaces. There, near the door, he spotted a row of freshly arranged plates ready to go. The chef tipped the sauté pan so that the gas ignited the warmed brandy. Blue flames shot high into the air. When the chef turned back, the Tar Man had gone.

Back outside, on Floral Street, the two roast breasts of duck burned into the Tar Man's hip through his pocket lining. He took one out, blowing on it and passing it from one hand to the other while tearing at its piping hot flesh with his teeth. He discovered that there was some loose change jingling at the bottom of his pocket. He took out the greasy coins and examined them. What I fancy now, he thought, is some decent ale, and he wondered if the tavern he used to frequent nearby was still there. He doubted it but headed, in any case, toward Rose Street. To his delight, there it was, almost the same except, like everything else now, or so it seemed to him, cleaner and more respectable.

"By the devil!" he exclaimed. "The Bucket of Blood! Though I'll warrant they've put a stop to the fistfighting!"

The pub was smoky and crowded, with low beams and an open fire burning at the back, and there were far too many people trying to get served at the bar. The Tar Man instantly felt at home. He took up a position at one end of the polished wooden bar and threw down the coins on the counter.

"A tankard of ale, if you please, mistress."

The barmaid, who was used to tourists shouting their orders in Olde Worlde English, reeled off the names of the different beers she could offer him. Confused, he pointed to the glass of pale amber liquid that his drunken neighbor was nursing in his hands. The barmaid nodded patiently and deposited a pint of lager in front of him. It was only when he pushed all his coins at her and was still ninety pence short of the price that she began to show signs of irritation. She was on the verge of calling the manager when the drunken man slumped over the bar offered to buy him a pint.

"Are you sure?" said the barmaid, unwilling to let this character take advantage of one of her regulars.

"A friend indeed is a friend in need," he slurred, and pulled a five-pound note out of his wallet.

The Tar Man looked at it with interest. "You can pay with that?" he asked.

The drunk screwed up his eyes and turned to look at him. "You foreign or somethink?"

"I am from far away."

"Well, welcome to London, mate. Cheers!"

"Thank you, my friend," said the Tar Man, and they clinked glasses.

He took a large mouthful of lager and all but spat it out in shock.

"Oh!" he exclaimed, then cautiously took another sip and shook his head in delighted surprise. He drank again and smiled broadly.

"What's up? You all right?"

"It's cold," breathed the Tar Man. "It's as cold as a mountain stream!"

"Don't they serve beer cold where you come from?"

"No."

"Where do you come from?"

"1763."

"Course you do, mate! Nice scar you've got. A real beauty. How did that happen, then?"

It amused the Tar Man to tell him his life story, knowing that the drunk would remember nothing in the morning. Indeed, soon afterward, his generous drinking partner collapsed onto the bar.

The Tar Man looked down at him and shook his head. "People haven't changed for the better," he said to himself, gulping down more lager, "but some things definitely have!"

When the barmaid called "Time, gentlemen, please!" at closing time, the Tar Man slapped the drunk man's face to rouse him. When this had no effect he heaved him up and supported him into the street. He propped him up against the nearest wall and removed his wallet. He slid out the wadge of paper money and slipped the wallet back into the man's pocket.

"Never let drink get the upper hand, my friend," the Tar Man whispered into his ear. "And never let sentiment rule your actions."