Free Time Tunnel by Murray Leinster

in time and killed my great-great-grandfather, I wouldn’t be born! And Carroll’s going back!”
    “She knew,” said Harrison blissfully, “she knew the minute she saw me again, that I was the one she wanted to marry! The very minute, Pepe! The instant she recognized me as her old playmate!”
    “So I’m not going to take any chances!” said Pepe fiercely. “There’s de Bassompierre, too! I could blow up the damned time-tunnel, but de Bassompierre does seem to be doing some pretty undesirable stuff. So I’m going along! And I’m going to see that none of my ancestors get killed!”
    Harrison beamed.
    “That’s fine!” be said, not really aware of what Pepe had said. “We’re not going to tell Valerie’s aunt just yet. There’d be fireworks. And anyhow it wouldn’t be fair to Valerie to get married before I’ve made that trip with Carroll. It could be dangerous. I don’t want her to be worried!”
    Pepe stared at him. Hard. Then he said irritably:
    “ Dios mio! As if this business weren’t bad enough without having only lunatics to carry it out!”
    Harrison went to bed in that state of emotional semi-narcosis which is appropriate to a newly-engaged man. He was literally unaware that any other important thing had happened in the world. The newspapers of that afternoon announced a new international crisis. He didn’t notice. It appeared that the mainland Chinese had exploded their first atomic bomb.
    The significance of the fact was, of course, that the communist Chinese were now added to the nations threatening the world’s precarious peace. There were cabinet meetings all over the world, where heads were shaken and helplessness admitted. It had not been expected that the Chinese would have the bomb so soon. The individuals who seemed to know most about it guessed that they hadn’t developed it entirety by themselves. There were indefinite surmises that somebody had defected from the Russians, on the ground that they were reactionary conservatives in their politics, and had carried information to Peking which made the bomb possible. It was even guessed that the defector had originally defected to Russia from France. There were despairing speculations where he—his identity was strongly suspected—would defect to next.
    To people not newly engaged, the explosion of an atomic bomb by the communist Chinese seemed a very serious matter. Certain groups dusted off their “Better Red than Dead” placards to carry in new demonstrations of reaction to the news. On the other hand, much of the world grimly prepared to live up to an exactly opposite opinion.
    But Harrison slept soundly. He waked next morning with en excellent appetite and in the most cheerful of moods. He tried to think of an excuse to visit the shop of Carroll, Dubois et Cie. and was regretfully unable to contrive one. He went to the tailors and felt remarkably idiotic while they showed him fabrics and styles and were astonished that a supposed television actor was not interested in clothes.
    Later, though, M. Dubois called upon him.
    “ M’sieur ,” said the little man agitatedly, “my sister and I wish to implore your aid! The most horrible, the most criminal thing has happened! My sister is half-mad with grief! She is distracted! We implore your assistance!”
    Harrison blinked at him.
    “What’s the matter? What’s happened? What can I do?”
    “You know of our business and its—unusual nature,” said Dubois. His voice trembled, and Harrison found himself thinking that he must have had a very bad half-hour with Madame Carroll. “But perhaps you do not know that my brother-in-law has acknowledged that he plans a journey to the—ah—the place where I buy the stock for the shop! You did not know that? But you will see at once that it is unthinkable! It is horrible to contemplate! It would be ruinous! My sister is distracted!”
    Harrison raised his eyebrows.
    “I’m sorry that she feels badly,” he said as soothingly a he