The Frank Belknap Long Science Fiction Novel by Frank Belknap Long

Author:Frank Belknap Long
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science fiction, sci-fi, pulp, action, adventure
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
Published: 2016-03-19T04:00:00+00:00

THE THREE FACES OF TIME

Originally published in 1969.

PRELUDE

It came sweeping down from high in the sky, huge and flat and triangular, and looking not unlike a wedge of wild geese winging their way southward.

Autumn sportsmen far below, bobbing about in rubber boats on the salt estuaries that fringed the coastline, thought for a moment that the painted ducks they had been intent on bagging were about to be replaced by a rarer prize, as they heard a faint, honking noise as it swept across the marshes at an elevation of two hundred feet.

Rifles came up, and here and there, where the ground was firm, hunting dogs bounded forward in keen anticipation. A few went plunging into the silt of the marshes, or swam between bullrushes to the crackle of premature rifle fire.

But the flying wedge kept on and on, ignoring the plastic decoys scattered across the shining water and catching the sunlight in blinding flashes.

And suddenly the sun emerged from behind a cloud and shone full on it, altering its three-cornered shape and revealing it for what it was—an enormous, silvery circular disk, moving with great speed across the sky.

CHAPTER ONE

“George, something is moving around in the garden,” Helen Wentworth said, tugging at her husband’s arm and awakening him from a pleasant sleep of fifteen minutes duration. “It’s making a thrashing sound. It can’t be a skunk. When I opened the window and looked out, all of the shrubery was moving, from the front porch to Mrs. Jackson’s washlines.”

Wentworth opened his eyes and looked at her. Her hair wabs in curlers, and she had smeared cold cream on her face, which shone in the moonlight that was streaming into the room from the window which she had just thrown open.

She was trembling a little and he reached out quickly and drew her close to him. Somehow she had never seemed quite so beautiful.

He started kissing her hair and lips and eyes, but she took firm hold of his wrists and forced him to release her.

“George, I’m frightened,” she said. “Perhaps I shouldn’t be, but if there’s a man out there…”

“Now, now, take it easy,” Wentworth said, raising himself on one elbow. “You know how often bears come down from the mountain and nose around, looking for something to nibble on. Or it could be a deer…or just a gust of wind stirring the shrubbery.”

“There’s not a breath of air stirring,” Helen Wentworth said, positively. “It would have to be a man, or a terribly big animal. When was the last time we saw a bear? Three years ago, wasn’t it? And it was just a cub.”

“There are plenty of grown bears around,” Wentworth said. “If it will make you feel any better, I’ll go down to the garden and have a look. Where did you hang my dressing gown?”

“It’s in the hall closet. But please, darling…I don’t want you to go outside. If it’s a man and he sees you…”

“He’ll probably disappear fast,” Wentworth said, reassuringly. “There’s nothing a burglar fears more than a property owner with a gun.

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