Because he put the muzzle of a great ugly pistol into my side.

“Walk ahead of me,” he said. “I will take you to a comfortable place where you can get dry clothing.”

Only he did not say clothing, it sounded more like cloth-eeng. My captor very positively had a French accent.

All I could do was follow instructions, prodded on by the primitive hand cannon. Primitive or not, it could still blow a nice hole in me. At the far end of the lane a coach had been pulled up, blocking the lane completely, the door gaping open in unappreciated welcome.

“Get in,” my captor said, “I am right behind you. I saw that unfortunate soldier fall from the bridge and drown and I thought to myself, what if he had been on the surface? What if he were a good swimmer and could cross the river, where would he land when moved along by the current? A neat mathematical problem which I solved, and voila! there you were coming out of the water.”

The door slammed, the coach started forward, and we were alone. I fell forward, dropped, turned, lunged, grabbed out for the pistol—and seized it by the butt because my captor now had it by the barrel and was holding it out to me.

“By all means you hold the gun, Mr. Brown, if it pleases you; it is no longer needed.” He smiled as I gaped and scowled and leveled the pistol at him. “It seemed the simplest way to convince you to join me in the carriage. I have been watching you for some days now and am convinced that you do not like the French invaders.”

“But—you are French?”

“But of course! A follower of the late king, a refugee now from the land of my birth. I learned to hate this pipsqueak Corsican while people here were still laughing at him. But no one laughs any longer, and we are united in one cause. But, please, let me introduce myself. The Count d’Hesion, but you may call me Charles since titles are now a thing of the past.”

“Pleased to meet you, Charley.” We shook on it. “Just call me John.”

The coach clattered and groaned to a stop then, before this interesting conversation could be carried any further. We were in the courtyard of a large house and, still carrying the pistol, I followed the count inside. I was still suspicious, but there seemed little to be suspicious of. The servants were all ancient and tottered about muttering French to one another. Knees creaking, one aged retainer poured a bath for me and helped me to strip, completely ignoring the fact that I still held the pistol while he soaped my back. Warm clothes were provided, and good boots, and when I was alone, I transferred my armory and devices to my new clothing. The count was waiting in the library when I came down, sipping from a crystal glass filled with interesting drink, a brimming container of the same close by him. I handed him the pistol, and he handed me a glass of the beverage in return. It glided down my throat like warm music and sent a cloud of delicate vapor into my nostrils the like of which I had never inhaled before.

“Forty years old, from my own estate, which as you can tell instantly is in the Cognac.”

I sipped again and looked at him. Nobody’s fool. Tall and thin with graying hair, a wide forehead, lean, almost ascetic features.

“Why did you bring me here?” I asked.

“So we could join forces. I am a student of natural philosophy, and I see much that is unnatural. The armies of Napoleon have weapons that were made nowhere in Europe. Some say they come from far Cathay, but I think not. These weapons are served by men who speak very bad French, strange and evil men. There is talk of even stranger and more evil men at the Corsican’s elbow. Unusual things are happening in this world. I have been watching for other unusual things and am on the lockout for strangers. Strangers who are not English, such as yourself. Tell me—how can a man swim across a river under water?”

“By using a machine.” There was no point in silence; the count knew very well what he was asking. With those dark cannon out there there was no point in secrecy about the nature of the enemy. His eyes widened as I said this, and he finished his drink.

“I thought so. And I think you know more about these strange men and their weapons. They are not of the world as we know it, are they? You have knowledge of them, and you are here to fight them?”

“They are from a place of evil and madness, and they have brought their crimes with them. And I am fighting them. I cannot tell you everything about them because I don’t know the entire story myself. But I am here to destroy them and everything they have done.”

“I was sure of it! We must join forces, and I will give you whatever help I can.”

“You can begin by teaching me French. I have to get into London, and it appears I will need to speak it.”

“But—is there time?”

“An hour or two will do. Another machine.”

“I am beginning to understand. But I am not sure that I like all these machines.”

“Machines cannot be liked or disliked; they are immune to emotion. We can use them or misuse them, so the problem of machines is a human problem like all others.”

“I bow to your wisdom; you are, of course, right. When do we begin?”

I returned to the Boar and Bustard for my things, then moved into a room in the count’s house. A head-splitting evening with the memorygram—headache is a mild word for the side effects of using this memory-cramming machine—taught me conversational French, and to the count’s pleasure, we now conversed in that language.

“And the next step?” he asked. We had dined, and dined well indeed, and were now back to the cognac.

“I need to take a closer look at one of those pseudo Frenchmen who seem to be running things. Do they ever appear alone on this side of the river or, if not alone, in small groups?”

“They do, but their movements follow no set pattern. Therefore I shall obtain the roost recent information.” He rang the silver bell that stood next to the decanter. “Would you like one of these individuals rendered unconscious or dead and brought to you?”

“You are too kind,” I said, holding out my glass so that the servant who had soundlessly appeared could refill it. “I’ll handle that end of the business myself. Just point him out and I’ll take over from there.”

The count issued instructions; the servant slipped away; I worked on my drink.

“It will not take long,” the count said. “And when you have the information, do you have a plan of action?”

“Roughly. I must enter London. Find He, the top demon in this particular corner of hell, then kill him, I imagine. And demolish certain machinery.”

“The upstart Corsican—you will remove him, too?”

“Only if he gets in the way. I am no common murderer and find it difficult to kill at any time. But my actions should change the entire operation. The new weapons will no longer be supplied and will soon run out of ammunition. In fact, the interlopers may vanish altogether.”

The count raised one eyebrow but was kind enough not to comment.

“The situation is complex; in fact, I do not really understand it myself. It has to do with the nature of time, about which I know very little. But it seems that this past, the time we are living in now, does not exist in the future. The history books to come tell us that Napoleon was beaten, his empire wiped out, that Britain was never invaded.”

“It should only be!”

“It may be—if I can get to He. But if history is changed again, brought back to what it should have been, this entire world, as we know it now, may vanish.”

“A certain risk must be taken in all hazardous enterprises.” The count remained cool and composed, moving one hand in a slight gesture of dismissal as he talked. An admirable man. “If this world disappears, it must mean that a happier one will come into existence?”

“That’s roughly it.”