Trolley to Yesterday by John Bellairs Page A

dome from an architecture book that I have in my library. There'll be a flash of light, and some people will get their hair singed, but it ought to frighten the dickens out of the Turks. That is what I plan to do. The big problem will be getting into the city and getting back in one piece." He paused and looked hopefully at the two boys. "Do you think it would work?" he asked.
    Johnny's eyes filled with tears. He knew that the professor was trying to do something fine and noble, but he felt that the plan was utterly, totally crazy. "Professor!" he pleaded, grabbing the old man's arms, "please don't do this! The raft will sink, or something awful that you don't expect will happen, and you'll get killed!"
    Fergie clenched his fists and glared at the professor, who glared right back at him. Fergie was ready to wrestle the old man to the floor if he had to, and for a moment it looked as if there would be a fight. Then the professor laughed and tossed the flare pistol back into the valise. With a helpless sigh he sat down on the raft and folded his arms. "I hate to admit it," he said sadly, "but you boys are probably right. My plan is one that depends on everything going absolutely right, and any plan like that is a bad one. I'd probably wind up being captured and impaled by the Turks."
    "Impaled!" said Johnny. "What's that?"
    The professor winced. "Oh, it's just a charming punishment that the Turks used in the old days. They drove a sharpened stake through your body and left you to die in the hot sun."
    Johnny was silent. Fergie hummed a bit and wound his watch, and the professor twiddled the tassels on the cord around his waist. After a long pause he adjusted his glasses and coughed nervously. Then he stood up and rubbed his hands impatiently. "Well!" he said, glancing from one boy to the other. "As long as we're here, we ought to go out and have a look at Constantinople from the windows of Leander's Tower. I promise you, on my solemn word of honor, that I will not do anything but look."
    Johnny hesitated, but when he glanced at Fergie, he saw that he was raring to go. Silently the two boys lined up behind the professor at the side door of the trolley. He pulled the emergency cord and the doors hissed open. Then he reached into the folds of his robe and pulled out a small leather bag that hung from his neck by a piece of rawhide. Reaching inside, the professor plucked out the brass pipe tamper, and he used it to part the invisible veil that hung outside the trolley doors. Quickly the three stepped through.
    Night lay over Leander's Tower. A streak of moonlight hovered on the rough stone floor of the room where the three travelers stood, and beyond the narrow windows they could see dark rippling water. The professor strode to one of the tall openings and stuck his head out. There was no glass in the window, so he was able to lean far out and look around. For a moment he was silent, but then—quite suddenly—he let out a loud exclamation. As the boys watched in astonishment, he turned on his heel and marched back to the veiled doorway that led to the trolley. Using the tamper he plunged through and disappeared. A few minutes later he came charging back with his valise and sword. Throwing the sheathed sword down on the floor beside him, he un-snapped the top of the valise and took out a large old-fashioned set of binoculars.
    "I'm really worried," muttered the professor as he twiddled the adjusting wheel of the binoculars and used them to peer out the window. "There's a lot of activity on that shore over there. I really can't see a great deal in the dark, but there are torches flaring over on the far shore, and I think there are ships moving back and forth in the water. Lots of ships. That should not be, if we are here on March 30. But if one of the gears in that time machine has slipped, then—"
    The professor's speech was interrupted by loud sounds that came from below. Yells and loud commands in a foreign language,