This wasn't the first time that Nate Hortinbey had problems with Jim Grottenbottom and one of his insane inventions.
In their previous misadventure, Jim had disappeared after an experiment had gone astray. It had been Nate’s quick reflexes and ingenuity that had saved the day both for both him and for his friend.
Nonetheless, just when Nate believed that things were back to normal, he was tricked once more into turning on that infernal machine that Jim had decided to call a Spaceo-geotransendental-locator.
This time, however, it was Nate who vanished first. Once again Nate didn't know where he was or in what time he had been machine napped to.
As always, it was Nate’s conviction that his natural resourcefulness, athletic ability and mental dexterity would help him survive in his new environment.
The real problem in Nate’s present state of affairs was not just that he had been the first person to become misplaced, but that he would have to rely upon Jim’s abilities for any assistance. There was no doubt in his mind that Jim would try to help him. What did worry Nate was that he was uncertain whether Jim possessed the soundness of mind and the quick wits and courage that would be required to save the two of them.
Nate was anxious that time alone would tell whether he would ever see his kitchen again.
He had finally resolved that he was going to open his eyes - someday. He was certain it was something that he should eventually do. However, he didn’t believe that there was any reason to rush into anything.
After all, what you don't know can’t hurt you. He had heard that statement often enough. It only made good sense that he could apply a corollary version of the concept to his present dilemma. “What you don’t see can’t hurt you.”
He didn’t honestly want to dash into a greater state of awareness. Nate already had more information to disturb him than he truly wanted and none of the data made much sense to him.
The last thing that he could remember was that he and Jim Grottenbottom were in the kitchen of his own apartment. Jim had placed his Spaceo-geotransendental-locator in the center of the table.
The “locator” invention that Jim was testing should eventually be able to move items and people instantaneously from one place to another. The unfortunate side-effect was that it was more likely to move things and people through time than through space. This was proving to be a very vexing quandary.
Nate believed that the time travel nature of the machine was even more exciting than Jim’s original hypothesis. Jim, however, stated that this was an unwanted interference and that the machine caused only an appearance of moving through time. Jim insisted that time travel was an impossibility.
On the last occasion that the machine had been used, it had sent Jim and Nate into what most certainly seemed to be the United States’ Civil War. Before they had been able to return to their own era, Nate had been accused of being a principal conspirator in the plot to kill Abraham Lincoln. Of course, on a more positive note, he also had been instrumental in the writing of the Gettysburg Address.
Undismayed at suffering through innumerable problems, Nate had finally succeeded in escaping back to his apartment. There he found that Jim was already in his kitchen awaiting his return.
As they argued over what had taken place in reality, Jim had accidentally caused Nate to drop his sunglasses, along with a bowl and a dish. Regrettably, in trying to save his almost priceless plastic china, Nate had accidentally pushed the red button on Jim’s infernal machine.
Now, one thing that you should never do is push red buttons on a machine. You could do many different things to an unknown device and not cause any problem, but you must be very careful not to push red buttons.
For sure, silver dials are also likely to get you into trouble, but not as much as red buttons.
Nate was fairly certain that there must have been an explosion that had thrown him to the floor. The problem was that he could now feel grass blowing against his face. He would have noticed if there had been a grass floor in his kitchen. And this was definitely real grass he was lying upon. He was certain that indoor-outdoor carpet would have felt much more brittle.
However, indoor-outdoor carpet would make a lot more sense for a kitchen floor. It would hold up nicely and be stain and moisture resistant. No doubt in his mind, if he had done his kitchen in a grassy motif, it would have incorporated a synthetic floor. The problem remained, however, that Nate could not recall his kitchen ever having grass real or otherwise.
Naturally, there was the possibility that while Nate was winning the Civil War, some thief had broken into his apartment and installed carpet.
Notwithstanding, that was an unusual action for a stranger to do, especially for a thief. Nate wondered what the motive could be. It was obvious that it was a cover up of some kind. The question was, what could the thief be covering up?
Nate’s first thought was that the thief had used the carpeting to cover over the places where the treasure had been buried. He realized that there couldn’t be many places that were less likely to be the site of buried treasure than underneath his kitchen floor.
If there was a treasure, it could be money that had been buried. Or maybe it was jewels. Stocks and bonds were other possibilities, but Nate hoped that it was not those. He had never been very good at understanding the stock market or how you could make money with bonds.
No, finding actual money and jewels would be much more convenient for Nate. He definitely hoped that the treasure was money and jewels.