Part 3

"Why not?" Phil said. "There's a dozen churches that exist on weddings. Don't even have a congregation. Just weddings. One of 'em ought to have a vacant ten minutes today."

They found a phone booth and Lin began making calls. The third number was answered by a man with an Irish brogue who blessed them for their eagerness and agreed to perform the ceremony at once.

"Hah!" Lin said when he hung up. "We'd have got along without you okay, Phil. Reverend O'Hara said he has a witness on hand all the time for couples like us."

"I'll trail along anyway," Phil grinned, "What _is_ the rush though? How long have you two known each other?"

"We ran into each other a few days ago," Dorothy said, taking Lin's hand and leading him toward the sidewalk.

Phil followed them and noted silently the way they glanced anxiously about when they were out in the open, as though afraid of being seen by someone.

Lin flagged a cruising taxi again. The three of them piled into it and Lin gave the address of the church.

Phil broke the silence after a few blocks. "I'm being nosey, I know. But you two were obviously looking to see if you were being followed. Why don't you tell old uncle Phil about it? Huh?"

"About what?" Lin said, turning innocent eyes on him.

"Nothing," Phil said. "Only, sometimes three heads are better than one. If you two, or one of you, is in trouble, maybe I could be of help if I knew what to look out for."

"I doubt it," Lin grunted. "In fact, if we told you you wouldn't believe it, so skip it."

"So it is trouble," Phil murmured. "I thought so." He grunted. "Count me in on it. What is it. Bank robbery?"

"Worse than that," Dorothy said. "But let's forget it. I want to relish every minute of my wedding."

"Just like a woman," Phil said, lifting his eyes upward. "_My_ wedding, she says."

The taxi chose that moment to pull to the curb and stop. Outside was a small and picturesque church.

"Go on in and get things started," Phil said. "I'll pay the driver."

"Tell him to wait," Lin said. "This shouldn't take more than ten minutes." He took Dorothy by the hand and led her toward the entrance. Phil grinned at the taxi driver and shrugged.

* * * * *

"As best man I get to kiss the bride first," Phil said fifteen minutes later.

Lin jumped, startled. "Huh uh!" he exclaimed. "I've never kissed her yet myself!" He put his arms around her and kissed her lingeringly.

She pulled away from his embrace finally, one hand trying to keep her hat on her head, murmuring, "It's about time!" But the bright lights in her eyes said that it was worth waiting for.

"Bless you, my children," the minister said, smiling.

"Oh yes, how much do I owe you?" Lin said. Realizing his mistake he hurriedly took out his billfold and handed the man a twenty dollar bill. He turned to Dorothy, not waiting for the thanks he expected.

Phil correctly interpreted the minister's dismayed look and slipped him another ten. "He doesn't realize the overhead ate that up," he whispered. "He doesn't get married very often."

"Oh, I see," Reverend O'Hara whispered.

Phil hurried after Lin and Dorothy, catching up with them just outside the front entrance.

"Now," he said grimly as they got into the taxi again, "you want to be alone. My price for leaving you alone is for us to go somewhere first and have a drink or two--which you would anyway--and listen while you tell me what's behind all this rush." He looked sidelong at Dorothy and chuckled. "Surely it wasn't a race with the stork! Or is the hospital our next stop?"

"Of course not!" Dorothy said indignantly. "We just came from there this morning."

"Then this was...?" Phil said, half seriously.

"Not what you think," Lin said. "There's the Shangri-La ahead. We can have a couple of drinks there and something to eat. And we'll tell you all about it, though you won't believe a word."

* * * * *

It was almost two hours later. And four drinks later. "So you see why," Lin was saying while Phil stared at them with round eyes, "we don't know how long we have. Maybe--" He looked anxiously toward the gloom of the entrance across the room. "He could walk in during the next minute. I can't see why he doesn't. I _know_ he knows where we are. I feel it."

"And you have this paper taped to your side under your shirt?" Phil said. "Let me see it."

"No!" Dorothy said.

"I've known Phil most of my life," Lin said. "He's all right. Anyway, you know the thing's indestructible on this plane."

Dorothy hesitated, then reluctantly nodded her agreement. Lin yanked the folded paper from under his shirt.

Phil took it, unfolded it curiously, and frowned at the strange typewritten characters on it.

"You say it's indestructible?" he asked after a moment.

"We tried to tear it, to burn it, and to cut it with the scissors," Lin said. "All it does is bend."

Phil tried to tear it, cautiously at first, then exerting every ounce of strength in his fingers. He gave up and examined the paper with a new respect in his eyes. "I almost think I believe your tall tale," he said musingly.

He dipped a finger in his cocktail and rubbed it over the characters on the paper. Though they became wet they didn't blur or fade.

He took out his lighter and touched the corner of the paper to the flame. When it didn't char he touched it again and let the flame play on one corner for a moment, then touched the corner with his fingers.

"Just warm," he grunted. He began folding the paper up the way it had been. "Of course there's one way I could help you," he said slowly. "You could let me keep this. I could hide it where even you wouldn't know how to find it. That way when this character catches up with you it's out of your hands."

"That's an idea," Lin said. "But we would know you had it. Maybe he could worm it out of us and then he'd be after you. And it wouldn't be your life that hung in the balance."

"True enough," Phil said. He cupped the folded paper in his hand, closing his fingers over it. "There's one or two points I'm not clear on, Lin. You say you grabbed it when it was still in Fate's fingers, and that's when that part tore off? You were able to tear it then. Why can't you now?"

"I don't know," Lin said. "Things are different over there, I guess. It burns over there, too, remember. In that flame."

"Yes, I know," Phil said. "I just--"

A terrified gasp from Dorothy interrupted what he had been about to say. Her eyes were wide and round, and fixed on the entrance across the room.

"Fairchild!" Lin gasped.

* * * * *

Phil turned his head and glanced briefly at the man who stood there surveying the occupants of the room. He got swiftly to his feet just as Fairchild saw them and started toward them.

"Well, goodbye, kids," he said casually. But his broad wink warned them to let him escape with the paper that was still hidden in the palm of his hand.

"Give me back--" Lin blurted. But Phil was hurrying toward the entrance, passing Hugo Fairchild. Lin sighed in relief as Phil made it to the door and vanished.

"Well, well," Fairchild said. "I finally tracked you two down. So you're married now." He slid into the seat Phil had occupied.

"Yes, we're married," Lin said coldly. "And we want to be alone."

"I don't doubt that," Fairchild said. "I don't doubt it at all. I sympathize with you, but I have my job to do, you know."

"I'll bet you sympathize with us," Dorothy said worriedly.

"But I do, really," Fairchild said. "And to prove it I'm going to make you a nice offer. I don't have to, but I can, and I will. Give me the paper and I'll promise not to toss it into the Flame for a whole year. That will give you a year of happiness. It won't do any harm in the long run, because the instant that paper is consumed everything goes right back to the instant of the crash, and world events go on as they should have in the first place. But I'll stick to my bargain. If you give me the paper without trouble."

"But we don't have it!" Dorothy blurted.

"You don't?" Fairchild exclaimed. His eyes widened in sudden comprehension. "That fellow...." He half rose and looked toward the exit. He glanced back at their faces and saw that he had guessed right. Waiting for no more he leaped across the room, bumping into a waiter and causing him to spill a tray of drinks. Then he was out the door before anyone could stop him.

"I hope Phil had sense enough to get far away, and quick," Lin groaned. "Come on, Dorothy, let's see." He dropped enough money on the table to take care of the check and, taking her arm, hurried after Fairchild.

Twenty feet away a crowd had gathered about a central point. They ran to the crowd and pushed their way toward its center. Dorothy gasped and Lin tensed at what they saw.

Phil was getting slowly to his feet, nursing a large bruise under one eye with gentle fingers.

"The other guy just vanished!" someone said unbelieving. "I saw him! He just vanished in thin air where he was standing!"

"Did he get it?" Lin said, helping Phil to his feet.

Phil nodded, then muttered, "Let's get away from here. I think I need another drink."

Lin's legs were suddenly watery. Dorothy's lip was trembling.

"A drink," Lin said dully, then, determinedly, "Yes, a drink." He took Dorothy's arm in his fingers. "Come on, honey. Maybe we'll have time."

"A drink?" Dorothy said shrilly. "We're going to be dead in another minute and all you want is time enough to have a drink?"

"That isn't it at all," Lin said. "Let's get off the street."

* * * * *

He guided her firmly through the crowd, Phil following in their wake. They went back into the Shangri-La once more and back to their table where their unfinished drinks still rested.

"I'm sorry you took what I said the wrong way," Lin said. "Believe me--"

"It's all right, darling," Dorothy said. "I know you didn't mean it that way. It's just that, well, we haven't had a chance together...." Her lips started to tremble again, then she was smiling bravely.

"That's the girl," Phil said.

"You should talk," Lin growled. "You aren't going to die."

"Let's drink to that, or something," Phil said. "I need one, and I'm sure you both do too."

They drank solemnly. Lin and Dorothy were looking into each other's eyes as they drank.

"I wish--" Lin choked.

"I know," Dorothy said. She leaned across the table and Lin kissed her.

"Cigarette?" Phil asked, holding out his pack. They each took one and he lit them with his lighter.

"Three on a match," Dorothy said nervously. "I guess it's all right this time though. The conclusion is foregone."

"Wonder how long it will take," Lin said, sucking in the smoke hungrily.

"That's another thing," Phil said. "That other time you took that long walk and got the paper and walked back to where you started from, and it all happened in less than an instant."

"That's right," Lin said. "He should be...."

"As a matter of fact," Phil said, "I think he should. So it worked after all. I'd really hoped it would. Or maybe ... but I think it worked."

"What worked?" Lin and Dorothy demanded together.

"He must have tossed that paper into the flame by now, unless he read what was on it," Phil said. He spread his hands apologetically. "You see I knew this couldn't go on forever. The only way to fight the supernatural is to outsmart it, I figured. So I wrote on it. Simple as that. I bore down good too so that if the ink came off, the writing would still be creased in good. On the theory that _whatever_ was on that paper would come true when it got burned."

"_What did you write?_" Again Lin and Dorothy spoke in unison.

"I didn't have time for anything involved," Phil apologized. "I rather expected him to be after me before I could go far."

"_What did you write?_"

"Just one word," Phil said, "_Cancelled_."

"Cancelled?" Lin and Dorothy echoed dumbly, then, comprehendingly, "Cancelled!"

"Sure," Phil said. "That way when it was burned it wouldn't do anything. They'll have to start over on you."

They stared at him wordlessly.

"It must have been burned by now," he added weakly. "So my scheme worked."

They turned their heads and looked into each other's eyes. Two ghostly windshields obscured their vision. The tables and people about them faded, to be replaced by ghostly pines, a more solid concrete highway.

They stared into each other's eyes, knowing all that had been, feeling it slip away.

But abruptly it vanished and they were looking at each other across the table while a waiter asked them if they wanted another drink. For a long second their minds hovered in that other stream of time before the realization came that it was over and they were safe.

"Another?" Lin said. "Yes. Sure. You want one, Dorothy?"

She nodded and watched the waiter's back as he hurried away.

"You two look as if you'd seen a ghost," Phil said. "I would almost swear that paper reached the flame a second ago."

Dorothy turned to him. "It did," she said. "And I don't know whether to be happy about it or--never forgive you."

"Why?" Phil asked.

She looked at Lin, her eyes soft and luminous. Her hand reached out and nestled in his.

"Well," she said, "it seems to me the least you could have done while you had the opportunity was write on it for us to live forever!"

She laughed nervously.

Lin flicked the ash off the end of his cigarette and grinned at her. "That would have been tempting Fate!" he said....