25. The Clouds Rolled Back

“...,” said Captain Short, and continued to say it for some time. Stephens had never seem him at a loss for words before.

He’d been unwilling to take the extra time needed to secure a local American paper, so he’d made a trunk call to the United States Weather Bureau on the mornings of the tenth and the eleventh — fine, with not so much as rain predicted — and then again on the evening of the twelfth.

“Hell,” Short added. “...I suppose heaven has seen fit to toss us a miracle. Code naming him ‘Wells’ would be a little obvious, I think.”

“Yes. It would.”

“He’s no Eloi or Morlok, at least. In some ways he might combine some of the virtues of both.”

“Yes.” Stephens shook himself out of an uncharacteristic reverie. “He’s also no student of this time. I hesitate to involve more people, but I think Corporal Bowyer needs to be brought into this.”