"How far is it to Outland?" I asked, to change the subject.
"About five days' march. But one must go back--occasionally. You see,
as Court-Professor, I have to be always in attendance on Prince Uggug.
The Empress would be very angry if I left him, even for an hour."
"But surely, every time you come here, you are absent ten days, at least?"
"Oh, more than that!" the Professor exclaimed. "A fortnight, sometimes.
But of course I keep a memorandum of the exact time when I started,
so that I can put the Court-time back to the very moment!"
"Excuse me," I said. "I don't understand."
Silently the Professor drew front his pocket a square gold watch,
with six or eight hands, and held it out for my inspection.
"This," he began, "is an Outlandish Watch--"
"So I should have thought."
"--which has the peculiar property that, instead of its going with the
time, the time goes with it. I trust you understand me now?"
"Hardly," I said.
"Permit me to explain. So long as it is let alone, it takes its own
course. Time has no effect upon it."
"I have known such watches," I remarked.
"It goes, of course, at the usual rate. Only the time has to go with it.
Hence, if I move the hands, I change the time. To move them forwards,
in advance of the true time, is impossible: but I can move them as much
as a month backwards---that is the limit. And then you have the events
all over again--with any alterations experience may suggest.
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