The other adventure was equally mysterious, and I’m not sure how much hallucination was involved. I found myself again, it seemed, in the western bedroom in some distant future, only the room was a museum piece. The furniture was an odd mixture of what is now in my bedroom, and the furniture that I saw in it in the previous instance. People who certainly seemed alive were staring at the room. They were dressed in the flimsiest of apparel, and though I’m far from being narrowly moralistic, I was somewhat shocked, and at first thought I might be in a brothel.

George’s hand was in the way again, and Seven almost cried with impatience. If he saw George’s hand, did George sense that someone was watching him? Could he, Seven, reach into that magic space and pull the journal back? Seven grinned, imagining George’s startled reaction (He’d probably scream, “Zounds.”). And anyway, what good would that do? Seven wondered. None. So he waited.

George’s hand was trembling. He began to write in a faster, agitated manner.

Now we come to the heart of the matter. A man’s voice came out of the walls in some way unknown to me, but surely some future development of the gramophone was involved. The voice spoke about “the Codicils” with a significance of tone that gave the phrase “the Codicils” great import. Something was said, if I remember correctly, about “The George” or “in the time of George,” or words to that effect. But the impact of those words upon myself was unprecedented. I felt them to the core of my soul. The entire affair may be symbolic rather than literal, of course, and I’ve had enough experience with states of consciousness to know how insidious hallucinations can be—if you accept them as real. But ever since [and here, the handwriting became very agitated] I began my adventures in consciousness, I felt that there was a reason for them. And tonight I knew that I have to discover The Codicils, whatever they are.

My only clue is in the distant future just mentioned. And I have no assurance that I can return there. I tried several out-of-body methods before achieving success last time. Did the last one I used somehow propel me into other times as well? Of course I’ll experiment further, for even as I write, a sense of urgency that I do not understand overtakes me. And in a week my wife and son will return from Europe, in which case my opportunities for experimentation will be drastically reduced.

And, Seven thought, in a week Jean and the kids would return to George the Third….