"Wanderers of Time" - John Wyndham Quiz

Answer: 1941

In 1941 a man is walking through the woods when a large metal cylinder appears out of nowhere. Even more surprising is the man who emerges from it. He looks just like a nearby local (who is presently in Chicago) only 10 years older! No prizes for guessing what sort of machine this cylinder is...

Answer: Ties him up and gags him

The time-traveller introduces himself as Roy Saber. Jones, the poor bystander, doesn't believe him because a. Roy Saber is not only a younger man but b. currently heading out of town by train. Roy insists that nevertheless he IS Roy Saber but it would be too awkward to explain. Then he ties up Jones commenting he's got nothing against him except he's a nuisance.

Answer: To find his girlfriend

In 1941 the younger Roy Saber's girlfriend had mysteriously vanished one day. So for 10 years he built his time machine so he could go back and find her and bring her back with him (and consequently be the reason she vanished in the first place!). (N.B. This story was written in 1933 so John Wyndham could not have known there would be a war in 1941.)

Answer: Betty

Unlike Jones, Betty recognises Roy straight away but wonders why he is older and wearing such odd clothing. He takes her back to his cylinder but before he can explain what it is, armed police arrive! Jones had freed himself and called the police. Roy quickly bundles Betty into the other side of the cylinder and leaps into the other side, pressing the button to return to 1951.

But not before a cop fires a shot into the cylinder...

Answer: True

Roy's plan was to bring Betty home to 1951. But when the cylinder re-materialises it sways, topples and falls down a rocky bank. This is the first sign that they are not where they are supposed to be. Or even WHEN they are supposed to be...

Answer: We are not told

The two Americans finally get themselves out of the wreckage of Roy's cylinder and pick themselves up, Betty glaring at poor Roy. They see they're at the bottom of a steep gorge and count themselves lucky to be alive! They were helped out by an odd little man who introduces himself as "Del 2-40-A".

He claims to be from the year 10,402. Roy's jaw drops - but that's nothing to the astonishment when Del shakes his head and explains he's FROM 10,402, but he too is a time-traveller and has no idea what year he is in now.

But one can guess from the sun (which is colder, larger, and red instead of yellow) that they must be nearly a million years later. (N.B. 802,701 A.D. is the year H.G. Wells' protagonist visits in "The Time Machine" and its movies.)

Answer: His body is the size of a child's but his head is normal

Del (also American) later explains the human race had evolved since Roy's time. Human bodies grew frailer and thinner while heads stayed the same. When he first sees Roy and Betty, he stares at them as if they are Neanderthals.

Answer: False

It seems the human race no longer exists in the far-flung future of our world. But soon they meet other time-travellers from a variety of other centuries. All of whom have arrived at this point in time because they were travelling into the future but something went wrong (e.g. the bullet in Roy's cylinder).

As Del says "...we must be in some "dead" spot in time". He then compares time to a river, from which boats can start off at any point but will all run aground at the same point if the current is off.

Answer: False

In fact, Roy's reunion with his past lover is going terribly wrong. Not only is she talking to him like a total stranger, and accusing him of "abduction", but her personality is very different to how he remembered. He begins to wonder why he bothered building his time machine in the first place.

Answer: We are not told

The Red Stalkers do not feature in this story much. At first Roy looks at Del wanting to know what they are, but Del shakes his head. He is as puzzled as the 20th century humans; there is nothing like them in HIS century.

Answer: Ordinary-sized ants

Roy is leaving the gorge, still wondering about the Red Stalkers, when suddenly large white machines appear. Machines resembling giant insects. At first they just study Del and Roy but when Betty appears out of the gorge they take them all prisoner. Del later wonders if they reacted so because Betty's dress was red, like the other mysterious machines they'd just seen. Poor Betty's dress is torn off by the machines and she screams about her rights and her lawyers as they are all carried across the desert.

The white stalkers turn out to be tools and inventions of none other than ants. Ants, who seem to have been the dominant species since the evident end of the human race. As Del points out later "in our own times the only thing stopping them was their size.

They were always well organised and clever."

Answer: False

He DOES meet two friends - but they are in fact from 10,424, 22 years after the year Del left. Their names are Kal 2-11-A and Ril 3-32-A. They say it took them 20 years to duplicate Del's work and try to find him.

Answer: 0

It seems Roy and Betty are the only ones from the 20th century. The closest newcomer is Jessica Tree, a young lady from 2200 A.D. She is brought in with two men from 3920 A.D. who did not believe her story. But soon it is clear everyone has come from many different years to this same point in time. Del, being the smartest and open-minded and ethical, becomes director of the party in all but name. (Jessica also becomes a major influence on Roy later.) There was also a character named Jessica in the 1976 movie "Logan's Run".

The description of this book's character reminded me so much of her, I would have sworn John Wyndham was inspired by her if he hadn't died in 1969!

Answer: Heat rays

Heat rays have existed long after Roy's time. He shows everyone his revolver but his new friends scoff as if it were a pea-shooter. Del and his tiny friends have heat-rays about the size of a flashlight. Others from earlier periods of history have smaller and longer ones - which Del and co likewise scoff at.

Answer: All these things

The time-travellers are brought into an even bigger cavern and set down before a large metal monument with moving feelers. The resemblance to ants is becoming more obvious. At first, this monument tries waving its feelers and naturally the castaways do not understand.

Then it writes unknown symbols in the sand which they cannot decipher either. Then, going out on a limb, it writes "Men?". Del writes "Yes", and it responds "How?" Del points at their wrecked time machines lined up by the wall (the white stalkers have thoughtfully brought them all with them). Soon Roy asks Del to ask it to provide food, and it orders the white stalkers to bring in wood.

Not amused, Roy tells Del to say "Fruit" and soon the castaways are having a good feed. While they're eating, Betty abruptly leaves Roy and goes to sit with Hale Laurence, a rough man from 3920 A.D. Roy's feelings are hurt and Jessica goes over to ask him about Betty.

The two tell each other about themselves and their respective stories. Afterward, Roy admits for the first time he is glad the cop's bullet brought him here.

Answer: All these things

Suddenly, three superbly muscled and large naked men join the heroes. They do not seem able to speak (or understand the concept of time-travel), yet they treat Del and his tiny friends with respect. The dwarves conclude a famous scientist of their time, one Tak 4-A, must have been successful in his attempts to reverse human evolution.

The word "Numen" is presumably short for "New Humans". The Numen carry each dwarf whenever possible.

Answer: Makes a new time-machine from wrecked ones

Del is very clever and soon has constructed a new machine from components of all the wrecked ones. It should be big enough to take them all back to their natives centuries one by one. But then Hale Laurence, Betty's new "friend" approaches Del and asks him how to use it. Betty sits herself in it while Del unsuspectingly explains it all.

Then suddenly, Laurence pulls a heat-ray on Del and hijacks the completed time-machine. Roy fires his pistol at Hale's hand but it's too late - Betty and her new friend have vanished.

Answer: Burning a hole through the wall

In the chaos of the firefight, someone's heat-ray accidentally burns a hole in the giant monument. Millions of ants spill out onto a poor Numen (who is eaten alive) before the heroes can vapourise them. Only then do the castaways learn who is now in charge of the planet (the red stalkers notwithstanding). Even though it was an accident, the ants will soon come pouring in with a vengeance so Del orders everyone to gather what components they can from the remaining wrecked time-machines - while he burns a hole in the fortress (which everyone now understands is really a giant ant-hill).

When Del finishes everyone runs out into the desert of this strange world and heads for the hills.

Answer: Nearly a month

When the party reaches the relative safety of some hills, they meet yet another castaway, one Jim Hollis, who is also from the 20th century but his year is never revealed. He came to the future by helping a scientist (who still owes him $5!) move his machine out of a shed, and then he sat in it without permission and twiddled with the knobs. Jim is not terribly bright e.g. when they discuss needing more components to build another time-machine he says "Why not just go into town and buy some?" When everyone explains the human race has vanished he assumes the ants wiped them out. Del points out human beings did not wipe out the dinosaurs, so why should this be the case now? (Another thing they all wonder about is the weird symbols the ants wrote in the sand. Does this mean another race existed BETWEEN human and ant???)

Answer: False

In actual fact they decide to stay together in Jessica's time, 2200 A.D. But not before some dramas and excitement i.e. Jessica is kidnapped by the ants and saved by Roy (naturally!) and the red stalkers attack their camp just as Del is about to get them all home. The red stalkers inadvertently save the heroes from the ant machines. But one is about to drop a large rock on the time machine, so Del presses the button just in time!
He drops everyone off in their own times and leaves 2200 till last. As they make their fond farewells, Jessica tells Roy her parents will like him.
This story is certainly one of John Wyndham's best. If you've never read it I hope my quiz has whet your appetite!