Steam City Pirates by Jim Musgrave

gained momentum. 1868. There was an explosive burst from the end of his gun! The projectile was coming, and it was large enough to destroy my time machine!
    Somehow, during that split second between the firing of the gun and my machine’s warping into the space-time continuum, I had a vision. I was back in Ireland, and my mother was holding me in her arms. I was a small boy again, and I was hungry. This hunger would eventually kill my mother, but at this moment she was feeding me, and I could see the bread going into my mouth in slow motion. My adult consciousness, however, spanned space and time, and I was able to envision a long string of bread, going back and forth across the millennia, filling the mouths of hungry children all over the world. Sustenance. The staff of life. Entering the cavern of darkness to be chewed and enjoyed, heading down into the gloom of the pit of existence. To exist another day! To live on, without fear of hunger. That was the objective of all mankind.
    As time sped backward, the ball of fire from the assailant’s gun began to slowly dissolve in the air, like a large ball of bread! First, it crumbled, little pieces falling from it like light particles from an exploding sun. Then, in a single, vaporizing burst, it disappeared, and I was back inside the basement of Temple Emanu-El. It was five minutes later than when I had first pulled the lever to go into the future!
    The door opened, and I stepped back into the light of our sanctuary, as if I were being born all over again. All my friends were standing there, mesmerized by my appearance. I took a deep breath and pinched myself to be certain this was real.
    Doctor Adler was smiling, as was Seth, his protégé. Becky’s eyes were filled with tears, and McKenzie and Maguire looked frightened. Only Bessie seemed to have the courage to walk up to me and put her hand to my face to touch me. Yes, I was real, and I had returned.
    “We need to do some work,” I said. “I saw the balloon. The pirates will be taking over New York unless we can discover their mysterious presence and learn how they were able to gain their power over us.”

Chapter 4: Our Heroes are Encumbered with a Frantic Race Against Time

    “What did you see, Patrick?” Becky Charming rushed at me and led me over to a chair. “You need to rest, Patrick,” she said.
    I sat down and began to address my group of eager listeners.
    “First of all, the time machine worked perfectly, Seth; you’ll be happy to know.” The lad smiled as if he had no doubt that would be the result. “I also seem to have been able to travel unscathed, outwardly at least. As far as my mental faculties are concerned, I may have preferred to wage hand-to-hand combat with an Apache warrior out West. I am still attempting to understand what happened to me.”
    “Could I watch you fight the Indian?” Seth asked, his face again taking on the excited glow of an eight-year-old.
    “Yes, I shall invite an Apache to journey with us when I take you on your first balloon flight,” I joked. “It would certainly prevent the boredom of long flights.”
    “Out with it, me boy-o! What did ya see?” said McKenzie, puffing out his mammoth chest. “Who do we need to crush?”
    “I am afraid it won’t be as easy as that, Walter. In only two years, New York City will be under the control of a group calling itself the Steam City Pirates. They have gigantic airships that can fly out of the reach of any artillery the army has, and they also have the support of the crooks of Tammany Hall. The citizens I met in Central Park told me about being invaded on land by these pirates, so they must have quite a group of them.” I cleared my throat. “I also believe they have spies that can report what we are doing. Just as I was attempting to depart in the time machine, a man I had seen once before, when I was at Professor Lowe’s farm in Valley Forge, ran at me brandishing a large rifle of a sort I had never before laid eyes