Highway of Eternity by Clifford D. Simak

some of the very primitive principles of time might not have made our many-times-faster-than-light travel possible. Time is somehow tied into space, but I have never known quite how.”
    â€œYou stole this time travel you have now from the Infinites. Yet you call yourselves barbarians. Hell, you’re not barbarians. Anyone who can steal time factors and make them work …”
    â€œThere were others up there in the future, I am sure, who could have used time travel better. But they weren’t interested. Mechanisms, even the sophisticated mechanism of time travel, were no longer concerns of theirs. They had reached a higher plane.”
    â€œThey were decadent,” said Boone. “They gave up their humanity.”
    â€œWhat is humanity?” she asked.
    â€œYou can’t believe that. You are here, not up there million years from now.”
    â€œI know. And still how can anyone be absolutely sure Horace is always sure that he is right, of course, but Horace is a bigot. Emma is sure Horace is right. That’s blind, stupid faith on her part. I’m not sure about David. He’s happy-go-lucky. I don’t think he really cares.”
    â€œI think he does,” said Boone. “When it comes down to the crunch, he’ll care.”
    â€œThere was so much else the human race could have done,” she said. “So many things yet that could be done. And then, if history is right, quite suddenly humanity lost interest in doing things. Could there have been some inherent braking system built into their intelligence, something that warned them to slow down? I’ve thought about it and thought about it. I go around in circles. I’m cursed with the kind of mind that is forced to see and consider all sides of a question, all the approaches that I can puzzle out.”
    â€œYou had better slow down,” said Boone. “You’re not going to solve it all tonight. You should be getting some sleep, back in the traveler. I’ll stay out here and keep the fire going.”
    â€œThe wolves will sneak up on you.”
    â€œI sleep light. I’ll wake at regular intervals to tend the fire; so long as there is a fire, the wolves will keep their distance.”
    â€œI’d rather be out here with you. I’d feel safer.”
    â€œIt’s up to you. You’d be safer in the traveler.”
    â€œI’d suffocate in there. I’ll go and get some blankets. You want a blanket, don’t you?”
    He nodded. “As the night goes on, it could get chilly out here.”
    The moon was coming up, a great, bloated, yellow moon swimming up over the naked, ashen buttes. The land seemed empty. Nothing moved, nothing made a sound. Even the watching wolves were gone; no glowing eyes stared in from beyond the campfire. Then he saw the soft movement of a shadow through the moonlight. They still were out there, like so many drifting shadows. He felt some of the emptiness and the loneliness lift from the land.
    Enid came back and gave him a blanket.
    â€œWill one be enough?” she asked.
    â€œEnough. I’ll drape it over my shoulders.”
    â€œYou mean you’ll sleep sitting up?”
    â€œIt’ll not be the first time. It keeps a man alert. You might doze off, but if you do, you wake.”
    â€œI’ve never heard such foolishness,” she said. “You are a true barbarian.”
    He chuckled at her.
    Half an hour later, when he rose to his feet to place more wood upon the fire, she was asleep, wrapped in her blanket.
    The fire replenished, he sat down again, pulled the blanket close about his shoulders, wrapping it well about him and placing the rifle in his lap.
    Later, when he awoke, the moon was well up the sky. The fire had burned down somewhat, but still had plenty of fuel. He let his head droop and was half asleep again when, rousing for an instant, he saw someone sitting across the fire from him. The sitter was wrapped in an