A change of century - from 372 to 1935 - is expected. However, this is the first time in the Time Patrol series that the narration changes from third to first person. We soon understand that the narrator in 1935 was the Wanderer in 372. He leaves his spear strapped to the side of his time hopper. The Goths do not suspect where their gods disappear to, in this case to a warehouse in New York. The Patrol front is a construction company. Farness, the narrator, knows that New York will become "...uninhabitable." (p. 342) When? Anderson describes the fourth and twentieth centuries and hints at future troubles. Disintegration will accelerate, in Farness' opinion, after the 1964 election. A character's opinions are not necessarily those of the author. Sometimes, they are.
The ghosts of the Goths crowd around Farness until the streets and buildings seem unreal. That would make a good cover illustration, conveying both time travel and Pagan ideas of a hereafter.
Patrol antithanatics do not merely slow but arrest the aging process, again implying that agents live until killed by accident or violence.
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