Title: Problem in solid
Author: Smith, George O. (George Oliver)
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.


*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Problem in solid" ***


                           PROBLEM IN SOLID

                          BY GEORGE O. SMITH

                         Illustrated by Orban

           [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
               Astounding Science-Fiction, October 1947.
         Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
         the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]


Martin Hammer should have been prepared for anything. As the world's
foremost producer of motion pictures, he should have taken any
situation from earthquake to fatherhood without a qualm or a turned
eyebrow. But Hammer had not seen everything--yet.

A noise presented itself at Hammer's office door. Not the noise of
knocking or tapping, nor even the racket made by attempts to breach
the portal with a heavy blunt instrument. It was more like the sound
of a dentist's drill working on wood, or perhaps one of those light
burring tools, or maybe even a light scroll saw.

Then, with all the assurance in the world, a man's hand came through
the door, the fingers clenched about an imaginary doorknob. The hand
swung an imaginary door aside and as it moved, the wood of the real
door fell to the floor in a pile of finely-ground sawdust.

Once the imaginary door was thrust aside, the rest of the intruder
entered, leaving the exact outline of his silhouette in the door.

He smiled affably and said, "I trust I'm not intruding!"

He was still holding the imaginary door open with his right hand. As
he finished speaking, he stepped forward a step, turned, pulled the
imaginary door shut a few inches, transferred it to take the inside
knob in his left hand, and then stepping carefully forward, he thrust
the imaginary door closed, his hand clenched around the imaginary knob.
The act ended as his hand entered the real doorknob and there was the
high-pitch whine of metal against metal like cutting a tin can with a
bandsaw.

The intruder turned, walked across the office, and stood there in front
of Martin Hammer. From a pocket he look a cigarette and a match and lit
up, blowing a cloud of fragrant smoke into the air.

"I am delighted to meet you," he said.

At which point, Martin Hammer blew up.

He had been patient. He had been astounded. He had been sitting there
with his chin getting lower and lower and lower as this ... this
character walked through his door with all the assurance in the world.
Then the bird had the affrontery to behave as though he had not invaded
Hammer's office; had not ruined a fine oak door; and as though Hammer
should have been glad to see him.

What added fuel to Hammer's explosion was the fact that the intruder
seemed absolutely unaware of the ruination of the door.

"What the--" yelled Hammer. He leaped to his feet, ran around his desk,
and faced the intruder angrily for only an instant.

Hammer launched himself at the intruder with intent to do bodily harm,
mayhem, and perhaps a little bit of second-degree murder that might be
juried into justifiable homicide.

He did not connect. The stranger disappeared at that instant, and
Hammer's well directed blow fell upon thin air. Hammer, finding no
resistance before him, fell flat on his face, which mashed the cigar
into his mouth and burned a hole in his fine Persian carpet. He turned
over and sat up, spitting out bits of tobacco mixed with equal parts of
very bad language. Blankly he ran his hand through the spot where the
stranger had been.

"Now," he said in puzzlement, "what in the name of--"

"May I apologize?" came a voice at the door. Hammer whirled and saw the
intruder again, standing there with a rather dumfounded expression on
his face.

Hammer grunted. At least he is now cognizant of his ruin-production,
he thought. This was true. The intruder no longer had that fatuous
expression that ignored the damage.

"Apologize?" exploded Hammer.

The intruder stepped through the ruined door. "I got the focus wrong,"
he said, "otherwise the image could have--"

"Image?" yelled Hammer.

The stranger nodded. "Image," he said. "Look, Hammer, you don't really
think that I actually walked through that door, across your office
floor, and then disappeared into thin air, do you?"

"Well ... and who are you?"

"My name is Tim Woodart. I'm an engineer."

"Look," said Hammer shakily, "I'd like to know what's been going on. As
a producer of motion pictures, I am beginning to see the glimmerings of
a fine idea. I sort of resent the destruction you've created, but it
certainly carried off its point."

"I'll bring in the gear, too," said Woodart. "If you don't mind."

Hammer nodded. Whatever it was, Martin Hammer had just had his door
broken in by the first of all true three-dimensional photography!

       *       *       *       *       *

Harry Foster stood on a lonely stage and smiled at some mythical point
in the mid distance. Dramatically he pointed, and as he pointed, across
his face there came a change over his features. Normally handsome,
Harry Foster's "bad" face was thrice as bad for the distortion into
hatred. It was excellent acting.

The man beside the camera nodded. It was not only excellent acting but
it was rather emotionally troublesome to be confronted by a living,
breathing image of yourself. You, watching you do something that you
had done previously.

Harry Foster's hand stole up alongside of the cutoff button and he
thrust it down viciously.

The scene stopped instantly and disappeared.

Foster, remaining beside the camera, swore. He rereeled manually a few
yards and restarted the camera. He caught a previous scene's ending: a
beautiful woman smiling shyly at another man. The scene's ending was
brief, to a flash-over of Harry Foster standing in the center of the
stage, and going through the same motions of smiling offstage, with the
features changing from smile to scowl of hate.

Again Foster's hand flipped the switch and the image of Foster
disappeared as did the settings on the stage.

Foster swore again. "There must be some way--How does he do this
anyway?"

Foster opened the cabinet-like side of the solid camera and looked at
the circuits. They were enigma to Foster, but there was some logic to
it--there must be. You create an image and then wipe it away to make
place for the next image--just as in common cinema. But in normal
cinema it is possible to halt the film and project a still. That's what
Harry Foster wanted--

He pulled a single tube from one circuit and snapped the camera on. The
stage was blank. He replaced the tube and tried another tube removed
by some distance from the first. He started the camera, and the stage
flashed into being once and then went blank again. There was a tiny
flash from the bottom panel of the machine and Foster looked down to
see the indicator of a blown fuse.

Foster nodded. Obvious. To stop the wipe-away would mean that the next
frame would be placed on top of the first. A double exposure would
not work in the solids. Not without repealing that law of nature that
states that two things cannot occupy the same space at the same time.

What he had to do was to stop the projector at the same time he stopped
the wipe-away. Tim Woodart had fixed the machine so that the wipe-away
completed the scene after stopping the works. Just a matter of safety.

Foster puzzled over the machine and restarted it again. He waited until
the image of Harry Foster stared off stage and then he grabbed two
tubes and jerked them out simultaneously.

The projector stopped; the scene remained. The image of Harry Foster
stood there dumbly. Then it turned vaguely and looked at the camera and
the man beside it.

"Hello, hero," sneered Foster.

The image blinked. "I've wondered what might happen," said the spurious
Foster.

"Yes," chuckled the real Foster, "we have, haven't we?"

"I--," started the image, but he stopped and looked wildly around.
"What do you want?"

"You know."

"I'll not do it! You ... we ... ah ... well, it's no go."

The real Harry Foster sat down in the director's chair. "I've had more
time to plan," he said. "You're just an image--"

Foster snarled back, "Not now I'm not. I'm just as real as you are!"

"I'm the original; you came out of that camera."

"Someone is going to have a time proving it," replied the image Foster.

"Yeah," drawled the real Foster, "that's what I'm counting on!"

From within his coat, Foster took a revolver. Holding it on his image,
Foster replaced the tube and watched the scene resume, with a third
Foster going through its paces. He snapped off the camera and the set
disappeared, leaving the bare stage. He wiped his fingerprints from the
place and then nudged the image Foster with the revolver.

"Out," he snapped, pointing with the gun barrel.

They went--in a death march.

A half hour later, the real Foster handed his image a drink. "Drink
deeply," he said sarcastically. "You needn't be afraid to die--you
never lived, you know."

The image Foster shook his head. "I've been alive as you have!"

The real Foster lifted his revolver and snarled: "We can put a stop
to that!" He fired thrice and each shot slammed into Foster's stomach
driving the man back against the wall. He crumpled, finally.

Then Harry Foster took a look around the living room of his apartment,
shrugged, and left, tossing the pistol into a corner.

       *       *       *       *       *

Lieutenant Miller looked down at the corpse. "Someone sure hated him,"
he said.

The man in the business suit nodded. "They had reason to," he said.
He was Jacobson of the F.B.I. "Too bad. I'd rather he were legally
punished."

"Me, too."

"What about his wife?"

"She's in the next room. Which reminds me--"

Lieutenant Miller went to the door and looked in quietly. "Look,
fellows, just establish her. Don't bother grilling her."

Sergeant Mullaney looked up in surprise. Miller nodded. "This is one
case I'm not going to kill myself solving," he said. "I just want to be
certain that the murderer of Harry Foster isn't as obvious as a stone
pillar on the corner of Hollywood and Vine. Is Mrs. Foster clear?"

Mullaney nodded. "Spending the whole evening with a friend."

"Friend corroborate it?"

Mrs. Foster smiled wanly. "She will if asked," she said.

Miller nodded. "My only regret, Mrs. Foster, is that his insurance will
just about cover his embezzlements. The rest--"

"I wouldn't touch it--or him--with a ten-foot pole," she blazed.

Jacobson met Miller at the door. "He got around," he said. "Blackmail,
embezzlement, and outright larceny. There's been talk of drug-peddling
and white slave traffic. Why or how the bird managed to be such a
thorough stinker and still maintain his position here I'll never tell
you."

Miller looked at the coroner, who was just polishing up his job. Miller
said, "Whoever did it did Foster a favor. Between you and me, we'd have
had him between nutcrackers in another week."

Jacobson nodded. "Couldn't have been suicide?"

Miller shook his head. "After filling himself that full of lead, he was
too dead to toss that gun. Furthermore, he was shot from greater than
arm's distance. No," said Miller, "someone 'done him in' and should
possibly be commended. Plain case of: 'Too bad, thank God!'"

       *       *       *       *       *

Martha Evers watched her image on the stage in the studio theater.
Beside her was Martin Hammer who was watching the performance with
interest. Martha was watching with wonder; Hammer had seen this thing
at work before and was more concerned with the technical portions of
the opus than the wonder of watching a life-sized, living, breathing,
talking image perform.

On the other side of Martha Evers was Tim Woodart, who was just
watching. He was more or less out of a job since professional
photographers had taken over the job of making the performance.

"But how is it done?" she asked him.

"Same like any other of its kind," smiled Tim.

"But there isn't any other."

"Television is, sort of," he said. "Anyway, there is a three-way scan
taking in the volume to be reproduced. Each atom in the original
has its own characteristic charge and mass: this charge and mass is
registered. When the reproducer replaces the real people with the
image, the same scan forms real atoms where the real atom was in the
original. The follow-up scan wipes the atom clear to make room for the
next frame."

"How about this building atoms?" puzzled the girl. "Doesn't that make
for radioactivity?"

"Uh-huh," he said, "but the radioactivity is really energy that we use
to operate the machine."

The scene on the stage switched to a close-up of Martha and the
picture's villain, one Jack Vanders whose leer was known across the
continent.

The woman on the other side of Tim Woodart stood up and called "Cut
it!" in a low contralto.

The stage cleared in a twinkle and the lights went up.

Martin Hammer leaned across the seats and spoke to the standing woman.
"What's wrong, Mrs. Foster?"

"That won't do," she said. "Bad shot!"

Hammer thought for a moment. "There's nothing wrong with a close-up,"
he said. "It's done daily."

Jenny Foster smiled. "Yes," she agreed, "the screen fills up from top
to bottom with the face, and the eyes look softly into the camera lens
as the girl murmurs, 'I love you' and it is effective because in the
two-dimensional cinema, the trick of looking into the camera lens makes
it appear as though the girl were gazing softly into your own eyes--no
matter where you are in the theater. But this is solid, Hammer. When
the gal looks at you, I can tell that she's looking at you from here."

"So?"

"So I'm resentful of the guy who has the preferred seat," she said.

Martin Hammer smiled. "You can't have all the seats in the theater
within a two-foot circle," he said. "But there must be some way to lick
it."

"You'll remember what I had to say?" she asked.

Hammer nodded. "We'll work on it," he said. "Like all other media,
solid performances require their own techniques. But until we locate
the techniques, people will take to solids for their novelty."

They all sat down. Mrs. Foster turned to Tim Woodart and asked him how
it was done.

"You mean the whole thing?"

"No, the job of making enlargements."

"Easy," he said. "We just have a repeat-scan that repeats the same
atom in between true signals. Same like cramming a whole twelve-story
building on a busy street. We cut out certain patterns--sometimes every
other signal, sometimes every third, sometimes four out of five are
eliminated in the recording. The number cut is a definite statement of
the 'times-size' of the reproduction."

"Sounds simple when you say it fast," she smiled.

"I'll tell you about it later--?" he suggested.

"I'd like that."

He was too silent for a moment, and Jenny Foster knew it. "Tim," she
said, "if you're worrying about the ... the--"

"Well," he admitted slowly, "I was. Not that I care, but you--?"

She smiled bitterly. "It's often said that no one knows another person
until you've lived with them for some time. It was between our first
meeting and three years after I married Harry Foster that I was his
wife. That was when I found out about him. I--"

"Look," said Tim, worriedly, "there's been something worrying me ever
since we took these shots yesterday. Now I know what it is. Let's get
out of here and I'll buy you a drink."

"_Shhhhhh!_" insisted Hammer.

"Stop it," returned Woodart.

"Make notes," said Hammer. "I want to see these rushes to the close."

"But--"

"But nothing. Tell me later."

"Let's go," said Tim plaintively.

"It'll only be a minute. What are you worrying about?"

Tim looked at the stage. This was a comic shot. In it, the head of
the butler filled the stage and looked out at the audience through
half-closed eyes. A middle distance shot previously had shown the
butler taking a sniff of pepper, this was the aftermath--

"No!" yelled Woodart.

He was too late. His yell was covered by the explosive sneeze. A
hurricane of wind blasted at the tiny theater. A window went out in
back, and Martin Hammer's toupee left for Kansas.

As the echoes died, Tim Woodart said, "That's what I meant."

Hammer blinked. "I'd hate to pull an Alfred Hitchcock and have a .45
pointed at the audience--close-up."

Back of him, the photographer looked at the stage and made a quick
estimate. "That," he said, "would hurl a nine-foot slug of lead at the
audience!"

Tim Woodart left quietly.

       *       *       *       *       *

Tim Woodart led Jenny Foster to a small table and ordered Martinis.
Jenny smiled at him and said: "Tell me how you came to invent this
thing?"

"Easy," he grinned. "I'm an avid reader of science-fiction and there
was a yarn in one of the leading magazines some time ago that dealt
with a matter transmitter. Written by a crackpot electronics engineer
by the name of George O. Smith. He was rather explicit in a vague sort
of way, but it gave me the initial idea, and here we are with it!"

She laughed. "Is this character going to get any royalty?"

"Oh," said Tim Woodart expansively, "I offered him some, but he
refused, saying that his idea was nothing but a fiction idea and that
any bright engineer would know how to send matter by radio."

"Oh."

"Besides, he's in Philadelphia, now, and the men in the white coats
wouldn't let him write with anything but a blunt crayon."

"Well, could you send things by wire with it?"

Tim smiled, "Not at present," he said. "There isn't a transmission
line with a broad enough band-pass to accept the signal frequencies
necessary."

"Now," said Jenny, taking a sip of her Martini, "you're getting in way
over my head."

Tim Woodart pulled out pencil and paper, but Jenny stopped him by
laying a gentle hand on his. "Don't," she said plaintively. "I don't
even know what happens when I snap on the light switch, let alone
understanding transmission lines."

Uncertainly he replaced the pencil and paper in his pocket. Then he
laughed. "Shall we dance?"

"That," she told him, "I understand."

They danced--and they danced well together. And while they were getting
better acquainted, a hundred miles to the south a man was stopped by a
motorcycle policeman for traveling too fast.

"Name?" snapped the policeman.

"Harold Farman."

"Driver's license?"

"Why ... er ... I--"

"No license?"

"Well, it's here. But--"

The policeman nodded. "Gimme," he snapped.

Harry Foster cursed himself for forgetting. For even trying to run
under an assumed name without changing every bit of evidence. But the
policeman looked rather rough, and Harry handed over the license.

"This says 'Harry Foster'," grunted the cop.

"I'm Harry Foster."

"That wasn't the name you gave me," said the cop pointedly.

"Look, officer, I'm about to meet a young lady--we're meeting at the
Border to marry in Mexico. Her father objects, and he's influential
enough to send out word that I'm to be picked up on some pretext and
held. That's why."

The officer nodded sensibly. "Sounds reasonable," he said, "and
logical, and just about as silly as the usual guy who tried to elope."

"Well--thanks, officer. And may I bet you fifty that today is Sunday?"

"Today's Tuesday," replied the officer.

"My goodness," said Foster in surprise. "I lose, don't I?" He handed
the officer a folded fifty. The officer took it and smiled dryly.

"You lose," he told Foster, "because so far as I know, there's a
Lieutenant Miller of the Los Angeles police that has a dragnet out for
Harry Foster--the motion picture hero!"

"Now look--"

"I've looked," said the cop, "and you're it. Will you come quietly or
will you come horizontal?"

Harry Foster laughed. "I'm not _that_ Harry Foster," he said.

"No?"

"No."

"And how am I going to tell?"

"Call Miller. I happen to know that the moving picture star died not
more than a few days ago."

"That," said the policeman, closing his book, "is something that we can
check but quickly. You'll come along while we check it, though."

"I'll come," said Foster cheerfully.

He went. The policeman called. Miller gave him the right answer, that
the wanted man, Harry Foster, had been buried within the week. No,
there was no mistake. The dead man's identity had been established to
the satisfaction of every interested agency. The F.B.I. and the local
police had seen to it that the dental work checked, fingerprints,
everything including visual identification by friends, enemies, wife,
and business associates.

Harry Foster left a short time later with an internal grin. He--was
dead. Ergo--he could not be punished!

He laughed wildly as he resumed his driving, but his driving was less
wild. There was a thoughtful quality about it.

At the Mexican Border, Harry Foster stopped for rest and while resting
he read the newspaper. It carried the usual run of gossip columns, and
in one of them Harry Foster saw--and read with growing interest:

    The widow of Harry Foster, whose body was found on the evening
    before the authorities were to have closed in on his nefarious
    activities, is finding solace in the company of Tim Woodart, who
    is the inventor of Hammer Productions' new play technique. No one
    would deny Jenny Foster her right to happiness, and we'll cheer
    her on--

Foster crumpled the paper craftily. Woodart was about ready to start
banking checks in six or seven figures, and--

Harry Foster left the restaurant and headed back toward Hollywood.

       *       *       *       *       *

The locomotive thundered across the stage at a forty-five degree
angle, filling the theater with a wave of heat and a puff of smoke and
steam. Then it was past and gone, and its string of cars rumbled out
of "offstage" to the right rear to the "offstage" at the left-front
corner. It slowed and stopped, and the porter and passengers emerged;
the principal players of the scene appeared and went through their
action.

"Now that," said Hammer, pleased, "is a right good scene."

"Y'know," smiled Jenny Foster, "people are going to be so surprised to
see the real thing come roaring across the stage that they're going to
forget a couple of rather irrelevant items like having their heroine's
head nineteen feet in diameter."

"Yeah," drawled Hammer, "and tell the crook to shave closer. A close-up
of Jack Vanders looks like a pincushion with telephone poles shoved in.
Didn't know hair could be so big!"

"What bothers me," smiled Martha Evers, "is where I drink that
Manhattan in the close-up. Darned drink must be all of twenty-three
gallons."

"That isn't the main trouble with that scene," objected Vanders
cheerfully. His saturnine face was only for selling purposes; a more
pleasant villain was seldom to be found. "What bothers everybody is
that you can smell the odor of that drink, it's so big. Half of the
would-be sots in the audience are going to be as dry as the Sahara by
the time Evers gets it down."

Martha laughed, "Hammer is a great one for realism," she said, "but
I hope he doesn't insist on a real slug of cyanide in the poisoning
scene. I hate to think of twenty gallons of cyanide!"

"No doubt," laughed Hammer. "But what we ought to do is to have Woodart
fix up some way of stopping that thing during close-up. We could start
with a normal Martini and end up with fifty gallons."

Woodart shook his head. "Cost twenty times as much liquor itself," he
said with a good-natured smile. "You see, the energy that keeps this
thing in balance comes from the wipe-out of the previous scene. Stop it
that way and your light bill heads for the ceiling."

"O.K.--it was just an idea."

Vanders faced the group. "Look," he said. "I'm a professional villain,
and all villains are supposed to want something for nothing and finding
out that it can't be did."

Woodart agreed.

Then the scene changed to an overhead shot of Cincinnati. Taken by
helicopter, the scene was an angle shot down across Fountain Square
towards the river. In the cinema such shots do not seem bizarre, but in
solid, the street with its teeming cars and pedestrians was tilted at
an angle: the angle between street and camera remained as it was, and
the camera, of course, became the projector which was in the back of
the theater.

The "eye" zoomed down and the street grew in size until the fountain
that gave the Square its name was in plain view. It seemed incongruous
that the water in the fountain came out at an odd angle to gravity and
fell back at another odd angle, yet this was not a running reproduction
of Fountain Square but a swift series of instantaneous reproductions
and the droplets of water like everything else was replaced in whatever
relative position it was, regardless of the facts of true gravity.

The scene tilted flat, finally, and traveled along the street on the
level until the principal character was approached, whereupon the
action began. The camera followed Jack Vanders into a bar where he met
Martha Evers and ordered the Manhattan that was to become Gargantuan in
size--

       *       *       *       *       *

Jenny Foster put her face up for a good night kiss, and then shoved her
apartment door open as Tim turned to leave. Inside, the living room
light was on, and Jenny instantly called Tim back.

"Someone," she said, pointing to the lights.

"O.K." he said, entering before her. Sprawled in Jenny's easy-chair
was--

"Foster!"

"Who--me?" asked Foster in surprise. "Foster's dead."

"Can it," snapped Woodart. "And talk!"

"Or else?" drawled Foster indolently.

"Or else," snarled Woodart.

"Or else what?"

Tim went to the telephone and dialed the number of the police force.

"Don't bother," said Harry Foster. "I'm ... Foster, that is, is dead."

Tim replaced the telephone. "What's the gag?" he demanded.

"I," said Foster hollowly, "am a ghost returned to plague mine
unfaithful wife."

"The hereafter is going to have a moaning ghost with a shanty on its
eye," said Woodart ominously. "Unfaithful wife my foot. If ever she--"

"Now that's been the big bone of contention," smiled Foster. "Foster
gave her no grounds, and she was too good to give me any. And Foster
gave her none because it is still impossible to have a wife testify
against her husband."

"Very sly of you."

"Of Foster."

"You're Foster!"

"Me? No. Foster's dead."

Jenny gave a weak cry of despair. "What do you want?" she asked.

"How much have you got?" asked Foster pointedly.

"Blackmail," snarled Woodart.

"Why no. Not at all."

"You name it."

"It need have no name. You see, Woodart, I've learned that I no
longer need the protection of the legality that prevents a wife from
testifying against her husband. Her husband is dead."

"So?"

"Well, it isn't blackmail to perform a service for someone."

"Meaning?"

"Divorce comes high," explained Foster pointedly.

"After which--if done--you could continue to ask for more," said
Woodart angrily. "You could threaten to prove that you were paid to get
the divorce, a mere matter of blackening the character of a woman whose
only error was being blind enough to take a second look at you."

"Your ingenious mind is too complex," said Foster quietly.

"May I point out that if you are dead, you are dead, and therefore--"

Foster laughed nastily. "Legally and physically, Harry Foster died
and was buried. Legally there is nothing that could possibly prevent
you from marrying her if you wanted to. But you see, Woodart, my wife
is a completely moral woman, to say nothing of ethical. Though it is
legal, there is still the gnawing doubt in her that she is compounding
a felony--bigamy."

Jenny made a plaintive gesture, "I'll wait until he asks me--"

But she was not heard. Tim Woodart snorted. "So you think they'll be
hesitant about punishing a dead man?"

"What do you think?"

Woodart strode forward and took Foster by the lapels of his coat,
gathered them into one hand, and lifted the crook out of the easy-chair
with an angry shake. "Then they can't book me for assault and battery
upon the person of a corpse," he gritted. His free hand came back and
forth across Foster's face, driving the heel's head from side to side.
Then Woodart shoved him back, letting go of the lapels and using that
hand to bury itself to the wrist in Foster's midsection. As Foster
folded forward, Tim straightened him up with an upward chop to the jaw.

Foster crumpled, and Woodart lifted him by the collar and dragged him
to the door, hurling him into the hallway. Foster turned, wiping blood
from his face, and spat like an angry cat.

"That'll cost you, punk," he snarled.

Woodart laughed.

"Laugh," leered Foster. "You can't bring suit for divorce against a
dead man, either!"

       *       *       *       *       *

Harry Foster opened the door to his apartment and nodded quite
genially. "Come in, gentlemen," he said overpolitely.

State attorney Jones was less cordial, and Lieutenant Miller was harsh.

"You're Harry Foster."

"I am. Strange coincidence, isn't it?"

"Coincidence my--"

"Be careful," warned Foster. "You wouldn't want to insult a citizen,
would you? It might go hard with you."

"You're Harry Foster."

"I am."

"Then who was the man that was buried?"

"That is the coincidence," said Foster sorrowfully. "He was another
Harry Foster. I understand that he was a rascal and definitely needed
killing."

"Where were you when that deed was done?"

"Me? Look, sir, am I under suspicion?"

"Could be."

"Then produce your warrant! I shall take no guff from you nor any of
your ilk."

"Take it easy," said Jones. "An innocent man has nothing to fear."

"An innocent man," said Foster, "has plenty to fear. Scheming
politicians and courts who like to see convictions. Also there is the
protection of the Constitution of the United States that grants me the
right to do as I please so long as I am lawful about it."

"It also grants us the right to protect other people," said Lieutenant
Miller. "As for a warrant, we have a search warrant--plus the fact that
we know that murder was done in this apartment not more than two weeks
ago."

"You're in," said Foster. "And you may leave as soon as you can. I'll
not detain you."

"You know," said State attorney Jones, "this man answers the
description of the man who is wanted for any number of assorted crimes
from forgery to grand larceny. In every way he fills the bill. I think
we will arrest you, Mr. Foster."

"You'll be sorry. This is false arrest."

"Indeed. In this country, all arrests are false arrests because it is
a statement of intent that all men are innocent until proven guilty by
a court of justice! Ergo, we take you into custody whether innocent
or guilty and we will permit the judgment of the court to decide your
status. Coming quietly--or would you prefer to resist arrest?"

Lieutenant Miller looked eager. "Please resist," he said clenching his
fist.

"Unclench it," snapped Foster. "You touch me and I'll prove that you
wantonly and brutally attacked an innocent victim without provocation."

"I've provocation enough," snarled Miller. "My sister--"

"Your sister suffered deeply at the hands of this blackguard Harry
Foster," said Foster oilily. "But because he resembled me and wore my
name is no logical nor lawful reason for identifying your hatred of him
against me. That is a psychopathic failing, Lieutenant Miller."

"I'd like to make a pathological mess out of you," snapped Miller.

"Mr. Jones, you will remember that threat," said Foster. "As State
attorney, it is your duty to protect the innocent."

Jones closed his lips over hard teeth and said nothing. He would have
enjoyed the job of protecting Foster against a hungry hyena.

Foster went with them, but his manner was not that of a dangerous
criminal who had been apprehended. It was that of a man who knows all
the answers.

       *       *       *       *       *

"The defendant, Harry Foster, is charged with Murder in the First
Degree," said State attorney Jones. "This is a strange case, gentlemen
of the jury. It is without precedent, and, therefore, your action will
establish a precedent. I charge you to consider not only the case at
hand and to try it with the utmost regard to justice, but to remember,
as you are considering the evidence to be presented, that this is but
the first of many cases that will certainly follow. I--"

"I object! The defendant is on trial, not the Judicial System of the
United States!" shouted Defense attorney Cranshaw.

Judge Carver said, "The objection is sustained. Strike that from the
record."

Jones turned to the Court. "Your Honor, I request that my statements
about the establishment of precedent be retained."

Carver nodded. "It is true that this case will establish a precedent.
Yet the trial at hand is the only thing of importance."

"I accept," replied Jones, and returned to the jury.

"I will attempt to show that the defendant did produce a living
duplicate of himself after which he killed the duplicate. I call for my
first witness the inventor of the device, Timothy Woodart."

Tim came to the stand and was sworn. There was considerable questioning
to establish the qualifications of the witness, during which Cranshaw
said to Foster: "This will be a thin case, Foster. Yet, if we can
establish a reasonable doubt, the result will be an acquittal."

"Thin nothing," laughed Foster. "Just tie 'em up as I told you!"

"All right," replied Cranshaw uncertainly. "But it will be like arguing
on one side for part of the time and then switching sides in the
middle."

"What do you care so long as we win?"

"I don't," grinned Cranshaw. "Listen--Woodart is starting to give
pertinent testimony."

"Mr. Woodart," asked Jones, "is it possible for your device to be
stopped at such a time as to leave a complete set?"

"Yes," said Woodart.

"And you've known this all along?"

"Naturally. I invented it."

"Then the device is essentially a duplicating device?"

Woodart nodded. "It is, but like all such devices, it requires power.
The laws of conservation of matter and energy make it impractical to
produce a myriad of devices from a recording."

"And why is the device practical for the production of panoramic
entertainment?"

"The initial power is expended in producing the first replica of the
original scene," said Woodart, "after which, the scene is obliterated,
which returns the power to the equipment for the construction of the
next frame. Aside from the conversion losses and basic inefficiencies,
the thing is then self-supporting."

"In other words, if it takes a kilowatt to establish one frame, that
kilowatt is returned to the equipment?"

"Yes," said Woodart, "though the power is more on the order of a
hundred thousand kilowatts."

"As the main party involved with the equipment, it is your duty to see
that it is kept in operating condition?"

"Yes."

"Then tell us, Mr. Woodart, at any time since the device was initiated
has there been any expenditure of great power that was unaccounted for?"

"There was."

"And your analysis?"

"On the night of May 18th the power demand meter showed the expenditure
of seventy thousand kilowatts. It is my opinion that--"

"I object! That is an opinion, not a fact!" exploded Cranshaw.

Jones smiled. "Counsel will admit that it is the opinion of a very
qualified man."

"I want it understood that this testimony is but an opinion!"

"Objection noted," said Judge Carver. "Proceed, Mr. Jones."

Jones nodded at Woodart. Woodart continued--

"My opinion is that during the night, someone established a single
frame of the opus we were working on. Once this single frame was
established, the person removed from the set one object, after which
he wiped the stage clean, returning that to the equipment as power but
without the object which accounts for seventy thousand kilowatts of
energy."

"Mr. Woodart, is there any correlation between this power and the
Einstein Formula?"

"No. The matter is not made--manufactured. It is converted. The energy
represents the power required to carry the matter from a storage place
to the stage. It is somewhat like lifting a weight to a certain height.
There is no correlation between the foot-pounds of energy expended in
such and the mass-energy of the stone. However, in lifting a stone,
the energy expended in lift will be returned when the stone is let
down--excepting that part which is removed from the total while the
stone is held in midair."

"Then it might be difficult for you to determine just what was removed
from the set?"

"It might be," said Woodart, looking hard at Harry Foster.

"That is all, Mr. Woodart." To the jury, Jones said: "I think you will
find that the testimony just given will prove that duplication is
possible. My next witness will show just who was duplicated. I now call
Lieutenant Miller to the stand."

       *       *       *       *       *

"Lieutenant Miller, when you came to the apartment of Harry Foster,
what did you find?"

"I found Harry Foster, dead of gunshot wounds."

"And what else?"

"A revolver."

"And?"

"The revolver was in a far corner of the room," said Miller. "The dead
man could not have used it upon himself for numerous reasons, even
though the only fingerprints on the weapon were unmistakably those
of Harry Foster. One reason is the distance between the body and the
weapon; the wounds produced instant death. Another reason is that
the dead man's right hand was in his coat pocket--clenched around a
duplicate of the revolver."

"You can establish the authenticity of this?"

"Both weapons had the same serial number. Both bore the same scars from
use. Both weapons produced the same landmarks upon test bullets. Yet at
that time only one weapon had been fired; the one tossed in the corner."

"Your Honor, I enter as Exhibit A these weapons, duplicates of one
another. They are definite proof that duplication of objects did take
place."

"Evidence accepted."

"It will be noted that the serial number on these guns is registered in
the name of Harry Foster. I will suggest no indictment at this time for
the criminal act of having two weapons with the same serial number but
I do suggest that it be remembered."

He turned to Miller and said, "That is all."

Cranshaw arose to cross-question. "Mr. Miller," he asked, "is there any
way of telling which of those guns is the original and which is the
duplicate. I assume that they are not _both_ duplicates."

"Only the marking on the weapon that was fired after the killing."

"But, Lieutenant Miller, this is not conclusive. Which weapon was used
to kill the dead man--the original or the duplicate?"

"I object. That is irrelevant, immaterial, and incompetent!"

Cranshaw smiled deeply. "It is all three, Counsel. I want to know at
this time who was the killer and who was the duplicate?"

Miller shook his head. "Only he can answer that."

"That is all," smiled Cranshaw.

Jones called the defendant to the stand. "Mr. Foster, did you or did
you not make a duplicate of yourself?"

"Objection. The question is an obvious attempt to incriminate the
witness!"

"Sustained!"

"I merely wish to establish the identity of the witness."

"Then do it without asking him leading questions."

Jones faced Cranshaw angrily. "How can I?" he stormed angrily. "His
name, his measurements, his fingerprints, his ... everything is
identical to that of the slain."

"Inconveniently coincidental," smiled Cranshaw.

"Mr. Foster," said Jones quietly, "upon the night of May 18th, was
there a duplicate human being made?"

Foster nodded in a superior fashion.

"And are you the duplicate or the--"

"Objection!"

"Sustained!"

"That is all, Mr. Foster," replied Jones angrily. He turned to the jury
and smiled. "My points are simple but clear," he said. "Circumstantial
evidence it may be, but a more profound interlock of such evidence is
seldom found. One: There was a duplicate made. Two, a man was killed
by a weapon belonging to Harry Foster, in Harry Foster's apartment,
and all evidence fails to show the occupancy of any other human being.
Three, the defendant admits that there was duplication made but makes
attempt to confuse the Court by denying to answer whether he is
original or duplicate! This is an admission that he was the duplicate
made--or that he was the original. No denial is made of this. Since
it is impossible by any ordinary means to distinguish one Harry
Foster--defendant--from the other Harry Foster--victim--a sentence of
death is indicated for Harry Foster, the defendant, since the killing
conveniently made the only distinction."

Cranshaw arose with a stretch and a smile. "First," he said sincerely,
"I want to clear my client of other charges against him. Your Honor,
and Counsel for the Prosecution, will you admit as evidence the
statements made by relatives, and other competent authorities to the
effect that the dead man was the Harry Foster who was wanted for crimes
of various nature?"

"I object!" exploded Jones. "If any duplication was made, then the
duplicate is equally guilty!"

"All right," said Cranshaw. "Let it pass." He faced the jury with a
persecuted air. "Anything to make life difficult," he laughed.

"Now," he said, "may I enter as evidence the suit that the slain man
was wearing? It is--or was--identical to that which my client is
wearing now. At the present time," he said with a smile, "the client's
suit is a little more worn, though in better condition due to the holes
in this one. Now, for my first witness I call Dr. Lewis."

       *       *       *       *       *

"Dr. Lewis, have you ever considered the being of a duplicate?"

"Not until recently," smiled the doctor.

"You are a competent psychiatrist. Can you tell us the
responsibility-quotient of a man kept in a state of suspended
animation until he was thirty-three years old?"

"He would have little or no sense of responsibility at all."

"Would you say then that a duplicate of any human being was responsible
for the acts of the original?"

"I would hate to ponder the question," replied the psychiatrist. "It
would depend entirely upon the degree of duplication. Yet it seems to
run against the grain to make a duplicate responsible for the acts of
the original when up to this time the duplicate had no true identity."

"You assume the duplicate would have an identity?"

"If the duplicate is capable of original thought, he has."

"Yet, Dr. Lewis, what comprises identity?"

"The ego is a rather deep subject," replied the doctor thoughtfully.
"The question 'What is this that am I?' is one pondered for many
thousands of years. It is still without answer--though it is generally
accepted that a man is what he is because of his lifetime of
experiences."

"Will you expand upon that, doctor?"

The doctor nodded. "A new-born babe has little true identity or
individuality. That is because his only experience is almost congruent
with all other new-born babes. As he lives, his experiences will differ
because of environment and heredity from others--in the case of twins
this is true despite the idea that the environment and heredity is
identical. It is not. The environment of Twin A includes the life of
Twin B, and vice versa. Therefore each twin must evolve a different
identity. As a man grows and enjoys experience, each factor changes his
personality in some way major or minor, and he emerges a true identity,
which, however, is different in some minor way from day to day as his
experiences accumulate."

"Then at the instant of duplication, the two persons have approximately
the same identity?"

"Yes save for the single fact that one has just been in the process
of formation whilst the other was in the process of being recorded. I
assume that the two processes are not identical."

"Then," said Cranshaw, facing the jury, "may I point out that no
identity was really removed from the face of this earth by this
so-called killing. But one birth certificate was issued for Harry
Foster. But one Harry Foster lived and grew and became the Harry Foster
that many people knew as a motion picture star. A duplicate Harry
Foster was made, and then eliminated. Harry Foster was killed--and yet
Harry Foster remains! If the law states a life for a life, we have it
in the person of the living Harry Foster! He--killed himself."

Cranshaw smiled indulgently. "There are laws concerning suicide," he
said. "These laws make suicide a felony. Because of this there have
been many jokes made about the penalty for suicide, but there is
good reason for such laws. You see, Gentlemen of the Jury, it is not
necessary to wait until the burglar emerges from the bank with his
coat pockets bulging to arrest him. You may apprehend him while he is
drilling his way into the bank for the crime of Attempting To Compound
A Felony. An attempt at suicide is, then, an attempt to compound
a felony and the would-be suicide may be apprehended for his own
protection. Since the penalties for attempted suicide usually consist
of compelling the miscreant to undergo psychiatric treatment to remove
the obvious mental unrest that gave him the will to self-destruction,
I suggest that my client be given the same treatment for the crime of
suicide."

He sat down. "Now," he said with a smile, "that should hang that jury
higher than a kite. What is the penalty for successful suicide? Not
execution--"

"Shut up," snapped Foster.

       *       *       *       *       *

The jury returned after many hours, and the foreman arose. "Your Honor,
we have deliberated this case and find that our decision requires
explanation. Suicide we reason, is self-murder. Since suicide requires
a certain amount of planning and contemplation, we find the defendant
guilty on all charges including Murder in the First Degree!"

The roar of the spectators covered up the judge's words, but Harry
Foster heard him pronounce the fatal words.

Tim Woodart turned the key in Jenny Foster's apartment, shoved the door
open and stood aside to let her enter. Once in the dim living room, she
turned and buried her head in Tim's shoulder.

He held her close and stroked her head with one hand. Over her head
he saw the clock on the wall, it registered midnight. "Easy," he said
softly. "It's all--over."

She nodded, too filled with emotion and relief to speak.

Then as the sweep-hand crept past the instant of midnight, a sardonic
voice came from the easy-chair.

"A very pretty scene."

Jenny whirled, her face white. "Harry!" she said with a quavering voice.

As Tim faced Foster he asked Jenny to call Lieutenant Miller.

Foster laughed again. "Call him," he jeered. "And remember that the Law
of the Land makes it impossible for me to be placed in double jeopardy!"

"What's been done before can be done again," said Tim.

"Uh-huh," laughed Foster. "But not punishment. The Law, yer know.

"You see," jeered Foster, "knowing that I am going on and on and on, I
merely had Cranshaw make another duplicate of me. Now no one can touch
me!"

Jenny turned from the telephone and Tim put an arm about her and led
her from the apartment. He left the door open--

"There he is," said Tim, outside. "And you know what he has in mind."

Harry Foster nodded, took out his revolver, and charged in. The quiet
apartment was filled with the sudden racket of gunfire, quickly there;
quickly stopped.

"Let Miller clean up," said Tim harshly.

"But--?"

"They're equally fast and they're equally forewarned. Tough guy--it
took four of him to get rid of him."


                               THE END



*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Problem in solid" ***

Copyright 2023 LibraryBlog. All rights reserved.