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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/30764-h.zip b/30764-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3d1a973 --- /dev/null +++ b/30764-h.zip diff --git a/30764-h/30764-h.htm b/30764-h/30764-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..de817eb --- /dev/null +++ b/30764-h/30764-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1569 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Ham Sandwich, by James H. Schmitz + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; background-color: #FFFFFF; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +.tr {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 2em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: dotted black 1px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.p1 { font-size:xx-large; font-weight:bold; } + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figright { + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: + 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +/* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ham Sandwich, by James H. Schmitz + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Ham Sandwich + +Author: James H. Schmitz + +Illustrator: Leo Summers + +Release Date: December 26, 2009 [EBook #30764] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HAM SANDWICH *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="tr"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:</p> +<p class="center">This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction June 1963. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.</p></div> +<p> </p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> +<img src="images/image_001.jpg" width="300" height="667" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<p> </p> +<h1>HAM SANDWICH</h1> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"> +It gets difficult to handle the<br /> +problem of a man who has a real talent<br /> +that you need badly—and he cannot<br /> +use it if he knows it's honest!<br /> +</p> +<p> </p> +<h2>by JAMES H. SCHMITZ</h2> +<p> </p> +<h3>ILLUSTRATED BY LEO SUMMERS</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="p1">T</span>here was no one standing or sitting around the tastefully furnished +entry hall of the Institute of Insight when Wallace Cavender walked +into it. He was almost half an hour late for the regular Sunday night +meeting of advanced students; and even Mavis Greenfield, Dr. Ormond's +secretary, who always stayed for a while at her desk in the hall to +sign in the stragglers, had disappeared. However, she had left the +attendance book lying open on the desk with a pen placed invitingly +beside it.</p> + +<p>Wallace Cavender dutifully entered his name in the book. The distant +deep voice of Dr. Aloys Ormond was dimly audible, coming from the +direction of the lecture room, and Cavender followed its faint +reverberations down a narrow corridor until he reached a closed door. +He eased the door open and slipped unobtrusively into the back of the +lecture room.</p> + +<p>As usual, most of the thirty-odd advanced students present had seated +themselves on the right side of the room where they were somewhat +closer to the speaker. Cavender started towards the almost vacant rows +of chairs on the left, smiling apologetically at Dr. Ormond who, as +the door opened, had glanced up without interrupting his talk. Three +other faces turned towards Cavender from across the room. Reuben +Jeffries, a heavyset man with a thin fringe of black hair circling an +otherwise bald scalp, nodded soberly and looked away again. Mavis +Greenfield, a few rows further up, produced a smile and a reproachful +little headshake; during the coffee break she would carefully explain +to Cavender once more that students too tardy to take in Dr. Al's +introductory lecture missed the most valuable part of these meetings.</p> + +<p>From old Mrs. Folsom, in the front row on the right, Cavender's +belated arrival drew a more definite rebuke. She stared at him for +half a dozen seconds with a coldly severe frown, mouth puckered in +disapproval, before returning her attention to Dr. Ormond.</p> + +<p>Cavender sat down in the first chair he came to and let himself go +comfortably limp. He was dead-tired, had even hesitated over coming to +the Institute of Insight tonight. But it wouldn't do to skip the +meeting. A number of his fellow students, notably Mrs. Folsom, already +regarded him as a black sheep; and if enough of them complained to Dr. +Ormond that Cavender's laxness threatened to retard the overall +advance of the group towards the goal of Total Insight, Ormond might +decide to exclude him from further study. At a guess, Cavender thought +cynically, it would have happened by now if the confidential report +the Institute had obtained on his financial status had been less +impressive. A healthy bank balance wasn't an absolute requirement for +membership, but it helped ... it helped! All but a handful of the +advanced students were in the upper income brackets.</p> + +<p>Cavender let his gaze shift unobtrusively about the group while some +almost automatic part of his mind began to pick up the thread of Dr. +Al's discourse. After a dozen or so sentences, he realized that the +evening's theme was the relationship between subjective and objective +reality, as understood in the light of Total Insight. It was a +well-worn subject; Dr. Al repeated himself a great deal. Most of the +audience nevertheless was following his words with intent interest, +many taking notes and frowning in concentration. As Mavis Greenfield +liked to express it, quoting the doctor himself, the idea you didn't +pick up when it was first presented might come clear to you the fifth +or sixth time around. Cavender suspected, however, that as far as he +was concerned much of the theory of Total Insight was doomed to remain +forever obscure.</p> + +<p>He settled his attention on the only two students on this side of the +room with him. Dexter Jones and Perrie Rochelle were sitting side by +side in front-row chairs—the same chairs they usually occupied during +these meetings. They were exceptions to the general run of the group +in a number of ways. Younger, for one thing; Dexter was twenty-nine +and Perrie twenty-three while the group averaged out at around +forty-five which happened to be Cavender's age. Neither was blessed +with worldly riches; in fact, it was questionable whether the Rochelle +girl, who described herself as a commercial artist, even had a bank +account. Dexter Jones, a grade-school teacher, did have one but was +able to keep it barely high enough to cover his rent and car payment +checks. Their value to the Institute was of a different kind. Both +possessed esoteric mental talents, rather modest ones, to be sure, but +still very interesting, so that on occasion they could state +accurately what was contained in a sealed envelope, or give a +recognizable description of the photograph of a loved one hidden in +another student's wallet. This provided the group with encouraging +evidence that such abilities were, indeed, no fable and somewhere +along the difficult road to Total Insight might be attained by all.</p> + +<p>In addition, Perrie and Dexter were volunteers for what Dr. Aloys +Ormond referred to cryptically as "very advanced experimentation." The +group at large had not been told the exact nature of these +experiments, but the implication was that they were mental exercises +of such power that Dr. Al did not wish other advanced students to try +them, until the brave pioneer work being done by Perrie and Dexter was +concluded and he had evaluated the results....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"Headaches, Dr. Al," said Perrie Rochelle. "Sometimes quite bad +headaches—" She hesitated. She was a thin, pale girl with untidy +arranged brown hair who vacillated between periods of vivacious +alertness and activity and somewhat shorter periods of blank-faced +withdrawal. "And then," she went on, "there are times during the day +when I get to feeling sort of confused and not quite sure whether I'm +asleep or awake ... you know?"</p> + +<p>Dr. Ormond nodded, gazing at her reflectively from the little lectern +on which he leaned. His composed smile indicated that he was not in +the least surprised or disturbed by her report on the results of the +week's experiments—that they were, in fact, precisely the results he +had expected. "I'll speak to you about it later, Perrie," he told her +gently. "Dexter ... what experiences have you had?"</p> + +<p>Dexter Jones cleared his throat. He was a serious young man who +appeared at meetings conservatively and neatly dressed and shaved to +the quick, and rarely spoke unless spoken to.</p> + +<p>"Well, nothing very dramatic, Dr. Al," he said diffidently. "I did +have a few nightmares during the week. But I'm not sure there's any +connection between them and, uh, what you were having us do."</p> + +<p>Dr. Ormond stroked his chin and regarded Dexter with benevolence. "A +connection seems quite possible, Dexter. Let's assume it exists. What +can you tell us about those nightmares?"</p> + +<p>Dexter said he was afraid he couldn't actually tell them anything. By +the time he was fully awake he'd had only a very vague impression of +what the nightmares were about, and the only part he could remember +clearly now was that they had been quite alarming.</p> + +<p>Old Mrs. Folsom, who was more than a little jealous of the special +attention enjoyed by Dexter and Perrie, broke in eagerly at that point +to tell about a nightmare <i>she'd</i> had during the week and which <i>she</i> +could remember fully; and Cavender's attention drifted away from the +talk. Mrs. Folsom was an old bore at best, but a very wealthy old +bore, which was why Dr. Ormond usually let her ramble on a while +before steering the conversation back to the business of the meeting. +But Cavender didn't have to pretend to listen.</p> + +<p>From his vantage point behind most of the group, he let his gaze and +thoughts wander from one to the other of them again. For the majority +of the advanced students, he reflected, the Institute of Insight +wasn't really too healthy a place. But it offered compensations. +Middle-aged or past it on the average, financially secure, vaguely +disappointed in life, they'd found in Dr. Al a friendly and eloquent +guide to lead them into the fascinating worlds of their own minds. And +Dr. Al was good at it. He had borrowed as heavily from yoga and +western mysticism as from various orthodox and unorthodox +psychological disciplines, and composed his own system, almost his own +cosmology. His exercises would have made conservative psychiatrists +shudder, but he was clever enough to avoid getting his flock into too +serious mental difficulties. If some of them suffered a bit now and +then, it made the quest of Total Insight and the thought that they +were progressing towards that goal more real and convincing. And +meeting after meeting Dr. Al came up with some intriguing new twist or +device, some fresh experience to keep their interest level high.</p> + +<p>"Always bear in mind," he was saying earnestly at the moment, "that an +advance made by any member of the group benefits the group as a whole. +Thus, because of the work done by our young pioneers this week I see +indications tonight that the group is ready to attempt a new +experiment ... an experiment at a level I frankly admit I hadn't +anticipated you would achieve for at least another two months."</p> + +<p>Dr. Ormond paused significantly, the pause underlining his words. +There was an expectant stirring among the students.</p> + +<p>"But I must caution you!" he went on. "We cannot, of course, be +certain that the experiment will succeed ... in fact, it would be a +very remarkable thing if it did succeed at a first attempt. But if it +should, you will have had a rather startling experience! You will have +seen a thing generally considered to be impossible!"</p> + +<p>He smile reassuringly, stepping down from the lectern. "Naturally, +there will be no danger. You know me well enough to realize that I +never permit the group or individuals to attempt what lies beyond +their capability."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Cavender stifled a yawn, blinked water from his eyes, watching Ormond +walk over to a small polished table on the left side of the room in +front of the rows of chairs. On it Mavis Greenfield had placed a +number of enigmatic articles, some of which would be employed as props +in one manner or another during the evening's work. The most prominent +item was a small suitcase in red alligator hide. Dr. Ormond, however, +passed up the suitcase, took a small flat wooden plate from the table +and returned to the center of the room.</p> + +<p>"On this," he said, holding up the plate, "there rests at this moment +the air of this planet and nothing else. But in a minute or two—for +each of you, in his or her world of subjective reality—something else +<i>will</i> appear on it."</p> + +<p>The students nodded comprehendingly. So far, the experiment was on +familiar ground. Dr. Ormond gave them all a good-humored wink.</p> + +<p>"To emphasize," he went on, "that we deal here with practical, +down-to-earth, <i>real</i> matters ... not some mystical nonsense ... to +emphasize that, let us say that the object each of you will visualize +on this plate will be—a ham sandwich!"</p> + +<p>There were appreciative chuckles. But Cavender felt a twinge of +annoyance. At the moment, when along with fighting off fatigue he'd +been trying to forget that he hadn't eaten since noon, Dr. Al's choice +looked like an unfortunate one. Cavender happened to be very fond of +ham.</p> + +<p>"Now here," Ormond continued, putting the plate down, "is where this +experiment begins to differ from anything we have done before. For all +of us will try to imagine—to visualize as being on this plate—<i>the +same ham sandwich</i>. And so there will be no conflict in our +projections, let's decide first on just what ingredients we want to +put on it." He smiled. "We'll make this the finest ham sandwich our +collective imagination can produce!"</p> + +<p>There were more chuckles. Cavender cursed under his breath, his mouth +beginning to water. Suggestions came promptly.</p> + +<p>"Mustard?" Dr. Ormond said, "Of course—Not too sharp though, +Eleanor?" He smiled at Mrs. Folsom. "I agree! A light touch of +delicate salad mustard. Crisp lettuce ... finely chopped gherkins. +Very well!"</p> + +<p>"Put it all on rye," Cavender said helplessly. "Toasted rye."</p> + +<p>"Toasted rye?" Ormond smiled at him, looked around. "Any objections? +No? Toasted rye it shall be, Wally. And I believe that completes our +selection."</p> + +<p>He paused, his face turning serious. "Now as to that word of caution I +gave you. For three minutes each of you will visualize the object we +have chosen on the plate I will be holding up before me. You will do +this with your eyes open, and to each of you, in your own subjective +reality, the object will become, as you know, more or less clearly +discernible.</p> + +<p>"But let me tell you this. Do not be too surprised if at the end of +that time, when the exercise is over, the object <i>remains visible to</i> +you ... does not disappear!"</p> + +<p>There was silence for a moment. Then renewed chuckles, but slightly +nervous ones, and not too many.</p> + +<p>Dr. Ormond said sternly, "I am serious about that! The possibility, +though it may be small tonight, is there. You have learned that, by +the laws of Insight, any image of subjective reality, if it can be +endowed with <i>all</i> the attributes of objective reality by its human +creator, <i>must</i> spontaneously become an image in objective reality!</p> + +<p>"In this case, our collective ham sandwich, if it were perfectly +visualized, could not only be seen by you but felt, its weight and the +texture of each of its ingredients perceived, their appetizing +fragrance savored"—Cavender groaned mentally—"and more: if one of +you were to eat this sandwich, he would find it exactly as nourishing +as any produced by the more ordinary methods of objective reality.</p> + +<p>"There are people in the world today," Dr. Ormond concluded, speaking +very earnestly now, "who can do this! There always have been people +who could do this. And you are following in their footsteps, being +trained in even more advanced skills. I am aware to a greater extent +than any of you of the latent power that is developing—has +developed—in this group. Tonight, for the first time, that power will +be focused, drawn down to a pinpoint, to accomplish one task.</p> + +<p>"Again, I do not say that at the end of our exercise a ham sandwich +will lie on this plate. Frankly, I don't expect it. But I suggest very +strongly that you don't let it surprise or startle you too much if we +find it here!"</p> + +<p>There was dead stillness when he finished speaking. Cavender had a +sense that the lecture room had come alive with eerie little chills. +Dr. Ormond lifted the plate solemnly up before him, holding it between +the fingertips of both hands.</p> + +<p>"Now, if you will direct your attention here ... no, Eleanor, with +your eyes open!</p> + +<p>"Let us begin...."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Cavender sighed, straightened up in his chair, eyes fixed obediently +on the wooden plate, and banned ham sandwiches and every other kind of +food firmly from his thoughts. There was no point in working his +appetite up any further when he couldn't satisfy it, and he would have +to be on guard a little against simply falling asleep during the next +three minutes. The cloudiness of complete fatigue wasn't too far away. +At the edge of his vision, he was aware of his fellow students across +the room, arranged in suddenly motionless rows like staring zombies. +His eyelids began to feel leaden.</p> + +<p>The three minutes dragged on, came to an end. Ormond slowly lowered +his hands. Cavender drew a long breath of relief. The wooden plate, he +noted, with no surprise, was still empty.</p> + +<p>"You may stop visualizing," Ormond announced.</p> + +<p>There was a concerted sighing, a creaking of chairs. The students came +out of their semitrances, blinked, smiled, settled into more +comfortable positions, waiting for Dr. Al's comments.</p> + +<p>"No miracles this time!" Ormond began briskly. He smiled.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Folsom said, "Dr. Al—"</p> + +<p>He looked over at her. "Yes, Eleanor?"</p> + +<p>Eleanor Folsom hesitated, shook her head. "No," she said. "Go on. I'm +sorry I interrupted."</p> + +<p>"That's all right." Dr. Al gave her a warm smile. It had been, he +continued, a successful exercise, a very promising first attempt, in +spite of the lack of an immediate materialization, which, of course, +had been only a remote possibility to start with. He had no fault to +find with the quality of the group's effort. He had sensed it ... as +they, too, presently would be able to sense it ... as a smooth flow of +directed energy. With a little more practice ... one of these days ...</p> + +<p>Cavender stifled one yawn, concealed another which didn't allow itself +to be stifled behind a casually raised hand. He watched Ormond move +over to the prop table, put the wooden plate down beside the red +suitcase without interrupting his encouraging summary of the exercise, +hesitate, then pick up something else, something which looked like a +flexible copper trident, and start back to the center of the room with +it.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Folsom's voice said shrilly, "<i>Dr. Al—!</i>"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Eleanor? What is it?"</p> + +<p>"Just now," Mrs. Folsom said, her voice still holding the shrill note, +"just a moment ago, on the plate over there, I'm certain ... I'm +almost certain I saw the ham sandwich!"</p> + +<p>She added breathlessly, "And that's what I was going to say before, +Dr. Al! Right after you told us to stop visualizing I thought I saw +the sandwich on the plate! But it was only for a moment and I wasn't +sure. But now I'm sure, almost sure, that I saw it again on the plate +on the table!"</p> + +<p>The old woman was pointing a trembling finger towards the table. Her +cheeks showed spots of hectic red. In the rows behind her, the +students looked at one another, shook their heads in resignation, some +obviously suppressing amusement. Others looked annoyed. They were all +familiar with Eleanor Folsom's tendency to produce such little +sensations during the meetings. If the evening didn't promise to bring +enough excitement, Eleanor always could be counted on to take a hand +in events.</p> + +<p>Cavender felt less certain about it. This time, Mrs. Folsom sounded +genuinely excited. And if she actually believed she'd seen something +materialize, she might be fairly close to getting one of those little +heart attacks she kept everyone informed about.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Dr. Al could have had the same thought. He glanced back at the prop +table, asked gravely, "You don't see it there now, do you, Eleanor?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Folsom shook her head. "No. No, of course not! It disappeared +again. It was only there for a second. But I'm sure I saw it!"</p> + +<p>"Now this is very interesting," Ormond said seriously. "Has anyone +else observed anything at all unusual during the last few minutes?"</p> + +<p>There was a murmured chorus of dissent, but Cavender noticed that the +expressions of amusement and annoyance had vanished. Dr. Al had +changed the tune, and the students were listening intently. He turned +back to Mrs. Folsom.</p> + +<p>"Let us consider the possibilities here, Eleanor," he said. "For one +thing, you should be congratulated in any case, because your +experience shows that your visualization was clear and true throughout +our exercise. If it hadn't been, nothing like this could have +occurred.</p> + +<p>"But precisely what was the experience? There we are, as of this +moment, on uncertain ground. You saw something. That no one else saw +the same thing might mean simply that no one else happened to be +looking at the plate at those particular instances in time. I, for +example, certainly gave it no further attention after the exercise was +over. You <i>may</i> then have observed a genuine materialization!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Folsom nodded vigorously. "Yes, I—"</p> + +<p>"But," Ormond went on, "under the circumstances, the scientific +attitude we maintain at this Institute demands that we leave the +question open. For now. Because you might also, you understand, have +projected—for yourself only—a vivid momentary impression of the +image you had created during our exercise and were still holding in +your mind."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Folsom looked doubtful. The flush of excitement began to leave +her face.</p> + +<p>"Why ... well, yes, I suppose so," she acknowledged unwillingly.</p> + +<p>"Of course," Ormond said. "So tonight we shall leave it at that. The +next time we engage in a similar exercise ... well, who knows?" He +gave her a reassuring smile. "I must say, Eleanor, that this is a very +encouraging indication of the progress you have made!" He glanced over +the group, gathering their attention, and raised the trident-like +device he had taken from the table.</p> + +<p>"And now for our second experiment this evening—"</p> + +<p>Looking disappointed and somewhat confused, Eleanor Folsom settled +back in her chair. Cavender also settled back, his gaze shifting +sleepily to the remaining items on the prop table. He was frowning a +little. It wasn't his business, but if the old woman had started to +hypnotize herself into having hallucinations, Dr. Al had better turn +to a different type of meeting exercises. And that probably was +exactly what Ormond would do; he seemed very much aware of danger +signals. Cavender wondered vaguely what the red suitcase on the table +contained.</p> + +<p>There was a blurry shimmer on the wooden plate beside the suitcase. +Then something thickened there suddenly as if drawing itself together +out of the air. Perrie Rochelle, sitting only ten feet back from the +table, uttered a yelp—somewhere between surprise and alarm. Dexter +Jones, beside her, abruptly pushed back his chair, made a loud, +incoherent exclamation of some kind.</p> + +<p>Cavender had started upright, heart hammering. The thing that had +appeared on the wooden plate vanished again.</p> + +<p>But it had remained visible there for a two full seconds. And there +was no question at all of what it had been.</p> + +<p>For several minutes, something resembling pandemonium swirled about +the walls of the lecture room of the Institute of Insight. The red +suitcase had concealed the wooden plate on the prop table from the +eyes of most of the students sitting on the right side of the room, +but a number of those who could see it felt they had caught a glimpse +of something. Of just what they weren't sure at first, or perhaps they +preferred not to say.</p> + +<p>Perrie and Dexter, however, after getting over their first shock, had +no such doubts. Perrie, voice vibrant with excitement, answered the +questions flung at her from across the room, giving a detailed +description of the ham sandwich which had appeared out of nowhere on +the polished little table and stayed there for an incredible instant +before it vanished. Dexter Jones, his usually impassive face glowing +and animated, laughing, confirmed the description on every point.</p> + +<p>On the opposite side of the room, Eleanor Folsom, surrounded by her +own group of questioners, was also having her hour of triumph, in the +warmth of which a trace of bitterness that her first report of the +phenomenon had been shrugged off by everyone—even, in a way, by Dr. +Al—gradually dissolved.</p> + +<p>Dr. Al himself, Cavender thought, remained remarkably quiet at first, +though in the excitement this wasn't generally noticed. He might even +have turned a little pale. However, before things began to slow down +he had himself well in hand again. Calling the group to a semblance of +order, he began smilingly to ask specific questions. The witnesses on +the right side of the room seemed somewhat more certain now of what +they had observed.</p> + +<p>Dr. Ormond looked over at Cavender.</p> + +<p>"And you, Wally?" he asked. "You were sitting rather far back, to be +sure—"</p> + +<p>Cavender smiled and shrugged.</p> + +<p>"Sorry, Dr. Al. I just wasn't looking in that direction at the moment. +The first suggestion I had that anything unusual was going on was when +Perrie let out that wild squawk."</p> + +<p>There was general laughter. Perrie grinned and flushed.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'd have liked to hear <i>your</i> squawk," she told Cavender, "if +you'd seen a miracle happen right before your nose!"</p> + +<p>"Not a miracle, Perrie," Ormond said gently. "We must remember that. +We are working here with natural forces which produce natural +phenomena. Insufficiently understood phenomena, perhaps, but never +miraculous ones. Now, how closely did this materialization appear to +conform to the subjective group image we had decided on for our +exercise?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I could only see it, of course, Dr. Al. But as far as I saw it, +it was exactly what we'd ... no, wait!" Perrie frowned, wrinkling her +nose. "There was something added!" She giggled. "At least, I don't +remember anyone saying we should imagine the sandwich wrapped in a +paper napkin!"</p> + +<p>Across the room, a woman's voice said breathlessly, "Oh! A <i>green</i> +paper napkin, Perrie?"</p> + +<p>Perrie looked around, surprised. "Yes, it was, Mavis."</p> + +<p>Mavis Greenfield hesitated, said with a nervous little laugh, "I +suppose I did that. I added a green napkin after we started the +exercise." Her voice quavered for an instant. "I thought the image +looked neater that way." She looked appealingly at the students around +her. "This is really incredible, isn't it."</p> + +<p>They gave her vague smiles. They were plainly still floating on a +cloud of collective achievement—if they hadn't created that sandwich, +there could have been nothing to see!</p> + +<p>It seemed to Cavender that Dr. Ormond's face showed a flicker of +strain when he heard Mavis' explanation. But he couldn't be sure +because the expression—if it had been there—was smoothed away at +once. Ormond cleared his throat, said firmly and somewhat chidingly. +"No, not incredible, Mavis! Although—"</p> + +<p>He turned on his smile. "My friends, I must admit that you <i>have</i> +surprised me! Very pleasantly, of course. But what happened here is +something I considered to be only a very remote possibility tonight. +You are truly more advanced than I'd realized.</p> + +<p>"For note this. If even one of you had been lagging behind the others, +if there had been any unevenness in the concentration each gave to the +exercise tonight, this materialization simply could not have occurred! +And that fact forces me now to a very important decision."</p> + +<p>He went over to the prop table, took the suitcase from it. "Mavis," he +said gravely, "you may put away these other devices. We will have no +further need for them in this group! Dexter, move the table to the +center of the room for me, please."</p> + +<p>He waited while his instructions were hastily carried out, then laid +the suitcase on the table, drew up a chair and sat down. The buzz of +excited conversation among the students hushed. They stared at him in +anticipatory silence. It appeared that the evening's surprises were +not yet over—and they were ready for <i>anything</i> now!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"There is a point," Dr. Ormond began in a solemn voice, riveting their +eager attention on him, "a point in the orderly advance towards Total +Insight at which further progress becomes greatly simplified and +accelerated, because the student has now developed the capability to +augment his personal efforts by the use of certain instruments."</p> + +<p>Cavender thoughtfully reached inside his coat, brought out a cigarette +case, opened it and slowly put a cigarette to his lips. About to flick +on a lighter, he saw Ruben Jeffries watching him with an expression of +disapproval from across the aisle. Jeffries shook his head, indicated +the NO SMOKING sign on the wall. Cavender nodded, smiling a rueful +apology for his absent-mindedness, and returned the cigarette to its +case. He shoved his hands into his trousers pockets, slouched back in +the chair.</p> + +<p>"I have told you," Ormond was saying, "that the contributions many of +you so generously made to the Institute were needed for and being +absorbed by vital research. Tonight I had intended to give you a first +inkling of what that research was accomplishing." He tapped the +suitcase on the table before him. "In there is an instrument of the +kind I have mentioned. The beneficial forces of the Cosmos are +harnessed by it, flow through it. And I believe I can say that my +efforts in recent months have produces the most effective such device +ever seen...."</p> + +<p>"Dr. Al," Mrs. Folsom interrupted firmly, "I think you should let them +know how the instrument cured my heart condition."</p> + +<p>Faces shifted toward her, then back to Dr. Al. The middle-aged +majority of the students pricked their ears. For each of them, +conscious of the years of increasingly uncertain health to come, Mrs. +Folsom's words contained a personal implication, one that hit home. +But in spite of the vindication of her claim to have seen a +materialized ham sandwich, they weren't quite ready to trust her about +this.</p> + +<p>Dr. Ormond's face was grave.</p> + +<p>"Eleanor," he said reprovingly, "that was letting the cat out of the +bag, wasn't it? I hadn't intended to discuss that part of the matter +just yet."</p> + +<p>He hesitated, frowning, tapping the table top lightly with his +knuckles. Mrs. Folsom looked unabashed. She had produced another +sensation and knew it.</p> + +<p>"Since it was mentioned," Ormond said with deliberation at last, "it +would be unfair not to tell you, at least in brief, the facts to which +Eleanor was alluding. Very well then—Eleanor has served during the +past several weeks as the subject of certain experiments connected +with this instrument. She reports that after her first use of it, her +periodically recurring heart problem ceased to trouble her."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Folsom smiled, nodded vigorously. "I have not," she announced, +"had one single touch of pain or dizziness in all this time!"</p> + +<p>"But one should, of course," Dr. Ormond added objectively, "hesitate +to use the word 'cure' under such circumstances."</p> + +<p>In the front row someone asked, "Dr. Al, will the instrument heal ... +well, other physical conditions?"</p> + +<p>Ormond looked at the speaker with dignity. "John, the instrument does, +and is supposed to do, one thing. Providing, as I've said, that the +student working with it has attained a certain minimum level of +Insight, it greatly accelerates his progress towards Total Insight. +Very greatly!</p> + +<p>"Now, as I have implied before: as one approaches the goal of Total +Insight, the ailments and diseases which commonly afflict humanity +simply disappear. Unfortunately, I am not yet free to show you proof +for this, although I have the proof and believe it will not be long +before it can be revealed at least to the members of this group. For +this reason, I have preferred not to say too much on the point.... +Yes, Reuben? You have a question?"</p> + +<p>"Two questions, Dr. Al," Reuben Jeffries said. "First, is it your +opinion that our group has now reached the minimum level of Insight +that makes it possible to work with those instruments?"</p> + +<p>Ormond nodded emphatically. "Yes, it has. After tonight's occurrence +there is no further question about that."</p> + +<p>"Then," Jeffries said, "my second question is simply—<i>when do we +start?</i>"</p> + +<p>There was laughter, a scattering of applause. Ormond smiled, said, "An +excellent question, Reuben! The answer is that a number of you will +start immediately.</p> + +<p>"A limited quantity of the instruments—fifteen, I believe—are +available now on the premises, stored in my office. Within a few weeks +I will have enough on hand to supply as many of you as wish to speed +up their progress by this method. Since the group's contributions paid +my research expenses, I cannot in justice ask more from you +individually now than the actual cost in material and labor for each +instrument. The figure ... I have it somewhere ... oh, yes!" Ormond +pulled a notebook from his pocket, consulted it, looked up and said, +mildly, "Twelve hundred dollars will be adequate, I think."</p> + +<p>Cavender's lips twitched sardonically. Three or four of the group +might have flinched inwardly at the price tag, but on the whole they +were simply too well heeled to give such a detail another thought. +Checkbooks were coming hurriedly into sight all around the lecture +room. Reuben Jeffries, unfolding his, announced, "Dr. Al, I'm taking +one of the fifteen."</p> + +<p>Half the students turned indignantly to stare at him. "Now wait a +minute, Reuben!" someone said. "That isn't fair! It's obvious there +aren't enough to go around."</p> + +<p>Jeffries smiled at him. "That's why I spoke up, Warren!" He appealed +to Ormond. "How about it, Dr. Al?"</p> + +<p>Ormond observed judiciously, "It seems fair enough to me. Eleanor, of +course, is retaining the instrument with which she has been working. +As for the rest of you—first come, first served, you know! If others +would like to have Mavis put down their names...."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>There was a brief hubbub as this suggestion was acted on. Mavis, +Dexter Jones and Perrie Rochelle then went to the office to get the +instruments, while Dr. Ormond consoled the students who had found +themselves left out. It would be merely a matter of days before the +new instruments began to come in ... and yes, they could leave their +checks in advance. When he suggested tactfully that financial +arrangements could be made if necessary, the less affluent also +brightened up.</p> + +<p>Fifteen identical red alligator-hide suitcases appeared and were lined +up beside Ormond's table. He announced that a preliminary +demonstration with the instrument would be made as soon as those on +hand had been distributed. Mavis Greenfield, standing beside him, +began to read off the names she had taken down.</p> + +<p>Reuben Jeffries was the fifth to come up to the table, hand Ormond his +check and receive a suitcase from the secretary. Then Cavender got +unhurriedly to his feet.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Ormond," he said, loudly enough to center the attention of +everyone in the room on him, "may I have the floor for a moment?"</p> + +<p>Ormond appeared surprised, then startled. His glance went up to Reuben +Jeffries, still standing stolidly beside him, and his face slowly +whitened.</p> + +<p>"Why ... well, yes, Wally." His voice seemed unsteady. "What's on your +mind?"</p> + +<p>Cavender faced the right side of the room and the questioning faces +turned towards him.</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/image_002.jpg" width="400" height="456" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>"My name, as you know," he told the advanced students, "is Wallace +Cavender. What you haven't known so far is that I am a police +detective, rank of lieutenant, currently attached to the police force +of this city and in temporary charge of its bunco squad."</p> + +<p>He shifted his gaze towards the front of the room. Ormond's eyes met +his for a moment, then dropped.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Ormond," Cavender said, "you're under arrest. The immediate +charge, let's say, is practicing medicine without a license. Don't +worry about whether we can make it stick or not. We'll have three or +four others worked up by the time we get you downtown."</p> + +<p>For a moment, there was a shocked, frozen stillness in the lecture +room. Dr. Ormond's hand began to move out quietly towards the checks +lying on the table before him. Reuben Jeffries' big hand got there +first.</p> + +<p>"I'll take care of these for now, Dr. Al," Jeffries said with a +friendly smile. "The lieutenant thinks he wants them."</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>Not much more than thirty minutes later, Cavender unlocked the door to +Dr. Ormond's private office, went inside, leaving the door open behind +him, and sat down at Ormond's desk. He rubbed his aching eyes, yawned, +lit a cigarette, looked about in vain for an ashtray, finally emptied +a small dish of paper clips on the desk and placed the dish +conveniently close to him.</p> + +<p>There had been an indignant uproar about Dr. Al's arrest for a while, +but it ended abruptly when uniformed policemen appeared in the two +exit doors and the sobering thought struck the students that any +publicity given the matter could make them look personally ridiculous +and do damage to their business and social standing.</p> + +<p>Cavender had calmed their fears. It was conceivable, he said, that the +district attorney's office would wish to confer with some of them +privately, in connection with charges to be brought against William +Fitzgerald Grady—which, so far as the police had been able to +establish, was Dr. Ormond's real name. However, their association with +the Institute of Insight would not be made public, and any proceedings +would be carried out with the discretion that could be fully expected +by blameless citizens of their status in the community.</p> + +<p>They were fortunate, Cavender went on, in another respect. Probably +none of them had been aware of just how much Grady had milked from the +group chiefly through quiet private contributions and donations during +the two years he was running the Institute. The sum came to better +than two hundred thousand dollars. Grady naturally had wasted none of +this in "research" and he was not a spendthrift in other ways. +Cavender was, therefore, happy to say that around two thirds of this +money was known to be still intact in various bank accounts, and that +it would be restored eventually to the generous but misled donors.</p> + +<p>Dr. Al's ex-students were beginning to look both chastened and very +much relieved. Cavender briefly covered a few more points to eliminate +remaining doubts. He touched on Grady's early record as a confidence +man and blackmailer, mentioned the two terms he had spent in prison +and the fact that for the last eighteen years he had confined himself +to operations like the Institute of Insight where risks were less. The +profits, if anything, had been higher because Grady had learned that +it paid off, in the long run, to deal exclusively with wealthy +citizens and he was endowed with the kind of personality needed to +overcome the caution natural to that class. As for the unusual +experiences about which some of them might be now thinking, these, +Cavender concluded, should be considered in the light of the fact that +Grady had made his living at one time as a stage magician and +hypnotist, working effectively both with and without trained +accomplices.</p> + +<p>The lecture had gone over very well, as he'd known it would. The +ex-students left for their homes, a subdued and shaken group, grateful +for having been rescued from an evil man's toils. Even Mrs. Folsom, +who had announced at one point that she believed she had a heart +attack coming on, recovered sufficiently to thank Cavender and assure +him that in future she would take her problems only to a reliable +physician.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Footsteps were coming down the short hall from the back of the +building. Then Reuben Jeffries' voice said, "Go into the office. The +lieutenant's waiting for you there."</p> + +<p>Cavender stubbed out his cigarette as Dexter Jones, Perrie Rochelle +and Mavis Greenfield filed into the office. Jeffries closed the door +behind them from the hall and went off.</p> + +<p>"Sit down," Cavender said, lighting a fresh cigarette.</p> + +<p>They selected chairs and settled down stiffly, facing him. All three +looked anxious and pale; and Perrie's face was tear-stained.</p> + +<p>Cavender said, "I suppose you've been wondering why I had Sergeant +Jeffries tell you three to stay behind."</p> + +<p>Perrie began, her eyes and voice rather wild, "Mr. Cavender ... +Lieutenant Cavender...."</p> + +<p>"Either will do," Cavender said.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Cavender, I swear you're wrong! We didn't have anything to do +with Dr. Al's ... Mr. Grady's cheating those people! At least, I +didn't. I swear it!"</p> + +<p>"I didn't say you had anything to do with it, Perrie," Cavender +remarked. "Personally I think none of you had anything to do with it. +Not voluntarily, at any rate."</p> + +<p>He could almost feel them go limp with relief. He waited. After a +second or two, Perrie's eyes got the wild look back. "But...."</p> + +<p>"Yes?" Cavender asked.</p> + +<p>Perrie glanced at Dexter Jones, at Mavis.</p> + +<p>"But then what <i>did</i> happen?" she asked bewilderedly, of the other two +as much as of Cavender. "Mr. Cavender, I saw something appear on that +plate! I know it did. It was a sandwich. It looked perfectly natural. +I don't think it could have possibly been something Mr. Grady did with +mirrors. And how could it have had the paper napkin Mavis had just +been thinking about wrapped around it, unless...."</p> + +<p>"Unless it actually was a materialization of a mental image you'd +created between you?" Cavender said. "Now settle back and relax, +Perrie. There's a more reasonable explanation for what happened +tonight than that."</p> + +<p>He waited a moment, went on. "Grady's one real interest is money and +since none of you have any to speak of, his interest in you was that +you could help him get it. Perrie and Dexter showed some genuine +talent to start with, in the line of guessing what card somebody was +thinking about and the like. It's not too unusual an ability, and in +itself it wasn't too useful to Grady.</p> + +<p>"But he worked on your interest in the subject. All the other +students, the paying students, had to lose was a sizable amount of +cash ... with the exception of Mrs. Folsom who's been the next thing +to a flip for years anyway. She was in danger. And you three stood a +good chance of letting Grady wreck your lives. I said he's a competent +hypnotist. He is. Also a completely ruthless one."</p> + +<p>He looked at Mavis. "As far as I know, Mavis, you haven't ever +demonstrated that you have any interesting extrasensory talents like +Dexter's and Perrie's. Rather the contrary. Right?"</p> + +<p>She nodded, her eyes huge.</p> + +<p>"I've always tested negative. Way down negative. That's why I was +really rather shocked when that.... Of course, I've always been +fascinated by such things. And he insisted it would show up in me +sometime."</p> + +<p>"And," Cavender said, "several times a week you had special little +training sessions with him, just as his two star pupils here did, to +help it show up. You were another perfect stooge, from Grady's point +of view. Well, what it amounts to is that Grady was preparing to make +his big final killing off this group before he disappeared from the +city. He would have collected close to thirty thousand dollars +tonight, and probably twice as much again within the next month or so +before any of the students began to suspect seriously that Dr. Al's +instruments could be the meaningless contraptions they are.</p> + +<p>"You three have been hypnotically conditioned to a fare-you-well in +those little private sessions you've had with him. During the past +week you were set up for the role you were to play tonight. When you +got your cue—at a guess it was Mrs. Folsom's claim that she'd seen +the ham sandwich materialize—you started seeing, saying, acting, and +thinking exactly as you'd been told to see, say, act, and think. +There's no more mystery about it than that. And in my opinion you're +three extremely fortunate young people in that we were ready to move +in on Grady when we were."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>There was silence for a moment. Then Perrie Rochelle said hesitantly, +"Then Mrs. Folsom...."</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Folsom," Cavender said, "has also enjoyed the benefits of many +private sessions with Grady. She, of course, was additionally paying +very handsomely for them. Tonight, she reported seeing what she'd been +told to report seeing, to set off the hypnotic chain reaction."</p> + +<p>"But," Perrie said, "she said her heart attacks stopped after she +started using the instrument. I really don't see how that could have +been just her imagination?"</p> + +<p>"Very easily," Cavender said. "I've talked with her physician. Mrs. +Folsom belongs to a not uncommon type of people whose tickers are as +sound as yours or mine, but who are convinced they have a serious +heart ailment and can dish up symptoms impressive enough to fool +anyone but an informed professional. They can stop dishing them up +just as readily if they think they've been cured." He smiled faintly. +"You look as if you might be finally convinced, Perrie."</p> + +<p>She nodded. "I ... yes, I guess so. I guess I am."</p> + +<p>"All right," Cavender said. He stood up. "You three can run along +then. You won't be officially involved in this matter, and no one's +going to bother you. If you want to go on playing around with E.S.P. +and so forth, that's your business. But I trust that in future you'll +have the good sense to keep away from characters like Grady. Periods +of confusion, chronic nightmares—even chronic headaches—are a good +sign you're asking for bad trouble in that area."</p> + +<p>They thanked him, started out of the office in obvious relief. At the +door, Perrie Rochelle hesitated, looked back.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Cavender...."</p> + +<p>"Yes?"</p> + +<p>"You don't think I ... I need...."</p> + +<p>"Psychiatric help? No. But I understand," Cavender said, "that you +have a sister in Maine who's been wanting you to spend the summer with +her. I think that's a fine idea! A month or two of sun and salt water +is exactly what you can use to drive the last of this nonsense out of +your mind again. So good night to the three of you, and good luck!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Cavender snapped the top of the squat little thermos flask back in +place and restored it to the glove compartment of Jeffries' car. He +brushed a few crumbs from the knees of his trousers and settled back +in the seat, discovering he no longer felt nearly as tired and washed +out as he had been an hour ago in the lecture room. A few cups of +coffee and a little nourishment could do wonders for a man, even at +the tail end of a week of hard work.</p> + +<p>The last light in the Institute building across the street went out +and Cavender heard the click of the front door. The bulky figure of +Detective Sergeant Reuben Jeffries stood silhouetted for a moment in +the street lights on the entrance steps. Then Jeffries came down the +steps and crossed the street to the car.</p> + +<p>"All done?" Cavender asked.</p> + +<p>"All done," Jeffries said through the window. He opened the door, +eased himself in behind the wheel and closed the door.</p> + +<p>"They took Grady away by the back entrance," he told Cavender. "The +records in his files ... he wasn't keeping much, of course ... and the +stuff in the safe and those instruments went along with him. He was +very co-operative. He's had a real scare."</p> + +<p>Cavender grunted. "He'll get over it."</p> + +<p>Jeffries hesitated, said, "I'm something of a Johnny-come-lately in +this line of work, you know. I'd be interested in hearing how it's +handled from here on."</p> + +<p>"In this case it will be pretty well standard procedure," Cavender +said. "Tomorrow around noon I'll have Grady brought in to see me. I'll +be in a curt and bitter mood—the frustrated honest cop. I'll tell him +he's in luck. The D. A.'s office has informed me that because of the +important names involved in this fraud case, and because all but +around forty thousand dollars of the money he collected in this town +have been recovered, they've decided not to prosecute. He'll have till +midnight to clear out. If he ever shows up again, he gets the book."</p> + +<p>"Why leave him the forty thousand?" Jeffries asked. "I understood they +know darn well where it's stashed."</p> + +<p>Cavender shrugged. "The man's put in two years of work, Reuben. If we +clean him, he might get discouraged enough to get out of the racket +and try something else. As it is, he'll have something like the +Institute of Insight going again in another city three months from +now. In an area that hasn't been cropped over recently. He's good in +that line ... one of the best, in fact."</p> + +<p>Jeffries thoughtfully started the car, pulled out from the curb. +Halfway down the block, he remarked, "You gave me the go-ahead sign +with the cigarette right after the Greenfield girl claimed she'd put +the paper napkin into that image. Does that mean you finally came to a +decision about her?"</p> + +<p>"Uh-huh."</p> + +<p>Jeffries glanced over at him, asked, "Is there any secret about how +you're able to spot them?"</p> + +<p>"No ... except that I don't know. If I could describe to anyone how to +go about it, we might have our work cut in half. But I can't, and +neither can any other spotter. It's simply a long, tedious process of +staying in contact with people you have some reason to suspect of +being the genuine article. If they are, you know it eventually. But if +it weren't that men with Grady's type of personality attract them +somehow from ten miles around, we'd have no practical means at present +of screening prospects out of the general population. You can't +distinguish one of them from anyone else if he's just walking past you +on the street."</p> + +<p>Jeffries brought the car to a halt at a stop light.</p> + +<p>"That's about the way I'd heard it," he acknowledged. "What about +negative spotting? Is there a chance there might be an undiscovered +latent left among our recent fellow students?"</p> + +<p>"No chance at all," Cavender said. "The process works both ways. If +they aren't, you also know it eventually—and I was sure of everyone +but Greenfield over three weeks ago. She's got as tough a set of +obscuring defenses as I've ever worked against. But after the jolt she +got tonight, she came through clear immediately."</p> + +<p>The light changed and the car started up. Jeffries asked, "You feel +both of them can be rehabilitated?"</p> + +<p>"Definitely," Cavender said. "Another three months of Grady's +pseudoyoga might have ruined them for good. But give them around a +year to settle out and they'll be all right. Then they'll get the +call. It's been worth the trouble. Jones is good medium grade—and +that Greenfield! She'll be a powerhouse before she's half developed. +Easily the most promising prospect I've come across in six years."</p> + +<p>"You're just as certain about Perrie Rochelle?"</p> + +<p>"Uh-huh. Protopsi—fairly typical. She's developed as far as she ever +will. It would be a complete waste of time to call her. You can't +train something that just isn't there."</p> + +<p>Jeffries grunted. "Never make a mistake, eh?"</p> + +<p>Cavender yawned, smiled. "Never have yet, Reuben! Not in that area."</p> + +<p>"How did you explain the sandwich to them—and Greenfield's napkin? +They couldn't have bought your stage magic idea."</p> + +<p>"No. Told them those were Dr. Al's posthypnotic suggestions. It's the +other standard rationalization."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>They drove on in silence for a while. Then Jeffries cleared his +throat.</p> + +<p>"Incidentally," he said. "I should apologize for the slip with the +sandwich, even though it turned out to our advantage. I can't quite +explain it. I was thinking of other matters at the moment, and I +suppose I...."</p> + +<p>Cavender, who had been gazing drowsily through the windshield, shook +his head.</p> + +<p>"As you say, it turned out very well, Reuben. Aside from putting the +first crack in Mavis Greenfield's defenses, it shook up Dr. Al to the +point where he decided to collect as much as he could tonight, cash +the checks, and clear out. So he set himself up for the pinch. We +probably gained as much as three or four weeks on both counts."</p> + +<p>Jeffries nodded. "I realize that. But...."</p> + +<p>"Well, you'd have no reason to blame yourself for the slip in any +case," Cavender went on. "The fact is I'd been so confoundedly busy +all afternoon and evening, I forgot to take time out for dinner. When +that sandwich was being described in those mouth-watering terms, I +realized I was really ravenous. At the same time I was fighting off +sleep. Between the two, I went completely off guard for a moment, and +it simply happened!"</p> + +<p>He grinned. "As described, by the way, it was a terrific sandwich. +That group had real imagination!" He hesitated, then put out his hand, +palm up, before him. "As a matter of fact, just talking about it again +seems to be putting me in a mood for seconds...."</p> + +<p>Something shimmered for an instant in the dim air wrapped in its green +tissue napkin, a second ham sandwich appeared.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ham Sandwich, by James H. Schmitz + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HAM SANDWICH *** + +***** This file should be named 30764-h.htm or 30764-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/7/6/30764/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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Schmitz + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Ham Sandwich + +Author: James H. Schmitz + +Illustrator: Leo Summers + +Release Date: December 26, 2009 [EBook #30764] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HAM SANDWICH *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction June 1963. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. + copyright on this publication was renewed. + + + HAM SANDWICH + + + It gets difficult to handle the + problem of a man who has a real talent + that you need badly--and he cannot + use it if he knows it's honest! + + + by JAMES H. SCHMITZ + + + ILLUSTRATED BY LEO SUMMERS + + * * * * * + + + + +There was no one standing or sitting around the tastefully furnished +entry hall of the Institute of Insight when Wallace Cavender walked +into it. He was almost half an hour late for the regular Sunday night +meeting of advanced students; and even Mavis Greenfield, Dr. Ormond's +secretary, who always stayed for a while at her desk in the hall to +sign in the stragglers, had disappeared. However, she had left the +attendance book lying open on the desk with a pen placed invitingly +beside it. + +Wallace Cavender dutifully entered his name in the book. The distant +deep voice of Dr. Aloys Ormond was dimly audible, coming from the +direction of the lecture room, and Cavender followed its faint +reverberations down a narrow corridor until he reached a closed door. +He eased the door open and slipped unobtrusively into the back of the +lecture room. + +As usual, most of the thirty-odd advanced students present had seated +themselves on the right side of the room where they were somewhat +closer to the speaker. Cavender started towards the almost vacant rows +of chairs on the left, smiling apologetically at Dr. Ormond who, as +the door opened, had glanced up without interrupting his talk. Three +other faces turned towards Cavender from across the room. Reuben +Jeffries, a heavyset man with a thin fringe of black hair circling an +otherwise bald scalp, nodded soberly and looked away again. Mavis +Greenfield, a few rows further up, produced a smile and a reproachful +little headshake; during the coffee break she would carefully explain +to Cavender once more that students too tardy to take in Dr. Al's +introductory lecture missed the most valuable part of these meetings. + +From old Mrs. Folsom, in the front row on the right, Cavender's +belated arrival drew a more definite rebuke. She stared at him for +half a dozen seconds with a coldly severe frown, mouth puckered in +disapproval, before returning her attention to Dr. Ormond. + +Cavender sat down in the first chair he came to and let himself go +comfortably limp. He was dead-tired, had even hesitated over coming to +the Institute of Insight tonight. But it wouldn't do to skip the +meeting. A number of his fellow students, notably Mrs. Folsom, already +regarded him as a black sheep; and if enough of them complained to Dr. +Ormond that Cavender's laxness threatened to retard the overall +advance of the group towards the goal of Total Insight, Ormond might +decide to exclude him from further study. At a guess, Cavender thought +cynically, it would have happened by now if the confidential report +the Institute had obtained on his financial status had been less +impressive. A healthy bank balance wasn't an absolute requirement for +membership, but it helped ... it helped! All but a handful of the +advanced students were in the upper income brackets. + +Cavender let his gaze shift unobtrusively about the group while some +almost automatic part of his mind began to pick up the thread of Dr. +Al's discourse. After a dozen or so sentences, he realized that the +evening's theme was the relationship between subjective and objective +reality, as understood in the light of Total Insight. It was a +well-worn subject; Dr. Al repeated himself a great deal. Most of the +audience nevertheless was following his words with intent interest, +many taking notes and frowning in concentration. As Mavis Greenfield +liked to express it, quoting the doctor himself, the idea you didn't +pick up when it was first presented might come clear to you the fifth +or sixth time around. Cavender suspected, however, that as far as he +was concerned much of the theory of Total Insight was doomed to remain +forever obscure. + +He settled his attention on the only two students on this side of the +room with him. Dexter Jones and Perrie Rochelle were sitting side by +side in front-row chairs--the same chairs they usually occupied during +these meetings. They were exceptions to the general run of the group +in a number of ways. Younger, for one thing; Dexter was twenty-nine +and Perrie twenty-three while the group averaged out at around +forty-five which happened to be Cavender's age. Neither was blessed +with worldly riches; in fact, it was questionable whether the Rochelle +girl, who described herself as a commercial artist, even had a bank +account. Dexter Jones, a grade-school teacher, did have one but was +able to keep it barely high enough to cover his rent and car payment +checks. Their value to the Institute was of a different kind. Both +possessed esoteric mental talents, rather modest ones, to be sure, but +still very interesting, so that on occasion they could state +accurately what was contained in a sealed envelope, or give a +recognizable description of the photograph of a loved one hidden in +another student's wallet. This provided the group with encouraging +evidence that such abilities were, indeed, no fable and somewhere +along the difficult road to Total Insight might be attained by all. + +In addition, Perrie and Dexter were volunteers for what Dr. Aloys +Ormond referred to cryptically as "very advanced experimentation." The +group at large had not been told the exact nature of these +experiments, but the implication was that they were mental exercises +of such power that Dr. Al did not wish other advanced students to try +them, until the brave pioneer work being done by Perrie and Dexter was +concluded and he had evaluated the results.... + + * * * * * + +"Headaches, Dr. Al," said Perrie Rochelle. "Sometimes quite bad +headaches--" She hesitated. She was a thin, pale girl with untidy +arranged brown hair who vacillated between periods of vivacious +alertness and activity and somewhat shorter periods of blank-faced +withdrawal. "And then," she went on, "there are times during the day +when I get to feeling sort of confused and not quite sure whether I'm +asleep or awake ... you know?" + +Dr. Ormond nodded, gazing at her reflectively from the little lectern +on which he leaned. His composed smile indicated that he was not in +the least surprised or disturbed by her report on the results of the +week's experiments--that they were, in fact, precisely the results he +had expected. "I'll speak to you about it later, Perrie," he told her +gently. "Dexter ... what experiences have you had?" + +Dexter Jones cleared his throat. He was a serious young man who +appeared at meetings conservatively and neatly dressed and shaved to +the quick, and rarely spoke unless spoken to. + +"Well, nothing very dramatic, Dr. Al," he said diffidently. "I did +have a few nightmares during the week. But I'm not sure there's any +connection between them and, uh, what you were having us do." + +Dr. Ormond stroked his chin and regarded Dexter with benevolence. "A +connection seems quite possible, Dexter. Let's assume it exists. What +can you tell us about those nightmares?" + +Dexter said he was afraid he couldn't actually tell them anything. By +the time he was fully awake he'd had only a very vague impression of +what the nightmares were about, and the only part he could remember +clearly now was that they had been quite alarming. + +Old Mrs. Folsom, who was more than a little jealous of the special +attention enjoyed by Dexter and Perrie, broke in eagerly at that point +to tell about a nightmare _she'd_ had during the week and which _she_ +could remember fully; and Cavender's attention drifted away from the +talk. Mrs. Folsom was an old bore at best, but a very wealthy old +bore, which was why Dr. Ormond usually let her ramble on a while +before steering the conversation back to the business of the meeting. +But Cavender didn't have to pretend to listen. + +From his vantage point behind most of the group, he let his gaze and +thoughts wander from one to the other of them again. For the majority +of the advanced students, he reflected, the Institute of Insight +wasn't really too healthy a place. But it offered compensations. +Middle-aged or past it on the average, financially secure, vaguely +disappointed in life, they'd found in Dr. Al a friendly and eloquent +guide to lead them into the fascinating worlds of their own minds. And +Dr. Al was good at it. He had borrowed as heavily from yoga and +western mysticism as from various orthodox and unorthodox +psychological disciplines, and composed his own system, almost his own +cosmology. His exercises would have made conservative psychiatrists +shudder, but he was clever enough to avoid getting his flock into too +serious mental difficulties. If some of them suffered a bit now and +then, it made the quest of Total Insight and the thought that they +were progressing towards that goal more real and convincing. And +meeting after meeting Dr. Al came up with some intriguing new twist or +device, some fresh experience to keep their interest level high. + +"Always bear in mind," he was saying earnestly at the moment, "that an +advance made by any member of the group benefits the group as a whole. +Thus, because of the work done by our young pioneers this week I see +indications tonight that the group is ready to attempt a new +experiment ... an experiment at a level I frankly admit I hadn't +anticipated you would achieve for at least another two months." + +Dr. Ormond paused significantly, the pause underlining his words. +There was an expectant stirring among the students. + +"But I must caution you!" he went on. "We cannot, of course, be +certain that the experiment will succeed ... in fact, it would be a +very remarkable thing if it did succeed at a first attempt. But if it +should, you will have had a rather startling experience! You will have +seen a thing generally considered to be impossible!" + +He smile reassuringly, stepping down from the lectern. "Naturally, +there will be no danger. You know me well enough to realize that I +never permit the group or individuals to attempt what lies beyond +their capability." + + * * * * * + +Cavender stifled a yawn, blinked water from his eyes, watching Ormond +walk over to a small polished table on the left side of the room in +front of the rows of chairs. On it Mavis Greenfield had placed a +number of enigmatic articles, some of which would be employed as props +in one manner or another during the evening's work. The most prominent +item was a small suitcase in red alligator hide. Dr. Ormond, however, +passed up the suitcase, took a small flat wooden plate from the table +and returned to the center of the room. + +"On this," he said, holding up the plate, "there rests at this moment +the air of this planet and nothing else. But in a minute or two--for +each of you, in his or her world of subjective reality--something else +_will_ appear on it." + +The students nodded comprehendingly. So far, the experiment was on +familiar ground. Dr. Ormond gave them all a good-humored wink. + +"To emphasize," he went on, "that we deal here with practical, +down-to-earth, _real_ matters ... not some mystical nonsense ... to +emphasize that, let us say that the object each of you will visualize +on this plate will be--a ham sandwich!" + +There were appreciative chuckles. But Cavender felt a twinge of +annoyance. At the moment, when along with fighting off fatigue he'd +been trying to forget that he hadn't eaten since noon, Dr. Al's choice +looked like an unfortunate one. Cavender happened to be very fond of +ham. + +"Now here," Ormond continued, putting the plate down, "is where this +experiment begins to differ from anything we have done before. For all +of us will try to imagine--to visualize as being on this plate--_the +same ham sandwich_. And so there will be no conflict in our +projections, let's decide first on just what ingredients we want to +put on it." He smiled. "We'll make this the finest ham sandwich our +collective imagination can produce!" + +There were more chuckles. Cavender cursed under his breath, his mouth +beginning to water. Suggestions came promptly. + +"Mustard?" Dr. Ormond said, "Of course--Not too sharp though, +Eleanor?" He smiled at Mrs. Folsom. "I agree! A light touch of +delicate salad mustard. Crisp lettuce ... finely chopped gherkins. +Very well!" + +"Put it all on rye," Cavender said helplessly. "Toasted rye." + +"Toasted rye?" Ormond smiled at him, looked around. "Any objections? +No? Toasted rye it shall be, Wally. And I believe that completes our +selection." + +He paused, his face turning serious. "Now as to that word of caution I +gave you. For three minutes each of you will visualize the object we +have chosen on the plate I will be holding up before me. You will do +this with your eyes open, and to each of you, in your own subjective +reality, the object will become, as you know, more or less clearly +discernible. + +"But let me tell you this. Do not be too surprised if at the end of +that time, when the exercise is over, the object _remains visible to_ +you ... does not disappear!" + +There was silence for a moment. Then renewed chuckles, but slightly +nervous ones, and not too many. + +Dr. Ormond said sternly, "I am serious about that! The possibility, +though it may be small tonight, is there. You have learned that, by +the laws of Insight, any image of subjective reality, if it can be +endowed with _all_ the attributes of objective reality by its human +creator, _must_ spontaneously become an image in objective reality! + +"In this case, our collective ham sandwich, if it were perfectly +visualized, could not only be seen by you but felt, its weight and the +texture of each of its ingredients perceived, their appetizing +fragrance savored"--Cavender groaned mentally--"and more: if one of +you were to eat this sandwich, he would find it exactly as nourishing +as any produced by the more ordinary methods of objective reality. + +"There are people in the world today," Dr. Ormond concluded, speaking +very earnestly now, "who can do this! There always have been people +who could do this. And you are following in their footsteps, being +trained in even more advanced skills. I am aware to a greater extent +than any of you of the latent power that is developing--has +developed--in this group. Tonight, for the first time, that power will +be focused, drawn down to a pinpoint, to accomplish one task. + +"Again, I do not say that at the end of our exercise a ham sandwich +will lie on this plate. Frankly, I don't expect it. But I suggest very +strongly that you don't let it surprise or startle you too much if we +find it here!" + +There was dead stillness when he finished speaking. Cavender had a +sense that the lecture room had come alive with eerie little chills. +Dr. Ormond lifted the plate solemnly up before him, holding it between +the fingertips of both hands. + +"Now, if you will direct your attention here ... no, Eleanor, with +your eyes open! + +"Let us begin...." + + * * * * * + +Cavender sighed, straightened up in his chair, eyes fixed obediently +on the wooden plate, and banned ham sandwiches and every other kind of +food firmly from his thoughts. There was no point in working his +appetite up any further when he couldn't satisfy it, and he would have +to be on guard a little against simply falling asleep during the next +three minutes. The cloudiness of complete fatigue wasn't too far away. +At the edge of his vision, he was aware of his fellow students across +the room, arranged in suddenly motionless rows like staring zombies. +His eyelids began to feel leaden. + +The three minutes dragged on, came to an end. Ormond slowly lowered +his hands. Cavender drew a long breath of relief. The wooden plate, he +noted, with no surprise, was still empty. + +"You may stop visualizing," Ormond announced. + +There was a concerted sighing, a creaking of chairs. The students came +out of their semitrances, blinked, smiled, settled into more +comfortable positions, waiting for Dr. Al's comments. + +"No miracles this time!" Ormond began briskly. He smiled. + +Mrs. Folsom said, "Dr. Al--" + +He looked over at her. "Yes, Eleanor?" + +Eleanor Folsom hesitated, shook her head. "No," she said. "Go on. I'm +sorry I interrupted." + +"That's all right." Dr. Al gave her a warm smile. It had been, he +continued, a successful exercise, a very promising first attempt, in +spite of the lack of an immediate materialization, which, of course, +had been only a remote possibility to start with. He had no fault to +find with the quality of the group's effort. He had sensed it ... as +they, too, presently would be able to sense it ... as a smooth flow of +directed energy. With a little more practice ... one of these days ... + +Cavender stifled one yawn, concealed another which didn't allow itself +to be stifled behind a casually raised hand. He watched Ormond move +over to the prop table, put the wooden plate down beside the red +suitcase without interrupting his encouraging summary of the exercise, +hesitate, then pick up something else, something which looked like a +flexible copper trident, and start back to the center of the room with +it. + +Mrs. Folsom's voice said shrilly, "_Dr. Al--!_" + +"Yes, Eleanor? What is it?" + +"Just now," Mrs. Folsom said, her voice still holding the shrill note, +"just a moment ago, on the plate over there, I'm certain ... I'm +almost certain I saw the ham sandwich!" + +She added breathlessly, "And that's what I was going to say before, +Dr. Al! Right after you told us to stop visualizing I thought I saw +the sandwich on the plate! But it was only for a moment and I wasn't +sure. But now I'm sure, almost sure, that I saw it again on the plate +on the table!" + +The old woman was pointing a trembling finger towards the table. Her +cheeks showed spots of hectic red. In the rows behind her, the +students looked at one another, shook their heads in resignation, some +obviously suppressing amusement. Others looked annoyed. They were all +familiar with Eleanor Folsom's tendency to produce such little +sensations during the meetings. If the evening didn't promise to bring +enough excitement, Eleanor always could be counted on to take a hand +in events. + +Cavender felt less certain about it. This time, Mrs. Folsom sounded +genuinely excited. And if she actually believed she'd seen something +materialize, she might be fairly close to getting one of those little +heart attacks she kept everyone informed about. + + * * * * * + +Dr. Al could have had the same thought. He glanced back at the prop +table, asked gravely, "You don't see it there now, do you, Eleanor?" + +Mrs. Folsom shook her head. "No. No, of course not! It disappeared +again. It was only there for a second. But I'm sure I saw it!" + +"Now this is very interesting," Ormond said seriously. "Has anyone +else observed anything at all unusual during the last few minutes?" + +There was a murmured chorus of dissent, but Cavender noticed that the +expressions of amusement and annoyance had vanished. Dr. Al had +changed the tune, and the students were listening intently. He turned +back to Mrs. Folsom. + +"Let us consider the possibilities here, Eleanor," he said. "For one +thing, you should be congratulated in any case, because your +experience shows that your visualization was clear and true throughout +our exercise. If it hadn't been, nothing like this could have +occurred. + +"But precisely what was the experience? There we are, as of this +moment, on uncertain ground. You saw something. That no one else saw +the same thing might mean simply that no one else happened to be +looking at the plate at those particular instances in time. I, for +example, certainly gave it no further attention after the exercise was +over. You _may_ then have observed a genuine materialization!" + +Mrs. Folsom nodded vigorously. "Yes, I--" + +"But," Ormond went on, "under the circumstances, the scientific +attitude we maintain at this Institute demands that we leave the +question open. For now. Because you might also, you understand, have +projected--for yourself only--a vivid momentary impression of the +image you had created during our exercise and were still holding in +your mind." + +Mrs. Folsom looked doubtful. The flush of excitement began to leave +her face. + +"Why ... well, yes, I suppose so," she acknowledged unwillingly. + +"Of course," Ormond said. "So tonight we shall leave it at that. The +next time we engage in a similar exercise ... well, who knows?" He +gave her a reassuring smile. "I must say, Eleanor, that this is a very +encouraging indication of the progress you have made!" He glanced over +the group, gathering their attention, and raised the trident-like +device he had taken from the table. + +"And now for our second experiment this evening--" + +Looking disappointed and somewhat confused, Eleanor Folsom settled +back in her chair. Cavender also settled back, his gaze shifting +sleepily to the remaining items on the prop table. He was frowning a +little. It wasn't his business, but if the old woman had started to +hypnotize herself into having hallucinations, Dr. Al had better turn +to a different type of meeting exercises. And that probably was +exactly what Ormond would do; he seemed very much aware of danger +signals. Cavender wondered vaguely what the red suitcase on the table +contained. + +There was a blurry shimmer on the wooden plate beside the suitcase. +Then something thickened there suddenly as if drawing itself together +out of the air. Perrie Rochelle, sitting only ten feet back from the +table, uttered a yelp--somewhere between surprise and alarm. Dexter +Jones, beside her, abruptly pushed back his chair, made a loud, +incoherent exclamation of some kind. + +Cavender had started upright, heart hammering. The thing that had +appeared on the wooden plate vanished again. + +But it had remained visible there for a two full seconds. And there +was no question at all of what it had been. + +For several minutes, something resembling pandemonium swirled about +the walls of the lecture room of the Institute of Insight. The red +suitcase had concealed the wooden plate on the prop table from the +eyes of most of the students sitting on the right side of the room, +but a number of those who could see it felt they had caught a glimpse +of something. Of just what they weren't sure at first, or perhaps they +preferred not to say. + +Perrie and Dexter, however, after getting over their first shock, had +no such doubts. Perrie, voice vibrant with excitement, answered the +questions flung at her from across the room, giving a detailed +description of the ham sandwich which had appeared out of nowhere on +the polished little table and stayed there for an incredible instant +before it vanished. Dexter Jones, his usually impassive face glowing +and animated, laughing, confirmed the description on every point. + +On the opposite side of the room, Eleanor Folsom, surrounded by her +own group of questioners, was also having her hour of triumph, in the +warmth of which a trace of bitterness that her first report of the +phenomenon had been shrugged off by everyone--even, in a way, by Dr. +Al--gradually dissolved. + +Dr. Al himself, Cavender thought, remained remarkably quiet at first, +though in the excitement this wasn't generally noticed. He might even +have turned a little pale. However, before things began to slow down +he had himself well in hand again. Calling the group to a semblance of +order, he began smilingly to ask specific questions. The witnesses on +the right side of the room seemed somewhat more certain now of what +they had observed. + +Dr. Ormond looked over at Cavender. + +"And you, Wally?" he asked. "You were sitting rather far back, to be +sure--" + +Cavender smiled and shrugged. + +"Sorry, Dr. Al. I just wasn't looking in that direction at the moment. +The first suggestion I had that anything unusual was going on was when +Perrie let out that wild squawk." + +There was general laughter. Perrie grinned and flushed. + +"Well, I'd have liked to hear _your_ squawk," she told Cavender, "if +you'd seen a miracle happen right before your nose!" + +"Not a miracle, Perrie," Ormond said gently. "We must remember that. +We are working here with natural forces which produce natural +phenomena. Insufficiently understood phenomena, perhaps, but never +miraculous ones. Now, how closely did this materialization appear to +conform to the subjective group image we had decided on for our +exercise?" + +"Well, I could only see it, of course, Dr. Al. But as far as I saw it, +it was exactly what we'd ... no, wait!" Perrie frowned, wrinkling her +nose. "There was something added!" She giggled. "At least, I don't +remember anyone saying we should imagine the sandwich wrapped in a +paper napkin!" + +Across the room, a woman's voice said breathlessly, "Oh! A _green_ +paper napkin, Perrie?" + +Perrie looked around, surprised. "Yes, it was, Mavis." + +Mavis Greenfield hesitated, said with a nervous little laugh, "I +suppose I did that. I added a green napkin after we started the +exercise." Her voice quavered for an instant. "I thought the image +looked neater that way." She looked appealingly at the students around +her. "This is really incredible, isn't it." + +They gave her vague smiles. They were plainly still floating on a +cloud of collective achievement--if they hadn't created that sandwich, +there could have been nothing to see! + +It seemed to Cavender that Dr. Ormond's face showed a flicker of +strain when he heard Mavis' explanation. But he couldn't be sure +because the expression--if it had been there--was smoothed away at +once. Ormond cleared his throat, said firmly and somewhat chidingly. +"No, not incredible, Mavis! Although--" + +He turned on his smile. "My friends, I must admit that you _have_ +surprised me! Very pleasantly, of course. But what happened here is +something I considered to be only a very remote possibility tonight. +You are truly more advanced than I'd realized. + +"For note this. If even one of you had been lagging behind the others, +if there had been any unevenness in the concentration each gave to the +exercise tonight, this materialization simply could not have occurred! +And that fact forces me now to a very important decision." + +He went over to the prop table, took the suitcase from it. "Mavis," he +said gravely, "you may put away these other devices. We will have no +further need for them in this group! Dexter, move the table to the +center of the room for me, please." + +He waited while his instructions were hastily carried out, then laid +the suitcase on the table, drew up a chair and sat down. The buzz of +excited conversation among the students hushed. They stared at him in +anticipatory silence. It appeared that the evening's surprises were +not yet over--and they were ready for _anything_ now! + + * * * * * + +"There is a point," Dr. Ormond began in a solemn voice, riveting their +eager attention on him, "a point in the orderly advance towards Total +Insight at which further progress becomes greatly simplified and +accelerated, because the student has now developed the capability to +augment his personal efforts by the use of certain instruments." + +Cavender thoughtfully reached inside his coat, brought out a cigarette +case, opened it and slowly put a cigarette to his lips. About to flick +on a lighter, he saw Ruben Jeffries watching him with an expression of +disapproval from across the aisle. Jeffries shook his head, indicated +the NO SMOKING sign on the wall. Cavender nodded, smiling a rueful +apology for his absent-mindedness, and returned the cigarette to its +case. He shoved his hands into his trousers pockets, slouched back in +the chair. + +"I have told you," Ormond was saying, "that the contributions many of +you so generously made to the Institute were needed for and being +absorbed by vital research. Tonight I had intended to give you a first +inkling of what that research was accomplishing." He tapped the +suitcase on the table before him. "In there is an instrument of the +kind I have mentioned. The beneficial forces of the Cosmos are +harnessed by it, flow through it. And I believe I can say that my +efforts in recent months have produces the most effective such device +ever seen...." + +"Dr. Al," Mrs. Folsom interrupted firmly, "I think you should let them +know how the instrument cured my heart condition." + +Faces shifted toward her, then back to Dr. Al. The middle-aged +majority of the students pricked their ears. For each of them, +conscious of the years of increasingly uncertain health to come, Mrs. +Folsom's words contained a personal implication, one that hit home. +But in spite of the vindication of her claim to have seen a +materialized ham sandwich, they weren't quite ready to trust her about +this. + +Dr. Ormond's face was grave. + +"Eleanor," he said reprovingly, "that was letting the cat out of the +bag, wasn't it? I hadn't intended to discuss that part of the matter +just yet." + +He hesitated, frowning, tapping the table top lightly with his +knuckles. Mrs. Folsom looked unabashed. She had produced another +sensation and knew it. + +"Since it was mentioned," Ormond said with deliberation at last, "it +would be unfair not to tell you, at least in brief, the facts to which +Eleanor was alluding. Very well then--Eleanor has served during the +past several weeks as the subject of certain experiments connected +with this instrument. She reports that after her first use of it, her +periodically recurring heart problem ceased to trouble her." + +Mrs. Folsom smiled, nodded vigorously. "I have not," she announced, +"had one single touch of pain or dizziness in all this time!" + +"But one should, of course," Dr. Ormond added objectively, "hesitate +to use the word 'cure' under such circumstances." + +In the front row someone asked, "Dr. Al, will the instrument heal ... +well, other physical conditions?" + +Ormond looked at the speaker with dignity. "John, the instrument does, +and is supposed to do, one thing. Providing, as I've said, that the +student working with it has attained a certain minimum level of +Insight, it greatly accelerates his progress towards Total Insight. +Very greatly! + +"Now, as I have implied before: as one approaches the goal of Total +Insight, the ailments and diseases which commonly afflict humanity +simply disappear. Unfortunately, I am not yet free to show you proof +for this, although I have the proof and believe it will not be long +before it can be revealed at least to the members of this group. For +this reason, I have preferred not to say too much on the point.... +Yes, Reuben? You have a question?" + +"Two questions, Dr. Al," Reuben Jeffries said. "First, is it your +opinion that our group has now reached the minimum level of Insight +that makes it possible to work with those instruments?" + +Ormond nodded emphatically. "Yes, it has. After tonight's occurrence +there is no further question about that." + +"Then," Jeffries said, "my second question is simply--_when do we +start?_" + +There was laughter, a scattering of applause. Ormond smiled, said, "An +excellent question, Reuben! The answer is that a number of you will +start immediately. + +"A limited quantity of the instruments--fifteen, I believe--are +available now on the premises, stored in my office. Within a few weeks +I will have enough on hand to supply as many of you as wish to speed +up their progress by this method. Since the group's contributions paid +my research expenses, I cannot in justice ask more from you +individually now than the actual cost in material and labor for each +instrument. The figure ... I have it somewhere ... oh, yes!" Ormond +pulled a notebook from his pocket, consulted it, looked up and said, +mildly, "Twelve hundred dollars will be adequate, I think." + +Cavender's lips twitched sardonically. Three or four of the group +might have flinched inwardly at the price tag, but on the whole they +were simply too well heeled to give such a detail another thought. +Checkbooks were coming hurriedly into sight all around the lecture +room. Reuben Jeffries, unfolding his, announced, "Dr. Al, I'm taking +one of the fifteen." + +Half the students turned indignantly to stare at him. "Now wait a +minute, Reuben!" someone said. "That isn't fair! It's obvious there +aren't enough to go around." + +Jeffries smiled at him. "That's why I spoke up, Warren!" He appealed +to Ormond. "How about it, Dr. Al?" + +Ormond observed judiciously, "It seems fair enough to me. Eleanor, of +course, is retaining the instrument with which she has been working. +As for the rest of you--first come, first served, you know! If others +would like to have Mavis put down their names...." + + * * * * * + +There was a brief hubbub as this suggestion was acted on. Mavis, +Dexter Jones and Perrie Rochelle then went to the office to get the +instruments, while Dr. Ormond consoled the students who had found +themselves left out. It would be merely a matter of days before the +new instruments began to come in ... and yes, they could leave their +checks in advance. When he suggested tactfully that financial +arrangements could be made if necessary, the less affluent also +brightened up. + +Fifteen identical red alligator-hide suitcases appeared and were lined +up beside Ormond's table. He announced that a preliminary +demonstration with the instrument would be made as soon as those on +hand had been distributed. Mavis Greenfield, standing beside him, +began to read off the names she had taken down. + +Reuben Jeffries was the fifth to come up to the table, hand Ormond his +check and receive a suitcase from the secretary. Then Cavender got +unhurriedly to his feet. + +"Dr. Ormond," he said, loudly enough to center the attention of +everyone in the room on him, "may I have the floor for a moment?" + +Ormond appeared surprised, then startled. His glance went up to Reuben +Jeffries, still standing stolidly beside him, and his face slowly +whitened. + +"Why ... well, yes, Wally." His voice seemed unsteady. "What's on your +mind?" + +Cavender faced the right side of the room and the questioning faces +turned towards him. + +[Illustration] + +"My name, as you know," he told the advanced students, "is Wallace +Cavender. What you haven't known so far is that I am a police +detective, rank of lieutenant, currently attached to the police force +of this city and in temporary charge of its bunco squad." + +He shifted his gaze towards the front of the room. Ormond's eyes met +his for a moment, then dropped. + +"Dr. Ormond," Cavender said, "you're under arrest. The immediate +charge, let's say, is practicing medicine without a license. Don't +worry about whether we can make it stick or not. We'll have three or +four others worked up by the time we get you downtown." + +For a moment, there was a shocked, frozen stillness in the lecture +room. Dr. Ormond's hand began to move out quietly towards the checks +lying on the table before him. Reuben Jeffries' big hand got there +first. + +"I'll take care of these for now, Dr. Al," Jeffries said with a +friendly smile. "The lieutenant thinks he wants them." + + * * * * * + +Not much more than thirty minutes later, Cavender unlocked the door to +Dr. Ormond's private office, went inside, leaving the door open behind +him, and sat down at Ormond's desk. He rubbed his aching eyes, yawned, +lit a cigarette, looked about in vain for an ashtray, finally emptied +a small dish of paper clips on the desk and placed the dish +conveniently close to him. + +There had been an indignant uproar about Dr. Al's arrest for a while, +but it ended abruptly when uniformed policemen appeared in the two +exit doors and the sobering thought struck the students that any +publicity given the matter could make them look personally ridiculous +and do damage to their business and social standing. + +Cavender had calmed their fears. It was conceivable, he said, that the +district attorney's office would wish to confer with some of them +privately, in connection with charges to be brought against William +Fitzgerald Grady--which, so far as the police had been able to +establish, was Dr. Ormond's real name. However, their association with +the Institute of Insight would not be made public, and any proceedings +would be carried out with the discretion that could be fully expected +by blameless citizens of their status in the community. + +They were fortunate, Cavender went on, in another respect. Probably +none of them had been aware of just how much Grady had milked from the +group chiefly through quiet private contributions and donations during +the two years he was running the Institute. The sum came to better +than two hundred thousand dollars. Grady naturally had wasted none of +this in "research" and he was not a spendthrift in other ways. +Cavender was, therefore, happy to say that around two thirds of this +money was known to be still intact in various bank accounts, and that +it would be restored eventually to the generous but misled donors. + +Dr. Al's ex-students were beginning to look both chastened and very +much relieved. Cavender briefly covered a few more points to eliminate +remaining doubts. He touched on Grady's early record as a confidence +man and blackmailer, mentioned the two terms he had spent in prison +and the fact that for the last eighteen years he had confined himself +to operations like the Institute of Insight where risks were less. The +profits, if anything, had been higher because Grady had learned that +it paid off, in the long run, to deal exclusively with wealthy +citizens and he was endowed with the kind of personality needed to +overcome the caution natural to that class. As for the unusual +experiences about which some of them might be now thinking, these, +Cavender concluded, should be considered in the light of the fact that +Grady had made his living at one time as a stage magician and +hypnotist, working effectively both with and without trained +accomplices. + +The lecture had gone over very well, as he'd known it would. The +ex-students left for their homes, a subdued and shaken group, grateful +for having been rescued from an evil man's toils. Even Mrs. Folsom, +who had announced at one point that she believed she had a heart +attack coming on, recovered sufficiently to thank Cavender and assure +him that in future she would take her problems only to a reliable +physician. + + * * * * * + +Footsteps were coming down the short hall from the back of the +building. Then Reuben Jeffries' voice said, "Go into the office. The +lieutenant's waiting for you there." + +Cavender stubbed out his cigarette as Dexter Jones, Perrie Rochelle +and Mavis Greenfield filed into the office. Jeffries closed the door +behind them from the hall and went off. + +"Sit down," Cavender said, lighting a fresh cigarette. + +They selected chairs and settled down stiffly, facing him. All three +looked anxious and pale; and Perrie's face was tear-stained. + +Cavender said, "I suppose you've been wondering why I had Sergeant +Jeffries tell you three to stay behind." + +Perrie began, her eyes and voice rather wild, "Mr. Cavender ... +Lieutenant Cavender...." + +"Either will do," Cavender said. + +"Mr. Cavender, I swear you're wrong! We didn't have anything to do +with Dr. Al's ... Mr. Grady's cheating those people! At least, I +didn't. I swear it!" + +"I didn't say you had anything to do with it, Perrie," Cavender +remarked. "Personally I think none of you had anything to do with it. +Not voluntarily, at any rate." + +He could almost feel them go limp with relief. He waited. After a +second or two, Perrie's eyes got the wild look back. "But...." + +"Yes?" Cavender asked. + +Perrie glanced at Dexter Jones, at Mavis. + +"But then what _did_ happen?" she asked bewilderedly, of the other two +as much as of Cavender. "Mr. Cavender, I saw something appear on that +plate! I know it did. It was a sandwich. It looked perfectly natural. +I don't think it could have possibly been something Mr. Grady did with +mirrors. And how could it have had the paper napkin Mavis had just +been thinking about wrapped around it, unless...." + +"Unless it actually was a materialization of a mental image you'd +created between you?" Cavender said. "Now settle back and relax, +Perrie. There's a more reasonable explanation for what happened +tonight than that." + +He waited a moment, went on. "Grady's one real interest is money and +since none of you have any to speak of, his interest in you was that +you could help him get it. Perrie and Dexter showed some genuine +talent to start with, in the line of guessing what card somebody was +thinking about and the like. It's not too unusual an ability, and in +itself it wasn't too useful to Grady. + +"But he worked on your interest in the subject. All the other +students, the paying students, had to lose was a sizable amount of +cash ... with the exception of Mrs. Folsom who's been the next thing +to a flip for years anyway. She was in danger. And you three stood a +good chance of letting Grady wreck your lives. I said he's a competent +hypnotist. He is. Also a completely ruthless one." + +He looked at Mavis. "As far as I know, Mavis, you haven't ever +demonstrated that you have any interesting extrasensory talents like +Dexter's and Perrie's. Rather the contrary. Right?" + +She nodded, her eyes huge. + +"I've always tested negative. Way down negative. That's why I was +really rather shocked when that.... Of course, I've always been +fascinated by such things. And he insisted it would show up in me +sometime." + +"And," Cavender said, "several times a week you had special little +training sessions with him, just as his two star pupils here did, to +help it show up. You were another perfect stooge, from Grady's point +of view. Well, what it amounts to is that Grady was preparing to make +his big final killing off this group before he disappeared from the +city. He would have collected close to thirty thousand dollars +tonight, and probably twice as much again within the next month or so +before any of the students began to suspect seriously that Dr. Al's +instruments could be the meaningless contraptions they are. + +"You three have been hypnotically conditioned to a fare-you-well in +those little private sessions you've had with him. During the past +week you were set up for the role you were to play tonight. When you +got your cue--at a guess it was Mrs. Folsom's claim that she'd seen +the ham sandwich materialize--you started seeing, saying, acting, and +thinking exactly as you'd been told to see, say, act, and think. +There's no more mystery about it than that. And in my opinion you're +three extremely fortunate young people in that we were ready to move +in on Grady when we were." + + * * * * * + +There was silence for a moment. Then Perrie Rochelle said hesitantly, +"Then Mrs. Folsom...." + +"Mrs. Folsom," Cavender said, "has also enjoyed the benefits of many +private sessions with Grady. She, of course, was additionally paying +very handsomely for them. Tonight, she reported seeing what she'd been +told to report seeing, to set off the hypnotic chain reaction." + +"But," Perrie said, "she said her heart attacks stopped after she +started using the instrument. I really don't see how that could have +been just her imagination?" + +"Very easily," Cavender said. "I've talked with her physician. Mrs. +Folsom belongs to a not uncommon type of people whose tickers are as +sound as yours or mine, but who are convinced they have a serious +heart ailment and can dish up symptoms impressive enough to fool +anyone but an informed professional. They can stop dishing them up +just as readily if they think they've been cured." He smiled faintly. +"You look as if you might be finally convinced, Perrie." + +She nodded. "I ... yes, I guess so. I guess I am." + +"All right," Cavender said. He stood up. "You three can run along +then. You won't be officially involved in this matter, and no one's +going to bother you. If you want to go on playing around with E.S.P. +and so forth, that's your business. But I trust that in future you'll +have the good sense to keep away from characters like Grady. Periods +of confusion, chronic nightmares--even chronic headaches--are a good +sign you're asking for bad trouble in that area." + +They thanked him, started out of the office in obvious relief. At the +door, Perrie Rochelle hesitated, looked back. + +"Mr. Cavender...." + +"Yes?" + +"You don't think I ... I need...." + +"Psychiatric help? No. But I understand," Cavender said, "that you +have a sister in Maine who's been wanting you to spend the summer with +her. I think that's a fine idea! A month or two of sun and salt water +is exactly what you can use to drive the last of this nonsense out of +your mind again. So good night to the three of you, and good luck!" + + * * * * * + +Cavender snapped the top of the squat little thermos flask back in +place and restored it to the glove compartment of Jeffries' car. He +brushed a few crumbs from the knees of his trousers and settled back +in the seat, discovering he no longer felt nearly as tired and washed +out as he had been an hour ago in the lecture room. A few cups of +coffee and a little nourishment could do wonders for a man, even at +the tail end of a week of hard work. + +The last light in the Institute building across the street went out +and Cavender heard the click of the front door. The bulky figure of +Detective Sergeant Reuben Jeffries stood silhouetted for a moment in +the street lights on the entrance steps. Then Jeffries came down the +steps and crossed the street to the car. + +"All done?" Cavender asked. + +"All done," Jeffries said through the window. He opened the door, +eased himself in behind the wheel and closed the door. + +"They took Grady away by the back entrance," he told Cavender. "The +records in his files ... he wasn't keeping much, of course ... and the +stuff in the safe and those instruments went along with him. He was +very co-operative. He's had a real scare." + +Cavender grunted. "He'll get over it." + +Jeffries hesitated, said, "I'm something of a Johnny-come-lately in +this line of work, you know. I'd be interested in hearing how it's +handled from here on." + +"In this case it will be pretty well standard procedure," Cavender +said. "Tomorrow around noon I'll have Grady brought in to see me. I'll +be in a curt and bitter mood--the frustrated honest cop. I'll tell him +he's in luck. The D. A.'s office has informed me that because of the +important names involved in this fraud case, and because all but +around forty thousand dollars of the money he collected in this town +have been recovered, they've decided not to prosecute. He'll have till +midnight to clear out. If he ever shows up again, he gets the book." + +"Why leave him the forty thousand?" Jeffries asked. "I understood they +know darn well where it's stashed." + +Cavender shrugged. "The man's put in two years of work, Reuben. If we +clean him, he might get discouraged enough to get out of the racket +and try something else. As it is, he'll have something like the +Institute of Insight going again in another city three months from +now. In an area that hasn't been cropped over recently. He's good in +that line ... one of the best, in fact." + +Jeffries thoughtfully started the car, pulled out from the curb. +Halfway down the block, he remarked, "You gave me the go-ahead sign +with the cigarette right after the Greenfield girl claimed she'd put +the paper napkin into that image. Does that mean you finally came to a +decision about her?" + +"Uh-huh." + +Jeffries glanced over at him, asked, "Is there any secret about how +you're able to spot them?" + +"No ... except that I don't know. If I could describe to anyone how to +go about it, we might have our work cut in half. But I can't, and +neither can any other spotter. It's simply a long, tedious process of +staying in contact with people you have some reason to suspect of +being the genuine article. If they are, you know it eventually. But if +it weren't that men with Grady's type of personality attract them +somehow from ten miles around, we'd have no practical means at present +of screening prospects out of the general population. You can't +distinguish one of them from anyone else if he's just walking past you +on the street." + +Jeffries brought the car to a halt at a stop light. + +"That's about the way I'd heard it," he acknowledged. "What about +negative spotting? Is there a chance there might be an undiscovered +latent left among our recent fellow students?" + +"No chance at all," Cavender said. "The process works both ways. If +they aren't, you also know it eventually--and I was sure of everyone +but Greenfield over three weeks ago. She's got as tough a set of +obscuring defenses as I've ever worked against. But after the jolt she +got tonight, she came through clear immediately." + +The light changed and the car started up. Jeffries asked, "You feel +both of them can be rehabilitated?" + +"Definitely," Cavender said. "Another three months of Grady's +pseudoyoga might have ruined them for good. But give them around a +year to settle out and they'll be all right. Then they'll get the +call. It's been worth the trouble. Jones is good medium grade--and +that Greenfield! She'll be a powerhouse before she's half developed. +Easily the most promising prospect I've come across in six years." + +"You're just as certain about Perrie Rochelle?" + +"Uh-huh. Protopsi--fairly typical. She's developed as far as she ever +will. It would be a complete waste of time to call her. You can't +train something that just isn't there." + +Jeffries grunted. "Never make a mistake, eh?" + +Cavender yawned, smiled. "Never have yet, Reuben! Not in that area." + +"How did you explain the sandwich to them--and Greenfield's napkin? +They couldn't have bought your stage magic idea." + +"No. Told them those were Dr. Al's posthypnotic suggestions. It's the +other standard rationalization." + + * * * * * + +They drove on in silence for a while. Then Jeffries cleared his +throat. + +"Incidentally," he said. "I should apologize for the slip with the +sandwich, even though it turned out to our advantage. I can't quite +explain it. I was thinking of other matters at the moment, and I +suppose I...." + +Cavender, who had been gazing drowsily through the windshield, shook +his head. + +"As you say, it turned out very well, Reuben. Aside from putting the +first crack in Mavis Greenfield's defenses, it shook up Dr. Al to the +point where he decided to collect as much as he could tonight, cash +the checks, and clear out. So he set himself up for the pinch. We +probably gained as much as three or four weeks on both counts." + +Jeffries nodded. "I realize that. But...." + +"Well, you'd have no reason to blame yourself for the slip in any +case," Cavender went on. "The fact is I'd been so confoundedly busy +all afternoon and evening, I forgot to take time out for dinner. When +that sandwich was being described in those mouth-watering terms, I +realized I was really ravenous. At the same time I was fighting off +sleep. Between the two, I went completely off guard for a moment, and +it simply happened!" + +He grinned. "As described, by the way, it was a terrific sandwich. +That group had real imagination!" He hesitated, then put out his hand, +palm up, before him. "As a matter of fact, just talking about it again +seems to be putting me in a mood for seconds...." + +Something shimmered for an instant in the dim air wrapped in its green +tissue napkin, a second ham sandwich appeared. + + * * * * * + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ham Sandwich, by James H. 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