"Kubilius, Walter - The Unusual Case" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kubilius Walter)

THE UNUSUAL CASE
by Walter Kubilius
A Cosmic Storiette



THE NEXT will be a really unusual case," Veril promised the visiting judge from
Korina, "I think you will enjoy it."
"Case number 43 !" the guard bawled out. "A man who claims to have traveled in
time!"
"Let him enter!" Veril said.
The massive wooden doors swung open and Professor Stimson walked in, followed by
an armed guard. He stood for a moment before the five high chairs of the court
as his eyes accustomed themselves to the darkness and the flickering lights of
the, candles.
Meditatively, Veril flicked through the pages of a brief before him. The
visiting judge from Korina and the other members of the court looked down with a
bored air upon the tattered Stimson.
"According to the record," the chief judge said lazily, "you were found
wandering in the gardens yesterday with no passports and no identification
papers. Furthermore you made the claim that you had just traveled in time. Have
you anything to say concerning the charges?"
Stimson walked up closer to the judge's bench. He did not see the guard in back
of him follow.
"I have," he said angrily. "I do not see why I have been jailed and beaten as a
common criminal. My name is Professor Stimson and I have just arrived from the
year 1941."
"How did you get here ?" Veril asked, stifling a yawn.
"By means of the Dissolution-Complex Force which I invented in 1939."
"Oh ho !" Veril said, "Which you invented!"
"Yes."
There was a hurried consultation between Veril and the visiting judge. They
whispered for a moment and then Veril turned and faced Stimson once more.
"Will you tell your story," he said, "from the very beginning, omitting no
facts?"
"My full name is Peter Roberts Stimson," the accused said. "I was born April 2,
in Albany, New York."
"What country?"
"The United States, of course."
Stimson went on briefly to outline the story of his life and his studies that
led to the discovery of the force which would enable him to travel into time.
Fearing that the court might regard him as a hoax and disbelieve the fact that
he had come from 2,000 years in the past, Stimson proceeded to give a picture of
world history up to the time of his departure during the Second World War. He
spoke quickly, outlining the principle events and giving data concerning cities
and monuments which would be able to be checked. He brought nothing with him
from the past, he said, but he felt that he could be of immeasurable service to
the historians of the present who might want to know more about the years before
1941. All he wanted was the right to be free and to study the culture and
civilization of the present time.