Home / § ↔ 2 / Lessico
Libero adattamento per finalità autodidattiche di testi e registrazioni di pubblico dominio tratti da Librivox.
Acoustical liberation of books in the public domain. Testo tratto da Progetto Gutenberg e registrazione da Librivox.org Serie: Short Science Fiction Collection 001-1. - Nostra numerazione del Brano: 1. Reader: Elanor / download di “The 4-D Doodler” (1). Etext: Progetto Gutenberg/Waldeyer - Dizionari: Dicios; Sansoni:.
"Do you believe, Professor Gault, that this four dimensional plane contains life--intelligent life?"
At the question, Gault laughed shortly. "You have been reading pseudo-science, Dr. Pillbot," he twitted. "I realize that as a psychiatrist, you are interested in minds, in living beings, rather than in dimensional planes. But I fear you will find no minds to study in the fourth dimension. There aren't any there!"
Professor Gault paused, peered from beneath bushy white brows out over the laboratory. To his near sighted eyes the blurred figure of Harper, his young assistant, seemed busily at work over his mathematical charts. Gault hoped sourly that the young man was actually working and not just drawing more of his absurd, senseless designs amidst the mathematical computations....
"Your proof," Dr. Pillbot broke into his thoughts insistently, "is purely negative, Professor! How can you know there are no beings in the fourth dimension, unless you actually enter this realm, to see for yourself?"
Professor Gault stared at the fat, puffy face of his visitor, and
snorted loudly.
"I am afraid, Pillbot, you do not comprehend the impossibility of
such a passage. We can not possibly break from the confines of
our three dimensional world. Here, let me explain by a simple
illustration."
Gault took up a book, held it so that a shadow fell onto the
surface of the desk.
"That shadow," he said, "is two dimensional, has length and
breadth, but no thickness. Now in order to enter the third
dimension, our plane, the shadow would have to bulge out in some
way, into the dimension of thickness an obvious impossibility.
Similarly, we can not enter the fourth dimension. Do you see?"
"No!" retorted Pillbot with some heat. "In the first place, we
are not two dimensional shadows, and--why, what is the matter?"
Professor Gault's lanky form had stiffened, his near sighted eyes
glaring out over the laboratory to the rear of Pillbot. The
psychiatrist wheeled around, followed his host's gaze.
It was Harper. That young man's antics drew an amazed grunt from
Pillbot. He was describing peculiar motions in the air with his
pencil. Circles, whorls, angles, abrupt jabs forward. He bent
over the paper on the desk, made a few sweeps of the pencil, then
the pencil rose again into the air to describe more erratic
motions. Harper himself seemed in a trance.
Suddenly Pillbot gave a stifled gasp. It seemed to him that
Harper's arm vanished at the elbow as it stabbed forward, then
reappeared. Once again the phenomenon happened.
Pillbot blinked rapidly, rubbed his eyes. It must have been
illusion, he decided. It was too ... unlikely....
"Harper!" Gault's voice was like the snapping of a steel trap.
Startled, Harper came to with a jerk. Seeing he was being
watched, he flushed redly, then bent over his charts again. An
apologetic murmur floated from his desk.
"What was he doing?" Pillbot asked puzzledly.
"Doodling!" Gault spat out the word disgustedly.
"Doodling?" echoed the psychiatrist. "Why that is a slang term we
use in psychiatry, to describe the absent-minded scrawls and
designs people make while their attention is elsewhere occupied.
An overflow of the unconscious mind, we call it. Many famous
people are 'doodlers.' Their doodles often are a sign of special
ability--"
"Exactly!" snapped Gault. "It shows a special ability to waste
time. And Harper has become worse since I hired him to do some of
my mathematical work. Some influence in this laboratory--I blush
to confess--seems to bring it on. 'Four dimensional doodling' we
call it, because, as you saw, he doesn't confine it to the
surface of the paper!"
Pillbot looked startled. "By jove," he cried. "I believe you've
hit on something new to psychiatry. This young man may have some
unknown faculty of mind--an instinctive perception of the fourth
dimension. Just as some people have an unerring sense of
direction, so perhaps Harper has a sense of--of a fourth
direction--the fourth dimension! I should like to examine some of
his 'doodles'."
Harper looked up in alarm as his crusty tempered employer
appeared, followed by the stout figure of Pillbot. He rose and
stood aside unassumingly, as Pillbot bent over the scrawls on his
charts, clucking interestedly.
Harper flickered a worried glance over to the corner. He hoped
they wouldn't notice his stress-analyzing clay model standing
there. It looked like a futurist's nightmare, with angles, curves
and knobs stuck out at all angles. Professor Gault might not
understand....
* * * * *
For one of his retiring temperament, Harper was aiming high.
There was a standing award of $50,000 for the lucky mathematician
who would solve the mystery of the "stress-barrier" encountered
by skyscrapers as they were built up toward the 150 story mark.
At this height, they encountered stress and strains which
mathematical computations and engineering designs had been unable
to solve. Harper believed the "stress-barrier" was due to an
undetected space-bending close to the earth's surface, a bending
of space greater than ever provided for in the prediction of
Einstein. And if he was right, and could win that award, then
there might be wedding bells, and a little bungalow with
Judith....
Harper's greatest fear was that he would do something to annoy
Gault into firing him, thus depriving him of the privilege of
using the mathematical charts and computing machines available in
the laboratory. Right now, he hoped Gault wouldn't notice that
statue in the corner--
"What's _that_!"
Harper's heart leaped. The Professor was glaring at the statue,
as though it were something the cat brought in.
Pillbot looked up from examination of the "doodles" and followed
Gault over to the futuristic statuary.
As Gault made strangled noises, Pillbot stared interestedly.
"Why--its like some of the designs in his doodling," he
exclaimed.
"And made with some of my best modeling clay for reproducing
geometric solids!" rasped Gault. He wheeled upon Harper.
"Get that thing out of here! I won't stand for such rot in this
laboratory. Throw it into the hall for the janitor!"
"Ye-yessir," said Harper, gulping. He took hold of the statue,
pulled at it.
"It--it won't budge," he exclaimed amazedly.
"Eh? Won't move? It's not heavy, is it?" demanded the Professor.
"No--about thirty pounds, but it wont move!"
Gault took hold of one of the angles of the thing, jerked at it
savagely. He gave it up with an oath, returned to Harper's desk
muttering.
Harper suddenly noticed the top portion of the statue. It didn't
seem to be all there! He was positive there had been another
section on top, shooting off at an angle, representing a problem
in tangential stress. What had happened to that top section?
He would figure that out later, when the occasion was more
propitious. Right now, he realized that only the presence of
Dr. Pillbot prevented Gault from firing him. He cast an apprehensive
glance toward his employer.
With trepidation, he saw Gault reach for something projecting
from behind a bench. Gault pulled it out, held it dangling before
him. A strangled exclamation of wrath came from him. His long
nose pointed accusingly toward Harper, like a finger pointing out
a criminal.
"I was afraid of that!" he grated. "Cutting paper dolls!" Gault
was holding up a large paper cutout of a human figure--a long,
rangy man.
"This is the last straw," Gault went on, his voice rising. "I
have stood enough--"
"It--it wasn't me, sir," Harper cried quickly, with visions of
his job and $50,000 vanishing. "It was your ten year old nephew,
Rudolph, when he was here yesterday. He cut it out, said it
looked like--like his uncle--"
Harper stopped as Gault seemed about to explode. Then the
mathematician subsided, a malicious expression crept over his
face.
"H-m-m," he said. "Might be just what I need to explain things to
Dr. Pillbot."
"I shall take this matter before the Psychiatric Society,"
Pillbot was saying excitedly. "Undoubtedly you have some strange
faculty--an instinctive perception of four dimensional laws ...
what was that, Professor?"
"I said if you will step over to this desk I will explain to you
in elementary terms--very elementary and easy to understand--why
you will never be able to study four dimensional beings--_if_ any
exist!" Gault's voice was tinged with sarcasm.
Pillbot came over, followed by Harper, who was interested in any
explanations about the fourth dimension--even elementary ones....
Gault, with a glint in his eye, pressed the paper figure flatly
on the surface of Harper's desk.
"This paper man, we will say, represents a two dimensional
creature. We lay him flatly against the desk, which represents
his world--Flatland, we mathematicians call it. Mr. Flatlander
can't see into our world. He can see only along the flat plane of
his own world. To see us, for instance, he would have to look
_up_, which is the third dimension, a direction inconceivable to
him. Now, Doctor, are you beginning to understand why we can
never see four dimensional beings?"
Pillbot frowned thoughtfully, then looked up. "And what about the
viewpoint of the four dimensioners themselves--_what would
prevent them from seeing us_?"
Harper hardly heard the Professor's snort of disgust. This two
dimensional cutout in "Flatland" fascinated him. An idea occurred
to him. Now, just supposing the....
* * * * *
As Gault and Pillbot argued, Harper grasped the paper cutout, and
bent it, "jacknifed" it, creasing it firmly in the middle. Then
he raised the upper half so that it rose vertically from the
desk, while the lower half was still pressed flatly against the
desk surface.
"Now," he murmured to himself, "the Flatlander would appear to
his fellows to have vanished from the waist up, because from the
waist up he is bent into the third dimension ... so far as they
are concerned...."
"E-e-e-e-e!"
At the wavering scream, Harper looked up quickly. Pillbot was
staring frozenly in front of him, toward the floor. Harper
followed his glance--and saw it.
Professor Gault had vanished from the waist up.
His lower body still stood before Pillbot, swaying slightly, but
the upper body was unconditionally missing. From the large feet
planted solidly on the floor, long legs rose majestically,
terminating in slim, angular hips--and from thence vanished
abruptly into nothingness. It was as though the upper body had
been sheared away, neatly and precisely, at the waist.
Pillbot stared from the visible portion of Gault to slack-jawed
Harper and back again, sweat splashing from his puffy face.
"Why, why really my dear fellow," he quavered, addressing the
half-figure. "This--this is a bit rude of you, vanishing in the
midst of my sentence. I--I trust you will--ah, return at once!"
Then, as the full import of the phenomenon penetrated to his
understanding, his eyes became glazed and he backed away.
The portion of Professor Gault addressed failed to give any
indication it had heard the remonstrance. Slowly, the legs began
to feel their way, like a blind man, about the floor.
Harper stared wildly, white showing around his pale blue irises.
"No!" he bleated. "The Professor didn't do it himself--I caused
it to happen. I bent the paper cutout, and--and Something saw me
do it, and imitated me by bending the Professor into the fourth
dimension!" Harper moaned faintly, wringing his hands.
Pillbot at the moment got little satisfaction from this
demonstration of his point about four dimensional life. He
glanced fearfully at the half-figure.
"You--you mean to say," he quailed, "that we are under scrutiny
by some Being of the fourth dimension?"
"That's it," replied Harper with a whinny. "I--I know it, I can
feel it. It became aware of our three dimensional life in some
way, and its attention is now concentrated on the laboratory!" He
wrung his hands. "I just know something else terrible is going to
happen!" He backed away quickly as the occupied pair of pants
moved toward him.
His retreat was halted by his desk, upon which reposed two large
California oranges, an inevitable accompaniment to Harper's
lunch. To him, orange juice was a potent, revivifying drink. Now
he automatically reached for one of the oranges, as a more hardy
individual might reach for a whisky and soda in a moment of
mental shock.
His eyes wide on the shuffling approach of Gault's underpinnings,
Harper nervously dug sharp fingernails into the orange, tore off
large chunks of skin.
A sudden blur seen from the corner of his eyes pulled his gaze
back to the desk. The other orange had vanished.
_Phwup_!
It dropped to the floor before Harper, but now it was a squashy
mess, the insides standing out like petals, the juice running
from it.
The other orange slipped from Harper's nerveless fingers, rolled
along the desk top. Harper pounced on the squashy thing on the
floor, feverishly pushed back the projecting insides, closely
examined it. He looked up wide-eyed at Pillbot.
"Turned inside out," he gasped hoarsely, "without breaking its
skin!"
Pillbot's expression indicated that the scientific attitude was
slowly replacing his former fright. He snapped his fingers.
"Imitation again!" he said, half to himself. He looked at Harper.
"When you bent the paper figure this--this fourth dimensional
entity imitated your action by bending the Professor. Now, as you
started to peel the orange, your action was again imitated--in a
four dimensional manner--by this entity turning the other orange
inside out."
His voice dropped, as he muttered, "Imitativeness--the mark of a
mind of low evolutionary order, or of ..." his words faded off,
his expression thoughtful.
More white showed around Harper's eyes. "You--you mean I am being
specially watched by this Being--that He--It--imitates everything
I do...?"
"That's it," clipped Pillbot. "Because you possess this strange
perception of Its realm the Being has been especially attracted
to you, imitates whatever you do, but in a four dimensional
manner. A Being of inexplicable powers and prerogatives, with
weird power over matter, but with a mentality that is either very
primitive, or--"
Harper leaped into the air with a yell, as Professor Gault's
abbreviated body sidled up to him from behind. As he leaped, the
inside out orange flew out of his grasp.
"I just know," he quavered, "that Professor Gault wants me to do
something, is probably barking orders at me from that other
dimension--oh dear, I've dropped the orange on the Professor's--where
his stomach should be!"
The squashy orange had landed on the area of Gault that was the line
of demarkation between his visible and invisible portions--the area
that his stomach would occupy normally. It rested there in plain
sight of the two startled men.
"I--I'd better remove it," said Harper weakly. He moved with a
dreadful compulsion toward the swaying half-figure, one slender
hand extended tremblingly toward the inverted orange.
Abruptly, the orange vanished. Harper halted like he'd run into a
brick wall. Staring blankly ahead, he put his hands to his
stomach, moaning faintly.
"What's the matter?" cried Pillbot.
"The orange--it's in my--stomach!"
"See, what did I tell you," exulted Pillbot. "Another act of
imitativeness. It saw you drop the orange on Gault's--where his
stomach should be, and imitated by putting the orange in your
stomach. It proves I'm right about the Being--glug!" With a loud
belch, Pillbot broke off. He stared blankly at Harper, then his
hands slowly came up to clutch at his stomach.
Harper looked quickly at the desk top.
"The other orange," he gasped. "It's gone!"
"Into--my--stomach!" groaned Pillbot. "Be--be careful what you
do! My God, don't do anything. Don't even think. This--this four
dimensional creature will surely imitate whatever you do in some
weird manner."
Rubbing his stomach, Pillbot glanced about at the various
articles of furniture. He blanched. "I wouldn't want any of that
stuff inside of me," he yammered.
Harper flicked a despairing glance at the half-body, now gliding
along in the vicinity of the paper cutout.
"We--we must do something to get the Professor back," he said
worriedly.
* * * * *
He thought incongruously of a restaurant where he used to order
lemon pie--and invariably get apple. Finally he found that he
could get lemon by ordering peach. Now the problem was, what did
he have to "order" to get his employer extricated from being
stuck between dimensions, like a pig under a fence? Anything he
did would be imitated in a manner that might prove tragic.
The upright portion of the cutout was leaning over backward, the
head drooping down like a wilted flower, as the tension at the
crease slowly lessened.
Gathering together what resolution he could, Harper determined to
take the bull by the horns. He would get the Professor returned
by pressing the upper portion of the cutout flatly onto the desk
surface. With trembling hands, he pressed down on it--then sprang
back with a muffled yell.
Three feet above the half-body, the Professor's head had flashed
into visibility.
"You only pressed the head onto the desk," said Pillbot
disgustedly, "so the Being only impressed Galt's head back into
the laboratory. Now press down the rest of the body."
The Professor's head, suspended above the body, glared about,
affixed Harper with a smouldering glance. The mouth moved
rapidly, but no words came.
"Professor, I can't hear you," whimpered Harper. "Your lungs and
vocal cords are in the other dimension. Here, I'll have you
completely returned." He reached a hand toward the cutout, the
torso of which still bulged upward from the desk.
Gault's head wagged in vigorous negation of Harper's contemplated
act. His mouth moved in what, if audible, would have been
clipped, burning accents.
Harper drew back his hand as if he had touched a red hot poker.
"The Professor doesn't want me to touch the cutout," he said
helplessly.
Gault's head hovered over the cutout like a gaunt moon. It
swooped down toward the paper figure, seemed to be studying its
position on the desk closely. Pillbot watched him for a sign of
his intentions or wishes.
Harper wandered distractedly over toward the high wall bench. He
had it! He would distract the attention of the Entity from Gault
by making another cutout. He would then experiment with that
second one, without endangering Gault. He'd be careful not to
make this one thin and tall, so as not to resemble the Professor
in outline. Perhaps with it, he could trick the Entity into
releasing the missing part of Gault's body....
He scraped in the bench drawer for the scissors, and started to
sheer through a large stiff piece of paper.
A moment later he looked up as Pillbot walked over.
"Gault has some reason for not wanting his silhouette touched,"
he said. "Can't quite make out his lip movements, but he seems
afraid some permanent mark may be left on him by his return. He
wants time to figure out--why, what are you doing?"
"I've made another cutout for experiment," explained Harper. "And
this one doesn't look like the Professor, isn't tall and thin.
See--?" He lifted the second cutout from the flat surface of the
bench, held it suspended before him.
"This one is short and fat--" Harper halted abruptly, the breath
whooshing from his lungs.
There was no use talking to thin air. Pillbot had been whisked
into nothingness. Where the portly figure of the eminent
psychiatrist had stood was now nothing, not even a half man.
Too late, Harper realized that when he had lifted the paper
figure from the surface of the bench, the Entity had imitated him
by "lifting" Pillbot into the fourth dimension. Belatedly, he
knew that the cutout which he held dangling, resembled Pillbot in
outline.
Harper dashed back and forth in little rushes, carrying the paper
figure. He dared not put it down, for fear of seeing some segment
of Pillbot flash back. He did not know what to do with it.
Finally he compromised by suspending it to a low hanging
chandelier, where it dangled swaying in the slight air currents.
* * * * *
Gault was watching his assistant's antics with a bleak expression
that changed to sardonic satisfaction as he realized Pillbot was
in a predicament like his--only more so. Abruptly he frowned,
staring ahead, and Harper guessed that Pillbot had located
Gault's torso in the other realm, was nudging him to indicate the
fact.
Suddenly Harper knew that he himself must enter this fourth
dimensional realm. That strange instinct told him the solution to
everything was there--somewhat as a woman's intuition impels her
to act in a certain way, without knowing why.
How to get there? Another paper cutout? He glanced toward the
Professor--the occupied trousers, and swimming above it, the
man's head. The head was watching him, the expression savage.
No, there must be no more cutouts, Harper decided. While the four
dimensional entity distinguished between the outlines of a thin
silhouette and a fat one, something in between, like Harper's
form, would be testing It too far.
He, Harper would take the place of his own cutout!
Gault's head reared up, glared fixedly at his assistant as the
young man swung his legs onto the desk, then lay down flat. A
moment he lay there, in "Flatland"--then leaped to his feet.
It was as though he had leaped into a different world. He was no
longer in the laboratory. He wasn't on any, floor at all, as far
as he could make out. His feet rested on nothing--and yet there
was some sort of tension under him--like the surface tension of
water.
He was--he suddenly knew it--standing on a segment of warped
space! There was a spacial strain here that acted as a solid
beneath him!
Harper looked "up"--that is, overhead. There was nothing there
but vast stretches of emptiness--at first. Then he saw that this
emptiness was lined and laced with filmy striations, like
cellophane. They bore a strange resemblance to his "doodlings,"
as though that strange faculty of his enabled him to somehow
perceive this place of the fourth dimension. And instinctively
Harper knew that these lacings were the boundaries of a vast
enclosure--a four dimensional enclosure, the "walls" of which
consisted of joined and meshed space-warps.
Abruptly he became aware of movement. He became aware of solidity
there above him. And the solidity was in motion.
Harper knew he was gazing upon a being of the fourth
dimension--doubtless the Entity that had caused the phenomena in
the laboratory, which had snatched him into the fourth dimension,
and was even now observing him with its four dimensional sight!
There was a shape above him that strained his eyes, gave hint of
Form just beyond his comprehension.
Harper hardly noticed that Pillbot was beside him, shaking him.
He had suddenly grasped a fundamental law of spacial stresses,
and he whipped out a pad and pencil, began scribbling down the
mathematical formula of these laws. He began to see now why
skyscrapers encountered the "stress-barrier" at a certain height.
He understood it just as a person of innate musical ability,
hearing music for the first time, would understand the laws of
that music.
"Look out, It's moving, descending!" Pillbot was yelling into his
ear. "It is about to act. Became active the moment you got here.
How did you induce it to bring you here?"
"Huh?" Harper looked up from his scribbling. "Oh." Harper
explained quickly how he had induced the Being to act on himself.
"That's it!" cried Pillbot hoarsely. "You switched the pattern of
imitation on It--tricked It into bringing you here. That's what
made it angry--"
"Angry?" Harper almost dropped his pad, clutched at Pillbot as
there was a sudden upheaval of the invisible tension-surface on
which they stood. A violent shake sprawled them on the "ground"
and now Harper saw the torso of Gault, a few feet away,
apparently hovering above the surface.
"Yes, angry!" Pillbot was pale. "As long as you merely gave it
something to imitate it was pacified. But now it recognizes
opposition, an effort to outwit it due to your switching the
pattern of imitation. Its condition is dangerous--it's bound to
react violently. We have to get out of here. You must know some
way--"
Harper again scribbled some figures on his pad. "As soon as I've
worked out this formula--"
Pillbot shook him frantically. "Can't you understand! This
Creature is a mental patient of a violent type. We are in a
_fourth dimensional insane asylum_!" Pillbot gazed upward
fearfully at a descending mass. "The pattern of its action fits
perfectly," he went on. "Some violent type of insanity, combined
with delusions of grandeur. Any slightest opposition will cause a
spasm of fury. It recognizes such opposition in the way you
tricked it into bringing you here. At first I thought it was a
primitive mentality, but now I know it is a highly evolved, but
insane creature, thinks it's Napoleon, wants to conquer the three
dimensional plane which its attention has been attracted to in
some way--"
Harper looked up in surprise. "Does it know about Napoleon?"
"Of course not, you fool!" screamed Pillbot. "It has the
Napoleonic complex, identifies itself with some great conqueror
of its own realm. And now it's on the rampage. We have to get
out of here--" He clutched at Harper as another upheaval of the
surface threw them down.
* * * * *
Rising, Harper put away his pad. His calculations were complete.
He could now show engineers how to build high buildings, taking
advantage of space stress instead of trying to fight the stress.
For the first time, the danger of their position seemed to
penetrate to his consciousness. He looked about--and his eyes
rested on a strange familiar projection rising from the invisible
floor a few feet away. It was the section of his clay statue that
had vanished--vanished because its peculiar shape had somehow
caused it to be warped into the fourth dimension!
Why hadn't he been able to move it--Professor Gault moved about
freely.
He and Pillbot went over to it, tried to move it. A slight filmy
webwork around the projection caught Harper's eye. Now he
knew--the Being had somehow affixed it to the spot as a landmark,
so It could locate the laboratory. It must have been this
projection that had first attracted the Being's attention to the
three dimensional world, since, ordinarily, It would never have
noticed the presence of three dimensional life, any more than
humans would notice the presence of two dimensional life if such
existed!
Harper looked up at a bleat from Pillbot. Above them was a sudden
furious play of lights and shades. Vast masses seemed shifting in
crazy juxtapositions, now descending rapidly toward them.
"Quick," Harper, now fully aroused, gasped to Pillbot. "Climb
down this projection!"
"Climb down it--?"
"Yes, there is a fluid condition of space where it penetrates
between the two planes. By hugging its contours you will emerge
into the laboratory--I hope!"
Pillbot glanced overhead nervously, then experimentally slid a
font down the projection. The foot vanished. With a cry of
relief, Pillbot lowered himself until only head and shoulders
were visible. Then that too vanished.
Harper looked up. Some monstrous suggestion of Form was almost
upon him. He grasped the projection and just as his head sank out
of sight the Form seemed to smash down on him.
Pillbot helped Harper to his feet, from where he had sprawled at
the base of the statue, on the laboratory floor.
"Quick," he gasped. "The Creature will be infuriated now, by our
escape from Its realm. A maniacal spasm is sure to follow. We
must get Gault back in some way, then leave the laboratory."
Even as they dashed over toward the abbreviated form of Gault,
the laboratory shook. Invisible strains seemed to be bulging the
walls inward.
Harper rushed to the desk upon which still reposed the cutout, the
section between neck and waist still arched off the surface. As Harper
reached toward the cutout to press it flat, Gault's eyes widened, his
mouth opened in a soundless shout of opposition. Harper hesitated.
"Never mind him," yammered Pillbot. "Press the figure flat!"
Harper pressed it flat.
For an instant the laboratory stopped its ominous vibration. Then
the figure of Gault flew through the air, came up against a
wall--but it was his complete figure.
"More signs of violence," cried Pillbot. "But that action won't
appease It--we must get out of here--"
Even as he spoke there was a thunderous crackling and roaring.
Harper felt himself flying about, and for an instant of awful
vertigo he did not know up from down. Forces seemed to be tearing
at him. He felt as though he were a piece of iron being attracted
simultaneously in several directions by powerful electro magnets.
There was a flare of colored lights, a deafening detonation--and
he felt himself knocked breathless against a wall.
He picked himself up, looked around.
* * * * *
On one side of him was the familiar south wall of the laboratory.
To the north, east and west was--open air. He was standing on a
section of laboratory flooring that jutted out over empty space
from the wall. His desk was a few feet away, right at the edge of
the jutting floor. Gault and Pillbot were picking themselves up
to one side of the desk.
The pair looked over the edge of the floor, then recoiled,
frenziedly hugging the flooring under them.
Harper crawled over, looked over the edge, quickly backed away.
Several hundred feet below, the traffic of the city roared!
Gault went over to the door in the one wall, opened it, then
stepped back quickly, his face pale.
"The laboratory has been turned inside out!" he shouted. "We are
on the outside!"
"We must get away from here," squalled Pillbot. "Another spasm of
the creature will precipitate us into the street!"
Gault forgot his apprehensions long enough to freeze Harper with
a glance. "This is all your doing," he bawled. "You with your
absurd doodling, which attracted the attention of some Being of
the fourth dimension!" In his anger, he overlooked the fact that
he was contradicting his formerly held opinion.
"The laboratory wrecked," he continued, "and that isn't all!" He
stalked up to the cringing Harper, thrust his face toward him.
"Do you know," he yelled, "why I didn't want to be returned
hastily--why I didn't want you to bring me back by flattening out
the paper cutout? You dolt, did you ever try to get a crease out
of a piece of paper?"
"I--I don't understand," murmured Harper.
"That paper doll was creased, wasn't it?" shouted Gault.
"Once a piece of paper is creased," he resumed heatedly, "it
can't be perfectly flattened out again. At the crease a thin
cross-section continues to bulge--into the third dimension in the
case of that paper cutout. Into the fourth dimension in my case!
_I'm creased too_, at the line where I was bent into the fourth
dimension! Surely you aren't blind?"
Harper staggered back as he saw it--a thin, horizontal line of
light shining through Gault's body--across his waistline, through
clothes and all.
"I shall have to go through life this way," Gault snarled, "due
to your imbecilic 'doodling', your meddling with what you don't
understand. Go about constantly with a slit of daylight showing
through me. _You're fired!_"
"Gentlemen," cried Pillbot. "The entity--we must get away.
Another spasm will surely follow--"
Harper didn't think so. A few feet away he had noticed
something--his statue lying on its side. It was all there,
including the portion that had been in the fourth dimension. The
Entity's "landmark" was gone. Harper didn't believe It would
locate this particular area of the third dimension again.
The scream of a fire siren rose up to them. As a ladder scraped
over the projecting floor, Harper fondly felt the pad in his
pocket with the formula on it. He wasn't worried now about having
been fired. He was seeing visions of a small cottage with
Judith....
Of course, he would have to be careful in the future with his
"doodling"! He could not again risk attracting the attention of
some four dimensional Being--not with Judith to think about!
* * * * *
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The 4-D Doodler, by Graph Waldeyer
*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE 4-D DOODLER ***
***** This file should be named 22227.txt or 22227.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/2/2/22227/
Produced by Greg Weeks, Sankar Viswanathan, 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. Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you
do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is
subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
redistribution.
*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
http://gutenberg.org/license).
Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic works
1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works. See paragraph 1.E below.
1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the
collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an
individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in
a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check
the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning
the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
States.
1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
copied or distributed:
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
1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
1.E.9.
1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked
to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
Gutenberg-tm License.
1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or
distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
that
- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is
owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments
must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License. You must require such a user to return or
destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
Project Gutenberg-tm works.
- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
of receipt of the work.
- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the
Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
1.F.
1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
your equipment.
1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGE.
1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with
the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy
is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
opportunities to fix the problem.
1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any
provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists
because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
people in all walks of life.
Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation
The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at
809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact
information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
page at http://pglaf.org
For additional contact information:
Dr. Gregory B. Newby
Chief Executive and Director
gbnewby@pglaf.org
Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation
Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
status with the IRS.
The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To
SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
particular state visit http://pglaf.org
While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
approach us with offers to donate.
International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works.
Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily
keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
http://www.gutenberg.org
This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
§ 1. The 4D Dooedler
Graph Waldeyer
"Do you believe, Professor Gault, that this four dimensional plane contains life--intelligent life?"
At the question, Gault laughed shortly. "You have been reading pseudo-science, Dr. Pillbot," he twitted. "I realize that as a psychiatrist, you are interested in minds, in living beings, rather than in dimensional planes. But I fear you will find no minds to study in the fourth dimension. There aren't any there!"
Professor Gault paused, peered from beneath bushy white brows out over the laboratory. To his near sighted eyes the blurred figure of Harper, his young assistant, seemed busily at work over his mathematical charts. Gault hoped sourly that the young man was actually working and not just drawing more of his absurd, senseless designs amidst the mathematical computations....
"Your proof," Dr. Pillbot broke into his thoughts insistently, "is purely negative, Professor! How can you know there are no beings in the fourth dimension, unless you actually enter this realm, to see for yourself?"
Professor Gault stared at the fat, puffy face of his visitor, and
snorted loudly.
"I am afraid, Pillbot, you do not comprehend the impossibility of
such a passage. We can not possibly break from the confines of
our three dimensional world. Here, let me explain by a simple
illustration."
Gault took up a book, held it so that a shadow fell onto the
surface of the desk.
"That shadow," he said, "is two dimensional, has length and
breadth, but no thickness. Now in order to enter the third
dimension, our plane, the shadow would have to bulge out in some
way, into the dimension of thickness an obvious impossibility.
Similarly, we can not enter the fourth dimension. Do you see?"
"No!" retorted Pillbot with some heat. "In the first place, we
are not two dimensional shadows, and--why, what is the matter?"
Professor Gault's lanky form had stiffened, his near sighted eyes
glaring out over the laboratory to the rear of Pillbot. The
psychiatrist wheeled around, followed his host's gaze.
It was Harper. That young man's antics drew an amazed grunt from
Pillbot. He was describing peculiar motions in the air with his
pencil. Circles, whorls, angles, abrupt jabs forward. He bent
over the paper on the desk, made a few sweeps of the pencil, then
the pencil rose again into the air to describe more erratic
motions. Harper himself seemed in a trance.
Suddenly Pillbot gave a stifled gasp. It seemed to him that
Harper's arm vanished at the elbow as it stabbed forward, then
reappeared. Once again the phenomenon happened.
Pillbot blinked rapidly, rubbed his eyes. It must have been
illusion, he decided. It was too ... unlikely....
"Harper!" Gault's voice was like the snapping of a steel trap.
Startled, Harper came to with a jerk. Seeing he was being
watched, he flushed redly, then bent over his charts again. An
apologetic murmur floated from his desk.
"What was he doing?" Pillbot asked puzzledly.
"Doodling!" Gault spat out the word disgustedly.
"Doodling?" echoed the psychiatrist. "Why that is a slang term we
use in psychiatry, to describe the absent-minded scrawls and
designs people make while their attention is elsewhere occupied.
An overflow of the unconscious mind, we call it. Many famous
people are 'doodlers.' Their doodles often are a sign of special
ability--"
"Exactly!" snapped Gault. "It shows a special ability to waste
time. And Harper has become worse since I hired him to do some of
my mathematical work. Some influence in this laboratory--I blush
to confess--seems to bring it on. 'Four dimensional doodling' we
call it, because, as you saw, he doesn't confine it to the
surface of the paper!"
Pillbot looked startled. "By jove," he cried. "I believe you've
hit on something new to psychiatry. This young man may have some
unknown faculty of mind--an instinctive perception of the fourth
dimension. Just as some people have an unerring sense of
direction, so perhaps Harper has a sense of--of a fourth
direction--the fourth dimension! I should like to examine some of
his 'doodles'."
Harper looked up in alarm as his crusty tempered employer
appeared, followed by the stout figure of Pillbot. He rose and
stood aside unassumingly, as Pillbot bent over the scrawls on his
charts, clucking interestedly.
Harper flickered a worried glance over to the corner. He hoped
they wouldn't notice his stress-analyzing clay model standing
there. It looked like a futurist's nightmare, with angles, curves
and knobs stuck out at all angles. Professor Gault might not
understand....
* * * * *
For one of his retiring temperament, Harper was aiming high.
There was a standing award of $50,000 for the lucky mathematician
who would solve the mystery of the "stress-barrier" encountered
by skyscrapers as they were built up toward the 150 story mark.
At this height, they encountered stress and strains which
mathematical computations and engineering designs had been unable
to solve. Harper believed the "stress-barrier" was due to an
undetected space-bending close to the earth's surface, a bending
of space greater than ever provided for in the prediction of
Einstein. And if he was right, and could win that award, then
there might be wedding bells, and a little bungalow with
Judith....
Harper's greatest fear was that he would do something to annoy
Gault into firing him, thus depriving him of the privilege of
using the mathematical charts and computing machines available in
the laboratory. Right now, he hoped Gault wouldn't notice that
statue in the corner--
"What's _that_!"
Harper's heart leaped. The Professor was glaring at the statue,
as though it were something the cat brought in.
Pillbot looked up from examination of the "doodles" and followed
Gault over to the futuristic statuary.
As Gault made strangled noises, Pillbot stared interestedly.
"Why--its like some of the designs in his doodling," he
exclaimed.
"And made with some of my best modeling clay for reproducing
geometric solids!" rasped Gault. He wheeled upon Harper.
"Get that thing out of here! I won't stand for such rot in this
laboratory. Throw it into the hall for the janitor!"
"Ye-yessir," said Harper, gulping. He took hold of the statue,
pulled at it.
"It--it won't budge," he exclaimed amazedly.
"Eh? Won't move? It's not heavy, is it?" demanded the Professor.
"No--about thirty pounds, but it wont move!"
Gault took hold of one of the angles of the thing, jerked at it
savagely. He gave it up with an oath, returned to Harper's desk
muttering.
Harper suddenly noticed the top portion of the statue. It didn't
seem to be all there! He was positive there had been another
section on top, shooting off at an angle, representing a problem
in tangential stress. What had happened to that top section?
He would figure that out later, when the occasion was more
propitious. Right now, he realized that only the presence of
Dr. Pillbot prevented Gault from firing him. He cast an apprehensive
glance toward his employer.
With trepidation, he saw Gault reach for something projecting
from behind a bench. Gault pulled it out, held it dangling before
him. A strangled exclamation of wrath came from him. His long
nose pointed accusingly toward Harper, like a finger pointing out
a criminal.
"I was afraid of that!" he grated. "Cutting paper dolls!" Gault
was holding up a large paper cutout of a human figure--a long,
rangy man.
"This is the last straw," Gault went on, his voice rising. "I
have stood enough--"
"It--it wasn't me, sir," Harper cried quickly, with visions of
his job and $50,000 vanishing. "It was your ten year old nephew,
Rudolph, when he was here yesterday. He cut it out, said it
looked like--like his uncle--"
Harper stopped as Gault seemed about to explode. Then the
mathematician subsided, a malicious expression crept over his
face.
"H-m-m," he said. "Might be just what I need to explain things to
Dr. Pillbot."
"I shall take this matter before the Psychiatric Society,"
Pillbot was saying excitedly. "Undoubtedly you have some strange
faculty--an instinctive perception of four dimensional laws ...
what was that, Professor?"
"I said if you will step over to this desk I will explain to you
in elementary terms--very elementary and easy to understand--why
you will never be able to study four dimensional beings--_if_ any
exist!" Gault's voice was tinged with sarcasm.
Pillbot came over, followed by Harper, who was interested in any
explanations about the fourth dimension--even elementary ones....
Gault, with a glint in his eye, pressed the paper figure flatly
on the surface of Harper's desk.
"This paper man, we will say, represents a two dimensional
creature. We lay him flatly against the desk, which represents
his world--Flatland, we mathematicians call it. Mr. Flatlander
can't see into our world. He can see only along the flat plane of
his own world. To see us, for instance, he would have to look
_up_, which is the third dimension, a direction inconceivable to
him. Now, Doctor, are you beginning to understand why we can
never see four dimensional beings?"
Pillbot frowned thoughtfully, then looked up. "And what about the
viewpoint of the four dimensioners themselves--_what would
prevent them from seeing us_?"
Harper hardly heard the Professor's snort of disgust. This two
dimensional cutout in "Flatland" fascinated him. An idea occurred
to him. Now, just supposing the....
* * * * *
As Gault and Pillbot argued, Harper grasped the paper cutout, and
bent it, "jacknifed" it, creasing it firmly in the middle. Then
he raised the upper half so that it rose vertically from the
desk, while the lower half was still pressed flatly against the
desk surface.
"Now," he murmured to himself, "the Flatlander would appear to
his fellows to have vanished from the waist up, because from the
waist up he is bent into the third dimension ... so far as they
are concerned...."
"E-e-e-e-e!"
At the wavering scream, Harper looked up quickly. Pillbot was
staring frozenly in front of him, toward the floor. Harper
followed his glance--and saw it.
Professor Gault had vanished from the waist up.
His lower body still stood before Pillbot, swaying slightly, but
the upper body was unconditionally missing. From the large feet
planted solidly on the floor, long legs rose majestically,
terminating in slim, angular hips--and from thence vanished
abruptly into nothingness. It was as though the upper body had
been sheared away, neatly and precisely, at the waist.
Pillbot stared from the visible portion of Gault to slack-jawed
Harper and back again, sweat splashing from his puffy face.
"Why, why really my dear fellow," he quavered, addressing the
half-figure. "This--this is a bit rude of you, vanishing in the
midst of my sentence. I--I trust you will--ah, return at once!"
Then, as the full import of the phenomenon penetrated to his
understanding, his eyes became glazed and he backed away.
The portion of Professor Gault addressed failed to give any
indication it had heard the remonstrance. Slowly, the legs began
to feel their way, like a blind man, about the floor.
Harper stared wildly, white showing around his pale blue irises.
"No!" he bleated. "The Professor didn't do it himself--I caused
it to happen. I bent the paper cutout, and--and Something saw me
do it, and imitated me by bending the Professor into the fourth
dimension!" Harper moaned faintly, wringing his hands.
Pillbot at the moment got little satisfaction from this
demonstration of his point about four dimensional life. He
glanced fearfully at the half-figure.
"You--you mean to say," he quailed, "that we are under scrutiny
by some Being of the fourth dimension?"
"That's it," replied Harper with a whinny. "I--I know it, I can
feel it. It became aware of our three dimensional life in some
way, and its attention is now concentrated on the laboratory!" He
wrung his hands. "I just know something else terrible is going to
happen!" He backed away quickly as the occupied pair of pants
moved toward him.
His retreat was halted by his desk, upon which reposed two large
California oranges, an inevitable accompaniment to Harper's
lunch. To him, orange juice was a potent, revivifying drink. Now
he automatically reached for one of the oranges, as a more hardy
individual might reach for a whisky and soda in a moment of
mental shock.
His eyes wide on the shuffling approach of Gault's underpinnings,
Harper nervously dug sharp fingernails into the orange, tore off
large chunks of skin.
A sudden blur seen from the corner of his eyes pulled his gaze
back to the desk. The other orange had vanished.
_Phwup_!
It dropped to the floor before Harper, but now it was a squashy
mess, the insides standing out like petals, the juice running
from it.
The other orange slipped from Harper's nerveless fingers, rolled
along the desk top. Harper pounced on the squashy thing on the
floor, feverishly pushed back the projecting insides, closely
examined it. He looked up wide-eyed at Pillbot.
"Turned inside out," he gasped hoarsely, "without breaking its
skin!"
Pillbot's expression indicated that the scientific attitude was
slowly replacing his former fright. He snapped his fingers.
"Imitation again!" he said, half to himself. He looked at Harper.
"When you bent the paper figure this--this fourth dimensional
entity imitated your action by bending the Professor. Now, as you
started to peel the orange, your action was again imitated--in a
four dimensional manner--by this entity turning the other orange
inside out."
His voice dropped, as he muttered, "Imitativeness--the mark of a
mind of low evolutionary order, or of ..." his words faded off,
his expression thoughtful.
More white showed around Harper's eyes. "You--you mean I am being
specially watched by this Being--that He--It--imitates everything
I do...?"
"That's it," clipped Pillbot. "Because you possess this strange
perception of Its realm the Being has been especially attracted
to you, imitates whatever you do, but in a four dimensional
manner. A Being of inexplicable powers and prerogatives, with
weird power over matter, but with a mentality that is either very
primitive, or--"
Harper leaped into the air with a yell, as Professor Gault's
abbreviated body sidled up to him from behind. As he leaped, the
inside out orange flew out of his grasp.
"I just know," he quavered, "that Professor Gault wants me to do
something, is probably barking orders at me from that other
dimension--oh dear, I've dropped the orange on the Professor's--where
his stomach should be!"
The squashy orange had landed on the area of Gault that was the line
of demarkation between his visible and invisible portions--the area
that his stomach would occupy normally. It rested there in plain
sight of the two startled men.
"I--I'd better remove it," said Harper weakly. He moved with a
dreadful compulsion toward the swaying half-figure, one slender
hand extended tremblingly toward the inverted orange.
Abruptly, the orange vanished. Harper halted like he'd run into a
brick wall. Staring blankly ahead, he put his hands to his
stomach, moaning faintly.
"What's the matter?" cried Pillbot.
"The orange--it's in my--stomach!"
"See, what did I tell you," exulted Pillbot. "Another act of
imitativeness. It saw you drop the orange on Gault's--where his
stomach should be, and imitated by putting the orange in your
stomach. It proves I'm right about the Being--glug!" With a loud
belch, Pillbot broke off. He stared blankly at Harper, then his
hands slowly came up to clutch at his stomach.
Harper looked quickly at the desk top.
"The other orange," he gasped. "It's gone!"
"Into--my--stomach!" groaned Pillbot. "Be--be careful what you
do! My God, don't do anything. Don't even think. This--this four
dimensional creature will surely imitate whatever you do in some
weird manner."
Rubbing his stomach, Pillbot glanced about at the various
articles of furniture. He blanched. "I wouldn't want any of that
stuff inside of me," he yammered.
Harper flicked a despairing glance at the half-body, now gliding
along in the vicinity of the paper cutout.
"We--we must do something to get the Professor back," he said
worriedly.
* * * * *
He thought incongruously of a restaurant where he used to order
lemon pie--and invariably get apple. Finally he found that he
could get lemon by ordering peach. Now the problem was, what did
he have to "order" to get his employer extricated from being
stuck between dimensions, like a pig under a fence? Anything he
did would be imitated in a manner that might prove tragic.
The upright portion of the cutout was leaning over backward, the
head drooping down like a wilted flower, as the tension at the
crease slowly lessened.
Gathering together what resolution he could, Harper determined to
take the bull by the horns. He would get the Professor returned
by pressing the upper portion of the cutout flatly onto the desk
surface. With trembling hands, he pressed down on it--then sprang
back with a muffled yell.
Three feet above the half-body, the Professor's head had flashed
into visibility.
"You only pressed the head onto the desk," said Pillbot
disgustedly, "so the Being only impressed Galt's head back into
the laboratory. Now press down the rest of the body."
The Professor's head, suspended above the body, glared about,
affixed Harper with a smouldering glance. The mouth moved
rapidly, but no words came.
"Professor, I can't hear you," whimpered Harper. "Your lungs and
vocal cords are in the other dimension. Here, I'll have you
completely returned." He reached a hand toward the cutout, the
torso of which still bulged upward from the desk.
Gault's head wagged in vigorous negation of Harper's contemplated
act. His mouth moved in what, if audible, would have been
clipped, burning accents.
Harper drew back his hand as if he had touched a red hot poker.
"The Professor doesn't want me to touch the cutout," he said
helplessly.
Gault's head hovered over the cutout like a gaunt moon. It
swooped down toward the paper figure, seemed to be studying its
position on the desk closely. Pillbot watched him for a sign of
his intentions or wishes.
Harper wandered distractedly over toward the high wall bench. He
had it! He would distract the attention of the Entity from Gault
by making another cutout. He would then experiment with that
second one, without endangering Gault. He'd be careful not to
make this one thin and tall, so as not to resemble the Professor
in outline. Perhaps with it, he could trick the Entity into
releasing the missing part of Gault's body....
He scraped in the bench drawer for the scissors, and started to
sheer through a large stiff piece of paper.
A moment later he looked up as Pillbot walked over.
"Gault has some reason for not wanting his silhouette touched,"
he said. "Can't quite make out his lip movements, but he seems
afraid some permanent mark may be left on him by his return. He
wants time to figure out--why, what are you doing?"
"I've made another cutout for experiment," explained Harper. "And
this one doesn't look like the Professor, isn't tall and thin.
See--?" He lifted the second cutout from the flat surface of the
bench, held it suspended before him.
"This one is short and fat--" Harper halted abruptly, the breath
whooshing from his lungs.
There was no use talking to thin air. Pillbot had been whisked
into nothingness. Where the portly figure of the eminent
psychiatrist had stood was now nothing, not even a half man.
Too late, Harper realized that when he had lifted the paper
figure from the surface of the bench, the Entity had imitated him
by "lifting" Pillbot into the fourth dimension. Belatedly, he
knew that the cutout which he held dangling, resembled Pillbot in
outline.
Harper dashed back and forth in little rushes, carrying the paper
figure. He dared not put it down, for fear of seeing some segment
of Pillbot flash back. He did not know what to do with it.
Finally he compromised by suspending it to a low hanging
chandelier, where it dangled swaying in the slight air currents.
* * * * *
Gault was watching his assistant's antics with a bleak expression
that changed to sardonic satisfaction as he realized Pillbot was
in a predicament like his--only more so. Abruptly he frowned,
staring ahead, and Harper guessed that Pillbot had located
Gault's torso in the other realm, was nudging him to indicate the
fact.
Suddenly Harper knew that he himself must enter this fourth
dimensional realm. That strange instinct told him the solution to
everything was there--somewhat as a woman's intuition impels her
to act in a certain way, without knowing why.
How to get there? Another paper cutout? He glanced toward the
Professor--the occupied trousers, and swimming above it, the
man's head. The head was watching him, the expression savage.
No, there must be no more cutouts, Harper decided. While the four
dimensional entity distinguished between the outlines of a thin
silhouette and a fat one, something in between, like Harper's
form, would be testing It too far.
He, Harper would take the place of his own cutout!
Gault's head reared up, glared fixedly at his assistant as the
young man swung his legs onto the desk, then lay down flat. A
moment he lay there, in "Flatland"--then leaped to his feet.
It was as though he had leaped into a different world. He was no
longer in the laboratory. He wasn't on any, floor at all, as far
as he could make out. His feet rested on nothing--and yet there
was some sort of tension under him--like the surface tension of
water.
He was--he suddenly knew it--standing on a segment of warped
space! There was a spacial strain here that acted as a solid
beneath him!
Harper looked "up"--that is, overhead. There was nothing there
but vast stretches of emptiness--at first. Then he saw that this
emptiness was lined and laced with filmy striations, like
cellophane. They bore a strange resemblance to his "doodlings,"
as though that strange faculty of his enabled him to somehow
perceive this place of the fourth dimension. And instinctively
Harper knew that these lacings were the boundaries of a vast
enclosure--a four dimensional enclosure, the "walls" of which
consisted of joined and meshed space-warps.
Abruptly he became aware of movement. He became aware of solidity
there above him. And the solidity was in motion.
Harper knew he was gazing upon a being of the fourth
dimension--doubtless the Entity that had caused the phenomena in
the laboratory, which had snatched him into the fourth dimension,
and was even now observing him with its four dimensional sight!
There was a shape above him that strained his eyes, gave hint of
Form just beyond his comprehension.
Harper hardly noticed that Pillbot was beside him, shaking him.
He had suddenly grasped a fundamental law of spacial stresses,
and he whipped out a pad and pencil, began scribbling down the
mathematical formula of these laws. He began to see now why
skyscrapers encountered the "stress-barrier" at a certain height.
He understood it just as a person of innate musical ability,
hearing music for the first time, would understand the laws of
that music.
"Look out, It's moving, descending!" Pillbot was yelling into his
ear. "It is about to act. Became active the moment you got here.
How did you induce it to bring you here?"
"Huh?" Harper looked up from his scribbling. "Oh." Harper
explained quickly how he had induced the Being to act on himself.
"That's it!" cried Pillbot hoarsely. "You switched the pattern of
imitation on It--tricked It into bringing you here. That's what
made it angry--"
"Angry?" Harper almost dropped his pad, clutched at Pillbot as
there was a sudden upheaval of the invisible tension-surface on
which they stood. A violent shake sprawled them on the "ground"
and now Harper saw the torso of Gault, a few feet away,
apparently hovering above the surface.
"Yes, angry!" Pillbot was pale. "As long as you merely gave it
something to imitate it was pacified. But now it recognizes
opposition, an effort to outwit it due to your switching the
pattern of imitation. Its condition is dangerous--it's bound to
react violently. We have to get out of here. You must know some
way--"
Harper again scribbled some figures on his pad. "As soon as I've
worked out this formula--"
Pillbot shook him frantically. "Can't you understand! This
Creature is a mental patient of a violent type. We are in a
_fourth dimensional insane asylum_!" Pillbot gazed upward
fearfully at a descending mass. "The pattern of its action fits
perfectly," he went on. "Some violent type of insanity, combined
with delusions of grandeur. Any slightest opposition will cause a
spasm of fury. It recognizes such opposition in the way you
tricked it into bringing you here. At first I thought it was a
primitive mentality, but now I know it is a highly evolved, but
insane creature, thinks it's Napoleon, wants to conquer the three
dimensional plane which its attention has been attracted to in
some way--"
Harper looked up in surprise. "Does it know about Napoleon?"
"Of course not, you fool!" screamed Pillbot. "It has the
Napoleonic complex, identifies itself with some great conqueror
of its own realm. And now it's on the rampage. We have to get
out of here--" He clutched at Harper as another upheaval of the
surface threw them down.
* * * * *
Rising, Harper put away his pad. His calculations were complete.
He could now show engineers how to build high buildings, taking
advantage of space stress instead of trying to fight the stress.
For the first time, the danger of their position seemed to
penetrate to his consciousness. He looked about--and his eyes
rested on a strange familiar projection rising from the invisible
floor a few feet away. It was the section of his clay statue that
had vanished--vanished because its peculiar shape had somehow
caused it to be warped into the fourth dimension!
Why hadn't he been able to move it--Professor Gault moved about
freely.
He and Pillbot went over to it, tried to move it. A slight filmy
webwork around the projection caught Harper's eye. Now he
knew--the Being had somehow affixed it to the spot as a landmark,
so It could locate the laboratory. It must have been this
projection that had first attracted the Being's attention to the
three dimensional world, since, ordinarily, It would never have
noticed the presence of three dimensional life, any more than
humans would notice the presence of two dimensional life if such
existed!
Harper looked up at a bleat from Pillbot. Above them was a sudden
furious play of lights and shades. Vast masses seemed shifting in
crazy juxtapositions, now descending rapidly toward them.
"Quick," Harper, now fully aroused, gasped to Pillbot. "Climb
down this projection!"
"Climb down it--?"
"Yes, there is a fluid condition of space where it penetrates
between the two planes. By hugging its contours you will emerge
into the laboratory--I hope!"
Pillbot glanced overhead nervously, then experimentally slid a
font down the projection. The foot vanished. With a cry of
relief, Pillbot lowered himself until only head and shoulders
were visible. Then that too vanished.
Harper looked up. Some monstrous suggestion of Form was almost
upon him. He grasped the projection and just as his head sank out
of sight the Form seemed to smash down on him.
Pillbot helped Harper to his feet, from where he had sprawled at
the base of the statue, on the laboratory floor.
"Quick," he gasped. "The Creature will be infuriated now, by our
escape from Its realm. A maniacal spasm is sure to follow. We
must get Gault back in some way, then leave the laboratory."
Even as they dashed over toward the abbreviated form of Gault,
the laboratory shook. Invisible strains seemed to be bulging the
walls inward.
Harper rushed to the desk upon which still reposed the cutout, the
section between neck and waist still arched off the surface. As Harper
reached toward the cutout to press it flat, Gault's eyes widened, his
mouth opened in a soundless shout of opposition. Harper hesitated.
"Never mind him," yammered Pillbot. "Press the figure flat!"
Harper pressed it flat.
For an instant the laboratory stopped its ominous vibration. Then
the figure of Gault flew through the air, came up against a
wall--but it was his complete figure.
"More signs of violence," cried Pillbot. "But that action won't
appease It--we must get out of here--"
Even as he spoke there was a thunderous crackling and roaring.
Harper felt himself flying about, and for an instant of awful
vertigo he did not know up from down. Forces seemed to be tearing
at him. He felt as though he were a piece of iron being attracted
simultaneously in several directions by powerful electro magnets.
There was a flare of colored lights, a deafening detonation--and
he felt himself knocked breathless against a wall.
He picked himself up, looked around.
* * * * *
On one side of him was the familiar south wall of the laboratory.
To the north, east and west was--open air. He was standing on a
section of laboratory flooring that jutted out over empty space
from the wall. His desk was a few feet away, right at the edge of
the jutting floor. Gault and Pillbot were picking themselves up
to one side of the desk.
The pair looked over the edge of the floor, then recoiled,
frenziedly hugging the flooring under them.
Harper crawled over, looked over the edge, quickly backed away.
Several hundred feet below, the traffic of the city roared!
Gault went over to the door in the one wall, opened it, then
stepped back quickly, his face pale.
"The laboratory has been turned inside out!" he shouted. "We are
on the outside!"
"We must get away from here," squalled Pillbot. "Another spasm of
the creature will precipitate us into the street!"
Gault forgot his apprehensions long enough to freeze Harper with
a glance. "This is all your doing," he bawled. "You with your
absurd doodling, which attracted the attention of some Being of
the fourth dimension!" In his anger, he overlooked the fact that
he was contradicting his formerly held opinion.
"The laboratory wrecked," he continued, "and that isn't all!" He
stalked up to the cringing Harper, thrust his face toward him.
"Do you know," he yelled, "why I didn't want to be returned
hastily--why I didn't want you to bring me back by flattening out
the paper cutout? You dolt, did you ever try to get a crease out
of a piece of paper?"
"I--I don't understand," murmured Harper.
"That paper doll was creased, wasn't it?" shouted Gault.
"Once a piece of paper is creased," he resumed heatedly, "it
can't be perfectly flattened out again. At the crease a thin
cross-section continues to bulge--into the third dimension in the
case of that paper cutout. Into the fourth dimension in my case!
_I'm creased too_, at the line where I was bent into the fourth
dimension! Surely you aren't blind?"
Harper staggered back as he saw it--a thin, horizontal line of
light shining through Gault's body--across his waistline, through
clothes and all.
"I shall have to go through life this way," Gault snarled, "due
to your imbecilic 'doodling', your meddling with what you don't
understand. Go about constantly with a slit of daylight showing
through me. _You're fired!_"
"Gentlemen," cried Pillbot. "The entity--we must get away.
Another spasm will surely follow--"
Harper didn't think so. A few feet away he had noticed
something--his statue lying on its side. It was all there,
including the portion that had been in the fourth dimension. The
Entity's "landmark" was gone. Harper didn't believe It would
locate this particular area of the third dimension again.
The scream of a fire siren rose up to them. As a ladder scraped
over the projecting floor, Harper fondly felt the pad in his
pocket with the formula on it. He wasn't worried now about having
been fired. He was seeing visions of a small cottage with
Judith....
Of course, he would have to be careful in the future with his
"doodling"! He could not again risk attracting the attention of
some four dimensional Being--not with Judith to think about!
* * * * *
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The 4-D Doodler, by Graph Waldeyer
*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE 4-D DOODLER ***
***** This file should be named 22227.txt or 22227.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/2/2/22227/
Produced by Greg Weeks, Sankar Viswanathan, 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. Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you
do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is
subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
redistribution.
*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
http://gutenberg.org/license).
Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic works
1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works. See paragraph 1.E below.
1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the
collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an
individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in
a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check
the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning
the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
States.
1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
copied or distributed:
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
1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
1.E.9.
1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked
to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
Gutenberg-tm License.
1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or
distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
that
- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is
owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments
must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License. You must require such a user to return or
destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
Project Gutenberg-tm works.
- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
of receipt of the work.
- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the
Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
1.F.
1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
your equipment.
1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGE.
1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with
the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy
is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
opportunities to fix the problem.
1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any
provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists
because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
people in all walks of life.
Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation
The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at
809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact
information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
page at http://pglaf.org
For additional contact information:
Dr. Gregory B. Newby
Chief Executive and Director
gbnewby@pglaf.org
Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation
Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
status with the IRS.
The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To
SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
particular state visit http://pglaf.org
While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
approach us with offers to donate.
International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works.
Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily
keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
http://www.gutenberg.org
This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento