Project Gutenberg's He Walked Around the Horses, by Henry Beam Piper

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Title: He Walked Around the Horses

Author: Henry Beam Piper

Illustrator: Cartier

Release Date: July 11, 2006 [EBook #18807]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's note:
This etext was produced from Astounding Science Fiction April 1948.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the copyright
on this publication was renewed.

[Illustration]

HE WALKED
AROUND THE HORSES

BY H. BEAM PIPER

Illustrated by Cartier

_This tale is based on an authenticated,
documented fact. A man vanished--right
out of this world. And where he went--_

_In November 1809, an Englishman named Benjamin Bathurst vanished,
inexplicably and utterly._

_He was en route to Hamburg from Vienna, where he had been serving
as his government's envoy to the court of what Napoleon had left
of the Austrian Empire. At an inn in Perleburg, in Prussia, while
examining a change of horses for his coach, he casually stepped
out of sight of his secretary and his valet. He was not seen to
leave the inn yard. He was not seen again, ever._

_At least, not in this continuum...._

(From Baron Eugen von Krutz, Minister of Police, to His Excellency
the Count von Berchtenwald, Chancellor to His Majesty Friedrich
Wilhelm III of Prussia.)

25 November, 1809

Your Excellency:

A circumstance has come to the notice of this Ministry, the
significance of which I am at a loss to define, but, since it
appears to involve matters of State, both here and abroad, I am
convinced that it is of sufficient importance to be brought to
your personal attention. Frankly, I am unwilling to take any
further action in the matter without your advice.

Briefly, the situation is this: We are holding, here at the
Ministry of Police, a person giving his name as Benjamin Bathurst,
who claims to be a British diplomat. This person was taken into
custody by the police at Perleburg yesterday, as a result of a