The Project Gutenberg EBook of Double Take, by Richard Wilson

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Title: Double Take

Author: Richard Wilson

Illustrator: Paul Orban

Release Date: September 22, 2009 [EBook #30063]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration]

_The barn turned out to be a spaceship in disguise, and
that was only the beginning. Before his strange adventure
ended, young Paul Asher found himself going around in
circles--very peculiar circles indeed!_

DOUBLE TAKE

By Richard Wilson

Illustrated by Paul Orban

_Paul Asher, 27, men's furnishings buyer, leaned back and let the cloth
band be fastened across his chest, just under his armpits. He adjusted
his heavy spectacles, closed his eyes for a moment, breathed deeply, and
was off._

The semi-darkness was dispelled as he shot out of a tunnel into dazzling
sunlight. The high-powered vehicle he was driving purred smoothly as it
took the long, rising curve. The road climbed steadily toward the
mountaintop city ahead. He looked around to satisfy himself that he was
alone in the car.

He wasn't.

The girl was a pretty one. He'd seen her somewhere before, he thought.
She was looking insolently at him, her wide red mouth in a half smile.
Her dark hair stirred in the breeze coming through the window, next to
her, which was open just a slit.

She said: "Just keep going, Sweetheart, as fast as you can." And she
patted the oversized pocketbook that lay in her lap.

He pressed down on the accelerator and the car responded with a flow of
power. The countryside fell away from the road on either side. Far below
he could see a river, winding broadly to the far-off sea. The summer day
sent its heat-shimmers across the miniature landscape.

The road curved again. Theirs was the only car he had seen since he'd
come out of the tunnel. But now, far ahead, he saw another. It was
standing at the side of the road, next to a gate that came down in the
manner of one at a railroad crossing. But he knew by its bl