Criminals -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories; Time capsules -- Fiction
For all of half a day, there was great rejoicing in Sudapfahl when
it was discovered that the time capsule in Grunfelt had opened and
had disclosed a marvelous collection of two-century-old artifacts,
including a Dachboden original. His Excellency, the Portfolio of State,
was the man of the day.
But it didn't last more than half a day. When the art experts
pronounced the Dachboden a phony, the popularity of Hinrik dropped;
when it was proved that the whole time capsule, with contents, was
actually the one that belonged in Grosstat, Hinrik's popularity
collapsed completely. He was held by the I.P. for questioning and
confessed all.
By that time, Leland Hale was a good many parsecs away in his own
private ship.
An excerpt from the report filed by Captain Whitter contains some
enlightening information.
"What happened became obvious after the fact," the captain wrote. "The
whole buildup was a phony from beginning to end. Hale had heard of the
time capsule in Grosstat, so he went to Apfahl with a duplicate time
capsule, which contained his note. He tunneled underneath the Museum
and switched capsules. It was not until after he had made the switch
that he planted the forged Dachboden note for Dr. Mier to find.
"There never had been a Dachboden carving in the capsule; that was all
a figment of Leland Hale's imagination.
"Dr. Rudolf Mier couldn't understand why Hale had done it. 'Why did he
make me think there was a statue in there?' he kept asking me. 'Why did
he do this to me?'
"I think the answer is simple. The records show that Hale was on Kessin
IV three years ago, during the war there. I believe that he actually
was swindled himself; someone sold him a bogus Dachboden. Remember, the
art-swindler Fenslaw was killed at that time.
"Hale, therefore, had a phony Dachboden on his hands that he had to
unload to save his pride. More, he had to make a very big profit on it.
"He knew that he couldn't just try to sell it anywhere. Even if he
found a sucker who would accept it as real, there wouldn't be enough
money in it to make it worth Hale's time.
"He couldn't have sold it to Fonshliezen without the big buildup. If
he'd just produced the carving from nowhere, Fonshliezen would have
been suspicious. A few simple tests would have shown that the _dynak_
wood was less than ten years old.
"Obviously, Hale had to get Fonshliezen into a position where he would
accept the carving without testing it.
"Hale, therefore, planted an empty time capsule, with his note inside,
under the Museum and took the real capsule with him. By bombarding
the time lock with neutrons, he managed to increase the radioactivity
enough to keep the lock closed for an additional twenty-four hours, so
that he could palm the real capsule off on Fonshliezen as a phony which
he had presumably set himself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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