Special Delivery By GEORGE O. SMITH Illustrated by Kramer [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Astounding Science-Fiction, March 1945. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] Don Channing grinned at his wife knowingly. Arden caught his glance and then laughed. Walt Franks leaned back and looked highly superior. "Go ahead and laugh, darn you. I tell you it can be done." "Walt, ever since you tried that stunt of aerating soap with hydrogen to make a floating soap for shower baths, I've been wondering about your kind of genius." "Oh no," objected Arden. "Well, he wondered about it after nearly breaking his neck one morning." "That I did," grinned Walt. "It's still a good idea." "But the idea of transmitting matter is fantastic." "Agreed," admitted Walt. "But so is the idea of transmitting power." "It would come in handy if possible," remarked Don. "At slightly under 2-G, it takes only four hours to make Luna from Terra. On the other hand, shipping stuff from Melbourne, Australia, to New York City, or to the Mojave Spaceport takes considerably longer. With spacecraft as super stratosphere carriers it isn't too good, because you've got to run in a circle. In space you run at constant acceleration to mid-point and then decelerate the rest of the way. Fine for mile-eating, but not too hot for cutting circles." "Well, having established the need of a matter transmitter, now what?" "Go on, Walt. You're telling us." "Well," said Walt, penciling some notes on the tablecloth, "it's like this. The Carroll-Baler power-transmission tube will carry energy. According to their initial experiments, they had some trouble." "They had one large amount, if I recall." "Specifically, I recall the incident of the hammer. Remember?" "Barney Carroll got mad and swung a hammer at the tube, didn't he?" "It was one of them, I don't recall which." "No matter of importance," said Don. "I think I know what you mean. He hit the intake end--or tried to. The hammer was cut neatly and precisely off, and the energy of the blow was transmitted, somehow, to the wall." "Through the wall," corrected Walt. "It cracked the plaster, but it went through so fast that it merely cracked it. The main blow succeeded in breaking the marble facade of the city hall." "Um. Now bring us up to date. What have you in mind?" "A tube which scans matter atom by atom, line by line, and plane by plane. The matter is removed, atom by atom, and transmitted to a sort of matter bank in the instrument." "A what?"