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Ye of Little Faith
By Rog Phillips
Illustrated by TOM BEECHAM
[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from IF Worlds of Science
Fiction January 1953. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence
that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
[Sidenote: _It matters not whether you believe or disbelieve. Reality is
not always based on logic; nor, particularly, are the laws of the
universe...._]
The disappearance of John Henderson was most spectacular. It occurred
while he was at the blackboard working an example in multiple
integration for his ten o'clock class. The incompleted problem remained
on the board for three days while the police worked on the case. It, a
wrist watch and a sterling silver monogrammed belt buckle, lying on the
floor near where he had stood, were all the physical evidence they had
to go on.
There was plenty of eye-witness evidence. The class consisted of
forty-three pupils. They all had their eyes on him in varying degrees of
attention when it happened. Their accounts of what happened all agreed
in important details. Even as to what he had been saying.
In the reports that went into the police files he was quoted with a high
degree of certainty as having said, "Integration always brings into the
picture a constant which was not present. This constant of integration
is, in a sense, a variable. But a different type of variable than the
mathematical unknown. It might be said to be a logical variable--"
The students were in unanimous agreement and, at this point, Dr.
Henderson came to an abrupt stop in his lecture. Suddenly, an expression
of surprise appeared on his face. It was succeeded by an exclamation of
triumph. And he simply vanished from the spot.
He didn't fade away, rise, drop into the floor, or take any time
vanishing. He simply stopped being there.
[Illustration: _He just wasn't there any more._]
The police searched his room in the nearby Vanderbilt Arms Hotel. They
turned a portrait of the missing math professor to the newspapers to
publish. Arbright University offered a reward of one hundred dollars to
anyone who had seen him.
The police also found a savings pass book in his room. It had a balance
of three thousand eight hundred and forty dollars, which had been built
up to that figure by steady monthly deposits over a period of years. It
also had a withdrawal of three hundred and twenty dollars two days
before the disappearance. They were sure they were on the path to a
motive. This avenue of exploration came to an abrupt end with the
discovery that he had traded in his last year's car on a new one, and
that sum had been necessary to complete the deal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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