Ham Sandwich Page 3

didn't promise to bringenough excitement, Eleanor always could be counted on to take a handin events.

  Cavender felt less certain about it. This time, Mrs. Folsom soundedgenuinely excited. And if she actually believed she'd seen somethingmaterialize, she might be fairly close to getting one of those littleheart attacks she kept everyone informed about.

  * * * * *

  Dr. Al could have had the same thought. He glanced back at the proptable, asked gravely, "You don't see it there now, do you, Eleanor?"

  Mrs. Folsom shook her head. "No. No, of course not! It disappearedagain. It was only there for a second. But I'm sure I saw it!"

  "Now this is very interesting," Ormond said seriously. "Has anyoneelse observed anything at all unusual during the last few minutes?"

  There was a murmured chorus of dissent, but Cavender noticed that theexpressions of amusement and annoyance had vanished. Dr. Al hadchanged the tune, and the students were listening intently. He turnedback to Mrs. Folsom.

  "Let us consider the possibilities here, Eleanor," he said. "For onething, you should be congratulated in any case, because yourexperience shows that your visualization was clear and true throughoutour exercise. If it hadn't been, nothing like this could haveoccurred.

  "But precisely what was the experience? There we are, as of thismoment, on uncertain ground. You saw something. That no one else sawthe same thing might mean simply that no one else happened to belooking at the plate at those particular instances in time. I, forexample, certainly gave it no further attention after the exercise wasover. You _may_ then have observed a genuine materialization!"

  Mrs. Folsom nodded vigorously. "Yes, I--"

  "But," Ormond went on, "under the circumstances, the scientificattitude we maintain at this Institute demands that we leave thequestion open. For now. Because you might also, you understand, haveprojected--for yourself only--a vivid momentary impression of theimage you had created during our exercise and were still holding inyour mind."

  Mrs. Folsom looked doubtful. The flush of excitement began to leaveher face.

  "Why ... well, yes, I suppose so," she acknowledged unwillingly.

  "Of course," Ormond said. "So tonight we shall leave it at that. Thenext time we engage in a similar exercise ... well, who knows?" Hegave her a reassuring smile. "I must say, Eleanor, that this is a veryencouraging indication of the progress you have made!" He glanced overthe group, gathering their attention, and raised the trident-likedevice he had taken from the table.

  "And now for our second experiment this evening--"

  Looking disappointed and somewhat confused, Eleanor Folsom settledback in her chair. Cavender also settled back, his gaze shiftingsleepily to the remaining items on the prop table. He was frowning alittle. It wasn't his business, but if the old woman had started tohypnotize herself into having hallucinations, Dr. Al had better turnto a different type of meeting exercises. And that probably wasexactly what Ormond would do; he seemed very much aware of dangersignals. Cavender wondered vaguely what the red suitcase on the tablecontained.

  There was a blurry shimmer on the wooden plate beside the suitcase.Then something thickened there suddenly as if drawing itself togetherout of the air. Perrie Rochelle, sitting only ten feet back from thetable, uttered a yelp--somewhere between surprise and alarm. DexterJones, beside her, abruptly pushed back his chair, made a loud,incoherent exclamation of some kind.

  Cavender had started upright, heart hammering. The thing that hadappeared on the wooden plate vanished again.

  But it had remained visible there for a two full seconds. And therewas no question at all of what it had been.

  For several minutes, something resembling pandemonium swirled aboutthe walls of the lecture room of the Institute of Insight. The redsuitcase had concealed the wooden plate on the prop table from theeyes of most of the students sitting on the right side of the room,but a number of those who could see it felt they had caught a glimpseof something. Of just what they weren't sure at first, or perhaps theypreferred not to say.

  Perrie and Dexter, however, after getting over their first shock, hadno such doubts. Perrie, voice vibrant with excitement, answered thequestions flung at her from across the room, giving a detaileddescription of the ham sandwich which had appeared out of nowhere onthe polished little table and stayed there for an incredible instantbefore it vanished. Dexter Jones, his usually impassive face glowingand animated, laughing, confirmed the description on every point.

  On the opposite side of the room, Eleanor Folsom, surrounded by herown group of questioners, was also having her hour of triumph, in thewarmth of which a trace of bitterness that her first report of thephenomenon had been shrugged off by everyone--even, in a way, by Dr.Al--gradually dissolved.

  Dr. Al himself, Cavender thought, remained remarkably quiet at first,though in the excitement this wasn't generally noticed. He might evenhave turned a little pale. However, before things began to slow downhe had himself well in hand again. Calling the group to a semblance oforder, he began smilingly to ask specific questions. The witnesses onthe right side of the room seemed somewhat more certain now of whatthey had observed.

  Dr. Ormond looked over at Cavender.

  "And you, Wally?" he asked. "You were sitting rather far back, to besure--"

  Cavender smiled and shrugged.

  "Sorry, Dr. Al. I just wasn't looking in that direction at the moment.The first suggestion I had that anything unusual was going on was whenPerrie let out that wild squawk."

  There was general laughter. Perrie grinned and flushed.

  "Well, I'd have liked to hear _your_ squawk," she told Cavender, "ifyou'd seen a miracle happen right before your nose!"

  "Not a miracle, Perrie," Ormond said gently. "We must remember that.We are working here with natural forces which produce naturalphenomena. Insufficiently understood phenomena, perhaps, but nevermiraculous ones. Now, how closely did this materialization appear toconform to the subjective group image we had decided on for ourexercise?"

  "Well, I could only see it, of course, Dr. Al. But as far as I saw it,it was exactly what we'd ... no, wait!" Perrie frowned, wrinkling hernose. "There was something added!" She giggled. "At least, I don'tremember anyone saying we should imagine the sandwich wrapped in apaper napkin!"

  Across the room, a woman's voice said breathlessly, "Oh! A _green_paper napkin, Perrie?"

  Perrie looked around, surprised. "Yes, it was, Mavis."

  Mavis Greenfield hesitated, said with a nervous little laugh, "Isuppose I did that. I added a green napkin after we started theexercise." Her voice quavered for an instant. "I thought the imagelooked neater that way." She looked appealingly at the students aroundher. "This is really incredible, isn't it."

  They gave her vague smiles. They were plainly still floating on acloud of collective achievement--if they hadn't created that sandwich,there could have been nothing to see!

  It seemed to Cavender that Dr. Ormond's face showed a flicker ofstrain when he heard Mavis' explanation. But he couldn't be surebecause the expression--if it had been there--was smoothed away atonce. Ormond cleared his throat, said firmly and somewhat chidingly."No, not incredible, Mavis! Although--"

  He turned on his smile. "My friends, I must admit that you _have_surprised me! Very pleasantly, of course. But what happened here issomething I considered to be only a very remote possibility tonight.You are truly more advanced than I'd realized.

  "For note this. If even one of you had been lagging behind the others,if there had been any unevenness in the concentration each gave to theexercise tonight, this materialization simply could not have occurred!And that fact forces me now to a very important decision."

  He went over to the prop table, took the suitcase from it. "Mavis," hesaid gravely, "you may put away these other devices. We will have nofurther need for them in this group! Dexter, move the table to thecenter of the room for me, please."

  He waited while his instructions were hastily carried out, then laidthe suitca
se on the table, drew up a chair and sat down. The buzz ofexcited conversation among the students hushed. They stared at him inanticipatory silence. It appeared that the evening's surprises werenot yet over--and they were ready for _anything_ now!

  * * * * *

  "There is a point," Dr. Ormond began in a solemn voice, riveting theireager attention on him, "a point in the orderly advance towards TotalInsight at which further progress becomes greatly simplified andaccelerated, because the student has now developed the capability toaugment his personal efforts by the use of certain instruments."

  Cavender thoughtfully reached inside his coat, brought out a cigarettecase, opened it and slowly put a