THE OLD GOAT

BY CHARLES L. FONTENAY

It's been said that the soul is the form that makes the body—which may just possibly explain what happened on that fatal day at Ivy College....

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, February 1957. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

Dr. Angstrom was known to his students and many of his colleagues on the faculty as "The Old Goat." Very appropriate, that name. He had the disposition of a goat with dyspepsia, he had the cold blue eyes of a goat, he had the waggling whiskers of a goat. Perhaps it's in memory of Dr. Angstrom that Ivy College has a goat for its mascot now.

Dr. Angstrom was even more goatish than usual that day last summer when half a dozen top scientists in the field gathered to see his preview experiment on matter transmission of a live animal. He had been working hard for weeks on the transmitter and keeping up classes at the same time, which did not improve his disposition. Besides, he had a real goat for an experimental animal, and goats are notoriously hard on the nervous system.

This particular animal, at the moment the scientists entered, was straining at his rope, trying to get a mouthful of a tablecloth which graced a nearby table full of jars and retorts. Failing this, the goat exhibited that typical lack of discrimination in matters edible and began to chew on his rope.

I felt a little out of place among all these giant brains. My reason for being there was that I had been serving, during my college career, as sort of a factotum and fetch-and-carry man for Dr. Angstrom, and I was to take notes for him. I had acquired considerable affection for The Old Goat. Maybe that's one reason I hate to see his great scientific work kept under wraps because people still insist it's dangerous.

"I have proved to my own satisfaction that the matter transmitter works," Dr. Angstrom told the assembled scientists. "I have made a number of transmissions of inanimate matter. In theory, it should work just as well for animate objects and I have invited you to be present at the first test of this theory.

"I need not go into detail with you about the basic theory of matter transmission. The transmitter itself picks up the atomic and electronic 'image' of the object inside 

  P 1/3 next