The Project Gutenberg EBook of Temple Trouble, by Henry Beam Piper

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Temple Trouble

Author: Henry Beam Piper

Illustrator: Rogers

Release Date: July 18, 2006 [EBook #18861]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TEMPLE TROUBLE ***

Produced by Greg Weeks, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from Astounding Science Fiction,
April, 1951. Extensive research did not uncover any
evidence that the copyright on this publication was renewed.

[Illustration]

TEMPLE TROUBLE

BY H. BEAM PIPER

* * * * *

Miracles to order was a fine way for the paratimers to
get mining concessions--but Nature can sometimes pull
counter-miracles. And so can men, for that matter....

Illustrated by Rogers

Through a haze of incense and altar smoke, Yat-Zar looked down from
his golden throne at the end of the dusky, many-pillared temple.
Yat-Zar was an idol, of gigantic size and extraordinarily good
workmanship; he had three eyes, made of turquoises as big as
doorknobs, and six arms. In his three right hands, from top to bottom,
he held a sword with a flame-shaped blade, a jeweled object of vaguely
phallic appearance, and, by the ears, a rabbit. In his left hands were
a bronze torch with burnished copper flames, a big goblet, and a pair
of scales with an egg in one pan balanced against a skull in the
other. He had a long bifurcate beard made of gold wire, feet like a
bird's, and other rather startling anatomical features. His throne was
set upon a stone plinth about twenty feet high, into the front of
which a doorway opened; behind him was a wooden screen, elaborately
gilded and painted.

Directly in front of the idol, Ghullam the high priest knelt on a big
blue and gold cushion. He wore a gold-fringed robe of dark blue, and a
tall conical gold miter, and a bright blue fa