The Project Gutenberg EBook of A World by the Tale, by Gordon Randall Garrett

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: A World by the Tale

Author: Gordon Randall Garrett

Illustrator: Leo Summers

Release Date: December 31, 2009 [EBook #30816]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WORLD BY THE TALE ***

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

Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction October 1963.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright
on this publication was renewed.

A WORLD BY THE TALE

This is about the best-hated author on Earth. Who was
necessarily pampered and petted because of his crime against
humanity....

BY SEATON McKETTRIG

ILLUSTRATED BY LEO SUMMERS

* * * * *

Exactly three minutes after the Galactic left the New York apartment
of Professor John Hamish McLeod, Ph.D., Sc.D., a squad of U.B.I. men
pushed their way into it.

[Illustration]

McLeod heard the door chime, opened the door, and had to back up as
eight men crowded in. The one in the lead flashed a fancily engraved
ID card and said: "Union Bureau of Investigation. You're Professor
Mac-Lee-Odd." It was a statement, not a question.

"No," McLeod said flatly, "I am not. I never heard of such a name." He
waited while the U.B.I. man blinked once, then added: "If you are
looking for Professor MuhCloud, I'm he." It always irritated him when
people mispronounced his name, and in this case there was no excuse
for it.

"All right, Professor McLeod," said the U.B.I. agent, pronouncing it
properly this time, "however you want it. Mind if we ask you a few
questions?"

McLeod stared at him for half a second. Eight men, all of them under
thirty-five, in top physical condition. He was fifteen years older
than the oldest and had confined his exercise, in the words of
Chauncey de Pew, to "acting as pallbearer for my friends who take
exercise." Not t