The Project Gutenberg EBook of Time Crime, by H. Beam Piper

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Title: Time Crime

Author: H. Beam Piper

Release Date: May 5, 2007 [EBook #18151]
[This file was first posted on April 11, 2006]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's note.

This etext was produced from Astounding Science Fiction Magazine
February and March 1955. Extensive research did not uncover any
evidence that the copyright on this publication was renewed.

TIME CRIME

BY H. BEAM PIPER

_First of Two Parts. The Paratime Police had a real headache this
time! Tracing one man in a population of millions is easy--compared
to finding one gang hiding out on one of billions of probability lines!_

Illustrated by Freas

[Illustration:]

ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION

Kiro Soran, the guard captain, stood in the shadow of the veranda
roof, his white cloak thrown back to display the scarlet lining. He
rubbed his palm reflectively on the checkered butt of his revolver and
watched the four men at the table.

"And ten tens are a hundred," one of the clerks in blue jackets said,
adding another stack to the pile of gold coins.

"Nineteen hundreds," one of the pair in dirty striped robes agreed,
taking a stone from the box in front of him and throwing it away. Only
one stone remained. "One more hundred to pay."

One of the blue-jacketed plantation clerks made a tally mark; his
companion counted out coins, ten and ten and ten.

Dosu Golan, the plantation manager, tapped impatiently on his polished
boot leg with a thin riding whip.

[Illustration:]

"I don't like this," he said, in another and entirely different
language. "I know, chattel slavery's an established custom on this
sector, and we have to conform to local usages, but it sickens me to
have to haggle with these swine over the price of human beings. On
the Zarkantha Sector, we used nothing b