Project Gutenberg's Fifty Per Cent Prophet, by Gordon Randall Garrett

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Title: Fifty Per Cent Prophet

Author: Gordon Randall Garrett

Illustrator: Schoenherr

Release Date: October 25, 2009 [EBook #30337]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction September
1961. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the
U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.

FIFTY

PER CENT

PROPHET

By DARREL T. LANGART

_That he was a phony Swami was beyond doubt. That he was a
genuine prophet, though, seemed ... but then, what's the
difference between a dictator and a true prophet? So was
he...._

Illustrated by Schoenherr

* * * * *

Dr. Joachim sat in the small room behind his reception hall and held
his fingers poised above the keys of the rather creaky electrotyper on
his desk. The hands seemed to hang there, long, slender, and pale,
like two gulls frozen suddenly in their long swoop towards some
precious tidbit floating on the writhing sea beneath, ready to begin
their drop instantly, as soon as time began again.

All of Dr. Joachim's body seemed to be held in that same stasis. Only
his lips moved as he silently framed the next sentence in his mind.

Physically, the good doctor could be called a big man: he was
broad-shouldered and well-muscled, but, hidden as his body was beneath
the folds of his blue, monkish robe, only his shortness of stature was
noticeable. He was only fifty-four, but the pale face, the full,
flowing beard, and the long white hair topped by a small blue skullcap
gave him an ageless look, as though centuries of time had flowed over
him to leave behind only the marks of experience and wisdom.

The