 Who is Soup Gaskin?
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of Tomorrow April 1963 Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] He was as ancient as time—and as strange as his own frightful battle against incredible odds! In his room at the Elsby Commercial Hotel, Tremaine opened his luggage and took out a small tool kit, used a screwdriver to remove the bottom cover plate from the telephone. He inserted a tiny aluminum cylinder, crimped wires and replaced the cover. Then he dialed a long-distance Washington number and waited half a minute for the connection. Meantime, I'm not sitting in this damned room crouched over a dial. Project Officer for the hyperwave program—he's been on my neck day and night. Hyperwave is my baby, remember? You elected me to be a leg-man: now let me do it my way." And since it seems to be pinpointed in your home area—" "You don't have to justify yourself. Now I want answers, not questions! Tremaine left the hotel, walked two blocks west along Commerce Street and turned in at a yellow brick building with the words ELSBY MUNICIPAL POLICE cut in the stone lintel above the door. In a back room Tremaine said, "To everybody but you this is just a visit to the old home town. Between us, there's more." Tremaine covered the discovery of the powerful unidentified interference on the high-security hyperwave band, the discovery that each transmission produced not one but a pattern of "fixes" on the point of origin. It showed a set of concentric circles, overlapped by a similar group of rings. "I think what we're getting is an echo effect from each of these points of intersection. "The point is this, Jess: we think we've got it narrowed down to this section. This is where I should come up with the news that Old Man Whatchamacallit's got an attic full of gear he says is a time machine. Trouble is, folks around here haven't even taken to TV. "Course," said Jess, "there's always Mr. Bram ..." "Mr. Bram," repeated Tremaine. Comes in town maybe once a week, buys his groceries and hikes back out to his place by the river." "I've never seen any harm in Bram," said Jess. Bram has blue eyes and blond hair—or did before it turned white—and he talks just like everybody else.
 Local troublemaker
 Local librarian  Local politician  Local police officer  Local troublemaker