Short Stories by Robert A. Heinlein Vol 2 Part 154

I had him - for the time being.

Here's some magic you may not have heard of,' I rapped out, and reached into a drawer behind the counter. I hauled Out a pistol and pointed it at his face.

Cold iron! Now go back to your owner and tell him there's cold iron waiting for him, too - both ways!'

He backed away, never taking his eyes off my face. If looks could kill, and so forth. At the door he paused and spat on the doorsill, then got out of sight very quickly.

I put the gun away and went about my work, waiting on two customers who came in just as Mr Nasty Business left. But I will admit that I was worried. A man's reputation is his most valuable a.s.set. I've built up a name, while still a young man, for dependable products. It was certain that this bird and his pals would do all they could to destroy that name - which might be plenty if they were hooked in with black magicians!

Of course the building-materials game does not involve as much magic as other lines dealing in less durable goods. People like to know, when they are building a home, that the bed won't fall into the bas.e.m.e.nt some night, or the roof disappear and leave them out in the rain.

Besides, building involves quite a lot of iron, and there are very few commercial sorcerers who can cope with cold iron. The few that can are so expensive it isn't economical to use them in building. Of course if one of the cafe-society crowd, or somebody like that, wants to boast that they have a summerhouse or a swimming pool built entirely by magic, I'll accept the contract, charging accordingly, and sublet it to one of the expensive, first-line magicians. But by and large my business uses magic only in the side issues - perishable items and doodads which people like to buy cheap and change from time to time.

So I was not worried about magic in my business, but about what magic could do to my business - if someone set out deliberately to do me mischief. I had the subject of magic on my mind, anyhow, because of an earlier call from a chap named Ditworth - not a matter of vicious threats, just a business proposition that I was undecided about. But it worried me, just the same,

I closed up a few minutes early and went over to see Jedson - a friend of mine in the cloak-and-suit business. He is considerably older than I am, and quite a student, without holding a degree, in all forms of witchcraft, white and black magic, necrology, demonology, spells, charms, and the more practical forms of divination. Besides that, Jedson is a shrewd, capable man in every way, with a long head on him. I set a lot of store by his advice.

I expected to find him in his office, and more or less free, at that hour, but he wasn't. His office boy directed me up to a room he used for sales conferences. I knocked and then pushed the door.

h.e.l.lo, Archie,' he called out as soon as he saw who it was. Come on in. I've got something.' And he turned away.

I came in and looked around. Besides Joe Jedson there was a handsome, husky woman about thirty years old in a nurse's uniform, and a fellow named August

Welker, Jedson's foreman. He was a handy all-around man with a magician's licence, third cla.s.s. Then I noticed a fat little guy, Zadkiel Feldstein, who was agent for a good many of the second-rate magicians along the street, and some few of the first-raters. Naturally, his religion prevented him from practising magic himself, but, as I understand it, there was no theological objection to his turning an honest commission. I had had dealings with him; he was all right.

This ten-percenter was clutching a cigar that had gone out, and watching intently Jedson and another party, who was slumped in a chair.

This other party was a girl, not over twenty-five, maybe not that old. She was blonde, and thin to the point that you felt that light would s.h.i.+ne through her.

She had big, sensitive hands with long fingers, and a big, tragic mouth. Her hair was silver-white, but she was not an albino. She lay back in the chair, awake but apparently done in. The nurse was chafing her wrists.

What's up?' I asked. The kid faint?'

Oh no,' Jedson a.s.sured me, turning around. She's a white witch - works in a trance. She's a little tired now, that's all.'

What's her speciality?' I inquired.

Whole garments.'

Huh?' I had a right to be surprised. It's one thing to create yard goods; another thing entirely to turn out a dress, or a suit, all finished and ready to wear. Jedson produccd and merchandised a full line of garments in which magic was used throughout. They were mostly sportswear, novelty goods, ladies' fas.h.i.+ons, and the like, in which style, rather than wearing qualities, was the determining factor. Usually they were marked One Season Only', but they were perfectly satisfactory for that one season, being backed up by the consumers' groups.

But they were not turned out in one process. The yard goods involved were made first, usually by Welker. Dyes and designs were added separately. Jedson had some very good connexions among the Little People, and could obtain shades and patterns from the Half World that were exclusive with him. He used both the old methods and magic in a.s.sembling garments, and employed some of the most talented artists in the business. Several of his dress designers free-lanced their magic in Hollywood under an arrangement with him. All he asked for was screen credit.

But to get back to the blonde girl- That's what I said,' Jedson answered, whole garments, with good wearing qualities too. There's no doubt that she is the real

McCoy; she was under contract to a textile factory in Jersey City. But I'd give a thousand dollars to see her do that whole-garment stunt of hers just once. We haven't had any luck, though I've tried everything but red-hot pincers.'

The kid looked alarmed at this, and the nurse looked indignant. Feldstein started to expostulate, but Jedson cut him short. That was just a figure of speech; you know I don't hold with black magic. Look, darling,' he went on, turning back to the girl, do you feel like trying again?' She nodded, and he added, All right - sleepy time now!'

And she tried again, going into her act with a minimum of groaning and spitting.

The ectoplasm came out freely and, sure enough, it formed into a complete dress instead of yard goods. It was a neat- little dinner frock, about a size sixteen, sky blue in a watered silk. It had cla.s.s in a refined way, and I knew that any jobber who saw it would be good for a sizeable order.

Jedson grabbed it, cut off a swatch of cloth and applied his usual tests, finis.h.i.+ng by taking the swatch out of the microscope and touching a match to it.

He swore. d.a.m.n it,' he said, there's no doubt about it. It's not a new integration at all; she's just reanimated an old rag!'

Come again,' I said. What of it?' huh? Archie, you really ought to study up a bit. What she just did isn't really creative magic at all. This dress' - he picked it up and shook it - had a real existence someplace at some time. She's gotten hold of a piece of it, a sc.r.a.p or maybe just a b.u.t.ton, and applied the laws of homeopathy and contiguity to produce a simulacrum of it.'

I understood him, for I had used it in my own business. I had once had a section of bleachers, suitable for parades and athletic events, built on my own grounds by old methods, using skilled master mechanics and the best materials - no iron, of course. Then I cut it to pieces. Under the law of contiguity, each piece remained part of the structure it had once been in. Under the law of homeopathy, each piece was potentially the entire structure. I would contract to handle a

Fourth of July crowd, or the spectators for a circus parade, and send out a couple of magicians armed with as many fragments of the original stands as we needed sections of bleachers. They .vould bind a spell to last twenty-four hours around each piece. That way the stands cleared themselves away automatically.

I had had only one mishap with it; an apprentice magician, who had the ch.o.r.e of being on hand as each section vanished and salvaging the animated fragment for further use, happened one day to pick up the wrong piece of wood from where one section had stood. The next time we used it, for the Shrine convention, we found we had thrown up a brand-new four- room bungalow at the corner of Fourteenth and

Vine instead of a section of bleachers. It could have been embarra.s.sing, but I stuck a sign on it

MODEL HOME NOW ON DISPLAY and ran up another section on the end.

An out-of-town concern tried to chisel me out of the business one season, but one of their units fell, either through faulty workmans.h.i.+p on the pattern or because of unskilled magic, and injured several people. Since then I've had the field pretty much to myself.

I could not understand Joe Jedson's objection to reanimation. What difference does it make?' I persisted. It's a dress, isn't it?'

Sure, it's a dress, hut it's not a new one. That style is registered somewhere and doesn't belong to me. And even if it were one of my numbers she had used, reanimation isn't what I'm after. I can make better merchandise cheaper without it; otherwise I'd be using it now.'

The blonde girl came to, saw the dress, and said, Oh, Mr Jedson, did I do it?'

He explained what had happened. Her face fell, and the dress melted away at once. Don't you feel bad about it, kid,' he added, patting her on the shoulder, you were tired. We'll try again tomorrow. I know you can do it when you're not nervous and overwrought.'

She thanked him and left with the nurse. Feldstein was full of explanations, but

Jedson told him to forget it, and to have them all back there at the same time tomorrow. When we were alone I told him what had happened to me.

He listened in silence, his face serious, except when I told him how I had kidded my visitor into thinking I had second sight. That seemed to amuse him.

You may wish that you really had it - second sight, I mean,' he said at last, becoming solemn again. This is an unpleasant prospect. Have you notified the

Better Business Bureau?'

I told him I hadn't.

Very well then. I'll give them a ring and the Chamber of Commerce too. They probably can't help much, but they are ent.i.tled to notification, so they can be on the lookout for it.'

I asked him if he thought I ought to notify the police. He shook his head. Not just yet. Nothing illegal has been done, and, anyhow, all the chief could think of to cope with the situation would be to haul in all the licensed magicians in town and sweat them. That wouldn't do any good, and would just cause hard feeling to be directed against you by the legitimate members of the profession.

There isn't a chance in ten that the sorcerers connected with this outfit are licensed to perform magic; they are almost sure to be clandestine. If the police know about them, it's because they are protected. If they don't know about them, then they probably can't help you.'

What do you think I ought to do?'