The Ghost of a Model T and Other Stories

Read The Ghost of a Model T and Other Stories for Free Online

Book: Read The Ghost of a Model T and Other Stories for Free Online
Authors: Clifford D. Simak
pack them.”
    He held out a package and it wasn’t until then that he saw the room.
    â€œUnk!” he yelled. “What happened? You got the place cleaned up!”
    Packer shook his head in bewilderment. “Something funny, Tony.”
    Tony walked in and stared around in admiration and astonishment.
    â€œYou sure did a job,” he said.
    â€œI didn’t do it, Tony.”
    â€œOh, I see. You hired someone to do it while you were up at our place.”
    â€œNo, not that. It was done this morning. It was done by that!”
    He pointed at the basket.
    â€œYou’re crazy, Unk,” said Tony, firmly. “You have flipped your thatch.”
    â€œMaybe so,” said Packer. “But the basket did the work.”
    Tony walked around the basket warily. He reached down and punched the yellow stuff with a stuck-out finger.
    â€œIt feels like dough,” he announced.
    He straightened up and looked at Packer.
    â€œYou aren’t kidding me?” he asked.
    â€œI don’t know what it is,” said Packer. “I don’t know why or how it did it, but I’m telling you the truth.”
    â€œUnk,” said Tony, “we may have something here!”
    â€œThere is no doubt of that.”
    â€œNo, that’s not what I mean. This may be the biggest thing that ever happened. This junk, you say, will really work for you?”
    â€œSomehow or other,” said Packer. “I don’t know how it does it. It has a sense of order and it does the work you want. It seems to understand you—it anticipates whatever you want done. Maybe it’s a brain with enormous psi powers. I was looking at a cover the other night and I saw this yellow stamp …”
    Packer told him swiftly what had happened.
    Tony listened thoughtfully, pulling at his chin.
    â€œWell, all right, Unk,” he said, “we’ve got it. We don’t know what it is or how it works, but let’s put our thinking into gear. Just imagine a bucket of this stuff standing in an office—a great big, busy office. It would make for efficiency such as you never saw before. It would file all the papers and keep the records straight and keep the entire business strictly up to date. There’d never be anything ever lost again. Everything would be right where it was supposed to be and could be located in a second. When the boss or someone else should want a certain file—bingo! It would be upon his desk. Why, an office with one of these little buckets could get rid of all its file clerks. A public library could be run efficiently without any personnel at all. But it would be in big business offices—in insurance firms and industrial concerns and transportation companies—where it would be worth the most.”
    Packer shook his head, a bit confused. “It might be all right, Tony. It might work the way you say. But who would believe you? Who would pay attention? It’s just too fantastic. They would laugh at you.”
    â€œYou leave all that to me,” said Tony. “That’s my end of the business. That’s where I come in.”
    â€œOh,” said Packer, “so we’re in business now.”
    â€œI have a friend,” said Tony, who always had a friend, “who’d let me try it out. We could put a bucket of this stuff in his office and see how it works out.”
    He looked around, suddenly all business.
    â€œYou got a bucket, Unk?”
    â€œOut in the kitchen. You’d find something there.”
    â€œAnd beef broth. It was beef broth, wasn’t it?”
    Packer nodded. “I think I have a can of it.”
    Tony stood and scratched his head. “Now let’s get this figured out, Unk. What we want is a sure source of supply.”
    â€œI have those other covers. They all have stamps on them. We could start a new batch with one of them.”
    Tony gestured impatiently. “No, that wouldn’t do. They are our

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