You'll Die Yesterday Read online

A clang of something metallic falling to the floor jerked their attention back. Sigmund Archer had vanished. The handcuffs that had been on his wrists were on the floor.

  "I caught it out of the corner of my eye," one of the two detectives said. "He became sort of transparent like he was made of glass, and vanished."

  "And," Trowbridge said dryly, "he could have done it at any time since he came in here."

  The phone shrilled with startling suddenness. It was Trowbridge who recovered from the paralysis of surprise first. He took two quick strides to the phone and scooped it up.

  "Yes," he said curtly. Then, "Okay, stand by down there. Don't let him out if he goes back down." He dropped the phone and looked at the others. Fred Stone just entered the elevator, " he said quietly.

  The knock at the door was three regularly spaced polite raps. Every eye in the room was fixed intently on the shadowy movements on the frosted glass that accompanied the knocking.

  It was Trowbridge who went to the door, motioning Jan back.

  Jan looked at Paula desperately, then took a deep breath. Paula, eyes round, turned from him back to the door as Trowbridge twisted the knob.

  After he had twisted the knob Trowbridge seemed to hesitate a second. Then he jerked the door open and reached out, seizing the startled Fred Stone by the arm and jerking him off balance, propelling him into the room.

  "Fred!" Jan said swiftly. "You're going to be killed!"

  But the hurtling figure of Fred Stone had vanished before their eyes, leaving Trowbridge with a stupid surprise on his face as he looked at his empty fingers.

  "Now you've done it!" Jan said. "You scared the wits out of him with that stupid play."

  "Maybe he'll be back," Trowbridge said, still looking at his hand peculiarly.

  "Be back?" Jan echoed angrily. "Don't you remember what he said just before he died? That he wished he had waited to hear what I was trying to say to him? He won't be back. He's gone back in time to attend that lecture and ask his questions--and be killed."

  "I guess you're right," Trowbridge said, shaking his hand jerkily as if it was asleep. "So there's no use sticking around here any longer." He gave his two subordinates a significant look and went to the door.

  He opened it and stood to one side while they went out. His eyes were on Jan, sympathetically. Jan was glaring at him, so angry he was speechless.

  "I wouldn't bother about it too much if I were you, Jan," he said kindly. "Remember you have a secret you'd die rather than reveal. A scientific secret that could conceivably do a lot of damage in the wrong hands--now or two hundred years from now. Me, I probably wouldn't understand it if you told it to me. One thing I do know though is cops. Being one myself I can tell one a mile off." A grin flashed across his face as he backed out of the door. He closed it until only his face and part of his body were visible. "You see, Jan," he said softly, "Sigmund Archer was a cop."

  He withdrew his head. The door closed softly.

  About the Author

  Roger Phillips Graham (1909-1965) was an American science fiction writer who most often wrote under the name Rog Phillips, but also used other names, including A. R. Steber , Craig Browning , Robert Arnette , John Wiley , Melva Rogers , Gerald Vance , Inez McGowan , Mallory Storm , Franklin Bahl , Drew Ames , Sanandana Kumara , Roger Graham , Charles Lee, Peter Worth , Milton Mann , Roger P. Graham. He is most associated with Amazing Stories and is best known for short fiction. He was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novelette in 1959.

  Other works by Rog Phillips

  So Shall Ye Reap

  These Are My Children

  Vacation in Shasta

  Atom War

  The Mutants

  Battle of the Gods

  Dual Personality

  The House

  The Uninvited Jest

  The Despoilers

  High Ears

  And Eve Was

  The Venusian (by Craig Browning)

  Armageddon (by Craig Browning)

  Tillie (by Craig Browning)

  Brainstorm (by Alexander Blade)

  Hate

  Twice to Die

  The Supernal Note

  Starship from Sirius

  The Cube Root of Conquest

  The Unthinking Destroyer

  The Form of Hunger (by Craig Browning)

  The Runaround (by Craig Browning)

  Window to the Future (by Peter Worth)

  The Robot and the Pearly Gates (by Peter Worth)

  The Last Stronghold ( by Chester Ruppert)

  I Died Tomorrow (by Peter Worth)

  Unforseen (by Roger P. Graham)

  Lunar Holiday (by Peter Worth)

  The Can Opener

  M'Bong-Ah

  Quite Logical

  She

  Unthinkable

  The Shortcut

  The Robot Men of Bubble City

  The Awakening

  The Tangential Semanticist

  Incompatible

  Matrix

  Planet of the Dead

  Beyond the Matrix of Time

  The Miracle of Elmer Wilde

  Seven Come A-Lovin' (by Craig Browning)

  Lorelei Street (by Craig Browning)

  The Exteroceptor Deceptor (by Craig Browning)

  The Friendly Wolf (by Craig Browning)

  Goddess of the Volcano (by Craig Browning)

  Spawn of Darkness (by Craig Browning)

  Two Against Venus (by Craig Browning)

  Vial of Immortality (by Craig Browning)

  Victims of the Vortex (by Clinton Ames)

  Read It and Weep! (by Peter Worth)

  Warrior Queen of Mars (by Alexander Blade)

  Slaves of the Crystal Brain (by William Carter Sawtelle)

  Null F (by Peter Worth)

  This Time

  To Give Them Welcome (by Melva Rogers)

  The Pranksters

  Typewriter from the Future (by Peter Worth)

  Detour from Tomorrow

  The Fatal Technicality

  Live in an Orbit and Love It! (by Craig Browning)

  The Face Beyond the Veil (by Franklin Bahl)

  The Lost Bomb

  The Mental Assassins (by Gregg Conrad)

  "If You Were Me . . ."

  Holes in My Head

  Weapon from the Stars

  A Man Named Mars (by A. R. Steber)

  One for the Robot - Two for the Same . . .

  Love My Robot

  Rescue Beacon (by Craig Browning)

  Bubastis of Egupt (by Craig Browning)

  A Matter of Stupidity (by Robert Arnette)

  The Master Ego (by Peter Worth)

  Courtesy Call (by A. R. Steber)

  Empire of Evil (by Robert Arnette)

  "You'll Die Yesterday!"

  Secret of the Flaming Ring (by P. F. Costello)

  In What Dark Mind

  Vampire of the Deep

  The Man from Mars

  Who Sows the Wind . . .

  The Imitators (by Peter Worth)

  The President Will See You . . .

  Remember Not to Die!

  "Step Out of Your Body, Please!"

  Checkmate for Aradjo

  The Unfinished Equation (by Robert Arnette)

  Moon of Twelve Gods (by Robert Arnette)

  No Greater Wisdom

  The Visitors

  The Old Martians

  A More Potent Weapon

  The World of Whispering Wings

  Destiny Uncertain

  The Man Who Lived Twice

  Black Angels Have No Wings

  All the Answers

  Adam's First Wife

  I'll See You in My Dreams

  It's in the Cards

  “It's Like This”

  Visitor from Darkness

  The Sorceress

  Frontiers Beyond the Sun (by Mallory Storm)

  Ye of Little Faith

  The Menace

  The Lady Killer (by Franklin Bahl)

/>   Your Funeral Is Waiting

  The Lost Ego

  The Phantom Truck Driver

  The Cyberene

  Pariah

  From This Dark Mind

  Go Visit Your Grave

  The Cosmic Junkman

  Repeat Performance

  The Devil's Dollhouse

  Assignment to Life (by Sanandana Kumara)

  The Kid With the Beautiful Hands ( by Melva Rogers)

  Earthbound (by Charles Lee)

  . . . Lest Ye Be Judged (by Sanandana Kumara)

  Mistress of the Kama-Loka (by Peter Worth)

  Ming Cha (by Milton Mann)

  In the Twinkling of an Eye (by Sanandana Kumara)

  The Holy Man (by Sanandana Kumara)

  What Is to Be. . . (by Melva Rogers)

  The Golden Kitten (by Charles Lee)

  God Is in the Mountain (by Peter Worth)

  Am I My Dark Brother's Keeper (by Sanandana Kumara)

  A Handful of Sand

  Teach Me to Kill

  Homestead

  Executioner No. 43

  Game Preserve

  Truckstop

  The Cosmic Trap (by Gerald Vance)

  World of Traitors

  Captain Peabody

  Lefty Baker's Nuthouse

  Venusian, Get Out!

  It's Better Not to Know

  Ground Leave Incident

  Refeuling Station

  Prophecy, Inc.

  Services, Incorporated

  Space Is for Suckers (by P. F. Costello)

  Jason's Secret

  In This Dark Mind (by Inez McGowan)

  The Yellow Pill

  Rat in the Skull

  Unto the Nth Generation

  The Gallery

  The Creeper in the Dream

  Keepers in Space

  The Only One That Lived

  Camouflage

  The Lurker