PROBLEM IN SOLID
BY GEORGE O. SMITH
Illustrated by Orban
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Astounding Science-Fiction, October 1947.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Martin Hammer should have been prepared for anything. As the world's foremost producer of motion pictures, he should have taken any situation from earthquake to fatherhood without a qualm or a turned eyebrow. But Hammer had not seen everything—yet.
A noise presented itself at Hammer's office door. Not the noise of knocking or tapping, nor even the racket made by attempts to breach the portal with a heavy blunt instrument. It was more like the sound of a dentist's drill working on wood, or perhaps one of those light burring tools, or maybe even a light scroll saw.
Then, with all the assurance in the world, a man's hand came through the door, the fingers clenched about an imaginary doorknob. The hand swung an imaginary door aside and as it moved, the wood of the real door fell to the floor in a pile of finely-ground sawdust.
Once the imaginary door was thrust aside, the rest of the intruder entered, leaving the exact outline of his silhouette in the door.