Eighty per cent of the volunteers died, and the agonies and remorse of their murderers would make a fascinating and horrible study, but that has no place in this history except to highlight the monstrosity of the times. Eighty per cent of the volunteers died, but 20 per cent jaunted. (The name became a word almost immediately.)

«Bring back the romantic age,» the Romantics pleaded, «when men could risk their lives in high adventure.»

The body of knowledge grew rapidly. By the first decade of the twenty-fourth century the principles of jaunting were established and the first school was opened by Charles Fort Jaunte himself, then fifty-seven, immortalized, and ashamed to admit that he had never dared Jaunte again. But the primitive days were past; it was no longer necessary to threaten a man with death to make him teleport. They had learned how to teach man to recognize, discipline, and exploit yet another resource of his limitless mind.

How, exactly, did man teleport? One of the most unsatisfactory explanations was provided by Spencer Thompson, publicity representative of the Jaunte Schools, in a press interview.

THOMPSON:Jaunting is like seeing; it is a natural aptitude of almost every human organism, but it can only be developed by training and experience.

REPORTER:You mean we couldn't see without practice?

THOMPSON:Obviously you're either unmarried or have no children preferably both.

(Laughter)

REPORTER:I don't understand.

THOMPSON:Anyone who's observed an infant learning to use its eyes, would.

REPORTER:But what is teleportation?

THOMPSON:The transportation of oneself from one locality to another by an effort of the mind alone.

REPORTER:You mean we can think ourselves from . . say . . . New York to Chicago?

THOMPSON:Precisely; provided one thing is clearly understood. In jaunting from New York to Chicago it is necessary for the person teleporting himself to know exactly where he is when he starts and where he's going.