He Walked Around the Horses

by H. Beam Piper

"He Walked Around the Horses" by H. Beam Piper is a science fiction short story published in 1948. Based on the true disappearance of diplomat Benjamin Bathurst in 1809, the story unfolds through letters and official reports investigating his vanishing. Piper imagines that Bathurst slipped into a parallel universe where the American Revolution failed and history took a dramatically different course. The tale cleverly uses historical figures in unexpected roles, building to a surprising revelation about the identity of one investigator.