The girl opened her mouth, shut it again and thoughtfully studied her nails.

"I will not tolerate," Taylor went on, "a roundup or a registration, or ma.s.s treatment or any such violation of the Syndic's spirit."

Charles exploded: "d.a.m.n it, this is a matter of life or death to the Syndic!"

"No, Charles. Nothing can be a matter of life or death to the Syndic.

When anything becomes a matter of life or death to the Syndic, the Syndic is already dead, its morale, is already disintegrated, its credit already gone. What is left is not the Syndic but the Syndic's dead sh.e.l.l. I am not placed so that I can say objectively now whether the Syndic is dead or alive. I fear it is dying. The rising tide of neurotics is a symptom. The suggestion from you two, who should be imbued with the old happy-go-lucky, we-can't-miss esprit of the Syndic that we cower behind mercenaries instead of trusting the people who made us--that's another symptom. d.i.c.k Reiner's rise to influence on a policy of driving the Government from the seas is another symptom.

"I mentioned the devil we know as my choice. That's the status quo, even though I have reason to fear it's crumbling beneath our feet. If it is, it may last out our time. We'll sh.o.r.e it up with armed merchantmen and a militia. If the people are with us now as they always have been, that'll do it. The devil we don't know is what we'll become if we radically dislocate Syndic life and att.i.tudes.

"I can't back a fighting fleet. I can't back a regular army. I can't back any restrictive measure on the freedom of anybody but an apprehended criminal. Read history. It has taught me not to meddle, it has taught me that no man should think himself clever enough or good enough to dare it. _That_ is the lesson history teaches us.

"Who can know what he's doing when he doesn't even know why he does it?

Bless the bright Cromagnon for inventing the bow and d.a.m.n him for inventing missile warfare. Bless the stubby little Sumerians for miracles in gold and lapis lazuli and d.a.m.n them for burying a dead queen's hand-maidens living in her tomb. Bless Shih Hw.a.n.g-Ti for building the Great Wall between northern barbarism and southern culture, and d.a.m.n him for burning every book in China. Bless King Minos for the ease of Cnossian flush toilets and d.a.m.n him for his yearly tribute of Greek sacrificial victims. Bless Pharaoh for peace and d.a.m.n him for slavery. Bless the Greeks for restricting population so the well-fed few could kindle a watch-tower in the west, and d.a.m.n the prost.i.tution and sodomy and wars of colonization by which they did it. Bless the Romans for their strength to smash down every wall that hemmed their building genius, and d.a.m.n them for their weakness that never broke the b.l.o.o.d.y grip of Etruscan savagery on their minds. Bless the Jews who discovered the fatherhood of G.o.d and d.a.m.n them who limited it to the survivors of a surgical operation. Bless the Christians who abolished the surgical preliminaries and d.a.m.n them who subst.i.tuted a thousand cerebral quibbles. Bless Justinian for the Code of Law and d.a.m.n him for his countless treacheries that were the prototype of the wretched Byzantine millenium. Bless the churchmen for teaching and preaching, and d.a.m.n, them for drawing a line beyond which they could only teach and preach in peril of the stake.

"Bless the navigators who, opened the new world to famine-ridden Europe, and d.a.m.n them for syphillis. Bless the red-skins who bred maize, the great preserver of life and d.a.m.n them for breeding maize the great destroyer of topsoil. Bless the Virginia planters for the solace of tobacco and d.a.m.n them for the red gullies they left where forests had stood. Bless the obstetricians with forceps who eased the agony of labor and d.a.m.n them for bringing countless monsters into the world to reproduce their kind. Bless the Point Four boys who slew the malaria mosquitoes of Ceylon and d.a.m.n them for letting more Sinhalese be born then five Ceylons could feed.

"Who knows what he is doing, why he does it or what the consequences will be?

"Let the social scientists play with their theories if they like; I'm fond of poetry myself. The fact is that they have not so far solved what I call the two-billion-body problem. With brilliant hindsight some of them tell us that more than a dozen civilizations have gone down into the darkness before us. I see no reason why ours should not go down into the darkness with them, nor do I see any reason why we should not meanwhile enjoy ourselves collecting sense-impressions to be remembered with pleasure in old age. No; I will not agitate for extermination of the Government and hegemony over the Mob. Such a policy would automatically, inevitably and immediately entail many, many violent deaths and painful wounds. The wrong kind of sense-impressions. I shall, with fear and trembling, recommend the raising of a militia--a purely defensive, extremely sloppy militia--and pray that it will not Involve us in a war of aggression."

He looked at the two of them and shrugged. "Lee, so stern, Charles so grim," he said. "I suppose you're dedicated now." He looked at the desk.

He thought: _I have a faint desire to take the pistol from my desk and shoot you both. I have a nervous feeling that you're about to embark on a crusade to awaken Syndic Territory to its perils. You think the fate of civilization hinges on you. You're right, of course. The fate of civilization hinges on every one of us at any given moment. We are all components in the two-billion-body problem. Somehow for a century we've achieved in Syndic Territory for almost everybody the civil liberties, peace of mind and living standards that were enjoyed by the middle cla.s.ses before 1914--plus longer life, better health, a more generous morality, increased command over nature; minus the servant problem and certain superst.i.tions. A handful of wonderfully pleasant decades. When you look back over history you wonder who in his right mind could ask for more. And you wonder who would dare to presume to tamper with it._

He studied the earnest young faces. There was so much that he might say--but he shrugged again.

"Bless you," he said. "Gather ye sense impression while ye may. Some like pointer readings, some like friction on the mucous membranes. Now go about your business; I have work to do."

He didn't really. When he was alone he leaned back and laughed and laughed.

Win, lose or draw, those two would go far and enjoy themselves mightily along the way. Which was what counted.