The Mysterious stranger - Chapter 7

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Episode Transcript

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Chapter seven of The Mysterious Stranger byMark Twain. This is a LibriVox recording.
All LibriVox recordings are in the publicdomain. For more information or to
volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Patrick seventy nine. Chapter
seven. Margaret announced a party andinvited forty people. The date for it

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was seven days away. This wasfine opportunity. Margaret's house stood by itself,
and it could be easily watched allthe week. It was watched night
and day. Margaret's household went outand in as usual, but they carried

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nothing in their hands, and neitherthey nor others brought anything to the house.
This was ascertained. Rations for fortypeople were being fetched. If they
were furnished any sustenance, it wouldhave to be made on supremacies. It

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was true that Margaret went out witha basket every evening, but the spies
ascertained that she always brought it backempty. The guest arrived at noon and
filled the place. Father Adolf followedalso after a little while the astrologer,

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without invitation. The spies had informedin that neither at the back nor the
front had any parcels been brought in. He entered and found the eating and
drinking going on finely, and everythingprogressing in a lively and festive way.

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He glanced around and perceived that manyof the cook uses, and all of
the native foreign fruits were of aperishable character, and he also recognized that
these were fresh and perfect. Noapparitions, no incantations, no thunder all

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that settled it. This was witchcraft, and not only that, but of
a new kind, a kind neverdreamed of before. It was a prodigious
power, and illustrious power. Heresolved to discover its secret. The announcement

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of it would resound throughout the world, penetrate to the remotest lands, paralyze
all the nations with amazement, andcarry his name with it, and make
him renowned forever. It was awonderful piece of love, a splendid piece
of luck. The glory of itmade him dizzy. All the house made

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room for him. Margaret politely seatedhim. Ursela ordered Godfrey to bring a
special table for him. Then shedecked it and furnished it, and asked
for his orders. Bring me whatyou will, he said, and the

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two servants brought supplies from the pantrytogether with the white wine and red,
a bottle of each. The astrologer, who very likely had never seen such
delicacy before, poured out a beakof red wine, drank it off,
poured another, then began to eatwith a grand appetite. I was not

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expecting Satan, for it was morethan a weak I had seen or heard
of him. But now he camein. I knew it by the feel
o. People were in the wayand I could not see him. I
heard him apologizing for intruding, andhe was going away, but Margaret urged

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him to stay, and he thankedher and stayed. She brought him along,
introducing him to the girls, andto Medling, and to some of
the elders. And there was quitea rustle of whispers. He's the young
stranger we hear so much about andcan't get sight of. He is away

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so much, Oh, dear,dear, but he is beautiful. What
is his name, oh, Philiptraum Ah it fits you see. Traum
is German for dream. Oh whatdoes he do studying for the ministry?
They say his face is his fortune? Here be a ca ardnal some day

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there is his home? Are theydown somewhere in the tropics, they say,
has a rich uncle down there heads, so on and so on.
He made his way at once.Everybody was anxious to know him and to
talk to him. Everybody noticed howcool and fresh it was all of a

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sudden, and wondered at it.For they could see that the sun was
beating down the same as before outside, and the sky was clear of clouds.
But no one guessed the reason.Of course, the astrologer had drunk
his second beaker. He poured outa third. He set the bottle down,

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and by accident he overturned it.He seized it before it was much
spilled, and held it up tothe light, saying, evat, a
pity, un it is the royalwine. Then his face lighted with joy
or triumph for something, and hesaid, quick, bring a bowl.

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It was brought a coart one.He took up that two pint bottle and
began to pour. Went on pouring, and red liquor gurgling and gushing into
the white bowl, and rising higherand higher. Besides everybody starting and holding
their breath, And presently the bowlwas full to the brim. Look at

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the bottle, he said, holdingit up eight his fold. Yet I
glanced at Satan, and in thatmoment he vanished. Then Father Adolph rose
up, flushed and excited, crossedhimself and began to thunder in his great

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voice. Oh this house is bewitchedand a cursed And people began to cry
and shriek and crowd towards the door. I summoned this detected household to His
words were cut off short. Hisface became red and then purple, but

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he could not utter another sound.Then I saw Satan, a transparent film
melt into the Astrologer's body. Thenthe astrologer put up his hand and apparently
in his own voice, said,wait, remain where you are. All

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stopped where they stood. Bring afunnel ursula. Brought it, trembling and
scared, and he stuck it inthe bottle and took up the great bowl
and began to pour the vine back. The gazing and dazed with astonishment,
for they knew the bottle was alreadyfull before it began. He emptied the

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whole of the bowl into the bottle, then smiled out over the room,
chuckled and said, indifferently, Oh, it is nothing anybody can do it.
With my powers, I can evendo much more. Oh, a
frightened cry burst out everywhere. Ohmy god, he is possessed. And

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there was a tumultuous rush for thedoor, which swiftly emptied the house of
all who did not belong in itexcept us boys and Meedling. We boys,
we knew the secret and would havetold him if we could, but
we couldn't. We were very thankfulto Satan for furnishing that good help at

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the needful time. Margaret was paleand crying. Medley looked kind of petrified.
Ursula the same. But Godfried wasthe first. He couldn't stand.
He was so veak and scared,for he was of a witch family,

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you know, and it would bebad for him to be suspected. Agnes
came loafing in, looking pious andunaware. I wanted to rub up against
Ursula and be petted, but Ursulawas afraid of her and shrank away from
her, but pretending she was notmeaning any incivility, for she knew very

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well it wouldn't answer to have strainedrelations with that kind of a cat.
But we boys took Agnes and pettedher, for Satan would not have befriended
her if he had not had agood opinion of her, and that was
endorsement enough for us. He seemedto trust anything that hadn't the moral sense.

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Outside the guests, oh, panicstricken, scattered in every direction,
and fled in a pitiable state ofterror, and such a tumult as they
made with their running and sobbing andshrieking and shouting, that soon all the
village came flocking from the houses tosee what had happened. And they thronged

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the street and shouldered and jostled oneanother in excitement and fright. And then
Father Adolph appeared, and they fellapart in two vols, like the cloven
red sea. And presently down thislane the astrologer came, striding and mumbling,

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and there he passed a lake,searched back in packed masses, and
fell silent with awe, and theireyes stared, and their breasts heaved,
and several women fainted. And whenhe was gone by, the crowd swarmed
together and followed him at a distance, talking excitedly and asking questions and finding

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out the facts, finding out thefacts and passing them on to others with
improvements, improvements which soon enlarged thebowl of vine to a barrel, and
made the one bottle hold it all, and yet remain empty to the last.
When the astrologer reached the market square, he went straight to a juggler

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fantastically dressed, who was keeping threebrass bows in the air, and took
them from him, and faced aroundupon the approach couching crowd, and said,
this poor clan is ignorant of hisart. Come forward and see an
expert perform. So saying, hetossed the balls up, one after another,

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and set them whirling in a slender, bright oval in the air,
and then added another, then another, and another, and soon no one
was seen. Thence he got themadd adding the oval, lengthening all the
time, his hands smoothing so swiftlythat they were just a verb or a

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blur, and not distinguishable as hands. And such as counted, said there
were now one hundred balls in theair. The spinning great oval reached up
twenty feet in the air and wasshining and glinting, and a wonderful sight.

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Then he folded his arms and toldthe balls to go on spinning without
his help, and they did itafter a couple of minutes. He said
there that will do. And theawful broke and came crashing down, and
the ball scattered abroad and rolled everywhither and wherever one of them came.

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The people fell back in dread,and no one would touch it. It
made him laugh, and he scoffedat the people and called them cowards and
old women. Then he turned andsaw the tightrope, and said, foolish
people were daily wasting their money tosee a clumsy and ignorant violet degrade that

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beautiful art. Now they should seethe work of a master. With that,
he made a spring into the airand lit firm on the feet of
the rope. Then he the wholelength of it back and forth on one
foot, with his hands clasped overhis eyes. And next he began to

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throw somersaults, both backwards and forwards. And through twenty seven the people murmured.
For the astrologer of us old andalways before had been halting of movement,
and at times even lame. Buthe was nimbly enough now and went

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on with his antics in the liveliestmanner. Finally he sprang lightly down and
walked away, and passed up theroad and around the corner, and disappeared
then that great, pale, silent, solid crowd drew a deep breath and

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looked into one another's faces, asif they said, was it real?
Did you see it? Or wasit on the eye? And I was
dreaming? They broke into a lowmurmur of talking, and fell apart in
couples and moved towards their homes,still talking in that odd way, with

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faces close together, and laying ahand on an arm, and making others
such gestures as people make when theyhave been deeply impressed by something. Oh,
we boys followed behind our fathers andlistened, catching all we could have
what they said. And when theysat down in our house and continued their

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talk, they still had us forcompany. They were in a sad mood,
for it was certain they said thatdisaster for the village must follow this
awful visitation of witches and devils.And my father remembered that Father Adolf had
been struck dumb at the moment ofhis denunciation. They have not ventured to

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lay their hands upon an anointed servantof God before he said, And how
they could have dared it at thistime I cannot make out, For he
wore a crucifix isn't it so?Oh, yes, said the others.
We saw it. It is serious, friends, it is very serious.

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Always before we had a protection,and it has failed. The others shook
as with the sort of chill andmuttered those ords over. It has failed.
God has forsaken us. It istrue, said Seppie Vulmayer's father.

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There is no where to look forhelp. The people will realize this,
said Nicholas's father. The judge,and despair will take away their courage and
their energies. We have indeed fallenupon evil times. He sighed, and
Vulmeyer said in a troubled voice.The report of it all will go about

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the country, and our village willbe shunned. Us being under the displeasure
of God, the Golden Stag,will know hard times, O true neighbor,
said my father. All of uswill suffer, all in repute,
many in a state. And oh, good God, what is it that

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can come to finish us? Nameit m God's villain, the interdict.
It's like a thunderclap, and theywere like to spoon with the terror of
it. Then the dread of thiscalamity roused their energies, and they stopped

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brooding and began to consider ways toavert it. They discussed this, that,
and the other way, and talkedtill the afternoon was far spent.
Then confessed that at present they couldarrive at no decision. So they parted
sorrowfully with oppressed hearts, which werefilled with bodings. While they were saying

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their parting words, I slipped outand set my course for Market's House to
see what was happening there. Oh, I met many people, but none
of them greeted me. It oughtto have been surprising, but it was
not, for they were so distraughtwith fear and dread that they were not

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in their right minds. I thinkthey were white and haggard, and walked
like persons in a dream, theireyes open but seeing nothing, their lips
moving but uttering nothing, and worriedlyclasping and unclasping the hands without knowing it.

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At Margaret's it was like a funeral. She and Wilhelm sat together on
the sofa but said nothing, noteven holding hands. Both were steeped in
gloom, and Margaret's eyes were redfrom crying she had been doing. She

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said, I have been begging himso and come no more, And so
save himself alive. I cannot bearto be his murderer. This house is
bewitched, and no inmate will escapethe fire. But he will not,

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and he will be lost with therest. Wilhelms said he would not go
if there was danger for her.His place was by her, and there
he would remain. Then she beganto cry again, and it was all
so mournful that I wished I hadstayed away. There was a knock now,

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and Satan came in, fresh andcheery and beautiful, and brought that
winy atmosphere of his and changed thewhole thing. He never said a word
about what had been happening, norabout the awful fears which were freezing the
blood in the hearts of the community, but began to talk and rattle on

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about all manner of gay and pleasantthings, and next about music, an
artful stroke which cleared away the remnantsof Margaret's depression and brought her spirits and
her interests broad awake. She hadnot heard anyone talk so well and knowingly

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on that subject before, and shewas so uplifted by it and so charmed
that what she was feeling lit upher face and came out in her words,
and Wilhelm noticed it and did notlook as pleased as he ought to
have done. And next Satan branchedoff into poetry and recited some and did

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it well, and Margaret was charmedagain. And again Wilhelm was not as
pleased as he ought to have been, and this time Margaret noticed and was
remorseful. I fell asleep to pleasantmusic that night, the patter of upon

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the panes, and the dull glowingof distant thunder away in the night.
Satan came and roused me and said, come with me, Where shall we
go anywhere? So it is withyou. Then there was a fierce glare

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of sunlight, and he said,this is China. Ah. That was
a grand surprise, and made mesort of drunk with vanity and gladness to
think I had come so far,so much much farther than anyone else in

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our village, including Bartle Spurling,who had such a great opinion of his
travels. We buzzed around over theempire for more than half an hour and
saw the whole of it. Oh, it was wonderful the spectacles we saw,

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and some were beautiful, but otherswere horrible to think, for instance,
or however I may go into thatby and by, and also why
Satan chose China for his excursion insteadof another place. It would interrupt my
tale to do it now. Finallywe stopped flitting and lit. We sat

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upon a mountain, commanding a vastlandscape of mountain, range and gorge and
valley and plain and river, withcities and villages slumbering in the sunlight,
and a glimpse of blue sea atthe farther verge. It was a tranquil
and dreamy picture, beautiful to theeye and RESTful to the spirit. If

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we could only make a change likethat whenever we wanted to, the world
would be easier to live in thanit is. For A change of scene
shifts the mind's burdens to other shoulders, and banishes old, shopworn weariness from
mind and body. Both we talkedtogether, and I had the idea of

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trying to reform Satan and persuade himto lead a better life. I told
him all about the things he hadbeen doing and begged him to be more
considerate and stop making people unhappy.I said I knew he did not mean
any harm, but that he oughtto stop and consider the possible consequences of

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a thing before launching it in thatimpulsive and random way of his. Then
he would not make so much trouble. He was not hurt by this plain
speech. He only looked amused andsurprised. And then he said, what

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I do random things? Oh?Indeed, I never do. I stop
and consider possible consequences. Where isthe need I know what the consequences are
going to be? Always? Oh, Satan? Then how could you do

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these things? Well? I willtell you, and you must understand if
you can, you belonged to asingular race. Every man is a suffering
machine and a happiness machine combined.The two functions work together harmoniously with a

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fine and delicate precision on the giveand take principle. For every happiness turned
out in the one department, theother stands ready to modify it in the
sorrow or a pain, maybe adozen. In most cases, the man's
life is about equally divided between happinessand unhappiness. When this is not the

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case, the unhappiness predominates, always, never the other. Sometimes a man's
make and disposition are such that hismisery machine is able to do nearly all
the business. Such a man goesthrough life almost ignorant of what happiness is.

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Everything he touches, everything he doesbrings a misfortune upon him. You
have seen so such people. Tothat kind of a person, life is
not an advantage, is it.It is only a disaster. Sometimes for

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an hour's happiness, a man's machinerymakes him pay years of misery. Don't
you know that? It happens everynow and then I will give you a
case or two. Presently now,the people of your village are nothing to
me. You know that, don'tyou. I did not like to speak

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out too flatly, so I saidI had suspected it. Well, it
is true that they are nothing tome. It is not possible that they
should be. The difference between themand me is abysmal, immeasurable. They

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have no intellect, no intellect,nothing that resembles it. At a future
time, I will examine what mancauses mind and give you the details of
that chaos. Then you will seeand understand. Men have nothing in common

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with me. There is no pointof contact. They have foolish little feelings,
and foolish little vanities, and impertinencesand ambitions. Their foolish little life
is but a laugh, a sigh, and extinction. And they have no

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sense, only the moral sense.I will show you what I mean.
Here is a red spider, notso big as a pin's head. Can
you imagine an elephant being interested inhim? Caring whether he is happy or

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isn't, whether he is wealthy orpoor, or whether his sweetheart returns his
love or not, or whether hismother is sick or well, or whether
he is looked up to in societyor not, or whether his enemies will
smite him or his friends desert him, or whether his hopes will suffer light

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or his political ambitions fail, orwhether he shall die in the bosom of
his family or neglected and despised ina foreign land. Well, these things
can never be important to the elephant. They are nothing to him. He

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cannot shrink his sympathies to the microscopicsize of them. Man is to me
as the red spider is to theelephant. The elephant has nothing against the
spider. He cannot get down tothat remote level. I have nothing against

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man. The elephant is indifferent.I am indifferent. The elephant would not
take the trouble to do the spideran ill turn. If he took the
notion, he might do him agood turn, if it came his way

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and cost nothing. I have donemen good service, but no ill turns.
The elephant lives a century, thespider a day. In power,
intellect, and dignity. The onecreature is separated from the other by a

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distance which is simply astronomical. Yetin these, as in all qualities,
man is immeasurably further below me thanis this we spider below the elephant.
Man's mind clumsily and tediously and laboriouslypatches little trivialities together and gets a result

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such as it is. My mindcreates. Do you get the force of
that creates anything it desires, andin a moment creates without material, creates
fluids, solids, colors, anything, everything out of the airy nothing which

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is called thought. A man imaginesa silk thread, imagines a machine to
make it, imagines a picture,and then, by weeks of labor,
embroiders it on canvas. With thethread, I think the whole thing,

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and in a moment it is beforeyou created. I think a poem,
music, the record of a gameof chess, anything, and it is
there. This is the immortal mind. Nothing is beyond its reach. Nothing

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can obstruct my vision. The rockare transparent to me, and darkness is
daylight. I do not need toopen a book. I take the whole
of its contents into my mind ata single glance through the cover, and

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in a million years I could notforget a single word of it or its
place in the volume. Nothing goeson in the skull of man, bird,
fish, insect, or other creaturewhich can be hidden from me.
I pierced the learned man's brain witha single glance, and the treasures which

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cost him threescore years to accumulate aremine. He can forget, and he
does forget, But I retain now. Then I perceive by your thoughts that

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you are understanding me fairly well.Let us proceed. Circumstances might so fall
out that the elephant could like thespider, supposing he can see it,
but he could not love it.His love is for his own kind,

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for his equals. An angel's loveis sublime, adorable, divine, beyond
the imagination of man, infinitely beyondit, but it is limited to his

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own august order. If it fellupon one of your race, for only
an instant it would consume its objectto ashes. No, we cannot love
men, but we can be harmlesslyindifferent to them. We can also like

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them. Sometimes I like you andthe boys. I like Father Peter,
And for your sakes, I amdoing all these things for the villagers.
He saw that I was thinking asarcasm, and he explained his position.

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I have wrought well for the villagers. Though it does not look like it
on the surface. Your race neverknows good fortune from ill. They are
always mistaken the one for the other. It is because they cannot see into
the future. What I am doingfor the villagers will bear good fruits someday,

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in some cases to themselves, inothers to unborn generations of men.
No one will ever know that Iwas the cause, but it will be
done nonetheless true for all that amongyou. Boys. You have a game.

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You stand a row of bricks onend a few inches apart. You
push a brick. It knocks itsneighbor over. The neighbor knocks over the
next brick, and so on tillall the row is prostrate. That is
human life. A child's first actknocks over the initial brick, and the

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rest will follow. Inexorably. Ifyou could see into the future as I
can, you would see everything thatwas going to happen to that creature.
For nothing can change the order ofits life after the first event has determined

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it. That is, nothing willchange it, because each act unfailingly begets
an act, that act begets another, and so on to the end.
And the seer can look forward downthe line and see just when each act

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is to have birth from cradle tograve. Oh does God order the career?
Fordain it? No, the man'scircumstances and environment order it. His

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first act determines the second and allthat follow after. But suppose, for
argument's sake, that the man shouldskip one of these acts, and apparently
trifling one. For instance, supposethat it had been appointed that on a

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certain day, at a certain hourand minute and second and fraction of a
second, he should go to thewell, and he didn't go. That
man's career would change utterly from thatmoment, thence to the grave. It

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would be wholly different from the careerwhich his first actor as a child had
arranged for him. Indeed, itmight be that if he had gone to
the well, he would have endedhis career on a throne, and that
omitting to do it would set himupon a career that would lead him to

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beggary and a pauper's grave. Forinstance, if at any time, say
in boyhood, Columbus had skipped thetriflingest little link in the chain of acts
projected and made inevitable by his firstchildish act, it would have changed his

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whole subsequent life, and he wouldhave become a priest and died obscure in
an Italian village, and America wouldnot have been discovered for two centuries afterwards.
I know this. To skip anyone of the billion acts in Columbus's

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chain would have wholly changed his life. I have ex and his billion of
possible careers, and in only oneof them occurs the discovery of America.
You people do not suspect that allof your acts are of one size and

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importance. But it is true tosnatch at an appointed fly is as big
with fate for you as in anyother appointed act, oh as the conquering
of the continent, for instance.Yes, now, then, no man

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ever does drop a link. Thething has never happened, even when he
is trying to make up his mindas to whether he will do a thing
or not, that itself is alink, an act, and has its
proper place in his chain. Andwhen he finally decides an act, that

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also was a thing which he wasabsolutely certain to do. You see now
that a man will never drop alink in his chain. He cannot if
he made up his mind to trythat project, would itself be an unavoidable

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link, a thought bound to occurto him at that precise moment, and
made certain by the first act ofhis babyhood. Oh, it seems so
dismal. He is a prisoner forlife, I said sorrowfully, and cannot

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get free no of himself. Hecannot get away from the consequences of his
first childish act. But I canfree him. Oh, I looked wishfully.

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I have changed the careers of anumber of your villagers. I tried
to thank him, but found itdifficult, and let it drop. I
shall make some other changes. Youknow that little Lisa Brandt. Oh,

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yes, everybody does. My mothersays she is so sweet and so lovely,
that she is not like any otherchild. She says she will be
the pride of the village when shegrows up. And it's idle too,
just as she is now, Ishall change her future. Oh what make

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it better? I asked, yes, And I will change the future of
Nicholas. I was glad this timeand said, I don't need to ask
about his case. You will besure to do generously by him. It

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is my intention. Straight up.I was building that great future of Nikkis
in my imagination, and had alreadymade a renowned general of him and huffmist
at the court when I noticed thatSatan was waiting for me to get ready
to listen again. I was ashamedof having exposed my cheap imaginings to him,

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and was expecting some sarcasms, butit did not happen. He proceeded
with his subject. He appointed lifeis sixty two years. Oh that's grand,
I said, Lisas is thirty six. But as I told you,

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I shall change their lives and thoseages. Two minutes and a quarter from
now, Nicholas will wake out ofhis sleep and find the rain blowing in.
It was appointed that he should turnover and go to sleep again.
But I have appointed that he shouldget up and close the window first.

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That trifle will change his career entirely. He will rise in the morning,
two minutes later than the chain ofhis life had appointed him to arise.
By consequence, thenceforth nothing will everhappen to him, in accordance with the

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de tells of the old chain.He took out his watch and sat looking
at it for a few moments,and then he said, Nicholas has risen
to close the window. His lifeis changed, his new career has begun.

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There will be consequences. Oh,it made me feel creepy. It
was uncanny. But for this change, certain things would happen. Twelve days
from now. For instance, Nicholaswould save Lisa from drowning. He would

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arrive on the scene at exactly theright moment, four minutes past ten,
the long ago appointed instant of time, and the water would be shoal.
The achievement easy to attain. Buthe will arrive some seconds too late.

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Now Lisa will have struggled into deepwater. He would do his best,
but both will drown. Oh Satan, Oh dear Satan, I cried,
with the tears rising in my eyes. Oh Sathan, don't let it happen.

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I can't bear to lose Nicholas.He is my loving playmate and friend.
A think of Lisa's poor mother.I clung to him and begged and
pleaded, but he was not moved. He made me sit down again and
told me I must hear him out. I have changed Nicholas's life, and

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this has changed Lisa's. If Ihad not done this, Nicholas would save
Lisa. Then he would catch acold from his drenching. One of your
race is fantastic and desolating. Scarletfevers would follow with pathetic after effects.

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For forty six years he would liein his bed, a paralytic log death,
dumb, blind and praying night andday for the blessed relief of death.
Shall I change his life back?Oh? No, oh, not

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for the world in charity and pity. Leave it as it is. It
is best. So I could nothave changed any other link in his life
and done him so good a service. He had a possible billion careers,
but not one of them was worthliving. They were charged full with miseries

(48:16):
and disasters. But for my intervention, he would do his brave deed twelve
days from now, a deed begunand ended in six minutes. And yet
for all reward those forty six yearsof sorrow and suffering, I told you

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of. It is one of thecases I was thinking of a while ago
when I said, sometimes an actwhich brings the actor an hour's happiness and
self satisfaction is paid for or punishedby years of suffering. Oh, I've

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wondered what poor Lisa's early death wouldsave her from. He answer'd my thought.
From ten years of pain and slowrecovery from an accident, and then
from nineteen years pollution, shame,depravity, crime, ending with death at

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the hands of the executioner twelve days. Hence she will die. Her mother
was she would save her life ifshe could. Am I not kinder than
her mother? Oh? Yes,Oh, indeed yes, Advisor. Father

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Peter's case is coming on presently.He will be acquitted through unassailable proofs of
his innocence. Oh, why,Satan, how can that be? Do
you really think it? Indeed,I know it. His good name will

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be restored and the rest of hislife will be happy. Oh, I
can believe it. To restore hisgood name will have that effect. His
happiness will not proceed from that cause. I shall change his life that day

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for his good. He will neverknow his good name has been restored in
my mind and modestly. I askedfor particulars, but Satan paid no attention
to my thought. Next, minemind wandered to the astrologer, and I
wondered where he might be in themoon, said Satan with the fleeting sand,

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which I believed was a chuckle.I've got him on the cold side
of it too. He doesn't knowwhere he is and is not having a
pleasant time. Still, it isgood enough for him, a good place
for his star studies. I shallneed him presently. Then I shall bring

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him back and possess him again.He has a long and cruel and odious
life before him, but I willchange that, for I have no feeling
against him, and I am quitewilling to do him a kindness. I

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think I shall get him burned.Oh, he had such strange notions of
kindness. But the angels are madeso and do not know any better.
Their vains are not like our vays, and besides, human beings are nothing

(52:12):
to them. They think they areonly freaks. It seems to me odd
that he should put the astrologers sofar away. It could have dumped him
in Germany just as well, forhe would be handy far away, said

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Satan to me. No place isfar away. Distance does not exist for
me. The sun is less thana hundred million miles from here, and
the light that is falling upon ushas taken eight minutes to come. But

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I can make that flight, orany other, in a fraction of time,
so minute that it cannot be measuredby a watch. I have but
to think of the journey, andit is accomplished. I held out my
hand and said, the light liesupon it. Think it into a glass

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of vine satan. When he didit, I drank the vine. Break
the glass, he said, AndI broke it. There you see it
is real. The villagers thought thebrass balls were magic stuff and as perishable

(53:44):
as smoke. They were afraid totouch them. You are a curious lot
your race. But come along.I have business. I will put you
to bed, said Undone. Thenhe was gone, but his voice came

(54:07):
back to me through the rain anddarkness, saying, yes, tell Seppi,
but no other. It was theanswer to my thought. End of chapter seven