John W. Campbell The Space Beyond

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themselves for a bribe instead. They fear to harm us now, who have in two
years brought them eight and one third millions of dollars in precious metal,
metals very rare and difficult to collect. This year we build our membership
by eleven thousand men and women. They will not quickly destroy the bringer of
so much revenue, nor the source of so much excellent health and good-nature
among the people of the country they own.
"But therefore I say this: The work of consolidation nears its end, and the
need of our revenue becomes less pressing as normal industry swells, and its
revenues swell, and some measure of prosperity returns. This third year,
therefore, let us expand to the limit Lord All may permit us.
'The Council of Lords is ended?"
"Aye," said the Lords.
And now Amos Tucker raised his new Staff of the Server, and held it before his
eyes, by chance, and he started back, his face frozen in sudden surprise.
There was a Sixth Lord! The Black Lord, Dread Barmak, a silhouette of utter
jet that seemed to stare straight to his heart, and dip slowly his massive
head in greeting to the new Server of All.
Frozen fingers gripped the heart of the Second Server as he turned stiffly to
the First Server. Tornsen smiled gravely, and for an instant Tucker caught a
fleeting twinkle in the kindly old eyes of Shan, Lord of Fulfillment ere he
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filed away with the others to his chamber.
"Come," said Tornsen, "there are further things that the Server of All should
understand."
"Aye-Aye, indeed," sighed Amos Tucker unsteadily.
XI
Chu Liang sat with unmoving face as the Shaman of the Western District bored
in upon the curiously garbed witness in the Testifier's Stand. There had been
little result of the Shaman's persistent questionings.
The Shaman's voice was growing sharper. "How old, though, is this sect,
Server?"
"A religion, Shaman, is ageless. A deity is everlasting, without knowable
beginning, without knowable end. These exist in the mist of creation and the
mist of the ultimate dissolution."
"The religion is not older than men, for without man there is no religion.
This is not as old as man, and therefore I ask its earliest inception,
Server."
"The earliest inception began about three thousand years ago in Greece. It
developed very slowly, till this day came when the better understanding of
All, and his message to men, the great need of his race all combined to make
his understanding of man and man's understanding of him better."
"The active spread of the religion is but three years old though, Amos
Tucker?"
"I have no name, save that of Server, Shaman. It has become my title and my
name. The great growth of All's Initiate has taken place in these three years
of stress, but his understanding has increased greatly and steadily over the
period of a hundred years, since the year 1890 of the old calender."
"Eleven thousand, nine hundred and eighty-seven members have joined the church
during this year, and paid the initiate tax of one thousand dollars. It is
said this tax is paid in large part by the Temple, yet no known source of
revenue is hi evidence. How then, has this revenue been gathered, this sum of
over eleven millions of dollars, and the greater sums spent in the
construction of the Temples, thirty-seven this year, and investment not less
than seventy millions of dollars I am told."
"The resources of All are infinite. I am of the Server class, and such is not
within my province. I cannot answer you that, Shaman."
"Who then is responsible for this thing?" "That is the province of Mens, Lord
of Wisdom." "He is forbidden by the religion's laws to leave the valley?"
"Yes. He does not leave the Temple." The Shaman's face was not so smoothly
impassive as it had been. "We have heard the testimony of Chu Liang upon the
destruction of life within the temple, and upon the complete sterilization of
the bodies."
The Second Server interrupted smoothly and gravely. "The works of Dis, Lord of
Death are not understood by men. As the people of All are welcomed within the
Temple, unfortunately the other peoples are not. That is the will of All,
which I serve, but do not influence."
"The Hindus have entered, an Oriental people, dark of skin," said the Shaman
softly.
"The understanding of All's will is not to men." "You understand sufficiently
to make efficient use of the Crystal of Life, and the Staff which you bear
with you so constantly."
"That is an achievement attained after three thousand years of study and
thought and deepest sincerity of purpose. The day may come when the entire
will of All is understood. To us, these things are greatly valued, and not to
be cast aside, for in them, in the crystals, resides something of the living
All, The Infinite, perceptible in his living flame."
And as he spoke, the silver Flame of All lanced upward, the dying stars
coruscating and vanishing.
"You and your people have been consistent in your refusal to part with this
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symbol of All."
"Only once, under the order of an officer of the Empire has any man of All
parted with his staff. The report has been read in this room that All
whispered in the crystal, and the man dropped dying saved only by the
beneficial effects of All's crystal in the hands of its owner, Tornsen the
Server. All is not a destroyer needlessly, and the people of All attempt to
prevent such suffering as the release of the Staff brings. Such is the will of
All."
The Shaman tried for long hours, and at the close of the long day's session
dismissed the Server, who had appeared voluntarily, and exasperatedly watched
him leave the room, to be joined by a dozen Novitiates of the House of All. A
dozen others appeared around him, calling softly. Gently his voice floated
back, clear and sharp. "It is not wise that the Flame be used here, since
there are those other than All's who would suffer by it. The House of All is
open to all men of his race, and the Teachers of All will come at any man's
call if need be." And the Shaman spoke softly to his colleagues. "I am
informed that the
Council of American Military Affairs wishes us to cease inquiry at this time,"
he said.
Chu Liang went quietly from the room to the building at the other end of the
Empire Park, and into the small room where two dozen men sat quietly supping.
Dark fell presently and they sat talking softly of many things. And a man came
in quietly, his face very white and his eyes seeming glazed and unseeing. He
was guided by the hands of two who stood on either side of him, uniformed
guards, and he was not alone in his paleness. The two at his side saluted, but
he in the center stared only ahead, dull-eyed. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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