"She said that they must fornicate either with the girls or with Sibil herself; they could choose at will. All made haste to use the girls."
"No doubt the wiser alternative," said Bodwyn Wook.
"I might well have made the same choice. How else were these folk peculiar?"
Saffin could impart only vague impressions.
"They were quite odd, but it was all the same to Sibil, and now that I think of it, there was talk of another excursion: a party of four female ladies and four men. I wondered what activities Sibil had in mind."
"Perhaps she meant to employ your own expert services."
Saffin blinked.
"That is not considered my line of work."
"We shall never know, and speculation lacks all utility.
What more can you tell us?"
"Nothing whatever! Surely you are now convinced of my innocence. Am I free to go?"
Bodwyn Wook gave an incredulous snort.
"Do you not understand the awful deeds you have done? Do you feel no guilt? No shame?"
Saffin said earnestly: "Sir, you are old and wise, but you cannot apprehend every small and delicate phase of the cosmos!"
"Agreed! What, then?"
"Perhaps there is some trifling detail known to me but quite outside your range of expertise."
"Once more, agreed! Certain niceties of your work with the girls surpasses anything I might have hoped to achieve."
"All this being the case, would you think me disrespectful if I explained the rules by which you and I and all of us must control our conduct, if we wish to facilitate our lives?"
"Speak!" declared Bodwyn Wook.
"I am always willing to learn."
""Now' is 'now'! That is the liberating slogan! You must repeat it to yourself!
"Past' and 'bygone times'--these are vapid mental constructions, nothing else. What has happened is gone! It is vanished! It has become the abstraction of nothing! The so-called 'events of the past' might as well never have been, and it is the best part of expedience, and easier for all of us, to regard them in this light! Believe me, sir, not just this once but a thousand times over! Never succumb to bad habits! Brooding upon memories, wistful longing for some imaginary heyday: these are sure signs of ingressive senility. The proper way is to take life as it devolves: one must never grope to support himself on the smoke-wisps of what has already happened.
"Now' is 'now'!
All else is footling and useless. In practical terms, 'now' is when I wish to leave this dreary chamber, which smells of generation after generation of wosker, and once again rejoice in the open air and sunlight."
"And so you shall," declared Bodwyn Wook.
"I have been profoundly moved by your eloquence! You have earned yourself a stay of execution, if my colleagues will only agree!" He turned to the others.
"Saffin has uttered some home truths!
I now recommend that, rather than hanging these villains from a tree, or locking them forever in a dark dungeon, we allow them. a kindly and useful future. First, they shall go out to Thurben Island, and while they enjoy the sunlight and open space they shall destroy the dock and pavilion, and restore conditions to the wild state. Then it shall be on to Cape Journal, where the vast open space and the wild winds will satisfy even Saffin's untamed spirit! The pleasure of devoting his life to useful toil is an added bonus--icing on the cake, so to speak."
"I, too, was affected by Saffin's philosophy," said Egon Tamm.
"Your program is optimum, as Saffin will surely agree."
"Quite so," said Bodwyn Wook.
"Saffin, you are a lucky man.
Still, | for the moment, you must return to the jail." | Saffin was led away protesting. Bodwyn Wook sat back in his chair. | "It is difficult to sentence someone with so limpid a gaze and a smile | so artless ... Ah well, Saffin himself would be the first to decry | sentimentality. What have we learned?" s "There have been some interesting bits and pieces," said Scharde. :
"Of course, they raise more questions than they answer." ;
"I am puzzled by Sibil," said Egon Tamm.
"If I were conducting such excursions, I would employ a hostess who was charming and gracious certainly not Sibil."
"It is a puzzle," said Bodwyn Wook.
"But we must proceed.
Scharde, I believe that you have had a few words with our principals?"
"I can supply some small information. They are all middle-aged persons of genteel background. All describe themselves as persons of importance. Each is outraged by his confinement and several have uttered threats. All are aggrieved and believe themselves victims of a swindle."
