At the end of the second year, there were more enrolled Cavites than
any other single religious denomination including the Roman Catholic.
I published this fact and the accompanying statistics with a certain
guilt which, needless to say, my fellow directors did not share. The
result of this revelation was a special Congressional hearing.
In spite of the usual confusion attendant upon any of the vigorous
old Congress’s hearteningly incompetent investigations, this event
was well-staged, preparing the way politically, to draw the obvious
parallel, for a new Constantine.
It took place in March and it was the only official journey any of
us, excepting Paul, had made from our yellow citadel for two years.
The entire proceedings were televised, a bit of unwisdom on the part
of the hostile Congressmen who, in their understandable eagerness for
publicity, overlooked their intended victim’s complete mastery of that
medium. I did not go to Washington but I saw Cave and Paul and Iris off
from the roof of the Center. Because of the crowds which had formed in
the streets, hoping for a glimpse of Cave, the original plan to fly to
Washington aboard a chartered airplane was discarded at the last minute
and two helicopters were ordered instead to pick up Cave and his party
on the terrace in front of the penthouse, a mode of travel not then
popular.
Paul saw to it that the departure was filmed. A dozen of us who were
not going stood about among the trees and bushes while the helicopters
hovered a few feet above the roof, their ladders dangling. Then Cave
appeared with Paul and Iris while a camera crew recorded their farewell
and departure. Cave looked as serene as ever, quite pale in his dark
blue suit and white shirt ... a small austere figure with downcast
eyes. Iris was bright-faced from the excitement and cold; there was a
sharp wind on the roof which tangled her hair.
“I’m terrified,” she whispered fiercely in my ear as we shook hands
formally for the camera.
“Paul seems in full command,” I said, comfortingly. And Paul, not Cave,
was making a short speech to the camera while Cave stood alone and
still; then, in a gust of wind, they were gone and I went to my office
to watch the hearings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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