I grunted with amazement: I understood now what it was that had happened on the terrace. I felt a perfect fool. Of them all I alone had been unaware of what was going on beneath the surface and, in my folly, I had detonated the situation without knowing it. “_He_ knows too?” I asked weakly. “Of course he does; he’s on his guard every minute against Paul.” “Why has no one ever told me this?” Clarissa shrugged. “They had no idea which side you’d take. They still don’t know. Paul believes that you are with him and though he curses you for an impetuous fool, he’s decided that perhaps it’s a good idea now to bring all this into the open, at least among ourselves. He hopes for a majority vote in the directors’ meeting to force Cave to kill himself.” “And Cave?” “Has no wish to die ... sensible man.” “I am a fool.” “What I’ve always told you, dear.” Clarissa smiled at me. “I will say, though, that you are the only one of the lot who has acted for an impersonal reason, and certainly none of them understands you except me. I am on your side, in a way. Voluntary deaths don’t alarm me the way they do you but this obsession which Cave has of death being preferable to life may have ghastly consequences.” “What can I do?” “I haven’t the faintest idea. It’s enough that you were warned in advance.” “What would _you_ do?” “Exactly what I’m going to do: pull out for good and take a long trip.” “I mean if you were I.” She sighed. “Save your life, if possible; that’s all you can do.” “I have a few weapons, you know. I have the _Journal_ and I’m a director. I have friends in every Center.” This was almost true. I had made a point of knowing as many Residents as possible. “I also have Iris and Cave on my side since I’m willing to do all I can to keep him alive, that he _not_ become a supreme symbol.” “I wish you luck,” Clarissa was most cynical. She rose. “Now that I’ve done my bit of informing, I’m off.” “Europe?” “None of your business. But I _will_ tell you I won’t go back there: they’ve gone quite mad too. In Madrid I pretended to be a Catholic and I watched them put Cavites up before firing squads. Of course our people, despite persecution, are having a wonderfully _exciting_ time with passwords and peculiar college fraternity handclasps and so on.” She collected her gloves and handbag from the floor where, as usual, she had strewn them. “Well, now good-by.” She gave me a kiss; then she was gone. I never saw her again. 2 Events moved rapidly. I took to bolting my bedroom door at night and, during the day, I was careful always to have one or another of my assistants near me. It was a strange sensation to be living in a modern city with all its police and courts and yet to fear that, in a crisis, there would be no succor, no one to turn to for aid and protection. We were a separate government within the nation and the laws did not reach us.