“Even so.” But Jessup did not pursue the subject. I relaxed a little. “I must tell you,” he said suddenly, “that I was suspicious of you.” Now I thought, now it comes; then I was amused: right at the end they arrive, when it was too late for them, or for me. “What form did your suspicions take?” My fear left me in one last flurry, like a bird departing in a cold wind for another latitude, leaving the branch which held it all summer through to wither in the snow. “I thought you might be the one we have so often heard of ... in legend, that is: the enemy of Cave.” “Which enemy?” “The nameless one or at least we know a part of his name if lutherist is derived from it.” “What made you suspect me?” “Because were I an enemy of Cave and were I forced to disappear, I should come to just such a town in just such a country as this.” “Perfectly logical,” I agreed. “But there are many towns in the Arab League, in Asia too. Why suppose one old man to be this mythical villain?” Jessup smiled. “Intuition, I’m afraid. A terrible admission from one who has been trained in the logic of Cavesword. It _seemed_ exactly right. You’re the right age, the right nationality ... in any case, I telephoned Dallas about you.” I took this calmly. “You talked to the Chief Resident himself?” “Of course not.” Jessup was surprised at my suggestion. “One just doesn’t call the Chief Resident like that. Only the senior Residents _ever_ talk to him personally. No, I talked to an old friend of mine who is one or the five principal assistants to the Historian General. We were in school together and his specialty is the deviationists of the early days.” “And what did you learn from this scholar?” Jessup gave me a most charming smile. “Nothing at all. There was no such person as I thought existed, as a number of people thought existed. It was all a legend ... a perfectly natural one for gossip to invent. There was a good deal of trouble at the beginning, especially over Cavesway. There was even a minority at Dallas which refused to accept the principle of Cavesway without which of course there could be no Establishment. According to the stories one heard as recently as my university days, ten years ago, the original lutherist had led the opposition to Iris, in the Council and out. For a time it looked as though the Establishment might be broken in two (this, you must remember since you were contemporary to it; fortunately, our Historical Office has tended more and more to view it in the long perspective and popular works on Cave now make no reference to it); in any case, there was an open break and the minority was soon absorbed by the majority.” “Painlessly?” I mocked him. Could he be telling the truth? or was this a trap? Jessup shrugged. “These things are never without pain. It is said that an attempt was made on our mother Iris’s life during the ceremony of Cave’s ashes. We still continue it, you know.” “Continue what?”