“If a contemplation of Cavesword can ever be too long,” said Butler reverently. “Yes, Himmell wrote that even before Cavesword, in the month of March, I believe, though we’ll have to ask my colleague when he comes. He knows all the dates, all the facts. Remarkable guy. He has the brains of the team.” And Butler laughed to show that he was not entirely serious. “I think they might respond to pressure,” I said, treacherously. “One thing the Arabs respect is force.” “You may be right. But our instructions are to go slow. Still, I didn’t think it would be as slow as this. Why we haven’t been able to get a building yet. They’ve all been told by the Pasha fellow not to rent to us.” “Perhaps I could talk to him.” “Do you know him well?” “We used to play cards quite regularly. I haven’t seen much of him in the past few years but, if you’d like, I’ll go and pay him a call.” “He’s known all along you’re a Cavite, hasn’t he?” “We have kept off the subject of religion entirely. As you probably discovered, since the division of the world, there’s been little communication between East and West. I don’t think he knows much about the Cavites except that they’re undesirable.” “Poor creature,” said Butler, compassionately. “Outer darkness,” I agreed. “But mark my words before ten years have passed they will have the truth.” “I have no doubt of that, Communicator, none at all. If the others who come out have even a tenth of your devotion the work will go fast.” The easy words of praise came back to me mechanically from those decades when a large part of my work was organizational, spurring the mediocre on to great deeds ... and the truth of the matter has been, traditionally, that the unimaginative are the stuff from which heroes and martyrs are invariably made. “Thanks for those kind words,” said Butler, flushed now with pleasure as well as heat. “Which reminds me, I was going to ask you if you’d like to help us with our work once we get going?” “I’d like nothing better but I’m afraid my years of useful service are over. Any advice, however, or perhaps influence that I may have in Luxor....” There was a warm moment of mutual esteem and amiability, broken only by a reference to the Squad of Belief. “Of course we’ll have one here in time; though we can say, thankfully, that the need for them in the Atlantic states is nearly over. Naturally, there are always a few malcontents but we have worked out a statistical ratio of nonconformists in the population which is surprisingly accurate. Knowing their incidence, we are able to check them early. In general, however, the truth is happily ascendant everywhere in the really civilized world.” “What are their methods now?”