"Light was the symbol I tried to give them," Chris went on gently. "The Cross was the symbol they adopted. The pain of self-sacrifice was obvious to them. The subjective reward--incomprehensible. Thus they changed it all. I told them of many mansions. They chose this mansion or that--and scoured each other off the earth, to set one heaven in place of the heaven of those they defeated. Holy wars! Is such a thing conceivable to God as a holy war? Alas. The words--the images--the effort is still uncomprehended. I said Light. I said Truth. I said Freedom. I meant enlightenment. Yet nearly every church that uses my name is a wall against light and a rampart against enlightenment, using fear, not love, to chain the generations in terror and pain and ignorance." He pointed again. "And now--this is called civilization, and in my name, also! Enlightenment! Knowledge!" He fell silent; but at last, smiled a little. "A few knew. A few will always know. Francis of Assisi--he guessed. Thomas à Kempis. Most who knew were church heretics in their day--as I was in mine. And what I say is still heresy." He became silent again. He looked from face to face. "Colonel. You are a soldier. You are ready by your profession to die for other men. It is a noble readiness. Will you turn back?" The colonel retreated a step and leaned against the riveted bulkhead. Sweat once more broke upon his countenance, poured down; he crossed himself again and Chris sadly shook his head. Finally the colonel could speak. "You ask me to be disloyal." "I ask you--only to decide in your own self--what loyalty is." "I cannot turn, then." "Learned?" The journalist's eyes were steady--and tragic. "Nothing would be gained. Others would merely follow in place of us." "I but asked you to decide for yourself--not for them." The journalist flushed. "In my profession we do not even agree to stand ready to die for other men. I am here not to determine, but merely to report." "Sopho?" The physicist's eyes blazed suddenly. "Yes," he said. "I'll go back! I was never certain. I am always ready to re-study a problem!" Chris put his arm around the old man. "_You!_" But the scientist pulled away. "On one condition." "And that?" "Prove yourself!" "But, doctor, it is you who must provide the testimony--!" "Empirical evidence is my condition. Something measurable. Suspend, for one moment, one natural principle--"