“Will you help us, Garth, ” Itin said. “We have a question. “

  “I’ll answer any questions you ask, ” Garth said, with more than a hint of misgiving. “What is it?”

  “Is there a God?”

  “What do you mean by ‘God’?” Garth asked in turn. What should he tell them? What had been going on in their minds that they should come to him with this question?

  “God is our Father in Heaven, who made us all and protects us. Whom we pray to for aid, and if we are Saved will find a place… “

  “That’s enough, ” Garth said. “There is no God. “

  All of them had their mouths open now, even Itin, as they looked at Garth and thought about his answer. The rows of pink teeth would have been frightening if he hadn’t known these creatures so well. For one instant he wondered if perhaps they had been already indoctrinated and looked upon him as a heretic, but he brushed the thought away.

  “Thank you, ” Itin said, and they turned and left.

  Though the morning was still cool Garth noticed that he was sweating, and he wondered why.

  The reaction was not long in coming. Itin returned that same afternoon. “Will you come to the church?” he asked. “Many of the things that we study are difficult to learn, but none as difficult as this. We need your help because we must hear you and Father Mark talk together. This is because he says one thing is true and you say another is true and both cannot be true at the same time. We must find out what is true. “

  “I’ll come, of course, ” Garth said, trying to hide the sudden feeling of elation. He had done nothing, but the Weskers had come to him anyway. There could still be grounds for hope that they might yet be free.

  It was hot inside the church, and Garth was surprised at the number of Weskers who were there, more than he had seen gathered at any one time before. There were many open mouths. Father Mark sat at a table covered with books. He looked unhappy but didn’t say anything when Garth came in. Garth spoke first.

  “I hope you realize this is their idea—that they came to me of their own free will and asked me to come here?”

  “I know that, ” the priest said resignedly. “At times they can be very difficult. But they are learning and want to believe, and that is what is important. “

  “Father Mark, Trader Garth, we need your help, ” Itin said. “You both know many things that we do not know. You must

  help us come to religion, which is not an easy thing to do. ” Garth started to say something, then changed his mind. Itin went on. “We have read the Bibles and all the books that Father Mark gave us, and one thing is clear. We have discussed this and we are all agreed. These books are very different from the ones that Trader Garth gave us. In Trader Garth’s books there is a universe which we have not seen, and it goes on without God, for He is mentioned nowhere, we have searched very carefully. In Father Mark’s books He is everywhere and nothing can go on without Him. One of these must be right and the other must be wrong. We do not know how this can be, but after we find out which is right perhaps we will know. If God does not exist… “

  “Of course He exists, my children, ” Father Mark said in a voice of heartfelt intensity. “He is our Father in Heaven who has created us all…. “

  “Who created God?” Itin asked, and the murmur ceased and every one of the Weskers watched Father Mark intensely. He recoiled a bit under the impact of their eyes, then smiled.

  “Nothing created God, since He is the Creator. He always was… “

  “If He always was in existence—why cannot the universe have always been in existence? Without having a creator?” Itin broke in with a rush of words. The importance of the question was obvious. The priest answered slowly, with infinite patience.

  “Would that the answers were that simple, my children. But even the scientists do not agree about the creation of the universe. While they doubt—we who have seen the light know. We can see the miracle of creation all about us. And how can there be creation without a creator? That is He, Our Father, Our God in Heaven. I know that you have doubts and that is because you have souls and free will. Still the answer is simple. Have faith, that is all you need. Just believe. “

  “How can we believe without proof?”

  “If you cannot see that this world itself is proof of His existence, then I say to you that belief needs no proof—if you have faith!”

  A babble of voices arose in the room and more of the Wesker mouths were open now as they tried to force their thoughts through the tangled skein of words and separate the thread of truth.

  “Can you tell us, Garth?” Itin asked, and the sound of his voice quieted the hubbub.

  “I can tell you to use the scientific method which can examine all things—including itself—and give you answers that can prove the truth or falsity of any statement. “

  “That is what we must do. ” Itin said. “We had reached the same conclusion. ” He held a thick book before him, and a ripple of nods ran across the watchers. “We have been studying the Bible as Father Mark told us to do, and we have found the answer. God will make a miracle for us, thereby proving that He is watching us. And by this sign we will know Him and we will go to Him. “

  “This is a sign of false pride, ” Father Mark said. “God needs no miracle to prove his existence. “

  “But we need a miracle!” Itin shouted, and though he wasn’t human there was still the cry of need in his voice. “We have read here of many smaller miracles, loaves, fishes, wine, snakes—many of them, for much smaller reasons. Now all He need do is make a miracle and He will bring us all to Him—the wonder of an entire new world worshipping at His throne, as you have told us, Father Mark. And you have told us how important this is. We have discussed this and find that there is only one miracle that is best for this kind of thing. “

  His boredom and amused interest in the incessant theological wrangling drained from Garth in a single instant. He had not been really thinking or he would have seen where all this was leading. By turning slightly he could see the illustration in the Bible where Itin held it open, and knew in advance what

  picture he would see. He rose slowly from his chair, as if stretching, and turned to the priest behind him.

  “Get ready!” he whispered. “Get out the back and get to the ship, I’ll keep them busy here. I don’t think they’ll harm—”

  “What do you mean… ?” Father Mark asked, blinking in surprise.

  “Get out, you fool!” Garth hissed. “What miracle do you think they mean? What miracle is supposed to have converted the world to Christianity?”

  “No, ” Father Mark said, “it cannot be. It just cannot—”

  “GET MOVING!” Garth shouted, dragging the priest from the chair and hurling him toward the rear wall. Father Mark stumbled to a halt, turned back. Garth leaped for him, but it was already too late. The amphibians were small, but there were so many of them. Garth lashed out and his fist struck Itin, hurling him back into the crowd. The others came on as he fought his way toward the priest. He beat at them but it was like struggling against the waves. The furry, musky bodies washed over and engulfed him. He struggled until they tied him, and he still struggled until they beat on his head until he stopped. Then they pulled him outside, where he could only lie in the rain and curse and watch.

  Of course the Weskers were marvelous craftsmen and everything had been constructed down to the last detail following the illustration in the Bible. There was, the cross, planted firmly in the top of the small hill, the gleaming metal spikes, the hammer. Father Mark had been stripped and draped in a carefully pleated loincloth. They led him out of the church, and at the sight of the cross he almost fainted. After that he held his head high and determined to die as he had lived, with faith.

  Yet this was hard. It was unbearable even for Garth, who only watched. It is one thing to talk of crucifixion and look at the gently carved bodies in the dim light of prayer. It is an-other to see a man naked, ropes cutting into his skin where he

  hangs from a bar of wood. And to see the needle-tipped spike raised and placed against the soft flesh of his palm, to see the hammer come back with the calm deliberation of an artisan’s measured stroke. Then to hear the thick sound of metal penetrating flesh.

  Then to hear the screams.

  Few are born to be martyrs and Father Mark was not one of them. With the first blows the blood ran from his lips where his clenched teeth met. Then his mouth was wide and his heart strained back and the awful guttural horror of his screams sliced through the susurration of the falling rain. It resounded as a silent echo from the masses of watching Weskers, for whatever emotion opened their mouths was now tearing their bodies with all its force, and row after row of gaping jaws reflected the crucified priest’s agony.

  Mercifully he fainted, and the last nails were driven home. Blood ran from the raw wounds, mixed with the rain to drip faintly pink from his feet as the life ran out of him. At this time, somewhere at this time, sobbing and tearing at his own bonds, numbed from the blows on the head, Garth lost consciousness.

  He awoke in his own warehouse, and it was dark. Someone was cutting away the woven ropes they had bound him with. The rain still dripped and splashed outside.

  “Itin, ” he said. It could be no one else.

  “Yes, ” the alien voice whispered back. “The others are talking in the church. Lin died after you struck his head, and Inon is very sick. There are some that say you should be crucified too, and I think that is what will happen. Or perhaps killed by striking on the head. They have found in the Bible where it says… “

  “I know. ” With infinite weariness. “An eye for an eye. You’ll find lots of things like that once you start looking. “

  “You must go, you can get to your ship without anyone

  seeing you. There has been enough killing. ” Itin as well spoke with a newfound weariness.

  Garth experimented, pulling himself to his feet. He pressed his head to the rough wall until the nausea stopped.

  “He’s dead. ” He said it as a statement, not a question.

  “Yes, some time ago. Or I could not have come away to see you. “

  “And buried, of course, or they wouldn’t be thinking about starting on me next. “

  “And buried!” There was almost a ring of emotion in the alien’s voice, an echo of the dead priest’s. “He is buried and he will rise on High. It is written and that is the way it will happen. Father Mark will be so happy that it has happened like this. ” The voice ended in a sound like a human sob, but of course it couldn’t have been that since Itin was alien, and not human at all. Garth painfully worked his way around the wall toward the door, leaning against the wall so he wouldn’t fall.

  “We did the right thing, didn’t we?” Itin asked. There was no answer. “He will rise up, Garth, won’t he rise?”

  Garth was at the door and enough light came from the brightly lit church to show his torn and bloody hands clutching at the frame. Itin’s face swam into sight close to his, and Garth felt the delicate, many-fingered hands with the sharp nails catch at his clothes.

  “He will rise, won’t he, Garth?”

  “No, ” Garth said, “he is going to stay buried right where you put him. Nothing is going to happen because he is dead and he is going to stay dead. “

  The rain runneled through Itin’s fur and his mouth was opened so wide that he seemed to be screaming into the uncaring night. Only with effort could he talk, squeezing out the alien thoughts in an alien language.

  “Then we will not be saved? We will not become pure?”

  “You were pure, ” Garth said, in a voice somewhere be-

  tween a sob and a laugh. “That’s the horrible ugly dirty part of it. You were pure. Now you are… “

  “Murderers, ” Itin said, and the water ran down from his lowered head and streamed away into the darkness.

  TOY SHOP

  Because there were few adults in the crowd, and Colonel “Biff” Hawton stood over six feet tall, he could see every detail of the demonstration. The children— and most of the parents—gaped in wide-eyed wonder. Biff Hawton was too sophisticated to be awed. He stayed on because he wanted to find out what the trick was that made the gadget work.

  “It’s all explained right here in your instruction book, ” the demonstrator said, holding up a garishly printed booklet opened to a four-color diagram. “You all know how magnets pick up things and I bet you even know that the Earth itself is one great big magnet—that’s why compasses always point north. Well… the Atomic Wonder Space Wave Tapper hangs on to those space waves. Invisibly all about us, and even going right through us, are the magnetic waves of the Earth. The Atomic Wonder rides these waves just the way a ship rides the waves in the ocean. Now watch…. “

  Every eye was on him as he put the gaudy model rocket ship on top of the table and stepped back. It was made of stamped metal and seemed as incapable of flying as a can of ham— which it very much resembled. Neither wings, propellers, nor jets broke through the painted surface. It rested on three rub-

  ber wheels. Emerging out through the bottom was a double strand of thin insulated wire. This white wire ran across the top of the black table and terminated in a control box in the demonstrator’s hand. An indicator light, a switch, and a knob appeared to be the only controls.

  “I turn on the power switch, sending a surge of current to the wave receptors, ” he said. The switch clicked and the light blinked on and off with a steady pulse. Then the man began slowly to turn the knob. “A careful touch on the wave generator is necessary as we are dealing with the powers of the whole world here…. “

  A concerted ahhh swept through the crowd as the Space Wave Tapper shivered a bit, then rose slowly into the air. The demonstrator stepped back and the toy rose higher and higher, bobbing gently on the invisible waves of magnetic force that supported it. Ever so slowly the power was reduced and it settled back to the table.

  “Only seventeen dollars and ninety-five cents, ” the young man said, putting a large price sign on the table. “For the complete set of the Atomic Wonder, the Space Tapper control box, battery, and instruction book…. “

  At the appearance of the price card the crowd broke up noisily and the children rushed away toward the operating model trains. The demonstrator’s words were lost in their noisy passage, and after a moment he sank into a gloomy silence. He put the control box down, yawned, and sat on the edge of the table. Colonel Hawton was the only one left after the crowd had moved on.

  “Could you tell me how this thing works?” the colonel asked, coming forward. The demonstrator brightened up and picked up one of the toys.

  “Well, if you will look here, sir… ” He opened the hinged top. “You will see the space-wave coils at each end of the ship. ” With a pencil he pointed out the odd-shaped plastic forms about an inch in diameter that had been wound—ap-

  parently at random—with a few turns of copper wire. Except for these coils the interior of the model was empty. The coils were wired together and other wires ran out through the hole in the bottom of the control box. Biff Hawton turned a very quizzical eye on the gadget and upon the demonstrator, who completely ignored this sign of disbelief.

  “Inside the control box is the battery, ” the young man said, snapping it open and pointing to an ordinary flashlight battery. “The current goes through the power switch and power light to the wave generator… “

  “What you mean to say, ” Biff broke in, “is that the juice from this fifteen-cent battery goes through this cheap rheostat to those meaningless coils in the model and absolutely nothing happens. Now tell me what really flies the thing. If I’m going to drop eighteen bucks for six bits’ worth of tin, I want to know what I’m getting.”

  The demonstrator flushed. “I’m sorry, sir,” he stammered. “I wasn’t trying to hide anything. Like any magic trick this one can’t be really demonstrated until it has been purchased. ” He leaned forward and whispered confidentially, “I’ll tell you what I’ll do, though. This thing is way overpriced and hasn’t been moving at all. The manager said I could let them go at three dollars if I could find any takers. If you—”

  “Sold, my boy!” the colonel said, slamming three bills down on the table. “I’ll give that much for it no matter how it works. The boys in the shop will get a kick out of it.” He tapped the winged rocket on his chest. “Now really—what holds it up?”

  The demonstrator looked around carefully, then pointed. “Strings!” he said. “Or rather a black thread. It runs from the top of the model, through a tiny loop in the ceiling, and back down to my hand—where it is tied to this ring on my finger. When I back up—the model rises. It’s as simple as that. “

  “All good illusions are simple, ” the colonel grunted, tracing the black thread with his eye. “As long as there is plenty of flimflam to distract the viewer.”

  “If you don’t have a black table, a black cloth will do, ” the young man said. “And the arch of a doorway is a good site; just see that the room in back is dark. “

  “Wrap it up, my boy, I wasn’t born yesterday. I’m an old hand at this kind of thing. “

  Biff Hawton sprang it at the next Thursday-night poker party. The gang were all missile men and they cheered and jeered as he hammed up the introduction.

  “Let me copy the diagram, Biff. I could use some a those magnetic waves in the new bird!”

  “Those flashlight batteries are cheaper than lox—is this the power source of the future!”

  Only Teddy Kaner caught wise as the flight began. He was an amateur magician and spotted the gimmick at once. He kept silent from professional courtesy, and smiled ironically as the rest of the bunch grew silent one by one. The colonel was a good showman and he had set the scene well. He almost had them believing in the Space Wave Tapper before he was through. When the model had landed and he had switched it off, he couldn’t stop them from crowding around the table.