— Nothing cheap about it Lester, a trillion dollars' worth of weaponry and your evangelicals in there warming things up with don't fool yourselves thinking I come to send peace on earth, I come not to send peace but a sword. Holy, Holy, Holy! Merciful and Mighty! Sing them a few bars of that? The Son of God goes forth to war A kingly crown to gain; His blood red banner streams afar…
— Whose evangelicals do you want then! Whose fundamentalists do you want, talk about your little taste of Georgia how about a little taste of Islam? You think your Georgia judge there sounds any different from an ayatollah? You talk about chopping off hands, you want them sitting you out there in a public square with the Moslem Brotherhood piling in shouting Allah Akbar while they, where's your insurance policy, actual severance through or above the wrist and you run in to collect your five thousand from Bai Sim convenient offices everywhere? Whose jihad do you want, McCandless! They've been at it for a thousand years, they've been at it since ten ninety when Hasan brought his cutthroats out of Qum, cut your throat and they're guaranteed a seat in paradise. Talk about having business with the Bible how about having business with the Koran, if you think…
— That's a generous offer, how about having business with neither damned one of them. I don't quite follow what you're trying to…
— You could end up on the wrong side, you know that? You know that, McCandless?
— I'll tell you one thing I know. I'll tell you…
— Because maybe they turned you. Maybe people think they turned you. It's the same thing.
— I'll tell you one thing, people don't think. You're up there picking through my books why don't you look for the…
— Don't, no don't start that again, look for the second book of the Republic take it with you and read it, it's good clean fun we've been over all that, don't…
— No no no, no it's the Crito, Lester. Where it doesn't matter what the many think because they can't make you wise or a fool, it's Crito you're looking for, right up there next to the encyclopae…
— It's not what I'm looking for! I'm not talking about what the many think, I'm not talking about what I think, I'm talking about what Cruikshank thinks. If you won't take ten thousand for this work you did for Klinger he thinks you've been turned, you've already handed it over, you've been sold out for nothing… He'd come sharply away from the bookcases, back toward the table, tripping on a heap oí magazines, catching balance to give them a kick, — I'll tell you what I think. If that work you did for Klinger is here in this mess someplace you couldn't find it if you wanted to. You came up here to clean it up and you can't clean it up, you know why McCandless? You can't clean it up because you're part of it. You've got no more money than what's in your pocket, you haven't even got carfare to Luanda where they might take you in… He'd come close enough, waving away the smoke, to reach down for — your thousand shilling note here, get back to Kampala this will get you a bed for the night if they don't put out your eyes and leave you in a ditch first. Here. Here's your Survival Handbook just in case you miss our picnic in the clouds and if anybody's going to miss it you are. Keep handy for future reference says it right on the cover, you're going to need it. Here's your timetable, all it was good for was so you'd know how late the trains were, now they've all run off the tracks and you're left sitting here with the timetable smoking your, wait, wait don't make another one here, smoke one of these… he'd seized the tin of State Express, — talk about stupidity and you sit here smoking yourself to death here, smoke all of them… he shook them loose over the table there, — smoke them all they're as dead and dried up as you are, your Frank Kinkead raving about scratching the surface of reason and there's this void right under it aching to believe anything absurd, where he wants to give out free chess sets like they give out free Bibles for endless cheap entertainment, anything to fill the emptiness any invention to make them part of some grand design anything, the more absurd the better, magic, drugs, psychedelics, Pan Koo and the Tibetans' prayer wheels, the assumption of the Virgin and the three secrets of Fatima, Moroni's golden tablets or just God, God, God… Suddenly he had the bottle by the throat — here, have a drink. Where's your euthanasia contract sign it, I'll witness it for when you're physically or mentally disabled and can't make your own decisions maybe it's here, maybe the time's here have two drinks, have five… he thrust the upended bottle's neck into the glass, — have twenty…
— What in hell are you doing!
The bottle was wrenched away and he backed off, holding his hand down to look at it like something alien, stroking his smarting wrist at the joint with a healing care looking for something to wipe away the splash of whisky, the smell of it, — sixteen, McCandless. That's the last offer. That's their limit, I didn't set it they did, that's what I'm authorized… he stood wiping his hand on the back of his trousers, — cash. Any currency you want, anyplace you want it delivered and a one way ticket to get there, if you want a cover we'll provide you a cover, show up in Kinshasa selling snow-shoes and we'll provide it. Sixteen thousand.
— What's this one way ticket, your wicked fleeing where no man pursueth? you think I'm on the run?
— It's when, McCandless. When… He was back far from reach scraping a moulding, down tapping the wainscotting, — when no man pursueth, Proverbs twenty eight, but the…
— And the righteous are bold as a lion is that it? You break in here picking through papers, tapping the walls what do you…
— It's but, McCandless, but the righteous are bold as a lion Proverbs twenty eight, one. He tapped, tapped again, straightened up — You know what this was in here? This was the kitchen, you know that? You've got this wainscotting all the way around and listen… he tapped, — now listen over here. You hear the difference? This is the flue. This little cement slab this is where the stove was and this is the flue for that extra chimney. You've got an extra chimney out there that doesn't go anyplace, I couldn't figure it out. This was the kitchen, your kitchen in there was the dining room and your dining room was the family parlour. It's too bad you never had kids, you know that? He'd turned backed against the dictionary stand there just inside the sliding door, — you could have bullied them with all your great ideas like you bully everybody else… he flicked over a page of Webster's second, tossed over a sheaf of them where a card stiff with invitation and the subscript Hope you and Irene can come lay inserted in the cleft, — you know that? I said we used to talk, we never did. You used to talk. You talked and I listened, Helen Keller in the woods when the tree falls and all the rest of your, the truth and what really happens you know something? They didn't recruit me McCandless, Cruikshank didn't recruit me. You did. You know that? He tossed over pages, paused appearing to study a colour plate display Orders of Knighthood and of Merit in garish contrivances of crosses and ribbons. — Just leave this whole mess behind you and you're out there with sixteen thousand walking around money. We don't have much time.
— I heard you.
He heaved the book closed. — You ever think of putting smoke detectors in here? You could have a real fire, you know that? Books, papers, nothing but paper, your beams have been drying out for ninety years. You ought to think of your tenants McCandless, you ought to put in smoke detectors. You ought to think of the redhead. Anything you've got squirreled away here would be gone in a minute with the rest of your trash, anybody who was after it wouldn't have it but they'd know nobody else would show up with it and pull out the rug. You think fires start by themselves? He pulled the jacket tight, turned through the door for the kitchen, buttoning it. — You'll thank me someday, you know that?
— I'll thank you right now Lester, came on behind him, into the kitchen, — I'll thank you for leaving.