None But Lucifer

Chapter XVI

A call from the clipping bureau brought him down in a hurry. With Gloria hanging on his arm he burst into his private office, ripped open the letter, and frenziedly read it without stopping to sit down.

Dully he heard Gloria ask: "What's wrong, Billie-willie?"

He collapsed into his chair and read the letter again. But nothing in it had changed:

In the future, William, I can only ask you to be more cautious in employing your catalytic power. For the present I must admit myself as powerless as yourself, and can only offer my deepest sympathy.

Please do not let your unfortunate situation dishearten you. Though we generally live to regret our romantic outbursts of emotion, they also have their pleasant aspects. If you will concentrate on your wife's charmingly affectionate nature, and the undeniable gratification of an eternal love, I believe you can learn to tolerate the smaller inconveniences.

Hale stared blindly at the letter. He was tied to her and her stupid little feminine amusements forever, and nothing could be done to correct his insane blunder.

"Is it very bad news, Billie-willie?"

Billie-willie — Billie-willie

He was standing before her with his right fist cocked, and she was recoiling in startled terror from the threat. It shocked him almost as much as it did her. He poured out apologies and tried to take her in his arms. It got him nowhere.

His mind was quite clear, though that didn't make him hate himself any the less. He hated that beautiful, imbecilic face; but he also loved it so that the thought of marring a line of it horrified him. He hated her eternal presence — the swift clatter of her heels, her meaningless soprano chatter, her enormous cowlike eyes — but he also loved her for these things. That, he thought, had been part of his spell. He'd hog-tied himself beautifully. He couldn't get away from her; loving her as he did, he couldn't have the satisfaction of slapping her down when she drove him frantic, or at least cowing her into not calling him "Billie-willie"; and she'd never change.

That had been part of the spell, too. Of course, she had no doubt had some ability to learn at the time the spell was cast. Did that mean that she still had that ability, since she was supposed to be the same, or did it mean that she couldn't learn because learning would mean changing her nature? It was a nice paradox; the kind that Hale had once enjoyed teasing his brain with. But he didn't feel much like logical riddles just then. Time would tell about Gloria, and meanwhile there was more to Johnson's letter. He mumbled, "I'm sorry," and sat down.

Since there is nothing to be gained by further dwelling on that subject, permit me to go on to another matter. Our plans for a loan, through the bank we control, to the dictatorships, and the ceding to them of colonies that produce vital raw materials, are progressing splendidly.

You already know that America's aid to the democracies, may, unless counteracted, have the undesirable effect of forcing the aggressors into war, economic paralysis, or revolution. In Washington a movement will shortly arise to fortify certain Pacific islands. The primary purpose of this is to create another crisis between the isolationist and interventionist camps, but it will have the secondary effect of diverting armaments to some extent from the European democracies.

Should the movement succeed, it would be a serious blow to the aggressor bloc. At present their energies are concentrated on isolating a single important colonial empire — the one we were discussing the day before I left. The western trade and military routes of this empire can already be shut off instantly. The only route left open to defend it is through the Pacific.

If America fortifies these Pacific islands, the empire would no longer be isolated, and the autocracies would be compelled to fight a defensive as well as an offensive war, which they would inevitably lose.

Consequently, I want to direct a powerful opposition against Pacific island fortification. I have made certain that the movement for creating these bases is strong enough not to give up without a battle; on the other hand you must not arouse enough opposition to defeat the motion entirely. Our purpose is to draw out the struggle indefinitely, to hold up fortification and the production of munitions, thus diverting armaments from the democracies, while giving them the false hope that they are going to be supplied very shortly, and keeping the dictatorships aware of the threat of Pacific fortification, which at any moment might become an actuality.

If you feel uncertain about the method of undertaking this task, call me on the overseas telephone, at the bank's number that you will find on the letterhead. In the event of my being elsewhere at the moment, the bank will arrange a telephone connection between us. I should prefer, however, that you solve the problem yourself, as a concrete example of ruling.

Go ahead, Hale, he thought bitterly, go on and rule. You're Lucifer's partner; you have all the power. What if you do bungle? How much worse can you wreck anybody's life than you have your and Gloria's. That was all he could think of. She was huddled in her chair, sobbing dismally. Why was he making her unhappy? It wasn't her fault. It was his own idiotically romantic haste to win her, his thoughtless, ignorant way of casting an irrevocable spell. He couldn't pass the guilt to her, as he had tried like a coward to do.

Her repressed sobbing grew to an accusing wail. "I know what it is! You don't love me nay more, Billie-willie!"

"Darling," he whispered humbly, "I didn't mean it. My nerves got the better of me. It won't happen again, because I really do love you —" And so forth. It was as true as it was false. He loved her as much as he hated always having to be with her. At least, he was pleasantly surprised to observe, he had restrained his twinge of revulsion at the use of his nickname.