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Emmanuel Rubin, resident polymath of the Black Widowers Society, was visibly chafed His eyebrows hunched down into the upper portion of his thick - lensed spectacles and his sparse gray beard bristled

"Not true to life," he said "Iine! Not true to life!"

Mario Gonzalo, who had just reached the head of the stairs and had accepted his dry martini from Henry, the unsurpassable waiter, said, "What&039;s not true to life?"

Geoffrey Avalon looked down from his seventy - four inches and said solemnly, "It appears that Manny has suffered a rejection"

"Well, why not?" said Gonzalo, peeling off his gloves "Editors don&039;t have to be stupid all the time"

"It isn&039;t the rejection," said Rubin "I&039;ve been rejected before by better editors and in connection with better stories It&039;s the reason he advanced! How the hell would he know if a story were true to life or not? What&039;s he ever done but warer Halsted, whose career as a ht hied to interpose "Just what did he find not true to life, Manny?"

Rubin waved a hand passionately outward "I don&039;t want to talk about it"

"Good," said Tho from under his neatly waved thatch of white hair "Then the rest of us can hear each other for a while Roger, why don&039;t you introduce your guest to the late Mr Gonzalo?"

Halsted said, "I&039;ve just been waiting for the decibel level to decrease Mario, my friend Jonathan Thatcher This is Mario Gonzalo, who is an artist by profession Jonathan is an oboist, Mario"

Gonzalo grinned and said, "Sounds like fun"

"Sometimes it almost is," said Thatcher, "on days when the reed behaves itself"

Thatcher&039;s round face and plump cheeks would have made him a natural to play Santa Claus at any Christ just the same, for his body had that peculiar ersatz slimness that seemed to indicate forty pounds recently lost His eyebroere dark and thick, and one took it for granted that they were never drawn together in anger

Henry said, "Gentlemen, dinner is ready"

Jaarette and said, "Thanks, Henry It&039;s a cold day and I would welcoentle splant"

"But what&039;s this, Henry?" de

"Hot borscht, Mr Rubin"

Rubin looked as though he were searching his soul and then he said grudgingly, "All right"

Drake, unfolding his napkin, said, "Point of order, Roger"

"What is it?"

"I&039; next to Manny, and if he continues to look like that he&039;ll curdle estion You&039;re host and absolute monarch; I move you direct hiet it out of his system"

"Why?" said Trumbull "Why not let him sulk and be silent for the novelty of it?"

"I&039; he&039;s ever written has been true to life "

"Hoould you know, since you can&039;t read?" said Rubin suddenly

"It&039;s generally known," said Gonzalo "You hear it everywhere"

"Oh God, I&039;d better tell you and end this miasma of pseudowit Look, I&039;ve written a novelette, about fifteen thousand words long, about a ide organization of locks as though he suspected he had not heard correctly

"Locksuys are experts, they can open anything - safes, vaults, prison doors There are no secrets froanization is of the creaanization without some document or object of iovernmental unit

"Naturally, they have the throat of the world in their grip They can control the stock overnments and, at the tialomaniac"

Drake interrupted even as he winced in his effort to crack the claw of the lobster "Who is out to rule the world, of course"

"Of course," said Rubin, "and our hero must stop him He is himself a skilled locksmith"

Trumbull interrupted "In the first place, Manny, what the hell do you know about locksmithery or locksmithmanship or whatever you call it?"

"More than you think," retorted Rubin

"I doubt that very ht This is utter and complete ientle and inoffensive mechanics with IQ&039;s"

Rubin said, "And I suppose when you were in the are, you&039;ll tell me that Napoleon and Hitler were i, who had listened to the exchange with a darkening expression, spoke up "Pardon rilled at the conclusion of dinner Does that mean I cannot join the dinner conversation beforehand?"

"Heavens, no," said Halsted "Talk all you want - it you can get a word in now and then"

"In that case, let me put myself forcefully on the side of Mr Rubin A conspiracy of locksmiths may sound implausible to us who sit here, but what counts is not what a few rational people think but what the great outside world does How can your editor turn down anything at all as iht himself, took a deep breath, and said, in an altered tone, "Well, I don&039;t mean to tell you your business I&039;m not a writer After all, I don&039;t expect you to tell me how to play the oboe," but his smile as he said it was a weak one

"Manny will tell you how to play the oboe," said Gonzalo, "if you give hih he had not heard Gonzalo&039;s co these days is believed There is no such thing as &039;not true to life&039; Just spout any nonsense solemnly and swear it&039;s true and there will be isterially and said, "Quite right, Mr Thatcher I don&039;t know that this is simply characteristic of our times, but the fact that we have better communications now makes it easier to reach many people quickly so that a phenomenon such as Herr Hitler of unmourned memory is possible And to those who can believe in Mr von Daniken&039;s ancient astronauts and in Mr Berlitz&039;s Ber like a conspiracy of lockse"

Thatcher waved his hand "Ancient astronauts and Ber Suppose you were to say that you frequently visited Mars in astral projection and that Mars was, in fact, a haven for the worthy souls of this world There would be those ould believe you"

"I ian Avalon

"You don&039;t have to iine," said Thatcher "It is so I take it you haven&039;t heard of Tri - Lucifer That&039;s t - r - i"

"Tri - Lucifer?" said Halsted, looking a little dumfounded "You mean three Lucifers What&039;s that?"

Thatcher looked from one face to another and the Black Widowers all re away soentle contributions at this restaurant last week"

"Like the Moonies?" said Drake, pushing his dish in Henry&039;s direction and preparing to light up

"There is a resehtful, "but the Tri - Luciferians, if that is the terive a more other - worldly appearance"

"That&039;s right," said Thatcher, "they have to divorce themselves from this world so as to achieve astral projection to Mars and facilitate the transfer of their souls there after death"

"But why - " began Gonzalo

And Truer, e the subject"

Gonzalo said, "I just want to knohy they call thehed and said, &039;Let&039;s wait a while, Mario"

Henry washis way about the table with the brandy when Halsted tapped his water glass and said, "I think we can begin the grilling now, and Manny, since it was your remark about true - to - lifeness that roused Jonathan&039;s interest over the in"

"Sure" Rubin looked solemnly across the table at Thatcher and said, "Mr Thatcher, at this point it would be traditional to ask you how you justify your existence, and ould then go into a discussion of the oboe as an instruuess and say that at this moment you would consider your life justified if you could wipe out a few Tri - Luciferians Aht?"

"You are, you are," said Thatcher, energetically "The whole thing has filled"

Gonzalo interrupted "What I want to knohy they call themselves TriLuciferians Are they devil worshipers or what?"

Rubin began, "You&039;re interrupting the ht," said Thatcher "I&039;ll tell hianization to be able to tell hih I&039;m not sure why"

"Lucifer," said Avalon, running his finger about the lip of his water glass, "is fro of theof the Sun In an era in which there were no clocks that was an important piece of information to anyone awake at the time"

"Then why is Lucifer the name of the devil?" asked Gonzalo

Avalon said, "Because the Babylonian King was apparently referred to as the Morning Star by his flattering courtiers, and the Prophet Isaiah predicted his destruction Can you quote the passage, Manny?"

Rubin said, "We can read it out of the Bible, if ant to It&039;s the Fourteenth Chapter of Isaiah The key sentence goes, &039;How art thou fallen fro!&039; It was just a bit of poetic hyperbole, and very effective too, but it was interpreted literally later, and that one sentence gave rise to the whole els under the leadership of Lucifer, which came to be considered Satan&039;s name while still in heaven Of course, the rebels were defeated and expelled froels under the leadership of the Archangel Michael"

"As in Paradise Lost?" said Gonzalo,

"Exactly as in Paradise Lost"

Thatcher said, &039;The devil isn&039;t part of it, though To the Tri - Luciferians, Lucifer juststar There are two of them on Earth, Venus and Mercury"

Drake squinted through the curling tobacco s stars, depending on which side of the Sun they happen to be They&039;re either east of the Sun and set shortly after sunset, or west of the Sun and rise shortly before sunrise"

Thatcher said, with clear evidence of hope, "Do they have to be both together, both one or both the other?"

"No," said Drake, "theystars, or bothstar Or one or the other or both can be nearly in a line with the Sun and be invisible altogether, "

"Too bad," said Thatcher, shaking his head, "that&039;s what they say Anyway, the point is that fro stars in the sky, or you can see theht position; not only Mercury and Venus, but Earth as well"

"That&039;s right," said Rubin

"And," said Thatcher, "I suppose then it&039;s true that they can be in any position They can all be evening stars or allstars, or two an be one and one can be the other?"

"Yes," said Drake, "or one or more can be too close to the Sun to be visible"

Thatcher sighed "So they call Mars by their mystic na stars"

"I suppose," said Gonzalo, "that Jupiter would have fourstars, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, and so on out to Pluto, which would have eightstars"

"The trouble is," said Halsted, "that the farther out you go, the dimmer the inner planets are Viewed from one of the satellites of Jupiter, for instance, I doubt that Mercury would appear ht be too close to the Sun for anyone ever to get a good look at it"

"What about the view from Mars? Could you see Mercury?" asked Thatcher

"Oh yes, I&039;htness would be in a matter of minutes"

"Would you?" said Thatcher

"Sure," said Halsted, "if I&039;ve reme the Columbia Encyclopedia, would you?"

Rubin said, "While Roger is bending his limited mathematical mind to the problem, Mr Thatcher, tell us what your interest is in all this You see them as fakers Why? Have you been a member? Are you now disillusioned?"

"No, I&039;ve never been a member I " He nibbed his te about it, you understand"

Avalon said solemnly, "Please be assured, Mr Thatcher, that whatever is said here never passes beyond the bounds of this room That includes our valued waiter, Henry Youcriraceful in it I just don&039;t like to see up entlemen"

There was a discreet silence around the table, broken only by the es of the encyclopedia

Thatcher went on "Roger knows my wife He&039;ll tell you she&039;s a sensible woman"

Halsted looked up briefly and nodded "I&039;ll vouch for that, but I didn&039;t know you were having this"

"Lately, Carol has not been social, you understand, and I certainly haven&039;t talked about it It ith great difficulty, you know, that Iher to herself You see, even sensible people have their weaknesses Carol worries about death"

"So do we all," said Drake

"So do I," said Thatcher, "but in a normal way, I hope We all knoe&039;ll die someday and we don&039;t particularly look forward to it, and we ness or hope for heaven, but we don&039;t think about it much Carol has been fascinated, however, by the possibility of de the actual existence of life after death It may have all started with the Bridey Murphy case when she was a teen - ager - I don&039;t know if any of you remember that"

"I do," said Rubin "A woman under hypnosis see tih that, eventually Then she grew interested in spiritualisave that up I always relied on her to understand folly when she finally stopped to think about it - and then she caainst the Tri - Luciferians I never saw her like this She wants to join theive it to them I don&039;t care about the- I care about her You know, she&039;s going to join thehter of Tri - Lucifer, or whatever they call it, and wait for translation to the Abode of the Blessed One of these days, she&039;ll be gone I just won&039;t see her anyht, but I wonder"

Rubin said, "I take it you suppose that the organization is just interested in her money"

"At least the leader of it is," said Thatcher grimly "I&039;m sure of it What else can he be after?"

"Do you know him? Have you met him?" said Rubin

"No He keeps himself isolated," said Thatcher, "but I hear he has recently bought a fancy mansion in Florida, and I doubt that it&039;s for the use of theabout that," said Drake "It doesn&039;t antly he throws money around The folloho support him and see their money clearly used for that purpose never seem to mind"

"They identify," said Rubin "The more he spends, the more successful they consider the cause It&039;s the basis of ostentatious waste in governmental display, too"

"Just the same," said Thatcher, "I don&039;t think Carol will ever coht not be bothered by the leader&039;s actions, but if I can prove hi about what?" asked Rubin