concretely in terms of using the Places to bring help
across the mountains of time when help is really needed, not to bring
help that's undeserved or knowledge that's premature or contaminating,
sometimes not to bring anything at all, but just to check with infinite
tenderness and concern that everything's safe and the glories of the
universe unfolding as they were intended to--"

"Yes, you are a poet, Bruce," Erich broke in. "You can tootle soulfully
on the flute and make us drip tears. You can let out the stops on the
big organ pipes and make us tremble as if at Jehovah's footsteps. For
the last twenty minutes, you have been giving us some very _charmante_
poetry. But what are you? An Entertainer? Or are you a Soldier?"

* * * * *

Right then--I don't know what it was, maybe Sid clearing his throat--I
could sense our feelings beginning to turn against Bruce. I got the
strangest feeling of reality clamping down and bright colors going dull
and dreams vanishing. Yet it was only then I also realized how much
Bruce had moved us, maybe some of us to the verge of mutiny, even. I was
mad at Erich for what he was doing, but I couldn't help admiring his
cockiness.

I was still under the spell of Bruce's words and the more-than-words
behind them, but then Erich would shift around a bit and one of his
heels would kick near the death's-head pushbuttons and I wanted to stamp
with spike heels on every death's-head button on his uniform. I didn't
know exactly what I felt yet.

"Yes, I'm a Soldier," Bruce told him, "and I hope you won't ever have to
worry about my courage, because it's going to take more courage than any
operation we've ever planned, ever dreamed of, to carry the peace
message to the other Places and to the wound-spots of the cosmos.
Perhaps it will be a fast wicket and we'll be bowled down before we
score a single run, but who cares? We may at least see our real masters
when they come to smash us, and for me that will be a deep satisfaction.
And we may do some smashing of our own."

"So you're a Soldier," Erich said, his smile showing his teeth. "Bruce,
I'll admit that the half-dozen operations you've been on were rougher
than anything I drew in my first hundred sleeps. For that, I am all
honest sympathy. But that you should let them get you into such a state
that love and a girl can turn you upside down and start you babbling
about peace messages--"

"Yes, by God, love and a g