--or for Doc;
nobody can tell whether a fallen-down drunk's at the black or bright end
of his cycle; you just know it's cycling.

Maud ought to be suffering as much as Beau, called names and caught out
in a panic, which always hurts her because she's plus three hundred
years more future than the rest of us and figures she ought to be that
much wiser, which she isn't always--not to mention she's over fifty
years old, though her home-century cosmetic science keeps her looking
and acting teenage most of the time. She'd backed away from the bronze
chest so as not to stand out, and now Lili came from behind the piano
and stood beside her.

Lili had the opposite of troubles, a great big glow for Bruce, proud as
a promised princess watching her betrothed. Erich frowned when he saw
her, for he seemed proud too, proud of the way his _Kamerad_ had taken
command of us panicky whacks _Fuehrer_-fashion. Sid still looked mostly
grateful and inclined to let Bruce keep on talking.

Even Kaby and Mark, those two dragons hot for battle, standing a little
in front and to one side of us by the bronze chest, like its guardians,
seemed willing to listen. They made me realize one reason Sid had for
letting Bruce run on, although the path his talk was leading us down was
flashing with danger signals: When it was over, there'd still be the
problem of what to do with the bomb, and a real opposition shaping up
between Soldiers and Entertainers, and Sid was hoping a solution would
turn up in the meantime or at least was willing to put off the evil day.

But beyond all that, and like the rest of us, I could tell from the way
Sid was squinting his browy eyes and chewing his beardy lip that he was
shaken and moved by what Bruce had said. This New Boy had dipped into
our hearts and counted our kicks so beautifully, better than most of us
could have done, and then somehow turned them around so that we had to
think of what messes and heels and black sheep and lost lambs we
were--well, we wanted to keep on listening.

CHAPTER 8

Give me a place to stand, and I will move the world.

--Archimedes

A PLACE TO STAND

Bruce's voice had a faraway touch and he was looking up left at the Void
as he said, "Have you ever really wondered why the two sides of this war
are called the Snakes and the Spiders? Snakes may be clear enough--you
always call the enemy something dirty. But Spiders--our name for