alive, became less serene. The more proofs one gives a crowd the more
they ask for.

Nevertheless the danger of proving too much would not have been great if
there had not been in Penguinia, as there are, indeed, everywhere, minds
framed for free inquiry, capable of studying a difficult question, and
inclined to philosophic doubt. They were few; they were not all inclined
to speak, and the public was by no means inclined to listen to them.
Still, they did not always meet with deaf ears. The great Jews, all the
Israelite millionaires of Alca, when spoken to of Pyrot, said: "We do
not know the man"; but they thought of saving him. They preserved the
prudence to which their wealth inclined them and wished that others
would be less timid. Their wish was to be gratified.

IV. COLOMBAN

Some weeks after the conviction of the seven hundred Pyrotists, a
little, gruff, hairy, short-sighted man left his house one morning
with a paste-pot, a ladder, and a bundle of posters and went about the
streets pasting placards to the walls on which might be read in large
letters: Pyrot is innocent, Maubec is guilty. He was not a bill-poster;
his name was Colomban, and as the author of sixty volumes on Penguin
sociology he was numbered among the most laborious and respected writers
in Alca. Having given sufficient thought to the matter and no longer
doubting Pyrot's innocence, he proclaimed it in the manner which he
thought would be most sensational. He met with no hindrance while
posting his bills in the quiet streets, but when he came to the populous
quarters, every time he mounted his ladder, inquisitive people crowded
round him and, dumbfounded with surprise and indignation, threw at
him threatening looks which he received with the calm that comes from
courage and short-sightedness. Whilst caretakers and tradespeople tore
down the bills he had posted, he kept on zealously placarding, carrying
his tools and followed by little boys who, with their baskets under
their arms or their satchels on their backs, were in no hurry to reach
school. To the mute indignation against him, protests and murmurs were
now added. But Colomban did not condescend to see or hear anything.
As, at the entrance to the Rue St. Orberosia, he was posting one of his
squares of paper bearing the words: Pyrot is innocent, Maubec is guilty,
the riotous crowd showed signs of the most violent anger. They called
after him, "Traitor, thief, rascal, scoundrel." A wom