Stranger in a Strange Land

importance anyhow, even to you. You see, Mike believes that your soul is immortal."
                "Huh? Well, hell, so do I. But-"
                "Do you?" Jubal said bleakly. "I wonder."
                "Why, certainly I do! Oh, I admit I don't go to church much, but I was brought up right. I'm no infidel. I've got faith."
                "Good. Though I've never been able to understand 'faith' myself, nor to see how a just God could expect his creatures to pick the one true religion Out of an infinitude of false ones-by faith alone. It strikes me as a sloppy way to run an organization, whether a universe or a smaller one. However, since you do have faith and it includes belief in your own immortality, we need not trouble further over the probability that your prejudices will result in your early demise. Do you want to be cremated or buried?"
                "Huh? Oh, for cripe's sake, Jubal, quit trying to get my goat."
                "Not at all. I can't guarantee to get you off my place safely as long as you persist in thinking that a coral snake is a harmless scarlet snake-any blunder you make may be your last. But I promise you I won't let Mike eat you."
                Duke's mouth dropped open. At last he managed to answer, explosively, profanely, and quite incoherently. Harshaw listened, then said testily, "All right, all right, but pipe down. You can make any arrangements with Mike you like. I thought I was doing you a favor." Harshaw turned and bent over the projector. "I want to see these pictures. Stick around, if you want to, until I'm through. Prob'ly safer. Damn!" he added. "The pesky thing savaged me."
                "You tried to force it. Here-" Duke completed the adjustment Harshaw had muffed, then went ahead and inserted the first film cartridge. Neither of them re-opened the question of whether Duke was, or was not, still working for Jubal. The cameras were Mitchell servos; the projector was a Yashinon tabletop tank, with an adapter to permit it to receive Land Solid-Sight-Sound 4 mm. film. Shortly they were listening to and watching the events leading up to the disappearance of the empty brandy case.
                Jubal watched the box being thrown at his head, saw it wink out in midair. "That's enough," he said. "Anne will be pleased to know that the cameras back her up. Duke, let's repeat that last bit in slow motion."
                "Okay." Duke spooled back, then announced, "This is ten-to-one."
                The scene was the same but the slowed-down sound was useless; Duke switched it off. The box floated slowly from Jill's hands toward Jubal's head, then quite suddenly ceased to be. But it did not simply wink out; under slow-motion projection it could be seen shrinking, smaller and smaller until it was no longer there.
                Jubal nodded thoughtfully. "Duke, can you slow it down still more?"
                "Just a sec. Something is fouled up with the stereo."
                "What?"
                "Darned if I can figure it out. It looked all right on the fast run. But when I slowed it down, the depth effect was reversed. You saw it. That box went away from us fast, mighty fast-but it always looked closer than the wall. Swapped parallax, of course. But I never took that cartridge off the spindle. Gremlins."
                "Oh. Hold it, Duke. Run the film from the other camera."
                "Unh ... oh, I see, That'll give us a ninety-degree cross on it and we'll see properly even if I did jimmy this film somehow." Duke changed cartridges. "Zip through the first part, okay? Then undercranked ten-to-one on the part that counts."
                "Go ahead."
                The scene was the same save for angle. When the image of Jill grabbed the box, Duke slowed down the show and again they watched the box go away. Duke cursed. "Something was fouled up with the second camera too."
                "So?"
                "Of course. It was looking at it around from the side so the box~ should have gone out of the frame to one side or the other. Instead it went ~ straight away from us again. Well, didn't it? You saw it. Straight away from us."
                "Yes," agreed Jubal. "'Straight away from us.'"
                "Out it can't-not from both angles."
                "What