There was the missionary, confused and battered, standing between thelieutenant and the sergeant. Mallow's image waited silently, and then menfiled in, Twer bringing up the rear.
The conversation played itself out, word for word. The sergeant wasdisciplined, and the missionary was questioned. The mob appeared, theirgrowl could be heard, and the Revered Jord Parma made his wild appeal.
Mallow drew his gun, and the missionary, as he was dragged away, lifted hisarms in a mad, final curse and a tiny flash of light came and went.
The scene ended, with the officers frozen at the horror of the situation,while Twer clamped shaking hands over his ears, and Mallow calmly put hisgun away.
The lights were on again; the empty space in the center of the floor was nolonger even apparently full. Mallow, the real Mallow of the present, tookup the burden of his narration:
"The incident, you see, is exactly as the prosecution has presented it ?onthe surface. I'll explain that shortly. Jaim Twer's emotions through thewhole business shows clearly a priestly education, by the way.
"It was on that same day that I pointed out certain incongruities in theepisode to Twer. I asked him where the missionary came from in the midst ofthe near-desolate tract we occupied at the time. I asked further where thegigantic mob had come from with the nearest sizable town a hundred milesaway. The prosecution has paid no attention to such problems.
"Or to other points; for instance, the curious point of Jord Parma'sblatant conspicuousness. A missionary on Korell, risking his life indefiance of both Korellian and Foundation law, parades about in a very newand very distinctive priestly costume. There's something wrong there. Atthe time, I suggested that the missionary was an unwitting accomplice ofthe Commdor, who was using him in an attempt to force us into an act ofwildly illegal aggression, to justify, in law, his subsequent destructionof our ship and of us.
"The prosecution has anticipated this justification of my actions. that the safety of my ship, my crew, my missionitself were at stake and could not be sacrificed for one man, when that manwould, in any case, have been destroyed, with us or without us. They replyby muttering about the Foundation's 'honor' and the necessity of upholdingour 'dignity' in order to maintain our ascendancy.