"Only violins!"
Magnus replied with laughter: his voice was hoarse and heavy:
"But they have other instruments, too! And I will use these
instruments. See how simple and interesting all this is?"
"And what further, Magnus Ergo?"
"How do I know what's to follow? I see only _this_ page and solve only
_this_ problem. I know not what the next page contains."
"Perhaps it contains the same thing?"
"Perhaps it does. And perhaps this is the final page...well, what of
that: the sum total remains as is necessary."
"You spoke on one occasion about _miracles_?"
"Yes, that is my lever. You remember what I told you _about my_
explosive? I promise rabbits to make lions of them.... You see, a
rabbit cannot stand brains. Give a rabbit brains and he will hang
himself. Melancholy will drive him to suicide. Brains implies logic
and what can _logic_ promise to a rabbit? Nothing but a sorry fate
on a restaurant menu. What one must promise a rabbit is either
immortality for a cheap price, as does Cardinal X. or--heaven on
earth. You will see what energy, what daring, etc., my rabbit will
develop when I paint before him on the wall heavenly powers and
gardens of Eden!"
"On the wall?"
"Yes,--on a stone wall. He will storm it with all the power of his
species! And who knows...who knows...perhaps this mass may really
break through this stone wall?"
Magnus lapsed into thought. I drew away from the now extinguished
fire and looked upon the explosive head of my repulsive friend....
Something naïve, like two little wrinkles, almost like those of a
child, lay upon his stony brow. I burst into laughter and shouted:
"Thomas Magnus! Thomas Ergo! Do you believe?"
Without raising his head, as if he had not heard my laughter, he
lifted his eyes and replied pensively:
"We must try."
_But_ I continued to laugh: deep, wild--apparently human--laughing
malice began to rise within me:
"Thomas Magnus! Magnus Rabbit! Do you believe?"
He thumped the table with his fist and roared in a wild transport:
"Be quiet! I tell you: we must try. How do I know? I have never yet
been on Mars nor seen this earth inside-out. Be silent, accursed
egotist! You know nothing of our affairs. Ah, if only you could
hate!..."
"I hate already."
Magnus suddenly laughed and grew strangely calm. He sat down and
scrutinizing me from all possible angles, as if he did not believe me,
he burst out:
"You? Hate? Whom?"
"You."
He looked me over as carefully again and shook his head in doubt:
"Is that true, Wondergood?"
"If they are rabbits, you are the most repulsive of them all, because
you are a mixture of rabbit and...Satan. You are a coward! The fact
that you are a crook, a thief, a liar, a murderer is not important.
But you are a coward! That is important. I expected something more of
you. I hoped your mind would lift you above the greatest crime, but
you lift crime itself into some base philanthropy. You are as much of
a lackey as the others. The only difference between you and them is
that you have a perverted idea of service!"
Magnus sighed.
"No, that's not it. You understand nothing, Wondergood."
"And what you lack is daring, my friend. If you are Magnus Ergo...what
audacity: Magnus Ergo!--then why don't you go the limit? Then, I, too,
would follow you...perhaps!"
"Will you really come?"
"And why should I not come? Let me be Contempt, and you--Hatred. We
can go together. Do not fear lest I hang on to your coat tails. You
have revealed much to me, my dear putridity, and I shall not seize
your hand even though you raise it against yourself."
"Will you betray me?"
"And you will kill me. Is that not enough?"
But Magnus shook his head doubtfully and said:
"You will betray me. I am a living human being, while you smell like
a corpse. I do not want to have contempt for _myself_. If I do, I
perish. Don't you dare to look at me! Look upon the others!"