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[ { "from": "human", "value": "Views in Theology; Dr. Griffin, in a late work on" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Divine Efficiency; Rev. Tyler Thatcher, of the Hopkinsian school; and a doctrinal tract, entitled," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Man a Free Agent without the Aid of Divine Grace, written, it is presumed, by one of the divines of the New-Haven school have been consulted. There is among them all a remarkable uniformity on this point. If I understand them, the substance of what they say is," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Natural power consists in the possession of understanding, conscience, and will; and moral power is the _exercise_ of these faculties. Mr. Thatcher says this in so many words.--The tract alluded to gives this definition of natural power. Dr. Griffin says" }, { "from": "human", "value": "It certainly must appear, at the first glance, very singular to every mind not embarrassed by theory, that either the _possession_ of faculties, or the _exercise_ of faculties, should be called _power_. The idea of _power_ is supposed, by the best philosophical writers, to be undefinable, from the fact that it is a simple idea; but here, strange to tell, we have it analyzed in two different forms. Faculties are power--the exercise of faculties is power. Now, although we cannot define power, every one doubtless has a clear conception of it; and I humbly conceive that the common sense of every man will decide that neither of the above definitions embraces the true idea of power. The _exercise_ of faculties _implies_ power, it is granted; but every one must see that it is not power itself. And although the _faculties_ of the mind are sometimes called the _powers_ of the mind by a kind of borrowed use of the term power, just as the limbs or muscles are called the _powers_ of the body, yet it requires very little discrimination to see that as we may possess these powers of the body entire, and yet they be defective from some cause, as to some of their appropriate functions, so we may possess these powers or faculties of mind entire, and yet they may be defective in that moral strength necessary to a holy choice. Hence the possession of these faculties does not even _imply_ power adequate to a holy choice; much less are they _power itself_. I marvel therefore at these definitions of moral and natural power, and am thereby confirmed in the opinion advanced in my former number, viz." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That the whole of this distinction (of natural and moral ability) and the reasoning from it, proceed on the ground of a most unphilosophical analysis of mind, and an unwarranted definition of terms. This may seem a strong statement from so humble an individual as myself, in view of the many able minds that have adopted the opinions here opposed. But neither their opinion nor mine will weigh much, in this controversy, except as sustained by reasonable arguments; and by such arguments the present writer expects to stand or fall. Look then, reader, to both sides of this subject. Dr. Griffin himself seems to be at a loss how to explain himself on this subject. When he wishes to oppose the New-Haven divines, and guard against their error, he says," }, { "from": "human", "value": "If you mean by power, an ability that works without Divine efficiency, I hope I shall be the last to believe that." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And every body knows that the mass of the New-England divines, from the beginning, have acknowledged no such doctrine." }, { "from": "human", "value": "without it. Thus the moment he sets up a guard against Pelagianism, he throws himself back either upon our doctrine, or upon the old Calvinistic doctrine of" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There is no standing place any where else. The New-Haven divines are right, if natural ability is right; and the time cannot be far distant when the love of consistency will drive all, who hold to natural ability, either on to the New Divinity ground, or back to old Calvinism. From this remark the reader will see how much depends, if my views are correct, upon the proper adjustment of this question. It is in fact the turning point, which is to give a character to the theology of the Churches. Let us not then be in haste to pass over it. Hear Dr. Griffin farther." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now if you ask me what is that power, which is never exerted without Divine efficiency? I can only say, that, in the account of the Divine mind, it is the proper basis of obligation, and therefore by the decision of common sense, must be called a power. The doctor had a little before told us, that this power was faculties--he is not satisfied with this; and what well instructed mind, like the doctor's, could be? It is something that forms the" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "he knows not what it is. He merely infers there is such a power, because men are held responsible. But this inference will flow quite as naturally, by taking the Arminian ground of gracious ability, and save the other difficulties beside. At any rate, it will save the absurdity of holding to an ability, that will not" }, { "from": "human", "value": "But these same writers tell us that, while we have this natural power sufficient without Divine grace to form a basis of obligation," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "--in other words, according to the definition of moral power, we are dependent upon grace for the _exercise_ of our natural power--and since natural power means the faculties of the understanding, will, and conscience--the statement is simply and evidently this: we are dependent upon Divine grace for the exercise of our understanding, conscience, and will, in making a holy choice. Why? Because the understanding, conscience, and will are so depraved by nature, that it is not in their nature to" }, { "from": "human", "value": "in this exercise, without this Divine grace. Is not this holding the gracious ability after all? Is it singular then that Dr. Griffin should say, in another place--" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They (sinners) are bound to go forth to their work at once, _but they are not bound to go_ alone: it is their privilege and duty to cast themselves _instantly_ on the Holy Ghost, and not to take a single step in their own _strength?_ Or is it any wonder that the Christian Spectator should say, that" }, { "from": "human", "value": "And is this the ability that" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "You have power to obey God, if your heart is rightly disposed, or in short hand--" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You can if you will. Now the verb _will_ here evidently means the right _exercise_ of the natural faculties--that is, as shown above, it means obedience. Hence the whole and proper meaning of this notable saying is--" }, { "from": "human", "value": "You have power to obey God, _if you obey him_." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You _can_ if you _do_." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "without Divine efficiency. By moral power; therefore, natural power is controlled. Now, to say nothing here of the absurdity of efficiently and irresistibly controlling one power by another, and yet calling that other the essence of free agency, and the basis of obligation--look at the absurdity in another point of view. Since moral power is the exercise of natural power, the former must be the _effect_ of the latter. And since, according to Calvinism, natural power is controlled by moral power, it follows conclusively; that the effect controls its cause!! And since the cause must act, before the effect is produced, it follows that the effect, before it has an existence, acts upon its cause to produce its own existence!!! This is certainly a nullification of both cause and effect: Such are some of the difficulties of these definitions of power--definitions as contrary to the common understandings of men, and the common laws of language, as they are to sound philosophy--definitions which, if they were always understood, when the terms were used; would make the propositions in which these terms are found, sound very differently to the common ear. I trust therefore it has been made to appear, that" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Man a Free Agent without the Aid of Divine Grace," } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "It consists, he says," } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Some writers speak of man, in his natural state, as _free only_ to evil. But in what does such freedom differ from mere instinct? With no power to do otherwise, how is he who murders a fellow creature more criminal than the tiger, or even a falling rock that destroys him? The fallacy of this argument consists chiefly in a misrepresentation of our theory. Instead of holding that man" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Every man is conscious that he possesses the faculties which constitute free agency." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "When man, under the influence of grace, does choose the good, he is not conscious of any new faculty or power to choose, but only he uses that power in a different manner. The power or faculty which chooses evil and which chooses good, is the same power differently used. Whoever disputed this?--understanding by power a faculty of the soul, as this author evidently does. We all acknowledge that the soul gets no new faculties by grace; but we believe that the mind, in the exercise of its natural faculties, is assisted by grace to make a right choice. But, says the writer, in this connection," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Power to choose between two objects is power to choose either. If the writer means to say that power to choose either the one or the other of two objects _is_ power to choose either--this is an identical proposition: it is only saying, _If a thing is, it is_. But if he means to say, when two objects are presented to the mind, and the mind finds itself possessed of a power to attach itself voluntarily to one, that therefore it has the _same power_ to attach itself to the other, this is denied; and as no proof is given or pretended by the objector, nothing but a denial is necessary. On this point the founder of the Calvinistic school was undoubtedly correct--philosophically and theologically correct--when he said," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Man has not an equally free election of good and evil." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I saw that it was utterly impossible for me to do any thing toward helping or delivering myself. I had the greatest certainty that my state was for ever miserable for all that I could do, and wondered that I had never been sensible of it before. --This passage is very strong; too unqualified, perhaps, but it is the natural language of a weak sinner, convinced, as all must be before they _can become strong_, of their utter helplessness without grace. How fully does such a one prove the truth of Scripture, that" }, { "from": "human", "value": "that" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hence the necessity that" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Quick as the apple of an eye, O God! my conscience make; Awake my soul when sin is nigh, And keep it still awake." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "for the very object that we may be able" }, { "from": "human", "value": "we learn also that we may have" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "" }, { "from": "human", "value": "" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "He tries to keep the law, but cannot; for he finds that" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hear his complaint! and that we may be sure of taking a genuine case, let us select a Bible experience from Rom. vii;" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I am carnal, sold under sin. (How much liberty to serve God has a bond slave to sin?)" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That which I do I allow not; for what I would do that I do not, but what I hate that do I." }, { "from": "human", "value": "To will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not, &c. (See through the chapter.) Hear him finally exclaim, in self despair," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Why, Saul of Tarsus! are you not conscious that you have understanding, conscience, and will? Why make such an exclamation? Who shall deliver you? _Deliver yourself_. No! such philosophy and such theology were not known to this writer, neither as a penitent sinner, nor as an inspired apostle." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I thank God, through Jesus Christ my Lord. --" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The law of the spirit of life, in Christ Jesus, hath made me free from the law [the controlling power] of sin and death." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "This is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men have loved darkness." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He that believeth not is condemned already." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But they grieved his Holy Spirit, therefore he is turned to be their enemy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "The Scriptures ascribe no other inability to man to obey God, but that which consists in or results from the perversion of those faculties which constitute him a moral agent." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What more could I have done for my vineyard?" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "that he" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "As the consequence of Adam's fall, Adam himself and all his posterity became incapable of committing another sin. 2." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Every sinful action performed in this world, since the fall of Adam, has been the effect of supernatural grace. 3." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Man needed the grace of God, not because he was wicked, but because he was weak. 4." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The moral difference between one man and another is not to be ascribed to God. 5." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The posterity of Adam needed no Saviour to atone for actual sin. 6." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This opinion is inconsistent with the doctrine of grace. 7." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There can be no guilt in the present rebellion of the infernal regions. 8." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Is not this grace a greater calamity to our race than the fall of Adam?" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "This writer seems to think this a self-evident proposition, which needs no proof; for although he has used it in argument a number of times, he has left it unsustained by any thing but his naked assertion. This proposition has already been denied, and an unqualified denial is all that in fairness can be claimed by an antagonist to meet an unqualified assertion. Our object, however, is truth, and not victory. Let me request you then, reader, to look at this proposition. Can you see any self-evident proof of this assertion? If the Creator should give existence to an intelligent being, and infuse into his created nature the elements of unrighteousness, and give to his faculties an irresistible bias to sin, and all this without providing a remedy, or a way for escape, then indeed all our notions of justice would decide that such a being ought not to be held responsible. But this is not the case with any of the sinful beings of God's moral government.--Not of the fallen angels, for they had original power to stand, but abused it and fell--not of fallen man, for in the first place his is not a created depravity; but, in the case of Adam, it was contracted by voluntary transgression when he had power to stand; and in the case of his posterity, it is derived and propagated in the ordinary course of generation: and in the second place, a remedy is provided which meets the exigencies of man's moral condition, at the very commencement of his being. This it does by graciously preventing the imputation of guilt until man is capable of an intelligent survey of his moral condition; for" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And when man becomes capable of moral action, this same gracious remedy is suited to remove his native depravity, and to justify him from the guilt of actual transgression; for" }, { "from": "human", "value": "It does not appear, then, either from the obvious character of the proposition itself; or from the condition of sinful beings, that" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hence it is not true that Adam, by the fall, lost his power to sin, or that there is now no sin in the infernal regions. It is true, the writer tries to sustain this idea farther, by asserting that" }, { "from": "human", "value": "This is little better, however, than a reiteration of the former assumption. If the character and conduct of a being are not _now_, and never _have been_ avoidable, then indeed he ought not to have guilt imputed to him. But to say that there is" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "in the case, is to say that characters and actions are not wrong in themselves, even where it would not be just to impute guilt. And this is an idea which is implied also in another part of this writer's reasoning; for he tells us that, according to the doctrine of gracious ability" }, { "from": "human", "value": "and that" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "and yet he adds," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sin is not imputed (he does not say sin does not exist,) where there is no law. The fact there are certain dispositions and acts that are _in their nature_ opposite to holiness, whatever may be the power of the subject _at the time_ he possesses this character or performs these acts. Sin is sin, and holiness is holiness, under all circumstances. They have a positive, and not merely a relative existence. And although they have not existence abstract from an agent possessing understanding, conscience, and will, still they may have an existence abstractly from the power of being or doing otherwise at the time. If not, then the new-born infant has no moral character, or he has power to become holy with his first breath. Whether the subject of this unavoidable sin shall be responsible for it, is a question to be decided by circumstances. If a being has had power, and lost it by his own avoidable act, then indeed he is responsible for his impotency--his very weakness becomes his crime, and every act of omission or commission resulting from his moral impotency, is justly imputed to him, the assertion of our objector to the contrary notwithstanding. Hence it is incorrect to say there is now" }, { "from": "human", "value": "It is of little consequence whether, in this case, you assume that all the guilt is in the first act, by which the ability to do good was lost, or in each successive act of sin, which was the unavoidable consequence of the first. In either case, the acts that follow are the measure of the guilt; and hence, according to the nature of the mind, the consciousness of guilt will be constantly felt, as the acts occur. For all practical purposes, therefore, the sense of guilt, and the Divine administration of justice will be the same in either view of the subject. The writer supposes the case of" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "and says," }, { "from": "human", "value": "but thinks he ought not to be punished for his subsequent deficiencies. But I ask, How much is he to blame, and to what extent should he be punished? His guilt and punishment are to be measured, certainly, by the amount of wrong he has done his master--that is, by every act of omission consequent upon this act, which rendered these omissions unavoidable. Therefore he is justly punishable for every act of omission; and you may refer this whole punishment to the first act exclusively, or to all the acts separately: it amounts to the same thing in the practical administration of government and of justice. Indeed, to say that each succeeding act is to be brought up and taken into the estimate, in order to fix the quantum of punishment, is to acknowledge that these succeeding acts are sins; else why should they be brought into the account at all, in estimating guilt and punishment? Take another case. The drunkard destroys or suspends the right use of his reason, and then murders. Is he to be held innocent of the murder because he was drunk? or was the whole guilt of the murder to be referred to the act of getting intoxicated? If you say the former, then no man is to be punished for any crime committed in a fit of intoxication; and one has only to get intoxicated in order to be innocent. If you say the latter, then, as getting drunk is the same in one case as another, _every_ inebriate is guilty of murder, and whatever other crimes drunkeness _may_ occasion, or has occasioned. Is either of these suppositions correct? Shall we not rather say that the inebriate's guilt is to be measured by the aggregate of crimes flowing from the voluntary act of drowning his reason? And so in the case before us. Instead then of saying, that on our principles" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Because God, if he held man accountable, was bound to give him this ability, as a matter of justice; hence it is not an ability by grace, but an ability by justice. The whole of this reasoning, and much more, goes upon the principle, that the _completion_ of a plan of grace, after it is begun, cannot be claimed on the scale of justice, without making the whole a plan of justice. But is this true? Is not a father, after he has been instrumental of bringing a son into the world, bound _in justice_ to provide for and educate him? And yet does not the son owe a debt of gratitude to that father, when he has done all this? If a physician should cut off the limb of a poor man, to save his life, is he not bound _in justice_, after he has commenced the operation, to take up the arteries and save the man from dying, by the operation. And if he should not do it, would he not be called a wanton and cruel wretch? And yet in both these cases the persons may be unworthy. The son may show much obliquity of moral principle, and yet the father should bear with him, and discipline him. The man on whom the physician operated may be poor and perverse. Here then are cases in which _justice demands that un merited favour begun should be continued_, or else what was favour in the commencement, and what would be favour in the whole, would nevertheless by its incompleteness, be most manifest injustice. Such is the state of the question in respect to the Divine administration. The whole race of man had become obnoxious to the Divine displeasure, in their representative and federal head, by reason of _his_ sin. This is expressly stated:" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "By the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In Adam all die. In this situation we may suppose that the strict justice of the law required punishment in the very character in which the offence was committed. Adam personally and consciously sinned; and so, according to justice, he must suffer. The prospective generations of men, existing seminally in him, as they had not consciously and personally sinned, could, in justice, only experience the effects of the curse in the same character in which they sinned, viz. passively and seminally, unless provision could be made, by which, in their personal existence, they might free themselves from the effects of sin. Now God, in the plenitude of his wisdom and grace, saw fit to make provision for a new probation for man, on the basis of a covenant of grace, the different parts of which are all to be viewed together, in order to judge of their character. In this covenant Adam had a _new trial;_ and when the promise was made to him he stood in the same relation to his posterity as he did when he sinned, and the curse was out against him. If, by the latter, the prospective generations of men were justly cut off from possible existence; by the former this existence was mercifully secured to them. If by the corruption of the race, through sin, the possibility of salvation was cut off, on all known principles of administrative justice; by the provisions of grace the possibility of salvation was secured to the whole race; and this possibility implies every necessary provision to render grace available and efficient, in accordance with moral responsibility. If" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "God, who spared not his own Son, but freely gave him up for us all, had not" }, { "from": "human", "value": "necessary for our salvation, would not the Divine procedure have been characterized both by folly and injustice? If his plan of grace had only gone so far as to have given us a conscious being, without giving us the means of making that existence happy, would it not have been wanton cruelty? And yet, taking the whole together, who does not see that it is a most stupendous system of grace, from the foundation to the top-stone? Let us not then be guilty of such manifest folly, as to take a part of the Divine administration, and make up a judgment upon that, as viewed independently of the rest, and then transfer this abstract character to the whole. As in chemical combinations, though one of the ingredients taken alone might be deleterious, yet the compound may be nutritious or salutary, so in the new covenant, if we separate legal exactions and penalties from gracious provisions, the operations of the former may be unjust and cruel, yet the whole, united as God hath combined them, may be an administration of unparalleled grace. It is in this heavenly combination that" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now, therefore," }, { "from": "human", "value": "for on this ground he can be" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Although justice is thus involved in the system, and to leave out part of the system would be manifest injustice, yet the whole is the" }, { "from": "human", "value": "" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It is objected, I know, that the idea that, but for the provisions of the Gospel, man would not have propagated his species, is fanciful and unauthorized by Scripture. The Scriptures, I grant, do not strike off into speculations about what God might have done, or would have done, if he had not done as he has. This is foreign from their design; and I am perfectly willing to let the whole stand as the Scriptures present it. But when our opponents set the example of raising an objection to what we think the true system, by passing judgment on a part, viewed abstractly, we must meet them. On their own ground, then, I would say, the idea that man would have been allowed to propagate his species, without any provisions of grace, is altogether fanciful and unauthorized by Scripture. Will it be said, that it seems more reasonable, and in accordance with the course of nature, to suppose that he would? I answer, It seems to me more reasonable, and in accordance with the course of justice, to suppose that he would not. Whoever maintains that the personal existence of Adam's posterity was not implied and included in the provisions of grace, in the new covenant, must take into his theory one of the following appendages;--he must either believe that the whole race could justly be consigned to personal and unavoidable wo, for the sin of Adam, or that all could be justly condemned for the sin of their own nature, entailed upon them without their agency, and therefore equally unavoidable; or he must believe that each would have a personal trial on the ground of the covenant of works, as Adam had. If there is another alternative, it must be some system of probation which God has never intimated, and man, in all his inventions has never devised. Whoever is prepared to adopt either of the two former propositions is prepared to go all lengths in the doctrine of predestination and reprobation charged upon Calvinism in the sermon that gave rise to this controversy, and, of course, will find his system subject to all the objections there urged against it. If any one chooses to adopt the third alternative, and consider all the posterity of Adam as standing or falling solely on the ground of the covenant of works, such a one need not be answered in a discussion purporting to be a" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Man needed the grace of God, _both_" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "_and_" }, { "from": "human", "value": "--4." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The moral difference between one man and another is--to be ascribed to God. How any one could think a contrary opinion chargeable upon us, is to me surprising. It is more properly Calvinism that is chargeable with this sentiment. Calvinism says, Regeneration is a right choice. It says, also, that power to sin implies power to be holy; and of course we become holy by the same power as that by which we sin. And it farther says, that the power is of nature and not of grace. Now let the reader put all these together, and see if it does not follow most conclusively, that" }, { "from": "human", "value": "But, on the contrary, _we_ say the sinful nature of man is changed in regeneration by the power of the Holy Ghost. 5." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The posterity of Adam _did_" }, { "from": "human", "value": "For actual sin is the result, not of gracious power, as this author supposes, but of a sinful nature voluntarily retained and indulged. If our opponents charge us with the sentiment, that grace is the cause of the actual sin of Adam's posterity, because we hold that grace was the cause of their personal existence, we grant that, in that sense, grace was a cause without which the posterity of Adam would not have sinned. But if this makes God the author of sin, by the same rule we could prove that God is the author of sin, because he created moral agents--and if there is any difficulty here, it presses on them as heavily as on us. But in any other sense, grace is not the cause of sin. 6." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This opinion is, as we have seen, perfectly" }, { "from": "human", "value": "7." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There is _constant_" }, { "from": "human", "value": "8." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This grace is a greater _blessing_" }, { "from": "human", "value": "was a" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "for" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "This will I do if God permit." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "You _can_, and you _cannot;_" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. If any one doubts whether" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "as expressed in this text, means regeneration, the next verse will settle it--" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, John i, 12, 13. The latter verse I may have occasion to remark upon hereafter; it is quoted here to show that the new birth is undoubtedly the subject here spoken of. And we are here expressly taught, in language that will bear no other interpretation, that _receiving_ Christ and _believing_ on his name are the conditions of regeneration. If there were no other passage in the Bible to direct our minds on this subject, this plain unequivocal text ought to be decisive. But the truth is, this is the uniform language of Scripture. And are there any passages against these, any that say we cannot come, cannot believe, seek, &c? or any that say, this work of personal regeneration is performed independent of conditions? I know of none which will not fairly admit of a different construction. We are often met with this passage--" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. See Rom. ix, 16. But whoever interpreteth this of personal and individual regeneration can hardly have examined the passage carefully and candidly. But we are told again, it is God that renews the heart; and if it is his work, it is not the work of the sinner. I grant this; this is the very sentiment I mean to maintain; but then there may be conditions--_there are conditions_--or else we should not hear the psalmist _praying_ for this, in language that has been preserved for the edification of all subsequent generations," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. This is a practical comment on Christ's conditional salvation," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ask and ye shall receive." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "though the saints are commanded to" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "to" }, { "from": "human", "value": "that they may be" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "though some of the Corinthian Christians were" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Set your affection on things above, and not on things on the earth." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For, says he," }, { "from": "human", "value": "And this is the fact in most cases of genuine awakening. Resolutions are formed, but the current of the unsanctified affections sweeps them away. Over the untowardness of the unregenerate heart the will has, in fact, but a feeble influence; and this is the reason why the man, struggling with the corruptions of his heart, is driven to despair, and exclaims," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "O! wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "But he must do it with right motives, you say," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Indeed! Suppose then that he has resolved to serve God, from right motives, what if he should afterward resolve, from false shame or fear, to neglect a duty, is he now unregenerate? This is changing from regenerate to unregenerate, from _entire_ holiness to _entire_ unholiness with a breath. Truly such a regeneration is _nothing_. But you say, after he has once submitted, he now has a" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, John i, 12, 13. This is a two-edged sword--it cuts off, as we have remarked before, passive and unconditional regeneration on the one hand; and also, as we may now see, self conversion by an act of the will, on the other. I know not how words can be put together, in so small a compass, better to answer the true objects of destroying these two opposite theories of regeneration, and asserting the true theory. Here is, first--the _receiving of Christ,_ the _believing on his name_--this is the condition. Second, Christ gives the" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "viz. strength and privilege, to become the sons of God. This is the regeneration. Third--This becoming" }, { "from": "human", "value": "or being" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "and several other times in the phrase," }, { "from": "human", "value": "to have this called being" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "and the like, is enough, one would think, if words have any meaning, to show that man does not change his own heart. The same may be said of the terms _resurrection, translation, creation, renewal_, and various other terms the Scriptures use to express this change. Jesus Christ claimed that he had" }, { "from": "human", "value": "but this is the only instance of self-resurrection power that we read of; and even this was by his Divine nature; for he was" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "and raised" }, { "from": "human", "value": "But these theorists teach that man has power to lay down his life, and then, after he is" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "he has power to take his life again. Truly this is giving man a power that approaches very near to one of the Divine attributes. To Christ alone does it belong" }, { "from": "human", "value": "To change the heart of the sinner is one of the Divine prerogatives, and he that attempts to convert himself; and trusts to this, will find in the end that he is _carnal_ still. For" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "--" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "--that" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What is this but the New Divinity? The will is here made, most explicitly, the sole seat of depravity; and regeneration is an act of the will. But every act of the will is the sinner's _own act_, and therefore the agent, by that act of the will which constitutes regeneration, converts himself.--Perhaps Dr. Tyler will say, the sinner in this case does not convert himself, because he is" }, { "from": "human", "value": "God makes him willing" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It is remarkable what a favourite phrase this is with the Calvinists. It is borrowed from the third verse of the hundred and tenth Psalm," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. Now although the word" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "is not in the text; although there is not the _slightest_ evidence that the text speaks of regeneration at all, but on the contrary, it is most evidently intended to describe the character and conduct of God's people, viz. the regenerate; and although every scholar, at least, among the Calvinists, knows this as well as he knows his right hand from the left, yet we hear it repeated by the learned and the ignorant, at all times and places--" }, { "from": "human", "value": "God's people are made willing in the day of his power." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "All men may be saved if they will --" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No man is hindered from coming to Christ who is willing to come --that is, since to will and to be willing is to be regenerated, this language gravely teaches us," }, { "from": "human", "value": "All men may be saved, if they _are regenerated_ --" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No man is hindered from coming to Christ (to be regenerated) who _is regenerated!_ And indeed this view of regeneration not only makes learned divines talk nonsense, but the Scriptures also. The invitation," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Whosoever will, let him come, &c, must mean," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Whosoever _is regenerate_, let him come," } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "I find the will often confounded with several of the affections, especially desire, and one put for the other. This he thinks is an error, of which" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "will be convinced. Rev. Professor Upham, of Bowdoin College, Maine, himself a Calvinist, as is generally supposed, in a late excellent treatise on the will, asserts, and clearly proves, I think, that" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nay, he proves that desires and volitions are often in direct opposition. Hence as love implies desire, our volitions may often conflict with our love. And this is precisely the state the awakened sinner is in when he" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It will be found on examination to resolve itself into a verbal fallacy, and naturally vanishes as soon as that fallacy is detected." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It is undoubtedly true that the common usage of language authorizes us to apply the terms choice and choosing indiscriminately to either the desire or volition; but it does not follow, and is not true, that we apply them to these different parts of our nature in precisely the same sense." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When the word choice implies desire at all, it has reference to a number of desirable objects brought before the mind at once, and implies and expresses the ascendant or predominant desire." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At other times we use the terms choice and choosing in application to the will--when it is applied to that power, it expresses the mere act of the will, and nothing more, with the exception, as in the other case, that more than one object of volition was present, in view of the mind, before the putting forth of the voluntary act. It is in fact the circumstance that two or more objects are present, which suggests the use of the word choice or choosing, in either case." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But the acts are entirely different in their nature, although under certain circumstances the same name is applied to them. Hence he adds," }, { "from": "human", "value": "The contradiction is not a real, but merely a verbal one. If we ever choose against choosing, it will be found merely that choice which is volition, placed against that choice which is desire." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "and" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "If so, then man has power, at any time, by an act of the will, to love God. Let him try--let that unholy sinner try. Can he succeed? You say perhaps, for so the Calvinists have said," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He can if he will; that is, he can will to love God if he does will to love God! This is no great discovery surely, and it is certainly no proper answer to the question. I ask it again, Can he, by a direct act of the will, love God? Do you say, by varying the form of the answer," }, { "from": "human", "value": "He can if he chooses?" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Whenever there is a want of harmony in the mind, there is always a greater or less degree of enthralment. And then he proceeds to show how the mind may be enslaved by the _propensities_, _appetites_, _affections,_ and _passions_. He illustrates; for example, the progress of this enthralment in the case of an appetite for strong drink; which," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Again he says," }, { "from": "human", "value": "There are not unfrequently cases where the propensities and passions have become so intense, after years of repetition, as to control, or in other words, enthral the voluntary power almost entirely. (Treatise on the Will.) Dr. Griffin, also an able Calvinistic writer, says, in decided terms," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The judgment of the intellect and the decisions of the will are both controlled by the heart." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "I see, says the apostle," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "_The law of sin in his members_ was undoubtedly the carnal mind, the unholy affections. These _warred_ against the _law of his mind_, his enlightened judgment, his feelings of moral obligation; and in this warfare the former were victorious, and carried captive the will; so that" }, { "from": "human", "value": "" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To will was present with him, but" }, { "from": "human", "value": "See the entire passage, for it beautifully illustrates our whole theory. Here is the conflict, the struggle between conscience and sin; here is pointed out the seat of sin, viz. the" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "or carnal mind, which is but another name for the unsanctified affections and appetites; here is the will struggling to turn the contest on the side of duty, but struggling in vain; every effort results in defeat--_it is taken captive, and overcome_.--Despair finally settles down upon the mind, as far as personal strength is concerned, and the anxious soul looks abroad for help, and cries out," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death!" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye _cannot_ do the things that ye _would_." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "The more he strove against its power, He felt the guilt and sin the more." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "until" }, { "from": "human", "value": "until" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Here our Saviour shows the analogy between the cure of the Israelites by looking at the brazen serpent, and of sinners by looking to Christ. But how were the Israelites healed? By the conditional act of _looking_ at the brazen serpent. So looking at Christ is the condition of healing the soul. Take away this condition and the whole analogy is destroyed. Let this condition be understood, and the text will accord with others, equally expressive of conditions." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Seek the Lord while he may be found. God hath determined that all nations" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Will any one pretend to say that this looking and seeking implies regeneration? This is mere assumption; where is the proof? who would ever infer this idea from the Scriptures themselves? What! is the sinner regenerated before the malady of his soul, the poisonous bite of sin, is healed? Has he found the Lord before he has sought him? And must he seek after he has found him? The _kingdom of God_ is religion in the soul--it is" }, { "from": "human", "value": "and when we are regenerated, we have it in possession, and have therefore no need to seek it. But we are commanded to _seek_ the kingdom of God; this, therefore, must be a work preparatory to, and conditional of regeneration." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Take my yoke upon you, &c. To be _restless_, and not to have on the yoke of Christ, is to be unregenerate; but such are to _come_ and _take_ the yoke, and then, and on that condition, they will find rest to their souls." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Spirit and the bride say, Come, &c, and whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely. To take of the water of life is to be regenerate; but to this end we must _come_, and must first _will_ in order to _come_." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and sup with him, and he with me." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "We should be careful to discriminate between things closely related, and yet actually distinct from each other. It is one thing to be pleased with the character of the mind as a whole, in view of its relations to the Divine law and its necessary qualifications for heaven, and another thing to be pleased with a particular mental state, or conditional volition, in reference to its adaptation to a proposed end, or a specific object. For instance: the Calvinists think that an awakened and an anxiously inquiring sinner is in a more suitable state of mind to receive the blessing of regeneration, than one perfectly stupid and thoughtless. If they do not, why do they try to bring sinners to thoughtfulness? Why do they try to awaken them to a sense of their danger, and make them tremble under the view of the Divine displeasure? Or why do they call their attention to Gospel provisions and a crucified Saviour? Is not this a preparatory process? And have they the Divine warrant for such a course? Is this the method which the Divine Being takes to save his rebellious subjects? Then, doubtless, this method is well pleasing to him: and in reference to this specific end he has in view, he is pleased with each successive step in the process. He is pleased when the shiner pays attention to the word; he is pleased when he is awakened, and when he begins to tremble and inquire," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What shall I do to be saved?" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Are these conditional acts of the mind holy or unholy exercises? If holy, then the work of regeneration is accomplished already, and therefore these cannot be the _conditions_ of that change. If unholy, then they can be no other than offensive to a holy God, and therefore cannot be conditions well pleasing to him. In addition to what has been already said, having a bearing upon this question, it may be stated that the terms holy and unholy may be equivocal, as used in this connection; and thus the supposed dilemma would be more in words than in fact, more in appearance than in reality. This dilemma is urged in the argument under the idea that there can be but the two kinds of exercises, holy and unholy. And this may be true enough, only let us understand what is meant. If by holy exercises are meant those in which the entire feeling is on the side of God, I readily answer, _No_, the mind before regeneration has no such exercises. If by holiness is meant, that the judgment and conscience are on the side of truth, I answer, _Yes_, this is the state of the mind when it is truly awakened by the Holy Spirit and by Divine truth. It is entirely immaterial to me, therefore, whether the objector call the exercise holy or unholy, provided he draw no special inferences from the use of a general term that the positions here assumed do not authorize. Sure I am that the objector cannot say there is nothing in the exercises of the unregenerate, awakened sinner, such as God would have for the end proposed, until he is prepared to say that a fear of the consequences of sin, an enlightened judgment, the remorse of conscience for the past, the feelings of obligation for the future, and the hope of victory over sin through Christ, all combining to induce the sinner to flee for refuge, and lay hold upon the hope set before him, are all wrong, and not as God would have them? But when a man is prepared to say this, it is difficult to see how he could be reasoned with farther, for he would seem to have given up reason and Scripture. And yet who does not know that these are the exercises of the soul awakened to a sense of sin and its consequences, even while as yet his unholy affections hang upon him like a _body of death_:--Yea, who does not know that it is this body of death, from which he cannot escape, and this abhorrence of sin and its consequences, that rein him up, and incline him to a surrender of his soul into the hands of Christ, from whom, as a consequence, he receives _power_ to become a son of God." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But what is the motive? it is asked," } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But, continues the objector," }, { "from": "human", "value": "It is that principle of spiritual life which the Christian has in his soul when he can say," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The life that I now live I live by faith in the Son of God." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Every moment, Lord, I need The merit of thy death." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Repent and believe, and ye shall (on this condition) be saved." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "But the _act_ itself of repentance cannot be said to be _given_. This would be an absurdity. How can any one give me a mental _act?_ Hence Dr. Doddridge, although a Calvinist, very candidly and very justly remarks, on this passage, that" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "If then there be any antecedence in the order of the two parts of the work of grace, we must suppose that justification has the precedence, and that regeneration follows, and hence repentance and faith precede regeneration. Indeed I cannot see why repentance is not as necessary to remove the sin of the heart as to forgive the sin of the life. If God will not forgive sin without repentance, will he renew the heart without it? Has he any where promised this? If not, but if, on the contrary, he every where seems to have suspended the working out of our salvation _in us_, upon our repentance, then may we safely conclude--nay, then we must necessarily believe that we repent in order to be renewed. The same may be said of faith. Faith in fact seems to be the exclusive channel through which every gracious effect is produced upon the mind. The sinner cannot be awakened without faith, for it precedes every judgment in favour of truth, and every motion of moral feeling, and of course every favourable concurrence of the will. The sinner never could throw himself upon the Divine mercy, never would embrace Christ as his Saviour, until he believed. Hence the Scriptures lay such great stress upon faith, and make it the grand, and indeed the only _immediate_ condition of the work of grace upon the heart. Repentance is a condition only remotely, _in order_ to justifying faith; agreeable to the teaching of Christ," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And ye, when ye had heard, afterward _repented_ not that ye _might believe_ on him." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "But the very _nature_ of repentance and of faith, the very _definition_ of the two mental states expressed by these terms, it is said," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It is, say some Calvinistic writers," } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "To believe is doubtless, in many instances, perfectly involuntary. There are numerous cases in which a man is obliged to believe, both against his will and against his desires. There are other cases, again, in which the will is not only much concerned in believing, but in which its action is indispensable in order to believe. And the faith of the Gospel is pre-eminently an instance of this kind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Faith, saith the word," }, { "from": "human", "value": "But hearing implies attention; and every deliberate act of attention implies an act of the will. A man can no more leap, by one transition, from a state of entire carelessness into the faith that justifies the soul, than he can make a world. But he can take the steps that lead to this result. To believe to the saving of the soul requires _consideration_, _self examination_, a _knowledge_ of the object of faith, or the truth to be believed, _earnest looking_, and _prayerful seeking_. But is there no act of the will in all these? It is said that" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And it is doubtless true, that the soul cannot get such a view of Christ as encourages him to throw himself unreservedly upon the mercy of the Saviour, until the Spirit makes, to the mind's eye, this special exhibition of the" }, { "from": "human", "value": "But when does he do this? Does he come to the sinner when he is careless and inattentive, and show him the _things of Christ?_ No! it is only to the inquiring and self-despairing sinner, who is earnestly groaning out the sentiment in the bitterness of his heart," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "God must predetermine his works before he could certainly know what would take place; and hence, in the order of cause and effect, he must decree in order to know. It is readily conceded, that, in the order of nature, the Divine Being could not foreknow that a world would certainly exist, until he had determined to create it. But was there no prescience back of this? Did he determine to create a universe, independent of a view of all the bearings in the case? If so, he created at random and in ignorance. If not, then a view of all the results preceded his determination to create; and thus we are led irresistibly to the doctrine of the sermon, that" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "God foreknows in order to predestinate." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Ah! it is one of the results of agnosticism." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "And ten tens are a hundred," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nineteen hundreds, one of the pair in dirty striped robes agreed, taking a stone from the box in front of him and throwing it away. Only one stone remained." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One more hundred to pay." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "I don't like this, he said, in another and entirely different language." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I know, chattel slavery's an established custom on this sector, and we have to conform to local usages, but it sickens me to have to haggle with these swine over the price of human beings. On the Zarkantha Sector, we used nothing but free wage-labor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Migratory workers, the guard captain said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Humanitarian considerations aside, I can think of a lot better ways of meeting the labor problem on a fruit plantation than by buying slaves you need for three months a year and have to feed and quarter and clothe and doctor the whole twelve." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Twenty hundreds of _obus_, the clerk who had been counting the money said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That is the payment, is it not, Coru-hin-Irigod?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "That is the payment," } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "The slaves are yours, noble lords," } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "If I do not offend the noble lords, then, Coru-hin-Irigod said," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I beg their sufferance to depart. I and my men have far to ride if we would reach Careba by nightfall. The Lord, the Great Lord, the Lord God Safar watch between us until we meet again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Have a good look at them, Radd?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You think I'm crazy enough to let those bandits out of here with two thousand _obus_--forty thousand Paratemporal Exchange Units--of the Company's money without knowing what we're getting? the other parried." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They're all right--nice, clean, healthy-looking lot. I did everything but take them apart and inspect the pieces while they were being unshackled at the stockade. I'd like to know where this Coru-hin-Whatshisname got them, though. They're not local stuff. Lot darker, and they're jabbering among themselves in some lingo I never heard before. A few are wearing some rags of clothing, and they have odd-looking sandals. I noticed that most of them showed marks of recent whipping. That may mean they're troublesome, or it may just mean that these Caleras are a lot of sadistic brutes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Poor devils!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Coming to have a look at them, Doth?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You go, Kirv; I'll see them later." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Still not able to look the Company's property in the face? the captain asked gently." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You'll not get used to it any sooner than now." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I suppose you're right. For a moment Dosu Golan watched Coru-hin-Irigod and his followers canter out of the yard and break into a gallop on the road beyond. Then he tucked his whip under his arm." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All right, then. Let's go see them." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Radd's right, the captain told the new manager." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They're not local. Much darker skins, and different face-structure; faces wedge-shaped instead of oval, and differently shaped noses, and brown eyes instead of black. I've seen people like that, somewhere, but--" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "These are not like the others: they wear fine garments, and walk proudly. They look stern, but not cruel. They are the real masters here; the others are but servants." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You know that language? he asked. When the man called Dosu Golan shook his head, he continued:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "That's Kharanda; it's a dialect spoken by a people in the Ganges Valley, in India, on the Kholghoor Sector of the Fourth Level." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You mean they're from outtime? he demanded." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Are you sure?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I did two years on Fourth Level Kholghoor with the Paratime Police, before I took this job, the man called Kiro Soran replied." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And another thing. Those lash-marks were made with some kind of an electric whip. Not these rawhide quirts the Caleras use." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kirv, this is going to make a simply hideous uproar, all the way up to Home Time Line main office, he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I don't know what I'm going to do--" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Well, I know what I have to do. The captain raised his voice, using the local language:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sergeant! Run to the guardhouse, and tell Sergeant Adarada to mount up twenty of his men and take off after those Caleras who sold us these slaves. They're headed down the road toward the river. Tell him to bring them all back, and especially their chief, Coru-hin-Irigod, and him I want alive and able to answer questions. And then get the white-cloak lord Urado Alatena, and come back here." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yes, captain." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Next, we'll have to isolate these slaves, Kiro Soran said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You'd better make a full report to the Company as soon as possible. I'm going to transpose to Police Terminal Time Line and make my report to the Sector-Regional Subchief. Then--" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now wait a moment, Kirv, Dosu Golan protested." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After all, I'm the manager, even if I am new here. It's up to me to make the decisions--" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sorry, Doth. Not this one, he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You know the terms under which I was hired by the Company. I'm still a field agent of the Paratime Police, and I'm reporting back on duty as soon as I can transpose to Police Terminal. Look; here are a hundred men and women who have been shifted from one time-line, on one paratemporal sector of probability, to another. Why, the world from which these people came doesn't even exist in this space-time continuum. There's only one way they could have gotten here, and that's the way we did--in a Ghaldron-Hesthor paratemporal transposition field. You can carry it on from there as far as you like, but the only thing it adds up to is a case for the Paratime Police. You had better include in your report mention that I've reverted to police status; my Company pay ought to be stopped as of now. And until somebody who outranks me is sent here, I'm in complete charge. Paratime Transposition Code, Section XVII, Article 238." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You understand how it is, Doth; this is the only thing I can do." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I understand, Kirv. Count on me for absolutely anything. He looked at the brown-skinned slaves, and lines of horror and loathing appeared around his mouth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "To think that some of our own people would do a thing like this! I hope you can catch the devils! Are you transposing out, now?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In a few minutes. While I'm gone, have the doctor look at those whip-injuries. Those things could get infected. Fortunately, he's one of our own people." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yes, of course. And I'll have these slaves isolated, and if Adarada brings back Coru-hin-Irigod and his gang before you get back, I'll have them locked up and waiting for you. I suppose you want to narco-hypnotize and question the whole lot, slaves and slavers?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What's wrong, Kirv?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I knew there was something funny about them, he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Doth, what a simply beastly thing to happen, two days after you take charge here!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Not his fault, the Paratime Police agent said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'm the one the Company'll be sore at, but I'd rather have them down on me rather than old Tortha Karf. Well, sit on the lid till I get back, he told both of them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We'll need some kind of a story for the locals. Let's see--Explain to the guards, in the hearing of some of the more talkative slaves, that these slaves are from the Asian mainland, that they are of a people friendly to our people, and that they were kidnaped by pirates, our enemies. That ought to explain everything satisfactorily." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Want some of this, Dalla?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No, I'll have some of the venison, the black-haired girl beside him said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And some of the pickled beans. We'll be getting our fill of pork, for the next month." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I thought the Dwarma Sector people were vegetarians, Jandar Jard, the theatrical designer, said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Most nonviolent peoples are, aren't they?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Well, the Dwarma people haven't any specific taboo against taking life, Bronnath Zara, the dark-eyed woman in the brightly colored gown, told him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They're just utterly noncombative, nonaggressive. When I was on the Dwarma Sector, there was a horrible scandal at the village where I was staying. It seems that a farmer and a meat butcher fought over the price of a pig. They actually raised their voices and shouted contradictions at each other. That happened two years before, and people were still talking about it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I didn't think they had any money, either," }, { "from": "human", "value": "They don't, Zara said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It's all barter and trade. What are you and Vall going to use for a visible means of support, while you're there?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oh, I have my mandolin, and I've learned all the traditional Dwarma songs by hypno-mech, Dalla said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And Transtime Tours is fitting Vall out with a bag of tools; he's going to do repair work and carpentry." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oh, good; you'll be welcome anywhere, Zara, the sculptress, said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They're always glad to entertain a singer, and for people who do the fine decorative work they do, they're the most incompetent practical mechanics I've ever seen or heard of. You're going to travel from village to village?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yes. The cover-story is that we're lovers who have left our village in order not to make Vall's former wife unhappy by our presence," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Oh, good! That's entirely in the Dwarma romantic tradition, Bronnath Zara approved." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ordinarily, you know, they don't like to travel. They have a saying: 'Happy are the trees, they abide in their own place; sad are the winds, forever they wander.' But that'll be a fine explanation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I can just see Vall mending pots, and Dalla playing that mandolin and singing, he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At least, you'll be getting away from police work. I don't suppose they have anything like police on the Dwarma Sector?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Oh, no; they don't even have any such concept, Bronnath Zara said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When somebody does something wrong, his neighbors all come and talk to him about it till he gets ashamed, then they all forgive him and have a feast. They're lovely people, so kind and gentle. But you'll get awfully tired of them in about a month. They have absolutely no respect for anybody's privacy. In fact, it seems slightly indecent to them for anybody to want privacy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A visiphone-call for His Valor, the Mavrad of Nerros." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Vall, you're being paged!" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Vall's probably forgotten that he has a title," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That's something the Mavrad of Mnirna and Thalvabar never forgets," } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Hello, Eldra," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hello, Chief's Assistant: I'm sorry to bother you, but the Chief wants to talk to you. Just a moment, please." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Hello, Vall. Glad I was able to locate you. When are you and Dalla leaving?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As soon as we can get away from this luncheon, here. Oh, say an hour. We're taking a rocket to Zarabar, and transposing from there to Passenger Terminal Sixteen, and from there to the Dwarma Sector." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Well, Vall, I hate to bother you like this, Tortha Karf said," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Well, Chief, let me remind you that this vacation, which I've had to postpone four times already, has been overdue for four years," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yes, Vall, I know. You've been working very hard, and you and Dalla are entitled to a little time together. I just want you to look into something, before you leave." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It'll have to take some fast looking. Our rocket blasts off in two hours." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It may take a little longer; if it does, you and Dalla can transpose to Police Terminal and take a rocket for Zarabar Equivalent, and transpose from there to Passenger Sixteen. It would save time if you brought Dalla with you to Headquarters." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dalla won't like this," }, { "from": "human", "value": "No. I'm afraid not. Tortha Karf looked around apprehensively, as though estimating the damage an enraged Hadron Dalla could do to his office furnishings." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Well, try to get here as soon as you can." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was using his vocowriter, rather than his conversational, voice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I yield to no one in my appreciation of outtime art--you all know how devotedly I collect objects of art from all over paratime--but our own artists should endeavor to express their artistic values in our own artistic idioms." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We have to leave, right away," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But our rocket doesn't blast off for two hours--" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I have to go to Headquarters before we leave. It'll save time if you come along." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Oh, no, Vall! She looked at him in consternation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Was that Tortha Karf, calling?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'm dreadfully sorry, Dras, he addressed their host." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I just had a call from Tortha Karf. A few minor details that must be cleared up, before I leave Home Time Line. If you'll accept our thanks for a wonderful luncheon--" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Why, certainly, Vall. Brogoth, will you call-- He gave a slight chuckle." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'm so used to having Brogoth Zaln at my elbow that I'd forgotten he wasn't here. Wait. I'll call one of the servants to have a car for you." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Don't bother; we'll take an aircab," }, { "from": "human", "value": "But you simply can't take a public cab! The black-bearded nobleman was shocked at such an obscene idea." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I will have a car ready for you in a few minutes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sorry, Dras; we have to hurry. We'll get a cab on the roof. Good-by, everybody; sorry to have to break away like this. See you all when we get back." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "I knew it, she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I knew he'd find something. He's trying to break things up between us, the way he did twenty years ago.'" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Really, Vall, he's never liked me, she went on." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He's jealous of me, I think. You're to be his successor, when he retires, and he thinks I'm not a good influence--" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oh, rubbish, Dalla! The Chief has always liked you, Vall replied." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If he didn't, do you think he'd always be inviting us to that farm of his, on Fifth Level Sicily? It's just that this job of ours has no end; something's always turning up, outtime." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Paratime Building, just below, it said, in a light feminine voice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Which landing stage, please? Vall leaned forward and punched at the buttons in front of him. Something in the cab's electronic brain gave a rapid series of clicks as it shifted from the general Paratime Building beam to the beam of the Paratime Police landing stage, then it said," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Thank you. The building below seemed to rotate upward toward them as it settled down. Then the antigrav-field snapped off, the cab door popped open, and the cab said:" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Good-by, now. Ride with me again, sometime." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Come on back and sit down, he invited." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Be with you in a moment. Then he switched on the phone again and went on talking--something about prompter evaluation and transmission of reports and less reliance on robot equipment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sign that up, my personal order, and see it's transmitted to everybody down to and including Sector Regional Subchief level," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sorry about this, he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sit down, if you please. Cigarettes?" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "This won't interfere with your vacation, Vall, Tortha Karf was saying." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I just need a little help before you transpose out." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We have to catch the rocket for Zarabar in an hour and a half," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Don't worry about that; if you miss the commercial rocket, our police rockets can give it an hour's start and pass it before it gets to Zarabar, Tortha Karf said. Then he turned to Vall." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Here's what's happened, he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "One of our field agents on detached duty as guard captain for Consolidated Outtime Foodstuffs on a fruit plantation in western North America, Third Level Esaron Sector, was looking over a lot of slaves who had been sold to the plantation by a local slave dealer. He heard them talking among themselves--in Kharanda." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "No possibility that this agent, Skordran Kirv, could have been mistaken. He worked for a while on Kholghoor Sector, himself; knew the language by hypno-mech and by two years' use, Tortha Karf was saying." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So he ordered himself back on duty, had the slaves isolated and the slave dealers arrested, and then transposed to Police Terminal to report. The SecReg Subchief, old Vulthor Tharn, confirmed him in charge at this Esaron Sector plantation, and assigned him a couple of detectives and a psychist." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When was this?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yesterday. One-Five-Nine Day. About 1500 local time." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Twenty-three hundred Dhergabar time," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yes. And I just found out about it. Came in in the late morning generalized report-digest; very inconspicuous item, no special urgency symbol or anything. Fortunately, one of the report editors spotted it and messaged Police Terminal for a copy of the original report." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It's been a long time since we had anything like that, Vall said, studying the glowing tip of his cigarette, his face wearing the curiously withdrawn expression of a conscious memory recall." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fifty years ago; the time that gang kidnaped some girls from Second Level Triplanetary Empire Sector and sold them into the harem of some Fourth Level Indo-Turanian sultan." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yes. That was your first independent case, Vall. That was when I began to think you'd really make a cop. One renegade First Level citizen and four or five ServSec Prole hoodlums, with a stolen fifty-foot conveyer. This looks like a rather more ambitious operation." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Always ready sale for slaves on the Esaron Sector, Vall was saying." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And so many small independent states, and different languages, that outtimers wouldn't be particularly conspicuous." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And with this barbarian invasion going on on the Kholghoor Sector, slaves could be picked up cheaply," } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "What barbarian invasion's this?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Oh, Central Asian nomadic people, the Croutha, Tortha Karf told her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They came down through Khyber Pass about three months ago, turned east, and hit the headwaters of the Ganges. Without punching a lot of buttons to find out exactly, I'd say they're halfway to the delta country by now. Leader seems to be a chieftain called Llamh Droogh the Red. A lot of paratime trading companies are yelling for permits to introduce firearms in the Kholghoor Sector to protect their holdings there." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Well, what do you want me to do, Chief?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Well, I have to know just what this situation's likely to develop into, and I want to know why Vulthor Tharn's been sitting on this ever since Skordran Kirv reported it to him--" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I can answer the second one now, Vall replied." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Vulthor Tharn is due to retire in a few years. He has a negatively good, undistinguished record. He's trying to play it safe." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That's what I thought. Look, Vall; suppose you and Dalla transpose from here to Police Terminal, and go to Novilan Equivalent, and give this a quick look-over and report to me, and then rocket to Zarabar Equivalent and go on with your trip to the Dwarma Sector. It may delay you eight or ten hours, but--" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Closer twenty-four, Vall said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'd have to transpose to this plantation, on the Esaron Sector. How about it, Dalla? Would you want to do that?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I know, it's a confounded imposition, Dalla, Tortha Karf told her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But it's important that I get a prompt and full estimate of the situation. This may be something very serious. If it's an isolated incident, it can be handled in a routine manner, but I'm afraid it's not. It has all the marks of a large-scale operation, and if this is a matter of mass kidnapings from one sector and transpositions to another, you can see what a threat this is to the Paratime Secret." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Moral considerations entirely aside, Vall said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We don't need to discuss them; they're too obvious." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "We could do that, couldn't we, Vall? she asked, angry at herself now for giving in." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And if you want to question these slaves, I speak Kharanda, and I know how they think. And I'm a qualified and licensed narco-hypnotic technician." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Well, that's splendid, Dalla! Tortha Karf enthused." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wait a moment; I'll message Police Terminal to have a rocket ready for you." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'll need a hypno-mech for Kharanda, myself, Vall said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dalla, do you know Acalan? When she shook her head, he turned back to Tortha Karf." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Look; it's about a four-hour rocket hop to Novilan Equivalent. Say we have the hypno-mech machines installed in the rocket; Dalla and I can take our language lessons on the way, and be ready to go to work as soon as we land." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Good idea, Tortha Karf approved." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'll order that done, right away. Now--" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "What's the Esaron Sector like?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Third Level; probability of abortive attempt to colonize this planet from Mars about a hundred thousand years ago, he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A few survivors--a shipload or so--were left to shift for themselves while the parent civilization on Mars died out. They lost all vestiges of their original Martian culture, even memory of their extraterrestrial origin. About fifteen hundred to two thousand years ago, a reasonably high electrochemical civilization developed and they began working with nuclear energy and developed reaction-drive spaceships. But they'd concentrated so on the inorganic sciences, and so far neglected the bio-sciences, that when they launched their first ship for Venus they hadn't yet developed a germ theory of disease." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What happened when they ran into the green-vomit fever?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "About what you could expect. The first--and only--ship to return brought it back to Terra. Of course, nobody knew what it was, and before the epidemic ended, it had almost depopulated this planet. Since the survivors knew nothing about germs, they blamed it on the anger of the gods--the old story of recourse to supernaturalism in the absence of a known explanation--and a fanatically anti-scientific cult got control. Of course, space travel was taboo; so was nuclear and even electric power. For some reason, steam power and gunpowder weren't offensive to the gods. They went back to a low-order steam-power, black-powder, culture, and haven't gotten beyond that to this day. The relatively civilized regions are on the east coast of Asia and the west coast of North America; civilized race more or less Caucasian. Political organization just barely above the tribal level--thousands of petty kingdoms and republics and principalities and feudal holdings and robbers' roosts. The principal industries are brigandage, piracy, slave-raiding, cattle-rustling and intercommunal warfare. They have a few ramshackle steam railways, and some steamboats on the rivers. We sell them coal and manufactured goods, mostly in exchange for foodstuffs and tobacco. Consolidated Outtime Foodstuffs has the sector franchise. That's one of the companies Thalvan Dras gets his money from." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Everything's set up, the pilot told them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dr. Hadron, you sit on the left; that cabinet's loaded with language tape for Acalan. Yours is loaded with a tape of Kharanda; that's the Fourth Level Kholghoor language you wanted, Chief's Assistant. Shall I help you get fixed in your seats?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yes, if you please. Here, Dalla, I'll fix that for you." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Good work, Agent Skordran. You got onto this promptly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I tried to, sir. Do you want the dope now? We have half an hour's flight to our spatial equivalent, and another half hour in transposition." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Give it to me on the way, he said, and turned to Vulthor Tharn." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Our Esaron costumes ready?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yes. Over there in the control tower. We have a temporary conveyer head set up about two hundred miles south of here, which will take you straight through to the plantation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Suppose you change now, Dalla, he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Subchief, I'd like a word with you privately." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Now, what's been done since you got Agent Skordran's report?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Well, sir, it seems that this is more serious than we had anticipated. Field Agent Skordran, who will give you the particulars, says that there is every indication that a large and well-organized gang of paratemporal criminals, our own people, are at work. He says that he's found evidence of activities on Fourth Level Kholghoor that don't agree with any information we have about conditions on that sector." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Beside transmitting Agent Skordran's report to Dhergabar through the robot report-system, what have you done about it?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I confirmed Agent Skordran in charge of the local investigation, and gave him two detectives and a psychist, sir. As soon as we could furnish hypno-mech indoctrination in Kharanda to other psychists, I sent them along. He now has four of them, and eight detectives. By that time, we had a conveyer head right at this Consolidated Outtime Foodstuffs plantation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why didn't you just borrow psychists from SecReg for Kholghoor, Eastern India? Vall asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Subchief Ranthar would have loaned you a few." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oh, I couldn't call on another SecReg for men without higher-echelon authorization. Especially not from another Sector Organization, even another Level Authority, Vulthor Tharn said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Beside, it would have taken longer to bring them here than hypno-mech our own personnel." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Did you alert Ranthar Jard to what was going on in his SecReg?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gracious, no! Vulthor Tharn was scandalized." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I have no authority to tell people of equal echelon in other Sector and Level organizations what to do. I put my report through regular channels; it wasn't my place to go outside my own jurisdiction." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Well, on my authority, and in the name of Chief Tortha, you message Ranthar Jard at once; send him every scrap of information you have on the subject, and forward additional information as it comes in to you. I doubt he'll find anything on any time-line that's being exploited by any legitimate paratimers. This gang probably work exclusively on unpenetrated time-lines; this business Skordran Kirv came across was a bad blunder on some underling's part. He saw Dalla emerge from the control tower in breeches and boots and a white cloak, buckling on a heavy revolver." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'll go change, now; you get busy calling Ranthar Jard. I'll see you when I get back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Are you taking over, Chief's Assistant?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Not at all. My wife and I are starting on our vacation, as soon as I find out what's been happening here, and report to Chief Tortha. Did your native troopers catch those slavers?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yes, they got them yesterday afternoon; we've had them ever since. Do you want the whole thing just as it happened, Assistant Verkan, or just a condensation?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Give me what you think it indicates, remembering that you're probably trying to analyze a large situation from a very small sample." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It's big, all right, Skordran Kirv said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This gang can't number less than a hundred men, maybe several hundred. They must have at least two two-hundred-foot conveyers and several small ones, and bases on what sounds like some Fifth Level Time line, and at least one air freighter of around five thousand tons. They are operating on a number of Kholghoor and Esaron time lines." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I didn't think it was any petty larceny," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Wait till you hear the rest of it. On the Kholghoor Sector, this gang is known as the Wizard Traders; we've been using that as a convenience label. They pose as sorcerers--black robes and hood-masks covered with luminous symbols, voice-amplifiers, cold-light auras, energy-weapons, mechanical magic tricks, that sort of thing. They have all the Croutha scared witless. Their procedure is to establish camps in the forest near recently conquered Kharanda cities; then they appear to the Croutha, impress them with their magical powers, and trade manufactured goods for Kharanda captives. They mainly trade firearms, apparently some kind of flintlocks, and powder." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After they buy a batch of slaves, Skordran Kirv continued," } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "You haven't heard the worst of it yet. Skordran Kirv was saying." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On this time line, we have reason to think that the native, Nebu-hin-Abenoz, who bought the slaves, actually saw the slavers' conveyer. Maybe even saw it activated." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If he did, we'll either have to capture him and give him a memory-obliteration, or kill him, Vall said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What do you know about him?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Well, this Careba, the town he bosses, is a little walled town up in the hills. Everybody there is related to everybody else; this man we have, Coru-hin-Irigod, is the son of a sister of Nebu-hin-Abenoz's wife. They're all bandits and slavers and cattle rustlers and what have you. For the last ten years, Nebu-hin-Abenoz has been buying slaves from some secret source. Before the Kholghoor Sector people began coming in, they were mostly white, with a few brown people who might have been Polynesians. No Negroes--there's no black race on this sector, and I suppose the paratime slavers didn't want too many questions asked. Coru-hin-Irigod, under narco-hypnosis, said that they were all outlanders, speaking strange languages." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ten years! And this is the first hint we've had of it, Vall said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That's not a bright mark for any of us. I'll bet the slave population on some of these Esaron time lines is an anthropologist's nightmare." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Why, if this has been going on for ten years, there must have been millions upon millions of people dragged from their own time lines into slavery!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ten years may not be all of it, Vall said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This Nebu-hin-Abenoz looks like the only tangible lead we have, at present. How does he operate?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "About once every ten days, he'll take ten or fifteen men and go a day's ride--that may be as much as fifty miles; these Caleras have good horses and they're hard riders--into the hills. He'll take a big bag of money, all gold. After dark, when he has made camp, a couple of strangers in Calera dress will come in. He'll go off with them, and after about an hour, he'll come back with eight or ten of these strangers and a couple of hundred slaves, always chained in batches of ten. Nebu-hin-Abenoz pays for them, makes arrangements for the next meeting, and the next morning he and his party start marching the slaves to Careba. I might add that, until now, these slaves have been sold to the mines east of Careba; these are the first that have gotten into the coastal country." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That's why this hasn't come to light before, then. The conveyer comes in every ten days, at about the same place?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yes. I've been thinking of a way we might trap them, Skordran Kirv said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'll need more men, and equipment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Order them from Regional or General Reserve. Vall told him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This thing's going to have overtop priority till it's cleared up." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "We still have about forty to go, he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nothing new in their stories; still the same two time lines." }, { "from": "human", "value": "These people, Skordran Kirv explained," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We're having trouble with the locals about all these strangers coming in, Gathon Dard added." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They're getting curious." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We'll have to take a chance on that, Vall said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Are the interrogations still going on? Then let's have a look-in at them." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Golzan Doth, local alias Dosu Golan. I'm Consolidated Outtime Foodstuffs' manager here." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nasty business for you people, Vall sympathized." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If it's any consolation, it's a bigger headache for us." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Have you any idea what's going to be done about these slaves? Golzan Doth asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I have to remember that the Company has forty thousand Paratemporal Exchange Units invested in them. The top office was very specific in requesting information about that." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That's over my echelon, he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Have to be decided by the Paratime Commission. I doubt if your company'll suffer. You bought them innocently, in conformity with local custom. Ever buy slaves from this Coru-hin-Irigod before?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'm new, here. The man I'm replacing broke his neck when his horse put a foot in a gopher hole about two ten-days ago." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "A few times, Skordran Kirv said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nothing suspicious; all local stuff. We questioned Coru-hin-Irigod pretty closely on that point, and he says that this is the first time he ever brought a batch of Nebu-hin-Abenoz's outlanders this far west." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "I suppose I don't have to warn either of you that any positive statement made in the hearing of a narco-hypnotized subject--" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Phrakor Vuln, the man who was working on the charts introduced himself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Synthesist." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "What have you got, so far?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Two different time lines, and two different gangs of Wizard Traders, Phrakor Vuln said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We've established the latter from physical descriptions and because both batches were sold by the Croutha at equivalent periods of elapsed time." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I notice there's a fair verbal description of these firearms, and mention of electric whips, he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'm curious about where they came from." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Well, this is how we reconstructed them, Chief's Assistant," } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "That's definitely Second Level Khiftan, Vall said, handing it back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Made of braided copper or silver wire and powered with a little nuclear-conversion battery in the grip. They heat up to about two hundred centigrade; produce really painful burns." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why, that's beastly!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Anything on the Khiftan Sector is. Skordran Kirv looked at the four slaves at the tables." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We don't have a really bad case here, now. A few of these people were lash-burned horribly, though." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "I've seen firearms like these; have a lot of them in my collection, he said, handing back the sketches." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Low-order mechanical or high-order pre-mechanical cultures. Fact is, things like those could have been made on the Kholghoor Sector, if the Kharandas had learned to combine sulfur, carbon and nitrates to make powder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now, go with that man, he said in Kharanda, motioning to one of the detectives in native guard uniform." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You will trust him; he is your friend and will not harm you. When you have left this room, you will forget everything that has happened here, except that you were kindly treated and that you were given wine to drink and your hurts were anointed. You will tell the others that we are their friends and that they have nothing to fear from us. And you will not try to remove the mark from the back of your left hand." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Suicide story," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Anything new?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Some minor details about the sale to the Caleras on this time line. I think we've about scraped bottom." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You can't say that, Phrakor Vuln objected." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The very last one may give us something nobody else had noticed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "One of the kidnap-story crowd, he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This one was right beside that Croutha who took the shot at the wild pig or whatever it was on the way to the Wizard Traders' camp. Best description of the guns we've gotten so far. No question that they're flintlocks. He saw Verkan Vall." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Oh, hello, Assistant Verkan. What do you make of them? You're an authority on outtime weapons, I understand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'd have to see them. These people simply don't think mechanically enough to give a good description. A lot of peoples make flintlock firearms." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "We will not harm you, one of the psychists told them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Here; here is medicine for your hurts. At first, it will sting, as good medicines will, but soon it will take away all pain. And here is wine for you to drink." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Now, rest for a while, the psychist was saying." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rest and let the good medicine do its work. You are tired and sleepy. Look at this magic light, which brings comfort to the troubled. Look at the light. Look ... at ... the ... light." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Did you have hand in the fighting?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No, lord. We were peasant folk, not fighting people. We had no weapons, nor weapon-skill. Those who fought were all killed; we held up empty hands, and were spared to be captives of the Croutha." }, { "from": "human", "value": "What happened to your master, the Lord Ghromdour, and to his lady?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "One of the Croutha threw a hatchet and killed our master, and then his lady drew a dagger and killed herself." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "They had the common weapons of the Croutha, lord, and they also had the weapons of the Wizard Traders. Of these, they carried the long weapons slung across their backs, and the short weapons thrust through their belts." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "The servants of the Wizard Traders did not appear until after the Croutha had gone away; they wore different garb. They wore short jackets, and trousers, and short boots, and they carried small weapons on their belts--" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They had whips of great cruelty that burned like fire; we were all lashed with these whips, as you may see, lord--" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Croutha had bound us two and two, with neck-yokes; these the servants of the Wizard Traders took off from us, and they chained us together by tens, with the chains we still wore when we came to this place--" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They killed my child, my little Zhouzha! the woman with the horribly blistered back was wailing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They tore her out of my arms, and one of the servants of the Wizard Traders--may Khokhaat devour his soul forever!--dashed out her brains. And when I struggled to save her. I was thrown on the ground, and beaten with the fire-whips until I fainted. Then I was dragged into the forest, along with the others who were chained with me." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "You will grieve no more for your child, she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Already, you are forgetting what happened at the Wizard Traders' camp, and remembering only that your child is safe from harm. Soon you will remember her only as a dream of the child you hope to have, some day. She flashed the light again, then handed it back to the psychist." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now, tell us what happened when you were taken into the forest; what did you see there?" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Those slaves were still chained with the Wizard Traders' chains when they were delivered here. Where are the chains?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the permanent conveyer room, Skordran Kirv said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You can look at them there; we didn't want to bring them in here, for fear these poor devils would think we were going to chain them again. They're very light, very strong; some kind of alloy steel. Files and power saws only polish them; it takes fifteen seconds to cut a link with an atomic torch. One long chain, and short lengths, fifteen inches long, staggered, every three feet, with a single hinge-shackle for the ankle. The shackles were riveted with soft wrought-iron rivets, evidently made with some sort of a power riveting-machine. We cut them easily with a cold chisel." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They ought to be sent to Dhergabar Equivalent, Police Terminal, for study of material and workmanship. Now, you mentioned some scheme you had for capturing this conveyer that brings in the slaves for Nebu-hin-Abenoz. What have you in mind?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "We still have Coru-hin-Irigod and all his gang, under hypno. I'd thought of giving them hypnotic conditioning, and sending them back to Careba with orders to put out some kind of signal the next time Nebu-hin-Abenoz starts out on a buying trip. We could have a couple of men posted in the hills overlooking Careba, and they could send a message-ball through to Police Terminal. Then, a party could be sent with a mobile conveyer to ambush Nebu-hin-Abenoz on the way, and wipe out his party. Our people could take their horses and clothing and go on to take the conveyer by surprise." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'd suggest one change. Instead of relying on visual signals by the hypno-conditioned Coru-hin-Irigod, send a couple of our men to Careba with midget radios." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sure. We can condition Coru-hin-Irigod to accept them as friends and vouch for them at Careba. Our boys can be traders and slave buyers. Careba's a market town; traders are always welcome. They can have firearms to sell--revolvers and repeating rifles. Any Calera'll buy any firearm that's better than the one he's carrying; they'll always buy revolvers and repeaters. We can get what we want from Commercial Four-Oh-Seven; we can get riding and pack horses here." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And the post overlooking or in radio range of Careba on this time line, and another on PolTerm. For the ambush of Nebu-hin-Abenoz's gang and the capture of the conveyer, use anything you want to--sleep-gas, paralyzers, energy-weapons, antigrav-equipment, anything. As far as regulations about using only equipment appropriate to local culture-levels, forget them entirely. But take that conveyer intact. You can locate the base time line from the settings of the instrument panel, and that's what we want most of all." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Dalla was saying." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What sort of fiends are they?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "If that made you sick, remember we've been listening to things like that for the last eight hours. Some of the stories were even worse than that one." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Well, I'd like to use a heat-gun on the whole lot of them, turned down to where it'd just fry them medium-rare, Dalla said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And for whoever's back of this, take him to Second Level Khiftan and sell him to the priests of Fasif." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Too bad you're not coming back from your vacation, instead of starting out. Chief's Assistant Verkan, Skordran Kirv said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This is too big for me to handle alone, and I'd sooner work under you than anybody else Chief Tortha sends in." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Vall! Dalla cried in indignation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You're not going to just report on this and then walk away from it, are you?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But, darling, Vall replied, in what he hoped was a convincing show of surprise." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You don't want our vacation postponed again, do you? If I get mixed up in this, there's no telling when I can get away, and by the time I'm free, something may come up at Rhogom Institute that you won't want to drop--" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Vall, you know perfectly well that I wouldn't be happy for an instant on the Dwarma Sector, thinking about this--" }, { "from": "human", "value": "All right, then; let's forget about the vacation. You want to stay on for a while and help me with this? It'll be a lot of hard work, but we'll be together." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yes, of course. I want to do something to smash those devils. Vall, if you'd heard some of the things they did to those poor people--" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Well, I'll have to go back to PolTerm, as soon as I'm reasonably well filled in on this, and report to Tortha Karf and tell him I've taken charge. You can stay here and help with these interrogations; I'll be back in about ten hours. Then, we can go to Kholghoor East India SecReg HQ to talk to Ranthar Jard. We may be able to get something that'll help us on that end--" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You may be able to have your vacation before too long, Dr. Hadron, Skordran Kirv told her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Once we capture one of their conveyers, the instrument panel'll tell us what time line they're working from, and then we'll have them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There's an Indo-Turanian Sector parable about a snake charmer who thought he was picking up his snake and found that he had hold of an elephant's tail, Vall said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That might be a good thing to bear in mind, till we find out just what we have picked up." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "You have to! he was yelling in the older man's face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That's a public document, and I have a right to see it. You want me to go into Tribunes' Court and get an order? If I do, there'll be a Question in Council about why I had to, before the day's out!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "What's the matter, Larv? Yandar Yadd asked lazily." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He trying to hold something out on you?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I want to see a copy of an indemnity claim that was filed this morning, he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Varkar, here, won't show it to me. What does he think this is, a Fourth Level dictatorship?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "What kind of a claim, now?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Consolidated Outtime Foodstuffs--one of the Thalvan Interests companies--just claimed forty thousand P.E.U. for a hundred slaves bought by one of their plantation managers on Third Level Esaron from a local slave dealer. The Paratime Police impounded the slaves for narco-hypnotic interrogation, and then transposed the lot of them to Police Terminal." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now why would the Paracops do that, I wonder? Slavery's an established local practice on Esaron Sector; our people have to buy slaves if they want to run a plantation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I know that. Sphabron Larv replied." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That's what I want to find out. There must be something wrong, either with the slaves, or the treatment our people were giving them, or the Paratime Police, and I want to find out which." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To tell the truth, Larv, so do I. Yandar Yadd said. He turned to the man behind the counter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Varkar, do we see that claim, or do I make a story out of your refusal to show it?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Paratime Police asked me to keep this confidential, Varkar Klav said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Publicity would seriously hamper an important police investigation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "How do I know that all it would do would be to reveal police incompetence? he retorted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Look, Varkar; you and the Paratime Police and the Paratime Commission and the Home Time Line Management are all hired employees of the Home Time Line public. The public has a right to know what its employees are doing, and it's my business to see that they're informed. Now, for the last time--will you show us a copy of that claim?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Well, let me explain, off the record--" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Huh-uh! Huh-uh! I had that off-the-record gag worked on me when I was about Larv's age, fifty years ago. Anything I get, I put on the air or not at my own discretion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All right, Varkar Klav surrendered, pointing to a reading screen and twiddling a knob." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But when you read it, I hope you have enough discretion to keep quiet about it." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Marva! he barked, before the girl at the news office could more than acknowledge." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Get this recorded for immediate telecast!... Ready? Beginning: The existence of a huge paratemporal slave trade came to light on the afternoon of One-Five-Nine Day, on a time line of the Third Level Esaron Sector, when Field Agent Skordran Kirv, Paratime Police, discovered, at an orange plantation of Consolidated Outtime Foodstuffs--" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Good afternoon, councilman, the newcomer said, sitting down across the desk from Salgath Trod." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I was just talking to ... somebody we both know." }, { "from": "human", "value": "What does Our Mutual Friend think about all this?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Our Mutual Friend isn't at all happy about it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You think, perhaps, that I'm bursting into wild huzzas? Salgath Trod asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If I were to act as everybody expects me to, I'd be down there on the floor, now, clawing into the Management tooth and nail. All my adherents are wondering why I'm not. So are all my opponents, and before long one of them is going to guess the reason." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Well, why not go down? the stranger asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Our Mutual Friend thinks it would be an excellent idea. The leak couldn't be stopped, and it's gone so far already that the Management will never be able to play it down. So the next best thing is to try to exploit it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So I am to get in front of it, and lead it in the right direction? Fine ... as long as I don't stumble over something. If I do, it'll go over me like a Fifth Level bison-herd." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Don't worry about that, the stranger laughed reassuringly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There are others on the floor who are also friends of Our Mutual Friend. Here: what you'd better do is attack the Paratime Police, especially Tortha Karf and Verkan Vall. Accuse them of negligence and incompetence, and, by implication, of collusion, and demand a special committee to investigate. And try to get a motion for a confidence vote passed. A motion to censure the Management, say--" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It would delay things, at least. And if Our Mutual Friend can keep properly covered, I might be able to overturn the Management. He looked at the screen again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That old fool of a Nanthav is just getting started; it'll be an hour before I could get recognized. Plenty of time to get a speech together. Something short and vicious--" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You'll have to be careful. It won't do, with your political record, to try to play down these stories of a gigantic criminal conspiracy. That's too close to the Management line. And at the same time, you want to avoid saying anything that would get Verkan Vall and Tortha Karf started off on any new lines of investigation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Just depend on me; I'll handle it." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Waken, Faru! he shouted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Get up and clear the fumes from your head! We start back to Careba today!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "What day's this?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The day after we went to bed, ninny!" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "We're absolutely nowhere! Ranthar Jard said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Of course they're operating on time lines we've never penetrated. The fact that they're supplying the Croutha with guns proves that; there isn't a firearm on any of the time lines our people are legitimately exploiting. And there are only about three billion time lines on this belt of the Croutha invasion--" }, { "from": "human", "value": "If we could think of a way to reduce it to some specific area of paratime--" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That's precisely what we've been trying to do, Klav, Vall said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We haven't done it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I took hours and hours of hypno-mech on Kholghoor Sector religions, before I went out on that wild-goose chase for psychokinesis and precognition data, she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "About six or eight hundred years ago, there were religious wars and heresies and religious schisms all over the Kharanda country. No matter how uniform the Kholghoor Sector may be otherwise, there are dozens and dozens of small belts and sub-sectors of different religions or sects or god-cults." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That's right, Ranthar Jard agreed, brightening." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We have hagiologists who know all that stuff; we'll have a couple of them interrogate those slaves. I don't know how much they can get out of them--lot of peasants, won't be up on the theological niceties--but a synthesis of what we get from the lot of them--" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That's an idea, Vall agreed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "About the first idea we've had, here--Oh, how about politics, too? Check on who's the king, what the stories about the royal family are, that sort of thing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Croutha have only gotten halfway to Nharkan, here. Say we transpose detectives in at night on some of these time lines we think are promising, and check up at the tax-collection offices on a big landowner north of Jhirda named Ghromdour? That might get us something." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Well, I don't want you to think we're trying to get out of work, Chief's Assistant, one of the deputies said," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Marv, in this business you never depend on just one lead, Ranthar Jard told him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And beside, when Skordran Kirv's gang hits the base of operations in North America, there's no guarantee that they may not have time to send off a radio warning to the crowd at the base here in India. We have to hit both places at once." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Well, that, too, Vall said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But the main thing is to get these Wizard Trader camps on the Kholghoor Sector cleaned out. How are you fixed for men and equipment, for a big raid, Jard?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I can get about five hundred men with conveyers, including a couple of two-hundred-footers to carry airboats," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Not enough. Skordran Kirv has one complete armored brigade, one airborne infantry brigade, and an air cavalry regiment, with Ghaldron-Hesthor equipment for a simultaneous transposition," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Where in blazes did he get them all?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "They're guard troops, from Service Sector and Industrial Sector. We'll get you the same sort of a force. I only hope we don't have another Prole insurrection while they're away--" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Well, don't think I'm trying to argue policy with you, Ranthar Jard said," }, { "from": "human", "value": "We'll have to take a chance on that, Vall said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If you're worried about what the book says, forget it. We're throwing the book away, on this operation. Do you realize that this thing is a threat to the whole Paratime Civilization?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Of course I do, Ranthar Jard said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I know the doctrine of Paratime Security as well as you or anybody else. The question is, does the public realize it?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ranthar here. Well?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Visiphone call, top urgency, just came in for Chief's Assistant Verkan, from Novilan Equivalent. Where can I put it through, sir?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Here; booth seven. Ranthar Jard pointed across the room, nodding to Vall." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In just a moment." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "From up there, he said, speaking in Acalan, the lingua franca of the North American West Coast on that sector," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was the guidance of our gods--and yours, Coru-hin-Irigod--that we met. Such slaves as you sold at the outlanders' plantation would bring a fine price in the North. The men are strong, and have the look of good field-workers; the women are comely and well-formed. Though I fear that my wife would little relish it did I bring home such handmaidens." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For your wife, I will give you one of our riding whips. He leaned to the side, slashing at a cactus with his quirt." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We in Careba have no trouble with our wives, about handmaidens or anything else." }, { "from": "human", "value": "By Safar, if you doubt your welcome at Careba, wait till you show your wares, another Calera said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rifles and revolvers like those come to our country seldom, and then old and battered, sold or stolen many times before we see them. Rifles that fire seven times without taking butt from shoulder!" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "He prays, Ganadara said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He thanks our gods that we have lived to see your town, and asks that we be spared to bring many more trains of rifles and ammunition up this trail." }, { "from": "human", "value": "May Safar's hand work with the hands of your gods for it," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The gods watch over us, Atarazola said, lifting his head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They are near us even now; they have spoken words of comfort in my ear." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My brother, he told Coru-hin-Irigod," }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yes. So you told me, now that I think on it. That detail had been included in the pseudo-memories he had been given under hypnosis." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I serve Safar, as do all Caleras, but I have heard that the Jeserus' gods are good gods, dealing honestly with their servants." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Open! Open for Coru-hin-Irigod, and for the Jeseru traders, Ganadara and Atarazola, who are with him!" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Don't even look at those, Coru-hin-Irigod advised." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They are but culls; the market is almost over. We'll go to the house of Nebu-hin-Abenoz, where all the considerable men gather, and you will find those who will be able to trade slaves worthy of the goods you have with you. Meanwhile, let my people take your horses and packs to my house; you shall be my guests while you stay in Careba." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Ha, lord of my daughter, you're back at last. We had begun to fear for you," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nothing to fear, father of my wife, Coru-hin-Irigod replied." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We sold the slaves for a good price, and tarried the night feasting in good company. Such good company that we brought some of it with us--Atarazola and Ganadara, men of the Jeseru; Cavu-hin-Avoran, whose daughter mothered my sons." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They brought weapons; they want outland slaves, of the sort I took to sell in the Big Valley country, he whispered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The weapons are repeating rifles from across the ocean, and six-shot revolvers. They also have much ammunition." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Oh, Safar bless you! the white-beard cried, his eyes brightening." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Name your own price; satisfy yourselves that we have dealt fairly with you; go, and return often again! Come, lord of my daughter; let us make them known to Nebu-hin-Abenoz. But not a word about the kind of weapons you have, strangers, until we can speak privately. Say only that you have rifles to trade." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Good, good! he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We know you Jeseru people; you're honest traders. You come this far into our mountains too seldom. We can trade with you. We need weapons. As for the sort of slaves you want, we have none too many now, but in eight days we will have plenty. If you stay with us that long--" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Careba is a pleasant place to be, Ganadara said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We can wait." }, { "from": "human", "value": "What sort of weapons have you?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Pistols and rifles, lord of my father's sister, Coru-hin-Irigod answered for them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The packs have been taken to my house, where our friends will stay. We can bring a few to show you, the hour after evening prayers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Or, better, I will come to your house then; thus I can see the whole load. How will that be?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Better; I will be there, too, Cavu-hin-Avoran said, then turned to Gathon Dard and Antrath Alv." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You have been long on the road; come, let us drink cool wine, and then we will eat, he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Until this evening, Nebu-hin-Abenoz." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Nebu-hin-Abenoz? one of them said, bowing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We are three men of the Usasu cities. We have gold _obus_ to spend; we seek a beautiful girl, to be first concubine to our king's son, who is now come to the estate of manhood." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Men of the Usasu, you have a heavy responsibility, he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You have the responsibility for the future of your kingdom, for a boy's character is more shaped by his first concubine than by his teachers. How old is the boy?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sixteen, Nebu-hin-Abenoz; the age of manhood among us." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then you want a girl older, but not much older. She should be versed in the arts of love, but innocent of heart. She should be wise, but teachable; gentle and loving, but with a will of her own--" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "We killed the skunks too quickly! he cried." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We should have overcome them alive, and then taken our time about dealing with them as they deserved. He went on to specify the nature of their deserts." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Such infamy!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Well, I'll swear I didn't think a little tap like I gave that one would kill him, the bottle-wielder excused himself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Of course, I was thinking only of Nebu-hin-Abenoz, Safar receive him--" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I didn't kill this one, he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The way I hit him, if I had, his neck would be broken, and it's not. See? He twisted at the dead man's neck." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I think they took poison before they drew their knives." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I saw all of them put their hands to their mouths! a Calera exclaimed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And look; see how their jaws are clenched. He picked up one of the knives and used it to pry the dead man's jaws apart, sniffing at his lips and looking into his mouth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Look, his teeth and his tongue are discolored; there is a strange smell, too." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Halatane," } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "But, Holy Name of Safar, what manner of men were these? Coru-hin-Irigod demanded." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There are those I would risk my life to kill, but I would not throw it away thus." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They came knowing that we would kill them, and took the poison that they might die quickly and without pain," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Or that your tortures would not wring from them the names and nation of those who sent them, an elderly man in the dress of a rancher from the southeast added." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If I were you, I would try to find out who these enemies are, and the sooner the better." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "In all my travels, he said," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I never saw a knife of this workmanship before. Tell me, Coru-hin-Irigod, do you know from what country these outland slaves of Nebu-hin-Abenoz's come?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "You think that might have something to do with it?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It could. I think that these people might not have been born slaves, but people taken captive. Suppose, at some time, there had been sold to Nebu-hin-Abenoz, and sold elsewhere by him, one who was a person of consequence--the son of a king, or the priest of some god," }, { "from": "human", "value": "By Safar, yes! And now that nation, wherever it is, is at blood-feud with us, Cavu-hin-Avoran said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This must be thought about; it is an ill thing to have unknown enemies." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Look! a Calera who had begun to strip the three dead men cried." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "These are not of the Usasu cities, or any other people of this land. See, they are uncircumcised!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Many of the slaves whom Nebu-hin-Abenoz brought to Careba from the hills have been uncircumcised, Coru-hin-Irigod said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jeseru, I think you have your sights on the heart of it. He frowned." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now, think you, will those who had this done be satisfied, or will they carry on their hatred against all of us?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A hard question, Antrath Alv said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You Caleras do not serve our gods, but you are our friends. Suffer me to go apart and pray; I would take counsel with the gods, that they may aid us all in this." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Car's over here, he said, nodding toward the waiting vehicle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yesterday wasn't one of our better days, was it?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "No. It wasn't. Vall agreed. They climbed into the car, and the driver lifted straight up to two thousand feet and turned, soaring down to land on the Chief's Headquarters Building, a mile away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We're not completely stopped, sir. Ranthar Jard is working on a few ideas that may lead him to the Kholghoor time lines where the Wizard Traders are operating. If we can't get them through their output, we may nail them at the intake." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Unless they've gotten the wind up and closed down all their operations," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I doubt if they've done that, Chief, Vall replied." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We don't know who these people are, of course, and it's hard to judge their reactions, but they're willing to take chances for big gains. I believe they think they're safe, now that they've closed out the compromised time line and killed the only witness against them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Well, what's Ranthar Jard doing?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Trying to locate the sub-sector and probability belt from what the slaves can tell him about their religious beliefs, about the local king, and the prince of Jhirda, and the noble families of the neighborhood, Vall said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When he has it localized as closely as he can, he's going to start pelting the whole paratemporal area with photographic auto-return balls dropped from aircars on Police Terminal over the spatial equivalents of a couple of Croutha-conquered cities. As soon as he gets a photo that shows Croutha with firearms, he'll have a Wizard Trader time line." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sounds simple, the Chief said. The car landed, and he helped Dalla out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I suppose both you and he know how many chances against one he has of finding anything. They went over to an antigrav-shaft and floated down to the floor on which Tortha Karf had a duplicate of the office in the Paratime Building on Home Time Line." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It's the only chance we have, though." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There's one thing that bothers me, Dalla said, as they entered the office and went back behind the horseshoe-shaped desk." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I understand that the news about this didn't break on Home Time Line till the late morning of One-Six-One Day. Nebu-hin-Abenoz was murdered at about 1700 local time, which would be 0100 this morning Dhergabar time. That would give this gang fourteen hours to hear the news, transmit it to their base, and get these three men hypno-conditioned, disguised, transposed to this Esaron Sector time line, and into Careba. She shook her head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That's pretty fast work." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Your girl has the makings of a cop, Vall," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She's been a big help, on Esaron and Kholghoor Sectors, Vall said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She wants to stay with it and help me; I'll be very glad to have her with me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Of course; we can use all the help we can get. I think we can get a lot from Dalla. Fix her up with some kind of a title and police status--technical-expert, assistant, or something like that. He clasped hands, man-fashion, with her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Glad to have you on the cops with us, Dalla, he said. Then he turned to Vall." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was almost twenty-four hours between the time I heard about this and when this blasted Yandar Yadd got hold of the story. Of all the infernal, irresponsible-- He almost choked with indignation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And it was another fourteen hours between the time Skordran sent in his report and I heard about it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Golzan Doth sent in a report to his company about the same time Skordran Kirv made his first report to his Sector-Regional Subchief." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That might be it, Tortha Karf considered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I wish there were another explanation, because that implies a very extensive intelligence network, which means a big organization. But I'm afraid that's it. I wish I could pull in everybody in Consolidated Outtime Foodstuffs who handled that report, and narco-hypnotize them. Of course, we can't do things like that on Home Time Line, and with the political situation what it is now--" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why, what's been happening, Chief?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Salgath Trod's what's been happening. At first, after Yandar Yadd broke the story on the air, there was just a lot of unorganized Opposition sniping in Council; Salgath waited till the middle of the afternoon, when the Management members were beginning to rally, and took the floor. The Centrists and Right Moderates were trying the appeal-to-reason approach; that did as much good as trying to put out a Fifth Level forest fire with a hand-extinguisher. Finally. Salgath got a motion of censure against the Management recognized. That means a confidence vote in ten days. Salgath has a rabble of Leftists and dissident Centrists with him; I doubt if he can muster enough votes to overturn the Management, but it's going to make things rough for us." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Which may be just the reason Salgath started this uproar," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That, Tortha Karf said," }, { "from": "human", "value": "I believe, Vall said," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So?" } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "I'll be willing to bet that if we pick up some of these Wizard Traders, say, or a gang that's selling slaves to some Nebu-hin-Abenoz personality on some other time line, and narco-hypnotize them, all they'll be able to do will be name a few immediate associates, and the group leader will know that he's contacted from time to time by some stranger with orders, and that he can make emergency contacts only through some blind accommodation-address. The men who are running this are right on Home Time Line, many of them in positions of prominence, and if we can catch one of them and narco-hyp him, we can start a chain-reaction of disclosures all through this Slave Trust." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "How are we going to get at these top men? Tortha Karf wanted to know." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Advertise for them on telecast?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They'll leave traces; they won't be able to avoid it. I think, right now, that Salgath Trod is one of them. I think there are other prominent politicians, and business people. Look for irregularities and peculiarities in outtime currency-exchange transactions. For instance, to sections in Esaron Sector _obus_. Or big gold bullion transactions." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yes. And if they have any really elaborate outtime bases, they'll need equipment that can only be gotten on Home Time Line, Tortha Karf added." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Paratemporal conveyer parts, and field-conductor mesh. You can't just walk into a hardware store and buy that sort of thing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Try looking into the Bureau of Psychological Hygiene, she suggested." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That's where you'll really strike it rich." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Go on, Tortha Karf encouraged." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This sounds interesting." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The people back of this, Dalla said," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It seems to have failed in this case, Tortha Karf began, then snapped his fingers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Of course! How blasted silly can I get, when I'm not trying?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yes, of course, Verkan Vall agreed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Find out how these people missed being spotted by psychotesting; that'll lead us to _who_ missed being tested adequately, and also who got into the Bureau of Psychological Hygiene who didn't belong there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I think you ought to give an investigation of the whole BuPsychHyg setup very high priority, Dalla said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A psychotest is only as good as the people who give it, and if we have criminals administering these tests--" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We have our friends on Executive Council, Tortha Karf said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'll see that that point is raised when Council re-convenes. He looked at the clock." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That'll be in three hours, by the way. If it doesn't accomplish another thing, it'll put Salgath Trod in the middle. He can't demand an investigation of the Paratime Police out of one side of his mouth and oppose an investigation of Psychological Hygiene out of the other. Now what else have we to talk about?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Those hundred slaves we got off the Esaron Sector, Vall said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What are we going to do with them? And if we locate the time line the slavers have their bases on, we'll have hundreds, probably thousands, more." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We can't sort them out and send them back to their own time lines, even if that would be desirable, Tortha Karf decided." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Why, settle them somewhere on the Service Sector. I know, the Paratime Transposition Code limits the Service Sector to natives of time lines below second-order barbarism, but the Paratime Transposition Code has been so badly battered by this business that a few more minor literal infractions here and there won't make any difference. Where are they now?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Police Terminal, Nharkan Equivalent." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Better hold them there, for the time being. We may have to open a new ServSec time line to take care of all the slaves we find, if we can locate the outtime base line these people are using--Vall, this thing's too big to handle as a routine operation, along with our other work. You take charge of it. Set up your headquarters here, and help yourself to anything in the way of personnel and equipment you need. And bear in mind that this confidence vote is coming up in ten days--on the morning of One-Seven-Two Day. I'm not asking for any miracles, but if we don't get this thing cleared up by then, we're in for trouble." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I realize that, sir. Dalla, you'd better go back to Home Time Line, with the Chief, he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There's nothing you can do to help me, here, at present. Get some rest, and then try to wangle an invitation for the two of us to dinner at Thalvan Dras' apartments this evening. He turned back to Tortha Karf." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even if he never pays any attention to business, Dras still owns Consolidated Outtime Foodstuffs, he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He might be able to find out, or help us find out, how the story about those slaves leaked out of his company." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Well, that won't take much doing, Dalla said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If there's as much excitement on Home Time Line as I think, Dras would turn somersaults and jump through hoops to get us to one of his dinners, right now." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Well, what else did you expect? he demanded." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This was the logical next move. BuPsychHyg is supposed to detect anybody who believes in looking out for his own interests first, and condition him into a pious law-abiding sucker. Well, the sacred Bureau of Sucker-Makers slipped up on a lot of us. It's a natural alibi for Tortha Karf." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It's also a lot of grief for all of us, the young man in the wrap-around tunic added." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I don't want my psychotests reviewed by some duty-struck bigot who can't be reasoned with, and neither do you." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'm getting something organized to counter that, Salgath Trod said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'm going to attack the whole scientific basis of psychotesting. There's Dr. Frasthor Klav; he's always contended that what are called criminal tendencies are the result of the individual's total environment, and that psychotesting and personality-analysis are valueless, because the total environment changes from day to day, even from hour to hour--" }, { "from": "human", "value": "That won't do, the nameless young man who was the messenger of somebody equally nameless retorted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Frasthor's a crackpot; no reputable psychologist or psychist gives his opinions a moment's consideration. And besides, we don't want to attack Psychological Hygiene. The people in it with whom we can do business are our safeguard; they've given all of us a clean bill of mental health, and we have papers to prove it. What we have to do is to make it appear that that incident on the Esaron Sector is all there is to this, and also involve the Paratime Police themselves. The slavers are all paracops. It isn't the fault of BuPsychHyg, because the Paratime Police have their own psychotesting staff. That's where the trouble is; the paracops haven't been adequately testing their own personnel." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now how are you going to do that?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You'll take the floor, the first thing tomorrow, and utilize these new revelations about the Wizard Traders. You'll accuse the Paratime Police of being the Wizard Traders themselves. Why not? They have their own paratemporal transposition equipment shops on Police Terminal, they have facilities for manufacturing duplicates of any kind of outtime items, like the firearms, for instance, and they know which time lines on which sectors are being exploited by legitimate paratime traders and which aren't. What's to prevent a gang of unscrupulous paracops from moving in on a few unexploited Kholghoor time lines, buying captives from the Croutha, and shipping them to the Esaron Sector?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then why would they let a thing like this get out?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Somebody slipped up and moved a lot of slaves onto an exploited Esaron time line. Or, rather, Consolidated Outtime Foodstuffs established a plantation on a time line they were shipping slaves to. Parenthetically, that's what really did happen; the mistake our people made was in not closing out that time line as soon as Consolidated Foodstuffs moved in," }, { "from": "human", "value": "So, this Skordran Kirv, who is a dumb boy who doesn't know what the score is, found these slaves and blatted about it to this Golzan Doth, and Golzan reported it to his company, and it couldn't be hushed up, so now Tortha Karf is trying to scare the public with ghost stories about a gigantic paratemporal conspiracy, to get more appropriations and more power." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "How long do you think I'd get away with that? Salgath Trod demanded." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I can only stretch parliamentary immunity so far. Sooner or later, I'd have to make formal charges to a special judicial committee, and that would mean narco-hypnosis, and then it would all come out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You'll have proof, the young man said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We'll produce a couple of these Kharandas whom Verkan Vall didn't get hold of. Under narco-hypnosis, they'll testify that they saw a couple of Wizard Traders take their robes off. Under the robes were Paratime Police uniforms. Do you follow me?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That's ridiculous! I suppose these Kharandas will be given what is deludedly known as memory obliteration, and a set of pseudo-memories; how long do you think that would last? About three ten-days. There is no such thing as memory obliteration; there's memory-suppression, and pseudo-memory overlay. You can't get behind that with any quickie narco-hypnosis in the back room of any police post, I'll admit that, he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But a skilled psychist can discover, inside of five minutes, when a narco-hypnotized subject is carrying a load of false memories, and in time, and not too much time, all that top layer of false memories and blockages can be peeled off. And then where would we be?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now wait a minute, Councilman. This isn't just something I dreamed up, the visitor said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This was decided upon at the top. At the very top." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I don't care whose idea it was, Salgath Trod snapped." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The whole thing is idiotic, and I won't have anything to do with it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Look, Salgath; this is an Organization order, he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You don't refuse to obey Organization orders, and you don't quit the Organization. Now get smart, big boy; do what you're told to. He took a spool of record tape from his pocket and laid it on the desk." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Outline for your speech; put it in your own words, but follow it exactly. He stood watching Salgath Trod for a moment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I won't bother telling you what'll happen to you if you don't, he added." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You can figure that out for yourself." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Want me to call for you later, Assistant Verkan?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No thank you, Drenth. My wife and I are going to a dinner-party, and we'll probably go night-clubbing afterward. Tomorrow morning, all the anti-Management commentators will be yakking about my carousing around when I ought to be battling the Slave Trust. No use advertising myself with an official car, and giving them a chance to add, 'at public expense.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Well, have some fun while you can, the driver advised, reaching for the car-radio phone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Want me to check you in here, sir?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yes, if you will. Thank you. Drenth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mistress Dalla is dressing, he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She asked me to tell you that you are invited to dinner, this evening, with Thalvan Dras at his apartment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ill talk to her about it now, he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lay out my dress uniform: short jacket, boots and breeches, and needler." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yes, master: I'll go lay out your things and get your bath ready." } ]

[ { "from": "human", "value": "Oh, Dalla!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In here!" } ]