The Meddlers (35 page)

“You need not preach at me, Mr. Wayne.”

“My talk of God embarrasses you? I’m sorry for that. Very well, I will try not to embarrass you further at this time. Since God is part of everything I do and say, whether I mention His name or not makes no matter. You were about to say?”

“It was not embarrassment I was feeling. However, I was about to point out that I sent the boy away for two reasons. Primarily one very basic one. I could not, even if I were willing to do so, give him money. I have none available to me. Members of Parliament in this country are not exactly affluent. Unlike”—he looked at the other’s benevolent expression with smiling malice—“unlike, apparently, men of God in your country.”

The benevolence did not falter. “And the other reason?”

“To personally discredit Dr. Briant in so … so puerile a Sunday tabloid fashion would not necessarily give my bill the support in the House that it needs.”

“And yet, realizing that, you are surprised that I too rejected the boy’s offer? Wayne said softly. “You do me an injustice, Mr.
Gurney. If your publicizing of such unpleasantness would have the effect of damaging your cause, is it not obvious to you that it would be as damaging to mine?”

“No, it isn’t. Members of the House do not care particularly about the moral fiber of individuals. As long as private reprehensible behavior remains a private matter, then we do not concern ourselves. We don’t take notice of it unless we are forced to do so. But you are different.”

“In what way am I different, Mr. Gurney?”

“Oh, for Ch— for heaven’s sake, you aren’t dealing with sophisticated politicians! Your arena is the public market place! You have to influence the thinking of simple people, who care a great deal about private behavior. There’s nothing the Great British Public finds more enthralling than the peccadilloes of well-known people. They’ll lap up every word they can get, and when there are no more juicy titbits, set about raising a great howl of protest that such things should be publicized! Now, I am going to be very direct with you, Mr. Wayne, and I’d appreciate an equally direct answer. I want to know whether you—your movement is in fact trying to put a stop to Briant. If you are, then we’re playing the same game in the same court. It is necessary to me to know where I stand.”

“Mr. Gurney, my Tabernacle is dedicated to one thing and one thing only. The spread of the word of God. We wish no more than to see all men within His loving arms again. Of course, since God hates evil—and the work of Briant is very evil—we too must hate evil. That is as crystal clear as it can be, would you not agree?”

“I’m not a religious man, so such explanations mean little to me. If you won’t give me a direct answer in terms comprehensible to me, let me tell you how I see your … activities.”

He leaned back in his chair and narrowed his eyes slightly. “Well, Mr. Wayne. I see you as a very clever man. Extremely clever. I believe, after talking to you here, that you are quite as sophisticated as the members of the House. Despite the innocence of the words you actually speak, I feel there is in you as broad a streak of intelligent cynicism as there is in me. Your actual words
belie you, you know, when I look at you, when I observe the way you use your voice and your undoubtedly powerful personality, and above all when I look around me.”

He waved his hand at the room in which they were sitting, at the heavily draped windows, the thickly carpeted floor and weightily expensive furniture. “If it isn’t costing you the best part of two or three hundred pounds a week to keep you and your entourage in this hotel, I’d be very surprised. And it is obvious that money of that order is hardly coming out of your personal pocket. It’s the money that is contributed by the followers of your movement that supplies this luxury, isn’t it? And you get them to provide it by using your personal gifts of persuasion. I am a politician, Mr. Wayne, not one of your Trafalgar Square simpletons to be dazzled by charm and sweet words. We’re cut out of the same piece of cloth, are we not?”

He leaned back in his chair and looked at the other man with his eyebrows slightly raised. Bluntness verging on rudeness was a technique that had worked many times before, and it would work with this man, he was quite certain. Man of God, my fanny! he thought and added a faintly insolent smile to his expression.

There was a long pause, and Wayne sat quite still, showing no hint of the way he was feeling. Then he too smiled. “Do you expect me to deny that money is available to me through my work with the International Tabernacle? Why should I? In my. country, sir, we do not equate money with sinfulness. Our great society was founded by God-loving, God-fearing people who because of their piety and love of goodness were given by God the gift of wealth. It is only since we turned away from the good ways of the past that we have been visited by the plague of terrible poverty, and the hatred and internal strife it breeds. I understand the people of my country, Mr. Gurney, and because I do, I make sure that the Tabernacle I founded and now guide and control—under God’s guidance and control—is financially viable, and is seen to be so. I would never deny, even were my conscience to permit me to do so, that God has given me the ability to live as I do. He has given it me in order to bring His children back to Him. When simple-hearted people see the success of the Tabernacle, in terms they understand,
why, they see that love of God is the same as success! And they turn to me, and listen to me. And when they listen, why, they listen to Him through me. As I said to you before, Mr. Gurney, how little you understand the ways of God!”

Gurney caught his lower lip between his teeth and gently shook his head from side to side in a careful sketch of wide-eyed admiration.

“Oh, that is beautiful! Quite beautiful! I’ve heard some elegant explanations in my time—but that one! My dear man, I flatter myself if I say we are cut out of the same piece of cloth! My own gifts of persuasion seem very puny beside yours. What a politician you would make!”

Wayne smiled his gentle smile again and shook his head. “No, Mr. Gurney, I would not. My powers of persuasion are not mine but God’s and could not be used for such unimportant ends as political activity, if by politics you mean the small concerns of small men. If I am persuasive, it is because God is persuasive. If you cannot understand that, then indeed you are in the outer darkness.”

“It’s not so dark that I can’t see,” Gurney said tartly. “I don’t care how often you trot out your high-sounding God-palaverings. You are precisely what I suspected you were, Mr. Wayne—an extremely astute businessman with his eye to the main chance, like everyone else. You’ve hit on one of the richest veins there is, and you’re exploiting it for all you’re worth, and getting worth more and more in the process. Well—”

He stood up, and picked up his briefcase from the sofa beside him. “As well as you know your countrymen, Mr. Wayne, so do I know mine. And while I don’t deny that you have a powerful following and that it is as potentially lucrative to you as the one you have at home, you won’t have it for long. In this country, we don’t so much equate money with sinfulness as equate poverty with virtue. There is a difference, you know! And when I make people see what I have seen in talking to you—that you came here to exploit the people of this country by hunting down one of this country’s scientists, and that all you are after is the money in their pockets— well, you will see what the results will be. Now perhaps if one of
your
delightful
young assistants will give me my coat, I will relieve you of my company.

Wayne made no move, looking up at Gurney with the same kind expression on his face, the same relaxed yet tidy look about his posture.

“Tell me, Mr. Gurney, why are you so anxious to discredit the work I am here to do? You said yourself that it might be that we were—how did you express it? Most elegantly, I recall—ah yes, that we were playing the same game in the same court. Now, if this is so, why should you decide that attacking the work of my Tabernacle would be of value to you? There is a certain ambivalence in your motivations, I feel. It isn’t clear to me whether you are projecting a positive point of view and want to guide your country away from the dangers implicit in the work of men like Briant, or whether you want what you suspected me of wanting—to put a stop to Briant personally. That is what his son seems to want, but I would have thought you were above that sort of childish spitefulness. Or is it just that, Mr. Gurney? Is there, together with that cynicism to which you make such proud claim, a streak of spite? Do you hate Briant for succeeding in doing what he wants to do? Do you hate me for succeeding in my work? Ah, Mr. Gurney, you are much in need of the love of God, whether or not you are prepared to admit it!”

“So I hit home!”

“Why do you say that, Mr. Gurney?”

“Because you allow yourself the luxury of a personal dig at me. Spiteful, you suggest? No. There’s no percentage in being spiteful. And there’s nothing in the least ambivalent about my—what was the word—
motivations
. I want only to control the work of scientists of Briant’s ilk because I have a healthy fear of its possible outcome. I hold no personal dislike for the man. If I did, wouldn’t I have used young Briant? My situation is a simple one. I have a difficult bill to get through the House, against the opposition of a bunch of woolly-minded so-called progressives who will fight it just because a man of my political color has put it up. I’m known to be well to the right, and that complicates the issue. I need to use every possible weapon I can in my personal fight to do what I think should be
done. If exposing you would make no difference to my campaign, I wouldn’t bother to waste my time on it. But it may help. So I’m afraid…” He shook his head in mock regret. “There it is.”

He turned to go, but before he reached the door of the big room, Wayne’s soft voice was speaking.

“I too have an understanding of the mood of the people of this country, Mr. Gurney, even after so short an acquaintance with it. You are absolutely right in what you say.”

Gurney turned and smiled widely across the expanse of deep yellow carpet. “Oh, I’m sure I am! I know a manipulator when I meet one! But you aren’t being very skillful to admit it so easily.”

“I am admitting the accuracy of only one of your statements. The ordinary people of this country are very susceptible to chauvinism, as you so clearly know. If you try to canvass support for your bill by suggesting I am personally making money out of British anxiety about a Britisher and his project, then you will undoubtedly damage the work I hold most dear. It is not as undoubted that you will help your bill, of course. Is it?”

And he in his turn smiled widely. “You know that as well as I do, Mr. Gurney. Now, let me suggest something for you to think about. If you will permit me? You will find it to your interest.”

“Well?”

“Come and sit down again, my friend.” Wayne patted the sofa invitingly. “No need to be so formal, standing there. We can talk this over like gentlemen, can’t we? Of course.”

Gurney sat down again willingly enough. I’ve hit him where it hurts, he thought exultantly. Otherwise he’d have let me go.

“You want to stop me from saying anthing about you and your movement—forgive me if I find words like Tabernacle somewhat absurd—that might damage the takings? Is that what you want me to think about?”

Wayne sighed softly. “You still see me as a charlatan, don’t you, Mr. Gurney? That saddens me, you know. It saddens me very deeply. Well, God and I know I am no charlatan. But sometimes, for God’s work, I have to use a language deriving from godless attitudes I cannot share. I will now use yours. Please listen very carefully, Mr. Gurney.”

Gurney settled back in his seat, prepared to enjoy himself.

“Well, now,” Wayne said comfortably. “It might seem in some ways that we indeed desire the same ends—control of the evil work of Briant and men like him. But you have seen a way in which you can further those ends by going against me, rather than with me. You could gain support for your bill by smearing me. But I, Mr. Gurney, am not concerned only with putting human controls on the evils of science. I am more positive than that. My avowed aim is to bring mankind back to God. To me, Briant and the baby he has in his hands are God’s instruments, His way of leading mankind back to—”

“Spare me that, please.”

“It is necessary for you to understand. If you damage me in order to get your bill through, you may halt Briantism for a while, but not for long. But if I succeed in
my
work, why, men like Briant will never again come to cause trouble! God will have won. And since Briant is an instrument of God and must be used in this way, I know I must convince you that you should abandon your attempts to stop Briant in
your
way. Only my way—God’s way—must succeed. Your bill’s passage would offer false reassurance to lost souls. It is necessary at present for Briant to continue to operate as he does. God will find a way to stop him when His time is ripe, when the peoples of the world have been brought back from the dangers of evil.”

“You’re certainly consistent, Mr. Wayne. No matter how often I make it clear I’ve seen through your smoke screen, you still puff great bursts of it at me. It really is most tedious.”

“One day I trust that God will help you to see that I speak only the truth. Is it so difficult for you to believe in my sincerity? Can you not see beyond the apparent richness of my daily life—the mere unimportant details of that daily life—to the truth I have given you? God works His will in many ways, my dear Mr. Gurney, no less through ways that may seem bad as those that are obviously good. If a show of riches brings folk to God, and thereby brings more riches, which again brings more unhappy souls into the fold, cannot you see the good? And if finding a way to persuade you to stop lobbying your bill—or whatever it is you do in your House of
Parliament when you sponsor such things—keeps open the doorway to God, why then, no matter how bad a way it may seem on the surface, then it is a good one. In God’s work, end indeed justifies means. When all the sheep are safe in the shepherd’s hands, then we can gladly abandon our hunting in the ways of the wolf—”