roll in. If this thing tonight turns out the way I think it has, I'm going to be able to quit my other racket for good and devote all my time to Cave.' Already the name Cave had begun to sound more like that of an institution than of a man.
'By the way, I want to tell you what I think of the Introduction: superior piece of work. Tried it out on several highbrow friends of mine and they liked it.'
'I'm afraid…'
'That, together with the talks on television, should put this thing over with the biggest bang in years. We'll probably need some more stuff from you, historical background, rules and regulations, that kind of thing, but Cave will tell you what he wants. We've hired a dozen people already to take care of the mail and inquiries. There's also a lecture tour being prepared, all the main cities, while…'
'Paul, you're not trying to make a religion of this, are you?'
I could hold it back no longer even though both time and occasion were all wrong for such an outburst.
'Religion? Hell, no… but we've got to organize. We've got to get this to as many people as we can. People have started looking to us (to him, that is) for guidance. We can't let them down.'
Clarissa's maid ushered in a Western Union messenger, laden with telegrams. 'Over three hundred,' said the boy.
'The station said to send them here.' Paul paid him jubilantly and, in the excitement, I slipped away.
3
The results of the broadcast were formidable. My small book which until then had enjoyed the obscurity of being briefly noted among the recent books was taken up by excited editors who used it as a basis for hurried but exuberant accounts of the new marvel.
One night a week for the rest of that winter Cave appeared before the shining glass eye of the world and on each occasion new millions in all parts of the country listened and saw and pondered this unexpected phenomenon, the creation of their own secret anxieties and doubts, a central man.
The reactions were too numerous for me to recollect in any order or with any precise detail; but I do recall the first few months vividly: after that of course the work moved swiftly of its own and one lost track of events which tended to blur, the way casualties late in a large war do, not wringing the wearied heart as the death of one or a particular few might earlier have done.
A few days after the first broadcast, I went to see Paul at the offices which he had taken in the Empire State Building… as high up as possible, I noted with amusement: always the maximum, the optimum.
Halfway down a corridor, between lawyers and exporters, Cavite, Inc. was discreetly identified in black upon a frosted-glass door. I went inside.
It appeared to me the way I'd always thought a newspaper office during a crisis might look. Four rooms opening in a row off one another, all with doors open, all crowded with harassed secretaries and clean-looking young men in blue serge suits carrying papers, talking in loud voices which together made the room sound like a hive at swarming time.
Though none of them knew me, no one made any attempt to ask my business or to stop me as I moved from room to room in search of Paul. Everywhere there were placards with Cave's picture on them, calm and gloomy- looking, dressed in what was to be his official costume: a dark suit, an unfigured tie, a white shirt. I tried to overhear conversations as I passed the busy desks and groups of excited debaters, but their noise was too loud. Only one word was identifiable, sounding regularly, richly emphatic like a cello note: Cave, Cave, Cave.
In each room I saw piles of my Introduction which pleased me even though I had come already to dislike it.
The last room contained Paul, seated behind a desk with a dictaphone in one hand, three telephones on his desk (none fortunately ringing at this moment) and four male and female attendants with notebooks and pencils eagerly poised. Paul sprang from his chair when he saw me. The attendants fell back. 'Here he is!' He grabbed my hand and clung to it vise-like: I could almost feel the energy pulsing in his fingertips, vibrating through his body… his heartbeat was obviously two to my every one.
'Team, this is Eugene Luther.'
The team was properly impressed and one of the girls, slovenly but intelligent-looking, said: 'It was you who brought me here. First you I mean… and then of course Cave.'
I murmured vaguely and the others told me how clear I had made all philosophy in the light of Cavesword. (I believe it was that day, certainly that week, Cavesword was coined by Paul to denote the entire message of John Cave to the world). Paul then shooed the team out with instructions he was not to be bothered. The door, however, was left open.
'Well, what do you think of them?' He leaned back, beaming at me from his chair.
'They seem very… earnest,' I said, wondering not only what I was supposed to think but, more to the point, what I did think of the whole business.
'I'll say they are! I tell you, Gene, I've never seen anything like it. The thing's bigger even than that damned crooner I handled… you may remember the one. Everyone has been calling up and, look!' He pointed to several bushel baskets containing telegrams and letters. 'This is only a fraction of the response since the telecast. From all over the world. I tell you, Gene, we're in.'
'What about Cave? Where is he?'
'He's out on Long Island. The press is on my tail trying to interview him but I say no, no go, fellows, not yet; and does that excite them! We've had to hire guards at the place on Long Island just to keep them away.'
'How is Cave taking it all?'
'In his stride, absolute model of coolness which is more than I am. He agrees that it's better to keep him under wraps while the telecasts are going on. It means that curiosity about him will increase like nobody's business. Look at this.' He showed me a proof sheet of a tabloid story: 'Mystery Prophet Wows TV Audience,' with a photograph of Cave taken from the telecast and another one showing Cave ducking into a taxi, his face turned away from the camera. The story seemed most provocative and, for that complacent tabloid, a little bewildered.
'Coming out Sunday,' said Paul with satisfaction. 'There's also going to be coverage from the big circulation media. They're going to cover the next broadcast even though we said nobody'd be allowed on the set while Cave was speaking.'
He handed me a bundle of manuscript pages bearing the title 'Who Is Cave?'
'That's the story I planted in one of the slick magazines. Hired a name-writer, as you can see, to do it.' The name-writer's name was not known to me but, presumably, it would be familiar to the mass audience.
'And, biggest of all, we got a sponsor. We had eleven offers already and we've taken Dumaine Chemicals. They're paying us enough money to underwrite this whole setup here, and pay for Cave and me as well. It's terrific but dignified. Just a simple 'through the courtesy of' at the beginning and another at the end of each telecast. What do you think of that?'
'Unprecedented!' I had chosen my word some minutes before… one which would have a cooling effect.
'I'll say. By the way, we're getting a lot of stuff on that book of yours.' He reached in a drawer and pulled out a manila folder which he pushed toward me. 'Take them home if you like. Go over them carefully… might give you some ideas for the next one; you know: ground which needs covering.'
'Is there to be a next one?'
'Man, a flock of next ones! We've got a lot to do, to explain. People want to know all kinds of things. I'm having the kids out in the front office do a breakdown on all the letters we've got: to get the general reaction… what it is people most want to hear; and, believe me, we've been getting more damned questions, and not just the main thing but family problems too, things like that: 'Please, Mr Cave, I'm married to two men and feel maybe it's a mistake since I have to work nights anyway.' Lord, some of them are crazier than that.'
'Are you answering all of them?'
'Oh, yes, but in my name. All except a few of the most interesting which go to Cave for personal attention. I've been toying with the idea of setting up a counselor-service for people with problems.'
'But what can you tell them?' I was more and more appalled.
