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nobody did, since I would have no way of controlling him. They are composed almost
     entirely of hatred for every unFallen, creature, and every creature with the potentiality to be redeemed, but there is no
     one they hate more than a useless tool.’
    ‘Well, it seems to me that we may neither of us be totally useless even now,’ Baines declared. ‘You say the demons now own
     a substantial part of the world, but it’s also perfectly evident that they don’t own it all yet. Otherwise the Goat would
     have come back when he said he would. And we’d be in Hell.’
    ‘Hell has a great many circles. We may well be on the margins of the first right now – in the Vestible of the Futile.’
    ‘We’d be in a good deal deeper if the demons were in total control, or if judgement had already been passed on us,’ Baines
     said.
    ‘You are entirely right about that, to be sure,’ Ware said, somewhat surprised. ‘But after all, from their point of view there
     is no hurry. In the past, we might have saved ourselves by a last-minute act of contrition. Now, however, there is no longer
     any God to appeal to. They can wait and take us at their leisure.’
    ‘There I’m inclined to agree with Father Domenico. We don’t know that for sure; we were told so only by the Goat. I admit
     that the other evidence all points in the same direction, but all the same, he could have been lying.’
    Ware thought about it. The argument from circumstances did not of course impress him; no doubt the circumstances were horrible
     beyond the capacity of any human soul to react to them, but they were certainly not beyond the range of human imagination;
     they were more or less the standard consequences of World War III, a war which Baines himself had been actively engaged in
     engineering some time before he had discovered his interest in black magic. Theologically they were also standard: a new but
     essentially unchanged version of the Problem of Evil, the centuries-old question of why a good and merciful God should allow
     so much pain and terror to be inflicted upon the innocent. The parameters had been filled ina somewhat different way, but the fundmental equation was the same as it had always been.
    Nevertheless, the munitions maker was quite right – as Father Domenico had been earlier – to insist that they had no reliable
     information upon the most fundamental question of all. Ware said slowly:
    I’m reluctant to admit any hope at all at this juncture. On the other hand, it has been said that to despair of God is the
     ultimate sin. What precisely do you have in mind?’
    ‘Nothing specific yet. But suppose for the sake of argument that the demons are still under some sort of restrictions -I don’t
     see any point in trying to imagine what they might be – and that the battle consequently isn’t really over yet. If that’s
     the case, it’s quite possible that they could still use some help. Considering how far they’ve managed to get already, there
     doesn’t seem to be much doubt about their winning in the end – and it’s been my observation that it’s generally a good idea
     to be on the winning side.’
    ‘It is folly to think that the triumph of evil could ever be a winning side, in the sense of anyone’s gaining anything by
     it. Without good to oppose it, evil is simply meaningless. That isn’t all what I thought you had in mind. It is, instead,
     the last step in despairing of God – it’s worse than Manicheanism, it is Satanism pure and simple. I once controlled devils,
     but I never worshipped them, and I don’t plan to begin now. Besides – ’
    Abruptly, the radio produced a tearing squeal and then began to mutter urgently in German. Ware could hear the voice well
     enough to register that the speaker had a heavy Swiss accent, but not well enough to make out the sense. He and Baines took
     a crunching step towards Ginsberg, who, listening intently, held up one hand towards them.
    The speech was