The Argo Goes West

111, The Mysterious Stranger, part 1

The Washington Arsenal was a US facility at the tip of Buzzard Point, where the Potomac and Anacostia rivers meet in Washington, DC. Originally built as a fort, it was later used as an arsenal. It was also here that four suspects in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln were imprisoned, tried, and hanged.

The room was as crowded as it had been when Mary Surratt was sentenced to death. However, there was no formal trial to be held that day. It was an informal hearing about a mysterious goat boy named Giles who was found on the Argo. Due to the special nature of the problem, not only military personnel and government officials, but also many scholars from academia were invited there. Biologists include Johns Hopkins professor Alex Carruthers and Harvard professor Bernard Blair; paleontologist Evan Metford of the University of Pennsylvania; medical scientist Dr. Adolphus Ostrow of Stanford University; and theologian Miskatonic University professor Roderick Jarrod. etc. The chairman was General James O'Malley. Ernest Jaffee, United States Department of Justice, was the first to ask the question.

"Where are you from?"

"I don't know."

"You shouldn't know."

"Do you know where you're from?"

"Of course I know. I was born in Chicago. Going further back, my ancestors immigrated from Switzerland to America."

"How do you know what happened before you were born?"

"Because my father taught me. Didn't your father teach you anything?"

"I never met him. My father Zeus is very busy."

Some people in the room laughed. But Jaffee didn't change his expression and asked the stereotypical question. Giles answered each one with a mockery.

When Giles claimed to be a faun, Jaffee asked him what the difference was between a god and a man.

Giles remembered Dorothy laughing and crying and getting angry, and replied, "I like humans, but I don't understand humans very well."

"What do you not understand?"

"For example, you humans say conscience, but what exactly is conscience?"

"Conscience is justice."

It may have been a model answer for a man in the law, but he couldn't convince Giles.

Jaffee was unable to answer Giles' further questions. Jarrod, professor of theology at Miskatonic University, interjected.

"Conscience is a God-given ability in man," said Jarrod. "Specifically, it's about recognizing what's right and what's not."

"I'm a god, but I don't remember giving anything like that to humans."

Jarrod said coldly. "Of course you are. You are not our god. You are a pagan god."

"Oh, yes."

"No, you are not a god. You are hairy and you have shady horns. You are a beast. Conscience is what separates human from beast. That is why you cannot understand conscience. "

"It is disrespectful to the beasts to say such things."

Those words came from the audience. The man was a gentleman with long white hair and a bushy beard under his nose. There was no American who didn't know him. He was Mark Twain, author of 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' and 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'.

Jarrod glared at Mark Twain with hawk eyes. "You say something strange. Why are you disrespectful to a beast?"

Mark Twain retorted from his seat.

"Are you saying that humans are superior to animals because they have a conscience? But that is wrong. Humans need a conscience because without it they would do bad things. Animals don't do bad things, so they don't need a conscience. "

"Don't you know lions eat other animals?"

"It's not evil. It's a way of life. Humans also can't live without eating meat and vegetables."

Perhaps at a loss for an answer, Jarrod did not respond.

Mark Twain said to Giles in the dock with a smile. "Giles, you said you were a faun, but I think you are an angel. An innocent angel who knows no evil."