MS-WU-MSS008-3-50-2

[2548] I wondered, suddenly rebellious, what compelled me to accept this
commission. [2549] But I had already acce^pted it, I had given my word. [2550] Too late.
[2551] Honour. [2552] It did not take me long to gild my impo^tence.

[2553] But could I not postpone our departure to the following day? [2554] Or
leave alone? [2555] Ah shilly-shally. [2556] But we would wait till the very last
moment, a little before midnight. [2557] This decision is irrevocable, I said.
[2558] It was justified moreover by the state of the moon.

[2559] I did as when I could not sleep. [2560] I wandered in my mind, slowly,
noting every detail of the labyrinth, its paths as familiar as those of
my garden and yet ever new, as empty as the heart could wish or alive
with strange encounters. [2561] And I heard the distant cymbals, There is still
time, still time. [2562] But there was not, for I ^[⁁]ceased, all vanished and I
tried once more to turn my thoughts to the Molloy affair. [2563] Unfa^thomable
mind, now beacon, now sea.

[2563|001] The agent and the messenger. [2564] We agents never took anything in
writing. [2565] Gaber was not an agent in the sense I was. [2566] Gaber was a ^messenger.
[2567] He was therefore entitled to a notebook. [2568] A messenger had to be possessed
of singular qualities, good messengers were even more rare than good agents.
[2569] I who was an excellent agent would have made but a sorry messenger. [2570] I often
regretted it.

[2571] Gaber was protected in numerous ways. [2572] He used a code
incomprehensible to all but himself. [2573] Each messenger, before being appointed,
had to submit his code to the directorate. [2574] ^Gaber understood nothing about
the messages he carried. [2575] Reflecting on them he arrived at the ^{[⁁]most extravagantly false}
conclusions.

[2576] Yes, it was not enough for him to understand nothing about
them, he had also to believe he understood everything about them. [2577] This was
not all. [2578] His memory was so bad that his messages had no existence in his
head, but only in his notebook. [2579] He had only to close his notebook to
become, a moment later, perfectly innocent as to its contents. [2580] And when