METROPOLIS than youl I have cursed your overwhelming might-your overwhelming might which has filled me with horror, from the bottom of my heart. Now I run to you and ask you on my knees: Why do you allow Death to lay hands on the city which is your's-P" "Because Death has come upon the city by my will." "Dy your will-P" "Yes." "The city is to perish-?"
"Don't you know why, Freder?" There was no answer. "The city is to go to ruin that you may built it up again... :' "-I-P" "You,"
"Then you are laying the murder of the city on my shoulders?" "The murder of the city reposes on the shoulders of those alone who trampled Grot, the guard of .the heart-machine, to death." "Did that also take place by your will, fatherP" "Yes'" "Then you forced them to commit the crime-r "For your sake, Freder; that you could redeem them . . ." "And what about those, father, who must die with your dying city, before I can redeem them'" "Concern yourself about the living, Freder-not about the dead." . "And if the living come to_kill you-P" "That will not happen, Freder. That will not happen. The way to me, among the raving god-machines, as you called them, could only be found by one. And he found it. That was my son," Freder dropped his head into his hands. He rocked it to and from as if in pain. He moaned softly. He was about to ~peak; but before he could speak a sound ripped the air, which sounded as though the earth were bursting to pi.eces. For a moment, everything in the white room seemed to hover in space, a foot above the ground-even Moloch and Baal
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