Then in the latter part of the play, just before the final scenes, Hightee Heller as the outlaw's sister is seen standing on the cowcatcher of an improbable locomotive of a train that is being robbed. Boxes and bags of loot are being taken off. Another robber comes to her, opens a box and says, "Look, we found some of the Devils' clothes, ha, ha, we found some of the Devils' clothes." And he holds up a scarlet Apparatus general's uniform.
Madison, at that moment, looked at Lombar. The Dictator of Voltar was sitting there stunned.
Hightee, at that point, throws back her head and laughs. Then she draws a six-gun and fires it in the air to attract the attention of peasants in the nearby fields. These all run up and Hightee sings them a song.
With the crazy downbeat rhythm and singing as only Hightee could sing, the ballad went:
The Devil's going to get you
If you don't watch out.
The Devil's going to cheat you
Before you know he is about.
He's going to hit you,
With a great big stick.
He is going to smash you
With a fist that's quick.
But if you saw the Devil
When he was skinned,
You would really find,
He was just a bag of wind.
For the Devil was bred
In a lowly slum
And every unknown father
Was a gutter bum.
The point of this song
Should not be missed.
I am singing about
(mouthed only) _____ ___!
There is no mistaking the words that Hightee's lips form. They can only be "Lombar Hisst." But in their very silence, they are ten times as loud as if they had been spoken.
Then the robber holding the uniform inflates it with gas and it does a crazy dance as it rises. The stage-play brother rushes up, draws his six-guns and shoots the uniform full of holes. The peasants and robbers all go into a wild carnival of dance, stamping on the uniform and finally burning it in effigy.
But that wasn't the only thing that went into wild motion. Lombar was up out of his chair, waving his arms about wildly and leaping. "That's me! That's me she's singing about! I'll kill her! I'll maim her! She is holding me up to ridicule! Oh, Gods, I get the point of this play now! She's telling the people to revolt and tear me to bits!" He shook both fists at the screen and would have lunged into it but he tripped over a stool and began to roll around on the floor, frothing at the mouth.
The convulsions lasted until the burning of the effigy on the screen, and then Hisst lay there in a twisted pile, staring at the set as though in a catatonic stupor.
The rest of the play ran off, the brother and sister were both hanged and their bodies seized down into a grave and the vast cast all sadly sang the last song the sister had sung. Then they chorused The Outlaw theme song again, but with celestial overtones, and the face of Hightee and factually the face of Jettero Heller himself looked down from heaven. Madison's last touch had not been known to anybody except the bribed technician.
The studio audience went into yells and applause that Madison thought better than to complete. He turned the set off.
Lombar somehow got himself straightened out and fell into a chair.
"Now you see why I was worried," said Madison.
"It's Heller," said Lombar. "Heller put her up to this. All Voltar knows Jettero Heller is her brother. It didn't take that last picture of his face to drive it home! It's a plot against my life! I'll order a Death Battalion to raid her house and shoot her down at once!"
Madison said, "Lombar, all famous figures have to be able to withstand ridicule. It's one of the rules of the game: ridicule the mighty. But be calm, they have played right into your hands. I am glad that you have seen that. You can get even with her and can get Heller to show up. All you have to do is sign this note."
Lombar looked at it. A savage look replaced the shock that had been dominating him. "That's brilliant!" he said and signed it, stamped it.
Madison took it back to see that it was all in order. It said:
ARREST HIGHTEE HELLER AND HOLD HER. THEN BARGAIN WITH HER BROTHER AND GET HIM TO COME IN. THEN KILL THEM BOTH.
LOMBAR HISST
"Make sure you get that executed!" said Lombar with a ferocious snarl. "I've never been so affronted in my life!"
"I knew you'd see your way out of this," said Madison. "You can now ignore the details. Leave the rest up to me."
J. Warbler Madman was about to pull off the PR caper of the age.
The arrest of Hightee Heller took place in the street before the huge dome studio of Homeview.
She had been told that a group of notables and fans from Mistin wished to present her with that planet's symbolic flower. There were some notables there all right, but they weren't from Mistin. They were Death Battalion men in civilian clothes.
Madison had his own camera crew placed on a ledge that outcropped from the dome: it was thirty feet above and could look down on the whole scene. There was another crew there, on the scene itself, assigned by the manager of Homeview. There were several reporters and photographers from papers.
The street was just a typical Joy City street, lined with shops that sold knickknacks and pretty clothes. The main entrance to the dome, however, was imposing, for the pavement just in front of it appeared to be made of gold. It was there that the deputation stood.
Hightee Heller came out of the building: she was dressed in a white gown and gold gloves. Such presentations were quite ordinary: she would simply go down, accept whatever it was, smile, shake hands, thank them and withdraw. It was a little ceremony that took place several times a week. She was usually only accompanied by a couple Homeview ushers to carry away the present or award or whatever it was. No one would have dreamed of flanking Hightee with security men, for in all her career, no one had ever laid a finger on the Homeview star or even frowned at her in public.
She might have been checked by the fact that the deputation was so silent. Usually such groups were more numerous and gave a little cheer when she appeared. This one just stood there, the man in front holding a bouquet.
She was five feet from the apparent leader. He extended the bouquet toward her stiffly. Still moving forward, she put out a hand toward it.
He dropped the flowers to the pavement.
They had masked the blastgun in his hand!
A whistle screamed.
With a single movement, two hundred men stepped out of the different shops. They wore black uniforms and carried rifles. The street was suddenly totally lined with these troops.
From the back of the deputation, a man strode forward, throwing off a cloak to reveal himself as a colonel of the Death Battalion.
Hightee turned to reenter the building.
Two Death Battalion soldiers blocked her way. She turned back to the "deputation."
The colonel's boot crushed the fallen flowers. "High-tee Heller, I arrest you in the name of Lombar Hisst!"
The two ushers made a sudden rush to protect Hightee.
Two actors, placed there by Madison for that purpose in Apparatus uniforms, smashed blood bags into the faces of her protectors! It looked exactly like they had been killed! They fell.