70 "Why did they undress her?" asked Sweet
Blossom.
71 "That's the way she served her master," Bullet told her, "so that's
the way she passes with him. The Hoods don't take any excuse for
failure. One mistake is all you get. You never make a second one."
72 "How do they get anybody to work for them?" One of the men asked.
73 "They pay awfully good," Bullet explained, "and some men like the
fringe benefits."
74 "They must not be very much men," another man remarked, "I'd call
them animals."
75 "Basically," agreed The Young Speaker, "that's precisely what they
are...animals, new souls that haven't learned the price of evil. The
hardest thing a Soul has to do is survive it's first few lifetimes as
men before they lose their animal viciousness. That's the period when
most Souls are destroyed; the first two or three lifetimes."
76 "You really do believe that stuff," questioned Bullet, "living more
than one life. I find it really hard to believe! How many lifetimes do
you suppose I have lived?"
77 "Oh, not too many," explained The Young Speaker, "only a couple of
hundred. Wait until you get up to a thousand! Then, you've got
something to complain about!"
78 "You're joking, right?" laughed Bullet. The Young Speaker just
smiled and walked off.
79 "He NEVER jokes about things like that," one of the others
explained. "He's always serious about things concerning the Teachings.
If he says you've had a couple of hundred lives, he's serious. But he
probably means intelligent lives. If you counted all your animal
existences it would probably be thousands. You figure some small
creatures only live a few days, some only a few hours!"
80 Bullet shook his head. "It just seems unbelievable," he remarked,
"but I suppose if he says it, it's true."
81 "You BETTER believe it," insisted one of the others.