RA-76's hand darted out and seized Drummond's ankle, tugged him off the ledge. As he fell to the ground, a score of robots closed in over him, metal arms flailing down methodically. Angus yelled at them to stop, saw he was too late and sank down, turning away sickly.
Finally, after a long while, they backed off and faced Angus.
"We have passed the Divine test, O Jackson!" 204 shouted up jubilantly.
"We have redeemed ourselves before our Supervisor!" exclaimed 76.
It took a long, horror-filled moment before Angus could speak.
"How do you know?" he managed to ask at last.
"If he had been Jackson," exclaimed 204, "we could not have destroyed him."
The robots fell prostrate again and returned to their devotional. But now the phrases were triumphant, where before they had been servile and uncertain.
Angus stared numbly down at Drummond, then backed against the cliff. The litany below, exuberant now, grew mightily in volume, booming vibrantly against distant hills.