The next morning, Gary Gulliver headed out on another search for his father, accompanied by Bunko and Glum, who were both riding on Tagg. They travelled faster than they had ever gone before. Gary was willing to run this time, and the two Lilliputian lads held more tightly to Tagg’s collar than they had done in the past.

In time they came to a sight which caused all of their hearts to sink.

“Dad!” called Gulliver, and ran over to the two men who lay on the ground, both severely wounded unto death. The other was Captain Leech.

“They must have caught up with each other and fought it out,” whispered Bunko.

“We won’t be safe,” said Glum with characteristic pessimism, “Leech will turn out to be only stunned.”

“They’re both dead,” said Gulliver, despondently.

The loss of Leech brought him no comfort. For 17 weeks, he had searched the island for his father, only to have it end in tragedy. Gulliver buried both Leech and his father, and returned to Lilliput to make an announcement.

“I am going to start building a new boat and leave Lilliput. I will miss all of you, my brave friends, but the loss of my father has left a deep feeling of sadness with me on this island.”

It took time, but eventually Gulliver was fully prepared for his journey. He had completed construction of his boat and found his own large supplies of provisions. King Pomp led a royal parade down to the beach to see him off, as all of Lilliput watched Gary Gulliver set sail into the seas.

“May I inquire as to why you don’t believe in God?” asked Charles Dodgson.

“I have a reason,” said Bruno.

“So do I,” said Sylvie.

“Let’s hear yours first,” said Bruno.

“From the stories we’ve heard from that great history book you ministers talk from …”

“The Bible,” offered Charles.

“Yes, the first half of the Bible is full of stories that show this God of yours to be a murderer,” said Bruno.

“Can you two wait here, while I go inside and fetch an Oxford Dictionary? They’re very fashionable in this part of the world.”

The two little folk waited until Dodgson returned.

“Here I have it: Murder is defined as the illegal taking of another’s life. Now life started when God created Adam from the ground, and then God’s own Holy Spirit gave the breath of life to Adam, and then to Eve. Not only that, but He warned them that if they sinned against him, they would surely die. In other words, they would disqualify themselves from His gift of life; His to give and withdraw as he pleases. So God can’t be a murderer. His withdrawal of His own life giving Spirit is merely the act of taking back what belongs to Him to begin with. Adam and Eve did sin, and sin thus entered the world. In a sense, they were effectively committing a form of suicide, when they rebelled against their creator. Sin equals death. It’s spiritually toxic.  People have been dying ever since, some of old age, some of sickness, some of suffering. Yet Jesus stepped in with a plan to save people, if they accept him and turn to Him as their Lord and Saviour.”

“Which brings me to my reason for wanting nothing to do with God,” said Sylvie, “My friends in the Rhetoric Response Squad have also told me that your God, if He exists, tries to intimidate and threaten me into accepting Him. The R.R.S. have said that God will put us through eternal punishment if we don’t serve Him. So please count me out. I couldn’t ever allow myself to believe in a God who would do that to people.”