The scene opens with the narrator lamenting that the moment he gets rid of one person, another will come. He says that he is able to do this because he has the ability to deal with the multitudes that surround him. He tells the story of how a group of renegades attacked a small boy and told him that he was not a renegade. The narrator asks the boy why he took such a child as his disciple. The boy says that the rumor is spreading that the boy is dull, and the narrator says that it is very relevant to the boy and him