se they want everybody to have the same
opportunities in every reincarnation. And the Volitionalists believe
that everybody reincarnates as he pleases, and so they favor
continuance of the present system of private ownership of wealth and
private profit under a system of free competition. And that's about
all I do know. Naturally, as a land-owner and the holder of a title of
nobility, I'm a Volitionalist in politics, but the socialization
issue isn't important on Venus. There is still too much unseated land
there, and too many personal opportunities, to make socialism
attractive to anybody."

"Well, that's about it," Zortan Brend told him. "I'm not enough of a
psychicist to know what the Lady Dallona's been doing, but she's
knocked the theoretical basis from under Statistical Reincarnation,
and that's the basis, in turn, of Statistical Socialism. I think we'll
find that the Statisticalist Party is responsible for whatever
happened to her."

Marnik, the younger of the two Assassins, hesitated for a moment, then
addressed Verkan Vall:

"Lord Virzal, I know none of the personalities involved in this
matter, and I speak without wishing to give offense, but is it not
possible that the Lady Dallona and the Assassin Dirzed may have gone
somewhere together voluntarily? I have met Dirzed, and he has many
qualities which women find attractive, and he is by no means
indifferent to the opposite sex. You understand, Lord Virzal--"

"I understand all too perfectly, Marnik," Verkan Vall replied, out of
the fullness of experience. "The Lady Dallona has had affairs with a
number of men, myself among them. But under the circumstances, I find
that explanation unthinkable."

Marnik looked at him in open skepticism. Evidently, in his book, where
an attractive man and a beautiful woman were concerned, that
explanation was never unthinkable.

"The Lady Dallona is a scientist," Verkan Vall elaborated. "She is not
above diverting herself with love affairs, but that's all they are--a
not too important form of diversion. And, if you recall, she had just
participated in a most significant experiment: you can be sure that
she had other things on her mind at the time than pleasure jaunts with
good-looking Assassins."

* * * * *

The ship was passing around the Caucasus Mountains, with the Caspian
Sea in sight ahead, when several of the crew appeared on the
observation deck and began preparing the shielding t