withdraw now. Take your women and the space-boats and return to
Mars. You have your shares, and you can live in comfort wherever you
may choose. If you wish it, go now."

Some few did go, but most remained. I watched Merril's face, and saw one
last plan maturing there. Then he spoke again and we all understood. One
last raid ... to take Luna and command the world!

* * * * *

"_Still the unity of Mankind was not secure, and Merril, filled with
impatience for his great dream, decided on one final stroke. He
would descend on Luna Base itself with his fleet, and commanding all
Earth, he would drive men together--even though it might mean his
own death. With this plan of self-immolation in his heart, the
Peacemaker ordered his hosts and sought the pumice soil of the
mother planet's moon...._"

This is the way Quintus Bland, historian and scholar, puts it down for
posterity. I, one of "his hosts," would say it another way.

We had gutted the Solar System of its treasure and at last men were
uniting against us. Our "fleet" was reduced to two small ships and a
bare handful of men and women to fight them. Jaq Merril could see the
handwriting on the wall and he knew that all must be gambled on one last
throw of the dice. Only with Terra herself under our guns could we hope
to continue sucking the juice of the worlds into our mouths. It was all
or nothing, for we had grown used to our life and we could no longer
change it to meet the demands of the dawning age of Soviet-American
amity.

* * * * *

Side by side the _Arrow_ and the _Hound_ slanted sunward. Mars behind
us, ahead lay the Earth-Moon system. Ten years had passed since any of
us aboard the Compact ships had seen the home world, and though we no
longer felt a part of it, the sight of the silvery cloud-flecked globe
touched our hearts. Touched them as the sapphires of Mimas or the gold
of Corfu touched them. We saw the planet that gave us birth and we were
filled with hunger for it. To own it, command it, make it our own.

Luna's mountains were white and stark under our keels as Merril led us
across the curve of the southern horizon, seeking to put us into
position to attack the UN Moon Base in Clavius from the direction of the
Moon's hidden face.

We swung low across unnamed mountain ranges and deep sheer valleys
steeped in shadow. The voice of the ranger in the _Arrow_ c