"You'd rather I told you, now, than turn on the TV and hear some
commentator talking about it, wouldn't you?" Cardon asked.

Pelton swore vilely, in a lifeless monotone, cursing Literacy, and
all Literates back to the invention of the alphabet. Then he stopped
short.

"No, Frank, I don't mean that, either. My own son and daughter are
Literates; I can't say that about them. But how long--?"

"Oh, for about a year, I'd say. I understand, now, that they were
admitted to the Fraternities six months ago," he invented.

"And they were working against me, all that time?" Pelton demanded.

Cardon shook his head. "No, Chet; they were for you, all the way. Your
daughter exposed her Literacy to save your life. Your son and his
teacher came to your store and fought for you. But there are Literates
who want to see you defeated, and they're the ones who made that
audio-visual, secretly, of the ceremony in which your son and daughter
took the Literates' Oath and received the white smock, and they're
going to telecast it this evening at twenty-one hundred. Coming on top
of the stories that have been going around all afternoon, and Slade
Gardner's speech, this morning, they think that'll be enough to defeat
you."

"Well, don't you?" Pelton gloomed. "My own kids, Literates!" He seemed
to have reached a point at which he was actually getting a masochistic
pleasure out of turning the dagger in his wounds. "Who'd trust me,
after this?"

"No, Chet; it isn't enough to beat you--if you just throw away that
crying towel and start fighting. They made one mistake that's going
to wreck them."

"What's that, Frank?" Pelton brightened, by about one angstrom unit.

"The timing, of course!" Cardon told him, impatiently. "I thought
you'd see that, at once. This telecast comes on at twenty-one hundred.
Your final speech comes on at twenty-one thirty. As soon as they've
shown this business of Claire and Ray taking the Literate Oath, you'll
be on the air, yourself, and if you put on any kind of a show worth
the name, it won't be safe for anybody in this state to be caught
wearing a white smock. Now, if they'd only had the wit to wait till
after you'd delivered that speech you've been practicing on for the
last two weeks, and then spring this on you, that would have been
different. They'd have had you over a barrel. But this way, you have
them!"

Pelton took another gulp from the tall glass at his elbow, emptying
it. "Fix me up another of t