servative headquarters?"

"That would work," Lancedale agreed. "And we can count on our friends
Joyner and Graves to give you every possible assistance with their
customary bull-in-a-china-shop tactics. I suppose you've seen these
posters they've been plastering around: _If you can read this,
Chester Pelton is your sworn enemy! A vote for Pelton is a vote for
your own enslavement!_"

"Naturally. And have you seen the telecast we've been using--a view of
it, with a semantically correct spoken paraphrase?"

Lancedale nodded. "And I've also noticed that those posters have been
acquiring different obscene crayon-drawings, too. That's just typical
of the short-range Joyner-Graves mentality. Why, they've made more
votes for Pelton than he's made for himself. Is it any wonder we're
convinced that people like that aren't to be trusted to formulate the
future policy of the Fraternities?"

"Well ... they've proved themselves wrong. I wonder, though, if we can
prove ourselves right, in the long run. There are times when this
thing scares me, chief. If anything went wrong--"

"What, for instance?"

"Somebody could get to Pelton." Cardon made a stabbing gesture with
the stiletto, which he still held. "Maybe you don't really know how
hot this thing's gotten. What we had to cut out of Mongery's report,
this morning--"

"Oh, I've been keeping in touch," Lancedale understated gently.

"Well then. If anything happened to Pelton, there wouldn't be a
Literate left alive in this city twelve hours later. And I question
whether or not Graves and Joyner know that."

"I think they do. If they don't, it's not because I've failed to point
it out to them. Of course, there are the Independent-Conservative
grafters; a lot of them are beginning to hear jail doors opening for
them, and they're scared. But I think routine body-guarding ought to
protect Pelton from them, or from any isolated fanatics."

"And there is also the matter of Pelton's daughter, and his son,"
Cardon said. "We know, and Graves and Joyner know, and I assume that
Slade Gardner knows, that they can both read and write as well as any
Literate in the Fraternities. Suppose that got out between now and the
election?"

"And that could not only hurt Pelton, but it would expose the work
we've been doing in the schools," Lancedale added. "And even inside
the Fraternities, that would raise the devil. Joyner and Graves don't
begin to realize how far we've gone with that. They c