o work at the
equipment their captor had provided, said reasonably, "Don, the greater
number of the thinkers of the world have rejected that maxim. If you
will, umah, analyze it, you will find that the end and the means are
one."

"Yeah, yeah, a lot of complicated egghead gas. What I'm saying, Pat, is
that what I'm eventually heading for is good for everybody. At least
it's good for all real hundred per cent Americans. Everybody's going to
go to college and guaranteed to come out with what you three got, a
doctor's degree. Everybody's going to get a guaranteed annual wage,
like, whether or not they can do any work. It's not a guy's fault if he
gets sick or unemployed or something. Everybody...."

"Shades of all the social-reformers who ever lived," Ross muttered.

"By Caesar," Braun said in despair, "I have an idea you'll get the vote
of every halfwit in the country."

Crowley came to his feet. "I don't like that kind of talk, Doc. Maybe
I'm just a country boy, but I know what the common man wants and what
I'm going to do is give it to him."

Patricia looked up from her work long enough to frown at him. "What
special are you going to get out of this, Don?"

That took him back for a moment and he scowled at her.

"Come, come," she said. "You've already admitted to we three just what
you think and are going to do. Now, how do you picture yourself, after
all this has been accomplished?"

His face suddenly broke into its grin, a somewhat sly element in it now.
"You know, when I get this all worked out, the folks are going to be
pretty thankful."

"I'll bet," Ross muttered. He, too, was working at his element of
compounding the serum.

"Yeah, they will, Buster," Crowley said truculently. "And they're going
to want to show it. You ever seen one of those movies like 'Ben Hur'
back in Roman days? Can you imagine everybody in the whole country
thinking you were the best guy ever lived? You know, like an Emperor."

"Like Caligula," Dr. Braun said softly.

"I don't know any of their names, but they really had it made. Snap your
fingers and there's a big banquet with the best floor show in the world.
Snap your fingers and here comes the sexiest dames in Hollywood. Snap
your fingers and some big entertainment like a chariot race, or
something. Once I put this over, the Common Man Party, that's the way
people are going to feel about me and want to treat me."

"And if they don't, you'll make them?" Ross said sarcastica