s written to them, heard what they said, saw how they
acted. Doing so, the pair in the high mountain laboratory gained a deep
insight into the characters of unsuspecting quarries.

"Both utterly ruthless," declared Greg. "But apparently men who are
sincere in thinking that the spoils belong to the strong. Strange,
almost outdated men. You can't help but like Chambers. He's good enough
at heart. He has his pet charities. He really, I believe, wants to help
the people. And I think he actually believes the best way to do it is to
gain a dictatorship over the Solar System. That ambition rules
everything in his life. It has hardened him and strengthened him. He
will crush ruthlessly, without a single qualm, anything that stands in
his path. That's why we'll have a fight on our hands."

* * * * *

Craven seemed to be making little progress. They could only guess at
what he was trying to develop.

"I think," said Russ, "he's working on a collector field to suck in
radiant energy. If he really gets that, it will be something worth
having."

For hours Craven sat, an intent, untidy, unkempt man, sunk deep in the
cushions of an easy chair. His face was calm, with relaxed jaw and eyes
that seemed vacant. But each time he would rouse himself from the chair
to pencil new notations on the pads of paper that littered his desk. New
ideas, new approaches.

The triple televisor was completed except for one thing.

"Sound isn't so easy," said Russ. "If we could only find a way to
transmit it as well as light."

"Listen," said Greg, "why don't you try a condenser speaker."

"A condenser speaker?"

"Sure, the gadget developed way back in the 1920s. It hasn't been used
for years to my knowledge, but it might do the trick."

Russ grinned broadly. "Hell, why didn't I think of that? Here I've been
racking my brain for a new approach, a new wrinkle ... and exactly what
I wanted was at hand."

"Should work," declared Greg. "Just the opposite of a condenser
microphone. Instead of radiating sound waves mechanically, it radiates a
changing electric field and this field becomes audible directly within
the ear. Even yet no one seems to understand just how it works, but it
does ... and that's good enough."

"I know," said Russ. "It really makes no sound. In other words it
creates an electric field that doubles for sound. It ought to be just
the thing because nothing can stop it. Metal shielding can, I guess