ages. It will mean considerable
extra bookkeeping, but outside of that I believe you'll find that things
will go along much as they always did."

The Masters had begun to relax, and by the time he was finished all of
them were smiling in relief. Count Erskyll, on the other hand, was
almost writhing in his chair. It must be horrible to be a brilliant
young Proconsul of liberal tendencies and to have to sit mute while a
cynical old Ministerial Secretary, vastly one's superior in the
Imperial Establishment and a distant cousin of the Emperor to boot,
calmly bartered away the sacred liberties of twenty million people.

"But would that be legal, under the Imperial Constitution?" Olvir
Nikkolon asked.

"I shouldn't have suggested it if it hadn't been. The Constitution only
forbids physical ownership of one sapient being by another; it
emphatically does not guarantee anyone an unearned livelihood."

* * * * *

The Convocation committee returned to Zeggensburg to start preparing the
servile population for freedom, or reasonable facsimile. The
chief-slaves would take care of that; each one seemed to have a list of
other chief-slaves, and the word would spread from them on an
each-one-call-five system. The public announcement would be postponed
until the word could be passed out to the upper servile levels. A
meeting with the chief-slaves in office of the various Managements was
scheduled for the next afternoon.

Count Erskyll chatted with forced affability while the departing
committeemen were being seen to the launch that would take them down.
When the airlock closed behind them, he drew Prince Trevannion aside out
of earshot of their subordinates.

"You know what you're doing?" he raged, in a hoarse whisper. "You're
simply substituting peonage for outright slavery!"

"I'd call that something of a step." He motioned Erskyll into one of the
small hall-cars, climbed in beside him, and lifted it, starting toward
the living-area. "The Convocation has acknowledged the principle that
sapient beings should not be property. That's a great deal, for one
day."

"But the people will remain in servitude, you know that. The Masters
will keep them in debt, and they'll be treated just as brutally...."

"Oh, there will be abuses; that's to be expected. This Freedmen's
Management, nee Servile Management, will have to take care of that.
Better make a memo to talk with this chief-freedman of Martwynn's,