nd it--what then?"

"Then? Why, then we will force them to make the proper changes or there
will be trouble."

* * * * *

Georges Alhamid heard the whole conversation early the next morning. The
governor himself brought the recording over to his office.

"Do you think he knew he was being overheard?"

The governor shrugged. "Who knows. He waltzed all around what he was
trying to say, but that may have been just native caution. Or he may not
want Danley to know what's on his mind."

"How could he bring Danley out here without telling him anything
beforehand?" Alhamid asked thoughtfully. "Is Danley really that
ignorant, or was the whole conversation for our ears?"

"I'm inclined to think that Danley really didn't know. Remember, George,
the best way to hold down the ones below you is to keep them from
gaining any knowledge, to keep data out of their hands--except for the
carefully doctored data you want them to have."

"I know," Alhamid said. "History isn't exactly a popular subject on
Earth." He tapped his fingers gently on the case of the playback and
looked at it as if he were trying to read the minds of the persons who
had spoken the words he had just heard.

"I really think he believed that his nullifying equipment was doing its
job," the governor continued. "He wouldn't have any way of knowing we
could counteract it."

Alhamid shrugged. "It doesn't matter much. We still have to assume that
he's primarily out to bring the Belt Cities under Earth control. To do
that, all he'd have to do is find something that could be built up into
a scandal on Earth."

"Not, _all_, George," the governor said. "It would take a lot more than
that alone. But it would certainly be a start in the right direction."

"One thing we do know," Alhamid said, "is that nobody on Earth will
allow any action against the Belt unless popular sentiment is definitely
against us. As long as we are apparently right-thinking people, we're
all right. I wonder why Tarnhorst is so anxious to get us under the
thumb of the People's Congress? Is it purely that half-baked idealism of
his?"

"Mostly. He has the notion that everybody has a right to be accorded the
respect of his fellow man, and that that right is something that every
person is automatically given at birth, not something he has to earn.
What gave him his particular gripe against us, I don't know, but he's
been out to get us ever since his trip here thr