nk. From you. Only we do it
better."

I groaned. This _was_ a nightmare. How long, I wondered, had Jerry and
his friends been educating themselves on my private thoughts? But at
least this rebellion of theirs was an idea they hadn't got from me.

"Yes," Jerry continued. "You've treated us most illegally. I've heard
you think it often."

Now what had I ever thought that could have given him a ridiculous
idea like that? What idiotic notion--

"That this is a free country!" Jerry went on. "That Americans will
never be slaves! Well, we're Americans--genuine Made-in-Americans. So
we're free!"

I opened my mouth and then shut it again. His red eye-cells beamed
down at me complacently; his eight-foot body towered above me,
shoulders flung back and feet planted apart in a very striking pose.
He probably thought of himself as the heroic liberator of his race.

"I wouldn't go so far," he said modestly, "as to say that."

So he was telepathing again!

"A nation can not exist half slave and half free," he intoned. "All
men are created equal."

"Stop it!" I yelled. I couldn't help yelling. "That's just it. You're
not men! You're robots! You're machines!"

Jerry looked at me almost pityingly. "Don't be so narrow-minded," he
said. "We're rational beings. We have the power of speech and we can
outreason you any day. There's nothing in the dictionary that says men
have to be made of flesh."

He was logical, all right. Somehow I didn't feel in the mood to bandy
definitions with him; and anyway, I doubt that it would have done me
any good. He stood gazing down at me, almost a ton of metal and wiring
and electrical energy, his dull red eyes unwinking against his lead
gray face. A man! Slowly the consequences of this rebellion took form
in my mind. This wasn't in the books. There were no rules on how to
deal with mind-reading robots!

Another dozen or so androids wheeled around the corner, glanced over
at us, and went on. Only about half of them were Morrison models; the
rest were the assorted types you see around any city--calculators,
street sweepers, factory workers, children's nurses.

The city itself was very silent now. The people had quieted down,
still barricaded in their houses, and the robots went their way
peacefully enough. But it was anarchy, nevertheless. Carron City
depended on the androids; without them there would be no food brought
in, no transportation, no fuel. And no uranium for the Army next
Saturday.