to this thing you were telling
me about," snapped Stutsman.

"I'm leaving that in your hands, too," Chambers told him. "I know you
can take care of it."

Stutsman rose. "I can take care of it."

"I'm sure you can," Chambers said.

He remained standing after Stutsman left, looking at the door through
which the man had gone. Maybe it had been a mistake to call Stutsman in
from Callisto. Maybe it was a mistake to use Stutsman at all. He didn't
like a lot of things the man did ... or the way he did them. Brutal
things.

* * * * *

Slowly Chambers sat down again and his face grew hard.

He had built an empire of many worlds. That couldn't be done with gentle
methods and no sure goal. Fighting every inch from planet to planet, he
had used power to gain power. And now that empire was threatened by two
men who had found a greater power. That threat had to be smashed! It
would be smashed!

Chambers leaned forward and pressed a buzzer.

"Yes, Mr. Chambers?" said a voice in the communicator.

"Send Dr. Craven in," commanded Chambers.

Craven came in, slouchily, his hair standing on end, his eyes peering
through the thick-lensed glasses.

"You sent for me," he growled, taking a chair.

"Yes, I did," said Chambers. "Have a drink?"

"No. And no smoke either."

Chambers took a long cigar from the box on his desk, clipped off the end
and rolled it in his mouth.

* * * * *

"I'm a busy man," Craven reminded him.

Puckering lines of amusement wrinkled Chambers' eyes as he lit up,
watching Craven.

"You do seem to be busy, Doctor," he said. "I only wish you had
something concrete to report."

The scientist bristled. "I may have in a few days, if you leave me alone
and let me work."

"I presume that you are still working on your radiation collector. Any
progress?"

"Not too much. You can't expect a man to turn out discoveries to order.
I'm working almost night and day now. If the thing can be solved, I'll
solve it."

Chambers glowed. "Keep up the good work. But I wanted to talk to you
about something else. You heard, I suppose, that I lost a barrel of
money on the Ranthoor exchange."

Craven smiled, a sardonic twisting of his lips. "I heard something about
it."

"I thought you had," said Chambers sourly. "If not, you would have been
the only one who hadn't heard how Ben Wrail took Chambers for a ride."

"He really took you then," commented Cr