... but one that would bring peace and prosperity and
happiness to the Solar System.

He closed his eyes and thought. Snatches of ambition, snatches of
hopes ... but it was useless to think, for the drums and the imagined
shouting drowned out his thoughts.

Mankind didn't give a damn for good business administration, nor a hoot
for prosperity or peace or happiness. Liberty and the right to rule, the
right to go risk one's neck ... to climb a mountain or cross a desert or
explore a swamp, the right to aim one's sights at distant stars, to
fling a taunting challenge into the teeth of space, to probe with clumsy
fingers and force nature to lay bare her secrets ... that was what
mankind wanted. That was what those men out on Mars and Venus and in
the Jovian worlds were fighting for. Not against Spencer Chambers or
Ludwig Stutsman or Interplanetary Power, but for the thing that drove
man on and made of him a flame that others might follow. Fighting for a
heritage that was first expressed when the first man growled at the
entrance to his cave and dared the world to take it from him.

Spencer Chambers closed his eyes and rocked back and forth in the
tilting office chair.

It had been a good fight, a hard fight. He had had a lot of fun out of
it. But he was licked, after all these years. He had held the biggest
dream of any man who ever lived. Alexander and Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin
and those other fellows had been pikers alongside of Spencer Chambers.
They had only aimed at Earthly conquest while he had reached out to grab
at all the worlds. But by heaven, he'd almost made it!

A door grated open.

"Chambers!" said a voice.

His feet hit the floor with a thud and he sat stiff and staring at the
figure in the door.

It was Craven and the man was excited. His glasses were slid far down on
his nose, his hair was standing on end, his tie was all awry.

"I have it!" Craven whooped. "I have it at last!"

Hope clutched at Chambers, but he was almost afraid to speak.

"Have what?" he whispered tensely.

"The collector field! It was under my nose all the time, but I didn't
see it!"

Chambers was out of his chair and striding across the room. A tumult
buzzed within his skull.

Licked? Hell, he hadn't even started! He'd win yet. He'd teach the
people to revolt! He'd run Manning and Page out to the end of space and
push them through!

_CHAPTER SEVENTEEN_

It was a weird revolution. There were few battles, litt