ve what they see--that's the idea. I
had seen very few of your men but I knew we were giving them a dirty
deal. Orders were orders, though. We got lots of orders we didn't
understand. Then secret deals were made, and those orders
countermanded.

"But the order against the I. F. P. remained standing, and we
certainly did effective work against 'em. The people had no way of
knowing the difference, either, for the company controls all means of
communication, and the I. F. P. does most of its work in out of the
way places. Why just to show you how effective our work was--the
people, in a special plebiscite, voted to withdraw their support from
the Plutonian campaign! But that was going too far; the financiers
quietly reversed that.

"At the same time, we got orders to glorify Wilcox, the planetary
president. It was Wilcox signing a bill to feed the hungry--after
their property had been stripped by the taxes. It was Wilcox the
benevolent; Wilcox the superman. Wilcox, in carefully rehearsed
dramatic situations, reproduced on the stereo-screens in every home.
You know who put over the slogan, 'Wilcox, the Solar Savior?' We did
it. It was easy!" He laughed shortly.

"The only time we failed was, when they wanted to end, once and for
all, the prestige of the royal house. That was after they had bought
the assassination of the claimant, his wife and their son. Didn't dare
take Princess Sira too, because she has always been a popular darling.
It would have been too raw, wiping out the whole family. They left one
claimant, see? And then put it up to us to discredit her!

"Man! That fell down! The first attempt was very smooth, at that. But
it brought in such a storm of condemnation they had to drop that.

"You can guess how we boys at the central office felt about it. No
wonder we got cynical and lost all self-respect. We couldn't have
stood it at all, but sometimes we'd put on a special party, just to
let off steam. Did we rip 'em up high and handsome? The more
outrageous the flattery we sent out, disguised as news, the more
baldly truthful we were in those early morning rehearsals, with the
mikes and telegs dead. Wilcox was our special meat.

"Of course, it was foolhardy. One night a mixer in the room below us
got his numbers mixed, killing a banquet program on a trunk channel
and sending our outrageous burlesque out instead. When the poor fellow
discovered his mistake he made for the bottom of the canal. As for me,
I mad