ardukans were laughing, now. Some of them were accusing
him of being just too utterly ridiculous.

"Why, the people _are_ the Government. The people would not
legislate themselves into slavery."

He wished Otto Harkaman were there. All he knew of history was the
little he had gotten from reading some of Harkaman's books, and the
long, rambling conversations aboard ship in hyperspace or in the
evenings at Rivington. But Harkaman, he was sure, could have
furnished hundreds of instances, on scores of planets and over ten
centuries of time, in which people had done exactly that and hadn't
known what they were doing, even after it was too late.

* * * * *

"They have something about like that on Aton," one of the Mardukan
officers said.

"Oh, Aton; that's a dictatorship, pure and simple. That Planetary
Nationalist gang got into control fifty years ago, during the crisis
after the war with Baldur...."

"They were voted into power by the people, weren't they?"

"Yes; they were," Prince Bentrik said gravely. "It was an emergency
measure, and they were given emergency powers. Once they were in,
they made the emergency permanent."

"That couldn't happen on Marduk!" a young nobleman declared.

"It could if Zaspar Makann's party wins control of the Assembly at
the next election," somebody else said.

"Oh, then Marduk's safe! The sun'll go nova first," one of the
junior Royal Navy officers said.

After that, they began talking about women, a subject any spaceman
will drop any other subject to discuss.

Trask made a mental note of the name of Zaspar Makann, and took
occasion to bring it up in conversation with his shipboard guests.
Every time he talked about Makann to two or more Mardukans, he heard
at least three or more opinions about the man. He was a political
demagogue; on that everybody agreed. After that, opinions diverged.

Makann was a raving lunatic, and all the followers he had were a
handful of lunatics like him. He might be a lunatic, but he had a
dangerously large following. Well, not so large; maybe they'd pick
up a seat or so in the Assembly, but that was doubtful--not enough
of them in any representative district to elect an Assemblyman. He
was just a smart crook, milking a lot of half-witted plebeians for
all he could get out of them. Not just plebes, either; a lot of
industrialists were secretly financing him, in hope that he would
help them break up the labor unions.