n it."

But the majority of his fellow employees in Section G had strong enough
opinions on the interplanetary firebrand. Three or four even claimed to
have seen him fleetingly, although no two descriptions jibed. That, of
course, could be explained. The man could resort to plastic surgery and
other disguise.

Theories there were in plenty, some of them going back long years, and
some of them pure fable.

-------------------------------------

"Look," Ronny said in disgust one day after a particularly unbelievable
siege with two agents recently returned from a trouble spot in a planetary
system that involved three aggressive worlds which revolved about the same
sun. "Look, it's impossible for one man to accomplish all this. He's
blamed for half the _coups d'etats_, revolts and upheavals that have taken
place for the past quarter century. It's obvious nonsense. Why, a
revolutionist usually spends the greater part of his life toppling a
government. Then, once it's toppled, he spends the rest of his life trying
to set up a new government--and he's usually unsuccessful."

One of the others was shaking his head negatively. "You don't understand
this Tommy Paine's system, Bronston."

"You sure don't," the other agent, a Nigerian, grinned widely. "I've been
on planets where he'd operated."

Ronny leaned forward. The three of them were having a beer in a part of
the city once called Baltimore. "You have?" he said. "Tell me about it,
eh? The more background I get on this guy, the better."

"Sure. And this'll give you an idea of how he operates, how he can get so
much trouble done. Well, I was on this planet Goshen, understand? It had
kind of a strange history. A bunch of colonists went out there, oh, four
or five centuries ago. Pretty healthy expedition, as such outfits go.
Bright young people, lots of equipment, lots of know-how and books. Well,
through sheer bad luck everything went wrong from the beginning.
Everything. Before they got set up at all they had an explosion that
killed off all their communications technicians. They lost contact with
the outside. O.K. Within a couple of centuries they'd gotten into a state
of chattel slavery. Pretty well organized, but static. Kind of an Athenian
Democracy on top, a hierarchy, but nineteen people out of twenty were
slaves, and I mean real slaves, like animals. They were at this stage when
a scout ship from the UP Space Forces discovered them and, of cours