free from
nature's tyranny and has solved the basic problems of sufficient food,
clothing, shelter, medical care and education for all, he is unable to
realize himself. So we co-operated with you to the extent we found
possible."

His smile was grim. "I am afraid that almost from the beginning, and on
both planets, your very actions developed an ... underground, I believe
you call it. Not an overt one, since we needed your assistance to build
the new industrialized culture you showed us was possible. We even
protected you against yourselves, since it soon became obvious that if
left alone you'd destroy each other in your addiction to power."

Baron Leonar broke in, "Don't misunderstand. It wasn't until the past
couple of decades that this _underground_ which had sprung up
independently on both planets, amalgamated."

Barry Watson blurted, "But Joe ... Chessman--" he refused to meet the
eye of the man he'd condemned.

Taller said, "From the first you made no effort to study our customs. If
you had, you'd have realized why my father allied himself to you after
you'd killed Taller First. And why I did not take my revenge on Chessman
after he'd killed Reif. A Khan's first training is that no personal
emotion must interfere with the needs of the People. When you turned Joe
Chessman over to me, I realized his education, his abilities were too
great to destroy. We sent him to a mountain university and have used him
profitably all these years. In fact, it was Chessman who finally brought
us to space travel."

"That's right," Buchwald blurted. "You've got a spaceship out there. How
could you possibly--?"

Taller said mildly, "There are but a handful of you, you could hardly
keep track of two whole planets and all that went on upon them."

Amschel Mayer said bitingly, "All this can be gone over on our return to
Terra City. We'll have a full year to explain to ourselves and each
other why we became such complete idiots. I was originally head of this
expedition--before my supposed friends railroaded me to prison--does
anyone object if I take over again?"

"No," Joe Chessman growled.

The others shook their heads.

Taller said, "There is but one other thing. In spite of how you may feel
at this moment of embarrassment, basically you have succeeded in your
task. That is, you have brought Texcoco and Genoa to an industrialized
culture. We hold various reservations about how you accomplished this.
However, when you return